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No wiggle room in school district budget
The Auburn School District's Fiscal Year 2009 budget is slightly unbalanced and contains no wiggle room.
Supt. of Schools Kathy Garrett presented the budget at a recent board meeting. It totals $12,546,336 in revenues with expenses
expected to be an estimated $12,734,968, a difference of just $188,632.
"As long as we don't have any unexpected expenses in the education, operations maintenance or buildings funds we should be
okay," stated Garret. "It is very tight, where even a small $20,000 additional expense or two will cause it to be unbalanced.
Normally we could absorb some of these minor expenses."
But, the district shows $5,337,763 in the bank. The state encourages school districts to have at least 90 days of expenses in
reserve, which Auburn does. The money is invested.
Garrett adds, "Five million looks like a big number, but all these funds can't be used for education or operations, building and
maintenance. Some of the fund balances are dedicated to specific purposes and can't be used to fund the general fund
program." Examples of that would include retirement funds, debt services, tort fund, fire prevention and safety and capital
projects.
Of the money in reserve, $2,764,063 is in the education fund and $1,236,333 in OMB, the rest in dedicated specific funds as
noted.
The bulk of the district's money comes from two sources, state aid, 57 percent ($7,169,288) and local taxes (4,736,988), 38
percent.
Major expenditures are 76 percent for education, a total of $9,671,728 this school year, along with $1,149,450 for OMB and
$764,650 for transportation.
The Auburn District receives 22 state aid payments a year, down from 24 under a new law, but still the same amount of money,
at $250,899 each or roughly $5.5 million a year.
State aid is based on the average daily attendance's best three months. This year, at present, the enrollment is 1531.
The district spends 1.7 million a year for special education, cause 21 percent of the enrollment uses some form of special
eduction. The state average is 15 percent.
The district spends six percent on transportation, some of which is reimbursed, but no extra-curricular activities are included
such as athletes.
About half of the transportation outlay goes for drivers costs and benefits and the district is putting out an additional $28,000 for
fuel this year.
In FY00 and FY02, the budgets were slightly unbalanced. Since FY03, although there was little differences all were balanced.
With the addition of Divernon two years ago, the budget went to $12,648.038 in FYO8 to the $12,546,336 this year. In FY08, the
anticipated surplus as $597,421.
In the past 10 years, the district always ended the fiscal year with a higher cash reserve than started. That may not happen this
year because some early tax money has upped it at the start.
The Auburn School District's Fiscal Year 2009 budget is slightly unbalanced and contains no wiggle room.
Supt. of Schools Kathy Garrett presented the budget at a recent board meeting. It totals $12,546,336 in revenues with expenses
expected to be an estimated $12,734,968, a difference of just $188,632.
"As long as we don't have any unexpected expenses in the education, operations maintenance or buildings funds we should be
okay," stated Garret. "It is very tight, where even a small $20,000 additional expense or two will cause it to be unbalanced.
Normally we could absorb some of these minor expenses."
But, the district shows $5,337,763 in the bank. The state encourages school districts to have at least 90 days of expenses in
reserve, which Auburn does. The money is invested.
Garrett adds, "Five million looks like a big number, but all these funds can't be used for education or operations, building and
maintenance. Some of the fund balances are dedicated to specific purposes and can't be used to fund the general fund
program." Examples of that would include retirement funds, debt services, tort fund, fire prevention and safety and capital
projects.
Of the money in reserve, $2,764,063 is in the education fund and $1,236,333 in OMB, the rest in dedicated specific funds as
noted.
The bulk of the district's money comes from two sources, state aid, 57 percent ($7,169,288) and local taxes (4,736,988), 38
percent.
Major expenditures are 76 percent for education, a total of $9,671,728 this school year, along with $1,149,450 for OMB and
$764,650 for transportation.
The Auburn District receives 22 state aid payments a year, down from 24 under a new law, but still the same amount of money,
at $250,899 each or roughly $5.5 million a year.
State aid is based on the average daily attendance's best three months. This year, at present, the enrollment is 1531.
The district spends 1.7 million a year for special education, cause 21 percent of the enrollment uses some form of special
eduction. The state average is 15 percent.
The district spends six percent on transportation, some of which is reimbursed, but no extra-curricular activities are included
such as athletes.
About half of the transportation outlay goes for drivers costs and benefits and the district is putting out an additional $28,000 for
fuel this year.
In FY00 and FY02, the budgets were slightly unbalanced. Since FY03, although there was little differences all were balanced.
With the addition of Divernon two years ago, the budget went to $12,648.038 in FYO8 to the $12,546,336 this year. In FY08, the
anticipated surplus as $597,421.
In the past 10 years, the district always ended the fiscal year with a higher cash reserve than started. That may not happen this
year because some early tax money has upped it at the start.
Issue Date: Sept. 18, 2008
