DEAREST READER, WE HAVE OUR FIRST 3881. 👑📜
Oh, my.
A few days ago, Lady Budgetdown sent her readers out across Michigan with what probably sounded like a rather peculiar request:
FOIA Treasury Form 3881.
Why?
Because when a school district asks voters to approve hundreds of millions of dollars in bonds, there is considerably more sitting behind that ballot question than the paragraph voters see when they walk into the voting booth.
There are projections.
There are assumptions.
There are debt schedules.
There are enrollment numbers.
There are construction estimates.
There are financing calculations.
And, apparently, there are some rather interesting breadcrumbs.
One of Lady B's readers received our first 3881 today.
The district?
Chippewa Valley Schools.
The proposal?
$288,000,000.
And the response?
140 pages.
So pour yourself something lovely, dearest reader.
We are going down the rabbit hole. 🐇
But before we discuss what Chippewa Valley wants to borrow now, I think we need to understand what came before it.
Because buried in the district's own application to the Michigan Department of Treasury is one little date that stopped Lady B's quill:
SBLF Beginning Date: 1967.
Yes.
1967.
That is 59 years ago.
The SBLF is the School Bond Loan Fund, part of Michigan's School Bond Qualification and Loan Program. In very simple terms, when the debt millage collected by a participating school district isn't sufficient to make the required debt payments under the program, the state can loan the district the difference.
Those loans aren't free money.
They are loans.
And interest accrues.
Now look at what Chippewa Valley's 2026 application tells Treasury.
According to the district's own financial summary:
**SBLF beginning date:** 1967
**Estimated SBLF balance at the election date:** $33,286,048
**Projected SBLF end date:** 2037
**Mandatory final repayment date:** 2040
And that, dearest reader, sent Lady B looking backward.
Because 1967 to 2040 is quite a relationship.
So I kept digging.
And I found something else.
In 2015, Chippewa Valley's audited financial statements reported that the district defeased approximately **$194.6 MILLION** of Michigan School Bond Loan Fund and School Loan Revolving Fund debt by issuing refunding bonds.
Read that again.
**$194.6 million.**
That did not mean $194.6 million simply disappeared.
It meant that debt was refinanced through bonds.
And yet the state-loan story continued.
By June 30, 2025, Chippewa Valley's audited financial statements still reported approximately **$37.29 million** in SBLF/SLRF direct borrowing.
Now the 2026 Treasury application estimates the balance at the election date at approximately:
**$33.29 million.**
So our breadcrumbs currently look like this:
**1967**
SBLF beginning date listed on the district's Treasury application.
⬇️
**2015**
Approximately **$194.6 million** of SBLF/SLRF debt defeased through refunding bonds.
⬇️
**2025**
Approximately **$37.29 million** in SBLF/SLRF direct borrowing remained.
⬇️
**2026**
Approximately **$33.29 million** estimated SBLF balance at the election date.
⬇️
**2037**
Projected SBLF end date.
⬇️
**2040**
Mandatory final repayment date.
Now, a very important bit of housekeeping before somebody runs into the comments waving their arms.
Lady Budgetdown is **not** saying Chippewa Valley has continuously owed the same debt since 1967.
The document doesn't establish that.
What it establishes is that **Chippewa Valley itself lists 1967 as its SBLF beginning date**, and the historical financial records show a very substantial relationship with Michigan's school bond loan programs over the decades.
That distinction matters.
Receipts aren't very useful if we make them say something they don't.
But here's where this gets particularly interesting.
Chippewa Valley is now asking voters to authorize another:
**$288,000,000**
in bonds.
And its own 3881 financing model anticipates that the district may borrow **additional money from the state's school loan program** in connection with this proposal.
How much?
Oh, dearest reader.
Lady B knows.
And she also knows how much interest the district estimates on the proposed bonds.
And what the application reports for **current and proposed bond debt plus the state-loan balance.**
But those numbers deserve their own ledger.
Because **$288 million is not the last number in this application.**
Not remotely.
**Part Two: What does a $288 million bond actually mean under the district's own financing assumptions?**
Bring a calculator.
Lady B brought two.
**With receipts and respect.**