Resident calls for greater check-register transparency as district presents budget timeline and fund-balance update

A resident urged the Lexington County School District One Board of Trustees March 25 to make supporting documents for the district’s check register and p-card expenditures openly available on the district website, while district finance staff presented a month-by-month dashboard that showed revenue and expenditure projections and a likely ‘break-even’ outcome for the year.

Public commenter Dale Stewart raised specific examples from the board packet, including a restaurant check with a 20% tip and a $167,000 check to a regional law firm composed of roughly thirty $5,000 line items. Stewart questioned why supporting documentation for those charges was not readily accessible online and called on the district to “show your work” so the public can assess whether purchases support district operations and student outcomes.

“I will say the district’s financial information regarding expenditures is as transparent as milk,” Stewart said. “Just put it on the website.” He asked the board to scrutinize long-term property-tax exemptions and other agreements that reduce tax revenue.

Finance Director Ms. Miller presented a condensed dashboard of year-to-date revenue and expenditures through Feb. 28, 2025. She told trustees the district recorded approximately $257 million in revenue year-to-date and roughly $223 million in expenditures, and that the largest portion of the budget — about 87% — is salaries and benefits. Miller said the district projects it will not need to use the fund balance this year and expects to end the fiscal year near break-even because of salary variances and stronger-than-budgeted revenue.

Miller explained two principal drivers of the variance: (1) retirements and hires that reduce the average salary cost when a long-tenured employee is replaced by a lower-step hire; and (2) positions remaining vacant for portions of the year. She estimated these personnel-related variances account for roughly $16 million of the difference between budget and actual and said updated revenue projections could add another $9 million — together reducing the need to tap the $24 million the district had previously planned to use from fund balance.

Board members asked for clarifications about fund-balance timing, the policy minimum required fund-balance level, and how the district interprets monthly troughs and peaks driven by property-tax collection cycles. Miller said February is often a large tax-collection month; January is often the trough for available operating cash. Miller also said procurement irregularities reported in the monthly procurement listing were routine — for example, missing an internal signature or not applying a vendor discount on a receipt — and not evidence of systemic misuse.

District leaders said a budget workshop is scheduled for April 1, during which the leadership team will present a proposed FY 2025–26 budget with categorized requests (must-dos, district standards, and would-like-to-do items) and the district’s first-proposal revenue/expense forecast. Trustees discussed priorities such as salary-study recommendations, maintaining low class-size ratios, and limiting millage increases.

No board action was required on the public comment. Trustees directed staff to continue preparing the April budget workshop materials and to consider ways to make supporting documentation more available to the board and public.