May 16, 2024 County Board of Education Meeting

001County Office of Education Board of trustee meeting to order uh first of all let's see do we have I are there any of the board members that would need to have a special accommodation to zoom we have not had any requests under ab2 2449 uh for a remote location okay thank you if Dr Spa would lead us in the call I skip that every single time anyway welcome again and barice would nay would you take the role for us please yes truste a Costa trusty Estrada here truste Nichols here truste Sanchez truste Van Allen president Roth here student trustee Alvarez Delgado here okay now Pledge of Allegiance please face the flag stand if you can ready begin I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the Republic for which

002it stands one nation under God indivisible with liberty and justice for all item three on our agenda uh is the approval of the agenda do I have a motion so move I'll second motion was made by Bruce and seconded by Sandra all the uh our student Oscar yes all those in favor I I oppos so the motion passes and I would like to say uh thank you for no I'll do that later public comments item four uh this is an opportunity for the public to address the board regarding items outside of the agenda the board president will recognize any member of the audience not previously placed on the agenda who wishes to speak on a matter directly related to school business each speaker on any specific topic may speak up to three minutes unless otherwise

003limited or extended by the president the president May allot time to those wishing to speak but no action will be taken on matters presented if appropriate the president or any member of the board may direct that a matter be referred to the superintendent's office for placement on a future agenda do we have anyone who wishes to speak yes president Roth we have a speaker on Zoom that is wishing to um share some public comment Nancy Cohen Nancy can you hear us are you able to unmute Nancy got it okay now you can hear me right yes okay great uh yes um I would like I I I'm the owner of Rocking Horse Ranch preschool in soel and I wanted to speak about the uh local policy that uh parents do not have the uh ability

004to withhold their child from kindergarten enrollment until closer to six years of age right now that's not an option um and I'd like to just read a letter very quickly that I I sent to uh uh superintendent saah um up until about a year ago it was always a parents prerogative to decide whether or not to send their child to kindergarten when they were five or wait until they were closer to six California law stipulates that you must enroll your child in elementary school by the age of six however it does not mandate that they start kindergarten at age five the issue for me is actually not about kindergarten although every kindergarten teacher I've ever spoken to in my 35 years of running my preschool has agreed that it is a child's advantage to start

005school at the upper end of the age limit rather than the lower end and this is especially true for boys who are much more large motor-driven than girls you cannot Rush development and emotional development is the most important factor in predicting School Success the reason I say it's not about kindergarten is that although a child may be able to keep up academically in kindergarten it is when they reach Middle School and High school that the emotional Gap becomes more apparent and problematic children who begin their school career when they are not yet or barely 5 years old will be 11 years old and in the same class as children who are almost 13 when they were in middle school they will also be graduating high school before they are 18 years old the emotional driven

006decisions that teenagers make will have serious consequences and those decisions are best made with a more mature mind I don't believe that anyone can give me a reason that has the best interest of a child in mind when making policies that require them to start school before they are emotionally ready and to put them in these precarious situations later on I have three grown children of my own two of which I did not start in kindergarten until they were closer to six because I had the choice at that time and they are now happy and successful adults in all my years of running my preschool I have counseled many parents who are faced with this decision without exception every one of them who elected to start their child later came back to me saying it

007was the best decision they could have made on the contrary Excuse Me Miss colen you are out of time okay did I hear you correctly that you did send this uh in writing to Dr saah yes I did okay well make sure that we see the rest of uh the letter and we appreciate your input very good I appreciate you hearing me thank you is there anyone else who wishes to speak to a matter that is not on the agenda moving on um we will go to the consent agenda is there a motion to accept the consent agenda so move and I think the chair was maybe going to acknowledge the gifts yes which we really appreciate um yes a gift was given to Delta Charter School value of $800 and we appreciate that and

008I'm sure Delta even appreciates it more so uh OS motion yeah uh Oscar your vote Yes all those in say I I I motion passes item number six is correspondence is there any correspondence that has been received no additional correspondence besides what was in the packet president rth thank you item seven reports discussions and presentations uh will you all go to item 7.1 drum roll 2024 Educators and Community partner of the Year Dr saah good afternoon members of the board and uh members of the community thank you so much this is one of the events that we look forward to all year which is to celebrate our educators of the Year this is a a longtime tradition that we where we have an opportunity to identify an organization of the Year an administrator of the

009year a classified staff member of the year a counselor of the year and a teacher of the year and um and this is a process where folks from across the county are able to nominate people in these different categories uh there is a a uh group of of uh kind of a diverse group of people that reviews all the applications and from the thousands of Staff members and different organizations that we work with we get to select these four amazing uh uh individuals or or or and and one organiz ganization that uh is celebrated um and receives the honor of uh on behalf of the board and on behalf of the County Office of Education and this year was uh like uh like other years but uh always it's such a special honor to be

010able to see the amazing work that's occurring on behalf of students in our community and we are going to start uh with our organization of the year and we work with many partners that help us and support our ability to be able to serve our students and um and this year we're going to be we are celebrating Woodstock Pizza Woodstock is a a business you've probably gone to enjoy the pizza either in the community or in our events we often get Woodstock Pizza for for our events here at the County Office of Education and for over for the last decade Woodstock Pizza has been employing our Santa cruo we students and providing valuable work experience for them and um who are in our special education program each year three to five students get to participate

011they learn essential skills uh like following schedules completing tasks cleaning and customer service uh woodo not only facilitates training and work through the workability grant but also rewards students with free pizza and other items for each shift that they work the general manager uh Travis has even hired some students after they've completed uh the program with us wood Sox Pizza is a true Community partner they accommodate students schedules and transportation needs while demonstrating leadership and providing opportunities for our students with disabilities to work and pursue their dreams uh we always ask uh folks who uh want to speak about uh the nominees or the selected the honores and this year we have a very special opportunity because one of our students Bryson who uh was participated in the program would like to speak with you

012and uh talk to you a little bit about stock Pizza Bryson let's give him a round of applause hello my name is Bryson wood I have worked at Pizza Wood Sox pizza for two years I want to make this time to thank Sox management for giving me the chance to work at this great place I'm also grateful for the wonderful staff who are so nice to me every day thank you thank you so much Bryson that was amazing great job so I'd like to welcome uh the general manager and uh Travis and also uh Forest uh prer who's the assistant general manager to join me here and to share a few words with you hey everybody I'm Travis uh the only other time I've been in here before was dropping off pizza for you guys

013so it's cool to be in the room uh and Bryson that was awesome thank you for coming up here um I want to thank our owners uh Jeff and Laura Ambrose um they Empower me to do programs like this and also um Rory and Robert is a great honor and thank you um they make all this just a breeze it makes it it's so rewarding um and uh I want to share may my favorite memory so far uh was not actually in the store but was the holiday parade this year we had a lot of fun and uh Jane and Bryson and Alyssa all joined us in the trucks to ride for it and it was really cool seeing how many of the community like was so excited to see them in the truck saying

014hey feel like more people know them than they know me um but uh yeah uh thank you guys so much this is this is really a great honor so Travis on behalf of the County Office of Education and uh the the County Board of Education let me stand I'm actually gonna take this off here we'd like to present this award to you uh thank you for what you do as a partner thank you what you do for our students thank you for for all the heart and support that you to you offer our students in our community congratulations you GNA get a picture Travis can we get a picture with you so we're gonna um how should we do it go there right all right very very exciting we also select uh out of all

015of the wonderful leaders and school leaders that we have an administrator of the year for the county and this year uh our very own Crystal Ria was selected uh as our administrator of the year for Santa Cruz County now Crystal has been a director uh in our department and with our alternative education program where where she is an absolute Innovative dedicated committed leader uh really advocating for equity on behalf of our students and their families she oversees uh both the seoa School site as well as six or five other Watsonville based uh alternative education programs and she works with our obviously with our courton community schools uh she has deep expertise in restorative practices social emotional learning trauma-informed approaches and multi-tier systems support Crystal has been working uh 12 years in alternative education and um

016not only reinforces her commitment uh for meeting the academic and social emotional needs of students but has also allowed uh uh but has but this has also allowed her to collaboratively build supportive strength-based and Equitable learning environments with all our community stakeholders she has been uh she has dedicated uh her professional uh life and uh just brings a lot of heart to everything that she does uh every single day working with our staff working with our families and of course with our students she is also a dedicated CrossFit Watsonville uh trainee and uh she's it loves exploring new food establishments and uh and traveling to attend music festivals all over the world uh I'm going to ask Johnny rice uh the our executive director of of our alternative education program to please join me and

017share a few more words about Crystal Let's uh give a round of applause for Johnny hi good afternoon everybody Chrystal do you want to come on up and and join me all right in case you hadn't guessed this is Crystal everybody round of applause for Crystal r there we go all right everybody I've had the pleasure of knowing Crystal since she joined the county office back in 2020 back then she served as the coordinator for for sequa schools her dedication and talent were quickly recognized leading to two quick promotions first in 2021 to assistant director and then in 2023 to director with new titles came increased responsibilities and over the past couple of years Crystal has expanded her scope providing invaluable support to all alternative education sites in Watsonville including Sequoia schools each new position

018has been a testament to her exceptional abilities as an administrator as an and an educator what truly sets Crystal apart though is her genuine connection with students and families whether meeting a new perspective student providing a progress update to A continuing student and their family or calling for a hard conversation Crystal shows up with care compassion and expertise she is truly trauma informed and restoration minded this individualized care and attention ensures our students feel safe and that and that they know that they belong Crystal goes above and beyond to advocate for students families and staff demonstrating an ongoing willingness to listen and learn she possesses optimistic we can do this attitude crystal is beloved and respected by our alternative education staff she's people centered always willing to listen first always then asking what can we

019do better where can we improve for the benefit of our students and staff and she also asks how can I do better she's reflective and committed to her own growth and she's okay with asking for critical feedback and support this year I've witnessed maintain and build connections across Partnerships in South County for the benefit of our students she succeeded in connecting more students to enrichment opportunities outside of schools such as food what and mountains to seea and she's expanded offerings and access to Career Technical education Crystal's wise she reflects on her experiences and learns from them her previous background as an alternative education teacher is therefore invaluable this combined with her exceptional communication skill allows her to bridge the gap between students staff and families uniting them towards a shared vision and Mission it's no

020wonder so many students are thriving under her support Crystal R is more than deserving of this recognition she is a true asset here in alternative education and she makes us better as an as an organization for that I congratulate her thank you Johnny and thank you to the board the superintendent and the entire Santa Cruz County Office of Education because of all of your dedicated support and commitment to serving our students our families and our community I am able to serve in this capacity so I greatly appreciate this opportunity and with that being said uh I definitely want to acknowledge and recognize all of those who are streaming right now at Sequoia schools because without you all I couldn't be doing what I'm doing um to be a to be the best leader that I

021can be um it's because of you that I'm able to be there for each and every student family and staff member so that we could come together and be uh you know of the surface um and with that uh I definitely want to acknowledge uh all alternative education leadership team as well because without your guidance mentorship and support we wouldn't be able to uh really be there and be committed to all of who we serve so many thanks so Crystal on behalf of the county House Education and the County Board of Education we'd like to uh present to you this award uh as our counselor of the year for Santa Cruz County I'm oh my God as our administrator of the year for Santa Cruz County just change a just change the award there congratulations

022Crystal I think uh we need to ask Sue Roth to join us as our as our president one more all right so we also celebrate our classified staff member of the year and as you know our classified staff are in in in many ways a backbone of the services that we offer to in our in our school community and so we usually get many Nomine nominees for for uh for this this award je Jennifer conik is a class classified staff member at uh Pacific Elementary she has been working for 18 years working with children in various recreational and educational capacities her journey began after year earning a bachelor's degree in biology and Environmental Studies from UC Santa Cruz she ventured into role such as Wildlife researcher Wetland restorationist and environmental educational director before finding her

023current position as an instructional Aid at Pacific Elementary in Davenport in her two years of Pacific Elementary Jennifer has Pro proven herself to be a versatile and dependable asset her responsibilities range from aiding in mathematics instruction for sixth graders to providing support uh in fourth grade serving as a camp counselor coordinating recreation activities assisting in the Food Lab acting as a substitute teacher and offering support to special needs students next year she is set to lead the technology and and gate programs for 3rd through sixth grade Beyond her professional achievements Jennifer finds fulfillment in being an integral part of the Pacific Elementary Community where she has raised her own children she expresses immense joy in contributing to the school Success attributing it to the dedication of the staff and the strong bonds with students and

