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District auditors give unmodified opinion; administrators outline $4 million gap and rebuilding efforts
Summary
Auditors issued an unmodified opinion while identifying three compliance findings. Superintendent Jason Bing and business administrator Mr. Moody described a ground-up rebuild of the 2024–25 budget and a projected roughly $4 million shortfall for 2025–26 despite a $619,000 state aid increase.
Superintendent Jason Bing and the district's external auditors told the South Orange–Maplewood Board of Education on Feb. 27 that the district’s financial statements received an unmodified opinion even as auditors flagged three compliance findings.
Rob Provost, partner on the audit engagement, said the auditors issued the unmodified opinion after a review that included a single-audit of federal grants. "We issued an unmodified opinion," he said, and then listed three issues requiring corrective action: student-activities recordkeeping, a shortfall in a federal participation metric, and an arbitrage rebate/yield restriction liability related to bond proceeds.
"The unrestricted fund balance was reported at about $4.48 million," auditor John Farina said, adding that the general fund balance stood near $35 million as of June 30, 2024. Farina and Provost emphasized that the findings were compliance items and not material misstatements of the financial statements.
Superintendent Jason Bing told the board he had recently testified in Trenton about the district's needs and that state aid news included an estimated $619,000 increase for 2025–26. "Though not a large number, we are fortunate not to have our aid reduced," he said. Bing and Mr. Moody, the district's business administrator, said the district had already tapped capital and maintenance reserves in 2024–25 and has implemented a hiring and discretionary spending freeze to manage current-year pressures.
Mr. Moody described work since joining the district to "rebuild" the 2024–25 budget and verify line items after finding the financial accounting system had not been fully leveraged in prior years. "We had to verify every line item," he said, describing a ground-up process of engaging principals, department heads and auditors to re-establish reliable projections.
Board members pressed for more granular transportation-cost data and for clarification about fund-balance targets. The administration said a route- and program-level transportation analysis would be delivered to the board the following week.
Next steps: district staff will continue budget adjustments for the 2025–26 preliminary budget, with a focus on closing an estimated $4 million gap while seeking to avoid reductions in force and to protect special-services supports.
