We're going to have Pastor James Ununas from Lake Asbury Baptist Church come to the mic and lead us in prayer and the pledge of allegiance. Stand with me please. Gracious heavenly father, we come before you this evening with hearts full of gratitude for the opportunity to
serve our community. Thank you for the students, the teachers, the staff, the administrators, and the families of Klay County. As we enter this summer season, we ask for your protection over each one. Keep them safe, healthy, and refreshed. May this
time away from the classroom be one of renewal physically, mentally, and spiritually. And may you draw many hearts closer to you. Lord, we seek your wisdom tonight. Your word tells us that if any of us lacks wisdom, we should ask you, the God who gives generously and
without finding fault, and it will be given. So we ask in faith, without doubting, trusting that you will guide every decision made here. Help each board member and leader not lean on their own understanding, but in all their ways acknowledge you so that you would make their path straight. We pray
for unity among this board and all who serve in our schools. Let them work together with humility, respect, and grace, seeking the good of every student and family they represent. As plans are made for the coming school year, may your hand be on every detail. Inspire
creativity, compassion, and excellence in all who lead and teach. And Father, we recognize that true growth comes from your hand. As your word reminds us, you discipline those that you love. We pray that where correction is needed, you would grant humility to receive it.
where encouragement is needed. You would give strength to press on. Shape our hearts to be more like yours, full of truth, mercy, and steadfast love. We ask all these things in the powerful name of Jesus Christ, our Lord and our Savior. In Jesus' name, all God's people said,
"Amen." Let us say the pledge together. 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. You may be seated. At this time, I call to order the June 5th school board meeting. Welcome, citizens of Klay County. I want to take the opportunity to thank you for taking the time out of your busy schedule to attend tonight's school board meeting. The meeting is is
our opportunity as your elected 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 Klay County. If you wish to address the board on an agenda item, there will
be an opportunity to speak for three minutes. Please fill out a card located at the side entry door indicating the specific item number or topic you wish 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 the to an officer who will distribute them accordingly. Speakers who wish to address specific agenda items will be heard following the recognition and awards portion of the
meeting. Speakers wishing to address non-aggenda 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 the presentations from the audience. Your participation is welcomed and
appreciated. At this time, we're going to start with recognitions and awards. Uh recognition of school board of Klay County for achieving certified board status is Miss Paula Kohl's Florida School Board Association. Good
evening. It's good to see each of you again. To the chair, Mrs. Skipper, vice chair, Mrs. Gilhousen. To Mr. Ao, Mrs. Clark, Mrs. Hansen, and to the superintendent,
Mr. Broski. I am pleased to come tonight as a representative of the Florida School Boards Association Leadership Services Team to present to you your recognition
for achieving master board certification. I ask that all of you here tonight join me in congratulating this team. To each one of you and to all of you collectively, this is a prestigious
recognition that reflects your dedication to effective governance, continuous improvement, and your steadfast commitment to providing the best educational environment for all of
your students, staff, Klay County community, and beyond. And I say and beyond because I happened to sit by the Watts tonight and Mrs. Watt was bragging on Klay County being number one in the
region. Am I right? That is a great feat and that is a testament that shows that when the superintendent and the board works in a collaborative way, great things happen for not just our students,
not just the teachers, not just the staff, but for Klay County. Your leadership as a superintendent and board member exemplifies excellence in school board
governance. And this accomplishment is a testament to your hard work, collaboration, and vision for all of your students and the Klay County community. A job well done. I will now
read the plaque and it says, "The Florida School Boards Association recognizes Klay County as a certified master board. It has listed each school board member and the
superintendent and it is signed by the Florida School Boards Association President, Mr. Timothy Bryant, and the Chief Executive Officer, Andrea Msina. Again, congratulations. It was a pleasure to work with you all.
[Applause] All right. Up next is the we're going to recognize winners of the Lynn uh Mattis Foundation anti-bullying contest. Sorry if I messed that up. Thank you so much,
Madam Chair. I'm Kelly Gilfoil from the Department of Climate and Culture with Klay County District Schools. It is my privilege to stand in representation tonight of Lin Matise and the foundation that he created to support young people across our district. He supports and
utilizes his platform of a stop the bullying campaign twice a year that he promotes students to offer any form of artwork and we got some interesting entries this year but they were all very fabulous and we were so excited at the products that the students developed. We
had over 65 entered by 96 students across the county. And Mr. Matise was so impressed he upped the um rewards from $3,000 to $5,000 this year for our students. So, we're going to start with the $100 award winners and then we're going to then at the very end, we're
going to list our two $500 winners and our three $1,000 winners. All right. So, thank you so much to each and every student that entered. Our original artwork by na in the name of peace was entered by Candy Wong. You're gonna come up and stay up.
We're going to we're going to put all the winners together. So, we have several items for you as you come up. Yes, your principles are welcome to join you as well. I see m Miss Bathurst, you are welcome to join as well. Thank you so much. An essay, stop the bullying by
Jordan Woods. [Applause] original artwork rewind and be kind by me Stewart. The anti-bullying video by Lily
Afuck and McKenzie Havens. [Applause] Eagle encouragement boxes made by Brooklyn Watt and Maya Westfall. The original service project
kick bullying out of our school by Dalton Daniels, Jacob Masterosio, Michael Rushford, Ronald Walker, William Aileles, Colton Bon, and Alex de la Cruz. [Applause]
The original artwork, Stay Positive and Be Kind by Nicholas Monroe, Ty Hall, and Jamari [Applause] Washington. Thank you. Good
job. The original poem, Instead of Break It, Make It by Khloe Barrett. The original artwork in the Canva design by Reese Phillips. Make a difference. Original artwork. Kindness makes the world a better place by
Arabella Malachetti and Zamira Chatley. original artwork. She told me to pause. [Music] We have We have it. How are you? You guys look great. Hold those
smiles. There's lots of cameras out there being made. Love it. Thank you so much, Miss Ali. Absolutely. The original artwork, We Are All People by Zoe
Kelly. Good job. It's okay. You're doing great. The original PowerPoint presentation and slides entitled Stop Bullying by Naomi Mora and Taylor Linton. [Applause]
For our first $500 winner, the original video entitled Kindness is Genuine by Elen Morrison, Isabella Pavlovvic, Zoe Fishman, and Kaden Hamilton. Congratulations. Okay. So, we're going to put you on the
next step up. So, go around and stand in the middle, please. Thank you so much. Our second $500 winner in the service project kindness ripple challenge by Ryan Ali. Congratulations. That is Karen Ali's son, Ryan Olly. So,
a very special winner tonight um from the from our department family in the middle. Second step in the middle. Good job, Ryan. Our first $1,000 winner is the poem, A Stand Against Bullying by Zindy Allen.
[Music] You are special. We are thankful you're here. Up in the middle. Thank you so much. Second $1,000 winner, the original artwork, How Our Hands Lift Up Others by Musina Baker, Betsy Moore, Khloe
Wilkinson, Grace Wilton, and Lily Wjek. [Applause] This way. And from Thunderbell Elementary, our
very final $1,000 winner, The Service Project, Smile Clips by Ellie Heric. Thank you all so much. Your contributions make lasting effects on our community towards building a kinder place to be. Thank you for what you do for your schools and for Klay County.
Can I stand in a little bit closer? There you go. Again, thank you so much to Mr. Lim Matis and the support of his foundation and to all the students who had entries. Thank you to all the parents that brought them out tonight so we could celebrate your children and their beautiful artwork and contributions to
our community. [Applause]
Next up, we're going to recognize the 2025 2026 drug-free schools calendar design winners. Miss Karen Oolie, student service services specialist, and Stephanie Gohagen, Clay Action
Coalition. Good evening. Well, it does my heart good to see the bullying prevention calendar contest winners. I'm actually Donna Weatherington, not Stephanie Gohagen. Pardon? That's all right. And
um Stephanie's on vacation, so I'm here. and I am the founder and executive director of Clay Action Coalition. I want to first thank all of you schoolboard members, Superintendent Broski, for your collaboration with us
over the years, for supporting us through this. in October of 1997 was the first time this calendar contest which was actually spearheaded by the department of student services
way back then and it has been continuing since then. We took the collaboration with Clay Action Coalition in 2004 with the school district. So we've been here over 20 years now and we're proud to be a part of all this. Anyway,
this is our traditional drug-free schools calendar winners and it's done during Red Ribbon Week every October of each year with our elementary school students. And we have our 2025 calendar
here. And I do when I call out the names and you come up, we're going to give you a certificate. if you would stand up here and hold the certificate open so that they can take pictures afterwards. And then I will have a
packet for you with the extra calendars for the families. And we do have extra if you need more. We have six in each packet along with our um monetary earnings winnings for all the calendar winners. And we have our cover overall
winner and our inside cover winner which is um $100 and then $50 and the rest I think it'sundred it's um $50 the rest. Anyway, like I said I haven't done this
in a couple of years so I should have looked. Um, any other information you need from me as I'm going to get started. The front cover winner of this year's 2025
calendar. By the way, life is a puzzle, solve it drug-free, was the national motto of the red ribbon week for this year. But the calendars, as long as they have a clear no use message for drugs
and to live your life healthy and drug-free, that was the main emphasis behind the calendars. Our front cover winner, Arya Perry, a second grader from Lakeside
[Applause] Elementary. The inside cover, Matteline Wood, third grade, Orange Park Elementary. Congratulations,
The month of August winner, Nora Trudy, kindergarten from Patterson Elementary. Aren't they cute? September Avery Dalton, fifth grade, Lakeside Elementary. Congratulations. October, Avery Acres,
6th grade, Patterson Elementary. [Applause] November. Brandy Gadson, fourth grade, Doctor's Inlet
[Applause] Elementary. December. Cameron Barthell, fifth grade, Spring Park Elementary. month of
January. Juliana Tedman, fourth grade, Coppergate Elementary. Month of February, Alacia Washington, first grade, Argyle Elementary. Month of
March. Alice Brown, third grade, Middberg Elementary. [Applause] April Maxwell McCroski, kindergarter, Orange Park
[Applause] Elementary, month of May. Hannah Shipman, first grade, Middberg Elementary.
