Student rep voices support.

Tyler Farrell - Local Indicators Self Reflection 

On an LEA basis.

Document prepared by the admin team. Helps guide budgeting in the LCAP. 

Includes assessment of our implementation of state standards, school culture, interventions, etc. We are still dealing with some of the ramifications from fire and displacement. We are generally consistent with where we were last cycle.  Loosely consistent with the survey results. 

Local Control Accountability Plan

• Designed for the school to identify state requirements, funding requests, specify goals, align budget with goals, identify funding priorities.
• 3 year plan that is adjusted every year. We are in the 3rd year of this plan. Jackson and the ASB group was very helpful in helping focus planning for the next. 
• State wants funds to go to programs and supports that will meet unserved needs.
• Minh Ha - What are UP students? "Unduplicated Pupils". Students in special populations. Includes homeless, foster youth, low-income, IEP, 504, etc. These impact funding calculations from the state. 
• Minh Ha - Wants clarification of sections pertaining to Math lab - after school and during the day. Sounds same as what we had before. Is this a math support course or a drop in lab? Diana Kim - Plan is to hire 2 math para-professionals who can run the math lab. Will also continue the peer tutors. We will have math support/study skills class targeting algebra and geometry students who are struggling and can't come before/after school, in place of their elective. And will have drop in during lunch and before and after school with the math paras. Request is to amend the LCAP 1.1 sentence that currently reads "In addition, we have added 2 sections of Math Lab during the day for students who cannot attend after school hours due to commute." to clarify that there's a separate math support class distinct from math lab and that it's not based on commuter status. 
• Minh Ha - what specifically are we doing for the UP students such as English learners, homeless students, foster youth, low-income, etc. that is distinct from what we are providing to all students? Are we supplementing for these kids specifically or are we using these funds in ways that benefit all students? Maggie - it's nice to have an open door and not labeling all the kids. Not all kids will show up for support programs. And this way we catch other kids who don't have the specific identification. Minh Ha is thinking about targeted assistance like mental health programs, mentoring, community support, AP fee assistance, letting them borrow graphing calculators etc. We need to be aware these are kids with special circumstances. Do we have programs specifically targeting these kids? Yes, we have fee waivers, transportation assistance, etc. We should not be using the same parameters as far as class sizes, etc. because there are special needs and special funding. 

Marie Arce of Charter Impact - Complete report stands as submitted. 

