To:                  Superintendents, Member School Districts (K-12)

 From:              Robert J. Henry, General Counsel

 Subject:           API Awards Allocated to School Sites

                        Memo No. 8–2001

 Education Code section 52057(b) provides as follows:

 (b) All schools, including schools participating in the Immediate Intervention/Underperforming Schools Program are eligible to participate in the Governor's Performance Award Program.  The manner and form in which the monetary and nonmonetary awards are given shall be established by the Superintendent of Public Instruction and approved by the State Board of Education.  The monetary awards shall be made available on either a per pupil or per school basis, not to exceed one hundred fifty dollars ($150) per pupil enrolled and subject to funds appropriated in the annual Budget Act.  A school that continues to show improvement in successive years is eligible to receive annual bonuses.

Pursuant to this statutory authority the State Superintendent of Public Instruction proposed and the State Board of Education added Section 1039 to Title 5 of the Code of Regulations to read as follows:

Use of funds at the school site for the Governor’s Performance Award Program and the school site portion of the Academic Performance Index Schoolsite Employees Performance Bonus awards shall be decided by the existing school site governance team/school site council representing major stakeholders and then ratified by the governing board of each local educational agency.  (Emphasis added.)