A recent fiscal stress test performed by the New York State Comptroller has concluded the Huntington School District is in a strong financial position. The district earned the highest designation possible within the state’s monitoring system.
New York’s Assistant Comptroller Tracey Hitchen Boyd sent an email to Huntington Superintendent James W. Polansky last week with the results of the state’s examination of the district’s financial and environmental indicators. Ms. Boyd wrote that Huntington “is currently classified as No Designation with a score of 0 percent” in the fiscal oversight program.
“This year’s report, once again, reflects responsible and transparent fiscal management of both expenditures and revenues, as well as multi-year plans associated with each,” Mr. Polansky said.
This marks the fifth year that State Comptroller Thomas DiNapoli’s office has assessed level of school district fiscal stress. The comptroller’s office used a variety of financial indicators including year-end fund balance, cash position, short term debt issuances and patterns of operating surpluses/deficits to produce a “fiscal stress” score that classified districts in “significant fiscal stress,” in “moderate fiscal stress” as “susceptible to fiscal stress” or “no designation,” which was the highest rating provided.
A separate examination of environmental indicators included student enrollment, enrollment trends, class sizes, levels of poverty and English language learners. Huntington received an environmental score of 20 percent, which landed the district in the “no designation” category in that rating area, too.
According to the stress test rubric, the higher the score in the financial and environmental indicator sections, the worse the condition of the district is believed to be in that respective area. The state has classified two districts as being under “significant fiscal stress,” seven districts in “moderate fiscal stress” and 17 as “susceptible to fiscal stress.” Scores are based on each district’s ST-3 report filed with the State Education Department as of December 29, 2017.