2026-02-04 Board Meeting

001The February 4th, 2026 meeting of the Sonteo County Board of Education will come to order. As is our practice, this meeting will be recorded. I note that Marco Chavez, Deputy Superintendent, Educational Services Division, is attending on behalf of Superintendent McGee this evening. Thank you. Um, the board provides remote access for members of the public and welcomes community members joining in person and remotely. The board is following the requirements of Senate Bill SB707, which enables remote participation by board members only under specific circumstances. We use simultaneous interpretation in Spanish for those attending virtually through the end of public comment. Translation will continue further into the meeting if people are utilizing the channel. Thank you to our interpreters, Anna Cruz and Kimberly Ldios, for joining us remotely. For meeting attendees wishing to access the Spanish translation channel

002on Zoom, please click on the interpretation button on the menu bar and that 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? >> So second. >> Thank you. There's a motion to approve the agenda made by Trusty O'Neal and a second by Trusty Gerard. Is there any further discussion? All those in favor say I. >> I. >> All those opposed say no. The motion passes with a vote of 70. And the agenda for tonight's meeting has been approved. Item two is public comment. Guidelines for public comment are available on the SMCE website and in board docs and on the table outside the boardroom in both English and in Spanish. For speakers who require Spanish interpretation,

003our interpreters, Miss Cruz and Miss Larios, will interpret following each speaker's comments. At this time, members of the public may provide comment for topics that are not included on the approved 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 matters raised in this forum to the superintendent for investigation and or action where appropriate. Uh, Deputy Superintendent Chavez, do we have any comments submitted prior to the meeting for topics not on the approved agenda? >> No. items were submitted. >> Awesome. Thank you. Uh speakers are invited to make live comment and will have three minutes to speak. Please make sure to keep within the time limits. To make a comment

004over 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 Deputy Superintendent Chavez. Uh, Deputy 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 don't see any raised hands at the moment. >> Thank you. Members of the public may also provide live comment in person. Um, Deputy Superintendent Chavez, are there any submitted cards for topics not on the agenda? Oh, sorry. I think that's a choice. >> No cards were submitted. Thank you. A public comment addressing a specific agenda item will be heard after the board's discussion on the item.

005Um, if members of the public wish to speak to a specific agenda item, then please use the raise hand feature when the item is announced or if in person, submit a card in advance of the item. Cards can be found on the table outside of the boardroom and given to a staff member when completed. Item 3A is the January 2026 employee of the month, George Remit, teacher, multiple disabilities, orthopedic impairments, special services, educational services division. Will George please join me in the middle of the room? Hey, I saw you taking your photos outside, so great. So, each month the board and the superintendent recognize an employee for providing outstanding service. For the month of January 2026, we recognize George Remed, teacher, multiple disabilities, Orthopedic Impairment, Special Services, Educational Services Division. George joined the county office

006in January of 2006 as an RSP teacher. From 2006 through 2025, he served as a teacher of math, science, social, and social studies. And after a long tenure with the court and community schools, George is new to the K through22 program, currently serving in a classroom with severely orthopedically disabled, non-verbal high school age students. From day one, his classroom was set up for optimal instruction. He spent the first few weeks of school taking time to get to know the staff, the students, and families, and fully embraced a new curriculum, which he modified for every student. One aspect of his curriculum is a cooking program where each student has a communication device designed for their individual needs and there are switches and large but buttons hooked up to the cooking equipment and watering cans and students

007can answer questions and initiate conversations. Every student participates in each phase of the lesson regardless of their level of mobility. And one student activates the can opener by operating an adapted switch with her tongue to open a can of peaches. Another student uses a switch hooked up to a picture of water to measure out a cup of liquid. And for George, the lesson is not complete until every student participates. And this is just one heartwarming example of his creativity and ingenuity. So George is one of the first teachers to arrive in the morning and one of the last to leave in the afternoon. He is in front of the students from the beginning until the very end of the day. And in his classroom, everyone has smiles on their faces and students are fully engaged

008in their activities. So, everyone is clearly having fun, laughing and working hard. He teaches with proper voice tone and flexion, is incredibly animated, and effortlessly makes learning fun for his students. I wish I was in your class, but according I will. I promise. According to his team, George is dedicated, passionate, creative, patient, adaptable, and calm. He maintains a structured classroom environment, modeling strong communication, kindness, empathy, and exceptional organizational skills. He collaborates effectively with classroom para educators, school nurses, and staff to create consistent support systems. George is resourceful and seeks to expose his students to various subjects, current events, and community- based learning opportunities to help them reach their full potential. In summary, George is amazing and a model teacher. So, we are proud of our county office staff and are pleased to recognize George for

009his outstanding work. Congratulations to George for being named employee of the month for 2026 of Janu. >> Would you like to say a few words? >> Uh, yes I may. Um, good evening board president Torres, members of the board and audience and deputy superintendent Chavez and hopefully Superintendent Nancy as well. Um, greetings and u for Superintendent Nancy McGee uh sending my heart well thoughts and prayers. I know you supported me in all my time here at Canyon Oaks and and prior to that. So, thank you and wishing you full recovery. Um so going ahead um um got my mom 94 next month and my father-in-law is 90 and my sister Rachel and my wife who's a teacher at an Campbell Center. So awesome job. So um being here um I am very honored to receive

010this um employee of the month. It it means a lot. Um, I'll be honest, I was very surprised um that I I won this award. It's my third time. So, it's like, you know, I mean, a lot of dedicated people that work in this county, but I wouldn't be here um without these people. Um the first is always my wife, Mary Al Remed. Um she's always been supported. And someone's asked, who's the better special ed teacher? Um, when I first met my wife, I was starting out. Midell was like a bit of the o OG. So, um, she's the better special ed teacher, just to put that to rest. Okay. Um, much gratitude um, goes when I made decision to, uh, transfer Canyon Oaks. I appreciate Sarah Notch, uh, Chris Sha, and Dr. Jusa Mendes

011for supporting the change, and I'm glad Dr. men has followed me to uh student services division. You're doing a great job. So, I just want to let you know that. Um and also um I want to thank um the people there um at Canyon Oaks, the BHR team, my past per Jose, and I know he's holding down the fort there along with Misty uh the new teacher there. So, thank you again. And I want to say um at PAL's Verde um I really appreciate the support especially my fellow teachers there Mary and Debbie who have been welcome and inclusive and for like uh our psychologist T um Tracy and school nurse Greg. And of course I want to thank um the parents of my students. you they have been very supportive and they express so

012much gratitude that it really keeps me wanting to strive to do better for their um kids as well. But when I look at this award um I want to dedicate it to my staff, my parent educators. I know in the past I've had um Carrie and Rhonda come through and got new ones, Edith and Peter here. and of course the ones who helped me when I first came in and I learned a lot from them. So, thank you Amy, Don, Mark, and Sylvia. So, when I look at this award, I think about you guys. With regards to my program, um I strive to develop my students communication. Um if they are able to communicate better, they are more independent. Yes, my students may not speak, but I feel they still have a voice. And so,

013um, I want again, thank you, the board of education. It means a lot to me. And thank you everybody. Moving on to item 4 amentors. >> Oh yes, there is a hand up. Um I don't know if we are beyond that part of the agenda online. >> Oh okay. You want to acknowledge it? Okay. Um, Jack Torres, um, you're welcome to speak. >> Oh, can you hear us now? >> Yes. >> Oh, hello. I am Danielle Torres and I am Jack Torres's mom. Troy and I are here and we're listening and we're watching this and we just wanted to say how much we love George. >> Congratulations, George. >> Thank you, George, for everything you do. Jack comes home every day so happy. And when I've gone down there and seen you guys, you're a

014kick. You really get those kids in a great mood. So, we just want to thank you. And Jack is here and Jack's been listening and smiling away. So, thank you, George. Huh? Can you unmute and you may speak? Jack. >> Oh, we're done. Sorry. >> Great. Thank you. >> Thank you. >> Out of all my times doing these and being on the board, I think this is the first time we have like a parent uh chime in. So, I think that speaks volumes to your leadership and it's amazing and they have a beautiful last name, too. >> Thank you. >> Um, moving on to item 4 A. Um, we have the minutes of the special board meeting. Is there a motion to approve the minutes of the December 15th um, 2025 special board meeting as

015presented? >> So, move. >> Second. >> Thank you. Uh there's a motion to approve the minutes of the December 15, 2025 special board meeting made by Trusty O'Neal and a second by Trusty Alvaro. Is there any further discussion? All those in favor say I. >> I. >> All those opposed say no. The motion passes with the vote of 70 and the minutes of the December 15, 2025 special board meeting have been approved. For item 4 B, is there a motion to approve the minutes of the December 17th, 2025 regular board meeting as presented? >> So move. >> Is there a second? Thank you. There's a motion to approve the minutes of the December 17, 2025 regular board meeting made by Trusty Gerard and a second by Trusty O'Neal. Is there any further discussion? All those

016in favor say I. >> I. All those opposed say no. The motion passes with a vote of 70 and the minutes of the December 17, 2025 regular board meeting have been approved. Um, for item 4 C, is there a motion to approve the minutes of the January 14, 2026 regular board meeting as presented? Is there a second? >> Second. >> Thank you. There is a motion to approve the minutes of the January 14th, 2026 regular board meeting made by Trustee Love and a second by Trustee Adas. Is there any further discussion? All those in favor say I. I. >> All those opposed say no. The motion passes with a vote of 70 and the minutes of the January 14th, 2026 regular board meeting have been approved. Item five is the consent agenda. The consent agenda

017is not debatable and requires a uni 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? >> Second. >> Thank you. There is a motion to approve the consent agenda made by Trusty O'Neal and a second by Trusty Alvaro. Is there any further discussion? All those in favor say I. >> I. I. >> All those opposed say no. The motion passes with a vote of 70 and the consent agenda has been approved. Um for item 6A, Jared Prolo, executive director, research and systems planning, will present the 2025 California assessment of student performance and progress, also known as

018our CASP, and the 2025 California school dashboard. >> Good evening, Board President Torres and members of the board. Um I'm happy to present the dashboard. Um it is not the normal time that we do this. There's been some other business that's gotten in the way, but uh one advantage is that about two weeks ago we finally had a complete dashboard um because things had been added to it. And so it's my pleasure to be able to present all of those things today. Um that includes an overview of the California school dashboard. The thing that was added two weeks ago is the growth model data. And this is the first time that California has reported that publicly. So we'll go over a little bit about that and then a few of my observations. the countywide trends.

