Chico Unified cites attendance gains after $1.9M community‑schools grant

Superintendent Blake and district staff presented results and plans tied to a three‑year Learning Communities for School Success Program (LCSSP) grant worth $1,900,000, telling the Chico Unified School District board that the funding supported new staff and programs intended to boost student attendance and engagement.

Pedro Caldera, presenting the grant’s initiatives and metrics, said the LCSSP paid for reset teachers, campus supervisors at secondary sites, expanded social‑emotional learning and supports such as laundry services and a bike‑repair program for students. Caldera said targeted case managers dramatically increased family outreach, rising from about 2,418 home contacts in 2024–25 to more than 3,200 as of Oct. 10, 2025, and he tied that outreach to improved attendance.

“We hired two reset teachers, five campus supervisors and funded SEL and mentoring programs,” Caldera said, summarizing the grant’s staffing and services. He noted a district‑level drop in chronic absenteeism — from 27.1% in 2021–22 to 16.8% in 2023–24 — and highlighted large gains at specific campuses: Fairview High’s attendance rose from roughly 66% at the end of a prior year to about 80.3% this year, and two alternative sites reported jumps from the 20s–50s into the high‑70s and low‑80s.

Caldera showed a new Tableau dashboard created with grant‑funded data‑analyst capacity that the district is using to track attendance, contacts and other indicators in near real time. Staff and board members praised the dashboard for enabling targeted outreach. Caldera also warned that the district may need to adopt a braided‑funding approach to sustain these positions and services after the three‑year grant ends in 2027.

Board members pressed for additional detail about subgroup results and counts. One board member asked how many foster youth the district serves; staff answered that the current foster youth count is 56. Caldera acknowledged some subgroup contact rates remained low as of Oct. 10 (for example, socioeconomically disadvantaged families were at 17.7% data‑confirmation contact at that snapshot) and said staff would continue targeted outreach.

Caldera recommended sustaining effective elements by combining LCSSP funding with other grants and local funding if the district wants to keep reset rooms, case managers and the data‑analyst position after the grant expires. He said the grant‑funded data pages already make it easier for administrators and case managers to identify where outreach is needed and to monitor improvements.

The presentation was informational; board members thanked staff for the report and asked no action be taken at the meeting. Caldera and other staff encouraged continued attention to sustainability and to presenting more detailed subgroup and “n” counts in future dashboards.