Discussing LCAP and the Budget for 2025-26 school year
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Big Decisions Ahead in FUSD
On June 4th the board reviewed both the 2025-26 Local Control Accountability Plan
(LCAP) and the district budget, two items that will shape this school year’s priorities for students, staff, and schools. Here’s what happened, what’s in the plans and how you can make your voices be heard.
What happened?
On June 4th, the Fresno Unified School Board presented and discussed the 2025-26 Local Control and Accountability Plan (LCAP) and the district budget, followed by public hearings for both agenda items. The presentation of these agenda items and hearings allow public review and input before the final vote, which happened on June 18th. By law, the LCAP must be adopted before the budget, and the budget should reflect the LCAP’s priorities. Learn more in our LCAP and Budget Cycle guides.
The 2025-26 LCAP builds on the goals and metrics introduced last year, shares updates on progress, and adds new investments based on data and community feedback.
New additions to the LCAP include:
- Learning Recovery Emergency Block Grant (LREBG) – According to the California Department of Education this is “…one-time funds to county offices of education (COEs), school districts, and charter schools for learning recovery initiatives through the 2027–28 school year that, at a minimum, support academic learning recovery and staff and pupil social and emotional well-being.”
- Long-term English Learner (LTEL) students as a group on the California School Dashboard
See the full LCAP draft and presentation slides for more details.
The only public comment after the presentation of the LCAP was made by Trustee Cazares. She had concerns over chronic absenteeism being a part of almost every“equity multiplier” school’s plans. “Ideally each school wouldn’t be pulling their own weight on that but maybe looking at what the district is doing district-wide that works and what other schools are doing so they don’t have to start from scratch to address chronic absenteeism with their equity multiplier funds”.
The 2025-26 budget presentation followed (slides), highlighting ongoing reductions and position changes, which will continue to be reduced for the next few years. The district anticipates a steady decline in their budget reserves for the next three years, with an increase in the reserve level expected to hit in 2028-29. Key contributing factors include: reduced enrollment, chronic absenteeism, rising costs, as well as the last of COVID funds being spent in Fall 2024.
Public comment kicked off afterwards with Ana Bustos, a second grade teacher, who shared that all of her students had passed their iReady interim assessments. She was concerned over the lack of mention of second grade in both the LCAP and the Budget. She referenced the K-1 Literacy initiative and made a plea for the district not to forget about second grade, a concern that Trustee Cazares echoed.
Trustee Cazares also spoke out about the budget and shared her concerns over reductions for English Learner services as well as Special Education. She wanted assurance that these reductions wouldn’t affect the students who rely on these services.
Why is this important?
The LCAP is the district’s key tool for planning and accountability. It guides how FUSD sets goals, funds programs, and tracks progress for improving student outcomes, especially for high-need groups. The LCAP must be shaped by meaningful engagement with educational partners, including families, students, teachers, staff, and community members.
The budget outlines the amount of funds the district anticipates receiving and how it plans to spend this funding, which should be in alignment with its LCAP. Next year’s budget includes significant reductions, which can impact programming or services. One example of this is the elimination of the “designated schools” program, which had provided an extended school day and additional professional development time for teachers, at some elementary schools. The elimination of this program led to a $19.6 million reduction in the budget which was the main contributor to the $34.9 million planned reductions for the 2025/26 year.
The district’s 6/4 presentation of the LCAP was brief, and did not explain if any changes were made in response to community feedback or emerging needs in the district. Both the LCAP and the Budget were approved with no commentary during the June 18th FUSD board meeting. Approving and monitoring the LCAP and the budget are among the most important jobs of a school board. It is vital that there is robust discussion and understanding of these and that they are not merely rubber-stamped for approval.
What can you do?
- Send your feedback about the LCAP to board trustees (trustee emails here). Let them know what you support in the LCAP, what’s missing in the budget, why these decisions matter for your school, your family, or your community.
- Attend the Upcoming LCAP Community Meetings: Have your voice be heard by attending the October – November LCAP Community Meetings where families get to give their input on where students need the most support.
- Learn more: Explore GO’s School Finance Resource Library or join our Family Leadership Program to deepen your understanding and advocacy.
Additional Highlights
- Student Outcomes Focused Governance Dashboard update: A new tool is being developed to “monitor and measure what matters most.” One goal of this dashboard is to transparently monitor student outcomes and results. The dashboard presented during the June 4th meeting was specifically designed for internal use, with a similar family-facing dashboard set to launch soon. In the meantime FUSD does have a version of a dashboard on their homepage that can be found here.
- Reading Risk Screener: Days before the deadline for districts to choose a reading risk screener, FUSD made the vote to approve the Dynamic Indicators of Basic Early Literacy Skills (DIBELS) as the district’s universal screening tool. This screener will be used to determine if K-2 students are at risk for reading difficulties. While there were concerns regarding technology use and the success of using DIBELS, district leaders assured that pivots could be made if needed. Learn more about the new reading risk screener requirement at https://gopublicschools.org/literacy/