2026-01-14 Board Meeting

001Good evening. The January 14, 2026 meeting of the Sanonteo County Board of Education will come to order. As is our practice, this meeting will be recorded. I note that Marco Chavez, Deputy Superintendent, uh, Educational Services Division, is attending on behalf of Superintendent McGee this evening. The board provides remote access for members of the public and welcomes community members joining in person and remotely. 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. So, thank you to our interpreters Anna Cruz and Kimberly Larios for joining us remotely and happy new year. Um, for meeting attendees wishing to access the Spanish translation channel on Zoom, please click on the interpretation button on the menu bar. We ask all

002speakers to be mindful of the Spanish interpretation and speak slowly and clearly. Item 1B is the approval of the agenda. Is there a motion to approve the agenda? >> So, >> thank you. Is there a second? >> Thank you. There's a motion to approve the agenda made by Trusty Gerard and a second by Trusty O'Neal. 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, our interpreters, Miss Cruz and Miss Larios, will interpret following

003each 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 ex except for except under limited circumstances as permitted by law. And 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, we don't. >> Hard to see through all the hours. So, beautiful. Um, speakers are invited to make live comments and will have three minutes to speak. Please make sure to keep within the time limits. Uh, 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 your 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 do see one raised hand. Uh, Janice Palazari, you may speak. >> Good evening, board president Torres, uh, board trustees and deputy superintendent Marco Chavez. I just wanted to say happy new year to all and hope you had a good holiday and that's all I have to say for tonight. Thank you. Have a good night. Thank you. Oh, any other hands? >> I see no other hands.

005>> Thank you. Members of the public may also provide live comment in person. Deputy Supernate Chavez, are there any uh submitted cards for topics not on the approved agenda? >> No cards submit. >> Thank you. Um, public comment addressing a specific agenda item will be heard after the board's discussion on the item. If members of the public wish to speak to a specific agenda item, please use the 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 the boardroom and given to a staff member when completed. Um, for item 3A, Deputy Superintendent Chavez will make a presentation for school board recognition month. Good evening, uh, Sato County board members. Um, even though I've only been working closely

006or more closely with you, um, in the most recent months, um, it's already it already feels like I've gotten to know you at a deeper level. Um, I better know what you care about, uh, what motivates you, and how deeply you are committed to education. January is school board recognition month, and on behalf of the Satell County Office of Education, I'd love to take a few moments um to recognize and thank you for the work you do every day on behalf of students and families. And so, we have our little slide presentation. Um each of you came to the uh board at different times. Uh some of you more recently um and some of you have given decades of service um to to our uh county and our education system. So thank you very much

007for that. You can tell by the hairstyle sometime in some cases. Um and all of you came with for different reasons as you've shared um in different situations whether it's uh supporting programs for students who choose paths other than uh college helping uh more people understand the importance of education. Advocating um for students with disabilities. Supporting d uh underserved families. championing court and community schools or making sure our LGBTQ plus community is represented. You each bring something meaningful to this work. But despite the those difference those different paths and perspectives, you all share one important uh thing in common. You are all champions for education. Thank you for being champions for our youngest learners at the Anne Campbell Center. I know and our preschools across the county. I know that when we visit those classrooms,

008we all leave with smiles and um for all the great things that are happening with the most youngest learners. Thank you for being champions for our court and community school students. Again, when we visit the classrooms, when we engage with students, when we attend the graduations, we all can see the joy that that brings to each of you and the pride. And thank you for being champions uh for students with special needs, always keeping access, equity, and opportunity at the center of your work. Most of all, thank you for your leadership, your time, and your dedication to the students of Sonteo County. Accept a very, very, very, very special token of appreciation created by our very own students at Palos Veres. We've purchased, yes, we've purchased cuz it's a store for you. Freshly made soap

009should be in here in front of you that was made today. It is tagged with the name of the students that made it. You'll find inspirational pins for those days where you need that extra lift, you have look at that pin and smile and beautiful tote bags. I actually want one one of those beautiful tote bags again that were uh made u by our students uh for you to enjoy. Our student store is open. So if you need additional items, please let us know. Um it is a program that is designed for our students to to learn. Um, also we learned that our um at our special services site there um they would benefit from a picnic table for students to congregate outdoors. Um, and so on your behalf, we'll purchase a picnic table for

010that site. So, thank you for everything that you do and happy school board recognition month. Every day always feels like this and um today it's feels like this but even more and with flowers. So thank you. Um for item 4 a the board will take a brief recess to celebrate school board recognition month. Uh we will resume our meeting at um 7:25 uh p.m. Thank you. Sometimes it's great. Welcome back everyone. Um, thank you for the cake and celebration and it was great to connect with everyone after the break. Um we are now moving on to item 5A which is the introduction of ROHI coordinator information systems district business services business services division coordinator ye >> um good evening for President Torres. >> Oh you can move the mic down if you want. >> There

011you go. >> It's better. Um, good evening board president Torres, member of board and deputy superintendent Mr. Travis. My name is Rachel Yei and I'm the new information system coordinator. I bring over 10 years of experience in both a district and county level payroll and finance operations which has helped me to build a strong foundations in data governancy system integration and cross department collaborations. I joined SMCEE in 2024 as a senior payroll audit and financial analyst where I supported multiple districts by managing payroll audits, reconciliations and compliance. A significant part of my job was focused on payroll tax reconciliation and reporting ensure accuracy and timely filings. Prior to SMCEE, I spent nearly a decade with Jefferson Elementary School District where I progressed through payroll and my accounting roles. My responsibility includes processing payroll, reconcile payroll

012against the general ledger, prepare and reing finance and budget reports. I also partner closely with HR on position control to ensure staffing and budget stay aligned. Uh these combined experience have gave me a comprehensive understanding of the financial operation from both a payroll and accounting perspective. I believe my deep understanding of payroll rules, regulations, and my commitment to accuracy, integrity, and continuous improvement. I am excited to support SMCE and contribute to a smooth and efficient operations. Thank you. It's a pleasure to be here. >> Welcome. Thank you. Um, item six is the consent agenda. The consent agenda is not debatable and requires a unanimous vote for passage. An item may be removed from the consent agenda and placed on the regular order of business for separate discussion and action of any member of the board,

013the superintendent, or the public. So, requests. Is there a motion to approve the consent agenda? >> Is there a second? >> Second. >> Thank you. There's a motion to approve the consent agenda made by Trusty Leb and a second by Trusty Gerard. 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 7A, Chris Shouse, associate superintendent, educational services division, and Sarah Nosh, executive director, educational innovations, will provide the 2025 through 2026 local control and accountability plan, also known as our LCAP mid-year report, including information on student data, family engagement, and intervention programs for the Corton Community Schools. And the floor is all yours. >> Thank you. Good evening,

014Board President Torres, members of the board, and Deputy Superintendent Chavez. We are excited, yes, believe it or not, very excited about LCAP to be here to share with you our um midyear update um including information about um not just student data, but family engagement and our intervention programs um at the request of the board. So, we have a lot to share with you today. what we're going to go over. Um I'll give a refresher on the different components of the LCAP in preview of what you'll see at our um annual report at the end of the year. Then we're going to spend a little bit of time talking about the context and the differences between writing an LCAP for a district and for a county office. Um we will share um our four goals and

015highlighted metrics and progress that we've experienced so far throughout the year. and then we will turn it over to you for questions and feedback as part of our engagement process in developing um the update for the annual um and any potential changes to metrics or actions for next year. So when you get the full annual report, these are the elements that are included in the LCAP. So there's a lot of different sections. I know some of you are very familiar with it. lot of sections that talk about our school programs, provide um myriad information about um demographics data um and then also what we're doing to make those actionable. And in addition um you will get information about expenditures and um funding sources and increased and improved services. A quick reminder also about the LCFF

016priority areas. So districts when they write their LCAPs, they have eight priority areas and those are what are represented in that graphic. They're in three different categories. So conditions of learning, student outcomes, and engagement. County offices have two additional priority areas for expelled pupils and foster youth. And those are represented in goal four for us, which we'll go over in a little bit. the I think it was a last week, I believe it was last week, um, Associate Superintendent Shiao and I attended a county office of education LCAP writers workshop presented by county operated student programs in partnership with CDE. And at this uh workshop, it was a full-day workshop, Joshua Strong, who's an education administrator for CDE, actually presented this video. And we thought it was really important and kind of perfectly encapsulates why

017we have to make sure that we're picking the right tools, the right measurements, the right data points to really truly tell the story because alternative schools are exactly that alternative. So I will let the video speak for itself. Constantly coming and going. Some might only stay with you for a few weeks. How in the world do you measure their progress? And how do you prove that your school is actually making a difference? Well, this is the exact challenge facing California's alternative schools. And the way they're solving it is pretty brilliant. Let's get into it. And really, this is the question at the heart of it all. What happens when the very tools we use to track achievement just don't fit the students we're trying to help? How can we possibly know if we're actually helping

018them succeed? I love this analogy because it's just perfect. You know, a yard stick is a great tool. It's accurate. It's reliable, but it's completely useless for telling you how hot or cold it is. The tool itself isn't broken. It's just being used in the wrong context. And that is exactly what's happening when we try to apply standard school metrics to these non-standard schools. Right? So, let's take a closer look at why that standard ruler of school performance just completely misses the mark in these really unique situations. Okay. So to make this real, let's zoom in on a specific group of schools in California, the Juvenile Court and Community Schools, or JCC's for short. These programs are run by county offices of education. And you got to understand, by their very nature, they are worlds

019away from your typical neighborhood high school. And wow, when you put them side by side, you really see the difference. In a traditional school, you expect students to be there for the long haul. But in a JCCS, students are often there for a much shorter time. Their academic histories can be well pretty choppy and they move around a lot. The big takeaway here, their educational journey is anything but a straight line. So why would we try to measure it with a straight ruler? And because that journey is so different, all the usual metrics, they just kind of fall apart. I mean, how can you measure a 4-year graduation rate for a student who's only been with you for 6 months? It doesn't make any sense. Often the student populations are so small that the data

020isn't even statistically valid. These kids are on a different path, so we need a different map. Okay, so we've established we have different schools with different students, which leads to a pretty logical next question, right? Shouldn't we have a different way of thinking about accountability? So, you're probably thinking, if the main tools are broken, what do we do? Just throw our hands up and forget about accountability altogether? No, not at all. The solution, it turns out, is actually built right into the system. The entire key is hiding in plain sight in these two little words right here from the California Education Code, as applicable. It seems so simple, but this phrase is a total gamecher. So, what does applicable really mean? Well, in practice, it's the state basically saying, "Hey, we get it. We know

021that one size does not fit all." It gives county offices of education the power and the flexibility to say, you know what, that big statewide metric doesn't work for our kids. So, we're going to use something else that actually shows the progress they're making. So, how does this flexibility actually turn into tools that schools can use? Well, it's not a free-for-all. There's a real structure to it. The first major tool is something called the dashboard alternative school status or DOS. Think of it as a special note on the school's official report card. It's a flag that tells everyone, okay, this school is different, so we're going to apply a different set of rules here. So, on the official California school dashboard, these schools are clearly marked. And here's the crucial part. While the state calculates

022a special one-year graduation rate for them, it's for informationational purposes only. It's not a grade, it's not a weapon, it's a piece of information to help them learn and get better. That's a huge shift. But D is just the beginning. The real power of that little phrase, as applicable, comes from the choices you make about what data to use in the first place. And this is where things get really interesting. And this brings us to the core decision, the central choice that these county offices have to make. Do you use a standard statewide metric or do you build a local metric that's tailor made for your specific students and programs? This table really breaks it down beautifully. On one hand, look, if you have enough students and the statewide data actually tells a meaningful story

023for your program, great, use it. But if your student group is too small or that state metric just doesn't capture the real progress your kids are making, you have the power to go local. You can create a measure that truly meaningfully reflects your students journey. So, what does this actually look like? Here's a perfect example to make it concrete. Instead of relying only on those big annual state test scores, a JCSS program might use its own local tests maybe given every six weeks. This local metric can show a student's growth in a really short amount of time. Something that big once a year state test could never ever capture. And this really is what it's all about. This isn't about avoiding accountability. It's the opposite. It's about demanding a more honest, a more accurate, and

024a truer story of student success. I really want to be clear here. The goal is not to get a free pass or avoid being held accountable. The goal is to find that sweet spot, that perfect balance, to create an accountability system that is both meaningful and fair. So for the folks on the ground, the educators doing this incredible work, it all comes down to asking a few really smart questions, like what do we actually want to measure here? Is this metric even valid for our kids? And this one is so important. Does it show their growth over time, not just where they are at a single point in time? Because finding that right balance between the big picture data and the individual student story, that's what finally allows us to see these incredible stories of

025growth and resilience that were there all along just waiting for the right tool to measure them. >> And that leaves us with a pretty big question, doesn't it? If we can find a better, more thoughtful way to measure what truly matters for some of our most vulnerable students, well, why aren't we doing it for everyone? >> I know we've shared with you before that this state has used some of our um metrics and reports and presentations that we've given to you as examples for other juvenile court and community schools to show how we did a deep dive in accountability data. But it is um an incomplete story. And so one of the things that we're going to be focusing on as we move into the third year of this three-year LCAP and work on revisions

026is thinking about all of the measurements that we have. What's working? Keep it in. What's missing? Add it. And what needs to be changed? Adapt it. Just as we ask our our school programs to use improvement science and go through those cycles and adapt, adopt or abandon based on what's being told, we want to bring meaningful data to you and have meaningful data to access all throughout the year that informs our instruction and our programming. So, I hope you enjoyed that video as much as I did. I was so excited when I saw it because I thought it just so beautifully summed up our charge and how um it really is about finding the right tools. So, we'll jump into where are we at this point in the year. There are some metrics that we

027can't report out on yet that include things such as graduation rates or um metrics that were um intended for year three. So what we're bringing today for you is a sample of the most relevant metrics from each of the goals, but happy of course to take questions about any that you don't see represented and we can do our very best to bring you um meaningful information either tonight or we can get back to you with that. So goal one um is our academic access engagement and performance goal and it's here for you to read. Um, one thing that I do want to call out is that we still have Kemp included in um, our narrative, and that's because Kemp is currently a school with the CDS code. We would be the educational providers. It's not

028our school. We're not um, in charge of deciding if it's run or not. So, if probation decides to run a program, we would step back in, be the educational providers. if um camp is officially closed closed and no longer has a CDS code, it would not be part of our court and community schools LCAP. So that's why you see it there. And then here are some of the highlighted metrics for you. So let's see. Okay, so the first um is enhance parent and caregiver engagement. And we know that this is um a very important topic not only to our school teams but also to all of you. And so um we're really excited to share that there are a lot of different ways that our school teams are um getting creative. You might remember last

