At the February 11 FJUHSD board meeting, Dr. Sylvia Kaufman, Assistant Superintendent of Education Services, and Dr. Josh Porter, Director of Education Services, presented the mid-year Local Control Accountability Plan (LCAP) update. Dr. Kaufman reviewed the district’s new 3-year goals of raising FJUHSD’s proficiency scores in English Language Arts to 80% and math and science to 60%, increasing student career and college readiness, and raising a greater percentage of English learner (EL) student’s reclassification to “fluent English proficient.”

They achieve these goals by strategically focusing the teacher professional development-supporting Professional Learning Circle (PLC) culture, introducing Special Education Coteaching program, supporting student mental health services, enriching English Learner (EL) family engagement, and use the 3x a year assigned NWEA diagnostic test to gauge the progress of 9-11 grade students.

Using the FJUHSD Board priorities of student achievement, effective instruction, engagement, a safe and respectful environment, and optimizing fiscal resources as a guide, I wish the trustees had publicly asked about student impacts from these strategic focus areas. Dr. Kaufman and Dr. Porter reported having clear achievable goals and building connection through storytelling with an abundance of data, similar to October’s Education Services presentation, but without much context on actual student impact.

The trustees are not responsible for FJUHSD’s day-to-day operations, but they approve budget allocations, and none of the trustees have publicly inquired about the NWEA diagnostic test assigned to students three times a year in addition to AP, IB, PSAT, and benchmark testing. How long does the test take for students? Does the assessment count towards their grades, mastery of subjects. In other words, what do students get out of this test?

There has been no public clarification of which students are served by Professional Learning Circles (PLC). Is it the 27 students that Dr. Porter mentioned when talking about La Vista/La Sierra’s ABC program which addresses credit recovery and chronic absenteeism? The ABC program serves students with high level support needs, but many students struggle at less intensive support levels.

Dr. Porter did not address Trustee Chester Jeng’s request months ago to explain how district efforts to increase 2024/25 parent participation were going up from 2023/24’s 995 in district parent surveys. FJUHSD’s chronic absenteeism rate (where a student misses 18 or more days during a school year) went down from 17% to 15%, but none of the board members asked what methods were utilized to address the issue, especially concerning special populations of students experiencing homelessness, students with disabilities (SWD), and EL students.

Noting effective methods on best use of funding may assist board decisions when addressing future budget cuts. FJUHSD suspensions and chronic absenteeism dropped districtwide for the 2023/24 reporting year, but are still higher than the state average for SWD and EL students.

The reclassification of the district’s 1,500 English learners (EL) and long-term English learners (LTEL) to fluent English proficient is complex. For the last 5 years on average, 41% of EL students made yearly progress, and the issues preventing progress were not addressed. Dr. Porter said the district is revisiting the English Learner Master Plan.

The midyear LCAP report allows parents and community taxpayers to understand where school districts spend money, which students they effectively serve, and how the district assesses succuss. FJUHSD has great goals, but without trustees publicly asking how effective these focus areas support the district’s special student populations, it is difficult to assess the board’s understanding of what actions work for the district.

Next month’s board meeting includes discussion of Student with Disabilities Education plan, possibly a new co-teaching program actions, and expanded art classes.

Early Retirement Outcome

The districtwide early retirement package offered in December was accepted by 80 staff, 46 certificated and administration and 34 classified. This will account for almost 8% of the district workforce, and easily reaches the 24 certificated teachers set by Business Services to achieve the cost savings goal the district set out when offering this early retirement package.

Next FSD Board meeting is scheduled for March 11 at 6 pm.