001um preventing a member from attending. Um we wanted to make that an option for the board to be able to still participate when these are met. Um in order to do that at the beginning of the board me board meeting, the board has to evaluate does the person who's missing meet one of these definitions and they do that before they even you know move past like the p pledge of allegiance. They do it right away. It doesn't have to be agendaized. However, I think there's no reason to not put it on our agenda and just keep it there every month so that if something comes up coupled with this is a requirement that we have um remote participation possible through Zoom or through through virtual um tool we're using um which we have not had.
002We live stream our meetings and people can call in their questions. So, we're changing that because in order for you to be able to report uh participate remotely, so must the public be able to participate remotely. So, we're setting that up. We have set that up and we'll continue to do that unless this sun sets and is no longer applicable. Um and uh there was something else I was going to tell you about that. Um, oh yes, the limitations on this are that for each board member, this can um can only happen twice in a year. Um, so which seems, you know, it hasn't happened yet. So, but I wanted to point that out. So, unless this is renewed, this this is true through January 1st of 2026. Um, and we are doing all the
003things we need to do. In fact, we're agendaizing which we don't have to do, but I thought for transparency sake we could put that on there. Oh, and the other thing I want to p mention is um I do not anticipate making the just automatically putting this on here for our meetings that do not take place at MCOE. We're usually relying on different tech teams or trying to not rely on tech teams at all. So, we have posted on our website which meetings um have a remote option and which meetings don't and if they're offsite, they do not. Um, so that that would also be a difference. So that is what we have here. So I'm happy to answer questions. We have legal counsel here if we need her um input as well. Thank you,
004Nicole. I wanted to um we're keeping this on here for future meetings. I wanted to just do the grammar police corrections. Oh, thank you. We have the word exits and it should say exists. Just cause exits should be exists. And then we also have a family medial emergency. medical emergency. Medical. Thank you. Those are the two that jumped out at me. I don't know. But anyway, I'm just being grabbed your lease, but people might say, "What's a medial emergency?" Um, any questions for Nicole on that? Just gratitude. Thank you, Nicole, for improving our practices here um in the spirit of getting better. I had a question uh that still exists. Um, so when I requested, you know, a virtual attendance, you said the tech is no problem. The the only question was if what I
005would be able to vote and that's something that I still don't have to vote. Okay. Mhm. You would be able to vote and we don't have to post the agenda at um it's still compliant with the Brown Act even if we don't post the agenda at the location where you are and all those other things that are required. And that's not determined by whether my physical body is inside the county or outside the county. It is not. What is required and there these are the nuances that we would do we would do and remind the board president at the time the the board member participating remotely does have to say if they have anyone in the room with them. Okay. Um and then if we're or is any one in the room over the age
006of 18. Yeah. And then if there is close session they have to not have anybody in the room with them. Um and uh so but those are the criteria. Yes, voting is possible. Okay. So it voting is standard. You would be able to vote. There's that's not separate. So we don't have to vote because that was understanding and we're checking on if the board would vote on like for example my ability to vote but they're virtual. The only thing they have to determine is has the board member met either the just cause or emergency circumstances. And if they determine, yep, they have, yes, then the only then they're automatically voting and the the the board member who is wanting to say it's an emergency circumstance and it has described here um to the extent possible,
007they should notify as soon as possible can even give something in writing describing the the reason without disclosing any personal information or health information. It's not required. Um, so in the event that any of this occurs and you all have my cell phone number, you may not remember all of this and I may not either, but if you call me or text me, then we'll get on and make sure that we do it um do it correctly. Thank you. Yeah, adding there does need to be a quorum still in a physical location together. So before everybody decides they're in the Bahamas. Kidding. um just make sure that there that the the quorum is still present in the same physical location and then a member who is unavailable for one of these reasons participate via teleconference.
