Please fill out a comment card with your question and hand the card to a deputy. Your participation is welcomed and appreciated. Um at this time we are going to start with um
let's see we'll go ahead and do the um before we do the agenda review we'll do the the board comments and discussion but we're going to go ahead and start with our guest. So, um, we'll do our strategic plan update. >> All right. Awesome. As the, as the juror
said, we had a the start to the school year since our last meeting and, um, you know, I always talk about the start of school year two ways. One, I always talk about it in a romantic sort of way because it's a rebirth every year and you get to do things over. So, if you had a great something great happened uh,
last year, you get the chance to replicate it. Something happened you didn't want to have happen last year, you change all that. So no other job really has the cycle of what we do in the school system. So my favorite story from day one, I was out at Oakley
Village Elementary. Miss Clark and I were holding the front door to the school. Parents came in with their kids, you know, following safety protocol and all that kind of stuff. And I happened to notice this group, this parent with two kids walk in the door. I talked to
them and engaged them as they went back. But when they left coming out, they passed by Miss Clark and I. They turned around. They gave each other high fives and they hightailed it to their car. And I thought, "Oh, they're happy that your child came back to school." So, the
start of the school year always a right of passage. And uh it was off to a great start. Of course, the start of school year means uh the start of new routines, right? Uh, you know, one of the challenges of the start of the school year is always traffic and everybody trying to go to the same spot, same
time, right? So, until people figure it out, my dad uh drove us to school. There was 10 of us. So, dad did the driving cuz mom was busy with with 10 of us. And uh and so I can always remember he had the two-day rule was he drived us the
first two days and then after that we either rode he rode the bus and elementary school is close enough to actually walk to school during those days. So I know families are adjusting to the start of the school year. New routines perhaps new schools if you went
up to a junior high or up to high school. Everybody's kind of adjusting. We're on day 12 now. So usually it takes first two 3 weeks before everybody kind of settles in to a routine and everything levels out. So with that in mind, I'm going to start off with
strategic plan and just give you an update. You know that um let's see, Bonnie. Maybe, maybe not. >> Is it on? >> Looks like it's on. [Music]
>> We'll do it. We'll do an oldfashioned pointer. >> We can do that. >> Okay, here we go. So, you know, each year, you know, in 2003, uh, the board passed a, uh, strategic plan. The strategic plan's in front of you. It looks like this. >> It's working now. Sorry.
>> Okay. Awesome. >> Looks like this in front of you. You know that each year we go by and this is the second year of the strategic plan. We do an update each and every year as to our progress and then we readjust it. But remember, this was done over uh
almost a year process to get to this point. Just bring it down memory lane. We had uh three different community meetings for all of our stakeholders. We had surveys of our parents. The board then took a look at all the information and said, "Okay, these are the five
areas that we want to focus on." One of course is is student success and then talent recruitment uh and retention on retention, family and community engagement. We talk about that all the time. Safe, positive learning environment, fiscal and operational efficiency. So, so just to kind of
quickly go through this, you know that the format is there's a goal, but then there's strategies to meet the goal, and you can see those strategies listed. And then there's accomplishments. I would just point out to the board because I know the board would want to go back and and read this,
but when you get past the point, it lists out like two pages. I'm giving you three little cherrypicked items on this for the sake of time, but this would be a good place to say, "Hey, I wonder what we did in the area of student success." You can see a whole listing of it there,
much more in depth than the 10-minute presentation I'm giving you here this morning. this would be a good document uh for you as you're out talking about this to the community. When you talk about highlights, you can see that chart should be very familiar to you. The fact
that that's successfully in a school district, again, 93% of our of our schools A and B rated. You can see all top 10 in English, math, science, and social studies. Uh and of course, I would kind of add to it cuz my dad would make me do this. He would say, "Yeah,
but you know, you're not number one in everything." My dad was kind of like the proverbial Debbie Downer. Like, no matter what you did, it was always you can always do one better, right? And so, I think we recognize that, but by golly, you got to take a look and say, "All right, that's
a pretty good record." Uh, can we improve? Of course, we can we can improve. Everybody can improve, right? You don't have to be uh to be bad to get better, right? And so when you look at it from that way, you can see a couple things I kind of cherrypicked out. CTE,
we went from 1,900 industry certifications to 3,200. That's a huge jump. I thought that was worth coming forward with that. Also, 43 of our schools were trained in Finn, which is the Florida network scheduling model, prioritizing students with special
needs. About 21% of our students are special needs students, right? That's a huge chunk of people. And what we found is that by having intention intentional scheduling, by putting them first because they often have the most complex
schedules, by the way, uh it helps meet their needs. We've had great growth there. How about this? We're in the top 10. If you if you separate the data for ESSE and you just take ESSE students in Klay County and compare them to the ESSE
population of every other county, we score in the top 10 of every statistical category. >> So, you know, I think what we what I try to emphasize in the student success piece of that is that we actually look at students by subgroup and ways of
looking at data differently. ESse being 21% is a very important group of people and they take special care uh for ESSE uh population. So, so Doc and her group do a great job there with that. It's
very difficult uh space to operate in. And then the opening of the Health Science Academy and Fleming Island. So, on the on number two, okay, talent recruitment, development, and retention. Again, this is an organization of of people. 82% of our budget is people
related uh services. You have to do a good job at recruiting and retaining folks. You can see a picture here of I believe that's the Copper Geek crew. It looks like >> Mets and a few other people out there. You could see some of the work done there. Over 800 teachers, One Clay
Leadership Academy. Uh also our our career fairs. Uh they went to 30 different career fairs. You can see the support that we try to provide teachers in the classroom related to that. You have to do things for for the people that work. We're in a people
organization. We're in the people business, right? So, this is a very important goal. That's why it's number two. Family and community engagement. Done a lot of stuff there. You can see the strategies. I'm going to try to go as quickly as possible through this, but the board had a presentation last month
or the month before, I forget what month that was, where you saw how many people were involved, volunteers, see 9,600 volunteers, how we established a volunteer program. Increased security of that where we have level one, level two volunteers where level two are
fingerprinted folks because those are folks that potentially could be alone with a with a student. uh 420 plus uh community partners and they kind of see how we've engaged through uh our new raptor program as well as apt and our
new one clay app the new website a lot of stuff I think I think you'd go if you read each one of them it would be like a trip down memory lane for you of various meetings throughout the year and again I'm just cherrypicking two or three uh promoting a safe uh learning environment
of course nobody would doubt the importance of of that. You can see some strategies there. There's three cherrypicked items out of a couple pages of stuff which uh the panic button system. We decreased our assessor numbers by 7.5% which I thought was
impressive and as well as a process for tracking attendance and imple and implementing uh interventions to remove barriers in that space. And then you got to talk about fiscal and operational efficiency. You can see five strategies there. And then I just cherrypicked a
couple. We did receive $2 million in grant money from the state in order to uh to establish an advanced manufacturing technology and expand the already robust CTE programs that we have. You saw the completion of the 32 classroom uh wings at both Oakleaf and
um at Lake Asbury. And a little thing, notice that last that that's just like one sentence with a couple words. reviewed and updated all board bylaws and policies. That was a tremendous project. I'm going to say it might might
have been the biggest project I ever worked on and if it wasn't for great people like Kelly who get this all organized. Uh you know, we wouldn't have been able to do that in a one-year time frame and all of that. That doesn't mean we can't revise some more like you know, but but that was a that was a big lift,
you know. So, so kudos to you guys in in that area. And again, you know, we focus on these five areas. You'll notice that each agenda item ties back to that because this is the this is the the beacon of
all work that's done in in the district. So, with that, that's that's the presentation. You have it there. It has much more detail within the packet of information you have. So, I'm going to turn it back over for the next
>> next up we have um transportation. Welcome you guys. I know you guys don't get to come out much and speak to us, but uh >> I know there hasn't been one board member that hasn't got an email, a phone call, or question about uh what's going
on. So, it's good to have you guys here. So, I wanted to real fast, I know you guys, y'all seen me, you know me, been around. Um, I wanted to introduce um someone who is um a huge asset to not only me but to our district as well. Um, Miss Roxan Sharmante. Um, she is our
supervisor of transportation. Kind of want to give you a quick background of Roxanne and just where she stands at in transportation because you guys see me all the time. So, um, Roxan does a tremendous job within transportation currently right now. Um she helps out with our HR side of things. Um she helps
with um getting our folks onboarded and and in training. Um so a few things um I kind of want to go backwards here with her. Um Roxan come to us from a logistics background. She was a former director on that side. Um so she brought a lot of experience to Klay County. Um has helped transportation grow. Um has
helped me tremendously too on that side. Roxanne um kind of has a background with me with Klay County. She started as an admin support assistant with transportation, worked her way up when area manager and now as supervisor too with the district. So, um she has done a fantastic job, you know, within that
side. Um but, um this is why she is here too as well because she's a huge help within our department um and um helps our staff and too on that side in the world of HR and training. So, couple of things before I I'm going to pass the torch over to her to kind of go over some detail. Um, you've got the phone
calls, you've got the emails, you've got all the fun stuff on that side. Um, it has been a historic wild ride. I will tell you that side. Um, we have um filled in all the crazy, all the fun, um, everything in between. I joked with
Mr. Broski at one point in time and said, you know, we decided for the year 2526, we were going to take the band-aid and just rip it off of everything. Um, we had a lot of new, we had a lot of growth, we had a lot of if we don't do this, we're going to be in a different
boat of not being able to transport students. So, when you look at our figures, and Roxan's going to go over that here shortly, but when you look at our figures, we had to make that move to that 1.5 to 2 mile aspect of things because our numbers were growing so high. And I know I I say this all the time and folks from the school side of
things always say, you know, we're not seeing the same growth that you're seeing over in transportation. Well, the kids are still there. They're there. And parents are having to go backwards on the side of things of, hey, I used to work remote. I no longer work remote anymore, and now I need my kid to have
transportation. Um, hey, I I didn't work. I was a stay-at-home mom, a stay-at-home dad, and now all of a sudden, I'm having to go back into the workforce. I need transportation. So, even and and again, we'll go over the figures. We left out last year transporting close to 15,000 kids. We
are currently almost transporting a little over 15,500 kids today even with that 1.5 to2. So I know I seen you guys back in I'm gonna say Mayish around that and I said if we don't do this this is where we're going to be and hello here
