Over 400 people tried to attend the hastily scheduled Porter Ranch Neighborhood Council Education Town Hall at Shepherd of the Hills Church on June 3. President Paula Cracium worked to keep the aisles clear, and some attendees had to listen in the hall, which was outfitted with speakers. Parents and students were demonstrating outside. Ultimately, the Fire Department appeared halfway through the meeting to address the overcrowding.
What was the pressing issue? Drastically reducing funding for the Porter Ranch Community School (PRCS), which this January sought Pilot School status in an effort to increase their planned funds of $60,000 to about $250,000 for the 2014-2015 school year. Unfortunately, due to the Local Control Funding Formula (LCFF), they are facing a budget of about $25,000. Impassioned parents have been actively seeking redress with LAUSD and LAUSD Board Member Tamar Galatzan over the last several weeks and the PRNC is working to address the situation beginning with the Town Hall.
Los Angeles City Councilmember Mitchell Englander kicked off the meeting after an introduction by Board Member Becky Leveque, outlining the great lengths the community went to in building the school through a unique partnership of LAUSD, PRNC, the Porter Ranch Development Company and his office.
The Councilman was followed by LAUSD Board Member Tamar Galatzan, who explained that Governor Brown’s LCFF “changed the rules on all of us.” In general, schools are to be given a budget next year that at least matches their budget this year. So a school like Castlebay that became an Affiliated Charter two years ago, would have a budget next year approximately equal to their budget this year. However, a school that just became an Affiliated Charter, would not have a last year budget to base next year’s budget on, therefore, they would have no budget to speak of. Furthermore, the LCFF eradicated available funds for Pilot schools. Being a Pilot school and not having a Pilot school budget from a previous year have both adversely affecting PRCS.
Galatzan impassioned that there should be a baseline funding amount for all students and LCFF funds could be added to the baseline as was intended to address the needs of poor, foster or English Language Learner students. She is requesting that the school board vote on providing and funding baseline services. For example, if the Board thinks schools should have a library, then each school should be given the $11,000 to fund the part time library aide so that students can use their libraries. She is also proposing funds for middle school class size reduction teachers in core subjects. That would increase the PRCS budget by $30,000.
The Board Member was particularly frustrated that her fellow Board Members don’t understand the funding challenges of non Title I schools, most of which are in her district. She wishes that they could come experience underfunded schools, "Teachers from poor schools don't know what it's like to hold a fundraiser for toilet paper."
When asked if she had discretionary funds to assist PRCS, she confirmed that her discretionary funds were limited to office supply funds. When there is an excess of those funds, she uses them to provide field trip buses. She also clarified that she was able to fund capital improvement projects at schools when initial construction projects came in under budget, including a new multi-purpose room which is under construction at Castlebay.
On the question of funding for the Balboa Magnet that is also in the Pilot category, she answered that as a magnet school, they have access to different funds.
Erik Richardson of Assemblymember Scott Wilk's office was on hand to field questions while Wilk was involved in election night activities. A parent wanted to know how Toll Brothers could be continuing to build houses without a high school available to Porter Ranch students. She noted that the surrounding high schools were all over crowded. Parents should not have to pay for private education.
Next up was PRCS Principal Mary Melvin, who diplomatically thanked all for contending on behalf of the school and clarified that there was a miscommunication in the Korean Times: the dual language program is not being cut.
Members of the LAUSD Budget Services were on hand to provide a high level presentation on the LCFF, described as the largest change in school funding in our lifetime. It is aimed at the 412,000 low income, 11,000 foster, and 54,000 English learners in the LAUSD school system. Approximately 84% of LAUSD students are in the low income category. A school must have at least 50% of its population consist of low income students to be eligible for Federal Title I funds. The 50% number is voted on by the LAUSD school board. Several years ago, the threshold was lower. The change in threshold adversely affected a number of schools. Through the LCFF, older students generate more funds, to account for the expense of educating them.
The system that preceded the LCFF didn’t account for student demographics in providing funds and it wasn’t tied to any outcomes or require accountability. Further, the funds were in myriad categories in some cases to be spent on things schools didn’t want. This was hard to manage, like having your salary provided in the form of gift cards to stores you don’t want to shop at.
The LCFF presentation ended with a quote by Martin Luther King, Jr., “Equal treatment for children in unequal situations is not justice.” One parent declared this was not justice.
At the request of PRNC President Cracium, most stakeholder questions were at least respectful, while they were pointed. Residents wanted to know about a purported $70,000 a year that is paid by homeowners associations to LAUSD as part of the joint use agreement. The LAUSD budget office personnel clarified that the amount is actually $35,000 annually and it is being used to fund the maintenance crew for the joint use facilities which include the multi-purpose room. The budget office was unable to answer the question of what LAUSD does with the $10,000 in fees the developer pays to LAUSD at the sale of every new house.
PRCS families further pressed LAUSD inquiring about a baseline funding model that calls for $6,845 per student grades K-3 and $6,937 per student grades 4-6, which totals over $6 million for PRCS. However, their budget is only about $4 million, where is the other $2 million? Budget Services explained that those numbers apply to LCFF when it is completely implemented in the 2020/2021 school year. In the meantime, voters passed proposition 30, which provides funding to fill part of the funding gap during a seven year period.
Another parent wanted to know if the Korean Dual Language program students qualify for extra funds as English Language Learners; was Korean considered a foreign language? The English Language Learners comprise 23% of the students at PRCS, but the threshold for funding is much higher.
Near the conclusion of the meeting, Galatzan’s Chief of Staff, Barbara Jones, confirmed that there was likely a temporary solution at hand, which includes a total budget of $158,000: $57,000 to match last year’s budget (this is called “hold harmless”), $41,000 in funds for the library aide and middle school class size reduction (assuming the LAUSD Board votes In favor of providing that to all schools) and $60,000 in left over funds from this year. However, some concern was expressed that the $60,000 in left over funds is really coming from sick leave that the teachers didn’t take.
What is a parent to do?
Learn more about the LCFF: http://achieve.lausd.net/lcap
Write all members of the LAUSD Board to express your opinion about baseline funding for all students.
monica.garcia [at] lausd.net
steve.zimmer [at] lausd.net
tamar.galatzan [at] lausd.net
BoardDistrict5 [at] lausd.net
monica.ratliff [at] lausd.net
richard.vladovic [at] lausd.net
Attend upcoming meetings of the LAUSD Board, fill out a speaker card and make your case in your allotted two minutes:
Tamar Galatzan's Office provided these clarifications on June 8, 2014
To clarify baseline funding: LCFF is designed to provide more money to help meet the more intensive educational needs of low-income students, English-learners and foster youth. Tamar supports this, but believes there should also be a minimum amount – a baseline – that schools should receive so that all students have access to basic services.
The proposal to provide a three-hour library aide for elementary schools and class-size reduction money for middle schools is included in the budget that Superintendent John Deasy has presented to the school board. Tamar supports this, but it isn’t her proposal.
Money to pay for the library aides and class-size reduction comes from the pot of money earnmarked for high-needs students. So even if a school doesn’t have a large number of English-learners or low-income students, they still benefit from LCFF.
The $35,000 generated annually to maintain the multi-purpose room comes from a $3-a-month assessment as part of the HOA fee.
The budget office was unable to immediately answer the question on the $10,000-per-home development fees, but promised to research the issue and get a response for organizers. (And FYI, I’m nagging them daily about this!)
The $158,000 budget “solution” will allow PRCS to continue funding its coordinator, campus aide and two teacher assistants.
