Issue link: http://educator.cta.org/i/381166
Advocacy Bargaining A city with two tales The ways two districts in Oroville worked with their union in developing the Local Control and Accountability Plan (LCAP), which is the mandated accounting for the new school funding formula, have been vastly different. Compiled by Cynthia Menzel J I M B U R F E I N D b e c a m e p r e s i d e n t of the Oroville Elementary Teach- e rs A s s o c i a t i o n i n J a n u a r y 2 0 1 4 . Te i s h a H a s e h a s b e e n O r o v i l l e S e co n d a r y Te a c h e rs A s s o c i a t i o n p r e s i d e n t f o r t w o y e a r s . W h i l e many of their experiences as local l e a d e r s h a v e b e e n s i m i l a r, t h e ways their districts involved their r e s p e c t ive u n i o n s i n d e ve l o p i n g s c h o o l f u n d i n g p l a n s to e n h a n ce student learning differed greatly. The intent of California's new school funding mechanism, the Local Control Funding Formula (LCFF), is for schools to focus on student suc- cess. The LCFF requires school districts to involve local chapters and parents, and other stakeholders, in planning and decision-making, as well as in developing three-year Local Control and Accountability Plans (LCAPs) using a template adopted by the State Board of Education. The LCAP identifies annual goals, specific actions, and ways to mea- sure progress for student subgroups across multiple performance indi- cators, including student academic achievement, school climate, student access to a broad curriculum, and parent engagement. As Jim and Teisha talked at CTA's Presidents Conference, they discov- ered that when it comes to funding p r o g r a m s t h r o u g h t h e L C A P t o ensure student success, they had two tales in one city. Describe the process for compiling the LCAP. JIM BURFEIND: Our local, OETA [Oroville Elementary Teachers Association], sent three leaders to LCAP and LCFF training by CTA in September 2013. We decided to meet immediately with our district [Oroville City Elementary School District] to request we be fully involved in developing the LCAP. We requested strong teacher representation in the communitywide LCAP meetings and also made sure the LCAP was regularly discussed in negotiations. OETA made sure there were discussions on the possible LCAP goals at each site and all those ideas were compiled. TEISHA HASE: Beginning in June 2013, Oroville Secondary Teachers Association reminded our dis- trict [Oroville Union High School District] of its obligation to bargain/consult on the LCAP with OSTA as the official representative of certificated staff. Our primary contact staff, Mark Leach, wrote an official letter to that end in June. How did your district involve your local chapter in the LCAP process? JIM BURFEIND: Our communitywide LCAP committee, consisting of 30 members including 12 teach- ers, met five times over the year. OETA recruited teachers and made sure we had a wide selection of representatives, including school sites, grade levels and special education, and very importantly, we in- cluded two OETA executive board members. As rough drafts of the LCAP began to develop, copies were emailed by the district to the OETA leadership, and we discussed them and made written suggestions. We presented reports on the LCAP to all our rep council meetings and tried to have a constant process of taking in feedback. In general, our district was respectful and genuinely seemed to value our expertise. Jim Burfeind and Teisha Hase compare their districts' LCAP planning processes. 28 www.cta.org