Do do any of you have any comments, questions, anything? We'll do our board discussion real quick before we jump into our draft review. I don't think I have anything to share. Mr. Albero,
Miss um clerk help. So, we'll go straight into the agenda. So, if we could, Madam Chair, could we switch over to Niola? We go. Oh, yeah. Go that way. [Music] So just just in general just a quick um
highlight for this remember we had contracted with it was really a national company that focuses on policy and keeping policies up and to the board's credit one of the things that you noticed was that some of our board policies were in fact very old and then we contracted out we went through uh at
least a year long seemed seemed like even longer than that uh way to kind of bring our policies up to One of the benefits of having a company like Miola is that they have a team of attorneys that regularly look at the legislation that's out there and then
make adjustments to policies so that your policies never uh go out of uh compliance with the statute and that really was one of the purposes to doing that. So we went through that that process. we had all policies um up to
date as of the last time it was approved by the board. Unfortunately, the legislature moves fast and they go ahead and they make changes and then because of those changes at the legislature, the attorneys at all of them look at and say, "Okay, because of those legislative
changes, we need to make some changes to our policy." So, this will happen two or three times a year where you'll get a big stack of policies. When I looked at the policies involved here, uh first of all, many of them are three-time policies, meaning they affect
instructional employees, support employees, and then administrative employees. So, the tweak to the policy was done on technically on three policies. However, it was the same policy under all three people. So while it looks like a lot of things I I saw
most of what was on there was not uh substantive uh of nature but necessary in order to keep us in in compliance. So with that in mind I'll turn it over to the chair to to leave there is a little a blue asterisk on
this sentence is incomplete. There's one there's one change and that change happened after even attempts to stay current, but as soon as they put out their update, something else happens.
Well, I I realize that, but it says it's an incomplete sentence. It says, "Declare an intent for the student to graduate from high school with either a standard high school diploma." There's supposed to be a second part. Sorry, what uh section? She's on 5460.
Yes. I'm sorry. What section? 54 the last page. It's the It's students with disabilities. There's more than one option to graduate and it just stops at standard high school diploma and it says either. So I know well I
also know because this is my thing but it it's not a complete sentence. Okay. that you want. It's under students if you go with students of disability the sentence prior to the pink strikeout
and there is more than one option to graduate. Well, we need to get rid of the word either if you're saying the sentence is not right. That's a good point. Yep. So, thank you. So, we can certainly correct any
I can change that right now. um issues because even this policy that you're referencing occurred after the stack of policies came out. I did read this. It just says either Yeah, you're right. That needs to come out indicate there's two
with declaring attempt high school with a standard high school diploma. Thank you. It needs to come out. Yeah, I will strike that. And then under under the policy itself, if you notice anything that's not a substantive change, that's grammatical
setting structure, we can make those changes throughout the year without the formal uh process that we're going through now cuz what we're do what we're there is an agenda item to put this on the board uh for advertisement which
then starts the clock of 28 days for a final public hearing on all of these policies. So this change that that Miss Watt handed you actually occurred after they put this one out. So they will continually do this. So I'm just trying to set you up for the idea that you're
probably going to see something every month like cuz that's the nature of the business whereas before we wouldn't be so active in this area. Uh and due to this change I'm sorry. No, you're I think you're going to talk
about uh we had went to an event and a constituent was worried about graduations for kids with well several of them actually. We got bombarded with several questions wanting to know if we will still hold a graduation for these students.
Do all kids get to walk? This was the question from the parents at this meeting. Mr. Rosie, would you like for me to address? Sure. Because it's a big change and there are people who are upset and not upset like very upset. So, it's a it's a change in the state rule. We actually have not given a
certificate of completion for special education students in a long long time in Klay County. All of our students um with disabilities have the opportunity to graduate. Yes, they get to walk. Yes, they get special c ceremonies. Um there's a waiver if they can't pass the
state testing, right? there's a waiver that um helps them still get that graduation. So, the fact that the state has sunseted that, if that's the right term, has um stopped having the cert certificate of completion is not going to affect our students with disabilities.
Yeah, she had we have not been using it anyway. She has had an autistic child who was wondering how his schooling would come to an end. Like, does he walk normally? Do they do you they can graduate with their class and
or they can defer graduation until 22 and stay for transition planning and those job experiences. That part is the same. Yes. Okay. But that was the only change since the original packet was given to you guys. So yeah, that's fine. I just wanted to
clarify that for um there was a Well, I know that was coming up. So, I just wanted to make sure we said that out loud. Any questions about this before we move on? Any questions about the packet or anything?
Okay. Okay. Okay. So, the second one is uh legislative priorities. You know that each year the Florida legislature meets uh each year various organizations try to present what their legislative priorities are for you. We gave you a
sheet before and and uh it focuses mainly around funding and and that's for good reason. As the board's well aware, we kind of had an extraordinary year this year when it comes to budgeting. Several things have happened. First of all, just a kind of reminder down memory
lane. In June of 2025, the state actually shorted each district their financial dispersement, their last paycheck if you will, from the state. That's at the tune of $47 million. So essentially what happened in layman's
terms is the state ran out of money and said we're not paying school districts their last payment. The total of that payment is $47 million in Klay County. That was roughly 700 uh something change related to that. Uh
you also had the withholding of federal funds as well as the adjustment of title funds, an increase in FRS. The fourth calculation, never in the history of the state of Florida, 1857 have we withheld a fourth calculation. Still to this day,
there is no fourth calculation in the state of Florida, which is totally unprecedented. So to say that it's been a um unusual year would be um an understatement of the year. Okay.
So uh we've had several things happen to us as a district. Not only the increase in private school vouchers, which is roughly $30 million, but also the inflationary costs that go with running a school district our size. So, if you
if you did a 2.7% uh um inflation rate, that that amounts to almost $14 million in inflationary costs that the district's absorbing related to inflation. So, you may say, what do we do? I know this has been long
chronicled, but it's important to understand. Well, we reduced uh allocations. We reallocated. We reallocated about 250 thereabouts individuals within our grouping. We moved people around. Uh went through a
very long process. Uh through good work and collaboration, we were able to achieve that. Uh trying to one maximize students in the classroom. That's our primary goal. Two, to minimize the the impact upon our employees. I've said it a million times. Um we're an
organization of people and we have to prioritize our people and our human capital and we believe we've done that. We've also uh eliminated some contracts. Some of those include I Ready Math, PENDA, etc. So, we've looked at and done
a contract review. We've reduced district budgets by 20%. 20% in budget reduction is a huge number. It's not like Okay, that's a that's a lofty goal. Huge number, right? most. In
fact, I would say 20% might be the largest cut that I've ever heard of of a district budget. And so to say that that's significant uh would be an understatement. Um several other things that we've had to do. We've reviewed every contract within
the district, looked at ways to save money rel relative to substitutes, etc., etc. So, so to say that funding is a thing is a huge understatement, which is why you see all of those things are related to funding. So, just want to give that caveat before you add your
discussion. That's why you're seeing that intense focus on funding coming out. So, can can we just talk about this for a second? So, um, in I am our advocate for the FSBA for
our county and there's a lawyers that speak to us all the time about our priority bullet points need to be towards the top and I can tell under recruiting, developing, retaining highquality staff that in in my humble
opinion and it doesn't reflect the board's opinion but I believe that the increase uh maintaining and increase unrestricted funding for teacher salary at this point in time for me that is more important than the CTE. Other areas
that if you proportionally take money, the one area that is well below others would be funding for our veteran teachers. And I really think that we need to start prioritizing what we think is the most important at the time. And
so would you like to move that up to the very top? Yeah, it needs to be in the recruiting developing section. I think it should be at the top because we always have those other things at the top. And the reason I say that is a wording too. Maintain and increase unrestricted funding.
