2026-06-10 Board Meeting

001Board of Education will come to order. As is our practice, this meeting will be recorded. As vice president, I will be chairing the meeting tonight as board president Torres is unable to attend. The board provides remote access for members of the public and welcomes community members joining in person or remotely. The board is following the requirement of Senate Bill SB707, which enables remote participation by board members only under specific circumstances. I note that board member Alvaro is attending remotely this evening on the basis of a disability accommodation. Board member Alvaro, could you please state for the record that there are no adults 18 or older present in the room with you? >> There are no adults 18 or older present in the room with me. >> Thank you. We use simultaneous interpretation in Spanish for

002those attending virtually through the end of the public comment. Translation will continue further into the meeting if people are utilizing the channel. Thank you to our interpreters Anna Cruz and Kimberly Larios for joining us remotely. For meeting attendees wishing to access the Spanish translation channel on Zoom, click on the interpretation button on the menu bar. We ask speakers to be mindful of the Spanish interpretation and speak slowly and clearly. Item 1B is the approval of the agenda. Is there a motion to approve the agenda? >> Motion to approve the agenda. >> Second. >> Is there a second? >> Oh, I second. >> Thank you. Uh there is a motion to approve the agenda made by trustee O'Neal and a second by trustee Aras. Is there any further discussion? >> May I have a roll call

003vote please? >> Miss Alvaro >> I. >> Miss Aras >> I. >> Miss Benini >> I. >> Miss Gerard >> I. >> Miss Love >> I. >> Mr. O'Neal. The motion has been approved. Uh 6. Item two is public comment. Guidelines for public comment are available on the Sanonteo County Office of Education website and board docs and on the table outside the boardroom in English and Spanish. For speakers who require Spanish interpretation, our interpreter, Ms. Cruz or Ms. Larios will interpret following each speaker's comments. At this time, members of the public may provide comment for topics not included on the agenda. The County Board of Education does not act upon any matter that has not been agendaized except under limited circumstances as permitted by law. It is the policy of the county board to refer

004matters raised in this forum to the superintendent for investigation and or action where appropriate. Superintendent Chavez, do we have any comments submitted prior to the meeting for topics not on the approved agenda? >> None were submitted. >> Thank you. Speakers are invited to make live comment and will have three minutes to speak. Please keep within the time limits to make a comment over Zoom. Members of the public may use the raise hand feature. Instructions for using this feature are provided as an attachment in the board packet. Once the hand is raised, please wait to be acknowledged by Superintendent Chavez. Superintendent Chavez, are there any members of the public attending remotely who wish to make a comment at this time for topics not on the approved agenda? >> I do not see any raised hands. >>

005Thank you. Members of the public may also provide live comment in person. Superintendent Chavez, are there any submitted cards for topics not on the approved agenda? >> Yes, we do have one card from Dr. Lawrence needed. >> Good evening, Vice President Gerard, esteemed members of the board, Superintendent Chavez, and members of the public. My name is Dr. Dr. Lawrence and I am honored to share that I have been elected as the new president of Sonteo County Educators Association. I am grateful for the opportunity to serve both as an academic school counselor for SMCE's Cordon Community School programs and now in this leadership role representing our dedicated certificated staff. Throughout my more than three decades with Sonteo County Office of Education, I have had the privilege to serve in multiple capacities in support of students, families,

006and educational communities. I hold a bachelor's of science, a master's of science, and a doctorate in educational leadership with an emphasis on justice, equity, and research focused on educational experiences of people of color in the carceral system. I'm excited to work alongside our newly elected board who are highly skilled and credentialed professionals that are committed to providing quality education, meaningful resources, and supportive learning environments for students and families throughout our county. Together, we represent educators and service providers who are directly working with kids. So, I represent line staff. I acknowledge that we work in cross agencies as well as cross departments and we appreciate the certificated staffs that support us such as Anna and Maria Sanchez that have been exceptional in providing service with me and the student support services team as an example. As

007we look ahead, I hope that we can foster a stable, collaborative, healthy environment that will be built on consistent school leadership and is focused on supporting both our employees and our students. And by working together, we will strengthen our organization, build positive relationships, and create opportunities that help all our students thrive. I look forward to partnering with you in service to our schools and communities. Thank you for your time and I wish everyone a productive and great meeting. >> Thank you. Public comment addressing a specific agenda item will be heard after the board's discussion on the item. If members of the public wish to speak to a specific agenda item, please use the ra raise raise raise hand feature when the item is announced or if in person submit a card in advance of the

008item. Cards can be found on the table outside of the boardroom and given to a staff member when completed. For item 3A, is there a motion to approve the minutes of the May 13, 2026 special board meeting governance workshop as presented? >> Is there a second? There is a motion made to approve the meetings of the May 13th special board meeting governance workshop made by trustee O'Neal and a second by trustee who is the second I'm sorry Susan >> I think there was they both moved I don't think we have a second is there >> do we have the second >> I second I second it okay >> by areas thank Um, okay. May I have a roll call vote, please? >> Miss Alvaro, >> I >> Miss Aras, >> I. >> Miss Benini, >>

009I. >> Miss Gerard, >> I. >> Miss Love >> I. >> Mr. O'Neal. The motion passes with a vote of 6-0 and the minutes of the May 13, 2026 special board meeting governance workshop have been approved. Item 4A is the consent agenda. The consent agenda is not debatable and requires a unanimous vote for passage. An item may be removed from the consent agenda and placed on the regular order of business for separate discussion and action if any member of the board, the superintendent or the public so requests. Is there a motion to approve the consent agenda? >> I move to approve the consent agenda. >> Is there a second? >> Second. There is a motion to approve the consent agenda made by Trustee Bonini and a second by Trustee Love. Is there any further discussion?

010May I please have a roll call vote? >> Miss Alvaro, >> I. >> Miss Aras, >> I. >> Miss Benini, >> I. >> Miss Gerard, >> I. >> Miss Love >> I. >> Mr. O'Neal. The motion passes with a vote of 6 and the consent agenda has been approved. For item 5A, Sarah Notch, executive director, Educational Innovations, Educational Services Division, will highlight a few aspects of the Sonteo County Office of Education's 2026 proposed local control and accountability plan. Executive Director Notch. >> Good evening, Board Vice President Gerard, members of the board, and Superintendent Chavez. I'm happy to be back with you to um present the proposed LCAP for 2026 27. And I wanted to start with a quick review of the LCAP components, including a reminder about what's different for county offices as opposed to

011district LCAPS. So the first several bullets um are exactly the same for districts and counties. We have general information about our programs. We reflect on our successes and things that were maybe um anticipated or unanticipated challenges and we engage our partners. Um if you look at the uh image on the right, there's eight state priorities. Um we have conditions of learning, student outcomes, and engagement. And there are two of those conditions of learning that um are added for county office uh LCAPS and that's the um supporting expelled and foster youth. But like with districts, we also have academic goals, social, emotional, behavioral um as well as college and career. And then finally, we we list all of our expenditures and funding sources. A quick note about engaging educational partners. We recognize um as I shared

012the last time that I presented about the LCAP that we have some gaps in engaging all of our partners deeply and meaningfully. Um and so engaging our families and caregivers and including them more as part of the development of an LCAP is an absolute priority. Um, and so that'll be something that the administrative team is looking into next year about how we can do that better and more consistently. Um, for all of our other partners, we really truly do take what they share into consideration and it is our northstar for developing the LCAP. So, as it says in the last paragraph, it's not just about a compliance document and checking boxes for us. If we don't listen to our partners, our students, our educators, um our families, and really think through what is needed, then

013we're not going to have a successful LCAP. And so, just wanted to give this reassurance statement that the feedback that is given, including the board's feedback, is taken very seriously. Um, and you'll see that reflected later on. So, you have the entire um LCAP in your board packet. I did want to make a note because I remember this was a little bit confusing last year, too. Um the packet numbers uh the pages out of 105, but you only have pages that go up to 70s something. The rest of the pages are all instructions for how to complete the LCAP documents. So, we left those out, but the entire LCAP is there for you. Uh, but for the presentation today, I kind of wanted to do a little bite-sized summary of our progress on each of

014our goals and then how we actioned the feedback that we've been given from our educational partners um and changes that are being made um to our proposed LCAP for next year. So, goal one is around instructional support and academic achievement. And we are in year two of our three-year LCAP. So next year, in addition to implementing the LCAP that's adopted by the board, we will also be in a full rewrite process, marking out three more years of a plan um for implementation. So so far in year two, some of the highlights for goal one, um 97% of our high school students had a GPA higher than 2.0. We um increased uh A throughG credits by student um by 64% at Gateway when we compare year-over-year and 46% at Hillcrest for A throughG credits year-over-year. Um

015some other key progress areas, um we also had um 86% of our long-term students at Gateway acrewing over 25 um A throughG credits, which is very close to our 90% target. Um and 70% of Hillrest long-term students earning 25 or more credits. Um which is nearly double from last year. Um, and the reason we utilize long-term students for these measurements is, as you know, we have a lot of um, turnover and transition in our programs. And so to really get meaningful data from an LCAP perspective, um, we look at students who have been with us for 90 or more days across all of our programs. Um, we also were able to close the achievement gap with English learner students at Canyon Oaks and reduce by 24 percentage points at Hillrest. We still have some ongoing

016challenges and it's not news to you hopefully because we've been um sharing them kind of along the way this year at the midyear update and our last um board presentation. But fidelity of implementation and monitoring and support for our teams to be able to carry this heavy lift um is still an area where we know we can do better. And so, um, there are specific LCAP metrics and actions that we just weren't able to get data on, and that's reflected in the reporting of all of the metrics and actions in the full packet. Goal two is around school climate, social emotional learning, and positive behavior intervention and supports or SEAL and PBIS. For the second consecutive year, we had zero expulsions. Uh we reduced the gateway suspension rate by 12.6%. And we had 15% of

017our staff engaging in average um PBIS uh positive behavior intervention and supports recognition with our students. Um Canyon Oaks and Hillrest had zero suspensions this year. Um Gateway improved from 47.6% to 35%. One thing that I wanted to mention specifically and I took a note of it um is that over the course of the year all of the suspensions that have been recorded have been across across five students and three four five six seven eight incidents um and so that is important to consider um when we think about our percentage rates with such a small population. Um, we piloted the social emotional learning curriculum at Hillrest in the fourth quarter and we're planning a systemwide roll out next year. Um, and we also had really consistent use of the student support forms which is a

018positive change from last year. Um, and Gateway launched their behavior expectation matrix. Ongoing challenges, we weren't able to meet the target of monthly campus events. Um we did not have uh administration of um some of the staff surveys that are listed in the LCAP. We did have an administration of an LCAP feedback survey, but there were some other surveys that were mentioned in the metrics that did not get administered. Um and we didn't have um full fidelity in our PDSA or plan do study act cycles. Um it happened once. So areas where we're going to have a continued focus in year three and also as part of that full rewrite process determine what were the barriers to implementation. Are they going to be ongoing barriers? Should we be looking at doing something differently? That'll all

019be um discussion that the team's engaging in with your help um next year. Goal three is around career and technical education. We had 100% of our students enrolled in at least one career technical education course and almost 50% of our students at Hillrest. And that's not just long-term, that's all of our students um over the full year of enrollment. And I wanted to point out graduation rate. So I recall last year um when we were having a very similar conversation about the 2526 LCAP, there were some questions about how graduation rate is calculated. Um and who is included? Um and the reality of our graduation rate is that any of the students who are with us um and this is the same with dropout rate if they don't continue to enroll somewhere andor even if