we are. We're we're there. Um we predicted that our routing team did a did a fantastic job routing those on that side of it and we predicted those figures and here we are with those figures. If we had not had said, hey, 1.5 to two, and reduce some of that transportation, we would be at planned
doublebacks and kids would be definitely late to school every morning and they would be sitting at the at the bus loop in the afternoons. So, this was something we were proactive. We were proactive as a board, as a district, and we did well on that side of things. There's always a piece of this when you
have growth, you have growing pains. anytime change happens to change comes into play and and we have those um those pains that that that we say ouch and um one of those was um chipmunk and just our trans our transfer things. We had a brand new app, we had brand new tablets,
we had a brand new GPS system and folks, we didn't have a choice but to roll all of this out because it was failing last year. Um, so in rolling this out, we had a lot of parents that the weekend before school started, and I'm talking Saturday and Sunday, and when I say a lot of
parents, roughly 6 to 7,000 parents decided to jump on Saturday and Sunday and say, "Hey, I want to register my kid for transportation." And here's the thing, transportation was working Saturday and Sunday to to register those kids and get those ready to go for buses. Drivers had already run
their dry runs. They were ready to roll for Monday morning. What we were not ready for was the crashing of the software because the software was not ready for almost 7,000 parents to get on and say, "Hey, look at us. We need transportation." Um, I don't know if I
want to say I'm proud of this, but we we crashed it for almost all of the state of Florida as far as that goes. Um, I got calls from other directors going, "Thanks, Robert. Thanks, Robert. You you you managed to crash the system for us, too, and here we're down." So, St. John's County was one of them. Oiola
County was one of them. Um, you know, with that, it's not a new manner that we know parents wait until the last minute. Um, I'm guilty of doing this um myself as a parent. Um, but it's one it caused us a little bit of heartache on uh
Monday morning. I promise you, I did not wake up at 3:30 Monday morning and say, "Let's crash Bus Planner and let's crash the app and cause us all kind of natural disasters Monday morning." Um Roxton and I did not do that. We promise. Um but we we fielded them. We got it situated. We
got the routes moving in the right direction they need to be moving. Um I will tell you bus planner has been tremendous in the avenue of jumping on things and helping us navigate this new. Um literally the first day of school they had a plan of action in place within 2 hours of me calling and saying
help. Um so they they've got that rolling. Um, and I'm going to say in lack of better words, the only thing I can tell you is that that Saturday, Sunday, um, mass amount of registrations is what broke the system. Um, and we've had to work through that. So, it created some bugs. It created some, um, some
issues. We were not necessarily prepared for on that that side because over the summer we piloted this. We ran it through different multiple platforms. Um, we had multiple folks that were tracking the summer school kiddos. Um, everything ran smoothly. It was it was
we were like it's going to be good. Um the app was working well. The wrership piece on scanning was working well. Um and we were ready to roll out with that side of it. So just know as far as bus planner goes, they have been working with us hand in hand. We've got solutions on the table to to make the
year better. But um growth comes change, change comes growing things. And that's where we're at with it right now. Um so I you know my my philosophy with this too is that we rip the band-aid off for 2526. It's going to make the 26 27 and therefore on out much better for transportation and for the district on
that side of things. Um just kind of want to talk to you a little bit just about the app in itself. Um and I wanted to put like a video for this so you could see it. It was difficult to get the screenshot of that one. Um but I wanted to kind of go into detail. It's
very similar. I know we've had the complaints on it. The complaints have stemmed from that crash of Saturday Sunday. If the app was working the way it should have been um and we didn't have that crash, all of this would have been a beautiful little dream that would have rolled out and the parents would
have been fine. Um unfortunately that didn't happen. But it's going to give you the estimated time of arrival just like the previous app. Um I had at one point 16 kids routed to my phone and was following all of those 16 kids throughout the district. I have them in Keystone, Green Cove, Orange Park, every
area that we could. Um, and was getting 16 different notifications all throughout the day. Um, and it is reporting. It's doing what it's supposed to be doing. Some of the things that parents had some complaints on that I I know filtered through your inboxes, um, was the bus is not reporting. Um, when
you install all this new software over a summer, you're going to have you're going to have glitches. You're going to have wires that didn't work. You're going to have tablets that fail. Brains made new tablets of that. But um that's what happened with this too as well. So the bus wasn't reporting on day one because there was a faulty GPS wire that
connected. Um and while we try to do dry runs, we try to do all the things before school starts, there's going to be those kinks, and that's exactly what this was. Um we got a faulty wire, we got a faulty tablet. Um our team jumped right in. They got that replaced. Um the bus is
now reporting. These tablets and these wires too set, I call it an EV bay oven whenever the summertime hits. So, this is bound to happen whenever it's sitting out there on that compound lot with 110 150 degrees that's running in that that bus. Um, things are going to happen to
where we have to jump back on and replace these. So, that's a natural piece of it. Um, and we think that's why one of those tablets did fail. It just that particular one wasn't ready for the summer floor to eat. Um, so we replaced that and got that back up and going again too on that side. Um, the good
part of this app, and I told you guys this before, is that it is directly connected to Bus Planner. It's no longer communicating between three different softwares. So, every night before, we had to make sure these uploads happened. Um, and what would happen, Synergy would get a new student. It would go to Bus
Planner, Bus Planner to Sovia. And by the time it hit Sovia, it was confused as all get out. It just it couldn't couldn't operate. Now, with this one, it is going to go from Synergy to Bus Planner. It's going to navigate like it's supposed to. the downloads are going to happen, but we're not having to wait for three different softwares to
communicate with each other. So, we already see that happening. Um, and that's that's doing exactly what we anticipated to as well. So, we don't have those. Last but not least, we don't have those failed data transfers that are there. Um, when these kids enroll, we're seeing it live. Whenever we um our
routing team routes these students, we're seeing that live there, too, as well. kind of ending on this piece of it and I want to pass this off to Roxan to give you all the the other good detail. Um, I want to say kudos to my routing team. That routing team consists of a
coordinator of routing. It consists of three individuals who route students. So, that's a team of four. I have a supervisor that's over that too as well, but they're also assigned other duties. When you have 7,000 kids that get routed over a Saturday and Sunday, that's a lot
of students for four individuals to route. So, if you get an opportunity to drop by and add a girl, add a boy, any of those routers and that routing coordinator, they busted their chops to get these students routed over a almost a 3-day time period. And when I tell you
when Monday hit two, Bryce and her team did an amazing job over at um operation helping us build phone calls. um we were saying, "Hey, kid needs to be routed." And within seconds, that routing team, they had those kids routed and they pushed them through. Um so I that we
could not have done our jobs without that dedicated routing team. And no more than, you know, call outs happen. Y'all heard me fuss about callouts. Um we've had, you know, multiple platforms of call outs already happen. Those routers are covering routes plus driving buses
and making sure that our kids get from point A to point B. So that are like those are our superw women, our supermen of Klay Lake County as far as transportation goes. So when you give an opportunity, shout out to those individuals because they did a jam up job with our district. All right, I'm going to turn it over to Miss Roxan to
give us the detail. So the next slide here is just about the login for the app traffic. So he talks about it being overloaded, shutting down day one, day two. Um, this is just a visual to kind of give you the an idea of how many people were logging into
that app, how many people were logging in and registering to that app. Um, as you can tell, as we get into first day of school that first week, um, it's some pretty pretty high numbers at the very beginning of it. Um, as we come into week two, I mean, we're averaging 35
3600. Um, we don't have data yet for this week, but I would assume we're going to probably stay average to that 3500 number. So that's how many parents, how many subscribers are on this app um for Klay County. So as far as our writership, so that's
another hot topic. Um our numbers are up as um Mr. Crawford mentioned. We've got parents that are going back to the office setting. Um they are kind of getting rid of some of the remote jobs. So that opens up the need for transportation. Um, so as we come into
where we're at now, we're at 15, 15,500. We're kind of creeping up to the 16. I can't tell you this week alone for week three, we are bringing um all of our drivers are coming into our area managers, they're bringing their route changes. So, a lot of what you may be hearing, whether it's in your voicemail
or your inbox or even our parents, you know, why aren't they on time? My app is saying this, my driver is saying this. there's changes that have to be made and that's normal. That is a normal back to school feature feature. So they're bringing in their route sheets. They're
meeting with their area managers and they're going through updating times who's actually writing, who's not writing. So we're going to see some difference in numbers as well as we come out of week three staffing updates. So as far as with our drivers, we do have 14 open allocations,
but that doesn't mean they're going to stay open very long. We've got lots of drivers in the pipeline. Whether it's in our HR pipeline, whether it's in our training department as well. So, right now, I've got um eight drivers that have already gone through the training process, they are eligible for their
contracts or their allocations. So, of that 14, as I finish up August, eight of those are going to go into their contract status. Um uh we have three driver trainees start last week, so they're in their training process as well. Um, our training takes about four weeks. So, if you come in with nothing,
you're about a four-week process from start to finish. I've got three that are in HR processing and of course we talk about our 14 that are in screening. That could be interviews, that could be safe driving history reports, um, that could be giving reference checks. So, those are kind of still in the works. Um, they
haven't quite made it uh to our compound yet. Our monitors, I've got 12 open allocations. Again, I've got seven that as I finish up August, they would have met their 30-day mark. Um, and they will be ready to go contract as well. Um, we'll be putting them into those allocations. Um, mind you, this is
different from open routes. So, these are just allocations. I've got one monitor that started this week. I've got six that are in HR processing. Don't be alarmed by the 44 monitors and screening. Um, those are ones that we do from our MD posting. So, we reach out to them. We ask them if they can come in
for an interview. um kind of do the vetting process. So, we have 14 that are in our bucket that we still have to vet. We still have to get through them. So, they may not all make it. Um so, as far as staffing, I feel like, you know, we're looking good as far as getting us into September. I think we're going to
have a different feel there. Um when we get into open routes, so that open routes are what are those routes where I have routers that are going on those buses and covering those routes. Um, I've got some of my area managers that have to jump on those buses and cover
those routes. Um, even our office staff that we have that maybe were they were a bus driver, they've come in and work as admin support, something like that. They still uphold their CDL. So, thank goodness we can use them. Um, so in our open routes world right now, I've got
four ESC routes that need dedicated drivers. Um, I've got three ESC routes that need dedicated monitors. So, go back to the previous slide. I've got people in the pipeline, people in training. Um, these should these should be cleared up as we get into September.
