Northmor School District officials say they have started out the new school year fiscally sound and with a higher enrollment.

At Thursday’s Board of Education meeting, board members received an early financial outlook from Treasurer Tammi Cowell, who offered the Certificate of Estimated Resources for fiscal year 2016. The statement showed the unencumbered balance as of June 30 (as well as taxes and other sources of anticipated revenue) of nearly $16.3 million.

“These are estimates on our taxes and other funds, so it gets tweaked throughout the year [as they come in],” said Cowell of the detailed list of funding sources. “We hope it goes up, but sometimes we find the grants get adjusted down, or tax collections could come in a little lower than anticipated. Hopefully, it won’t be anything lower on the state revenue we’re going to receive.”

Cowell noted she does these certificates a couple of times a year as things change. The board also approved Permanent Appropriations of about $13.6 million for fiscal year 2016.

“This is what we anticipate to spend at this particular time,” Cowell told the board. “This gets adjusted throughout the year; we do it now, in January, then ‘true it up’ at the end of the year.”

She explained the numbers change as new people are hired, substitutes are used, supply costs are incurred, etc.

“They call it permanent appropriations, but it gets amended throughout the year,” she explained.

The five-year forecast will be presented at October’s school board meeting.

Superintendent Chad Redmond reported enrollment is up this year, opening with 1,126 students in the system. Since schools receive state funds for each on-site student, much of the school’s finances are driven by the Average Daily Membership factor.

The next regular Board Meeting will be on Oct. 15 at 7 p.m. in the Board Meeting Room.

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Reach Randa Wagner at 419-946-3010, ext. 1803 or on Twitter@MorrCoSentinel.