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Finance director reports clean audit, cautions on payroll and local revenue timing
Summary
Cascade School District's finance director reported a clean FY2024–25 audit completed early, warned of near-term local revenue timing variance and noted payroll and benefit cost pressures that added about $734,000 in the first four paychecks and could total roughly $2.0M for the year.
Cascade School District's finance director told the board on Jan. 12 that the district completed its FY2024–25 audit with a clean opinion and finished the work two months ahead of the February filing deadline.
"We have finished our audit for FY 24 to 25, and the audit issue has a clean audit," Finance Director Wong said, noting the work required coordination across departments and external auditors. Wong said the auditing firm was responsive and that he appreciated staff support in preparing timely and accurate documents.
Wong also presented a midyear finance snapshot: year‑to‑date local revenue compared with last December was approximately 3% lower, a variance he attributed to timing differences in county revenue postings rather than a structural decline. He told the board he expects steady growth by year end once Marion County posts revenues later in January.
On costs, Wong said salary step increases and benefit adjustments have increased payroll expenses. "As you can see, the first 4 paycheck, our increase is $734,000, just the first 4 paycheck compared to last year. So we're looking at $2,000,000 this year increase just in purse," he said. The board asked questions about the district's auditing partner and the timing of state filing deadlines; Wong said the audit was completed well ahead of the Feb. 2 deadline.
Board members accepted the report with no further action required; staff will continue to monitor revenues and provide updates at future meetings.