[Applause] Thank you. June Grace Harper, fifth grade, Fleming Island Elementary. And in the month of July, we have Andrea
or Andrea Diaz, fifth grade, Plantation Oaks [Applause] Elementary. Congratulations to all of y'all. And we also inside the calendars
and remember go out here when you're leaving and we'll give you your certificates and your money vouchers or cash. But remember u for all the parents and even the community members we hand out these calendars. We give them free
uh about a hundred or so each to some of the Publixes and our sponsors. Each of them have a bunch of calendars. So you can get these calendars. You can call our office. It's inside here if you'd like a calendar, but it has all the early release dates and when report
cards go out. And it also has some messages and information for parents as well inside and resources listed. So, it's a valuable tool. If you'd like to use these, just call our office and we can get you one. Okay. Thank you. Thank y'all again.
Congratulations. All right. Next, we're going to recognize students with perfect attendance K through 6, K through 8, and K through 12 with Superintendent Proski. All right. I'm excited to be here and to give this award. this award. I think
I've only done this one other time in my five years uh here in Klay County Schools where a person's had perfect attendance throughout their entire career in school, right? The first step, think about that. If you're an employer, you're thinking, I want to hire this guy
because he shows up, right? Schools think the same thing. We're like, hey, the first step to learning is actually showing up. Let me just kind of point out to you, many people might realize that since the pandemic, we've actually seen a decrease in attendance uh
nationwide, right? People going to school. So, I can't argue about the importance of showing up for school. But just imagine showing up every day since kindergarten. Every single day. That means I went back and met the family right before this and I first thing I
said is you must have great genes like uh you know taking vitamin supplements or whatever because you're never sick and you're always at school. It's kind of like it's like the Iron Man the endurance uh type award in the school system. So I'm proud to give this
to Dan Footman. Uh he's from Oakleaf High School. Hasn't missed a day of school ever. [Applause]
[Applause] Next up, we have the recognition of athletic state champions, student athletes, and coaches of the month with Mr. J. Stillano, coordinator of district
athletics. You know where you're standing quick when everybody gets applause and they call your name no applause. You're like, man, where do I stand on this totem pole? Mr. Broski, need to tell me something like, man, here we go. Let's be doing it.
First, before we get started, I I know I sound like a broken record every time I stand up here, but uh I I can't uh not point it out. Thank you, Mr. Broski. Thank you, school board, for allowing us to come and recognize all these amazing coaches and student athletes. Uh it's it's special here. So, anytime that they
uh get a chance to achieve um at this level, I think we should certainly be recognizing them. So, uh thanks for carving out some time to allow us to do that. I know you guys don't have to do that. So, thank you guys. All right. Before we start talking about individual things that that we've done, we have to think we have to talk about uh what's tr
truly truly important to me and what I'm uh extremely proud of and that's our cumulative GPA. So across the entire year uh um all 168 programs a 3.321 GPA. So when you when you're talking about that we're not talking about just
student athletes and coaches uh and we're not talking about ads and admin because that's extremely important. But in order to achieve things like that, that takes parents, grandparents, that takes guardians. So, uh it's it's uh truly a a team effort and something that uh I'm extremely proud of. So, uh I
think it's important that that we're definitely getting it done um in the classroom as well as uh on the field or gym or whatever that may be. Talking about uh academics, um when it comes to spring, we just finished up our spring sports. Um the highest GPA when it comes with a team is Fleming Island girls
tennis. They finished with a 3.69. Again, that's as a team. Um, extremely impressive. And then Keystone Heights boys tennis finished with a 3.735 as a team. So again, that's our highest male and female team for our spring sports. It's it's important like in
life, you know this, right? You got to reward the behavior that you want. So, we have to make sure we're telling these kids, we can't just say, "Hey, it's important to get good grades." And never reward them or or talk about those things. and didn't expect those things to happen. It don't life don't happen like that. So, uh kudos to those uh individuals. All right, let's start off
talking about our state champs. So, anytime you have a chance or an opportunity to talk about state championships, it's a good day. Like, it's never it's never a bad time to talk about state championships and and so, uh again, Klay County, we're so lucky to have such special individuals, um not
just student athletes, but coaches and and people around them to guide them and help lead them uh uh to that that ultimate goal of standing on that podium. uh our first state champ um young lady from Fleming Island High School, uh Michaela Shavers, the 3A state champ in triple jump. She also got
her name called and got to stand on that podium when it came to the long jump, too. Um you know, awesome young lady. Uh fun to to hang out with and take a couple pictures with. But congratulations, uh Michaela Shavers. All right, our next state champ um from Oakleaf High School. This young man uh
um and boys weightlifting uh win the state title in 3A um traditional. So in weightlifting you have traditional and you have Olympic. So this young man won the 154 pound weight class and traditional and uh he had a total of 625 pounds with 305 lb clean and jerk and
320 lb bench. Um also this young man got his name called when it came to Olympics weightlifting. He finished third in the state in that too. Um, and that's Noah Chevchuk. Noah [Applause]
Chevchuk. All right. And then our last uh state champ um for the spring um this young man, he was also our uh male athlete of the year. Um young man from Keystone Heights at 119 pound weight class. He won the 1A state championship in traditional. Um he also had his name
called when in the Olympic and all he did was total 400 lb um and at 119 pounds. So a cleaning jerk of 175 lbs and a bench press of 225 lbs. Pretty impressive. So that's Elijah Mice. Elijah Mice.
Again, congratulations to all our state champs. All right, we're going to transition to our student athlete of the month. So, our student athlete of the month is these are not just athletes who are getting it done when it comes to the field or when it comes uh in their particular sport. These are athletes that are getting it done in their campus. These are athletes that are getting it done in the classroom. And
these are athletes that are getting it done when it comes to the community. It's a really big uh big deal for us. So, anytime I'm interviewing a kid or a coach, those are the things we're going to talk about. Enhancing the student athlete experience, it's a big deal. All right. And then servant leadership. What are you doing in the community? If we're asking these people to pour into us,
what are we doing for them? Um so and these and these young people um have done just just that all those things. Our first young lady is uh our student athlete of the month is from Middle High School, Miss Ava Clinkcell. Ava's a two sport
athlete participating girls weightlifting the track and field. She was a part of that state championship team, that 2A state championship team. All she does is has a 4.27 while taking dual enrollment and AP classes. Um yeah, it's pretty impressive. Exactly. She's a member of the
ALC, NHS, Beta. You see all the clubs that she's in. Over 300 volunteer hours. Again, she's getting it done uh when it comes to uh going out in the community. Um things like mile cleanup, trunk or treat, going down and reading, being a role model. So, uh again, awesome young
lady. Uh extremely proud of her. And that's Ava Clinko. All right, our next student athlete um from uh Keystone Heights Awesome young lady. You know, that's the cool part of this job. Uh Terry Terry gets to travel along with me. She keeps me straight and
makes it look somewhat professional. Uh thank you, Terry. But uh we get to go around and meet so many kids that are just awesome. The things that they're doing is so impressive. And uh this young lady participate, uh um five years in basketball, um three-year participant uh in flag football, 4.48 GPA, um 21
college credits. She'll graduate or has graduated with her AA. This was in the past here. Um um far as being involved in things, a member of the superintendent student uh advisory council, the class president. So really she's not doing much at all. You see that trophy that she has up there. She's
a member of the speech and debate team. And so uh um it was it was not fun doing an interview beside her. I'll just say that I was definitely the weak link. Uh so uh over 200 volunteer hours, you know, just a special special young lady. We're so uh glad to have her in Klay
County. Arabel Conan. [Applause] All right, next young lady, uh, student athlete, uh, Charlie Maddox. Um, awesome kid. So, we started a
district athletic leadership council this year just to kind of see what's happening on on their uh, campus and and Charlie was a part of that and just to hear the dialogue taking place and and constantly seeing Charlie kind of leading those discussions too was was pretty awesome. um three uh three-year
softball player. Um pretty decent FACA 6A player of the year. She has a 4.69 GPA. She'll be going to Dartmouth College to play softball. Guess that's pretty impressive, right? Uh and then you can see the things that she's um involved in far as clubs and when it comes to community. Um obviously she
cares a lot about little league and softball and giving back. So, and that again that's Oakley High School, Charlie Maddox. All right, our next uh young lady. Uh I keep saying next young lady. I don't know if anyone's caught on to that when I was looking through this. I was like, "Oh man, they're going to fire me." All
right. Uh so Klay County student athlete of the month um from Keystone Heights. Uh Cadence uh Massie, three sport athlete, by the way. Three sport athletes. They're unicorns. they really don't exist. Um, so if if you're doing all the things that she's doing and maintaining a 4.49 GPA, uh, she's
getting it done. You know, all while being an ACE student, ACE is so it's so challenging. It's so rigorous. Um, and and being involved in ALC, doing 102 volunteer hours. Like, it's just extremely impressive the things that she's getting done. Again, getting it done in all uh, uh, three phases there.
