REPORT TO SHASTA COUNTY BOARD OF SUPERVISORS

BOARD MEETING DATE:  October  2, 2018
CATEGORY:  Consent - Law and Justice-10.

SUBJECT:

Gateway Unified School District Agreement, Budget Amendment, and Salary Resolution

Supervisorial District No. :  ALL

DEPARTMENT CONTACT:  Tracie Neal, Chief Probation Officer (530) 245-6200

STAFF REPORT APPROVED BY:  Tracie Neal, Chief Probation Officer

RECOMMENDATION

Take the following actions: (1) Approve and authorize the Chairman to sign a retroactive revenue agreement with Gateway Unified School District in an amount not to exceed $112,000 to provide a Juvenile Prevention Officer for the period August 10, 2018 through June 30, 2019; (2) adopt a salary resolution, effective October 14, 2018, amending the Shasta County Position Allocation List to add 1.0 Full Time Equivalent Deputy Probation Officer III to the Probation budget; and (3) approve a  budget amendment increasing appropriations and revenue by $112,000 in the Fiscal Year 2018-19 Probation budget.

SUMMARY

Prevention and early intervention prevents the onset of delinquency behavior and supports the development of a youth’s assets and resilience. The Gateway Unified School District (Gateway) has requested Probation’s presence for students.

DISCUSSION

A Deputy Probation Officer III, as a Juvenile Prevention Officer (JPO), provides prevention and early intervention services for youth involved in, and at risk of becoming involved in, the Juvenile Justice System, and for youth displaying truancy behaviors or status offenses. The JPO provides mentoring, supporting and addressing truancy, conducting presentations on youth related issues, and coordinating services and evidence-based programs. Building relationships with the staff, students, school counselors, and parents will be a primary role of the JPO as requested by Gateway.

This proactive approach is designed to engage the students with a pro-social adult who will foster relationships with the focus of on-going and early prevention of the above-mentioned behaviors.  Engagement is one of the most difficult aspects of the probation system, yet research shows that building rapport with our population considerably reduces the risk of re-offense. The JPO serves as the liaison between students and parents and social services agencies and community based organizations and connect families with services as needed. The JPO works with parents and staff to create strategies that will increase parental involvement and support collaborative school efforts. The JPO attends community events, school activities, outreach programs and conduct home visits as needed in order to provide prevention and early intervention services.

The Shasta County Office of Education tracks several data measures on each school and district ranging from truancy, suspension, student homelessness to meeting or exceeding grade levels. For the school year 2015/16, Central Valley High School had a truancy rate of 77.32% which is significantly higher than the rate for Shasta County schools of 40.89% and the state rate of 34.05%. The Gateway School District is working to improve attendance rates and decrease truancy rates as one of its top priorities. Addressing and reducing truancy will also be a top priority for our JPO. Studies show youth who regularly attend school are less likely to become involved in crime. Increasing school attendance and participation in education is an important aspect of raising well developed youth who have the pro-social and cognitive skills to become productive members of the community. The budget amendment will allow the Probation Department to accept funds from Gateway for the JPO.

This agreement is retroactive because the concept was recently conceived and both Probation and Gateway wanted the agreement effective for the new school year, however schedules of governing boards did not allow for earlier approval.

ALTERNATIVES

The Board could decide not to approve the recommendation or could request changes to the terms and conditions of the agreement.

OTHER AGENCY INVOLVEMENT

County Counsel has approved the agreement as to form. Risk Management has approved the agreement. The Support Services-Personnel Unit prepared the salary resolution. The budget amendment has been reviewed by the Auditor.  The Recommendation has been reviewed by the County Administrative Office.

FINANCING

Once the budget amendment is approved, the Probation Department's FY 2018-19 Adopted Budget will include sufficient expenditure authority for the Deputy Probation Officer position. Should Gateway express an interest in renewing the agreement, the Probation Department's future budget will include sufficient expenditure requests. There is no additional General Fund impact associated with this recommendation.