BILL ANALYSIS �
Senate Appropriations Committee Fiscal Summary
Senator Kevin de Le�n, Chair
AB 2384 (Bradford) - Schoolsite Councils
Amended: June 12, 2014 Policy Vote: Education 7-0
Urgency: No Mandate: See staff comments.
Hearing Date: June 30, 2014
Consultant: Jacqueline Wong-Hernandez
This bill meets the criteria for referral to the Suspense File.
Bill Summary: AB 2384 would statutorily authorize schoolsite
councils to be established at any school and imposes
requirements, as specified, on those schoolsite councils. This
bill provides that the requirements proposed to be added by this
bill regarding schoolsite councils shall prevail if the
applicable provisions in current law are in conflict.
Fiscal Impact:
Schoolsite Councils: Significant ongoing costs and cost
pressures for schools that have (or wish to establish)
schoolsite councils with activities and policies that would
differ from the requirements of this bill.
Training: Potentially substantial reimbursable mandate on
school districts, if they are required to provide training
to all schoolsite council members when a school-level
decision is made to have a schoolsite council.
Background: Existing law authorizes the School-Based Program
Coordination Act which, prior to the implementation of the Local
Control Funding Formula (LCFF) in 2013, gave school districts
flexibility over the use of specified school-based coordinated
categorical program funds in exchange for meeting specified
requirements. As part of these requirements, participating
school districts were required to establish a schoolsite
council. The LCFF replaces almost all sources of state funding,
including most categorical programs, and uses new methods to
allocate these resources and future resources to school
districts, charter schools, and county offices of education.
Schoolsite councils were previously required to, among other
things, develop a plan to meet specific criteria including,
curricula, instructional strategies, and materials that address
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the individual needs and learning styles of each pupil,
instructional and auxiliary services to meet the special needs
of certain pupil populations, a staff development program for
teachers, other school personnel, paraprofessionals, and
volunteers, and the proposed expenditures of funds available to
the school, as specified. While the School-Based Program
Coordination Act is no longer operative as a categorical program
due to the LCFF, school districts are still authorized, but not
required, to establish and/or operate schoolsite councils.
Proposed Law: This bill allows a schoolsite council to be
established at any school and specifies membership requirements
for schoolsite composition. This bill also encourages a
schoolsite council to include participation from community
organizations, as specified. This bill also:
1) Requires the Superintendent of Public Instruction to
provide several examples of selection and replacement
procedures that may be considered by schoolsite councils.
2) Requires the school district governing board to set term
limits for schoolsite members other than the principal.
3) Requires school districts operating a schoolsite council to
provide training to members of the council on the purpose
and role of the schoolsite council.
4) Requires schoolsite councils to develop school plans that
will include, but not be limited to: (a) curricula,
instructional strategies, and materials that address the
individual needs and learning styles of each pupil; (b)
Instructional and auxiliary services to meet the special
needs of specified pupil subgroups; (c) ongoing evaluation
of the educational program of the school; (d) other
activities and objectives, as established by the schoolsite
council; (e) the proposed expenditure of funds available to
the school, including funds available to the school through
federal programs; and, (f) mechanisms to ensure that the
objectives in the school district's local control and
accountability plan (LCAP) are being met, with specific
focus on the LCAP goals around school climate, parent
engagement, and pupil engagement.
5) Requires the schoolsite council to annually review the
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school plan, establish a new budget, and, if necessary,
make other modifications in the school plan to reflect
changing needs and priorities.
6) Requires the governing board of the school district to
review and approve or disapprove school plans, as
specified.
This bill further provides that its provisions regarding
schoolsite councils shall prevail if the applicable provisions
in current law are in conflict.
Staff Comments: Schools are not currently required to have
schoolsite councils, but they are generally authorized to
establish and maintain them. This bill would place requirements
on any schoolsite council a school elects to establish;
functionally, placing new restrictions on the school's
discretion over its council. Schools would have to either comply
with all of the requirements on schoolsite council composition
and the completion of potentially costly council activities
(e.g. the requirement to complete an extensive school plan
described in the bill) and potentially significant increased
workload or forego having a schoolsite council.
This bill also specifically provides both that a schoolsite
council "may be established at any school in accordance with
this chapter," and that "a school district operating a
schoolsite council shall provide training to members of the
schoolsite council on the purpose and role of the schoolsite
council." These provisions appear to give authority to schools
to establish schoolsite councils, but also responsibility to
school districts to provide training to schoolsite council
members. It is unclear whether the school district can override
a school's decision to have a schoolsite council. If a school
district's responsibility to train schoolsite council members is
triggered by a school site-level decision to have a council, the
requirement to provide training could be deemed by the
Commission on State Mandates to be a reimbursable mandate on
school districts. If even one hour of training was provided at
50% of the state's more than 10,000 schools, reimbursable costs
for district staff time would likely be in the hundreds of
thousands of dollars.
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