020they enroll and they don't get their diploma, it's a ding on our um on our measurements. And so the 100% is of every single senior across all of our programs who um was enrolled in our programs at the end of the year, 100% of them walked. And so we didn't have any seniors who were um who fell off track for graduation or weren't eligible for graduation. So those within our system um at the time of graduation, every single person walked. And since Dr. needs in the room. I have to give a tremendous amount of credit to all of her work um in supporting the students and all of the educators. Um because for some I I know it was a it was down to the wire for a few maybe. Yes, we're getting nods. So

021that's just a testament to the dedication of our team to really help um provide them everything they needed to achieve that milestone. Commissioner O'Neal or um all CTE courses maintain A to G alignment. Can you explain A to G? >> Yes. So A to G is um the for the UC and CSU schools in order to be eligible after graduation you have to have um A through G graduation. and the the letters correspond to the different subject areas. In order for those subjects or those courses to be considered A throughG approved, you have to apply in a portal. Um so you have to upload your syllabus and um show everything that you're going to teach in that course and then it's approved by the UC and CSU systems. And so our CTE courses were approved

022as A throughG eligible coursework um for those those classes of course. Um let's see some other um highlights. So Cafe CTE work experience pilot. So, one of the um opportunities we had this year was to bring back students who had taken a CTE course at Hillrest before and have them be um student leaders and mentors in the class supporting um first timers in that course. And it was phenomenal and really successful. And seeing our students step up and support their peers was just great to to witness. Um and so we're going to try to expand that. we have to get creative about work experience in Hillrest because we don't have as many options um for competitive integrated employment outside of the facility. So that was a a great first step. Um and we also improved

023attendance at Canyon Oaks and Gateway and um declined had a declining in our chronic absenteeism. One thing that remains a challenge is finding a meaningful way to expand CTE over to Canyon Oaks um as a therapeutic setting. They only have academics during the first portion of their day and the afternoon is reserved for therapeutic um interventions and and programming. And so figuring out how to change the way that we're looking at CTE coursework with half a day um and what that might look like is something the team has been thinking through um and is included in some of our CTE grants as the next kind of expansion and measurement of our success. So, I'm not exactly sure what they're going to come up with, but I know they've been thinking through a lot of different

024configurations, and we'll of course be working with BHRs, um, our partners at Canyon Oaks, um, in that process. And then finally, goal four of supporting expelled and foster youth. These are the two conditions of learning that are added for C or for um, county office LCAPS. So, we had 100% of expelled seniors graduate. We had an 8.6 reduction in chronic absenteeism with our foster youth and a 100% response rate for juvenile court and child welfare record requests. Um, some other key highlights, um, we only had two expelled seniors, but they both graduated this year. um in school programs. 67% of um our foster youth high school students, four out of six um remain on track for graduation with their cohort. So those would be 9th through 11th graders this year. Um we maintained 100% compliance

025with all of their records requests and document transfers. Um and this also includes our countyfacing um foster youth support the foster youth FYCSP foster youth coordinating support program. Yes. Um so the work that um executive director RBZU's team does district facing. So they also had a 100% compliance rate. um and our foster youth liaison um uh team that is all county facing supported um 100% of our school mobility communication and student support inquiries. So when we know that students are transitioning between school placements and districts um and then also when there's an outreach from a district for some support um 100% of those um needs were met um swiftly and effectively. Trusty O'Neal >> um looking at it you have an 8.6% reduction in fiscal year chronic absenteeism rate. So what was the absenteeism rate?

026Was it like 100% now we're down to 91 or >> I can look and apologies for the abbreviation. FY is foster youth in this case but let me look I have the LCAP with me for just this reason at the let's see that one is chronic absenteeism. I just have to find the right metric. Sorry. Scanning. Scanning. Okay. So it looks like the previous um percentage was 28.6% and so this year we're at 20%. >> Okay. So that means 80% of the kids are coming to school and 20% are Okay. >> Correct. >> Is does how does that compare to other counties? >> Oh, I don't know. I would have to look into that, but I'm happy to do it. No, I was just, you know, is this an outlier in Sonteo County or is

02720% actually really good compared to 57 other counties? You know, >> I would honestly I would have to look at some other LC caps to know. I'm not quite sure. >> I would just be curious to see, >> you know, 20% is that really really good or like everybody else is at one or two% and then try to find out what they're doing that makes it, you know what I mean? >> Absolutely. And this is within our SMCE school program. So again, our our population size, one or two students can swing it pretty dramatically. But I would um I would be curious about that as well. >> Okay. Thank you. >> Of course. Um the ongoing challenge that we have with goal 4 is when we're looking at our countywide work, so that's the district

028facing work that executive director Arbizu's team is doing. It's difficult to um measure more traditional things like graduation rate or credit acral or things that we typically see within school programs as measurements with districts because it's not something that they have direct impact on. They're looking at transition between programs. They're looking at um support responses, um records transfers, uh consultation on difficult cases, but they're not doing anything directly to um impact the credit acral outside of advisory support. Um and so when we're thinking about what's within their purview and how do we want to have some meaningful measurements for the district-f facing work, that's something I don't think we've quite dialed into yet. Um so happy to take any feedback that you have and I know the team will be looking into this um in

029the full rewrite year for next year and our new andor renewed areas of focus. This is where you'll um see some of the um areas of feedback that you gave as well as our other partners. Um we really really are focusing on an increase in family and caregiver engagement next year. Um, we have to figure that out. Um, sorry, that's my son calling me. So, it breaks through the do not disturb. Um, we are adding additional literacy personnel um, which, um, we've heard is a priority for you. It's a priority for us as well. And so, there will be a new position that's added um, to support literacy across court and community schools. We're also going to increase our analysis of transition support opportunities. We've heard that um we're doing great things, but we may

030not be doing everything that we need to do and we may still have some holes that aren't filled. So, both looking at what can we do directly from our positions as well as how can we better closely coordinate with our partners is an area of renewed focus for next year. Um, we also really want to look at our mechanisms for monitoring and measuring the work that we're doing because we know the work is happening, but if we can't capture it, we can't report it. Um, and so anecdotal measurements are only so valuable when it comes to the LCAP. Um, and so we really want to figure out how we can do a better job with that. Um and then there's several um key metrics where you'll see we have um highlighted that we were unable

031to measure and so we haven't been able to really talk about how it's been addressed. Um and so we want to make sure we do that next year and then ensure that strong adherence to data collection to inform our rewrite. We want to get it um as close to perfect as possible on the first try with room of course for adjustments as the data informs, but we want our three-year rewrite to be really driven by a deep data dive on what's working, what's not, what needs to be changed, what's missing, um, etc. And then finally, our expenditures and funding sources. You'll get a deeper dive from our business team on this later, but to break it down, um, I have percentages of how we're spending our money. So, most of it, you can see, is

032going to staff. We have 62.1% on certificated and 22.2% on classified. We have 7.4% on independent contractors, 8.4% 4% in materials and supplies and that comes out to almost $3.5 million for the full court and community school budget. And the graphic on the left, we really look at our funding sources, develop our budget um priorities, and those go directly into our LCAP investments and it's it's um noted in every single action how we're contributing funds to each of those actions. And then our job is to measure the impact and make sure that we're maximizing the um the opportunity of our funding um in service of student success. So with that, I am happy to take any questions. Thank you for that report and thank you to all the staff. It was wonderful to be at

033graduations and thanks to all the staff who got our students there. It was wonderful to talk to them. They were full of optimism. So, I think that's a wonderful thing. I did have a couple questions about the um LCAP. One had to do with graduation and so I'm just going to start there because you did mention it so maybe I was reading it wrong where it said um 52.2% um students graduated this year. So, is this getting at what you were talking about? >> Yes. So, that's how we have to measure it for LCAP for the state because it takes into consideration all of our students that we've had throughout the year. Um, but to kind of show you the difference of of reporting for LCAP's purposes and then reporting for you, everyone that we

034had as a senior at the time of graduation was able to graduate. >> Okay. Thank you. Um, another theme that I saw throughout this was the inability to collect data. >> I also saw things like, I think it was mentioned under 2.5, like $244,000 for data collection, but that's on top of 200 something last year where we basically said it didn't work. Um, so what's going to happen now? Because like we don't have the staff, so we couldn't do this. This one didn't work. We don't have this information. yet throughout we're talking about um datadriven decision-m >> and yet it's somewhat transparent in the report that we're not actually doing that but we're spending a lot of money on it. So one sort of what's the the plan for actually getting there. >> Thank you

035for asking that. Um I believe I'm almost positive I don't have um the full LCAP view from my screen um here right now but my uh belief is that that 244,000 is mostly staff costs. So it's not necessarily investing in a data a data collection system or something that is going to help us measure. It's more about the people in the implementation. Um, and so really we just have to make sure that the staff are supported in knowing what we have to measure for the LCAP, that it remains something that they're fully aware of, that everything that we're doing um is sort of leading into those LCAP measurements and that we're doing it with fidelity and consistently and we just haven't had that over the past two years. So, one of the things that we

036were doing in response is the reorganization of school programs leadership. Rather than having myself as the executive director and um Dr. Jimenez as the director and we're kind of bouncing between all of the programs, we've focused um Dr. Jimenez as a director for court and community school programs. And that's his only um charge. And not to say that it's not a big lift. It is. Um but it allows for consistency and focus rather than us all having little pieces of things. And then I'll be the director for um special services center and the Ann Campbell Center. So that's one actionable thing that we're doing to try something different to allow us to be in a little bit closer to the work um and help support that consistent implementation if there are barriers um that are

037being experienced by the staff. Okay, a couple more just um another question I had had to do with credit recovery at Hillrest. Um the plan sets a target of 90% um for long-term credit deficient students at Hillrest to successfully meet their credit recovery goals. Um given that the most recent one dropped to 34.6% I think that's what the plan says now, how are we going to bridge that gap to get to 90%. Can you tell me exactly which metric that is so I can >> uh credit recovery I um I didn't write the number down >> I can look too I did this all online so I >> No of course of course of course let me see >> so that's 1.14 yeah I think it's 1 something >> okay so let me just take

038a quick look and look at this. >> Yes. Page 23. Thank you. Yes. So, we dropped by 35.4 percentage points. Um, sorry, I'm reading through all of it just to make sure I'm >> our baseline had been uh 67% >> in 23 24 >> baseline and then Yeah. >> And then Hillrest I think it was 70% in year out the outcome for year one and now it's um >> Yes. And now it's >> 34.6 >> it is. Yes. >> But we're trying to get to 90. So something's going to have to give and I don't know if it what that is and so I'm curious what what's how you're going to get to that point. >> Yeah. One of the things that I spoke to Associate Superintendent Shast about was um how much of a

039full rewrite do we want to do this year knowing that we're going into a full rewrite next year? Um or do we want to try to keep the targets the same knowing we haven't been able to fully implement some of the actions that are in the LCAP? um and see if we can do a better job of getting, you know, closer approximations. Um if this were an IEP, I would have adjusted the target looking at the data and saying, you know, recovering from uh where is it? 34.6% up to 90% is probably not a realistic target. Um but we also know that there are some um some elements of the the LCAP. We believe that if they are implement implemented consistency and with consistently and with fidelity, pardon the tongue tie, um such as PDSA

