• To meet the 2019-20 school year, we hired over 40 teachers and over 50 classified staff.
• In August, we officially broke ground on the new Alberhill Elementary School (TK-5), located on the north end of Lake Elsinore, opening in 2020, to serve the Alberhill Ranch community and vicinity.
• The updated 2020-21 school attendance boundary map for Alberhill Elementary School and surrounding elementary schools also affected by this boundary addition became available online. This web-based school locator tool allows families to input their residential address to identify which LEUSD elementary, middle, and high schools serve them now and in 2020-21.
• Summer facilities projects, from artificial turf replacement to playground refurbishment, were completed by our outstanding Maintenance & Operations team. The accompanying presentation slides show great examples of fresh pavement, newly painted doors, walls and railings, spruced up school grounds, playgrounds, and synthetic turf infill projects to replace problem irrigation and landscaping areas on several campuses. We thank our M&O team for working behind the scenes to keep our schools trim, safe and clean!
• A previously shuttered campus in Wildomar, Jean Hayman Elementary (JHE), was reopened this summer under a multi-phase development plan that will unfold over the next three years. Phase 1 licensed the Southern California EMS Institute to use newly refurbished classrooms and office space. Phase 2 will include refurbishment of the MPR for district staff development and for use as a community meeting room space. Phase 3 implements the relocation of our existing Valley Adult School and Adult Transition Program (ATP) to the JHE campus. Phase 3 also adds site-based child care to serve the southern portion of our district. Phase 4 places 12 affordable modular housing units for teachers at Jean Hayman ES, a recruitment strategy to attract new teachers to the district despite a statewide teacher shortage.

The first half of the 2019-20 legislative year has ended. Bills sent to the Governor had until Sunday, October 13, 2019, to be signed into law, or struck down under veto authority.

SB 419 prohibits suspension of a pupil (grades 4 and 5) for disrupting school activities, including willful defiance. SB 419 commences in July 1, 2020, and applies to public and charter schools. Also, pupils in grades 6-8 may not be suspended for these acts, effective July 1, 2020 through July 1, 2025.

Vaccination exemptions under SB 276 and SB 714 will be subject to new rules. This new law aims to combat fraudulent medical exemptions, in response to public health concerns. Effective January 1, 2020, a student on an existing medical exemption must have current immunizations prior to enrolling. Mandatory immunization checkpoints, or grade spans, include birth to pre-school, grades TK-6, and grades 7-12.

A $15 billion school bond has been cleared for the March 2020 ballot under AB 48, recently signed by the Governor. Voters will get to decide whether to approve $9 billion towards K-12 and $2 billion each for community colleges, CSU, and UC systems. The bond will help pay for preschool expansion, K-12 campus improvements and modernization, and health and safety upgrades at California’s higher educational institutions.

SB 328 (Portantino) – Pupil attendance: school start time, establishes minimum school start times for Middle School and High School beginning in the 2022-2023 school year. This bill was signed by the Governor just before the October 13 deadline. The rationale for later start times is from research that shows children and adolescents who get more sleep demonstrate better concentration and improved learning. Effective state wide in 2022-2023, minimum start times will be 8 a.m. for Middle School, and 8:30 a.m. for High School. Effective state wide no later than July 1, 2022, the minimum start time for Middle School would be 8:00 a.m., and 8:30 a.m. for High School.The bill excludes “zero periods,” which are optional courses offered before the regular school day begins.

The Governor has vetoed AB 197 – Full-Day Kindergarten, on the basis of schoolroom/campus space constraints, saying the cost to extend existing part day programs is outside the budget.

These legislative actions reflect priorities in Sacramento to help close the pupil achievement gap, to provide funding assistance for K-12 school facilities and higher education, and to increase student safety.

As shown in the accompanying PowerPoint slideshow, linked here, LEUSD has experienced declining enrollment over a five-year period. Current enrollment is 21,074, down over 800 pupils from 2015.

The decline may be the result of lower housing occupancy, and mobility of families in search of more affordable housing, including out of state relocation. Fewer students means lower education revenue for the district.

For example, a 1% change in LEUSD’s attendance equates to $1.9 million in funding. Accurate enrollment projection is essential to maintaining quality instruction while balancing the budget and forecasting LEUSD’s multi-year budget outlook.