Prior to the opening of the Clarkfield Area Charter School three years ago, board members of the CACS admitted that they were skeptical of being able to meet their own goal of reaching $200,000 in budget reserves in five year’s time.
Just three years later, it’s an understatement to say it doesn’t seem so out of reach.
On Monday, CPA, Berry Evenstad of Hoffman and Brobst presented the charter school’s annual audit report, for the 2008 - 2009 fiscal year that ended on June 30, 2009.
According to the report, within three years’ time, the CACS reached and exceeded its five year reserve benchmark and now claims $220,485 in General Fund Reserves compared to the $92,349 in reserves held after last year.
The level of savings was attributed to federal and state funding as well as the moderate spending instituted by the board and staff.
Lead teacher Kathy Koetter stated, “I am proud of the staff for doing what we did – for spending frugally and not on anything that was not a need.” While the audit reports, “This increase is due primarily to various grant opportunities available to charter schools during their initial years of operation.”
Over the 2008 - 2009 year the audit shows that $874,020 in school revenues exceeded $718,184 in expenses by $155,836, which brought end of the year net assets to $312,254 compared to $156,218 last year.
Coming soon
By the end of January, CACS Director Wade McKittrick says that the school will have purchased a number of items that will assist students in learning.
Noted expenditures include:
•A SMART Board in every class.
•SMART Board hardware that includes wirelesss remote controls that allow students to interact with instructors through the SMART Board during a lesson, as well as a camera that photographs documents or other images and allows them to be displayed on the SMART Board.
•An amplification system that will mic the teacher – originally intended for the hearing impaired, the system is found to assist in learning for students overall and also connects with the SMART Board.
•Additional computers, including 1-2 lap-tops in every class.
•$3,000 in additional library books, a 1/3 of which will be free.
•Additional curriculum.
•A portable scoreboard for the gym.
•A 12 X 16 storage shed.
•Three iPods for each class, plus a number of mp3 players, that can hold audio books for the student to follow along when reading.
Other news:
•Board members expressed a willingness to go along with the Federal Race to the Top program, despite an incomplete disclosure of accompanying requirements by the federal government.
“I’d rather see us be leaders than followers,” said board member Dana Wilson.
McKittrick presented Race to the Top to the board, stating that the federal government was offering money to schools who adopt the criteria entailed in the program, and that government has a total $4 billion set aside for this purpose.
The CACS Director said that the school would be required to apply certain curriculum benchmarks and testing, have teachers and administration undergo professional development while also incorporating other policies.
“A big part is teacher compensation. I think it’s another way to push Q Comp,” he commented.
In addition, the director noted that he thought, right now, the guidelines came with incentives but could very well be mandated down the road. Given this, it may be wise for the school to accept the cash while it’s there, and seeing how the CACS is already enrolled in Q Comp the level adjustment is relatively minimal.
McKittrick said he wanted to seek the opinion of the Southwest / West Central Cooperative, which helps manage the school’s business functions, before making a definitive decision. He was also unsure of the amount of Race to the Top funds that the school would be eligible to receive.
Clarkfield, Minn. —
