District to present fiscal update to SBRC after categorical carryover exceeds UAB

Clear Creek Amana finance staff told the board the district must present a fiscal update to the School Budget Review Committee (SBRC) on Dec. 16 after the district’s categorical carryover balance exceeded its unspent authorized balance (UAB) for the fiscal year.

Laura (finance staff) explained that drivers of the fiscal position include supplemental state aid determinations, open-enrollment tuition outflows and enrollment variables. She said the district filed its Certified Annual Report (CAR) on Sept. 15, which establishes the UAB determination; the result for fiscal year 2025 is that categorical carryover is larger than the UAB and therefore the SBRC requested an update rather than an automatic allocation. "Part of the reason to go before the SBRC would be for us to share with them how we plan to carry, spend those categorical balances down and then each year going forward, spend our categoricals in the years that we receive them so that there's minimal carryover," the presenter said.

Options discussed by finance staff include transferring categorical carryover into the district's flexibility account (a two-meeting process that requires a public hearing and must be completed before June 30 of the fiscal year being adjusted) and continuing to control district expenditures—noting that approximately 79% of the budget goes to salaries and benefits. The presenter also reviewed other reasons districts appear before the SBRC (special-education deficit requests, new-building staffing requests, disaster or abatement costs) and said staff will present exhibits and a spending plan to the SBRC in December.

During the meeting the board approved an action to accept EL excess-cost modified supplemental aid in the amount of $211,328.95; staff said other automatic items (special-ed deficit, ELL/excess-costs) are handled at the SBRC in December when appropriate.

Finance staff recommended monitoring expenditures, continuing outreach for stakeholder feedback on the instructional calendar and holding the required public hearing if a flexibility transfer is pursued. The board approved the exhibits for the SBRC fiscal update.