As the final quarter of the fiscal year approaches, Londonderry School District Business Administrator Amity Small said the General Fund operating budget “is in good shape,” during a recent Board meeting.
“General Fund revenues are running well above expectation with a projected excess of $572,621. Miscellaneous State Aid, including Medicaid and Special Ed reimbursements, along with additional bank interest earnings account for the majority of this surplus,” Small said. “We have adjusted all known State revenues to reflect adjustments as communicated to us by State officials at the time the tax rate was set.”
She explained that expenditures are “running below the approved budget, with a conservative estimate of $700,000 – $950,000.”
“Savings from staff turnover with related savings in benefit accounts are the major factors for this positive budget to actual position, along with money allotted for health insurance for the Support Staff CBA that was not utilized. However, we are running significantly over in our Out of District Placement tuition line and the retirement line,” Small said.
Small expanded that they are conservatively projecting “an increase to the General Fund balance on June 30, 2025, in the range of $900,000 – $1,000,000.”
“We have already budgeted to use the first $145,000 of year-end fund balance to finance the Equipment Capital Reserve Funds [$95,000] and the Machinery and Vehicles Capital Reserve [$50,000], approved by voters at the March election,” Small wrote in a memo. “This leaves a balance of approximately $755,000 of projected fund balance for FY25.”
Small explained during the meeting that they are expecting to receive more revenue than originally projected.
“Overall, revenues should come above projections in the range of $572,000 with Interest Earnings and Medicaid and Special Ed Aid accounting for most of the variance,” Small said. “We are projecting all other revenue sources to come close to the estimates used for the December 2024 tax rate.”
It was noted by Small during the meeting that remaining COVID-19 funds have been expended.
“The School District received over $3.6 million in COVID relief grants. The last remaining grant was the ESSER III grant, which was fully utilized in September 2024,” Small said. “All grants relative to COVID relief have been expended and a detailed listing of these expenditures is available on the School District website.”
One of the line items expected to come in over budget is out-of-district tuition costs.
“Pupil Services out-of-district tuition costs will come over budget by $761,149, with unplanned placements driven by IEPs accounting for this variance. Purchased services for special education will overrun its budget by $265,000,” Small wrote. “This line covers the costs associated with hiring contracted services to help supplement open SPED assistant positions. Although this line shows a significant over-run, we have a significant savings in the salary line of about $948,000 to offset this over-run. Contracted nurses are also showing an over-run of about $37,600. This line is always difficult to predict as student needs change frequently. Contracted services for Psych testing and services, also driven by IEPs, is overrun by about $148,000.”