SLPS finance onboarding: fund balance strong but budget shows projected drawdown; board completes budgeting exercise

Kimberly Johnson Miller, chief financial officer for Saint Louis Public Schools, led a finance onboarding presentation and a hands-on budgeting exercise that illustrated trade-offs the district faces as it builds the FY26 budget.

The session matters because Miller presented district financial figures and constraints that will shape the upcoming budget: the district reported ending FY23–24 with a general fund balance of $231,000,000 and projected an FY24–25 unrestricted fund balance of about $197,000,000, equal to roughly 45.43% of the operating budget. Miller cautioned that while the district remains above the state-required reserve level, projected spending and revenue uncertainty mean the district expects to draw down fund balance as it builds a balanced FY26 budget.

Miller opened the session with a community-engagement recap and an interactive exercise that gave participants a hypothetical $1,000 to allocate across five budget categories: salaries,…