February 9, 2024
Dear LAFSD Families,
My thanks to everyone who was able to attend yesterday’s 5:00 pm virtual meeting with Melissa Dodd, our District’s Chief Business Official, and me about our budget planning for next year. We’re in the very early stages of this planning process, and are working to collect input from as many people as possible.
Here are a few highlights from the meeting:
- The District has formed a District Budget Advisory Committee (DBAC) that is made up of appointed representatives from our two employee unions, LEA and CSEA, as well as members of the parent community, the Executive Director of our education foundation, LPIE, and a principal.
- The DBAC formed in December in order to make recommendations for $600,000 in savings or new revenue for 24-25.The DBAC was asked to come up with $1.2M in options for savings or new revenue, so that by May this list could be narrowed to meet the $600,000 target.
- In January, after the DBAC formed and this target was established, the Governor shared his 24-25 budget proposal for California public schools. He announced that next year’s Cost of Living Adjustment would be 0.76%, significantly lower than the previous estimated increase of 3.94% which was used in our budget projections for the next three years.
- A new savings target may therefore be necessary after the Governor’s proposal. We’re still working to understand these implications.
If you have time, I’m linking to two resources.
Here is a link to the slides from yesterday’s meeting.
And here is a link to a Google survey about ideas for next year’s budget. Your input is very valuable and welcome!
If a question comes up for you, please send us a message. We’re very happy to share more, and appreciate feedback. I can be reached at [email protected] and Melissa’s email is [email protected].
My ongoing thanks for your support of our public schools!
Brent Stephens