Shasta County Board of Education Regular Meeting - January 14, 2026

001So, can everybody take their seats? Okay. All right. We're going to start with the pledge of allegiance. So, Jackie, >> ready? Pledge. I aliance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands. One nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. >> All right. Item three, level of the agenda. I would like to request a motion that we move item number 9.1.1, the Reading Sim Charter Academy renewal to right after public comment because we have a lot of people that are here for that. So, if there's someone that could make a motion, that would be great. >> Motion to move 9.1.2 to after public comment. >> I'll second. >> It's been moved and seconded. Uh we're just going to do a voice vote for this.

002So, all those in favor say I. >> I. >> Any opposed? All right. Thank you. Uh, item four is public comment. Uh, public comment for all agenda items and on matters that are not on the agenda, but that are within the Shasta County Board of Education's jurisdiction will take place during this item. Members of the public are invited to fill out a speaker card and review the speaking to the board handout available at the check-in table. The board is not allowed by law to take action on matters not on the agenda. Is there anybody that would like to address the board? >> All right. Thank you. All right. Then we will go to the Rostein Academy Charter renewal. Uh Mr. Freeman. >> Yeah. Thank you. Uh thank you, Michael. Thank you, board president, Michael Oricki.

003Uh we are looking I I appreciate our uh folks from our STEM here tonight. Um we are here to for the board to consider uh action on the charter renewal. Uh with the with the change in agenda, I was able to reach out to Nate Fairchild, who was scheduled to address to the board uh any any questions uh that folks had about the documents included in the board meeting materials. Uh Nate was would be prepared to speak to that. So, I'm hoping that as I'm speaking, Nate is arriving because uh the we went from 9.1.2 to now. Um but uh I I really do appreciate the turnout. Um I also want to commend uh my team uh our our SCO staff for the review of the petition. Uh as uh as we as we look

004at the petition, there are HR components, there are instructional components, uh there are fiscal components and so we have Nate has coordinated that effort. I do want to uh commend uh Nate Fairchild for the support that he provides to the charters that we authorize and uh for spearheading the the petition review. uh as as as we have the opportunity to uh to review these petitions. Um one of the questions that did come up uh from uh board trustees in the review of the meeting materials was the question regarding the uh the performance category from California Department of Education uh for charters that was recently released after the uh 2425 dashboard was released. So I believe January 7th, California Department of Education did come out with uh performance categories uh our STEM uh scored uh in

005the middle performing track and so that is uh that does allow the board to renew for a term up to five years uh with that. So um I I guess I can field questions if the board has them uh while we do wait for Mr. Fairchild. But um I will hand it back to the board for any any questions or discussion before actions taken on the charter. Are there any questions from the board? I'd like uh to make a motion that we pass uh that we renew the charter for 5 years. >> Is there a second? >> I'll second. >> It's been moved and seconded. Uh we can do a voice vote for this as well. All those in favor say I. >> I. Any opposed? All right. Motion carries. 7 to zero. Welcome, welcome,

006mate. Uh, that action has been taken 70. So, I I do want to thank you for the work that you have done uh spearheading the petition review. and uh to our our STEM staff, to students, to families that are here, uh thank you so very much for the the way that you uh come together as a school community to meet student needs. And that's uh that's that's what we're about. >> Thank you. I thought it was one of the best presentations. Thank you. >> Okay. Uh item 5.1 is the surplus property in the city living advisory committee and that is Ariel. >> Uh yeah, I want to I want to thank Olly for coming up. He she is pinching for Tom and I'd like to invite her up to speak to 7-Eleven committee is not

007uh is not new to us. Uh it is a requirement as we look at the transportation department uh getting a new building. Uh with that with that project estimated to wrap up by the end of this fiscal year. Uh that will vacate our current transportation building in order to move forward with any plans of the vacated building. We would need to form a 7-Eleven committee to look at all of our properties. And that's what brings AR here tonight. >> Yes. Good evening board members. Superintendent Freeman. Thank you for having me. Um oh this is great. The minutes are here so it'll keep me honest. Um, so this is just going to be an overview in general of the surplus property process. Some of you might be familiar with it. Some of you this might be

008new. Part of that is the 7-Eleven committee process. So the county board of education including and all other LEAs are subject to kind of two bodies of law um when it when you go to dispose of real property. So anytime the board wants to acquire a lease, hold or convey real property, they have to follow these certain provisions. And also your board policy 3280 lays out these processes. Okay? So again, you're subject to two bodies of law. You guys are special. Um first is the education code and is the surplus land act. So when we're interfacing sometimes with our county counterparts or our city counterparts, they'll be like, why do you have to go through all these additional procedures? That's because they typically only are subject to the surplus land act but we get to

009do both. So the process is generally we are going to identify the properties. What do we have in our bank that might be surplus? We are going to then form a 7-Eleven committee and we'll get further into that. Then we are going to declare the property surplus. Um make those required offers. There is a series of public notices that must go out and then it is competitive bidding process. So kind of like an auction and if all else goes then you've completed the process and can you move to dispose of the property in any lawful manner. So I will say generally this timeline can take anywhere from 90 days at at a very short timeline to anywhere from 180 days. it it's all going to be dependent one on the kind of the notice process

010the ability to form the 7-Eleven committee all of these various steps in place so it's not particularly a a quick or expedient process just putting that forward okay so what is the 7-Eleven advisory committee in education code 17388 it requires you any time before you are going to sell or lease I think that's really important property you have to form an advisory committee which is going to advise the board on the disposition of the property. So the board will appoint the 7-Eleven committee and it's called a 7-Eleven committee because it has to be comprised between 7 and 11 members all meeting these specific categories. So the composition is set forth in the education code. Things like a representative of business community, a teacher, an administrator, uh parents of students. All of these are kind of

011self- selected. When the applicants apply, they'll say which category they meet. So what does the committee do? They hold public hearings. They hold Brown Act open public hearings and they gather information about Scoie property and then they act in advisory capacity of the board. So they are going to review a bunch of information um about the properties kind of what is the state of of SKO's current property holdings what could we potentially use for and they are going to do that by evaluating what they're required to evaluate by law which is determine the amount of surplus space and real property within SKO's assets um develop a priority list of acceptable uses they're going to again hold public hearings and they will gather public input so that's a great time for the public to come forth

012and say, "Hey, here's how we want this property to be used." Then they're going to make a and when we say final determination, that means they are going to make their final recommendation to the board and that is getting presented that will be presented in a report to the board. So there is going to be kind of three properties that this committee is going to evaluate. One is we're referring to the Shasta House. It is a residential property. It's three-bedroom, two bath. Um it is currently it's based in in Red. It's on Red Buff Road and it's zoned RR rural residential. The other is a lot. It's about 75 acres. It is in Bernie. Um if you pull up the address, it is not the house listed on Google Maps, but it so it's the

013lot to the to the right. And it's also zoned as residential. And then the final, as Superintendent Freeman was discussing, is the transportation yard. Um and that's about 1.96 acres and that's in a heavy industrial commercial zone. And then of those options presented that the 711 committee will determine, they are going to either recommend that you retain the property, you sell it, you lease it, or exchange it. And again, that's going to come to the board in a final report. Those kind of considerations or options that they are going to present at the end are advisory. So the board can take those into consideration of whe what it chooses to do as it moves forward. So once they presented the report to the board then the next step is to declare the property surplus. Now

014under the education code there technically was no requirement that you had to do this formal declaration but under the surplus land act you have to declare if the property is surplus land or exempt surplus land. Now there are series of exemptions under the surplus land act. One of those was formally if you complied with the 7-Eleven committee process, it was automatically considered exempt surplus land. The legislature as of June 30th, 2026 removed that exemption, but there are are other possible exemptions that we'll explore. And the main difference is exempt surplus land. um if it is not exempt surplus land. So if it's just surplus land, you have to also provide a numerous other notices in addition to what we're already having to provide under the education code. So once you declare it exempt or non-exempt

015surplus land, that is when it triggers the required notices. So again, there's a series of notices. Some of these will apply, some of these will not depending on the type of property. The first is the Naylor Act. um that is really for kind of former school sites or playground playfield space. Now, the next two are what we refer to as tier one and tier 2 offers. Those are going to be to the city, to the county, to the parks and recck department, to the housing authority if one exists, um based on where the property is located. And those will be in a series of notices. And so they have a about a set amount of time to respond once they receive those notices. So they have 60 days to determine whether they want to submit

016an offer for the property. And then finally, there's also this public notice that goes out via the newspaper and that gets um published for 3 weeks and that it casts a broader net and that actually allows any kind of nonprofit or other local agency that is not giving specific notices to submit an offer at that time in addition to the offers. So, as we go through this process, eventually if if no one wants to submit an offer, the next step will be coming back to the board and adopting what's called a resolution of an intent to sell. This is just under the assumption that you're you would sell the property. Um, but before you do that, there's also a series of offers or notices that you have to send. One is to the prior owner

017to make a reasonable effort to identify who that is of the property. Another is to the local planning commission um so they can make a determination whether the disposition is in conformance with the general plan. And then an important one is to the department of housing and community development. That is where you'll submit your your exempt surplus land determination or surplus land determination and they will within 30 days tell you that they agree or disagree with your finding. So if you do not receive any offer during that process, then the next step is we offer the property to the public. So and that comes in the form of adopting a resolution of intent to sell. That is something that's brought to the board. It has to be approved by a twothirds vote. And that sets

018a time and date for when a time and date at least 3 weeks in the in the future because it has to be advertised for at least 15 days of when you're going to hold an auction and it's going to be like a public bid. So we're going to have an auctioneer. Someone's going to say, "Hey, $1, $2, $3." Okay, that not quite like that, but you'll get written offers in and then if there's written offers, there is this oral offer component. And that's where we talk about here. So there is this interesting it it's maybe a little bit of a relic because of when the statute was written but there is this kind of oral bid component or if you don't actually receive a written offer by the time and date stated in the

019resolution someone could put an offer you know right there on the floor if you want to consider 1 minute 10 seconds left questions. Yes thank you very much if you can just back up I think three slides. I had a question on the order that it's um the notices are gone to because before it goes to the public, it goes to the planning commission. >> Great question. So, some of these notices can be sent at the same time. >> That's what So, okay, because that's still weird to to give it to the planning commission. >> Oh, well, so the planning commission so these required notices don't actually allow them to submit an offer. So, these are for um determining basically conformance. So the planning commission gets a notice to evaluate and say whether your sale

020or lease of the property meets their kind of plan, their general plan or their specific plan for the area. It's an advisory, but it it is a process. >> Uh author, >> I had a couple questions about exemptions because we have one is the old bus barn, the other one is a house that looks like people are living in, and then uh the third one is land that's never been used or developed. And what I was reading is that we could gift that without a 7-Eleven committee, maybe to a city or a county or someone else so they can use it as an easement. And it seems to be on the corner of something. So I don't know if we can give that away without forming a 71 committee to like the town of Bernie

