FCMAT
Since December 2024, FCMAT has been engaged with the Plumas Unified School District because of a joint request from the California Department of Education, the Plumas County Office of Education and the Plumas Unified School District.
FCMAT's primary work to date has been to assess the current and immediate future fiscal condition of Plumas Unified School District. FCMAT's March and April 2025 work concluded that the Plumas Unified School District would be cash insolvent by August 2025, necessitating immediate intervention by the state. This process is known as receivership. It is an alternative to protection under federal bankruptcy law, and it includes a fiscal stabilization and recovery process.
FCMAT's role is to shepherd the district through the initial receivership process, and to help determine the size of the emergency advance apportionment the state needs to provide to allow the district to do the following:
On April 28, 2025, the Plumas Unified School District Governing Board passed Resolution 1678, Requesting an Emergency Advance Apportionment. This resolution was the district's formal request for the state's assistance in the form of an emergency advance apportionment of funds, as provided for under the state's receivership statutes.
At the request of the governing board, the district entered state receivership on June 27, 2025, when the governor approved Assembly Bill 121 (Chapter 8, Statutes of 2025), which included an emergency appropriation for the Plumas Unified School District of up to $20 million to avert fiscal insolvency.
In June 2025, FCMAT conducted a series of listening meetings to solicit public input on the qualities and characteristics the district’s partners desired in the county administrator to be assigned to Plumas as part of its efforts to recover from state receivership. Those qualities and characteristics are linked below and were used to 1) inform questions and topics that FCMAT will ask applicants to respond to in their required letter of interest to FCMAT to serve in the county administrator role, 2) help develop the evaluation rubric used by FCMAT to vet the applicants, and 3) inform questions and topics that the county superintendent and other parties will use in the final selection process.
A recruitment for a county administrator to serve Plumas Unified School District is underway. It is anticipated that a selection will be made by early September.
During the months of August and September, FCMAT will conduct the first annual comprehensive review of the district, utilizing the Standards for Comprehensive Reviews (linked to the right), which cover five functional areas: pupil achievement, financial management, personnel management, facilities management, and governance and community relations. The results of the comprehensive review are anticipated to be published in January 2026. Concurrently, in August, FCMAT will be conducting a review of the California Department of Education’s oversight of the district. This report will be published in September. Both of these reviews and reports are required by statute.
Current Status of Receivership Activities — September 9, 2025
FCMAT conducted the recruitment and vetting process for qualified candidates to serve as county administrator at Plumas Unified School District. The county administrator serves under the direction and supervision of the county superintendent, providing day-to-day governance and administrative leadership. Although the county administrator is not a superintendent, the role combines responsibilities typically associated with a governing board and superintendent with those of a fiscal expert, turnaround specialist, systems developer, master communicator, student advocate and strategic implementer. The county administrator is charged with leading the district through the challenging initial stages of recovery across all operational areas.