|
|
Governor's Budget Proposal Includes Increases for Education
In releasing his budget on January 10, 2018, Governor Jerry Brown proposed an increase of $3.8 billion for K-12 schools with the largest part, $3 billion, going toward fully funding the Local Control Funding Formula (LCFF).
Five years ago when the LCFF was
 |
|
|
Governor Brown's budget proposal includes full funding for LCFF. |
created, Brown estimated that it would take eight years until 2020-2021 to fully fund it so the bigger than expected bump in funding this year is a welcome surprise. Yet, educators cautioned, full funding is not adequate funding. California still ranks 46th in the nation in per pupil spending.
Brown was cautiously optimistic about the state's economy but warned of a looming economic recession and reserved much of the increase in tax revenues for the rainy day fund.
In addition to fully funding the LCFF, Brown proposed $55.4 million in ongoing funding for county offices of education to assist school districts identified as needing help with low-performing student groups and a competitive grant of $4 million to choose eight county offices to provide guidance to other counties.
"SMCOE will get some of that $55.4 million to assist school districts and the competitive grant is something that we will be looking into at the San Mateo County Office of Education (SMCOE)," notes Deputy Superintendent Denise Porterfield. "It's encouraging to see that the Governor and the California Department of Finance understand more than ever how the work of county offices of education is extremely valuable. However, our base level of funding remains at the same flat-funding level."
The Governor is holding to his promise of increasing funding for early learning. State preschools/childcare will see an increase of 2.8 percent plus a 2.5 percent COLA.
The critical shortage of special education teachers is also addressed in this budget. Brown proposes $100 million in one-time funding to recruit and train special education teachers. Half of this money will go toward establishing teacher residencies--a one-year mentoring program for teachers in training. The other $50 million will be for competitive grants for districts proposing solutions to the special education teacher shortage.
Brown also proposes $212 million in ongoing money to extend career technical education programs under the community colleges' strong workforce programs to K-12 districts and $300,000 to improve the usefulness of the
California School Dashboard, which many have complained is too complex and hard to use.
The proposed budget also includes $1.8 billion in discretionary one-time funding. "This is the squishy part of the budget and we are likely to see some changes here when the budget gets negotiated in the legislature," notes Porterfield.
Porterfield was also cautious in predicting education funding in the years to come, now that LCFF will be fully funded. "Going forward districts may only see COLA increases which will not be adequate to fund pension liabilities, and step and column increases.
For now the budget goes to the legislature for further negotiations. A final budget is predicted to be passed on time in June.
|
|
Upcoming Zap the Gap Conference at SMCOE Celebrates 10th Year
Zap the Gap, the annual summit co-sponsored by the San Mateo County Office of Education (SMCOE) and Oracle now in its 10th year, will bring together educators, community leaders, parents, school board members and policy makers in raising awareness and building capacity to address the achievement and opportunity gaps in
 San Mateo County. It will be held on March 12, 2018 at the Oracle Conference Center in Redwood City.
"There is no more critical work before us than to close the achievement and opportunity gaps in our county. We began this event 10 years ago to build a countywide coalition supporting our historically underserved student populations. We are excited to continue this work, double down on our commitment to our students, and celebrate the work of the past 10 years," said Dr. Gary Waddell, Deputy Superintendent of Instruction.
The day will begin with a session entitled "Achievement in Motion." Using data from the new
California School Dashboard the SMCOE Learning Analytics team will present their findings on schools and districts in San Mateo County that are beating the odds in serving underserved populations. They'll present best practices and lessons learned at these schools as well as a model for schools to use in closing gaps. A panel of practitioners from these schools will discuss what has worked and why.
Featured keynote speaker will be Kimberly Papillon, a nationally recognized expert on the subject of the neuroscience of decision-making in law, education, business and medicine. The focus of her talk will be on her work around implicit bias--what the research tells us about the bias we all bring and how to counter it with specific strategies.
The day will end with recent Canada College graduate and former undocumented student Sarahi Espinoza Salamanca telling her compelling story of growing up in Redwood City as a DACA student, the challenges that she encountered and her pathway to creating the
DREAMer's Roadmap,an application to help undocumented students find scholarships. She was a Champion of Change at the White House in 2014, received a House of Representatives Award in 2015, and was recently named in Forbes 30 under 30. She wants everyone to achieve their fullest potential and hopes to help hundreds of thousands of students eliminate the barriers to success.
You won't want to miss this special 10th anniversary Zap the Gap!
