Ms. Castro explained the meaning of the different positions District staff may take as follows:

• Support -- a bill staff will actively lobby through letters, testimony in committee, visits to

• Approve -- a bill generally in line with Board policy, but may have cost implications or may

• Watch -- bills where the current language does not reflect the intent of the legislators and staff

• Disapprove -- bills that deviate from District policy or impose additional cost or mandates to the District.

Ms. Hoffman gave a brief description of the bills in the following categories as well as the District's position:

• Assessment and Accountability

District's position: Watch

AB 2413 (Diaz) -- Requires the Department of Education to develop variations or
adaptations of the California Standards Tests in language arts and mathematics.
The bill was just amended to include science, history, and social science.

District's position: Support

SB 1419 (Vasconcellos) -- Adds Opportunity for Teaching and Learning index to
the Public School Accountability Program in order to measure the opportunity for
K-12 pupil learning.

District's position: Approve

SB 1448 (Albert) -- Extends the date on the Standardized Testing and Reporting program (STAR) to 2011, clarifies the assessment of English learners.

Ms. Hoffman responded to questions from Board Members.

• Instruction and Learning

District's position: Support

AB 2698 (Goldberg) -- Establishes incentive program for dual immersion language programs.

AB 2764 (Bates) -- Allows the University of California, the California State University,

and the California Community Colleges to establish pilot programs to authorize and oversee charter schools. The bill has been amended to provide each segment to provide ten charter schools.

SB 1380 (Escutia) -- Requires the State Board of Education (Board) to solicit recommendations from local education agencies regarding the adoption of basic instructional materials in specified subject areas and adopt such materials unless the Board makes a finding that the materials are lacking.

District's position: Oppose

SB 1405 (Karnette) -- Provides for a review by the Superintendent of Public Instruction of high school materials to make sure the materials adopted by local board are aligned with content standards.

SB 1418 (Vasconcellos) - Replaces current statement in the statute regarding the purpose of education and instead proposes a much broader reaching policy on what education should

include and sets forth guiding principles; such as each child is a learner by nature and that public education should be centered on pupils, transparent, accountable and should strive

District's position: Support

SB 1795 (Alarcon) --Allows the Superintendent of Public Instruction to designate high schools that voluntarily adopt rigorous high school graduation requirements as "High Performance High Schools."

Ms. Hoffman responded to questions from Board Members regarding charter schools and high performance high school designation and other matters.

After discussion Committee Members recommended that SB 1795 be referred to Curriculum and Instruction Committee and that the Office of Legislative and Governmental Relations work with legal counsel to gather and share information with legislators on a former charter school sponsored by UCLA some years back.

• Credentialing and Staff Development

District's position: Support

AB 2559 (Diaz) -- Authorizes local education agencies to operate their Beginning Teacher Support and Assessment (BTSA), Peer Assistance and Review (PAR), and Instructional Time and Staff Development Reform (ITSDRP) programs under the auspices of a panel.

Ms. Hoffman responded to questions from Board Members regarding the block grant established by AB 2559 and how decisions will be made on the use of funds. It was recommended this
bill be discussed in the Human Resources Committee.

• Special Education

District's position: Watch

• Nutrition and Food Services

  SB 1464 (Karnette) -- Allows local boards to contract with other than the lowest bidder for the purchase of cafeteria supplies, equipment and materials that may affect the health and safety of children.

SB 1566 (Escutia) -- Extends the current prohibition on the sale of soda and "junk food"
to pupils on high school campuses.

District's position: Support

Ms. Castro responded to questions from Board Members. It was recommended that
SB 1464 be brought for further discussion in Closed Session or at the Audit, Business
and Finance Committee.

Ms. Hoffman responded to questions from Board Members on the definition of "junk food."

• Early Childhood

District's position: Support

Ms. Hoffman responded to questions from Board Members.

• School Finance

  AB 442 (Richman): Applies to the Los Angeles Unified School District only requires additional reporting of information regarding expenditure on a number of items such as

District's position: Oppose

AB 2373 (Goldberg): Requires the California Quality Education Commission to

prepare and submit a report to the Legislature to analyze school funding models and look at the feasibility of a weighted per pupil formula.

