The Manhasset School District was among 53 school districts in New York considered “susceptible to fiscal stress” in ratings compiled by state Comptroller Thomas DiNapoli.
The district received a score of 30 percent, taken based on financial information submitted to the state education department, according to a report released Thursday. DiNapoli’s office measured a series of financial factors, including year-end fund balances and patterns of short-term borrowing and operating at a deficit.
“School districts are the hearts of many of our communities, but they face fiscal pressures that are unlikely to change any time soon,” DiNapoli said in a statement. “Although the increases in fiscal stress are relatively minor, the same problems persist, including increased deficits and dwindling fund balances. I urge school officials, especially those overseeing districts with deteriorating fiscal health, to use these scores as an impetus for more deliberate and careful long-term budget planning.”
In a statement Friday, Manhasset Superintendent of Schools Charles Cardillo said: “The report seems at cross purposes as the state comptroller’s report rewards our district on categories related to the district maintaining strong cash levels, while penalizing the district for using the acceptable and appropriate financial and legal means available to school districts to maintain proper cash ratios.”
Manhasset was among 19 Long Island school districts to have some form of fiscal stress, according to DiNapoli’s office. The comptroller’s office evaluated 672 school districts in the state.
Districts were placed in one of four categories: “no designation,” “susceptible to fiscal stress,” “moderate fiscal stress” and “significant fiscal stress.”
Manhasset, which received the same rating in the comptroller’s inaugural rating last year, was the only North Shore district to receive a score other than “no designation.”
