Back in the Swing of Things

The Wednesday, September 17, 2025, 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 receive the Student Board Member Report, and then hear Public Comments of Persons Desiring to Address the Board (for non-Agendized items). 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. Next, the Board will hear Reports from SCCOE Bargaining Units (which include its teaching and staff unions, among others).

Next, 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 National Bullying Prevention Month , Cybersecurity Month, LGBTQ+ History Month, and National Disability Employment Awareness Month. You can read more about all of them under agenda items 5 and 6.

Then, Stephanie Gomez will next Request Approval of the Budget Revisions for June 2025 and August 2025. These are action items and the request and budget revisions can be found under agenda item 7A and B. Assistant Superintendent of Business Services, Stephanie Gomez, and Director of Internal Business Services, Lauren Nguyen, will present the revisions and be there to address any questions or concerns the Board may or may not have on the budget revisions. This is a regular request when either Income or Expenditures in actuality are different from the SCCBOE/SCCOE's approved budget. Most, if not all, of the budget revisions for June and August increased revenues and expenditures for restricted purposes. That is to say, that money received can only be used for specific purposes and those purposes are explained in the budget revisions.

Dr. Toston and Dr. Matt Wayne will then present an Informational Update on Head Start and the Head Start/Early Head Start Monthly Board Reports. This is an informational item and the updates/reports can be found under agenda item 8A and B. On February 12, 2025, the SCCOE received a Head Start Monitoring Report that it had a deficiency in its safety practices at one of its centers. On February 18, 2025, the SCCOE received a Head Start Monitoring Report that it had five areas of non compliance in program governance and program eligibility and selection. The informational update includes information on the remediation done on the deficiency and areas of non compliance as shared with the Department of Health and Human Services. The Monthly Board Reports include the monthly data involving enrollment, recruitment, wrap around support, budget, spending, you name it, regarding how the Head Start programs are run across Santa Clara and San Benito Counties.

Next, Dr. Toston and Jessica Simpson will present the Executive Services Division Update. This is an informational item and their presentation can be found under agenda item 8C. The presentation outlines all the departments it supports (and they are numerous), and drills down on what each department does.

Then, the Board will go into Closed Session to hear 2 interdistrict attendance appeals. It is important to note, the SCCBOE is an appellate body for local school district interdistrict transfer requests, charter school applications, and expulsion decisions. The process and criteria the Board must use is outlined in Board Policy 5117 found here.

Please note, these are just the highlights of what is on the agenda for the9/17/25 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.