School District Asks Public to Take Part in Survey

Students from Pasadena Unified School District schools, their parents, PUSD staff and community members are being encouraged to take part in a series of surveys that the District is conducting to gather inputs as part of the development of the Local Control Accountability Plan (LCAP), which the state is now requiring school districts to develop.

The LCAP is a strategy by which local educational agencies could set its own goals and prescribe what resources could be available for them to achieve that goal. Preparing the LCAP is required under California’s new school funding and accountability system, called the Local Control Funding Formula (LCFF), enacted in 2013.

LCFF replaced the previous kindergarten through grade 12 (K-12) finance system which had been in existence for roughly 40 years.

For school districts and charter schools, the LCFF establishes base, supplemental, and concentration grants in place of the previously existing K-12 funding streams, including revenue limits, general purpose block grants, and most of the 50-plus state categorical programs that existed at the time.

“It gives local school agencies the decision-making power to act based on the needs they see for students,” Hilda Ramirez Horvath, PUSD’s spokesperson, explained. “So it’s important that we hear from our students, parents, families, staff, faculty and community members about what they identify as priorities.”

A PUSD statement said the LCAP must focus on eight areas identified as state priorities. The plan will also demonstrate how the district’s budget will help achieve the goals, and assess each year how well the strategies in the plan were able to improve outcomes. In addition to these eight areas, PUSD may also identify and incorporate in its plan goals related to the City’s own local priorities.

Input from the survey will be part of a presentation PUSD will make as the state assessing budgeting priorities for the district. Students and parents will also be provided with the results, PUSD said.

To access the survey, students, parents, PUSD staff and community members can visit https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSe1L24etgY4lELWYcFiFTKynfFWuNciz2fKzGYUyNR6dm6GKA/viewform, or http://pusd.thoughtexchange.com/invitation.

For more information, visit www.pusd.us/Page/7777.