good evening tonight's students showcase is from Spring Park Elementary from their music teacher Miss Caitlyn Tobias Spring Park offers several clubs for Scholars to express their musical abilities
tonight they are excited to share performance by their bucket drumming Club the group consists of a mixture of new and returning fourth through sixth grade members several of our multi-talented Scholars are also part of
other organizations such as chorus safety patrol robotics track and math team these Scholars meet once a week after school to work on Rhythm reading and percuss percussion techniques while incorporating pop rock Jazz and other
various musical genres tonight they will be performing three pieces the first is a drum line style Cadence set to words from a shell silver Steel poem and the other two selections are set to music
chosen by the scholars themselves we hope you enjoy their performance I do I I stepped in something yucky as I walked by the creek I grabbed a stick to scrape it off the yuck stuck to my stick
I tried to pull it off the stick the yuck stuck to my hand I tried to wash it off off but it stuck to the washing pan I called my dog to pull me loose the yuck stuck to his fur he rubbed himself against the cat the yuck got stuck to her my friends and neighbors came to
help now all of us are stuck which goes to show what happens when one person steps and yuck [Applause] that's p [Applause] like
for [Applause] [Applause]
[Music]
I [Music] this is something new the Casper Slide part two featuring the Platinum Band and this time we're going to get Funk it f fun it f it
everybody clap your hands clap clap clap clap your hands clap clap clap clap your hands all right now we going to do the basic step to the left take it back now y'all one hop this time right foot left STP left
foot left STP cha cha real smooth turn it out to the left take it back now y y'all one hop this time right foot left STP left foot left STP cha cha now y'all now
it's time to get funky to the right now to the left take it back now y'all one hop this time one hop this time right foot two stops left foot two stops slide
to the left slide to the right Chris crosss Chriss cross chop chop real smooth let's go to work to the left take it back now y'all
two hops this time two hops this time right foot two stumps left foot two stumps hands on your knees hands on your knees get me with it oh
yeah come on ch ch now y'all turn it out to the left take it back now y'all five hops this [Music] time right foot left up left foot let's
stop right foot again left foot again right foot left Stop left foot let's STP freeze everybody clap your hands come on y'all check it out y'all how low can you
go can you go down low all the way to the floor how low can you go can you bring it to the top like you never never stop can you bring it to the top one hop right foot now left foot now y'all
Chop Chop real smooth turn it out to the left take it back now y'all one hop this time one hop this time reverse
reverse slide to the left slide to the right reverse reverse reverse reverse chaa now y'all chaa again chaa now y'all chaa again turn it out
to the left take it back now y'all two hops two hops two hops two hops right foot left St left foot left St Charlie Brown hop it out now slide to the right
slide to the left take it back now y'all cha cha now y'all oh yeah mhm yeah yeah do that stuff do it oh
yeah I'm out of here y'all [Applause] peace for e thank you guys great job Student Art showcase is also by Spring Park
Elementary so thank you Spring Park Elementary art and Miss Reen for the beautiful artwork on display this evening the artwork showcase students from kindergarten to 6th grade as they explore different mediums including print making watercolor tempera collage
pencil and crayon focusing on the elements of art and the principles of design students are not only learning new techniques they are also learning the language of Art and how to express themselves both creativity creatively and
verbally thank you [Applause] is Pastor James Eunice present Mr James Pastor James are you
present years think is Pastor James Eunice present at this time we're going to have board member uh Miss Gil Howen say the invocation and lead us in the pledge if
you guys will stand with me let's go to the Lord together heavenly father thank you for the joy that's in this room tonight thank you for the reminder um of the privilege we have of engaging with young minds and young hearts every day help us to encourage that enthusiasm that they have
um help us to develop them to be lifelong Learners um and ultimately help us to lead them into you into your truth Lord father as we meet together tonight to discuss the business of this board I pray that you would um guide our decisions that you would guide our discussion and father that we would seek
to glorify you in all that we say and in all that we do may we represent you well and it's in your name we pray amen amen I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the Republic for which it stands one nation
under God indivisible with liberty and justice for all I now call to order the school board meeting for March 6 2025 welcome citizens of Clay County I want to take the opportunity to thank you for taking the time out of your busy
scheduled to attend tonight's school board meeting this meeting is our opportunity as your elected represent representatives to collaborate openly and make decisions that will decide the future direction of our public schools and the education of our children here
in Clay County if you wish to address the board on an agenda item there will be an opportunity to speak for 3 minutes please fill out a card located at the side entry door indicating the specific item number or topic you wish to to speak about and turn it in promptly to
one of our officers if you have items that you would like to present to the school board or superintendent please hand them to an officer who will distribute them accordingly speakers who wish to address specific agenda items will be heard following the
recognitions and award portion of the meeting speakers wishing to address non-agenda items will be heard following the adoption of the consent agenda no additional cards will be accepted once the board moves to the public comment section under presentations from the
audience your participation is welcome and appreciated at this time we are going to start with recognitions and awards and the recognition of students receiving gold key Awards in Scholastic art
contest Mr Chris um Google from the Fine Arts curriculum specialist Unity tonight we are honored to recognize four outstanding student artists who have earned High honors in the Scholastic art and writing Awards the nation's longest running and most
prestigious recognition program for Creative teens since 1923 the Scholastic Awards have celebrated Young Artists and writers with past recipients including Andy Warhol Steph King and Amanda gor Amanda Gorman students who enter this
competition compete in a range of Visual Arts and writing categories and their work is judged by a panel of professional artists Educators and Industry experts pieces are evaluated on originality technical skill and the emergence of a personal Voice or Vision
students may receive honorable mention a silver key or the highest Regional honor a gold key gold key winners automatically advance to the National level where they have the opportunity to earn National medals scholarships and exhibition opportunities this year four
of our students have earned the prestigious gold key award for their exceptional artistic achievements students as I call your name please come forward to receive your recognition please remain upfront until all students are recognized at which
time we will take a picture of the group with any teachers or admin who are present at this time I'd like to recognize and congratulate our students um I believe our first two are not present this evening they had prior engagements um but Allison Tomkins Lakeside junior high
receiving one gold key Katie Moffett Lakeside junor High receiving one gold key Haley NPA Lake Asbury Junior High receiving one gold key
[Applause] and jayen P of Fleming Island high receiving four gold keys teachers and administrators if you are present if you'd like to come up real quick for a picture e congratulations again
[Applause] students next up is the Athletics recognition of state champions with Mr Jay Sano coordinator of District Athletics e e Athletics not
it uh as as always I just want to say thank you to superintendent rosi and the school board for the opportunity to uh stand up here today and recognize these incredible student athletes coaches teams individuals you know for me this is It's always cool to do this where we
at right here we're on awesome so for me it's always cool to be able to stand up here but but I certainly don't want to take this for granted uh and what I mean by that is to win a state championship it's it's rare
and uh Klay county is just so special it's a special place that it seems like we're always doing this uh but but I don't want to sell it short and and what I mean by that is uh state champion and CT capturing a state championship that's Elite you know that's special and uh and
so so for the opportunity to come up and highlight these individuals and to celebrate them to honor them uh uh I can't thank you guys enough for that all right and so for me Athletics anywhere I've been in leadership at any school uh Athletics to me is a tool anybody who's
working with me knows that it's a tool to get kids to be successful that's what it is that barbell those pom poms or whatever it is it's a it that is a tool for me to engage with those kids to get them to show up to school to get them to to to achieve a GPA to get them to to
teach them life skills that hopefully that they're going to go on and be uh successful citizens moms dads employees employers that at the end of the day is our job winning state championships is awesome that's what we want to do but that's not necessarily our job and that's the expectation and standard in
Clay County and I'd have to say uh just based on us today you know I I think we're doing a pretty good job um so that said before we highlight all the amazing things that we're doing in the field so to speak I want to talk about some of the things that we're doing uh when it comes to the classroom so if you look up this is just our winner report card so
it's 56 programs so we're talking about thousands of athletes um accumulative GPA of a 3.3 um um which is extremely impressive in my opinion um we have over 45 teams with a 3.0 and uh 10 excuse me 10 teams with uh uh
3.5 or higher we also want to point out a couple of uh uh individual teams so when it comes to the ladies the highest GPA is Clay High girls soccer and uh with a 3.76 yeah I thought I was going to have to do a dance or something like the little kids that get to clap so when I
called uh Stephanie wall to let her know that uh when I called her to let her know that that like she was so excited like that meant as much as winning a district title to her because again that that's what we're trying to do you know uh we want to win championships but this is what's important all right uh
soccer football baseball it ends for everybody at some point in time again have we done enough to instill in them to make them better citizens and then for the mes and for the boys a 3.43 to Fleming Island boy soccer and their leader uh Roger Dy as we can imagine
that's important to him right all right let's talk about state champions come on what I going to do is I'm ask the uh athletic director Miss Bardon to come up and uh she's going to call the names um as we hand out but the first team that we're going to recognize is Middlebrook high school and so what