024families I would like to share uh that when um I actually called Jennifer uh we had a little trouble getting a hold of each other because Jennifer kept on uh taking on different responsibilities supporting the school at Pacific Elementary she is so versatile and supporting whether it's instructional whether it's helping out uh in terms of supervision whether it's helping out with the lunches Jennifer is there to support this community and Pacific Elementary is one where all the staff have to step up and Jennifer is an amazing support for principal Eric Ross uh so I'd like to welcome uh principal superintendent Eric Rose uh from Pacific Elementary to say a few more words about Jennifer so this is kind of a two for one deal for me because when I was principal of so Elementary Bryson

025was a student there so I feel like getting double the celebration here tonight um so in Pacific we wear a lot of hats because we are small we're we have kind of that Frontier work ethic because we're out in the outskirts and we have to make do we have to make things work so we all pitch in and and make it happen um but there's no one at our school that pitches in more in more ways than Jennifer um her her what I think of is her primary role as parent uh she has two kids at Pacific uh she's been a yard supervisor she's been a classroom Aid in different grade levels um she's been a food service Aid she does before school Recreation after school Recreation substitute teacher uh a camp counselor during the

026vacations and um next year she's going to switch again and be our gate teacher and our um technology teacher and we every week almost every day we are short somebody and we have to scramble and make things work and our our first thought is always like well can we pull Jennifer from whatever she's doing today to have her do something else and um and when we go to her with this last minute bizarre request she is the most she has the most Pleasant response she she never panics she never says I can't she never says um that's not in my job description she always says okay how can we make this work and and sometimes It's tricky to make it work because she's often doing two things at once um but she's flexible she's Cooperative

027she's a team player she's competent she's dedicated she's insightful and she's reliable and somehow she makes it all work with a smile um and uh I I know I'm not the only one at Pacific that really appreciates all of that because it a lot of things wouldn't be possible without her um reacting this way and taking on new tasks um and this uh fall I believe it is she is completing her teacher credential and so so I I expect that sometime in the near future she might be adding something else to her resume so Jennifer thank you for everything you do we really appreciate it we're going to ask Jennifer to join us here please give a big round of applause for je Jennifer conik few words um this is just a tremendous joy and

028honor to receive this award and it's just a tremendous joy and honor to be a part of our school we're such a small community but we're pretty Fierce and loyal and all of our staff are so amazing at what we do every day so it's just just a joy to be there um my kids have been going there for seven years and probably another five so it's just it's a place I'd just love to be and um being recognized for all that I do is quite a surprise and quite an honor so thank you principal grass appreciate it so Jennifer on behalf of the County Office of Education and the County Board of Education we'd like to present this award as our classified staff member of the year for Santa Cruz County congratulations midle all

029right another maybe more important than ever has been the social emotional Wellness of our students and we are today celebrating our counselor of the year for for the county of Santa Cruz and that awarde is solidad Hess solidad is an is a licensed clinical social worker and has been the a mental health counselor at Mion Hill Middle School for three years and she loves her job because of her amazing co-workers and students solidad grew up mostly Barefoot between the west coast and the family farm in Iowa she has worked with Children and Families for the past 24 years and has a passion for incorporating art music and the outdoors into her work Sola dad loves to create art write and sing music in her band cook up delicious food travel abroad and go to free

030is a frequent uh attendee at music festivals Camp thrift shops and spending time with her daughter and family and friends and she loves to snuggle up with her cats Arwin and Fifer I'm going to ask uh Derek Kendall from Mission Hill uh the principal of Mission Hill to please join me and say a few more a few more words about solidad please welcome Derek um I've asked my colleague and one of our teachers Miss Brown to be here as well thank you um my name's Derek I am the principal at Mission Hill um solo dad and I started at Mission Hill at the same time three years ago um but I can't take any credit for her hiring uh she was hired um over the summer um and she was part of a a pool

031of social emotional Specialists that were assigned to Santa Cruz City schools and um soid that I feel that Mission Hill won the lottery when it comes to the uh social emotional Specialists um she has been such a tremendous um addition to our school Community um we came to Mission Hill in the fall of 21 and as Educators we all know that was a really challenging fall uh coming back from distance learning and um our students and our staff um got through that fall uh because of solidad and because of the love and kindness and support that she showed to everyone um in addition to to that she's just a really good human uh she's so talented and creative and brings joy and a wonderful spirit to everything she does and um I'm just I'm so

032grateful that she's part of of the Mission Hill Community and so I saw that you did this I'm GNA do it too because I'm Danielle Brown and I'm a teacher over at Mission Hill Middle School I am one of the people that nominated so for this award and we call her Miss soy and the week that I nominated her there was a lot going on in my class and so when it popped up who do you want to nominate as like oh we need to talk about soie cuz she's the reason that I have sanity in my classroom and I always get really nervous if I'm talking to you okay so I would say that in general soy touches very specific students who feel other for some reason in our schools they are the minority

033or they're the lgbtq plus that are exploring their sexual identities there the people that have stuff going on at home and they for some reason do not feel safe and it takes a long time as a teacher to build community relationships for us all to have a positive learning environment and so in the beginning of the year the relationships between soy and the one-on-one relationships are so valuable because she gets to have a safe space with them that I don't get to have because they have to come to me after school and that's the worst so it takes a long time and I'm thinking about three specific students in my class who have just grown so much because of the love that soy has given to them and who are truly facing challenges that I

034will never know because information flows to you in a way that it doesn't flow back to me and so I know that those kids are very very grateful for you and so's room is just decorated so inviting so I am here to to stay so much I love you everyone wants to be in there so it just feels inviting and they never want to leave and that says so much about how caring you are for them and also because of all those things that are happening with the otherness some of the students have behaviors what and as a teacher it feels so awesome to rely on you because you come up with a plan and we try the plans and some of them work and some of them don't but for the most part I

035really feel at least there's some effort of recognition of the struggles that some teachers go through and I have seen a specific student that I can't name who I'm thinking about and in my class there's been huge growth and that is all because of a reward system that you are working with and so I really appreciate you at the ground level of being a teacher but also I talked with some other counselors at our school and they also said that just working with you because they get more one-on-one time with you not so much me they said that just in general it's really wonderful being your cooworker and that they always feel like you are so selfless and you are there to talk with them about the fact that they're humans too and that school

036is a full of students but it's full of adults that also need attention and you're there for them too and one more thing it is just people at Mission Hill are very passionate and sometimes that passion is intended so good for students but their approach makes it really hard for us to always work with them and soie your approach to working with us is just so easy and it's just wonderful to get to ask you for help or what do you think about this and so overall we're very lucky to have you soie a round of applause a round of applause for our counselor of the Year solidad Hess all right wow so um want to start out by just saying I think this is a great timing to do this type of awards ceremony

037because it's the end of the year and things can definitely be a little bit crazy um I know I was talking to a teacher today and she had said it's kind of like a roller coaster and I was like a roller coaster in a tornado and then she said on fire and I'm like yeah that's kind of a summary so just to be reminded it's also even if it gets crazy there's also you know so many good things about it and it's such a good reminder of why we're all there and while I why I am there as a mental health providers CU we are right there where the kids need us when the kids need us and that is such a privilege and why I really love my job um um I talk to

038you know people when I travel or go different places and um I hear of so many people who do not have the mental health support that we have for our students here in this County and I'm so appreciative to that because I have a job because of it but also it's what we should be doing we're treating the whole child we're treating their their mental well-being as well as their academic and there's a lot of places yeah that don't do that so I really really think we do such a great job of that and I hope we continue to do that in the future um also as you can tell already I have wonderful co-workers and um I really do I couldn't do the job I do and the job that I do well because

039or without um having such wonderful admin team um teachers staff um parents support we have a great PTA um and just all around I feel so supported and nurtured and um makes me love my job and it makes it easier to do so I'm so very appreciative of that um also I guess the the other thing that I wanted to mention when I was kind of trying to think about what am I going to talk about when I get up there but um just usually every day on on the outside of my door I have a whiteboard and I like to put trivia questions or quotes or just little random facts and kids like to stop by there's candy involved for the trivia questions so that helps but they also hopefully get a little knowledge

040and I also get to meet kids that I normally might not meet so um today's question was um what's something new that you've learned about yourself this year so I got to learn a lot of kids came up with great introspective things some not so much but I always love to hear what they have to say and then one kid was like well what have you learned new this year and I was like huh well that's a good question probably a lot of things but today I was just thinking like oh I've learned in the last week or two since actually getting this award or this recognition that it's kind of hard for me to um accept Awards or compliment sometimes right I think it's something that a lot of us have where it's like

041oh well everyone should get one which I do think is true but um or you know U maybe I'm still not doing enough or I also feel guilty that I'm getting it and other people aren't getting it and so I'm going to try to take what I tell other students or students that have a hard time um taking compliments which is to smile and say thank you and so I'm smiling right now from ear to ear and I'm saying thank you and thank you to the board for doing this and thank you um for the recognition it really means a lot so solid ad on behalf of the County Board of Education and the County Office of Education we'd like to present this award to you as our counselor of the year for the county

042of Santa Cruz congratulations okay so our next Award winner is the teacher of the year for the s for the county of Santa Cruz and this year our award winner is Russell Brian love from New School Community School Community Day School of waso Mr love teaches Science Biology and PE uh his main teaching uh credos uh home from his own academic uh beginnings and experience raising his three sons are learn by doing learn together and no no boredom allowed Mr love created new school's outdoor school and character development program now it's in in its seventh year and its 12th iteration behind those philosophies and and new school founder Don egon's belief that students aren't supposed to sit still in classrooms for six hours a day as a coach of beach volleyball basketball soccer and now

043flag football uh Mr love has led the new school Aztecs to 14 Monterey Bay Alternative School Athletic League championships in as many years yeah [Laughter] question Mr lest said none of the above would be possible without Mrs Kimberly Dawn love shoving him out of the house in the morning or the overwhelming Brew of love and vibrant passion that scrs through their household where they live with their daughter Dylan son-in-law Josh and their three G grandchildren Jagger journei and Jet uh I uh Mr love often sends me invitations to events at new school and I haven't often not I'm not able to to go visit but there are some amazing things that are happening at New School in uh in in in the P Valley Andi school district and uh to talk to us a little

044bit more about Mr love I'm going to invite uh Sue grty who's the principal at new school to join me but I'm also going to invite a very special guest Murray sheckman who is he just uh finished his a term as interm superintendent for PBC he's a he's a dear friend and I'd like to invite him to join me up here as well please welcome sugal and Murray sheckman I'm surprised it's not brighter Brian um good afternoon thank you so much for honoring Brian this way so Brian and I started at new school he started about a year before I did about 14 years ago and and I came back um last year as principal of new school and the one thing that always amazes me is how this guy has so much energy and

045love for these students still 14 years later which is amazing we have a day off of school what's he say hey guys do you guys want to meet and go play basketball you want to go meet and go do this so he's always engaging kids to be their best self every day all day and the energy and love and passion he has for our students and the students that we serve which are not always the easiest um he always shows up for them with a smile on his face and love in his heart that's an amazing amazing man so thank you so much wow what a treat I thought I was done speaking in front of a board I came here for this gentleman and I've known you I don't know how long 30 years

046I've known Don equally long one word enthusiasm Susan said it all I always took pride in trying to be fulfilled nine out of 10 days in whatever job I had he does it 10 out of 10 and he the his enthusiasm brings the most out of some of our most atrisk kids in the Poo Valley I get to see new school kids at a rotary club meeting that that sometimes Brian brings or sometimes Susan brings and their Stellar in how they talk about themselves their success their teachers and I'm just really grateful to be here and uh he obviously dressed for the part congratulations and thanks for honoring this gent so please give a warm welcome to Mr Brian love wow so first of all I just want to honor the I mean call attention

047to the people that showed up for me Don eagleston is one he's the founder of new school so new school's 30 years old now and uh don is a great mentor to me as is Murray as is Sue um and uh none of it and Jody Richardson's here too who is a a co- teer with me and and she could be standing up here just the same as me um but none of it happens without my family um Dylan Love is Here my son who just recently moved back from Southern California and uh the family that I live with the cute little family upstairs is back there uh Josh and Dylan and jet and Jagger and journey so all of it all of that uh contributes to to to my daily Joy of going to

