Manhattan Beach Unified School District Board of Trustees discuss possible improvements

By Bari Cohn

Staff Writer

The Manhattan Beach Unified School District Board of Trustees discussed improvements for the 2015-16 school year at the Dec. 9 meeting.

Board members voted to approve a variety of topics including the Smarter Balance Assortment Consortium (SBAC) testing in the schools, the Local Control and Accountability Plan (LCAP) for funding in the district, as well as other plans dealing with federal funding to the MBUSD.

“The new smarter balance curriculum is being implemented into the schools as a part of the new state-wide curriculum” Executive Director of Educational Services Dr. Brett Geithman said. “So far the feedback we’ve received has all been positive and everyone has been happy with the new shift.

Students in 3-8 and 11 grade are taking Smarter Balance Testing, which has replaced the previous state tests we had before and are now based on the common core standards the state has adopted.

“Mira Costa is the only school in the district that receives Title I Funds,” MBUSD Superintendent Dr. Michael Matthews said. “These are a type of federal fund that Costa receives but the rest of our schools do not.”

Only Mira Costa receives Title I Funds, which according to Matthews means that Costa meets a certain criteria which allows the school to receive around $100,000 per year. Mira Costa Principal Dr. Ben Dale creates a plan on how to spend the money the school receives from these funds.

“Because our elementary and middle schools aren’t funded by Title I funds they aren’t required to have a single plan for student achievement.” Geithman said.

The LPAC document is created by the district as an outline of the goals for the schools and ultimate success for all students. It reflects previous student progress, as well as analyzing previous student data and creating goals for the future.

“The school plans have been taken and streamlined into a district LPAC,” Geithman said. “The idea was to take the idea of the school plan and align it to the district wide LPAC which is much more digestible and easy to understand.”