With around 300 employees, Cabrillo
Unified School District supports approximately 2,700 students at nine schools
in grades Pre-K through Adult, across the Coastside, including Half Moon Bay
and unincorporated San Mateo County areas from Montara in the north to San
Gregorio in the South.
Our district has an annual operating budget (‘General Fund’) of $45-50 million dollars per year, allocated in alignment with our district-wide strategic plan. After several years of ‘flipping’ between ‘State-Funded/LCFF’ and ‘Community-Funded/Basic Aid’ status, current expectations are that we will continue in ‘Community-Funded/Basic Aid,’ whereby the bulk of revenues come directly from local property taxes (>90%). Additional local sources including a parcel tax and donations (<10%), and federal funding (<5%) provide the remainder.
Each year, as is typical for most school districts, around 80% of our budget is used directly for employee compensation (e.g., base pay, additional pay, and benefits including health, vision, dental, and pension contributions), negotiated in partnership with labor groups. The remainder is used for supplies (e.g., textbooks, maintenance, and custodial supplies) and services (e.g., utilities, water, trash collection, software licenses, specialized student and staffing services, equipment servicing, and others as reported monthly, as well as food service supplementation).
Per State law, funds for facilities construction (e.g., bond) and other specific uses (e.g., Adult School) are managed separately.
Learn more about school district finance via the Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ) below, our primer on how school funding works and impact on Cabrillo USD (slides in English/Spanish), our detailed financial reports, and additional information regarding our bond and parcel tax measures.