Lake County supervisors approve letter backing HR 1383 to reauthorize Secure Rural Schools funding

The Lake County Board of Supervisors voted 5-0 to approve a letter of support for HR 1383, the Secure Rural Schools Reauthorization Act of 2025, and authorized the chair to sign.

Brock, a commenter who addressed the board about local impacts, asked the supervisors to send a letter backing reauthorization. “I am here just to ask that you generate a letter of support in favor of reauthorization of the Secure Rural Schools Act,” Brock told the board, and then summarized the federal funding model that underlies the payments.

The Secure Rural Schools (SRS) model stems from earlier federal law under the Forest Reserve Act and later adjustments that set aside 25% of timber-sale receipts on national forest land to be distributed to states and then to counties and school districts. Brock described how the county and school share is split: 50% to counties and 50% to schools; within the school share, up to 15% may be used for countywide educational initiatives. In Lake County, Brock said, 15% of the school share supports the Taylor Observatory and Norton Planetarium; about 10% of the school share goes to community colleges (roughly 9% to Mendocino College and 1% to Woodland College), and the remaining school share is distributed to Upper Lake, Kelseyville/KeNocet (referred to in the transcript as “Kenocta”), and Lucerne school districts based on national forest land within their district boundaries (about 92% of that remainder to Upper Lake Unified School District, 5% to Kenocta, and 3% to Lucerne, per Brock).

Brock told the board that Lake County’s most recent annual SRS figure in the report was about $465,000 for fiscal year 2023; he said roughly half of that (approximately $232,000) would typically go to schools and the other half to county infrastructure, chiefly roads. He warned that without reauthorization the county could lose funding that currently offsets school and county costs; Brock said that loss of the school share would be equivalent to about 2.5 full-time-equivalent teaching positions, with the greatest impact in Upper Lake Unified School District.

Matthew Rothstein, chief deputy county administrative officer, relayed details provided by Director March of the county’s Department of Public Works. Rothstein said SRS funds are used for school-area signage, pavement markings and speed studies; he noted that speed studies must be performed by a contracted traffic engineer rather than by county staff. “Director March indicates that in the short term SRS funds would be used for school area signage and for pavement markings and speed studies,” Rothstein said.

Board members framed the item as bipartisan and urgent. Supervisor Swatier and Supervisor Pyszka (who introduced the item) said they raised the issue with congressional delegations; Supervisor Esponti noted counties across the political spectrum have urged reauthorization. Board discussion clarified that the program’s authorization expired in June of the prior year and, according to speakers at the meeting, county payments would cease as of April of the current year if Congress does not act.

The motion approved by the board directs county staff to transmit a letter of support to the local congressman—identified in the discussion as working on the bill alongside another member of Congress—and authorizes the chair to sign. The motion carried by a 5-0 vote.

The board did not adopt any ordinance or budget amendment at the meeting; the action was limited to approving and authorizing the letter of support.