District overview
Anaheim Union High School District
How Anaheim Union High School District is funded, who decides, and what is being built right now.
What pays for Anaheim Union High School District?
Anaheim Union is a grade 7-12 district in Orange County serving about 27,000 students across roughly 21 schools. Like almost every California district, its day-to-day money comes from the state's Local Control Funding Formula, which pays a base amount per student and adds more for English learners, low-income students and foster youth. Because that money follows attendance, enrolment changes move the budget directly. Buildings are paid for separately, mainly through local general obligation bonds - Measure H and Measure K - which can only be spent on facilities, and through state School Facility Program grants the board applies for each year.
Two funding streams, two rulebooks
Salaries, teaching and services come from the state formula and grants. Construction comes from bond money that legally cannot be spent on staffing, which is why the district can start large building projects in the same year it cuts classified positions.
Employee health coverage is the fastest-growing cost
District records put health and welfare benefit costs at $71.1 million a year in 2024-25, up from $39.8 million in 2009-10. In November 2025 the board signed agreements with all five employee groups changing coverage for 2026 in response.
Bond spending is watched by a citizens' committee
The Measure K Independent Citizens' Bond Oversight Committee reports to the board in public - it delivered its September 2025 to February 2026 report on March 5, 2026 - and the board reappointed members in June 2026.
Contracts are settled one union at a time
Between January and June 2026 the board adopted agreements with the teachers' association, AFSCME, APGA, the Mid-Managers Association, CSEA and the military instructors union, each after a public hearing disclosing its cost.
None of this shows the district is in financial trouble. The records collected here do not include the adopted budget's own bottom-line figures, so this page describes the mechanisms and the individual amounts the board voted on rather than the district's overall financial position.
Where the district stands
Federal Common Core of Data figure for 2023, retrieved through the Urban Institute Education Data API. The district's own monthly enrolment reports are attachments the board receives but that are not published as separate documents.
Grade 7-12 district covering Anaheim and parts of Buena Park, Cypress, La Palma, Stanton and unincorporated Orange County.
For 2024-25, up from $39.8 million in 2009-10 - a rise of about 79 per cent over fifteen years.
Total project cost ceiling after four amendments, up from the $1.69 million guaranteed maximum price first ratified in December 2025 as scope was added.
Freed when Hope School moves to the renovated former Orangeview Junior High School at the end of summer 2026.
The three most recent meetings had agendas but no posted minutes when this page was built. Minutes normally appear a month or two after the meeting.
Major projects
Hope School relocation and site redevelopment
School move scheduled; developer search under wayHope School, which serves students with significant disabilities, is moving from 7901 Knott Avenue in Buena Park to the renovated former Orangeview Junior High School at the end of summer 2026. That leaves a 19.93-acre district-owned site, and the board has been working through the legal steps required before a school district can offer surplus property to developers.
- Board briefed on the relocation and the 19.93-acre site it frees
- Resolution 2025/26-B-09 authorizes preparing a request for proposals
- Resolution 2025/26-B-10 declares intent to consider redevelopment proposals
- Study session on the request for qualifications and proposals
Funding
Bond funds for the Orangeview renovation; proceeds from any future Hope site transaction
No sale price or development agreement had been set as of the August 2026 agenda.
Orangeview Junior High School modernization
Under construction; scope and cost expanded four timesThe district is renovating the former Orangeview Junior High School so Hope School can move in, using a lease-leaseback contract with Construct 1 One Corporation. Each added piece of work - including demolition and ADA concrete - came back to the board as an amendment, and the ceiling grew from $1.69 million to about $14.7 million between December 2025 and July 2026.
- Board ratifies the lease-leaseback agreement at a $1,690,026 guaranteed maximum price
- Amendment No. 1 raises the total project cost to about $13.6 million
- Amendments No. 2, 3 and 4 raise the ceiling to about $14.7 million
Funding
Bond and facilities funds
Total project cost including district contingencies not to exceed roughly $14.7 million after Amendment No. 4.
Measure K bond programme
Projects under way across multiple campusesMeasure K is the district's current voter-approved facilities bond. It is paying for site improvements at Gilbert High School and South Junior High School, HVAC replacements at Savanna and Anaheim high schools, and track and field projects at Katella, Kennedy, Loara and Savanna high schools. State law requires an independent citizens' committee to check that the money is spent as promised.
- Study session on Measure K implementation
- Citizens' Bond Oversight Committee annual report for September 2025 to February 2026
- CEQA exemption resolutions for four high school track and field projects; oversight committee members reappointed
- Resolution 2026/27-B-01 approves negotiating a community workforce agreement for bond-funded projects
Funding
Measure K general obligation bond, with Measure H for earlier work and state School Facility Program grants
Individual projects are approved separately; the board has not published a single programme total in the records collected here.
Student safety and anti-bullying response
Sustained public pressure; district actions partly documentedFrom November 2025 through May 2026 the family and friends of student Mia Mejia, together with alumni and community members, addressed the board at nearly every meeting asking for an independent investigation into her death and for districtwide anti-bullying and suicide-prevention programmes. Over the same period the board awarded a security services contract, adopted a visitor management system, approved every campus safety plan, and authorised a request for proposals for vape and safety sensors.
- Board awards RFP 2026-03 for security services amid extended public comment
- Board awards RFP 2026-02 for a visitor management system
- Board approves the comprehensive school safety plans required for every campus
- Resolution 2026/27-E-03 authorizes a request for proposals for a vape and safety sensor system
Funding
General fund and grant funds for security contracts and safety systems
Individual contract amounts are in the meeting records; no single safety programme budget is published.
Recent news
This overview is based on 21 official documents collected from the district's Diligent Community meeting portal: agendas for all 12 board meetings held between November 13, 2025 and August 6, 2026, and approved minutes for nine of them.
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