The Wednesday, March 5, 2024, 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 the SCCOE's Employee of the Month. The SCCBOE recognizes 10 SCCOE employee each year for their outstanding service to the county office of education and greater community. March's recipient is Yolanda Taina, an Inclusion Support Specialist in the Inclusion Collaborative Department within the Educational Progress Division. This week, the SCCOE will also Recognize SCCOE Recipients of the ACSA Region 8 Award. ACSA is the Association of California School Administrators and it has a program that recognizes students, administrators, and community organizations for achievement and dedication to public education. This year, three administrators from the SCCOE received awards:
Stephanie Gomez, Assistant Superintendent of Business Services: Business Services Administrator of the Year
Joann Vaars, Director, Educational Services for Foster and Homeless Youth: Central Office Administrator of the Year
David Wu, Head of Technology: Technology Administrator of the Year
Next, the SCCBOE will receive 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).
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, and outside donations the county has received. This meeting's agenda includes resolutions recognizing Autism Awareness Day and to honor the life of Dolores Huerta , along with a request to approve the Appointment of Tomora Hall to the Personnel Commission and specific donations to the SCCOE. These are all action items and their supporting documentation can be found using the link above under agenda item 6.
Stephanie Gomez will then Request Approval of the Budget Revisions for January 2025.
This is an action item and the request and budget revisions can be found under agenda item 7A. 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.
Business Services will next present the 2024-25 Second Interim Financial Report. This is a discussion item and Stephanie Gomez's presentation, as well the report can be found under agenda item 8A. The purpose of this report is to inform the Board of the actuals compared to the budget from July 1 to October 31st, while also determining fiscal solvency for the current budget year and two future budget years. The good news is that the SCCOE will be fiscally solvent this budget year and for the two outlying budget years. However, the office has challenges facing it in the outlying years including inflation and uncertainty as to revenues from local, federal, state and grant sources. It is important for me to continue to point out here that the SCCOE does not get to keep all the property taxes that it should otherwise be entitled. State law requires the SCCOE to disburse 22% of it to the state to be used by local courts. For the 24/25 budget, that disbursement is expected to be over $52 million.
Then, Deborah Gorgulho and Kristina Ravo will give the Board a Mock Trial Tournament Presentation. This is a discussion item and their presentation can be found under agenda item 8B. The SCCBOE is committed to civic engagement and hosts the Santa Clara County Mock Trial Tournament every year along with the Santa Clara County Bar Association. The tournament provides high school students from across Santa Clara County the unique opportunity to participate in a simulated courtroom experience. 21 schools participated, with Lynbrook High School from Fremont Union High School District winning to advance to the state tournament.
Next, Dr. Hinman will present an Information Update on the Head State Program. This is an information item and there is no presentation attached to the agenda. 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 center. 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. On February 26, 2025, the SCCOE met with the federal Region IX (9) Office of Head Start to discuss the process to correct the deficiency and areas of non compliance and to go over work already done to that end.
Please note, these are just the highlights of what is on the agenda for the 3/5/25 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.
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