Funding

At their meeting on Thursday, May 28 the Board approved Resolution 20-13. The District is submitting construction funding applications to the Office of Public School Construction and the State Allocation Board for the construction of the schools at the old Agnews site. Currently, the District is using funds from Measure H and Measure BB to fund the schools’ construction. Passing this resolution means that if future State funding is available and the projects still qualify for funding, the District will receive funds to spend on other high priority capital facility projects.

The current State Bond for the School Facilities Program is “oversubscribed,” and the construction of the schools at the old Agnews site can only be funded if a new State Bond is passed by voters in the future.

Educational Options Restructuring

The District’s Educational Options program’s roles and responsibilities will be restructured, according to a report from Brenda Carrillo, Director of Educational Options.

Specifically, the proposed restructure includes repositioning the District’s Santa Clara Adult Education program under the leadership of the Director of Secondary Education. Additionally, Carrillo wants to hire a principal for the Adult School, instead of another director, which will save money. And lastly, they want to reposition the Family Child Education Program under the leadership of the Director of Elementary Education.

This will return to a future Board meeting.

New Valley High School & Gateway Program

Both New Valley High School and the Horizon program — previously the Gateway program — will see changes.

Dr. Laurie Stapleton, the Secondary Education Director, reported the proposed changes to the Board, which include transitioning to an interdisciplinary classes framework. They will begin implementing the transition in the 2020-2021 school year with full implementation in 2021-2022.

Currently, New Valley cannot accommodate at-risk ninth graders, but they are included in the newly redesigned Horizon program which is housed at Santa Clara and Wilcox high schools.

In Dr. Stapleton’s 3-year plan, she hopes they will be able to reintroduce the ninth graders back into the New Valley program if they are able to get a larger facility.

This will return to a future Board meeting.

Other Business

The Board approved the appointment of Brad Stam as the new Chief Academic and Innovation Officer. They also approved hiring Jennifer Janzen as the Coordinator of STEAM.

The Tentative Agreement with CSEA for a 2020-2023 Successor Collective Bargaining Agreement was also approved, as well as the 2020-2021 Classified Salary Schedules.

During the discussion part of the meeting, the Board held the first reading of the CSBA recommended updates to the Board Policy Manual. The updates will be brought back to a future meeting.

The Santa Clara Unified Board of Trustees meets next for a study session on reopening schools on Thursday, June 4 at 5 p.m. Their next regular meeting is on Thursday, June 11 at 6:30 p.m.