Flagler Schools has $13 million general fund balance

Palm Coast Observer
News

Due to utilizing the last of its ESSER grants, Flagler Schools had a larger general fund balance for the 2023-24 fiscal year than expected, Chief Financial Officer Patty Wormeck reported.

At a special meeting on the morning of Sept. 10, the School Board unanimously approved the Annual Financial Report and Cost Report for 2023-2024.

The good news in the reports, Wormeck said, was a general fund balance on June 30 of $13,015,000. The district had expected a balance of about $10 million, she said.

The general fund is the district’s key operating fund.

Board policy is to have an unassigned general fund balance of 5-8% of next year’s revenues. The district’s unassigned balance is at 9% of total revenues for next year, Wormeck said.

“We are very pleased at this result,” she said. “We are in a good place right now. We were able to do this through the ESSER grants.

ESSER grants are the Elementary and Secondary School Emergency Relief funds available to school districts as part of the Coronavirus Aid, Relief and Economic Security (CARES) Act. ESSER grants expire at the end of this month.

“We’re very fortunate to be able to utilize the grants to the full extent we could by backfilling positions in our general fund that were allowed and approved by (the Department of Education),” Wormeck said.

All of the other funds, including capital funds, stayed the same in the budget, Wormeck said. The 1.5 millage rate revenue ended with about a $20 million fund balance. And the sales tax and impact fees remained the same, she said.

Wormeck and Superintendent LaShakia Moore said the district’s unions had been apprised of the changes. Board member Cheryl Massaro noted that during bargaining the district did not know it would have a larger than expected general fund balance.

“We typically don’t end much differently than what we budget for,” Wormeck said. “The budget process started in June. The close-out for the fiscal year is at the end of August. The changes were due to ESSER grants which will not occur again. We told the unions where we ended up and why we ended up there.”

Moore said as amendments were being approved by the DOE, district administrators communicated with union representatives.

“We always want to be completely transparent with our stakeholders including our unions,” she said. “We want to stay within the board direction on how much to have in reserve but also give great wages to our employees. We’ll continue to peel back every dollar we can in order to help us be in the healthiest place going forward.”