001Good evening. The October 8th, 2025 meeting of the San Monteo County Board of Education will come to order. As is our practice, this meeting will be recorded. I note that Marco Chavez, a deputy superintendent, 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. The board is following the requirements of Assembly Bill AB2449, which enables remote participation by board members only under specific circumstances. We use simultaneous interpretation in Spanish for those attending virtually through the end of public comment. Translation will continue further into the meeting if people are utilizing the channel. Thank you to our interpreters Anna Cruz and Kimberly Larios for joining us remotely. For meeting attendees wishing to access the Spanish translation
002channel on Zoom, please click on the interpretation button on the menu bar. We ask all speakers to be mindful of the Spanish interpretation and speak slowly and clearly. Item 1B is the approval of the agenda. Is there a motion to approve the agenda? >> So move. >> Is there a second? Thank you. There is a motion to approve the agenda made by Trusty Gerard and a second by Trustee Alvaro. Is there any further discussion? All those in favor say I. I. All those opposed say no. Uh the motion passes with a vote of 70 and the agenda for tonight's meeting has been approved. Item two is public comment. 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
003Spanish. Speakers who require Spanish interpretation. Um our interpreters, Miss Cruz and Miss Ldios, will interpret following each speaker's comments. At this time, members of the public may provide comment for topics not included on the approved agenda. The County Board of Education does not act upon any matter that has not been agendaized except under limited circumstances as permitted by law. It is the policy of the county board to refer matters raised in this forum to the superintendent for investigation and or action were appropriate. Deputy Superintendent Chavez, do we have any comments submitted prior to the meeting? >> No comments submitted prior to the meeting. >> Thank you. Speakers are invited to make live comment and have three minutes to speak. Please keep within the time limits. To make a comment over Zoom, members of the public
004may use the raise hand feature. Instructions for using this feature are provided as an attachment in the board packet. And once the hand is raised, please wait to be acknowledged by Deputy Superintendent Chavez. Deputy Superintendent Chavez, are there any members of the public attending remotely who wish to make a comment at this time? >> No raised hands at this time. >> Oh, that um that was for uh remote attendees. >> Yeah. Um, so members of the public may also provide live comment in person. Deputy Superintendent Chavez, are there any submitted cards? We don't have any cards, but did you need a card, sir? 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
005use the raise hand feature when the item is announced or if in person, submit a card in advance of the item. And then just a reminder that we have three minutes and timer will be on the screen. Mr. John Hoffman >> and what I believe is the need for curriculum. I am amazed that it is taking more than six months for the steering committee to be organized and I believe that and I believe that there should be business input from businesses that are actually currently hiring. Previously uh committees have been composed mostly of educators or educational businesses related or business related to education and not those that are actually hiring CTE type graduates. So, I would ask that the excuse me that the board be aware uh and push for the completion of the steering
006committee's composition uh within the next 30 to 60 days. uh and that that include a lot the majority of businesses that are actually hiring students as apprentices leading to full-time work. Thank you. >> Thank you. Are there any other cards? >> No other cards. >> Thank you. Moving on to item 3A, we have the introduction of Tammy Bonu, coordinator, college career and community partnerships. Welcome. >> Good evening. >> I started teacher high school administrator and also San Francisco as a high school educator and most recently office director. That's my role now here. I'm on the um uh college that okay the uh college career community partnerships team and my specific role is the K to2 partnerships coordinator working with the Bay Area Community College District um working on dual enrollment and CTV program. >> Thank
007you. Nice to be here. >> Item 3B is the introduction of Jay Takahashi, Chief Technology Officer, Business Services Division. Also, welcome. >> Good evening, Board President Torres, members of the board, Deputy Superintendent Chavez. My name is Jay Takahashi. I am the chief technology officer. Now, um I'd like to start off by saying that I am a product of this school system here in San Monteo County. Um I grew up in San Monteo. I went to Sunny Bay Elementary School, Burell Middle School, and Aragon High School. So, I'm honored to be in this position and have an impact on students lives through the experiences that I myself went through. Um my professional journey started with the county of Sanato and the human services agency where I worked as a benefits analyst and helped families um receive
008support from assistant programs such as medical, calresh. Uh from there I moved on to work for Satell County Health. I worked in the health IT department as a project analyst to deploy a new platform called the health information exchange where we connected siloed electronic health medical record systems into one platform ultimately hopefully improving uh patient care outcomes. Then I've moved on to county office education. Um I started here as a project and operations analyst working as a support for all IT projects as well as internal operations. I was then promoted to coordinator of information systems where I focused more on implementing new technology in terms of project management as well as training in those areas. After that, I promoted to a manager of media and IT operations where I manage the media and AV operations
009team as well as the application support team and the IT operations team. And now here I am a CTO. So I think this is my third time introducing myself. So many of you I have met before. If not, I look forward to meeting you again. Um, but a common pattern throughout my journey is that I've always leaned into technology to make more efficiency, more efficacy, um, more collaboration and enable equity. And so I hope to continue to do this and build this on the momentum that I've done so far, whether it's here internally within the SME and our school program such as special ed and corn community, also now exploring more of how we can do this with our districts because I think that's somewhere that we have some room to grow and I'd really
010like to explore those areas. Um, again, I just feel like it's my turn to pay it forward being a, you know, a child growing up here in Sanonteo County. So, I am really appreciative of this time. I also really wanted to say one more thing. Deput Deputy Superintendent Chave has reminded me that previously when I was here, um, there was used to be an exercise where new leadership would introduce themselves by saying three interesting facts about themselves. And I think that was to build a connection on a personal level between everyone. So, I thought I'd go back to my original introduction and the way that I framed it was I did three of the most commonly questions I was asked when I first started here. The first one is when you hear my name, Jay
011Takahashi, everybody always asks, "Are you related to Takahashi Market?" And yes, I am. I still am. Um I haven't gone there recently, but if you ask my family, they may say maybe not anymore. He's kind of left us, but I still love them. Anyway, um second question is, how long does it take you to do your hair? Because when I first started, I had a pompador really high and it took me maybe 20 minutes. But over the years, I've learned that um time is of the essence. So, I've time came down a little bit. Um it's funny because I think every job that I've had here, I've always had a new haircut or hairstyle. And so, I always tell people, you know, just like technology that's always changing and always evolving, so are my haircuts,
012right? Uh the question number three that I get is, do your socks always match your outfit? And so I've always worn suits. My socks usually match my suits or my shirt or something. And the reason for that was when I first started my professional journey, um I was told and this stuck with me. It was don't dress for the job you have, but dress for the job you aspire to have. And so going through, you know, the human services agency, being in hospitals with the health system, coming here, everybody asks why are you always so dressed up? And so now I think it's a full circle moment where now I am the CTO and now wearing a suit does fit and it makes sense. Um all that to say that I'm very excited in this
013new position. I'm very excited to work with all of you in the future and I thank you for the opportunity. >> Thank you. I think the first time I met you, you had a pink suit on for because you had plans to go see Wicked, I think. Was that you or something? Yes. Yes, I remember. Okay. Moving on to item 4 A. Um, is there a motion to approve the minutes of the September 3rd, 2025 regular board meeting as presented? Is there a second? >> Second. >> Thank you. There's a motion to approve the minutes of the September 3rd, 2025 regular board meeting made by Trustee Love and a second by Trustee Gerard. Is there any further discussion? All those in favor say I. >> I. All those opposed say no. The motion passes with
014a vote of 70. And the minutes of the September 3rd, 2025 regular board meeting have been approved. Um for item 4B, is there a motion to approve the minutes of the September 17th, 2025 retreat as presented? >> So move. >> Is there a second? Thank you. Uh there's a motion to approve the minutes of the September 17, 2025 retreat made by Trusty Gerard and a second by Trustee 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 minutes of the September 17th, 2025 retreat have been approved. Item five 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
015the regular order of business for separate discussion and action if any member of the board, superintendent, or the public so requests. Is there a motion to approve the consent agenda? Is there a second? Thank you. There is a motion to approve the consent agenda made by Trusty Alvaro and a second by Trustee Love. Is there any further discussion? All those in favor say I. I >> I all those opposed say no. The motion passes with a vote of 70 and the consent agenda has been approved. Um for item 6A, Kevin Bolta, deputy superintendent business services division. Manette Mano, executive director internal businesses business services. Marian Reyes, manager fiscal services, and Eric Artiaga, supervisor fiscal services will present the 2024 2025 unudited actuals year-end closing report. Um the floor is all yours. Good evening, board president
016Torres, members of the board, Deputy Superintendent Chavez. We're going to present the financials from the prior fiscal year. And with that, I'll turn it over to the team. >> Good evening, President Torres, members of the board, Deputy Superintendent Chavez. All right, so we're going to be presenting the un audited unudited actuals. Uh now these reports represent actual revenues and actual expenditures uh recorded them in the previous fiscal year. Now this is not a budget. This is our true financial performance uh as a measurement. Um now do keep in mind that these numbers are presented before our annual independent audit is complete. Uh but before we get into that there are a couple of items that we would like to highlight. Um this will be this past year was our second of our three-year implementation plan