048new school and the first thing I wanted to say uh really is this honor is not lost on me because uh teachers work hard can I get an amen teachers work hard uh and there are hundreds of teachers uh in this County that could be standing up here um many of them much more talented and more fundamentally sound than me probably uh but I'll wear the crown I will wear the crown for them there is a crown right the um but what I wanted to say really is um well they say find a job that you love and you'll never work a day in in your life and that is not true of teaching uh at all you'll you'll work harder as a teacher uh inexplicably uh and you you won't be able to explain

049how hard you you work more a more apt quote came to me the other day from uh um the uh College freshman favorite uh Charles Bukowski who once wrote um find what you love and let it kill you that's and that's where uh that's where I'm at with this J um another quote that occurred to me is uh from another unconventional source is um sometimes you get shown the light in the strangest of places if you look at it right and uh that is new school and I have been so blessed um to find new school and uh to fit there I came to new school um in between opportunities as they say in sales and um and uh it was my fourth sub job and the principal at that time Victoria senson uh invited

050me back and um you know uh every day there's there's drama there's conflict there's resolution there's uh um the there's problems you just can't imagine there's problems beyond your imagination every day uh good and good and bad and and deeply heartfelt right um but uh somehow um I learn over and over again including today uh the students that are the most challenging are the ones that need us the most and I also have some big blowing hole in me where I need them too and um uh it's just uh it's been a um a symbiotic relationship that's that's really worked and um she's made me a such a better person and really reach my potential um I I appreciate this recognition and uh I I I hope to represent all teachers right that deserve to

051be up here today and I'm glad that I was shown the light at new school and I'm glad that teaching is going to kill me and um and I just I just thank you I thank you for uh this recognition and I'll um I'll see you all again thank you Mr love on behalf of the County Board of Education and the County Office of Education we'd like to present this award to you as our teacher of the year for the county of Santa Cruz congratulations I'd like to ask uh Mr egleson and uh to join us as well wear the right shoe one more we'd like to invite all the awardees to the tech center there's cupcakes and cookies and other Refreshments for you so please head over to the tech center we're going to

052direct you over to the tech center we're going to take portraits soon we'll also be taking some portraits in the TX Center if uh we will have a f minute recess if you will be back at uh 5:01 thank you I would like to call the meeting back to order and we are now after filling our coming with yummy things thank you Baron we will move on to item 7.2 which is the Santa Cruz coe's youth Le leadership Alliance presentation and I will turn this over to Dr Sabah thank you president Roth and members of the board it's it's really a pleasure to welcome uh so many of our student leaders here to our board meeting uh the our focus on student leadership and engagement is something that we uh prize uh probably more than

053anything in in in the work that we do we uh this the young people Inspire us they lead us uh they are our role models and um they also remind us about why we are in the work of education and why we support them and and support our schools we've uh under the leadership of andrees Ortiz our student leadership and engagement uh uh uh coordinator we have been uh doing our best to create different opportunities for students to be able to engage to uh to see themselves as agents of change to uh develop their own skills and also to be thoughtful about how they want to improve the community how they want to improve their schools how they want improve the world and this group of students that we've been working with are absolutely amazing

054and inspirational so today we wanted we wanted an opportunity uh for the students to share what they've been working on what each of the different sub uh what leadership groups that has been participating um has been focused on and um so that you can get to know a little bit about about what what their accomplishments have been and and why they've been participating in these groups you'll see that uh each group has a different uh name and a different focus and you'll also recognize that they're all part of the youth leadership Alliance they're all part of of uh this this big group of students across the county that um are connecting with each other and uh learning from each other and working on uh bettering uh their schools and their community so we're going to

055get started uh first with our uh Young Artists taking action and I'm going to ask if andrees Ortiz can uh introduce our our students who are going to be discussing uh this group welcome Andres thank you thank you um thank you uh feris uh superintendent and the board um so the groups you're going to be hearing from today is there's six different groups the first is youth uh artists taking action the second's going to be our youth mental health Leadership Council um then we're going to have our um youth for environmental Action Group um our black student union group our multilingual uh youth taking action and our queer and trans youth Council as well um so they're all awesome so first I'd like to invite um a member of our youth artist taking action group

056um this is Chick uh chip Higby sorry chip um and chip is a member of our youth artist taking action group so welcome chip hey I liked drawing with other students and weekend activities and making stickers I sounded like a kindergarten student my my name is Adrien and I'm the mother of Chip Higby and I just wanted to to to thank everyone um as a parent in the community of a special needs student with autism for the opportunity through yada to access peer-to-peer community art projects with a diverse community of students um and also to access technology like the remote access between the two classrooms to learn about technology and a chance to learn about our community Through participation in community activities on the weekend we really appreciate the accessibility for chip hiby thank you

057um so are youth artists taking action group we have two students that are going to be by by chip thank you oh H before chip uh before uh chip leaves we do have something to uh to present to you chip you would mind hold on yeah this chip would you like to come over here chip we'd like to present this certificate of recognition to chip Higby in recognition of your exceptional leadership and advocacy as a member of the 2324 youth leadership uh Alliance and this is presented to you on behalf of the County Board of Education and the County Office of Education congratulations chip Cate bye chip thank you um so as you can see Chip's an amazing student he's brought a lot to our group this year um we're going to hear from two

058other students from youth artist taking action um their names are Ramon himo erera um he's a student at apas high and then we're going to hear from yaretzi Aras Luna who's a student at Watsonville High um neither of them could be here today Ramon is um taking a retake it's finals season um and then uh Yari is actually getting the award for Student of the Year at Watsonville High um yeah so big big shout out to her she she's an amazing student as well um so if we could go to the next slide please and okay so here's Ramon it's good thank you thank you superintendent Sabah if I may while we're setting that up I just wanted to um give a shout out again to Andres Ortiz our student leadership coordinator but also to

059all the the adult facilitators behind youth Le leadership Alliance who are supporting these youth throughout the year several of whom are here today Amy and Audrey on our team um and at our partner organizations so um as the Director of communications and engagement I get to support them um from afar as part of our department and really this program is just the the jewel of of our department I think in many ways the Coe and really just also want to thank your board for all of your support so thank you and if I may um could we just have we have some facilitators here would all the facilitators if would you mind uh raising your hands or standing up just to be recognized because they do amazing work with our youth these are our awesome

060facilitator so they meet with our students once a week and then they also uh we meet uh once monthly at the beginning of every month on a Saturday um and each of these facilitators they do such great work they're there supporting the students whether it be in person or online and they really help bring their Visions to fruition so for some reason it's not letting me share the sound which we would need for the video so I'm not sure why something about why uh maybe maybe it could make me host see if that works yeah superintendent saat if you'd like we could potentially um change the order of our presentations as some of these youth leaders are here in person and see if we could get the sound to work sounds good okay yes um

061so our next group we're going to highlight is our youth mental health Leadership Council um and I'm actually going to invite our facilitator for that group uh M so M so would you mind coming uh coming yep hello I don't have anything prepared um but I did bring a sample so the kids have been working on a workbook um just around self-care ideas because that has been a very big and impactful thing that has been affecting our community especially our youth um we were Crea creating videos as well that's another project that we're working on we're creating videos um to be able to educate the community around mental health particularly parents caregivers teachers um and anybody that can be an ally for anybody who's dealing with mental health but I wanted to bring this today

062so that you all can take a look at it and um hopefully use some of the workshops that they've created and this has all been created by them um which is really really powerful because it's things that have worked for them it's things that that they have tried and that they really love and enjoy so we're really proud of this group um and we really started with an idea went for it and now we have something um to show so we're really excited and I can pass this around so you all can see it thank you Mar and I should add Mar Soul um works with uh Monarch Services um in Watsonville and so they've been doing a really great job we've partnered with them to make this uh youth mental health Leadership Council possible

063um and and they're doing a great job leading it with the students there um this slideshow does have a video of one of our students Catalina so in the interested time I I suggest we'll go ahead and uh skip to the next uh slide deck hello everyone my name is cathalina Lopez and I have been a part of the youth mental health Leadership Council since its conception about two years ago and today I am beyond proud and excited to share with you what our group is all about and what our project is for the year our group started meeting through Zoom around two years ago and our meetings mostly consisted of education and community outreach but our overall goal was to increase awareness around youth mental health and to end the stigma on the topic

064in our community at the end of last year we started to meet in person at different School sites with the hopes of getting more participants we started meeting around the time of finals so we had the idea of Hosting self-care activities to help students cope with the end of the year stress we had a really positive experience so we kind of ran with the idea of providing students with a comforting accepting and safe in community at school they could be a part of so throughout the year different students have had the opportunity to host selfcare Workshop once a week through our mental health club that we establish which is an extension of the youth mental health Council through that we our project manifested which is the self-care booklet the booklet is centered around emotional self-care

065and has three parts the first part is self-care workshops which we have done as a group together then we have grounding techniques and it wraps up with Journal promps this book means a lot to me and I know it means a lot to our members we had so much fun connecting with each others through these activities and we gain a lot of leadership skills as well it's important to me because the hardest part of struggling with one's mental health is feeling alone and through this book we've been able to form a community where where everyone feels safe and where others understand your experiences and accepts you for trying your best every day and I think that's so beautiful and I think it's very valuable Our Hope as a group is to reflect that in our

066booklet and show other students that they have a whole Community rooting for them and that care about their emotional wellbeing thank you so much much for your time and support and I know as a community we can come together and uplift each other thank you awesome okay so next I'm going to invite um two students from our youth for environmental Action Group um let's have a round of applause for Sophia and Nola we can just stand in between it hello everyone thank you for letting us come out an opportunity to speak my name is Sophia tier I go to San Leno Valley high school and I've been a part of ya for two years now my name is MOA Salazar I'm a senior at soel high and this is my first year of Youth environmental

067action awesome so what is yaia so yaia is our youth and Le leadership Club focused on bettering and protecting our local environment we focus on Environmental Education and solutions for our school campuses some of the activities we've been involved in are our annual Summit uh talks on radio shows School site activities a countywide survey with over 1100 responses monthly leadership trainings and attending school board meetings like this one um who's in ya so every High School is represented in our group and we have at least one member from each High School represented in our leadership team as well as in our support team which doesn't have as much involvement as leadership team but still supports through every process we started in 2019 and we're actually the first of the now six y l groups that

068we have and we are facilitated by the amazing Amity Sandage and Colin Jarvis some of the things ya has done is collaborated with our youth artist taking actions which um was an event where we painted murals at the County office centering the Community Connection and responsibility to our environment and you can see those photos on the next slide um up in the top right corner and also in the building itself around the outside um ya members also regularly speak on the K squid radio talking about events we have coming up whilst also amplifying youth voices in the environmental activism sphere and there's a picture of that too and then next slide thank you so this a couple photos featuring our 2023 Summit which is our last Summit um this was held at coinonia camp conference

069grounds um similar to what we did this year we had a large opening Circle which you can see in the top right picture and this was was a summer that invited our admin and staff from the different school high school districts as well as the high school students themselves and we had a opening land acknowledgement as well as a panel discussion which you can see with the photo on the left then we led into booths for the different students and staff to engage with the local community events and organizations like the Seymour Center homeless Garden project and much more and then we go into our breakout groups where we talk specifically with the yaia leaders for the district and the staff and students that were able to attend this space is meant for collaboration between

070the district and the students to really create um problem solving solutions to make their schools more environmentally sustainable whilst listening to student voices on what they really want and so this year next slide please we had our 2024 Earth Day every day our planet is up to us yeah Summit and it was a great success um we had some amazing amazing organizations such as clean oceans International and Santa Cruz green schools program and they hosted some educational and engaging booths for all the attendees to walk around and explore um we also had a very insightful panel made up of Alicia Muno roas Jackie castorena deila and Adam scow and they were able to talk about their firsthand experiences with food service sustainability Landfield management and protection of Farm Workers we also had our special guests