AB 2756 (Daucher): Creates an additional monitoring for school districts in fiscal trouble and provides additional power to the Superintendent of Public Instruction and the Fiscal Crisis and Management Assistance Team.

District's position: Watch

AB 2824 (Runner): Implements the Governor's proposal to consolidate funding for 22 existing categorical education programs. It also creates an additional accountability system.

AB 2938 (Pleascia): Increases revenue allocated to prizes to 62% and decreases the revenue
allocated to public education at least 25%. It provides that the Lottery Commission guarantee the contribution to education per year not fall below a specified level.

District's position: Watch

SB 1416 (Vasconcellos): It is a placeholder bill for a potential resolution to the Williams lawsuit if it entails the implementation of a weighted per pupil formula.

SB 1420 (Vasconcellos): Requires school districts to provide fully credentialed teachers,

adequate instructional materials, and a clean and safe facility in order to receive state funding.

SB 1510 (Alpert): Creates 7 block grants of categorical funding which are closely related; such as a Pupil Retention Block Grant, School Safety Block Grant, Teacher Credentialing Block Grant, Professional Development Block Grant, Targeted Instructional Improvement Block Grant, and Instructional Materials Block Grant.

Ms. Castro responded to questions from Board Members regarding block grants, fiscal accountability, and weighted per pupil funding.

Mr. Richard Knott, Controller, responded to questions regarding lottery revenues and categorical funds.

• Contracting

  AB 2614 (Levine) -- Allows school districts to negotiate and look for best value. Districts are not required to select the lowest bidder. It also allows the internet to post and receive bids.

She commented on the State's release of API and AYP data simultaneously towards the end of August to alleviate confusion and the waiver of the algebra requirement for graduation for high school in 2003-04 under certain circumstances. This waiver does not apply to Los Angeles since it already has an algebra requirement. The District received approvala of the following three waivers: 1) Brancroft Middle School and Fairfax High School will be exempted from the State monitoring process, 2) 22 Escutia Schools will receive option 1 funding for class size reduction while the District is in the process of building schools, and 3) Safe and Drug Free Schools and Communities funds will be used to support the cost of Take Charge of your Life, a 7th and 9th grade prevention program.

Ms. Barber stated that at the May 12-13, 2004, meeting the State will consider two more waiver requests from the District: 1) Full-Day Kindergarten, which if approved would allow the District to implement the program beginning July 1, 2004, and 2) Renewal of waiver for distance-learning in adult education.

Ms. Barber responded to questions from Board Members regarding full day kindergarten.

She highlighted the waivers announced by Secretary Rod Paige:

• Rural teachers who qualified in at least one subject will have 3 years to become highly qualified in the additional subjects they teach.

• States may allow science teachers to demonstrate that they are highly qualified either in broad field science or individual fields of science.

• Flexibility regarding limited English proficient students and the calculation of participation rates.

• Up to one percent of Students with Disabilities may get the alternative assessment and have it count in the AYP.

• The reauthorization of Higher Education Act.
  
  
• The reauthorization of the Federal School Lunch program.

• The School Facilities Qualified Zone Academy Bond.

Ms. Barber responded to questions from Board Members regarding changes to the No Child Left Behind Act and the Child Nutrition Improvement and Integrity Act.

• Mandate Claim and Reimbursement Process

• May Revision

The meeting adjourned at 4:15 p.m.

INFORMATION ITEMS - Oral presentations with or without written documents

2. Status of Significant Legislation Vivian Castro
Erika Hoffman
Arline Latino

3. State Board of Education Report Peggy Barber

4. Federal Report Peggy Barber

5. Outstanding Issues Vivian Castro

OTHER ITEMS

6. Items referred to the Committee by the Board of Education or Committee of the Whole.

The Committee may consider and act upon motions, board reports, or other
business referred to it by the Board of Education or Committee of the Whole with

respect to any properly posted matter at a meeting immediately preceding this Committee meeting, where the time between that meeting and this Committee meeting is less than 72 hours. Members of the public are encouraged to review the order of business or agenda for the meetings of the Board of Education or Committee of the Whole.

Persons who wish to address the Committee may sign up at the meeting.