I have one McKenna Vento um that does we need a a dedicated driver. It's a non CDL, so we have a van for that. And um right now I have one of our office staff that's dedicating that position right now. All our regular ed or general ed routes are filled. So I have drivers
that have been um assigned to those routes, contracted to it. Um, so right now our focus is ESC. >> I didn't say that this year. Roxan said it. By the way, anytime I say that, something normally happens. It wasn't me that said, I want to put that on
>> currently. Currently, um, so again, as we've mentioned, you know, any open routes that we have um are being covered by office staff that this is aside from the ones that we're all getting hit with a back to school
bug, right? getting over something myself. Um, they're kind of dropping like flies right now. So, we are scrambling every morning, you know, crossing our fingers at 5:00 a.m. going, "Okay, who's going to call in? Who's not going to call in?" Um, who's well enough to come back to work again. That's
normal. Um, even in the school setting, they're, you know, you experience that, too. Everybody's congregating back together. Uh, we we really do appreciate everything you guys do. Um, really the big push for help. Um, I know at the
county level there, you know, um, Miss Bryce, she's come up with a lot of good creative ideas as well. Um, people are jumping in helping with the phone calls, helping with the spreadsheets. Um, I know there's a stigma out there that we don't answer the phone. I promise you, we're answering the phones. Um, I even
took my own personal phone. I walked down to dispatch one day and I called it and realized there was a little bit of love in the system. The delay in which it took for it actually hit our phone. our wonderful IT department sent somebody down and they were able to work through that piece of it. So, I do hope
that not only you but also the community, they start to see that difference um where we are able to pick up those calls a little faster. Um and we've got other options that they can reach out to us whether it's going on the website, filling out that form um or they're welcome to, you know, leave us a voicemail if we're not available. So, we
appreciate everybody's help. >> Thank you. >> Any questions? >> Well, thank you, Rox. You got big shoes to fill. >> Absolutely. >> But I really want to say, Randall, you have made such a difference. Um, >> you inspire the employees to do a great
job and uh we know what it was like before. So, thank you. >> We can't pay you the million dollars, but but seriously, you've done a wonderful job. Thank you. And I just I want to say a few things um
to all of you while you're standing up there. Um just to piggyback off of what Miss Clark said, you know, when you when you make a take a visit out there, you see how crazy and hectic it can be and I know you guys work your tails off, but under your leadership,
you guys have trained people to multitask and to do multiple different jobs. Um, you guys have been able to work under crazy conditions um and survive it because of your leadership
and knowing that somebody can can routes um bus routes and answer the phone and do dispatch and do all of those things. So, I appreciate that because you don't see that um everywhere. Um, I also, um,
want to say something about technology with the app. I know parents get frustrated, especially when technology doesn't work. And I know that that's been a push um, for us as a board is to make technology work for us. You know, like a lot of our systems, we were a
little outdated, not not doing, you know, up to par. So, thank you for bringing that change to transportation because it is convenient for a parent to be able to watch things if they're at work and their kids are getting on the bus or, you know, whatever, making sure that their kid is on the way to school.
So, I think it's the small changes that people don't realize, which are huge on our end, but are are small and very impactful cuz when things don't work like that, it is a huge inconvenience. And I don't think people realize just
how positive that change is. uh when it is working. And then lastly, I just want to emphasize to the board that um like like uh Mr. Crawford said, if we can go out there, visit our bus drivers, let them know and our dispatch team and all that, let them know we do appreciate
them. And I'm not saying that um other departments or other areas of our district are not important and any of that by any means, but they are who get our kids to school safely every day. And um I think understanding that
uh transportation isn't necessarily ran like a school. It is different and should be treated differently when we're looking at FTEEs and we're looking at um jobs and and and what they're doing. Um I just want to put that on our radar as a board that um it is a business within
a business if that makes sense. So it's completely different. I know I don't have to tell any of you that, but I just wanted to say that out loud and um say that we appreciate everything that you guys have done um under your leadership and and what you've done to to change things around and boost morale and get
positions filled cuz I know it's difficult when you're trying when you have a a turnover um and you're you're competing against other counties and other businesses with CDLs and all of that. So, anything we can do as a board, please let us know. Um, I know you guys have been under under the fire just
because school started back and I know it's crazy this time of year anyway, but um, anything that we as a board can do, please let us know. >> Thank you. And with that, any board members want to chime in or I just wanted to district 4, I just wanted to
thank you for what you're trying to do for the kids who lived on 218 without sidewalks. I have talked about this when I was a teacher for 5 years. I talked about this uh as I've been on the school board for the last three years. I some people from the district went and walked
and saw the bike trail on the side of 218. So I want to thank you for everything you have done for them and everything you're trying to do for them. Um it's a real struggle for me when we start this equity thing like grouping everybody
into same categories when everybody's not in this every community is not in the same category you know and the struggle is real for the people out there and it's very dangerous for their kids has been. And I
just appreciate you trying to figure out what we're doing out there. >> Absolutely. And just to to piggy back on that statement too as well, um I I've also tried to emphasize to some
parents out there, I know we're doing um courtesy writers this week and next week and um with the new change, there are going to be a little bit of bumps, speed bumps along the way as far as like finding what kid should be in a, you know, labeled hazardous, who shouldn't
be. And so, um I know when it comes to our kids and safety, you can't replace our babies. So, I get the the struggles and the challenges there, but um you guys are doing a really good job trying to find those kids and and find them routes. So, I also want to say thank you
for that as well. >> Kind of to piggyback off that too, just so you guys have the right tools and your toolbox there to divy out to parents when they come come to you. Um that is the process that'll start up um to kind of navigate that piece of it. So, right now it's all right, does A have, you know, is it maxed or is it to
the point to where we can stick kids on it? um parents kind of just they either decide to send their kid on the bus or they decide to have their kid walk whichever one that that that chooses to be or or or take them in. Um so now we get to look at and say okay where is our
numbers what what are our numbers doing? So you know in the coming weeks we're going to be looking at that. I want to emphasize that is not a it doesn't happen overnight. Um you know this is a team that again you have three routers and a coordinator of routing that is pushing this avenue of it. So it's not
going to happen. And it's not an overnight fix. Um it's going to take some time to get those numbers back in. Um we are located in Middberg and we serve 40 plus schools throughout the county, which means I have five area managers to go out and get these counts to as well. So five area managers to the
tune of all the schools that we have. The math doesn't math on that side. So it it's um it's a challenging avenue. We've done it for years. This is not a new concept, folks. We've been doing this for quite some time. So um it'll be one though that we start ironing this out. we, you know, three, four, and five, we get our numbers and we start
figuring out where we can stick these kids. Um, it's not a, you know, we told parents to this is not necessarily a no or futuristic. It's just a I can't do it right now. Let us get the numbers and we'll we'll iron those out. So, encourage them to continue putting in those courtesy writership applications.
