Marysville Joint Unified approves second interim budget showing $29.5M deficit for 2024'25, board hears pleas to save elementary counselors

The Marysville Joint Unified School District Board of Trustees on March 11 unanimously approved the district's second interim financial report for the period ending Jan. 31, 2025, and the required budget revisions, a motion that passed 6'0. The action authorizes staff to proceed with the district's multiyear budget planning process amid projected deficit spending.

Assistant Superintendent for Business Services Jennifer Visaglio told trustees the combined unrestricted and restricted ending fund balance was projected at about $64 million, with an estimated $29.5 million in deficit spending for the 2024'25 school year. Visaglio summarized changes since the first interim, including roughly $2.2 million in additional revenue (partly from LCFF adjustments and other local revenues), about $1.3 million in increased special-education outgo to county programs, and modest expenditure changes under $500,000.

Visaglio said the district's multi'year projections account for planning factors such as enrollment growth, a 93% attendance assumption for average daily attendance, employer costs for STRS and PERS, and projected COLA. She noted the district had already taken actions that reduced staffing costs by roughly $3 million in FTE savings approved at a prior board meeting.

Teacher-union leaders urged the board to protect student supports as budgets are tightened. Angela Stegall, president of the Marysville Unified Teachers Association, told the board the district is facing a proposal that would eliminate five of 11 elementary school counselor positions next year and argued those counselors have contributed to improved ELA and math results and an over-5% reduction in chronic absenteeism. "We have to find a way to make this happen for our students, especially our students who are most at risk and most at need," Stegall said.

Trustees questioned restricted-category changes, including a jump in books-and-supplies from $6.4 million in the adopted budget to $13.5 million in the interim report. Visaglio explained much of that difference reflects grant carryover that is initially recorded in that account until programs allocate funds; she offered to provide a detailed breakdown of the roughly $7 million carryover.

Visaglio also highlighted state budget proposals that could affect planning, including a proposed COLA and program increases and uncertainties such as wildfire impacts on state revenues and local attendance fluctuations. The board approved the interim report and authorized the required budget revisions; Trustee Frank Crawford moved for approval and Trustee Feuer seconded.

The board is scheduled to continue budget work as part of the spring timeline, with a May revised budget and a final local budget adoption planned in June.