001Good evening. The April 2nd, 2025 meeting of the Sanonteo County Board of Education will come to order. As is our practice, this meeting will be recorded. I note that Superintendent McGee is joining us remotely 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 Ldios for joining us remotely. For meeting attendees wishing to access the Spanish translation channel on Zoom, click on the interpretation button on the
002menu 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. Is there a motion to approve the agenda? So move. Is there a second? Second. Thank you. There is a motion to approve the agenda made by Trusty Gerard and a second by Trusty Alvado. Is there any further discussion? All those in favor say I. I. All those opposed say no. The motion passes with a vote of 70 and the agenda for tonight's meeting has been approved. Item two is public comment. Guidelines for public comment are available on the SMCE website
003and 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 Larios, 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. Superintendent McGee, do we have any comments submitted prior to the meeting? We do not. Thank you. As speakers are invited to make live comment and have three minutes to speak, the board's executive assistant,
004Jennifer Pererna, will keep the time and advise when the speaker has 30 seconds left. Please keep within the time limits. To make a comment over Zoom, members of the public may use the raise hand feature. Instructions for using this feature are provided as an attachment in the board packet. Once the hand is raised, please wait to be acknowledged by Superintendent McGee. Superintendent McGee, are there any members of the public attending remotely who wish to make a comment at this time? We have one hand raised and that is Janice Pelazari. Janice, give me one second to promote you. Um, and I think you are all set to speak. Uh, I think you do have to unmute. Thank you. Um, good evening, President Torres, uh, board trustee, Superintendent McGee. Um, I want to start with a shout
005out to Jennifer Pererna and Sarah Hopkins. Um, I heard Mary Mardle had called earlier about access to the board meetings and uh, she said within minutes it was taken care of and she was able to will be able to get on to the board meeting tonight with ease. Um, secondly, and I know I'm not supposed to talk about stuff on the agenda, however, I want to give shoutouts to all my members and the staff and the leaders at ACC and K22. I look forward to seeing um all their efforts shining tonight. Lastly, um fourth quarter started with a lot of changes um staff movement, new techniques to engage and work with kids um at Gateway, but um the kids are adapting well and things are running smoothly. I just wanted to put that in there.
006I know there it's hasn't been easy for everybody. So, I just wanted to acknowledge that and let people know things are going okay there right now. Thank you, Janice. Thank you. U members of the public may also provide live comment in person. Um Superintendent McGee, are there any submitted cards? Um I do not believe we have any submitted cards tonight. Thank you. A 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 ceremonial swearing in of the new San Monteo County Board of Education member Edith
007Aas. I now have the pleasure of administering the oath of or affirmation of office. Will board member audience please join me in the middle of the room testing. There we go. Um, so you can raise your right hand and then I will read it and then you can repeat it. I, Edith Aras, do solemnly swear and affirm that I will support and defend the Constitution of the United States and the Constitution of the State of California against all enemies, foreign, for foreign, and domestic, that I will bear a true faith and allegiance to the Constitution of the United States and the Constitution of California, that I take this obligation freely without mental without any mental reservations or purpose of evasion, and that I will well and faithfully discharge the duty is which happen I'm about
008to enter. Thank you. Now we are moving on to item 4 A. Is there a motion to approve the minutes of the March 19th, 2025 regular board meeting as presented? Is there a second? Thank you. There is a motion to approve the minutes of the March 19th, 2025 regular board meeting made by Trusty O'Neal and a second by Trustee Gerard. 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 minutes of the March 19th, 2025 regular board meeting. I would like to recuse myself since I wasn't present for the minutes. Oh yes. Um, so the motion will pass with a vote of 6. Um, and the minutes of the March 19th, 2025 regular board meeting have been
009approved. Um, 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 the regular order of business for separate discussion um and action if any member of the board, the superintendent or the public so requests. Is there a motion to approve the consent agenda? Second. Is there a second? Thank you. Uh there is a motion to approve the consent agenda made by Trusty O'Neal and a second by Trustee Alvado. Is there any further discussion? All those in favor say I. I I All those opposed say no. The motion passes with the vote of 70 and the consent agenda has been approved. For item 6A, Amaro Chavez, Deputy Superintendent, Educational Services Division, will provide a report
010on the impact on recent federal policies on school districts in the county. Deputy Superintendent Chavez. Thank you. Thank you. Uh good evening, President Torres, members of the to board, Superintendent McGee. Welcome and congratulations uh Trustee Arias. Um yes, it's I'm happy to be here and share um information on the impact of some of these recent uh policies um and actions from the federal government as it relates and impacts our education system. Um I before I get into the presentation, I want to share and kind of preface the presentation. There's a lot of information, a lot of messaging that that is coming out of um Washington DC from executive orders to policies and interpretation of policies. And so our um the presentation uh this evening was in collaboration and with um guidance or research from um
011capital adviserss for example the California county superintendent association as well as the California Department of Education and several of my colleagues that sit in core cabinet. We participate in a lot of um organizations and and um AC that convenes people from across the state. So all of that information we uh I organized in this presentation to try to distill it or or focus it on um some of these policies that directly impact education. Um and then also that um at the end of the presentation you may have more questions. you may have um more areas of interest as it relates to some of these policies and so I'll welcome the feedback and perhaps in the future we can have another an update on some of these um the policies in the presentation. So, I want
012to start with some some of the headlines or topics that that I'm going to um uh share with you, information that I'm going to share with you today and really as it relates to the executive orders that uh President uh Donald Trump has has signed um the immigration enforcement policies that um and directives directives from his office um as well as the information around the dismantling of the Department of Education. And so we've been hearing a lot of information around that. Um we also a few weeks ago Congress passed and the president signed the continuing resolution as it relates to the budget uh for this fiscal year and the impacts of that for the following fiscal year and then some um economic impacts as it relates to our county and in California specifically. So, we'll
013start with the um executive orders. And just again to give you a little context, um as of March 26 of this year, over a 100 executive orders were signed u by President Trump. And in the last few days, I think there's additional several additional executive orders that were signed. Um and so with the executive orders, um we know that they um they don't override federal law or statute. Um, but as they're being signed and communicated out, they do have a lot of gray areas and a lot of areas that are that are subject to interpretation that have raised a lot of questions and uh, in some cases are being challenged uh, in the courts. Um, what the White House has said specifically related to education is that there are some federal programs that will not
014be um that will remain the same. um specifically around the um Individuals with Disabilities Act, um IDEIDA, Title One that funds low-income schools, uh and the federal student loan payments. Um those the communication again from the White House was that those would remain the same. um as it relates to um additional federal dollars um clear communication that federal dollars cannot be used for diversity, equity, and inclusion uh programs or programs promoting gender identity. And as you can imagine that um that causes an impact to our education system. there's a lot of uh conversations and challenging the these um interpretations of the law. Um and the impact on funding is that um some universities, some programs that have DEI um um elements to them have been informed that they they will not receive federal funds. So
015that certainly has an impact. Continuing with the executive orders. Um again, this is um advice or uh recommendations from capital adviserss as well as the California Department of Education legal team. And they're recommending that um local education agencies or school districts really pause on making big budget um action uh or taking action on our budgets because there's still a lot of uncertainty. there's a lot of uh things that need to be uh clarified in terms of funding. So right now we remain vigilant, we remain alert. Um but in terms of the funding um it appears that it's not going to significantly change. So we want to not jump into taking actions um with the continuing resolution. Um there there are some programs in in the budget that in especially as it relates to the department
016of education that will remain the same because they're written into statute. However, there are other programs where there is some flexibility and the administration has that flexibility to while they have uh a full amount dedicated to that program, there is a discretion of moving some of those that those funds within the program according to the needs that they see or their recommendations. So there's there's there's that flexibility that will happen and I'll share a little bit more on when we'll have more clarity on what that will look like um in a few slides from now. Um, one of the things that worries us as a education agency and um as educators is the impact um and the funding cuts that have been communicated to programs that um indirectly support our education system that indirectly support
017um our school programs such as the human uh the health and human services agency uh universities partners like uh the Lawrence Hall of Science and all of these agencies and and um again they provide services essential services to our families like the health and human services agency, Medicaid um they provide me mental health resources, Head Start is another uh topic right now actually as of want to say last couple of days. So there there's a lot of in um instability and insecurity and a lot of heightened um stress and anxiety around some of these cuts. And moving a little bit into some of the immigration um enforcement, we knew from um um even through the the campaign that um there were certain groups that were uh felt nervous and were feeling targeted. Um and so
018now moving into um into these last few months, the the the protected areas uh policy that protected schools, places of worship, hospitals, clinics, for example, that was res rescended. And so again, parents, from what we're hearing, um, as we work directly with our our school districts and community partners that there is heightened fear that there are parents keeping students from going to school because of possible raids, because of possible separation of the families. Um, there's worries of our youth that are applying for financial aid, completing the FAFSA, you're undocumented, there's a worry of submitting all this information and that it lands in the hands of someone that could affect them negatively. And again, the separation of families that we have mixed status families um and uh and parents are worried what if I'm at work
019and I get detained and then what happens to my child that's in school? So, as a county office of education, we we are working with partners like um Faith and Action or the Immigrant Legal Resource um information center, excuse me. um to deliver information to our families, to our community members um on laws that protect them, constitutional laws that protect them um as um as individuals to decrease the anxiety to communicate the importance of sending students to school to communicate that some school districts do have or I would say most of our school districts in Santo County have protocols on what to do in the event that an agent was to come on campus. is so um there's a lot of work around that but again policy that affects um education and the dismantling of
