Dearest reader,
Now we arrive at one of my favorite parts of the ledger.
The check register. 👓
Earlier, Merrill's expenditure report showed $1,227,905 in purchased services — about 15.8% of General Fund expenditures.
That's a large number.
But a large number without understanding what sits behind it isn't particularly useful.
So I followed the checks.
And Merrill gave us a rather good example of why we do that.
👥 WILLSUB / PCMI — approximately $585,551
This wasn't simply a mysterious half-million-dollar consulting contract.
The register shows contracted staffing across the district — K–12 staffing, early childhood, infant/toddler programs, office aides, coaches and other positions. One June check alone included PCMI expenditures for infant/toddler care, before/after-school programming, preschool, office aides and elementary, middle and high school staffing.
🧹 Customized Cleaning — approximately $175,636
The register identifies these payments as custodial contract services.
Then we find:
🏫 Saginaw ISD — approximately $97,651
⚙️ Johnson Controls — approximately $33,844
🔧 Honeywell — approximately $25,284
⚙️ Siemens — approximately $25,000
💻 ClearGov — approximately $20,300
🌐 Apptegy — approximately $16,673
⚖️ Masud Schutter Peters — approximately $10,600
And this is where the ledger becomes useful.
At first glance, $1.23 million in purchased services might make an eyebrow rise.
After following the checks?
We can see that a substantial portion represents actual people and services that another district might provide using employees on its own payroll.
That matters.
It also adds an important layer to the staffing numbers we examined earlier.
Some of the people doing Merrill's work aren't necessarily sitting in Merrill's employee FTE count.
They're sitting in the check register.
Well now. 👀
That's precisely why Lady Budgetdown doesn't stop when she finds one interesting number.
Had I stopped at purchased services, I could have made the number sound rather ominous.
The receipts provided context instead.
And sometimes context makes a finding worse.
Sometimes it makes it better.
Sometimes it simply makes it accurate.
I'm perfectly happy with the third option. 🪶
And our Merrill theme continues to hold:
Small districts can have very different ledgers.
Same methodology.
Same spectacles.
Same abacus.
Different receipts.
With receipts and respect.
#LadyBudgetdown #MerrillCommunitySchools #SaginawCounty #MichiganSchools #SchoolFinance #BudgetTransparency #CheckRegister #PurchasedServices #PublicEducation #FollowTheMoney #FollowTheReceipts #NumbersTellAStoryToo #WithReceiptsAndRespect