The Manhasset School District closed out the budget for the 2015-2016 school year, showing about $1.5 million in extra funds.
Deputy Superintendent for Business and Finance Rosemary Johnson delivered a presentation at last Thursday’s Board of Education meeting, and discussed the variances which led to the positive balance.
The end-year totals can be summarized as indicative of “very tight budgeting,” Johnson said.
She produced two financial analyses overviewing the year, one for the budget and the other for revenue, each totaling roughly $90 million.
On the budget side, total projected expenses are expected to be $1.1 million under the approved budget for the year.
On the revenue side, the school district is expecting a $438,000 variance over the projected revenue for the year.
The two sums account for the $1.5 million fund balance, with some of its use still to be determined, according to Johnson.
“The board will be making decisions as more info becomes available throughout the ensuing period,” she said.
Johnson said about $595,000 will be used to reduce the tax levy in the 2016-17 school year $606,000 will be used to pay money due on teacher’s retirement account and other expenses.
“So after that there will be some more money left over, and the question is what will the district do with it,” she said. “Most districts use fund balance to fund reserves. We only have one reserve, and that’s the capital reserve.”
Johnson said school officials would disclose how another $322,000 will be used by the district at the first board meeting in November.
She also gave examples of how surpluses are generally spent.
“So we would use that to renovate instructional space, all different kinds of things that have to be done with respect to facilities,” she said. “That’s what a capital reserve is used for, really facilities projects.”
Johnson said the district currently has about $22 million worth of capital projects, and the reserve will fund a small portion of that.
“Our budgets are extraordinarily detailed,” Johnson said. “And this result is illustrative of how tight our budget practices are.”
