17 Sep Board of Supervisors and School Board need to ask more questions on County and School financial management.
Transparency into the school finances is at an all-time high thanks to the new Superintendent, Dr. Curran, and additional temporary support at the school. This is a great step forward. At both the September School Board meeting and the Board of Supervisors meeting, some key questions were posed regarding revenue, expenditures, and reports. Unfortunately the voices asking questions on the School Board were few (really one) but this resulted in new reports being posted in time for the Board of Supervisors meeting.
During the Board of Supervisors meeting, several members asked about both the school finances for 2025 and the current year. It looks like 2025 will be closed out with the latest transfers, at least based on what the UHY team knows right now. The 2026 fiscal year is 2 ½ months in and there are no revenue reports available (the school finance team had not posted any reports since January 2025 so this isn’t a surprise but we were hoping the new County Finance Director would be able to get up and running in time to post them for September).
Several of the BoS members asked questions about potential “surprises” in expenses later in the year. If the right questions are not asked now and the Superintendent is not provided the right support by the County, there may indeed be some higher expenses later in the year. The expense and checkbook reports were posted for analysis and below is a quick summary on school finances to date:
- Spending in most categories is lower than last year which is a either a good sign that spending cuts are being enacted OR a sign that some expenses haven’t been paid yet OR a sign that they have been paid but not yet recorded. Nutrition and transportation areas need a closer look as spending is much lower than this time last year and for nutrition, that is a surprise. Nutrition expenses have no impact on County finances as those funds all come from federal and/or state but lower spending over the same time as last year is a surprise.
- Vendor payments need a closer look. Some areas where spending should be relatively stable are much lower than last year. The question is are the bills not yet paid? Did they not get recorded yet? What will happen when they come due? Will the School have enough in their quarterly budget to pay the extra or will they need an “advance” on the next quarter’s budget?
At least one bill is double what it was this time last year. That might not normally be an issue, however, in this case it is the Amazon bill which could become a bigger problem if not watched closely.
We applaud the County and the School for the increase in transparency and for paying closer attention to managing all County spending.