071the esteemed Wildlife photographers and environmental Advocates Chris extrom and fron lanting and they shared us a beautiful presentation on their Bay of Life program which focuses on the amazingly diverse Monterey Bay and why it is so important to protect this precious ecosystem and just like Sophia was talking about we had individual School breakout groups and that's where we were able to communicate any ideas that were sparked by the and have a really close relationship between the students and the administrators and some of these discussions have actually had impacts on school policies and actions all to become more sustainable and there's some photos on the next slide there's Nola and then there's the panel speakers with Mia and Natasha and Tes that are in ya and then there's the little um what was it called uh

072Booth activities at the top right and then France and Chris at the bottom there so what else has yaia done so so much we presented at the cisk Symposium which is the annual conference of the curriculum and instructional steering committee of the Santa Cruz County superintendence um we presented alongside Senator John LA and other community leaders at the Democratic Women's Club conversation about climate event at Kio College we created videos to amplify student voice as well as created and distributed a countywide high school School survey this is our second annual um survey and it's really really incredible we had a lot more results in certain districts um for my district for example San Lorenzo Valley High School we had the least amount of responses last year only 39 and I really tried to propone it

073more this year spoke with my school board and we were able to have the most this year with 324 responses which is a lot cuz I only have about six a little bit less than 700 in my district so it's a good spons very happy about it um we also meet with The District Green teams to provide student perspectives um we presented to the Santa Cruz County Board of Education and other ya member school boards um we've also taken part in the school board Academy which hosts leadership training opportunities uh for students who are currently in the school board as trustees considering the position or who are just interested in learning about what a school board does and we also do our annual Summit uh thank you guys so much for your time we really

074appreciate this opportunity to share what yah has to offer thank you so much you um before we move on to our queer and trans youth council is it possible to go back to yada so we could see those uh videos that our students made oh yes and while we're we're queuing that up um actually I'm going to invite Nola and Sophia to come back um we've got some awards for you so we'd like to present the certificate of of uh recognition to NOLA Salasar in recognition of exceptional leadership and advocacy as member of the youth Le leadership Alliance congratulations NOA and we'd like to present Sophia leer uh in recognition of your exceptional leadership and advocacy with as part of the youth L leadership Alliance congratulations all okay so uh going back to uh youth

075artists taking action um we're going to hear from Ramon first hi I'm Ramon Kima and I'm a member of Youth artist taking action or yata as you may also know him we meet every Wednesday here at the Coe and at Watsonville high school then we Zoom between the two locations to connect the groups our mission is to share messages through ART this year we focus on affirmations and how they can help us with our mental state and emotions we combined artistic images with inspiring words to create positive messages here's some posters and stickers we made and next slide please we also participated in the steam Expo and the youth for environment action Summit these photos show some of the activities that we LED at the summit students had the choice to make we also participated

076in the steam Expo and the youth for environmental action Summit these photos show some of the activities that we LED at the summit students had the choice to make bags with environmental messages or stickers we had four tables that were completely full of students decorating their bags with fabric markers and next slide please the next slide shows us at the steam Expo there we led a sticker making activity where we had students of all ages come by and make stickers the next slide shows us at the steam Expo there we led a sticker making activity where we had students of all ages come by and make stickers of whatever they wanted it was really cool to see all of the creative ideas people came up with and it was an honor being part of creating

077this opportunity for students and next slide please we talked about next year and we're interested in either doing another mural or learning about digital art we do have an ask for either of these projects if we do another mural we'd like to hire a professional muralist to help us with the project and if we choose to pursue digital art we'd like a budget to buy iPads and styluses lastly we'd like to share a promo video with you hope you enjoy and the last slide is is the next one please do you consider yourself an AR yeah I do or maybe you don't consider yourself an artist but you just like to do art I do are you interested in creating an impact in your community I am we speaking up about issues that you care

078about yes I do if so you should join youth artists taking action [Music] so there's our y I did want to point out a couple things so I'm sure as you can see um there is a lot of crossover between our groups um our groups you know uh show up at each other's events and facilitate different things and also in terms of the interest those cross uh uh groups as well um and that last video um I'd like to mention too is was made uh with the equipment that was given to us through a partnership with C CTV um and they gave us these padcaster kits and so uh many of our groups you'll see some videos um actually in this next presentation that was also made with the padcaster kit so that was a

079really great resource that was available to our students this year so thank you to Tech Plus for for um providing us with that okay so next I'm going to invite our queer and trans youth Council come on up Round of Applause okay great hi um we are the queer and trans youth Council um we're down one member today unfortunately seon couldn't make it but um my name is Nico Olstead my pronouns are they he and I am a junior at Delta High School hi my name's Juniper Brown I use he they pronouns and I'm a senior and I am currently homeschooled hello my name is Matt Alia my pronouns are she her and I'm a junior at Cypress High School hi my name is Alex tras I use he they pronouns and I am a

080sophomore at Scouts really high and like I said seone was not able to make it today but uh they're also a junior at Delta along with me and our adviser is the wonderful Jamie cutter in the audience so uh the council is a uh product uh it's funded and it's put on by the queer youth task force uh every year a group of students on the council uh get together and they decide to uh they decide on a community project to do and spend the year kind of doing that and putting that on so I'll hand it over to Juniper to talk about this year's project hi so queer and trans youth Council has done a lot of wonderful things such as creating a website with a bunch of resources for queer and marginalized youth

081as well as also advocating for gender neutral restrooms and schools but this year we decided to work on publicly accessible educational videos that could be used in any environment in a school environment could be watched by people at home that are meant to help teach people about gender diverse issues we call these the gender diverse collection it's a total of three different videos and each cover a different subject they're meant to be entertaining um educational and also little bit funny sometimes so the first video is pronouns in the wild this is a video on how to ask someone for their pronouns it's sort of put together like a nature documentary um and we we got even like a discount at David atenor sort of voice actor for it um it provides some helpful insight on

082how to ask someone for their pronouns including what not to do how not to respond to someone asking you for your pronouns and such as making assumptions or are feeling insulted um um the next video oh I just want to mention that pronouns in the wild the script was actually written by Maddie here before we move on it was a lot of fun to make do you want me to play the video or move on to the next uh not yeah I'm just going to describe the videos thank you uh then we have gender explained a brief summary it's a a much less humorous video but it still has its funny parts and its goal is to teach teach about gender versus biological sex and what gender expression the binary gender is uh these are

083things that are really commonly misunderstood uh for myself I'm a binary transgender man and you know people might often interpret me as a more feminine lining gender however I'm not so this video clears up that sort of mindset and then lastly we have an insight into queer mental health which was a video um to help educate about the Mental Health crisis that currently plagues transgender and queer youth it sheds light on common statistics that reflect these issues and it's delivered through the words of the council members um and now we have a trailer that includes some short clips from these videos yes I I am queer I am queer yes I am queer yes I am queer hi my name is Juniper this is Billy Billy is in the market for a new friend I'm

084here explain to you what you may or may not understand about gender biological sex being transgender and some of the struggles of transgender people I feel like a stereotype about gr people that I often hear is that we um can't just be ourselves number one the Assumption are you a girl no although someone could identify as a binary man they could still partake in traditionally feminine things or dress I'm wearing a skirt and I'm still a man something I love about my career Community is how accepting and loving we all are and that if you ever need anything you can count on your queer friends to be there for you pronouns are any phrase you use to refer to something gendered or not you is a pronoun me is a pronoun us we they are

085all pronouns maybe we should even they is a pronoun wow to be sex gendered is to identify with the gender you were assigned at Birth which may also align with the sex commonly associated with that gender they're wearing a dress they must be a woman that must be a man they're wearing hats I often feel isolated and excluded because of my identity especially because I don't conform to gender standards give me your pronouns I like my pronoun and despite all this we still find ourselves wrapped up in the idea that pink is for girls blue is for boys dolls are for girls cars are for boys I have felt isolated and also excluded because of my identity unfortunately something that I love about our cre Community is is our strength in numbers my pronouns are

086normal narrator if you need to at any point in time this video will always be available for you to brush up on your knowledge again and recommend to other people as a vessel for learning we hope you enjoyed yeah yeah yeah that next slide oh there okay um we although it those videos do look perfectly put together um there were some struggles to be real um uh me personally I uh co-wrote the uh insight into queer mental health video uh with our my other council member seion who unfortunately couldn't be there we both wrote it um it was definitely a struggle trying to figure out which questions to pick um and which ones would be important and finding statistics um we also struggle with like setting up equipment um but that was mostly it uh

087yeah I was the role that I played was mostly technical support and so setting up the learning how to use it and setting up the equipment was most of what I felt challenged with and um so you know just on one filming day we had to set up the podcasting kit make sure all the mics were working uh set up the screens all of the lights and all of those have a different and distinctly hard way to set up the tripods and everything so many extension cords on the floor so that was definitely a challenge but in the end we got it together yeah um I did a lot of the video editing well not a lot I did all of the video editing um I just want to say I had never used the

088editing software Adobe Premiere Pro before I had never used it um I went completely blind and I still did it so um yeah the actual physical equipment script writing um editing and we managed to do it and now I have this new we all have this new um skill set that we can bring into so many different projects um and that's really exciting univers mic work yes yes and I did the writing and played the lead role in pronouns in the wild and I would say at least from my experience and knowledge that was the hardest one because that was the one where we weren't working off of either improv or being able to have access to like a teleprompter of A Sort that one was entirely us acting while working off of just having

089to remember the lines and then finding the place and the creating of the script itself was personally very exciting for me as I was able to put various experiences of the way I have asked and been asked my pronouns into a little documentary I have not ever said that that my pronouns were [Laughter] normal um and we also would just like to say that the videos are like I said publicly accessible so you can find them on the safe Schools project uh YouTube channel um and yeah they're accessible to anyone so you feel feel free to use them in any way you like um yeah and this is where sort of the purpose of making these documentaries we were thinking these would be an excellent we we put our heads together for this so we

090could create a tool which could be used to educate on queer issues specifically involving queer kids with a tool that was made by queer youth a lot of the time the supplies made for queer Youth and people trying to understand queer youth were made by adults who don't really have a complete understanding of the group they're educating on so we encourage you to watch and distribute and use these films freely as a tool made by and for queer kids on behalf of the County Office of Education the County Board of Education we'd like to present these recognitions uh to uh the for your exceptional leadership and advocacy as a member of the youth Le leadership Alliance and we'll start with Nico alad Round of Applause please for Nico next we have Juniper Brown Alex tras

091and mat meline Alia can we get a picture seat right in the middle here I would like to say that if you weren't at the qua event on Saturday night where these uh these wonderful students were present and producing and doing the whole show you missed something oh that's great okay perf right here thank you QTC next I would like to invite up our black student union let's have a round of applause for them hello everybody um my name is Danielle Henry um I'm a graduating senior from Santa Cruz High School and a member of the countywide black student union and my name is Crista Henry I'm also a senior at Santa Cruz High School in addition to being a member of the countywide BSU I'm also the BSU president of Santa Cruz High School

092first we'd like to thank the board members as well as superintendent Sabo for your time this evening next slide please the mission of our group is to create a safe space for black students to build relationships create community and celebrate Black culture and history one of the ways we've tried to build community this year is by connecting with BSU at other campuses thanks to her adviser Dean we were able to meet and work with we were able to work and meet with some of the students from PV High School BSU they began attending our countywide meetings and came to some of our portfolio workshops in the fall where we worked on building our College portfolios in preparation for the black college Expo we hope to continue growing these networks next year by reaching out to

093BSU at other campuses oh and here are some pictures of us of each group and yeah the pictures go back to the slide real quick please yeah yeah these are pictures okay look at us working together oh yeah that's the y That's the Santa Cruise and that's py okay now next slide please thank you sorry we also tabled at the MLK Youth Event this was a really fun day where we got to meet students and staff from other organizations like NAACP United Way and emoa from um Cabrio we also facilitated a game facilitated a game called name that civil rights leader if you got all them right all of them correct you w a free BSU sweater it was hard but you know we learned some civil rights leaders that we didn't know before so

094it was pretty cool next slide please as you know a huge part of the Civil Rights Movement was CED around voting writes we wanted to help inform our fellow students about the importance of voting and encourage them to register or register early so that when they turned 18 they were ready to go so we created a short video and set up a table at Santa Cruz High to let students know why they should vote and how to register using the state of California's website kle and I wrote the script and filmed it ourselves although we were nervous at first we eventually warmed up and had a great time this experience made us better at about public public speaking and made me feel more comfortable in front of a camera and then next slide please and

