FCMAT flags Apple Valley Unified for fiscal risk as teachers’ and classified leaders demand transparency

Apple Valley Unified School District hosted a board workshop on Oct. 30, 2025, during which the state’s Fiscal Crisis and Management Assistance Team (FCMAT) presented a fiscal health risk analysis that highlighted persistent deficit spending, weak internal controls and gaps in budget transparency.

FCMAT representatives Charlene Hart and Jennifer Noga told trustees the district’s FHRA score was 31.2 percent — in the moderate‑risk range overall — but that a single material weakness pushed certain measures into a higher risk category: the absence of a board‑approved and implemented plan to reduce or eliminate ongoing deficit spending after multiple years of negative results. "If a district is deficit spending in the current or two subsequent fiscal years, has the board approved and implemented a plan to reduce or eliminate deficit spending?" the presenters asked, noting that answer carried extra weight in the FHRA.

Why it matters: FCMAT said the district has run consecutive deficits and is drawing on reserves. The presenters cited the district’s unaudited actuals and adopted projections showing year‑end net decreases to the general fund: a deficit of about $1.7 million in 2023–24, $6.4 million in 2024–25, and a projected deficit in the adopted 2025–26 budget. FCMAT…