Issue: #69

May
2016

In This Issue

Gateway Student in DC

Mental Health & Learning

Immigrant Services

We're on Facebook

Featured Article

The Mental Health and Learning Conference featured an illustrious panel of speakers.

Community School Student Attends

Juvenile Justice Roundtable in DC

It's not every day that a student from Gateway Community School gets to go to Washington, D.C., but that was the honor recently bestowed upon 17-year-old Jason V. He was one of 15 students from across the United States and the only one from the west coast to attend the Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention's Police-Youth Engagement Roundtable April 27-28, 2016 in our nation's capital.

It all began through Jason's involvement with Fresh Lifelines for Youth (FLY),


Gateway principal Becky Vichiquis congratulates student Jason V.

a nonprofit dedicated to breaking the cycle of violence, crime, and incarceration of teens. FLY works with youth ages 15-18 in the juvenile justice system and those at risk of entering the system.

Because Jason had shown an interest in problem solving and creating better solutions for youth in the juvenile justice system, his FLY mentor suggested he apply to attend the Roundtable. Jason submitted his application, followed by a one-hour phone interview with staff at the Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention. The next thing you know he received a letter inviting him to attend the Roundtable.

On his first day in Washington, D.C., Jason had the opportunity to tour the city and see the monuments including the Lincoln Memorial and the Washington Monument. But he says he was most struck by the poverty and homeless people he saw on the streets. "It hit me that something really needs to change," he said. "It was shocking to see this in our nation's capital."

On the second day, he met with other students and shared stories of their experiences with the juvenile justice system. They discussed scenarios of youth interactions with police and participated in creative problem-solving sessions. They also got to know police officers from across the United States, attending a Nationals baseball game together. Together with the police officers they brainstormed best ways for law enforcement to engage with youth at their schools.

"One thing I've learned is that the police are just like us," says Jason. "They're humans. They go through trauma in their work and go right back to their jobs. They should have access to counseling, and they should get on each other to do the right thing. And kids who grow up in poverty have no choice where they live. Sometimes they have to go through a trauma that is so bad before they realize they need to change."

Jason says that through his involvement with FLY and attending the Washington, D.C. Roundtable, he's learning how to be a leader, communicate better, and put himself in someone else's shoes. He plans to return to a district high school in the San Mateo Union High School District next year and after that hopes to pursue his college education part-time with a double major in sociology and business at College of San Mateo while working to help his family financially.

"FLY taught me that there's always a second chance, a third chance and options, choices you have to make," he adds.

SM County Schools Achieve Gold Ribbon Awards

In April, State Superintendent of Instruction Tom Torlakson announced that 780 elementary schools in California had received the Gold Ribbon Schools award, and among them were nine schools in San Mateo County. "These schools shine as bright beacons for others, putting forth an exemplary effort to ensure that every student is ready for 21st century college and careers," Torlakson said.

The San Mateo County award-winners were: Roosevelt Elementary School, Burlingame School District; South Hillsborough School, Hillsborough City School District; Encinal School, Menlo Park City School District; Meadows Elementary School,

Millbrae School District; Clifford Elementary School, Hoover Elementary School, Roy Cloud School and Taft Community School, Redwood City School District; and Martin Elementary School, South San Francisco Unified School District.

On May 5, 2016, a team from each of these schools along with County Superintendent Anne Campbell attended a regional reception in their honor at the Santa Clara Marriott Hotel.

The California Gold Ribbon Schools Award was created two years ago to honor schools in place of the California Distinguished Schools Program, which is on hiatus while California creates new assessment and accountability systems. In order to receive the award, schools were required to fill out a lengthy application highlighting model programs and present data to the California Department of Education to show that these programs were aligned with standards-based activities and strategies, were making a difference in achievement and could be replicated by other schools.

