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Ventura Unified adopts first interim report showing enrollment decline, one-time revenues and multi-year budget risk
Summary
The board adopted the district's First Interim Financial Report Dec. 13. Staff reported declining enrollment, updated unduplicated counts that favor LCFF funding, $3.7M closed-trust return and $1.7M workers'comp dividend, and a multi-year projection that could swing to a deficit depending on COLA and one-time fund sunsets.
Ventura Unified's board on Dec. 13 approved the district's First Interim Financial Report, which updates the adopted budget to Oct. 31 actuals and revises multi-year projections.
Finance staff (identified in the meeting as "Assan") told trustees the district is losing roughly 200'200 students a year, a trend that depresses ADA-based funding. The district's unduplicated pupil count was updated to about 60 percent, which raises LCFF supplemental/concentration funding and is expected to improve funding in out years.
Staff also noted several one-time receipts in the current year: a workers'compensation dividend of about $1.7 million and a $3.7 million return from a closed health-insurance trust. Those receipts improve the current-year picture but are not recurring; the multi-year projection (MYP) assumes many one-time sources will disappear and models several COLA scenarios (1.07%, 2.93%, 3.08% used for planning). If positions funded by one-time LRB/partial-tax dollars are restored, the district's third-year projection could show an outsized deficit.
Board members asked for more detail on budget variances. Staff highlighted a near-$8 million increase in expenditures relative to the adopted budget concentrated in classified salaries, behavioral health positions, facility costs and vacation payouts. Trustees requested a follow-up board memo detailing the components of that variance and opportunities for mitigation. Finance staff also warned of cash-flow timing pressures in December and April and described a tax-revenue anticipation note (TRAN) as a potential precautionary tool.
The board adopted the First Interim report by roll call after extended discussion and public comment. Staff will return at second interim with updated enrollment counts, any changes to COLA assumptions and a memo breaking out the major expenditure increases.
