At its June 25 meeting, the La Cañada Unified School District Governing Board approved its new three-year Local Control and Accountability Plan, or LCAP, starting in 2024-25, which includes the addition of a new performing arts coordinator.
“The LCAP is a three-year plan describing the local educational agencies’ annual goals and specific actions to address state and local priorities to support outcomes for all students and student groups,” reads the agenda.
After its adoption, the LCAP is submitted to the Los Angeles County Office of Education for approval or clarification by Aug. 15.
Following its four main goals, Karen Hurley, executive director of programs and services for the district, presented some additions to the 2024-25 LCAP to the board at its first reading on June 4.
“After analyzing data and receiving input from our many educational partners, we will be continuing to focus on our four main goals, which include staff, educational programs, wellness and facilities,” Hurley said.
To support the first goal, which is to recruit, retain and train the highest-quality teaching, support and administrative staff, the district will add safety training and ongoing monitoring.
“For this action, we will develop a Workplace Violence Prevention Plan with input from our certificated and classified staff members,” Hurley said. “We will also provide annual training and provide staff members with access to reporting tools. And part of this will include on the school site safety teams reviewing workplace hazards and responding accordingly to mediate any workplace safety hazards.”
A visual applied performing and technical arts coordinator will be added to help across the district and to fulfill its second goal of providing high-quality instructional programs for all students.
“This new coordinator will work with site administration and instructional staff to develop a consistent and viable curriculum and baseline of instructional standards for elementary special programs that will foster students’ pursuit of VAPTA electives at the secondary level,” she said.
For its third goal of ensuring that students and staff have opportunities to thrive through programs designed to promote social and emotional health, wellness and interpersonal connectedness in an environment that is safe and welcoming: “All schools will develop and maintain a Positive Behavior Intervention Support Plan, or PBIS plan, where staff will receive training in order to maintain safe, healthy and thriving school climate.”
“Additionally, the district three-year DEI plan will transfer to a site-based approach, [where] sites will address their needs and identify training initiatives related to culturally relevant and responsive education plans,” Hurley added.
PBIS is an evidence-based, tiered framework for supporting students’ behavioral, academic, social, emotional and mental health, according to the PBIS website.
With an emphasis on five elements — equity, systems, data, practices and outcomes — PBIS is a way for schools to engage with students, family and community members to co-create culturally responsive practices, regularly checking the effectiveness of practices, using data to monitor student progress and identify strengths, and much more.
For its fourth goal, the district will continue to focus on capital improvement projects and maintaining safe facilities throughout the district.
The district was also able to maintain and implement actions from each goal in the 2023-24 LCAP, such as cultivating robust partnerships and collaborations with key education partners, completing training and having opportunities for professional development, unifying social-emotional learning programs such as the opening of the college and career center and expansion of La Cañada High School wellness center, and improving levels of cleanliness and maintenance at all school sites.
The LCAP also reflects on annual performance based on a review of the California School Dashboard and local data. The 2023 California Assessment of Student Performance and Progress, or CAASPP, data revealed that LCUSD students are continuing to demonstrate consistent progress in meeting state standards.
In English Language Arts, 88.6% of students meet or exceeded standards, and 85.12% met or exceeded standards in mathematics.
Meanwhile, LCUSD saw an increase in chronic absenteeism across most subgroups and maintained a graduation rate of 98.4%.
Board President Josh Epstein thanked Hurley and the team for their time in developing the new plan.
“I just marvel at the amount of work that is required,” Epstein said. “… You’ve done terrific work here.”
