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Chino Valley Unified staff report flags rising special-education costs; board asks for more performance data
Summary
Assistant Superintendent Luke Hackney told the board special-education spending has risen sharply and the district is budgeting about $43 million from the general fund this year; board members asked staff to extract more granular IEP performance data and to clarify a drop in restricted carryover funds.
Assistant Superintendent Luke Hackney told the Chino Valley Unified School District board on March 9 that special-education revenues and expenditures have grown year over year and that the district is increasingly relying on its general fund to balance special-education costs.
"This year it is budgeted to contribute currently around $43,000,000 from the general fund," Hackney said during a staff report on special-education revenues and expenses. He outlined revenue sources — state, federal and SELPA allocations and reimbursements — and said the district has been spending prior carryover funds; that carryover has largely been exhausted, producing a substantial decline in restricted budget carryover compared with earlier years.
Hackney said expenditures have increased and that the district has added positions tied to special education, noting "there are 10 positions which total $1,400,000" in one portion of the budget. He also noted an increase of roughly $10,000,000 in the special-education budget compared with two years ago and warned that "if it continues at this rate, it could potentially become a structural issue for the district." (Luke Hackney)
Board member Smith pressed for a broader view of program outcomes beyond individual IEP detail. "Do we have data tracking the performance of our program?" he asked, requesting an "en masse, macro look" at results. Hackney responded that staff will "look into that and work with our database company" to pull the kind of aggregated performance data the board requested.
Board member Cruz asked about a roughly 50% decrease in the restricted budget line. Hackney said that change reflected the exhaustion of prior-year carryover, not an across-the-board reduction in the district's recurring state or federal allocations.
The report described how certificated and classified salaries, contracted services, equipment and indirect costs factor into spending. Hackney reviewed student counts and per‑student expenditures and said the district's budget has been balanced each year by using the general fund to plug gaps when reimbursements and allocations fall short.
The board did not take formal action on the staff report; members thanked staff and directed department leaders to return with the requested data extraction and any recommendations for monitoring or policy changes that could address the growth trend.
The district also discussed related personnel and staffing topics later in the meeting during public comments and in board member remarks.
Ending: The board asked staff to attempt to produce the larger-scale IEP performance metrics and clarified that the restricted-budget decline was due to prior carryover exhaustion; staff said they would follow up with the requested analyses.
