District’s savings dwindling

By Bert Lehman

Over the past five years, the Clintonville School District’s unassigned fund balance had declined from 32.5% of general fund expenditures to 15%.

That was one of the observations shared by Greg Pitel, of KerberRose, when he presented the district’s 2021-22 financial audit at the March 13 Clintonville School Board meeting.

Pitel told the board that at the end of the fiscal year the district had $2.8 million in unassigned general fund balance. That’s approximately 15% of the districts general fund expenditures. In 2018 the district was at 32.5%.

“You can see a fairly steady decline over the past five years of that unassigned general fund balance,” Pitel said. “We always recommend somewhere between 20-25 percent of your general fund expenditures in unassigned fund balance.”

Benefits of higher fund balance

By having the 20%-25% threshold, Pitel said it helps alleviate the need for short-term borrowing while the district waits for tax revenues.

A higher percentage is also beneficial when it come to bond ratings, Pitel said.

When the unassigned general fund balance is in the 20%-30% range it is considered good, while above 30% is considered excellent.

Board member Glen Drew Lundt asked if the district being at 15% has anything to do with the referendum. He also asked if the district is on a path to increase the 15%.

Pitel said going from 32.5% to 15% is “not great.”

He added that the referendum is not related to the unassigned fund balance since referendum proceeds are in a capital projects fund, and referendum expenditures come out of that fund.

Lindsay Norder, district business manager, said part of the issue was the district’s budget had a million-dollar deficit the year prior to her becoming the business manager.

She said 60% of the deficit that year was due to the district purchasing land.

Other findings

Pitel said there was a positive increase in the district’s regular fund balance of $102,000 for the year, adding that the district had a general fund balance of $3.4 million at the end of the year.

There also were no compliance issues found during the audit.