001Good evening. The April 16, 2025 meeting of the San Monteo County Board of Education will come to order. As is our practice, this meeting will be recorded. I warmly welcome our youth commission liaison Bethany Zhao joining the board at the DIS. I also want to welcome to the DIS Marco Chavez, deputy superintendent educational services division who is attending for superintendent McGee tonight. 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
002Cruz and Kimberly Ldios for joining us remotely. For meeting attendees wishing to access the Spanish Spanish translation channel 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. I ask board members to speak directly into the microphone and remind speakers wearing masks to remove their masks when speaking in order to be clearly heard by all attendees. Item 1B is the approval of the agenda. Um before we move to motion, um I'm going to ask that we keep item four and remove items five, six, and seven. Um, Kevin Bolt, would you like to add to that? Well, I'll just comment when we get to item four. Okay. Thank you. Um, is there a motion to approve the agenda?
003I move Oh, I move to approve the agenda as amended. Thank you. Thank you. Um, there's a motion to approve the agenda as amended, 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 6 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 as well as on the table outside the boardroom in both English and Spanish. If there are speakers who require Spanish interpretation, 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
004agenda. 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. No comments submitted prior to the meeting. Thank you. Speakers are invited to make live comment and have three minutes to speak. The board's executive assistant, Jennifer Pererna, will keep the time and advise when the speaker has 30 seconds left. Please make sure to keep within the time limits. To make a comment over Zoom, members of the public may use the raise hand feature. Instructions for using this feature are provided as an attachment in
005the board packet. 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? I don't see any hands raised at the moment. Thank you. Members of the public may also provide live comment in person. Deputy Superintendent Chavez, are there any submitted cards? No submitted cards. Thank you. Public comment addressing a specific agenda item will be heard after the board's questions, comments, and 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. Item 3A is the April 2025 employee of the month, LSE
006Arisa, administrative assistant 1 P3 and early learning services educational services division. Will loose please join me in the middle of the room. So each month the board and superintendent recognize an employee for providing outstanding service. For the month of April 2025, we recognize LSE Arisa. Is that am I saying that correctly? Yes. Um administrative assistant one P3 and early learning services educational services division. LSE joined the county office in November 2022 as an administrative assistant one and has consistently impressed her team with her innovative thinking, proactive attitude, team oriented approach to work, and unwavering commitment to excellence. According to her team, Loose has made an innate ability to think outside the box. She recently in introduced a creative solution that not only enhanced processes but also has the potential to drive significant project improvements. Her
007team manages multiple state and local grants which impact quality learning experiences and early learning spaces for Sonteo County's earliest learners. After completing her MBA, LSE collaborated with the quality improvement team and led the creation of a process to track funding and deliverables. This allowed the team to focus on current projects while forecasting upcoming needs and potential funding, which has been invaluable to their success. What sets Loose apart is her proactive nature. She anticipates needs, solves problems, and ensures that the team remains on the right track with local grant reporting. LSE co-led the quarter 2 fiscal performance reporting process, communicating with community partners to collect, analyze, and input fiscal and performance data. As a result of her initiative, the team was able to complete and submit reports ahead of the deadline. Loose is highly skilled at
008collecting and analyzing community partners' fiscal data. Her expertise has been pivotal in executing complex reporting tasks with precision and efficiency. Beyond her technical skills, she is skillful in building strong relationships and fostering collaborative positive environments with the internal team as well as the quality improvement and family engagement partners. She has played an instrumental role in the success of Friday cafes in our county, an initiative that convenes family and community engagement professionals. Her creative thinking related to outreach together with her relationship building skills have led to an increased number of participants at our monthly cafes. Wow. Additionally, she led the effort to collect the and analyze feedback surveys which is which are key to keeping this initiative relevant and mean meaningful. LSE continuously seeks opportunities to improve and embrace and response to feedback. She is a
009standout team player, always ready to lend support, offer insights, and contribute to the success of her high-erforming team. We are proud of our county office of education staff and are pleased to recognize LSE Arisa for her outstanding work. Congratulations to LSE for being named employee of the month for April 2025. Would you like to say a few words? Good evening, members of the board and co-workers. I would like to take a moment to sincerely thank you for this recognization. This as employer of the moon truly means a lot to me. I'm grateful to be part of social support team and I will not be possible without the collaboration and encouragement that I receive for all of you each day. I also want to thank my family for the constant love, support and understanding. Their encouragement
