001board of trustees meeting and we'll start with our >> student trustee Martinez student trustee more >> he is present trustee present trusty Kyle here. >> Trusty Larson >> here. >> Trusty >> here. >> President Sanchez. >> Trusty Van Allen >> here. >> Vice President Williams >> here. And do we have any requests for AB2449 remote participation? >> Yes, Vice President Williams. We have a request from President Sanchez um for emergency just cause to participate remotely. And do we have a motion? >> Second. >> And is this a force >> voice? All those in favor? >> I. >> Any oppose? New York City. All right. Motion passes. >> President Sanchez, do you mind testing your mic? >> Yes. Thank you. Appreciate >> it. >> Good evening again. Uh we're going to start with a public comment
002on the close session item. There is anybody? Is there anyone listening? >> No. >> Okay. So at this time we are going to um step away to have a close session on anticipated litigation and uh we'll return after discussion. Thank you. Thank you. Well question. Welcome back to those that are just joining. We're coming back from a close session with the board and um our um our close session um produced a move to reject and claim number 660285. And we now move into open session where we will, if you can and able, please stand for the pledge of allegiance. and Dr. >> Ready begin to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for it stands one nation under God indivisible with liberty and justice for all. >> All right. Thank
003you everyone. Um, I skipped one, so we should have done the report out session. Um, again, um, the board moved to reject claim 660285. Um, we're now going to the, um, item eight, approval of the agenda. >> But before we do, we have a couple of requests changing. >> Thank you, Bruce. Um, so, um, for the first one, we're requesting that we adjust the agenda to table item 15. we were going to have um a um orientation on new software for the board, but we've had some technical difficulties. So, we're looking to table that. Um, additionally, we're looking to moving um item 15.2 before item 10. >> So, yes, >> I'm sorry, correction. President um or Vice President Williams, believe requested 15.1. >> Oh, is it 2.12? >> 15.1. Oh okay 15 thank you for
004the direction and we get motion what changes agenda >> where before >> all those in favor >> any abstain all right thank you very much all right at this point we're going to be moving to public comment This is the opportunity for the public to address the board regarding any items not on the agenda. Do we have any requests? >> Yes, Vice President Williams, we have one request for public comment from Shalot Kanis. >> Am I good to go? Um, thank you for your service. Uh, I want to highlight a night that I saw the other day that I think uh speaks exemplary for the Santa Cruz County Office of Education. Um, and I appreciate the platform that the student trustees have, the due diligence that they've taken that platform with. Um, the other night
005at the computer science community night, I saw students and parents completely engaged, enthralled, and interacting with each other. Um it was amazing to see what the COE does on hand and to see the access and visibility that the leaders and this role of you guys as trustees and our superintendent had there interacting with parents, interacting with students and interacting with the different people who put on the displays. Um, I'm very proud to be part of this community and I'm proud to see the work and service that we do for our community and it was a pleasure to be there. Um, the science team knocked it out of the park and again um the thing was set up in seconds. The families were in there in packs and uh we had it broken down and everybody
006out of there by the time we were supposed to. Um, but again, your leadership shines. Thank you. >> Thank you. So, as we as we stated, we are moving to our next agenda item for retirement recognition, and we'll leave it to Dr. >> Thank you so much, members of the board, and um to the amazing community who are joining us today. It's really uh bittersweet as always to be here to celebrate people who have made such a deep commitment to uh the county office of education in so many ways. Uh we are going to be celebrating two amazing u members of our team who have u have decided to retire from the county office of education in the middle of the year to make it as dramatic as possible. and uh and we want to
007spend a few moments a few moments when I think about the years and years of service. These few moments to be able to uplift and thank them for their service. The two people we'll be talking about today are Lorie Stewart and Leanne Reyes. And I'm going to be starting with uh with Lorie Stewart. I'd like to tell you a little bit about this amazing woman. Lori is retiring um from the county office of education after 25 years of service as uh part of um well at this point right now she uh she is part of the educational services department but she actually started in the beginning of the millennium uh in the year 2000 the beginning of the century just to dramaticize this and um she began working with the regional occupational program which is
008now we know as career technical education and um She supported program implementation. Um she has had a variety of different roles working supporting student events and academic competitions. She supporting the new teacher project. Um, in 2020, Lori took over um the responsibility of supporting us with um the COVID efforts and she actually was the person that that uh managed our COVID testing process here in in this in this building. Um, it was one of, as you remember, one of the most difficult times for our community, for our schools, for for our staff, and she ca played a key role in helping us make sure that people were safe, that people were taking uh getting tested to ensure that we were doing everything we can to to um allow people to continue working and students to
009be going to school. Um she is somebody who has a very special talent which is to create spaces for that that help people feel welcome. Um and she has become kind of our activities extraordinaire planner or activities planner extraordinaire and um she makes the best breakfast bar you could imagine. um unforgettable potato bars and um just knows how to bring people together uh to uh to uh let them remind them about how they feel welcome and supported. And um I recently spoke when we were uh we had a a get together here, a celebration, and I spoke about how she really epitomizes the welcoming nature of our county office of education. And um so we um would like to take a moment to thank her for her contribution and service and um and and um
010and really to help us to expand the different services um at the county house of education and by bringing people together and nourishing them. And that is something that I I I think of that word when I think about Lori's story. I'm going to ask Dr. for Marshia Russell to join me to speak a little bit more about Lori and then uh we're going to ask Lori to join us and and uh we'll continue the celebrating in just a moment. >> Thank you. Lori is in the back of the room loving every moment of this special attention always. Um, I want to say that in preparation for my remarks today about Lori, I sent a message to the entire team and ask them to describe Lori in one word. So, I'm going to share those
011words with you. Now, my remarks are going to be filled with all these words. Today, we celebrate Lori and her more than 25 years of extraordinary service as our administrative assistant. years marked by her generous spirit, dependability, and thoughtful attention to every detail. Lori has been welcoming, kind, and an inclusive presence. Someone who makes people feel seen, supported, and truly valued from the moment they walked past her desk. With her great sense of humor, joyful energy, and fun-loving enthusiasm, she has been a warm and engaging storyteller. She is a passionate and honest connector. She is a loyal colleague who brings people together with ease. And in conversation this week, Lori doesn't realize it, but she unwittingly shared her own one-word description. She said, "I am solutiondriven." >> Lori is indeed solutiondriven. While being solutiondriven, she
012is also supportive. She meets every challenge with care and confidence. She is always ready with a laugh, a listening ear, or a great food recommendation. Because, as we all know, Lori is a true foodie. Above all, Lorie's warmth, love, and kindness have left a lasting imprint on our organization and the whole Santa Cruz County community. And her impact will be felt long after her very well- earned retirement. Thank you so much, Marca. So, we would like to welcome Lori up to uh the lecture. Uh just just share a few words if you if you'd like to. Um and we're going to be presenting uh the retirement award. So, thank you so much. >> Welcome, Lori. >> Thank you. >> I'd love to say a few words. The reason I stayed here for as long as
013I have, commuting from Watsonville to Santa Cruz every day, is because of the people that I work with and the work that we provide to the community and the students. I mean, it's been beautiful. A lot of times on the road over here I would think oh my god why am I doing this and then I would see on the other end who was waiting for me people. So thank you. >> Thank you behalf board of education office of education we'd like to present this award to you for 25 years of loyal and dedicated service in education. Thank you for making bringing so much warmth to the COE at Charlotte. >> Beautiful. >> So, we'd love to take a picture um with Lori here with the board with the board mind just joining us in
014the center and uh so we'd be able to take a picture with Lori. >> Can we use that one? Just smoke. Look right here. >> Good. >> Is that a good one? >> This isn't quite wide enough to get the whole group, but I want to just right there. You know, we've been enjoying celebrating Lori and also Leanne these last few days and it has been amazing how much um people come forward to to share how inspired they are by by these two wonderful people. So, uh now it's my pleasure to uh to talk a little bit about Leanne Reyes who is retiring uh from the county office of education after 22 years in education as our deputy superintendent. you know her well and she has been such a an important part of of the
015work with the board and of course so much of what happens at the county office of education and and as leading our our business division. Now throughout Leanne's career, she has held many leadership roles from assistant superintendent of business services in North Monterey County, uh chief business officer of San Lorenzo Valley Unified School District, uh and uh director of business services in Scots Valley and a variety of other roles where she has worked on finance, budgeting, facilities, operations, transportation, nutrition services, bond construction and always bringing so much expert expertise and integrity and a lot of fun and humor to uh to her work. She is also um has participated as a uh with CASBO and as certified business official, a mentor for Pikmat. Um she uh has uh received honors including the AXA region 10
016business services administrator of the year award. um the North Monterey County uh unified school district leadership award and uh this year she received the California county superintendent's BAS star award. Um now she um we know that that Leanne uh started her her journey in the business world and and of course found the error of her ways when she decided to go and come to education and bring that expertise with her. But that that business background has really um strengthened a lot of her her understanding and and helped us uh become a better organization in a lot of ways. Uh I've had the opportunity um to to celebrate Leanne at the at the Star Award with her amazing family. I believe that's uh Sen and Sinclair are on the line right now, her daughters. and Enrique
017Rees who is a wonderful uh uh spouse to to Leanne is here in the audience as well to celebrate uh her. And so they're a beautiful family and and and really uh a good friend to to me personally as well as uh somebody who has been such a a staunch advocate on behalf of students. And I have to remember from the very first time we had a conversation uh when I was trying to convince her to come work uh here at the county office of education, she talked about her focus on students and ensuring that um that the business side of of of our work was making sure that the the spaces that our students inhabit and our staff inhabit uh were worthy of them. And I was so moved by that, inspired by that.
018and she she often refers to that uh when we talk about uh different uh pieces. She is a champion for students and somebody who has been such an advocate for for our mission and she is going to be uh deeply missed. I would like to welcome not one, not two, but three people who are going to come speak about Leanne from our business services department. Uh Rebecca Oler, who is going to be our interim deputy superintendent. uh Melissa Lopez who is our executive director of fiscal services and also Michelle Kennedy who is a business services administrator here at the county office of education. Please welcome the three of them as well. >> Good evening and thank you. >> And before you start I didn't finish your review yet. Well, it's okay. Apparently, Melissa just got
019a promotion, so she >> Yeah, thank you. >> Oh, that's right. >> So, we're going to uh say a few words. This is on behalf of the entire business department, the business managers. We just wanted to acknowledge everything that you've meant to us over the last few years. And our goal tonight is to not cry saying that to you, Michelle. So, we have used a little uh liberal license and um asked Well, thank you for that. We asked AI for a little help >> because you know what's life without AI? So, I'm going to let Melissa kick us off and we will begin. >> In an attempt to not cry, I will not look at you. Okay. So, our our poem is called Cheers to Leanne. Five years ago, remember that time a pandemic hit
020and you said, "Sure, I'm fine." You joined our team when the whole world had just shut down on Zoom every day. This office of ghost town. The great retirement came and brought a challenge so steep in a matter of months, we needed to find a dozen new peeps. We were nervous, worried, and undeniably perplexed. You stayed calm, took a breath, and said, "We've got this. What's next?" With 22 years in education, a knowledge so deep in school business leadership, truly elite. Always making time to mentor the crew with wit, humor, and style in all that you do. From manager retreats with agendas galore to manager meetings and then just one more business meetings, team bonding, the calendars packed. Yet somehow you kept us all calm and you kept us on track. You preached open kimono,
021total transparency, disrespectful honesty. Every new challenge was met with elacrity. Good is okay, but why settle for mediocrity? Painting parties where talent was highly debated. Beach day games and trivia. Some shade may have been traded. Holiday lunchons, good food, and big cheer. Just don't bring pineapple anywhere near. Using AI to name the football team was quite a feat. Sad in the city was the team to beat. Drinks at back nine. Now, that was the plan. where stress disappeared with the first drink in hand. No looking. Sorry. From a trip on a sailboat in the Winchester House Maze. You led us through work and some wonderful weird days. Mentor, leader, therapist, you were all of those things. While you wore many hats, the best one was clean. So now you retire. How rude we must say.
