001I'm just going to Good afternoon everyone. I'd like to call this special meeting to order at 5:00 pm. Uh, Miss Charles, can you please call the role? Director Mike Chang, Vice President Mike Chang. Uh, yes. Director Jennifer Korn here. Director Jennifer Shinowski is here. Uh, director Anavasu is excused this evening. President Kadija Brown present. Uh, is there a motion to approve this evening's special board meeting? I move to do so. Okay. It's been moved by Director Changeng. Is there a second? A second. Seconded by Director Korn. All those in favor, please signify with the sign of I. I. I. Opposers have the same sign. Abstensions. The eyes have it and the motion carries. And this evening's agenda is approved. We will now move to uh the opportunity for public testimony if there is anyone here
002for public comment. Uh we have 10 minutes for public comment this evening. And so we will begin uh that 10 minutes right now at 5:10 and go all the way to 5 uh 20. Is there anyone here for public comment? Okay, just one or two. Just one. Okay, go ahead. You can go ahead and go to the podium. Um since you are the only person here who's speaking, you get your full two minutes. I don't think I'll take Okay. Yeah. Pull it towards you so that they'll be able to hear you online. Is that good? Okay. I am coming. I am a parent of a student at Berkeley High. Um, and I know of the case of my student and the case of other students of students who have challenges with math in the aftermath
003of COVID in particular and learned recently of the need for summer school. But I also learned recently that there's no space in summer school for rising juniors because there is only one math class. And I'm sort of wondering what we're thinking of in terms of, you know, kids in their future. You know, I absolutely agree that you need to prioritize rising seniors, but if you don't prioritize the rising juniors, too, when the time they're rising seniors, they're going to be so, you know, and just to reiterate that uh when people don't do well in class, it affects their self-esteem. It affects how they do feel as human beings, how they interact with the world. And I think making it giving an opportunity for all those rising juniors to also get a math class would be
004great. So that is really all. Thank you so much for your comment and for joining us this evening. Uh we have one public commenter online so we'll go there now. Can you hear me? Okay. Yes, we can hear you just fine. Welcome. Thank you. Um, thank you for hearing me yet again. I appreciate um taking the time. Um, I'm Lily Howell. I'm an OFI specialist and I'm just wondering if we could highlight some issues with the um, LCAP budget tonight or maybe these questions can be answered for me. Um, but I noticed in the proposed general fund budget when we proposed cutting 3.0 0 FTE OIE specialist. That was a savings for the district of $330,000. So my assumption is that one OFI specialist cost the district $110,000 by that logic. Um but then when
005I look at the proposed LCAP plan, which proposes 1,23,747 for OFI, that's only enough it says in the plan to cover 5.9 FD OFI specialists and one OIE supervisor. um which is a reduction. If we follow the same funding formula of the $110k,000 peri specialist used in the general fund budget, 5.9 FTE would only cost $653,400. And I can't imagine that the supervisor cost $370,374. Um it seems like there should be enough to fund at least another of specialist. And I think of all the things um we want to we want to not reduce and lay off staff as much as possible. So I'm just wondering what that other unspent money is for if not to save OPI specialist FTE. Um also last year in our LCAP we spent $200,000 less than was allocated. So
006again, if we could maximize dollars to save um specialists, that would be great. So hopefully that's something that can be answered. just the discrepancy or the unc uncertainty unclarity around those numbers. Thank you. Thank you very much. And we will be sure to raise that uh during our LCAP presentation. Uh seeing that there are aren't any other public commenters here this evening. We will move on to our first discussion item which is discussion item 4.1 for the 20 2024 to 2027 local control and accountability plan update. I got it. All right. Uh, good evening members of the board, members of the public, superintendent. Um, my name is Jill Hoganike. I'm the associate superintendent for the educational services department here in Berkeley. I'm joined here today uh by Dr. Dr. Sweeney who's our director of the
007Brea department and Dr. Bondurus who is our interim director of the curriculum of the categorical programs and special projects uh department. Um and we are going to provide information about um the LCAP development and recommendations as we head into the 2526 school year. Um, as always, we ground this uh this work particularly um in our district's mission to enable and inspire our diverse student body to achieve academic excellence and make positive contributions to the world. Um, and in the course of this presentation, we are going to provide a brief overview of the LCAP. Um, and we're going to review uh components of year two of the 2427 LCAP. and then um we will take feedback from the board so that we can use that information to finalize the LCAP for next week's board meeting. Um
008we're going to start with an overview of the LCAP. Um the purpose of the LCAP or the local control accountability plan is to address opportunity and achievement gaps for focal students. Specifically for our unduplicated student groups um which are students who qualify for free and reduced price lunch, our English language learners or multilingual language learners um as we call them in BUSD and our foster youth. B USD's LCAP sits in the context of our emerging strategic plan and other district initiatives and resolutions. Um our BUD receives funding through the local control funding formula and a requirement of receiving these funds is that we must complete an LCAP. Uh LCAPS are three-year plans and they are updated annually. Um and uh uh we need to make sure that through the course of our LCAP that we
009are connecting student needs with our actions and services so that we can improve outcomes for our students. Um we have a timeline um for the LCAP that you can see here. This work is seasonal. We are here at the end of the school year where we present our LCAP to our educational partner, specifically our parent advisory committee and members of our DAC committee and then we present that to the board for approval. Um, but as a reminder, this is a three-year LCAP. So, we are coming to the conclusion of the first year of our three-year LCAP. Um but annually we complete this process of implementing services, reviewing um our services. We present to the board a mid-year LCAP update that came in two parts this year um because we had a mid-year update in February
010and then we came back in March with um a specific presentation around LCAP goal 3. We also engage our educational partners in um this work and we annually administer a survey and you'll be getting some information about those results this evening. Um as part of our timeline and part of the process, we also undergo a review by the Alama County Office of Education. ACOE meets with each uh school district to review their draft LCAP um in the following categories that you see there listed on the left hand side. Um they provide feedback to determine whether or not all of these components either meet requirements, require technical changes or have required revisions. Um we had our meeting um with ACE at the end of May and overall the feedback was positive. There were some technical issues.
