By NOAH WORTHAM | Managing Editor
ALABASTER
– Alabaster City Schools received the highest possible score on its audit for the 12th year in a row.
During a regularly scheduled meeting on Monday, June 9, the Alabaster City Schools Board of Education accepted a financial audit from Carr, Riggs & Ingram LLC which reported an unqualified opinion—indicating the school system has presented all necessary materials fairly.
“This is my third year running the audit and being in charge of it,” said Rian Turner, senior manager at Carr, Riggs and Ingram. “The board received an unqualified opinion which is the highest opinion we can give. The board had a solid financial year.”
The audit gave a report for the financial year ending in September 2024. The purpose of the audit is to identify and assess risks of material misstatement of financial statements due to error or fraud. The process also evaluates the appropriateness of accounting policies and the reasonableness of accounting estimates among other criteria.
For fiscal year 2023, Alabaster City Schools saw total revenues of $106,473,016 and $95,959,665 in total expenses. For fiscal year 2024, the school system had $110,630,437 in total revenues and $107,449,392 in total expenses. Program revenues for 2024 accounted for 64 percent of all revenues with instructional services expenses—primarily benefits and salaries for classroom teachers—representing the largest expense function at 53.2 percent.
According to the audit, at the end of fiscal year 2024, the board’s governmental funds reported combined ending fund balances of $26 million with $5.7 million of this amount constituting unassigned balances available for spending on future operations.
“I want to thank Mr. Turner and Car, Riggs & Ingram,” Superintendent Dr. Wayne Vickers said. “They’ve been doing this audit the past 12 years and they’ve done a great job… I’m very proud of the work that’s done by our board and our community for this.”
In other business, the ACS Board of Education approved the following items on the agenda:
- Out-of-state field trip requests
- Curriculum and library manual updates
- Pay request No. 55
- Inventory deletions request
- Personnel actions
The next regularly scheduled Alabaster City Schools BOE meeting is scheduled for Monday, July 14 at 5 p.m.
