Santa Barbara County Board of Education Meeting April 10, 2025

001Okay. I'd like to call to order the regular meeting of the Santa Barbara County Board of Education on this April 10th of 2025. Um live simultaneous Spanish translation is available as always for those viewing online. And I would like to invite you to stand with me as we salute the flag. Thank you. Anna, are you ready for row? Oh, sure. Uh, Mrs. Alvarez Flores here. Dr. Armiststead here. Mrs. Cardi here. Mrs. Man here. Mrs. Frost here. Uh, Mrs. Reed here. and Mr. Walker. Thank you. Seeing no changes to the agenda, we'll go right to uh board comments. Does anyone have any comments? Have some comments. Um I wanted to um mention uh Lampoo Unified for their help with Sleep and Heavenly Peace, which provided over 66 beds to children in our community in just under

002three hours. Um, a huge thank you to uh, Lampoke High School for hosting the event. Um, and the school board there that worked along with them um, to get kids the hashtag was no kids sleep on the floor. I thought that was fantastic. So, I wanted to share what was happening in our community. Anyone else? I'm very proud that one of the schools in my district, Eliso, was named one of California's distinguished schools along with four others. Um, our hats are off to those schools who continuing to do really fine work and it shows. Um, okay. Nope. I'll just share I might look at Susan to remember names. I was at the Fighting Back lunch and it was a presentation um with Superintendent um Maldonado and Kenya. Yep. Shenya Edison. Yes. Yes. And so I

003heard a lot about the mental health um wellness in the schools and it was just really inspiring and amazing on what's going on in our schools around mental health and the wellness centers and so it was a really great presentation. Excellent. Uh I don't see any public comments public comments public comments. Okay at that point we'll go right to our first presentation. Um, this one is on the state of the education workforce in Santa Barbara County. Hoping to do this on a somewhat regular basis. And uh, Susan, would you like to introduce Mari and Amy? Oh, thank you so much. And good afternoon to the county board members. And good afternoon to everyone who's here. Um, Mari Gonzalez, our associate superintendent of human resources and Amy Ramos, director of human resources. Amy um has a

004lot of the leadership around our classified uh staff, non-eing staff, and together they have been presenting on the state of the workforce, a little bit of countywide state of the workforce, but then also focusing on the SBCEO employees. Want to say thank you for so much for preparing the presentations and I'll turn it over to you. We're so excited. So, thank you for um giving us this opportunity to share information with you. A lot of the data that we are going to be looking at today is looking five years back so it can show you some trends and then it ends at the 2324. So each year we add an additional year to the data. Um feel free to ask questions interrupt as we work through the slides and we will also provide time at

005the end for questions. We'd like to begin today with some national statistics. What you see here on this slide uh was provided by the National Center for Education Statistics in their report from October of 2023 and that reflects the most recently available data. As you can see, 86% of schools nationwide have challenges hiring teachers. 83% have challenges hiring non-teers such as classrooms and the most frequently reported vacancies are in general education, a general elementary and special education. Overall, schools are faced with too few candidates or a lack of qualified candidates. So, now we're going to move a little bit from that nationwide to the state level. Um, this slide shows the number of new credentials that were issued by the California Commission on Teacher Credentiing, which when you look at the dark red section at

006the top there, um, decreased by 24% from the year 2021 to 2023. And then the black box at the end, you can see there was a moderate um modest increase of 8% for those issued. Here at SBCEO, we wanted to focus a little bit more on how we are impacted by this. We have a tremendous need to fill special education positions and that has been a great difficulty. those. Um the bottom section of this chart shows education specialist instruction credentials and that is the credential that is required for a special education teacher. You can see that the number of those credentials decreased by 31% in the 223 fiscal year and then subsequently increased by 19%. So we are seeing a little bit of growth there. It says a lot about people going into the field

007of special education. In addition, here at SBCEO, most of our special education positions are in preschool settings, and that requires an additional authorization for early childhood education. So, it isn't uncommon for um us to get applicants who have this ed specialist instruction credential, but don't have that authorization. So, we have to work through that process as well. So a credential allows you to teach an authorization is more like a specialty or an additional area that you have to have additional education on in order to work with preschool age student in that case. Um there are a lot of different types of authorizations but they are all what is required to do a particular type of job and that standard is a state standard or a county standard. That is a state that is a standard

008of of what they have to have by CTC according to the commission California commission on teacher credential in order to teach that population. Let me just say the reason I'm asking is certainly we're in this environment uh at the federal level department of education is being dismounted. Uh and one of the conversations that comes up uh in my circles is it it varies. It varies from who needs them to oh my god, we can't lose. And I'm often thinking because California's standards in general tend to be higher than the federal standards. With something like this, the Department of Education going away has very little impact on this. Right. the um the California Commission on Teaching Credentiing has its entire own set of code that it has been that has been developed and it has to

009follow. Um on occasion, we will see a legislative bill that includes a change to some of those codes. For example, the new QK3 um credentials that they're working through would have to go through that process. Um there have been changes to uh recent changes to the early care I mean um early care and education permit structure. So that's something that we will likely see in the next five years but it it takes some time for those changes to occur. Okay. Thank you. Um it's also worth mentioning that um we have seen an overall decrease in the um number of those early childhood authorization um that has been issued since 2020. So that's an additional pool that just became even smaller. Okay. So now we're going to share with you um some very specific SBCEO data

010um in relation to recruitment and retention over the last five years. This these two graphs exclude certificated managers. So I just want to make note of that. So they're really focused on those um certificated staff who are directly serving students in the classroom. On the left side, you'll see a 52% increase in 23 24 in the number of certificated vacancies compared to the prior fiscal year. Um, it's is important to note that sometimes a vacancy will span more than one year. So that 27 and 41 there may be a couple of positions there that are over both of those years. The graph on the right slide uh right side represents the total number of applications received each year. That second column of 53 is the pandemic year. So we consider that an outlier. It dropped

011pretty low to 53. Back up to 2324. You can see there was a 51% increase from the year prior. That's a positive data point for us that we saw an increase in those applications. Um, it's important to note that hiring is further challenged by other factors. As you can imagine, moving to this area is a very significant factor. We may get a lot of applications from out of the area and ultimately they drop out of of the running because of the move. Um, additionally, results of reference checks and background checks can also be a factor. Another important factor is that the ideal hiring time frame for teachers is usually January through March. That's when a lot of teachers are actively looking preparing to make a change for the July one or August mid August start

012time for their next contract. If we don't have um are we aren't aware of all of our vacancies by that time frame, sometimes it's hard to fill them. So, if somebody retires or resigns late and decides in May, it might be really difficult to fill that job for the following school year because a lot of people will have already um solidified their contracts. And then, as we just mentioned about special education and and particularly preschool special education, there's the additional factor of smaller pools of individuals who are available to be hired into into some of our vacancies. Moving on to classified recruitment. Now, as you're all likely aware, SCCO operates a merit system for its classified workforce. And a merit system involves a very structured recruitment process and it typically involves a multiplestep examination process.

