Blog Topic #7

Blog Topic Question 7: Has your CP sought or encouraged any legislative changes? What process does it use and what challenges has it encountered in doing so?

My CP encouraged legislative changes about meal plans and more student programs, however my CP did not give me enough information on her encouragement but more on the process. Legislative changes for the school could be made through the the California government as a federal law and changes could be made internally by the school district. Decision making system of the San Bruno Park School District is done by 5 members of the Governing Board. These five members are always elected by the people. This board meets twice a month to speak about local changes within the school. However, the ACES program that I will volunteer for at Allen Elementary School was legislated by a different form of board. This is from the Department of Education (California).

ACES Program is the result of the 2002 voter-approved initiative, Proposition 49. This proposition amended the Education Department to expand the program to schools that have a demographic population of non English speakers and at schools where parent incomes are low. One of the main ways legislative board keeps this programing running strongly by making sure all approved schools maintain record keeping of student progress and maintain existing funding of before and after school programs. Just to fund this program alone costs about 550 million dollars.

The biggest challenge is to maintain and follow all regulations in order for the school to receive the grant to run the program. My CP must submit annual outcome data and every three years a report has to be turned in by my CP regarding evaluations, attendance, and performance by each student to just renew the program funding for the school.