absolutely so they captured the 2A state championship um in girls weightlifting as a matter of fact what I want to say is this when it comes to weightlifting there's two categories so there's a traditional and there's an Olympic and in Klay County what we said in 2A is we we'll take both of those state titles
and and bring them back uh uh to Klay County with us and that's exactly what we did so um so what I'm going to do is I'm going to turn it over to mallerie and uh I'll let you call when we call up your name just come up and uh be recognized and uh just stand up here for the remainder of your
team thank you so much for having us this is the place to be a lot of Champions in the room and a lot of clanking of medals which always a good thing to hear so uh we'll get rolling with our girls um Ash [Applause]
Trinity [Applause] Woodley Kenzie [Applause] Alexander Jules white Emily Haron her sister Riley Haron
[Applause] KK Hagen she is not with us she is at a softball game right now playing the county Fox Oak Leaf so it should be a good game tonight uh Kaylee [Applause] Johnson Madison
Underwood Kira clarida is also of the softball field uh Lily Williams Ava CL [Applause] scale assistant coach Ben [Applause]
trewick assistant coach Chase wisoff and our head coach ran weisskoff [Applause] e [Applause] aome so on behalf of the girls weightlifting team we would like to present all the school board members
with um shirts and we would like to present Mr brosi and Mr Stila with medals because we're so thankful for all your support throughout the season [Applause]
w [Applause] if aftuck wins something you better believe you're getting something you and you show up in the high school you're eating and there's cookies and candy and taco tues like he he he knows how to
keep teachers all right we also had a couple individuals that won state titles uh this young lady uh her first time competing at State and all she did was win the traditional and Olympic remember I told you there's two G like two
categories um for uh the 119 pound class in 2A and that's Miss Brady Johnson [Applause] [Applause]
and I'm going to ask the state winning uh girls weightlifting coach to announce the names thanks for having me Schoolboard members uh thank you you parents Fleming Island for all your support and thank you girls for allowing to be your coach and thank you to my wife Kimberly for
being the best coach's wife ever um and congratulations to middleberg you could even ask your coaches we when we won Olympic the first thing I I went and found Middle's coach and I said now it's your turn I I tell you what like girls way I think is the coolest thing ever
cuz even though middleberg is kind of our rival like we root for them they root for us and it's just most positive uh sportsmanship you ever seen in your life like these kids encourage each other and genuinely like our team is rooting for mberg I think they're rooting for us and it was so cool that Klay County could go and do what we did
so I'm going to call up the the rest of our team here uh starting with Kyla [Applause] Marshall Haley Elkins [Applause]
Katherine Ward she's not with us tonight but Lily ostein Juliana Sosa my daughter Payton [Applause] cultist and also not with us Lila D
christofaro and the best assistant coach a guy could ever ask for Leah [Applause] Anderson e [Applause] it it's so uh awesome to hear about the
sportsmanship and those things you know just the little things that that that uh are being taught and and and acted out you know in these particular meets and games it's it's that's what it's all about um all right our next group uh I feel like we call them like every year
up here um I feel like all they do is win you know backtack state champs um Clay High cheerleading I'm gonna ask coach Mo to come up and and help me uh call out the names uh I think this is coach Davis's fifth state championship fifth or sixth uh so
[Applause] yeah and one thing you have to think about or remember when you like we talk about the girls weightlifting I think both those coaches would tell you because I know I know this for a fact it's not a year like this isn't like a season that was four years for them to
win that State title I remember coach uh cultis at fling Island saying we didn't win a match our first year you know four years later they're state champs you know that's again perseverance right adversity that's what we're talking about um and I've watched their cheerleading team at Clay High how hard
they practice like it's ridiculous so uh again uh I think Talent is DNA and god-given and I think greatness is earned and and they certainly earn greatness so uh with that your 1A co-ed uh medium state champs Clay High uh
[Applause] cheerleading um superintendent braski schoolb members thank you uh coach thank you guys for allowing us to be here today to to honor this amazing group as he already said I mean this is probably one of the hardest working teams that we have on our campus so and it's you can
see the Testament uh first up Miss Amaya Peña [Applause] next Miss Ashlin [Applause]
miles Miss Bailey Culver Miss Carly [Applause] kirbo Miss Chloe whitmarsh miss Emily Winkler Jordan Stacy I do not believe was able to make it nope Jordan Stacy Miss kayin
[Applause] Mitchell Miss personality plus Miss Kylie horn Miss Madison Garza Miss Morgan MCM [Applause]
Mr Noah [Applause] Johnson Mr Otis [Music] [Applause] Reynolds Miss Sage natap was not able to be here due to a college class Miss Sophia
Hansen Miss Taylor leadford Mr Tyler leel and Miss Z [Applause] Mary assistant coach Daniel Richardson I do not believe is here tonight but our amazing five-time state champion Miss
Lori [Applause] Davis for [Applause] all right and then the uh last state champion that uh we want to honor I was
telling coach Mo this I think you can make an argument that uh and I mean this because this is a bold statement that she could be uh again arguably maybe the greatest uh athlete that's came out of Clay County and we've had some greats when you think about Caleb drussell and you think about the people that have
came through and swimming and and uh different and other sports like it's pretty impressive all this young lady has done has won four state championships from the time she was a freshman and she said that wasn't good enough so what she did is she went out and she set a state record every single year freshman sophomore junior year and
then this year uh in the snatch lift she lifted 185 lbs um four-time state champion Miss emah heck [Applause] again thank you guys for allowing us to recognize these a my
athletes I just have to say girls sports are rocking it Clay County can we get a hand for [Applause] that all
right next up is edir Citizens advisory committee update from Miss Bryce Ellis assistant superintendent of operations e all right good evening can you hear me okay all right good evening thank you
superintendent school board for having me here today it's I'm I'm honored to work for the school district we've got a a great District um I wanted to talk today about the half cent sales tax um I'll do a quick presentation of the projects we've done uh receipts and
revenues and um a little bit about the committee oversight and um have the vice chair from that committee speak to you at the end of the presentation to validate all of our expenditures are in line with Florida statute so just a brief history on the
half cent sales tax for schools per Florida statute School boards School boards are authorized to Levy a capital outlay sales tax the board at the time recognizing a need went out for this um sales tax they approved a resolution in
2020 to Levy this um to put it to the voters um to add this to Levy to the November ballot in an effort to support our facilities so the rules for Florida Statutes and Boards is they can Levy a
tax and ask the voters it depends on different counties how many years they want to put that tax out if you've know anything about some of our surrounding districts a couple of them have gone out for maybe four years at a time or they'll go out for 12 years when we put out the referendum we asked the voters
to approve a 30-year sales tax this means in 2020 when they passed it when they approved it thank you to the voters we won't have to go out for it again until 2050 so we're so thankful and grateful that we're able to receive these funds
for our school district 30 years yay um so what does that mean you know know big picture 30 years so when we first went out for this the expected Revenue stream was 13.5 million and we
thought okay that's amazing that's great but you guys all know how much things cost we've talked about it over and over again um you know air conditioning for one of our big high schools ends up being millions of dollars so um of course we're anticipating this
to grow 3% um standard CPI every year so this is a conservative estimate so the first four years in Gray are actual receipt and I have it blown up on another slide um and then the anticipated receipt again with the 3% conservative estimate we're hoping over
30 years to receive $813 million that is a huge huge deal and I I just want to um again thank the voters for for passing this because I don't know where our district would be without it
so we meet with the advisory committee quarterly um we go over the receipt quarterly with the members we also work closely of course with our um business Affairs and make sure that we're
receiving exactly what um Florida Revenue has um reported so anybody can go to the Florida Department of Revenue and see how much we're bringing in or any other district for that matter um and this is just broken down month by month I follow it every month I go to
Florida Department of re Revenue I check with business Affairs and we make sure we're getting what we're supposed to receive um it is receipt is based on a two-month DeLay So something you know kind of nerdy we like to do is oh what
do we what did we get for November December you know when everybody's out shopping um so you just need to look two two months in in advance so in February is really when we receive the November December Collections and the report for last year
we reached $18.4 million I did want to point out we break out at the bottom of that um the estimated if fluctuates depending on uh student counts but the average is about 5% that goes to our charter schools and
we do share that with them this is just the revenue um that we've actually received um just a blow up from that first slide of all the years and the first year you'll see because we operate from July 1 to June 30 that first year because it was
approved in December we started receipts in January we only received a half fiscal year so that's why you see the 7 million and then every year after that we're going from our fiscal year which is July to June 30 and um right now we're only showing
the July uh the I wanted to show the 2425 receipts so far so that's actually only through December um which we're on track right now to reach $20 million by the end of our fiscal year in the middle of the
summer this is just the expense um Ann annually that we report and we show all the projects to our committee I will go into that a little bit more this is a snapshot of our website um we work also with the committee too trying to get feedback from them what do they want to
see more of what kind of questions are they getting from um friends family public and and we want them to bring those to us to let us know how we can report better or what can we show more of um we've gotten a new website and
