Struthers schools anticipate deficit in ’14

By Jeanne Starmack

starmack@vindy.com

STARMACK

The school district’s latest five-year financial forecast shows positive cash balances from fiscal years 2010 through 2013 but shows a deficit in fiscal 2014.

The forecast is for fiscal years, which end June 30. Cash balances for the end of each year, according to the forecast, are: $3,218,334 in 2010; $2,606,676 in 2011; $2,045,647 in 2012; $741,55, in 2013; and -$1,866,492 in 2014.

Dr. Michael Evanson, district treasurer, said possible cuts in state funding are the reason for the projected deficit.

Evanson said that in the first year of the state’s present two-year budget, it did a good job of not cutting schools’ funding.

“But the state’s outlook is pretty bleak,” he said. “The state may be forced to levy a series of cuts next year.”

Evanson said 70 percent of Struthers’ funding comes from the state.

“So, you live and die by the state,” he added.

He said he estimated a 7 percent cutback in state funding next year, a midpoint between the 5 percent and 10 percent cuts the state is anticipating for school districts. That amounts to $707,000, he said.

Evanson said it’s hard to project the district’s financial situation five years out because of the state’s two-year budgets.

So the district should prepare for a worst-case scenario and be fiscally conservative, he said.

Evanson said the district would not ask for new taxes to head off a deficit before it asks for renewal of a 6.9-mill, five-year operating levy in 2012.

“That’s our first focus,” he said.