Gov. Gavin Newsom signed Assembly Bill 86 into law on March 5, a $6.6 billion package designed to get large numbers of students back in the classroom this spring and support strategies and programs to accelerate student learning. The signing of the bill starts the countdown for a target reopening date of April 1 for districts that will receive a portion of the $2 billion set aside for school reopening. AB 86 provides a path to the reopening of schools statewide while retaining local discretion over the return of in-person instruction. Although the bill is not perfect, it addresses many of the concerns CSBA raised in conversations with the Administration and the Legislature and reflects the collective advocacy of CSBA and the state’s education management organizations.

Given how difficult this year has been, it’s easy to forget the modern miracle of how quickly these vaccines were developed — and the work of brilliant scientists who created this ray of hope. There are many heroes whose contributions may never be recognized, but one name that stands out is Dr. Kizzmekia Corbett, research lead of the COVID-19 vaccine project at the National Institutes of Health. Corbett’s team collaborated with Moderna to produce one of the two vaccines that most Americans have received to this point. That is worth celebrating, but also a sobering reminder that there are too few Kizzmekia Corbetts.

“For us, this is one of the highest priorities, and now it’s time to get to work,” said Assemblymember Eduardo Garcia (D-Coachella). “We have exciting proposals [on] making investments in infrastructure, bond initiatives, reforms to existing programs and looking at programs as it relates to affordability. Without a doubt, at the center of all this is our students.”

“We’ve shifted a lot from the work in those first few years,” said CCEE Director Tom Armelino. “A lot of that work was around collaboration, but it was often very hard to measure impact. How do we know the work that we did in professional learning networks actually had an impact? So, everything that we do now, we’re really specific about how we are going to measure impact and get feedback so that we can make sure it is serving the students we are supposed to be serving.”

A recent report from the Consortium for School Networking found close to 100 cybersecurity bills were introduced in 27 states in 2020 — California accounted for four of those bills, though none made it to the Gov. Gavin Newsom’s desk. The report, found here https://bit.ly/3pTBxgp, cited an additional 10 proposals introduced at the federal level.

In partnership with Santa Rosa City Schools, the largest school district in Sonoma County, Sonoma COE developed a plan to hold a series of four Student Voices forums on the topics of racism, equity and social justice. Each forum included between five and 12 high school students of a given race/ethnicity from around the county: The first focused on Black student voices, the second on Latinx voices, the third on Native American voices and the fourth on Asian/Pacific Islander voices.

For the last several years, CCBE has annually bestowed a Legislator of the Year Award upon one or more state or federal lawmakers who have been actively involved in legislation or activities supporting the work of county offices of education and their programs.