An outside review of the Macon County R-I School District's finances is due to reach the school board in the next few weeks, as the district runs on a $3.3 million short-term loan and its own projections show a deficit.
Board President Stacy Quinn told the board Oct. 21 that Education Governance Leadership’s (EGL) financial review should reach the board in mid to late November, the Macon Chronicle reported. The board's next regular meeting is Nov. 18, according to the meeting list on the district's Board of Education page. The district had not posted an agenda for that meeting as of Monday.
EGL is the firm the board hired Aug. 18 to run its next superintendent search "with the finance addition," on a 5-1-1 vote, according to approved minutes. Nick Dille voted against, and Quinn abstained. In an Oct. 2 letter to the community, the board said it had approved a third-party financial evaluation at that meeting and would use the results "to make careful decisions in the future."
No district record posted online describes what the review covers or what it costs. The minutes don’t list a price for the search or the finance work. The Chronicle asked for the contract, scope of work, and any report from the evaluation in an Oct. 5 Sunshine request. The district responded Oct. 7 by asking the Chronicle to verify district residency before deciding whether fees apply, and the records had not been provided as of Nov. 2.
The district's own numbers show how tight the money is.
The board voted 6-0 on Sept. 29 to borrow $3.3 million through a tax anticipation note, a loan against property taxes that start arriving in January, to cover payroll and operations through December. The board's letter said the district expects about $4 million in local revenue early in 2027 and will use it to repay the note.
The district ended September with $578,297 across all its funds, $1,292,805 less than a year earlier, according to its September financial report. The capital projects fund was negative $508,086. The district began the fiscal year July 1 with $1,418,816, down from $3,713,632 a year before.
The board approved a 2026-27 budget June 30 showing a surplus of $69,270.37. On Oct. 21, Thomsen told the board the revised budget showed a deficit of about $190,000, a number Thomsen called preliminary. Thomsen pointed to the state's per-student funding target and to state transportation aid, which Thomsen said is prorated at 86 percent of what the district is allowed.
The board's letter blamed lower state aid per student and two building projects, a major brick and window repair at the middle school and a remodel of the Central Office, that "used a significant amount of the money the district had kept in reserves."
So far, the options on the table are small. Administrators gave the board 13 cost-saving ideas Oct. 21, from dropping the $900-a-year HallPass system to renting gyms and auditoriums to local groups and replacing restroom paper towels with air dryers. The list does not estimate total savings. Thomsen said about 70 percent of the budget is staffing, which makes big savings this year hard.
Thomsen also laid out a possible preschool fee after the program lost its grant, leaving it about $60,694 short this year, and said fee options would come to the next meeting. The activities director proposed raising adult gate admission from $4 to $5.
The board took no action on the budget at an Oct. 14 work session called for that purpose. Approved minutes of that meeting say only "Budget Discussion – No Board Action Taken." The board took no budget vote Oct. 21, according to that meeting's unapproved minutes.
Under state law, the state education department must identify as financially stressed any district that, in its most recently completed fiscal year, borrowed against taxes for the period Feb. 1 through June 30 because of insufficient balances, or ended the year with teachers' and incidental fund balances below 3 percent of the prior year's spending from those funds. A district that is notified must submit a budget and education plan to the state within 45 days.
The board's Nov. 18 open session is listed on the district's Board of Education page. The board's regular meetings are held at the District Administration Building, 902 N. Missouri St..