GUILDERLAND — The school district here celebrated itself on Oct. 11 with a clean audit, a ceremony to recognize outstanding employees, and kudos for board members and principals.

“What a warm, welcoming culture we have at Guilderland,” said Superintendent Marie Wiles.

The employees who were given awards and lauded in speeches were teachers Danielle Benner, Lindsey Fargnoli, Bernard Rahman, and Jo Ann Romano; teaching assistants Janet Edmonds and Cheryl Futia; bus dispatcher Patty Carroll; monitor Sue Warnken; and administrator Marcia Ranieri.

For National School Board Appreciation Week, books were selected in honor of each school board member to be inscribed and then given to school libraries. Finally, Wiles praised the work of the school principals as October is National Principals Month.

Clean audit

Guilderland’s independent financial audit for the year ending June 30, 2022 received “a clean audit opinion — that is the highest you can receive,” said Jill M. Thaisz, a certified public accountant and partner at West & Company CPAs.

She walked through the 73-page report with board members and answered their questions.

“In our opinion, the accompanying financial statements present fairly, in all material respects, the respective financial position of the governmental activities, each major fund, and the aggregate remaining fund information of the District,” the report says.

The report notes that Guilderland’s total assessed valuation decreased by approximately $17 million in 2021-22 showing a slight decrease from the prior year “but indicating an overall stable tax base and economic stability.”

It also notes that the $110 million budget passed with 67.2 percent of the vote.

Guilderland had a decrease of approximately $872,000 in net position on district-wide financials “mainly due to a decrease in net pension liabilities and post-employment benefits which offset increases in capital expenditures, federal grant expenditures, and general fund increases in transportation and tax certiorari expenses,” the report says.

For this year, Guilderland has a liability of $248 million for the amount it plans to pay out to retirees for future health insurance.

“All school districts are required to record this liability,” said Thaisz, explaining that New York State does not allow school districts to set aside money to pay for the liability.

She explained further, “All the districts have to have an actuary to determine how much in the future you will have to pay out for health insurance …. You have to record the liability on your books.”

Since the state doesn’t allow districts to set aside funds in advance to pay for future retirees’ health costs, “it causes you to have a massive liability,” said Thaisz.

That liability is growing.

In 2018, the future-benefits costs for Guilderland totaled $175 million; this year, it totals $248 million.

For Guilderland’s general fund, the fund balance, or rainy-day account, for the year went down $886,784 so Guilderland ended the year with a fund balance of $11,259,971.

In June, the school board had agreed to take $430,338.85 from its unrestricted fund balance to meet part of tax certiorari claims paid in 2021-22 that were unforeseen and in excess of the original proposed budget amount approved by voters on May 18.

“New York State law requires that districts are not allowed to have more than 4 percent of next year’s budget in unassigned fund balance at the end of the year,” said Thaisz.

She said of Guilderland, “At the end of the year, you are at 4 percent so you’re in compliance with that regulation for this year.”

Thaisz also noted that Guilderland received $5.9 million in federal grant funding, which is “up substantially” from previous years “due to the large COVID grant funding and the increase in your child nutrition, being able to provide free meals for all students.”

The only “qualified opinion” in the report was for monies from student clubs.

“We can’t prove that all money raised is actually submitted to the central treasurer,” said Thaisz, adding that all schools have that problem. 

When the board’s president, Seema Rivera, asked Thaisz if there were ways Guilderland could improve its tracking of student club monies, Thaisz responded, “There really isn’t an efficient way to allow for an audit of that just because there are so many pieces, so many different clubs and fundraisers.”

John Rizzo, the district’s school business administrator, said that, when a club has been financially inactive for three years, after he has communicated with the club’s advisor, any money that club has is rolled into the student government account.

“Some clubs are active without financial activity,” said Rizzo. In those cases, he encourages them to raise a dollar “to comply with the literal letter of the law.”

Before the school board voted unanimously to accept the audit report, Assistant Superintendent for Business Neil Sanders commended the work of his staff.

“We have an excellent staff …,” he said, “that makes sure our funds are maintained and gets this kind of results in an audit.”

Other business

In other business on Oct. 11, the Guilderland School Board:

— Held a public hearing on an amendment allowing videoconferencing as part of the state’s Open Meetings Law. No one from the public spoke at the hearing.

Wiles explained that, before the pandemic, school boards could have members participate in meetings through videoconferencing as long as their location was publicly posted and accessible to the public.

The amendment would allow members of a school board, or any public body, in “extraordinary circumstances,” such as illness, to videoconference from places the public can’t go, such as their homes.

The board’s policy committee will establish written procedures that define “extraordinary circumstances” for the board to consider at its next meeting.

The board must have an in-person quorum to hold a meeting; if there is a quorum, anyone attending remotely can participate and vote. Meetings with videoconferencing must be recorded and posted within five business days.

“For us, that won’t change,” said Wiles. “We’ll continue to livestream as we have been.”

What did change, when the governor lifted the state of emergency for the pandemic, is that committee meetings, with a quorum of board members, now have to be held in person rather than remotely;

— Heard praise from one parent on the care and kindness of district bus drivers and criticism from another parent on late arrivals at school, to which Rivera responded, “The bus situation has improved.”

Rebeka F. Lange also wrote of concerns she has with enrichment programs at the elementary level. One of her children left the district this year, she said, “because he wasn’t challenged enough and was bored at school for the last 2 years.”

She advised the district to look at how many students had left and wrote, “At this time the district will give a student help if they are struggling but if we have a kid that needs more he is ignored.”

Rivera said the board will be discussing enrichment later;

— Heard from Sanders the upcoming budget development schedule, beginning with public input on Oct. 25.

 He also reported on the district’s enrollment as of the first Wednesday in October, a state-set date for recording enrollment: Guilderland has 4,853 students in kindergarten through 12th grade, which is 22 more students than last year — and two fewer than predicted during the budget process.

The five elementary schools together have gained eight students while Farnsworth Middle School has added 39 students, and Guilderland High School has 25 fewer students;

— Heard from Assistant superintendent for Curriculum and Instruction Rachel Anderson that four Guilderland students were selected for the New York State School Music Association All State Music Ensembles: senior Maxine Alpart, an alto; senior Bohdan Kinal, who plays the alto saxophone; junior Olivia Petti, who plays the oboe, and was also chosen as a chorus alternate; and Karsen Rittner, chosen as an alternate on the violin; and

— Heard praise from Wiles for Patrice Vivirito, public information specialist, and Patrick Malowski, digital content specialist, for winning awards from the New York School Public Relations Association.

The first award was given for “Stories from GHS Graduation 2022,” which played on the district’s social media channels while the second award was for campaign materials for the district’s 2021 capital improvement project.