Now archived for viewing—CSBA’s Back-to-School Webcast
Panelists discuss LCAP process to-date, legislative news and forecast
Published: September 24, 2014
“All of you out in the field, don’t lose heart—it’s going to take several years to craft this,” were CSBA’s Dennis Meyers’ closing words of advice for governance leaders who, at the start of the new school year, are in the process of implementing, assessing and fine-tuning their first LCAPs. Meyers, assistant executive director of governmental relations at CSBA, was joined by CSBA Senior Director of Policy & Programs Teri Burns, Director of the Comprehensive School Assistance Program at WestEd Jannelle Kubinec and Superintendent of Corona-Norco Unified School District Michael Lin in the first segment of last Thursday’s two-hour live webcast, moderated by CSBA CEO & Executive Director Vernon M. Billy.
The panelists discussed the LCAP process to-date, including community engagement efforts, real and anticipated challenges, best practices and what to expect in the near future. “We really saw engagement in this first year that made what we had before look like imitation,” said Kubinec. Her statement received nods of agreement from the other panelists, who made observations about the collaboration they witnessed at the local level. Burns said she frequently heard from board members who were astounded by the level of student input in the LCAP process, but also noted that there was “a much broader collaboration of all the components”—from foster youth liaisons to school nutrition and transportation. The LCFF and LCAP can “breathe new life into a lot of folks who were formerly just doing their jobs,” Meyers said.
California takes a stand
Burns and Kubinec were joined by Keric Ashley, interim deputy superintendent of the district, school & innovation branch at the California Department of Education, and Lupita Cortez Alcalá, deputy superintendent of the CDE’s instruction & learning branch in part two of the webcast for a review of recent CDE and State Board of Education activities. “We’re in high speed of CCSS implementation. We adopted the Next Generation Science Standards. We just restarted the history-social science framework … In addition there’s been a half-billion dollar investment in the Career Pathways Trust,” said Alcalá. And “Jannelle has been starting to lead the work on the rubric for evaluation the LCAP,” Burns acknowledged.
Testing and improvement of foster youth identification dominated much of the conversation. When it comes to Smarter Balanced Assessment, “California took a stand,” noted Alcalá, and “was successful because of that leadership.”
The panel also took viewers’ questions on Science, Technology, Engineering and Math (STEM) and supplemental funding. “Where does STEM fit in?” queried one viewer, with Alcalá stepping in quickly to applaud the state’s new STEM blueprint, developed by State Superintendent of Instruction Tom Torlakson’s STEM Task Force. She also pointed viewers to the 2014 STEM Symposium in San Diego, which expected more than 3,000 attendees and ended yesterday. “Clearly, there’s an interest,” said Alcalá, who nevertheless maintained that there needs to be an increased emphasis on including girls and women in STEM. It starts in the primary grades, she said, and with “understanding the different perspectives of girls and boys to know how to approach them.”
‘Overall a good session’ for education legislation
In the final 40-minute segment, Meyers, CSBA Legislative Advocate Andrea Ball and Jai Sookprasert, assistant director of governmental relations at CSEA provided an overview of recent legislative action with an eye on the big issues of the coming year. The panel agreed that despite some surprises, including the CalSTRS rate hike, overall this was “a good session for education,” which proved “how committed the Governor and the legislature is to fully funding LCFF,” said Meyers. “We’re a third of the way there,” he added.
The session’s surprises and setbacks were discussed—from the CalSTRS rate hike to the defeat of the school facilities bond to transportation funding to the local reserves cap introduced in a last-minute trailer bill. In reply to Vernon M. Billy’s question, why the resistance to the facilities bond, Meyers answered that amid rare unanimous votes of approval in the Legislature, “the Governor was the wall.” And on transportation, Ball noted, “We tried to get some additional funding for home-to-school transportation. We weren’t successful, but we’ll keep trying.”
“To give some credit to the Governor,” said Sookprasert, “he made sure we had the funds needed so we didn’t have the severe cuts. He’s open to working with the education committee.”
But as to whether the next Legislature—trying to win back a two-third Democratic majority—would take a stand for education funding, Meyers is more cautious. “I think the community is going to have to do that through initiatives.” With expected low voter turnout at the polls this November, it’s all the more critical,” said Sookprasert, that we “elect education-friendly legislators.”
Watch CSBA’s Back-to-School Webcast on CSBA's website.