Get Full Government Meeting Transcripts, Videos, & Alerts Forever!
Get email alerts on the Education Budget Lcap topic
No spam. Unsubscribe anytime.
ABC Unified reviews LCAP and budget; board presses for school‑level results and coaching capacity
Summary
At a June 3 board meeting, ABC Unified leaders presented the district’s LCAP progress and a preliminary budget showing a modest net funding increase but ongoing structural pressure. Board members pressed for school‑level outcome data and more coaching capacity as presenters highlighted gains in some student groups.
ABC Unified School District officials presented the district’s Local Control Accountability Plan (LCAP) and a preliminary budget at the board’s June 3 meeting, describing program investments and modest districtwide gains while trustees pressed for more school‑level accountability and clarity on how millions in LCAP dollars are producing results.
Dr. Castro, who opened the LCAP spotlight presentations, framed the series as a look at “the many ways in which ABC’s LCAP positively supports students” and emphasized that the district has focused this year on documenting how actions move into classroom practice. Math coach Terry Gillum said benchmark data show measurable growth: “Our largest gains were seen in low‑income students who showed a 17.7% increase from their baseline performance,” he said, noting similar gains for Hispanic students and foster youth.
Presenters also identified continuing challenges. Elementary implementation coach Maria Nes said the district’s structured‑literacy rollout is still reaching fidelity in only about half of K–2 classrooms: “Our baseline shows 52% of K through 2 grade teachers who are fully implementing structured literacy to fidelity,” she said, and stressed the need for more coaching capacity and consistent progress monitoring.
Chief Business Officer Mr. Win briefed the board on revenue assumptions and risks in the preliminary budget. He summarized the state picture—an ordinary‑year COLA proposal that, combined with a supplemental adjustment, would total about 4.31%—but cautioned that declining average daily attendance and rising costs leave pressures: “Because of that and the different factors and the cost increase in the special education programs, we are still having a deficit of 4.2 million that we need to address,” he said.
Board members said the presentation contained useful districtwide metrics but asked for more disaggregated, school‑by‑school data to evaluate whether targeted investments are producing local results. “You have $31.7 million in supplemental and concentration funding—how are families in Area 6, for example, seeing that translated into outcomes?” board member Dr. Rios asked. Trustees requested that future materials include school‑level breakdowns of key indicators, staffing and coaching allocations, and program evaluations.
Superintendent Dr. Zlo and the LCAP team said many of the actions are ongoing, funded through a mixture of base and restricted dollars, and acknowledged the need to show clearer causal links between investments and outcomes. The district will take the public‑hearing record and the board’s requests into account before seeking final adoption of the LCAP‑related budget items at a later board meeting.
The board did not take a final budget vote at the June 3 meeting; the district noted that state budget actions (including potential one‑time block grants) could change available one‑time funding and that a final budget adjustment will be presented to the board once the state budget is finalized.