022But not before one final bash done our way. We'll laugh, we'll toast, maybe cry a bit, and then send you off knowing you absolutely crushed it. Because truly, we're lucky. Though saying goodbye is hard, which proves that Pooh said to Piglet once made us regard how lucky we are to have something so true. That partying feels tough because that something is you. Congrats, dear. The go relax, sleep in late. Just promise you'll visit. Just promise you'll visit. We'll skip chocolate cake. And everyone on behalf of the business department, we are truly going to miss you, Leanne. And I say that from our hearts. From Stephanie, from Rebecca, Melissa, Mallerie, Monica, and myself. And yes, poor Leanne. four managers with the first letter of M. Now I walk around with a cup that says Penny. We
023love you dearly, but we wish you all the best. Happy retirement. If you wouldn't mind doing this, let's go around. Wow, that was AI is pretty good. They got my allergies in there and my likes and my dislikes. And uh I'm really glad you got my comment that I tell them all the time which is why be content with mediocrity. Stay on your focus. Our focus is kids even here at Count House of Ben. And you are right. I left the dark side at the right time. And I have never looked back when I came into education. It's the best decision I ever made in my professional career. It's been my immense pleasure to serve all of you as our board. You're a fantast um and keep up all the really good work that you
024do always with again with you have student focus in mind. So, I really appreciate that. I would be remiss if I didn't acknowledge the fact that I have two children attending here virtually. I love you both, Sydney and Sinclair. I've tried really really hard to be uh a good example for both of you and I'm super excited with the successes that you're experiencing as young women taking on the world. And then again, of course, there's my other half out here who I sincerely love and he's managed to pick it out 34 years with me. So, I think we're about halfway through. We've got another 34 to go. >> Harry might know that. Maybe he has sex. 57. So I think you better just calm down. I also want to acknowledge that I see some of
025my dear friends in the audience. Some CEOs from my past and some friends of mine from Prunale came down. So thank you so much for celebrating me this evening. Ferris, thank you for giving me the opportunity to be as successful and do as many things as I've had since I've been here. Uh if I didn't have your support to do that, I wouldn't have been able to be nearly as successful. Uh and Lori, I love you too. Congratulations. We'll go get coffee together since we'll have time. So, thank you everyone. I really appreciate appreciate you all. >> Office of Education would like to present this award for your 22 years of service uh and education and um for I got to make sure I can read it there. Oh, yeah. Thank you. for their service
026>> and um loyal and dedicated service and thank you for being you. Thank you for everything that you brought to the county office of education. We are going to definitely definitely uh miss you terribly and wish you the very best in your next Yeah. >> Yeah. Well, why don't we take a a picture with the board and then we'll get the friends first. >> Excellent. >> So, board picture first and then um friends come on up. >> Right in the middle. >> Know where to go. >> All right. That's perfect. >> I'm coming. a little scared. >> Why don't we come towards me a little? >> Yes, that'll work. >> And then why don't you get on the head on the other side of >> you? That'll be perfect. All right, look right here. >>
027Got it. >> Let's do one more with the >> colleagues. >> Family and friends of L. Come on up for the picture. We're going to do the same thing with everybody. Come on. I knew you had my back. I was a little bit >> right here. >> All right. Yeah. >> Can we do the same thing with Lori? >> All right. >> Lori, if you wouldn't mind coming up and and a friend of Lori and uh joining us over here. Were you here? >> Sorry. But yeah, >> most important right there. I'm going to have your perfect So, we're not quite done. Lori and Le would like to make a few comments about the two of you. So, anyone mind waiting? >> Good evening. Congratulations to both of our um staff members who are retiring.
028want to give this a little time to our board members to say a few words if they'd like and we'll start at the end and see if >> not enough time the I would hold this dream when she was hired and uh through the time a lot of different situations we we became friends and I guess one of the times was when she got some school buses from North County to save the uh camping program uh with the Girl Scouts. But anyway, you are going to be very much missed. Uh my best feeling about you is your ability to translate ed educational uh finances into words that the common folk understand. I truly think that's a gift. Just really quickly, I want to thank both of you for your tremendous dedication to the students in
029Eskski and I just so am I'm just thrilled with your retirement. Ever since I started working, you know, Mitch wants who are these people who retire, you know, wait till I get to retire. So, I love watching people retire and see the moment. I just hope you get to pursue all the hobbies you've thought about and all the travel you've wanted to do and coffee dates just set up. So enjoy and congratulations. >> Well, as a college retiree, I'll just say welcome to great to have you on the fun side. Um, let's see. You just uh Lori, I need to say the words that Marca shared, that your colleagues shared was just very powerful and moving and just so wonderful to hear what everybody thought about you. That was tremendous. So sweet. Um Leanne, since
030the very first budget committee you were stuck with me on, or I was No, you were stuck with me. Let's keep that. I just have been so impressed not only with your mastery of the material but also your kind of leadership of the team and the staff and then how you can infuse humor in tables of numbers is just a higher level of mastery and for somebody coming out of budget and finance myself it's always been aggressive. So it's been a joy to work with you and to see the impact you've had in the organization. So thank you. Thank you all for your times. I mean, that was amazing what you guys have done through the for the county office of education and um I' I've sat back and looked at a lot of what
031you all done. It's just amazing. So, I just want to thank you all and um great job. Enjoy your time of retirement. Um that's it. Lori, I know that you are a big part of why so many people love to work in this office, in this building. And um that's something I've seen a lot of different workplaces and it just stands out so much and it's leadership from the top, but it's also the people who make it happen every day. And I just really appreciate you and everything you contribute. And before I say, are you still going? >> Yes. >> My apologies. >> I've been involved in um community organizing, small business, um uh city budgeting, county budgeting, um nonprofit budgeting, and uh and just people wanted to get together and do something. And there's
032always a business side. No matter what you're doing, there's a business side to it. Um, and if you don't take care of it, it'll usually bite you at some point and if not defeat your entire ability to do what you set out to do. And um, so when I get involved in organization, it's very important to me that the business side is both competent but also aligned with what the organization is about. and um Leanne competent and aligned just don't cover it with the degree to which you have so strengthened this office and contributed so much in both leadership and also I just have to say raw intelligence in dealing with these numbers and making them understandable to this board of lay people and to getting things the epiphany for an accountant is when the
033numbers add up and you get zeros at the different at the variances and you have that multiply, you know, compounded multiple times um to manage education funding and you do it so well with such a plum and with so much willingness to make sure the rest of us understand it because we at least theoretically have that responsibility to understand and approve um the work that that you and the superintendent are doing. And um I have had such confidence um I I do still read the budgets, look at them, but um I do it with knowing it's probably going to be it has been done right and it's been done thoroughly. And so I just I can't I'm running out of good words to say. Thank you so much again. You are just such a fundamental
034asset to this community and I wish you the best in your time. We're gonna hear from Abel. >> Thank you. I just want to say and reiterate that Lori, you have been there since my day one. You've been very supportive. You've uh and encouraging not only when it comes to working with the COE and our students, but also in, you know, my personal life, my own personal wellbeing. So, I just want to thank you for being that person, for the being that support all these years. Definitely going to miss you and wish you all the best in in retirement. And for Leanne, I also want to thank you because of the job that you do. I think because you do such a good job, it makes our job on the board easy. Thanks for keeping
035us out of trouble, for presenting in such a way that is is easy to understand. And um again very appreciative of you and your work and everything that you've done for for the COE and I wish you all the best in in your retirement as well. Thank you. >> Thank you. >> Well, um Lori, I haven't had the privilege of working with you, but I feel like I know a lot about you after all the wonderful things everyone has had to say. Um, I'll also say that I know um as a role as an administrative assistant, you wear many hats. You make a lot of people look good and thank you for doing it for so many years and with it sounds with such love and compassion for the students that we have and and
036for your co-workers and so thank you so much and just wish you all of the best and enjoy um Leanne. Um it's been a privilege and you you do I mean I just will reiterate what everybody else has said but you know you have such a way of putting things very complicated things in layman's terms for us non-financial wizards that make us feel comfortable and um and understand you know you know 20 100 pages of financials and and feel good about it and thank you so much um look forward to hearing about all your adventures. you said you're not far, so you know, we're going to be looking up. But congratulations and um and enjoy. >> May I say one thing? I skipped right over Lori jumping right into Lanna and I apologize, but I
037do want to say this is a family, the COE. And from everything that was brought forth tonight from all you your colleagues, I see why. Uh, and I appreciate it and wish you the best in your retirement. Thank you. And I'm sorry, >> Williams. I wonder if I could make a comment that's slightly out of order with our agenda, which is about something in the consent agenda, but it's relevant. Could I could I do that before people leave? >> Is it related? >> Is it term? >> Yes, >> there was a technical term that showed up in the um the the two SPSAs that we had on our that have on our consent agenda. The plans I hadn't noticed in those plans before. So, I'll just read the phrase that it's in and people can
038make sense of it. We continue to have an awesome supportive support staff ensuring the needs our students of our students are met. >> Awesome. Awesome. Awesome. That's all. >> We all heard that before. >> Good work. Well, we want to um thank everyone for for being here in person and online to celebrate our two retired individuals and um and we have a student trustee. >> Would you like to say anything? >> Um I didn't know either of you very well. Uh but thank you for um helping education in your jobs. and I did know you a bit to teach us about kind of money management and stuff in the student trusted accounting. Very cool. Thank you. >> Wonderful. >> Denise, do you have an announcement? >> Yes. Um, we did have a request for public
039comment on this item. >> Okay. >> So, the right committee. >> Absolutely. >> Perfect. >> It was It was withdrawn. >> It was with Oh, never mind. The public comment was withdrawn. >> They say happy resigners. Okay. All right. Again, thank you for being with us in person along to celebrate both Lori and Lead. And um let's just one final wrap. Enjoy your celebration. Um at this time, we're going to continue on with our agenda. Item number 10, um, our annual organization of the board. At this time, California Education Code 10007 establishes um, the terms of office and governance procedures for the county boards of education. In alignment with the term start dates, the board must hold annual organization meeting and we elect a new president, board positions and also um the committees. So at
040this time we there is a set of >> um the first one at 10.1 is nomination for president of the board and we will take nominations from trustees. >> Yes. >> I would like to nominate Rachel Williams for president of the board. second. All right. Um voice or roll call or just voice. >> Um so item 10.1 is nominations where discuss um and once we get to 10.2 it's a motion and a second and that one is an action item and would require um it would be fine with the voice. >> Are there any other Yeah. That would be entertaining to add. >> So, um, when when a nomination is that it's your opportunity, the person who's nominated has the opportunity to accept or decline and and provide any >> any commentary if you'd like.
041Um, and then so it's really just about nominations. >> Okay. >> All right. Thank you for the nomination. Um um I'm honored for the confidence level, but um I also would like to open up for Any other nominations? Okay. Um 10.2 election of board president the board will motion and elect the president. >> I move we elect Rachel Williams as office. >> I'll second. >> All is I can't remember if you said it was the roll call vote. >> I can do the roll call. Okay. Student trustee. >> Hi. >> Trusty Aosa. >> Hi. >> Trusty Kyle. >> Hi. >> Trusty Larson. >> Hi. >> Trusty Roth. >> Yes. >> Trusty Van Allen. >> Hi. >> Vice President Williams. >> Yes. >> President Sanchez. >> Yes. >> Congratulations. President Williams. >> Thank you again for
042the level of confidence. look to forward working with everybody even and Laura. At this point, we're going to go to 10.3 nominations for vice president and we will be taking nominations. >> Yes. >> Okay. I would like to nominate Greg Larson as vice president. >> Thank you for the nomination and I accept elected. >> Have any other nominations? Then we have a motion. >> I would like to move that the board um appoint Greg Larson as vice president. >> I'll second. >> Okay. >> And I've been told we can just do voice votes for these offices. All in favor? >> I >> oppose abstain. Congratulations. Vice Um okay. Uh we are looking for other committee appointments. Um appointment of chairperson county committee on school district organization. >> I'd like to move past president. >> First
043and second. All those in favor of he has to accept first choice in the matter. >> Okay. Um the voice we have a first and we have a second. Then we have a a voice vote. All in favor? >> I I oppose. Congratulations just Sanchez. >> Thank you. We also have 10.6 appointment representative to the Santa Cruz County Board of Associations. Scuzzbug. The board will appoint a representative to the Santa Cruz County School Board Association. We'll take nominations. I I because he like goes all them >> nominated. >> Yeah. >> Student trust nominate. Any others then? Can we have a motion to appoint? >> I motion to appoint. Go ahead. >> I will second. And can we have a voice out vote of all in favor? I oppose saying congratulations. All right. Lead temporary seven
044appointment to representative to the association of California county board of education ACCE. Um the board will appoint. I taking nominations. Anybody like to make a nomination for representative of this board association? nominate someone who is interested in >> anybody that is interested in if I may speak. I've done it during the six months we've had the appointment. I know this was a organization avail. I don't know if he'd be uh welcoming of a nomination for ACCBE. Yeah, I would be open to that for sure. >> Like move that we appoint. >> All right, >> all those in favor of appointing trustee Sanchez say I. >> I. >> Oppose. Abstain. Motion passes. Excellent. All right. So the next is the establishment of our regular meetings of the board. The board um will discuss the selection of
045day and month and time for our regularly scheduled board meetings. We are currently >> public comment on this issue. >> Oh, we do. Okay. Do you want to do that now? Okay. Um All right. We have public comment on the board meetings. >> I'll be super brief. Um this is just because I'm selfish. I want to advocate for the 5:30 time. allows me time to get off of work. Uh I of course if you don't know I do work for the county office of education but I am here on my own time just like a lot of things I volunteer for and having that little bit of time to readjust get home and come here so I can be present is really helpful. Um I can say that easy because I don't have to stay
046up super late like you guys do sometimes but I do appreciate how accessible that you guys make to yourself. Thank you. Um, is there any other comments by trustees on this? I guess uh I would like to suggest that we continue with the 530 start. I'm an oldster on the board. I don't always adapt easily. I think it's very appropriate. Uh this will be my last year on the board and a lot of the problems that I have heard of of getting people to step forward uh to uh either run for the board or be appointed to the board uh is due to time constraints in ability to get here from work or family. And so I really endorse this. very simple. >> I'm personally 5:30 is great for me. I did want to just
047check the staff um the superintendent just because your staff has to stay later and longer and I just wanted to ask the ramifications of that. >> I think that you know generally speaking it's it's it would be more convenient for staff who are presenting um who are working uh at the same time. I think that the the most important thing is accessibility and that's having that is is really fundamental to our mission and so um I would say that even you know for for the staff that sometimes have to remain uh later uh and you know that sometimes could mean a long day it's also a long day for all of you and so um you know I really think that this is something that that uh should be up to the board and and