011Um, some of the budget numbers were not in at the time of the review and so some of the calculations could not yet be checked um because we did not yet have the LCFF calculator, but that is all now in place. Um, there were also some areas where it was recommended that we add some additional information. uh for example, additional reflection in the narrative in the goal analysis to make sure that we were clearly calling out areas for which BUSD had been identified for differentiated assistance. So specifically um for our uh students experiencing housing insecurity or students with IEPs. So staff went back and made those changes um and that is reflected in the draft LCAP that you have um attached to this agenda item. As a reminder, we have five LCAP goals. You have
012seen these LCAP goals across all of our ED services presentations um through the course of the school year. Um we have goal one and goal two around um high quality um uh instruction that is in alignment with our strategic plan pillar of academic excellence and equit equitable outcomes. Um, goal three is wellness and belonging also aligned to our strategic plan pillar and goal four on partnership and engagement. As a reminder, goal five is a required required equity multiplier goal that is specific to the Berkeley Technology Academy. Um, and then the text of those goals are what you see here. And we have a number of actions um, across those goals. Right, I'll turn it over to Dr. Bendor. Okay, great. Thank you, Jill. I will be going over our feedback. So, our LCAP survey went
013out to all staff, students, and families, and community members in March, as it does every year. We're very happy though to report that this year we had an additional 663 surveys completed across BUSD, totaling 1,923 respondents. You can see here um the how the demographics broke down and also um who on our staff for the most part answered the survey. We've done a lot of work across the district in various meeting spaces looking at themes and comments in the responses of both strengths and areas of growth. You can see some examples of them here and additional survey results are located in the appendex of this slide deck. Our district parent advisory council meets monthly and has done a significant amount of learning, listening, and asking questions. They've made recommendations for the LCAP listed here. Staff
014has formally responded to pack recommendations and those responses are on our district website as well as will be on the June 18th agenda. Overall, PAC has recommended the maintain to maintain funding for intervention, counseling, OPI, and college readiness. Our DAC has also been a committee group of parents looking at our LCAP actions as they pertain to English learners. Their recommendations include specialized instruction for long-term English learners, AVID Excel at our middle schools, and accountability around integrated EL. We'll now present on the goals, actions, and metrics outlined in our 2024 2027 LCAP. We'll start by highlighting the actions and services in year two for goals one through five. So under goal one, which is provide highquality classroom instruction and responsive instructional practices that are informed by data, promote college and career readiness, and eliminate the achievement
015gap based on race and or program. There are 15 actions listed here, as well as 21 metrics measuring the actions. So you can see here actions such as the literacy and math coaches are under goal one. Goal two is to provide and monitor necessary, timely, and effective academic and behavioral interventions to accelerate outcomes and eliminate barriers for student success. So this is where you'll find supports around RTI and EL. Goal three is to foster safe, welcoming, and inclusive school climates that are humanizing and culturally and linguistic linguistically responsive for students and their families so that all students are ready to learn and fully engage. And so here we have actions around restorative justice, attendance improvement efforts, and behavioral health to name just a few. Goal four, build authentic partnerships between families, school staff, and educational
016partners that leverage the strength and diverse skills and talents of our community and build capacity to promote successful outcomes for our students. Actions for goal four include translation, family engagement, and program evaluation. And lastly, goal five is specific to BTA and states that within three years, all students and particularly all students at BTA will demonstrate growth toward being prepared for college or career. Actions to realize this goal include college and career readiness supports, counseling, and developing individualized learning plans. So, Lena will now talk about LCAP metrics. Thank you, and good evening, board of directors and superintendent. Now will walk us through key metrics for our local control accountability plan. These metrics help us plan, assess our progress, identify areas for improvement, and ensure accountability. There are 28 required metrics. You can go back one. Thank
017you. Yeah. Right. Yeah. Thank you. There are 28 required metrics that align with eight state priorities along with eight areas dedicated to local measure development. The state determines many of the metrics that must be included in the LCAP, but there is plenty of room to add additional measures and metrics. Here we outline how metrics support our continuous improvement efforts. Each goal is supported by actions that are directly tied to specific measurable outcomes. Honing in on our 3x5 target, our goal is to increase proficiency annually by 3% for all students with an accelerated target of 5% growth for focal groups across all content areas. It is important to note that the 3x5 sections below are intended to check how close we came to this new target with last year's data. With our 3x5 target and shared
018goals across sites and through consistent analysis of our disagregated data, we monitor progress according to clear and specific target goals. These targets give us both urgency and clarity as we work towards equitable outcomes. Next slide. This slide presents samples of goal one with a description of the baseline data and growth required to meet each target. The data in the endofear or EOY 2425 column represents the most current data we have for each area. For example, the CASP data still reflects spring 2024 data where while our star and dibbles data is fresher and new as of spring of 2025. When looking at our CASP data as compared to baseline and according to our 3x5 target, we note that we have made some appro improvements there. Thank you. This slide zooms in on our CASP data by
019our racial, ethnic, and focal groups. While we have made progress with our socio-economically disadvantaged students according to our 3x5 target and an increase for our black African-American students, we note a slight decline in the percentage of our multilingual learners who met or exceeded on the CASP ELA, highlighting work that still, excuse me, that still remains. Thank you. Here we zoom in onto our K through2 disagregated endofear dibbles data. We see an increase according to our 3x5 target for many of our focal groups noting an over 5% increase for African-American socioe socioeconomically disadvantaged and students with disabilities while recognizing work that remains with two focal areas of stagnation. The college career indicator includes measures of how well LEAs and schools are preparing students for likely success after graduation. Graduates classified as prepared on the state measure
020must meet at least one of the criteria in the prepared level. Under goal two, we are measuring reclassification rates and monitoring students who have not completed school. to highlight on the metrics. Percentage of students meeting A throughG requirements and percentage of students who have graduated. Our improved endofear data shows that we are nearing our target outcomes. Here we move on to goal three, wellness and belonging. This slide provides an overview of attendance suspension and our California healthy kids or chicks survey data for our students in grades 5, 7, 9, and 11 with a focus on two metrics, school connectedness and students reporting caring relationships with adults at school. And here we highlight goal three through a disagregated view of our fifth grade students who of percentage who feel connected to school. According to our chicks