008So so at least three people would need to be present as and as long as that person has not invoked this beyond the allowable limits. So it does need to be assessed based on that person's previous participation. So there's a couple factors. That's why that's why it's not just standard. First you have to assess does it meet the criteria. Then you have to determine have they done this? Yeah. And and also do we have a quorum present? So just two right now, right? No, three would be a quorum in the room. Oh, sorry, not quum. Um, two just two. Thank you. Sorry. It's such a gray area. We've just never really used it. The rules are there, but we've never really Yeah, it it would have been helpful to note um this on Friday because
009um of the reason that I provided via email, we could have still attended if this was clarified. I'm not sure if we knew before Friday. Well, we knew when this was posted and it was my understanding that you had already determined at that time to come physically and I was off on Thursday and Friday. So, I I I apologize for anything that didn't get to you sooner, but it was my understanding that you had already determined on Wednesday or I can't remember when we campus. I think it was Wednesday or Thursday. I determined that I wanted to be here in person because it wasn't guaranteed that I would be able to vote and as a board member I have a responsibility to be able to vote and so if that wasn't guaranteed then I changed
010the plans. So thank you for doing that for someone. Yeah absolutely really appreciate that. Uh, moving on to item 5.1, our approval of our 2526 Menescino County LCAP. I'm sorry, Marilyn. I need a vote on that. No, there's no there's nothing that needs to be voted on. It's information at this point. There's nothing to vote on. I do have it as action item. Opening items. 1.3 is opening, but there's no action to take because everybody's here. So, there's no action to take. Okay, I have a quick question before we move on. Um, what are the what are the big changes to this current policy effective January 1st, 2026? Um, that this rem that this remote option would no longer be available scheduled to sunset unless something changes that, right? And and so then the remote
011options would be if a board member is going to be out, I believe they need to be within the county. It's the traditional tele office, right? And then you need to post, we need to post on the agenda the address where the where the board member will be and that place that location needs to be open to the public to attend if any public wanted to re to attend the meeting from that same location. Um, I'd like to see it in writing. Oh, yeah. if some if we could have the stipulations of what it is now and then what it's going to change to in January of 26 if that's possible by somebody I think that'd be really helpful. I I have I have something I can send and it's just this will not be
012a thing. It will only be the other thing. I know. Yeah, I can send it to you. Yeah. Yeah. So it has to be within county to be um to attend remote is it? I believe that is the case. Is that Yes. So the it would just be and you have uh the table that shows the traditional teleconferencing rules. Those are the only ones that will be available unless the sunset date of this is removed. I'll forward you the table that she's referring to. Okay. And I have one more question. So this was an assembly bill. Um was this due to CO and is that why it's sunsetting? So the likelihood of it being reintroduced is probably not unless we have another Well, it is interesting that people have shifted so much since the initial
013start of using technology this way. It's nice to be able to attend remotely if you have an emergency. Yeah. Okay. Um, thank you for that clarification. Any questions or comments? Okay, moving on. Oh, wait. We need to deal with the Okay. 5.1 5.1 and who is speaking? So, you had this um for your public hearing. There's just minimal changes that we went in and did some spelling things, some um updating on the budget with the numbers that we had were updated. Correct. But otherwise, it's as you saw it at the public hearing. I move to approve. Uh discussion. A few questions. Um, should we take a second first and then discuss? What do you like about the second? I'll second. Oh, thank you. Um, and any discussion or comments? Priscilla? I had a few questions.
