Benicia Unified
Solano County, CA · Suburb · grades K–12 · 4,346 students across 7 schools
- Spends $15,780 per student in operating costs — $14,547 once local price levels are accounted for.
- 62.8% of every operating dollar reaches instruction.
- 43.0% of revenue is raised locally, mostly from property tax.
The money
| Per student, as reported | $15,780 |
|---|---|
| Per student, price-adjusted Adjusted for the local price level, so it can be set against a district anywhere else. | $14,547 |
| Per student, excluding transport | $14,479 |
| Capital spending per student Buildings and land. Lumpy by nature. | Locked |
| Total revenue | Locked |
| Total current spending | Locked |
| Local price level (US = 100) Metro-area adjustment. | 108.5 |
Where the money goes
- Instruction 59.5% Locked
- Instructional staff support 3.3% Locked
- Student support 7.6% Locked
- Operations & maintenance 10.1% Locked
- Transportation 0.5% Locked
- Food service 4.5% Locked
- School administration 6.7% Locked
- District administration 2.1% Locked
- Other support 5.0% Locked
- Other current 4.5% Locked
What the money buys
| Students per teacher A staffing ratio, not an average class size. Real classes are larger than this everywhere. | 22.8 |
|---|---|
| Students per counselor | Locked |
| Cents of each operating dollar reaching classrooms | 62.8% |
| Administration share | 8.9% |
| Child poverty rate Children 5 to 17 in poverty inside the district boundary. | 4.4% |
| Enrollment change, 5 years | -6.4% |
Stability and risk
- Declining enrollment Enrollment fell more than 5% over five years. Enrollment decline is the single best predictor of school closures and programme cuts.
- High debt burden More than 10% of total spending goes to interest and debt retirement, money that cannot reach a classroom.
- Little/no transportation spending Reported transportation spending is under 0.5% of current spending. Usually this means busing is limited, contracted out, or provided by another agency — check locally before assuming a bus.
Against the rest of CA
| Benicia Unified | CA average | |
|---|---|---|
| Per student, as reported | $15,780 | $21,830 |
| Reaching classrooms | 62.8% | 61.6% |
| Local share of revenue | 43.0% | 39.0% |
Average across 926 CA districts, unweighted by size.
Districts most like this one
Nearest neighbours on size, child poverty, the local price level and spending, over the same grade span. These are the fair comparisons, so we made each one a link.
These are the districts yours is fairly judged against. Where one of them does something differently, that is a question your board can answer at a meeting — it is not a reason to move.
Enrolling a child
Every “required” below links to the sentence it came from.
Is a seat at your zoned school guaranteed?
Living in the zone may not get you the seat
-
When this occurs, students are placed on a waitlist at their resident school and assigned, or overflowed, to another school.
the district’s page this was read from -
When a student completes registration at their resident school and there is no available space in their grade level at that site, the student is overflowed to another District school that has space available.
the district’s page this was read from -
When the District is notified that a student is in need of an overflow placement, the District will review enrollment numbers at other District schools and assign placement accordingly.
the district’s page this was read from -
Rapid growth in student enrollment at a particular school and/or turnover of housing in existing neighborhoods, classes in a grade level have reached capacity limits or overflow of resident students from prior years.
the district’s page this was read from -
A request to finish the year at the overflow school may be approved ONLY for the remainder of the current school year.
the district’s page this was read from -
Overflowed students who would like to remain at the overflowed school will be approved only if space is available.
the district’s page this was read from
What the district says it does when that happens
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Between the months of August and January, if space becomes available at the resident school, an overflow student will be given the option to return to their resident school at that time.
the district’s page this was read from -
All overflow students will return to their resident school the following school year.
the district’s page this was read from -
Between the months of February and June, all overflow students will remain at their overflow school for the remainder of the school year.
the district’s page this was read from
Quoted from this district’s own pages, read August 25, 2026. Wording changes between enrollment seasons — the school office is the only authority on whether a grade is full today.
A district that cannot promise a seat at your zoned school is describing a capacity decision: how many children each building holds, and where the boundary runs. Both are settled by the board in public. Which schools are full, and what the plan is for them, is a fair question to ask at a meeting.
- This is the district’s own published wording, not our summary of it. Policies are rewritten between enrollment seasons and a page can be out of date the day after we read it — the school office is the only authority on whether a particular grade at a particular school is full right now.
- A warning here is about capacity, not about your address. It does not mean your child will be moved; it means the district has told you in writing that it may move them.
- Required the page says so, and the sentence is quoted.
- Mentioned only it comes up, but not as a requirement — often a sentence saying the district cannot demand it.
- Not mentioned we read the page and it was not on it. That is not the same as "not required".
- Page not read we have no enrollment page for this district.
Documents to bring
How enrolling works
Locked 11 steps of the enrollment process — deadlines, appointments, proof of residency — are not shown. What to bring is above, and stays free.
- A blank row means the requirement did not appear on the district’s page. It does not mean the district will not ask for it — published lists are routinely incomplete, and the registrar has the final word.
- Requirements change every enrollment season. Check the district’s own page, linked above, before you gather anything.
- A district cannot condition enrollment on your child’s immigration status: under Plyler v. Doe (1982) every child resident in the district is entitled to a free public education. If a district asks for something that would reveal status, you are not obliged to provide it.
- If your family is in temporary or shared housing, the McKinney-Vento Act lets a child enrol immediately without the residency and records documents listed here. Ask for the district’s homeless liaison by name.
Who decides, and what it costs you
Every band above this one asks what this district spends. This one asks who chose to.