021data, according to our 2025 data, 83% of our African-American students and 82% of our Hispanic Latinx students feel a sense of school connectedness with all fifth grade students at the target for this area. We note that fifth grade students overall and by focal group report feeling somewhat more connected to school than our seventh, 9th, and 11th grade students. And just to note, all of this information is also in in the appendix to the LCAP. Okay. For goal four, partnership and engagement, our metrics are designed to assess the depth and breadth of our family and community engagement. We are working toward and measuring participation and feedback in the ELPAC survey and the extent to which our parents experiencing experience school as a welcoming environment. We recognize that in 2025 we have a slight dip in the
022percentage of our families feeling welcome um down 2% for our families with multilingual language learners and our families with students with disabilities. In this part, now we conclude our metrics overview. As we move to the next sections, we'll connect these outcomes to budget considerations. Yep. Okay. So turning our attention to um the LCAP budget, we want to first um remind uh uh the board and members of the public that we have aimed to anchor um our budget decisions in the core values of resource allocation um that you see here before you. I think one of the challenges that we are still working to address and will continue into the next school year is the resource allocation core value of sustainability and stability with regard to our um LCFF budget. Um you can see here um
023the uh projected budget prior to the May revise was anticipating um LCFF dollars um in the amount of about $6 million. Um after the May revise with the adjustment of UP and the ADA there was an additional almost $300,000 added to our projected budget. Um that was helpful. Um, and we also want to recognize that we still have a structural deficit in our LCAP. Um, when we presented the three-year LCAP last year, um, we had a projected supplemental budget of about $5.8 million with about $6.2 million of um, expenses. That left us with a gap. Um, we did have some projected unspent money as we were spending down the COVID funds and we had a deficit that we covered um through the one-time use of the LCFF reserve money that the board took action on
024last spring. As we're coming into this uh next school year, 2526. Again, the projected amount you see there for $6.3 million with projected expenses of about $7.2 $2 million and not any projected unspent money of our LCFF dollars um as we head into that school year. So, while we have a projected deficit um we have identified grant funds that will allow for temporary stability but not long-term sustainability. And as we go through the next set of slides with each of the actions, we'll identify where we have um uh allocated funds to uh these grant funding sources to help attend to maintaining our actions. uh recognizing that um as you saw and heard in the PAC and DAC uh committee comments uh last week and in their own reflections and reports that are included on this
025board agenda item, there is a strong desire to do everything that we can to maintain the actions that we have in the LCAP. So um one thing to know before we go through this is that we do have remaining learning recovery emergency block grant funds. Um this will be the primary source of funds that we are going to use um to help cover some of these costs. There are new provisions and requirements um with the learning recovery emergency block grant. namely that um if we if a district has remaining funds um as of June 30th, 2025, those funds are going to need to be included in the LCAP, which we have done um so far this year. One of the requirements for determining how to allocate those funds is that the district conduct a needs
026assessment. uh we worked alongside of the Alama County Office of Education in addition to our own review of data um mostly coming out of B USD's identification as a district and differentiated assistance um but through a number of uh data points inclusive of the data metrics that Dr. Sweeney shared with you um and our annual um our annual planning survey. There uh were some uh key areas that came up from um our educational partners that they are wanting to make sure that we can prioritize. Uh it should come as no surprise that coming out of COVID enhancing social, emotional, and mental health supports has definitely been a priority, not with with not necessarily additional funding. Um and we know that that is going to continue to be an issue that our community will desire um
027for us to prioritize even as we move through um these budget balancing times. Strengthening family and community engagement. um uh building out a robust MTSS specifically for attendance. We know that attendance is an is also a revenue generator and an area that we have not been uh we have not realized the bounceback to our precoid attendance um levels and so that is definitely an area that we have been focusing on and then also thinking about high need uh grade levels and um attending to um specific identified student groups that you see there on the left hand side coming out of our differentiated did assistance work in looking at schools that have also um scored red on the dashboard for particular groups. That's what you see there listed on the left hand side. So, as we
028look at the budget, we're going to go through um the action items that are tagged for use of our supplemental LCFF dollars um across each goal, although there are a number of other actions um in the LCAP. Um so you can see here for goal one on our academic specifically focused on tier one um we have LCAP actions um that had been tagged for supplemental LCFF dollars. Uh there are three of them here inclusive of our literacy TSA supporting of the AVID and the bridge programming. Um and you can see there where we've identified educator effectiveness which is a grant that will expire next year. We have remaining funds um coming out of balancing the books for this year. Our projections are that we will be able to cover part of that cost or that
029cost through the educator effectiveness dollars. Um the bridge program is predominantly funded um through the LCAP, but um we do have um some components of that work on uh our A throughG grant which will also expire at the end of the next fiscal year. For goal two, um this is our tier 2 and tier three interventions. Thinking about RTI staffing, um which is uh shared across LCAP and our BP funds. um ELD support which was prioritized coming into the 2425 school year with specific recommendations from LCAP and from our other educational partners um to to better serve our English language learners specifically attending to the need to have the daily um EL instruction, our ELD TSA, math TSAs, and then the math support classes um all are uh tagged for goal two. You can see
030there that we will again move the TSA support work into educator effectiveness and um we are going we have some capacity in BP to help support the math um support class. So we'll be moving about the equivalent of 08 FTE into BP for goal three. Um this is our goal that is focused on wellness and belonging. Um so uh as part of that work um we have a wellness grant through the Alama County Office of Education. So we will we're proposing to move um one of the FTE on the RJ coordinator into that wellness grant that will reduce the cost and then looking at the intervention counselors. This is sort of a two-fold situation. Um we have added intervention counselors with the COVID funds to Berkeley High as we head into the 2526 school year.
