Auditors issue unmodified opinion for Bassett Unified; district cited for two compliance findings and bond series C explained
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Summary
Christie White Associates reported an unmodified financial statement and compliance opinion for Bassett Unified's 2024'25 audit but noted two state compliance findings: an instructional-materials hearing notice posted six days instead of the required 10, and a classroom teacher salary ratio of 43.52% versus the required 55%; the district said it likely filed a waiver and will correct coding and reporting. The board also received an informational briefing on issuing remaining bond authorization (series C).
Natalie Palma of Christie White Associates presented the district's 2024'25 financial and performance audits and told trustees that the financial statement opinion, the state compliance opinion and the federal compliance opinion were all unmodified.
Palma said the audit identified two state compliance findings: first, the public hearing notice for instructional materials was posted six days before the hearing rather than the required 10 days; second, the district recorded classroom teacher salaries at 43.52% of current expense of education, short of the 55% statutory guideline for a unified school district. Palma said the latter shortfall was likely influenced by one-time COVID-era funding that skewed expense coding and noted the district had likely filed a waiver with the Los Angeles County Office of Education for 2024'25.
Audit of bond measures: Christie White reported performance audits for the two bond measures (referred to as Measure B and Measure BB in the presentation). The firm tested a substantial sample of bond expenditures (roughly 67% of non-personal expenditure for one series), verified bidding compliance and change-order limits (no change orders exceeded the 10% threshold in the samples reviewed), and concluded the bond expenditures tested complied with ballot-language restrictions and state law.
Board discussion and district response: Trustees thanked auditors and asked clarifying questions. District finance staff (the chief business officer) explained that continued use of one-time ESSER funds and coding practices likely depressed the teacher-salary percentage, and the district said it has engaged additional accounting support to review and reclassify expenditures in 2025'6 to ensure correct coding going forward.
Bond series C informational briefing: The board then received an informational presentation from Steven Gauld (California Financial Services), the district's municipal adviser, who explained the district is considering issuing the final general-obligation bonds in one series and may include a portion structured as capital appreciation bonds (CABs). Gauld explained that CABs defer interest payments until maturity, increasing the overall interest paid, and that the district's underwriter (Piper Sandler) estimated CABs could be avoided if market rates improve by roughly 13'15 basis points. He said the remaining authorization is about $15.4 million and the same documents will be returned for board action at the next successive meeting if the board elects to proceed.
Teacher union remarks: During communications from educational partners, a Bassett Teachers Association (BTA) representative said the union was disappointed the district had not yet provided a counterproposal on salary and benefits and urged the district to negotiate parity and retirement protections. The district reiterated willingness to continue negotiations; no salary motion or change was made at the meeting.
Next steps: The auditors' unmodified opinion relieves immediate fiscal-reporting concerns, but the board asked staff to follow through on coding corrections, the possible waiver for the 55% calculation, and the planned bond authorization vote at the next board meeting.
