At its meeting on Tuesday, June 10, the Alameda Unified School District (AUSD) Board of Education explored the Local Control and Accountability Plan (LCAP) and the budget proposal for the 2025-2026 school year.
LCAP goals and actions
With the second year of the three-year Local Control and Accountability Plan (LCAP) on the horizon, Assistant Superintendent of Educational Services Kirsten Zazo kicked off a presentation on districtwide goals in educational programming, student support, and family communications for the 2025-2026 school year. According to Zazo, the priorities for the coming school year will help staff “get even more focused” on work completed throughout the recently concluded school year, and will include reinforced efforts on supporting pre-Kindergarten to third grade (PK-3) literacy and fourth to eighth grade math, early intervention and inclusion, and focal scholars.
District staff took turns introducing a mission statement and key actions that would advance the goals of their respective focal areas during the upcoming school year. For example, by selecting focal scholars based on data and input and developing personalized support plans, focal scholars will be able to receive the support they need to ensure they are making progress towards proficiency in their school subjects and benchmarks. According to Shamar Edwards—Senior Director of Equity and African American, Black, and Multiethnic Achievement—key actions to support this work include tutoring for scholars, listening sessions for students and families, and personalized or small group instruction.
Zazo emphasized that the LCAP goals are intended to be built into AUSD’s strategic planning efforts and incorporated into school site plans so that staff and teachers can design lessons that impact student experience. The presentation slides also included details of proposed funding to implement actions during the 2025-26 school year to help achieve each of the LCAP’s district-wide goals, and introduced a new goal that focuses on supporting underserved student groups at Island High School.
“I’m looking forward to the success I know is going to come based on the plans that were presented today,” commented Trustee Meleah Hall. She also encouraged developing and incorporating anti-bias and anti-racist curriculum for elementary students and providing a similar training for parents and staff, drawing agreement from fellow Board members. Other Board discussion focused on opportunities for parents to get involved at school sites and intervention for new students to the District.
2025-26 budget
Later in the evening, Assistant Superintendent of Business Services Shariq Khan continued the ongoing budget discussion with the third of four presentations detailing the District’s budget for the 2025-26 school year.
Khan described the “estimated actuals” of revenues and expenditures for the 2024-25 school year, which result in a projected $32.1 million ending fund balance. This balance helps AUSD develop its multiyear projections (MYP), which is a roadmap that offers a preliminary outlook on how the District’s budgeting plan may perform over the next three years.
The 2025-26 budget anticipates $138 million in revenues and $146 million in expenditures or contributions to restricted funds, which is indicative of deficit spending. However, Khan clarified that this is “by design, a drawdown of fund balance to fund positions created using one-time funds,” and that a positive ending fund balance at the end of the 2027-28 school year allows approval of the budget with a positive certification.
During Board discussion, President Gary Lym warned that since Governor Gavin Newsom’s May Revision to the 2025-2026 California State Budget projects a zero balance in the Public School System Stabilization Account—a reserve fund created in 2014 to support schools and community colleges—there may be tough decisions ahead should the projected $12 billion deficit in the state budget continue to grow amid market uncertainty.
“There is a lot of ask, and there are a lot of important programs here,” said Lym. “I just caution us to be careful in the way we decide things—really weigh the importance of what asks are important for the community.”
Both the LCAP and 2025-26 budget will come to the Board for adoption at its next meeting on Tuesday, June 24.
Other notable items
- The Board received an update on the Food & Nutrition Services program from Director James Assia, who detailed efforts to source local ingredients, provide organic food, and upgrade equipment at school sites.
- The Board unanimously approved Amira as AUSD’s Early Reading Difficulty Screener for Kindergarten to second grade students.
Ken Der is a contributing writer for the Alameda Post. Contact him via [email protected]. His writing is collected at AlamedaPost.com/Ken-Der.
