Gresham-Barlow SD 10J holds supplemental budget hearing to reclassify PERS bond accounting

Gresham-Barlow School District 10J held a supplemental budget hearing March 5 to reclassify how bond-related payments to the Public Employees Retirement System (PERS) are presented in the district’s financial statements, district leaders said. The hearing drew no public testimony and did not change the district’s overall budget.

Chair Chris Howe opened the hearing and turned discussion over to Dennis Clegg, who told the board the district’s recent audit flagged how certain PERS bond amounts were stated. “It has nothing to do with the amount of the bonds or issuing new bonds, it was just how they were presented in the financial statements,” Clegg said. He added the presentation change was large enough to trigger a supplemental hearing requirement.

Howe emphasized the hearing was limited to the accounting reclassification and not to the district’s broader budget planning for the next fiscal year. “This is strictly a moving one line of money to a different category per the recommendation of our audit,” Howe said. Board materials show the reclassification splits what had been a combined line into separate payment and interest line items for PERS-related bond obligations.

No members of the public attended to offer testimony during the hearing. The board noted there will be no change to the amount of the bonds or the district’s total budget; the action is an internal accounting presentation change recommended by the district’s auditor. The board’s regular business meeting later on the agenda will include an adoption item to approve the line-item change.

The hearing record lists the district’s interim superintendent, John Cook, as absent and notes Deputy Superintendent Tracy Claire in attendance. The district did not provide a dollar amount for the accounting reclassification during the hearing; staff characterized the amount as “significant enough” to require the supplemental hearing but did not specify the figure.