CHIPPEWA VALLEY SCHOOLS (50080)
Five Years of Budgets & Audits: What Do the Numbers Show?
Lady Budgetdown went back through five years of Chippewa Valley Schools' audited financial statements: FY 2020-21 through FY 2024-25.
No bond analysis here. No ballot recommendation. Just the operating books.
And there are a few things worth knowing.
FIVE YEARS. FIVE POSITIVE GENERAL FUND RESULTS.
Over the five audited fiscal years reviewed, Chippewa Valley Schools did not finish a single year with a General Fund deficit.
The district's General Fund balance increased from approximately $30.0 million at the beginning of FY 2020-21 to more than $45 million by the end of FY 2024-25.
That is an increase of roughly $15 million - about 50% - over the five-year period.
In other words, the district wasn't simply maintaining its General Fund reserves. It was adding to them.
THERE'S ALSO A BUDGETING PATTERN.
Lady Budgetdown compared the district's final amended budgets with the eventual audited results.
In each of the five years reviewed, the actual General Fund result finished more favorably than the final amended budget projected.
That does not mean money was hidden. It does not establish improper budgeting.
School districts often budget conservatively, and revenues and expenditures can change right up to year-end.
But five consecutive years is a pattern worth documenting.
Across the five years, the district's actual General Fund results collectively finished approximately $6.4 million better than its final amended budgets had projected.
A major reason?
Actual expenditures repeatedly came in below the amounts authorized in the final amended budgets.
WHERE IS GENERAL FUND SPENDING GOING?
For this question, Lady Budgetdown used Michigan's standardized Budget Transparency expenditure reports rather than creating her own definition of "instruction."
Those reports classify expenditures using the same Michigan function codes from year to year.
For the four standardized reports that could be independently verified:
2021-22
Instruction: $114.1 million - 63.50%
2022-23
Instruction: $125.4 million - 63.15%
2023-24
Instruction: $128.9 million - 61.21%
2024-25
Instruction: $129.4 million - 61.20%
That distinction matters. Instructional spending did not decrease.
It increased by approximately $15.4 million, or 13.5%, from 2021-22 through 2024-25.
At the same time, instruction represented a smaller share of total General Fund expenditures, moving from 63.50% to 61.20%.
Both facts belong in the conversation.
AND THERE ARE SOME BIG ASTERISKS.
These years cannot responsibly be compared without acknowledging COVID relief funding and Michigan retirement-system funding. Federal pandemic dollars significantly affected the earlier years.
MPSERS and Section 147c-related funding also moved substantial amounts through district revenues and expenditures, sometimes by millions of dollars in a single year. Those dollars are real.
But treating every increase as ordinary operating growth would give readers an incomplete picture.
There was also a significant accounting reclassification involving local revenue during this period, another reason Lady Budgetdown will not simply put five revenue numbers on a chart and call it a trend.
SO WHAT DOES THE FIVE-YEAR OPERATING REVIEW ACTUALLY TELL US?
Chippewa Valley Schools entered this period with a substantial General Fund reserve.
Five audited fiscal years later, that reserve was substantially larger.
The district produced positive General Fund results in every year reviewed.
Actual year-end results repeatedly finished better than even the final amended budgets projected.
Instructional spending increased in dollars, although instruction's share of total General Fund expenditures declined.
And several factors - including COVID funding and state retirement funding - materially affected the numbers along the way. Those aren't arguments for or against anything. They're the books.
And before taxpayers are asked to evaluate any new financial proposal, understanding the financial history already sitting on the public record seems like a pretty reasonable place to start.
Sources:
Chippewa Valley Schools audited financial statements, FY 2020-21 through FY 2024-25
Chippewa Valley Schools / Michigan CEPI Budget Transparency Operating Expenditure Reports
Michigan Financial Information Database (FID)
Data compiled and analyzed by Lady Budgetdown using publicly available records.
With receipts and respect.