Parents Understanding LCAP

 

Funding of Schools: Sacramento City Unified

 On June 10,2021 the Sacramento City Unified School Board will meet on two critical issues; the budget and the Local Control Accountability Plan ( required by state law). 

You may participate via Zoom on the SCUSD Board site.

https://www.scusd.edu/boe060321

The SCUSD presently has  a $206 million dollar surplus.  They will claim a deficit and register for continuing monitoring.

 

On the LCAP plan,  Here is the response from the local chairs of the League of United Latin American Citizens Education Committee. 

Re: Public Hearing: Local Control and Accountability Plan (LCAP) 3-Year . June 10,2021. 

 

From:  Education Co Chairs; LULAC of Sacramento

 

We have substantial concerns with the district LCAP  plan as proposed.

 

1.    Over 17% of the students in the district are English learners.

2.    The district receives supplemental and concentration funds of $ 79.2 million to improve the academic achievement of specific students.  At least $ 6 million is specifically to improve achievement of English learners.

3.    The LCAP proposal for 2021/2022  does not provide any measure of actual improved achievement for English learners resulting from the use of these funds as required by the LCFF legislation.

4.    The major strategy proposed is the  use of Standards Aligned Instruction.  There is no evidence that such instruction improves English acquisition. For example you could improve instruction by lowering class sizes in rooms with a significant number of English learners.  Or, by providing paraprofessional assistants in these classes to assist English learners.

We have consistently recommended using these strategies to improve instruction.

5.    On the state scorecard SCUSD has a reclassification rate of 9.73 %.  This is below acceptable. 

WE have been asking this board for four years to use the funds allocated under LCFF to improve the achievement of English learners.  You have yet to do this.  Our feedback has been ignored. ( Copies of the prior requests are available).

 

We support the alternative budget proposals of the Community Priorities Coalition including to  increase the budget targeted to improving the achievement of English Learners. 

 

We request that the SCUSD board adopt a new policy, consistent with the intent of LCFF. When supplemental and concentration funds are not completely used for their intended purpose in one year, the carry over funds for the next year be restricted so they may only be used for the improvement of achievement of English learners or other designated  supplemental and concentration funds  recipients  as required by the LCFF .

 

We request that this statement of concern be entered into the record as a response to the June 10,2021 hearing on the Local Control and Accountability Plan for Sacramento City Unified. 

 

Dr. Duane E. Campbell,

Professor Dolores Delgado Campbell

Co-chairs Education Committee 

 

League of United Latin American Citizens 2862, 

PO Box 160211, Sacramento, Ca 95816 

 

The League of United Latin American Citizens is the oldest and largest Latino membership organization in the county.  We are a national civil rights and service organization.

 

Building Parent, Student and Community Power in Decisonmaking

Sacramento City USD Fails English Learners

 The Education Committee of LULAC/Sacramento has recommended for over 4 years that the funds allocated to Sacramento City Unified School District specifically to improve the educational achievement of English Learners be used specifically for that purpose.

( see example below of 2018 submission).  Supplemental funds carried over from one year to the next should not be used for projects other than serving English Language Learners.

 

We note with interest the presentation to the Special Board meeting of 3.11.21 on LCAP draft materials.

The district is now preparing its LCAP plan ( Local  Control Accountability Plan) and it is time for us to again make recommendations.  Our recommendations for prior years have been ignored. We request that our proposals for this year be included in the report to the board scheduled for May 5, 2021, and that our requests be included in the documents sent to Sacramento County Office of Education for their assigned task of monitoring the development of LCAP proposals on matters of accountability. 

 

We  note the requirements of LCAP to include community participation in development of the district plan.  We assert the reflections of the district advisory committees are important but inadequate to the requirements of community participation required for the development of LCAP. 

 

The next presentation will be at the SCUSD Board of Education meeting on May 6, 2021. You can participate on line. 

Education Committee.

League of United Latin American Citizens, / Sacramento 

 

 

Legislative summary.  LCFF

 

Existing law establishes a public school financing system that requires state funding for county superintendents of schools, school districts, and charter schools to be calculated pursuant to a local control funding formula, as specified. Existing law requires funding pursuant to the local control funding formula to include, in addition to a base grant, supplemental and concentration grant add-ons that are based on the percentage of pupils who are English learners, foster youth, or eligible for free or reduced-price meals, as specified, served by the county superintendent of schools, school district, or charter school. Existing law requires the State Board of Education to adopt regulations that govern the expenditure of funds apportioned pursuant to the supplemental and concentration grant add-ons.

 

AB 533 Proposal.