we're also working on a new dashboard for our Ed first projects as well so that will be rolling out this is what it looks like right now but um some new up-to-date information um and Graphics uh forthcoming um I did hand out a list of
the projects that we report to the board we have carryover projects we don't have anything that's ever really you know starts on July 1 ends of June 30 that year so there's a carryover year there's a 20 2324 year in your packet and then
what we've started in the 24 25 year and what's what where it is there's a note section with a brief um comment of where those projects are do you guys have any questions before we get to
pictures okay so just a little bit of what we've done um when we first went out we when we first started receiving these sales taxs it it came in very slowly so we were like well what are some things we can do to show the community that we're
doing something um with this money they sales tax dollars at work um so we've we started with the digital signs and we started at every High School to try to touch every region to show them hey this is you know your sales tax dollars at
work and the reception has been huge um again we're chipping away at them as we receive um the funds we we complete more and more and I hope that um you guys are seeing that around the county um Ridge viw High School track this was
completed this was January of 24 of last year uh doctors's Inlet playgrounds now these are just kind of a snapshot we've had a lot of playgrounds on our project lists over the years we also remind the committee that this isn't our only fund source so that just because it's not on
a list here doesn't mean that something's not happening at a school or that a Project's noten happening it just may be happening with another fund Source um we do try to be totally transparent with the committee um and I hope once um uh the vice chair is able
to speak that he lets you know we try to answer all their questions and if they want us to change anything um reporting wise we we try to work with them um but yeah this is just an example of some of the older replay equipment it's really hard to see on the leftand side it's
just you know the old bars Old pull-up bars um you know slides and uh swings are the thing so they enjoy that um covered play areas this is an example of one we've been able to complete now we did this year we did
Argyle and Oakley Village um this means that every elementary school has a covered play area outdoor covered play area which is great especially in Florida with the sun and the rain um and PE they're able to be outside without um
being affected as as badly with those uh bathroom Renovations um the whole need for Ed first a lot of it we said wasn't going to be very glamorous it was going to be a lot of bathrooms and and Roofing and air conditioning projects so we do put those um on our lists and have
those in our projects we we show photos of those they're just not as exciting to see you know an air conditioning unit but something that you know if it's not working you're going to hear about it so um but this is you know a restroom renovation Orange Park Junior High School um this is in the main building
the the larger group restrooms in the cafeteria media centers and we are actually currently in design right now to do the rest of the campus there the rest of the um classroom buildings middleberg High School this was phase two a couple years ago we did
phase one um the group restrooms this means a ma a male and a female the the larger group restrooms um before in progress and you'll see differences in in prices depending on the schools depending on the ages a lot of times
once we get in there you'll see we're not just painting the walls and um and and and putting in new fixtures we get in there and look at the plumbing and oh gosh you know what do we have here we might have to go deeper cut cut the
walls back further cut into the floors so it uh it varies from school to school obviously how much work we end up having to do but we don't just we're not just putting you know lipstick on it we're really trying to take care of the problem um but that's that's the
after another one Orange Park Elementary um it was some of their quads their quad classrooms we we call them they weren't even using some of the bathrooms they were just being used as storage as you can kind of see on the left side paint and peeling
and again we went in and and dressed it up and fixed any of the major issues that they were having there Lakeside junior high the gym locker room renovation I believe this was the last um Junior High to get their locker room renovated and if you look at
the picture on the right um you can kind of see just kind of dingy looking the ceilings and the lights um it's kind of hard to tell in these pictures the lockers are pretty beat up they're the same ones that I used um a long time
ago and here here they are refreshed um brand new we bring the lockers down um any new lockers we put in we bring them down to the 48 in just a line of sight um and and uh supervision for the kids
and then you can see lights are replaced ceiling is replaced um and just a total refresh the Clay High track project this actually it says completion spring 2025 I think it was actually this week we did a um substantial completion on it so for
uh graduation they should um be ready to go for that the Orange Park High Media Center a lot of um you I think visited uh the opening um another project that was um really exciting uh I really love the
story here the architect for this job actually went to Orange Park High in the CTE program took a drafting class um became an architect You full circle he was able to go back to his school and renovate the media center um and it's
it's amazing and and the students love it and the students were really um touched by just you know oh at our school and uh that's that's the that's the most rewarding part of this whole thing is to see the students enjoy
it um Clay High parking lot um I this was it under construction uh try not to look at Facebook when we're doing these kind of projects because you know there's a lot of what are they doing why does anything need to be done um I think the after uh was amazing and there's
been I've I've heard nothing but good comments I think it really changed just the whole look of that school up front we added almost 200 parking places is um it just if you've ever been there after school when the kids are leaving it's just totally different
feel um uh one of our less glamorous projects Roofing projects and um the the Keystone Heights visitor concession stand so this was the last high school that did not have a visitor side concession stand excuse me um went ahead and that
finished in December of 24 and um they're ecstatic they they really enjoy it just want to point out that we um post all of our stuff on the website under the transparency at the top and then under half cent sales tax Ed first
we we call it Ed first um some people moving in just moving in might not know it is Ed first so we have we call it half set and sales tax or edir either one of those interchangeable so um again um updates to the website are
forthcoming and now I would like to um invite Mr uh Glenn strowman up to the podium um to just give a brief uh overview of what the advisory committee is like um and to validate that everything we have spent
the Mony on is in in accordance with the statute thank you Bryce good evening superintendent board citizens my name is Glenn strowman and I'm the vice chairman of the citizens advisory committee I think Bryce's team has done a
remarkably great job in providing us the information and more importantly the answering the questions that we have because every district has at least two or three multiple uh Representatives who attend this committee and every time there's uh they're bringing to the
committee information from their peers about what's going on in my school what why are my kids being subjected to one bathroom when there's 300 kids it's just not fair luckily they've done a fantastic job uh answering our questions
and we go back and we tell our uh neighbors what a great job the Clay County has for their students and how they're making huge improvements I assure you with looking at the numbers that without this half cent sales tax you would not have air conditioned
spaces you would not have updated bathrooms now I'm say updated I don't mean modern fixure I mean they've gone back and fixed a bunch of the problems that are already existing and that sales tax that half cent sales tax is huge it
is huge we could use more so citizens out there please please Shop Clay County and spend your money in Clay County thank you I validate that all the bill all the uh information in the report is accurate uh as we've reviewed it uh
quarterly thank you and I have we've included the validation that he has signed in your in your packet as well any questions I was just goingon to say thanks to Glenn um don't tell anybody we
went to college together yes oh go no thank you thank you Miss Ellis and I know a lot of people don't like to to see projects of bathrooms and AC's and I
guess it's as you get older those are the types of things that we don't always want to spend our money on but I get excited even in my own house to to see those things so I really do appreciate it especially when you're around Clay County for I'm going to say I haven't
been as around around as long as others have but I will say going to these schools and being part of this community for a while I I I really do appreciate us taking taking care of what we have and redoing it and you guys do a great
job um in your department fixing up and giving facelifts and making them work not just look well but work okay so next up we have our School showcase Spring Park Elementary with principal Tiffany
op um opman yeah thank you thank you so much it is my pleasure to be here with you tonight to tell you all about the amazing things we have happening at Spring Park this is my
fantastic assistant principal Michelle carado I raised her as a baby teacher and uh I said you're fantastic you should go back to school and she did and then our she did say no first but now she's then she said yes and so I am
happy to have her as my partner so we are going to talk today about all of the great things that we do at Spring Park as we start any class we are going to talk about our learning Target for the night tonight we will learn about what a spectacular Place Spring Park
Elementary is for Scholars in our community your success criteria so you'll know you'll have it when you can understand all of the things that make spring part great and look forward to hearing about all of the good news that you will hear from us in the future what
you see on the screen is our school pledge that we say every day we always start out with our announcements and this is how we end them today is a new day ow will work hard ow will be kind because we're the
owls and I will be my best at SPS this is our vision and mission statement that you will see woven throughout our time together today so what makes us Spring Park we are in our second year and our first
year we earned an a as our school grade and we are super excited about that we did that with our teachers and our Scholars making our goals and with the support of our community our school numbers we have 712
Scholars 49 amazing teachers 38 dedicated staff and two joyously exhausted administrators there's just two of us uh oh there we go at our school we are focused on
