Santa Barbara County Board of Education Meeting November 13, 2025

001Good afternoon. Let's call this meeting to order. This regular meeting of November 13, 2025 here in Santa Barbara. Wanted to note that live simultaneous Spanish interpretation of the board meeting is available for those viewing online. And let us pledge allegiance to the flag. Please join me. Hi. >> Thank you, Anna. Roll call. >> Okay. Mrs. Alvarez Flores >> here. >> Dr. Mr. Armistad >> present. >> Mrs. Cardi >> here. >> Miss >> here. >> Mrs. Frost is absent today. Mrs. Reed >> here. >> Mr. Walker, >> just barely. >> Thank you, Anna. Um, at this time, if there are board members that would like to make comments, please unmute. And starting with >> kind of sort of. Okay. maybe um >> that kind of a day, isn't it? >> Uh I I think I just

002really want to acknowledge I had the privilege and pleasure of touring Oak Valley School with Superintendent Salceto. Um and it was it was good. I mean, you know, I've done some of these over the years, but it's been a while since I've toured a school. And given the work that we do, it, you know, it just is a reminder how important it is to actually see boots on the ground and see kids learning. And I think the note that I sent to Susan was, you know, the the entire campus seemed joyful and engaged. Uh, and in light of what you sort of hear about public education more often, it's just, you know, nobody's doing anything and it's a bunch of drudgery and and I'm always just trying to be objective. It's just watching the the

003kids, everything from special ed to whatever the the deal was, uh, to the partnerships like the Boys and Girls Club on campus. Uh, and I know that not every school is like that, but that tour was particularly good. The leadership was very engaged. It was a pleasure. What or a leader knows a lot of people. So, I mean, that was kind of fun just to walk into a classroom. And in some ways you think the superintendent of county schools could be fairly removed from that like the number of people who some sort of way Susan you've touched. Um it's good and so I look forward to doing more of those tours. And then the other thing is we got a chance to go have a nice conversation uh with some folks at the Schumass tribe

004uh just about >> education and how there might be some potential partnerships and that sort of thing and very uplifting. So >> yeah, a few things to say. First, I love how we're color coordinated for fall here. We didn't we didn't plan that. Um uh so this p past month I had the pleasure of attending three educational and youth related events. Uh the first of course was salute to teachers um the annual ceremony and it's such a great event because it's just um so enriching and it's a joyous celebration that really honors um teachers that are really giving so much to their students. And um this year it was I really took note of the different uh topics and subjects from music to agriculture, science of reading, the importance of cultural inclusion and it was

005just really inspiring to see how every honore brought their passion to the work and how they uplifted their students and their educational community in the process. Um and so and then the second uh event I was able to attend the Fitzgerald Day of the Dead celebration and it was so fun. I got to meet the students, the education probation officers, parrot education, parrot educators and I really felt like I was part of the celebration. Um the students made the altar, they decorated the space, um they made paintings. Um and once uh um one of the staff had mentioned that a student last year had decided to start um this idea. And so I I was really inspired by the fact that this was a student-led staff supported event that not only celebrated the cultural significance

006of the holiday that resonated with the youth but it also brought them the qualitative and quantitative skills in the process. Um and then lastly on um November 8th I attended the community environmental council's use climate workshop um and I participated on a panel of elected official including three uh city council members and then Buton's mayor Daniel Silva and we spoke about what um the effective uh attributes of climate being a climate steward and it was just really inspiring to see all of those those youth there was about 20 25 youth take time out on their Saturday morning and afternoon to spend towards these efforts and um just left me with a sense of responsibility for being, you know, an environmentally responsible advocate. So, >> yes, it was a busy month. >> Nothing anything. >> Um

007I will echo um my colleague Naja Man's sentiments about salute to teachers. Um, I had the pleasure of being on the teacher of the year selection committee this year and just seeing our 2026 Santa Barbara County Teacher of the Year, Natalie Wilks, up there was just really validated we made the right choice. She's exceptional. Um, made me want to go back to second grade or at least have my children go back to second grade so that they could enjoy that little bit of magic there. also want to point up that if you were not in attendance, it is still possible to get a recording of Dr. Susan Salceto's address because it was phenomenal. It was one of your >> greatest home. It was a home run and I really would encourage everyone to check that

008out. Um, secondly, I was on the ACCBE webinar today for the Brown Act and it was really, really good. it really helped broaden my understanding of the ramifications of Brown Act violations and um I think that it's definitely worth pursuing. There is a two-pager that will come out of this that I'll share with my colleagues, but takeaways there's there's two words that should come to mind when you're considering whether or not something falls into a Brown Act violation area and that is transparency and notice. So, those are things that we can bear in mind. We uh we discussed closed sessions and at the end there was a little bit about conflict of interest. All things that um really resonated. So kudos to ACCBE. We may want to reconsider joining that group. >> Okay. Uh do

009we have any public comments today? >> No public. >> Seeing none, it is my pleasure to present um our next uh couple of speakers, the co-founders of Techwell, Dr. Christine Hughes and Kimberly Osborne's a school psychologist. Dr. Hughes just uh was distinguished as the awardwinning position of the year. And I I must say I had the pleasure of meeting these women, these pioneers. Um when our foundation, the Nellie Arlo Foundation brought Jonathan Height through arts and lectures. We had a little premeating and I have been completely wowed by the level of research and diligent advocacy and and policy work that has led to the first passage of the off and away all day bell-to-bell self-free phone policy that Kabell you uh junior high and lalina junior high are now >> um very successfully implementing. So,

010thank you so much for being here. I've really been looking forward to this. Thank you so much. Yeah, we are thrilled to be here. Thank you for that introduction. I'm Kim Osborne, school psychologist. And >> yes, hi, I'm uh Dr. Kristen Hughes and I'm a general pediatrician here in Santa Barbara. Thank you again for having us. >> So, Techwell is um Can you hear me? A grassroots coalition focused on supporting students in establishing healthy relationships with technology. You might have seen some media coverage of us several years back. This is how we got our start. Um Dr. Dr. Hughes and I had talked for years about the horrific outcomes we were seeing in our practices. We saw students who were terribly unwell and spending up to 10 15 hours on their devices. So the link

011was very clear and we would talk about this day after day and say something needs to be done. And then the real catalyst was when our TKers, we each had a child going into the public school system um right out of COVID. Um they're basically in preschool and they were handed an iPad on day one and it was fully loaded with the internet and YouTube and apps and games and they were told keep this with you all day at school take it home it should always be with you you know home to school and here's some ways you can learn on it and at that moment we both went oh we got to do something now and so we worked uh very hard to make some specific changes in policy we formed techwise sb we

012have formerly ch um we have now changed our name to techwell Um, and we continue to work in that area. So, this is Jonathan Height quote saying something went suddenly and horribly wrong for adolescence in the early 2010s. We now know what that something is. It was the wide adoption of smartphones along with some other societal changes that are linked. Um, we see rates of depression, anxiety, and actual suicides absolutely skyrocketing from then until now. At this time, uh, suicide is the second leading cause of death for our young people. So, this is a big problem. This is a crisis. You can see the story in, um, study after study. And it's more than correlation. There's some sophisticated studies in the last several years that very clearly point to this causal link. There's a there

013are many ways that overuse of devices creates anxiety and depression. But in addition to just the missed opportunities and the negative content, there is this very clear causal link from time spent on a device, regardless of content, regardless of what the rest of your life might look like, how enriched it might be, but these direct um links from spending a lot of time on a device to anxiety, spending a lot of time on a device to depression. So we understand these causal links much better. Now this is not just a mental health issue. This is also a crisis of physical health. We have um obesity and diabetes among young people like we've never before seen. We have impacts that go from head to toe when a child is sitting on a device for 10 hours

014a day, which many of them are. That's not an unusual number at this point. That is the norm for many of our adolescence. So this is a public health crisis. In um 2021, the US Surgeon General declared an adolescent mental health crisis. Things haven't gotten better since then. We are still there. This is a societal problem. We call this a collective action problem. We got into this together. We're all in it. The only way out is a our collective action solution. So, there's no way that one family can solve this for their children. There's no way that one school can solve it. There's not even a way for a school district to solve it. It has to be all of those in conjunction with bigger changes. Um we need changes uh at the um district

015level, county level, state level in order to see meaningful improvement in those areas. When we have a collective action solution that involves our youth, the most powerful mechanism we have to um affect change there our school district policies and practices. That's how we reach our youth. They spend six hours a day at school. sometimes more. Dr. Hughes and I saw this as an area that was really ready for some collective action and we advocated heavily for some specific changes. Those are listed here. Delaying onetoone devices, belt belt bands, adjusting how devices are configured so they invite educational use rather than inviting playtime and recreational use. Um, and just reducing the use of harmful unnecessary filler technology. Um, we've seen improvements in all of these areas. There is still w a lot of room for improvement

016in all of them as well. Um, on the right we have our 10 steps to become a tech-wise school. We use these steps to kind of frame our work with school districts and walk through where they are and where the um areas for improvement might be. Another area of collective action that is an obvious need um always in a public health issue is awareness and education. So we see a big need for this to happen with students, educators, parents, and the broader community. For students, a digital citizenship curriculum is absolutely imperative. We have to do this in our schools. We're starting to do it, but it's really a big deal and we need to we need to get that in there. Um for educators, we need more professional developments. Um oh, and I was going

017to say Dr. Hughes will be talking about a digital assistant curriculum that she has worked very hard to create um over the last few years. Um professional development for our educators is an area that we have not done as much work in as we would like to. There's still a lot of room for improvement there. Um parent workshops we do offer and that has been helpful. Um something that's been really important we feel like has been communitywide organizing. We just need to keep the conversation going. We have a screen free annual art contest um open to any child in the community just drawing themselves doing a screen free activity. We have book clubs. We also have a community action group that has over 300 concerned community members who want to stay up to date, want

018to help, want to know what they can sign, what meeting they can go to. And so that's been really um really helpful in getting things done. Our work with um children and parents and families is really rooted in these four tenants that we pulled from the research as the most important areas of um having a healthy relationship with technology and overall wellness. Um we turned it into an acronym to try to be useful and engaging for parents. So we have screenfree spaces, time limits, exercise, being outdoors, and in-person relationships, personal relationships. our work with school districts, the step tenants are still important, but we really like to lean into this edtech triangle. We didn't create it. This is from everychool.org. If you have time later, you might want to check it out. Um, the idea

