CLEARFIELD – The Clearfield school board voted to approve its 2014-15 audit report as presented by Katherine Eckley of Walter Hopkins & Co. LLP at Monday night’s regular meeting.
Eckley told board members that the district received an “unmodified” audit report, meaning there were not any discrepancies identified in its financial statements.
In her presentation, Eckley called attention to the fact that the district’s financial statements for June 30, 2015 reflect the implementation of the Governmental Accounting Standards Board’s (GASB) financial reporting for pensions.
This, she said, required the district to include its proportionate share of the Public School Employees’ Retirement System (PSERS) net pension liability in its government-wide financial statements.
According to Eckley, the district had to report an approximate $45 million pension liability for its PSERS this year. This entry, she said, really effected the district’s net position, which was negative.
“In past years, the district always had a positive net position,” she said. “… This is probably one of the first times ever that the district has had a negative net position, but it’s all related to the pension liability.”
Eckley explained that the GASB was the “rule maker” for all government recording. She said it wasn’t just applicable to Pennsylvania and school districts, but all of the United States and municipalities and other types of government.
Even with the pension liability on the books, she indicated that the district still increased its net position by $524,000 this past year. She noted that it was not only necessary to put the liability on the books for June 30, 2015, but also for June 30, 2014, so the district restated its beginning net position.
Eckley also directed attention to the district’s general fund balance, which was just more than $12 million. “That’s a very healthy fund balance,” she said. Eckley explained the fund balance is broken into four categories for that restricted for next year’s debt payment, committed to scheduled PSERS increases, assigned for real estate tax appeals and then unassigned.
More specifically, the district has approximately $6.8 million that is unassigned for spending; $2.9 million restricted for next year’s debt payment; $2 million committed to scheduled PSERS increases; and $402,000 assigned for real estate tax appeals, according to Business Administrator Sam Maney.
So far as the general fund, Eckley said that the district increased its fund balance by $1.8 million. She said it was a little more than $10 million at the beginning of the year and ended the year at a little more than $12 million. Eckley said the district had an ending fund balance, including the capital projects account, of approximately $15 million.
Maney credited the district’s healthy financial position to saving on salaries and building operations with the consolidation into two schools.
