What’s the total budget for Sierra High School?

• Total Annual 2023-24 Sierra Unified Budget was $26,108,928 for the entire district, of which, $19,706,976 goes to salaries and benefits. Operating expenses were over $5,000,000. Instructional budget for junior high and high school is $6,508,661.  The full budget is available at the following link. https://drive.google.com/file/d/1WydKoHSogppUObS7-vAkVb4l1c8C22Gi/view

What percentage of that budget or dollar value spent on maintenance?

• Maintenance is a separate budget from the school budgets. The maintenance budget is not split by site. Total maintenance budget including salaries districtwide is $1,132,453 from the General Fund and $100,000 from the Deferred Maintenance fund.

What is the amount of discretionary spending that the board has control over?

• All budgets are under the control of the board.   

What is the value of assets by site (ie Sierra Ele., Millerton, etc.)?

• Last assessed at $2.6M for Sierra Elementary and $200k for the Millerton property

What was the total received from the sale of Auberry and what is that money being spent on?

• Total at sale in 2017 was $2,350,000. We have $2,298,996.72 left. The balance has been spent on the electrical project at Sierra High.

How much is expected from Sierra Elementary and is that money earmarked already?

• $2.6M and no it has not been earmarked.

What is our total enrollment?

• 1292 students for the 2023-24 school year, at all schools.

Is all of the school’s funding come from an ADA rate or how does that work?

• The majority of the funding comes from the Local Control Funding Formula which is based on amounts by grade range for ADA

What is our ADA amount of revenue per student?

• TK-3rd $11,914 /ADA, 4-6 $10,955/ADA, 7-8 $11,279 and 9-12 $13,412

What is our neighbor schools ADA amount to compare?

• Everyone is different based on their students.  We are one of the least funded school districts in Fresno County.

Why the disparity? (what dictates the ADA $) 

• The number of Socio-economically disadvantaged students, English learners and foster youth determine the funding over the base amount. Most Fresno County districts have 60-100% of these students, we have 47%.

Is the state school bond addressing facilities and if so, are there any projections of how that might benefit Sierra High School?

• The current bonds are already gone and there are millions in projects that are already in the pipeline for any future state bonds. There are potentially 2 statewide bonds on the November ballot. 

Are we aggressively searching for grants? (example please) 

• Yes. We have been applying for quite a few grants. Recently we have successfully gotten a $350,000 COPS grant for school safety and a $1.7M in an electric bus infrastructure grant. We also received a grant for toilet replacements $650,000.  We have applied for quite a few grants that we have been unsuccessful in due to our low socioeconomically disadvantaged student population.  

Are outside sources of funding already helping Sierra High?

• We get funds from Sierra Foundation, Athletic Boosters, Ag Boosters, Josh Hansen Foundation and many local individuals.

Why does Sierra have dilapidated facilities and other schools do not?

• All unified districts in Fresno County have passed a school bond for facilities maintenance except Sierra Unified. (see below image)

I understand we don’t get developer funds, my understanding is they are to be spent on new construction, yet other schools have major remodeling. How and why do other schools remodel and Sierra does not?

• Bonds and state funds, and developer funds

Why do we not have a maintenance plan that includes updating our facilities for the last 100 years to continually update our building assets?

• Funds from the state are meant to fund the educational budget.  – There are no separate funds for deferred maintenance.  We stretch what we can and our staff does amazing with limited resources.  It has reached a point where major upgrades are needed and the money is not there.

Is there anything in the bond for maintenance?  

• The bond language will be written in such a way to allow future maintenance of facilities.

Is there a list of large projects over the last five years that the district has completed in house that shows the attempt to be vigilant to keep the facilities in working order? 

• We have not been able to do any large projects since the last time we got Modernization funds from the State in 2006.  The major project right now, the electrical infrastructure and lighting replacement, is funded through COVID funds & Auberry sale monies. Total cost $3,456,738, ESSER funds $2,160,715 and the sale of Auberry Elementary funds of $1,296,023. We also received a $1,760,512 grant for EV charging at Sierra Junior/Senior High.

Can we have an updated list with numbers on how much is planned to be spent on what 

• A full Facilities Master Plan can be found at the following link. Facilities Master Plan for Sierra High School and Alternative Education Center

Is it true that a student costs the district $76/day if they miss school (is there an exact number).

• It’s by grade range – TK-3 $66.19, 4-6 $60.86, 7-8 $62.66, 9-12 $74.51

Are there excused absences any longer for attendance 

• No

Is there a program to boost attendance and is it successful 

• We have been working with the kids with the lowest attendance by assigning an individual for each kid who checks up on them every day and tells them they are glad they are in school. It has been hugely successful and needs to be expanded.  Our current year is at 91.91% average daily attendance.

Is there a big benefit to elevate the number of free and reduced meals for funding 

• Yes, the supplemental grant, which is for every student in the identified groups, is 40% of the base. For those kids over 55% we get an additional 60% on top of the 40% in a concentration grant.

If the bond is passed, how long will it take to perform work 

• It takes about a year to get the bonds funded, then depending on the timing of the distributions we would have probably get the funding in a few different years.

How is the money dispersed from the bond to the district to match the work 

• The funds do not match the work. It will depend on how the bond is set up.

Who determines the priority of the expenditures 

• The board will set the direction of priorities based on the Facilities Master Plan and feedback and suggestions of the facilities staff. (i.e. Roofs are a huge priority.)

Who is making sure the money is spent correctly and is that public record 

• There is a required committee (Citizens Oversight Committee) after the bond is passed who has oversight over whether the funds are being spent as the bond language stated; yes, it’s all public record.