SCUSD Imposes a Plan for Distance Learning - Lets see what teachers do !

 The Sacramento City Unified School District adopted a distance learning plan Saturday after starting the school year two days before without one. The teachers union says its teachers will not follow the plan.

The two groups have been working for weeks to determine how much time teachers will spend in direct instruction via video conference calls and how much time students will be asked to learn asynchronously, or independently

The district decided to move forward without an agreement with the union. The plan is the same originally set forth less than a week ago on Aug. 30

The district is calling for more time spent in synchronous instruction and less time doing independent work. Although both plans meet state education requirements, SCTA’s relies more on independent study in favor of face-to-face screen time. 

The Sacramento Bee has an editorial on the impass. 

Administrators do not teach., Teachers do.  Lets see what happens next. 

Sac City Unified Budget Crisis

Failing math

Sac schools flirting with disaster

By Kate Gonzales 

This article was published on 03.21.19. Sacramento News and Review.

Members of the Sacramento City Teachers Association announce March 15 that they have the votes to strike if the district doesn’t agree to their demands over a 2017 labor agreement. PHOTO BY SARAH HANSEL

Related stories: The audit exodus Special education committee resigns over Sacramento school district’s handling of probe on disabled students.SN&R, 01.10.19. Sacramento city's contentious school superintendent to resign, jumps ship before the storm If Jonathan Raymond is all done with them, could we please have our schools back now? SN&R, 10.24.13. Sacramento City Unified School District proposes gutting schools City district offers up goodbye to sports, music, school-bus programs. SN&R, 02.09.12. Advertisement

In November 2017, Sacramento City Unified School District and the unionrepresenting its teachers reached an eleventh-hour agreement to avert a strike.
Among the Sacramento City Teachers Association’s demands were salary increases, reduced class sizes and additional nurses and school psychologists. At the time, the district was in the black and the parties fleshed out an agreement with the help of Mayor Darrell Steinberg.
Less than two years later, the district is in the red and trying to avoid both a state takeover and its first teacher strike since 1989.
At a March 15 press conference, SCTA President David Fisher cited the district’s “unlawful, unfair labor practices” as the reason that 92 percent of the union’s members authorized a strike. Fisher said SCTA, which represents about 2,500 teachers, librarians, psychologists and others, has requested a sit-down with Superintendent Jorge Aguilar at the end of March to work on a solution and avoid a strike.
“We don’t want to go to a strike,” Fisher said. “However, that is our lawful way of getting the district to live up to its commitments.”
At the same time, the district is on the brink of a multimillion-dollar budget shortfall.
Last August, the Sacramento County Office of Education rejected the district’s adopted budget for 2018-19, citing a projected $62.1 million deficit over the next two school years. Subsequent revised budgets were also rejected.
A December 2018 report from the Fiscal Crisis & Management Assistance Team, or FCMAT, projected the district would be insolvent by 2019. The team, which helps California school districts identify, prevent and resolve financial issues, called for $30 million in reductions, imploring the district to focus on cuts that could be made immediately.
“Without action, state intervention is certain,” the FCMAT report summarized. “Failure to act quickly and decisively will result in imminent fiscal insolvency and loss of local control.”
The district has until June 30 to figure out how to cut $35 million over the next two years, or risk running out of money by November. If that happens, the district will have to take out an emergency loan from the state, which would shift decision-making power from the elected local board to a state-appointed administrator.
Four of the five labor unions representing SCUSD employees have agreed to work together on a plan to make the necessary cuts in the next two years to avoid state receivership.
As the district works to identify cuts before the summer deadline, the school district may also be the latest in California to see its teachers walk out. In January, a high-profile teachers strike got the Los Angeles Unified School District to commit to limits on class sizes and nurses. In February, a strike led Oakland Unified School District to agree to a halt on school closures and an 11 percent pay increase.
At the heart of the tension between teachers and administrators are conflicting interpretations of the deal they reached in 2017.
The district and SCTA agreed they were losing mid-career teachers who could earn more at nearby districts. In the framework agreement made at Steinberg’s home, teachers received three flat raises of 2.5 percent, two implemented retroactively and the third on July 1, 2018.

