SPUSD Board holds hearing on spending plan
June 25, 2014
By Brian D. Wilson
Santa Paula News
Trustees of the Santa Paula Unified School District have held a second public hearing on their Local Control and Accountability Plan (LCAP).
As part of the Local Control Funding Formula (LCFF), school districts, county offices of education and charter schools are required to develop, adopt, and annually update a three-year LCAP, beginning on July 1, 2014, using a template adopted by the California State Board of Education (SBE).
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. School districts and charter schools are required to obtain parent and public input in developing, revising and updating LCAPs.
The district expects to receive about $4 million in the next school year under the Local Control Funding Formula (LCFF) and as much as $17.8 million dollars over the next three years. The final version of the LCAP plan will be adopted at the June 25th board meeting.
Connie Tushla, Chair of the Chamber of Commerce Education/Business Committee addressed the plan at last week’s school board meeting. She noted that when she spoke at a previous board meeting she addressed two issues. One was the importance of every child learning to read and the other was the proposed hiring of two resource officers.
Tushla told the board that, in addition to those two things, she said, “I feel that it’s absolutely critical to fund all the sports programs.” She noted that all sports programs; uniforms, transportation, band equipment, music and the arts should be included.
Lorenz Moraza, representing Latino Town Hall, told the board, “Latino Town Hall would like to let you know that we appreciate the continuing effort of the school district to solicit and incorporate community input to better inform the development of the LCAP.” He did list some concerns his group has. He said they were unaware of any board discussion involving budget planning. Hte noted that the proposed reserve fund is extremely high. He recommended that he district reach a negotiated settlement with employees as soon as possible. He also urged continuation of the district advisory committee.
