Audit finds no problems for Franklin school system

RUSSELLVILLE — The Franklin County Schools Board of Education received a clean audit for its 2024 fiscal year with no findings or rule violations.

The Alabama Department of Examiners of PublicAccountsreviewed the system’s finances for Oct. 1, 2023, through Sept. 30, 2024. Denise Olive presented the findings to the board.

“We issued an unmodified opinion on the financial statements,” said Nikki Morrison, CPA and county audit director with the department.

She said that means the financial statements are presented “fairly in accordance with generally accepted accounting principles,” adding the auditors noted “no matters to indicate that the board had not complied in all material respects with applicable laws and regulations.”

“It was a completely clean opinion,” she said.

She added the review also covered federal funding.

“We audited the federal financial assistance programs of the board,” Morrison said. “We didn’t have any findings there either and issued an unmodified opinion on the federal financial assistance programs.”

“Last year’s audit had one finding about an issue with travel reimbursement,” Morrison said. “But both this year and last year received clean opinions overall.”

She said the department does not judge the system’s overall financial health.

“Financial health is really a management determination,” Morrison said. “Our role is to say whether the statements are materially correct.”

Thomas Strawn and Timothy Posey conducted the audit. Strawn served as examiner-in-charge. Rachel Laurie Riddle was the chief examiner.

The full audit report is available on the Alabama Department of Examiners of Public Accounts website: https://examiners.alabama. gov.