Redford Union: 2021 bond punch list nearly finished; district says bond spending stayed within allocation

Brad Anderson, senior project manager with the Christman Company, told the Redford Union Schools District No. 1 Board of Education at a workshop that nearly all remaining work from the 2021 capital bond program has been completed.

"Since that time, 15 of the 16 have been closed. The only item that is still open right now from the 2021 bond program is installation of the marquee sign on the junior high," Anderson said, adding the sign was being hung and would have power the next day.

The update included photographs of finished items: painted gas lines atop the high school roof, a new cafeteria window at the junior high (the old high school cafeteria), a completed handrail at the old schoolhouse and permanent light fixtures in the multipurpose room.

The presentation also included a staff financial reconciliation of the 2021 program. A district presenter (identified in the record only as Jim, staff member) said the reconciliation accounted for the $59,000,000 in bond proceeds, interest earned on those proceeds and other authorized sources that were allocated to bond projects, including some food-service and ESSER-eligible expenditures. The presenter said Plant Moran and Baker Tilly reviewed the figures.

District documents shown to the board indicate the board had approved a maximum combined expenditure of $66,700,000 across bond and other authorized sources for the 2021 program. The presenter said allocated costs to date totaled about $63.8 million, leaving a difference of about $2,985,000 under the approved maximum. He cautioned, however, that the district does not have $2.985 million sitting free in the general fund, and that accounting and allocation practices used during project closeout mean some amounts were moved between funds to make the general fund whole.

Board members pressed staff for clarity. Board member Michael Bailey asked whether the district had come in under projection and what that meant for available cash; the presenter and other staff said portions of project allocations were intended to offset general-fund costs and that earlier accounting practices by the prior CFO had not recorded those offsets clearly.

The board also discussed one project that remains unfinished: a final, long-term home for the district baseball program. Staff said that project still needs a final solution.

Why this matters: the 2021 bond program was the district's most recent major capital effort; board members said they had fielded concerns about whether bond funds were overspent and sought assurance projects stayed within the board's authorized limits. The reconciliation staff presented aimed to address those concerns but also identified follow-up actions, including producing more detailed line-item totals and clarifying where remaining obligations sit across funds.

Staff indicated the district's closeout reconciliation will be part of the district audit process and that more detailed figures (for example, the exact total spent on the old schoolhouse) would be provided to board members on request.