Santa Barbara County Board of Education Meeting October 9, 2025

001I'd like to call to order this regular meeting of October 9th, 2025 here at our SPCEO North County office in Santa Maria. We'd like to point out that we have our usual Spanish translation available online, but we also have an interpreter here in the room. Can you wave? There she is. If you would like to get your um simultaneous translation device, you can see Isabelle. Um I invite you to stand and join us for a pledge of allegiance. I pledge algiance to the flag of the United States. Thank you. And now we'll have Arlene do our roll call. >> Mrs. Alvarez Flores, >> present. >> Dr. Armstead, >> present. >> Mrs. Cardia, >> present. >> Miss here. >> Mrs. Frost, >> here. >> Mrs. Reed is absent. And Mr. Walker. >> Thank you. Um our

002next item is changes to the agenda and we will have a slight change. Um instead of going into our president and board comments, we're going to move directly to item number eight which is our presentation. We cannot wait to get started. So let me Okay, good afternoon everyone, members of the board, our staff, and our esteemed guests. Thank you for joining us today. At this time, it is my deep honor to begin our ceremony for the inaugural Joe Howell Legacy Scholarship. This scholarship was established in 2024 in the name of our dear friend and board trustee colleague who is here with us today. Joe, can you wave? There he is. There's the man. Joe retired from the board just last year after 25 years of dedicated service. And this scholarship was created in his honor

003to support students pursuing higher education or career training and with a special emphasis on those who've been part of our juvenile court and community service schools program. So, as a board, the Santa Barbara County Board of Education has jurisdiction and authority over our our juvenile court and community schools program, but we also care very very deeply about the students in our schools. Does Puertos Fitzgerald and previously Los Robas High School at the boys camp, we're thrilled to celebrate our very first scholarship award recipient today. formerly a student at Des Puertos who is here with his family and supporters. You can add seven more of us as supporters, too. So, Andrew Jose Garcia Vasquez, congratulations. We are so proud and so excited to honor you today as our inaugural Joe Howell Scholarship Award winner. And now,

004let me introduce to you our superintendent of schools, Dr. Susan Salceto. Well, good afternoon to everyone. Great to see all of you and thank you to the county board for this wonderful opportunity to present this inaugural scholarship. What a wonderful afternoon feeling to have the boardroom just full of warmth and love and support for you, Andrew. This is a really meaningful meaningful uh day for all of us and thank you for giving us the opportunity for it. Um seeing everyone here just it really solidifies and reminds us all that in education it's about the student but it is so much strength further strengthened by the partnership with our family and the community and all of us who are are behind you. Um, Andrew, I know in speaking with you and having people who know you,

005everyone talks about your positivity and your lessons learned and your aspirations and your dreams. And we all know that education as it is in life, it's never onesizefits all from we start and we restart and we reflect and we learn from our experiences and we keep growing. And that's what life and education is all about. This scholarship is uh not only a recognition of what you have done and what you've accomplished, but it's also about supporting what you will do going forward because of what you've accomplished so far. We are so pleased to recognize you today, Andrew, and your family. We know that uh your your mother's here. M is Mary. Mary. Okay. Mom's here, grandma's here, extended family are here. Um, and I'd like to thank members of the selection committee as well. This,

006uh, Joe Howell uh, legacy scholarship has a selection committee consisting of Bridget Bobitz, associate superintendent, Renee Wheeler, director of our juvenile court and community schools, and Joe Howell himself, um, as a as a member of the, um, the selection committee. Andrew, before we hear from you, I we're inviting a few people to speak today in this ceremony. And so, I'd like to in uh welcome to the podium our first speaker, the chair of our community relations committee for the board and board vice president, Nadra Man. Thank you. Hi, Andrew. Okay. >> [laughter] >> Nice to officially meet you. And um so it's interesting the uh with this award because one of the traditions that Joe how when he was a board member he started was that every time a um a student from the juvenile

007court and community schools uh earned their diploma, he would send a personalized letter that he would write every single time. And he did that. Can I say religiously? Um, for every student over his tenure as a board member over 20 year 20 years, 25 years, never missed a student. When he retired, he bestowed united me and gave me that honor and responsibility. And so every time I go to write a letter, I think about the power of recognition and the power of a kind word, word of encouragement, words of support and how that's so has been so important to my life. And I just hope that when we write these letters that the students feel that as as well. So as we honor you today, Andrew, I think about that. I think about the power

008of recognition. I think about the power of a kind word and support. And I just want to let let you know that we're so proud of you. We're so proud of everything that you accomplished. And obviously your family as well feels the same. And your vision for your future, for your family, for your community is is something that should really be celebrated. and all your accomplishments that led it led you to to receive this award today. And when we think about this also, I hope that you realize that it's not just about the county education office and the board members, but it is this is a symbolic of the community and your family that supports you and all of your dreams and all that you are um wanting to do in your life. And we

009support that. and we're we're so excited for you, so proud of you, and so excited of all the things to come in the years that follow. So, congratulations again. Thank you, Miss Man. There's an individual um who is is teaching right now and couldn't be here with us that really wanted to be here. Her name is Amanda Daniels. She's a She's your former teacher. She's a teacher in our juvenile court and community schools who wrote a most glowing letter of recommendation for Andrew for this uh scholarship and in fact encouraged Andrew to apply for this scholarship. Amanda Daniels, Miss Daniels couldn't make it here today, but did ask Andy Evans to speak on her behalf. Miss Daniels wrote some words for you, Andrew. U Mr. Evans works very closely with Miss Daniels and so I'd

010like to invite Andy Evans on up to share her words. Thank you. >> Hi Andrew and family. Um as Dr. Salceto said, uh Miss Daniels really wanted to be here today, but she wasn't able to. But she wanted to be sure and personally recognize your accomplishment. And so she wrote down some words and she asked me to read those. So I'm going to do that now. Okay. These are from Miss Daniels. It is my great honor to recognize Andrew who attended our court school. A young man who has made history by becoming the first student from our program to receive a scholarship. Andrew has faced life's challenges, but he has not let let those define him. While attending sports court, he showed great respect for both staff and peers. Andrew showed dedication to his studies

011and it was very important for him to graduate with the diploma. Uh when in class, he even requested to sit in the front row to stay focused and engaged. Family is very important to Andrew. He speaks very highly of his parents and to quote his graduation speech. I try my best to teach my siblings right from wrong because my siblings look up to me. Having them see me graduate makes me feel proud inside. and one day I hope to see them graduate too. Andrew, you have started what I hope to be a long lasting legacy of student achievement at the court school. We as a school staff are extremely proud of you. You have set a new standard for what is possible and we cannot wait to see the amazing things that future holds for

012you. Sincerely, Miss Daniels. Well done, Andrew. Thank you so much, Mr. Evans and Miss Daniels. I know you are with us here in spirit. And now I'd like to welcome to the podium a man I know who is just so proud to be here today, but yet we're so proud to have him with us today. And that is Joe Howell, former board member from whom this scholarship is named. Andrew and I are now all friends. Um, thank everyone for being here. Thanks for uh time to present this award. Uh, it's really exciting uh to see this scholarship come to life. It it um Susan Salceto and her staff get the credit for creating it and and it putting it together. Um for 25 years I had the great honor to be join these trustees um

013and serve on the board and one of the greatest joys there there are a lot of great wonderful things about being on the board. Some things are more challenging but we're focusing on the positive. Um but supporting students like Andrew um a real highlight just seeing students who um have challenges overcome them and um pursue their dreams is really exciting. Um Andrew, you probably been called a lot of things, but I'm going to call you a pioneer. So you are the first person to get this scholarship. So, um, no one else can say they got the first scholarship. That will always be your honor. Um, you're going to receive in a moment a certificate and a check. The check right here. Um, but the scholarship really represents much more is it honors not only you,

014but all those who've helped you along the way. Um, everyone has heard this proverb. It's said to be a African proverb, so that's what I'm going to consider it to be. Um, but the proverb is it takes a village to raise a child. And I look at the first two rows, you you've got a lot in your village right here, right now. um your mother, members of your extended family or who are with you today, Miss Daniels, Miss Esparza are people who've really gone above and beyond for you. Um and you you know it, but I'm going to emphasize it. Um everyone in your village and all these individuals take incredible pride in what you've accomplished. Um, also all of those people are going to look at every future success you have and you're going