095here's the video we made hey guys I'm Chris deor and I'm Kaa and we're here to talk about the importance of voting seeing that this year is a presidential election year registering to vote is important because it gives us a way to have a say in our community and also allows us to participate in our democracy when you don't others decide this may help manifest a future that you may not want these rights were fought for so don't take them for granted your voice matters this March 5th is primary election day for some of the requirements you have to be a US citizen and a California resident you have to be 18 years or older by the election day and here's what you need you'll need a driver's license or a form of ID your

096last four digits of your Social Security number as well as your date of birth for early registration you have to be between the ages of 16 and 17 and meet the prior requirements so by the time you're 18 all you have to do is show up and vote for more information come see us in the quad or scan the QR code and register to vote next slide please thank you okay we took a trip to Oakland to attend the black college Expo there we were able to meet with recruiters from colleges all over the county of country including several historical black colleges uc's and CSUS desan created three workshops to help us prepare our resumés and personal statements we learned how to format a resume improve our writing and practice our interview skills this experience

097allowed us to explore with universities which universities offered the best programs for what we want to study and expand our Horizons for what for what's possible through our education so yeah next slide please our last event for the year is our annual black graduation ceremony it's a beautiful event to open to all black graduating seniors across the county it will be Saturday May 25th at London Nelson 3 to 6 this will be the 25th year of the event we're happy to celebrate a quarter of a century to recognizing black academic excellence in Santa Cruz County we have graduates from six different high schools and last year my sister and I um were the MC's and this year we get to be walking across that stage next slide please since cristala and I are graduating here

098are some of our hopes for the for the future of BSU we hope that we've set a good enough example for the underclassman to feel empowered to be the next generation of strong leaders we hope they continue to bring together BSU clubs from other high schools across the country County like soel harvor and absu we like to see them to do more we'd like to see them do more activities together to build relationships and celebrate Community next slide please we would like to continue the black grad scholarship that was started last year and will be given again to and hope to be able to provide the scholarship annually we believe that if a certain amount of bsu's year yearly budget was dedicated to the scholarship each year it would help students start saving their money

099for SEC post secondary goals whether that's going to college or or pursuing some other form of professional training an increase in bsu's yearly budget could help this make could help make this possible while Santa Cruz High has the longstanding foundation of black grab and BSU in order to continue the countywide group we need more resources and connections to expand the reach of our club and engage students all of the county thank you so much for your time this evening thank you so much all right on behalf of the County Board of Education and uh the County Office of Education we'd like to present uh this certificate of recognition uh to Danielle Henry in recognition of exceptional leadership and advocacy as a member of the 2324 youth leadership Alliance and we'd also like to present this

100award to chrysilla Henry for in recognition of your exceptional leadership and advocacy congratulations good ch ch SAA Henry thank you BSU um and the last group but certainly not the least group um that we're going to be hearing from tonight is the multilingual youth taking action so um I'd like to invite them to come up valer nud Round of Applause uh good evening everyone we'd like to thank superintendent sabat and the board for having us we are the multilingual youth taking action and my name is Valeria Gman from Wat High School my name Isel Marin I'm also from moille high school H slide two please all right the mission statement our mission is to advocate for the appreciation and education of languages celebrate multilingualism and cultural diversity and support our fellow students who are newly

101arrived to the US or are learning English as a second language secondly we also believe that language is a vehicle for the communication of ideas and issues that affect everyone in our society that is why we seek to create a welcoming community that is that is inclusive of all languages and cultures so that everyone can be seen and valued for all aspects of their identity and no matter where they come from our group is the newest of all the Y groups we formed out of the need to acknowledge multilingualism as an extremely valuable asset and to push back the negative rhetoric surrounding those who do not speak English as their first language although we struggled a little with recruitment at first eventually we were able to assemble this group this year we met every Thursdays

102and sometimes Mondays from 5: to 6:00 on Zoom to plan to work on planning and organizing the World Language showcase this allowed us to work on the same documents from different locations across the county and our first project was the World Language showcase this event took place April 24th at SoCal High it included poster presentations and poetry readings from students who came from various schools it was a successful evening and it allowed us to learn and listen to the work of community members from different backgrounds our multilingual group contributed to the event in many different ways not only did most of us present but we also split into two teams to help organize the event our our first team that we that we have created was a design team and inside the design team we

103have created programs and the certificates of recognition that we give to the ones who participated in the multilingual showcase when creating the certificate we created different versions however later on we decided as a group to decide which one to do which one to uh to show off right we voted we use canva to work collaboratively and save our progress one of our main goals was to make sure the certificates and the program were colorful and stayed true to the theme of multilingualism throughout our designs for example uh as you can see in the presentation we use the flags inside uh outside the Border in the in the border and we use that insire certification to represent the diversity of cultures our logo which is in the middle was created by Ruben one of our members

104who is not able to be here today depicts the Earth surrounded by a speech bubble its design is meant to convey the role that language has and uniting and connecting people and represents our group's goal of promoting this role of language throughout the community please uh the other team was made up of naty Ruben and I we were the MC's for the event we helped host the event by welcoming the audience introducing the presenters and transitioning the crowd between different segments of the program it this really helped um us practice with our public speaking especially in Spanish my favorite part was being able to speak in front of people with the transitions when we called them back to their seats we had to think on our feet and be able to translate in both languages

105one of the challenges we had was that one of the mics broke so we had to project our voices so that everyone can hear us when the mic broke it was nerve-wracking seeing as it was during the middle of a presentation and eventually we would have have to go and stand and talk again but for me having used my voice and being naturally loud it came normally uh next slide yeah for next year some of the things our group would like to to focus on are advocating for more language classes to be implemented at school with not as many offerings encouraging more schools and speakers of different languages to participate in the Showcase this year we had a lot of Spanish speakers which is really good it's it's it's amazing right but it would also

106be nice to see some other languages represented as well right we will also like to partner with the international uh Academy which is house at w high so that we can help students who are newly arrived to the United States get oriented on campus so that they know how how to access School resources and feel more part of the community and on on slide eight some things we will We would like to let you guys know the guys sorry kind of informal but before we can conclude our presentation we would like to share some things that we have learned and observed during our work this year at wo High School there is no AP French there's lots of students who are ining taking French as an AP and continue to learn languages but since we

107do not offer AP French they have to take a third party test but we will also like want them to have a more advanced of French than just French two or French three right also at as SoCal Spanish is the only language being taught students would like to have more V Variety in having a say a foreign language class right as an observation as well we notice that some schools offer language courses that others don't whatever the process is for determin which classes get taught at which schools seems little inequitable as many as you as many of you know there is a little controversy happening at the pvusd over the status of the ethnic studies courses the defunding of the CR contract because of alleged claims and not only speaking and not speaking to the

108people who are going to be impacted like the teachers and students not only shows a lack of respect for those involved with the program but it also discourages students who are fighting for their education who don't want their education to be restricted and who have the right to learn the truth the board has not talked to the community members they have not visited the classrooms to see the program they have limited their voices by cutting their 2 minutes in half they have moved public comments to the end discouraging them from staying to speak and have not listened to the people that they represent all of these actions show a lack of value for student voices and opinions about their education they are receiving the contract is there to help teachers support their students in achieving

109the best education ethnic studies classes highlight the good and bad parts of culture and whether good or bad these are things that deserve to be said as you know our mission statement encourages the celebration of culture in Ho but how can people do that if they can even learn about it in their classrooms from teachers who aren't getting the right support having been in an ethnic studies class I can say that the lectures and lessons have help me understand and see other cultures I got to relate to books written by people of the same culture as a Latina and had had the opportunity to talk about it the ethnic studies classes are not only growing but without the right support these students won't be able to receive the education that they deserve tonight I ask

110you to encourage the contract's renewal and to think about all of the students at PVD who are fighting for the right to an education that is supported by professionals who know what they are doing thank you for your time thank you to these wonderful young leaders and the youngest of the uh of the different student leadership groups I'd like to present this award to Valeria Gman Roa in recognition of your exceptional leadership and advocacy as a member of the 2324 youth Le leadership Alliance congratulations and also to urel Marin Ur in recognition of your exceptional leadership and advocacy congratulations urel thank you this is Barbara hner our our coordinator of multilingual of multi for multilingual programs this concludes our um youth Le leadership Alliance presentation thank you so much um for your time and your

111patience I know was a bit long um but uh thank you so much for allowing the students the space to express themselves and and tell you what they were up to this year another round of applause please would the board like to make any statements to the these amazing youth I think this has been one of the most fabulous meetings we've ever had here and and the participation of the audience and the people that have engaged and come come in to talk to us about various things and I I thought that the students were relaxed at the microphone they had content to tell us about and I'm I'm pleased to be here and thank you very much so you shouldn't tell us that we're we're just we're just so patient because we we sit here

112and listen well we enjoyed it tonight I think all of us enjoyed it very much and learned a lot so I passed to somebody else just [Laughter] me you guys are awesome I don't know much more I can say to that but to me it's really important that we Elevate youth voices um that our board supports it our office our superintendent supports it our teachers and our staff support it and it's really what we're all about and so the leadership that you're showing today including I just want to comment that um holding our feet to the fire about issues about funding and services and stuff like that was a very important thing and I'm really glad that you all made that point that's part of why we want to hear student voices so thank you

113thank you and I'm totally impressed anyone else you know we do approve the budget so as Bruce is saying very appr appropriate uh messaging but to me to see the growth in these uh youth groups that we are supporting at the county level is it's gone beyond now uh of what we we thought about and it is being driven by you uh the students so keep growing keep going and bring in more students and your voice is important so thank you very much for dedicating the time that you do to these groups shout out to Andre too um for your great work thank you okay moving on uh we are going to uh items 7.3 uh which is the Santa Cruz County offices uh countywide robotics Club Dr sabon yes I think I'll uh start

114us off uh for this and introduce uh Tim Sylvester in just a moment so the whoa so the um we're very very excited uh this year this was a actually the result of a conversation that uh uh Tim uh Sylvester was was uh having uh with me and and some other folks from the Coe about some of the great work that uh he and and many mentors in the community had been doing uh to provide opportunities for students to learn about Robotics and so we decided in that conversation that the County Office of Education and X academy uh which had been doing a lot of great work in in in robotics and in other areas like mathematics would partner together to be able to expand the reach of these opportunities for students across the county

115we wanted to make sure that students in Watsonville as well as students in Santa Cruz had these opportunities and uh we uh started developing a plan to build robotics for students and opportunities for students uh to be able to learn about not only robotics but all the components that it entails because uh the what the students going to be here uh what they're learning are so many different components that are going to open up so many doors and career opportunities for them in the future and uh we're really excited I'm not going to there's a I'll leave the announcement to uh to in terms of what's what's happening with this with this team because we we uh our our students participated in a uh competition recently and did really well and um I've just been

116so proud of the students work and I'm so grateful to to Tim uh and uh all the all the coaches who have been working with our students and and really supporting them through this through this process so welcome to Tim Sylvester welcome to X Academy and Coe robotics team thank you so much for being here thank you Ferris um we did a great job setting that up U our our chance meeting was um in the rain at a year ago at the County math competition and I was chatting with Heather and saying hey I need to go Mentor a robotics team and she goes wait a minute you have to talk to fah and then um an amazing like a couple months later we we started the program uh in the fall we had 52

117students from 16 schools in the county um meeting on Saturdays down at soel high school and then on Sundays um at a maker space just down the street um we seoa High School in Watsonville yes seoa I I do that apologize yes seoa um and um we um had 52 students in the fall and then 30 of them and starting in j January uh created two teams and as Ferris mentioned that those two teams competed at the regional competition and I will let Ben in a second tell you what's coming up next um um during the day I'm an engineer at Joby um and then um on weekends my other two days of the week are doing robots and uh my son and I started the program in our driveway during the pandemic um and

118um my son graduated last year as a math major at UC Santa Barbara now and and um we thought we're going to wind down the program and be empty nesters but um Ferris talked us into and gave us tremendous support along with Jason and Elizabeth Shaw and Heather the science coordinator um I'll stop talking there's so many other great things but I'll turn it over to Ben who's the CEO and hi I'm Ben helard I'm the CEO of hesus Robotics that's our robotics team I'm a senior at San Cruz High School um part of the the biggest thing I've learned this year as the CE has been leadership I and confidence in my leadership I think has been a big thing I now feel like I could if I were to go up and try

