Dearest reader,
We have followed the students, the staffing, and the compensation.
Now we follow the checks.
Lady B reviewed Reed City Area Public Schools' 2024-25 check register and sorted identifiable spending into four familiar buckets.
Legal:
$20,054.00
Consulting:
$41,000.00
Advertising/media:
$85,568.41
Association dues & memberships:
$10,593.34
Combined identifiable spending:
$157,215.75
The largest bucket?
Advertising and media.
K12 Media alone accounts for $74,007.00.
Legal spending, meanwhile, totaled $20,054 — including $18,054 to Thrun Law Firm and $2,000 to Miller Johnson Snell & Cummiskey.
And a reminder about what these numbers mean:
This is not a declaration that these expenditures were unnecessary or inappropriate.
A check register tells us who was paid and how much.
It does not, by itself, tell us whether taxpayers received good value for every dollar.
That requires context.
But $157,215.75 is enough context to make the next question worth asking:
What did Reed City receive for the money?
Because Lady B isn't interested in declaring every expenditure bad simply because a check was written.
She is interested in knowing what the check bought.
With receipts and respect.
#LadyBudgetdown #ReedCity #ReedCityAreaPublicSchools #MichiganSchools #SchoolFinance #PublicEducation #SchoolSpending #CheckRegister #AdvertisingSpending #LegalSpending #Consulting #SchoolTransparency #PublicRecords #FollowTheMoney #WithReceiptsAndRespect