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State auditors give Baldwin County schools a clean financial opinion but flag contract, procurement violations
Summary
Auditors issued an unmodified opinion on Baldwin County Public Schools' 2025 financial statements but reported two findings: $66,500 paid to a consultant without a properly executed contract and $73,170.75 in grease-trap services paid with child-nutrition funds without required competitive bidding.
Megan McDonald, audit manager with the Alabama State Department of Examiners of Public Accounts, presented the Baldwin County Board of Education's fiscal-year 2025 audit at the board's June 23 meeting. Auditors issued unmodified opinions on the district's financial statements and on its major federal programs, meaning the financial statements were presented fairly in accordance with generally accepted accounting principles.
Despite the clean opinion, McDonald said auditors reported two findings labeled 2025-001. First, auditors found the board paid $66,500 to a professional consultant between October 2024 and April 2025 without a properly executed contract. The payments exceeded the time and dollar limits set in Board Policy 3.15 and Policy 3.9.5, which authorizes the superintendent to engage consultants for terms not exceeding 90 calendar days and fees not to exceed $15,000 without prior board approval.
Second, McDonald said the board entered a fiscal-year 2025 contract for grease-trap services totaling $73,170.75 that was paid from child nutrition cluster funds but was not procured through the competitive bidding process required under Code of Alabama 1975 section 16-13-B-1-A and the Uniform Guidance (2 C.F.R. Part 200). Auditors concluded the district did not follow its documented procurement policy for that purchase and therefore did not comply with applicable federal procurement requirements.
McDonald said the audit covered the period Oct. 1, 2024, through Sept. 30, 2025, and that the financial statement and single-audit reports were released May 15, 2026. She also listed the schools selected for comprehensive testing: Baldwin Preparatory Academy, Daphne High School, Florence Mathis Elementary School, and Spanish Fort Middle School. The full audit report is posted at alexaminers.gov under the audit reports tab, she said.
The board acknowledged the presentation. Meeting remarks indicated the district has taken steps to address the issues identified in the report; the board did not take a separate formal vote on audit findings at the meeting and no remediation schedule was announced on the record.
What happens next: the audit report identifies noncompliance that the district should address in written responses and through corrective action; the audit and single-audit documentation provide the formal basis for any required follow-up by the State Examiners or the district.
