Your 30-second summary
The school board is set to vote tonight on its 2026-27 budget and accountability plan, a plan that outlines how it will serve struggling students.
These struggling students include English learners, low-income students, foster students and students with disabilities.
However, a few proposed improvements were rejected, including a reparations program for Black students and a new way of disciplining students who use racial slurs.
WCCUSD students improved their reading and math test scores over the past year, particularly those most at-risk of failing, such as Black and low-income students. But they still lag far behind their peers statewide. Tonight the school board is expected to approve an $87 million spending plan to help them.
Every year, school districts receive millions from the state based on the number and percentage of high-needs students. Districts must clearly outline how the money will be spent in a Local Control Accountability Plan (LCAP), which parents, educators, students and other community stakeholders contribute to via committees.
The WCCUSD board must approve the 288-page LCAP by Thursday, as part of its adoption of the district’s roughly $532 million 2026-27 budget.
If you go
What: The school board will vote on its budget, accountability plan and what to do with its revenue surplus.
When: Wed., June 24, 6:30 p.m. See the agenda for details.
Where: DeJean Middle School, 3400 Macdonald Ave., Richmond or you can follow online.
More info.: Check out the district’s LCAP plan.
Most of the LCAP budget, $66.7 million, must be spent on programs for foster youths, English learners, students with disabilities and low-income students, according to California law.
WCCUSD serves about 24,000 students across 56 schools. About 65% of students are socioeconomically disadvantaged, 31.7% are English learners, and nearly 15% have disabilities, according to the district.
The LCAP stakeholder committee made 43 recommendations (some duplicated) built around four primary priorities: African American student achievement, attendance, family engagement and student achievement and safety.
Unlike previous years, the district included all but three of the committee’s recommendations in the plan that will be voted on tonight.
African American reparations, anti-racism measures not included
Various advisory committees make recommendations that shape the final LCAP, including the African American Student Achievement Team, the Multilingual District Advisory Committee, the Academic Senate Committee and the DLCAP, a parent group.
The DLCAP and the African American team recommended that WCCUSD establish a “Reparations in Education Fund” and an “Individual Education Reparations Plan.”
The group wants the district to set up a fund for Black students that would pay for individualized support plans for eligible students beyond the district’s normal budget. It would include a community oversight committee to track spending and student outcomes.
African American students, who are doing better on standardized tests than in previous years, tend to lag behind district and state testing averages. However, Hispanic, homeless and English learners fall even farther behind state testing standards, according to the California Schools Dashboard.
“(The reparations proposal) was designed to draw funding from outside the district’s general fund, from county, city, and community partners, precisely because the district alone does not have the capacity or resources to close the gaps facing our Black students,” DLCAP president Lucas Menanix said at the board’s June 3 budget hearing.
The district said it is willing to explore whether it is practical to create two new initiatives and how they would be funded, implemented and tracked, among other details — but would not commit to implementing it yet.
Community members recommended stricter anti-bullying policies for students who use anti-Black racial slurs, but the district declined to adopt the proposal. The initiative proposed a consequence that would require students to complete anti-racism training and receive mental health support. With each additional offense, the amount of required training, community service and mental health support would be increased.
The district said it will instead study its current policies, review legal requirements, seek community feedback and consider possible changes to better address anti-Black racism and support affected students.
The district also rejected a recommendation to add playground supervisors for budgetary reasons. WCCUSD cut half of its playground supervisor positions — a move highly criticized by parents.
District officials have said school sites can choose to use their site-specific funds to hire more supervisors, but Menanix said that will come at the expense of many other services.
As part of this year’s budget cuts, school site budgets were reduced from $3.8 million to $2.3 million — a nearly 40% cut. In 2023, sites were given $4.7 million.
“These are the dollars that let our principals respond to the real specific needs of their schools … like counseling and interventions,” Menanix said. “At the same time, you’re asking sites to now cover things like site safety and translation services. This is not sustainable, and the students who feel it first are the ones that are already furthest from grade level standards.
After making multi-million dollars worth of cuts recently, the district is projecting a budget surplus next school year. The board will vote tonight on how to use those dollars.
