📜 OKEMOS PUBLIC SCHOOLS STEP 4: WHERE DOES THE GENERAL FUND GO?

We've looked at ten years of funding. We've looked at ten years of staffing.

Now I'm opening another part of the Okemos ledger: 2024–25 General Fund expenditures.

Okemos reported approximately $72.05 million in total General Fund expenditures.

Of that:

💰 $59.33 million, 82.34% was personnel expenditures.

That included:

• $34.92 million - Salaries
• $18.00 million - FICA, retirement, unemployment & workers' compensation
• $5.48 million - Employee insurance benefits
• $914,231 - Other personnel costs

But there's another way to look at the same General Fund: what functions the money supported.

📚 Instruction: $42.28 million - 58.68%
⚙️ Operations & Maintenance: $7.15 million - 9.92%
👥 Pupil Support: $5.91 million - 8.20%
🏫 School Administration: $3.92 million - 5.44%
🍎 Instructional Staff Support: $3.36 million - 4.66%
🏛� Central & Other Support: $2.44 million - 3.39%
📋 General Administration: $860,720 - 1.19%

One important note before anyone starts adding those two sections together:

They are two different ways of looking at expenditures.

Personnel tells us what type of cost was incurred. The operating-function report tells us where those expenditures were assigned functionally. They are not separate piles of money to be added together.

And I'm not going to tell you whether 82.34% for personnel is "too much" or "too little." The district's own transparency report cautions that these percentages can be affected by whether services are provided by district employees or outsourced.

The numbers are useful. But context matters. So for now, I'm simply putting the receipts on the table.
📜 $72.05 million General Fund.

$59.33 million in personnel expenditures.

$42.28 million assigned to instruction.

And the Okemos ledger stays open.

Source: Okemos Public Schools 2024–25 Budget Transparency Reports — Personnel Expenditures and Operating Expenditures.

With receipts and respect.