LBUSD Disputes Claim of Misspent Funds

Did the Long Beach Unified School District misspend $24 million meant for high needs students?

After a complaint was made against the Los Angeles County Office of Education (LACOE) regarding the LBUSD, the county found that LBUSD misallocated $24 million last year in funds intended for improving services for high need students, according to a Sept. 27 press release from the Children’s Defense Fund-California.

High need students include those living in poverty, those experiencing homelessness, foster children,  those learning English as a second language, the disabled and others.

The administrative complaint was filed in April 2017 under the Uniform Complaint Procedure (UCP) by parents Guadalupe Luna and Marina Roman Sanchez and community groups Latinos in Action-California and the Children’s Defense Fund-California. They were represented by nonprofit law firm Public Advocates, Inc.

“While the California Department of Education has ordered districts to correct their spending, this is the first time that a county office of education has found that a district improperly credited itself as having spent funds for high need students and called for the district to redress this error by increasing its expenditures to high need students in the subsequent school year,” according to the Children’s Defense Fund-California press release sent to the Beachcomber, along with a copy of the April 4 complaint against LACOE and a copy of LACOE’s Sept. 22 decision.

“According to LACOE, LBUSD did not justify how $17 million of funds generated by high need students spent on textbooks and materials and $7 million on teacher salary costs was used to grow services for low-income, English language learner and foster youth students,” the Children’s Defense Fund release indicates.

“LACOE determined that, despite being given the opportunity, LBUSD ‘could not provide a satisfactory explanation’ for its assertion that basic textbook purchases were principally directed to benefit high need students and ultimately concluded the $24 million in textbook and salary costs ‘should not have been included’ among the actions credited against the district’s obligation toward high need students,” the release states.

The release continues that the LBUSD will have to live up to California’s new education funding law, the Local Control Funding Formula (LCFF), by adjusting its spending plan this year.

“Complainants estimate that LBUSD will have to add millions more in new spending on high need students in the current school year,” according to the release. “LACOE is first giving the California Department of Education time to issue a decision on an earlier appeal by complainants on these matters before requiring the district comply.”

Sanchez, a parent complainant and member of Latinos in Action-California, said in a statement: “Finally, Long Beach Unified is being held accountable to fully meet its obligation to help high need students. We look forward to working with the district to identify the millions of dollars of new services that will benefit our students.”

Angelica Jongco, senior staff attorney at Public Advocates, said in a statement:

“For LCFF (Local Control Funding Formula) to deliver on the promise of equity in California, county offices will sometimes need to exercise critical oversight over local spending plans. We appreciate the county office stepping up to safeguard this promise. We urge LBUSD to take action now to fix this $24 million mistake. High need students should not have to wait yet another year to get the services that they deserve.”

However, LBUSD does not agree with LACOE’s finding.

In a Sept. 27 email to the Beachcomber, LBUSD spokesman Chris Eftychiou explained:

“Our school district’s Local Control Accountability Plan meets or exceeds state requirements and the spirit of the law. The California Department of Education released student performance data today. The Long Beach Unified School District shows significant growth in English and math. All student subgroups improved here, including all racial/ethnic subgroups, students learning English as their second language, special education students and homeless and foster children.

“Many of our schools closed achievement gaps by 50 percent or more. In many ways, our school district is outperforming the state and other large, urban school systems. We fundamentally disagree with the ruling and there are additional procedures ahead where we can correct the county’s error.”

Eftychiou added, “Leading education experts are saying that our methods should be emulated and that county and state offices should learn from successful school districts like ours.”

John Briscoe, an LBUSD critic and elected trustee for the Ocean View School District of Orange County, said through email on his own behalf and not on behalf of the board:

“LBUSD high-needs families are typically high poverty households with multiple children and minimum income. Parents seldom-to-never have college degrees; they lack the temerity to speak truth to power.”

Meanwhile, Jongco at Public Advocates wrote in an email Oct. 20:

“We don’t have any updates at this time. The California Department of Education has requested more time to consider our appeal of the LBUSD UCP response. We are hopeful that we might be able to work collaboratively with the district to resolve the outstanding issues.”

kirt@beachcomber.news