1. UPDATE INFORMATION: Currently there are three important issues that parents should keep up on in the district and our school. They are understanding the following: • The new Common Core State Standards in Mathematics and English Language Arts. • The new Local Control Funding for district budgets • The implementation of Chico’s Measure E funding and work on schools remodeling. • In our newsletter, we will make attempts to keep you up to date on these areas. • Information: The way we taught students in the past simply does not prepare them for the higher demands of college and careers today and in the future. Our school and schools throughout the country are working to improve teaching and learning to ensure that all children will graduate high school with the skills they need to be successful. In English language arts and literacy, this means three major changes. • Students will continue reading and writing. But in addition to stories and literature, they will read more texts that provide facts and background knowledge in areas including science and social studies. They will read more challenging texts and be asked more questions that will require them to refer back to what they have read. There will also be an increased emphasis on building a strong vocabulary so that students can read and understand challenging material. • In issues of our newsletter in the new year, we will explain more about each of these shifts. • Local Control Funding: The way California’s public education system is funded is changing dramatically as a result of a law signed by Gov. Jerry Brown in July, 2013. Its centerpiece is the Local Control Funding Formula, designed to send additional funds to districts where Gov. Brown believes “the need and the challenge is greatest.” For the first time, the law requires parents, students, teachers, and other community members be involved in the process of deciding how new funds are spent. • The Local Control Funding Formula represents the most significant change in California’s funding system for K-12 schools in four decades. It is the central feature of landmark legislation—Assembly Bill 97—currently being implemented in every California school district. It will affect every school in the state, including charter schools. • One goal of the new law is to improve academic outcomes by providing more money to school districts that serve high-needs students. Another goal is to give local school districts more authority to decide how to spend education dollars, and hold them accountable for getting results. • Measure E: Modernization funds for Chico Unified Schools: Chico voters authorized the sale of $78,000,000 in general obligation bonds for a Local Chico School Facility Improvement Measure. • Beginnings of decision making for how to spend these monies has begun and the school board has passed the first phase and will continue the discussion of the next phases at the December 18th School Board Meeting. Please go to the district website at http://www.chicousd.org/School-Board/Agendas-and-Minutes/Agendas-July-2013---June-2014-/index.html to look at the powerpoint about the projected projects from 12-11-13. • The categories of where this money will be spent are: • Maintenance/Deferred Maintenance with an emphasis on immediate Health and Safety Issues • Technology • Modernization (Permanent buildings over 25 years old are eligible) • Energy Efficiency • New Construction or other projects