029year we had some attempts that were made that were unsuccessful and it really led us to dig into the why behind it and were we making things accessible? Were we creating the feel of a community? it's not a traditional school. Um and so sometimes that uh that community feel really is missing for some parents. They don't feel a connection. So um there have been multiple different things that have happened this year. One of the most exciting is that when we had our um December CTE, career technical education master class at Hillrest, we invited the parents and family members to come for the showcase and the students presented to their family members. all but two um family members were able to come. So, the two students that didn't have anyone there um our teams in probation

030jumped right in and stood in for their their families and were caring adults that um they were able to present to. Um and that was in partnership with with probation, which is um something I'm excited to talk more about in goal too. We've >> a process question. Do you want us to save questions to the end or do you want us to interrupt you? Um I would prefer till the end because I might okay fine. >> It's fun to know. >> No, I appreciate it. Thank you. >> Uh we also have our bilingual family counselor, our therapeutic providers, um academic counselor, special services teams, um and administrators and teachers who are reaching out regularly to families. Um we had conferences before school started. They were part of the development of the individual learning plans. They're

031getting quarterly updates. um and they're meeting regularly at Gateway, not just with our families, but also with the district um representation because our goal is always to have the eye on their transition back if that's what's right and best for them. So, there's been uh different methods that have been used. So, we're excited to see how that pans out at the end of the year in the annual report. And then, um we adopted with your um approval new curriculum last year. And so this year we're really focusing on fidelity of implementation and learning a whole new curriculum is a task. Learning too for some teachers is is a big lift. And so we've really committed to ensuring that they have um deep and meaningful and ongoing training for the curriculum. So you can see the

032dates of some of the trainings that we've done um so far this year. And this year we have three extra um non- studentent days for professional development. So we've made excellent use of those um and are trying to ensure that our our teams are supported and that we're making sure that the fit is right for our students. Um we always want to be data driven about that. One other area for um fidelity of implementation with curriculum and curriculum adoption is our staff had requested for us to look into something either in in addition to or instead of egeneuity uh which is our online um curriculum that's used um often for credit recovery. And um the theory is that subject.com would be more accessible and have more um adaptive abilities than egeneuity. So we are piloting

033that right now and if it's something that proves to be uh a good match for our students then we'll bring that back to you for adoption again either in addition to or in place of egeneuity. Uh the next metric we're bringing you is utilizing formative and summitative um curriculum embedded assessments. And the intention behind this is especially because our students are with us for in many cases short periods of time. We need to know in real time how they're doing, what they need so that we can adapt our instruction and support. And so utilizing the curriculum embedded assessments allow us to know what we need to change, add, adapt, how we need to support them. while they're going through the curriculum. Um, and so all of the students were given the Carnegie formative assessments, that's

034the math curriculum. Um, and we're also utilizing um the the actual assessments in the uh curriculum for the other subjects and um piloting with OICR, the Office of Youth and Community Restoration, the SIPs reading intervention. Uh I'm going to have more details about this. I know that was an area of interest, so I I did a little deeper dive on that. um but that's also giving us information about their literacy levels. So we're we're getting um math and literacy right away and then along um as they're instructing um all subject areas utilizing what's in the curriculum. Metric 1.8 is about um the individual learning plans and the development of those individual learning plans in a timely manner. Um we did have some unanticipated staff um absences and resignations in the beginning of the school year.

035So, we didn't hit the 10 days and we also were able to get them completed um for all of our students with engagement with the families. Um and so every student will have um an individual learning plan that is being examined and adjusted as needed. um calling out in particular Canyon Oaks. This is done in conjunction with probation because the students also have master treatment plans and so we always want to make sure that we're working in concert with other things so that we're um adding to and supporting rather than making something additional that might not make sense. Um jumping into SIPS. This is um a short video from Dr. for Michael Massa who is um the uh OICR administrator who is partnering with us and um just let him quickly tell you why OICR

036chose SIPs and then I'll run through um the elements of the program. We know that a lot of the juvenile justice involvement has to do with a lack of foundational academic skills. It's easier for young people at their developmental level to accept that they're quote unquote bad and will exhibit the misbehavior than exhibit the reality that they don't have the skills that their peers have. And that creates a trajectory. And we've heard about the school to prison pipeline. And that's one of those avenues that accelerates young people fully immersed into this school to prison pipeline because of the lack of foundational skills that they have to be competitive with their peers. It's not that there aren't intervention programs. There are, but these are all the programs that are designed for schools in the community that

037don't always translate to the juvenile court school setting. And so that's where partnerships like with collaborative classroom and looking at the SIPs intervention and and making the adjustments so that it fits the environment appropriately is so important because there is nothing else that exists. And especially for our our students who are functioning at that kindergarten through third grade level, the presumption by all other intervention material is we can just start at the fourth grade. by high school, they definitely at least are at the fourth grade level, but we now have data to show that that's not the case. I'm very protective of my students and over the years there have been myriad opportunities of people promising the world and so I've learned to do my homework and make sure that I do my part to

038make sure that the partnership >> Okay. So, Dr. Massa um actually approached us because of the workforce navigator position that we have. That's an OICR position, a grant that was given to probation, probation contracts through us. That's the work that Jonas Barber is doing. And he wanted to have representation of this pilot across the state in different counties. And so, we're really excited um to be able to see how this works for our students. Um I put the very long acronym um up at the top. That's what SIP stands for. I could not memorize it and I don't expect you to either. Um but this is just uh information for you about the key features and so it's traditional literacy intervention curriculum and within a juvenile court school um what we love about it is

039it's it's really targeted to our population as Dr. Massa said a lot of the intervention programs that are developmentally appropriate for older students assume a fourth grade level of literacy competency and that's not always the case. So this actually starts with first grade level but it is age and developmentally appropriate. So it provides dignity and interest um for our students and um right now it's at no cost to us. So OICR is providing the materials and the training to our staff so we'd be able to sustain it if we decide that it's something we want to bring to you for adoption. And the intervention cycles are on a 30-day focus because that is the length of time of the average stay at Hillrest. And so we want to make sure that if we're adopting this

040um curriculum or bringing it to you for for approval that it's not something that requires a more traditional longitudinal time um with the intervention program. So stay tuned for more information about that. But um it's a very exciting opportunity and then finishing out goal one. Um this is about developing um uh our ongoing um student monitoring and um our GPA and credit recovery uh percentages. So the thing that I want to highlight is that we have two committees um at Corton Community School. One is our MTSS multi-tered system of supports team and then a positive behavior intervention and supports or PBIS committee. You'll hear more about PBIS in goal two, but our um our staff is really taking um the initiative to ensure that we're building in mechanisms for those data review cycles to happen

041consistently. They're happening right now. Um but as we move into year three, we really want to see it happening every month as was um uh intended in our year three um timeline for LCAP. And so we're really really close to being able to launch that. So, we're excited to be on timeline for that. And then you have some data about GPA and credit recovery. Moving to goal two. Goal two is our social emotional learning and positive behavior interventions and supports goal. And here it is for you. One of the um areas that I want to highlight is the tremendously valuable, incredible um high-level partnership that we have with um coordinator Greg Fry in the safe and supportive schools team and um having the uh PBIS technical assistance center awarded to us for our region has

042been a great opportunity for um coordinator Fry to show that we're going to start inward and make our programs model programs and move out. So while he's supporting and the team is supporting other um districts and schools, he's really been dedicated to focusing on our court and community schools. So a shout out and a gratitude to him. Looking at the highlighted metrics, um the first one is about points awarding and for our um PBIS uh point system, we use fivestar and the intention is not to capture tally marks. The intention is to record when we're giving students behavior specific app praise so they know what to do, what works, and so we can also look at what they need support with. So our goal is to have a certain amount of points awarded daily by

043each staff member. Um we think that the data is going to be a lot cleaner coming to you at the annual because right now the practices that some staff members support staff enter on behalf of teachers and we can't tell. So now we have scanners um and UPC codes and or QR codes and all kinds of ways to get real time in the- moment data that will give us um not only more accuracy about who but also when um I spoke a little bit about the PDSA cycles for um academics. The same thing is um the expectation for um social emotional and behavioral support. And so um the PDSA cycles again are happening inconsistently and the committee is working to move that usage to more regular building in kind of what do we need to

044tweak and um change to make that happen. Um and the same with our student support forum. We want to be able to ensure that we're looking at a least tomost intervention structure. So we're we're intervening at a tier one level and then building up as needed. Um, and so we're moving our student support form to hopefully being entirely digital so that we can get better datas uh better data polls from um from that system so we know what we're working with in support from our uh data specialist who has recently is started and is phenomenal. Um this next one is really exciting because we um wanted to build capacity of our teachers and staff in implementation for SEAL social emotional learning and positive behavior intervention and supports um skills building. And when we think about

045who is a part of this work, it's everybody in the building. Every single person in the building um and that includes our partners at probation. And so one of the ideas that um coordinator Fry and Associate Superintendent Shouse had was why don't we bring our probation partners to the PBIS conference and why don't we develop a joint statement about what this means to us and how we're going to merge our systems to complement each other and there was really deep work that was done and continues to be done. Um we've always had a great relationship with probation but this really took it to a different level. So again, gratitude to coordinator Fry, Associate Superintendent Shouse for having that that vision. Um, and our our probation team is very excited about it as well. And then

046you have our suspension and expulsion rates. Um, which I won't go too deep into, but happy to answer questions if you have about have any. And I'm going to turn over to um, Associate Superintendent Shast to go over three and four. >> Good evening, board president and board of trustees. uh a few things within goal three. So that is our goal that is focused on CTE. Um as you recall, we're really looking to create pathways. So those are those three course pieces. We need at least two to make it completer. Um so as you as you look at our data and what we've looked at in the course of building the LCAP and then further forward, um a few of the key po components that I want to call forward because a tremendous amount of

047progress has been made um was the increase of students having access to CTE courses. So our our benchmark piece was looking at can we get at least 75% of our kids into access. So 100% of our kids this last semester at Gateway had access to CTE courses. Um we actually are uh incorporating we did a masterclass model um which is those 15 16-day models that you guys see some of the showcases with um up at Hillrest and now it's flipping uh to patient care also being run at Hillrest. So now we have a a teacher that will be offering that course as well. um which will give you again a 100% read of students having access to the CTE course. Uh again, within those courses, we really want to get it to two courses because

048that's that concentrator course that we're looking for for that pathway. You'll see that we've done the work in 3.2 to make sure that those courses are being developed so that when we get there, they're available to us. Um, and again, keep in mind as we're watching the data of how our kids are progressing, how well are they doing in these classes versus the traditional classes that we've run and are they continuing as as Sarah's, you know, suggested, is this still the metric and the measurement that we want to continue to move forward with. Um, and I will say coming through some of the preliminary data and you'll see some of the the GPA and and points here, um, we have a 100% pass rate in the kids that have taken those CTE courses still. So

049um you know the grade span is still distributed across D through uh A-ine for that pass rate um but substantially different than we run than when we run traditional courses. The other piece down there um and again this is not deployed yet at this point but we're on track and on pace to hit that goal which would be that our kids have access to work experience. What's interesting about this one is in working with CSM and and Skyline I almost said shoreline. uh in working with Skyline as well, one of the things that we've done is already put this in the portal so that when it opens and we get approval um which will be February, that would offer us the opportunity to be able to make sure that our kids are getting college credit

050in addition uh to making sure that they actually have that work experience. Um this would allow us to even do that at Hillcrest. So the conversation with probation would be what kind of jobs and opportunities may be at Hillrest. Um, when I was working in probation, there are different facility needs, whether that's laundry or or culinary pieces or additional things that students can help out with depending on how well they're doing. Um, and in this case, it would allow us to actually be able to contribute to uh true live payment for students completing those tasks effectively. Um, in which case that money would get put into their accounts prior to them leaving. Um, so again, great opportunities in opening up the value of being able to reward kids for that work and doing it well.

051Last two goal pieces within CTE, you'll see we're looking at increasing engagement as well as that chronic absenteeism. So, uh, there's a lot of factors that go into this, but what I will say is, and you can't see this yet because it will be in the final report, but what I can say is that's 90%. Uh, that is right on point with what you would get in an attendance line at many of our comprehensive schools. Um, and when I when I unpacked that and looked back within a year and a half of running different pedigogies and staff deploying different ways um of connecting with the kids in this area, we were at a 71% attendance rate and that is now at 90% and that's a year and a half. Um, so for those that have

052not worked in attendance, it is incredibly challenging even to get a 2 or 3% push. Uh so the idea that our kids are committed and the staff are committed um to really designing programming and relevant things that our kids want to come to school for. Um and I huge shout out to the staff that are on the ground really making that happen and trying something different. Um you'll also see in that last piece chronic absenteeism and again data with the cohort piece with this can be sometimes challenging but our baseline which is what we were hoping to get in that 2425 school year we had 70% of our kids come to us in chronic absenteeism. Um so when we get referred kids that was our number that was our threshold of baseline first semester you'll

053see to the right hand side 33% of our kids now. So huge movement in terms of kids showing up and reducing that chronic absenteeism piece that's happening um within our our schools as well. Goal four. So this is the unique goal. It includes our school programming folks, but it also includes our safe and supportive folks that are working with foster youth in the rest of our um in the across the rest of our county supporting foster youth. Our first two facing goals are really more reflective of us. Those two are under preliminary data pending. So one of the pieces that happens within our SIS systems, which is ARIES, is that it doesn't necessarily talk to foster focus. So foster focus is where the state um is really monitoring our foster youth. So we are working

054with our data teams to make sure that those data points are pulled over. We've run some of the data by hand, but in terms of making sure that we present accurate information, those preliminary pending pieces um we'll come back to you uh with them and we are intending to come back uh at the the next board meeting um to be able to have an additional piece to the the fluency of this. The last piece which is really facing our districts is related to the amount of training and support that other foster folks within those districts get as well. Um you'll see that their benchmark in their goal lines uh safe and supportive work in regards to 100% response rates that they're looking for in multiple areas there on the right hand side. They have met

055those metrics already. So there's no reason to believe that they would be off track um by the time we end the the end of the school year. And this is an area that's being developed. So, I know executive director Notch and Executive Director RV Zoo have been working with each other to say, is this the metrics that we want to use and is there something more meaningful for our kids across the county that we should be using for foster um in relationship to supporting and monitoring that? And with that, we will thank you for the time and then open for questions which I'm sure that that we have. >> Thank you. Are there any comments or questions from the board? Trusty L. Thank you. Uh thank you very much. That was um a great presentation

056and hearing the data on attendance um change is just wonderful and I think it all goes to engagement which I think is really stepped up. I have been in classrooms where I've seen things that didn't feel like an engagement and I've been in classes where I've seen it and so I think it's making a difference. So thank you for all of that. Um and the literacy work really important. Um, I just had a couple questions. Um, one, this is maybe not directly related, but I am curious where we are with finding a student for our board. >> I can respond to that. Um, Ian, um, Bane and I have a meeting scheduled with the youth commission that's coming up um, next couple of days so that we can um, work on on that process. but

057also we're developing the process for um our student programs and so that's still in under development. Um I think I'll I had a conversation with um President Torres and um uh Vice President Gerard um and it seems like that there's a pleasure of the board to even if if we have to start with the with the um student trustees in the middle of the year that there's interest in that. So, we're moving in in that direction. >> Okay. Thank you. That's important work. Um, another question I had um was um I noticed when I looked at the Stark like there's seventh graders. Do we have seventh graders and eighth graders that in Hillrest right now or younger than high school? Because everything we hear about is about high school and credits and but educating a

058seventh and eighth grader is a different game. >> Absolutely. And it uh that's a great question. Thank you. It also um has an impact on the metrics. One very specific example is we don't offer credit recovery for middle school. That's a high school function in our um >> in our program. So we did separate out middle school and high school. We do have some middle school students right now. Um and I'm un unsure of the length of time that they're expected to stay. Sometimes we don't know until they get released. Um, but we do have uh the capacity to serve middle school students um as well as high school students. So, so when it when it makes a difference, you'll see that data pulled out um so that it's not impacting the high school rates.

