001Good afternoon everyone. I would like to call to order the special board meeting of the Santa Cruz County Board of Education on today, September 4th, with a roll call, please. >> Trusty A. Costa. >> Trusty Larson, >> present. >> Trusty Roth >> here. >> Trusty Van Allen >> here. >> Vice President Williams >> here. >> President Sanchez >> here. Thank you. Did we get any requests for board members to attend remotely? >> There have been no requests, President San Dress. >> Thank you. Now, we're moving on to uh the pledge of allegiance. I'm going to ask those who can to please rise and join us as our superintendent leads us on pledge of allegiance. >> Ready? Begin. I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which
002it stands. One nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. >> Next, I'm looking for approval of the agenda. >> The motion. >> Okay. Uh, we had a verse from Ben Allen. Um, keep you to it. Sorry. >> All right. >> Can I from Williams? So, >> maybe I can say closer to you. >> All right. All those in favor say I. >> I. Any oppose? Pass it unanimously. Okay. Next, we have public comments. And because this is a special meeting, it's a little bit different. So, this is an opportunity for the public to address the board regarding items on the agenda. And I will recognize those who will want to speak to their item, which is the filling of the student trustee, to step up, identify yourself, and to uh limit your
003uh speaking to two minutes. Is there somebody that would like to address the board on this matter? Okay, seeing none, uh moving on to new business, we have uh 5.1, the filling of a student trustee vacancy on the Santa Cruz County Board of Education. So, we are very fortunate in that we have uh student trustees that help us out that are join us on the board to be able to express themselves uh any issues, any concerns, any ideas that that they might have. uh something that we started a couple years ago and it's been uh growing and expanding to the point where we are today where we have uh two student trustees. So very excited to be able to do that today and to to go through the interview process. So what I would like
004to do is to explain how tonight's interview process will go so that we're all informed and uh know what to expect. Each student uh will be interviewed individually and will have 10 minutes to answer four questions that were provided in advance. The students will be interviewed one at a time in uh random order. When not being interviewed, students will then be asked to exit the board meeting and remain in the Bayroom with our student leadership and engagement coordinator, Andres Ortiz. Students will be called in one at a time for their interviews. Blank worksheets have been provided to board members to capture notes during each interview. And please note that there is no scoring rubric. These notes are for your personal reference and will be collected for record keeping for each student beginning with myself each
005trustee followed by superintendent Sabah will ask one of the four questions. The order will proceed counterclockwise around the deis. And we kindly ask all students to keep their answers concise so we can stay within the time allotted. Again, everybody's going to have uh 10 minutes to answer those four questions. Any questions? Any concerns? Clear? Perfect. Sounds good. So that was the process of 5.1. So now we're moving on to 5.2, two which is the conducting of the interviews. So at this time I will uh begin we will begin the interview process and we ask our first student to please come forward and join us at the table. The remaining students may step out with Mr. Ortiz and we'll be called in one at a time. Thank you. And the first student is Amy. And trustees,
006we all have our questions, right? >> Second page of the packet. >> Okay. >> Thank you. >> Okay. Welcome. All right. We'll start with question number one. Please tell us why you are interested in serving as a student trustee on the county board of education and briefly describe your background and experience in education and student advocacy. >> Yes. The reason on to why I'm interested in serving as student trustee on the county board of education is due to fact that a lot of what is being told is done is not being done. And I believe that we should have a say in this and create a safe environment where students can come and learn. Through all my experiences in high school, I've come to recognize the significant of voice, both my own and that of
007others. This has taken time and years for me to realize, but I've ultimately realized how much potential we have towards using our voices to make positive changes. I firmly believe that students should have a strong role in decisions that directly impact them. They should be able to say in have a say in in what is going on in schools. Throughout my middle school years, I was never much of a talker. I never thought my voice mattered. I always thought I was looked down upon and it was difficult for me to discuss with other people. It wasn't until the end of my 8th grade year when I got enrolled in student government that I began to realize how much my experiences that I've been in were shaping me into who I am today. I started learning
008as time passed by, having all these leadership roles and so on and so on. These things shaped me into who I am today. But these titles aren't what mostly has affected me. It's the impact that it has done to my community that I mostly um mostly like cuz these impacts are way more than just the titles that I've received. and I'd like to continue doing what I do with the help of my community. >> Thank you. >> I have the next question. Please provide an example of a specific initiative or project you would like to work on as a student trustee and why it is important to you. If I were able to get the opportunity as a student trustee, one initiative I would like to pursue is creating a structured platform for student advocacy.
