May 19, 2025: The Washington State Auditor’s Office has completed its financial audit of the Marysville School District for the 2023 - 2024 fiscal year. The audit team presented its closing report during a work study of the Board of Directors this evening.
The 2023 - 2024 financial, federal, and accountability audit focused on the district’s finances, including expenditures and revenues for state and federal funds and accountability (procedures and controls). As anticipated, the audit addressed the district’s financial state under binding conditions and enhanced financial oversight.
The district’s strong commitment and focused efforts towards restoring financial health and integrity acknowledge that it will take time. Therefore, it has developed a three-year financial plan. The district will experience financial peaks and valleys over the coming months; however, the plan will aid the district in reaching its fund balance goals. These actions and the steps taken in the plan should result in ending this school year with a positive fund balance.
For the 2023 - 2024 school year, the auditor shared three key findings in the following areas:
Financial condition: Carried over from the previous year’s audit, the auditor recommends that the district continue to work closely with OSPI and the Northwest Educational Services District 189 to ensure benchmarks included within the binding conditions are achieved to continue to improve its financial condition.
Time and effort: Staffing changes occurred for three employees to be paid under a federal program requiring time and effort reporting. During the audit, the district provided alternative documentation. The auditor is not questioning the costs but recommends that the district establish and follow its internal controls to ensure it complies with federal and OSPI requirements for obtaining signed time-and-effort documentation in a timely manner.
Internal controls: Related to issuing supplemental contracts for teachers, the district failed to issue written supplemental contracts at the beginning of the 2024 - 2024 school year. Pay was accurately processed for all contracts for each of the employees, but supplemental contracts outside of base pay contracts, such as tri-schedule pay and tri-schedule enrichment pay, were not distributed. The auditor recommends that the district enter into written, signed contracts with employees to ensure compliance.
As soon as each of these issues were discovered earlier this year, the district took steps to ensure each of the areas was addressed and corrected, and has procedures and internal controls in place to ensure future compliance.
The district wants to thank the State Auditor’s Office and the audit team for acknowledging that the district is on track to restore its financial viability by removing the previous year’s audit opinion that raised a substantial doubt about the district’s ability to continue. The district also appreciates the auditor noticing the improvements that are currently occurring in the Marysville School District and is pleased that no significant deficiencies exist and that the district received a clean financial audit.