059Um if we put in 0% for credit recovery, it would pull the average down, right? >> So, we try to um delineate that and we do that for um Canyon Oaks as well. >> Okay. Okay. And then um another question. Do we have I know one of the goals was to really look at long-term success of the students who have been through our programs. Do we have any progress on that? I'm curious. >> I think a couple of things. One, yes, we're getting more of the summitive reports. So I think as we come back with the next update piece prior to the final so that you'll have another opportunity to see you'll have more of what's happening within the ILP and the progress measurements but you will also see the work that is actually being

060done by the workforce navigator piece too. So within Jonas's work of the transition pieces back with students that are connected and some are released to the community and they are done with high school. Um but there is also a monitoring piece that he's putting in place to see what ends up happening with our kids. Um, so he'll actually be able to present additional information that wasn't necessarily a driver in the LCAP, but now may actually be something that we want to look at to say, should we be monitoring it in this way? Because it's a metric that is incredibly valuable to see which resources they actually are connected to long term as well, which it allows us to see what referrals were placed for students for support, which ones they're using or their parents are

061using. Um, so he's doing incredible work uh in relationship to really looking at those transition pieces too, which I think may be a track that is of interest. It's definitely of interest to us. We do think it's going to be of interest to the board as well in terms of seeing that longevity of how are our kids really doing and from a whole child perspective of are they attached to the resources and receiving them. >> Thank you. Oh yeah, >> one thing to add is that um for any of our students who have IEPs who graduate, we have a requirement to collect post-secondary data to determine um their outcomes the the year following their um graduation. So that's happening with our um our students with disabilities, which we know is a high percentage. Um but

062I'm so glad that you brought up um the workforce navigator position because that um our intention is to make sure and it's happening. It's more than an intention. our practice is to make sure that all students have that support and um in the immediate transition and then ongoing. So long answer, short answer, yes. That's great. Thank you. >> Thank you, Trusty Benini. >> Um thank you for the presentation and for adding in all the extra things. Um that was great. Um I wanted my I have some other questions, but just based on what Trusty Love asked, I wanted to ask a question about the um the outward transitions. Um, I know that was something that we talked about in the gateway design discussions and I I don't think it got um kind of elevated as

063much as maybe we need to. Um, but I'm curious about um Jonas's role. I we you know, we've met with him when we visited. We've seen all the programs. We sort of know he's working with do and they're doing some really important things. But what I don't know is whether there is someone whether it's Jonas or someone else who's doing um sort of um what I would call like the handholding of the students when they go back. Yeah, we want to know whether they're connected, but are they if they are to be going back to school, are they getting there? Are they getting settled in? Is there somebody's who who oversees that? And that so that's my first question. >> Sure. So we are not where I would expect us to be in that measurement

064too. So, I do remember having the conversation during the reimagining piece of what would it look like to make sure that our kids do make it back to the district. Um, we do follow up. So, the counselor is following up making sure that the enrollment pieces are there. Our administrators are talking to the directors of student services and those that are um integral in taking a student back in on re-entry. There is an additional legislative piece with AB 1230 that is going to require our districts and the district boards on their side to actually monitor these pieces too to prevent that dropout or that enrollment piece that could be lost in transition. Um but in terms of it being somebody directly from gateway lens back to districts at this point we don't have anybody lifting

065that work at this point. Um, I think there would be divisions and conversations around that with our bilingual coordinator and potentially our youth um, development specialist, but at this point there isn't anybody assigned directly to that work of transition for our kids coming out of Gateway. >> Okay, that that's helpful because um, as we're asking questions about all everything's interconnected, right? And so as we're talking about things like um in our budget committee session, just as an example, one of the things we'll talk about it later when we do a report out, but is finding what um what are the priorities that we want to help uplift and so I think that that is going to be, you know, maybe on the list now, you know, so it's helpful. That's helpful information. >> Yes. and

066and the the grant parameters around Jonas's work really being held by by probation in this case, it does limit the ability for him to be able to to work with students that don't necessarily qualify. So essentially any student moving into Hillrest little easier to qualify that because they are justice impacted directly. Um but in working with Gateway students, there is a different threshold um before he can kind of move into that space or potentially even take on that additional piece. and with his role right now, even with the transition service that we have seen effective for our Hillcrest kids, um that is another year out. So, we will lose funding in that piece from probation to be able to supply that transition service to in about a year. >> Okay. Is it is it something

067that might renew or is it just going to have to be re >> It's a grant piece through probation itself. So, it came out from the state of California to probation departments. Um, and then they connected with us to say, is this something that you guys can do? Um, they didn't have the capacity to do it for themselves at that point. Um, but I I don't know that it will renew. I will say that we're one of about eight, I believe, that are involved in this particular project. Um, uh, and it's with AMD and a few others that are actually vendors within probation. Um, so I have a feeling with OICR's work and how they're trying to triangulate really trying to get nonprofit and services um that can stabilize juveniles. Um, I think they probably

068will extend it, but it should be something that we should look at in terms of planning and see is it effective and is that something we want to keep doing. >> Thank you. And then um so my um one of my main you know focus my main focus on a lot of things is this literacy piece right so for years we were asking about this and what are we doing and you know we're we do a lot to support the students and their curriculum and so I have a zillion questions about it really but um first I just want to say I'm so grateful that it's happening that we're at least starting to this focus because I think um we've we've talked about it so much like that it it's definitely a need and we're

069listening to Mr. Masa and he's saying we know this is we know this is part of how students end up there and I think we all a lot of us think that um so that was kind of great to to I guess get that reflection there. So my questions around it um a lot of them were answered actually like why SIPs and this and that but um really I I'm interested to know uh what we know so far like are we do we see any trends for our students because I know we have our own obviously our own population. Are we um is it what we think are they lower in the literacy levels? That's one of my questions. Um, and then you they t you touched a little on training for teachers and who

070how this is happening or training for somebody. So my questions are really like I want to just know more about it and maybe it's not all in place yet. So it might be coming but my questions are like who's getting trained? Is it is it just at Hillrest or is it happening with other um programming? Is it at are we doing this at Gateway? Um uh what is the long you know long term of this? And then also kind of a a budget piece because of course I'm looking around what other people are doing and I I sent a note to somebody um because there was an article about Alama County who's also doing the SIPs and then they're like you know hiring a literacy specialist and kind of having someone own it. So like

071who owns it? That's another question. That's a lot of questions. But it's really just like can you tell us a little bit more about what what that is and how it's maybe going to be sustainable and who it's touching and how it's working. >> Sure. And if I missed anything, just jump back in. Um >> it is it is very important and and I'm glad that we're able to do um something with such depth. One of the um biggest in fact I think it's the biggest um uh impact to the reduction of recidivism is uh literacy and graduation. And so um it is definitely a priority area. Right now the person who is holding it is really OICR. So it's the OICR team. are in the process of training and implementation. Um their um focus

072for this pilot is um Hillrest, but I did talk to Dr. Masa about we have two other Corn community schools. Would we be able to train staff and roll this out across all of our schools? And he said absolutely. Like the data that they will collect will be for Hillrest because they're trying to get that statewide um juvenile court school um information. Um, so that will expand um into Gateway and Canyon Oaks training. Um, and it really only applies to students who are below a fourth grade literacy level. So, it's not going to be all of our students. It's going to be a very targeted population of students who wouldn't benefit um or be able to access other intervention programs. Um, but the key feature is it's age appropriate as well as de developmentally appropriate,

073which is so important. Um, remind me of some of the other questions. I'm so sorry. >> Um, no, that was a lot. And then I I'm just going to add one more and then I think I'll be done with my questions for now. But you know um I was doing a lot of research in the last year on on this specific topic like adolescent literacy and we're focusing on it with SMC SBA. We're doing something next month or is it next month? Yeah, it is next month. >> And um I know Sacramento has like Sacramento or Sacramento County Reads. So they're they have a huge focus on this. They're doing a training in a few weeks and you know um so I wanted to share that. I I don't know if you all know about

074it but anyway I I'm really just um so focused on on you know making the the impact for this. So, I just, you know, I want to make sure that we're that we're supporting it and and that when we're talking about it being um with dignity and all the other things when you talk about adolescents having to kind of backst step and we have a different population, but it's happening in a lot of other schools, too. So, not backstep, but like bolster what their their skills are. And a lot of the discussion happens around um what we you talk about all the time like scaffolding it into how do you use that in their actual curriculum and all of that. And so that's you know my my hope is that it's more of that. Um

075but that's obviously another whole whole piece. But um is that part of what you're trying to um hopefully maybe build it into? >> Yes, absolutely. And um at the next board meeting, I can bring more information to you about literacy interventions across all of court and community schools because that's a priority area for principal Sam and um assistant principal Arenas. And um they've been doing some really cool stuff with the students. So I can bring more detailed information about that at the next board meeting. But um and of course we have the wonderful Mrs. Chris Cannon who um has made literacy and reading for pleasure so accessible to our students that if we ever schedule something during their library time, we hear about it. And so it's lovely to have youth who want to read

076at whatever access point that is and our job is to make sure that everybody has an access point. >> I think just to to add a piece that's really unique to SIPS as well and as you guys experience it and see some of the lessons that will be up there as well. Um, one of the thing that is really unique to it and I' I've come out of a SIPS district, uh, which we had vertical alignment within this, but what I will say is very unique about it is because you can do it by skill base and smaller groups and pull outs. We have our paras also going through the training um, which is incredibly different paradigm shift in terms of how we deploy folks and supports in classrooms. But many of the skill pieces

077within SIPS aren't just about the direction direct instruction process. It is about the practice and the fluency and the phmamic awareness that students practice with somebody and that can be done through paras and others. So um you know our our site leaders are very conscious of this. So they do have our paras involved in the process too. Um which would allow for us to have some flexibility with that in that classroom and skillbased that we could have a teacher and a parah working uh with two different level pieces or skill bases of sips in the same classroom as well. Okay. >> Thank you Trusty Alvaro. Thank you. Thank you for the presentation both of you. I would try not to get emotional talking about SIPs. Um because I know at least you have heard me

078rant. I've been doing it for decades. Bev knows um that our kids don't read well enough and that the spiral of they don't read well enough, they fail in school, they act up, they get further back, it it's just it's it's obvious and it's there. And I've spent enough time around these kids as a as a group, you know, to know that this is real. the idea that they're saying, "No, these kids don't come in reading at a fourth grade level by default. They read where they read and some of them are reading at kindergarten level and we can have kindergarten level books that aren't insulting to them." That's just amazing to me and I'm so grateful that you're able to make that partnership and that you're doing that work with them. Um, just an

079idea that occurred to me because as you as I know you know Christa, I do a lot of work with the as a volunteer with Sonteo County Library System teaching adult literacy uh especially English learners. That's what I'm doing. But there's a whole program and I'd be happy to connect you with the right person that's doing literacy at the library level in communities all around the county. So that perhaps as some of our kids transition away from us, they could be tied right in to a a one-on-one tutor, for instance. There's a lot of that going on. or or an additional literacy program to just keep bringing them along rather than you did a great job. We got you up to fourth grade level and now you're graduating. Just that sort of thing. So, I'd

080be happy to tie you into the the person in charge of those programs. >> Absolutely. I think any anytime we have leads or things that we can investigate and see if it's a match for our students and absolutely we'd be willing to take the information. >> All right. I'll connect you with >> Trusty Gerard. Um, yes. I had a I had a question because I know that in the evaluations that we do with our students to find out what the different levels are um that a lot of times in the past there was so much resistance from the students that it was uh really hard to get a read on exactly where they were and um what they knew or did not know or how they were doing or not doing. with this new process.

