Leadership magazine Sept/Oct 2014 V 44 No 1 | Page 17

2. Further, parent and student involvement in budgeting can have a ripple effect
for community involvement. Engaged parents and students are more likely to take
ownership in other arenas, such as fundraising and event publicity.
3. Most importantly, including students
and parents in the decision-making process
is the best way to ensure that those decisions
are truly student-centered. Parents and students possess expertise on what students
need to succeed that districts alone simply
don’t have access to, and they are ready and
waiting to share this expertise as authentic
partners in the planning process.
LCFF sets forth minimum legal requirements for how districts must engage with
their communities. This framework is important but narrow. Authentic engagement
requires systemic changes far beyond these
standards. Now that districts have completed
the first round of LCAP development, it’s
time to discover how districts have used this
historic opportunity. We hope districts will
re-evaluate their own processes and learn
from each others’ innovations to fulfill the
promise of LCFF’s game-changing reform.
In addition to listing LCFF’s legal guidelines (“The bar”), we highlight best practices
for authentically engaging students and parents beyond these requirements (“Raising
the bar”).

n Stakeholder consultations
The bar: School boards must consult with
teachers, principals, administrators, other
school personnel, local bargaining units of
the school district, parents and students in
developing the LCAP.

Raising the bar:
• Request input on the process: Districts
with the most successful engagement efforts
partnered with community organizations to
set dates and design procedures. San Francisco Unified School District worked with
the Close the Gap Coalition to gather input
before scheduling any sessions.
• Hold meetings across the district: San
Diego Unified School District hosted 16
“cluster” meetings, with each cluster representing one high school and the middle and

elementary schools that fed into it. Listening
sessions are most effe ctive when the district
provides childcare and refreshment for families.
• Administer surveys: Although surveys
shouldn’t replace community conversations,
broadly distributed surveys are an efficient
way of gathering information. Sacramento
City Unified School District provided online
and paper surveys in six different languages,
with questions broken down into the eight

priority areas. More than 1,200 stakeholders
responded.
• Track involvement: After community
members in Sacramento City Unified completed their surveys, the website graphically
displayed response results. For example, pie
charts showed what percentage of responders had children who were English learners
or foster youth.
• Educate stakeholders : Community
members can’t be effective partners unless
they understand what the law says and what
the budget means. Salinas City Elementary
School District provided English and Spanish trainings for parents about LCFF and the
LCAP.

n Advisory committees

Raising the bar:
• Ensure true representation: Members of
advisory committees should represent the
racial/ethnic backgrounds, income levels,
schools and neighborhoods of the district.
Parents of LCFF’s target groups (low-income
children, foster youth and English learners)
should comprise a significant majority. Pasadena USD published rosters of its committee members along with information about
these critical characteristics.
• Make the selection process transparent:
Communities are more likely to trust the
LCAP process when they understand how
their district chose members of its committees. Pasadena Unified asked parents to
apply based on publicized criteria that ensured committees’ representativeness.
• Create a SAC (Student Advisory Committee): Getting student input through a formal
structure like a SAC is an effective way to
understand the diverse needs of students by
providing a space where adults do not overshadow student opinions. The SAC should
be representative of the district population,
and can be put in charge of conducting student focus groups or surveys, and getting
input from the students who serve on the
school site councils. Oakland Unified is
implementing this model of student engagement in the upcoming school year.
• Provide data: Districts have empowered
members of the committees by providing
information about student data and expenditures. Sacramento City Unified made data
related to each priority area available online
and in handouts at the Advisory Committee
meetings.
• Invest in capacity building: Districts
should ensure committee members have the
tools to critically engage in the LCAP process, including training and staff support to
its committees.

n Public comments
The bar: Each district must have a PAC (Parent Advisory Committee) and, if the district
has 15 percent or more English learner students, an English Language Parent Advisory
Committee (ELPAC). The district must
present the draft LCAP to the advisory committees and respond in writing to any comments.

The bar: Districts must provide an opportunity for members of the public to provide
written comments regarding the specific
actions and expenditures proposed by the
district in the LCAP. Districts must also
hold two meetings in which members of the
public can provide public comment: a pub-

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