010keep me grounded and inspire me to do my best every day. Thank you for believing in me and motivating to keep learning, growing and contributing to our share success. I truly appreciated this honor. Thank you. Is that your family? Can we take a picture with her family? Your family can come up for a picture. You're welcome. [Applause] Thank you and congratulations. Um, for item 4 A, the board will open, examine, and declare all bids received for the lease of the 1800 Roland Road site, as well as call for oral bids. Before we begin, are there any comments from the public? No comments. Thank you, Deputy Superintendent Bolta. Good evening, Board President Torres, members of the board. Uh, unfortunately, I need to report that we did not receive any written bids by the deadline of noon
011today. Furthermore, we did not receive any notice of any verbal bids either. So, at this time, uh, we don't need the additional items on the agenda. Administration will go back. will work on this and then bring this back to the board at a date soon because we would like to put that property in play for some revenue. Awesome. Thank you, Superintendent, Deputy Superintendent Bolta. Um, so now we move over to item 88. Is there a motion to approve the minutes of the April 2nd, 2025 regular board meeting as presented? So moved. Is there Thank you. There is a motion to approve the minutes of the April 2nd, 2025 regular board meeting made by Trustee Alvaro and a second by Trusty Gerard. Is there any further discussion? All those in favor say I. I. All those
012opposed say no. The motion passes with a vote of 6 and the minutes of the April 2nd, 2025 regular board meeting have been approved. Item nine is the consent agenda. The consent agenda is not debatable and requires a unanimous vote for passage. An item may be removed from the consent agenda and placed on the regular order of business for separate discussion and action if any member of the board, the superintendent or the public so requests. Is there a motion to approve the consent agenda? So move. Is there a second? Second. Thank you. There is a motion to approve the consent agenda made by Trustee Gerard and a second by Trustee Alvaro. Is there any All those in favor say I. I. I. All those opposed say no. The motion passes with a vote of 6
013and the consent agenda has been approved. For item 10A, Kevin Bolta, Deputy Superintendent, Business Services Division will present the public disclosure of the compensation adjustments for San Mo County Office of Education confidential and management employees for 2024 to 2025. Deputy Superintendent Baltimore. Again, good evening. Uh we are providing this as anformational item. Um noting it is for unrepresented groups, so the language looks a little bit different. It's not a negotiated settlement. Um we're reporting the fiscal impact to a compensation um increase for an unrepresented group. Uh the settlement itself is for a 3.5% uh salary increase effective July 1 of 2024. It also increases the health and welfare contribution consistent to what we've done with our teacher group at $1,300 per month for an individual and an individual plus one at 16650 per month. Uh
014the total cost of the agreement in the current year 2425 is estimated to be 900 39,491 and that is about it. Uh and we uh both the superintendent and I have to sign off on the agreement. uh that the organization can't afford it. We do think this is best practice. Again, it's not requirement, but um many of our districts do this or they actually are legally required to do it and we feel like we should be doing it in an effort of being transparent the cost to our constituents. With that, I'll open up any questions. Are there any comments or questions from the board? Are there any comments from the public? No comments from the public. Thank you. There is no action to take on this item. Thank you. Um, item 10B is superintendent's comments.
015Deputy Superintendent Chavez, do you have any comments to share? The comment this evening is to wish three people a happy birthday. They'll be celebrating uh birthdays this month. Board President Ugo Torres will be celebrating his birthday on April 25th, the day of our uh study session. Um, also Superintendent Mc Nancy McGee will be celebrating her birthday on April 29th and Deputy County Attorney Elisa Cho will be celebrating her birthday on April 20, I'm sorry, April 30th. Happy birthday to all of you. Thank you. Um, are there Oh, for item 11 A, the board will discuss a suggested protocol for community members and groups seeking letters of support. Deputy Superintendent Chavez. Yes, thank you. Um, board president Torres and Superintendent McGee uh recommended establishing a clear process to ensure a timely and efficient handling of requests
016from community members and students asking board members for support on a particular issue. Uh the protocol was drafted with the intent to promote equitable access and ensure alignment with SMCE's vision, mission, and priorities in our strategic plan. Uh the draft protocol is presented uh for you to review this evening and um to solicit your feedback. Thank you. Are there any comments or questions from the board? Um, Trusty Alvaro, thank you. Um, this looks good. Uh, I had just the comment under the review process somewhere. I don't know exactly where in there that I would suggest that we check with who the trustee whose area it is to see if there's any info or considerations that um might be gerine to what's happening and then it can move forward to you know however it goes with
017you know through the president to just check in with that trustee. Other comments or questions from the board? Trusty left. Oh, could you turn on your mic, please? Sorry about that. Thank you. Um, do unofficial letters go to the full board as well under this. If that's the desire of the board, we can do that. I I can ask that question also since um to the authors of the draft. Maybe I was just misreading it and I wasn't really it wasn't really clear. It's a category and but just the types of letters. So trusty Alvaro, thank you. And that's a good question. I think what we've done in the past and what I feel comfortable with is unofficial letters come from us as people, not as we we don't state that as members of board.
