| By Neil Johnson, Big Radio and WCLO Radio News |
If the numbers hold, Milton School District finance officials says the district will likely run $750,000 in the red by sometime in November. Yet, district officials say that’s an improvement for the district compared recent school years.
For the first year in several, it means the district can borrow less, and at less expensive rates than in recent years. That’s a brighter picture for a district that just last spring had unsuccessfully asked taxpayers for an operational referendum to shore up district finances.
Milton Schools’ business director Ross MacPherson (Mick-FEAR-son) explains the improvement comes as the district has worked to sock away more cash in its rainy day fund.
Like other districts statewide, Milton deals with a months-long lag in when it receives state aid payments. It leads some districts to borrow to cover costs early in the school year. For Milton, that often has involved a double-dip, officials say of both standard short term borrowing at commercial rates, and less costly local lines of credit.
In a few recent years, district records show it has had to prepare for fall funding gaps as big as 1.9 million. During that financial low tide, the district still has to meet its payroll and roll out operating spending.
This year, the finance office says, Milton Schools has enough saved in its reserve fund to bridge the temporary, annual gap in major state funding without commercial borrowing. Instead, the district will borrow on a short-term, local note. That’s a move MacPherson said generally saves taxpayers on interest costs at a time when rates on borrowing have increased
It’s not clear how much the district would borrow or how much reserve funds it would tap. The board decides on a local line of credit later this month.
