Northport's Total Reserves in Line with Other Districts

At , Dr. Nina Dorata of the UTNEN had asked why McDermott had compared the $12.7 million being held in restricted reserves at the end of the 2010 school year against local districts rather than the entire amount of $22 million reflecting the additional $9.3 million in the fund balance.

Restricted reserves can only be used for specific purposes such as capital improvements and employee retirement contributions. The assigned fund balance includes money to cover purchase order encumbrances and $3.5 million used to lower the tax levy. The unassigned fund balance is known as the “rainy day” fund and is used for contingency purposes.

At the start of the March 26 meeting BOE meeting, McDermott responded to Dorata’s query with a new chart using data from the New York State Report Card which compared Northport’s total reserve numbers against other districts. 
A PDF of the prsentation is attached to this article.

Northport’s reserves plus fund balance were 14.99 percent of the $147 million 2010-2011 budget, which placed it roughly in the middle of the list. The South Huntington and Commack school districts, which had comparable budgets of $138 million and $160 million respectively, came in at 21.95 percent and 12.53 percent. Elwood came in lowest at 8.13 percent.

McDermott also took issue with an editorial in a local paper which said that, unlike previous years, revenue information has not been provided to the public.  McDermott denied that, saying the information was posted last week under the budget link on the district’s home page. A PDF of the revenue information is attached to this article.

She also took exception to references in the paper about “McDermott’s cut list,” noting that the cuts to programs and staff were in response to the Board’s direction to present a budget with a zero percent tax levy increase.

In her presentation, McDermott again stressed her philosophy of long range planning, noting that unknown costs are budgeted with a greater margin, and unspent funds are used to lower the tax levy and fund restricted reserves.

Armand D’Accordo, of the UTNEN wanted to know why the district was presenting numbers from the 2009-2010 school year rather than more current data. McDermott said she didn’t think it was available but D’Accordo disagreed.