009This platform would allow students to regularly share their concerns, ideas, and potential solutions with school leaders. Too often, students feel as if their voices do not have an impact and that they're not being heard, but in reality, their perspectives are powerfully powerful and can significantly influence better policies within the county. I propose establishing regular student forums or sessions where students from various schools can come together to discuss the issues that matter most to them. Stuff that they have collected around schools that they've been holding on to, stuff that are affecting students around schools. Whether it's mental health support, equity, and resources, or fostering a more inclusive environment. By ensuring these voices are heard at the board level, we can help students understand that they're not just participants in their education, but also key decision makers
010in shaping it. This initiative is important to me because advocacy is not just about speaking up. It's about creating real change. And the students deserve to know that their voices are being valued. They should not have to be looked down upon of just because of their age or their background. We need to focus on students and show them that their voices do matter. Thank you. [Music] >> Hi, welcome. Um, can you share an example of a challenging situation uh that you have faced in a leadership role and how did you handle it? So I had received the class president role at my school and I promised to make an impact where all the students could and would be heard. But I had realized I wasn't doing what I had promised due to the limited pro
011resources I had. I realized I had to take matters into my own hands. It took me days to even find the resources that could have saved a person's life when they could have needed it the most. This made me furious. I had spoken to staff and we had all come to an agreement that we need to have more discussions towards our school resources cuz it shouldn't have to take me meetings after meetings talking with multiple staff about all these things. I should just have handed them to me. And if we only have one mental two mental health counselors and we can only meet three times a year and there's people that actually need to talk to them, I feel I felt as if I need to discuss with someone about this immediately. And it took
012me sometimes talking with staff, but I realized that these things need to be promoted and being told out loud where students can actually see them and get the help that they need. Because students, they need to be told that they matter. Be told that their voices do matter and they're not just a regular person in school. That they can learn what they want to learn. >> Thank you. >> And the last question we have, Lars, >> thank you very much. How would you gather, excuse me, how would you gather input and feedback from your fellow students to ensure their voices are represented on the board? In particular, students who are currently under represented. >> I would gather information and feedback by actually being able to take time for them to speak to them face to
013face. And I know that a lot of students have trouble in using their voices. That's why I'll also be able to give anonymous forms for people who struggle using their voice. I can also try to communicate with different organizations who might be educated in student communication. And I'm feels that they're not being judged and their feedback matters. I understand that not everyone might be comfortable with speaking their mind and that's okay. But then one thing I will not do is judge them for speaking up. I will also make sure that whatever they're being told is being heard because a lot of times those forms that we're being told to fill out, none of those goes into consideration. I've filled out forms, none of those have been reached out. I haven't been reached out. Those things
014like that, a lot of those things get overlooked. And I feel as if those things should be read upon. Those should be brought up. Those are things that truly matter. I want to make people feel heard. And even if that that means I have to do more skits, more plays about how the student voice does matter, I will do so. I've done that. And I know from all my experiences that I can and will listen to other people cuz I know that their voices do matter. And it's not just one person's voice who matters. It's the whole entire community. >> Thank you. Thank you. And with that uh we have gone through the four questions that we uh have for the interview process. I want to thank you for taking the time to to meet
015with us today. We ask that you please uh join the others while we interview the second candidate who is America. Our second candidate The second candidate is America. here. >> Yes. Welcome. Thank you for having me. Thank you for coming. Okay, so we're going to start um with we have four questions that we're going to go through. I'm going to ask um uh Trusty Aosta if you can start with the first question, please. >> Yeah, good evening America. Um so first question is please tell us why you're interested in serving as a student trustee on the San the county board of education and uh briefly describe your back background and experience in education and student advocacy. >> Yeah. So first I'd like to just formally introduce myself. My name is Amedico Castillo. I'm a junior