040cycles and adjustments monthly for the individual learning plans. If we can catch things and act on them in a data-driven way earlier, then we think we might have a better chance of um improving that. But if we don't, then that will be something that the team looks at next year for the full rewrite is adjusting the baseline or adjusting how we're helping students, sorry, adjusting the target or adjusting how we're helping students achieve that target. >> I hope it's the latter of those two, not former. Um, that's it for me for now. Thanks. >> Are there are there any other questions? Uh, Trusty Alvaro, >> thank you. Thank you for this report, massage, and thank you. Dr. Sne is still in the room, I think. >> And uh yes, great to have you. You've done

041such great work for the last three decades that I've known you. So, I'm I'm really excited to see your fingerprints all over things. >> Um Sarah, I had a question about the CTE up at Hillrest, the cafe CTE. Can you tell me what that is? >> Yes, one of our CTE master classes. So that's the three-week um course that students do um was um a repeat of a course that we had done before. And so we looked at the students who had taken the course including um non-minors and looking at who would be available to participate as a mentor um in that program to students who were first taking it. Um and so they had extra responsibilities. They weren't completing the projects themselves, but they were supporting the students. They were doing some teaching um

042and presenting some of their knowledge um and really working with um with the students. And so that was that was great. >> I got it. You you had explained that, but the cafe part threw me. >> Yes. The reason I'm asking specifically about that is when I was volunteering up at Glenwood for I don't know seven or eight years, we had two CTE, we didn't call them CTE back then, but we had s two CTE programs that we were able to do even with the incarcerated boys up at Glenwood and one was a culinary arts program >> where they actually worked in the kitchen. Um, and they had to, of course, earn the right to handle some of the equipment, but they worked in the kitchen and they and they helped with the some of

043the meal prep. And the other was and they actually got a, you know, a certificate when they got done. They actually had some training in working in kitchens. And the other one was a partnership, which I just thought was wonderful with Habitat for Humanity. And part of that took place offsite, which is not going to be possible with the Hillrest kids while they're incarcerated, but part of it took place in the classroom. We actually had someone from Habitat come in, I think it was once a week, and teach a class on basically construction, math, and the basics of that sort of thing. And then the boys again they had to earn the right to do it but they went off and and actually worked on homes for people the habitat homes and some of them

044once they were you know the nice thing about Glenwood is that we often had kids for a minimum of a school year so you could do different things with them but part of what they earned was the right to continue with Habitat as you know as volunteers but they got credit also for after they had left us and gone back to the community schools or their public schools. So I just throwing that out as two interesting ideas that really were successful with the boys at Glenn, but they were really engaged with both of those things. That's fantastic. Thank you so much. I did not know about the Habitat for Humanity connection. That is um phenomenal. And we've done culinary before. I'm sure we'll do it again. Um, and one of the things when we do

045run that course is that our students are um, safe serve certified. So, they get their food handlers license. Um, and we also create or help them create e portfolios that only go live once they've left. Um, but it has, you know, almost like a a resume of of skills that they've learned. It's certifications that they've earned to kind of help them um in their next steps. But I I would love to explore more about how we can um look at a habitat partnership or something like that because I know construction and construction management is um is definitely an interest for for some some of our students that they've shared. So thank you. >> It was also phenomenal to watch them get that excited about math. >> I was just thinking that too when that becomes

046relevant and meaningful. Yeah, absolute gamecher. Thank you. >> Thank you. >> Are there any other questions? Uh Trusty Benini, >> thank you for the presentation. Um I have I first I want to start with um just a comment about the uh the literacy focus because of course you know I'm very passionate about that and I know we've expressed that on from our board and we gave you feedback in the LCAP leazison process um for you know on behalf of the board. So thank you for for that. Um and then we know that I think that that's tied to the work that um the pilot with OICR. >> Um so I have a couple questions just about um how well having another person is good, right? Having a specialist or whatever that title will be. Um,

047but I'm curious if there will be any opportunities um and whether the the budget and the plan kind of allows for opportunities for other staff to be involved in that training because um I was able to attend um the OICR uh presentation that they they did this week and they talked a lot about their learnings of the pilot. They highlighted our county um which was fantastic um and they talked about um what they want to do for leaders and for educators who obviously were already part of the pilot but it was deepening understanding of science of reading exploring best practices for working with adolescent learners and we've been talking about all these things right they have this and I'm sure you have access to this uh presentation but I can share it um developing expertise

048in trauma-informed practices and they of kind of planning going forward. And so I guess my question is can are you considering whether um that per whoever that person is plus other staff would be able to be involved in these types of endeavors. Um also they have they're looking at a youth justice literacy certificate. All of these amazing things right where we could tag that on to some of our exist you know our staff that's there. I don't know what their bandwidth is, but that's my first question. Is there um talk about that yet or can there be? >> Um as far as is there talk about that yet? I'm not sure because this is the part of the year where we've sort of done a handoff between myself and Dr. Aimenez. I know Dr. Amen

049and um associate superintendent Shou have been in um very detailed conversation about kind of this structure. um from working within the program and working with associate superintendent Sha for so many years I know that her default is to make sure that things aren't person dependent and if we just have a literacy person doing literacy we're not doing it well and so the idea is always to build capacity expand training making sure that these things are rooted throughout instruction and not just happening when the literacy personnel is in the room so I would venture a pretty good guess I think that yes that will be the focus and how they roll that out and develop those um kind of procedures. >> Thank you for that. >> Can I just add of course >> um and what

050comes to mind also is that we want to make sure that that as to your point to to develop that person in the science of reading. Uh we offer those trainings to our districts to our teachers within our districts. So inviting them in and not just this person but the the teaching staff at the um at court community so that they would be very welcome to join. >> Yes. Thank you. Thank you. Um and I have a couple other questions but I just wanted to share just for the sake of um really good work. I wanted to share part of not the entire quote but a a quote from one of our students that was included in this OICR presentation which was um regarding the pilot and the the the reading instruction which was you

051know thank you for this I have been really needing this but my IEP says I have to write essays but this is what I need. Sorry for um he the the student actually said some other you know something said sorry for what I said but this is what I need. Thank you for this. So that was just so heartwarming when I saw that and I know we've been talking about it forever but thank you. So that that was my my focus my question about literacy. Um and then I wanted to ask about um sort of what trustee love raised around we we weren't able to gather the data and it's obviously there and you've raised it. We weren't able to we don't have the baseline data. we don't know the growth and I know we

052talked about a lot of it in our leaison um check-ins um in terms of the individual learning plans how that you know you want to get that off the ground um but I'm also curious whether um there's been further exploration of how we can get that baseline data and I know we talked about potentially trying to grasp it in from a prior um CASP test or something like that that the students might have from earlier in their educational journey. Um, so I'm just curious if if you've um put some thought into that or if that's part of the reframing around that because I I I see you know implementation of the metrics, getting the metrics is here, but I'm just curious if you can share a few more details and those are just things I

053remembered from our conversation. So >> absolutely. Um I'll speak to the CASP thing um first. So the measuring the growth in individual students from 8th grade to 11th grade um was the best way that we could come up with um for looking at individual growth time over time. What we have encountered is that sometimes and more often than not either the um eighth grade testing results are not available to us or the students didn't take the eighth grade test. And so um valiant effort I think creative thinking but we need to figure out a better way to make that CASP measurement meaningful because it is a requirement in our LCAP. Um and I think you know looking at um sort of the the implementation of everything um with the staffing constraints that we've encountered over

054the past two years. Um it has been such a dedicated and heavy lift that our teachers have been have been taking on and I know each of them care so deeply. all of our educators and educational staff, not just the teachers. Um, but it's hard when we don't have that consistent leadership thread and someone kind of overseeing and making sure that the work moves forward. So, it is my sincere hope that this reorganization of the administration of our school programs will um help that tremendously. Um, and I know we always hope for consistent, stable staffing. Um, but they're going to have to look at that really closely in the full rewrite. And my hope is that if they get through a quarter and things aren't going well, that they'll think creatively about, okay, we need

055to measure this year's LCAP data, the 25 or 26 27, and we need to make sure that we are gathering information that will help inform the full rewrite. And so, I know that's something that Dr. Um, Jimenez and I have talked about it. How do you do both and and do it meaningfully? Um, but I can't tell you for certain exactly what their plans are for that. Um, but I know that you'll you'll have lots of opportunity to hear from Dr. Amen once um the school year gets underway around that. that that's helpful and I understand the focus on oh we need to do the rewrite s maybe for the for better or for worse my focus is on what are the students yes you know experiencing in that moment from you know >> even

056now or the start of the school year >> and so I guess just to deeper to ask it in another way and maybe it goes into further conversations is what else is needed those are the questions we were asking in our committees this year right >> what do you actually need to, you know, as a a board we're advocating for for, you know, budget or for whatever we we can do here, right? And so the question is if there aren't enough staff to gather the data or there's not a plan to do it or which test to use or how to measure that, whatever. Maybe that's another question. What else is needed? Um, is it not an entirely an a full FTE, but is it another department that maybe can push in to help with

057those things? I'm just throwing it out there because >> it seems possible with the number of students that we have and maybe we'll have more, you know, in the coming year, but it seems like we have enough resources that we could have somebody there maybe assisting the teachers in doing that gathering. That's that's my hope because um I haven't seen this any measurable data of growth since I've been sitting here in this chair >> and it's it's a little bit difficult to um know what we don't know if there maybe there is and then my that kind of leads into my final question is we um have this higher um GPA note and then I know there was a policy put in place that we wouldn't have D's or Fs, right? And so I don't

058know how much that's maybe it helps from a a student perspective of um success and maybe self-esteem and and those types of things, but in some respects it's not matching up, right? Because if we're not we don't know we don't know what that growth looks like and maybe it's inflated. Um so I'm not sure the the policy or the I guess the rationale behind that but um those are questions that I have around it. So, I don't know if that's more just comments, but if you have any thoughts on that and and then >> I do I'm I'm really glad that you brought that up because that's honestly not something that we looked at as an additional variable that could have impacted that growth. And so, it leads me to a lot of question marks

059that I would want to sort of dig into deeper so that we can make sure that we're getting um I mean growth in GPA is great, but it's not necessarily maybe an apples to apples comparison or maybe it is. I I would really have to look at it with that D to F policy or no D's and FS policy. But thank you for bringing that up because it it honestly didn't cross my mind. So I appreciate the spotting that. Um and then as far as what do we need? I think we need um consistency. Oh, sorry. >> Oh, go ahead. Finish your thought. I I was just wanted to add >> Oh, no. Go ahead. Oh, what what comes to mind and this is maybe something that we can debrief with um doc with um

060Chris Sha yourself and the team is we have a data analyst team um in house. we have the CLA that I think this is a good opportunity to bring their expertise into the conversation and what is it that we can be looking at from their lens that it provides that baseline data that provides that um so that we can measure growth and it it and they might see it as data analysts in a different way than we do as the implementers of programs. So I'm suggesting that we should do do that. Thank you for for bringing that up. Yeah, that's a great suggestion. Um, going to to what we need, if I think about kind of all the different potential and for lack of a better word, fail points in our implementation. Um, here's one

061kind of throughine example with individual learning plans. The original idea when we designed this and wrote this three-year LCAP was that every teacher would have an advisory period. That happened. Every teacher has an advisory period. What we wanted that advisory period to be was um coaching, support, credit recovery, monitoring, um almost serving as a little mini case load where each advisory teacher would develop and monitor the individual learning plans for the students in their advisory. Now, this is easier to do in one way with Gateway and Canyon Oaks because that's a consistent more consistent population throughout the year, at least semester-wise. Um, more difficult to do with Hillrest. But the idea was at any given time the students in their advisory would um be on their their case load quote unquote. And because they would

