001Hear ye. Here ye. I'd like to call to order the regular meeting of the Santa Barbara County Board of Education on September 11th, 2025. We're starting a little early today at 1:00. Very, very shortly, our live simultaneous Spanish translation will be available for those viewing online. And that time is now. It's official. So, please join me for the pledge of allegiance and pledge. I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America to the republic for its one nation with liberty and justice for all. And now Anna will do roll call. >> Okay. Mrs. Alvarez here. >> Dr. Armistad present. Mrs. Cardi >> here. >> Miss here. >> Mrs. Frost here. >> Mrs. Reed >> here. >> Mr. Walker. Okay. Thank you. >> Thank you. Um I see no changes to the agenda.
002So we'll move on to uh board comments. Does anyone from the board wish to comment? >> Miss Re, >> thank you. I just wanted to kind of share some of the excitement that's happening at Look. We've had our lunch on the lawns that have started back up for this school year, which has been very exciting. Um, a lot of the schools in the area have been really trying to get their uh teachers out there to also interact with the parents as well. So, I think that that's uh very nice of them and club rushes have started. So, I know all the kids are super excited trying to think about what after school club or group they want to join in and it's always so exciting to get the kids connected to the stuff at the
003school. So, I appreciate all the teachers that are lending their time to those clubs. Uh, I think it's uh just great. I just want to remember 911 24 years ago. Um we said then we would never forget and this is the way we never forget by remembering all those horrible horrible things that we saw. Um, and also Allan Hancock College had their annual Hancock Honors event last Saturday night and we honored um Dr. Henry Davis who was one of our Operation Diploma recognition recipients. Although he has like 11 degrees, but he left high school to join the service. And so he gotten his high school diploma. Unfortunately, he passed away uh about 10 days ago. So he wasn't there in person, but his family was and it was a beautiful event. And then Jim Glimes,
004Mr. auctioneer a great supporter of the college was also recognized as well as the Sing Valley Foundation that has been a strong educational supporter for quite some time. So it was a wonderful evening and looking forward to next year. I just want to share that um I attended Isa Vista's um event where they were honored for let's see it says internationally recognized model PLC at work professional learning community. So my friend Hortensia Carral is the new um principal there and I was calling to congratulate her and she invited me. So she even introduced me as the member of the board. So I got to represent us there and um they rang the bell for the first time in years. I got a picture of that too that I'm willing to share share with you all.
005But it was really fun to be there and see the kids and the excitement and the teachers. So that was a good time and it was fun to see them honored. Just wanted to share that I attended the CSVA county board conference in Monterey uh September 5th through 7th. Uh it's great conference. I'm sure some or all of you have been to CSBA conferences. They do a great job in terms of speakers and networking opportunities and work sessions. Um, I've provided Anna kind of with a little bit of a recap that she can maybe send out later, uh, talking about some of the sessions. Um, I will mention for those of you who may know Chris Gardner, uh, who was made famous from the movie The Pursuit of Happiness, uh, was the keynote speaker first
006day. I've had the pleasure of meeting Chris before. Uh, but I think he and I got a chance to talk a little bit more in depth this time offline and and at some point I think it would be great for us to consider inviting him to be a speaker. Um, his focus is currently on CTE. um and uh he spoke very eloquently towards that and is doing a a number of things with New York right now but is very interested in being active here in California. Uh the other sessions again I'll I'll let Anna maybe send that out or or speak to that. The the one thing I do want to do is just acknowledge Susan, you know, so I've been to lots of CSBA conferences, uh, particularly for the big conference that they have
007for local districts. This is my first time attending this county one. And what, you know, was a great feeling just running into so many people like, oh, where are you, Santa? Oh, Susan Salceto. Lots of that. Uh, and I just, you know, I made note of some of those people. So, at least Castro from Alama County, uh, Superintendent Brock Walenberg from Lake County, Gloria Sarza from San Diego County. Some of you may know Kevin Gordon who is with Capital Advisors. I don't know what you all know about Capital Advisor, but they are a big big big big deal. And um and so again, he came and I know Kevin from CSBA stuff and you know, he came and talked about just the incredible work that this board has done under the leadership of Susan and
008Bill Cerrone. Uh and then lastly, Vernon Billy who was the CEO of CSBA all uh wanted me to say hello to you and and so again and then lastly I want to echo Judy's comments about remembering 911. Um, and I think we do remember, but I also kind of get a sense that we can easily forget. And um, you know, it was a moment in time where I think partisanship sort of fell away and people focused on being good patriots of the country. And uh, and also I'll just say in light of the recent assassination of this young man Chris Curtain, >> Charlie, >> I'm sorry, Charlie Kurt. Um, you know, people have strong feelings on either side and and I I think in some ways it's an opportunity for certainly us as leaders just