Each eligible school was visited by a validation team from the Curriculum and Instruction Services Division (CIS) at the San Mateo County Office of Education (SMCOE). "It was wonderful to go into the schools and see the work in process, to see the level of care teachers are taking so that all students succeed," notes Lori Musso, CIS Administrator at SMCOE. "It's not easy to do these things; it takes time and dedication."

Exemplary model programs included: South Hillsborough School's Reading Tigers Program, where reading is encouraged inside and outside of school, and parents are enlisted as partners; Hoover Elementary School's Sobrato Early Academic Learning (SEAL) program, which focused on intensive professional development with a cohesive, collaborative approach and articulation from preK to grade 3; Roy Cloud School's Parent Enrichment Program (PEP) where the focus was working with the parent community to support students inside and outside of schools; and Clifford School's "Clifford Cares" Program, which looks at the whole child and developing a culture of empathy among teachers, students and parents.

In addition, Woodside Elementary District received a California Green Ribbon-Bronze for reducing environmental impact, promoting health, and ensuring a high-quality environmental and outdoor education.

SMCSBA Kent Awards Honor

Innovative School Programs

On May 23, 2016, the San Mateo County School Boards Association (SMCSBA) honored 17 school and school district innovative programs with the J. Russell Kent Award at its annual gala reception at the Crowne Plaza Hotel in Foster City. "It's exciting to highlight these best practices within our county," said Carrie DuBois, president of smcsba

SMCSBA and a school board member in the Sequoia Union High School District. Nearly 200 school board members, teachers, administrators and government dignitaries attended the event.

In addition, Jenna Carson, a teacher at Menlo-Atherton High School who works with at-risk students, was honored with the Emily Garfield Preventive Counseling Award. This $1,000 program grant, now in its fifth year, focuses on successful alcohol and drug prevention programs as well as positive youth development and is given through a grant from Youth Empowering Systems to honor local education pioneer Emily Garfield .

Attendees were treated to student entertainment including a choral performance by the Skyline Elementary School in South San Francisco's glee club (a Kent Award winner in 2014), and music by the Menlo-Atherton High School jazz ensemble.

The Kent Awards were given to innovative programs either in the classroom or outside the classroom as well as district-wide programs that had been in place for at least two years. Applicants had to demonstrate that their programs promote student success, employ a high degree of creativity, and demonstrate transferability. Initiated in 1980, the Kent Award Program was named after the past San Mateo County Superintendent of Schools, J. Russell Kent.

"Since all programs must demonstrate that they are replicable, the Kent Awards are a great resource for other school districts," notes Chelsea Bonini, Kent Awards Chair and a board member in the San Mateo-Foster City School District. This year's award-winners included a variety of programs with several focused on environmental education and reverse mainstreaming.

The Kent Awards process began in the fall when districts submit applications to the San Mateo County School Boards Association. The applications are screened and evaluated by the Screening Committee using rubrics adopted by the Rubric Review Committee. The programs that successfully pass the screening are then visited by the Visitation Committee to verify the findings.

See a complete list of the Kent Award winners here.

Governor Tightens Reins on State Budget

Although Governor Jerry Brown is predicting a recession in the near future and state revenues are lower than anticipated, funding for K-12 education is expected to rise by nearly $3 billion for 2016-17, thanks to the Prop. 98 formula that sets education funding.

In revealing the May budget revision on

May 13, 2016, the fiscally cautious Governor urged legislators not to add new spending or new programs for the next year. That means no additional funds for early education and PreK in the foreseeable future.

"This is a good budget for education," notes Denise Porterfield, Deputy Superintendent, Business Services Division at the San Mateo County Office of Education (SMCOE), "The Governor is focused on funding the Local Control Funding Formula (LCFF). The largest gains were last year and we are not destined to see these large increases going forward."

The bulk of the education budget will go toward LCFF, which means more money for students with the highest needs: English language learners, low-income children and foster youth. With $100 million more than proposed in the Governor's January budget, the formula would be 96 percent funded. Districts with high proportions of high-needs students already have received more than that.