We don't want them to maintain this miserable funding. Like I I don't I think we need to maybe talk about it as a group. I don't know what I want to say, but to maintain what we're doing right now to me is a really misconception about what this board and district probably want for our master
teachers. So, how could we? So, Madam Chair, you want to discuss on that topic? I mean that would what do you guys well if you just remove maintain and and start with increase
and if we want to move it to the top I think the word discussed that as a board that that is our top priority and then maybe moving that to the top and then taking the word maintain out the the maintain part is extremely important so I don't not that we're conspiracy theorists but because
it's a line item the maintaining is extremely important because if you don't then we're reducing that. So maybe as an English teacher, maybe we should say we have increase while increase unrestricted funding for master teachers
and maintain current funding or maintain put maintain after. Okay. So increase first and then maintain. There's more powerful words I think too like we say provide the full cost of increase, expand funding, increase
funding, um enhance funding. Like I think we just need to decide what power word we'd like to use as a board. If you put increase and then maintain it works it it sound better than maintain and decrease. So if the point is increasing it put increase and maintain
whatever you and I think it do you guys like the word increase? I wish I had my this horse. Um so we're good with switching and maybe changing increase to it. you put a qualifier before that. Yeah.
Such as dramatically increase or whatever word you want to put in front of the word increase to kind of give it more good gusto. I know in the past one of the times we we were really successful is when we attached a dollar amount um and tied it
to a specific project. Um, so I don't know if there's maybe a way that we could do that here by, you know, through our HR department running the numbers that this is what it costs to give our veteran teachers this amount of pay. This is what it costs and kind of like
give the state an idea an idea of what it really truly costs the district to take care of our teachers the way we'd like to. So what we would do is we would come up with our number and then we would have to reverse plug it into the into the
state number. an increase. This is a great idea, Miss Housing, because even an increase that would cover a cost of living increase, which is normal outside of teaching. How much money would that cost? Because we know they don't even get that. And also maintain an increase
that could give us $10 more. Like, you're right. It needs a I think a qualifier. And I think our legislators in Klay County need to understand our individual numbers. They're different from other districts of the state, right? So I think um kind of giving them not I don't
want to get too granular but um working numbers that make sense that are easy to understand and a very specific ask rather than just give us more money for it. that we need this much money in order to do this and we do pay them. This is our
lobbying, right? They lobby for these points. And so I think Miss Gilaus is right about trying to figure out a number that would make us feel pretty good about what we're trying to and also rationale. I like the rationale for the increase cuz sometimes people
think you just you always want more money. Cost of living, I heard you say those words. So that made me think that providing a rationale in addition to the number would be beneficial because it helps the reader understand why we're asking for
and it may be like a grabber in an essay, right? It might catch their attention that it's different than just a single funding increase funding. Yes. But also I think um I think of it from a business perspective. If your department is asking for an increase in your funding, you need to justify why
you need the increase. And so I think it's it shows respect for the ask and it shows diligence on our part that and commitment to this is how we're going to spend it. Um and previously when we were super successful with it, we had it just a very simple item on this sheet and then
we had a pamphlet I believe that really went into detail on our CTE programs because I think that's what it was specifically for previously. Um, so if we had just a pamphlet of um, maybe highlighting some of our best educators
who are been with us for 20 years and they're they've been teacher of the year for the state of Florida or for, you know, Klay County and um, their salary is about the same as a brand new teacher. And we're working really hard to rectify that. and we need the state's
assistance and here's the amount of money it would cost to really get us where we need to be to honor our veteran teachers and their exemplary service. And I will say one of the feedbacks that I got is everyone asks for money. Everyone obviously all 67 counties are
asking for money, but what makes it unique to our county. So I think that this is a great idea doing this. But also when you talk about perspective, I think and I'm not speaking for anyone. I want to be very clear on on the statement. I'm not speaking for anyone.
I think that sometimes um people get lost and it's a one-sizefits-all. So what what looks like a lot um down south is not or or elsewhere is not a lot here and vice
versa. So I think that giving specific numbers for the county is is something that is going to be beneficial for us. understand fully the bigger picture. Previous conversations I've had with legislators, the response when you ask
for um increased funding is well, you need to um go out to your local community for increased revenue. So, I think part of that presentation needs to be we have done that. We have maximized um what we are allowed to collect and
the only area that we have to grow in is state funding. So, we've done our part. We did what you've asked us to do. We need your partnership because we're still not where we need to be and we've cut our budget. So, we should probably emphasize that that we are
not topheavy and that we need more. So, so here's what I take away from the conversation. So, if I'm not getting it, please join in and help me get it was move the last voted point to the front. Change the wording to emphasize increase. provide a number and a
rationale for what it's used for. In addition, that was that bulleted point. In addition, you'd like a pamphlet that can be easily handed that highlights some educators in East County and why it is we're asking for the specific thing that we're in. I'm hearing less is more,
right? Less bullet points, more focused and targeted is what I'm took away from that convers. We have done our part. So we have asked the voters for the 1% and the local the local local voters
have maximized their contributions to local to our local teachers and we need the state to match that too. Okay, I think I think I got it. Is there is there anything else that you that you see on this? If we move that up and this is just my my thought. I've always been a huge
advocate and passionate about this adequate funding to compensate career and technical educator instructors. I know that sometimes um or a lot of times we have issues keeping these instructors u due to the fact that they can go make
$100 an hour doing what they do in a trade field. Um, and they, you know, just like every other teacher, they do it cuz they love it and passion, but to retain them, I think that that's important because that is our public schools school choice program. I feel
like I firmly believe that when we hire somebody who is a certified contractor, whether it be AC, auto, electrician, the the problem I'm I I have or the issue I have with adequate funding to compensate
those instructors instructors, it needs to be somebody who has already went and done their let's say masters in auto mechanics that come to us. Not all CTE positions are certified positions, right? So for instance, you could teach
business tech, right? Teach a a career class, not have any training, you know, something I could learn. Or you could be an auto mechanic, a master mechanic. I think we we need to specify that the people that are making 100 grand are
those that have experience, are masters, have certifications in one of those areas, it's difficult for us to keep them. So there so there is a difference because not all CTE right but I thought most of them have to have like
electrical and stuff don't they have to have you would have you would have district certification which means that you have to have x number of years of experience in that field in addition to um um uh any other criteria for your
employment. Can you clarify when I was an agriculture teacher I was a certified CTE teacher. I had no qualifications for anything other than electrical plants. But I think that's different than somebody who comes to us as electrical engineer from straight out of uh industry. For
example, if somebody with skill in in automobile repair has worked in that industry, they can apply for what's called district certification, which then there's a process that goes through Alice Pulk human resources to verify
their experience to help them transition into the educational field. They wouldn't have gone to a 4-year university and gone that traditional route. This is the alternate route for certification. But don't they have to have a state for their trademark?
