MSBA financial review shows inaccurate budget estimates led to SJSD current budget shortfall
By: Chris Roush, News Director
ST. JOSEPH, Mo. (KQTV) -- Following months of work and questioning, the reasons for the St. Joseph School District's budget shortfalls are clear.
During a special school board work session Monday night, a representative from the Missouri School Boards' Association presented the shortfalls and ways to improve the budget.
Linda Quinley, the senior director of School Finance at MSBA, said the school district's budget issues stem from late claiming of Title programming reimbursements and errors made in the 2024-2025 June budget estimates, which led to inaccurate 2025-2026 budget estimates.
"It created a false sense of security in what reserves were going to be on June 30, 2025," Quinley said to the board Monday night.
According to the presentation, the 2023-2024 Title reimbursement was claimed in July 2025 and was ultimately received that same month.
Quinley said the $4.6 million had not been claimed until the mistake was discovered by Robert Hedgecorth, the new Assistant Superintendent for Business and Operations, in July.
As for the 2024-2025 Title reimbursement, it was claimed in October 2025 and received in the same month. The unclaimed money was $5.1 million.
Quinley said, if the $9.7 million had been claimed before June 30, then the reserves would have been at 16% instead of 10%.
The difference between the 2024-2025 budget on June 30 and the actual budget was drastic. In the revenue, the budget was projected to be $158,705,072, and the actual revenue was $161,746,922.
Quinley's biggest concerns came from the discrepancies in expenditures, which ended up being 19.73%. In her presentation, the June budget showed, the district should have spent $7,010,405 in reserves, but the actual number was $36,671,402. The difference was $29,660,997 or 17.85%.
The review was not an audit, but it did give the administration and board areas to improve.
Quinley said timely reimbursement claiming practices, working together, continuing to improve the system in place and making sure the quality and type of financial data provided to the school board is up-to-date.
Since the budget mistakes were found, district officials have been working on getting the reserves built back up.
The federal Title money has all been received and updated for October's amended budget.
