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The Santa Cruz County Chamber hosted an education forum on Wednesday morning, July 28 via Zoom to discuss the latest plans for K-12 schools, community colleges, and the UC and state universities reopening for the fall school year on the Central Coast. With so much conflicting and confusing messages at the state and local levels, the forum was an opportunity to hear directly from our leaders in education. Our featured panelists were UCSC Chancellor Cynthia Larive, CSUMB President Eduardo M. Ochoa, Cabrillo College President Matthew Wetstein, Superintendent of Santa Cruz County Office of Education Faris Sabbah, and the Superintendent of Santa Cruz City Schools Kris Munro. The education forum offered insights into the reopening of college and K-12 campuses on the Central Coast. Each panelist spoke on the gravity of getting students back on campus while adhering to policies following state and CDC COVID-19 protocols. California State University — the nation’s largest four-year public university system — will require students, faculty, and staff to be vaccinated against COVID-19 before returning to campus for the fall semester. Medical and religious exemptions will be allowed, with unvaccinated students having to undergo regular coronavirus testing. Dr. Ochoa, President of CSUMB, indicated that the University will follow the guidelines directed by the President of the CSU system as well as a recent court ruling in Indiana where education institutions can require vaccinations. “We are excited to join again on campus this August for the Fall 2021 semester. COVID-19 vaccines are highly effective at preventing infection and reducing the spread of the virus. We believe it is essential for the health and well-being of our campus community that everyone is vaccinated. Students, faculty, and staff will receive email invitations by groups to submit proof of vaccination or exemption using the Otter Vaccination Registry throughout July.” UCSC Chancellor Larive expressed concern about the mental health of students, faculty, and support staff in safely reopening. UC Santa Cruz, along with the other nine UC campuses, is preparing to return to primarily in-person instruction as of Fall 2021. “While we are looking forward to resuming in-person activities on our campus in the fall, the health and safety of our community remains our highest priority,” Larive stated. Chancellor Larive noted that since UCSC classes start later (Sept. 18) than the CSU and Community College (August 23), the University can learn from its education colleagues as to how they roll out the new school year. The anticipated enrollment of both in-person and online students (a hybrid setup) would be 18,500 students with 9,300 students on campus. Cabrillo College President Matthew Wetstein noted that Fall Semester classes begin August 23rd, with an anticipated decline in enrollment from pre-pandemic semesters. And those “lost’” students were more than likely from the disenfranchised communities — proportionally lower-income and minority families. Wetstein said that enrollment was down 11% to about 8,000 students. CSUMB enrollment for the upcoming fall semester remained flat at about 7,000 students. All panelists echoed concern about social equity in reaching these students through a variety of programs targeted toward this specific minority population. Chancellor Larive mentioned the “double the Pell Grant” movement where additional funds would help the disenfranchised student population. The idea of a debt-free college education plan is the talk in both Sacramento and Washington, D.C. These students are a key factor in an accessible collaborative education pipeline. Dr. Faris Sabbah, Superintendent of the Santa Cruz County Office of Education noted, “We need to have integrated services to support the county’s 40,000 students.” The mental and physical health of the students was also noted as a component of the whole education program. Kris Munro, Superintendent of Santa Cruz City Schools stated, “We set up counseling services to help address the mental health of the students.” The schools identified the health and well-being of the student population through a tiered system conducted from a social/emotional survey to better understand the framework to access local community health providers and counselors in partnership to help these students in need. As the education forum conversation continued, I asked each panelist to select one resource or tool from the education toolbox that they could have at the top of their wishlist to help them. The answers were telling: Enhancement of service; a guided pathway where education classes are geared to a career path, STEM education, funding directed to workforce career development, and at the local K-12 school levels was a wish to have a wellness center on each school campus. One interesting takeaway was the idea, posed by Dr. Sabbah, of an integrated data collection system to track students’ progression through their educational careers. Such an integrated system would help reduce the siloed work environment that currently exists between the UC, CSU, community college, and K-12 education systems. Further, it would create a more informative cradle-to-career programming path. Dr. Wetstein stated that Cabrillo College had received a $3 million grant in partnership with CSUMB to identify a pathway for a community college student to transfer to CSUMB on an educational plan that leads to a career. There is discussion in play about a similar program between Cabrillo College and UCSC. A closing question from the attendees was about the significant change in the UC and CSU system dropping the SAT (assessment test) requirement to gain entrance to college. The short answer from Dr. Wetstein and Dr. Ochoa: “A review of the high school transcripts, the classes taken and the grades far outweigh the results of a standardized test. If a student performs well at the high school level they will perform well [at the college level].” Let’s help our education leaders welcome back our students to their respective campuses. If you are interested in listening to the education forum, you can find the zoom link in this eNews.
