"Are Paso Robles School Budgetary Woes a Lesson for Other Districts?" Finding 1: a primary responsibility of a*

A primary responsibility of a governing board is financial oversight and accountability. Response to Finding 1: We agree with this finding.

Governing board members overseeing 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. Response to Finding 2: We disagree partially with this finding. We agree that board members should be offered education and training in school district budgeting and financial oversight, but we disagree that our board members seldom take advantage of the workshops offered. Our board members have participated in education and training opportunities offered at the local, county, and statewide levels as well as through webinars. Ongoing education is offered through budget-related reports and discussions at our Board of Trustees meetings. In addition, three of our seven board members serve on the district's Budget Advisory Committee that meets regularly to learn about and discuss issues that affect the district's current and future budgets. One of our Trustees is a retired Chief Business Official for a public school district.

All ten school districts in San Luis Obispo County are currently in deficit spending. Response to Finding 3: We agree with this finding relative to our district.

The County Superintendent has issued "qualified" warnings to four other school districts, Atascadero, Lucia Mar Unified, San Miguel Joint Unified, and Shandon Joint Unified, and suggested that they make new budget cuts to remain solvent over the next two years. Response to Finding 6: We agree with this finding. To clarify, our district self-certified the qualified status and the County Superintendent concurred with the district's qualified certification.