016at SoCal High School and I'm 16 years old. So, the reason I want to serve as a student trustee at the county board is because I believe that every student deserves the opportunity of a successful education and I believe that in order to reach my goals that I have for those students um I can uh the county board level will make me allow me to do the biggest impact and my goals are to create equity, accessibility, and representation among all students. And as for my educational background, I'm a strong student academically and I take numerous AP courses and dual enrollment. I'm an AVID student, which means that I have a class that focuses on college readiness. And for ed extracurriculars, um I am involved in robotics. I'm a treasurer for the computer science and uh
017philosophy club, and I'm also a varsity tennis player. Um, I've volunteered as a science camp mentor for fifth graders. And I believe because of all of these, um, things, I know how to collaborate with a diverse group amount of students. But I think my most important leadership um, background is my parts of learning how to advocate with Usher syndrome. Um, Usher syndrome is the leading cause of deaf blindness and it causes me to progressively lose my peripheral vision. And this has inspired me to speak not just for myself but also for students whose needs aren't always visual or visible. And um I believe that this creates a unique aspect or perspective for this role. And in closing um my goal as a student trustee is to make sure that every student seen or unseen heard
018or unheard has a voice on the table. >> Thank you. Could you provide an example of a specific initiative or project that you would like to work on as a student trustee and why it is important to you? >> Yeah, so I would like to launch an initiative for improving awareness of access and accommodations for students. Um, like I've mentioned before, I have Usher syndrome. And so that causes me to have visual challenges um, in my day-to-day life and especially in education. And so because of this experience and advocating for myself every single day, um, it's inspired me to advocate for others who need accommodations in order to succeed. And so as student trustee, I would work for an increase of awareness for student accommodations. And I would want to advocate for better support and
019resources for these students. Um, in order to have equal access to education, I would work with schools to ensure that students understand their rights for these accommodations and also for staff to uh to have accessible practices. Um, I'm motivated for this because I've experienced these challenges firsthand and understand how challenging it can be to pursue um these accommodations. Ultimately, I want to make sure that every student can thrive regardless of their circumstances. >> Thank you, Williams. >> Thank you for your interest. Third question is, can you share an example of challenging situation you faced in a leadership role and how did you handle it? Um, so one challenging role that I had was during my freshman year, I volunteered at the science camp for fifth graders. And at the science camp, um, I overlooked five
020to six fifth graders throughout each day. And my goals, uh, going into this were to, uh, have the students have an engaged, supported, and fun experience. And this was a challenging role because I was completely new to this and I didn't have any background experience. And so this position required lots of responsibility throughout the week. Um and in and throughout the week there's multiple challenges and uh students struggles with um they they struggled with participate participating and conflicts with other students and how I was able to um handle these situations is I would take them aside and I would talk to them one-on-one and learn how I can adjust the environment in order to make the situations be more handled. and I would also coordinate with other mentors and understand how we can adjust the
021environment in order to make it more fun and safe. Um, by the end of this experience, it brought me many new skills. Um, the importance of patience, communication, but especially the skill of adapting to individual needs. And through all these skills, I hope to bring to the student trustee role here. The last question, how would you gather input and feedback from your fellow students to ensure their voices are represented on the board? In particular, students who are currently underrepresented. So in order to do that, I would ensure that all voices are represented of course and I would use a variety of methods. So for one, I would collaborate with cultural clubs. for example, the Asian or Black Student Union, also the multicultural club. Um, and I would create a digital uh form for all students
022to um put their input and be able to remain anonymous. My goal wouldn't be just to get feedback, but to ensure all voices directly influence decision-m. I would connect with student organizations across the entirety of campus and I would focus on and once I would get all this feedback I would connect with the board and learn how we can alter and make um in order to ensure that their input is gathered. Ultimately, I hope to bridge the gap between the decision-making process so that every voice can contribute to shaping an equitable equitable education policies. >> Thank you. And with that, we've reached the last question of the interview process. Again, thank you for taking the time to uh join us and apply an interview for for the position. You may join the other students while
