Cherokee County School District finished year with operating surplus of $1.7 million

The Cherokee County School District finished this past year with an operating surplus of $1.7 million, according to an audit report released Monday.

The school district was able to increase its budget reserve from $4.9 million in 2007 to $6.6 million in 2008.

Superintendent Dr. Bill James has attributed the surplus to the efforts of school administrators to reduce expenses in school budgets. Unfortunately, careful spending practices have become a necessity for school districts to stay afloat financially during the current school year.

The school district has dipped into its reserves on multiple occasions since last summer to help absorb six state budget cuts. The district has frozen travel, limited hiring, monitored school energy usage and worked to reduce teacher absences to conserve a $1 million substitute teacher budget this school year.

These savings are expected to produce $679,000 this year. The district's reserves have been used to handle much of the state budget cuts.

At Monday's school board meeting, finance director Ben Childs said the district's reserves have dwindled from $6.6 million last summer to a projected $4.2 million when the current fiscal year ends June 30.

Ideally, school districts like to carry a reserve equal to 10 percent of the district's budget for dealing with financial emergencies. A 10 percent reserve would amount to $5.8 million in the current budget.

"This will be a challenging budget year," Childs said. "We will have to watch every dollar we spend for the remainder of the year."

School trustees will discuss the upcoming budget at their February meeting.

Board chairman Billy Blackwell said the school board has frozen its own travel and will travel as a group to save money.

"For example, Jamie Martin and Cheryll Smith are required to attend a training session for new school board members this year. They are not going to the one in Hilton Head in April. Instead, they will attend the one in Columbia this summer," Blackwell said. "This will save the district money on the cost of paying for mileage and hotel rooms. We are going to do our part as school board members to help the district save money."

(Scott Powell)