001I'd like to call to order the regular meeting of June 18, 2025. Thank you all for being here. A reminder that Spanish interpretation is available live and simultaneously on the uh for those that are viewing online. And now I invite you to join me in pledging allegiance to the flag. Ready? Salute. I place and to theublic nation indivisible with liberty and justice for all. We are joined by our um North County colleagues via the magic of Zoom. and Anna at this time can do our roll call. Sure. Uh Mrs. Alvarez Flores here. You Dr. Armistad present. Mrs. Cardi here. Ms. Man here. Mrs. Frost present. Mrs. Reed here. And Mr. Walker here. Okay. Thank you. Thank you. Any board comments? I'll start with North County. Anything anyone would like to share. That sounds like a
002maybe a a nay. Okay. Anyone here? just like to acknowledge the passing of Jack Garvin and just a true leader in education and you know be missed and Susan thanks for sending up the notice. You're welcome. Okay. Uh public comments I'm here in the south. Any in the north? Yes, we have one. All right. Good afternoon. My name is Victor McConnell. In the last meeting, Superintendent Salceto publicly stated that she welcomes input as an opportunity to improve, but my own experience and the experience of many others tells a different story. Opportunity has knocked on the superintendent's door many times. For over a year, I've been in meetings with her subordinate associate superintendent, and an HR complaint has been open since February, and Susan herself has received a copy of the complaint and a unique set
003of supporting documentation. Yet, the very mismanagement and liability I was concerned about continued to escalate at the time of my departure and is still ongoing. Susan's comment implied that she is handling these matters and their relevance to the board is minimal. But I have walked through every door in this organization, and this is the only one left. I'm not alone. And while my background and specialty is in technology, my advocacy extends much further. And I know staff across the organization feel the weight of what I described and I've received such feedback. But with that, let me connect why my specific interest in technology procurement and practices matter as a whole. This administration has allowed the spending of tens of thousands of dollars on network switches, a purchase so lacking in transparency that I had to
004use a public records act request to learn its scope because internal inquiries were ignored. Due diligence was outsourced to the very vendor who would profit from the sale while our own IT qualified IT staff were kept in the dark. SBCO has spent hundreds of hours of staff time trying to justify this procurement after the fact. And now compare that to a sped site like Kasmalia. While leadership was approving that large purchase elsewhere, Kasmalia's urgent security needs were met with consumer grade equipment that sat unressed for months. This is not an isolated incident. My research highlights that sped classrooms are often the most neglected with outdated technology and woefully unequipped and overburdened staff. Why is it that teachers are forced to buy materials out of their own pockets waiting months for reimbursements while this administration spends
005our time and money defending questionable backroom deals? And if the excuse is that the responsibility lies on the district, then how is it that we are supporting them? If they can't afford it, do we just turn a blind eye and allow that? At what point do we start justifying not feeding students because of budget cuts or because it's not legally mandated? This idea of meeting the letter of the law does not absolve the failing of a much greater mission. You'll see today in a report that your own climate survey references data points such as 50% of the students in the court and community schools don't feel safe. Over 40% report current vape usage, 34% report current alcohol or drug use, and 68% express a lack of optimism about their future. Later in your reports, you
006will see a giant check mark that says all local indicators are being met. The failure of this leadership is undeniable and inexcusable. Staff turnover is so high that SBCO had to issue raises and stipens just to slow the exodus. And people are still leaving. More than half the staff are new hires over the last three years. And now most concerning, San Maria Bonita has followed other districts and decided to take its preschool program back from SPCO. This is a massive loss. You have to ask yourself, how bad must things be for a major district to risk hundreds of children's educations and dozens of careers just to get away from this organization? That is a vote of no confidence. And the reality is this is not our surprise. Staff has seen it coming for a long
007time and has been predicted. Is this the result of a successful mission? I myself serve on a school board before and our authorizing body was a CDE. I know what it's like to sit in your position and to get these positive reports and to do the tours of the sites, but the people who come to you and the information you get is heavily filtered. They are going to present their best selves to you. You are going to see the most glowing aspects of the organization. People are prepped. The board is coming when you come to see these locations. There's a reality here and I understand you may not see or it may not be in your purview to manage the dayto-day but you need that context so when there are decisions that are under your
008control you have that context to measure it against. Thank you Mr. McConnell. I want to acknowledge your previous public comments and reassure you that you have indeed been heard and that in speaking with the superintendent. I can reassure you and the board and the public that these matters are being looked into, they're under review at this time. And while it's too soon to issue a report, we do look forward to hearing back from the superintendent um in weeks to come. So, thank you again. And that brings us to our information items. Number eight, the summary of the Santa Barbara County Education Office support for continuous improvement in districts. Um we've got Superintendent Ellen Barker and um Director of School and District Support Shawn Kerry and Rachel Fabber to present a summary. Thank you, Mrs. Cardi,
009and thank you, board, for this opportunity to share our annual summary of school and district support. So, I'll just wait for a moment for um the slides to come up. There we go. Okay, perfect. So, at the last board meeting, the student and community services team led by Bridget, Elise, Renee, and Amy provided such a cogent summary of SBCEO's LCAP for juvenile court and community schools and transitional youth services. And that coency and the coherent alignment with Steve's clear budget summary actually belies the enormous complexity and efforts involved in developing an LCAP, aligning it to the budget and integrating all of the requirements and initiatives into a coherent plan. And this is something that each and every one of our local education agencies, every district, every charter school has to do annually. So an invisible
010yet essential function of SBCEO is providing support to our LEAs for plan development and implementation and for the continuous improvement of their systems. That improvement is structural. It's instructional and it's cultural. So today we are happy to give you a brief overview of a sliver of that support as it pertains to this annual summary report for LCAP and differentiated assistance for the eleas in our county. And so with us today are four of our directors of school and district support who are at the heart of this work. In the north county, we have Noel Barthell. So, she's probably waving to everybody there. And in the South County, we have Tiffany Carson. And presenting with me today are directors Rachel Favver and Sha Kerry. And so, our presentation overview will go through these steps. I'll start
