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What is Local Control Funding Formula (LCFF)? For more information: http://csba.org/GovernanceAndPolicyResources/FairFunding/LCFF.aspx California’s new approach to funding public schools represents the most significant education finance reform in four decades. Adopted in 2013, the Local Control Funding Formula streamlines the system and gives school districts more flexibility in how to spend their resources to promote student achievement. Previously, districts received state funds per student based on a complicated “revenue limit” formula. In addition, much of the funding was restricted and earmarked for specific “categorical” programs. Under LCFF, all local education agencies are funded using the same formula. It starts with a base amount per student that is adjusted for grade level and demographics. It also eliminates most of the restrictions on use of funds for categorical programs. What is Local Control Accountability Plan (LCAP)? For more information: http://www.cde.ca.gov/fg/aa/lc/lcfffaq.asp#LCAP Each school district must engage parents, educators, employees and the community to establish these plans. The plans will describe the school district’s overall vision for students, annual goals and specific actions the district will take to achieve the vision and goals. The LCAPs must focus on eight areas identified as state priorities. The plans will also demonstrate how the district’s budget will help achieve the goals, and assess each year how well the strategies in the plan were able to improve outcomes. What are the eight state priority areas that must be addressed in the plans? There are eight areas for which school districts, with parent and community input, must establish goals and actions. This must be done both district­wide and for each school. The areas are: 1. Providing all students access to fully credentialed teachers, instructional materials that align with state standards, and safe facilities. 2. Implementation of California’s academic standards, including the Common Core State Standards in English language arts and math, Next Generation Science Standards, English language development, history social science, visual and performing arts, health education and physical education standards. 3. Parent involvement and participation, so the local community is engaged in the decision­making process and the educational programs of students. 4. Improving student achievement and outcomes along multiple measures, including test scores, English proficiency and college and career preparedness. 5. Supporting student engagement, including whether students attend school or are chronically absent. 6. Highlighting school climate and connectedness through a variety of factors, such as suspension and expulsion rates and other locally identified means. 7. Ensuring all students have access to classes that prepare them for college and careers, regardless of what school they attend or where they live. 8. Measuring other important student outcomes related to required areas of study, including physical education and the arts. Written Comments for LCAP collected from Teachers in Petaluma City Schools Basic Where does the money come from for the 1:1 device initiative? All funding for 1:1 devices will come from bond funds. This was built on the fact that both the Ed Tech Committees and K­12 Curriculum/Staff Development Committees ranked the use of Common Core State Funds for 1) infrastructure and connectivity; 2) Technology for students and teachers; 3) Professional Development; and 4) Instructional Materials. On the recent Professional Development Survey, the highest area of need identified by 150 respondents is training in technology. Are there funds being built into the budget that will address the damage, loss, and/or theft of 1:1 devices? Yes, our current level of loss is about 10% per year for both elementary and secondary students. Parents can donate to a replacement fund that is being used for these circumstances. Additionally, insurance can be purchased with certain products as part of the purchase price. Otherwise, a lost or damaged device will be treated just as we currently treat a lost or damaged book. Can these funds be used for other uses in the K­3 program? Bond funds can not be used for other purposes in the K­3 program. The Ed Tech team in consultation with a variety of ed tech cnosultants will decide on the devices most suitable for students and will also decide on level of use. Will there be digital citizenship training for all students? Yes, Our librarians are currently developing a Digital Citizenship curriculum for all grade levels. Will the use of technology prevent critical thinking in PCS classrooms? Teachers do not use one medium to promote the development of any single skill within the classroom. Although evidence from national research suggests that critical thinking is one of the skills least practiced in many classrooms, technology can promote the use of critical thinking. The promotion of critical thinking is not dependent on the technology that is use, but rather on the lesson that is developed by the teacher. Will there be teacher training and support in the use of 1:1 devices? Yes, extensive training and curriculum development will need to take place over the course of the 14/15 school year. We are lucky to have been involved in pilot programs over the last three