The Forney Independent School District administrators and staff recently recognized the members of the Forney ISD Board of Trustees for their support and dedication during the 2011-2012 school year. The District noted the board’s hard work and devotion to the students and staff which has helped the District overcome several obstacles and difficulties to continue to be recognized as an outstanding academic school district in the State of Texas.
The Forney Independent School District administrators and staff recently recognized the members of the Forney ISD Board of Trustees for their support and dedication during the 2011-2012 school year. The District noted the board’s hard work and devotion to the students and staff which has helped the District overcome several obstacles and difficulties to continue to be recognized as an outstanding academic school district in the State of Texas.
“The members of the Board have put in a tremendous amount of time and effort and have dedicated themselves to making this District the best it can be,” said Michael Holland, Forney ISD Superintendent of Schools. “We had a lot of challenges over the past year, most of them financially. And without the Board’s support, hard work and determination to resolve the issues we were facing, I’m not for sure we would be where we are today. I have worked with a lot of board members over the course of my career, but I don’t know if I have ever worked with any board members who have put in as much time and as much effort as the members of this Board have this past year. It has truly been a blessing to work with such outstanding and devoted individuals.”
In 2011, Forney ISD learned that the District had been overfunded $17.4 million by the Texas Education Agency (TEA) for the 2010-2011 fiscal year. In an agreement with the TEA, the District is able to repay the State equally over five years.
In addition to the repayment, $3.4 million of revenue was reduced during the 2011-2012 school year and another $1.2 million in the 2012-2013 school year as a result of the statewide cuts made to public education in the 82nd Special Called Texas Legislative Session. Once all true revenues and expenditures were considered, Forney ISD faced more than a $5 million shortfall for 2011-2012 and only had nine months to correct the situation.
“The Board was heavily criticized for the financial situation of the District when the overfunding was first realized,” Holland noted. “Even though they are not responsible for managing the school district’s budget, they are held accountable because they approve the budget every year. But the Board can only take action on facts, figures and information that is provided to them and the information that was presented to the Board regarding the District’s financial situation was materially inaccurate.”
Holland said that it was the actions that the board took as a result of the financial situation that has made a significant impact on where the District is today.
The Board began holding monthly budget meetings outside of their regular board meetings to not only review the District’s financial situation, but to also complete training on school finances involving state and federal financing and day-to-day budget operations of the District. The meetings and training sessions were led by Holland and Forney ISD Chief Financial Officer Lucas Janda and were often conducted late into the evening.
In addition, the Board worked with District administrators to determine where budgets could be cut and money could be saved in the District to avoid having to reduce staff to resolve the financial crises.
Some of the decisions made by the board included approving significant spending reductions including $669,821 (26 percent) in athletics, $342,860 (18 percent) in staff development and $320,571 (7 percent) in support services. The Board also approved the District to allow out-of-district transfer students which brings in approximately $5,000 for each transfer student. An additional item approved by the board was a $1,000 stipend to any employee who provided notification in February that they would not be returning to Forney ISD at the end of the 2011-2012 school year. The result was a clearer determination of what positions had to be back filled and what positions could be absorbed into an existing position.
A number of other items approved by the Board included closing down the majority of campuses over the summer months and administrators volunteering their time working athletic events and substituting in the classroom. The Board also approved the selling of school property at Mulberry Park to the City of Forney at the December 2012 regular monthly board meeting.
As a result of these cost saving measures directed by the Board, the District did not have to release any employees at the end of the 2011-2012 school year to help resolve the District’s financial situation.
“The District made significant financial gains in a very short period of time because of the actions and decisions of the Board,” said Janda. “There were some very hard decisions that had to be made, but all of them were made with the entire District in mind, not just certain departments, schools or organizations. There are some things that the District is doing differently today than we were doing three or four years ago, but all of them are designed to help the District save money while maintaining the high level of academic excellence that Forney ISD is known for.”
In November of 2012, the District’s external audit firm, Whitley Penn, presented the annual financial audit report of the District to the Board. The firm presented the Board with an “unqualified opinion letter” entailing that Forney ISD had earned a clean opinion of the internal controls and financial accounting of the District, with no explanatory paragraph related to a going concern. An unqualified opinion letter is the highest level of assurance an audit firm can give to a school district.
The audit, presented to the Board by Whitley Penn representative Celina Miller, stated that the District had an operating surplus of $564,308 and only three non-material compliance concerns. In contrast, in 2011 the District had an operating deficit of $5,045,069 and 16 material weakness and compliance concerns.
More recently the District was notified that it had been awarded the Gold Leadership Circle Award from the State of Texas Comptroller’s Office for having the highest standard of financial transparency online per the Comptroller’s evaluation.
“The District took directives from the Board to ensure that we be as transparent as possible regarding the District’s finances,” said Janda. “The Gold Leadership Circle Award is proof that we are moving in the direction the Board wants us to go to make sure that the District’s financial information is available to all of the tax payers, parents and community members of Forney.”
Over the past year the Forney ISD Board has been contacted by a number of school boards across the state requesting school finance training and guidance. In addition, the FISD Board of Trustees and school administrators were key presenters regarding school finance at the 2012 Texas Association of School Boards Annual conference.
For more information about the Forney Independent School District, contact Larry Coker, Director of Communications at larry.coker@forneyisd.net or by phone at 972-564-4055.
