GO Board Watch:
March 23, 2016
Oakland Education and Equity, Quality Schools, Prop 39, and Budget
Welcome to Board Watch for March 23, 2016. The Oakland Unified School District Board of Education held hearings on a new equity policy and a revised quality school development policy, voted on a first set of Proposition 39 offers, and received an update on the Local Control Funding Formula (LCFF) and the 2016-17 budget.
Check out the full agenda and read more about these topics below.
Board Policy on Equity
The board held a second reading of a proposed policy on equity; the first reading occurred in the summer of 2015. This policy describes the district’s “powerful belief that equity is providing students with what they need to achieve at the highest possible level, and graduate prepared for college, career, and community success” and details the steps that OUSD will take towards this belief. Such steps include developing a plan for identifying equity gaps, implementing programs to address those gaps, and setting standards for evaluating success in those programs.
Since the first reading, district staff held 27 focus groups on this topic and conducted a survey with over 1,800 responses from OUSD staff members. The OUSD staff presentation presents those results and describes a number of ways in which feedback from these surveys and focus groups influenced the proposed equity policy. Click here to view the presentation.
Amendment to Quality School Development Policy
The board held a first reading of an amendment to the board’s Quality School Development policy. This policy, which explains the board’s theory of action in increasing the quality of Oakland’s schools, currently contains language about setting performance standards for schools, establishes the school quality review process, and lays out improvement processes like the Intensive Support Schools initiative. The proposed amendment would add the following language to that policy:
“Create a defined autonomy framework whereby schools receive differentiated levels of autonomy and support based on the achievement of goals set forth by the school community and administration.”
Find the full proposed policy here – all changes are noted in bold.
Proposition 39 Offers
According to the California Department of Education, Proposition 39 requires “that school districts make available, to all charter schools operating in their school district…facilities that will sufficiently accommodate all of the charter’s in-district students, and that facilities be ‘reasonably equivalent’ to other classrooms, buildings, or facilities in the district.” It also allows “that school districts may charge a charter school a pro-rata share of the facilities costs which the school district pays for with unrestricted general fund revenues….”
On March 23, 2016, the Board voted on adopting the first set of Proposition 39 offers for the 2016-17 school year. The schools set to receive offers at Wednesday’s meeting are ARISE High School, Francophone Charter School of Oakland, and Yu Ming Charter School. The following table summarized the offers:
The full Prop 39 presentation has extensive details on how these offers were formulated – you can find that presentation here.
LCFF/Budget Update
The board heard an update on the general progress of the LCFF and budget process for 2016-17. Among the themes that Supt. Wilson identified are:
- Employee Compensation – 65% of all new unrestricted on-going and one-time funds from the State will be spent on compensation for our employee bargaining groups.
- School Site Budgets – At least $12.4 million in increased funding directly to schools.
- Realign central offices through budget reductions and realignments to better serve schools and students.
The presentation provides additional detail about specific increases to site-level funding for general and specific programs. It highlights the role that equity plays. Some increases are based overall performance or on the school’s Z-score (which captures a school’s neighborhood environment).
Finally, the presentation provides some more detailed insights into how the central office is being cut and realigned to change and improve how it serves schools and students.
Find the full presentation here.
Supporting the Development of Housing Projects, Policies, and Programs for Educators in Oakland
Classified Employees of the Year