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Board reviews LCAP survey results and debate centers on counselors and student support
Summary
Staff presented the Local Control and Accountability Plan, citing student/parent/staff surveys that prioritized counselors, tutoring and summer school. Trustees pressed staff for school-level counselor ratios and the possibility of preserving specific counselor positions amid budget reductions.
Edith Echeverria, the district's director of assessment, accountability and family engagement, summarized the LCAP engagement process and survey results: nearly 2,749 student responses, about 300 parent responses, and roughly 200 staff respondents. She said student priorities were summer school, in-day content tutoring, and student support services; parents and staff likewise emphasized counselors, wellness coordinators and family workshops. "Students told me...to assist them in succeeding, they said teacher aids, paraeducators, college tutors," Echeverria said.
Trustees used the presentation to press staff on operational detail. Trustee Ricardo Padilla asked specifically whether the district could find dollars to retain a counselor at South Al Monte High School; Superintendent Zuniga and staff explained that several positions were funded with one-time learning-recovery grants and that retaining temporary counselors would alter districtwide staffing ratios. Chief business staff showed current and projected counselor-to-student ratios by school and noted the nuance of EL counselors (whose primary caseload is EL students) versus academic counselors. "If you would keep that additional counselor, it would go down to 270 per 1," staff said when outlining the effect at South Al Monte, while warning that any reallocation requires identifying offsets elsewhere in the budget.
The board asked for data to be returned at next week's meeting: current-year ratios and the projected ratios for 2025-26 both with and without the temporary counselor positions, plus school-by-school counts of English-learner students. The LCAP and the budget (including the S&C allocation) are scheduled for formal adoption at the June 18 meeting.
