Oh, East China... your Lady was told there was another contract negotiation happening, and naturally, the ledger began rustling all by itself. 🪶
Teachers are negotiating a new contract, and the question brought to Lady Budgetdown was a familiar one:
Can East China afford an increase?
Now, your Lady shall not be pulling up a chair at the bargaining table. I am not deciding what anyone deserves, nor am I declaring what the district can or cannot afford.
That would be terribly presumptuous. I simply opened the ledger. 📖
And East China's ledger is a bit more complicated than some we have visited.
The district finished 2024–25 with a $4.89 million General Fund balance, or 9.28% of expenditures.
That year also ended with a $2.19 million General Fund deficit.
For 2025–26, however, the district's final budget is essentially balanced. It projects an ending General Fund balance of $4.91 million, or 9.44%.
Looking ahead to 2026–27, the original budget projects the balance declining again, to approximately $4.34 million, or 8.34%.
And here is one particularly important receipt:
East China's own policy calls for a minimum General Fund balance of 10%.
So, unlike some districts we have visited, East China is already below its own stated benchmark.
That deserves to be on the table.
But while the ledger was open, your Lady took one small glance at staffing. Just one. I promised myself I would behave.
Over the last decade:
Teachers: down 9.8%
Instructional aides/paras: up 89.5%
Central/LEA administrators: up 61.7%
School administrators: down 6.7%
That does not tell us what East China should offer its teachers. It does not tell us that every increase or decrease was good, bad, necessary or unnecessary.
It simply tells us how the district has changed.
And one final word of caution from the ledger keeper: budgets are projections. We have seen projected deficits turn into very different audited results before, which is precisely why Lady Budgetdown distinguishes between what actually happened and what a district currently expects to happen.
So there shall be no grand verdict from this corner of the internet.
There is a district below its own fund-balance benchmark.
There is a balanced 2025–26 budget projection.
There is another deficit projected for 2026–27.
There are significant changes in staffing over the decade.
And there is a new teacher contract being negotiated.
I have supplied the receipts.
You, dear readers, may supply the answer.
Can East China afford an increase?
You decide. 👑🪶
With receipts and respect,
Lady Budgetdown
#LadyBudgetdown #EastChinaSchoolDistrict #SchoolFinance #Teachers #Paraprofessionals #PublicSchools #Transparency #Accountability #TheReceipts