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11/18/2008 12:00 AMMike Longaecker, Red Wing Republican Eagle Red Wing school leaders can see light at the end of the financial tunnel and are preparing for their first steps out of it. On Monday, Red Wing School Board members considered a proposal calling for the district to establish a reserve fund. Under the proposal, the district would have funds on hand for emergency situations that normally require a funding transfer. Finance Director Brad Johnson said in a memo that while those transfers have shrunken in recent years, they continue. Last year $3.6 million was parsed out. "This takes the peaks and valleys out of budgeting," School Board Chairman Paul Kramp said of the proposed fund. "We can't be on a roller coaster making changes from year to year." All indications point to the district emerging from statutory operating debt for 2009. The district was last slapped with the designation — a classification assigned by the state for exceeding a debt limit — in 2006. Red Wing has been in statutory operating debt for five of the last nine years, according to district data. While reserve funds aren't uncommon for districts, Supt. Stan Slessor said Red Wing has gone without due to those financial difficulties. "For years, this is a district that has not been able to do it," he told board members. If adopted, the account would not swell — or even accumulate — immediately, Johnson said. Though about to emerge from operating debt, "we're not a point where we could hit any of those goals right away," he said. Among the goals set forth in the policy proposal is that all funds operate with a positive balance and that approved budgets do not allow for excess spending of reserves, except to meet previously accepted targets. Slessor said the board will take action on the proposal in December. http://www.republican-eagle.com/articles/index.cfm?id=54756§ion=News | ||||||||||||||||||||
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