011with the purpose and historical context of this plan. Then there are three required goals by ed code for us to speak to that are also in that plan. We'll give very brief overviews of those. Then we are also required to talk about our collaboration with the state agencies and then we'll take questions and comments at the end. So I'll start with the history and purpose and um the local control funding formula of 2013. We've talked about a lot in this forum and we know how it transformed the funding system in California, but what's not always as evident is that it transformed California's approach to accountability and education. At that time, we were in the throws of the No Child Left Behind era that you've probably heard that impacted both our state and our federal accountability
012systems. Those systems of both accountability and funding were really um characterized by both standards and sanctions. really they were merely mandates with penalties and prescriptive fixes that um really prescribed the inputs and just imagined that that the outcomes would just magically disappear, but they really had limited success. And what they did was label schools as failing. And so in that time frame too, we had as you know just so many categorical uh funds but it was also a categorical mindset that dealt with improvement or accountability in very fractured ways. So we have moved from standards and sanctions really to an accountability system of mutuality. one that balances internal or local accountability with a greater external. And instead of being so um specific and categorical in the way that we dole out resources, it's really about
013local districts having stewardship over all of their resources, not just money, but attention, time, talent, etc. And so California is really committed to creating this mutual accountability system that is built on support and continuous improvement. And that is perhaps best personified in what came out in 2015, which is the blueprint for great schools. And on page two, it describes what we talk about all the time when we talk about accountability, which is the California way. I'll give you a moment to read the California Way to yourself and then I'll read it with a lot of emphasis and drama. So everything in our accountability system, the count the California way rests on the belief that educators want to excel. It trusts them to improve when given the proper supports and provides local schools and districts with
014the leeway and flexibility to deploy those resources so that they can improve. And so all of that led to our four component or fourdimensional accountability system in California. And so you can see those four components there and they were released uh little by little. So the first thing that came out was the LCAP and that was in 2014 and then the dashboards followed in 2016 and 17 and those have continuously evolved and changed and been adjusted. Once we had the local control and accountability plans and the dashboard, it led to the development of differentiated assistance. That's that proper supports that we talked about in the California way. And in order for the county offices of education to provide that differentiated assistance to our districts, it also meant building and continuously building a statewide system of
015support. And so then in 2019, the final step of this was the requirement to present as an information item just a a summary. So you have the entire summary um but also to present just a quick overview of that summary about those four areas that we're required to do and that's what we're doing today. So that's a copy of the summary which was the attachment eight in the um in the board book and we'll be talking about these three goals as well as our coordination and collaboration. So goal one is to support and review all LCAPS. Sean will take you through that. Goal two, Rachel will give a a brief overview of how we provide def differentiated technical assistance and then I'll come back for goal three to talk about how all of that comes
016together in plan implementation. That should only take about three and a half hours. Um, and if you were reading through, you'll see that we like the LCAP, we reflect on the previous year. We make uh goals, metrics, and actions for the coming year. And part of that is because we're in all of these different years at the same time. So, I'll turn it over to Sean to talk about goal one. Thank you, Ellen, and good morning, everyone. I'm glad to be here with you and to talk about LCAPs. Um, so, you know, Ellen mentioned the local control funding formula and the the LCFF gives LEAs, which again are are our school districts and our charter schools in the county more flexibility in in deciding how to use their funds. In exchange, eleas's must work with
017families, students, educators, including all staff, and the community to develop an LCAP or local control accountability plan that describes how they will use these funds to serve their students and particularly to serve um the most high need students with increased or improved services. So you can see the connection between that and the California way statement and really the pillars or the underpinnings of how that uh manifests in in the LCAP is through three principles here. Um one is this support and improve approach to accountability in contrast um to the former sort of approach and mindset around accountability. Um equity is a core principle of the LCAP. um providing supplemental resources to ensure that students who have high needs specifically who are English learners uh students who are socioeconomically disadvantaged or students in foster care um
018as as well as homeless students have those supports that they need. And the third here pillar um or principle is subsidiarity. So again underscoring this idea of local control um and entrusting local educators to best know what would be most responsive to the needs of high high needs uh students. That's a little bit about what the LCAP is. Um this is a slide that sort of shows you who on the SBCEO team supports um the development and ultimately the approval of local control accountability plans. you've been introduced to some of us in in the room here and and virtually. Um and now these next slides are going to talk to you a little bit about how um how this happens. So we really have in county offices a dual role to play. Um and this
019is separate from our own county offices programs and services that you learn about through the SBCEO LCAP. This is the team that helps to support districts and charters as they develop um their LCAP. that usually happens in the early months of the calendar year. Um it's characterized by professional learning events, both formal ones and sort of informal and ongoing coaching and consultation. And what we're looking to do there is always um engage and capitalize on the continuous learn uh improvement opportunity both for LCAP authors but ultimately for um improvements in the systems of the of the districts and charters. And this is our opportunity to really as we come to deeply know um folks in leadership roles in our school districts and charters deeply know what it is that that is happening in their context,
020what it is that we know that they are prioritizing and help them tell that story and demonstrate that through their LCAP. So we really capitalize on this uh coaching phase to support the development of LCAPS that will that will do a good job representing all that we know our districts and charters are doing to support students. And then we kind of shift gears. We take off a hat and we put a different kind of hat on. And we are really explicit with our districts and charters about that. We sort of signal to them, okay, now we're putting a different hat on and we are coming to you um and and serving you as reviewers and approvers of your LCAP. And that's a much more technical role and it's it's really prescribed to us. Um there
