District's 2015-16 draft Local Control and Accountability Plan Now Available

The draft of San Diego Unified's 2015-16 Local Control and Accountability Plan (LCAP) is now available in two versions:

2016–2018 Draft LCAP - a full, 3-year version using the state’s required template

2015–16 User-Friendly Draft LCAP (English) - reader-friendly version of the LCAP that focuses on actions and services for 2015-16
2015–16 LCAP, Versión simplificada (Español) 

In addition, a reader-friendly version of the 2014–15 Draft Annual Update is also available.

Theses documents were generated after a year-long process of community engagement that involved numerous presentations to district advisory groups, parent groups, employee groups and others. At each meeting, stakeholders had an opportunity to provide comments and input. For more information about the LCAP, visit http://www.sandi.net/lcap.

The Board of Education had its first reading of the 2015-16 draft at the June 9 meeting and provided comments and feedback to staff. Members of the public may submit input via the online survey. Input and comments received will be considered and adjustments to the LCAP may be made prior to approval by the Board of Education at its meeting on June 23, 2015.

Local Control and Accountability Plan implementation continues

As the development of the 2015-16 budget begins, San Diego Unified continues to implement its Local Control and Accountability Plan (LCAP) that aligns with Vision 2020 and the 12 indicators of a quality school in every neighborhood.

Through this first year, district staff has been monitoring the implementation of the actions and strategies included in the LCAP, as well as gathering data on outcomes. Superintendent Marten has been reporting monthly to the Board of Education and the public on the progress of the LCAP implementation. The reports have included the following:

Month	LCAP Goal	Metric
September	Safe & Well Maintained Facilities	2013 Suspension and Expulsion Data
October	Broad & Challenging Curriculum	A-G Data
November	Broad & Challenging Curriculum	Advanced Placement and College, Career & Technical Education (CCTE) Course Completion
December	Professional Learning for All and Supportive Environments that Value Diversity	Professional Development and Cultural Proficiency Training

Following Supt. Marten's reports at Board meetings, input and feedback from the community is sought at cluster meetings, the District Advisory Council, the District English Learner Advisory Committee, other advisory committees, and the San Diego Unified Council PTA. Individuals may also view the monthly superintendent presentation updates and submit feedback online or find additional information about the district’s LCAP by visiting www.sandi.net/lcap .

This month, the district held the first in a series of LCAP planning team meetings for the 2015-2016 budget process. Additional updates will be provided in the months ahead.

If you have questions or want to give feedback, please email lcap@sandi.net .

2014-15 signals first year of Local Control and Accountability Plan implementation

In June 2013 a new era of school finance in California was signed into law by Governor Jerry Brown. The new funding model, known as the Local Control Funding Formula (LCFF), represented the biggest change to funding K-12 public education in California in decades.

“It reshapes school funding, with the promise of additional funding, trying to return to the funding levels of six or seven years ago, and provides us more flexibility in determining how state funding will be used to achieve our academic priorities,” said Jenny Salkeld, Chief Financial Officer.

The LCFF ensures that more money is attached to meet the needs of school districts’ most at-risk students. The three categories of students requiring greater resources include students who qualify for free or reduced priced meals, students who are English Learners, and foster youth.

As part of the LCFF, school districts, county offices of education and charter schools are required to develop, adopt, and annually update a three-year Local Control and Accountability Plan (LCAP). The LCAP is required to identify annual goals, specific actions, and measure progress for student subgroups across multiple performance indicators, including student academic achievement, school climate, student access to a broad curriculum, and parent engagement. The academic priorities must be aligned to the district’s spending plan.

As part of the district’s focus on transparent communications on the LCFF and LCAP, Superintendent Cindy Marten will provide monthly LCAP Implementation Reports to the Board of Education that include the alignment of Vision 2020, the 12 indicators of a quality school in every neighborhood, and which details LCAP Year 1 activities. The reports will include actions, services, and baseline data. These reports will then be shared with cluster and advisory groups to provide an opportunity to provide input and feedback on the current implementation and suggested next steps.

