Reserves: The Big Picture

Currently, the North Shore School District has a budget of just more than $113,000,000. 

On June 30, 2020, the District's Reserves and Fund Balance totaled nearly $26,000,000.  (Source: http://www.northshoreschools.org/boe/Budget/2020/0736_001.pdf)

While $26 million is a lot of money, it is less than 3 months operating cash for a school district like ours.

According to our annual audit, the district's net position is a deficit of $36,799,351 as of 6/30/20 -- more than $13 million worse than the previous year.  (Source: http://www.northshoreschools.org/boe/Budget/2020/North%20Shore%20CSD%20-%20Financial%2020.pdf)

North Shore consistently uses fund balance to reduce the tax levy as illustrated in our budget materials. The NYS Comptroller's office posts balance sheets for school districts and local government where you can see the result: a decline in fund balance in 2020, 2019, and 2018. (Source: https://wwe2.osc.state.ny.us/transparency/LocalGov/LocalGovSearchBalance.cfm)

How the district has been actively using reserves can be seen here as well as here where districts report to the state their reserves and plan for use. (Sources: http://www.p12.nysed.gov/mgtserv/propertytax/#Data  &  http://www.northshoreschools.org/boe/Budget/2020/0736_001.pdf)

Our reserves have to be relative to an organization with nearly 800 employees, over 2500 students to educate, half a million square feet in our seven buildings and 65 acres to maintain -- and relative to very significant long term obligations the expense of which are largely determined by the state.

Thus, state comptroller requires that we have a significant level of reserves and fund balance to avoid a fiscal stress designation. (See http://wwe1.osc.state.ny.us/localgov/fiscalmonitoring/satfiles/2019/School/Financial/NorthShore_19.pdf)

Our reserves are legal, regulated, and actively used to support our schools. Generations of families have built strong schools providing a respected, well-rounded education for our children. 

Alternatively, $1 million cut from our school's budget saves each household $9.35 a month. That's not a typo -- see the math here: Budget Cut Calculator