119and make a project it can actually happen because I mean we managed to make all this happen not obviously it wasn't just me it was in a whole bunch of very talented people coming together but yeah and so Tim was saying um a couple it was a week ago a little over a week ago week ago today week ago today um we had our regional competition at Watsonville High School um for the M ROV and uh we ended up placing third place and we had done this competition before and we knew that first and second you got to go to world's competition um so although third place was obviously very happy we were a little bit bummed we weren going to World competition until a couple days later when we get an email saying that

120because of um one of the the people who works at the competition knows us and they understood how well we did last year at the world competition he actually applied for us to go to get bumped up to go to the world competition and we had done it we were going to go to the world competition so so what that means in um about a month a little over a month we're going to be going to Kingsport Tennessee um to compete with teams from around the world um with their robots um and we're really excited for that um yeah I don't know if you're and um we'll turn over B next but this is one4 of the team we have 20 kids on the team um out there so Bennett why don't you fill us

121in on what you guys worked on yeah so we compete in the mate AR competition which is like an underwater robotics competition where we Build RVs and also vertical profiling float to complete tasks that are aimed to imitate real world problems that we're experiencing like um coral reef restoration and also ocean monitoring and all sorts of other missions related to Ocean conservation um so the most uh the biggest piece you can see here is the ROV which has so many things going on on going with it that the team really had to learn a lot they had to teach themselves their own skills related to Mechanical design electrical design system integration software design and so many other things so a lot of the students in the fall obviously went blind into this program not knowing

122many technical skills we first um helped the other teammates in um a program to teach them all about the software and principles like Bo and all that and yeah so once we were able to do that uh the students gained a lot of skills related to all of the different subsystems and different um you know angles in terms of uh engineering disciplines so yeah Orlando you want to talk about the flo y so oh wow that's loud okay so um this year uh our float as you can see over there uh it's made with fresh new parts um the float is basically supposed to be carried um out into the pool or in the ocean uh by the ROV and from there it's supposed to use a buoyancy engine uh in order to float to

123the bottom retrieve data move up to the surface and then send the data to a topside computer that way we know if it's sustainable for uh for aquaculture or uh if we just basically want to know like the depth temperature or um pressure of the water right this year um what was really challenging for us was mainly the computer programming within uh the float we're using a Raspberry Pi with python and C++ the reason why it was very hard for us to do this was because everyone on the team was relatively new including myself um so we we just went in there yeah we went in there blind we had no idea what we're doing but we manage to make it work um aside from that we also learn other technical skills like working with

124Cad and fusion 360 because some of the components inside of the float um are actually custom made they were designed and then laser cut and um one final challenge we had during the competition was that we didn't account for um the extra depth of the pool we originally practiced on a six foot deep pool for the float and the float uh would not come back up to the surface uh at the regional competition because the pool was 12T deep it was an extra 5 lbs of pressure so when the boy engine tried to um move the water outside of the float the pressure made the water go all the way back in so although our float didn't perform as we expected it to perform um we're working on it and we hope to do very

125well in the championship in the world championships hi um I'm Orlando what school do you go to oh I go to Diamond technology Institute I'm a freshman um my name is Cole I'm a junior at Santa Cruz High School this is my first year on the team um with the team we did a lot of community outreach namely the uh steam Expo and also s we went to Santa Cruz works and had a station there at steam Expo we got to we had a station where like kids could build like rovs with PVC and they got to like try them out in the in a pool that we had there and collect rings and it was very cool to see we had like so many children coming in like trying it out and they seem

126like genuinely interested in it and we also got like a lot of parents that wanted more information about like the about our team and possibly getting their children in once once their children were in high school and then at Santa Cruz works we also met with a lot of like individuals in the tech in the Tech Community for like potential sponsorship or like just being part being receiving our newsletter so Fe would you like to introduce yourself and tell us what you worked on and maybe favorite part put um okay wait so um thank you thanks um so my name is Sophia castelletto I'm a sophomore at Pacific Collegiate School this is my first year on the team so this year I had next to no knowledge about robotics when I went into the program

127and I really wanted to learn about engineering and specifically software engineering and so when I went into that program I wasn't sure exactly how much I was going to be able to learn but it turns out it's actually a really really good environment for Learning and so I remember there's one time when there was a mentor that came in and he was really really good at Python and he worked with me oneone and we made a python script that was um able to gather data from sensors and then write it to a database and then upload it to a software called grafana and that was mainly what I was working with uh through the robotics season and I thought it was just a really valuable experience because I was able to learn so much and

128uh also with my peers on the team like Ben and Bennett they were able to explain stuff to me like Photo geametry and so I was really grateful for the amount of learning that I was able to do this year uh on the robotics team I just want to introduce Tim Matson in the back he's also known as the other Tim Tim has been um my partner in crime along with my wife Barbara on The X Academy for about 10 years now um and these guys under sell themselves what they've done is absolutely amazing I've been an engineer in Silicon Valley for 25 years I'd hire any of them in a minute in um in college interns and I do hire them at Joby um they built a commercial quality ROV um they they learned

129how to make printed circuit boards um they used Ross which is a Robot Operating System we we have one of the mentors as a college professor at UC mered teaching robotics when I told him the kids want to do Ross he kind of like oh okay sure and they did it so so they can TR um and the two teams that beat us were one was St Francis Catholic gou in Sacramento and then the other one's Val Christian in um San Jose they've been doing these programs for at least 10 years Valley Christian has like a million dollar maker space these guys started with a brand nothing and built a brand new ROV in four months and um we're this close to winning the whole thing at the Regionals and we're going to go to

130Tennessee and have a great time do well and I also want to think point out it's like working with Ferris and Jason and the rest of the staff has been amazing most people think like oh government's so hard to work with and education it's like Ferris and they were so flexible and Innovative out there and one other I want tell us like one of the things we found out when we were down at sequa school is that um kids in Watsonville many of the kids had to drop out of the program because of family issues or because of they had jobs so we were doing on Saturday so it was very hard to keep them we kept a few but it was hard to keep them so we were talking back and forth about this

131and I suggested that we have the club during the school you like after school during the school week and then then we Jason pointed out and Chris pointed out that well we' run into the same issue so then says well why don't you teach a class one day and so um that may be happening that we may be teaching a class or robot class at seoa um this fall so and um so thank you and we do have some pictures there um you'll see uel urel in the background who is uh uh he's also part of the team right and now mean well he's multi- [Laughter] talented there they are it was a cold rainy day but we still high fun there and there they are in their t-shirts we that's the angry otters that's

132the other team of 12 kids and they Place third there's a robot in action oh yeah that's extra that's that's our math PR which we do get support with from Kevin Drinker from the the math coordinator so just if I could just add Tim is absolutely amazing and he's going to be teaching at seoa high school with our alternative education programs as part of the as as part of the master schedule so he is uh I don't I've rarely met somebody who's so dedicated in so many different ways uh to students and again the students are brilliant and so with the support of somebody like like Tim and the opportunities that that it's just it's phenomenal their future is so bright and the the everything from the uh problem solving skills that they're developing the

133leadership skills that they're that they're showing um we just we want to make as many of these opportunities available to to students as possible and so uh good luck in the worlds congratulations I'm sure the board would have have has a few words that they'd like to share with you Bruce so first part of my life I made my living as a woodworker making furniture and kitchen cabinets and like that and that's making things and making things is really Central to who I am I grew up with tools in my hands but mostly you know working with wood or metal or things like that more lately in my life what I make is software I I develop software to do data analysis and stuff like that um and there's this weird gap between those two

134kinds of activity I mean they're both involve thinking and design and creativity and so on but software that's on the computer and it's you know their the wood shop you know is physical you breathe saw us you know it's just like it's a whole different thing what I love about this is that you're doing the kind of the computer software um that sort of Realm of making electrons do things for us at the same time you're getting all these atoms into place to do something physical and I just want to encourage you to keep doing both of those things good for you and you're going to produce more in the world I think but making things is really one of the central human things it's like ranks right up there with dancing and making music

135and stuff like that as far as really basic to living a good life so keep making things that's all I want to say thank you I'm totally impressed thank you Ed is going to be there go there it goes finally um I'm impressed like it says you students are amazing um just looking at thing it looks confusing but I'm sure you all know how to make a work which um sounds wow Tim keep up the good work thank you for um sharing your knowledge with the students um you know there's a bigger group of you all keep it up great job thank you for sharing say something so I'm very curious about what those gadgets are that you've developed there and and um I was playing a guess guessing game with with him about the

136the one that is in a tower and I'm gonna I'm gonna put my guess out there is that a coffee maker uh should I talk about it do you want to this is the this is what I just take it it looks like a cup of coffee is going to evolve at the bottom of it see the cup of coffee right yes okay really bring yeah yeah just pick it up and or a cup of coffee all right I yeah all right there are actually parts of coffee makers in not a complain so this the flow I was talking about earlier um this supposed to be pushed out by the the I'll hold it it for you just so that anyone watching remotely go ahead keep going okay uh just the quick repetition so basically

137this is the float that I was talking about earlier it's supposed to be grabbed by the ROV as you can see over there it's supposed to grab it by one of these PVC pipes on the bottom and it's supposed to send it out into the pool or um into the ocean and what it's supposed to do um you see all the tubes right here right these are all solenoids tubes and pumps and supposed to suck in water from this little hole over here it uh it Maneuvers it inside what we call the bladder which is basically the container and that's how it becomes heavier for it to sink to the bottom so in order to float up top what it does is it just expels the water and goes back up to the top um

138everything's powered right here big pack of batteries right there um and uh the brain of this is the Raspberry Pi you can see right over here all these everything on top here is just like for Wi-Fi connection and all these are sensors wow so the water getting in there doesn't stop stop it from happening no no um it's uh every single time before we bring it into the water we always make sure it's watertight so we have like a vacuum pump at the top right over here where there's a little there's a little tube that says okay right uh we usually we usually plug it in and make sure that it's watertight so no water can spill on the inside and nothing gets damaged excellent then thank you thanks thank you Bennett do you want

139to pick up the r and just show them because it's it's tilted right now oh yeah yeah this is how the RVs sorry yeah so this is how the RVs out of the water it has for like rubber feed on the bottom for it to stand on if you want to move it how it's in the water R and if I could add it one of the things that I was most impressed with too is they have five minutes to set up all of their equipment before the competition and so they have five minutes where they Rush In And and have to put it all together get it ready for for the test to begin where they get evaluated yeah it's a very tedious process there's definitely some headaches associated with that but yeah um

140some of the central things on the RV see there are there's the six main thrusters that help the RV move in the water and then on the top there's the electronics enclosures with the brains the Raspberry Pi and then there's other stuff like the motor controllers and also um sensors and all sorts of other components I would like to say that we have come a long way and I'm absolutely proud to be on this board and supporting feris and everyone connected with with this in the 50s when I was in like seventh grade I went through the math book and became a troublemaker in the classroom and so teacher removed me and two other guys and uh we rebuilt his engine and this is a long ways from that but I want to say that

141what I learned by doing that was incredible and I am so jealous of what you the width and breadth of what is available and will be I mean this this is just scratch at the surface of what's coming so appreciate your uh time and willingness and wanting to be in this program thank you and go get them in Tennessee and can I say one thing real fast sure it's not that we we don't do it just to make the robot it's also just a lot of fun I think one of my greatest I've been doing a lot of stuff you know finishing up senior year and it it was like the competition was obviously stressful but it was really fun I um we've got we got these ridiculous red jumpsuits you can see um but

142I so I was and I was working on pulling the ROV in and out of the water and doing stuff with that and this was as rain was falling off the tent right onto my back so I was soaked and freezing and my fingers were numb from being in the pool um but I was just having a blast the whole time I remember getting up at the end and just smiling it was so fun good any other comments thank you so much congratulations bring us back to Trophy okay could we get a picture uh uh and perhaps we can get the whole board out this time all right okay we just a little together everyone iner okay resolutions it's ver who writes these blurbs and these blurbs are really okay um what a what an

