Hoover City Schools end 2016 back in black; first time since 2011
The Hoover school system ended fiscal 2016 back in the black for the first time since 2011, the school district’s chief financial officer reported to the school board tonight.
Hoover City Schools brought in about $500,000 more in revenues than the system spent in fiscal 2016, which ended Sept. 30, Chief Financial officer Tina Hancock told the board.
When school officials passed their 2016 budget a year ago, they projected to have a $10.4 million deficit for the year. But revenues came in much stronger than projected, and school officials slashed millions of dollars in expenditures with staffing cuts and other reductions.
The last time school officials had a positive balance at the end of the fiscal year was 2011, when revenues came in $1.7 million greater than expenditures. The school district had deficits of $9.6 million in 2012, $10.2 million in 2013, $7.9 million in 2014 and $1.4 million in 2015.
One of the biggest bonuses for 2016 was a $4.3 million increase in property tax revenues to $71.2 million, Hancock said. School officials had budgeted to receive only $66.7 million – about $200,000 less than what was actually received in 2015, she said.
The school district also received about $280,000 more in sales tax revenues than expected, she said. The child nutrition program gained about $400,000 more in revenues than expected, while child nutrition expenses were about $160,000 less than expected, she said.
School officials are grateful for the city of Hoover giving the school system an extra $400,000 and picking up the full cost of school resource officers in Hoover City Schools, saving the system about $900,000 in expenditures, Hancock said.
But significant savings came through cutting costs in-house, she said.
Staffing cuts saved about $2 million in salaries, and the school board also saved $2 million in operations, $1.4 million in salary supplements, $600,000 in technology expenses, $500,000 in utility costs, $350,000 in spending for substitutes, $237,000 in fuel costs, $70,000 in fiscal services and $53,000 in overtime costs, Hancock said.
Superintendent Kathy Murphy said some of the cuts have been painful but were necessary, given revenue limitations.
Delays in buying buses saved the school system another $1.1 million, and postponing some capital projects such as asphalt paving until fiscal 2017 saved $720,000, Hancock said.
Despite ending fiscal 2016 in the positive, the school board’s budget for fiscal 2017, which was passed Sept. 12, anticipates a $1.9 million deficit. If the deficit proves to be real at the end of the year, the money will come from the school system’s overall fund balance, which is around $93 million.