019Um, just a little bit of an reminder about how the dashboard works. Uh, every indicator that the state uses is measured both on a status band of how students are performing uh, in the current most recent year, which for most of these indicators would be the 2425 school year. And then it's compared to how that's changed from prior years. Um, I have included some additional slides at the back of the presentation that was provided that has more detail as far as what exactly each of those measures are and which years they come from if you want to refer to that. Um it is assigned a color. Um typically it blue is the best green, yellow, orange and red. Uh showing the combined indicator of how students are groups are performing both in terms of status

020and their change um either positive or negative from the prior year. Uh the growth model is the new part. Um one of the things it's just for the ELA and math um assessments and it's it's reported on a different fivecolor band. um that has this sort of ordinal color system that is a little bit mixed up. The way that they're doing it is they're providing an expected growth score. So they take the prior two years of uh test scores for all the students across the state and they calculate what the sort of expected growth would be for the next year. Um and then individual student scores are compared to that growth target and and the growth target is associated with their score from the pre prior year. So um not all scores will have the

021same growth target um but it is um tailored sort of individually and then all of that growth is aggregated u to provide the sort of indicator of the sort of minimal moderate average advanced or um exceptional growth. Um the model there's there's many many many ways to do this. Uh and the model that California used which has been in debate at the CD uh at the SBE for probably about 2 or 3 years now um is really only designed to be valid at the um demographic level. It's not a t uh an indicator that's useful at all for individual students. Um the other thing that is uh about the California model, it doesn't take into consideration any factors beyond test scores. There is no demographic um influence or or anything else. just test scores. This

022is different than some other models that some of our uh trustees may be used to like the core districts that do take into account those sorts of uh demographic factors in terms of calculating what the expected growth would be. Um and then finally, we do have to recognize that California is one of the last states to implement growth model. Um almost every other state as part of their accountability system have uh some sort of aspect of expected growth as part of the accountability system and and we're one of the few that do not. Um just a little reminder on how we like to use this. Uh this is largecale summitive data. It takes place over an entire year. It's compared to some things that are happened three years ago. Uh these are aggregate scores. And

023so we really want to use this to generate questions. We're not going to find a lot of answers in this data. And so asking good questions is what we'd like to see. And so we might look at something like the uh sort of equity report here that shows where student groups land in in different bands and say like, "Oh, this school is in the green for English language arts. That's good." And then we look at that equity report in the bottom be like, "Wow, that's interesting. It looks like these student groups are having a very different experience at this school with many of them maybe being well served and some of them being less well served." Might ask, how are they experiencing school differently? Um, so one of the things about the charts is that

024the dashboard is intentionally designed not to be very um comparable or aggregable. They want you to look at one district or one school at a time in order to ask those good questions and drive inquiry. So I I try and be creative about how to aggregate the um data to show what overall trends might be. So So these charts, they're definitely vibes charts. like this isn't something to like dig down deep. It's sort of high level. Let's sort of get a sense of where the dots are sort of landing and and generally what's happening. Um I've plotted every single student group in every single district and school in the county. The size of the dot is the size of the student group. Um so this is all like the all students but also things like

025uh Hispanic, Latino, white, Asian students, um students with disabilities. Each of them are plotted on here. uh it is their actual status number and change on the English language arts assessment plotted on the two axis. The status being vertical, the change being horizontal. And then I put two guidelines to show sort of where the bottom of um the the standard met line is and then the sort of zero change line. And so we would like to see students more in the upper right hand quadrant where they're experiencing both positive change and um uh meeting standard or exceeding it. Um and you can see each of those where they kind of land in each of those four quadrants. The color is the same color that that the student group will appear on the dashboard. And so

026you kind of when reading these charts we want to get a sense of like okay where is the data clustered? Where is this sort of centered? What is the shape of it? And um for the ELA um as uh assessment it it's very centered is kind of it's it's kind of along that like right in the middle sort of thing. There is a little bit of separation where you see like a biodality of like a tighter cluster of students up in that middle blue range and then a tighter cluster of students down in that uh red uh range with little change. Um and that is that sort of separation that we sometimes see about how students are experiencing school differently. Um, and yeah, kind of get a sense of like what's going on there. The

027chart on the right is something I'm trying new. I'm not sure if it works or not. So, feedback welcome. Uh, it is the uh status last year on the left um traced to the status on the right. And the one thing I think is interesting about this one is that it does sort of show like if you look at the very top, those um very highest uh performing students are are actually in the green this year because they saw a decline. They saw a negative change from the prior year. Um and so kind of seeing where the lines are tracing. Are they kind of trending more up, more down? Um and just kind of again vibes as far as what the general uh effect is across the county. Um the ELA growth data kind of

028backs up what the chart says. It's kind of in the middle. Um we have most of the students almost like a normal distribution about um centered about uh me like medium growth. Um in that regard uh mathematics is a little more tightly clustered. Um again, um more centered around little growth, maybe a little bit sort of tilted towards the positive growth is is a little bit of how I would uh read this. And and that is kind of what I see from the trace on the right as well. It it it's kind of moves a little bit up more than it moves a little bit down just sort of as as a general reference. Um and the growth data actually shows even more than that that it it would indicate that um we are very

029much skewed towards um exceptional or um new enough I don't remember what the fourth indicator is called uh but on the higher end of the growth scale. Um, and so this is this is a really interesting chart in my mind because it's it's not usual that you would see growth data really sort of pushed towards one end or the other. And so seeing a lot of positive growth data is an interesting result. Um, science is also on the dashboard. Um, again the growth data and the science data is information only. It's not part of any of the accountability systems but it is included on the dashboard along with all of the other um, information that's on there. and our science data um which remember as a reminder is fifth, eighth and and high school um

030is um more scattered. It's less centered than some of the other things. We see a little bit more variability um in in the science assessment so far. We would kind of expect that in a way because this is a assessment that changes the entire group of students who take it every year because it happens only at those three times. It's an entirely different set of students every single year. So you would actually kind of expect to see a higher degree of variability. A chronic absenteeism is um something that I highlighted in the in the presentation last year where um if you recall last time we we talked about how countywide we saw a tremendous uh decrease in chronic absenteeism which was outstanding. And I I was sort of left to say like I am hoping

031that we we see this sort of thing continue because it is really difficult to sustain major improvements year after year after year. Um and um fortunately uh while the improvements are not as uh profound as they were last year, improvement did continue to happen. And so this number continues to to come down and with a lot of student groups um coming closer to that target uh performance level. There is still as you can see on the chart many student groups with very high chronic absenteeism rates but the bulk of those dots are getting pulled down um closer to uh where we would have target rates. Uh long-term English learner progress. This is the assessment that um shows how students are uh improving on the ELPAC. And so it's it's actually a three-year thing because it's

032comparing a change in two years to a change in a different two years. Um it's a little bit trickier to trace. It is reported both for English learners and for long-term English learners, students who have been uh designated as English learners for seven years or more in our school systems. Um, so they're both represented up here, which means it will be double counted because every single long-term English learner is also still an English learner for reporting purposes. Um, on this chart, you can see the largest groups are actually more towards that negative side. we see more dots and more weight over on the left hand side seeing um sort of a decline in change and and again that's a change in change um which is sometimes a little bit tricky to trace but um that

033is a little bit of um kind of negative data countywide that we see graduation rates in our county continue to be very very high for the most part with uh some student groups who are still at um significantly lower graduation rates than others. Um, and you can kind of see that that split that happens on this chart. Uh, suspension rate. Um, this is one area that we kind of saw a little bit of a um, loss of um, progress. And I I think this is one I thought this would happen with chronic absism. It more happened for suspension rate that it wasn't that suspension rate went up a lot. it's that we saw a lot of improvement and then we kind of held it which because you get rewarded for positive change if you then

034don't change you actually kind of slide back a column and so it's a little bit of what happened with suspension rate a college and career indicator which takes um into account the multi-dimensions of uh what is considered to be prepared for college and career um it's a complex indicator that that we do like to look at because it rewards a variety of ways of meeting it. Um I will say that in our county um a vast majority of students still meet it through the um assessment and A throughg completion um means and not some of the other alternative means that are available. Um but as you can see lots of blue, lots of green um especially the larger student groups in the county. So um this is generally uh positive uh information and a lot

035of positive change in this regard. Um this chart is aggregating all of the level changes for all of the student groups across the county. Um and so you can get at one glance kind of how is this year's dashboard compared to last year's dashboard. Um the changes are going to be small for the most part but we see positive and negative changes. our academic indicators are generally for almost every student group improving. Um we see that uh chronic absenteeism is is sort of in that mixed range which is actually again I think just fine because of huge increases in prior years or I shouldn't say increases huge improvements in prior years. Um and then we also see that suspension rate declining a little bit. Um the one thing I want to kind of call attention

