Let Ramona school district know what you think

Deadline to complete online survey: Feb. 28

By Maureen Robertson

On a scale of 1 to 5, how would you rate Ramona Unified School District’s efforts to help students improve in their classes? How would you rate its communication between home and school, efforts to encourage parents to become more involved in the schools, and school safety, morale and appearance?

Those are among questions on an online survey everyone has the opportunity to complete by Feb. 28. In addition to the numerical ratings, the survey allows for open-ended answers to questions such as how can the district improve school climate and further help students prepare for a career and/or college?

The district is preparing the state-required Local Control Accountability Plan that ties state funding to its educational plans, and seeking community feedback is the first step, Theresa Grace, senior director of education services, told trustees last Thursday.

The survey in English and Spanish is on the district website, ramonausd.net, under “District Headlines.” It also is on each school’s home page on the web.

The survey addresses eight priorities that the state wants districts to address, said Grace. Also required is focus on specific groups of students: English learners, low-income and foster youth.

According to Local Control Funding Formula (LCFF) requirements in the state budget act, the accountability plan precedes adoption of a district budget in June and the budget must be consistent with the plan.

“At the heart of the new LCFF are two concepts — a basic philosophy that the local school board would have more authority on how district funds would be expended combined with funding specifically allocated based on the number of special needs students,” Superintendent Robert Graeff said in a report to trustees in November.

Grace presented trustees with an accountability plan timeline, saying “over the next few months till our June board meeting we have a lot of activities in place to develop our LCAP plan.”

Students, parents, staff and other community members may complete the survey.

“The survey’s been up for about five days and we’ve already had 300 hits,” said Grace.

“What if someone submits the survey, the same person, four or five times ... do you have a way to control that?” asked trustee John Rajcic.

“No, they could do that,” she said, but “we’d rather you go just once.”

For more information about the survey, contact Grace’s office at 760-787-2012.