031it had been tagged 2.5 FTE in the LCAP. As you know, we still have some we had a couple of vacancies um on our counseling staff at Berkeley High. Um and so rather than, you know, trying to find somebody to take the 0.5 or proposing the reduction 2.5 to 2.0 um for Berkeley High and then we'll move the cost of the intervention counselors into learning recovery. Um, leap teachers is the last one here on this list. This actually um has been a point of conversation over the course of the last couple of years in determining and thinking about the effectiveness of the LEAP program, but most significantly to be looking at the enrollment of our LEAP classes. We have had some very small LEAP classes. I think at one point this year there was a
032a class or two that had one or two students in it. um and just trying to recognize that that might not be the most effective use of our funds in these tight budget times. Um so we are proposing to reduce um right now there are three LEAP sections per hive. So 3 * 7 is 21. So we'll be reducing um by one section per hive to 14. and we'll move um the rem that remaining cost into BP which is holding um most of the cost of the LEAP classes at this point in time. Um as we go on to the next slide, I just want to acknowledge our public commenter and I'm I was trying to do some back of the envelope math in real time. So this might be something that we're going to
033need to circle back to. Um but we are we uh goal four is on parent uh partnership and engagement. The bulk of our um staffing comes from um the LCAP on the LCAP dollars. We are proposing at this point the reduction of a 1.0. We had carried 2.0 O FTE of our OE liaison on that LCAP carryover using the LCFF reserve from last year. Um and there are um other operating costs that are associated with OPI but I I do think that this number is a little bit high and so we'll have to make that correction. Um the B uh the Berkeley High welfare and attendance um FTE is also here alongside of LCAP evaluation and indirect costs. Um the one thing that uh we do not have currently coded um on the LCAP for
034goal five are the equity multiplier funds um for BTA. Um the state allocated about $76,000 as we came into the 2425 school year. Um those allocations and the uh formal identification of equity multiplier schools has not yet been posted by CDE. So we did not want the school to score and anticipate covering any costs um with funding sources that we have not yet been able to confirm. So, we will be keeping our eye on that as we move through the summer, but um that had not yet been posted. Um there's also been a shift that is making me curious about um how and whether or not equity multiplier schools will continue to be identified because one of the factors is that a school has a free and reduced price lunch count of over 70% and
035BTA dropped below that 70% marker on the seabeds um count this year. So that is something that is is definitely still TV. Okay. And then we're going to close this out um with um our next steps. Um so we are taking uh community feedback and feedback from the board. Uh the link to the LCAP is there. It's also posted on the agenda and there is also a feedback link. So we'll be taking a look at any input that we receive over the course of the next couple of days. Um, we know that we need to make any revisions and get that submitted um, for next week's board meeting agenda. Um, and then we have a couple of timelines to meet um, as we head into the summer. And with that, we'll take any questions. Thank
036you all so much uh, for your presentation. I have a ton of questions. So, if it's okay, I'll begin and then if you all have questions um, you'll jump right in. Uh, first I just want to ask a clarifying question. Um on pages uh 24 through 30 um you will that's the measure monitoring section um to show where we met the goals for the 3x5 targets. Um there weren't any um LCAP uh measures for uh goal five. And so I wanted to ask um if there are goals um that were met and if there's information to share around those could you please share them? Those were the equity multiplier goals. So yeah um we can definitely add those there. So for example, one of the goals was one of the actions was around um ensuring
037that all students at BTA had an individual uh learning plan. Thank you. I was trying to remember the acronym. Um and in that case at the midyear um BTA did report that they had initiated individual learning plans for each of those students but we hear you and we can include that information. Thank you. I think there's also um space to add information about student counseling um there as well because student counseling falls under goal 5. Um so I'd like to know where we are with that um as well as our college and career ready supports. Um, I'm not sure if there's like an overlap there with bridge and collegebound um and rise or um what all the collegebound or college and career ready supports entails, but it would be great to see those updates as
038well. Um, so that's number one. Uh, number two, goal three uh calls out the African-American success framework. Um, and I'm wondering, did you receive feedback um, from the African-American Success Advisory Committee in the same way that you did uh, PAC and DAC, or did you reach out to them for um, adisement in the same way? Not in the same way. They're not one of our required groups. So, the extent to which they presented and we took information from them does did not function in the same way that we did for PAC and DAC. Um I think as we move from um process being processoriented to being like you know excellent I think it would be really great to include their feedback especially you know since goal three calls them out um calls out the African-American
039success framework explicitly and that's an you know an advisory group that solely works on that. I think it would be really great um to receive their feedback and to ask them for uh recommendations in the same way. And I understand they're not um a required group, but I think it would be um really great to get information from them. So, thank you. Um as it relates to the learning recovery emergency block grant funds, um how much money do we have left in that block grant? That's a tricky question because we're still closing out the books and we have um the most significant expenditure that we have on those funds are the contracts that we have for mental health supports for our elementary schools. Um we contract with a number of city agencies to be able
040to provide that support and not all of that information is in yet. Um, but we're getting closer, so I can't give you an exact answer, but I can try to get close for next week. Okay. Trying to get close would be uh great and helpful. And that's the only um program that we're using those the rest of those funds towards or there multiple programs that we're going to use. We have multiple program. I mean what the the most significant expenditure at about a million dollars coming out of the learning recovery funds is um the mental health contracts for the elementary schools. It's it's an pretty significant and important because prior to COVID we have the mental health grant through the city of Berkeley which is just over a hundred and some odd thousand dollars. Um
041and at the time um that plus each individual school's contribution was enough to carry the staffing of those services. What we saw coming out of COVID was not just a small increase but an exorbitant increase in those costs and because we knew that mental health services was an important thing because of the the time and the situation we were in um and the feedback that we were giving. We had made an early and strategic decision to use our COVID funds to help um to help subsidize the cost of the that increase. When we saw that COVID was closing out, learning recovery became an a learning recovery block grant was another funding source to be able to use it. Um but there are a number of other things that we have been using um but much
