District overview
Healdsburg Unified School District
Where Healdsburg Unified stands: funding, governance, and what's underway.
Two budgets, moving in opposite directions
Healdsburg Unified is funded mostly like any other California district: state and local property-tax revenue follows enrolled students through the Local Control Funding Formula into the district's general fund, which pays for teachers, staff, and day-to-day operations. Separately, local voters have approved general obligation bonds (Measure D and Measure R) that can legally only be spent on construction and facilities, never on salaries. In 2025-26 those two funds told very different stories at the same time: the general fund was tight enough that the board eliminated about 2.0 FTE of certificated and 7.838 FTE of classified positions for 2026-27, while bond funds kept moving forward on a new Aquatic Center and school modernization projects. It can look contradictory to see layoffs and construction announced in the same year, but the money is legally walled off - the board could not have redirected bond proceeds to save the eliminated positions.
General fund: formula-driven, and tight
The district filed positive certifications at First and Second Interim (not in fiscal distress), but the board still voted to eliminate roughly 10 combined FTE of staff for 2026-27, citing the need to 'operate within its means.'
Bond funds: restricted to construction
Measure D and Measure R bond proceeds, and a 2026 bond refinancing expected to save about $1.5 million over time, are funding the Fitch Mountain Campus field, a Healdsburg Junior High modernization, and a planned Aquatic Center - none of which can legally pay teacher or staff salaries.
Governance is a small, elected board
A five-member Board of Trustees, elected from trustee areas to staggered four-year terms, sets policy; Superintendent Chris Vanden Heuvel and district staff carry it out. Trustee Areas 1 and 5 are on the November 2026 ballot.
Leadership stayed in place
After closed-session negotiations that ran from August 2025 through February 2026, the board approved employment-contract actions for the sitting superintendent rather than a change in leadership.
None of this means the district is in fiscal distress: both interim financial certifications this year were positive, and the bond refinancing was a routine cost-saving refinance of existing voter-approved debt, not new borrowing. The staff reductions reflect the board choosing to keep the general-fund budget balanced rather than a state takeover or emergency loan.
Where the district stands
District-wide enrollment on file; not independently verified against a collected 2025-26 enrollment document.
Final reduction-in-force action, following a preliminary March 3, 2026 resolution citing the same figure.
Not-to-exceed principal amount to refinance 2016 Election Series B bonds; projected savings of about $1.5 million are realized over time, not as a lump sum.
August 2025 through June 2026; all have posted agendas, and all but one (a governance workshop with no action items) have posted minutes.
Major projects
HUSD Aquatic Center
In designA new district aquatic center, replacing/expanding pool facilities at Healdsburg High School, moved from initial design contracts through an approved design over the school year.
- Board approves initial survey and design consulting contracts
- Board approves architect fee proposal and a lease-leaseback preliminary-services award to GCCI, Inc.
- Board reviews proposed plans; hopes to begin construction around September 2027
- Board approves a proposed design
Funding
Bond and district facilities funds (specific project budget not disclosed in the collected agendas/minutes)
Fitch Mountain Campus field replacement
Under construction / contractedReplacement of the athletic field at Fitch Mountain Campus, funded by voter-approved bonds, moved from design update to a guaranteed-maximum-price construction contract during the year.
- Board hears initial project update
- Board approves services agreement with FRC, Inc.
- Board approves guaranteed-maximum-price amendment and a FieldTurf turf/maintenance proposal
Funding
Voter-approved bond funds (Measure D / Measure R)
Healdsburg Junior High School modernization
PlanningA modernization project for Healdsburg Junior High School began moving through architect and construction-services proposals in spring 2026.
- Board approves architect fee proposal (Quattrocchi Kwok Architects) and a construction-services proposal (Counterpoint Construction Services)
Funding
Not specified in the reviewed record (likely bond-funded, consistent with other capital projects)
Dual Language Immersion program
Studied, then declinedThe district commissioned and received a feasibility study on a Dual Language Immersion program, then voted unanimously not to implement it, while several trustees said they want to design an alternative bilingual-education approach.
- Board contracts with the Association of Two-Way & Dual Language Education for a feasibility study
- Study findings presented; public workshop held
- Board votes unanimously not to proceed with a strand Dual Language Immersion model
Funding
N/A - district decided not to proceed
Healdsburg-Geyserville unification feasibility study
Requested, not yet underwayThe board formally asked the Sonoma County Office of Education to study whether HUSD and the neighboring Geyserville Unified School District should unify; this is an early, exploratory step, not a decision to merge.
- Board adopts Resolution No. 26-26 requesting the Sonoma County Office of Education conduct the study
Funding
N/A - a study, not a spending item, at this stage
Built from the district's official board-meeting archive on husd.com (an Edlio-hosted site), collected via a proxied browser render after the archive page returned HTTP 403 to plain requests. The trailing-year corpus (August 2025 through June 2026, 21 board meetings) was reviewed chronologically: all agendas were read as embedded text; scanned minutes PDFs were OCR'd and read; large attachment packets were not individually opened.
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