Wantagh faces ‘moderate stress’: DiNapoli

The Wantagh Union Free School District was one of eight Long Island school districts to be identified as “fiscally stressed” by New York State Comptroller Thomas DiNapoli in a report released last Wednesday.

The report, which cited two districts in Nassau County — Wantagh and Hempstead — and six in Suffolk County, described the Wantagh district as “moderately stressed.” The findings were the result of an audit carried out between 2014 and 2016, in which the comptroller found that the district used its appropriated fund balance to finance operations, despite an operating surplus; and the district incorrectly calculated the appropriated fund balance when adding back the unused portion, resulting in an unrestricted fund balance in excess of the 4 percent statutory limit.

The appropriated fund balance is the amount of a district’s fund balance that its board of education has authorized for a specific use.

“The comptroller’s office recommended that the district reduce its appropriated fund balance, and the district put a plan in place to do that,” Wantagh Superintendent John McNamara said. “The district was aware that a shift would probably occur as a result; this wasn’t a surprise.”

The score was 55, up from 6.5 last year, with zero being least fiscally stressed, and 100 being most.

Reducing the appropriated fund balance has an affect on the revenue side of the budget, McNamara explained. “We’ve been looking at tightening our budget. We had a 0.3 percent increase in the tax levy in 2018 and a negative 1.8 percent increase last year. We hope to reduce it further — to find the middle lane,” he said.

“The score is based on a number of factors,” Assistant Superintendent for Business Anthony Cedrone said. “Some of those are closely related. Three of the four criteria are cash on hand; an operating deficit or surplus; and fund balance. A change in one of those will result in a change to all three,” he said. The fourth category, short-term borrowing — which is very common in public schools — is also obviously affected by the other three.

Wantagh’s score was 24 points for fund balance; 13 points for operating deficit; and 6.5 points for cash, McNamara said. “We didn’t do any short-term borrowing last year, so we got hit with the maximum score this year.” The district went to bond to replace three burners at Wantagh Middle School. “Since the figure is comparative, if we borrow next year, the score will only be based on the difference” between the two amounts.

“Our current fund surplus is 1.8 percent,” Cedrone said. “It can be as much as 4 percent.”

Cedrone added that the score was “just arithmetic; it’s a snapshot of our finances at a particular point in time. It’s a narrow scope and doesn’t factor in any of the local issues or problems, unexpected expenses, et cetera.”