062have that continuous advisory mentor who would get to know them really well, build relationships with them really well, have the opportunity and the time to do that because they're not implementing curriculum during that period. Then every month they would bring data on the ILP goals and supports and we would go through that PDSA cycle and we would make adjustments. Um what has happened for a variety of reasons is um the ILPs are not typically developed by the advisory teachers. We've had our TOSA um develop some. We've had our assistant principal develop some. I'm sure Dr. Sneed has developed some. And so the idea of that catch of of a group of students and really kind of following them um hasn't happened. And part of the reason why it hasn't happened, I think, is just logistical

063with um you know, teachers being out or or administrative turnover, things like that. Um, but if we don't have that happening and it's up to a handful of people who are not with the students all the time to develop the ILPS and it doesn't have the same amount of meaning if you're not developing it and monitoring it, then it becomes procedural and it becomes something that we're doing because we know that this is the right thing to do. And so we have the what, but we don't have the now what. And I think part of what we believe will help with the more consistent implementation and meaningful implementation of this is greater um oversight and support from an administrator perspective. And so I'm hoping that um Dr. Dr. Jimenez being based at court and community

064can help the administrative team that comes in, can be a second pair of eyes, can be historical um memory keeping um and refine procedures that will allow us to do a better job because it's not it's not that the team doesn't want to do it. It's not that the teachers aren't caring and they're doing things in a million different ways that could be formalized. Um but we just haven't gotten to that formality. Do you do you think in the structuring of the days or the weeks that you have the ability to give more time to do that more meeting time? I'm not suggesting you know like a PLC but like a time when you designate that your staff is meeting for that purpose >> because in my experience that's what's needed. I've I've participated in

065that and there's no other time to do it. Not even if you have a free period to do it. It's it's a collaborative effort because more than one person is interacting with the student. So, I'm just throwing that out there. >> Absolutely. And we've dipped our toe into that a little bit. I'm going to say one toe because it's only been one so far, but um we have had for example, we've had um our RSP position um working with some of the teachers in particular courses and we made sure that they had common planning time so that if they wanted to collaborate together um that that would be possible. I think um that's not possible for everybody of course and you're right the the students see all of the teachers um and that was really

066the idea behind those monthly data review cycles so that we could focus on a group of students and say you know what are you seeing in your class this is what I'm seeing what do we think would work and we build a hypothesis and we test it and we we keep it consistent because that ILOP while in theory you know would be developed in the advisory class by that advisory teacher. It's being implemented across every single um class. And so we need to make sure that we build in that time for the collaboration and the the brain trust, right? We all see different pieces and different perspectives and things that are working in one class could work in others and we just might not know it. >> Thank you for the the um conversation about

067it and the thoughts because I think it's um I think that we have a lot of um room to grow, but I think we can do it. I do too. >> Thank you. >> Are there any other questions? >> Uh, Trusty Le, >> I just want to second this idea of Superintendent Chavez that the people in this building need to be working for our school programs. You know, the art folks need to be working in the art program and the communications need to be working on the graduation documents and things that are handed out. and this is the staff that's here to serve the schools and it just became you you kind of captured it right that why is this data such a problem when we have so many professionals and so you linked it

068and I hope to see more of that so thank you >> thank you well first of all thank you so much for the presentation today I think it's exciting to see numbers going up and all the work that uh everybody is doing uh definitely want to thank also Dr. Sne. Thank you. Thank you for all the work and the years uh she's been there. I think you know one of the things that I all the conversations and some of my questions were answered. Uh but one of the things that I I I would like just to bring to the space is to remember the why right uh a lot of the times we're discussing how we're going to do it what do we need and all that but I I just want to bring this

069up that why are we doing this right so at the end of the day for me or what I believe the why is the students how are we helping them and so I appreciate that the in your area of new and renew areas of focus you have increased analysis of transition to support opportunities because we might be able to support them within uh to the best ability that there is. But what happens after especially for our students at Hillrest, right? um what are we doing so that those transitions and those those plans that you were talking about are really individualized and uh we're making a difference in their life as they exit and as they transition and really become part of our community and and society. So the why is very important because that's going

070to give us a lot of uh um motivation to continue to do this work, right? And then another point I wanted to really thank you is to increase family and caregiver engagement. Um yeah I mean you know it's something that is um to me if we're going to support students you can't isolate the student from the family or caregivers. You have to think more as a as a holistic approach where the student continues to go back home right between home and school. So if uh that partnership is not there and I understand uh previously and other times the comments is um you know they're not coming or they're not participating or it's hard to engage but I really would that would be one of my at least I know that it will make a difference

071in the partnerships that you're talking about uh how are we going to do it or um having the understanding or where these families come from the student is reflecting right with behaviors they're communicating what's happening at home are we asking them are we saying are you okay I'm here for you do you need supports what do you need student right individually so um I appreciate that seeing that so I really hope that there are ways that um that come up in in in u ideas and out of the box kind of thinking you know being innovative about how we're going to bring the families in because uh it's not necessarily that they have to be on campus, right? But how are we approaching being connected with the family and understanding why the student is going

072through what we see in the school, right? So, but again, thank you for all the information today. I really appreciate it. Thank you. >> Thank you. And I couldn't agree more. Um as a an educator and a mama, um it's really really important. And I do want to share one thing. um that is not reflected in the LCAP because the LCAP measurements are about caregivers and families engaging in events and on campus and and hearing you say it doesn't have to be that reminded me of this that um our staff do have great communication with um with families or bilingual family counselor is making calls, Dr. Sneed's making calls. Um, I've had the um opportunity to be on campus during some disciplinary events that were unexpected and families coming um to pick up their kids

073and and hearing um sitting in on the meeting that the administration would have with the family. There was always a start with like, "Hey, how are you doing? What's going on? How can we help? What are you seeing?" I've heard parents say, "Thank you for the way that you're handling this." So, we know they're connected. Um, and so I think it's just figuring out what does involvement mean and what are the other opportunities for that and it might not be on campus events that might be um the wrong target. So, um but yeah, and I appreciate you making that distinction because engagements is exactly what you said just >> being connected but involvement would mean that you bring them into the table and ask them ex how do we support better, right? what programs, what

074events, what what is it that within the curriculum and what what's happened inside the classroom, right? What you what they can be involved in, right? So, that's the difference between involvement and engagement. So, I appreciate that distinction. >> Thank you so much. Thank you. >> Are there any other questions? Are there any comments from the public? We have a raised hand on. >> Okay. Thank you. >> Miss Blanco, you may speak. You may need to unmute, Miss Blanco. She may not. She may have stepped away. There she is. Oh, >> she is. >> There she is. Miss Blanca, you may speak. >> You're breaking up. >> No, we can't understand. You want to try again, Miss Blanco? >> Yeah, you're not coming through. Oh, what the heck? Can you try again? >> Yeah. Looks like

075we have technical difficulties. >> Okay. >> Yes. No. Maybe >> we can try later, Miss Blanco, if you'd like or send us a a written um text on the chat. Okay. All right. Thank you. Thank you for the report. Um it's so helpful to see all this information and I know it's a tremendous amount of work um to get us all the information as well, but what a difference to be able to read through the packet and really understand what's going on and um how it affects all of our students. And I know everyone is doing their best under some uh pretty extenduating circumstances the last couple of years. Um but one thing I do want to comment on which um really pertains to the graduations when we're talking about support of the students was

076the emphasis that everyone made that they're there for those students even when they walk out that door that if they need help come back ask we're here for you and it just made my heart sing when I heard that because um a lot of these kids once they walk out that door aren't going to have the support that they've had while even incarcerated. So um I I just want to say thank you to everyone for making sure that that message was given out loud and clear at all the graduations that we attended. So thank you. Thank you for the report. >> Thank you. Um there are no uh further actions to take on this item. For item 5B, the public hearing on the San Mateo County Office of Education's 2026 2027 provoke provoke proposed local

077control and accountability plan is now open. Would anyone like to speak on this issue? The hearing is now closed for item 6A. Kevin Baltima, Deputy Superintendent, Business Services Division, and Manette Marino, Executive Director, Internal Businesses Service, Businesses Services Division, will provide an overview of the Sonteo County Office of Education's 2026 2027 proposed budget. >> Thank you. Good evening, board vice president um Gerard, members of the board, Superintendent Chavez, Kevin and I are here tonight to uh give you our 26 27 proposed budget presentation. So I'll start with a few slides. Um so I just want to give you a kind of a overview of the budget development timeline. So in January, our governor provides a proposal for the next fiscal year. In April, as we all know, April 15, our tax deadline. Then comes May.

078In on May 15th, the governor provided a May revice for the budget and from now from then till now um there are negotiations taking place related to budget items and then on Monday it's constitutional deadline for legislature to approve the state budget and from then till June 2027 I mean 27 I the governor can do one of the three things he can approve the budget uh line item veto some portions of the budget or send that back to the legislature. So what's in the May revised budget? So a lot of promising items were on the May revised budget, especially when it comes to the overall state revenues. Um there was an improvement of about 50 billion overall over the three years compared to the 2425. Um there is a budget that's balanced for next year

079and the year after with no deficit, but the LAO office or the legislative analyst office still um warns or warns us of future deficits related to the Prop 98 education funding. There the statutory cola is at 2.87%. But as you may have heard, there is a um additional discretionary investment that we know now as SuperCola and that's about 96.7 million additional in LCFF funding. So together with the 2.87, it's about 4.31%. And um several purposes of that um additional money is to support um eleas in rising cost um mitigate the loss in revenues because of declining enrollment and um as you may have heard also to fund the um proposed new law to extend the ex the pregnancy disability leave to 14 weeks beginning next year 26 27. There was also a historic investment in

080special education um increasing this per ADA funding to 1,340. So that's very very big investment. Um there is a one-time discretionary block grant of about 5 billion. This is an increase to the proposal from January. The proposal in January was only about 2.1 and now it's at by 8 billion. Um that discretionary black grant is not in our SMCE budget yet. Uh we still need to hear details of that and we will incorporate that as we near hear more details in our interim revisions. Um because of the increased revenues um the rainy day fund is required to be funded but still um the governor proposes the settle up to withhold 3.9 billion from the proposed from the prop from the prop 98 funding. So from those budgetary um assumptions or provisions from the government, we

081also made assumptions for our own budget. So our LCFF revenue was based on the FICMAT calculator which incorporates all those um items from the governor's proposal. The restricted program revenues were also adjusted for known grants. Um, of course, position control were updated, including staff changes and vacant positions. Um, compensation also included multi-year agreements. So, we have um multi-year agreements with our teachers union, our SMCA, CSEA 887, our classified staff, and with confidential and management groups. That's all already included in the budget for next year. We also include corresponding statutory benefits um retirement contributions to Kalpers, SURS, unemployment and workers comp services and supplies were also adjust adjusted for um planned service levels and as well as for inflation based on the cons um CPI index. So next, you may have remember seeing this um these

082are all the added budget items um as they were presented in our board study session last month. Um a total of 3 million a little over 3 million were added and these are the details um of that. I'm not going to go in one you know mention them one by one but these were all presented at our board study session. So these amount of three million is added and will be ref and is reflected in the budget that you'll see more numbers later on. Other budgets that are not included are the following. So, the Roland Road educational program use, we just wanted to emphasize this this conversation may need um program leaders guidance in um in shaping the conversation as to what Roland Road building can best support the educational programming. And then um Sam

