LEMON GROVE, Calif. (KGTV) — Parents in Lemon Grove School District pulled their students from class Tuesday to protest against decisions being made, they say, without parent input.
In March, 10News covered an emotional Lemon Grove school board meeting when parents fought to retain 16 teachers who had been designated for non-re-election.
Those teachers chose to resign rather than have the designation placed on their permanent teaching records. The next regularly scheduled board meeting is Tuesday night, and parents plan to show up again to voice their complaints about the district, ranging from curriculum decisions, resource scarcity and student safety.
One parent told 10News behavior issues are increasing in classrooms and the administration is failing to hold students accountable.
A decline in classroom resources led her to pull one of her children from the district and enroll him in charter school. Several other parents at the rally say they have done the same, or are considering doing so, due to a variety of complaints.
"We are not getting the basic resources and they are making decisions that don't make sense," says Rosa Carney.
Tuesday's board meeting will be in open session at 6:00PM at Lemon Grove Library Community Room, 3001 School Lane, Lemon Grove.
A spokesperson for the district sent us the following statement, outlining curriculum successes and resource allocation:
Resources at schools:
For 2018-2019, the Lemon Grove School District centralized $1.2 million of the Local Control Funding Formula Supplemental Concentration previously allocated to school sites. In return, school sites received $2.1 million in Art, Music and Physical Education Teachers, Professional Development Days, Push-in Support Instructional Coaches, Social Workers, Academic Counselor and Classroom Technology (including student ChromeBooks).
We use a per pupil allocation for the supplies budget for each school. In 2018-19 we increased the school supplies budget from $30.00 to $35.00 per student. That is an increase of $5.00 per student which equates to a 16.6% increase over 2017-18.
We plan to further increase the per pupil supplies allocation for each school site in 2019-20. We will increase the per pupil allocation by the state adopted budget COLA, which as of today, it is projected to be 3.46%. Final allocations will be included in the district’s budget which is scheduled to be adopted during the board meeting in June.
Curriculum:
In English Language Arts, the district has begun to narrow the achievement gap in comparison to state and county student performance averages. In 2017, the district was 9% below the state average and 16% below the County. This past year we narrowed the state gap to 4% and county gap to 11%. In addition, the 6th and 7th grade students surpassed the state average and our 8th grade students are on par.
Overall in English Language Arts the district met our LCAP goal of 46%. Lemon Grove School District also had the highest gain (12%) of any district in San Diego County from 2015 - 2018. In addition, our Economically Disadvantaged, African American, Filipino and Hispanic student groups are equal to or above the state and county student performance averages.
In Mathematics, Lemon Grove School District has also begun to narrow the achievement gap in comparison to state and county student performance averages. In 2017, the district was 5% below the state average and 11% below the county. This past year they narrowed the state gap to 3% and county gap to 9%. In addition, the 7th and 8th grade students surpassed the state average and 8th grade students are on par with the county.
Overall in Mathematics, Lemon Grove School District made the highest gains (9%) of any district in San Diego County from 2015 - 2018. In addition, our Economically Disadvantaged, African American, Filipino and Hispanic student groups are equal to or above the state and county student performance average.