The first report was provided to the Board at the September 23 meeting, and focused on Quality Indicator 12 – Safe and Well-maintained Facilities and how this indicator helps us achieve a goal of creating physical, social and academic environments worthy of our students.

“We have developed metrics to show what we are doing with the funding, how we allocated it, and what the results are,” said Superintendent Cindy Marten. “We have more than 30 measures to indicate how we’re doing for every funding allocation and every decision we’re making for our dollars.

“My monthly reports will allow me the opportunity to share where we are in implementing our LCAP so our community can hear each month how we’re doing and provide us feedback,” Marten said.

Video clips of the presentations, excerpted from the Board meetings, will be posted on the LCAP web page under the Resources section.

Welcome message from Superintendent Cindy Marten

Welcome to the 2014-15 School Year!

As a teacher, principal and now superintendent, those words carry a great deal of meaning for me. The opening of a new school year offers us amazing opportunities to make a difference in the lives of our students. I am looking forward to the year ahead.

I know the start of the new school year also brings a great deal of excitement to parents and students. Our principals, teachers and support staff have been working hard to make sure the excitement extends from Day One through Day 180. Our focus for the start of the year is developing academic, physical and social environments worthy of all students. This focus is fully aligned with our Vision 2020 of creating quality schools in every neighborhood.

Across the district, from bus drivers to custodians, food service associates to administrative support professionals, principals to teachers, we are all committed to making sure our students are on the pathway to success. We are ready!

The implementation of the Common Core State Standards is at the forefront of teaching and learning. Our principals and teachers have spent time over the summer fully engaged in professional development. The Common Core State Standards will help position all students for the future – THEIR future in which critical thinking, problem-solving, collaboration and creativity are essential. Students will be better prepared for post-secondary education and careers, and ultimately become actively literate contributing participating members of society.

In addition, we remain cautiously encouraged about the budget passed by the State’s legislators and the reinvestment in public education. Although we still face financial challenges and will continue to be prudent with our dollars, there is hope. The new Local Control Funding Formula (LCFF) changed the structure of how school districts received funding from the state level. Our district’s Local Control and Accountability Plan (LCAP), which involved input from multiple stakeholders, has been approved and will provide a road map with clearly defined metrics that aligns academic priorities with our budget.

The start of a new school year gives us a renewed sense of anticipation, hope and enthusiasm as we work collaboratively to assure that each child in our district receives the best education possible. I look forward to working beside you as we continue making our Vision 2020 a reality.

Best,

Cindy Marten
Superintendent

Questions, answers about 2014-15 budget: Prop. 30 funding, strategic staffing, 3-year budget strategy

Proposition 30 turned the corner on education funding, but we still have a long way to go. It will take us three years after Prop 30 to have the state funding come up to the level of our current school operations. We are bridging the gap with property sales and an early retirement incentive. We will direct our limited funds to those budget lines that improve student achievement. Dr. John Lee Evans, Subdistrict A Trustee on the Board of Education, has prepared this information.
 
I understood that Proposition 30 would put a lot of money into our schools. Why do we still have budget problems?

Proposition 30 stopped the hemorrhaging of state budget cuts to education. But the current plan increases funding so slowly that we will take us until the year 2020 to reach the 2007 level of funding.

Doesn’t the Local Control Funding Formula give a lot more money to San Diego?

The LCFF addresses the issue of equity in funding across the state, but it does not address the issue of adequacy of funding. What does this mean? Governor Brown acknowledged that a district like Compton needs more resources than one like Beverly Hills to create a level playing field of opportunity. The formula does give us an additional grant for students from low income families, English Language Learners and foster children to meet all of their needs. So we are receiving more than some other districts, but the problem is that the base grant for all of the schools across San Diego and across the state is woefully inadequate. That’s why California has ranked between 46th and 49th place among states in per pupil funding for the past several years.

