Newman-Crows Landing Unified School District Board of Trustees voted 4-1 the proposed budget and Local Control and Accountability Plan (LCAP) for the 2026-27 school year in last Monday’s Board of Education meeting. Trustee Derek Wach voted against the budget’s adoption.

The district will have a general fund revenue of $58.9 million, but it is expected to outspend with $61.4 million in expenditures. Some of the costs associated include a combined $34.2 million for certificated and classified staff salaries, $14.5 million in employee benefits and $10.5 million towards services and other operating expenses.

For LCAP, nearly $44 million of Local Control Funding Formula (LCFF) will make up the general fund revenue. $23.2 million of the expenditures will be through LCAP. NCLUSD is expected to receive $8 million based on enrollment of foster youth, English learner and low-income students. To increase and improve services, the district plans on spending $9.4 million next school year.

Some of the improvements the district has seen is a 3% increase in four-year graduations rate from 94% in 2022-23 to 97% in 2024-25, an 9.7% increase in college and career readiness at 82.4% and improvements to English Language Arts and mathematics gains across the district.

However, NCLUSD has also dealt with some setbacks such as decreased participants for its healthy kids survey, personnel limitations hindering professional development and instructional support to improve student outcomes and increase chronic absenteeism. Chronic Absenteeism rose from 9.9% to 15.6% in 2024-25.

Wach said he voted against the budget’s adoption because he felt the reserves needed to be at around 8%. The district is expected to have 4.74% in reserves in 2026-27, a projected 5.62% next year and 6.32% in 2027-28 school year.

“We really need them at 8%,” he said.