019is not that technology is bad. Transformative technology is wonderful and we want to lean into that. And so helping schools identify what is transformative, right? We have our coding, web design, some uses of AI. There's all sorts of technology out there that lets you do something you could not otherwise do. Yes, we want that. There's a lot of other technology that falls into these other categories and we want to adjust how much of that we're using because too much technology of any sort can lead to some negative outcomes. So, at the bottom there's disruptive technology and we want to avoid that as much as possible. That's going to be just handing a kid an iPad at at recess and saying, you know, you can be inside just playing on your iPad on this rainy day

020or whatever it is. Here's a when you're done, if you do a good job, you can play this game on your iPad. We want to do less of that. And there's more examples um of of what falls into that category. And much of that is still it's just really the norm and it's what's still happening in schools. Um and Dr. Hughes will talk about our latest and greatest effort to support students, parents, and educators. screen. >> Thank you, Kim, for outlining um the predicament we find ourselves in in our digital um era. And um like she mentioned, she's a a school psychologist and I'm a a pediatrician, a general pediatrician. I work for the county, so I uh serve uh um our most vulnerable youth. And we really came to this out of um our

021concern and our heart for our patients. We did feel like early on we're the canaries in the coal mine because we were having the patients come to us in these private settings and share their challenges and it just felt to us to be quite overwhelming to see so many kids and teens come in crisis um and felt that we needed to do something outside of our clinic walls to be there for our community and try to prevent this um prior to um them coming into uh clinic in crisis. So we are solutionbased individuals. We see a problem but we don't like to stop there. We like to come up with solutions. And so this is one of our efforts at um a solve. And that is um a a little mini curriculum. Um we call

022this the screen savers academy. It was um developed in partnership with the Cottage Children's Medical Center pediatric residency program there with all the pediatricians um and based off of the research like Kim was uh sharing. And the idea here is to keep the message positive and fun and interactive for our students. the conversations around this sometimes can be uh had in a negative way or um in a disciplinary sort of way and we really wanted to steer away from that and um make it a positive sort of experience for the students receiving this these presentations. So um how do I for means go? Okay, we got it. >> All right. So um we have provided all the board members here um with a description. So that yellow insert is a description of our program and

023a copy also of our home guide in both English and Spanish for your reference. Um with this program uh presenters visit fourth grade classrooms um for four interactive 30 minute sessions. Each session has its own theme brought to life through a superhero skit. Um, we have, let's see, um, for screenfree spaces, we have Netflix Nina, who flicks those phones out of the bedrooms. For time limits, we have tick tock Taylor, who will check out those uh, phones and see how much time you're spending on them. >> Or, let's see, engaging um, in offline activities. We have Me Tube Manny who is more focused on his life and what he's doing than what everybody else on YouTube is doing. >> And we have for session four snap p uh for personal relationship Snapchaty Kathy who is

024more into spending time talking with her friends in person than Snapchatting away. So, um, all of these superheroes come with a personality and a lot of fun and energy in these sessions. Um, these, uh, there's also for each session a class discussion. So, they open it up to the class for some interactive sorts of questions and I've been thrilled. I've I've gone through this and watched all these how interactive the kids are. They are eager to talk about this actually. So, that's really fun to see that discussion and I've learned a lot from these fourth graders myself. And then there's a fun inclassroom activity that is um organized by the presenters, facilitated by the presenters. And then at the end, the students get an opportunity to share if they want to about um what they

025came up with during the activity. And that has been a real joy to get to see what they come up with in their own um minds of how they can have better healthy tech habits. So very fun. Um and like I mentioned, there's also the the home guide. So students take home a challenge to try out with their family who can be following along at home in the provided workbook. In our experience, it has been challenging at times to reach parents. the modern parent is extremely busy, doesn't have a lot of time to come to a workshop um in the evening or so forth. But these are home guides that can be done um alongside I know I learned a lot from my kids with the dental buddies. I realized after 43 years I wasn't

026brushing my teeth long enough. So the we can learn a lot from our our students who are getting this type of education in the school bringing it into the home environment and the English and Spanish we're hoping facilitates that for our English as second language learning families. Um and then um um sorry move on to the next one. Um, so our course is grounded in four researchbacked pillars of healthy tech habits presented in a clear step-wise framework as you guys can see referenced on our back page which is referenced each session. So they have a nice step-wise framework for effective teaching. Session one, we've already talked about let's through these quick is screen free spaces like meals and bedrooms. Section two uh covers setting healthy uh screen time limits and section three focuses on enjoying

027offline activities and getting daily exercise ideally outdoors. Session four helps students prioritize in-person relationships. And after the students complete the academyy's four sessions, they receive a certificate and their families provided an opportunity to give feedback through this QR code. um so that we can continue to improve our program every year. And we did pilot this last year at VIA Valley uh with principal St. Peter and it went well. Um and next month we will be doing it at Washington Elementary School. We've already been invited to Roosevelt and Galita. The Galita um school district is also interested in having us at some of their schools in the spring. So, um, we look forward to all of those opportunities and for this great opportunity to share with you a bit about who we are, what we're about,

028and how we might be able to help, um, your schools um, and your students have healthier relationships with their screenbased technology because this is the digital age. But we have to also understand that it has an impact on us all and um handle that um with our eyes wide open and with tools to help empower our students for their future. >> Yeah. >> Do we have any questions or comments for Kim and Kristen? I have a question. Um say a family wants access to this. their school isn't doing it, but can a family get a a hold of it? >> They can certainly have the workbook. Um, as far as the presentations, we do have a training manual that has every single word that will be said in the presentations all written out. So, um,

029in theory, if you had this, you could reproduce this anywhere you like. Um each presentation has uh three members. So it's supposed to be in a a skit and a dialogue and an interactive setting. Um but um the workbook most certainly and yes we can provide these as well so that should you want to set this up like I said in any setting you could and we have parent workshops that could that families could go to as well. It's just hard to get attendance at this because families don't want to like they just are so busy. So, we've had a hard time getting people to show up in the evening even if they're like, "Yeah, I want to film good." Um, so going to where the kids already are has been more. >> This is

030amazing, really groundbreaking work for this double-edged sword of technology that we're all trying to come to terms with. Now, we have obviously identified its role in our lives. Super intrusive. got to manage it. But um the work that you're doing is proactive and it builds consensus and I'm finding pods of parents that are adopting these behaviors and sharing them so kids don't get to say to each other well how come you get to use your and I don't they're just making joint agreements and that was one of the things that Jonathan height said in his talk. He said you have to wait for legislature or big budgets. You can start this work at the grassroots level. Um and that I think was really reflected in the crowd. It was like rockstar status when when he

031came to the Arlington and every single seat was filled including the balcony and lots of very lively conversation afterwards. So thank you very much for presenting. This is really important work and we all have to be um ambassadors for this spread the word. Um yes absolutely. >> Thank you so much. I too want to say thank you so very much. I so enjoyed meeting with you when we did a few couple months ago and talk about a grassroots you know reason for happening and then filling a gap and so really appreciate that and it's just making me think about um partners in education which has a computers for families component and part of the component is parent workshops in order to then receive a computer. Kind of curious about that. Have you had interactions with

032partners in education and computers families yet? >> We have a bit. Yeah. And they they have a really they have their system really figured out and I and I love it. I love that I can sit with a family like as a school psychologist. I know they needed advice because I want their child's dyslexia even though I'd love if there was some other thing they could do. But if this is what we're doing, I can sit down and do their sign them up for an online training and they kind of have it wired. But we we are we would be interested in partnering more if they were interested. Okay, perfect that conversation. >> Yeah, one thing I've appreciated from their work and also in the work that we've done is having an understanding of when

033we give a certain technology to a student, we give that to them in the context of their home environment. >> We have to be mindful of how that is going to interact in their home environment. Is that really going to end up being a tool for learning? And if it is, fantastic. That's what we want. But we also have to the double-edged sword. Be aware that if we do this and the home setting is not set up to facilitate that to being a learning tool, it could backfire on us and end up being a a recreational black hole. >> And so, um, when computers with families works with families, I think they're getting an understanding also of how is this going to impact your family? Is this going to support your student, support your family,

034or is this going to pull your student away from being a participant, active participant in your family life, pull them away from their academics and into these um rabbit holes we find because we are up against some very powerful tools of social media algorithms with YouTube and all of it. These are very powerful uh apps that our students are faced with and we can't be naive to that. So we have to understand when we give it what's the context so we are helpful and not accidentally actually being harmful if that makes sense. >> Thank you. Thank you very much. >> Thank you. >> Um okay our next item >> career technical education our CTE program. I'm I'm equally excited to um introduce the director of career tech ed Sarah Cameron. Oh, yes. >> Hello. Thank

035you so much for for having me today. Um, we're excited to provide an overview of our CTE department, an update on all the things that we've been up to. Um, I have with me today our team, our entire team is here today. Um, and I would like to introduce them. Um and on the screen, oh little hard to see, but on the screen, um we do have five members of our team, two who are new since the last time I presented here, which is exciting. So we are growing. Uh so first like to introduce Christine Petroni, who is our CT pathway coordinator and K12 pathway coordinator. Uh Ver Owen, who is our senior administrative assistant. And new to the team last year is Sean, Dr. Michan O'Brien, our CT coordinator, and then as of about

036three months ago, we have Janette Hatfield, our workbased learning coordinator. So, very excited that they're all here with us today. Um, I'd also like to share my appreciation for um Bridget Bobz who helps support and provide guidance to our team and then also Dr. Salceto for all of the amazing connections that you've help helped us make in the community and opportunities you've provided for us. So, just a a huge thank you. Um, today I'll be sharing about how our CTE department is focused on supporting our districts in creating and refining pathways, career pathways to help meet local industry demands. Our role is to stand alongside districts and provide programming and support as they create highquality, engaging, and relevant career pathways. All right. In the past, um, high school students often had to choose, uh, between

037a vocational pathway and a collegebound path. Not so anymore. Uh, today we're focusing on both, allowing students to explore career experiences while keeping clear pathways open to post-secary education that's aligned to their career goals. The pathways might lead to a certificate program, an apprenticeship, um, associates degree, bachelor's degree, and so on. High school CTE is for all students, providing a strong foundation and the flexibility to pursue education and career that best fits their career aspirations. So today we're going to talk a little bit about how we support the uh CTE lead from each of our districts, a little bit about a grant, the grant funding that we do, which is large part of our work. Um CTE educator tours and externships we provide, um apprenticeship and that we that we run from our department, our

