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Ryan Smith of United Way
A coalition of community groups known by the acronym, CLASS, finally had a meeting today with LA Unified Board President Richard Vladovic.
The groups’ mission was to press the case for individual schools, rather than district administrators, deciding how to spend money coming into LA Unified from Gov. Jerry Brown‘s new Local Control Funding Formula, with a particular focus on supporting underserved students — English learners, children from foster homes and students from low-income families.
“The meeting was productive and we look forward to ongoing meetings,” Ryan Smith of the United Way of Greater Los Angeles said in an email. “We are also pleased that the Board President has agreed to a January meeting with the 50 organizations in the CLASS partner network regarding LCFF.”
Smith said representatives from the eight founding groups of CLASS — Communities for Los Angeles School Success — spent about an hour with Vladovic at his downtown office. The representatives were from Community Coalition, InnerCity Struggle, Educators4Excellence, Teach Plus Los Angeles, the Urban League, Families in Schools and the Alliance for a Better Community.
The meeting came as a public debate is underway within the district over a spending plan for the 2014-2015 academic year. The budget is about $7 billion, which includes about $230 million in LCFF revenue, generated by Prop 30 taxes. District officials and school board members have held meetings in recent weeks with students, union officials and members of school communities.
Vladovic agreed two weeks to schedule a meeting with CLASS representatives. Smith contended that earlier, the board president had ignored the coalition’s request to meet.
A message seeking comment from Vladovic was not immediately returned.
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