Written by: Seth Gordon, Newberg Graphic

Newberg schools close fiscal year with healthy $1.8 million ending fund balance

When it comes to an audit, no news is good news as far as Newberg School District finance director Gwen Gardner is concerned.

That’s exactly what Gardner found in the 2015-2016 audit performed by accounting firm Pauly, Rogers and Co., which issued an unmodified opinion, the best the district could receive.

Lead auditor Tara Kamp provided a brief overview of the audit to the school board at its Jan. 12 meeting, with the board voting 6-0 to accept it.

“For the past two years we have had a perfect audit, so that really makes you feel good,” Gardner said. “There’s been no management letter. There have been no comments, so that is nice for everyone to know and nice for us to hear because we work hard to make sure that everything we do is as accurate as it possibly can be. The audit verified that.”

In her review of the district’s annual financial report, Superintendent Kym LeBlanc-Esparza highlighted that the district’s assets, including $44.2 million in capital assets, exceeded its liabilities and deferred inflows of resources by $21.9 million.

Continuing the positive trend since Gardner was brought in at the onset of the 2013-2014 school year, the district’s governmental funds grew by $977,521 from last year to $5.3 million.

Upon replacing former finance director Nathan Roedel on an interim basis after an unexpected $950,000 budget shortfall was discovered for the 2012-13 fiscal year, Gardner initiated a series of transfers to bring the ending fund balance back into the black at $322,217.

At 0.7 percent of the $43.4 general fund budget, however, the ending fund balance was judged to be woefully low, falling well below the recommended range of 3 to 5 percent.

Just two years later, the current audit confirmed the ending fund balance to be $1.86 million or 4.1 percent of general fund revenues.

“It’s always a goal to build your ending fund balance because it helps the district to become stable,” Gardner said. “If we can keep to that goal or raise it some, we’d be very happy. That’s a priority to keep a watch on that all the time.”

The financial report also showed that property tax revenue for the district grew by $1.56 million from the previous year due to slight increases in assessed value, which Gardner noted as a good sign for the economy.

“We’re looking for stability,” Gardner said.