038collaboration with our local community colleges, and then some countywide work that we're doing. So when I say we, it is this team that is doing this work. So I'm I'm not necessarily calling out each of them for each part that they're doing, but it is this team that makes all of this happen. >> So starting off with our district CTE lead support. Um here we have a snapshot um of the types of support um that we provide. And there's monthly collaboration meetings that we have. We do a monthly newsletter. Uh we support their CTE pathway development es development efforts. Um provide labor market information for them. Um and I would like to have a little side note here that we know in regards to labor market data. Um there's rapid changes in in AI um

039automation social media fan art. Um finally um presentation you did there. emerging technologies, emerging technologies, many careers have not been determined yet. Um, we know there's a lot of changes happening and so it's critical that our districts are aware of that and are making sure that they're moving, you know, towards whatever is is coming next. And last, we support our districts um with grant effort, grant funding. So, we're going to start with that. And there are seven main grants we run from our department or we coordinate or we manage from our department. And I'm going to talk a little bit about the first four. So starting off with our CTE incentive grant. This funding supports our juvenile court and community schools. Uh within our juvenile port and community schools, we have a manufacturing CTE pathway

040as well as multi-industry career exploration modules both at the juvenile hall at doportas and at Fitzgerald. Uh CTE funding also in career counselor and related programming that they provide for students in these in these. And this is an annual um uh grant that we applied for. And next up, we have our K12 strong workforce grant. And this is an annual competitive grant where we have eight to 10 districts that will join us in a consortium application. Um their goal is to enhance or build CTE pathways that lead to careers in local high demand living wage industry sectors. Uh current efforts we have um you can see the districts listed there who are participating. Current efforts in the industries include agriculture, healthcare, education, advanced manufacturing, engineering, and building and construction. So those have come they've risen

041to the top as the highest needs in the area for pathways um that currently exist or wanted they wanted to ex have exist um in our districts. And our third one here is our K16 regional collaborative grant. And this is a first of its kind sixcount effort to align career pathways from K12 through uh community college and four-year university. And so it's I know it's very small on the screen, but what we have here is a draft pathway map for our advanced manufacturing one. And this one is specifically for Pioneer Valley High School in Santa Maria Joint Union High School District. And on these pathway maps that are still in draft form, we are going to make sure they include target careers, work-based learning experiences for students, industry partners that are engaged in this work,

042you can see some in the bottom right corner there. Um, and then embedded student supports uh to help ensure that underrepresented students can access and su successfully complete these packets. And for the last one that we're going to talk about today is um we're excited to share about our recently awarded multi-million dollar initiative space Vandenberg um which will in part help expose our students to aerospace careers early on through engaging and interactive aerospace related STEM and virtuality virtual reality experiences um with the hope of creating a seamless aerospace career pipeline for the students who are interested in that. Um in addition to our participating districts which you see on the screen there um we also have partners with we have with we have partnered with REACH which is the regional economic action coalition that's leading

043this effort um and then Vandenberg space for space Alan Hancock and then our uh local four-year universities. All right and on to programming we offer from our department. Uh first one is our CT educator tours and then we'll talk about our teacher externships. For our educator tours, um these tours started three years ago uh with a goal to provide an opportunity for CTE teachers to connect with local businesses to better understand current workplace practices, employer needs, and desired technical and professional skills that make a successful employee in their industry. Teachers can then take this information back to their classrooms and incorporate new learning with their students. The tours are coordinated in North County, which are the ones you see on the screen, with the Santa Maria Valley Chamber of Commerce, and we have the list

044of businesses up there that we partnered with for our teacher with partnered with for these tours last year. And then moving to our south county educa teacher or educator tours. Um we've now fully expanded this opportunity into South County. The first year it was only in North County. Um, we've also extended participation in these tours to high school counselors, um, school and district administrators who oversee or influence CTE programming, and our community college faculty that teach in the same, um, CTE pathways that our high school teachers are teaching in, so they can interact more often. Over 125 educators have been impacted by these tours so far, and we've partnered with over 75 businesses Another program we offer from our department is the CTE teacher extership program which gives high school teachers uh the chance to

045spend several days during the summer immersed in a local business that aligns to whatever pathway courses they might be teaching. Um this hands-on experience helps teachers enrich their classroom instruction and deepen alignment in line with local workforce needs. Uh there is dedicated time built in for teachers to reflect on what they've learned and plan how to bring those insights back to their classrooms to positively impact student learning. All right, on to our apprenticeship. So we just kicked off year three of our early childhood educator apprenticeship. Um this has been a collaborative effort with our SVCEO early care and education department. Um, we're excited to see apprentices completing the program. Just had a celebration in last night for another one. Um, and the positive response from our early care and education department has been pretty significant.

046Really helping to fill the workforce needs that are there. Um, and allowing these um, apprentices to start working from day one when they begin taking their college courses. >> We offer four apprenticeships. So, we're actually running four apprentichip programs. Uh we offer four stackable apprenticeships that can also lead to an AA degree um for interested participants who want to either um earn their AA degree um take leadership positions within the preschool programs or use this as a stepping stone to a P3 credential. We also have created this brochure that is information about all of the local apprenticeships. Um most of them are in the trades um sheet metal and electricians. Um and we also have the very last one with the big arrow on it is our early childhood education apprenticeship and as we as

047more apprenticeships are built in the area. Um we will continue to add on to this brochure. So this is a a work in progress that will continue to evolve as more apprenticeships are available. These are um hot off the press and are being delivered to all of our high schools um as we speak. So they should be arriving there shortly for all of their um 11th and 12th grade students as the primary audience as these would be apprenticeships they would enter after high school. and we uh work closely um with a collaboration with Santa Barbara City College and Ellen Hancock College. What you see on the right is a flyer that we create for a resource that we create for all high schools. Um each high school has their own interests for students is on

048the left. The middle part is the high school pathways that are offered at their high school and on the far right are all of the related pathways at their local community college. And so the example on the screen is Carperia. So obviously that would align with Santa Barbara City Colleges pathways. And so each high school has um a different one based on what they offer. We also work with our community colleges in supporting dual enrollment. And so the um we sit in monthly I say we sit in monthly meetings um and provide a resource um and an some expertise as the high schools are building their dual enrollment offerings. Um for an example right now Pioneer Valley High School offers 18 Allen Hancock classes. Um and San Marcos High School offers 25 Allen or 25

049Santa Barbara City College classes. And that's similar across the board with our high schools in our county and they just keep increasing. This continues to grow. Um and last we support uh career exploration related events, job fairs, um and any programming that we can be of support for. And I will wrap up with our countywide career pathway to industry work. So, this work um under the the um name of work SBC uh is a is an effort to help local students and job seekers become aware of and prepared for high demand high wage careers in our community. And this work is being done with lots of partners. uh we are one of many and we know it's going to take all right we there's a lot of amazing individual efforts happening across the county to

050prepare workforce um but we really wanted to come together to create a countywide plan so we're doing this in the three-phase approach phase one happened last year with whole bunch of interviews that happened across the county um and then a subsequent report that was created last spring and we're kicking off phase two of this work um next month, November 2nd, um bringing together um cross- sector group um to of educators, industry leaders, workforce agencies, wraparound services um to help close the awareness gap between education and industry and work to align the systems. um the strategic uh strategic there there will be a strategic plan that will be developed through this work which will lead to our phase three and our phase three will be the development of a digital platform that can bring everyone together

051and house all of the important work um so there's more awareness and um clarity for students and job seekers as they're navigating their career path and finding their their career passion. And with that, thank you for listening. Any question? >> Wow. I have a question, Sarah. >> Yes. >> The program you said is at Pioneer High School, the one that's going to start >> collaborate with Pioneer. >> Oh, yes. The um are you talking about the K16 collaborative advanced manufacturing >> pathway? But that has nothing to do with the tech campus. That's >> it actually part of the district. >> It does. It actually does. So each of the districts that are participating in the K16 collaborative advanced manufacturing pathway effort >> we're there each um school in that district that's participating will have a

052separate map. >> So the CTE center will have a different map where that one said Pioneer Valley the CTE center will say this the Mark Richardson Center and then it would go on to Alan Hancock College and then Okay. Thank you. >> Yes. Absolutely. >> Wow. a lot of pieces. Thank you. >> Fantastic, Sarah. Thank you. I'm especially um proud of the work that Partners in Education is doing as a as a board member in um aligning some of the internship experiences with those key target industry sectors that you mentioned. >> And this is such a an excellent path for many of our students. It does. >> I want to go back and review. >> Yes. And partners in education is part of our countywide effort as well. Um, sorry I failed to mention that,

053but yes, they're a big part of this work, too. >> Wow. >> Wondering is there a long range future goal? So, this is good going in the pipeline. We hope that by 2035, >> 2030, >> 2026, >> for sure. And I and I feel like the countywide pathway effort is kind of going to be it's going to be the anchor, >> okay, >> of that. >> Uh because we're bringing all of the workforce entities, educational entities that would really work together to help forge that path. >> Um this um digital platform would be intended to be um flexible and so as industry needs change that would change with the time. Um and then hopefully um this is kind of a long-standing place for education and industry to collaborate. >> Part of that phase three work

054would be for each industry and related education partners to come up with a plan for ongoing collaboration knowing that that's really important to have those uh communication lines. >> Well, yeah, I like that talk about collaboration a lot. Is this thrust coming from the county or is it in response to more of a demand from the local district? >> All the above. And I would add regional and state in there as well. There's a lot of state efforts happening in CTE which our grant funding comes from multiple multiple departments at the state level. Um, so they're also working to kind of align systems as we are on this end also trying to to receive this grant funding and also align systems. So I think it's the district demand, it's our, you know, us being able

055to see kind of both the state and the district lenses and then trying to make sense of that as we're providing programming. >> Thank you. >> You're busy. >> Yes. >> Thank you so much. I I really enjoy hearing about the career technical education work. Um and I I love that it is a alternative type of education that a lot of our students really um gravitate to. So thank you again and you guys are doing a lot of work in a lot of different areas. Um I wanted to ask about any kind of like environmental framework that you have for any of the industry sectors. Is there just is there a thought about that and and moving forward into like green energy or renewable and just if you could speak on that? >> Yes, absolutely.

