Plumas COE and USD Boards

County Office of Education and Unified School District board roles

Plumas County is one of just seven counties in California that operates as a single-county office of education and a single unified school district. Plumas Unified School District is the only district serving TK-12 students in the county, and the Plumas County Office of Education functions at a higher level, providing oversight and essential services that support education countywide as well as serving as a liaison with the state.

In our single/single structure, one elected board serves two roles. The Plumas USD and Plumas COE Board of Trustees acts as the governing board for PUSD, hiring and supervising the district superintendent, making policy decisions and overseeing district fiscal operations.

However, for PCOE, this same board functions in an advisory capacity, rather than a governing one, since the 58 county superintendents in California operate independently, under the guidance from the State Superintendent of Public Instruction, and California Education Code.

Under our present condition of state receivership, the County Administrator, acting as the state administrator pursuant to Education Code section 41326, exercises all governing authority of the district. The elected PUSD Board currently has no binding authority and is not advisory unless the State Board of Education formally restores that status. Authority remains solely with the administrator until fiscal recovery benchmarks and State Board action allow restoration.