COUNTY OF SAN MATEO

Inter-Departmental Correspondence

Board of Supervisors

DATE:

June 27, 2005

BOARD MEETING DATE:

July 12, 2005

SPECIAL NOTICE/HEARING:

None

VOTE REQUIRED:

Majority

TO:

Honorable Board of Supervisors

FROM:

Rose Jacobs Gibson

SUBJECT:

Scholarships for San Mateo County Office of Education Outdoor Education Program for Children in North Fair Oaks

RECOMMENDATION:

Adopt a resolution to provide reimbursement, not to exceed $22,000, to the San Mateo County Office of Education for the cost of having elementary school students living in County Service Area No. 8 (North Fair Oaks area) attend the Office’s Outdoor Education Program during the 2005-2006 school year.

VISION ALIGNMENT:

Commitment: Realize the potential of our diverse population. Commitment: Provide equal access to educational opportunity. Commitment: Preserve and provide people access to our natural environment.

BACKGROUND:

RecycleWorks, a program in the Department of Public Works, works with schools to implement recycling programs and to ensure that students are introduced to basic environmental education ideas such as recycling and resource conservation. This year, an emphasis of the RecycleWorks program will be to address communities in the unincorporated areas that have large non-English speaking populations.

DISCUSSION:

Each year most of the 5^th or 6^th graders in San Mateo County attend the San Mateo County Office of Education’s Outdoor Education Program in La Honda. This program is a key piece of the environmental education and experiences that school children receive in San Mateo County. During a weeklong immersion at Outdoor Education, students learn through a hands-on approach about the natural world, recycling, sustainable building and composting, and explore the forest and beach ecosystems of San Mateo County.

The Redwood City School District, which serves the unincorporated North Fair Oaks area and the many low-income families that reside there, was unable to generate enough funding to ensure that all students in the district would be able to attend the Outdoor Education program in the coming school year. As a result, they were not planning on participating in the Outdoor Education Program next year. That outcome would adversely affect the children of the North Fair Oaks area who would be denied this unique and enriching experience without assistance.

RecycleWorks, which works to reduce waste in unincorporated areas and therefore has a vital interest in ensuring that children receive education on environmental issues, has facilitated a win-win solution to this situation. In exchange for a reimbursement, Fair Oaks Elementary School will welcome RecycleWorks’ assistance and commit to reducing their waste by 10% this year and will provide environmental education activities for their classes.

By providing this educational opportunity to the children in the North Fair Oaks community the Board is ensuring that they receive the same environmental educational opportunity as other children in the county.

As a result of facilitating the arrangements with the Fair Oaks Elementary School and the Redwood City School District and the support that is being considered, other community organizations were inspired to also offer assistance to assist the children in Redwood City who also need scholarships but do not reside in the North Fair Oaks area. The Peninsula Auxiliary for Children, the YMCA, the Free and Reduced Lunch Program, and the Outdoor Education Program are each contributing to this effort. As the result of the County, other organizations’ interest and forthcoming funding, the Redwood City School District has agreed to send their students to the program in the coming school year.

FISCAL IMPACT:

There is no impact to the County General Fund. There are an estimated 80 students in the North Fair Oaks area that would be eligible to attend this program during the 2005-06 school year. The cost for the five-day Outdoor Education Program is $265 per student. The cost for 80 students is $21,200. This reimbursement will be made from revenue generated in the County Service Area No. 8 Fund by the Garbage and Recyclables Collection User Fee.