056So there's um there's efforts actually from the state that are coming in that area where the grants that we apply for we are we are required to stick within specific industry sectors in our application. um we are starting to see uh more of the environmental green um green economy focus uh because the way the CTE standards are written there isn't a necessarily a green economy or an environmental strand or pathway but similar to um information technology and computer science it's it covers all pathways right so this the idea of the green um and the importance of climate and all of that crosses all sectors And so I think we're going to start to see um more of the more of an intentional application of the of that within our pathways. >> Just wanted to thank

057you for that. Just one followup. Are you finding that you're you have partners that are able to help you leverage that new focus that's coming down from the state? >> That's a good question. I don't have an answer now. I'd say we have a lot of partners that do have a focus on environmental stewardship. >> Um, and they would be great, you know, great collaborators in the work. Um, but as far as actually an intentional effort in that specific area right now with our partners, no. Um, but we do have tours, future tours that do have a kind of an umbrella focus on that. So, but we'll get there. >> We'll get there. just to say uh first of all, thank you so much for the presentation and for the whole team for being here

058um and for the board to have this opportunity for on your agenda. Um I wanted to say just punctuate the fact that you know Sarah and the team have such an eye on statewide information and what's coming around the corner nationally but statewide lots of advocacy for within the county and region. um you can see all the complexity of the work but they they did a great job in in in not simplifying it but but summarizing it you know succinctly for us. I will say that none of this could happen without the relationships that they build >> within the school districts and across the universities and colleges. Everywhere I go, everywhere I go, people will say, "I want you to know the great work your CTE team is doing." >> I mean, it's on and

059on. It's Alan Hancock College, SBCC, it's the school districts. None of this would even really work for our students if there weren't trusted relationships between the districts and our CTE department. So, huge kudos to Sarah and the entire team for making it not just about dollars and grants and programs and let's see what we can do and organize it, but truly around relationships um making a difference for students. So, I I just want to say thank you for that. Thank you. Appreciate that. Thank you. >> Thanks again, Sarah. Okay, this brings us to our consent agenda with the usual suspects. We have the meeting minutes uh from October 9th, registration of credentials, acceptance of donations, declaration of surpluses, and um and then we have the issuance of the high school graduation diploma. That really always

060so moving and inspirational essay comes with it. Do I have a motion to approve consent agenda? I'll >> move. I'll second. >> Thank you, Vita. All in favor? I >> n vote carries. Um our next item is a recommendation to authorize um an Omnia partners contract, which basically gives us the ability to bid. Do we need some further color on that? Um, is let me ask if anyone has any questions. >> I'd like a little bit of a kind of backstory or background to to this if possible. >> Thank you, Steve. >> Yeah, absolutely. So, um, just a background on Omnia itself. Um, they have like over a thousand, probably well over a thousand um, competitively solicited and publicly awarded contracts that public agencies can access. So we can analyze and compare those contracts to

061identify a service um that we can utilize um still bring to the board for formal approval but we don't have to go through the formal bidding process. So in this particular instance um we had uh multiple programs ECE special ed um you utilizing um a Walmart credit card. So Walmart no longer partners with that bank for the credit card so it's being cancelled. Um, so essentially what this particular contract allows us to do is to um partner directly with Walmart. It's essentially a line of credit. We still have cards, so it operates in the same capacity, but it's only an option available to public agencies. So this is our alternative to the credit card program. Um, ends up working out probably better for us in the long run. Um, but this is an example of

062a contract from AMLA that we have access to that's already been um, bid and awarded. Steve, is this like for group purchases? >> So, we're able to leverage, you know, without entities um assigning these in advance. Yes. It's understood that different agencies will collaborate on these once they're made available. So, it is leveraging large group purchasing. >> Thank you. >> Sounds like an efficiency for county ad. >> Get a better deal. >> Great. >> Do I have a motion to approve? I move to approve. Thank you. >> I'll second. >> Thank you. >> All in favor? >> I. Any opposed? >> And that motion carries unanimously. Um then we have a recommended adoption of an emergency resolution. This is an award of contract without bidding or advertisement because it's an emergency. This is going back

063to the road repair and Cathedral Oaks. Um superintendent is recommending the adoption of this resolution. Are there any questions on it? Any need for further edification? No. >> I move to approve. Thank you. Catcha second. >> And then we have a roll call vote. >> Mrs. Alvarez Flores. >> I. >> Dr. Armistad. >> I. >> Mrs. Cardi. >> I. >> Miss. >> I. >> Mrs. Reed. >> I. >> Mr. Walker. >> Hi. >> Thank you. Motion passes. Thank you. >> I'm I'm comfortable with supporting it. I guess part of it though just when I read through it does this have to do uh award of contract without bidding in advertise. Um is there dollar figure? Is there >> Yeah, >> good question. Uh yeah, so we're not able to engage in a contract prior to

064your approval, but we do um go ahead and solicit uh different quotes. So um there's one quote that came in around 55 to 60,000. Another came in significantly above that. Um it appears that that $55 to $60,000 range is what we would be looking at when we finalize the contract. >> Okay, good. Thanks, sir. >> Good question, man. Anything else for Steve? >> Yeah. Yeah. >> If um if there is a change in the the price, does that come back to us or is this this done? Like if >> this is approval for the contract, but we definitely will report out the contract amount um and any other details that you have questions about. >> Thank you. Because it's an emergency. >> Yes. >> Great. Okay, on to board policies. Um, I think we're going

065to have Mari come up and talk to us about some brand new to us board policies um that we just had a a look at in our recent board policies. >> How exciting. >> Okay, so we have seven new board policies. I have to wear my glasses. I apologize. I'm going to do this and see if I can see you at the same time. Um, we're going to begin just go through them one at a time. I'll give you a brief overview of each and the reason that that is being brought to you today as well. So, the first one is stability. It's a beautiful concept. It's in the community relations series. Um, you'll hear about one other policy as well that is coming to you for this reason. Uh, the civility policy is noted

066in the annual notifications to parents. So that's the reason that we are bringing it forward today. And in summary, brief summary, it promotes a safe and respectful climate by requiring and defining civil courteous interactions among staff, students, parents, and communities. So this includes board meetings as well. It prohibits behavior that is disruptive, harassing or intimidating toward others that interferes with SBCEO operations. So that is the big picture gist. Any questions on that one before I move forward? >> And if I don't if I'm a parent and I don't want to be civil, >> what happens? >> But what happens? Um uh I'm assuming there might be consequences. It sort of depends on the circumstances specifically, but it's the point is to try to establish some standards of reasonable civil behavior. >> Yeah. I mean, I

067love the fact that that you know, you put it out there. Here's the expectation, but sometimes expectations without consequences. >> Yeah. >> Thank you for asking that question. And um as Mari was sharing, it's part of the packet where students for juvenile court community schools will receive a bunch of information and I think um one if they were to sign sign that they have signed this um later we can talk about this. You know what we talked about this let's talk about what what's different for you. You know what what can we support how can we support you? So there that that could be one way. Another way is as they're reading through this within their packet and they look at this and they say, you know, I don't want to sign on to this.

068I this is not then I think it's another opportunity for engaging in a conversation. What what about this is something that you object to. What could we work on? I I think we all look at this and say seems a very fair um approach to civility. So I think it's I think that would be more than a consequence. I think it would be more of an opportunity for conversation and engagement. um similar to something happens in a in a board meeting. You know, a consequence might be to pause the board meeting or to things like that. So, I think it just really does establish a a a baseline. This is what we're agreeing to and understanding. Yeah. >> And that articulates norms for parents in the same way that classroom norms have to be established

069and bought into by students. Kind of like the bell weather policy that we all need. >> Okay. Next is campus security. This is board policy 3515 and it falls in the business and non-instructional operations series. This is brought forward because we've had a team of individuals working on video surveillance in specified areas of our campuses. Um and this is one of those policies that supports that work. It establishes clear direction for maintaining safe campuses and protecting students, staff and property. And it authorizes the use of video surveillance with privacy safeguards and it requires prompts um prompt reporting of threats including digital threats. So it also covers some breaches and cyber security those types of things. Okay. Also in the business and non-instructional operations series, we have board policy 3580 SBCEO records. This as well came

070from our video surveillance team of work. Anytime you have video surveillance, it automatically becomes a record whether it's a student record or a personnel record. So this policy provides standards for maintaining, protecting and disposing of SBCO records including electronic data and it also emphasizes cyber security staff training confidentiality and notification in the case of data breaches. Okay. So the next four policies are from the student series. The first one, board policy 5131, conduct, um, sort of aligned with what we were just hearing about from Techwell. This policy is in response to Assembly Bill 3216, which passed in 2024, and it requires schools to address student cell phone use and conduct through policy by July 1 of 2026. But that's why that's coming to you today. It reinforces expectations of safe and respectful student behavior that

071supports learning. And it outlines disciplinary measures for behavior that disrupts school operations or endangers others. The second policy required as the result under the passage of AB 3216 is board policy 5131.8 mobile communication devices. This one establishes rules for when and how students may use smartphones or other mobile devices on campus. You okay? It allows exceptions of course for emergencies, uh, medical needs, educational use, IEPs, those sorts of things. And it also references privacy, device searches, and device confiscation. Any questions on that one? The next policy is the board policy 5145.13 response to immigration enforcement. And this one of course is in response to um the activity that we've been seeing throughout the state throughout the nation. It's aligned with the attorney general's 2024 guidance and model policies. Our expectation is that by December 1st

072of this year, we will have updated policy guidance from the attorney general. So, we will be bringing that back to you again as needed with any additional changes. This policy affirms that all students are entitled to a safe, welcoming, and free public education regardless of immigration status, citizenship, or religious beliefs. And it prohibits collecting or sharing information, immigration information, and outlines procedures for staff when responding to related law enforcement requests for either access or information. Questions on that one? Okay. The last of the group of seven new policies is the board policy 5146 married pregnant and parenting students. I mentioned at the beginning there were two policies related to the annual notification. This is the second one. So this is referenced in that notification to parents. It ensures equal educational access and support for pregnant

073and parenting students. provides them with excused absences, parental leave, child care, health services, and reasonable accommodations such as lactation supports, etc. All right, any questions on those seven wonderful new boards? I I sort of have a question on number six, but I'm not sure what my question is. And it's uh so again I mean I read it and I see it as a safeguarding students um from unreasonable. But you approaches by ICE. For example, if if someone in our system knows that this student is here illegally, uh a little bit like if I know a child is being abused, I'm required to report. If I know that this child is here illegally, is there some sort of requirement on the part of that professional to or that adult to say something to somebody? >> No,

074it's actually the opposite. It's a requirement not to say anything. Um because that student has a right to a free public education. >> Okay. >> So, you're really protecting that right over anything else. >> Okay. Mhm. Good question. >> It was a That was a great question. >> If there are no other questions, then we'll need a motion to adopt those seven new policies. >> So move. >> Thank you, guys. >> Second. >> Thank you, Sarah. All in favor? >> I. >> Any opposed? Okay, that motion carries. Now, this next one we get to discuss. we're not going to act on it, but this was an item that came before us in the board policy committee. And on the heels of a pretty lively season of interd district transfer field hearings, um we thought it

075was just um a more salient point that we'd like to open up for discussion a little bit. Um so in your word book 119, you can see a a cleaned up version Mhm. >> Um I guess the question is do we want more clarity and with that comes a more restrictive approach or less clarity and more open for interpretation based on our experience. I just love to hear your comments feedback. I'm happy to take the first crack of it and dive in. Uh first of all, I have a appreciation for like the complexity of when these appeals show up and like maybe some others. I have served on local school district and I've dealt with inner district transfers and it's very different, right? because you really don't see the the parents and that whole thing.

