HEMLOCK PUBLIC SCHOOL DISTRICT: FOLLOW THE CHECKS

[Shadowninja]

HEMLOCK PUBLIC SCHOOL DISTRICT — STEP FIVE: FOLLOW THE CHECKS

Oh, dear readers.

Lady Budgetdown has now examined Hemlock's ten-year financial trends.

We have followed the staffing.

We have opened the General Fund.

And now?

We have arrived at the check register. 🪶📜

Hemlock Public School District publishes its General Fund Check History, so Lady Budgetdown took the district's 2024-25 register, July 1, 2024 through June 30, 2025, and started sorting.

Not by what sounds interesting.

Not by what makes the best headline.

By dollars.

And these were the Top Five vendors/payees by total dollars identified in our review:

🥇 BCBSM — $1,565,872.57
Employee insurance.

🥈 ESS Midwest, Inc. — $1,351,634.31
Contracted personnel and contracted substitutes.

🥉 Moss Audio, Inc. — $293,412.68
Technology/audio/security-related systems and equipment.

4️⃣ MISEC — $213,866.41
Electricity.

5️⃣ Pumford Construction — $195,811.87
Primarily concession-building work.

And before anyone reaches for the pitchforks, Lady Budgetdown would point something out:

Large does not automatically mean questionable.

Health insurance costs money.

Electricity costs money.

Construction costs money.

And contracted staffing certainly costs money.

The purpose of publishing the Top Five isn't to declare any of these expenditures improper.

It is to show taxpayers where some of the largest concentrations of General Fund checks actually went.

But there is one item on this register that did not make the Top Five.

Not even close.

And yet...

Lady Budgetdown's quill stopped. 👀🪶

🎩 MAGIC LIVE INC. — $4,200
Check #90038
August 22, 2024

Hemlock's own description:
"EMPLOYEE TRAINING."

And here's why it landed in Lady Budgetdown's rabbit-hole ledger.

The expenditure was charged to Function 221 — Improvement of Instruction, and the check register gives us no further explanation of what the $4,200 employee training actually consisted of.

Now, let's be perfectly clear.

$4,200 is not breaking a roughly $17 million General Fund.

Lady Budgetdown is not suggesting otherwise.

Nor are we going to speculate about what occurred at the training simply because the vendor's name happens to be Magic Live Inc.
The register tells us who was paid, how much was paid, how Hemlock coded it, and the description "EMPLOYEE TRAINING."

That is what we know.

What exactly did taxpayers receive for the $4,200?

The check register doesn't tell us.

And sometimes, dear readers, the most entertaining rabbit holes begin not with the largest number in the ledger...
...but with the one that makes you tilt your head and reach for another receipt. 🐇🎩

There was one other number in this register that Lady Budgetdown considers considerably more important.

$1.35 million to ESS Midwest.

Our earlier staffing analysis examined Hemlock's reported FTE.

But the check register shows substantial additional spending through an outside staffing contractor — and the entries include both contracted substitutes AND other contracted personnel across multiple district functions.

That does not mean we can simply add some unknown number of employees to Hemlock's reported FTE.

We cannot.

The check register doesn't provide enough information to make that calculation responsibly.

But it does provide important context when looking at how Hemlock staffs its district and how much of that work may be occurring through contracted services.

And THAT, dear readers, is why Lady Budgetdown doesn't stop at one spreadsheet.

The budget tells you how much was planned.

The expenditure report tells you where the money was classified.

The staffing report tells you what was reported.

And the check register tells you who actually received the checks.

Put the receipts together...

...and the picture becomes considerably clearer. 👑📜

Source: Hemlock Public School District, General Fund Check History, July 1, 2024–June 30, 2025.

With receipts and respect.

#LadyBudgetdown #HemlockPublicSchools #FollowTheMoney #SchoolFinance #BudgetTransparency #PublicEducation #WithReceiptsAndRespect