POTTSTOWN PA – The Pottsgrove School District ended its 2010-2011 year with a half-million dollar surplus and $10.6 million in fund balance savings accounts, an auditor told the district Board of School Directors during its meeting Tuesday (Nov. 8, 2011).

The district's offices at 1301 Kauffman Rd., Pottstown PA

The news was already known to board members whose information packets, distributed a week before the meeting, contained a full report from the certified public accountant firm of Herbein and Company. Board members accepted the document – delivered on an Election Night while voters were still at local polling places, in part to elect and re-elect school directors – but did not comment on it or discuss how it might use the surplus.

• Directors asked the administration to make the audit publicly available on the district website, but as of Friday (Nov. 11) at 5 a.m. it was not readily found by The Post on the site’s home page, or pages for the board, administration, or business office.

The district also ended the 2009-2010 year with a similarly-sized surplus.

Herbein representative Christopher Turtell reported the district during 2010-2011 brought in $550,000 more than it spent, because it was charged less for contributions to the Pennsylvania Public School Employees’ Retirement System (PSERS), made only one interest payment on the loan taken to refurbish Ringing Rocks Elementary School, and successfully lowered its energy expenses.

Of the fund balance, Turtell said, only $3.1 million was “unassigned” or not committed by board vote or district policies to specific uses such as future PSERS payments. The unassigned amount equals roughly 5 percent of next year’s anticipated operational costs, he added, which also is a stated policy requirement.

Pottsgrove’s internal service fund, from which its self-insurance costs for employee health care are paid, had a $1.4 million balance. That’s “a nice cushion for unexpected” employee illnesses, Turtell said. Even the district’s food service was profitable last year, he noted, having made $32,000 more than it spent. The food service fund balance now amounts to about $75,000.

The district’s overall revenue, however, fell about $1 million short of its budget. That was due, according to the auditors, to adjusted real estate assessments that reduced the district’s expected property tax revenue; lower earned income taxes, because more district residents either earned less money or were out of work; and lower real estate transfer taxes, because fewer properties were bought and sold during the past 12 months.

All were “common in other districts we’ve audited this year as well,” Turtell reported.

Herbein’s audit included an unqualified opinion of the district’s finances, which means no adjustments were required. In examining 82 percent of all federal grant awards made to the district last year, Turtell said his audit team “had no findings and no non-compliance issues. That’s a real compliment to the program staff and the business office.”

The audit did recommend the administration improve internal controls in tracking some athletic event revenue.

Related (to the Pottsgrove Board of School Directors’ Nov. 8 meeting):

• Pottsgrove Schools Ended Year With $550,000 Surplus
• Pottsgrove Students Show Board Learning Tech Tools
• Pottsgrove Committees Look At Sports And Facilities