Is Your Local School District Considered “Fiscally Stressed?” (LIST)

Townsquare News Director Eric Malinowksi did a report on Comptroller Thomas DiNapoli's announcement that fully 13% of all New York State School districts are considered to be "in financial stress." See his report here http://cnynews.com/13-of-ny-schools-designated-fiscally-stressed/

The story is interesting, but not surprising. There is a lot of data about the fiscal condition of our state's schools in Eric's report, but I looked through the listing of schools and pulled out the ones from Otsego, Delaware and Chenango counties. Check out the report for the full listing.

The three schools from our listening area noted in this data are Unatego (Moderate Fiscal Stress), Walton (Moderate fiscal Stress) and Richfield Springs (Susceptible Fiscal Stress).

ighty-seven school districts, 13% of school districts statewide, have been designated as fiscally stressed under State Comptroller Thomas P. DiNapoli’s Fiscal Stress Monitoring System.

DiNapoli’s office evaluated 674 school districts with fiscal years ending on June 30, 2013.

Using financial indicators that include year-end fund balance, cash position and patterns of operating deficits, the system creates an overall fiscal stress score which classifies whether a district is in “significant fiscal stress,” in “moderate fiscal stress,” as “susceptible to fiscal stress,” or “no designation.”

The Comptroller’s office analyzed separate environmental indicators to help provide insight into the health of the local economy and other challenges that might affect a school district’s finances. These include such measures as student enrollment, property value, budget vote results and poverty. To date, 12 school districts have been classified as in “significant fiscal stress,” 23 in “moderate fiscal stress,” and 52 as “susceptible to fiscal stress.”

Later this year, DiNapoli’s office will release separate scoring lists for those cities and villages whose fiscal years end at various periods throughout the year. The Comptroller’s monitoring system previously identified a total of 40 municipalities in some level of fiscal stress. This list includes 16 counties, 18 towns, five cities and one village.

Read More: 13% Of NY Schools Designated "Fiscally Stressed" | http://cnynews.com/13-of-ny-schools-designated-fiscally-stressed/?trackback=tsmclip