Commentary
San Diego County has 42 school districts and nine of them had major movement in their fiscal status for the fiscal year ending June 30, 2024. But five of them leave the readers of their annual reports a bit confused.
By obtaining their audited financial statements, looking at the unrestricted net position (UNP) in the balance sheet (statement of net position) and dividing it by the population the district serves, the per capitas tell a fascinating story.
Let’s start from the bottom and move our way up. Chula Vista Elementary dropped 15 places in the annual rankings. It had revenues in excess of expenditures of $72.6 million, transferred $63.3 million into restricted assets, and appropriated $150.3 million into net investment in capital assets. The net result was an increase to its unrestricted net deficit of $141.0 million. But there’s a problem. The actual capital assets only increased by $61.1 million and the related liabilities increased by $83.2 million. This means the net investment in capital assets should have decreased by $22.1 million, not increased by $150.3 million….