News

Wednesday, March 10, 2010

Positive Certification on Districts' Second Interim Financial Report

Twice each year, the Santa Barbara School Districts Board of Education is asked to certify interim financial reports regarding the districts’ financial position and submit them to the Santa Barbara County Education Office for review and analysis. For each interim report, the districts must use multi-year projections to certify one of the following:

• Positive: that the districts can meet the current year and subsequent two-year obligations;
• Qualified: that the districts may not be able to meet the current year and subsequent two-year obligations;
• or Negative: that the districts cannot meet the current year and subsequent two-year obligations.

The multi-year financial projection rests on a series of assumptions, including but not limited to, forecasted levels of state funding, forecasted increases in personnel expense, and assumptions regarding the continued decline in secondary student enrollment. In the event that some of the assumptions do not materialize as expected, the multi-year financial projection could change as well.

On March 9, 2019, the board was presented with a positive First Interim Financial Report. The report demonstrated that—by reflecting the expenditure reductions made at the February 23rd board meeting—the districts could meet their current and subsequent two-year fiscal obligations while maintaining adequate reserves. During that presentation, Deputy Superintendent Eric D. Smith reported that the unrestricted ending fund balance had decreased from eight percent from this time last year to 6.5 percent. Mr. Smith indicated that additional spending reductions may be necessary dependent on the release of the May revision to the governor's budget later this year.