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.
30th percentile among 1,045 similar-sized districts serving the same grades
1
The money
| Per student, as reported | $15,780 |
|---|---|
| Per student, price-adjusted Divided by the local BEA 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 index. | 108.5 |
2
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
3
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 counsellor | Locked |
| Cents of each operating dollar reaching classrooms | 62.8% |
| Administration share | 8.9% |
| Child poverty rate Census SAIPE estimate for children 5–17 inside the district boundary. | 4.4% |
| Enrolment change, 5 years | -6.4% |
4
Stability and risk
- Declining enrollment Enrolment fell more than 5% over five years. Enrolment 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.
5
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 we hold scores for, unweighted by size.
6
Districts most like this one
Nearest neighbours on size, setting, poverty and grade span — not on spending. These are the fair comparisons, so we made each one a link.
Travis Unified
CA · $14,557/student adjusted
Lynden School District
WA · $15,117/student adjusted
Oak Park Unified
CA · $13,474/student adjusted
Sherwood SD 88J
OR · $14,652/student adjusted
Atascadero Unified
CA · $14,598/student adjusted
Enumclaw School District
WA · $15,154/student adjusted
White River School District
WA · $13,544/student adjusted
Western Placer Unified
CA · $14,466/student adjusted
7
Enrolling a child
Read off this district’s own enrolment page. Every “required” below links to the sentence it came from.
Is a seat at your zoned school guaranteed?
The district warns
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 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 -
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 -
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
-
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
Quoted from this district’s own pages, read August 25, 2026. Wording changes between enrolment seasons — the school office is the only authority on whether a grade is full today.
- This is the district’s own published wording, not our summary of it. Policies are rewritten between enrolment 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 enrolment page for this district.
Documents to bring
How enrolling works
Locked 11 steps of the enrolment 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 page we read. 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 enrolment season. Check the district’s own page, linked above, before you gather anything.
- A district cannot condition enrolment 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.
8
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, as reported to the federal survey. 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. The federal survey 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.
What this band does not answer yet
Funding measures on the ballotNot shown yet. School bond and levy results are published by each state and county election office, and only a handful publish them in a form a machine can read — the rest are PDFs, or nothing. We are adding them one state at a time and this state is still in the queue. Nobody has looked here, so this section is empty for want of a source rather than for want of an election, and the county election office holds the answer today.
Unlock every figure 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
- counsellor and administrator ratios, and the total salary bill
- the enrolment process — deadlines, appointments and proof of residency
- the debt behind the risk flags — per student, and as a share of spending
$7 a month for every district in the country.
One payment, no account to create. Buy on the web and the iPhone app unlocks with the same receipt.