017of our new ERP system. And while it didn't present some challenges and a lot of trainings, I can gladly report that things have gone very smoothly. Um, still learning a lot, but very happy with where we're at so far. Um, over the past year, we've also implemented the classification and compensation study for our CSEA 158 group. Um, and we've also increased the compensation for our SMCA confidential and management group to at three and a half%. With an additional increase to our health and welfare, um, we've also completed the environmental studies and statewide curriculum project which we contracted with 10 strands on that. Um, the career and technical education courses have also began being provided at Gateway. And lastly, over 36% of our employees either got their computers updated or replaced. I'll pass it along. >>
018Thank you, Eric. Um, good evening. So, I'm here to present and sorry about um the the title should be an income statement and not this expenditure by object report. So, this is just an overview of where we are on terms of revenue and expenses. So you can see like the total revenue is 116 million expenses at 115 and the transfer in is um to fund for the ERP um implementation and the firewall that we require um acquired. Um so that was a transfer in from fund 17. Um transfer out are transfers to other funds and then contributions of 1.9. So this is from unrestricted going to restricted programs. So we have a change in fund balance of about 3.5 million. So the next slide is the revenue in just um in a pi grab. So
019you can see that um the the our biggest revenue is coming from LCFF. But just to mention that this also includes the property tax that we always have to send back to the state. Um other funding resources are the federal which included um the COVID dollars. Um the state is including the special ed and the local are um fee for services that we have. So this next slide is actually um expenses of the unrestricted and restricted too. So it's also just um a graphic representation of the income statement. So if you can see the big chunk of our expenses are the employee cost which includes the certificated classified and the benefit piece and also you know I did mention earlier too about the other outgo which is the property taxes that we have to um
020send back to the state. So the next slide will be presented by Kevin Baltimore. So, I know this slide can be u maybe difficult to read from a distance, but we did want to show you um any contracts that we spent last year. So, and we also want to show the the change from budgets, what we actually spent um under the services of the board, our election costs, we were budgeting a little high. Ultimately, they came in a little under $600,000. We were actually budgeting over $750,000 for election costs. If you move down to the outdoor education program, um we spent $1.16 million related to our contract for the Camp Jones Gulch property and that is dependent on the number of students that are participating. There is under the business service um area a liability
021that we recorded at the end of the fiscal year related to PERS. and we're still working with PERS going back all the way to 2021, but we wanted to record kind of worst case scenario as we were going back and so we recorded a liability that we ultimately did not have within the budget. We do point out that um under the CECC tech lease, that's the former ERP or enterprise resource programming software system. Uh we noted that um this will be the last year that you will see the CECC component. um this year in 2526 that moves to an implementation cost that we'll cover out of our reserves and fund 17. We do have a separate line item specifically for the ERP implementation. Um and we were just under budget in that area about $20,000.
022Um total cost in in the service area was 1.1 million but there are additional costs in capital outlay that you'll see later in this presentation. And then if you move down to transportation, our largest contract um that we have is with uh transportation. Um this was the first year of a new contract um three-year agreement. And so although we missed the budget, um those costs ultimately are getting build back to Jefferson Elementary who is subcontracting uh from us for their services. So ultimately it didn't change our bottom line, but we did miss the budget related to our projection of expenditures. Uh at the end we um budgeted to spend $12.3 million in contract services and we spent 12.2 for a difference of um $74,000. Okay. Now we actually want to kind of um hold ourselves
023accountable to what we said uh the financials would look like at our estimated actual compared to where we ended. Um, if you look at the LCFF or local control funding formula, we were under budget or I'm sorry, we were overbudget by $220,000, um, some conservatism there, but also property taxes plays a part in that, um, which is difficult to to project to some extent. Uh, we're pretty accurate in our federal dollars and our state dollars. We see a fairly large change in our local revenue. The largest point and I think this is important to point out is a $ 1.77 million journal entry related to gain on investments and that is at the end of the year an accounting mechanism where we take a look at the cash that we have invested with the county
024treasury and we market to the market and we actually record a journal entry for that. It's not operational. It doesn't change actually. We don't actually get that in new revenue. Um but it is a an accounting mechanism. So, I want to point that out because it does look like we had this change of $3.8 million to the positive when we were really projecting $1.7 million. But if you take out the 1.77 adjustment for this gain, our change from budget to actual was less than $300,000. I also want to point out under the area of expenditures, certificated salaries, classified salaries, and employee benefits. that variance for those three items um is is roughly $30,000 and the total is over 30 million. So this really speaks to staff doing an excellent job of projecting the budget for
025where we spend our most of our money which is on people. Um we will keep pushing ourselves. Um this is at our estimated actual towards the end of the year. We get better if we do that earlier in the year. If we can be that accurate, you know, in May, that would be wonderful. But it is difficult to project the future in May, you know, over a year before we close the books. But very impressive staff in this regard of how accurate and that just doesn't happen, by the way. That's a lot of work of going through position control and looking at our um our where we are expenditure- wise through the year and making adjustments in the budget. And it's important because it really represents dollars that can be used for other things, compensation,
026program enhancement. So the more accurate we are with these projections, the better decisions we can make with the dollars that were provided from the public. So we do see um that we were under budget by almost a million dollars in our supplies. We were under budget by almost $1.3 million in services. A portion that again was offset through the um transportation subcontract with Jefferson Elementary. our capital outlay. We were actually overbudget by $124,000 but as I mentioned earlier we were underbudget on services so those somewhat offset and we were also under budget which we'll show later on salaries related to the ERP implementation. And now our indirect costs. This is very typical and we got to talk about how to maybe work on this a little bit, but we base our indirect costs on what
027we think we're going to spend in our restricted programs, but we never spend every dollar in the restricted area. So, inevitably, our indirect costs are coming in lower than budget. So, we we need to take a look at that and and maybe get a trend analysis so that we can do a little better job with our indirect because it does offset our expenditures. Um, so that's an area we can work on. Our transfers in, we really only transferred over from fund 17 for the ERP implementation and for a firewall purchase. Our transfers out, which was mentioned as related to um transfer to fund 12 for our early learning program. And our contribution is pretty accurate actually at just a variance of $40,000. So again, although we are recording a $3.8 $8 million positive change in
028fund balance. If you take out the journal entry for the gain on investments, we're really closer to that $2 million mark. So, so this next slide is a lot of numbers, but it does show if you kind of read it left to right, what we're trying to show is the progression through the year. And so part of this is to hold ourselves accountable um at the original budget that we develop in March, April, May for the next fiscal year. um those are represented in the original budget column, but then we adjust the budget um in October, November, and we do it again in the spring and then we provide our estimated actuals as we're building our new original budget. And if you just go to the bottom line change in fund balance, the original budget
029showed a projected negative change in fund balance, meaning we would spend more money than we brought in at $587,000 at first interim. that changed where we were now projecting a positive change of almost $500,000. At second interim, it's at 1.78 million. Positive change. Not really much of a change at our estimated actuals. And then again, I point out that if you look at our change in fund balance with the journal entry removed for the gain on investment, we would have been at $2 million, but then we actually ended at the 3.8. So this is a typical produ uh change the way the budget works. It has to be to some extent a bit conservative at the beginning because we don't know and we're budgeting for all expenditures. Everybody hired spending every dollar for supplies and
030services. So the budget tends to get better as the year goes on. >> Sorry, last slide from me. We do show the combined unrestricted and restricted where previously showed just the unrestricted side of the budget. We do see under straight state revenue that we were overbudget by um $970,000. That's in the restricted side the AB 602 or special education the SULPA special education local plan area allocation. And again, we look at um local revenue. And the biggest change here on the is on the restricted side. And we had a large uh grant related to medical billing for um counseling services. And that program really never got started with Santa Clara. And so we didn't realize almost $4.9 million in grant money. If you look under expenditures though, again, pretty accurate. And then under books and
031supplies, we're seeing some large changes um under budget of almost $2.3 million. Again, most of that is related to the grant I just mentioned, but we also had um in our IT area almost $527,000 that we were expecting to spend in u supplies, which we did not. or actually I'm sorry we used that um yes we did not take that as supplies services um almost 4.9 almost $5 million under budget and we kind of point out again that that is a large portion of that grant 2.9 million and then transportation $500,000 and another grant of almost a million dollars that we had budgeted in that area and then the other algo portion is the increased property taxes and as increased property taxes come to us Unfortunately, we don't get to keep them like a basic
032aid or community funded school district does. So, we send those dollars back to the state. And ultimately, our transfers in was went down because we only pulled over from fund 17 the ERP implementation, the firewall dollars. So, um we ended the year in a in a better position than we were planning both on the unrestricted side and ultimately the restricted. I'll turn it over to Manette. >> Good evening. I'm here to move with the rest of the slides beginning with a summary of our one-time dollars. Um these are the COVID 19 relief funds that we uh receive both from the state and federal. So um as you recall the pandemic hit us in fiscal year 1920. The years that's presented here is when we spent those dollars and 2425 was the conclusion of those dollars.