standards based work as you will see in not only our classrooms been in our hallways we love showing what standard we're working on and all of our Scholars and how they're progressing toward the standard so we love showing off our work in the classroom and making sure that we have clear measurable learning targets
that align with national and state standards we celebrated rack week rack week is random act of kindness week and so we did something like what you see on the screen for our open house where parents were able to write messages to
their Scholars and for rack week we had all of the scholars write positive messages to their friends their teachers we have some shoutouts on there um and it also encompasses all of the diversity of our school because as you walk past it you
will see things in various languages and uh really just bringing in represented we are representing all of who we are as Spring Park we also have cross content curriculum so this is in our second grade hallway we
have connected learning where we celebrated the 100th day of school and Martin Luther King Junior Day so our Scholars wrote 100 personal dreams for a better world and we read books and we
posted this on our walls and we just make real world connections throughout each subject one of our favorite nights had just happened actually we've had now two of them is unplugg night unplugged night is simply a night where parents can come in and families can connect without
screens there are no screens we do we do serve pizza and we have board games we have minute to winet games and some of us get very competitive I'm not potentially it could be me um
we have Hands-On activities this year we our art activity was a family tree where we used th prints of each of the family members and they were able to take that home as a momento of the night and it's just it's an amazing it's really calm it
just is awesome uh we also celebrated Unity day in October where we talked about building that culture of respect and supporting positive inclusion and kindness we also have set very high expectations for every scholar this is an example
where our second grade class created a wax museum where they each had a leader that they learned about and then they were really into character so their culminating activity for their research project was they had a backboard they dressed as the leader that they were
representing and that they learned about and they had a button on their backboard or they had a real life button and are the visitors I got to be one were able to walk through and they did not move either they were very into their character they did they you could push
the button and then they would share with you all of the things that they learned and it was just an amazing experience so we love to highlight them we also have safety patrols that do a great job keeping us safe and reminding
us to be respectful of each other we have our youth leadership team which is connected to Special Olympics so our youth leadership team goes out and helps our children in multi-g grades and prek classes work on different sporting activities and this helps build social
skills and inclusion for all Scholars we'll have our culminating activity for that coming up in the end of March we also I know that we celebrate literacy week once right in January but we celebrate it all year we
love reading buddies we have older kids reading to younger kids we have uh Scholars who are younger Scholars love to read to our older Scholars so we make sure that we have time for those connections and we have our friends from
Clay High come in we had our scholar athletes come in and be guest readers during our literacy week this year we have before and after school clubs you saw an amazing performance from our bucket drummers we we also have our track team our robotics team and we
have a kindness club that goes and posts kind words all over our school they created welcome gifts for our new teachers everybody was new last year but this year we had some new teachers join us and so they got a welcome gift from our kindness club and I was walking down
the hall the just today and I saw that you I should practice patience and it's on the lowest uh track tack track so that everybody can read as they go down the hall which is what I needed to do when I was walking down the
hall we also love to celebrate our golden owls so any staff teacher anybody even their classmates can nominate someone for a golden owl if they go above and beyond our expectations they get a positive phone call home a certificate with a golden owl sticker on
it a magnet or a pencil and they are pumped they get so excited and the parents get excited because they get a positive phone call home and it's one of another one of our favorite things and we couldn't do what we do without our volunteers we they help us
make copies they help us do so many amazing things and we just love love love their support and we really appreciate them I heard I think it was Mr Stillen O say that if he went to a secondary school he was going to eat well that's what we also do it
uh Spring Park we study the seven mindsets each month and each week we go through any all of the um different components of that at the end of the month Scholars nominate the person in their class who has exhibited that seven
mindset that month and they get to come and have principal Camp pancakes another part another of my favorite favorite parts of being at Spring Park is Teachers learning together I value so much feeding my
teachers professionally and they love learning together so we always use data to drive instructions we talk I my passion is peer observations teachers learn best when they get to get in each other's classrooms and so we make that happen
for them we problem solve classroom challenges we engage in PLC work and then teachers are able to go in and give each other feedback and they I have my 20th visit lined up for after we come back from Spring
Break and not only do teachers learn together but our teachers also grow together we build a strong School culture with having structured fun we have structured fun Mr brosi that's what we have um our teachers and staff look
forward to all of these New Traditions that we've started we have have our teacher Easter egg hunt that's happening that's coming up soon um we have adult trick-or-treating in the morning of Halloween we have chili cookoffs we have
cookie exchanges and we just have a lot of structured fun at Spring Park we also have leaders growing leaders we had our Clay High volunteers come and help us be reading buddies they also are state
Champion cheerleading came and led our storybook character parade and they come and help with unplugged night we are going to have a night to Glow here coming up in April where we have a night for our sensory our Scholars with autism
to come in to have various activities and they are coming to volunteer for that so we love our friends at Clay High and we appreciate their volunteering and if you don't remember anything else from this engaging presentation please remember that at Spring Park Elementary
we work hard and we are kind thank [Applause] you thank you ladies this is the last call for comment cards and we
have okay so um there is none for the agenda item there's only all righty so we're going to continue on to um special action a for human
resources can I can I get a motion to approve I'll move approval got a motion from Miss Hansen can I get a second I'll second all in favor signify by saying I I I any opposed motion carries
by and then we have uh human resource speci special action B can I get a motion move approval got a motion from Miss gilhaus can I get a second I'll second got a second for Miss
Clark all in favor signify by saying I I any opposed motion carries 5 uh and then we have um D5 proposed allocation package for 2025 and
2026 can I get a motion to approve so moved a motion from Miss gilen can I get a second second I have a second for Mr Alo all in favor signify by saying I I I sorry uh any
opposed motion carries 5 next we have uh D6 the RFP award uh and Miss gilen will abstain from voting on this item and has filed the appropriate paperwork U for a voting conflict can I
get a motion to approve a move approval I have a motion from Miss Hansen can I get a second I'll second I have a second from Miss Clark all in favor signify by saying I I any opposed motion carries
foro all right moving on to the consent agenda uh before we do so there's a proclamation number 25-11 in support and celebration of the Clay County Agricultural Fair from April 3rd through 133 2025 and a proclamation
number 25 to or to 12 proclaiming uh March 3rd through the 9th 2025 as school Social Work [Music] week and then can uh can I get a motion to
um adopt the consent agenda a move approval of the consent agenda got a motion from Miss Hansen can I get a second second I have a second from Mr Alo all in favor signify by saying I I
any opposed motion carries vvo all right and now we are going to have presentations from the audience uh for public comment addressing non-specific agenda items first up we have Miss Liz crane I
believe is what this says make sure that you state your name and your address please hello oh do I have to press a button do I have to it's been a while folks okay good a good evening list
crane you have my address on file I'm a teacher of 25 plus years with a master's degree in professional studies of English as a second language I'm nationally board certified and the former CCA president from 08 to 11 my work with CCA extends well over 20 years I'm here today due to some
misinformation that's being stated in our schools regarding the Educators professional liability insurance program the coverage is for wrongful acts committed by the instructional employee a romul act which is an negligent act error Omission breach of Duty in the per
performance or failure to perform professional activities in all of my time with the district my work with CCA and FAA I have never heard of a teacher receiving coverage from this program sadly what I am hearing from teachers is that they're being told that they're
covered for all acts all Roma acts they were also being informed that teachers didn't even know of the program every year Mr brasy sends us an email in for advising us of this coverage as he's required to do however this program will provide
excess coverage only the program pays after the district's own insurance coverage this program would not cover a teacher who's made a mistake this program would not cover a teacher being falsely accused by a parent for harming a student the program would not cover a
teacher with a complaint filed against them with Professional Service practices while I was President I represented many teachers who would not have been covered by this program for example I had two teachers who made a mistake during a back to school lesson they took it a
little bit too far the district chose to report this incident to professional practice Services fortunately they were able to have attorneys to represent them at the end of the investigation PPS declared that they didn't do anything unethical both teachers continue to
teach today they're well respected of their members of their schools and both teachers went on to become respective school teacher of the year the insurance program would not have covered them another example a parent complained to a school that her son reported that he was
hit by a teacher this was completely false the students were asked to sit in an area outside and the student was asked to sit down the teacher contacted me very concerned that DCF might have been called that afternoon DCF was at her home an attorney was assigned that
afternoon after further investigation it turned out that the parent had a history of falsy accusing teachers of abuse the teacher went on to teach and was well loved by staff and students until she retired the insurance program would have