081Um is that helping to improve um the cooperation between the students and the teachers so that we can get a more valid um read on where they are. >> I like to take turns. Um, I think of it as assessment stealth mode because it's very different than sitting a student in front of a computer adaptive test and saying, "Now you're going to do this thing." And they're like, "I'm not really invested in this thing." And it doesn't give us any information that's actionable in some cases. Um, by using the curriculum embedded assessments, we're doing it as part of their instruction. So it doesn't um appear as this extra thing that is going to um you know in in many cases our students get the adaptive part of those kind of traditional assessments and when they

082see the level going down in response to answers they've given it's completely defeating and you lose all buyin. So, um this is our way of not only allowing um for I mean we keep coming back to dignity, right? Like more dignity and how we're getting that information, but um also more timely and more specific so we can tell in whatever unit we're working on, this is where they are in the skill set that's necessary to work through that unit and make our adjustments. So, yes, I think it's definitely way more uh informative and valid um data. So, we're excited about that. >> So, am I great? >> I think that's wonderful. Um, when you get a student, uh, a high school student that comes in and they l literally are, and we know it happens

083at a kindergarten, first grade, second grade level in their literacy. Um, how are they reacting to um the new program? Um, I mean that would be a reason for a kid to shut down, right? They they would be embarrassed. And with the new program, is that taking some of that embarrassment away of them knowing where they are? They all know what they can and can't do. And does that help? Because I I it concerns me. I mean, poor kid, you know, it's not their fault, but if they're at that level, they really need they desperately need help. Yeah, I think that's the beauty of even even our courses that are run through CT and other pieces is that you're seeing students strengths that they don't get to display when they come to us. So, you're

084automatically building somebody's resilience and saying, "I can see you and I can see what your skills are and your talents are." Um, and within the curriculum of what they're already using and experiencing with their teachers and then they get to talk about that differently or demonstrate their learning differently. Um you you guys have been to the showcases. You know that some are more elevated in their their um ability to be able to articulate that in writing um or presentations, but I think this is the growth piece of saying when we get our kids, we have to give them a place to start and we have to completely champion them for all of the pieces that come forward and what we get. And I think um what we have seen and hopefully what you guys have

085seen as you've guys have gone out is this increase in the kids being willing to give a little bit more each time. And I think that's coming very much so from a nurturing and caring staff that is saying this isn't ideal. This isn't exactly where I want to be with the rigor level, but the kids are bought in. They're showing up, which is a huge piece of this with that attendance piece and the chronic absenteeism. And that allows us to keep pushing forward with that next piece. So, um I I'm seeing the results. And although sometimes I go out and and staff as well were like, "Oh man, I wish we could have even more urgency and push this through, that's not what happens." And when we have kids that have been failed in a

086system, got all the way to 9th or 10th grade, and then land with us, it is our job to be nurturing and caring and hold them as whole child. So, I think giving them some experiences that we can see the talents that you do have and wherever you're at, you get to progress and we're going to reward that and see that. Um, I'm I'm seeing that in the curriculum pieces, the hands-on pieces, the CTE pieces. Um, and I think that very much so is just testament to the staff saying they've always cared deeply about our kids. Now, they have some materials that they can also use with the kids to help engage them in a different way. I'm gonna um take the hands-on part of your answer and expand a little bit because I saw

087something incredible at our um professional development day when we first came back. Um I spent all day with court in community and um we were doing an example or um a had a question where you turn talk to your partner and I was sitting next to coordinator Fry and we were talking and all of a sudden our attention was completely um turned to one of our staff was playing with this hand with really long nails and I thought what in the world is that? And um so we asked and what we got was a perfect example of universal design for learning allowing for multiple means of expression because our students know things and if we are not taking into account the way that we're measuring and whether the measurement itself creates an impact to their

088ability to show us what they know, we're missing the mark. And so um our teachers at Gateway had created um this um alternate assessment or or assignment for one of our students. I'm sure you've um you remember the students who love manicures and nails >> and so there were the nails were about this long very very big and they just you know um and we were looking at the detail and the assignment was um I believe it was for social studies and they were taking um some period of time and the assignment was create nail art that represents what you know about this and then present it and it was so detailed and so incredible and mindblowing that um I think that's one of the most special things about our staff is that all the

089challenges that they have with multi-grade level classes and students coming in at different academic levels they are just masters at figuring out what do you need and how can I get it out of you. So um the next time that you visit Gateway I would encourage you to ask to see the hand because it was really a thing to behold. >> That's amazing. Thank you. >> Thank you. >> I I just have one more quick question. >> Everybody's saying hurry up. Um but it's about CTE. Um do we have designated teachers for CTE at both Gateway and Hillrest? >> Yes. No. Uh so this is where how it's currently working. So right now our two So we had um Janice as well as Kirby. So John Kirby and Janice Pelazari, they actually went back um

090did their certification so they have their CTE credentials as well in actually multiple areas. So we're allowed to kind of deploy different pieces. This is something we need to keep having the conversation with staff as to what may be in their background that could qualify as well. Um the first semester we had uh both at Gateway that was intentional. We were keeping staff as whole as possible. Um this semester we did have um a personnel piece at Hillrest happen where our science teacher is not with us currently. Um which opened up an opportunity and a conversation with staff about how might we meet that need. Um and that came back with looking at um John Kirby doing a patient care piece right now with Hillrest. So we do have him moving to Hillrest uh two

091periods a day I believe um to be able to support patient care. um first couple of days have gone incredibly well um but we had to move through the process of getting the materials up there as well. So right now you're seeing those two pieces. We do run master classes at both campuses still through one of the grants. Um but in terms of having dedicated staff at each one right now. No, we're not at the place where we have enough pathway function to be able to get them stable at all sites. >> Thank you. I'll be I'll be very very quick to add that um as part of uh one of our grants, our CTE grants, we're exploring how to bring that to Canyon Oaks as well because the structure of their school day is

092very different and that they have academics half day so they have therapeutic activities. So we're um we are exploring how can we bring access to um Kenyon Oaks in a meaningful way that um could just be different for them. >> Well, thank you so much for the report this evening. It's wonderful and it's uh very encouraging. Um, so thank you. Thank you so much both of you. >> Thank you, Trusty Adas. >> Thank you. Well, I just want to say that most of my questions have been answered, but I by being the last, but I definitely want to say uh u make sure that we really uplift every person who's involved in this. I appreciate you come and bring the report and and you do a lot of the work, but I can only imagine

093you were talking about how specific, you know, um individuals within the schools just pour their heart in this. And when you talk about universal design for learning, I was like, okay. So I was going to mention it as a special education teacher you have students who have completely different levels of reading and and you know uh you go back into everybody's mentioning the word dignity right the students are the same age so they lived in this world for this many years regardless of how their you know capacity of uh or supports that they've had to be able to be in math and and you know literacy levels but uh their knowledge and understanding of life and things that they they are interest when you do student center is like it blooms and and when you

094talk about CTE I'm really excited I know that this is you know is is work in progress so I'm excited but I really look forward what's going to come in um I do have one question in the goal number two when we when you have um support students in skills building to improve safe and uh pro-social choices. You have the desired outcome reduce disciplinary incidents in office referral by 20%. I was wondering what's the best baseline what are we reducing from 20%. So right now um we're setting the baseline this year um and we're using the student support form submissions to measure um the the rate of referrals. The intention being if we are providing students with um behavior specific praise, we're doing all the instruction in social emotional learning and and kind of pro-social

095behaviors. um we are going to see uh situations that would potentially require uh in the past a disciplinary referral or result in be able to be handled at the classroom level um and or see and you know a steady extinction of some of those behaviors because of the skills building. So it's the best way. It's hard to measure behavior because you're looking for something you don't see. Um and so that's our that's our best tool. So, we're trying to use the thermometer instead of the yard stick to say we know um so so using the um student support form will help us set that baseline and then in year three we can really look at how um we're reducing. >> Yeah. And and just a comment like you mentioned behavior is a way of communicating.

096Right. So our students are communicating through their their behavior. So I was wondering when you if you can explain more about the student support form like what's in the form what what is it that you're getting from those incidents and reports in the student form. >> Sure. >> It's your turn. Do you want to take it? >> Okay. >> So this actually was designed um it's used uh primarily in a TFI. So tiered fidelity inventory. It's aligned to PBIS and the idea behind it um they call it SWIS but there's factors that you look at. So you look at where the location of the behavior happens. Um, I see Hugo's nodding. Uh, you look at the location of where the behavior happens, how many folks might be involved in the incident. So, you're actually looking

097at the parameters of what it may potentially be setting up the behavior. So, if you end up with office referrals that are indicating um always the same location, always the same teacher, but these things aren't necessarily happening other places, then it opens up the conversation to say, so what is happening here that's working for the student and what might we be able to put in place over here so that they aren't in that position. Um, but essentially what it looks at is what are the supports that we've tried? Um, is this a place where we need to help retach the expectations? Does the student really understand um what they're being asked to do? But the idea behind it is that uh no longer should office referrals be a punitive function. It should be a way

098of communicating to us what may the teacher have tried, what did other staff try, >> is there something going on that this is Edith's been fine for three quarters and now fourth quarter something's going on and we're getting an intake of office referrals. That's a sign of behavior for us as well. So within that support form, it actually indicates to us it may be new behavior. It may be something that we've never seen from Edith before. Um but it also may be something that we've seen, no, this is actually moving in a direction where it's only in specific areas. So let's let's call her and let's have a conversation and see if there is something maybe we need to increase check-in and checkouts. Maybe additional mental health supports and check-ins with ESS are um a

099priority. So, it really does match and that's what the form is intended to do is elicit information about what's been tried um and also allow us to be able to connect with the student to say let's have a conversation about this. Um but but really gone are the days of using office referrals for the necessary piece of punitive function. It's really a a form for us of getting information about what's happening in the behavior so that the site administrator and the teacher can talk about what might next steps be or how do we approach this differently. >> And a followup, does the form by any chance provide or maybe after the incident or what you're going to be looking at um family environment and situations that like you said it was behaving well all of

100a sudden, you know, now you see it in every classroom maybe, right? or certain uh classrooms where it triggers what's happening at home or something that just happened the family or to the student, but we don't know because they're not telling us as teenagers, right? >> Family contact and engagement is on there as one of the support level pieces to to do outreach to or have we communicated with the family that we're seeing something different as well. And sometimes it's a result of family environments, sometimes it's a result of not knowing, right? Um but yes, family engagement is a piece on that form that indicates how we communicate with family or are we getting information from family that we should be aware of. >> Great. I appreciate that because there are areas as um immigration

101status or domestic violence where students might not going to report and they're not going to tell you what's happening at home and that might be interfering with their behavior at school. Right. So, I appreciate that you're thinking of uh all the possibilities >> and and I will say the the staff is on it and very strong about the approachability. Um there's been times that I've shown up to the office and walked in and a kid is in a very deep conversation with one of our administrators or our teachers about something that's very vulnerable. Um and that testament to the environment that they've built. Um, so I think a lot of pieces probably aren't even hitting. I'm actually questioning whether the metric will work or not because I don't think we're going to need the forum

102as frequently because our kids are very much so communicating those needs with our staff directly at the moment >> and knowing that it's a delicate subject because we, you know, mandated reporters, right? So, it's um complicated, but I appreciate it. >> Yes, I appreciate it. And then lastly, I just want to um on your second page uh you talk about um pupil suspension rates. Uh so the desired outcome is fewer than five suspensions and I see Gateway, Hillrest, Kenyon in there. So Hillchrist has four suspensions which is you know under your um desired outcome. I was just wondering what happens when this suspension for students uh is there any future opportunity or what happened with the suspended student at Hillrest? >> Sure. So Hillrest and and this will be an area I'm not actually sure

103we're going to meet the metric in by the end of this year. So if we're at four and we're at midyear, this may actually be over R5. Um so that is something that we'll watch and and I think there's an appropriateness. So, when we do need to suspend and it's a last resort function, especially at Hillrest, then that's what we'll do. Um, but I think in in honoring this particular case, the number of suspensions that we're actually looking at, that also could have been one uh youth that may have had been experienced some challenging um events. So, you know, again, when you look at the number of suspensions, it isn't necessarily always for students. That's the number of incidents that were suspended. Um so what we typically have done in order to make sure that

104a student also receives work on unit etc as long as the student is safe. So we we do have to work with probation >> to make sure that in general >> a suspension is coming from something that became so unsafe um in in Hillrest that they needed to remove the student from the school setting. Um in general that hasn't been multiple days. If it is and probation assesses it and says it's too much of a risk to bring the student back on, our staff has worked with the administration there to say can we go on the unit to make sure that we provide work or do check-ins. Um this is one of the reasons about 3 years ago we were in CSI for so uh comprehensive school improvement pieces around suspensions. This is much lower.

105I don't anticipate that that's going to be the case. Um, but we do provide services on unit. Uh, whether that is additional work or somebody working with the student. It could be just an assignment that someone's filling in. Um, but they do outreach on the unit when we end up in that situation. >> Okay. Well, thank you. That concludes my questions and I just again thank you very much for all the work that you're doing in the report today. >> Jesse Benini. >> Oh, I just wanted to ask one follow-up question to what Edith was just asking. um in terms of the suspensions or that that data and I remember that prior data. Um I think what I heard you just say but maybe cl I want to clarify is sometimes it's um probation's making

106that decision not our not our teachers right maybe is that accurate >> we're the only ones that can make the decision to put a suspension on the list I guess if you were to look at the technicality of how we're coding it but by law if we remove a student from their placement in education which they're supposed to be with us that would be a suspension um in this case the administrator was working with the administration at uh juvenile hall. Uh student became unsafe in the classroom. It impacted other students um and they actually needed to remove the student um which kind of led to a suspension from that point. So it is it's not a joint decision. It is us uh and we move to try to get our kids back in as safely

107as possible to do so. But if there is something else that happens on the unit in addition >> and they can't have a student, there could also be a non-cont because of whatever happened in that in that group. So, we have to kind of renegotiate where might that student be better placed? Is there another classroom that we have? Um, we try to move them back into re-entry as quick as possible. Um, but it isn't probation saying we're suspending on this. It's only us that can suspend. Um, but in that environment, they will tell us if it's unsafe to have that student working with another student. It sounds like it's um part of and parcel of that relationship that you have with them. Like you have to be able to have those conversations, I'm guessing. Um

108but I do appreciate I didn't realize that if the students are out that we would actually have a mechanism or a person some process that would um make sure they're getting their education. >> And it wasn't always like that. This is something that we did learn during CSI time, which was um we actually ended up hiring a a specific teacher on special assignment that would support this area because it was something that triggered on our dashboard and the suspensions were much higher than they currently are. Um so that is also testament to the relationship with probation and working out hang on a second like is it really at the level and can we get them back into school? Um, but our staff have continued that work of saying if it's possible and when it's possible,

109we'll absolutely go on the unit to be able to make sure that they're still getting materials. >> Yeah, I appreciate that. even like I'm just want to like add the the layer too of that I you know I've learned through um some of the data that I've seen through you know our sources and others that most of our many most of our students have IEPs and so then I'm worried about FAPE and I'm worried about them you know if it's related and I mean it's Hillrest but >> it's that's complicated and I think we have to make sure that we're giving them their >> it is and we do follow the same pieces and protocol in terms of like if it does trigger a manifest because we don't want things sitting on kids records either

110like they sit in our student information system. So for us, if we believe that it is attached to uh a disability, we'll have the staff look at was it a manifest um of the behavior so that we can make sure that we're doing the right thing for the students records as well. >> Thank you. >> Other comments or questions from the board? Um are there any comments from the public? No comments from the public. Thank you. Thank you for um taking turns and modeling shared leadership. Um Chris, you're not free. For item 8A, we have Chris Shou, associate superintendent. Oh, there was no action to take on that item. I can't remember if I said that. Um we're moving on to item 8A. Chris Shouse, associate superintendent, Educational Services Division, is present to answer any

111questions the board may have regarding the 2024 to 2025 Sonteo County Office of Education School Accountability Report Cards, um, also known as Sarkcs, um, for the Court and Community Schools and Special Education Pro programs that was published in the 2025 through 2026 year. Um, associate superintendent Sha, >> I'm actually going to keep this probably your briefest item. um and for good cause. So, this is actually what Sarah and I were referring to in terms of the metrics that come up. So, you saw and I'll call forward all of those little dash lines. So, just a reminder, we are from a compliance standpoint, we do have to bring this for public consumption and where we may be at. The issue with all of the data is what we've repeatedly said, which is that it is statistically

