By Jason Islas
Staff Writer

November 19, 2013 -- Substantive changes to the State’s school funding formula passed in June will be the subject of a special meeting Tuesday of the Santa Monica-Malibu Unified School Board.

The new Local Control Funding Formula (LCFF), which was signed into law along with the State Budget in June, allocates more funding for local districts to help bolster the performances of low-income students, those in foster care and English-language learners.

"It is a complicated topic,” said Jan Maez, the District’s chief financial officer. “That is exactly why the superintendent decided that we needed some real time set aside" to discuss it.

At Tuesday’s meeting, scheduled to start at 4 p.m. in Lincoln Middle School’s cafetorium at 1501 California Avenue, stakeholders will get a chance to learn about the formula and its potential impact on Santa Monica and Malibu schools.

Sheila Vickers, vice president of School Services of California, Inc., will be on hand to explain the basics of the new LCFF, Maez said.

But, she said, with many questions still unanswered at the State level, Tuesday’s session will just be the beginning of long process that will likely continue until spring.

As part of the new LCFF, local districts will each be required to draft a Local Control Accountability Plan (LCAP) as part of the District’s annual budget.

The Plan will describe current efforts by the District to serve the LCFF’s target pupil populations and will lay out a strategy to improve those efforts.

"It's really a more focused approach and a more transparent approach," said Maez, adding that the goal is better achievement as measure by a number of criteria, including attendance and truancy rates.

Even though the new Formula is likely to bring more funding into the District, some say it’s not enough.

“Even with a slightly improved outlook from the State… it’s still inadequate,” said Community for Excellent Public Schools (CEPS) Chair Shari Davis.

That’s why, Davis said, the community needs to support local fundraising efforts like the Santa Monica-Malibu Education Foundation’s “Vision for Student Success.”

Instead, donations are made directly to the Ed Foundation and then distributed equally to the schools throughout the district to pay for literacy programs, personnel development, elementary school arts programs and other extracurricular “enrichment” programs.

So far, the Ed Foundation has raised more than $2.3 million toward the $4 million target it needs to fully implement the plan in 2014. ("Santa Monica-Malibu Ed Foundation Takes on New Fundraisers for Centralized Fundraising Program," February 26, 2012)

But with 11 weeks to go before the January 31 deadline to raise the full amount and some big donors lined up, Ed Foundation Executive Director Linda Greenberg Gross is optimistic.

"We're really seeing an increase in our parent and staff participation," Gross said. “A lot of people do year-end giving.”

Gross said that she also has questions about just how the new LCFF could impact the Ed Foundation’s fundraising efforts.

“It won’t hurt us,” she said, but “if for some reason, there’s some funding from the State that we are able to use,” it could help the Ed Foundation meet its $4 million goal.

“I don’t exactly what funding is coming and what it can be used for,” she said, adding that she hopes to find out on Tuesday.