Simsbury audit: clean opinion; district reports roughly $2.1M surplus and 16% reserves

The Simsbury Board of Education received a presentation of the district's fiscal-year audit showing a clean, unmodified opinion.

The audit presenter summarized budget highlights: the district budgeted about $122,000,000 in revenues and recorded approximately $124,000,000 in actual revenues, producing a revenue surplus described as "just over $2,000,000." The presenter said that on a GAAP basis the excess of revenues over expenditures was about $4.8 million before transfers and that net transfers to other funds reduced that line to approximately $4.7 million.

On reserves, the presenter reported the general fund balance as of June 30, 2025, as $20,000,008.48 and said the district's unassigned reserve sits near the Board of Finance policy target of about 16% of operating expenditures. The presenter noted additional town-side surpluses were transferred into capital reserves during year-end transactions.

Board members asked clarifying questions about the makeup of the revenue variance and whether reported investment revenue included unrealized gains; the presenter said the revenue figure reported was realized interest and dividends, not unrealized gains. The presenter also outlined how transfers to capital reserves are made and how the district monitors its fund balance against benchmarks used by comparable AAA-rated communities.

The presentation concluded with an explanation that an outstanding management comment from the prior audit related to an accounting procedures manual has been resolved and no management comments remain on the student engagement area.

The board acknowledged the report and moved on to other business; no policy action or vote on the audit itself was recorded in the public session.