The Black Oak Oak Mine Unified School District is committed to communication and to parent engagement. Engagement requires that we all share a fundamental understanding of how things work. In this case, that means understanding public education in the State of California.

 

The BOMUSD is starting a Parent Education Series. This series consists of diving deeply into a particular topic, once each month. Topics will range from student services to education finance and everything in between.

 

Public education is profoundly complex. In many ways, it is too complex and can be vulnerable to influence and/or mandates from a multitude of agencies, politics, social issues, debates about culture, and that which budget often dictates - layers upon layers of responsibilities and accountability. In short, public education has several “masters”, each with somewhat differing expectations of public education.

 

It is not uncommon for schools and school districts to make decisions that seem to make no/little sense - decisions that can be confusing and even frustrating. The purpose of our Parent Education Series is to create some degree of context and understanding about how decisions are made and why they are decided as they are, within a broader context and in consideration of a multitude of factors.

 

Every decision made, one way or another, is an allocation of precious resources. Accountability is the necessary and proper expectation for the enormous investment of tax-payer dollars into public education.  Our Parent Education Series is a part of meeting this expectation by creating a better understanding of how public education works.

 

Even considering all the complexity and factors that influence public education, it is important to know that every decision in our district is made through the lens of, “What will result in increased student achievement?” In some cases this is all about quality instruction in core subjects and about providing an array of career technical courses. In others, it is about addressing wellness and economic hardship. In, yet other cases, it’s about providing rich and fulfilling extra and co-curricular opportunities.

 

As people whose work it is to provide public education, we’re often caught saying, “Man, if parents only knew…”. As a district, we’re committed to putting parents and our community in the know.

 

The Black Oak Mine Unified School District and its Board of Trustees are completely committed to providing excellence in education for everyone of our students.

 

For November, we are starting with an explanation of the structure of public education in the State of California.

 

 

As mentioned, public education is complex.  The organizational chart, below, gives some sense of that complexity:

 

 

 

This diagram is useful only insofar as it provides a quick, visual representation of the enormous complexity.

 

Part of the purpose of this series is to take the complex and make it simple - to make it useful. We will, therefore, focus very broadly on the federal, state, county, and local levels - the Federal

 

Department of Education (DOE), the California Depart of Education (CDE) and the State Board of Education (SBE), our county office of education (EDCOE), and our local school district (BOMUSD) .

 

To make things even more useful, we will address them in reverse order, which also happens to be in order of importance for us parents. Please know that we are describing ONLY the most basic functions of each entity.

 

Generally speaking, there are three types of school districts: elementary (TK-6), high school (9-12), and unified (TK-12). The BOMUSD, as a unified school district, is fairly unique in El Dorado County - South Lake Tahoe is the only other unified school district within El Dorado County.

 

The BOMUSD, as are all school districts in the State of California, is governed by an elected school board. The BOMUSD Board of Trustees is composed of 5 members, elected by the voters living within the district’s boundaries. In all respects, BOMUSD Board Members are charged with the governance of the school district. As a body, the Board is the employer of all district employees, not the Superintendent.

 

A District Superintendent is actually the Secretary to the Board, charged with the authority and responsibility of executing and supervising whatever action a Board chooses to take within the context and boundaries of the California Education Code. The California Education Code is written by the State Legislature.

 

Broadly speaking, the BOMUSD Board of Trustees is charged with determining an appropriate course of study for all students in grades Transitional Kindergarten (TK) though 12, including the requirements for graduation. The Board is also responsible for managing the District’s budget.

 

Annually, the BOMUSD Board of Trustees is responsible for approving a balanced district budget, based on anticipated revenues and expenses, and for reviewing the budget at specific times during the school year (interim budget reviews). The single largest portion of any budget in every school district is devoted to employee salaries and benefits.

 

Very broadly speaking, The State of California governs school districts in 2 primary ways: the Local Control Accountability Plan (LCAP) and the Local Control Funding Formula (LCFF). The LCAP is a 3-year plan, updated annually, that describes district academic goals and the LCFF, updated annually, that describes district fiscal support for the academic goals, as described in the (LCAP). The California State Dashboard holds school districts accountable for their progress on LCAP goals.

 

 

California mainstains 58 county offices of education, each representing their respective county. The vast majority of County Superintendents are elected and work cooperatively with an elected County Board of Trustees, each of whom represent the school districts within their constituent district. County offices of education are critically important for a number of reasons.

 

County offices of education are considered “intermediate” education agencies. The California Department of Education is not capable of speaking individually to nearly 1,000 school districts. Rather, the CDE works through the 58 County Superintendents who work with individual school districts to ensure school districts operate in accordance with the CA Education Code. In their work with school districts, county offices of education provide several vital services.

 

County offices of education are responsible for approving district LCAPs and to assess the relative “health” of district budgets. In doing so, they provide support and expertise school districts may not otherwise have; especially, to smaller school districts like the BOMUSD.

 

County offices of education also provide economies of scale to do any number of things that school districts wouldn’t otherwise be able to. For example, EDCOE hosts the financial system for all El Dorado County school districts. They also provide an economy of scale by providing direct education services to students, most often to students with special needs (Regional Programs). For example, the EDCOE hosts a deaf and hard of hearing program on behalf of all El Dorado County schools who could not, otherwise, afford such a program.

 

Except for the specific areas of oversight already mentioned, county offices of education do not have “authority” over school districts - school districts have autonomy under the direction of their respective school boards.

 

Broadly speaking, county offices of education are a resource and support to individual school districts in areas including school finance, curriculum and instruction, technology, Special Education, CDE mandates, and as advocates for public education, in general.

 

 

The CDE oversees the state's public school system, which is responsible for the education of more than 6,000,000 children and young adults in more than 10,000 schools with 300,000 teachers.

 

Under the direction of an elected State Superintendent of Public Instruction (SPI) and the State Board of Education (SBE), the CDE is in charge of enforcing education law and regulations and continuing to reform and improve public school programs, as legislated by CA lawmakers.

 

The 11-member State Board of Education is California’s TK-12 policy-making body for academic standards, curriculum, instructional materials, assessments and accountability. The CDE is responsible for writing the State’s accountability plan, requiring federal approval, in order for the State to continue to receive federal funding.

 

 

 

Created in 1979, “the U.S. Department of Education is the agency of the federal government that establishes policy for, administers and coordinates most federal assistance to education. It assists the president in executing his education policies for the nation and in implementing laws enacted by Congress. The Department's mission is to serve America's students-to promote student achievement and preparation for global competitiveness by fostering educational excellence and ensuring equal access.

 

In 2007-08, the Department's elementary and secondary school programs served approximately 55 million students (pre-K through grade 12) attending some 100,000 public schools and 34,000 private schools.”

 

The BOMUSD benefits from federal funding, primarily in the form of Title I funds. We receive these funds to support effective, evidence-based educational strategies that close the achievement gap and enable the students to meet the state's rigorous academic standards.

 

Again, the above describes only the most basic of functions of each entity. In practice, public education is profoundly complex, detailed, and must respond/answer to a number of institutions and audiences.

 

Each of these entities most commonly employ one-size-fits-all solutions that may, or may not work given local conditions. California is a diverse state and the Black Oak Mine Unified School District is committed to balancing these demands with the absolute priority of continuing to provide excellence in education to our students in a common sense fashion and according to our local conditions and priorities.

 

Future topics in the Parent Education Series will drill down on more specific topics. Again, the Parent Education Series will be published monthly and each will focus on a topic that is important to public education.

 

For the December Parent Education Series, we will objectively examine the relative advantages and disadvantages of attending small schools.

 

Thanks very much for taking the time to read.