033Um we had to spend and report them to the state. Uh September 30th was when we had to finally report and spent those dollars down. So um as you can see we strategically budgeted them throughout the years in hoping that in the hopes of those pro with those programs being um sustained even now. Um the next slides is the presentation of our implement implementation cost. Um 2324 was our first year of ERP implementation. Last year was a second and we are now at full implementation. And I just want to highlight um those ongoing cost began with around 2.5 million in year one then last year it was at 2.5 and as you can see in the current year it's at 2.1 and that's because of the sharing that we have with districts. The current sharing
034cost sharing is about 70 is 70% SMCE and 30% of that is passed on to the districts. So um with the new ERP we are seeing a cost savings even um with and that's with both the financial component the absence component and the HR component. So we're seeing a cost savings with those combined systems. The next slides uh presents the historical um ending fund balances or the reserves. So as you can see in the in 2122 that's represented of those um restricted dollars that were COVID related and as we spent them down those red um bars are kind of decreasing and with a decrease you'll see an increase of the green which are now the unassigned dollars. So, as you noted in in the previous slides, 2425 um added 3 point about 3.5 million to
035our unassigned ending fund balances. So, this now brings us to our last slide and I just want to um highlight a few points from the financial report. So as Kevin mentioned um our financial report um record there's a recording of 1.7 million related to gain on investments. Um it also showed improved accuracy of our budgeting and salaries and benefits. It included um negotiated implementation of the class and comp for our CS 158 CSEA 158 group. Those are mostly our par educators. We are currently negotiating our implementation of sorry that's actually done already in the current year we implemented the 25 the um class and comp study for both CSEA 789 and 887 but you'll see that when we present the numbers for the current year we also completed the implementation of the new ERP system
036so we're now well into using that system. We showed that we spent all our one-time dollars related to CO 19. So overall, we're showing that SMCE is financially healthy. So with that, we're opening the floor to any questions. >> Thank you. Other comments or questions from the board? Trusty Lev. >> Oh, can you speak into your mic? Sorry, >> sorry about that. Um, did you hear that? >> Yeah. >> Okay. Um, so on this healthy side, we're almost like so so healthy that there are a lot of reserves and just looking at the different funds 14, 17, 19, 35, 40, there's just a lot of money looks like it's just sitting there. And then in that green um column as well. So do you think that we are in a good place where we should
037be with reserves? Do we have too many reserves? Should that money be out doing things um supporting children, supporting schools? Um andor do you have things planned for some of those reserves? I think that's uh also, you know, there's that question. When you don't have money, it's a problem. And when you have a lot of money, it's also a problem, but it's a good problem. But I think it's um it's going to be that of a challenge to us in terms of delegating those funds in aligning our um actions towards our strategic plan and towards um our priorities. So it's just a matter of um how we allocate those funds wisely I guess um in support of the heads of cemetery. Can I just add um like what what you're thinking of? So, they're sitting
038there and I assume you were realized that that's a lot of money sitting there and you're thinking about what we can do with it. I remember we had a meeting several months ago where you weren't really ready to talk about it, but I'm kind and I'm not on the budget committee, but I am curious what you're thinking. >> I would add through the general fund right now specifically, we have you've not realized the full class and comp for all the classified side. You'll see that in the 2526 budget. Um, we also only have multi-year agreement with our with our teachers group. So, um, as we get in negotiations going back to 2425 for 887, there's going to be pressure to do more multi-year. So, it's very feasible that our change in fund balance number um
039becomes more balanced. So, we're not adding to reserves because again, if you're not covering a deficit, um you're talking about compensation and talking about program enhancement out of the general fund. Now, the dollars we have in deferred maintenance, um certainly want to use those to maintain this building and our schools. Um we have money in fund 40 that we want to talk about related to facilities specifically. Um but it's starting with the program, not with the facility itself. Um and then our our fund 17. Um there is a lot of money in there. Um but there are things that we are talking about with workforce housing. There are other priorities within the strategic plan that I think we're going to see pressure in the in the near future uh that we can put those dollars
040into place. But that's a decision that's a decision ultimately through the superintendent and through the board as we work through those. >> Thanks. >> Other comments or questions? Uh Trusty Alvaro. I have a different microphone out. It still doesn't sound like it's working. It's on the green, Leo. I'm doing the best I can. Um, I just want to point out one more time for the record that when you look at our slide is on page six here. It says the unrestricted and restricted revenue that the outgo property taxes sent back into the black hole of California equals more than the combined certificated and classified salaries for the entire year. So just I just wanted to point that out. >> Thank you. Other comments or questions from the board? Are there any from the public? No
041comments from the public. >> Thank you. Is there a motion to approve the 2024 2025 unudited actuals year ending year end closing report? >> So moved. >> Is there a second? >> Second. >> Thank you. There is a motion to approve the 2024 2025 unudited actuals year end closing report made by Trustee Bonini and a second by Trustee 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 2024 to 2025 unaudited actuals year and closing report has been approved. Um item 7A is the superintendent's comments. Deputy Superintendent Chavez, do you have any comments to share? >> Just um a couple of comments. one. Um it's I'm happy to announce that the Sonteo County Office of Education
042was recognized as a midsize county office of the year um recognized by the California County Superintendent. So the California County Superintendent um voted to um to award the Satell County Office of Education um and recognize us for the work specifically around behavioral health. uh environmental literacy and school safety. And also, it's important to recognize that um the California County superintendents also called out um Superintendent McGee's leadership in these areas. So, I wanted to share that with with all of you. Um and the second um comment is to wish our executive director of strategy and communication a very happy birthday to Ian Bane. He's he'll be celebrating on October 12th. >> Thank you. Um for item 8A, the board will discuss and act on the school funding task force report. Board members Love and O'Neal, would
043you like to begin? >> Sure. Thank you. I'll start. And uh Trusty O'Neal, jump in if I miss something. Same with you. Um board president um Taurus. So, everyone has a copy of the most recent report. Um, you had an earlier version. This, um, new version, Executive Director Bane updated to reflect our most recent meeting. So, thank you for doing that. Um, uh, board president Torres, Trusty O'Neal, and I attended these meetings. They were facilitated by county office of education staff or people they contracted with. We didn't run the meetings. Um and uh the work supports two of the major roles of the county board per our governance handbook. One is providing community leadership on educational issues and advocating on behalf of students and public education at the local, state and federal level. And the
044other um uh major role from our governance handbook is maintaining a cooperative and supporting relationship with local school districts, their governing boards and their communities. So this work fits I think really nicely with our governance handbook. Um and as shared previously we had four meetings. We kind of started to understand the issue and um hear about the inadequacies experienced by districts. Um did some brainstorming I on ideas reviewed the report and discuss with capital advisors sort of like what do you think of these ideas that are kind of being generated and got some good feedback. um hope that um we'll have time to work on some legislation or something with um uh Senator Becker's office and other legislators may and the three issues that kind of rose to the top were addressing the cost of
045living um seeing if there's something we could do with excess property taxes and or addressing housing. And um you also have in your folder just a report just came out on this exact same issue of districts that are high costs that um have districts within them that um don't receive nearly as much money and so there's a lot of discrepancy. So I I um think that's a great report and it's also points out some issues that we may not want to address um because they might cause conflict in our county. So, next step is um collaborating with capital adviserss and senators Becker's office to craft legislation. Um, and we've been sharing information on this with CCBA and with some of the other counties that have all kind of been talking about there's a need for
046something like this. And the goal is to just have some legislation hopefully um introduced in January if we can get to that place. And then the question for the board tonight is just to um acknowledge that it's reviewed the report and is supportive of the task force continuing its work with the superintendent and the county office of education staff to address this issue um which is a priority of several of our districts and um we want this discussion now to address any questions or comments. I also want to add that um the Sanonteo County School Boards Association does have an advocacy subcommittee and one of the real active members of our task force is chairing that and is is pretty engaged as well. So we hope that that group will you know be a good
