Welcome to our Tianjin Students

Today, we have guests that are visiting John F Kennedy Elementary School.  There are approximately 30 elementary school students visiting from Tianjin, China.  The JFK students have been preparing for this visit and are looking forward to meeting our guests.  We have certainly had Chinese visitors before, particularly with our John W North HS partnerships.  This is different as these students are elementary students.

Tianjin is about 65 miles east from Beijing, the capital of China.  There are certainly differences with our Chinese counterparts, but we can all learn and improve with these new relationships.  In March we will have another visit from Tianjin students.  In March there will be 200 students and they will divide and visit either John F Kennedy or Lake Matthews Elementary School.  We anticipate that our students will benefit and learn from these relationships.

Great Walk

As you can tell, I am already running behind but I am trying to stay with my commitment – but there are only 4 days this week.  However, Sunday and Monday I was able to attend Martin Luther King, Jr. events.  First the celebration on Sunday at the Park Ave. Baptist Church, which was great!  Then Monday it was off to the MLK Walkathon.  It is always great to see such a good crowd and it’s a great walk (5 mi for me).  This year was a bit different in that we had several detours given the construction on 14^th street and other locations.  It is always great to see our students involved.  I was able to connect with 3 of our high schools that were there (I am sure the others were there as well—but there were LOTS of people).  A great Riverside event, representing someone who made great contribution to us all.

Martin Luther King Day

Monday is the time we remember Martin Luther King and his multitude of contributions to our society.  I hope that you have the MLK Walkathon on your schedule for Monday.  That is always a great event as we walk from Bordwell Park / Stratton Center to RCC via the MLK monument downtown.  We will be starting at 10 am (Registration is before that).  Hope to see you there.

LCF?

Getting to the specifics of the Governor’s LCF (Local Control Funding) proposal, there are a variety of twists and turns that we should watch and appreciate as this major policy/funding issue moves forward in Sacramento.  Obviously this approach will require that we individually count students with this approach.  It should be noted that ONE of those wrinkles is that a student can only be funded as an EL student for a maximum of 5 years – and then they are “out” of any supplemental funding calculation – THAT is a major shift.

I always try to “get the picture” of what is happening.  This is my best attempt at the changes that we are undergoing with the LCF proposal.

Our current (Prop 98) system varies the funding from district to district based on unique, historical and unusual information.  LCF should keep the funding essentially the same but base the funding based on each of our students not historical district information.  As to the student funding, essentially all students get the SAME basic funding regardless of which district or region of the state in which they may be attending school.  However, the plan calls for some differences based on grade (e.g., K-3 vs. other elementary). 

Then as there are special needs (poverty or EL), students get supplemental funding that is an increase of 35% over the basic funding.  Finally, if on a districtwide basis there is a concentration above 50% of disadvantaged students – THEN the district will receive an additional 35% for each student ABOVE that 50% threshold.  In other words, the first 50% in this category won’t provide any additional support.  For each student beyond the 50% there will be the additional +35% funding.

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The Governor Has Spoken

The Governor proposed the initial state budget this past week and this is the START of the process.  While the proposal provides us with optimism, it is a long way from its conclusion and adoption in late June.  It is clear already that there is resistance in the Legislature about some of the provisions of this proposal and general discussion and the resistance within the Democratic Party.

The proposal is pretty consistent with what we thought would happen – though there are some interesting wrinkles. Without rehashing analysis of others I would highlight some points from a 30,000’ view.

·       Overall, consistent with Prop 30 and the budget proposal we see that the “bleeding” has stopped and there is hope that we will actually begin to see restoration – though the restoration portion is yet to be realized (BUT we are really close).

o   Additionally, there is a strong message about maintaining flexibility and moving even more to local control

o   There would be a requirement to write a District Accountability Plan

o   With the flexibility there would probably not be state approval of our plans but would be review in our annual audit.

·       As suggested previously we have moved from WSF (weighted student formula) to LCF (Local Control Funding).

·       There is a major policy shift with Adult Schools moving to Community Colleges.  The obvious impact on us.

·       The potential to move forward substantively on the online education issue as the Governor has addressed this issue in his proposal.

·       Certainly the mandate reforms and addition are welcome – as we have been advocates for a solution that looks something like this.

I will attempt to highlight other specifics over the coming days and weeks.

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WSF (Weighted Student Formula)

As alluded to earlier, the Governor should be out this week with his budget proposal that will include a new funding model for California Education.  Needless to say, that is a pretty big deal.  We have been aware of the discussion over the past year.  WSF as it has been termed originated with Dr. Michael Kirst et al from the Stanford faculty.  Dr. Kirst is the current President of the State Board of Education and a long-time advisor of Governor Jerry Brown.

Part of the Governor's purpose behind this change is to provide local communities greater flexibility with the dollars that are available to meet the needs of local students as opposed to the restrictions and regulations of "categorical" funds.  Additionally, he is recognizing the challenge of helping students learn can be somewhat different based on the background, available resources, and circumstances of the student (e.g., English Learner, Socio-Economic status, etc.).

When the Governor makes his proposal, he may change the name from WSF to something else (undisclosed at this time) -- however, the principles remain the same.  First, there is a BASIC allocation of funds for all students -- as public schooling has a price even under the best circumstances.  Second, there is to be a SUPPLEMENTAL allocation that would be added to the basic allocation for students that have special / additional needs (e.g., English Learners, students in poverty, etc.).  Finally, there is to be what has been called a CONCENTRATION grant.  The concentration value is again additional funds beyond the basic allocation and the by-student allocation of supplemental funding.  The purpose of the concentration is to recognize that according to the research when there is a certain concentration of special students achieved the challenges increase and therefore the required resources increase as well.  There is current discussion of the concentration threshold being set at 50% Free/Reduced Lunch eligibility.

After the Governor's proposal surely there will be lively debate in the Legislature -- which must approve an ultimate budget.  I am sure that there will be a similar debate across the land as districts and communities determine whether they are "winners" or "losers" with the new formula.

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The Governor should present his budget proposal for 2013-14 tomorrow. Stay tuned!

Maybe this time?

Okay, so I/we started off in the Spring of 2009 with a blog and I did pretty well logging 320 posts before the wheels apparently fell off the wagon in August 2011 .  Failure to post did not mean that I was not guilt-ridden about the issue.  Obviously, things have been busy but that does not change the basic concern about not living up to my end of things.

Well, it is a new year -- and time to give it a new try.  Heaven knows there are plenty of issues at the state, national, and local levels.  Watch for the Governor's initial budget proposal on this Wednesday, January 10th.  He will be proposing a fundamental change in how we fund California schools.  We have been using Prop 98 for quite some time and his proposal will be to create a new mechanism referred to as WSF (Weighted Student Formula) -- though my understanding is that he does not like the name and as such will "brand" it with a new name in his proposal.

Certainly other issues that bear consideration include such things as:  Common Core, the new Smarter Balanced Assessment plan, Proposition 30 and its impacts, California Voter Rights Act, Weighted Student Formula, etc.

I hope you will consider taking the time to peruse these blog issues.  I will make every attempt to post at least twice a week -- we will see how I do.  More importantly, I hope that this is a conversation and you COMMENT on the posts as that always adds value to the discussion.