Cliff Buchan
News Editor

A boundary change could be in the wind for elementary students in ISD 831 schools.

The school board, meeting in regular session on Dec. 7, gave the administration the green light to prepare a plan for elementary boundary changes and report back to the board early next year.

If the school board agrees with the administrative plan, a series of public meetings would follow to collect input from parents. Any boundary changes approved by the board would become effective with the start of school in September of 2007.

The study and the plan for the review was recommended by Superintendent Lynn Steenblock last week.

The plan

Steenblock came forward with the plan last week as part of the districtís efforts to ìbest utilize school facilities and staff.î In order to do so, enrollments are periodically reviewed and boundary adjustments are recommended to the school board.

The last boundary change took place in the fall of 2003.

After a review of elementary building enrollment and capacity, Steenblock said space is available in Lino Lakes and Columbus schools. Any shift in students would better utilize existing space in other schools and address growing needs for special education facilities, Steenblock said.

The administrative study would give the board the facts they need before taking a plan to the public for comment.

ìYou need sound reasons to do it,î Steenblock said. ìWe donít just change boundaries to do it.î

Steenblock recommended a study plan that would center around an administrative review and later public meetings to gather input.

The board agreed and voted 7-0 to move forward with the recommended plan.

It differs from past boundary change studies when citizen committees have been formed to study, recommend and report to the public.

Under the current option approved last week, the study would be completed by top district administators, elementary and secondary principals and the supervisor of the transportation.

Under the proposed schedule, the administrative report would be brought to the school board for review by late winter or early spring. If the board agrees with the plan, a series of public meetings would take place in areas targeted for boundary changes.

A final decision would be needed by May to set the plan in motion for the start of school next fall.

Audit report

The school board last week also received the formal presentation of the 2005-2006 financial audit and voted to accept the report from the firm of MMKR Certified Public Accountants (Malloy, Montague, Karnowski, Radosevich & Co. P.A.).

After a financial records review by auditors that spanned nearly 400 hours, the district was given a clean report, according to Ken Malloy, a partner in the firm.

ìThe end result is a clean audit,î Malloy said.

With the exception of two areas within the audit of the extracurricular student activity accounts, Malloy said all was in compliance.

In the student account audit, Malloy said certain groups and activities accounted for by the district as student activities do not meet the accepted definition of extracurricular activities. The auditor said a number of activities accounted by the district are inactive and need to be closed.

Regarding the districtís general fund, Malloy issued praise for the continued to efforts to build a positive fund balance position.

On June 30, the last day of the fiscal year, the district reported a general fund cash balance of $7.8 million while the total fund balance increased by $1.2 million.

The unreserved (undesignated) fund balance went from $2.46 million on June 30, 2005 to $2.84 million on June 30, 2006. The unreserved fund balance as a percentage of expenditures went from 4.1 percent to 4.7 percent in the one-year period, Malloy said.

ìThere is no magic number there,î Malloy said of the unreserved fund balance total. The fund balance would provide a cushion to cover about two weeks of district spending in the event of an emergency, Malloy said.

While the 4.7 percent figure was a good cushion, he said an undesignated fund balance of 5-10 percent was ìnot excessiveî and the goal of many school districts.

Sound fiscal management and revenue growth were cited as a key components in the districtís ability to expand its fund balance.

For 2006, revenues of $61,811,908 exceeded budget by $628,962 or 1 percent and were $1,235,632 or 2 percent more that the prior year. The increase includes the additional revenue from the formula allowance and improved investment earnings from both interest rates and available funds to invest.

In 2006, the audit said, expenditures of $60,593,649 were held to $1,523,850 or 2.5 percent under budget and were $421,841 or 0.7 percent more than the prior year.

Salary and benefit charges, which account for some 80 percent of the general fund expenditures, experienced the largest budget variance coming in $1.4 million under anticipated levels.

For other funds, the food service special revenue fund reported a year-end fund balance of $1,789,814 while the community service special revenue fund closed out the fiscal year with a $331,403 fund balance.

Top of Page