Brentwood Union School District Budget Newsletter
STATE FUNDING CHANGE IS PROBLEMATIC AT BUSD
The Local Control Funding Formula (LCFF) changed how districts were funded starting ten years ago. Now, all districts receive a base funding grant for each student who comes to school. Districts receive 20% additional funding per student for each student with high needs; defined as learning English, in poverty, homeless or in foster care. Districts are provided additional money if more than 55% of children in the district qualify as having high needs. As a result of this formula, BUSD receives less money per student than 90% of the districts in the state. If BUSD received the money that Antioch receives per student we would have over $31 million more to serve our local students.
*Most current data is 2022-23 at ed-data.org
**Total funding includes unrestricted and restricted including federal, other state and other local funding
ATTENDANCE MATTERS FOR LEARNING AND FUNDING
Until 1999, schools’ count of students was based on attendance, but students with excused absences, mostly due to illness, were added to the count. After Senate Bill 727 was enacted in 1998-99, school districts no longer received funding for students who were absent from school for any reason.
In the years prior to the pandemic, BUSD average daily attendance (ADA) was around 97%, meaning that on any given day 3% of students were not in attendance. Since returning from the pandemic, attendance has been significantly lower. In 2023-24, BUSD ADA was at 95.03%, more than 2% lower. In addition to the negative impact on learning, lower attendance rates means the state subtracts from our funding. Each day a student is absent for any reason, the district is fined approximately $75. California is one of only a handful of states that funds schools this way. A 1% attendance decline results in approximately $1 million less in funding. BUSD lost over $2 million in funding last year due to the post COVID attendance changes. BUSD is actively working to promote students attending school every day they are not sick. There is clear research about the connection between school attendance and student success.
REQUIRED EXPENDITURES CONSUME LARGE PORTION OF NEW MONEY THAT IS PROVIDED TO DISTRICT
The statutory Cost of Living Adjustment (COLA) provided to districts each year is calculated at the state level. It is not specifically designed to provide schools what they need to keep up with inflation. BUSD’s 2024-25 budget was built on a projected COLA of 3.94%. Due to a significant state budget shortfall and changing economics, that COLA was reduced to 1.07%. The change in COLA caused an immediate reduction of $3,000,000 to the district in ongoing revenue.
Each year, mandated and automatic increases have to be accounted for in the budget. These are costs that the district incurs without choice. These include state retirement plan increases, special education cost increases, disability and Medicare increases, Insurance premium increases, increases in utility prices, transportation cost increases as well as step and column increases to employee salaries based on negotiated salary schedules. In addition, districts negotiate with multiple employee groups each year for salary, benefits and other contractual items that often have additional costs.
Mandated cost increases often outpace revenue increases to the district causing deficit spending or the need for budget reductions.
BUDGET REDUCTIONS REQUIRED WITHOUT ADDITIONAL FUNDING
All districts are required to have their budgets approved annually by the county office. BUSD is required to show that we can meet our obligations for the current year and next two years while maintaining a 3% reserve. The BUSD Board previously maintained an additional 1.25% reserve, but temporarily suspended that at the August 2024 Board Meeting to avoid making further budget reductions. Due to our low revenue and increasing expenses, a reduction of $330,000 next school year is required to meet the minimum reserve level. This is less of a reduction than we anticipated due to additional lottery funds that were unexpected. This current school year is also the last school year we have one-time funding left for all intervention teachers and 6 full-time counselors that were put in place to support students after Covid. This does not mean the need for those services is gone, only the funding. These reduction targets will likely shift substantially throughout the year as there are many rapidly changing variables that affect our financials. Some of the key variables include enrollment increases, attendance rates, the need to hire new employees for students or schools and the need for substitute employees. At the first interim report in December, we will update our estimated enrollment and attendance which should have a positive increase on the budget. Our goal is to continually update these reduction targets and what has changed throughout the school year.