Brunswick Schools on 'stable financial footing'

BRUNSWICK — A bright fiscal outlook was presented to Brunswick City Schools administrators Monday, showing yearly revenue that's expected to outpace expenses until 2024. District Treasurer Mark Pepera put forth his five-year forecast that included $74.97 million in fiscal year 2022 revenue compared to expenses of $74.53 million. He credited recent passage of a 10-year, 5.9-mill emergency operating levy this year after multiple failed ballot attempts for drastically improving Brunswick's projections. When the district will begin collecting on the levy next school year, it's expected to bring in $3.76 million during fiscal year 2022 with $7.53 million projected for 2023, 2024 and 2025. "We're not really seeing any surprises in this snapshot, what we look like at this point in time," Pepera told the board of education. "Key takeaways are that we're looking at our financial footing being relatively stable now. It's a little different story than what I shared with you last year and the three years prior to that. The forecast also assumes that our renewal levies and emergency levies will be passed. That's not new money. Those are existing dollars we receive." Before voters approved the 10-year levy, Pepera was required to submit a plan to the state showing projections without the new revenue. According to that data, Brunswick would have needed to cut $3 million in 2022 and $3.5 million a year in 2023, 2024 and 2025. The closing of an elementary school, cutting busing to 2-mile state minimums, and laying off dozens of staff members were also mentioned in prospective reductions. Brunswick's cash reserves are expected to total $14.4 million at the end of this fiscal year and climb to $15.6 million in 2023. In the three years following that, the fund is projected to gradually shrink to $7.98 million. Local taxes currently make up a little over 50 percent of district revenue while state aid accounts for roughly 35 percent. "I'd say we're on the trajectory that's been expected," Pepera said. "This forecast also assumes that we'll continue to leverage federal funding over the next couple of years to offset some of our current operating costs or operating costs as a result of the COVID situation. For example, we're now required to provide a tuition-based online learning module for students who select that option. That's an added cost and not a cheap cost." For tax year 2020, Pepera said Brunswick Schools carried a tax valuation of just over $1.3 billion with residential and agricultural property accounting for more than 80 percent of that figure. He added that a 2021 valuation from the Medina County Auditor's Office should be coming soon. "One mill now raises about $1.3 million for us," Pepera said. "We've seen a real upswing in our valuation over time, going back to the early '80s. With schools, it can be very hard to project revenue and the auditor is now producing those figures for 2021. We expect to get those in late December of this year. We expect this upward trend to continue, based on information we've received from the auditor." Contact reporter Jonathan Delozier at (330) 721-4050 or jdelozier@medina-gazette.com.