021that it's in and they can utilize it for their purposes for their people. >> So it's required before any disposition. So a disposition could be considered. the 7-Eleven committee component is required for that. So anytime So the gift would be an interesting thing we would need to look into. Easements are actually a whole separate legal process that has to be followed. Um that's definitely something we we could look into and see where it falls. But there's not like an express gift exemption under >> I think we we've tried to do a 7-Eleven committee for that before and we were unsuccessful. So at this point it's like if we can give it away then we don't have to pay taxes or whatever it is that we have to upkeep it and maintain it. If we could

022give it to the people of Bernie they can take it and use it how they want. >> Definitely something we can look into and explore. >> Uh Laura. >> Yeah. So kind of piggybacking on what author said and this is more a question for Mike because we did form a 7-Eleven committee and then it never was really activated. So are those people still around and able because it seems when you when you give that big list of requirements it's kind of tricky to find enough people to volunteer that fit those different things. And so do we have people who are ready to step in and do it or are we starting from scratch again? And then what what sort of happened before? What why didn't it activate? >> Yeah. Uh President, I'm in I'm next

023in the queue, but I'll yield to Austin. >> Okay, Austin. So, we did uh compile a list. We recruited for a 7-Eleven committee. Um and at that time, as you know, the timeline for the completion of our transportation yard has been extended beyond what we thought that it was going to be. And so at the time we decided not to convene the 7-Eleven. So we never started the 7-Eleven process. We had only gathered a list of people that were interested in serving on that committee. Now we are to the actual point where we know when the transportation department will be moving to their new location. And so we'd like to start this process now so that when they vacate this summer, we will have done the work to be able to designate it as surplus

024land. And a decision can be made on how we're moving forward with that. And then, um, Trusty Gorman, uh, kind of a good question, and I I kind of expected people might ask this question because I was quite surprised to find out that we owned a three-bedroom house in Old Chasta. Uh, and so that was gifted to Skoey in 1994. And at the time, we had a much more fully operational West program where the intent was for that to be that was housing for staff that worked at the program. Over time, we sunseted providing staff housing for Wes and then the NPS picked it up as a lease for their seasonal staff where they offer housing. Some regulations have changed at the federal level where they're no longer allowed to enter into those leases. And

025since we do not have another purpose for it and we don't want to be landlords, we're taking it to 7-Eleven. Now, the house is currently vacant, so there are no occupants in the house. And then fully agree with you on the Bernie property. um we're just looking to get rid of it because we own a vacant lot and it doesn't make sense. And that one we were gifted in 1977 and it is in a residential area that is zoned residential and um we would like to figure out how to uh give that to somebody who could use it or sell it or whatever the board determines. Just following up on my question, um do you think that these people that we found out that we got together earlier are still out there and might be

026interested now? >> Yeah, I apologize. Um yes, so we still have that list and so we intend to reach out to the folks who had expressed interest in serving on the initial 7-Eleven committee and then based on the folks that had expressed interest that round, we will recruit to fill the remaining seats of 7 to 11 members. Are there any other questions? You want me to click the button, >> Jackie? >> Um, so but I want to make sure though that Yes, I see what you're saying. Not like starting all over again, but I want the whole process transparent and open to everybody from the beginning of the formation of the 7-Eleven. I don't want to just go and do these people that already signed up and then we hit seven with that and no

027one else knows what's going on. >> Yeah. So, I think what I'm hearing you say is uh the preference would be that we open a new recruitment for the 7-Eleven and we reach out to the folks who had previously expressed interest to let them know that they had the opportunity to express interest again. Okay. >> Any other questions? Thank you. >> All right. Thank you. >> Thank you very much. >> All right. Uh item 5.2 is a presentation from I Bailey. Uh Mr. Freeman. >> Yeah. I want to I want to welcome Bobby Patel. Uh Bob looks familiar. Last year he was he was here to answer questions that the board had regarding our audit report. The audit report is included in the board packet and we have invited Bobby. Thank you so very much

028for your your time and your travel to uh to be here tonight and uh we've asked him to uh go over our audit that was included in the packet. >> No problem. Thank you for having me. I promise this is not as entertaining as the last one. >> Um >> and really quick, Bobby, just the the time here is a guide, but we do want to be respectful of your travel and uh those things that you have to share. So >> Okay. So what I'm going to present today it's the audit report which includes the financial statement opinion, the federal compliance opinion and also the state compliance opinion. In addition to that, the AUC260 communication letter that the board received along with the audit report. Um before I get started, I usually like to define

029what an audit is. It's a process designed to provide a reasonable assurance or the financial statements are free of material misstatements. And the ultimate goal of an audit is to provide an auditor's opinion. The highest level of opinion we provide is called the unmodified opinion. And the way we get there it's through a risk assessment approach understanding and reviewing SKO's internal controls and ultimately testing transactions on a sample basis. For Skoi we um break up the audit into two phases. The first phase is the interim audit which is conducted over summertime um generally July August time frame. Um this includes planning the audit and risk assessing various areas. Um reviewing internal controls, reviewing your federal compliance programs and your state compliance as well. And then the second phase and the final phase is the final

030audit which is conducted after Skoi closes its books and presents the unodituded actuals to the board. And then we come in after that portion of the time frame. Um we'll wrap up any federal compliance that was hanging over from summer visit and also any state compliance. And in addition to that, we'll audit the unodudited actuals to figure out if they're materially correct. And if they're not, they're um it results in an audit adjustment, which I'll go over later if we had any or not. Um to kind of highlight the difference between the accounting um policies and procedures, um there's modified acrruel and full acrruel. So what you see in the unodudited actuals that were presented, I believe in October, it's called modified acrruel. This doesn't include any of the long-term assets or long-term liabilities such

031as capital assets, leases, um, pension and oped liabilities. So, the modified acral statements are pages 16, 18, 78, and 79. These closely align to what was presented in the unodudited actual minus the formatting differences. And then we take those modified acral statements and convert them to full acrruels which are presented on pages 14 and 15 of the audit report. Um, these are the governmental activities financial statements. This include all of your long-term assets and liabilities that I mentioned previously. And then going over some of your um significant um long-term liabilities, one of them being pension expense or pension liability. Skoi is part of Calsters and Kalpers for its employees for pension plans. It's a cost sharing multiple employer benefits plan. Um the ACT contribution requirements for 25 fiscal year was 19.1% for Calsters meaning every

032dollar that payroll goes out for 19 cents is put into Calsters and then for Kalpers it was 27.05%. So as you can see these have drastically been increasing over the years and I have another slide that kind of paints the picture of where it's at. Um these two plans are audited by independent auditor that's elected by Stirs and PERS. Um the liability to each LEA is allocated based on a proportionate share of the contributions you made in the previous fiscal year. So this is this is a 10-year look back of your Calsters liability. Um as you could see like the contributions from when it started in 2016 to now have increased significantly in addition to the liability. Again um this is all calculated by an acturial. Only thing we do is allocated based on a

033proportionate share. So we do rely on stirs and pers acturals to calculate the overall liability. And then this paints the same picture for for kelpers. And then these are the county's contributions to kelsters over the last 10 years. Um, as you could see, it started off about 500,000 or so and then in 2025 it was 1.6 million. So each year goes by and in addition to that the contribution levels have increased and then u Calpers it's paints about a similar picture as well. The other significant liability that's um on Scoby's financial is the other post-employment benefit plans OPED plan. It's a single employer OPED plan. Um liability again is estimated amount actuary that's selected by Skoey. Um we utilize that actuary valuation to book the liability and associated numbers. Um Skoey does have a trust

034for OPED which offsets that liability pretty much in full and in addition that it actually ended up in an OPE asset which is not typical for a lot of our LEAs. Um it's very unique to I would say maybe five or six of my clients out of 40 which is a good thing. um that's always planning for the future to offset that liability. And this is a 10ear look back on the OPED liability. As you could see when it start um the next pages, oh okay, so this is the first five years and the next page is the the later five. It started off with $832,000 as an actual liability and then over the years KOY started planning and putting aside monies in a trust to offset that liability. So now it it's pretty much

035fully covered. The next page I want to draw your attention to, it's called the summary of auditor's results page. It's page 92. Um this is one page in the audit report where it summarizes the three opinions we provide over the financial statements, federal awards, and state compliance awards. On the financial statements, we earned a unmodified opinion. As I mentioned, that's the highest level of assurance an entity can earn. Um there were no material weaknesses or significant deficiencies noted. Um we had no audit adjustments. So what they presented to you in October, it's what we're appining on and saying we concur with it. It's materially accurate. On the federal awards, um we tested one major federal program. There were no material weaknesses or significant deficiencies noted. On the state award score, we also earned unmodified opinion

036with no material weaknesses or significant deficiencies noted. And then sort of to summarize um the findings we've historically had um since 21 to present there was only one fiscal year 2023 where we had a non-compliance findings for federal federal compliance for child and adult care program and SR3. Um as you can see it's go we resolved those findings in 2024 and going forward. So it's no longer an issue. The next page I want to draw your attention to, it's called the it's called the schedule of financial trends page. Um it highlights your um fund one. What this page tells us is go had a surplus um for the last three fiscal years and it's projecting a oper um a deficit in 2526. Again, this deficit, it's not really an abnormal trend. We're pretty much seeing

037it across all our LEAs in California. Um, as all the LEA spent down all the one-time CO dollars, now they're trying to figure out how to move forward with it. So, I'm anticipating the deficits is probably going to be there this perhaps next year. Uh, long-term debts have obligations have increased. Again, that's mainly your pension and OPED liabilities. And then the next portion I want to cover, it's the communication with the governance letter. Um, this was provided with the audit report as well. Um the intent of that letter is to communicate directly with governance of any audit adjustments um findings appropriate accounting princ policies were followed significant estimates um significant risk that we noted during the audit corrected or uncorrected misstatements. Couple things on this letter that's not in the audit report. It's if we

038had any disagreement with the management or if there was any differences we noted and I'm happy to report we had none. The management team and all of the employees have been wonderful to work with. And then the last portion this letter out outlines it's um any significant risk. Um the ones that we identified were management overrider controls revenue recognition. These two are bases of all our audits. So it's not specific to Scoi. Uh we have to address them in our audit and if we had we noted any actual um issues with those risk we would have reported those as financial statement findings. and then also pension liability and oped liability as their significant estimates. That being said, I'm open to any questions you might have for the audit report. >> Jackie, >> thank you. Um,

