Tehachapi Unified approves letter urging LCFF concentration grant fix after trustees cite 44% unduplicated pupil rate
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Summary
The Tehachapi Unified School District Board unanimously approved a letter to state lawmakers asking that the LCFF concentration grant threshold be revised or placed on a sliding scale after officials said the district’s 44% unduplicated pupil rate disqualifies it from concentration funding. Trustees also approved a corrected wording after closed session.
President Kaminski read a board letter on Feb. 10 asking Senator Sharon Grove and Assemblyman Stan Ellis to revisit the Local Control Funding Formula’s concentration grant threshold, which currently awards additional funds only to districts with 55% or more unduplicated pupils. The board said Tehachapi Unified’s unduplicated pupil percentage is 44%, leaving the district without concentration grant dollars while it still serves a high share of students in need.
The letter, as read at the meeting, outlined a comparison of Kern County unified districts and noted that Tehachapi ranks second in average daily attendance but only fifth in revenue among eight unified districts, a disparity trustees attribute in part to the LCFF concentration threshold. President Kaminski said the board’s intent is to ask lawmakers to consider policy changes such as a sliding scale for concentration funding so districts below the current 55% cutoff receive some support.
Trustee Christiansen moved to approve the correspondence and Trustee Sweeney seconded; the board voted to send the letter (motion passed unanimously). Following a closed-session recess and reconvening, Kaminski identified a drafting error in one sentence about Mojave’s revenue, had staff correct it, and the board voted again to approve the corrected letter.
Public commenters and trustees discussed wording choices: one attendee recommended replacing the phrase "concentration grant percentage" with "unduplicated pupil percentage" for accuracy. The board agreed edits to clarify the technical terms and asked district staff to sign and send the letter after the corrections.
No financial action was taken at the meeting beyond approving the advocacy letter. The board recorded the votes as unanimous on both the initial approval and the corrected-letter approval. The board noted staff would coordinate any in-person meetings with the lawmakers upon request.
What happens next: the district will mail the corrected letter to the identified state representatives and offered to meet with their offices to discuss LCFF concentration funding.