For more information about the Summit, contact Edna Letran at
eletran@smcoe.org. Register for the Summit online
here.
|
Strategic Plan Drives Progress on Innovative Initiatives at SMCOE
Since fall 2017, San Mateo County Office of Education staff have been making significant progress toward the deliverables laid out in the excellence and equity framework of the
2017-2019 Strategic Plan.
That was the message that County Superintendent Anne Campbell and Marco Chavez, Administrator, Board/Superintendent Support and Community Relations, relayed in their presentation to the County Board of Education at their meeting on January 17, 2018.
Staff have divided into workgroups
|
|
|
Superintendent Anne Campbell and Marco Chavez, Administrator, Board/Superintendent Support and Community Relations, presented a progress report on the strategic plan. |
around the three areas identified in the framework: Think/Do Hubs, Organizational Culture and Climate, and Elevating the Teaching Profession.
Under Think/Do Hubs, the work being done has provided an opportunity to develop expertise and highlight innovative work spearheaded by SMCOE staff. Examples include multi-tiered systems of support, where SMCOE is leading the statewide initiative in our region. David Brashear, Director of Networks for Success and Jenee Littrell, Administrator, Safe and Supportive Schools, have organized several meetings to engage counties and districts in this work within the region.
In the Lab Schools area, Associate Superintendent Nancy Magee and Principal Mary Browning have begun developing a plan to fully integrate
preschool students receiving special education support into regular education preschool classes.
In the area of Preschool to 3rd Grade Alignment (P-3), Diana Harlick, Early Learning Quality Improvement Initiatives Coordinator, and Kim Bambao, Mathematics Coordinator at the STEM Center, are working with the Silicon Valley Community Foundation to develop a model of a fully aligned P-3 system within San Mateo County.
With the hiring of Andra Yeghoian as Environmental Education Coordinator, significant progress has been made on Environmental Literacy, including the roll out of the Environmental Literacy Framework, creation of the Environmental Literacy Advisory Committee and the
SMCOE Environmental Literacy website.(See related article in this issue.)
Robert Pronovost, Maker Education Coordinator at the STEM Center, has been leading the charge on maker-centered learning. A Maker Educator Certificate course for teachers is beginning in January and will run for four Saturdays at different makerspaces throughout the county.
The SMCOE Center for Learning Analytics is highly regarded in the county. Staff are supporting use of the DataZone with six districts and supporting the differentiated assistance team in their meetings with superintendents and teams, assisting with data analysis for state indicators and relevant student groups.
In Organizational Culture and Climate, staff have undergone cultural humility training and plans are in the works for an employee satisfaction survey to be rolled out in the spring.
In the area of the Teaching Profession, plans are in the works for the ECET2-Elevating and Celebrating Effective Teachers and Teaching conference on March 9 and 10, where teachers will have the opportunity to inspire each other and celebrate their work. Educators Rising--a club designed to interest high school students in teaching, is beginning at high schools in San Mateo County and is the first step in creating a career/technical education pathway to teaching.
SMCOE has applied for a state intern teacher credential grant for training special education teachers and there are currently two cohorts of county classified school employees making progress in the teacher credential program offered at SMCOE.
"Many organizations create strategic plans but it is impressive to see the scope of work being done in alignment with this strategic plan," noted San Mateo County Board of Education President Susan Alvaro following the presentation and her fellow board members concurred.
|
Environmental Literacy Advisory Committee Advances Work of Environmental Education
On January 11, 2018, the Environmental Literacy Advisory Committee, which includes 40 representatives from environmental organizations, school districts, the community colleges and San Mateo County Office of Education (SMCOE) staff met at SMCOE to address how to move environmental education forward in the
|
|
|
Small groups discussed current projects in environmental education at the meeting at SMCOE on January 11, 2018.. |
county and give input on programs and plans already in the works.
"It is so helpful to have this variety of perspectives and expertise together in the room to guide our process," says Andra Yeghoian, Environmental Education Coordinator at SMCOE. This was the second quarterly meeting for the group.
Yeghoian began the meeting by describing the progress that has been made thus far in pursuing the principles of the 4cs of schoolwide sustainability: campus, curriculum, community and institutional culture. The list of accomplishments included the San Carlos school district and SMCOE performing environmental audits and applying for the state-level Green Ribbon award, presentations by Yeghoian at numerous county and state conferences and school districts, the hiring of a Climate Corps Fellow at SMCOE, the creation of an environmental awards program for schools and districts in San Mateo County, and planning for an environmental education conference at SMCOE at the end of April.