021are four criteria that we need to um assess and and determine. This is how we determine whether an NLCAP is approvable. whether they've met these four criteria or not. And these are sort of big buckets. And within each of these buckets, there are all kinds of discrete sort of things that we need to check. But LCAPS need to follow all the instructions to follow the state board of education uh their adopted template. Um and all of that stems from ED code and from legislation. We need to make sure that there's sufficient budget to carry out the LCAP services. It's why you see that it's both a program side team and a fiscal team that help together that collaborate together to re to review um LCAPS. We need to make sure that there is a demonstration
022of increased and improved services um for students with high needs or what we call unduplicated pupils. You might hear that phrase. And if there are any unspent funds dedicated for that purpose from prior years, we need to make sure that those are embedded and incorporated into the into the future LCAP. So that's what we're ultimately sort of signing off on when we approve an LCAP. We do not have the authority as county office reviewers to require anything beyond what's in the ED code or to reject the choices that districts and and charters make, specifically districts. But we do have an impact over time in influencing the coherence of plans and helping to um generate higher quality and more accessible plans that make those efforts really transparent for school communities. Uh this is a really quick
023slide just to help reinforce the idea that when most people think about a year, they think about January to December. But as you know from working with in school contexts and working in school contexts, a school year is more like July to June. And so you kind of get on that rhythm. And if you live a long time in LCAP land like some of us do, our year is more like October to September. It's got its own funky rhythm as as Ellen alluded to. And so the next slide is going to unpack that a little bit, but we are right here in this very special time of the LCAP cycle. Um and and that's again sort of the report that you're looking at. Uh we'll we'll sort of start on this slide with the beginning
024of the LCAP year which is just to the right of the dashed line um that you'll see in in October. That's when we post LCAPS. You can find them on websites. Um we learn about any changes for the for the coming year. Um that's when the dashboard comes out annually every year a couple weeks earlier to our October target dates. And that's when districts start to say, "Okay, how's it going? We've settled into a new school year. Um, what's our money looking like? What are our students what's our student data and our performance looking like?" And then newly, this will this is um something that was new last year. We will have mid-year updates. So, an opportunity for districts and charters to say, "Okay, here's how it's going." At a midpoint, doing a midpoint check
025and not waiting for that full annual cycle to make any pivots or adjustments or to be transparent with the community about what's happening and what they're seeing on the ground. Um, in May and June, we do very intense support via previews of the LCAPS so that we can help ensure that coherence and quality and approvability as districts take um, LCAPS to their board. So, um, we will be doing that's what we're doing now, right? And it's it's June now. Um, but what we will be soon doing is approving formally approving all of the LCAPS based on those four criteria. So, this is just another way of slicing the the annual cycle of the LCAP and and reinforcing the idea that the report you have is is doing both things. It's talking to you about what
026we've done through this point in the school year and also signaling um some things for the coming school year. We are in the process of reviewing the 2025 2026 LCAP. So, that's very our future school year is very much um on our minds. So, it's doing both things. And again, just just uh my final point will be to talk about what's going on right now in June because we're coming to you in June and it's a time when we can really appreciate uh all the work our districts and charters have done. And I just want to also appreciate and um and communicate uh a little bit about what the SBCEO team has accomplished together this year. And really, it's three things. Um we have set our minds very intentionally to increasing collaboration. that's both internally
027between our program and fiscal divisions um and also with districts. So we uh gave districts the opportunity and the vast majority took us up on the opportunity to meet monthly through that development phase and that's really yielded um stronger deeper trusting relationships which help which helps the process and has allowed for proactive identification and any resolution of potential vulnerabilities to approval. Um the second thing is we've streamlined our processes and leveraged technology to do that so we can be clearer, more consistent and more efficient again internally and externally in serving in districts. And then um this is just a shout out to the fact that an LCAP is really a three-year plan. You probably know that we are situated in year two of the three-year plan. And we are finding that year 2 is giving
028us a really good opportunity to um polish up you know LCAPS that may have been approvable last year but can really be strengthened through more precise metrics or through clearer descriptions. Um and as I said to they will they to try to get them to tell a better story about um what all those efforts are that districts are putting in to meet students to know about and meet students needs. So, we're proud of these um shared accomplishments this year on part of the SBCEO team. Um and with that, I'm going to hand it over to Rachel Faver to talk to you about differentiated assistance. I just had a quick question. Can I ask it real quick? Can you hear me? We can hear you. Yes, we can hear you. I just had a real quick
029question under increased collaboration. Uh you talk about meeting monthly with districts. Who who is the team that meets from the district? That's a great question. So it can really vary um depending on generally the size of the district and how they're situated. So as you may know in our county we have uh 20 districts that are really variable. So we have some single many several single school school districts and in that case it might be meeting with the superintendent and they may also handle the fiscal the fiscal side of the operations of the district. Um in larger district context there might be uh a district leader role that is dedicated um to to this plan to being the author of this plan and to compiling input from other district and site leaders. Um, so it's
030typically uh two people from our side, kind of a program and fiscal representative, and one or two or sometimes more people from from the district side, but it really varies depending on the district's uh size typically. Thank you. Great. Okay. So, um as Sean said, we'll start talking about um providing different differentiated technical assistance or um DA. And while the the word on the screen is provide, um it really what we're going to talk about is sort of our approach to this because the provision of of differentiated assistance is so complex. you know, as you heard, we have such a a variety of um districts and charters that we support, and you'll see kind of how that comes into play um in the next few slides. So, the first thing I wanted to share is
