Checklist for Planning your School Site Plan (BSC)
I am currently creating resources for anyone involved in the BSC Process at their SFUSD school site … and that should be EVERYONE!!! even folks who are not elected School Site Council (SSC) members. That means YOU!!!!
The Balanced Score Card (BSC) is SFUSD’s name for the School Site Plan required of all schools by the CA Dept. of Ed. This multi-page document explains each school’s plan to meet the academic, behavioral, and socio-emotional needs of students. SFUSD schools are now working on gathering input from school communities to inform their BSC’s which will be submitted in only a few weeks!!!
BSC Planning Checklist
Balanced Score Card (BSC)
This is SFUSD’s name for the School Site Plan required of all schools by the CA Dept. of Ed. This multi-page document explains each school’s plan to meet the academic, behavioral, and socio-emotional needs of students. It is long and written in “education-ese”, but read it anyway because it determines staffing, budgeting, and programming decisions at your site. Don’t be afraid to ask questions or request help to understand what it says!
Parent Compact and/or Family Engagement Plan
Title I Schools (those serving a high number of students that meet requirements for extra funding) are required to create a Parent Compact and Family Engagement Plan which states how staff plan to engage with families.
Preliminary Funding Allocations for your site
This is the actual projected school budget given to your principal. It is calculated using the Weighted Student Formula (WSF) which is based on enrollment and student demographic factors (e.g. Low-income and/or English-Learner population, etc.).
Additional funding and staffing
This includes district staffing and outside funding from grants, etc. In SFUSD this can include district-provided staff such as nurses or librarians, as well as extra money from grants (e.g. middle school Salesforce grant, district computer technology grants) and parent fundraising through the school Parent Teacher Association (PTA).
Breakouts of current and proposed spending by category
This includes basic categories such as staffing, professional development, supplies, parent engagement, etc.
Student demographic data
Who are your students? This includes enrollment data usually broken down by subgroup including the following: 1) race/ethnicity, 2) language and 3) program (eg. Special Education or low-income students.)
Academic data for students
SFUSD looks at data in three main categories: 1) Academic, 2) Behavioral, and 3) Culture/Climate. (Remember: your ABCs!) SFUSD has a district goal prioritizing Black, English Learner (esp. Latino), and students receiving Special Education services. Schools list these or other focal groups in their BSC. Your principal should share data showing student performance on academic measures (e.g. tests, grades) over time, and by subgroup comparing performance by race/ethnicity, language group, etc.
Behavioral data for students
Look for disproportionality between subgroups (e.g. one group performs better or worse as compared to students as a whole.) For example: At some sites suspension rates for Black students can be 2-3x higher as compared to White or Asian students. Look for data in the following categories, broken out by subgroup: 1.) attendance (e.g. absences and tardies); 2.) suspensions, expulsions, and referrals.
Culture/climate data for students, teachers and families
Our district conducts surveys on students, teachers and families and produces publicly viewable reports. It is best if this is broken down by race, but requires enough respondents to show “statistical significance” to report.
Teacher, student or parent input
Throughout the year, parents, students and staff should have multiple opportunities to share basic input on school programs in the form of meeting feedback or surveys (e.g. “What do you like?, What do you want?”) Additionally, specific input related to current or proposed programs at the school can be gathered via site-created surveys or feedback captured (in meeting minutes) from informal conversations with groups of parents, students or staff.
Please note: I just did this and don’t have an editor (or a penchant for good spelling!) so please LMK right away if you see any errors and I’ll fix them right away. 😉
Our Principal at SFUSD does not allow non elected members to speak at SSC. If we sign up beforehand, we are allowed to make a 2 minute comment, but no replies will be given. The items on your checklist are discussed, a few have been passed around, but the principal wants to collect them at the end of the meeting.