The Governor's proposal for a consolidation of early education funding into a $1.6 billion block grant would combine funding for the state's preschool, transitional kindergarten and quality rating and improvement programs without adding additional funding and would be a substantial policy change to the early education system.. "If this proposal makes it into the final budget it would require SMCOE to restructure how early education is funded," notes Porterfield.

Funding for county offices of education continues to be flat in the proposed budget. Porterfield cautions that SMCOE will need to carefully consider how to allocate resources to ensure solvency now and in the future.

The Governor also proposes $1.4 billion in one-time spending for school districts. The money would be unrestricted but districts are encouraged to use the funds for teacher training, textbooks and technology and deferred maintenance projects.

In related education funding, Brown proposes $10 million in one-time grants to colleges and universities to develop four-year programs that would produce both a bachelor's degree and a teaching credential, with the goal of encouraging more college students to consider a teaching career by shortening the time it takes to get a credential. In addition he advocates reviving CalTeach and directing $2.5 million toward the California Commission on Teacher Credentialing to promote teaching as a profession, direct candidates to teacher preparation programs and reach out to out-of-state teachers.

The looming question is what will happen to education funding when Proposition 30, the temporary income tax on high earners, expires in 2018. A proposition on the November ballot will seek to extend it but so far Brown has not taken a position.

The state legislature now has until June 15 to negotiate the budget before returning it to the Governor with a final budget expected by June 30, 2016.

SMCOE Recognition Events Honor Staff

The San Mateo County Office of Education was transformed into Hollywood, complete with a red carpet walkway, paparazzi and VIP treatment for the "star" certificated and classified staff at two staff recognition events in May. First up on May 4, 2016 was the certificated employee recognition celebration attended by more than 100 certificated staff and guests followed by the


	(l. to r.) ECE classified staff Annette Ordonez, Joe Rodriguez and Julie Shaffer enjoy the festivities at the classified employee recognition event.

classified employee celebration on May 11, 2016, attended by 200 classified staff and guests.

Both events featured feathery centerpieces and star-studded decor, entertainment by Frank Sinatra impersonator Jeff Wessman, a delicious buffet of refreshments and a chocolate fountain,

and an overall festive ambience.

The annual events are traditionally held during or near national Teacher Appreciation Week and serve to recognize employees of the month, staff who have served for 5, 10, 15, 20, 25, 30 and 35 years, and staff who are retiring this year.

"Think how many lives you have impacted over the course of your career," said Nancy Magee, Associate Superintendent, Student Services Division at SMCOE, in greeting the crowd at the certificated event. "Today it's all about you and honoring you for your tireless work on behalf of students every day."

Superintendent Anne Campbell noted at the classified staff event that May 15-21 is officially designated as Classified School Employees Week and this year's theme is "Everyday Heroes." She quoted from the CSEA website: "Many heroes often go unnoticed.


	Teacher of visually impaired students Jennifer Benelli enjoys the "amazing" chocolate fountain.

They don't wear capes or have feature-length films created about their adventures and triumphs. These people are heroes every day in the way they approach life and the people around them, in how they internalize their job and life responsibilities, and in their compassion toward the most vulnerable members of our communities." And she added, "These words perfectly capture the work all of you do--whether it's driving a special education student from home to school and then home again, working on paychecks for staff throughout San Mateo County or making sure all our computers are running smoothly--these are all important roles and you are indeed our everyday heroes."

Greetings and honors were also conferred by Board of Trustees President Jim Cannon, County Supervisor Warren Slocum and representatives from the legislative offices of Kevin Mullin, Rich Gordon, Jerry Hill and Phil Ting.

As each award recipient received their pin, they were photographed holding an Oscar statuette in front of the paparazzi backdrop featuring multiple logos of the San Mateo County Office of Education and the STEM Center.

This event is truly amazing and extraordinary," said attendee Jennifer Benelli, a teacher of visually impaired students, while dipping her cookie into the chocolate fountain.

