06 Nov New Year, Same Financial Management Problems at the School

Posted at 17:36h in School Board by
Fall is here along with crisp nights and beautiful falling leaves.  The new school fiscal year, which began in July, brought new opportunities for the School Board and school administration to restore community trust.  The first fiscal quarter of the 2025 school budget year is finished and we are nearing interim quarter student reviews.  We’re not sure how the student reviews will go but the school board and school administration deserve failing grades this quarter in budget and financial management.  
“Failing Grades?  Why?”, you ask.  
 
Because after just three months, just one quarter of the school year, a review of published school financial documents found that:
 
(1) The Year to Date (YTD) reported revenue ($4.5 million) is more than $704,000 higher than the sum of monthly revenue reported in July, August, and September, ($3.8 million) [1]
 
Reported YTD
through September: $4,544,102
 
Monthly Revenue Totals
July                   $1,252,693.76
August              $836,373.22
September    $1,750,963.54
Total              $3,840,030.52
 
The difference between the two totals is $704,072.
 
(2) Money is being spent out of accounts that have no appropriations associated with them [2].  Every expenditure is supposed to be measured against how much money has been allocated to the line item.  (When the appropriation isn’t input, it’s like writing a check before you make a deposit.)
 
Questions about some of these issues were raised last year during budget hearings so it remains to be seen if things change this year.   On the bright side, the finance director reported in the September Board of Supervisor’s meeting that the school would be returning about $2,000,000 to the County coffers.  This is due to their good work in chasing reimbursements for grants so the money the County put forward can be returned back to us. (timestamp 47:16 of September Board of Supervisors meeting  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iZagrGyUDuo&t=3302s).  
 
If you have school budget questions or comments, be sure to save the date for November 11th’s 6:00 Public Hearing.  Meeting details here: https://go.boarddocs.com/va/nucps/Board.nsf/files/D9GT2F753E14/$file/2025-2026%20Budget%20Calendar%20Approved.pdf  
 
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