001all right let's call to order the Santa Barbara County Board of Education meeting on March 13th held here at the sbceo north county office like to note that live simultaneous Spanish translation of the board meeting is available for those viewing online at this time let us pledge allegiance to our flag I Ali to the flag the United States of America to The Republic expands One Nation God we're ready for a roll call Anna okay Mrs Alvarez Flores here Dr armastad here Mrs cardi here miss man here Mrs Frost uh Mrs Reed here Mr Walker okay thank you thank you I see no changes to the agenda so we'll begin with board comments if anyone has anything they'd like to say or report Dr arer No any board comments Miss Frost hello it's been a month
002I forgot um on the table you'll see an invitation to the Santa Barbara County Schoolboard association annual dinner which is Wednesday evening 5:30 April 16th at the brothers and the um invited speaker will be Dr Victor Rios he's a UCSB professor author and speaker and known to some of us for work and we'll also honor Laur Branch the county teacher of the year um there is a deadline for registration and my history with this is it's a full room every time so if you want to go call and make your reservation and it's it's well worth it it's a lot of the um the school districts have board members there who attend so you get a chance to kind of meet some of our peers in the various School District boards and Dr Rios is
003a great speaker thank you Mrs Frost um I'll just report that I attended a performance today by the Las gueros it's a group of female musicians from Colombia through the uh Viva L Arte program which I had mentioned last meeting and I say this because these women were absolutely fabulous they were very young and they really engaged with students and vivarte is a countywide cultural education program and on Sunday at 6 pm at margerie Luke they'll be performing for families and I would encourage anybody who's interested to attend it's at 6m at margerie Luke and watching kids get up and dance sing in Spanish and um just respond to the music it was it was just a a bright spot in my day wanted to share that okay um do we have any public comments
004there is no public comments okay and we'll get right into it um first up is a presentation on the Juvenile Justice Center and our associate superintendent Bridget Bitz will be introducing Chief Holly bedon thank you Mrs cardi and I'm pleased to introduce the Santa Barbara County Probation and chief Holly Benton who is here today as you indicated to present an update on the Juvenile Justice Center Holly has served as probation Chief since March of 2023 and brings over 30 years of experience to this role she is widely recognized as a collaborative leader deeply committed to serving and supporting Youth and I will say that Holly has been a valued partner to us and her passion for Youth and dedication to their sex make her an invaluable asset excuse me asset to our work and so
005please join me in welcoming Chief Holly Benton thank you am I actually on good okay uh good afternoon chair of board members I am chief Holly Benton and uh I have been Chief now for two years of the probation department um I've been with this County now for seven years and I have actually now this is my 35th Anniversary month of um time in this particular field so I um have worked with a number of school Personnel in two counties over the years and have nothing but praise for our County Education Office personnel and our school Personnel at the JJC um when Dr saso asked me to come and introduce myself to the board you know I thought this was a wonderful opportunity to talk about that partnership a little bit but also to give
006your board a brief overview of Juvenile Justice in the county and to tell you a little bit about how we work with youth so that you perhaps understand some of the unique challenges that our school Personnel are facing when they're working with those youth inside that Juvenile Justice Center so inab barbar County each year we develop a comprehensive plan uh which outlines how we're going to work with youth in the county and it is not just those youth that are Justice involved it's also youth in our communities in the prevention and intervention space um the juvenile Justice coordinating Council which is a statutory group but is made up of community stakeholders um Community Based organizations County agencies County Schools as a part of that group that group sits down each year over a series of
007meetings and discusses the state of um services for youth in our County what gaps are there what things are missing um what things are important um for us to focus on in terms of our work with youth in the county over the course of the next year how do we want to fill those gaps and each year that group also focuses on and sets the goals for working with youth in the county and these are the four goals that we intend to focus on most years reducing recidivism is really about um interrupting chains of behavior for youth what are the unmet needs that those youth have that are actually causing the behaviors that bring us before um the juvenile court with that youth um you know it our position on this is at the earliest
008Point possible we want to provide interventions Prevention Services in the community and we need the support of our community-based organizations and our schools in particular in order to be able to do that effectively enhancing diversion opportunities um as much as possible you want to divert youth out of the system and away from Court involvement um you don't want them drawn deeper into the system and so any methods that we can use to do that are crucial um collaboration between youth serving agencies and departments for better outcomes we don't want to work in silos we don't want to have our agencies not speaking to each other not collaborating on youth case plans not understanding the whole picture of what's going on with youth in our community um and it's important to do that not just when
009they come into contact with juvenal Justice but long before um you know if there are risk factors of signs that there is going to be some issues maybe with that youth or family we want to intervene as soon as possible and then addressing disparities um each youth is unique and each youth has to be their own whole person so uh when we identify disparities in our system we want to address those that includes things like cultural barriers language barriers I'm thinking of specifically of our mxco community um and our indigenous folks that live in the north county in particular um our youth that are lgbtqia plus um all of those youth have particular needs and services that they require um and many others we have disproportionate youth of color in our system and we like
010to focus in and try to address those barriers where we can as well so when youth come to probation um usually it's because they've committed either an infraction or a law violation and when they come before us uh they come with complex needs many of them have been involved in child welfare before many of them have um you know complex trauma um they have high adverse childhood experiences or Aces and um those things are not easily addressed it's usually not a quick fix it often involves the family because the root of the issue whatever they're facing is not just theirs they're by themselves it's a family problem so we try to look at each individual Youth and address those factors on an individual basis assessing risk assessing what their needs are which I'll talk about
011in just a moment um and trying to keep that youth in the home and provide services in their Community where they are as much as possible Statewide as the statistic shows about 90% of Youth who come into contact with probation are served in the home and that's where they remain um services are evidence-based meaning that they're proven we know that they work because there's a lot of research behind how we work with youth um they are trauma informed our officers are trained in dealing with youth with trauma because all of our youth have trauma I don't think we have any youth that come into our system that don't have some type of trauma and they're cognitive behavior change based so what you want to do is change the behaviors and change the thinking so that
012these youth will take a different um path choose a different course next time local statistics as you can see here there's a state graph and there is a county graph which is the red line and Statewide we've seen a dramatic decline in juvenile arrest since 2011 and our trend has been similar um the numbers dropped even more dramatically during the pandemic but they've now returned to pre-pandemic levels also Statewide felonies make up about 51% of juvenal arrests but locally about 37% of jenal arrests are felonies add use of diversion for those with misdemeanors in our county is up to about 29% of all youth that we come into contact with um so three out of 10 um are diverted right away out of the system we don't even bring them into contact with the juvenile