The proposal states that instead of implementing planned cuts immediately (which are part of the three-year fiscal solvency plan approved in January), WCCUSD will set aside $14.2 million in surplus funds in 2026-27 and hopefully use it in the following two years to avoid or reduce cuts.
Services to improve student test scores
Students improved their English language art test scores by 3.5 points but were still 52.4 points below state standards. Some student groups, such as African American students, improved by 11.7 points; low income students were up by 5.1 points; and Hispanic/Latino students improved their average scores by 3.8 points.
WCCUSD has $7.1 million in state grant funds to keep class sizes smaller and strengthen literacy intervention systems during the 2026-27 school year.
School administrators will also begin assessing reading performance early in the school year to help identify students at higher risk of problems and connect them to support services.
The district also plans to improve literacy instruction by using more rigorous and culturally relevant learning materials, providing teachers with training in culturally responsive and effective teaching practices, and redesigning classrooms to encourage discussion, critical thinking, and active student participation.
Students also improved their math test scores by 7.9 points in the last year, though districtwide they still fall 77.9 points below the state standard. African American student math scores improved by 14.6 points; low income student scores were up by 8.6 points; and Hispanic/Latino students improved their scores by 7.8 points. English learners also improved by more than 5 points.
In line with DLCAP committee recommendations, the district secured grant funding for math instructional specialists at Nystrom, Highland, Downer and Riverside elementary schools. The math specialists will work directly with academically at-risk students through targeted intervention and instructional support until a student performs at or near grade-level expectations.
Classroom teachers will also receive instructional coaching. The specialists collaborate with a broader network of math teacher leaders at other elementary schools.
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WCCUSD also is trying a new way of assessing reading and math skills that incorporates its curriculum and is researching more balanced, instructionally aligned approaches to monitoring student achievement. It is no longer using i-Ready as an assessment tool — a move that aligns with the request of many educators and parents.
“This work will focus on identifying assessment systems that provide meaningful instructional data while reducing overtesting and increasing alignment to daily classroom instruction and district adopted curriculum,” district officials wrote in the LCAP.
Disparities persist for foster youths, English learners
Although WCCUSD saw meaningful increases overall, there are still some groups that fall behind.
For example, while overall graduation rates increased to 85.3%, foster youth graduation rates declined significantly to 44% — a 26% decrease. The suspension rate for foster youths also went up by 3.4% (0.4% for Hispanic students) despite the overall suspension rate decreasing by 1.6%.
To fight this, the district is prioritizing more holistic services, case management and stability interventions.
English learners experienced declines in language proficiency. African American students continue to perform significantly below the state standard in English language arts despite improving their test scores.
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Parent attendance at district workshops decreased by 72%.
To support African American student success, the district is adopting several recommendations, including providing high-rigor culturally relevant literacy materials, organizing visits to historically Black colleges and universities and recruiting more Black educators through targeted outreach from those universities.
Students with disabilities continue to experience disproportionate suspension rates and lower readiness for college or careers. Increasing attendance and getting families involved
More students attended school this past year, as districtwide chronic absenteeism dropped to 27%, continuing a positive multi-year trend. However the number is still too high, and the LCAP outlines many possible solutions. The state average chronic absenteeism rate is 17%.
The district has adopted a number of recommendations to boost attendance. For example, it’s exploring providing transportation to school, perhaps funding it with community partnerships or grants. The district is analyzing the cost of absenteeism compared to such a service.
one school’s approach to absenteeism
The district will also lean on student leaders next year to better understand why students are skipping class and co-develop solutions that center student voices. WCCUSD also plans to closely monitor the effectiveness of school community outreach workers to ensure they are successfully building school-family partnerships because those relationships help identify and bridge barriers to attendance.
The district is also hoping to get families more involved in their schools. One staggering metric: Parent attendance at district-sponsored empowerment workshops decreased by 72%.
WCCUSD will create a parent leadership council to review district policies and practices. The district also plans to recruit more parents to join advisory committees, such as the DLCAP; expand interpretation and multilingual support;and connect with families through events, school staff and increased engagement and communication.
