SPECIAL PROJECT SERVICES
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DCAC Meeting Minutes
Thursday, February 10, 2011
Teacher Resource Center (TRC), Room ABC
Call to Order/Welcome
The February 10, 2011 District Committee Advisory Committee (DCAC) was called to order at
9:30 a.m. by Rene Woodson, DCAC Co-Chairperson. Translation was provided, through the
use of electronic headsets, in Spanish by Mari Giannopoulos, and in Khmer by Sam Keo, both
from Special Projects Services.
Approval of the Minutes
Members were given time to review and correct the content of the January 13, 2011 minutes as
submitted by Jane Kaylor, DCAC Recorder. A motion to approve the minutes was made by
Carolyn Pate (Butler), seconded by Magnolia Rodriguez (Marshal). The minutes were
unanimously approved.
Presentation
Robert Williams, Director of Special Projects, gave DCAC an update on State and LBUSD
Budgets.
 What happens at the state level effects our district. The state is broke and must make
huge cuts, so LBUSD will have to do the same.
 Governor Brown has tried to limit cuts to education and is calling for an election to allow
a vote for or against a continuation of certain fees. These fees would be used to restore
some funds to public schools.
 LBUSD cannot count on these funds, so is planning ahead for the “worse-case
scenario”.
 Cuts decided upon by the LBUSD Board of Education at their February 1st meeting are:
 Increase of class size. In grades K-3 from 20 or 25 to 30 students, and grades 68 would increase by 3 students. California will rank fiftieth in the country in
teacher-pupil ratio.
 Close Buffum and Burroughs, two low enrollment elementary schools
 Cut $27 million from next year’s budget
 The Board stated that these decisions will not be revisited
 Possible cuts to be made at the next board meeting or in the future are:
 Cuts to transportation
 Shorten the school year by adding two more furlough days.
 Teacher layoffs. Those who were rehired on temporary contracts last year with
special stimulus money will receive notices by March 15, 2011 per Education
Code.
 Additional cuts will be made among teachers and other personnel and programs
throughout the district.
 School of residence borders have been changed for those students who have been
displaced by school closings. Forms to accept their new school of residence, or a
request for “School of Choice” are available. Displaced students will have first priority, if
there is space, at the School of Choice.
 Parents can keep track of Board action on the budget by visiting the district’s website at
lbschools.net
Announcements
Lynnie Paterno, DCAC Vice-Chairperson
 Please familiarize yourselves with the Board policies on Parent Involvement for both
Title 1 and Non-Title 1 schools that are in your binders. The annual discussion as to
whether the policies reflect what we are doing and in making changes, if necessary, will
be held at a future meeting this year.
 The state has voted on a new law changing the age for Kindergarten entry. The change
will be made gradually over a 4 year period. (See handout) Please share information
and post at your school.
 Co-Chairperson Jill took the ideas charted from our DCAC parent involvement
discussion on Dec. 14, 2010 and wrote them in document form, organized by subjects.
Please share this important information you wrote. Discuss it, post it, &/or insert in your
school’s newsletter. Schools may use their 1% Title 1 money to pay for printing.
 Long Beach Community Action Partnership offers a free tax preparation service. It is
close to Long Beach Boulevard and Spring Street.
Presentation
Carol Pratt, Administrative Assistant, gave a very short, very informative lesson on her favorite
subject, reading comprehension.
 Struggling readers often can decode, read the words, but do not comprehend, or
understand what they have read. Or they can answer questions about the literal, “right
there” information, but do not “read between the lines.”
 When we teach students inference strategies, students can take the author’s clues and
figure out the author’s meaning.
 Using prior knowledge, what we know from our personal background, and adding clues
from the text is inference. See handouts for a lot more information, activities, and
strategies for teaching inference to your children.
 Inference should be taught to early readers in order to build their skills.
 95% of the questions on the California State Test are inference questions. It makes the
difference between proficient and not proficient test scores.
 Share this information with parents at your school or contact Carol to present a
workshop on inference.
Q&A
Lynnie Paterno told members that, starting with the March meeting, feedback forms will be
answered after the presentations, during “Q&A.” All feedback forms from last month were site
specific and answered accordingly. Be sure to fill out a form today if you have questions or
concerns.
Adjournment
Rene Woodson, DCAC Co-Chairperson, thanked those who contributed prizes for the raffle.
She reminded members that LBUSD Superintendent Chris Steinhauser will address the
members at the next DCAC meeting set for Thursday, March 17, 2011, from 9:30 to 11:00 a.m.
at the Teacher Resource Center.
Respectfully submitted,
Jane Kaylor
Recorder