Brittnay Spry Presents to the Jamestown School Board
The Jamestown Public School District is working on developing a multi-year financial plan.
District Director of Budgets and Finance Brittnay Spry made a presentation to the School Board Tuesday on the plan. She said the district is in a much different place than a year ago when they were facing the state withholding 20% in aid and anticipating having to make staff and program cuts.
The signing of the American Rescue Plan Act in March by the Federal Government instead led to more revenues coming into the district on top of an anticipated increase in Foundation aid from New York State.
Spry gave a list of current challenges for the district, “Learning loss, social emotional support, reading and literacy, attendance, high school graduation rates – And I’m sure there are plenty more that if we sat around that we could come up with. But there are plenty of challenges to address for our students and our staff and we’re trying to do so in a sustainable manner.”
She said the goal is to create future budgets that are sustainable while addressing student needs. Spry said reserve fund planning is one of the parts of the multi-year financial plan being discussed, “Funding those reserves at an appropriate level that are sustainable through the tough times. Fund balance usage, if certain costs and expenses end up being less than anticipated, we can use that money to offset it and it’s there for us when we need it.”
Spry said long range capital planning and planning for the time when Federal funds are done being expended are part of the multi-year plan as well.
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