Both events concluded with "oohs" and "aahs" as sumptuous prize gift baskets including wine, champagne and assorted goodies donated by staff managers were awarded to the lucky raffle ticket holders.

Mental Health and Learning Conference Draws a Standing Room Only Crowd

It was standing room only on April 29, 2016 when the crowd of more than 200 school counselors, teachers, administrators and school board members gathered at the Sobrato Center in Redwood City for the third annual education conference co-sponsored by the San Mateo County School Boards Association and the San Mateo County Office of Education (SMCOE) in partnership with Acknowledge Alliance. This year's timely theme was "Success in School: Making the Connection Between Mental Health and Academic Learning."

An illustrious


(l.to r.) Speakers Dr. Steven Adelsheim, Dr. Ross Greene and Dr. Vicki Zakrzewski answer questions from the audience.

panel of speakers spoke about the importance of acknowledging students' mental health as it affects learning, reducing the stigma around mental illness, and creating cohesive systems for prevention and treatment.

County Superintendent Anne Campbell began the day by welcoming the audience and highlighting the importance of this topic. In a very personal poignant moment, Cathy Van Der Porten described her late husband's battle with depression and mental illness that sadly ended in suicide, and her college-age daughter's struggle with depression that, thanks to medical help, is now under control.

Dr. Steven Adelsheim, child/adolescent psychiatrist and Director of the Center for Youth Mental Health and Well-being at Stanford's School of Medicine, began his presentation by citing some alarming statistics: Half of all lifetime cases of mental illness start by age 14 and 79 percent do not access care; and mental illness is becoming the leading cause of disability worldwide. But, he noted, early identification along with school-based mental health programs have proven to be powerful and can have a huge impact.

Dr. Ross Greene, Ph.D., author and originator of Collaborative and Proactive Solutions (CPS), an innovative approach to teaching empathy and conflict resolution, spoke about the importance of teaching skills to foster a more humane approach and positive ways to solve conflict.

Closing out the morning session, Dr. Vicki Zakrzewski, Ph.D., Education Director of UC Berkeley's Greater Good Science Center, described research demonstrating that developing students' social and emotional intelligence improves their academic achievement. Scientists are now suggesting that cognitive development holds equal weight with social and emotional development when it comes to learning and effective education practices.

In the afternoon, Jene� Littrell, Director of Safe and Supportive Schools at SMCOE, moderated a panel that included mental health professionals and school staff working with mental health programs in the schools. "The guiding principles must be that people come first, relationships matter and young people learn best when they feel good about themselves," said panelist Jean Hamilton, a resilience consultant with Acknowledge Alliance.

Services for Immigrant Students

With increasing numbers of immigrant students coming their way, Catholic Charities Refugee and Immigrant Services in San Mateo County represents a potential resource for school district officials. The nonprofit offers family-based immigrant services on a sliding scale and represents minors and unaccompanied minors in immigration cases.

Staff attorney Leafan Rosen is happy to provide referrals or answer legal immigration questions from school

officials via email at LRosen@catholiccharitiessf.org . She requests that you put the name of your school and title in the subject line of the email. Catholic Charities is also willing to give informational presentations for administrators, parents and students at school sites.

The nonprofit offers regular consultation workshops every Monday in their offices at 36 37th Avenue in San Mateo, where potential clients can get one-on-one help and determine if they have a case that requires legal assistance. Sign-ups for the workshop begin at 12:30 p.m. with the workshop starting at 2:00 p.m. There is a $50 fee but no one is turned away because of lack of funds.

Once a month, on the first Wednesday of every month at 9:00 a.m., consultation workshops are offered in Redwood City at 151 Buckingham Avenue.

"We want school officials to know we are here and to feel free to reach out to us. We are interested in partnering with schools to help immigrant students and their families," notes Rosen.

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 facebook logo

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.

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