By Naomi Tsuang
Online News Editor
The Manhattan Beach Unified School District Board of Trustees will approve the 2016-2017 Local Control Accountability Plan and budget at the Special Board Meeting on June 15 after the board discusses the LCAP and budget in a public hearing at the June 14 board meeting.
The LCAP is part of a method called the Local Control Funding Formula (LCFF) that is intended to simplify the way schools are funded in California. California Governor Jerry Brown signed the 2013–14 Budget Act on June 28, 2013 that put both the LCAP and LCFF into place.
“[The LCAP] is also a useful planning methodology for the coming year and longer,” MBUSD Board of Trustees President Ellen Rosenberg said. “The creation, revision and approval process is a meaningful experience. We are gradually merging the Board goals process and the LCAP.”
California school districts must specify in the LCAP exactly how they will use the extra money that they receive from the state, and data on how it will work. This is the district’s third LCAP and this year, MBUSD is asking the state for $350,000 in order to fulfill the board’s six goals outlined in the LCAP.
“The LCAP is really a plan on how you’re going to spend the extra money,” MBUSD Superintendent Dr. Michael Matthews said. “That extra money for us is hardly any; it’s very low. In fact, we’re one of the bottom five in the entire state for how much money we receive because we don’t have many English learners compared to other schools and we don’t have as many students of poverty.”
The district outlined six goals in the 2016-2017 LCAP that they would use the extra money from the state for. The first three goals include improving student achievement through the implantation of different teaching and learning strategies, decreasing the amount of students not meeting standards and maximizing safety and connections in the school.
“I think one of the new goals that we will be developing, or at least that I will be recommending, is the goal related to the Social Emotional Wellness Committee that we are doing at Costa,” Matthews said. “I think that will be a bigger part of the goals, but I think else wise we should not see radical changes in it.”
The last three LCAP goals include improving student achievement by increasing the hours MBUSD employees spend on professional development, addressing the needs of children in physical education, the arts and career technical education and lastly, for students to remain successful by reducing the number of days students do not attend school due to dropping out, suspensions, expulsions and absences in order.
“In the first year, we had 19 goals in our LCAP and that was too many,” Matthews said. “This year we reduced it down to six and I believe it will stay right around there. Hopefully it is more understandable that way. I don’t predict any giant changes with it this year. I hope that a lot of our six goals remain somewhat the same.”
In the 2015-16 budget, professional development was a major focus, especially in math, according to Matthews. MBUSD adopted new math textbooks and physical education classes for all of the elementary schools. The district will not make any major changes in the 2016-17 budget, but will ensure that the budget stays consistent, according to Matthews.
“The overall goal of the budget is to ensure that MBUSD students are provided a quality education and life experience,” Rosenberg said. “We hope and intend to achieve these goals.”
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