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SMMUSD auditors give district an unmodified FY25 opinion despite state compliance findings
Summary
External auditors delivered an unmodified opinion on Santa Monica-Malibu Unified's FY25 financial statements but flagged state compliance exceptions including independent-study contract language, school safety plan timelines and instructional-day documentation tied to wildfire closures.
External auditors told the Santa Monica-Malibu Unified School District board on Dec. 11 that they could render an unmodified opinion on the district's fiscal year 2025 financial statements, the highest-quality audit opinion available.
"For our independent auditors report ... we are able to render for fiscal year 25 an unmodified opinion," Ben Levitt, partner at audit firm CWDL, said during his presentation. Levitt said the firm found a clean federal single-audit result and no exceptions in federal-award testing.
Despite the overall clean opinion, the audit identified several state compliance and internal-control exceptions. Levitt highlighted a significant deficiency in Form I-9 documentation for sampled employees, missing or incomplete elements in some independent-study contracts that triggered a sample-based question cost, missing evidence of annual review/adoption for some school safety plans, and instructional-time shortfalls tied to wildfire-related campus closures.
District staff described corrective actions. Assistant Superintendent Gerardo Cruz said the district already has corrective-action plans and additional procedures in place, including two-level HR sign-offs and an online applicant-tracking approach to ensure I-9 completion. Cruz noted the district's status as a basic-aid district limits the immediate fiscal impact of some state-calculated question costs.
The board voted to approve the FY25 audit reports after the presentation and discussion (see Actions).