not have covered that teacher I would like to remind all teachers who are listening back home that this coverage does not include the majority of situations that sometimes Pall our teachers also this coverage has a $50,000 deductible let me repeat that
$50,000 it is my hope that Mis misinformation is no longer being shared by our to our teachers thank you next up we have Miss Linda Lions Linda Lions do you need my address you have it 3660 Waterside Drive Orange
Park that new time clock is quite intimidating so thank you all for allowing me to speak to you tonight all you know the topic and concern I will be addressing I will proceed this by stating my respect for authority and by no means want to sound disrespectful or
for trying to stir the pot and I do appreciate Mr Broski's past approval of my drop extension three years ago and most people do think I am crazy for not wanting to retire I speak on behalf and for th on my behalf and for those in the trenches Administration teachers support
personnel and students these are the people that are impacted daily by this policy in the shortage of qualified teachers how do you explain to the administrator losing sleep over test scores that an experienced Highly Effective Teacher is denied a classroom
how do you explain the lack of qualified applicants for administrators to hire from yet denying them the ability to fill one if any vacancy with a known Effective Teacher how do you explain the current job vacancies that remain unfilled in the third quarter there's 14
as we tell you there was 14 instructional in just ese or Elementary yet County policy chooses to add to the vacancies how do you explain to the classroom teacher who have more responsibilities they will need to assist the long-term sub or newly hired
out of field teacher with planning and curriculum how do you explain the need for creative and difficult scheduling required to provide students with instruction from qualified teachers to meet the mtss state requirements how do you explain this to the parent who has a
child with an outof field or uncertified teacher how do you explain to an advocate why the student they are representing does not have a certified ESC teacher and how do you defend the decision to the students who we are responsible provide for providing them
the best education possible the assumption is that this must be a money concern as is everything right I cannot imagine that many teachers are wanting to extend past eight years but even so is it not worth the cost to provide veteran experienced and highly qualified
teachers to our community is not important to have teachers who are passionate about their profession I have loved every minute of my career with Clay County Schools I am simply am here to remind everyone the teacher shortage is very real and has daily impacts on
the students and families of our community I am only one of thousands of teachers in Clay County but aren't we repeatedly told that every one of us makes a difference I thank you for the opportunity I've had to work with hundreds of students over the years I started my career late in life not only
wish I had started earlier I very much appreciate you giv me this time tonight next up we have Miss Sylvia M mccanny I hope I said that right you do not have to State your address uh hello my name is Sylvia and
I'm a senior in this District I'm here to talk about book bands book bands have long been Justified under the whole protect the children Mantra the fact of the matter is these bands do not come from a place of concern or protection but instead they exist as a form of control there is no is no coincidence
that the main books being banned are those that deal with queer black and other minority subject matter I had recently consulted the banned books list and I've discovered some frightening patterns the two most shocking band titles that I have found were the 1984 Gra novel and the Diary of an Frank
graphic novel The frightening reality is that the book bands are geared towards keeping less educated uneducated people who might be in a standard class or those who need to consume information in an illustrated medium are suffering from these bands more than anyone else book bands are primarily only applied to
standard classes with many honors Ace and AP classes remaining exempt what would the reason be I firmly believe that there is an effort to keep those people unaware those who might not notice right away or those who don't see seek out literature as eagerly or excitedly as their counterparts in advanced classes the fact of the matter
is if you came for honors in college preparatory classes books the outcry would be much more severe what you are doing is disgusting and sneaky you take the books from those who you see as more vulnerable targets and I'm here to tell you that us students will no longer sit complacent while we watch more and more
books be shuttled from our libraries the bookshelves are getting emptier and emptier by the day you might say that students can go to the public library but there are many tile one schools in our district districts will you pay for their transit to the public libraries other books that have been removed include Sophie's choice I know why the
Cage Bird Sings and Beyond The Chocolate War all of these Works include instances questioning morality preconceived notions and going against the white Christian standard if you still firmly believe that book banss protect us then I have found one book that you should B that for you to ban it contains many
instances of murder incest rape genocide infanticide abuse and torture I'm going to call your bluff if your goal is to ban the things to protect your youth from seeing them then I suggest that you ban the Bible and I don't want to hear about the separation of church and state answer because if the Bibles in our
school systems shouldn't all religious texts I was unable to find the Torah or the Quran these book bands clearly only exist to push a straight white and Christian rhetoric and I'm tired of seeing these things happen it's easier to control the uneducated and it's easier to control those who don't know any better as someone who was raised
with the understanding that reading is not just a gift but a right it pains me to see these book bands slowly slipping in and taking these educational mediums away as Ray Bradberry wrote you don't need to burn books to destroy a culture just get people to stop reading them I implore you to lift the book bands and
once again provide an equal playing field for everyone on their educational Journeys thank [Applause] you and I just want to reiterate for Clay County School District we only remove um we follow the law and only
remove the illegal ones thank you uh Mr James Yu hello my name is James jul and my address is on file my wife and I attend a yearly banquet where we invite and this individual shows up uh every year
he is the adant general from the state of Florida two Star General we received a briefing from him about the state of the world and some of the information that he shared with us didn't get really deep into detail because it's
probably not for general public understanding yet but as the night went on we sat and talked with him a little bit and asked him what can schools do that might help military recruitment now
recruitment is up yes because of the election and the question came up to us was does does Clay County allow asab testing I know at one time is it allowed in the
school so this is kind of a question I guess to try to figure it out but he uh requested you know we find out if there is as faab testing done in the schools um on a weekend or a weekly basis or however you do that I'm not unaware of
it but I do have a phone number and address of the individual in St Augustine if in fact you did not conduct asab so I guess Mr brosy you cleared that up you do allow asab testing in schools is that
correct yes sir okay thank you thank you sir J Miss Judith trabel good evening my name is Judi Chappelle and my address is on file first I want to thank the school board for the be
smart with smartphones education that we received last week it was both terrifying and informative I went home that night and wanted to throw out the television the
cell phone and the VR headset I went home also the following day and spent about $100 at Staples making copies of that documentation for my friends my church and for some of the
groups that I'm involved with I was absolutely terrified by the information that I received my only regret for that night was that the room was not standing in room
only like this room was earlier that was my regret that there were not more people there to receive this information because according to what I heard by the Cox information and National Center for missing and
exploited children one out of five teens engage in sexting my most terrifying stat was half of teens think that adults over overreact about sexting I also was terrified that the J
information task force was there saying that people radicalize children that commit these crimes against schools and that that is what's going on and why we have these school shootings I was
absolutely terrified I know that it was said that we really did not need to bring children there my only regret was that I did not bring my 14-year-old granddaughter to that meeting so that she could hear what was being taught at
that seminar my reason for standing here before you today is that I implore you to teach this training to Junior High School students and to the high school students that the FBI case officers who were there get in
front of these junior high students and get in front of the high school students and teach these young people about what they're doing on these cell phones so you might say oh no not in front of the junior high but when that FBI agent said
that there was a six-year-old who was caught up in sextortion you might not you may say no not junior high oh yeah junior high thank you [Applause]
next up Miss Shelley Hughes hi my name is Shelley Hughes and my address is 3616 Trail Rich Road uh milberg Florida I'm here to ask for your help and consideration on how to address the growing problem of teacher salaries in
our County namely veteran teachers which which have gotten the short end of the stick for decades my husband retired from teaching with his master's degree making almost 60,000 a year after 36 years of service in this County the last raise he got before retiring was in in
retiring in 2016 was in 2008 in fact his salary decreased each year because of rising health insurance cost and then in 2013 Governor Rick Scott decided that he did not want to pay into the Florida retirement system for teachers anymore so he took 3% of
teacher salaries to save the State of Florida money fast forward to today my daughter is a veteran teacher in this County with well over 20 years of experience it makes about 55,000 a year that is only about 5,000 a year more than a first year
teacher uh 20 years and uh 5,000 uh dollar uh 5,000 difference that's not very good our veteran teachers are being left out and left behind yet they are the ones who are mentoring the younger teachers they are wealth source of uh their wealth of resources and support
for staff Administration they are the ones being chosen to offer AP a ib college level and honor classes to our public school students I'm asking you to make this a high level of concern and problem solving for this board surrounding counties have been tackling