036to is the difference between um CASP scores, dashboard indicators, and growth model. Because if we look at that math column, the math column is is improved, but it's it's not really substantial. And when we looked at the cast scores, it's also improved, but not really substantial. But the growth model really does suggest that there is substantial growth in mathematics across the county. And I think that's one of the things that we're going to have to look at. The growth model is two weeks old and so we don't have a lot of time. We haven't had a lot of time to really dig into how we can use that and and what we can do with it. But it is going to be one of those areas that we look into a lot in the future

037because when we see these different lenses on the same data and they're not telling us exactly the same thing, that's oftentimes a really nice place to gain additional insight as to what's actually going on. So, uh, just recapping the counterweight trends. I I think there's still continued improvement in chronic absism. Um, there's continued improvement in academic indicators. It's it's slow, but it's it's something that we're holding on to and continuing to build on, which is positive. Um, we maintained improvement in grad college career indicator. Um, there was an increase in suspension rate. Um, slight increase and, um, that was shown in the data. Um the growth data suggests a lot more math improvement than past measures have suggested which is um positive. Uh and then the last thing I'll highlight and this is something that

038doesn't appear until you dig in deeper is that we do still have a lot of technical issues making some of this data not as reliable um as we would like. Um some schools are still getting penalized for participation rate where the score that's being reported is not how the students are scored. it's artificially reduced because they're not meeting their required participation rates. Um, there are some aspects still of poor data keeping and reporting. Um, and it does make it a little bit trickier to rely on the data because it's it's not as clean or as as trustworthy as as we would like it. So that I'd be happy to take any questions. >> Are there any comments or questions from the board? Trusty Alvaro. >> Thank you. Thank you very much, Chard. Um I just

039want to wrap my head around something we've talked touched on in the past but of course everything changes. So which is that if there's a very small group uh a very small number of students in a particular group a movement of one student getting suspended once is going to be a major leap for that group. That's is that still true? Yeah, that is true. And and kind of just to remind the the break points are uh really affects um uh foster youth and and homeless students because the they can be as low as 15 and have their number reported. Um most student groups are at 30 and it still is a big impact there. Um California actually changes the method for the 5x5 dashboard. It's actually a 3x5 for student groups uh fewer than 150.

040So we really actually need about 150 students in a group to get that sort of stability level. >> Okay. And um so I'm a and are some of the students still getting counted in two separate groups? So again because they they have multiple demographics for that particular student. So if one student were to have one chronic susp chronic absenteeism or or one suspension or something or or something really good for that matter, it could really shift the the whole chart, right? >> Um that that is correct and and it is um in that like sort of 15 to 30 range. two or three. Um, usually it takes more than one student to make a drastic, but two or three and yeah, it could make a pretty significant difference. >> Okay, thank you. I'm just trying

041to get my head around all of it. Thank you very much, >> Trusty Le. >> Thank you. Um, thanks for that presentation. I feel like I have a lot more to learn about this new um, growth model. Um, two questions. Uh, one on long-term English uh, language learners. um what is your assessment of how uh those students are doing in our schools? I know that's a measure you've always said, keep your eye on that one. And and I I actually have maybe stepped that back a little bit because I really liked the old designation like the old categorization for long-term English learners because there used to be another term which was uh six plus years not long-term English learner. Um which was sort of confusing but what it meant was you did there it wasn't

042just have you been in um have you been designated an English learner for seven years. It was, have you been an English learner for this long? And are you not making progress on the ELPAC? And if you were making progress, you were taken out of that long-term English learner pool. Which is why I thought it was such a good indicator in the past because even though it was confusing to construct, it really told you exactly who was not being served by our ELD practices. Um, now that it's just that seven-year, it's actually not as it's not as helpful to me as a tool. Um, you know, they it was a requirement for us to sort of simplify it because the old system had weird business rules and a whole bunch of designations and was difficult

043to understand, but that sort of complexity made it um made it more useful to to us as practitioners. And so, um, I think it's still really interesting because we do want to say like we've been in receiving services for seven years. We would like to see, um, movement towards reclassification in English proficiency, but um, yeah, it the the sort of uh, promotion that I've done over the past, it's it's not as not as good as it once was. >> Thank you. Um, I do listen. So, the second question I think is probably the same thing I asked last year. So you look at the graduation rates and the college career ready and they're very very high, right? So you feel like this county is nailing it, right? Really great data. And then you sometimes see

044the, you know, the math and the science and the language arts and they don't look as impressive. So what's that story? Because you know, people get all depressed when they see those records and the kids, but large percentages of them are graduating and are college career ready. The college and career indicator was really um started kind of as a response to the the fact that graduation rate um hadn't had sort of lost some of its utility as a measure for how well we were preparing students and and the college of career indicator wanted to bring more aspects. Okay, well let's look at how they're doing on AP. Let's look how they're doing on A throughG completion. Let's look how they're doing on CTE course completion. um because there are more ways to meet that that

045standard which I think is really positive. Um it may not sync up with any one of the other assessments because it is using different data sources. Um which I think is is a positive thing. Um also one of the things that happens is the the actual criteria and cut scores are if if we're really being honest they're they're chosen based off of statewide performance. Um, which is why the if you look at the percent uh um I'm sorry the cut ranges for mathematics they're actually lower than the cut ranges for English language arts because statewide the performance on mathematics is a little bit lower. Um so there is some aspect of that where our um our expectations for college and career readiness um the percentage is quite a bit lower than grad rate and um

046maybe lower than what we would actually want for our students. So, I think that's the next step of it is like is not just, oh, color is green, color is blue, we're happy. It's that like like let's look at these numbers and is this the outcomes that we want for our students? Other comments or questions from the board? Trusty Benini, thank you for the presentation. I have two questions around the um the growth model. one is um there are certain um dots and things where you're showing there is and and also on the chart where you show a decline. So are they capturing the declines within the minimal dark purple band? Is that where we're seeing it? It it's a little different than that because it it's it's an aggregate like they'll take they'll say

047if you okay if you scored a 2550 and and the prior year was a 2462 then we expect you to have this score and then they take the students or at that score and say like okay how did you compare to that that and then they aggregate it together which means it's it's not necessarily going to line up with any of the other charts um because it is it is not it is not change it. It's It's a growth target. >> Oh, it's based on a target. >> So, it's not showing like there is growth because I was going to say, >> yeah, >> doesn't you know, it's great that we're looking at growth, but then what happens if there isn't? So, I see what I hear what you're saying. So, okay. Thank you. And

048then my second question is um when you're looking at those those um sections um minimal or whatever it is moderate average accelerated and exceptional like how do they what are the is it like a a standard deviation is it what is the cut point or whatever you said for the other thing is how do they tell >> where they put the cut scores I would have to go back and look at ETS's presentation to this um SB um it it's it's actually I think different depending on the size of the student group and and there there's actually two different um waitings that happen depending on on student group size. Um it does get pretty complex pretty fast and so I don't have that. >> Okay, that makes sense. But I was just curious if it

049if you um think it looks like um what they would look for in targets like a bell curve like because it's five. I don't know. That just made me think >> there is going to be some normalization because again we're taking all of the um results for the entire state to build the model. Um even though it is um and and then applying a a um regression to that um so there because central limit theorem there is going to be some kind of um normalization but it won't be exactly um a bell curve. >> Okay. Thank you Alvaro. >> I just had a quick question. Has there been any change in the way graduation rate is calculated? So same old, same old. Ninth grade, you get you get through 12, you have graduated. They're not

050talking about >> with with the five-year cohort included. So So yeah. So it is a five-year cohort. So it's and and if you look at the the reference slides at the back, it it sort of calls out like which class is counted with each one, but it is just the five years. So it's it's not including >> So we're not looking for kids that we lost early early on. Okay. Thank you, >> Trusty Gerard. >> Um thank you for the report. It's looks like it's really tough to put together. Um but I have a question. When you were saying that you didn't think some of the data may um be quite as accurate as you should as it should be because of technical difficulties. What kind of technical difficulties are there? >> Um, and and

051I don't know if I can get this the presentation put back up if that's possible. There's a there's a something that caught my eye this year that I was like it's like, oh, how did I miss that last year? Um, and I think it's it's a good example of this. Um, and so we are on the chronic absenteeism slide. And it might be small, but do you see that string of red dots that makes a perfect line on the right hand side? That's a weird thing to happen. And so, how does that happen? um that is a school that reported zero chronic absenteeism last year, the 23 24 school year. And so they're now in the red because they're back to reporting what actual data is. So they've had this huge increase and and that's

052essentially the maximum increase that that school could have, which is why they're all on a perfect line. And so did they have zero chronic absenteeism two years ago? Probably not. Um and so can we use this data for that school to drive inquiry? Not at all. And and that little things like that, you know, keep on cropping up in various places. >> Okay. Thank you, Trusty O'Neal. >> Okay. Thank you. Thank you, Jared. So, in reading the cover memo, this says that this is the performance of LEA's, local education agencies, schools, and student groups, correct? In Sonteo County. Okay. So assuming you now have these you've now identified issues in terms of the the good performance of of different um schools and their test scores etc. But you've also identified some that are having some

053issues where the kids maybe are not you know a reaching the preferred scores. Can you extrapolate that and do an overlay to show is there a relationship between the funding of that school district and the results of these tests and also is there a way to see is the is absenteeism also an impediment to some of the test scores given to that. >> Yeah. So I I will say that there is a huge body of of of research and and oftentimes our data confirms that that um absenteeism does significantly impact student um performance in other areas in in school. Uh the funding one is a little bit trickier and and I think the we're not going to in one year's data be able to like sort of construct that together because it of the complexity