042smaller. So, for example, um some of the subscriptions and licensing that we had um for uh uh online types of programs that different schools and CLA and grade levels were using. Um we continued to carry those costs even though they had been we had been using COVID money for that. Um we are working on um as we make these decisions for each year examining usage rates and things like that and recognizing that some of those licenses we might not be able to carry if we don't have an ongoing funding source. So those are a couple of examples. Thank you so much for explaining that. Um the reason I'm asking is because um again you know gold 3 uh covers and supports um the work of the African-American success framework. And one thing that I really
043really love about Berkeley Unified School District is that um we called out African-American students in our LCAP before it became popular, before other people even thought to do it. Um showing our commitment to the success um of of equity for all of our students. Um which is really really phenomenal. So, since the state is now making it a requirement that the rest of the emergency learning uh block grant funds are now going into um the LCAP, I'm wondering if there or I would like to give direction to um use what some of what is left um from those funds to help support the work of the African-American success framework. So, I know that last week we received a presentation with a recommendation to um cut some of uh that work or cut some of the
044uh some of the program. Um, and I would really like to see that money help restore uh some of the things that were cut. What I'm thinking about specifically is when I look at goal one or I look at goal two um and I look at um the baseline the low baseline uh percentages and then I look at the target for year three um I know that the gap is is really really large and I know that that gap cannot be filled without um the support of really really good programming um without the support of great um instruction without the support of supplemental in instruction and programming um but also without the support of funds. And so um I'd like to provide that direction this afternoon. Can I just get a pulse check from your
045colleagues on that direction? I are you asking me if you can get a post check or are you asking them to give you a post? Yeah, because I'm getting, you know, we have to take our direction from the board and so I'm hearing one board member make that um make that recommendation. Okay. Yep. She wants to hear from y'all. I guess I'd like clarity on exactly how So, you're saying, you know, you'd like to have resources put in to sort of backfill in those spaces. Where are you suggesting? Yeah, I would like clarity on the No problem. The first thing that I said um is I know that last week when we were together um it came to us in terms of uh cuts for the African-American success framework and there was we needed to
046make those cuts. First we were told it was $60,000 African-American success framework along with YGB. First we were told it was $60,000 and then uh after we voted or when we were upon the vote we were told it was $150,000. Um, and so my recommendation or my direction that I'm providing is that we use some of the block grant money that is left over to help restore some of the cut that we uh that we voted on to make last week or figuring out best ways to use it to support the African-American success framework in whatever way is necessary seeing as though it's called out in goal three and that the state is telling us that we need to use the rest of the block grant funding to be able to support LCAP. And so
047I'm thinking that this is also another way that we can use that funding to support LCAP spec. I'm not giving specifics around dollar amounts. I'm just giving examples of what led me to this idea. So I think thank you for that. But I think my question is is there are there resources available in that block grant to do to fill in? Are there additional resources? Yeah, that was my first question to J. if if there was enough money or I'm sorry, Associate Superintendent Hogan Dyke. My first question was uh if there was enough money, how how much money was left is was actually my first question. And she said she'll get that information to me. And then I asked what that money was being spent on and she shared uh that the biggest um portion
048of that money was to support our mental health because we prioritized that after COVID. Uh but there were some other things that were being funded from that uh from the block grant fund. And so since there are there is space and there is money that my recommendation is to use some of it for that. So my my question in saying is there enough money like we don't exactly know. So I for me it's hard to give direction if we don't exactly know that that's sort of what I'm trying to get. Yeah. That's why I wasn't specific around a dollar amount because I don't know how much it is. But as soon as we get that information from associate superintendent Hoganike, then that will be able to give us information about how much and what what
049would be appropriate to allocate. But if we don't have it today, then you know Yeah. And I think what I'm looking for is that you know if there is so what I'm hearing as the proposal is that if there is capacity for some amount because we know that some of that work um from our um our college and career readiness programs as presented last week is on general fund. Is there a way to realize a general fund savings using learning recovery funding sources? So the the short answer to that question is yes because it would it would fall in line with the guidelines of that program and I think it would also be in alignment with um some of the information that we got from the needs assessment. The question is the dollar amount. So
050we're happy to figure out um what that capacity might be be but I just need to know if we've got the majority of the board who would like to see us use that funding source. I guess for me I'm not ready to make that um to give that recommendation yet because I also see that you know under synthesis of needs assessment like much of that work really would fall under OFI in my opinion and there are also cuts to OFI. So for me, I'm like, if there's additional if there are additional resources in that block grant, I think it um is important for me to look at all of those needs and all of the places that cuts have been made and really do a holistic assessment. So, I don't feel ready to give that
051direction at this point, but I do appreciate, you know, the um that there are ways to shift resources and the block grant may be one of those ways. Yeah. And the good thing about this is like it's our job to be able to provide direction. And so, I agree with you and I think that OFI would definitely be another place to if there's extra funding to be able to restore that. And all we have to do is say, "Oh, I would also like to look into OPFI being restored. I'd like to like this is our time to be specific and to advise on um our LCAP uh for next year." And so u if your adisement or your direction would be to also see if there's enough funding to be able to restore what was
052um take or what was cut for then I that would be something that I would support too. And so I think this is just our time to share Sure. I think that's what I'm trying to do. And I would prioritize our OPI staff because once again, as I said last week, I would like to prioritize our um BUSD employees um and making sure that we um we keep people whole and programs whole within our district. Can I ask one more question on this topic? And I hope you all will forgive my newness because I think I'm asking a question that you already asked, but I I still didn't quite I still don't quite understand. Is there extra learning recovery funding or is there funding that is being saved for next year that we're suggesting be
053spent this year? Yeah. Or are we talking about trade-offs? Are we talking about not funding something in order to fund actions? No. Yeah, there's not extra learning recovery block grant funds. Um, we received an allocation from the state that was then reduced down, which most eleas experienced. Um, seeing your head nod because I don't know if if other districts were also in that boat. Um the requirement is that we included in the el be because of the court case we are required to conduct the needs assessment and then include documentation of how we're spending those funds um in the context of the LCAP. So many of the themes that surfaced in our needs assessment are already in alignment with BSD's LCAP goals and with some of the actions that we're taking and we're using that
