The Newhall School District governing board received a presentation on the Local Control Accountability Plan’s midyear review during last week’s board meeting.
The LCAP is implemented into all state schools that receive public funding to help increase student success. The LCAP is a three-year plan, and the Newhall district is currently in year two.
According to the presentation given by Kate Peattie, the district’s assistant superintendent of instructional services, students between third through sixth grade saw a 9.2-point increase in English language arts performance compared to the previous year. It was in the blue range, which is the highest range on the dashboard. All student groups were demonstrating improvement.
For the English language proficiency category, which is taken by all English learners from kindergarten through sixth grade, 42.7% of students were making progress, according to Peattie and the presentation.
“We were really excited to see that we were able to reclassify a large number of our long-term English learners last year,” Peattie said during the presentation. Since last year there are 69 fewer English learners compared to the previous year.
For mathematics, students’ performance level was 26.5 points above standard and English learners saw an improving trend. Peattie acknowledged that students with disabilities were an area of continued need.
“We know that we still have work to do with our English learners, so we continue that focus as well as our students with disabilities,” she said.
For the science category, which only fifth graders are tested on, students across the district scored 65.8 points above standard level and increased two points from last year’s report. Student groups to highlight for that section were students with disabilities, who showed an improving trend, and English learners were an area of continued need.
Students in kindergarten through sixth grade as of November 2025 had an average proficiency of 72% in English language arts and in math an average of 64%.
In the chronic absenteeism category, the Newhall School District saw a two-point decrease, which “was a really hard one. Both our administrators, our support staff, our teachers who worked really hard to work with families around barriers, keeping kids from school, to encourage kids to be here,” Peattie said. “We know that kids learn best at school.”
According to the presentation, English learners and low-income students were demonstrating improvement. Foster youth, which are about 16 students within the district, was an area of continued need.
In relation to parent and family participation, which is a part of the LCAP’s goal three aimed to expand partnership with parents in decision-making processes and school activities, the district hosted six events with 230 total parent participants. Two district English Learner Advisory Committee meeting were held with an average of 31 attending and one meeting for the School Employers Association of California with an attendance of 35 people was held.
“It’s really about how we encourage our parents to come. How we engage our parents, we get our families, we get our kids excited to bring their families along and then how we can share information with parents when they’re there,” Peattie said.
