Please choose from the links below to view the corresponding Frequently Asked Questions:
LMU Family of Schools FAQs Teacher and Staff FAQs Student Enrollment FAQsGovernance FAQsAccountability FAQs
Family of Schools FAQs
What is the LMU Family of Schools?
The LMU Family of Schools is a university-wide initiative partnering with the Westchester educational community. It includes the seven Westchester public schools (Westchester High School, Orville Wright Middle School and Cowan, Kentwood, Loyola Village, Paseo del Rey, and Westport Heights Elementary Schools), parents, teachers, and community members and aims to bolster and support increased educational outcomes for its students. The project redefines the role of a university partner by providing a critical anchor in creating a cohesive vision of excellence among the seven schools in the partnership and focusing university resources to address student success, parent and community engagement, and unmet educational needs.
The LMU Family of Schools is an initiative of Loyola Marymount University that pre-existed the conversations about autonomy and innovation. As such, it is important to stress that regardless of individual school community decisions about autonomy, through the Innovation Division, the relationship with LMU through the Family of Schools will continue. LMU Family of Schools will continue to provide academic support, programming, partner with schools for fundraising and other resource development, and generally support the schools in the family.
We expect the LMU FoS will grow to include early education centers, continuation schools and adult schools
Why did LMU create its Family of Schools Model? The LMU Family of Schools initiative was born out of the interests of teachers, school staff, engaged parents and community stakeholders and a university interested in an effective way to support student success across the continuum of education. We believe that through the articulation of education throughout the K-12 continuum, a broad community of educational stakeholders can better coordinate to create conditions for success.
This design forges explicit connections among schools in a community throughout the continuum of education, from pre-kindergarten through adult education. This can take many different shapes, including creating opportunities for teachers and staff at all schools to work together on shared professional development, chosen by student needs that span the PK-12 range; or it could helping to foster united community and parent engagement goals and programming. We believe that a school family working together on the combined goal of supporting all of our students is a strength that needs to be developed.
Why Partner With LMU on Autonomy?The LMU Family of Schools Partnership is based on the establishment of a true pipeline of educational success from kindergarten to high school and beyond. This is a partnership about collaborative and effective action for the sole purpose of supporting, increasing, and enhancing student success.
By joining the iDivision, with LMU as an external network partner, this partnership moves budget authority and decision-making over instructional and staffing choices to each school locally.
By recognizing that each community has unique needs, it frees school staff from many of the mandates and decrees of the district, while still promoting the needs of all students. The LMU Family of Schools Partnership will support teachers, staff, parents, and community in decision-making roles by providing training, offering expertise, and leveraging resources as school communities develop models of governance, interventions for student success, and implement new and innovative ways of meeting the needs of all students.
What achievement need will the Family of Schools fulfill?The schools in the Westchester High School feeder pattern serve students with incredibly diverse educational strengths and challenges. In-depth analysis of student achievement results reveals critical information in terms of student performance. Data clearly indicates there are substantial achievement gaps at all schools in subgroups defined by socio-economic status and ethnicity that must be addressed. These subgroups are performing at much lower levels both in specific content areas and on the California High School Exam (for high school students). In some content areas at some schools there is a 100 (or greater) point score differential between subgroups identified by ethnicity and socio-economic status when measuring performance on state standardized tests.
Clearly, equity in educational performance must be addressed so that performance across grade levels can be sustained and in the case of the middle and high school, raised dramatically. By fostering collaboration among schools under the guidance of an engaged university partner, a seamless and integrated educational flow can be developed for students traveling along in the family with expectations for and delivery of excellent education.
A family of schools approach is important to providing consistency and coherence to children's educational experiences. By implementing linked approaches to curriculum and the way it is taught within a family, the LMU FoS helps provide academic consistency as children transition from one grade to the next. For example, teachers between grade levels can work together to ensure that children's educational needs are met as they move to the next grade level. Working within a family also provides a comprehensive experience to children throughout the entire neighborhood because the resources of an entire community can more effectively be connected to serve students both during and after-school.
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Student Enrollment FAQsWill student enrollment be impacted by joining the iDivision as an LMU Partner school?
Attendance areas will not change as a result of leaving the local district structure and becoming part of the iDivision. No changes to student enrollment policies will be made. We expect, however, that the positive changes and growth that will come as a result of local control of decisions will result in increased attendance at the schools. Given that all seven schools in the school family are under-enrolled we are excited about this possibility.
Will students on permits lose their option to attend the school?
No changes to student enrollment policies will be made as a result of joining the iDivision.
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Teachers and Staff FAQsWill teachers, classified staff and administrators still be LAUSD employees?