I just took a test. It's a Yeah, it's usually a test. It doesn't come with a certificate. I mean, I still have you could have state certification. You can also have two different kinds of Madam Chair. Some of them like a
carpenter or HVAC, they can get a district search. Right. That's what you were saying. But I thought they not they do not have to have requirement. Okay. You can't practice a lot of those without a state,
right? Like you can't change. Oh, you're talking She's talking about the trade. Yeah. Like they're trade states. We do require that on No, no, no, no. on top of that's why I'm like you can't have an electrician
practicing an electrical without she's she's saying like a certified HBA CT not a teacher s I get that you can do training have that also yes if you need that type of certification there's two different kinds of CTE instructors some actually have to have like I need to be an auto
mechanic you have to be industry certified that's what I'm trying to point out that's what I'm trying to point what you want to say is provide adequate funding to compensate industry certified CTO
instructors. Yes. So that we can recruit professionals from certain industries to teach in RCT programs. Is that correct? Yes. So I would just say part of what I get frustrated with with legislative priorities, it's like we
throw spaghetti at the wall to see what's next, you know, like we're asking for everything that we want. Um, which that's the platform that they expect. So, I don't think it there's a problem with that, but um we can we can highlight on the pamphlet the ones that you're speaking of today. Yeah,
I think that's the best strategy. So, you would have in theory you would have, you know, legislative priorities which would be a higher number and then we'll concentrate on the two or three on something that you could easily distribute that would have focuses on the two or three. That seems to be the
strategy that you're bringing forward. Maybe what we could do is divide our list into the school board's top priorities for the 25 26 school year and then ongoing um needs or areas of improvement or something like that
instead of delineating. I like that idea. Yes. Which ones are our top? All right. So, we're going to So, teacher, the last one is our top last one. Well, I' I'd like to jump in if I could please um with provide
additional financial resources and paid training opportunities for educators and employees who work with individuals with disabilities. I think because with our military community and we're still we have a lot of military to be one of two counties
nationwide where the children of our military come to Klay County. I think that's a strong area that needs a lot of support. That's a area that it's very tough to get people to work in that
field and I would just like to see us put a lot of emphasis on that even if we can do a dollar amount what we need or additional positions that we need to help the staff. Well, I guess I'd like to do that. Are you talking about you would like to have increased salaries for certified
help? It says financial resources, additional and paid training, additional support staff, additional pay, whatever we need. Could we title that bottom portion ongoing instead of other? Yes.
But these are all things that we have pretty much every single year. Yep. So to clarify as I'm kind of putting this together and you can see the kind of live updates on the screen. Um would the top three and I'm going to
move the other ones. The first one is Bonnie. Are you able to scroll it down just a little bit? Thank you. Oh, other way. Sorry. Oh, up. Okay. Thank you. Um increase unrestricted funding of a teacher salary. increase allocation come
especially for veteran teachers. Are you comfortable with that wording? And what I may do, are we able to like maybe zoom in a little bit more? I think we can. I think I can help you with this. One moment, please.
I wonder if in that first bullet point maybe we add the um verbiage. Yeah, we need to please see attached for um um specific financials or I don't know something along those lines. Yeah. Okay. Bigger.
Could I don't know I don't know but could be worded increase teacher salary um allocations for master teachers and maintain cuz what they do like this year they divided it right. you got your money to keep up with all the need salaries and then you have your additional monies
that they that we could use for our master teachers and that's all they gave. So maybe increase u funding for teacher sal master master teacher salary allocations I don't know and maintain our whatever
you'd have to tell me Mr. superintendent what we're trying to maintain. Well, the they they add they have a maintenance portion to it and then the the increase the maintenance portion is important. Once you once you give that
salary that salary reoccurring every year that never goes away. That's maint. So our concern, you know, under the quote conspiracy theorist is that that they would then go and somehow remove some of that funding. removing that
funding would be absolutely catastrophic. You've already given that to your employees. You can't like take it away. We're like the last in the That's called something though. The T isn't maintain the TI what is it called? TSA
teacher salary increase allocation TSIA. I don't know. I just feel like the veteran teacher part should be Can we think about it? But I would put like Miss Gilhousen says, see the attachment. Yeah. And then the attachment will be our little flyer where we point all of the
things out. Okay. Like this. Oops. At the end in parenthesis. Do you want like after top priorities C attached like No, at the after number one first bullet point.
Will you have you just put a link in right there? See attachment just like that. Okay. And so what were your other top priorities? We have this one and then CT provide adequate funding to compensate CTE instructors. Did you want to say anything about the industry certified? Yes, industry certified.
Okay. To compensate industry certified ESC one. And then did we want to also include the um compensation for ESC? Uh I mean I'm good at that and I'm
always I will say that there's a lot of funding that in Klay County have 21% of our students roughly 22 21 are ESSE students and I will say that's probably the most
difficult uh to to uh find people for it's very tough. Could we be more specific about that though because there's a lot of sources of ESC funding, right? So when we say we want more ESC funding, can we be more specific outside
of what we normally get, can we be more specific about what that means to Klay County? Maybe adding the 21% number somewhere. Maybe talking about an increased salary due to the difficult position the
teachers are in. I think we need to be very specific about our needs in Klay County versus what they already give us because if you read that as a layman person about ESC, oh they already get so much money. But what we're saying is not that money,
right? We would like some money to do what? That's what I would think that you guys think that's some clarification. Did you want to say something like comp like this comprising 21% of our student population? Well, hold on. Time out.
That could be in the flyer. Are we not Are we still like one of the highest counties in the state with the ESSE population? One of the highest. Can we emphasize that like the brochure?