047partner. So that's it. >> Beautifully said. Thank you, Trusty Love. Uh Trusty O'Neal, anything else to add? >> Thank you. Um are there any comments or questions from the board? Trusty Benini. Uh >> I just wanted to um thank the committee for the work and for meeting with the districts. I think it's important to you know gather information around this. Um when I was reading through um I I don't have specific um line items, but when I was reading through there were some questions that were posed and maybe it was like maybe during some of the meetings but or maybe in the summary that I think um were prior discussions that our board and our legislative committee had with um Superintendent McGee and with the the um superintendent association and things that were being pushed
048forward or were paused. Um, for instance, the property tax issue. There was I think it was Orange County. I might be wrong, but there was a county that was sort of taking a lead um or a legislator that was taking a lead on that a couple of years ago and it's a difficult issue. I'm not suggesting we don't address it because it's a lot of money. Um, but it has sort of been a a starting stop sort of a situation and we've been raising it for years. Um, so I just want to point that out that, you know, we've we've known about it. it's it's been discussed a lot and so I feel like there was a little bit of um information that might just need a little bit more um historical information gathering and
049that just might be because we need to ask some more people um but that can just go into the the hopper for for the work that the legislative committee will continue to do and of course SMCDA's um committee as well. So thank you and um it's exciting that we're trying to move things forward on this front. So I appreciate it >> trusty Gerard. Yes, I I kind of want to piggyback on that and congratulate you on taking this on um because it really has I think um brought a lot of attention to this particular subject and everybody knew it was there um but not everybody wanted to talk about it. And I think that this has really gotten a lot of conversations going and people really realizing the inequities that there really are because I
050think a lot of times um they kind of just want to put their head under the covers and not really acknowledge it. And probably I'll get in trouble for saying this, but probably the wealthier uh districts are the ones that don't really want people uh looking at this because there even in Sonteo County are huge disparities just huge and um there aren't a lot of people that are aware of that. And so this is really bringing it up front and I really appreciate it. And I also uh really appreciate you bringing it to ACCBE as well because it was something that we talked about right from the get-go um that we wanted to be involved in. So thank you very much. >> Are there other comments or questions from the board? Trusty Alvaro. >> Thank
051you. Ah this microphone actually works. Um, thank you to the committee for all this work and I did also notice uh, Trusty Gerard that there were certain districts missing from the discussion and then not a big surprise. So this is this is great work. There's a lot of good ideas, obviously, a lot of challenges, and I'm wondering uh if the committee has plans to begin to to have this discussion in a more I want to say public way like editorials in the newspaper or um not necessarily written by you, but there's a like, you know, John Mays of the Journal for instance might be really interested in saying this is interesting. I want to write about it and and taking a lead on it because I think it's really important. I mean the the discussion
052that we constantly have about how we send all this money back to the state for non-educational use, which is the real thorn. It's not going to other school districts. It's going to the courts. Um which you might think was educational, but I could argue that it isn't. Um, but just just that idea to begin to reach out. There's that and the disparities in funding. I mean, if you if you hear from anybody, it's that schools have too much money and they're wasting it all. And all the districts are funded the same and and we all know that that's not true. And so, thank you for doing this report. I think it's really important um for us to put our name behind it as the entire board. um and just try and see how we can,
053you know, begin to move this forward into a more public sphere because I think it needs it needs to get heard. >> Can I respond to that? >> Yes, >> that's an excellent question and um I have in my notes that depending on how our conversation went tonight to see if um working with e um executive director Bane on Yeah. putting out maybe a release that the board has um and the superintendent have come up with are doing this work and it responds to this report that just came out. So that's a big hook right there as well that we're aware of it and we're actually doing things about it and the things that are in our report are not as controversial as the things that are in that statewide report. So um that's maybe
054a positive as well. So >> trusty audience I also want to thank for you know I think when you see a report you see these pages this information but I think we all know how much effort goes and how many meetings how many talking about it how much you invest of doing this work so again I want to thank you because in my mind what I'm thinking as I think about disparities is how in Satel County how it looks depending where you live right and we get some of those uh we hear about those uh intradist transfers or you know uh but I think it has to do with the differences that you'll see of supports that are in one school that are not in another one because they don't have enough money right to
055fund that uh when we think about mental health when we think about even APA classes or CTE or other opportunities that students have when you compare within Satel County you'll see this big discrepancies and and that's why I'm I'm really thankful that you're putting this time and and effort to really see to bring something that is so important and um I'm hoping that this is going to go and move forward in a way that is going to be positive for the outcome of all students in Sato County. Thank you. >> Thank you. Um are there any other comments or questions from the board? >> Any from the public? >> No comments from the public. >> Thank you. Thank you. Is there a motion to approve the school funding task force report? >> So move. >>
056Is there a second? >> Second. >> Thank you. There is a motion to approve the school funding task force report made by Trusty Gerard 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 school funding task force report has been approved. This item will come back at the November 19th, 2025 meeting to discuss next steps. For item 8B, the board will have a first reading of the new board policy regarding student board members. No action is required. This will come back to the board at its November 19th, 2025 meeting for a second reading and action. Are there any comments or questions from the board? Any from the public? Oh,
057yes. Trusty Benini. Sorry. >> Um, so I did I know this is the first reading and I will um, uh, follow up I guess with the committee and or with Lisa. Um, but I did have a question that I just wanted to put out there for us to think about in terms of how the new policy is um, structured. So, it still has the language in the beginning um about generally having an application from the county and then it goes into having um so that's there and it can happen I because it's part of the the law right and then then we specifically say that we'll have two board members and that one will be uh our liaison and one will be from our schools which is what we wanted but my question is what
058happens if we also have an application. So they're they're seem like they're sort of independently floating and they're not tied together. And so um I'd like that to be a little more clear. Um so that's um that's one comment. And then my my next comment has to do with um the language that's used in the um just each section with the student board member eligibility. Um uh it's uh it says that we shall select two student county board members. I feel like it should be more permissive language that we may um that makes a difference, right? Because it gives us it makes it something that we we must do and maybe we don't we don't we aren't able to do it in a year or there's some other issue. So I'd prefer it to say
059May. And then um my last comment is there's a section in each of the um liaison section and also the section for um a student from our schools uh where it um says that that the student will receive support um from the county superintendent. And I know that's somewhat how it happens now because there's information that has to come. I would much prefer if it says the superintendent and the board so that the board has a role in supporting the student and that would be a change in um each of the sections that that appears and I will send those uh specifically to the committee. Um but those are my comments and thank you. >> Thanks for doing the work to modify it. That's it was you know great to have that. >> Can I
060just say something? Um, I want to thank uh, Trusty Alvaro and Arius for working um, with sub on the subcommittee to do this and I appreciate those comments. I think I got them all down. Um, I don't remember it being confusing about the application piece. So, I think we'll go revisit all those things and see what's going on. And we can say, yeah, board support generally staff have supported in a very large way the student members. Um, so that was just building on that history. >> Trusty Albero, >> thank you. Um, we we also had Council Cho with us this entire time we were having these meetings. And there were a couple of things and I'm not going to be able to do this from memory, but uh she could because she always has great
