June 12, 2025 County Board Meeting

001Good afternoon everybody. So glad to see each and every single one of you with us. Uh took the time to join us in such an a special uh day for all of us. I want to start our June 12th meeting of the Santa Cruz County Board of Education with a roll call, please. Trusty Aosta. Vice President Estrada here. Trusty Larson here. Trusty Roth. Trusty Van Allen here. Trusty Williams here. President Sanchez here. Student trustee Hopkins here. Student trustee Marcus here. Thank you. Did we receive any requests for remote attendance? We've received no requests. President Sanchez. Thank you. Next on the agenda, uh this is a little different than how we typically do business, but we have a closed session. There are some matters that aren't discussed uh publicly and the discussion that we're going to

002have about litigation matters is one of them. So we the board the trustees we will be leaving briefly but we will come back to discuss and then I will make a comment afterwards on uh our decision if any at uh that meeting. But first I would like to allow for public comment on this specific item. Is there anybody that would like to address the board on the closed meeting item on the agenda? No. Okay. Then with that, I will uh recess into a closed session again. It'll be a couple of minutes and then we will make our way back. All right. Welcome back. How are the cookies? Good. Great. Thank you for your patience. I would like to uh reconvene our June 12th meeting uh and go back to an open session. I do want

003to inform the public that the board did hear a litigation matter and on a vote of five approval uh zero denied and zero abstaining with two absent we did approve of legal services agreements with France Law Group for the purpose of uh power school data breach litigation. With that, uh, we're going to move on to the pledge of allegiance, and I'm going to ask those who can to please stand and join us as our superintendent leads us. Ready? We have it. Yep. On on the right side this time. Ready? Begin. I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands, one nation under God. indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. Thank you. Okay, item seven. Now, I'm looking for an approval of the agenda.

004Move. A second. I'll second. All right. All those in favor say I. I. Any opposed? Present. One comment. Um, due to travel plans that were booked prior to our meeting change, I'll be needing to leave the meeting at 8:30 and I'll stay through the action till then. Understood. Thank you. Moving along. Now, we have public comment. This is an opportunity for anybody in the public that would like to address the board on any matters that are not on the agenda. This is the opportunity. We ask that you please uh submit a card with your information and to limit your comment to 3 minutes. Is there anyone from the board uh sorry from the audience that would like to address the board? No. Uh anybody online? Seeing none. President Sanchez. Okay. Great. Moving along. We have

005the consent agenda. Questions or comments? Yes. I'd like to move approval and with uh great thanks for the generous contribution from our fellow board member Alyssa Alto. Really appreciate it. Agreed. Uh we have a motion. Do we have a second? Second. All those in favor say I. I. Any opposed? None. Passes unanimously. All right. Correspondence. Do we receive any correspondence? The only correspondence received that was not included in the board packet is from Rachel's. She sent an email regarding the CSBA region 14 update. She sent that today. Perfect. And we all should have uh received that on our inbox. Great. Moving along. Now we have the uh student trustee reports and I am going to start with trustee Marcus. So, I don't have too much specifically to report on because it's the summer, so the

006school year ended, but uh there were there were graduations which were pretty big. I didn't I wasn't able to go to too many of them, but I went to Soel's graduation and then also SoCal's multicultural graduation, which is a really cool event. And then I also went to the New Brighton Middle School graduation because my sister graduated. And then even though uh it's the summer, it's still sort of interesting to see how people keep up with academics during the summer. I know uh a lot of people take like community college classes. That's a a really cool thing. I I have some friends that are taking some. Uh my brother's taking some. And then there's also sports which are pretty active over the summer. So, it's still cool to see how students are being involved with

007their community and with their academics over the summer when the school year is over. Thank you. Yeah. Thank you, Trusty Hopkins. Um I also don't have much to report except for graduations. There was some really beautiful ceremonies. Um, I think it made everybody feel very special and all the speakers did an amazing job and it was overall a really wonderful experience. Thank you, President Sanchez. If I may, before we move on, I believe our humble student trustees um did did not mention two particular graduations which they attended which were their own. They both graduated from high school. Congratulations. We're all very excited, proud of each and every single one of you. It's been Well, no, I'm not going to say because we still have next meeting. So, I'll save those comments for then. Uh, moving

008on, we have uh reports, discussion, and presentations. We're going to start with the Santa Cruz County Office of Education Retirement Recognitions with our own Dr. Sabah, good good evening members of the board and uh wonderful community. It is an honor to be here once again to celebrate uh some amazing folks who've been a part of the county office of education and really part of serving our amazing student community. um and uh their time with us is coming to a close and so we have an opportunity to be able to thank them to celebrate them and uh and share a little bit about their their impact that they've had on on our students and our community. Now, it is not unusual for folks who are retiring uh not to come to this uh celebration at at

009times. Some folks don't really uh feel comfortable in the spotlight, but we want to honor them uh whether they are able to make it or not. And um and as you could see uh this celebration as well as our tier 2 administrative uh services folks who are here um this is part of that end of the year uh component that is is something we look forward to and to be able to to honor folks. So, uh, we have a few, uh, uh, people that we're going to be, uh, speaking about and, um, and so I'll be giving a brief introduction and then I'll be asking, uh, folks who want who volunteer to speak about, uh, uh, these retirees and then we'll be presenting, uh, them with an award on behalf of the county board and

010the county office of education. So, um, this list of retirees, uh, includes, uh, some folks who've been with us for many, many years, decades, and some folks who've only been with us for a short period of time. And, and either way, we uh, recognize the the the fact that they have dedicated much of their lives uh, to serving the community in a variety of different ways and different paths. and we're very excited for them as they look forward to uh a change and uh as they retire and move on to some new challenges and new opportunities. I'm going to start with um somebody who is not here but uh is somebody who is known to many of us here uh Sean Patrick. Now he began his journey at the age of 21 working in a

011furniture mill. His passion for craftsmanship led him to build uh to the building trades industry as a general contractor. And in the year 2000, he launched his own business dedicated uh the next decade to restoring and reproducing unique furniture and mil work for both historical societies and private clients. In 2010, Shawn joined the Santa Cruz regional occupational program at the county office of education. Um and over the years he took on more classes and responsibilities eventually becoming a lead teacher uh for our alted and cals uh programs. And today he teaches a construction technology and building trades uh pre-apprenticeship program which is a new uh project we started over the last couple of years. And he shares his extensive uh experience in the industry with students. And uh outside of the classroom, Shawn enjoys fishing

012and boating pursuits that reflect his appreciation for hands-on work and the outdoors. And I'm um asking uh our director of Cal S, Sony Sansen, to join me to say a few more words about Shawn Patrick. Thank you, Ferris. I think Shawn is fishing somewhere. Um as Ferris said, Shawn was a CTE teacher primarily in alternative education. So, I know there's people here who were able to work with Shawn for many years. Um, he worked with students across the county, not just teaching the trades, but also about he was their mentor mentor. He really taught with his heart and he was a trusted colleague who put students first. About four years ago, Sean and I with our new department worked on the project Ferris mentioned, our building trades pre-apprentichip program. Uh this is a special program

013because it's registered with the division apprenticeship standards and not only did we offer it here in the community but also in our locked facilities at Roundtree Correctional Facility. That was a big endeavor and with Shawn's leadership we were able to get that get that going. So on behalf of CALS and the county office of ed, I want to thank Shawn for his dedication, passion, his steady leadership, and we wish him the best as he moves on to the next chapter and his impact will be felt for many years. Thank you. Thank you so much. So once Sean gets back from his uh fishing trip, we'll be sure to to uh share his uh the award with him. Next up, we'd like to celebrate uh Barbara Crosser, who is uh uh she graduated right here from

014from our SoCal High School. Uh she went on to to uh complete a degree in computer science and traveled extensively um overseas with the military and returning to work with Hulip Packard in California. She eventually came back to work in Santa Cruz City Schools, SoCal Union, and finally right here in our North County SULPA. And she has been kind of the right- arm person for Jessica Little, our uh executive director of our uh SULPA, our our special education local plan area. And um so I'm going to ask uh Jessica Little to join me and say a little bit more about Barbara and the impact that she's had with us as part of the SULPA team. funny have my back to them, but okay. So, um, so I'm Jessica Little and yep, Barbara is my right

015hand, sometimes my left. Um, and so she has to juggle a thousand things in our office. We're a department of two. So, um, so she does this while answering phones, people stopping by, but a big part of her job is working with all the districts um to make sure that they have accurate data. And so what happens is we get information from the state and then she has to take that information and go out and train folks, make sure they're implementing properly, monitor, analyze all the stuff. And when she started, um, about a third of the districts either had vacancies or a lot of turnover and we're still zooming quite a bit. And so when she started, I said, "What I really want is to create like a community of the data specialists, have them

016like their job, want to stay, stick together, um know that we're here to support them in any which way that they need it, and um and create some sustainable systems." And so she's done that like 300 times over. And so what I'm going to do is read some snippets from the districts. So, um, Barbara has always been so supportive and has answered all my many questions thoroughly and cheerfully. Barbara has made an outstanding contribution to support Santa Cruz County students with special needs and their families with her work. Barbara has ensured that all districts receive the most up-to-date information. She responds in a timely manner to all questions. She's efficient and professional with all communication. Barbara always offers support and training assistance when needed. Her unwavering dedication to her work has made a positive impact

017as well as making a difference in the education of children. Barbara is efficient, succinct, and an awesome team player who keeps us all on her toes. Barbara has endless patience and is always quick to respond to questions and bids for help. She's an excellent teacher, moving slowly, guiding, checking for understanding. She's a warm, safe, kind, responsive leader, and we're so grateful for her. While Barbara does not work directly with students, she plays a pivotal role in supporting the data analysts who work closely with providers delivering services to special education students. Through her expertise in data analysis, Barbara ensures the data used by providers and the state is accurate, organized, and effectively interpreted. Barbara has an extensive knowledge and extremely analytical mind regarding special ed data and works tirelessly to make our jobs on the district

018level easier by creating searches and tools that simplifies otherwise complex tasks. She's only a phone call away when you need help and the time she devotes to providing training for people new to the position is exemplary. Barbara responds quickly, refers us elsewhere if she's not sure, and never wastes our time. And so what I want to say is she has done like an immense job um bringing everybody together and the work is sustainable and will continue on. But besides that she's also an amazing human being and so thanks Barbara and congratulations. Let's give a round of applause to Barbara across and ask her to join join me. So, on behalf of the county board of education and the county office of education, we'd like to present this award in in gratitude for your dedicated service

019to the COE. Congratulations, Byron. Wasn't expecting that. Uh, well, thank you for letting me come here and and participate and and uh to help. That's it. Thank you. Oh, great. Next, we'd like to celebrate uh Rudy Lopez. Uh Rudy Lopez has served as Watsonville's fire department uh chief for over or actually he's been in the department for 29 years and uh starting as a reserve firefighter in 1990 to his current role as fire chief. In addition to his leadership in the department, he taught uh the fire science technology program for the county house of education since 2009, mentoring students pursuing careers in public safety. He is truly a community focused leader and Rudy shares his life story to inspire local youth. He and his wife have lived in Watsonville for decades, raising three children, including

020a son who serves as a police officer in the city. I'm going to ask for Sony Sansson to uh join me again uh to share a little bit more about Rudy. Thank you, Ferris. Rudy had planned to be here this evening and and was unable to at the last minute. It's my honor to speak briefly about Rudy Lopez. Um Rudy has influenced so many lives throughout his career, both as a firefighter and fire chief, as well as a teacher, mentor, and role model. Rudy has taught hundreds of students on Thursday nights at the Airport Boulevard Fire Station, teaching them about public service as well as providing exposure, what it might be like to work as a firefighter, but also teaching them things like honor, integrity, responsibility, and hard work. Rudy's legacy is not only found