We are viewing those. We are um, you know, pushing those through. And believe it or not, we're answering phones. Um, they're there. Um, and it's it's one that you're on the phone with a parent and there's five more blinky lights going off and you're like, "Ah, okay. It's going to happen." But, um, it's
it's it's happening. It's getting there. But, tell them, encourage them to submit those forms, go through the right process and procedures there. And, um, transportation's going to be on it like we always are. And we'll, um, we'll get them get them ironed out. So, so Roxan, just to clarify, you said this, but I just want to make sure everybody knows
as as the routers go by and they make alterations to the route, then parents would be notified. So, the most accurate way if you're a parent out there thinking, well, my bus has been 15 minutes late consistently over time. You'll eventually get the new time,
>> but for now, the route tells you exactly where the bus is, and that's the most because they're trying to figure out all of those nuances. >> That's going to be the original information that was created before they got their route sheets what, almost 2
weeks before school started. Yeah. So what what they're seeing in the system is as kids are being added the system is adjusting it but there's also real life information that the drivers can only provide to us. So we will we'll utilize
thrill share as well. So as say route ABC gets updated that route in our room we will send a communication out to say please be aware you know this has been updated go take a look at it. Um there shouldn't be a dramatic change. I feel like physically what's happening is what
will reflect on the route sheet. We're just trying to get the data to match up so that the chipmunk can actually feed it correctly to the parents. >> Can I ask a question? So next year, I'm sure you guys are tracking this. It won't be all those people at once that they would have maybe if they had a kid in the system this year and they bust
does it track them the next year or does everybody have to reregister every year? >> I'm going to hit on that one just so we kind of set the record straight for that. Yes, they are going to every year it's going to be a registration piece, but what can we grow on? We can communicate better. I'm just going to
lay that out on that piece of it. Um, we've got to communicate better. So, the team is already working on avenues to say, you know, just as soon as spring break hits, we're going to start pushing this out to parents. Um, you know, we've we've met with other districts, we've went to these conferences, and believe it or not, those produce a lot of
information for us, too, to see what other districts are doing. Um, and this piece of it was they start they start early and they start pushing this out. And parents are going to get sick of hearing it, but it's the key of transportation that I'm one of those two. You see it three, four, five times and all of a sudden you're like, "Okay, yeah, I'm going to do that. I got it. I
got it. Transportation. I'm going to register my kid." Um, and that's what we need to do for this upcoming school year. So, we need to start early. Um, the reason we do registration yearly is to see those figures and what we can plan for. But the more we can plan over the summer, the better off we are for
day one. Um, and that's kind of the key part there. So, yes, they will register every year. They'll put their kiddo in. Um, and anything that changes, too, like in the world of ESC, we get that information at that point in time, too, so we can make those changes appropriately for those routes for the new school year.
>> But communicating earlier, I think, is going to help us into the next year. >> Yeah. >> And if y'all need help with that, let us know. Whatever you guys need. So, >> absolutely, we appreciate it. All right. Is that it? Thank you. >> All right. Thank you. We appreciate all your support. >> They get to go answer some phone call.
>> Yeah. Right. >> All right. Next up, we have um our student information systems presentation. We'll be a little bit I don't think I've had my chance or chance to introduce myself to the board. If you've been around for a minute, you might remember
me. I'm uh interestingly enough, I'm my predecessor twice and my successor twice. And I'll let you try to figure that out for a second because uh I'm actually from Klay County. I graduated from Mber High School, became a teacher there a few years later and then uh
fixed the principal printer. Uh he assumed I knew something about technology and made me the school tech. And then from there I went and uh came into the district office where I helped work on all kinds of things it and then
I got another job. It was kind of a neat opportunity and then I came back and then I got another job and then I came back. So this time I'm just staying I guess too much work right and so I do want to introduce myself like me like I said my name is Dwayne Weeks. I'm the director
of it at this particular point. This is David H. He is the supervisor uh over our kind of our systems group. And today what we wanted to do is we wanted to kind of take an opportunity to uh as I've been here a few months. So it's been July one. So it's weird, right? Like it's a little bit of deja vu
because I've been here a few months, but I've also been here for a while. Feel like I'm pretty uh kind of sort of uh understanding of the culture here in Klay County being from here. And one of the things that I know that has happened in education especially over the last few years is education has become had
become very flexible and how that deals with things especially student information. Um today what we're going to do is we're going to talk about kind of a recommendation or proposal that we think would benefit the district. And one thing that I will say is is that um used to be you buy a piece of software
and it would be like 20 years or so. Um as you know like through phones and everything else software updates quite a bit. There are a lot of different ways that you can take, but one of the things that we are looking to do is we are looking to kind of go into some core values as far as our what our student information system does. So, I've got a
quick presentation and then kind of got a little bit of a recommendation. And so, real fast, if you are not a tech person, one of the things that uh kind of give you a little heads up on what a student information system for is it's a sprawling system. Every time you hear the word synergy, uh, basically you're
talking about a system that does all kinds of things from the registration process to grade posting to a grade book for a teacher to potentially forms that could include things if you get kind of sort of grand in your designs like NTSS and all these other things. It is
basically a massive data system. But one thing the state of Florida is is that in the state of Florida something that is very very tricky is we have very very very I think I said very enough complicated state reporting in Florida. Uh the state the DOE requests reams of
data and from that data they will derive our accountability things like our school grades but also our funding. And one of the things that is a little bit of a cardinal truth about state reporting in Florida is you only get paid what you invoice for through all
this data submission. The state will definitely chase you down if you make an error and it's on their side. They will not chase you uh down in reverse if you get what I'm saying. And so it is incumbent for districts to be able to maximize their funding, right? And so I
I know a lot of times when we think about some of these uh pieces of software um it can sort of sound like okay that sounds optional. This is such a core system. This is really we have two core systems in it. The one that pays you and the one that gets us paid and handles the student data. And so
those are the two core. This student information system like I said though really impacts parents, students, teachers as well. And so one of the things that's interesting about a state student information system, most parents first contact comes at the registration
process which we spent the last two months studying uh as I kind of sort of returned. And there's a lot of other information that we will uh take a look at real quick. But again, I just want to sort of emphasize how important this system is and how complex the reporting
is. So with that said, go to the next slide. One of the things that we have looked at is is that as Synergy was so clay had a very innovative deal with Synergy in the very beginning and it goes back a couple of administrations, but they were kind of sort of the first
in Florida to some extent and then another district followed. And so one of the things that was interesting about that is is that at one particular point when I was first here and we were on focus, we were like the fourth district to go on it. And so anytime that you're kind of sort of picking one of these
student information systems or one of these new systems, you're kind of sort of reading the tea leaves a little bit and making your best prediction to some extent. Well, one of the things that we've noticed is that even since the last few years is that focus has gathered a lot of momentum and because
of the way state reporting works, the state almost listens to focus more than I don't want to say this too much, but like it almost like they listen to them so much and they're almost like kind of a I would say slightly an adviser on it if there's a reporting question or so
like because they're now out of the 67 districts there are like 50 districts almost 51 districts that have gone to focus. So the vast majority since this has changed have slid to focus and in some ways that kind of sort of makes sense in the history of focus. They're
based in St. Pete, great town. And one of the things that they do is because they have been in Florida, they understand how complicated Florida is. I will say this is that other systems in Florida just seem to struggle with just the weight of the reporting to be honest
with you. It's just a lot to keep up with. And there are some dis there are some states where the state reporting is almost like submit like for your funding an attendant sheet for the like a couple of attended sheets. That is not the case in Florida. And so realistically it being that tough environment we want to
make sure that we're as competitive competitive as possible. I do feel like there's sometimes some safety in the flock, if you get what I'm saying, where you have other districts to collaborate with, other districts to kind of have conversations with. And I think that's very, very important because one thing
that is true is I've kind of sort of watched education, public education evolve a little bit. So, we have to be extremely competitive. Like, we have to look at anything that could be potentially a barrier and we have to work to streamline it, remove it, whatever it is. That's true of funding.