048we would support um uh either of those. I do believe that u uh uh if our if our mission is to be accessible to our community a later time makes that more >> to that statement as just as a point of thank you for bringing that up trusty Larson I have the same concern um and we've been doing the 530 for about a year have we seen any changes in attendance whether it's virtually online is the the whole point was access I'm just curious curious to see if if there's been any change from that perspective because you're you're the one that sees it virtually at least. >> Um yes, President Williams, I wouldn't be prepared to give you a statement on how much that's changed or improved from last year and the years previous. Um
049so sorry, >> not not at all >> just based off what we see in the audience. >> Yes. Um, I did want to bring up something I brought up before and I understand the complexity, so I'm not saying we have to do this, but to me as a county board, um, it it occur has occurred to me sometimes it might be increasing our accessibility, our presence to meet perhaps in Pyro Valley sometimes or in SoCal or I know technically that that would be challenging given the whole setup that we have here. the Watsonville City Hall is quite well equipped. So I just want to throw that out there maybe to do sometime with enough time to plan so and maybe they're connected with some question that we're coming up anyway. I just you know we're
050countywide and and I recall that when we when we bought this building there was some discontent around the county about how north oriented it was. So to me, this is ultimate reason for us to be constantly thinking about where we can go to be accessible. >> I would agree that at least having um maybe set one meeting in advance to at least have an exploratory discussion about what that would look like and what it would entail, but certainly maybe putting it on a future agenda item to discuss how that might look. >> And um to clarify, this is also just establishment of the in the time. So, if there's any location change, we have enough time that you do that and we're only bound within our county. Sorry. >> Okay. Um, do we have any
051more comments regarding >> Yes. >> I just wanted to um address your comment and Sue's comment that as a new trustee, the time start at 5:30 was an important factor in me in my ability to take on this position. So I do think at least for case of one another and maybe it will be a draw for and think and I was surprised I didn't know that that you were this was your last year that you weren't running again. So >> so here we go to make it >> I think the 530 helps with that. So I think that's a good point. >> Wonderful. Okay. Do we have a motion either way to either keep or change our student trustee has comments? >> All right, I'll second. >> All righty. Um, we'll have a voice
052a voice vote. All those in favor of maintaining our current calendar listed the screen, all say >> I. All those opposed? Any abstensions? All right. Motion pass. Thank you. Say >> one clarification we should have asked before. I know last year we did the first and no the second and fourth uh Thursdays of June. This year we're doing the third our regular meeting and we're adding the fourth is what I've noticed. So that's the >> Yes. Um >> we still need the two meetings. >> We still need the two June meetings. Um and I've shared the calendar with um our business folks and our student programs folks so they are aware of those two Thursdays and it I think works better for their budget and development time later. >> Thank you. >> I'd like to
053just say one other thing that uh in memory of Rose Gillan uh she will she is pleased wherever she is about this time. Thank you. >> All right. All right. Um All right. So, we're moving on to item 109, appointments to committees. And we have um both the committees in our um our board packets. And showing on our screen here are the committees and the current trustees that are in each of these committees. Um so we'll just go one by one and you know um trustees can either say you know you want to remain or you want to you need change you know um we also need to make sure that I believe it's three no more than three trustees on a particular committee um our student trustees are welcome to join any committees and
054they are not counted in that that uh form number so the first one is our agenda committee which is typically um the board of president and the voice the board vice president. So, um Jesse Lion, you're good with that. Excellent. Um is there anyone else that would like to join the agenda committee is open? Okay. Um is this a vote or we just can we can do that after? >> As a president, you have the authority to appoint people to these comm. >> I don't mind getting people. Um okay. So, we are um appointing both myself and Vice President Larson. Um we'll go and move on to the budget. Our current committee is um trustee Kyle Larson Roth and student trustee. >> Um I am open to maintaining and appointing those same individuals, same trustees
055to the budget committee if they are willing to accept. Does he cut? Yes, I think I'd like to make a an announcement that uh if anyone wants to be on the committee that I am on, I will step down just because I'm I will be going and if you need your feet wet. So, >> thank you for that trust. Appreciate that. And where I'm struggling a little bit is I'm picking up the committee. And so I was thinking maybe I should drop one of the other two. Um and I'm torn a little bit thinking continuity, you know, with Stacy being new, Sue leaving, Leanne leaving, maybe I should say on budget, but I also like to do a lot more on community outreach and legislative. So, I'm >> if if you would like to drop
056one of the two, I would really like to see you still on the budget. You have a very keen eye for those numbers. Um if that is acceptable. Um and um we have um community the community outreach and legislative committee is definitely a fun one to to be a part of involvement. Maybe what I'd like to do and I think it's up to the committee but maybe I'll stay on both but I'll drop off for being chair the community outreach and legislative in just a minute. >> Okay, >> if that's okay. >> Okay. All right. So, we're talking with just the budget right now. So, Larson, are you are you you keen to keep it and um Trusty Roth and for the for the duration? >> Yes. >> Wonderful. Thank you so much. But I
057can be pushed >> and um student trusty Martinez is not here so we'll check in later. Okay. Wonderful. >> All right. Thank you. We have a budget committee. Um our policy committee we currently have trusty balan Allen myself trustee student trustee Martinez and student trustee Amore. Um I would there's lots of work to do and I feel like we've got some good momentum. I would like to remain on the policy committee. Van Allen with your experience. I would appreciate your continuence. Wonderful. And we'll check in with um student trustee Martinez um when we can. Student trustee Moore, would you like to continue on? >> I would like to see. >> Wonderful. Thank you so much. All right. We have our policy committee. Um the next um is our charter schools committee which um is chaired
058by um Trustee Sanchez. And um I would love for Trusty Sanchez to continue on. He's got um significant experience there. Um and I haven't been able to do much in there. So I still want to stay on that committee just to kind of get a full scope of what that looks like through um the process. But >> wonderful, wonderful. Um, also Trusty Roth, you are um have been on that committee as well and have experience with the whole cycle of it, but you consider staying on. >> Yes. And again, if someone really wants it, it's okay. >> Okay. All right. >> Um, and let's see here. Okay. So, we've got our charter schools committee, our community outreach and legislative committee. We have Trustee Kyle, Trustee Larson, and Trustee Van Allen, and both student trustees. Um,
059you guys got some good momentum there, too. Um, if you were willing, would you like to continue on? >> We'll ramble up. >> All right. Um, and student more. >> I would like to say Wonderful. Okay. Excellent. Um we um have um let's see here we have some other committees but before we go board um trustee Acasta I am not seeing your names. So, is there a particular committee that that feels, >> you know, appealing? >> Well, there are a few, but I I kind of was waiting to see if there's an opportunity. >> There's definitely drop. >> No, I don't want anybody drop. I think that um you know, I I the charter school community, the community outreach. I really don't want anybody drop. I mean, I I just, you know, there's an opportunity
060to step in somewhere or if you guys want to >> I think if there's something you feel that there may be see I can fit in or help or >> we have room on the policy committee and we also have if you were interested the um the community outreach and legislative committee um trustee Larson had um been open to dropping one of them. >> You're okay with that. I'd like to be part of that. Yeah. >> Um policy committee I could I could do both. >> Okay. Excellent. All right. We will add um trustee Aosta to both the charter school committee and the community outreach legisl. >> Yes. >> So the policy committee and the community outreach legislative >> and correct copy and large system committee. >> Correct. >> Thank you. >> All right. Um
061and we also have some ad hoc, but we'll address those at a later time. Um item 10.9.6 um are just other committees. Um as a president you can create committees as you see fit. So if there's any >> there is none. >> Okay. >> At the moment so we'll we'll bypass that. Um is there any comments from the trustees about any of the committees or everybody's good? Excellent. Great. Thank you so much. Um all right. We've got our board, we've got our committees. Congratulations everyone. Um, at this point we're going to move to item 11, our student trustee reports. Trustee. Okay. So, because I'm a full-time student, uh, on top of being a trustee, uh, this past weeks I've been really busy because it's the end of the semester and it's finals and all that
062stuff. So, unfortunately, I haven't been able to do a lot of public stuff, but instead I will show you what it's like being a part of our alternative education programs. Uh, and so, yep. Um, basically I go to school at Elito. And the thing about Elito is it's mainly primarily focused on credit recovery. So, a lot of people who are missing like a bunch of high school credits, they go there and we do like college courses and stuff to uh earn extra credits. The cool thing about a college credit is it grants you 3.3 times the high school credits. So, every semester our class does uh one Cabrio class together. So, this semester we did uh Latinx ethnic studies and that was pretty cool. And um I by myself I uh because I have my
063license and a car and because I like need a faster pace environment I've also been able to take uh multiple other classes that were on the outs campus. So I'll tell you a bit about that. Um this past semester I took uh intro to psychology contemporary social problems and bio4 human anatomy lab and lecture. My favorite one was definitely Bio4 uh because I got to dissect a sheep heart and brain and I also got to dissect a sheep eye and we studied with a cadaavver. So that was really cool. Um I am currently uh trying to get all my prerequisites done for nursing school while I'm in high school cuz free college. Uh and uh I am very proud to announce that yesterday we got the grades out and I got all aster I am
064planning on doing the EMT course and then also I want to do a lot of classes. So I need to figure out who I need to like convince to let me do over credits like extra credits. Uh but I want to take uh statistics or behavioral science which is a prerequisite for um nursing and then I want to take 1030 which is chemistry for medical stuff and then I need that to take bio five bio and six which is microbiology and um also uh physiology and those are all prerequisites and then I also want to take English 1000 and I my class is doing a money management So, those are my plans. Uh, for the EMT class, I actually today was able to do a six-hour training. So, now I am CPR, uh, basic life
065support, and first day. >> Nice. And uh also one thing that a few students that I have been talking to would like to bring up to the board is that we wish for a dress code change just because we like and the students kind of see our current dress code as uh restrictive, excessive, outdated, and kind of sexist. So, I think that there's definitely improvements to be made and our current dress code is very different from other uh public schools dress codes. It is definitely more conservativeish like oh you can't have spaghett spaghetti straps and it seems like oh we're kind of being like oh we're hiding your body because it's distracting you know and I just listen to my so I would like to talk to you guys about changing some of them thank
066you trust me more um I'm so thrilled with all your excitement and your your thirst for knowledge it's amazing I wish I had that kind of energy to take all the classes. It makes me want to go back to high school. Not, but just just the fact of just being reexposed to all those amazing classes that you're taking. So, congratulations on your all your A's and I guess it's really good idea that you're back on our policy committee. So, that's wonderful. Thank you for your report. Um, at this time, um, we're going to item number 12, our consent agenda. Before we take any motions, I just wanted to see with the trustees if there are any comments regarding our consent agenda. >> The use of certain technical terms, but other than that, >> I just
067wanted I was um impressed by the list of donations for the spelling be just wonderful community support. So, I just wanted to thank the community for that. >> Good point. And we hope everybody goes and patrons those businesses. Right. >> Right. All right. Can we take a motion to approve? >> So move. >> All right. All those in favor? >> I all those in favor? >> Are those opposed? Abstensions. Motion passes to approve the consent agenda. All righty. Um don't have any concern correspondence any anything other than what's on our board package? >> No additional correspondence. >> I I do believe that you received a communication from me about uh SB77. >> Oh, >> is that accurate? Did you receive an email? >> I haven't. When was that? >> I believe that was sent to
068the superintendent. >> I apologize. you will be receiving. >> You will be receiving some correspondence very shortly. >> Thank you. >> Um okay, so we're um on to item 15, reports, discussions, and presentations. Um and we're going to go straight to 15.2 with our sponsors, Dr. Ferris Leon. Yes, it's uh my pleasure to uh welcome a wonderful team of folks um who are going to be speaking to you about our initiative to central wellness. And this really actually came from uh requests from Trustee File specifically. Um, you know, as as we continue to be aware of the magnitude of the mental health crisis that our our youth are experiencing, uh, we recognize and we could we've continue to to uh take um very seriously the effort to um ensure that our schools are offering students
069a wide variety of services. And so we've brought together a stellar team of folks who you've seen before uh who are going to be talking about the progress that we've made uh in increasing access to uh behavioral health services in our in our schools and across our county. Um as well as specifically talking about the wellness centers um that um have been opened up in many of our schools. And so I'd like to welcome uh Dr. Michael Painter, uh Haley Newman, and uh Lauren Fine. Uh, as you know, uh, Dr. Painter is our executive director of student support services. Um, Haley Nim is our school climate and wellness manager and Lauren Fine is our director of behavioral health. This team has been um, doing amazing things to make access to behavioral health services available across
070our county and and really grateful for them to be here toh provide this presentation today. Welcome. >> Thank you, Dr. Shabbat. Um, I was going to say quick hello, but you have our names and titles and he just told you. So, we'll just wave at you maybe and uh we'll talk to you here in the order of myself, Ben, and then uh Lauren. Um, I also made a transition period where I can either see you or my notes and so I may be doing a lot of this. The next slide, if we may go to that one. Oh, well, thank you. I'll be um I know that the topic and Ferris's intro really spoke at a very large level about student supports in general and we do a lot of things some things we don't
071have in our notes or slides is that you know our department is about 90% grant funded which probably covers sometimes up to three dozen grants at a time some very small some very big um and so we become expert at braiding and and sometimes we joke that we are the we're the everything but the kitchen sink department right oh I don't it's not adult ed it's not ed services not business not I think students support services they can live here you know census whatever it is um but this is just a quick snapshot for you to get an idea of orientation that you know Austin we are one of the um departments in the student programs division and um some of the more sort of prominent ongoing large um you know we have initiatives but
072also programs are students in transitions which is what we we call the advocacy of students experiencing homelessness Foster Ed, which is our localized name of foster youth services. That is a state-run grant and mandate. Companion project, I think we've come and spoken to you about that. That's our navigation for behavioral health and some direct support team that we created under some state grants. And then 2K, which is pretty well known, tobacco use prevention under the state tax. And SARB is another thing that we run that um other than PV in Santa Cruz City, we run student attention review board for all other chronically true and absent students. Um, and the big initiatives, number one, wellness center, which will be our focus today. Um, and so, you know, again, we're not going to go deep on