Sac Unified Budget Crisis

Sacramento City Unified Budget Crisis.
The Bee gets it right !
https://www.sacbee.com/news/local/education/article226279165.html

SCUSD Plans for Teacher Lay Offs

https://www.sacbee.com/news/local/education/article226618389.html

Sac City Unified Board decided to give 163 Lay Off notices to current teachers for the coming year in a vote on March 7, 2019.  In 2018/2019 the district received more money from Local Control Funding ( LCFF). Than in prior years, however they have a new deficit.  The board members argue that savings that could be made by changing the funding of health benefits.  This claim is related to a dispute over the existing contract between the district and the Teaches Union.   The Board voted unanimously  to issue the lay off notices. 

The district is at https://www.scusd.edu

The teachers union is currently conducting a vote by its members  for permission to  prepare for a strike. 

The budget challenges  faced by the district have placed the district  under the threat of state takeover as it wrestles with a $35 million budget gap. The district has yet to respond with a budget revision that would resolve the funding gap. 

It appears from the hearing that the district does not have a plan to resolve the budget shortfall.  Instead, they continue a public relations attempt to force the teachers union to accept a unilateral revision of the already signed contract. 

Board of Education Members 

Jessie Ryan, President, (Trustee Area 7)
Darrel Woo, Vice President, (Trustee Area 6) Michael Minnick, 2nd Vice President, (Trustee Area 4) Lisa Murawski, (Trustee Area 1)
Leticia Garcia, (Trustee Area 2)
Christina Pritchett, (Trustee Area 3)
Mai Vang, (Trustee Area 5)
Rachel Halbo, Student 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. 

Community Groups Call for Change in Sac City Unified Budget

Community Control and School Budgets

Sacramento City USD School Board

The Sacramento Progressive Alliance endorses in District 7

Jonathan Tran   https://www.facebook.com/Tran4scusd

 Linda Tuttle      https://www.facebook.com/LindaTuttleforSchoolBoard

Both have worked tirelessly to improve educational opportunity in Sacramento City Schools. See post below. What it takes to unite Teachers Unions and the Communities of Color.

Welcome to Sacramento Superintendent José Banda

Welcome to Sacramento.  We hope that you can establish a positive working relationship with the Board, the community, and the teachers.  Developing a positive relationship and sustained, consistent leadership is required for school improvement.

We regret the prompt attacks on your character and your contract by the Sacramento Bee editorial board.  You see they were staunch advocates for the prior Superintendent Jonathan Raymond, a Broad Foundation assisted superintendent.  He left promptly without an explanation. It is unusual for the Bee to attack a new superintendent before he has an opportunity to make some decisions. 

Duane Campbell, Director.

Democracy and Education Institute

Local Control Funding and Sac City Unified Board

Sacramento City Unified Board meeting tonight.  6 PM. Serna Center.

At the June 5 meeting, the Community Priorities Coalition presented the board with alternatives.

Funding of California’s k-12 public education system is changing fundamentally.  Some schools will get much more money to educate kids. The centerpiece of the change is the Local Control Funding Formula, designed to send additional funds to districts where  “the need and the challenge is greatest.”  The law requires that  parents, students, teachers, and other community members be involved in the process of deciding how new funds are spent. Ed Source has an excellent guide to these changes.

 http://edsource.org/wp-content/publications/10-questions.pdf

    Sacramento City Unified’s plan for Local Control Funding is here.

   LCAP Timeline and Process- Within a PowerPoint presentation, which the district provides on its website, SCUSD outlines its LCAP development process, Community Planning Process, timeline, and lists potential community partners to engage with in LCFF implementation. A new budget will be submitted tonight and should be on the web site this PM. 