054strategically. Um, I think one of the concerns we have, and this is all the we're going to send positive energy for all of the other revenue generating opportunities that we have before us. Um, there is a big concern about the cliff that we have for the mental health contracts that we have for our elementary schools. So different from our middle and high schools where we have staff that are assigned, we have contracted services with city agencies for that group which we knew were either going to be able to cover through the 2526 school year and then maybe extend that into 2627 because the learning recovery block grant does not expire until 2027. The tradeoff is that we are about to launch the payer fee um process that you heard a little bit about um with
055the hope of starting to recoup um some of those costs through that payment process which could generate funds. So what we've been trying to do is hold a some of that learning recovery block grant in anticipation of what 2627 school year is going to look like. Um because that tradeoff is we can use spend down more of that money but then we might not have those funds then available to cover the cost of contracts. Right? So those are the those are the two things that we're navigating. I appreciate your detailed answer. Um, and in terms of giving direction, I in an ideal world support both increasing funding for the African-American success framework and increasing funding for OP, but I am very concerned about a cliff for our mental health funding for elementary school. And I
056would um I feel very nervous about the idea of redirecting those funds and putting ourselves in a situation where we can't fund um mental health supports at the elementary school because I know how critically important those are. Yeah, I'm in the same position um as uh Director Korn in terms of protecting those mental health funds and at the same time OPI I think is also important. Um if there's a way to provide some resource um I don't know what the term is reallocation um for the African-American success framework of course I'd be interested in that. Um, but in terms of priority, I think it'd be mental health and OPI as programs and services. Uh, and hopefully there's some redundancy of um services that can be um utilized at OPI that can support the African-American success
057framework. What I'm understanding is we're not talking about cutting. We're talking about reducing. Just want to make sure I'm on the same page and understand everything that everyone else understands as well. Thank you. Can I ask a related question? Yes. Okay. Um about the O of allocation. Um I was interested when your response to the public comment was that there may be some additional funding or that that the number may be higher than it needs to be. So um if it turns out that there is that that number is higher than it needs to be for the staffing allocation and the overhead costs. I would hope that we would use that extra funding to be able to restore um an OPI position if possible. Yes, I I totally understand and appreciate um wanting to prioritize
058OPI services. I also want to honor and acknowledge that that was the feedback we also received from PAC and DAC. Um I do think that if that was uh a calculation error that shows a higher amount, we still have a million dollar deficit or $8886,000 um that we have as a structural situation with our LCAP. So we'll have to navigate that part, too. And just to make sure I understand as well being newish, um, does the revisions that are coming up impact this at all? I'm sorry, can you repeat that question? I'm not sure I understand. Yeah. To any coming governor's revisions impact the numbers that we're talking about now. Um, they did to the extent that the LCFF calculator uh generated that small bump of about $292,000 that you saw. So, um, that that's
059why I still had the million1.1 in my head, but that took it down to $886,000. So, um, that was a positive in the right direction. Um, but I don't think that any of the other uh anticipated funding sources coming from the May revise, unless there is an additional amount that's allocated for the LCFF uh calculation, that would be the only point, as I understand it, that we might realize um any additional funds to the LCFF dollars. Okay. Thanks, All right. So, um do you have uh marching orders and information additional information that you need from the board to prepare for uh June 18th? I have other questions. Go ahead. Um, so I have a few questions. Um, so on slide 24 I believe, let me not all the slides are numbered, so I'm I'm not
060sure that I have the right slide. Um, are you talking I'm looking at the goal sample goal metrics these the numbers? Yes. in 24 is sampleable. Okay. So, yeah. So, um slide number 24. So, um when I'm looking at these numbers, you know, the scientist in me, my data friends is looking at the numbers and I'm like the numbers are a little bit confusing. you know, if I look at three to five, uh, grades three to five, you know, you see drops in both math and reading scores and you see increases for, um, K to2 um, and a mix for six to eight. So, when I look at these numbers, you know, they're really small percentages and they're sort of a little bit all over the map for me. So when we're looking at these
061budget reductions and we're looking at the resources we have, what I'm wondering is if we're really focusing on what are we doing differently than we did last year, especially like if in grades three to five we are doing some things differently, which I think we are um right and trying to um expand that. And then what what are essentially I find it problematic to just keep doing things the same way again and again year after year hoping that our metrics are going up. And so I'm wondering what shifts we're making in the way that the resources are being allocated to expand on the increases and um turn around the decreases. And I also with the targets uh for year three, not just on this slide, but on many of them, they do seem very high
062based on what we're seeing already. And I'm just wondering what those targets are based on and and how we're adjusting the targets appropriately for what we actually um are doing. That's my f first question. And then I have a couple more. I'm gonna just I'm going to answer that target question first just so that we're we're clear. When we set the three-year LCAP plan, there's a couple of things that get baked in that we can't change once they're set. The targets are are one of them. Okay. um we did not do to this is the non-scientist talking to the scientists that sort of the statistical or the calculation what we were looking for and this is the unscientific but like in your thinking about change management how do we get a stickiness factor around our
063metrics um because in the last LCAP every goal and action for every student group had a different number attached to it so if you asked anyone in the system what our target was. There were very few people who could answer that question. What we really are trying to do in the context of the targets that we sent set coming into this three-year LCAP was for us all to hold ourselves accountable to an accelerated target for our Afric for African-American students, Latinx, students with disabilities, students experiencing housing insecurity, all of our focal groups in a way that we were all going to be able to check and measure that even though they were ambitious targets, right? So I think that would provide some context but I do think that there are things that we're doing not
064necessarily to shift course but to like double down on the systems process and structures that we're trying to implement to ensure that we can realize outcomes for students and and with that I just wanted to speak kind of overarchingly about some of the data patterns and we are seeing overall and with all of our subgroups an improvement in dipples our K through2 screener Um we are seeing also with our star um reading ours grades six through eight. We're seeing improvements overall there as well. And we are with our CASP data as well as um our a decrease in our chronic absenteeism, an increase in our attendance, um an increase in our graduation. And so we're seeing many positive data points as well as noting that our star math third through 8th grade, we did see
