District budget outlook improves with one-time state funds but adult education, food service face cuts

Deputy Superintendent of Business Services Tina Van Rapport told the JUHSD Board of Trustees the district has received notice that federal funds withheld earlier this year have been released to the state and will be passed to local districts soon, but funding beyond the 2025–26 school year remains uncertain. Van Rapport said continued federal uncertainty and lower-than-expected federal grant receipts have produced a cumulative shortfall in the adult education program estimated at about $440,000 for 2024–25, a number she said will be finalized when year-end books are closed.

The district will receive new one-time state discretionary funds, described as “just over a million dollars” and shown in staff slides as approximately $1.2 million. Van Rapport said the district also expects roughly $150,000 in additional learning-recovery funds. Those one-time state amounts increase the projected reserve for 2025–26 to about 16.1 percent, up from the adopted projection of 15.54 percent.

Van Rapport warned that school nutrition funding has shifted since the pandemic and that the state one-time scaling funds are ending. Based on current meal counts and program growth, she said the district will need to reduce costs in food service, including trimming an estimated seven of 31 food-service positions if attrition and other gradual reductions are insufficient; she said layoffs would be considered only if overstaffing remains in spring. Van Rapport described staff plans to work with the California Department of Education to seek recovery of federal shortfalls and to reduce expenditures for 2025–26.

Trustees were told no formal action was required at the meeting; Van Rapport described this presentation as a preliminary budget update and said a more detailed report will follow in September after the books for 2024–25 are closed and the first interim report will come to the board in December.

Discussion points included that federal funds have been released to the state but not yet received at the district level, the adult-education deficit estimate of about $440,000, approximately $1.2 million in one‑time state discretionary funds, $150,000 in learning recovery funds, and a possible reduction of seven food-service positions out of 31. The district projects a 16.1 percent reserve for 2025–26 under current estimates. No motions or formal votes were taken on budget matters at this meeting.