And that's Cadence Massie. All right. All right. And then our last student athlete of the month here, um, young lady, uh, Olivia Sykes, um, getting it done when it comes to two sports far as softball and girls weightlifting. I just seen she recently just played in the FACA softball, um,
all-star game. So, that's cool to see. We have representation from Klay County and and just another uh, student athlete experience. Four-year ACE student, graduate with her ACE diploma. She's also an AP student. Um, all she's going to do is attend Brown University. All right. Um, you can see she's a member of
ALC, NHS, um, volunteers at the Field of Dreams. Just again, we're so so blessed and so lucky to have student athletes like this in our county. Um, again, Fleming Island High School, Olivia Sykes. [Applause]
All right. And then our our last recognition here is the Klay County uh coaches of the month. Um, man, how lucky are we in Klay County to have leaders like that on our campus doing the things that they're doing daily, you know? Uh, um, as Mr. Broski says, no one gets paid enough, you know,
no one gets paid enough and and we know that. So, so for them to show up every single day and do what they do just because of the love and the passion they have, um, we're just we're extremely fortunate here. So, our first uh coach of the month uh again, as I said, when it comes to being a coach of the month, our two pillars
are how are you enhancing the student athlete experience on your campus. All right? And then what are you doing for servant leadership? If you're not doing those two things, you're not going to be coach of the month. That's great that you won and have some wins. Awesome. We can find those people. No disrespect. All right? But you have to be doing all those things. And this guy gets it done.
You're talking about someone who loves his school. All you have to do is just hang out around this guy for about 30 seconds and you're ready. I want to play. like where's the where's the home of that coach? Let's go. Let's be getting it. Let's get it done. Um you know, uh head football coach there at Oakleaf High School, led his team to elite eight, defeated the number one
team in state over there at Nice. I was at that game. It was awesome. Um you know, when you look up here, you see FACA and Mercer football camps. And not just when you talk to coach about that, he's not just taking his kids there for exposure because that's what he's trying to do, right? These kids have a goal to play at the division division one, but a lot of these kids have never been on a
college campus. So, so it's not just college scouts seeing them, it's them being exposed to a college campus. And I understand that. That hits home for me because I was one of those kids, right? Um, team bonding, just hanging out and understanding the importance of being together. He gets it. He understands the big picture. It's bigger than than
football. Um, and then obviously you can see the community impact when it comes to the walk and roll there at OVA, uh, the Christmas parade. Um, just constantly getting the down, uh, getting it done. Um, a family type atmosphere over there. And that's Oakleaf High School head football coach Chris Voy. All right, our next coach of the month.
Uh, man, I could stand up here all day and give a presentation on just what what this lady does. Like Martin Auck will tell you like all the culture and things like that that he's created on this campus is from him. Uh, but he if he was being honest, he would tell you she's 1B. Like it is insane the things
that this young this uh lady does on our campus. And on top of doing all those things, all she did is go out and win a state title uh this year in her second year of being the girls weightlifting coach. Pretty impressive. Uh it's easy to say basically all she does is win, right? She sponsors the Miss MHS. You see the things as far as enhancing a
student athlete experience. She's involved in everything. ALC signing days, media days. If it's taking place on Middle High School, I'm telling you, she's involved in it. If it's cooking hot dogs for AB, like it's like Martin Aff is lucky to to have that lady there. Let's just say that. I know Mike Picket
said we're not supposed to compare, so I'm sorry, Mr. Picket, but he he's lucky to have Rihanna Weissoff. Um, so Klay County coach of the month and female coach of the year in Klay County is Miss Rihanna Weisskoff. [Applause] My wife's trying to get me out of here.
I told her we'd eat dinner. See, she's like, "Get this picture. Let's Let's be doing it. Let's go home. We've been at Flint Island High School all day." July 1st, Miss Skipper. Not today. We're July 1st. 20th, not 16, by the way. All right. Klay County uh coach of the month um from Flim Island High
School, Sean Coltus. If you haven't met Coach Coltus, I highly encourage you to spend 30. I love meeting just high achieving people. I don't care what the realm is, what what you do. It's fascinating to me. And uh what an amazing guy. And so here's
what I'll tell you about him. I'm not even going to talk about those things. Honestly, I can't tell you how many emails I've received from kids that go to like St. John's Classical Academy that come and weightlift that of like just pouring this guy is the greatest coach. I didn't know anything about weightlifting. These are the things he's
doing for my daughter like please never get rid of coach cultist. And I'm like do you know something I don't know. Uh again all this guy did was win a state title um um in a girls weightlifting. He was also the Florida dairy farmers coach of the year which is the best in in the state of Florida. Uh and how did he do
that? He went from zero state qualifiers four years ago to a state title. Uh um that's just an incredible. It truly is incredible. You can see the team parties and the things like he does uh um to enhance the student athlete experience and and when it comes to reading at the local elementary and and high five
Fridays. Just just an impressive impressive person and an unbelievable job of turning it around at Fleming Island High School. And that's Sean [Applause]
Cus. All right. Klay County coach of the month. Uh, Coach N Smith over at Orange Park High School. Um, I think is coach here. Yep. Okay. Awesome. Uh, there was a basketball camp going on. If there's a basketball camp somewhere in the state of Florida, our clinic, Coach Nmith's there. You know what I mean? And it's
not just for him. It sounds like that's for him. It's not. It's to expose his kids. It's important to him. So, um, here's what I'll say. I mean, you can look and read all those things, but we started, you may not even know this. We started an elementary basketball tournament. When I say we, really, Coach
Nesmith and Coach Up, they started that. Like, they just coach me up and coach me up as Mr. Bras would say, right? So, when things go bad, I'm getting the emails, not them. So, I got to make sure it's right. But, they do that on their own time. All right. Elementary you on a Saturday and it's all day. But those kids love it. The principles love it.
It's awesome. So, we go from there. Then all of a sudden, we did uh a junior high all-star game. Again, these guys, Coach Nei Smith and Coach Pow are running that thing. All right. Then we go from there and we add volleyball. Then this year, we add a junior high uh baseball and
softball. And all I hear is just posit. It's It's a long day. So, I'm not going to lie to you. It's Saturdays. These guys ain't getting paid no money. Zero. You know what? And it's not even really directly impacting their campus. They just love kids. He just loves kids, man. that's what he wants to do. Uh, as you can look up there, he's the girls
basketball coach over there. Won a district championship. Um, you know, I could talk about the college experiences and all those things, but uh, as as you can as you can tell, he he he's a special uh, coach, a special person, and we're lucky to have him. Coach Ne Smith. Hopefully not
I4. All right. Then the last guy, uh, this guy all he does is coach basketball on flag football. You know, that's that's it. Oh, yeah. By the way, he's actually the athletic director on the campus, too. Uh he's just glutton for punishment. Uh his family don't see him. Like so if you see like posters anywhere
with his picture on it, you know why. Like he's just lives at Clay High. 2020 Highway 60 West. Uh that that's where you'll find him. Right. Undefeated regular season of flag football. Uh made it to the Elite 8. Also the Jaguars prep coach of the week. when it comes to the uh golf tournament that we put on, the
award show that we put on, I'm so blessed to have athletic directors that uh work right beside me and this guy's right there putting out signs uh collecting uh feathers and all these other things in the rain and I'm like, why are you doing that? Uh but when it comes to servant leadership, the the the
Christmas event at Choy Bennett, the trunk or treat, the literacy week, like it's just he's getting it done. Uh it's a special place over there at Klay High School and he's leading the charge. Um, that being said, Clay County coach of the month, Jerry Moses. again. Thank you guys so much.
Next up, visual arts highlights with Mr. Chris Google and the fine arts curriculum specialist. Good evening. Tonight I'm excited to highlight one of our highest honors in the visual arts in Klay County schools, the annual student art show best in show
award recipients. In midMay, we held the 36th annual student art show at the Thrasher Horn Center. The event highlighted elementary and secondary art galleries with over 2500 student pieces, a family engagement room, live artists, an opening celebration including food
trucks, over 3,000 visitors, and an awards ceremony. Each year, as part of the art show, our secondary art teachers work with their students to submit the best of the best art pieces that their students create. These works are digitally uploaded prior to the art show
and sent out to various art professionals to critique and judge the artwork. This year, we had a record 750 student submissions between all of the categories, including junior high and high school two-dimensional and three-dimensional art pieces. The
official judges spent hours analyzing the students work, looking beyond the content to notice the technique and the skills demonstrated in the student art. The best and show award is reserved for the judges top selection in their respective categories and there's only
one in each category. This evening I would like to recognize those students who earned this distinct honor of best and show recipient. Um I recognize that students may not have been able to attend this evening. Some had transportation issues um also because school had ended.