112insignificant, which is why you're seeing those double dashes. If we don't have at least 10 students in each one of the categories reported, it essentially is throwing um what I would refer to as an error. So, it's not going to report it. U so for perfect example, you'll see our graduation rate. You guys were at graduation. You know, we graduated kids. Why is it zero? Because we don't have enough kids in that category. We didn't graduate 10 in that specific location. So, that's why you're seeing um those zeros across the board in areas. I think a couple of pieces that I do want to highlight. Um, Edith to to your point, staff put a lot of work into these. So, these do move through different departments to make sure that the information is accurate. Uh,

113special uh thanks to Clarissa Tom who supported the work in pulling the data from Calpads and those pieces as well as Natasha uh who does the gathering and harvesting from our other departments to make sure we get the initial data in. Um, but I think a couple of things that would probably not be shocking to you other than the fact that we are low with those number percentages. We do have more males than females across the board within all of our school programs and the disparities that you're seeing whether it's special services, Hillrest or Gateway still remain with our ethnic groups. So, Hispanic populations are still um well high, most of them being about over 80%. Uh you'll also see English learners uh and students with disabilities with I I believe one of them even

114being at 27% which is extremely high uh of a program to be running almost 30% of that at disabilities. Um so again factors in communication with our feeder districts and things that may happen with our gateway kids can't necessarily control all of the the the pieces within Hillrest. But I do think these are factors that continue to be something we need to partner with our districts on um when it comes to the gateway pieces specifically. But I will open it for questions in regards to your SARS. >> Thank you. Uh comments or questions from the board? Jesse Benini? >> Um thank you. I have a couple of questions. one um one really just has to do I want to first acknowledge the prior presentation and the data and whether or not that data is useful

115or not. Um although you know it it could have some utility. I understand we're not um we're not reporting it doesn't get reported for the reasons that it's not you know enough students. Um my my question around that is um there is there's some data that's gathered and it may or may not as I said be helpful. Is that being looked at in some way? Um are you sharing it with um and making decisions with any part of that data with staff or uh leaders there or teachers? Um and if you are so it's a prep paired question then is there some way that we could understand kind of the trend in a space that's not public because we understand why it's not reported is because it's so such a small it's not just it's

116insignificant it's because we don't want it to be identifiable right and so um is there um a way has it ever been done do any counties like share that with boards in closed session or something in a way where we could see it. We've asked this before, but we just didn't get any kind of traction around it. So, I'm just curious and if you're not really concerned with it and you're not even using it, do we need to do that? I don't know. But I'm just wondering. >> I will say we do use it. So, but what usually happens is we know our kids. So, if there's about 10 kids or eight kids in this case in certain areas, as soon as we pull it up and we realize that it's triggered an attendance function

117and we're like, "Okay, that actually makes sense." Um, so I will say that uh Sarah has reviewed it, I've reviewed it, Dr. Jimenez last year who was attached to school programs. I I don't believe we've had that process done with our current site administrators because this is from last year's data. Um, but it is something that we do open up. We haven't opened it up with staff. Um, I don't know. I don't know the value point on that to be honest because I do feel like the story that they would see is what they're experiencing on their campus, which is yes, the attendance makes sense or I understood that person didn't pass um, you know, their CASP test. So, I don't know that it would necessarily form anything that a teacher may necessarily do different.

118Um, but in terms of your second piece of the question, I don't have a good read on that. I think what we can do is we do have some lists or functions of other counties that sit in similar roles that Sarah and I do. That's something that we can ask. Does anybody else do this in a way that um would have a conversation with the board that would see the names or the numbers? Um because similar to that suspension piece or other pieces, there are questions like was that one kid or was that 12 kids? It doesn't really matter to you guys whether it was in terms of who the kid name is, but I think those are good questions that could come up. Um, so I'll put a pin in that one and get

119back to you guys to see what our peer groups have done in that circumstance. >> That's helpful. Yeah. Okay. And I have another another question around um staffing. So, of course, I I see the and I and I know from prior conversations, right, we have very few staff. I mean, just to be honest, right, we don't have a a ton of teachers. You're talking right now about you're reallocating, right? because somebody's, you know, needs needs that covered or whatever. Um, and so we've talked in the past to, you know, do we have a math teacher? Do we have So, so I see the numbers kind of increasing throughout the the three years that get reported here for um credentialed teachers, you know, assigned out of field. And then so I'm curious like I know we

120have I I don't know the the um uh the statute but I I know we have flexibility so I get that but it just doesn't in some way it just doesn't feel right in some ways for some of the topics but I'm I'm processing it. Um and then the the second part of that is um specific to um like Canyon Oaks, right? Canyon Oaks is by nature of of who is served there 100% students with disabilities. And so it does concern me to some extent that it's not like we can't, you know, clone George and we can't have that we don't have a special education that that's real. like I would like that but um that we don't have a special education teacher there because we don't right I mean we might have some supports

121but we don't have like and that's what's reported in the last year right that was a special education teacher and a parah and I think that's appropriate and then I'm not you know not not to say it in a um negative way but like is it a goal that we get back to doing that um I just want to know more about that and I don't know is there any changes that can be made or we're sort of like in this space right now Yes. And um I I think where we are definitely is because of the program size with the allocation of the FTE counts and what it has has currently looked like um you will see the course of potential mis assassignment. So you are right we do have flexibility within alternative education

122and within juvenile systems to be able to do uh you may teach a different subject area. So we aren't necessarily multiple subject which you wouldn't see but you will definitely see the trend of those misalignment pieces because of some of some of those assignments that have happened. Can we do it and are we allowed to? Absolutely. I think one of the contributing factors that we would have to look at is if we're running traditional programming as well because of our numbers what would that truly look like? Um I think we may end up with more teachers than students at times uh very easily if we did only subject specific content. Uh so I do think not necessarily ideal in a in a comprehensive you would have one for one in terms of your your areas

123of focus with our numbers. Uh until we get to a place that seems like we might have some um additional students on campus. I do think we're in a place where the differentiated instruction model is probably um the most ideal and part of this does come back to how are our students um when they're placed into gateway, how are our districts paying for these pieces? Um the exorbitant piece that may come back to them depending on if we go onetoone on those single subject monitors. Um, in terms of George, I would love to have have uh copied him as well um and and been able to continue to move forward with that. I will say though that um his his replacement that stood in in the absence and this did happen during a transition period

124of losing an additional personnel right before school. Um, so we did, um, have a conversation with a staff member that has done a pretty amazing job of stepping into something, um, and has a connection to our BHR, RH, RHS staff, but we would look for a special education teacher. Um, you know, the the assignments are fairly fluent. When we do assignments, we do them from court and community lens because we know sometimes things happen. Um, and in the past that's looked very different. once you only place one area becomes a little bit more challenging to have the conversation of how we work as a community. Um, so that's why you're also seeing the movement from one of our staff members right now from Gateway to be able to connect with the student need at at

125Hillrest, but ideally it would have been somebody that was in special education background as well in that assignment. >> Okay, that's helpful. I mean, I I'm guessing and I don't know all the details, but that that the the um IEP qualifications are probably more um things that are covered, right, by the HRS, but I don't know that fact. I don't know whether there are other things that are um other designations like um specific learning disabilities. I don't know if that's also showing up or other things. Right. So that's >> I'm gonna actually pass the Canyon Oaks one closer to uh my special education person that has has actually had the conversation with BHRs directly so that I don't misspeak on that. >> I stayed close to support my team um and jump in if needed.

126So um with special education specifically, we do have a special education teacher at Canyon Oaks. So we have um a general education teacher who's doing the academic instruction across the subjects and we have a resource specialist who is there for the duration of the academic day. So it is actually one more um uh FTE like one more person who is um working as a team now rather than George having to shoulder all of the instruction and the case management and the differentiation. So, um, we've got a dynamic duo there along with our, um, fabulous PAR educator, um, and are working in concert with BHRS. So, um, while EDC code options do allow us to have different assignments for general education teachers, there are no such, um, exemptions for special education. You have to be able

127uh, you have to be credentialed appropriately to provide uh, specialized academic instruction. So, that is in place. It's just a different model this year um in response to some of the feedback we were receiving that um our students would benefit from someone with content area expertise um which as a special education teacher by heart and training we do not get that level of specificity in our credential training. So it's we're considering it an enhancement to our program and and worked with VHS to develop that. Um, regarding special services, when you see that there were students or teachers who were out of credential area, um, the years are prior to the bridge authorization. So, when Commission on Teacher credentiing changed the education specialist credentials, we had teachers who had um credentials from a number of years

128in the past that would not authorize them to teach certain students. Um, so if you had a student even with a secondary on an IEP, you can have a primary and a secondary disability um area. So even if they had a secondary disability of um orthopedic impairment, but a primary disability area of intellectual disability, they might hold the credential for intellectual disability, but not orthopedic impairment. So the way that we met our um compliance is to have someone who was appropriately credentialed in that area be their mentor and coach and work with them on and that that put us into compliance but it doesn't show up on the numbers. Since then our all of our teachers have gone through the credential bridge authorization which brings them current and allows them to teach um all of

129the students that we have at special services. So as we get data from future years those numbers will change. So that's kind of the explanation for why the special education credentiing data looks the way that it does. >> Thank you. >> Other comments or questions? Chila, >> thank you. This might be for you. Um I would just looking I I saw that we did have a SARKC for the uh special education program in our mix and um there were I think almost half of the students were in 12th grade in that SARKC. So, I'm curious this year, what does that look like? Did they all leave? Are they in the transition program? What? I was just curious. >> You're right. That is a me question. Um, so at Special Services, um, we run programs, as

130you know, kindergarten through age 22. When we think about how the students grade levels are captured in post-secary, they all get coded as 12. So, that's why it's like on the graph, it's the highest grade level. So, it's all of our 12th graders and four years worth of post-secary um turnover. We've had basically pretty consistent rates over the last couple of years of students aging out and students coming in. Um and usually more we would we would lose students at the end of the year and add one or two more. So, impact to our programming. We're not seeing dramatic drop offs, but um that's why the numbers are kind of skewed like that. >> That was helpful. I didn't know that. Okay. Um, any other comments or questions? And seeing none, are there any from

131the public? >> None from the public. >> Thank you. Um, is there a motion to approve the 2024 to 2025 SMCE SARCS for the Court and Community Schools and Special Education Programs? >> Is there a second? >> Second. >> Thank you. There's a motion to approve the 2024 to 2025 SMCE SRCs for the court and community schools and special education programs made by Trusty Gerard and a second by Trusty Benini. 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 2024 to 2025 SMCE Sarkcs for the Court and Community Schools and Special Education Programs have been approved. Thank you guys and thank you for the engagement this evening. Uh it does mean a lot to staff. So appreciate

132it very much and to all the staff that helps. Thank you guys if you're online or out in space here. >> Thank you for item 8b. Joy Dardinell, executive director, district improvement and support, and Jeff Schmidt, coordinator, district improvement and support, will provide a presentation on the 2025 Williams annual report specific to compliance reviews conducted in the county by Sonteo County Office of Education staff, executive director, and Dardenell and Coordinator Schmidt. The floor is all yours. Good evening, board president Torres, um members of the board, deputy superintendent Margot Chavez. Today we are here to share with you our annual report on the countywide compliance reviews. And to start off, um I'll just let you know the identification criteria this year was different than past years. Now, um we know that the CDE due to legislation,

133due to other things, sometimes changes um the rules and sometimes it has a really huge impact and sometimes it doesn't. This year the changes in identification really had a huge impact because it increased the number of schools um due to the comprehensive support and improvement identification as well as the um schools where 15% or more of teachers who do not possess a valid or clearer preliminary teaching credential um were also included on the Williams list and instead of having 12 schools or 19 schools as we have had in the past we went up to 52 So um what that means is that in the identification of these schools we ended up having to really address the needs of almost triple somewhere between two to three times the amount of schools that we've worked with in

134the past. Um the ones that we've worked with in the past were more familiar with the process. So this is also including training. Um this uh affected 18 districts plus one authorized charter. Uh the 52 schools included nine high schools, five middle schools, and 38 elementary schools. Um and within those 52 schools were eight charter schools. And with that said, I'm going to turn it over to the lead for this and the one who worked the most with the each of the schools, the principles, and the districts. Um, and that is Jeff Schmidt, our coordinator of district improvement and support. >> Thank you, Joy. Good evening, Board President Torres, members of the board, Deputy Superintendent Chavez. Um, this was a really, really interesting year. As Joy said, we did have to hire extra people um

135outside of our facility, out of our organization to help with the facilities in particular. Um, but we got it done. Um, so I'm happy to report that 100% of the classrooms we visited were sufficient in instructional materials. Um, there were some minor things that we found, but they were all remedied with um, within the time frame. We did not have to send any what we call the 5-day letter. So, we have 5 days to send a letter if we need to follow up with anything um, in serious. So, that was really good. It was really nice to go to the new schools because we went from 19 to 52 like Joy said. So, visit a lot of schools I've never been to. And I also appreciate a lot of uh people in the organization that

136volunteered to join our team to get it done. So that was really nice. Um facilities review also the fit reports. There's a few instances of deficiencies there as well. And there's some common themes that we see every year. We do see a lot of fire extinguishers that haven't been upgraded or the tags haven't been signed by the fire marshal. Usually that's a fire marshal capacity issue, not necessarily a school um issue. and we just get them to contact the fire marshals and follow up and send us photos of the new tags to make sure that those are okay. Um, with the equity menstrual act, we do see a lot of issues with the dispensers not always being full or sometimes missing in the bathroom. So, that's takes quite a bit of follow-up as well. And

137a really common theme are things up on tops of shelves and cabinets. There's a 24 inch regulation. and if they're, you know, up close to the ceiling, that's a big serious fire hazard. Um, all of those were revenue within the 30-day requirement. So, there's no extreme deficiencies required to follow up from that. So, that was good news as well. We also collect all the SARCS from every school um and review those and make sure that we collect those. Um, and we did that and that includes just the basic requirements that you just approved for our schools. um uniform complaint procedure UCP quarterly reports we collect every quarter and we've been doing that we um collected all those and I've been going through those usually we don't see a lot of complaints but because of the

138same reason that we had such a high number of schools which is a lot of teacher mis assignments or not fully credentialed teachers um we saw a lot of complaints filed um with schools um they were remedied um within their time frame and through their process with their own eleas AS um in the quarter of one there was one quarter 28 quarter uh 39 and quarter 41 there was a couple facilities complaints too but most of those were related to teachers or instructional materials. Um so the official uh summary data for teacher miss assignments that we receive as a county office comes usually in January. I so we don't include that in this report but our HR department credentiing crew does that. Um, so we are actually kind of a year behind and lagging when

