With three key goals of enhancing college and career readiness, improving parent/student engagement and fostering positive school climates, the Board of Education approved Morgan Hill Unified School District’s inaugural Local Control Accountability Plan at Tuesday’s school board meeting.
“This is such an important step that we’re taking,” said MHUSD Trustee Shelle Thomas, who thanked the district administration for gathering all the information in recent months and putting it together to form the district’s educational game plan. “This is a living document that’s going to make a difference for our kids.”
The LCAP is a state-required component of the new Local Control Funding Formula, adopted in July 2013, which eliminates revenue limits and most state categorical programs for allocation. Instead, the LCAP formula distributes funding to schools based on student demographics and allows school officials, parents and residents to have more of a say in how they spend state-allocated funding.
“The community did a remarkable job in helping us form the LCAP,” said MHUSD Superintendent Steve Betando, whose executive cabinet, along with board trustees, hosted several community input meetings, met with school site parent groups, welcomed suggestions via electronic communications, and took in comments from as much MHUSD staff as were willing to offer it.
The LCFF makes up nearly 82 percent—or close to $58 million—of the MHUSD’s general fund revenues for the 2014-15 school year. The LCAP, which is a three-year plan that is revisited each year, lays out exactly where those funds will be used.
“It gives us the trust to make decisions at the local level for our students,” said Betando, noting how the LCAP and the 2014-15 budget now go hand-in-hand in allowing for local control.
In an identical 6-0 vote—with Board President Don Moody not present at the June 24 meeting—the trustees also approved the $69 million budget for the 2014-15 school year, up more than $4 million from the previous year.
Assistant Superintendents Norma Martinez-Palmer and Kirsten Perez presented highlights of the new LCAP to the board before their vote of approval.
“I’m excited to hear that this is so student-oriented,” said Trustee Ron Woolf after the LCAP summary.
Martinez-Palmer told of the district’s continued emphasis on teacher training and additional support in the form of hiring four teacher leaders called Teachers On Special Assignment, or TOSAs, as they fully implement the Common Core State Standards in the classrooms.
“We need to invest in our teachers for our students to benefit,” said Martinez-Palmer, who also outlined the district’s plan to purchase a more effective student information system to gather student data from different school sites and keep it more readily available.
The 2014-15 school year will be the first in which students are tested using the state’s new computer-based Smarter Balance Assessment Consortium, which will provide a first-year baseline to go off for future student testing results.
Student progress will also be measured by high school graduation and dropout rates, California High School Exit Exam passing rates, students meeting University of California/California State University requirements, and Advanced Placement course participation and passing rates, according to district staff.
The state can intervene in the LCAP if a school district fails to show improvement across multiple subgroups in three out of four consecutive years, according to the CDE website.
Martinez-Palmer stressed the importance MHUSD’s LCAP has placed on early childhood literacy, transitional kindergarten, the use of technology and new devices by students, and more Gifted And Talented Education (GATE) as well as Advanced Placement offerings at schools.
With the goal of increasing parent engagement, the district will create a parent survey “to continue to have a parent voice” in their decision-making process, Perez shared. The district is also planning to establish a parent resource center at an undetermined school site and has added two to three work hours for community liaisons at each school. In helping with teacher-parent communication, the district also plans to offer conversational Spanish classes for staff members.
When it comes to improving school climate, the district is employing more school counselors—one at each high school and middle school—and establishing a positive behavior intervention system, Perez outlined.
The district will submit its finalized LCAP—which can be viewed on the district website—to the Santa Clara County Office of Education for review and then will make adjustments as needed based on comments from county staff.
“California’s new funding formula puts more decisions about education funding where they belong—in the hands of schools, parents, and teachers—and dedicates more resources to students most in need,” said State Superintendent Tom Torlakson in a June 25 press release by the California Department of Education.
In Morgan Hill, certificated staff salaries, which includes teachers and administrators, take up the biggest chunk of the budget at more than $31 million for the 2014-15 school year. The district added nine additional full time equivalent (FTE) teachers for lowering class sizes in transitional kindergarten, kindergarten and first grade as well as 10 additional FTE at the secondary grade levels. Classified salaries total about $10 million and employee benefits are about $12 million.
MHUSD finalized new contracts with the Morgan Hill Federation of Teachers (on June 10 with a 6 percent pay raise), the Morgan Hill Educational Leaders (3.5 percent average raise across pay scale on June 24) and the Service Employees International Union (5 percent pay raise on June 24).