Yes. Okay. But so what did that mean when you guys wrote this to begin with? When you're talking about financial resources and paid training, I mean, does did the financial resource part include a lot of districts pay their ESC teachers not
just self-contained, but ESC positions more money? Like, what does that mean for you guys? So, one of the things I'd love uh love to do would be to compensate our ESE teachers more, have a differential for that. Yeah, the challenge really is that given our
current financial situation, it's very difficult to do that. But but clearly one of the challenges of being an ESE teacher is is through the IEP process. There's many other responsibilities that fall on certain
segments of that population that would in my mind justify additional compensation and there's further discussion that needs to happen about that to do that. But ideally you would have uh some differentiation in sal salary based on your
responsibilities. So it's kind of archaic to uh to think that everybody should receive the same salary when the responsibilities are different. Can you say that again? So like what would you say that one more
time? Well, I think that would translate really well to our legislators. I think anybody would agree to that if you have additional jobs compensation like that. So, um I would but specific in that language so
that it's not just a we just want more money. You know what I'm saying? Right. That sounds like we just want some money to go pay teachers for training. But what we need to do is be very specific and I don't know if you're if you can work on that out to us. So I I think I think what I hear you
saying is one I think we need to do a little bit refining on the on the first bulleted point because you pointed out that you wanted a number and one specifically in the rationale. So we'll have to refine that one uh and refine the ESC one also. So are we in agreement
that those are the top three priorities? I would say yeah those are the top three. everything else bump it down to ongoing priorities, but make sure that for those top three, those are the ones we're going to provide additional specific make. And the third one, can we make
sure that we maybe include somewhere in our pamphlet that we're a big military community and that that people try to provide their orders or or or negotiate orders for them to be here because of our ESC cuz I think that
I don't to your point making sure that we put things that are unique about Clay County. Right. Correct. And I think we could say we're something like a hub of correct um distinguished ESSE professionals who um
have a a national reputation for the work that they do and they deserve to be and our legislators and delegation can go and fight that for us can say hey well this is what's unique to Klay County and I think that giving them the tools and the um weapons to to
essentially fight for us I think is going to be beneficial. And if we could take out the and paid training and like just get specific about what it is that we really want because that reads as two things, maybe we could just make it that one
very specific thing like you just worded. So, okay. So, what I heard was we're going to refine those three statements, keep them as top priorities, move the rest down into an ongoing, and create a pamphlet primarily based on the the three top priorities.
Can we put um for ongoing unless it's somewhere and I'm not seeing it. Um I've personally tried to emphasize this but um mandates with funding
if we're going to put a mandate whether it's safety maybe. Yes. like whether it's safety, security, whether it's um cameras in classrooms, whatever. I I that's not a thing right now, but I'm
just trying to give an example. My point is is whatever we're going to do, whatever you're going to put into law, can we make sure funding is attached to it? So, more more descriptive on the part about mandating mandates mandates with funding. So provide full
funding for and this is the one I've highlighted. I like the idea of mandates because the last one my thinking is a lot of time with goodwill we pass legislation that is best for our students and our teachers
but I don't think they what exactly in Klay County like we had really old buildings right our safety and security ended up and still does cost millions and millions of dollars. So maybe like Miss Skipper said, we prioritize what
we're spending most of that money on. So for instance, like your transportation, you were saying we get 10,000, it cost 20 million or 10 million, cost 20 million. Maybe we pick the areas that have that biggest discrepancy. Yes. Could we as a board and maybe you
as the chair reach out to them um organize a a financial workshop with our representatives from Tallahassee so that we can um have our CFO present and we can make a formal ask um that way.
What do you guys think about that? I know we we've given them a um booklet. I've met with them individually and then Mr. Broski's met with them, but I think that that would be a good idea. We've also invited them to tour our CTE just so that they can get an idea like when
they go over there like what they're asking for, what what we've already asked for, what it's paid for, what it's doing in our community. Um I know that I've spoke to a couple groups recently trying to highlight those things that hey, this is we're giving back to our
community by having these additional resources and by having this. So, I think it's just that's an important piece, but I think it's also important that they see our financials in black and white, right? We have the presentation um you know that we get as a board to this is the situation we're in
because I don't believe they see the numbers and I know we individually meet with them. But I if we can do it as a group that would be much more powerful than to show the numbers. And if the brochure was really really professional, you know, as I continue to
meet with legislators, we have something to hand them with those things cuz you talk in bullet points. I do when I go visit legislators. I need them to be really clear. Well, and I I want them to hear from us, but I really want them to hear from the
folks who are doing the work. like nobody knows our numbers better than our CFO. So, let's let her speak directly. And they that's what I'm saying. They also this is I think that this would be beneficial. We gave them a packet that she gave us too. So, I told them, you
know, like you can you can reference this when you guys start negotiating your budget and look at Clay County. Could it be legislators and influentials, you know, like leaders, Clay County leaders? Sure. And that would make sense to me if you had the right people in the room.
I I think it would be beneficial. I don't like to Mr. Basky's point if we're in an unprecedented situation with our budget and um I don't to my knowledge we haven't ever invited our delegates to come to a schoolboard meeting. We've gone to them. Um, so I think it would
be, you know, kind of raising the red flag that we have a situation and we need your attention and um, giving a full presentation on we're being responsible with the dollars that have been entrusted to us, but it is truly not enough to cover all of the needs that we have
and please come here and understand why. Um, because I I think there's this rhetoric that goes around that whatever government bodies are constantly money grabbing, right? like and I'm not saying that doesn't ever happen in some instances but truly our numbers are what
they are and um we are truly not able to meet the needs that we have. Um, so I think that it's a it's it would be appropriate in my perspective and in the long run when you look like sometimes when people will write me an email, what usually goes through my head
is that's their thing, right? They're focused on that thing, but the district, we get lots of things, right? There might be a hundred fires at one time. And I think that legislators mean really, really well. But this is the school. The education piece is just one
thing in a very full menu. So I think it's really a great idea and I would love to hear from them of our priorities. What do they think are the most realistic asks? Um I think just having a dialogue and a conversation would be good.
So um can we get our priorities cleaned up and our little pamphlet done and then maybe call for that meeting? Yeah. Yeah. I know they start going to committee next month. So, um, whatever would be before January.
Well, definitely not next week, but perhaps mid October. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Whatever. Um, okay. I know they're I think that first and second week is coming, but whatever. We can any anything else related to this? So, we'll clean it. We'll we'll make those
changes. We'll get it back to you to look at and then we'll go from there. So I appreciate the the discussions is really really important because the impact that they have on on what we do every day is very important.