018So you know if a student asks for a letter of recommendation for college, it's not going to come to the whole board. I'm going to write a letter of recommendation and say yes I'm a county board event member but I'm recommending the student me not this not the board. So I think that's what we've done is if it's coming from the board we bring it to the whole board but if it's coming from you as a as a person there's no reason to to have to do that. Thank you. I I assume that just the way it was written I wasn't it was just sort of in the middle there. and Trusty O'Neal. Um, in one spot here there is a thing where we're requesting a 15-day application period. Um, in my other day job,
019I have received requests from a school district to get letters of support from state senators, etc., and they needed it the next day. So, um, for a grant that they suddenly heard about and thought they couldn't get. So, I don't know. Um, I don't know if we really want to have a 15-day hard deadline for that. And how could it be handled? No. Do you have a different proposed time frame? Um, maybe I'm actually I can't find it. I know it's in here. I read it, but I can't find it right now. It's on the first page. Yeah, it's on the first page page at the bottom. Yeah. Oh, okay. 15 business days. Um maybe submit something in there. Preferably 15 business days, but you know, um what would be a good alternative? Trusty Lup.
020Well, could you have it just be signed a letter that goes to the board president to make a decision on? Does it the letter would come from the board president as opposed to from the whole board and it could be maybe decided more quickly if it's just a quick support letter and with the support of if it's in somebody's area. Well, and also also would have to fit these guidelines. I'm not saying something um youth commission liaison. I was just wondering if your concerns would be addressed by the line that says, quote, "Urrent requests may be considered on a case-byase basis." Um, I guess that might work. Sure. You know, because it's they requested a like two-day turnaround is the only issue. And I the 15 business days I think might be kind of honorish
021in some cases. That's all. That makes sense. So maybe to Trusty Lev's point, if it's an urgent one, maybe we follow that um protocol that you named um Trusty Benini, just further to the language about urgent requests that's already in the draft. Um my question would be what does that process look like? So maybe we need a little more language um around what the urgent request like if it could be like trusty O'Neal is mentioning if it could be as quick as you know a two days or one day uh or if there are further limitations on that and what would be the process because it would be a different process right and then like what constitutes urgent whether it's like the topic the the timeline or other criteria I I mean from just thinking
022about it, it seems like it would be noted as urgent. It would go to the board president and the superintendent and then there would be a discussion around it. I don't know if that would enable it to be approved by the board that I think that's probably the 15-day origin, right? So that there's enough time to bring it back to the board. But um yeah, maybe if it's urgent, it's more hands- on deck, like a collaborative approach with board president, vice president, and designated um area trustee. So what I'm thinking is we'll take um your suggestions. We we can add language and then possibly bring it back. Yeah, trust. Um it could be something like um if there is an urgent request that doesn't fit within the timeline to be approved by the board um
023that the there's discretion that you know we give to the um the board president and the superintendent to make that decision in a urgent manner. Um I I feel like certain things um it would be okay and you know others others and you'd be able to know that in that review process but having more information about it would be helpful. I agree trusty Alvaro. Thank you. So I can't ever recall us having an urgent request come but that doesn't mean it won't and it's good to have it in here. Um but a couple of times things have come up where um something needed to be done, not a letter of support, but something else needed to be done in a timely manner. And what's happened is the superintendent or council um sends out the letter
024or the request to the whole board and says, "If you have an issue, get back to me and otherwise we're moving forward with it." So, I'm not exactly sure how that works, but it seems like we could very easily move something forward quickly if it had to be done quickly. We just haven't had a lot of need for it. Yes. And it would just be outlining what that would look like. Are there any other comments or questions? I I don't know. I think, you know, we're all adults and over 21 and I, you know, no one's going to send out a letter of support for the Nazi party or something. So, I think just the board president with consultation with the superintendent would be fine in an urgent request. I'm talking other comments or questions.