021in the careers launched or the skills learned, but in the countless lives that he's touched through his leadership, generosity of time, and his unwavering commitment to young people and to the community. And if you ever get a chance to hear Rudy speak at a graduation or an event, um you it's a real privilege to hear him share his story. And um on behalf of Kes and the county office, many thanks to Rudy. Thank you. And now it's my honor to um thank and congratulate Kimber Collins uh who began her journey with us in January 2007 as a substitute and quickly became a valued part of our team joining officially as an instructional aid uh just a month later. Her dedication and heart uh were um evident from the start. Over the years, Kimber continued to

022grow and serve our students with unwavering care. She was promoted to senior aid in 2016 and then to guidance counselor uh tech 2 in 2018. In every role, Kimber has brought warmth, consistency, and an unshakable commitment um to student success. Uh her legacy is one of kindness, integrity, and putting students first always. We're so grateful for her 18 years of service. I'd like to welcome Dr. Jen uh Isant to uh join me and uh from our alternative education program to tell us a little bit more about Kimber. Kimber, I'd be honored if you come and stood next to me, please. It is my true pleasure to recognize and celebrate uh someone who's been so dedicated and such a compassionate part of alternative education, Kimber Collins. Uh as Ferris mentioned, Kimber started as a substitute like

023many of us and we found right away that she was a valued part of our team and we were so lucky that you decided to join us as an instructional aid. as a guidance counselor. Um throughout her years, Kimber worked at numerous sites, including Dwit, our school in Watsonville, um our for for girls, and most recently our Santa Cruz community and Seabbrite schools. At every site, Kimber has been more than just a colleague. She has been a trusted advocate for our students and a calming, steady presence for our young people we serve. Her ability to lead with her heart, patience, and quiet strength has had a lasting impact on so many. Kimber, your commitment to always putting students first, your tireless support, and your steady belief in our mission have meant more than words can

024express. You will be deeply missed. But as you know, we are so excited about your next chapter and can't wait to hear about it. Thank you. So Kimber, on behalf of the county board of education and the county office of education, we'd like to present this award for your 18 years of dedicated service. Thank you for all you've done and the lives you've touched. Thank you very much. Thank you. So, I've success successfully avoided speaking for the last 18 years, and I figured it's time I should say something here. Um, I would like to congratulate my fellow retirees. You have earned this honor. I would like to thank you to our admin, Ferris, Johnny, Jen, Sony, Michael. Your strong commitment of support to our staff and students has been invaluable. to my colleagues Christian, Monica,

025Olivia, Renee, Lauren, Becca, and many others. Um, your depth of camaraderie has been a joy and your dedication to our students a gift. To the board, your contributions and support for our programs enables the youth of our community the ability to experience a fulfilling life. To my dear little mom, you have a tower of strength. You are a tower of strength and throughout my life. And I love you. And I love you too, Ken. Um to my family, thank you for your love and patience. To my students, you have given me hope for the future. Your willingness and unwillingness has confirmed in me the value of challenge and the fortitude it takes to travel this winding road of life. Just this week, I've had the lovely experience of running into three of my students in

026the past 18 from the past 18 years. Their maturity, confidence, and expressions of gratitude and love has filled my heart. Thank you to you all for I feel blessed. One step. And now it is my honor to introduce uh somebody who's been a part of the county house of education for 25 years. A lifelong Watsonville resident um who is deeply committed to uplifting young children, families, educators, and our broader community with compassion and respect. She serves on the first five county commission with me and the uh YW.CA CA of Watsonville board. She is a champion uh for quality and accessible early learning and afterchool care programs. She is actively um involved in education of the community on on how essential child care is uh how essential child care is to both family well-being and our

027local economy. She truly is a champion for our families. Above all, Diane values the lasting partnerships and friendships she's built with stakeholders, educators, government leaders, and community members who share her dedication to children's success. I'm going to ask uh Marsha Russell, our associate superintendent, to join me to speak a little bit more about Dian's um impact and contribution. Thank you very much. It's my honor to be able to share with everyone here as well as the board and everyone else just the amazing attributes of Diane. Dedication, humility, care, advocacy, compassion, professionalism, calm always, collaboration, responsibility and tenacity. These are just a few of the talents and attributes that Diane brings to her work as a community organizer, most importantly to serve. And she has done that tremendously over the course of her 25 plus year

028career here as well as elsewhere. And she has set an incredibly high bar for every single one of us. She really has sought to create more equitable outcomes for everyone in this community. She's been recognized more than once, at least three, if not more, specifically by the state for the tremendous efforts that she's been able to do. Uh for her ability to organize in the community and to include all community partners in the critical work of advocacy and support for early child care, education, and support in our community. I know that we all wish Diane very, very well. She's going to be enjoying the opportunity to do some welldeserved travel around the world. And I know that she will still be able to serve our community. She plans to continue, as many of us uh

029do in our repurpose, not retirement, um to serve as both an advocate uh and someone who will continue to be an adviser for the community. So with that, Diane, congratulations. Thank you. I have to say that um one of the things that Diana was able to do was bringing our child care community together was these 9:00 a.m. or 10:00 a.m. uh child care calls with with hundreds of folks from all over the county um who uh to help them through the pandemic. and this has continued and she has uh really created this amazing network uh with our CDRC team to be able to continue to to provide that support. So, we are really going to miss her and I had I'm here to uh present this uh award on behalf of the county board of

030education and the county office of education for your 25 years of loyal and dedicated service to the families of our communities. Congratulations. Um thank you all so much. Um there was a wise woman uh who I one of my mentors um Linda Bralt who said it's all about relationships and it's about belonging and so using that as my particular vision and mission is to uh you know ensure that wherever I'm at whichever table I'm sitting at that we have uh that we are all respectful and that we all include everyone's thoughts uh in order to provide greater understanding and partnerships within our county. Uh and I cannot say that you know here at COE uh there's no better place to feel like you belong. And also the relationships that I've developed over the 25 years

031have been uh you know long lasting. Uh there isn't one thing that we all do here with in COE without touching somebody else. Uh it certainly is a large team and uh I just want to say thank you. I'm honored uh and you know so privileged to have been a part of the COE for the last 25 years. Thank you so much. the numbers keep getting bigger and um it is my honor to congratulate uh Bonnie Schindl uh who began her career at the county office of education as a substitute aid later becoming a full instructional aid over three decades. For over three decades she has supported students of all ages and abilities and is now a senior instructional aid at at the Cababrio post senior program. Um she is beloved by students and colleagues

032alike. Bonnie is known for her kindness, her patience, and dedication. If if you don't know Bonnie, she just brings this contagious uh sunshine. Uh she just lights up the room with her with with her with her compassion and positivity. She meets students where they are, encourages their growth, and supports them in the classroom and on job sites and in the community. Now, U. Becca York was meant to be here, but unfortunately some she wasn't able to to be here to to share her words and appreciation uh for for Bonnie. Um and we are just so grateful for um these over 34 years of service the county office of education. Please give a round of applause to Whoops. So, Bonnie, on behalf of the county board of education and um the county office of education, uh

033we uh give you this this award in recognition of your 34 years of dedicated service. Thank you for all the lives that you've touched. Thank you. I'm very touched by this. I really appreciate it. uh those of um those who know me know that I am very uncomfortable being the center of attention and partly because in the classroom setting it's not about one person it's about the teacher it's about the aids uh the itinerate staff the the parents the administration all working together to um to support our students and I've been just so blessed to uh to learn so much from these amazing educators over the years. So many wonderful staff people and and um and it's all for that one goal to support our students and help them to to enjoy a successful life.

034And um and they've inspired me to no end. And again, I thank you What's that? And it's my honor to congratulate and thank um really with deep appreciation uh Veronica Ramirez as a young adult. Veronica was driven by two passions, supporting at Promise youth and those impacted by the juvenile justice system. It's no surprise that she found her calling at the county office of education. Veronica uh began her journey with the COE in 1982 as an instructional aid in alternative education. She transitioned to special education in 96 and was promoted to senior instructional aid in 1999. In 2010 2010, she returned to alternative education where she continues to serve with dedication under five different superintendent. Colleagues describe Veronica as conscientious, deeply committed to student success, warm and engaging, and someone who values accountability and strong

035staff relationships. Her passion and heart have left a lasting impact on the alternative education community. She has the most contagious smile you've ever seen. I'm going to ask Dr. Jennifer Isant to join me to share a little bit more about Veronica Ramirez. Thank you. Well, I am incredibly humbled to be able to speak about Veronica. Um, Farah said so many wonderful words, but I want to say a fun fact, too. Um, Veronica was hired almost the exact day I was born. The same month, the same month, the same year you walked you walked into All Dead. And I I wasn't going to say I thought you were going to say 40some years so we could leave something to the imagination. But you you walked into All Dead when I came into this world and I

036cannot tell you how many people I come across in this community who know of All Dead and say, "Oh, I remember Al. I was there or my mom was there. Do you know Veronica Ramirez? Did you ever work with her?" And I would love to tell them I still work with her. and their eyes would just open up. No way. No way. Because Veronica's commitment to our students and her passion to our community is something that I know is really hard for you to let go. Yes. And it's really hard for us to see you go, but we are so so happy for your next phase. Um I want to say just a couple more things. As Ferris mentioned, um, our colleagues describe Veronica as conscientious, invested in student success, warm and engaging, yet always

037holding high expectations. And I'm just going to say that in simple terms. Veronica would take no nonsense from anyone. And her expectations were that students and staff could do better. And we appreciated that about you so much. Thank you. I really, really, really appreciate that about you. So your your commitment to our programs for the past 42 years will live in our hearts and our minds for the rest of our time. Thank you so much, Veronica. Congratulations. Thank you. Veronica, on behalf of the County Board of Education and the County Office of Education, like to present this award to you for 42 years of dedicated service to our community and our students. You've been amazing and we are so grateful for everything you've done for us. Thank you so much. I just would like to

038say thank you. Thank you for inviting me. It's been an honor, a complete honor to work with the county office of education and all my prior, you know, students that I run into, you know, on a daily basis. I run into kids all the time. I want to send a shout out to my grandchildren, to Aaria who's forever 23. Um, to Molina who's 22, to Isaiah who's 17, and to Abigail who's 9 years old. I love you. Thank you. We got our all dead team up here. I'm wondering if our uh our if our board members would like to share any few words with our with our retirees. Anybody? Yeah, go ahead. Good evening everyone. This is such a wonderful site to see so many people show up and celebrate um the many years of

039dedicated service of these individuals. Um and though I know not one of you, it is very apparent how much you love and care about the students that you were serving. And so from the bottom of my heart, thank you very much for serving our students and our community with such love and passion. And I wish you all the best in your next ventures. Larson, I'm a new board member and I've just gone through so many COE graduations that were so inspiring and this is yet another graduation of a different sort that is equally inspiring. So just want to thank you for your years of service and as a retiree myself just welcome you to the fold of giving back to the community in new ways just as you've given so much before. Thank you. [Music]

040Estrada. Uh I wanted to also thank you all for your years of service. Um many of you serving longer than I've also been alive. So you know thank you so much. Um I know you are absolutely passionate about this work to have done it for decades. uh serving our students uh you know and I I think that the work this is the exact work that I wanted to help uh contribute to by being on the board uh for the past couple years. Um and it's it's great to see you all and all of your years of service. Thank you. student trustees. I just want to say that I might be a little biased, but I think that the COE spec Santa Cruz County specifically is uh one of the best places to work and I

041think and I know a big part of that is just the culture and the culture is the people, is the employees. So, thank each and every single one of you for contributing to that culture, for giving back to our community and investing in our future, right, in our students. Congratulations. Um, and we look forward we I we look forward to the new things that will happen because I know this isn't the uh the end. I know you guys will all continue to contribute and make a difference in our community. So, again, thank you and congratulations. All right. So, we are going to uh move on to uh 12.2. But before that, uh those who wish uh may uh clear the room, you are welcome to stay. Of course, we'd love to to have you here.