 

This bill would require the State Department of Education to develop, on or before January 1, 2022, a tracking mechanism for school districts, county offices of education, and charter schools to use to report the types of services on which they spend their supplemental and concentration grant funds. The bill would require each local educational agency, commencing July 1, 2022, to annually report to the department the types of services on which it spends its supplemental and concentration grant funds using the tracking mechanism developed by the department. By imposing additional duties on local educational agencies, the bill would impose a state-mandated local program.

 

 

 

State Audit of LCFF

 

State Auditor’s Report  LCFF funding

 

https://www.auditor.ca.gov/pdfs/reports/2019-101.pdf

 

 

LCFF require districts to use these funds to increase or improve services for intended student groups, the regulations do not create an effective means of ensuring that districts do so. Districts must identify in their annual local control and accountability plans (LCAPs) the supplemental and concentration funds they expect to receive and spend. LCAPs provide a key opportunity for stakeholders to ensure that districts direct the funds toward the intended student groups. However, districts can treat any supplemental and concentration funds that they do not fully spend in a given year as base funds in the following year, meaning that the districts can use the funds 

for general purposes that do not directly serve intended student groups. Despite this lack of r 

….

Moreover, even when districts did report supplemental and concentration funds in their LCAPs, we had difficulty determining whether or how the districts’ use of those funds increased or improved services for intended student groups—a difficulty 

that stakeholders likely share. One challenge is that the current requirement districts must meet for spending supplemental
and concentration funds to benefit intended student groups is essentially meaningless. Specifically, a district must describe in its LCAP how it will increase or improve services for those students in proportion to the amount of supplemental and concentration funds it receives. However, it is unclear how a district would demonstrate that it increased or improved services by a proportion, and neither county offices of education nor the California Department of Education are responsible for verifying whether districts actually met the required proportional increases. 

Further, although districts must report in their LCAPs information about the services on which they have spent their supplemental and concentration funds, they often do not effectively analyze whether those services have been successful. As a result, stakeholders may struggle to hold districts accountable for continuing to fund effective services and discontinuing ineffective services. 

To ensure that intended student groups receive the maximum benefit from supplemental and concentration funds, the Legislature should take the following actions: 

• Amend state law to require districts and other local educational agencies to identify any unspent supplemental and concentration funds by annually reconciling the estimated amounts of
  these funds they include in their LCAPs with the actual amounts of funding the State reports apportioning to them. 
• Amend state law to specify that unspent supplemental and concentration funds at year‐end must retain their designation to increase and improve services for intended student
  groups and be spent in a following year, and it should require districts and other local educational agencies to identify in their LCAPs the total amounts of any unspent supplemental and concentration funds from the previous year. 

 

 

·       As Figure 3 indicates, a number of different state and local entities are involved in overseeing and making decisions related to LCFF funding. For example, local stakeholders, such as parents, teachers, and other interested groups, provide input and oversight to ensure that districts develop clear and informative LCAPs. Stakeholders review and provide comments on a district’s draft LCAP. In addition, they can submit complaints to the district or county office, and appeal to CDE, if they believe a district has violated state law in completing its LCAP. 

·       In most instances, county offices are responsible
for approving LCAPs for the districts within their counties.2 Figure 4 depicts the LCAP development and approval process. The California County Superintendents Educational Services Association (CCSESA) has developed an LCAP approval manual that county offices can use as a guide during their reviews. A county office must approve a district’s LCAP if the LCAP meets the conditions listed in the text box. If a county office rejects a district’s LCAP, it must provide assistance to that district that focuses on revising the LCAP so that the county office can approve it before October 8 of that year. This date is the deadline for county offices to approve LCAPs. 

 County Office of Education

 

LCAP Approval Requirements for County Offices 

The county office must approve a district’s LCAP on or before October 8 if it determines all of the following are true: 

·       The district’s LCAP adheres to the LCAP template. 

·       The district’s budget includes expenditures sufficient to implement the services included in the LCAP. 

·       The district’s LCAP adheres to the expenditure requirements for supplemental and concentration funds. 

·       Districts must consult with stakeholders, including parents and teachers, in developing their LCAPs. They must hold public meetings to solicit recommendations from members of the public regarding the services and expenditures in their LCAPs. 

  

Funding for English Learners -SCUSD Board Meeting Tonight

Sacramento City Unified District Board Meeting.  June 7, 2018.   6 PM. 5735  47th. Avenue.  The Serna Center
LULAC                        

                          

June 7, 2018

  SUBECT: LCAP UpdateBudget Hearing (2018/2019)

Dear Superintendent Aguilar:

On behalf of the Lorenzo Patiño League of United Latin American Citizens (LULAC) we urge you to include our recommendations in the budget of the Sacramento Unified School District for 2018/2019.   LULAC is a long-standing national and local civic organization dedicated to the advancement of civil rights, including the achievement of excellent educational opportunities for every child. 

