District Debt

Per the 2020-2021 audited financial statements, the district has a total of $924.3m in total debt and only $458.7m of assets.  Overall, it means that the district has $410m more in debt than the assets themselves are worth.  In the business world, this would mean bankruptcy.  Now none of us expect that the school district will operate as a profitable entity and it will always carry a significant amount of debt.  After all, building and maintaining schools is expensive and those costs can't be covered by the general fund.  But that debt is all paid by our tax dollars, through additional milages.  This district currently has $468.6m in bond debt (up from $441.8m in 2020) that our milages are paying for.  That is over $31,800 per student enrolled in the district!

I would work to reduce this debt load, and by extension, reduce the amount of taxes we have to pay.  At the same time, make sure that the buildings are maintained adequately over their lifespan so that we don't have to approve milages every time a building needs a new roof.

The largest driver of the remaining debt is pension liability.  I would explore ways to reduce this liability without cutting the benefit to our teachers.  Teachers are our most important asset and we need to treat them as such.