Rohrs: In finding the money, CUSD staff not offering help

Kurt Rohrs

This piece is a follow-up to my guest column “So, Where’s the Money?” submitted in July 2023.

What we have established is that CUSD does have reserve funds which they refer to on a frequent basis.

What we don’t know is how much this is and exactly where it is kept. In fact, even asking these questions has resulted in bitter criticism by the District and the rest of the Board for just having the audacity to ask.

The Board refused to even vote on a policy directing the District to report this publicly.

So, we have been left to our own efforts to try to figure this out. It is quite a puzzle, but let’s give it a shot …

The balances for CUSD accounts held at the Maricopa County Treasurer’s office for the fiscal year ending June 30, 2023 have been released. These are the balances left over before the District receives funding from the state for this new fiscal year.

The report was received directly from the Treasurer’s Office since the District refused to provide this public information for review.

The total balance for all accounts as of June 30, 2023 is $257.4 million. This is compared to the total balance at the end of the previous year, June 30, 2022, of $296.3 million. The reduction in balances is due mostly to additional capital spending of $41.5 million in the last fiscal year.

These accounts can be separated into a few general categories: Operations (M&O), Federal and State Projects (Grants), Capital (Facilities and Equipment), and Debt Service (Bond Payments). Balances for Capital and Debt Service are usually excluded in a determination of funds available for Operations.

CUSD Account Balances held by Maricopa County Treasurer
6/30/22 closing balance, 6/30/23 closing balance and 2023-2022 change

M & O

$144,500,742.79, $140,189,223.43, ($4,311,519.36)

GOV. PROJECTS and GRANTS
$9,171,703.54, $11,898,853.55, $2,727,150.01

CAPITAL
$104,333,727.88, $62,843,525.77 ($41,490,202.11)

DEBT SERVICE
$38,312,356.97, $42,522,223.29 $4,209,866.3

ALL ACCOUNTS
$296,318,531.18, $257,453,826.04, ($38,864,705.14)

Less Capital, Debt Service
$153,672,446.33, $152,088,076.98 ($1,584,369.35)

What we have learned since the last article was that there are several “Special Revenue Funds” held under the M&O category, where the District collects additional miscellaneous revenue (fees and charges), that are designated as “Restricted”. However, we found out that they are only restricted insofar as to how revenue is deposited into them, and not necessarily how money is expensed out of them for various purposes.

These funds totaled $131.1 million as the end of the last fiscal year. Examples of Special Revenue with large balances are Food Service, Civic Center Fund, Community School Fund, and Career and Technical Education. A new detailed accounting of these fund balances is due in September of this year.

It looks like we may have found the money.

Kurt Rohrs is a member of the Chandler Unified School Board taking his seat in January 2023. The views expressed here are his own and do not reflect the views of the Governing Board as a whole or the views of the Chandler Unified School District Administration.

We’d like to invite our readers to submit their civil comments, pro or con, on this issue. Email AZOpinions@iniusa.org