Despite successfully trimming $1.4 million from their current budget, Tooele County School District officials will be $700,000 short of a financial goal.
Tooele County School Board members received the bad news in their meeting Tuesday as the district’s business manager, Lark Reynolds, presented a revised final budget for the 2013-2014 year.
“Due to new growth in our total assessed value, I expected that we would have more revenue,” he said. “But I made an error and miscalculated our property tax revenue by $2 million.”
With other adjustments for revenue and expenses, Reynolds now estimates that the district will need to pull $1.7 million from its combined 2013 fund balance of $22.1 million, to balance the books at the end of this fiscal year in June.
The district’s previously approved budget showed only a $1 million reduction in the fund balance.
Reynolds explained that estimates for revenue from fees in lieu of taxes for vehicles, and the amount of property tax the district receives from redevelopment agency projects, were computed incorrectly.
Tax collections in general were also lower than expected, he said.
“I think we have been prudent by not budgeting to spend our fund balance,” said Scott Bryan, school board member. “That way we have the fund balance when we really need it.”
In June 2013, while the district was between superintendents, the school board struggled to adopt a balanced budget.
Board members were presented with a budget that had a $2.4 million gap between revenue and expenses.
They voted six times before they reached a compromise and finally approved a budget that used $1 million in fund balance and directed the new superintendent to trim $1.4 million in expenses.
Scott Rogers, Tooele County School District superintendent, went to work on the budget reduction mandate when he arrived in Tooele County on July 1.
Three days after he started work in the district, Rogers sent a memo to all district staff that identified $666,828 in budget reductions — almost half of the goal.
By the end of last August, Rogers successfully reached the goal with a list of $1.4 million in budget reductions or revenue enhancements.
Rogers, with the help of district staff, reduced money for school supplies, canceled travel expenses to conferences for principals, left clerical positions at the district office unfilled, capital projects were cut back, and student activity accounts were required to be balanced.
Also, centralized purchasing realized savings in custodial supplies, a decision on the replacement of the district’s second assistant superintendent was postponed, food costs were lowered and the cost of lunches went up a nickel, and a contract for a K-8 online program was canceled.
“This kind of error makes it look like all of our budget reduction efforts were wiped out,” Rogers said. “But if we had not done all that, we would be in a far worse position right now.”
The district will take steps to make certain that future budget requests are more accurate, he said.
“We will make sure that our revenue projections are passed through several sets of knowledgeable eyes that can check them for accuracy,” Rogers added.