039I had a question. So if you have an entity that you're auditing that has 3,000 programs, federal programs, and you what is the standard of percentage of programs that you would test? So like you said you test one federal program under Skoey, but how many federal programs do we have? I'm just wondering how did you choose just to do one? >> Yeah, that's a great question. So it's actually not even um by auditor's judgment. It's outlined by the fed. Um, if you're a low-risk entity like Skoi is, we're required to test 20% of all federal expenditures. And if you're a high-risisk entity, we're required to test 40% of all expenditures. That being said, um, it does get broken out into type A programs, type B programs. So, there's a calculation that's prescribed in the standards,

040how to calculate what a type A program is for each entity because that dollar amount does change based on the total federal expenditures. So first we'll evaluate um calculate which programs are type A and type B and then if once we figure that out the type A programs we have to audit each type A every third year at minimum unless there were findings or any issues noted or any other reason why we need to audit it again you know each year. So there's a whole criteria outlined in the regulations for it. Any other questions? >> All right. Thank you. >> Thank you, Bobby. >> You're welcome. >> All right. We're on item six, board initiatives, and we have a presentation on the substance use prevention subcommittee. I want to thank Jen and Maggie for your

041flexibility. Uh you were here last month and uh you uh were willing to move this uh this presentation to this month. Uh we did have a very busy file in the world of prevention and I would like to turn the time over to to Jen. Uh we are allowing for 10 minutes here and then time for board questions. >> Cool. Um, the last time I saw all of you was before our good friend Rocky came. And so there's been, like Mike said, a lot of wonderful things that have happened uh this past fall and winter. And so I'm going to hop into those. Uh, so for our presentations, these are the four presentations that we offer. And right now, our count is at 66 presentations to,700 students. Um and our uh the rest of our

042winter and the rest of our spring is filling up quickly with um different requests from schools. So uh we are at a good steady pace for those presentations in classrooms. Um and then with peer educators, we have 29 peer educators trained to go into classrooms. Um they have worked through their employment paperwork and we've learned from how long it took last year that everything has been super streamlined. Uh Richard has been wonderful in um getting them all together and we will be starting classroom presentations in February. And so um because it is to third through fifth age groups, it will be able to happen through this school year and into summer. And so we're reaching out to Reading Wreck, we're reaching out to other um summer care programs and afterchool programs to get into those

043spaces. And then our students who are peer educators have recommended the classes they were in to go back into the classes uh where they know the teachers which is a cool opportunity. Uh and then we had the piece by piece art contest. So as you may remember all of the art was done within a puzzle piece format. And so we had 336 submissions from 19 different schools. Um, and our youth commission uh at the I think at the beginning of their December meeting said, "Well, what if we held a gallery walk?" And then we said, "Well, when would you want to do it?" And they said, "How about two weeks?" Um, and so that was insane. But the students pulled it together. We had about seven student helpers. Um, and we ended up having 95

044students and families attend. And so they walked up and down the halls of Magnolia. They looked at art. Um Mike was sprinkling sprinkles on their hot cocoa. We had cream puffs. Um and so Julie um our project coordinator gets the award for biggest prevention parent event. But it was wonderful. And you know as a girl was leaving with her prize. She said, "I can't wait for the art I submit next year." So um you know there's anticipation building. We're uh coordinating relationships with different art teachers. And so it's a really cool thing that is building every year. And these are some of the art pieces. This is done by a second grader saying, "I don't hang with drugs." And it's on a monkey bar. Um this is another student who kind of broke out of

045the box of just doing in the puzzle piece. This No, this is Sequoia. Um and then this is from Enterprise High. Life can take you higher than drugs. Um, so a lot of the art was so hard to choose from, but we opened it up to Skoey staff to be able to vote and our youth commission uh students also voted. Uh, and then for our uh prevention miniigrants, we have selected our five recipients. So that will be Foothill High, Sobergrad, Enterprise High Soberg, Pioneer Continuation, Boulder Creek, and Ready for Life Host Homes. Uh, and then we got to do a parent event with the Foothill High Soberg parents. Um, and so we had 14 in the room at Good Times Pizza and Palisro. Um, and I gave them an overview of everything from vaping to

046marijuana to all of the things that parents should know. And these were some of their major takeaways. Uh, they said drug use prevention needs to start at home. I'm convinced that if we keep talking, more will start listening. and they are sneaky and I am old is what one parent said. So, um it was really good feedback and you know being in the sober parent area you would assume that they might have more knowledge um but they were um as uninformed as any parent that you would find in Shast County. Uh and then here's an update on Rocky events. So he was here from October 19th through the 24th. Um, I now have an even longer list of crazy Rocky stories that I can dig into at any time from his experience in the DEA.

047But, uh, we did a post survey after our big eighth grade event. Um, and from that 95.9% said they learned something from the assembly. And just so you know, that is around 1,800 eighth graders in the David Maher at UPREP. Um and then we asked them what age should stu students learn about this information and their highest answers with were fifth, sixth, seventh and eighth grades. So uh that's when they think that learning should start. Um and then like I said 1,800 students. Um and then we also were able to reach a thousand more through um going to Anderson Middle School, going to uh because they weren't able to make it to this event. uh going to Fall River High School. Um any student any uh schools that would have us, we went. Um but

048their biggest takeaway from their long response was that they're craving adult connection and then they're they're actually wanting more education. Um and these are just some snapshots with the time I have left of what students said in the long response. Um and so a student from Shassa Union Elementary said, "I used to vape and I knew what it was doing to me. I just didn't think all of all that could happen to me." I want to thank Rocky for knocking that sense into my head. I didn't spell that incorrectly, but I felt like I wanted to keep their spelling uh true to what they wrote. Uh, and then you prep 8th grade. I really liked what he said about some of us hiding behind these masks, making us look okay when we really aren't because

049sometimes I wish people would understand and ask if I'm okay. So, we took a lot of these responses and that data and we've been sharing it with administrators. so administrators um you know know what their students have been saying and we're using also this information to drive the work that our youth commission does or yeah that our youth commission does as we head into uh the spring. But with that um questions, comments? >> Yeah. Are there any questions or comments? Teresa, >> yeah. >> Um, what is Ready for Life host Homes? >> Uh, it is a foster care and transitional home, uh, nonprofit. And so, what they're doing actually with their, uh, funding is doing life skills courses for students that have a, um, substance use prevention tie-in. >> Yeah. >> Okay. So, it's going

050to be learning life skills and also sharing prevention messaging. >> Nice. Nice. Thank you, >> Mike. Yeah. Thank you, Jen, for the report. Thank you to for the the work of the team. Um, that art exhibit, one of the my key memories from that, I'm walking through the hall and I can't make it through the hall. There's just a ton of people. I make it down to the cocoa. I get assigned sprinkles. I start asking our team like, "Wow, this is so much better than last year. whose idea was the gallery walk? And they said the kids. I was like, "Oh, that that makes sense." And then uh on the peer educators uh training was held. They tried to coordinate the the schedules and calendars of busy kids. Training was actually held on Thanksgiving break

051>> and like over 20 kids came on break for that training. So, it's just on agenda and I just appreciate the work of the group. >> Thank you so much. >> Thank you. Item number seven, the consent agenda. These action items are of a Oh, Jessica, did you have a question for them >> about the >> Oh, a teeny nature items for which no discussion is anticipated and are acted upon by a single vote. Board members may request that any item be removed and given individual consideration. Jessica, >> I'd like to pull 7.2.2. 2 >> 7.2.2. Are there any other board members wishing to pull an item? >> All right. Then can I get a motion to approve the rest of the consent agenda minus 7.2.2? >> Motion to approve consent agenda minus 7.1.2. >>

052Is there a second? >> It's 7.2.2. >> Motion to approve consent agenda minus 7.2.2. too. >> Okay. Is there a second? >> We'll second. >> All right. It's been moved and seconded. We can do a voice vote. All those in favor say I. >> I. >> Any opposed? >> All right. So, Jessica, would you like to speak about item 7.2.2? >> Sure. I just think that um well I don't think I do have some concerns about the process for the SARB um partnerships and I'd like to ask some questions in regards to that and I'm just wondering if this is the appropriate time for that. >> Uh I I think I could field your questions if I can answer those questions or Claudia between the two of us. If not we can definitely go get

053answers. Um, I just think because these people are dealing with vulnerable families and children that it's really imperative we ensure that there are um, processes in place that protect kids from having one-on-one experiences with people outside of our organization. And so my first question is what is our current process for approving SARB partners? Uh I think that we would probably need to uh we'd probably need to take that question back to our team to identify specifically what the process is working with partners in the vetting of that. >> Okay. So my my list of questions is long regarding all of that. So what is our process for approving sub partners? Who is responsible for that? Is it a um is it a a serious process that is looked at with these are the things that

054we require from our partners? This is the way they vet anyone that comes into contact with our kids. Um and and all those questions that might entail for that. So I I I I believe that it would probably be great to be able to connect you with Claudia, myself and and that SARB chair >> to be able to look at what is the what is our what our existing agreements and then we can definitely bring it back to the board to share out some of those things that came out of that conversation. But um for the sake of this this meeting, that discussion probably can be held on in in an offline setting and then we can bring it back to the board. >> It could, but I think that because it's listed on our

055consent agenda as something that's kind of a natural thing that we should just approve. If we don't understand what that process is, how are we supposed to approve these people that we're saying are authorized to work with our children? >> Yeah. Yeah, and I think that you bring up great questions and I think that pulling it from a consent and and having having a deeper conversation about what those processes are and then bringing it back as an action item maybe not on a consent uh so that the board can be informed with what what we learn. >> I appreciate that. Thank you. >> Uh Jackie >> Claudia, I don't know if you had something. >> Uh yeah, I don't Yeah. I think you bring up a really good question, Jessica, and in speaking, you know,

056briefly with Wendy, who leads the SARB, you know, they this is a group that has been convened. So, you can see the nomination forms were sent out to those same agencies. And what I hear you saying is that perhaps what we need to also look at is an extension of what comes out of that SARB hearing if there's any additional services that are be being provided for those by those agencies or contacts that they're making that we have some protections in place because there's the folks that serve on the SAR panel and that's the primary role that we are selecting folks for and then there is the recommendation of the panel that may to some of those services. >> So my my response to that is yes. And also um it's been a concern of

057mine to figure out um what our process is for approving these partner organizations we work with and not just their safety for children but their financial solveny um as organizations their um responsibility. like how are we vetting to make sure these organizations are good partner organizations that are using our money appropriately, that are taking care of our kids and safeguarding their their health and well-being. Um, I just I want to know all those things. >> Uh, Jackie, >> thank you Jessica for pulling this item because I had a question on it as well and I don't know this might not be there. We might not have the answer here, but does our county, does our DA even prosecute for attendance? >> Austin, I see you in the queue. Is that something you can answer or