076And the thing comes to the superintendent. Superintendent shows up at the board. It's like, "Here's my recommendation." The board's like, "Sure." uh the the human element of this thing that when these folks come in here and I think what I've seen this board struggle with is it it feels like all of us are listening really hard to figure out a way essentially to give the parents what they want for lack of a full description. uh but based on kind of what the policy is and how we're supposed to do and I don't know if I have so much of an argument against how the policy is because it somewhat makes sense. It's like well does the district have a policy? Are they consistent and following their policy? Uh the rest of the story starts sliding

077away and there's that. the the thing that I have the most difficulty with is even if we're bound by that stuff, it just feels like there's a piece missing. So once we say no, we're not going to over pass up a box of clinics, everybody's bullets out and everybody's emotional about the thing and it doesn't feel like uh whatever that next step is. I don't know if that's us or if it's a local district that should be holding that family by the hand and going, "We're going to walk you through this and get you and your family through this." And may maybe that's happening. I I don't see that part. And you know, I can certainly hear that's not our role, our responsibility. It just as somebody who's involved in education, as a community person,

078as a parent, uh it does feel like that piece is missing. And I don't know if there's a way for us to either one last piece. I do think like when I listen to the districts, I think what district this is is orchid like that to me I feel like I want to say some of those people and say you cannot be giving a notice in August. Uh, and again, I sort of recognize that may not be our purview to do that, but it's probably the one that it looks like this board feels like I almost want to like overrule you because you're waiting till August to tell these things. There's not enough time. >> That's just I don't have a recommendation. I'm just It feels incomplete to me. I think that's those are really

079valid points and I think one of the things that we discussed was keeping that human element in there >> so that this body does not just become a rubber stamp a bureaucratic >> you know cog um and that there are extenduating circumstances and that districts may not see them in the same light. we still want to have the ability to act on behalf of the family where we see fit. So the struggle is real. We don't know what extenduating circumstances necessarily mean and every case seems to be >> a little different. But I think there are also parallels and many of them come back to >> this just you know works for our family. >> This just makes it easier for our family. the dynamics, the travel, the convenience, my work schedule, the after school,

080whatever it is. And you know, I I will speak for myself. It feels so it feels, you know, sometimes very negligent to just say, "Yeah, sorry." >> You know, >> but we need so that's why we need a little teeth in the policy to say here, and we do reflect that. I think you do that. Um pretty clearly here's what we're able to do. you know, here are the the parameters for our decision- making. Um, one of the things we talked about at our meeting was we could add a little bit more detail to the letter that accompanies the package for parents so that parents do know um what what their rights and abilities are and their you know um kind of >> well also understands what our role is to make sure because I

081think they did pull on our emotions. Yeah. we still didn't change our decision. >> Um so where I was frustrated was thinking that did they do they really understand our role is yeah that sounds really sad we're going to change it or it's like you're just really making sure policy was followed and I don't know if they really understand that or not. >> I mean I would deploy to Dr. Lee Simmons who really walks families through and and in doing so many of them say yes it's not going to be worth my while >> but the ones that do >> I guess I wasn't that I didn't think they were told >> they might not register it >> yes >> I think it's also was a particular time where especially with with orchid that five

082years I think in the past they like someone even had older children that it wasn't a problem. So, I think that they were thinking, "Oh, yeah, it's a slam dunk." And so, when it was denied, especially so late, >> that's I mean, imagine you're used to turning in your appeal and it usually happens. It's not a problem and all of a sudden it's a problem and you know, it's just of the time and so we got the brunt of it and they got the brunt of it. And I think that's why I think that's why we talked about doing a cleaner cut on it. Um, and and including something like I had said at one point, you know, like some sort of checkbox or something where the parent has to initial that they they've seen

083this and they've reviewed it because I do agree. As a parent, I choose so much based off the convenience for my kids. So, I can totally hear that in all of their statements. But I agree with Guy. You know, we're listening what's going to happen. The August thing was tough, but I felt the August thing was just a fall through on this situation that it wasn't an ongoing issue. >> But I think the cleaned up copy I think addresses all of those things. >> Go ahead. Uh I um I don't really have a succinct answer, but just as we're talking about this topic, two of the things two items come to mind. one we've we've talked about a little bit already is the idea of the messaging and the idea of the time and I

084and I'm it's not I'm not saying like anyone did anything wrong or it's anyone's fault but like how can that experience be improved for the parent because I know sometimes if you know I'm you know in the past bless you if I've missed something I was like oh well that says it right and that's our policy. Like it doesn't feel good to know especially when you you feel like you are doing your due diligence as a parent and life is busy. We know that there's so many things going on. So that's um you know getting clear on what is there is there anything that can be done around there that and one of the things that I'm also seeing is that um this is part of a larger housing crunch >> and at what point

085does an equity issue to access to good education because people who have a lower netw worth household can't be in a certain school district and I see with the amount of of uh inner district transfers that we've received and it it continues to increase and increase I know that we as this board we don't really have power over that but I think it would be remiss of us if we didn't think about that and how that is affecting um the cases that come to us and if there's anything that we that we can um put in the policy that is just cognizant of that >> just so that we're going to have this discussion and then this is at some point then come back as >> yeah so one of the things I think because

086I don't know what all 20 districts this policy, >> but I'mma pick on Oregon. And I think one thing we could do is we could say one of the grounds for returning uh a decision could be uh we expect districts to notify parents by some much earlier date like July 15th. They could still set it at August 1st. They can do what they want to do. But I think like if we change by say one of the grounds for changing it may behoo the district to set an earlier date than what they currently have. >> Uh the thing that N just said about the housing you know again I think this is a great ongoing conversation. Uh I think having gone through all these hearings like for me it's like wow what what are we

087doing in terms of why are these districts uh denying these families because they don't have to pass it why don't they have to pass it because they can't pass bond why can't they pass B you know it's like it really is about a lot more than just this one family type situation can't get in a district transfer I think our awareness of that and how we advocate in the community for a range of things including and I think we're not just you know the capacity issue in many respects uh because in many cases that's what we heard it's like no wonderful family we'd love to keep this down we don't have a space well there's a rabbit hole in it why don't you have space can't pass by can't you pass by Um, but on

088the on that date thing, I think we could impact that. I think that's something we could just easily put in our policy. We expect districts to notify families earlier. >> I had a clarification question because the first time I had to sit and decide that, I wondered why it came to the county. How how did that piece happen? >> The appeal. How did we become the chopping off the >> Oh, the final >> the final word. I And I I had that in my head constantly like why are we here doing this when we really can't do anything except tell them that their district that's it. We have to agree with the district >> and that's all we can do for each time something like that happens at a district. >> So who gave us

089that authority? How did we get that? >> And do we have the authority to even recommend a change? >> I I don't know that. >> I that's why I'm sitting here saying, "Okay, we're going to talk about it and then all of a sudden somebody's going to tell me >> it doesn't matter. talked about it, but you're still just going to chop off their head. Who's telling me that I'm only going to chop off their head? I mean, how did that happen? >> Um, it is one of the duties of of this office. >> How did it become that? You know, >> so that parents have another place to go when their district I >> them it's not right. I mean, all we can do is say you we just have to agree with the

090district >> and that's it. >> Do we have right to change it? >> That's it. So, okay. Going back a little bit um and I I wanted just to support the presentation >> is that um there are certain appeals that are heard. Thank you so much. >> Thank you so much. >> Um that are heard by the county board and county board alone. So, in our district transfer appeals, charter appeals, >> and expulsion appeals. So those are the three appeals that you would hear and be basically a final decision on. Um so that's and it's part of I think it's an ED code that it says it. Yeah. So it's education code that made it happen. Yeah. Yeah. But on on your um clean copy >> um where it talks in if you're following on

091page three >> it talks about the final decision of the county board >> and what you are talking about VA I believe what you're talking about it says that um the your board policy is proposing to state that the board does not conduct the appeal denovo right and that you're examining the record >> and you're ascertaining whether the district policies was were adhered to and consistently applied and the district's decisions supported by evidence. So that's what you're saying is like why hear it if that's all there is, right? Your board policy actually or our board policy goes into further. It says but you can also say that this appeal presents what we call an extraordinary situation. So, so that's where I think where it becomes the black and white part, the more definitive part is

092what is the board's policy? Did they follow their policy? Excuse me, the district's policy and did they follow it? You know, where's the evidence that you can feel like we got that? It's this other part that's the extraordinary situation that I think becomes a question of to what degree does the board want to define what's extraordinary and it is very very challenging to nail down what does it mean to be extraordinary. So here in your board policy you we lifted from our previous board policy some of the things that we might consider and so it left lays it out here. So, I will say that in looking at the county board's history of reversed decisions and Anna helped to look back and um I'll look I I will I know that there were a couple

093re more recently >> um and they have been reversed decisions. A recent one was on the south coast the district and family came to present to the board. The family had an extraordinary and new help situation for the student that was brought forward that the board decided to listen to. The district was there to listen to and for matters related to health and safety because of this new medical uh situation plus other matters. For example, the student was going to graduate from that district the next year. you know very so for several reasons rather the the district didn't not follow their policy they did but there was an extraordinary situation so that's an example um I will remember the second example in just a moment >> but it wasn't medical but it had to do

094with >> it was right >> she went to NYU >> thank you thank you yes so it was a circle >> yeah the second one was that the family res had resided within the district's residential area for a whole host of reasons. The family's a single mother is a single parent and lots of different reasons. Work the the primary caregiver, the mother moved to a different district's residence. >> Wasn't she evicted? It was like a rent eviction. >> I believe that could have been. You're right, MBA, >> President Cardi. And so, so it was it was an extraordinary circumstance. It was a real challenging circumstance and um I think there was the eviction. The district was saying you're a wonderful family. I wish we could keep you. It's not in the district's rule to once