014Um, my understanding is there's a 44% um is it truency rate for tribal students across the county? I think Chris referenced uh he said that it's higher for MCE students. Do you know what that percentage is, Nicole? I I don't know. Part of partly I can tell you that that is um sometimes through the truency process we're where kids end up when they're struggling with truency. I don't know what the rate is. I don't know off hand. I mean, I can definitely find that out for you. Um but continuation schools or community schools tend to have higher rates just because of the population we're serving. And then we are so far apart. Um, when you're talking about Lake County and you can get to every district in 45 minutes, I mean every district in 45
015minutes where we can't get to some of our districts in 45 when we have uh students coming in from far districts. Sometimes it's harder for them to get here. We've done a very good job this year of offering other options for students that are very um far from here such as Round Valley. We've done some that was my question. Overall, how does LCAP address the truency for tribal students? So we have a student success coordinator. Um we've uh done some sections after hours uh where we've hired a teacher additional FTE to do some in um independent study pieces for students that can't get to school um just because of their locality. And so we've done pieces there. Um they're building relationships uh with tribes doing engagement activities. There's several areas that they're working on right
016now. And just as a first step with Chris being new this year, just evaluating the system and seeing what's in place and what hasn't been in place. And actually it is in here the or creek absenteeism was 70%. And um I'm sorry I'm I'm certain the other I'm I'm certain our altered school is in here as well. I just not seeing it right here. It should be. It's just it's probably a separate um metric. It's in there. So, I'll just scan for it. Any other questions and comments before we go on with the vote? Um, did we have student and family surveys incorporated as part of the feedback process? Yeah, that's part of the requirement. Okay. Any other questions or comments? Um, all in favor? I I I. No opposed. Item 5.1 passes. Moving on
017to item 5.2, to approval of our 2526 Mento County Office of Education budget. I'm sorry, I'm losing my voice. [Music] Um, so this one, um, was presented to you at last week's meeting. There's no changes to it. Um, if there's any questions, we're happy to answer those. Okay, I move to approve. I'll second. Any discussion? Um can you recap again the biggest the well they might not be big but the highlights or big shifts here any um so the so um funding was relatively flat um there was some increases in taxes per our P1 numbers um there were some increased revenues for our fee for service um that we provide to the school districts. Um our total revenues were up from the uh 2425 second in our budget. Our expenditures were down and um then
018we were working on some beginning balances using those to uh to fund some expenses um mostly for grants that carry over from year to year. And um we had reserves of about a little over $11 million of unassigned or unappropriated reserves. Can you describe what P1 is? You said that early on. Yeah. So um if I can get this straight here um we report our attendance and um enrollment numbers and then throughout the year there we have P1 P2 their periods. So we they take that attendance and then they um calculate our funding based on that attendance. P1 is in February of each year and um so then we update our um second interim budget based on P1 numbers and then P2 comes out in June of each year and it just came out Friday
019I believe. So after all this budget is done then the P2 numbers come out. Um but we'll update the first interim budget in December based on the P2 numbers. Thank you Suzanne. Any other questions? Thank you. Okay. Did we get a motion? We have a motion. Second. All in favor of approving 5.2 say I. I. I. It approves. It is approved unanimously. Moving on to item 5.3, resolution 25.6.1, Educational Protection Act account. Excuse me. Heather, are you talking about this or Sure. Um, so this is an annual resolution that we do every year. Um, and it was um enacted by Prop 30 and there's a portion of funds that you know go into our what we call our LCF calculator every year and that portion is um determined by statute and that has to be
020spent on things like teacher salaries and things like that and it can't be spent on other things. So it doesn't really change our funding. It really just means like this portion of it is going to be spent there and then the other portion is spent otherwise. So that is what this is. Thank you, Heather. Any questions or comments for Heather? Sorry, Heather. Um you said it has to be spent on salaries. Um no, there's a couple of other um there salaries and it can't be spent on basically administration. Okay. cuz I was reading it and it was saying that it shall not be spent on salaries. EPA can Yeah. Um we spend it on certificated salaries. Okay. Money's received from EPA shall not be used for salaries or benefits. That's confusing. Where is that? It
021is at the bottom the last uh uh I guess sentence of the first page. Whereas the monies received from the education protective account administrative cost can be used for teacher salary. I got it. Okay. Yes, that is that was that was a huge Okay. That's confusing though. Okay. Um any other questions? I think the word or kind of threw me off. Okay. Okay. All right. I got it. All right. separated from each. Do we have a motion to comment? Go ahead. I move that we approve uh resolution number 25.6.1. I'll second. Thank you. All in favor? I. Item 5.3 passes unanimously. Moving on to item 5.4, appointing our ACCBE representative [Music] So yes, so the ACCBE, that's the Association of California County School Boards of Education. Um we recently became members um of that organization.