058>> uh No, I cannot speak for if the DA prosecutes for any of those things. That I had a different question. >> Okay. So um the question I bring that up because um I was looking at data comp our attendance compared to Taha County attendance and I was looking at like why why is it so different I understand demographics are different but what is it practically speaking and when talking to people in the community what I what this is now this is not data this is just the feeling is because we don't Chasta County doesn't prosecute parents for attendance and Tahima County does so I thought it was interesting um I I would like an answer to that I just don't know where to get it. >> Um, Austin, you're in the queue. >> I

059just I had a clarifying question for Trusty French. Um, as I review the list of folks that are represented in the SARB here, I want to make sure that I'm understanding your request about the vetting process. Um my understanding would be that you know we've got the district attorney, we've got Shasta Union High School District, Youth Options, Reading Police Department, Reading School District, Skoey, HHSA, Pico, Probation, Shasta College, Ees and Gateway. Um I believe that all of those organizations have their own hiring processes. And so I just want to make sure as we are looking to have people sit on that SAR board that are community partners. Um are you asking that we are doing like employee vetting on these partners that would be at the SARB table? >> No, not at all. I'm just

060asking what is our press process for deciding if we're going to partner with an organization, >> specifically nonprofit organizations. >> Um that's my specific question. Obviously, a school district, we can we can surmise that they're going to do background checks. They're going to be um vetting their volunteers effectively, but for nonprofit organizations, there are long a lot of them that are not run well. And I'm just concerned um and wanting to know what that process looks like before I ask a lot more questions. >> So, a question would be specific to And so we are because here we're we're being asked to just give overall consent to um approve the nominees that have been nominated by their employers. Um but I'm not comfortable doing that without knowing what our process of vetting these organizations are

061specifically nonprofits first. >> Okay. Thank you. >> Yeah. And then I I put a chime in for another question. Do you >> I I see that you there's two people ahead of you. Uh, author, >> question. >> I have a question and I was gonna make a motion. Is this something that needs to be passed tonight? >> No. Right. >> No. >> Then my motion would be to table this and bring it back to our next regular schedule board meeting as an action item. >> Mike, you're in the queue. Did you want to speak about that? I just have answers to some of Jackie's questions. So, we can take an action on the on the motion and then I can answer. >> Is there a second to table it and bring it back as an

062action item? >> I'll second it. >> It's been moved and seconded. Um, all those in favor say I. >> I. Any opposed? >> Still having more conversation. >> Oh, yeah. We can have a disc here discussion. Jessica >> or Mike, I mean, sorry. Yeah, I I'll just jump in. Uh I do appreciate the Tah County Department of Education uh point of I guess information from Jackie. I've had actually conversations at region 2 superintendent level and uh with Jared Kale, the superintendent of uh Tahama County and I actually asked for his ML that he that he has with the district attorney and he has shared that with me and so we'll be we'll be looking at that. That is feedback that we do get from superintendents. I do I do want to point out though that

063uh love it hate it effective January 1st California Senate Bill 461 does repeal the state penal code for eliminating potential jail time and fines for parents of chronically truenc that that does hamstring some of those efforts. I think that there's still opportunities to have conversations with their district attorney to be able to uh to be able to help strengthen our SAR. We do have we have restructured our SARB and I think that that that can actually be uh brought to the board maybe in that in that agenda item for next month. um there are some there are some changes there that uh that we believe are good but I think that uh the feedback that we've received from superintendent and uh the feedback that we are seeing success in Tam County um I think merit

064further discussion in the context of what can be done with the district attorney >> Jessica did you still want to speak to that >> yes I just wanted to clarify that um that I do think that there are a lot of good programs and opportunities for kids to improve their attendance through SARB. So, this isn't a hit at SARB at all. It's just strictly me wanting to make sure that we're doing our due diligence um and our ethical duty really to be sure that kids are safe with the people we refer them to um and to the best of our ability. And so, I just want to know what our process is so that I can determine for myself if that feels safe or not. All right. Any other questions or comments? All right. Then

065we are on item eight, information items. Are there any questions about any of the items under information? All right. I don't see any in the queue. So, we will move to action items. We have already taken action on 9.1.1. So next one would be 9.1.2 board member attendance at California School Boards Association County Board Governance Workshop March 11th and 12th in San Diego. Is there any discussion or a motion to approve attendance? >> Motion to approve attendance. author. >> Oh, I was just gonna motion to approve attendance to whoever would like to go. >> Okay. >> Second. >> All right. It's been moved and seconded. Is there any discussion? >> Um, well, it'd be helpful to know if people want to go. >> Yeah. So, is there anybody that would like to go? >> Author

066I was just going to say it's my birthday on the 10th. So, I'm probably not going to go. >> No. And my daughter's birthday and my son's birthday. And I think everybody in my family's almost born in March. So, >> yeah. >> But a lot March Madness in our family >> and and and yeah, that is on our meeting day, too. So, all right. So, if there's nobody wanting to go, do you want to We can just vote no on the motion then not to go or just withdraw it. >> Yeah, we could we could withdraw it because we have the ability if someone actually has the time to go to to vote for that later. >> Yeah, we could withdraw the motion. >> All right. Thank you, Mike. I'm good. Okay. All right. Then

067we are on action item 9.3, staffing shortage initiative ad hoc committee. Mr. Freeman, uh I I I do appreciate the conversation that we had last month uh in particular around the first interim budget and the concerns that were uh were raised in that process. And I would I would love to make sure that uh we have uh board and staff collaboration in the development of our staffing shortage initiative. Um I don't want to I don't want to necessarily devel to develop an initiative that hasn't been vetted and and and involved uh board board members in the in the creation of it. I think that uh in the discussions that we've had in the past about past initiatives sometimes that that board support and board role uh is not necessarily clear when when staff uh have

068not involved the board in the development of the initiative. So uh I know that in the past I shared a timeline uh we did have a couple of uh we did have a couple of trustees when asked who was interested. Uh I would like to formalize that process a little bit because this would be a working group. It would be ad hoc, limited in scope, limited in time, but I would love to uh I'd love to and in working with Michael and Jackie in the development of the agenda, the thought was bring it as an agenda item, establish the ad hoc committee and then working uh board board trustees that are on that committee with staff to uh develop an incredible initiative to address staffing shortage to to involve everybody so that we're not uh

069we're not creating more lack of clarity moving forward. I mean, this is a committee that I would really like to be a part of if we're going to make a motion to form it, which we would need to do. I don't know if there's anyone else that would like to be on that committee either. Jessica, anybody else that would like to be on the committee? Author. So, Jessica, author, and me. All right. So, is there someone that would like to make a motion to form this committee and set like a time limit on it as well since it's an ad hoc committee? And is there any other discussion too? >> I'll make a motion to um start a staffing shortage initiative ad hoc committee with a time frame of eight months. Okay. Is there a

070second? >> I'll second. >> All right. It's been moved and seconded. Is there any further discussion? Oh, Mike. >> I just wanted to thank Carmen ahead of time for the miracle and magic that she's going to do with our calendars to make those ad hoc committee meetings happen. Thank you. >> Okay. All right. If there's no further discussion, we'll do a roll call. >> We'll do a roll call vote on this. Uh Abby, >> I. >> Jacob, >> I. >> Author, >> I. >> Jessica, >> hi. >> Teresa, >> hi. >> Laura, >> hi. >> Jackie, >> hi. >> And I vote I as well. All right. Then action item 9.4. board member Gorman's request to attend the 2026 curriculum and instruction steering committee symposium and author, you are in the queue. So, thank you.

071Yeah. Uh, this was brought to my attention by several other board members up and down the state that said it was a really good thing to go to. Uh, I looked at it. It actually conflicts with things that are on my schedule when I went back and looked through all my dates. So, I can't go to it, but I don't want to hinder anybody else from the ability to go to the if they're interested. Uh, they talk about new things that are coming up in education, things that would probably go really well with the ad hoc committee. Uh, and I thought it was a great opportunity if anybody would like to take it. >> Okay. So, you would like to table the item? Well, I mean, uh, I don't know if anybody else is interested

072in going, so that would be my my thing. I I know I can't go, but if somebody else, uh, read the material and went up to the website and it was really interesting to you, I wouldn't be opposed to sending other people there. >> Okay. >> So, we could table it till next month if people really want to go. Well, I think it is next month, so it'd be after our board meeting. >> Okay. Uh, Jessica, you're >> Never mind. >> Huh? >> Never mind. >> All right, Mike. Yeah, I I I didn't have the information regarding breakout sessions, but I did reach out to the organizers of the of the symposium to see would there be relevance would there would be relevant uh strands of breakout sessions available for board members. And uh I

073did I did share out the the response from that uh organizer of the conference that there is no this is designed for job alikes. This is designed for uh folks that are working uh in our uh curriculum instruction uh realm and uh there are no current county board members that attend this. Um there are practitioners that are in the work doing the work and do serve as uh as county board members. Um but specific breakout sessions related to the role of the county board of education uh trustees would not be uh in the programming. I just wanted to pass that along just for for relevancy. >> Uh Laura. >> Yeah. And I just wanted to say that this attending this would be a departure from what we've done as a board before with our training

074dollars, which are taxpayer money, is that we've always um directed those towards events and conferences that are for board members. We've never gone to something that isn't geared to board members. author. >> My my only uh rebuttal to that would be this this actually is part of what we do. We approve curriculum. We look at different things. We look at things that are coming up in education. So when you look at our policy of sending board members, it's to give them opportunities to bring something back to make our organization better. Uh when I went to CSBA, I was kind of disappointed in some of their breakout sessions because they gave a lot of problems, but they didn't give a lot of mechanisms like action mechanisms that we could take back and start at our organization.