042And while that is happening, I do want to acknowledge that Sue is with us via Zoom. Correct. Are you still there? Uh, Trusty Roth. Trusty Roth is an attendee right now. Okay. Okay. Perfect. So, we'll just make sure to ask if there's any comments and then she can make comments as uh public. Right. Um, President Sanchez, I believe you must um the board has to vote whether to approve her remote attendance per AB2449. Okay. Um, and she is requesting just cause um due to child care. Okay, perfect. Do we need a motion? I I would move that we accept uh Trusty Roth as a remote attendee. Okay, I'll second the appropriate law. Okay, so you got a first and a second. All those in favor say I. I. Any opposed. Okay. Pass unanimously. Welcome. Sue.

043All right. 12.2. Now we're moving on to the certificate of completion for administrative credential training. Thank you so much uh for this opportunity. I'm going to introduce our our so you know part of part of the role that we play at the county house of education is really to help uh prepare young people for uh for participating in democracy in in pursuing their dreams and also an important role we play is is in helping to prepare the next generation of educational leaders and our administrative credentiing uh program our tier 2 program uh is really part of the culture that you mentioned um President Sanchez when it comes to helping to create a culture of of belonging for students and also advocacy for equity and excellence in our schools. And so I'm going to ask um

044uh our associate superintendent Marshall Russell and our uh director of uh district support and leadership uh Brook Hopkins to uh lead us with a ceremony to celebrate the graduates from our tier 2 program. this again and I I I I won't say the next generation leaders because they are the leaders of today. They are already doing amazing things on behalf of our students and are uh continuing to uh champion our students in in wonderful ways. And so it's really an honor to uh present this graduating class to you. Before I turn it over to Brooke, I just want to share that uh when I first started at the county office of education two years ago, this cohort was also starting their administrative induction credential program. And it's been an absolute joy to see all of

045you, work with all of you, get to know every one of you, as well as our mentors and our lead instructor. Um so I just want to say congratulations to you all. uh Brook Hoffkins is going to share a little bit about the program uh and then we will begin the presentation of the certificates. Thank you and good evening board. Um so I just wanted to share I'm sorry I don't know how to work those let's see oh a few times. There we go. Oops. There we go. There we go. Okay. Tada. Um so I just wanted to share a little bit about um the program so you have context for what a significant accomplishment this is. Um these are 22 current working administrators who are in a two-year program and so they are working

046this is a job embedded program um and they are are doing this work concurrently. So, um I this is a little visual that we put together kind of describing how the program is constructed and it's really centered around what's called the capsules. So, the capsules are the California professional standards for educational leaders and they have um kind of some um some areas of focus there. So, there's elements that the the candidates have to kind of set goals around. Um the first element is assessment and the candidates go through a self assessment quite a few times during the program. They set goals um under those elements and um and also an equity statement. They provide evidence in a quite um comprehensive portfolio which they're already they're finishing right now and we're reading them and reviewing them.

047Um they participate in professional learning um eight times the first year which will be six the next this coming year but they did eight professional learning sessions and then four professional learning sessions um the second year kind of centered on those capsules and also content related to their job um kind of job alike groups. We invite um former and current administrators to come and just guest to be guest speakers and share their learning journey. And then they're also assigned um a coach at the beginning of the two-year process that works with them onetoone 40 hours a year at a minimum. And this coach is really just like a sounding board, a thought partner. They work through challenges together. And so you can imagine that they form a very strong bond. many of them are here

048this evening and um and so it's a really special program, very comprehensive and we want to start just by acknowledging our amazing coaches. These are folks that are um retired administrators. They've been directors, principles, uh superintendent. And so if you're a coach here in our program, would you please stand up so that we can acknowledge you? and they are tire working tirelessly with their candidates. Um, often rescheduling their appointments but being flexible with their time as well. Um, but they're wonderful and they've been a huge support to to our candidates and to our program. And then u Maryannne is here, correct? Maryann, can you come on up? So, Maryanne, we just cannot thank you enough. Um, this is our lead instructor here at uh the county office in our tier 2 program. You can see

049by her resume that she has been in the educational community for 34 years as an administrator, just as an administrator. Um, here as well at our very own COE for four years as associate superintendent. Um, Maryanne leads with her heart. She's a beloved educator. She's a beloved leader. and um I can speak for everyone to say that we we don't know what we would have done without her because she is she is leading us through and often supporting the candidates, the coaches and myself as well being new in this role. So thank you. Well actually well first of all good evening. It's a joy to be back here and to see many of you. Um, I'm rather sad that our newly retirees just left because you have a huge group of testimonial people who said

050retirement is not for us. Giving back is for us. And um, our mentors are are wonderful examples of that. Um, I retired seven years from the county office and it's very easy for me to say that you never actually leave the county office. my heart is here and um you just keep coming back. I love the repurposed part. That was wonderful. I'll be repurposed. So um what I can tell you after that experience is um this is cohort six, which means two years per program. We've had 12 years of training and working alongside our amazing new administrators. That's about 150 new administrators. And what I can tell you about this group in particular is that they are completely dedicated to social emotional learning and literacy of their students and their administrators and their adults. They

051understand that unless you're grounded in feeling belonging um you can't learn and they believe that of the adults that they work with and they believe that for their for the students that they work with as well. They're also considerably um focused on uh getting into classrooms. They they know that we talked a lot about the importance of the work of education happens in those rooms and their job is to be there and to be alongside and to be lead learners along with their teachers. They're they're extraordinarily committed to um equity and inclusion for all their students. every one of their portfolios is grounded in all students. They built their goals related to who are those students that need them the most and that's how they do their work. Um the last thing I wanted to

052say is that I've nagged them a very long time about self-care and it's nice to see them towards the end of the school year because I know that they're going to work really hard. Um, I do want to take a minute and just acknowledge my co-instructor Melissa Roberts who was an extraordinary leader. She continues to inspire us and I know many of them had the opportunity through their district work to work alongside her. So, um, just just an incredible gift that she brings to each of us and I thank them. I also want to thank our mentors. You're amazing. I know you had many many other things you could be doing and you you stuck in with these extraordinary candidates and we're we have to stop calling them candidates. I think you're done, right? I

053think we have to come up with a different word, but they're extraordinary candidates, 150 of them. And now we're going to give them their certificates. Okay, here we go. And I didn't mention that Maryanne is is retiring again, but she will be with us. We we we she will be with us as a mentor. So, she's not going to be our lead instructor anymore, but she's going to be a mentor. Thank goodness. Um, do you want to read names? How do you want to do first? You can read them. Have them come up. Okay. All right, one lead instructor. The lead instructor who's just the instructor. Um, and I'm really happy to see many of you with your families. Thank you for bringing them. Shall I say that again? Thank you for bringing your families.

054Um, this is a family affair. There's no way you can be an administrator without the support of the people around you. So, um, I'll start with Carlo Albano. If you'll come up, Carlos. Congratulations. If you just stand on the Joe Allen, Brittany Bashelle, Dustin Dustin Carr. No, it's not here. Christy Danner. [Laughter] They're all been involved in graduations. They're used to handing certificates. Roshene Fah Vivo. Esmerald de Flores, Megan Hill, Rachel Hoffman, Barbara Hunner, Rachel Jones, Scott Keller, Patrick Lynch, Heather Marin, Ashley Molf, Haley Newman, Congratulations, Elizabeth Ortiz. Him Panza, Marissa Samuel, Nicole Sales, Kuna, Elizabeth Tashikian, and last but not least, Shana Not safe. They're so extraordinary. That's so wonderful. Are we ready for a picture? I think so. Perfect. Step back. All right, everybody's in here. Get in a picture. Say bye. All

055right. Right here. So, we have a little cake and refreshment in the tech room, tech center, right across the way. So, if you and families want to come just have a little piece of cake and have a celebration, come on over. Thank you so much. May I just add that we have a couple former tier 2 candidates in here, Michael and Sony. Before you leave, uh, if if you could allow the board just to say a few, uh, words, uh, please. Comments from the board. Ben Allen. Well, I just want to say how much um I and I know the rest of the board appreciates those of you that want to make a career in education and want to advance in in administrative roles as well as the other roles available. this is uh a

056great place to work if you care about education and we all should and you are part of building this and continuing this culture and this um excellent commitment that our county has. You're the ones that actually carry it out that are the this community wants for the the students of our community. So, thank you again and congratulations on completing the two-year course. Trustees, I just want to say I look forward to um celebrating your retirement in 40 years. 40 years, no less. No less than that. Um super excited again that you guys are committing and and taking that step to uh be more involved in our schools. Again, I think we're very fortunate in the the schools that we have and the administrators that that that we have. So, thank you for taking the time

057and for making this your your career. Look forward to hearing all the good things that that will come from it. Congratulations again. So, there's cake. That's Is that what I heard? Save me a piece. It's not Please private school. Please credential. used to be part of my first I just realized. Yeah. Okay. Now we will be moving to the public hearing and we will start with item 13.1. I hereby declare open the public hearing regarding the 2025 2026 local control accountability plan, also known as LCAP, of the Santa Cruz County Office of Education. The board is here to listen at this time and will not be taking action until the June 26th county board meeting. Staff will make their opening presentation to the board. Then the public will comment and provide input. It will be

058received from individuals wishing to speak. and we will ask the individuals to please keep it to three minutes. The board will have an opportunity to ask the presenters clarifying questions. Then the public hearing will be closed. We will start with Dr. Jennifer Eisen Gonzalez, our senior director of alternative education. You may now make your presentation to the board regarding the 2025 2026 LCAP of the Santa Cruz County Office of Education. Thank you. Thank you. And good evening, trustees. I think I forgot to say that earlier as I was so excited. Green. Thank you to talk about our retirees. Um and also the the annual joke I make when it's like this is how you clear a room and then there were two. Um and yes, I did want the cake, Ferris, but um well, welcome.

059Thank you. I will keep this as concise as possible. I know it was a very long meeting and I will take the slides. There we go. Well, welcome. I'm very excited to speak about our 2025 Santa Cruz County Office of Education, LCAP. We know what alternative education is all about. And so today I'd like or tonight I'd like to do something a little bit different and I'd like to hear from a former student of ours, a graduate to tell us about her experience with alternative education, Natalie Hopkins. Hi everyone. It's weird seeing you from up here, but okay. My time with alternative education, especially at Oasis, has played a huge role in shaping me as a more conf into a more confident person. One of the biggest things it has taught me is how to

060be more independent. Learning how to manage my own schedule and stay motivated on my own really pushed me to take responsibility for my education. Oasis also helped me to develop better time management skills, which I know is going to be essential beyond high school. and having one main teacher instead of seven or six make a big difference. It created a space where students and teachers could build stronger, more meaningful connections which made me feel more supported and understood. That kind of environment helped me grow not just as a student but as a person as well. Thank you Natalie. Thank you. Thank you. So, I really appreciate your time, Natalie, and again, congratulations on graduating high school. So, as everyone here knows the LCAP, I'll do a brief over overview. It's a document that shows how

061we meet the 10 state priorities. It focuses on students with high needs. Students uh who are identified with high needs are foster youth, multilingual students, and socioeconomically disadvantaged students. The approval process starts here this evening with this public hearing and the following board meeting and then the LCAP is brought to the CDE to be reviewed by both the fiscal team at the CDE and the program side. Here we are with the LCAP cycle. It seems like it never ends because it doesn't. So right now we are in the summer plan adoption phase. Uh, one new part with the LCAP is that you get to hear about it in February. So just it in past February we did the midyear update. So a and we had a lot of the metrics at that time which has

062made this meeting actually a lot more streamlined because we visited this whole report uh back in February and updated the board on how we were doing. And so right now we're in the summer and as I discussed there are 10 state priorities that are required to be addressed through the LCAP. There are eight state priorities that are addressed for school districts, 10 for county offices. This slide here I have highlighted the local indicators that will be discussed at the next meeting. So at the next meeting it's required to bring the local indicators for presentation. I happen to not be here next for the next meeting, but my colleague Johnny Rice will be presenting them. But I thought it would be nice to show how they all fit in together and the state made this wonderful

