By David Fleet
Editor
Goodrich-By a 7-0 vote on Monday night the school board of trustees accepted an audit from Lewis & Knopf for the 2018-19 fiscal year ending June 30. The audit was presented by Ken Rappuhn staff accountant and 2012 Goodrich High School graduate.
The district ended the 2018-19 fiscal year with a fund balance of 13 percent or $2,561,433 up from 11 percent or $2,295,498, at the end of the 2017-18 fiscal year. The district added to the fund balance by $265,935 the fifth consecutive year of increases to the schools coffers. The district fund balance has rallied from a low of $1,336,529 in the 2013-14 school year.
“The district received a ‘Clean Unmodified’ audit opinion, the highest level of assurance possible for the district’s financial’,” said Rappuhn. “No control issues reported.”
The hike in fund balance is critical for school districts like Goodrich following the adoption of Public Act 109 signed by Gov. Rick Snyder in 2015 as part of the state’s early warning legislation. The act amends the Revised School Code to require any district without a positive general fund balance of at least 5 percent for the two most recent school fiscal years to report annually by July 7 of each year the budgetary assumptions used when adopting its annual budget to the Center for Educational Performance and Information. Based on the report, the state treasurer may determine if the potential for fiscal stress exists within the district.
The 2018-19 general fund revenues for the district were $20,142,844 up from $19,802,755 in the 2017-18 fiscal year an increase of $340,089. The 2018-19 general fund expenditures increased to 19,876,909 up from $19,621,799 in 2018-17 fiscal year an increase of $255,110. According to the audit, 73 percent of all expenditures are spent on instruction.
Student count dipped slightly in 2018-19 to 2,133 down from 2,144 in the 2017-2018 school year. The board of trustees had revenues budgeted of $20.22 million and actual was $20.14 million a variance of $76,000 under budget. Similarly, the board budgeted expenditures of $20.37 million and actual was $19.88 million a variance of $492,000 under budget.
Wayne Wright, district interim superintendent responded to the audit.
“I’ve been through about 20 of these audit reports,” said Wright. “Some of the things we look for is that clean, unmodified audit opinion. That tell you how will the business office is running. If you have some corrections there, you have problems in the business office. We have a clean one, that tell us the business office is running very efficiently.”
The budgeting process is vital.
“We were budgeted less than 1 percent off,” he said. “That’s very good, when you think of a $20 million budget we could be a long ways off.”