Dearest reader,
A little housekeeping from the ledger.
Recently, a member of the St. Charles Board of Education left this comment on one of Lady Budgetdown's posts:
"Please report ACCURATE information...the St. Charles superintendent salary is off by more than $50,000. I know this to be true as I am on the St. Charles Board of Education."
There is just one rather important problem.
The information came from St. Charles Community Schools.
The district's own 2024-25 Employee Compensation Information shows a superintendent serving from July 1 through December 31, 2024, and an interim superintendent serving from January 1 through June 30, 2025.
And the original Lady Budgetdown post specifically told readers that St. Charles had a superintendent change during the year.
It also specifically explained that the statewide comparison was a wage ledger, reported wages, not annualized salary rates and not total compensation.
So when a sitting board member publicly tells Lady Budgetdown to report "ACCURATE information" and invokes her position on the Board of Education as the reason she knows the information is wrong, I think it is fair to show readers the source.
Her own district.
This matters for another reason.
Election season is approaching.
Lady Budgetdown is not endorsing candidates at this time. But voters should have the opportunity to see what their current elected officials say publicly, compare those statements with the underlying records, and reach their own conclusions.
That applies to every district Lady B examines.
Board members are certainly free to challenge the ledger. In fact, please do. If something is wrong, send the record showing it and Lady B will correct it.
But when the "inaccurate information" being challenged came directly from the district's own published compensation report, and the original post already disclosed the superintendent transition, that deserves a receipt too.
So here it is.
Her comment.
The original disclosure.
And St. Charles Community Schools' own compensation report.
With receipts and respect. 🪶