Superintendent Pascal Muebenga and Chief Barnes say Buffalo district ended year with $444 million, explain budget process

Superintendent Pascal Muebenga and a district official identified in the episode as Chief Barnes said the Buffalo City School District ended the 2024–25 year with strong reserves and described how the district produces its annual budget.

Chief Barnes summarized the external audit, saying the district received an unmodified opinion and was categorized as a low-risk auditee. "We just completed an external audit of our 24, 25 results. We received an unmodified opinion across all our funds," he said, reporting an actual deficit of $37,000,000 versus an approved $83,000,000 deficit and a $387,000,000 fund balance, including $125,000,000 in unassigned funds. "When you combine all our funds, we ended the year with $444,000,000," Chief Barnes said, adding that the current challenge is maintaining that strength.

The speakers said the district’s total annual budget is about $1,300,000,000. Chief Barnes provided a revenue breakdown: about 87% (roughly $960,000,000) comes from New York State, about 6% (approximately $70,000,000) from the City of Buffalo, and about 5% (about $60,000,000) from Erie County sales tax, with the remainder from federal Medicaid reimbursements, invoicing other districts and miscellaneous sources.

On the budget calendar, Chief Barnes said the district runs a January–May process tied to the state budget timeline. "We don't get New York State's final budget numbers till late April, early May," he said, and noted the district uses a bottom-up approach in which department heads and school leaders submit requests. He described five approval levels: a finance-created benchmark (level 1); department and school-based submissions (level 2); completion of school-based budgets (level 3); layering in final state revenue and deciding whether to use fund balance or cut expenditures (level 4); and a board vote followed by uploading the approved budget into the accounting system (level 5). He named Maria Wood as the staff member who meets with principals and department heads to set ground rules and timelines.

Asked how the public can confirm transparency, Chief Barnes said he and staff present to the board twice a month from January through May and encouraged residents to attend meetings or view them online. "At those meetings, we divulge everything and answer all kinds of questions from the board members," he said.

Pascal Muebenga thanked state legislators for the level of aid the district receives and closed the episode by encouraging viewers to follow the district’s social channels.

Note on speaker references: the episode host identified himself as "Superintendent Pascal Muebenga." During the introduction he said he was joined by the district CFO named in the episode, but the on-record speaking turns are from the person addressed throughout the conversation as "Chief Barnes." The transcript does not include an explicit self-identification linking the spoken turns to the name "Jim Bonds," so this article attributes spoken quotations to the on-record labels: Superintendent Pascal Muebenga and Chief Barnes.