The Riverside Unified School District (RUSD) Board of Education Thursday voted unanimously to adopt its annual budget for the 2026-27 fiscal year, which starts July 1.
Nickie Hoff, the district’s director of business services, said RUSD is expected to bring in $816 million in revenue and spend $846 million over the upcoming fiscal year.
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“We have budgeted to spend 86.2%, or $732.6 million of our dollars directly on students and classroom support,” Hoff told the trustees at the June 25 meeting. “Next year, we have $23,014 budgeted per student on average, with 65.9% of that to be spent directly on students.”
Hoff told the board earlier this month the roughly $31 million difference between revenues and expenses would be covered by a mix of restricted funds — a separate pool of one-time local, state and federal grant money that RUSD is supposed to spend down over the years — and unrestricted reserves, which would be used to cover the costs of postponed school repairs, technology replacements and start-up costs for a soon-to-be-built elementary school.
This is expected to be the last time the district will use its unrestricted reserves to spend at a deficit, Hoff said at the time, noting that RUSD is projected to add about $1.6 million the following fiscal year and about $700,000 the year after that to its reserves.
The district also expects to receive increased financial support from the state to help offset the costs for pregnancy leave, one-time student support and special education, though the state’s budget has not yet been approved by the governor.
“Even though the expenditures are going up, now that the state is investing so much more into the special ed program, that’s why we’re seeing the [district’s] contribution go down,” Hoff said.
Trustee Amanda Vickers, in response to the report, asked Hoff what the greatest potential financial risk over the next three years could be.
Hoff said the state’s economic volatility, especially with the annual budget, could impact the district’s financial outlook. However, she said she has made a habit of providing district officials with a range of scenarios to help make informed decisions.
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