I spent some time thinking about whether I should alert people of the deception that the finance office of the Mineral County School District is trying to pull off. It bothered me for a couple of weeks, so I decided to give my opinion. The reality is their numbers don’t add.

Their numbers don’t add because they conveniently omitted some critical information. The public needs to know what encumbrances are out there to get a projected ending fund balance. It would be best to look at what has a hold on it, such as salaries and benefits, and then at what income can be banked on. Some revenue, such as the Pupil Centered Funding Plan, is guaranteed within specified parameters.

Based on their information, the ending fund balance is an imaginary number to make staff, and the community believes the school is poor, so nobody asks for equity. The bank balance is a farce because it doesn’t account for accounts receivables. The fact the balance is this high this late in the school year is an indicator. The indication is that the state will take back a lot of money. The balance can’t go up under the new law. Every penny over last year’s ending balance will be promptly taken away.

If staff or the Board of Directors wants to prevent a historic hoovering of the funds, they should ask for an excel export with the budget, year-to-date, encumbrances, and remaining balance. Under Nevada law, since that is immediately available, they must provide it. It would be clear Dirty Diane has yet again hid money, just now it serves zero purpose.

Staff should also take caution that spending ends on April 15th. That allows for the closeout of the current year. Budgets such as supplies should be spent down at least double what they are. The second illusion Diane does is act like there is time, then cut it off and try and stash the cash.

Anyone with any questions is always welcome to reach out to me via anonymous comment, and I will respond. Hope everyone had a good week!