Curriculum, Facilities and Budget: Three Great Tastes that Go Great Together

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The closed session for our 2/10/20 meeting begins at 6:00pm. The board will reconvene for open session starting around 7pm in the LASD Board Room. The entire agenda and supporting documentation can be found here. 

First up on the agenda, Sandra McGonagle will present LASD's Portrait of a Learner.  This is a discussion item and her presentation can be found under agenda item H.1 using the link provided above.  In her presentation she shows the process the Curriculum & Instruction Team used to develop the Portrait of a Learner and what the final product became.  The Portrait of a Learner developed by Sandra and team is meant to set up each and every child in our District for success in this rapidly changing world.  The Portrait of a Learner encompasses the 6Cs (shown in the graphic above and listed here): Collaboration, Communication, Character, Creativity, Critical Thinking, and Citizenship.

Next up, Sandra will present an English Language Arts Adoption Update.  This is a discussion item and her presentation can be found under agenda item H.2.   Sandra will be giving the Board an update how exactly Literacy has been taught in the district for the past couple years and what it has entailed.  I look forward to her presentation.  

If Sandra thought she was sitting down, she was gravely mistaken.  She gets to hang tight and go over the District's Draft LCAP Goals.  This is a discussion item and her presentation on the draft LCAP Goals can be found under agenda item H.3.  LCAP stands for Local Control Accountability Plan and LASD is heading into a new 3 year cycle with this current school year wrapping up our last 3 year cycle.  The District's Draft LCAP goals are as follows: 

1. Ensure all students have access to equitable conditions for learning.  
2. Prepare students for high school and beyond by equipping them with the skills and mindsets aligned to the Portrait of a Learner (The 6 Cs: Collaboration, Communication, Character, Creativity, Critical Thinking, and Citizenship).  
3. Provide tiered supports and systems that promote and sustain strong academic growth and positive social/emotional development for all students. 
4. Ensure a safe, healthy, and respectful school environment to maintain engagement, involvement, and satisfaction of students, staff, and parents.  

Next, Superintendent Jeff Baier will present the staff's work on Facilities Planning that we directed them to do at our last meeting.  At our last meeting, we received the final update of the Community Engagement Process from our 3rd party consultant MIG showing the levels of support of the 55 solutions brought forth during the process.  After receiving that information, hearing public comment, and extended Board discussion, the Board directed staff to apply the Guiding Principles (found here), to the top eleven supported facilities solutions, along with the top five supported solutions from each sub group (LASD parents, BCS parents, and Residents without school aged children) for a total of 13 facilities solutions.  Their application of the Guiding Principles and analysis of such can be found under agenda item H.4.  There will be NO DECISION made at this meeting, but the Board is asked to direct staff on the following: 

1. What additional information does the Board need for further evaluation of these options?
   
2. Are there any criteria missing the Board needs to continue its analysis?
   
3. Which (if any) options would the Board like to remove from consideration?
   
4. Would the Board like to add any options for analysis?
   
5. When would the Board like to discuss the options again?

DO REMEMBER that by the end of the school year the Board does plan to make 3 intertwined decisions: (1) long term facilities offer to BCS, (2) what will placed at the 10th site, and (3) whether to move to a middle school model.  

Then, Randy Kenyon will finally get his chance to be in the spotlight and present the 2020-21 Preliminary Budget.  This is a discussion item and his preliminary budget can be found under agenda item H.5.  The following is important to note in this preliminary budget: (1) it is preliminary, (2) the District still gets no real funding from the state, (3) it only anticipates property tax growth of 4% (less than prior years), and (4) it expects to use rental income from 10th site tenants to pay for facilities maintenance.   

Next, Randy will present Los Altos School District and the California School Employees Association Chapter 103 Negotiating Interest for 20/21.  This is an action item and the Board is asked to approve LASD's negotiating interests.  Both sets of negotiating interests can be found under agenda H.6.  When negotiating with both the teachers' union and, in this case, the staff's union, we participate in interest based negotiations.  Each side publishes to the other their entity's interest. 

Then, the Board is asked to vote to fill four vacancies on the CSBA Delegate Assembly for our region.  The CSBA is the California School Boards Association and the Delegate Assembly is comprised of school board members across the state who are tasked with reflecting the interests of school districts they represent.  This is an action item and the delegate candidate applications can be found under agenda item H.7.  

Next, Jeff is again asking the Board approve a Resolution in Support of Proposition 13: Public Preschool, K-12, and College Health and Safety Bond Act of 2020 (Assembly Bill 48).   This is an action item and the resolution can be found under agenda item H.9.  Jeff asks the Board to approve this resolution showing LASD's support of Proposition 13.  Proposition 13 is a statewide proposition for school facilities bonds that will not only help LASD, but the rest of the state school districts fund school facilities projects and in LASD's case, hopefully make the Measure N bond funds go even farther.   Furthermore, it will increase the local bonding capacity of LASD (that is, LASD could have the ability to go for a larger dollar amount in future bonds).  The only downfall seen so far in this proposition is that it also includes the ability of developers constructing within .5 miles of train tracks to forgo paying developers fees (of which LASD is a recipient).  It is unclear what the net impact to the District will be.  

Last, but not least, the Board will review a Board Bylaw update regarding Governance Standards.  This is a discussion item and the update can be found under agenda item H.10.  This policy/bylaw merely codifies that the Board believes that its primary responsibility is to act in the best interests of every student in the District and that it also has major commitments to all parents/guardians, all members of the community, and employees of the District and therefore are expected to govern responsibly and the hold themselves up to the highest standards of ethical conduct.  

Please note, this is just the highlights of what is on the agenda for the 2/10/2020 meeting.  You can inform yourself about the rest of the agenda at the link provided above.  As always, feel free to email me with any questions.