Forest Lake Financial Audit Deep Dive

This expanded explorer turns ten years of Forest Lake Area Schools audited financial data into a single financial workbench. In addition to revenue, spending, reserves, and enrollment, it now includes inflation-adjusted comparisons, budget forecast accuracy, operating runway, school-tax and debt history, and an interactive multi-year scenario model.

Important context: Financial statements show what was recognized in each fiscal year; they do not by themselves establish whether a spending decision was necessary, effective, or avoidable. Enrollment, state funding formulas, voter-approved levies, construction schedules, negotiated contracts, federal grants, accounting standards, inflation, and transfers between funds can all change year-to-year results. Multi-year patterns are usually more informative than a single increase or decrease.

Two tax measures appear in this explorer: General Fund property-tax revenue is accounting revenue recognized by the district. The school tax levy is the amount certified/collectible by fund. They are related but are not interchangeable, and neither is an individual homeowner's tax bill.

Explore the data by

Beginning fiscal year

Ending fiscal year

Focus

Display as

Dollar basis

How to Read the Results

Historical dollars: choose nominal dollars or convert historical amounts to 2025 purchasing power using the annual-average U.S. CPI-U. Percentages and tax rates are not inflation-adjusted.

Budget accuracy: the audits compare actual results with the final/revised budget reported in the audited schedule. This is not always the same as the district's original adopted budget.

Financial runway: unrestricted General Fund balance is divided by annual General Fund spending and expressed as equivalent months of operations.

Scenario Lab: future values are mathematical outputs from user-editable assumptions, not a prediction or an official district forecast. The model begins with FY2025 audited actuals and clearly separates its assumptions from historical facts.

Reference Data and Supporting Evidence

The historical explorer uses the district's annual audited financial statements and auditor management reports for FY2016 through FY2025. Tax levy, tax-rate, taxable-market-value, and current debt-payment data come from the FY2025 audit's ten-year and long-term-liability schedules. Operating referendum history comes from MDE's statewide 1994-2025 election workbook. Inflation adjustment uses BLS CPI-U annual averages. The Scenario Lab also displays the district's published FY2025-26 General Fund budget as a reference point.

Open the annual reports used by this tool

2016 - Financial | Management

2017 - Financial | Management

2018 - Financial | Management

2019 - Financial | Management

2020 - Financial | Management

2021 - Financial | Management

2022 - Financial | Management

2023 - Financial | Management

2024 - Financial | Management

2025 - Financial | Management

Inflation and current-budget sources