020the department of education again there's a lot of conversation around that but I I wanted to highlight public law 9688 from the elementary and secondary education act that actually created the department of education. it is written into legislation and the some staffing requirements some specific staff. So to to close the department of education would take an act of Congress. However, what we're seeing is that there's a reduction and dismiss uh staff as being dismissed. Um there is um the reduction in force um messaging that they want to decrease staffing by 50% of the department of education. So you can imagine that costs possible uh the delivery of services at a much slower rate um possible inefficiencies. Um there there's a lot of uh indirect impacts to to our schools and and uh districts. Um legal
021experts, for example, that are responsible for protecting student rights and um guiding our states um were also dismissed. the office of civil rights has has also decreased. And so while there are requirements around um um title nine or or interpretation of what title N should be now um it's the the office of civil rights who usually was the office that did the investigations and provided guidance um there will be less staff there. And finally, another example was the national uh center for education statistics. Um that one has been reduced from 100 people to three. And this department is known for or this uh center is known for the national assessment of education progress. The national assessment that kind of gives um our nation um an average of where students are at different grade levels in
022different content areas. And so with that, I mean that's important information that we use. possibly that will change. And regarding the continuing resolution, that one for me was new. So I did a lot lot of research and try to like really figure out what what does it mean? Um and so the continuing resolution uh was reach between Congress and the White House. Um and then the the recommendation or the communication is that generally the the funding for education will remain the same will remain flat for the remainder of this fiscal year that the federal fiscal year ends September 30th. Um so that'll that will remain the same. Um in historically um well in this case um the the continuing resolution did not contain an explan explanatory statement. Historically, when an explanatory statement is included, it
023it guides um what the program what the funding uh will be for each program in more detailed form. Um when there when there hasn't been historically, they would just go to the previous fiscal year and kind of allocate the same amount. what may happen this year is that because there isn't that explanatory um guidance that um that there is a flexibility like I said for some programs that are not written in statute title one for example is written so that one will remain the same but other programs they will get the allocation but the administration has that discretion of moving some of the the uh the funding uh within that program. So, for example, um one that comes to mind is um post-secary education that they will that's one that will be significantly might be
024adjusted. Well, they're going to get the same allocation. they can decide or the administration can decide, oh, we're probably going to move less money to, let's say, historically um um to to colleges that don't that historical historical black colleges that we'll we'll fund those less or we'll fund those more or we'll fund this research less and we'll fund this program more. So they have that flexibility within that allocation. Um and then something else that's important to to note is that um the department of education has around about 45 days of which will be around April 28th where they will have to submit an operating plan and that operating plan has to at that point have the very specifics for each program. um it for the budget, right? The budget for that program very specific. So
025we will know around that time exactly what will that what the funding will look like for all the programs. The other interesting piece around this is that because um federal programs um are forward some federal programs are forwardfunded which means that they receive their funding on July 1st. Usually by on July 1st that budget will be set and so the allocations will remain for the 26 20 256 school year or fiscal year. Okay. A lot of information there. Um okay. And so as it relates to more local, more California, some of the things that we're looking at and we're considering as it relates to funding and maybe that will indirectly impact our schools and districts is for example uh first five California uh first five Santo County um they they're projecting significant reduction in revenue
026due to the tobacco c uh tobacco costs tax sorry um sat 's vehicle license fee uh revenue is down or is projected to be less. So uh we know that Samo that Sato County is considering uh these projections. Um counties, cities and school insurance groups see huge rate spikes. We know that the fires uh the catastrophic fires have had an impact on insurance groups as well as some of the um settlements related to abuse liab liability cases. Um and also the the prediction of um just our national economic outlook. We know that tariffs will have an impact. Uh we don't know to what degree. We know that stock market. So this is what the adviserss are are are sharing. So, it feels like a roller coaster. Um, and then I I won't um read this
027in detail, but the the summary is that there um the there's minimal changes in funding as we as we're hearing um for for the education um for our education system from the federal government. However, we know that the reductions of some of the the uh the programs, the staffing that has an impact on our system. Um again, that the executive orders are um don't o uh don't override federal and statute um and states and agencies are challenging them. So, we we will wait and see what that um where things will land. Um and then again minimal uh fiscal adjustments to education uh for um at least through September uh 2025. Um but the message is that for 2526 those those funding amounts will be the same. So it feels like there's a lot of wires,
028a lot of um things that we need to untangle that we need to straighten. So I want to I felt that this picture captured that and Jarro Pearl actually shared it with me. give them credit. So when you feel overwhelmed, do what you need to stay well. And we're trying to stay welmed. So with that, I'll entertain questions and maybe uh or comments or um reactions. Are there any comments or questions from the board? Trusty Love, thank you. Um that was an excellent presentation. I appreciate all the research. I didn't know a lot of those things and you did a lot of homework. So, thank you. Um would love to keep hearing about this. Um so, um I was just a couple quick things. You answered a lot of the things that I had in
029my mind. Um there was a note that ESSER funds and other things were were frozen last week by the states. I know it was hitting some states heavily. Maybe California not that much. Does that impact us currently? You know, I have not heard about the ESER funds, but I will certainly take note of it and perhaps we can get that information to you. It's not a big thing. I just it was Massachusetts I think was really impacted. It was all over the news like earlier over the weekend maybe. Um I was also curious about um so Medicaid is a big thing like we care about the whole child so not just funds that go through the education department but serious impact there. I think was it a $6 billion maybe shortfall for the state of
030California and then how that's going to play out for children and family. Not that you can answer anything on it. It's just heartbreaking again like that we're going through this and then meanwhile we see that the Department of Education is investigating California's Department of Education over its health programs. like who is left in the department of education to conduct all of this research and file all these complaints? It's just mind-boggling to me. So, that's just a comment. And um I was just curious, is the tobacco tax down just because people aren't smoking or did the administration do something? That's my understanding that you know and I I believe there's a presentation where that that statement was made that there's less people smoking it which is a good thing but then there the tax um revenue
031is less. Okay. Well, thank you very much. I really appreciate it. Thank you. Other comments or questions? Trusty Alvado. Thank you. First of all, just like thank you for doing all the research and for all of you for continuing to just hold the ship steady because this is really I'll be polite and say this is really hard. Um, if I had two specific comments besides just that one is that I remember clearly this would have been the late 80s, early 90s when we had raids. Ice ra at the time we had raids. I live in an agricultural area. You can imagine what that looked like. We had families separated. I knew children then who are adults in the community now who went to live with friends and distant relatives who were in this country because
032their own families were gone while they were at school one day. There's there's no way that you can expect children to be sane and to be studying. And I don't know what we do about that other than I mean I can share with you privately some of the things we did about it back then. But um just that there's a need for that sort of mental health scaffolding now more than ever. And it's not just the kids whose families are being deported, it's the friends of those kids and the teachers of those kids. And it's hard. Um, and then just the last thing was just a request around messaging. There's so much rumor right now. And because things are moving quickly, it is a roller coaster. And then there's rumors that come out that I
033mean I I here's an example. A few weeks ago, there were all kinds of rumors flying that people saw ICE vehicles. they saw vehicles within and the panic that ensued in in my town. I'm sure elsewhere too, but was just insane. And as it turned out, they weren't even there um that time. People interpreting, well, oh, the Department of Education's being dismantled, so therefore the schools are shutting. What are we going to do with our kids? you know, just that sort of so as much as we can do messaging to kind of clarify things for people, and I don't mean down to the the detail level that you just did for us, but just to sort of clarify for people, this is what this means. This is what this doesn't mean. Yeah, we're still going
034to have schools for your kids to go to. Yeah, we're still going to have, you know, these programs and see maybe some other things are going to be. So that's just my request is that we work really hard on messaging so that the public is has some handle on what's going what's going on. So yeah, I appreciate that. And we have been doing some really good work, targeted work specifically in this area where right now actually Ruben Ruby McCare, our coordinator for um uh community partnerships. Um she's partnering with Faith and Action. And so we're doing a series of um community events um where this this messaging is being delivered um along with some strategies that families can use like the rapid response in case they they uh number in case they see or or
035hear about um agents. Um yeah, so that that's happening and we will continue to do that. It was very that that the message that that uh President Torres and Superintendent McGee uh sent out was very helpful because it it landed in the community and they u so we've received some positive feedback from that as well. Thank you. Thank you. Other comments or questions? Trusty audience. Thank you. Well, first of all, thank you so much for this presentation. It's so needed and I think uh just following up with what was said um faith and action I've been present in several of their presentations and I'm so glad that you're connected with them. Um I like how they also talk about having a plan right because this is a reality. So having a plan having plan A
036B but uh one question I had just um you mentioned about the Sonteo County districts um have protocols to support. I heard a little bit like hesitant to say all of all of the districts or all of the schools. Is there some that don't that? What I what I recall is that um there were there was a a board policy that was um recommended by um this the California Department of Education as well as the California School Boards Association and a lot of our school districts um adopted it and it's in there. Um what some of the feedback um and and I haven't checked recently to see if all of them that's why I kind of hesitated um was that in some communities it wasn't as needed um to have a protocol because they uh
037because of the demographics that they served. Um however I I I could go back and check to see if they have now all of them but I know that the superintendents were very engaged in it and very supportive. Other comments or questions? Um well, thank you to Trusty Love for um asking to bring this to the aboard. I think it was very helpful and just your delivery allowed me to process it. Well, thank you for pausing and not just keep going because then I wouldn't be able to process it. Um, my only question I think was in regard to like the immigration enforcement and um um I'm I'm sure our school districts are are providing the mental health services that they need for our students um especially with the heightened like stress, anxiety, and fear.
