By NEAL WAGNER / Managing Editor

ALABASTER – For the fifth-straight year, the Alabaster City School System earned the highest possible opinion from a Birmingham-based accounting company after the company performed an audit of the school system for the 2017 fiscal year.

During an April 9n Board of Education meeting, the Carr, Riggs and Ingram CPA and Advisors firm presented the results of its audit of the school system, and gave ACS its highest-possible opinion: Unqualified. The opinion has remained unchanged each year the school system has been in existence.

The school system is required by law to have an external independent audit performed each year. During the audit, the company met with ACS leaders such as Chief School Financial Officer Linda Agee, and reviewed the system’s financial records.

According to the audit summary presented by Carr, Riggs and Ingram, ACS correctly documented and accounted for all of its financial actions throughout the 2016 fiscal year, which ended in September of last year.

In its report, the company said the school system cooperated fully with the audit, and said ACS’ financial situation is strong.

“The most important thing is that we are issuing an unqualified opinion, which is the highest we give,” said Carr, Riggs and Ingram representative Jason Harpe. “We appreciate Mrs. Agee and the staff in the finance department. They always have a great attitude and help us.”

At the end of the 2017 fiscal year, the school system’s total assets exceeded liabilities by about $3 million, the report read.

Agee said this year’s audit was more comprehensive than the past audits, and also took the system’s technology and other areas into account.

“To get an unqualified audit, I’m really proud of that,” said ACS Superintendent Dr. Wayne Vickers. I appreciate the work of our team to make sure we get this type of audit.”

“It takes a lot of knowledge to keep all that information straight,” School Board member John Myrick told Agee.

BOE member Ty Quarles said he and other board members frequently get questions from the public about the school system’s finances, and said the audit is proof of the system’s strong standing.

“I’m grateful to you guys that I am able to give them answers with utmost confidence,” Quarles said. “I have no doubt about our finances.”