Nik Rajkovic / news@whmi.com

Brighton Area Schools remains in good financial standing, according to its latest audit delivered to school board trustees Monday.

“We did issue an unmodified opinion with respect to the financial statements. This is often referred to as a clean opinion, consistent with what you’ve seen in the past. Essentially, we provide reasonable assurance that the financials in front of you accurately reflect what happened at the district during the current year,” said Nick Kossaras, CPA, principal at Maner Costerisan.

Hartland Consolidated Schools, Fowlerville Community Schools and other districts received similar scores.

The audit showed BAS ended the fiscal year with a fund balance of $25.1 million. That number divided by current year expenditures gave BAS a ratio of 21.6 percent, which Kossaras said was up significantly over a year earlier when it was 14.8 percent, due to an increase in the general fund balance.

“I will say, across the board here, these fund balance figures are quite inflated, going back to the COVID grants that certainly padded fund balances in the general fund for a lot of districts statewide,” Kossaras added.

“That statewide average as of 6/30/2020 was about 14.6 percent. So, it added almost seven percent statewide to the average over that four-year span. I would expect these numbers to normalize and begin to decrease for a lot of districts beginning next year.”

Trustees on Monday also approved the district’s school of choice window for those considering a move mid-school year.

“The school of choice under this proposal for The Bridge closes on November 26. For all of the other classes in the district, that window is between December 4 and December 18,” said Board President Roger Myers.