However, students, if you are in attendance, as I call your name, please come to the front to accept your recognition and then remain at the front until the student, the last student is recognized, at which time we can take a photo. So, the best in show high school threedimensional winner is Adriel Brown,
an eighth grader at Lakeside Junior High, whose art teacher was Sandra Wiggins. Adriel's artwork was titled Bluebird. [Applause]
The best in show junior high two-dimensional winner is Allison Tommpkins and eighth grader at Lakeside Junior High Art teacher Sandra Wiggins and Allison's artwork is titled self-portrait. [Applause] The best in show high school
threedimensional winner is Adrienne Vargan, an 11th grader at Orange Park High School, art teacher Tracy Tanner. And Adrienne's artwork is titled Counting Sheep. And our Best Show High School two-dimensional winner is Benjamin Costanza, a 10th grader at Ridgeview
High School, art teacher Ashley Genrazio. Benjamin's artwork is titled Destination Polaroids. These student art pieces along with some of our other winners are all on display in the TTC art gallery and also at the Green Cove um courthouse on the fourth
floor and will be there for over the summer. Congratulations students and let's take a picture. [Applause] [Applause] All right. Next up is the
uh Miss Mary Owen, social studies curriculum specialist to recognize social studies teacher of the year. Good evening board members and superintendent Broski. Um before we begin, I would like to ask for our teachers who are being recognized to go
ahead and come on up front. [Applause] Each year, the Florida Council for Social Studies provides us with the opportunity to recognize our outstanding social studies teachers. Superintendent Broski once again invited um our
teachers, administrators, staff members, students, and parents to nominate social studies teachers who inspire creativity, passion, and civic-mindedness within our students. Tonight, we will recognize six teachers who were selected for the following award categories. Warren
Tracy, beginning teacher, excellence in teaching history, Clay, civics champion, and outstanding social studies teacher for elementary, junior high, and high school. It's an honor to introduce you to the exceptional educators who are selected. We'd like to start by
recognizing our Warren Tracy beginning social studies teacher recipient, Miss Tammy Shannon, a third-year social studies teacher at Orange Park High School. She was nominated for the passion, creativity, and dedication she brings to her classroom every single day. As a teacher, she has empowered
students through engaging discussions and collaborative projects in her social studies classes. I've witnessed firsthand how Miss Shannon consistently goes above and beyond to support her students, ensuring her classroom environment is welcoming and positive, where they feel safe and supported as
they navigate the demands of high school. Her commitment to student success is truly inspiring, and her students grow immensely in their understanding of the world and their role in it. a testament to her commitment to her students. She is currently in Europe
chaperoning a school trip, so she is unable to be here tonight, but we are so lucky to have her in Clay. Next, we'd like to recognize Miss Barbara McKenzie, a former US history and current civics teacher from Wilkinson Junior High. Uh she is our
excellence in teaching history recipient. Miss McKenzie is a truly exceptional educator whose dedication to her craft and passion for history and civics shine through every day. Her principal shared that she works tirelessly, consistently going above and beyond to help her students grasp
complex content and achieve remarkable growth. Miss McKenzie embraces professional learning and consistently seeks new ways to refine her teaching practice to meet the various needs of all of her students. Her commitment to ensuring that learning is accessible for all of her students is evident in the
differentiated hands-on learning tasks she creates for her civic students, some of which we have shared in our curriculum guide. Miss McKenzie, thank you for your passion and dedication to student success. We are so fortunate to have you in Clay.
[Applause] Both Miss Shannon and Miss McKenzie are in the process of submitting paperwork to compete for the state award um which will be announced in October. The following three awards honor outstanding social studies teachers in the
elementary, junior high, and high school levels. We are proud to recognize our outstanding elementary social studies teacher of the year, Miss Karen Steinmets. She teaches sixth grade world history at Lake Asbury Elementary and was nominated for her ability to bring
history to life. She seamlessly integrates literacy strategies in project-based learning, leading students through engaging and cross-curricular activities. Um, I've had the opportunity to visit her class um during one of these activities as students put Hammurabi's code on trial during their
Mesopotamia unit um complete with judge and jury. Students used evidence from primary and secondary sources to make their case as to whether Hammurabi's code was just or unjust. Colleagues mentioned that her high expectations coupled with her fairness and dedication
ensure her students feel appreciated and motivated. Miss Steinman's, thank you for your passion um and sharing your passion with um for history with our students. [Applause]
Next, our outstanding junior high social studies uh teacher recipient is Miss Courtney Clanton, a social studies teacher. That's right. At Bannerman Learning Center, Miss Clanton truly shines in her work with students with disabilities across multiple grade levels. Her principal
shared that Miss Clanton is more than just an educator. She is a master of making history come alive for our students with emotional and behavioral disabilities. In every lesson she writes, she builds a bridge between history and today and between every student and their full
potential pro uh proving that patience and creativity are a powerful combination. Miss CL Miss Clanton consistently seeks out professional learning opportunities to grow in her practice, attending workshops focused on differentiated instruction and innovative approaches. Miss Clanton,
thank you for your commitment to making social studies accessible and engaging for all learners. [Applause] We'd also like to recognize Miss Madison
Johnson, a US history and psychology teacher from Fleming Island High School as our outstanding high school social studies teacher. Miss Johnson is an exceptional teacher who builds positive relationships with her students through a blend of humor and compassion as she consistently aims to ignite excitement
for history in every single one of her students. Her principal shared that Miss Johnson is a remarkable social studies teacher who empowers every student to feel seen and valued through her intentional lessons that spark curiosity and engagement. Her impact is evident in her students outstanding performance on
both state and district assessments. She's a true team player, always ready to assist anyone, and her deep love for what she does shines through in her classroom every single day. Miss Johnson, thank you for your compassion and dedication to teaching social studies.
[Applause] All right. Finally, the Clay Civics Champion Award uh celebrates teachers who have encouraged civic-mindedness in their students through their dedication to teaching and inspiring the next generation of civic leaders. We're
excited to recognize Miss Sharon Moore as the recipient of this award. As a former civics teacher and current US history and government teacher at Rididgeu High School, Miss Moore has long been a champion of civic engagement, finding new ways to consistently connect classroom learning to real world
experiences. Last year, she hosted Congressman Aaron Bean, who spoke with her government students and answered their questions regarding legislation that impacted them directly. Miss Moore also fosters connections with our local government through her collaborations with the Klay County Clerk of Courts and
the Supervisor of Elections. She has hosted clerk Tara Green, allowing students to learn more about the critical role of citizens in the trial process. Each year, Miss Moore collaborates with the Klay County Supervisor of Elections to educate and empower our students as future voters
through her organization of the annual voters registration drive. This school year, she also coordinated a schoolwide mock election, providing Ridgeview students with invaluable firsthand experience in the voting process. I've had the opportunity to see firsthand
students engaged in one of our most sacred democratic processes. She is also planning an exciting school trip to Washington DC for the upcoming school year, providing students with the opportunity to visit key places in our national seat of government. Miss Moore, thank you for your deep commitment to
student learning and civic [Applause] education. That's right. We're so proud of these teachers and their commitment to social studies education and the students of Klay County. Let's go ahead
and give them one more round of [Applause] applause. Mr. Broski, we would love to get a picture with you. If you are a principal or administrator and would like to come take a picture with your teachers, please do.
