By BRENT MARTIN
St. Joseph Post
St. Joseph School District cash reserves have fallen below 20% as local and state revenues have sagged.
Assistant Superintendent of Business and Operations, Robert Hedgecorth, reported to the Board of Education Monday night that the reserve dipped to 10% at the end of the fiscal year, June 30th. Though that is below the 20% threshold approved by the Board of Education, it remains a healthy budget balance, according to Hedgecorth.
“What that really does, if you think about it, it gives us about 2 ½ to 3 months reserves. If we received absolutely no revenue at all, we’d be able to handle all of our expenses,” Hedgecorth says during an appearance on KFEQmmunity.
Hedgecorth adds that cash reserve would have looked much different if federal funding had come in before the budget year closed out.
“If those amounts would have landed before that June 30th deadline, we would have seen a different reserve ratio than that 10.02% that was talked about (Monday) night,” according to Hedgecorth. “It would have been a lot closer to 16%.”
Even at 16%, though, the cash reserve falls short of the district goal set by the St. Joseph Board of Education.
“We know we’re below our 20% board policy,” Hedgecorth acknowledges. “We need to take a look at future years. And so, if we have declining revenues, we also need to have declining expenses. We need to take a good look at some efficiencies in our district and see where we can become more efficient to ensure that our expenses are trending with our revenues.”
Hedgecorth says state funding has fallen short, because the state budget hasn’t met the revenue expectations of the legislature. Fiscal Year 2025 federal funding should arrive in August or September.
You can follow Brent on X @GBrentKFEQ