Savings accounts are budgeted down to nothing

What happened

Collingswood is spending its reserves to close its budget. The maintenance reserve, the money set aside to fix buildings, falls from $303,329 at June 2024 to $202,807, then $52,807, and is budgeted at zero by June 2027. The legal reserve of excess surplus follows the same path to zero. The surplus rolled into the budget as revenue drops to $156,521 from $805,321, which the budget file explains as limited surplus from 2024-25; the business administrator told the board she would normally want to see close to a million. The capital reserve falls from $1,366,096 to an estimated $859,476. The district's own long-range analysis warns that fund balance and reserves cannot sustain recurring operations indefinitely.

Why it matters to families

The maintenance reserve is what pays for an unexpected repair, in buildings members told the board average about ninety years old. A board member asked directly whether an empty reserve means the district cannot pay to fix a set of stairs, and the business administrator said yes; she had already frozen spending part-way through the year and was making staff jump through hoops to buy anything. A pipe burst at the middle school in February whose cause the district's own technicians could not find, and a student told the board in the same month about leaks on the third floor and mould she said had been spray painted over rather than having the tiles replaced.

The evidence

The advertised 2026-27 budget's recapitulation of balances gives the maintenance reserve at $202,807 on June 30, 2025, an estimated $52,807 on June 30, 2026 and zero on June 30, 2027, the legal reserve falling from $955,101 to $156,521 to zero, and the capital reserve from $1,366,096 to an estimated $859,476. The full budget file explains the reduction in budgeted fund balance as limited surplus from 2024-2025 and the reduced maintenance reserve withdrawal as limited funds in that reserve. The long-range financial sustainability analysis states that fund balance and reserves cannot sustain recurring operations indefinitely. The March 19 and March 23, 2026 recordings contain the frozen spending and the exchange about the empty maintenance reserve, and the February 18 and February 26, 2026 recordings contain the pipe burst and the leaks and mould report.

The source