San Mateo-Foster City budgets for enrollment decline

“It looks positive for us, even though there are challenges at the federal and state level,” Chief Business Official Patrick Gaffney said. 

For the 2025-26 school year, the district is budgeting to spend more than it will earn, resulting in approximately a $10 million loss to the overall budget from the year prior, coming down to a total of $32,185,415. 

The budget includes projections for the outset years, as well, which can be accounted for by estimated revenue growth and planned expenditure reductions, which projects a much smaller deficit for school years 2026-27 and 2027-28, Gaffney said. 

“Given what we’re seeing at the national level and other local school districts, I think what we’re doing here is very wise,” Trustee Maggie Trinh said. “We all want to keep our schools open, we want to keep as many jobs in the district, and we want to keep serving our students.” 

To offset the declining enrollment the district continues to face, administrative reductions will be made, Gaffney said. Around $750,000 reduction in administrator salaries, or 13 full-time employees, for the 2026-27 school year is included in the budget. 

Enrollment in transitional kindergarten within the district is increasing, though, but community funded districts like San Mateo-Foster City do not receive any funding to support the program, meaning the growth in enrollment also means a cost to the district’s budget. Gaffney shared efforts to secure financing for these school districts for transitional kindergarten have been made through the state Assembly Bill 1391, which was held at the committee level in late May. 

Another point of strain is that the parcel tax expenditures for the upcoming school year are in excess of the current year revenue. The district has reserve to cover the excess, but “will need to adjust expenditures” in coming years to balance the budget, according to the draft budget. The current parcel tax expires in 2027-28, so the district is also preparing to engage in the election process to renew this. 

Although funding sourced by the federal government only makes up 2.3% of all of its revenue, Gaffney said it is still paying attention to the possible loss.  

“The current administration is only 120 days into their administration so we might see further decreases, we’re not exactly sure what those might be, but we’re cautious of that,” Gaffney said. 

The Board of Trustees will consider final approval of the budget at its meeting June 26.