Public commenter says unaudited-actuals slide omitted first‑interim figures, urges full disclosure

Kip Penovich told the Mount Diablo Unified School District Board of Trustees on Sept. 24 that a slide shown during the district's unaudited-actuals presentation omitted the first‑interim budget figures, which he said obscures the full picture of year-to-year budget fluctuations.

Penovich said the slide presented a budget-to-actual summary but left out one piece of information he considers essential. "There was a big deal made about how the change to the the net increase decrease was nice and tight, not varying more than $10,000,000, but the first interim budget was not included," Penovich said. "If you put the first interim budget in that slide, that's the number that's in yellow there."

He told trustees that including the first‑interim column would allow viewers to connect swings in the district's projections to specific line items such as materials and supplies. Penovich also noted that the presentation did not include comparable slides from the previous four years; he said the presentation would be more useful if the board were given the prior years' figures as well.

Penovich said he had watched the recorded unaudited-actuals presentation after the meeting and compared it with his own files before speaking. He referenced "Dr. Clark and the CBO" as the presenters of the slide during the unaudited-actuals presentation. "The truth is that slide is a good slide and I think you should ask for it every single year," Penovich said.

The board answered procedural questions about the public-comment period's time limits before and after Penovich's remarks. His comments were made during the meeting's public‑comment portion for closed session items; the trustees subsequently adjourned into closed session to consider several listed personnel and legal matters. The transcript did not record any formal board response to Penovich's request while in open session.

Penovich identified the omitted figure as the first interim budget for the year and said the missing column made one year's fluctuation look smaller than it would with the complete data. He recommended the board request the full budget-to-actual summary, including first‑interim and prior years' numbers, as a matter of routine transparency.