143evening this is a great meeting uh item eight new business and action items we'll move on to uh item 8.1 approval of resolution 2420 recognizing lgbtq plus pride month or should I hand it over I'm down here as the presenter but somebody wrote my lyrics here for me I appreciate it say okay this is a this is a short blurb about the LGB gtq plus pride month um and it uh the Santa Cruz County Office of Education along with all 10 school districts raised the progress fra flag in honor of Harvey Milk Day the progress flag is is a visual representation of acceptance and inclusion uh I I'd like the board to consider adopting resolution 2420 recog in lgbtq plus pride month if I could just add uh to to to this and thank you

144so much for bringing this forward uh We've uh for those of you that may have been able to be present at the queer youth leadership awards um it was really a wonderful wonderful event and a wonderful celebration of uh what our lgbtq and I'm going to add two spirit uh plus students uh what they have brought to to our uh to what they bring to our schools and to to our communities and also the the opportunity to be able to to stand um in support of our students and to be able to to State uh affirmatively that we are going to continue working as hard as we can to make sure that students are are that we celebrate their differences their uniqueness and that we're going to continue doing our best to ensure that those

145safe spaces are available to them so that they can bring their whol selves to school and this this resolution really is about taking an opportunity to uh to uh highlight and celebrate our our lgbtq plus community and if I could make a proposal to add uh the the 2s to as I saw I learned at at qua that that is uh has become kind of an addition for two spirit um which is uh uh you know an expansion of the the different identities that are celebrated by by our community I move approval with the amendment to add to s for standing for Spirit to to clarify so it would become LGBT SQ Plus lgbtq2s for two spirit number two then plus 2 s before the plus yeah if if I could add one more thing

146also interex and asexual so lgbtq I a 2s thank you that's that there we go that is that I appreciate that addition I a2s and I will second the motion and also we'll say a little bit about um you know we went to qua this is it this past weekend W it was amazing um they it was just so much fun uh what the students put on and um I was also there for the raising of the progress flag as well and uh then some more students came here today so it's really good to see them I saw some of them three times over the last month and it's just been amazing the advocacy that they do and they're they're so passionate and I really love to see that somebody make a motion yes Bruce

147and second second good so uh ver n if you would take the rule trusty a Costa hi trusty Estrada yes trusty Nichols yes trustee Sanchez yes trustee Van Allen president Roth yes student trustee Alvarez delado yes the motion passes thank you and thank you sandre for bringing it to us uh item 8.2 approval of resolution 24 uh 2421 recognizing juneth yes if uh as you know I believe it was two years ago when uh juneth uh became a national uh or uh was uh recognized nationally and um and this the juneth as you may from his know from history is uh that in some places uh across the United States even though uh the Emancipation Proclamation uh was uh was declared by by Abraham Lincoln there were places across the country where uh where slaves

148continued uh to to uh well to be slaves and the awareness that that they had in fact had been freed was not was not uh had not come to them and so juneth is celebrated because on uh June 19th of that same year 1863 uh soldiers arrived in Texas and to communicate that every all slaves have been freed and um and it is a celebration of uh freedom is a celebration of the uh contributions and the traditions of black Americans uh in our in our in our community and also with that memory and also looking forward towards the future and to to the Excellence that that our black community brings to us here in Santa Cruz and ac across across the country uh so this is a uh this recognition is is an important one

149and we we would appreciate it if you would consider its approval I'd like to tack on something about how in 1866 there was no Google there was no National newspaper from from The New Yorker there was not there was not anything like that and so if you lived in an area that wasn't close to the things that are happening like Washington DC you would you would get the information but if you live in a place an out the out skirts of the the country Texas and that Texas didn't know people who lived in Texas didn't know that the that there was an Emancipation Proclamation and it applied to enslaved people in Texas so June juneth is is just uh the um uh the the learning of that I don't know when what year that let's

150see it was 186 so when the war ended when the Civil War ended yeah yeah yeah yeah but uh keeping it under the under your hat for the people who have slaves I mean this is this is It's just uh interesting and bizarre that the the news doesn't travel fast the way it does now just learn about that just in 20 seconds if it was 2024 anyway I'm I'm glad it happened and I'd never heard of juneth until a couple of years ago when a a lady said do you know what juneth is and and I said no not really what is that what is what does that mean so next time I see her I'll I'll tell her I know what June juneth is okay that's all I had to say about that one

151is there a motion I'll I'll make a motion to to approve that I'll second good that's motion made by Sandra uh Edward is the second and verise say if you would uh take the role please I just wanted to add it's also a great um actual event it's great celebration and if I could um request I change it to the date I believe says 2023 we need to change that to 2024 it could be if the maker and uh second of that motion we'll just make sure the date is is accurate Sandra are you okay with that are you talking about the the date that's in the resolu at the end of the resolution it's on the second page it should say 2024 okay so that's corrected good and if uh the second sounds like

152sandreas and then Edward is is supporting of that yeah thank you student trustee Alvarez Delgado yes truste aosta trusty Estrada yes trusty Nichols yes trusty Sanchez yes trusty Van Allen president Roth yes so the motion is passed uh next is 8.3 approval of resolution establishing uh fund 40 Special Reserve fund for capital outlay projects and um I don't see Le an but I'll give it to Dr yes our we have Michelle Kennedy here thank you so much who's a one of our one of our directors from our um from our fiscal Services Department thank you so much for being here um so uh Michelle is going to be talking to us a little bit about the why we're we're looking to establish fund 40 is it on there we go now we're green okay there

153you go sorry yeah you are a stickler for that microphone aren't you the uh thank you for having me this evening um Deputy superintendent Ry couldn't be here this evening she is actually in Sacramento on the subcommittee for Basque they're currently writing the common message with the governor's budget that was just released so she'll be having more information for you um before we get started I just like to say this is was really exciting for me to be here I have been here for the awards for um you know teacher of the year administrator of the year but it was so much fun seeing the kids one of the highlights was the youth environmental action Summit um some of us from business actually got to stuff those bags that they were able to decorate and

154it was very cool they had um decomposable uh pencils and they had metal straws and they had um wooden plaques so that they wouldn't be using plastic or anything like that so they could write their own names on them as their name badges so it was a lot of fun didn't then get to see the kids do all the work so that was great so this evening I am going to be presenting to you a resolution to establish fund 40 a Special Reserve fund for capital outlay projects this fund should be established if the dist if the Coe would like to set funds aside um for out capital outlay projects in the future this would be general fund undesignated funds to put aside uh these would be used in conjunction with Grant funds or other

155estate funds that we would have in a Special Reserve fund if those funds were not used or wanted to be returned back to the Coe general fund fund 40 does allow for that so there's transfers in and there's transfers out um I think that's it for the EST I could add uh to this so capital outlay projects could mean uh if we are going to be acquiring any property uh this is the fund that would allow us to do this now um if we would when we propose a budget for when you come to to review the budget uh if there is an allocation for anything like that we would bring it to you to be able to review that so but creating this funds allows us to to Place Funding into this into because

156that's where um it wouldn't come out of our our general fund it would have to come out of a capital outlay fund question I I think there's a typo um the third whereas um seems to have an incomplete Clause there um unrestricted County School service fund 01 via inter fund transfers and other something should that be other sources other funds not clear what the other is no I I believe it's just inner fund transfers and the and other can come off that would be fun yeah well I'm happy to make the motion and with that Amendment and appreciate also appreciate your even though you said you enjoyed it you stayed here through a pretty long meeting it was it was quite entertaining too yeah well you know if I'm going to have to stay for

157a meeting this was the one to stay for so yes thank you for that indeed indeed well the Motions on the on the floor so I'll was there a second no I'll be the seconder Bruce with Sandra second Jes student trustee um Alvarez zado yes trusty aosta hi trusty Estrada yes trusty Nichols yes truste Sanchez yes trusty Van Allen president Roth yes thank you have a g F evening thank you thank you okay so that motion passes and next uh we will be uh scheduling a special board meeting and uh I'll let Abel you want to take this or Bruce both yes so we have a committee that was formed uh last meeting specifically to address the uh board vacancy that we have from uh truste Alto and um we did receive some uh applicants

158and we were discussing a date to be able to um do the interview process and selection I believe um the deadlines don't allow us to wait until our next uh scheduled meeting so um so yes appointments must be determined and final by Friday June 14th which unfortunately is not in time for our regularly scheduled uh meeting so that's why we have to do a special board meeting so we uh so vona was able to send out a poll dle poll which I believe most of us responded to and um suggesting May 28th 29th or the 30th and I believe the 30th was the one that most of us could attend um so uh bringing this to the uh board so that we can determine agree that May 30th does work and um remind me of

159the time 4:30 to 6:30 I have in my notes 4:30 to 6:30 or that for that particular date the 30th perfect does that work the other ones were four to six 28th and 29th 4:00 to 6 o' so 4:30 to 6 May 30th a Thursday Fray it's h Tuesday Wednesday and Thursday just Thursday fine with me I'll go with Thursday okay so then what is the time 430 to yes so the um reason I had asked for your availability at 4:30 is because we have the May revise that day from 2: to 4: and so to allow you all a break transition to breathe before we got into nervious so I believe we need a motion right to be able to um to make that special board meeting yes is there anybody who can't come

160on that date before we decide to choose that date Thursday I could come on any of these dates I'm just available um again I think we all responded to the doodle poll and I believe that's that works for us all so unless something came up between the past week when that pool went out and today I believe we can all attend it and I do want to um um I do want to acknowledge Rachel and Williams who are here who was here with us today thank you for um joining us in uh listening and being a part of the the board meeting this week this month um any any motion that was made uh so I will move for uh May 30th 4:30 to 6 for the interviews and appointment we're talking about 4:30 to

1616:30 is that is it 6:30 hey I put 6:30 on the doodle poll but there's um our board meetings don't have a strict end time so let's just do a beginning a start time it's a strict start time starting at 4:30 motion made by Edward second by Bruce uh need to roll call student trusty a delado yes trusty a Costa trusty Estrada yes trustee Nichols yes truste Sanchez yes trusty Van Allen president Roth yes so the uh motion passes and we will have our special board meeting on May 30th at 4:30 here in this room he superintendent report yes thank you so much uh for the opportunity to provide a a brief uh superintendent update you know this has been a quite a busy time and many of you have been a part of uh

162some of our activities uh this image was taken at our picnic last week and uh by with actually Jon shot and I think some of you may be in this photo and uh so thank you so much for for joining us uh we had this at uh what is the name of of the park Jennings and jeans and jeene cummings Park skyall and um and so uh really a wonderful event to get together and it was a uh it was uh just wonderful to be able to kind of let loose and relax and and join the fun I wanted to share with you that uh at this very moment uh two people two of our our own are being honored at the P Valley prevention Student Assistance Awards and um so Blanca corales was selected

163as a hero for children and she works in our alternative education program at seoa high school and um Michael painter was selected as a board member of the year for uh pahar Valley prevention Student Assistance so they're being honored or uh probably already occurred earlier today and it's just wonderful that uh they're you know they're being celebrated by by this uh Organization for for all the great work that they do in our community I I wanted to share with you just some of the events that have already occurred in may just because I think that is just kind of a a wonderful some of you've already talked about we had a presentation of fentanyl high on May 2nd the robotics competition we already discussed the rainbow flag raising we had a career and resource fair

164at seoa high school on May 9th uh we had a fun day for our students with special needs uh and um we uh went to the queer youth leadership awards and then last night we had another showing of the movie fentel High uh in Watson Ville and uh so just a lot of wonderful things that are taking place May such a a busy uh busy month for us but they also these are culminating events for different parts of the different uh aspects not necessarily ones that we're you know facilitating only ourselves but that we partner with and support and there's just a lot of it's it really it brings me great joy and and I I hope it does for you as well to see that the Coe is involved in so many with so

165many partners and doing so much good work on behalf of students and the community I did want to share with you a little bit more about the fental crisis because this is something that is that is a very of great concern to us when you look at the data Santa Cruz County is uh is one of the highest counties in the state when it comes to overdoses uh with fentanyl we're the eighth highest in the state as of for last year and um this is one of the reasons why we've been getting so involved in U bringing awareness for prevention of Fentanyl both for overdose and also for for fental poisoning because uh in some cases people are uh and young people are are looking to acquire fentanyl in other cases it's they're looking to