So where is this “extra money” that we have been hearing about?

There is no “extra” money. Last July we acknowledged that it would take three years to stabilize the budget to meet our current operations, staffing levels and class size. We adopted a three year budget plan (13-14, 14-15, and 15-16), which was the amount of time it would take for the income to catch up with our current expenses. If we could stabilize over these three years, we could begin to invest new revenue to improve our schools in the fourth year.

What is the shortfall and why are the numbers always changing?

When the preliminary budget was developed the shortfall was $115 million for 2014-2015 and the projected shortfall for 2015-16 was $69 million. The actual money the state gives us can change. It can go up or it can go down. If more revenues come to the state, our income can go up. On the other hand, it can get worse if the state decides to suddenly increase the district’s pension contribution. It can also go up or down depending on enrollment. These numbers are constantly updated, but the state would have to give us an extra amount equal to each of these shortfalls to begin to have extra money. That is not going to happen.

So how are we supposed to survive these three years?

The board adopted a School Stabilization Fund with proceeds from the sale of properties that the district is no longer using. This provides us money for these three years to avoid making harmful cuts. But it is not sustainable to continue selling properties that generate annual income for the district. This was a short term solution to bridge the gap.

How did we survive all of the state budget cuts the past five years?

We had concessions from all staff in terms of unpaid furlough days for a few years. At this point it’s not reasonable to ask our employees to make any more financial sacrifices. We had federal stimulus money paid to us over three years designed to avoid major layoffs. Of course, those funds are no longer offered. We used up reserve funds in every department to keep our schools successfully operating and there are no more reserve funds to tap.

Does the early retirement incentive for teachers help?

Yes. Because the state is not giving us enough money to employ all of our current staff, we save money by not replacing some of the teachers who retired. Of course, this cannot be done in every case, because we may lack the needed number of teachers with a particular subject credential. The board offered the early retirement incentive to avoid mass layoffs, which create instability in our schools for our students, especially in high poverty schools.

We had Vision 2020 forums to discuss how to spend LCFF funds, as required by the Local Control Accountability Plan (LCAP)? Weren’t we talking about how to spend all of the “new” money?

The LCAP is a method for the district to work with the community to set priorities for improving student achievement across the district and we must also show how the supplemental and concentration grants will be used to help the students with the highest needs. The district must show how our budget aligns with our goals for student achievement across the district with the limited funds that we receive. The Superintendent must creatively work with her staff to improve educational outcomes while living within our means. Just as a family must live within its budget, so too must the district. The only difference is that we cannot get a credit card for our operating budget that would allow us to borrow money this year and pay it back in future years. In spite of the budget limitations we will continue to improve student achievement, as we have successfully done for the past five years.

What has the board asked the Superintendent to do in developing our budget?

1. Complete a budget for all three years of the original plan that is balanced and demonstrates that there will be no shortfall by the following year.
   
2. Develop a budget that is student-centric, a budget that places the highest priority on student needs in the classroom.
   
3. Following the official adoption of the 2014-15 budget enter into a joint advocacy plan with the Board of Education calling for our state to address the inadequacy of public education funding in California, so that we can again become a national leader.
   

Board Member Evans discusses school funding in extended interview

IN THE NEWS: New Local Control Funding Formula, Local Control and Accountability Plan discussed by Dr. John Lee Evans, Sub-District A Board of Education representative. Watch video from NBC 7»

School funding for 2014-15 and beyond with Board Member Evans

IN THE NEWS: What parents, community members and taxpayers need to know about changes in California school funding. Watch video from Fox 5 San Diego»

Community members help prioritize school district budget

State Supt. Tom Torlakson, second from left, discusses budget issues with Supt. Cindy Marten, fourth from left, and attendees.