038Um, do you know if there's been I know there's been an increase, but have any districts reached a level where they're at capacity and they need more support? And then are we what are we doing to ensure our our staff um also feel are getting the same resources that our students would be getting? Um, I appreciate the question and I um I probably could bring that information back. Um I know personally I haven't heard that there is uh that districts have reached capacity but I know that in our safe and supportive schools team they are out supporting our and to your point about staff there is a need to um to connect and ha and engage the staff in processing a lot of these anxieties that they're also feeling as a result of what their
039families are feeling. Um so I know that our um safe and supportive schools teams are very engaged in that space. Um yeah, thank you. And then my only request would be after April 28th once that plan is um out if we could get an update after um whenever feasible. I know it's going to take time and research, but um I appreciate all your work for that. Thank you. Thank you. Um, are there any comments from the public? Sorry, I had to unmute. Um, I do not see any hands raised. Thank you. There is no action to take on this item. For item 6B, Heather Logan, principal, early childhood education and related services, and Ellen Palino, principal, special services, will provide an update on school programs at the Anne Campbell Center for Children and Families and
040Special Services. Principal Logan and Principal Palino. Good evening, um, board president Torres, um, members of the board, and Superintendent McGee. Um, my name is Ellen Pino and I'm the principal at a special services K22 program. And here's my colleague Heather Logan, principal for ACC and early childhood programs. We are here today to present update on our uh pro school programs. Um, so just a reminder, some of what we're talking about tonight is grounded in the strategic plan that we developed in the 22 23 school year and looking at three areas, behavioral, social, emotional, and academic. We have our nice road map of where we started looking at adult SEAL, focusing on professional development, really focusing on professional learning communities at our sites to review data and increase student performance by changing the practices that we
041do implement. So currently um at our special services program, I just wanted to share with you um the numbers of classrooms we have currently. Um we serve students from uh different districts within Sonteo County. Um supporting students with autism um and individual intellectual disabilities all the way to multiple disabilities orthopedic impairment. We serve students if you can go back other. We serve students um starting at kindergarten all the way to um adult transition program ages uh 22. So our staffing overview, we have about um four seven teachers currently. Four of them are teaching um kids with autism and individual intellectual disabilities. We have three teachers uh teaching multiple disabilities and orthopedic impairment. We have one behavioral school psychologist, 29 pair educators, one training assistant, and two school nurses, as well as three uh registered behavior
042technicians. Currently, we serve about 13 um districts within Sonteo. Um one of the new district this school year is from Brisbane, and so we're happy to serve them this school year. I wanted to share with you some of our uh instructional areas uh within both our school sites uh Palos Veres and Albertal. So this is our independent living environment. Um and our uh two classrooms who serves uh our students uh in the adult transition transition program as well as in our um combo class of uh high school and transition and the multiple disabilities use this as part of their daily instruction. I wanted to share with you that in the independent living space is sort of like the mugup apartment where it has a living room um dining area uh even a kitchen and all
043that and it's a good um opportunity to learn life skills uh for our students. Here's another instructional space. Um it's our student union and micro business. So he the micro business kind of uh simulate an office space with different areas that our students can um learn about uh all all uh areas of work from um book binding to uh lamination and all that. And our student union mockup uh kind of simulates a college student union where they're able to have their uh lunch area there uh and leisure activities as well. One of the new instructional space that we opened up this school year, actually we just opened it this springtime, is our multimedia center. And uh it is we call it a multimedia center because it has different spaces where our students can um use
044the space to go outside of their classroom but still learn about the different things that they're learning in the classroom. So we have an area for reading, we have area for technology as well as leisure area. And in between that is our interactive TV where teachers can still teach um our curriculum in that uh space as well. Uh we also have uh both sites uh both Palace Verdees and Alpertal have sensory and art rooms as well. And then here's our outdoor learning area where um we have adapted um equipments for our students to play. Uh we also have a track and then a space where um teachers can do their lessons outside when the weather is out is is um is wonderful and the sun is out. And then in that space we also have
045our garden area where each classroom has their own plot where they grow their vegetables. Okay. Yeah. So here is our um I wanted to share with you our um update on the uh strategic plan goal on our academics. Um, and I wanted to highlight our data. And our data is as of March 3rd, 2025. So, it's hot off the press. Um, and I wanted to just highlight some key takeaways. That 80% there's an 80% increase in post- test scores from our pre-EST. That's a huge, huge improvement. Um there's also a 100% active students have mastered at least one um lesson with an upward trend in a weekly uh session minutes. Um with 40 students currently enrolled, there's about a thousand lessons mastered by students this year to date. So this is a huge achievement not
046only by our students but also for the wonderful staff that we have at K22 because of their passion, dedication and hard work to ensure that quality programming is provided for our students. So some pictures that I wanted to share um are in action pictures where based on the data this is our day-to-day thing that's happening. Um, we still have our pop-up market uh that's happening. And what we've done this school year is we actually just did three three pop-up markets where we combine different um events. So, uh the first one was about holidays. The second one is another for um winter winter holidays and then um February was about uh Valentine's Day and one coming up in May is all about celebration, Mother's Day, Father's Day, and graduation. So, and our students learn different skills
047in preparation when they go out into the adult program. Um, one picture that I want to highlight here is uh our staff doing collaborative work discussing data to guide their instruction um and and have meaningful participation so that our students are are guided um daily in the classrooms. Uh we also have um collaborative work where teachers uh are able to partner up with their colleagues to look at their instruction and also their lesson plans to ensure that they're sharing and um tweaking along the way if needed and just sharing best practices that they can um implement in their classroom. down below are some of our students in action using our um curriculum and al as well as interactive TVs. So this school year we were provided with interactive TVs and it has um changed uh
048our students participation and engagement where we're seeing so much progress in that area as well for behavioral uh update. So if you can see in the middle uh last school year we started our um program support phase change plan. Um last school year we were doing phase one where we were highly providing staff with professional developments ensuring uh what supports are needed in the classroom. Um this year we are on phase two and it's all about system supports. So we want to look at uh the changes and improvements that we have uh done in phase one and what we can do more in phase two. And currently uh what we're doing differently this school year is the professional development we're offering our par educators. So with the leadership of our behavioral psychologist Tracy Bonaduche she
049we implemented affirm modules which it's online um uh training that our par educators can take and once they complete a module and we have I think about did four modules this school year is they come together as a team and discuss what they have learned and then look at what um what strate strategies and back best practices that they could take away that they took away from that um training and implement in the classroom and it's highly collaborative and it's wonderful to see uh some of the actions being implemented. Um she also collaborated with our behavior team uh regarding um implementation of a behavioral uh intervention cheat sheet. So if in an IEP there's about five to seven pages of a behavioral intervention plan and it's hard to read when you're trying to implement uh
050consistently and also with fidelity. So what we have done uh this school year with um with her support is a one pager where they can just reference to on a daily so that they can ensure they're providing best practices and the action plans written on the IP. They've also with the behavior team, they've also uh curated some portable and accessible uh visuals for our students and staff members that they could use to uh to provide support for all our students for our social emotional [Music] learning. So if you see on your left hand um this is an interactive board um that uh again uh with in collaboration with Tracy. This is an interactive SEAL board. Last school year our theme was about teamwork. This school year is all about growth mindset. Um students are able
051to access this as well as staff members. um they're able to see what a growth mind mindset look like in um the student perspective as well as an adult perspective. Um in addition to that, this school year especially um we launched it this spring is the implementation of um the ninja life hacks which is a a social emotional learning. Um, this is brand new to us as we are exploring and researching a new curriculum that we could use in the in the in our program. So, the expectation this school year is to have them try out on their classroom, gather data, come back in May, see what is happening and we can take a look at if if this is the right uh curriculum for us or uh do we need to tweak it and
