Live Blog: Board of Education, June 6 2023
Summary
During an acknowledgement of Pride month, Superintendent Wayne mentioned meeting with members of the SF Education Alliance about implementing the demands from the Board of Supervisors -approved Resolution to Protect Trans Youth and Adults, but didn’t mention our group by name.
LCAP:
The Local Control and Accountability Plan (LCAP) for 2023-34 was presented. As discussed in our earlier blog post, the LCAP is a requirement to gather input from the community in order to receive the bulk of CA state funding. Representatives from some of the community organizations that participate in the LCAP Task Force, which is managed by the central office, spoke as part of the presentation.
In a new development for this year, the LCAP includes “Vision, Values, Goals and Guardrails”. This is a framework that comes from AJ Crabill and the Council of Great City Schools (we will have more on this soon). The important thing to understand about this framework is its primary focus on test scores.
As part of this framework the Board has agreed to very ambitious and specific test score improvements over the next 5 years. The Superintendent has determined equally ambitious “interim” improvements to be reached in one year, by June 2024, such as doubling reading proficiency for African American and Pacific Islander Kindergarten students from 24% to 48% (see screenshots below).
The district plans to accomplish these goals mostly through instructional materials, computer assisted learning, and increased assessments. As several Board members pointed out, these goals will never be achieved without attracting and retaining qualified teachers and fully staffing schools.
Budget:
As part of the 2023-34 Budget presentation, district staff announced an additional $100M in funding from the state, although this seems to have already been included in the 3/14/2023 BOE meeting “second interim” presentation. In previous presentations, staff mentioned there would be updates in May on additional state funding, but it’s not clear if that was reflected or not in this presentation.
$40M of Unrestricted expenses will be shifted to the Restricted budget (see slide screenshot below). This effectively balances the Unrestricted budget for 2023-24, and shows the separation between the two budgets can be flexible. Most of the funding to pay classroom teachers comes from the Unrestricted budget.
Staff also announced setting aside a $50M reserve for “unsettled labor commitments” as negotiations with the teachers’ union, United Educators of San Francisco, are still ongoing. Commissioner Sanchez commented that this amount “won’t come close” to meeting the union’s demands. Commissioner Alexander said the budget as presented could result in teachers being blamed for the district going over budget.
Superintendent Wayne asked the Board to make a resolution at the next Board meeting on June 20th to commit to “taking action to eliminating structural deficit”. Which will be followed in the coming months by processes to “align staffing to enrollment” (this could mean cutting teachers) and “align school portfolio and programs to our student population” (this could mean closing some school sites).
PEEF:
There was a presentation from the Public Education Enrichment Fund (PEEF) staff and Citizen Advisory Committee (CAC). Multiple Board members praised the program for its transparency and staff accessibility, expressing a wish that more central office departments were like this.
Empower:
Some issues still unresolved. Superintendent Wayne said “Progress is not as linear as we would want”. 25 of 45 dedicated staff positions are still unfilled.
Raw liveblog notes
Alida Fisher is the only board member to vote against a student expulsion
Board Approves minutes of May 9 and May 13 meetings. [Note: the text of the motion to change the PAC is still not posted as a separate document.]
Superintendent’s report:
Visited many graduations. Shows photo of recipients of $6,000 Superintendent’s scholarship. Acknowledges Juneteenth holiday.
Acknowledges Pride month. Mentions LGBTQ community, mentions meeting with SFEA group and student and recognizes there is still work we need to do. Moves on quickly to art.
Summer meals at over 80 schools throughout the summer months. SFUSD.edu/schoolfood.
15 students received a $5K Mayor’s scholarship
Warriors are good partners with the district. They make things fun!
Public comment on non-agenda items:
Tom, parent: Received email from superintendent saying labor negotiations are proceeding in good faith. Tired of the lies. When will you come to visit Dolores Huerta. Show your face at all of our schools.
Brandee: Solidarity with teachers. We really need to pay teachers more, not spend so much on consultants. Disappointed in the math discussion at the last BOE meeting, no teachers were consulted. Students don’t need more computerized learning such as Dreambox.
LCAP:
Public hearing. LCAP will be presented. Board members will ask questions. Budget will be presented. Board will ask more questions. Then there will be public comment.
