School district trying to trim budget by $450,000

The Fairfield school district superintendent and business manager will be preparing expenditure reductions of at least $450,000 as directed by the Fairfield Community School Board of Directors.

Superintendent Don Achelpohl explained the district recently received a letter from the Iowa Department of Education predicting Fairfield would have a negative authorized spending authority of more than $600,000 for the current fiscal year.

Achelpohl and business manager Kim Sheets think the prediction is incorrect and the district will end the year with a positive authorized spending authority, but Achelpohl pointed out the reserve needs to be larger in case the district has a need for it.

Sheets has explained the spending authority is the amount the school district can spend per student. The district can only spend what Iowa Legislature authorizes to be spend per student, plus the carryover, which is the unspent balance of spending authority that carries over from year to year.

A district that ends a fiscal year with a negative authorized spending authority is breaking the law and will have action taken against it if there is a negative authorized spending authority two consecutive years.

A drop in student enrollment for a number of years, like the decreasing enrollment Fairfield has been experiencing, means the spending authority is lower, and if the district continues to spend those funds and the carried-over unspent balance funds, ?it catches up,? Sheets has explained.

She has said the easiest way to solve a negative unspent balance is to ?get more kids or reduce expenditures.?

According to Achelpohl, 80 percent of the district?s expenditures are for personnel, ?so the board can expect to see something in that area.?

?I believe we have great staff here, but we need to get our budget in balance,? he continued. ?We?re looking at early retirement and any where else we can contain costs.?

For the complete article, see the Tuesday, April 14, 2009, Fairfield Ledger.