Piedmont Pulse
Piedmont USD - Week 17 Update
November 28, 2023
Dear Piedmont USD Families,
I hope you had a wonderful Thanksgiving holiday. It was great to see so many in our community out for the Turkey Trot on Thanksgiving morning, which made us feel a little less guilty about our Thanksgiving feast later that evening. A few more weeks and the winter break holidays will be upon us. Enjoy the holidays…
This week's Piedmont Pulse will focus on the following topics:
- High School Program Surveys
- PUSD Budget - The Beginning Fund Balance
- Attendance Recovery Costs - How to Submit Payment
In Partnership,
Jennifer Hawn, Ed.D.
Superintendent
High School Program Surveys
Parents and Students, we have sent out several grade level surveys to students regarding high school programs and courses. More surveys will follow, including a survey of parents and a survey for 8th grade students. Be on the lookout for these surveys, and thank you for providing important feedback on our high school programs and courses. We will use your feedback to inform our decisions about which programs and courses to offer next year and in the years ahead.
PUSD Budget - The Beginning Fund Balance
To understand school finance means understanding what goes into the beginning balances. You may know that schools operate within a fiscal year, which means July 1 through June 30th make up the school budget year. This is important for a number of reasons, including how to understand the ending fund balance of the previous fiscal year and the starting balance of a new fiscal year. School starts in August; however, the fiscal year starts July 1st. For PUSD, last year’s budget ended 6/30/23, and the new 7/1/23 adopted budget started with approximately $2.7M based on information available at the time the budget was adopted. Because new, more updated, information is available in August after the State passes it's budget and in September after the district has paid all outstanding bills for the prior year, the final “after closing” budget shared with the Board in September showed approximately $3.5M as a starting balance for the 2023-2024 school year, including a deficit of about $80K left over from the previous school year. This budget is as accurate as it gets, reflecting all of the 2022-2023 bills paid, carryover funds, and budgeted expenses for the new school year.
I have received several questions regarding this $3.5M amount, and specifically why PUSD’s compensation offer is only 2% for 2023-2024, when there is $3.5M to start the school year with. In the chart above, please take a look at the “After Closing" column, which shows a beginning balance of $3,549,277 for the 2023-2024 school year. Below is a breakdown of what the $3.5M includes:
$788,858 - Restricted - These are unspent funds with legal restrictions on how they can be used, including the following breakdown:
$118,000.00 - ELOP (Extended Learning Opportunity Program) State Grant, restricted after school programs and can only be spent on this restricted state program
$136,500.00 - Antibias Education Grant Program, a State grant restricted to DEIB work, including staffing and professional development
$76,500.00 - State Lottery funds, restricted for use on curriculum
$42,300.00 - State Kitchen infrastructure grant, restricted for use on our school kitchen equipment and training in order to support the state’s required free meal program for all students.
$147,000.00 - Routine Restricted Maintenance account, restricted for facilities and maintenance including staffing, equipment and repairs. This fund is also a requirement to receive state facilities grant funding.
$136,000.00 - Makers grant to fund the high school Robotics program.
$37,000.00 - Educator Effectiveness State Grant, restricted to funding programs and staff for addressing learning loss funds due to COVID; PUSD has used these funds for our intervention teachers (called Multi Tiered Support System - MTSS) throughout the district. These funds and positions end this school year.
$18,700.00 - State Preschool Grant, restricted for use in our special education preschool program.
$8,000.00 - A-G State grant, restricted to high school programs that lead to A-G course completion
$44,258.00 - Revolving Cash
$22,400.00 - State Grant to develop Ethnic Studies Course
$2,200.00 - Classified Employees Professional Development Grant
$540,392 - Set-Aside for Carryover - These funds were collected for specific purposes during 2022-23 but were not fully spent. They will be incorporated into the 2023-24 budget by First Interim, but in September, were still newly identified and had not been budgeted yet, including the following breakdown:
$64,864.39 - PMS Program 2022-23 Carryover (e.g., proceeds from the Fall Musical, etc.)
$91,881.21 - PHS Program 2022-23 Carryover (e.g., proceeds from the Fall Play, Musical, etc.)
$79,255.14 - Parent Club Fundraising 2022-23 Carryover for Beach, Havens, WW, PMS, PHS, MHS
$21,979.69 - Field Trip Donations 2022-23 Carryover for Tri Schools
$15,179.07 - Turkey Trot 2022-23 Carryover for Athletics
$15,294.76 - Fall Festival/Wellness Center 2022-23 Carryover
$7,308.42 - ALPS Donation 2022-23 Carryover
$6,402.04 - Makers Donation 2022-23 Carryover
$236.98 - Silicon Valley Math Initiative 2022-23 Carryover
$39.05 - Contest Program
$84,363.07 - PEF 2022-23 Grant Carryover for Positions
$91,645.97 - PEF Site Supply Grant Carryover for Beach, Havens, WW, PMS, PHS, MHS
$61,942.21 - Prior Year Spring Fling funds for STEAM and Reading Support - Educational Services
$121,000 - Hold for Spring Fling:
These funds are proceeds from the May 2023 Spring Fling fundraising that will be split over two years to fund additional hours for elementary counselors and for library aides to keep the library open at lunch.
