Get Full Government Meeting Transcripts, Videos, & Alerts Forever!
Special School District CFO outlines plan to 'right the ship,' seeks 35% fund balance
Summary
Special School District CFO Cindy Romelan presented an update on fiscal year 2025 finances and a draft FY26 budget document to the Governing Council, citing strategies to rebuild fund balance to a 35% target and a timeline for finalizing next year’s budget.
Cindy Romelan, chief financial officer for the Special School District of St. Louis County, told the Governing Council that the district is pursuing a multi-year plan to stabilize fund balances after several years of declines.
Romelan said at the meeting that recent budget amendments and program adjustments have reduced the district’s projected deficit trajectory and that the district’s internal target for operating fund balance is 35 percent. “We knew at that point that we needed to right our ship,” Romelan said, describing a combination of vacancy management, non‑wage cost containment and a one‑time capital‑projects reallocation as the primary near‑term strategies.
The presentation showed salary and benefit growth over three years: salaries rose from roughly $308 million in FY22 to about $319 million in FY23 and to approximately $375 million in FY24; benefits rose from about $117 million to $130…
Already have an account? Log in
Subscribe to keep reading
Unlock the rest of this article — and every article on Citizen Portal.
- Unlimited articles
- AI-powered breakdowns of topics, speakers, decisions, and budgets
- Instant alerts when your location has a new meeting
- Follow topics and more locations
- 1,000 AI Insights / month, plus AI Chat