054of it. Um somebody who's done a ton of really great work is actually Dr. uh Jesse Leaven who is a former trustee of Pacifica. Um he actually is a PhD economist who worked for AIR. He's done a lot of work and and really looked at um what the u sort of adequate levels of funding might be um to to sort of meet minimum standards. Uh and and it still has turned out to be um correlative but not super positive if that makes sense. like there there is um a general sense that that funding is moderately correlated with student performance, but it is not um it is not very tight. Um so it's it's it's mixed and and that tells us that there's a lot of complex factors. Funding could be one of them. Um but

055it's not sort of the slam dunk connection. >> Well, what I'm kind of getting at is okay, we've discovered that there's a problem with those areas that are in the lowest quartortile. Okay. Can we identify what makes the upper quartortile successful and try to replicate is it the um education of the teachers? Is it the longevity of the teachers? Is it salary scale? Is it funding? Is it the condition of the building and the educational environment to show to try to get that quartortile high that made that quartortile high and this other quartile low? so that we could try to replicate it from the higher performing districts down to the lower performing districts and not in a punitive way but as coaching because the question I would ask is you have you've identified problems you've

056seen there's these issues what next what is the county office going to do to try to fix and improve the scores in the lower quartile >> so one of the things that that we do with this is we sort of like my early slides we we go into inquiry and see see like okay we're seeing this um phenomena happen or we're seeing this split we're seeing these things like then we start why like you know what like can we start digging down to some root causes what are some of the um conditional influences what are some of the practices what are some of the barriers that we can identify um for students accessing um and um executive director Darnell's department does a lot of that work with school districts on a systems level to um

057give them support and guidance and coaching to to ask those questions which really need to be context dependent on the school because it's not what we see often times is these um best practices may be highly effective in one context but you bring them into another school and the community is not ex exactly the same. the um uh students aren't exactly the same and and it's not as effective even though it really was a best practice over here which is why we really want to do that inquiry sort of in context uh with the practitioners and the parents and the students and then um build prototypes and and go through a whole improvement process um which has been really successful with things like chronic absenteeism. Um it's we're having um a lot seeing a lot

058of success with a regional cohort are working on issues with um long-term English learners um that from all over the um counties in the Bay Area are working together on that this year. Um and so we are doing that work but it is it is hard and messy work and and really contextual to the situation that the students are in. But let's say you you have you know some idea of what's successful in this cortile and you try it down in the lower quartile and let's say it doesn't work but there must be something in another criteria that might work down here. I mean you know because you the kids are there once okay in third grade or whatever. All right. And you need to try to help them get to that better quartortile by

059trying as many arrows as you got in your quiver. And I And does the county office facilitate that? Well, we do in ways and and we really try and make it supportive and sustainable because if if we use all the qu all the arrows in the quiver at once, um we're not going to have any arrows left. And so, you know, part of it is can we >> be resourceful? Can we find the things that match the um the root causes that we're we're identifying? Can we prototype and then can we make it permanent? Because the what I've seen a little bit too much in in my you know 20 years in education is we throw a ton of resources at something. It really actually does work and it's like okay great we did it

060and then we move on to the next thing and then it disappears because we don't support it anymore. >> Right. It needs to be sustainability. Yeah. Okay. Right. >> Other comments or questions from the board? >> Any from the public? >> None from the public. Thank you for the presentation and the update. Uh there is no action to take on this item. Um for item 6B, Sarah Notch, Executive Director, Educational Innovations, will provide a report on the non-tactical portion of the 2025 to 2026 comprehensive school safety plans for Sonteo County Office of Education student programs. Good evening, board president Torres, members of the board, Deputy Superintendent Chavez. Um I'm here tonight, as you mentioned, to present um part one in open session and part two in close sess session of our cal our comprehensive school

061safety plans for all of our um school programs. And this is an annual requirement where we need to ensure that we've updated the plans that we've um engaged with different um interest holders including um staff, parents, um partners, and that we bring to you a plan that will allow students to um be granted the right to have um safe and supportive campuses. So, I am going to spend most of my time um in this presentation just going over what the comprehensive school safety plans entail, like what the sections are for um part one and part two. And then at the end, I have um fabulous team of site administrators here with me. If you have any questions about part one, so part two, just as a reminder, will be answered in closed sessions because that

062is the tactical non-public section. Um but we will have um our administrators in close session for that as well. So first I'm going to share the plan requirements um and then the components of the plan and then we'll get to the questions. So every K12 school must have a comprehensive school safety plan um with those two parts and developed and reviewed by the site safety committee um and there is a deadline a timeline for adoption. So, um, the plans need to be adopted by March 1st, um, and presented to you in the fashion that we're doing so tonight. Part one, the public document is, um, contains general information, not confidential information. Um, and that ensures transparency for, um, any member of the public. Uh, the the plan, part one plans get posted on our website

063following adoption. Um so it's really about ensuring the community that we have key safety procedures in place. Part two is more technical. Um that is the confidential detailed portion of our plan that contains information um that is intended for anyone who is um participating in emergency response. And um this is why this is not publicly available because it could compromise the safety of our students and staff um or any members who are on our school campuses if our tactical portions are made public. Part one has um six main components. The first three are school profile and mission. The second is safety strategies and programs. And the third is emergency preparedness and response. So again, this is general information, overview information about um the specifics of the school. As you are very well aware of, we

064have um different populations that we're serving um and very specialized um programs that we're running. And so things um of that nature would be in the description about school, the demographics, um and what we're doing to ensure a safe learning environment for all of our students and staff. Um the safety strategies and programs um are the what are we doing to prevent and intervene? Um and then emergency preparedness is how are we practicing our big five safety drills? Um how do we ensure good communication and coordination with our um emergency services? And then part four, safe school environment, um dives deeper into some of our sight specific policies. So what do we do when there's a visitor? How are we ensuring that um visitors are checking in? Um what are our expectations for codes of

065conduct? How are we handling discipline? The fifth section, communication and collaboration, is um exactly what it sounds like, pretty straightforward. So how we are informing our um interest holders of our procedures and um safety measures and then um how are we partnering with all the different entities that are part of ensuring our safe and and supportive school campuses and then the final is the annual review and updates. So it outlines the process for reviewing and and updating the plans annually and um documents the educational partner involvement. Part two. So, I'm just going over what's included. No specifics yet. Part two has our emergency response protocols. So, it really outlines the step-by-step procedures for how we respond in an emergency. Um, you'll see, and we can discuss more in close session, that there's a list of

066roles and responsibilities for different um actions uh that need to be um uh put into I was going to say actions that need to be actioned, but the um who does what in an emergency, I guess, is the best way to say it. Um and then as well as contact information. So anybody who is on that plan, their contact information is listed. The second part is the threat assessment and crisis management. Um and so again, very specific guidelines and procedures for how we um respond, what our teams, how we constitute our teams. Um and then how we're getting messaging out. So the confidential reporting systems. The next section is student and sa staff safety procedures. Um, and so thinking through all parts of the day across all school and campus environments, what are we doing?

067How are we handling um things that might come up um that are unexpected or unauthorized? And how are we training our staff and students for these instances? The next section is incident reporting and documentation. Um, again, pretty straightforward description. How are we um documenting and keeping record of our safety in uh incidents? Are we investigating? How are we looking um back at what's happened? and using that to identify gaps and then put some u measures in place to fill those gaps. Um including any of our record system management. How are we compiling and and um analyzing all of that? And then finally, it has coordination plans for our law enforcement and first responders. Um so all of the different um agreements that we have with the local authorities and communication protocols when there is an

068event on campus that requires that collaboration. Um and then sorry the final two are recovery and post crisis support. So this is what we do after um because an event is a very specific you know in an incident in a time period and we have our crisis protocols for that. But then there's the what do we do afterwards to support the community. Um so there's information about um how do we resume normal operations? How do we support um anybody who's affected and impacted by that incident? Um and then what are the measures that we are using internally to do that debriefing process and identify um things that might not have been uh had an opportunity to be spotted without that incident happening so that we can strengthen our plans. Um and then the drills training

069so the annual training for all the different drills uh staff professional development um and anything that requires updates following learnings from those drills. So that is um my part of the presentation for how what's included in the plans. Um and I know you you have the copies of the plans for all of our school sites. So I'm going to ask our administrators to come up in case you have any sight specific questions that they might have um more information about so you can get a comprehensive answer. >> Thank you. Are there any comments or questions from the board? Trusty Lev. >> Um the plans are essentially the same, right? there's a comprehensive for all of our programs because like there's a student threat assessment in the ancill center and they don't really do threat assessment

070at that age that process >> in the part one >> um yes so there there is a lot of standardized information in part one so that if we do need it I can't imagine doing a threat assessment on a you know a young student but um there are standard pieces of information that are guided by our board and superintendent policies that are included in um part one consistently across all of our school campuses. >> Trust Daniel. >> Um so this is the school safety plan for our sites. Um correct? >> Yes. >> Okay. Has there been any action by the county office of ed for it was last year or the year before we had a tsunami alert on the coast and it was like a mess. Okay. Because people didn't know where their kids

071were. People didn't know where to go. In some cases, parents picked up kids, went home, and their home was in a worse threat than if they stayed. Has there been any efforts to try to communicate with parents or the populations on the on the coast or even the low-lying bay for to help those districts deal with um that issue with parents and evacuation in addition to the fire issues on the coast? So for this particular item, it's just regarding what we're doing for our school programs. We do have um the safe and supportive schools team that um supports the districts and so I wouldn't be able to speak to specifics about that, but I know that they do support the districts with all of their >> comprehensive school safety plans and review each one and

072work collaboratively. So um someone might be able to speak better to that than than I am. Um but yes, that is a service that SMCE offers. >> Okay. Thank you. >> Yes. Um, Chris, >> thanks. I know we're on our specific piece, but to answer your question, um, yes, actually, uh, Becky Stefen as well as Mason and the Department of Emergency Management have worked through tsunami protocols, including where those lines actually exist along the coastside. So, they've been in contact. Um, this also went through our coalition for safe schools so that all of the superintendents and districts are aware of where their area is. And then proposed messaging as well. And I think Becky may actually be online this evening. Um does not look like like she is, but um uh again, yes, this this