022And so they have monthly about monthly meetings and they'd like um a representative for a board to take part in that. Um it doesn't have to be the same person. It could be the president. It could be somebody who's appointed, but as a board, I thought it should come to the board for discussion on who would who would like to or who if somebody would like to nominate somebody to attend um so that you can stay in touch with what they're working on, what advocacy they might need your input on, things like that. So, and where do they have their meetings? They're virtual. Virtual. I had a question. Um do I have to abstain from nominating someone as president? Do I have to hand the gavvel over to nominate? I think that is the thing
023that we learned recently that Okay. So, I can't nominate you. You can hand the gavvel to Don and nominate someone. You can self-nominate. Nancy has been attending. I attended uh I attended one meeting and uh I think I did only because you were unavailable. Um but yeah, they are excited to have someone appointed. What did you think of the meeting? Um I thought it was great. Uh it was it was I think about an hour and I think there were maybe six or seven of us and we all introduced ourselves and talked about what our passions were and then um it steered back to kind of what their focus uh will be. Um and they like I mentioned at our last meeting that you know this is very new for them and they're they're figuring
024this out. And so um I think I recently did get an email. I don't know if anyone else got it. um in regards to a meeting in Sacramento in August. Um so it sounds like it might be like their first. This is their, you know, they're they're jumping into it, which is great. Um but yeah, I think it it's definitely worthwhile for us to be a part. It is. And Beina's a great gal and I think that you will love her if you get to know her. If anyone nominates you, I'll nominate Nancy. I nominate Nancy to be the ACCBE liaison. Um, and I'm doing it because I truly do believe that ACCEB is a really important agency for county offices of education. As I mentioned earlier, when you're at the California School Boards Association,
025we're one of all of the districts, right? And when you deal with all of the districts across the state, it's heavily weighted in Southern California. And most of the policies that CSBA advocates for really benefit Southern California. But when you look at ACCBE, it's the one thing where five board members from every county get to meet equally. And so it's kind of like a Senate, right? where the rural voice matters, right? And so, um, it's super important that that agency be strong. Um, unfortunately, the way it was set up before, it was under a contract with CSBA. Mhm. There was some legislation that occurred that passed. They didn't follow the CSBA process. And so I guess some things occurred where CSBA stopped the ability for um the county board um to have their own voice
026except for now they've made us a region. Well, as a region again that um city voice will win. You know, the urban voice will win. So, um, yeah, I'm really excited to nominate you because I think you're going to be a great representative on that board. So, thank you. Yeah. And I'll second because I learned about them from you my first meeting a couple months ago and I looked into it. It's like, wow, we should really be members and and we got agenda and we voted for and I think you'd be a great representative. I definitely don't have the capacity. So, you wonderful. All in favor say I. I. No opposed. Nancy Bennett is our proud ACCVE representative. Thank you, Nancy, for taking that on. Thank you. Congratulations. Appreciate that. Moving on to item 7.1,
027our superintendent report. Sure. I'll start my the superintendent report with a little report from Briana, um, our our student board rep who was here but had to leave. Um, she's in the summer program. Um, she reports that the student awards ceremony at the end of the year was well attended and that the student garden is moving along and being tended to by students this in the summer program and that the summer program has a local uh field trip to the uh to Frisbee golf at low gap park. Um, and that there are summer programs being run at both or creek and new beginning campuses and that students are excited about possibly um taking a trip to Windsor Bowling Alley. um they're working with uh the principal and their teacher to see if that can't be
028worked out. So that's this student uh report. We just had a meeting last week. I reported a about all the fun and amazing activities that were kind of end of year. The only thing I want to report on tonight is um bridging the gap the bridging the gap family conference that was last week that Dr. Odell's um department oversaw. It was outstanding. Outstanding. They had the the first night was um a speaker, the author, an amazing speaker. They served a dinner. It was a family called Bridging the Gap with families. This was an an event that actually incorporated families. So, there were a lot of families and children in attendance and we had a whole section for the kids to hang out and have fun. Um and then the next day for um for educators
