Jason Boynton of Smith Schafer presented the audit report for the district at the Kingsland School Board meeting on November 18.
“Overall we have a clean opinion on the audit and there is nothing of concern to bring to the board’s attention,” Boynton said. “At the end of the fiscal year we averaged 542 students, which is down four. If you look back to 2016 there were 601 students so that is a drop of 59 students in eight years, which is about a 10% drop. We’ve been going done about a percent each year.”
Boynton told the board this is not not uncommon with many of the districts they assist. “The challenge for the board as we continue to monitor the changing demographics is to match the revenue with our expenditures,” he explained.
When it comes to revenues, state aid is the district’s main source including new state funding in food services and aids for student support personnel, library and cooperative education aid, as well as additional compulsory aid for basic skills and special education.
The next big revenue source is in property taxes, which was about $2.2 million in revenue.
The third category is federal aid. “The money that was provided during the COVID pandemic will be coming to an end, but we got additional money for $786,000 in revenue through federal,” Boynton said. “When broken down, state aid is about 60% of the total dollars, 20% comes from property taxes and the remaining 20% is broken up between federal and other revenues.”
According to Boynton, the levy is made up of three components, the general levy which is for operations, community service and debt levy. About $1.2 million that goes to the general levy, $65,000 goes to community service and $1.5 million in debt service, leaving the total levy at about $2.8 million.
While the revenue is shown at $2.2 million, the state pays a portion of the debt services though the Ag credit program which will make up the difference.
Expenditures for the 2024 fiscal year included an increase in pay and benefits, payments to other districts, postsecondary enrollment options (PSEO) tuition, additional supplies.
“The general fund brought in about $8.3 million in total. Our expenditures were about $8.16 million and your fund balance we had a surplus in the general fund of about $258,000 for the year,” Boynton said.
Boynton noted an increase in expenditures in food service, but Superintendent Scott Klavetter explained, “You are not allowed to have more than a certain amount or percentage in reserves or the state tells you you have to spend it, so with that we knew we had some money that needed to be spent down. We replaced the serving lines and replaced a food warmer, so that was by design.”
Community service had a revenue of $490,000, expenses $446,000 which gave a surplus of $44,000.
The board approved the audit report as presented.
Financial Report
The board heard from Kingsland business manager, Julie Schreiber as she gave her monthly report.
October being the fourth month of fiscal year should be at 33% revenue and the district is sitting at 33.6%.
Schreiber noted different funds such as food service and community education are sitting below 33%, except for the custodial amount, which is a one time payment causing it to be higher at the moment.
“Expenditures are at 21.7%, which is exactly where we want to be,” Schreiber said. “As you look at the expenditures, we are lower for the food service and the debt service, which is exactly where we want to be because those bills do lag throughout the year. We are sitting at 31.7% for a total of revenue and 20% for expenditures, so we are looking great.”
FFA Student Presentation
Cody Howard represented the Spring Valley-Wykoff Future Farmers of America (FFA) as he shared how the group has been helping in the local communities.
They held their annual corn drive which, according to Howard, helped to benefit to benefit Camp Courage. Farmer treat bags were made to give out to local farmers and businesses during the harvest season.
The group is bringing their holiday spirit to the area as they are sponsoring 10 children in Fillmore County this Christmas. The group also made 10 tie blankets for a local women’s shelter and various festive decorations for local nursing homes.
The group also recently competed in the RWP Invitational where the Dairy Foods team placed second, the Ag Mechanics team placed 13th and the Small Animals team one placed sixth while team two placed seventh.
In other recent competitions the Forestry team placed first, the Soils team placed third and the Meats team place first. All three teams will be advancing to state competition.
Other Business
- The board thanked Mundfrom Builders for the use of their forklift to install the new Kingsland Knights sign and the Kingsland Class of 2024 who donated the $2,132.78 for the purchase of the sign.
- The board reviewed the proposed senior class trip to Wisconsin Dells on May 19 through 21. The proposal was approved.
- The construction manager services agreement with ICS for the facility maintenance project was approved.
- The mandatory wage increase from $10.24 to $11.13 for student workers was approved.
- A resolution authorizing the issuance and sale of the districts general obligation appreciation school building bonds was approved.
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