this problem with Creative Solutions to address dwindling State dollars Nassau County is offering supplements for teacher salaries that start at 2,000 um for beginning teachers and 10,000 for veteran teachers over with over 21 years of experience St John's County is
offering supplements for starting teachers at $4,500 to 8,275 for veteran teachers Duvall is offering $541,000 to um starting teachers up to $
7,241 th000 for the teachers broken down into years of experience because teachers salaries have been neglected and been under assault for decades by the state the salaries are abysmal 50 out of 50 last place there is always going to be one excuse after another not
to address this issue for our veterans teachers this is a fabulous County to teach in but the harsh reality of Economics forces families to into tough decisions and if that means leaving a county that they love in order to support their families then there's
several thousand Temptation right across these county lines and our children will be the losers I'm asking you to be creative and protect and proactive and in a generous State of Mind when addressing these salary issues so that we can keep good
quality veteran teachers here in this County for your kids our kids and my grandkids thank you very much M Torres you're up next Miss Torres hello guys my name is Micha Torres my
address is on file once again I will discuss something about accountability something that I always have brought into the board right now I'm not doing too well I hurt my back not too long ago but it is important for me to come up here and speak on behalf of all the kids
not just for this District Statewide Nationwide for all of the kids I was just informed speaking to other students or whatever because I do have a reputation where I talk to my kids friends they go to different School whatsoever I was just informed not too
long ago that there has been some issue where there has been inappropriate behavior of an adult to a child now as I'm going through this I'm hearing everything that's going about it I'm doing my own research and everything and come to find out that there was a
wrestling coach within this High School Fleming Island high school that had an appropriate contact with a student now he did admit it within that disposition that it happened after he turned 18 but prior to that that was his student where he was working in in his private gym as
well as on campus now as parents when we put our kids on the bus or when they come onto your property they are your responsibility to the time they get back to our house and the fact being that
some of the situation that has been ongoing is just if a child says something to somebody a staff a admin then it get dismissed oh that's just a kid but we take the full weight when an
adult says that and I have experiences within this County within the junior high school where my son was at that's why for the last year I chose to homeschooling because every time I brought something up to the admin it was always dismissed or there
was horsing around there's boys being boys there was rough housing there's always an excuse but nothing was done and yet my son was retaliated because I advocated for him and the fact being that we as parent Cho to entrust some of
these coaches some of these teachers and we open up to them to let them know what's going on it leaves our kids vulnerable and they can easily manipulate them and I'm not okay with that there's hazing going on within the school system there is
basically adults having bad conduct with students that to me is out greges and the fact being that somebody within this district has to know what's going on because if it's from the student goes to
the counselor the counselor goes to the admin then what does happen after that why does some of these stuff get dismissed it happened in Oakleaf High School it's going on in Fleming High School it had went into clay it has been in Orange Park High
School now where is the transparency why don't I feel comfortable as a parent uring my kids in your care now if you really want to tell us something and I know my time is up and I'm seeing the safety protocol that
you guys are implementing and all you guys are saying okay for the audio why don't we put the why don't we put a camera in these classroom keep our kids and our teachers safe cuz if the teacher has nothing to hide and they doing everything per regulation they shouldn't be a fuss about it and if it's that our
kids is coming out of line out of character then allow us to see it don't sit here and give me an excuse and tell me where your child behave X Y and Z okay let me see the video and like I said said it before and I'm going say it again because I am getting tired of
stuff like this getting swept under the rug and doing harm thank M Tes thank you next up is Miss Chandra uh Holley sorry if I mispronounced your last name
hello I'm Dr Shonda Hosley um I a um my address is on file and it's good to see Mr brosi representative Ashley and others I am a Community member I've been away though for about two and a half years I was in Japan overseas with my
husband he was stationed over there and the girls and I tagged along with him and so now we're back I have a daughter at flemon Island high school and another one at Thunderbolt Elementary and I love Clay County love our
schools but to my shrin one of the issues that we had before I left Still Remains and that's with the busing system and I haven't been here and haven't read any any of the minutes or anything so I'm pretty sure you guys
have a plan or something in place but at at least once a week I receive a phone call from my daughter or an automated call from the Transportation Department stating that buses will have to double back buses are late Mom bus isn't here
things like that and I I know that that was an issue coming off of covid so like I said um coming back I was surprised that we're having that issue again so I'm just asking I'm here to ask what's being done about it what's your plan what what's going on cuz I just didn't
expect that but everything else is going well and like I said I'm happy to be back thank you thank you Mr Bruce fredman hi Bruce Freedman address on file like to try to tie together some of
the things we heard tonight they have a teacher shortage they have a salary shortage they have a bus shortage there's a funding issue with regards to maintaining 43 schools there's a half% tax bringing in tens of millions of dollars seems to be getting spent well
but problems remain and an easy one getting the porn out of the libraries uh last month zero books were removed that's on you the submissions
for that were made month prior they sat in a very peculiar limbo interested to see what you do at the batch you got this month there should be about 40 of them I'm submitting two one formal and one informal the formal one we'll let it go through the formal process you'll
read it the informal one is in a dozen or more of our schools mostly elementaries keywords in this book which are not in violation of law or Florida statute 847 but fly in the face of good parenting at least in elementary school key words torture beatings execute death
dead dying died murder kill blood suicide and the key phrase kill himself available to elementary school students you might want to do something about that some titles were mentioned by a former speaker graphic novels in particular
1984 and the dire van Frank each of those were found to violate law that's why they've been removed not because we want children ignorant the original version of an Frank's diary that most of us read edited by her father is an excellent lesson in the Holocaust the
original version of 1984 written by George Orwell which for high school students is an excellent dystopian novel all these things have a time and a place porn doesn't belong anywhere thank you have a good [Applause]
night next up we have uh Miss Vicky Kidwell with a ccea three minute update thank you good evening um thank you for this opportunity to share the perspectives of Educators in our Klay County district schools our children are the rock on
which our future will be built our greatest asset as a nation Nelson Mandela it's almost spring the time of fair weather and blooming plants and hay fever and for educators the time of accelerated prep for student testing
anxiety over student EV over teacher evaluations and thoughts of contracts and bargaining at CCA we're very busy just like teachers in our recent bargaining survey we requested feedback on working conditions and top priorities
for bargaining overwhelmingly The respondents Wanted veteran teacher pay and salary decompression to be a major focus of negotiations no one responded complain no one who responded complain about beginning educator pay today as I
again address veteran teacher salary issues I want to preface my words by saying that I am grateful and acknowledge the unprecedented investment in salaries by both the state and Klay County district schools in the last five years we are grateful that the necessary
infusion of millions of dollars towards salaries has made such a difference that investment moved Clay County District school's starting base salary of $39,000 in 2020 to the current beginning salary of 485 in
2025 that's a $99,000 500 $99,500 increase in five years on starting pay Clay County District school made these gains in record time helping to move Florida to 16th in the nation for starting teacher pay however despite
this huge infusion into salaries Florida remains 50th in the nation for average educator pay here's one reason why we know that the Lion's Share of those millions of dollars was mandated by the state law to
Target only beginning teacher salaries what does it mean to be 50th in the nation in average teacher salary again I want to thank you for this opportunity to share our educator story here's five stories in their own
words one I've been a teacher for 16 years and I've served in Clay County district schools for the last seven previously I worked in another southern state where Educators were paid $4,000 for having their master's degree in clay I get half that amount if I was still
working in my previous state today I would be making over 59,000 plus 4,000 for my masters it's hard to wrap my head around the reality of my pay here my base salary in Clay is 51430
two as a dedicated educator with 16 years of experience I have committed my career to supporting students with exceptional needs despite my extensive experience and advanced degrees my base contract pay of 517 remains disproportionately low
compared to the cost of living and the demands of my profession the financial strain has required me to make difficult personal and professional sacrifices from limiting classroom resources I purchased for my students to making tough budgeting decisions at
home it's disheartening to know that veteran teachers with years of experience expertise and dedication continue to struggle financially this ultimately will impact teacher retention full Staffing and Student
Success three I'm in the year I'm in year 30 of teaching my base pay is almost 60,000 I remember that a teacher friend a while back between sometime between 2010 and 2015 was making 70,000
she had been a teacher for 30 years of experience I remember thinking wow it's going to be really cool when I get there in today's market even if we still had that base pay I'd be doing better than I was today how does this impact me I could give more to those in need at my
church my house might be close to being paid off my car wouldn't be in shambles my kids and Grands would be spoiled and I wouldn't have to read the menu from left to right looking at the prices first four I was hired in clay in 2012