            The following was submitted to the Board on June 5. 
 We, the undersigned organizations, write to respectfully request your support for the consideration of these community needs into the district’s draft LCAP. These issue areas represent the concerns of our community members as found in our conversation with them through community town halls and our own surveys.

1)   Class size adjustments on select high-need schools – beginning with grades K-3 with gradual progress up the grade scale base on three years LCAP implementation

2)   Culturally competent professional training that would enhance school climate on diverse schools and create effective restorative justice and disciplinary policies for students

3)   Afterschool programs that are design to improve class performance and further classroom lessons

The passage of the Local Control Funding Formula (LCFF) provides SCUSD with a unique opportunity to be innovative in the way it addresses the concerns of its high-need students and schools. We believe that this first year of the LCAP is critical and will set strong precedence for the designs of LCAP in the coming years.

Organizations:  Black Parallel School Board, Hmong Innovating Politics, Hmong Mein Lao Community Action Network, La Familia Counseling Center, Making Cents work, People Reaching Out, Area Congregations Together, Democracy and Education Institute, and more.

    SCUSD did not incorporate the suggestions of the Community Priority Coalition to focus on class size reduction, changes in discipline, and faculty in service.  Instead, they propose to use the extra funds to finance the programs they already support.  In this the SCUSD board relies on the district staff.  That is, they plan to continue what they have been doing and to call it community participation.

   There will be conflicts over this since doing things the same way is not the purpose of the LCFF.  The district is moving itself into problems of accountability under the LCAP laws.   Other districts, notably San Francisco and Fresno have developed plans in cooperation with the parents in their districts.

Funding for California schools is changing

Funding of California’s k-12 public education system is changing fundamentally.  Some schools will get much more money to educate kids.  It is critical that teachers, parents, and educational advocates get involved now. The centerpiece of the change  is the Local Control Funding Formula, designed to send additional funds to districts where  “the need and the challenge is greatest.”  The law requires that  parents, students, teachers, and other community members be involved in the process of deciding how new funds are spent. Ed Source has an excellent guide to these changes.

 http://edsource.org/wp-content/publications/10-questions.pdf

A recent PPIC poll revealed that over 70% of public school parents do not know that the funding process has changed and that they are invited to participate in making budget decisions.

The ACLU of California and Public Advocates have prepared materials in English and Spanish to assist community members to understand the Local Control Funding.

Sacramento City Unified’s plan for Local Control Funding is here.

·      LCAP Timeline and Process- Within a PowerPoint presentation, which the district provides on its website, SCUSD outlines its LCAP development process, Community Planning Process,  timeline, and lists potential community partners to engage with in LCFF implementation.

It tells you how you can get involved.

Other districts will have their plans up on web sites or School Board Agenda. This is an important time to get involved. 

Resistance to the Common Core Mounts

While the Sacramento Bee editorial board and several corporate education "reformers" castigate local teachers for opposing the imposed Core Waiver ( see below)..

The editorial board and the partisan advocates presenting themselves as leaders ignore the fact that Common Core is encountering more resistance around the country.  It is not a local, personal agenda. Nor is it just a union campaign.  There are substantive reasons why teachers oppose the imposed Core Waiver, and many oppose Common Core until weaknesses are remedied.

From Education Week.

Resistance to the Common Core Mounts

Critics span the political spectrum, from tea partyers to union leaders

By Andrew Ujifusa

After more than a year of high-profile and contentious debate over the Common Core State Standards in Indiana, Gov. Mike Pence signed legislation last month to formally reverse the state's adoption of the standards. The legislation set the state on course to replace those standards with ones "written by Hoosiers, for Hoosiers," the Republican governor proclaimed.

The same month, the Democratic-controlled New York Assembly approved a measure that would require a two-year delay in using assessments aligned with the common core for teacher and principal evaluations.

In some sense, the measures in Indiana and New York represent two dominant poles of the growing—and evolving—resistance to the standards. The common core has drawn criticism from both the political left and right, though much of it seems aimed not so much at what the standards say, but rather who drove their adoption or the tests and accountability policies connected with them.