015to have a lot of them in in every case is to them it's going to be like a dividend on the investment they made for you they made in you. So congratulations and um welld deserved. So on behalf of the Santa Barbara County Board of Education, it is our honor to present the Joe Howell Legacy Scholarship Award to Andrew Jose Garcia Vasquez. Andrew, can you please come forward and join us? We We're pleased to present you with this certificate recognizing your accomplishments and your bright future ahead. But wait, there are more. >> And wait, there's more. >> You're welcome. >> Yeah. Can I >> Absolutely. Yes. Yes. Thank you. >> Yes. >> Okay. All right. Well, first off, I I want to start off by thanking everybody who's here supporting me and, you know, being

016here for me. And I also want to, you know, thank my mom, my grandma, and my dad. I mean, he's not here right now, but just want to thank him. You know, thank my girlfriend, my uncles who always pushed me to tell me to graduate school and just just focus on like getting my diploma and, you know, making my mom proud. So, that's one reason why I actually pushed myself to do this. And and someone else other people that I want to thank are my teachers right there at do those pertas and you know my other ones over there at Pioneer cuz they really helped me out. And and then my future goals are I really want to be a plumber and you know make make some good money there. And then it's just I

017just really want to support my family at the end of everything and be there for them. >> Perfect. >> Right. You're done. >> Yeah. I'll just say closing words. Oh, thank you so much, Andrew. Those words were perfect. Uh perfect. And um flowers to mom, not scripted. That was all you, Andrew. Appreciate you. I I want to say a a huge thank you to Joe. Thank you so much for the inspiration for this scholarship. To the county board for the incredible work and leadership you provide to our school students in the juvenile court community schools. To the SBCO team, many, many, many individuals who made this happen. And to Andrew, to you and your family, a huge congratulations. The pioneer of this scholarship. We're so proud that it's you. One more round of applause. Thank

018you. >> All right, we're going to pause and take some photos. So, I'm going to look to Isabelle to direct us to take some photos today before we resume the board meeting. So, Isabelle, take it. You You got it. Uh, so now we're at agenda item number six, which is president and board comments. I invite my colleagues to make any comments. Ross, >> um, I just wanted to highlight, um, a local community member, Lisa Lang, has started a spread goodness challenge, and I had the pleasure of getting to learn more about the program. It's still in its beta phase. Um it's and the idea is teaching youth kindness. So it's a kindness challenge where they do something kind and then they nominate someone else to do that. And I was inspired by uh this program

019because she just decided she wanted to do something and this is what she decided to do. she was able to get um the program into some schools over the summer and she's still beta testing it. But with everything going on in the world right now and um I just thought the idea of really breaking down the idea of what kindness means and spreading that in the community um was such a great idea and the fact that she just decided to do it on her own. I look forward to seeing how it develops and what partnerships you'll create from it. That's fine. >> I have nothing. >> Okay. Um well, I want to thank uh Dr. Salceto for inviting me to tour the Carpentria Unified School District elementary schools. We had a wonderful day going between

020Summerland, Canalino, and Alisa's schools and watching students busily and happily engaged in learning of every variety of every stripe in every modality, including a dual language immersion class. We were um had the pleasure of meeting quite a few teachers and watched a math lesson with UCSB, saw a new library. It was just great. Um, I thought I knew these schools, but every time I walk in, I learn something new. And again, my thanks goes to Dr. Salceto for joining a group of us at the Dangerman Preserve, which is a a property of the Nature Conservancy recently for what we call the stakeholders tour. The idea was to invite the community in to see the learning and vocational opportunities that are available on the preserve. Um the mission of this program and my foundation has been

021involved is to kind of cultivate the next uh generation of environmental stewards and uh we had some great feedback from the partners that are primarily out of LMPoke. We're serving LMPoke middle schools. Every seventh grader gets a tour and educational uh programming before, during, and after. And um we're working with the high school and we're getting together a conservation scholar group. out. Thank you for showing up for that. And now Judy with the bellies. >> Okay. Um, do we have any public comments at this time? Okay. Seeing none, um, we will go ahead and move to our close session. So, I will invite those of you who uh do not need to be here. >> Excuse me. I think we have that on for 3:00. >> Oh, okay. That's Yes. Yes. We can pause that

022and come back. Perfect. >> Great. So, I think we'll move to the superintendent report then. >> Thank you so much. And again, thank you so much for the opportunity to provide the scholarship today at the board meeting. It was really special. Uh wonderful to see Andrew and um and uh pivoting back to what you were sharing. Um, President Cardi, I so appreciated always visits to school, visit to the Danger Preserve, and so many, many, many, many community events that have been happening and continue to happen. I today actually have quite a few little updates that I'd like to walk through. The first one is um, a salute to teachers is coming. We um, I know that several of you have already RSVPd as board members. received your your RSVPs. But if you haven't yet, if

023you'll let uh if you'll take go to your invitation and sign up on the QR code it is um or you could let me know. Arlene know or Anna know we happy to help you. October 25th, Saturday at the Music Academy of the West. It'll be an incredible gayla. of course celebrating beginning teachers, distinguished new teachers, uh distinguished mentor teachers, our performing arts teacher of the year and teacher of the year. Very very special. I do want to point out too that we have um partners are really important to all of us. We all talk about partnerships and this year we have new um Ramsy Asphalt as a as a partner as well as Driscolls here in the Santa Maria Valley. Melffred Borsal's also from the Santa Maria Valley um returning um but I I

024named Driscolls and Ramsay um because I think they're they're um really wanting to support what we all do in education and several of the educators are um so closely affiliated with the Future Farmers of America as well. Lots of work around career technical education. So wanted to point that out. So please do RSVP. We'd love to have you all there. The next piece I'd like to give you an update on is um the Children's Creative Project has been very very busy. And um on uh gosh, Tuesday of this week, and we'll I'll share with you just in a few moments a couple of slides, but on Tuesday of this week, there were 2,000 plus high school and junior high students at the Santa Barbara Bowl. They were bust in because of the contributions from the

025Santa Barbara Bowl and the organization from the Children's Creative Project for free. Santa Maria was represented, LMPO was represented, the SanDis Valley represented, Santa Barbara and Carperia all represented at the Santa Barbara Bowl. And they this is an annual free event. And you know, I we've we've been to this event many years and they're always very special. This one was a different one for me because usually it's elementary students, you know, elementary students who are there. They're fieldtripped and they're kind of wiggly and having a great time. This time there were older students, junior high and high school. And I don't have data to prove this, but I will say that I think field trips are often more thought of for elementary and it it tapers off a little bit differently in high school. The

026students there were captivated by las cafe cafeteras cafeteras I always have it I have to say it say it in my mind beautiful presentation and when when the presenters said raise your hand if you have um an altar like this at home if you celebrate diia you know 70% of the hands went up I mean it was really something that people could relate with um it It was it was both performancebased but also educational and truly like arts does community building. Truly community building. So I would love to show Donald will show a couple of or I will show a few slides. I think it's they're ready to go. Okay. And they're just a quick quick representation of a few of uh what we saw. Donald the slides are ready to go. Not quite yet.

