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School finance update: $5.6M projected carryover, health-insurance reserves still short of vendor recommendation
Summary
Finance staff projected a $5.6 million general fund carryover, noted $2 million emergency contingency and payroll-lapse savings; health-insurance reserves remain below the insurer's recommended minimum, and the board was briefed on a planned $300,000 GoTech grant appropriation and a $200,000 donation for Burton Center programs.
Finance staff told the board on Sept. 4 that preliminary 2024'' 25 year-end results project about $5.6 million in carryover after a $2 million emergency contingency set-aside and encumbrances. "Our general fund carryover will be 5,600,000," Susan Peterson said, while cautioning that auditors will not review records until November and that late invoices could change the number.
Peterson said the district faces a revenue shortfall driven largely by lower average daily membership (ADM) than budgeted and that personnel savings (which she estimated at roughly $3.3 million) helped offset some pressure. "We have revenue listed first and then the expenditure savings and then the total carryover amount," she said, explaining accounting items such as premium activity on county bonds that affected transfers.
On the insurance front, Peterson said 2025 closed with a roughly $1.6 million deficit before transfers but that transfers and reallocated internal savings increased the health-insurance reserve. "At the end of 2025 we will have... $2,188,281 in health insurance reserves," she said, and reported running reserves of about $4.6 million after transfers. The district's insurance vendor recommended a minimum reserve of $5.2 million, and Peterson estimated a rough year-end projection near $2.7 million; she urged continued monitoring of claims trends.
Board members discussed the district's annual $4.1 million debt-service payment to the county and the county's possible request to use part of the surplus to shore up its Comprehensive Services Act (CSA) fund. "They're thinking up to that amount" of $850,000 was cited as a possible county ask, Peterson said, adding that the county and the district would each contribute equal amounts if the transfer occurs.
Peterson also briefed the board on recommended appropriations and grants: she said the district received a $200,000 check from Alrose Steel Foundation earmarked for Burton Center welding and motorsports equipment and recommended placing the appropriation on the next consent agenda, and she described a $300,000 Go Virginia Region 2 GoTech grant that would fund career labs at two middle schools with a $150,000 match covered by existing teacher time and federal Perkins funding.
The board asked staff to return with consent-agenda language and additional backup (appraisals, grant MOUs and legal review) where appropriate; no formal vote was taken at the work session.
