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The Pleasanton Unified School District Board of Trustees will have several budget items to discuss Thursday evening, including a resolution that would allow PUSD to borrow money internally in order to meet its financial obligations and also authorize the district to borrow money from the county until the local property tax share hits in December.
According to the Sept. 11 staff report, based on the beginning balance for the district’s 2025-26 General Fund and revenue disbursements — which include state, federal and other revenue sources — PUSD’s month-to-month cash flow will “go negative beginning in September and continue through November 2025.”
That is why the district will request a borrowing amount “not to exceed $15,000,000,” from the county.
“In order for the district to meet its financial obligations, the district will borrow internally from other funds as allowed and authorized by the Board for about ($11 million), and the remaining shortfall will be borrowed from the Alameda County Treasurer,” the staff report states. “Staff will only borrow what is actually needed based on actual cash flow needs.”
Staff noted that the district is projected to receive its local property taxes — which are part of the Local Control Funding Formula (LCFF) calculation — this December and that those funds will significantly help the district financially.
And according to the staff report, the borrowed funds from the county treasurer will be repaid “on the back end when the County disburses our LCFF revenues in April 2026.”
“The Alameda County Treasurer will charge interest based on what they would have earned if the money were kept in their account,” according to the staff report. “Current interest earnings are between 3.0% and 3.5% at the county treasury.”
It is unclear what led to the district needing to ask the county for money but trustees may address that question during some of the other budget-related discussions on the agenda.
The board’s open session is scheduled to begin at 6 p.m. Thursday (Sept. 11). Read the full agenda here.
In other business:
* The school board will be reviewing a presentation from staff about the district’s 2024-25 unaudited actuals, which provides key findings such as significant unrestricted fund balance variance that has caused the district’s reserves to fall below the 3% minimum.
According to the report, unaudited actuals reflect the final status of the district’s actual revenues, expenditures and fund balance activity for the 2024-25 fiscal year. These numbers include all financial activity since the 2024-25 estimated actuals were initially reported when the board adopted the 2025-26 budget during the June 26 board meeting.
Education code requires the district submit these unaudited actuals to the Alameda County Office of Education by Sept. 15 of each year. An independent financial audit will then take place for the unaudited actuals — the district also uses these numbers to update the district’s First Interim Report for the 2025-26 budget.
Some of the key findings from the 2024-25 unaudited actuals show that from the time the 2025-26 budget was adopted to the unaudited actuals coming out, the “unrestricted ending fund balance variance was -$3,456,758 or 1.53% of total expenditures.”
Because of this, the district’s unrestricted General Fund reserve is at 0.55% or $1.24 million, which is shy from the reserve target of 3%. According to the report, from 2023-24 to 2024-25, total reserves have gone down by nearly $8 million and total revenues went down by roughly $3 million.
In addition, even though the data shows that the district was able to decrease expenditures by nearly 2% between the 20243-24 and the 2024-25 fiscal years, it was not enough to offset the loss of revenues and the structural deficit in spending.
According to the report, the district is deficit spending about $7.21 million in unrestricted money and $2.75 million in restricted money.
Following the discussion and possible approval of the unaudited actuals, staff will use the data to draft the First Interim Report, which will be presented to the board in December.
Staff said they will also continue working on other budget reduction work and continue to improve the district’s reserves — both of those topics will be discussed during Thursday’s meeting.
* PUSD’s Budget Advisory Committee will be presenting an update to the board on the work the committee has been doing.
The committee was established to help weigh in on fiscal decisions regarding the 2025-26 budget. Some of the BAC’s work includes analyzing the district’s fiscal realities and finances; determining the process for receiving input regarding budget reductions; providing ideas for better communication regarding the budget challenges with the greater community; and examining the possibility of a future parcel tax.
“The committee reviewed fiscal realities, engaged in timeline and communication planning, and began discussions of potential reductions and revenue options,” according to the staff report.
* The board will be voting on approving a resolution that would adopt a plan for expending one-time resources and approve the deposit of proceeds from PUSD’s sale of its Vineyard property into its General Fund for one-time purposes.
The sale of the Vineyard Ave Property, which was completed in June after a two-year process, yielded just under $30.4 million in funds, according to staff.
On July 10, the school board directed staff to retain $11 million of the sale proceeds and to consider allocating the funds to PUSD’s General Fund for one-time purposes. The remaining funds from the Vineyard Property sale have been used to pay off the majority of a $30 million certificate of participation (COP), which helped finance the district’s new offices on West Las Positas Boulevard.
In order to retain the $11 million, the board will need to approve the resolution at hand and seek approval from the State Allocation Board. Following the state board’s approval, the money will be moved into the General Fund and be placed in “committed funds” where it will be used for various areas within the budget.
“These funds will count towards the district’s minimum reserve requirement for the General Fund budget, but because they are committed to specific expenditures and stabilization arrangements, they can not be used for any other purpose, including balancing a deficit budget,” according to staff.
* After having continued the item from the Aug. 28 board meeting, the board will be receiving a presentation of the 2024-25 Proposition 28 annual report, which includes information on how the arts and music state funds have helped students and staff during the last school year.
California voters approved Proposition 28 in November 2022. Dubbed the Arts and Music in Schools (AMS) Funding Guarantee and Accountability Act, the measure required the state to “establish a new, ongoing program supporting arts instruction in schools beginning in 2023-24.”
“Prop 28 funding has been instrumental in expanding inclusive, innovative and culturally-sustaining opportunities for PUSD students to engage in meaningful exposure to arts programming,” according to the Aug. 28 staff report. “Pleasanton Unified School District is committed to expanding student access to high-quality Visual and Performing Arts programs, aligned with the intent of Proposition 28.”
In order to keep receiving these state funds, the district must prepare these reports each year and they must also be approved by the board before being submitted to the California Department of Education.
Thursday’s discussion will give staff an opportunity to show all of the ways the district has used Proposition 28 funding to “strengthen and diversify opportunities across all grade levels, with a particular focus on equity, inclusion, and innovation.”
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