that was the first year that by FL by Florida statute all teachers hired were forever after an annual contract teacher my current salary is 517 and I have 13 years of experience I'm an ESC support facilitator I'm a certified pre I'm
certified prek to 3 K to 6 ese reading endorsed and have a Civic certification among a host of other certifications the starting salary for a first year teacher in Clay County is 485 my years of experience in a very challenging position are worth an
additional $3,230 over starting teacher putting on putting it on paper is so deflating to me when does the tide turn and Veteran experience and expertise become properly compensated Florida is 50th in the
nation in average pay and of the surrounding counties veteran pay and Clay is the lowest what is the incentive to stay in a career that values experience so poorly I am dedicated and highly qualified educator I should not
be seriously thinking about going to bies to run the car wash five I'm a 20-year veteran teacher in the clay in the Clay County School System my current base is 522 20 years I wanted to shed some light
on my particular economic situation due to veteran teachers not being paid at the level they deserve I am recently married and my wife and I have very modest mortgage around $1,000 neither my wife nor I have a current car payment and neither of us carries any personal credit card debt
she has three grown children and I have a 15-year-old daughter that I share custody of I say all of that to explain to you that even with me being in a pretty good situation financially compared to others I am still struggling to make end meet I often stress and
worry about the fact fact that if my car or my wife's car both of which are over 10 years old break down I don't know where the money would come from for any major repairs or especially a car payment another stress and worry is my daughter she's almost the age to get her
license I have no idea how we'll be able to afford to get her a car even a decent used one and pay for the insurance costs associated with the new teen driver I'm sorry but in my honest opinion these are not things I should have to worry about as a 20-year educator I have done things
to live within my means and I have worked hard often working two jobs currently I clean houses throughout the month to earn some extra money I don't believe my expectations are unrealistic and I certainly don't expect nor have I ever expected to be wealthy as an
educator however I also didn't expect to be all living paycheck to paycheck after 20 years of pouring my Blood Sweat and Tears into educating the students of Clay County I realize that there are some things out of your control on the state and National level level however I
implore you to do anything and everything you can to raise the salaries of clay County's veteran teachers it's the right thing to do morally and ethically I know that these stories are hard to hear they're harder to live and they are real I know this District wants
to do more for our veteran teachers and I thank you for listening to our teacher stories I want to end with one quote the school is the last expenditure upon whicher America should be willing to economize Franklin delanor Roosevelt all right next up we have
superintendent uh Mr brosi for your update I say we bring back the kids with the buckets anybody want to vote okay so so before we start let me just kind of recognize a couple things I've listened to as Kidwell speak and and um I'm
thankful that you recognizes the unprecedented amount of resources that have been put towards compensation over the last 5 years it's 56 additional million that would be two and a half times any other period done so great
work has been done and thank you for recognizing that initially the um the legislation prevented that money to go to veteran teachers as we all know related to that no one on this board because I've talked to everybody on this
topic opposes to what you're saying it's a matter of resources in order in order to do that so I think we're all on the same page when it comes to that uh I myself as well as everybody else that was in the district Miss Hansen was a teacher here
previously I think it was nine years in a row zero increase and then uh on the admin side that was even longer for that because the thought was that we should we should uh be examples and not because there wasn't enough money to to pay
everybody so admin was left off of the off of the list and so when you look at it 56 million over a fiveyear period two and a half times as much as any other fiveyear period in the history of Klay County we all recognize the plight of
Veteran teachers nobody is denying that on here and so we just wanted to make sure there was some clarification related to that uh for the uh this the smiley um uh parent with the bus issue I'll I'll have transportation call I'm not
really sure of of that of that particular issue so today uh we've got uh several things want to talk a little bit about schools in the month February highlights the new one clay app and upcoming uh events that we have coming
here it'll be it'll be short I promise so schools of the month Fleming Island Elementary Wilkinson Elementary outstanding schools in case you didn't know School of the month gets the big giant pencil in case you've been to a school you've seen the big giant pencil in front and $1,000 so there's some there's some
Street credit that goes along with that F uh family February was the theme last month this month is marvelous March okay marvelous March Community First does a great job Missy
Peters over there does a fantastic job supporting our school so thank you to Community First for being good Community partner okay uh Miss Chappelle's uh I was there that night with her at that I too I was you know Su and I looked at one another
and we said oh you know my we've got older children you know uh in their 30s and and uh 20s and so we looked at that and I went and truly I was surprised at the information I learned we we've tried to provide resources you see the QR code
there that's on there you can you can go there and get all the resources that were there uh that tonight in order to help educate parents and make parents aware of what their children are doing online uh one good thing I would say is um the thing the theme that I heard over
and over again from the FBI the Sheriff's Office and everybody else is uh you know good parenting will of course Aid in this particular problem and good parenting is knowing what your parents are knowing what your students doing online tracking
them it's okay to tell them no can't tell how many times my kids have heard no uh and so we recognize the issue all of the resources that were given out that night are there for for people to see from the FBI and the Klay County Sheriff's Office who've been great
Partners in the work so thank you so much Mr brosi where can parents find that uh by that QR code we can post it on our website but I'm wondering can we put it somewhere on the front yeah we can put it we can put it on our website so they can see the resources under under
parents thank you so we recognized the the challenges there and essentially the biggest challenge that I saw was that sometimes students or young people have more knowledge of the technology than the than the adults right and so I
always feel uh a little intimidated by myself and I usually go to a younger person even a younger person that works in the district and I say hey how do you do this and they you know they do it right and so we're at a little bit of a disadvantage so educating ourselves is
so important so that we can watch our young ones but it was a great it was a great program and yeah it was a little scary you know I was a little scared uh when I left there so great information for parents will make that accessible for parents
um academic competitions the the um science fair let me tell you something we had 140 students 50 adult Volunteers in case you don't know it the rotary uh clubs of Clay County all are the judge they team up it's kind of a little Community event if you ever go out to
the fairgrounds and see this 42 Cate category awards were given 20 special awards were given 14 students were nominated for States three students were nominated for international the rotary clubs Community First Credit Union all donate $2,000 in order to put that
program together so it is about the science I don't get me wrong but I also love the community feel uh that I get off of the science fair and then then for the spelling be uh that was another great event I I was at a state meeting
because I'm usually there and uh Sue is a spelling nerd and so she can spell a whole lot better than me and so we sit there and very nerve-wracking the winner uh this year happens to be Aiden watt who is related to Miss Kelly watt proud
proud mom uh over there so congratulations to them now probably um say something to me about saying that but T tough luck uh the elementary track meet uh we had it
on two two uh Saturdays the 15th and the 22nd it's a great Community event about 1500 students go out there uh and run track two schools hosted middleberg high as well as um orange Parky their track
teams of those schools put on the event they kind of run the event so there's a lot of student volunteerism also in dealing with that great great event for students I always I always say you know sometimes the things I remember most about school is not the stuff I learned
in the classroom it was the stuff I learned otherwise going to school and that's a great event for students uh the one clay app you may have noticed our new websites as well as uh you'll see a new app there we want to
encourage you to download the app you can see the um to the right of the picture you can see all of the various ways in which you can interact with the district with events there as well as a link to parent view pretty much if you
go to there you can go anywhere that you need to go as a parent the idea when we heard from parents is we're tired of having eight ways that you communicate with us one teacher wants this one teacher wants that and as a parent then you have to figure it all out out now
we're saying we're going to push one app and everyone will use the one app making it easier for parents to communicate with schools and also by the way teachers said the same thing because some of the teachers are also parents and they're like hey we're tired of doing this too this is a great
initiative and you'll hear more about it as we move forward uh but I want to encourage you to download download the app you can see all the events that are going on in all the schools it's really if I can if I can use it anyone can use it that's that's my new mantra when it
comes to the one clay app upcoming events uh National School breakfast week National School social worker week maintenance working appreciation day of course teachers are all looking forward to spring break
students then come back on the on the 25th don't forget March 17th's also St Patrick's Day I see Miss Skipper in her green today I wore my green tie in honor of of St Patrick's Day and that's it thank you so much a
lot a lot of good hard work happening behind the scenes and a lot of events that I'm sure board members will illustrate uh in their comments thank you so much all right next up is School Board attorney remarks any just one that we'll have a shade
meeting on at the workshop on March 25th and that is it thank you everyone thank you and then uh School Board member comments we always start with the ladies tonight I feel like we're going to start with the gentleman Mr
Alo lucky me well I I'm I wanted to share that in the past uh few weeks I've been doing my tours around the schools and have visited a lot of I mean like seven high schools and few elementary schools and
