Central Lee Community, Parents, and Students,
In September of each year, the Central Lee Community School District has an independent firm audit its financial records. At the completion of this audit, the district submits a number of financial reports, certifying our records for the previous school year. We have just recently completed these actions and are ready to provide a financial update to our community.
Our district continues to be in a strong financial position. The main indicator of financial health is our unspent spending authority, which is the amount of money the district can legally spend in one year. It is not the amount of cash the district has or the amount of revenue coming in. Rather, we tend to think of this as our “credit.”
Unspent spending authority has been used by the state of Iowa as an indicator of school district financial health for many years. Our number at the conclusion of Fiscal Year 22 (2021-22) was $3,828,420. For comparison, in 2006, the district had an unspent spending authority of $360,386. Central Lee has seen a steady increase in this number over the past several years.
The School Board and I have worked hard to invest in new curriculum resources, add staff, and maintain programming without jeopardizing our financial position for the future. In 2019-20, we added five full-time positions to the district budget. We added three more for 2020-21, two more for 2021-22, and another two for the 22-23 school year.
In 2020-21, we approved a 3.5% wage increase for all staff, and we also provide a 3% increase for 2022-23. This will help us retain high-quality staff and make us more competitive when searching for new professionals to add to our team. We understand that staff recruitment/retention will be more challenging in the future. We hope that, with our increased enrollment this year, we can once again provide a reasonable increase for all staff.
We will continue to invest in staffing and resources, as long as it does not jeopardize our future fiscal stability. This does not mean we say “yes” to every request. We have been very focused on allocating resources in areas we feel help us meet the goals set forth in our strategic plan.
If you have any questions regarding school finances, please do not hesitate to ask.
Sincerely,
Dr. Andy Crozier
Superintendent
Figure One: Historical Financial Data
FY18 | FY19 | FY20 | FY21 | FY22 | |
Revenue | $11,081,100 | 11,485,697 | 11,717,308 | 11,740,799 | $12,793,690 |
Expenditures | $10,789,440 | $10,795,456 | 11,318,532 | 11,668,836 | $12,632,855 |
Special Education Deficit | $196,445 | $310,000 | 249,025 | 299,725.59 | $172,367 |
Misc. Income | $3,276,867 | $3,250,051 | 3,514,061 | $3,966,843 | $4,460,135 |
Spending Authority | $2,455,947 | $2,999,340 | 3,123,530 | $3,495,218 | $3,828,420 |
Figure Two: Breakdown of District Revenue for the General Fund (FY21)
Revenue Source | Property Tax | Tuition In | Federal Revenue | State Aid |
FY20 | $3,126,086 | $2,975,948 | $231,327 | $4,839,429 |
FY21 | $2,997,630 | $2,952,857 | $617,442 | $4,955,347 |
FY22 | $3,107,402 | $3,226,927 | $833,990 | $5,216,773 |