years, so we have a deeper understanding of what types of training are most helpful for students, parents, and teachers. Pupil Achievement Will career classes be expanded for those students not choosing the college path? PCS offers a wide variety of career pathways at both of our comprehensive high schools. In addition, CCSS requires teachers to align all classes so that all students will be college and career ready. Career readiness will take on a variety of new dimensions when CCSS is fully implemented. Some of these may include internships, apprenticeships, job shadows, and core and career tech classes linked together. Will class size be reduced as a strategy to achieve our LCAP goals? Class size targets from the state for elementary grades K­3 are 24. PCS is currently at an average of 24 across the district in K­3. The current proposal is to make the hard cap 24 in K­3 for 14/15. It is the desire of the district to also reduce class sizes in grades 4­12. This is a negotiated item. How will public comments be included in the LCAP? The District Leadership Team will advise the district on changes that should be made to the LCAP based on public comment. The Board of Education will approve the LCAP. Given the population of special needs students, how can we expect 90% proficiency? The LCAP identifies between 50% and 60% proficiency on the SBAC for any of our identified subgroups through the year 16/17. Once the assessments are actually given and we receive data on our student achievement, these goals can be adjusted. Also see the questions below for additional information. How can we better support primary grades to ensure student success? The LCAP identifies full development of Response to Intervention (RtI) at every school site. The RtI program will focus first on providing early intervention in the primary grades. We will start here due to the fact that early intervention (catching students up before they can fall too far behind) is much more efficient and effective. Primary grade teachers will have the support of the reading specialist, special education personnel and bilingual resource teachers to help increase student achievement in the primary grades. How will teachers be affected by extended day and year programs? PCS is required by Education Code to “provide more” and “spend more” in support of the identified subgroups of English Language Learners (ELL), Socioeconomically disadvantaged, and foster youth with the supplemental resources provided in the Local Control Funding Formula (LCFF) and the Local Control Accountability Plan(LCAP). Research demonstrates that extending the school day and school year is one of the best interventions for raising student achievement. Teachers, who choose to work in the schools identified or during the summer, will be compensated at the agreed upon extra duty day pay and extended year pay. Parent Involvement What are the plans for additional support for parents who do not have access to internet or computing device? Every school office and the district office will have at least one computer that will be available for parents to use. Staff, including bilingual staff, is being trained to support parents in learning AERIES parent portal so that they can access and monitor their students’ progress. In addition, Adult Education provides an open computer lab every Wednesday night for parents who would like to access programs that are being used at school. These evening events are always very well attended. Additionally, PCS is in partnership with Comcast who provides low price internet connection for all families who qualify for free/reduced lunch. They can also purchase a low cost computer. Additional plans, such as working with the public libraries and the Family Resource Center will be explored. What resources might be made available to help parents successfully volunteer? The Family Resource Center at McDowell school currently provides these types of services to parents. There are Bilingual Community Liaision positions in each secondary school that also provides support to parents in becoming involved in our schools. PTA’s also support parent involvement and volunteering. Will the use of the AERIES parent portal decrease face to face interaction between teachers and parents? The AERIES parent portal is one form of communication with parents. It provides parents the opportunity to monitor their students’ progress over the course of a semester or year. This is only one form of communication. Parents will continue to attend Back to School night, parent conferences, and Open house. They will also continue to make individual appointments with teachers to discuss their student’s progress as well as attend different support meetings that are held to assist their student in being successful in their academic career. Is the goal of 100% of families using the AERIES parent portal too high? What will happen if families don’t participate? The goal is to increase communication with all parents. One way to accomplish this is to increase the variety of modes we communicate through. All parents will need a portal account because we will be using the portal for online registration in the future. Without an account parents will need to come to school to complete yearly registration packets for their students as they have done in the past. Who will run the Pasitios and Avance programs for parents of ELL students? Both the