[Applause] [Music] [Applause] All right. Next up, safety safety and security quarterly report. Mr. Matt
Boyak, director of safety and security. Superintendent, Honorable School Board, and members of the Klay County community. Per section 101.21213C 21213C Florida statutes. The Office of Safe Schools is required to provide quarterly reports to each district school superintendent and school safety
specialist identifying the number and percentage of schools, including charter schools, inspected or reinspected during that quarter, and the number and percentage of inspected schools that had no school safety requirement deficiencies. The school safety specialist shall present each quarterly report to the district school board in a
public meeting. Our results are as follows. In the fourth quarter of the 24-25 school year, Klay County District Schools had four schools inspected or reinspected by the Florida Department of Education, Office of Safe Schools. This represents roughly 9% of our schools. All four of our inspected schools were
found to not have any school safety requirement deficiencies. This brings our running total on the year to 21 out of 25 or 84% of our state inspections passing with no compliance issues. To conclude, I want to take the time to applaud our school leaders, teachers,
and support staff for all working together on a daily basis to keep our schools safe. There were numerous challenges thrown our way this year, but as Klay County does, everyone rose to the challenge and exceeded expectations in prioritizing safety. I am so proud of everyone's efforts and know we will
continue to make safety a daily priority in the future. Finally, I would like to let the public know how seriously their school board and superintendent take school safety. I greatly appreciate their passionate support and guidance as we continuously go above and beyond to keep Clay Schools safe. Thank you and
stay safe. Thank you, Mr. Boyak. Uh there is no school showcase. Uh it will at this time it's the last call for comment cards and uh at this time presentations from the audience addressing specific agenda
items and I just want to add if there is an agenda item for a public hearing you'll just come up at that time um instead of at this portion. So, All right. So, seeing no specific agenda items, we're going to move on to
discussion items. Uh for D1, the appointment of one board member and one citizen member to serve on the 2025 value adjustment board. uh without object objection and if um Miss Hansen wants to continue to serve if the board
um would like to keep Miss Hansen on for the that's technically her committee assignment. So without objection, are we okay with that? Okay. And then same for D2. It's the appointment of one board member to serve as Florida School Board
Association advocacy committee represent representative and one board member to serve as advoc advocacy committee alternate. So without objection if we want to keep Miss Hansen and I believe Miss Gilhousen is the alternate and if
you two are okay with that. Um also I forgot to say for D1 if you don't mind contacting our citizen I believe it's Mr. Wiggins um to see if he wants to continue to serve and if we're okay with him continuing to serve. If not, then we
need to discuss moving forward someone else. Okay. Uh and D3, I'm going at this time to uh open the public hearing to approve as advertised a comprehensive document entitled bylaws and policies of the
school board of Klay County and resend all bylaws and policies here for adopted by the school board of Klay County. Um you do not need a comment card for these discussion items. If you want to speak on this, just um line up behind the
podium. Seeing none for um D3, I'm going to close the public. Good evening. My name is Tanya Cassen. My address is on file. Uh I would like to take a couple of seconds and just express to you guys that I know that you
guys have worked incredibly hard on drafting these new policies. The ones we had were outdated. This is long overdue and that work is appreciated. That being said, I am kind of saddened by the fact that we did not have any opportunities for the public, the parents to really
come together and be able to provide insight and feedback, thoughtful, meaningful feedback about these policies. There are over 500 of them. It took over a year to get done. and not one single opportunity, not one forum,
not one town hall, and even worse so parents have not had access to the actual documents you guys have been discussing for the past year. I have asked for those documents and the very first workshop that you guys had and you were discussing them, I was like, well,
I cannot I cannot even understand what they're talking about because I don't have the documents. I requested to get the documents. I was told, you need to do a public records request. I put in a public records request and I got the fee back and it was just really too expensive for me to be able to afford to purchase access to the documents you
were reviewing. Um, which is kind of sad. We should have we should have had access to that. So, we can't give meaningful feedback on things that we do not we cannot read and we cannot understand. Um, I did send some emails to the board and I was told that maybe perhaps I should um have went and looked
at other districts policies to figure out which ones were done by Niola. their 67 districts and figure out which ones of those that we should probably maybe have been applied at Klay County. That's that's not acceptable. That's it's certainly not acceptable. It's certainly not something um that we anybody has
time to do. Um and I was told that it's really not that complicated. It is looking at 67 counties and what policies they have to try to figure out what might be a Klay County policy is very very complicated. Um, another thing that I I want to talk to you guys about, I want you to imagine that you're at home
and you're watching these workshops because it was suggested if you watch the workshops, you'll be informed. Um, no, no, no. Because I watch the workshops. This is what the workshops sound like to someone that is at home listening. Uh, uh, 7540.8 and we're missing a word, a word
shared. Oh, yeah. It would be right further on. It could be on page 107. 107 kind of like in the middle. If you're trying to understand what's going on with these policies and this is all you have to go by, this is not it cannot be
considered transparent and it cannot be uh considered an opportunity for parents to have a meaningful understanding of what these policies are. With that said, I'm urging the board to maybe postpone this vote and give the parents an opportunity to really be able to read
through these policies and and and provide some meaningful feedback. Thank you. [Music] Hi, my name is Don Hall. My address is on file. Similar to not knowing what the policies were, I'm just going to address
some of my concerns for the years that Okay. Um so one of my concerns is health and safety of our kids. One of my kids uh was in a classroom with fifths disease, lice,
hand, foot, mouth disease and even bed bugs and I was not notified. Uh so as someone who has a child who has febral seizures, it would be good to know when there's a communicable disease such as hand foot mouth disease going around so
that I can keep an eye on that and know what's going on when he suddenly comes home with a huge rash on his face. And in general like bed bugs, lies, it's kind of good to know about those things so we can keep an eye on them. Um, and I don't know what the official policy is on that because we I haven't read the
it's like 300 pages or something. It's a lot. Um, and then at my specific school for um, safety and security, I know that there were vapes being sold on my elementary school campus and it was
dealt internally with few meaningful repercussions for the kids. They were banned from Water Day. They couldn't go on a field trip. uh the deputy on campus was being strongly discouraged from filing charges or police reports because it would look bad on the school. So
that's kind of why we changed how we were policing the schools, right? We went from county or from the school board to the county based and it doesn't seem to have changed things there. And then my favorite
books. Um, my I feel like my parental rights are not being respected because I have a seven-year-old child who is reading at a fourth grade level. He's um he's had
um Little House on the Prairie, The Little Prince, novels of other caliber. um the dragon novel that I can't think of right now. And uh he's being strongly encouraged to bring home books like Clifford because that's what's age
appropriate. It might be age appropriate, but it's not content appropriate for him. It's not acceptable for him to be told that he cannot check out SSR books because he's in first grade. He needs to go back down and look at the picture books. Okay, give him other novels if we don't have enough.
And on that topic, my school was awarded all the SSR books. They couldn't shove them for almost somewhere around a month because they weren't in Destiny yet. What are we doing to get more accessibility to books? And these are books. They're SSR books. They're not
anything that should have to have a special review for them. And on that note, I went through the review process and training to review books. I'm ready. I'm trained. I want to help with this situation. I want to get more books that are appropriate for our kids on the
shelves. Ordering more books. I like the books. Thank you. That's all. Thank you. [Applause] Hi, my name is Judith Chappelle and my address is on file as well. On the vote that you guys are about to take on this
particular issue, I too have some concerns that there was no parental involvement or any type of input concerning the bill. I said the bill it is actually I kind of feel like it was you guys big beautiful bill because
there was so much of it that you guys went over and I want to say you guys did the yman's task on it. I mean I do watch your workshops, your threehour workshops and you guys put in a lot of time and a lot of work on it.
There was a lot and there are some things that I think that we do still need to have some input on and I would really like for us to maybe have some of the workshops that you guys do for us to have some input on it before you vote on
your big beautiful bill. Thank you. Okay, seeing no more comments, I'm going to bring the um public hearing to a close and bring the vote back to the board. Can I get a motion for um approval of D3?
I'll move approval. I have a motion from Miss Gilhousen. Can I get a second? I'll second. I have a second from Miss Clark. Any discussion? All in favor signify by saying I. I. Any opposed? Motion carries. 50.
Madam chair, if I can be recognized. Yes, sir. Yeah, I I recognize the the uh constituents, you know, concern because it is a lot. It's 500 policies. We get that. But I'd also point out that the policies that are adopted now can always
be changed, right? This is not a forever deal. So if there is something that the board deems needs to be revisited, they can revisit those things. It's a it's an enormous process. In fact, I would just say 36 years, this is probably the biggest project that that we've ever
undertaken as a district. So I applaud the board for their tenacity in doing that and staff and all the work they had. Tom from Neiola is out there. Tom, can you wave? Okay. Tom's been a great partner. has been there every board workshop related to this. So I I hear
the concern, understand the concern and and it can always be revised is is what I would say. So thank you so much. Thank you board for your the hard work. Uh next up we have a human resource special action
a uh can I get a motion? I'll move approval. I have a motion from Miss Gilhausen. Can I get a second? A second. Have a second from Miss Hansen. All in favor signify by saying I. I. Any opposed? Motion carries.
5. And there is a special resource human resource special action B. Can I get a motion? I move approval. I have a motion from Miss Hansen. Can I get a second? Second. I have a second from Mr. Albero.
All in favor signify by saying I. I. Any opposed? Motion carries. Five. Next up is D6. I'm going to open the public hearing to approve as advertised revisions to student and family handbook with code of con code of student
conduct. You would like to speak on this. You can uh line up behind the podium. Please remember to state your name and address. My name is Tanya Cassen. My address is on file. I'm going to ask you to also maybe postpone a vote on this. I've I've read through it and and what I think and
I and I appreciate that you guys did all this work and I know it was hard and and I know it was a lot because I have spent the last couple weeks of my life trying to read through all 500 something policies including uh the student code of conduct. I want to stress something to you. It is going to take months for you to redo something that might be
egregious. If there is something in these policies or something in the student code of conduct, it is going to take a lot of time for you to undo that mess, no matter how bad it is. Here's a really good example. In the current policy that you have, um you have one
that says the school board is required uh requires a planned program of school counseling to be an integral part of the educational program. The program may and it gives a couple bullet points and C says provide responsive mental health
counseling and services to students. Nowhere in this policy does it say whether or not parental notification or consent will be required. This is a serious responsibility and without transparency, parents have no way to know who is counseling their child. What
criteria is being used for this counseling or how mental health services are being defined and delivered? I'm going to ask this board yet again to pump the brakes on what you can. and you've already voted on the one that you can, but our student code of conduct is every bit
as as egregious in some areas um to specifically the inclusion of ideas like social justice and uh restorative practices. So, I'm going to ask you to pump the brakes one more time and really listen to the people out here in this audience. These are our children. We
deserve a seat at the table. We did not get that. I hope you take heed this time. Thank you. Seeing no other comments, I'm going to close the public hearing, bring the vote back to the board. Can I get a motion
for approval for D6? I move approval. I have a motion for Miss Hansen. Do I have a second? I'll second. Have a second from Miss Clark. Any discussion? I kind of agree with our constituents about notifying parents if our one of
our children is getting counsel by the schools. So it's a state statute. It's by law we have to do that. So what what's the what's the problem then? There isn't one. So what happened? It's not expressly written in our student
code of conduct, but state law would always trump anything in our student code of conduct, and it guides how we write our student code of conduct. So, like we did with some of our policies where it's kind of redundant to say word for word exactly what's in state statute. State statute doesn't change
based on what's in our student code of conduct. So, we're still held accountable by law. So, you've got the law that trumps our policy. our policy trumps code of conduct and then code of conduct down kind of like executive order and it
would to Mr. Rossy's point, it's also a procedural thing because it would be in the administrative procedures for how that process would would look for somebody who is going to offer those services because if we were to put every procedure into our policies,
how we do things, it would be 10,000 pages long. and via statute. The superintendent's role is to develop the procedures that make sure our policies are carried out to the fullest extent.
