Dear Dear Community Partner,
The new school year is around the corner! School for many children in West Contra Costa County begins on Tuesday, August 20th, the first day of school in the West Contra Costa Unified School District. As we look ahead to the school year, let us examine a new law impacting every student in the school district.
This summer, Governor Jerry Brown signed into law a bill which established the Local Control Funding Formula (Formula). An overview of the formula, taken from the California Department of Finance website, is as follows:
- The Formula will increase flexibility and accountability at the local level so that those closest to the students can make the decisions, reduce state bureaucracy, and ensure that student needs drive the allocation of resources
- The Formula consists primarily of base, supplemental and concentration funding that focuses resources based on a school’s student demographics:
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Each school district and charter school will receive a per pupil base grant, used to support the basic costs of instruction and operations. Base grant amounts will vary between the grade spans of K-3, 4-6, 7-8, and 9-12 to reflect the differential costs of educating pupils in different grade spans. Once the Formula is fully implemented, the significant reductions made to current general purpose “revenue limit” funding over the last five years (known as the deficit factor) will be restored, ensuring that the new base grant funding level is equivalent to the statewide average from 2007-08.
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A supplemental grant equal to 35 percent of the base grant is provided for each English learner, economically disadvantaged or foster youth pupil. Pupils that fall into one or more of these categories can only be counted once for supplemental funding purposes. The supplemental grant is intended to provide additional resources to help address the unique needs, challenges and additional costs that these students bring to school.
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For schools with English learner, economically disadvantaged and foster youth enrollment in excess of 50 percent of their total enrollment, a concentration grant equal to 35 percent of the base grant, is provided for each of these students above the 50-percent threshold (again, with no pupil counted more than once if they fall into more than one category). While the supplemental grant recognizes that these pupils have additional challenges and needs, the concentration grant attempts to provide even greater resources to schools with exceptionally high concentrations of these pupils.
- Funding assistance will be provided to schools to reduce class sizes in Kindergarten through grade three and to assist high schools with the ability to provide career technical education courses.
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Once fully implemented, the Kindergarten through grade three funding assistance would require schools to maintain a per schoolsite classroom average of 24 students, unless an alternative average is collectively bargained at the local level.
- Schools would be transitioned to the Formula using Proposition 98 growth funding. No schools will receive less funding than their 2012-13 funding level as a result of the Formula. Over the first five years of formula implementation, per student funding on a statewide basis is projected to increase by more than $2,700.
The Formula ensures that the highest need students in the state receive the funding they need to obtain a quality education. It is still too early to tell what long-term impact the Formula will have on our local school district, but it has been endorsed by many local elected officials as being a good thing for our children.
We welcome back students, parents, teachers and administrators back to school and wish you a wonderful new school year!
Sincerely,
Joel Mackey
Executive Director
Program Spotlight: Grants
Since 1983, the Ed Fund has awarded mini-grants of between $500 and $1,000 to help support classroom and school projects. On August 15th, the Ed Fund will be launching our grant application for the 2013-2014 school year.
Please check our website after August 15th for the grant application. Applications will be due in early October, and the Ed Fund will be hosting workshops to assist applicants.
WCCUSD 2013-2018 Strategic Plan Draft
On Monday, August 5th, the West Contra Costa Unified School District unveiled a draft of its new five-year strategic plan. We encourage the community to read the plan and provide the school district with your feedback.
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