Deficit spending is set to continue for the William S. Hart Union High School District for the foreseeable future based on assumptions of declining enrollment and the rise in cost of goods and services.  According to Jon Carrino, assistant superintendent of business services, the district is slated to spend about $29.6 million more than is brought in this year, followed by $30.3 million more next year and $26.8 million more the year after, as outlined in the first interim financial report approved at last week’s governing board meeting.  That is set to eat into the district’s savings, which is expected to be at just under $88 million by the end of this school year. By the end of the 2026-27 school year, that ending fund balance is projected to drop to roughly $30.7 million.  Should enrollment continue to decline, staff reductions could be implemented, though likely not as drastic as last year when 80 employees received initial layoff notices. The final list of layoffs included 60 full-time equivalent positions, including 24 teachers.  In terms of what is available this year, the district is actually looking at having about $5.4 million more in revenues than what was initially projected when the budget was adopted in June. The $313 million in revenues is about $29.6 million less than the $342.6 million projected in expenditures, roughly $2.3 million more than what was shown in the adopted budget.  Carrino said the revenue increase is largely due to enrollment and average daily attendance both being higher than assumed when the budget was adopted.  There was also work done to identify more unduplicated students — those who are either eligible for free or reduced-price meals, are English learners or who are foster youth — which led to an increase in local control funding formula revenue from the state. According to Carrino, the unduplicated count rose by 1,056 to a total of 6,717.  The district is set to receive about $700,000 more in supplemental grant revenue this year due to that, followed by $1.5 million more in 2025-26 and $2.5 million more in 2026-27.  “As we continue this work and as we hopefully identify more of those students, that would then compound on top of that,” Carrino said. “And again, as we move forward in the three-year average, that should be beneficial to us, even with our reductions in enrollment.”  A marketing plan was recently approved to be created that is meant to help curtail dipping enrollment, but Carrino said the district can’t assume that enrollment will flip to increasing, thereby increasing revenues, until there is tangible data that shows that it is happening.  In a phone interview Monday, board member Bob Jensen, a certified public accountant, said deficit spending isn’t a bad thing so long as the district has the reserves to do so. He added that as the Hart district is one of the lower-funded districts across the state due to a relatively low number of unduplicated students, it becomes quite the task to balance conservative spending with wanting higher teacher salaries and funding highly sought-after programs.  While the district is in a better spot than it was a year ago, the fiscal stabilization plan that was created to help right the ship, and mandated by the L.A. County Office of Education, is still in place, Carrino said.  As part of that plan, he said, the district is set to: continue to maintain reductions that have already been implemented; reevaluate civic center fees; annually reduce staff based on enrollment; and identify opportunities to allocate resources more efficiently.  “We do still have continued plan oversight from LACOE,” Carrino said. “They’re asking for updates regularly, also asking for additional plans to address our deficit spending. But with all of that, the good news is we are able to have a positive certification, meaning that will meet our financial obligations in the current year and the subsequent two years.”  Superintendent Michael Vierra said the civic center fees will not be increased for youth groups until at least July. Those fees came under scrutiny earlier this year when local American Youth Soccer Organization teams expressed displeasure over what were described as “astronomical” increases.  “We’ll definitely consult the board before that that goes forward,” Carrino said.  The post Hart district finding ways to improve financial outlook, deficit spending to continue  appeared first on Santa Clarita Valley Signal.