by Thaddeus Flint
A January report by the New York State’s Comptroller Office which showed the Berlin School District as being “susceptible to fiscal stress” does not “necessarily reflect what is actuality in terms of school districts,” said the Berlin Central School District’s Superintendent of Schools, Dr. Stephen Young, at the February Board meeting Tuesday night.
[private]Comptroller Thomas P. DiNapoli reported that 87 school districts in the State “have been designated as fiscally stressed.” BCS was listed low on the list, #68 of the 87 on that list, with a fiscal score of 28.3%. The larger the fiscal score number the worse off a District is.
“I know one or two Board members were curious as to how we got a score of 28.3,” said Dr. Young.
As it turns out, some of the numbers used by the State in calculating those scores were accounting figures for fund balances that had yet to be corrected. “School districts have until December to make corrections to their fund balances,” explained Dr. Young. “In June there was $418,000 in the unassigned fund balance.” This number was reported to the State who used the figure to come up with part of the District’s fiscal score.
“But in December our fund balance was actually $569,000,” pointed out Dr. Young. “That means if we had that [$569,000] fund balance in June we would have scored a zero for that category.” A lower score is a better score. “We did have the money, it just wasn’t moved over,” he added. “That would have reduced our overall score by 8.3%.” This alone would have dropped the District’s score to 20% which is below the State’s threshold of 25%. “Just by changing that one number we would have been out of fiscal susceptibility,” said Dr. Young.
A second factor that weighed against the District was the reporting of the previous three years’ operating surpluses or deficits in the General Fund.
In 2011 the District had an operating surplus of 1.9%. In 2012, however, “Several things happened,” said Dr. Young. A transfer of $1.8 million was made to the Capitol Project for construction in the following year. That was not reported as revenue, thus making it appear that there was actually a $1.8 million deficit. Correctly reported, 2012 should have shown a “Surplus of 2.6% instead of a deficit of 7.4%,” said Dr. Young.
In 2013 a similar set of circumstances occurred with $100,000 being taken from the unassigned fund balance and moved to the Capitol Project. “So it did not count as a revenue source,” said the Superintendent. A transfer of $697,000 from the unassigned fund balance was used to pay off an energy contract bond. The cumulative effect of these payments for 2013 made it look like the District was operating on revenues of $16,719,000 instead of the correct $17,516,000. The Comptroller thus reviewed the District with numbers showing it running a deficit of 4.4% instead of the correct surplus of .2%.
“All said and done,” reported Dr. Young, “We are fine fiscally in terms of our numbers.”
Now The Future
So the past was okay. Now there is only the future to worry about.
The Board is in the process of preliminary budget planning for the next fiscal year and already there is talk of increases to the tax levy of the maximum allowed under the 2% cap.
“The Board of Education will have to make hard decisions,” said Board President Frank Zwack in his President’s report. “It will be a challenge.”
While State aid remains largely stagnant, costs for pretty much everything seem to be growing. District Superintendent of Buildings and Grounds, Cyril Grant, last month, for example, reported on how spikes in costs of electricity and propane were rapidly depleting the allocated budgets for these items. This month he reported that it’s worse.
In November the District-wide electrical use was almost 97,000 kilowatts. The total electric bill was $9,500. In December the District used just shy of 110,000 kilowatts of power. The electricity bill went up to $15,611 District-wide. In January the District used 111,326 kilowatts – just 1,500 kilowatts more than the previous month – and the District’s bill was $25,678. “So we used over 25% of our entire electrical budget in one month, said Grant. ”It’s just not sustainable.”
Propane, too, has gone through the roof. It was around $1.39 a gallon at the beginning of the school year. Last week it cost the District $2.84 a gallon.
“Propane and electricity have just taken gigantic leaps,” he said.
Grant will be attending an Advocacy Day in Albany this March organized by the New York State School Facilities Association with the intent of letting the State Legislature know how hard Districts are being hit by such out of control expenses. Grant has also approached the architects working on the current Capitol Project to see if there was anything that could be added, which was aidable, that would allow the District to save on future electric costs. One possible idea that was discussed was upgrading the electrical system in such a way as to allow half the lights to be turned on in the hallways after hours instead of having the entire bank on, which is the way it works now.
As next year’s budget starts to take shape, the Board decided to wait a while to decide whether to provide tax breaks to veterans who live in the District.
“It’s a little bit complicated,” said Dr. Young. He estimated that there are about 365 veterans in the five towns that make up the District that could possibly qualify for reductions. Additional reductions could be applied to veterans that served in combat zones and/or who were wounded. The Board needs to get a better idea of how all that will break down. The District will not, however, be receiving less taxes if the exemptions are allowed. Everyone else who is not a veteran will have to make up the difference.
As a decision, along with a public hearing, was needed before March 1, the matter was tabled until late summer or early fall. “It’s too much too fast,” said Zwack.
Good Things
In the meantime, “A lot of good things are happening,” said Dr. Young. These include:
• On Saturday, March 1, there will be a talent show at the Middle/High School from 7 to 9 pm.
• The Art Department is putting on its third annual art show at the Berlin Library from March 4 to 25. The opening reception for the show is being held at the Berlin Library on Tuesday, March 11, from 5 to 7 pm
• The High School Band and Chorus will be putting on a Pop Concert on March 13 at the Middle/High School from 6:30 pm.
The next regular School Board meeting is Tuesday, March 18, at 7:15 pm.[/private]