Unit 4 subceeds expected budget for 2023-24 school year; Amazon purchases, travel top costs

The Champaign Unit 4 School District boasted nearly $108 million in spending in the past fiscal year according to its check register archive.

The archive is publicly available on the district’s website as a PDF document and details all of its outgoing payments. CU-CitizenAccess.org has created a spreadsheet-compatible collection of this data, but many purchase details are still unknown due to abbreviations and vague descriptors.

For example, an Amazon purchase made in April 2023 is labeled in the register as “PE ITEMS,” but information on exact products included in the order are unavailable.

When asked about unclear purchase descriptions, Unit 4 Director of Communications Garret Hill said improper training on how to enter these details could be to blame.

“We’re limited in how many characters we can input, meaning there’s only so much information we can include,” Hill said. “Whether there’s enough training on how to enter the data, I don’t know.”

The fiscal year for the school district is defined as July 1 to June 30 of the following year. The district’s preliminary expenditures were estimated at over $220 million for the past fiscal year, which ended on June 30, 2024, according to its joint agreement budget form with the Illinois State Board of Education.

The three largest payments by the district in the last fiscal year were made out to Gametime Athletics, a sports equipment company based out of Platte City, Missouri. One of the three, a charge totaling $52,104.35, was labeled as “SHIPPING.”

The fifth and tenth largest payments went to Verizon Wireless, both around $30,000.

The most expensive month for the district was June, with total spending coming in at $13 million. The biggest expense is titled “EFT-MEMBER CONTRIBU,” at a price of $1.12 million.

Amazon purchases totaled just under $830,000. The most expensive purchase through the e-commerce website was titled “PLEASE SEE ATTACHED,” at $22,240, though no attachment or product details are available in the report.

Nearly $17,500 was spent on Soundtrap, a platform used to create music and podcasts. Purchase descriptions are unclear on how it’s used or who uses it. Its parent company is Spotify, which also had a monthly subscription charge in the register.

The Illinois Departments of Agriculture, Natural Resources, Public Health and Revenue each received payments from the district.

The Department of Revenue was the largest, coming in at $31.7 million for the last fiscal year – nearly 29.4% of Unit 4’s total expenditures in the past fiscal year. Each individual payment to the department was categorized as a state tax.

An American Express card was used to make a variety of purchases totaling almost $371,000.

Chief Financial Officer Linda Matkowski said charges made to the district’s sole American Express card are heavily monitored.

“Employees who have budget approval authorization, i.e. Cabinet members or staff responsible for local, state or federal grant programs, come to the Business Office and complete information regarding the purchase being made and the budget code that it is to be charged to,” Matkowski said. “All district purchases, regardless of payment method, are subject to Board policy and approval if required.”

Cabinet members or staff responsible for local, state or federal grant programs are all examples of those who may have authority over budget approvals.

The district’s credit card spending was under scrutiny back in 2019, when a criminal investigation by Illinois State Police revealed that Unit 4 had no policies or guidelines in place to govern faculty purchases.

Previously, 86 faculty members were authorized to use district “P-cards,” or credit cards used for various purchases made with taxpayer money funded to Unit 4. The district has since created the single-card policy and limited purchase authorizations to select faculty.

The biggest expenses charged to these cards were overwhelmingly for travel. Delta, Southwest, United and American Airlines payments were all included in the check registers, in addition to various hotels.

Flights alone cost the district close to $70,000. Hotels, including Marriott, Doubletree, Hilton, Hyatt, Sheraton and the University of Illinois’ I Hotel, were an additional $9,000.

Matkowski said district faculty request conference travel during the initial phases of the budget creation process for the following fiscal year. It is formally approved by a cabinet-level administrator or the School Board.

“If travel is required for a local, state or federal grant, the attendance at the conference is contained within their approved grant application,” Matkowski added.

Food purchases were also frequent in the check register archive.

Some were identified as coming from specific restaurants, like Jet’s Pizza, Black Dog Smoke & Ale House and Moe’s Southwest Grill. Others, however, were listed as things like “LUNCH” or “FOOD - FEBRUARY 22.”

One charge from Sam’s Club, coming in at almost $150, is simply labeled “SNACKS/CANDY FOR ME.”

Almost $700 was spent on Heartland Coca-Cola, a partnership which was outlined in last year’s budget.