029um people from local agencies um it was a pretty open invitation and really well attended and really good speakers like top-notch speakers. The feedback that I got was and I I couldn't stay the whole day. Um but just in even in the morning and then when I checked in with people in the afternoon just thank you so much for this. This was really good. So, I wanted to say that to all of you. So, the UNOVAT and and Dr. Odell's department worked really hard to make it awesome and fun and smooth and um really professional and refined. So, it was a really good event and I wanted to report on that because I think it's an an important event that um that that will help um many districts um and families in our community. So,
030that is the end of my report. Thank you. Thank you very much, Nicole. Moving on to item 7.2, board member reports. We'll start with Priscilla and go down the line. Awesome. Well, that's amazing. Thank you, Dr. Rodell, for putting that together for our families. It's great to hear that. Um, I attended ACCBE webinar featuring Linda Darlingham and as a speaker, she's a state board of education president and chief learning officer at Learning Policy Institute. It was a discussion about designing for the future of public education. Um, if anyone's interested, that PowerPoint recording is available. I learned that a lot of their things are available after if you can't attend live. Um they have a few upcoming events. I'll just mention on Nancy in case they're in my notes to mention. Um they have a board
031of director meeting at 6 p.m. on August 4th and a monthly learning series. The topic of the next one is building um trustee excellence superintendent um salary on August 25th at 6 p.m. They also have a literacy spotlight on overcoming uh reading difficulties literary lead from Sat County including um dyslexia experts from UCSF. Um, they have another event on July 16th, but I forgot to write down what it's for, so just a heads up. Um, in other news, I was sworn in by Menino Countyy's per court judge Nolan to serve on the countywide JJDPC uh, commission, which is juvenile justice and delinquency prevention commission for the county, which is exciting because we serve a lot of the same youth as MCE. So, um, working double hard there. um especially you know for our incarcerated and
032formerly incarcerated students. Um and that's my report. Thank you for um well um I am uh announcing that August is going to be my final board meeting with the board. Um, I joined the board of education or ran for the board, um, because when I was county superintendent, um, I had real specific things I wanted to see the county do and, um, the pandemic really kind of took over and, um, annexed a lot of our plans as a county um, and didn't allow a lot of those things to occur. Um, after not winning the reelection campaign, I thought, how can I still bring those processes to the county? And I thought that by joining the board and sort of sharing those processes with Nicole and that through our new superintendent, hopefully those things could be
033done. Um, having served now for a few months, I um I realize that Nicole, you have done an incredible job at building a great team here. While I will say it feels Yukaya heavy in terms of where the staff have come from, the camaraderie that you've created in this county office um is is strong. Really strong. and I see it and I'm proud of it and I want to say thank you for for bringing that here because we didn't have that level of camaraderie um before and so I see that leadership in you and I'm really proud of it um and thankful for it. Um, and so I feel like my best effect in life right now is to put my energy to my town, the town of Willlets, which is a community that um
034is in its second year of right or third year. It's in its first year of DTA. Yeah, exactly. So, we're we're in some we have some big things in Willlets to to really look at. And so, my calling at this point is to work with students. So, I'm going to go back to Willlets. I'm going to teach. I'll be working at Willlets High School as well as the middle school. Um, my favorite age is seventh grade because they're like goats, which I raise goats. And so, I love that um hesitancy to get involved. Like, you got to show me that this is where I want to be. You got to prove to me that I want to walk in that direction. But once they get there, they are 100% in your hands and they're like
035little puppies just eating eating everything they can, right? Licking it up. And so I love that. So I'm excited to be back in that arena. Um, so I I must resign in order to teach. I can't do both. Ed code doesn't allow me to do both. So I encourage you to maybe look at my opponent. Um, I know he was he's a great gentleman and uh I'm sure he would be very willing and would do a great job serving. But you'll have your process. That's not my decision to make. It is yours to make in the future. Um, one thing I want to encourage this board to look at as we move forward or as you move forward, um, please continue innovative practices. Um, please continue to expose our districts to those innovative practices because
036we're so sheltered up here. We see so little, our educators travel very little. Um, please bring things to us to see. Um the second thing I would ask is that as you look at your facilities um moving forward that you look at delivering effective and efficient services first over filling your current footprint. Um a lot of things have changed for MCOE since you moved into this campus. Is this campus still where you should be? Is my question for you based on delivering effective and efficient services to your rural schools? Possibly um looking at a facility in Willlets. I know I'm kind of touting Willlets a little bit, but if you think about your facility in Fort Bragg and what that gave the coast, it gave the coast access to you that they've never had before.