• Revisions to state budget and school funding between Governor's proposed budget in January and the revised budget presented in May
  • cost of living adjustment (4.31% increase) and special education funding ($342 per ADA increase) both got permanent boosts. 
  • one time block grant for student support and professional development
• We don't know yet if we will get any hold harmless. This budget is without any hold harmless so we will have to do a revision later if we do get those funds. 
• We see an uptick in enrollment for next year, using conservative numbers for ADA. 
• This is based on current Occupancy Agreement, the new one has not been finalized yet. The biggest issue in the new agreement is anticipated to be insurance expense. They did not want to include any speculative numbers. 
• We are projecting a deficit without a hold harmless for next year and the 2 years after that. Deficit of $591,000 for 26-27.
• Trying to increase our fund balance to reduce the impact of projected deficits. 
• Jane asking about benefits compared to salary costs - The benefit line items include contributions to the OPEB for health and retirement benefits. This is close to 50%. She says it's very high, normally benefits run about 25% of salaries. Marie says this is because it goes for entire families, not just the employees, and they don't pay anything. There's no cap on benefits so this can be a runaway cost. Self-Insured Schools of California (SISC) is the provider. Maggie says it's a tradeoff because teachers have lower salaries relative to their level of education so they have better benefits. Marie and Pam both say we are the only school they know of where the school pays 100% and the employees don't pay in. This could be an item in collective bargaining to say that we won't cover kids fully, etc. 
• Negeen - There is so much in flux between the bargaining negotiations, hold harmless and occupancy agreement. How can we approve this budget? Hold harmless if we get 30% it would give us $10 million in 1 year.  Marie says we will have to revise the budget in 45 days. 
• Negeen - we are trying to increase interventions and supports but this budget already cut services. Asks that Alexis provide a summary of what services were cut. We cut technology expenses including device refreshes for faculty and staff from $1.8 to 1.5 million. Operations, PD for tech staff, IT, custodial services personnel and security personnel hours were cut, cuts of about 30% from each department. Reduced the budget by about $3 million. It was very hard because it was already a thin budget that had gone through multiple rounds with the admin and departments. Jane asks if security is outsourced and if we will have sufficient security if we make these cuts? Rafael says it will be tight and we will have to spread personnel more thinly. He is working with contractor to establish new standard operating procedures. It's not just about school safety, we also see vandalism in bathrooms and other areas that imposes costs on the school so security cuts will impact that.
• Our pre-fire ADA was 2700 and enrollment was 2900 
• Minh Ha - Asks about fire replacement of books and materials. Marie says that's a net zero in the budget because all will be offset. Maggie says it was not clear that they should have asked in the budget for replacement of fire losses based on future anticipated enrollment, they only asked based on the past year enrollment. Alexis says if there's a need for next year's curriculum based on increased enrollment they should have already told the admin these. But teachers say the master schedule is not set yet so they couldn't anticipate the numbers. 
• Jackson - the students reviewed the budget in ASB and are in support
• There is so much uncertainty right now and it's things that are out of are control. It is making many of us uneasy. Maggie wonders if there is a better way to manage this process. 
• If we get a hold harmless for 26-27 we expect it would be 30%, then 20%, then 10%. 
• Sara Margiotta - Budget and Finance Committee approved this budget with the express assumption that the deficit will be covered by a prior year's fund balance. If we get hold harmless, that money should be used to offset the deficit before anything else is funded with any additional revenue. 

Marie Arce - Education Protection Account 

This is part of our LCFF calculations. It's part of the funding for all schools, a branch of state aid. 

This is a plan of how we will spend the EPA funds. Historically has been spent on staff, which is what this document discloses for this year.

State funding application 

• Seeking board approval to allow the school to apply for title funding. Title I, title II and title IV
• Minh Ha - Why do we not apply for Title III? Marie says we kept it consistent with prior year. It has very challenging and specific documentation requirements for a small amount of funding. Big administrative burden for a low potential amount of funding. Dr. Magee says we don't have the student population to support the application. We had less than 2 dozen students that qualify as English learners or immigrants. 

• Rene Rodman - Recommended Transfer out of PCHS Fund Bank Account in 2025-26 into Pali operating bank account to cover previous expenses. 
• There is a total of $1,452,8092. 
• The 24-25 fundraising dollars had not been transferred into the operating account. This is the combined total from 24-25 and 25-26. 
• Also includes unrestricted fire relief funds that were not used yet because we were waiting to see what was included in FEMA grant and what was covered by insurance. 
• Grants from LAUSD ed foundation.
• Rene and Alexis will work with budget and finance on recommended allocations for the funds.
• Jane - this money has already come into 24-25/25-26 budget revenues and expenses.  
• Marie Arce - We are just replenishing the operating account to reimburse for expenses that were paid from the operating account based on these revenues. It's just a balance sheet cash transfer. 

• Rene - these were unrestricted grants so we held onto them pending finalization of insurance proceeds and restricted grants. We applied these for return to campus moving costs and additional staff work day for the move. It ended up costing less than what was budgeted so Rene wants to apply a portion of the remainder to graduation costs and some offsite facility and vehicle rentals for student programs. 
• We already paid all of these expenses from the operating account so we are just moving this into the account as part of the larger transfer from the PCHS Fund balance transfer approved above. 
• Minh Ha - doesn't sit well with her that any of these funds are being spent on graduation. Should have been spent on other expenses more directly related to the fire. Maggie and Fati say it was unrestricted. Jeff say the equipment we normally use for graduation burned and was not replaced and had to be rented so that's part of why we used these funds.