Dearest reader,
A reader sent Lady B a rather simple question today.
Their child has a trip to Hartley Outdoor Education Center this school year, and they wanted to know:
If Saginaw ISD is supported by taxpayer dollars, and Hartley is owned and operated by Saginaw ISD, why are families paying to send their children there?
Especially when Saginaw ISD is currently asking voters to renew a millage.
Fair question. So Lady B went looking.
🏕� FIRST, WHAT IS HARTLEY?
Hartley isn't a privately owned summer camp.
It is owned and operated by Saginaw ISD as an educational program serving students throughout Saginaw County.
In 2024, SISD says Hartley served:
🏕� 1,829 students through residential programming at 29 schools
🌲 847 additional students through day trips and summer camps
That's 2,676 students.
🧮 SO WHAT WOULD IT COST TO COVER THE STUDENTS?
Let's use $150 per student simply as an illustration.
If SISD covered $150 for every one of the 1,829 residential students:
$274,350.
If SISD covered $150 for ALL 2,676 students reported across residential programs, day trips and summer camps:
$401,400.
IMPORTANT:
Those are NOT Hartley's actual per-student charges.
Lady B has not located a current Hartley rate sheet, and Hartley says individual schools determine the final cost charged to families.
This is simply putting the potential scale into numbers we can understand.
💰 NOW LET'S LOOK AT SISD.
Saginaw ISD ended FY2025 with approximately:
$45.17 MILLION in governmental fund balances.
Before anyone starts typing...
No, that does NOT mean SISD has $45 million sitting around that it can spend however it wants.
Much of that money is restricted or assigned for specific purposes.
But approximately:
💰 $3.52 MILLION remained UNASSIGNED in SISD's General Fund.
Hartley also has its own foundation, which reported approximately:
💰 $1.15 MILLION in assets.
Meanwhile...
SISD Superintendent Jeffrey Collier's current salary is $370,000.
Lady B's review of SISD check registers also identified at least:
✈️ $160,106.41
in travel and travel-related expenditures across the records reviewed.
To be perfectly clear, that $160,106.41 is SISD travel spending Lady B identified. It is NOT all Jeffrey Collier's personal travel.
But Collier himself has documented travel to numerous destinations across the country and across the globe to places like London, France, the Panama Canal over the past several years.
📈 AND THEN THERE'S CENTRAL ADMINISTRATION.
Special Education "Central" spending increased from:
FY2023: $275,386
FY2025: $465,776
Increase:
+$190,390
+69.1%
IN TWO YEARS.
And when we zoom out further...
SISD reported:
2014–15: 19.0 central-administrator FTEs
2024–25: 44.4
That's:
+25.4 positions
+133.7%
🗳� AND YES, ABOUT THAT MILLAGE...
Saginaw ISD is asking voters to renew its Special Education millage.
That money is legally restricted to Special Education.
It cannot simply be redirected to Hartley.
Lady B isn't suggesting otherwise.
But I think the reader's larger question is still worth asking.
Taxpayers already support Saginaw ISD.
SISD owns Hartley.
SISD operates Hartley.
SISD describes Hartley as an educational program for children throughout Saginaw County.
Yet SISD's own Hartley information tells schools they can FUNDRAISE to "offset or eliminate" program costs for families.
So perhaps the question isn't:
"Can SISD charge for Hartley?"
Perhaps it's:
🧐 WHY DOES SISD CHOOSE TO?
And what would it actually cost SISD to make this taxpayer-supported educational program available to students in its constituent public school districts without families being charged to participate?
When we're talking about hundreds of millions in public dollars, multimillion-dollar fund balances, administrative growth, executive compensation, and six figures in travel expenses...
$274,350 suddenly provides some interesting perspective.
Perhaps that's a question worth asking before taxpayers are asked for another vote of confidence.
With receipts and respect,
Lady Budgetdown 🪶
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