139we look at the teacher assignments from the Sarkcs. And that is it. So short and sweet, but happy to answer any questions from you. >> Uh, any comments or questions from the board? >> Trusty Albero. >> Just a quick question. In general, who files complaints against a particular? >> So complaints can be filed by teachers, students, or staff members. Um this the ones that we saw there were parents around the instructional materials. Um some students actually filed an instructional material complaint. Um when it comes to facilities sometimes we get teachers that will file like air conditioners, heaters, things like that. Um because teachers are aware of what's happening in their classrooms and they don't always get fixed in time. Those are the most common. >> Okay. I've just always been curious about that. It's like

140>> yeah, >> where do the complaints come from? So >> parents as well as staff and students. >> That's right. So charter schools don't have this requirement, but all eleas that are not charter schools do have a requirement to post the procedures. And how do you form a complaint? How do you file a complaint? Um basically anybody who comes into that community and and uses those facilities can file a complaint if they see the need. >> Thank you. >> Other comments or questions from the board? Thank you for the work to go into the schools. I know um as a principal it's always very stressful when we have our Williams Act visits. Um not that anything's ever wrong. It's just you always know something's going to go wrong this day. But >> a lot of

141work. >> Yeah. But thank you. >> Thank you all very much. >> Um are there any comments from the public? >> Thank you. >> No comments. Um there is no actions to take on this item. Um, for item 9A, Kevin Bolta, deputy superintendent, business services division will introduce Sheldon Chioan. Did I say that correctly? Um, certified public accountant and partner with the Siobhan and Associates LLP, who will present and comment on the 2024 and 2025 fiscal audit report. >> Good evening, Board President Torres, members of the board, Deputy Superintendent Chavez. I would want to start this with thanking Manette and um, Marian for all their hard work. Uh, Manette is our conduit who makes sure that our auditors have all the information they need to do their testing and work. So, with that, I'll introduce

142Sheldon Chovin, managing partner with Chovin and Associates. >> Good evening and thank you for having me once again. I do appreciate it. It's always good to be here and talk about accounting and auditing, my funnest subject. If you hear me say fund instead of fund, please correct me. So, what we're looking at tonight is the June 30, 2025 audit report for the county office. And we'll go over what the standards are that we follow during the audit process, maybe cover on the phases just a tad, and then discuss the results, the most important part. And so, what I'll do is I'll start with the phases of the audit. There are four phases included in the audit and the first phase includes the risk assessment and planning and that's where we really focus on documenting internal

143controls, testing controls, identifying major programs, identifying the state compliance programs that are applicable and really performing our overall risk assessment so that we can plan the substantive portion of the audit. And that phase one generally happens in May or June, sometimes April depending how early we can come out. The uh second phase is the substantive substantive phase where we're testing the cash and investments, the long-term debt and capital assets and and really the balance sheet and the income statement, statement of revenues, expenditures, and changes in fund balance for the county office. And in that phase, we also look at federal compliance. And of course, the special education program here is usually 20 million or more every single year. So, it's really hard to not test that. So, we end up testing that most likely. There

144there's a couple other programs, federal programs that we may test year in and year out depending on the risk assessment criteria. Um, but those are much smaller, anywhere from 700,000 to a million dollars a year. Uh, but again, in June 3025, it was the special education program that we tested as major. So, we test that in phase two as well. Then we move into phase three, which is part of what we're doing tonight, the reporting phase. And also kind of combined into this reporting phase is phase four which is the feedback. And really with feedback is this is we bring a report to management and they have questions or comments. There's some give and take there. If we bring a a a report to you and you have questions or comments well here I am

145to answer those questions or comments. Hopefully you don't see anything or nothing becomes of this meeting where you send it back and say we don't like it. Right? That can happen. Very rare but it can happen. So those are the four phases of the audit. How do we get there? Well, we follow generally accepted auditing standards in the United States of America. The AICPA really gives us those standards and says, "Hey, if you're going to audit in the United States, follow these." Then we're told if you're going to audit a local government, comproller says, "Hey, you're going to audit a local government, follow the generally accepted governmental auditing standards." So really, the additional procedures are related to the compliance, abuse, and fraud. There's additional reporting requirements. We actually have in this package four different opinion

146letters, right? We have our independent auditor's report which really goes over the objective of the audit which the main objective is to issue an opinion on the financial statements. We have the auditor's report under generally accepted governmental auditing standards as I just mentioned. That one says, hey, we don't issue an opinion on internal controls. Nice, right? We test controls. We perform walkthroughs. We document, but we use that as a rationale to do our risk assessment and plan the audit. We don't actually issue an opinion on internal controls. That doesn't mean we can't. We now can. The new standards came out four years ago that says we can issue an opinion on internal controls. That's a more in-depth engagement. It's a separate engagement or a combined engagement. They call it integrated audit. The other opinion that

147we issue is on the federal programs that I've previously mentioned. So we issue an opinion on the major federal programs. The fourth one is on state compliance. So it's not a standard, but the education audit appeals panel issues an audit guide and we have to follow that audit guide and we have to identify the specific criteria applicable to the county office of education and audit each of those compliance areas. So that's the four different opinion letters that you'll find in this audit reporting package. So, with that being said, you get you do you want to know what the results of the audit were? Now, I we'll just call it a night talk about all this stuff. I could get into deferred inflows and outflows, some technical accounting. No. Okay, we'll stop there. Um, so overall,

148the audit results were were good. We did have a couple significant deficiencies that are reported in the audit report way way way in the back. We bury as far back as we can. So, we issued an unmodified opinion. That's as good as it gets in terms of the financial statements, right? So, that's a clean audit except that we did have a finding related to public contract code. So, we had one contract that was let when it should have went out to bid as an informal bidding process and it was missed. So, there's a finding for that. And then we had a dating problem on the let me make sure I say this correctly. Now, we're getting to the state compliance portion of things. And believe it or not, we actually have had an uptick in

149findings related to state compliance in the last four years. And I think I've mentioned that if you're in the board meeting last year that the finding percentages have gone way up over the last four years since COVID. So the one-time funding from the federal government has created this weird kind of bottleneck where we have a lot more findings in the last four years at the state level. A lot of supplemental things going on, so supplanting and whatnot. And so in the state compliance area, the comprehensive school safety plan was approved by the board on March 19th, 2025. It was actually required to be approved on March 1st. One of those findings you can't get around, but it really is kind of silly. Um, so there's a technicality there that wasn't met and therefore we're required

150as an auditor to report on that finding. Um, and you know, your team's aware of it, your management team's aware of it, Kevin's aware of it, and they've already made corrective action to make sure it doesn't repeat itself. And again, this this specific finding, the comprehensive school safety plan, we've had probably 30% of our district clients miss that as well. Um, it's one of those situations where it's hard to keep up with all the different due dates and whatnot within these new state compliance requirements over the last few years. I wanted to touch on a couple other things um that I'm required to communicate. We did send out letters that has this information in it, but I want to be sure. Uh the audits performed using the concept of reasonable assurance, right? So, it's not

151absolute. We can't give you 100% confidence that there's not that these financial statements are are free of material misstatement, but we can give you a high level of confidence. Materiality is a concept that you can't that that you have to work with in terms of an audit. And we look at both quantitative and qualitative aspects of materiality. We're required to do that. So we try to address what a reasonable person might think is material or significant in these financial statements when we determine what our thresholds are for materiality. So we say with an unmodified opinion that we believe these financial statements are free of material misstatement. The other thing is we do evaluate the county offic's going concern and whether or not there's a risk that there is a lack of a going concern and

152we did not find that. So we found that the financial health of the county office was good as of June 30, 2025. So one last thing is we maintained our independence. Independence is a key topic um when it comes to audit firms. Obviously, we want to make sure that we're not biased. And the the highest risk is when an audit firm prepares your financial statements, which we do. So, how do we maintain that independence? We have independent quality review internally and then we make sure your management team has the skill set to be able to accept those financial statements and they understand them. So, those are the those are the one of the main two ways that we ensure that we mitigate the risk of a lack of independence. All right, with that being said,

153I gave you the overall results which were really good except for those two minor findings that we had and um a little bit of an understanding of what we do and what the process is about. If you want to get into any of the numbers like pensions, pensions didn't change much. They were about 54 million June 3024 about the same. June 3025 your OPED liability went down a bit because the discount rate went up. There's an inverse relationship there. Fund balance looked really good. Net position looked really good. But if you have questions about the numbers or anything else in the report or anything I've said tonight, please feel free to ask. >> Um, are there any comments or questions from the board? Trusty Benini. >> Um, I just had one other question. I noted

154on page 98. There was um an uh something noted around Proposition 28. And my question was um related to the costs if that needed to be returned and if it was done. >> That's a great question. Kevin, can you help me with that? Was there a return on that funding? >> Uh yeah, we um can file a waiver once we receive that from the controllers's office which and we have not yet. So we will file an appeal um once it's available for us. >> Thank you. >> Other comments or questions from the board? Are there any from the public? Oh, just >> and I don't know whether this goes to you or to Kevin. And I will be fair in that I haven't prepped either of you for this question. So if you need to

155get back to me, I understand. I have never seen the phrase old harmless return related to local control funding formula. Can that be ex That's on page 13 and it has to do in regards to the LCFF floor entitlement and and that we at some point will be getting extra more funding in 2035 2045. >> Yeah. So there there is a part of the local control funding formula and if you're looking at county offices of education the idea in that the hold harmless is you're going to maintain a certain level of funding throughout time and I'm not sure it's ever going to come to fruition or not and the MDNA is actually a part of management's analysis on this and I think that's where we're finding this. Um, but over time, county offices should find

156a point to where they're getting a little bit more money to fund some of these programs. I don't know if it's ever going to really happen or not, but that's the theory behind the local control funding form. So, it's very complex formula. It goes into a lot of levels of detail. And actually, um, I if I were actually to give you a better answer, I would need to take that time to go back and evaluate and review and give you a better answer. I I was just curious if this related somehow because we have a ta task force looking at funding being we return so much money to the state if this was something that was applicable to that. >> You know they're all related to a certain extent. It's all tax base related as

157well, >> right? >> Um so there is a relationship. It's probably not a direct one to one. >> Okay. >> Yeah. >> I just wanted to get it clarified. Thank you. Well, let me just add when the new funding formula went in place for county offices of education, we are actually funded at a higher level than the calculation. So, they held us harmless at that funding level. >> So, we're we're being funded at the higher level than under the old formula. Okay. Okay. Thank you. >> That's a good way to say that. Yes. Better than I said. >> Address. Dani. >> Um, well, I just wanted to ask because just because um it's a it's a a great question. That was a great question because there's this language, right, that we don't all haven't heard

158a hundred times, right? And I was looking at Susan because we're, you know, we talk about this flat funding and it was a conversation around the funding for before I was here, right? around that hold harmless clause which made us flatfunded for a very long period of time and I as Kevin said I think it was like a couple years ago that it maybe one year ago that it it changed but it's also related to other things that we've done and so it just brought it we've been talking about um our reserves and we're talking in the budget committee and so when that happened that was kind of the time frame my understanding is that when we started reserving some money just in case. And so that just Yeah. So I just wanted to tie

159that up. We can talk about it later and I'm sure they'll follow up, but I just wanted to chime in. >> Jesse Ala. >> Yeah. Hold Harmless is a magnificent piece of double speak. >> Yes. >> It it sounds like, oh my goodness, you're not responsible. We'll take care of everything. And it is exactly the opposite of that. it is we are basically not going to give you any more money because we don't want to and you've already hit a level that we think is enough and and it doesn't have anything to do maybe tangentially but it doesn't really have anything to do with that ridiculousness of how we have to give all the money back to the state um other than that just makes it worse. So yeah, it's just double speak but it's

160a very confusing term. I remember when we first heard it and I was like, wait, you know, I know what hold harmless means legally and that is not what this means. So, good question. >> Well, all my years, you know, between city council and school board, I've never seen that phrase except in a different connotation. >> Oh, more of a legal. That was the best I've heard someone say that. I'm going to steal that from you. As long as you don't sue me for stealing it from me, >> it's yours. Other comments or questions from the board? Are there any from the public? >> None from the public. >> Thank you. There is no action to take on this item. >> Thank you very much. Have a good night. >> Good night. Um for item

16110 A, uh the public hearing on initial proposal for the Sanonteo County Educators Association, SMCA, to the Sonteo County Superintendent of Schools for negotiate negotiations relating to the result of the classification and compensation study is now open. Would anyone like to speak on this issue? I am seeing none. So this hearing is now closed. Uh for item 10B, the public hearing on the initial proposal for the Sonteo County Superintendent of Schools to the Sonteo County Educators Association, SMCA, for negotiations relating to the results of the classification and compensation study. Would anyone like to speak on this issue? I am seeing none. So, this hearing is now closed. For item 10 C, we have superintendent's comments. Deputy Superintendent Chavez, do you have any comments to share? >> Happy New Year. >> Thank you so much. Um,

162for item 11 A, following the regular practice of making annual subcommittee assignments at its January meeting, um, board members will discuss the board subcommittees for 2026. Um, you'll have a couple of attachments uh or in your folder. One is a blank worksheet uh for reference. It has the previous year's uh subcommittees and representative assignments and then a blank copy and then I also have the one that I drafted based on responses um of each board member's interests. Um I will note two things. Um, one I did have my notes in one of the sections and I forgot to delete all of my notes. So, you'll see some italicized uh notes, but that was just me in organizing folks in different subcommittees. And then two, um, a goal that I would like, um, for more transparency

163for like if new board members were to join and just for the public, just some additional information and then hopefully that this would eventually go on our website. um that there's information, additional information for each subcommittee like um the date was established, the purpose and then just like the authorizing powers of the subcommittee. So um everyone kind of knows what's happening and then also a section to um for us of who the liaison for the county office will be. So hoping that helps with communication. Um so that's something that we'll work on um with the team. It's just something that um came to mind that I thought would be helpful. Um so to start us off, I think I'll just go through each subcommittee and just make sure everyone is good to go and then

164if there are any conversations or changes um we more than happy to discuss that as a team. Um so um we'll start us off with the superintendent salary subcommittee. Um traditionally the chair is the board president. So that's why I have myself. um I wouldn't give myself additional roles. So um I have that one and along with uh Trusty Gerard and Trusty O'Neal which is I believe the same subcommittee as last year. Any comments, questions, concerns there. Okay, thank you. U moving on to the interd district attendance appeal subpony. I have trusty Gerard, trustee love, and trustee AAS with trustee Gerard serving as the chair. Yep. Seeing head knots. Thank you. Up next, we have the YMCA partnership subcommittee uh with Trusty Alvaro, Trusty Love, and myself with Trusty Alvaro serving as the chair. Seeing