Just as all schools in the iDivision will remain LAUSD schools, all students, faculty and staff will remain LAUSD employees. As members of labor unions, they will retain all collective bargaining rights, salaries, pensions, healthcare, and other benefits
Will the union contract be enforced in LMU Partner schools?Yes, all union contracts will remain in place in LMU Family of Schools Partnership schools and they will be enforced.
Will schools be able to change their union contract?No changes to union contracts will be mandated. If a school site determines, through an open and collaborative process, that some changes to the contract would help it achieve goals, it is possible that UTLA (or other unions) might modify its contract, with support from the membership.
There is some precedent for these types of changes to a schools labor contract. For example, UTLA has modified its collective bargaining agreements for teachers in the Belmont Zone of Choice. The Belmont Zone of Choice is a network of autonomous college-prep schools. The schools will have wide autonomy in areas such as curriculum, staffing, budget, governance, professional development, and school calendars so they can best explore ground-breaking models to improve teaching and learning.
Any changes to the UTLA contract would need to be agreed upon by UTLA and LAUSD.
Will teachers be compensated for additional work?School sites will have control over their budgets and will make decisions related to additional compensation for additional work time. The LMU Family of Schools Partnership supports paying teachers more if they are asked to work additional time.
Is United Teachers Los Angeles (UTLA) supportive of the iDivision and its partnerships?UTLA passed a resolution stating the following:
“Resolved, that, if teachers and parents at a given school desire it, UTLA supports their decision to enter into the Innovation Division as a means of empowering teachers, parents, and other components of the school community, and to serve as an authentic reform alternative inside the District to the growing strength of independent charter school operators…
UTLA supports, for the first year only, the requirement that entrance be based on a 50% plus one minimum vote of all certificated bargaining unit members assigned to the school.”
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Governance FAQsHow will each partner school site make decisions and be governed? What happens to the current governance model?
To tap into the opportunities and potentials of autonomy, schools must have effective governance structures and processes. To that end, each Partner School will have a stakeholder governing body, with increased authority over traditional school councils and with ultimate responsibility for decisions about instruction (and the training and programs that support this for teachers, students, and other staff), staffing, budget alignment with school plan priorities, and scheduling.
LMU Family of Schools and the iDivision will provide resources through training and support in developing and implementing a model that works for the school site.
Schools will have flexibility in the exact governance model, and will have the time to decide a model that works for them. At a minimum, the stakeholder governing body will have the same make-up as the School Site Council, as set out in state law. The council will include teacher, administrator, school staff, parent, student (for high school) representatives (elected by their peers), and community representatives (elected by stakeholders as well). This group will receive intensive support and training during the planning year to effectively represent all stakeholders in the school community.
Partner schools will have the flexibility to choose structures and processes that allow for additional input from different stakeholders in advisory roles or through subject-specific committees (staffing, budget, curriculum & assessment, parent and community engagement, school family connections, etc).
Who will manage the LMU Family of Schools Partnership entity?
The LMU Family of Schools Partnership will be staffed by a management team of experts in instruction, school operations, parent and community engagement, evaluation, and resource generation. They will support each Partner school in goal-setting and implementation. Additionally, this team will coordinate school operations, assessment, fundraising, and maintain the partnership with LAUSD.
LMU will negotiate its contractual relationship with LAUSD and will ensure that advisory structures are in place for input and involvement from all school stakeholders. The LMU Family of Schools Partnership will make progress and financial reports available to the public.
How will budget decisions be made?
With control over budget and staffing decisions, the school will have flexibility to make decisions based on the needs of the students and the school, as opposed to following district-mandated formulas. For example, if a school wants an extra teacher, a nurse, or a counselor, they have greater flexibility to make these choices, based on the school’s needs, despite district mandates linked to enrollment.
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Accountability FAQsWith a higher level of accountability, where will the resources come from?
When you get the opportunity to align school level spending with the actual needs of a school, rather than basing this on priorities set district-wide, schools will be able to target where the money goes. In addition, the LMU Family of Schools Partnership will have a staff of experts in pedagogy and instruction, school operations, and financial and legal issues. We also have already garnered significant interest from the corporate and private philanthropy sector looking to invest in a meaningful partnership working to close achievement gaps while implementing new models of decision-making.
How will the LMU Family of Schools Partnership be held accountable?
The LMU Family of Schools Partnership will be contractually held to performance measures around student achievement, teacher indicators, parent and community engagement results, and other measures currently being developed. Additionally, each Partner school will work with the LMU Family of Schools Partnership and the iDivision to develop school-level measures to be held accountable for every year.
At the District level, final accountability will rest with the iDivision, the Superintendent, and the LAUSD Board of Education.
To whom is the principal accountable?
As always, principals are accountable to their parents, students and teachers on a daily basis first and foremost. In terms of reporting, principals will report up to the school governing council and to the LMU Family of Schools Partnership rather than to the Local District.
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