073work did take place. We partnered with uh the Department of Emergency Management to make sure that those lines were updated and that staff had information um specifically with Cababrio and uh Pacifica, but yes, all of our our sites are aware now of what the protocols will be. >> Okay. All right. Thank you. >> Thank you. Um other comments or questions? Trusty or trusty adas. >> Thank you. I appreciate this uh presentation today. And uh my question is related with uh communication and collaboration uh you know how schools inform student, parents and staff about the safety concerns. Uh what has worked with the parents at the court and community schools uh related with communication and collaboration with them? Thank you for the question uh trustee. Uh we have actually a very effective communication process with our

074uh parents and guardians. Uh we have a bilingual parent uh counselor who is in communication with them uh with with parents almost on a daily level. Uh and and uh typically our communication is either through um you'll had to forgive me our plan talking points uh just so that we have documentation and data points for when we communicate with families um but also texts and phone calls as well. >> And are these uh bilingual English? Um yeah, my bilingual parent counselor is the one who communicate typically with my parents >> which would be what languages? English and >> I'm sorry, Spanish. >> And Spanish. Okay, thank you. And so with that said, um >> and the talking points platform translates for us. >> Okay. Um, is there any time that you have seen or hear

075concerns or follow-ups or, you know, situations where they're consistently even though you you're saying you communicate, but is there any follow-ups where the parents continue to be concerned about any type of situation within the school or even just, you know, as we're talking about like safety? >> Not in my six months. >> Okay. Okay. Thank you. >> And I'll just I'll share historically um I think the move to talking points was a really strong um recommendation because not only does it translate into a multiple over a hundred different languages, but it sort of acts in a um like a texting modality. And so earlier uh when we were using Blackboard that would that would send text, but it wasn't two-way communication. um and we would send out emails or surveys, things like that, and we

076wouldn't get the same level of engagement with talking points and then also utilizing our bilingual family counselor. We're finding that it's very quick and easy for families to respond. Um and so we're getting over the the past several years, we've actually had an increase in communication with our families. So that's been a really helpful tool. >> Okay, great. Thank you, Trusty Benini. Um my question has to do with the um specifically the lockdown drills and not I know it's in part two and I don't I'm not asking for specifics but um I am curious if based upon um doing these it could vary at different um different sites right with different ages of students um but if we have taken steps um to make it less traumatic uh for students because that's a really hard

077one. And if that kind of happens continually, I don't again don't need the specifics. I'm just curious. I'm assuming it's on the radar, but I just wanted to say it because um I was doing those last year and it was really stressful um for young kids. So probably for older kids, too, but >> I'm glad you asked. And um I'll speak very generally, but um and we can go more into depth in in part two, but um we ensure that our practices are um trauma informed and developmentally appropriate. And so we can go through more specifics about how we ensure that across the different um populations that we serve, but it's very much um uh on our minds and part of our planning process. Um and Becky Stefen who associate superintendent Shell mentioned um in

078addition to helping our districts helps us um and that was uh something that she was also very mindful of. So I know that it's uh advice that's going out to the districts as well. >> Thank you. >> Other comments or questions? I have one question and one comment. Um um so as my time as a principal I know um we had parent square and it's hard to get all parents on the platform doing like the percentage of families that are on the platform for talking points. >> All of our families are on talking points. >> That's amazing. That's huge guys. That's Thank you. >> Oh, I thought you I thought you said no. I was like no. Yes. all and and um you know I think we learned a lot during uh the pandemic about

079how to support families who don't have easy access to technology or who aren't very techsavvy and so um I'm sure that there are parents I know that there are parents who um were helped by school staff in you know in signing up but that was very critical for us to make sure we had 100% um participation. >> Amazing. Thank you. And then my comment was just a huge appreciation for the um the recovery and the aftermath. Um just making sure that it's not just done and left that in case there are um students who need more support that that's being done. So thank you. Um are there any comments or questions from the public? I see no raised hands. >> Thank you. Is there a motion to approve the non-tactical portion of the 2025 2026

080comprehensive school safety plans for Sanonteo County Office of Education student programs? >> So move. >> Is there a second? >> Thank you. There's a motion to approve the non-tactical portion of the 2025 2026 comprehensive school safety plans for Sonteo County Office of Education student programs made by Trusty Alvaro and a second by Trustee Adas. Is there any further discussion? All those in favor say I. I. >> All those opposed say no. The motion passes with the vote of 70. And the non-tactical portion of the 2025 to 2026 comprehensive school safety plans for Sonteo County Office of Education student programs has been approved. >> Thank you. Um for item seven, the board will move to close session. First for item 7A, we will hear a report from Sarah Notch, executive director, educational innovations on the tactical

081portion of the 2025 through 2026 comprehensive school safety plans for Santo County Office of Education student programs. We will remain in close session for item 7B, interd district attendance appeals 26-1A and 26-1B. um filed on behalf of students currently residing in the Cababrio Unified School District, but requesting to attend school in the Sonteo County in Sonteo Union High School District. Um before we transition to close session, are there any comments from the public on these items? I don't see any comments. Thank you. Upon conclusion of the closed session items, the board will return to open session to report on any actions taken in close session. Thank you. Um, for item 8A, the board has returned to open session to report on actions taken in close session. For item 7A, the tactical portion of the 2025

082through 2026 comprehensive school safety plans for Sanonteo County Office of Education student programs was approved by a vote of 70. And for item 7B for IAA261A and IAA261B, the board voted to approve both appeals by a vote of 70. For item 9A, Sarah Notch, Executive Director, Educational Innovations, will present the 2025 through 2026 local control and accountability plan, also known as the LCAP, for the midyear budget expenditure report. Welcome back. >> Thank you. Good evening. Um, so I have what I hope will be a very quick but clear presentation unless of course you have qu any questions and then happy to go into depth and I have a fabulous backup team here if it gets too um much into the the fiscal weeds. So, what I'm going to um bring you tonight is I'm going

083to share information about all of our different funding sources. Um where we are with expenditures at this point in the year so that you have a picture of what we have left versus what we budgeted. Um and then so that you understand the um what's happening with the funding, I have some information about key actions in the LCAP that um the funding is attached to so you know how we're um allocating money to um things that result in student services and progress. Um and then we'll take any questions that you might have. So I'll start with um we have four different funding sources that go into the LCAP. we have the um local control funding formula, federal, state, and local um dollars. And so you can see in that right hand column um this is

084a breakdown of the percentage that each of those different funding sources um accounts for within our LCAP. So that's not expenditures to date. That's 43.83% of our funding comes from LCFF, for example. And then our total amount of funding is um $3.46 46 $6 million. And then this is information about how um much we've spent. Uh this is as of December 31st, 2025. Getting nods from my business partners. Um so this isn't to date as of this date, it's the um till December 31st. And so um in each of those funding areas, uh we've spent uh the percentage in the right hand column. So, little over 31% for LCSF, uh 58% for federal and so on. Um and then you can see in that bottom row what we've budgeted versus our current our total expenditures

085um as of December 31st. And here's how it breaks down in in goal lines. So as a reminder, our LCAP goal um for or the overall goal has metrics and actions and the actions help us achieve the metrics and then attach to the actions are expenditure lines. So if we're looking at how are we allocating money towards staff salaries for example, we attach those to specific actions within the LCAP to show how we're funding the um staff materials, whatever it might be necessary to carry out those um metrics. So you can see most of our um allocation is in goal one and then this is our two 1231 2025 expenditures. So we're under 50% for everything. Um so we're in a very healthy place right now in our budget. And to go a little bit

086more in depth, so looking at goal one, 73.86% 86% of our budget is in goal one and what that um is attached to are several key actions. So enhancing the academic and intervention support. So this is this is largely staff um funding. So we have to have staff to help with enhanced academic services. Um monitoring and measuring student engagement. That's um not only staff cost but also training. Um and then parent and caregiver engagement um helps to foster culturally and linguistically inclusive and supportive school climate. And so those would be things like our bilingual family counselor or um it could be our talking points app. So anything that allows us to provide the access to those um action lines are tied to the budget. And then three more for goal one. Um the individual learning

087plan monitoring, academic interventions, and credit recovery. So in order to sort of realize the um expected outcomes in our metrics, we have to make a plan for what we're going to do and then put our resources behind that. And I'll do the same for goal two. So goal goal two is our social emotional learning um goal. So around positive behavior interventions and supports um social emotional learning. So we have uh PBIS implementation, campus climate and culture and engagement and belonging. So for the last two specifically um you'll see the the bullet there develop monthly campus events aligned with the castle uh framework to build a positive school climate and culture. So that's um funding not only for staff but but um also uh funds that allow us to do events together that help build that

088community. Um and then same thing in in 2.6 the engagement and belonging. So it's workshops or opportunities for school-based activities, things like that that can enhance the um families and community partners' uh sense of belonging and and engagement in our school programs as well. And then goal three is our career technical education goal. And you'll notice that's a very low percentage of our budget. And um we'll just point out that we do have grant funding that um offsets the the cost of those programs. But some specific um action items for goal three that are um attached to LCAP funding um providing the A throughG approved CTE instruction. So, expanding our course access for students, enhancing our facilities with um materials and um uh not supplies, but uh what's the word I'm looking for? We put

089a sink in uh so that we could do some of the patient care. We have a a refrigerator that we added so we can refrigerate the pig lungs when we talk about a smoker's lung versus a healthy lung. So, things like that that we need to enhance um our facilities. And then um staff capacity building is professional development and um teacher credentiing opportunities. And then finally, goal four, that's the lowest portion of our um LCAP funding allocation. And that's because in large part um goal four is also attached to the safe and supportive schools department with the work that they do to support districts. So this is the extra um area that county offices have and priorities. And so, um, the the work that we do as a county office supporting districts is not captured,

