Dennis Tester asked:
Does anyone know where I can go to see a chart of accounts and a real
line-item budget for the St. Paul Public Schools?
My response:
You can obtain a copy of “Financial trends of Minnesota School Districts”
published by the Minnesota State Auditor.
I believe the report is free. The current report covers 1999 to 2003. I
understand the 2004 report should be out soon.
The auditor’s office put out two books – one for schools with fewer than
1000 children and one for schools that are larger than 1000 children.
The book has 36 tables comparing revenue, expenses and “pupil and staff
data” between every school district across Minnesota. For St. Paul, two key
data points are:
1999 2003 %
increase
Total Revenue per pupil $9,011 $12,116 24.9%
Total enrollment 46,309 45,583 -1.6%
It also shows that the St. Paul school district was the 25th highest “per
pupil” spending school district in 1999 and had moved up to 6th by 2003.
I obtained a copy of this report because I was asking the same questions
about my school district (we live in Hopkins). When I asked the local
administration why their claims were so different than the State Auditor (My
local district claims $15M in cuts during the same period), they hinted that
the State Auditor’s report is wrong. So, I asked for a copy of their own
independent audit report. They appeared surprised/upset that I asked, but
did provide it. The independent audit was VERY close to the State Auditors
report.
I am confused, but continue to ask questions…
Regards, Bill Cullen
East Side worker
Hopkins Resident.
Long commuter.
P.S. I am surprised anyone would say large public organizations don’t
provide this information. I read corporate balance and P&L sheets all the
time from corporations much larger than the St. Paul school district. The
fact that I have to sleuth to get this information fills me with doubt….
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