Desert Sands Unified School District confronts financial strategy amid student enrollment decline

Desert Sands Unified School District financial staff said the district’s budget has taken into account declining enrollment and the end of some funding sources, giving it a longer runway than other valley school districts who have had to make budget cuts.

The Desert Sands Unified School District Board of Education convened on Tuesday to review a financial report underscoring a unique fiscal position compared to many California districts.

Assistant Superintendent of Business Services Jordan Aquino presented a budget characterized by a 35% general fund ending balance, “Which has turned out to be a very fortunate thing, considering a lot of the financial circumstances districts are finding themselves in,” Aquino said.

He contrasted the DSUSD’s position with other districts that have been forced to make emergency cuts, noting that the board’s due diligence has created a buffer against immediate volatility. Neighboring Coachella Valley Unified School District voted last month to cut more than $25 million from its budget over the next three years to maintain financial solvency.

A central focus of the financial update was how the district is to manage declining enrollment with an increase in faculty and cost of living costs.

“We’ve lost almost 4,000 students over a 10-year period…that’s equivalent to about a 1.75% decline every year,” Aquino said. “On the opposite end…the district has increased its staffing over that same 10-year period 13.82%, which is equivalent to 359 FTEs [full-time equivalent positions], and that number is probably around 400 people.”

“So therein lies the conundrum,” he said.

Even with the disparity, Aquino assured board members that DSUSD’s ending balance has provided a strategic runway for long-term planning, even as the district navigates the looming expiration of pandemic-era funding and enrollment decline.

“[Other districts] have a helicopter pad. They have to take off now and they’re making actions to do it,” Aquino explained. “We’ve created this nice runway for us to effectively plan over multiple years.”

One board member clarified the drop in enrollment is largely driven by broader demographic shifts rather than local dissatisfaction, saying that declining birth rates mean fewer kids are entering the school system.

The addition of 400 employees was largely funded in part by the $181 million in COVID-19 and other grants. These funds allowed the district to hire mental health therapists, counselors, and security agents to meet specific student needs during and after the pandemic.

Board members expressed a commitment to maintaining this fiscal solvency while acknowledging the pressure of balancing employee needs with a shrinking revenue base.

“I don’t want to make an incorrect decision that leads us—not off a runway—but off of a cliff,” one board member said. “Our name is associated with people losing their jobs.”

Another addressed students, parents, and faculty directly, “We hear people. We hear what you’re asking, hear what you’re saying, and we’re balancing that with what we have.”