OBSERVER Photo by M.J. Stafford The Dunkirk Board of Education sits in front of a banner welcoming it to School 4 for its October meeting. The board heard a positive report about the district’s finances from one of its auditors.

The Dunkirk City School District got the thumbs-up from its auditors over 2024-25 school year finances. Meanwhile at City Hall, officials are still waiting for a final 2024 report from the same auditors.

Jared Pickard of Drescher and Malecki attended the October Dunkirk Board of Education meeting to present a pretty rosy report. He said auditors offered an “unmodified clean opinion” about DCSD finances, and “that’s about as good as you can have.”

Revenues ran slightly ahead of expenses in 2024-25, and the district finished with a fund balance of about $16 million, up by about $2.2 million from the previous school year. However, the unrestricted portion of that is just $4.6 million, less than half of the $9.7 million from four years ago.

Dunkirk city government is still awaiting a Drescher and Malecki audit of its 2024 finances, Fiscal Affairs Officer Ellen Luczkowiak said at a Friday meeting of the Common Council’s Finance Committee.

However, “we expect it any day,” she said. A preliminary draft is already complete, Luczkowiak added.