"Whoa...", you say? "...that's a helluva lot of fine print. I'm outta here!"

Wait a minute, that's what I'm here for...

...your own personal financial tour guide!

Reading/understanding budgets is all pretty simply, really.

I mean, yes, financial geeks can move a little bit closer to the screen and peer into the nitty gritty of where the District's dollars came from and how it chose to spend them, well, in general categories. As they say, the devil's in the details, hidden behind the broad strokes, like, for example, the thousands of dollars the BOE spent on their all-expense-paid vacation, uh, conference in New Orleans. (Hey, I've never been adverse to beating dead horses! I consider that a lot more humane than the beatings that everybody and their mama keep giving can't-win-for-losing teachers.)

Okay, I digress...

...where was I?

Oh, yeah, reading/understanding budgets ain't all that bad...

Just go back to the first page above, labeled "Page 2".

BTW: Don't fret about the missing "Page 1". (I mean, I completely understand. A person cannot work in CSD #1, cannot survive in CSD #1, without acquiring an unhealthy, albeit justified, dose of paranoia, if not full-fledged PTSD. But, not this time! "Page 1" is just a "cover sheet", not some top-secret information just begging for exposé.)

Anyway, back to "Page 2"...

...look at "Line 3": "ESTIMATED BEGINNING FUND BALANCE July 1, 2013" (Even with the "facts", there's some wiggle room, kinda like with your check book and your bank account. Something could be off by a hair. Thus the disclaimer "ESTIMATED". It's okay, really, to accept this line in the budget as "gospel", Genesis, even, where the District's finances actually stood at the end of FY13 and where we began our journey into FY14.)

Incidentally, before advancing further, on Line 3, Column J, you will note the "number in parentheses". That bookkeeping device means that the District ended up in the hole, in the red, in the "Tort" category - i.e. the District spent $12,798 more than it took in for that category. It doesn't mean that the District bounced a check or anything, it just means that it had to cover the expenditure out of other revenues collected. But, they had to "account for it".

C'mon, admit it, this is kinda fun!

Moving right along, if one were to do the math...

...and total up the amounts on Line 3 (remembering to subtract the Tort number), one would get $4,202,675.

Now...

Drop down to the second page above (labeled "Page 3")...

...scroll down to "Line 81", and do the totaling thing again to find out where the District is now after twelve months of receiving and spending money.

Okay, okay, I've still got the calculator app on my tablet open...

...tap, tap, tap, etc...

...drum roll, please:

Well, burst my damn rant-and-rave bubble...

$4,166,396...

...a net loss of only $36,379, chump change when dealing with millions of budgetary dollars.

I mean, hey, don't get me wrong, that's very good news for the District! With all the under-funding by Illinois, it's down-right scary that the "State of the District" is nearly the same as it was a year ago.

Well done!

However...

The best laid plans of mice and men (and CATS of any gender or employment status...i.e. RETIRED! :-)

When I gave a cursory glance at the parentheses/deficit spending on "Page 2, Line 22" in the Educational and Operations & Maintenance Columns (the "driving funds", the big, dominant funds in any school district) I anticipated yet another tale of "Woe is us" from the Cairo School District administration..."How broke we are, how broke we are, nobody knows how broke we are!"

I was ready to rumble. Hell, my fingers did itch to pound out some righteous catty commentary...

...thus my long, involved, eye-wrenching preamble...

...setting the stage prior to ascending my soap box...

...that the District, contrary to their annual pleadings, must not be in nearly as bad shape as they would have us believe.

I was going to point to:

(Hey, ain't no way I'm gonna turn back now, my eyes bled for this!)