The Macon County R-I School District is borrowing $3.3 million to meet payroll and operating costs through December because it is running short of operating money.
The Board of Education laid out the shortfall in a letter to the community dated Friday and posted on the district's website. According to the letter, Superintendent Bryan Thomsen told the board at a special session Tuesday that the district is too low on operating funds to cover its budgeted expenses through the end of the year. He asked the board to approve a tax anticipation note "to cash flow operations and payroll for the rest of this calendar year," the letter says.
The board voted 6-0 to approve "the issuance and sale of an Incidental Fund Tax Anticipation Note, Series 2026, with L.J. Hart & Company," according to unapproved minutes of the 27-minute meeting. Board member Nick Dille was absent. Board member Donny Wyatt attended by video.
A tax anticipation note is a short-term loan against local property taxes that are paid to schools beginning in January, according to the letter. The district will pay interest and has the option of paying the note off early to save on interest. It expects about $4 million in local revenue early in 2027 and will use that money to repay the note, the letter says.
Neither the letter nor the minutes give the interest rate or the repayment date. State law requires such notes to be repaid within 12 months of issue and caps the interest rate at 10% a year, or 14% in some cases, such as a public sale, under Sections 165.131 and 108.170 of Missouri statutes.
The letter gives two reasons for the shortfall.
State aid is estimated for the full year and paid in equal monthly amounts, according to the letter. "At the beginning of this fiscal year, the state announced that they would be reducing the amount of money per student that is sent to public schools," the letter says. "This has decreased the amount of state funding we are receiving each month."
The board also pointed to two building projects. In the last 24 months, the district did a major repair of the brickwork and windows at Macon Middle School, according to the letter. "While this was a project that was in dire need of completion it was very costly," the letter says. More recently, the district remodeled the Central Office, a former Missouri Department of Transportation building, adding preschool, alternative and special education classrooms. "These projects used a significant amount of the money the district had kept in reserves," according to the letter.
The district began the fiscal year July 1 with $1,418,816 across its funds, less than half the $3,713,632 it had a year earlier, according to its July month-end financial report. By Aug. 31, the combined balance was $1,253,765, compared with $3,166,932 a year earlier. The general, or incidental, fund held $900,694 after $440,511 in August spending, and the capital projects fund showed a negative balance of $425,709, according to the August report.
The general fund held $4,902,714 on June 30, 2023, according to the district's audit for that year, the most recent posted on its website.
On June 30, the board approved the 2026-27 budget 6-0 "as presented, reflecting a surplus of $69,270.37," according to the minutes of that meeting. The district budgeted $4,737,490 in incidental fund property tax revenue, according to its tax rate hearing notice.
The board approved having a third party complete a financial evaluation at its Aug. 18 meeting and will use the results "to make careful decisions in the future," the letter says. It says the board is committed to "analyzing programs, budgets, efficiencies, and reducing spending," and it invites residents to attend its public meetings.
The letter is signed by board President Stacy Quinn; Vice President Lydia McClellan; Treasurer Bruce Weimer; and members Greg Bruno, Millicent Dawdy, Dille and Wyatt.