Recommendation 1:   Promote school success of English learners by adding instructional time in English through direct instruction in small groups by skilled credential teachers.  To accomplish this, the District should include in your budget the addition of at least 10 bilingual instructors. 

The task that the District set out in the prior LCAP (2017/2018) was to provide professional learning service for teachers to implement English Standards and ELD Standards.  You held these in service sessions last year.  For 2018/2019, you propose staff support to monitor and coach teachers working with EL students.  You say you will implement the EL Master Plan in accordance with the CA ELA/ELD Framework and you say that staff will support schools’ monitoring of English Learner progress in ELD and in academic subjects. 

While setting this as your goal in LCAP is appropriate, in service and coaching  by itself will not significantly change the learning environment for ELL students.  Some teachers will improve from in service and some will improve from increased monitoring.   

To promote school success English learners in the district need more instructional time in English.  For a period of time – months- students at the emerging level and the expanding level  of English proficiency  should be grouped for dedicated ELD instruction in addition to their participation in the general curriculum.  These students  need intensive instruction at their appropriate language level.  Simply modifying language in a regular classroom (scaffolding) as described in the English Language Arts/ELD framework  is helpful but insufficient.   

Consistent with the ELA/ELD Framework, we recommend that students at an emerging and expanding levels of English proficiency should receive direct instruction in small groups from skilled credentialed teachers.  For students in grades 1-4   class size of 4-1 or 6- 1 would be optimal. This instruction should be at least 40 min. per day for at least 4 days a week.  In upper grades of 8- 12, students in the emerging and expanding levels of English proficiency could work well in a class size of 6-1.  Prior experiences with pull-out programs were too limited in time provided per day to be effective.  

To carry out this additional instruction, we support the Community Priorities Coalition’s proposed hiring of 10 bilingual resource teachers to work at school sites.  These teachers would be under the direction of the Multi-Lingual Office. Such a program would be monitored and evaluated by the Multi-Lingual Office. Should the district not adopt such a strategy, we encourage the Multi-Lingual Office to develop an alternative plan that would provide for an equivalent amount of time in direct, small group instruction using funds received from LCFF. 

Recommendation 2:  In addition to tracking English Learner Funds, ensure your accountability documents clearly show how the authorized funds, now reaching $6 Million, are being used primarily for those students.

Review of your budget documents reveals that you will be adding a code to track English Learner funds.  We are pleased to see the budget will provide the distinct internal code 0009 to track expenditures that serve Limited English Proficient students.  While we appreciate this responseto our recommendation, we believe this is only the beginning.  We will continue to monitor the use of LCFF funds for EL students and look for improved academic success.  We also strongly believe that these funds should not be used to support general administrative district functions.  LULAC’s goal is that the District achieves effective reclassification of English Learners by actually using the dedicated funds that should promote their achievement.  

Thank you for your consideration of our recommendations.  We urge inclusion.  If you have any questions or concerns regarding our request, please contact Dr. Duane Campbell, LULAC #2862 Education Committee Chair .  As you are aware, Dr. Campbell and other LULAC members have been working with District staff to achieve these objectives, and we expect to continue to urge you to take actions that we believe will be of great benefit the Latino community. 

Sincerely, 

                                                                        

Luisa Menchaca, President                              Dr. Duane Campbell, Chair

LULAC #2862                                                Education Committee, LULAC #2862

cc:  

Trustees, Sacramento Unified School District Board 

Jessie Ryan,  President, Board of Education, Area 7

Darrel Woo, First Vice President, Board of Education, Area 6

Michael Minnah, 2^ndVice President, Board of Education, Area 4

Jay Hansen, Board of Education Member, Area 1

Ellen Chocrane, Board of Education Member, Area 2

Christina Pritchett, Board of Education Member, Area 3

Mai Vang, Board of Education Member, Area 5

Sarah Nguyen, Student Board Member   

English Learners Need Your Support -Sacramento

The Community Priorities Coalition in Sacramento announces that it will present its alternative budget for Sacramento City Unified at Board meeting on Thursday, May 17, 2018, at 6 PM. at 5735 47th. Avenue, Sacramento. We provide an annual alternative budget recommending how the district should use the major funds received under the Local Control Funding. 

SCUSD receives about $367 million each year under LCFF.  Of that money some $6.7 million is generated for English Learners in the schools.  In each of the last 3 years, only a small portion of these funds have been spent on EL learning.  The remainder apparently has been allocated to the district reserve fund.  The district claims it will be spending into a deficit next year.  They hide the money.

Teachers, parents and interested persons are welcome at the Board meeting at the Serna Center starting at 6 pm.  

