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Board approves audit; auditor flags $17M pension/OPEB liability and $2.2M fund balance
Summary
The board approved the annual audit after an auditor issued an unmodified opinion while noting roughly $17 million in combined pension and OPEB liabilities, a districtwide unrestricted deficit driven by those liabilities, and an unassigned general fund balance of about $2.2 million (≈8% contingency).
An external auditor presented the Anderson County Schools audit and the board voted to approve the report. The auditor said the district's financial statements received "an unmodified opinion and that means that your financial statements are presented fairly in all material respects." The presentation emphasized that the audit uses sampling and rotation of testing across programs.
The auditor identified approximately $17 million in combined pension and OPEB liabilities and noted that, on the districtwide statement, the unrestricted column showed a negative balance (about $18 million) driven largely by those long-term liabilities. The auditor said the general fund's unassigned balance of about $2.2 million represents roughly an 8% contingency and that revenue exceeded expenditures by about $141,000 this year. "You'll notice at the bottom when it says unrestricted ... we have a negative $18 million," the auditor said when explaining how pension accounting affects the districtwide totals.
The auditor also reviewed enterprise funds and said Food Service holds about $599,000 in cash (a year-over-year drop of roughly $32,000) but cautioned that non-cash pension allocations make enterprise results look worse than cash experience. The presentation noted roughly $1.4 million in one-time federal COVID funds ran out as of Sept. 30 and that some regular federal funding (Title funds) has decreased over time.
Board members praised district finance staff during discussion. A board motion to accept the audit, made by Scott Brown and seconded by Steve Carmichel, carried on a roll-call vote.
