Get Full Government Meeting Transcripts, Videos, & Alerts Forever!
Get email alerts on the District Finance topic
No spam. Unsubscribe anytime.
Business manager says cyber-charter tuition drove $5M swing; unassigned fund balance falls to roughly 3.5%
Summary
Keystone Central's business manager told the board that a sharp increase in cyber-charter tuition was the primary driver of a drop in the district's unassigned fund balance from about $19 million to $14 million, shrinking the unassigned percentage from roughly 8.7% to about 3.5% for 2024'25.
Joni (Jody) McIntyre, the Keystone Central School District's business manager, presented the district's 2024'25 year-end financial report at the board's Dec. 4 session.
McIntyre said expenses exceeded the 2024'25 budget by roughly $4.4 million while revenues ran about $1.6 million higher, leaving a budget-to-actual gap of about $2.7 million. She identified an unexpected rise in cyber-charter tuition costs as the largest single driver: roughly $3.6 million of the $4.4 million overage was attributable to higher-than-anticipated cyber-charter tuition and related mandatory tuition payments.
She summarized the immediate effects: the district's general fund balance moved from around $19 million to $14 million year over year, and the unassigned fund-balance percentage declined from about 8.7% to 3.5%. McIntyre noted that, if the unbudgeted cyber-charter expense were removed hypothetically, the unassigned percentage would be closer to roughly 7.5%.
McIntyre also reviewed revenue drivers: local earned income and delinquent real-estate collections outperformed budget assumptions, state subsidies (including an unbudgeted adequacy subsidy) added about $490,000, and Title funding came in higher than anticipated. On the expenditure side, mandatory transportation and special-education costs, increased electric rates and other line items contributed to overages.
She flagged timing issues: several cyber-charter payments had not yet been released pending revised PDE forms (PDE-63), which affects cash flow and final accounting. McIntyre also noted capital transfers and approved capital projects that drew upon the fund balance, including HVAC projects and athletic facility work.
Board members pressed for more granularity. One member requested comparable columns for 2023 and 2024 on the presentation so new members could track multi-year trends; McIntyre agreed to add prior-year columns. The administration previewed the Act 1 resolution (the district's intent not to exceed the Act 1 index, about 3.5%) that will come before the board.
Next steps: administration will present a preview budget in January and further detail during finance committee meetings; the auditors will present in January and the district will continue 0-based budgeting work for 2026'27.
