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Auditors give Toms River clean opinion, flag food-service cash and note nearly $7M operating loss
Summary
District auditors issued an unmodified opinion on the fiscal statements and reported a near-$7 million operating loss driven by a $7.5 million state aid cut and rising private-school costs; a $15.4 million corporate-center sale materially improved year-end balances, while auditors repeated a finding about excess cash in the food-service fund.
Auditors from HFA told the Toms River Regional School District Board of Education that they issued an unmodified opinion on the district’s fiscal-year financial statements and found no reportable issues in the single-audit testing of federal and state grant programs.
“My name is Jerry Cony…we have an unmodified opinion on our financial statements,” said Jerry Cony, a partner at HFA, as he summarized the auditors’ report and the condensed, three‑page summary prepared for the board.
The auditors described a year in which the district absorbed a roughly $7.5 million reduction in state aid and recorded significant increases in costs for private-school placements for students with disabilities, contributing to an operating loss of “just under $7 million” for the year. Cony said that without one-time proceeds from the sale of a district property—the corporate center—the loss would have been substantially larger.
“Part of that was the sale of the corporate center…that accounted for about $15.4 million revenue coming into your current fund,” Cony said, noting that the one-time inflow materially improved the district’s reported position.
The auditors also reported fund-balance details the board will use in budget planning: the district ended the year with about $43.6 million in total fund balance, including roughly $6 million in capital reserve, about $9 million in maintenance reserve and an unassigned balance at the statutory maximum (approximately $6.23 million). Cony noted encumbrances—orders placed but not yet received—of about $8.7 million that reduce immediately available balances.
On grants and compliance testing, the auditors said the district met federal and state requirements and that they found no findings or recommendations in the single-audit work. However, the auditor’s management report included one repeat comment: the food-service (enterprise) fund holds excess cash compared with U.S. Department of Agriculture expectations, a legacy of pandemic-era funding. Cony said the district has taken steps—such as reducing school‑meal prices—to draw down that fund and that the comment is expected to resolve in the 2025–2026 timeframe or shortly thereafter.
Board members asked for a timeline on the food‑service issue; auditors said spending and the meal-price change should reduce the balance over the next year or two. The auditors thanked district staff for cooperation during the audit and said a final report would be issued soon.
The board will use these results and the fund‑balance detail as a starting point for assembling the fiscal 2027 budget and planning capital projects.
