The Oregon-Davis School Corporation is building up its Rainy Day Fund. The school board passed a resolution Monday to transfer $300,000 in leftover Operations Fund money, according to Superintendent Dr. Don Harman
“We had about $277,000,” he explains. “Now, adding that $300,000, that means we currently have over $500,000 in our Rainy Day Fund, and [Treasurer] Mrs. [Nikki] Salazar did make a point that it’s been several years, upwards of 10 years, since we’ve had over $500,000 in our Rainy Day Fund, which is a positive thing for the corporation.”
Harman says Oregon-Davis has slowly but surely been increasing its Rainy Day Fund balance over the past few years. It’s one of a few fiscal indicators Harman shared with the board of finance Monday. “We have been in the negative, as far as in our deficit spending, but in 2017 and ’18, we were in the black,” he says. “For example, in 2018, we were positive $193,197.”
Harman notes that O-D’s enrollment, which helps determine state funding, has seen a significant drop since 2012, but the trend is similar at Starke County’s other schools.
He says the 2020 fiscal goals adopted by the school board Monday stress the importance of operating the school corporation within its means. “We cannot spend more than what we’re bringing in, and if you look at one of the fiscal indicators, when you look at our revenue/expenditures, the last two years, we have been working in our means,” Harman says. “We’re not spending more than what we’re bringing in, and in the past, we had been doing that. So I think that’s a big, big factor, that we are working within our means and we’re utilizing all of our taxpayer dollars to the best of our ability.”
Fiscal indicators for Oregon-Davis or any other school corporation may be viewed on the Indiana Distressed Unit Appeal Board’s website.
