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District finance chief outlines health‑care and special‑education costs and projects a modest reserve uptick after settlement
Summary
At the June 11 meeting CBO Jason Calf presented the 2025-26 proposed budget that projects a 5.37% unrestricted reserve under current assumptions, highlights a ~$6.1 million special-education gap and a roughly $420,000 health-insurance cost increase, and factors in a negotiated salary settlement.
The Carpinteria Unified School District’s chief business officer, Jason Calf, told the board on June 11 that, under current assumptions and a negotiated settlement, the district’s unrestricted general fund reserve is projected to rise to about 5.37% in 2025-26. The presentation framed that projection against a 2023-24 unrestricted ending balance of 3.59% and compared the district to statewide and peer averages.
Calf stressed two large structural pressures on the budget. First, special-education expenditures substantially exceed special-education revenues; Calf said the district expects to contribute roughly $6.1 million from the unrestricted general fund to meet special-education costs in 2025-26. "Our expenditures are projected to be about $8.4 million while revenues are projected around $2.3 million," he said, explaining the contribution requirement.
Second, employer health and welfare costs are increasing year to year. Calf cited a districtwide additional cost of about $420,000 between 2024-25 and 2025-26 for health plans, noting that cost is equivalent to roughly a 2% salary increase districtwide in staffing cost terms.
The presentation also summarized staffing assumptions used in the budget: modest staffing reductions through attrition (noting five certificated and ten instructional assistant FTEs in the modeling), a proposed 5% salary schedule increase effective July 1, 2025, and a one-time, off-schedule 4% payment for 2024-25. Calf emphasized that several numbers are projections — especially property-tax growth — and that the county P2 estimate of around 5% property-tax growth has been used in planning.
Board members and the public pressed for clarity on what parts of the projected reserve are unrestricted versus restricted, and Calf mapped the general fund into unrestricted and restricted components and explained that contributions to restricted programs (principally special education and routine maintenance) drive the budget gap. Calf noted the district requires a minimum 3% reserve based on ADA and that the board previously adopted a 10% internal policy target, which the district is not meeting in earlier years.
The board approved the first reading of the budget that night; subsequent action items included approval of AB1200 disclosures that formalize the salary and benefits changes tied to the reported settlement. The district will receive final property-tax numbers from the county in August, which could affect the plan.