013court that's up from under 10% in 2018 so we have made significant progress in diversion over the last several years you may think of Youth in contact with probation as being children under 18 uh but that is no longer the case about 40% of the youth that are on probation are 18 or over at this point and there has been a great deal of recognition in my field about adolescent brain development and the fact that these folks uh may be 18 but that doesn't automatically make them functioning adults um they are still learning and growing and making poor choices and impulsive choices at times and they have to be able to fail occasionally and make a mistake and learn from that mistake so that recognition has permeated field uh the majority of Youth that are
014being supervised in this County at this point are male and Hispanic here's the local Trend in uster provision which does show a significant as you can see downward Trend post 2017 in our County as a result of changes in the law and also changes to our local practice since 2018 uh the numbers now are currently roughly where they were at the start of the co pandemic and I mentioned that in the field of Probation and Community Corrections U we're much more aware of adolescent brain development this has helped to drive some of these other changes and Trends um youth incarceration has dropped dramatically along with the rate of arrest and we have shifted from a compliance or rule-based type of supervision to a type of supervision that's about unmet needs and changing behaviors because teenagers
015don't follow rules well I mean this is something that we all know from our own families from our kids um they have to be allowed to make mistakes and if you give a youth who has come into contact with juvenile justic ISM a list of rules and expect them to follow them perfectly you're going to be very disappointed they're not going to follow those rules perfectly and if your orientation toward assisting that youth is well you didn't follow the rules you've missed the point right the point is that you have to help them succeed not that you're waiting for them to fail so that is a significant shift that has taken place in my field something that should have been think intuitive all along but perhaps was not because for a long time the ginal
016justice system treated youth like adults uh over time probation has shifted away from dealing with minor School Behavior treny chronic runaway Behavior those are not things that come to the Juvenile Justice System any longer uh research has also shown us that if a youth is um detained at a juvenal facility that the chances of being drawn deeper into the system increase dramatically with each one of those detentions so you want to be careful to make sure that those youth that are detained are the those with the most serious or the most violent offenses U one other touch thing that I'll touch on because I'm going to show a slide about it in a moment um there was a shift a few years ago at the state level where the State closed its Juvenile Justice facilities
017um s SP 823 um was the legislation that enacted that youth are no longer being sent to those tjj facilities instead they're being kept at the local level in our Juvenile Justice Center and the result of that change has been that we have many youth now between the ages of 18 and 25 who were serving multi-year commitments in our Juvenile Justice Center um this is something that was never never contemplated when that Center was built so that also represents some unique challenges for us and for our school Personnel sure sure E I ask a question now or wait until you finish that's up to you it's specifically about this um what determines that uh person that's been arrested between 18 and 25 would go to The JCC versus somewhere else there is nowhere else that's
018what determines it those youth are all kept on the local level now so all of them regard of what they've been arrested for correct yes the change is a complete shift complete closure of the state facilities and a complete shift to the counties so if a youth is arrested for murder and that youth is is not adjudicated in adult Court um they are not transferred into adult Court then the limitation on their sentence will be Age 2 and they will remain in the juvenile facility if sentenced to do so by the court until age 25 and regardless if they have a high school perform or not so it's not about it's not related to education um but I will touch on that in a moment um in terms of you know we prioritize education while
019they're in custody and I'll talk about why that is in a moment sure sure so it depends on the person in other words if they were adjudicated as uh it is not going to necessarily um dictate whether or not they're going to remain in the system it will dictate where they will um ultimately serve their time or their commitment y um there the change to the law also made it more complicated to transfer some of these cases into adult Court the presumption now being that um they shouldn't be housed into jail under the age of 25 unless um the court uh probation the district attorney can show that the jail can provide some of the services that are required during that period of brain development between 18 and 25 um you know it's a somewhat
020um it has been a somewhat controversial change uh but the intent of it the original intent of it was to make sure that these youth were housed locally so they had closer access to their community and to their family um which you know uh has been it's been a mixed blessing I think um there's an upside and a downside to that yeah I guess when I'm struggling with this this definition of yes so a 23y old being hous with a 14y old Cor and we have what we call classification procedures right um not unlike you might hear about in a jail except it's in a juvenile facility where we don't house a 14-year-old with a 23y old they would be separated because not only will the 14-year-old irritate the 23y old unreasonably but they're at
021very different stages of their life their maturity U different stages of addressing their treatment needs and so they will not be attending any type of treatment together and they won't be house together yeah uh let's see um uh now the youth that are in custody pursuant to this this conversation are much more likely to have committed an offense which harmed another person and jeopardized Public Safety um it is overall a very small percentage of the youth that we serve that are in our juvenal facilities and it's an even smaller percentage of the youth countywide and while they are in custody they receive a wide range of services so which I'll talk about in a moment our local statistics show that U you know probation Works to address what we call Dynamic risk factors there's a
022lot of jargon in my field but I like to think of this as the things that you can change that will change your life basically um you know it's who you hang out with it's whether or not you attend school um it's whether you have a level of family dysfunction that prevents you from being you know a whole person basically um you know and sometimes it's your beliefs about the law law enforce M about you know breaking the law whether or not there should be consequences whether you feel that there are consequences all of those things are what we call criminogenic needs and we focus in on those we assess those and we try to Target those we also try to enhance protective factors we know that if you're in school your chances of success
023go up dramatically um particularly if you're in regular regular class you're in all the time you're attending regularly we know you're going to do much better um pro-social bonds you know do you have supports from people in your life who are not encouraging you toward um to do bad things um do you have a stable residence you know are your basic needs being met on a daily basis those things are incredibly important to success this is just a sampling of the many programs and services that are out there um being brought in for our youth in custody and I won't go through all of that I will just say we have a wide range of things and many of these are educational or vocational in nature and we have been because of the fact that
024we have youth in custody now for many years in some cases been working to build the vocational in some ways we've had to build the plane as we've been flying it um we haven't really had any choice so we continue to uh bring an additional um programs for those youth I think this gives a picture um of that population that I was talking about we're actually up to 23 youth now who are in What's called the secure youth track and those are youth that are uh they were not transferred into adult Court they instead were sentenced in juvenile court and now will'll be serving time in the facility until they're 25 as you can see some of these youth have multi-year commitments um you know and I do mean multi-year five or more years that
