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It’s rare these days that the LA Unified school board agrees on anything. Now, imagine this:

Over the next few weeks, district officials will take on the daunting task of assembling a committee of 47 parents and guardians to help decide how to spend tax dollars coming into the district.

It’s the next step in a “collective process” to draft a Local Control and Accountability Plan (LCAP), which is required of each school district to show how it will disperse funds from Gov. Jerry Brown’s new Local Control Funding Formula.

The Parent Advisory Committee will review the school board’s budget plan and make recommendations for spending priorities, before the district can adopt a final version. The LCAP must be submitted to the state in July.

So far, the district has held open meetings at all five Educational Service Centers seeking input– North, East, West, South and the Intensive Support and Innovation Center — and Superintendent John Deasy met with community-based groups earlier this month.

Anyone who has attended the recent regional community meetings where parents were calling for increases on everything from classroom aids to suicide support hotlines might imagine the challenge of organizing the priorities of 47 people. After all, the six school board members only sometimes get beyond a 3-3 deadlock.

Each board member will appoint a representative to to the committee while the other members will be chosen by other parents. The committee will be headed by Rowena Lagrosa, Executive Director of the district’s Parent Community Services Branch.

The graphic above shows how it all falls together. It comes from LA Unified, not Rube Goldberg.

For parents interested in participating, school board member Tamar Galatzan has more info here.

Previous Posts: A few words on public education from Governor Brown; LA Unified is seeking ideas on a new state funding plan for schools; Governor Brown’s budget pumps billions more into school funding.