Desiree Vanflew of the Kern County Office of Education presented the county’s Local Control and Accountability Plan (LCAP) at a public hearing, describing how the plan addresses community and court schools and why the county’s student population requires different metrics than district schools.

“The Local Control and Accountability Plan is a 3 year plan,” Vanflew told the board, and she walked trustees through the plan’s priorities, metrics and action steps. She explained the county LCAP includes additional priorities compared with district LCAPs because the county serves expelled and court‑involved students and coordinates services for foster youth.

Vanflew noted that county figures are skewed by short average enrollment spans: the CBEDS snapshot showed 516 students in community and court schools, but the county serves roughly 2,000 students during a year because many enroll for short terms. She said the average enrollment term in community schools is 79 days and in court schools is 28 days, which complicates use of statewide annual tests to measure performance. For that reason the county relies on local interim assessments (Star Renaissance) to report short‑term growth; for eligible court students Vanflew reported average growth of 6.7 months in English language arts and seven months in mathematics based on Star Renaissance results.

Vanflew also reviewed goals and action steps in the LCAP’s social‑emotional, literacy/numeracy and equity sections and described engagement steps used to gather input from students, parents and community partners, including probation. She told trustees the county will return next month for a formal vote on the LCAP and encouraged board members to ask questions via email beforehand if they needed time to review the 58‑page document.

Board members asked clarifying questions about attendance, transportation and whether the county provides bus passes; Vanflew said the office supplies bus cards/vouchers rather than operating district transportation. Trustees also asked about how eligibility and outcome columns in the document are populated and when year‑two outcomes will be available; Vanflew said some state testing windows and the short enrollment terms delay availability of those figures and that year‑two outcomes will be added after summer test results are processed.