Board accepts clean audit; district reports first in‑house ACFR and a material‑weakness corrective action plan

The Des Moines Independent Comm School District board accepted the district’s annual comprehensive financial report for the fiscal year ended June 30, 2025, after an audit partner from RSM reported an unmodified opinion on the financial statements and explained required communications to the board.

RSM audit partner Kristin summarized the review and said the audit yielded a clean opinion under AICPA terminology. She noted one material weakness related to a restatement tied to allocation of an OPEB liability and said management is required to provide a corrective action plan; RSM reported no difficulties encountered during testing and no compliance findings in the single‑audit testing of two major federal programs (Title I and the 21st Century Community Learning Grant).

CFO Shashank Arora said this was the first year DMPS prepared the ACFR in‑house in an automated workflow after previously outsourcing production to the audit firm. He said that change should increase productivity and reduce manual iterations with auditors. The board voted to accept the ACFR by motion and second, recording a 7–0 approval.

Also during the meeting the board and superintendent recognized student and team achievements (Central Campus JROTC, Lincoln girls bowling) and accepted a $569,521 unrestricted check from Prairie Meadows and Polk County partners for district support.

What’s next: District management will provide the corrective action plan addressing the material weakness and continue audit follow‑up; board members asked for additional detail on long‑term reimagine education costs and timelines in subsequent meetings.