Pasitios and Avance programs are run through Adult Education and have been in progress for the past two years. Adult Education also runs the Ready for Transitional/Kindergarten program for parents and their children. How are parents notified of involvement opportunities? Parents are notified through a variety of methods, the Argus Courier, Petaluma360, district and school websites, flyers at school sites, flyers sent home with students, PTA and School Site Council announcements, school newsletters, emails, and automatic phone calls. Parents also receive information at Back to School and Open House events. Can we start College and Career readiness events even earlier than fourth grade? Yes, since this is a three year plan, after we review the data that is collected from activities, we can revise our activities yearly to better address our students and families needs. What are other Middle Schools doing to involve parents, especially parents of struggling students? Middle School principals are interacting with colleagues from other schools and districts. As they learn of new, innovative ways to involve parents, they are revising plans to include these new ideas. One example is KJHS now has an app for smart phones that streamlines parent access to information and events important to their students’ success. Common Core State Standards(CCSS) If teachers across the USA are developing curriculum, how can it be fair and equitable? All the curriculum being developed, both by teacher leaders and publishers must address student mastery of the Common Core State Standards. This is the common piece. This is the first time in the history of American education that we are all working collaboratively to develop a curriculum that is designed to develop the 21st Century skills students will need to be college and career ready. Just as publishers need to meet the guidelines for equity in a curriculum, teacher developed curriculums are adopted by the Board of Education, we will have to take the curriculum through a review process to ensure that it is throughly addressing CCSS and producing the levels of student achievement that will ensure the future success of our students. With the CCSS as guidelines, is there a framework that teachers can use build upon as opposed to starting from scratch for integrated science, social science, ELA ? Yes, many states are ahead of California in the development of curriculum aligned to CCSS. Two good examples are Engage New York and the state of Georgia. Curriculum frameworks are currently in development for the state of California and will be used to guide further development of curriculum in PCS. The benefit to starting with curriculum we already have, for example EnVision Math, is that teachers are familiar with lessons and which work well with students. The LCAP states that integrated Math 1 will be offered in 8th grade, but teachers still haven’t decided. Why? The math committee has decided to move to an integrated Math program beginning in 15/16. The decision as to where to accelerate advance students is still being discussed. The decision as to where to accelerate advance students will be completed in the 14/15 school year. How will the the integration of subjects(Math, Social Science, Science, Language Arts) be addressed? Currently, the elementary ELA teacher leads are developing the process for integration with an expert teacher leader from another school district. All elementary teachers will be trained in the process beginning in the 14/15 school year. Teachers will have professional development time on our professional development days, shortened Wednesdays, and during release days and extended year sessions. Teachers will be paid extended year pay and subs will be provided for release time. Should the integrated Science and Math programs be K­5, 6­8, and 9­12 instead of K­6? Yes, the grade spans within CCSS address K­5, 6­8, and 9­12. This change will be reflected in the PCS LCAP. Would an Instructional Assistant in the classroom have a deeper impact on student achievement than 1:1 devices in Kindergarten? Research is very consistent that the use of an instructional assistant in the classroom does not have a positive effect on student achievement. However, the use of trained instructional assistants in a reading recovery­like program does impact student achievement. http://www.aft.org/pdfs/psrp/ParasandStudAchieve.pdf An excerpt from a study on young children and technology in Neuron September 9, 2010, states that: a key goal of the educational system is certainly to teach the basics of literacy and mathematics, it also aims to prepare students for the workforce in a 21st century economy. Given this, introducing technology in schools becomes not just a passing fad, but an educational necessity. This seems all the more urgent because a child in a family with a low socio­economic status is more likely to suffer from lack of technology access and thus is more likely to be “left behind” http://www.wired.com/images_blogs/gadgetlab/2010/08/Children­Wired.pdf and an additional article from the US Depratment of Education: http://www.ed.gov/blog/2014/04/bringing­the­tech­revolution­to­early­learning/, Here is the newly release Blueprint for Technology for California Schools: http://www.cde.ca.gov/eo/in/edtechbi.asp How will Professional Development be organized and presented in an efficient and effective way? Professional