031just um coming from California's system of support, which Ellen mentioned at the at the start of this, um how differentiated assistance is defined. And so, for this, what I really want you to see is some of these words um that are highlighted. It's words like assist, strengthen, um evaluate effectiveness. And um so you know this this work is really grounded um kind of that move away from where Ellen was describing that sort of pro prescriptive action into really evaluating supporting collaborating with districts to understand their systems what's happening in their systems and how we can come alongside to support their work as opposed to coming in and saying here are things that need to happen. So this idea of it being a status um or not being a status or a label but rather we
032really approach it as a type of support and not something to kind of move in and out of as we approach our work with our districts. Um we really have these three goals um in mind. So the first one um is to really have this you know comprehensive and coherent support that is very much informed by what is happening at the LEA local education um agency those district and charter um points like what's happening in those systems and within their context their communities every um type of every way that we interact with districts is really customized and individualized for them. So, um having that understanding of their system then informs how we approach that customization. And then we really look at this as a long-term approach. So, you'll see um in a bit that the
033our support lasts for at least two years. So, we have at least a two-year um relationship with eleas and potentially longer depending on on um how we're approaching things with them. So, first I'm just going to give you there's um an overview. There are actually three levels of support. We love our tiered support in California. And so, um we'll talk about just very broadly what those um three levels are are and then we're going to get a little bit deeper into two where most of our work takes place. So, first universal. Um this support happens and is available to all districts. So, our our 20 districts, our 10 charters, um, and there are lots of ways that we provide the support throughout the the county. And our second is targeted. So, when we say the
034term differentiated assistance or DA, often this is what people think about is this targeted support. So, this comes to um, eleas who have qualified for um, for this support. Currently, we're supporting 13 districts and charters in that support. And then there's a third level that is intensive um and it's it's again provided only to identified eleas that are showing um really a persistence of um challenges across um a number of years. And as of right now, we have one district that's in that um in that intensive support. Um what I'll say also is you know if you're in intensive it doesn't mean that you don't get targeted or universal. You know that it's available from each tier is available as you kind of move along through and the dashboard determines that qualification for the targeted
035and intensive support. So to get a little bit deeper into what universal looks like or how we approach it um we really look at finding a collective area of need. So how do we do this? We look at lots of sources. We're going to look at the dashboard, what comes out sort of generally across um our districts throughout the county, and then we're really relying on some input and feedback that we get through the relationships and the other ways that we're engaged with districts about what is really at the heart of their needs um sort of in this collective way. Once we've determined what um that collected area of need or focus is, we use that to determine what kind of support that we provide. Sometimes it's um things like tools or resources um connecting
036them to the statewide system of support resources that are available um or professional learning creating networks or opportunities within some of the um networks and communities that we already have contact with districts um through where we we bring some of this support forward. So as we move into the targeted support, so again this is for districts who are who have qualified for this sort of specialized support. It really then gets down to that individual LEA need. So what does that district um need or that charter need in terms of that support? So again, we're going to look at multiple sources, but this is really um determined in collaboration with the LEA. So really kind of drilling down to what their needs are. We always take into consideration what are they already implementing, right? We're not
037making the assumption that they're just sitting back and waiting for our support to come. We know that they are so active in um looking at their outcomes and finding ways to support students and families in their community. So, we always kind of come to that to that place. Very very dramatic. Uhhuh. Uhhuh. Yes. Yes. Yes. Um so, uh again, it's really LEA determined and some of that determination comes through the support that we give. So, um we're looking at data gathering, exploration, um doing assessment, implementation of support. And what we often say is that this is an opportunity for us to create the conditions for districts to really take some time, take a broad look at their systems, how things are working, and um kind of really think deeply, take stock of what's happening, and
038um see how they might kind of approach making some changes if that's if that's where they're looking. What gets challenging is sometimes people we can say all of these words, right? Systems and support and and all these things, but sometimes we come back to but what are you doing? How does what does this look like? Um and again, it's really complex and it's individualized. But I thought that sharing some of the areas of focus that our districts are currently engaged in might help to kind of um contextualize some of what they are um how this work kind of comes forward. So you'll see there's lots of different um areas of focus. We've got inquiry, we've got improvement, we've got um districts that are identifying a problem of practice that they want to investigate. So these
039are and each of these are in sort of different stages of the process. So um inquiry might be at the very beginning where they're coming with this feeling, this hunch about what's happening in the system and that there might be something to that that they could leverage. Whereas implementation um is we've done some of these other steps and we really think that this move forward is going to help make a difference. And so our support comes in around implementation of things like helping coach them through through some of their thinking, helping them to um determine what metrics they're going to use to evaluate their implementation. So you know there's this constant kind of um relationship collaboration between us and the district and they are really doing a you know the majority of the work out
040in front of Yeah. So, uh, this is helpful and you hit it right on the nose when you say a lot of words. Yeah. Uh, so LEA is a, for example, is a school district. Yes. And LEA, when we use the term LEA, local education agency, school district or charter, that's our kind of combined term. And in terms of what would activate the county perhaps bringing resources would activates it could be several. It could be the LEA reaches out to us and says hey we think we need some help on XYZ. Yes. You mentioned dashboard. Yes. Does every LEA have a dashboard? Yes. And is it their own individual dashboard or is a dashboard that's tied into the county's dashboard? Great question. It is their own individual dashboard. So every design it based on what