013Our merit system is overseen by our esteemed personnel commissioners Carmen Haramo Derry Pikovet and Mikeini. As we move on to reviewing these numbers, please keep in mind that a single recruitment, you'll see the recruitments captured in the bars on the left hand side. A single recruitment may be for a classification with multiple positions that we're trying to fill. So, PAR educator is a good example of that. Thus the number of actual vacancies throughout the year is much higher than the number of classified recruitment figures shown here. They're two different things. Uh overall the number of classified recruitments that we conducted in 2324 has nearly tripled since the 1920 fiscal year even though our total number of employees has remained stable. Moving over to the right hand uh side of the slide on the that showed

014the applications. The circled number in the last column might be a little hard to see, but that 23 is circled in red, um, indicates that, uh, only 23% or 284 of the 1,235 classified applications that we received in 2324 resulted in candidates who were ultimately found qualified and eligible for hire, meaning that they passed each step of our examination process. much lower. Yes. So for those who actually make it through that process, new hires and promotions, um this chart represents the number of new hires and promotions into classified and certificated jobs including management positions over the past five years. In 2324, we filled 64% of our vacancies. That was a slight decrease from 68% the year prior. And and we continue to be concerned about those figures. Um while it's not represented in the chart

015on this slide, it's noteworthy to share that the number of promotions for employees uh remained at 18 in that most current fiscal year, most current complete fiscal year um which was the same as the year prior. So um that data point demonstrates that we continue to be focused on recruiting our internal qualified candidates by building career pathways within our organization and encouraging internal. So Amy got the exciting new hires and promotions and I'm going to take the separation side of it. This is the other end of the employee life cycle here. Um this data shows resignations and retirements for both certificated and classified employees and it also includes management. It does exclude just for the sake of the data separations such as leave exhaustion, non-reelects, dismissals and layoffs. We really just wanted to focus on

016voluntary separations. The annual turnover rate has increased from 8% in the 1920 fiscal year to 15% in the 2324 fiscal year. When you calculate all of the five years, putting that all together, we experienced a 57% cumulative turnover of all employees. As a result, um you can imagine we're losing a lot of institutional memory. um we're also losing uh the people who have held and sustained our culture. So it really creates a need for us to focus on professional development, collaboration, um team building, succession planning, all of those things that really keep the glue to everything that's happening in our organization. Demographic data, research, and anecdotal evidence suggests that the reasons for turnover include an increasing employee population nearing retirement age. We've been watching that over the years and expected that. Students with increasingly challenging

017needs and individual employee factors such as burnout, caring for aging family members, and personal, medical, behavioral, and or mental health needs. This slide represents the number of classified and certificated substitutes employed by SBCEO over the five-year period. On the left side is classified and you can see that the number of available subs has bounced back from the um prepandemic levels and even increased. However, because our vacancy rate has been high, it still doesn't quite meet the need that we have in terms of coverage. On the certificated side, you can see that we have not regained prepandemic levels of substitutes. This has had a very significant negative impact on our organization, especially given the increased number of certificated vacancies. This shortage has led to um and I'm going to give kudos to the divisions who I

018know whose staff are in this position, a need for administrators to step in as the teacher of record on a very regular basis and that has of course negatively impacted their ability to handle other important um needs. One key area we've been heavily focused on this year is promoting and supporting a particular legislative bill. It's AB124 because I know you want to know the number. That will increase the number of days that a certificated substitute can remain in any given assignment. Right now for special education, they can only stay in an assignment for 20 days. For general education, it's 30 days. This bill would allow them to increase uh us to increase that to 60 days in any given assignment, which would be very helpful for all of us. Um, it's not to say that

019we wouldn't still be aiming to fill these vacancies with qualified candidates, but it would relieve some of the stress and allow consistency for both these students and for the staff. It's also hard for staff to have people rotating in and out of that classroom. Staying on the topic of substitutes, each year in late May, SBCEO collects data from all of the school districts in Santa Barbara County about certificated substitutes, including their total number of subs, regular pay rates, and special pay rate. So you can see in this set of graphs uh that we've chosen to highlight data from three large school districts in different regions of the county and then overall represented at the far right hand side. We experienced a significant drop in available certificated substitutes during the pandemic as we've mentioned and the

020numbers have been uh recovering gradually but unevenly with some districts including SBCO still not back to prepandemic levels. While this data reflects the total number of people signed up as substitutes, it's important to note that it doesn't necessarily reflect the number of people accepting substitutes on a date substitute assignments on a daily basis. So for example, some substitutes may only want to work in one particular program or others may want to only work certain days every week. So that further limits the support that we have available. And it goes without saying that while this data reflects the certificated substitute shortage, districts countywide continue to experience the same challenges with classified substitutes. Um, new limits on the use of Kalpers retirees as substitutes will also impact the ability of districts including FCCO to cover uh vacant

021classified positions or to cover when someone is out on leave. We knew somebody was gonna ask. We were prepared. Yes. Uh so most of our uh classified employees are enrolled in the um in Kalpers retirement system and uh um well previously historically traditionally uh when people retired uh if they were a PERS employee they had to serve 180day waiting period and then they could work a certain number of hours per year in a PERS system. And so sometimes we'd have people retire and then they would come back as a sub for uh you know here and there to cover for an absence or somebody who was on leave or something like that and that helped us out uh especially because they typically already know the job. Um the PERS has reinterpreted uh their rule regarding

022postretirement employment to uh severely limit the um circumstances in which uh what they call retired annuitants can be used as substitutes. And so that that kind of historical practice is is pretty much going to go away. Well, I I I think this is a trend s UC Santa Barbara or the UC systems the same. They're really limiting retirees to come back and do anything. So, I think it's the the way that we're moving forward and all our retirement systems. That was because of our advocacy by the way. Yeah. But they did increase it. So, Okay, this slide represents how continual legislative change impacts the education workforce. The topics on the left hand side of the slide represent areas of legislation that have passed in recent years or are being currently proposed. Some requirements are put

023in place to address immediate situations such as CO 19 which included a plan, a training and leaves requirements that may sunset over time. Other new requirements are presumably more permanent in nature. With so many competing legislative interests, we're bound to be faced with mandates that may not complement each other or may not work within the systems that we have in spite of the best intentions behind that legislation. So, one major area of recent legislative focus at the top there has been on the development of written safety plans intended to support and protect employees. These include plans such as what I just mentioned, CO 19, the workplace violence prevention plan, and the most recent heat illness prevention plan. All of these are addendums to the injury and illness prevention plan that's uh been required since 1991

024and is is regulated by Kosia. The amount of research, interpretation, detail, training to implement these plans has been tremendous. Typically the plans don't come in a box where we can, you know, really roll them out easily. Our SPCEO team has taken the lead in developing plan and training templates to support the ability for both our internal SPCEO programs and for our school districts to be able to roll these plans out. New mandated trainings have also been a significant focus of legislation over the last several years. Next year, for example, we'll be implementing a new LGBTQ plus training for all teachers of 7th through 12th grade students and training for the heat illness prevention plan. Last year, we added workplace violence prevention plan training for all employees in compliance with the new law. Uh just a

025few years ago, we implemented a new sexual harassment prevention training for non-supervisory staff. the one for supervisory staff has of course been in place for a long time. So, as you can imagine, increased training requirements take time and can be challenging to add to staff responsibilities. Employee leaves is another area of legislative interest, including expansion of the California Family Rights Act, which is our state a counterpart to the federal family medical leave act, new regulations for leaves related to bereavement and other types of leave. And new legislation this year proposing 14 weeks of paid parental leave as a separate bank for the leave that is already available to employees. While all of these changes and ideas are supportive of employee health and well-being, they also require significant time and money and create the need for

026interim support while those employees are on leave. On the last area there, staffing legislation and administrative changes can have significant impacts on our ability to quickly fill out positions and cover vacancies. One recently passed bill, because I know you love the numbers, AB2534, requires schools to contact every school where a certificated applicant previously worked to determine whether there were any credible complaints of substantiated investigations into or discipline for egregious misconduct. and egregious misconduct includes sex offenses, child abuse or neglect, or specified controlled substance offenses. The additional pre-employment inquiries required by this bill have resulted in significant increases in cost and HR staff workload. Um, it might have been easier had there been a clearing house proposed or something along those lines. Uh current bill being proposed this year focuses on implementing a very similar requirement