063in wonderful graphic which you'll see again in two weeks. But all 10 state priorities are addressed and verified in the LCAP and then the ones highlighted uh that will go into the dashboard will be discussed and presented at the next meeting. our community feedback. I'm not going to read the slide, but essentially what our community says is that we have safe, supportive environments with staff who care about students. I saw everybody, so many people in this room at our graduations and I believe those having those right before this meeting is extremely valuable because our ceremonies, you can truly tell how well the staff, our team know our students. And even with my journey with Natalie, getting to know Natalie and seeing her growth in our programs has been remarkable. It's a wonderful joy to be

064part of a program where you know the faces of your students and our families and our community um recognize that briefly I'll review our five goals. Last year the board approved the new three-year cycle LCAP. So these five goals are the same that were approved last year. We have just finished year one of this three-year cycle. As Natalie discussed in our programs, becoming more curious, confident, and conscientious, those three schoolwide goals are woven into each of them. Our first goal is our academic goal, running school programs that are helping helping cultivate curiosity and lifelong learning in students. Goal two, that's our social, emotional, and well-being goal, helping our students grow into more conscientious individuals. And goal three really works on the confidence of our learners through collaborative partnerships in our community. Goal four um weaves

065in two required goals for COE's which is supporting foster youth throughout Santa Cruz County and their education and also supporting uh education for expelled youth in the county. Goal five was as mentioned last year to a new required goal for any LEA receiving equity multiplier funds and we receive a small amount of equity multiplier funds for our small court program and we utilize those funds to help increase college and career supports for our students in our court school. Now the next slides I'm going to go in goal by goal to discuss our progress and any changes and where we're going. So goal one analysis for goal one we are meeting and moving towards meeting all of our metrics and there will be no changes with any of the goals essentially this evening. Um, and in

066goal one, what we're really proud of is that we are maintaining safe safe and supportive learning environments. And the one one notable difference that you would see on the LCAP was for the 2425 school year, we were unable to hire an EL teacher, and that was in that was one of the actions in this school. However, I'm happy to report that uh we're still working on the hiring process, but we do have someone who is committed for the job for this next school year. So, we're very excited to have them join our team. So, that will be a new change for this coming year. As with most of the goals, uh you'll notice an increase in staffing costs. Uh but essentially, uh all of the goals we're meeting and we're um excited about that for

067goal one. So for goal two uh our social emotional goal I wanted to highlight an engagement I wanted to highlight um increased graduation rate. Graduation rate is a metric for goal two and for goal three. As you know we have a four-year cohort uh graduation rate and a one-year graduation rate. And both of those increased this year and are at where we were hoping them to be. So that is excellent. In this goal, we were required to have an action for our special education department. This is our department here at the county office for students who are in the moderate to severe program and to work on the chronic absenteeism. And that department has worked on uh decreasing chronic absenteeism through communication and we are showing progress on that as well which is excellent. We've

068maintained and grown our health and wellness team. I wanted to highlight that in the next year we are doing more collaborative support with our student support department and alternative education and we are hiring more credentialed and licensed counselors for our programs who will now have more support from administrators myself Lauren Fine and our new mental health coordinate co coordinator Mocke so we have a team and we have support in place to help them help our students and we're very excited about that partnership. There were no noticeable differences um to the LCAP in in uh for goal two. For goal three, uh, college and career supports and community engagement. Our, uh, for this for this goal and actions, our community through our surveys and through our metrics have shown that, uh, our community continues to appreciate

069our our collaboration with community partnerships, our different field trips, and our learning opportunities for our students for career exploration and softskll development. Uh so we have increased contracts with different community organizations. Additionally, this year was year one in our college and career building our robust team and our teacher on special assignment Lynn Kulie who leads that team has done a remarkable job in systematizing our college and career supports and dual enrollment opportunities for our students and that will continue to grow. This was year one and it was amazing to see how far that team was able to to go and we are we are looking forward to where we will go next for goal four which is our coordination of um foster youth and expelled youth supports. We'll say we are meeting this and um

070again our relationship with our student services student support services department collaborating on countywide supports for our foster youth uh has been and continues to be exceptional. We have uh case managers and support people who work not only for alternative education but every single district in the county. They also do professional development for districts and alternative education. and we have such a collaborative atmosphere in Santa Cruz to support our foster youth. Now, for students who are expelled from our local school districts, we have countywide all of our student services directors, myself included, come together monthly to help support and mitigate expulsions and also to build the relationships necessary to be able to collaborate when a kid is going through the expulsion process. that we know each other and we can work together to ensure that they

071are in the proper they have the proper school to go to and that it is done um very quickly. So very proud of both our supports for our foster youth in the community as well as students who are expelled. Also our advocacy for students who have completed their expulsion terms who wish to return to their districts. We work with students and families on that as well. goal five for our equity multiplier goal. Um, and this image is a recent image from a college student that we have just from very very recently working on his college course. And I just want to highlight this individual. Uh, he took uh a class recently and his first, it was an English class, English 1A I believe it is, and on his first essay he got a perfect score,

072a perfect score. Um, and is doing extremely well. I want to highlight that we work very closely with rising scholars and we have increased as I mentioned before through our college and career team and the increasing number of credentialed counselors that we have support for students. So the small money that the small amount of money that we get from the equity multiplier goes towards this effort. Now last year when we made the goal we made the goal when we had higher number of students in our court school program. We have a very small number of high school students in our court school program. We do support graduates who are there as well. Um but so while three students doesn't sound like many students who are dual dy enrolled and going to college, it's because we

073don't have many students in our court school program, which is a good problem to have. And last, but definitely not least, what we all came here to talk about as the budget. Let's just be honest that I it's a thousand something pages and there's a lot of it that has to do with the budget in your packet tonight. So while I won't speak too much on it, I I just wanted to highlight that one not one difference you might have seen in the COE LCAP is the pie charts and the budget overview for parents looked a little bit different and that's because of funding changes and a and a and a requirement by the state to include other things. So, I took a snapshot of our current um basically revenues and expenditures for the upcoming

074year for 2526. And in here, you'll notice things that you didn't see last year, like the student support and enrichment block grant. And so, that's one of the notable changes that's here. But as you can see, the main thing that is checked by the state is that we are planning to expend our supplemental and concentration funds and that we are utilizing our alternative education block grant. And we are and uh what will happen next is in August, the beginning of August, the state fiscal reviewers will dig through our budget and they'll dig through our LCAP and then they connect with um our business department and myself and they re we review it together. But um I put this in here for your reference, but I do know that there will be another presentation on the

075entire budget. Um, so we can definitely ask uh our business department for any specific fiscal questions you might have, but I am here now to thank you and if you have any questions for me, I'm happy to answer. Sony's timing me over there. Am I doing okay? Okay, good. Thank you. Uh, any members from the public that would like to speak on this matter? All right, I will now open it up for questions and comments from the board. Any trustees that want to ask have questions or comments for Dr. Eisenics? Okay, great. I hereby declare the public hearing regarding the 2025 2026 LCAP Santa Cruz County Office of Education closed. Thank you, Dr. Eisenantes. Thank you. And thank you, Natalie. Yes. Reminder that the county board of education will consider the approval of the 2025

0762026 LCAP at our next board meeting on June 26. Look forward to seeing everybody there. All right. Uh now we will move on to item 13.2. I hereby declare open the public hearing regarding the 2025 2026 uh local control accountability plan of the Santa Cruz County Charter Advancement, sorry, career advancement charter school. Again, the board is here to listen at this time and will not be taking action until our board meeting on June 26th. Staff will make their opening presentation to the board. Public comments and inputs will then be received. The board will then have an opportunity to ask the presenter clarifying questions. Then the public hearing will be closed. For this one, we have uh Denise Gerasansen, executive director of our student program. You may now make your presentation to the board regarding the

0772025 2026 LCAP for the Santa Cruz County Career Advancement Charter School. Thank you, President Sanchez, and good evening everyone. Uh I want to start by acknowledging all of you for your support um and acknowledge my gratitude for our superintendent uh supporting this important program for adult learners and also to my colleagues here from our business department and alternative education. Jen and I work closely on compliance things and help each other out and I'm I am really really grateful for for the partnership. With that um I'm going to start my presentation here. Um, I like to start also with our mission. I think I've been here a lot with you lately with the charter and um our WASK visit. So, just some reminders. We are an adult program for adult learners to earn their high school

078diploma um across the county. And it is it is our mission to meet our students where they are um with a flexible very um well flexible and adult focused program and again to meet them where they are. That is paramount in our program. Um focusing on academic career as well as technical skills for our students. As a reminder, just where we are in the community currently at seven locations and um very quickly we'll be at the 119 West Beach Street in downtown Watsonville. That's not on the list yet. We're not occupying just yet. Um but you see where all of our locations are currently. I wanted to highlight this slide because uh these are program highlights that you will see throughout the LCAP. They these different support services live in our three central goals. Um

079really focused on helping students access services to achieve their high school diploma. So the child care facility in Watsonville, it it is called out often in the LCAP and students refer to it too in their feedback. Um mental health and social emotional counseling, you'll you'll hear about that as well. and transition support services is a very important part of we do what we do for our students to go to the next thing after earning their high school diploma. This is the same slide that Jen shared with you, just a reminder of what the LCAP is. As she said, this is not a new plan, right? So, I'm here to tell you about how year one went. Um, and so you won't see any new goals, but again, same same report. Our goals, we only have

080three. And the first one is all around achievement. The second one around student support, and our third one is around community outreach and engagement. And so I'm not going to read those to you, but this is again what was approved when the plan was first approved. So this three-year plan just finishing our first year and again we have three goals. We are not required to have any certain number. Um and so those are the goals that I'll be sharing with you today. So for goal one um similar format to the alternative education presentation. For achievement we have um we have met we our implementation goals. So, all of our planned actions were implemented successfully and we believe are contributing me meaningfully to our progress. Um, some of those highlights include that we did hire not

081one but two CAC teachers this past school year. One of them is bilingual. Um, a new position for us is the senior instructional aid that has been successfully implemented. We've made quite a a lot of purchases this year for instructional materials. So that number is slightly actually it's a lot higher than what was budgeted. Um but our program has also grown quite a bit this year. And so those are some of the um highlights around implementation and also our um collaborative professional learning for our WASK self-study. That's definitely definitely was a highlight. Uh notable differences again no changes. uh only change includes adding staff to support our growing program specifically in the areas of ESL independent study instruction and instructional aid support. You have this in the report, but I wanted to include a snapshot

082of our metrics for goal one. Um you see some fluctuation in the California school dashboard graduation rate. that happens pretty much every year for us because we all of our students are 12th graders. Um the two let's see I wanted to just point out metric 1.4 1.4 um quite a large increase there in credit acral. So we went from 16% as our baseline to 51% of students earning 45 credits or more per year. So, we look for meaningful metrics that make sense to us because of things like the California school dashboard. It just it doesn't work so well for the career advancement charter. And that's a big jump. I think that um part of that is the increase in students. And what you see in parentheses is the numerator and denominator so that we're accurate

083year-over-year. Um so, how many students over um ADA? how many students earn 45 credits or more over um ADA is the denominator. So 51% and I pulled some data from our cyber high which is an online system. We had about 45 courses passed since October which is somewhere in the neighborhood of 200ish credits. Um so really that that's working well and I wanted to highlight that for y'all. Goal two around student support that that is a picture from this year in our early care classroom or evening program. Um for we also made significant pro progress towards this goal in supporting our adult students with re-entry. Um so we did implement CTE courses in various locations including our locked facilities. Our support team, our transition support team was able to proide provide comprehensive support to our

084students. I mentioned the on-site child care. We did provide enrichment opportunities including a photography class and a baking class panaderia artisal and all actions were implemented with the exception of hiring a CAC student worker that just didn't come together this year. Um, one notable difference for moving forward is that we are also adding uh you heard Jen talk about a mental health counselor in con in support or in collaboration with our own COE student uh services department. And we're excited about having a full-time mental health clinician for our CAC program. And additionally, we plan to expand our visual arts enrichment opportunities in partnership with alternative education. Um here just quickly for progress and growth for goal two I wanted to point out 2.3 and 2.4 are both new metrics so baseline established this year. 2.3

