In April of 2005, a collaborative of leaders in education (preschool through college), business, and the community came together to form the San Luis Obispo County P-16 Council. At this watershed gathering, it was agreed that collaboration across institutions is the best approach to addressing critical gaps in educational achievement. Members of the group met monthly for the next year in an effort to implement this cross-institutional concept. As its first imitative the P-16 Council chose early childhood education and is developing a master plan for providing high quality preschool experiences.

The P-16 Council is currently launching its second initiative focusing on Mathematics and Science Education. With a generous contribution from PG&E, the Council hosted a county-wide Science Leadership Banquet, entitled Science Education for a New Millennium . The goals of the Council for this initiative are to:

1. Recruit and prepare well qualified P-16 teachers in science and mathematics
2. Provide professional development for P-16 science and mathematics teachers
3. Engage P-16 students in science and math and promote careers in science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM)
4. Serve as a repository/disseminator of best practices in P-16 science and mathematics Education

In Spring 2007, the Council was successful in their efforts to create a P16 Math/Science Task Force comprised of teacher leaders, private industry professionals, and community representatives in the area of science. From the task force a smaller collaborative will be formed and charged with developing leadership activities and opportunities on an on-going basis. The collaborative commitment will be three half-day meetings per year. Science will be the focus beginning this year, and a similar endeavor is planned for mathematics in the Spring of '08.