083Conti Educational Foundation is also one of um items that we'll need more planning and discussion as well as the YMCA camps um Camp Jones capital improvements. As I understand there's still ongoing discussion regarding priorities for capital improvements between staffing and admin housing. >> Man, may I just highlight something on a slide specifically? These are this was um these were generated through the feedback through the conversation process. We want to capture them here. We don't want to lose sight of them. They're not in the budget, but we will continue to have conversations. Thank you. >> So now we go into the numbers. So our budget is um reflects a total revenue both in unrestricted and restricted of about 119 250 thou 259470 and a big um portion of that is coming from our LCF revenues of

084about 77 million followed by um funds coming from local revenues about 30 and then con consequently um expenditures are about 125 266 and 181. So as you can see um the total the total revenue I mean total expenditures are more than our um revenues. So brings a it reflects a deficit and a change in fund balance of 496 combined 4 million about 4 million 100 combined. So that was the income or sax presentation. Um we want to show you what you were also been used to presenting is the income statement presentation. And as you can see um net of the outer outgo which is the excess property taxes that we send back to the state in unrestricted our real revenue is about 44 million in unrestricted 31 in um restricted with a total revenues of

085$76 million. and then in expenditures combined of 82,277826 which also brings us to the same total that we saw in the previous slide of about -4 million. So the next slide is just a piraph presentation of how our total revenues are in terms of percent. As I mentioned earlier, our LCFF com um makes the most of our total revenues if about 63 and a half% followed by local revenues of about 25%. Then um state revenues, then a little bit of transfer in and federal resources. The transfer in is coming from the um operationalizing of the interest in our fund 17 or our savings account. Correspondingly, this is the same pie chart of our um presentation of our expenditures as it relates to the percentage of each um object components. So um the biggest of course

086is staffing between our certificated and classified um salaries and then um we also have that big item with other outgo. the excess property tax that we have to send back to the state. And then a couple of um services and operating with a total um expenditures of $126 million. And um you've seen this before. This is just a breakdown of our services or contracted um services between our budgets broken down by resource codes. So in our unrestricted budget we have um we call it under object 5000s of about 12 million. In the restricted there's about 9 million total. and just wanted to highlight you know the usual um big ticket items in the unrestricted that's the outer education that represents our contract with YMCA the ERP financial system that's the one that we use countywide

087although a portion of that is um offset by the billing that we do for the portion of the district's um billing and then transportation that's the contract we have with for student over on the restricted side. Um, in special education, that's also the offset of services. Um, I believe that's between the transportation. So, that's the billing between the unrestricted and the billing on the restricted side. And um there's also that um sorry transportation services agreement. That's the billing that we do between our school districts. So the next slide just um is a comparison of our 2526 estimated actuals. I just want to make a correction on the first column. It should say 2526 estimated comparing to 2627 original. So we're comparing the differences between um what we have now estimated to close and then what

088we have as original budget. So I just want to highlight the big difference um in LCFF that's the property tax increase and as you know when we get prop property more property tax there's a corresponding increase in the other outgo which which is the bill we send back to which is the uh portion of it that we need to send back to the state. And then um there's a little bit of increase in um local revenue and that's attributed to um our investments in county treasury. So mostly it's interest earnings. In expenditures of course um there's um increases in our certificated salaries, classified salaries salaries and corresponding employee benefits. That's mostly because of the class and comp implementation as well as the um settlements that we've had with our with our groups um in services.

089Um you probably know that there was an increase and that's the biggest one of it is uh we had to add election cost um for the November election. We have three board members with uh expiring terms. So um we added that in the budget. And then as mentioned before the exper excess property tax that we have to send back to the state is also um showing an increase. Um there was a little bit of decrease in the transfers in because um 2526 was the last implementation of our financial ERP system. So that's no longer in the budget. So that created a little bit of um decrease in that expense. There's also however there are uh increases in contribution to our other programs uh notably to our fund 12 or early learning programs. So overall our

090change in fund balance in we're estimating to be a million. However, in 2627 there is a complete shift of that on the other side. Estimated change in fund balance of -4 million. So now I'll give it to Kevin to continue with the presentation. So when they link the LCAP to um the budget, I think the original idea is that educators would talk to business people. So you're going to watch that in real time because it was mentioned earlier that we had a new position for a reading specialist. Correct? Did you hear that? I heard that, too. So I'm going to go back to slide six, I think. Here we go. That's not on this list. So, I'm told that it is included in the budget, which means my slide here is incorrect. So, what we

091will do, this is a public hearing. We will bring this back um for your approval and we'll make sure that that position is included in the budget and it is also represent represented on this slide. That's how it's supposed to work, right? Educators talking about education, business people putting numbers into the budget. So that will come back to you. Okay. Manette did all the heavy lifting. I'm gonna go back. So this is our gateway budget and um this is looking at 2526 and then 2627. You'll note that we have some additional resources in there because it was discussed in our budget subcommittee that you know there are additional dollars that are rolling through other than just the restricted. So, we tried to capture those. I didn't include the descriptions of those. I think you did

092receive those via email from the superintendent. Um, so there's some additional dollars that we'll be using. And you'll note that aren't revenue numbers there because we're using carryover dollars currently in the budget from the prior year. But overall, the um gateway program for is about a $1.7 million program and it decreases in 2627 as we've seen a really a decrease in the number of students that we've served. The biggest change is represented in the highlighted green area where instead of charging what we have prior year at $56,500 per spot, we have adjusted the budget to be a charge equal to the district's LCFF funding per ADA. And those are estimates. So, we'll have to work to make sure we get the actual numbers tied to P2. But that really decreases the amount of revenue coming

093into that program by $466,000. So we're only going to be collecting from districts if you approve this budget a little less than 500,000 which then increases our contribution that we're going to make of our unrestricted dollars in the amount of 824,000. Okay. So from a district standpoint, this really should the amount of money they receive in revenue for that student should be covering the cost that we build them for. Okay, I'm going to move on. Cans budget. I did go back to 2223 to see kind of a larger trend here. Just so you got a sense, that project or program has always been around 800,000. It did get to a high in 2425 of almost 1.1 million, but again, we charge back or we receive state dollars for that program. So, fairly consistent overall. Looking

094at the Hillrest budget, we have seen contributions um of unrestricted dollars going back all the way to 2223. We didn't see that in 2324 with the use of some onetime dollars, but again, we're seeing contributions in the program in 2526 and then in this budget 2627 currently it represents about a one point a little less than $1.3 million program. And then overall the LCAP budget again there's a nice connection to what was talked about earlier. Really my intent here was to um we talked about some of the accounting work that we do behind the scenes and using the standardized accounting code structure and using goals to capture the LCAP goals as well. So when we ran the report, what the intent was was to show that if we run the goals 3571 through 3674, we're

095capturing all the dollars that are supposed to be in the LCAP. But if you recall, the number you saw earlier was 3.4 million, and I'm only capturing 2.9 million here. the additional dollars are in restricted programs and may not contain the same goal. We will be working to make sure that we can get all of those goals recorded in those resource codes as well. But that explains the difference from what you were shown in the LCAP budget compared to what's being presented here. And this is um something we've discussed in our workshop. It's really our attempt to try and match the budget to the strategic plan. There's a much larger spreadsheet here that um we aren't showing you in this presentation, but it actually lists every resource code and it really attempts to tie those

096dollars into the different goals within the strategic plan. This is kind of a summary of that. Um and again, it is not a perfect analysis because it's really more of Kevin's view of the world with some educators kind of weighing in to the extent that they could. But hopefully this is something we can continue to build off of and we'll be taking that information and pushing it in the 2627 budget to continue those conversations. And it is noted that there are some things that we do that don't tie to the strategic plan and that's okay. So looking at our um our assumptions here, we do not include any revenue uh from leasing Rollins Road. We have a cost of living adjustment which agrees to the department of finance and is included in the um LCFF

097calculation that we use. We have step and column costs estimated at 1.5%. I think we'll get more accurate with that under the new system in the future, but right now we're using kind of a rounding number. Stirs and pers are estimated based on actuals. No, no increase actually in the stirs over all three years. We use a CPI, a consumer price index for um supplies and services. Manette had already mentioned our election costs. Um we do also increase um our insurance liability costs. We've seen increases related to some of the um SAM um settlements. So those are the um sexual assault and molestation settlements that we've seen related to um some insurance policies. So we have some increases built in for that. And then um any one-time adjustments are made in the future years. So

098here's the um multi-year projection. Uh Manette had already covered that we're expecting a negative change in fund balance for the 26 27 years about 4 million noting some of those things are one time in nature. The election for example um we see then increased revenues into 2728 2829 our deficit then is smaller but it still exists at $2 million in 2728 and another two a little over $2.1 million in 2829. Then we show all the components of our fund balance and we start with $20 million. We have a board reserve of 5% plus the economic reserve requirement from the state at 3% plus we have $1.5 million for potential cash flow to small districts. Um and we have unrestricted lottery dollars at 834,000. So even with that, even with the deficits at that point, we're

099still able to make all of those reserve requirements until we get to 2829 and we're short almost $800,000. So I would never be one to um be a proponent of deficits, but our reserves allow us to do that kind of deficit spending uh in the general fund and still have substantial reserves. And that doesn't talk about any dollars that we have in other funds as well. So graphically this is what I didn't touch it. Okay, we'll look at those. Um so this shows kind of the graphic picture. Um if we approve um this budget, we'll see the overall reserves go down. But again, in 2829, and we always point out year three is always a little fuzzy. Year three is a little harder to predict, but that's why you see that number bottom actually goes

100down because it's a negative $800,000, right? Still substantial reserves even after that kind of deficit spending. So that, you know, we have other funds. One of them is fund 40. We've talked about this quite a bit. We worked um through this a bit in our workshop and through our subcommittee. Um but we have we did start a facility master plan process. We never got all the way through it, but a lot of work was done. And through that, there was not there were noted some critical projects for our school sites. And I want to emphasize our school sites. This isn't for 101 Twin Dolphin. Um, specifically, bathroom remodel has been talked about for a long period of time. It was included here. We did have the opportunity to go back and talk to a small

101group of teachers and administrators about the facility master plan list that we received and they kind of identified another $3.2 million of that list that made sense to them and we appreciated their input. But then basically we had still about $6.8 million left of other things that were included in the facility master plan process. um this still need to be somewhat vetted out but it incorporated what their view of the world was related to their interviews and conversations with teachers and students and other educators. So um ultimately in conversations with the subcommittee the idea was that we would address all the critical hardship projects at $13.9 million and um place that in the budget. Now, I just want to point out that doesn't mean um that we have a plan exactly. We're going to follow

102our policy and that means that you know if you approve this budget, we've approved 13.9 million. We will then do an RFP for an architect, the request for proposal. Once we have an architect, you would, by the way, approve that contract. The board, we'd bring that back to the board for approval. And then they would do really the heavy lifting, which is programming. They would actually go out to the school sites. They would meet with educators and with the principles and with parents and talk about well okay so they've talked about critical hardship projects like redoing this parking lot how does that work this is what we think might work and they will draw actual plans based on that input that programming conversation once we have the plans then we do a request for proposal

103for a contractor and then you would approve that contract and then the contract builds what was drawn. So the real work here is the programming conversations when we have an architect on board. But if you approve this budget, we kind of have a green light to move forward with that. We've also added 1.5 million um for unidentified items that have been consistently that has been in the budget the last few years in fund 40. So conclusions uh we do see deficits in all three years. Manette mentioned this. A lot of it is related to compensation. Um the classification compensation study, which by the way we've fully implemented in two years, probably unheard of. Um we're fortunate to be able to do that. Um this budget actually includes almost all payroll increases for every group but