027And I'm going to pass this out then. This is another piece from Children's Creative Project. Several handouts today. So that's the first one. Yep. Coming around. >> Okay. So I'll come to that poster in just a moment. And now I'll go back to some highlights at the uh kids at the bowl, a partnership between the children's creative project, the Santa Barbara Bowl, and our office as well that administers the Children's Creative Project. Um you can see this beautiful space. This the stage was just just bright and beautiful. Students were mesmerized. I think I have Kai here next. Oh, here. Let's see. Let's see if performance see if that'll run. >> [music] [music] [singing] >> just a snippet there. You can see Kai and myself. You can see all the students super engaged. Um [music and

028singing] um Ellen, Bridget, myself there and the performers. Look at this beautiful photo that of course Luis Medina took um of this performer and the students just captivated. And that was it. Those are the quick that was the quick little snap snapshot of what we saw at the bowl. But truly truly incredible and a huge thanks to all those that participated. Uh shifting over now to the poster that you received, children's creative project that reaches over 70,000 students um in Santa Barbara County and support San Louis Abyispo County as well. They're turning 50. And so you have a poster there. Um the celebration is October 11th. Starts at 11:00, goes till 5:00 at the Santa Barbara City College. Uh you see it there. It's like Santa Barbara City College the lawn. Great lawn. >> Great

029lawn. Great meadow. Okay, great. And um of a huge celebration. You'll see the empty bowls is part of that as well. It's a peace time, taking a piece of art with you. So, uh wanted to make sure that you knew about it. All are welcome. Very family run. So, that's one piece. Moving on. I here we go. Some highlights. Music, empty bowls, artisan, hands-on arts, and food and drinks. Okay, moving on. What I wanted to go to next is artificial intelligence AI. Um there we SB CEO was very very honored to um invite Ken Shelton as a speaker >> and we while we had him for a professional learning day for um systems administrators in the day at SBCEO in the evening we did something a bit novel. Um, full credit to Ellen Berger and

030her team for for not only pulling it off but thinking it through. What we did was had Ken Shelton in the evening in our auditorium live. And then we had satellite uh live opportunities too. Guy Walker was there in Sanz. Yep. And Sanz Valley Union High School District hosted. Lampoke hosted a satellite space. Santa Maria Joint Union hosted a satellite space. In those spaces, we had uh students, parents, and educators come together and learn about AI. And in a moment, I'm going to ask Ellen to say a little bit more about it. But it was a really wonderful I'm going to call it a beyond a primmer, beyond a beyond a but I will say it's a beginning is a great beginning of a community dialogue here. What I've asked Donald to show is the

031question of or the answer to what's what's nextish in Santa Barbara County. And and I say ish because it's not everything, but it's a lot. This is sbceo.org. Um and you can uh uh you could Google and put in AI as well and this will come up. You can see that this past uh conversation with families is is there on the website. But as you scroll down, we'll just take a look together. You see the four districts that came together, workshops for systems leaders that I spoke about. Keep on going. You can see more. Um here is a list right here of uh virtual sessions for educators and you'll see them about once a month. September, October was AI and civic engagement. November AI English learners. December, AI and STEAM, uh, science, technology, engineering, arts,

032and mathematics. February, AI and students with disabilities. You can see the plan AI and the writing process. And then May, reflecting back and projecting forward. We're really working deeply on supporting educators and our community around AI. And um, I I thought I would stop here for just a moment, ask Ellen if you wouldn't mind coming up and saying a little bit more about this. And this next item I wanted to share with you is count it out. It's a math movie that we're showing tonight. So I wanted to share that with you. And thank you Ellen. >> Thank you. It's on. And thank you for describing the hub and spoke model that we created. Um, as as Susan said, we were having a full day with our systems leaders and it was really important to

033get the perspectives and build the partnerships with families and with our best teachers on AI, which are students. And um, so thank you to Donald who helped us pull that off as well. and to uh the interpreters at each of the sites and the tech folks and the administrators at each of the sites within that partnership. As we think about AI and what we love so much about Ken Shelton is he really does find the balance between both the promises and the perils. And so as we all navigate these waters together, it's really important to think about um making sure that we have equitable access, how our students, our teachers, and even within our systems that we're using AI effectively, efficiently, and most importantly, ethically as and teaching children what is ethical. Um, I'm sure

034that, you know, everyone would take something different away from the day, but what we think was most important was starting this conversation together and starting the conversation with students and with educators. When chat GPT was released November 30th, 2022, our team was six weeks later, we were studying it deeply um in our in our division meeting and what was fascinating was how much our children already know. And one of the resounding uh refrains from each of the four sites was we want to learn how to use it and learn how to use it right. We want to know when it is right when it is not. So, um, as we think about the work that we need to do, we're already in talks with Ken to come back as well as with some other presenters

035because loudly and clearly the parents said, you know, we want to be in conversation. And um, and so if there's questions, I'll take those. But speaking of conversation, tonight uh as Susan said, at the Marjgery Luke Theater, we are screening the film Counted Out. And um as you can see from the film there with counted out, what it does is really in um a beautiful documentary exciting way with many many voices show us how mathematics is more than just numbers that it is the language of reason. It is the foundation for truth and it is a tool of democracy. And when you think about the amount of information and how it's determined by algorithms and mathematics, when people see it, they're both delighted and aruck at how mathematics rules our reality. And so everything from

036how learning mathematics provides opportunity to the ways in which we learn mathematics to position children as agents of their own future. The film is just a great catalyst for those conversations. Um and so this is you know in two weeks we have two community events but we really do hope to have more. So, if there's questions about where we're going to go with AI. Yes, Mr. Walker. >> AI. uh you know I'm I'm new to the board but it was one of those moments where I I was like I'm proud to be a part of the board uh that we're taking the lead on the discussion. >> Um I I would say there's also an opportunity for trustees in the area of advocacy and ambassadorship. There weren't as many people in the audience as there

037probably could be. Uh, and so I'm, you know, I've made a commitment to the folks there that night that certainly in Sanz Valley I can help with that. Um, you know, it it was, we brought a student to the event with us. What was clear to me is students are way ahead of the same than the adult. >> Way ahead. Yes. Um, and I think the other thing that struck me, one of the things that Ken Shelton said that I really appreciated is generationally we're stuck in a certain thing. So most of us, I think when we were in school, the idea of using a calculator to figure out an answer was absolutely forbidden and it was caught cheating. And then, [snorts] you know, at some point you can use a basic calculator, but you

038can't use a Texas instrument. >> That's cheating. And you Ken made the point that we need to rethink that. >> Yeah. >> That it's you know we all use Google now. >> Um but it it's foreign to the the current generation of leadership which is kind of interesting. I mean if I look at the table here uh how we were raised versus how our kids or grandkids have been raised very different. So, um, not so much questions, but I think there's an opportunity for this board, uh, in advocacy and ambassadorship to help calm the community of the natural fears that they're going to have about AI. >> Yeah, thank you for that comment. I think as you as you point out what people think are the the the perils or the possible bad things are

039things like cheating and that's not what is most dangerous for students. It's the the um the companies that own our data. Um you know those are the some of the perils and the systems and that's why we also had this work with systems leaders. So we have work with teachers learning how to use it, understanding all of the guidance documents, systems leaders to really understand how to protect children and to put policies and communication in place and then for students to explore because children do. they figure out how things work in more efficient ways and that cheating is not our biggest peril. Thank you for bringing it up. >> By the way, another comment that Ken Sheldon made that I thought was really helpful is that um we have to lean into this technology >>

040and he talked about the fact that we did not get it right the first time around. >> Yeah. So the things that again I think all of us are aware of like when you talk about social media and the problems in social media he's basically saying that's on us meaning whoever the leadership is. We didn't get it right the first time and so we need to do a better job in this next iteration. >> Absolutely. >> Yep. the the um the upcoming event tonight. The >> Oh, oh, no, not sorry, not the upcoming event. You you put a list on um the website of all the Yeah. the AI um workshops or events. >> Yes. >> Um how are those going to be facilitated? And >> Great. Wonderful. Those are via Zoom and they're after

041school so that teachers don't have to get um substitutes and be out of school. And so it's our staff and generally in pairs. So we have our AI leads, Tiffany Carson and Lauren Aringar alongside each of those topics have a lead. So, our language development leads and um and so they're they're you can sign up and get the Zoom link and and they really are hands-on exploration really trying things out. Yeah. So, >> no, that's that is great. I I wasn't able to make the last event, but definitely talking about AI, all the aspects, because like you said, there's that aspect, oh, there, you know, it's going to take away our jobs or it's going to do this or we're not going to think for ourselves, but there's so many other aspects and then how