there's a lot lot of good things happening in Klay County Schools I can say that our children are very lucky to have a you know to to live in Clay County there's a lot of good CTE programs and things that normal people
in the county would not know they're happening behind the curtains but me visiting the schools I see a lot of good work still a lot of work to do but we continue to go forward to achieve excellence in CL count thank you thank you Miss
Clark as usual a lot of events in the past and a lot of events in the future to do um today I went to the second annual women and agriculture luncheon
which was quite unique because obviously we know that uh without the Farms there is no food so it was great to hear there's a agricultural uh Town field trip field
trips that are available to our elementary students and it's up to the teachers to get that information and make it happen and I know it's hard to believe but um I remember being in
kindergarten I can go back that far and we took the train to G son's Dairy and that's that's what we thought of Clay County was the dairy so you that was pretty remarkable and to think that the kids would would have that
opportunity at such an a young age it's really important so horiculture has always been a big part of my life believe it or not from uh braiding tals of cows going to the to the fair to Growing poinsettas to doing
a tree farm so it's been I'm glad I've had those experiences and I hope that our children will value those in their future um I'm still reviewing reading the State of Florida auditor general
report that came out I think on Monday and we just wrapped up on the health insurance committee uh quite a few meetings but we will discuss a lot of the information
hopefully at our next Workshop we have a presentation or something that we can provide everyone uh last thing that I want to mention is that the dolly pardon Imagination Library I think I skipped it last month
but we're hoping to make great strides in 25 and the whole point of this if people would just understand it is that we're trying to make our children reading ready by the time they get to school and it's so important I was speaking to I
think Pat litter couple weeks ago and she was saying we're down to now having I think one month's funds available and after that it stops and we're only in two Zips and
I think about how charitable Clay County is and the fact that we can't get this running for all of our children 13,000 of them and the dolly pardon organization really is covering all the books pretty much what we're covering is
probably the cost of postage but it's so important if we can find a way to uh you know anybody individually organizations can contribute it's real simple with the QR code um but if anybody would like
information please reach out to me but we've got to get this going this year make that happen for them and I just want to thank uh all the citizens that sit on the Ed first committee thank you Glenn and now what we've got with the
internal audit committee because it's volunteer time but it's very important for our community I just want to say thank you Miss Hansen it's just a little funny joke so I've probably been to 25 things since January every single thing I've been
invited to and one day I got home it was at 12 our DayM my husband said who do you think you are Mary Bola and I said no I didn't go to as many as Miss paa would have gone to but um I know she's in Australia right now so I
haven't seen her for a while at these events so I thought I'd uh just run through them real quick um I'm immensely proud of the board um with the internal audit um Arrangement that we made uh we were part of the risk assessment that
was done um I guess a couple weeks back and the internal audit committee um will start sometime in April and I am even more impressed with the five or six volunteers that were so qualified I couldn't believe they were going to
volunteer their time to us all internal Auditors tax attorneys tax accountants um people who have been in this business for a long time will be serving us and serving our community on this board I wanted to thank them in
addition I went to Keystone Heights Elementary School I was so impressed their family night their steam night it was a packed house in every building kids yelling and playing and you know throwing things
driving things smashing robots it was just and I had to stop at a third grade teacher and look at her board because her third graders were writing complete sentences I remember when I taught fourth grade it was an amazing thing when a kid came to you writing complete
sentences at the beginning of fourth grade year and then from there some other things I'd like to highlight the spelling be was great Miss Clark and I could not spell most of those words and I'm not embarrassed about it oh I'm sorry I'm sorry Miss Clark
um I also attended the SBJ musical it was 30 minutes of pure joy I've never seen there's nothing makes makes you happier than kids singing from the heart and dancing as if nothing else in the world mattered and that was the 30
minutes of warmth that school gave to me the parents were friendly the smiles were genuine and I'm really happy that I went that night so a big shout out to them and their wonderful little musical I went to visit um the new build at uh Keystone
Heights High School we all saw the new concession stand which I think everybody's going to fight now to be in the uh visitor side concession stand because it's gorgeous I visited McCrae Elementary School and saw firsthand when I worked there there was just those
little swings in a couple monkey bars and now they have a pavilion and a300 and something thousand wor the most beautiful play equipment I've ever seen thank you to the citizens of Clay County for the half cent sales tax it's something we should brag about whenever
we can it's actually everywhere some people think oh we're not getting anything but if you were to look at the list for the last 3 years taxpayer half cense sales tax has reached every single School in some kind of way and I cannot
tell you how proud I am of the people that make that happen thank you so much Miss Ellis in addition I have visited um 21 schools to talk to teachers I'm proud of teachers their stories make me cry
their ideas make me feel like there's hope their Solutions are real it's not always happy but it's real and I'm proud of teachers for coming out and telling me exactly what they feel from their
heart um lastly I have a goal by the end of the year to go to every single school because it's important that we listen and it's important we work together to find solutions that will keep our teachers in the classroom so I'm looking forward to
March and reaching out to as many teachers as I can and hopefully I can make it to every school it's real busy this time of year you have to schedule and res schedule 100 times to get somewhere once but it's worth it that's all I
have Miss Hansen Miss G I don't have a whole lot to add my um activities have existed around Sports fields and gymnasiums lately so I've been at a lot of after school athletic events um one highlight just last week
was the girls flag football game um Green Cove Jr hosted it it was for Clay High and they played Columbia and absolutely annihilated them um so it's the females are representing tonight and last week so interesting to watch and it's been it's been a fun season it's
been a busy one um but I love being there to cheer on the kids as they succeed in their Sports um and you know thinking tonight about what you guys have shared and what we've heard from the audience um and just in my personal conversations with teachers
um the I think the theme that just has resounded is um the need for parent engagement with their kids um and you know that cell phone seminar I think was a great starting point to start having some conversations about um how
important it is that we as parents are the primary educators of our children and that we are engaged and aware of everything that they're doing whether it's on a cell phone or in a classro or on a sports field um that that relationship can't be replaced and it's
it's the most important one so thank you all I know I'm preaching to the choir here because you obviously are all very involved um with your children but um it's in it's it's encouraging to see and I I hope we can have more of those kinds of conversations going forward a lot of the things have been
talked about already that most of us have already um that most of us visited this month um we also had state of the schools and that was this month right yeah okay I'm it's been so crazy yeah last week
what am I thinking right now okay so um I've been going out into the community to a lot of our um clubs and and and um organizations and speaking on behalf of of the board and and the accomplishments
that we have done and the district has done um to help further Student Success and our teachers and um with that and the state of the schools I have never I guess I hadn't it's not that I hadn't paid attention to
it but a lot of people have no idea what goes into running a school district and um I guess just the questions and the feedback that we have received um me from speaking at a couple
places but then even this state of the schools even though we are separate from the count like we're separate from the County Commission have a separate Bud budget people have no idea [Music] the things that we do like uh we build
schools uh we don't build roads but we built well technically I guess we could through our schools but we build schools we have to staff we're one of the largest Staffing um organizations in Clay County and our transportation department there's just so many things
that go into running a school district so uh it has been um an eyeopener for me and I have thoroughly enjoyed educating our public on all of these things because they have no idea they think that you can just snap your fingers and
fix veteran pay when veteran teachers haven't been uh compensated for several years they think you can snap your fingers and and fix a building over here but they have to understand that those funds are are allocated in a certain
bucket and and so that has been very um encouraging to see because people don't truly understand all the the moving parts to the district so um just I guess me paying attention in the last month I I really appreciated the time that I've
gotten to spend with Community our community members and um um leaders and um educating them further we also got to see um the new concession stand that Miss Hanson was speaking about um when we sit here and and we do all these
moving Parts sometimes we don't have the opportunity to go out to see where our tax dollars are being um utilized so that was um I know the Keystone Community I know Miss Hansen has heard from a lot of them over the last couple
years I might myself have heard from them so I know that they are super excited about a concession stand um and it looks real nice we we got the tour and um it is it will be ready for next year's season and and it's ready to go now so a lot of people didn't know that
as well and then the fair coming up um that's next month there's a lot of our students uh who will be active in that uh already hearing about and preparing for the fair and I to got to um sit in on the lunch in today with
Miss Clark and hearing about our Agriculture and how important it is to instill that in our children and um letting them know that um without Farmers without uh food we we can't survive so um thank you
all for coming tonight and um this meeting is a turn