District Forgoes Building Maintenance to Improve Student Learning

The 2013-2014 school year brought massive budget cuts to the Coronado Unified School District.

With the implementation of the Local Control Funding Formula (LCFF), Coronado received less state funding than other districts in California. In addition, Prop E failing put the district in a tight financial situation. To adjust to the reality of the funding situation, we implemented $2.2 million in cuts.

In an effort to limit any further cuts to education, we approached innovative measures.

One such measure was to divert funds traditionally allocated to the upkeep of our facilities to focus on the upkeep of our educational efforts. Since the 1980s, we received Redevelopment Funds each year titled 2% Pass-Through Funds. Traditionally, these funds were focused on either new buildings or maintenance of our current facilities. 

Several years ago, the governor dissolved the Redevelopment Agency, which expanded the ways a school district could use the 2% Pass-Through Funds.    

In October 2014, Superintendent Jeff Felix proposed to the school board to reallocate these funds toward education measures—stopping any further education program cuts—rather than investing the funds into facility maintenance. The board approved the measures.

For the near future, we decided to prioritize maintaining our education over facility upkeep. 

This move also gave the district the ability to report to the county that they were confident in their ability to pay their bills for the next three years. This was part of a quarterly financial report the district submits to the county. Prior to diverting these funds, the district was only able to project being able to pay that year’s bills with the following two years remaining uncertain.

Safety is a Priority

This planned degradation of our facilities will in no way impact student or staff safety, or the cleanliness of our facilities.  Safe and clean facilities have always been, and will continue to be, a top priority.

The school district undergoes an annual inspection of our facilities, measured according to the Facilities Inspection Tool (FIT). Out of three ratings of good, fair or poor, we have almost always received the top rating of good. 

Over time, our facilities will transition from good to fair standings. A copy of the FIT report can be seen in each site’s School Accountability Report Card that is available on our website at http://coronadousd.net/about/school-accountability-report-card-sarc/. 

While we will always ensure that our students and staff are in a safe environment, moving forward our facilities will degrade more than we have seen in the past. These efforts will, however, help to keep the caliber of education and programs we offer maintained.