LASD Board Highlights

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If you missed the meetings, you can watch the video for the March 6 and April 3 meetings online.

At its March 3 meeting, the Board heard a report from Mr. Walukiewicz, LASD's Chief Business Officer, regarding the long term budget outlook. While LASD is currently in a strong financial position, the district faces some challenges.

To continue to attract and retain our skilled, experienced, and dedicated teachers, more revenue will be required in the long term. LASD is located in one of the most expensive places in the country. To be sure our highly qualified teachers can afford to live here, LASD needs to be able to pay competitive salaries so teachers don’t leave for higher paying districts.

The district's sources of funding include a portion of local property tax revenues, limited state and federal funding, and the critical revenues from a local parcel tax that is due to expire soon unless voters choose to renew it again.

The district's Budget Review Committee will be meeting soon to make recommendations on future expenditures to ensure LASD's fiscal health for the long term.

For more information, please review item I.2. on the agenda online from our March 6 meeting.

At the April 3 Board meeting, students from Loyola Elementary School presented a fascinating and informative presentation on natural disasters in California and what we all can do to mitigate the risks and impacts. To check out the presentation, you can view the board meeting video here.

The Board unanimously approved the agreement with the Los Altos Teachers Association to provide an increase in compensation for our highly-qualified teachers on April 3. Due to the very high cost of living in our area, this increase will help make teacher compensation more competitive to protect top-quality instruction in our classrooms. For more information, please check out item I.2 on our agenda online.

At LASD, we believe in lifelong learning. Our teachers model this for our students by engaging in ongoing professional development to ensure instruction in the classroom is always founded in current best practices and educational research. Year-round, teachers engage in professional development, but also have an opportunity for summer learning in our Summer Institute.

This year, professional development has focused on four key areas:

1. Diversity, equity, belonging and inclusion

2. Professional Learning Communities where teachers support one another through collaboration to improve student outcomes

3. Twig Science Launch for excellent instruction through our new science curriculum

4. Enhanced Job Embedded Learning, where teachers are able to implement new skills and obtain feedback while in the classroom

We are incredibly proud of the work our educational team is doing to always put students first, honing their craft to ensure the success of every child.

For more information, please check out item I.3. on our agenda online.

This month, LASD conducted a survey of local voters to understand the feasibility of renewing its parcel tax, which will expire soon. The parcel tax is an important source of voter-approved local funding to retain highly-qualified teachers and protect academic programs in our schools. It is local funding that goes directly to our schools and cannot be taken away by the state. This source of funding will expire unless local voters choose to renew it.

The survey provided valuable insight into voter opinions of our schools and support for renewing the existing parcel tax with a small increase to protect the high quality instruction and academic programs for which LASD is known.

For more information, please check out item I.4. on our agenda online.

Our next meeting of the Board of Trustees is on Monday, May 1 at 7:00pm. Los Altos School District Board of Trustees meetings are open to the public at 201 Covington Road, Los Altos in our Board Room. To attend meetings remotely, please visit our Board web page and use the provided zoom link. Please note: public comment can only be provided in person at the Board meeting or via email at trustees@lasdschoos.org, but cannot be made online.

If you would like to stay updated regarding upcoming Board meetings, please email mbirnie@lasdschools.org, providing your name, email address and a request to be added to the email list for Brown Act updates, including upcoming meetings and agendas.

Website: www.lasdschools.org
Location: 201 Covington Road
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/LASDK8/