The Math Behind the Outrage
The numbers do not lie. FUEL breaks down the financial figures at the center of recent community frustration and explains what they actually mean for LBUSD students and families.
PUBLISHED BY LAGUNA BEACH INDEPENDENT ON MARCH 20, 2026
There has been a lot of noise around the “$1.77 million” health care issue in Laguna Beach Unified, and at this point, the number is being used more to inflame people than to inform them.
Yes, there was a real problem. For several years, the district failed to consistently apply the health care contribution formulas outlined in employee contracts. This issue should have been caught much sooner and needed to be corrected. No one disputes this.
However, the way this issue is being framed now is deeply misleading.
District staff brought this issue to public attention and commissioned an independent review. The review found a compliance and internal controls problem, but more importantly, did not find evidence of fraud, theft, or funds being “diverted.” These words are loaded and go far beyond what the actual record supports.
The main problem with the public conversation is the way the “$1.77 million” figure is being thrown around as if it tells the whole story when it does not.
$1.77 million is the total only from the years when the district paid more than the contract formula required, from FY23 to FY26. What keeps getting left out is that in FY21 and FY22, staff overpaid, so the district owed them. After completing the full reconciliation, the number brought forward for corrective action was $1.04 million. That is the figure the board acted on.
So no, this is not a case of “simple math” being ignored. It is a matter of people choosing the biggest number because it makes for a better scandal.
Context and honesty are important.
Teachers and staff did not create this problem. They selected plans from the available options based on the information provided. They should not be blamed for administrative mistakes they did not make, and they should not be turned into political punching bags because some people want to manufacture outrage.
While $1.04 million is significant, it represents a 6-year correction in a district with an annual general fund of approximately $85 million. Serious? Yes. Worth fixing? Absolutely. Proof of some sweeping conspiracy? No.
If this issue were truly as obvious and clear-cut as some claim, it would be fair to ask why a formal review and full reconciliation were necessary to determine the amount. The truth is less dramatic than the outrage campaign suggests: an administrative failure, not the scandal some people desperately want it to be.
We should require accountability, but the public also deserves accuracy, and right now that has been in short supply.
Erika Hennon Rule
LBUSD Parent
Aliso Viejo
Effective School Board Governance: What It Means and Why It Matters — A FUEL Laguna Webinar
Former LBUSD school board member Kelly Osborne walks the Laguna Beach community through what effective school board governance actually looks like — from the mindset of individual board members to how boards set strategic goals, support superintendents, and serve every student. The webinar also covers the 2001 Measure R bond, the 10-year Facilities Master Plan, and what a potential bond extension could mean for LBUSD. Hosted by FUEL board member Shaheen Sheik-Sadhal.
This is FUEL's second community webinar, featuring former LBUSD school board member Kelly Osborne, who served from 2020 to 2024. Kelly holds a master's degree in education and currently teaches environmental literacy to over 4,000 students across eight school sites. She brings both governance experience and deep knowledge of public education to this conversation.
Topics covered include:
Why school boards exist and what citizen oversight of public education actually means. The five governance mindsets every effective board member should develop: patience, professionalism, trustworthiness, student focus, and boardsmanship. How boards transition from individual opinions to collective decision-making. The critical relationship between the school board and the superintendent and why research identifies it as the single most important driver of educational quality. What board members actually do on a weekly, monthly, and annual basis. How community members can most effectively engage with their elected board members. What challenges California school boards will face in the next 5 to 10 years, including fiscal contraction, declining enrollment, and AI in education.
The second half of the webinar covers the 2001 Measure R bond, how it was spent, what it cost property owners, and what a potential bond extension before 2028 could mean for Laguna Beach schools. Kelly also walks through the 10-year Facilities Master Plan approved in December 2023, including proposed improvements to counseling facilities, athletic fields, the aquatic center, TK classrooms, and the performing arts spaces at Thurston and LBHS.
This webinar is essential viewing for any Laguna Beach community member who wants to understand how school governance is supposed to work and why it matters when it does not.