073all these. We're going to try to hit 10 or 12 minutes and some Q&A, but I want you to get the context. Um, and so you can see that PBIS, uh, the school link fee schedule will come up last. And another one you may not be as aware of, enhanced care management, has another ongoing new revenue stream we're trying to brave that's outside of the normal grant advance or the the sort of localized funding for schools. Um, and then in general, uh, maybe we'll go the I get to myself. Um, I think I should go the other way. This is what Pharisee put the big green button so people like me, you'll probably know what to say. Um, actually I think Oh, no. Sorry. Well, I'm gonna I'm gonna skip my own slide for a
074second. Another piece of this which we're not going to go into tonight at depth but um Ferris myself and this team have done a lot of work on what we're coining as the ecosystem of care which we coined we chose to use that word which actually came out of a breaking barriers uh white paper on integrating systems of care especially around behavioral health for students especially system involved and I show you this because there's really two wise that I think bring us here and I kind of want to wrap up on this in the previous slide which is I I think it was one day a few years ago in Ferris's office where we put up a little grid and we said, you know, in an ideal world, every school site would optimize the community
075support in terms of behavioral health access and services and dollars and resources using county like behavioral health or government agencies uh resources, community behavioral organizations, CBOS, um like encompass, PBPSA, FQC's, the federally qualified health centers uh like Santa Cruz Community Health and Salude. Um and then uh obviously schools internal staff right that we hire ourselves. This one has five which is private practice and that was one of I think Lauren's brainchild um saying that's a really untapped resource. How do we pull them into? But the idea is every school site based on location will be able to optimize 30% of this 20 of this 10 of that 15 of this. And so that is still one of our northstar visions. And that's why I show you this, which also is a bit of a tenant
076of the community schools grants, not to be confused with alt ed community schools or court schools, but where you have these pillars optimizing community leveraging resources and leveraging their skills and staff. Um, so that's another just big piece we'll probably come back to at some point. Um, assuming we make some good progress. And the last thing I want to say before I hand it over is this is our latest two questions from the latest California Healthy Kids survey response. And um as you know this is really one of our only indicators or tools for the entire county. All other districts use individual um sometimes metrics or tools and so they can have different results for their own district but countywide we use CHIX. Um I purposely if I and I put in data portal.org the
077plug because it's an amazing site. It was created by Ferris and Miguel and Jason and others. It's what I use to go grab this info there. There's a 10-year arc. I only pulled two questions from just last year and it says 2025. Really, the questions wound up around just before Christmas a year ago andor early January when they cleaned up a little bit. So, it's about a year old, but I was still struck because if you I know it's small print, but the best case scenario was I uh And this is where I put my glasses back on. Um, in the third category, I think it says 8%. There's about the in or the sample size was about a thousand kids. And so that means 80 kids seriously considered attempting suicide from this sample about
078a year ago across the county. Um, and then the other one I noticed in the two middle columns, um, it was about 250 students if you look at the quant, you know, number, not the percent. Um, and that was did you feel so sad for up to two weeks, right? Which is one of the diagnostic criteria for major depression. Um, and if you flip this, which I didn't show you guys here, but there's three other questions that we often use, which are on a campus, is there an adult in three separate questions that that you feel notices you, one is that listens to you, one is that cares for you. And those ranges were 20 40% there is not um across all grade levels. And one of the grade levels is non-traditional which is more
079the old head type setting. >> I can just add a clarifying. So you'll see that there's grades grade levels at the bottom that rested on seventh graders, nth graders, 11th graders and ant those are students that don't have usually non-traditional grades which many of our alternative education programs are in that category. And so you'll see that that number is higher uh for those non-traditional. Um and this is countywide data >> countywide. I did not dissect by individual district yet or just ultra. >> Um I just share this with you because our two W's I think are like the vision I should have this elevator speech better but the vision of ecosystem of care is that every student in school would be able to access resources for behavioral health not having to think about anything about
080insurance uh qualification. They would they would get the dosage and level of acuity they need for the duration they need without any barriers. That is like the vision and and so again we'll come back and tell you how how far we make it on that vision. Um but I want to leave it there because I'm already over my time and the core here is we've done a lot of work. One of these initiatives is the wellness centers at comprehensive high schools and so I want to let Haley Newman who has been our sort of sharp edge of the spear on this um go into that piece of >> the sharp edge. We're going to do it. Okay. you have any sharp edge. >> Um, so based on this ecosystem of care, one of the things
081that we did for Santa Cruz County Office of Ed is utilize wellness centers as the hub to begin this ecosystem of care at our different campuses and districts across Santa Cruz County. And so the first thing that I wanted to show you just because we do have some new trustees on the board is our timeline. And so we started this process and we really embarked on this mission to support the development of wellness centers in our county in 2022. And so in 2022 we started visioning what this can look like and we started building capacity. One of the actions during this time was to hire me which um at the time I was the school climate and wellness coordinator and have done similar work in Mari County in Selenus and so bringing in some of
082that expertise to book capacity for this to happen. We also explore different models of wellness centers knowing that each of our districts are so unique. So it's not a one-sizefitit all for um one type of wellness center model. We also developed a road map and so here you can see kind of a screenshot of that road map that we were so proud of and uh are due for an update now that we have implemented wellness centers in our county. And then in 20123 we really started communicating this vision to our community. One way we did this is doing a round table which was exactly where you are seating uh sitted with uh Congressman Jimmy Petta. And so, um, part of that was we were trying to obtain and pursue funding sources to help support our
083districts have a great foundation to start their wellness center planning and implementation. And so, at this time, we were able to obtain a uh what's called a congressional earmar grant. And then we were also able to obtain a grant from the CDE from their project cowwell group, which we are still um we're still working with through 2028. So, we're really excited about that. And then we started our first cohort. Our original vision was to start two schools at a time. And then once we got going with the first two, two others joined and said, "Hey, wait about us." Like, "What about us?" And so we ended up four schools in our first cohort, which is really exciting. And so then in 2024, we started with those first four schools planning and implementation sessions that were
084done by um our team at the COE as well as a wellness center consultant from 12 schools. So that is the logo for one of our wellness center consultants. Um this cohort we still meet twice a month. We still offer consistent training and it's really structured to make sure that folks feel supported. This is also the time where our district started hiring folks or identifying folks at their district to support the planning and rotation of their wellness center. In 2025, we were so excited. We had our first ribbon cutting. And so we were able to expand the efforts of the wellness center. Um we had ribbon cutings for one school and two others. um at TAS High School already had a really robust system and so we just supported with make expanding what they already
085had and then we started our second cohort and so we're working with two more schools this year to soft open or soft launch their uh wellness centers this spring and so we're really excited about that and the last thing that happened this year is we had our first countywide wellness center tour which I get to show you pictures on now. So on December 4th, we had our very first wellness center tour in Santa Cruz County, which was a huge milestone in our wellness center journey. And so our team consisted of COE folks from our department, student support services from fiscal and then also our superintendent joined um on our wellness center tour. We also had the folks from our project cowell team and they included folks from the California Department of Education, the department of
086um the uh DHCS and then UC San Francisco which are our evaluators for our project cowell grant. And so we visited here you can see a group picture outside of Atas High School. So that's down the stairs from their wellness center in the center. uh Jodie Moulder, who is the wellness coordinator at Scots Valley High School, showed us the different coping skills students utilize when they take a brain break. And then in the furthest right picture, we're at the Harbor High School Wellness Center where uh Gary Rosendis, who is the mental health specialist and wellness coordinator, uh walked us through what services are provided there. In addition, we uh by annually do a wellness tour in Marin County. And so we have close ties to that. Um our wellness center consultant also supports uh San
087Francisco, Marin, other counties up there uh implementing wellness centers. And so it's really nice for our new cohort to see functioning wellness centers in real time. So we end up seeing five different high school wellness centers in multiple districts so that they can take ideas with them as they plan their own wellness centers. So this is also a way we set them up for success. And so you can see on the furthest left, we had a really great team join us. We had folks from uh Santa Cruz High School, which has been our cohort number two. Uh we had uh folks from SoCal High School, Abtos High School, and then also San Lorenzo Valley High School, which is our second cohort. And so here is um the timeline and who is open right now. And
088so you can see here that we have four different high schools open and operational. We have two high schools that are in our newest cohort and their soft opening date is in spring which is really exciting because we have been working on those planning implementation sessions this past year. So, at the end of this school year, we will have six wellness centers open out of our eight comprehensive high schools, which I think is a really amazing feat in um uh this short amount of time, which is about three years. So, we're really excited and this is really encompassing that vision of having a open door to wellness so any student can walk in. It is also helping with dstigmatizing mental health because of the amount that's being pushed into the school culture. And it's shifting
089the school culture into wellness in really um great ways. And so we can see the beginnings of that ecosystem of care starting from the ground and also knowing that there's more to come from our team. And so I'm going to now hand it over to Lauren to talk a little bit about how we're going to help sustain this work. >> Thank you. There's too fast. All right. So, I'm just going to talk a little bit about the sustainability of this. So, Haley mentioned the original grants that were used to build the infrastructure, the physical spaces, as well as support staff, one of the two staff positions for two years. Um coinciding with this really awesome is that the state has an initiative called the school linked multipayer fee schedule which allows schools to bill for
090insurance to provide services to students. And so the title while it's very clunky actually says it all. So school links means that the services have to either at a school or the referral has to start at the school. Multi-payer in this instance payer means the insurance company. It means it doesn't matter what insurance you have, you're covered. And um B schedule is just determined to mean a set of procedure codes and rates. And so the states negotiate these rates across all insurance companies. And so that independent of what insurance you have, your students can get served. And so we as a COVE are supporting the less in implementing a fee schedule. And we're doing it not just for wellness center staff but for all of the mental health providers of sta and schools so they
091can leverage those funds to support these new positions. So that's just really high level. I've presented on this in the past and can again but it it could be its own presentation. So we're just going to open it up to questions now on wellness centers. >> Um I'll start. I have a couple of questions. First thank you very much for the presentation. Thank you um Trusty Kyle for bringing it up. um two-part question. Um based upon the stats that you shared earlier on um showing seventh graders and um their mental health at that stage is is frightening and it's sadly not surprising. So with that, is there I know we're still getting our high schools set up, but is there a plan for our middle schools because unfortunately that is starting so much younger sadly,
092but um is there a plan and how far out that looks? >> Actually, I I I'm going to be honest. I don't know that we have a plan as we we have a very structured detailed comprehensive like hour thousands of hours high school plan. I know in our original conversations our road map our vision there was discussion about where to start and we had chosen I think I think this is an age-old debate prevention versus intervention right do you start upstream or do you start downstream right it's the whole classic thing I'm pulling down the river maybe go up and see where they're falling in right so we decided for better or for worse to start with high school intervention downstream if you will and the idea was that we we got funding ing for
093six of the eight. We're still trying to hope that we can do all eight. Um, as you well know, this is not the optimal moment fiscally for schools to be expanding in this area with their own budgets. So, you know, it's landed at a hard time to ask them to do more without us bringing resources. Um, having said all that, I know for a fact there is, especially like in Po Valley, there are middle school, this brings up a separate issue, but there are middle school wellness centers like Caesar Chavez comes to mind immediately that is as robust almost as what we're creating at the high school. Another thing that came up in our discussion was some people call the term wellness center some sometimes mean there's a bean bag in the corner and you
094can go chill there versus this robust two people clinical services multi-tered right so we've been trying to like identify when we say wellness center we mean this um so I think both those are unfinished if you will explorations but I do think everyone we've talked to at the district level says oh my god this is great how do we ideally middle school and then elementary school. Basically every school and they might look different of course on the different grade levels. Um and I would say again I'm looking to the boss here but um I I would say and the team right that puts in hundreds of hours I would say we are in some ways I I don't want to jinx myself but um in some ways we're we're coming to a landing of this
095vision that we had that probably will end up taking five years to get the funding implement sustain you know okay you guys are good it's working high schools I don't see us stopping and so really It's a matter of willingness on the district side. Can we continue this multipayer fee SC? Can that produce enough money to maybe generate some revenue? Can we find more grants? Can we get buy in? Can this kind of rough patch we're in? Maybe it passes a little bit. So, I don't we don't to be fair, we don't have a plan written out, but I see us in the next year or two almost completing this phase. And I think then the next natural question is okay, well then how do we scale or expand? >> If I could add to
096that. So, I I think it's important to note that um that because a school um doesn't have a wellness center doesn't mean that mental health and behavioral health services aren't available. And so, the wellness center brings a certain collection of services that that really are are very impactful, but the services are available for for students throughout. And you heard in earlier in the presentation that we're partnering with all these different types of agencies that providing different services, the federally qualified health centers. They have counselors and mental health folks that are coming in. Um they we work with um with organizations like Encompass and Baja Valley Prevention Student Assistance. These are non nonprofit agencies that provide services. We have a great collaboration with with the county behavioral health and they also provide mostly higher tier services
097for students who are really struggling. And so those services are available for students at all ages including students younger than those who are in kindergarten. And so really what this team has been doing is identifying different ways we can expand the capacity, bring down funding and create that that ability for for that kind of no wrong door approach where we can get you service. If a student is identified, whether the parent, whether the student selfidentifies, whether a staff member feels like the student could use some help or um preventative type work where all students are learning about social emotional learning and learning skills for them to be able to self-regulate and be able to also develop agency for themselves. This is a comprehensive all hands-on deck approach. the wellness centers is one important piece of