061notes. There were a couple of things where like with that application, it's part of the law and we leave it in. And what she had said to us was we can say thank you, we've already filled the spot, you know, so if we already have, you know, someone from our if we're saying we're only going to take from our court and community schools and a youth commissioner, that's what we're going to take. So if somebody applies who is in the general population, we can say, "Thank you. You know, these are these are the slots that we're doing." But there was something about her saying that that that thing about taking applications has to be in there. Even if we take the application and say this isn't this isn't what we need. >> And the applic
062Oh, I'm sorry. The application would just be from Corn Community School students. It wouldn't be from other schools because we only would take a student from our program per that legislation, I believe. >> Well, the first section, sorry. Oh, >> go ahead. The first section is generally the county, sorry. And then there's two other sections, one for the liaison and one for the count court and community. Um, and I can understand if there might be a plan to do that. But really, it should be clear in the policy. So, it should say um our if we can, we would prioritize this and then do that or whatever that looks like. I'll look at it a little bit more and potentially talk to um Lisa Cho. But anyway, I just wanted to make sense so that
063it's clear to the students because the reason that I raised this in the first place to make it clear was there was a student that was a county school student who said, "Hey, I want to do this, but it's not very clear in your policy how to do it." And so that's why I raised it initially that we needed to like have it on our radar and know what the process was. Um, so it isn't beyond the scope of reason that we would have that other type of an application. I think >> well and the other thing that we um talked about and it's in here also um was doing outreach through the teachers and staff or as um board president Torres has suggested maybe a couple of us going out and talking to the
064students and saying this is what it's about you know here's what we do any questions and trying to um recruit one student to come on board. So we we definitely have there's some there's some language that's implicit in here. It may not be explicit because as I said we have a council who says this is the way it has to be worded. I have one more um comment that I forgot to mention too um which is there's a statement in part of the pol policy the revision where it says the um that staff will inter interact and recommend a student help them write um a rec you know a letter or write a statement um and I think that's great and I think that's what we talked about but I also think that there should
065potentially be um a pathway where they and do it independently where it doesn't have to rely on staff because I think that might just you know be more more inclusive for some students. So that was my last comment. I apologize for a minute. >> Thank you. Are there other comments or questions from the board? Any from the public? >> None from the public. >> Thank you. There is no action to take on this item. Um, for item 8 C, the board will discuss and act on the formation and topics to be addressed by an ad hoc Sanonteo County Community College District joint meeting planning subcommittee. Um, first the board will discuss and take action on the formation of this subcommittee. If the subcommittee is formed, then we will discuss topics for the subcommittee to address.
066Uh, board member Bonini, would you like to begin the conversation? Um, so I think that we've had some interaction in past years or a joint meeting with our um, community college district. And so that's where this uh, came this idea came from. And so the formation of a committee was really um sort of to do some of the pre-work that we might do to brainstorm ideas, but to meet with um hopefully a committee or some a couple of members from the community college district to um determine what might be the agenda and also to logistically, you know, help arrange for such a meeting so that we can have that um communication. we do have, I think, a lot of um things in common and we've had past interactions and we have current things such as
067our um middle college and um our uh our project change and things like that. So that's where that's why um uh that's why it's on our agenda. >> Thank you. Um time for comments and questions. Trusty Alvaro, I >> I just had a a question about this. We have had a couple meetings in the past where they've come and more or less productive discussion. Um, our calendar set for the year and it's full. And I'm pretty sure looking at their online their calendar set for the year and it's full. So, are we talking about next school year? >> I don't think it's determined. >> Okay. That I'm I'll just put that out. That would be my preference that we say, "Okay, this is this is something we want to do." You know, as we set
068our board calendar out in advance, this is something we want to do in the next school year with the community college because I just don't I I see our calendar already as being pretty packed, >> right? And I think now would just kind of be the planning and pre-planning for it. So then hopefully it's something that maybe by the end of the school year is more solidified so that it's ready to start either in the summer or start of the school year. But um I think maybe that timing can be we can discuss in the um in the planning portion of it. Trusty love >> um this is for a subcommittee, right? So maybe a two and two. So it really doesn't need to be part of our board schedule or impact our board schedule.
069I think if we have two people or three people who want to participate on the board um at any point we're ready to do that, I think that should be fine. >> Yes, trust. >> Just for clarification, the committee was to be formed to develop an agenda for a joint board meeting between our board with our board and with the community college board in their entirety. So the work of the committee can go forward. >> That's what I'm saying. the work of the committee can go forward whether it's this year or next year whenever it is but we don't need to wait till next year to start meeting >> rightial >> um do you do you envision being including the adult school consortium >> um I would need more information on what you're asking I
070I don't know >> adult school consortium is the partnership it's funded by the state it's where I worked when I is working for the high school district and it's and it's hand the it's jointly managed by the community college district and the K12 dis the 12 districts the high school districts and the adult school division and some of the challenges they're facing especially regarding ICE getting distribution scheduling and funding because a lot of their funding is being lowered because of students scared to come to school. So I think the adult school consortium should at least be invited to come to this joint meeting since it's managed by both entities. Um I think that the topics or the I you know what we would be discussing or you know if we were going to address something
071excuse me that was related to to that there are probably other groups as well that would be interested in being included. So I think it would just be that initial discussion who should be in the room what are the topics that's what the committee the comm t the committee will be tasked with working on. So great idea. Yeah, it'd be a great um like priority topic to focus on. Um yeah, I like that. Um are there any other comments or questions from the board? >> Trusty Gerard? >> Yeah, I I think I'm I'm um going to agree. I I I don't see any reason why we couldn't form the committee now so that we can be planning um for the future, whether it be later next year um or what we come up with. But
072I think if we don't get started, we're never going to get there. >> Trusty Alvaro. >> Yeah, I wasn't suggesting postponing the committee formation. I was just simply suggesting that the the meeting itself should happen in the next school year. No, the committee should get going right away. I that wasn't my suggestion. I apologize if it was confusing. >> Okay. Thank you. >> Thank you. Other comments or questions from the board. Are there any from the public? Oh, Trusty Benini. >> Well, so um my understanding is that we're going to form the committee >> first. Yes. First we need a motion or approve it and then um the second part and then um I guess um if there are any other ideas uh that people that any of our board wants to share you know
073to that can be done in a later time as well. Okay. >> Yeah. And then discussing like who would be joining and forming that. >> Okay. Thanks. >> Um are there any comments from the public? No comments. Thank you. Is there a motion to create an ad hoc Sanonteo County Community College District joint meeting planning subcommittee? Oh, sorry. It says comprised of. So, I think we need to discuss um who would be a part of that first before we um go ahead and motion to approve that. So, I would assume Trusty Benini, you would chair. >> I'm I'm happy to be on the committee. >> Okay. We have Miss Trusty Benini. Um, do we have other members who would like to be part of that subcommittee? >> I will. >> Thank you. We have trustee
074Gerard. >> I I can move. >> And trustee AAS. Okay. So now that we have our three, is there a motion to create an ad hoc Sonteo County Community College District joint meeting planning subcommittee comprised of Trustee Benini, Trusty Gerard, and Trustee Adios? >> Thank you. Is there a second? >> Second. >> Thank you. There is a motion to create an ad hoc Samato County Community College District joint meeting planning subcommittee comprised of Trustee Benini, Trusty Gerard, and Trustee Adas. made by Trustee Love and a second by Trusty Gerard. Is there any further discussion? All those in favor say I. >> I. >> All those opposed say no. The motion passes with a vote of 70 and the formation of an ad hoc Sonteo Comm Community College District joint meeting planning subcommittee comprised of Trusty
