May 26 Study Session: A $4 Million Gap, Four Unanswered Questions, and a Reserve Target Quietly Cut

On Tuesday, May 26, the Sonoma Valley Unified School District board held a study session at the district office to walk through budget assumptions for the 2026-2027 school year. The meeting ran from noon to 2 PM.

Trustee Jason Lehman did not attend. Trustee Catarina Landry arrived late. Trustee Ann Ching left eight minutes before adjournment. Board President David Bell and Trustee Gerardo Guzman were present for the full session. The board will vote to adopt the 2026-2027 budget and the LCAP on June 18, 2026, with a public hearing on June 11. Both meetings are open to the public.

Here is what you need to know.

The $4 Million Gap

California requires every school district to commit a minimum percentage of its budget to services that increase or improve outcomes for high-need students, meaning English learners, low-income students, and foster youth. In SVUSD, that group makes up roughly 62 percent of enrollment.

For 2026-2027, the required percentage is 14.833 percent. The current draft LCAP plans for 3.593 percent. The gap of 11.24 percentage points works out to approximately 4 million dollars in services that must be principally directed toward high-need students but are not in the plan.

These are the district's own numbers, taken from pages 76, 98, and 108 of the LCAP draft dated April 22, 2026. They are not estimates from outside.

The Four Items the Board Did Not Answer

At the May 26 study session, public comment from Sonoma Schools Alliance raised four specific items the board needs to address before adopting the budget on June 18. None received a substantive response from any trustee or staff member during the session.

First, the prior-year carryover. The LCAP draft documents $1,702,900 in unspent supplemental and concentration grant funds from prior years.

According to the district's own carryover table, none of this was spent on services to high-need students during 2025-26. The full $1.7 million is rolling forward into 2026-2027 unspent.

Second, underspending on contributing actions. The LCAP Annual Update Table shows that several programs designed to serve high-need students were dramatically underspent in 2025-26. Targeted Instruction, a program specifically required under state Differentiated Assistance to address math and reading gaps for English learners and low-income students, was planned at just over 2 million dollars and spent about $260,000, an 87 percent underspend.

Third, the elimination of LCAP-tied positions through Resolutions 26-32 and 26-33. The Wellness and Inclusion Director, three library technician positions, and eight bilingual-serving positions were eliminated. Every one of those positions corresponds to a contributing action in the LCAP. The LCAP shows zero planned 2026-2027 expenditures for those contributing actions. The plan does not explain how the services those positions provided will be maintained, restored, or replaced.

Fourth, a written plan to close the gap between the 3.593 percent that is planned and the 14.833 percent that is required. The LCAP draft establishes the requirement but contains no narrative explaining how the gap will be closed in time for adoption.

Each of these four items remains on the public record. They will be raised again at the June 11 Public Hearing and the June 18 adoption meeting.

The Reserve Target Quietly Cut

Superintendent Jason Sutter confirmed on the record that the district's operating reserve target is now 10 percent with a stated goal of 17 percent. This is a downgrade from prior board-stated targets.

The Available Over Reserves figure for 2025-2026 is $9,310 on a 61 million dollar budget, which is functionally zero. The district is not building reserves at the stated target rate, and the structural gap between the stated target and the actual contribution was not addressed during the meeting.

Charter Costs Still Not Disclosed

Interim Chief Business Officer Ms. Thomas presented an aggregate charter transfer figure of 4.9 million dollars for 2025-2026 and referenced a 4.3 million dollar figure described as a 2 million dollar increase attributed to the new MacArthur Park Charter School. No per-charter breakdown was provided for any of the three charters drawing resources from SVUSD.

When asked directly by Board President Bell how much each charter costs the district per student, Ms. Thomas stated that the analysis is not yet complete. With three charters now drawing from the district, per-charter cost transparency is overdue.

The $900,000 Question

The slide deck disclosed that approximately $900,000 from a teacher recruitment and retention fund was used to pay for a 1.5 percent across-the-board raise for all certificated employees. This raises a concern, because funds with that name usually come from the state with rules attached. They are meant for specific purposes like hiring bonuses, retention stipends, or targeted incentives for hard-to-fill positions, not for general salary increases that go to everyone on the payroll.

There is a second concern that depends on where the money originally came from. California law prohibits school districts from using funding the state provides for high-need students, meaning English learners, low-income students, and foster youth, to cover costs the district would have paid out of its general budget anyway. This rule exists so that extra money meant for those students actually reaches them rather than being absorbed into ordinary district expenses. If any portion of the $900,000 traces back to those high-need student funds, using it for a raise that benefits every teacher equally, regardless of which students they serve, would violate Education Code 42238.07. The district disclosed the expenditure at the May 26 meeting without identifying the specific fund source or explaining whether anyone reviewed whether this use is permitted.

Proposition 28 and the June 30 Clawback

Ms. Thomas named Proposition 28, the 2022 Arts and Music in Schools Funding Guarantee, as a source of difficulty in the prior budget cycle, but did not elaborate. Proposition 28 funds from 2023-2024 must be expended by June 30, 2026, or they revert to the California Department of Education. The amount, if any, at risk of reversion was not disclosed at the meeting.

What Happens Next

Three meetings between now and adoption matter for any community member who wants to be informed or to weigh in.

June 11, 2026, Public Hearing on the 2026-2027 Budget. Open to the public. Public comment is on the record. Ms. Thomas will be out of country and a colleague will present in her place.

June 18, 2026, Final Budget and LCAP Vote. Open to the public. This is the meeting where the board votes to adopt the budget and the LCAP for next year. Public comment is on the record.

June 30, 2026. Final day for 2023-2024 Proposition 28 funds to be spent before automatic clawback to the California Department of Education.

If you live in Sonoma Valley and you care how the district spends roughly 60 million dollars of public money next year, the most important thing you can do is attend the June 11 Public Hearing and the June 18 vote. Public comment is three minutes. The district cannot dispute its own numbers.

On the Public Record

Sonoma Schools Alliance has submitted formal records requests under the California Public Records Act covering each of the items above, including the carryover figure, the underspending detail, the categorical fund source for the salary increase, the charter cost breakdown, the reserve target downgrade, the Proposition 28 expenditure status, and the methodology behind the 14.833 percent required percentage. Those requests have

10-day response windows that close before the June 11 Public Hearing. Responses will be published as they come in.

The approximately 3,100 students who remain in SVUSD after Prestwood closes deserve a budget and an LCAP that comply with state law. The Sonoma County Office of Education has the authority to refuse to certify a budget that is out of compliance with the Minimum Proportionality Percentage. Whether the district closes the 4 million dollar gap before June 18 is the central question of the next three weeks.

Unidos por Nuestras Escuelas, United for Our Schools.

Sonoma Schools Alliance is a community accountability organization focused on the Sonoma Valley Unified School District. For more information or to share documents, contact contact@sonomaschoolsalliance.org. Source documents on file: the May 26, 2026 agenda packet, the slide deck presented by Interim Chief Business Officer Ms. Thomas, and the SVUSD 2026-2027 LCAP Draft dated April 22, 2026."