SFUSD 2023-2024 LCAP(First Reading) Review

How exciting to get a preview of the 2023-2024 LCAP! Before diving into the dollars, I wanted to preface this initial review with the following points (which may be obvious, but are probably worth mentioning):

• What is the purpose of the Local Control Accountability Plan (LCAP)?
  The California Department of Education (CDE) requires every school district to submit the LCAP to summarize how it plans to spend its local, state, and federal funding for a three-year period. The 2023-2024 LCAP represents SFUSD’s third installment of its existing LCAP. Next year, it will develop and submit a new three-year LCAP.
• Where do the total fund amounts listed in the LCAP come from?
  The CDE calculates the LCFF amount every year (called the “entitlement”) based on a variety of factors (https://www.cde.ca.gov/fg/aa/lc/lcffoverview.asp). Federal funds are provided by the U.S. government through programs like Title I and other sources. Local funds include revenues given to the district through property tax assessments.
• Why are the LCAP goals different from the district’s Goals, Guardrails, Vision, and Values (GGVV)?
  Recently, the SFUSD has adopted three student outcome goals for literacy, math, and college/career readiness. In the 2023-2024 LCAP, the SFUSD lists five goals: student achievement, access and equity, accountability, foster youth education, and African American/Black student support. These LCAP goals are remnants of SFUSD’s previous strategic planning document, “Vision 2025.” While the goals are overlapping and reinforcing, it is tricky to map how the SFUSD’s GGVV is directly supported through the LCAP goal expenditures.
• Where can I find the LCAP amount for specific schools?
  The SFUSD LCAP is for the district/county office of education level. In order to find the expenditures by school site, we will need a school site allocation budget breakdown. Then, we will need to review the School Plan for Student Achievement (SPSA) to see how site leaders (including parents, principals, and teachers) have determined site-level spending.
• Where can I find out more about the LCAP in general?
  The CDE’s website has several web pages: https://www.cde.ca.gov/re/lc/ and https://www.cde.ca.gov/fg/aa/lc/lcfffaq.asp are some places to begin.

So, with all this in mind, here are some initial findings from the SFUSD 2023-2024 LCAP:

1. Total budgeted LCAP expenditure for 2023-2024 is $1,161,569,037. The total budgeted expenditures LCAP expenditure for 2022-2023 was $1,046,384,745. This reflects an 11% increase.
2. Of the 2023-2024 LCAP, $871,571,101 (75%) is for personnel costs, and $289,997,936 (25%) is spending for non-personnel items. This ratio is in line with other districts
3. SFUSD’s 2023-2024 LCAP Goal 1
   • Goal 1 is “Student Achievement: Create learning environments in all SFUSD schools that foster highly engaged and joyful learners and that support every student reaching her or his potential.”
   • $506,958,048, or 43.6% of the LCAP, is allocated to Goal 1
4. SFUSD’s 2023-2024 LCAP Goal 2
   • Goal 2 is “Access & Equity: Make social justice a reality by ensuring every student has access to high quality teaching and learning.”
   • $493,529,128, or 42.5% of the LCAP, is allocated to Goal 2
5. SFUSD’s 2023-2024 LCAP Goal 3
   • Goal 3 is “Accountability: Keep district promises to students and families and enlist everyone in the community to join in doing so.”
   • $160,806,862, or 13.8% of the LCAP, is allocated to Goal 3
6. SFUSD’s 2023-2024 LCAP Goal 4
   • Goal 4 is “Foster Youth Engagement: Increase intervention and wraparound services to engage and support unique needs of foster youth.”
   • $275,000, or 0.02% of the LCAP, is allocated to Goal 4
7. SFUSD’s 2023-2024 LCAP Goal 5—new for the 2023-24 LCAP
   • Goal 5 is “African American/Black students attending SFUSD schools will demonstrate growth towards meeting or exceeding standards in English Language Arts (ELA) and Mathematics, additionally SFUSD will decrease the number of suspensions and the overall percentage of chronically absent students. SFUSD has been required to include a goal in our 2023-2024 LCAP to specifically address three years of California Department of Education, academic years 2018-19, 2019-20 and 2022-23 (no comprehensive dashboard data was available for 2020-21 and 2021-22 due to the COVID 19 pandemic) for our Black/African American students in the following areas: Chronic Absenteeism: Very High Suspension rate: Very High English Language Arts: Very Low Mathematics: Very Low Graduation Rate: Medium.”
   • $0 of the LCAP is allocated to Goal 5

What we like in SFUSD’s 2023-2024 LCAP that can support teaching and learning:

• Goal 1, Action 1 specifies funding for phonics and phonemic awareness
• Goal 1, Action 3 provides nearly $7 million to provide teachers with tools to assess how well students are performing academically throughout and at the end of the school year (formative and summative assessments)
• Goal 1, Action 3 provides $21 million for college and career readiness
• Goal 1, Action 6 provides $11.6 million for professional learning and programs to recruit and retain teachers
• Goal 2, Action 15 provides $1.1 million for the new elementary school student assignment initiative
• Overall, the LCAP specifies many actions that are intended to address focal student populations, including English Learners, foster youth, students with special needs, students who are economically disadvantaged, and students in under-served racial and ethnic groups

What concerns us about SFUSD’s 2023-2024 LCAP:

• No funds for Goal 5 actions for African American/Black students, although there are programs described for them in Goals 1-4
• No funds allocated for the recommendations to strengthen math achievement identified during the Board’s special workshop on student math outcomes
• Not enough funds allocated for the recommendations to strength college and career readiness programs identified during the Board’s special workshop on college and career readiness

MORE TO FOLLOW!