Children’s Trust gets clean audit; board reviews January finances and approves budget amendment

The Children’s Trust board accepted an unmodified (clean) audit from Warren Averett and approved a fiscal-year budget amendment at its meeting Tuesday evening.

Kristin McAllister, a partner with Warren Averett, told the board the audit team issued “an unmodified opinion, which is the highest level of assurance we can provide,” and found no material weaknesses or instances of noncompliance under government auditing standards. McAllister said the trust’s total assets are roughly $25,000,000, revenue for the last fiscal year was about $13,000,000, and grant funding totaled about $11,500,000. She told the board she expected the finalized report to be posted to the trust website soon.

Treasurer Tammy Abrams reviewed the trust’s January financial report and said the trust had received $7,700,000 of the $12,000,000 in budgeted tax revenue and reported $26,000,000 in cash on hand as of Jan. 31. Abrams said the contract schedule shows roughly $15,700,000 still outstanding in multi-year contract balances and about $4,400,000 available for future contracts; staff proposed using $3,500,000 of that for out-of-school-time programs.

Board members asked for clarification on several lines in the packet. Abrams explained administrative expenses were about 6.28%, tax-collector fees 3.23%, and program-related expenses about 90.5%, and that bank-fee and tax-collector adjustments reflected corrected charges and reconciliations.

Finance staff also recommended a FY2526 budget amendment to reflect several changes: a roughly $27,000 reduction in ad valorem revenue after property-appraiser adjustments; a $100,000 reduction in projected interest income; a timing expense of $4,230 to align directors-and-officers insurance renewal dates; an increase in legal-services budget to cover recent special engagements; and a change in staffing that converted a 0.5 FTE grant accountant into a full‑time financial analyst. The amendment reduces the trust’s total budget by $126,977 overall. The board voted to approve the amendment.

On training, staff said a previously budgeted external training line was cut by about $83,000 and that the newly hired staff member (Daniel) will deliver targeted, in-house trainings to providers, with a modest external-training reserve retained for specialized sessions (CPR, first aid, human-trafficking awareness).

The board approved keeping the audit in the trust records and accepted the budget amendment. McAllister and staff will finalize and post the audit to the trust website.