$177,000 - Hold for CSEA Measure H Funds:
These funds are allocated for compensation for CSEA staff. These funds have already been negotiated and allocated to CSEA compensation.
$1,418,962 - Hold for Economic Uncertainty:
All school districts are required to hold a 3% reserve fund for economic uncertainty. Indeed, many school districts hold a higher reserve fund for economic uncertainty, which makes good sense. Consider what happened last year when the state decided to offer school districts funds for the Arts and then later “clawed back” those funds. Because PUSD had budgeted those funds (as had all school districts), this “claw back” of funds forced PUSD to submit a “qualified” budget to the County, which means we were not able to immediately meet our 3% State reserve requirement last spring. Holding a greater reserve makes good fiscal sense, and is typically a goal for school districts in order to ensure fiscal solvency.
When you add up the amounts above, you can see that $422,300 is what is left over. I have also received several questions about why staff are paid after everything else, and if we can explore the idea of a zero-based budgeting process. In fact, we look at budgeting for staff first, which makes sense considering the fact that most of our budget is made up of people. Regarding compensation, this is why we are proposing a multi-year offer of 9% over three years. And yes, it is possible to explore zero-based budgeting; however, I can share that I have experience in zero-based budgeting in a previous district, and it made little difference. The idea of starting from zero and justifying every expenditure seems sensible, particularly when there is significant waste in the budget. In PUSD’s case, my observation has been that we spend every penny on programs (and our staff make up most of our program costs), right up to the edge of our budget. We have so much: reading specialists, math intervention, extra teachers for PE, Art, Music, and the library. We also have a robust counseling program and an amazing athletics program. These are all wonderful programs and people. Please also remember that we made significant reductions to the budget last year in the amount of over $2M (see slide 23 HERE), and given our declining enrollment, we may have to make additional reductions in order to make more room for staff compensation in the years ahead.
In the end, the beginning fund balance may seem like a lot of money, but when you analyze where the money is going, it goes right back into staff and programs. We offer a wonderful educational experience to our students; let’s not lose sight of our students in our desire to improve staff compensation. We can and should provide both, but it will likely take thoughtful decision-making now in order to make room for increased compensation in the years ahead.
Attendance Recovery Costs - How to Submit Payment
Parents, please remember that if your child needs to be out of school, you can submit payment HERE for the lost revenue. Each day that a student is out of school (for any reason, including illness) means a loss of revenue in the following amounts per day:
TK-3rd Grade - $61.32
4th-6th Grade - $56.39
7th-8th Grade - $58.06
9th-12th Grade - $61.20
Parents, this is invitational, of course, and yes we are finalizing a process to submit online payment via Venmo, ApplePay, etc. For now, you are invited to submit payment HERE. Thank you!
PUSD News & Notes
National Special Education Day - The CDE and PUSD recognize December 2nd as National Special Education Day. To our students, staff and families, we honor you now and ALWAYS.
Computer Science Education Week - The CDE and PUSD recognize December 4-10th as Computer Science Education Week. Let's hear it for the Hour of Code!
Piedmont Portal - For all of the latest school and community events, please visit the Piedmont Portal linked HERE
PEF - The Giving Campaign - We are grateful to our community for their support of our outstanding programs. If you are able to give, go HERE. And, the grade level challenge is on-- check it out HERE.
Winter Break - There is no school from 12/22/23-1/5/24. Happy Holidays!
Witter Field Renovation Project Updates - For updates on the Witter Field Renovation Project, please go to our Facilities page on our PUSD website.
Community Pool Construction Update - Safety measures around the Community Pool Project construction site on Magnolia Ave. across from PHS/MHS are currently in effect. Visit the City of Piedmont's website for details.
Work for PUSD - PUSD is seeking candidates for a variety of positions. Visit the District's Edjoin page for a complete list of jobs available and to apply online.
Substitutes Needed - Support students while earning up to $200/day. PUSD seeking substitute teachers for the 2023-24 school year. Visit the District's EdJoin page for more information and to apply.
Archived Piedmont Pulse Newsletters - All editions of the Piedmont Pulse are linked HERE
Follow PUSD - Please read our school newsletters sent out weekly for update to date information. The District Facebook (@piedmontunified), Twitter (@piedmontunified), Instagram (@piedmontusd) and Threads (@piedmontusd@threads) pages are active.
Piedmont Unified School District
Email: communication@piedmont.k12.ca.us
Website: www.piedmont.k12.ca.us
Location: 760 Magnolia Avenue, Piedmont, CA, USA
Phone: 510-594-2600