090um, or no funding is allocated in our LCAP. That's a separate budget. Um, and then looking at our overall allocation, um, when you take all of these pieces together and look at how we're funding, um, the actions needed to meet the metrics for the goals, um, 65.84% is certificated staff, 18.4 44% is classified staff. So you can see the vast majority of our costs are in um staff costs like salary and benefits. And then we have um a small percentage in independent contractors. That's our um partnership with effective school solutions for a mental health clinician. And then materials and supplies is 6.59%. So overall expenditures um we have spent uh the right hand column again is the two December 31st date. So you can see that we're also in a very healthy um position right

091here. We're not in um not anticipating any concerns with going over budget or not having funds to um achieve what we need to for the rest of the school year. And with that, I will take any questions and might throw it to Manette and Eric if >> you have detailed questions, >> questions or comments from the board. Trusty Love. >> Uh, yeah. I just had a question sort of the reverse of what you were just saying. It was about 1.2 million of the 3.4 or so. So, it's not even half. It's like a third. So, are there things that you're expecting to purchase or since most of it's salaries, do you already know what that is? So, >> yes, thank you. That's a good question. That's pretty predictable, the salary cost. Um what we're looking

092at right now is um continuing our facility enhancements um project specifically with uh furniture and different things that will allow students to have um not only accessible um options for seating um but also thinking through the structural pieces that we need for um moving into moving into some of the um extensions of our CTE programming. So, if we look at the year three goals in CTE, adding additional courses, thinking through what those might be, and then making sure we have the materials um and furniture for um making that possible. >> And that's all work then to be done from >> well 2026. Okay. >> Trusty Gerard. >> Um mine is not a question, it's a statement. Um, and I want to let the board know because I know several of you will be visiting um,

093Gateway Campus soon, that if you go in the lunchroom, all of the goals are on posters with all of the components listed underneath. And on there are post-it notes written by teachers on how they're coming along with each one of those goals. And so please make sure you go in the main lunchroom and see that because it's really um educational and helpful to see what each individual person has written. So I just wanted to say that >> you for mentioning that. >> Thank you Trusty Benini. >> Um thank you. I wanted to just um just say a statement too sort of um not really a question but um I now that we have two liaison for the um for the LCAP um Beverly and I and so I'm just um looking forward to learning what

094we do in that role because I don't actually I've not served in that capacity before. So um I'm sure there are opportunities to engage and we look forward to hearing what they are. >> Absolutely. Thank you. >> Thank you. Other comments or questions from the board? Tracy Aas, >> thank you for the explanation. So um for me, I'm just like she said, I'm kind of like um learning about it. So about LCAP and the budgeting and all that, but in this very last one when you talk about or I guess it's also um overall in your allocation goal. Yeah, your uh uh overall allocation. So the LCAP budget plan for materials and supplies is a a certain amount right and I can see that wait that's connected with or this page the 15 it says

095materials and supplies 227,999. So that's what you expected for the school year. >> Yes. >> Right. Okay. And then percentage of total LCAP budget plan 6.59 6.59%. That's the allocation. And then what's been expanded I guess is 2.95 6733 that's what is up to now like the first semester is that? >> Yes. So on on slide 15 where it has that 6.59%. That's representing the percentage of our total budget that was allocated to materials and supplies. And then if you look at just that amount, the 227,999. We've spent 2.95% of that to date. And that's because we had access to some one-time funds to um do our first round of um facility upgrades. And so we um were able to utilize those and so we haven't spent as much as we thought we would need

096to. >> Okay. So it was supplemented by something else not meaning that you didn't buy the materials and that that you were expecting to buy. >> Correct. >> Oh okay. Okay. Just wanted to clarify that. And then can I um so then in goal number one you have action 1.4 parent and caregiver engagement. Um do you have examples of the things that you know the money has been spent on for that specific section? >> Yes. So um a big portion of that is our bilingual family counselor. Um our talking points app that allows us to have that um textbased communication with families. Um and then any um school events. So, I know that uh principal Sam is in the process of planning an event for families to invite them to campus. Um, and so if

097we're doing catering or if we're bringing in any, you know, professional development or not professional development, but um parent education and we need to pay for that, those um funds would come out of that. They would be attached to that action. >> Was any of that last semester done? any events, any inviting families coming to the campus or >> um they would all for gateway they would come to the campus when um the student enrolls and then they also come to the campus when a student um exits for the family meetings um unless they request to do it on Zoom because of their um schedules. And then at um Hillrest we had the event where the families came in for the showcase um in December for our CTE programming up there. Um but he's looking

098into um an event sort of like a um a barbecue or something like that where they can gather together. >> Yeah. And I think mostly because it's cultural and linguistically inclusive and supportive. So I would imagine >> an event that makes them feel they belong and all that, right? But it didn't happen yet and it's being planned for this semester. >> Yes. Yes. >> Okay. Good. And so up to this date, it's been things like engaging via talking points and the bilingual family counselor calling and >> wonderful. Okay, thank you. >> Other comments or questions from the board? >> Any from the public? >> No, no raised hands. >> Thank you. There is no action to take on this item. >> Thank you. Um, for item 10A, the public hearing on the power purchasing agreement

099between the Sato County Office of Education and Peninsula Clean Energy is now open. Would anyone like to speak on this issue? I am seeing none. So, the hearing is now closed. Um, for item 10B, the board will discuss and act on the ratification of the power purchasing agreement between the Sono County Office of Education and Peninsula Clean Energy. Uh, Deputy Superintendent Chavez. >> Yes. Um, good evening, Board President Torres, members of the board, and, uh, Deputy Attorney Cho. So, this evening, we're bringing uh to you the ratification of a solar power purchase agreement, PPA, uh, that was entered between the Sato County Office of Education and Peninsula Clean Energy on November 18th, 2024. Um, in your packets you have the full uh agreement uh that was also reviewed by a third party ARC Alternatives, a

100renewable renewable energy consultant. And so to summarize the the PPA uh Peninsula Clean Energy will install uh solar arrays um in this building at 101 to Dolphin at no cost to SMCE. We added some pictures for your for your reference. Um most some of the panels will be at the roof on the roof of this building as well as out here in the front parking lot. Uh the arrays would uh result in the production of uh clean energy and long-term uh service benefits uh to the environment and SMCE. Uh energy costs for SMCE at this location would be fixed um at the current rate for 20 years. Um and there would be an estimated savings of 1.6 million assuming a 4% PG PG& infrastructure increase. So, as we were working through the the the uh

101agreement process, it seemed um that the agreement would fall within the purview of the county superintendent authority, particularly because um there were no capital um outlay uh required of SMCE in the installation of the solar arrays. However, after further review of Government Code 427.12- A and consultation with Deputy Attorney Cho, there is a section that uh deals specifically with energy uh conservation contracts, which makes it a requirement to bring the PPA before the county board for consideration and approval. So th this evening I respectfully request uh for the board to consider this PPA and the value benefits and savings it offers SMCOE. Uh we believe that this agreement is a great opportunity for SMCE to move us toward uh sustainable clean energy without capacity outlay capital outlay and with considerable cost savings to the county

102office of ed. Uh it is also important to highlight that this is this work is in alignment with our strategic plans core values on environmental sustainability and we respect again we respectfully ask uh that you take action to ratify the PPA between SMCE and Peninsula Clean Energy. Joining me this evening is Ron Soaper, director of sustainable construction and facilities, as well as uh Ross Fiser from Peninsula Clean Energy. And we are happy to answer any questions you may have. >> Thank you. Are there any comments or questions from the board? Trusty O'Neal. This is kind of petty, but as a former school bus driver, a lot of the solar panels in school parking lots, the buses cannot drive under. Are these going to be I know we don't get a lot of buses here, but

103it would be nice that a school bus could drive underneath it. >> Yes, I think they were intentionally placed. Um, so the entrance to this parking lot there, they wouldn't be obstructed as well as entrance uh to the further entrance to the property. Um, so they wouldn't be obstructed and then the others are on on the roof. Thank you. Other comments or questions? Trusty Love, >> I just want to say, excuse me, that it's terrific that the county office is finding ways to put money back in programs and not PG& as planned. Thanks. Thank you. Other comments or questions? Trusty Benini. >> Um I um think it's great. I'm glad that we're doing this. Um but I would be remiss if I didn't just address the contract issue just a little bit because that's important

104to me. Um one thing I'll just note, um not I know we're we're correcting the fact that we didn't have a hearing and we didn't do this. Um and so I'm not calling that out necessarily. I know things happen and there's oversight. Um but um I've and and I raised this in every forum we've been talking about in terms of making um contracts and things that are going on in the county office like more visible to the board. And in this specific instance, it was a unique time period in which we didn't have the same council as a county office, which is unusual because the ED code suggests that we do. Um, so anyway, I just want to make sure that we highlight the fact that that is a good thing if we know what's

105going on. Um, because not only if whoever is representing us or however that's proceeding, um, or that we might have a question whether there's a cost or not, I think it's just helpful. So, it's just an example. Um, but thank you for bringing it back. I appreciate that. >> Thank you. Yes, Jesse L. >> I just had one question. um the NEM2 credits expire um April 2026. Are we okay with making that deadline? I assume so. But so that means this will all be up and going by April >> right now. I um I met with Ron and with uh Kevin Baltimore who's was not able to be here this evening. There's a lot of work that has been uh in progress that has been made. Right now it looks like yes, we're within the

