CLEARFIELD – The Clearfield Area School District did not finish the 2020-21 school year “in the dark,” according to business administrator Sam Maney.

During Monday night’s combined committee and board meeting, Maney reported that the district ended the year with a deficit of $ 1.3 million. It was initially expected to be close to $ 3.8 million.

He attributed the reduction in the district’s deficit to increased local tax revenues, as well as increased state and federal government revenues over projected amounts.

These increases in income have also been accompanied by “considerable” savings in major expense categories such as personnel, professional services, transportation, and so on.

“We weren’t clear in the dark,” Maney said, noting that the district’s cyber charter tuition spike during the COVID-19 pandemic accounted for most of the deficit.

In addition, he said the district has still not been approved for funding through the Elementary and Secondary School Emergency Relief Fund (ESSER II Fund).

“If they had accepted as filed, … then we would get an additional $ 2.1 million in federal revenue,” he said, “and the deficit of $ 1.3 million suddenly becomes a surplus of $ 800. $ 000.

“Even if they hit $ 1.4 million (for the cyber charter), it would take a deficit of $ 1.3 million to maybe $ 700,000. Whenever this is approved, we will come back and capture the past expenses. “

According to Maney, the district’s general fund balance – as of June 30, 2021 – was $ 13,638,643 million.

Of this, $ 2.9 million was placed in earmarked reserves for debt service, $ 3.6 million was committed for employee benefit costs and cyber charter increases, and 411,434 were reserved for property tax appeals.

Maney also reported that the food service department finished with a deficit of $ 37,348 for the 2020-21 school year. It was originally priced at $ 72,405.

He said the projected shortfall was in part due to the district’s participation in the community eligibility provision that provides each student with free breakfast and lunch.

“The income was a negative variance of $ 273,777,” Maney said, “and the majority was our federal subsidy for meals… This comes from running an A / B schedule (alternating school day) .

“We only had half the kids here at one point. Even though we were able to operate under the summer food program, which generated more dollars in reimbursement than the regular national school lunch program, we still couldn’t calculate the numbers.

“In spending we had a nice positive variation in food supply… but there is hardly any variation in our wages / benefits. This is the reason for the deficit. We served half the meals but still got all the work done.

He said the deficit reduction was due to a contribution of $ 180,000 to the general fund and that in the future he also believes this will become a necessary trend to help cover operating costs.

Maney said the Food Service Department had a fund balance of $ 149,144 as of June 30, 2021.