025they will be with us some of them starting at age 15 or 16 all the way up until their mid to late 20s it's a big change big change um you know and the challenge for us is to make sure that they are um occupied um that their minds are occupied that they have you know challenging work to do that they are um they don't go stir crapy you know these are still Youth and we want them to learn something and gain skills so that we uh are able to re-enter them into the community productively right that is our goal uh and I said it's it's been a little bit of a challenge for us as quickly as this has happened we emphasize the importance of education at all stages of working with youth um
026our County Partners have been amazing um working with our individual youth to bring out the best in them and they have helped us to create Technical vocational programs for the Youth uh they have also helped us to create Partnerships with our local colleges we have Partnerships with almost every local college and with Rising Scholars now um we try to put the youth on a u what we call College Preparatory before they start college because it's a shock to the system for some of these youth they may have obtained their GED and they think they're ready to go and they are really not um college is a shock to even you know incredibly well adjusted kids who are straight A they go to college and suddenly it's not what they expected right we actually have one
027youth right now in custody who's in a fouryear university so we have had um some success with this we have youth with AA degrees we have one youth I think with multiple AA degrees now um and we do try to help them see a vision of their future that includes education right if you can help them see that point in the future for themselves where they're not here now my done and what they're my done and now they are a person who has graduated from college and has a brighter future ahead of them that sometimes can make all the difference to what will happen with that youth when they leave that facility so we continue to prioritize education we're very grateful for our partners of the County Schools who have helped us to put these
028programs in place um and that really is the brief overview are there other questions for me that I can answer would you say once again what the acony S ytf it stands for secure youth treatment facility locally we call that program our Peak program uh perseverance Equity accountability and knowledge um and you know I think it doesn't so much matter what you call it it matters what you do with it right um and we're going to have have um a challenge over the next few years trying to put more programming in place in that facility but I think I can sort of see where it's going to end up and I think it's going to be amazing once we get some of the programs in the challenge is it is a relatively small population and
029when you want to bring in a contractor to do something um you have to have money to be able to contract for all of these different services and the funding stream is not that robust most of funding goes to staff the facility and to um provide supports like for instance there is no dedicated funding stream for let's say a youth wants to leave custody and we want them to go into transitional housing right we're probably going to help pay for that housing but there's a finite stream of money for that right so it's sometimes it's about funding and sometimes it's just about finding a wide enough variety of contractors who are willing to do those Services where are they located they are all at the Juvenile Justice Center in Santa Maria so thank you so
030much for that presentation um it's really it's really great to have an idea of the focus and I really love hearing that um you approach helping the youth succeed instead of waiting for them to fail um and one of my questions centered um on the facility um as well because prior and I know we've talked about this in Prior um meetings um with the closure of the Los pretto boy school um I know that that was a a location that a lot of the community really and the youth and and everyone that was there really um appreciate it and I know can you and for all of us can we just have a brief description of why we don't have that anymore and then also are there elements that are happening now to try to
031integrate some sort of um that nature aspect into the current facilities sure I'm green um yes so that facility was costing us about $3 million a year and um on average we had four youth there in the facility at any given time the youth that you used to go to the camp were youth that had misdemeanors and those youth are now being diverted they're not in custody at all so the youth that we have in custody at the JJC are there extremely significant and serious offenses and they are not appropriate for an open setting so they would not have been appropriate for the camp um you know I I would not be comfortable housing those youth there um just based on the community safety aspects of um the crimes that they had committed so it
032it outlived its usefulness basically and became no longer costeffective for the number of Youth that were being committed the average population there was between four and five for over three years before we finally said we really cannot continue this program um we are in the process um that site of the Los pratos has been taken over by County Fire who is now um housing their equipment up there and we're in the process of developing a mentorship program with County fire that will allow some of those youth to go up there and participate on hand cruise and they won't actually be doing fire fighting but they'll be able to be mentored by the firefighters and they will be able to um learn how to use tools and other equipments and that will give them some access
033to that space thank you so much Holly um I think we all applaud you for taking a trauma informed approach with students at the JJC and not just seeing them as adjudicated um addressing those disparities I think that's all just at the very heart of it and I'm wondering how long this approach has been in in effect and is there enough Baseline data to know if it's making a difference we do have some baseline data uh we report some of that data out each year um as part of that process I describ with the Juvenile Justice coordinating Council and it is actually available online if you go to our website and look for our a terrible long name comprehensive multi-agency Juvenile Justice plan also known as the CM jjp um you can find the links
034to the previous year's plans on there where we talk a little bit about um some of the data that goes along with these initiatives um I think you know it is a relatively small sample so um you know we know that our reiv recidivis recidivism rates tend to be um you know they're they're not bad they're pretty good but it's harder for us now to do reiis and rates for youth because their files are sealed almost as soon as they exit the system many files are bued automatically and so we no longer have access to all of the data that goes along with that sealed file so um there are some things that we can still access to run reports but other things we're not able to um assess we only know if they come
035back into the system you know if they come back into the local system so if they're elsewhere in California we're not able to you know really look at that statistic so there are some limitations to what we're able to ascertain through the data but you can see what we do have in those reports very good thank you so much thank you appreciate your time appreciate the chance to speak with you today just want to say thank you again Holly and I just would like to say we're so appreciative of your partnership and the difference that you make with the youth we just really really love working with you so thank you so kindly for being here I know you have an appointment you need to get to so feel free to go thank you so
036much next we have a presentation on countywide Behavioral Health supports for students and we have representatives of uh multiple divisions all of whom work together and again we'll have associate superintendent Bridget boets introduce um Shannon York tiany Carson and marielen REE so thank you and yes it is my pleasure to introduce three uh of our directors here at SPO representing two different divisions so from the curriculum and instruction division we have Tiffany Carson who is uh director of school and District support as well as um two individuals from the student Community Services Division maryan marielen reesi who's our executive director of one of the nonprofits Children and Family Resource Services and Shannon York who is a director of student and community services and they're each working in this Behavioral Health space so they'll share a
