Dearest reader,
We have followed the St. Johns Public Schools ledger through enrollment, staffing, compensation and the check register.
Now Lady Budgetdown is turning to something every taxpayer should understand:
The General Fund. 🧐📜
And this one deserves a little context before anyone starts clutching the pearls.
Let us begin with the audited numbers — what actually happened.
📜 AUDITED GENERAL FUND BALANCE
2022–23: $6,004,947
2023–24: $6,665,613
2024–25: $5,841,077
So the district actually grew its General Fund balance by $660,666 during 2023–24.
Then came 2024–25.
The district's final budget anticipated spending $1,662,167 more than it brought in, which would have reduced the General Fund balance to approximately $5.0 million.
But that isn't what ultimately happened.
The audit showed an actual decrease of $824,536.
In other words, St. Johns finished approximately $837,631 better than its final budget projection.
And Lady Budgetdown believes good news belongs in the ledger too. 👏
Receipts aren't very useful if we only keep the convenient ones.
But now we turn the page.
For 2025–26, the district's final amended General Fund budget shows:
Revenue: $37,052,381
Appropriations: $37,922,387
Planned draw from fund balance: $870,006
Projected ending fund balance: $4,971,071.
And then we arrive at the current 2026–27 adopted budget.
Revenue: $36,445,060
Appropriations: $37,001,029
Planned draw from fund balance: $555,969
Projected ending fund balance: $4,415,102.
The district itself reports that projected balance would represent 11.9% of appropriations.
So let us pull the spectacles down and look at the trajectory:
June 2024 audited: $6.666 million
⬇️
June 2025 audited: $5.841 million
⬇️
June 2026 projected: $4.971 million
⬇️
June 2027 projected: $4.415 million
If the current budget projections materialize, that would represent a decline of approximately $2.25 million — 33.8% — from the June 2024 audited General Fund balance.
Now comes the important part.
A budget is not an audit.
A projected deficit is not the same thing as an actual deficit.
St. Johns demonstrated that very clearly in 2024–25 when its actual results came in substantially better than budgeted.
So I am NOT telling you that St. Johns will end June 2027 with $4.415 million.
I am telling you that this is what the district's own adopted budget currently projects.
And after everything else we've found in this ledger — nearly 20% fewer pupils over the decade, a 75% increase in district-level administrative FTE, and the spending and compensation trends we've already examined — I think the General Fund deserves a place under the spectacles too.
The question isn't:
"Is St. Johns going broke?"
The receipts do not establish that.
The better question is:
Why is the district budgeting repeated draws on its General Fund balance, and what is the long-term plan for stabilizing it?
That is a question a budget can raise.
The audits will eventually tell us what actually happened.
And Lady Budgetdown will be here when they do. 🧐📚
With receipts and respect.
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