Like I said, that's true of registration. And I know it sounds weird, and we'll talk about this in a second. For some people who work really, really hard, some of our heroes, some of our unsung heroes in the district are record secretaries. Like, if you've ever seen that position, it is a tough, tough
position. Something that may save somebody, 20 or 30 clicks might not seem like that big of a deal, but if you were doing that all day over and over and over again for all year, like it adds up into real time. And I think that's the other concern that we have to look at
too, right? As budgets may contract, how can we streamline some of these processes, make a more efficient workflow and make this make more sense for everybody involved. So being kind of a competitive soul these days, like I want us to be the best and I want us to be able to actually go in and have
processes that hopefully sing for the people who are working on it. So the next one real fast. So what we're going to do is we're going to talk about these kind of sort of four values of what I think a student information system should bring to the table. The first one is just straight up efficiency like
anything that now listen some of the processes if I'm going to be honest with you the registration process is mostly dictated by the state. You have to have an immunization record and an immunization record doesn't sound like it'd be something terribly complicated. It can be to some extent especially if you're coming from out of state and we
know in Florida we have a lot of people coming from out of state right? But how can we streamline that where we can? And it's always a war of percentages. You'll never get to 100%. I think people kind of get a little bummed out when that is the case. But if I take 30, 40, 50% off somebody,
>> that's a win, right? And you can't turn down the just because you're shooting for the perfect, you can't turn down the good or the better, right? And so I think that's a big deal that goes with process improvement, too. One of the things about a student information system conversion is you basically take
a look at every process, put it back on the table, and you examine it. Now, one thing that I do believe is that I do believe focus is a tool that is flexible enough for us to be able to start to rework the processes. I think that's very very important and we'll take a
look at some of that in a second, but it is going to be very very important too at the end of that for us to have data really quick to inform decisions. I I would never say it's decision making by itself. It's supposed to inform decisions, but the truth is that data piece and the ability to get reports. We
have done some surveys on on the existing student information system. One thing that came up over and over again in that system is I wish I could just go get the data myself. Like I wish that there was a way for it to be simple on that front end to where I could get the
data. We have great instructional leaders. We have people who really do understand the data, but sometimes they may have an idea or something that would really work for their school environment or their department and it would just be great if they could go ahead and do that. And then something that I am a
huge fan of, we'll probably have we used to have like an air horn every time we found money. The last place I worked, people air horn, it's a little weird in an IT place. I'm not going to lie. Like programs get a little freaked out after a while. We just do it. But like I guess that is is that it is important for us
to maximize funding and literally gain every dollar. And I'm going to tell you like again because you are self-invoicing that means that your data has to be very very accurate but you almost have to sort of seek within the rules advantage in how you can get that
data. And so real fast what I'm going to do is the next slide is I'm going to talk a little bit about the cost of what the project could potentially be. Now listen, one of the truths is is that generally as a rule, if you are going into like looking at a new student information system, you
usually pay for one while you're building it and then you have to pay for the other cuz you're still on it, right? But one of the things that we started having very early conversations about is is that there's these systems these days are almost year-to-year subscriptions.
And so talking to Focus, one of the things that they agreed for us to be able to do is they would not charge us if we did this the subscription cost for the first year while we're building the system out. I will tell you that what you were probably potentially looking at at the end of the recommendation maybe a
10 or 11 month conversion. That's a doable conversion, but I will tell you to be honest with you, it's like the more you double bill like it can be a problem. We've gotten that subscription part. they will send people to help us do the conversion and in reality it's
only fair to pay people for their work right however I did talk with them yesterday and there's some flexibility about maybe pushing that as this may be something that as the budget is kind of tight we would have some flexibility in pushing at least half of those cost off to the next fiscal year and so when come
as a surprise bill or something of that nature if you get what I'm saying and of course we still have to pay the subscription for synergy but if we do the analysis every 5 years. We do the analysis over five years. This would include the assessment module that we have in synergy, the forms builder that
we have in synergy, kind of a very like tolike product. Then we would be looking over 5 years of a cost savings of roughly 577,000. Do have coded an asterric. This is estimated based on what their cost increase looked like. Um I suspect that's what it would be. It seems what
their language would be, but that is an estimate just based on past history. uh it could be higher. It doesn't seem like it would likely be. But regardless, that would be over about a half million dollars in cost savings. However, the one thing that we can't necessarily estimate that I want to be very clear
about is what the cost is if we have more efficient systems because people's time is also money. And so one of the things that is just not quantifiable is that my hope is is that and the one thing I didn't say and I got exactly one left in me and y'all are about to redeem
it as I've done this will be my third conversion and so so and you only have so many of these in your life. I'm going to be honest with you. So, with that said, y'all are using the last few miles, right? This goes down. But where I guess
I'm going is is that every single time we have seen a boost in the efficiency, right? Like it's like processes that used to take a little bit longer start to shorten up. And so with that said, I that's just hard to quantify, right? But with that said,
and here's the next slide. I want to talk a little bit about what our goals would be. One of the things is that like we're still going to have the immunization requirement. There's nothing I can do about that. There are still going to be proof of residency and things like that. But I do believe that we can make the registration process
simpler for parents. And so I think there's some integrations that I'll talk about in a little bit. But I also think too that it's maybe a potential reworking of the way we have the registration process here locally. like I think there's the opportunity for us to make this. I'll tell you this for
most parents that's the first contact they are going to have with the school district and because the environment is so competitive at this particular point I am a firm believer that that should be a welcoming experience right like and I think that is something that we can work
on the design of the process but then also how we do this and again I think there is something that is kind of exciting there is this thing it's almost sarcastically named called faster it's not it's the state of Florida's record exchange program and it is done on an
old name frame and it is a very difficult system if I'm just being honest with you but because focus has been able to leverage its fact that it's in 50 of the 67 districts they have basically started to circumvent that system with record exchange
possibilities between other focused districts and so now what you're able to do is instead of having to go through this other system which has very mixed results due to just how complicated and how errorrone it is is that we could with a duvall for example which is a
kind of a close relatively close we would be able to if they opt in and we opt in to be able to exchange those records and I sort of think because of the just size and scale of where focus is in the state of Florida that would be a huge thing because if you think of the record transfer process for a parent
that's another hurdle for them to have to clear and maybe that's something we can electronically speed up state reporting should be simplified I will say this is that one One of the things that we are kind of excited about is that like it would be very very good to get with a student information system
that is there at the state conferences like really understanding and having the weight and responsibility of these 50 districts to just understand what changes changes come at state reporting like crazy at this particular point. They used to never come in like
September or October. Now they come sometimes a week before survey 2 and then we're like scrambling to get it done because right now we are the sole district on the current student information system. We just don't have the leverage and to be honest with you I
don't necessarily blame them for it. They lean on us for sometimes the interpretation. If you've ever read any of these rules they are like a riddle to some extent and so it is nice to have other districts have to be able to chirp in as well as a vendor. And I would make the argument that they have somebody
there who's probably one of the most smartest people in state reporting. And I think that helps for now. And I think also too, this is also important for us to be able to predict FTE. Like one of the things that we're kind of sort of looking at some of the tools that would be available in this is that get to where we can predict where this stuff.
Now, the budget part is always a trick because like sometimes the numbers on the accounting part may slide, but being able to predict the FTE piece is a big deal because again, we're just trying to maximize funding. Real quick on the next one too, again, I think I said it. I'm going to sort of talk about it just a little bit more. We want to improve the
district processes, every process. We'll be partnering with every district department and then we'll also bring in some schools. But literally, how can we make everything better as far as efficiency? And then also too, I think a student information system is a chance
for us to really build relationships with other district departments. I think some of the things that will be important is that we'll be reaching out to our partners in ESSE, ELLL, MTSS. I go down a long list of people where we will bring them in. We have a very standard I've recently gone through the
conversion about a year and a half ago. So I know their project plan and their project plan basically brings them in takes a look at their existing processes, shows them how it work focus and then we start in a design phase to what makes the most sense for our people and then more importantly documenting
all that and then thoroughly training it and then something that is big in my heart is kind of the an internal wheel of training like I will say this if you've ever gone through a student information system conversion the training is really good at first but if you didn't make the first year,
you might have got missed if you get what I'm saying. And so we would be making training that would repeat year to year to year if you get what I'm saying because there's always a new person and the hardest thing to figure something out is just sitting next to a buddy trying to figure it out, right? Like to some extent. So that would be something that we would do. And then of
course obviously the data piece, the customizable reports. This is going to be slightly the scariest part. So what I'm going to do is we have a sandbox for focus. So I'm just going to show you a couple of things just to kind of sort of prove that we're not just talking about sort of these high theories to some
extent. So this is focus right here. And so one of the things that I want to talk about is the registration process real quick. And so if we go to let's say we were to enroll a student. Now one thing that focus works pretty easily on is is that there's a drop-own menu right here.
And so in the registration process, the parent fills out a form and that's still there. But there is an applicant school. Schools can just basically at that particular point if you've got the right address zoning pick up their students from an applicant school. So this actually sort of simplifies the process.