085is post-secary education placement. So students who have graduated and are moving on to a post-secary institution. We're at 23% for this year. And then 2.4 we're hearing about dual enrollment. So co-enrolled at either community college or technical training and that's at 21%. So those numbers are around 30ish students. Um and so we've established our baseline for for that metric this year. So goal three is around outreach. Um and as we say here too that the our act our actions were implemented effectively um making meaningful progress toward expanding access and capacity. I mentioned the 119 building opening in August. That's moving along really well. Um something that I think I've shared with you is our student onboarding program. We're calling it foundations to success where we are working to improve enrollment orientation and student retention. We

086have some really excellent data on that so far. Um active participants in our goal consortium which is our adult education consortium partnership. And then the cross department collaboration and I I called out some of the departments that we work with alted, swenos, student services, human resources, m and business. So a lot of collabor collaboration going on. Um and then I mentioned the increased programming at our correctional facilities. That is a photo of Chef McKenzie and our first week of students at Blaine Street women's facility and they did um fruit and cheese platters. It was a pilot class that we did and I just received word this week actually that the sheriff's office is going to sponsor us $16,000 to have four cohorts next year. So they really it was a huge success and not all

087the students um were there at the end because they released um but we staggered the certification so that if you're there week three you're getting the food handlers um certificate and we had three finished successfully for this first round. So I'm very very proud of that. And then here are metrics. Um I think the most notable is that student enrollment. So enrollment meaning they they came to our program. Um they made it to the front door. They made it into power school. They may not have stayed. Um you see our ADA is very different there in 3.2. Our ADA is at 208 and student enrollment 425 students came through the CAC doors at some point this year. So steady, very steady growth there. Um and then 3.5 is also a new metric. So around engagement,

088this is the students measuring their own level of engagement in the program. And so we're at 67% of students feeling that they're very engaged or engaged in programs. And we want to continue to get students onto campus. It's one of our goals. Okay. The budget overview for I put for parents in uh in parentheses there because we don't have this isn't for the parents. Um but the numbers are there. We get uh significantly less money than our alted partners and our supplemental and concentration funds. It's about $133,000 there. Um but and I also put on the left there what's sort of superimposed that you can't read very well, but local funds are at 558 and our state funds at 436. And again, you have this information as well. um total expenditures are just over 2

089million and what's budgeted in our LCAP is right about 1.2. That's what that chart chart is. And then lastly, this is for this year. So the total funds that we budgeted for our students with high needs was at 218 and actuals came in at 207. So just under what we had budgeted there. And then lastly, I'm not going to read these either. Um the first four are in English and the bottom are in Spanish. Essentially our students are so grateful for the opportunities that we provide for them. Um it's hard to elicit like critical feedback from them because they are so grateful. Um but we continue to ask and they call out people by name. They um really talk a lot about that idea of second chances. And it's not just for 18 and 19

090year olds, you know, it's for older people, too, who want to come back and get their diploma. Um, and so very proud of the work they were able to do because of the support of the county office of education. And that is my presentation. Thank you. Members of the public, anybody present that would like to speak on the matter? Okay. Uh members of the board, any trustees that have questions or comments for No. Okay. Great. I hereby declare the public hearing regarding the 2025 2026 LCAP of the Santa Cruz County Career Advancement Charter School closed. Thank you, Miss Geransen. Uh the county board of education will consider the 2526 LCAP of the career advancement charter at our next board meter meeting June 26th at 5:30 p.m. And we have one more item 13.3. I hereby

091declare open the public hearing regarding the proposed 2526 budget of the Santa Cruz County Office of Education. The board is here to listen at this time and will not be taking action until the June 26th county board meeting. Staff will make their opening presentation to the board. Public comment and input will be received. The will have an opportunity to ask clarifying questions. Then the public hearing will be closed. For this one, we have Leanne Reyes, a deputy superintendent of the business services. You may now make your presentation to the board regarding the proposed 2526 budget of the Santa Cruz County Office of Education. Thank you, President Sanchez. You know, in the business department, we really strive to make things fun for people. Those of you who haven't had the opportunity to experience the fun we

092have every day in the business department, we thought we we'd bring you in. I have my lovely Vanna or rather this would be Melissa. I apologize. We are going to hand out a little bingo card for you so that you can stay awake and engaged in this. Look at Edward's giggling over there. And I think bingo's pretty self-explanatory. You wrong game, but next time we'll try that one. No free spaces. No. So, I think we all know how to play. Yeah. You want to give any other uh instructions or are we good? Feel free to shout out. You will get bragging rights if you win. No other prizes will be presented. We are on a budget after all. Go ahead. Uh so, some of you know I'm a a big fan of PBIS and positive

093behavioral interventions and supports. Um I um give out gold stars and gold sparkle stars with little notes on them pretty frequently. So uh because this was kind of a last minute thought on how can we make our presentation a little more fun, I will offer a sparkle star for whomever is able to get bingo first. Um and there's no free spaces, but all of the acronyms and words that you see on your card are somewhere in this presentation. So good luck. No pressure. No pressure. So, do we have to hear the acronym or can we hear the whole phrase used? Either. I would say either. Either or. And and there's a list of what the acronyms mean just in case, you know, it's hard to follow along. There's a lot of them. And I also

094for things like ADA only put the one we're referring to, not all four versions of what ADA could mean. So, you know, just we just got in. There's your free square. No, we'll let you count that as a free square. How's that? Good luck. All right. First night. Well, welcome everyone. We've had a really exciting evening tonight. Um, it was really great to see all of our retirees and all of our candidates and our leaders in the county. It was really thrilling. Um, it helps us all regground ourselves as to why we're here and what we do. So, it was really enjoyable. So, we wanted to start off this evening by thanking all of our department managers, coordinators, and support staff for their help in helping with the preparation of this budget. And especially a

095big large thank you to the internal business department team of Natia, Tara, Shay, Brooke, and my M&M's. Of course, Michelle and Melissa because I always mix their names up, so I just call them the M&M's. Okay. So, today's topics are going to be budget and the reporting process, our variances between the 2425 second interim and estimated actuals. Since that was the last time we got to talk about budget, our assumption used for the proposed 2526 adoption budget. Overview of the proposed 2526 adoption budget with the multi-year projections, what's next and our recommendations. So, you're very familiar with this next slide. Um just very briefly where we are in our cycle right now is at estimated actuals for 2425 and the 2526 budget adoption which needs to be board approved no later than uh July 1st.

096Estimated actuals is an opportunity for us to kind of set the jumping off point for where we think our beginning balance is going to be for the 2526 um adopted budget. So, it's an especially busy time for us because not only are we working on assumptions for next year, we're also trying to clean and skinny up as much as possible what's happening in the current year so that we can go forward with um hopefully a close number when we when we go to close the books. So, looking at the uh next slide, here's a look at our numbers and um we will talk about some of the major changes uh after this slide. So we started off at second interim with a estimated beginning balance of 36 million five. That hasn't changed. Well, that's good

097news. Our beginning balance shouldn't. So okay. Um revenues and transfers in. We did realize an additional $2.3 million between our second interim report versus our estimated actuals. Our expenditures and transfers out decreased $1.4 4 million uh from 77 million down to 75 million. So when you take that increased revenue and decreased expenditures, we are currently um experiencing an increase to our ending fund balance of $3.8 million. So that brings us to our estimated ending fund balance of 42 million5 and that is an increase of $3.8 million. The way that uh $42 million breaks down, it's 13 million of totally restricted funds, almost $14 million, which as we all know comes with a lot of strings and requirements. And then our assigned or unrestricted side of the budget has a estimated ending fund balance currently of

098$28.8 million. So some of the changes uh between second interim and our estimated actuals um our revenue improvement is fairly equal between the unrestricted and restricted side. We had $1.1 million on unrestricted that was primarily because of our MA program. Those are 100% pass through funds uh comes to us and we pass them back out to the districts. And then also on our interest earnings, we actually like have interest earnings and that hasn't happened in a in a really long time that we can actually take a conservative guess and have us be wrong and have more. That's really an exciting thing. Um on the restricted side of the budget, it was an increase of $1.2 million and that was mostly for a lot of block grants. You can see um some of the details of

099what those are on the second bullet on the slide. Um, a lot of things are coming in also for Michael Painters programs, um, which are all related to our wellness centers and things of that nature. Um, planned expenditures were projected to decline and to be used though in our subsequent years. We've had a very robust conversation about um, how we receive money in with our budget committee that we met earlier this week. Well, I think that might have been yesterday, but that's okay. It was earlier. And uh we talked a lot about how money coming in and money going out um on the restricted side of the budget um because of the fact that we get a lot of money paid up front and then we usually spend that money over the course of multiple

100years. So sometimes it's scary when you look at your restricted budget because you see this really big deficit, but it's because it's an intentional deficit when we're spending down monies we may have received years prior. Um, let me keep going through here. Um, I think the last thing I'd like to say on this slide, it's important to note that these are not our final numbers. More than likely, expenses will continue to decrease, which will result in a larger ending fund balance once we close our books. Um, this can be driven by any remaining balances that might be sitting out there on purchase orders or what we call extra work agreements that might have been encumbered but not fully spent. So, for example, right now in our general fund, fund 01, we have an estimated are

101we sitting $6 million sitting on our financial statements with a status of encumbered. And these are all non salary expense accounts. So, our supplies, contracts, things of that nature. This $6 million amount is spread over nearly 575 budget codes. And that's a combined number from the unrestricted and restricted side. The single largest account value encumbered right now is $1.7 million. That's Dr. Painter as I Yes. Yes. Um and of the 575 lines of budget accounts with encumbrances, 513 of those have a value of $10,000 or less. So, it's that also helps put into perspective how difficult it is sometimes for us to like nail the the final balance because we have a lot of departments are like, "But I'm going to spend that last $10,000 in se, you know, May or June." And as much

102as we work with them and and are like, "But but are you going to have the goods done by by before the end of June? Are you going to receive the items? Are you going to?" And it's always yes, yes, yes. And then the really big number falls out because, oh, the shipping didn't come in in time or or or whatever. So, um I'm just kind of trying to put into perspective how many lines of budget a we have to try to maintain and chase people down over as far as their their incumbences are concerned and how it can really have a large influence um on our final results. So, this is a really big piece of what oftentimes have us end up with that with that higher number than we had originally anticipated. So,

103those are the highlights of um the current year that we're in. So, let's go ahead and move into our proposed 2526 adoption budget. How are the bingo cards coming by the way? Did you give up or are you playing Ferris? Yes. You know, those sparkle stars are really cool. I had to work really late the other night and Melissa actually wrote one and sent it home to my husband. He wouldn't let me read the backside, but um he he has a gold sparkle star. Okay, we're going to start with what really helps us drive out our assumptions when it comes to our budget and that's our funded funded ADA assumptions. So funded ADA assumptions on this chart again should be familiar to us. Um this is a five years. It's 2324 for our prior year,

104our current year of course the 2526 which is in um is uh the budget year and then our two outy years for the multi-year projection. Um no no news flash here. Districts throughout the state are still continuing to experience declining enrollment which also translates to declining ADA. Our alted programs are anticipating a slight decrease in enrollment and ADA in the subsequent years. And it's important to mention that actual ADA and funded ADR ADA are two different things. And what we're looking at right now is the funded ADA. So back in um 2324, sorry, I've been dealing with hiccups all day today. I'm trying to like swallow it back there. Okay. um COE's were granted the ability for funded ADB ADA to have a third option which is the um addition of having the three prior

105years average which was um we were falling behind districts district had that capability way ahead of us at the COE so we were very excited when we were also given this opportunity to use what I refer to as smoothing ADA so you don't have these big drops so in the 2425 fiscal year als actual estimate for ADA is 877, but due to this new funding methodology, our funding being recognized was based on 906 ADA. So, that's really cool until the short numbers, small numbers start catching up with you. And so this is what we're anticipating um for our future outy years that some of the smaller numbers when that lower ADA actually kicks in will come back to um be something that we may need to may need to talk to because um for example