065um a decrease in our end of year data which we're curious about. Um next year we're extending our STAR math for first and second grade students. So we'll have deeper longitudinal data and this year we did extend which we've mentioned before for our ninth and our tth grade students. Um, so those are some of the patterns that we're that we're witnessing overall. I also just want to say, Director Shinaskki, that I've I've heard you ask similar questions um in other data presentations and it is duly noted. Um, one of the one of the things that we are really big on here in B USD is um really engaging continuous improvement. And so continuous improvement in requires us to ask ourselves several questions. Um um what is it that we're trying to improve? What changes might
066we make and why? and then how we know if those changes have actually led to impact. And so just so you all know when you see the data, we're never just looking at data, but we're always being really intentional about thinking about those questions. Sometimes the data is a reflection of actual intentional change actions that we've implemented. And when that is the case, we still want to allow ourselves time to study to make sure that those data are really reflective of those changes as opposed to then just saying, well, let's change everything to reflect that. Um, and we are only in year three. So, I know sometimes it feels frustrating to folks, but we really stay in study stage a little bit longer than some would hope. On the other hand, there's also examples of
067times where the data is surprising. Um, and it might not have been because of any intentional change action that we were taking um that we were we were kind of setting course for. In those cases, we do also in the reverse ask ourselves the questions of what might have led to this data and do studies around the root cause to figure out what we can learn. So, we we're always learning and asking those questions. um we will do try to do a better job of really um indicating that in our presentations, but we're always sometimes hesitant to do so publicly because we don't want folks to hear when they did a C is what happened and then and then you know not do an appropriate study. So um we will definitely try to figure out
068ways to show you all that but just please know that that is um not only how we set metrics but it's also how we engage in continuous improvement and and progress monitoring. um always asking ourselves those sets of questions. And and I just hope to add too quickly um in speaking of a continuous improvement, we have been working very concertedly on increasing our participation of students who take the the CASP assessment particularly at our high school at Berkeley High School. And um we do have this year the highest participation rate that we've had in in at least the the four years that um that I've been measuring. and um and our overall participation rate is 95% and over for for the district. Um I wanted to speak to also that we have not to put
069the cart before the horse, but we have 85% of our CASP scores in now and um we are seeing um improvements in both ELA and math with the 85% that we have in right now. Yeah. And I I mean I just want to double down that their causation and correlation that is always going to be a challenge for us. Um but we have put a significant amount of attention on our elementary literacy work and when we present on literacy right from day one it was never about the curriculum. It was all about building the infrastructure to support literacy which is work that takes time. You can't do that overnight. It's not speedy work. Um but I am proud of the work um that our team has been doing and our teachers and site leaders in
070particular. We have trained all the people. We have we have increased our um our we have maintained participation rates in our star and dibble assessment. New this year was a particular emphasis on progress monitoring for students who were scoring below benchmark. We're tracking that implementation data. We have trained our sitebased specialists in Orton Gillingham. We're making sure that those students that are tagged for Orton Gillingham show up in Educ. And now we're launching new curriculum. Right? So all of those things become important and it's hard to then tease out any one of those things in the context of the work that we do um for both the LCAP and with BAP is that we do we have prioritized funding for literacy coaches and RTI and our sitebased specialists really are a benefit. Most other districts
071don't have this level of additional staff. Um, and I will say that, you know, folks on those teams have really stepped into these leadership roles to be able to help support these shifts that we're making. So, it's hard to in a continuous improvement process, we do ask ourselves these questions. Um, and the focus for next year really is going to be on the implementation piece. How do we hold ourselves accountable now that we have trained people, we've provided the additional support and then what level of expectation should we have for how um these things are implemented on the day-to-day? Thanks. Just to be clear, I know that we are doing that continuous improvement work. My question is more about how are we being transparent in our budgeting so that we are shifting when we have
072to shift resources and make cuts, right? or move things around. How are we being responsive to the information that we're collecting? Because, you know, causation and correlation are not always they're not the same. Well, they're almost never the same, but so it's yeah, that is what I'm trying to get at. But I I do appreciate all the work that's going in and that's what I'm trying to tweeze out. Um just a couple of other super fast because I know we're running out of time. on number on slide 27 there's this based on incorrect A throughG completion. I'm just wondering what what does that mean that incorrect it is the state college career indicator percent prepared and it actually dropped by about 5% and it says based on incorrect A throughG completion. I just didn't I
073don't understand that. Yeah, this is 27. So the one, two, three, fourth one down, 8A goal one metric because you have student percent of students meeting A throughG requirements that went up to 71% but then there's this state I don't I don't know. Yeah, I'll have to look into the aspect because it's not coming up for me right now as to as to why. So I can get back to you on Okay. It seems like some different A through G, but I I just wanted to clarity on that. Um, two other quick comments I noticed. One is just a comment so you don't have to answer in the sake of time, but I noticed that the number of families that participated dropped pretty significantly. So, I think it would be important for us to figure
074out why and maybe try and reverse that trend in some um very concerted ways. And finally, I saw the LCAP evaluation was $300,000. I'm just wondering what is the LCAP evaluation and why is it costing so much money? Um, it's part of it pays for our parts of the staff for our BREA department. Thank you. Yeah. Okay. Thank you. And uh I'm sorry you said the Brea Department. Okay. I'd like to ask one more question which is um I I'm deeply grateful for all of the work that you've done around literacy and I notice here that the pack is suggesting that there should be a math interventionist at every elementary site. Um I'm noticing that we're putting resources into math support classes. I' I'd just love to hear you talk a little bit about um
075what the strategy and the theory of action is around math. We have a new and emerging strategy here around math. Um so under director Albeck's leadership, we launched the a math initiative this year bringing together families, staff um and our community partners to engage in creating a a vision for like unpacking the framework and uh and outlining a vision for mathematics recognizing that that is next on the horizon. Um it is you know we are not in a situation nor do we have the capacity to navigate two major content uh curriculum adoption processes at the same time. So um math will be following this work. We also know that at the state level the state is going to be going through its own process of uh curriculum approval and so that has not yet happened.