165head nods. Thank you. Up next, we have the board superintendent advocacy subcommittee with Trusty Love. Trusty O'Neal and myself with Trustee Love serving as the chair. Love the headnots. Thank you. A board policy subcommittee. We have Trusty Love, Trusty Alvaro, Trusty Benini with Trusty Love serving as the chair. Thank you, team. Um, we have the workforce housing subcommittee with Trusty Gerard, myself, and Trusty O'Neal. Uh, with Trusty Gerard serving as the chair. >> Um, can I say something? >> Yes, Trusty Gerard. Um, I actually would like to step down from chair the chair and ask uh trustee O'Neal to be the chair um since he really has the expertise um for the housing committee. >> Oh great, thank you Trusty Gerard and thank you Trusty O'Neal for agreeing and thank you for not giving me

166additional work. Okay, up next we have the gateway subcommittee with uh Trusty Benini, Trusty Gerard, Trusty Adios, and Trusty Benini serving as the chair. Okay. Up next, we have our budget subcommittee with Trusty Benini, Trusty Gerard, and Trusty O'Neal. Um with uh Trusty Benini serving as the chair. Good to go. Um, up next we have the Sonteo County Community School College District Joint Meeting Planning Subcommittee with Trusty Benini, Trusty Love, and Trusty Gerard with Trusty Benini serving as the chair. Okay, so far so good. Up next, we have the board governance workg groupoup subcommittee. Um, myself, Trusty Gerard, and Trusty Love with myself serving as the chair. Beautiful. Um, up next we have the representative assignments. We have the Sanonteo County Office of Education, the local control accountability plan. Um, for our LCAP representative, Trusty

167Benini and Trusty Gerard. Um, up next we have the Sonteo County School Boards Association SMC SBA area representative being Trusty AAS. Great. Up next we have the county committee on school district organization liaison representative being trustee love. Um we have the association of California county boards of education the ACCBE representative um being myself unless anyone wants to take it. I will do it. Um up next we have the coalition for safe schools and communities um trusty love and trusty Gerard. Up next we have the big lift representatives trusty Gerard and myself. And then lastly we have the special education local plan area. Our sulpa representatives being trusty Benini and trusty aas. Okay. Um anything that I missed? Any comments, questions, concerns? Speak now or forever host peace. Okay. Thank you. Are there any comments from

168the public? No comments from the public. >> Thank you. Is there a motion to approve the 2026 board subcommittee assignments? Is there a second? >> Second. >> Thank you. There is a motion to approve the 2026 board subcommittee assignments 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. The motion passes with a vote of 70 and the 2026 board subcommittee assignments have been approved. Um for item 11B, when an ad hoc subcommittee meets or a representative attends a meeting related to their given assignment, board members may choose to bring a report to the board at this time. Would any board members like to report out? Trusty Love. >> Uh thank you. I just wanted to give

169an update on the advocacy subcommittee. Um we met with Josh Becker's Senator Becker's staff and um their recommendation was that we draft a letter for the senator to send to the legislative analyst office asking them to look at the issue of the disparity in funding among districts and how that we kind of got to that point and how it's not consistent with um uh policy and the lawsuit and everything else that we've talked about here. And so we uh sent a draft over to them uh this week and they liked it and they're going to tweak it a little bit. So I think we're moving forward. And one of the thing that's really great about that is that we're working really closely with uh Sanonteo County School Boards Association on this initiative. In fact, it

170was um uh trustee David Lee from Redwood City who is the chair of the legislative action committee for Santo County School Boards Association who sent the letter to um Senator Becker. So, it's just a wonderful partnership. It's what we should be doing. And so, we have this whole big body of um districts including ourselves working on this issue. So, that's it. And then I just look forward to holding uh meetings the committees moving forward. So, thanks. >> Um, Trusty O'Neal, >> I just wanted to add is that on it's it's either the 28th or 29th, we do have a meeting with >> 28th. Yeah, we have a meeting with Diane Papin's office and a meeting with Stefani's office, the assembly member for two other assembly members where you've yet to meet with Burman and um

171Scott Weiner, I guess, is too busy running for Congress to return the call. So, >> um any questions for the subcommittee? Um, thank you to Ian for the support um, with that group um, and just getting there's a lot of traction happening with the group. So, thank you to the everyone involved. um other subcommittees or representative assignments. Trusty Alvaro, >> I just wanted to mention that um the YMCA housing subcommittee met uh with the Y on a Zoom meeting and got some more information about the costs of the new housing. Um, we're going to I'm gonna ask to do a Zoom with our subcommittee and um, Mr. Boltima and just try to put some put put our thoughts into a more clear unfortunately we met right before the holidays, so everything just kind of went

172crazy. So, um hopefully come back and present to the board in February um and then begin to to move into the discussion because we finished the part now as I said at the last meeting where all the money was preapproved and we just said, "Yep, that works. Yep, that works." And now we're moving into the part where we said, you know, yes, although the money is is there, we need to come back to the whole board to have discussion about where it's spent and what's being built. So that's going to be the next step. As soon as we get our heads wrapped around what we want to talk about, we'll we'll schedule a time to to have the whole board have a conversation about it. >> Thank you. Are there any questions or comments from

173the board? Any other report outs? Trusty Benini? >> Um yes. So I have three uh report outs. The first one is the budget uh subcommittee. Um we met on uh Monday the 12th and um this was a meeting just of the subcommittee members. We have a follow-up meeting scheduled uh with staff on I think it's the 28th, something like that. Um so we were meeting to um uh go over just you know some we we hadn't met uh for a while uh maybe almost a year or nine months and so we focused on a few things which we will um talk about kind of preparing for the meeting with staff. So, one was um our um our how our budget uh is currently aligned with our strategic plan. Um how that aligns with our board

174priorities or priorities that the budget committee has sort of gleaned from conversations um and then um things that may uh be goals. And so maybe it might align with some of our our retreat work. You know, we might learn more. Um and then um uh if there were uh desires you know to say this is a priority um what where would is that related to general fund like reallocation? Would we be proposing something or would it be something to do with reserves of some sort? Um and then the the last thing we we spoke about was uh a topic that we was raised in regard to um facilities master plan and other things uh in in December around um uh transparency um increasing transparency. So we talked a little bit about what would happen uh

175with some of the the policy review. So, some of it I think will come to us in the budget committee in terms of things we want to talk about and then some of it um by way of an update of that we want to push some of the review of policies over to the policy committee from that discussion um instead of having a um a study session uh on that. it may come back to the board with recommendations from policy, but um I wanted to just thank Trusty Love as chair of that and then I'm rejoining the I've rejoined the policy committee. So that'll be a good um transition to there um so that we can talk about that um related to things that may be like uh superintendent policies that might need a board

176policy or might not uh that's parallel something like that. So that was our budget committee discussion and it was a really really good meeting. Um, and let's see. Um, the next one I want to report out on is sorry, our gateway subcommittee meeting. So, gateway committee meetings happened on December 22nd, January 8th, and January 9th. Um, these conversations were um mostly regarding things that were also raised in December around the facility's master plan and our communications with staff. um trying to uh understand um more around uh what the details are regarding that have happened in that plan that relate to gateway because that's our primary that was our primary concern. Um so we're still in the process of assessing that. So we don't have any thing to report out yet, but we're still looking at

177that information. So that that's the um gateway. Should I pause to see if anyone has any questions and then I'll do my last one. >> Are there any questions on the two subcommittees thus far? >> Okay, >> you're good to go. >> And then lastly, um, uh, Trusty Torres and I or President Torres and I, um, are liaison. We were liaison to the SULPA. So, we attended the SULPA meeting um of the governing board for the SULPA and that was um December 16th and we were um uh excited to see a presentation by some of uh uh county office staff regarding um um how things are um build and things like that to districts since that was really interesting. Uh, I made a comment um at the SULPA um asking them if um how things

178were going with the the the community advisory committee um uh letting them know that um it's not on my list right now, but it it has been I need to rephrase it around um having a new process uh go forward with trying to appoint a community member to the CAC that represents our um our schools um and our students. Um, so anyway, so I asked them about that and then there were other public comments that were made. Um, I did want to note that um, uh, there was a public comment made regarding the CAC and I wrote down notes about it. it was actually followed mine and it was it raised concerns that the meetings weren't necessarily um happening in a uh well I don't know if they're happening because I haven't gotten notice about

179them but um that they they were just concerned about the engagement and so I followed up to try to um find out um who where that comment came from because it was a submitted by email and um I'm just going to say it here because Um, I was a little not not exactly happy. Um, I was basically told that if I wanted the comment, even though I had notes about it, to see who it came from, I would have to wait until March until the the meeting minutes were approved. Um, or I would have to submit a public records act request. So, I um I guess I'm stating it here because I think that maybe there's a way we can with staff perhaps maybe have a conversation. It's just a matter of um one email.

180I don't want to have to do that, but I I sort of do want to understand um where that's coming from so that we can engage on that. So, I'm just reporting that here. >> Thank you. Any questions or comments? >> Any other report outs? >> Um I do have a request for the all the subcommittees and all the chairs. um just to get the ball rolling, if you could um just initiate your your if you haven't met already, just initiate um a first meeting. Um if you have new members, I think it'd also be great to to just meet to catch folks up um if there are any questions. Um and then there doesn't need to be a report out unless you feel it's necessary. I think it's just important to to get it

181going to build the momentum. Um yeah, to just start off the year strong. Um, are there any comments from the public? >> Mr. Torres, excuse me. I have a question. >> Can we assume, it's not on your list, but can we assume that our staff leaison will remain the same unless we're know because if we're going to get together a committee meeting, we need to know. >> Um, I think we should just uh we'll work on updating that just to make sure that that's staying the same. And then and then after that's done. Yes. if you can give us uh a week. We um have a core cabinet meeting on Tuesday. We can have that conversation if that's okay. And then I can share those names. >> Yes. >> With the board. >> Perfect. I'll

182make sure to share that. >> Thank you. >> And then once that's um all good, if you can send it to the whole board. >> Yes. Thank you. Gets difficult if I try to do that. Trusty Adios. Quick question. Since I'm in uh a few new ones, do I um just approach everybody to find out the dates or is there a master like when everybody meets or >> um the chair will be responsible for kind of organizing that? >> So, the chair will contact me for the dates. >> Yeah. Okay. >> Yeah. >> Thank you. Um are there any comments from the public? >> None from the public. Thank you. There's no action to take on this item. Um, for item 11 C, uh, the board will discuss topics for future board agendas. Would any

183board members like to discuss agenda ideas? Trust O'Neal. >> Um, being in December, we decided, you know, we got we were talking about a facilities master plan. I would like to see if we can have um the Rollins Road proper property. a discussion at the board is should that be part of the facilities master plan because as of in March is when we listed it and we have to my knowledge we've not had any interest in leasing it. So maybe see if that should be part of the facilities master plan and is there something that we would want to do with the property? >> Noted. Thank you Benini. Um, so I want first to follow up on a couple of agenda item requests which weren't yet on the um the list. So one was two

184of them actually were raised in December. Uh, one is um a request um and this I guess may be able to go through budget committee but I'm just going to state it here because that's how I initially raised it was for um a publication of a list of the expenditures on a monthly basis in the register that would be posted on consent similarly to what an LEA does. Um uh so that was one that I'm following up on. The second one is um the request to uh have an agenda item or a response about uh creating um a contract portal. Those are both in um furtherance of transparency um around the issues that we were were having. Um the third followup is a request that I actually sent to President Torres around um that we

185have an update um on our cell phone policy in practice especially with the new law that is um in effect. Um and my fourth followup is um uh actually Trusty Love already mentioned it in regards to this the student board member and how if we would have a a discussion about that. So that might have raised but um been raised but it's also an agenda item request. And then I have one one new request which is um that we as we've had in years past that we have a presentation from the um juvenile justice and delinquency prevention commissions um to uh give us an update on um the conference that they held last week which was amazing and I'll talk about that more in my comments um and also as they've done in the past

186um share the projects that they're doing uh with the community and the inspections and things like that so that we um have a chance to hear that um as it relates to our work. >> Thank you. Are there other agenda ideas? I am seeing none. Um there is no action to take on this item. Um for item 11D, board members will comment. Uh Trusty Albaro. >> Okay. Just excuse me, two things quickly. Um, Supervisor Ray Mueller had an event last week at his office where Mr. O'Neal also works and was in attendance to meet our new sheriff, Sheriff Bender. And I did go and have a chance to talk to this the sheriff and just say, you know, here's who we are and if you if you want to have any discussions with the back

187and forth with the county board, we're ready to talk to you at any time. So, I just wanted to thank uh Ray Mueller for having that event. And then we on the consent agenda, we passed a resolution honoring January 30th. Again, as Fred Koramatsu Day, it's very important. And I I just wanted to make a comment about it because as I read it, it just really struck me. It it it always does, but this year just the day serves to remind us just how far astray our country allowed itself to go during and after World War II. And it should serve to remind us as a warning that we just cannot let our guard down and allow such egregious acts against our own citizens as happened to Mr. Karamatsu and and everyone else that was

188involved. We just can't let that happen again. And that's all I want to say about it. But thank you. >> Thank you, Trusty Adas. >> Well, first of all, happy new year. Um I started my year with a few um conferences and uh activities I like to report. And I'm looking at the time and I'm saying like I need to make this short. I have notes here so bear with me. It's about um several ones that I I attended this January 2026. But I want to start first of all with January 7, 2026 at the college of satell six-hour conference first annual prevention in action schools communities and youth voices conference um by juvenile justice and delquency prevention commission. But I also want to do a shout out. I see we see in attendance uh

189commissioner Jennifer Blanco here and um during the conference it was mentioned that it was her idea for this to happen. So Jennifer I really want to appreciate again um the work in that day that has really marked how I feel and how I want to uh frame this is kind of like framework is a framework I want to take for my whole 2026 and my advocacy. So um some of the learnings I got from there we had a keynote speakers and two sessions plus a student panel uh just bullet points uh talking about the development modern schools as a response of ind industrialization. Public education was not designed to uplift students but to make them follow rules and be in the workforce. So we need to disrupt the factory model of education. And it was

190also said income inequalities in public schools that we see in Satato County. And we had a visual comparison between San Bruno and Hillsboro. And I have to say both are public public schools and part of uh Sato County. And uh the visuals were very um it really broke my heart to see the differences of what our students are getting depending on where they live in the areas. Um I attended the session bridging systems a community center approach to schools connectness and youth success presented by the reconnecting youth company who provides the coping and support training or cast program for staff focusing on social and emotional support for students and mental health awareness. and San Bruno Middle School is already one that is using this this program and I'm very proud to know that I'm in

191the district 3 where San Bruno belongs. So that's great. Um the other uh session I attended was peer point an alternative to school suspensions. I was very interested in that and it was presented by fresh lifelines for youth or fly and it's a program for youth that is peer-led initiative designed to divert youth from suspension and expulsion and arrest and it's about a five month of coaching and the information was just amazing and I believe it's about two years that it started 2023 I think 2023 24 um But uh from this conference what I took was the end when four youth panel shared their live experiences and they voiced their needs and asking for support. When I heard the comments of a 14-year-old who's in our system and said he's been there since he was

