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Finance director warns of volatile high‑cost disability grant; announces departure after eight years
Summary
Finance director Kim Dowd told the board a state high‑cost disability grant has produced large, unpredictable reconciliations and said the district faces a $481,000 reconciliation payment next month; she also announced she will leave the district at the end of the school year.
The Silver Falls School District finance director told the board the state's high‑cost disability grant produces volatile year‑to‑year payments and that the district faces a substantial reconciliation payment next month.
Kim Dowd said the Oregon Department of Education's high‑cost disability program — a statewide $55 million pool that reimburses districts for costs above a statutory threshold per student — is driven by district estimates and subsequent reconciliations. "We will be paying back $481,000 from last year's payment next month," Dowd said, explaining that districts are paid in May based on estimates and then reconciled the following year when actuals are reported.
Dowd showed the board multiple years of statewide estimates and actuals and said large swings — including a 43 percent year‑over‑year increase in actuals in the 2023–24 cycle — make budgeting unpredictable. She warned the district could receive little or no net revenue in a year when a prior payment is reclaimed during reconciliation.
"We have projected that this will likely reduce our high‑cost disability revenue significantly," she said, describing how the district adjusted its projection and advocacy efforts to seek more accountability in statewide estimating. She also said the Legislature is considering expanding the high‑cost pool but warned that increasing the pot without better estimate controls would not solve the timing and redistribution issues.
In the same report, Dowd announced she will leave district service at the end of the school year. "For the past 8 years I've been absolutely blessed to serve the staff and the community and the school board," she said. "At the end of this school year... I'll be starting a new venture." Board members offered public thanks and multiple colleagues praised her leadership during the district's recent financial challenges.
Dowd said, despite the reconciliation risk, the district currently projects a general‑fund ending balance above $2 million, in part because other revenue and expenditure variances came in favorably. She urged continued conservative assumptions around unpredictable grant revenue and said staff are pursuing stability in budgeting practices.