106alt ed estimated their actual ADA in 2425 is 877 for the budget year 867 and you can see how that varies from what's on our chart 2627 857 and 84 48 for 2728, but we do use those numbers as a basis to try to hop into the next the next fiscal year assumptions. Okay. Budget planning factors. Okay. So, when um these are some of the major factors that we use when pulling together our revenue assumptions for the budget year and the outy years. Um when we look at the cost of living adjustment or COLA used and we compare that to the school services of um California's May Revised Start Board, you're familiar with that and it's I believe it's also in your packet. Um you can see that the C COE is using very conservative

107rates to estimate its revenue and this is due to the instability still being experienced with well our state revenues but also our federal revenues. um even if we're not precisely being cut or eliminated on a particular federal funding source, it's more the economic uncertainty that spreads throughout other things. We know California is a huge capital gain state and when the stock market and people are um you know having fear and investing or buying and selling, it does have an impact on our state um economy as well. So although the dart board is suggesting cola for um the budget year of 2.3 3.02 and 3.4 and you can see on the bottom it's kind of dark on the slide over there but um we are using um a lower rate one that'll be on I think

108the next one. There we go. Perfect. Okay. So other um expenditures that we use for our planning of the largest part of our budget which is our personnel costs um we have a very flat and stagnant if you will calers rate currently um please don't rub your eyes in disbelief but yes that calpers number is actually lower than the current year that's not a typo. They actually had really good investment gains and the rates um did drop down ever so slightly. So, um, we use those assumptions for building out our budget. Bingo. Gold star. Gold. Should we make him read back his answers? Did we audit? Um, Vanna, could you take his card to the back and audit to make sure that I had to go to eight? Congratulations. Y'all can keep playing. We'll go

109for blackout. Okay. How did health and welfare, we used a 7% assumption and then very flat assumptions for the other statutories such as FICA, Medicare, SUIE, and workers comp. Um, there's more detailed information on your assumptions. I appreciated that Greg told me that was one of the pages I looked for when we were work. You know, one of the first things I looked at was what were your assumptions? So that's page 317 in your board packet for um for you to check out later in your copious spare time. Okay, next slide. There's only one page. It's not that bad. No. So, as much as we talk about what's in our budget, we want to make sure we talk about what's not included in the budget. we just sometimes um have to wait because what they

110say and then what really comes out in the devil of the details of our trailer bill language can be really different. Um so the COE has applied for multiple grants but as a reminder we will not include those revenues or expenditures until we actually receive confirmation that those grants will be awarded. So we can anticipate more um you know funding as the year continues to mature. Um 2526 is however the final year of funding for several of our multi-year grants, but we will continue to reapply for funding as it becomes available to us. So again, as I mentioned earlier about trailer bill language, that's kind of where we drum our fingers on the tabletop and say what's really going to happen when the budget actually gets signed. One small example of this is the student

111support and discretionary block grant, which you may or may not have heard a lot about. It was initially proposed as a one-time 1.8 8 billion billion dollar worth of discretionary money that was going to come with suggestions on how you should spend it, but you can use it however you want. But if you can that kind of a grant, okay, it dropped to 1.7 billion in May, but the legislator is dropping that down to $500 million. So, that's a pretty big bump because anyone who may have been thinking about that $1.7 billion number, that would have been about $35 per ADA. They are way overbudgeted. And so, that's always the guidance that we share when we put out our common message is, you know, some of these things that are really discretionary sometimes that's where

112the um, you know, the red pen comes out and things get changed a lot. So, that's something that we didn't budget for. We're going to wait and see what happens once the dust settles. So, in the meantime, um, school services says that to share that the, you know, legislature has come to an agreement on the state budget, but this does not include u Governor Nuome yet. So, while the above information is helpful, um we know what the legislaturator's priorities are, we just have to wait for that final deal to be happening and for Governor Nuome if he's not too distracted to sign the budget on time. Kind of curious to see if he will make time to sign it and how how that's going to go for him because he's got his hands a little

113bit full right now. A tiny bit full. Okay. If you want to know where the data comes from for this next slide, just make a note that it's pages 228 through 243 of your board packets. And this is our proposed adopted budget. So overall, our total revenues for the unrestricted side of the budget is about $33.5 million and our restricted side of the budget very large right now at 40.6 6 million for a total of $74.2 million. Our expenditures unrestricted 37.4 million restricted 43.5. So you can see again in our um expenditures are greater than what our new revenues are leading leaving us with an $80.9 million expenditure budget. So we are currently predicting a unrestricted deficit of 3.8 8 million with an ending fund balance of 24.9. On our restricted budget, it's going to

114be a decrease of about 2.8 million, ending fund balance 10.8 or a total budget of 35.8 million. Um, of that again, restricted budgets 10.8 8 million and our assigned and unrestricted uh ending fund balance is estimated to come in at $24.9 million. So historically our adopted budgets always show a really large budget uh um sorry a large budgeted deficit 2526 once again no exception for example a very large example that happened to us this year the COE budgets it's up counts your card I'm not sure as 49% um and the reason we do that is anything over 50% actually it's 49.999% % because anything over 50% generates additional concentration grant dollars. And this was the case in 2425. Our alt ed folks went out and did a great job of getting all the necessary documentation.

115They came back in with a 65% which was high for us, but it also generated an additional $1 million. So part of our conservative approach is we don't want to assume that we're going to end up with another historical large number. So we're going to go with what we know which is we're going to get supplemental dollars and then anything else that may come on o over that 50% if it's significant or material at the time. Um we definitely will rece be seeing that by first interim we should probably be seeing that. So that might be one of our explanations. uh if our uh revenue for our LCFF comes in significantly higher, it'll be because we got um a larger unduplicated pupil count number in. The other thing that also um to be keep in

116mind when we're talking about our budgeted deficit is um there's such a a variability in that upper. We really try to remain cautious. The same holds true with our vacancies um and in salaries alone. just in salaries alone, we have approximately $900,000 of vacancies. That means I I don't have health and welfare in that number. I don't have FICA in that number. Um the reason for that again is we always want to assume that on July 1 everybody's going to come and want to work at the COE because we are amazing here. So if they're not coming to work for us, that's on them. That's all I have to say. But we do have to budget for that just in case, right? And then if they don't all start on July one, let's say they

117start in September or November or January, we start kind of skinning that number down as the as the year progresses. Um, lastly, I wanted to share with you a little historical side slide. I have shared this information. This is one of the slides I shared with our subcommittee team just to help you um, you know, be still my heart when you see like, wow, this is what we've budgeted, but where do we really end up at the end of the day? And so, um, this screenshot does help show how, um, our ending fund balance on the unrestricted side of our budget is always estimated. That's going to be kind of guess it's kind of a brownish olive color, a darker color up there, um, versus where it actually always is has ended up historically. Um,

118which is the green bar. And then that light blue bar is actually where we think we might be ending up. um when we right now the 2425 projected but that will change to green once we close our books. So um I know it sounds scary and you know it doesn't feel good. It's not a feel-good number when you see a deficit of that size but bear in mind our estimated reserve at 2526 is about 30%. And we have an additional 5% in our fund 17. So we are well within what our statutoily requirements are. So, I just want to make sure to kind of put how big is that ballpark that we're actually sitting in and make sure everybody's got the box seats and aren't afraid that we're up in the nosebleleed seats or anything.

119Okay. So, um major items that were contributing to our projected unrestricted deficit. Again, negotiations have been settled and so that number was included in all of our um salary projections. um are increased health and welfare costs. Um any staff that's currently in the unrestricted resource, this does happen quite frequently that they shift over to the restricted budget because a new grant might come in that we can apply their time to um working with that grant. And so that does help us oftent times on the um unrestricted side of the budget. Um the increased health and welfare costs and then also we have some tech infrastructure improvements. We've got some building maintenance, some some facility improvements. We're finishing up some of the investments we have for our new facility down in um Beach Street in Watsonville.

120So, all those costs are in here and um or those costs are being moved around to help provide support for those those items. When we think about our MYP, you can see the next slide. Um these are our major assumptions for the outy years. Again, um negotiation, settlement, step and column is included. You probably heard and seen most of these numbers, so I don't think I'll spend too much time on this slide. Um, our cola assumptions, my favorite little guy from Spongebob. You never know what's going to happen. And so, um, I just really love this slide because it shows us just how much, you know, what a difference a day makes. What a difference a cycle in budgeting can make when the state comes out and says, "Oh, we think out here in year

121XYZ, this is what your cola is going to be." and then where it can sometimes grow or sometimes it can um really uh fall apart on you. So um this is just again uh just nice data to and I like that guy too. He's cute. All right. So, our combined multi-year projection, we're on page 342 of your board packet. And um our first column is talking again at a very high level, our estimated actuals. Um for our budget year, we're going to just drop down to that line that says what our ending fund balance we project it to be. Again, um this is combined. So, for the budget year, it's 35.8 million. For our future year, it's 29.1 million. And then for future year 2728, it's 22.7 million. And of that, our unrestricted ending fund

122balance, which is the very bottom number on this chart for 2526, it's just under $25 million. 22 million for 2627, and then 18.5 million. And one of the really cool things is we did have um a good negotiations this year. We had a really good settlement for all of our employee units. And when we finished all the work on this multi-year projection, I said, I got to go back and look what did I assume when we were working through negotiations and we were within like $40,000. So, I'm very um excited that the numbers all come together like that. Um lastly, we have like kind of a new slide. I know we don't really talk a lot about our other funds, and I think it's kind of tiny, but basically the only thing I really wanted

123to show you here is we do operate several funds. We rarely talk about them with you. They're always in your packet. If you really want, you know, want to understand like, well, what is fund 14 for? There's that great cover page before each fund that kind of explains what it's for. I'm just sharing this with you so that you can see that um all of our funds are ending in positive estimated ending fund balances and that's really critical when we go forward to our our certifications. Um we have uh next slide is our SAX criteria and standards review in the new streamlined table. Um basically everything that had a a not met on it, it was very easy to explain. Um it's always for example a lot of things are being driven out by ADA

124and ADA always impacts revenue and revenue impacts expenditures and that impacts our ending fund balance. So once you get one, excuse me, um it kind of flows through all the other aspects of your budget. Um, so I think that um the one A5, which is the one on the very very bottom, that not met going to be with us for the whole year because of the rate that we settled for versus what the COLA is going to be. Um, and so just you're going to see A5 a couple of more times before the year's over. So what's next is we are going to come back on June 26 and recommend that the board approve this budget pending any public comments and uh the COE's 2526 school service fund adopted budget will be updated the first

125time at the 45day revise if once the budget is signed any material changes come about that we feel should be reflected in the budget otherwise um at our subse quent interim periods as information matures throughout the years of course and we continue to to tweak our budget. So the last what's next your favorite? Thank you. Any questions? Thank you. Comments from the public comments from the board. Yes, Larsson. I'll just say thank you for rescheduling the budget committee meeting when two of us couldn't make it on the day it was originally scheduled for. It was great. Edward and I were able to meet yesterday and it was very helpful. So, no questions tonight. Um, do love the assumptions. The other thing that I really appreciated is when we met in the meeting, Edward and I

126asked about the places where standards were not met and that you provided explanatory information on all of those and we just asked are any of those significant or of concern. And you said other than the labor one, not really. And the labor one was our own choice. And we'll hear more about that at the next meeting in the public disclosure or July. Thank you. So, thank you for that budget meeting. Laid my questions. Pleasure. Perfect. Any other comments? If not, I hereby declare the public hearing regarding the proposed 2526 budget of the Santa Cruz County Office of Education closed. Thank you, Miss Reyes. The county board, we'll follow up with you. The county board of education will consider approval of the 2526 budget of the Santa Cruz County Office of Education at our next board