19212 or he started to be when he was 12. It told me they're children. They're under 18 years old. And for me to feel being an adult, being I'm I'm a parent, I've been an educator and I'm here in this board. It's so important that we make ourselves responsible for who's there and what they're receiving and not. So if you were heard how they first of all how they presented that it was so difficult for them to be there just even sitting there and being willing to be in the panel to be asked questions about their life experiences and and the situation they were living in. um they were really brave, really brave and I again I I have no more than admiration for this conference and um I've heard it's coming again next year

193but in August there's something else coming. So I'm excited about that. I think there's a lot of work to do but the most important thing I think uh is to be aware to create this awareness and to talk about it and what's happening in in in our county. Right. So, uh, it also reminded me to bring back to you the, um, schoolboard member checklist addressing student mental health needs and an article titled Healing Justice in Mult Multicultural Counseling from the conference you approved me to attend at the um, MASBA, the school board members for Latino Equity in October 2025. And so I have a copy here and I would like to um I'm gonna make sure that you all just get a copy just for information because this fields even though this uh checklist is

194schoolboard member and they refer to school districts but it's it's also um help us to understand and and ask our questions about what is happening in our court and community schools. So I will make sure that you get a copy of that. So, it just uh I will give it to uh Jennifer. And then I'm going to move on really quick. I'm sorry, but I I I was like taking a lot of notes with what happened. January 12, I attended the uh Sato County School Board Association meeting in this off in this office um with our presentation transforming students outcomes through access and CTE career tech technical education presented by our own associate superintendent of educational services Chris. Uh I was very impressed of the engagement that happened within all the school boards like all

195the questions that they asked and how much learning we had for that day. Um and the like the hope and the future that feels to me like it's possible and that is coming. Uh we heard about the difference between trade CTE RO regional occupational program and that was very important to hear. uh you know and today in the presentation you heard about how the students are when giving students meaningful interesting content that can be student centered with intention the pathways to a job or a career as an adult uh changes right it's that's why it's so so important we also were given a report on a summary and projection of 2023 to 2028 Sato uh county labor market data which was really impressive and um informational. So, thank you very much again. Thank you, Chris.

196Um, January 13, I visited the district office San Bruno Park School and met with Superintendent Matthew um Duffy and he shared about the preschool, the four elementary schools and the middle school that conformed that school district. um excited to know that um he gave me a tour to Allen Elementary School um with a state-of-the-art campus funded by measure X which was completed about 23 uh late 23 early 24 that place is amazing if you ever have a chance to go I'll be glad to like ask it that we go together because it's again brand new it's brand new uh the way that they have activities for like STEM opportun unities. The library was amazing. The cafeteria, they do p so they give p so to students, you know, eventually like they they do things from

197scratch in the cafeteria and uh they even have tahin for the fruits. So I was like, okay, this is wonderful. So again uh when we talk with the uh staff at the cafeteria, they say students, you know, get engaged with the different foods that they are given. And to me it was like so culturally appropriate when I heard about you know the demographics and the area where it is. Uh but I think it's this outside the box thinking and trying things that to see if you know if it's going to be making a difference and it totally did it. It was really exciting to be there. Um and today I just attended a virtual presentation for ACCBE presented by Christine Olmstead from CCE all these acronyms California collaborative for education excellence titled secondary school redesign.

198So there's uh the state board has a pilot network of schools with 10 mill with a 10 million budget uh from the governor uh distributed into this uh network of schools creating a statewide uh portrait of a learner graduate to sustain innovation and I did send an email to Marco after that because I don't know if Sato County office of ed has a portrait of a learner or a graduate you know which I don't know >> you'll get a response right after this. >> Okay. >> Yeah. Um and only because they did ask around who was there and there were other trustees and it didn't seem that it's more like districts kind of do that. Um but I was just curious and I you know they they talk about how important the state is thinking

199about doing this survey to research what are the most important competencies of learners uh or graduates uh during their 9th to 12th grades. So um again thank you for your time and I appreciate you listening to my uh um my uh journey through this January 2026. Thank you. >> Thank you Trusty Benini. >> Um thank you. Um so first um I just want to ask um uh Deputy Superintendent um Chavez to please extend um my thanks probably not on behalf of the board but for the amazing gifts to the students. if you could please just thank them for that. It's very special and thank you. Um I secondly I I wanted to um thank Chris Sha um and Sarah um for the presentation around the LCAP and for focusing on literacy of course that's you

200know one of my passions and I just all the information was so helpful and you know that obviously every time we get a presentation it's helpful but this one was just really um really important really important. So, thank you so much and for opening the door to allowing our students to have this opportunity and to like try to extend it. So, thank you. Um, I also want to uh to thank um Chris House for the presentation that she did give that um Trusty Aras already mentioned around um CTE for our Sanonteo County School Boards Association. It was very engaging. Um we had a small but might it was a mighty group. I think we had 17 attendees. Um, and it was it was there were so many questions. Um, you know, I was like trying

201to get through more information, but um, it was just it was great to hear from the trustees who were having their own experiences and to share actually the great things that are happening with with our program. So I I was I was very proud of it. So for for the office um I um also wanted to um let's see what was the next thing sorry um uh we um uh I also was at the JJDPC uh conference um on the 7th um with um also uh with um you know a few of us and I it was just the most amazing day. Um, I uh just want to thank Jennifer Blanco. I'm going to thank um Johanna Rasmusen and just the JJDPC for having this idea to do this and really it was was Jennifer.

202Thank you, Jennifer. Um it's so important to have everyone in the room and and I was um honored to be invited for like the debrief from it, you know, yesterday and it was just the comments that I took away from the debrief were everyone in the who was there even though it was a really tough topic to be talking about. There was like joy in the room of gathering and being together and so um and having the discussions and there was some crying. I think that was that happened a few times. Um the sessions were amazing. Um keynote was amazing. It was just a great inaugural event and so um I'm hoping that we can engage more with that. So hence the request for the agenda item and and more things around that. Um and

203let's see um I think my is my last thing. Um my last thing is that I just wanted to I've reached out to a couple of of the trustees and um community but um the 17 district PTA um you know they adopted our as we many of us know they adopted our schools our teachers our staff our court community schools a long time ago probably around 2014 or 15 and I've been volunteering to do that since it was even before that well but with Ko with Kiko and with Lori it was around that time frame And so I started volunteering in 2015 and making gifts and um we had many more staff then. But um uh so anyway, they are doing their winter lunchon which is pre uh to the teacher appreciation week. Um and

204it's on the 4th of of February. So um so if you are online and you don't know about it yet and you're a staff member, that's the day it is at Gateway. Um and uh yeah, we'll be there. We're making food and it's going to be amazing. So, um I think that is my last thing. Thank you. >> Thank you, Trusty Love. >> Thank you. Um happy new year to everyone and uh thank you for the board appreciation celebration and the gifts and um very much appreciated. Um I attended the juvenile justice inaugural conference. I won't go into it. I think we got a great report um from Edith. I share um her a lot of her thoughts on all of that. Um same with the CT um event. Uh associate superintendent Sha awesome job

205on that. Just really engaged folks and um some really good tools that districts can take back and use with their teams. I thought that was awesome. Um and reports tonight. Excellent. I also really appreciated the dialogue and discussion on the part of the board with the um the team. I thought that was um a good positive evening. And then the the last thing I want to talk about and I had mentioned this to board president Torres um at the meeting on the 17th that our meeting on the 15th um left me not feeling really great in some ways. I feel like um and and this is a reflection on myself, not everyone else, that the way the board treated um Deputy Superintendent Bolta was really not acceptable. Um he is the most transparent um wise

206um you know, hold staff accountable but yet invites them to come and present. So he's building leadership. He's just really done an amazing job. And um I didn't say anything and I didn't speak up. I sent him a note later, which isn't enough to apologize for how we treated him. And don't mean to get choked up, but I I have been on the staff and I know how it feels when one of your colleagues gets kind of beat up, a lot of, you know, shade thrown at them at a meeting. It really hurts. Um I did hear from former colleagues. There were tears in the county office after that presentation. They shared the video around um with others um I know from pe people I talked to, they were disappointed in me because I know

207how that feels for the staff to be treated like that. And it's not just the person at the podium, it's everyone. And so I just apologize again for not saying something in the moment and I'm saying it now. And I we are having a governance meeting and I hope that we will spend more time as a board thinking about what we do and how we act and then not so much about how we want the county office to act and respond but how we want to treat ourselves and then how we will bring that forward as a really good partner to the team at the county office so that we can really work together all about kids like Kevin Bolta always leads with kids let's not give money to BG&E, let's put it in programs.

208He's always looking for those opportunities. He's always leads with kids. And so, it just it it's my greatest regret from last year on my board is that meeting. So, I just want to share that. So, thank you. >> Thank you. Um I'll just add two things. One, um we're Deputy Superintendent Chavez and I are working on some restorative um healing that needs to happen from that. Um so, that will be on its way. um when all parties are are ready and um for um I also asked uh Deputy Superintendent Chavez to get some feedback from from cabinet in regards of um what they need from the board um so that hopefully we can compile these topics um and if there's time and it fits into um our county board retreat that's coming up. Um so

209those items have been also on my mind. So, thank you. Um, Trusty O'Neal, >> um, I have to admit, I've always said that Patricia can make a pig's ear sound like silk. And I just want to compliment her that I do support what she said about Kevin. Um, I haven't known Kevin that much because, you know, I'm new to the board. However, the next day I did send both to Kevin and Marco an apology for the board at the way they were treated because I do think that was not good. And the next meeting when we well two days later when I saw Kevin, I went over and personally apologized for the action of the board that night and I do agree and wholeheartedly support Patricia. Um, getting into my dialogue. Um, tomorrow if any

210of you are involved in nonprofits or want to meet some people that have money that they can donate, um, my boss is having a meet and greet with the Silicon Valley Foundation at my office on the coastside there at the Oceanana Hotel. If you want details, let me know. Last year, the CEO of the of the Silicon Valley Foundation came. I don't know if he's coming this year, but um I just wanted to be sure everybody knew about it. On January 26, um believe Marco is going to be coming to an event that we're trying to get together and supporting um San Mato County agriculture and in regards to having farmtofork food in the schools and they they're coming just to kind of check it out, see what the program is and um maybe see

211about getting healthier meals in our schools. Um the we have until January 31st and I know there's five people in this room that with this will affect but our dear leader in Washington DC wants to put oil drilling and oil rigs off the coast of San Mateo County. And if you want to oppose that, the deadline for comments is January 31st. Um, I didn't know if we could get it through the board procedures to get the for the board to actually vote against this, assuming it would be a board vote, you know, but January 31st is the deadline. And those of us that live on the coast do not want to look at our window and see oil rigs and oil drilling. Um in regard I attended the CTE advisory committee and I'm facilitating or

212working with them to get two field trips for our junior and senior um students. And I also attended the budget and advocacy committee meetings and and kind of taking off what Beverly said in regards to the Japanese internment. You know, that is something that happened very locally. I know Sarah lives less than a mile from an internment camp that was in Pacifica and there's still one of the the Quanet huts still there from that internment camp. So it was something that was very local in Sanel County. The Italians got to leave and go to work. They had to be back by 6, but the Japanese were not allowed to leave the camp at all. And you know, so I just passing that on that um you know, taking off on what Beverly said. >> Thank

213you, Trusty Gerard. >> Um thank you very much. Um I uh also attended the uh juvenile justice conference on January 7th and um it was really eyeopening. and I wish everyone from the board could have been there. Um, it really hit home on what we're all about and what our programs are all about and the networking um and information that was shared was just invaluable. Um I I think that every single time that you attend something like this or you go to um a conference or training or whatever, you always learn something and can bring home invaluable information back to hopefully use in our own programs. um innovative things that you hear about and um I one of the sessions I uh attended was the transition to and from court school and it was really

214really interesting because um unfortunately uh we're not able to do all that because of constraints that we have with staffing and and whatever but um the process that actually is mandated by law. I was shocked quite frankly. I had no idea that there is actually a process mandated by law for the transition of students coming into court school and going out of court school. So, it was it was really interesting. Um, all of the information that we're supposed to have when they come in and all the information we're supposed to give when they go out and it's all supposed to be done in a very specific way. Uh it was really uh a very interesting um session and I met someone there um because you all introduce yourself as you go around that actually worked

215for um Sonteo County Office of Education 18 years ago and she worked at Camp Glennwood for seven years and then she was recruited by the probation department and her job was to put everything together to transition our students back into their schools from our court school and that was her job with the probation department. Unfortunately, that job doesn't exist anymore either with the probation department, but it was very interesting. Um I'm also want to um tout a couple of things with ACCBE. I was not able to attend uh the session this afternoon because I was fighting with AT&T uh phone company with the man on my pole out the backyard. Um but I won't go into that. Anyway, um we are having another training on January 22nd at 7:00 and this is a training for

216uh new board presidents and existing board presidents and it's um all the things you need to know uh to be a board president and uh I have the honor of actually being one of the trainers along with Juliana Ferani. And then on the 28th of January at 7:00 is our oneyear celebration for ACCBE. And it's all vid on Zoom. But I'd love to have everybody come. We're very excited and what we've accomplished in one year. And on February 20th and 21st, um, ACCBE is having a conference. This is the one we talked about. We're actually having three, but the first one is um the 20th and 21st and it will be in Modesto and I really would love to see everybody come. There'll be three. There'll be another one in Ukaya and then one in

217Southern California, probably in San Bernardino, but this one in Modesto is the first one. and some of the information uh and sessions um that we're having are very different and uh I think will be very very informative and um there's information on the ACCB website um so that you can go in and uh and see what what we're offering. But um I'm very excited about it. And um I noticed on our calendar that Jennifer gave us that there is a site visit on March 20th for Gateway Hillrest and Anne Campbell Center. And I would like to Jennifer be signed up for that please. Happy New Year everyone and thank you very much. >> Thank you. Um, thank you to Palos Veres for the gifts and thank you to the staff for the love and appreciation

218and the time that goes into everything to make it happen. And then thank you to all of the board members who um were responsive to my emails about setting up the subcommittees. It um was very helpful to kind of get through it in a breeze during the meeting. Um so I appreciate the feedback, the suggestions, the phone calls, everything. Um yes and then just thank you to the team. I know coming back from break um there's always a lot to do. So uh appreciate everyone staying late and being here and all the work we have coming up. Um and that's where I will end. Um item 12 is our adjournment. The next meeting is a special meeting governance workshop on Saturday, January 31st, 2026 at 9:00 a.m. And then the next regular meeting will take

219place on Wednesday, February 4th, 2026 at 7 p.m. This meeting is now adjourned. Thank you.