The Amagansett School has received top marks on its annual financial review, according to EFPR Group, the district’s outside auditing company.
“It’s the unmodified, ‘clean’ opinion,” Tom Mager, Amagansett’s district treasurer, said by phone last week. “They didn’t find anything wrong, in layman’s terms.”
According to financial statements posted on the school district’s website, aufsd.org, Amagansett ended the 2022-23 school year with $148,831 more in revenue than it originally projected. This, EFPR Group said, contributed to the district ending the year with just over $1.7 million in leftover money, representing just under 13 percent of the budget. New York State caps this pot of money, the “unassigned, unappropriated” fund balance, at 4 percent, but there is no penalty for districts that exceed it.
“Most districts I’m aware of are over that statutory 4 percent. We’re formulating a plan to get that down,” Mr. Mager said, explaining that small districts like Amagansett often experience drastic budget fluctuations based on enrollment from year to year. “If we didn’t have this excess, we’d be in some trouble, but we’re figuring out how to decrease that. Part of the plan is to once again give money back to the taxpayers through the unassigned fund balance, to help offset the tax levy next year.”