Board members will not vote on the budget tonight. Adoption on June 20th.
Wayne shows photos and a story about meeting a student named Isa.
“What we focused on this year was aligning the LCAP to the Goals and Guardrails” [Note: G and G’s are from the Crabill playbook. All 3 goals are test based (see slides)]
First two screenshots above are from the LCAP Presentation Slides: https://go.boarddocs.com/ca/sfusd/Board.nsf/files/CSJVNP8195F7/$file/LCAP%201st%20Reading%20Presentation%2006.06.23%20(1).pdf
Third screenshot is from the 2023-24 LCAP page 12
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1l49g4qnlU7rV8k_il3dd86wuWRoyH9wg/view
Over the past year, the LCAP team held a total 27 meetings with staff, members of the task force and the public.
Hava Kelly, CAC chair: single parent, low income and has disabilities herself. Parent of a child with an IEP. Thanks SFUSD staff for some changes in curriculum. What is crucial is one integrated system that benefits all of our students. We should start with providing a clear and consistent RTI policy. Assessments should include constant and continuous. Need Tier 1 reading and math teachers at every school.
“Nau” Finau, born in Tonga: has a high school student in SFUSD. Co chair of Matua council (MAC). Need better counseling for students that don’t want to go to college so they can build a future. Alternative pathway to diploma for students with disabilities. Transitional supports for students who start mid year, this is important for foster youth. Credit recovery classes in SE SF. Pacific Islander curriculum, content and events. VASA pathway.
Rianda Batiste: African American Advisory Council. Students need a welcoming environment. They need to see themselves in the classroom: recruit and retain more African American teachers. Restorative practices: What are we restoring? If you never had a relationship to begin with. Improve communication with parents: they are busy. Consider what is the best way to reach parents, what works for them. Improve ParentVue. Teachers need to build relationships with parents, then they will be more than willing to help.
Dr. Nicole Priestly, SFUSD head of Curriculum and Instruction. Highlights instructional guides developed by her department. Guides for K-5 are complete and will be released this summer. Talks about “instructional coherence” across the district.
“Phonics” are included in the contents of one of the instructional guides:
“Dual enrollment” = SFUSD and CCSF. There will be more offerings for students next year; the CCSF/SFUSD relationship is being expended
Attendance Plan:
Tim Burke (Central Office LCAP Manager) presented.
Comm. Fisher: Re, attendance plan. Happy to see it, but what we heard from families was that so much was out of their control. Like full and late buses.
We talk about instructional alignment, we need budget alignment. We have an LCAP funding bucket, a Federal bucket, a Special Education bucket. It’s an impossible task for the leadership team to understand and manage all of this.
Tim: LCAP is 60% of our budget [They’re using LCAP and LCFF interchangeably, they’re not the same]
Jenny Lam: what are the gaps and how can we prepare for the next LCAP.
Tim: We have not fully served our African American students. The CDE has called out the lack of this required goal. There are gaps in our staffing: we need more paraeducators to fulfill our goals.
Motamedi: how are we assessing what’s working and what isn’t working. What are the behaviors and culture changes needed in the district. We’ve been in a “yes and” mode. What have you observed.
Tim: I had experience working with Tamitrice when she was working at [school].
Tamitrice Rice-Mitchell: Is there wide representation within all staff on these teams (administrators, teachers, ) Coordinated care teams need to be up and running. Need to lift up when much of what students are asking for is free! They want to be seen. What is my school culture? “Safe, responsible, kind, etc.” Suggestion of school councils for upper elementary school students.
Comm. Alexander mentions: Safe and Supportive Schools resolution. This was a while ago, then it fell by the wayside. It mandated restorative training for all school staff.
Supe Wayne: we’re recommitting to SSS. But we’re not really sure about the funding. Maybe it wasn’t a strategic move and
Fisher: we have many practices that are supposed to be cost-saving and actually end up costing more. Excited to hear family engagement will start in the Fall next school year. School summits.
Lam: as a 15 year parent. A constant theme: what infrastructure is needed to generate the parent involvement. Now that we have Guardrails… What needs to change.