So the last item on the agenda before we have a you know we have a full executive session uh after this after this meeting is the agenda itself. Before we do that, I thought it'd be important to give you an update on uh one of the programs that
you guys brought forward to help increase community engagement, which is appe where we're at. So, I have Terry Dennis and Sabrina Thomas here going to give you an update. Would you guys like to take it away? All right, real quick update. I know last time we met, we kind of talked
about the website and all the traffic cuz we've been getting a lot of extra traffic to the website, which is great. Um so one of the other parts of the platform from app to G that they have is engage which is the newsletters. So to date um and you know we're just through two months of school we have published
districtwide so that includes our schools and our district newsletters and the board brief 411 engaged newsletters. So schools are really really utilizing the newsletter feature that is embedded to it and that was one of the newest features they brought on. And then
additionally um which is great that Sabrina's here. So Sabrina actually each week tracks our rooms involvement and handles a lot of the trainings at the school with the room. So this is a great great connection. So as of week 18 that
she's been tracking, which was um last week, we have 4,489 rooms that have been created. So I know there was a little concern at the last board meeting about like teachers not having rooms. We have almost 4,500s of them. The other thing is we've always
had a goal with Aptigy of having 50% activation rate with our parents and that was a district-wide goal and so we blew our goal out of the water in August. So we're already at districtwide 60%. We have three schools that um we call gold stars. Um so Orange Park
Elementary is at 83% Fleming Island Elementary is at 77%. Thunderbolt is at 75%. We only have one school not at our 50% and technically we've been working with that principal. It's it's Bannerman. So we've been putting a
little extra support and we'll be continue to working on engaging parents there. But every other school is well above 50% or more in parent activation which is great. So the other thing with that that we had as a change and part of
it being streamlining communication in protecting the investment and it was something that I kind of played with Mr. Blocker and Mr. assignments back in August was changing the way we utilize then our social media accounts and our
Facebook accounts and this is mirroring um similar mirroring of what we have 12 12 other districts in the state which was turning off the comments in the DMs. So that was twofold and it was to streamline communication for people to
be using rooms and to be using Aptigy. So anybody in the community can go ahead and download the Apty app and we have our full staff list there. So you can send a message right there. And each school also has their own school. You think of it like a front desk room. So if you're a parent or a guardian, you
can directly go through the front desk room so to speak for messaging. Um, one of the issues we have with our social media accounts is we have no way of knowing truly like safety wise the people who are asking us questions in
DMs. And that was very apparent when we were setting up rooms when people would say, "I don't have a rooms code login." And then you go and see like, "Well, you shouldn't have a rooms code login because you're not attached to the kid in synergy." So there's a safety concern there of is this person supposed to be
having information to what the school is putting out. The second part is the school is using a lot of those more as billboards and highlighting. In the past we didn't have a tool to communicate things like buses are going to be late. We're doing a weather dismissal. So now
we are working on streamlining communications both from the school teacher parent lens to go through a safe way of communicating. So um that was just a shift that we kind of had in place for about maybe two weeks now and
I know we had reached out with um in August. So big goal is to have everybody streamline efficient communication using rooms and apty. Now, nobody manages those accounts to answer those questions.
They we've had to set up um they're like away messages as well because they're not managed as much as you would manage your school account in your email. So then there's people who go through a DM on a Saturday asking for an important question that was completely missed and
then you have sometimes an angry parent missing information, but then they don't have any record on our end of contacting the school for information. And again, sometimes we have um people who should not be um on record receiving information about what's happening at
our schools seeking. Can I ask a question? Yes. So, some parents have reached out to me because they like it. They love rooms, but two of the teachers aren't online. What is our teacher percentage of participation? I was going to say I don't read that.
I don't have the teacher percentage. Um that's an important number. That is an important number. So we have definitely been working with our teachers to make sure I just reached out a school just reached out today. So that's kind of the phase two of making sure that we get everything first was let's make sure everybody has the
training they know how to create the room. Now we have as Terry mentioned 4,489. So a good percentage of our teachers and our coaches and our sponsors have created those rooms. And so now we're getting ready to for phase two of our implementation going back in and seeing
which of those teachers haven't created those rooms yet. How can we support them in going ahead and getting those rooms created created? So that's kind of our next step of we see our activation rates for our parents are looking good. We see that the majority of our teachers are on board with the numbers that we're
seeing. So now let's go back and encourage those last few that haven't done that yet to see, you know, what barriers might be in place that they haven't gotten that completed yet. Let's just take an easy number. 2,000 teachers times five periods is 10,000 rooms, right? Oh, we Yeah. Yeah. So, a a good point.
And we're at 4,000 rooms. Yeah. We We coached it differently. For secondary, we did. So, for secondary, a lot of our teachers are teaching the same prep. So, if you're teaching the same prep, you don't have to have a class for each period. You could say, "I'm teaching
four periods of honors biology. I'm just going to make one room for honors biology." and put the rosters from all four of those classes into one room because the communication is going to be similar like here's your study guides, our test is tomorrow, you know, all of
those kinds of things. So to kind of ri cut down on some of the burden for that communication, we did we did recommend that they do that so that they just make one room and that could cover you know as many periods as that prep. Yeah. Even our elementary schools are like that as
well. Like if you're on a wheel and you're teaching, you know, maybe the same block of students, you might put all of those in one room. Like if you're teaching ELA and social studies as a wheel, you might just make one room for both of those classes.
Is that replacing Google Classroom? This not replacing Google Classroom. So Google Classroom, the way we're kind of explaining it, Google Classroom is still going to be our main form of communication for our teachers and our students. So student to teacher, teacher to student, Google classroom for posting
announcements, assignments, and rooms is primarily for that school to communication. When we create the room, the students are in there as well. So they're going to get the same information that the parents are getting. So it's kind of really good that we're keeping everybody in the same transparent loop there, but it's not
replacing Google Classroom. They do actually have the ability, they do talk to each other. So, if a teacher wanted to, they can connect their Google Classroom to the room that they create and the information from the Google Classroom can go straight to the room. That's just up to the teacher and what
what best works for their classroom setup. Um, we've had some back and forth, you know, as we go and we learn new things, but sometimes we're getting feedback that if the parents are getting every message in Google Classroom, that's a lot. They don't need to have every assignment that the kid is getting. Um, so those kinds of things
too where you know some teachers may have turned it on at first and now like okay maybe that's a little much. I'm going to turn that part off. Um, but we're working through all of those as we come up upon them because I'm sorry. So if the Google classroom is connected to aptagy I know like there can be
student dialogue or they will post a discussion question and you have to respond and that's one of your assignments. All of that if that does not come over. The only thing that comes over is if the teacher posted an announcement, the announcement will come over. And if they turn on assignments, the assignment would come over saying
your teacher has assigned you worksheet 1 2 3, but that the student dialogue and the back and forth would not come over. But um some teachers are using cuz they can upload as well, right? Correct. To rooms. So I know that some teachers have
the parent thing has kind of gone away in that part because they can even upload their classroom rules missing assignments to one parent. So rooms is actually take if I was teaching I would be very happy to have rooms because it's actually really
phenomenal. I think next year we're going to see how phenomenal it is. I think you guys have done a great job with that one-year push and by year two we're going to really appreciate it. I think you're absolutely right. That's what we we were talking about last year.
We moved through the phases of API where we were doing kind of like phase one was the website and phase two is the app and phase three is rooms and alerts. And now we're kind of moving into the phases now that we've implemented it just like you guys are saying where we've done kind of the initial push. Let's make sure that
we get the app downloaded, we get everybody on board. Let's make sure that we have our teachers trained and now let's go back and refine, right? Which parents haven't activated their accounts? Let's reach out to them and make sure that they are there's no barriers that's keeping them from connecting. Let's reach out to those
teachers that haven't gotten their rooms created. What barriers do they have? How can we help them get on board? So, that's kind of what you'll see as our next steps is now those people that haven't quite got on board yet. What can we do to support them so that they can be in the loop, too? Because especially ESC kids, underperforming kids, those
are the ones you really need to get the parents engaged. The ones who do not even know the grade exists until the end. When we talk about I'm always a very big proponent of teaching is that we need to notify parents when the kids are not being successful in the
classroom. It was always really difficult. And so I think it's really really important that we get the unengaged engaged when we're talking about at least one person from each family so we don't kids don't slide through by accident when teachers are
too busy to tell a parent please check the grades you know your numbers is that based off of per family or is that based off of like like my husband hasn't downloaded the app but I have it it is that so that's how they told us to
look it up like if you had 50% you would be assuming one person in the family has it. Yes. So that's how we kind of looked at it as well because we are counting every guardian that's attached to the student. So if that if there was a student that had four guardians, mom, stepdad, dad,
stepmom, all four of those would come over. And if two of them, that means 50% would be tested, which and I'm also married to one of those when the text message went through and he was like, I opted out of that. And I was like, you hear me? I'm working on this like daily. You could opt out.
