Dearest reader,
We have reached Step 6 — the final step in our Southfield Public Schools review.
And this time, we're opening the audit and the budget.
Let's start with the General Fund.
June 30, 2024 — $13,109,679
June 30, 2025 — $12,058,043
June 30, 2026 projected — $5,338,694
If Southfield's amended 2025-26 budget plays out as projected, its General Fund balance will decline by $6,719,349 in a single year.
That's a projected 55.7% reduction.
And that projection changed considerably during the budget year.
The district originally anticipated a $3,883,812 deficit. The final amended budget projects $6,719,349 — an increase of $2,835,537 in the projected deficit.
Now let's open the audit.
For 2024-25, Southfield reported $102,095,643 in General Fund revenue and $105,318,278 in expenditures. After other financing, the General Fund balance declined by $1,051,636 for the year.
But there was something else in the audit that deserves attention.
The auditors identified a material weakness involving the district's fixed-asset and capital-project accounting.
Significant audit adjustments were required, including $16.2 million reclassified from construction-in-progress to buildings and improvements, a $24.5 million upward adjustment to construction-in-progress additions, a $22.9 million reduction to building/improvement additions, and approximately $1.9 million added to disposals of land and buildings.
Those are accounting adjustments and reclassifications. They do not mean those millions of dollars were missing or improperly spent.
But a material weakness is not something I'm going to skip over, either.
And then there is the debt ledger.
As of June 30, 2025, Southfield reported $126,505,000 in outstanding bond principal. The audit shows bond debt increased from approximately $93.3 million to $126.5 million during 2024-25.
The 2025-26 amended budget also includes a 2026 Building & Site Fund showing another $100 million in bond proceeds.
I'm deliberately not adding that $100 million to the $126.5 million and calling it Southfield's current debt. We'd need to trace the actual issuance and any refunding before making that claim.
Receipts aren't very useful if we only keep the convenient ones.
So after six steps, this is where Southfield's ledger leaves us: a General Fund projected to lose more than half its balance in one year, a $6.7 million projected deficit, substantial outstanding bond debt, and an audit containing a material weakness involving the accounting and oversight of capital projects.
Those aren't conclusions about why each of those things happened.
They're the numbers and findings Southfield put on paper.
And that's precisely why we read the receipts. 🪶
With receipts and respect.
#LadyBudgetdown #SouthfieldPublicSchools #SouthfieldSchools #SchoolBudget #SchoolAudit #FundBalance #SchoolFinance #BondDebt #TaxpayerDollars #SchoolTransparency #MichiganSchools #FollowTheReceipts #WithReceiptsAndRespect