Upper Dublin finance committee accepts clean audit, reviews tax collections, food-service transfer and bond-refunding estimates

The Upper Dublin School District finance committee on Wednesday accepted the district’s annual audit, reviewed monthly financials and discussed debt-refunding opportunities that administrators said could produce savings this fiscal year.

Administration reported the district’s auditors issued an unmodified (clean) opinion on both the financial statements and federal awards. "Our auditors issued an unmodified opinion for both our financial statements and federal awards," administration said, noting the audit runs 107 pages. The committee voted to accept the audit.

Monthly finances showed receipts at 83% of the budget year-to-date and expenditures at 42% of the budget. Property-tax collections were slightly above budget at 97.4% collected as of Dec. 31; $705,000 remained delinquent, with six commercial properties accounting for about $260,000 of that total.

As part of the audit close, administration recommended a year-end transfer of $17,746.33 from the general fund to the food-service fund to clear uncollected meal balances; the committee moved the transfer forward. Board members and administrators discussed outreach to families and options to reduce growth of overdue meal balances.

Administration also updated the committee on refunding three bond series that are eligible. Working with financial advisor PFM, the district estimates net savings of roughly 3.72% for the 2018 series (about $362,000) and 3.93% for the 2019 series (about $364,000). Administration estimated about $240,000 of the projected savings would be realized in the current fiscal year; target sale and settlement dates were Feb. 24 and March 31, respectively, subject to market conditions and a required Moody’s rating call.

No controversial audit findings were reported; administration noted the work required cooperation across departments to produce the clean opinion.