Budget Revisions, Charter Renewal Appeal, and Budget Study Session, Oh My!

The Wednesday, May 20, 2026, Santa Clara County Board of Education (SCCBOE) meeting will start at 5:00pm. Contemporaneous public comments may only be made in person in the San Jose Room of the Santa Clara County Office of Education (SCCOE). Community members can follow SCCBOE meetings at home by clinking on this link and scrolling down to the Watch Live heading. If you cannot attend in person, and have a comment that you would like the SCCBOE to consider in its decision making, please email all of us prior to the board meeting at SCCBOEMembers@sccoe.org. The entire agenda and supporting documentation for this coming week's meeting can be found here.

First up on the agenda, the SCCBOE will recognize SCCOE's Student of the Year, Kimberly Naomi Gallegos. Kimberly is a graduating senior at KIPP San Jose Collegiate and has been part of Migrant Education since she was 2 years old. Despite constant movement every year because of the agricultural seasons, she always remained focused on her education and being an active participant in her school community including sports, speech and debate, and girls scouts, among other things.

Next, the Board will hear Public Comments of Persons Desiring to Address the Board (for non-Agendized items), followed by Reports from SCCOE Bargaining Units (which include its teaching and staff unions, among others). For public comments, participants are given 2 minutes (at most) to address the Board, and the Board is not permitted to engage on the subject matter because it is not agendized.

Then, the Board will consider approving its Consent Action and Information Items. The consent part of an agenda generally includes non-controversial subject matters that can be approved all together if the Board all deems the items non-controversial and chooses not to pull any for discussion. For the SCCBOE, this part of the agenda typically includes minutes from the prior meeting, resolutions recognizing ethnic groups the county serves, specific educational initiatives, outside donations the county has received, disposition of surplus items, Head Start program reports, approval of board policy updates, and employee compensation increases over a certain threshold. This meeting's agenda includes resolutions recognizing Caribbean American Heritage Month, LGBTQ+ Pride Month and Harvey Milk Day, Lyme Disease Awareness, National Immigrant Heritage Month, and National Safety Month, among other things. You can read more about all of them under agenda items 6 and 7.

Stephanie Gomez will next present Budget Revisions for the Month of April 2026. This is an action item and her supporting documentation can be found under agenda item 8A. The short of it is that during the month of April 2026, the expenditure budget was increased by $285,843; revenue was increased by $279,146; and fund balance was decreased by $6,697.

Dr. Michelle Johnson, Director of Charter Schools, will help the Board conduct a Public Hearing on the Escuela Popular Center for Training and Careers (EPCTC) Charter School Renewal Appeal Petition. This is a discussion item and their presentation and petition can be found under agenda item 9A. Escuela Popular was originally chartered in 2004 by the East Side Union High School District (ESUHSD). On April 13, 2026, ESUHSD denied EPCTC's renewal petition and now EPCTC is appealing that decision to the SCCBOE and requesting the SCCBOE become its authorizer and receive a continuing charter term of five years beginning in July 2026.

Next, Stephanie Gomez, Assistant Superintendent, Business Services, Lauren Nguyen, Director, Internal Business Services, and Leilani Aguinaldo from School Services of California will provide the Board a Study Session on the Santa Clara County Office of Education Budget. This is an informational item and the presentations can be found under agenda item 10A. Ms. Aguinaldo will be give the state and county wide economic context of the our budget, while Stephanie Gomez and team will focus on the details on how our specific budget works and a preview of what to expect in the 26/27 budget. I highly recommend reading the presentations and/or attending the meeting to learn more.

Then, Dr. Matthew Tinsley, Director of Educational Initiatives and Policies will present the 2025 Santa Clara County Kindergarten Readiness Assessment. This is an informational item and the presentation can be found under agenda item 10B. It provides a detailed view of incoming kindergarten students’ school readiness and has comparison data from 2018 and 2023 to show long term trends.

The Board will next go into Closed Session to discuss conduct an Interdistrict Transfer Hearing and discuss anticipated litigation and public employee complaints.

Please note, these are just the highlights of what is on the agenda for the 5/20/26 meeting. You can inform yourself about the rest of the agenda at the link provided above. As always, feel free to email me with any questions.