And he was like, oh yeah, you have it. And I was like, we got we had he was like in he was like, I'm not downloading that mess. It was back and forth. Anyway, I will say though as a parent and and someone who's not the best at
technology, actually shockingly as a millennial, um I will say that it's very user friendly and it's convenient and sometimes I find myself using the communication as a text message and I'm like, "Okay, this is still kind of formal. I should probably still be a
little bit more instead of like I don't know. I probably shouldn't have said that all out." But it's just that easy is the point I'm trying to say is it it looks like a texting base back and forth to your teacher and finding everything um is pretty easy. And once you sign in
to those one-stop shops, that's why I try to tell parents like your your my school books like all of your things are on this. It's got a link that it goes to. So, um which is what I tried to explain to my husband that it's a uh one-stop shop. It is. And the other part that I think
is really really great that we needed um that we did not have prior to this was we have a lot of multilingual families. Um so this truly when we have I mean we've had people reach out to us from different departments that are like can we translate? I'm like it does it for you and if there's a new language that
pops up cuz we just had a new language pop up and so we're able to go to Aptagy and say hey we have a family with a new language that's not one of our like top seven that we've been focused on can we see if we have it and stuff like that. So, I think it's really great for working with families who don't have English as their first language that now
have a way of feeling comfortable communicating with their child's teacher with the way that it does the translation and the text message. Beautiful. That is good. You you can just tell by the number of emails, the percentage of emails that are coming to you from ProShare as the address. Yes. That'll tell you that they're on their
phone sending you that message, which sometimes is a less formalized. Yeah, I know. Well, It does. It looks like a text and you're like, "Oh, no. This is an actual email." But that's how easy it is. That was the point I was trying to make is it's literally just
you click and you're communicating. So now we're to the point this where where do you have an announcement that all the board knows? But if Terry Dennis thinks she's leaving without me publicly recognizing she she should be ashamed of herself or even thinking that she knows my personality and who I am and there's
no escaping. Uh many of you know Terry Dennis is going to be leaving us and and uh going to working from home and being more around her her children being more of a mom and and who you know who can deny that to a person as great as Terry Dennis. But let me just kind of point
out Terry Dennis being former chief of staff knows a lot about Klay County Schools and in the nine years she's been here, she's been a valuable resource uh for me as superintendent um former chief of staff and in fact when she transitioned over, Terry Dennis, I think
it's fair to say, is the kind of person that that uh always likes new challenge and accepts new challenge well. of being chief of staff for for three or four years. Five and a half. Five and a half seem like those co years though, man. They age you.
I think I think Kelly would testify being chief of staff is not all that it's cracked up to be. It's it's a very very uh a lot of times people don't want to talk directly to the superintendent and they try to bypass the system. It's kind of like mom and dad in a house,
right? And how kids go around. All of that exists in a big organization like this one. And so the chief of staff position plays a valuable role. And then she wanted to leave and be chief of staff. And so she said, "Hey, I want to go over to the communications department of which I sumearily said no." She said,
"That's it for the discussion." I said, "Yeah, that's it for the discussion." No. Terry Dennis being the crafty, wise person that she is, she found a way to do it by it took her two weeks to figure it out. There was a written plan and then came back to me and said, "I
got an idea. I'll move over here and when you hire a new chief of staff, I can be here to support it. So, you're getting a two for one deal. I said, BOGO? Who doesn't like a BOGO, right? So, that's how you That's the kind of craftiness that that Terry exhibits.
She's wicked smart and has a great great sense of humor. A lot of a lot of things that happen in the course of a normal day are are stressful and those kinds of things. But just to have somebody that puts it all in perspective,
okay, and rational uh about things has been a a true blessing to have to have Terry work here. I think she has the respect of the entire organization. That's right. When I say that, so it it's a big gut punch when somebody that has that level of stature within the organization
leaves. We certainly wish Terry the best with her family. And um I was talking to Kelly one morning. I said, "So, so here's the deal. I'm going to try this angle on Terry, you know, and I'm going to do this. I'm going to do this." And I'm strategizing with Kelly, like,
"Okay, how are we going to get Terry to stay, right? Cuz we'll see. I'm competitive, right? I'm going to win. So, so I'm doing all this." And then Kelly goes, she's already told her kids. There's no going back. I I lost, but there's no way I'm not
winning this argument. So, I tried everything from the the picture of Sue and I on the cliffs of Moore in the green green grass of Ireland. I tried everything I could and Terry's going to do great things where she's going. She's going to be uh um more present with with her children, which is important. So,
when you look at it from an organization, what do we do when somebody leaves? Well, we try to we try to uh put somebody else that has equal stature. Sabrina Thomas is uh is a fantastic fantastic employee,
respected by all, is a gogetter. Her personality is so uh contagious. They're always positive, always focused on the next thing. And um no matter what it is, even if it's not within her job
description, the answer is almost always yes. Like, yeah, I'm going to help you do that. even though it's not anything related to my job, I can do that because you know that technology is is present in almost everything and technology can be a beautiful thing that
increases efficiency and our ability to do that. And nobody can do uh uh Google uh with the same veracity that that Sabrina Thomas is. So we're in good hands, but it's a big transition. And uh part of that transition was looking at
the job descriptions for Terry's position. So I don't want to say anything, but other governmental agencies within Klay County have either four or six Terry Dennises working within their communications department. So we're going to to look to have an
instructional employee work with Matt Boyak on emergency communication because in a school district our size, things happen every day. a school bus gets into an accident. Uh god forbid a school goes on lockdown because of police activity
in the neighborhood. All of these things are happening each and every day and the communication piece is is so important and a lot of that comes out of the safety and security uh department. So look for those changes to come to the
board agenda. It's very important in a world where uh people want instantaneous communication uh about their children that we provide the resources for that for that to occur. So I mean it's a it's it's you
know it's it's a it's time to look at those resources related to communication and how we do that and um Sabrina Thomas is definitely the right person to lead to lead that work. So it was kind of like it was bittersweet but yet
you know sad at the same time. Sadly Terry here and of course we we wish her the best. Of course we know her phone number and we know where she lives. Well I said Mr. Boya could lose it. So the last the last item is the agenda itself and we'll we'll quickly go
through this because there's very much a lot of routine sorts of stuff on this. There is a public uh uh public hearing for the school counseling policy. That's that's we already did the advertising. Now this is the formal public hearing.
