Wilmette SD 39 auditors issue unmodified opinions; district reports healthy fund balances and routine transfers for capital

Anna Wizzawati of Baker Tilly told the Wilmette SD 39 Committee of the Whole on March 16 that auditors issued unmodified opinions on the district's fiscal year 2025 financial statements and on the Illinois State Board of Education AFR, with reports issued Feb. 6. She said the district meets common fund-balance benchmarks and that the single-audit testing produced no compliance findings.

The auditors audited the district's consolidated year-end financial report and the regulatory AFR filed with the state, and they performed single-audit compliance testing of major federal programs. "Our opinions and reports were issued on February 6," Wizzawati said, and she recommended the district consider moving audit fieldwork earlier in the cycle so reporting is not late relative to the Oct. 15 AFR deadline.

Wizzawati said the district reported a positive change in fund balances of $745,000 and that operating fund balances meet or exceed the commonly cited 40% of annual expenditures benchmark. She described several routine interfund transfers: the general fund transferred a surplus reported as $1,500,000 to the operations and maintenance fund; O&M transfers were used to fund capital projects (an amount shown in the presentation as $5,000,003.73) and to support debt service payments for certificates not backed by the levy.

On the single audit, the auditors tested the special-education cluster (IDEA), which the presentation listed as representing about $890,000 of the $1,200,000 in federal expenditures noted for the year. Wizzawati said the district was considered a lower-risk auditee and that Baker Tilly conducts a risk assessment and selects programs to reach required federal coverage; they reported no compliance findings for the major program.

District finance staff also shared a budget-to-actual one-page that showed the operating funds had been budgeted for a $2.8 million deficit but finished the year with an operating surplus of just over $800,000. The packet highlighted a strong year for interest revenue (roughly a half-million dollar positive variance) and lower-than-budgeted special-education tuition revenue (around $400,000 under budget). Staff said transfers funded capital projects and emphasized the district finished FY25 with a fund-balance ratio of 51.9% and the highest AFR financial-health profile.

Baker Tilly will return to present a brief summary at the upcoming board meeting, and the board will be asked to approve the official audit next week.