075Uh maybe it was the breakout sessions that I went to, but this one actually looked like it was giving you actionable items that you could do in your own school district. I mean, one one thing we might want to consider to bring back as a board is if there is money for us to go to conferences and trainings, maybe we could create some kind of a process or procedure similar to schools do when they want to send teachers to professional development. You can submit the conference that you'd like to go to and then the board could approve or disapprove that fund that funding for you to go. That way there are things like there is one I think tillary office of education is offering on school safety. You know there might be board members interested

076in that or there might be things on curriculum or other items. So maybe that's something that we could bring back as a discussion an action item or discussion item at a future meeting. So, do we want to vote to table this then or move to table it? >> I'll move to table it. >> Is there a second? >> I'll second. >> All right, it's been moved and seconded. If there's no further discussion, I think we can do a voice vote on this. All those in favor say I. >> I. >> Any opposed? All right. Uh item action item number 9.5 establish ad hoc committee to design official seal. Um author I think you requested this to be added. Would you like to speak on that? >> Yes. Thank you. >> Okay. >> Yeah. So as

077I was going through education code and all the fun things that we do that it en it enables us to make an official seal. We have a lot of labels uh a lot of marketing but we don't actually have an official seal of the board of education uh such as you see like uh writing Anderson Shasta Lake City uh Shasta County has their own seal and so this uh enables us to create our own seal in an ad hoc committee with community partners uh so that we can put it on like letterhead uh post it up on our walls and just give us a more professional book uh with community buyin. I think it would be pretty cool to have an official shield uh seal of the Shasta County Office of Education. >> Uh Jessica,

078>> I'm just curious what is the difference between the seal and what we have right there in the top lefthand corner corner. Is it just cuz it's not round? >> Author, do you want to address that? It's a logo, but official seal comes with authorization and different things. So like uh you would put a seal on letter head that you're sending like a certified letter >> like an imposed seal. >> Yeah. Uh Laura. >> Yeah. I um I mean I don't I don't see the need for it. I think I like the logo that we have. I think it's simple and it identifies with us and our sense of place. Um, to me, if it's like professionalism is the goal, authenticity, I think we've already got that. And that comes by way, not with a

079seal, but by the the work that your entity does and the people that are doing the work. Um, so I just I don't see the need to do it. And I think it could be like here's another thing we're going to argue over. So, um, yeah, I don't I don't see the need for it. Any other comments or discussion, author? >> Uh, well, I don't have any more discussion, but I'd like to make a motion that we form this committee to make an official seal of Shasta County Office of Education. >> Second. >> All right, it's been moved and seconded. Is there anyone that wants to volunteer to be on the committee? Author Jackie Jessica. All right. If there's no further comment, uh, we can vote on this item. We can do a roll call

080vote for this as well. Uh, Jacob, I'm just curious. When you were thinking about making a seal, were you thinking about like like officially saying that that's our seal, that logo, or completely making one that like looks like a stamp? Like what was your idea if if it would if it's different from that? What's an idea that we would do for a seal like that? >> It would replace. So, >> you would have it could look similar to that, >> but uh like it'd be something that the community can get together and be like, "Oh, the Shasta County Office of Education, do you want Mount Shast in the background? There's Mount Shasta in the background. Do you want the sundial? Do you want American flag?" You know, that kind of stuff. So, >> it would

081be representative of the community that you live in. >> Okay. >> And Jacob, you're welcome to join the committee if you'd like to do that. >> Yeah, I would love to design a seal for the county. Yeah. Uh, I think we're at author. Did you vote already? >> Hi, >> Jessica. >> Are we still conversing? I didn't >> I don't think you voted. >> Oh, we were in the queue, but yeah. Okay. >> Are we still talking? >> Well, we were voting, but we can stop and do discussions. Go ahead. >> Okay. Uh, so my question is we're not we are not personally actually designing the seal, right? We're going to hire someone to design. I think you are the you mean you want to design official seal. So it'd be your committee to design

082the seal. That's what the vote that's what the the committee would do. >> You get to be artistic. >> So professionally speaking, you want you want us that are not uh I mean you think that we should us who are not professional logo designers design a seal. >> Absolutely. >> Well, that's where you get community buyin. So we could ask different people in the community to submit artwork. So you don't have to pay for it to be done. You could ask, you know, there's a lot of artists here in Shasta County that would >> So we won't actually be presenting the final thing >> unless you're an artist that you >> That's why I'm asking. >> I mean, I I can be creative and have ideas, but I but I think that we should leave

083that to a professional person to actually submit the final draft. Okay. Just making sure. >> Well, and that can be part of the committee discussion, too. >> That's being clear here. Yeah, we have does we have a you know communications team. >> Yeah. And I mean in this committee we would decide like what a staff is involved in it as well, right? Okay. >> That would be the committee discussion. Yes. All right. Are we ready to vote now or is there anyone else that would like to talk? All right. We can we'll start over with the roll call. Uh Abby, I think I missed you last time. Abby, >> it's okay. I >> Jacob. I >> author. >> Hi, >> Jessica. >> Hi, >> Teresa. >> I >> Laura, >> no. >> Jackie, >> I

084>> and I vote I as well. >> All right. Item number 10, student board member report. Abby. >> All right. Hello everyone. Um, it's good to see you guys again. I hope you all had a wonderful holiday break. Um, I'm very sad to have missed the last meeting. I was at a performance for school, Victorian dinner. I don't know if you guys know about it. It's basically like a comedy musical dinner situation. It's very fun. Um, but I'm glad to be back and to see you guys again. Um, so to start, I would like to share something that I am especially proud of. Um, so through my crochet club at my school, our members handmade around 20 beanies and we donated all of them to a local homeless shelter called um, Pathways to Housing. Um,

085so this was around the time when, you know, the floods were here. So our first time when we went, their facilities were actually shut down because of the floods, which was kind of sad. But we um I brought the beanies back like a couple days later and they were open up again and they were very um like they were very welcoming. They were and like grateful for our beanies and I am also extremely grateful for the opportunity to spread warmth and holiday cheer within our community and also I'm very proud of the dedication and generosity shown by my fellow club members. Um and then additionally on Monday I was invited to attend a youth commission meeting. Um we were just talking about this. So um during this meeting I connected with many passionate and engaging

086students who shared a lot of very thoughtful and insightful points regarding student well-being and substance use. um such as the pressure students sometimes feel from peers when it comes to drugs and vaping and how um difficult it can be to know what to do when a friend may also be struggling. So we had a lot of discussion on that. Um we also talked about how some adults can sometimes better understand what students are being exposed to. Um, also someone brought up that there has been lower intention in the program. So, and maybe like offering some kind of incentive might help keep students involved. So, there's actually 15 members of the youth commission, but only around like seven people show up to every meeting. Um, so that's something. Um, and then the youth commission also shared

087what they're doing to address these concerns. They're reaching out to middle schools to start conversations about substance use um earlier focusing on prevention education. Um they're also working on the idea of an anti- vaping commercial that would be shown in local movie theaters um which I think is a very creative way to reach students um where they already are. Also, they're developing merch that includes substance abuse um hotlines and helpful websites, making resources more accessible to students who may need support. Um overall, attending the meeting really showed me how invested students are in these issues and in supporting one another. I look forward to sharing more updates moving forward. I'm considering joining. I don't know if that's allowed. I talked to Julie about it, but it was definitely a very enlightening experience. Yeah. Thank you.

088Thank you, Abby. Any questions for Abby? Laura, >> I was curious about your college quest, like how that how that's going. >> Oh, um I I'm done applying. So, no more college essays for me, thank goodness. Um but I don't know. I don't know yet. I I need to wait till like March, April to hear back from the colleges I got in or not. >> Bless you. Where did where did you apply? >> Like a lot of places. >> Yeah. >> Oh, do you want me to like tell? >> Well, all like UC's most of them. Um some liberal arts schools which um like Pomona. I don't know if you guys know, but it's Yeah. Um and then some Ivy's but we'll see. Yeah. All right. Thank you, Jacob. >> All righty. And good evening.

089Happy New Year. Uh, this last month it's been busy and I've had the opportunity to be involved with many things. First, I attended a virtual meeting with the Association of California County School Boards, ACCBE. Attendees were student board members on county school boards all across California and training was conducted by ACCBE officials about best practices and we had the opportunity as students to convene on our own experiences within our term. My biggest takeaway was a student who has served three terms on the Los Angeles County School Board and she shared many things and it was so cool to hear about education down south in such a large area. And on that note, I will be attending another training in February with the attendees consisting of regular school board members and students and I'm excited to

090report on that next month. Also, I was invited to youth commission student artwork pre reception piece by piece and I had an amazing time browsing student artwork that warned about drug abuse. Now down at West Valley, winter sports are nearing the end of their season. Our leadership class is preparing for our winter homecoming. And this week's theme will be Avatar, like the movie. And we are preparing for our annual eighth grade invasion with the three feeder schools. It is a day in March where future Eagles learn what it's like to experience high school. And then lastly, today is the middle of Abby and R's term as student board members here. So I would like to show a snippet of what I've been doing outside of here. First, in the fall, I am exploring my college

091options, and that time is really here. My top choices are Santa CL University and UCLA, staying close. And my plan is to still major in chemistry and teach after. Uh, also speaking of chemistry, this past month, I've started a experiment and a passion project combined with my school about researching uh chemical breakdown of oils. And then also I'm finishing up a few last classes at Shasta where I'll be graduating with my graduating in May with my associates. And yes, I will still have one more year of high school. And that being said, I'm excited for what the next months bring bring. And that's all for tonight. Thank you guys. >> Well done. >> Thank you, Jacob. Any questions for Jacob? >> Well done. >> Yeah. Uh Mike. >> Uh thank you, Abby. Thank you, Jacob.

092I just want to thank you. Uh we were able to uh have a meeting kind of at the halfway point and just have the conversation uh looking at the spring and what is it that we wanted to accomplish while we have Abby and Jacob uh with us. And uh I appreciate your passion. I appreciate your enthusiasm for uh having an impact. Right. And uh where we landed with that is uh both both of our student board members would like to be actively involved in the recruiting of uh student trustees. So, when we get to the place where we're looking at the application and uh working with our districts and getting that word out, uh we are going to be connecting a Abby and Jacob with our communications team and they've they've agreed to to to

093to make some uh some some PSA videos to uh flood the world on social media through our channels and uh help in the recruiting for future uh student board members. And then uh we'd also like to bring student voice panel back. So March uh March 5th and I'll get this information out. This is uh this is breaking news, but March 5th in our ECS uh uh Hilltop building from 3:30 to 5:00 uh Jacob and Abby are going to be hosting a hot topics student voice panel and they are bravely and boldly extending an invitation to a couple of middle school slots as well. So the panel will have for the first time ever we'll have middle school representation. Uh we will be uh in throwing this out to uh uh school administrators, school counselors, adults,

094board members uh having the opportunity to uh watch Abby and Jacob uh facilitate that student boy uh student voice. I I love the student voice panels that we did a couple years ago. I shared that with Abby and Jacob and they uh they at least acted excited about it. I know that you're busy and you have a lot going on, but I really do appreciate uh your willingness to step into this space. So March 5th, uh flyers will be coming. Uh so uh I just I commend you for uh wanting to do those things to help amplify student voice in Shasta County. >> Start at 3. >> Uh it'll be 3 3:30 to 5. So how this will work, uh panel members and and Abby and Jacob will be involved in the recruiting uh of

095those panel members. Panel members will show up at 3:00. Abby and Jacob will kind of walk them through uh what the panel experience will look like. Obviously, panel members will have the questions ahead of time. Jacob and Abby will be developing those questions. And then 3:30 it will start. It will go 3:30 to 4:30 we will excuse our student board, our student panel members and the adults present will have a debrief based on things that they heard. So 3:30 to 5. >> All right. Uh item number 11, superintendence report. >> All right, I'm excited about this. So in the past, I have had the opportunity to use this to highlight all of the things in across my four priority areas, right? A culture organizationwide culture of excellence, safe and learning, safe and uh supportive learning