I will be addressing the board as  Co- Chair of the Education Committee of LULAC, the League of United Latin American Citizens. Here is a draft of what I will say.  You are invited to come and give your view also. 

I speak tonight in support of the alternative budget presented by the Sacramento Community Priorities Coalition. 

English Learners Deserve Support in Sacramento

Update ! The Community Priorities Coalition in Sacramento announces that the Sacramento City Unified School District will have its regular meeting on Thursday, May 17, to consider the district budget for 2018/2019. 

This budget has significant implications for how Local Control Funding monies will be spent. [update: the posted agenda for the meeting does not include a consideration of the budget.  Watch this blog for updates.  The issue remains as defined below.]

SCUSD receives about $367 million each year under LCFF.  Of that money some $6.7 million is generated for English Learners in the schools.  In each of the last 3 years, only a small portion of these funds have been spent on EL learning.  The remainder apparently has been allocated to the district reserve fund.  The district claims it will be spending into a deficit next year.  They hide the money.

Teachers, parents and interested persons are welcome at the Board meeting at the Serna Center starting at 6 pm.  

I will be addressing the board as  Co- Chair of the Education Committee of LULAC, the League of United Latin American Citizens. Here is a draft of what I will say.  You are invited to come and give your view also. 

I speak tonight in support of the alternative budget presented by the Sacramento Community Priorities Coalition. 

Sac City Unified has a Budget Problem - And its not the Teachers

 Sacramento City Unified’s plan for Local Control Funding is on their web site.

   LCAP Timeline and Process-  here.

See video in post below.

 SCUSD outlines its LCAP development process, Community Planning Process, timeline, and lists potential community partners to engage with in LCFF implementation. A new budget has been submitted  and should be on the web site this PM. 

Here is a counter  submission  by the Community Priorities Coalition in response for the 2017/ 2018 school year.
Our Budget proposal reflects our communi ty' s priorities and we request that you consider our Budget along with the District's staff Budget in making a very important decision on providing the highest qualit y of education for all children.

May 4, 2017

To: Jay Hansen, President

Jessie Ryan, 1st Vice President Darrell Woo. 2nd Vice President Christina Pritchett. Member Ellen Cochrane, Member

Mai Vang, Member Michael Minnick, Member Natalie Ross. Member

Jose Banda, Superintendent

Dear Board of Trustees and Superintendent:

The Sacramento City Community Priority Coalition (CPC) is pleased to submit to the Sacramento City Unified School District its 20 l 7-18 Budget as another budget scenario to consider.

The CPC coalition member organizations and groups consist of Black Parallel School Board, Building Healthy Communities. Hmong Innovating Politics, La Familia Counseling Center. Making Cents Work, PRO Youth and Families , Sacramento Area Congregations Together, Democracy and Education Institute, and Public Advocates Inc.

Based on the input of our respective communities. the CPC recommends three major priorities for both the LCAP and the LCFF that we conclude will better serve the students of our communities. Those priorities include:

•       Class size adjustments/reductions in select high need schools - beginning with grade 4-6 and gradually progressing to higher grades after three years of LCAP implementation.

•       Culturally competent professional development to enhance school climate and ensure the use of effective and restorative discipline policies in all schools for all students.

•       After school and/or other early intervention supports/programsdesigned to improve and further classroom performance.

The district needs to attract quality teachers that reflect the diversity of the students and continue class-size reduction, address inequities regarding our low-income and high needs students, increase graduation rates, improve professional development, and continue to improve community outreach and involvement year around. Monies allocated through the Local Control Funding process are required by law to be spent on increased or improved services and actions that are principally directed to meet the needs of specific target populations: low income, English Language Learners, foster children, special education.

In addition , to increased funding for class size reduction beyond grades K-3: specific funds should be allocated to meet the needs of the designated targeted populations. For example, English Language Learners need additional instructional assistance and increased efforts to involve their parents in their education programs. including bilingual counselors , teachers, social workers and other staff. Funds should be allocated to establish designated additional programs for ELL students in those schools with large numbers of English Language Learners. These programs might include the use of additional certificated personnel, and/or classified staff.

We recommend that the budget adopted by Sac City Unified School District clearl y and specifically designate where funds will be spent to meet these target populations. At present, we are unable to track funds from the district budget to serving these target students. We strongly recommend that this change. The district should specifically and clearly indicate the amounts of funds planned for specific services and actions that are increases or improvements principally directed to meet the needs of each target group, and which funds have been planned used for spending on combinations of these groups, and which funds have been used for all students districtwide, in addition to funds allocated by school site, which the district currently identifies . This level of transparency is necessary for parents , students and the community to be involved in a meaningful way in the LCAP development process and other district and school site decision making processes.