New learning goals, layoffs and no Carvalho. L.A. school board charts a new course
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- The L.A. Unified school board approved a $20.6-billion budget that relies on spending down reserves, carrying out more than 1,000 layoffs and cutting more deeply in the future.
- The board also adopted a four-year strategic plan with academic targets and measures of college, career and social-emotional readiness.
Two days after the resignation of Supt. Alberto Carvalho, the Los Angeles school board unanimously approved a $20.6-billion budget that includes more than 1,000 layoffs and a four-year strategic plan with precise goals for student achievement.
The meeting was presided over by Acting Supt. Andres Chait — with major policy and personnel moves that appear to cement Chait’s ongoing leadership role.
The board has not yet publicly announced how it will proceed to replace Carvalho — or whether Chait will be permanently appointed.
Chait has been managing the school system since late February, when the Board of Education unanimously voted to place Carvalho on paid administrative leave. Carvalho had been sidelined since the FBI raided his home and office in connection to an ongoing investigation.
No charges have been filed and Carvalho has denied any wrongdoing. In March, he issued a statement saying he wanted to turn to work.
L.A. schools Supt. Alberto Carvalho won praise for gains in test scores and for defending immigrants, but had been sidelined since February FBI raids.
After more than three additional months with no change in status, Carvalho decided to step down, sending a resignation letter late Sunday that took effect immediately. So far, there is no indication that his departure includes a settlement agreement.
In his resignation letter, Carvalho focused on academic gains and his desire to reach closure for the benefit of continued progress “because I believe our schools must remain focused on students and learning without distraction.”
Chait in charge
The Board of Education has made no apparent effort to launch a superintendent search. Were that to begin, such an effort would be expected to take several months — at the very least. And the board has no scheduled meetings for July.
Chait would be expected to continue in his current role in the lengthy superintendent-search scenario.
But there are indications that there may not be a superintendent search — and sources close to the board report that board members are preparing to offer the job to Chait.
The final development of the just-approved strategic plan was overseen by Chait. Four years ago, when Carvalho took office, he immediately set to work on a four-year strategic plan — which was matched to the length of his contract.
It would be unusual for a new superintendent from the outside to be wedded to Chait’s strategic plan.
Likewise, the board has approved several permanent replacements selected by Chait for top administrators who are leaving the district, including the departing deputy superintendent of instruction, Karla Estrada.
Deficit spending, layoffs, but saved programs
The approved $20.6-billion spending plan for the fiscal year starting July 1 is set against revenue to date of $18.6 billion. The deficit spending will be made up by district reserves, which may or may not be exhausted at some point within the next three years.
The spending plan is nearly $2 billion higher than last year’s figure of $18.8 billion, with most of the shortfall related to significant salary increases, maintaining health benefits despite rising costs and expanding the number of part-time employees eligible for benefits.
These worker gains date from April settlements reached just in time to avert a strike.
With a major LAUSD strike averted, Tuesday changed from a day of anxiety to one of celebrating new deals for unions. But are they too expensive?
The labor deals include some new hiring of counselors and restoring tech workers who had been designated for layoffs. In addition, the school board last week reversed steep planned cuts to the Black Student Achievement Plan.
However, up to several hundred permanent employees are expected to lose jobs starting July 1 as well as about 1,000 workers without job protections.
In the next two years, officials project thousands of additional job reductions in a workforce that this year stood at 83,000.
District officials attributed the need for cuts to the expiration of COVID-19 pandemic relief funds, inflation surpassing state funding increases and steadily declining enrollment. The nation’s second-largest school system, with about 390,000 students, is about half as large as in the early 2000s.
New strategic plan
Although not all the data points are in, L.A. Unified fell short of its goals laid out in a plan developed by Carvalho. Nonetheless, the progress compared well with other school systems, winning praise from Gov. Gavin Newsom.
In 2022, for example, the board-approved goals called for third-graders to improve by 30 points on a measure called the distance from standard to bring the district’s rating from well below 0 to near 0. In this measure, the number 0 means grade level.
In 2021-22, the collective third-grade score in English languare arts was minus 32.9 — as calculated using state standardized tests. Over the four years of the strategic plan, a 30-point improvement would have brought third-graders to a minus 2.9 score.
The challenge for LAUSD is continuing progress that has won acclaim, despite the absence of Supt. Alberto Carvalho and his top two academic administrators.
With one year to go, third-graders are at minus 17.6 — a clear improvement, but still well below the goal. Another way of looking at the data is that 43.6% of third-graders tested as proficient or better in English.
Under the new plan, the goal over four years will simply be to get to 0 on the distance from standard in English, math and science. Again, that means that, on average, all students are at grade level, although many are likely to be above that level and many below.
“Moonshots are great but we need to have some level of attainability and realism with the goals that we are setting,” said William Johnston, the district’s executive director of strategy.
Another goal, using a variety of data, will assess college and career readiness. The last goal will track a student’s social and emotional development. This effort is still in development but is supposed to be incorporated into a student’s report card.
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