127meeting June 26th at 5:30 p.m. Okay. New business. Now, we'll start with 14.1 memorandum of understanding with the charter school authorization for Santa Cruz County Charter Advancement Career Advancement Charter. I don't know why I do that. And for that one, we have uh Dr. Sabah and Dr. Russell. Yes, thank you members of the board. So, uh, one of the things that we identified as a as an important component that needed to be included in the um as part of our renewal process for the career advancement charter was to uh to have a memorandum of understanding that really identifies the um the relationship between the county office of education and um and the career advancement charter. in in some ways even though it's a dependent charter uh by law by definition charters are considered somewhat separate

128entities and so it's important to define that relationship um and that's that the uh why we included um uh the memorandum of understand that was included in your packet and so um we utilize a template that uh is is uh utilized in by Fresno County Office of Education we modified it to um really show that uh even though the career advancement charter is a charter school and a separate entity that we in many ways treat it as a part of our you know uh of the as part of the the county office of education uh collection of schools. They do not uh they are not a uh uh separate 501c3. They do not have a separate uh governing board. you are the the authorizing board and the governing board for the career advancement charter and

129so all authority really rests under the responsibilities of the county board as well as as a county house of education and so at this point I'd just like to know if you have any questions with regard to theou that was so we would like to ask for your uh approval of the memorandum of understanding I did want to clarify that the um it is a best practice to have a memorandum of understanding that is approved annually So it will be brought back to you on an annual basis. This allows us to update the memorandum of understanding uh if there are any changes. Uh possibly this could be uh included in a consent agenda item in the future. But uh since this is our first memorandum of understanding, we wanted to to bring it to your

130attention for approval. And it is important for us to have this memorandum of understanding in place prior to your approval of the renewal of the charter. questions or comments from the board? Yes, Alan. Actually, what you just said was my first question, which is what about the timing? But um well, this seems good because the charter is expanding. It's growing. It's adding more students, more more programs. And this is the kind of thing that 101 15 years from now, something some problem develops and there's an awkward situation and it's not clear. This is why we want this now so that that doesn't happen. So, I think it's I'm really glad you took this step. Thank you. Any other questions, comments? Um, I just had um one and it it's it's minor, but there is a

131a a point in there of about access to schools and it's really more about and I'm not sure if it's included in just some of the the policies that we already have about um individuals having access to the schools. And there was a general term in there that said any federal agency. And so with our current environment, I was wondering is that something that can be worded so that it is not so broad or ref could it refer to a newer policy about access to the schools. Thank you. I I really appreciate you bringing that to our attention and and um if we'll definitely look at that and modify it. Uh that could be part of the motion for approval to limit it to the greatest extent possible in terms of access to would it

132be in compliance with policy the access? Well, that's so so you have approved a a policy that really uh minimizes access for outside entities including federal agencies to our information and so we can um as you're saying as you're we'll reference that uh policy as uh to ensure compliance. So I would make the motion to approve with that stipulation that it would be added to reference our policy of access. Thank you for bringing that to our attention. Any other questions or comments? No. Okay. So we have Yeah. Okay. Uh so if there is no more um questions then all those in favor say I. I. Any opposed? Perfect. Passes unanimously. Uh next up we have the 14.22 petition to renew career advancement uh charter school with Dr. Russell and Denise Gasansen. So I'll share with

133you this is um as you mentioned the renewal report. So the um petition was submitted. We are at the bullet point uh four. So we are holding the decision hearing. That's today. In the process uh the board will vote to approve or deny the renewal petition for CAC. Um, according to AB1505, which is the more current legislation regarding charter renewal process, there are only three reasons in which a board of trustees can choose to deny the renewal. That is if the school is deemed low performance by the state, if there are fiscal or accountability concerns that arise or if there is a failure to serve all students. Um, in the past, conditional approvals were allowed. Conditional approvals are no longer allowed. So it must be a full approval or a full denial. Uh there is

134also the option to delay for 30 days for additional information. Um so we took the um career advancement charter uh renewal petition and completed with the board charter committee a report and recommendation. First as the um charter representative for the county office, I reviewed the entire packet. all required components of the renewal petition were included. Uh key findings that we found were CAC is deemed a middleerforming charter by the state. Therefore, it is eligible for a 5-year renewal. There are no fiscal or accountability concerns that were identified. CAC does serve all students uh actually even including those traditionally underserved by traditional public schools. And there is a material revision in this charter petition. Uh the material revision included additional campuses and an expanded population. So increasing numbers of students as well as additional campuses. Uh

135the renewal petition does demonstrate CAC's capacity to maintain a quality program with those material revisions and the recommendation of the committee is renewal for the 5-year period. Thank you. Questions or comments from anybody on the board from the public? No. Okay. No, the committee doesn't review theou. Theou is not part comes from staff. It comes from staff to you. Um it is not a required portion of renewal. It is considered a best practice to have that umou uh approved prior to renewal. Perfect. I just want to call out and say that I am glad that there's this resource uh in our community and I think the numbers say it all right. the fact where we see declining enrollments in a lot of programs across the state, but this one's actually increasing. So, uh must be

136doing something right. So, congratulations to everybody. Um I'm very proud of that program and all the success we've had with it. So, I am looking now for a motion. We're ready to make one. Motion to approve resolution 2519 to approve petition to renew career advancement charter school. Okay. Do we have a second? I'll enthusiastically second and thanks everybody for the great work. Thank you. We have a first and a second. Can we get a roll call vote, please? Yes. Student trustee Hoffkins. Hi. Student trustee Marcus. Hi. Um Vice President Estrada. Yes, Trusty Larson. Yes, Trusty Van Allen. Trusty Williams. Yes, President Sanchez. Yes, Trustee Ross. Yes. Congratulations. Passes unanimously. Dr. Sabah, I just I just want to say thank you. It's it's uh one thank you to the to the board for your leadership and

137support of the career advancement charter. uh to Marsha and Leanne for leading the process for this renewal process and um and of course everybody in in that services and and our business services. And then a huge huge thank you to Sony Sansson. She's been an amazing leader of this uh charter school and has taken it uh to in ways that we couldn't have imagined and um and the future looks so bright. So, thank you for your leadership and thank you for continuing to build on these opportunities. Um this has been a huge year with the WASK uh study, the renewal um and uh and so you know and of course providing those needed services with an amazing team of people. And so it's it's really uh it's been one of the greatest joys of my

138work as a superintendent to watch uh this amazing uh delivery of services for for our community and and uh such a beautiful representation of all of our hard work, our communive hard work. including your leadership as a board. Thank you. Congratulations. Okay. Uh moving on. Now we have the superintendent's report. Yes. Thank you so much. Uh President Sanchez, a brief report. Um sure. uh just of course you know as we look at reflection and renewal and this in this uh especially when I think about what you'll you'll see uh you know the different parts of our organization uh looking backwards in some ways and at the same time looking forward and excited for another school year. Uh part of that is is our participation in the community with uh pride uh the pride celebration and

139of course the graduations. Thank you for being a part of those wonderful uh celebrations and of course also award ceremonies recognizing the work of the COE uh for our community. Summer school is in full swing with over a thousand students enrolled in our alternative education and special education programs and um and you know reminder that that COE is is a year yearround uh organization in in a lot of ways. We already heard a little bit about the opening uh of uh 119 West Beach in the fall and and so at some point we'd love to have a uh maybe a subcommittee uh that would join us to check out the facility and and what it's going to look like. And um and then also, you know, I this is we're going to be talking a

140little bit uh in our special board meeting about what is happening uh in our community and and across the country and especially in Los Angeles. But I believe that the county office of education continues to uh work hard to stand up for our community to bring awareness and and really advocacy uh in a lot of ways and and we'll be talking a little bit more about that in just a moment. I did want to uh share some important upcoming events that are taking place. Uh the effective governance training that we're helping to support. Uh right now there's two districts that are participating in this training that is taking place uh tomorrow starting tomorrow and and on Saturday and PVSD and North Monterey County uh board members will be participating in this in this training. Uh

141we've also uh working in support for PVSUSD board members to receive mentoring ongoing uh help with with uh strengthen their their capacity uh with governance. We're excited to launch our student trustee academy this summer and we're going to send you a uh the uh the days that we're going to be working. We're excited that the student trustee from PUBSD who just finished um and um Daniel Daniel thank you. Uh Daniel is uh just finished his term as a student trustee from PBS. He participated in the program last year and he uh did an outstanding job. in fact created a handbook for the student trustees and so he's going to be co-presenting with uh with me and Andreas Ortiz uh for the student trustee academy and presenting his handbook uh to the students and so we're

142really excited about his participation in this academy this summer the bus on August 2nd uh so would love for you to support that that effort to bring materials uh and backpacks to to you know thousands of students in in in our community. And then we'll be back uh starting uh our staff kickoff on August 5th. So with uh again love for you to join us then and then our administrative kickoff is going to be taking place in September. I'd like to shift uh our attention just a little bit to some of the challenges that we are facing and I know this has some relevance to uh some items that we'll be discussing during our special board meeting. But just u as we I've shared this in the in before and just kind of talking about

143the reconciliation bill which incorporates um mandated costs. We've talked a little bit about how that if Medicaid is is cut, what the the how that may impact our students who and families who qualify for medical um and other programs like ESMA and and LEA BOP which are assume or or work if the students qualify for medical. Um, also the discretionary budget, which is the one that covers most federal funding, about about 12 to 15% of the budgets in Santa Cruz County are from federal resources or federal sources. The discretionary budget um is the one that is is also being the White House proposed what they call a skinny budget, meaning serious reductions and also block granting, including programs like the migrant education program. And as a result of the proposal by the White House, um

144we um our services here in Santa Cruz County come from Santa Clara County Office of Education for the parts outside of PBSD and they've made the decision to lay off all their staff this year. So they've basically shuttered their program. Monterey County has is doing the same. PVSUSD has its own uh funding and they have not made any decisions at this point. They have not laid off their staff and so um I call the California Department of Education to ask because our understanding is there was another year of funding because my program is funed on a five-year cycle. However, the California Department of Education said that was our their understanding, but they don't have any insurance. So, these are very real impacts that are going to affect services for our community. Of course, the aggressive

145immigration and deportation action that's taken place um is um creating a great deal of fear and anxiety in our community and um of courseing policies against our LGBTQ plus and communities. So, um, I wanted to share this slide with you once again about our efforts. Uh, one is reassurance, uh, for our community, demonstrating our allyship and continuing to provide safe spaces for students and really focus on local services. I mean, I think it's it's important for our families to know that that educators and community based organizations and other aid and champion their needs. Um uh we will uh we are reooking at our protocols when it comes to potential immigration activities. Um anticipating and tracking funding cuts and um and of course uh looking continuing to support state uh litigation that stops illegal federal action.

