The penniless state of American High

An explanation to the mediocre facilities at American High

Staff Writer

We can all agree that the facilities at American High are not the best. The fields are subpar, sports equipment is aging or barely usable, and nearly all athletic departments are running out of money. In addition to this, the mat room is half the size of other FUSD high school mat rooms, and the bathrooms…need improvement, to say the least. This begs the question: why?

To delve deeper into this issue, we must look at American High and FUSD as a whole. In particular, we must consider how FUSD has been spending its money. In addition to regular costs such as teacher salaries and supplies, the most prominent projects undertaken by FUSD were the Long Range Facilities Plan (LRFP) and Measure E. The LRFP was meant to address changing student populations, as well as to upgrade nearly 30 to 40 year old equipment. Measure E further addressed the overcrowding of elementary schools by moving the 6th grade to junior high schools, and also allowed for some upgrades to facilities.

It was, in fact, part of the LRFP in which American High received its new STEM buildings, as well as further improvements. The total spent by FUSD on American High as part of the LRFP was $114,354,000, according to a presentation by Fremont Unified. While this definitely was an improvement for American High, much could still be fixed (as evident by the past few years), since the LRFP was adopted back in 2014. Therefore, it’s safe to say that FUSD has been doing its job, despite a few exceptions.

So if it’s not FUSD’s problem, whose problem is it? As some may know, “Fremont Unified School District is among the lowest funded school districts in Alameda County,” according to a letter sent via mail to the entire school district. Indeed, FUSD has the 6th-lowest per student funding, at about $12,222, according to the California Department of Education. Needless to say, FUSD can’t improve our facilities if they don’t have money.

FUSD is supposed to get its funding mainly from property taxes. However, according to the 2021-22 FUSD Funding Fact Sheet, local revenue only makes up 2.7% of the 2021-22 school year’s funding source. 77.3% comes from the Local Control Funding Formula, which is a plan governing how much state funding each district gets. The LCFF calculates funding through student population size, with a number of additional funds determined by, according to the California Department of Education, “English learners, income eligible for free or reduced-price meals, and foster youth pupils…an Economic Recovery Target add-on,” which basically means high-need students.

FUSD’s population size has been decreasing in the past few years, which explains part of the small amount of funding. However, FUSD remains one of the largest school districts based on enrollment.

While FUSD has been trying hard to maintain the welfare of its schools, FUSD is one of the least funded school districts in Alameda County. The problem of low quality facilities is not the district’s problem, but instead the issue of the state and federal governments that determine how FUSD is funded.

Caption: American High’s mat room. The mat room is half the size of other tri-city high school mat rooms, such as Kennedy’s and Logan’s. It almost seems like the mat room was intended to be a backstage area for the gym. (PC: Royden Liang (9))