052explore more. Um we will give you more information as we uh uh you know think this school year and and give feedback but the expectation is we're researching to see if what right curriculum can be used for social emotional learning. Um, I just wanted to highlight that this progress at special education services is without a doubt um through the collaboration and dedication of our wonderful staff from teachers all the way to support staff at K22. We can take questions after Heather. So, I'm also going to provide a highlight of the staff at my site. Just for reference, I do have multiple programs and m multiple different groups of service providers who are outward facing to all the districts in our county. So, it's going to look a little differently than Ellen's presentation. Currently on staff
053I have 10 related service providers which include adaptive PE teachers for the visually impaired and orientation mobility specialists. I have three teachers of the deaf who support both our early start program which is birth to free as well as one of our staff provide itinerant services now to districts which is new this year. It's something districts have been asking for. In our inclusive state preschool program, which is new, we have two general education permitted teachers. We have one itinerant early childhood special education teacher who is both embedded in the state preschool. She is also outward facing providing itinerant services to preschoolers in district placements but typically in a general education setting which again is new. We this year also gosh it's a lot we opened a at the request of districts a program for preschoolers
054who have multiple disabilities. So that again, new teacher, new program and looking at referrals for that as well. And then again, our itinerary ECSC teacher is also a new position this year. And I finally have two full-time itinerant pair educators, which is really exciting. Before I start, I do want to acknowledge that I think many about 20 of our staff are logged in online today. We also have staff sitting in the audience. And so I just want to recognize that none of this can be done without them. And if I get a little teareyed, it's um I I have the most amazing staff. So as you know, we've been doing a lot of work with Dr. Lori Watson on anti-racism and in both leadership seminars we've participated in dialogue and activities as as she's led
055us through the work as well as school programs have had sessions with Dr. Watson believe this is the second year we've had them and so realizing in kind of to Marco's presentation the state that we are kind of living in right now and one of my strategic plan goals was around developing developing the castle competencies and our staff. So really looking at the social emotional learning of our staff and really this is really important to our social and emotional well-being. And so we as a group decided to kind of embark on this journey together in our staff meetings once a month. It's new, but I'd like to share with you some of the learnings that we've had. So, one of the things we realized is there's a lot of vocabulary even when we begin the
056work in talking about anti-racism. And so, we decided to kind of explore the vocabulary and in that process talk about experiences we've lived or things that we're seeing in our communities. You could have heard a pin drop in these staff meetings that we've held. lots of emotion, um, vulnerability. So, staff being really transparent about experiences they've had. Had a staff member who shared that when she first came, she was shocked at how many white people work in our organization. So, you know, and as a white woman, things I don't always think about. And so the vulnerability of our staff to really talk about these hard issues in a thoughtful way really it not only brought us together as a group but I think it helps us try to forge a path forward. I have created
057a staff survey that will be sent out at the end of the week so that I can learn from them how has this been and where do we need to go because I can't be the only voice at the table deciding how we do this work and we have such a diverse group of educators that calling forward those leaders is also very important. Okay, so this is where I'm going to spend my time. And I have to give a lot of credit to multiple departments across our agency because this just didn't happen overnight in and there is the timeline. Essentially the inclusive preschool has been in the works for about seven years. It started with an initial design day seven years ago and different things happened that didn't allow us to move forward at that
058time. COVID came and I I believe I wasn't here at the time but we kind of went back to the drawing board of how are we going to open a quality inclusive preschool program and so you know the first places it started were with facilities and I will highlight those things early learning was instrumental in getting us licensed classrooms anything and everything with licensing state preschool all the rules they really are the experts here on site. And so re early on at the very beginning, they helped create the foundation from which we were able to move. I'm happy to report that we currently do have 10 students in our program, which I will speak about a little later, but it really was, you know, even just finding staff was quite a challenge because there aren't
059a lot of people going into education and finding highly qualified teachers willing to go on the journey with me. Um, it it took some finding. We had our first two students September of 23 and we stayed at low enrollment for quite a while. For those of you who've been on the board for a while, every year I come and I report this and all of a sudden everything has changed. So with that looking at facilities one of the overarching goals that came out of the design day and that's what I will speak to now is around how do we create environments that are accessible to anybody who walks through the door and so facilities business custodial maintenance staff did a huge undertaking during COVID to completely remodel our facility including cleaning the floors. We have
060new windows. We have a lighting system that can can control by an application. So, if you have students who, for example, are visually impaired, being able to control the lighting, um cabinetry, general health and safety, which is always the focus of licensing guidelines for state preschool. So, making sure our bathrooms are in working order. And again, I and even to this day, Rich, he's a phone call away. Um, and I can never thank him enough for what he does and how responsive he is to whatever we need for kids. The second goal was either hosting a model highquality inclusive preschool or building one. and option A did not come to pass and so option B came to be and again that's where early learning was really instrumental in for example Cheryl Chan helping with job
061descriptions salary schedules parent handbooks so many things SMCA had never done this before I had never done this before and without them I wouldn't have had the learning that I've had and so our program now consists of we have a contract for eight California state preschool subsidized spaces. We currently have six students enrolled. So remarkable again in contrast to last year. We also part of the the vision for this program was that we would also have places for districts to place their preschoolers because the continuum of options is pretty limited in districts. you either receive no services or you're put into a class with a variety of students with disabilities that may or may not be a good fit for you. And so we in January accepted four students from Belmont Redwood Shores and I
062now have districts knocking on the door to come in, but we're trying to limit that so that we have a good ratio of general education students with students with disabilities. One of the other highlights just looking at the inclusive program is that next door where our student with um who's multiply disabled, she is in our general education preschool a third of her day. So she is part of activities, circle time, they rotate between the two classes. So one day they're in the state preschool, the other day they're in her class. Our students have become little leaders. So seek her out. They read to her. They played red light green light last week. So, and you you can't force that, right? Kids are these little beings who just embrace everybody. And it really is you just
063feel it when you walk into the classroom. We also as part of this and really thinking about high quality inclusive pro program also incorporates families because it's not one or the other, it's a both and. And so I do want to highlight there's a picture to my bottom right which is our student who is part of our STC program and her family wanted to celebrate her birthday and so the grandparents came the parents came we had parents from other students in the classroom and what they shared and in in tears this was the first time they ever had a birthday celebration for their six-year-old daughter again just and my staff welcome it and embrace it and welcome welcome the families to come in so that they feel a part of what we're doing with their
064children. You can also see and and the nice thing is that when you look at the pictures, you don't know who is who, right? And that has taken a tremendous amount of support from our itinerary ECSE teacher, our general education teachers. They plan every other Wednesday. They have the whole entire afternoon where they're planning together, building materials. The curriculum and lesson plans are the same for each class. It's just adapted based on your need. And so again, and it's seamless. Everybody works with every child. It's not, oh, well, they're yours. You You don't know the difference. And this is where it gets really exciting. And I, you know, this is my first time ever going through these. Um, so part of being part of this state preschool program, we have outside evaluators who come in
065and use measures to evaluate, are we providing a high quality program? And so from January till about the middle of March, a series of people came in independent. They don't know us. They don't know me. They don't have a lot of background about our program. And they use these observation tools to score us. And not knowing any better, I didn't realize how good our scores are. And so there's the quality count San Mateo, which looks at six different elements. The rubric is is there on the right, but it's looking at teacher interactions, what does the environment look like, so on and so forth. And we received a 30 out of 30. That Yeah. And I didn't realize how amazing and rare that is until some of the outside professionals that we also work with said,
066you know, that's unheard of. What do you mean? Of course, we get A's. Nonetheless, it really is remarkable. First time ever doing it. um Jenny and Olga who are are state preschool teachers who really are the experts in this they were even surprised that Heather we don't get people don't get these scores so that's one piece of the element that is it's just outstanding and I know it's true to the desire of when this program was before it was even born that was the whole goal is let's have a quality pro program so then the second data piece is an assessment called the class. And again, it's looking at very targeted instructional. So, they're observing certain chunks of time throughout the day. Really looking at how are you interacting children? Are you providing emotional safety?
