HUTTO — A recently completed financial audit bore nothing but good news for the Hutto ISD school board.
Independent analyst company Whitley Penn announced at the Nov. 3 board of trustees meeting that its findings were “clean,” with no instances of noncompliance and no material weakness or significant deficiencies identified.
“The purpose of a financial statement audit is to provide users of financial statements with reasonable assurance that they can rely upon those statements to make informed decisions; it’s an evaluation of the reliability of the district’s statements,” said Laura Lynch, senior manager from Whitley Penn.
Lynch added the auditors had no difficulties during the audit and the district met all requirements to be considered a low-risk auditee.
The audit analyzed the 2021-2022 school year financial position and fund usage. Hutto ISD’s total assets and deferred outflows increased 25.3% to $528.5 million. Total liabilities and deferred inflows increased 21% to $590.3 million. This resulted in a net deficit of $61.8 million.
“Nobody likes the word deficit,” said Lynch. She explained the issue stems in part from pension liabilities and deferred outflows that may not actually be paid by the district.
“Sixty-two million of that amount is liabilities that are estimates and amounts that the district will not necessarily have to pay out,” Lynch said.
The audit also analyzes the school’s fund balances. There are three funds a school board must adopt by law, according to Glenn Ray Graham, Chief Financial Officer for Hutto ISD. Those are the general fund (maintenance and operations), the debt service fund (interest and sinking) and the Children’s Nutritional Fund.
“The general fund is for the district’s dayto- day expenses. It’s our largest fund and covers things like teachers’ salaries, insurance, utilities and diesel for the buses,” he said. “The debt service fund is used to pay off our capital projects. And everything we use to provide meals for our students is in the Children’s Nutritional Fund.” The CNF is funded mainly by federal reimbursement for children on free or reducedprice lunches and by revenue from paid staff and student lunches, Graham said.
According to the report by Whitley Penn, the general fund balance increased by $2.5 million to a balance of $43.7 million as of June 30, 2022, because the revenues collected were higher than the estimated revenues and the expenditures were less than the amount budgeted.
The debt service fund also collected more and spent less than budgeted. The fund balance increased by $4.8 million to have an ending fund balance of $24.6 million available.
The CNF revenues and expenditures both exceeded the budgeted amounts but still resulted in a balance increase of $1.9 million and ending fund balance of $2.0 million.
“I think the audit paints a good picture that at Hutto ISD, we take the role of being custodians of taxpayer money very seriously,” Graham said. “We’re taxpayers ourselves and none of us want to pay higher taxes, either. We do everything we can to get the biggest bang for our educational dollar.”