Benicia Unified
The district levies its own school tax
This district raises property tax in its own name. Who sets the rate varies by state — an elected board in some, a public vote in others — but the levy is the school system’s own, and it is the part of a tax bill that school politics moves most directly.
| Benicia Unified | |
|---|---|
| School property tax levied, per student Only for districts that levy in their own name. Blank where the county or town levies instead — see the cards above, and read the next row. | $6,753 |
| Appropriated by the county or town, per student What the parent government handed the schools, for dependent systems. This is a general appropriation, not solely property tax. | — |
| Property tax as a share of all revenue How much of the budget rides on local property values, and therefore on local votes. | 35.5% |
| Long-term debt already owed, per student The balance at the end of the year, for scale. Repaid over decades, so it is a commitment made by earlier boards rather than a bill arriving now. | Locked |
| Debt service as a share of spending Interest plus principal repaid this year, against total spending. This is the part of the debt that is being paid now, out of money that would otherwise reach a classroom. | Locked |
| New long-term debt issued, per student Money borrowed during fiscal year 2024. What this figure does and does not tell you is set out under the table. | $331 |
- A figure in the borrowing row is not a bond voters approved. It records debt issued, and that includes refinancing existing debt at a new rate — which changes nothing about what a district owes — as well as certificates of participation and lease-revenue debt, which in many states a board can issue with no referendum at all. To find out what was actually on a ballot, check the county election office.
- Debt is repaid over decades. A large balance per student is a commitment made by earlier boards and earlier voters, not a bill arriving this year. The debt service row above it is the part being paid now.
Who sits on the board
Benicia Unified board of education
- Sheri Zada — Trustee
- Cece Grubbs — President
- Janny Manasse — Trustee
- Mark Maselli — Trustee
- Amy C. Hirsh — Clerk
- Members are elected: “Each board member is elected for a four-year term.”
- When the board meets: “The Benicia Unified School District Board of Education meetings are held on the first and third Thursday of each month unless otherwise noted.”
- The public may speak: “Members of the public may address the Board at a regular meeting on any item within the Board’s jurisdiction.”
Read from the district’s own board page on 2026-08-24. Boards change; the district’s page is the current record, not ours.
These seats are elected, and what this board decides — the budget, the attendance boundaries, the calendar — is decided at a meeting the public may attend. The district’s own board page, linked above, is where it publishes the schedule and the agenda. We do not hold meeting dates or contact details for these people.
Funding measures on the ballot
Benicia Unified
$122.5M approved by voters across 2 measures.
| Election | Measure | Amount | Yes | Outcome |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2024-03-05 | Bond · Prop. Measure CTo improve the quality of education, upgrade, renovate, and modernize classrooms, restrooms and school facilities; repair/replace leaky roofs; renovat…To improve the quality of education, upgrade, renovate, and modernize classrooms, restrooms and school facilities; repair/replace leaky roofs; renovate/construct science and career technical classrooms/labs; and replace outdated HVAC systems; shall Benicia Unified School District's measure authorizing $122,500,000 of bonds be adopted at legal rates, generating on average $7,500,000 per year while bonds are outstanding, at approximately $60 per $100,000 assessed value, with annual audits, independent oversight, NO money for salaries, and all money staying local? |
$122.5M | 62.5% | Passed |
Locked 4 earlier measures in this district’s history are not shown.
From the state’s own election file. Latest election on record: 2025-06-03.
What this state publishes: School district bonds and parcel taxes as the California Elections Data Archive compiles them for the Secretary of State. Bonds carry the principal; parcel taxes are quoted per parcel and carry no comparable dollar figure. Recalls and advisory questions are not included.
CA published no results for 2010, so a measure put to voters in that year would not appear here. That is a gap in the state’s own publishing.
- A vote share is not an outcome. What it takes to carry varies by state and by measure — in some states a bond needs a supermajority and a minimum turnout while a levy on the same ballot needs half, so a clear majority can still lose. Every outcome shown here is copied from the state’s own election file, and the rule that applied is stated with the coverage above. Where that file stated no outcome we show whatever count it published and no verdict, rather than working one out from the percentage — and some states publish the ballot question without ever recording a count, so a blank there is a number nobody printed.
- These are the measures a district put to its voters, not its whole tax bill. A property tax bill also carries county, city and state levies that have nothing to do with schools, and in most states a school board can issue some kinds of debt with no vote at all.
What they plan, and what they teach from
No state publishes what its districts teach from. This is the district’s own page, in its own words.
Plan documents the district lists
- LCAP (page, not the document)
- School Accountability Report Card (SARC) (page, not the document)
- School Plans for Student Achievement (SPSA) (page, not the document)
This district does not name the programmes it teaches from. That is the norm rather than the exception: no state requires a district to publish this, and most do not. The district office can tell you which reading and maths programmes are in use at a particular school.
Read from https://beniciaunified.org/departments/educational-services/ on 2026-09-02.
- Programmes are only ever listed when the district names one in writing on its own site, and the sentence it used is shown beside it. We never infer a programme from a description of teaching style — “a balanced literacy approach” is not a curriculum, and printing it as one would invent an adoption the district never made.
- A plan document is listed as the district’s plan index listed it. We record that the document exists and where it is, not what it says.
The detailed figures for Benicia Unified
The verdict, the headline dollar, the funding shares, who is served and every comparability caveat are free above, and stay free. What is behind the lock is the detail you would want before acting on any of it:
- capital spending per student, total revenue and total current spending
- the ten-line per-student breakdown of where the money goes
- counselor and administrator ratios, and the total salary bill
- the enrollment process — deadlines, appointments and proof of residency
- the debt behind the risk flags — per student, and as a share of spending
- the full ballot history: 4 more bonds and levies, with the amounts
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