041they It is it's a statewide dashboard. So that's designed by the state. Um it's consistent. Yes. Every every school and every district which will include all their schools has the same dashboard that is released. Um it's the date is moving up. It'll be it'll be released in the middle of November this year and that those outcomes are based on the prior year's data. So assessment, you know, English language arts, math, science, um evaluating English learner progress, um suspension, those sorts of things. So based on that data, yes, somebody in here is looking at that information. if it hits a certain thing, will we reach out or are we waiting for them to? Yeah, great question. So, we we are the ones that reach out. So, there is a criteria that we that we know that
042we look at um that has to do with um really meeting need for student groups across the indicators that are on the dashboard. So kind of having a student group that is showing a need essentially across at least two different indicator areas. Once we see that, once the dashboard comes out, we all start digging into it and um you know kind of preemptively making determinations about who is likely to be sort of eligible for that support. Um and the state at the same time is going to send us a list that says these are the the eleas the districts that are that are eligible for that support. Yes. So once that happens, then we have a process of reaching out or if it's a district that we've already been working with because sometimes we have
043them, they're, you know, eligible multiple years in a row, we, you know, kind of just continue that relationship and and continue to move things forward and things, right? Yeah. Uh I'm sure this is the extreme and I'm sure this doesn't happen, but I always like going the worst case. So your dashboard lights up. It's like, we need to go talk to you. So you come out, I'm the superintendent. Just say, "Hey, we still have the dashboard. We notice uh we have a nice conversation and I say to you, thank you, but no." Yeah, that's a great question. Yeah. Um what's that? Yeah, just to be Yeah, that stay up here, but just to be clear, it's one of the ways that the LCAP and the differentiated assistance and the dashboard all work together. So, as
044Rachel said, there's state specific criteria that says you are eligible. We do go talk to them. And one of the things in place is they now have to say in their LCAP how they're working with us and what their initiatives are for differentiated assistance. So the thank you but no thank you that is often a range of how long um and how deep they want to go in the work with us. But there are these pieces in there that um connect the accountability system. So they do have to report on it publicly in their LCAP at the beginning and if it doesn't get better at some point there's some sort of consequence and say say what you mean by a consequence because I think that's a broad term of what it means for consequences problem
045of practice students with disabilities do not have equable access right and so you come to me it's like hey we've noticed this I say thank you to no thank which I'm really saying is I think I can fix it. I don't need uh my guess is we would say okay fine but you have to do this report again next year and if it turns out in that report that you did not improve the situation it's gotten worse kids are suffering the consequence of that is yeah so the consequences um are I would say are multiple because they're not punishments but they are natural consequences of the dashboard outcomes as as you asked. It's such a great question. We we'd be glad when the dashboard's about to come out to give a tutorial. That's the best
046time to get it. Um but there's local and their state. So Rachel was showing about the levels of intensity. So additional state agencies get involved when the um when the outcomes persist and work alongside us. So that's one of the natural consequences. Also it's the reporting every year both in the LCAP but the the dashboards are public. They're open to the entire public. So we see um changes from year to year where improve in some areas fall back in other areas. So this might be a problem of practice this year because they believe that that's at the heart and that's what they're working on and then that might make some a little bit of improvement and then they want to go to their next and to their next. Yeah, I'm sorry to be persistent. It's
047great. They're not making it. It's not getting better. So part of that and and Rachel did a beautiful job of talking about some of the the idea of improvement used to be thought if you just do a best practice and we're going to say what those best practices are that you'll get great outcomes. But as she said, oftentimes they need support at not did we choose the right practice, but did we implement it effectively and did we create the enabling conditions for it to become better. So all of those things are part of that process of improvement, but they might also see they've chosen the wrong practice and they have to adjust. And so they have to report on all of that and make that um make that somewhat transparent and the transparency is also
048in the dashboard of whether or not their improvements are getting better and because there's so many indicators they might get better in one area then another one falls and so then they'll shift their focus. Thank you for the question. Uh this is Judy up in North County. I want to tag on to that guy. You and I were kind of following the same path there and I appreciate your pursuance of that line of questioning. Uh what was hanging me up was on the targeted support. It says it's available to qualifying and that seems like it's something that people would want to achieve. Oh boy, I've qualified. But it it sounds like the state sends the list of those eligible, meaning those that need targeted help. So, it's the word qualifying that I'm stumbling on a
049bit. Yeah. Well, we like to say that, you know, you get the joy, the privilege of working with us. No, but um yes, the the they do have to become eligible for that support and they can always also ask for that support. So, if they're seeing some needs, there's there's um a way for them to kind of come to us and and have, you know, ask for some specific support around that. I think what's important for us is that we really try and maintain this um approach that is not punishing, that isn't um punitive, and that is really, you know, our approach is really about supporting and um doing our best to understand the context and the the community, the culture, what they are um seeing happening in their systems and working alongside that as
050opposed to coming in and prescribing some sort of um intervention say I'm the neopite in in this group and I appreciate your answers and I'm really just trying to think through I think what I heard in between all that is kind of our democratic system meaning you have a leader who's not getting it done I'm really trying to get to the extreme case where you have year after year after year stuff is not happening uh we have a topdown down bottom up system of education. This thing starts at the fed level, pretty broad, state, less broad, county, less broad, local. And so they the local has access to a bunch of stuff, but they also have a freedom to accept it, not accept it, do, don't do, and they have a board that's watching the
051stuff. So year after year after year if stuff's not getting done, it's a little bit on the board to say you got the right leadership. That's right. Yep. Yeah. All right. But I appreciate the civility. I think what you guys are doing. I got it. Great. Um Okay. So, you know, kind of continuing with this idea of um where this work lives, where the differentiated assistance work lives. Um it is again our approach is really and the intention is for it to live, you know, kind of at the center of all of this. It is it's not something to be um approached or tackled kind of outside of what's happening within the system. It really takes into consideration, you know, all of these other elements, these things that are present in the system that are
