OBSERVER File Photo The Gowanda Central School District projects $27 million in projected total fund balance by the end of 2024.

GOWANDA — With several budget transfers listed on a recent agenda, Business Administrator Barb Smith gave a presentation to the Gowanda Board of Education regarding the District’s finances at a recent meeting.

Smith addressed the District’s sizable fund balance figures, most notably more than $27 million in projected total fund balance and $20.7 million in restricted fund balance projected by the end of 2024. Smith is projecting a surplus of approximately $7 million in 2024.

By the end of 2023, the unassigned fund balance of the District was just shy of $6 million. That figure is expected to drop by the end of 2024, but will remain slightly above $5 million. That amount is still sizably higher than pre-pandemic figures of $1.25 million in 2018 and $1.87 million in 2019.

Prior to the pandemic in 2019, the District had a total fund balance of $7.85 million, including $3.92 million in restricted funds. The total fund balance jumped to $12.29 million in 2020, then continued to rise each year. In 2023, the District finished with a total fund balance of $20.36 million, with just a tick below $13 million of that money being restricted funds.

The District projects an even higher jump in 2024 than in any of the previous years. The District projects a total fund balance of $27.64 million, with $20.7 million of those funds being restricted.

These figures have increased dramatically in recent years due to a change in accounting regarding Native American Tuition figures in 2019-2020, followed by less spending than anticipated during the pandemic coupled with an influx of federal funding of approximately $6.3 million in the past three years. The District also received $1.8 million more Impact Aid than it budgeted for, which is due to a change in the timing of disbursement.

The District utilized its pandemic relief funding to supplement many of its expenditures in recent years. However, now with the relief funding no longer available in future years, the expenditures will revert back to the District. The District is also likely to receive less Impact Aid moving into next year because the aid has already been awarded.

With several factors likely to negatively impact the District’s funding moving forward, Gowanda has been preparing for the future, against the guidelines of the State Comptroller’s office. The State Comptroller recommends a limit of 4% of unassigned fund balance, which would be approximately $1.5 million for Gowanda. Instead, Gowanda is trending toward a second consecutive year of over $5 million.

“I don’t think the State Comptroller’s Office agrees with our funding levels, but that’s their prerogative,” Smith said.

Smith later described a “very interesting” discussion she and Superintendent Dr. Robert Anderson had with the Comptroller’s Office.

“They seem very more short-sighted than we are,” Smith said. “We’re looking ahead, knowing with Foundation Aid, we don’t know what that’s going to look like. We have surpluses these years, so in the future years, that’s why we have these. They are savings accounts, they are meant to be spent in future years.”

Smith also noted that by saving such a substantial amount of funds, the District has generated nearly $500,000 in interest.

“We’re looking at a long-range financial plan. We’re not just looking to get through this year,” Anderson said.