076So we don't want to get too far ahead of that situation. Um, we do support math teacher leads at our elementary schools in particular, and I think that's where this was this was coming from. I'm looking to the team to maintain to maintain that work. Um, we also know um that some of our school PTAs had covered the cost of math interventionists and because of other decisions that are, you know, they they all have to make decisions with their money too. And I think what they were saying was that we have on some level district support for our literacy coaches and we don't have an equivalent position um for math. Um so we're happy to consider that um among all of the tradeoffs that we would need to consider to make that happen. Um, but
077you know, right now we do have the commitment to support the math teacher leads and we'll be looking at the math work that's needed ahead. Thank you for your presentation. We're going to move on um right now to our budget presentation. Um, just to keep in mind, we have about 12 minutes before adjournment. So, I don't know how quick you can make it. Um, but maybe not that quick. So, what if we begin with what we can and um then we'll have to table the rest to the next meeting if we don't get through all that we need to get through. Okay. As she's getting ready, President Brown and members of the board, um the good news is that we engaged you all pretty thoughtfully um in the budget balancing proposals last week. And so
078it will be likely that a lot of what uh Pauline and Emily are going to share is is kind of a recap, if you will. And so what they're going to do is to really focus on those aspects of the presentation that were not covered um in last week's presentation. So good evening or good afternoon, good evening, I guess, um board members and superintendent. Um today's pres this evening's presentation is basically a recap of a quick recap of what we brought to the board on the 4th. Um and more importantly, we're sharing updates since that time that would impact our um bottom line for 2425 as well as 2526. So we can go to the Oh, so um our agenda is pretty much um we would be looking at um the budget summary and highlights
079the budget cycle very quickly variance report um with the understanding that a lot of our numbers have since changed a brief look at our ADA enrollment the multi-year projections we have not updated those numbers um the reserve level will change um other funds not so much. And then next steps are pretty much the same. So again, our um what do we know since um we presented um on June 4th, we now have more understanding about the budget balancing solution based on the board vote on the 4th. So, what we're looking at um budget balancing solutions totaling 6 million um which is $700,000 million.7 million less than staff proposals and we're now um $1.7 million away from our original target that we had set. Um increasing program costs for 2425. We have now identified a $1.8
0808 million gap in meeting increasing costs. Um and that would leave our ending fund balance at $79,000 before allocations for or designations for um various costs that we have after the ending fund balance. So to mitigate that um we would be transferring in funds from fund 20. um they have a $2.7 million balance and our our our g our goal is not to completely deplete that fund. We started off with it at 7 million and it's gradually being decreased. And also um we have a reserve of $800,000 um for LCAP and if we're in a financial um situation, we might not be able to meet that reserve. So we'll be looking at fund 20 and we'll be looking at the LCAP reserve. Um next slide. So um this is just um what what was in
081our original presentation. It's the general fund um focus. The uncertainty in the budget is less uncertain. We now know what the budget balancing solutions are. We have a an idea of the program costs. We will have to wait um for the governor's final budget um to determine what um we can actually score towards 2526 and of course our federal funding is also in a wait and see position. So we linked um the $6.7 million was before um the reduction of the 7. So this is from last week's presentation. So we can go to the next slide and our certification is still dependent on some of the outcomes of the unknowns. Um initially we're having a positive ending fund balance for the current year and the two subsequent years but this will require either transferring from
082fund 20 or using the LCAP reserve. Um let's just go to the next slide. So, um, again, we're pinning our hopes on the governor's budget. Um, that has not changed as yet. We know that the, um, the House and the Senate have come to some agreement in terms of what was in the governor's budget, but we're advised to wait for the governor's final budget before um, adding in these amounts. Um, next slide. Um and our federal out our federal outlook is the same as it was last week. So no changes there. Um no changes to the budget cycle. Um we can just go through these pretty quickly. And then we're at the variance report. Um this is being presented with the understanding that we have no changes from the budget balancing solutions because we have
083not had time to revamp this. um and and the increasing costs. So um we can go through this pretty quickly and then um we do have an updated slide on the ending fund balance that will inform you as to where we are right now. Can can I ask this? We we have seen this. Um so I'm wondering if we should just go to the updated slide over five minutes. Yeah, that's fine. That's fine. So this I can hardly see let me look at it. So this is the updated information that we had our um net increase in the ending fund balance. We're starting from um what we presented um in the variance report. Um our updated information is the $1.8 million that we know of. um it's a gap in meeting expend expenditures for 2425
084and of this amount we're not sure what is one time and what is ongoing. So at this time we're just scoring the $1.8 million and the 2425 column. We're also looking at um the impact of the reduced budgeting balance balancing solutions based on the board's vote on the fourth. So that's being scored in the 2526 column. So you can see that our net increase is now up to 3.5 million um in 2425 and we're deficit spending by almost $800,000 in 2526. Um when we look at the beginning fund balance that's going to give us a $79,000 ending fund balance in 2425 and this number is significant because that number becomes the the beginning balance for the other year. So when you look at the beginning balance in 2526, it's the same as the ending in
0852425. Um we also um I also indicated here that we do have $820,000 designated below the line for LCAP for the um which is a board policy. And then we also have in 2526 a $500,000 that we had set aside for increasing costs. So, at the time, um, the $500,000 was a very conservative estimate, which I had shared with the board last week. And now that we have the information on the increasing cost of $1.8 million, you can see that there's a shortfall of 1.3 million. And again, it's important because the the prior year is informing the ending balance for um for 2425, which informs um the 2526 year. So, at this point, when we're looking at the LCAP reserve, if we include that, um, that's $900,000 before designations, we're now looking at the ending
086fund balance, not the ending fund balance that's available. And then if we look at the 500,000 that we had mentioned at the last meeting, as well as the 800, we're at $600,000 for 2526. So what staff is proposing is that we will bring um a balanced budget when we return on the 18th with some contribution from fund 20 to kind of rightsize the budget and or um a reduction in the amount that we have for the LCAP reserve. So we will be be positive um at that time we will know also how much of the $1.8 8 million may be ongoing because we're still assessing that. So um so while we have a balanced budget, it will be um at the expense of transferring in more from fund 20 and or using the LCAP reserve.
087Um but of course we will know a lot more when we get the governor's budget and the 45day revise that will kind of help us um further along. So that's basically the update since last week. So are there questions in two minutes? Thank you so much. Questions? Questions? Question. Go ahead. Just really quickly. So um with the 45day revise, if if the expectation for additional resources from the state um is realized, we can um replenish fund 20, right? or if but if the if the increasing costs are ongoing we may have to use it for that as well. So okay thank thank you so much for your presentation meeting adjourned. Have a great evening everyone. Thank you.