Archived 2025-26 Fiscal Updates

Over the past several years, the district’s ongoing expenses have grown faster than its ongoing revenue. This created a structural deficit, meaning PUSD has been spending more each year than it receives. In 2024–25, the district used a one-time reserve transfer to avoid an immediate crisis, but the underlying deficit continued to grow.

Emergency Support From the State

On September 2, 2025, PUSD received an $8.5 million emergency loan from the State of California. This short-term assistance prevented the district from running out of cash.

However, the emergency loan does not solve the long-term budget problem. Beginning in November 2027, PUSD must begin repaying the loan with annual payments of about $600,950 for 30 years, which will reduce the district’s future revenue.

What Must Happen Now

To protect the financial health of the district, PUSD must reduce ongoing spending. Current recommendations call for $9.5 million in reductions, approximately 22% of the annual budget. 

These reductions are necessary to:

• Eliminate the district’s structural deficit
• Meet required state reserve levels
• Restore fiscal stability
• Ensure long-term sustainability for our schools

Enrollment and Staffing

Like many rural districts, PUSD has experienced declining enrollment over the past decade. Staffing levels, however, have stayed the same or increased in some areas. To maintain financial stability, PUSD will realign staffing using:

• California Department of Education guidelines
• FCMAT fiscal standards
• The unique needs of each school site

This work will help us remain both educationally effective and financially responsible.

A Transparent, Collaborative Process

PUSD is committed to developing a responsible recovery plan with input from staff, families, community members, and state partners such as the California Department of Education and FCMAT. Our decisions will focus on protecting core student services while ensuring long-term financial stability.

We value community partnership in this process. We just finished our first round of community meetings in November, and we will continue these conversations with additional meetings in each community in January.

Our Commitment

We will continue to communicate openly and involve our community as we work through this recovery process. Our goal is simple: a stable, sustainable future for PUSD students, staff, and schools.

On June 27, AB 121 was signed into law. Section 98 of this bill approved our state apportionment and authorized a key governance shift.

On July 15, the PUSD Board was notified that, under Section 98(c), the Plumas County Superintendent of Schools now assumes all legal rights, duties, and powers of the PUSD Governing Board.

What this means moving forward:

• County Superintendent Andrea White will lead PUSD board meetings until our County Administrator is hired.
  
  
• Decisions will be guided by recommendations from FCMAT and CDE.
  
  
• We will begin separating PUSD and PCOE board meetings; the board will sit as the County Board for PCOE-related items only.
  
  

Hiring Update – County Administrator

• August 6 – Application closes
• August 8 – Screening
• August 25 – Interviews
• September 2 – Anticipated start date

California Assembly Bill 121, K-12 TBL(Trailer Bill) for 2025-26, which authorizes the emergency apportionment for Plumas Unified School District, was passed and signed on June 27, 2025. See Section 98 for specific information regarding PUSD. This means that PUSD has now entered state receivership.

 

FCMAT posted the recruiting information for the position of County Administrator of PUSD. The final selection of a candidate for Plumas will be made by the Plumas County superintendent of schools, with the agreement of the state superintendent of public instruction and the president of the State Board of Education.

 

In June, FCMAT held a listening meeting, and met with a number of stakeholder groups to get community input into the desired characteristics of a County Administrator. See the collected results: Plumas Unified School District County Administrator Listening Meeting Results – July 2025

 

 

On April 28, 2025, the Plumas Unified School District Governing Board passed Resolution 1678, Requesting an Emergency Advance Apportionment. This resolution is the district's formal request for the state's assistance in the form of an emergency advance apportionment of funds, as provided for under the state's receivership statutes.