Control Of Costs A Must For Schools

The Kimball Public Schools Board of Education held its regular meeting Nov. 11 in the city council chambers. Monthly reports were received from the treasurer and administrators.

After consideration, the board decided to purchase the tier two level SPARQ paperless system and Chromebooks for district use with a total cost of $5,450. The file repository, meeting application and data management system will digitize all pertinent district information and everyone, including administrators, teachers, attorneys and the public, will have access to all district data including policies, and other documents.

The remaining agenda items addressed the districts compliance with state requirements. According to Nebraska State Statute 79-724, the committee on American civics is required to examine and ensure that the social studies curriculum used in the district is aligned with the state standards and teaches foundational knowledge in civics, history, economics, financial literacy and geography. Detailed reports were received from both the Kimball elementary and the junior/senior high schools, confirming the district’s compliance with all required components.

Nebraska public school districts are required to undergo an audit of the districts financial records and submit the completed audit to the Department of Education. Some recent software updates, which categorize information into the proper format and upload directly to the state, have made this process a little easier.

Julie Peetz, from Rauner and Associates, was on hand to present the audit and answer questions from the board.

Overall, the Kimball School District is in a similar situation with many districts in the rural part of the state. While all funds had a positive balance at the end of the year, the cash available in the general fund has been used to bridge the gap when expected revenues are not forthcoming.

So, although the budget is constructed with the best-case scenario of all taxes paid in full and all state funding received, the reality is that, when people don’t pay their taxes, the schools do not receive the appropriate proportion of those taxes and have to use cash reserves instead.

District Business Manager, Harold Farrar commented, “Our expenses outpaced our revenues. We had to use more cash than we brought in.”

The district experienced a loss in net assets of about $426,000, bringing last year’s value of $1.6 million down to $1.2 million for 2018-19 fiscal year. Peetz explained that this is typical, and districts in this area have experienced losses ranging from $200,000 to $800,000.

The cost of educating one pupil, for the 2018-19 school year in the Kimball District was $19,287. This is a slight per pupil increase from the 2017-18 fiscal year amount of $18,221. This amount was above the state average of $12,614 per pupil for that year, but not uncommon for schools of similar size and location, such as Chase County, Mitchell, and Bridegeport, which averaged about $15,999 per pupil, per year in 2017-2018. The statewide and comparable school numbers are not yet available for the 2018-19 year.

Currently, the district has about 1.87 months of cash on hand to meet budgetary commitments. This means that without receiving any income, the district could pay the bills for just about two months. The auditor recommends having about three months of cash on hand to cover expenses.

Building up the cash on hand is a priority for the district.

“We need to control our costs – especially our labor costs which are about 75 percent of our budget – to build reserves,” Farrar said.