098that and it is located and I think it we we don't want to in any way diminish what those wellness centers are bringing to students but this approach and and all of these different kind of um folks that are coming together to provide these services we're we're having a meaningful impact and I say we the school community is having a meaningful impact on wellness for students of all ages and um and that's what this what a lot of the work that has been happening Um the one example of that is being able to make that more financially sustainable, especially when we're looking at potential cuts and and um decrease enrollment in our schools. And I and I I forgot we even titled the slide this but this actually helps because wellness centers right you just
099saw but our larger vision is center schools as centers of wellness which might mean that the elementary the middle school looks a little different but yet the same impact or result is achieved. Yeah that's it please. >> I have many questions I very interested. Um my first question is what kind of services are provided >> at the wellness centers or just generally like >> uh at the wellness centers? >> Yeah. You want to take that one? >> Sure. >> Okay. >> Let's have other speakers. >> Yeah. Great question. So at a wellness center it offers tier one. So what do all students get? So a lot of that is health education. it is um uh helping to explore like social emotional uh coping skills and activities for students. So it's really uh educating the school
100community. So that's tier one. It might be bringing in workshop speakers on certain health or mental health topics. Um and also it is an additional safe place with an additional safe adults for all students. For tier 2 services that might be offered and again um like uh superintendent spot and then also Dr. Painter mentioned, it could be a community partner, it could be someone else that we have a partnership with that is in the wellness center. It could be school staff that are offering groups. So, those could be kinds of services. Um, it could be behavioral or social emotional groups that are being offered in the wellness center. Um, some of the wellness centers also have brain breaks, which is where students can are maybe disregulated or in emotional distress in class, able to come
101and take a 10-minute brain break, practice a coping skill, and then go back to class. And that is more of a tier 2 support so that they're able to then go back into the learning environment. And then tier three are really those individualized supports. So whether they are connected to a mental health specialist, whether it's a counselor, whether it is a community partner. So offering those types of support in the wellness center. >> Um, one of my questions about the groups, I know we have a lot of students that are struggling with substance use. Do we have any substance use groups? Because I feel like that would be very helpful. And also if we were to have those groups, I think it would be really important to keep the sort of confidentiality there. >> I'm
102gonna let I want to let Lauren answer that just because we just happen to have two big mapping meetings of sub substance use disorder services in the county at central of we meeting took place. >> Yeah. So we recently did a training of EI which stands for brief intervention where we invited counselors across the county to come to learn about this. It's a brief motivational interview um training that sub that specializes on substance use and is really geared toward in a school. Um and so that went beyond the wellness centers. We tried to get as many folks in that was through our achievement grant. And so that's one piece. Um and then separately at the COVE that's really an area of focus for us. Um you know there's a differentiation of what's happening at districts
103and then what at the COE we can provide. And so at various districts, I can't speak to the exact um way that they're navigating such treatment, but I can say here at the COE, that's a focus for us in the new year. Um just as early as as January, we have an intern and we're building a potential contract to build more robust services within the COE that then would support districts. >> Cool. Um I know there's like a group sort of insurance model. Would students without insurance be able to get services? >> Yeah. So um you know as we lead this consortium for the fee schedule um and kind of hold this leadership we believe that best practice is that all students should get served regardless of what their insurance status is. Um, and so
104that's the the energy or the the the vibe that we bring forth when we work with the districts and I think all districts have aligned to that vision as well. We don't want the money to leave the services but that the uh collection of insurance and reimbursement is an opportunity to build and keep current services and maybe build. So we don't want the money to get ahead of the actual intention which is for you know having schools be able to collect insurance is really creates a lot more equity in what services look like and we don't want any student to not have access to that based on what their insurance might look like. >> Okay, cool. Um I know we're talking about like funds to support it. We could probably do like fundraisers, right? Uh
105if we're like oh my god, where's the money going to come from? So would that be possible for us to do fundraisers like community fundraisers for it? >> I mean I don't see why not. If you all want to create a board subcommittee and we can get fundraising and I think we're always open to any ideas how to really strengthen this. So I I appreciate open ideas. The team would would love to figure things like that out. >> Okay. Another thing is I know this is like mainly for mental health but I think a lot of things that are like attributed to mental health are like kind of physical health. Like I know for our unhealth students like I think it'd be really important that we provide like hardening materials and I also know that
106period poverty is like a really big thing. So I personally believe that it's very important that we offer uh free menstrual products. So is that a possibility and are we doing that? >> Yes. So as part of our wellness center training we talk about four pillars of the wellness center that's a little more comprehensive than mental health. So we talk about mental health, physical health, um sexual health, and then substance misuse or use. And so part of the training is that every wellness center has what's called a care cart and they have hygiene products on there. They have um tampons, pads, things like that on there. Um also because a student might know that a wellness center has a hair band and that's how they enter a wellness center. And so it's also getting students
107in the door to help destigmatize what that space is. >> I'll just say too, Ashley, back to the visioning, the the original the ult if money was not an object, we would have health centers on school campuses that would include behavioral health because we've learned along the way that often symptoms may show up in a physical health manifestation that really then get cross-referred to behavioral health. Sometimes they reverse as well, but more often it's that they people feel more comfortable going to their physical health practitioner and almost talk start talking about behavioral stuff and then they get a referral over. That would be the ultimate vision if we could pull that off. Just so you know, but in but I think what Haley has described is sort of the the the best we come up
108with right now. >> Would it be possible to get like uh therapy together because I feel like that would be amazing. >> What was it? >> Therapy. Yeah, legit. >> Each time my heart was so No joke because we when we we went to Marin the first time they uh a typical aspect of a wellness center is to have your pictures of all the staff and one of them had all the dogs at the bottom. And I was like, "Oh my god, we I love dogs. Dogs are my primary therapy." So, I'm just saying that's why you melt my heart. Um not kidding. My goal is to research this and see if that's possible. And it clearly is possible technically because Marin does it right now. So we but we haven't we have not manifested
109that in Santa Cruz but it is on the list 100%. >> Um thank you student great questions brought out some great information. Thank you so much. Um and um since um Trusty Kyle brought forth this do you have any questions or follow? >> I do. Um I have a few I'm going to start by piggybacking ask questions and ask about um so in the tier one supports I'm wondering what student input um you collect to inform those offerings. >> Yeah, great question. So um when a school is planning to have a wellness center, a huge part of it is engaging their educational partners. Students being a important and like vital piece of that. The aesthetic of the wellness center and what is in there is really driven by student input because we're trying to create
110a student space that students will come to, not an adult designed space hoping students will come. >> And so a lot of the design and what's in there and what students really like uh is based on student input. Also, every wellness center has a student arm. And so every wellness center has a student wellness committee or a wellness advisory council um for students who are interested in mental health and uh wellness or general wellness and driving the efforts or interests of the students. So there's been student input at every level um of the wellness center planning and implementation at several of the ribbon cutings. There's also students in there who have written or helping navigate us through the wellness center. So it's really embedded in that way. And how much engagement are you seeing? So
111kids walking through the doors. >> Oh, okay. So we exciting. Uh we are um I think the whole thing's exciting. So I'm just so we are starting to get preliminary data from the wellness centers. So wellness centers we have been training them on how what data to collect as far as usage, as far as effectiveness. And so they count how many students go to a outreach event in the quad. They count how many students come to a workshop. They count how many students walk into the door and either refer themselves or for a friend and then how many services that they're providing. So we're still getting that preliminary data and we are helping to support the schools to calculate that on their own to present to their own school boards as part of their presentations.
112So, a lot of that will be coming up soon and we're still um streamlining the data collection. Um but all of them have a way to collect data right now. >> That's great. Look forward to learning more about that. The data >> and I just want to say on the data side, you saw one of the tours we did was with UCSF because they are the evaluator for Calwell, which is a grant CDE applied for that we were sub grantees if you will in a competitive process for all counties in California. and uh Santa Cruz County and Santaas County were chosen as two COE's to accompany CDE in this cowwell grant which we are focusing and using those dollars in student support services as wellness center funding and I know you're a grant nerd as
113well right quote unquote so both that grant and the congressional earmark grant that Jimmy Petta was able to secure for us ended up becoming SAMA grants so technically they're both federal SAMA grants at their root um But that was a long long way to say we do we will be getting a very official datadriven huge report from the farwell side about our effort because of that inclusion. >> And then really my last question um my request for this presentation came out of the stat high school PVU um PB high school and are not on this list nor in the second cohort. So what is their status? What? Why? What do we have going on there? >> Please. >> I kind of figured ask this question right. Um, and just so you know, we're working we're
114working extremely closely currently. It's Peggy Pew is the executive director of student support services in PBUSD, Ben Slider, who's a school climate coordinator who's been there a long time. Um the short version, the simplest answer because there's more complexity, but the simplest answer is PBUSD got literally uh well I won't go into their funding because you know that better than me, but there are millions available for all of their school sites except the ATOSS region. So there's they get large amounts of money because of the geo um the student population and the socioeconomic status, but it's different in the ATASS region. And so what they we approached them and we were willing to do any school in Pyro Valley but they said where their gap in funding and resources is actually in Aptos and even
115though it may you know politically not appear optimal that's actually where their gap was and so they they directed us to Aptos because they are they are working on wellness spaces or centers at least in one other high school and we're in discussion about a second school in Pahar Valley but they haven't determined where where it would And that will be the final two or final really one I guess that we're trying to um to secure. So I don't know if there's we have more >> but just to to clarify. So again it's in the same way that that a wellness center doesn't mean there aren't other services. Um Bajaro Valley uh was really ahead of the curve because of all the additional funding that they got during the pandemic um and invested heavily in
116in behavioral health services. And so there and in many ways um the other districts were kind of playing catch-up but we were able to secure funding. We did approach uh the power valley and high school district as we did with all the districts and asked for for support and they they shared that they they already had funding as as as Michael is sharing for Watsonville and Power Valley and they do have programming there and services there wellness spaces that they've developed. Um we uh we're continuing to partner with them to um to you know look at different ways that that they um can address the the uh the cuts to funding that we're we're hearing about in the news right now. And so the landscape has is changing of course with the expiration of those
117funds that that were available. Um, we believe that the billing component that we've been working on is is going to be something that can help mitigate some of those some of those losses in funding, but we also recognize that we're entering a new phase specifically with PBSD, but with all our districts when and and that's why this idea of building capacity um and not being all grant uh reliant all the time because that's not a that's not a long-term sustainable plan um is something that that we've been working on. uh so closely. But um PBSD um they continue to have great partnerships with the community based organizations and they've been messaging that they're looking to rely on those community based organizations as their um as kind of the as the deliverers of behavioral health services
118moving forward to a higher extent than they have in the past. >> Interesting Kyle. The only analogy I'll make is the large community school grant that came to our county had a cut off of the socioeconomic unknown unduplicated count of students. And so really something like $35 million came to this county and like 33 or 34 million went to Paral Valley, right? And there's a couple outliers. Ed has one and maybe Live Oak. There's just a couple others that weren't pur school district. And in of that like 33 34 million for community schools, it went to basically every school except their at schools. And so there is this differentiation that happens when they get large sums of money or supportive services where they sometimes they have to divide and conquer how to equitably distribute. And
119so this is one of their ways to differentiate the funding and try to make at least from the outside everyone's getting something even though the strands may be from different places. If I could add one more thing just uh with in relation to the incident that took place at Watsonville High School. Uh we are uh working in collaboration um with Lucilal from our our safety director is working with PP who um is the executive director of student services uh to look at a variety of different uh forums to help uh replicate some of uh like our Boston program here which addresses um uh different kind of violence in in in our schools. And so we're looking we're supporting them that effort as well. Any other questions for Susan? >> Given the hour, I just want
120to say thank you for the referral and the presentation. It was great. I loved Harvard High School really cutting last year. Look forward to one or two more this spring. >> Thank you. >> I just want to give a shout out to Greg on stop the bus. He was there till the end in the bottom of the building. Sweat piles of backpacks and so thank you for helping our department that way too. >> Any other questions, comments? Thank you so much. Great report. Thank you for all the work that you're doing with our students. Um, thank you getting to item 15.3, our first interim financial reports. Um, >> thank you very much. Um, I did once again take the liberty of preparing a studentfriendly version of tonight's presentation. So, I'd like to distribute that at
121this time, please. I think I have a few extras of this person. Good evening everyone. I'm here to present to you your first Edo financial statement uh for the 2526 fiscal year. >> Is this your last interm? >> No. saying myself, so you you never know. >> One of my favorite quotes from my grandfather, "Bad weed is hard to kill." Which means I probably will be around for a while. So >> I have to come and listen in. >> Yes. >> There we go. Um, I would be remiss if I didn't issue a very special thank you to our internal business services team, uh, Natia Ambrosie, Tara Lee, Sha Lencia, Brook Roso, and of course, Michelle Kennedy and Melissa Lopez for assisting in preparing this information we're about to review this evening. So, thank you
122very much, team internal finance. So today's topics, we will be going over our budget and reporting processes, an overview of the 2526 first interim report, key differences between our 2526 adopted budget and our first interim numbers, our multi-year projections, what's next, and any recommendations. Uh this is the graphic I shared with you last time. I really liked it, so I thought I'd bring it back again. Um here we are in December and we are at the point where we will be reviewing our first interim report. It is uh important to note that generally speaking your audit report would be also presented at this meeting. However, with the federal addendum not having been approved in a timely fashion, many districts including ourselves had to request an extension uh from the CDE of which we have received.
