Spartan Area School District board approves final 2024-25 budget revisions, keeps $1.5 million in revenue stabilization; federal WIN funds released

Spartan Area School District — The Board of Education unanimously approved final revisions to the district’s 2024-25 budget and designated $1.5 million as a revenue stabilization balance after receiving an audit with no findings, board members said at a regular meeting. The board also heard that the federal government released previously withheld funds for the district’s WIN program and that trustees will discuss use of Fund 80 at an August meeting.

The district’s independent audit found no journal entries or findings, and the business office reported the district closed the year with an increase in fund balance of about $150,000 compared with earlier projections of a $1.5 million shortfall. “We had a wonderful audit. We had no findings, no journal entries, so everything was as it should be,” said Miss Hauser, a district staff member who presented the audit and budget slides.

The board approved the budget revisions by roll call vote, 5–0 with two members absent. Trustees also approved a motion to move $1,500,000 from Fund 10 into a revenue stabilization balance. The board discussed an alternative of moving that amount into Fund 46 to capture additional state aid under the state aid formula; staff estimated that depositing the $150,000 excess into Fund 46 would yield roughly 43 percent reimbursement next year — about $60,000 in additional state aid, which the business office said would reduce the local tax levy by “a couple pennies.”

Board members and staff said the district will not need to use its revenue stabilization reserve this year and that the fund-level changes were minor across most funds. Presentations noted small expense adjustments across funds 10 and 27 (about $20,000 in combined expense increases) and minimal changes in funds 46, 49 and 50. Miss Hauser told the board that the district did not use revenue stabilization to close the year.

The board also discussed federal Title funding released to the district. The business office said the U.S. Department of Education released approximately $400,000 that had been withheld: roughly $100,000 designated for the WIN program and about $300,000 for Title II, III and IV programs. Miss Mansky, a district staff member who addressed Fund 80 questions, told the board that the district currently receives about $610,000 a year from Fund 80 and that, per guidance from the Department of Public Instruction (DPI), a Fund 80 levy is compliant with DPI rules regardless of the local purposes for which the levy was collected. Mansky recommended the board decide locally whether to reassign any Fund 80 fund balance amounts and said the topic would be an agenda item in August to allow community input at the annual meeting.

Board members asked clarifying questions about the $20,000 of expense changes and the implications of placing the $150,000 excess in Fund 46 versus retaining it in fund balance. Staff said the $20,000 reflected small closing entries from final bookkeeping.

The board approved the budget revisions and the revenue stabilization designation by roll call votes recorded as 5–0 (two absent). The business office confirmed that no further immediate action was required on the WIN funds now that the federal money has been released, but the board will take up the Fund 80 fund-balance question at the August meeting and seek community input as appropriate.

Smaller items at the meeting included recognition of donations from Culver’s and Mathematica to the district’s backpack and lunch programs.