025Are there any comments from the public? No comments from the public. Uh, there is no action to take on this item. Um for item 11B, um Lisa Cho, a deputy county attorney, will provide information on the board policy regarding student trustees. Good evening, Board President Torres, members of the board. Deputy Superintendent Chavez. Um we had a request for anformational item for the board to discuss the process for selection and appointment of student board trustees. So, I've prepared a very short slide presentation just to take a look at our board bylaw 9150 as well as education code 1000, which is what our board bylaw is based on. Um, I did want to note for the board that um, as we recall, for those of us who did this very extensive board policy overhaul in the summer
026of 2023, the board U bylaw that we have in effect right now, 9150, was enacted at that time. We do need to go and take a look at updating that for 2025. Um, Trustee Love did point out to me that um, I think in late 2024, Congress passed a bill that allows for student trustees to receive compensation if the board so desires. The way that our current board bylaw reads though, it says that student trustees shall not receive compensation. So, we may want to take a look at that when we do our overhaul and updates of our policies this summer. Um, so let's just go through a few slides and then we'll reserve some time if there's any questions from the board. Okay. So, board bylaw 9150 for student board members um sets out this
027really great um purpose for um having students um as important members of the board is to enhance communication and collaboration between our county board as well as our student body to teach students the importance of civic involvement. The county board supports the participation of high school students in county board governance. Um, education code 1000 uh allows for a student who is serving as a board member to receive elective course credit for their service at the at the board's discretion based on the number of equivalent daily instructional minutes for the student board member service provided throughout that year. So, um, board bylaw 9150 and education code 1000 has a very interesting process called the petition for appointment of a student board member. Um, I don't think that this process has been uh used in San Monteo
028County as of yet. Um, but this is a process by which high school students may submit a petition to the county board requesting the appointment of at least one student board member. I wanted to point out that ED code 1000 is very specific that we're talking about students who are attending high schools that are under the jurisdiction of the county board, which would be our court and community schools. And then there's other language in this section that talks about um students that are enrolled in the high schools um under the jurisdiction of the school districts within the county. So they make a very specific distinction between those two groups of students. So to qualify for consideration, a petition um such as the one mentioned here must contain the signatures of at least 500 students or
029at least 10% of the number of students regularly enrolled in the high schools under the county board's jurisdiction, whichever is less. So we're talking about only those students that attend the court and community schools may put forth a petition like this. Um, so interestingly, depending on how many students we actually have enrolled in a given year, if we're looking at 10% is the lesser number, a petition could be brought by two or three students. It really could. Um, and so within 60 days of receiving a student petition or at the next regularly scheduled board meeting, the county board shall order the inclusion of at least one student member on the county board. So, who are we appointing if a petition comes? Um where a petition has been filed in this manner then the student that
030is selected to serve as a student board member must be enrolled in a high school that is under the jurisdiction of the county board. So we would be including a student that's enrolled in a court or community school. They may be less than 18 years old and they shall be chosen by students enrolled in the high schools of the county in accordance with proceed procedures prescribed by the county board. So, it's a very interesting process where we've got a student who gets selected out of the court in community schools, but the students that are casting the vote for who gets selected are the students of the high schools in the in the county, all of our school districts. Um, if no petition has been filed and the county board has discretion, they may select either
031a student who is enrolled in a high school under its jurisdiction or under the jurisdiction of a school district within the county. So, we've got a little bit more leeway as far as who may be appointed um to serve as the student board member and said student again may be under 18 years old. The term of such student member shall be one year commencing on July 1st. However, the county board may adjust this term if there's any sort of vacancy or in order to provide more students an opportunity to serve on the board. When we have student boards uh members appointed to the board, um the county board may periodically provide information to this student board member um in order to give them an understanding of what this position entails. Once chosen or appointed, incoming
032student board members um shall be provided an orientation that's designed to build their knowledge and understanding of the responsibilities and expectations of this position. The county board also has the option of providing ongoing learning opportunities. So you can invite them to different trainings, workshops, uh conventions, conferences that board members themselves attend to enhance their leadership skills and county board responsibilities. So we've got a whole list of what a student board member who is appointed to our board shall do. Um they shall have the right to attend all county board meetings except close session. They have the right to receive all materials presented to county board members except those related to close session items at the same time that the rest of the board receives the items. They must be invited to attend staff briefings or
033be provided with a separate staff briefing within the same time frame as the briefing for other county board members. They are recognized at county board meetings as full members and they are seated with other members of the county board. They are allowed to participate in asking questions and discussing issues. And they are allowed to cast preferential votes on all matters except those subject to close session discussion. So that preferential voting means that they uh have a formal expression of opinion on a matter that's before the board, but it's not counted as part of the actual vote itself. Um, a student board member may be appointed to subcommittees of the county board in the same manner as regular county board members are and they shall be made aware of the time commitments required to participate. They
034also have the right to decline. We are recognizing that our high schoolers often have a very heavy academic load and may not have the time available to attend subcommittee meetings. Um, student board members shall be invited to attend functions of the county board such as forums and meetings with students and the community and other general assemblies. And they are entitled to be reimbursed for their mileage to the same extent as other members of the county board. When we have student members um seated with the board, they shall not be liable for any acts of the county board. um they shall not be considered members of a legislative body for the purposes of the Brown Act and they are not counted in determining the vote required to carry any measure before the board and they are
