Double Adobe Unified School District is among the highest-risk districts for the third year in a row due to its change in weighted student count (WSC), operating budget limit reserve, General Fund operating reserve ratio, unfunded small school budget adjustment, and frozen tax rate, as shown on the measure cards below.

The District’s WSC has declined 21.2 percent since fiscal year (FY) 2019 with a 16 percent decrease in FY 2023, to date, impacting its student-count-generated revenues and budget limits. While the District reduced its General Fund spending to be within available revenues in FY 2022, eliminating the FY 2021 General Fund deficit, the District’s primary property tax rate has been frozen since FY 2016, and the District has not decreased its small school adjustment to stay within the revenue it will generate based on its frozen tax rate. As a result, its small school adjustment has been partially unfunded for several years, leaving its FY 2022 operating budget limit reserve more than $88,000 unfunded. The District reported using over $265,000 from COVID-19 federal relief monies to maintain its operations in FYs 2020, 2021, and 2022. The District further reported it plans to spend 70 percent, or over $140,000, of its remaining relief monies to maintain operations. As these are one-time monies, to avoid future financial risk and to ensure it will be able to spend within its available cash resources and budget capacity when these relief monies are no longer available to spend after September 30, 2024, the District should plan how it will adjust its spending in areas where its remaining monies are used.

This District maintains a close watch on unnecessary spending and continues to stay within the necessary margins that keeps the District in line with its budget. While our weighted student count has decreased, we have three new students presently attending this year. We do continue to promote and solicit new students for our school year-round.

We have utilized ESSER funds to help offset expenses that allowed us to stabilize our budget. The ESSER funds were used for school supplies to keep the District in compliance with all COVID restrictions, even after some of the restrictions were lifted. The funds were also used to pay teacher salaries and health insurance. This was a big savings to our budget. We plan to continue to operate with COVID funds this year also, to continue to build budget reserves for fiscal year 2025 when we won't have the COVID funds available.

We revised our budget on December 7 to align with State calculated budget limits in ADE’s BUDG75 report. The District will continue to operate within the margins we have set for our budget.