023we ask the next candidate to >> Thank you very much. >> And the next student we will be interviewing is Ash. See, um, I'm using Yes, I I prefer my notes. >> Okay, welcome. >> Uh we'll start the questioning with Dr. >> Good evening. Welcome. Please tell us why you're interested in serving. Please tell us why you are interested in serving as a student trustee on the county board of education and briefly describe your background and experience in education and student advocacy. I want to be a student trustee because I have had the experience of like difficulties in the school system and like feeling like there wasn't a way to speak up or like I don't know get help. And I want to be the voice for the people that like are in minorities and
024aren't able to like or don't know about any of this stuff. Um yeah, or here's what I wrote that started off bad. Um I wish to become a student trustee on the Santa Cruz County Board of Education because I know what it's like to experience difficulty in school due to factors that are out of my control. Education is a vital part of life that everyone deserves access to and people who are part of minorities are historically disadvantaged when it comes to receiving education. I want to use the position of student trustee to sort of elevate their voices and make it so everyone is heard. Yeah. And then my um history with leadership. I don't know if I have like the most amount of leadership, but I have been like a cabin leader at the St.
025Chris County outdoor sign schools and I've done a couple other things like that. >> Thank you, Trusty Rob. >> Welcome. >> Please provide an example. Excuse me. Please provide an example of a specific initiative or project you would like to work on as a student trustee and why it is important to you. So I am currently already sort of working on that with uh Mr. G Sabah. It is a website that will um have like information on the student trustees and ability to contact them for telling them about like oh this is how I want you to vote this is the difficulties that are going on right now. Um, and then it'll have information about the uh school board, like what it is, what it does, and the meetings that are coming up, explanations about
026the different agenda items, you know, and then it'll have the opportunity for them to give me feedback on how they would want me to vote, you know, or what they would maybe want me to bring up to the board for things that need to change, you know, and then it will also have um a bunch of resources on it because I found that like when I started alternative education um all these resources were being given to me, things I didn't even know about and they're available to everyone out there. And I think there's a lot of people that are struggling or need something that they don't even know is there, you know, and this will be there for the students to, you know, have and get what they need, you know. >> Indeed. Larson, >>
027um, can you share an example of a challenging situation you faced in a leadership role and how you handled it? Um, I would say the difficulty was when I was a cabin leader, I was in charge of a group of, um, 10, uh, fifth and sixth grade boys who were very excited about it, uh, being there, you know, um, but they didn't really have the sort of safety on the mind. So, they were having a lot of fun like trying to balance on the edges of the hiking trail that had like a 30-ft drop or they like to throw sticks and rocks and I had to be the like one that's like, "Okay, can we please not do that?" Um, you know, uh, and something that I really value is like, um, effective communication. And
028I know about the like different communication styles and I never want to be the person to like raise my voice or have anything like emotions uh impact the way that I am speaking with someone cuz I want to get through to them, you know? And so I'd always like keep my voice steady and kind of like give them the chance to calm down and then talk things out with them about like why it's dangerous and what could happen. >> Thank you. And for the last question we have Augusta. >> Yes. >> Good evening Ash. Um so the question is um how would you um gather input and feedback from your fellow students uh to ensure their voices are represented and on the board and in particular students who are currently under represented. I am it's
029really important to me that people who are like part of minorities get their voices heard because there's a lot of like research that goes into they are often the ones that are left behind in like schooling like especially those who are LGBTQIA plus like from foster care. they always have like less um sort of success rates in completing school and going on to like college as well as like many other minorities. And I would use that platform of like um the student trustee website to hear back from them on not only the board meeting information but have them like be able to contact me of like things that are going on. And I also hope to go to school to to schools to talk to them like in person. >> Thank you. >> So with
