LCAP hearing spotlights equity goals, chronic absenteeism and timing challenges for assessment data

The board opened a public hearing on the district’s 2025–26 Local Control and Accountability Plan (LCAP) on May 22, with an equity focus and a detailed look at how the plan links strategies to specific dollars.

Assistant Superintendent David Chambliss framed the LCAP as the district’s strategic priorities translated to budgeted actions and pointed trustees to the LCAP’s data dashboards and a linked summary showing where strategies address specific student groups. “The LCAP is an important moment of transparency where we can tell our community what we’re funding and what actions we’re hoping they’ll support,” Chambliss said.

Trustees focused questions on chronic absenteeism — its recent rise compared with pre‑pandemic levels and what the district is doing to reduce it. Chambliss and student‑services staff described daily chronic‑absenteeism reporting tools, CARE/CARE teams, community‑schools supports, independent study options for long absences, and restorative approaches tied to a local communities grant to address attendance through family engagement.

Board members also pressed on assessment and benchmark choices: whether algebra readiness is validated by external measures beyond course grades, and the difficulty of aligning CAASPP results with LCAP adoption timelines because full state data often arrive after local plan deadlines. Staff said interim district assessments and the CAASPP provide the main validation points and offered to provide additional cross‑district transition data for students moving to high school.

No votes were taken; the LCAP will return to the board for adoption at the June 26 meeting.