Schools
Barren County reports solid financial year
GLASGOW — At his first meeting as Barren County School’s finance director, John Stith previewed the status of the district’s end-of-year budget Thursday evening.
The report is not complete because the district is keeping the records open as long as possible before it has to report, but the initial findings are positive.
“We’re still at 98 percent of what we budgeted for revenues,” Stith told the board of education. “We’re going to continue to hold the dues records open as long as we can so we can get a better total picture for the year. But that number is encouraging.”
The district has spent 96 percent of its total expenditure budget and is at 93 percent of the budgeted revenues for food services, Stith said.
The figures are more encouraging than last year, with decreases in expenditures of almost $200,000, including a decrease in physical plant operations by $118,000, which reflects an effort to save energy district-wide.
“Any time your revenues go up and expenses go down, you’ve got to call that a good year,” Stith said. “Especially considering all the trouble we had with the economy and funding sources.”
Stith added that while having a 3 percent contingency is “wonderful, and we’ll have to build on that,” the board should keep a close watch on it.
“The state is going to give us some challenges, with the unfunded 1 percent mandated increase, among others and things can eat away at the contingency very quickly,” he said.
Superintendent Jerry Ralston added that the board can’t really plan for next year’s budget until the state provides the district with final tallies.
“We cannot determine our end-of-the-year enrollment until the state gives us those numbers and because of that, we cannot put together numbers to forecast next year’s budget,” Ralston said. “We should have had them by June 30. It also impacts how we determine what our bonding potential is. So, we’re waiting for the state to tell us what our enrollment is so we can make projections for funding the next school year and for bonding potential for facility growth.”
The district hopes to have some answers soon.
“It’s hard to give anything concrete because the General Assembly doesn’t seem to know and that also makes it difficult for us to make predictions,” Stith said. “Hopefully, as soon as they know, they’ll tell us.”
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