View from a seat on education board

It’s an exciting time to be involved in public education in Sonoma County, where the Sonoma County Office of Education and our 40 school districts share the common goal of graduating our students college- and career-ready.

As I begin my fourth school year as the Sonoma County Board of Education Area One Trustee, I want to share with you highlights of what I’ve been doing, as well as an issue I see as a rising education issue in Sonoma County.

The Office of Education’s mission is to foster student success through service to students, schools and the community. Board members, elected to represent areas that correspond to the five county supervisor districts, work in conjunction with the elected County Superintendent, Dr. Steve Herrington, to provide community stewardship of countywide education initiatives.

A few of my responsibilities as a County Trustee are:

• Review and adopt the Office of Education’s annual budget, which for 2015-16 is more than $64 million.

• Govern Sonoma County’s court and community schools, and the Office of Education’s alternative education program. We provide schooling for students in Juvenile Hall and the Probation Camp, and also operate two community schools, Amarosa Academy in Santa Rosa and Headwaters Academy in Petaluma. Most students in our community schools have been expelled from school districts or have been placed there through the juvenile justice system. We provide specialized services in a small school setting to make sure these students achieve their potential. We also operate a home school program and a teen parent program.

• Review and adopt the Office of Education’s Local Control Accountability Plan. The state last school year rolled out a new method for allocating funds to public schools. School districts and county offices of education with high percentages of low income, English language learner and foster youth students are given additional monies via supplemental and concentration grants. The state requires us to write a plan specifying how these funds will be used to improve student achievement.

• Hear inter-district transfer appeals. These are the toughest part of the job. When a student wants to transfer from the district he lives in to another, both districts must approve the change. If one of the districts denies the request, the student has the right to appeal to the County Board of Education. These cases are always emotional and never easy. I’ve participated in several each year.

• Serve school district boards and be the liaison between the county board and the district boards in Area One. I represent four school districts: Sonoma Valley Unified, Rincon Valley Union, Bennett Valley Union and Kenwood. I stay in touch with school district trustees by sending them information about Office of Education trainings for school trustees, visiting their board meetings, and meeting with them individually. I’ve also had the honor of attending Sonoma Valley High’s graduation the last three years as a VIP guest.

From my vantage point on the county board, I’m privy to the broader countywide discussions about education. An issue of growing interest is whether all high school students should be required to take the A to G college preparatory classes required to attend a University of California or California State University campus. Sonoma Valley continues to be the only non-charter high school in the county with this requirement. Others are beginning to look at the issue, because Sonoma State University President Ruben Armiñana and 10,000 Degrees, a program working to ensure that youth from all social and economic backgrounds can go to college, are urging all high schools to require the college prep classes.

Whenever I can, I use the bully pulpit of my County Board of Education position to support this issue. Students who take the A-G have more options and are able to choose, at the right time, if they want to go to college.

• • •

Gina Cuclis is the Area One Trustee for the Sonoma County Board of Education.