Wayne: might be a good segue into the budget presentation.
2023-2024 budget presentation:
Presentation slides:
https://go.boarddocs.com/ca/sfusd/Board.nsf/files/CSHNNY5ED690/$file/23%20-%2006.06%202023-24%20Budget%201st%20Reading%20(1).pdf
You’ll see a much smaller number for the input but a more targeted goal.
Discussion of goals. $400K to The New Teacher Project, which was founded by Michelle Rhee from Waiting for Superman
$1.09 million for DreamBox learning for math instruction. [FYI: Khan Academy is free]
$40 million moved from Unrestricted to Restricted. [Unrestricted is usually used to pay teachers. Restricted is usually for instructional materials, etc.]
Wayne: We’ve done good work but the hard work is yet to come. We’ve been able to identify funding to follow through on commitments to labor. But the commitments are greater than what we can afford.
Aligning staffing to enrollment. Need to make “tough decisions”.
Asks for Board Resolution to take action to eliminate structural deficit.
Elliott Duchon: great presentation. You’re not out of the woods yet.
Public comment:
Toni Hines: ALI
Vanessa Marrero PPSF: appreciates presentation. Further a really intentional plan around how LCAP and SISPA can be coherent. Attendance plan: thank you for that, it’s our priority as well.
Duchon: this is the paper part, next is the people part. [Labor negotiations]
Alexander: we should consider educator salaries as an investment. If we want achievement we need to retain teachers. Research suggests we can’t meet these aggressive goals without teachers. If we gave teachers what they’re asking for we would immediately have a deficit [great point, the budget as presented seems like a trap]
Classified salaries are way up. Services are also up. $90 mil over 2 years.
Gordon: 21-22 is when we shifted. ESSER funds $125 mil in 2020-2021 for pandemic.
Wayne: People want to know where are our funds going? It sounds simple but… Mentions study by the city has helped us to code things better. Especially around staffing [central office staffing]
Alexander: it’s hard to go into labor negotiations when we don’t know where the money is going.
Wayne: every position has a reason, maybe some of them are paraeducators…
Fisher: Tim said that lack of staffing is a barrier. We need to think of them as an investment.
Motamedi: We haven’t been breaking the law but we’re not really clear on where we’re spending on. Asks about CDE June 2nd letter. Position control and financial recovery plan.
Wayne: budget workshop in August. Schools have a lot of latitude in how they spend. [What about central office?]
Dr. Nicole Priestly: some consultants may be covering staffing vacancies that are required to be filled by law. “duplication” [still talking about school sites.
Motamedi: Asking about procurement. There is a lot of “slosh” in the way we issue contracts through the consent agenda. Asks about funding sources that are stuck. Need simple data like how much are we paying consultants, cumulative payments.
Wayne: “street data framework” does it align with goals and guardrails?
Jenny Lam: how are we leveraging our restricted funds first. Asks about the $40 mil movement.
Gordon: Identified expenditures that can be moved to restricted. [This is should be looked into] There was an influx of a lot of different funding sources.
Lam: What I often hear from our colleagues across the street and in Sacramento is that “SFUSD leaves a lot of money on the table”. Are there opportunities to leverage restricted funds.
Priestly: We need to tighten up grant management
Sanchez: Had a sad chuckle inside his soul about commitment to teachers. We can’t meet any goals if we can't retain teachers. The $50 mil set aside isn’t going to even get close.
Lam: most of our educators have less than 3 years of experience.
Fisher: wants to push back on the narrative that we didn’t use COVID funds properly.
Alexander: Schools/teachers have a formula but the central office is just whatever it had last year. Not a criticism of anyone who works there.
Priestly: We started at a deficit. Brings up Empower. If you want operational excellence..
PEEF segment:
Universal praise from the Board about how organized and easy to understand the PEEF program/budget is and how accessible the staff is. How can other departments in the central office be like this?
Comm. Sanchez asks what it would take to get a PE teacher in every elementary school rather than the current itinerant model.
Staff: it would be a pretty big expense. We’ll respond in writing with an estimate.
Payroll state of emergency
Wayne: “Progress is not as linear as we would want”
25 of 45[!] dedicated staff positions still unfilled