035not counted for determining whether quorum has been met. Um and then as we uh pointed out earlier that the board has the option to determine that the student board member should receive monthly financial compensation um in in addition or in lie of elective course credit based on the number of hours they spend um for their service. So, when we have um county board members seated, uh if there's any issue or at any point the board determines that the student board members duties are not being fulfilled, um the board has the option to appoint another student to serve out the remainder of that term and then they would extinguish the term of the outgoing student member. Um, and then once established, the student board member position shall continue to exist until the county board has an
036action item and takes a majority vote to eliminate the student board member position. And this is a motion that needs to be um put on the public agenda and it has to be um discussed at a meeting. My understanding from the history of uh our student liaison or the youth commission liaison position that's been created here in our county was that this was a pilot that was introduced in 2019 and the process that was um enacted at that time was very similar to the education code 1000 and uh we have our student uh liaison appointed to the board and the board at that time recognized once we create the student position is going to remain until we take action to eliminate it. So then the question here would be, now that we've enacted um the
037newer 9150 bylaw, moving forward, how would you like to proceed with appointing and selecting student members to the board? And that's kind of just the overview of the law. If you have any questions, I'm open to discussing those. Yes, Trusty Alvar, thank you for this. Um, my question is if we would consider having a student from our own court and community schools, which is a fairly small demographic, um, as the voting non- voting, but as a seated member of the board, would that preclude still having a liaison to the youth commission? No, I don't think so. Um, Ed code 1000 is very clear that the board has the option to select more than one student trustee. So, if you wanted to have inclusion of both the student liaison as well as a court and community
038student, I think that would be fine. Okay. Thank you. Trustee Lev, I don't know if this is as much a question, but I think this is really interesting and something we should really look at. And um uh Santa Clara does have a student from their court school who joins not on camera via Zoom. And um Sacramento um county office has a student, a former student who they do pay and who actually serves sort of as a leazison. So I think there's a lot of options. I don't know if those are things we could look at, but seems like an area we might need to do a little studying on. Yeah, I took a look at both of those scenarios. And so for the situation where you might have a student who may be in custody
039and is unable to attend in person, um you can have the option of have them zoom in for the meeting. I think that's a wonderful way to to encourage inclusion and participation in these meetings. As for the Sacramento County, um how they were able to appoint that that individual who is no longer a student, I I want to do a little more digging into that because I went back to the ed code and it was very clear that it's the student board member needs to be someone who is currently enrolled in high school. Um and so I don't know whether they might have passed a resolution just for that special purpose of being able to appoint someone who was a former student and who could act as that very critical um you know connection between
040the student body and the board. So I thought that was a very unique opportunity that they had created up there. Yeah. Jesse Benini um thank you for this presentation. Um I am curious I have a few questions. One is um uh it might be a question for the not a legal question but like for the board in terms of um how we would share the information with our student population that this is a possibility right to to do this. So that would be some sort of communication. I do think the um opportunity for it to be um a credit you know related item is really um intriguing. Um and so and I think from my perspective when we first started talking about this and I think with other members of our our board then um
041we were really interested in having um somebody from our um a student from our schools. I love Susan's question about whether we could have both um from a a relationship with the youth commission because I think that's very important as well. Um but my my question is the process on slide B under the second um sorry slide five under the second bullet um whereby we would appoint a student from a different school if we didn't receive one from our schools. I'm not um entirely clear what that would look like either. Would there could there be an outreach? it's not you you clarified which I wasn't sure of that it wasn't subject to the petition process. Um and so those are just some questions that I have like what maybe it's that the other districts that
042are are counties that are doing it we could um look into that more. Um but that's also interesting to me. Um yeah the ed code says that in the absence of a petition then the board has the option to select either from students attending high schools in our county or from the Corton community schools. Um, I suppose we could have a weird hybrid situation where you have a petition from the court in community schools, but then the board would also like to have a second and a student liaison position continue. I think there's openings for the board to decide both if they wanted to have multiple different opportunities for students to come and participate. Um, as far as outreach, I mean, you know, depending on the board's pleasure, if you wanted to do, um, you
043know, information available on the website and then maybe allow the teachers and administration at the Courton community schools to advertise this opportunity to students there that this is a chance for you to be able to have your voice on the board and then earn credit at the same time. That might be a really great way to do outreach to those students. Okay. Thanks. And then um my other question is I know that the population um of students in our schools isn't consistent and they may you know not be there the entire school year some maybe. Um and so it seems like the um ability to adjust the term is covered with that so that you know um if we knew that a student for instance wasn't going to be there um the entire year that
044that could also be communicated and maybe there's a you know two students in the queue or something like that like the goal from my perspective would be to actually have a student from our programs consistently but obviously there could be gaps and also yeah and I think that flexibility of filling in if you have a student who's unable to fulfill the rest of the term for whatever reason they've gone back to their home school or whatnot, then there is that option to select another student from those programs. Or, you know, you could also open it up to that student going back to their home high school. Would you like to consider continuing to serve the board for the remainder of this year? That might be a really good um perspective, you know, to have a
045student complete that program and then go back to their home school, right? Yeah. Oh, yeah. That makes a lot of sense. Um, so it seems like the current language of the policy provides for the flexibility that that would require. Okay. So, um, those are all my questions. Thank you. All right. Other comments or questions from the board? And Bethany, I was just wondering if the petition has any other requirements or is it literally just signatures? That's a good question. So, um, the education code says that the board is the one that sets the actual procedures for how it's going to, you know, what's going to be required of a petition, how it needs to be submitted. I would imagine it's not going to be as ownorous as what the elections code requires of political candidates.