Uh there will be special action placed on the board agenda in the next few days as that as that process uh finalizes here in the next few days. There's there's the minutes. There's the
notice to advertise all of the policies that you guys brought that we just talked about today. They'll be on there for advertisement and then a future meeting will be there for public hearing. The personnel consent agenda of course will be updated prior to that but
will include uh new job descriptions related to communications. Will that be only their job for that? Yes, they'll be part of the communications team, but they'll also be primarily focused on what we'll call
crisis communications. So, those things I just would do something on top of that. Do we have like crisis communications every day? Every every day, probably four times a day. So and then
and don't forget I mean I Terry will will be humble and not say this but it's it's 24 hours a day like Sunday at 8:00 when when some student posts something ridiculous at their
home. The whole mechanisms goes into place. Mad Boyette gets a call. Terry Dennis gets a call. I get a call. we start to to look at how we going to communicate out with our families, do we have the resources for that school, etc., etc. It doesn't even on holidays,
it doesn't end when it comes to um communication. So, so if we're I just think that we need to have very defined job descriptions. If we're going to create a new position during a time where we just went through,
we we'll have that for you. really there has to the rationale has to be right to create a new position in this environment. Yeah, absolutely. There's no doubt that the that it's right. I mean, I provide the the illustration of foreign six for you without naming the agencies right
here in Klay County. You can see that we're severely understaffed when it comes to that. The opportunity uh to do that is here because because of Terry's departure, right? this is the culminating fact which causes that change to to occur. Otherwise, we
probably wouldn't, you know, feel the need to to make that change, right? We wouldn't examine it the way you would when somebody leaves of Perry's stature. So, well, and if I could add to it too, something as a departmental goal, and we work really closely with safety and
security as well as a departmental goal of being able to put on with because also family and community engagement calls under communication. um really stressing to bring back smartphone safety, having this person put together like this person would be working on educating parents on the smartphone
safety on the vaping and putting together those night events cuz we only had that one last year and I feel like Mr. Boy and I have been trying to schedule one in for October for just months now and it's always like something else comes up and something else comes up and so having that as a
safety and security also like educational piece for communicating out information um that I think sometimes parents aren't aware of. So when we have crisis communication come through for our end. It is typically always something that if parents were educated
about and knowing to look out for could have been something that stopped it before it got to that level that then comes to you guys in a hearing. Okay. Next is the um the the pricing for substitutes putting us in compliance
with the new minimum wage uh pay increases the elementary student added travel. We have our agreement with um Orange Park Medical Center for our interns to for our students to go there for their internships.
Our K12 academic out ofstate overnight travel. Our residential clinical factory memorandum that's our partnership with the UNF that's that's there. There's a request to review library material uh appeals
are on this agenda also. proclamation for Red Ribbon Week proposed allocation changes. One of the things that uh I'll just tell you openly, one of the things that in the planning process that we probably should
have done better job with is that we we didn't increase the allocation for custodians at the two schools with the new building. The new buildings are about 50,000 square ft. the industry standard for the state is a custodian
for every 20,000 um square feet of space they're maintaining and um so we just forgot to add those on and so you actually need people to clean the new buildings so that's why those are those are on the agenda
I don't know that first day they looked really clean to me they look great they they still look great and we want to keep them that way okay deletion of items there's also bid renewals as well as um the safety and security security items at Oakley Village,
Plantation Oaks, Discovery Oaks. Um then there's the Green Cove Springs, uh CTE Lab Upgrades, HVAC at Coppergate, uh Shadow Lawn Elementary's Fire Alarm System. You can see Ops is Ops is busy
cranking them out. uh Doctor's Inlet fire alarms, Ridge View High Fire Alarms, Fleming Island High's Fire Alarms, as well as Oakleafs Fire Alarms. Then you have Ridgeview High School roof repair,
Tines HVAC, Plantation Oaks Fire Alarm, Ty Fire Alarm. I don't have a question. Oakley Village Fire Alarm. How much are the fire alarms? Sorry, I was trying to pull it up. I just wanted for reference
between 250 and 500. Okay. Sometimes it can creep up depending on the size of the school up to about 600. What What was What was the one that was like almost a million dollars? Not the fire alarm, but the fire um the I think you're talking air conditioning.
Um is it the orange? It was like $800,000 if something fire something. Isn't that when we were talking about it one day? So, Orange Park High School gym renovations are running about 800,000 for the fire.
No, that's just the gym renovations. I'm trying to think of Never mind. I'll think I'll maybe it's in the packet. I'll look at it. I was just trying to for reference cuz people don't understand that some of this stuff costs as much as So, that's what I'm trying to Yeah, the cost of things is
is astronomical. Go ahead. Sorry. pre-qualification of contractors. Then there's the direct purchasing for Lake Edbury Junior High which actually, you know, saves money on the district purchasing directly and then Lakeside Elementary Kitchen renovation and that
completes the agenda. So turn it back to you, Madam Chair. Thank you, Mr. Rosby. I had talked to you about um having the CEO put your expenditures that do not need board approval back into your financial monthlies. Okay. I'll get I'll get with Miss Posey
about that. Um I also have a question too for operation if people want to be part of like a contractor or whatever. Who how do we do that? Can we just give through email? I
mean how how cuz they can email us. They have to get pre-qualified. So they have to submit a packet. There's a link on the We have a link on the website for some reason they can't find it. You can send them and it's under operations. No, I'll just tell them to look at the If you go on their operations page,
there's literally a link that says here's the packet that you have to fill out. I just had somebody reach out and I wanted made me think of that. All right. So, no questions from the audience. Superintendent. No, ma'am. All right. So, school board attorney
comment. No, ma'am. All right. We'll do school board comments. We'll start with Miss Gil. Miss Clark, Miss Hansen, sorry. Two things. Um, one question to our
schoolboard attorney. I would like to get some kind of an update on what's holding up our um, attendance, you know, our attendance truency court. I know we started talking about it one and a half years ago and I
don't know why we're we're not in a place to start that yet. So if you could give us some kind of an update why it's taking so long when I know that we already have a judge on board. I it's just been a year and a half. So
yes m I I can with the chair I can give a preliminary. So I think um one of the one of the challenges has been getting identifying the partners in the community that can be referred to. So when there's a truency case that comes through part of the process is being
able to refer them to some of the community partners. So I think that's where there's been a little bit of a hold up but I can circle back. Where are we though in in that and it seems like a a really long span of time like how long have we been stuck on that one? So sorry I can just tell you this. One
of the things that the judge wants or requires is all of the documentation to be complete. I believe that's why 8 or 10 years ago that was abolished or or not done as much. We believe we're in position to go
ahead and bring forth our first cases come January because each year remembering counts as a new year. You don't get to retroactive what happened to the student last year. So you have to build up the case during that year because attendance for a family could change from year to year
where one year it's it's good, one year it's really bad. Uh and certainly bringing the most egregious remember the purpose of truency court is to bring the most egregious folks to to to bear uh that level of consequence. When it comes
to attendance itself, there's many other things we do in relation to attendance in order to improve attendance. And attendances, believe it or not, is a little trickier than it appears because remember the statute talks about
unexcused absences versus excused and what is excused to or in the minds of of one parent um might be different than another. So it's more it's more complicated than is the person physically there or not. We do have students with medical illnesses for
example. some even you know cancer missing many days right and so their attendance looked terrible but that's not a student for for truency court so deciphering through that to the people that are totally the right people uh to move
forward in the process takes a little bit of time but we anticipate that by by in addition as we're moving closer to the startup of that program we really need to do something uh when I was visiting schools. One school, all
six teachers on that team had to call home about I about the truency problem. We really need to do something about a universal procedures or protocols as to what we do because we have technology that can track these things. It should never be six teachers calling home for
one kid. That is legitimately the procedure. I can give you the name after uh and then some schools have one key person who does that. So that part also needs to be I think refined. Sure, we can we can take a look at that. There's actually a three- tier process
and I don't want it to be teacher responsibility all the way. It is by statute. It is by statute. The statute literally reads that communication will be frequent from teachers to parents. Yeah. But it doesn't one call.
