Background Information:

On or before July 1 of each year, the governing board of each school district shall hold a public hearing on the budget to be adopted for the subsequent fiscal year. The budget to be adopted shall be prepared in accordance with Education Code section 42126. The agenda for that hearing shall be posted at least 72 hours before the public hearing and shall include the location where the budget will be available for public inspection. Notice of the date and location of the public hearing shall be posted in a newspaper of general circulation no earlier than 45 days and no later than 10 days prior to the hearing by the county superintendent of schools. The hearing must be held not less than three working days following the availability of the budget for public inspection [E.C. 42103].  

When a district’s budget includes a combined assigned and unassigned ending fund balance in excess of the minimum recommended reserve for economic uncertainties adopted by the state board, the district’s public hearing for budget adoption shall include the following for review and discussion:

• The minimum recommended reserve for economic uncertainties for each fiscal year identified in the budget. 
• The combined assigned and unassigned ending fund balances that are in excess of the minimum recommended reserves for economic uncertainties for each fiscal year identified in the budget, pursuant to Education Code section 33128(a). The fund balances included are Fund 01, General Fund, and Fund 17, Special Reserve Fund for Other Than Capital Outlay Projects. 
• A statement of reasons that substantiates the need for an assigned and unassigned ending fund balance in excess of the minimum recommended reserve for economic uncertainties for each fiscal year. 
• The governing board of a school district shall include this information each time it files an adopted or revised budget with the county superintendent of schools. The county superintendent of schools shall determine whether a school district’s adopted or revised budget complied with these requirements.
• The public meeting at which a school district’s governing board adopts an LCAP and a budget must be held after, but not on the same day as, the public meeting at which the governing board holds the required public hearings on the LCAP and the proposed budget [E.C. 52062(b)(2)].

For more information about the budget adoption process, please visit:

http://fcmat.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/4/2015/12/Fiscal-Oversight-Guide-final-12-2015.pdf