Funding formula likely to affect WCS budget
Under current projections, Wapakoneta City Schools will
be deficit spending by 2023, and that’s because various line items were affected by the
state’s new fair school funding formula, a formula that hasn’t even been approved yet.
“The Ohio Department of Education hasn’t gotten their financial software in place in
order to accommodate all the different factors of the formula,” Angela Sparks, treasurer/cfo for Wapakoneta City Schools, said. “That was supposed to
happen in October… but it currently is still not available so they’re saying by December.”
One of the biggest impacts for WCS is that students will be directly funded from districts.
“That will affect the unrestricted state grantsin-aid line item,” Sparks said.
That means the district will no longer receive funding for students living in the district who
opt to attend school elsewhere. This means the district went from $2.365 million in all other revenue to a projected $810,000 revenue in next fiscal year.
“That’s mainly because of that open enrollment in money that we received from students
enrolling into our district from other districts that reside elsewhere,” she said.
Another big change was in Student Success and Wellness, which had been reported in a special revenue fund.
But with the new formula, that money will be reported in fair school funding in the general fund.
“Restricted state grants-in-aid is going from $386,000 up to $1.1 [million],” she said.
On a good note, purchased services will increase because she’ll no longer have to report
expenses for money deducted from school foundation payments for students who go
outside the district. Sparks reported in fiscal year 2021 the district paid $6.6 million, but next year’s purchased services are projected to be
$4.68 million.
“That’s because we no longer have to report the expense related to those kids that are going
elsewhere,” she said. “Everything is going to be direct-funded now, so if a student lives in another district but chooses to come here, that money is going to be reported up here as unrestricted grants-in-aid.”
Sparks was not concerned WCS would reach deficit spending in the next few years, and noted she has seen cases where districts do that.
She said if the district did have to do that leaders would make changes to prevent it. She also
said it was common for school districts to deficit spend.
“I used to audit school districts prior to becoming the treasurer here at Wapak, and it’s normal
see deficit spending in years out because, for one, the budget approved by the legislators is only two years so it’s hard to forecast what state aid will look like in the future,” she said.
The cash balance for fiscal year 2022 is projected to be $24.047 million, a significant increase from when she first started.
“It was like $2 million,” she said.