Charter Renewals and Sunol Property

The Wednesday, October 21, 2026, Santa Clara County Board of Education (SCCBOE) meeting will start at 5:00pm. The Board will immediately adjourn to closed session to conduct one intradistrict hearing and discuss anticipated 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. PLEASE NOTE: the SCCOE is using a new agenda platform. I look forward to learning how to use it along with the rest of you!

When open session commences, first up on the agenda, 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.

Next, 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 Recognizing National Homeless Youth Awareness and Filipino American History Month, and Affirming Religious Freedom, Denouncing Islamaphobia and Religious Discrimination, and Supporting Safe and Inclusive Public Schools. You can read more about all of them under agenda items 8 and 9.

Then, the Board will consider the Approval of the Sunol Property Advisory Committee Members. This is an action item and the staff's recommended committee members and the updated committee meeting schedule can be found under agenda item 10A. On September 2, 2026, the Board approved establishing the Committee to review information about the Sunol property (located at 258 Sunol Street in San Jose) and recommend its future use. The recommended members include a range of community perspectives and relevant experience.

The Board will next consider the Request for Renewal of the Sunrise Middle School Charter School. This is an action item and the Charter Department's recommendation and resolution, and Sunrise's petition can be found under agenda item 10B. Staff recommends renewal of Sunrise for a five year term starting July 1, 2027 with the condition they enter into an Addendum to the MOU on or before December 31, 2026 to address some deficiencies in their petition including credentialing language, better explanation of lottery mechanics, clarification that SCCOE must review suspension and expulsion policies, and clarification of retirement system for certificated employees not eligible for STRS.

The Board will then consider the Request for Renewal of the Alpha: Jose Hernandez (AJH) Charter School. This is an action item and the Charter Department's recommendation and resolution, and AJH's presentation and petition can be found under agenda item 10C. Staff recommends renewal of AJH for a five year term starting July 1, 2027 with the condition they enter into an Addendum to the MOU on or before December 31, 2026 to address some deficiencies in their petition including continued focus on an academic improvement plan for LTELs in collaboration with the SCCOE and Placer COE, supply of qualifications of AJH Board members, and credentials of Principal and Assistant Principal.

Please note, these are just the highlights of what is on the agenda for the 10/21/26 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.