Auditor gives RSU 18 a clean FY25 opinion, flags two federal compliance issues in special education

The district’s external auditor presented the fiscal year 2025 audit to the RSU 18 School Board and said the financial statements received an unmodified opinion, commonly called a clean opinion. The auditor (Presenter) told the board the firm found no material weaknesses or significant deficiencies in internal controls but noted one minor recommendation.

The auditor said RSU 18 met the threshold to require a single audit because the district spends more than $750,000 in federal awards. Testing of the larger federal programs found the school nutrition cluster produced no findings, but the special education cluster had two compliance findings. The first involved allowable costs: a software purchase spanning five years had some costs included in FY25 reimbursements before those costs were incurred, a treatment the auditor described as not allowable under the guidance. The second finding concerned procurement suspension and debarment checks: the district performs online verifications but did not document that verification consistently, which the auditor recorded as a compliance issue.

The presenter summarized the fund balances and trends. Committed fund balance increased from roughly $1,200,000 (FY24) to about $2,300,000 (FY25). The district’s unassigned fund balance was reported at $3,500,000, a decline of about $1,400,000 from the previous year; that puts unassigned funds at 7.9% of budget, under the state’s 9% guidance (9% would be approximately $3,900,000). The auditor explained a lease transaction that appears as a grossed-up negative line on the statement (roughly a $736,000 presentation effect) but that is largely offset by finance purchases of about $717,000, leaving a net general fund decrease of about $18,550 from FY24.

Board members asked for where detailed line-level numbers appear; the presenter pointed to footnotes and page references in the financial statements (for example, the back-of-statement schedules around page 49). Several attendees said the presentation format was user-friendly. The presenter closed by saying the audit went smoothly, crediting district staff for preparation and noting the district will address the two single-audit compliance items by improving allowable-cost treatment and documenting vendor debarment checks.

Next steps: the board will receive the full audited financial statements in the packet and the administration said it will share follow-up answers to board questions between meetings.