095you're out, you know. So, they had followed their procedure. And the board listened to the reasoning, the the eviction notice, the housing, um you know, a single parent in this case, and the board reversed that decision. That was those were the two most recent in the last I'd say five five years or so. >> Um yeah. So th that because your board policy has this extraordinary circumstance provision that's right >> how you were able to overturn it. If it didn't and only said it was about policy and following the policy then you would be looking to see did they follow their policy. You you know you followed your policy you know back then. So yeah, so just to add to your dialogue, why don't you just say that? >> So um in the interest of

096time, I would suggest if this is something we want to continue there, um there's a couple of options. We could we could form an ad hoc committee to discuss it in greater detail or we could just hand it back um and wait for the copy when it's an then it becomes an action item. So if there are any other substantive changes that we want to suggest at this time or if we want to continue the conversation in an ad hoc manner if there's anyone that would like to um pursue that role more meetings >> I mean I think I understand you know the spirit of this discussion and it's all it's it's absolutely student focused >> so I feel like it's the right discussion to have and maybe those are just uh things we we

097hold on to and use the next time >> we are gifted with another inner district >> decision. I mean, I I think for example, this thing that I'm saying about the date, I'd like >> for us to probably pursue having a conversation about that and maybe at some point that comes to a vote >> because I I do see that that's a piece that everybody's been frustrated about and I think understandably so. Uh to me, I look at and go that's not me telling the district what to do, right? So if I said a a consideration for this board overturning is that you didn't meet the deadline that we suggested. You can still have your deadline whatever you want to have your deadline, but then districts sort of know you've put yourself in a position

098where there's certainly a reasonable chance that a return because you went past our recommended date. Um I also want to commend my colleagues. I mean I think we have a good board right because I think emotionally many of us were like you got to overturn the thing but you know based on the instructions it's like well then you're not following the instructions if you do that. I think I asked legal at one point if you didn't have this makeup board and somebody's just like I don't really care what the thing says. We're going to vote to overturn it. Uh what is the because I don't think there's another appeal process. That concerns me a little bit that you could have a board that just ignores uh the guidelines. Uh and even though I might not

099understand mostly what they did, I was like, you haven't like you you were there are guidelines and you're not follow the guidelines and you simply overturned it, right? I don't think there's a whole bunch anybody else could do about that that without that rate. >> There's always the option of filing a RIT in superior court. >> Okay. >> If someone was serious enough about it and they thought that you weren't following their policy and making arbitrary decisions potentially. So, um there is some recourse. It would be escalating things quite a bit. There's no like other further administrative appeals >> and presum that would have that that written would be filed by the district, right? We would be overturning what they had recommended. >> They would be recognizing that doesn't seem like they're following your own

100policy and instruction. >> That's right. Yeah, that would be the most likely scenario. I mean, I suppose a parent could as well if they thought they were entitled to Yeah. Yeah. >> Uh >> to guy's point about establishing a timeline. I mean as ED code does 30 days and 30 days plus five. Is there a time limit for when schools must notify? There is and it is >> Oh, that's terrible. >> Yeah. It's fun. Oh, I I try to advance the slide. That's what I >> But it's uh 14 days after the school year has begun. So 14 days within into school year. >> Yeah. See that? >> Yeah. >> So while we're somewhat complaining that these folks have October one, they could actually wait until sometime in September. Yes. >> Okay. So, but still

101the in terms of the if this board is >> a basis for us overturning uh the decision is if if uh if the notice is given after July 15th. If we said that and then hopefully overturn something maybe it's going back to legal again. We said the death our preference is that you notify people by July 15th. They wait until sometime after July 15th. This group decides based on that alone, we're overturning the bill. >> I saw I saw you trying to look away. >> Yeah. Well, you know, my my concern is obviously we have to follow the ED code for the the time and provisions and it gets a little convoluted because it's like is it a current year request or is it a future year request because oftentimes these things come in throughout

102the school year >> because a parent will have, you know, a change in their residence or something like that and they're assigned to a new school year, they don't want to move the kid. Those often get granted by school districts so you never see them. Um, so I would want to take a look at like all these timing >> ideas. I guess we might be able to write in a factor about, you know, if they're scrambling to find after school care and all this other stuff. And it might be something you all can consider in making a decision. But sometimes that also opens this like Pandora's box that everyone's going to try and like slip through that loophole. And then all of a sudden you don't have your like ironclad language you can hang on

103to and say, "I'm sorry, but we're >> denying your request." So um I want to look at all the like ins and out of the timing stuff before we you know insert it into for the policy or proposes do that. >> I tend to agree yes please stay where you are there may be >> I want to add something to that part of the conversation just when you're done. >> Okay sounds good. I wanted to make a couple of comments as you're rolling all of this around in your mind for a future board action. One is something that we did add through the board policy committee's discussion on page one around who will even notify it. Just if you're following it, it's at the last paragraph of page one and the formalizing notification to of

104course the student and parents and guardians, the district of residents, and now adding the district of proposed enrollment. meaning that in the orchid case we would not only notify the student and orchid but would also notify San Ray Bonita >> and we say that um back to your one of your original comments guy around the you weren't calling it hospitality you weren't calling it bridging but the care the care of the families in going from one to another so we we I wanted to point out that we formalized the fact that we would we would >> fold in the receiving district um into this process So that's one thing >> I also want to make a note or a comment or a consideration around the timing of things with what what has been so um

105amplified with the bulk of with all of the IDTs that you saw recently or you heard recently and I will say that it feels very unique to that situation. So if we took that aside for a minute and thought about all of the other IDTs that the board has heard over the last 10 years, 5 years, the timing really from my recollection, I really want to lean on the team. I don't think the timing has been um actually a factor >> this time. The fact the be that timing was a major factor for us, our emotions, our families. You know, we and I know that Dr. Simmons and the district spoke at Lena about that to make some adjustments to that. So I say that because um it may be absolutely what you want to

106do is to add something about timing but it also might have been a you saw many of them but from one situation one time. So I just lift that up for you in your consideration. Dr. Simmons, did you want to mention talk about that? Yeah, what I wanted to add um two things is I've really have appreciated being part of all of the hearings because I have to be there of course but also here now and then being part of the subcommittee discussion around the policy because even what we put into policy it's great it's guardrails for our procedures and actually what I then take from you all in terms of your intent and so couple things that I wanted to add is number one this idea of the warm handoff that's my interpret interpretation

107of what you're talking about, guy. Um, and and bringing in the communication will really help with me helping guide that family and connecting them to the right people at at the district wherever, however the decision ends. Because remember, you're also making, let's say you >> um go against the district's denial and you haven't go back to the district, it's to the district, not necessarily to their school, right? So, they might still need a warm handoff within that as well. But the going back to this timing thing, um I can tell you that Orchet has heard you and actually in fact in all of the appeal hearings that I've participated in, um anytime you're providing guidance verbally or in your your sort of speaking out, >> the districts are listening and then it allows for me

108to then have um they come to me and will ask me questions about our policy or ask me questions about what could we have done differently. And so I just want to say that even though it's not going to land in a policy someplace it they're listening to you as you are speaking during the hearings and I am as well. So then in my interactions with them before the process during the process and I say them the district I'm also helping educate and inform and provide guidance as much as I feel like I I can't you know. So, I just wanted you I want to reiterate that again that um and I can tell you that Orchid heard you and we they are working on refining their their current system and I don't have anything

109on the books yet, but I'm confident I will be meeting with them fairly soon after the new year to talk through what their plan is because there is there are some more >> denials that they have coming. So yeah, I really I what I heard was very much, you know, new development, the districts flooded with more students than they can handle. Absolutely. If we had overturn it doesn't guarantee that the student would go to the spot that the parents wanted. Um and so that's why I took this as kind of just a bad year. I mean five years all of them I think were the case where their five years was ah and I just think those were really unique. So I I'm agreeing what what you said um around the timing and I think

110a takeaway if that could be discussed is the time like I think they started seeing the avalanche coming and or maybe they could have been helped sooner to say to realize oh my gosh we're going to have all of these >> requests to continue. I mean, it's obvious if my kids's been going there for 5 years on an inner district transfer, duh. Of course, I'm going to fill out the paperwork for them to continue there. So, I think there could be a lesson learned, you know, for future districts that this could be happening or, you know, so just wider conversation ahead of time that doesn't have anything to do with policy necessarily, but reality. >> One more one more question. Um I I'm really glad to hear you say that you think Orchid was listening

111because they had prepared a deck on their impacts. So it was basically a foregone conclusion that every single one of those introduc was going to be denied. And so then that asks the question why wait why make parents wait so long? Um in um in the text of this we um have opportunities to ask questions. There's they've made a case for with 33 interd district transfers and there's surplus and they can we go back and say to them um how are your were your projections accurate? How impacted were you? Is is there any provision for I'm I'm just interested. Did they overshoot? Did it was it not even as uh or was it worse than they expected? Those are just I'm wondering if there's parameters. >> Yeah. >> I I don't ask about I think

112maybe when I meet with them I can definitely say that our board is curious to know >> where where you landed. Um and I don't want to say this, but if we see them again, I think that's a very valid question to ask them. Or I could even say in advance, our board would like to know how it ended last year and what are you looking like for this year? What's your basis for deni? I mean, I think I think that's a really um great question to ask them and give them an opportunity to to respond. So, I have multiple ways I could bring it up now that I know you would like to know that information. >> Yeah. If we're asking parents to describe the hardship in writing um or demonstrate, you know, why

113their request um has validity, then can we ask the same of the district? >> That would be awesome. Any other questions? >> I'd like to also just acknowledge you, Doug Simmons. I mean, what a tough gig. You know, I mean, >> and I think you do it so well. So, thank you. >> Yes, I'm glad you hear me on the warm handoff. >> I think given what the system is, I don't think we could ask for more. I mean, I think they're doing a good job with families, I mean, you really are sort of balancing both sides. Uh, but yeah, I I think to the extent that we can investigate that even more >> and that, you know, I mean, I think part of our lead is that tough decisions have to be made, but