027where it says classified employee database for all classified employees. And as of yet in the conversations that we've been involved with, they have not identified a clearing house as we have proposed. So we're not sure how that's going to roll out. Yes, the Oh, thank you. on the AB2534, when you contact uh former employers, do they specify who or in that school or district or you just call current HR and who to contact? Yeah. Who to who do you get the the all clear from? That's a great question. So each district or school district has to identify who it is that they want to be that person or people. It might be for a very large district. You can imagine the number of inquiries they're getting. Um we've worked with um one entity ed join

028which is an application system for certificated applicants to actually start developing something where when they fill out the application it will automatically tell us who has been identified as that person otherwise you just spend a lot of time finding the person that can correctly answer the question. So, we're slowly trying to develop systems in the interim, hoping that we can get some cleanup bill language in the future to develop more of a clearing house are I don't know why I was out of practice, I guess. Um are other schools allowed to uh give this information because there are place that protect um confidentiality of you know uh work history. So how does that so that's a an excellent question. We all asked that exact same question at the beginning of the proposal of the bill.

029So the bill is written in such a way that it essentially absolves school districts from any liability for sharing that information and it requires those school districts if there is a case of egregious misconduct to provide all documentation related to that. And I'm not quite sure what the intention of that was other than maybe they were halfway through an investigation and they didn't substantiate. So you then take that on as a as a decision-making point. Um, but one of the things we're trying to we tried to push through in cleanup bill this year was to remove that portion of it. Um, and we will continue to do that going forward. So, our team, unless there's any more questions, we can come back to questions, too. our team with the support of the California County um

030superintendent legislative committee and other school legislative advocacy groups, we continue to to advocate for and support systems that protect and support people um and that are practical and business efficient. So, we're really trying to push that into um that legislation. In conclusion, yes, we continue to face a staffing shortage. Um, and we have increasing challenges with competing mandates. In spite of all of those challenges, we still have hope and we still embrace creative strategies and ideas how to draw people in. So, we'd like to share one of those with you. So, you've heard of this campaign already, but we'd like to highlight this join the journey initiative as an example of those creative strate strategies that we're pursuing in order to address the staffing challenges in education. And we want to take this opportunity to

031recognize our communications team for their commitment and outstanding work in developing this campaign. They've been real partners with us in in all of the strategies that we're pursuing. So, we're super excited to share this with you. It's a couple minutes long. Um, the intention, of course, is to show the different career pathways to attract people to the field of education and to elevate the field of [Music] education. I'm Minurva Valdez, a food service manager in Santa Barbara Unified School District Food Service Department. When I first started in this field, I was a food service assistant prepping salad bars and cutting a lot of fruit and vegetables. Now, 25 years later, I'm proud to say that I oversee meal service for our entire district, supporting our food service department in providing the healthy meals that so

032many students rely on. This role is about more than just serving food. is about providing nourishment, energy, and the welcoming environment, giving the students the feel they need to take on whatever comes next in their day. My role requires a sense of responsibility, dedication, and the ability to build a strong relationships with those around me. In my work, I'm always collaborating with all kinds of people and creating connection that help us get to the finish line each day. Food service is definitely a team effort. I've been working with the district for about 5 years. Uh before that I worked in restaurants for 20 years. Never thought I had the kind of experience or knowhow to translate that into education work, but the school district has a lot of different opportunities for people not even directly

033involved with teaching students. I've had the pleasure of working with Manurva for those 5 years as well, and there's plenty of room for growth in not just our department, but in the school district as well. One thing people often don't realize about my work is how much of an impact we can have on a student's day. It's so rewarding to see the excitement when we serve their favorite meals or watch a group of friends come together at lunch talking, laughing, and sharing their day. It truly is a privilege to watch them grow and to be part of their educational journey. And let's be honest, getting through the school day is a whole lot easier on a full stomach. If you're looking for a new career, think about working in food service in a school near

034you. You will learn skills, be part of a team, have opportunities to grow in your career, and most importantly, we may not be in the spotlight, but we know what we do matters every day. Join me in making a difference in a student's journey, one bite at a time. Across the county, schools are seeking incredible individuals to fill positions both in and outside of the classroom. We invite you to join the journey and launch your career in education today. One bite at a time. So, do these go districtwide or are they going on YouTube or They're everywhere. Okay. They're they're also on a loop at the airport at the Santa Barbara airport. Santa Maria airport too. Santa Barbara. Okay. Okay. So, is there one for each one of these individuals on the back? So, one

035for the bus driver, one for the Yes, for all different careers and not just uh ones that you would find at SBCEO because um it is the idea is to support um all districts countywide in their hiring. So, for example, there's a video about a bus driver. We don't hire bus drivers but districts do. So yeah, so we're trying to highlight both certificated and classified jobs where we have um struggled to fill all our vacancies where we shortages. Thank you. If I may uh provide some input first of all thank you Mari and Amy so much and I think there's some more comments and questions from the group. Just wanted to point out the popup banners that are here today are now traveling with us to different to different places. We think we feature them

036for the first time when you've had your we had our job fairs um both in North County and and in here at SBCO. Um just wanted to say that you know through with the the support from the communications team they first put together three videos and now we've increased to six videos and now we're going to continue to increase. In fact, I think videos are are more are happening next week. Um, in fact, and we wanted to have a a bit of a a a grouping together before really fully fully launching out. Um, but we've got ideas um like we've already talked about the airport, but things like movie theaters, gas station, you know, reels um more and more um advertisement to help join the journey in education. And again, not meant uh specifically for

037SBCO alone at all. meant to um we've already packaged these up for districts to use as they would like to to use them. And of course, districts also have their own campaigns and and offer um employment for their own districts, but it's really meant to be of service to Santa Barbara County in hiring all positions um for education. So, yeah, really it's a great it's a very exciting. So, back back to you. I think it some comments and questions. I had a question. I actually have a two-parter. Um, you mentioned the legislative advocacy groups for the um, AB1224 responsible for those lobbying efforts and is there any way to influence Kalpers on their decision? So, um, well, CalPERS is a separate Yeah. issue thing. Um, the 60-day bill, I'll call it that the one for

038substitutes. We actually proposed that from our state personnel uh group of county office HR representatives. And what we did was worked with the legislative advocate from the California County Superintendent to grab onto a bill and and put our language into a bill that was dying essentially. And so so there are strategies to get in there um and and try to put cleanup bills or new bills in place. So that bill directly comes from our work. Um and uh they meaning the legislative advocates for the California county superintendent are heavily involved in working with the legislature as well as groups like AXA, CASBO, CSBA, SSC, capital advisors. So I sit on a a specialized group of advocates that are about 10 people from all of those groups and I was invited to um participate to provide

039voice to the practical implementation of things. So, I've been really honored as one of maybe three people total um who are on that group and it's it's wonderful to be able to say, well, here's how it really works, you know, when you get into the classroom or into the system that we work with. And then the Kalpers was your second question. Yeah. Is there any other influence? So we have even prior to their reinterpretation which came out through a Kalpers circular um we met with Kalpers, we had meetings with them. We had them come to our our statewide event to speak with us. Um did everything we could to convince them of what our needs were. They moved forward with that direction. But now that they have implemented that um they seem to be starting

