The Turlock Unified School District has been undergoing a lot of change lately, from the structure of how funds are received to the curriculum being taught. The transitional state is bound to raise questions for parents who can fortunately be a part of the conversation through the Local Control and Accountability Plan.
Parents looking to contribute their opinion to the ongoing changes in schools have the opportunity to review the draft of the Local Control and Accountability Plan at the final Parent and Community Forum Night held at the eCademy Charter at Crane Professional Development Center on from 6 p.m. to 7 p.m. April 28. This is the fourth and final forum night for locals to contribute their opinion and ask questions about changing standards and funding that will go into effect for the 2014-2015 school year.
Mandated by the new Local Control Funding Formula which allocates more spending control to the local districts, the formation of an LCAP is a compulsory portion of the Formula that aims to ensure districts across the state are meeting the needs unique to their district. The LCAP, which has been developed by a 32-member steering committee composed of a variety of stakeholders, addresses state priority areas for students and identifies specific actions that districts will take to achieve those goals. Hosting parent and community forum nights is one step in the process that allows the District to receive feedback on the third draft of the LCAP.
District employees and parents have also likely noticed the distribution of neon green survey sheets throughout the District at all school sites and advisory committees of which the District has collected 758 surveys including 117 parent responses, 34 community member responses and 391 TUSD staff responses. Video and Powerpoint presentations have been distributed to each site principal as well as literature on the eight state priorities which staff were asked to rank, including: student engagement, student achievement, implementation of Common Core State Standards, basic services, parental involvement, school climate, courses access and other student outcomes.
“There has been a common theme that technology, staff collaboration and instructional materials continue to be at the forefront in all three areas dubbed by the LCAP which is significant,” said Dana Trevethan, assistant superintendent of educational services.
These surveys have forwarded the District’s goal of increasing access to information and upcoming changes in the District, which is the aim of the Parent and Community Forum Night. Once the third draft has been discussed with the community, the fourth and final draft will be reviewed and approved by the LCAP steering committee and shared among advisory committee through the months of April and May. The final LCAP and budget, as well as the separate LCAP for the eCademy Charter at Crane, will be presented at the May 20 Board of Trustees meeting with a request of approval at the June 10 meeting. Once approved, TUSD’s LCAP and eCademy’s LCAP will be implemented on July 1.