106timeline. So that was that's another reason why it was well it's uh a reason why we needed to bring it to you as soon as possible in addition to correcting that uh misstep but yeah we it looks like we're on timeline trusty Gerard. >> Yeah. Um, when I was uh reading the letter to Ron and it's describing the project somewhere down the line, um, can we see actual drawings of where it'll be and what it'll look like? And >> there were three pictures. >> Did I miss it? >> Oh, I did. I missed it. I apologize. >> I did not go back far enough. That's my fault. I apologize. >> Oh, yeah. Okay. Cuz it said it'll remove trees, but it'll replant and all that, which is I'm thrilled about whenever anybody says they're going

107to cut a tree down. I'm a tree hugger. So, I'm sorry I did not go back far enough. No, >> I thought I finished reading my board packet. Clearly, I didn't. So, anyway, thank you. >> Other comments or questions? Um, I just have one. So, I know there's no cost right now, but um just want to make sure I read it correctly and heard it correctly that after 20 years we would have to purchase something or No, >> that's a good or something after 20 years. I can't remember. Sorry, it's late. >> Oh, that's that would be the cost the cost savings. Yeah. Um >> Oh, I think they >> Yeah, energy cost. Uh yeah, Ross, >> sorry. Thank you. >> Hi, members of the board. Ross Fischer um with PC program manager. Uh the

108uh office of education um can elect for us to remove the system entirely. Um or you can purchase the system at that point uh at fair market value, which is a third-party uh assessment of the the value of the system. We estimate that to be around 5% of the original cost of the project. So it's a fairly negligible cost. Um so those are the two options that uh the office of education would have after the 20 years. I'm sorry there's a third or the option to extend it another five years. Uh the power purchasing. Um so any of those options are available at year 20. >> I'm kind of think of just Daniel. um >> at year six I should say we can purchase the the uh the array at fair market value that that's

109in that's evaluated and appraised by an independent third party person. Um, does does this allow for because when I was on the city council, we installed solar panels at the sewer plant and after about 20 years, you know, we actually upgraded them. Is there any feature in this agreement that as technology improves that either you or we have the opportunity to upgrade the equipment to current technology, whatever is there. So, with within the 20-year term, um we have a production guarantees uh for the actual energy that's generated. Um that would be without uh uh in uh upgrading uh the solar panels. But again, at that 20-year mark, if the office of education did want to purchase this the system at that point, um you could decide to to upgrade the solar modules. the steel structure

110for the carport will definitely have a lot more life in it as will the the racking system for the roof uh roof. Um so that is a possibility and we're we're starting to see projects that are nearing that end of life that 20 year mark. Mind you the solar modules are warrantied for 25 years and that's a a production power production warranty. Um and we are seeing uh modules um actually degrade less than what the actual specifications uh uh sheets um specify. Uh but long story short is um within the PPA term we we're we're keeping the uh original equipment as it's it is warranted for the 25 years. Um but should the office of ed own the project you can absolutely elect to uh sub change the modules out in a future date. >>

111Thank you. >> Trusty Benini Benini. >> Oh is there an estimated current fair market value for the installation? >> 2.4 4 million approximately right now. >> Trusty Alvaro, >> thank you. I have just two questions and they're both about maintenance. So 2020 we had the unbelievable horrendous fires and everybody that I knew who had solar panels had to have them cleaned. And I understand that that should happen on a not just waiting for a fire, but periodically. So is who's going to be taking that responsibility? >> So this is a this is a guaranteed project, meaning that there's guaranteed performance criteria built into the project, not just on how it's built and delivered, but how it's maintained over 20 years. So there'll always be guaranteed performance. So if there's a compromise because there's dust then

112that will be maintained by >> Okay. Thank you. And then the other question has had to do with the roof. So I don't remember how old our roof is, >> but it isn't brand new. >> Yeah, we have what's called a thermoplastic roof, which is very good single ply roofing system, and it's ideal for this installation. This is going to be um like a aluminum um uh metal uh substructure. So even if the panels go out after 25 years, we can replace the panels. And even if the panels go out over in the parking array in 25 years, we can replace a panel because a substructure is going to be fine. It'll last a hundred years. >> So that's wonderful. My question was more about what if we need to fix the roof? Um, so

113the system is mechanically attached to the roof. So we're going to be cutting into the roof and attaching to the substructure of the roof and then um applying um a patch at each location. So that patch is heat welded to the thermoplastic roof itself and it's a fantastic installation. >> Is that is that >> I'm talking about roof roofs get old. >> So this >> what happens? This roof is a a great roof. It's it's a it's they call it a class A roof. It's a it's a really wonderful roof. Um it's really designed um well to be suited for this type of installation. So if we have to repair our roofing system, the um the um solar array as it's designed is elevated off the roof so you can replace the roof without lifting

114off the whole solar system. >> That was my question. That's your question. Okay. >> Thank you very much. >> I There was a roundabout way to answer that question. >> Other comments or questions from the board? >> Any from the public? I am seeing none. Um, is there a motion to approve the power purchasing agreement between the Sanonteo County Office of Education and Peninsula Clean Energy? >> Oh, Mr. For president's ratify. Yes. Ratify. >> Oh, sorry. >> Thank you. I grabbed the wrong script. There we go. Is there a motion to ratify the power purchasing agreement between the Sanonteo County Office of Education and Peninsula Clean Energy? >> Is there a second? >> Second. >> Thank you. There's a motion to ratify the power purchasing agreement between the Sato County Office of Education and Peninsula

115Clean Energy made by Trusty Love and a second by Trusty Alvaro. Is there any further discussion? All those in favor say I. >> I. All those opposed say no. Uh the motion passes with a vote of 70 and the power purchasing agreement between the Sato County Office of Education and Peninsula Clean Energy has been ratified. Um for item 11A, the board will receive the initial proposal for the California School Employees Association, chapter 158 to the Sanonteo County Superintendent of Schools for the 2025 through 2026 successor collective bargaining agreement. This item will be brought back at the February 18th, 2026 board meeting for a public hearing. Tammy Moore, associate superintendent, human resources, is available to answer any questions the board may have. >> Good evening. Very late evening for President Torres. Members of the board, Deputy

116Superintendent Chavez, you have before you the initial proposal from the California School Employees Association, chapter 158, to the San Monteo County Superintendent of Schools for the 2025 2026 successor collective bargaining agreement. And I am available to answer any questions you may have. >> Are there any comments or questions from the board? Are there any from the public? Thank you. Um, there's no action to take on this item. For item 11B, the board will receive the employer's initial proposal for the Sanonteo County Superintendent of Schools to the California School Employees Association, Chapter 158 for the 2025 through 2026 successor collective bargaining agreement. This item will also be brought back at the February 18, 2026 board meeting for a public hearing. Tammy Moore is here to answer any questions the board may have. You also have before

117you the initial proposal from the Sanonteo County Superintendent of Schools to the CSEA Chapter 158 for the 2025 2026 successor collective bargaining agreement. And I'm available to answer any questions you may have. Are there any comments or questions from the board? Any from the public? None from the public. Thank you. There is no action to take on this item. Um for item 11 C, we have superintendent comments. Deputy Superintendent Chavez, do you have any comments to share? >> I do. I have a couple of comments, brief comments. I'll try to make it brief because it is late. So, a few months ago, uh, Superintendent Mickey did, um, share that the Satell County Office of Education was selected to be the host county office for the 2026 CISK symposium, which will be held in Monterey uh,

118the week uh, or for from February 18th through the 20th. Um and the curriculum and improvement support committee CISK is a committee um of the CA California superintendent. Um the SMCE team has been working diligently for the last year in preparation for this conference. Um we're very excited um that as a host county office, we will be in the educational spotlight uh at this statewide event um under the leadership of d executive director Jared Pllo. Again, the team has been working hard in organizing this event and so we're looking forward to to being at this um in with our colleagues in Monterey um for that week. Um, obviously I'll be here for the February 18th meeting. Um, I also want to um direct your attention to these two cards that are were placed in your

119uh red folders. They are um it's information on our seeds to solutions curriculum. This is a curriculum that was developed um by SMCE staff in collaboration with uh 10 strands with funding from the California Department of Education. And so we're very excited that uh we'll we're continuing the roll out of this curriculum. We'll highlight and present the lessons in of the curriculum at the CISK symposium um at the end of February. And the lessons really is to engage students in um in building their knowledge around sustainability and environmental impacts as it relates to uh uh food waste, uh water use, wildfires. Um so it's a very interactive curriculum that we're very excited to be part of. So um more to come on that. Um, and all of this is being um, it's under the leadership

120of Julie Hillbornne, our director of environmental literacy and sustainability. And then finally, um, I would like to close with acknowledgement uh, to Superintendent McGee's retirement uh, announcement. It's been an honor to uh, work under her leadership focusing on students, families, and community, especially the ones that need it most in our county and abroad. Um I know that there's been interest um that would has been expressed in terms of um celebrating her retirement and acknowledging her legacy. So I'm happy to collaborate in um in that um space in uh any meeting that you all agree that we would do that. Um and so it's again it's been an honor working uh under her leadership. Thank you. >> Thank you. Um, for item 12A, when an ad hoc subcommittee meets or a representative attends a meeting related

121to their given assignment, board members may choose to bring a report to the board at this time. Would any board members like to report out? Trusty lab. >> Um, yes. So on the advocacy subcommittee, we have meeting next week, but we also um as I had shared previously had worked with Senator Breer's office to send a letter to the legislative analyst office and we just heard back and have a meeting next week with the legislative analyst office to discuss that proposal. So that's an update. Thanks. >> Thank you, Trust Daniel. I was just going to also update we the advocacy subcommittee met with Burman's office, Weiner's office, Stefani's office, and um Papin's office. That was everybody, right? I think. Yeah. Yeah. That we met with them and we actually had some support from at least

