According to projections, certified salaries will comprise 33% of district expenditures.
Once again an official in-house financial report indicates the Lucerne Valley Unified School District is in solid shape, and the administration continues to put funds where it makes the most impact for students — salaries for teachers and others who make a difference.
The financial projections of the 2023-2024 First Interim Report are “the best educated guess that we have,” Assistant Superintendent of Business Olga Fisher told members of the LVUSD’s Board of Trustees during its December 7, 2023 meeting. With that, the district is certified to be in “good financial standing.”
A number of key factors go into making budget projections, she added. Those factors include enrollment, attendance, unduplicated pupil percentage, Local Control Funding Formula (LCFF) increase, hiring, employee retirement increases, special education increases, collective bargaining negotiations along with a currently closing economy and rising costs, the latter which pose challenges in making multiyear projections.
Superintendent Peter Livingston added that the school district is currently projecting “flat enrollment” rather than higher growth when making its multiyear projections.
According to Ms. Fisher, the Lucerne Valley USD’s projected total revenue is $25.2 million, which is $860,205 higher than the $24.3 million adopted budget. Local, state and federal revenues are projected to be slightly higher than the adopted budget, but the LCFF, which depends on several factors, is projected to be $633,382 lower.
The largest slice of the expenditure pie goes to teachers and other certificated employees who are projected to receive $8.4 million. Teacher salaries account for 33% of all school district expenditures. Employee benefits will be $6 million while classified employee salaries are expected to rise by $111,992 to a projected $3.9 million. Other expenditures are books and supplies ($1.7 million), services and operations ($3.2 million), capital outlay $1.2 million and other outgo $511,780. Revenue for 2024-25 is projected to dip from $25.2 million to $24.7 million and then bounce back up to $25.2 million in 2025-26.
Ms. Fisher, a highly touted education professional who came to the Lucerne Valley USD earlier this year, also presented the budget timeline for the remainder of the fiscal year. Gov. Gavin Newsom’s proposed 2023-24 state education budget is expected in January 2024 followed by Ms. Fisher meeting with school sites and programs along with accessing the development of the district’s Local Control and Accountability Plan (LCAP), she said. At the March 2024 meeting, she will present the second interim budget report. In May the district will conduct the LCAP and budget workshop and community meetings. The 2024-25 LCAP and budget will be adopted in June.
Ms. Fisher also used a graphic in her PowerPoint presentation to show the cycle of generating and adopting the school district’s annual budget.
School Board member Jessica Risler, who was conducting her last meeting as board president, thanked Ms. Fisher for her hard work on the presentation.
Published on Monday, December 18, 2023