046Maybe we just make it, you know, somewhat simple for them. Maybe there's an online platform where people could um, submit petition signatures. That's really up to the discretion of the board as far as how they want to take in those petitions. Okay, that sounds good. I think it'd be great for the board to perhaps come up with more specific requirements for the petition and maybe even draft a petition to facilitate the process for students. Yes, I also agree. And I think also keeping in mind the students we're serving. So making sure that that process is equitable and accessible and um doable. Thank you. Any other questions? Yeah. Good. Okay. Thank you. Thank you. Um, are there any comments from the public? Uh, no hands raised. Thank you. There is no action to take on this
047item. Um, for item 11C, the board will discuss and act on the participation of board members in the 2025 National Association of Latino Elected and Appointed Officials, also known as NALO. Um, their conference in Atlanta, Georgia from July 22nd through the 25th of 2025. Deputy Superintendent Chavez. Yes. Thank you. Um, so board bylaw 9240 states that the board board approval is required when board members want to attend an event out of state. Um, board president Torres and I believe board member Adas have expressed interest in attending the 2025 National Association of Latino Elected and Appointed Officials Conference in Atlanta, Georgia, July 22nd through the 24th of this year. Um, President Torres, do you have anything else to add? Uh, yes. So, I've been to my fair share of conferences. Um, NALEO was a a group
048presented to me by a former board member Kamacho and he spoke very highly of the group and so I trusted his judgment and attended u my first conference last year and it's honestly one of the best conferences that I've I've attended in terms of content in terms of the connections with other elected officials um just throughout the US um and building strong connections with those in California um who I still am connected to to this day and it was as a result of the development and networking um at that conference. And so I would say that this is a very beneficial conference and just the people that are running it and leading it and participating in it are are amazing people. Um are there any comments or questions from the board? Are there any comments
049from the public? No comments from the public. Is there a motion to approve the participation of board members in the 2025 NALO conference? Is there a second? Thank you. Um, there's a motion to approve the participation of board members in the 2025 NALO conference made by Trusty Benini and a second by Trusty Gerard. Is there any further discussion? Trusty Alvaro, I just had a quick question. Generally speaking, when we do something like this, we approve it for a specific board member or two board members. And so it would seem rather than just saying we approve it for board members to go that we should approve it for specific board members to go. Um, and you made the motion. Yes. Yes. So I'd throw that back to you. Okay. Can I amend my motion? Yes. Uh,
050I move that we um approve the attendance of the conference for um uh for uh trusty area and and a board present. Is there um a second? I'll second it. Thank you. Um, is there a motion to approve the participation of trustee AAS and myself, uh, board president Torres in the 2025 NLE conference? Um, made by trustee Benini. Oh, wait, sorry. Is there a motion to approve the participation of trustee AAS and myself, board president Torres in the 2025 NALO conference? Oh, that's right. Y I apologize. Um there is a motion uh to approve the participation of trustee AAS and board president Torres in the 2025 NELO conference made by trustee Banini and a second by trustee Gerard. Is there any further discussion? All those in favor say I. I. All those opposed say no.
051Um the motion passes with a vote of 6-0 and the board has approved the participation of board members trustee Arias and board president Torres in the 2025 NELO conference. Thank you. Um for item 11D when an ad hoc subcommittee meets or 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. Yes. on the advoc advocacy subcommittee. Um hopefully everybody saw there is a meeting on Monday, April 21st at six o'clock um on Zoom and uh that is the kickoff of our sort of adequate funding initiative and uh Deputy Superintendent Bolta is going to present um kind of get everybody on the same page. There's a lot of people talking about things and
052it's not always the same thing. So we'll hopefully get everybody level set. So that's what we're working on and we didn't have a meeting so we did not get the opportunity to take up legislation that other board members had suggested we look at. Thank you. Trust. Would you like to? And um I believe we're going to be recording that and have it available [Music] um Kevin is that being recorded so that another if somebody missed it they can watch it before the next meeting? I'm not aware we're recording that. So that's that's new information for me. I we talked about that at the sub maybe we'll have to talk about at the subcommittee meeting. Are there any other subcommittees or representative? Um, oh yes, Trusty Benini, I have a question. Um, so, um, not being
053on the legislative now advocacy subcommittee, um, I forwarded a request for just review. So, we haven't gone through that process before. Um, so I'm just curious um if that's the appropriate process or how you're um doing that if a board member requests that you look at it as a committee. Is that the right thing to do? That's the question. Trusty Lev. Um yes, actually we had that on our agenda to look at that um at our meeting that was scheduled for yesterday, but that meeting didn't happen, so we didn't get a chance to look at it, but we had shared it with people to look at it. Okay. Thank you. Thanks. So to make sure I was following the right protocol. Thank you. Um, other comments or questions for the advocacy subcommittee? Any other report
054outs? Are there any comments from the public? No comments from the public. Thank you. There is no action to take on this item. For 11, the board will discuss topics for future board agendas. Would any board members like to discuss agenda items? agenda ideas. Yes, Bethany. I think it'd be great if we could get started on drafting the requirements for the petition and maybe drafting a petition that students could use if they so choose as well. Thank you. Other ideas, Trusty Love? Um, it's not so much an idea, but and I did share this with Superintendent McGee, that we may have an intro appeal coming up and it would probably be good for new trustees to get a little bit of a boot camp on what that is so they don't go into the process
