Twenty-two New York State school districts reported as being in fiscal stress by New York State's Comptroller

Twenty-two school districts were designated in some level of fiscal stress under New York State Comptroller Thomas P. DiNapoli’s Fiscal Stress Monitoring System for the school year (SY) ending June 30, 2024, up from 16 districts in fiscal stress the prior year. The low number of districts with stress designations largely reflects recent increases in state and federal aid.

“Pandemic-related federal funding as well as a boost in state aid have helped school districts avoid a fiscal stress designation in recent years,” DiNapoli said.  “While the number of districts has increased, it remains lower than before the pandemic. Now that most relief aid has been spent, districts should be especially vigilant that their budgets are structurally balanced to avoid fiscal problems going forward.”

State and federal aid grew 42% from SY 2019-20 to SY 2023-24, increasing $6.5 billion from $15.6 billion to $22.1 billion (and accounting for 44.6% of total revenues). A significant portion of the federal aid school districts received in these years consisted of pandemic-related funding from the federal government.

Of the 670 school districts that filed their financial reports in time to be scored in SY 2024, 3.3% have been designated as being in a level of fiscal stress.

DiNapoli’s Fiscal Stress Monitoring System was designed to identify those school districts, counties, cities, towns and villages that are having difficulties with budgetary solvency, or the ability to generate enough revenue to meet expenses. School districts receive a fiscal stress score that is based on several factors: year-end fund balance, operating deficits and surpluses, cash position, and reliance on short-term debt for cashflow. The higher the score, the more severe the level of stress.

This release of scores, which excludes New York City and the “Big Four” City School Districts of Buffalo, Rochester, Syracuse and Yonkers, designated two school districts in “significant fiscal stress,” the highest category – New Suffolk Common School District (CSD) in Suffolk County and Mount Vernon School District (SD) in Westchester County. Four districts were designated as being in “moderate fiscal stress” and 16 districts were designated as “susceptible to fiscal stress.”

In addition, DiNapoli’s report found 22 districts to be chronically stressed, having been designated in a category of stress for five or more years since SY 2013, with three of these districts designated in SY 2023-24 (New Suffolk CSD, Harrisville CSD, and Mount Vernon SD). Four school districts (East Ramapo CSD, New Suffolk CSD, Rensselaer City SD and Wyandanch Union Free SD) have been in fiscal stress for eight of the twelve years that districts have been scored.

As federal aid returns to pre-pandemic levels, DiNapoli cautioned school officials to prepare for potential changes in federal and state aid, and urged district officials to use the resources available to them, including the Comptroller’s self-assessment tool and financial toolkit, which offers guidance, resources, training and reports, to help manage through complex fiscal circumstances.

Lists

School Districts in Stress for Fiscal Year Ending 2024

Complete List of School District Fiscal Stress Scores

Report

Fiscal Stress Monitoring System Municipalities: School Districts Fiscal Year 2023-24 Results

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Job opportunities at the New York City Office of Administrate Trials and Hearings

The New York City Office of Administrate Trials and Hearings [OATH] is recruiting  Law Clerks and a Chief Law Clerk. 

Working directly with OATH’s Administrative Law Judges, Law Clerks engage in legal research and writing on cases involving civil servant discipline, consumer and worker protection matters, taxi and rideshare licensing, contract disputes involving the city, as well as cases falling under the Campaign Finance Law, Human Rights Law, Conflict of Interest Law, and more. The Chief Law Clerk has a supervisory role.

For more details visit https://cityjobs.nyc.gov/ and search for Job ID 695171 (Law Clerk) and Job ID 695172 (Chief Law Clerk).

 

New York State Comptroller releases Municipal and School Audits

On January 24, 2025, New York State Comptroller Thomas P. DiNapoli issued the following local government and school audits

Click on the text highlighted in color to access the item posted on the Internet

Village of Earlville – Collections (Madison County)  

Although the clerk-treasurer accurately recorded collections that auditors reviewed in the central accounting records, she did not always deposit collections in a timely manner. Auditors also identified that staff in the clerk-treasurer’s office did not routinely issue duplicate receipts or maintain a collection log or cash receipts journal showing a description of each transaction. Of the 296 collections totaling $302,050 that were reviewed, nine collections totaling $77,705 did not have a receipt date documented in the records. Therefore, auditors could not determine whether the collections were deposited in a timely manner. Of the remaining 287 collections, the clerk-treasurer did not deposit 132 collections (46%) totaling $77,093 in a timely manner. State law requires collections to be deposited within 10 days of receipt. Without detailed receipt records and timely deposits, the village has an increased risk that funds could be lost or misappropriated without detection.

Town of Middlebury – Tax Collection Remittance (Wyoming County)  

The tax collector did not remit collections to the town supervisor and Wyoming County treasurer within the timeframes established by state law. As a result, funds were not provided to finance town and county operations in a timely manner. Auditors found that the tax collector did not remit taxes totaling approximately $912,000 to the town supervisor at least weekly as required by town law. The tax collector made one payment totaling approximately $1.1 million to the county treasurer in April 2024, instead of paying three separate required payments totaling $656,657 in February, $327,001 in March and $92,168 in April. In addition, the board did not audit the tax collector’s records as required and, as a result, did not know that the tax collector was incorrectly remitting collections to the town supervisor and county treasurer.

Genesee County – Court and Trust Funds (2024-C&T-7) 

Auditors found the county clerk’s register did not include an action ordering the county to deposit $2,000 with the treasurer during 2022 and the surrogate’s court register did not include an action ordering the executrix to deposit $5,000 with the treasurer during 2022.

Wayland-Cohocton Central School District – Lead Testing and Reporting (Livingston County) 

District officials did not properly identify, report or implement needed remediation to reduce lead exposure in potable water outlets as required by state law and Department of Health (DOH) regulations. District officials did not sample and test or properly exempt 140 of the 379 (37%) water outlets in the district because they did not have a plan to identify all potential outlets for sampling. Auditors also found that district officials did not have a remedial action plan that detailed which outlets were exempt from sampling and how they would be secured, and what remedial actions were planned or enacted. Because there is no information on the lead levels of the untested outlets, auditors were unable to determine whether officials identified and remediated all outlets that would have required it. The district’s initial testing results identifying 29 of 181 (16%) sampled water outlets with actionable lead levels were never reported to the local health department, and officials did not notify staff, parents and/or guardians of these results in writing, as required. Further, the results were not reported to DOH until 240 days after the required deadline, subsequent testing after remediation efforts was not reported, and officials did not post the testing results on the district’s website until 48 weeks past the required deadline.

Town of Warsaw – Tax Collection Remittance (Wyoming County) 

The clerk did not remit collections to the town supervisor and Wyoming County treasurer within the timeframes established by state law. As a result, funds were not provided to finance town and county operations in a timely manner. The clerk did not remit taxes totaling approximately $1.3 million to the town supervisor at least weekly and as required by law. The clerk made one payment totaling approximately $3.1 million to the county treasurer in April 2024, instead of paying three separate required payments totaling approximately $2.8 million in February, $156,000 in March and $198,000 in April. In addition, the board did not audit the clerk’s records as required.

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Links to selected items focusing on govenmental operations posted on the Internet during the week ending January 24, 2025.

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