040to soften a little bit on their auditing. Um the issue of course is when they come through and do audits and what they um tag as issues for the district to fix. Um so we're we're kind of living through potentially yeah potentially making change to that. And and the question I have is how close are we get to getting the 60day passed? Where where is living? It actually just last week um passed through both both sides. It was bipartisan. Okay. Very well supported and CTA did have some concerns of course about the language and wanted some parameters. We proposed some mild parameters such as if you have what there's a thing called tipsel. I can't remember what the acronym stands for right now, but it's um it's a allows somebody to stay in a a

041vacant position or when someone's out on leave, they can stay there for a longer amount of time. So, if you have people eligible for tips, you have to use that first. You also have to uh make sure that you are heavily recruiting. But instead of it being specified what all of those things are, they just left it open-ended and and accepted that. So, so far it's moving along and has bipartisan support. So, it's looking very good by when you think the when would it be go into effect? Um, I think that one's July 1. If not, it's t it always goes into effect January 1st unless otherwise specified. But I I think that one is July 1. I'd have to go back and and I'm just asking because with some of the residency programs, the

042teachers that are becoming teachers also have to put in a sub date once or twice a week and so that affects their program also. So we do have subs, but only once a week or twice a week from that pool of people. And yeah, there's always some way to try to do it. But this would at least allow we'll still have the same amount of subs, but at least there's consistency because when you have 20 days come up and you have to switch to someone. I get it. No, I that's really rough on that kids on the staff. Okay. Thank you. Thank you for the clarification. Well, kudos to Thank you for this presentation and for all the work that you are doing, you and your team are doing. Um the marketing campaign looks great

043and it's exciting to see that being rolled out. Um I have a two-part question as well. One is just in terms of the campaign, the marketing campaign as that is rolled out. Um what kind of tracking measures do you have to measure the efficacy of um people that are actually coming um from those campaigns? And then going back to the the question around substitutes, um this could be kind of loaded because um are you having any pathways for substitutes to become full-time? And I know that could be a little hard because then once they're full-time then they they're not able to sub. But um that was the only trend that I saw that was actually increasing over the the pre- pandemic levels. So if you could speak to those two, that would be great. Thank

044you. I'll start with the second one which is um yes and yes we we definitely try to grab pools of people who are interested and move them forward with their education or their credentiing or whatever it is that they need to be able to apply to become a regular employee. Um and that is extended to apprentices for example through the early care and education program para educators for special education teaching who have bachelor's degrees and could move in that direction. Um we we have something we just set up recently. It's the second year uh Tom and uh our credentials manager and special education program specialists are holding meetings with interested individuals who want to learn more about how to to get into the credentiing world. So we have many efforts at trying to grab pools

045of people and and have them elevate or promote in the field. Your first question. Um I'm looking at Delaney. I know there's real terms for this that I'm probably not going to say correctly, but with social media, for example, and all of the um advertisements marketing that we're doing using the campaign with social media, there are ways to track the clicks and the engagement and the leads and the analytics and the scrolls or I don't know what it is, but there's all kinds of things that you can track there. So that really helps to know, okay, how many people are passing it on to someone else or um actually engaging with the marketing advertising. Yeah, I noticed the scan bar on the ads and obviously if they scan and go in, they know where they

046where it came from. So yeah, correct. our um applicant tracking systems, we can als we have questions about where people found out about the opportunity. And so, but as I I think as we have more of a formal roll out of the join the journey campaign, we could certainly list that as a way that uh people can choose if that's they saw a video somewhere or an ad um that they can select that as an option and that'll give us some feedback about how successful our various efforts have been. Thank you. Thank you so much. Next, we have a presentation on the alternative payment program in early care and education and how to access that a Susan will introduce us to Janelle Will. I'm so delighted to introduce the topic and let me give you

047a little bit of framing before bringing Janelle Willis up who's um just a dynamic director in at SBCEO. So the the board uh as you we've talked about early care and education quite a bit over the last few months. We know we're wanting to expand in areas um in geographically in Santa Santa Barbara County. Uh we also know through budget presentations that the early care and education department which is actually in Bridget's student and community services division but the early care and education department um comprises 42% of our entire budget. It's a very substantially giant um program and um that equates to about $60 million for ECE, early care and education. And a part of ECE is the alternative payment program. That's about 40 million of the 60 million. Yeah. And so because it's such

048a large component and and I know that the board wants to be advocates for early care and education and share with people about our programs, we thought rather than have a presentation on the entire ECE program today we'll focus on the alternative payment program portion that largest component of ECE and we have a fantastic dynamic so smart so incredible director in Janelle Willis who's coming up to the podium right now as I speak right now. Yes. And I I want we wanted to make sure that you had a a face to the name um and that you got a chance to meet her and Janelle that you get a chance to meet the board and we're so grateful that you're here. Um there's a lot of acronym souk with um early care and ed education

049in general. Definitely with this, I know Janelle is going to work really hard to ensure that we share all the acronyms and explain it in a way that we hope that you you would then be able to explain it to someone else. So, you've got the presentation and you have a flyer. Okay, I'll step that. I'll step that. And you have a flyer as well, an info flyer, and um we'll go from there. So, Danell, thank you. And I'm going to try to keep this high level. I will explain acronyms and if I do not, you can stop me and ask and I'll do the best up to my ability. So, I am Janelle Willis, an administrator of early care and education. So, I help support the entire department and as Susan outlined, we're going

050to be talking about our alternative payment program today. Um, so thank you for having me here. So the first thing first thing I want to do is just talk about what is the program and it is an assistance program that covers child care from ages birth to age 13. So families choose what type of child care that they want to receive whether that be childare in a center with a family friend and neighbor or with um like a family child care that's where you have family child care in your actual home. And on top of just giving them the child care and helping to support that child care, we also do a family needs assessment. We do that when they enter the program. And so we are giving and supporting the child care part of

051it, but we're also supporting things like do they need access to the food bank? Do they need access to housing? And so we do that kind of a warm handoff to make sure that they're getting the other resources as well. So the funding is to support the child care and we are required and expected to do the other part too to really be kind of a one-stop shop to kind of help the families get the access to supports that they need. So how does a family qualify? So on the right I'm giving an example of a family of four and this is the income that they would have to earn below this income in order to qualify for the program. You have to have an income and yes, so that's a way that you could

052become eligible, but you also need to have need, which means if dad's staying home and is not working and mom's working, well, the expectation is then dad's caring for the child. So the family members, both parents have to be looking for work, working, seeking employment, which is looking for work, um incapacitated, going to school, things like that. Now, about two years ago, they added in this pre-qualified section, which is actually really nice. And what that means is if a family is already receiving some assistance, things like medical, so health insurance support, CalFresh, support for healthy food, Head Start, early Head Start. Um, wick is where uh if you have a young child, you might be getting support with diapers, milk, things like that. So anyone who's receiving those services, they're already pre-qualified on the income

053side. So for them, it just makes the it's easier for the parents to gain access and easier for us to enroll them. And we'll talk a little bit more about that. And then Cal works as cash aid and I'll explain that a little bit more later. Um I have a quick question about the monthly income. Is that for a family of four or is it So I gave you the example for a family of four. There is different income qualifications based on family size. So if you had two parents and three children then that would be a family of five and the the income changes. So we do have that on our website and that does so the more the bigger family you have the more you're allowed to make. Okay. And that does change

054slightly year to year. So we have to kind of update that annually. Are all of the examples based on two parent home? No, I just picked this one as an example. So, you guys got a basic idea of the funding and like how much a family could make. Okay. I got a bunch of them too. And I might answer, but maybe not. Go ahead. But sticking on that particular thing, uh is uh could you have a multi-generational family? Yes. Yes. So explain a little bit more about your question so I can answer it correctly. Grandparents, parents, uh kids in college and kids in primary and secondary school. Okay. So if a grandparent or a parent is actually taking over responsibility for that child, which sometimes happens, then they can be counted. There's a lot of

