|
Surprise! School district finds extra $2M Discovery may prevent need for more cuts Staff Writer As Brainerd school officials, working with independent auditors, closed out the books on the 2007-08 school year in recent weeks, they made a surprising discovery.
It was learned late Thursday afternoon that the school district has up to $2 million more in its budget than was projected. This could mean there may not be a need for more budget cuts next school year, as school officials had feared, Brainerd Superintendent Steve Razidlo said.
Razidlo said representatives from the LarsonAllen firm have spent the last few weeks at district offices performing on-site auditing work, which they recently completed. The final audit isn't expected to be given to the school board until November.
The initial findings are that the district last school year spent less money in expenditures than had been budgeted and received more revenue than had been anticipated.
Razidlo said several areas of expenditure came in under budget, most notably in substitute teacher wages and utility costs. He attributed much of these savings to staff members who found ways to cut costs and save money as the district made its $5.5 million in budget cuts last spring.
"This is directly attributed to the hard work of staff in the buildings," Razidlo said.
Razidlo said the district learned in late August that it was to receive more revenue than expected, particularly in special education and special education-related services, including third-party billing. This also contributed to the extra funds.
"It's good news taken with mixed feeling, but it is our hope that in finishing better than we expected to finish, that we may not have to go through the cutting we thought we'd have to go through in the future," Razidlo said. "Although we're relieved we're not in the red, it comes as more than a surprise. It's almost shocking that revenues came in as they did."
The district had been projecting as late as June/July an unreserved fund balance of about $200,000. In the past, the district had maintained a healthy unreserved fund balance around 10 percent of its $70 million annual budget, which had been spent down in recent years to help buffer budget cuts. Even with the extra money, the district still will end up with less than a 3 percent unreserved fund balance.
But Razidlo said there are still some unknowns that could play a factor in the district's financial situation. A discussion about these extra funds and what the money will be used for needs to take place with school board members, he said. The district is in negotiations with its five non-certified unions, including secretaries, custodians, educational assistants, interpreters for deaf students and food service employees for the 2008-09 and 2009-10 contracts. The school board previously informed these union groups that it wouldn't negotiate for any wage increases for the next two years. The board will meet again at 11:30 a.m. Monday in closed session to discuss its negotiation strategy.
Razidlo said he has struggled with how, if this new information had been known last year, it may have affected the depth of cuts, when the board cut 10 percent of its staff, or 86.8 positions, and several programs, also closing two elementary schools and increasing class sizes. The cuts were made after voters rejected a $5.75 million operating levy referendum in November.
"The first question is going to be, looking backward at the cuts we made, did we have to make as many cuts as we made?" Razidlo said. "But we took the actions we did based on the best information we had at the time and we'll be very public about where the state of the district continues to be."
Board members could not be reached Thursday night for comment.
JODIE TWEED may be reached at jodie.tweed@brainerddispatch.com or 855-5858.
To Subscribe to the Brainerd Dispatch, Click Here.
Note: Comments are not edited and don't represent the views of The Brainerd Dispatch. Please read our posting rules in the terms of service policy. To report a post that may be inappropriate, click the triangle alert icon.
|
|
Top Commented Articles
