Newark Unifed School District Elucidates Fiscal Health

Newark Unified School District’s biggest expenses continue to be teacher salaries and benefits, according to data released Tuesday by Elaine Nielsen, Chief Business Officer at NUSD. 

Nielsen unfurled a portrait of the district’s fiscal health, revealing that expenditures exceeded the district’s revenue during the 2012-13 school year. 

The district’s total expenditures were $53,045,400, while revenues totaled $51,511,380.  At the end of the school year, the general fund balance was $6,052,115.21, some of which is earmarked for state-mandated programs.

The district spent 67.6 percent of expenditures on teacher salaries, which equates to $35,859,974. It spent an additional 14.94 percent of the expenditures, or $7,926,771, on benefits.

The district spent 2.98 percent of the expenditures, or $1,580,887 on books and supplies. 

On a positive note, the school district’s average daily attendance rates were up, with 97 percent of students in class every day. This impacts the amount of money the school receives from the state.  The total “revenue limit” funds, or amount of money that the California sends to the district, were 66 percent of the district’s total revenue, clocking in at $34,025,993. 

Local revenue generated through bonds, such as Measure G, added up to 8.37 percent, or $4,311,919 of the total revenue in the district’s coffers last school year. Notably, local business Chevron contributed to the district's fiscal health this July, handing the district a check for $175,000. 

“We can use that for some repairs,” Nielsen told the school board, noting that the budget for capital improvement projects was dwindling.

Next school year’s budget will be complicated by the implementation of the new “common core standards” that will change the things students must learn. 

Nielsen learned two days ago that the district would receive $1.2 million from the state to execute those common core mandates. The County has received the money, she said, and will be doling it to the district sometime in the near future.

Some in the Boardroom speculated that the amount of money would not cover the cost of implementing the new curriculum mandates. 

To help diffuse anxiety about future fiscal uncertainty, Nielsen recommends that the district set aside an extra three percent into the special reserve fund, in addition to the three percent the district annually allocates into the “rainy day” fund.

Note: The name of the county that received the funding was originally reported as Contra Costa County. We apologize for this error. The article was corrected to reflect this.