042to use it within education to have our actual like outcomes improve and and that that is also an aspect of it. I did have one more question. So, I'm not going to be able to make it unless um this uh movie but tonight. Um but I'd love is there going to be another way to to see this? We don't have additional screening scheduled, but we do have interest from some of our other partners. So, Sanz has um has raised their interest and in Santa Maria. So, we are we'll see how tonight goes and then we'll schedule additional in various communities. >> Thank you. >> A little more. Is there a way to kind of maybe get that list so we know exactly when states are and then we can mark them down? Yeah, once we

043get that full list, we tend to put in the superintendence report the things that are coming in the next month. Okay. >> But um with this since there's such an interest, we'll get those out directly to you so that you can plan. >> I don't know where time goes, but I miss it. I know. >> Thank you so much for that. And and and I recognize that we're about at time and I'd like to if it's all right with you, Madam Chair, come back to finish my report. would like to just share with you um Ken Shelton's book, The Promises and Perils of AI and Education. Not as a sales pitch, but to say I I I bought it and read it and I thought that's pretty good. You know, it's pretty uh uh wellstated

044and recently um book teaching students to use AI ethically and responsibly. You'll you'll know you'll recognize some of the authors S Khan from Kell Academy, Doug Fischer and uh Nancy Fry, James Marshall and Megan Hargrave. So there's a lot of interest around in education in in reading these books and learning more. So for now, why don't I pause my comments and turn them over uh to you, Madam Chair. Thank you. >> Thank you, Dr. Sneo. Thank you, Ellen. It's a it's a brave new world out there and we owe it to oursel and our constituents to know as much as we can about it. Um so now we're going into a close session and uh we will invite everyone who's not involved in this to step outside and give us a moment. We'll set up.

045We are now back in open session. I will announce the decision of the board on the interd district attendance transfer appeal number T2610 and Mcount board upheld the decision of the district and denied the interd district attendance transfer unanimously with one absentee member not voting. I want to um turn back to Judy Frost who's board comment. [laughter] I wanted to point out to the board some programs that the ACC is offering and hopefully you saw them in our SBCEO mailbox tonight. They're doing part one of county and court schools deep dive and then on October 30th they're doing part two. It's a Zoom and given our role I think it might be very good. We'll find out more after tonight. But I just wanted to point that out to you if you hadn't seen it

046in your SBCO mail from ACCE. They're also doing one on the Brown Act that I signed up for. >> Okay, Susan, would you like to continue with the super? Love to. Thank you so much. And a a big thank you to the board for um now several many many IDTs here in a row and um all of your in focus and um family. Thank you for that. Going back to my uh updates, I uh just circulated a flyer on school safety, a school safety symposium really mostly to amplify that our focus remains on school safety with an annual symposium. You've met uh Dennis um Thomas previously as our safety liaison and under the direction of Bridget Bobbleitzen team we're putting together this symposium. It is uh next week October 14th. We have about 80 individuals

047signed up um from around the county. Many districts uh school staff have uh signed up as well as law enforcement partners as well. So, um, we continue to focus at least annual with the countywide, um, uh, convening and so wanted to make sure that you were aware. So, that's the slider here. >> Yes. >> Oh, first of all, we'll have to have you repeat because [laughter] I was thinking uh I was uh asking if the usually there's a district-wide uh drill day where you know disaster drill happens and I wondered if that was part of this kind of >> it it is I'd say adjacent to that we do most of our school districts when they have like an earthquake drill around October or next week even yeah 16thish they'll they'll conduct their own they'll

048and they always conduct their own other types of drills as well according to their local plans. So for example, um I'll use a former vernacular active shooter drills. They'll each local district will do it themselves in their own way. Um the these uh school safety symposia have been created around the agreement that we had for standard response protocol. We are training not how um we are training on reminders and updates on what schools need to have in their school safety plans and then the process for them to approve them in schools and districts. We have panels coming in this case the sheriff's department, law enforcement. We have multiple um local uh uh specialists that are coming to support um the symposium. Each year we've done it a little differently, but one of the things that

049we said together as a team is, you know, every year you have new staff at schools in your school districts. And just because you did it once, a standard response protocol training or just because you've talked about how do we reunify um families, you really have to do it again and again. Even though this isn't a complete repeat, it is about the standard response protocol. It's about supporting your districts and it's trying to get good information and updates out to the county. So that's really what it's more about. Thank you for your and if you have interested in attending or stopping in, please let me know. We'd happy to have you even for a short time. Okay, moving forward. I'm going to switch to the board book. the um report that I shared with you

050in the board book and um on the front uh after the chart of numbers and enrollment I shared with you that we had a superintendent we call an advance um rather than a retreat with the superintendent around the county and this year we met at the um beautiful uh Sanz Trumash and Cultural Center. Yes. And it was just a delightful day of learning. We also focused on artificial intelligence um there as well. But um just a beautiful exquisite museum and opportunity. We we even had the education center from across the street at the actual Chumash um uh reservation come on over and and collaborated with them that day. Um the next piece is the SBCO leadership retreat. These are all the supervisors, managers, associate superintendents in our organization where about 90 of us met in

051Santa Maria. I um Vita uh Flores came over and Mike Oini who were local to Santa Maria when we went to the Mark Richardson CTE an agricultural uh farm. So really delightful day of learning mostly focused in on our own mission, vision and values as well as how are we supporting the arts and education. So lots of focus there. Moving over to career technical education in the afternoon. Judy, >> I am so sorry I missed that event. I had done my homework. >> You did? >> Santa Maria is the Hollywood of the Central Coast. [laughter] >> You want details? >> As I asked our county trustees who uh reside in the Santa Maria area to come over, I said, "You can come over, but you have to give a fun fact about Santa Maria." So

052that was Judy. The next item in your um superintendent report that I provided is on the 2025 report to the community which we we distributed copies uh for you just out fresh out and um what we did for the report at the retreat actually is maybe something we can do at a future board meeting. What what I had I'll give you the uh um homework that we what we uh the classwork that we did. We had three post-it notes. One Post-it note had an exclamation point, one Post-it note had a question mark, and one Post-it note had a smiley face. So, I asked everyone to go in and use that post-it note note to say, "What is something you're like, wow, exclamation point. I'm looking here and I didn't know this before, but wow." So,

053you posted it there. The other the one with the question mark was as I'm looking through this, I didn't know that. I'd like to know more. I wonder about something. And then the smiley face was just another one that just brought, you know, just a smile to your face, something that maybe validated something you already knew. We did that as a leadership retreat um to get into this because while it could be read from left to right, cover to cover, which I hope you read tonight. Um but it it really can be um you can spot around and and dip into the facts here around um the report to the community around the impacts that we have um as we provide service and leadership to the county. Inserted into your report again is an updated

054placemat for you. I know Bridget in a moment is going to refer to this so I wanted to make sure that you had that. But we also created a a uh backtoback sheet for you this time. And this is a first go for you. And it says at the top, Santa Barbara County Board of Education, our work, and our impact. And this is meant to be a uh fun fact and FAQ around your role as a county board. And then here are some frequently asked questions that that I think that you may get as well. So I won't go through all of them, but you know, does the county board provide oversight for any schools? Here's the answer. Um, what new work is happening around safety and emergency response? Here's a receipt. >> What's being

055done to strengthen reading, writing, math, and science? Here's some. Now, these are snapshot responses for you, but as a county board trustee um so that you would be in alignment with us at SBCEO, we wanted to make sure that you had this FAQ. We've dated it today so that with make any modifications going forward, we can make that changes, but um open to any suggestions and um or you know any questions that you might have. Guys, >> this is a variation of the org chart. It is a variation of it's actually really more about in this case it's around it's to display the school districts and their superintendent and charter school leads on one side and then we purposely put on a whole separate side the county office and our divisions. And the reason why

056on the other side you don't see my picture say at the top of that one is to ensure that folks know that that's just not my role or our role to oversee or supervise those superintendants but it is on the other side. >> I don't know if other trustees would benefit from it. >> I'd love to have an or >> we have one for you. I'll get that for you and all others as well. I have a feeling your your question is a good one for all. Um, I want to say thank you to not only um the communications team that put the report to the community out, which I love the photos and the layout and what's inside, but really it represents um all of our staff who do such incredible work throughout the