Um, in our discussions, we did add to our new set of policies some procedural oversight where we can have discussion with the superintendent about how he's doing that. Um in addition uh some of you guys already know that I have had
problems disagreement from a personal disagreement with student code of conduct of many of the pages and I was actually going to talk about this during my board comments because as a policy which we approve I would like to in either August or September when it's not
too busy to pick up that process of going through the actual student of code of conduct. I've been on the board three years and we have not gone through that together as a board. So I think that's really important that we do that. And as was mentioned um some of the pieces in
there are very difficult to get to and u Miss Skipper and I had held forums before on topics that we needed to get parental uh input on and I would like that to happen. And the reason I haven't mentioned it up until this point is a student code of conducts when you
actually go through by section uh we're going to need to do research. We will need to have forums and I figured if you targeted August or September for the start of that then as nobody likes last minute changes. So that would give us a
year all the way up until the next time that we vote for the student code of conduct. um give us enough time to make sure that we do it right and extend that um to the public to have input. So that was my only comment is yes, I'm I'm
approving voting for it now, but I would hope that we would take the time to go through that and um engage the community on parts of that student code of conduct. All right. Any further discussion? No, I just hope that discussion answers
uh their questions. All right. All in favor signify by saying I. I. Any opposed? Motion carries. 5. All right. Up next is uh Yep. Adoption of the consent
agenda. Can I get a motion? I'll move approval. I have a motion from Miss Gilhousen. Can I get a second? I have a second for Mr. Alo. Any discussion? All in favor? Signify by saying I. I. Any opposed? Vote carries.
Five vote. All right. And at this time we are going to have uh presentations from the audience. And I only have one comment card and that is Miss uh Judith Chappelle. Good afternoon again. My name is Judith
Chappelle and my address is on file. So my comments and I'm going to try to be real quick because I have a couple of things I wanted to discuss. So the first thing and I've been trying to figure out how I wanted to present this because it's been on my mind for a long time and it's about the way that you
guys just voted on the consent agenda. And I know as I mentioned before that I do watch you guys' workshops and kind of have an idea of what it is that you guys are talking about. And I know a lot of my friends watch the workshops, but I know several people don't. And one of the things that I was thinking about is
how is it that we can get more people engaged? Like how the room was packed before, but now it's like nothing. So what I was thinking about is how can we get more people engaged and wanting to be here when they show up for their awards. So maybe maybe a blurb or some
type of a brief on what is it that's going to be on the consent agenda. So, one of my friends actually brought in for me what the board of county commissioners do and and I if I can give this to the officer here and and there are a few copies here and what they
actually do is they put a little paragraph of actually what's on the consent agenda so that you can actually see a quick brief and I was thinking well maybe if there is a little paragraph of what you are guys are actually voting on so when this room is packed like it was maybe those people
would want to stay here and see what actually happened at 7:00 when the school board meeting actually started that they would may maybe want to stick around. And so maybe that's something that we could maybe think about doing even for those of us that may not get a
chance to watch the three-hour workshop every time. Okay. So that's that was the first thing that I wanted to talk about. The next thing that I wanted to talk about is I was watching that part of the workshop when you guys got to talking about how we're losing money on the
budget because we're losing students. And I thought about what Ralph Waldo Ender Emerson said, build a better mousetrap and the world will be the path to your door. and the things that we need to think about about the mouse trap
that we need to build in Klay County schools. Not just Klay County schools, but schools all over, public education all over. And one of the things that we were talking about, discipline, code of conduct, getting the public involved,
the one of the reasons that people are keeping their kids home, going to private schools, we need to build a better mousetrap. Thank you. [Applause] Up next is Miss Vicky Kidwell with the CCA
update. Good evening. Um, thank you for these three minutes. It's an honor to advocate for Klay County educators. I want to address my comments tonight to our community. All over Florida, districts are planning for reduced for reduced education budgets from
Tallahassee. Clay is no exception. Employees feel the stress, and I know district leadership and this board feel it, too. Like me, you care about the great employees in this Klay County school system, and you want them to stay and continue to serve our students.
Lawmakers are back in Tallahassee now. I was listening um to some updates actually in the parking lot before I came in here and had to scribble a whole bunch of stuff out. Horse trading is going on. They're making the sausage and it's messy. The House and Senate have come to an agreement on the overall
allocations for the 2526 budget, but specific education numbers are not final and negotiations are ongoing. We expect a budget around June 16th. Florida currently ranks 42nd in the nation in per pupil spending. So, it's not just
about the mousetrap. The Senate now is proposing an increase in the BSA of $66. The House is calling for an increase of $50 in the BSA in real dollars. What does that mean? Well,
imagine a kindergartener in 2019 and that kindergartener will be starting sixth grade when the 2526 education budget is in effect. from kindergarten to sixth grade per pupil funding for that child has decreased in
Florida by $400 when adjusted for inflation. The F and the FEFP calculations. Again, I remind the community that the average Florida teacher salary remains 50th in the nation and the House and Senate both are
proposing less in their initial budget than they did in their initial budget right now that they've come back together. So, the sausage is getting made. Teachers are getting left out. The House proposal, what does it mean? It means 50 about $500 annual
raise for teachers. $500. That is not going to fix the problem. What I'm asking for, what CCA and all educators are asking for is that that parents, the community, teachers, you get a hold of your friends, your
community members, and everyone who cares about our students, and you make phone calls, and you email, and you talk to legislators, and you tell them how important our public schools are. We have three million Florida students and they deserve to be funded
appropriately. So this meager increase in salaries will not keep us will not raise us from 50th place. We need them to do better. Please speak up. Parents, community members, it's not about the mousetrap. The mousetrap is getting old
and worn out. We need some funding. [Music] Next up is Mr. Lonnie Roberts CESA update. Not seeing him. We're going to go straight into Superintendent Broski. All right. I'm excited. You know what the most exciting day for most folks is?
Friday. Friday was the last day students. So students were excited all across the district. Parents were exciting. All of the principles out there, they were excited on Monday. You know why Monday was their day of excitement? That was the last day the teachers were there. And so, uh, each
year we go through this cycle, one year after another, and one builds on another. So, today I'm going to talk a little bit about graduation. Let me just tell you something. There's a couple pictures there. I see Mr. Gund, Mr. Pitman. For a high school principal, you
graduation is the culminating event. It's a milestone in every person's life. I still remember high school gradu graduation. and I hope you do too when you graduated cuz it's one of those points in life that you always will remember. I remember giving Miss Skipper
her diploma. There's actually pictures of this too. There really is evidence of that. So, uh, what a great event. Uh, graduation. I'm sure board members going to talk about that at the end. You could see again. Now, I did not do the graphics because Kelly's really the
genius behind the graphics there with the wagging tassels. One of the other things that we do uh is we have our seniors return back to elementary schools. One of the things that's really nice about Clay is that we're big enough to have the resources to provide programs for students,
whether it's APA, IB, CTE, and all the things that we provide students, but it's also small enough where we all know one another, right? And so, one of the great events is when all the high school seniors, they actually go back to their elementary schools with their cap and gowns on. And I can just remember those
students coming back and um and students that are there, they're they're in awe by these big people that show up with their cap and gowns on. So, it's one of those traditions in Klay County that truly makes Klay County the great place it is. And you can see them all going
back. There's Middberg Elementary on on the left. So, congratulations to the class of 2025. Fantastic uh fantastic job. great school year. Now, let me just say this about our administrative group. Teachers
left on Monday. On Tuesday, we were in three days of training and probably ended around 2:30, 3:00. Today, just got right to it. You know, they I admire their tenacity and their go-getness that the day after we're right here at 7
o'clock in the morning to get going. One of the things that we did at the very beginning of that it's very important that you celebrate the previous years. So I just want to celebrate some things because back I remember back in the day I can say this and you know it's not
like my dad used to say back in the day I remember that when you did state assessments with students you actually loaded up boxes of tests onto a big truck. This truck would show up at the school. You would load boxes upon boxes
almost like moving out. These boxes would then be driven to Tallahassee. Tallahassee would score them and like four weeks later you found out how you did. It was kind of crazy. Now through the the magic of
electronics, we see how students are doing real time every day. So every day I would open my computer, look at the entire district, see how we're doing. And like the stock market, some days you
went up and some days you didn't, right? And so principles across the the district would look at that every day and they'd intently say, "Okay, how's my students doing? Are we doing this? Are we doing that?" All those kinds of things. when it gets towards the end, you have a pretty good idea, but you haven't you don't have the ability to
totally scrub the data to have 100% confidence in how you're doing at this point. You also don't have the comparative data like how did we do against uh compared to other districts, which you know is one of my favorite things to do, right? To see how we stack
up against other districts. So, when you looked at uh I would like to recognize four schools tonight, just verbally, fantastic jobs. Charles E. Bennett Elementary School, 61 point increase from the previous year. They're doing great things at Charles E. Bennett
Elementary School. Really are. Clay Hill Elementary School, an 82 point overall improvement from the previous year on year. Middberg Elementary from C to A. Although principles told me don't don't throw out the letter grade because it's
not official until Tallahassee says it is at the end of the month but we can actually see all the data so we kind of know that it's going to happen. Middberg Elementary from a C to an A school in one in one year. And Orange Park High
School Orange Park High School is one of those schools. It's right on the verge. It's like a B plus almost an A. We're talking about the difference could be up to four
students and four students on alternate assessment could be the very difference between an A and a B. So, but in any case, however it shakes out at the end of June, darn good work happening at at Orange Park High School. And I'd just like to recognize them. Uh by our
calculations, we had six schools go up a letter grade. Many schools remained in still in their A status and so we'll wait to see at the end of June, but a lot of great work done um with students academically. So just like to recognize
that. So we had about 200 um uh school leaders come here to Fleming Island, two and a half days. Our focus are is called make an impact. Last year we talked about intentionality and being intentional about what we do because you
have to have a plan for each and everything that you do on a school campus because if you think it's just going to happen, it doesn't happen with having a system in place. And we stress that because you rise you don't rise to your goals. You you sink to the level of your your systems that you put in place.