146We just received notification Nick just gave me a heads up that a judge did rule that some of the militarization that has occurred uh was deemed illegal by a judge. So, of course, you know that that's going to be go through the the the courts, but I think it's important for us to to recognize that we're going to continue to advocate for the rule of law and the protections that are under the constitution and our role as educators and advocates for our community. We continue to inform and prepare sharing uh the protections that exist uh for our community and and working to increase um access and to information including through the Suz's website which we are to update and um we have been participating in partnership with the Pahar Valley Collaborative on conferences to bring

147awareness about the impacts of the different kinds of actions to our community. The last one was about food insecurity and and the cuts that are taking place there. And um and of course uh continuing to work with our community based organizations and our federal, state, and local leaders who are hard to to advocate on behalf of our and I believe that is it for my report. I'm happy to take any questions. This will just flip by, but um 119 West Beach, is there any potential in the longer run for housing on that site? Um yeah, not like I mean not. It would be difficult. It would require a different kind of project that would um and so I would think that our our vision for that site would not in in housing. However, we are

148looking at other possibilities of of other projects that may uh result in housing, but I don't think that 119 probably, you know, we would have housing that. Any other questions, comments? Nope. Thank you for the report. Number 16. Now, we have trustee reports. We're going to start with uh Trustee Larson and then work our way up the word. Thank you. I submitted my report in the packet. Um just loved all the graduations, the pride parade. Um I'll stop there. Thank you, Ben Allen. Same thing, graduations, black grad pride parade. Um really important. Um and glad to see other board members. Thank you, Williams. Um, additionally, um, attended several of the CO all ed graduations. I didn't get to attend all the ones that I wanted to. Um, mostly because I had my own graduate this

149year and there was a lot of activities, um, as my final year as booster president for Harbor High. So, it took a lot of my time and I missed a lot and it so I'm really looking forward to more next year. Um, and also attended black graduation. It was particularly special because I got to see um friend's son graduate. We've we've known him and my daughter went to school with him since kindergarten. So, it was really very special to be there for that. Um and I continue to work um in sort of in the background with uh CSP, which is the Children's Safety Plan Coalition, just kind of helping them with the background infrastructure stuff of communication. Thank you, Estrada. I wasn't able to attend graduations because I was so busy with work. I thought

150I was going to take the days off. I told everyone, I'm going to take those days off. I'm just going to take them off. And then I had so much to do. But I did attend the Pride parade. Uh so that was a lot of fun marching with the COE. Um and yeah, that that's been the month. It's it's an early meeting as well. I still have a few weeks until next meeting. Maybe I'll have some more. Thank you. Yes, to echo what everyone uh most of us have said, graduation's very rewarding um and just the format that we have. I think it's very personal. I think it's uh really spotlights our students. So, I'm very thankful. takes a lot of effort, takes a lot of energy, especially from those that try to attend the

151mall like our own superintendent, but it's it's appreciated and um just feel like they're very well organized. You know, Mr. President, if I could add one additional comment, all the graduations I attended, be they private school, public school, or COE's at all but like maybe two of them, I ran into other families or staff that I knew from real life, you know, and that was just made it all the better. like like Rachel shared for black graduation. Seeing that at all the graduation just showed what a small interconnected community we are that all have to support each other especially. Yes, Williams. Yeah, I just wanted to add one more thing. Um, it's like a plus one of not just the black graduation, but I wanted to I was looking at our our graduates here and

152it was really great to see sort of our the product of what the COE does in alt ed um on Oasis. Um there were about four people students that were that my daughter grew up with that I knew personally that it brought me such joy to see um them graduate and find you know a place that worked for them. and I had a chance to talk to their parents and they are just they were just so grateful for the programs that we offer and um and talking about their students really finding their place in Oasis and some of the other programs cottage um etc. And so it just it this was a very special year. This was a very special year. So that's all nice. Okay. Uh there's no other comments. Yes. Oh, Roth, sorry.

153Yes. Trusty Roth, do you have a report for us? Uh, yes. And my uh internet connection is not stable, so I've I may come across pretty bad. I don't know. We hear you loud and clear. I did go to the charter committee uh meeting, the black grad student graduation. uh several of our alt ed uh graduations which were very very moving and I participated uh for with the uh budget uh perspective workshop uh through Zoom as I'm babysitting up in Oregon. So, uh, anyway, I appreciate, uh, being able to, uh, participate tonight. Although I missed a lot of, uh, the, uh, the dialogue, I now know why we need to speak directly into But anyway, I'll see you in two weeks. Thank you. Okay. ad hoc standing committee. Any reports or actions for the board?

154If not, I just want to remind everybody that next Thursday is Junth, which is a holiday, a recognized holiday for the Santa Cruz County Office of Education. So, we will not be holding our regularly scheduled board meeting. Then, instead, we will meet the Thursday after June 26th. And with that, our meeting is adjourned. Okay. How are we doing? Uh do we need a break or do we can we go to the next one? Okay, perfect. Okay, good night. Uh I'm sorry. So you said you mentioned something. I'm just saying good night. Oh, wait. Oh, wait. We have another board meeting if you can join us for that one as well. We have another board meeting. A board item, Sue. No. Okay. You stand by. All right. So, now I would like to call to order

155the uh special board meeting that um we have programmed today with and I want to start with a roll call, please. Trusty A Costa. Vice President Estrada here. Trusty Larson here. Trusty Roth here. Trusty Van Allen here. Trusty Williams here. President Sanchez here. Student trustee Hopkins here. Student trustee Marcus here. Okay. So, we have a trusty Roth with us that can't be in person, but she is in Zoom and we I'm looking for approval for her attendance via remote. So, moved. Second. Okay. All those in favor say I. I. I. Any opposed? Passes unanimously. Okay. Approval of the agenda. The move second. First and a second. All those in favor say I. I. Any opposed? Perfect. Public comment. Is there anyone from the public that would make uh like to talk on this specific issue

156on the agenda? Check on Zoom. I'm going to assume no. Okay. Okay. Okay. So, we have uh one item on the agenda uh today and it's a resolution 25-20 affirming support for immigrant families and opposing militarized enforcement in schools and in public spaces. And for this one, we have our superintendent, Dr. Sabah. Yes. Thank you so much uh President Sanchez for uh for bringing uh this item forward and for us and to the full board for allowing us to have a special board meeting. item was this uh put into discussion after the uh 72-hour requirement for for the regularly scheduled meeting. And so uh President Sanchez uh felt that having a special board meeting that allows us a 24-hour notice for the Brown Act uh was appropriate. Uh as as you well know uh we

157are extremely concerned about the action that the administration has is taking uh to um enforce uh immigration the steps that they've taken in our uh in the Los Angeles area and across the country. uh and the militarized enforcement uh the utilization of the military is something that is of great concern and many of us including a recently through a judge that has re made a decision that uh it that the that this action uh was illegal in their in from from this judge's perspective and and and many of us who are uh extremely con concerned about this. So this resolution includes certain components. It's uh one opposing the milit militarization. Um so it condemns the unauthorized federal military or law enforcement near schools or protests as harmful, inflammatory. And that's one of the big big

158concerns as well is that this was not only action taken against uh our immigrant communities uh but also against uh protests and um people speaking up against that action. It's it establishes support for our immigrant families. Um, asserting that aggressive enforcement causes fear and trauma in our community. Um, especially for our mixed status households, which many in our community are of that from those families. It reinforces our commitment to having safe spaces in our schools uh so that our students can have a u a conditions that don't that that um shield them from fear and disruption and um and asserts that enforcement near campuses uh can can uh cause a great deal of harm. Um it uh establishes the commitment of the board to uphold the state laws um that ban immigration enforcement on campuses

159and protect student rights and um and reasserts our commitment for all local educators to support students through trauma-informed and culturally responsive practices and um and asks for stronger legal protections um and uh encourages other districts to adopt similar uh support similar resolutions. that support our uh one more thing. Sorry. I did want to share that the city of Watsonville uh passed a similar resolution as well as the county board of supervisors as well. And this is something that is um being looked at by by many county offices, county boards of education as well as other legal uh entities throughout. I think land of the free is something that I hear a lot that is used when describing our country, right? And yet I see these types of actions that are say the opposite, right? Uh

160actions that are done purposefully so that people aren't comfortable. Um so that people do live in fear so that they have um and that's unfortunate. You know I think that the one thing that we can't change is is the family that we're born into. None of us can. And I think it's unfortunate that um some people have to live in this fear because of the family that they were born into. uh circumstances, situations that they're in. And it's and it hurts and it's painful, you know, to see what's what's going on. And I think we need to stand up and we need to support those um they can intimidate, right? those who can't threaten with uh removing them from home, what they've known as as as being their home for most if not all of

161their life. So, um very happy to see this motion and um and that people are standing up and they're saying, you know what, it's it's enough. You know, it's it's it's it's time for let's kind of continue. You know, we need to do our part. We need to um be that voice for others who who can't. Uh Valentine, you mentioned land of the free. Um uh to tonight we all said liberty and justice for all. That's another one of those pretty strong concepts and it's being violated by our own government right now. And so I strongly support this resolution and appreciate uh Paris bringing it forward to us. Any other ones? Williams? Yeah. Um I just want to say thank you for bringing us this is worth the special meeting for however long it is.

162Um and want to say that um obviously all of our commitment is to our students for them to have a safe place to to go to school and be educated. And that extends to their families and um to our community as a whole. And you know, something that folks talk a lot about is our immigrant community and all the things why they should be here because of all the things that they do and provide to our community. And they're not wrong. But first and foremost, they're human beings. And it's just it's just disturbing and and frankly just gut- wreting and and disgusting that we that there are people out there that just don't see them just as human beings that deserve to have an opportunity like they did. And um and so I'm you know

163I'm happy every time I I get to go out and and stand with so many people in our community and say that these things are wrong. Um that we live in a democracy, not a dictatorship and we want to keep it that way. And so um you know I just want to say thank you for bringing it up. It's it's something, you know, even if it's a even if it's an obvious kind of thing of how all of us feel, it's important to put it out there into words and saying this is what we stand stand by. We stand by our students, their families, and the community. So, thank you, Larson. I just want to add thanks again to the superintendent and the board president for scheduling the special meeting and bringing it forward. It's

164like every day, every week, there's yet another step away from the land of the free and and what appears to be our representative democracy that I think it requires us to take voice. And I was particularly pleased to see the call for broader action, not only legally, but calling on our fellow schoolboard members and districts to join us in this action, as we did with the pride parade uh pride flag raising and the like. I think uh we are in a unique role with the superintendent's leadership to call on other educators to step up because waiting may be too late. So uh I'm ecstatic to be here and glad we're getting into it before I have to leave. Um yeah, the the images that we're seeing on the news um are very disheartening. I think

165the rhetoric around it is very disheartening. Uh I see a lot of rhetoric about um apart from you know any um any disobedience violence or you know property damage primarily um which I think you know a lot of us will will condemn that but we're not con you know we have to stand up for free speech and deescalation and not the escalation that this administration wants. Uh and that's in my opinion clearly why they brought in military and nationalized uh the National Guard uh federalized the National Guard. Um I I also just hate the rhetoric around it right now where people are saying um it's unamerican to fly a Mexican flag at a protest where this is America. This is land of the free, liberty and justice for all. And I I I think that

166this is the country. This is a country built on immigrants. This is a country where a majority a vast majority of folks are here because them or their ancestors came here from another nation. And you know, I see lots of flags being flown. I think we we had a multicultural celebration, multicultural graduation. Uh I think we stand for that. Uh I think we stand for free speech, freedom of assembly, uh freedom to protest without being afraid of uh being put in jail or like uh Senator Padilla happened to him today uh being thrown to the ground and handcuffed uh sitting US senator for the state of California when trying to ask Christine Nome a question. Uh so I think it's uh scary times. I'm but I'm glad that I'm glad to be in a community

167right now that is not afraid to stand up and say what is right and to stand by our values and stand by the constitution and values that uh we believe and that I think that this country was founded on and that we are always striving to uh get closer to you know always striving for more you know liberty and freedom Thank you. Uh Sue, would you like to say anything? If not, that's okay. Are are you talking? I I just I just want to make sure that you have an opportunity to speak if you would like to do so. I I am in total support and proud to be on this board and thank you uh for giving us this opportunity uh to make a statement. Um okay, very disappointing u what is going on.

168Never in my lifetime did I feel that I would see this. Okay. Uh Natalie Rubin comments, questions? No. Okay. Motion then to approve resolution 2520. Okay. Second. We have a first and a second. Can we get a roll call vote, please? Student trustee Hopkins. I. Student Trustee Marcus. Hi. Vice President Estrada. Yes. Trusty Larson. Hi. Trusty Roth. Yes. Trusty Van Allen. Hi. Trusty Williams. Yes. President Sanchez. Yes. passes unanimously. Dr. Just my thanks. I'd like to thank Nikki Bar who helped craft this this um this resolution and and and just for for your leadership to to call this special meeting and and and make this happen. Um we'll continue to uh share information as it comes up as it as it impacts our schools and and it makes me proud to be a part uh

169to to to join you as as a leader and to see your leadership. Thank you. Could we ask for a copy of the final resolution to be shared for us to transmit out as well? We'll be happy to provide that. Okay. And with that, our meeting is adjourned. Thanks everyone.