123But we're quite confident that our uh auditing team, Miss Samantha Moore, will be presenting to you early in February. They plan to have her audit wrapped up by then. So, that one's going to be falling out of cycle. Very unusual for us. Not our fault. First minimum is an opportunity for uh the COA to make any adjustments to our budget based on actual year-to-ate spending, trending, and any or any new information that might have come to light. and it's a way to try to project where we think we might be at the end of the fiscal year. So, at this point, any uh programs that might have had carryover, all those amounts have now been reflected and calculated and are included in our budget, as well as any deferred revenue that we may have u
124received in the prior but not had yet earned. That's also now reflected in the budget. As always, it's important to keep in mind this is a snapshot in time and it will most likely be changing. It probably already has since we talked to our committee yesterday about it. Um, so that's where we are in our schedule. Uh each interim reporting period is given a classification um that must be certified by our county superintendent and those classifications are a positive, qualified or negative certification indicating that if you're positive, you will be able to meet your financial obligations for the current two subsequent years. Qualified means that you may not you may not meet your financial obligations in the current or two subsequent years. And a negative is assigned to entities that will be unable to meet
125their financial obligations. We of course will be yay. Here we go. Y >> filing a positive certification at the 2526 first interim. That signifies then that we can meet our financial obligations for the current and two subsequent fiscal years and that we will have a positive ending cash and fund balance in the county school service fund at the end of fiscal year 2728 and a 5% reserve and positive ending cash balances in all of our COE funds. So, moving into a summary of some of the key updates that impacted our budget cycle at this time, we have the reversal of the muchloved, I mean, I'm sorry, deeply dreaded fair market value adjustment for unrealized gains recorded in 2425 during our unodudited actuals, uh, which totaled $517,000. any of the uh 2425 unearned revenue or carryover
126budgets as I mentioned earlier have now been recorded and included in our budget. We as you recall and know um we budget very conservatively and uh in that regard our LCFF revenue which was based on an updated and reliable unduplicated or upped pupil percentage came in at 67.63%. Um, and as you know and our committee is aware, we usually budget right around that low just below 50 because uh anything over 50 of them could trigger additional funding for us. But we hate to anticipate that because our alt alternative education programs um are really based on what the demographic is of our students that attend and that can vary um over the years. So we always go conservative and wait until the real numbers come in on that one. So looking at uh this slide, this
127is our county school service fund and it's the combined totals. In other words, it's our unrestricted and restricted budgets combined together together um for all of fund one. So uh the important thing to look at here is in column A that was our original or our adopted budget and the estimated I want to have you drop down to where we have uh one two three four the fifth line down where it says beginning fund balance. So when we adopted our budget, as you know, we haven't closed our books yet, right? That's based on the best thing we know in the May time frame really. And so at the time that we uh put our budget together, we estimated that we were going to have a beginning fund balance for this year or an ending fund
128balance for last year of $42.5 million. So when you come across and you look at first interim, you can see that when we actually closed the books, we came in a combined total again of $48.7 million. And that's really important to keep that in your mind as we kind of look through the math on some of these numbers because we don't really talk a lot at this interval about the change in beginning balance, but we most definitely talked to you about it when we reviewed our unodudited actuals. So, if you have questions on that, I think I forgot. I have short timers, but you can definitely go back to your packets and or u reach out to Melissa if you need more data on that, but we did already talk about that. I just kind
129of wanted to remind you all about that one, and that's an important point. So, if you wanted to follow along um in your board packet on your devices, we are currently on page 136. Um if you look at form 01, it's page 18. I know it's a little hard to read our form numbers because of the numbering system that came out from the it went right on top of our form numbers. So, I think you may have to rely on page numbers this time. Um, but in any event, that is the summary of unrestricted and restricted budgets. Again, as a reminder on how to read those forms, our original adopted budget is shown in column A. Our so that would be as July 1. Our first interim amounts are found in column D and the
130difference between those two periods is shown in column E. So looking again at our at a glance, you can see when we looked at our original budget, we had a total revenue of $74 million, 80 almost $81 million of expenses and transfers out, which generated a combined deficit of $6.7 billion. Moving over into our first interim column, our total revenue and transfers then increased to 77.6 million or an increase of almost $3.5 million. Our expenses also increased to $82.7 million. So that was an increase of 1.7. And then our deficit actually changed. It went down from 6.7 combined down to about $5 million combined or a change of 1.6 million. So the math on that again is and don't forget our beginning fund balance change. So if you try to math that out, you're like,
131I'm off, it's because of that silly beginning fund balance issue. Um the components of all these ending fund balances, uh the majority there, you can see our restricted fund balance at first interim is $17.8 8 million and our assigned ending fund balance is about almost $26 million. Um, a detailed listing of all of our assignments can be found on page 137 of your board packet and that lists everything outline by line for you. So, let's move into the really important piece of our budget. It's all important, but this part's especially so when we look at our unrestricted budget. The unrestricted budget is kind of more of our operational budget. Reminder, a restricted budget comes with strings. So, money in, money out. You don't really have any discretion with that money. But over here on this
132side of the budget, we we do have some discretion. So, we're uh in your board packet around page 119. Again, the original adopted budget amounts are shown in column A. That part still follows through. So uh you can by looking at this information you can see that our revenues and transfers in changed by a net amount of $765,000 between our uh adopted budget and our first interim. We went from $33.5 million up to 34.3. Our total expenses and transfers out we had planned at 37.4. We're currently at 38.5 or a $1.1 million difference. Unrestricted uh adopted was a deficit of 3.8 million. We are currently uh projecting a $4.2 million deficit or a increase of deficit of $377,000. So that brings our un ending unrestricted fund balance to a projection of $25.8 million. Again, factoring
133in those estimated those changes in beginning fund balance. Adopted thought we were going to be at 28. We closed the books. We came in actually at 30. So again, that's why the math looks funky, Leah. And you're right. and it is funky because of that change. In our restricted budget, I usually go fairly quickly on this, as I mentioned, money in, money out. Um, we did originally at our adopted budget project a deficit of $2.8 million in our restricted budget. That has declined at first interim down to uh a $830,000 deficit. So that's an improvement of approximately $2 million. Our estimated beginning fund balance had been 138. We actually closed at $18.6 or an improvement of almost $5 million. And our ending fund balance, as you can see, are at 17.8 million, of which 100%
134of those funds are restricted. So, let's get into the assumptions that we have for our multi-year uh projections negotiations. So, all of our units settled for 2526 and all those costs of the agreements are included in our budgets. Step-in column for our certificate and classified staff are calculated in at a 1.3 and 1.2 percentage uh respectively. Our stirs rate of 19.1 for the current two subsequent years that remains flat and is controlled by the legislature. Our burst rates are we currently are using a 26.81 per guidance uh for the current year 26.9 for the second year and 27.8 for the third year out. Our health and welfare estimated employers increase I want to emphasize that part is at 7% each year. Um and that did decline from the prior year as we talked about in
135our budget committee because of a negotiated temporary increase we had with our units that was reset back to base in the current fiscal year. We adjusted and removed all of our one-time revenues and expenditures in subsequent years. So that's why I know it sometimes looks scary. We're like, "Oh my gosh, is our federal money is going away?" And yes, it is. But that amazing program that you just heard so many amazing things about. And again, I hate going after these guys. Could you change the next person? They have such amazing things to talk about. But all the millions of dollars that came in for those programs to get them the seed money per se, that's coming to an end now. So, we're kind of falling back out down to like normal levels. and our norms
136are actually not so great either due to HR1 and the current flavor that we're getting at Washington DC right now as it pertains to educating our students. The other thing that I'd like to have you keep in mind is that our cost of living adjustment assumptions we do have connected in your packet or included I'm sorry is the uh common message and the common message guidance has indicated in our assumptions page as well to use a higher cola. We like to be really conservative here. Um, this year we decided to go with what the actual was for 2526 since it's in the books as they say, but our out years we're going with a very conservative 1% increase. As those um, as the data matures and as we start falling into those fiscal years, then
137we will adjust to whatever the actual cola is. And you know, I love this next slide. I I especially love Jake the dog because he's as confused as I am all the time when we try to figure out what's the polar really going to be. I mean, we we might as well go to Vegas and put it over 29 black, right? It's really hard to predict. And this is one of my favorite charts because it can show you how you can start off with a really modest number like we did in 2425, 3 and a half% and unbelievably it drops all the way down to one a little over 1%. And imagine have you budgeted at that higher amount and then all of a sudden you're like retro, you know, like jank the dog over
138there. Like what happened? But on the flip side of the coin, we had some crazy years where our cola went through the roof at like an 8% and we thought it was going to come in at a tune. So it's really important. Um I particularly love this slide. Um, I think it's really helpful in helping boards understand why we budget and use the assumptions that we do use because sometimes it's just really, really hard to know what's going to happen with our economy and the state of California and who's running our federal government. All right, our funded ADA assumptions. We've got your four-year look here. Um, the first column in orange, that's our actuals from the prior year. We've got um conservative assessments or rather forecast for our alternative event average daily attendance that's funded
139again. Um we're hovering uh and keeping in mind also decline in enrollment at 1 8.96 for the current year and then a slight decline in the appears of down to 866 and 850 again knowing that those numbers could be adjusted upwards. Special education always a surprise so we just go flat with that number. um it's not a huge number, so the impact of any volatility in that number is not as um devastating to us as other factors may be. The career advancement charter, thank you, Greg, for the amazing question. Great question you asked yesterday about their funding and how their funding um not at 100% right now, but more like 85%. That's really an important thing to be aware of because when you look at their numbers, you can see in 27 and 28 they
140jump up to 235 funded ADA versus right now because we're only at 200. And the reason for that is that's when their new funding determination comes in. And we're working really hard with that program to ensure that they get back out of that 85% funded range and more into the 100% range. And so this is not a a statement as far as declining a movement, but rather how the state chose to fund that program. Okay. What you have in front of you now is our um unrestricted three-year multi-year projection. Now that you know about the assumptions that we used to uh put these numbers together for you, if you'd like to follow along, we're on page 222 of the board packet. Our uh first interim amounts are in column A now on this one. Second
141year is in column C that ties back to your financial reports. And then that third column, of course, is our 2728. As you can see looking at this slide and it's not really different when you think about how we always project this our uh total revenues and transfers in are trending downward and that's a majority reason for that is because of the declining enrollment. Bear in mind we're not just funded on our programs, we're funded on what's going on in the whole county too. And so as you see declining enrollment in these large numbers outro valley for example one of the leaders as as far as decline is concerned it impacts our funding base as well. It's one of the factors that goes into that. So we always use a downward trend when putting together
142those estimates for uh future enrollment and um ADA. Our uh total expenses and transfers out also are trending downward slightly. We have been uh trying and working to keep our deficit at the current year. As I mentioned earlier, we're at 4.2 million approximately 4 million in 2627 and approximately 3.8 million in 2728. Also keeping in mind that lower ADA and using that ultraconervative cola number gives us um I feel a comfortable uh number that can only move upward. I always want to tell my board we did better than we thought than we did or with keeping that balance of not overshooting or undershooting either. I feel like we're in a nice sweet spot with how we put these numbers together. Um, and then we also see some of our expenses declining net because of ongoing
143note costs. Those would be going up. But we also know that we had some current year projections that include some larger one-time costs, which we're going to be discussing that in a few slides. We're going to talk a little bit deeper about the deficit in just a second. Um our three-year restricted multi-year projection shows that again uh most of our revenue decline that you see here is attributable to our grant funds that are expiring in uh 2627. Also you can see like wow that's a big number that changed there on our deficit. And part of the reason for that is there is an assumption that we may be purchasing our 119 West Beach Street facility in that fiscal year. And that purchase price is included in that $7 million number for the funds that we
144have set aside in our restricted budget. So be scared but not too scared because we got it covered. Yeah. >> So um that's again like kind of a big change but it's um not all deficit spending is bad. Back with our committee yesterday on the phone that would be a really great thing if we end up um being in a position that we decide to move forward with that. So lastly, what we have here are combined multi-year projections. Again, everything you just saw in the first two slides, all wrapped up together. Uh we're looking at ending fund balances of approximately $43.6 million in the current year combined 2627 $32 million. Uh 2728 uh just under $25 million. So very healthy fund one only uh ending fund balances. I say fund one only because the next
145side is just a quick overview. We do maintain our special reserve fund 17. Our uh projections for the estimated ending fund balances in that special reserve fund are 3.7 3.8 and $3.9 million throughout the three-year period. In 2526 year um our unodudited actuals will get settled up. That's what we do as part of the closing process to ensure the 5% fund balance that we are uh maintaining per board resolution is met. And this uh amount is 100% designated as a reserve for economic uncertainties. So, you may recall that when we ended fiscal 2425, our reserve actually came in at uh just over 5%, 5.2%. So, I did want to talk about the deficit just a little bit because it can make you really nervous if you don't really understand it. And I don't want you
146all to be nervous. I want you to feel cozy and safe and you're wearing warm blanket right now. at least not a scratchy blanket. >> So, we felt that we wanted to take a moment and just take a pulse on our deficit spending as business folks like to do that once in a while. Make sure we're we're in the right ballpark to ensure that we're not entering into a phase that's known as a structural deficit. Okay? And so we just wanted to outline for you on this slide some of the factors are contributing to our current estimated deficit and just also explain to you why Melissa and I are always wiping the sweat off our eyebrow when we do these presentations for you. This will hopefully help you not stay awake tonight. You too, Ferris.