You may have heard of the word the Q to some extent. If you have, you know, if you don't, you don't know. But anyway, regardless, this is a little bit more straightforward. This is a little bit more straightforward than that. It's just the applicant school. But let's say we go ahead and pick on a student for a second. Not pick on a student, but pick
a student. And so one of the things that you would want is that like again if you have and this doesn't seem like a big deal, but it is definitely a big deal. If we go to the immunizations tab, I'm going to pick on that for a minute. Right? So this immunizations data that
has to get entered is extremely complicated. If we scroll down for a second. Um, let's see if we see any immunizations. This doesn't necessarily have it, but it did like you would see all these fields right here as far as
vaccination exemption. Like there's just a bunch of data entry and actually for every every immunization, which there's quite a few of them by the seventh grade, it's just like probably like 8 10 fields or something like that. And so those are people that have to enter that
currently. But one of the things that's great about Focus is that because they are all all around the state, they have a direct integration with Florida Shots, then you just click the button, it matches the kid, it brings the data over. And if you've ever worked in this, that one step for every student that
registered literally saved 10 to 15 minutes and we know we're getting it from a trusted source. And again, this is one of those just an example, one of those examples. we can save time and then you multiply that time out then you are definitely making people's lives easier right and so that is one of the
things they also have a faster integration and I kind of told you about the focus to focus integration that may be coming and then probably one of the last things that I guess I would talk about this is that like it's an optional module and at some particular point like we would maybe get there it's not
terribly expensive but they also do have a school choice module that would allow you to run your lotteryies do SPRS and take care of all that up front. So when you talk about that controlled open enrollment environment, that would be a situation very quickly to where we could manage that in focus. Right now it's
kind of sort of independent systems. I think it's a spinner somewhere like that just and that's typical for a lot of districts that have a more old school product, right? Like or pro process, but we can do it within the student information system which would be good. And then we could see, you know, like
you would have like real seat counts, all that stuff updated as you place students. Real fast, I'll show you just a little bit about the easy scheduling piece. So, elementary scheduling is an interesting art. If you've ever seen it, it's a lot of times done on past tarot cards, but really like note cards or
something like that. Basically, what happens is is that you take the note cards and then you kind of sort of process them out. There's never really been an elementary scheduler, but if there was an elementary scheduleuler, it' be kind of a marvelous thing. Now, this still gives you the ability to place students with individual teachers. It's not overriding you or anything like
that, but in this particular case, it allows you to by all these different and what it's achieving or attempting to achieve is just the balancing of the classes, right? And so, one of the things that's neat is that if you scroll over to the right, you can actually see
the balancing with test scores once test scores are in there. And so, this is just a very, very fast way to place students. You can drag and drop students over into different classes. And these are t these are kids that we would have already placed. But with one click real fast, we can go ahead and at the very
top we can optimize. And it just scheduled those students while giving me a readout of what that is. There are rules that you can set in. I will tell you this speeds up the elementary scheduling process considerably
and also allows you even if you are hand placing to see what the balance of your classes are. So that's existed in sort of secondary land for a while never in elementary before. So again another process improvement that allows us to get schedules done faster. One other
thing real fast too in a high school, if you've ever seen a high school, a high school will actually bring all their students in and they will go in and they will basically do request. They'll sit at a computer and type in their request. Some of our schools right now are not doing that. They're doing Google forms where counselors are actually
translating those requests into the system to do the scheduling because that's how it's kind of built. This blows a lot of people away if you've been in secondary scheduling because it allows you, usually if you're in English one standard, you're going to English two standard unless there's an
exemption. And so this allows you to set rules and then with one click get up to 40 to 45% of your student request finished because most of it is rule based and you bring them in the lab to put in things that you already know they're going to go into, if you get what I'm saying.
Then when they go into the lab, their selection is locked down and they only pick like their electives or the other things. And I tell you, it doesn't seem like a big deal, but it would save probably 10 to 15 hours on the counselor to not have to like manually process those, if you get what I'm saying. So
that is kind of a big deal. And then the last thing that I would talk is or the last two things real fast on is the reports. So, real fast, we talked about that need to be able to get data. And so, what's great about this is this
is kind of a return for the classics, which is the advanced report. We can search for any student that we want. But down here, if we wanted to, like just for all the 11th graders, we could check boxes. And this gets incredibly detailed if we wanted it. But to build a report,
if we want to report with our name on it and then maybe the student ID, we just drag and drop or click the stuff over. This is that self-service reporting function that I'm talking about to inform decisions that would be very very powerful if it got into our
administrator's hands and other teachers, anybody, right? Like and so that makes it very very fast for us to be able to run it. This is not a great example of a field, but one of the things that's good is that if you've ever entered data, sometimes you have to go student to student and it takes a long time here. I can actually just
build a report, change the data, hit the save button, and then I fixed it all. And so it allows data cleanup to happen very fast. And these are just tools that currently we don't really have in our current system. And so, as you can see, that's it. real fast a real fast view
real quick for a teacher because there are more teachers than there are any other group and so that's an important thing for us to note and so for teachers one of the things that we can do is there's easy way to take attendance most grade books are kind of the same but I
did want to show you a couple of features that sort of stand out in this grade book so if we go you'll pick a >> I'm going to do the high school one >> that's fine so one of the things that we encourage our teachers to do a lot of times times is we encourage our teachers to grade by rubric, but if you've ever had to actually score by rubric
electronically, it's kind of hard to do. And so, one of the things that's really, really neat is is that teachers can build the rubric they want in this grade book. And then when they go to grade it, all they have to do is
there's a table here, which looks just like a rubric, and they just go boom, boom, boom, boom, boom. And because they've already set up the points, it grades it for them. Do you see what I'm saying? And so this is kind of a real easy way for us to get like something that's kind of complicated for teachers to do because and and I will tell you
this, it's the same story I tell all the time. I think I've told it for like 10 or 15 years. So if you've ever graded papers, it's a great great job, right? Like so when you grade papers, there's a lot of math that goes on and everything like that. When you talk about saving people time, so do you know what I mean
when I talk about the plastic slidy thing? >> Yes. And everybody knows who the plastic slidy thing is, right? It's called easy gra or whatever like that, but I do the plastic slide. I don't really have that. >> So that's a lot of extra work, right?
Because I used to maybe I gave 14 questions or something like that. Well, here what I can do is is that I can have a assignment for 14 questions and I can do points or percent. But that means I have to break that thing out, right? Here what I can do is just do questions
incorrect. And so if I just put minus2, I put it in there and then it will go in and grade it for me if you get what I'm saying. And so that's very very fast. Again, I know it doesn't sound like much, but if you're a teacher trying to enter this stuff quick, it saves them
time, right? And so I think that's kind of an important thing. There's also other things like again useful reports, grade reports, and easy communication and all those things. Go back to the presentation because it ran a little bit long, which is not a surprise with me.
you doing me? That's about right. So, let's talk a little bit about what the timeline could potentially look like. Right now, there's a couple of asterisks here, but what we would look to do potentially is we would look to procure it in the next little bit so we could get started. And so, one of the
first things that you have to do in these projects is there is a bunch of um data migration. We have a big huge chunk of data, right? The potential advantage would be because we were on focus up
until 6 years ago. That data's conversion would speed up considerably because it's going basically from a state reported site, a snapshot site or survey site. So that would speed us up a little bit. If we were coming just straight over, it might be like 20 years
of data that had to move over. We think we have a more limited data set. whatever's happened the last six years. Since another district the other district on our current student information system just recently left, we would have access potentially to some of those programs that would help us
pull the data out, right? And so that would speed it up a little bit too. So that would be a possibility and we would start moving data over. We would start meeting with the business process owner. That's a nerdy term for our district departments. All of our we would identify them, start meeting with them, talking about what they want. And then
from November to January, we would start validating the data, making sure that it comes over right because you got to balance GPA. Lord have mercy on your soul. If you get validictorian or saluted Victorian wrong, I was a senior sponsor for a lot of years, so I know that's important. The data migration, we would redefine the processes and then we
would start training scheduling teams and we could re build potentially the IEP or we could go to peer. That's a different conversation for a different time. But regardless, however that would work, we would either have our existing IP built in focus or look at a different
option. Then the testing documentation and training. And then what we would start doing is that we would actually start scheduling people in February. And so the good news is they would have access to those tools for a July 1 go live. We would start training teachers
and of course other folks and all these different processes. And then we would get the integrations turned on and then take a deep breath. we would go live around July 1 or so and and focus and then we figure out the summer surveys and of course we'd come back into pre-planning. Um because again I would
say this is that the last district that just left our current student information system uh they were in a little bit of an interesting spot but they did a 6 and 1/2 month conversion and according to the calls that I made yesterday they were relatively happy.
Now, I will say they may be coming from a different place than we were to some extent. We're a little more established than they were, if you get what I'm saying. Um, that would make me nervous. That makes me kind of break up in sweats just thinking about us anyway. But I do think because we have the legacy of
being on it before that there is a little bit of an advantage. Of course, we're going to assume that nobody's been trained on it, trained it like it's the first day, but because we do feel like there's a little bit of muscle memory that would kick in there and other things that we do feel like there would be an advantage. And so that would be
the timeline for the project. That was a lot. You're probably like, I'm never inviting this guy to another meeting. >> I will say this, the very first conversation I had with Mr. Broski was an overwhelming amount of people when he ran was I hate synergy. I want focus
back. So your teachers had given us uh feedback recently that they wanted this program back. So, um, that was like quite literally one of the very first conversations I had with Mr. Far. And I want to tell you, so you put the I'm a teacher.