037little bit about their work and how it impacts students countywide you're welcome thank you uh and good afternoon board members uh as associate superintendent boblet said this really is a team approach um social and emotional learning behavioral wellness it's something that we all need to collaborate on um I'm here today to share how our curriculum and instruction division um is supporting students Behavioral Health and Wellness specifically through social and emotional learning um also I'm going to abbreviate that to throughout the presentation um I'll begin first by sharing how the Statewide about the Statewide efforts and then I'll discuss how those have been enacted in our County Social and emotional learning is an integral part of education and human development and it's included in California's Vision one system serving the whole child is the process that
038helps students and adults learn learn and use skills to build healthy identities manage emotions achieve goals show empathy maintain relationships and make responsible decisions Educators parents and researchers have intuitively understood the benefits ofal for a long time but as we all collectively experienced covid-19 dramatically accelerated the need to explicitly addressal in our schools and in and our communities so in response to the Behavioral Health crisis arising ing from um the pandemic the California Department of Public Health partnered with FEMA um a Federal Emergency Management agency to provide free Outreach crisis counseling and resilience building resources to local communities and there was a significant investment of about $33 million that was put towards this effort and in June 2020 Cal hope uh was launched as the organization to manage and provide those much needed resources and
039uh as the desire to help children and families in crisis continued to increase there was a realization that the best way to deploy resources to Children was through schools and the best way to get uh resources to schools was through County Education offices so um in early 2021 the Cal hope school initiative was established with three objectives first to build and sustain the Cal hope seal Statewide of community of practice specifically for County Education offices to ensure a permanent and free collection ofal resources that were available to our communities and to distribute funds to county offices of Education to supportal at the local level so over the past five years about $50 million has been committed to supporting seal and education specifically and from the beginning uh our office uh Santa Barbara County Education office
040has played an active role in these efforts so using those Statewide resources and Grant funds we've been able to host our own seal community of practice to build connections and share resources which we modeled after the Statewide cop uh community of practice we distributed many grants directly to our schools and districts we funded counselors professional learning opportunities for educators and experiential learning for students specialized coaching and more and in partnership with our districts we identified seal focal schools who were able to Pilot and evaluate strategies in their setting and then they received additional coaching and professional development in return and we connected our districts to free durable Evergreen resources through our trainings Communications our brochures and relationships and now in what is the final year ofal funding from the Cal hope schools initiative we've continued
041to provide customized resources for our districts as they build sustainable seal systems and supports so that all Santa Barbara County Children and Educators can thrive um in your packet um you will have received theal brochure that we use this year to connect with our districts and Charters about Cal hope andal resources and if you open to the middle you can learn more about the elements of social and emotional learning within our schools so this includes support for social and emotional learning for our students as they uh learn about themselves and how they relate to their peers and to adults this includes support for adult social and emotional learning is educators build relationships with students and one another and work to embed into their academic practices and finally support foral and school systems structures and culture
042and additionally the brochure highlights um featured Partners who were able to work with our districts in schools for free this year thanks to those one-time seal funds through um through pal hope so it's great to read about these opportunities um but I wanted to bring some Joy with photos and a brief sound bite of our students and teachers so starting from the top and moving clockwise here are some of our featured Partners working in the county we have Kevin bracie um starting at the upper left a greatness coach who hosted an assembly with all 900 students at Bruce Elementary in Santa Maria Bonita and then moving to the right we have Kevin again hosting an assembly for all 107 B uh students in Ballard so we're supporting our uh students and districts everywhere in the
043county and then below that we have a photo of all the teachers in the Santi ANZ Valley gathering together um to learn about Collective teacher efficacy and trauma-informed practices with Ricky Robertson this was part of a multi-day series and then I'm going to play this audio clip of Kevin hosting an assembly in C I'm brilant I believe awesome though I don't know if you could hear them but they're speaking I'm awesome I'm brilliant I believe in me I matter and then they speak those words to other students what powerful word words for them to say and hear about themselves so um to to give you some numbers um and highlight what we've been able to accomplish with seal funds in this year Alone um and we know that these numbers are approximate because we're still
044building out some opportunities and experiences um before the Cal hope fund uh sunset in June but um by the end of this school year over 15,000 students will have experienced chant rallies mindfulness residencies and other artistic performances teaching self-affirmation and speaking words of kindness over 300 educators will have participated in workshops and ongoing site-based coaching in Seal with a special emphasis on our alternative and continuation schools in Loke unified Santa Barbara unified the Santi ANZ Valley and our own sp CEO schools we will have trained over 50 classified staff including campus safety on deescalation practices and restorative approaches for when students are experiencing disregulation and 19 School site leadership teams will have received professional development and ongoing coaching on how to integrate seal through a multi-tiered uh system of support at their site and um
045as noted on this slide and in the brochure we've shared with you earlier um there these are the main organizations who have contributed significantly to Growing the available and durable resources that we use as a County Education Office and that we're able to pass along to our districts Charters and families and it's really their contributions along with the heavy upfront investment from the Sal grant that have supported our knowledge systems and networks so thatal awareness will continue um beyond the life of the Cal hope schools initiative and our support from our office will continue to grow and evolve so that children and Educators and Santa Barbara County can Thrive and as we mentioned before we do this in partners with others in our County office so I will now turn it over to Mary Ellen
046who will share About Children and Family Resource Services I wanted to point out in your packet there's a glossery that talks about some of the terms because we talk about a lot of acronyms I'm gonna have a few too but I know when I get done uh Shannon's got a lot more complicated ones than I have so I'm really glad to see everybody today um some of you have heard me talk about M before and what we're doing and so it's good to see you again um this will be some updates so hopefully and for many of you you're hearing about it for the first time so I just wanted to briefly kind of give a backdrop to our department because it's a little bit different we're one of the three nonprofits at sbceo uh
047we're the youngest one we started about seven years ago with different programs and departments within County Education Office that we're doing a lot of community work serving students but also people out in the community and so that nonprofit was formed like I said only seven years ago so we are the the New Kids on the black still um we have a board of directors and we're a 501c3 and um associate superintendent um Bob litz is our vice president of the board so um the four program areas I just want to mention really quickly and while I'm going to talk about um our Aura health and preschool screening was really how um kind of Our Roots were in this health linkages program we provide the Dental screening Fluoride Varnish but also Vision hearing height and weight
