San Carlos Unified School District

At $1,149 per pupil, San Carlos Unified’s fiscal year 2004 per-pupil administrative costs were 60 percent higher than the comparison districts’ $717 average. Higher salary costs due to a greater number of administrative positions and employee longevity are primary contributors. The District’s $1.91 cost-per-meal was 9 percent lower than the comparable districts’ average, and the program was self-supporting due to lower food and salary costs. However, the District did not appropriately control the collection of monies from the sale of a la carte items and adult meals. The District’s $2.69 per-mile student transportation costs were 44 percent higher than the comparison districts’ average. These high costs resulted from the District’s having more transportation employees and paying higher benefit costs than the comparison districts’. The District also appeared to have higher fuel costs because it included the costs of unleaded fuel used in unrelated vehicles as part of its student transportation costs. The District’s plant operation and maintenance costs were high primarily because it operates and maintains 384 square feet per student, which is 55 percent larger than the comparable districts averaged. Further, the District’s waste disposal costs were almost six times greater than the comparison districts’ average costs. The District spent its Proposition 301 monies for purposes authorized under statute, with the exception of about $4,600 of its menu monies, which were spent on noninstructional items, such as bottled water, postage, and administration. Finally, while the District’s classroom dollar percentage of 52.9 percent was almost 6 percentage points less than the state average, the District spent $1,500 more per pupil in the classroom than the state average.