Grand Rapids - STEP 5: Audits & Budgets

[Shadowninja]

Dearest readers, your Lady has reached Step Five in Grand Rapids: the part of the ledger where budgets make promises, but audits tell us what actually happened. 👑🪶

So we shall begin with the receipts.

Grand Rapids Public Schools ended:

📜 2022–23: +$10.10 million for the year
Ending General Fund balance: $30.90 million

📜 2023–24: +$9.68 million
Ending balance: $40.58 million

📜 2024–25: −$9.66 million
Ending balance: $30.92 million

In other words, GRPS built its General Fund balance substantially over two years — and then gave back nearly all of the previous year's increase in 2024–25.

And now we peek over the edge of the ledger.

The district is projecting its General Fund balance to fall again, to approximately $17.4 million at the end of 2025–26.

That would be another decline of roughly $13.5 million — about 43.7% — from the audited June 2025 balance.

But your Lady must place one very important teacup on the table here:

That $17.4 million is a projection. It has not happened yet.

Audits are receipts.

Budgets are plans.

And despite the recent drawdown, GRPS has not incurred a statutory deficit requiring a Deficit Elimination Plan.

So no, dearest readers, your Lady is not ringing the financial alarm bell.

But after an audited $9.66 million decline, followed by a projected $13.5 million additional decline, the direction of the General Fund certainly deserves our attention.

Because a healthy-looking balance can tell one story.

The direction it is traveling can tell another. 👑🪶

And that is precisely why we keep turning pages.

#LadyBudgetdown #GrandRapidsPublicSchools #MichiganSchools #SchoolFinance #SchoolBudgets #Transparency #WithReceiptsAndRespect