SBE approves LCFF permanent regulations, revised LCAP
School board members, superintendents commended for thoughtful comments at July 10 meeting
Published: July 15, 2014
The State Board of Education on July 10 voted unanimously to move ahead on the Local Control Funding Formula permanent spending regulations and the Local Control and Accountability Plan template after testimony from more than 100 speakers, including superintendents, school board members, CSBA and ASCA representatives, advocates, students, teacher association representatives and parents.
“We’ve come miles from January,” observed SBE Member Sue Burr following the testimony. “We are very close on these proposals. The areas of disagreement are very narrow.” SBE Member Patricia Ann Rucker noted that, in addition to hearing thoughtful testimony from diverse groups, the SBE received thousands of written public comments during the 45-day period leading up to the July meeting. SBE Member Carl A. Cohn, a former district superintendent, commented that California is doing something “really significant that the rest of the country could learn from.”
The permanent spending regulations and reformatted LCAP template would replace the emergency regulations and template that were adopted in January, with the revised LCAP including changes to make it easier to understand and use, such as a new goal table, which gathers goals, related actions and services, and budget expenditures in one convenient place.
School governance leaders share LCFF successes
Responding to CSBA’s call, more than 40 school governance leaders turned out to testify individually or in groups about their districts’ early successes in engaging communities and improving and increasing services for unduplicated pupils under the current regulations. They spoke passionately of their ability to hire teachers, redirect funds, and create new positions. Nearly 20 board members, who were unable to attend the meeting, used a letter CSBA created to submit comments to the SBE.
CSBA President and Cupertino Union School District Board Member Josephine Lucey spoke of her district’s efforts to engage parents, community members and school staff in the LCAP development process: “For us, the early development of goals, the sharing of student performance data site by site, and the reflective analysis of comments resulted in a plan that all stakeholders supported.”
CSBA and ACSA participants convened prior to the meeting near the Department of Education, where they were greeted by Lucey and ACSA Executive Director Wes Smith. The meeting was live-streamed, with CSBA and ACSA staff keeping speakers abreast of their presentation times.
Ensuring, maintaining transparency
In addition to sharing their LCFF and LCAP success stories, school board members, superintendents and CSBA representatives called for several changes to the proposed LCFF regulations, including, most notably, removal of the word “principally” from Section 15496 concerning the use of supplemental / concentration funds for districtwide or schoolwide purposes. CSBA Staff Attorney Josh Daniels testified that although the intent of inserting the word “principally” in the language may be to ensure that at-risk students actually benefit from the additional funds, the term is subjective. “On the ground, in school districts, in town halls, in community meetings, the discussions will be on the meaning of the term ‘principally’ rather than on how the money will actually benefit at-risk students. This will result in more confusion rather than more transparency,” he said.
Spirited calls by students and student advocacy groups for greater student involvement in the LCAP development process were also heard. The proposed language in the regulations regarding consultation with pupils, if read literally, would result in a developed LCAP being merely presented to students for their review. CSBA supports amending language in the permanent regulations to allow for student consultation and review of the LCAPs during the development stage.
The overall consensus in the room, however, was that the SBE listened to stakeholders in January and made great needed improvements to the regulations and LCAP template. Now, said Teri Burns, senior director of policy and programs at CSBA and Natomas Unified School District board member, “it’s time to let this play out.” She urged the SBE to not make drastic changes or anticipate needed corrections so early in the evolution of LCFF, stressing that districts, having adopted their first LCAPs just weeks ago learned from their own LCAP development process and by looking to other districts for best practices. “There are things we would do again because they worked great, and things we know we can do better the next time,” she added.
Several SBE members referred to Burns’ remarks at the close of testimony. “I do think that Teri Burns has a point … let’s stop here for a moment and look at what we’ve done so far … and make sure the implementation process moves forward successfully,” said SBE Board Member Bruce Holaday.
Next steps
Following the 15-day comment period—July 12-28—and public meeting on July 22, the SBE will make any changes to the regulations and LCAP template and place them on its September 3-4 agenda. Please continue to watch for updates on CSBA’s dedicated LCFF Web page.