The California State Board of Education (SBE) meeting (blog.csba.org/sbe-may-2024-recap) on May 8 saw the board take action on community school funding, waivers related to instructional minutes lost to teacher strikes and late start changes, reading screeners and more.

The board approved the third cohort of the California Community Schools Partnership Program (CCSPP) implementation grantees, making it “the largest community schools allocation yet under the state’s nation-leading initiative to transform schools through a child- and family-centered lens,” said Board President Linda Darling-Hammond.

Community schools are known for providing resources such as medical and dental care, as well as mental and behavioral health services, but the model hinges on a combination of academics with a wide range of vital in-house services, supports and opportunities that are integral to promoting children’s learning and overall development. Community schools prioritize strategic structures for integrating academics and collaborative leadership with youth and community development, health and social services, and community engagement in alignment with the goals and values of California’s Multi-Tiered System of Support to organize campuses around the academic, behavioral, social-emotional and mental health needs of students.

The Cohort 3 Implementation Grant was awarded to 288 LEAs, including 23 county offices of education, funding 995 school sites — many of which serve high rates of unduplicated students. Many were also planning grant awardees, according to California Department of Education staff.

The work is “already beginning to pay off as we can see in the earlier cohorts of community schools — the gains that they are making,” Darling-Hammond said. “We are seeing the fruits of this work all over the state in both urban and rural contexts. We are seeing community schools show sharp reductions in chronic absenteeism, strong gains in achievement as a result of their engagement with families, the available health services, extended learning time after school and in the summer, connections to community resources and innovative collaboration around professional development.”

Several board members noted the scale of the May 8 action. “We’re adding almost 1,000 community schools to this effort … we will have almost 2,000 community schools in the State of California, the largest in the nation,” said board member Alison Yoshimoto-Towery.

Further discussion among the board prompted by public comment covered how families are being included in community school planning and implementation decisions (and how they could be more involved), how the Regional Transformation Assistance Centers (R-TACs) will be able to support this massive influx of grantees, and potential for future guidance that the CCSPP State Transformative Assistance Center (S-TAC) and R-TACs could provide LEAs, such as how to maintain community schools once this funding runs out.

Two LEAs with plans to make up missed instructional minutes had their waivers approved with conditions. The first, Sacramento City Unified School District, experienced a shortage of eight instructional days caused by a teacher strike during the 2021–22 school year. The district’s governing board submitted to the SBE adopted school calendars for 2024–25 and 2025–26 that reflect the addition of eight instructional days.

That agreement between the Sacramento City board and Sacramento City Teachers Association on the specific days of instructional time was reached after the SBE issued the district a $39.8 million fine for failing to meet the minimum minutes and days required of instruction. The SBE approved the waiver on the condition that, should the district fail to make up the time, the fine would be reinstated.

The second waiver was granted to Gonzales USD, a rural Monterey County district with an enrollment of about 2,100. The district was short on instructional time for 2021–22 due to an adjustment to accommodate the later start time requirement for high schools. While the administration adjusted the start time, they did not take into account the end time to make up the difference.

Gonzales USD proposed to use the 2024–25 and 2025–26 school years to make up the shortfall. The SBE approved the waiver on the condition that, if the district fails to do so, it will have to pay a penalty amount of almost $600,000.

The board established a review process and evaluation criteria for the Reading Difficulties Risk Screener Selection Panel (RDRSSP) to evaluate and approve screening instruments to assess students for risk of reading difficulties. Under Senate Bill 114, signed in July by Gov. Gavin Newsom, LEAs will be required to screen K-2 students for reading delays, including dyslexia, beginning in 2025–26. The RDRSSP must evaluate and create a list of evidence-based, culturally, linguistically and developmentally appropriate screening instruments for LEA use by Dec. 31, 2024.

Read the full recap at blog.csba.org/sbe-may-2024-recap.