I have attached the 2016-17 Budget Vs Actual and Comparisons to 15-16 for March (pages 1-3). Also attached are the March Budget Status Reports for all funds (pages 4-8). In addition to the monthly reports, I have included Projected Revenues/Expenditures and Ending Fund Balance (page 9-10) and the April Enrollment Spreadsheets (pages 11-13)
Budget vs Actual Comparisons for March
Monthly Revenues
Revenues in March were $195,000 less than expected (page 3). Last year, revenues were $445,000 greater than expected. Last March, I worked with OSPI and finally worked out the K-3 High Poverty funding for last year. There was an issue with the reconfiguration and renumbering of the buildings and my staffing report wasn’t matching up, so they showed that we were out of compliance and hadn’t given us the funding. The total for the year is approximately $480,000 and we got 60% of funding in March (approx. $288,000). The transportation allocation was also updated to actual last March, increased by $193,000 more than in 14-15, so we received 60% of that increase in March (approx. $115,000). Both of these things skewed the historical March revenues, increasing the expected amount.
Monthly Payroll
If you look at the monthly budget to actual comparison, you can see that payroll is running approximately $66,000 to $84,000 (pages 1-3) per month more than expected. For March, payroll was $54,000 more than expected. When the budget is prepared, staffing positions are budgeted based on what we know at the time and the expectations and requirements. Additional dollars are budgeted to increase capacity in the medical benefits, subs, vacation and sick leave buy-back and various other line items. The additional items would not normally have recurring monthly amounts that would affect payroll. As documented in prior board reports, we have hired the equivalent of 3.0 full-time equivalent classified staff that were not budgeted. I will continue to review payroll and benefits costs each month when I project ending fund balance.
Monthly Accounts Payable
March accounts payable was approximately $155,000 greater than expected (page 3). Running Start is running approximately $25,000 per month more than budgeted (apportionment increases consistent with expenditures to cover this (as you can see on the Sources and Uses spreadsheet on page 9). We have 4 special education students that are attending Quest Academy. This program is a co-op program run by the ESD for Cowlitz County schools. This month we paid for services provided in November, December, January and February, totaling more than $131,000. I have reviewed all expenditures and find them to be necessary for the operations of the district.
Projected Sources, Uses, and Ending Fund Balance
The spreadsheet includes projections for all 16-17 funding categories and all 16-17 expenditure categories (pages 9-10). This spreadsheet also identifies where we are spending our levy and miscellaneous revenues. Per the spreadsheet, the district is projected to decrease fund balance by approximately $170,000. This is a negative change of approximately $43,000 since updated in January. Woodland’s portion of unfunded increased from $58,000 to $116,500. The increase is due to the hiring of a couple of unbudgeted positions for KWRL (full-time service mechanic and full-time assistant dispatcher to man the Paradise Point Site). We also hired a much needed truancy specialist, which will take some pressure off the secretaries and administrators.
Enrollment and Running Start enrollment are greater than budget, resulting in increased apportionment. Special Education enrollment is greater than budget and we have some very high need children which we will be applying for Safety Net for, increasing Special Education revenues. However, this also increases Special Ed expenditures, resulting in approximately $678,000 needed from the levy. There are some other areas that need adjustments based on budgeted expenditures to actual expenditures. This includes WMS CTE (budgeted 10.0 FTE and are actually only reporting 4.5 FTE) but payroll adjustments have not yet been made.
I will be keeping a close watch on revenues, expenditures and departmental budgets in the coming months, to ensure the unbudgeted staff salary and benefits can be covered through budget capacity, adhering to departmental budgets and increased revenues. I will update the board on this again next month and future months as necessary.
Enrollment
The enrollment spreadsheets are also attached (pages 11-13), with summaries by headcount for September through April and a comparison of budgeted FTE to actual average FTE. Enrollment increased by 16 students and almost 16 FTE. This is great news and hope to finish out the year with average FTE above 2,285 which is about 65 greater than budgeted. I will continue to keep you apprised each month and will let you know how this affects the district projections again in May.
Please let me know if you have any questions.