The district administration meeting room was packed with 36 community members crowding around tables and munching on pizza as PRJUSD Chief Academic Officer Carol Kenyon kicked off the second Local Control Accountability Plan Advisory meeting of the 2018-2019 school year on Monday, Jan. 14.
According to the PRJUSD LCAP page, “ LCAPs are the central documents for making sure that local control over funding (LCFF) for schools is spelled out clearly and follows the law based on the 2013-14 California state budget that was passed with bi-partisan support and signed into law by Governor Jerry Brown.”
The PRJUSD LCAP has four district goals which include (1) college and career readiness, (2) student achievement, (3) equity and (4) positive “connectivity/climate”.
The purpose of the Monday meeting was to give community members such as students, parents and administration the opportunity to offer insight on what they believe are priorities in LCAP goal funding which is supported by the district’s General fund.
This is especially important as the district must identify $800,000 in cuts to reach the $2.1 million that they must plan to eliminate from the budget for the 2018-2019 school year.
“I really think it is important for student to have input in [the LCAP] because it’s directly affecting us and the students coming in to the programs and it’s a very important thing so I just want to be here to be a voice for the students,” said Senior Brooke Milder, who was one of five students to attend the meeting.
The meeting started with a presentation from Chief Business Officer Pawlowski (pictured above) where he explained LCAP and the LCFF so those in attendance would go into the session with background knowledge.
The committee was then broken up into small groups to have time to dispute over prioritizing elements in specifically goal 1 and goal 2.
A common trend in groups was agreement in prioritizing middle and high school counselors as well as putting Parent University at the bottom of the list, while questioning its significance and $30,00 in costs.
Other questions included whether equity goals in big budget ($40,000 budgeted) programs such as the Field Studies Collaborative are being met as one person commented that, “it appears as if it’s the same people going.”
The next meeting is scheduled to be on Wednesday, Feb. 2 from 5:30-7 and is open to the public to provide input on more LCAP priority funding.
In the upcoming weeks the ideas that have been presented in both LCAP meetings and Tuesday night’s Jan.15 budget session meeting will be thoroughly investigated so a plan of attack can be met to make sure they are meeting the $2.1 million in cuts.