067What is your language modeling look like? And again, our scores were very much outside of the norm. In social emotional, we received a 6.88 out of seven. for the environment, the organization, the materials, everything that the staff has really put a lot of energy into, we received a 6.92 out of seven. Unheard of. And then the instructional piece, which is at the bottom, which is a 4.5. Again, still within the average range. However, when I read through the comments, because the raider doesn't have truly know the dynamic and the makeup of our classroom, a lot of the feedback was around, for example, asking open-ended questions. Well, we know with children who maybe use a talker or who are learning some early level language skills, asking open-ended questions isn't helpful. And so the structured support to
068and allow every child to participate is the piece she didn't have as to why everything was so scaffolded depending upon who you are in the seat. So again, but still very remarkable that we achieved such high scores in such a short amount of time with enrollment doubling in January and our staff have just really put just such an amazing amount of effort into this. The other piece that's happening is something called embedded instruction and it's really looking at how do special education and general education teachers work together. And so we have a coach who's been meeting with Midell and Jenny Lamb who's one of our state preschool teachers and I think it was last week colleague came and shared with the team that when you walk in you it's seamless. The teachers don't even have
069to they can look at you and you know what your next move is. and just the collaboration and the relationship that they have with one another in service of students is really evident even to somebody who doesn't really know the dynamics in the classroom. So multiple outside people commenting on how well-run our program is and our scores obviously speak for themselves. Additionally, I don't know I'm going to stick with this slide for just a minute. One of the overarching goals and I Nancy I'm going to speak on your behalf was how do we create a model program so that other districts can replicate what we're doing and I thought for sure it would be another two years before we got there. But with districts hearing that we have a program, coming to see our program,
070I now have weekly emails from districts saying, "Can we place our students in your program in the inclusive preschool?" But also both San Carlos and South San Francisco Unified want to come back and meet with me to start talking about how to do what we're doing. So in a way we've we've kind of reached such an amazing point of we've hit all the goals and now we're moving forward to really be a support to districts. And the great thing is is with Midal she actually can go into districts and say here's how we did it and provide the coaching and the collaboration that's needed so districts can also do this work because it is sitting in I sat in a supple meeting last month and I was in a preschool group and districts are struggling
071because there isn't a true continuum of services for preschool. So we are definitely headed in such an amazing direction. One of the last goals was really looking at family engagement because again they are a critical component to our program. We do parent education both from the early start team but also through state preschool we are required to host parent education. What we decided as a site is we're going to do it all together. So early start is seamless with state preschool and that our parent events everybody is welcome back to school night both programs are welcome just for context in our early start program we do have 63 students enrolled so it's it's a large number we had Santa Claus and a holiday party we're doing a spring symposium with vendors coming on site and
072so it really has been a great way for families to connect with each other but then also seek out information that they might need. We've also sent surveys to families to find out what do you I can I don't know what they need. I need their feedback so that we can develop appropriate parent education series. One of the things we are also required to do is through the DRDP there's a parent survey. We do a program self-evaluation that starts started in January and we have to give surveys to families. And while I recognize it's a small sample of six, six of six families reported very satisfied across the board for every category. So again, outside professionals acknowledging what great work families and then you feel it with the kids and the progress they're making. And
073we do have two SMCE staff members who have their children enrolled in our program as well. So Again, here's some photos. We um I did a potty training talk a couple of weeks ago because that's relevant. There's a picture from our Halloween back to school night. You know, I also our interpreters, our translators attend every outing so that language access is provided to any family who arrives. We also have taken families. So for example for early start one of the questions they often have are what other programs are out there that could serve my child. So for example California school for the deaf operates programs and so my staff will take families to go tour these programs just so that they can see what's available. There's Wine Garden Children's Center in Redwood City that we've
074also taken families to go see because it is our job to educate them not withhold from them the information they have. And as a team, we've really worked to identify what are all the things we need to share and what is the manner in which we share it so that we're calibrated when we are providing information. I think that's enough. So looking forward to next steps. While our contract currently is only for eight spaces for the state preschool, we are looking to increase both our contract size and our enrollment. And so I am working with a consultant who has years of expertise in building feebased structures. So parents who maybe aren't eligible for reduced cost care but can also access care because they have the means to fund that that service for their child. And
075so really building that out, but also looking at how are we getting the message out to families in our area because we kind of were tucked away, you know, up there off 92 and 280. And so really working with her on visibility, including claiming a Google map and a Google site, like things I didn't know existed. We are working on it and making progress on those things as well. Um, also just thinking about working with our new executive director of communications around what SMCE marketing we also can do to increase our visibility, the collaboration with district partners. You know, I imagine probably over the summer and then into next year, we'll be working with them to help build their own programs. And then also looking back at the extensive needs preschool, ensuring that we are
076increasing our enrollment there. We actually have a new student starting in a week. So, it's coming and I think more than I would have ever expected at this phase of the growth. And then lastly, but really important, we with my group of teachers for the visually impaired, we a year ago decided that we were going to apply to be presenters at the CTE BVI conference, which actually is next week. And both of our proposals were accepted. And so one of our staff who has now transitioned to California School for the Blind, because of my background as a behaviorist, I support my staff often with behavior just challenges and and what to do and how to teach social skills. And so Cindy and I are doing a presentation on integrating behavior supports and making them accessible
077for students with visual impairments. And then Megan Barry, her proposal was also accepted and she's kind of our tech guru and so she's doing a presentation on accessibility features on iPads. Um yeah, so just pretty amazing that we really are continuing to move forward and educate as many people who are touching, you know, students lives and making an impact and figure out how can we support them as well. Trusty Alvaro, thank you. I can't tell you how much I needed that this week. You're you're doing such wonderful work and just even in our brief visit, you could just feel the climate there. So, but I actually have a very specific question. Very rarely do we get a report from anybody in any division where a ton of staff gives up their evening to come support
078you. Would you mind telling us who's here? Yes. So Meridell Remit is our ECS husband is George Remit our teacher at Oaks. So George, there's that connection. And then online, I mean, we have Modell Anderson who helps Ellen and I think things through and figure out what direction we're going in. And of course, Sarah and Chris, our colleagues in our department, our admin assistants, um, teachers, my mom is here. I had to say that. Maybe nurse. Um, yeah. So, and Ellen, I think you know Janice and I just everybody online. And who are these people? Modell. Is it Modell? Modell. She's Modell. Modell. We've met. Yes, we have met. And do you have other of your teachers and staff? That's wonderful. Thank you. Thank you. Uh, Trusty Gerard. Um, yes. I really have more comment
079than um uh questions, but it was as trusty Alvaro said so heartwarming and exciting to hear this report when we visited and it was here. we had this facility with no students and no teachers and um now you know you're you've built it up and you're building further and further and it it is so exciting and I know you all do a fabulous job. It's so much fun to come and visit and sit on the floor with the kids. I have to use a chair now. But but um and you know and part be able to participate and watch them and they get so excited and so involved and there's such wonderful programs. So thank you all for all the hard work you do. It's I mean really exciting to see it go from absolutely
080nothing um and having built to what it is now. So thank you all so much. Yes, trustee Arias. Thank you. Well, I want to really commend and probably just as um excited I am different hats I wear. I'm a parent of a 33 year old man who has gone through the whole from preschool to his now uh adulthood through all these programs. But never did he in his preschool time was able to participate in what you have done. And I think uh what's amazing is also how uh and I took some notes you know that universal design for learning that you're creating that inclusion and the 30 out of 30 score is like amazing. I mean you just starting this program and also modeling for other districts. Um, I think that's that's such an important
081thing because when you create something that is working and that is amazing for students and families and you share that model so that it continues, it just creates that ripple effect where all of the families and students will be benefit from that. Um, and to all of those in Zoom and present here as a special education teacher of transition students. I'm so so delighted to know that you're here supporting your principles in the program and for all the work that you do. So, thank you, Trusty Benini. Um, I also just want to express my gratitude. Um, as Trusty Gerard said, when we visit when I was able to visit last, um, it was amazing. you know, we did get to see the some of the um preschool classrooms, but there were these beautiful classrooms that
082no students were in yet. Um and so just to see the the growth and also to see how dedicated everyone is sort of making that work. It's really impressive. Um and thank you everyone for being here. I mean, this is that that's a true testament honestly. Um as as Trusty Ovaro said, know that everyone's here and and to the K through 22. Um, I don't have any questions, but I I was grateful that on the last time we that I was able to visit, um, we kind of saw the start of some of the curriculum and just how um, you know, how dedicated everyone is seeing those learning spaces. Um, and it was really great to also see the new spaces, the multimedia space. um for those you know new trustees who haven't visited it's
083a mustsee in terms of like the living spaces and just um the the um the space where you know you can do the micro businesses it's all amazing so thank you so much and thank you for the report that's truly awesome other comments or questions love um just going to second everything everyone said totally amazing and everybody if you haven't been there should go visit that um programs are great. It's amazing what passion can do. I did have one question for you um uh Miss Pino are have we sort of hit a stable point with enrollment do you think now? What are your sort of projections going forward? Is the program going to expand contract or what are your thoughts on that? So currently um as of we speak we have 11 referrals that's coming
084on our way. Um, yes, we have about 40 students currently. Um, we do have exiting students because they're uh aging out of our uh program, but as of this date, we have 11 referrals that are sitting on my desk and we're reviewing them. Um, as do I think that it's growing? I think so. There's definitely a need for students uh that we are currently serving u to be in our program. and um uh we will continue to update uh as we move forward uh with this player. Thank you, Trusty O'Neal. No. Um so, normally I enjoy going last because um everyone asks all my questions, but I really wanted to go first to just highlight how proud I am of of you both of you and your teams for showing up. Um I loved seeing