147I hope it doesn't you can sleep well tonight. So here we go. Our deficit that we're showing right now is $4.2 million. But if you look and you feed back out from that deficit, the known one-time or short-term expenditures that we've had this year, it starts to like not feel as scary. For example, um we know that we've had to furnish and and buy equipment for the new facility at 119 West Beach Street that we have coming in at about $400,000. We know that we approved to have the math initiative that the Santa Cruz County was uh purchased and was sponsoring in assisting in raising our math scores across the county. >> Good option. >> That's $300,000. So, money well invested. Money well invested. She's good. She's my wingman. >> I love you, Marca. She's
148got to miss me. No, I heard that. Um, we all agreed that Second Harvest was a really important thing for us to do this year and so we put out a $270,000 to the Second Harvest program so that families wouldn't go hungry as their SNAP benefits were were delayed and food people still needed to put food in their tummy. So, that was um a really important thing that we agreed to do. We uh came up with $122,000 to help encompass out with their Head Start program. Again, a really important thing that we needed to do that aligns with what our mission is as K12 educators. Um, we also talked at I think our last board meeting about the need to replace our board furniture up here that's chipping and peeling and catching people's expensive sweaters
149on. Um, so we will be replacing this old old How old is this Paris? >> It's boy probably when they bought the building. >> How much? >> A million. song. Yeah, I think you probably weren't even born yet. So, so we need uh we set aside $100,000 a year, wherever that money is. Well, um and then also there was a replacement of furniture required at our alt ed sites, $85,000 one time out of pocket, and then the lease for West Beach Street. And I have that as the short-term expenditure because right now it's $200,000. But if we pull the trigger and end up buying the building, then that's a onetime thing that I consider onetime now because I'm hoping it goes away. So those little guys add up to about $1.4 million. So when you
150back those one-time things that are sizable, there's other small things, right, that are sizable out of our budget, we're now down to an adjusted deficit of $2.7 million. Now, let's think a little bit further. What always happens as we progress through the fiscal year? We improve, right? We always improve. And so we may get some grants in that will help us relieve pressure on our unrestricted side and we can move dollars over there. Um we also know that we historically run approximately $1.5 million of purchase orders that we pull out as we get closer to the end of the year because we know y'all aren't going to buy that much stuff before the the year closes, right? And then when we actually close our books and we book our approvals and we book our revenue
151that we're supposed to be getting, we book all of our accounts payables, we pick up another million dollars. So when you look that we're sitting at 2.7 right now, we're approximately the way through the year. We're getting, you know, towards that halfway mark. Um, I have with some measure of confidence, as probably you do too, that we can pretty much assume that when we close the books on 2526, barring that there aren't any more one-time big scary things that come up. We will probably come out pretty flat, pretty even. I'd be really surprised if we came out with a deficit. So, I know when you look at those big numbers to begin with, it's scary. And so I hope you appreciate the time we put into like trying to help you understand and feel more
152comfortable with what the numbers look like because that is um of course you are stewards over our budget and our activities and so we really appreciate that you taking a few extra minutes just to go through that um sax criteria standards review. Um you know I'll quickly go through this. I think you all know the the drill on this one. We do have some of the not mets. um ADA uh always impacts revenue and that's why those two always come together uh as not mets. Again, some of the not mets aren't doesn't necessarily mean it's a scary bad thing. Um criterion S5 about contributions changing. Um this was primarily because we had a um increase to our alternative education special education program because the initial allocation that came through was lower. Um but we also
153had $160,000 supporting our ED services program for new teacher project tier 2 act 2 and our steam expo. And so those little pieces kind of you know come in and out of our contributions. Um the A5 about salary increases. We are also aware of that because we were able to give all units of 5% as you recall in the current year we were falling behind our neighbors quite significantly and felt it important in order to attract and retain the the best and most talented we also needed to have competitive salaries. So we were trying to catch up a little on that one. So um oh Melissa you added this on here. She's so tricky. The lesson says, "Heads up for second interim. There's going to be a new one on A5." A8 rather, not A5.
154A8. And that one with She has a sad face, too. You're so funny. Change of CBO. >> I know. You're so funny sometimes. I love that. Yes. You'll have another one. That's all my fault this time. You say, "We blame the person who left." That's going to So, what's next? The governor is going to release a proposed 2627 budget by January 10th and then we're going in of 2026 and those initial assumptions will be used in helping formulate not only our 2627 budget but also we kind of use that when we start working on our multi-year projections. We start looking at some of those assumptions as well. Um, our team will be attending the school services workshop on January 20th in beautiful downtown Upperbank, Sacramento. And the old folks in the room probably got that
155reference. I already say you probably weren't part of that. Um, Capital Advisors will be here on January 29th and I encourage all of you to attend that. It's from 2 to 4 o'clock at our tech center. I really like that one because it really talks about the political scene of things. school services, more almost more nuts and bolts, but this one's really good. They know a lot about what's going on in the governor's office. And then we will uh begin the process for our second interim financial report as of January 31st and that will come to you in March. So, thank you very much. If you don't have any questions, Melissa has left the building. And I guess that's uh that's Melissa. I guess she added herself in the lower. >> So, thank you all.
156You're a wonderful, amazing board. As I stated earlier, it's been my absolute pleasure to be in your service. >> Yeah. >> Thank you. >> Um, as much as you don't want to have any questions or inquiries, I will ask the board. I'll start with GA. Do you have any questions conver clarifications before we hold a second to unmute? >> Okay. All right. Um, any Yes. >> No questions because the committee meeting yesterday answered half of them and you answered the other half. I think today >> um for ADA, we're talking about Americans with disabil act. >> No, we're talking about average daily attendance and um yeah, that's the basis of all of our funding. >> Y So that's why we always encourage students show up to school, right? Um any other questions, clarifications? Wonderful. Thank
157you again. Um second. All right. Um moving on to uh new business in action. We have 16.1. Um and we resolution 2550. continue. >> Thank you. Um so this is a resolution that you have completed in the past. It is time again for this year. It is authorizing the COE um to enter into an agreement with the state of California. Um this is related to our child development resource center. It allows um that particular service is one in which we provide services to the county in which we help families provide and learn their child care options that are available to them from birth to 3 years old up to five years old. So this is an California Department of Social Services. It allows us to provide those continued child care referral and development services. So
158it's not us engaging the ser in child care services directly but letting families know in the community about the services that are available to them. And it's a very important service because it allows family to understand that if you have a child birth to 5 years old in our county they have a wide variety of options for child care that could include private family providers as well as many others. So this is one that you do every year. It allows us to enter into an agreement for them. It allows the board to formally authorize participation in that local agreement for us to be a child development resource center for the state of California and allows us to execute all of those transactions that are related to it. >> Any questions? Can we have a motion?
159>> So move resolution 25-50 authorizing the COE and local agreement with the state of California. Second >> student trustee. >> Hi. >> Trusty A. Costa. >> Hi. >> Trusty Kyle. >> Hi. Vice President Larson. >> Hi. >> Trusty Roth. >> Yes. >> Trusty Sanchez. >> Yes. >> Trusty Van Allen. >> Hi. >> President. >> Yes. >> Thank you. Um 16.2. to resolution 2551. Vice President, >> thank you very much, Madam President. This is our annual resolution that we bring forward to celebrate all of the local school boards that do tremendous work for our students and districts often in challenging times and a little bit for ourselves um but mostly for the local school board. So, with that, um, I do have one request, and I don't know if we've done this before, but might it
160be possible, assuming the board approves the resolution, I don't want to be presumptuous, that a letter with the resolution, we go from our new president to at least the board chairs of the other districts. Um, Sharon, >> see, why not? That's a great idea. >> Um, go ahead. >> And with that, I was going to move >> Oh. Um, can I make just one suggestion? I think that there was one whereas I said our local school boards um um acted um expeditiously. Can we make that more like present tense acts like is it I imagine it was made during maybe co there's like or is there some history to that? >> Well, I don't know but I had the same the same thing. My my suggestion was that instead of saying our local school boards
161acted immediately to ensure our children's etc which I think was from COVID and at that point it was in response to the pandemic. How about our local school boards have consistently acted to ensure our children's academic social as a primary amendment. >> You get that? >> I think makes it then I will second. So, and then how about um add to the resolution that it be sent to the chairs. >> To clarify, was that to add to the text of the resolution or >> it's a second part of the motion to staff and prepare the lenders to that also introduces our new president board presidents as well. Did we do this? >> Yeah. >> Oh, it does. >> Student trustee Omar. >> Hi. >> Trusty Costa. >> Hi. >> Trusty Kyle. >> Hi. Vice President
162Larson. >> Hi. >> Trusty Roth. >> Yes. >> Trusty Sanchez. >> Yes. >> Trusty Van. >> President Williams. >> Yes. >> Resolution 251 passes. And now to the superintendent for report. >> Yes. Uh thank you so much, President Williams. Um I just uh wanted to start that you currently have before you our newest entry in our annual report. As you know, this is a requirement for county offices of education to produce an annual report for um it is for the 2425 school year. Um I really want to thank uh Nikkiara for all his work. Uh also uh Ronaldo who um helped with the design. Um this is definitely a labor of love with that takes a lot of collecting of information from uh all kind of different corners of the organization and to highlight um
163the uh data uh the needs in our community different services that the county office of education provides a lot of the collaboration systems and and a variety of other topics. I hope you you uh take these. We have extra copies also uh to share with you. So, if you're ever in the community sharing information about what the county office of education does, you'll notice that uh the last year's county board of education is highlighted. So, new members uh are not there. You'll be highlighted in next year's annual report. Uh but it is uh definitely a you know, I think it's it's beautiful and and um I think the team did a wonderful job and I'm really grateful for for everybody who uh contributed to uh the creation of this of this document. It's hard to
164be succinct with all the different things that we do and at the same time we try to be engaging. One of the things that I really appreciate about this are the QR codes. I was actually meeting with um our uh some students uh recently at um at uh in in Wville at the the central and they actually wanted to look up their Cal Kids to see if they have they had a Cal Kids account and so they actually used a QR code to log into the to the Cal Kids website to determine whether they had that or not. Uh were you there you >> That was me. >> It was you. It was you. It was you and Vente that were doing that. That's right. We were actually doing planning for this meeting. So sorry
165I I I I just remembered who who I was speaking with the day. So that was it was really a wonderful event. The idea is to make this as accessible as possible. There's also an online version that you can uh click on where you can actually page through the report and uh we'll be distributing this and also um we will be having our our annual event our celebratory event a little bit later this year where we'll be sharing uh the report uh with folks and of course you'll be you'll be learning more about that as as we we get closer. One of the things that uh I wanted to share with you is that SB77 is making some big changes to the Brown Act. Um I will be sharing um this document with you which
166is um a summary of um the uh changes. Um it AB2449 is going to uh sunset on in the end of December and SB77 really replaces that. There is also um so things like expanding the reasons for just cause also when it comes to making sure we have reasonable accommodations for people with disabilities. Uh we have to make sure to get you a copy of the Brown Act. Um and um also some rules about compensation reports. um additional authority for the pre the board president when it comes to disruptions online ability to remove people from from their social media rules um if you comment or respond uh online uh it could constitute a serial meeting. So um uh so when somebody when a board member let's say makes a comment and you give them a
167thumbs up and if three if if an additional you know a total of four members actually participate in that online conversation you've now violated the Brown Act and so um the law really discourages any kind of interactions in the in the digital world when it comes to that uh some things that don't apply which are it's creating a little bit of confusion there's eligible legislative bodies like city councils have additional rules that do not apply to county boards or or school district boards. And so things like having translated agendas um if you have more than 20% of your community speaking a certain language, having automatic captioning and other things do not apply to this board um and to district boards. There's also a cheat sheet which you'll be learning about uh which is the need
168to know summary for board members and so you'll be receiving that in your email today and will be part of our correspondence and um and please let us know if you have any any additional questions. Um uh I did uh we did get a question from uh Jesse Sanchez about uh my role as a county uh superintendent working with our business office is to review under AB1200 the first interimm just like you review the first interim for uh the county office of education. um you're uh we do the same thing and you heard that uh Leanne uh certified us or as as um uh as qualified um we have >> you have one district that has certified themselves as qualified as you heard in the news which is PBUSD but we wanted to share this
169was a request by Trusty Sanchez about and so our team spends a great deal of their effort kind of the external side of of our our business services looking at the first interimm, second interm reports and of course the budgets. Um and and you'll see that uh unfortunately we do have one district that was qualified uh in in this first interm. Now, our process is between now and um within uh the next 30 days is to review that and then uh review and verify if we agree with with with uh all of these first interimm certifications from boards across the county. And so you see an asterisk there. Those are still because until we actually take a look at them, that's we uh we put our seal of of approval. And in some cases, as
170we did with live oak in the past, you'll see that there's a negative there in 2324, they certified as qualified and we in fact them as the term as too negative because our conclusion was that their situation was we had concerns about their ability to be able to uh with cash flow and back then concerns. You mean back then? >> This is back in 2324, correct? I'm sure you remember those days. And so, of course, our goal is to support all our districts to help them get to a positive uh position u long term and uh and that's that's part of our role as as uh and the support that we provide throughout services office. Wanted to share some some community updates. We've been working hard with our partners in the community to promote the
171completion of childcare safety plans. There is a new law, I believe it's AB495, which um really cementss the idea of having child care safety plans for families to identify a trusted adult uh uh such as a family member who can care for their children if they are unable to care for them. Uh especially for families from a mixed status background who are concerned about being detained or or um or deported. Uh we uh have been working with uh community action board of course community bridges which is kind of coalition of uh the childcare safety plan uh that has been really getting the word out about um uh getting as many families to complete the childcare safety plan. In addition to that, it's not there, but helping families to sign up for medical and also um
172uh helping families to um be thinking about uh the um staff benefits and other benefits that they are at risk of losing. Um we're we've launched our holiday food and fund drive with Second Harvest Food Bank. And so you uh probably have seen the emails that have come your way about participating in that and we would love it if you could you could support that effort. Uh it's yet another way for us to support our our families. Um and then um and then you heard from Shellock about the computer science playgrounds. Uh this was these were two locations done in PVOC to promote computer science, robotics, STEM um or steam and and other exciting uh activities for students to to think about uh kind of the joys of the of of technology and and learning.