030that uh that fourth question that is the end of the interview process. Uh we want to thank you again for taking the time to come to interview for the position. >> You may join the others other students while we bring the next uh interviewee. >> Thank you. Thank you. And the next student that we will be interviewing is a Z. Welcome. >> Hi. >> Uh we're going to start the questions with Trustee Venel. >> Welcome. Please tell us why you're interested in serving as a student trustee on the county board of education and briefly describe your background and experience in education and student ad excuse me. >> Um I'm really interested in the student trustee position because of my passion for education and student advocacy. Um I'm just going to refer to these a little
031bit just a couple bullet notes I made to keep myself on track. Um, just to talk about student advocacy and my background in that a little bit. I've been in ASB since middle school. It's something that I'm really passionate about. Um, which obviously represents the student population and it it really matters to me to talk about the people that I resent represent and talk with them. Um, a big position that really mattered to me last year that really taught me more in student advocacy was being the club's council chair. um that basically is a position at my school that represents all of the clubs on campus. We have more than 40 I believe and so I was in charge of communicating with them. I learned the ins and outs of a lot of paperwork through
032that and finances which uh taught me a lot and then I also learned how to like communicate with admin and teachers and other students which was really important to me. Um, I'm about to step into a position this year of leading student senate where we take one non-ASB student who wants to have their voice heard and we bring them in a tutorial and they get to talk about what issues matter to them and we try to bring that into uh what we do in ASB which I think is really cool. And then to talk about my my passion for education. Ever since I was really little I wanted to work in education. Uh I always played teacher as a kid. So that that's where it comes from for me. My mom has been a teacher
033as long as I can remember. Um, and because of her, I ended up walking with the COE at Pride, uh, where I was convinced to eventually sign up for the student trustee academy, which I participated in over the summer, and that helped kind of prepare me for this position, but it also furthered my passion for education and and advocacy. So, >> thank you. Thank you, >> Williams. Thank you for your intro. Welcome. >> Please provide an example of a specific initiative or project you would like to work on as a student trustee and why is it important to you? >> Um a specific initiative I I kind of want to talk about my my goal first which would be what's important to me and that's fostering community is something that really matters to me uh
034inside of this position if I were to get it and out. Um, something that I would be really passionate about if the COE doesn't have it already is making a council of trustees. So, I didn't see it on the website, but if it isn't a thing, I'd really like to implement that. And if it is a thing, it would be something I'm really passionate about. Um, we have it at PBSD where our student trustee speaks with representatives from each high school. So, it would be really cool to have the student trustee at the county level talk with all the student trustees from the districts and kind of hear about uh the opinions and thoughts so that we can take that and bring that to meetings here. Um, I would also to foster community, I want
035to like attend school events at all the different schools and get to know more people. I love getting to know people, so that's something that would really matter to me. uh maybe create a new countywide event or advertise the ones that we already have more participation would be really amazing to hear from students and yeah establish open communication with students would be a big goal of mine. >> Thank you. >> Third question is can you share an example of a challenging situation you faced in a leadership role and how you handled it? Um, one challenge I faced in the leadership role was last year I stepped into junior vice president as a position and every single year the junior president, vice president, secretary and treasurer are in charge of planning prom for the juniors and
036seniors that year and I stepped into this position with a totally blank slate. Whereas every other year we did the same tradition of going to Coconut Grove on a Saturday and event planners kind of got a little bit messed up at the boardwalk. They switched over that year and so we started we started with a totally blank slate. We had nothing. So we kind of had to start thinking outside the box and eventually we had this big debate on whether or not we wanted to go to Gilry Gardens which was this idea that I fell in love with. And so I was like, we got to do this. But there was busing issues. A lot of people didn't want to take a bus since it was out of district. So the two main ideas were