085the pictures. I can see the joy. I can feel it. And even during your presentations and you speaking about everything, your heart is so visible. It's beaming through. And I'm just so glad that your leadership is um what we have because we wouldn't be where we are without you and your team. Oh yes, Trusty J. To make one more comment, it was so much fun to see the students in the pictures and recognize them um from when we visited. That was really fun. Especially the one little boy that's so friendly. Yes, he's I call him the Goodwill Ambassador because no matter I think he even gave Nancy a tour at some point. It Well, it it really was fun. Oh. Oh, I know. I know that little girl or that little boy. That was that
086was a lot of fun. I I just had to say that. Sorry. Yeah. No, of course. Um I did have one question for Principal Logan. Um considering that um you're looking into um ex offering this to families who could afford it who aren't eligible financially um do you have an estimated um number for enrollment or is there a goal for enrollment that you have now? So for that piece of the program it's driven by the contract that we hold under early learning. So we're Cheryl's department holds a master contract if you will and subcontracts. There are a number of us in the county maybe 13 who partner with Cheryl and our subcontractors. And so this year my contract is for eight. My hope is for next school year it would be for 12 given how
087quick you know all of a sudden we have students and we do have another student applying currently. And so I think expanding another four spaces to offer 12 subsidized spaces would be the next step. We want to grow slowly as it makes sense so that because you add students there's a staffto student ratio. So for licensing health and safety guidelines that drives everything we do and so we have to be methodical in the way in which we move forward. So little steps but we are licensed for 40. So, I'm so just so glad of um the growth and where it's headed and yeah, really excited to the next time that you're all here. Yes. Um are there any uh comments from the public? Um I don't see any comments from the public but um do
088know that most of the folks who are attending um virtually are either our para educators are teachers um a few office uh administrators and it's a mix of um staff from all of our programs and Campbell Center um court and community and um special services. Thank you. Uh there is no action to take on this item. Um for item 7A, we have the superintendent's comments. Superintendent McGee, do you have any comments to share? Uh yes, I do. Um, and I want to just begin by welcoming uh, Trustee Aras to her first county board meeting. We're so um, happy to have you joining the board and really looking forward to getting to know you better and um, learning from your uh, lived experience and um, and professional career experience as well. So, welcome. We're really happy
089to have you. Thank you. You're welcome. Just want to acknowledge the um the report on the federal um changes in policy. The change in direction from the federal government is definitely serious and concerning. Um the reduction in force at the Department of Education will definitely impact local programming in different ways. Um one way in which um it will almost immediately impact is in the um uh application of FAFSA FAFSA applications for financial aid for students who are entering college and student loan funding. Um, the federal government describes no funding for DEI work but or or diversity, equity, inclusion work, but honestly um the truth of the matter is is that is the work that is at the heart of all um effective education. Um, we all know the research for years and years that tells
090us that students who sit in school hungry or feel unsafe or feel excluded somehow from the school community will not likely to be able to maximize their potential as learners. And if we truly want a highquality education for every student, um, these things are molded together in ways that you cannot separate. Um, our local elected leaders, uh, Congressman Kevin Mullen, Senator Josh Becker, and Assembly Member Diane Papen are holding a gathering at the county center this Saturday from 10:30 to 11:30 as a way of standing up and speaking out for public education. And even though we don't really know specific outcomes of the various executive orders, what's clear is that public education is under attack right now. And now, right now is the time to stand up and shine the light on how public education
091is a foundational pillar of an effective and functioning democracy. So, um I put that out to the public. Anybody who wants to attend and stand up for public education on Saturday, um we hope you can make it. Um shifting over to other good news, you heard um the report from principal Paulino and principal Logan about the ways in which their data are showing effective results for student learning. um in some cases and as in the part of licensing um like almost un unheard of uh ratings coming into our programs. But um a couple weeks ago, I also mentioned to the county board that um the work that um our uh safe and supportive schools team is doing through the um positive behavior interventions and supports work. uh had led us to a um uh a
092finalist situation in being named as the region 4 technical assistance lead. Region 4 is a um an organization of the counties through the county superintendent and region 4 consists of uh Marin County, Salano, Contraosta, Alamita, Napa, and San Monteo County. And um I'm happy to say or announce tonight that the um Sanonteo County Office of Education um positive behavior interventions and supports team under the direct leadership of coordinator Greg Fry uh did earn the award as the regional lead for uh region 4. So, I honestly thought we had a giant hill to climb um because of just the politics that get involved in these kinds of decisions, but um they met with our team. We're really a genuine like all-in kind of place, a one SMCE organization and um many people across the organization attended
093that meeting and um advocated for our work. Um, one thing we did in that interview was we did not practice and we did not have a script. Um, we answered questions as they came to us authentically and organically as was true for our reality. And I think that the team uh the rating team saw how uh ready we all are and how connected um we all are to the work. So, just huge congratulations to coordinator Fry, to the leadership of the safe and supportive schools team, which includes um executive director Ben Gonzalez, and of course our um great associate superintendent leader Chris Shouse. Um without their leadership, um we probably wouldn't be in this position. But um honestly, we're excited to get busy with the work and we will be taking on the leadership for
094region 4 in this space, which is um something to really be proud of because positive behavior, interventions, and supports is exactly the thing I was talking about when we talk about public education as a pillar of democracy. In order for kids to be successful, they have to feel um honored, valued, seen, heard, a sense of belonging. And this work is really closely connected to all of that. So, congratulations to the team. Um we look forward to bringing you more uh updates as we proceed with the leadership role. Um, another uh set of feedback we received this week was for our court and community school program. I think I shared with you um again a couple weeks ago that we had had our midterm review and that was a um a visit from some of the
095review members of the review team. The actual formal report took a week or two to get, but we just received it this week. Um, so I want to um state that the the W was committee indicated through the review and this is quoting that SMCE's LCAP initiatives have led to measurable gains in academics engagement and well-being. Ongoing efforts will refine progress tracking, strengthen partnerships, and enhance professional development to sustain student success. Um the W was review team also indicated in their report that the presentation of data for the report and the ongoing use of data and review of data is especially impressive because they recognize that it's hard to capture data on students attending classes for shorter periods of time than a traditional school year um in smaller settings with students students who have interrupted
096learning um in their history. Um they further asked us permission during the summation of the visit to share the board reports we've been sharing out with you um with other counties because the um the court and community data from the report on October 23rd, 2024, they especially picked out that um other county offices need a way to set up protocols for student metrics um in a way that that we're doing it they feel is much better way to monitor success rather than just using summitative data measures that aren't seen until the end of the year and don't really add up to the type of learning environment that we have. So it was a really exceptional report. I will share the actual report with the board tomorrow via email. Um it's hard, you know, we've been
097saying this tonight that, you know, all of the folks are together like we are truly living out our vision of one SMCE that everybody takes ownership um in their roles for our student programs and that is our curriculum and instruction team, our safe and supportive schools team, obviously our schools team, our um facilities and maintenance team, and um obviously our leadership team who um kind of orchestrates the whole group. But it is um pretty astounding the level of um success we're experiencing right now in feedback on um and I believe a lot of this grounded in our strategic planning process that was led by um associate superintendent Chris Shou and executive director Sarah Notch. Um, and not only that, but across all of our school programs, if you look at that, um, the inclusive preschool
098model taking seven years to come to fruition, this is really about persistence and committed passion to a strong vision. And um, and so it's nice to experience success. We know we have so much work ahead of us yet to do, but the success feels good and um the staff is should feel so proud of how they show up every single day. um they've been through many many changes um over the years but especially since co how do we reemerge from co and bring highquality learning back into our programs and you are seeing um in 2025 5 years later true results and um success breeds success but success is no accident. I think I say that a lot. Um this is intentional, hard, passionate, um persistent work that is really all centered on students in the
099middle. We are focused on students. So congratulations to the team. Um, one last uh I probably am missing some updates um because I just went on I today has been like sort of a rant day for me. So I don't know what's happening with my brain but it's it's got a lot of words. Um, but I did want to mention that we had a um we have a uh we had an experience with board members where community members came forward to board members, community members and students asking for support from the county board on a particular issue. And um we set that aside because we did more digging. we we there's, you know, a lot more to the question, but I think where we need to really go with the county board on um when
100community members come forward or students come forward with um requests for support with a particular idea or project that the board really needs to kind of hammer out a process that they that they just naturally follow. So, um, we don't we haven't really been doing this kind of work. And I think I I would, um, liken that to coming out of COVID and everything has been so different. We just haven't had a practice of community groups coming forward asking for support for things. So I am going to I I did discuss with President Torres and Vice President Gerard about bringing to the board agenda on April 16th uh a suggested protocol that the board would follow in the event that community members reach out for support. What's the first thing that you do with that
101information? how do we expedite it in a in a way that's timely um that gets the board members all the information they need to weigh in? And so um just letting you know that I'm making my own um suggestion here for a future um board agenda item that will you will see coming up on April 16th. Um and again, I'm probably forgetting some things, but um I think that's enough for now. Thank you for your attention. Thank you, Superintendent Mickey. And for item 8A, the draft of the 2025 2026 board meeting calendar is before the board for review. Um, it will be brought back at the next board meeting on April 16th, 2025 for approval. Are there any comments, questions, or suggested edits to the draft of the 2025 2026 board meeting calendar? Trusty Alvaro.
