St. Louis Public Schools Chief Financial Officer Kimberly Johnson told the Board of Education’s Budget, Equity & Transparency Committee on Aug. 27 that the district is developing a five-year strategic financial and capital plan in response to findings from the state auditor and recent financial statement audits.

The district presented a corrective-action plan matrix and an executive summary describing next steps, including modeling and scenario planning, revenue forecasting, stakeholder engagement and more rigorous board review. “We are going to develop a long term five-year strategic financial and capital plan,” Johnson said. “We are actually planning on being, have a balanced budget by 2027.”

The district presented the state audit’s findings to the committee, saying the audit concluded the district did not have an adequate long-term financial plan and that, if corrective actions are not implemented, projected fund-balance levels “will fall below 30% of expenditures in the fiscal year 2027, and then below 20% in 2028,” and could be “below 3%” by fiscal year 2030.

Why it matters: The committee is charged with reviewing budget processes and monitoring implementation of audit recommendations. A multi-year plan and improved transparency are intended to limit further deficit spending and restore public confidence in the accuracy and availability of district financial documents.

Key details: Johnson walked the committee through the monthly “network budget report” format and said the July report reflects the FY26 approved budget, encumbrances (committed but unpaid purchase orders), year-to-date expenditures and the available balance. She described encumbrances as orders that “haven’t fully been paid for” and said the department will provide an itemized version of encumbrances in the revised monthly format.

The corrective-action matrix presented lists three priority areas from the state audit: develop a long-term plan, improve budget accuracy and presentation, and ensure public documents on the district website are complete and accessible. Proposed measures include:
- Produce a comprehensive five-year financial and capital plan that integrates facility maintenance with capital asset planning and uses lifecycle-based asset management.
- Adopt stronger financial modeling tools to project enrollment, revenue and demographic trends and to run scenarios showing the impact of changes to federal, state and local funding.
- Strengthen internal review: the district said it will give the board 45 days to review draft proposed budgets and will maintain multiple prior review steps (school-level, network superintendent, cabinet, superintendent) before board submission.
- Increase monthly reconciliation and data analysis to spot outliers and high burn rates early; conduct quarterly checks to confirm public-facing documents and links are active on the website.
- Publish a budget book for FY25–26 (the CFO said it is expected online in late October) and develop standard operating procedures for financial processes.

During discussion, the committee flagged an early-month example in the July report: an entry for a Carver Elementary grant line showing 63.70% of the grant already encumbered in the district’s first reporting month. Johnson said finance staff will investigate and provide the committee with a breakdown and justification for unusually high early encumbrances.

Committee directions and next steps: The committee asked the CFO’s office to provide a chart-of-accounts legend and the criteria used in the school allocation formula; Johnson agreed to circulate those. The committee also requested the FY25–26 approved budget and the full corrective-action plans from the Rubin and Brown financial statement audit and the state auditor for detailed review before the next meeting. The committee chair instructed members to review the materials and bring questions or recommended changes to the next session.

Formal motions: The committee approved the meeting agenda, with an amendment to add introductions, by roll call at the start of the session; the meeting adjourned by a motion and second at the end. No formal vote was taken on the corrective-action plan itself at this meeting.

What the district said it will measure: Johnson said the corrective-action plan will include performance measures and benchmarks to track progress toward a balanced budget and to monitor fund-balance improvements each year.

The meeting packet: Johnson said the corrective-action plan matrix and executive-summary documents are available in the district’s team folder and will be provided to committee members. The district also will reformat the monthly network report to include more itemized encumbrance detail and a legend explaining fund codes.

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