development occurs in a variety of ways in PCS. Teachers have professional development days, shortened Wednesdays, release time, attend workshops and conferences paid for by the district, and some attend college classes and on­line learning opportunities. Each teacher develops a professional development plan that is aligned to school and district goals. The K­12 Curriculum and Staff Development Committee and the Ed Tech committee, the CCSS Lead teachers, and the Principals are all working together to ensure professional development is well developed and addresses the needs identified by teachers. Data from our recent professional development survey is the driving force behind professional development planning. Teachers on our committees feel strongly that professional development planning remains a part of the curriculum committees. To this end, we will identify a subcommittee of teachers from K­12 curriculum committee and CCSS leads to continue planning the professional development in PCS. Teacher release time for professional development can be difficult due to the necessity for a substitute teacher. This can impact consistency in the classroom. What can we do? Teacher release time was reinstated after evidence indicated that teachers were not attending after school committee meetings or professional development opportunities. Now that professional development days are reinstated, teachers not serving on committees will use less release time. We can query committees regarding moving the meetings to after school. Principals are working to identify common Wednesdays where all teachers will be able to collaborate with colleagues on curriculum development and refinement. Pupil Engagement and School Climate How will restorative justice work in the primary grades? Restorative justice principles are already at work in the primary grades. Caring School Communities and the BEST program are two excellent examples of how restorative justice works in primary classrooms. Essentially, the idea is to bring students together in peer­mediated small groups to talk, ask questions, air their grievances, and learn about personal responsibiltiy. Class meetings are just one example of a strategy that all teachers are trained in and using in their classrooms. What else will be available for primary grades re: suspensions? In the LCAP, Support Counselors will be on every campus three days per week. This will provide additional support to students who are not successful in the classroom. How will LCAP resources address chronic tardiness? It won’t. Site administrators and staff will continue to use the tardy letter and SART (Student Attendance Review Team) process and refer to SARB (School Attendance Review Board). Ratio of students to adults is greater with non­ELL students resulting in lower satisfaction with or connection to adults. Why? The percentages identified in the goal statements are based on a 5% increase each year in each subgroup. Currently, a higher percentage of ELL students indicate a connection with an adult than other subgroups. The percentage gain is adjusted accordingly. Why is keeping suspension rates down for suspendable acts important? It is not. Preventing suspendable acts is more important. Universal prevention strategies on campuses such as BEST assemblies and Caring School Communities lower the number of suspendable events. Targeted programs such as Safe School Ambassadors, Tool Box, and mental health counseling will also help stop the escalation and severity of events. Student Assistance Teams at every school site address suspended students and work to avoid recidivism. How does the suspension issue affect kids in the classroom who are behaving? Any type of disruptive or defiant behavior in class can impact other students. Knowing that, site staff with district support, have created multiple strategies to create universal prevention programs to lower the incidence of suspendable behaviors as well as targeted intervention strategies to avoid recidivism and address behavior issues. Does transportation or lack of busses effect tardiness/attendance? This has not been identified as an issue for truant students in SARB hearings. The language of the goals in pupil engagement and school climate mirror goals that were required by NCLB. Why? The LCAP requires that the district set its’ own goals based on current data. We are required, by Education Code, to increase our effectiveness with all students and especially with ELL, Socioeconomic disadvantaged, and Foster Students. All goals are based on current data. These goals will be adjusted yearly after we review data and draw conclusions as to our effectiveness with all students. Why do we need to be concerned with equity across our subgroups regarding suspensions? It is important that we are providing equal education for all of our students. Currently, data indicates that more ELL and Socioeconomically disadvantaged students are more often suspended than other subgroups. We are focused on student success and closing the achievement gap for our significant sub­groups. We need to investigate why we are suspending students from significant subgroup more often and see what other supports we might be able to provide in order to eliminate this gap. Why are we lowering the goal for attendance from 95% to 93%? We are not, the 95% is a typo. PCS has one of the highest attendance rates in Sonoma County.