Glendale school district approves spending plan

The Glendale school board approved a 60-page, three-year plan for how to spend state dollars this week.

In February, a team of 90 Glendale educators, parents and community stakeholders began meeting to draft the state-mandated document, called a Local Control Accountability Plan. The vote means the plan will now go to the Los Angeles County Office of Education for its approval.

Each district in California must create a plan, commonly referred to by educators as “LCAP,” to list priorities for how schools should spend increased state funds.

Glendale Unified’s plan comes with seven overarching goals: improve student achievement, make students college or career ready, serve students’ social, emotional and physical needs, create learning intervention programs, invest in enrichment programs such as art and athletics, engage parents and the community with the district’s operations, and maintain safe learning facilities.

The 2014-15 school year marks the second year in a row that school districts will see increased state funding.

In Glendale, educators will receive $16 million more in revenue for 2014-15 than they did last year.

But even with the influx of dollars — Glendale will receive $108.7 million, up from $164.6 in the current fiscal year — school officials state they are still dealing with years of crippling budget cuts.

As Glendale prepares to rebound, they are also taxed with implementing new state standards.

The LCAP plan aims to carefully assign precious new dollars as they adapt to major curriculum changes and a boost in revenue.

“The process to engage the parents and the community…in the development of this plan has been extremely valuable, transparent and will continue to move forward and be an ongoing relationship,” said Deb Rinder, senior director of categorical programs for Glendale Unified.

Educators will spend the next three years targeting student subgroups to close achievement gaps, improve students’ overall proficiency in math and English and aim to lower class sizes across the district, among many other goals.

“Not everything’s going to happen right away,” Rinder told the school board this week.

--

Follow Kelly Corrigan on Twitter: @kellymcorrigan.

Major search called off for missing Arcadia firefighter, dog in Los Padres Forest