037either Giler Gardens and we bus or we go to Coconut Grove on a Friday, which was totally against what a lot of people wanted. Um, so it became this big ASB debate. And the challenge was really trying to step outside of myself and what I really wanted and hearing everybody else's thoughts and opinions and trying to really think about what everybody wanted as a group rather than what I wanted. Um, which was a big challenge for me. But eventually me and the prom planning committee, which was there was only four of us and we were both very split. So, we ended up opening communication to all of the juniors and seniors and we sent out a form and a lot of emails and begged them to tell us their opinions and their thoughts and what
038they wanted at prom and we took that into consideration and that's eventually how we ended on the decision where we got Coconut Grove on a Friday. But we did have to open it up to everybody and hear everyone's thoughts and opinions and that was really eye opening for me. >> Thank you. And uh for the last question we have Dr. Sabah have the next question. Zo, how would you gather input and feedback from your fellow students to ensure their voices are represented on the board in particular students who are currently underrepresented? >> Um since like I said earlier, one of my biggest goals would be fostering community, getting feedback and creating open communication would be really really important to me. Um, and I know how it feels to be under reppresented in big decisions because
039of how I identify and who I am. I don't usually see people like me in those big positions. And so that would be something that I would really want to focus on. Um, I would love to collaborate with like chapters like MSAs at schools, uh, GSAs and ASBs obviously. Um, but something that I would be really passionate about because forms are really long and lengthy to fill out and a lot of people kind of just barely look them over. Something that I would be really passionate about doing is maybe virtual like meetings with any student who would be interested in sending that out through their student trustees and having that as an option to talk to me about their opinions and their stuff that I could bring to the next board meeting. Um, so virtual
040listenings and like meetings where we could all get together and I could really hear everyone's thoughts and opinions. >> Thank you. >> So with that, we have finished the four questions that we have for the interview process. We want to thank you again for taking the time and for interviewing for the student trustee position. You may join uh Mr. Ortiz to join the other students while we interview our last student. >> Thank you. >> Thanks. >> Thank you. The next student we will be interviewing is So, Vicente is the next student that we'll be interviewing. We did have a six student uh say that um uh withdrew Good afternoon. Thank you for having me. >> Good afternoon. Welcome. We will start the interview process with the first question from Trusty Roth. >> There he is.
041Hi. >> Could uh you please tell us why you are interested in serving as a student trustee on the county board of position and briefly describe your background in ex and experience in education and student advocacy. >> Yeah. I want to serve as a student trustee because I want to elevate youth voices. I'm exhausted of people seeing youth like background characters in conversations that really about us. I know what it feels like to sit in a classroom and watch decisions roll down from above that completely change our lives. Yet, we had nothing to say in them. That doesn't sit right with me. I believe students deserve more than a token voice. We deserve a seat at the table where choices are made. My passion comes from seeing the struggles that so many of my peers
042face. From lack of resources to feeling invincible, invisible in a system that doesn't always reflect their needs. I've been that student who who wonders if anyone is listening. And I've also been the one to stand up and speak when it felt uncomfortable. I want to be a student trustee because I believe in fighting for equity, for fairness, and for the idea that every student from every single school has the right to be heard. And some experience that I have in being a youth leader is I'm the current president and the previous president of a group called Empower Watimo and we help youth with substance use and mental health. And I'm also the YVP lead for Empower Watimo. And currently I'm teaching parents positive discipline. So I got connections and I was able to teach positive
043discipline while um taking classes of positive discipline as well. >> Thank you. Next we have Lars. >> Welcome. And here's the second question. Please provide an example of a specific initiative or project you would like to work on as the student trustee and why it is important to you. >> If given this opportunity, I would advocate for stronger mental health support across all schools in the county. Every student faces stress, pressure, or personal struggles. But not everyone has the same access to help. I've seen friends try to carry those battles quietly and it hurts to know they felt so alone. It's gotten to the point where in my school, three boys have lost their life due to the