CVUSD Board Faced With State Takeover: “Transparency is a misused word.”

“Don’t spend one time money on things that eat.” Dr. Price, RCOE

The Coachella Valley Unified School District (CVUSD) had an emergency meeting on Monday, November 25, to address their impending financial insolvency and how to fix things before the State of California comes in, takes over, and reduces the board to a mere advisory role. The meeting went right to closed session and adjourned two hours later, without any information conveyed to the concerned community members that were present.

Newly elected California State Assemblyman, Jeff Gonzalez (R-AD36) attended the meeting and told the local news KESQ that he was there to let the board know that the community was demanding transparency. The district is facing a $44 million dollar deficit, according to Dr. Price of the Riverside County Office of Education, and the community would like to know what is going on.

Video by KESQ

Incredulously, one board member had said at an earlier meeting that transparency was an “overused and misused” word, as she chided her fellow board members for pretending to be surprised at the situation and pledging transparency. Talk is cheap, free in fact, which is at least one bit of good news for CVUSD.

In the unwelcome news category, the RCOE superintendent, Dr. Gomez, has declared that the CVUSD is in fiscal danger for the current, and the next two, fiscal years. The finding is in response to the CVUSD’s updated multi-year projections, the inability of the CVUSD to create a board approved financial stabilization plan, and the shortened time-frame due to the CVUSD’s inability to send documents on time.

November 14 CVUSD Board Meeting

Dr. Price, the RCOE representative, attended the November 14, 2024, CVUSD board meeting with an hour-long presentation which explained how the board had reached this point, warned sternly of what could happen if the board did not make fiscal policy changes, and even explained basic fiscal policies as if the board were children.

CVUSD did not attach his presentation to their agenda, but it can be viewed on the district YouTube channel, starting around the 52-minute mark. Minutes for the meeting are not yet available and it is not always clear which board member is speaking in the video.

Prior to Dr. Price’s presentation at the November 14 meeting, various board members made pre-emptive comments that had the CYA and “I didn’t do it” vibes. Board members that offered comments showed angst over the need to produce a fiscal plan and to be transparent; they warned that the solutions could hurt stakeholders, but it must be done so, grin and bear it. Not one board member accepted responsibility for the situation, nor did they acknowledge that they had been spending millions of dollars on woke bullshit like drunken sailors.

Two board members opined that the district was in dire fiscal straits, needed a plan, and needed to be transparent. One board member said that everyone on the board knew this moment (the presence of the RCOE) had been coming since last year. She also claimed that the word transparency was “overused and misused.”

The Superintendent, Dr. Frances Esparza, blamed the situation on those who were there (on the board and previous Superintendent) “the last few years.” Esparza, who says she is “committed to equity…” and “champions…the social emotional health and wellness of all students and their families…” was hired in July 2024.

Board President Joey Acuna, who lost to Gonzalez in the recent AD36 race, said that the board knew of fiscal difficulties and tried to fix it but shifted blame to nameless “staff.” According to Acuna, “…what we told the county we were going to do was not what some of our staff actually did, and that’s a problem.”

Backstory

Acuna may have been referring to Action Item 11.1 at a March 4, 2024 board meeting, which recognized that “Intervention programs were sunsetting in 2024” and passed a seven page resolution to reduce certain staff—reductions were also due to declining enrollment. The resolution (NO. 2024-22) cited that the board, with the Superintendent’s recommendation, had decided that it was “in the best interest of the district, and the welfare of the district schools and students thereof, to reduce or discontinue particular types of services….”

The CVUSD board resolved to cut “the equivalent of 71 full-time equivalent non-management certificated employees for the 2024-25 school year.” The positions, many of which began using one-time covid monies, were specified to be:

· 50 Teachers On Special Assignment (TOSA) K-8 Intervention

· 6 TOSA positions at the district office

· 13 Teachers K-8

· 1 Pupil Personnel Counseling

· 1 Single Subject Art

The resolution stipulated that lay-offs would follow seniority, but the following degrees and credentials would take precedence:

· Who has completed at least 24 units in early childhood education and/or childhood development and provided proof of such to the District by March 15, 2024; or

· Has a Child Development Assistant Permit; or

· Child Development Associate Permit; or

· Child Development Teacher Permit; or

· Child Development Master Teacher Permit; or

· Child Development Site Supervisor Permit; or

· Child Development Program Director Permit; or

· Who was assigned to teach TK, or a combination of kindergarten and TK, on or before July 1, 2015.

None of that happened because, according to Acuna’s theory, nameless staff conspired to make certain that the resolution would not go into effect. Acuna did not provide evidence of anyone being held to account for such insubordinate behavior. Does CVUSD practice restorative justice and MTSS with adults?

Dr. Price—How You Got Here

Dr. Price sought to inform the CVUSD board of their current fiscal situation, timelines for fiscal stability, and the consequences if corrective actions were not taken. Under AB 1200, passed in 1991, the County Offices of Education have oversight for the fiscal stability of school districts.

According to the relevant Education Codes, the process for school district budgets has multiple layers. In June of any given year, the district submits their approved budget to the county for the upcoming year, and the projected budget for the next two years. In addition, the district will submit two Interim reports to the county which have three possible certifications.

