Already mired in controversy, the St. Joseph, Missouri school district has announced significant errors in its budget, necessitating cuts just one month after the school board unanimously approved it. 

Critics contend St. Joseph School District (SJSD) board members have focused too much on progressive social issues and internal squabbling, a judgment seemingly shared by voters in a recent election. 

The budget debacle comes just months after the district’s voters rejected a $157 million bond issue supported by school board members, which was proposed to build a new high school. The plan would have consolidated three high schools into two. 

Revised numbers indicate the district will have to close one of its three existing high schools much more rapidly to save money. District authorities also plan to reduce its workforce by around 15%. 

The 2025-26 budget was approved June 23.  

However, SJSD exposed the budget snafu at its most recent board meeting July 28, just a month after the retirements of Superintendent Gabe Evans and Assistant Superintendent of Business and Operations Robert Sigrist, who jointly prepared the budget. 

Overspending on staff salaries, remodeling overruns, declining attendance and poor forecasting contributed to the errors, said Assistant Superintendent Robert Hedgecorth, who replaced Sigrist. 

Staff realized the district would fall below the required reserve balance in its fiscal closing for 2024-25 at the end of June 30, just a week after the latest budget was approved. The board has a policy of keeping at least 20% of its current fiscal year budget in reserve, Hedgecorth explained. 

When the fiscal year closed at the end of June, the reserve balance was just 10%. 

Stunned board members were mostly silent about the errors, with the exception of member Whitney Lanning, who was first elected to the board in 2023 and who took a lead in the questioning. 

“Like, so, has this been an ongoing issue? Is it something that just came up or what?” Lanning asked. 

One issue included the failure of the last report to include all July expenses, Hedgecorth said. Additionally, federal dollars weren’t received prior to June 30, meaning they couldn’t be counted at the end of the fiscal year. 

When accounting for the missing federal dollars, the reserve balance is closer to 16%. 

Given the most recent budget already forecasted an $8.2 million deficit for the school year, this amounts to a nearly $15 million shortfall – if one adds an additional $6.8 million to get the reserves back on track. 

Taken together, that’s a 9% miss on the budget. 

But the budget problem is likely larger than $15 million, if one listens carefully to the meeting comments. 

New SJSD Superintendent Ashly McGinnis compared the crisis to the 2018 budget shortfall at the district, which saw a 15% reduction in force, although she said it wouldn’t affect the coming academic year. 

“We have no intentions of cutting staff for this upcoming year,” McGinnis told the board. “But we do need to address inefficiencies that we have in our district. I do believe we have some spending that we can look at and cut back on some of those areas. And then for ’26-27 we’ll have to look at staffing.” 

A 15% reduction in staff salaries and benefits based on the current year adds up to about $17 million in cuts. 

The salary cuts might have to be deeper than that, however. 

Hedgecorth told the board he planned to present a five- to six-page plan to address the budget issues in October. His report would likely revise staff salaries and benefits for this year forward as he believes the recent budget forecast was too low. 

“I think that October budget vision will give you a clear picture,” he added. 

Lanning mentioned the board was given a heads up about the shortfall prior to the board meeting and was shocked. 

“So, I just, I’m sure like the rest of you when we heard this, I as a board member have gone back and been like, what could we have looked at?” she asked rhetorically. “What were we not looking at?”  

Hedgecorth had a simple answer. 

“I think you should forget about what funds what, and look more at the outcomes in the classroom,” he said.