052also informing how we um communicate with our educational partners, how we take in information as a district and um incorporating those into that support. So, it really doesn't live on its own. It's it's very much um a part of that whole comprehensive system. And of course our approaches um are not just sort of dreamt up in our own um you know in our own minds. We rely a lot on um research and um and strategies that are out there and and these are a few that we we um go to frequently for how that you know sort of again how that support looks at a at a district level. And so again you know our team is um our our you know essential team is here. you'll see that we've um had um really intentional
053collaboration with our Santa Barbara County SULPA director. Um he's been a a part of our work um I think since the beginning. And um you'll also notice that some of the names on here are also names that you see on the LCAP reviewers um and support um really intentionally again to help build that coherence and focus of support. Okay, I'm gonna hand it back over to Ellen. Thank you. And so now for the three-hour part. No, I'm just kidding. So, the last part of the report, as you read, has a lot of details about how we provide those supports. Um it's through uh various networks and communities of practice, through administering grants on behalf of our districts, workshops, customized contract work, many grants, and all of our existing program integration. So we did our best
054to uh put that as succinctly as possible into the plan. Some of the areas for universal supports are also called out and a lot of those have to do with the foundation around dashboard and data helping our districts use their data. We have the continuing areas of focus at the universal level and specific level but um some of the anticipated universal supports are in there as well. And so the last piece that we are required is to in the plan describe how we collaborate. And Mr. Walker, this goes to your question and Mrs. Frost's questions about those levels of intensity and the checks and balances in the system, not only at the board level, but at that state level, that mutual accountability. So at the center of all of the support, you see the local
055education agencies and their school sites. But central to the support is the county office of education and what are called geographic lead agencies or resource agency leads which is um an element of the system of support. The two main state agencies are the CDE which we tend to work with very strongly around the LCAP and you can see some of the ways that we collaborate with the CDE and then the CCE is a new agency that was developed with the LCFF to coordinate the statewide system of the support. It's the California Collaborative for Educational Excellence. And so just a few of the ways that we integrate there. This is um a nice little graphic that shows it in another way. But really what is intended to do is to say in this accountability system that
056is mutual, that is supportive, that requires continuous improvement but provides the supports to it. The county office of education is at the center of it across those four components. What it allows us to do as as Rachel and Sean and Tiffany and Noel have done is really become coherent and know our districts well to support them in ways that really do meet their needs and um honor the work that they're doing. But it allows us to get to get the depth of expertise to curate the expertise across the state and to connect those needs. And so those are our three goals. That's how we collaborate. More detail in the fun reading. And at this point, any um remaining comments or questions, we would love those as well. So thank you for letting us share that
057today. Thank you for delivering it. Comprehensive. I always learn something else at each of these presentations. My question to you Alan is in this um under the banner of continuous improvement. Do COE's have a voice with respect to the actual process that they have to implement to those various eleas? Absolutely. And I know that you have presence on the statewide uh leadership team, but can you explain how that works? So we not only do we have a voice, we are deeply committed. When Rachel was showing all of that training, that's what equips us to be able to work directly with the districts. We do not come in with any prescribed when it comes to differentiated assistance. I'll start there. Our choices about universal have come from deep conversations at the superintendence council, at the SULPA,
058through our LCAPS and through our curriculum council. And so for several years, our universal focus has been students with disabilities. And we are also working now on long-term eelss. So that has been totally our voice, but the voice has listened to our districts. Um in terms of how we provide the differentiated assistance absolutely it is a full collaboration with the district. So while we can't say we think you should work on this we do work enough with them that we can hear where they're struggling. we have their data and together we are like okay if that's what you want to work on that makes sense because you've laid out this reason here we will get the supports in place so it is not determined at the state level and we do have influence in differentiated
059assistance in working with our districts but we cannot mandate you're going to work on X or Y or Z in LCAP our voice comes through the work that we statewide and um Steve Torres works on it, Josh works on it, Sean works on it, I work on it. Um you know, we don't always get our way, but we also take what is required and try to make it what the districts really need for themselves as well. Yeah, I think, you know, we're listening to what the state has determined to be this year's version of what's working. Do you think that this current iteration of LCAPS because I know it's been a process and every year there's something new and sometimes it's very cumbersome to implement. Do you feel like we're going in the right direction
060here as a state? I think I know that's a loaded question. It's very much a loaded question and what I would say is the LCAP is in its own constant state of improvement and change and trying out things that may or may not yield what their intention was. I think that the original architects of the LCFF are no longer in office. I think we are 11 12 years later and we're in a different political time. We know that it's a powerful document because all advocacy groups try to get anything that's really important to them into the LCAP because it is required and it's public. And I would say there have been a few changes in the past that have created more clarity and although they've been difficult, they have created um more focus on the
061students for whom you know these extra funds are generated. With that said, I'm going to grab a prop. This is the manual of just the requirements and 32 pages in the instructions. And so it is a Rubik's cube. And so much um I guess you would say respect needs to be given to LCAP writers at the district and uh at the districts at the charters at the county offices both on the program side and budget side because um making all those things work while still having it be your strategic plan is quite a huge lift. and people are giving it so much energy um and really trying to make it work. That said, continuous improvement, right? Yeah. 30 different ways. 30 unique That's right. local educational do have to participate in No, they do not.
