QP 2025 Final for Print - Flipbook - Page 11
excellence in financial reporting
>> Mentor Public Schools earned the Certificate of
Achievement from the GFOA for Fiscal Year 24!
>The Board of Education has created five fiscal beliefs to ensure
fiscal prudence in every spending decision made by the Board of
Education, Superintendent, and Chief Financial Officer.
1. All fiscal decisions should be made in the context of the five year
fiscal projections.
2. There are management options attached to every dollar spent.
3. Every dollar spent must add value to teaching and learning.
4. Focus on aggressively managing the largest expense areas:
Salaries, Benefits, Special Education, and Facilities.
5. Quality is always cheaper in the long term.
>>The school district is committed to managing long-term plans:
The District Strategic Plan
Enrollment Projections
Five-Year Budget Plan
Capital Repair Plans
Technology Plan
Classroom Furniture Plan
Vehicle Replacement Plan
>>The district9s leadership team has been diligent over the years in
carefully managing resources to maintain quality academic and
extracurricular opportunities for students, even as costs naturally
continue to go up, while our revenue stays flat. We9ve implemented
major cost-saving initiatives including:
reducing staff proportionately with student enrollment,
closing and selling school buildings,
redistricting and consolidating,
changing benefits plans for employees,
cutting budgets,
reducing spending on bus fleet,
pursuing alternative revenue sources,
using temporary federal COVID funds only for temporary
positions and eliminating those positions when funding ended,
securing grant monies and more.
>>The Board of Education, Chief Financial Officer and
Superintendent pursue non-tax revenue sources including: private
grants; selling business and operations services; major corporate
partnerships; cell phone towers; facility rentals; professional
development services; and more.
>>The Board of Education appoints a Citizens Financial Advisory
Committee to bring a business perspective to the oversight of the
fiscal management of the school district.
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>>The actual and expected student enrollment aligns with the district9s
implementation of a Facilities Management Plan in 201832019, where
the decision to go from operating three middle schools to two and eight
elementary schools to seven was put into effect. The need to condense
schools was a result of continued declining enrollment in Mentor Public
Schools and having to make appropriate facilities adjustments as part of
our commitment to fiscal responsibility with our taxpayer dollars. The
Facilities Management Plan was projected to save more than $1 million
a year over the term of the five-year fiscal projections.
>>Mentor Schools takes pride in its school buildings, facilities and
grounds located across Mentor and Mentor-on-the-Lake. Along with its
schools, the district owns a total of 16 properties, which totals
1,024,001 sq. ft. of space to care for as well as 250 acres of property.
These facilities are assets to our community and are well-maintained
via a five-year Permanent Improvement (PI) plan, with projects funded
based on established need.
>>Mentor Schools earned a four-star StaRS rating from the Ohio
Auditor9s Office, which is the