173Um and so uh it was really a wonderful event. In these pictures, you'll see uh some pictures from from those playgrounds, but also a press conference where we promoted um we collaborated with the Pahar Valley Collaborative to uh to promote the completion of the childcare safety plan for families again in advocacy uh for our for our families. Wanted to share some upcoming events with you. There's going to be a retirement celebration for Leanne Reyes on January 10th. We would love for you to join us for that. More information to come if you haven't already seen it. Uh, also we have some exciting graduations going on in January and um we would love for you to sign up to so that we could have representation from at least one or two more u board members at
174those at those graduations. We will be participating in the PAR Valley Prevention Assault Assistance Suit for a cause event January 22nd and um would appreciate your participation in the governor's uh uh January budget workshop with capital adviserss which will be taking and some additional dates going on. This is a this is the beginning of all a lot of our our competitions and activities a lot of wonderful things that are taking place and so we'll keep you up to date on those dates so that you can participate and I believe that is it for my presentation love I would enter questions looking forward to all those activities anybody Yes. Um, do you have anything? >> Nope. No questions. Thank you. >> Um, I did want to also share that I uh have been updating the federal
175updates um including a component uh related to school um uh tracking any impacts on schools related to ICE activities. And um we we've been keeping track of every single time that there has been anything in the in the neighborhood of schools. There has been there have been virtually no direct um access of ICE uh onto school campuses, but we we've added that to our federal impacts uh slide deck. And so that same link will keep you'll be able to we keep updating that on ongoing basis. And so we'll share that link with you once again. >> Excellent. Thank you so um we're going to um move to the um trustee reports um and I'm going to start from that with only one thing report and that was the excellent budget uh committee meeting and thank
176you Eric for staying break for staying on the budget. No you uh really have something very valuable to have. Oh, >> as the president told me to. >> Well, I'm confirming you made an excellent. >> Thank you. >> See, Kyle, >> um, less busy than last month and I promised Barney say I would speak slower this time. I'm just naturally a fast talker so I apologize. Okay. Um, it's gotten a little busy. Oh, I the first thing that was on my calendar when I looked back was I had a wonderful lunch with student trustees and as inspired as you were listening to Trustee Amore speak, imagine how I felt sitting with both of them for like an hour and a half. I left there just like feeling great about the world. So that was just
177wonderful. Um, uh, more recently I attended the winter concerts of Shoreline Middle School and Harbor High School to Shoreline had many bands and choirs perform, but they also had a makers market going on outside at the same time. So, it's just a very festive and um, community based, huge attendance. Um, and since I'm on a concert, I just uh concert uh kick, I wanted to acknowledge that the CCS honor uh groups were announced. And so they have three musical groups. Um the kids in middle school and high school and music programs have an opportunity to audition in the fall. Uh it's choir, band, and orchestra. But um the rosters aren't public. I've seen the high school one and I've heard of the middle school one. So, I have the performance dates and times for those.
178I've been to a middle one of each before for middle school band and high school band and the performances just knock your socks off. You just can't believe that the kids that age are performing at that level together. It just they all raise the bar. It's fantastic. So, um I can tell you there are 23 Santa Cruz County high school students that made uh the honor band and it's for the whole CCS region. So, that was an incredible turnout. High school band performs February 7th at 2 p.m. at the Cababrio Visual and Performing Arts Theater. So, it's right here. Middle school performs January 24th at 2 p.m. at Washington Middle School in Selenus. So the high schoolers are really lucky we don't have to go so far but there just if you have a chance
179attend and you will just be blown away. Thank you. >> I switched over to a new computer and my trusty report was stuck in my outbox so I won't go over it all. You'll probably get it at some point. Um so big thing that I did this past month was attend CSBA up in Sacramento. Great conference once again. Um, I'll try not to highlight things that our president may mention. I attended the pre-conference seminar on the legal symposium for experienced board members and I'd encourage board members if you go up. It was just really helpful to have those four breakout in-depth sessions on things that are affecting all of us. Attended a couple education workforce housing items. Um, they brought in the gubanatorial and superintendent of public instruction candidates. So that was interesting. And then
180the closing general session was on AI and I have materials I'll be sending to the superintendent to share with staff as appropriate from the conference. So that was again enlightening and and interesting and I'm really glad I went to that. Um, one item that probably isn't on anybody else's list, but I want to thank uh, Deputy Superintendent Marsha for supporting me on it is that I was invited to a focus group by CSBA on county support during the new math curriculum adoption. And the board doesn't have a huge role in that. So, I was wondering whether I'm doing a focus group or board members and it ended up being a very small focus group, just me. But it was good to hear good it was good to hear from the consultant that we certainly are
181best practice. So, I just want to say thank you for the notes you gave me on what we've done and really having start up the math um fellowship a year ago made it so while all these other county office of eds are now coming together how do we do this collaboratively it's kind of like the team COE has already pulled together they've gone through the forming storming norming and you're too performing as they use that phrase while many other counties are just forming and they're they're kind of behind where we are. They also really liked that while the showcases of the new math curriculum are being done outside of our county for the state sponsored ones in Monteray and San Jose. So, it's convenient for our districts and our staff. but that you're doing a
182more focused one here they thought was a good strategy as well because with the 43 possible curricular frameworks that's kind of overwhelming in getting it down to >> 63 getting it down to eight or 10 it just made sense so that was just encouraging to see how strong our our district is perceived out there and then the highlight for me was the computer science education night I was only able to attend the one at law as I did last year but uh to volunteer at that and see the engagement of the students and families was just wonderful and the budget. I was like stop real quick. So, uh last week um I had the opportunity to um attend the city council meeting and um it was really nice to see quite a few valley uh
183high school students show up in attendance. Um it was just really inspiring to see some of our future kids that you know are interested in you know our future be quite honest and um um we the you know one of the things that occurred is the new mayor and mayor prom and it was just it was it was just nice to see all the students out there in attendance. So, >> I just did a little bit of committee work and by the way the policy committee um we had some scheduling issues so we'll be back but we we weren't able to meet this >> finals sometimes it was finals >> okay great >> um okay um So um little bit busier on the earlier part and not so much on the um middle to end
184of the month but attended um the opening of her story at the mall along with Dr. Saba and Trusty Sanchez and Larson. Um it's basically um a um museum um um yeah exhibition. Yeah recognizing the contributions of women in Santa Cruz County. And um um this came about I I feel like it came about really quickly. It was about six months ago that I got a a call from um um former um Capola City Council um I bet Brooks and she said, "Hey, I got this idea. I'm like, I'm in. Let's do it." And um and it was really nice to see it come up so quickly. I look forward to the expansion of it. Um hopefully, she just said it needs more money. So, um also attended the CSBA education conference in Sacramento. Um,
185not much more to catch up. We we went to different conferences which is really helpful. I'm still kind of performing some of the notes that I have and some follow-up that I'd love to do. Um, agenda meeting um also attended um an annual event rising at the Rio u fundraiser um which supports prevention of child trafficking and survivor support. Um, I would have loved to have seen so much more of a community there because I think it's so much more of an issue than a lot of us realize and you know survivors need the support and our kids need and parents need education about what that looks like. Um, and then what stopped me for most of the fun attendance and some of the activities that you all are talking about. So, I had knee
186surgery. So again for the last couple of weeks, but um obviously on the mend um um attended a couple of uh virtual district board meetings online um and um attended the ACCE chart school renewals and appeals webinar um trustee Sanchez and um it was basically a recap of a lot of things that we know but some new stuff since um you know the co era where they just kind of said everybody's going to get an extension in. So, um, so that's I think that's pretty much it. Um, and so >> Dusty Sanchez, >> yes. Um, >> I I feel like you mention a lot of my list uh because we were in a lot of those uh dates. Uh, November 21st, her story. Really enjoyed it. Again, it's it's always good to remember uh women
187and the impact that they have in our community. Uh the agenda committee on December 4th, that was my last agenda committee. Uh really enjoy that. Really enjoy the team as well. And uh December 15th, the ACCBE charter school renewal. It's uh it feels like the charter schools is just pushed off and extended forever and now it's it's time to renew them and there's lots of changes and from then. So, it' be nice for us to get a little bit of a refresher, you know, once um we do have to come to uh to renew our own charter schools. And another one that I do that I would like to mention, uh December 14th, Watsonville had uh no deo was a community event for families, for our students, for them to go to the plaza and
188just have a really good time. And it was really well put. I was very impressed. city of Watsonville and the parks department for what they did. And then also I I I want to um mention it because I did run into our own student trustee uh Vicente Guen Martinez. He was there of course I feel like he's everywhere. There must he must have a twin or something because I feel like he's very active in the community and of course he was there. He was helping and just very encouraged and made me happy to to to see him and and his involvement in in our community. And that's my report. >> Thank you, Trusty Sanchez. Um, item 19, is there any updates or reports from any ad hoc or standing committees that have already been discussed?
189>> Okay. Um, scheduled meetings and upcoming events. Um, aside from all of the events that Dr. Su listed, we also have our upcoming board meeting January 24th. um is our special uh meeting and board workshop starting at 9:00 a.m. So, make sure you check your calendars. There's any different updates for that. >> I did get an update from CSBA that we'll be sending um a link to you all um and I will also send reminders um January 5th asking you all to complete the board staff evaluation. So it's a first your own individual um reflections um and those would be due the 12th of January or sorry the 19th of January. Um so you have about two weeks to complete those self-reflections so that they have enough time to prepare for the workshop on January
19024th. So please do those timely. >> Sorry. >> Oh, I was just going to ask to see if it would include our student trustees as well. >> It can. Um it is an optional workshop that the student trustes are invited to. >> Yeah. Thank you. And my next question was actually on the 24th, but I because I did see I can't remember it's a program COE runs maybe it's a poetry out loud. >> It is the spelling I know that afternoon as well at 2. >> So I didn't know if we could look at compressing the schedule down from 3 to 2 or if we're locked in there. The facilitator has told me that he can do this training in three hours. Um at max he can do this at four. >> Yeah. So he
191is he has that understanding. >> Yeah. >> But I did block your full day. So >> before we had scheduled I blocked the whole day. But yeah, I >> think it's >> No, he says you can do this in 3 hours. >> I think we're >> if we're chatty for each. >> Yeah. >> Mhm. That was on me to take your whole time. >> I I have to take your whole day. Sometimes it helps. >> And and then um I am asking for the board to schedule um a special board meeting as well in January proposing January 8th for an interd district transfer appeal hearing. We did receive this week. Um unfortunately we didn't receive it in time for it to be on this board meeting. So I'm going to ask you for the first
192week of break. >> Yeah. Okay. whichever time you all agree on. Um 5:30 is our general time, but if you'd like it at a different time up to it before 5. I was worried it might start earlier than >> this would be the only item on the agenda. We could do 5:30. >> So can I propose January 8th at 5:30 for a special meeting? Would that work for our trustees? >> Okay. I'd like to make a motion for January 8, 5:30 for our social meeting. >> And only question of a motion. Do we need an opt out for maybe the superintendent and president to cancel if the appeal doesn't materialize or do we know it's out? >> There's no need for opt. Okay. Okay. >> Um all those in favor. >> Thank you all. And
193just to summarize, I will see you then three times in January, January 8th, January 15th, and then the 24th. >> We look forward to it. >> All right. Any other final comments? No. All right. With that, our meeting is adjourned. >> Great meeting.