Absolutely. And we'll we'll get into that. Yeah. I think what we should say is that we'll we'll certainly review the process. There's a process in place. It's unified in a tier one, tier two, tier three approach. There are letters that are sent to parents at 5, 10, etc. There's a whole process involved in
this. I would say one of the challenges, which is going to sound ridiculous to to you guys, one of the challenges is that sometimes people don't attend that believe their absence should be excused versus exc versus unexcused. If it was
as simple as if you're there or not there, that's the criteria. And then if you reach a certain number, then there's um a different level of consequences. Well, the fact that they're there or not there differs on each family. Some of
which is legitimate as to why they're not there. Therein lies the rub and it's more complicated than it would appear. I can tell you that we're in fact just had a meeting on this last week. I guess it was that we're meeting on attendance and
it's why I could speak from the January time frame to move forward. I know that um we just need to codify because I know as a teacher you have five periods and the the law itself, you know, five unexcused in three weeks and seven
unexcused in a quarter. I can't see if they're absent in every class if I'm a high school teacher. So that's the thing like we really need to be thinking about it's great that we get it going and it's all going in the right direction. But for me it it won't be really successful
until we figure out how to those nuts and bolts. The unexcused excuse like teachers for me to keep track like is that the fifth kids unexcused is excuse. We don't, you know, you can go in and see it, but it is really difficult as a teacher to track 132 kids um a day like
at the secondary level and figure out if that's five or did he miss that class or so I I just think that it's great that it's moving forward in January, but every it's like our our legislators, every change you make has a ripple effect and that ripple effect should not
create more duress for a teacher. Um, and the last thing, I sit on the internal account, um, the internal audit committee. We were supposed to be done in August. I've not heard a single word. Now, we're approaching October. And so,
they were supposed to start be done with those over the course of the summer into late August. So, we need to figure out and make announcements, get our internal audit committee folder because people are going in there, right? So, we started
something last spring, hasn't been a word since. Um, I think Miss Onor, we did get the minutes put into the internal audit committee folder. I mean, there's nothing for anyone to look at and I'm on the committee and have no idea what
we're doing. So, so, so the board agreed that they would audit two different areas. One is cyber security, one is contracts. Uh, we have since met with with them. Uh they had scheduled temporary time frames. Bonnie, remind me when
it was supposed to be done by August. Nope. They were they're coming back this year. Okay. And so our meeting with them was, "Hey, when are you coming to get this done?" Uh Kelly, do you remember what month they're coming? So I would have to go back and look at
my notes, but it was around this time frame. It was I think what they wanted to do and if I'm my memory serves me was they wanted to give a chance for us to get into the school year because of it was cyber security start at the beginning of school
and um we just uh Dwayne Weekes just came in as our director and they wanted to give a chance for the school year to begin. let's get everything going and then come in so that their work would not disrupt the I think I think it'd be appropriate to to give
it cumbersome because at our meeting if you play back and you go look at the minutes it was a specific time frame they were going to start in the spring be done by August I never heard a word that oh we can't do it or we need to wait so we really need to this is a very very
important piece if there's one thing people are looking I'm telling you right now they're clicking on this folder there's nothing in it there's no information here. I am on the committee and now just hear that they either couldn't do it. I mean, this is actually a little bit
upsetting for me because they couldn't do it, didn't want to do it at the board direction. We were all told that they were starting in spring, there'd be some kind of in September. So, I think we just really need to figure out how to Yeah, I think I think one they wanted to to start after the fiscal year started,
which would be July 1st. Okay. And that if they would have said that, that would have been great because then we would I wouldn't be sitting here going, "What happened?" Yeah. So, I thought we we do an update at the next workshop so that there's fully out there where they are in the process. I mean, maybe let them know at that
workshop that you are the liaison and to update you. Well, no, I they gave me what I just said, those specific things change or they decide something different, their their direction is to report to the board. So if you're the liaison for it, then we'll tell them
that they need to give you an update. Hey, we're we're not going to come this month. We're going to come next month, even though we said whatever, just so that you can inform Well, you can inform us and you can also inform the public cuz I will say, Miss Hansen, is is correct. I've had phone calls um hence one of my emails that I
had sent out of constituents looking at that folder and things not being present and and um looking at our website and and certain things that our constituents had asked of us. So I will say that in charge of that folder like we need to
have minutes in there. We should probably put updates in there. Um because the average person when we say we're going to allocate $120 something,000 and that when they did come they said it would be done sometime by the end of August. We really need to do a better
job on that. Yes. So they came here I think I was just looking back I was trying to remember I think they came here to a workshop on May 27th and then at that point we did not realize we were going to have a transition with IT leadership. So that
became a factor and then that when we discussed with them the start of the school year they said we are going we're going to give you a chance to kind of get the school year going and then we're going to come in. So we should definitely determine our chair though for our audit committee these
conversations I mean I I do think that that should so those conversations should have been trans or discussed so that the liazison which is why we have the back and and the chair. We have a chair. I'm just
a member. We actually have a chair. But you're the liaison. I am the liaison. But I don't think that you should have been informed so that we know what's going on so we can tell constituents, we can tell others. That's how it's supposed to be. That's why each of us are on committees and that's why one of the things that I did was move
discussions at the very beginning of our workshop so that you guys could update us on your committees and update us on what's going on and or push policy or all of these things. So I think we need to do better at that and if we need to just give them that direction to be more clear at the next workshop when they
come that Miss Hansen or or myself or whoever you need to give us an update so that she can inform us all the people asking me about it. I mean literally I don't anything else? Anything else?
No. Okay. Mr. The only thing I have is if any of you board members want an update on HR, um she's willing to meet with us individually to give us an update on the many things that have been going on. And
I'll just leave it at that. Um so that you're aware, we're all aware, we're all informed. Um I think that's been a frustration. And so I think we're doing better at communication and that's one of the things that um I have requested as a chair and um they are
going whenever you want to schedule it whenever it's convenient. Um so I just wanted to inform you on that and at this time we have executive sessions in the back um for meeting so