The Shakopee School District had a flub in their budget, to the tune of almost $5 million:
According to Thompson’s email, the district found a $4.5 million discrepancy during a yearly financial review.
Finance Director Mike Burlager mentioned the error during the school board’s Truth in Taxation meeting Dec. 12, but did not mention the exact amount. Soon after, Thompson mentioned a $5 million shortfall.
Of course, if it were a charter school, the state would have SWAT team locking the doors by now.
Who cares if money can’t be accounted for? I’m sure it went to the children! /sarc
They showed some video from the screwel board meeting and I do believe that I saw some pitchforks and torches in the crowd. Lots of irate residents expressing their displeasure.
“spending exceeded the budget in 14 out of 19 expenditure categories” Maybe more of an UFFDA than an oops. New software, lack of guidance for staff, and a “few” miscalculations led to the SNAFU. If this were the private sector Burlager wouldn’t be hanging around till June to retire.
“…caused concern among residents after being posted to Facebook.”
Let’s hope it caused concern with Sheriff Taylor, Deputy Fife and the Bunko Squad down at the Shakopee PD.
“…I saw some pitchforks and torches in the crowd.” Come on BH429, that’s everyday in Shakopee on a day ending with a ‘y’. You been in the cities too long.
In most companies, as Scott notes, you require executive permission before going beyond budgetary limits, and standard software used for finance implements this automatically. I’m calling “nonsense” (BS) on Burlager.
But that said, a 2-3% overspending on the budget “by accident” doesn’t bother me as much as times I see 50% overspending on purpose. For example, when the Chaska School District built Chanhassen High, they added 2-3x more capacity than they needed. OK, a little for growth, I get that, but they blew tens of millions on that deal.
I actually went to a school board meeting and asked why, and was told that the time value of money was that it’s better to borrow now (exactly wrong of course), and that it’s prohibitively expensive to add on to a building, which is also exactly wrong.
bet it went to HRC
There are a lot of immigrants in Shakopee. Maybe they needed to hire a few extra ESL teachers.
Hey….how come there aren’t a lot of stories in the Minnesota MSM about Al Franken getting at least one $41,000 illegal payment from a corrupt ambulance chasing Boston law firm?
Chuck;
As much as I hate to give Stewy any credit for anything, he reportedly returned that money as soon as he learned they were being investigated.
A few years back, The Apple Valley District miraculously discovered 5 million dollars right after a successful bond levy referendum was passed.
“Oh, we underreported our assets! Our bad. But, thanks for passing the referendum.”