102Thank you. I just have a question. I'm I'm okay with the dates, but we seem to have drifted from our first and third Wednesday of the month uh a couple of months. We're doing the second and fourth Wednesday, and as I said, as long as I know far enough in advance, I'm usually just fine with that. But I just wondered if there was a reason for that. Um I can answer that, uh Trustee Albaro, if that's okay. um those uh meetings are reigned for the Jewish holidays that occur in the fall. So we we do not want to have a a board meeting that falls on a significant Jewish holiday. And so that is the reason for the different dates. Okay, that I mean that's fine. As I said, that answer is October, but I
103also noticed it in April and in um June. Oh, I know why June is. I know why that is. Yeah, June is because of uh we want to give our Yeah. business team the most amount of time they can to get the budget in the shape that they'd like it. Yeah. Okay. The dates, as I said, are fine with me as long as I know far enough in advance. I was just curious why the change. Thank you, Trusty O'Neal. Um, I just had a question regarding the April 24th. Um, I'm finding having a special board budget, LCAP study session, but I've been out of the loop for few years. Is the bud does the governor still come out with a May revised budget? Would it not be better to have our budget study session after
104the May revised versus having it before the May revised or is there a reason why we're doing it in April? I'm okay either way. I'm going to yield to your expertise. I just curious. That's all. Thank you. May I punt that over to Deputy Superintendent Bolta? Yes. Um the impact of the May rebias has not been substantial the last few number of years and the impact to our budget is is minimal. Um so our intent especially going to a new ERP system if we could talk to the board about priorities and process earlier that I think will help us as we're implementing the new system and new budgeting process. Thank you Chesty Ben. Oh, sorry. Um, I did have a suggestion. Um, I say that we have our social dinner in July or August. I
105think it would be beneficial to do our retreat shortly after that. Um, it's definitely before August. Um, before we start the school year, I think it'd be good to just reconvene as a team and just kind of establish where we want to go as a team together. um and then leaving November for the governance workshop. So, what you're suggesting, President Torres, is is adding a retreat date um sometime between the social dinner in July and the and the board meeting in a August 20th, we would have a retreat. Um, yes. And, um, I know it's hard to come up with dates that are going to meet everybody's needs, but, um, we can come up with a a host of possibilities um that we can present to the board in a doodle poll for a retreat.
106And um it could be a like a 4 to 5 hour retreat in the morning on a Saturday or it could be um a late afternoon into evening retreat on a weekday with that would also include um dinner. Um we've done it the board has done it both ways. Um and we can come up with dates for either scenario. Um, and hopefully we could land on a on a date that all board members could attend trust bar. Would that preclude the November 5th one? Um, so I think for for November it says retreat or governance workshop. I I'm suggesting that we keep it for the governance workshop and that we just move the retreat before. Got it. Okay. Thanks, Trusty. Boni. Oh, um I just question about the um social dinner. I've never seen that
107on our calendar before. And I'm just curious, usually if we're going to have um something social, it would be at a conference or something like that. um what does that look like in this meeting context? I think this idea came out of um the dinner that we had in Anaheim. Um and it was just really great to have everyone together and I think especially now that we have a new board members. Uh we I think it's important to to have a setting outside of the regular board agenda meeting. Um and that's also why I I was thinking of doing that before the retreat so that way we are able to just spend more time together um before diving into all the work. Um one one thinking too behind it trustee Benini is um while the
108board dinners will continue to be organized you know at the conferences like CSBA etc. um not every not all the board members are always able to make those um events and so if we had a social dinner you know with a meeting agenda etc um in Sanonteo County where it's local and everybody has it on their calendar it's more likely that all seven board members could attend um and really take full advantage of the opportunity to kind of build some team a team uh build the team up a little bit. Other comments or questions? Are there any comments from the public? Um no comments from the public. Uh there is no action to take on this item. Um, for item 8B, when an ad hoc subcommittee meets or a representative attends a meeting related to
109their given assignment, board members may choose to bring a report to the board at this time. Would any board member like to report out? Trusty Benini. I just want to report out that the gateway subcommittee met on Monday, March 31st. Uh we um received some updates about programming and such at both Gateway and Hillrest. Um and uh we made a request at that meeting that the report come directly to the board. So rather than me recap that report, I would like it to come to the board. Um, and we were able to get also an update on some of the um the design work going on at Gateway and we made a request that the board be a little bit more um included in that process. Um, and without going to further detail, that's the
110the crux of it. Thank you. And Trusty Jared, did you want to add to that? Uh, no. I think that um that that is a good summary and uh I do want to reiterate that we really did want a lot of the information that we received shared with the board um because we felt that it would be very helpful um for the board to know exactly what the plan is and what is going on at the court and community school level. Thank you. Um Trusty Le Thank you. Uh the um advocacy subcommittee met yesterday. Thank you for joining. That was great. Um and just a couple updates. We will be bringing three pieces of legislation for the board to consider at the next meeting. AB1224 having to do with um extending the period of time
111for substitute teachers. AB959 um about admin internship programs that could be run by COE's. and AB927 about increasing the time allowed for Williams review. So, those will be coming forward. I'm really happy to say that those three pieces of uh legislation were endorsed by the California County Superintendent as well as the California County Boards of Education Assoc Association of California County Boards of Education. So, it was great to have that alignment in place and it makes complete sense in the subcommittee's mind to bring those forward and uh we'll be doing that. Also, the uh adequate school task force um has been doing some work and trusty O'Neal, would you like me to just give the notes on? Um we'll be pulling together an interested school district leaders and um to talk about um adequacy, the
112adequacy or inadequacy of school funding. We'd like to add the Sanonteo County School Boards Association leadership to that effort as well. Um, first meeting will be on Monday, March I mean Monday, April 21st at 6 o'clock. Deputy Superintendent Baltimore will cover school funding, get everybody on the same page with what we're talking about because it's like some everybody has sort of a different opinion. Um, and then there'll be a second meeting May 19th. Um and that will be an opportunity to hear from the districts that are impacted LCFF funded districts that um really sort of do the inadequacy. So we're not really comparing districts and saying um the disparity among them. We're really just talking about some districts don't have enough funding. So that's kind of a a focus there. And that meeting is uh
113virtually, right? Uh so the first one's virtual on the 21st. The second one will be held at the San Bruno campus of uh Sanonteo County Office of Education Programs. And then the third um meeting will be um here I believe and uh that will be kind of a working session. So a lot of things coming up on that. You'll hear from it. And then one of the kind of key questions we have is that um Trusty O'Neal had suggested that we go and speak to the district's boards maybe during three minute comments that are particularly in this LCFF group to let them know that we're doing this work and we want their support. So that would include some of the board members here and um I have San Carlos, but trust O'Neal I think will
114be reaching out I think to trustee Gerard and um Trusty Alvaro because Cababrio is a flipper and we're kind of looking at those as well. So that was a long report but um that's it. Thank you. Trusty O'Neal, anything to add? Anything to add? Okay, just checking. Um are there any other board members that would like to report out? Um, are there any comments or questions from the board? I served on the gateway subcommittee and the advocacy one. Um, I just want to say thank you to our chairs for leading that work and just their organization. And then thank you to the county staff that were present that help uh with those conversations. Um, I know we had Tammy Moore, Chris Shou, um, Sarah Notch, Mary Young, um, and I hope I didn't miss anybody.
