GLENDALE, Wis. — The Glendale-River Hills School District is digging out from under a multi-million-dollar budget deficit as high as $3.6 million.
Former business manager Lindsay Johnson laid out the accounting errors to the board on Jan. 9 in which she said she mis-estimated the district’s financial situation.
“So, for 2022-2023, you missed $1.8 million in expenses in this budget that was published,” school board vice president Carla Pennington Cross said.
“I’d have to see why that is just because I don’t know if… Not factoring in a portion of… I’d have to go back and look,” Johnson said. “I’m sorry.”
“You should know the answer,” school board clerk Andrew Franklin said.
During that Jan. 9 meeting, Johnson revealed a budget deficit for the district that meant there was not enough money to get through this school year.
“I’m looking at the fund balance that was posted in December and it says 2022 to 2023 unaudited. We have an ending fund balance of $2,809,638.09,” treasurer Ben Wynn said. “Here, I’m seeing $1,009,638, so, which one is it?”
“Somewhere between November and now, that number has gone down by $1.8 million,” Cross said.
“In the budget we passed, we were going to have a fund balance of $570,000 at the end of 2024,” Wynn said. “Now, it’s going to be negative $2.6 million?”
Johnson said based on the historical information she had, she made her best budget assumption. It’s unclear what historical information she was referencing.
The district, in a statement on March 14, said any numbers discussed in previous meetings have not been vetted by consultants. The district is working with Baird Public Financing to investigate past errors and construct a path forward. Baird consultants created the current budget projections presented to the board on Jan. 9.
“What’s projected currently is a deficit budget of $3.6 million this year and that results in a negative fund balance at the end of this year,“ Kim Zabel with Baird said. “That means you will not be able to pay bills at the end of this year unless you make changes to how your funding works.”
The district further reiterated that these accounting errors were made by staff no longer with the district. Johnson resigned her position on Jan. 17.
The board accepted superintendent Alyson Weiss’s resignation on Feb. 29. Weiss said she will work through her contract end-date, which is June 30.
The school board held a public meeting on Wednesday to explain the budget issues to the public and to hear public comment.
“We teach our children accountability, consequences, transparency,” former school board president Jan Zall said. “Right now, I don’t think that’s happening. We’re bad teachers.”
School board president Danielle Bailey reiterated to the public that the board was told last June the district had a budget surplus.
“In October, we learned we were facing a budget deficit,” said Bailey.
At Wednesday’s meeting, the board unanimously approved staffing reductions equal to $1 million. Members said this would come in the form of resignations, retirements and attrition. They would not comment on how many employees would be leaving when asked by the public, but said the public would likely have more information about that on Friday.
The board also said Friday would provide more clarity to the public about what next school year will look like.
“I don’t want to sound evasive, but we’re working hard to not get into those details until those people can be spoken with individually,” Cross said. “We want to respect that staff deserve to hear if they’ll be losing their jobs somewhere other than here.”
The district reported that the board hired interim business manager Gus Knott and financial consultant Todd Gray since learning of budget challenges in January, according to the district.
The district said neither Parkway Elementary nor Glen Hills Middle Schools will close as a result. It also said staffing for this current school year will not change.
The district published answers to frequently asked questions about the issue, here.
Watch videos of previouls school board meetings, here.