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ROP Board To Meet Tonight To Discuss The Restructuring of Joint Powers Agreement Between CUSD and LBUSD

Regional Occupational Program

Dawn Urbanek, Neighbor

Posted Wed, Feb 4, 2015 at 3:05 pm PT|Updated Wed, Feb 11, 2015 at 6:30 am PT

Up-date February 11, 2014-

The Capistrano Unified School District is Presenting the Restructuring of the ROP Joint Powers Agreement at tonights Board Meeting. Wednesday, February 11, 2015 - Agenda Item # 2. The Board Presentation can be viewed at the following link at page 15 (and at the end of this post):

http://capousd.ca.schoolloop.com/file/1229223560406/1218998864154/690562...

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Of Note: The Presentation lists “what has been agreed to” without any public in-put from parents, students, and taxpayers from CUSD as required by LCAP.

“ROP” - Regional Occupational Program offers career technical education to students over 16 years of age and adults in the Capistrano Unified School District and the Laguna Beach Unified School District areas.
Classes are designed to provide students with hands on technical training in various career fields. Classes are offered on High School Campus and are taught by industry professionals.

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Source: http://www.capolagrop.org/3d

Proposed Restructuring Of The JPA Is The Result Of Changes To The Way California Funds Public Education

California’s New Local Control Funding Formula

As part of the 2013-14 Budget, the State of California enacted a new system for funding education called the “Local Control Funding Formula”. The formula replaces revenue limits and most categorical programs with a universal “Base Grant”, and then provides significantly more funding for Districts with a higher percentage of English learners and low-income students.

Per Pupil Funding Under the new LCFF law:

Capistrano Unified: $7,002 per pupil
Laguna Beach Unified: $13,702* per pupil

*Laguna Beach is a Basic Aid District - funding is unchanged under the new law where local property taxes alone are more than sufficient to fund their funding formula entitlement.

Source: http://www.cde.ca.gov/ds/fd/ec/currentexpense.asp
see: 2012–13 Current Cost of Education (XLS) Orange County Code 30

Old Joint Powers Agreement

Under the old JPA, Capistrano Unified was required by the State to make a maintenance of effort funding contribution to the ROP in the amount of $2.9 million dollars per year. Laguna Beach Unified was required to contribute $139 thousand dollars per year. The reason for the large difference in required contributions for each district was the size of each district and percentage of students participating in ROP from each district. Capistrano Unified has 50,000 students and approximately 1,000 participants in ROP, while Laguna Beach Unified has 3,000 students and approximately 60 participants in ROP.

Changes In California Law No Longer Require Districts to Contribute Funds to ROP

Under the new funding formula, Districts are no longer required by law to make contributions to ROP. The State is giving local school districts greater control over how education funds are spent. As a result of this change, Capistrano Unified has expressed its intention to reallocate funds previously allocated for ROP and to take over the management and oversight of the South Coast ROP program.

The meeting tonight is the first Public Hearing regarding the proposed restructuring of the JPA.
The meeting is scheduled for tonight at 5:00 p.m. at 31522 El Camino Real, San Juan Capistrano CA 92675 in Room #7.

Issues Worth Discussing:

Local Control Funding Formula

California’s new LCFF is specifically designed to underfund wealthy suburban school districts with low percentages of ELL and poor. Capistrano Unified has cut $152 million dollars from its budget since 2006 (a 30% reduction in revenues). CUSD’s current funding level is $7,002 per pupil. That is $2,500 below the State average per pupil funding of $9,501; and $4,224 below the National average per pupil funding of $11,226. Under the new law CUSD’s funding is only expected to increase to $8,500 by the year 2021. Under the new law, CUSD will remain severely underfunding into perpetuity. To add to the financial strain on CUSD, the State is making local school districts pay increased contributions to fund CalSTRS and CalPERS. Required contributions are projected to climb to 9.6% of CUSD’s total general fund budget by 2021.

see: “Governor Brown Is Passing The Burden Of Increased Retirement Costs Down To Local School Districts - Leaving Very Little Funding For Anything Elsehttp://disclosurecusd.blogspot.com/2015/02/governor-brown-is-passing-burden-of.html

see: “California’s Local Control Funding Formula- A Parents Perspective”http://disclosurecusd.blogspot.com/2014/11/re-research-brief-toward-grand-vision.html

see “Capistrano Unified School District Students Sue The State of California For Withholding $200 Million Dollars Per Year In Per Pupil Funding”: d isclosurecusd.blogspot.com/2014/10/capistrano-unified-school-district.html

The bottom line for Capistrano Unified is that is is being forced to make cuts where it can, in order to provide basic educational services to the 50,000 students in the District.

The Issue: Should CUSD continue to spend $3 million per year to serve 1000 students or should that money be reallocated to better serve the 50,000 students in the district.

Cost Savings by restructuring JPA:

The ROP is a separate entity with a staff of 78 employees and a payroll of $2.5 million per year.

Source: “Transparent California All Salaries for South Coast ROP”http://transparentcalifornia.com/salaries/school-districts/orange/south-coast-rop/?page=1

Would CUSD be able to continue to offer the same ROP classes to students, but eliminate duplicate costs in administration and facilities expenses by folding oversight of ROP into CUSD rather than fund it as a separate entity?

Union vs Non-union Employee Costs

Most instructors in ROP classes are working professionals that teach classes on the side. They are not part of CUEA and are not compensated as full time employees with health and retirement benefits. If ROP is brought under the direct management of CUSD would the cost of these classes increase or decrease as a result?

With Limited K-12 Funding Should CUSD and LBUSD Use Any Money To Fund Adult Education Programs?

The answer is no. The California Constitution mandates that the State of California provide a FREE and ADEQUATE education to students in K- 12th grade. Districts should not be underfunding K-12 students to provide services to adults.

Everyone recognizes that ROP has been successfully providing technical career classes for High School Students and Adults since the 1970’s. There is a need for vocational training- especially for students who may wish to start a career rather than pursue an advanced degree. The issue is how best to continue to provide these types of services given the State of California’s refusal to adequately fund K- 12 education despite record high revenues.

Transparency

Both ROP and Laguna Beach Unified have informed the public about the changes that are being proposed regarding the restructuring of the JPA. Laguna Beach did so in its January 27, 2015 Board Meeting and ROP is doing so tonight in its Board Meeting. Unfortunately Capistrano has not provided parents or the public with any information on the proposed restructuring and as a result, CUSD parents may not know to attend tonights meeting which is unfortunate since the majority of students served by the ROP are from Capistrano Unified.