BY DAVE BENJAMIN
Staff Writer
A comprehensive financial report for the period ending June 30 has been presented to the Freehold Regional High School District Board of Education.
“The purpose of this report is for someone who really doesn’t know Freehold Regional to be able to pick this up, read it, look at the different sections and make some objective opinion of how this district is run, what’s involved in it and what the financial health of the district is,” said Joan Nesenkar Saylor, assistant superintendent for business administration, reporting at the Nov. 8 board meeting. “Also listed in the second section, the Management Discussion and Analysis, [is] our state and local funding.”
Saylor said there is very little federal aid for grants that help the district.
“We are relying more and more on the local tax levy because state aid has been frozen for a number of years,” she said. “Also in that section are a number of highlights of budgetary transfers and in this state we are not allowed to have any accounts on the close of June 30 that are overextended.”
The financial section of the report contains an analysis of the fund balances including revenues, expenditures and changes for the fiscal year ending June 30.
“This is probably the most difficult section to follow in order to determine the answer to the question that most people want answered,” said Saylor. “What is the surplus?”
Looking at the 2005-06 school year budget which is now being prepared, Saylor said there will be $4.5 million in surplus funds available to use in the budget. The 2004-05 budget used $4 million from the district’s surplus account.
Additionally, there is a 3 percent surplus which the district is allowed to keep, in addition to extraordinary aid money which is also allowed to be kept. Those two figures together give the district a balance of $4.2 million, which can be kept for emergencies as cash flow.
Saylor noted that the report also contains the tax rates for the FRHSD’s eight sending municipalities, including the elementary school district tax rates and the municipal tax rates.
Examining the statement, the total revenues for the 2003-04 school year were $141.6 million which included local sources (i.e., property taxes), $89.3 million, state sources, $50 million, and federal sources, $2.3 million.
Total expenditures of $142.7 million included regular instruction, $40.9 million, special education, $2.7 million, other instruction, $4.4 million, and support services and undistributed costs including plant operations, $11 million, pupil transportation, $11 million, employee benefits, $23.4 million, and other expenditures, capital outlay, $8.2 million, debt service, $8.7 million, and special schools, $144,805.
These figures do not include expenditures for support services instruction, related services, school administration services and for general and business administration service costs.
The district’s fund balance on June 30 was $11.48 million.
Saylor said the district is in compliance with all applicable statutes, codes and regulations.
The report was prepared by the FRHSD staff and reviewed by Walter J. Brasch, certified public accountant and public school accountant, and is on file in the office of the business administrator and can be viewed during regular business hours. It will be also be posted on the district’s Internet Web site at www.FRHSD.com.