The Santa Cruz County Chamber hosted an education forum on Wednesday morning, July 28 via Zoom to discuss the latest plans for K-12 schools, community colleges, and the UC and state universities reopening for the fall school year on the Central Coast. With so much conflicting and confusing messages at the state and local levels, the forum was an opportunity to hear directly from our leaders in education.
Our featured panelists were UCSC Chancellor Cynthia Larive, CSUMB President Eduardo M. Ochoa, Cabrillo College President Matthew Wetstein, Superintendent of Santa Cruz County Office of Education Faris Sabbah, and the Superintendent of Santa Cruz City Schools Kris Munro.
The education forum offered insights into the reopening of college and K-12 campuses on the Central Coast. Each panelist spoke on the gravity of getting students back on campus while adhering to policies following state and CDC COVID-19 protocols. California State University — the nation’s largest four-year public university system — will require students, faculty, and staff to be vaccinated against COVID-19 before returning to campus for the fall semester. Medical and religious exemptions will be allowed, with unvaccinated students having to undergo regular coronavirus testing. Dr. Ochoa, President of CSUMB, indicated that the University will follow the guidelines directed by the President of the CSU system as well as a recent court ruling in Indiana where education institutions can require vaccinations.
“We are excited to join again on campus this August for the Fall 2021 semester. COVID-19 vaccines are highly effective at preventing infection and reducing the spread of the virus. We believe it is essential for the health and well-being of our campus community that everyone is vaccinated. Students, faculty, and staff will receive email invitations by groups to submit proof of vaccination or exemption using the Otter Vaccination Registry throughout July.”
UCSC Chancellor Larive expressed concern about the mental health of students, faculty, and support staff in safely reopening. UC Santa Cruz, along with the other nine UC campuses, is preparing to return to primarily in-person instruction as of Fall 2021. “While we are looking forward to resuming in-person activities on our campus in the fall, the health and safety of our community remains our highest priority,” Larive stated. Chancellor Larive noted that since UCSC classes start later (Sept. 18) than the CSU and Community College (August 23), the University can learn from its education colleagues as to how they roll out the new school year. The anticipated enrollment of both in-person and online students (a hybrid setup) would be 18,500 students with 9,300 students on campus.
Cabrillo College President Matthew Wetstein noted that Fall Semester classes begin August 23rd, with an anticipated decline in enrollment from pre-pandemic semesters. And those “lost’” students were more than likely from the disenfranchised communities — proportionally lower-income and minority families. Wetstein said that enrollment was down 11% to about 8,000 students. CSUMB enrollment for the upcoming fall semester remained flat at about 7,000 students.
All panelists echoed concern about social equity in reaching these students through a variety of programs targeted toward this specific minority population. Chancellor Larive mentioned the “double the Pell Grant” movement where additional funds would help the disenfranchised student population. The idea of a debt-free college education plan is the talk in both Sacramento and Washington, D.C. These students are a key factor in an accessible collaborative education pipeline. Dr. Faris Sabbah, Superintendent of the Santa Cruz County Office of Education noted, “We need to have integrated services to support the county’s 40,000 students.”
The mental and physical health of the students was also noted as a component of the whole education program. Kris Munro, Superintendent of Santa Cruz City Schools stated, “We set up counseling services to help address the mental health of the students.” The schools identified the health and well-being of the student population through a tiered system conducted from a social/emotional survey to better understand the framework to access local community health providers and counselors in partnership to help these students in need.
As the education forum conversation continued, I asked each panelist to select one resource or tool from the education toolbox that they could have at the top of their wishlist to help them. The answers were telling: Enhancement of service; a guided pathway where education classes are geared to a career path, STEM education, funding directed to workforce career development, and at the local K-12 school levels was a wish to have a wellness center on each school campus.
One interesting takeaway was the idea, posed by Dr. Sabbah, of an integrated data collection system to track students’ progression through their educational careers. Such an integrated system would help reduce the siloed work environment that currently exists between the UC, CSU, community college, and K-12 education systems. Further, it would create a more informative cradle-to-career programming path.
Dr. Wetstein stated that Cabrillo College had received a $3 million grant in partnership with CSUMB to identify a pathway for a community college student to transfer to CSUMB on an educational plan that leads to a career. There is discussion in play about a similar program between Cabrillo College and UCSC.
A closing question from the attendees was about the significant change in the UC and CSU system dropping the SAT (assessment test) requirement to gain entrance to college. The short answer from Dr. Wetstein and Dr. Ochoa: “A review of the high school transcripts, the classes taken and the grades far outweigh the results of a standardized test. If a student performs well at the high school level they will perform well [at the college level].”
Let’s help our education leaders welcome back our students to their respective campuses.
If you are interested in listening to the education forum, you can find the zoom link in this eNews.