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Auditor gives Dearborn Heights District a clean opinion; federal single-audit awaits compliance supplement
Summary
The district's independent auditor reported an unmodified (clean) opinion on the financial statements and no material weaknesses, but said the single audit tied to federal awards is pending a federal compliance supplement; trustees were briefed on fund balances and the November state-aid timing.
Jonathan Ringline, the senior manager from the audit firm that reviewed Dearborn Heights School District #7, told the board the district received an unmodified opinion on its financial statements and on the major-program compliance tests the firm performed. "The numbers presented during audit are materially correct," Ringline said, and he reported no material weaknesses or significant deficiencies in internal control over financial reporting.
Ringline told trustees the single-audit component that covers federal awards remains incomplete because a federal "compliance supplement" was still pending at the federal level; once that supplement is finalized the district will submit the remaining single-audit schedule. He said the district would submit the financial-statement audit in time to protect the district's November state-aid timing and then file the federal awards portion when the federal schedule is complete.
On the balance sheet, Ringline said the June 30 audit showed a general-fund balance of about $8.1 million, a sinking (building-and-site) fund of about $1.7 million (as of the June 30 reporting date), a general capital project fund near $2 million, and roughly $1.1 million in nonmajor governmental funds. He summarized year results: roughly $41.5 million in revenues versus $46.2 million in expenditures, a change in fund balance of about $4.7 million year-over-year, and a fund-balance-to-expenditures ratio that the auditor reported near 17.5–17.9% (MSBO guidance: 15–20%).
Trustees pressed for clarity on timing and next steps. Ringline said routine governance and internal-control letters will follow the single-audit completion, noted a resolved food-service corrective-action item that had been reported in a prior year, and advised staff the district's risk profile for federal-award testing should decline next year if the district maintains clean audits.
The board did not take a formal vote on the audit presentation at the meeting; administration indicated it would seek formal acceptance or awareness of the full audit (including the single-audit portion) at the Nov. 5 meeting once the federal material is complete.