114at the end of the day, I think we're all supposed to be interested in kids and families. Uh, and so I just hate that the note ends on good luck. >> Yeah. Yeah. >> Yeah. >> I hear you. Those those parking lot conversations are really hard for me because I follow them out and I'm sort of go back in or not. So, yes, I hear you. >> And thank you for your confidence. Madame President, a question for you at your concluding sounds like your discussion is um to what extent would the board want to see this as an action item on December's board meeting um as a second read >> um or or what would need to happen between now and that that time. >> Okay. So, any other comments? I think we're ready for

115a second read and an action item in our December meeting. Any other comments on that? think we've done what we can. Um, now I'm looking for my Okay, there's just my agenda. Okay, this is somebody's agenda. I just I'm a wash in paper here. >> Thank you. Okay, now we have the community I'm sorry, the California Community School Partnership Program um is an information item. This is item number 20. I don't see Renee. Oh, there she is. >> Hi. Come on up. I was on stealth mode and I'm off of the Well, thank you um President McCarti and members of the board uh for allowing me to share with you today um about the California Community Schools Partnership Program. And presenting with me is Yaha Ambrosio, the JCF JCCS community outreach and career counselor, who

116is also our community school coordinator. And do we have the spoons or are they just following along in >> Oh, there they are. >> I was just so anxious to start. >> Oh, perfect. Oh, and I've not used this one before. Great. >> All right, perfect. >> Okay, so I realize many of you are probably thinking, wait, we already have a community school. Um, and the answer is yes. And we are also a California community school partnership program, which I will refer to from now on as CCSP because that's a mouthful. Um, and as a county office, we are authorized to run community schools, which serves students who are uh either expelled, referred for attendance issues, referred for behavior problems, they are experiencing homelessness, they're on probation or parole, or their parent and guardian asked

117that they attend our community school. So, that's the community school that we're used to. The CCSP schools um is a initiative throughout California and um the goal is to provide additional resources so that schools can become the hub of their community and this is achieved by partnering with agencies throughout the community uh to provide their services at school all with the goal of improving student outcomes. So it's yes and we're both now. Um and so our rationale for becoming a community school is when you look at our baseline data from the 232 24 school year, we had 23% of our students experiencing housing insecurity. A 100 of our student% of our students were considered um unduplicated. And then 50% of our students had were expelled from their school and require counseling um and therapeutic services.

11831% of those were in need of substance use disorder counseling due to their drug use. And um we had a high suspension rate of over 40%. Um and if you remember in the previous uh slide, students can be referred to us for absenteeism problems. And so we have an absenteeism rate of 65%. And then the school instability rate which is a new measure at the state level says that 94% of our students are uh qualify as instable which means that they are not starting and ending the school year with us that they're you know coming and going. And so for all of those reasons we uh became a CCSP school. Um and so the why why a community school and uh get ahead of myself. Um the idea is that we are allowed to transform

119the way that we do schools and by reimagining the way we provide specific strategies to meet the unique needs of our student population. We can transform our schools by prioritizing relationships. Since every school and community is different, this means that many schools who receive CCSP funds, but every school does not look but every school looks different because communities are different and therefore the strategies used to improve student outcomes need to be different. And so what does this look like? Uh there are four main evidence-based features of a community school which are referred to as pillars. And so the first of these is integrated student services. And then we have extended and expanded learning and time and opportunities, family and community engagement. And then the final pillar is the collaborative leadership and shared decision making. Um

120and so now I'm going to turn it over to Yahena to share how we've implemented these things. >> Big green button. Oh, here are the big one. There's two. Okay. Thank you. Uh thank you Rene. Um a um a needs assessment uh for community school is essential to gather information to prioritize our school needs. Uh this will ensure the educational programs uh and tailored to meet the specific requirements of our school community. Uh we conducted parent student and school and school staff surveys and focus groups. Um the parents um surveys and focus groups um were done during our uh parent workshops. Um the students were surveyed um in the classroom and the focus groups happened uh inside the classroom and outside the classroom to give them a little bit more of more privacy. um the

121school staff. We um we did the the surveys during our staff meetings. Uh uh and uh we um what basically we try to use uh another component um uh to support our surveys and focus groups and we have the empathy interviews as part of our needs assessment too. Um this was a a key strategy that we used to understand the student experiences. Um we um this interviews allow us to hear the students stories in a deeper uh and more personal way the traditional surveys. Um so we intentionally um did this process and what we did we pair each student um with an adult that they trusted and this way it ensured that uh they felt comfortable and safe um and the sharing was more open and and helped us gather more accurate and meaningful information.

122So based on the on the surveys and feedback from parents, um they um they express a need for resources and counseling programs uh tailored to help them navigate a challenges such as parenting strategies, uh communication with teens and coping with stress. They also emphasize the importance of additional resources and intervention for students struggling with or at risk of a drug addiction. Um many of our families share that they were that they were experiencing financial difficulties and will benefit from economic assistance or referral uh to community organizations and resources that can provide aid. Another area that that they share with us is uh they express interest um in opportunities to engage and uh learning through um or organized field trips and uh we really like that. Um this could serve as platforms for building a stronger

123connections with the school community and providing enriching experiences experiences for parents, the students. Um we found out that um um they didn't feel connected to our school. They they um also um they desire to amplify their their voice. We found out that 41% of our students felt stress at school and that 54% of them did not feel respected or heard in the classroom. Uh also our local survey um in our local surveys and and um focus groups we uh was were supported by the same the California healthy kids survey and the the results uh show that um only 35% of our students agree that they that they feel connected to school and unfortunately this means that uh 65 65% of them uh did not feel connected to school. 38% of them participated meaning minimumly which

124means that 62% of them did not participate um meaningfully in school. 48% of them ha um felt that had a caring adult at school and it meant that more than half of our students did not uh felt that did not have an in school. Um the staff um we were very fortunate because we have a great staff. Um 100% of them share that they they believe that more parent more more parent involvement was needed at our school. Uh also 100% of them felt that um the more emotional support for students was needed. uh and also that they need alternative spaces for students to learn, study and also to calm down. So the survey is basically based on the feedback we discover three priority areas. Um and uh um and those are positive and restorative school

125school climate, community and family engagement and integrated student support services. In our first priority area of positive restorative school climate, we decided to focus on training and coaching and restorative approaches. Uh we hire a restorative practice coach to provide staff training and facilitate circle groups for students. This initiative focuses on building relationship relationships, fostering accountability and creating a supportive environment where students and staff can address uh conflicts constructively. Um a student created a spiritware. Uh that was um something that our students really enjoy. Last year we worked with several students to create a news slogan uh logo and design for our school. The logo on the right that you can see there was created uh by first having our students vote on a moto. >> They decided on bridge to opportunity. >> Then a student

126created the logo of merging the moto um that we had um before the fural mascot of a maverick and they added a bridge. So I think that was really great. >> Yeah. through the approach, we hope to increase student pride and involvement in their school community. Um, another another um area that we want to uh focus on um it's a it was a transition program for returning students. Previously there was no structured program to support students transition back to regular school and uh recognizing this gap we we are now working towards uh developing a comprehensive transition uh program to ensure returning students uh feel supported and are set up for success. We introduce also an incentive program to motivate and reward reward students for positive behavior and achievement. some um parents uh students and staff

127expressed the need for a safe school environment and in in response we hired a security officer and uh um um whose presence basically has greatly improved the overall school climate creating a sense of safety and trust among among the school community. We also uh focus on campus beautifification efforts. Uh improvements to the physical campus uh environment have been also a priority. We began by revalidate revalid sorry revalidas the school garden um and and inviting space for relax section relaxation and re learning. Additionally, we installed a new umbrella for the picnic table um where students enjoy lunch and we have done other upgrades such as a bamboo fencing that we didn't have before. So, uh and we also made upgrades to our facilities. Um specifically our gym. Um we had a comprehensive gym cleanup. Um and

128new equipment was purchased. um addressing long-standing concerns about the gym's conditions. Last year, the majority of the students complained, one of the first complaints that they had was basically the gym. So, um um in response, we prioritize these upgrades to create a more welcoming and and functional space for them. Our second priority area uh of community and family was community and family engagement. Uh and this one focuses on month monthly parent workshops with an emphasis on parent driven driven topics. As you can see from the calendar uh in the right right there um the topics range from how to access community resources to parent leadership workshops. And our third priority area of integrated student uh support involved um hiring an acade academic and career counselor to provide the necessary guidance for students and families. Um

129also, um through the academic counselor and the CT department, high school students started receiving career career technical education coaching once a week since last year. And this school year, we have extended the services to junior high school high school students. The other one basically is um all our high school students receive a career assessment and develop a personalized four-year plan to align their academic with their career goals. Um and enrollment support basically um before the implementation of community schools we did not have a formal welcome meeting with parents. It was just a >> you know registration and that's it. But now these meetings have um have um now been added uh to new student enrollment and allow students and parents to meet with academic counselor and also the other counselor. All the counselors are present

130when when the student is enrolled. Um uh the academic counselor provides an overview of the student's academic status. H based on the transcripts at these meetings families are informed about um available school services. um the students rights and responsibilities and parents rights and responsibilities. Um and uh student transcripts are reviewed and an academic plan is created to support the student success. The last one um to support um not only the academic counselor was trained in ACES um the adverse childhood experience exer but um we have uh we are planning to to uh train uh for all school staff. Um this training will provide staff with a knowledge and tools to support students affected by trauma. The training cultivates a culture of empathy, resilience and trust within the school, our school community. Uh this training strengthens

131a relationships uh between students and staff reduces behavioral challenges uh and enhances the student success both inside and outside the classroom. Our needs assessment also showed that we needed uh new and expanded initiatives. Uh one of our new initiatives um since receiving the CCSP grant is the creation of student clubs. um where students are able to explore culture and support inclusivity um and belonging such as the creation of the alat of the day of the dead um including um art, food and music. Uh this was an opportunity to share the culture with their community in a safe and supportive space. Uh we did it for the first time last year and um in a couple of a few days ago we had our second celebration. there. So, um we also identify currenting practices that that

132could be expanded like our parent workshops. Um they used to be held quarterly and now we we held them monthly. In addition, we are able to provide dinner and child care which has increased our attendance. With the addition of the uh promoters network we are able to uh offer translation services inco and Spanish but uh at the Spanish we we had always been providing um sorry being provided by JCC staff but the addition of that incompletion is three. So um I'll now hand it back over to Rene. >> Thank you. All right. So, we just talked about our uh priorities and we turned those priorities into our goal goals when we uh started writing our plan. And so again, our and these are reported annually in our uh annual progress report or of course ARP