048BMI screening for the all the state preschool kids and then our promotoras Network we have community health workers that are out in the community um serving people connecting to coverage is one of our newest programs and that is really focusing on trying to get every single person who's eligible for medical in our County enrolled and ured MW so mwell what's really exciting about this program and really unique is that it's a partnership between spco and bwell and a lot of times Partnerships are are are difficult and I think that what's exciting about this is it brings the best um and the strongest pieces that we have with an SB CEO and that bwell has from the County behavioral Wellness department and and what's unusual about this is a lot of times in a partnership one
049is the more dominant partner somebody gets the funding and then they they may you know piece it out to other folks but in this case it really is a 50-50 partnership right from the beginning so the grant was written uh pre pandemic um a lot of things changed nobody could have imagined what was going to happen right at that time when we wrote this uh but it's $5 million uh it's a state Grant um and we are a subcontractor to be well but like I said we're a 50-50 uh partner it's just for fiduciary purposes the money comes through the state and gets routed to us as well um it began in in 2020 U with the contract ending in 2026 um so right now we're looking at exploring different possibilities for sustainability once that
050contract ends um and I just want to share briefly goals and outcomes so it's a prevention and Early Intervention Program so we have education happening in the classrooms uh or we have education happening with um the students the teachers parents um but it's really a comprehensive prevention program because we're wanting to avoid a mental illness from becoming seriously serious and uh disabling and I'm really excited to see um how this has made a difference in so many kids' lives um I think that what we're seeing is and trying to do research on is to see what those negative outcomes are that that are being avoided by this um so this is a little bit about kind of the why we're doing it it's because we want to intervene and try to prevent mental illness from
051becoming a worse situation than it is wanted to show you the different school districts that we are in right now um when we first got started I think when I spoke with some of you a couple years ago we were mostly in North County that's where we got started and right here at Barnell was our Hub where we started with San Maria Bonita School District Orchid Guadalupe um and Fitzgerald has been uh a big partner from the start uh we then moved into the Sanz Valley and serving those districts and now we're really active in South County as well but to give you an idea of the reach here we're we've provided so far 5,289 services and that's to 611 unduplicated individual students so that gives you a little bit of idea of of how
052many children we're working with um we've done 102 Outreach events that are education out in the community usually right on the school campus and through those we've served 6,710 people want to talk a little about who we are and what we do as I said it's a real close partnership on the left are this is the Staffing that comes from Santa Barbara County County Department of Behavioral Wellness uh they provide the program manager and three clinicians and then on the right that's the SP CEO staff that are part of this we have a part-time supervisor uh and five Health Navigators so there are some clinically related Services being provided but this is as I said is a prevention and Early Intervention Program what is um extremely valuable I think to districts is because of the
053uh participation from bew well there's a direct linkage that can happen to that County Mental Health System where there's not that barrier of people trying to access those Services it's really a direct linkage where these clinicians can do an assessment on site and really get people help more quickly than they might if they were just accessing it from the community the focus about Navigators too I think that's unusual about ours is that we talk about that war handoff where you're not just giving somebody a number you're not just giving somebody a or even showing them a place to go you're helping them really get connected with help and for us the extra step is it's not even seeing that they're connected but staying with them a little bit longer to make sure that that connection
054is successful because sometimes they might get connected but then maybe if they didn't really uh have a successful experience bonding with that therapist um then we don't want them to give up we want want to make sure that they're on the right path so I wanted to show a little more detail on some of what we do um as I said prevention early vention we're connecting people with Services where we see that there is a really serious need or there's the beginning of a serious need that we're concerned about but we're also doing a lot of education and skill building groups too so there's in individual interventions that are taking place but these are some of the topics uh and we really gear things you be whatever is of most interest to the school district
055um but these are some of the ones one of the favorite ones was emotional superpowers um so all kinds of different topics and we really do when we meet with the districts want to know what are what are their needs what are they interested in what what do they do and so we're able to with this partnership um between our staff and the clinicians um really tailor groups to what that school needs so those are some of the topics those are some of the staff our staff are in we're in the Santa Barbara office Loke office and then right here at paral too I think the closest door to here is where we have our staff um there ml staff there and actually from all the other program areas as well these are the topics
056that we have for the staff teacher professional development um staff are involved with that must be CEO but also the the program manager that leads the program and the clinicians are doing a lot of this work we like I said we work together as a team um and again this is tailored towards the district's needs um and what they want for their teachers what they want for their parents what they want for their staff um so this kind of gives you a little an idea so anyway just brief today so hopefully maybe another time I get to tell you more about what we're doing yeah is it a referral program how do yes we do so yeah so so we are doing the groups the education the Outreach those things but depending upon the District
057we're taking direct referrals too so there's a secure link where they're giving us that referral we're following up with them in some cases the assessment might be something very you know might be something simple and we're not just looking at the mental health needs but comprehensively basic needs that are needed so and so those come into and usually our Navigators will be the first ones to take a look at what those needs are if if they identify right from the screening process that there's a more serious need then usually the bwell clinician um is going to be the one to maybe schedule an assessment and take it a step further so with each district and I I I mentioned the different districts we're not in every single District when the grant was written all districts
058did opt in they all had the potential to be involved with it what we know happened after and during the pandemic was a lot of money was freed up right for mental health services but just for recovery and so for some school districts they really had a robust mental health program that was something that we didn't want to duplicate or repeat what they're doing right so so we've really worked in different districts to do what is needed so in some case I think in all of them we are taking the individual referrals but for some it was more a focus on the individual referrals and for some that didn't already have internal staff doing it it was more of a focus on groups or working with parents do you engag the local reservation at all
059to much you do not is there reason that you don't or well I I will say this that this program is specifically geared towards schools so I think that that's the reason why I'm sitting here thinking because we have a community based program so part of me thinks like oh yeah we should be doing that too but I know with this program it's a very specific contract with the state it's very school-based yeah it's it's it's it's uh School based a question in in reference to it school based who at the school area gets the information so that they know to refer these individual that's a good question too principles yeah so when we set up so and we set up anou with each district that's going to participate okay and so in each district
060is actually a different thing in some cases uh in one District we have actually the head nurse is the one that coordinates all the referrals there's another one where maybe an assistant superintendent does so it really so each School District designates uh at some point sometimes which schools are participating or how they want to have those referrals come in because like I said some of them have uh a system internal where they have some Navigators on site perhaps already so we don't want to duplicate so we usually don't have things coming in directly from teachers um unless that's the way the school district set it up with us so I just wondered because sometimes no one knows this is going on that's absolutely you're you're absolutely right and I think yeah yeah I think what's