115I think um thank you to the whole team that was there. Um are there any comments from the public? Uh no comments from the public. Thank you. Um there is no action to take on this item. For item 8C, board members will comment. Trustee Alvaro, you want to start us off? Okay. Thanks. I have a couple things. First of all, welcome officially. Um, thank you to the uh, Gateway and Court School staff that sent us a lovely card. That was just such a warm thing to to see on our desks tonight. So, um, Saturday I will not be joining um, all of the elected leaders in Redwood City because it is the first nonprofit day on the coast and I will be there. And I think that's there's sort of two sides to this, right?
116One is the protest and the other is keeping on with the work. So I will be supporting our nonprofits on the coast. Um I want to give a shout out to the pumpkin bots. Uh it's a Half Bay High School robotics team. It was founded about three years ago because some students said they wanted it and they got some volunteer mentors to help out. Boys and Girls Club is the umbrella organization that lets them operate. They placed sixth out of 37 teams at the Silicon Valley Regional, which is pretty amazing considering they were up against some pretty stiff competition and they got the rising allstar award from the competition. So, they are really doing a great job and I'm very excited for them. And then just lastly, I indulge me for a minute. I sometimes
117you need these things to keep you going. There's a quote by Albert Kimu that I love and I'm going to share it just because of where we are right now. He said, "In the midst of winter, I found there was within me an invincible summer, and that makes me happy. For it says that no matter how hard the world pushes against me within me there's something stronger, something better pushing right back. That's all I have. Thank you, Trusty Alvaro. Trusty Adas. Thank you. Well, first of all, I am just want to say thank you to everyone for being so welcoming to me. uh the support, Jen, Superintendent McGee, and everybody else has been um amazing. Karen, who just left but helped me with a lot of other paperwork and things behind it. Um I really
118appreciate and it just makes me feel how how much uh of a team and support Satell County Office of Education has. So, I'm very excited to be part of it. And again, I I thank everyone for um the welcoming, but also for your vote of confidence in this position. Uh I have two other comments really quick. Um well, actually one more. I just wanted to say that on um March 19, I was absent because I was in Sacramento uh finishing up what is called master plan and developmental services. There's a website you can go and take a look at all the information in there. And I'm mentioning because it's important as we had this presentation today. Many of students who have very extensive needs and special education are served by by our uh department of
119uh developmental services. So what came out of uh April 10, 2024 to March 19, 2025 is um 195 pages document with 167 recommendations of five work groups. And again, as part of the stakeholder committee members, I I feel very honored to be part of that. and it's the reason why I wasn't here on um March 19. I wanted to share that in case anybody's interested, you can ask me more questions later. Thank you. Thank you, Trusty Benini. Thank you. Um I just wanted to um make a couple of uh reports around the Sanonteo County School Boards Association. Um, one is we did have our legislative brunch on April 22nd and um, I wanted to especially thank the staff at the county office. Um, Don was here to help us with everything along with Rich and
120Karen was helping behind the scenes and I'm certain there were probably other people helping as well. Um there was also a large contingent of um county office um uh administrators and and others who attended which was which was great as well as trustees. So thank you. Um we had about uh a little over 50 attendees. Um we had Congressman Licardo um uh Senator Becker, Assembly Member Burman, and Assembly Member Papin. And I think it went really well. So thank you all for everything that went into that. Um, and then just a note for um, uh, for anyone who may be listening um, and also for our our board um, that the Kent Awards, don't forget they're on Friday, May 2nd. I hope you'll save the date and I hope you'll be there. Um, we're in
121the process um, Trusty Gerard is on our um, our committee for the Kent Awards. We've been reviewing and we're in the process of starting to schedule visits and so um, it's ongoing ongoing process. And also I wanted to welcome you areas. It's wonderful to have you here. Very exciting. Thank you Trusty Love. Over to you. Thank you sir. Um just a few things. Uh welcome to Trusty Aras. Very happy you're here. Very honored that you're serving with us. So thank you. Um and want to thank and congratulate Trusty Benini on that excellent um event. It was really well organized and I thought it was effective too. So, I know that was a lot of work behind the scenes. So, thank you for that. And I wanted to thank uh Deputy Superintendent Chavez for the report
122tonight. Really well researched. Appreciate the responsiveness. Awesome. Thank you. Um it's also Earth Month and that's an exciting time. We did have a resolution um concerning that. I was able to attend the 10-year celebration for the environmental solutionary teacher fellowship. It was held last week and um that program has impacted 25,000 students in the county um hundreds of teachers and has won numerous awards. It will be morphing into something different but it was nice to celebrate the 10 years. Also another um big announcement in this area that seeds to solutions um this environmental curriculum for um every grade K through 12 um was submitted I believe on the 31st of March and you can go check it out if you want at seedsolutions.org but there's also a link from the county office website that is
123was an enormous project. Um the legislature gave $6 million to the county office to work on that project with 10 Strands and it wouldn't have happened without the partnership with 10 Strands and Superintendent McGee's um amazing leadership on that. So it's a huge accomplishment. So that's it. Thanks. Thank you Trusty O'Neal. I also want to welcome Trusty Aras. Um I attended the Oceanana senior exhibition. It was the first year I did that and it was really interesting to see some of the topics that um these seniors started working on in their junior year and putting on a 20inut presentation and some of them are stuff the state legislature would never touch. Okay, they're very very hot issues and it was really worthwhile to see the u the kids. I also attended farm day in Half
124Moon Bay which is always really fun to go and be see the agriculture and the farmers and everything in Halfoon Bay. So I also did that. I also did want to mention the concern was brought up that the estimates that the county because of the Medicaid cuts from the federal government, the county budget might be taking a hit somewhere in the neighborhood of $700 million for Medicaid and then about another 130 to 150 because of the vehicle license fee cut or potential that's still to be decided. So, I just wanted to share that. I thought that was horrendous. Thank you. Uh, Vice President Jer, thank you very much. Um, I also was uh at the senior ex exhibitions at Oceanana and I really want to thank Trustee O'Neal for um sending me the information and
125and letting me know about it and letting me um have the opportunity to sign up because it was amazing. Um I clearly had never done it before either. And um I observed two different presentations and one was on protection for children actors and the other was on uh should it be mandatory um should housing be mandatory for everyone? And um they were both very very interesting and I've already got my hand raised to go next year. Um I loved it and I wish I had signed up for more than two but they said if you're just beginning don't do more than two. Um next year I'm going to sign up for more because um I really really enjoyed the day. Um, I also attended the ledge brunch and trusty Benini did an amazing job organizing
126it. Went like clockwork. Very very interesting and um I think we have a lot of work to do um when it comes to education and legislation. Um, I also wanted to mention that um, ACCBE is having a a new board member training on Monday night at 6 o'clock. I believe it's at six o'clock. I bet. Yes, it is. I'm I'm training, so I better be there on time. Um, but this one is on being an ambassador and an advocate for county offices of education and county boards. And we're going to be talking about what is the difference between the two and what you can do for both. So, that will be at six o'clock and the uh Zoom link will be sent out uh later this week. Um, and we're also having another presentation. I
127believe it's on April 24th and that presentation is going to be on board uh procedures, actions and protocol. So, um that should be another very very interesting presentation that ACCBE is um presenting. So, I really want to encourage all of our board members to join us um for those presentations because um I can I can tell you that a lot of work goes into all of them. So, um thank you very much and I love the presentations tonight by the way. very very informative and I thought you did an amazing job on that recap of what's going on uh with education because I mean it makes your head spin trying to figure it all out. So thank you very much. Thank you Benita. I'm glad that you're here and joining us. Um my apologies for
128not joining for not being at the lunchon or the Oya conference. Um I fell ill that morning so I was unable to attend both. Um but I was well rested enough for Wednesday to be at um the state capital um advocating alongside um equality California um for the LGBTQIA plus community. Um specifically um thank you to Assembly Member Mark Burman for um listening to my group and I in regards to AB908 which is the Lyft Act. um which is the LGBTQIA+ um inclusion and fair treatment act in schools. Um especially given the current political climate u making sure that um our students all students are feeling safe and secured at school and that our families um feel safe knowing that their students are um protected where they're supposed to be uh focused on their learning.
129Um, that is all I have for my comments. Oh, I lied. Thank you to the team as always. You all do an incredible job and um just very proud to be in the seat and work alongside all of you and our board members. Um, so that concludes my comments. Um, for item nine, um, we have the adjournment. So, the next regular meeting takes place on Wednesday, April 16th, 2025 at 7 p.m. And this meeting is now adjourned. Night everybody. Good night.