037And perhaps a facility in Willlets could also give those northern schools that same kind of context. Still understanding that you have essential services here in Yukaya that you provide, but most of those aren't on this campus now. So I just ask you to look at that as you um develop what MCE looks like in the next 10 years. So with that, I just really want to thank the people for um what you've provided here. Thank you, Michelle. So yeah, that's all I got. Well, congratulations and good luck to you. Thanks. Yeah, have fun. It will be. I just have a real quick report. Uh last Tuesday, I attended the ribbon cutting for the TK classroom at Redwood Elementary in Fort Bragg. They have three new classrooms. They are amazing. They're huge rooms. They're big and
038bright. Each one has a bathroom, the smallest toilet I've ever seen, and uh the rooms are just set up so wonderful. There was a TK teacher that was there. She's been an ed educator probably ever since I've known her. Um and they had a support staff and each of those people were telling me how great, what an improvement. So they have the three classrooms that face south and they are fenced in. So they have the TK has their own playground. They have a learning garden. It is just such an amazing space. So I was really happy to attend that and uh celebrate that. It was it was great. Thank you, Nancy. Well, I'm still reading all those emails about housing for teachers that I get from CSBA. And you know, over time, I've sort of
039been a little bit frustrated because there didn't seem to be a lot of guidance. And of course, the you know, the big the big issue in building housing is how do you finance it? And the good news is they passed a couple of bills where they're actually making some money available to districts to do that. And that that was very encouraging. Great. Thank you, Don. Um, I just wanted to say I think it's encouraging that we've got more people attending our next conference. It looks like you're both coming this next time, right? Great. Which conference is that? Sorry. Sorry. No, I can't attend. But I will be the I will be going to the one in Sacramento. Oh, okay. I thought you were attending. Okay. No, sadly I can't. And Don, you're not? No. Either
040one. Okay. All right. So, how does that work? If if some of you are attending, do you come and report back or how do we gain your knowledge? Like how do we learn what you can? Okay. If you want to um Yeah, there's no, you know, you're not It's nice to hear hear how it went and the highlights. You usually get a lot to report about, but yeah, you'd be taking over the whole meeting if you reported, you know, because the conferences are huge. So, it's more of a personal learning. It's more when you go to one of those conferences, there's a lot. Okay. There's a lot of choice. You can't attend everything. It's just like when I go to a dental conference, there'll be, you know, 10 different events going on and I have
041to pick, you know, you pick which ones you want to go to. Okay. Yeah. Okay. Great. At what time and which speakers are more of interest to you. But they're great. Yeah. Sounds great. They're fun. All right. Um, moving on to item 8.1. Our next board meeting is a very long time away. We get July off. Monday, August 11th, 2025. And item 8.2. I'd like to ask for a motion for adjournment. I'll make a motion that we adjourn today's meeting. I'll second. All in favor? I. Thank you so much. Today was a long one, you guys. We were over already. It was a long one. I know. I'm numb and my voice is going. Are you human?