057county and we could only pick and choose a few of the impacts. So, wanted to make sure that you you had that. I'm really really proud to provide that report to the community. Should you ever be in a rotary or a meeting or want to have a stack that you'd like to share to report out to the community about the count the county education office, please let us know. We'd be happy to make you copies so that you can provide them to your breakfast groups or lunch groups or dinner groups as well. >> Okay. So, that is with what was in the board. We talked about a salute to teachers. I'm going to come out of the board book and say just a few more update for you. One is um I anticipated that some

058of you might wonder about the government government federal shutdown and and impacts to education. Right now, frankly, the impacts are are slim in terms of we're not feeling major major funding impacts. For example, I did we've been leaning in very very pointedly to special education supports. We are set right now. We shouldn't have any interruptions to that flow, but obvious obviously watching. Um just wanted to let you know that right now the impacts are are not um se severe. also um what we'll distribute Arlene will share in a moment just for that you have as a resource take one is that the the governor right now is has many bills on his desk they're signing off on many many laws um we'll need to review those as they as they come through one of them

059is um a combination of AB49 and SB98 has to do with um safe California safe haven schools um immigration enforcement notifications so one just to pro have you have a resource. I know it hasn't come to you yet, Judy, but it really codifies what schools were already doing in terms of policies around ensuring that um should an ICE agent or ICE adjacent agent come to a campus that they really needed to have uh the right kind of uh warrant with them and this makes it now law. So we are um thanks to Mari and her leadership um and our team have been really uh ensuring that we know what is in the law, what is required when and we'll we will be supporting our schools and districts with what then needs to be updated in

060plans and how we can help train and support um staff. So wanted you to just simply know that that's something we have on our radar. We're working on it very deeply and hoping to support our districts with this as well. Finally, I will say that um the board policy committee of the board will be meeting next week. Um and then the board policy committee would then report back to the full committee in the future. Um the board policy committee will be reviewing eight board policies, one of which is the interd district transfer appeal hearing that uh policy that we've been you've been living with uh you've been living with. So we'll be discussing it and at at some point bringing that forward. So I wanted you to be aware that that's happening. Also the community

061relations committee which hasn't met frequently in the past but Nadra is chair. Mary Beth is on and Sarah Sarah is not here. Sarah is on as well. That's um one that had had uh hasn't met for a while, but there was a desire of the board at some point months ago to have that committee look at future say a board retreat or board workshop. So, we'll we'll ask for that. We haven't calendared it yet, but we'll want to bring that forward. I'm thinking about the board's December organization meetings that are coming forward. So, we'll get everything ready for December so that the next year can be um set, you know. So those are those are meetings coming forward and I will stop with my report here. See if there are any questions or comments for

062me. Okay, hearing none, let me pass it back to you. Thank you. Thank you for that fact sheet. I think that's going to be very very useful. >> Um okay, let's turn our attention then to some information items. The first of which is the state board authorized charter school renewal process and invite Bridget Fobbletz to the podium to discuss information on the unique renewal process of schools like Olive Grove. And if I can if I can jump in as as Bridget's uh preparing and yeah um and you're getting the the materials wanted to make sure that the board knows that um and and Bridget will go over it that just like IDT hearings the county board is has a very um clear role in charter school approvals and appeals. And so as one is is

063circulating in the county, we thought it was perfect timing for for Bridget to come and share with you charter schools and the role of the county board as well as highlight some information about one charter school that's currently um seeking approval. Okay, thank you Dr. Salceto and good afternoon board members. And as Susan just stated today and President Pardon stated, today we're going to talk about charter schools and the role of the county board as well as stateboard authorized charters and the renewal process particular to the those that are in our town here in Santa Barbara. So to get started, I just wanted to frame this a little bit for you. Um today I'm going to give you a few slides just on a little bit of background or overview of charter schools just to

064build some basic concepts and understanding. We're also going to look specifically at the charter schools that we have here in Santa Barbara County. And then we're going to take a little bit of a dive into the role of the county board uh particularly around your role as an appellet body for charter school denials. and um also we're going to take a look at stateboard authorized charter schools specifically Olive Grove. So just to get started an overview there's a definition here I'm not going to read this definition to you but just a couple of points I want to highlight is that charter schools are public TK through 12th grade schools. They are governed by a charter petition and they're authorized by three particular individuals by districts, county offices of education and additionally state board of education.

065So some fundamentals I just spoke about the three different types of authorizers. Something to note is that state board of education is no longer going to be authorizing charter schools. So any charter school that's currently authorized by the state board will go up for a renewal petition when their charter expires and they'll be renewing to the district who last denied them. Um in April I was on a call and I think there are 10 charter schools at that point that are still authorized by the state board and by next year it may even be down to zero. >> No, across the state. Across the state. Sorry, didn't mean to confuse you. across the state. It's very narrow. It's a very small number in this whole whole state >> getting out. >> Uh that's a great

066question, Vita. And I don't I can assume or predict why. I would say that a lot of it has to do with oversight responsibility and it's really difficult to authorize and be responsible and provide that oversight as the state board of education. So they're kind of walking away from that, which is a good thing. Yes. >> You said something that caught my attention. You said the state approved ones, >> correct? >> Will go through one more round for the following whatever. >> Yeah. Go ahead. >> And then they will be referred back to the So if there's a state approved charter, does that mean that they must have gone through a district that denied them? Okay. >> Yep. And I'm going to get into it in a few more slides, so just bear with me

067and we'll we'll get there. Um there's a couple of different funding models. First off, there's independent funded charter schools. These are similarly funded like a a regular school district. They're LCFF. They see they receive their funding directly from the state. And then there's locally funded for what we would call sort of used to call dependent charters. These are charter schools that are receiving funding directly from their authorizer or their authorizing district. Um, additionally, we have two types of charter schools in which they are governed. They're either independently governed, meaning they have their own board who oversees all of their actions and has autonomy, or they're uh locally governed, and then that authorizing district governing board is also the charter governing board. Another question, are they not on mute? I'm sorry. >> If they're independently funded,

068then are they also independently governed or can those go either way? >> You're correct. If they're independently funded, they're going to be governed independently. And if they are locally funded, if district authorizes them, they're dependent on the district, then the district is going to also govern. >> Thank you. So, Bridget, Peabody Charter School would be an example of the >> would be an independently funded and independently govern No, I take that back. I'm going to correct myself. Anybody have that on board? Do they have >> They're throwing me off without notes tonight. >> Keeping you on your toes. >> Keeping me on. All right, let's go on. So, types types of charter schools. So here you'll see six different boxes and the top row are the ways in which a charter school was initiated. So

069we have things like a traditional set of charter school. So it's just a petition that comes around um and they have a petitioner submits a charter application and then they're right they're authorized they become a traditional startup charter. We have a conversion charter. This is where you have an existing school that then petitions over time and becomes a charter. So it's moved from one to the other. And then we have countywide charters. Countywide charters would be authorized by the county board. At this point in time, not author any in our county. Um we also have the bottom row which talks about the instruction type. So we have classroom based charters or what we would call seatbased charters. So these are like your traditional school. Kids come to campus, they're in classrooms, they're receiving instruction daily.

