WSVSD Board hears preliminary budget reports

“The year end close indicates that we finished 2022-2023 with a fund balance of $1.84 million,” Polkinghorn told board members. “This fund balance reflects a decrease from the prior year of approximately $500,000. However, the end fund balance is hovering around 8-9% of revenues, which is in the desired range of 8-12%.

“Additionally, the $1.84 million fund balance is just about $900,000 over what was projected for this school year,” he said.

Polkinghorn directed the board to the packet for the 2023-2024 status report as of October. As of that time, expenditures were approximately $450,000 over revenues. However, this is due to a variety of reasons, mainly that grants had not been claimed and October’s property tax payment from the county treasurer’s office.

“You may know that certain grants require you to spend the money first, then report your expenses and ‘claim’ reimbursement,” he said. “This is true for all of our Title Grants and any ESSER (Elementary and Secondary School Emergency Relief Fund) Grants. We haven’t claimed any grant funds yet; however, we do have staff and programs that are funded by these grants and therefore, we have expenses … Property owners pay their taxes in April and October, and we are still awaiting payment from the treasurer’s office. Thus, revenues are low from our local sources.”

He also said that the 2023-2024 budget was built on the estimated enrollment of 1,040 students and currently, there are 1,068 — a 28-student increase, which could bring the district additional revenue if those numbers stand in January, when student enrollment numbers are reported to the state. But he added that the district is still at a lower enrollment than a year ago.

The district is also working to make improvements to its operational efficiency, budget management and budget controls. Polkinghorn had worked with the district’s administrative team to streamline the process and implement spending controls the week prior.

“We discussed expectations and processes for managing budgets, ensuring that we have capacity in our budgets to make purchases, and that we are coding purchases and services to the correct budget codes so we can later accurately identify, specifically, where and how much we are spending on certain materials, goods and services,” he said. “I am really proud of the administrative team’s receptiveness to these new processes and our shared commitment and diligence to some new budget management processes.”