New York State Comptroller Thomas P. DiNapoli released his annual list of school districts across New York State that he identified as being under fiscal stress for the school year that ended in June of 2023.
The state’s taxpayer watchdog announced that 16 school districts across New York are in varying degrees of fiscal stress, including five here on Long Island.
DiNapoli listed New Suffolk School District as being in "significant stress.” Amityville Union Free School District was categorized as being in "significant stress.”
A lower level of fiscal stress, labeled “susceptible” to stress according to the New York State Comptroller, were assigned to Roosevelt Union Free School District, Middle Country Central School District, and the Springs Union Free School District.
Two of those on the State Comptroller’s list politely and passionately pushed back on what could be perceived as a negative connotation to this distinction, including correctly pointing out that unfunded mandates forced on school districts by the State of New York led to higher spending.
“Some of these costs are directly associated with mandates required by New York State. Additionally, a number of grants used to fund programs and services within the District were eliminated, requiring the District to make up for the loss in funding not directly to impact students,” wrote Amityville Schools Superintendent Dr. Gina Talbert.
The State of New York imposes multiple unfunded mandates on local school districts that they have no control over, but must implement and pay for.
The Vestal School District on the Pennsylvania border, just west of Binghamton, posted a list of 109 costly unfunded mandates school districts must pay for. It includes but is not limited to:
Charter School funding, No Child Left Behind standards, Universal Pre-K, installation of external defibrillators, Wick’s Law, mandatory fingerprinting of employees, incarcerated students plan, and pandemic plans, just to name a few.
“The Board adopted a corrective action plan in response to the audit. This plan has been submitted to the Comptroller’s office and details our efforts to strengthen our internal controls and operating efficiency,” added Superintendent Dr. Talbert.
In a statement to the South Shore Press, Roosevelt Schools Superintendent Dr. Deborah Wortham said the State Comptroller’s audit came at one time when the reserves and “cash on hand” could have been perceived as low. The district compared it to basically being a snapshot in time that did not reflect the district’s true fund balance, or rainy day account.
"The designation is not of serious concern to us. Our district is in strong financial health. This designation comes from the simple fact that when the audit was done, the district was showing a shortage of “cash on hand” as determined by the state. This occurred as a result of the district having an excess of cash on hand previously and needing to transfer approximately $8 million into our reserves to meet that requirement of the state. In doing so, the amount of cash on hand was restricted. We are not concerned with this because we know that there will be upwards of $12 million coming into the district,” said Superintendent Dr. Wortham.
According to the report released by the State Comptroller’s Office, their audit uses multiple fiscal benchmarks to determine a financial score, including year-end fund balance, operating deficits and surpluses, cash position, and reliance on short-term debt for cash flow.
“Although federal relief packages and state aid provided much needed assistance, school officials should remain diligent and closely monitor their financial condition in the current and future budget cycles as one-time federal funds are depleted and state aid is uncertain,” said DiNapoli.