And so we want to make sure that our systems are strong. from what I saw in the two and a half days, very proud of the work that's put in. Feel like they're they're getting already ready for next school year. We had a couple guest speakers. Uh Jamie Suarez, who's
the 2025 teacher of the year, was a teacher in Argyle, by the way, and also taught at Discovery Oaks. Now she's in Hernando County, so I don't know. I think it was a a um a husband thing, military thing, but uh she came and
talked to the group. And then we had Mike Picket, who's u um local, the husband of of Treasure Picket, talked about being only a 15 time state champion soccer coach and some of the
things about leadership that it takes to be successful and how to build a winning culture. And you could see the application to schools because schools should be the kind of place where where teachers want to teach and students want to be right and that's that's the
objective and that's what we strive to do. Now the third day speaker was one Matt Boyak. I don't know if they were as excited about that one. Great day. It was a great day. Matt, you were a great speaker. Yes. Uh school teams began planning for 2526.
The one thing that we're focused on now is our school improvement plans because one of the things you always hear me talk positively about the school system and some of the accolades that they have. There's a heck of a lot of work that happened behind the scenes to get there and a lot of work that goes into
simply improving. And so you can kind of see that process there. We'll have about 800 teachers come back. Oh, not next week. I forget the exact date. It's the week after next. that teachers come back with their administration to do that planning to set us up for next for next
school year and the success for next school year. So you can see that there. Also want to remind people of our summer meal programs. You can see that we do provide meals over the summertime uh for our students. Those are the schools up there on on the screen. Argyle, Charles
Bennett, Keystone, Montlair, Swimming Pen, French Park Jr. McCrae and Wilkinson. And that goes on all summer long, but not July 4th. You you'll be without food if you go there. Aptagy, you know, one of the things that the
board um that I celebrate the board for getting involved in is Aptigy, having a communication tool. One of the things that parents have said is that there's too many apps and too many communication tools out there. And actually, teachers said the same thing. Interestingly enough, everybody agrees on this because
sometimes what would happen is the parent would have a couple of students in the school system. One teacher would require one thing, another teacher would require another thing and before the parent knew it, there was like 18 things going on at one time from a communication standpoint. So, we adopted
one communication platform. It's called Apogee. Many of you might have gotten, if you're a parent, you might have gotten an email saying, "Hey, sign sign up for Apigy." Eventually, what'll happen is there's a at the bottom right hand corner of this app, there's a way
for a parent and a teacher to communicate through text message on the app, right? So, it's designed to have communication, better communication with parents and guardians over time. We started a soft launch and now it'll be
fully implemented come August. Okay? So you'll see more information. If you hear the see the word aptagy or hear a you know please go ahead and download and look at it so that you're prepared for when we come back in August with
your student and you can have those communications. Rooms would be a class like a classroom just like you would think. So all the students in one class the teacher can then push out a message. Hey parents, don't forget our field trip is tomorrow. Like and all those kinds of
messages that happen sometimes. What we heard from parents too is that emails, they don't find email to be convenient. Like they don't go on their email all the time where most people have a mobile device and so this would allow that communication to occur and the parent
can just look at their phone and see what the message is from the school. So we we we look forward to using that. That is one of our um our um strategic plan goals is to improve communication with all of our stakeholders. This is the method by
which we would do that. And then there's a brief explanation of what rooms is and what the feature is. There's two-way communication between the the parent and the teacher. Okay? And that's what it's designed to do. uh also for clubs, sports, all of those things, you can
create a room there and uh it would include that message and pump that message out. So, it's also a way I I mean I hate to say this to protect children because now all of that it would be um monitored because you have
to retain those records under records law. So we would be able to see any of those communications not individual texting from personal phone uh which is is not supposed to happen. Of course the board
through their wisdom has said this will be the communication tool that we will use uh districtwide come August. Want to remind everybody about kindergarten registration. Registration's up. How much is it? How much is
it? over over 500 registered. For some reason, everybody waits till like the last second. You know, school starts August uh 11th and and uh coming up and and somebody will come in, you know, August the 10th is probably a Sunday, so they'll probably come in on the 7th and
say, "Hey, I want to register and all of that." Please, please, please start early. Register so we can get you all all set up and good to go. Uh you can see the requirements there in order to register in school. So thank you. Thank you so much. Began April
15th. We want to do it way before August. Parents, please, please, please. Upcoming events. First date for teacher teachers return August 4th. You know, when I was a principal, um, teachers would in where the mailbox
is in a school, they would have on the board, the whiteboard, and the teachers would write, "Hey, there's x number of days left of schools." You know what I did? I erased that. I always put how many days it was to pre-planning. So, when you said, "Hey, there was 10 days of school left." What you would see is
it erased and it says 87 days to pre-planning. Let's go. Right. Because one of the things that's great about what we do is we always look forward to the next year. We're always interested in improving what we did. Very few jobs
have the opportunity to improve year year on year like that. Most people have jobs that it's one that it's the same all year. We have a beginning and an end which provides the opportunity to make changes. So we're blessed in that
regard. Thank you so much. I appreciate it. Thank you, board. All right. School board attorney remarks. Good evening. Uh it look for uh in the next couple of weeks a legislative update from our office uh going over some changes in Florida law. There's a
few things uh that'll directly affect the school board. Um some other things maybe not, but we'll include that in our legislative update. So, we should have it to you soon. Thank you. And that's all I have from our our office. Thank you. All right. Let's start with school board member remarks. Miss Gilhausle,
would you like to go first? I'll keep it brief. I think it was a wonderful end of the school year. Lots of positive movement um academically and athletically like we se celebrated tonight and um enjoyed all of the end of the year
festivities and graduation was the perfect capstone to it all. And uh just want to wish everybody a safe and um enjoyable summer. Mr. Albera, I wanted to share that since elected to the Klay County School Board, I have
dedicated significant time in getting to know our school administrators. I have responded to dozens of emails and text messages from concerned parents, teachers, and community members. While I have made a good start, a good head
start, there is still much more to be done, and I believe there is always room for improvement. One of the most memorable memorable experiences I had so far was the privilege of attending to our four high school graduations and
celebrating the achievement of thousands of students. Seeing their happy faces and shaking their hands was amazing. Their diverse personalities and the promise they represent gave me hopes for a better and brighter future. I wanted to say today that I am proud to
represent Klay County School Board District 2 and I will continue working tirelessly to enhance our children's life and their education. Thank you so much for giving this opportunity. Miss Clark,
I'll keep it brief as well. Um, yes. I think we all went to a few graduations and I enjoyed the elementary ones as much as the high school just to see the sixth graders and that hope of what they're about to decide to do in their life and the interest they're going to
take whether it be science or math. So, it was it was fun. And I had the pleasure at my high school of former superintendent Ben Woram being there and being able to give his granddaughter her diploma. So, that was special. Um,
regarding the policies, I think anyway, in my opinion, we had the easy part. I was very impressed with Niola and their work. It not always when you hire a vendor,
subcontractor, anyone consultant. Are you always pleased with what you get? But I was very pleased with Miola. Um, we had the easy part. the staff in Neiola had the hard part, but we we just had to read it and then give our
opinion, but there was so much that had already been done for us. Uh there wasn't a significant amount that had to be changed. So, I thank you for that. Um other than that, I mean, we really do
you get into it and your mind starts going to procedures and you have to remember this is only policy. we couldn't possibly get procedures in this section. Uh overall, let's see. When we talk about reading, and
obviously we've been doing that uh regarding banning books, not banning books, I would love for the school board to try to find a way to where when our students leave elementary that they still have an interest in going into our
libraries. and what is that going to take? Um, I just think that we're smart enough to come up with some ways that maybe we can help the staff in whatever they need. But and I think that's why we
push the uh Dolly Parton Imagination Library because from zero to five, we want these children to learn that love of reading and to always have that desire no matter what age, whether
they're 80 or eight. And it's so important. But if we can just talk about it, maybe find something that we can help our staff. Not that they need our help, but I would really like to see us focus on that. Um, other than that, I
just pray that we all all our employees and all our students come back to us safe next year and have a great summer. Thank you, Miss Hansen. So, a couple of things. is more like um rambling for me because it's so odd. I never thought I would think about Mary
Bola as often as I do. But when uh my husband and I kind of had this joke like when Mary left because she went to everything, right? He's like, "You need to be the new Mary Bola. You need to go to everything." And honestly, I really have is almost everything. I think I