070We have non-classroombased charters. These kinds of charters are typically like an independent study model or an online model. And then we have charters who are kind of a combination of both. They may have independent study and then also some seatbased. So those are the different types of charters. Told you real high level basics. >> Like it. >> We're going to move into charter schools in our county. And as Susan mentioned earlier, you have a placemat. And so on one side of the place maps are the faces of Santa Claus County Education Office. On the other side are the faces and information for our district superintendent as well as the chin 10 charter directors. You can see here this red oval is all of the 10 charter directors. And in our county, we have eight charter

071schools which are independently funded and independently governed. >> We have one charter school which is Orchit Union uh Orchid Academy which is a dependent. It's the only one that exists in our county. So there are dependent or we call locally funded and locally governed. They operate under the Orchid Union School District. And then this bottom one, which has a pink star, is Olive Grove Charter. Olive Grove Charter has four charter schools, and we'll go into them a little bit more. And they are state board authorized. So, they are the only ones in our county that are state board authorized. You have a question, Mr. Walker? >> You know, I'm sorry. >> That's okay. Uh because I was a part of the board that authorized Sanz Valley Charter School. >> Danny and Oh yeah. >> And

072I I did not think that they were independent. They >> they are. >> So they're funded when you say independently funded. >> They receive funding from the state. Now funding gets a little bit complicated. So I will just say that. So they receive funding from the state, but they are also located in a basic aid district or a locally funded district. And so they also receive, and I'm going to go off total memory here from when I was a superintendent at a similar district. They receive inloop property tax transfer, but it's a portion of money. It isn't I've got Steve over here. He can verify if I say incorrect information. It isn't their full allocation. It's a portion of the money that they receive. >> Okay. >> So in that case, college school district is

073the district that is their authorizer, but they have their own functioning board and they are receiving some money from both college and the state. Okay. >> Does that make sense? >> Kind of sort of. Yeah. >> Did I get that right, Steve? Using that example, does the college college district lose money by having a charter in their area? >> So, I don't know all of their finances. Um, but they do need to transfer some of their um property tax money to the charter and then they also are able to sort of recoup a small portion for oversight fees. So, I don't have all of the detail of their finances, though. I mean, really, that's Steve's side of the house. Um, I'm on the programmatic side, but it's So, it's yes, a yes and a yes

074and a no, I guess. I don't know. >> I I guess the question is, is there an advantage or disadvantage to having a charter in a district? >> I think it depends on the district and what you're what you're looking for. If we're talking strictly finances, again, that's going to vary the district. Um, yeah, it's >> it's for a district to make that determination. Got it. Sometimes there's not room. >> There's a lot that goes into that. Got it. I don't think it's >> not not for simple answer. >> Okay. Got it. >> Your thesis. >> Okay. Sorry. >> This next slide is just another way to look at the charter schools in our calendar. And so you can see a table here on the left are the authorizers, the authorizing districts for the state

075board. um you'll see the name of the charter school and then the current term and when they're expiring. And so you can see we have many of our charter schools coming up in 2026 uh 2027 and 2028. Um and I Yeah. So in light blue, I just noticed one said June 2025. So I realized Peabody has been renewed. Um, in light blue we have charter schools that are those nonclassroombased charters. So, anything you see in a light blue row are those non-classroombased charters. White rows would would make up our classroom or seatbased charters. Again, you see a yellow star here. This is that one locally funded, locally governed charter or what I would refer to the old term as sort of dependent. That's that orchet one. And then down in the red box are our

076state board authorized charters of Olive Grove. And all of their terms are coming up in June of 2026. >> So next we're going to look at the role of the county board. So the county board really has authority laid out and charter school is laid out in ed code. I got to put my glasses on for this. through 47664. And really, the county board has dual authority. Really, you have two purposes as a county board. One is you serve as an appellet body, and we're going to get into that in just a moment. Or two, you can serve as an authorizer. Again, that's an authorizer of those countywide charter petitions. or in the case of an appeal that's been denied, if you approve that, >> you also then become the authorizer. So there's those are

077our two roles. Um, and then if you are an authorizer, a county board is authorizing any charter schools, then you would have an oversight role where we're looking at those oversight responsibilities of maintaining the charter, making sure that the charter is following all the legal codes and all of that that goes along with that. At this point, we do not authorize any. Okay. We're going to kind of zero in on our role or your role as an appellet body and the appeal process. So this graph or sort of picture depicts just kind of in in a picture frame here of what the appeal process looks like. And so I'm going to start on the far left. A charter petition is submitted to a district and a district governing board is going to review that petition

078and then they have a decision in front of them which would be to either >> grant or deny the petition. where the county board comes in is typically in I'm going to say in almost all cases with one exception which we'll talk about um if a district denies that appeal or that petition then the petitioner can appeal to the county board. >> Okay. So that's you again in a red circle here. the county office would do our review and then um decide to either grant or deny it. And in the case of a denial, it would move on to the state board of education. So, we're going to take a little bit deeper look here. Just this slide is kind of another way to look at this. So, again, the county board, we would receive

079a petition on appeal and we would do a denovo review. So you've heard that term. You all know are very familiar. We would do a fresh eye look. We're going to go through the whole petition. We have a team here at SDCCO. We all review it and then we present our recommendations and written factual findings to the board and then you decide do you want to grant or deny. If you grant the appeal, we become the authorizer. If you deny the appeal, the petitioner has the right to go to the state board of education and then the state board of education will look at that if the petitioner claims that either the district or the county office abused their discretion in those denials. Okay. The only other time that a appeal will go to the

080state board is if it is a state board authorized charter. And so we're going to take a look at that in a couple more slides just a little bit deeper. And they would do a denovo review in that case similar to what we would do when we receive an appeal. Um, in either case, if an appeal gets up to the state board, something to just be aware of is now that the state board, since they are no longer authorizers, right? They will now in consultation with the petitioner make a determination as to who becomes the authorizer. Is it the district that just denied them in some cases or is it the county office of education? So, that is made that determinant decided and that's the end of it pretty much. >> Is there criteria for

081that decision >> in statute? What I have read is it's just on consult with the petitioner. There is no criteria laid out. >> No. >> Similar question uh at the district level. >> Yes. >> The district has to have some justification for denying. >> Yes. Oh yeah. And if the justification is not good, then who's reverting it back to the >> So what I heard you say is district county. If it gets to the county, can the county go now back to the district? >> So there's a whole another presentation I could do on review uh renewal and initial petition and the criteria that outline that. And I was trying to keep this tight. I'm happy to bring all that back and we could go into detail. But to just to answer your question on

082a real surface level, basically what happens is yes, the district will go through all the standards. They'll review that. They'll make written factual findings. If they deny it and it's appealed to the county office. If we then go through it again from that denovo review and we decide at any point if there is new material revisions that have been added to the petition in those matters we can remand it back to the district but only under that criteria. If that doesn't exist then we review it and if we grant it then we become the authorizer. So it is it's it's it's kind of um it's well defined but it's also sort of a narrow window in which we can send it back to the district. >> Okay. >> So I'm going to take the last

083few minutes and just talk about state board of education authorized charter specifically Olive Grove. So in our county we have Olive Grove charter and these are just some highle facts. So, Olive Grove operates four state board authorized charters. At one point, they were one big school, but they actually are four separate schools. So, they have each their own CES code. Um, they are considered a non-classroombased charter school and they operate an independent study model. Okay. They serve TK through 12th grade, sometimes at a single site. >> Oftentimes, that's why they're doing that. um four locations throughout the county and the number in parentheses are are is the number of students who were reported through data quest for 2425 so their enrollment for last year so in LMPoke last year they had 125 students they had

08434 students and I say here they petitioned Sanz Valley Union High School I just want you to know even though the site is located in Pton the petition petition will go to the high school because they are K12. They're observing that K12. Um, and that's who they last petitioned. Santa Maria, we had they had 153 students. And in Santa Barbara, they had 74. So, their current terms on all four of those locations expires June 30, 2026. So, coming up at the end of this this school year. But those numbers don't tell us how many elementary and how many um >> No, that's just total enrollment. Okay. I I didn't break it down, but that put it >> Well, it the impact too on anyway. Yeah. Okay. >> So, then we're going to look at what

085I said we would come back to in a little bit, which is why are they going and how is this happening? Okay. >> So, the state board of education since they're no longer authorizing, they're not submitting the renewal to the state board. They will submit it. is is in ed code that they will submit it to the LEA or district that last denied their petition before the state board authorized them. So in this case, those are the four districts we're going to they're petitioning. Lumpoke, Santa Barbara, Santa Maria Joint, and San Union High School. And those petitions have already been submitted. So, all of our districts who are under uh receiving those petitions received them this summer, I believe in July. And there's a 60-day timeline in which they need to review the petition, hold

