I met with former Duluth School Board member and retired banker Rich Paulson this morning to discuss his ongoing investigation of the School District’s finances. Of all the numbers he’s crunched three figures give the best evidence of where the Duluth School District is headed financially. They are the unspent “reserve’ funds in the District at the end of the last three fiscal years. We’re a month away from discovering where the District will be this year.
The District has been busy making a lot of dubious claims. The most obvious is to blame the state for not keeping up with its needs. This is a great overstatement!
Another recent claim is that the District’s spending down its reserves is smart because the State is about to latch onto the reserves of school district’s across the state. Thus, according to the reasoning, we are better off making sure the State can’t get its grubby hands on our reserves. Of course, the draw down began a couple of years ago long before the economy’s recent melt down and before the state began eyeing school district reserves.
Smart finance plays no part in these figures. They bode ill for for the future of our District.
Fiscal Year end………..ISD 709 reserves
June 30, 2006…………………….$28,610,863.00
June 30, 2007…………………….$23,867,428.00
June 30, 2008…………………….$21,378,283.00
June 30, 2008…………………….$_________.00
