School Officials Adopt Budget
District Business Manager Randy Goodwin told board members that if nothing happens there will be a fund balance of $640,875.38 at the end of the fiscal year
The boardroom table is now located against the northeast wall and School Board members face the center of the room.
By Jack Gurner
Reporter
WATER VALLEY – The School Board adopted a $10,504,929.92 budget for FY 2011 Monday night during a six-minute long meeting held before the regular session.
District Business Manager Randy Goodwin told board members that if nothing happens there will be a fund balance of $640,875.38 at the end of the fiscal year. “That is not including what will be brought forward,” he said, referring to funds left from the past 2010 school year.
The amount will be over the seven percent mandated by the state, he added. The Department of Education requires a school district to end the fiscal year with a minimum of seven percent of the total budget in reserve.
A negative fund balance of over $200,000 for the 2007-2008 school year that came to light last year prompted state officials to order the district to cease all expenditures.
At the same time, then State Superintendent of Education John Jordan named a financial advisor for the District. In a letter dated Oct. 23, Dr. Jordan wrote that the negative fund balance in the General Fund in the amount of $217,076 “constitutes a serious financial condition.”
During the regular Board session that followed the budget approval meeting, Goodwin told Board members that the District could have around $850,000 in the fund balance at the end of FY 2011. “We’re headed in the right direction,” he said.
Board member Casey Washington said, “We really need to applaud you and Mr. Higdon for having the foresight to make the cuts that were both rough and necessary to get us back in the black.”
Goodwin said he would like to increase that figure even more, but FY 2012 is a “big, big, big unknown.”
Later, after the board had paid claims, Goodwin noted that normally the board would approve the tax resolution for both Yalobusha and Lafayette Counties at the regular meeting held the same day as the budget approval. There are a small number of Water Valley School District students who live in Lafayette County.
Goodwin said he was holding off for as long as possible waiting for Congress to act on a bill involving Medicare funds. Currently there is a bill in the system that includes changes in the Medicare reimbursement formula.
The bill will, in a roundabout way, have an effect on funds available for schools in the state. “Hopefully they are going to fully fund that and we can ask for about $100,000 less from the community,” he added.
However, the board will still be asking for an increase in the ad valorem tax millage rate. The original increase was advertised to be from 37.05 mills to a total of 43 mills, but that amount is expected to be even higher because the total assessed value of the county decreased 2.3 percent.
What that means is that taxpayers within the district will pay more on their homes, automobile tags, utilities, business fixtures and equipment and rental real property.
