0423 MPS-v3 - Flipbook - Page 3
Serving Our Students
A Message from the Chief Financial Officer
ello. Thank you for taking the
time to read our ComMentor
newsletter to be informed about
the current financial state of Mentor
Public Schools. Each month, I publicly
report current fiscal information to the
Mentor Board of Education and that information is also shared on our website
to be viewed by our community at any
time. As Chief Financial Officer, it is important to me to give full transparency
so our taxpayers know the needs our district has in order to be able to continue
to provide the high quality education the
children of our community need, and the
challenges we face, while we work to operate in a fiscally prudent manner.
Recently, Mentor Schools earned recognition from Ohio Auditor Keith Faber’s
office for two different areas of business
and both are acknowledgement of our
high-level of transparency at the very top
levels awarded. First, we received the Auditor’s Award with Distinction, in which
we were told our “exemplary reporting
serves as the standard for clean, accountable government, representing the highest level of service to Ohioans.” Our No. 1
goal in Mentor Schools is to provide a
high-quality education in a safe learning
H
environment, and to do so, in a fiscally
responsible manner for our community.
It is an honor to be recognized for our important work of being good stewards of
our tax-payer dollars. Our Board of Education, Superintendent and I are committed to transparent, honest and accurate
fiscal management of the community’s
money being used to provide educational
opportunities for the children we serve
each day. Our clean audit report and this
award are evidence of our continued work
toward maximizing district resources.
The second award surrounds public records requests and sunshine laws, where we
earned a four-star StaRS rating, which is the
“highest achievement in open and transparent government”. To receive this honor,
the district must go above and beyond
what is required by law by implementing
additional best practices. I am pleased with
the team effort among the treasurer’s office
staff and district employees to maintain
the high-level attention-to-detail and consistency necessary to achieve both of these
awards from the Ohio Auditor’s Office.
In Mentor, our schools are funded primarily through local property taxes and
we are fortunate to have a strong business community along with our residents
contributing to the district. Still, our
revenue stays relatively flat while costs
continue to rise. As a result of inflation
and flat revenues, we are projected to
deficit spend again in this current fiscal
year, with our revenue being approximately $107 million and our expenses
being approximately $125 million (with
$14 million being a one-time transfer to
support our 5-year capital improvement
plan, which will be explained further in
the next paragraph). Please note, these
are the current projection figures and the
numbers may change slightly by the fiscal
year end. During the May Board of Education meeting, I will give an official update regarding the Five-Year-Forecast, as
it’s known in public school accounting,
which we also file with the State of Ohio.
Stay Connected with Mentor Schools:
The vast majority (74%) of our
spending goes to the salaries and benefits of our employees. We work very hard
to keep our staff member numbers proportionate to our actual needs based on
student enrollment — so that we are essentially not overstaffed or understaffed.
Our administrative team conducts
weekly staffing meetings to ensure this
element of fiscal responsibility is always
at the forefront of decision-making.
Our other largest expenditures are
special education and facilities. It’s important to note, in this year’s expenses
(as mentioned above) there is an outgoing $14 million transfer to support our
Permanent Improvement (PI) needs
from the general fund because we are
operating on a now underfunded PI levy
that passed in 1988. That levy, from 1988,
generates about $1 million a year, which is
nowhere near the amount needed to adequately care for our aging school buildings and facilities. Our properties are wellmaintained and kept safe using a five-year
capital plan to guide us, but I am recommending that using general fund monies
for PI needs is not the best way to continue
to operate moving forward. We are discussing the possibility of asking the community
for a new PI levy so we may continue to
do necessary work on our schools, such as
roofing, paving and windows as examples,
with those funds. A significant amount of
PI funds would also be used for school
safety improvements. Also, we will need
to seek voters’ approval again on the emergency operating levy that first passed in
2003 and has been renewed twice by our
community (in 2008 and 2013). This levy
generates approximately $15 million for
the district annually. This would be a renewal levy that would not increase taxes.
The Board, Superintendent and I are
committed to continue to find ways to
control costs and tighten the budget. At
the end of this school year, 57 employees
will retire as part of a retirement incentive
plan which is projected to save the district
more than $5 million over the course of
the five year fiscal forecast. At the same
time, we plan to reduce several staff positions in line with our decreasing student
enrollment, as we have been doing each
year. As we are currently working to set
next year’s budgets, I have asked budget
owners to find ways to reduce their spending again this year after most cut their budgets heading into this year as well. Again, I
would encourage you to take a look at our
website to learn more about the finances
of Mentor Schools. Thank you for your
continued support and please feel free to
reach out to me with any questions.
mentorschools.net
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