055regulations around that. I don't want to get too ind depth with it. Um, as soon as a child turns 18, they are no longer continued part of that family. Even if they um are still Well, hold on. As long as they are outside of high school. If they're in high school and 18, they still count as part of that family. Okay. Does that help? That help? Uh, and you gave an example. Grandparents are help. So, I'm my question. Do grandparents living in the home? So, if the grandparents are living in the home, it doesn't automatically say that they're going to be part of the family. It would really depend on if, let's say, dad's not part of the situation, mom's there, and like uh the grandparent is like responsible. I'm going very specific. So, we

056got we got grandma, grandpa, mom, dad, uh all in the house and everybody's poor. Mhm. So the only family that will count are the family the the parts of the family that are responsible for the children who are like legally responsible for taking care of the children, paying for the children. It's almost like the ones that would be on your taxes. That's a kind of a good example. So if my parents if I can qualify my parents as dependent because I'm I'm spending money to take care of them. There is a great error around that. And usually what we have to do is we have to work with the department of social services to get some some agreement. So I can't say yes or no. Okay. Don't you love that answer? But very very good

057question. So I'm going to talk a little bit about the process. So when a family comes in uh anyone in our department can do what's called an eligibility card and that just gets the basic information from the family. If we are actively enrolling, that family might go right into the second stage, which I'm going to talk about. But if we're not actively enrolling, what happens is that family gets a ranking number and then they're placed on a waiting list. Okay? So, if we're actively enrolling, then the family comes in, we do an enrollment process where the case worker works with the family to really get all the paperwork that we need on that side to say that you're eligible, income, need, all those things. And then we also do an orientation with them because this

058is a complicated program and we want to make sure they know everything that's required of them in order to come into the program. We also talk to them about choosing care. So we educate them about the different types of care. It is their choice but we also do education around it. Once they choose the type of care that they want, then we have to onboard the provider because the provider needs to have certain qualifications and then they need to have an orientation to make sure that they can follow all of the components. Once that's done, we approve care and then we have what's called attendance logs that go out every month. The providers fill them up, fill them out, excuse me. Um, both provider and parent signs it and then those come back to us.

059They get audited to make sure they have all the components that are needed and then fiscal pays the providers. We get about 35 to 4500 claims a month and that averages about 400 checks and 700 direct deposits and that is monthly for our fiscal departments. So it is it is a lot of work for the entire team. I also want to just kind of outline that this isn't a one-time thing. There's ongoing support that we provide to our providers and our families. We provide continuous education and there's changes that are needed. For example, a provider might say, "Hey, I have a family emergency. I have to go to Germany for a month." Okay. Well, now we're helping the provider make changes to their schedules and things. And we're making sure the families that are receiving

060services have other support during that time. A family might say, "Hey, I have a new job now. I'm working at night, right? Okay. Well, now we need to figure out extend that care and make sure that they have that support as well." So, it is an ongoing change. It's not just a one-time support. Um, just for purposes of sizing the issue, you mentioned the number of checks, dispersements. How many providers? I'm going to show you a card in a second. Thank you for that question. Now, that's okay. Great question. So, what I want to talk about, and this is very complicated, so I'm just going to keep it simple. And if you guys have more questions, I'll be happy to give you more information. There are multiple different ways to come into the alternative payment

061program and there's actually four different funding streams that support it. So the first one is the cow work system and stage one is actually run by the department of social services and this is where families come in, they're receiving caches, they're receiving other work support and they start getting services there. So they do all the stuff we just talked about but uh department of social services does it. Then the family becomes stable. So they get transferred to stage two and in stage two they can stay in stage two until until let's say after when they finish cache they will stay in cash two for up to 24 months and then based on legislation they automatically go to stage three. I'm going to explain who does what with this in a second but that is one

062system. Another system is what's called CAP California Alternative Payment Program. and those families can come into that system never having gone through the cash aid. I'm going to give you more information. So this is what alternative payment program does like SPCO. We run those two stages and cap stage two and stage three. Well really all of them. They all have different doors of entrance. So a family might have come through the cowwork stages. They might be in stage three and then they realize, I don't know, maybe they lose their jobs, they have a hard time and they actually become unstable again. They might go straight back into stage one. Okay? People might be in stage three. They might be doing great. They no longer need that support. Great. They're off. They're not receiving any services

063at all. Then something happens. They don't need to go into cash aid. So they're not going to go back to stage two or one, but maybe they can come through the cap program instead because now they have the income need or the income and the need. So the main thing is there's it gets complicated, but there's a lot of different doors and entry and exit that can occur with this. So now you're Oh, go ahead. Uh first of all, I I love where you're going with this. try to uh Susan, I thought I was running for Chamber of Commerce. You tricked me. Now, this this is this is really good and and I'm hearing it in the context of a lot of things. I'm hearing in the context of where we are in the country,

064which means where I am in my little town. So I hear all these entry points, exit points, buzzword, fraud, wasted, abuse sort of leaps out. Where's the accountability in the system? I I also want to make sure I'm hearing this is a SBCO program. Oh, so um this program is actually funded by the Department of Social Services. Okay. And we are one of the agencies that run this program in our county. There's actually two different well department of social services does stage one and then children's resource and referral and SBCO do the other stages that I showed you uh run these stages. Okay, this program is offered statewide. So um funding is kind of allocated by whole bunch of different things that I do not control and sometimes do not always understand. Um there are

065lot of regulations and checks and balances with this. Lots of requirements for as you said fraud checking checking with things for providers. I mean the amount of checks and balances that we have not only in our own department but just like as a alternative payment program as a whole and then also within fiscal and and ECE is tremendous. And that's also one of the reasons why I have five people that ECE pays for in the fiscal department separate from ECE side is so that we have those checks and balances and we can really check because when you see some of the money you'll be like that is a lot of money going through SPCO which I will show you in a second which I applaud. I mean so again I mean just to be clear

066about this for me I think people you know who do what you did your focus should be on where's the safety net for all the people who are right and this was a a big safety net but it also suggests to me that the opportunity for fraud waste and abuse is clearly there because it's a lot of moving parts it is and and I can do another presentation another time talks about like all the pieces I I mean, we have verification from employees. We have paychecks. We have we have a whole bunch of different things to show that they actually have that income and to show that they actually have that need. So, there's multiple ways to verify that. Um, kind of complicated, but again, you give me like 30 minutes. I'll go through the

067whole process. Well, does DSS come in an audit? Um, so DSS comes in an audit. So we have every five years they do an in-depth audit. We do what's called a program self-evaluation where we have to report annually and we internally do four audits a year ourself as ECE. We do what I call two sneak attacks where I don't tell them what's going to happen and then we do two where we're outlining what's being pulled and that's on the fiscal side and on the ECE side. So a lot of checks and balances because we want to be ready for that five-year audit. So let me talk a little bit about families and numbers. Um I'm just going to take this year. I'm going to take last year. So 23 24 you see that we served

068actually I'm going to take 2425 because the numbers are even higher. So right now in the different programs we're serving over 4,000 children. Okay. And four that's actually 4,000 families even more children. And then for providers you can see how we've had that huge increase as well. And one thing I want to outline is the orange. So when you look at the orange, those are what's called exempt providers. Those are like the family friend and neighbor. And one reason that has increased so much is one, we've had more funding, but two, what we're seeing is, especially in certain areas of our county, the centers and the family childare, the licensed home providers, they're full. So the only option these families have is to have a friend or a grandma or someone provide care for these

