Duarte Unified accepts clean audit, approves amended budget-stabilization plan and reduced staffing while exempting several high-school special-education cuts

The Duarte Unified School District Board of Education on March 13 accepted an unmodified fiscal-year 2023–24 audit and approved an amended budget-stabilization plan and related staff reductions after hours of public comment and discussion.

Auditor Natalie Palma of Christie White told the board the district received the best possible set of opinions: “Our overall financial statement opinion, state compliance opinion, and federal compliance opinion were all unmodified,” and she reported “there were no financial statement or federal or state compliance findings this year.” The board unanimously accepted the audit.

The board then reviewed the district’s second interim financial report, covering actual revenues and expenditures through Jan. 31, 2025. Finance presenter Miss Bell reported declines in enrollment and in funded average daily attendance are the main drivers of lower LCFF (Local Control Funding Formula) revenues; she said funded ADA is currently about $13,600 per ADA measure and that the district’s multiyear projection shows the committed unrestricted leftover declining from about $9.9 million (24–25) to $3.9 million by 26–27. Bell also noted the district is reserving about $8,000,000 for an unresolved SELPA (Special Education Local Plan Area) dispute.

Board members asked questions about the meaning of “unmodified” audit…