School Board Comments
In a few minutes, you will approve the TVUSD LCAP for 2017-18. This is the culmination of a lengthy and time intensive process this past spring.
While there undoubtedly has been district progress in collecting and utilizing stakeholder input, there are areas in which TVUSD’s approach to LCAP can use a change of direction.
After returning from vacation last week, I spent some time reviewing neighboring districts’ LCAP’s, particularly Murrieta Valley’s.
Our LCAP’s are similar in that both districts receive nearly $11 million in supplemental dollars for 2017-18.
Yet I did find some interesting components which seem to distinguish it from TVUSD’s.
The picture on Murrieta LCAP website page is composed of the acronym LCAP, followed by “Your Schools, Your Plans”. Rather than a prescribed, district driven LCAP, Murrieta Valley allows class sections to be utilized in each school’s best interests. They use their LCAP for both intervention and acceleration in a site based model.
Each middle school receives four sections of intervention and/or acceleration at a projected cost of salary and benefits of about $200,000. Each high school gets up to nine sections at a projected cost of about $150,000.
They appear to utilize existing personnel rather than the sort of auxiliary specialist model TVUSD has committed to. This would seem to promote economic efficiency with less personnel to pay full freight on salary and benefits.
On page 224 of the Murrieta LCAP it states: “School site LCFF supplemental dollars are allocated to meet the local needs of unduplicated students at every school. Each school site is allocated LCFF supplemental dollars based upon the individual school unduplicated student count” On the next page it is declared as the most effective use of funds “Because school sites can provide support and services to the unique needs of their student populations”.
It is clear Murrieta trusts its site administrators and teachers and aims to fully empower them through their LCAP model.
Reviewing like district LCAP’s for alternative approaches to LCAP Actions and Services should be part of the process for both the Temecula district and stakeholder groups in developing and refining our own LCAP.
Thank you
