Yesterday the Grosse Pointe Public School System posted the 2014-15 fiscal year audit – and the news was welcome.
Last year’s budget and all its amendments presented quite a roller coaster ride for followers of district finances, as I posted here and here. To summarize, here are three charts visualizing the data.
Quick analysis: 2015 revenue was in line with the twists and turns of the budget, but expenses came in over $1 million better (lower) than the projections made in last June’s Final Budget.
Quick analysis: Given the lower than expected 2015 actual expenses, fund equity increased by $1.2 million better than the June Final Budget, or $1.9 million overall. This is the second straight annual budget surplus after the $18 million aggregate loss from 2010 to 2013.
Quick analysis: Fund equity rose from 6.0% at the end of 2014 to 7.8% at the end of 2015. Based on the current year’s budget and its anticipated $1.6 million surplus, fund equity could end at 9.5% come next June, a mere $400,000 away from the long-standing goal of returning fund equity to 10%.
I will look at revenue and expense line items in more detail later, but for now the summary statement is that this was a good result – far better than what was expected last June. It is always welcome news when the budget exceeds projections (when running a surplus), but this was a big miss to forecast. More precision is required.
Bigger picture, the district’s march to 10% fund equity continues, and very likely a year ahead of schedule. This will be important to watch as we get closer to employee and teacher contract discussions, which are likely to commence soon given expiration at the end of the 2016-17 year.
More to come on that.