The Coronado Unified School District plans to reach basic aid status in the next five years, a title that would ultimately allow for local property taxes exceeding the Local Control Funding Formula to fund the school district while also keeping excess tax overflows in house.
Amid negotiations with the teacher’s union, the school district is prioritizing cutting back on current spending to reach basic aid by the 2027-28 school year — a goal that was originally projected for 2036, but is now planned for almost 10 years earlier, according to Deputy Superintendent Donnie Salamanca.
More than a dozen district staff members, parents and community members attended a budget study committee meeting on April 17 to further discuss the Second Interim Budget.
Throughout the meeting, Salamanca guided the committee through an interactive dialogue regarding the impact of state funding and the challenges of maintaining programs and services in the face of declining enrollment and increasing costs.
“We have a few challenges that we’re facing as a district, but we’re really excited about the landscape looking forward to basic aid which we anticipate being in 27/28 if not sooner,” Salamanca said.
The Second Interim Budget report was first presented at a regular school board meeting in March, following Gov. Gavin Newsom’s budget proposal of addressing a $38 billion state budget gap.
According to Salamanca’s presentation in March, Newsom is also proposing to pull $18.8 billion out of state reserves.
Last month, CUSD staff discussed approval of resolutions to adjust for what they’ve identified as a $2.3 million deficit in the upcoming 2024-25 academic school year.
“Our commitment to the board is to present budgets that look to basic aid in mind,” Salamanca said at the special budget meeting on April 17. “Things changed at the state level that forced us to modify our multi-year outlook. …We currently do not have a full bridge to basic aid…we started to make some cuts, but additional reductions are still in the mix.”
Now the school district finds itself participating in teacher layoffs and continues negotiations with the Association of Coronado Teachers (ACT).
Ongoing negotiations
According to the district’s Labor Negotiations page, ACT’s initial proposal value dropped from $4.5 million to $2.5 million of ongoing costs to the district as of April 12.
Meanwhile, CUSD’s counter proposals on March 26 are valued at approximately $272,000.
According to the proposal summary page, ACT is proposing a 10% increase to the salary schedule, adjustments to the teacher work day and other additional compensation.
CUSD rejected the initial $4.5 million ACT proposals because it would cause the district to be insolvent by the 2025-2026 school year, according to the same proposal summary page from the district.
Looking to ensure every ACT member will get a pay raise annually until the district reaches basic aid status, CUSD looks to add three additional steps beyond Step 31, valued at 2.5% each year and proposed a “salary increase equivalent to the CoLA it will receive from the State (0.82% as of April) in addition to step increases that every employee is eligible to receive.”
The district document says the next bargaining date between ACT and CUSD is scheduled for April 30.
Committee budget discussion
The April 17 meeting also discussed the impact of interdistrict transfer students.
The district plans to enroll 2,800 total students in the next school year, and there are an average of 300 interdistrict transfer application requests each year, Salamanca said.
“As of this morning, we are at 290 requests to join our district,” Salamanca told the committee on April 17 about the transfer applications that opened in February.
For over more than 20 years, CUSD has averaged between 14-19% of interdistrict transfer student enrollment, said Superintendent Karl Mueller.
Salamanca said that 100 transfer students could bring in about $1.2 million and 300 would more than double that amount.
“We’re setting ourselves up for some significant decisions to be made around staffing cuts, not allowing students who are current students to return on interdistrict transfers,” said Mueller about the inability to accept all applicants to balance the district’s budget.
While Mueller expects the average transfer enrollment to change considering that as a basic aid district, CUSD is less prone to receiving revenue for these students, he said he believes the district will continue to enroll interdistrict transfer students because “we can’t operate our schools and our programs without some IDTs.”
Salamanca noted that with about 300 applications last year, CUSD accepted 150 students and the enrollment remained at 2,700. The annual applications also include those students who have to reapply because they are moving from one grade level to the next like those leaving the elementary schools and entering middle school, added Salamanca.
The committee also discussed the increasing property values and decreasing number of new family homes with school aged children moving to Coronado, a situation that helps basic aid revenue but fails to fill seats, noted Mueller.
According to Mueller, CUSD is considering full or partial funding for transfer students attending the conservatory at Coronado High School by exploring the possibility of one of two realistic models, the District of Choice Program, to increase revenue that could help the district once in basic aid.
“Let’s say we’re in basic aid, we add a hundred students to the Coronado School of the Arts, we’re getting 25% of the revenue that they would have received in their home district,” said Mueller. “The other 75% of their experience would be funded through our local property taxes. We are not getting additional revenue for IDTs or per pupil once we’re basic aid. It’s 100% based off of property taxes.”
The next committee meeting will take place on June 19 in the District Board Room.
