The Newman-Crows Landing Unified School District Board of Trustees held a public hearing on a proposed budget and Local Control Accountability Plan (LCAP) for the 2026-27 academic year during a special board meeting on June 8. The board will vote to adopt both in a regular board meeting on Monday.
Both hearings included NCLUSD’s general revenues, expenditures, multi-year projection and academic accomplishments and shortfalls.
Cynthia Tapia, the district’s chief business official, said the district is expected to have $56.6 million in revenue, $1.2 million less than the previous year. The decrease is due to a $1.6 million decrease in state revenue at $6.6 million. $43.9 million of the revenue came from the Local Control Funding Formula (LCFF), $1.3 more than last year. Additionally, the district reserves could be at 4.74% this year and increase to 5.62% and 6.32% in each of the next two years, respectively.
The district is projected to spend $59.3 million, with certificated and classified salaries estimated to receive a combined $1.19 million more in funding. Funding for employee benefits is projected to increase by $571,266. Tapia said the district has been affected by rising costs with several non-labor expenses including transportation costs increasing by 3%.
“Those increases are just going to continue to increase … we need to start accounting for that,” Tapia said.
With NCLUSD estimated to overspend, the district could see its more than $5 million deficit decrease to $2.6 million. Currently, the district is expected to generate $56.6 million and spend $56.4 million into 2027-28
Heather Vargas, NCLUSD’s director of curriculum and instruction, presented a PowerPoint Presentation on the LCAP. The district had several academic successes from this past year including a 3% increase in four-year adjusted graduation rate at 97%, college and career readiness increased to 82.4%, a 9.7% increase from the year prior and an improvement to districtwide English Language Arts and mathematics gains.
Despite the accomplishments, NCLUSD had dealt with setbacks such as personnel limitations hindering professional development and instructional support to improve outcomes for students, decreased participants in healthy kids surveys and chronic absenteeism. Chronic absenteeism rose from 9.9% to 15.6% in 2024-25. Vargas clarified that districtwide absenteeism is currently around 9%.
During the public comment, Caralyn Mendoza, former CBO for NCLUSD, asked whether the district will handle its deficit despite having a revenue decrease.
She later asked if the district plans on purchasing property as $50,000 is allocated towards a land section in the budget documents. Tapia, in response, said the portion was “more a safety net to carry forward.”
