Julie, a district staff member, told a School Site Council gathering that the council is the local body charged with overseeing Title I funds and deciding how those federal dollars are deployed to support students. “School site council is the body that oversees our Title I funds and how we spend those funds to support our students,” Julie said, urging councils to use the California School Dashboard and local assessments to guide spending.

Julie reviewed the district’s Dashboard results and internal measures, saying the district saw notable improvements in several areas between the 2022–23 and 2023–24 reporting periods. Students with disabilities showed gains — an 8.4‑point increase in English language arts and a 3‑point increase in math — while overall suspensions fell and chronic absenteeism for all students declined about 9.9 percentage points, she said.

At the same time, Julie warned that long‑term English learners (LTELs) represent a growing concern on several indicators. She said roughly 38% of LTELs were chronically absent (defined as missing 10% or more of the school year), ELPAC progress for that group declined by about 27.9 percentage points and math scores fell about 5.7 points. “That’s 18 days or more,” Julie said of the chronic‑absence threshold, and she asked principals and site councils to examine whether absences or instructional gaps are driving the declines.

Julie noted that the EL progress indicator requires two years of ELPAC scores to count a student; as a result the district’s LTEL cohort included about 66 students in the Dashboard measure and she estimated the broader LTEL population at roughly 70–80 students. She said that figure compares with roughly 200 LTELs about six years earlier, which she cited as evidence the district has improved reclassification in elementary grades but still has students “slipping through the cracks” before middle school.

School examples were used to show interventions that worked. Julie highlighted Smith School’s work to reduce chronic absenteeism among African American students by 27.6 percentage points after filling a vacant attendance clerk position and implementing a package of responses — biweekly social‑worker meetings, personal calls home, parent workshops, PBIS incentives and SARB/SART processes — with assigned responsibilities and measurable targets.

Parents and other attendees suggested how to communicate with families and recruit volunteers. Joshua, a parent, described outreach in plain language: “I usually just tell parents that, we’re a group of parents that works with the administration to decide how to to look at the data and decide how to spend this state money to help with your…” The discussion covered incentives used by principals to motivate students on I‑Ready and other monitoring platforms.

On fiscal rules, Julie reminded site councils of the risk of underspending Title I funds and the consequence of losing allocations. “If we, at the end of the year, have only spent 50 percent of our Title I funds, guess what the government thinks? I guess you don’t need it. So we’ll take it back, and then we might deny you next time you apply,” she said, urging councils to plan to spend roughly 85% of their Title I allocations on approved activities or reassign funds if positions cannot be filled.

Julie told councils to review more current assessment data — I‑Ready interim assessments and ELD progress monitoring — after the district’s January assessment window, and to meet in December or January to decide whether plan changes or budget moves are needed before the 2nd interim budget review. She also reminded principals they will meet with Monique Benjamin, the director of accounting, about reallocations prior to that interim review.

The staff briefing included logistics and outreach items: a volunteer tracking idea (a Google Form as a low‑cost way to record parent participation), a PTA holiday basket volunteer request with multiple shifts, and notices about upcoming parent advisory meetings: APAC (African American Parent Advisory Committee) at Carson (tomorrow at 6 p.m.), Community of Multilingual Families on Jan. 15 (formerly DLAC), Special Needs Family Support on Jan. 28, and DPACC on Jan. 29. Julie also said the district will require 72‑hour requests for interpretation beginning in January and announced the district will no longer accept virtual public comments; in‑person comments will be required.

The presentation emphasized that school site councils should front‑load data review and planning: identify groups still in the red on the Dashboard, craft targeted interventions, assign staff and timelines, and document expenditures and measures so Title I funding can be justified and retained. Julie closed by urging councils to schedule their January meetings after teachers complete the January assessments so councils can use the most current data.

Members of the audience and several site staff described celebrations — honor rolls, large numbers of students meeting I‑Ready growth goals and attendance improvements — and examples of local incentives and parent education events that site councils could replicate.

Julie’s talk mainly provided guidance and action items for school site councils rather than formal decisions; no motions or formal votes were recorded during the exchange.