Charter School Hearings and SCCOE/SCCBOE Leadership Agreements

The Wednesday, September 2, 2026, Santa Clara County Board of Education (SCCBOE) meeting will start at 5:00pm. The Board will immediately adjourn to closed session to conduct seven (2) intradistrict hearings and discuss active litigation; public session will reconvene after closed session.  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.

When open session commences, first up on the agenda, the SCCBOE will recognize SCCOE's Employee of the Month, Brenda Montes. Brenda is a an Administrative Assistant in the Continuous Improvement and Accountability Department and has worked for the SCCOE for 10 years. She currently assists with LCAPs, Williams Settlement (textbook sufficiency) compliance and monitoring, and attendance and engagement. She is known to be the first person to offer assistance, no matter how hard the task and often works to elevate the entire workplace.

Next, the Board will hear the Student Board Member Report, followed by Public Comments of Persons Desiring to Address the Board (for non-Agendized items) and 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 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 Affirming Commitment to Alleviating Pain through Public Education and Advancing Opportunity without Exception, Recognizing National Hispanic Heritage Month, Farmworkers Day, and Dolores Huerta Day, and Supporting Constitution Day and California High School Voter Education Weeks. You can read more about all of them under agenda item 9.

Dr. Toston and Interim Deputy Superintendent of Business and Operations, Dr. Candi Clark, will next Discuss the Process for Reviewing the Future Use of the Sunol Property and the Establishment of the Sunol Property Advisory Committee. This is an action item and the schedule for proposed meetings of the advisory committee can be found under agenda item 10A. The SCCOE owns the the former Sunol Community School property located at 258 Sunol Street in San Jose. The SCCOE is reviewing the future use of the property. The proposed property advisory committee would provide an opportunity for community input and recommendations to help inform the Board's decision of future use of the property. The SCCOE has already gathered information regarding the property, including its current condition, potential future uses, and property value. Dr. Toston requests the SCCBOE establish the Sunol Property Advisory Committee and that it consist of not fewer than seven and not more than eleven members, to review information regarding the Sunol property and provide recommendations concerning its future use.

Dr. Toston and the Director of the Charter Schools Department, Dr. Michelle Johnson, will next help the SCCBOE conduct Public Hearing on the Sunrise Middle Charter School Renewal Petition. This is a discussion item and Sunrise's presentation and petition can be fund under agenda item 11A. Sunrise was approved on appeal from San Jose Unified as 6-8 charter school in 2014 (after San Jose Unified denied their renewal), renewed and materially revised to add grade 5 in 2019. They were supposed to renew in 2024, but because of COVID, renewal deadlines were changed per state law. The public hearing will go as follows: 10 minute SCCOE staff presentation, 10 minute Sunrise presentation, 10 minute San Jose Unified School District opportunity to comment, public comment of one minute each, followed by the ability of Board members to ask clarifying questions.

Next, Dr. Toston and Dr. Michelle Johnson, will help the SCCBOE conduct Public Hearing on the Alpha Jose Hernandez (AJH) Charter School Renewal Petition. This is a discussion item and AJH's presentation and petition can be fund under agenda item 11B. AJH was approved on appeal from Alum Rock Union School District as 6-8 charter school in September 2013 for a 3 year term, materially revised in 2015 to add fifth grade, renewed and materially revised to add TK-4 in 2016, and renewed again in 2024 for 2 years as a low performing charter. As explained above, the public hearing will go as follows: 10 minute SCCOE staff presentation, 10 minute AJH presentation, 10 minute Alum Rock School District opportunity to comment, public comment of one minute each, followed by the ability of Board members to ask clarifying questions.  

Then, Dr. Toston will present First Readings for Revised and New Board Policies regarding Business, Facilities, and Operations, Educational Services, and Executive Services. This is a discussion item and the board policies (redline and clean) can be found under agenda items 13A, B and C. Action will not be taken on these policies until our next board meeting. This meeting is for the board to ask any questions or request edits.

Please note, these are just the highlights of what is on the agenda for the 9/2/26 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.