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LIberty schools to ask for release from fiscal oversight
By jeanne starmack
liberty
The Liberty school district likely will ask the state auditor in July to be released from fiscal emergency.
Paul Marshall, chairman of the state-mandated Financial Planning and Supervision Commission for the district, said a resolution will be ready for a vote at the commission’s July 14 meeting.
That meeting will take place at 11 a.m. at the high school.
The commission oversees the district’s finances while it is in fiscal emergency, a status it’s had since 2011.
Marshall said at the commission’s meeting Wednesday that he believes the district has done an excellent job of restraining spending.
He said that by switching from being self-insured for health care to joining a consortium, the district saved a lot of money.
Commission secretary George Donie said the district saved $650,000 from July to May by doing so.
Marshall said that he believed the district was going to need a levy before it would be able to get out of fiscal emergency, and he still thinks it eventually will need to pass one. But he no longer thinks one will be necessary to request release.
By law, the district has to have a five-year forecast of balanced budgets and it has to be following proper accounting policies and procedures before it can be released.
He said auditors already are working to ensure that is the case.
“I would be surprised if we’re not able to vote on it,” he said. “I wouldn’t be talking about it if I were expecting significant unresolved issues.”
He said the district’s request for release could be granted by the end of the summer.