It’s audit time at Ottawa Elementary School District 141. The November Board meeting took place last night at the Central School Cafetorium and William Newkirk, a shareholder at Newkirk and Associates, summarized the audit in his annual presentation to the Board. The result is a clean bill of health for the 2023 fiscal year that began on October 1, 2022 and ended on September 30, 2023.
Newkirk said there are a number of reasons why Ottawa School District gets such a clean bill of financial health. One of the big things is managing their debt load. They successfully issue working cash bonds in such a way that it keeps the tax rate stable. The district also manages debt well to allow for reserves on hand while accomplishing capital projects at the same time.
The school district does not over-extend debt so there is always the ability for issuers to cash bonds which means financial flexibility.
Newkirk issued three different opinions specifically on the financial statements themselves and then two different opinions on compliance related to grants which the state of Illinois compiled statutes require. Newkirk said they found no compliance findings, in other words, the Ottawa Elementary School District confidently has moved into fiscal year 2024.
The district is looking at declaring the intention to issue bonds but has not yet made a decision to do so though they are in a very good financial position to. The School District has some outstanding bonds, three bond issues, and one debt certificate issue.
The School District is in excellent shape in terms of debt limit capacity. With steady growth the last several years, they have a debt capacity of 6.9 per cent of their assessed evaluation or about 24.4 million dollars.