Amid the mind-boggling array of big numbers presented during a recent review of the Fort Dodge Community School District’s budget was a piece of very good news.

That news is that the district is in fine fiscal condition.

In fact, it is one of three districts in the state that currently meet both measures of financial health. The other two are Southeast Polk and Iowa Valley.

Those two measures are the solvency ratio and the unspent authorized budget ratio. For those of us who don’t have a background in accounting or public finance, those two concepts might as well be meaningless. But for those who live and breathe those kinds of numbers, those concepts tell the story of how healthy a school district’s budget is. In the case of Fort Dodge, that story is a good one.

At the end of the fiscal year that concluded June 30, the district had $28.9 million in assets and $19.7 million in liabilities. That gives the district a fund equity of about $9.2 million.

The district also had $13 million in cash reserves at the end of that fiscal year. To put that in perspective, it is enough money to run the district for about 100 days if some kind of highly unlikely circumstance stopped any new revenue from coming in.

This is remarkable considering that a decade ago, the district was struggling financially and had a fund that was insolvent.

It took more than good luck to make that kind of turnaround. A lot of good management and some tough decisions were involved.

Much of the credit goes to Brandon Hansel, the district’s director of financial services . He directly oversees the district’s budget every day.

Other administrators and members of the district’s Board of Education also contributed to this success.

District residents can take comfort that their school system’s finances are in capable hands.