Marysville Public Schools: Final Step - Budget & Audit

[Shadowninja]

 Lady Budgetdown: Marysville Public Schools: Final Step

And now, dear readers, we arrive at my favorite part of the ledger.

The budgets said one thing.

The audits said another. 🪶🧾

In 2023-24, Marysville's final General Fund budget projected a surplus of about $364,000.

Actual result?

💰 +$5.67 MILLION

That's roughly $5.30 million better than the final budget projected.

Then came 2024-25.

The final budget projected Marysville would spend about $573,000 more than it brought in.

Actual result?

💰 +$2.01 MILLION

Another roughly $2.59 million swing in the other direction.

By June 2025, Marysville was sitting on approximately $18.75 million in General Fund balance.

Now the ledger changes direction.

Marysville's 2025-26 final budget projects approximately:

📉 -$3.44 million

And 2026-27 projects another:

📉 -$2.39 million

That deserves watching.

But Lady B is putting a very large asterisk beside those numbers:

A projected deficit is not an actual deficit.

Marysville just gave us two consecutive examples of exactly why that distinction matters.

There is one other item from the audits worth keeping in the ledger.

Auditors identified internal-control issues, including a repeat material weakness involving timely bank reconciliations. The auditors also previously called attention to significant overbudgeting in portions of the General Fund and recommended that amended budgets be reconciled more closely with expected actual spending.

So what does Lady B take from all of this?

Marysville was not showing signs of an exhausted General Fund through June 2025. Quite the opposite.

But the district is now budgeting significant draws against those reserves.

Will those deficits actually materialize?

Or will Marysville once again finish millions of dollars better than its final budget predicted?

That, dear readers, is why I keep both the budget AND the audit. 👀

One tells me what you expected to happen.

The other tells me what actually happened.

And Lady B rather prefers knowing both. 👑🪶

Sources: Marysville Public Schools audited financial statements and General Fund budgets.

Receipts aren't very useful if we only keep the convenient ones.

With receipts & respect.

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