Board reviews September financials; OPEB bonds removed from reports

At the Spring Lake Park School Board meeting, finance lead Amy Schultz presented the district’s monthly financial reports for September 2025, the first monthly report for fiscal year 2025–26.

Schultz said the reports use the district’s standard formats and showed beginning and ending cash balances, receipts and disbursements. She told the board that compensation (salaries and benefits) represents about 70% of disbursements and that facilities work and contracted services account for other expenditures.

On revenue, Schultz said the district received a larger first state-aid payment for special education this year compared with the prior year, noting "so it's about $900,000 more this year at this point in the year for special ed estimates." She also reported receipts this month included roughly $7.7 million in state aid (as read into the record).

Schultz confirmed that the OPEB bonds have been paid off and removed from the district’s reports: "Those are gone. We talked about that last year that they were being paid off." She explained that comparisons to prior years look uneven in part because of the timing of a prior bond refunding and said the district expects to process a budget revision to reflect a recent refunding; she noted the district received one wire for that refunding on the day of the meeting.

Board members asked whether the recent bond refunding’s effects would appear in reports; Schultz said the refunding will be reflected in the November update after a budget revision.

The board did not take a separate vote on the finance presentation; routine consent items earlier in the agenda included bills paid for September 2025 in the amount of $3,653,652.

What’s next: staff will prepare a budget revision and include bond-refunding entries in the November financial report.