The final Santa Monica-Malibu Unified School District (SMMUSD) Board of Education meeting before the Class of 2024 graduation ceremonies will discuss a number of updates in both student achievement and fiscal matters.
Thursday’s meeting includes a draft of the district’s 2024-25 Local Control Accountability Plan (LCAP), describing how the district intends to meet annual benchmarks in the three SMMUSD LCAP goals. The LCAP serves as a strategic planning tool, utilized to address and reduce disparities between student groups and closing achievement and opportunity gaps.
SMMUSD’s first LCAP goal area is making sure "students will be college and career ready through socially just pathways rooted in curiosity, belonging and empowerment," an expansion from the 2023-24 definition of "all students will be socially just and ready for careers and college." District actions toward this goal are tied toward staff development as well as student readiness programs like Career Technical Education pathways and Project-Based Learning (PBL) opportunities.
Through 2023-24, a year-long in-depth PBL training at Grant Elementary School was deemed successful, with the model to be replicated at other school sites in 2024-25. The CTE program also expanded offerings this past year at Samohi and Malibu High School, adding new opportunities for students.
Continuing to build a socially just district will also be the focus of an Advancement Via Individual Determination (AVID) program update at Thursday’s meeting. AVID, an accelerated program to assist, support and empower learners for college and career, included students in grades 4-12 exploring possibilities for the future. This year, McKinley Elementary School became the district’s first AVID elementary site, taking part in college awareness activities and debating social justice topics.
The second LCAP goal is to have Multilingual Learners become "proficient in English while engaging in a rigorous, culturally and linguistically responsive, standards-aligned core curriculum." The district will continue its English Language Development (ELD) in 2024-25 by having teachers embed Integrated ELD in content instruction, including elementary site administrators reinforcing daily Designated ELD time in weekly instructional schedules. The ELD process continued in 2023-24 by giving English Learners access to a seven-period day, ensuring that a designated ELD and an elective period were offered for multilingual learners.
Actions involving district facility maintenance and student physical and mental well-being are included in the third goal, ensuring "all students and families feel connected and informed" while engaging in "safe, well-maintained and culturally responsive schools that support future-ready learning." Along with ever-present facility improvements district-wide, 2024-25 will feature a mental health and wellness focus, continuing to develop and maintain "wellness spaces" at school sites and having TK-12 teachers utilize social emotional learning curriculum to support social-emotional health and positive coping skills.
Thursday’s meeting will also publicly disclose bargaining agreements between the district and several bodies, including the Santa Monica-Malibu Classroom Teachers Association and School Employees International Union — Local 99 (SEIU). The district and Local 99 came to an agreement in May that secured union members an 18% wage increase through the 2025-26 fiscal school year. The agreement included a 5% wage increase plus retroactive pay to January 2024, a 3% wage increase effective July 1, and two-step adjustment wage increases of 5% during the 2024-25 and 2025-26 school years.
The preliminary fiscal 2024-25 general fund budget will also be presented on Thursday, discussing the budget process, Local Control Funding Formula calculations and multiyear projections for district fiscal matters.
