Waterloo school board accepts FY25 audit, approves $15,000 grant and seeks state supplemental funding

The Waterloo Community School District board on Dec. 8 accepted the district—Y25 annual comprehensive financial report, approved a $15,000 hotel/motel tax grant to support the Battle of Waterloo wrestling tournament and authorized district administrators to submit two modified supplemental amount (MAG) requests to the Iowa School Budget Review Committee.

Dustin, an audit director with Bergen KDV, told the board the auditors issued an unmodified (clean) opinion on the financial statements but reported several statutory compliance items and noted a decline in the district's general fund balance. "We issued an unmodified opinion, which is the best we're allowed to give," he said, and later described statutory findings that included two functions that exceeded their budgets and two funds with deficit balances. He told the board the general fund is trending toward a negative balance and said the loss of ESSER federal dollars was a major driver of the change.

Board members moved unanimously by voice vote to accept the audit and to "receive and place on file" the FY25 annual comprehensive financial report. The audit presentation summarized revenues near $153 million for the general fund, year‑over‑year revenue growth in state and federal sources, and overall expenditures rising 2.5 percent. Dustin said total general fund balances decreased year‑over‑year and reported the general fund deficit amount shown in the presentation (reported in the meeting materials) as approximately $8.3 million.

Separately, the board recognized a $15,000 hotel/motel tax grant from Experience Waterloo to support the Battle of Waterloo tournament. The superintendent reported the event has expanded to four days with the addition of girls' competition and brings teams from across the state. The board approved the superintendent's recommendation to accept the donation by voice vote.

On budget authority, the board approved administration's submission of two MAG requests to the state School Budget Review Committee. The first pertains to open‑enrolled‑out students who were not included on last year's certified headcount; the administration said the agenda calculation produced the figure shown, though the transcript text includes inconsistent formatting of that number. The second request was for $543,184 to cover costs for English‑learner students who have been served in the district beyond five years; presenters said that group includes about 315 students (278 intermediate; 37 intensive) of roughly 1,400 EL students districtwide.

Board members asked staff to continue refining program placement and transportation options for higher‑need EL students. JT Anderson (district administration) explained categorical per‑pupil weights and how fractional weights apply (for example, some homeschool assistance program placements use partial weights), noting the MAG requests increase spending authority rather than raising the tax rate.

Superintendent Dr. Smith and board members emphasized continuing outreach to local philanthropies and monitoring the general fund trend. The board voted to approve the consent agenda earlier in the meeting, which included minutes, personnel actions and bills paid between meetings.

Next steps: the administration is authorized to file the two MAG requests with the SBRC and will provide updated documentation on EL program placements and the audit single‑audit package when available. The auditor said the single audit reports will be issued later once the federal compliance supplement is released.