061been really good about this program has been that relationship building with schools and knowing how schools work so that it's not somebody from bewell just going in with their ideas and so I think that's where I see like I talked about before really I feel like the the power of the partnership is really in the different expertise and backgrounds that each of us have because we have a different perspective um coming from the side of the schools they have a different perspective coming from the idea of being a state mental health system right so yeah me those those those opportunities to hear directly from the superintendent and then from the principls and other staff have been important because it's very different at each school what they need Mar may I ask a question where does
062the youth dwell coalition to get into all of this in terms they do if I had more time would have talked more about them too right so youth well is they're part of our executive team and so we work very closely with them we have uh which started I think four years ago now we have a a navigator meeting that not only Bell SB CEO but all local community based organizations send Navigators to and that's a a resource and training meeting that's a part and youth well helps leave that along with me and the manager from from bwell so yeah so Rachel style is on our um she's on our executive committee and she's been there right from the beginning yeah so a big part so we work really closely with them I didn't get
063a chance to talk more about that but really I would say at the heart of this program as well as all the programs that we have within Child and Family Resource Services is really that collaboration the Partnerships yeah so almost anybody who's doing any kind of work like this we are already in partnership with them I'm usually already meeting with them and and we're sharing ideas again not duplicating but kind of taking the piece that where we have the the most expertise and then uh supporting other people with what works best for them to do really quick um thank you for the presentation um I had a question you mentioned that the funding was ending in 2026 yes and so can you speak to some of the um ideas or strategies to continue these Services
064after funding is um sunsetted absolutely uh that's really our big Focus now because we're looking on the horizon of of that coming up I probably um It's a situation where we're going to look at different what we call braided funding uh and ways and Shannon I'll I'll let her get on here for a minute and talk is going to talk about the different opportunities that schools have to be able to build for services um within our department we became one of the first Community Health worker um providers for medical uh actually in the state and so we have a contract with Sen so we can provide Community uh Health worker services that are billable um there's also a lot of opportunities that Shannon is going to talk about so building is one piece of that
065we also have the opportunity where if a school district does not already have an internal system built that they're working with that they might be able they might choose to use discretionary discretionary dollars with that work with us so that's that's our big Focus this this next year is really seeing how we can continue to do this work because we found that it's it has been very successful the schools really appreciate um our Navigators and the BL staff and I think it's been a great um it's been a great learning experience like I said of putting together two very different organizations uh and systems to work together has been a great learning experience and will'll tell you more about billing I'm still sold my thunder there okay uh so so thank thank you uh one
066of the things that I'm going to be talking about now is really the systems and infrastructure that support the delivery of Behavioral Health Services for students so as was previously mentioned um Behavioral Health and Wellness became part of the Forefront of need throughout the pandemic um and as a response the governor put together um a master plan for kids mental health and funding for um services and infrastructure were a large component of the budget Act of 2021 um this was pack Eng in the Children and Youth Behavioral Health Initiative or cbhi out of curiosity has anyone heard of cbhi anybody all right okay um so this is what is now a $4.7 billion doll with a B investment from the state um that was um um with the intention to enhance expand and really redesign
067um the the systems that support behavioral health um for Children and Youth and when we say children and youth we talking about age 0 through 25 so cbhi is attempting to support increased collaboration between educational entities Behavioral Health departments medical managed care plans and private insurance companies to promote timely and continuous services for youth um our role at SB CEO has been really to facilitate a Learning Network to support School leaders in understanding this initiative and to Foster collaboration across the various student serving sectors in our community um and and here are the various ways the state is trying to tackle this work so there are actually 20 discret U programs or work streams in cbhi across multiple agencies at the state level and many are interrelated and focused on different facets of accessing Behavioral
068Health Services of the 20 that are listed here there are 10 that um impact schools examples include um things like trauma informed training for educators um Cal hope is up there on that list um which Tiffany shared the tremendous work our curriculum and instruction division is working on um in schools and our County um and we will not be unpacking every work stream but I show this graphic to share a sense of the system building being done at the state level in an attempt to support students at or near schools um also you may hear reference in the community um about cbhi and this is just a helpful reminder that it isn't just one thing but really an overhaul of accessing care in California um so today I'm going to be giving an update on
069four work streams um and those are the student behavioral health incentive program or SV hiip wellness coach Workforce a new certification um and a behavioral health position uh that the Statewide multi-payer School linked fee schedule also commonly called to referred to as the fee schedule um and the school linked partnership and capacity grant program um I like to point out on this too that none of these work streams are actually overseen by the Department of Education um but rather various departments in the Health and Human Services Agency so the first work stream I'm going to be talking about is SB hip um and this is on the glossery of terms I might hit almost every one of them on this one so forgive me um but the focus um if you see on here the
070focus population of sbhp is for medic medical qualifying students and as such the grant was administered through our local medical managed care plan which is senal Health uh sbco supported with identifying the various districts for participation using established metrics such as unduplicated pupil counts free free reduced price meal qualification English learner student population Foster youth population and chronic absenteeism districts that met the threshold on three or more indicators were considered for participation um six leas entered agreements with senal to participate including sbcos um uh jccs Carpenteria Santa Maria Bonita Loke Guadalupe and kuyama the incentive program was Pro um provided onetime dollars to focus on um four areas the four areas were Behavioral Health and Wellness programs Behavioral Health screenings and referrals building stronger Partnerships and parenting and family services so each district got to
071decide how they decided to tackle those um locally for jccs um an example would be you know Fitzgerald Community School was identified as the area of focus for jccs some of the services included Partnerships with the promas network uh Contracting with two additional full-time mental health professionals an implementation of coordinated Service uh coordination of services team that involved Fitzgerald's staff and behavioral health professionals making timely datadriven decisions to meet this the needs of our students senal held its celebration of the program in January of this year where representatives from the participating districts shared progress they made over the two years of the grant Lessons Learned and next steps the funds for the program are sunsetting at the end of this school year but most districts are planning to sustain many of the interventions that were