IN THE NEWS: The state superintendent talked with community members who weigh in on San Diego Unified's funding. Watch video from NBC 7»

Stakeholder engagement guides development of district's draft Local Control and Accountability Plan

Since January, San Diego Unified has been actively engaged in the development of our three-year Local Control and Accountability Plan (LCAP). The LCAP is a new requirement by the state of California, in which district’s identify annual goals, specific actions, and measure progress for student subgroups across eight performance indicators. This document implements the new Local Control Funding Formula (LCFF), which reduced the number of requirements tied to state funding and put more control in the hands of local school boards. LCAPs must be adopted by districts by July 1, 2014.

San Diego Unified has held more than two-dozen public meetings to gather input to create the LCAP. Parents, students, staff, community members and other stakeholders have had the opportunity to give feedback at the Vision2020 Forums and Cluster LCAP Workshops as well as through surveys conducted by the District Advisory Committee on Compensatory Education (DAC), School Site Councils, and the San Diego Unified Council of PTAs.

This robust stakeholder engagement has helped inform the process for developing the draft LCAP. The meetings and surveys have provided a great deal of input and helped to refine what each of our communities has set as priorities. The development of the plan has provided the opportunity for the district and stakeholders to work together to focus on what is best for students. This teamwork is vital to the implementation of our Vision 2020 long-term plan.

The draft of the district’s LCAP will begin its required 30-day public review period on Thursday, May 1. For more information, visit at www.sandi.net/lcap .

Message from Supt. Marten about Vision 2020, upcoming important decisions

Dear San Diego Unified Community:

In recent months, students, parents,employees, and community members have provided valuable input and feedback in our mission to accomplish our Vision 2020. We have come together to discuss what we believe is working, what we feel should be improved and how we will work together to accomplish the implementation of our vision, all with the common goal of creating quality schools in every neighborhood. We have heard from hundreds of you, our stakeholders, and I personally am appreciative, honored and energized by your commitment to our students and our schools that this input demonstrates.

The feedback collected is now being used to shape the draft of our Local Control and Accountability Plan (LCAP), our 2014-15 and beyond budget solutions, our legislative priorities and our collective bargaining proposals with employee groups. Several of those proposals will be considered by the Board next week.

The district’s focus in the development of the initial collective bargaining proposals is to continue to implement our Vision 2020, support student learning and propel our path towards quality schools in every neighborhood.

At the Board meeting on April 29, you will have the opportunity to provide further input into the district's initial collective bargaining proposals. (To read the proposals, check the April 29 Agenda, which will be posted at 5 p.m. Friday, April 25.) These negotiations provide an opportunity for the district and the employee organizations to come together in an environment of mutual respect, collegiality, and a focus towards developing a world-class school system for all of our students. We look forward to substantive discussions at the bargaining table with our employee organizations, who we value as important partners in our shared efforts to serve all students.

Sincerely,

Cindy Marten
Superintendent
Work Hard. Be Kind. Dream Big! No Excuses.

School funding reforms spark push to get parent input

IN THE NEWS: The San Diego Unified School District, with over 120,000 students, is the state’s second-largest districtRead more from EdSource»

after the Los Angeles Unified School District. San Diego Unified is hosting 16 “LCAP workshops” in March and April at different schools in each of the district’s 16 “clusters,” which consist of a high school, and the middle and elementary schools feeding students into it.

2014-15 budget solutions include teachers’ early retirement incentive

San Diego Unified has agreed to a Supplemental Early Retirement Program (SERP) for teachers and other members of the San Diego Education Association bargaining unit as a budget solution for the 2014-15 fiscal year.

On March 11, the Board of Education approved the resolution to initiate the SERP. Final Board approval will take place at their May 13 meeting. The program is an incentive for eligible employees to retire from the district at the end of this school year.

If fully subscribed, it will save the district $8.3 million in 2014-15, helping to close the $115.6 million projected shortfall. Read more from UT San Diego»