069kids. So it's really shifted over the last few years. So talking about funding. So stage two and stage three these are numbers from 23 24. These stages fluctuate. And the reason that they fluctuate is because if a 100 families come in through that process, we get funding for the 100 families. If 500 families come in, we get funding for 500 families. And as I said, they can kind of move around. So they it it changes. Now, in CAP, we have a contract with Department of Social Services, and that contract is technically a two-year contract, but we get it each year. So, for example, in 23 24, that amount of funding, we have up to two years to spend it. Our goal is always to spend it that year so it gets out into the community,

070but that's just the way we're funded differently. It takes a lot of calculations and projections and all those things to really stay on top of all this to make sure that one we're spending the money and two when do we enroll new families when do we need to hold all those types of things. So also talking about funding is I often hear things like wow you guys have so much money. Well we do have a lot of money but I want to kind of outline what that money is used for and where it goes. ECE and SPCO doesn't get the $60 million to do all the work. So like this example, there's uh $54 million. About 45 million of that goes directly out to the prov providers to pay for the care. Then 8 point

071So we receive 17.5% of it to do the work. 8.5 goes to indirect, all the things that indirect does. And 9% of it goes to what they call admin costs, but it's really cost of running the program. That salary and benefits, facilities, office supplies, just the general what it costs to run the program. So that is what we get to run the program. So I just wanted to kind of give you that visual. What percentage of the need does this fill? That is such a good question. Um, I would have to bring you other numbers to say, okay, what is not being filled to tell you the exact percentage of this. And this is just our alternative payment program. CR&R, as I said, also runs an alternative payment program. They are significantly smaller than us,

072but I think to give you like a good idea, we'd want to combine those and give you numbers that actually like looked at the entire county. Okay. Okay. Thank you. So, um, we actively take eligibility lists. We, like I said, when we enroll, it depends because we're constantly monitoring. So, if you want to refer families, please do. We have both Spanish and MCCO support available. We just got a MCCO case worker um, I don't know, six months ago, four. And I will say when we brought her on, we've had more and more of that community coming, which has been amazing. So again, send us send them our way. And um just kind of giving you some ideas of what's ahead. We are actually working on hiring a counselor and embedding some counseling services within our

073alternative payment program. We are working on uh hiring a program associate because I need help creating quarterly newsletters uh for families and providers just to kind of keep them in touch with what's going on. We are expanding in Lomboke which I believe you guys are already a little bit aware of. We have two offices. We're going to be moving to four hopefully. Um, also Delaney is going to help me with wording later and stuff, but we're trying to figure out something like coffee with ECE or something kind of catchy where we have a set time where there's a Zoom and a phone number where providers or families can just call and ask questions. They already know someone's going to be there just to have, you know, just kind of make it a little bit easier

074and be accessible. And then obviously we are very closely monitoring our federal funding. So to give you guys some example of federal funding if I took like 2425 uh information currently federal funding for the AP program is about 24%. Our entire ECE program it's about 26%. So those are things that we are keeping on top of. And then I have to talk about all the people doing the work. This is our alternative payment team um most of them and they are the ones that are day in and day out supporting the families and really making the child care possible and I just want to give a shout out to them because they are amazing and uh they are stationed all throughout the county. Um, Poke, Lombpoke, and Santa Maria is where we have offices. You

075know, right now, um, our numbers have been fluctuating. I think when you're talking about I don't know how many are in that picture, maybe like 40. And we're probably like with AP support and stuff about 45. We still we've been giving HR and IT and everyone else a lot of work because we've been constantly hiring to stay on top of all this. Okay. My burning question from when you got up there was Head Start appears to be gone. One of your qualifier pre-qualifies are people that are in Head Start or early Head Start. So will those just come to you to qualify then because that source of so when we talk pipeline will be closed. So when we talk the need is there. Yes. So when we talk about the AP side uh if headsart

076goes away that is one thing that that can occur and whatever families we'd be able to support we will. But the issue is they are centers. They are very high quality educational centers. Right. So another thing that we're working on is we have what's called CSP funding. California state preschool funding. And we have some funding that we're holding right now. And we have never done something called subcontracting where we hold the funds but we give the money to someone else to actually do the work. We run the centers ourselves. We have some increased funding that we could subcontract. So Head Start has already reached out to us and said, "Hey, if this happens and will you subcontract with us?" Because that way they can keep their centers open that are already serving kids and just

077switch the funding. But there will be Yeah. there'll be no federal funding coming to so instead that would be using the state funding instead of the federal funding but we have to create the whole system of subcontracting what does that look like and there's a lot of rules and regulations around that so I am actively working with Bridget to set that up we're going to be working with the business department and legal and we're hoping to do that as I mean it's not going to be a complete band-aid but it will be better than it completely going away so I actually have a meeting with Head Start to get numbers from them to say what is this going to possibly look like in the county? Yes. Is that what you in our county and do

078you know what's happening in other counties? Have you heard is this the strategy or the head start to come to the counties? And so I don't know what's happening with every other county right now because this is so new, right? uh at the end of May we have our copac meeting which is our meeting where all the county offices come together for ECE and so we will probably have more information we also know about May revis and and different things at that time so I think everyone's kind of watching and waiting and making plans like tentative plans for what might help update a short update yes then yes or a long update and and we are actively making sure to any funding that's available to make sure that we get to help to support this.

079Um, thank you Janelle. That was an incredible amount of information. Very, very, very helpful. And again, I'm always impressed by the team here and all the work that you all do. Um and so um I have a I always have like three questions in one. So um the first is uh you talked about the weight list. So can you speak a little bit into um how many people generally are on the wait list and then what is the timeline for people being able to get service if they're on the wait list? So historically our weight list has been thousands and thousands of people. When we have uh over the last few years when we've had continued increased funding and cap that weight list has gone down significantly. At one point we had like 10 people

080on the wait list and we were actively promoting the program. Um, it is back up to about I want to say 500 families the last time I looked and what happens is as families maybe their child turns 13 they leave the state of California things like that then we go off the weight list and pull off. The hard part about the weight list is it is ranked. So you might be a family who just comes in as rank one because you do not make as much money, you have more need. And then a family comes in or has already been on the wait list at like 20. Well, if people keep coming in with a higher need, you're gonna the people down here are going to be on that weight list for longer. So, I

081can't give you like the like a very clean explanation about like, oh, you're only going to be on the wait list for a month. It really does vary. Okay. Um, so back to that scenario, if you're like on the bottom rung here and what would be like the I know you can't say for sure, but approximately what would be the weightless time for that? It could be years. Recently, I will say it's been once we've had increased funding if it's been about a year. But the other thing we do is we don't just say, "Oh, you're on the wait list, you're done." We did that education piece about what options you have. So, we know that, oh, your your child's um I don't know, going to a school district. Have you checked in with them

082about their afterchool programs? Have you checked in with the YMCA, the Boys and Girls Club? Um, hey, let's get you connected with Head Start or with like a state funded program because that's another option, too. So, it's not just, oh, let's put you on our weight list. If there's any other places that we can help connect them to, we will. Perfect. Okay, I have two more. Yeah, we don't have time for two more. and they'll be um and then quickly how are the providers selected? So it is family choice. So if it's a licensed provider, we have to have verification of licensing and all those things. If it is a family, friend or neighbor, if it's like a blood relative, there's um there's like affidavit and things that have to be signed. But if it's

