The Westbury School District has made progress in bringing its unrestricted fund balance below the New York State legal threshold, but still has some work to do before it is fully in compliance, according to the district’s board of education.

Last year, the Westbury School District had 5.33% of its unrestricted fund balance in its reserves, while the state requires that districts have no more than 4%. This year, the district has 4.36% in its unrestricted reserves. Unrestricted reserves may be used at a district’s discretion and are similar to a savings account or emergency fund, according to previously published reports.

Douglas Zimmerman, an auditor with EFPR Group, gave the district’s annual audit report during the Tuesday, Sept. 29 board of education meeting. He said the district has improved its use of unrestricted reserves from last year and said the district should continue to use funds from the reserves. He said the best way to do that is through funding reserves and through appropriating the fund balance for future budgets.

During the meeting, Board President Robert Troiano said he preferred when the district’s unrestricted reserves were closer to 6%, and said the extra funding would help the district “ride through any storms that might occur.”

“We have in the last year or two brought it very close to 4%,” Troiano said. “The comptroller sets a guideline and doesn’t want school districts to retain money that actually belongs to the taxpayers.”

Zimmerman said he also reviewed the $7.6 million the district receives in federal funding and said that nearly $4 million of that funding goes to the district’s child nutrition programs.