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EFPR Group LLP manager Jeffrey Jones discuses his group's audit report findings with the East Hampton Board of Education during its Tuesday night meeting.
For the second straight year, the East Hampton School District has received an unmodified opinion on its financial statements and auditors’ reports.
This opinion, also known as “clean,” is the highest level that can be issued on a financial statement, and means that no significant adjustments are needed. The summary of the audit was reviewed with the audit committee and management on September 28 with members of Rochester-based EFPR Group LLP.
“I’m very proud of where we are,” East Hampton Assistant Superintendent for Business Sam Schneider said during the October 10 Board of Education meeting. “I also want to thank the staff in the business office. It was a lot of work to put all of this material together.”
The opinion was issued on East Hampton’s basic financial statements, extra-classroom activities funds financial statements and the district’s compliance with the program requirements of its major federal awards, also known as a single audit.
“We noted no material weaknesses or significant deficiencies noted in the district’s internal controls over financial reporting,” EFPR Group manager Jeffrey Jones said, adding that the district administrators were a pleasure to work with, and that all information requested was provided in a timely manner. “There were no findings reported for this year or last year.”
District-wide, or at a full-accrual level, which encompasses capital assets and major liabilities, revenue exceeded expenses by $3 million, while revenue increased $2.3 million from the prior year.
“This is primarily just due to normal increases in property taxes, as well as interest in earnings,” Jones said. “We saw interest bumping up all over the industry.”
Expenses also increased, the report showed, by $10.1 million from the year prior. This is mainly due to changes in the pension plan’s actuarial assumptions, the EFPR Group manager said.
“Each year, New York State decides how much each district gets of the entire pension plan as a whole, so based on all of the plan’s performances, as well as other actuarial assumption factors, you get assigned a liability each year,” Jones said. “So, this change has nothing really to do with district operations, but it is something we have to disclose.”
At the governmental fund level, the general fund experienced a negative change in fund balance of $619,000, while revenue increased by $2.7 million from the prior year, as a result, again, of increases in property taxes and interest earnings.
Expenditures also increased by $4.3 million from the prior year, due primarily to salaries and related employee benefits.
“One other item to note,” Jones said, “is that the district did fund capital projects this year.” Over $3.5 million is for projects that are going to be happening or are already underway, including construction of a cafeteria veranda, installation of new middle school lockers, improvements to the ground facility and repairs of the high school and elementary school parking lots.