104CSA58. Again, not common that you actually have all your um compensation done before the year starts. Ideally, right? I mean, it'd be nice if our employees knew what they were going to get paid during the year. It doesn't often work that way in negotiations, but we're really happy it does this year. And then we have those new positions. We talked about the increased contributions to our programs. Um, I would point out we are already giving ourselves credit for $2.8 million of interest revenue from fund 17 and that's included in the multi-year projection. And then um although the state budget is better, it doesn't really benefit SMCOE as much in the same way as our school districts. So I just want to note that higher cola is great, but it doesn't actually bring an influx of

105a lot more money to us. Um it helps because we do get kind of a bit of a difference um if the COLA is higher. So we do get some new money, but it's not the same as a school district. and the special educ education funding will go through the um special the SULPA the special education local plan area allocation. So it will go out to districts. We will continue to provide services so it will help them pay for those services but it won't necessarily drive the cost down of our programs and discretionary block grant is going to be based on ADA and the fact is we don't have a lot of students so we're not going to drive a ton of discretionary block grant dollars for SMCE specifically. With all of that said, ultimately

106we have good reserves. We are financially healthy. I would point out go into deficit spending with our eyes wide open. That's the direction we're going to go. Um but based on the input, this is what we are presenting to the board and for public review. >> Okay. Are there any questions or comments from the board? Trusty Benini. >> Thank you. Thank you for the um very clear presentation. I have just a few questions. Um thank you for noting the um items added. I'm on slide five. Added budget items um for the the literacy um person. Uh do we know how much that is in the budget? And >> I don't we'll have to get back to you on that one and we'll call it out because we'll put that position on there and then have

107a new number. And will it do you know will it be um funds that come from the general funds or will it be a state? >> Our first question will be are there any restricted dollars that could pay for something like this? That will be our first question but absent that it would probably be out of the general fund as an ongoing. So again we'll include it as the detail. >> Okay. And then um also on that page um I note you you shared this in the the budget study session around the transportation. Initially it was something like a $200,000 but either way we're we're paying for that and that is for students in our programs right that are not currently being transported like a gateway. >> That's correct. in our conversations with um our

108vendor who provides our transportation services, they can add that gateway program specifically without an increased cost. So, at first we thought it was going to be on top of but due to what we're seeing is changes in routing, they think they can fit it in within our current cost structure. >> Thank you. And then um my question around the gateway budget is really um well first it's a appreciation for um thinking through how that might look different for districts. Um so my question based on the estimates is um how many students are you including approximately I know it's an estimate but I don't know what the what that looks like. What's the the goal maybe of >> Yeah. So the program gets charged based on spots and historically um Seoia and Sonteo Union High School

109High have basically purchased eight spots each and then we've had varying one to four additional whether that was Cababrio or Jefferson Union High typically um our budget estimates here are based on 17. So eight from each of the spots plus one from Cababrio is is the estimate at this time. Um, and so I guess my follow-up question was, does it impact theou process? It's kind of the same. You're just adjusting the amount. It sounds like >> the maintenance of effort theou process that you have now. It's similar, but it's just a different >> Yeah. I mean, I I've talked to this uh with associate superintendent Shast. Really, we should be getting these contracts out in like January or February because we really have a March 15th deadline. Like if they told us we're not going

110to provide any, you know, service, like we don't want to use your services, well, we would have to do a layoff. And where we are right now is we basically own the staff and if they don't sign the contract, we own it. So, we're working towards getting that done in February. I think a lower cost will be an easier sell for the districts, but we really would like to get these types of contracts out before the March 15th deadline. >> That that makes sense. Um, I guess one of the the parts of the conversation around this is um if it's less of a beyond their ADA financial burden, will will they send more students? I guess we will see. Um, and then that would I guess we'll have to work within that though with the

111staffing, right? So >> yeah, because you know $1.5 million for although there's 17 spots, we my understanding you have eight to 10 kids and of those eight to 10, seven or eight are coming on a daily basis. That's a that's a big cost for for a small number of students. So I just point that out. The more students we get in the program, that helps. >> Good points. Okay, those are all my questions, but just um to closing for me, I wanted to thank you for I think it's the first page where it has um the uh sorry, I'm not pulling it up now, but where it has the strategic plan and has the section and then all the work that you've done around that to sort of align it as well as with the

112LCAP. Um that's so helpful. So, thank you. >> Are there any other questions? Uh, Trusty Alvaro, >> thank you. Uh, thank you for this presentation. And by the way, I love the six-page parent overview that it's really getting small enough for parents to be able to get their hands around it. So, thank you. So, I had just two questions. Uh, one is about, you know, lowering the gateway charge to the districts based on their LCFF, which is makes a lot of sense to me. Are we intending to adjust that for cola? As the districts get more, we charge more. >> I think the answer to that would be yes. Um, our intent has always been not to make money on this, but >> No. >> Yeah. We can't. >> Yeah. So, I think as they're

113I think what's nice about tying it to the ADA amount that they receive is that as they receive additional dollars, we would then increase that that fee and that charge. Um, so I would expect it would increase over time. >> Okay. And then just I don't know just my usual comment which is as we look at the money that we have to send back to the state it is now over 50% of what we get in property tax which is ridiculous when you look at the shortfall that we're looking at. It is almost exactly that amount of money that we're sending back to the state. So, is there any I'm not going to ask you about the political part of it, but is there any sort of cap on when this at what point the

114state says, "Well, we're not going to take 75% of it. We're Is there anything in place as a safety?" >> Not that I'm aware of. >> Good. Great. Wonderful. Okay. Thank you very much. >> Are there any other questions? Uh, no. Uh, Trusty Love Yes, thank you. Um, one question I had, if one of the trustees um, or all of them is in an uncontested election and ends up being appointed in lie of election, um, do does some portion of the 600,000 stay with the county office? >> Yeah, that's a good question. I don't know that. being like I remember seeing that that they can't charge us if we're not actually >> we don't have anybody >> they're not officially elections and nobody's being elected if they're pulled off the ballot. >> Yeah. And I

115think you know the same cycle four years ago the bill was like almost 800 something because there was so much on that that ballot that it's kind of a one what do we have on it and then what is on the overall ballot and the overall cost as well. So it can be a high cost. I would say what's nice is for the superintendent election, they don't charge us for that. So, it's really just the board member cost that they do charge us for. >> Okay. Hopefully, we'll see what happens on that. Um, I also want to just address the deficit spending um especially for ongoing expenses like staff. Um, I shared this in a survey that I'm not a fan of deficit deficit spending for ongoing expenses. I think it's dangerous. it's not necessarily

116responsible um budgeting and management and yet there's so many people that are in this new list. So I'm just expressing my concern about it. I feel like when we do have additional funds and if to invest those in things that are going to um provide dividends later on, you know, if it's equipment we need, whatever the things are or grants out to nonprofits, you know, that we can then stop. But it is very difficult. And then hiring staff without then making the hard choice. We're sort of saying, "Well, we want it all. We want to hire more people, but we don't want to make a hard choice." And saying, "But we're not going to do this anymore." So that money we're saving, we're going to move over. So I'm just expressing my thoughts here on

117that topic. No, I I appreciate that because um when times are different, we're not in that, but when times are different, and many our districts are, they don't have the same reserves that we have. Those are the harder conversations about what aren't we going to be able to do. And um so what I do like the fact that we've documented this now is as and if that ever comes in the future, we can talk these are the things that we brought on and then we can talk about priorities, which is also the harder part on our strategic plan. we did great, you know, adding all those stuff that are on that list, but have we said, are the some of the things we're currently doing matching with the strategic plan and what we really want

118to be doing as an organization, or is it just something we've done for a long period of time? So, I guess there's some muscles here that we're going to have to start exercising that we just haven't had to historically. >> Could I just add one extra thing on that? Um, especially as we move to have a new superintendent, we're sort of tying that person's hands a little bit. Like you now get all this staff that we've all decided you have to have and now there's no more room in the budget really for you to explore other things without you then having to go and make the hard choice to get rid of all these people so you can do the things you want to do. So that's just another kind of wrinkle on that and

119I'm just expressing an opinion one. Thank you. Uh, Trusty Benini. >> Um, I just wanted to kind of tag on to that conversation in terms of um the strategic plan and when we're talking about um the the work that's being done, the the return if you will, how effective it is. I think um that's something we're talking about in our board discussions around measurable, you know, goals and things. And so hopefully, you know, when when it isn't a time when we have excess, you know, funds or not excess but we have reserves, um we're looking at that, right? Is it is it a program that is wellreceived? Is it, you know, so that we because those are budgetary conversations that um districts are having now and and and we're not. So we're just sort of

120like like Trusty Love said, we're just adding on. We're not taking anything away. Um, but I also wanted to point out the fact that some of the funds are being directed toward students and since um I've been on the board anyway, we've accumulated an additional approximately $25 million in our fund 17. So, I'm okay with those types of funds being spent on students. And I think we need to do probably a little bit more of that probably for for our our programs. So, not right now, but maybe later. Okay. Thanks. >> Are there any other comments or questions from the board? Uh, Trusty O'Neal. >> Um, I was looking here on page five and there's the expenditures combined, unrestricted and restricted. Um, I mean, I've looked at a lot of budgets through the years, you

121know, both local school district, city council, board of supervisors, etc., And it seems kind of odd to me that if you combine the certificated and classified salaries, it's $21 million roughly. And then if you management salaries is $18 million, which is and that's roughly 85% of the cert of the of the staff salaries are paid to management. Did you understand my what I'm saying? >> I think so. I mean, >> yeah, >> where that usually shows up is like in a school district, typically teachers are 50% of a budget and typically your classified are about 20%. Right. >> And then your benefits are about 20 25%. Management typically is about 5 to 10. Yeah. >> It's different here because a lot of the work we do is different. Um, we have a lot of people

122that are doing in like in my area fiscal oversight of school districts where we're actually getting involved um kind of at a higher management level to just do work that looks differently, but it does look differently um at a county office of ed management salaries tend to be a much higher percentage of the budget than you see in school districts. >> Okay. So you're you're referring looking at this is because of the higher level of experience the people here need than maybe in the local school district. >> Yeah. I mean overall our our student programs are are relatively small in comparison to what a school district does, right? But the overall breadth of oversight um support that we provide to education to educators, it's just a different type of work and that often is done

123through management positions. >> Okay. Thank you. >> Are there any other questions or comments? Uh Trusty Aras, >> thank you. Well, first of all, again, uh just thank you for this uh all of the work that goes into presenting this report and and um helping us understand better the budget. Um one comment that I have is uh when you talked about the you know determining the facilities improvement budget, I'm very appreciative that you're including teachers and others who are actually going to be using it and that they've seen the needs and um what is it? um that their facilities are needing in the moment or in the future how they look at and so I was happy to hear that you're the way that is planned is that it's going to be presented and they're

124going to be involved in the decisions that has that's that's going to be made in uh in those improvements in the facilities. So um that was just my comment. So thank you very much for that. Thank you. that you know furniture is one of the things that makes such an impact to education and delivery and I'm hopeful that potentially in this we have some options because the facility master plan already was working on standards for classroom furniture. So we'll have to see how that plays out. But things like that where you get input of can make a real big difference on a on a student's learning. >> And if I just can say I think it's it's different when we go and visit one day and like we kind of uh kind of estimate or

125think or analyze this might be needed here rather than when you're every single day there as you know our teachers or other professionals are. Uh it makes a huge difference. So thank you. Yeah. Um, Superintendent Chavez. >> Yes. I know we're not approving the budget today, but I also I do want to express gratitude and appreciation to Deputy Superintendent Bolta, uh, Executive Director Mano and the B business services team. This is a new process, as you know, that we've engaged in in developing the budget for this year. A more comprehensive that at least from the feedback than before. Um, and so they've really have taken on a bigger lift, but with a smile and with grace and and also I appreciate the the feedback from the board and the conversations we've had. Is it perfect?

