Cayucos Elementary School District*

(Governing board members oversight the county's ten districts, similar to governing board members statewide, are offered education and training in school district budgeting and financial oversight, but seldom take maximum advantage of the workshops offered.) The Cayucos Elementary School District is in agreement that education and training in school district budgeting and financial oversight is offered to Governing Board members. Formal training (i.e. workshops, seminars, conferences, webinars, etc.) in the areas of District budgeting and financial oversight is provided by several statewide organizations, primarily the California School Boards Association (CSBA) and locally by individual districts and the County office of Education. Our disagreement is to the degree that Board members avail themselves of these trainings. Board member participation varies from year to year, is based upon funding and board member availability. It is not possible to require elected officials to attend or maintain participation in any type of training. Participation is strictly voluntary on the part of elected officials. It is common for extensive discussion and information regarding school budgets and financial oversight to occur regularly at the regular and special meetings of the Governing Board. Board members also receive constant information via e-mail and weekly post regarding school finance. Please note our response to Recommendation #1 which related directly to this Finding.

(Three Basic Aid districts, Cayucos, San Luis Coastal and Coast Unified, which receive revenue from local property taxes and have maintain substantial reserves, are expected to weather the current state budget crisis with minimal disruption of their education programs.) Cayucos Elementary School District is in agreement that the three "basic Aid" districts mentioned have maintained larger reserves than "revenue limit" districts in the county. Our disagreement is with the statement that these districts have had "minimal disruption" to their educational programs and are expected to be minimally impacted by the state budget crisis. Each of these districts has lost substantial revenue from their "fair share" contributions required by the state in lieu of revenue limit reductions. Over the past three years, the total amount of these "fair share" reductions for the three districts amounts to $12,700,000. It is also important to note that these three districts, just like the revenue limit districts, are deficit spending and our reserves are rapidly declining. There is also much uncertainty about the impact of either the passage or failure of the November 2012 tax election on our district and it is very problematic that we will be able to avoid even more reductions in educational programs next year. In summary, it our position that all districts in our county have been adversely impacted to a significant degree by the state budget crisis and all are significantly short of being able to provide the quality educational program that our children deserve.