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Finance chief: Levy County schools report clean audit but face roughly $450,000 state revenue shortfall after proration and scholarships
Summary
District finance staff reported no financial audit findings for the prior fiscal year but warned school funding will be reduced after state proration and increases in scholarship programs, leaving an estimated $450,000 revenue shortfall that will require budget amendments.
Levy County School District officials reported a clean financial audit for the last fiscal year but said state-level proration and growth in scholarship programs are expected to reduce the district’s state revenue by roughly $450,000.
Miss Lake, the district’s finance/administrative staff member, told the school board there were “no deficiencies over internal controls identified. There were no material misstatements. Federal awards were in compliance.” She said the district must now prepare a budget amendment after a late third calculation from the state showing a combination of proration and increased scholarship counts.
Lake explained the state’s funding calculations—unweighted and weighted full-time-equivalent (FTE) counts, categorical funding changes and a proration that reduced anticipated revenue—and said those changes, combined with a near-$641,000 increase in scholarship estimates used by the state as a placeholder, produced a net decline of about $451,000 to $454,000 in state revenue for the current year. She said the district will offset the revenue reduction by reducing budgeted revenues and shifting expenditures where possible.
The presentation walked the board through the state calculations used to build district budgets, noting that some categorical streams were moved into the base student allocation and that required local effort (property-tax-derived local contribution) does not change during the year. Lake said that because the district often fronts money for federal programs, insurance claims and hurricane expenses, fund-balance management is critical;
“We are serving students with less than what we had at the start of the year,” Lake said, explaining why the district must reduce reported revenue and identify expenditure offsets to avoid eroding reserves.
Board members asked for clarification about the timing of survey counts, and Lake outlined the difference between the second calculation used to build the budget and the third calculation that “trues up” funding based on October and February student counts. She cautioned further adjustments could come with the upcoming survey. The board did not take a vote on the budget amendment at the meeting; Lake said she would return with specific amendment language once numbers are finalized.
Why it matters: The change reduces the district’s projected financial-condition ratio and requires the finance office to adjust revenue and expenditures to preserve fund balance used to cover programs the district fronts.
What’s next: Finance staff will prepare a formal budget amendment after the district finalizes the third-calculation numbers; board review and approval will follow.