062So, our relationship We couldn't hear that question. Guy, what what did you ask? Do community colleges have to participate in the LCAP LCF? Oh, so in terms of our relationship with the community colleges, what is it? Not in the area of accountability um in this way at all. Um there are some county offices and ours ours was in that um category where county offices have been the uh fiduciary uh like but we would do payroll and they would be on our account systems. That isn't the case anymore with Allen Hancock College and Santa Barbara City College, though it was in the past. That that does um remain intact in for some counties, but for accountability, it's a TK to 12 um for school districts and charter schools. Thank you. So, thank you guys so much
063for this information. um uh we always learn so much and so um just how the the level of collaboration uh the level of work and input um partnerships that go into this. I wanted to circle back a little bit and just um on the question that board member Walker and Frost had um because it reminded me of a board meeting a few years back when we had discussed this and I had asked well what if uh LEA doesn't want to participate right and so of course we know and you you answered um you you answered some of that um with the questions brought out today and we know that that is not the norm. You know what I mean? Because we do want um we we strive for that level of collaboration and we don't
064want to be punitive and um a lot of our uh our eleas want the support as well. Uh and at the same time in that rare case where you do hit the brick wall, right? and you they do there's that level of accountability in the LCAP um and there is that uh transparency and the reporting year after year. Are there any tools, resources or leverage that the county office of education has um to further um ensure accountability of um a particular LA LEA that might not be in that collaborative spirit that we're we're moving in. Yeah. I'm moving toward. I really appreciate that question um for multiple reasons. Um, and one of the reasons is because this idea of we we don't have any of our districts say stay away, we've got this. Um, often
065times in all the things that you named, one of the others is redundancy and initiative overload. So often times they have preconceived notions, especially the first time they uh qualify for this support because they might remember program improvement. And so they're afraid that we're going to come in and lay a brand new initiative. And as Rachel said so beautifully, sometimes our districts by the time the dashboard comes out and that list comes out, they've been looking at their outcomes and they've already started working on it. So it's often not so much a stay away or a push back in any way. It's trying to figure out how if they already have an initiative, how we can support it and make it also work around these areas. So in terms of tools, the tools um are
066often tools of influence, support and relationship more than they are of sticks and punishments. Um, and what I'd also say is as there is sort of increasing intensity of need or pervasiveness of no change. That's where the cce and those uh and the geographic leads become these extra layers to say okay this has risen to you know a more pertinent level to give a sense and and thankfully we don't have any of that get out get away we've got this but thank you thank you so much for that I really appreciate your answer Judy up in North County Can I'm just full of it today, aren't I? Um, we love it. I have a question about the um juvenile court schools and community schools LCAP in regards to are you looking at at Bridget? Yes.
067Yes. Can you tell we're making I I'm not sure if I should be asking you or wait till Bridget comes up to ask her, but where do they I mean the county says it it serves 20 districts in the charter school, but we also serve ourselves and Ellen's going I'll take it. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. So Bridget will take it in depth to say the way that the structure is, the county offices support the districts and then the state agencies review the LCAP for county offices and provide, you know, work through the the providence of that support so that we're not supporting ourselves. Thank you. Okay. Are there any other questions for Ellen or Sean or Rachel? Thank you. Thank you so much very much. So that summary of the annual report uh was presented as
068a required information item per education code 52066 requires no action. like to bring up our uh associate superintendent of student and community services uh Bridget Bobas to report on the LCAP local indicators. Well, good afternoon and thank you uh for having me board members and President Cardi and I'm going to wait just a moment for my presentation to load. And uh Miss Frost, I'm so glad that you asked that question because it was actually how I was going to begin the presentation is just to set it up to say that our curriculum instruction division did such a beautiful job of really weaving together and making those connections about how LCAPS are developed, the support that they provide in differentiated assistance and that continuous improvement cycle. And that work is really focused in, as um you
069heard multiple times, the 20 LEAs or school districts and our charter schools within our county. And then we kind of shift our focus over to student and community services where we're actually in charge of providing services for our juvenile court and community schools. And so our shift is in developing that LCAP as you heard the presentation last week and really looking at our internal programs. And then while Ellen just said we do not they do not approve ours. You heard a lot about them approving LCAPS. Our LCAP is actually sent up to the California Department of Education. They are our reviewers and approvers. And if for some reason we fall into differentiated assistance. I'm happy to say we are not at the moment. Um then we receive our support and services directly from the California
070Department of Ed or CDE. So, it really does blend together. And we're going to take a look here in just a moment at one little narrow piece of how all of this fits together, which are the California school dashboard local indicators. And uh Mr. Walker, you had several questions about the dashboard. And I'm not really, this presentation isn't really about the dashboard as a whole, but we'll kind of just hone in on one piece of that dashboard, and maybe some of your questions will get answered through the process. So, just to kind of give a kind of a broad overview. So, we're going to go back a little bit and look at how how does some of these pieces fit together. And so, last week as and today, you'll be hopefully in just a moment
071approving um and adopting our local control accountability plan for our SPCO programs. And as you reviewed that plan and in the presentation last week, you'll recall there were five main goals. And within each goal, there are actions, how we're going to meet those goals, and there are specific metrics. So, how are we measuring our progress? And as we look at those goals a little bit closer, um you'll recall last week Renee Wheelers talked about priority three, and this one is a priority six. And so, there are eight state priorities that are outlined and then 10 priorities for county offices of education. And so goals are written to those priorities that we are going to meet that. And then we look at our metrics. So how are we measuring our progress? And those metrics are really
072looking at various measures including state and local indicators which are then reported on that annual school dashboard. So, it's kind of a broad scope of how it all kind of fits together. Here in this slide is a table that just sort of breaks it down a little bit further. And so you'll see on the far left side, these are the eight priority areas. And the two in at the bottom in red are the two specific for county offices of education. So again, we had one goal that was solely focused on priority area 10. And then in the middle column, we have five identified state indicators um in each of these areas. And these can be measured through um state assessment. So how are students doing on uh academic testing? These are also looking at in
073in specific indicators that are input through the CalPADs data, which is I always want to look it up. California longitudinal pupil achievement data system. So things like our suspension rates. Um we also are looking at our chronic absenteeism rates in through that and reporting that and then those um indicators are reported on the dashboard. So Mr. Walker earlier you asked about is it all the same and so yes there are specific measures that are looked at. Some will vary based on grade spans, but for the majority, we are looking at those same indicators as reported on the dashboard. And then we're going to look at our local indicators. And for local indicators in that far column, there are five specifically for LEAs. And as a county office, we get the pleasure of having two more.