072implemented over the past two years the next work stream is the certified wellness coach so a wellness coach you can think of it as a preclinical position that intends to increase school's capacities to support behavioral health needs um there is a a I'm sure this is not news to you but there is a Workforce shortage of mental health professionals Statewide in particular of course to in our County as well so while these individual uals cannot and really should not provide clinical level therapeutic services they can work alongside mental health professionals to coach administer screenings or coordinate services for students and families some districts have had individuals in these types of Physicians before but the state is recognizing the importance of this work and formalizing it with a certification process so SB CEO supported districts last
073spring to apply for an employer support Grant and locally two districts received grants to hire Wellness coaches and that was Santa Maria Bonita in Loke they are completing their first year of the two-year Grant cycle to hire and onboard staff and integrate them into their behavioral health teams in addition to individuals currently in the workforce that are doing the work Institutes of higher education can offer education program opportunities to students interested in entering this field um I've been in communication with alen Hancock College and they have begun their hiai um sorry Healthcare access and information as h okay um certified wellness coach program with the goal of students entering the field in 2027 my third work stream is the Statewide multi-payer School linked fee schedule commonly referred to as the fee schedule and this is
074a system that allows districts and charter schools to build both private insurance and medical for Behavioral Health Services provided to students so this is a brand new system at the the state level and so with that there is a lot of infrastructure needs that um schools that the the state county and schools are really looking to implement to be able to take advantage of this new system um not only is is an opportunity to be able to reimburse for services that schools are already providing um this uh this fee schedule also expands the practitioner types of who can qualify for providing these services and be reimbursed for example PPS credential school counselors um might already providing some of these Services um to to students on the School site and um they will be able to
075potentially um get reimbursed for those services in addition to that the wellness coach position that is that new position is also on the list for approval for being able to provide some of these services that that again schools can be reimbursed for uh this is uh again a very large undertaking so the state has um designed a Cod cohort rollout for lead learning districts and Charters to be able to onboard and participate um this is um provides a long on-ramp for joining this system again it is a brand new system so um that's been about a year in the making of learning together with dhcs to help build the system together collaboratively um and this is a big sustainable component of braided funding so marielen touched briefly on you know gosh or some of this
076one-time funding is ending what does that mean for all these wonderful programs that some of the schools and communi organizations have um built and this is looking at one of the ways to help support the the funding um now the reimbursement rates while they do not cover the actual cost of the services being provided it is a way to help um offset the cost in order to sustain and in some cases expand services that schools might be offering locally we have nine leas that are partic ipating in a learning cohort um those are jccs um Santa Maria Bonita Guadalupe Loke Carpenteria fan of barbar unified fan of Barbara Charter School galita Union School District and orchit Union now when we look at all of those numbers really um over 70% of students are in our
077County are attending an Lea a district or Charter participating in a learning cohort so there is a lot of impact that we're really seeing and that number is actually closer to 77% um or just got their letter a couple days ago so um we're really looking at this could be a way to um really positive positively impact a majority of our students in our County and my last work stream here as I mentioned a lot of infrastructure is needed in order to participate in the fee schedule so our division is overseeing a grant that provides one-time dollars to school districts that can be leveraged to do just that and that's the school linked partnership and capacity grant program district and Charters can use these funds to support with medical enrollment maintaining or increasing staff that
078provide Direct Services to students building or increasing their billing infrastructure and supporting their data collection and service documentation efforts the life of this grant is through June 2027 um and we have um 18 districts and Charters participating the breakdown is 15 districts are jccs um two charter schools and um the grant is just under $4.2 million um and you can see the graph uh sorry not the graph the map right there with the Stars um so we really do have a good swath of um districts and Charters participating so through sbc's coordination 16 of the 18 participating districts and Charters have decided to opt in to setting aside 10% of the grant to adopt a thirdparty billing vendor to be utilized across our County so sbco is in the process of putting together a request
079for proposal to go to bid with the goal of adopting a billing vendor for the 25 26 school year and Beyond so zooming out um while a lot of this work you've heard today from our team is very much still in progress we are pleased that so many districts and Charters are interested in engaging in this work to continue to provide Behavioral Health Services to students in our County from the systems and infrastructure perspective to the Direct Services to students and families to the support in the classroom with early intervention and wellness and so thank you for the opportunities to share today thank you Shannon that was a lot of information in a short time and we really appreciate you keeping it brief this is the road show we're really trying to learn quickly about
080the various departments that uh comprom uh that comprise spcf so at this time I'd like to turn to um to Bridget to see if you want to lift up any of the items that were in the superintendent report or um ask if any board members have questions specific to item number 10 so there is one item I wanted to just lift up and that is the state of education that the Santa Maria Valley Chamber of Commerce is hosting and that has was rescheduled from our February date the new date is April 30th and it will be held at 4:30 pm. at the Santa Maria Fair Park so those of you who are interested uh you'll want to go ahead and RP for that if you haven't already um for that event and if there are
081any other questions related to the report there are a few of our associate superintendant here who could maybe answer some of the questions that you have if you have them do we have any questions always appreciate getting that report and right writing we can mull it over and refer back thank you Bridget um our consent agenda the usual items we have minutes we have registration of credentials and then item 13 is really just for formalizing the 2526 central office calendar not to be confused with some of the other calendars that are out there this is the one we need to formalize and um the Declaration of surplus and do I have a motion we'll move thank you D thank you Vita Marie all in all in favor hi hi any opposed motion carries thank you
082okay now we have some action items and I'm going to turn to Judy Frost for this next item she is the chair of the board budget committee along with VA Marie Flores and Guy Walker serving and we're going to look at the recommended approval of the second interim budget report the date the budget committee met was March 5th yes does that sound right and yeah our budget committee consists of be Marie and guy and myself um and on staff side Susan and Steve and Nicole um it depends on a lot of work and effort on behalf of the staff within that department as well uh and I want to applaud all of them for an excellent job so um at this point I would like to turn it over to Steve to go over the
083interim second interim Report with us and then we can ask any questions and the committee will make its recommendation okay good afternoon everyone um just a high level uh you know the the second interm report uh we're fortunate it's consistent very consistent with the adopted budget uh we didn't see uh many significant changes in revenue or expenditures um and ultimately our um unrestricted general fund is ending with a a slight addition to the Surplus uh at second interim so just as a reminder second interim is our second opportunity to update our budget during the calendar year um it reflects uh changes in revenue and expenditures through January 31st so uh the report indicates that um again like I said it's consistent with the adopted budget um we uh able to meet our uh financial obligations
