The past month has flown by and I can’t believe we are almost halfway through December! With the early meeting and many payroll changes to complete before payroll needs to be batched, I have not closed out the month of November yet. I am entering contracts for more than 65 bus drivers who are now working on a regular basis, including Skyward and updating every single timesheet. After I get my part of December payroll finished up, I will be working in Forecast5 on annual revenue, expenditure, and ending fund balance projections based on actual enrollment and financial information as we know at this time.
I looked at our cash flow as November, December and June tend to be our lowest months (based on the scheduled revenues received). As of 11/30, cash and investments in the general fund were $4,555,000 in comparison with $436,000 last year (that number is correct, there is no typo). Much of this is due to our increased beginning fund balance for the year and decreased monthly expenditures due to Covid. Until January, we receive our apportionment based on budget, so the effects of our lower than budgeted enrollment are not showing yet in the financial position of the district. I also expect a large decrease in our transportation allocation in January or February. However, OSPI has requested that the legislature make an exception for this year on calculating the allocation and not using the same calculations as in the past, based on students riding the bus, as many districts did not and may still not have many students being transported to school. Keeping my fingers crossed that they do something.
The enrollment spreadsheets are attached (pages 1-2), with summaries by headcount for September through December and a comparison of budgeted FTE to actual average FTE. Enrollment decreased by 4 students and 2.84 FTE, making the December count of 69.04 students below budget. The average FTE is 59.64 students below budget. Districtwide, between November 2 and December 1, we had 16 students enter that are new, 10 students that returned to the district, 7 status changes (change in FTE), 30 students withdraw, and 24 students who transferred within the district. This is a decrease from November, but still lots of activity. Jody has also updated the Special Ed counts to average, and we are 17.67 students below budget through December. However, the numbers are increasing each month. I will continue to keep you apprised each month and will let you know how this affects the district projections starting with financial data in January.
Please let me know if you have any questions.