126Not quite yet. There's still some room to grow, but I do appreciate the the collaborative effort in in getting it to this point. So, thank you. >> Um, are there any uh questions from the public? >> I see none. No raised hands. >> Well, again, thank you for uh your you and your team. Um in all the years I've been on the board, uh we've never had this much information ever. uh and the clarity um that you've given us is so helpful and uh I I think it's been needed for a long time but we just it takes a lot of work and uh so thank you thank you thank you again for all you've done. Um, item 6B, the public hearing on the Sanonteo County Office of Education's 2026, uh, 2027 proposed budget is

127now open. Would anyone one like to speak on this issue? Uh, the hearing is now closed. Office of the Superintendent. Superintendent's comments. Superintendent Shavees, do you have any comments to share? >> I do have a couple. Thank you. Um, Vice President Gerard, uh, first want to, as we close this school year, I want to acknowledge and give gratitude to all the staff members, the teachers that work with our students and have gotten them to this point. Um, and I also want to extend congratulations to the students that graduated this school year, specifically our own students for our SMCE programs. Um, several of you attended some of the graduations. I did as well. It was very inspiring and um and emotional at some at some moments to to see our our graduates um complete this step

128in their journey and to hear you know their where they're going. So um thank you for attending those graduations and yeah big kudos and congratulations to the staff and the students and the families um to getting students to this point. Then yesterday um we had our United for Youth celebration here at SMCE and it was an opportunity to hear the four grantees that received um Measure K funds to implement uh programs related to um students u mental health and we heard presentations from Ravenswood, Seoia Union High School District, Redwood City and Jefferson Elementary and a big takeaway away for me from the from the presentations was the normalization of mental well-being that that is the goal and it made me reflect uh on my cultural upbringing that sometimes mental health is not something that we

129look toward and um looking to get resources in that space because of for cultural reasons but I think we need to normalize it and the work that the these um grantees are doing really is focused focusing on the students well-being. They're including student voice um in developing these programs. They're including students um in the implementation or youth in the implementation of these programs. Um as well as data to drive the um these programs. Um and a takeaway also was that it was not as well attended as we would have liked. So I invited our presenters to um looking at opportunities in this this fall to bring those presentations to other venues because the work that they are doing is so important and a lot all of them had very specific nuggets of excellence and success

130that I think could be easily replicated and and most importantly is in benefit of youth. So, um, that is a it was a great event and really enjoyed listening to to these programs. That's all I have. >> Thank you. >> Board members comments. Um, item 8A, the board will discuss and act on the recommendation of the superintendent salaries subcomi committee. Would any members of the board subcommittee like to make any comments or ask any questions? >> No. Yes. >> Go ahead. >> No, you can. You >> Huh? >> You were on the sub. >> Yes, I was. >> Yeah, you can make comment. >> Well, um I will make a comment. Um we worked with um uh Kevin Bolta and his team on coming up with the uh amount of the uh superintendent salary. And

131it was done with a comparison of superintendent in our grade four uh category. And um we also went with the um uh system of the county office and it was came out to a level three. So uh it wasn't something that was taken off the top of our heads. Uh a lot of time and effort and study went into the process. Are there any questions? >> Yes. I just wanted to clarify that level three was for the current superintendent, Marco, given his experience, etc. The new superintendent that's still being determined would be starting at step one. >> Yes. >> Okay. I just want to be sure that was clear. Thanks. >> Yes. Um, so, uh, do, uh, is there a motion to approve the super >> vice president? >> I'm sorry. We have Miss Alvaro.

132>> Uh, Trusty Alvaro. >> Thank you. I just wanted to comment that I really appreciate the idea of steps one through five based for experience. We This is something we've wrestled with in different ways for a very long time and I think that's a really clean way of doing it. So, I do appreciate that. >> Thank you. It was very helpful quite frankly. Um, is there a motion to Oh, pardon me. >> Oh. Uh, is there any public comment? >> I don't see any raised hands. >> No raised hands. >> Um, is there a motion to approve the superintendent salary as proposed? There is a motion to approve the superintendent salary as proposed made by uh trustee love and seconded by trustee O'Neal. Is there any further discussion? May I have a roll call vote?

133>> Miss Alvaro, >> I. >> Miss Aras, >> I. >> Miss Benini, >> I. >> Miss Gerard, >> I. >> Miss Love I. >> Mr. O'Neal. >> Hi. >> The motion passes with a vote of 6 and the board has voted uh to pass the motion for the superintendent salary. Item 8B. Superintendent Chavez will provide information on the Sonteo County Board of Education's candidate policy form, including resolution number 26-35 calling for an election to be held on November 3rd, 2026 for the election of three members of the governing board, which have been completed in accordance with board policy 9220. Superintendent Chavez. Thank you, Vice President Gerard. So, yes, in your packets, you have um these documents that are needed for calling for the election on November 3rd. Um and these um the the elections for

134the three members to the governing board and the documents include that uh candidate policy form as well as resolution 2635. Um, and so the the items were completed in accordance with board policy 9220. >> Um, are there any comments or questions from the board? >> Are there any comments or questions from the public? >> Uh, no comments from the public. >> Is there a motion to approve the candidate policy form, including resolution number 26-35? Is there a second? >> Second. >> There is a motion to approve the candidate policy forum including resolution number 25 uh 26-35 made by trustee O'Neal and a second by uh Trustee Love. Is there any further discussion? May I have a roll call vote, please? >> Miss Alvaro. >> I. Miss Aries. I >> Miss Panini >> I >> Miss

135Gerard I >> Miss Love >> I >> Mr. Mr. O'Neal. >> I >> The motion passes with a vote of 6 and the candidate policy form including resolution number 26-35 has been approved. For item 8 C, when an ad hoc subcommittee meets a or a representative attends a meeting related to their given assignment, board members may choose to bring a report to the board at this time. Would any board member like to report out? >> Trusty Love. >> Thank you. I actually had two reports. Um first one is the policy subcommittee. Uh we had a meeting on June 8th. Uh we reviewed um some policies that um we previously um had looked at, but we should bring about six um forward to the meeting on June 24th. And we are going to this summer kind

136of do a real look at the charter school policies. There's been some new policies from CSBA and um it's time for us to do that and work on a new handbook and Deputy County Attorney Cho is going to take the lead on that. The advoc advocacy subcommittee met on June 10th and reviewed a few items. Um I'm just going to give a couple here. We went over uh the legislation updates. There are several bills that we had supported. Many of them have moved on to the other chamber. So, we would just go back and support them again. And um we received an update from the legislative analyst's office about the study that um Senator Becker had uh requested on our behalf and I think we are at a better place with what is expected of

137that and we hope to see it at the end of the summer and then hopefully bring together the task force to talk about it in September or October. And then finally, we spent time working on our outreach toolkit and schedule. And that is um something we talked about at the governance committee, but that is giving everybody on the board kind of a slides and the report to the community um that they can use to go out and talk to school districts and maybe to city council and um other things you might need for that. So that's it. >> Thank you, Trusty. Alvaro, did you Oh, thank you. Yeah, I thought I I out of the corner of my eye, I thought you raised your hand. Yes. >> I just wanted to report um first of

138all, also being on the policy subcommittee, I just really need to thank Patricia for her leadership because that is a big job and um I've been on that committee for a while. So, thank you very much, Patricia, for your leadership on that one. On the outdoor ed part of things, our outdoor ed subcommittee did meet and talked about the building plans and the requests for more money and just the whole out the whole idea of what's going on up at Jones Gulch. And we went back and Lisa Cho was with us too. Thank uh I was grateful for that. We went back and you know we looked at the contracts we looked at some ideas and um one of the things is that there's supposedly a a group meeting these kind of things fell apart

139you know during co but supposedly we're meeting as a group annually with one representative from the committee and some other people you know our superintendent and u so we're going to have a meeting um it'll be our superintendent Chavez It'll be Deputy Superintendent Baltimore and me and we're going to meet with some of the people from the Y uh probably next week. We're kind of struggling to put together a dates and just kind of hammer out where it is we're going with all of this and then we'll be able to, you know, bring it back to the whole subcommittee and have some discussion and bring it back to the board. So, that's what we're doing. It's not that we're not that we're dormant. is that there's just a whole lot going on behind the scenes

140to try to to get the these buildings built for our staff. >> Thank you very much. >> Uh Trusty Benini, >> um I am going to report out um as one of the liazison for the SULPA. Um so I attended the SULPA governing board meeting yesterday. Um and they uh there was discussion of um what they've been preparing as a a draft of anou that the districts might uh choose to use. It's optional. Um and it's in the stage of input right now. Um so uh it it's not uh approved yet or finalized I should say. So they there was some discussion about that which was very interesting. Um and then the governing board uh approved the plan and the services and the um budget for the SULPA for the coming year. So um that

141was completed. And then um I wanted to just share um given that um we have Superintendent Chavez with us and we're happy he's here and we've approved this you know new new um salary and all um that there was there were so many very wonderful comments about um superintendent at the meeting. Um so I just took a couple notes of them. I was recording them as I was sitting there. But just in terms of um him moving into the role, but also supporting in that role for special education for the SULPA. Um the comments were really uh how graciously he stepped up. Um how responsive he is, how he's solution focused, how he can be counted on no matter what, his integrity, his ethics, his decisiveness. And the one that um I took away I

142think it might have been from Superintendent Zer was um that she appreciates him as a human because he's been very very present. So thank you. Thank you. >> Thank you. Are there any questions or comments? Uh are there any questions or comments from the public? >> I don't see any raised hands. >> Thank you. And there's no action to take on this item. Um for item 8D, board members will comment. I'll start with Trusty Alvaro. >> Okay. Thanks. Uh I don't have much more to say. I just I did attend the um Capital Advisors budget uh on which they do online which I'm really grateful for. And um it it it's pretty disturbing. I mean, they're they're such pros and they know what they're talking about and they they're able to break things down and

143parse things in a way that all of us can understand. And there were a couple things that really bothered me. you know, the this 4.31% Super COLA, which may come down uh based on the legislature, but we're supposed to use it for the new up to 14 week pregnancy leave substitutes, which is a dangerous precedent. I mean, that's a great new law about the 14-week pregnancy leave, but the precedent of requiring us to use our COLA to backfund a particular program that they're not they're passing the law and they're not putting any money in and the basic aid districts who don't get COLA at all. So, there's just some really strange things in there. and uh also wanting to move state preschool into the Prop 98 bucket which they're already short funding us on and

144they may move child care in there as well. So there'll be no rebenching for new costs. So if there's increases when when there's increases in costs for preschool or child care costs, we just eat it. School districts just eat it. And those are just some really aside from the nonsense with Prop 98 juggling, there's just some very strange things going on with the budget that um I'm very concerned with. But I it it really also makes me appreciate so much um Deputy Superintendent Boltma and his team because you know I've managed budgets for businesses where you know what your income is and you can basically control that. you know what your outgo is and you can basically control that. But here we have so many other boomerangs that are coming in from the state and

145coming in from the feds and we can't control those and I I just have so much admiration for the team that is able to keep us on an even keel. So that's all I have. >> Thank you Trusty Aras. >> Yes. Um well I want to say that um I was very happy to attend the graduations because it's my second second year attending. because that's I I think I don't know the previous graduations from this year from last year's total improvement of how I saw the representation of the you know the way that they were celebrated and then also so I attended the special services the hill crest on May 27 but gateway Kenyan oaks graduation June 3rd here in the office uh Sato County office it just felt to me that you know the

