Auditors give Toms River schools an unmodified opinion, flag excess cash in food-service fund

Auditors from Holman, Franny & Allison presented the district’s June 30, 2025 annual comprehensive financial report to the Board of Education on Dec. 17 and issued an unmodified opinion on the district’s financial statements.

Jerry Conaby, speaking for the audit team, said the firm issued the best opinion available — an unmodified opinion — and identified a prior-period adjustment tied to a new accounting standard on compensated absences effective for 06/30/2025. He also described a single repeated finding in regulatory testing: the district’s school food service fund currently holds excess cash resources, a common occurrence for many districts following large federal COVID-era inflows.

"We have an unmodified opinion on our financial statements," Conaby said, and noted the district has already implemented a plan to reduce the food-service fund balance over a multi-year period by spending down excess cash and adjusting food pricing for students as appropriate.

The audit team said federal and state timing issues delayed final reporting (pension/benefits numbers and the federal single compliance supplement). The board moved to approve the annual comprehensive financial report, auditors' management report and corrective action plan pending release of the federal compliance supplement; the motion passed on roll call.

What it means: An unmodified opinion indicates that auditors found the financial statements free of material misstatement under generally accepted accounting principles. The repeat finding on the food-service fund requires continued corrective steps; the auditors and district staff said a multiyear spend-down is planned to avoid abrupt budgetary impacts.

Next steps: the board approved the report pending the federal supplement; staff were asked to continue implementing the corrective action plan and to make required follow-up reporting available to the board and public.