096environments for all uh successful student programmings and community partnership. Jessica, I really appreciate the questions that you raised in the SAR because that criteria will be effective for us across our partnership selections in the community. So, uh, now we're going to do things a little differently. We're going in the spirit of streamlining my remarks, I'm going to highlight, uh, celebrations. Instead of going deep into each priority area, I'm just going to share with you celebrations that go, uh, on one slide, hopefully a couple slides, and then challenges. So with that, uh, this is all of the good things. I do want to shout out our three administrator of the year candidates, Sher Depali, Carrie Webb, and Wendy Hall. And those are all of the holiday festivities and things that we've been been able to to

097do. Uh on the highlights front uh in the area of uh partnerships, our last reading orientation was standing room only over here in the Lassen Hall and we are over 100 volunteers now enrolled in the reading pals program. So that that is uh definitely on agenda and very cool. Uh I also want to shout out to our team working with Enterprise Elementary School. Uh January 5th was Edcon at Parson's High School. 500 plus educators descended on Parsons. 25 schools participated. Over 35 presenters. Uh our our team spent hours uh working with our enterprise facilities and uh and and some of their curriculum instruction folks and it was a it was a remarkable day. We are getting evaluation reports back and those are five-star uh evaluations from participants. So, a huge huge undertaking and uh the

098feedback is let's do let's do it bigger and better next year. I don't know where bigger and better. We don't we're running out of room for 500 educa educators. So, the thought is uh maybe K3 on one side of the river and and and and or or K6 on one side of the river and then secondary on the other side of the river joining forces with Reading School District and Enterprise. Uh I do want to do a shout out to our custodian Tracy Snow. I don't know if you saw this story, but Tracy has spent 34 years with our organization, and we threw him a little retirement party. That is our most trending story. A lot of the comments were, "Thank you for appreciating and and honoring support staff." Over 12,000 people have viewed that

099that story on on our social media channels. So, uh, shout out to to Tracy. Remarkable remarkable guy. And then on the uh on the on the outstanding and excellent, we are seeing some amazing things happening with Ignite Reading in our Excel Academy. Right? Excel Academy, those students do present behavior challenges. These students are engaged. Ignite reading, if you'll remember, is intensive 15minute online training with highly trained uh facilitators. And just since November, we're already seeing progress in the first uh re first data report from them. So, I want to I want to highlight the the work that our student programs are doing in that ignite reading. Uh this this is I I can't I can't not tell this story. You've heard our native student success team come and report the work that is happening. I

100just want to draw attention. Chronic absenteeism before was 49%. After this and working with those connectors, we are down to 28%. 28% still not acceptable, but it was a remarkable uh decrease and we're seeing some promising things from that student programs. And I just want to shout out Carrie Shudy and our communications team. These numbers are pretty impressive uh as we look at the traction we are gaining telling our stories and also telling I don't know if you follow us, but every Friday we throw five stories that aren't necessarily our programs that just highlight Shasta County Schools and the work that is happening. So, very cool things there. Uh, Mr. Per didn't know I was going to do this, but uh, Mr. Peller graduated from FickMat CBO program in December. So, I just want to

101thank him for the work. That's a weekend thing, right? I've been, as I tell this story, I've been saying, you know, the value of things by what you sacrifice. And he's sacrificing time with his family to build his skills. And, uh, I just want to make sure that we all, you know, that we all appreciate that. >> What is that? >> Congratulations. What's that? >> What is it? >> So, FickMat is fiscal crisis assistance >> assistance team and it is a uh six month. Go ahead. Awesome. >> Yeah. So, uh Figma is the group that comes in and works with districts that are in fiscal crisis um to work on a plan towards solveny. Uh it was established by the legislature. Um and one of the things that Fikmat identified um was a need for

102better training of school business officials. Uh teachers have credentiing programs. Uh on the school business side, they wanted to create some sort of a certificate or a knowledge base that CBOS could complete to demonstrate. Um and so it's a year-long process. Uh it started for me last January. Uh it was one week in a month for 12 months. Fridays from 5 to 10:00 p.m. and Saturdays from 8 to 3. Um, and so it was a heavy commitment. I appreciate the support of the organization of being willing to send me to that. Um, and it was hugely beneficial for me uh in this new role. >> Congratulations. >> No, good job. >> Year-long program. I think the the mentor relationship that you've established and the networking is uh is is as valuable as the as the

103learning. So um so we are we are in good hands. Uh and I think that I just I really appreciate the work that went into that. deserves some celebration. On the challenges front, we will call them opportunities uh because we do want to want to kind of come at it with a with a growth mindset, but uh our area got hammered with that flooding and our Skoey staff, specifically Aya Tucker and Cole Rumford, uh did what we could to rally in support of sites that have been impacted. We're talking one school has 10 classrooms where uh school started after the break and students were displaced. So, uh, Ayla Tucker's familiar, her background is PG& very familiar with Cal OES, Office of Emergency Services and the the federal OES. So, we were able to be proactive

104working with districts in the assessment of damages. Uh, the state did declare a state of emergency, and that does allow us to to file to uh report those assessed damages in the hope that we might be able to get some fiscal relief for for districts. We're talking $800, $900,000 in some of these districts of damage. So, not and >> what's that? >> Withoutood. >> Without flood insurance, right? And so, uh, and I do want to also throw a shout out. We have had our own team sky members and their homes were affected by flooding. And so, this this did definitely, uh, this definitely impacted lives. And uh thanks to the work of our staff and the hard work of districts, the the disruption to student learning was was minimal. Many of those classrooms have been

105repaired and kids are back in. So exciting to report that. And then our district fiscal services, uh Donell Evans and her team have been able to jump into some board meetings to have conversations as as we're looking at budgets tightening in districts. Uh fiscal challenges are are popping up in some districts. And so that district fiscal services team is stepping in to help boards uh make plans to uh to ensure solveny down the road. So wanted to throw a shout out to that. And that is my time. And James Alpa bank me seven minutes please. >> Future use. >> Are there any questions for Mike? I hope that new format works. >> Yep. Okay. >> Yeah. >> All right. >> Well, then we are on item 12 discussion. Uh we have uh 112.1 the redevelopment

106agency funding. Austin, I believe you're going to speak about that. >> Can I can I kick it off real quick? >> Oh, sure. uh in our last meeting in the conversation around RDA funding uh sorry redevelopment agency funding uh this was where uh some of the dollars designated for west uh came from uh in that discussion we did talk about uh allocation the unallocated amount that is in that funding uh and and possible uses of it I wanted to back up a little bit and I've asked Austin to give us give the board an oversight of what this funding is uh how how it's generated and then what allowables are there. So this is not uh this is obviously a discussion not an action. I wanted to slow that down a little bit because I

107think uh I I got a little hasty in the excitement around the support for Wes. There are there are 600 plus thousand dollars unallocated, but I' I'd like to I'd like to have Austin present out so we can kind of increase our understanding of what this funding is there for. >> Thank you, Mike. Uh so redevelopment agencies were first authorized in California in 1945. Uh and what this did was it allowed cities and counties to develop another government entity um that would encourage economic development uh infrastructure improvements as well as housing. Uh and so over time more RDAs popped up throughout California. And what would happen when an RDA was established within a tax base was that property taxes were frozen from the point that the RDAs had been developed. So, as you know, part

108of what fills a school's uh bucket in the LCFF is property taxes, local property taxes, and state aid. So, in areas with higher property tax, they get less state aid, and with areas with lower prop property tax, they get more state aid. But that's how a school's funding is filled, right? Uh so over time when those property tax revenues were frozen, so schools would still continue to receive property tax revenue, but it was only at the rate when the RDAs was established, right? So over the several decades that RDAs existed, that number became to shrink and then the state aid had to come in and fill more of the bucket for schools, right? So, as we got into the early 2000s, there started to be some growing concern about these RDAs because the state budget

109was having to account for so much more of school funding, right? And then we hit 2012 and we had the financial crisis and that was really the jumpstarter uh for Governor Brown as well as the legislature to repeal RDAs. And so when RDAs were repealed in 2012, uh they had to develop successor agencies. Uh and so these success successor agencies uh are made up of boards. Ours in Shasta County uh is a seven member board and it's made up of those entities that would be benefiting from property taxes. So you've got your special districts, your cities, your counties, your schools, and your community colleges, right? So all of those groups provide a member to this committee and the committee was in charge of winding back all of the obligations for the RDAs as well as

110dispersing the res residual assets that they had at the time. And so that's how the money is continuing to flow into schools. Um kind of a a nuance thing where uh we received tax revenue from the RDAs, but now we've also restored that property tax, right? once they were appealed, we now get a higher proportional share of the property tax because none of it continues to flow to RDAs. And so there's two ways that money can come to us from the redevelopment successor agency and is one through their sale of re real property that they might have owned and those come into fund one. Those are further and far between, right? I think most of the real assets that the RDA's had have been sold years ago and those funing funds have really kind of

111dried up. The other is that RDAs issued bonds, long-term bonds, uh, as well as loans to encourage development, right? And so just because RDAs were repealed in 2012, the bonds and the loans still existed. And so as those bonds and those loans are maturing over time, they are collecting taxes on those or income on those, right? And so the committees pass those dollars that are earned on those bonds or those loans to the RDA the property tax receiving agencies. Um and in 2012, Shasta County did a study about how long it would take for the RDA revenue uh to completely dry up and for all of those things to be settled. Um and their estimate it was that it would be about 30 years. So, we will continue to receive some form of RDA funds

112uh until around 2042. It does fluctuate year-toyear. Um but it seems like over the last few years kind of a stable metric that has come to Skoey has been about $80,000 a year. And of course, as you know, those dollars go into fund 25 um which is for capital improvement projects. And we have that fund that is RDA capital improvement funds. Uh so currently Skully holds uh after the west uh action a remaining balance of 691,424 in that RDA fund. Uh and the only requirements of these funds is that because they are in fund 25 for capital improvements, they must be used for facility related projects. Uh and then they also must be for a countywide benefit. So, as an example, WES, all of our school districts benefit from WES. That would be an example

113of a countywide benefit >> author. So, I had a question. I'm glad you answered one of them, but it's a countywide benefit and these are unrestricted funds if we use it for such. Could we use this money to help those schools that were impacted by the flood to help rebuild some of their buildings? >> I think that I would have to look more into that. Um, but because the funds that come to Skoey are for that countywide benefit, I think that we would be limited in being able to provide support for a specific school district because there's not a countywide benefit to that. Um, and school districts also receive their own portion of those RDA funds that they would be able to draw from. Um, I think it's a great uh suggestion, but based on

