The Manhasset Public Schools underspent and over-raised its budget in the 2023-2024 school, resulting in a greater fund balance for the district, according to Assistant Superintendent for Business and Operations Sam Gergis.
“This is definitely a bit of strengthening from the prior and prior years,” Gergis said.
The district presented its audit findings Thursday night at the Manhasset Board of Education meeting.
Gergis said the district underspent by about $160,000, which he said is an anomaly. He said typically the district underspends by about $400,000 but had about $230,000 in budget transfers.
“When you add both those numbers up, all things being equal, that comes to that $400,000 number,” Gergis said. “So we’re really on par from year to year with how much money we would have left over in our compensation codes.”
In 2023-2024, the school spent $2,295,445 under budget. Overall it spent $105,954,898 last school year.
Gergis said the prior year the school had spent about 99% of the district’s budget compared with 2023-2024 when it spent under 98%. He called this an “extremely thin margin.”
The district’s total fund balance as of June 30 was $12,116,00. It started the 2023-2024 school year with a fund balance, or the district’s money in reserves, at $8,448,036.
Gergis said this is a $3.7 million increase from the prior year. The district’s under budget expenses and over budget revenues led to the greater fund balance, he said.
The fund balance represents 12% of the district’s budget, yet the state recommends the fund balance should be at 20%.
Gergis said the district’s overall fund balance did perform better than in prior years, which he attributed to unique circumstances.
The district’s debt service account is at $1,367,00, which Gergis described as a “large amount.” In prior yeas, he said it sat closer to about $200,000.
Gergis said this large debt service account was due to a payment not made for anticipated bonds because of delays in state approvals and interest rates. He said these funds were moved to the debt service account for a future bond payment since taxpayers had already fronted the funds.
Gergis said this transfer of funds was under the guidance of the auditors.
“We’re pretty much holding the money in escrow until we take the borrowing out so we’re able to pay it,” Gergis said.
Gergis said much of the transfers were to cover legal expenses. Superintendent Gaurav Passi said this was due to union contract negotiations, litigation and greater records requests.
The district had a deficit in expenses for retiree health benefits due to dramatic rate increases, Gergis said, that amounted to $282,000.
The audit revealed the district had a deficit of $104 million, but Gergis said the district is not liable to pay it off. He said it accounts for long-term projections of all actuary values of expenses.
The district adopted a $111.3 million budget for the 2023-2024 school year, a a 3.3% budget-to-budget increase. It also included a 2.68% tax increase, which fell within the allowable tax levy cap.
The budget was controversial prior to its adoption as it included more than a dozen staff cuts, primarily of teaching assistants. This brought pushback from students, parents and teaching assistants who advocated for their necessity.
In other news, the Board of Education discussed the state’s proposed Regionalization Regulations. The purpose of the initiative is to foster collaborative regional planning among school districts.
Passi said they have proposed changes to the language to ensure that regionalization efforts “respect our Board of Education” and the Manhasset community’s needs. He said some language infers the district would have to participate in certain planning, and that they are asking for it to be removed so the district can opt out where they deem necessary.
Board members supported Passi’s recommendations regarding the state proposal.
State high school graduation requirements are also set to change, Passi said, including the adoption of New York State’s Portrait of a Graduate and redefining credits and learning experiences. Passi said existing requirements will remain in place until the Board of Regents approves the changes.
Passi said these potential changes will be implemented according to the state’s timeline, which spans years.
Once implemented, the school district will no longer be able to enforce local diploma requirements that exceed the state’s graduation requirements. Students who meet the state’s requirements will now be awarded a diploma and those who surpass the requirements would receive a seal.
