Members of the La Cañada Unified School District Governing Board got another lesson on the California School Dashboard at Tuesday’s board meeting.
Lindi Dreibelbis, LCUSD’s chief director of assessment, reminded her audience that Dashboard is replacing the former Academic Performance Index in the state, and she introduced the new local indicators, which are intended to offer districts a way to measure their progress in a variety of self-selected topics.
Included among LCUSD’s local indicators: analysis of local climate, parent engagement, implementation of academic standards and basics such as whether teachers are appropriately assigned.
LCUSD determined that it met standards for all of those categories.
As for whether the district appropriately assigns teachers, some self-analysis based on data stemming from the School Accountability Report Card determined that three teachers in spring of 2017 did not have authorization to teach English learners. Two of them were P.E. teachers and the third was a high-level science teacher who was recruited from Jet Propulsion Laboratory — and they have since received the necessary training, Dreibelbis said.
The district gave itself good marks elsewhere, including for offering parents a self-reflection tool via the annual Panorama Ed Survey, in which LCUSD has participated since 2011.
The Dashboard also factors in state indicators such as chronic absenteeism, suspension rate, graduation rate, English language arts and mathematics. Dreibelbis suggested that the state was expected to release its report in December.
ENGLISH COURSEWORK
Before board members decide whether to approve an updated board policy related to limits on English coursework in the summertime, the Governing Board will revisit the matter at its December meeting.
The proposed addition states: “English courses that satisfy the graduation requirements may not be taken for acceleration in other educational institutions as the alignment with Common Core State Standards and the district writing requirement cannot be ensured through other curricula.”
“We really would like them to take English courses at our school with our teachers,” said Anais Wenn, the assistant superintendent of curriculum and instruction.
FIRST INTERIM REPORT
LCUSD’s first interim financial report for 2017-18 meets a positive certification, meaning that it will meet its financial obligations for the current fiscal year and two subsequent fiscal years, as required by state law, explained Gretchen Bergstrom, director of fiscal services.
The anticipated Local Control Funding Formula revenue increased about $192,000 due to an increase for average daily attendance this year, she said. Meanwhile, federal revenue decreased by $32,000.
The total revenue listed for the first interim this year is $46,438,461. Total expenditures come out to $47,192,326, with reserves remaining above the 3.5% required by the board, Chief Business Officer Mark Evans said.
