Yorba Linda City Council uses reserve fund to reduce unfunded pension, retiree medical liabilities

Most years Yorba Linda's municipal government collects more revenue from taxes and fees than is needed to cover general fund expenditures, with the overage added to funds held in reserve accounts.

A longtime City Council-approved policy is to keep the reserves funded at 50% of the year's general fund expenditures, and another council-approved policy is to adopt a plan to use the excess funds when the reserves exceed 60% of general fund expenditures.

For example, for the end of the most recently completed fiscal year, the council adopted a plan to utilize some of the funds that exceeded 55% of a year's general fund expenditures for a long-term policy to reduce the city's unfunded pension and retiree medical liabilities.

For the fiscal year ending June 30, council approved an additional contribution of $200,000 to reduce the unfunded pension liability, in addition to a regular payment of just over $2.1 million. Additional contributions vary each year; last year's contribution was $386,624.

In the past eight years, the added contributions have totaled nearly $2.6 million, with the city's regular payments to the Public Employees Retirement System totaling close to $16 million for the same time period.

The most recent payment of $200,000 includes $71,352, which represents savings from prepaying the unfunded liability in July at the beginning of the fiscal year ending June 30.

The city's general fund contributed $166,800 and the library fund $33,200 to the payment, based on the size of the respective workforces.

The council approved an added payment of $500,000 to the city's “other post-employment benefits” trust with the Public Employees Retirement System to reduce the city's unfunded retiree medical liability for the fiscal year ending June 30.

For the past eight years, the additional contributions have totaled some $3 million. The additional contributions have varied each year, from a low $230,718 to a high $511,600. The general fund contributed $417,000 and the library fund $83,000, based on workforce.

When council adopted the budget for the most recently completed fiscal year, a $739,324 surplus was projected, but the surplus totaled $2 million when the city books were closed.

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Drivers in Yorba Linda are now paying an increased fee related to the removal, impound, storage or release of a vehicle, including vehicle removal due to driving without a license or with a suspended or revoked license. The fee has increased from $144 to $174.

Fees are collected by the county Sheriff's Department and deposited in the department's Traffic Violator Apprehension Program that's designed to reduce the number of collisions involving hit and run, intoxicated and unlicensed drivers and drivers with suspended licenses.

Other uses for the fees collected are a public education program to deter violators and a cost recovery program to pay for continued enforcement.

Placentia-Yorba Linda Unified School District to supply lunches to students at California Republic Leadership Academy Yorba Linda campus

 An agreement for the Placentia-Yorba Linda Unified School District to supply breakfast and lunch meals to the California Republic Leadership Academy for students on the academy's Yorba Linda campus has been approved by trustees of the Placentia-Yorba Linda district.

Income from the meals for the charter school's students “will create a new revenue stream for the district,” according to a presentation at a recent district trustee meeting. Meal costs are $3 for each breakfast and $5 for each lunch, plus a $1,000 monthly administrative fee.

The meals will be prepared and packaged at Yorba Linda High School and picked up by charter school staff. The lunches will be served to academy students on the pick-up day, with breakfasts served the next day.

All meals will meet federal and state nutritional standards. The California Universal Meals Program requires the charter academy to provide the two free meal during each school day to students requesting the meals.

The academy can request and pay for services “outside the norm,” according to the six-page agreement, and meal service to the academy continues when the academy is in session, but the district is not. Sack lunches will be provided when academy students are on field trips.

Yorba Linda's campus for the free public charter school at 23705 Via Del Rio opened in August for the inaugural 2024-25 school year, with sections for transitional kindergarten through third grade students and a projected revenue of $1.1 million.

An open enrollment period for the 2025-26 school year runs through Jan. 29, and an information session and facilities tour is scheduled for Jan. 28 at 4 p.m. The school plans to add a fourth grade class for the 2025-26 school year. Enrollment information is on the school's website crlayorbalinda.org.

The school currently runs morning and afternoon transitional kindergarten/kindergarten classes, while day-long first through third grade classes run from 8:50 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. Students entering transitional kindergarten must have birthdates between Sept. 2, 2020 and Sept. 1, 2021.

The school's teachers meet state credential requirements, and the school's students meet the same vaccination requirements as all of the state's public school students. Another campus is located in San Juan Capistrano.

In August 2023, the Placentia-Yorba Linda district trustees denied the California Republic Leadership Academy petition to open a charter school in the district on a 5-0 vote, after a staff report cited concerns over financing and curriculum.

However, the charter petition was approved later on a 5-0 vote by the Orange County Board of Education to become one of the current 28 charters that have been approved for students in the county by the board.

The Placentia-Yorba Linda district opened the district-affiliated Orange County School of Computer Science charter on the Bernardo Yorba Middle School campus in August 2024.

Placentia-Yorba Linda Unified School District enrollment appears to stabilize, up 22 students from previous year

Enrollment in the Placentia-Yorba Linda Unified School District appears to have stabilized after years of decline that averaged 384 students annually since the 2017-18 school year.

This year's enrollment stands at 22,276 students, up 22 students from last year's tally. The total number of students lost since the 2017-18 school year is 2,717, a substantial loss that resulted in less per-pupil income under the state's funding formula.

The enrollment numbers were part of a presentation at the district's Dec. 17 trustee meeting by Gary Stine, assistant superintendent for administrative services. Stine resigned his position as of Dec. 31 and was to start a similar role in the Huntington Beach City School District Jan. 1.

The enrollment drop slowed in the 2023-24 school year, which saw 289 fewer students at the district's 34 campuses than the previous year. Enrollment projections for each of the next two school years are 22,276, according to Stine's report.

Interestingly, during the same period of declines in student enrollment, the number of district employees jumped from 2,023 in the 2017-18 school year to 2,372 this year, up 349 workers.

Stine said the increase was because the district staffed programs that were initiated with one-time money, such as pandemic cash. One of the “challenges ahead” that Stine addressed in his report was to “prioritize staffing funded from one-time money that is now ongoing general fund expense.”

Among positions funded with one-time money: bilingual and special education aides, nurses, behavioral support, counselors, wellness specialists and extra student support class sections.

Other challenges listed by Stine: maintaining enrollment stability; a projected low cost of living adjustment for the next three years from state funding; increased employment costs, including benefits, annual raises and pension costs; and a continued focus on attendance.

The latter challenge regarding attendance rates has been a district priority for several years, and it has seen some improvement over prior years, from 94.95% last year to 95% this year.

Also included in Stine's presentation, part of a state-required first interim report on district finances, was a $12.4 million projected budget deficit this year, dropping to $1.7 million in 2027-28.

The report for the Orange County School of Computer Science charter at Bernardo Yorba Middle School shows an enrollment of 137 in 4th through 6th grades and 601 in 7^th and 8^th grades, with a 95% attendance rate.

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Trustees voted 3-2 on Dec. 17 to rejoin the California School Boards Association, with Marilyn Anderson, Carrie Buck and Tricia Quintero in favor; Leandra Blades and Todd Frazier opposed. Cost is $17,614 for Jan, 1 through June 30.

Blades, Frazier and Shawn Youngblood voted to drop membership August 2023, as recommended by Superintendent Alex Cherniss. Anderson and Buck were opposed.