District outlines CTE expansion and trustees press for disability access data

Melissa, the district presenter, outlined the district's Career Technical Education (CTE) programs and partnerships and told the board the district sees CTE as a pathway to high-skill, high-wage jobs. She said pathways are generally sequenced as introductory, concentrator and capstone courses and reported that Santa Paula High School had 80 pathway completers last year with program breakdowns including agriscience (23), human services (27), healthcare (16) and cybersecurity (14). Melissa also said a coding issue for the engineering concentrator has been fixed and that the district expects to record engineering completers in next year's data.

Autism Society Ventura County advocacy manager Brian Schumacher told the board he reviews agendas weekly and urged the district to track and publicly report CTE participation and outcome data for students receiving special education services. "We did not see data reflecting participation or outcomes from students receiving special education services within the presentation," Schumacher said, and he asked the board to either publish existing data or begin tracking those metrics.

Trustees asked about funding and program sustainability. Melissa listed primary funding streams as CTIG, Perkins and K12 Strong Workforce grants, and said the district participates in a nine-district consortium that can win awards of about $200,000 per round. She said some California Partnership Academy funding is tied to criteria (for example, a proportion of students who meet at-risk thresholds) and that dual-enrollment arrangements depend on college partners and articulation agreements.

On access and supports, Melissa said pathways are open access and the district provides instructional aides and other supports for students who struggle in courses such as cybersecurity and engineering. She also described ongoing alignment work with middle schools so exploratory courses can feed into high-school pathways.

Trustees and presenters discussed dual enrollment, bilingualism and the balance between CTE offerings and other electives. The board requested a Friday update on how many students with Individualized Education Programs are enrolled in CTE courses and asked staff to share participation data when available. The board did not take formal action on program expansion at the meeting.

The board moved on to other agenda items; staff said they will provide further details and data in upcoming updates.