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Bay College audit brings good, bad news

ESCANABA — The Bay College Board of Trustees received both good and bad news about the college’s finances during a special meeting Monday.

The meeting began with a review of Bay’s audit report for its 2018-19 fiscal year, prepared by auditing firm Rehmann. Representatives of Rehmann were present during the meeting to discuss the report with board members.

Principal Stephen Peacock said the college received an unmodified, or clean, opinion on its audit.

“That’s the highest level of assurance that we can place on financial statements, so that’s the A+ grade,” he said.

The audit report also contained information on Bay’s total net position. As of June 30, 2019, the college’s total net position was listed as being about $6,281,000 — an increase compared to the same date last year, when the college’s net position was recorded as being roughly $6,167,000.

Rehmann also had no material weaknesses to share as part of its audit report.

“If we had an issue that was a big issue, we would’ve spoken to you folks long before right now,” Peacock said.

However, the college was encouraged to continue its efforts related to cybersecurity.

“The concern there is hackers are really targeting higher ed right now, because there’s a lot of sensitive information that they have,” Principal Joshua Sullivan said.

In other business, Eileen Sparpana — Bay’s vice president of finance — went over the college’s financial ratios during the meeting. This included Bay’s composite financial index (CFI), a ratio which indicates colleges’ overall financial stability.

“Compared to last year, our CFI did decline slightly from 2.01 to 1.95,” Sparpana said.

After the meeting, Sparpana said colleges aim to have CFIs of 2.0 or higher.

Additionally, the college’s number of days of cash on hand was listed as 92 days in 2019. This was down from 106 days in 2018.

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