086public hearings, and then vote as a board on a decision. All of those decisions will be made at this October board meetings coming up. So, within the next few weeks, the districts will be making these determinations. public hearings of all the health >> and so now they're they're coming up. So it's coming quick. >> So if the district grants the petition, >> they will become an authorizer. They will authorize their chart. >> My goodness. If the district denies the petition then the petitioner in this case Olive Grove will appeal to the state board of education essentially bypassing the county office. >> Okay. So they won't come to us because they are those in that one exception that state board. If the state board grants the petition or grants the appeal then in consult with the

087petitioner they will decide the authorizer. Is that the district that just denied them or is that the county office? >> And that's decided without our input at all. >> Correct. That's saying consult with the state board. >> That's what he was asking about criteria >> and each four are going to be dealt with separately. >> Correct. >> They all are their own >> school. They each have their own CDS code. So if any of them are denied by the district and go to the state and in consultation end up with us will handle each one of those separately. >> Correct. >> And before we need to do that we'll know >> it's a or we don't have a choice. >> So yeah basically when you say handle those separately. >> Yeah there's no hear them

088on appeal. You would not hear them on appeal. What it would be is if they're denied at the any of the four districts, >> the charter will appeal and I already know they will. They would appeal to the state board. >> If the state board grants their appeal, then the the state board along with the petitioner, olive grove will consult to determine who will become the authorizer. Will it be the district that denied them? So, let's give an example. LMPoke denies Olive Grove. The petition is in front of them. They deny all of Grove petitions to the state board. The state board, let's say they uphold and they grant the appeal. The state board along with all of Grove will decide, do I go, do you want Lumpoke to authorize you who just denied you

089or do you want to go to the county education office and then that's it. There's no appeal. It's done. And then you have to wait until the renewal comes out again. So that's kind of the process, >> but unlike the last two rounds of appeals that we heard at the county board of education, the districts seem to be far more favorable and olive has tightened it up. So we would hear the appeal and each of the superintendents of the district that um had denied would speak directly to the charter and all of the um lack of compliance issues and and they would be very um detailed in that. It seems to me that there's a more favorable I just spoke with a couple people actually. Yeah. At the Dangerman tour uh they said that it

090looks pretty good for most of the dis that the four districts. Santa Barbara was still on the fence but it looked pretty good. So >> we'll see it. >> Um so the next slide I just want to point out is you had mentioned uh Mr. Walker about some criteria. So this is a renew a renewal a petition and so um the education code a few years back changed the criteria and set up some systems on charter renewals and for middle tier charters which all four olive grove sites fall into they're considered there's low this is a whole another presentation but low high or middle so they're a middle tier school performing school and for those schools, there's a no default recommendation in terms of renewal. If they are renewed, they can be renewed for up

091to five years. So that is at the discretion of the authorizer, the board that chooses that, but it is up to five years. That would be the max that they could receive. But in order to deny a petition, there is very strict criteria as to why a charter could be denied. And so again, I need to put my glasses on. But basically the first area would be the academic performance denial. So a a district board would need to to note that there was significant failure to make sufficient progress in standards that the closure is in the best interest of the students and that they placed greater weight on that academic performance. So it has to be all three. Okay, there are only two other exceptions to this and the first one is that the school

092is um unlikely to successfully implement the program due to substantial fiscal or governance factors that would impact their operations. Or the second one is that they're not the charter is not providing um all students who wish to go there access. they're denying admission. So, those are the two other exceptions. But in that case, they have to provide a 30-day notice and allow the charter to make corrective actions. And only after that, if they can prove that the corrective actions would not be viable, can they then move forward with that denial. So, there's like a built-in mechanism to allow them to kind of correct it. Otherwise, it has to be those three things, all three circumstances for these middle tier reporting charters. >> Academic, governance, and financial and access. >> Correct. >> Yes. >> Well, just

093in your I don't see the academic. >> Um, it's here. >> Right here. >> Okay. >> The academic, it's three parts. So, it's academic. It would be in the best interest to close the school. Okay. And they place greater weight on those that academic performance. They meaning the the the hosting district places >> the review when they reviewed the petition that they found that the school was not meeting standards in the academic progress that they were supposed to be meeting and that it would be in the best interest of the students to close and they gave that greater weight in reviewing the petition. Okay, really great questions. All right, last almost last slide. Okay, appeal process. We're just going to go over this one more time because I just wanted to really hammer it in.

094[laughter] So again, um, with the state board authorized charter, so we're talking about Olive Grove. If that district denies, they have 30 days to submit to the state board of education. The state board will do that denovo review. So they'll look at it with fresh eyes and they will then decide to either grant the appeal and decide the authorizer in consultation or deny it. And if they deny it then that charge school closes. >> So just want you to recap it one more time and that is the end of my presentation and so if you have additional questions or comments I'm happy to take them. Yes Nandra. >> So you said I'm not practicing. So you said June 2026 is when this process will start or so June 2026 is when their charter term ends.

095So they have already started this process. >> So the charter school has already petitioned all four districts. They will be voting the boards will be voting this month and then if there is an appeal they'll submit. So there's kind of a timeline. So, knowing that the charter ended in June of 2026, the charter school started early, right? They want to get this out. And if the charter is approved, then the new authorizer will take effect July 1st of 2026. >> Okay. With a new charter >> with if it's approved. >> Correct. If it's not approved and it goes to the state and then say for instance they are in conversation um with petitioner and they decide that have the county be the authorizer what does that mean for us and when like what's that timeline

096and >> we would also be looking at a July one >> okay >> to become an authorizer but there would be work that would be leading up to that working on the petition or the the charter theou agreeing and all of that. So that's why that process started in July is because it does take time especially when you're transitioning from one authorizer to another. There are lots of processes involved. So if let's say in a month or so we know that there's an appeal going forward. Most likely I'll come back and give you guys an update on what that process may look like so you're well informed. Okay. If all four districts accept the then >> done then we don't have to worry about that. >> Yes. >> I have a question. >> In in

097all of this process if they're coming and we're assigned um ownership so to speak is personnel looked at I mean are they credential teachers? Are they not credential teachers? Is that part of a process involvement that we would look at also besides those other elements? Yes, when you're doing a full denovo review, when you're reviewing a charter, there's 16 elements outlined in ED code. Okay. And it's it's very tight. Like I said, that's like a whole another presentation. Happy to come back and go over that with the board if you'd like. But it is a very strict outline. It's all in code and and personnel credentiing, all of that is part of it. Okay. Along with so many other things, health and safety and yes, >> you knew I was going to have one. It's

098not like wait. So first of all great presentation uh very informative uh and this was really maybe a little bit separ from this. First of all thank you Gary Hart for the chartist school act back whatever 30 plus years. Yeah, maybe. So, I would like to maybe to Susan and whoever else. Where is the audit on statewide charter schools >> uh on this experiment? >> Yeah, that's a great question. I haven't read an audit on the statewide state board authorized charters. I I haven't >> um I don't know that one exists. I'm not sure. I I'd have to look into that and see. Like I said, I know that they're getting out of the business, I'm going to say, of authorizing charters. And so, um, >> so just an observation, and again, I don't know

099if it's something that would be appropriate for us to do at some point, >> but you know, I applaud the experiment, which is what would happen if we gave public schools a little bit more independence and freedom to create and do and didn't have to follow all the rules that are in the traditional ed code. What does that look like? Right. >> What if there was a hybrid between traditional public schools and private school? What does that look like? So, we created this. I think good idea. 30 years later, long enough to kind of determine uh yeah, that was good, not so good, works, doesn't work. Uh why couldn't you, if it was good, why couldn't you just give those freedoms to the traditional public schools so they would be free to do that? you

100didn't need a separate entity. Uh so again I mean I guess I would love to see from the state where's the audit on is this experiment been successful not successful and then perhaps we take some lead and periods of engaging our communities in conversations about why do you even have charter school? Well, charter schools, I mean, it's a hot topic, right? There's a lot around in charter schools, and we know that we in our county, we have some really wonderful charter schools that fill a niche for students that may be uh not being served at a particular district. Maybe they're they want a different setting. You know, we have um an example is I'm just going to throw out a name, which is Adilante Charter School. This is a bilingual dual immersion charter school that's