146importance that was given to them that they were graduating. It felt like you're coming to a venue, you know, specifically for them very nicely decorated and um just I heard also the opportunity of staff within the building to be able to go downstairs and join. So that really it made me really happy to be able to to attend and to see families and and teachers talking to each other, staff, all of us, you know, just really uh being able to to celebrate the students. Um again, it's always about the students and the families. So with that said, I also want to say that I missed I definitely missed uh United for Youth. I had come before, but I missed it because I was um I was at camp and I see Tammy is here. Um

147wondering if she's missing something over there, but uh uh Monday and Tuesday I was at the lounge um uh by Samato County Office of Ed um program where they stay for five days inviting districts to send there were there was even one superintendent. There was teachers, student services, pair educators. We had Jose from uh Kenyan Oaks um and many other people. But the most important thing that I saw it was the students. There were oh let me see eight students, nine students uh high school students who some of them were I think five of them were graduating. So, um, but they were the the boys of the youth in this case throughout Sato County, different different high schools. It wasn't one specific um was represented. it was represented and they facilitated it and um I

148I I felt that I wrote some of I was going to talk too much but uh um I think the districts really that participated were there really gathered to learn and find strategies for themsel as educators but um it trickles down to their students too and to do self-care for themselves and their students. So um the students voice was present every day and the interaction really made a difference because the youth they were helping us adults learn what they needed and how we saw how they were capable of doing so much given the opportunity. So they were given the opportunity to facilitate. They did ice breakers. They did presentations. They did um all the activities that were present and then they also I brought my little name tag. They would give us a a little

149um pin if you participated and if they engaged with you, they had their pins so they would give you one. And so it just felt um the reverse of seeing the students being the boys. And Chris continued to set so many times that you know that the students were not there for us to like um finding questioning them or finding ways to support them. It was for us to be sitting there as learners and letting them be the facilitators and letting them express um their needs and their abilities to to really organize. they organized so many of the the activities and and the presentations and we had two presenters Dr. Lori Watson and Anne Childers who talked about race and disabilities. So those two topics are topics that so many times we don't we don't

150have the time or we didn't speak too much about it in a way that they were talking about how do we disrupt what we're seeing in the outcomes of so many students of uh in our um schools students of color right and we know it but what are we doing to make sure that it doesn't continue to happen that they're uh so many times at the bottom of the like uh you know school accountability report art or other other places. So that was very to me I think is is very important and the experience of those two days out of the five. So I just came last night because I stay all the at the end till the s'mores were given. Um and then I drove back my two hours. Um but the experience really

151was the interaction between youth and adult. It was they were having, you know, lunch, breakfast, playing games. They were doing just conversations about, you know, what they were going to do after school. Like I said, there were five who graduated from high school. We were talking about college um um plans and the care that they show for each other. There were times where I was, you know, because there were teams that came from districts. I was myself there. Um and so youth would come and say like oh can I sit with you? You know it just like I don't know um and then the topics that that we're talking about you know there were diffic difficult topics but they bring it to the space and and it was it was a space where you could

152disclose you know disclose sometimes even about yourself. Some adults were disclosing about like things and difficulties and challenges and the youth were listening and interacting in a way that I feel like that's what we need in our schools, you know, that's what we need in our spaces in education. And so that's what I saw. So I really want to say the lounge really gives that hope to public education and I really want to advocate to continue funding. I'm not sure how is it funded or you know but I really want to say that what I saw is making a difference because there was a lot of returning returning educators and um other staff. So really uh also supporting districts that might not be able to pay to participate for their staff will be important. But

153um I cannot express enough that you know we talked about the supports that employee and students need. Well, this is a way to support them. You know, those five days that they're there. Um, it's kind of like a recharging to be ready for the next school year because there's opportunities not just of, you know, the the training, the strategies, but it's also at the end of the day is this being in community with people who are caring for each other very intentional. So um the students voice I cannot say enough uh how important it was to see them and I wish that we could include them in everything that we do within our education. So yeah just that's my report. >> Thank you >> Trusty Love. >> Uh thank you. I want to thank Deputy

154Superintendent Ultima and Executive Director Mano who's no longer here and the team for all of their work. Fabulous as always. and appreciate your patience with our questions and such. Um, I want to thank Director Sarah Notch and for her time. She's feels like she's here more than we are um at these board meetings. So, thank you for everything. It's very helpful. And I wanted to welcome Dr. Sneed to her new role um so we'll just have to do that next time. And I was at for youth a grant impact celebration. It was phenomenal. Well, I wrote down notes that I was going to share with everybody, but we're not going to do that. Um, a lot of great takeaways from that event and um, happy to share that with anybody who wants to know. And

155then the graduations were wonderful. Um, and I think that one of the best things was this year I had the chance to really talk to a lot of students at Hillrest and they were excited about getting to go do a class at Sky at um, Sky. What am I saying? SK Sky Skylines. Yeah. And um things are doing this summer. So there's a lot of hope and looking forward and confidence and such. So thanks to our staff that have helped make that happen. Thanks >> justini. Okay. Um so I just have a well I have a few things. Um, I wanted to start off with just a request that um that maybe we could have an update sometime before the start of the school year about um how we're going to reach out to our

156students potentially to have a board uh student board member in the coming year. We probably are working on this, but I haven't heard heard about it. So, I just wanted to it was on top of my list. >> I'll add it to the weekly update. >> Thank you. Um and then I wanted to um well, it's been a busy couple of weeks. Um I wanted to first start with um on the 26th I attended the JJDPC's meeting. Um I want to thank Sarah for being there um for attending and giving an update while she was doing the preparations for the graduation. So she was in transit and um but present and sharing you know that Dr. Jimenez would be um you know attending going forward. Um, and just on that note, um, I'll I'll share

157a little bit about the graduations I was able to attend, but, um, uh, the work of the staff and I think Sarah, um, at Gateway in preparing, you know, the flowers for the Hillrest graduation, which they were lovely. I heard that you saw photos because, um, we aren't allowed to have our cameras there, but but some people are. So, um, I think Chris took pictures or someone. Um, but they were lovely. So, I just want to thank you Sarah for that because it was really nice. Um, and then let's see. Um then I attended I think all of the graduations but the the Elportal Hillrest Gateway they were all just really um just so nice and really just lovely to see the culmination with the students and the joy and the families and the flowers

158you know that the students give to their loved ones and it's just it's really special. So um that was wonderful. And then um I also for the first time was able to go to the Oxford Day Academy graduation um with Trusty Torres and Trust Trusty Gerard. And that was um it was really really nice. Uh, of course it was a farewell um for um for Miss Bennett as she was sharing her words and I was crying while she was talking because it was just very emotional. But she was talking about um dreams. That was her theme and carrying dreams and and how impactful they are. Um that anyone can just declare a dream like I'm going to do this. Um but really bringing it to fruition is a whole another thing. And so there were

159a lot of um ad lots of advice given on how students can kind of carry that forward into whatever they're doing next. You know, making sure they were knew everybody was there to support them similar to our graduations. Um and that they should ask for help and that they should be kind to themselves and a lot of self-care. Um but it was it was just it was really lovely. Um, so I think that's all the graduations. And then I I just wanted to also share that um I attended um I just decided I looked at the list of things that are going on at the county office and I just said, "Oh, I'm going to register for the UPK uh leadership institute, the universal prek, and I just went and it was that curiosity." And

160um I had a chance to talk to a lot of actually some of the attendees of a lot of TK uh teachers and leaders and a lot of um even our Kent Award recipients were at my table and it was really nice. Um but I wanted to just share how the the messages there aligned with the um the United for Youth messaging and the work that's going on. Um the keynote speaker was Pauly Yu and it was a lot of um her presentation was about trauma-informed practices and being self-aware and the fact that um what we we know very well that if staff are not well they can't share that wellness with students and the thing I took away from her um talking about that was how we have to co-regulate and um the students

161and the and the um sorry and the staff or the teachers and the the students and it was very personal to me because that's what I do with my child every day and I have since he was little since you know we have these mirror neurons and you have to be calm to induce calm in others and so taking care of how you show up is is really important and so the the thing I took away from it was that um this the statistic was that you have to have about hundreds of times of this co-regulation between a a child and a an adult perhaps like in that space before they can self-regulate. So these this is these are the things our teachers are doing and it was just that number was staggering to me.

162Um but it was it was impressive and again the focus also for the United for youth was you know a lot on priority three a lot on greater access for um uh treatment for services and for opportunities for students but there was a sincere focus as we had heard also at the safe and supportive schools um uh presentation earlier in the year on staff. So, a lot of focus on staff and students and wellness and so all of that um just brings you know the closure to the year just really it's really nice and also want to thank um our staff for the budget and the LCAP and all of that as well because that was amazing. Okay, that's it. Thanks Trusty O'Neal. Mine is boring, but I attended all the graduate three out of

163the four graduations and also the budget meeting the board had. Um, one issue I also attended the Jefferson High School District um, staff housing board of directors meeting. And one of the main goals that they did that was to try to have staff save the money to buy a house. And we had our second staff member from the savings in there be able to buy a house. And that was really kind of like a success. Okay, it's at 99% occupancy because and there was teachers that when they had offers of two different districts and they chose Jefferson because of the housing and so they were able to get they reserved five housing units for new hires every year and they were able to have five math teachers this year. just coincidentally it was math year.

164One year was special ed year, you know, and stuff. But it was just exciting to see that they had, you know, a second staff member be able to buy a house through the program. And where the housing subcommittee is going to meet tomorrow and the reason that both these people were able to buy a house was by going to the home buyer program for schools first credit union. And I want to talk to our subcommittee about doing a presentation here for the staff on because it was like three or four year program what you need to do to buy a house and save for a house. So we'll talk about that tomorrow. Other than that, that was it. The pier's falling down in Pacifica. Sarah can watch it from her house. >> It's really sad.

165It's It's really sad to see. >> Very sad. Um well, I won't keep you much longer. I just want to say how much I enjoyed all of the graduations and I think I hit all of them, including Oxford Day Academy. And that's one that I have been the only board member that has attended that for a number of years. So, it's kind of nice when they know me and they say, "Oh, good. You came again." Uh, it's a nice feeling, but all the graduations were exceptional. Um, and the work that went into them to make them special and the kids feel special was wonderful. And I want to thank you and everybody else that was involved in that. Um, it was it's people kept saying to me, "This is what we wait for." And that's

166really true. This is what the whole year is about are those graduations and seeing those successes and not only on the kids that are graduating but they bring other students in to see what hard work can do and that they can do it too. And so it's it's all about the success and and that's what we all want. Um, quickly, I will be attending this weekend the ACCBE um, board of directors and board representatives um, retreat up in Sacramento. So, I'll be going up Friday. It's Friday night and then all day Saturday. So, um, I'm looking forward to that and seeing uh, a lot of our fellow board members from all over the state as they'll be there. So, and we we have a a very full productive agenda planned. And with that, um I

167am going to adjourn this meeting. And the next regular meeting will take place on Wednesday, June 24th, 2026 at 7 p.m. And this meeting is adjourned. And I don't even have a gap. I went to look for it and I'm like, "Oh no." >> Right. >> Good night everybody. >> Good night. You did >> in the box. I must have started. I'm sorry. >> Oh, that's all right. I'll probably live. >> Oh, I want these. I want to get put this over here. Oh my gosh. Happy best.