055not fully understanding what to do. So hopefully we can set something like that up. other agenda ideas and there is no action to take on this item. Um for item 11F board members will comment. Trusty Alvaro. Thank you. Um first of all I'm just I want to express that I'm so happy we still do employee of the month. There was a time that Mr. writer will remember that uh one of our former superintendents wanted to do away with it and we said, "Oh, that's a bad idea." And you just you see what happens. You see the morale booster. You see how I mean it's it's not much for our effort, but it means so much to staff to be recognized. So, I'm just so grateful we still do that. And I just wanted to say
056that. Um, I put at your places a lovely decal that came from the city of Halfoon Bay and um, looks like this. It says we all belong. This I I did go to the first nonprofit day on the coast on April 5th, which I said I was going to do. The attendance was a little light that day because people were otherwise engaged, but there were still a lot of people there and it was a good chance to network with the the nonprofit leaders, the movers on the coast all the way Pescadero all the way up who are right in the middle of this stuff that we're talking about and uh and who are doing some amazing work to support our families, our community, um all of of us are affected some more than others and
057they're they're just doing an amazing thing. So I was really grateful there were there were 32 uh nonprofits represented and um I was told that they actually had to turn they had a waiting list. They had to turn down some people because they ran out of room. We have a very small community center in Halfoon Bay. They ran out of room and so they're thinking next year about actually going to a slightly bigger room. I like I don't know ids hall or something. But it was it was wonderful. It was uplifting. It was a chance to say to people who are really feeling a little bit battle fatigued that um there's a lot of us out there who know what they're doing and who and who approve and who support them in any way we
058possibly can. And the decals were handed out where they're printed by the city and uh they say we all belong and it shows our mountains and our ocean and I wanted to share that with all of you because I it really touched me. So that's all I have. Thank you. Thank you Trusty Alvaro. Trusty Benini. Thank you. Um thank you Trusty Alvaro for the decal. It's lovely. Um, I also want to um again recognize our employee of the month and just congratulate her. Um, uh, it's it's just amazing when other staff shows up to support. Um, and you know, people tear and, you know, it's it it does mean so much. So, it was it was it was very nice and congratulations to LSE. Um, I also wanted to thank the board um and the
059superintendent for um putting on the uh consent agenda, the National Teacher Appreciation Week, which is one of my favorite weeks, always has been um uh because it's it's celebratory and um honoring the the hard work that teachers do all the time. Um but I used to participate in that as a you know PTA member and I think probably some of us others of us did that as well and it's just such a special week. So um thank you to all the teachers. Um and then also for the mental health awareness um uh uh resolution because that's so important and um I'm not serving on the commission anymore but I'm hoping I can get a hold of some of those green ribbons and swag that I used to you know bring to the meeting. So anyway,
060thank you to everyone for approving this and that is all. You are also now a teacher, so we get to celebrate you in another way. Um, Trusty Love, um, thank you. So on the subject of the resolutions, I also appreciated the uh, foster youth awareness month resolution and the deaf history month. Um, I think the death history month is a great way to recognize the amazing SMCE staff who do this work. we had the opportunity to visit a classroom in our early start program and it was amazing. So, um just it's a nice call out to them to recognize that. And then um I visited the Lost Childhoods art exhibit at the Redwood City Library. If you haven't been there, I highly recommend you go. There are um it's very moving and you kind of
061say, gosh, what can I do? And then there's a board of all these things you can do from baking a cake to making a donation to becoming a CASA volunteer. So, it was just really nicely done and it's those are a lot of students who have probably come through our program. So, I recommend that. And um that's also we had the foster youth month on our resolution. So, that was a nice intersection. And just uh one other thing um well two two other things. I did get the chance to go to Aoyo and um Mariposa upper elementary schools. I was looking at them for the Kent Awards and it was so uplifting like going in there. I got to be in um I went to both actually. I went twice um and because they invited
062me and it was great to see the students um involved. They um in one school the fifth graders had written stories about um national natural disasters and like I wanted to stay and listen to them. They were so good and um the teachers were just absolutely pro the way they worked with students. And then at Mariposa were fourth graders and they were planning a museum and it was amazing. But just the kids, every child was engaged. If any of those kids had um you know IPS or anything else or I would never have known. Everybody was just fully engaged. It was really uplifting. So I just wanted to share that. And I did go to the CSBA County Board's governance workshop. I liked that it was really just one day as opposed to like something
063that dragged on for three days. That was um a nice piece, but a highlight was really connecting with other um county board members and that's where I got some of the ideas on um how they engage youth. That's it. Thanks. Thank you, Trusty O'Neal. Um I also attended the same meeting up there in Sacramento. Um, I also was just reading a statistic and um there's a lot of discussion in Washington regarding um the um Medicaid and I just read a statistic from AFT that Medicaid is the fourth largest source of funds for K12 education in the United States and it's over $7 billion that is on the chopping block and that it supports a lot of the special ed programs. programs including special equipment for wheelchairs, um medical equipment, medical transportation and also pays for
064a lot of the specialists such as um aologists um speech therapists etc. So as we watch the dramas continue in Washington, we should be aware of the direct effect it will have on our students here on K through K12. Thanks. Thank you. Um, youth commission liaison. Around two or so weeks ago, I had the chance to go to DC with the close-up program and I just had an amazing time there. One of my favorite parts about the program was actually meeting with other kids from around the state because what Closeup or sorry from around the country because what Closeup does is that they try to um bring people together who come from different backgrounds who might believe different things. And it was just so great to meet people who have different backgrounds from my own.