101serving a very unique niche, right? And so I think to your question, you know, a statewide audit, looking at state board authorized charters is one thing. Looking at charter schools as a whole is another thing. And there are e every year I think there has been more and more legislation that has been advocated for around the governance of charter schools. Um but you know, they they fill a need for some families and students and I don't think they're going away anytime soon. And in fact, many of them are doing phenomenal work. And so we need to applaud that work. And while we're doing that, there's also, like I said, additional legislation which is sort of helping to tighten up some of the areas where we may have had concerns or saw some discrepancies. And so

102I think our legislation is doing a really great job in in advocating for um the right things for kids. If I if I may insert Yeah, it um thank you so much for your presentation. Yeah, really appreciate it. Very good. Thank you so much. I I wanted to share first of all, thank you so much for that question. Really great ex expanding our thinking and wondering and analyzing. I just want to report that um the in speaking with the four superintendents of the four districts that are being petitioned, their team are doing such due diligence with their their uh um petition renewal and so um I I know they're looking at it in multiple different ways and um so real deep appreciation in the districts. I can't tell you how it's going to land. That's

103the decision of each board, but just I really truly trust that they're looking at it from all sides. I also will say that our county board has had and our county has had experiences with Olive Grove in the past. Um, it went over to the state and now, you know, and it and it's been operating in Santa Barbara County now for quite some time. We have such appreciation for the executive director who's there now, Meg Ridman, has been doing a really wonderful job um of um partnering with the county, attending so many trainings, really focusing on instruction and learning. So I I I think um I say that because whatever happens, you know, whatever might happen in this case, we do not have much agency in what happens. So right. So in this particular case

104um we shall see the process unfold and if there is some sort of decision that the county is authorizing one or more of those charters will need to really think about the kind of staffing we have to support. >> Um we would we haven't been an authorizer before. So we'd have to really look at what does that really mean for us and that would pro we'd have to pivot pretty quickly for June 1st of 2026. So, we'd have to come back to you and share with you. But, um, in terms of the Olive Grove charter, the enrollment, it it's not huge. It's it's it's a manageable enrollment in four different areas. We've got a great relationship with the executive director who's a local individual in the county. And um, and we what we would do

105is what we always do is really want to focus on high quality instruction, teaching, and learning for students. ensure that we're doing our due diligence as an authorizer, whatever that role would mean. Um, and that we would, um, I know that I believe there's one piece of being an authorizer that you're really close then with their governance and operations as well. So, it becomes a different kind of relationship. >> Um, but we I know for sure that these kinds of things get into the news and the media. We didn't want you to be hearing about Olive Grove and wondering if it was coming to us. We wanted to make sure that you knew exactly the pathway, what could happen, and I I think we'll hear more this month from the districts. So, thank you. >>

106As an authorizer, if we if the county were to offer upon renewal, the county denies, where does the appeal come? >> I think it would go to the state board again, too. But in in the years past they were considering being an authorizer. Now it's really criteria that >> did we what was the um abuse of discretion they would be looking at the kind of the why why did we approve or disapprove >> Judy? >> Um there's two other charter schools that's re um needs to be renewed by June of 2026. Um, one is Santa Barbara Charter, which is in Santa Barbara Unified. Do have they put in the P? We don't know anything about where that one's at. >> I don't have an update on that one. >> Or or Cut Academy? That's the

107other one, which is um authorized by its own district. I don't know the process of that yet. Yeah. Okay. Well, let's >> Would either of those again if the Orca Union District or the Barbara Santa Barbara Unified District Den deny the renewal for some reason go to the state and go through that same process >> it would just automatically >> oh that in those cases because they're not a state charter they're district so they'll come to us for appeal Okay, thank you. >> Thank you, Bridget. Obviously, we have a lot of questions. This is >> going to become board. Um, >> I know. >> Thanks. An evolving story. Um, we have two items for information. The personnel report and then the Williams Uniform Complaints Quarterly Report. We're batt zero. That's a good thing. Next we

108have the consent agenda, minutes, credentials, donations, surplus. Do I have a motion to approve? >> So move. I second. >> Thank you. All in favor? >> I. >> Any oppose? Nay. Motion carries. >> Um, we've got the uh action item here. This is to reimburse expenses for board members to attend the California School Boards Association annual education conference in December. So, this is the board's considering whether to approve reimbursement of actual and necessary expenses. Is there any uh questions on that one? It's pretty straightforward. Do I have a motion? >> I move to approve. I'll second. Second. All in favor? >> I thank you. I just wondered if we were going I we haven't had a discussion about it but the next thing now that you know you can be reimbursed. >> Yeah. >> Um

109okay we have >> um Sacramento lovely Sacramento. All right. Rec recommended adoption of the resolution proclaiming Red Ribbon Week. Um the superintendent recommends adoption of this resolution October 23rd through 31st. We have a a motion. What is it? >> Red Ribbon Week. It's a drug free week. It's a countywide effort. >> Okay. >> I move to approve. >> Okay. I was going to tell >> we have a second. >> I'll give you a little story later. >> If we have a second, then we'll go to second roll call. [laughter] >> I'll second. Okay. Thank you. >> Mrs. Alvarez Flores. >> I >> Dr. Armst. >> Mrs. Cardi. I >> Miss Burman. >> I >> Mrs. Frost. >> I >> Mrs. Reed is absent. Mr. Walker. >> The motion passes. >> Thank you. Item number 21,

110the recommended adoption of began resolution. Um, and this is the appropriations limit calculation, an annual item that comes before the board. Are there questions on that or do I have a motion? >> I so move. >> I second. >> Second. >> Great. with a roll call vote. >> Mrs. Alvarez, Flores, >> I. >> Dr. Amster, >> I. >> Mrs. Carter, >> I >> Miss I. >> Mrs. Frost, >> I miss Reed is absent and Mr. Walker. >> Motion passes. Thank you. >> Item 22. Um, another recommended adoption of resolution. This is the authorization to enter into agreeance with the California Department of Ed for early care and education services. Do we have any questions on that? >> I move to approve. >> All right. Thank you. You have a second on that. I second you.

111Roll call. >> Mrs. Alvarez. Floor. >> I. >> Dr. Armist. >> I. >> Mrs. Cardi. >> I. >> Miss. Man. >> I. >> Mrs. Frost. >> I. >> Mrs. Reed is absent and Mr. Love. >> Hi. >> The motion passes. >> Thank you. Another recommended adoption of resolution. This is an authorization to enter into agreements with California Department of Social Services for Early Care and Education Services. Item number 23. That's all the curriculum that's back there. Do we have a motion? >> I have a motion. I move to approve. Do we have a second? >> I second. Thank you. Roll call vote. >> Mrs. Alvarez. >> I. >> Dr. Armist. >> I. >> Mrs. Cardi. >> I. >> Missurman. I >> Mrs. Frost I >> Mrs. Rebs absent Mr. Walker or the motion passes. >>

112Thank you. This is this is our final roll call vote, but this is the recommended adoption of the juvenile court and community schools curriculum. So, this is an effort to just update an internal process of approval for curriculum of the JCCS learning materials. Um, I don't know if we need to further amplify that one. If not, I'll need a motion to approve. Move to approve. You're good at that. Second. >> Second and I hope we take a look at it because there's some good stuff. We've been looking. >> Mrs. Alvarez Flores >> I. >> Dr. Armist. >> Mrs. Cardi. >> I. >> Miss Man. >> I. >> Mrs. Frost. >> I. >> Mrs. Reed is absent. Mr. Walker. >> The motion passes. >> Thank you. Good job, Arlene. Okay, Madam Chair. >> Yes. I we

113should all be embarrassed right now because after our scholarship that was awarded today to under the Joel Hal scholarship, uh we usually if Joel were here, he would call out item number 18 in our consent agenda and make reference to the letter that the student wrote us. >> Oh yeah. and would acknowledge >> um how this student has >> turned their life around and what their goals are. And we also would thank Joe and now Nadia for putting together a card and a letter to send to him upon his graduation. So I'm standing in for >> You're right about all the above. We did read it and >> we signed the card. So I it was in my conscience. Now we're going to move to close session.