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District CFO details $73.7M year-end balance, warns of $18M projected drawdown
Summary
Business services chief Cardoso told the Westminster School District board the district closed 2024-25 with about $73.66 million in fund balance (unrestricted ~$51.5M; restricted ~$22M), projects to spend down roughly $18M in 25-26 (about $11M restricted), and cited declining enrollment and lower COLA as drivers of fiscal pressure.
Mister Cardoso, the district's business services lead, presented a granular fiscal update to the board during the study session. He said Westminster closed 2024-25 with an unaudited ending fund balance of about $73.66 million, including roughly $51.5 million of unrestricted fund balance and $22 million restricted. Cardoso said the district recorded approximately $166.5 million in revenues and $179 million in expenditures in that year.
Cardoso said staff expect to spend down about $11 million of restricted categorical balances in 2025-26 as planned and to draw down roughly $18 million in total fund balance for the year, of which about $11.5 million is restricted spending and roughly $8 million is unrestricted. "We ended last year with $73,000,000 in reserve," Cardoso said, noting the district's unrestricted reserve represented about 28.68% (roughly 3.5 months of expenditures) for 2024-25 and that projections show reserves declining over the multiyear forecast. He cautioned that lower COLA environments and ongoing declines in Average Daily Attendance (ADA) reduce LCFF growth even when the state applies a 2.3% COLA.
Cardoso outlined several drivers of pressure on the general fund: declining enrollment (about a 2.7% average decline from 21-22 to 25-26, with a small uptick of roughly 20 students last year), expiration of one-time COVID-era funds (about $48.9M spent and reported), rising special education costs (district-funded share increases), contractual salary/benefit commitments and a sizable retiree incentive program the district recently offered. He reported the retiree incentive drew 112 participants and that the district estimates gross salary savings of about $6.87M against incentive program costs of about $2.14M, yielding about $4.7M in estimated net savings once staffing is finalized.
On accountability and oversight, Cardoso summarized AB 1200 reporting and certification categories (positive, qualified, negative), described FCMAT's role, and noted that while some neighboring elementary districts in Orange County have recently filed qualified or negative certifications, Westminster is not among them at this point. Trustees asked for follow-up data comparing the district's class-size averages and staffing ratios with the other 11 elementary districts in the county and for TK-8 class-size data (the presentation focused on TK-6), and Cardoso agreed to return with additional detail in future materials.
No action was taken in the study session; the board moved to a confidential closed session after the update.
