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The new superintendent and new top fiscal administrator for the Livermore school system are having to hit the ground running as the district works to get itself off the state’s financial warning list.
Livermore Valley Joint Unified School District received a “qualified certification” from the California Department of Education for its 2023-24 budget because of concerns that projections show the district might not be able to meet its financial obligations two years out.
Although a known problem, having been discussed by the board and prior superintendent’s administration at various meetings last school year, Livermore’s situation got a bit of a jolt this summer as the state’s “Second Interim Status Report” online list has LVJUSD and its $218.5 million budget at the very top of the “Qualified” section — albeit due to the alphabetical organization.
“We will be working closely with our school board and staff to determine the next steps for solving our structural deficit and moving out of a qualified status. As this process unfolds, it will be shared with the public openly and transparently. Our plan is to have a resolution in the coming months,” LVJUSD Superintendent Torie Gibson told Livermore Vine on Friday.
District officials said much of Livermore’s budget issue stems from the aftermath of the COVID-19 pandemic, with temporary funding from the state for “critical support and resources necessary to support students” gone but the need very much not.
“With those one-time funds now exhausted, and many of the educational and mental health support needs for students remaining, the lack of ongoing supplemental funding can no longer offset those added expenses,” LVJUSD officials told Livermore Vine on Friday afternoon.
“Last year, our district made a number of budget reductions and re-prioritizations in order to balance our budget for 2024-25. With approximately 80% of our budget allocated for people, we were able to make most of those reductions through staffing retirements and attrition, without the need for layoffs as some of our neighboring districts did,” they added.
Despite the moves, projections in the 2023-24 budget still showed a structural deficit in the second “out year”, leading to its qualified certification by the state – which requires districts to demonstrate its budget will be balanced for the current year as well as the following two years.
Per the second interim budget report, LVJUSD will need to enact about $4 million in cuts or other changes to balance its 2025-26 budget, officials said.
As for developing the plan and bringing it forward to the public and school board, officials said, the timeline has been affected by the fact Gibson’s first day on the job was July 1 and new assistant superintendent of business services Kayla Wasley just started at LVJUSD last week.
Gibson, who had been superintendent of the Amador County Office of Education and Amador County Unified School District, was hired to succeed Chris Van Schaack after his retirement at the end of the school year. Wasley came from the El Dorado County Office of Education, where she was director of external business services, to replace Teresa Fiscus — who stepped down after 2023-24 to become chief business officer at Los Gatos Union School District.
“It will be important for our new leadership to understand our district’s finances in detail before making decisions,” LVJUSD officials told Livermore Vine on Friday afternoon.
Transitions won’t only affect the executive cabinet during this time. LVJUSD is guaranteed to welcome two new trustees to its Board of Education after the Nov. 5 general election as both incumbents bowed out. Yanira Guzmán didn’t seek a second term for personal reasons, and Kristie Wang is running for Livermore City Council instead.
LVJUSD is the lone Tri-Valley district on the Department of Education’s 2023-24 qualified certification list, a group of 23 statewide that also includes Oakland Unified as the other Alameda County member and the largest at a budget of $950.1 million.
Two spots down on the alphabetical list are Gibson’s former districts, Amador County Office of Education with its $65.8 million budget and Amador County Unified’s $11.2 million budget.
The top of the page features six districts in the more serious “Negative Certification” category, meaning their budgets were not balanced for 2023-24 and 2024-25 based on their second interim financial report’s projections: four tiny rural districts at less than $3.5 million in annual budget, another small district in Calaveras Unified at $48.6 million and then San Francisco Unified at just under $1.35 billion.