114my understanding that would not qualify as a countywide benefit for which ours have to to be spent. >> Laura, >> yeah, I really appreciate your explanation. I was one of the people who or maybe I was the only one who had a concern at the last meeting when um all of a sudden that 690 was being tagged onto this um proposal for Whiskey Town. And so I just wanted to provide a little bit of history on that um that money for Whiskey Town, which is a really significant um contribution that this board has made. And I really I hope that that program comes back and I'm proud to see us make that um allocation to them. But at the two years prior in 2023 when we made the promise to give them that money, it

115was a really thorough and thoughtful discussion that the board had and um we realized that by the time Whiskey Town would get to the point that they would need to use the money um it was going to take a while. like they weren't ready to walk out the door and take the money that day. And so that's why it wasn't a contract that day. It was a promise. And um we made it very clear that it wasn't an open checkbook that um we were giving this money and if costs rise, which we expected that they would, then they would have to figure out, you know, what to do. But we weren't we weren't promising that we're going to build that building at any cost. So then when that came up, the meeting just like it

116just materialized out of thin air to me because it hadn't been in the agenda packet, we hadn't had time to consider. Um, so I my thing about this money is like $691,000. That's a significant amount of money and maybe we will decide that the best use of it is Whiskey Town. I just want us to think very thoroughly about it and there could be other uses. Um we've talked about um like what to do for expelled youth and things like that too. So maybe there's other things countywide. So I just want us to be thoughtful as a board about how we use it and not to just um grab something out of the air when it hasn't been in the agenda and nobody's really thought about it. public didn't know about it. So that that

117was my concern about it. >> Jackie, >> thank you Austin for your explanation. Um this 691424, can you qualify that? Is that like was that acrewing over one year? Is that 691 we're going to see consistently through 2042? Can you qualify those dollars? >> Yes. So the the funds that we receive annually from the RDAs goes into this fund. So the funds that are coming from the taxbased revenue are going into fund 25. The funds previously that had been done for the uh real assets that were sold, those went into fund one. And like I said, we haven't seen those funds in a number of years. Um so we these funds fluctuate, right? And so we've seen about an $80,000 increase on average to this fund per year. Um, obviously we had built that amount

118up to 1.6 million and then 1 million left, but that building it up to the 1.6 million was contributions that had come from the RDA since their dissolvement. And so that 691 that will continue to grow over time. Um, our best estimate is that it's about $80,000 a year, but that's subject to fluctuation. So, does that help? >> Yes. Thank you. Uh, Mike, uh, >> I I just want to thank I want to thank Laura for uh, her comments and, uh, I I do appreciate, uh, the the decision that was made in last month's meeting to bring this back um, for those reasons, right? Not in the agenda. like a decision to do anything with the unallocated deserves time for the for the board to consider time for the board to learn what what is

119the history of RDA, what is the future of those RDA funds. And so I really do appreciate uh the concerns that that Laura brought that that uh lead to better governance and better decisions. So I I got excited, got a little ready, shoot aim, and I just appreciate the the process working. Arthur. >> Yes. I was wondering uh another use of the fund because we talked about uh staff recruitment but also on our board initiative we were talking about master teachers and student or interns and all that kind of stuff. Would that be seen as a benefit to the whole community if we establish that practice and use the money for that purpose? >> Facilities. >> Oh facil Oh yeah, never mind. >> Yeah, facilities. I mean, we could rent >> though. Any other discussion

120on the RDA funding? >> All right, then we are on 12.2. >> Oh, Teresa, >> did you see me? >> No, but you can go. This is >> Yeah. >> Sorry. >> Um I have to piggyback on on Laura on what she said on that and and I kind of have some ideas that I think you know I know that we were talking um you had said something about Sequoia having a CTE exploratory um program going. But I' I'd like to see it in more than just Seoia. I don't know if Parsons has one. I don't know, you know, I just know that it it has to start long before high school. And I think that we I mean, if we've got surplus if we got surplus properties um and we got some extra money

121that we could actually put something into that surplus property to where some of these uh sixth, seventh, and eighth graders could come in and explore. I think that'd be a I think that'd be an awesome idea. Just saying, >> Mike. >> Yeah, I think Teresa clarified on that last statement. So, it would need to be a space that we have available for the entire county to come and participate. And I have seen it in other county offices where they have STEM centers or they have you're referring to the Paxton and Patterson kits at at uh at at Sequoia where there's career exploration design for even middle middle school students. Right. So I I think you nailed it with your last sentence in the idea of creating a space where people come to us. We couldn't

122necessarily to the countywide benefit. We couldn't go directly to to students or individual school sites to to to use this funding, but maybe something centralized >> like like the surplus bus place, the one that's on Grange. >> It's industrial. >> Author, >> just to piggyback on Teresa's, I was going to say we could do it for RO facilities. So if we're looking at upgrading facilities so that they could have more things to offer >> whether it's a SIMS lab for healthcare or you know welding all that we could since it ties into facility we could think outside the box a little bit >> Jessica >> I don't know what it's called when you go off the piggybacker but off author Um I wonder if does facilities use include equipment? >> Uh I believe that the

123specific funds that the dollars are in are for capital outlay projects which would be not including equipment specifically to modernization or building new facilities. >> Okay. So maybe modernization could fall into the equipment depending on like the RO modernization of their facilities that >> Yeah. But countywide benefits. Anyone else have any comments or questions? All right. Then 12.2 Association of California County Boards of Education report. Jackie. >> Yeah. So, I am super excited along with ACCBE to announce their first in-person um conference. It's called Knowledge to Action. Um there's three offerings. And Mike, I was thinking that demographically probably the the Ukaya one would be more demographically compatible than the Modesto. Okay. Um Yep. So, that would be uh May 16th through 17th in Yukaya. One of the things that really uh stood out to

124me, their keynote is going to be on the book Anxious Generation, which um I just had to review. We adopted it at Anderson Union High School District a couple months ago. So, I had to review it for that um for our kiddos, our ninth graders, and their parents. Um it's I really encourage you guys to listen to it or do the cliff notes on it if you can. Um I'm excited. I'll go to that just for that for that keynote. So, um if you haven't checked out that book, you should. Um, also, uh, so I'm encouraging everybody to go. I'm going to go. Um, so that's May 16th through 17th in Yukaya. Um, also, um, I'll be taking any, if there's any bills, legislative bills for the 2026, um, session that you guys are wanting

125to advocate, um, from your position, you can send those to me and I can talk to ACCB about that, forward those to their, um, advocacy leader, committee chairperson. Um, because that was one of the things that we were excited about. I thought a couple of us on the board anyways was that we we felt like ACCB would be a stronger tool for us um legislatively uh for advocacy than CSBA was in the past. So that's it. >> Uh Mike, >> I can go ahead and um I can work with Jackie and Michael and we can bring that conference for board consideration in our next meeting for for attendance. Any questions for Jackie? All right. Then we are on board reports, correspondence, and CSBA AEC takeaways. One thing that we talked about at the agenda meeting

126is to clarify that a board report is about actions that we're taking in our role as board members. So, our report should be related to that. It shouldn't really deviate much from that. and we're going to offer like five minutes per board member. And then the correspondent section would be like if you got an email or a letter from a constituent that you're just bringing to the board's attention. And then since the CSBA reports got pushed back to this month, that's also if anybody wants to report on the CSBA conference. So we can maybe just start with author. Do you have anything to report? >> Yes. Uh the elections office reached out because they would like to partner with high school students to get them involved in elections. So I forwarded that to Mike and

127I think they're working on ways to you know get them registered if they want to participate in uh the polling as well and uh experience everything they have to do at the elections office and they can come to the high schools and everywhere. So, I don't know if they could come to all of our facilities, but uh especially juvenile hall, but I don't know if that's an option, but they could. I don't know. There's this community relations partner, whoever it is, from David. Uh the other one for CSBA. Uh it was great. I took a lot of videos when I was there. I interviewed a lot of the people and uh it was it was good. Me and Teresa went around and interviewed all of the vendors so that we could see what they had

128to offer. And they had a really good forget what it was, but a homeschool our charter school program. They were from back east. >> Yeah. It was online program. >> Yeah. So, but lots of people were really into um what was it? heating and air, electrical, getting kids from high school to go directly into uh the trades and providing them opportunities to make income uh as well as learn. And then within five years of being in the union and everything, they would be making quite a bit of money and have great benefits in retirement. So that's what I got from most of the vendors were good. But then I did say, you know, some of the breakout sessions, maybe I chose poorly, but they presented a lot of problems but not a lot of solutions.

129And I was hoping that they would giving me like a mechanism uh such as down south like in Modesto. They said, "We have this really horrible problem. We got these kids into uh the trades just like I forget what the name for trades are. There's an acronym for it, but CTE." They got them into CTE and everything turned around and everything was wonderful. And I was like, "Oh, that's great. Well, how did you do it?" And then they didn't present that opportunity to like the actual mechanism. I'm like, "All right, well, how detailed, structured, you know, and organized so that we could take that and move with it." But they're like, "Oh, you just go count talk with your school board." And I said, "Well, all right." So, maybe going forward making more relations with

130the speakers and then piggybacking off of what they did and have them sent us stuff would be better. >> Thank you. Jessica, do you have a report? >> Yes. this one. Okay. Uh, all right. So, I guess I'll start with the reading pals. My goal was to recruit five people for that the last orientation, which I hit my goal. So, I was proud of myself for that. Um, recruiting just people in the community to go and attend the orientation. Hopes to become a volunteer for reading pals. I continue to encourage the rest of the board members to make some sort of goal for yourselves so that we can all be recruiting diverse people from to to be readers for the kids in that program. That's been very successful. Um I also went to the CSBA

131conference in November. I attended a lot of breakout sessions. Um I attended a strategic plan to staffing shortages. I can attended being a smart communicator, superintendent of instruction debate, the gubernatorial debate, uh how to effectively govern in the age of social and political division. Um I also attended the AI and education which the the end takeaway there was teach AI better. It was a Did anybody else attend the AI breakout? >> One of them was really disappointing. >> Really? Mine was great. I I was it was it in the big room? >> Okay, this one was in the big room and it was by a woman that um that works in tech but al also in tech to make sure that it's um you know following a value system and and that kind of thing.