122two of them, I think, actually sounded kind of enthusiastic and wanted to take a bite of apple. So, that was really kind of nice. and and good. So now we're having a meeting to discuss what's the next advocacy we're going to do. >> Thank you. And would any other or any questions for that subcommittee? Um any other subcommittees that would like to report out? Trusty Bini. >> Um I would like to report out for the budget subcommittee. Uh we met on uh January 12th as a committee of um just the three committee members from the board um and we discussed um some pending um issues surrounding budget and tried to just um reflect some of the priorities and share some of the priorities that we've been hearing be raised. And so um that was in

123preparation for meeting with staff which we then did on January uh 28th. Um and that I think went fairly well. Um it was it was a lot of um sharing of that. I still owe the um the attendees our list of things. Apologies. Um but um we we had a conversation around how we can engage um with the budget uh process and um plan for the study session that will come up later in April and um share the priorities that we're seeing as um for the board um at this time so that we can understand if things are being done in some way that we don't know about um how that might be allocated through the budget process and Um and if uh we can make any um impact on that then you know we

124want to have more discussion. So that was a great meeting. Thank you. >> Thank you. Any questions for that subcommittee? Would any other subcommittees like to report out? Are there any comments from the public? >> No comments from the public. >> Thank you. There is no action to take on this item. For item 12B, board members will comment. Trusty Alvaro, >> just a couple things really quick. Uh, I did attend the capital advisors budget workshop on Zoom a couple weeks ago and I'm going to hold that all those comments till the next meeting. I just want to say I'm glad we have such robust reserves. I wanted to uh congratulate Gustavo Canales on his retirement. He's been with us for a very long time and I always appreciated his his quiet, pleasant, professional presence and

125he just got things done and uh and just seemed to think that it was no, you know, no big deal that he did all these amazing things. He just did them. So, I want to congratulate Gustavo. He deserves a retirement. And then I wanted to congratulate uh Remit for being employee of the month again. Um I had the opportunity, as many of you know, to work with George for a couple years up at Glenwood and I was just always impressed by the the extra I was going to say extra mile, but that's a bit of a pun because he runs long distance. The extra effort he went into always making the boys feel like they were engaged. um because he was doing he was basically teaching special ed. He was RSP and uh he he

126started a cross country team that he coached because he thought that would you know be good for the boys and and it was just the kind of thing that that George always putting together. So I I loved working with him. And um recently some of us were up at Hillrest and we were able to meet uh Peter who is a parah educator up there and Peter told us that he has been so impressed and inspired by George that Peter's going back to school to get his teaching credential and become a special ed teacher. So, you know, it just that's just the kind of person that's the kind of teacher George is I'm not surprised to hear what he's doing with the young kids. Um, so I just wanted to congratulate him. That's all I have.

127>> Thank you, Trusty Aas. >> I want to second that. That's a special catch teacher. I think what you said and now that you mentioned that, I'm I'm very happy to hear that. I'm going to try very briefly because it's 11. Um, I do have uh to say that on January 29th, my son graduated from the fire academy and he's now a firefighter at the city of PaloAlto. So, just it's personal, but I wanted to share that with everybody. It's we're very proud of him. Um, and then on January 31st, I attended our Sato County Board of Education training retreat. Um there was a lot of important conversations but what I took back with me is that trust is very important uh to move forward as a board of seven individual trustees who care about

128Sato County students. So I'm just very happy that it happened. I I'm very happy that I was able to participate and I look forward to continue those conversations and that we have more of those opportunities. And today I volunteered and attended the Corin Community School teacher appreciation lunchon also. So for the first time, second time at Gateway campus. So thank you. >> Thank you Trusty Benini. >> Um I want to um start by thanking the 17th district for organizing the lunchon today and also my fellow board members um Dev and Edith for for also joining. It was a really great time and I think that um it's just a nice thing that's been happening for a very long time um for the teachers and staff and so it's just nice to participate. So thank you

129to um to everybody who um helped with that. Um I wanted to also um appreciate one of our uh noted retirees um Julie Ned. Um she was um I guess with us since about 2018. Um but I think every time I visited um I think the last time I saw her in action was probably at um uh at Camp Kemp um teaching English and I just wanted to appreciate her and wish her well. Um I also want to note let's see what else um the SMCSBA um we have our third quarterly meeting coming up on next Monday here. Um and uh we will be addressing for our topic will be um literacy strategies for middle school and high school um and reading gaps with students at those ages. So it should be really insightful. I

130think we'll have some um presentation from Sonteo Foster City School District regarding middle school and um we'll we'll we're still uh trying to fill out the the high school piece, but I think it will carry over and then um aligned with um Deputy Superintendent Chavez um with the seeds for solutions, our final our fourth quarterly meeting um just so you have it on your calendar, it's on April 20th and um Julie Hillbornne will actually be presenting to all the district trustees um and us And yeah, um Patricia, um uh so um are you helping organize that one, Patricia? >> Yeah. Yeah, she's on board, so we're good. Um okay. And then finally, um I just wanted to I know we don't have our future agenda items and things like that on every single um uh

131agenda. But just in terms of one of the requests, I just wanted to highlight it um and hope that it comes up soon because um there was some more activity around it. So, um, we've had a couple of reports from the JJPC and I know it might be on the list for getting an update. Um, I also serve on the county program committee. It has an acronym. I don't know what it is. Um, for CSBA and also I'm on the AEC committee for the this year. Um, but I had a good conversation this week about um, the relationships and the things that JJDPC is doing along with us and all of our other community partners. Um, which were highlighted by the um, conference that the JJPC put together in January. Um, so I mentioned it

132and you know just like getting those conversations going and um it was sort of a conversation about you know how could we all be involved in maybe helping the rest of the state understand that um at potentially um CSBA conference or something like that. So um it's really important work that's going on. So I just look forward to it and so I just wanted to give a another little plug for it and that is all. Thank you. >> Thank you Trusty Love. >> Thank you. I just want to echo the comments um of Deputy Superintendent Chavez about Superintendent McGee. Um you know, just amazing superintendent and even a better person. Um I also want to celebrate George and Gustavo. They were real fixtures and still are. Um it's amazing how many different jobs has had

133here at the county office. Um, I also want to share that I visited Redwood City together um with Ian Bane and learned about their promo promotes promotes promotes program and which is funded in part by a grant from uh United for Youth which is a program that the county office co-leads and you have some information in your packet but I thought one of the statistics that was interesting is that 9% almost 9% of the youth I think 16 to 19 years in North Fair Oaks are either not in school or not working. Like that number is way higher than any other place. And so it's just, you know, they're doing really important work trying to give um youth from that community uh roles to play, paid roles, connecting them with other people in their community.

134So it's really neat model. It was nice to learn about it and I shared some information on that and I think that's it. Thanks. >> Thank you. My son is up with the program. Yes. So, it's um an amazing um amazing work that's being done. Um Trusty O'Neal, >> um I'm proud to announce that the Pacifica School District has awarded the contract and are started their 45 unit housing for staff and one of the trustees sent me a video of the first tear down of one wing at the school which was which was kind of cool. It's been a long time coming and um it started. We also just got I will let Beverly sell it because she did it. But we also did just get invitation for the Oceanana High School senior evaluation and

135it's really if you want to see something that's really cool for what your seniors can do, sign up. I will be have if it's okay I will send the form to Jennifer for distribution to everybody and it's really it's the kids from freshman on start working on a senior project and then they have to give a presentation of I think it's half hour 45 minutes and you're they're evaluated by that and it really is something to see some some of the subjects these kids pick I It's like, whoa, I don't even know what they are. >> Thank you, Trusty Direct. >> Um, thank you very much. Um, I just uh want to say uh thank you for all the reports and information we received this evening. It's been a a long meeting, I know, for

136everyone. Um, I also really want to recognize George and Gustafo. Um, I've especially worked with Georgian uh a lot um or visited mostly his classes and was always inspired by him uh no matter where he was and uh um clearly he's well loved and uh I just know he's going to do an amazing job and I hope uh Gustavo will enjoy his retirement. Um it's welld deserved. Um, I was really pleased with the retreat that we had uh last Saturday on the 31st. Um, I felt like hopefully we're moving in the right direction as a board and I think that anytime we can all meet together and be honest and open and discuss what needs to be discussed um is very very important. Um, I also uh was part of the lunchon today. I brought

137my lasagna and uh it was it was so gratifying to see how appreciative the teachers and staff were of just providing a lunch. And um you know, not that it's easy. It was a lot of work um to put together, but um they deserve to be noticed and appreciated and and uh praised and if it's a lunch that'll do it, then we'll do another one soon. So, um it was really very nice. Um I totally enjoyed it myself and I really encourage all of you to get in there and see those charts that are in the lunchroom. They're wonderful. Um, I was very excited, like Mike said, to uh receive my invitation to the senior project review. Um, it's amazing. It was my first time last time. Mike got me involved and boy, I I

138told him I said, "You make sure I'm on that list this time." So, anyway, uh, I'm really looking forward to that. And last but not least is tomorrow ACCBE is providing two workshops. One at noon on a deep dive on court and community schools and another one at 700 p.m. for special education. And there are some amazing speakers for both of them. So, I really really hope that um you'll you can still go in to the website and sign up or email Debbie Moss Ma uh us and she will send you the Zoom link. But really, really outstanding people. So, um anyway, thank you. >> Thank you. Um just gratitude and appreciation for the staff. Thank you. I know it's been a long day, but um just every day like even past this and working

139with our subcommittees and just everything that you do to support us to support us in our roles. So doesn't go unnoticed. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. I will end it now so we can go home. Um so item 13 is our adjournment. The next regular meeting will take place on Wednesday, February 18th, 2026 at 7