075Benini, Trusty Gerard, and Trustee Adas has been approved. So the board may now discuss topics for the subcommittee to address. Um, board member Benini, I turn it back to you. >> Well, I think we've had a couple that were raised already, so revisit that. Um, I I think the things on my list um and are, you know, um, Project Change and just how that how we're all finding that and and what we know about it jointly. Um, I already talked about um middle college and how that's um evolving um or how that's working in our county and how that also might impact our own schools um and um other potential partnerships on um work that's happening in both spaces. I'm thinking early education, CTE, um apprenticeships, trades. Those are those were my ideas, but I'm
076opening open the floor to other ideas just to get the committee started. >> And then I know Trusty O'Neal mentioned like the adult school as another priority. Um >> send you the name I'll send I send you the name and contact >> the name and contact information for the for the chancellor of that business. Um there there was another issue I think um the grand jury just came out with another report on um education and and the lack of education in both high GED high schools especially in the jails. I haven't finished reading the report but I think that's something that should be addressed also. >> Thank you. continuing high school ed in the jails. >> Thank you, >> Other. Yes. Uh, Deputy Superintendent Chavis, >> um, I just wanted to offer if there's a
077need for coordinating the meeting or reaching out to the community college district, just let me know. Happy to help. >> Thank you. Um, other input from the board. Are there any comments from the public? No comments. Thank you. there is no action to take on this part of the item. Um, so for item 8D, when an ad hoc subcommittee meets or a representative attends a meeting related to their given assignment, uh, board members may choose to bring a report to the board at this time. Would any board members like to report out? >> Trusty Bonini. >> Yes, my notes. So the um the gateway uh subcommittee met on uh September 23rd. Um and it was it was actually just trusty Gerard and myself. Um so we met with um Chris Shouse and I believe um
078the new the principal uh for um Gateway, right? And I'm forgetting his name. >> Freedom. Yes. Sorry. Um and so uh we got an update um on the work that was done by the design committee the year in years prior um on the um the uh different priorities that were raised. Um three of the three top priorities just for um reference back were expanding partnerships with community college which falls in line right with also with our new committee um transitions um in and out so programming um with that and then professional learning and collaboration for staff. Um so we got an update on that and also some outcome information. So that was really helpful. um if the board is interested in hearing more about that, we can also request that that come back to the
079the whole board if if that's of um desire. We also um you know talked about things that we've been hearing about from staff, whether it's in public comment or whatnot, about um staffing. Um we know that um there were postings for some positions that some some teachers had left and so we got just an update generally on how things are going. Um and then uh we as a committee um really were just asking how we can be of assistance as a board. Um we know that there is um a lot of work that's going on, a lot of attempts to sort of bolster the program. That was the whole intent of the design um process that happened a couple or last year, the year before. And so um uh in addition to knowing how it's
080going like we want part of our subcommittee charge is to um make sure the board's engaged with that process. And so we talked a little bit about that about um how in terms of budget priorities or other things in terms of the the um reserves that we have is there something that we can do to help in that um framework. Um and uh that was kind of in line too with the conversations or the information that was shared with us around outreach to the districts on all the good things that are going on and how they're trying to make sure that we are meeting the gaps in the districts. So are there um high school districts or even um middle schools that can use the you know can benefit from our services and what does
081that look like? And so they're really have starting to have those conversations. So um it was a great meeting. We we got a lot of new information. So, um that's that's pretty much a summary. Does anyone have or do you have any um any additional comments? >> I think you covered it and it was a very informative um meeting with uh excellent discussions. So, uh was well worth well worth the meeting. >> Yeah, I feel like it was really helpful for us and then we're happy to share that out. episode if anyone else has questions. >> And we did have some some tough questions that we asked. >> We did. >> Um, but we we got some really good answers. Um, maybe not always what we wanted, but but they were good answers. So, >>
082yeah. So, maybe more to come on that, but I'm sure we'll get more updates as as the work continues and um as we have more meetings, we'll bring more to you. >> Any comments or questions for the gateway subcommittee? Any other members wanting to report out? Um, yes, I was going to do that one. >> Um, I I don't think we do. Um, Kevin, do we have any more housing information? We have not received any more um from when we uh reported out the last time. We haven't had another meeting. >> Yeah. No, we didn't turn down. We just um so what I was going to comment for the housing the workforce housing subcommittee is um we are receiving a lot of a few requests from different districts who are pursuing their own housing um
083projects um not aligned with what we originally had planned as a workforce subcommittee. Um, so what our next steps are as a subcommittee is to to meet and create like the parameters for districts who who are requesting our help just so that when we do make a decision, it is equitable um that they go through the same process that we have parameters that we're trying to measure up to it so that way um again just for equity purposes. Um, I know you shared um a district that was interested in pursuing our help. Um, again, there's other districts requesting that same support and we just want to make sure that we are aligned as a team um and that we bring that to the board so that we we agree on how we move forward. Um,
084anything else? Oh, can I just make sure um I just wanted to comment um that when we it's it's difficult in some ways because when we have a subcommittee we we sort of have a charge that's set out for the subcommittee and this specific subcommittee although it's workforce housing and that sounds broad was specific to theou with heart. So, um, and giving, um, quick feedback when they needed it in terms of reviewing properties, um, and, you know, uh, being able to do that in a quicker turnaround than we could do at a board meeting. And so we've been, um, doing more and more of that. And we've been, uh, very, um, um, interested in that. And, and really, I think the benefit of that program or thatou is that ultimately it could have countywide impact,
085right? But first and foremost, I feel like it's an impact that we want to have for our office and for our staff and our teachers. And so, um, that was our focus. And so, we're now seeing these other needs and being presented. So, now we had we did have our a meeting, right? I think we've already reported on it, but where we are now going, oh, maybe we need to um try to expand that. And I think before we expand it, we need to come up with um and staff is working with us to do that. I think to come up with these parameters that um that um President Torres talked about so that we can bring that back to the board to say board as a whole, is this where you want us, you
086know, is this what you want to consider and how would how would we make such decisions? Would it be a a committee that would take it on or would it come to the board as a whole? So, we don't we don't have the answers to that yet. So, we're we're trying to work through that. Did I state that accurately? Yes, it's a work in progress. Um, anything else to add for that. Okay. Um, any other or any questions for the workforce uh subcommittee from the board? Um, any other members wanting to report out? Are there any comments from the public? No comments from the public. Thank you. There is no action to take on this item. Um for item 8E, board members will comment. Uh Trusty Lev, >> uh thank you. Um I did love
087the media release that was um put out today about the county office receiving that award. Um I thought it was well written. I don't think executive director Bane is here. Um but congratulations to him and to the county office. That was a nice award, welld deserved. Um I appreciate the discussion on the workforce housing task force. just felt really great to be get to this point and to go forward and appreciation to board president um Torres and Trusty O'Neal and um some of the staff who've been working closely on this. I think it's good example of how we can work together positively like with the h um housing subcommittee with the county superintendent and the board to amplify the work. Um I'm excited about our work on goals. I don't know if we've scheduled anything
088um to do that the next kind of retreat or meeting or >> I had a um a debrief with um with um deputy superintendent Chavez um um and Ian Bane and Trusty Gerard uh with um our facilitator Dave uh Dave and uh we will we are planning next steps. Yes. And so hopefully a communication goes out to the board of what to expect. >> Great. And I think there's a well, you'll probably talk about the AAC be meeting that's tomorrow. >> That's okay. >> Um on Court Community Schools, right? So I think that will be exciting if people can tune into that. So thank you. >> Thank you, Trusty O'Neal. >> Oh, your mic. Um I just I'm just doing this because this meeting is recorded versus the um retreat wasn't. I attended the the