133because we love the acronyms. >> And so goal one is positive and restorative school climate. Goal two is our community and family engagement. And goal three is our integrated student uh supports. And so for each goal, we identified how we would measure progress and which metrics would be used. Our baseline was established in the 2324 school year, which was the first year of our planning grant. Uh for goal one, we identified three metrics. We want to reduce our suspension rate, increase caring adult relationships, and increase students feeling connected to school. In our first year, we had mixed results. We were able to slightly uh decrease our suspension rate, but unfortunately, we also had a decrease in students identified as having a caring adult at school. And our highlight in this goal area was having a

13410% increase in students feeling connected to school. Uh for goal two, our identified metrics were to increase the school the number of parents attending parent workshops and to maintain the already high number of parents who are contactable using parent square. Last year we were successful in meeting our goals for both. We increased our parent attendance by just over 13%. And we not only maintained but even increased our already high number of parents contactable in parent square to 96%. And then in goal three um our last goal our metrics were to increase student attendance and to increase counseling services. For goal three we were also successful in increasing both areas. Our attendance rate increased by over 5% and students receiving counseling services increased by 1%. And so we didn't do all of this work alone. Uh

135I would like to thank our educational partners uh the department of behavioral wellness who also partners with our SPCO health linkages uh for health navigators. um Kada who provides substance use disorder counseling at Fitzgerald. Uh the family service agency who provides a school-based counselor. Uh Par Planned Parenthood who provides workshops that meet the requirement of the California Healthy Youth Act. Uh one community action who provides not only a mentor but a triingual mentor. So yes, we have the trifecta. Um, Alan Hancock College and the rising scholars uh network provide mentorship and field trip opportunities to both colleges and universities. Uh, community health centers provides workshops and resources for our families. The proctoensino who provides I told her I was going to make her say that who provide legal services and education for our families. And

136of course our two local high school districts, Santa Maria Bonita School District and Santa Maria Joint Union School high school district. Uh and then also we have our SPCO partners. Um earlier you heard from CTE so you know all of the good work they're doing and we are in the mix. Um we also partner with Children's Creative Project. uh health linkages. We have a health navigator who works with our students at Fitzgerald and also we contract with them for the Prometh Forest network to provide all of the outreach to our families and uh to help us out with those parent events. Uh partners in education, we had uh students last last year become interns and then they also uh get the computers for families computers and of course our transitional youth services. Um, and so

137there's our partners and there is our plan. So, thank you for letting us present. And if you have any questions, >> any questions for Renee or U, Henya? >> Thank you very much for this. Uh, what we can expect now is an annual presentation and CCSP. Got it. >> Much easier to say than the other title. >> It looks Yeah, it looks great. Next two items are for your information only. Personnel report and the Williams legislation school district report. And then uh we have some correspondence. Good news. We've got approval from the Santa Barbara County Education Office Budget Plan um from the California Department of Ed on the on the SPCEO budget and LCAP 2526. And now I'm going to invite out anyone who does not um need to be here and we'll have a

138closed session. >> Might I interrupt for the moment? I I know you have heard from me plenty today, but I wasn't able to give a a little uh remarks on the superintendent's report. >> Did we skip right over? >> We did and I'm wondering if I might insert now. There's a couple of items that I think would be really helpful for you to know. >> No, no, no. That would be that'd be great. >> Yes. >> Just on I mean I I was noticing that uh and you know I'm sort of in and out a little bit. >> Uh maybe this is Diana. >> Uh did we do consent agenda? >> Sorry. >> We did we did consent. >> Oh yeah. Yeah. >> We just missed a superintendent report. >> I think that's when you

139were seeing other >> Yes, that's right. That's right. I was no problem at all. Thank you for letting me insert. >> Yes. So, the report is in your board book and um I'll simply say for all of those items there, boy, have our team our team has been extremely busy around the county in support. And I just uh kudos to the team. I really have such um I just want to pause and think and thank um our SBCO staff for all that they do that we are able to report back to you next month. And I know an item in the on the agenda is next month's or future agenda items, but I just want to insert that um Ellen Varger will be here in December to share and unpack a bit on English language

140arts reading like when you see the scores, what do what does that mean? So I wanted to share that and insert that for you for December. Um one of the items that have come forward from the board has to do with human trafficking, sex trafficking. So, we were able to connect with the district attorney's office. Um, Megan Riker Reinchild will be coming in February. So, we have February. So, she'll have a presentation there. So, I wanted you to know that that's coming as well. Couple other items. So, you may be hearing about um well, obviously you've been hearing a lot about the federal shutdown, government shutdown, and you've been following and tracking the news. One of the areas that I wanted to amplify today has to do with Head Start preschools um which have been

141impacted by the federal directly impacted by the federal shutdown. So what I wanted to report to you is so Communifi is an organization that runs the Head Start preschool programs and they do they they do it beautifully and um our team of the early care and education team um Christian Patterson and Janelle Willis have been in close contact with Communifi recently as well as up to Friday of last week and Head Start has and I'll I'll just be general just so that you know generally speaking Head Start has notified many of their staff to say that there may need to be um pink slips notified. So, they're giving a warning. Um we're looking at a December closure if now that the federal government is back open again, what's happening is there there there are there's

142a queue a queue up of Head Start notifications that need to then get come back. Is this I'll go faster. Well, we can Yeah, we are here. Maybe we stay. >> Go slow. >> Goes. There we go. Either way. Well, I will say that um we're really looking to see if the Head Start funding can start flowing again um before the end of December. >> And because there's been a queue up of many, many head starts that need to get their funding flowing again. That's really the crux here. We want to make sure that in Santa Barbara County, Head Starts can get funded again. So, um, all to say that we're in a different space today than we were in three weeks ago, you know, but, um, in two days ago, even a day ago,

143but our ECE team is looking to see if any of the funds that we have could then be, um, could could be >> provided to Communify to then provide state preschools. we couldn't use our funds for Head Start since they're not funds for Head Start programs, but they are funds for state crystals. So, we're looking to be very creative around supporting um as Christian Patterson spoke, we spoke today, and he said um and I don't have it here right in front of me, but I think it's something like um a million dollars per month for Head Start to continue to staff all of their all of their Head Start programs. So, what we would be able to provide would not be continuity forever. It would be a a a gap filling measure, but nonetheless wanted

144you to know that we are stepping in to see what kind of support we can provide to about 300 families that would be affected. Yeah. Um so wanted to just give that brief report that again different today a report than a week ago, but wanted you to know we're working on that. Um moving on to a couple more items. the boards, all school boards, um, county board members included, are required to complete an ethics training. I wanted to provide the information one more time for you because we've sent it a couple of times, but it's coming up before January 1st, 2026. There are actually several mandates for board members coming up. What I'm going to disperse to you just shows you a um I'll show it to you first before you get it. It'll give

145you a concise what's due by when. There's only one thing due by January 1st, but there's more coming. So, it's a little concise table here gives you more of the rationale. And for the ethics training, there's a free online asynchronous, meaning you don't you're not with an instructor. You do it at your own time. That's on second page two, how to how to do that training uh before January 1. And then the next training, which is due in July, that information is on the third page. Okay. It has been sent over time like an email once in a board book another time and now I wanted to share it with you one more time. Yeah, it's good to hear it multiple times. It's good to hear it multiple times. So, let me >> Oh, that

146went right over. >> Ethics training due January 1. >> New people. >> Okay. >> Rainy day activity. >> It's a rainy day activity. No, we're all 100% here before >> or even so many different pieces of email that got >> I plus we're just really ethical training. >> All right. So, ethics training coming up. Um page three has a has a we're going to modify something. So, take it as page three has a draft that's not due till July anyway. So, we'll modify that for you. Thank you mi for that. Appreciate it. Okay. So, ethics training that was the next bullet point. The next item is the um annual education conference CSVA TR conference that's coming up in December and this came up the board approved the expenditures for that workshop last month and just

147wanted to let you know that Nadra man is a able to attend Guy Walker is able to attend I think that's it from our board fortunately I'm not able to attend with I wish I could with alongside you I what we're going to do with the board organization and governance committee is uh which is meeting here pretty soon under Vita's leadership um will be to calendar out next year's workshop so that we can get some things on our books ahead of time but wanted to let you know about that >> um charter charter schools last month Bridget Bobitz presented on charter schools specifically around state authorized charter schools and it was mostly and specifically around olive that is state authorized and they're going to four districts to uh see if the districts will approve. >>

148We um and you'll know that um you'll recall that if a district approved the charter school, then they would be operating and if they denied the approval, it would bypass the county, go to the state, and the state would decide along with the charter who would be operating. Okay. So um right now we know that Santa Barbara Unified uh has not approved the charter and so we is moving along the course um the the time frame which around February or March the state board along with all of Grove will be deciding who will be the authorizer. It could go back to the school district or it could come to the county office to to charter. So I just I'm giving you the update because I wanted you to to know about that. My understanding is

149the three other districts, Sanz, Santa Maria, and LMPoke are moving for approval. >> Okay, so that's an update. More to come. >> Do you know why they weren't approved by Santa Barbara? >> I don't have that information at hand. Yeah, happy to provide that update, especially since Yeah. >> Yeah. Yeah. I believe that the operation of Olive Grove Charter School is the smallest in Santa Barbara amongst all of the others. But I'll leave it there and say let's come back and give you a different report more information. >> Um so that and then um given that there was a Veterans Day holiday this week um a very happy Veterans Day to all those who have veterans within their families and that includes many of you. Um we did announce and and ask people to let

150us know if they had for operation recognition the graduation um which uh Guy's family participated in the last time which is um individuals who served in World War II, the Korean War or Vietnam War who because of their service were unable to receive their high school graduation. um they where applications are open now. Um we would love for this ceremony to occur for a high school graduation. It can be postumous as well. So the person does not have to be living to receive that award. So the applications are open. Wanted to share that um because Veterans Day was this week. And finally, a a future item uh may be on the ACCBE, the other not CSBA's county board, but the other county board item that we had brought forward in the past uh excuse me,

151we had brought to the board in the past. The board had a discussion at that time. You said, you know what, let's explore it a little bit. Some people might attend some workshops. Our team has attended some workshops. So, it might be a December board item to bring it back again. Um, I know that the ACCBE team is eager to present to the board even to see here are some of the workshops we can provide, but I think we have enough information now that we might be able to share what we've learned from our experiences. >> Okay, so with that, I'll pass it back over to you. >> Apologies for skipping right over that. Really? Not a problem. >> Um, okay. So, let's go ahead and have our uh close session now.