By Megan Kelley

Review Writer

Representatives from Plante Moran attended the Lake Orion Community School’s Board of Education meeting on Nov. 6 to present the board with their annual audit.

Plante Moran partner Donna Hanson addressed the board beginning with an audit summary.

“We have issued an unmodified opinion on the district’s financial statements,” Hanson said. “This is the highest form of assurance that we can provide as auditors that your financial statements are routinely correct.”

Through the audit process, Plante Moran reviews the district’s processes, procedures and internal controls. While reviewing these, Plante Moran did not note any control deficiencies or non-compliance issues related to any laws or regulations, Hanson said.

Plante Moran also looks into expenditures from both the sinking fund and the bond fund to ensure that the district is complying with the requirements, ballot language and regulations that surround both funds.

“We also audit the federal programs of the district and we have issued an unmodified opinion on those financial statements, the federal grant dollars that the district receives,” Hanson said. “Testing we did was on the major program: the child nutrition cluster. No findings or question of costs relating to that grant.

“Lake Orion is deemed a ‘low-risk auditee’ and that is important because that says that you have a history of no findings or material weaknesses in your grant programs,” Hanson said.

As for the numbers, according to Plante Moran’s audit, during the 2018-2019 fiscal year, LOCS saw total revenues of $83,634,576 and total expenditures of $83,527,493. LOCS’s current year increase of $107,083.

LOCS received $8,396 per pupil in 2019, according to the audit presentation.

“2019, for Lake Orion was actually the first year that your per pupil funding exceeded the amount of funding that you had back in 2011,” Hanson said.

Additionally, the district’s overall state retirement fund saw a slight decrease from 19.99 percent in 2018 to 19.54 percent in 2019. The full audit for LOCS’s 2018-2019 school year can be viewed at www.lakeorionschools.org/transparency.