089CSBA conference down in Monterey. I did attend a workshop on charter schools oversight. I also created and as did all the board members go to a workshop put on by Plaster County for creating a methodology for legislative um lobbying. Um, what was interesting there is there was learned there's some potential services that if we chose to take a lead in it, I think could really help some school districts here in Sonatail County. One was a service that has a predictive algorithm and analysis that could go to a school district and tell them if they will need to close a school in the foreseeable future. being every school district in this county is declining enrollment. I was wondering if that is something the county would want to look at and offer because I know there's at
090least one school district starting that process of how to clo of closing a school. But if they have that predictive analysis or that algorithm, they can start communicating to the community and also maybe I semiidentify which school so that they could then try to get the entitlements on that property to decide what they want to do whether it's a sale, a lease or housing or retain for leasing whatever. I thought that was a service. Another service I thought would be very interesting. What? And I did check with one of the core agencies here in Sontel County is for foster youth. Foster youth, you know, go from home to home, go to school to school. And unfortunately, you know, you're dealing with kids that are five, six, seven years old and they don't really keep track
091of their documents. And this is a service that the doc they would have a vault that they would then would be able to keep and their documents would be in that vault so that when they actually do turn 18 apply for a job need a birth certificate or need whatever that would be available to them. And I did talk to one of the core agencies and they said although they don't specialize with foster youth that that is a problem they have run into with some of the clients for homeless people and homeless kids and homeless students. So I think that's something that we might want to consider. Um I attended two events that were really pretty nice. One was uh the county historical association's honoring Anna Su as a history maker and the other one
092was the Pacifica resource center had their annual event to raise money for the holidays and backpacks, adopt a family, etc. So that was nice. November 7th um in Halfoon Bay, the Farm Bureau is having their dinner and I have to admit it's very unique in that it is at um the Long Branch Farm and Saloon there in Halfoon Bay. It's to honor veterans, but everything there is grown or caught or made in Sonatail County. From the fish that are the ader to the steak to the vegetables, etc. are all cooked and done in Sonatail County and that is a hundred million dollar a year industry. On November 1st, I'm going to be a panelist representing the um county board of ed youth leadership summit about mapping success in Berling game. Um I attended the Jefferson
093High School district's housing board meeting and unfortunately they have 45 people on their wait list looking for housing as employees. attended the Sanontto County School Boards Association meetings and I did receive an offer from I met um US Senator Padilia Stafer that handles the San Francisco Bay area and she con when I and I gave her my card for the board of ed and she sent me an email that she would like me to meet with her and offered the potential that if other trustees wanted to join to talk with the US senator about education issues. She was open to meeting with us. I also offered that to David Lee from who's on the CSBA legisl forming the legisl CSB SMCSBA's ledge committee and he's very open to doing that and meeting with Pedilia. So,
094um, if any trustee is interested in meeting and being a part of a meeting with Senator Padilia's staff, um, let me know. That's that's it. >> Thank you, Trusty Alvaro. >> Thank you. I had a couple things because it's been a while. So, um, if you recall, we were told about the court and community schools open house that was going to occur and I asked if it would be appropriate for board members. So, they did say we could go and I and it was on Zoom and I did and I was immensely glad I did because I was the only attendee, the only person. They recorded it. Um, so it's going to be available to parents either through the website or somehow they're going to get it out to parents. It was Dr. Mr. Jimenez,
095Mr. and Mr. Sam Freedom. Um, and they asked me because we were just chitchatting before they started recording, waiting for people to come on. So, they said, "Well, since you're here, do you want to like welcome parents?" So, I welcomed parents on behalf of the board. And then after they were finished, um, turned the recording off and we talked for several minutes. And the main thing we talked about was the difficulty in getting parents to attend anything. Um, and it's certainly not lack of interest. It's, you know, timing, everything is hard. So, we we did have some discussions about that and there's some things that they're going to try to uh to do. But, I was glad I did that and they did they did a good job. They did a good job. Um I
096also have over the last week or so met with two new superintendents which is the new superintendent of Landa Pescadero Michelle Ross and also at Cababrio I met with Dr. uh Miriam Montes. So down at Pescadero there were a couple things. One was I was extremely excited to hear that CalFire is building a new station. I can't tell you how badly we need a new station down there. If you've ever driven into Pescadero, you go past this little fire station that looks like it would a garage that holds That's it. That's it. That's what they have. So, they're going to they're building a new station and they're building it on district um Laundo Unified District land. Um so, it's going to be right across from the high school. There's a partnership there that had to
097happen because Pescado High School is sort of it's it's where people go when they're evacuated. It is it is ground zero for a lot of that stuff down there. So, CalFire is going to be right next door to them. It's really excited to hear that. Um, and we talked about some of the challenges in small rural districts such as transportation when you're not just going from school A to, you know, the housing that's 5 miles away, but it's just spread out over just this huge district and and people I don't know if if you've ever toured any of the the ranches down there. Um, if you're ever interested, let me know because that can be put together. So many people live on these ranches that are in the middle of nowhere. You think you're in
098Santa Cruz County, but you're still in the Pescadero district. So, we talked about that. We talked about power outages, which is a huge deal down there. Um, Superintendent Ross grew up in Selenus where she also taught for a number of years. So, she absolutely understands the agricultural rural schools and the challenges thereof. So we had a great meeting. I was really glad to to sit with her for a while and um it was scheduled an hour and I think I was there for two and a half hours. Um I also met with Dr. Miramontes about just to introduce myself but some of the challenges going on because he came to Cababrio as the interim superintendent. He's from Southern California. He's from Orange County and he's now lives in Half Moon Bay and he's been offered,
099you know, he's the permanent superintendent now. So, we talked about some of the challenges including the rotating administrators over the last several years, which makes it very difficult. There have been, I think, three or four principles at the middle school over the last few years. This just really, really hard. And that's true of of a some of the elementary schools as well. and the high school a little bit. Um, so we talked about some of that and some of his ideas for addressing that and just I was really not surprised but touched by the enthusiasm that both of them bring to the districts that they're serving and the people that they're serving. And he and I were sitting at a coffee house. I met her in her office, but he and I were sitting at
100a coffee house and people are coming and going. They're saying hello to him and they're happy to see him and they're inter you know he's he's meeting with PTO parents and it was it was really good. And then just last thing is that um I'm looking forward to the I'll get it right one of these days ACCBE um Zoom meeting tomorrow night. I'm glad they're able to do it on Zoom because I'm looking forward to that one. Thank you. >> Thank you Trusty Adios. Yes, I have a few things I'd like to share. Um, well, first of all, I want to say uh thank you very much for having the September 17 uh SMCE board retreat. uh as you know I'm barely about six seven months into being appointed to this board and uh from
101the conference that I have attended I I see the importance of having these retreats and working with superintendent and um really finding a way to work as a team work together because I think for all of us our purpose is really our students right the students the families are who we serve so um again. I appreciate that retreat and I hope it's not going to be once a year. Hopefully we find a way to to repeat it and and have more opportunities like that. Um I also want to say that on September 29 uh SMCBA the quarterly board meeting I couldn't attend but I was happy um that um you know it happened and and we were able to use some of our attendance in San Diego uh from the the conference that we we
102did go um uh we were able to use some of that information for that presentation. So I was happy to hear that I couldn't attend because I was at a facilitating and um uh also interpreting for community overcoming relationship abuse um regarding healthy relationships. Uh they had a presentation in South San Francisco. So that's where I was while that was happening. Um, and then another thing that I have, um, I wanted to ask about the protocol for SMCE on ice rates. I want to know if there's one if there's protocols already in place and if would it be okay that I can have a copy to see those. Um, as I again continue to go to these conferences and hear conversations and hear the community, I like to as board member of SMCE know what
