LADY BUDGETDOWN: SAGINAW PUBLIC SCHOOLS
THE $99.95 MILLION BOND AND WHAT CAME NEXT
Dearest readers, a reader brought Your Lady a breadcrumb.
And, as occasionally happens around here, one little breadcrumb led directly to a rather large ledger.
In November 2020, voters approved $99.95 million for Saginaw Public Schools' Bond 2020 program.
So Your Lady started with a rather simple question:
If voters approved $99.95 million, why does the district's own 2026 bond resolution say that, "due to unforeseen cost overruns and other reasons," the district was unable to complete all of the projects using the previous bond proceeds?
Out came the quill.
📜 THE PROJECT LEDGER
The four major projects were originally estimated at approximately:
Saginaw United High School
$62.0M → $85.0M
Increase: $23.0M | +37.1%
Handley Elementary
$13.9M → $24.5M
Increase: $10.6M | +76.3%
SASA / Arthur Hill Conversion
$15.2M → $18.4M
Increase: $3.2M | +21.1%
Saginaw High → Middle School
$9.0M → $13.9M
Increase: $4.9M | +54.4%
Combined original estimates: $100.1M
Later reported costs: $141.8M
Difference: approximately $41.7M.
A small but important distinction: the four original project estimates total approximately $100.1 million. The amount actually authorized by voters was $99.95 million.
Construction management for the major Bond 2020 work was handled by R.C. Hendrick & Son, Inc.
Now, before anyone reaches for the calculator and declares that taxpayers simply received another $41.7 million bill, that is NOT what these numbers mean.
Other funding sources, including federal ESSER relief dollars, were used to help cover increased construction costs. District officials also cited inflation and supply-chain pressures as contributors to the increases.
But the ledger doesn't end there.
📜 JANUARY 2026
The Board approved moving:
$10,000,000
from General Fund fund balance into the Bond Reserve Fund specifically "to complete the Bond 2020 projects."
And then came July.
📜 JULY 2026
The district's own bond resolution states that "due to unforeseen cost overruns and other reasons," it had been unable to complete all of the earlier bond projects using the previous bond proceeds.
The Board then authorized up to $10 million in additional Limited Tax General Obligation bonds to complete the remaining projects.
These were non-voted bonds.
The resolution also provides for proceeds from that borrowing to reimburse General Fund money previously advanced for the projects.
And that leaves Your Lady with several perfectly reasonable questions.
🪶 What was the FINAL cost of each Bond 2020 project?
🪶 How much ESSER and other federal funding ultimately went toward the increased construction costs?
🪶 How much General Fund money was ultimately advanced to finish the projects?
🪶 How much of that General Fund money will be reimbursed through the additional borrowing?
🪶 And what accounts for the final increase in each individual project?
Because there is an enormous difference between asking questions about cost increases and declaring that money was "wasted."
Your Lady isn't doing the latter.
The district's own resolution says there were "unforeseen cost overruns and other reasons."
So now we're simply asking:
What were the other reasons?
The ledger remains open.
With receipts and respect. 🪶
Saginaw Public Schools
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