084and be fiscally solvent for the current year as well as uh the projected two years out um so big picture overview uh budgets in a good standing um but I'll take any questions if you have any any questions for Steve we just heard the part about we're good THB up thumbs up is a good way to put it committee thinks so too yes as a result of the presentation we met for about an hour and a half yes hour and a half and um we had a lot of questions there's a lot of materials the sax report is always fun to look at all the Mets and not Mets and all that stuff but um in the end the committee unanimously recommend the adoption of the second the approval of the second inter report and
085we'd like to recommend to the board that our recommendation to approve serve as the motion thank you to do so do we need a second on that I second thank you Kata all in favor oos and and that motion carries thank you um item number 16 is the uh annual Financial audit report very happy to see that that is a clean report Judy do you want to add anything to that in our budget meeting on March 5th we had um don't remember her name our auditor our partner on the audit oh yes and I just drew BL that's okay I is the partner and Shiloh was there and she joined us for going through the audit and started with just how well again the materials were prepared and given to them and how everything was
086clean and thumbs up and it was wonderful it was it was really well done that happened so so we need a motion to accept that well the committee again recommends unanimously as long as it's unanimously the committee recommends approval um of the audit report thank you do we have a second thank you Naja um all in favor hi any opposed motion carries thank you very much for the excellent work I was on the budget committee it there's a lot of a lot of questions that go into those meetings and we have the best staff explains everything at the granular level um our next item is you know what it's a recommended approval of a change order well you know this is definitely Mark's favorite part of the meeting but I would like to preemptively state
087that the plan that was drafted and put into motion was way before his time yeah so he's the messenger and we're not going to shoot the messenger and this is a $2,300 item to move a fire alarm um on that first floor curriculum and instruction buildout and the second part of that is just an extension of the time to finish out the contract they will be done next week this is the 21st Friday we are having our walk with the architect on the 20th and uh the project will close out and we'll have that area back to order I still have the bit Furniture in it of course but the job will be completing I have I'll have one small change order for about 5,000 next board I couldn't get it together on this one
088the contractor did not provide the last two to me but that will be it we'll close this out and uh we'll move on and will have a successful project there'll be plenty more change orders in our future I have a feel Judy question so when everything is cleared a week from um you have the furniture ready to go yes the furniture will be delivered the following Tuesday okay the 25th and yeah and it's going in at that time and then I have stored five or so offices on site those will be going back in following that and I have to just get the data and phones set up so we're really looking for Mid April and and that's really Ellen's call because she has to uh assign desk and locations so that's out of my
089review okay very good excellent we should have a ribbon cutting ceremony or something it's not a bad idea appreciate your oversight Mar I want to see yeah any other questions for Mark on that one we need maybe a procedural question so um this is for approval of change order there's got to be some number in which we don't have to you don't need the board's approve $2,300 CH uh true the main reason I brought it was the change of time um the time extension if I don't um get the time closed out it leaves the door open for one of two things to happen one liquidated damages which I'm not intending to go after the contractor for or two they uh charge us for extended overhead and profit and I don't want that either so
090this is a a clean closure on both of our books and both of our ends to just simply close the project on that date we walk away no charge it's non-compensable I'm not charging him he's not charging me so so I basically quot that yeah H to me it sounds like it it's probably more of a transparency thing maybe my question is could you have done this without bring to Bo or there some there some legally I can't because the board originally approved the contract any change to cost or time I have to bring to you in the future I would uh build in a contingency okay in which I would be able to approve the small things present them to you as a list in the form of a a a tracking l list
091so that you know what I'm spending but that I don't have to uh be in the presence of your wonderful company month after month after month asking so all future projects I'll I'll build in a contingency and and show it to you it'll be transparent great thank you thank you thank you do we have a motion to approve that I'll second Sarah moved and K you seconded all in favor opposed um that motion carries thank you uh the next item is the California school boards Association or csba um this is an opportunity to um to vote on a candidate that they have proposed for the delegate Assembly Election this is a returning candidate um an incumbent from Ventura County his name is Arley kit who is in our region region number eight and um I
092don't know if we have any questions on this it's procedural there's just one candidate and there's just one vote for him okay do I have a motion you approve Harley I move that we vote thank you gotcha for our one candidate a second thank you Judy all in favor I I and none opposed you're gain I have no idea who was I mean I'm sure they're fine right I have no idea who they are yeah yeah we've um been assured yeah that that this is a good person that has been involved in csba for I'm there is I'm happy P 6 to one it is a leap of faith isn't it though but um this is what's in front of us apparently no new room for write in candidate there I don't know if anybody
093would jump to that one anyway um now the same SB uh csba is also doing um a delegate Assembly election and this time it's for a district vote we have two candidates for that one one is a new candidate from Loke unified William Frankie Caldera and the second is Melanie waffle who is an incumbent out of orchid do we have any any other questions outside of what was in my pocket and I'm not sure who not question I would just like to say that I know Melanie waffle and she's I would certainly support her and I think the motion would be to forward both candidates so one of them is new to open and I'd like to speak on Frankin Cal president for l unified you would be hard pressed to find someone who cares
094more about our students our teachers and Facilities than Frankie I mean he has just done so much he's you know he has four new board members right now for lpo gy that he's working with to try to get them through but the relationships that he's helped fostered are just incredible he's going to be outstanding thank you for that personal testimony that's incredibly helpful any other comment do we have a motion we move thank you guy a second a second thank you V Marie all in favor I I on the strength of my colleague recommendation I'm feeling pretty good about it yeah all in favor okay that that motion does carry thank you all we'll look forward to seeing what CBA comes up with um information items we have the sarc uh 2324 which is always
095one one year AAR um there are three annual reports if we have any questions they can be directed to either Renee wheeler or Kristen esab depending on if it's jccs or special ed any questions for either of our associate superintendent no okay information so no action is required on that there's a Personnel report and also uh correspondence which you know looks a lot like um a love letter from cde2 US positive certification of SB CEO's first interim report if I could go back just for a second to the items with and um I I want to make sure that you realize we did look at that information and that our failure to have a question is a gold star for both of you that we understood exactly what you were saying Point didn't find any
096holes or areas where we would have a question because you know sometimes you don't hear anything and you wonder well did they even look at it well I can speak for I'm sure we did I'm sure we all did but I know yeah it was good good job guys great morning thank you at this time we're going to adjourn our open meeting and we'll resume and close session should we take five to do that okay see you in five minutes