TORRINGTON – Crediting a proactive budget committee and fewer-than-feared state funding cuts, Goshen County School District No. 1 is likely to be in the black for fiscal year 2019, according to preliminary budget information as provided by Business Manager Marcy Cates.

“We’re extremely fortunate in what the legislature has set aside in school funding,” Cates informed the GCSD No. 1 board of trustees at a special meeting Tuesday evening.

The district also eliminated 15 positions for a savings of around $520,000 – although no employees were terminated.

“The district was very proactive, and a budget committee was established with the intention of working with school administrators … to go in and evaluate positions we had based on the number of students we had … and consider opportunities we had to visit with employees and reducing employees,” Cates said. “In being proactive, we were able to simply eliminate positions based on attrition, which is a huge thing the district should be commended for. (We had) a total of 15 positions where the employees left, and we’re not replacing those positions.”

Projected revenues less expenditures result in a positive $688,653 in unallocated funds. However, employee benefits, including a 0.25 percent increase in retirement contribution, 6 percent increase in current health insurance and expected pay increases based on experience and education, could cost the district an additional $532,589 (increases of $40,352 for retirement, $222,858 for health insurance and $269,379 for salary).

Cates described the increases as “a few costs that need to be evaluated (by the salary relations committee) and determined if the district has the funds and wants to provide, or if the employee will be asked to come up with these costs.”

Cates added preliminary totals suggest the district will finish the current year with cash reserves of 14.38 percent.

Unknown factors which may necessitate the use of cash reserves vary from property tax collection issues, planned caps in special education and transportation funding, and a declining student
population.

“We have to account for that declining population, and we also have to account for the declining methodology on which their basing our funds off of,” Cates said, explaining the method in which the state provides funds to the district previously looked at the greater of the three-year average by school, but this year changed to the three-year average by district, which is expected to result in less funding.

Budget discussion will continue throughout the next few weeks, with a planned final approval date of May 22.