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Auditor issues clean opinion on District 59’s FY2024 financial statements; net position up about $24.8M
Summary
Auditors from Baker Tilly delivered an unmodified opinion on District 59’s FY2024 financial statements, reporting a government-wide net position increase of about $24.8 million and roughly 10.37 months of operating reserves; auditors reported no internal-control comments in the communications letter.
Baker Tilly presented District 59’s FY2024 Annual Comprehensive Financial Report and the accompanying audit results letter during the Dec. 11 school board meeting, issuing an unmodified (clean) audit opinion and reporting a significant year-over-year improvement in the district’s government-wide net position.
"This opinion is once again a clean or unmodified opinion," Joe Leap, managing director at Baker Tilly, told board members, adding the government-wide net position increased by about $24.8 million. He explained that the figure reflected revenues exceeding expenditures and actuarial changes in pension and OPEB liabilities; those actuarial adjustments helped drive part of the increase but do not represent cash available for spending.
On fund financial statements, Leap reported an operating-funds net increase of approximately $13 million and said the district maintains roughly 10.37 months of reserves in its operating funds—an indicator the auditor characterized as strong for short-term liquidity. Leap also described the Annual Comprehensive Financial Report as containing a decade of trend data and management discussion and analysis, useful for planning and resource-allocation conversations.
Leap told the board there were no internal control comments or significant disagreements with management to highlight in the audit insights letter. He said the audit team’s fieldwork was concentrated (roughly two to three weeks on site) followed by review and follow-up questions.
Why it matters: A clean opinion signals to taxpayers and bond markets that the financial statements are free of material misstatement; the reserve level gives the board flexibility while it considers long-range planning and capital projects. Board members used the presentation to ask follow-up questions about the composition of the net position increase and how actuarial entries differ from cash balances.
What’s next: The board authorized filing the FY2024 annual financial report with the Illinois State Board of Education (ISBE) as part of routine compliance work and discussed using the audit’s detail to inform January resource-allocation discussions.
