New goals, layoffs and Carvalho. The LA school board is charting a new course
Two days after the resignation of Supt. Alberto Carvalho, the Los Angeles school board unanimously approved a $20.6 billion budget that includes more than 1,000 student layoffs and a four-year strategic plan with specific goals for student achievement.
The meeting was chaired by Acting Supt. Andres Chait – with major policy and personnel moves that appear to strengthen Chait’s continued leadership role.
The board has yet to publicly announce how it will proceed to replace Carvalho – or whether Chait will be appointed permanently.
Chait has been in charge of the school system since late February, when the Board of Education voted to approve Carvalho taking paid administrative leave. Carvalho has been absent since the FBI raided his home and office in connection with the ongoing investigation.
No charges have been filed and Carvalho has denied wrongdoing. In March he issued a statement saying he wanted to return to work.
After more than three months without any change in the situation, Carvalho decided to resign, sending a letter of resignation late Sunday that took effect immediately. So far, there is no indication that his departure includes a settlement agreement.
In his letter of resignation, Carvalho focused on the achievement of education and his desire to achieve closure for the benefit of continued progress “because I believe that our schools should always focus on students and learning without interruption.”
Chait in charge
The Board of Education made no apparent effort to initiate a search for the superintendent. If that were to begin, such an effort would be expected to take several months – at least. And the board has no meetings scheduled for July.
Chait will be expected to continue in his current role during the lengthy superintendent search.
But there are indications that there may not be a search for a boss – and sources close to the board report that board members are preparing to offer the job to Chait.
The final development of the newly approved strategic plan was overseen by Chait. Four years ago, when Carvalho took over, he immediately set to work on a four-year strategic plan – which was matched by the length of his contract.
It would be unusual for a new superintendent from outside to be wedded to Chait’s strategic plan.
Accordingly, the board approved several permanent replacements selected by Chait for senior administrators leaving the district, including deputy superintendent of instruction, Karla Estrada.
Deficit spending, layoffs, but saved programs
An authorized spending plan of $20.6 billion for the fiscal year that begins July 1 has been pushed back with revenues of $18.6 billion. The deficit will be covered by state appropriations, which may or may not expire at some point within the next three years.
The spending plan is about $2 billion less than last year’s $18.8 billion figure, with most of the shortfall related to significant wage increases, maintaining health benefits despite rising costs and increasing the number of part-time workers eligible for benefits.
These employee benefits range from April’s paychecks to just in time to avoid a strike.
The labor agreements include the hiring of new consultants and the reinstatement of technical staff who were selected for layoffs. In addition, the school board last week reversed planned cuts to the Black Student Success Program.
However, up to several hundred full-time workers are expected to lose their jobs from July 1 and about 1,000 workers without job protection.
Over the next two years, officials made thousands of additional layoffs for workers who stood at 83,000 this year.
District officials have cited the need for the cuts because of expiring COVID-19 aid funds, inflation outpacing state funding increases and declining enrollment: The nation’s second-largest school system, with about 390,000 students, is about half as large as it was in the early 2000s.
A new strategic plan
Although not all data points are available, LA Unified failed to meet its goals set out in the plan Carvalho created. However, progress has been compared favorably with other school programs, earning praise from Gov. Gavin Newsom.
By 2022, for example, the goals approved by the board call for third-graders to improve by 30 points on a measure called the distance from average. In this scale, the number 0 denotes the grade level.
In 2021-22 the average third grade score in English language arts was 32.9 – as calculated using state standardized tests. Over the four years of the strategy, a 30-point improvement would bring third graders to a minus 2.9 score.
With one year to go, third graders are at 17.6 – a clear improvement, but still well below the goal. Another way of slicing the data shows that 43.6% of third graders tested proficient or better in English.
Under the new plan, the goal in four years will be to get to zero in the average grade of English, maths and science. Again, that means that, on average, all students are on grade level, although many may be above grade and many below.
“The moonshots are great but we need to have some level of reach and be realistic about the goals we set,” said William Johnston, the district’s senior director of strategy.
Another goal, using a variety of data, will assess college and career readiness. The final goal will track the student’s social and emotional growth. This effort is still being developed but should be included on the student’s report card.
