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External auditors give Sarasota County Schools a clean opinion but flag school‑level reconciliation issues
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Summary
Purvis Gray gave Sarasota County Schools an unmodified opinion on the 2024–25 financial statements, reporting no material weaknesses at the district level but identifying school‑level reconciliation and scholarship tracking deficiencies and segregation‑of‑duties gaps tied to Skyward implementation.
External auditors from Purvis Gray presented the district’s fiscal year‑end audit for the year ending June 30, 2025, and reported an unmodified (clean) opinion on the district financial statements while noting a limited set of school‑level deficiencies.
Tiffany Mangold, audit partner at Purvis Gray, told the board the independent auditors' report "has a clean opinion on this report. It means your financial statements are fairly stated in all material respects." She said auditors found no material weaknesses or instances of reportable noncompliance at the district level and no adverse findings for major federal programs. Auditors audited approximately $64,000,000 of federal funds and found no significant deficiencies in the major programs selected for testing.
The presentation did identify two significant deficiencies in the internal accounts for some schools: weaknesses in year‑end financial close and reconciliation procedures and inconsistent scholarship and veteran affairs accounting that resulted in some liability balances that should have been recognized as student revenues. Audit staff said those matters produced adjusted entries but were not material to the district’s overall statements.
Auditors also noted segregation‑of‑duties issues connected with the district’s recent Skyward implementation and recommended strengthened role separation for key functions; IT and finance teams were already working on corrective changes. Mangold said auditors had met with district leadership and expected many items to be resolved by the next audit cycle.
Board members and the superintendent praised the finance and school bookkeeping teams for cooperation during a large, multi‑site audit. Superintendent Connor said the district will continue to remediate the school‑level items and strengthen controls while noting that a clean, unmodified opinion is a positive sign for fiscal stewardship.
The board received the report and had the findings presented publicly; no formal motion on the audit itself was required.
