League of Women Voters of California Education Fund
Alameda County, CA November 4, 2014 Election
	Charles Blanchard Answers Questions Candidate for Board Member; Albany Unified School District

The questions were prepared by the LWV Berkeley/Albany/Emeryville and asked of all candidates for this office.
Read the answers from all candidates (who have responded).

Questions & Answers

1. The new Local Control Funding Formula moved many decisions about allocating funding from the state to the local school boards; how well has the District followed the spirit of the Formula in identifying what our children need? Would you change anything in the process of developing the Local Control (LCAP) budget for next year?

AUSD's curriculum has always focused on student needs, with a variety of processes used to broadly gather input and formulate direction. The AUSD Local Control Accountability Plan (LCAP) (http://www.ausdk12.org/apps/pages/index.jsp?uREC_ID=92444&type=d&pREC_ID=582506) has been built upon AUSD's 2009 Strategic Plan (http://www.ausdk12.org/apps/pages/index.jsp?uREC_ID=97077&type=d), the 2013 Strategic Plan update and alignment of school site plans with the Strategic Plan, the Western Association of Schools and Colleges (WASC) accrediting of AHS in 2013, regularly-scheduled meetings of the AUSD District English Language Learners Advisory Committee (DELAC) (http://www.ausdk12.org/apps/pages/index.jsp?uREC_ID=92423&type=d&pREC_ID=173258&hideMenu=1), and the LCAP Parent Advisory Committee formed earlier this year. All of these activities were designed to address the most important and basic question: what do we want our students to know and to be able to do at each grade level?

The LCAP is a comprehensive planning tool. AUSD's budget is developed by reference to the LCAP and the goals and policies established by the Board of Education. District staff members are responsible for carrying out the specific projections of revenues expected under the Local Control Funding Formula (LCFF) and the anticipated expenditures that will be required for fully staffing schools and implementing AUSD goals and policies. It is the Board's responsibility to review the budget development, and to ensure that the adopted budget is consistent with the LCAP and the Board's goals. Budget development and adoption is an open, public process, as it should be.

It appears that LCFF will not provide more revenue to AUSD than the earlier state funding approach, and might in fact reduce AUSD's state funding levels. In the 2014-15 adopted budget and the 2013-2014 final budget, AUSD's expenditures were 1.5 to 2 million dollars greater each year than its total revenues, out of an annual budget of about $35 million. AUSD has sufficient reserves to carry it through another year or two of deficit spending, because actual expenditures were about 1 million dollars less than revenues each year from 2010-11 through 2012-13. There will need to be an inclusive and collaborative examination of spending priorities for 2015-16.

2. How well has the District done in introducing the Common Core standards and methods in classes K-12? What improvements would you recommend or do you anticipate for the coming year?

Common Core is a work in progress. The District has been moving steadily toward aligning its curriculum with Common Core standards and methods. Equipment for administering the online tests is available. For some grade levels and subjects, textbooks compatible with Common Core do not yet exist. This year will be a time to gather input from teachers about their experiences teaching in the classroom, from students about learning in the styles encouraged by Common Core, and from test results. More time will be needed to assess those experiences and results. In recent years, Albany's curriculum has been consistent with the spirit of Common Core, emphasizing, for example, critical thinking and writing in high school classes. Common Core encourages conceptual understanding as well as mastering skills, which is what education should be about.

3. Is early childhood education being well implemented in the District? What would you recommend in this area?

The Albany Children's Center provides excellent, full-day early childhood education at its own site, as well as before-school and after-school programs at each of the three elementary schools. The programs are fee-based. Scholarships were at one time available, but losses of state and federal funding have meant that opportunities are more limited for those children who might benefit most from early childhood education. What is needed most is funding.

---

Responses to questions asked of each candidate are reproduced as submitted to the League.  Candidates' statements are presented as submitted. References to opponents are not permitted.

Read the answers from all candidates (who have responded).

Candidate Page || Feedback to Candidate || This Contest
SmartVoter Home (Ballot Lookup) || About Smart Voter

---

Created from information supplied by the candidate: October 25, 2014 19:31
Smart Voter <http://www.smartvoter.org/>
Copyright © League of Women Voters of California Education Fund   http://www.lwvc.org
The League of Women Voters neither supports nor opposes candidates for public office or political parties.