SDUHSD Budget Revised Downward due to Lower Tax Revenue Forecast
Student Discipline Data and Relevant Ed Code Reviewed
The Board of Trustees of SDUHSD held a regularly scheduled meeting on March 13, 2025. The meeting was mostly routine, with only two things I would bring to the attention of the public – an updated budget and a presentation on student discipline.
SDUHSD Budget Revised Downward
District staff presented a concise summary of the three-year forecasted budget for this school year and the coming 2025/26 and 2026/27 school years. The important update included information that the San Diego County Assessor’s office has reduced their forecast for the property tax revenue allocated to SDUHSD. This lower property tax revenue is driven primarily by lower than forecasted turnover in residential properties.
Based on the County’s updated tax forecast, our district can expect to receive about $1 million less than the previous forecast next year, and about $5 million less than previously forecasted for 2026/27. This adds to the fiscal pressure on the District as we continue to forecast deficit spending and financial reserves well below target.
As a result, Superintendent Staffieri committed to identifying cost reductions of at least $1.5 million per year before we adopt next year’s budget in June. To put this in perspective, our total expenditure is about $200 million per year across the entire District, so this represents less than 1% of our total spending, which should not be significant.
Depending on the state of the economy, we may need to reduce expenses by more than that. In my time on the Board, we have never adopted a balanced budget, and decisions to increase our expenses are now adding additional stress to the organization. I will keep a careful eye on the cost reduction initiatives.
Student Discipline Data and Relevant Ed Code Reviewed
District staff presented a review of student discipline data for the 2023/24 school year, focusing on one metric – student suspension rates. Across all schools in our District, about 2% of our students were suspended for at least one day, down from 2.2% the prior year. No data was presented for suspension rates for specific schools, nor was our performance compared to other school districts. Also, the District did not present any detail regarding the types or number of infractions that led to other kinds of discipline actions besides suspensions. As a result, I do not know if we have or do not have student discipline problems at any of our schools.
The presentation led to an interesting Board discussion about student discipline. Essentially, California laws prohibit a student suspension until all other potential corrective actions fail to change student behavior. For many offenses, students cannot be suspended for their first offense. There are exceptions to this general rule. For example, students can be suspended for first offenses that include violence, possession of drugs or weapons, and a few other major offenses, but they cannot be suspended for attitude, language, non-physical bullying, or other first-time offenses.
It surprised me that we cannot suspend students for using racist, homophobic, or other inappropriate language until other forms of discipline have been exhausted for a repeated behavior problem. Thus, we cannot have a “zero tolerance” policy, for example, to suspend students who use a racial slur towards another student or staff member. Such a policy would be in violation of California Education Code.
The next SDUHSD Board meeting is scheduled for April 23, 2025.