The Coachella Valley Unified School District Board of Education received a presentation June 26 showing multi‑year fiscal projections that, if unaltered, would reduce the district’s combined ending balance from an estimated $119 million in 2024‑25 to about $41 million by 2027‑28.

Daniella Tavares, presenting the district’s multi‑year projection (NYP), said the district is estimating deficit spending across the next three fiscal years and outlined the operational scale: “One month of just salaries and benefits, not even our liabilities or other expenditures, is $24,000,000,” she said, adding that “one month expenditures for the district runs between $35,000,000 and $38,000,000 a month.” Tavares told the board the district projects it will need to identify roughly $9.3 million in reductions by 2027‑28 to meet the required 3% reserve on unrestricted funds if revenues and assumptions do not improve.

Board members pressed for realism in assumptions. Trustee Thomas Tortoise said he had warned two years earlier about running down reserves and stressed the need to be proactive: “I knew this was gonna happen 2 years ago,” he told colleagues, urging continued fiscal vigilance. Other trustees and staff discussed the risk that declines in attendance (ADA), federal program changes and legislative actions could reduce revenues and require programmatic cuts or further staffing changes.

The board approved two fiscal actions on the consent/action calendar: Resolution 2025‑68 to encumber funds for fiscal year 2025‑26 and Resolution 2025‑67 classifying components of the ending fund balance. Staff noted the presentation used state‑level budget guidance and School Services assumptions for cost‑of‑living and revenue estimates. Members asked staff to provide the NYP spreadsheets to trustees and to continue monitoring enrollment, ADA and state revenue developments.

Trustees repeatedly returned to the practical implications of the projections: with declining combined balances, the district’s ability to sustain payroll and programs without cuts will narrow over the coming years. Staff said they would return with follow‑up analyses and that the multi‑year projection is intended to inform decisions this summer and in the coming budget cycle.