103is being done and how it's being done. So I hope I can get a copy of that. Appreciate that. Um then also uh presently I'm going Monday to Friday 9 to 4:00 p.m. to this very important Spanish um in Spanish arte deerasco which is the art of leadership in San Francisco by Ruggwood uh institute and uh it's going to be well I've been there for three days now but it's just been so important I think um you know attending those opportunities just as the conferences uh supports the ideas and And as being a new board member again, I think it's just supporting in a way that I can think a little more critically and um just how much do we have in our decision making here in you know representing our districts and together as
104a team. So I just want to share that is I feel like is um the importance of all these meetings that everybody all of you attend uh the subcommittees the task force everything that is being presented is a way of um as a board making sure again I go back into the students and the families um in Sato County, you know, and um from this last um conference that president um of our board went and I went to San Antonio, Texas to the Mexican-American School Board Association on October 2nd and October 3rd. Um we were given this book uh it's called Transformative Student Voice: Partnering with Young People for Equitable School Improvement. And the presentations were just really it's it's kind of like a you know, we're all adults. We were, you know, at what
105point of our lives we were, you know, we were at that stage where we're young and sometimes our voices were not maybe heard in the same way or engaged in the same way. I have obviously not read the book yet. I just got it this Friday, but um but I I was interested to see one of the you know in the back it says um as uh as school leaders we work in service to students and this book illuminates the power of centering students as partners with adults to improve schools and school districts. So it just to me kind of resonate with the you know just joining the committee to think about who's going to be representing if we're going to have students you know for this board and um I just feel again how
106important it is how you know there's a lot of um information and there's a lot of uh other ideas outside that we can you know we can have of how representing having someone representing that voice that is needed to make these decisions because we're all here making decisions and at the end these outcomes and the changes we want to make is in the lives of this youth, right? So, it's so important to hear their voices. So, I'm excited to kind of read this book and see what um what other things we can find for our community. Um and then on a personal note, I just want to say that my 27-year-old son just started his fire academy at uh Palo Alto. He's one of eight and he's training in Sunnyville with another 12. So 18
10718 weeks of that. So thank you. >> Thank you, Trusty Benini. Um, so I just wanted to share or and also thank the board members who attended the um Sanonteo County School Boards Association first quarterly meeting last Monday, which was focused on um supporting immigrant students and families in times of uncertainty and fear of ICE and all of the issues that we're seeing in our community right now. Um, we had some amazing speakers. Um, we also had a great team that put together the program and I know that um, Trustee Aras was not um, at the program but I know that you participated in putting it together. So I want to thank you um, also uh, Legia and Andrade Zuniga was um, the chair. She was leading I think the the slides in the gathering.
108So um, it was a it was a really informative meeting. We had speakers from we had um Randall Booker from Sanonteo Union um high school district. We had Diego Perez from um Sanonteo Foster City and they presented um how they're engaging with students and parents and how they're making families feel safer. They're seeing increases in attendance which is really great. That's Sonteo Foster City. And then from Sonteo Union, they did share um the uh I'm trying to see where the emergency response protocol that they've put together. Um so, uh aligned with um Trusty Aras, I was curious, you know, what what are we doing if this were to happen? And again, they haven't seen a lot of this on campus, but they want to be proactive. So, um so if we don't have something that's
109like this, we might want to talk about it. Um or maybe it's already in in process with with staff. So, that was great. faith in Action was also there um sharing resources and um how you know they're helping families. And then we um I just as a side note um we had uh one of the speakers I think from one of the um can you tell me the name of the conference the Latino school boards association is that >> yes >> so um >> to papers that one or >> yeah the one that was anyway so an attorney that presented there um she was still in Southern California right so at the last minute uh we asked can we put our meeting on Zoom and so um of course we saw that um our uh
110amazing staff member Jay Takahashi was promoted to CTO. He was here that evening helping and he set up this room. Oh, sorry. He set up this room for the meeting for Zoom and then we had one board member uh for SMCSBA that was ill and so he helped set it up in the other room. So, he was so amazing. So, thank you Jay so much. I thanked him a hundred times when I was there, but um again, thank you because that was amazing. So, we also had um that attorney sharing. So, it was just a lot of really great information. Um uh there will be uh all that the slides and things will be going out hopefully tomorrow or or this week sometime. So um thank you to Patricia for that for helping. Um and
111then uh just my final thing is um I'm also going to send this out for SMCSBA. But next um Thursday, which is October 16th, the Building Trades Council of Sanonteo County um is putting on their joint apprentichip training center programs and they're doing that at the plumbers hall. Um it's from 5:30 to 7 and it's uh called the hope and opportunity program. Um they're providing dinner and that's at UA Local 467 and it's at 1519 North Rollins Road in Berling. So um it's free to go. They really want to have a lot of educators in the room. So if anyone else is, you know, sees this video and you're in a district, please, um join. They just want to share how they're partnering with districts and um and different opportunities. So that's it. Thanks. Thank
112you, Trusty Gerard. >> Um, thank you. Um, I did attend, uh, the San Monteo County School Boards Association dinner last Monday night and it really really was a very, very informative. Um there was a lot of information and it was in some respects scary uh really scary when you think about what is and what could be happening to our kids um at school and um they're supposed to be safe there and we keep saying that and then all these awful things are happening in schools and um it's just frightening. But there was um a great deal of good information shared and uh the Sanonteo um Union uh high school district really has quite a comprehensive program that they've put together and it was very nice that they brought handouts for everyone there so that you
113could read uh exactly what their protocol was. But it was well worth um attending the evening. Um I also um want to comment on the retreat. Um we are so grateful uh to Dr. Patterson for um being our facilitator and we did have a meeting um to go over how uh the retreat went and what our future plans were going to be. And we did ask Dr. Patterson if he would be willing to be our facilitator ongoing and he said that he would love to but um and I hate that word but um but with his uh schedule that he didn't feel like he could commit but that he would help us uh find someone that would be appropriate um to be um an ongoing facilitator. And we do have the next retreat coming up
114which is November 5th and he will be uh facilitating that retreat and hopefully with whoever will be taking over from him going forward. So, we're looking forward uh to November 5th and um as uh Trusty Alvaro said and also Trustee Love, we're very excited that ACCBE um is having a Zoom meeting tomorrow night on deep dives for court and community schools. And this is a threepart series that we've planned. And this is part number one and it will be on Zoom at 6:00 tomorrow night and I'm hoping that you'll all attend. We have guest speakers for all sessions and um there's there's really going to be uh a lot of good information and participation in all three of these uh Zoom meetings that that we will be having. So, um, I really encourage everybody to
115attend if you can. Um, and I I think that's all I have for this evening. Thank you. >> Thank you. Um, yes, November 5th, that will be our next um board retreat with uh Dr. Dave Patterson uh with a co-f facilitator hopefully so that way it can be passed on. And then once we have that co-f facilitator, he is going to be recommending someone and our county office team will also be um looking for someone. Um but once we solidify that person, we'll be able to move forward with um more dates and details um after that. Um I also attended the SMCSBA quarterly dinner or yes, dinner and meeting. Um it was great. a lot of information um and yeah, delicious food and a great company. And then I also wanted to thank the board
116for um approving um my attendance for the Mexican-American School Board Association conference. Um again, that was one that um I was reached out to and invited to and it was my first time attending and it was two days but it was jam-packed with uh great information um amazing presenters and workshops. Um and then I loved their inclusion of of the students. Um there were different flororico dances from the younger kids to older kids. And then there was also um a mariachi band of uh students playing instruments and also singing. It was just so beautiful to see. And then they had a an auction um for student art. Um so very inclusive of the students and just celebrating their culture, their art and and everything. It was beautiful and um we were invited back next year
117so hopefully fingers crossed we're able to go again. Um again very informative also of um different legislation that's impacting our um immigrant families uh special education and um other um areas in education. So um yes thank you for letting me attend that and I think that is all I have. Um, so item nine is our adjournment. The next regular meeting will take place on Wednesday, October 22nd, 2025 at 7 PM. And this meeting is now adjourned.