Step 5: And now, dear readers, we have arrived at the check register.
Lady Budgetdown opened River Rouge Community Schools' 2024–25 ledger and found $26,579,631.05 in disbursements.
Twenty-six and a half million dollars is quite a lot of ink, so naturally I began following the larger trails.
And one trail practically required its own carriage.
ATS Educational Service Inc.: $6,207,945.43.
Approximately $6.2 million of that is described in the district's register as "ATS Virtual Academy."
That single vendor represents roughly 23.4% of the entire check register.
Nearly one quarter.
But ATS was hardly the only sizable entry.
National Trails LLC — $2,673,854.47
Student Transportation — $2,109,974.42
SFE Holdings LLC — $1,676,873.28
MESSA — $1,553,057.74
D.M. Burr — $1,380,685.04
And then came the breadcrumbs.
Justice Taylor — $304,885.00, with payments overwhelmingly described as maintenance/repair of grounds.
Concentric Educational — $99,900.00 for "Concentric Home Visit."
Tau Consulting Services — $88,513.00, largely for substitute/temporary school staffing.
EDIFII.US LLC — $72,000.00 for "Supplemental Initiatives STEM."
Data Mosaic & Design Studio — $43,710.50, largely described simply as "Other Purchased Services."
Now, a large check does not make a bad check. A contractor is not suspicious merely because the contract is expensive.
But $6.2 million for a virtual academy?
$304,885 to one vendor for grounds-related work?
And tens of thousands more behind descriptions that tell the public very little about what was actually purchased?
Those are precisely the sorts of entries that make Lady Budgetdown dip the quill back into the ink.
Not because the ledger has answered the questions.
Because it has told us which questions are worth asking. 🧐🪶
With receipts & respect.
#LadyBudgetdown #RiverRouge #RiverRougeCommunitySchools #MichiganSchools #SchoolSpending #SchoolFinance #PublicEducation #CheckTheRegister #FollowTheMoney #SchoolTransparency #WithReceiptsAndRespect