SJSD finance committee takes closer look at district financial audit  

ST. JOSEPH, Mo. (KQTV) -- The St. Joseph School District’s finance committee met Tuesday to take another closer look at the district’s financial statement audit from KPM. 

Assistant Superintendent of Business and Operations Robert Hedgecorth said the goal was to give committee members time to really sit down together and review the information.  

While KPM had already spent a good amount of time going over the audit during a board meeting, Hedgecorth said he wanted another opportunity to walk through parts that could be confusing.  

“I gave everyone a printout, and they can go over it and dig deep into the information and then email me or give me a call if they have any questions about any other pieces in the audit,” Hedgecorth said.  

He added that it’s important for committee members to fully process the numbers, especially since there are several misconceptions circulating in the community.  

Hedgecorth said there’s always room for improvement, and he makes it a point to ask auditors for feedback on how the district can strengthen its processes and procedures.  

“We talked through those things today at the meeting and got their feedback on it and what we could do to be better moving forward,” Hedgecorth added.  

Hedgecorth also touched on the two new high schools in the district and why that option may be less likely in the future.

“Its more complex formula than this, but you cannot borrow for more than 15% of your assessed evaluation in total. That’s a state statute and so the cost of a new high school, we wouldn’t have the bonding capacity to do that out of our general obligation fund,” Hedgecorth said.  

He said the district could technically borrow through Certificates of Participation, or COP debt, on top of the maximum general obligation amount, but it would result in a significant increase to the tax levy—something the district wants to avoid.  

Instead, Hedgecorth said SJSD needs to focus on long-term planning.  

“We need to work backwards, then, to ensure what bonding capacity we have to establish the funding for those buildings. If we wanna use some COP debt to support those project then we would have to pass that as a tax levy increase,” Hedgecorth said.  

Hedgecorth said another option is being strategic about how facilities are designed and built to help fund projects without raising taxes.