065And what really stood out to me was that even though we live in such polarized times, um we were still able to have a lot of really open and respectful conversations. So that was just one of the highlights of my trip. And as for the youth commission, we'll be having our annual showcase on May 22nd. So as of now, we're currently wrapping up some of our final initiatives. My subcommittee is working on two resolutions. The first one is to shed light on whippit abuse. Whip it is a drug that's often sold in smoke shops and what we've been seeing is that sometimes in the county underage people are able to access whippets and it's very very detrimental to the health both physical and mental of young people. So, our resolution is basically just calling for
066increased awareness on this important issue. And our second resolution is on teen dating violence, which is something that I'm very passionate about and I'm hoping to spread more awareness about. So, for these two resolutions, we're hoping to eventually present them to the board of supervisors. So, that's something that'll hopefully be coming up. And I received some very exciting news. Um, a few weeks ago actually, I applied for the state commission on the status of women and girls youth advisory council and I just found out that I was appointed to this commission and my first meeting is going to be in May. So, I'm super excited for that. Are we invited to the showcase? Of course. Yay. Could you send that um information over to Jennifer? Sure, I'll do that. She could send that to us.
067Thank you, Vice President Gerard. Um, thank you very much. Well, happy birthday to all of our April birthday people. Um, I hope you enjoy your days. Uh, birthdays, I think, are super special. So, I always want everybody to be able to enjoy um what I call their special day. Uh, also, um, I couldn't agree more with, uh, Trusty Alvaro and Bonini about employee of the month. And those of you that have seen me up here, um, many times, I say over and over and over, it is my favorite part of the meeting. And it has been and probably always will be my favorite part. So, um I I really am truly grateful for that and I am so happy that everybody brought up the resolutions in the consent agenda. When I read through it, I
068thought, "Wow, this is really a powerful consent agenda. This isn't just your run-of-the-mill." Um there are some really important powerful things here that we're recognizing. And I think that is very very important because I think sometimes um especially county boards um the things that we do and the things that we recognize kind of get lost and I really think it's important um if we feel it's important to let others know um that we do and to react on that. So um I'm very happy uh to see that. I don't always feel that way, but I sure did this month. Um, and I appreciate the fellow board members for calling calling it out. Um, also, uh, I wanted to, uh, invite all the board members to a, uh, training that ACCBE is doing on, um, April
06928th. It's a Monday evening at six o'clock. and we've been working really hard on it and um it's on um really board relationships. We're calling it boardsmanship and boards culture. And uh when we really started diving into that and looking at it, there's lots and lots of things involved that I don't think all of us think about all the time. uh when we think about boardsmanship or the culture of a board and how important it is for all of us to get to know each other, we sit here um at board meetings twice a month and say hi, how are you when you come in and bye, see you when you leave. And many times there's not a whole lot of conversation in between. And I I think uh I have felt over the years
070that it's important to get I think to to know each other better on a personal basis, not just as a board member. So, we're going to be talking about that and lots of other things. So, I really hope that um you will all be there. And um with that, I'll say good evening. Thank you. My birthday's so special. I get to spend it with all of you. Um, Trusty Alvaro, thank you for the sticker. I do have Yes, thank you very much for this commitment issues with stickers. So, I will carry it, but I can't commit to posting it somewhere. I really appreciate it. I save all the stickers. I can't do that either. Um Um, I was also able to attend the CSBA County Board Governance Conference in Sacramento. Um, I appreciate CSBA's attempt
071in in hearing the concerns of county board members and what they wanted to see. Um, I do feel having been at other conferences when I first joined, um, I do feel that it still wasn't providing what new board members would need. Um, and so I'm hoping that the there was feedback given to them. I know there was a survey that was sent out and hopefully they really take that into account in planning for the next one. Um I also hope that um ACCBE can do I know they have um but we are expanding on what was already done to further um enhance that and build on that board member board membership and board culture. Um and those are all my comments. So item 12 is the adjournment. The next regular meeting is the board study
072session on Friday, April 25th, 2025 at 12:00 p.m. This meeting is now adjourned.