went to eight fine arts things in a row with Mr. Broski. And I thought to myself, for her to do that for those many years, I mean, honestly, it was it wore me out probably 30 things in a month. But to top it off, the joy that
you get going is why Mary did it. And I I I get that same joy at watching the successes of Klay County students. Um I wanted I if I could I want to respond to a couple of things and maybe get some
clarification from the superintendent. So one thing when are we archiving? Is there a date for archiving the policies and uploading the new policies? Yes. Immediately. We can do it immediately after we vote. Yep. You've
already voted. So we can archive the old ones and bring in the new ones. Yes. We'll archive them in a separate folder. So people can actually see the changes that we made from those and then all the other ones will be there in a searchable format um by section. Okay. Um the other
thing is I was thinking about when we were talking about having like a brief summary or whatever of what we talk about. It is very difficult. Um, I wear a hearing aid at the workshops and there is a lot. We've done our best
and we've tried to make it quieter in the workshop to make it better for people to hear us. It is very difficult to hear us. I actually had to watch a workshop when my mother-in-law passed away. Very difficult to hear our conversation. So, by state law, the superintendent is required to take
minutes and I know that um, Miss Bonnie does a great job. The summary is already written for us. um is do we post those where people can find them um for the workshops because the summaries are fantastic. Yes, the minutes are posted
on the website. At this meeting tonight, we approved last month's minutes. So, I will publish them to the website Monday morning. And where on the website do we post them? We have under the schoolboard section there is a schoolboard links
section that will take you to agendas, minutes, policies. Uh you can rewatch the videos, anything you would want to do related to. So I was thinking one suggestion would be because she's so excellent at taking notes um literally doesn't miss a word. Sometimes the minutes are very long and other times
they're short. She's able to type in comments under each uh agenda item if schoolboard members have that discussion. So, I think it's it's helpful for people to know that it it is the month later when we approve it. But if you really want to know what's on
that and then for the upcoming workshops, I don't know anything about how we could maybe put a brief about the most important topics from an agenda or not. I would be interested um for folks to have a look at that because maybe more people would come talk to us if
they actually understood because looking at the agenda just in an agenda format is very just you know long and cumbersome. U so those are my two thoughts. We do have minutes posted for people to read and they are the summaries of our workshops. Um the last
thing I I was excited I had two opportunities to be a guest speaker. I had never been a guest speaker in my life. 63 years old and had to speak longer than three minutes was quite trying. So I had to really really work on my speech. And the reason I talk about this is because my speech was
about the state of education. And one of the things that I talk about is really taking a deep deep look inside and trying to figure out why a parent would take a school a student from a public school.
The only way to figure that out is for us to wrap our head around ideas and thoughts and actually reaching out to find out why parents do that. I honestly, Mr. Broski, you said a couple of times, you love to be a competitor. You want to come out on top and be very competitive, be the best schools we can.
I think with the scholarship thing, the money is very alluring for parents, right? I also think that we could spend a little bit of time trying to figure out why people are leaving and that might give us some insight on how we can do better in that area and not
necessarily the academics and the testing and all the things that we normally do, but there may be ways for us to do things differently that keep those parents engaged in public school. This is actually a phenomena that's happening all over the country with parents. And I think if we got on top of it, we could slow that rate and maybe
earn some of those kids back. U my own granddaughter is going back this year um to a school that I think is a perfect fit for her and I am privileged to those the information I need to make help make those decisions in our family. So, I
think one of our goals should be to try to um earn those kids back by doing better at whatever it is because I'm not quite sure what that that is. I don't know what you guys think about that,
but that's all I have tonight. Yeah. Yeah. One one of the things that uh family and community engagement does is that very thing. We survey to find out why why students are leaving where they're going. We track that data. We
also market for students to come back. Now, that's relatively new like like um the idea of school districts running more businesslike is really a two-year uh venture that we've done that. Okay.
So, I can certainly show the data, bring a presentation to the board, show you where where the enrollment trends are and all of those kinds of things so you can get um a true understanding of that, but we're we're on our way to doing that. Are we as as good as we could be?
Probably not, right? So, well, like maybe even like a brief exit summary. You know, most businesses do those kind of things to try to pinpoint, you know, Yeah, we we are doing that with students that are leaving. Great. That's great. Thank you for sharing that. Other than that, I just I love serving with this
school board. Um I hope the people of Klay County know how blessed they are. All you have to do is watch a school board meeting from any other county and you will know I have written down 25 big things that we have done in
conjunction with district personnel. 25 big things. I have friends on school boards who've gotten two things done in the last two and a half years. And that is not exaggerated. There are school boards in state of Florida that spend
the entire time bickering and fighting about what they want to do. People whose personal values and personal feelings um are weighed higher than the actual goal of a board where five people come together. We have to make exceptions. We
have to disagree. We have to sometimes change the way we look at things for the better of this district and the better of the students. And it's not as easy as people think. But if you don't know that this board is working hard for you
together, spend some time watching a couple other districts. That's it. Thank you, Miss Hansen. And just to piggy back off of um what Miss Hansen had said, uh especially when it when we're when we're talking about policy, a
lot of policies that we just went over with Niola um like cell phone policy and um dress code, all those things, a lot of those um policies we did hold forums
prior. um we didn't rehold them, but um there was very minimal changes that were made to those very controversial policies. Um and as your elected officials, you guys put us here, um I do
encourage you to reach out. It's it has been 12 months a year that we've been working on these policies. Um and each section was talked about. So, I encourage that if it's a business section that you you have issues with the section um that we already h a
policy that already has an issue and in that section, you know, it's going to be present. I would have encouraged to hear from you. Um there were several several organizations, several parent associations that had uh no problem
reaching out. Um, I know personally that I had advocated for those parents um with with each policy, each line. I even brought some policies back because they wanted them. Um, we spoke to teachers. I know Miss Hansen has visited how many
schools? Um, I think 29 and almost 400 teachers, right? Um, so I know several of us had had visited um, schools as well and talked to teachers, but I know that Miss Hansen had made it her goal to go across the district to speak to these
teachers. Um, so a lot of things were discussed and a lot of things um, policy-wise uh, were brought back to the board and advocated upon um, and for the last year quite frankly.
So, I just wanted to touch on that and having went from less than a hundred policies to over 500, um, a lot of it, yeah, it is state statute. So, um, it brought us up to to speed, if you will, on um, making sure we crossed our tees
and dotted our eyes as a district, um, but also so that we can advocate for our students and put our students first. um with the um alongside of parents making those decisions. So if a lot of things like we discussed were repetitive
or taken out or state statute trumps our policies. Our policies trump procedures and and and student code of conduct. That that's how it works. So, I want parents to be secure in knowing um to
not be stressed out if if a state statute um is there, it will trump whatever is put in place. Um but I know that we have taken an incredible amount of time uh very sharp attention to
detail to these policies and again they are are working documents. We can bring them back. I know we're going to be on a schedule uh to review these policies every year now. Um and if we as a board feel that it's necessary to bring it back sooner, we will. Um so I just want
to emphasize that and let you know as your elected officials um we make those decisions for you and if you have a concern, please reach out to us. Um, and then I also want to inform the rest of the audience if you haven't
already found out we have a school board flyer that's uh going out. I know some people have seen it. Um, they were excited about it that gives you board business that um is upcoming, things that have already happened, how we're spending your money. um some some
beautiful projects and not so beautiful projects, but um educating people on um why things well, not necessarily why things cost so much, but that things do cost a lot of money. And um we're trying to uh do what we can as your board and
and and elected officials. And then lastly, I know nobody cares about my personal life, but I have to say this because um 20 years ago, oh Lord, I was in ninth grade 20 years ago at Middberg High School, Mr. Broski was my
principal. And I thought about all this because graduation's right here around the corner. Um or I know I need when you add these years, man, it's bad. Um, I did meet my high school sweetheart and um, we survived and we are celebrating
16 years today. Uh, married. So, I have to say that I have to pull Mr. Broski. Everybody knows Sue. Now, everybody can know Josh. So, um, happy anniversary. And, um, thank you to all the teachers and staff and principles and
administrators. Uh, because I will tell you that my husband and I would not be in the position that we are in. um if it wasn't for CTE programs actually and um Klay County Public Education System. So um thank you all. Enjoy your summer and
this meeting's adjourned.