MBUSD begins setting funds, standards for state budget

By Jamie Kelleher
Staff Writer

The Manhattan Beach Unified School District is beginning to set financial and educational standards for a subgroup of students in accordance with the new state budget program.

Under state funds distributed through the Local Control Funding Formula, MBUSD is required to establish a Local Control Accountability Program which lays out specific educational goals for English Language Learner students and economically-disadvantaged students.
“LCAP forces us to articulate how the dollars are going to be used to benefit students,” MBUSD Deputy Superintendent Dr. Rick Bagley said. “We do not always articulate the connection between dollars and students.”

The LCFF also provides additional funding to districts based on how many English Language Learner and economically-disadvantaged students they have. This puts Costa at a disadvantage compared to other years, when supplementary funds were not based on this demographic, as Costa has fewer economically-disadvantaged students. This year, the state allocated MBUSD $330,000 specifically for LCAP services.

“We still get the money, we just don’t get as much as before,” English Learner advisor Ann Brown said.

The district will distribute the $330,000 of LCAP funding throughout all MBUSD schools.

“We have to divide it over seven schools, so it might be hard to target the students it was designed to assist,” Superintendent Dr. Michael Matthews said.

LCAP has three core areas of focus. These include conditions of learning, such as facilities, curriculum, credentialed teachers, pupil outcome, student, staff and parent engagement. To meet these goals, the district will use feedback from the Parent-Teacher Association, parents and teachers.
The district can assess the success of its use of LCAP’s supplemental funds through a variety of data, including the number of students going to a four-year college, students graduating with a college degree, state testing scores and the California Exit Exam pass rate.

“As we get feedback from this process, it will aid the MBUSD students it was assigned to assist,” Mathews said.