St. Joseph #169 falls into early warning category after late Champaign County property tax payments
After seven years in the “review” category on ISBE’s financial profile, St. Joseph CCSD #169 has been dropped into the “early warning” category, according to a report released Wednesday.
St. Joseph is joined by 24 other school districts in the state at “early warning.”
For the last 17 years, ISBE has reviewed each district’s financial profile based on fund balance to revenue ratio, expenditure to revenue ratio, days of cash on hand and percent of short-term and long-term borrowing ability remaining.
The State then gives each district a score and places them in the financial recognition (highest), review, early warning or watch (lowest) category.
St. Joseph received perfect scores in fund balance to revenue ratio: the total revenue was $5,507,505 in FY 2019 and the total fund balance was $2,741,848. The district also has 100-percent of short-term borrowing remaining.
The district’s days of cash on hand fell slightly below ISBE’s recommended 180 days at 149 days. St. Joseph also has 32.64-percent of long-term debt margin remaining.
The lowest score St. Joseph received was a “1” in expenditure to revenue ratio whereas total revenue was $5,507,505 and total expenditures were $6,622,511.
School districts throughout Champaign County felt the squeeze throughout 2019 as Early Property Tax Revenue was not received from the County Treasurers‘ Office before June 30, 2019.
Of the 851 school districts that reported, 706 were in the 2020 “recognition” category, the highest number in the history of the report.
The 212-page report cites an increase of state funding from the Evidence-based Funding model, increased EAVs, and lesser reliance on debt.
Locally, Heritage CUSD (Community Unit School District) #8 remained “recognition” category, as did Ludlow, Gifford, Champaign CUSD #4, Prairieview CCSD #197, Rantoul Township #193, St. Joseph CHSD (Consolidated High School District) #305, Thomasboro CCSD #130.
The 2020 report showed that Rantoul City Schools #137, Fisher, Tolono CUSD #7 were placed in the “review” category while St. Joseph CCSD #169 and Urbana are in the “early warning” category.
Mahomet-Seymour joined eight other schools in the lowest “watch” category.
Districts in the early warning and watch category are monitored to see if they need assistance from ISBE.
[pdf-embedder url=”https://sjodaily.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/04/St-Joseph-Elementary-2020-ISBE-financial-profile.pdf” title=”St Joseph Elementary 2020 ISBE financial profile”]