074So we have seven. And those are also reported again in our LCAP metrics. and then in a report that you're looking at today as attachment nine. So I'm going to move forward to the next slide. And here we're looking at just a little bit of a deeper look. What are these local indicators? So these are self-reported measures and that self-reporting piece is that attachment. So all of the metrics that we're using, our teams have analyzed data. We're looking at various points um of how are we doing? how are we doing with uh implementing standards? How is our our student climate data? What does that look like? And so we report it through the local indicators and they really do focus on those local performance measures and improvement and highlight areas of growth. So as you
075read that report, some of the questions will ask you some of the narrative prompts. What are you doing with this data? How are you addressing areas of need? Um earlier there was a public comment about student climate and you'll see in that growth area that we talk about having a substance abuse counselor at Fitzgerald to support students with vaping or substance abuse. And so you'll see where we're addressing those issues and how we're trying to improve those outcomes for youth. Finally, all of that is sort of wrapped up again in that statewide dashboard system. And it really is a way, it's one way of looking at a picture of a district or in our case, our county offic's performance overall. But again, that's just one way to look at the data. As we know, there
076are many ways to uh look at data and how we're doing. So, how do we meet this? How do we meet the criteria? There's a requirements that were designed and laid out by the state board of education. And so we as a county office or as a district would do. We are collecting and analyzing our data throughout the year. Really, this starts as soon as school starts. As Ellen said, it's this kind of constant or cycle. We never really stop looking at our data. How are we doing? Let's measure our progress. Um the requirement does ask that before July 1st in conjunction with the LCAP adoption we present this information to the board which is today. So we're presenting how are we doing on these local measurements and then the last p piece of this
077is that we have to report that data in a system at the state level that will then go out and publish the dashboard this fall. And so by doing those things then that's why you have that big check mark. Um that is what is deemed as required as met the criteria for local indicators. So when you look at the dashboard or if a presentation is provided this fall you'll see that there are there are parts of it that are those statewide metrics and then the local indicators simply say met because we have done those three things. Okay. So that is my quick presentation on local indicators and at this point I will take any questions you may have related to that for the item number nine attachment Judy in North County again. Um Judy thank
078you so much Bridget for ex going through that again. I was just saying to Sarah that, you know, I've probably heard this seven or eight times and it's finally sinking in. I'm finally getting pieces and recognizing them and understanding how they're fit. So, guy, never say, "Well, I'm the newbie and this is all." We're asking the same questions, those of us that have been around for a while, and the staff does a great job of reminding us what we've heard before. Well, it's a lot of pieces to put together. So, any other I'm just um getting used to all the acronyms. Yes. And I loved somewhere I saw a good combination of what they all were. So, the more you also uh say it and then give us the the acronym or the letters, the
079better just to get it infused in my brain. So, I'm definitely learning a lot. Okay. Well, thank you all. Excellent. Thank you so much, budget. Well, that concludes our presentations as required by uh ED code. And now we have a couple of action items in front of us. The first of which is the recommended adoption of the Santa Barbara County Education Office 2526 Local Control and Accountability Plan, also known as LCAP. Do I have a motion? Thank you, Mr. Walker. Thank you, Miss Armiststead. All in favor? I. Any opposed? And okay, thank you very much. That motion carries. Next, we have the recommended adoption of the 2526 county school service fund budget. Um, we want to make sure that the county superintendent of schools has certified the budget has been reviewed utilizing state adopted criteria
080and standards. And do we have a motion to approve the budget? I so move. Thank you, Katchcha. Second. Thank you very much, Nadra. All in favor? I I. Any opposed? No extensions. And that motion carries too. So, thank you very much. That concludes our action items and the next uh motion we're seeking is one of adjournment. I I this is Judy again. I by now you know um I I had a question. So, as of now we are meeting in July. Is that subject to change or is that for sure? That is uh on the books right now and it is subject to change. It depends on if you um there's some criteria in place. If we have actions that have to occur in the month of July, then we will definitely be meeting. If
081no such actions are required, then we may we may decide to cancel that meeting. So stay tuned. Is there a pending possible interd district transfer appeal? If I may, please. Um, I I believe uh at least one at least two board members may have received a communication about an in a possible interd district transfer uh hearing. So, so that you know, to date, our office has not received a request for an interd district transfer. I I'm not sure where the uh it may be coming but we just have not received that. So I I understand that you may have received communication but we haven't received it anything yet. Yeah. Having said that having said that I will say that in looking back at our um cycle of board meetings and topics interdist transfer appeals uh
082hearings are often requested around the summertime months. And so that I would imagine that if we were to receive an IDT, an introduced transfer um uh hearing request that the board would want to meet in July rather than uh delay a decision for that family and school. Having said that, nothing yet. Okay. Yeah. The the letter or email that I got was not from the family but from a friend. So it it really didn't indicate that any action had been taken. It was just a letter of support for us. Understood. Just to clarify, Judy, that was a a friend of that family, not a not you're saying, not your friend. Okay. Yes. Thank you. Not I know I received the same one. Yeah. I don't know any of the parties involved. It was a friend
083of the family involved. Yeah. Perhaps it was an anticipatory show of support for that family, but we don't have any context for that request. So, that's not on the table right now. But looking ahead in August, that is going to be a meeting that requires us to start at 400 p.m. And we did elect to have that at two different sites much as we have done today. Okay, back to that uh move to adjourn. I second. Okay. All in favor? All right. Thank you very much for your time today.