083a a family friend or neighbor, like someone who's sorry, not family, but if it's a friend or neighbor, they actually have to go through what's called a trust line process to get cleared before they can become a provider. So it varies. Okay, that's like what I say, right? All makes sense. Okay. And then the last one is um so you mentioned briefly uh the federal funding. Yes. That the program receives 24% for EC and about 20% for um A. So, is there any contingencies or what are you thinking for if that funding is removed? Um, I know that's a big like varies, but just if there's any talk or what what um thoughts you have right now about that. So, for the AP side, um it's a very, you know, specific funding. So if something

084was to be done, what we've seen that's been done historically is families would then have to be pulled off of the program, usually highest income first. That has that has happened way back in the day when there was some huge reductions in this. Uh other opportunities though is there are some funding out there like United Way has some stuff that's supporting certain families. So would we take those families and direct them like any other place that might help fund it? We try to move those families to. But really, we're just trying to say, okay, what's happening? Is there anything else out there that might be an opportunity and just kind of getting ready? But that's where we are right now. For the other funding in ECE, we are preparing other things. For example, we do

085a lot of professional development. So, we are doing like um starting to get ready a fee for service. So, it's if a grant used to cover all of our professional development that we do to the districts, maybe now instead of the grant paying that, is there a fee for service that we can set up? So, those are things that we're also working on. So much. No problem. Are there any other questions for Janelle? I just have one. Uh, which is what's the best way for parents to find out about this? Because you're saying zero to 13 years. So, I'm thinking of, you know, single mom, three-month old baby kind of situation. Like, where where are they going to find out? Or any single parent, where are they going to find this information? So, um the

086comm's team has helped us a few different times to put radios like news radio information out. We've done um flyers. We've done uh social social media. We newspaper. Uh we've done a variety of different ways. I think if you guys have any other suggestions on how to get this out, we would be happy to do it. We've also been doing things through like local planning council to provide information to like uh parent groups, right? So there's a parent group, can we share that information with them? So we're getting it out there. It doesn't mean that everyone knows. We are also working with school districts so that they have this information so that when families come and enroll their kid, even in first grade, they might have younger children or they might need help for that

087first grader. So all those things are resources, but we're always looking for other ways to do it as well. may insert. Okay. Thank you so much, Janelle. Thank you so very much. I said dynamic and I really meant it. Yes. Yes. Yes. Uh I also said director and she absolutely deserves a a promotion. So she's actually an administrator. So you're definitely um at that level. I also wanted to share with you to the board um our website and give you some information and show you a short video about this so that you know where to point people to if you'd like to. So this is our SBCO website. They would um it's on on ECE and Donald is navigating I think Donald's navigating for us. So this is literally the landing page for early care

088and education. You can see the you can see the numbers. So, the 4,000 families, the trainings, we we have centers of our own, which we didn't go into today, our $40 million to support the families. We have a video here. I'm going to skip that for a minute. Come right back to it. And just down below, um, if you're a family, you would click on families. If you're an early educator provider, you click on, you know, if you're an administrator or a caregiver, it gives you personalized information so that you can access more information based on the audience. If we go up to the video, which again, um, as Janelle said, credit to the comm's team for working on this, but I'd like to share this with you so you can see what the SBCO

089ECE video looks like that somebody might click on and learn more. So, here we [Music] go. What does the Santa Barbara County Education Office do to support highquality child care and preschools? And what resources are available to providers and families? Let us show you. Meet Katie and Ian. Maybe they are like you. They have two young children, full-time jobs, high monthly bills, and limited support. They need help. That's where Santa Barbara County Education Offices early care and education programs come in. ECE exists to help all Santa Barbara County families and providers through a variety of different programs. The Alternative Payment Program is a state program that provides child care vouchers for eligible families. It's one of the easiest ways families can get financial support. The financial help can go towards child care, a neighbor or

090friend providing child care in your home or theirs, or a family member who watches your kids. That's right. The alternative payment program can help pay grandma for child care. The A can also help you find resources like free diapers, tax services, food assistance, and medical insurance referrals. To qualify, you must be a Santa Barbara County resident and have a qualifying income. You do not need to show proof of citizenship. Our registration process is confidential. Give ECE a call to be connected with someone who will walk you through the process. If your family is like Katie and Ian, you too can get financial help through the alternative payment program. And did you know ECE also offers a wide range of training opportunities for child care providers and early educators? If you're like other early child care

091providers around the country, maybe you're seeking more from your continuing education. And chances are you're seeing an increase in challenging behaviors in the classroom. Or maybe you want to improve your instruction, but aren't sure where to start. ECE will help you get paid to participate in engaging professional development. Find specific training for the challenges you're facing and get personalized coaching to suit your individual needs. ECE specializes in offering support to local childare providers throughout the county. Explore our website to learn more about how ECE can help you by clicking on a community member and reading more under frequently asked questions. Under families, you'll find information on universal prek, diverse learning settings, how to enroll in our nationally accredited early education centers, and participation in the local planning council. Child care providers can find out more

092information on reimbursement for food served at your child care center, inclusive practices through the inclusion initiative, and getting financial help for your enrolled families through the alternative payment program. Administrators, check out our admin page to learn more about changes to policies that might affect your programs or centers, universal prek and P3 programs, the early childhood educator apprenticeship, and new training opportunities. If you are a family member, friend, or neighbor that watches children, click the caregiver page to learn how to get paid through the alternative payment program and get cleared through the Trustline Registry. We look forward to serving you and our community through our amazing programs. We are Santa Barbara County Education Offices Early Care and Education. Thank you. I'll pass it on to you, boy. our comm's department does such a great job. Thanks

093for that illustration. Um although I don't feel particularly adept at rolling all this out to anybody. I do know now where to point them and to tell them to just call Janelle. Excellent though. Um let's hear our superintendent report. Thank you very much. And one more time, thank you to the presenters today. I really appreciate it. So, you have my uh report to you in the board book. I do want to call out just a few items today. One, right after the board meeting. If you're passing by the auditorium and want to feel very uplifted by all of the student art, please do go in there. Young artists and authors showcase reception today happening starting at 4:00 and reception at 4:30 and the artwork will be there for you. Um the Santa Maria Valley Chamber

094of Commerce, State of Education. You see the dates there. It has been moved now to the Fair Park. We're really excited to share about the state of education with the four superintendents from the Santa Maria Valley as well as Dr. Kevin Walthers. So, we'll all be there presenting together. Um you have the save the date for the education celebration right at your places. Uh we'd love to to have you there. Um such an incredible evening. um director Stephen Keithley does a phenomenal job under um Ellen Barger's division and we can't wait to highlight the teacher of the year, the career technical educator of the year, educators of the year, the Bill Cerrone heart of education award winners and more. So please uh let us know if you can attend. We'd love to have you. Um

095and you see all of the other uh program updates as well. I I want to say how not in your book, but just will say um how excited I am for Saturday. Saturday is um not excited because it's the last date, but excited because I get to see the students for the last time this year of the student advisory council. It's the third year of the superintendent student advisory council. High uh public high school students are invited from across the county and um this year we've met four times this year. Our final one Saturday, um, uh, Chuck Madson, who's the director for the future for LMPoke Youth, will be a guest speaker speaking about advocacy and using your voice and putting it to action. So, we're really excited there. Um, Dr. El Simmons, Anna Freedelland,

096Jonathan Reyes, Isabelle Guerrero are all co-f facilitators with me and um we co-f facilitate so that although this meeting will be countywide in one location at Sanz Valley Union High School District, the other meetings we're actually located in different locations across the county in person and then we come together by Zoom when we need to in those meetings and that's how we can do it at countywide. um really tremendous students that have such a vision of hope and aspiration. This is an infu this is like the infusion that you need right now and it's definitely with them. So I'm really excited about Saturday. Um want to say too, we've mentioned it multiple times today. Um Janelle, you said it several times and I think Mari Mari and Amy too around uncertainties and changes and unknowns

