Finding Text
Condition: At June 30, 2022, net cash resources in the School Lunch Funded exceeded the allowable limit by $984,093. At June 30,2021, net cash resources in the School Lunch Fund exceeded the allowable limit by $106,907. Criteria: The school food authority shall limit its net cash resources to an amount that does not exceed 3 months average expenditures for its School Lunch Fund or such other amounts as may be approved by the New York State agency in accordance with 7 CFR 210.19(a) Cause: For the Year ended June 30. 2022, revenues exceeded expenditures in the School Lunch Fund by $1,149,007. Revenue increased significantly from the prior year while expenditures only saw modest increase. Expenditures in 2020-2021 fiscal year School Lunch Fund were less by almost 24% due to COVID-19. Effect: The School District is not in compliance with 7 CFR 210.19(a). Recommendation: We recommend the School District review its net cash resources in the School Lunch Fund and develop a plan to reduce them to an allowable amount. Response/Board Action: In returning to full district operations in the 2021-2022 school year, revenues significantly increased in response to district operations. While spending increased by more than 36%, revenues increased by more than 90%. The significant increases to revenue can be correlated back to federal reimbursements for breakfast, lunch and snack. Pandemic reimbursement rates were used through 6/30/2022, resulting in an average increase of .55/lunch reimbursement. Coinciding with the return of in-person instruction, the district overall has seen a decrease in enrollment. The last full year we can compare is 2018-2019 where 715,000 lunches were served, in contrast, 2021-2022 had a total of 576,000 lunches served. In January of 2022, the district implemented an all staff mid-year wage increase. Cafeteria wages were brought to $15/hour for all entry level positions, with additional increases on accelerated steps where appropriate. This had an overall impact of roughly 10% increase in spending in the area of payroll and benefits compared to the 2020-2021 school year. Given the current fiscal environment, the district will continue to see increases to operating costs. The 2022-23 milk bid alone came in 11.6% higher than the 2021-2022 school year. Along with an increase to operational costs and routine equipment replacements, additional planning has taken place for future spending. Initial steps in the re-design of serving line pieces at the high school have begun to take place for the next year. Plans to re-do the serving lines in grades 3-6 were put on hold during COVID. Those projects will begin to be resurrected within the 2022-2023 school year.