A good portion of the meeting was devoted to discussion of the
One Planet framework, which with its ten simple principles makes it easy to plan, deliver and communicate commitment to sustainability. Yeghoian described her search for an overarching framework that will tell the story, emphasize the urgency of the work around sustainability, and engage students. She asked for input from the group to see if this approach resonated with them, and a variety of opinions were expressed.
The advisory group then broke up into smaller units to discuss current projects around environmental education: living schoolyards, the countywide awards program, and ways to attract more districts and schools to commit to environmental education.
|
Arts Education Has a Champion in SMCOE's Michelle Holdt
It's been a year since Michelle Holdt assumed the role as half-time Visual and Performing Arts Coordinator at the San Mateo County Office of Education (SMCOE). Since that time she has been working nonstop and taken on many roles to promote arts education and integration throughout the county.
Holdt has a deep background and
|
|
|
| Michelle Holdt is the half-time Visual and Performing Arts Coordinator at SMCOE. |
|
passion for the arts having served for 25 years as a drama teacher and a professional development provider. She's also the founder of
artsedmatters.org, an organization which advocates for a strong presence of the arts in public education and a co-producer of a 12-minute documentary entitled "Arts is the Root: Why Arts in Schools Matter," which has had more than 14,000 views on
YouTube and was recently translated into
Spanish.
Since arriving at SMCOE, Holdt has worked with existing partners including the San Mateo County Arts Commission and SamTrans, and has reached out to other potential community partners.
She spearheaded a design thinking day with community members in November at SMCOE to discover what arts education could look like going forward and through that launched an arts advisory council that held its first meeting in February. She's also planning an "Arts Now Community" breakfast, an initiative of the CA Alliance for Arts Education in partnership with Amy Cole-Farrell at TheatreWorks and supported by local arts leaders on March 16, 2018 to promote advocacy and positive messaging around the arts.
In addition Holdt has created a visual and performing arts packet full of resources for schools, which she sent out to districts throughout the county, provided professional development and support for leadership teams and teachers in numerous San Mateo County school districts and presented at numerous conferences promoting arts education and how to be strategic in including arts in the curriculum.
Under her leadership, for the first time the county STEM fair in March will include an Arts Expo featuring student art and performances. She's also planning a film and speaker series at SMCOE that will be open to the public. First up will be a repeat screening of the film
"Landfill Harmonic,"(first shown last fall) which follows the Recycled Orchestra of Cateura, a Paraguayan musical group that plays instruments made entirely out of garbage. Stay tuned for further details.
|
SMCOE's Dhanya Unni Gains Chief Technology Officer Certification and Outstanding Student Award
After participating in a rigorous nine-month certification program, Dhanya Unni, Information Systems Coordinator at the San Mateo County Office of Education (SMCOE), was recently granted certification as a chief technology officer through the California Educational Technology Professionals Association (CETPA), and in addition received their Outstanding Student Award.
As a student in the program, Unni,
|
|
|
Dhanya Unni earned CTO certification and the outstanding student award from CETPA. |
who has been at SMCOE for 12 years, attended all-day weekend classes, worked with a mentor to complete assignments, produced a portfolio of original work and gave an oral presentation, all while managing to do her day job at SMCOE.
Lorrie Owens, Administrator, Information Technology Services at SMCOE, who had gone through the program previously, spotted Unni's potential to grow into a higher level of management and encouraged her to apply.
"Dhanya is strategic in her thinking, works well with others and has great technical skills," notes Owens. "She did a phenomenal job in completing this program, and receiving the Outstanding Student Award was quite an achievement."
Unni credits her success to her personal desire to advance her career goals, her supportive family and the help of her mentor, Sally Savona, who is Division Director, Technology and Learning Resources at the Stanislaus County Office of Education.
"We really hit it off when we were paired together," says Savona. "I was so proud of her at the awards ceremony. Dhanya really grew through this program and I know she will be a great leader."
"Completing this program has given me more confidence," says Unni. "And I now see the broader picture outside of my current role. I'm able to understand the accounting and budgeting process, the business side and the whole landscape of education and where technology fits in."
|
|
|
Check Us Out on Facebook
The San Mateo County Office of Education (SMCOE) now has a page on Facebook. We'll be providing frequent upd ates on SMCOE events and education news of interest, adding groups of interest, and linking to other education organizations. Check us out and "like" us today on Facebook!
|
About the San Mateo County Office of Education
The San Mateo County Office of Education provides a variety of instructional, business and consulting services to the County's 23 public school districts, charter schools, the Community College District and County Office of Education staff.
Believe in Tomorrow: Think
Green
Today
|
|
|