>> Mhm. >> Focus. I focus for years. A couple things I want to tell you. So, first of all, I saw the focus screen and I said to myself, it's so weird. Beautiful. It was just so beautiful to my eyes
because I'm going to tell you and this is not mean to be offensive to anyone but for from a teachers p perspective when we switched from focus I was teaching and I did my summer training a lot of teachers didn't to go to synergy it was disastrous there were whole whole
schools of teachers didn't know how to do anything miss skipper is right about focus the conversion from synergy to focus was one of the and I've converted from other ones even earlier in my career Korea, right? That was the worst
for me and many people to go to synergy, especially when you were talking about the ESC population 504. It wasn't populated. I don't know how long it took us or even if it's finished now, it wasn't populated for so long that everybody had to do extra work for
everything. Um, so when I saw focus, there was just a party at my house because it is preferred. And I also want to say I saw it and I remember it. So anybody who's been here more than 5 years is going to know how to do focus. So it's going to be a much easier
transition. So >> and because this is your third one, >> does that mean we save money on some of these people coming out and training us? >> Well, you save money already. A very honorable question, but like I
feel like that ter that term is too deep at this point. I've smashed it pretty good. I just wanted to we didn't put the agenda item, but based on the reaction of the board, we're going to have the agenda item on there so that we can have a vote at the next meeting so we can
move the project forward. You can see it's a very doable timeline. And uh the thing about Dwayne is now I've officially hired Dwayne more than any other person back several times. In fact, I did get a text from Dr. McDonald who had the
former he didn't have a record. He didn't have a record. I now have a record again. The thing I would say about Dwayne and his team is is Dwayne's not only wicked smart, but the ability to communicate is a very big piece of that. You can just doubt entertaining and his
presentation and all of that. easy to understand and all of that. So, we expect big things. In the era of funding that we're at, I highly recommend that we move to a new system in order to uh ensure that we maximize our funding.
>> Um, and it's not just a funding thing. I mean, it's obviously a better product. The whole point of computers was to save everybody time and we seem to get better than Yes, you're a great communicator. We appreciate that. I married one and communication sometimes, you know, for a
period. >> Listen, I can be a nerd, too. So, you know, >> and I've been through two conversions, so I can tell that I Yeah. wouldn't want to deal with number three. >> Yeah. It's a chore, but we >> for the right people.
>> I mean, you can tell you obviously know what you're doing. Appreciate >> that. Thank you. And I just want to emphasize though since we have so many changes coming from the district right now, especially with our API and our technology, they're positive changes and people we have really good feedback and
and I don't really think that you're going to have to explain yourself with this one much with with a lot of our teachers, but can we just make sure that we communicate the reasons why we're switching back um how it's going to save us money and all the positives so that people understand that we're not just
>> throwing stuff at the wall to see what sticks. Yeah, I think I think you hit a very very key part. You will see probably a series once we get this if we get this goes through and passes. Does that sound like it might? I I'm big on kickoffs. I'm big on the communication. I'm big on identifying stakeholder
groups because to be honest with you, we're just all in it together. There's I will tell you this, there's not another system that you'll launch. Well, there are a couple, but like this is one touches everybody like period. Like it's just kind of I'm trying to think there's some that might but like the parents are
going to log into a portal the first I mean the like there's ev everybody right and so communicating with those groups overcommunicating with those groups is super important to us and I would be wrong like the one thing that I'm very big on is there's this thing called the hype cycle where you get real hyped up
and then reality sets in a little conversions can be a little tricky right like they're not always like completely the easiest things ever but with that said I I think we have every advantage and I think if people know that we're really doing it in their best interest, I expect there to be a very decent
response to it, but that communication is what makes that happen. It won't just happen in a silo if you so I 100% agree. And we would put together a communication plan like there's kind of already one. >> Okay. >> And once they get in there, parents loved it. Parents loved focus back in
the day, you know. >> So once they get in there, it's just going to be nothing. I think with any system you will find some hidden advocate once you change right because change is change right um but uh and I and I want to be very clear too this is something that's just near and dear to my heart >> that team has poured their heart and
soul into this and so I do want to be very very respectful of their work because I think it's important to know that this is you know that particular product launched during a pandemic it was just a different time right but as we are sitting here in 2025 right and we're going considering
>> it's Florida is mostly focused and that seems like a logical place to be and so you know they but that team over there is going to deliver you a great conversion. >> There's no further questions, comments. >> All right. Thank you, sir.
>> Thank you. Appreciate you. >> Um I know we have another meeting afterwards, so I wanted to um do our school board discussion real quick and then um if it's okay, Mr. Ross, if you don't have any specific things you want to talk about as far as agenda, can we
just call you and >> Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. I only have one item on the agenda, but go ahead. >> Okay. All right. So, uh, >> Miss Gilhoff, we'll start, Mrs. Clark. >> I have nothing. Just be small. I can wait.
>> Well, no, no. I mean, we're Okay. Uh, Mr. Alber, do you have anything that you want to like discuss, bring to an agenda, anything like that? >> Yeah. Um, I have a question.
Now we just decide, you know, that we went for the mile and a half, one and a half mile to 2 mile radius. Um, a few parents, not many of them, but a few parents brought uh a concern to me
about the way the distance is measured because they measure it from the driveway to the school. And the safe distance for some of those kids is more than 2 miles. And I was wondering if we can do something about that cuz the kids not going to go just across the street right
in front of the driveway. example they need to go to the crosswalk or the cross guard and then measuring that distance the parent are saying that that distance is more than 2 miles can we consider getting those childrens on the bus >> I think that they are um and I don't
want to overstep or speak but I know that they are looking at multiple options right now me how they're measuring they're reassessing um places like 218 and um I know I actually just spoke to Mr. Broski about this going and
speaking to our county um and even CCSO to make sure that we have the infrastructure to start supporting these walkers um and and just kind of getting everybody on the same page because I think what people don't realize is your crossing guards come from CCSO, your
sidewalks and crossing areas come from your county and your schools come from your schools, right? you know, um so it's multiple different people, organizations in one. So I think, um this week there was further discussion on our transportation side and like you
spoke about today, um they're reassessing things, reassessing um all the way around um and and doing courtesy riders and and um figuring that out, especially since our numbers have >> to your attention because I think it's a
fair question. >> No, it is. It's not a driving distance. It's a walking distance. If it's a walking distance, it should be a safe walking distance. >> Right. And I know that there was a um just as an example, we did we did a walking distance and an individual had to cut through private property to be
able to even get to his house because it was considered a walking and not a drivable. So, this this individual is having to ask a citizen who who who knows if they're kind, nice, or whatever to cut through. So, there's been circumstances like that
and I think those are part of the bumps that they're trying to overcome. Um, and I think they're trying to work those out. So, if I can, if you would direct any of them, um, you can send me the email if you want with their address and transportation will look at those
student addresses individually and make sure that the program didn't, you know, make a mistake or or pull them out, you know, um, incorrectly. But yeah, encourage them to also submit a form or um courtesy writer. We're going to do everything we can to get everybody, you
know, transportation. >> Thank you. >> Yeah. >> I wanted you guys to have a copy of this [Music] address. >> Sure. So, I'm Mr. Broski's helping. I know you
um every board member received um maybe a dozen emails about our counseling policy and a lot of the concerns in the counseling policy. There's one section when you guys get
these in front of you. This is our policy. And basically it it doesn't have a lot of words in it. So mental remember that mental health counseling is in a separate policy. All right. So the school counseling portion if you look at
A assist students in academic advisement and planning to achieve their optimum growth. We're all really we understand what that is. B aid students in identifying options and making choices in career vocational and postsecary education. We all get that. It's just
pretty straightforward. And D supports the provision of the resiliency education, which is our first lady um Dantis' um drive. And then civic and character education and life skills education. We're required to show so many videos on
topics as they age through the system like uh sex trafficking and abuse of drugs and alcohol. So all of that, what the parents were concerned about, if you look at C, is something that says provide responsive mental health
counseling services to students. And so you see the words mental health and you see um responsive. So on Sunday, I talked to a group of people for about four hours to include counselors, not necessarily school counselors. I just wanted to know in general when we place
someone with a master's degree, that's their profession. We're not the experts in that. And we had a conversation about what responsive um mental health counseling is. And if you were to go to the internet, responsive mental health counseling by a
school counselor providing immediate short-term support to students experiencing crisis, personal problems, behavior issues that disrupt the learning and well-being. The concern by this group of people and even myself
when I sat down and started really looking um at examples of responsive mental health counselings is things like drug abuse. There are things that school counselors um experience inevitably, right? And
these folks were concerned with parental permission. So, if your child did have, let's say, a drug problem, I'm going to say first of all, 100% that in the 20 years that I was teaching and never not heard of a counselor doing the right thing when it comes to this, they always
seek a plan that is best for that student and include parents with the exception if you have to do uh you think a student is being threatened or abused and that's a mandatory report. So, we can't just simply say in this category
of responsive mental health counseling, they always have to call a parent. It doesn't work like that, right? And so, then I called Mr. Broski who my question to him exactly was this. Can you provide some information on do we have protocols
when it comes to mental health responses responses the response of mental health counseling? Are there is there a list of things that we they can do? Are there some warnings of what they don't do? Because part of what they do is when they come across a situation is
referrals and recommendations to help parents seek out the the help that they need for their student. Right. And so Mr. Broski has someone that could speak to us just for a moment about the protocols we have to make sure that parents are in the
loop when it needs to be. Um and then after that I would ask if we agree that we add uh legislation 102.20 and 1014.04
which is a link to the rules for informing parents to keep parents in the loop. So, so I would just add this. The NOMA policy that you have in front of you is based off of the standard number that you see up there, FAC 6A5.09.