A positive certification would indicate that everything related to the budget is on track and the district is not in any fiscal danger. A qualified certification shows that while everything is on track this year, there may be fiscal issues in the next couple of years. A negative certification means that the district cannot meet its financial obligations in either the current year or during the next two years.

Once the district reaches “zero cash” (runs out of cash) they will have to take a state loan to cover expenses. If that were to happen, the Superintendent would be fired, the governing board loses all authority over financial and operational decisions and becomes an “advisory board.” Instead, power would rest in the hands of a state appointed administrator.

Dr. Price explained that while CVUSD first interim report on January 12, 2024, was given a positive certification, the board passed a bargaining agreement with the Coachella Valley Teachers Association on January 18, 2024, that would cause the district a $1.6 million deficit in 2024-25 and a $24.1 million deficit in 2025-26 if no corrective actions were taken. As a result, the CVUSD was notified that they would need to submit a board approved financial stabilization plan with their second interim report. The stabilization plan was to detail how the district was going to manage the fiscal issues that it faced.

On February 1, 2024, the district approved a bargaining agreement with the classified union CSEA that would cause the district’s projected deficits to rise to over $3 million in 2024-25, and to $27.6 million in 2025-26.

On March 12, 2024, CVUSD submitted their second interim report and financial stability plan that caused RCOE to be concerned. According to Dr. Price, the district did not fully account for the costs of the bargaining agreements, thus had understated their financial expenditures. The district was not accounting for step and column movements in certified and classified pay scales. As a result, the RCOE required the board to submit a third interim report by June 1, 2024, with updated projections reflecting the full costs of the bargaining agreements. CVUSD must submit a board approved financial stability plan with the third report that would address the entire shortfall the districts faced.

On July 9, 2024, the RCOE provided comments on the June documents, submitted by the district 17 days late. However, the district’s plan did not “align with the third interim reports multi-year projections,” and provided “limited detail on major expenditures.” The RCOE found that the district’s financial stabilization plan was “not reasonable.” The RCOE therefore ordered a “comprehensive review” of the district’s 2024-25 budget and a review of their Local Control Accountability Plan, known as the LCAP.

On August 30, 2024, the RCOE approved the district’s adopted budget and LCAP, but still had concerns. The district was not accounting for employee movements on the pay scale, the district ignored the advice of the RCOE regarding CVUSD practices that were hampering progress, and the district continued to omit the full costs of the bargaining agreements.

Dr. Price displayed a digital graphic that illustrated how much the district erred in their fiscal projections. The district projected that would have reserves of $44 million in 2024-25, $30.78 million in 2025-26, and $15.7 in 2025-26. However, a third-party review found the projections to be $13 million in debt in 2024-25 and $77 million in debt in 2025-26. The third party found that the district would reach “zero cash” and unable to meet their financial obligation around the end of 2024-25 school year if no corrective actions were taken.

CVUSD must submit their first interim budget report of 2024 on December 13, with a detailed, board approved financial stabilization plan.

Dr. Price explained to the board that it was not a good idea to settle contracts based on a projected cost of living increase (COLA) of 4%, because that projection turned out to be bunk. COLA turned out to be only 1.07%, which meant CVUSD would not get money they counted on, thus not able to meet those obligations. In other words, the CTA and CSEA broke the CVUSD.

Dr. Price also explained to the board, in a way a twelve-year-old would understand, that districts should not have spent one-time covid money as if it were permanent money, because then they end up owing more money than they are making, which is bad. “Don’t spend one-time money on things that eat,” Price explained, because then you do not have the money to care for them.

Coming Down the Pike

Dr. Price made the next steps, and the consequences for getting them wrong, clear for the board.

The RCOE Superintendent has already declared that CVUSD is in fiscal danger for this year and the next two.

The First Interim report, due on December 13, must have a detailed Financial Stability Plan. Apparently, Social Emotional Learning (SEL) language of grand generalizations is not going to cut it.

If the board takes the action of layoffs, notices must go out to staff by March 15, 2025. The Second Interim Report is due on March 17, 2025.

November 25 CVUSD Board Meeting

If the teachers and classified unions want to save their own, they could renegotiate their contracts to reflect the true change of COLA, thus staving off the immediate threat of state takeover. Though the CVUSD budget has millions of dollars being spent on woke bullshit, cutting all of that would not give them the $44 million needed in time.

Indeed, the November 25, 2024, Special Board meeting was all in closed session with an agenda of three conferences with labor negotiators and one with legal counsel.

After the meeting, the board reported to those gathered, including State Assemblyman-elect Jeff Gonzalez, that there was nothing to report.

What now?

The light of December 13 is coming out of the tunnel like a California high speed train could (if CaLeg was not so corrupt) and decisions to be made. Will the board cut those things that eat that bought with one-time money? Will the unions re-negotiate like Rachel Maddow? Will the spending on Woke continue? The next CVUSD board meeting, according to the CVUSD meeting calendar, will be held on December 13, will we find anything out before then?

We will see what happens. In the meantime, another article is forthcoming, picking up at the end of that November 14 CVUSD board meeting, to dig into the district’s budget and how much money is wasted on “Woke” i.e. All things DEI in nature. One or two board members seem to have the right idea, Acuna pretends he was not on the board the last few years, and the rest appear to be in the land of the woke.

Until then, enjoy this highlight cut of what we have discussed so far.