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District overview

Laguna Joint Elementary School District

How a seven-student rural district is funded, governed, and planning ahead.

How does a seven-student district keep operating?

Held-harmless funding supports one active rural school

Laguna Joint is an active Marin County K-6 district governed by a five-member Board of Trustees. It operates Laguna Elementary and retains the former Lincoln Union School property. Its state funding is held harmless at older necessary-small-school levels, including funding associated with the former Union and Lincoln districts, rather than rising and falling directly with its current seven-student enrollment.

Enrollment is unusually small

Monthly principal reports consistently list seven students across TK, kindergarten, third, fourth, and sixth grades.

Funding has a special floor

The county budget review says LCFF funding is held harmless at 2012-13 levels equivalent to three necessary small schools.

Attendance is existential

The county says attendance below six students in grades 1-6 would trigger statutory lapsation procedures, though the district could seek a state waiver.

One board governs the school and former Lincoln site

The trustees oversee Laguna Elementary and the former Lincoln Union property; current central packets routinely include matters for both sites.

The county approved the 2025-26 budget and said the district could meet its reserve target; the lapsation threshold is a documented risk, not a finding that dissolution is underway.

Where the district stands

Reported 2025-26 enrollmentverified
7 students
Active district schoolscontext
1 school

Laguna Elementary; the district also retains the former Lincoln Union School property.

2026-27 general-fund expendituresverified
$942,160
Budgeted spending per reported studentcontext
134,594 $ per student

Context: $942,160 divided by seven reported students. This districtwide figure includes facilities, benefits, administration, and restricted spending, so it is not a classroom allocation.

Unique official records reviewedcontext
115 records

116 collected records minus one byte-identical duplicate.

Major projects

Enrollment and district continuity

Above statutory trigger

The district reports seven enrolled students, while the county says attendance below six in grades 1-6 would trigger lapsation procedures unless a waiver is obtained.

Next: 2026-27 attendance reporting and any state-waiver discussion
  1. County budget review documents the lapsation threshold
  2. Principal report continues to list seven students

Funding

2026-27 staffing adjustments

Partly reversed; roles unclear

The board approved resolutions to eliminate 2.5 FTE, including a principal/teacher role, then later reported that two full-time staff were reinstated and one was not. The public minutes do not map the later decision to specific positions.

Next: Publication of a 2026-27 staffing roster or minutes identifying the remaining reduction
  1. Board approves classified and certificated reduction resolutions
  2. Closed-session report reinstates two full-time staff and leaves one unreinstated

Funding

Laguna School urgent repairs

Priority work substantially completed under estimate

The 2025 facilities assessment listed $182,475 of urgent work and reported $90,195 in actual work to date, with electrical, well, furnace, and maintenance planning still recommended.

Next: Electrical-panel and well evaluations and a future maintenance schedule
  1. Board receives updated facilities assessment and reduced dry-rot change order
  2. Board authorizes up to $27,000 for well work and exterior trim painting

Funding

Built from a complete chronological review of 116 official records collected from eleven board agendas and their linked documents for the trailing twelve months.

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