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District financial update: third FTE calculation reduces funding; district maintains required fund balance
Summary
Chief financial staff reported a net decline in district FTE that reduced state funding and required the use of a previously set-aside "over projection" project balance; district fund balance (FCR) remains above board policy minimum at about 5.27%.
Santa Rosa County School District financial staff presented the March third-count funding update and related budget effects to the school board on March 11.
The district reported an overall decrease from the second count to the third count of about 533 unweighted FTE after accounting for charter and scholarship program shifts; the district portion of FTE declined by about 822. Staff said the Family Empowerment scholarship increase accounted for much of the change and that the district must return state funding tied to those adjustments. The presentation noted the district will send back an estimated $5,788,215 in FEFP (state funding) and an estimated $967,541 associated with class-size funding adjustments.
To manage prior-year projection risk, the district had established a project reserve labeled the “FTE over projection project.” The presentation showed an initial set-aside of $6,714,942 with an additional $360,767 transferred from the operating fund when that initial amount proved insufficient, yielding $7,075,709 available to absorb adjustments. After the third-count reductions and related charter-school and CTE adjustments, the over-projection project balance was reduced to zero in the district accounting described at the meeting.
Chief financial staff reported the district’s financial condition ratio (FCR) at approximately 5.27% as of the discussion, noting board policy requires maintaining an FCR near this level. Staff described the third count as lower than the prior final calculation year-to-year and emphasized the district’s efforts to set aside conservative funding to protect salaries and operations.
Separately, Marsh McLennan representatives briefed the board on the district’s self-funded medical plan: the plan’s fund balance was reported at about $21.9 million; first-month claims ran under budget overall; pharmacy and specialty drug spend and utilization were discussed and ongoing analytics work (PATH program and Vitality) was described as forthcoming in subsequent board materials.