097and knowns and and I know we've communicated already around um the March 20th executive order around the dismantling of the Department of Education um which is an executive order and not necessarily a mandate for all of us at at schools. um nonetheless signaling a a shift and um want to express that of course as in public education we we we always follow the law and at the same time we serve every student who walks through our doors and that that's our that is our mission. Um we know that the department of education has already decreased um their number of employees by about 50%. We know that there's a promise may be too far, but a statement that um Title One funds will be preserved, that um individuals with disabilities act would be preserved, that there's

098certain congressional programs that would be preserved, and yet there's still so much unknown. We do know that um there's been significant impacts on institutes of higher education already due to the research funds being um pulled away. Um we know that uh or it was reported um through Chancellor Yang's office that several students with um F1 U visas have been revoked and um international students. um Head Start, which is not a program of the Department of Education, um but uh the Department of Health and Human Services, we know regional offices were shuttered um unexpectedly. So, I think it's the the unexpected nature. It's this um real shifting sands that happen so quickly that that are um disconcerting. Um and uh yet we're carefully watching um you know there's there's actions and um statements and then there's

099uh a difference with what what's really going to shift for our students. So we're watching all all of that. Um some of the changes that um I'm really keeping an eye on for our students have to do with um school meal funding. So really looking to see about school meal funding that is a a function of the department of education. We'll see what happens around vouchers um changes with school uh funding and vouchers. Um e-ate is um something that we're watching as well. So rate allows for lower cost connectivity for public schools. We're looking to see if there's some changes there as well. And um we've already raised uh the the case of federal funds for programs. I've communicated with the board about 12 to 15% of SBCO's funds are federal federal funds, but they

100do that does fluctuate. So ECE has higher higher rates of federal funds versus another department. I'll I'll make it up like um curriculum instruction might have lesser federal funds. So, it's really over the entire organization, about 12 to 15%. Um, we've looked at school districts. Our school districts are less um impacted by federal funds than than the county education office. We have some districts who receive less than 1% of their funding all the way to about 12%. So, it it's something we're watching. Um we've got a a absolutely um un unwavering commitment for serving all students in our schools and yet we're we're watching to see what are these impacts um and what will we do about them and how can we plan. So uh wanted to give those comments today and um see if

101there's any questions on anything that I have reported to you in your materials. Okay. Yeah. Thank you. Thank you. back to you. Thank you, Stephen. Yeah, really, there are no words. Um, let's look at the consent agenda. We've got the minutes of our March 13th meeting, the registration of credentials and certification documents and temporary county certificates, and our declaration of surplus are all in your word book. Um, do I have a motion to approve consent? Thank you. Gotcha. Approve. A second. A second. Thank you, VA. All in favor? I. That motion carries on our action items. We have the recommended approval of the Santa Barbara County Ed Office comprehensive school safety plan. This would be for um our courts uh juvenile court and community schools program uh special ed and early care and education. This

102is for your information. Uh we also are asking for a motion and Dennis Thomas who's uh SBCE school safety lison is in the house and he's awaiting any questions. He's not prepared to speak this unless we have particular questions unless you'd like to speak. I don't want to I don't want to remove that opportunity for you, but Okay, we have a question. We have a of course we question. Um, is there a plan uh for I don't know the correct word to use right here, so I'll skip it and you can fill it in. Is there a plan to disseminate? that uh all of this information to everybody who needs to know it, which it it almost sounds to me like everybody needs to know it. So, how is that going to happen? Sure. So,

103we have we we have these hard copies and we also have it uh um on our website. Um we also uh I provide training with the staff at Fitzgerald um to go over this. Uh and we also um provide that obviously they have access online to to review it. Um and we also let them know that it has to be reviewed by all the the staff uh yearly. Thank you. Any other questions for Jennifer? I have a quick question. Um, so um, at the beginning of the information that's provided, there was kind of a spreadsheet or a chart of all the different programs and then all the different sections and then which which um, programs and facilities were required to follow each assessment. Sure. And this I'm sorry if this is like um a basic

104question, but how did you determine which departments were to follow which sections if that makes sense? It does. Um so this is specifically for um our schools that are not supported by other districts. Uh so if this is specifically for us, it's just JCCS um for our school. And then we we have also covered a couple of our early child um career education centers um under our CSSP. So essentially the the way we determined that was if they were if they're on a district another district's um property um you know they use their CSSP. Okay. Thank you for that Dennis. Sure. Do we have a motion to approve the safety the school safety plan? Thank you, Sarah. I'll second. All in favor? I I oppose. The motion carries. Thank you. The next item is the

105recommended approval to expand the lease. This is for the ECE area and it refers to storage space. Um, superintendent is recommending this approval and this is uh regarding the South Sea Street and Lon Poke facility. Any questions on that? If not like to entertain a motion on my Thank you, Judy. A second. I second. Thank you, Ven. All right. All in favor? Any opposed? That motion carries. Um, guess what? But I am told we missed the last one that go. Yeah, this is the last one for this project. We're done. You're gonna bring us cookies that we should be bring. This is a the case of the water fountain. Yes. Yes. The to get the wheelchair accessibility past the rails of the water fountain. I pushed it into the wall. So, we had to reframe

106it and get a header above it. And that just gives us ADA clearance. So, and then the second one is just uh removing some old electrical out of the building that was left over from the previous furniture. The new furniture came in and it got new electrical. So, those are just a couple small things that weren't on the plans, but then were picked up through the process of the project. But, we're done. This is closed out. I I'm filing notice of completion with the county tomorrow. That starts our 30-day. Nobody can come asking for more money. All right. So, I'll process that tomorrow and and we're done. Congratulations. Um cabling and phones are going in this week. They started yesterday and then I'm working with Allen's office on programming the phones towards the end of

107next week. But I'm really letting Allan tell me when to put the people back in. like within a short amount of time. Great. Finally have a home. Yes, we'll need like a ribbon cutting or something. Yeah, there should be some fan. We can make cookies. Yeah, I really like your cookie idea. Any other questions on this ADA compliance issue? Really, thank you very much for wrapping that up. Um, do I have a motion? I move to approve. Thank you. C and Judy will second. All in favor? I. None opposed. That motion carries. And finally, our last action item is reimbursing expenses for board members to attend the Santa Barbara County School Boards Association annual dinner next Thursday on the 16th. Um I think we've got quite a few of our board members attending now. Um

108it'll be a great attendance. Any questions on that or who would like to move to approve this item? Thank you. Sarah second guys seconding and all in favor I oppositions and that motion carries as well. Personnel report is for your information only. We are still uh our Williams Uniform Complaints Quarterly Report is an attachment. Um and looking at ahead at future agenda items, we're capturing all our ideas. We're looking at career tech ed. Um an update on our TK and universal prek programs and the human trafficking issue. These are all in the works. Are there any other agenda item suggestions? Anything else would you like to bring forward? That's good for now. Okay. Um, at this time, I just thought of something. Um, and we'll probably do this as we meet, but if we can

109just maybe have updates with what is going on with the Department of Education and federal funding just because things are changing so quickly and just to have that that that right just to have that information as what's the most current up to date and our in our meetings would be helpful. Thank you. How it impacts the the county. Thank you. All right. Well, at this time, I'm looking for a motion to adjurnn. I'll move. Move. Second. All in favor? I adjourn. Thank you.