009to remember we don't wish that kind of violence on anybody. and and we we got to do a better job at learning how to uh civily disagree with folks. And and and I also just think in terms of uh I get what we think and what we feel in our homes and in our private times. That's one thing. But as people who call are calling ourselves leader, we have to be mindful of what we're saying in public. And so yeah, that's that's my comment. >> Thank you all. Um I agree with you. It's um you know, social media does have the platform in which to fment a lot of dissent and um extreme positions. But there is good news in South Santa Barbara County because schools, school boards have enacted policies by which they are
010restricting the use of cell phones during the school day. And this is a really welcome addition um to junior high campuses. Um just this year, Galita Valley Junior High in La Kina um have been under the off and away all day new policy and um that means they are screen free from belt to bell. They put their cell phones in a velcro pouch and I'm very proud of my foundation who helped fund that. Um and we are looking forward to a pres presentation by Techwell at some point >> and they are really responsible for the education and advocacy that that um is behind this movement. So lock uh Lumber Junior High and Santa Barbara Junior High are on tap for next year's implementation and we'll look forward to hearing from Techwell how it's going. Thank
011you. Um and that brings us to board uh if there's any public comments. I don't see any no public comments today. So, Dr. Salceto's on deck. Thank you so much and good afternoon to everybody. Wanted to point out some beautiful note cards at your places. Um, each of the note cards are different from one another. These are these are pictures of artwork from E- Modernari. And the the first one here is the one um square that the board and our SBCO leadership sponsored on behalf of the employees at SBCEO this year. And um these note cards were all printed in the SBCL in-house repro graphics department thanks to our comm's team. So wanted to make sure that you had those and as you write to someone with gratefulness know that it comes from a bit
012of piece of you as part of this as well. want to purchase more, we go, you know, >> you you let us know and then we'll um we'll get those for you. Thank you. >> Yeah, you're welcome. Yeah. Someone just said earlier, this would be a good fundraiser, you know. >> Yeah, it is. It hasn't been a fundraiser, but they're just so beautiful. Had to share those with you. Yeah. And I know that the board's uh agenda today has a lot on it and so I will truncate my comments uh today. But um in my superintendent's report to you, you'll see many notes around safety and symposium, the symposium across the county. Um reports on our early care and education program. Many, many reports. But what I wanted to make sure that I amplified for
013you is if you wanted to see it, it's on page four. And I'll just verbalize it's the very top of page four. At an earlier board meeting um in my notes and also verbally I'd shared that Santa Maria Bonita school district had um had stated that they were wanting to transfer their entire program over back to Santa Maria Bonita which um impacted over special education. Thank you very much. And um what we heard in the last few weeks was that they're rescending that request. They would like for SBCEO to continue to run our special education programs, specifically our preschool programs. >> And um they they are going to take this year to rethink how, if any, uh might they uh want to take back programs in the future years, but for now, we'll continue to
014run our programs. And a a huge thanks to Kirsten Escobedo who's here and the entire special education team, our human resources team um that that really works through all the the processes as well as well as our SULA and that team and Santa Maria Bonita. It was a very it's a joint effort to come to these kinds of decisions and so wanted to make sure that you knew about that. In a in a future meeting, I'll tell you more about visits to Guadalupe that I've had recently. their brand new junior high school, the the newest school to open in Santa Barbara County. Casia, I got a chance to visit our special education preschool programs and it's fantastic there. And um Vista Delmare, too. Uh really, really great things happening in our schools. But for now,
015I'll pass it on to back to you um President Cardi, unless you have any questions. The board has any questions for me. Thank you. >> No questions. And thank you for that report. Um let's go to the consent agenda where we have the minutes of two meetings. Uh the meeting on uh August 14th and then the special meeting on August 21st in addition to the registration of credentials and certification documents, the acceptance of donations and the declaration of surplus. Do I have a motion to approve all the consent items? Who >> move? >> Thank you, Miss Bron. Second. >> Thank you, Miss Flores. All in favor? >> I I >> The next item is the personnel report which is for your information only. And now we are going to move to a closed session. So
016we'll excuse anyone who's not related to this next item. Like to return to open session now and announce the actions taken during our recent close session. The board has moved to cancel escrow on the Thesler Street property and be a unanimous approval. Um, voted for that motion. And then similarly, uh, the board moved to cancel the escrow on the Cremona property which was also unanimously approved. Okay. Close session. I mean, >> all right. >> Thank you very much. And so now we'll transition to our starting of our close session, but we'll need some time. Yes. So we'll um cue