The wording responsive mental health counseling services is from that very document. So, so it's purely Nola looked at the state u board of education rule. The rule uses the term resp response of mental health counseling. So, that's not
something that is unique to Klay County. This is a statewide sort of thing. And I think Miss um Miss Hans did a great job of of explaining all of that. >> I I just have one quick question. So, even with this, they have a license,
correct? Our mental health counselors have a license, right? >> Counselor would have a license, >> right? So, they would still have to practice within their scope. So whatever their scope states, they would they couldn't >> in in addition to that, we're under the
the uh parallel rights, >> right? >> So they would have to follow that protocol in addition. So >> So they have two different ones that they have to follow by state cuz they can't like as a nurse, I can't just go prescribe medication. So they would have to stay in their scope and then they
also have to look at the legislation for parental rights as well. >> Correct. >> Okay. We we actually contract out for mental health services. Correct. >> We do have uh clay behavioral does for some services, but those services would all be with parent permission, >> right, for those services.
>> I think the key there too is that it's responsive. So it's, you know, situationally crisisoriented. It's not just pulling >> whoever wants to come see the counselor in for the day. >> Correct. >> Um so it's responsive and it's like you read short term. >> So it's not, you know, ongoing
counseling services for a student at a school. >> Correct. So this is this is Aaron Cologne. She's kind of lead counselors and you know Kelly Gil foil. So so go ahead. Take it away. >> Hi, I'm Aaron Cologne. I am one of the school counseling specialists for the district. Um so I I just wanted to say
thanks for having me and being and just like being willing to kind of talk through this with me. So I think everything that you brought up and said about school counselors and kind of how we operate in schools is absolutely correct. Um the role of a school counselor is a little bit different than
that of a mental health counselor. I didn't mean counselor. >> We our school counselors are certified. So they have a Florida teaching certificate but we don't have licenses like some social workers or mental health counselors. Um but we still have our ethical guidelines as well. And um
absolutely. So we when we talk about like the variety of services specifically that responsive mental health um it is like Miss Gilous you're saying like responding to students needs in the moment um sometimes that does involve like if a student is having suicidal ideiation we may need to kind
of uh we we have policies and procedures that we follow for that to make sure that to kind of assess for risk and then how we notify parents about that. Absolutely. Um, in all of our guiding documents for all of our school counselors, we fundamentally believe in
parents rights to be the guiding voice um in their child's lives. And we advocate for um students to talk anything that they talk with their school counselor about to to share with their parents as well. And then we um also will we always follow up with
parents. Um sometimes that's via like inputting the information into currently synergy. Um, and but most often it's through a phone call if there's any if there's any cause for any sort of concern or um just a a general disruption to their academic learning. But and as a high school teacher, I just
want to clear up that you would send a high school student there for a lot of different reasons. Failing a class, failing the year, not getting prepared for a test, uh teacher knows you went from an F to a zero, can't get a hold of parents. So like 95% of the work,
especially as kids get older, it's a little different in elementary school, right? Because a lot of what we just read in the policy occurs once they get into high school, especially career and academic counseling. >> And I think what you said is perfect. So
the really the concern was is that there's a broad spectrum. We have like a slice of society, right? They wanted to make sure it wasn't subjective. And through my investigating, I found out it's very objective that you have uh guidance for them, right?
>> And and protocols. >> Absolutely. And they can always if they're unsure of something, I'm sure there's a a line for them. Yes, they can call. There's two district specialists for the school counselor. So, I primarily work with our elementary school counselors and then Tabitha Johns works with secondary. And we consult all
the time every day. We're on the phone or emailing back and forth if they have a question. Um we also have additional staff within climate and culture for those more like specific um crisis scenarios that they can consult with. >> So you do have a guiding document like if it if the child is suicidal if and
then if there's any question you're saying that people always take a note in synergy. I remember doing that as a teacher >> and call parents. >> Yes. when there's an issue and mind you it's also a second line of defense because part of my I think retraining
what we think about school counselors is the fact that teachers know too already there's a reason most the time the student is there with the counselor and teachers have tried to contact when students are having issues as well so it's by no means no one's trying to
bypass parents or keep secrets especially because we do really care about our students at all levels And I think it just makes sense that if someone wanted to know the rules for parental rights um that we put the
actual law there to make sure that kind of like you know build make that an important part in the policy as well. >> And I think it's important to draw the distinction between a school counselor and a licensed mental health counselor. They are not the same. Um, and it's a very different scope of practice and
very different service that we're doing at school versus what people tend to think of when they think of seeing a counselor. >> Yes, >> absolutely. >> Did you need me to elaborate on that? Cuz I thought that was great. >> All right. Thank you. >> Any other questions for No, just thanks for sharing.
>> Thank you. Thank you very much. >> Anything further, Miss Hansen? >> No. If if we can get consensus maybe or not our heads. Well, it'll be on the It'll be on a We'll just vote on it. >> Perfect. That's perfect. Thank you. Um I
do need consensus if M uh Well, okay. Well, um I need I was going to ask our lawyer if we could do a policy letter just to clear up some dos and don'ts for our booster clubs um as far as
fundraising and and the things that they can and cannot do. Um I know we're going to I I was going to see if Niola had a policy for that, but in the meantime, if we could u Mr. Blocker said something about a policy letter so that you know, football season's here, sports are are
gearing up that they can do what they need to do um in their realm of things, if you will, >> right? Um absolutely. I know the question pertained mostly to bingo and raffles, I think was the uh the question
posed. Uh the requirements on bingos and raffles there's length of time. It has to be a 50 501c3 has to be um active for a certain amount of time usually 3 to four years depending on bingo unravel. There's very
little there's small distinctions between the two. Um then there's also the purpose requirement of what the funds are being used for. Education is one of them. Um, we'll get a policy letter out to the board regarding what dos and don'ts you can for the boosters.
I don't know to see the length of time um what entity it's filed as, each booster club is filed as um and go from there. I know there are other districts that do it for their schools through an associated uh 501c3
uh with the schools and they advertise those bingos or raffles, not typically on school grounds. I don't I don't think those raffles and bingos to be held on school grounds. Um but we can get a policy letter out uh to the board and uh
provide some clarification. >> So they have to So I didn't know uh you didn't mention the the years. So if they don't have a booster already established, they're going to have to wait four years to be able to do a raffle. >> I believe statutes three or four years.
Um it's been a few weeks since I've looked at that particular statute. It's three or four years before uh bingo and raffles can ask our legislator about the reasoning for that. But um those those are just the stat >> you can include the detail in the in the
>> exact okay and get clarification of that. There's just so much legislation >> there is and and the reasons behind that. But um if we can if we can see about all of that um that would be great. If so, do we need consensus for you to be able to do that or do you just
bring it to us and we vote on it? How does that >> right? If you want um policy if you want a legal opinion, you can just ask >> policy letter is not a legal opinion. He's going to say this is what you can or can't do. >> So it's just advisement to the board.
Okay. So, I think >> Okay. I didn't know if we if I needed to give you consensus to do that or whatever. >> Oh, you can you can just ask and on any topic I can. >> Can we can we get one of those letters and then can we have it sent out to principles as well or or however Mr. Broski wants to direct.
>> We'll we'll send it to the board and Mr. Broski and he can disseminate as um to school principles and and athletic directors uh as needed from there. >> Okay. Mr. I also had what one consent agenda
question for you when you're done. >> Oh, real quick I could. >> Okay. >> The So, when we get a bond and we build the buildings, it looks like we came in under budget um on was it the Oakleaf one that was in here? So, I had somebody
ask me when we bonded the $36 million, what happens when you come in under budget >> to the money? >> Yeah. So, we'll we'll we would pay that back to um the bond to reduce the expenditure on. Thank you so much. >> So, I only have one thing. You ever you
ever have something that's a lot a lot of work and then I'm going to reduce it down to 2 minutes or less cuz we're late for the next meeting. So, all of the usual stuff's in here. If you got any questions, please. These books here are school improvement plans. I would be remiss if I didn't tell you that all of
the success that you see is a lot of work behind the scenes. It's all detailed within these um these binders that you see here. We do it a little differently than some districts will require every school to do a school improvement plan and that there's a very
strict protocol for how that's done. In addition, we go out and we do what's called school improvement walks, which we go out there and actually go out to those classrooms within there to ensure those things are done. There's a whole data analysis piece broken up into subgroups of students because students
are measured in different ways. I summarize like hundreds of hours of work in 2 minutes. But this is a really important thing because I know a lot of times you see me with a chart saying ah look our district
is doing this is the vehicle by which that happened. So it's very very uh important but I know we're late for the next meeting. So thank you madam chair. >> Thank you. All right. Any other comments? Uh school board attorney comments. >> No comments from the school board
attorney's office. >> All right. Uh Mr. Albero any school board comments? Miss Hansen, Miss Clark. >> All right, let that uh we are going to recess and the next meeting is closed to
the public um the next several meetings. So we'll recess next time.