Nevada County Board of Education: December 2022
On December 14, 2022, the Nevada County Board of Education met at 380 Crown Point Circle in Grass Valley, CA for its monthly board meeting. No one gave public comment, according to the minutes. The five members of the board are Heino Nicolai, Louise Johnson, Susan Clarabut, Timothy May, and Julie Baker.
Three of the five board members began their term in this meeting, having been elected to office in the November 8, 2022 election: Susan Clarabut (trustee for Area 1), Louise Johnson (trustee for Area 1), and Heino Nicolai (trustee for Area 2), all for the term of 2022-2026.
Here’s how they voted in the December 2022 meeting.
Passed unanimously
Approve salary schedule for County Superintendent of Schools
The board voted on a new salary schedule, which includes the superintendent’s salary, effective July 1, 2022.
Salaries ranges are organized in steps: once an employee enters a job, they move up a “step” (get a predetermined raise) for each year they are in that job. A mental health therapist in the Nevada County School District, for example, receives between $66,530 and $117,378 depending on how many years they have worked. Add on more money if the employee has a master or doctorate degree.
The 2021 salary for superintendent Scott Lay was $165,501 plus $44,405 in benefits.
Approve the FY 2022-23 First Interim Period Report and Budget Revision Number One
The Nevada County Superintendent of Schools budget should always be publicly accessible. You can look through past meeting “agenda packets” to see budget proposals and how the board members voted.
Darlene Waddle serves as the chief business official for the Nevada County school board and with Lisa LaHue (business services advisor), prepared a memorandum (on page 20 of the board packet). In that memorandum, they shared details about revenues and expenses. One item of note is $48,974 pass-through revenue for SBHIP (Student Behavioral Health Incentive Program), which is in the planning stages. In the SBHIP documentation presented by Michelle Baass (DHCS director) and Gavin Newsom (governor) states that “parents may not recognize their child’s challenging behaviors as signs of a mental health condition,” so “schools are a critical point of access for preventive and early intervention behavioral health services.” According to the California Department of Health Care Services, SBHIP encourages schools to set up on-campus behavioral health resources so that schools can respond to children’s mental health needs “in the absence of school mental health professionals.” This means that schools have more power to attempt to help students with mental health needs without having someone well-trained in that area present.
One of the goals of this program is to “increase the number of TK-12 students enrolled in Medi-Cal receiving behavioral health services through schools, school-affiliated providers, county behavioral health departments, and county offices of education.” In other words, the goal is to increase the number of students that receive mental health services from government agencies rather than medical and mental health organizations.
Approve Resolution 22-06
This resolution authorizes Scott Lay to sign contract documents for FY 2023-24 for the Continuing Funding Application. The resolution is adopted to allow the board to enter into a transaction with the California Department of Education “for the purpose of providing childcare and development services” and to authorize Scott Lay to sign contract documents for fiscal year 2023-24. The California Department of Education describes MB 22-06 as relating to contractors in the following areas: California Department of Education (CDE), Early Education Division (EED), California State Preschool Program (CSPP) and Prekindergarten and Family Literacy (CPKS).
Organizational roles
Heino Nicolai was voted in as president. Susan Clarabut was voted in as vice president and trustee representative.
What’s coming up
On June 7, 2023 at 3:00 p.m., the Nevada County Board of Education will hold LCAP and budget public hearings. This is when members of the public can come to share their thoughts on the LCAP (Local Control and Accountability Plan) and the budget. In other words, you can share your opinions on the goals the county has set and how it plans to spend its budget to meet those goals.