166acquire something else and they get poisoned with fentanyl in uh either case we want to make sure that that uh we're helping young people we're helping parents we're helping the community to be aware of the dangers and the risks and and think about what protective factors we can put in place as Upstream as possible possible so that we're we're helping people uh young people to make good decisions for themselves and not experiment and not take risks and also Downstream when we think about uh how to get Naran in the hands of everybody so that if somebody sees and and also to learn the symptoms of of Overdose and know how to respond and and how to help somebody who may be experiencing an overdose and fenel high which is a movie by Kyle Santoro many

167of you uh learned about this and have been a part of it uh just uh inspiring is is an understatement but a young man who's a senior in high school who who made a 70-minute film that talks about so many different aspects of the fenol EP epidemic and specifically looking at how it's impacting Youth and how communication and um relationships uh with family and friends are so important and um and how to make sure that we're we're we're supporting our youth through the Mental Health crisis and so that they're not self-medicating and taking risks that could lead to uh you know the dangers of fentanyl um we're also working on building Health Care Pathways also wanting to promote ebike safety we're seeing a lot more emergency cases emergency room cases as a result of EB

168ebike safety we're promoting a nutrition and exercise uh campaign uh we'll be inviting you to an event in September or October where we're going to be it's a summit to share some of the things that we're working on things that could be done in school things that could be done at home um how to make sure students Young people are keep moving that they're um that families and and youth are making healthy choices for themselves and of course we continue to work hard on our behavioral health initiative and in partnership with with um uh the county of of of Santa creu and other partners such as the alliance um as well as uh federally qualified Health Centers and um and of course our our school districts uh this is uh you know all part of

169our our different initiatives that we focus on uh the one that I think we'll be probably coming back to you with with uh uh some some additional information is the nutrition exercise campaign when the when our Summit occurs in the fall but also behavioral health because in January 2025 is when uh we'll be able to uh when all the programs in Santa Cruz County will be able to access the funding that to get reimbursed for for Behavioral Health Services we'll be able to Bill insurance right now pbd is leading the the way and they're piloting us uh this this process but everybody ages 0 to 25 if we provide services to them using the system we'll be able to Bill insurance and get reimbursed for the first time it's a very exciting revolutionary piece that's

170going to really have a big impact for our youth um wanted to share with you some of our upcoming events graduations of course you've seen the schedule on May 23rd uh the wonderful author Francisco gimenez is going to be doing a book reading of a new novel graphic novel at seoa high school and we'd love it if you could join us for that uh the black rat event is taking place on May 25th you heard a little bit about it from our black student union we also have our our special education post senior graduation here on May 30th and wonderful event that we'd love for you to join we're going to be participating in Santa Cruz Pride on June 2nd we'll be tabling as well as as uh participating in in the in the parade

171and and then we'll be initiating our student trustee Academy we'd love it Bruce if you're available to help us again and but we'll invite all of you to join us uh and uh to uh to we'll be working we're we're already recruiting our students uh they'll be learning about how to be a student trustee uh uh we'll see if Oscar maybe might come and and be a guest speaker as well and um to to welcome the a new group of students uh with us a lot of exciting things happening and um we also are going to send you a link to all of the pictures from the picnic so that you're you're able to see uh some of the fun that we had I'll I'll just do a a quick uh there was me trying

172to convince somebody to sing um uh giving showing the lyrics a lot of there was a trivia game and it looks like that's that those are all the the the pictures that we have so not a lot but uh okay well we'll add more to the collection soon so you singing um no I I I didn't I was just doing a little grooving in the background to do some inspiring that uh I was uh just trying to I think that's going to be the next thing though we we'll be doing some karaoke next year I think I think we're we're very close Happ silence nobody jumped up I thought there'd be some people who would be but thank you for for supporting uh in in so many ways uh and and in many cases showing

173up to to these different events and if you're able to participate in our graduate situations those are the Highlight for us and and uh so that you could be recognized as as and and the playing the important role that you play is in supporting all the services we offer thank you is there a time on the black graduation you know off the top of your head or maybe you can just send it out to us I have three o'clock to six o'clock three to six okay great thank you well that a lot of fun okay um we did we have to we're going to yeah I was going oh I oh okay oh there's organization board sorry Oscar what do you have to report um I was at the SE by literacy award ceremony at

174Watsonville high school during the meow Center I think what I would most like to report on that was I think cuz I went last year for my brothers and I could see the difference from this year there was a lot more school included and more students as well from those schools I think it was awesome more languages as well not just Spanish too was really great may I say something about that yes I was on the board in paharo and and I was the trustee who pushed that and made that happen and they're still doing it and it's a it's a just a worthy seal of biliteracy I I just I just compliment myself for being pushy about it yeah yeah and um next time y'all see me I maybe graduated I don't know but

175also I would love to be a part of the Student truste Academy and yeah that is all for my report thank you so much are you uh pondering uh further education uh yeah I plan to attend Cabrio uh trustees reports Edward uh I mentioned it a little earlier uh first uh I spoke at the rainbow flag raising here at the Coe that was uh really amazing Ian it was there were media there was media there [Laughter] thanks you did very well thank you um so I mean it was great to see that coverage to you know really you know Spotlight the work that you the Coe uh is doing to support our LGBT qia 2s plus students um and then the qua the queer youth leadership awards uh on May 11th I mean that was

176that was amazing it went like an hour over but like I loved it so I was like you know it was it was if I were to sit you know at a meeting that went on and on that was that was where I wanted to be and they and they fed us so I was like yeah sure so I mean it was just amazing the students were amazing we saw some of them earlier today and it's just you know really great to see that leadership um the advocacy that they're doing they're all speaking up um and uh I mean they were really passionate and in their speeches they were really advocating you know for things that they really really believe in and I um you know they even brought that energy you know here uh

177speaking about you know um uh the the um you know programs that they benefit from uh and that they want to continue to see uh provided in our community so good for them for speaking up for what they believe in so it was amazing to see thank you Sandra I'll be next then I've got so much on my calendar I'm afraid I'm going to just read off things that don't have anything to do with this Coe uh but um the the the picnic I thought was fabulous and and you guys brought out the uh the the toys that children and and adults could play together they had they had purchased a lot of toys for the picnic save it for next year too and um oh let's see that was on um on W a

178Wednesday and Wednesday's my day to pick up my my granddaughter remember 10 years ago I sat on the board and I said I'm G to be a grandma now my granddaughter is is nine years old and she and I brought her to the picnic and she sampled the toys especially the big bubbles that was her favorite and uh I don't think we were in the picture but maybe with a microscope you could see but that's fine okay and then on on Thursday the ne the next day I attended the uh rainbow flag raising I what's what's the name of what is the name of it flag progress flag yeah okay good I'm gonna start calling it the progress flag okay and uh and then the picnic I said that so I I was I went

179to that and uh I had the best Mother's Day Ever this year I'm not going to tell you about it now in public but if anyone wants to know what the best Mother's Day event is I could tell you about it yeah uh let's see all the rest of this is is just doctor appointments yeah that's what it is and and dentist appointments and thank you Sandra able so I want to congratulate again Michael painter Blanca Cor for um doing the good work that they're doing in our community and being acknowledged for that as recipients of the heroes in prevention award by the pvpsa I also attended the uh staff appreciation on May 8th really enjoyed it I think it's a lot of people look forward to that and um it's just a good time

180to meet see people that maybe haven't seen in a while and catch up so I definitely enjoy it um really glad that that's something that we can offer really glad that it seems like it's really well appreciated as well and then May 14th uh we uh I along with Bruce met to talk about the board interview process to iron out those details and what that looks like and then also I want to encourage motivate everybody next week is a graduation week and I personally like the graduations that that that we put on I think they're very personal they're very communal very very very powerful so lots of different options different days different times different locations across the county so I definitely encourage motivate uh everybody to to attend and I know there's a couple of

181thoughts that are still open so uh so if you guys do have that time uh highly highly encourage everybody and that's my report thank you thank you I'd like pass for a little committee work and keeping eye on the budget um mostly though I've been not going to events because I can't chew anything and if it has food I'm going to be tempted I almost picked up one of those cookies in the room but I couldn't have it would have just hurt me to put it in my mouth and so but my friends have come through for me in an incredible way and I'm scheduled for surgery in June for a new set a new mouth basically so that's the big thing on my agenda um I have a question this the the I forget

182what it's called but the mental health handbook that the students created it looks really good and I wonder if there are copies available it looks like something that has been reproduced I actually know even know some people I'd like to handle it so if I may um we have several copies that the students have produced for the initial batch and we are um assisting them with funding to produce additional copies so um if you have any specific requests I'm sure we could get copies for each of the trustees and if there are any other organizations you think would benefit from them just let me know and I'll pass that along to the group I'd like one now but when you do a printing or something definitely people I know we'll do that and they would

183be good in our Comm you know the community schools to be their Lobby or very good it's well done all I'm done uh I attended the picnic and I attended the picnic and luckily someone told me the coconut sorbet had a shell rather than chocolate otherwise I'd be joining Bruce for dental surgery um attended the agenda and the quila the um award qua Awards up at Scots Valley all I can say is from where I stand and where Scots Valley has been uh it has come a long long way and I am thrilled and we we certainly have some Talent uh in our youth um I believe that is all I I wanted to and maybe this isn't appropriate but um The Golden Apple award would Santa Cruz High School IA program what they're doing

184might be appropriate I don't even know if it's still open but it it occurred to me that it they might be you're you're are you referring to the csba yeah csba golden app the Golden Bell award Golden Bell Golden Bell award the Golden Bell award is currently open U I'll have to double check on the submission deadline but they are accepting submissions for the Golden Bell categories right now I believe it is until um at least the end of May I'll double check that and this was what program are you speaking Santa Cruz high school did a presentation last year at csba and on the Ia and they blew out Philip khong AI their presentation and what they're doing at their high school and why they started it and all of that it does one

185of the requirements of the of the gold mow is that it has to be a program that has been in existence for two full years I think it will be now so it'll be two full years I believe so great I thought it was from last year but it had been in operation for a year great yeah anyway or we can stick it on the agenda for can take a look at at that uh we'll look at that timeline and that deadline is June 28th so we have reasonable amount of time to take a look at that yeah I just think it it was really a good presentent okay um let's see any uh committee reports I don't think I know I didn't make it to the Santa Cruz school boards Association and we both

186were gone so next time okay now um item 13 is organization of the board uh with our recent trustee resignation uh I we no longer have a trustee acting as vice president and um I would like to uh I have well I would like to call for nominations for vice president uh and then the board we will elect uh vice president and there's no one stepping forward I would like to nominate Abel I don't think we could do that uh since it's not on the agenda it's an appointment it's on the agenda it's on the agenda yep number 13 yeah it's hidden it's hidden okay yes to say yes yeah no it's fine if not I'm coming down the line here except y thank you very much AEL appreciate it I make a motion to

187nominate Abel Sanchez as vice president of the County Board of Education is there a second I'll second thank you Edward uh so motion by Bruce second by Edward if you would take a r call for us student trusty alvare elado yes trusty a Costa trusty Estrada yes trusty Nichols yes trusty Sanchez trusty Van Allen president Roth yes definitely if I uh I'm sorry the motion was to nominate and so we would need a motion to uh to appoint I also used the word appoint oh I'm sorry if I missed it I heard uh to nominate I didn't have I I think I said both things I I sound corrected I I think what I said was nominate able for appointment as so does that work or should I should we do a separate motion to

188I think just in case let's just make sure that you uh make an to select or appoint yeah so I moved to the board select Abel Sanchez as Vice its vice president for the remainder of the ter and I second that thank you and that still would be a roll call student truste alado yes trusty aosta trusty Estrada yes trusty Nichols yes trusty Sanchez yes trusty Van Allen president Roth yes so uh thank you vice president uh AEL now um our next board meeting will be on uh June 20th at 4 p.m. and correction president Roth our next meeting will be May 30th right I was saying a regular meeting but thank you thank you because I'm goofy uh and and our special uh to interview and appoint to the board will be happening on

189May 20 May 30 excuse me May 30th uh at 4:30 here in this uh room so don't we also have a a second meeting in June correct there's a uh two meetings the the regular meeting is June 20th and the special board meeting is on June 27th we need two meetings for approval of the lcap on uh June 20th is will be the public hearing on the lcap as well as some other and then June 27th will be approval of the elcap and it's on your that those I believe are are on your agenda okay so we'll be seeing a lot of each other over the next uh graduations and meetings Etc so I hereby uh during the meeting thank you for attending