The SDUSD School Board voted at the 1.26.10 Board Meeting to support our cluster exploring cluster governance and budget synergy. This is only a dialogue at this point.  Recommendations would be discussed by all stakeholders as part of the Point Loma Cluster Schools Foundation and subject to approval by: (1) the School Site, (2) the SDUSD Board and (3) the Point Loma Cluster Schools Foundation. The discussion will be centered around ways to collaborate school site budgets and district budget allocations to our cluster schools. The total budget for our cluster is $30MM (avg $5,983 per student).  School site budgets range from $5,400 to $8,900 per student.  See School Site Budgets.

The Point Loma Cluster Schools Foundation will work closely with ALL stakeholders to ensure that this process is inclusive, transparent and collaborative. Outcomes need to be synergistic, sustainable and accountable. Please share your thought and ideas on how we can better utilize our school site budgets as well as create budget synergy within our cluster.  

We have created a blog and will provide opportunities for ALL stakeholders (teachers, principals, district staff, parents, community) to offer their ideas with community meetings at school sites, blogs, surveys and e-blast communication.  To learn more, please see documents below, attend community meetings, share your ideas on our Point Loma Cluster Blog or email us.

San Diego Unified School District (SDUSD) is the 8th largest in the US with over 130,000 students. The Point Loma Cluster consists of 10 schools and a diverse student population of over 6,000 students (45% free lunch, 15% English Language Learners, 30% Gate, 47% White, 37% Hispanic, 14% Students with Disabilites).  The total budget allocation for our cluster schools is $30MM.

In 2006, a group of parents, teachers, and principals from each Point Loma Cluster school engaged in a strategic planning process to develop a unified vision for our community schools. 

As a result of this process, the Point Loma Cluster Strategic Plan was created with the objectives to improve educational outcomes for our students, enhance the communication and synergy to facilitate an engaging, relevant and cohesive K-12 learning environment. As part of the strategic plan, Point Loma Cluster Schools Foundation (PLCS) was created. The PLCS consists of over 30 board representatives from each cluster school (parent, principal and teacher).

The PLCS has received widespread support and participation not only at the local school level, but also SDUSD staff and School Board. The grass roots effort of the PLCS was the first of its kind within the school district and is being viewed as a model for other clusters within the District. The PLCS has five main areas of strategic areas of emphasis in which to direct their efforts: ICT Literacy, Finance, Learning Communities, Learning Environment and Marketing. To learn more about our Point Loma Cluster, see our web site pointlomacluster.com and see the 2009 Point Loma Cluster Overview.

The dire financial position of federal, state and local governments have put tremendous pressure on public education. SDUSD faces another round of budget reductions. Reductions of nearly $100 million for the 2010-11 school year. This follows three years of record reductions and approximately one-eighth of the district's discretionary budget. This is going to require thinking differently about every step of educational delivery. It is going to put pressure on all of us to to synergize and better leverage resources.

In a recent Point Loma Cluster Survey that went out to over 5,000 parents/guardians of students in our cluster schools, the PLCS asked for feedback about our schools. Over 500 responses have been received to date. These responses show that the budget shortfalls are a community-wide concern. It is the belief of many that our District is too large and is trying to meet the needs of a diverse community. Also read Point Loma Cluster Survey Comments.

The PLCS Foundation has initiated community forums/discussions to learn more about enhancing our community governance model in which parents, principals, school board members and community members have attended. These ideas (all just ideas) range from: 

• A cluster governance model (this is what is currently being considered)
• Exploring individual charter school options
• Creating a charter district of cluster schools
• Forming our own district - Point Loma school district
• Continuing to improve the current model

The charter option has been discussed at Correia by teachers, parents and community. As a "program improvement" (PI) school, it has to have a plan if it fails to make the necessary gains in academic performance this school year. (Note Correia made significant gains last year and the same this year will move Correia out of PI status).

The "cluster governance model" is consistent with the SDUSD board strategy of enabling governance at the cluster level to better meet the needs of the community. The PLCS Board has discussed this idea with SDUSD board member John de Beck and he has supported exploring this concept. This would enable our community schools to have some control over programs and budget. There are lots of questions on how this might work; how ALL schools could be represented (perhaps by a Cluster wide SSC), and how a collaborative vision, synergy and spending would best meet the needs of our cluster community schools.