132So she was really amazing. Um but essentially AI is here. It's not as dangerous as everybody thinks. However, we do need to learn how to teach it better and a lot of teachers aren't prepared for that. So um that was the general takeaway. I have slides for that also that I kept in case we want those by email. They're pretty informative. Um I also attended the some of you probably heard about the the one group I can't remember which school district it was but they all had masters in governance through CSBA. Did you hear about that? So that was something I'd like to put on an agenda in the future the mastery and governance with CSBA. Um I thought it was really impressive that their entire board uh were masters in governance through CSVA. Um

133I also so the most the most informative breakout session that I attended was the strategic plan grow your own is what it was called and this was um presented by uh Corona Norco Unified School District. Um they've had an they have an extremely successful pre-apprenticeship program for teachers at their school and educators in general. They started in 2425 and they had 262 students enrolled. The next year they had 480 enrolled. Um it starts with a pre-apprenticeship where they're learning students are in high school. I think it begins in 9th grade. They learn soft skills. Um and that it prove that it prepares them for this um internship to become a what's the word when you are helping teachers. What's the what's the term the position? >> Parah. Yes. PAR. So it's a it's an apprenticeship

134parah professional position. Um it can be held once once a student's 16 and they spend two years in this apprenticeship and it's a registered apprenticeship. So it counts for registry. I have I have slideshows for this too. And I talked to the superintendent afterwards. I'll tell you about that in a second. But um this so by the time they graduate high school, I know I only have one minute, but I feel like this is important. So I'm going to keep talking if that's okay. Um we we have so once they have passed the two years of of apprenticeship. Oh, and they they work with the union. They work with with the um the teachers union so that they make sure they're not like infringing upon positions with the with the staffing. So they can't replace

135a teacher. They can't replace a parah. They can't make more than a parah makes. They start at minimum wage. They increase like I think it was 50 cents every six months or something like that. So the goal is by the time they become they graduate high school, they have two years of experience. They can go to the junior college. they can um get they can become a full-blown teacher with four years of experience by the time they're graduated with their credential and essentially coming back to their district to teach and give their skills. So, I thought that was amazing. I talked to the superintendent there who offered for people to come speak with him. He I asked him I knew we had this uh staffing what's it called now that we're going to do that.

136Yeah. And so I asked him um if hypothetically we wanted to come down there and witness what he has going on and have a conversation with him, would he be willing to do that? And he said absolutely. Um and he said he'd also be willing to sit and have a a Zoom with us first where we could come prepared with questions to ask. And I I thought like our entire board would probably be excited about something like this. But they don't only it's not only education. They also do CTE and things like that. All different kinds of program with pre-apprenticeships. So, I thought that was really exciting. That was my biggest takeaway. Um, yeah. So, I um I appreciate the opportunity to go. I appreciate everyone's support on uh allowing us to attend those things

137and of course the tax payers for paying for it. Um and that's all I have for this month. And I hit my time. So, yay. >> Thank you. Teresa, do you have a report? Hey, you know, um I got a phone call or actually a text from a constituent and she was um a little worried that we were going to drop all of the child care programs because of the federal funding freezes. So, I told her that I would bring it up with the board and find out what's going on. >> Mike. >> Yeah. So, uh, that is that was definitely concerning news to, um, a lot of our families. Uh, having the conversation with Renee and Ocladia, you've been working very closely with Renee. So, uh, Renee Meny, our executive director of early childhood

138services, uh, my understanding is the latest is that it is business as usual with the court uh, injunction freezing and we we have seen this with with title funds. I think if we can we can look back, we have seen um some some of the same process from uh federal government freezing uh judicial action taken to uh to to block that and I believe that's the latest. I don't know if Clyde if you had anything to add. >> That is the latest and we did send notification to families and staff so they they see it on the news that they're not concerned. So currently the state um the federal government has requested data from the state. So they're collecting that information that they are very confident they they already have the data and so they're

139in that process. But it is business as usual. And I do think that the freeze did come from fraud concerns. And so we have obviously been trying to run our programs with that above repro above reproach and ensuring that we are we are compliant and that our providers are not uh are not fraudulent in the payments that they're receiving. Laura. >> Um, okay. Uh, picking up the theme of CSBA. Um, I guess I say there were some recurring themes of several of the sessions that I went to. And so the those themes were uh closing the achievement gaps and that more needs to be done and it needs to be done at a quicker pace and that the state needs to be involved but be involved in a different way just beyond enforcement but positive

140uh direction and also the state needs to be accountable as to why the achievement gaps are not closing more quickly. So that that was a big theme. Um there was a call to reorganize this all these different state educational entities so that there's less duplication among the entities and they're all kind of working in the same direction and not siloed as much as they are. Um and again sort of the idea that this lessen the state's emphasis on compliance and make sure that state educational agencies are providing more support to school districts and are more maybe change their mode to being more serviceoriented. Um there's a push for fewer reports and unwieldy documentation for school districts and um there was a call to rework differentiated assistance and be doing that in a different way. So

141I expect that that will be a big one for us. >> Um I attended a bunch of different sessions. I just focus on one here um because I thought it had the most value and that was about interd district transfer appeals and um they talked about just this uh tension between school districts and county boards over students with uh special education needs which that's the scenario we've been in and apparently it's not just us. Um, so one of the takeaways, the the people giving this presentation did a really good job and just one of the takeaways for the for the county is to be very clear to districts about what the county board expects when there's a hearing um by the way of documentation and evidence so that you're treating you're treating it the same

142each time and that the districts know what they what we expect. Um, and so I think there's probably opportunity to maybe tweak our handbook or do some communication maybe a little bit differently. They also talked about um, you know, messaging to the community um, by way of your website and they're talking, you know, for district websites, but I think I could see some potential for the county website talking about interd district transfers. And I think I I stayed and talked with this guy afterwards and said, you know, in Shasta County, we have this um we're choice for families. You can go to whatever school district you want to go to. And now we find that that gets in the way when we have a interd district appeal, a transfer appeal because um when this question

143comes in about the services and can you provide services for special education students. So I think like the community at large thinks this family choice but the school districts and the educators are like well not really because there's this other thing and so maybe we could be communicating it better to uh to families in the district. So I just bring that up as maybe a a place to look where we could make some progress. Um and then beyond the CSBA conference I've attended a few other things. I attended a webinar of the news literacy project. It's a project of the state department of education, the California school library association, and the one I went to the Glenn, Santa Clara, and Fresno County offices of education. And um this was one of several webinars they're putting

144on and it's uh teaching teachers how you can help students determine accuracy and bias of information and images. It was a really neat session. I mean they start it was really geared towards teachers because you could tell they just started it right at you know 3:30 and it went 45 minutes. was right on time and so the teachers could stay afterwards and um they did some you know like we were they showed these AI images and we had to like figure out which was real and which was AI and there were a lot of they shared a lot of um links to free resources. Um so it was really good. It was really an interesting thing. I might try to tune in to another one of them sometime. Um, I attended the ACCBE webinar on

145charter renewals and appeals and um, I recommend uh, listening to the recording of this session or at least going through the slides of it. Um I've been through a lot of different um appeals and renewals of charter schools and I learned quite a bit by sitting through this and um again I was talking about the importance of board having a clarity of its role. Um and then kind of ahead of time thinking of what are the protocols when you're doing like a charter renewal. Should should the board be going on a visit before a renewal? Should that be part of our process? So there's different things we could think about. Um there was a guy from Plaster County who was one of the key people giving the presentation. They are updating their policies. So I

146think we should stay tuned to what they were doing and when it's done take a look at what they did and maybe even maybe this would be a thing like we have for the interd district transfer appeals where we have a handbook. Maybe we would want to have a handbook for charter renewals. And um so I think this guy seemed really willing to share. So, I think we should kind of just keep track of what what they're doing and then take a look at what they come up with and maybe there's ways for us to benefit from that. And then, um, last week I attended the reach higher literacy group meeting. Um, and happy to report that there's just a lot of good energy around early literacy. Um, right now Enter Enterprise and the Reading

147Elementary School Districts are doing a reading bowl, which is a takeoff of the river bowl. So, it's a competition of how many books you read, which I think it's pretty clever idea. Um, and then like we said earlier, reading pals uh getting that's a growing program. Dolly Parton Imagination Library now has 2500 children registered and the um Love of Literacy event um in the community will be February 2nd through the 13th where you can make book donations at Les Schwab and as part of that there's Drop Everything and Read and that day is February 13th. Thank you, Jackie. >> So, I don't have a report or correspondence and I didn't go to the conference, unfortunately. Um, can I do agenda requests on this item or we would that be appropriate for this item? >> I'm

148actually over here furiously taking notes of things that I will be sharing as a result of things. So like if there are things that you would like to consider for future agenda, I think I can make a note and then we can bring those to the agenda setting. I I think uh in a perfect world like a follow-up email to the board president to formalize the agenda request would probably be >> Oh, okay. >> appropriate, but I we're we're taking notes here, too. So >> Okay. Um, I don't have much to report except I was going to say that about Mike. If you guys have requests for agenda items, please email me and Mike at least nine days before the meeting and we will bring it to the committee that meets. It's me, Jackie, Mike,

149and Carmen. And we will put that if it's under our jurisdiction, we will most likely either put it as a discussion or action item. And I just wanted to say that when we did meet for our agenda setting meeting, it was really productive and positive and I enjoyed that session. So Mike or author, you're down here for >> Oh, Mike. Uh just one quick takeaway from CSBA. I did have uh I I thought that the candidate forums were great. I did have kind of hit and miss with some of the breakouts, but one of the breakouts that I wanted to throw a highlight on. Uh Lake Tahoe Unified in the area of involving student board members. I'll just throw this out there planting seeds for future conversations. They actually have two-year terms. Two-year terms allow

150the students to come in with some some kind of big project uh aspirations and enough time to complete them. And then here's the nugget. they stagger junior senior so that there's always somebody who's experienced with how to be a student board member to kind of onboard the the the incoming. So I know that we are coming up on the student board recruitment season. I just wanted to share that takeaway from Lake Tahoe. I thought that that was uh what's that >> idea? Yeah, I thought it was >> author. I have a question on item 13, which is what we're moving on to, which is reminders and upcoming events. >> Yes. I was just wondering if there is a link to the uh Native American uh meeting tomorrow online. >> Is there a link for the

151>> Yes, we will get that out. >> Okay. >> It's a Yeah, it's a Zoom. Oh, >> okay. Cool. Jessica, did you have a question about the upcoming events? >> Well, I inputed that back when we were doing our reports still, but >> no report. You have your five minutes for report. So, >> so we're on item 13 now. >> What does that mean? >> It means we're on reminder. We are on reminders and upcoming events. That's where we are right now. >> Okay. my reminder to Mike about our conversation regarding um uh reimbursements for um pay for attending events and pdiums and all that kind of stuff. We were going to have that discussion. I just want to remind you about that. >> I appreciate that reminder. I think we can maybe even incorporate

152that in when we do have the conversation about conference attendance. >> Great. Thank you. >> All right. Item 14, next meeting will be February 11th at 6 PM and we can be ajured at 87.