Slightly Higher than Projected Revenues to End the School Year Helps Rebuild Reserves after Historic SBUSD Labor Agreements
Santa Barbara Unified presented a report on the 23-24 school year that included meeting all state reporting requirements and seeing revenues come in slightly higher than projected.
The “Unaudited Actuals” report is completed each September after the books are closed for the prior school year.
The 23-24 property tax was projected to be 5.64%, and the Santa Barbara County Education Office reported it at 6.1% in August 2024. The District has taken cost-saving measures such as reducing expenditures to contracts, supplies, and other spending. In addition, the District has been conservative in its approach, and using one-time funds, which expire in September 2024, has helped with cost savings to the general fund.
The additional funds will help rebuild the District’s reserves, which are currently being used to cover the costs of recent labor contract agreements around wages and benefits.
It is important to note that this additional revenue does not impact the new labor contract’s contingency clause because it was only applicable to the 24-25 school year.
Currently, the Tax Assessor is projecting property tax for 24-25 to increase by 3.75% over 2023-24. Property tax rates are dependent on how the market performs. The district will know the final numbers from the County in the Summer of 2025.
“While we are grateful for the additional tax revenue, the District must keep a close eye on the budget in the months and years ahead. We will continue to monitor our finances to ensure our budgets reflect our priorities in supporting teachers and staff while also keeping our financial outlook strong, and ensuring that we are providing high-quality programs and instruction for all students,” said Dr. Hilda Maldonado, Superintendent.
The report shows SB Unified met its CEA requirement to spend 55% of its budget on classroom expenditures.
It also shows the District will spend between 80.1% to 86.1% of its unrestricted budget on salaries and benefits as mandated by the California Department of Education.
You can read the 23-24 Unaudited Actuals Report on Tuesday’s Board meeting agenda.
Also Read
- Santa Barbara Unified Students Attend National Journalism Convention in Nashville
- Cal Poly Again Ranked No. 1 in the Nation for Study Abroad Participation
- Has Student Improvement Plateaued in California? New Dashboard Shows Modest Gains
- Superintendent Maldonado Highlights Growth and Collaboration at State of Our Schools
- Leadership Program Recruits UCSB Students For K-8 Tutoring
Dr. Maldonado states that the” budget reflects the reflects the priorities of the district… and ensuring that we are providing high-quality programs and instruction for all students.” but what was was missing in the article is that Maldonado as well as her cabinet got an automatic 10% raise which apparently is a “tradition” and written into the contracts. This “me too clause was an extra 1.5 million which in my opinion should go to instruction for students. Far too many students struggle with reading and would benefit from intensive tutoring, especially some of the older students who are “curriculum casualties” from when the district taught reading in the failed balanced literacy approach over the evidenced based approach. Thankfully the district switched to the science of reading but it takes years to implement. Many older students need help that they are not getting due to costs and leadership that takes self serving raises. Sad but true. Hope the new board puts unmet student needs as the highest priority and ends the self serving “me too” tradition.
Hilda, you’re getting a D.
Not surprise to anyone who follows the teachers’ explanation of the budget the district has brought in more money and spent less money than budgeted for. If my husband and I were looking at our personal budget and I said sorry we can’t fix the rain gutters this year we don’t have room in the budget but then later said hey guess what I spent $1,000 less on the family trip to Disneyland than I budgeted for we would be fixing the gutters the next year, he would not fall for the “budget is all taken up” scheme again. But our board members seem to be ready to fall for the same old tricks again. The district says that it has to save all the money and make giant cuts to make the 10% raise but no board member asked any questions about how their projected budget compares to actual spending from the last few years. I’m guessing if you looked at actual spending you would find that the district has to make very few cuts to pay the new contracts.
Useless article. Any article about our schools should include what kind of results our community is getting for its money. How do we compare with other school districts as to our student’s ability to read, write do math and understand science topics.It also would be nice to know that our students have increased their reasoning abilities. Especially today with so many social imputes our young people need to distinguish fact from fiction.
Hey Hilda, what’s up with the Armory? You know, Santa Barbara taxpayers paid what 12 million for it? You got lots of money, lady, you’re just not using it right.