It is all the restoration. I had no idea how you take a picture. [Music] Awesome. All of our educational institutions. Good morning. Good to see you.
Well, I started at seven. You know that as it turns out, it really is. I'm a big believer in Yeah. I didn't realize [Music] I got
to send it off right But there's some interesting less than one%. Yeah. Less than 1% of cancer is typically or not.
Yes, exactly. Exactly. The power of positivity does great. It does have a long
say. as a family. All right, everyone. Good morning. Um, we're running uh just a little over schedule. We'll start with the we're going to start with community red development this morning. And if Commissioner May Oh, good. Commissioner May, we're just getting started on CRA. I wasn't sure. You good? Good. Okay, I'll go ahead and let you take off. We haven't even uh called it to order.
Where are you, Mike? Uh we haven't even called it to order. I just announced the meeting. All right. Please turn yourself on the vibrate signs of the offsetting board of county commission allows any person to speak regarding the item on the agenda. Is there proof of publication? The CRA meeting was published in the Pensacola News Journal October 30th, 2025. Do we have any speakers for public forum? No speakers. All right. Technical public service consent agenda. Uh recommendation concerning community redevelopment agency meeting minutes October 2nd, 2025.
Chair entertain a motion. So moved. Have a motion. Second. Please vote. Pass unanimous. Thank you so much. Budget and finance. All right, we have four for your approval. First one a recommendation concerning residential improvement grant program funding and lean agreements. Second one is recommendation concerning the cancellation of residential rehab grant program leans. The third one is recommendation concerning residential roof program funding and lean agreements. And the fourth one is recommendation concerning the cancellation of residential roof program leans. Mr. Chairman, I move all all the items. Thank you. A second. Please vote. passes
and and we're pretty good on the roof program, right? We still have Yes. substantial amount of money. Yes. What are we doing to promote it? I know we talked about it last. What are we doing to promote the roof program and get it out? What are we doing to market and promote the roof program? Uh, we're going to be uh sending out flyers uh to each of the districts uh to uh let them know uh about our programs um as far as that part. Okay. All right. Is there anything else? Postards. Postcards. I'm sorry. What you say? Postcards. I'm sorry.
I said we're sending out postcards. Yeah. Okay, that'll be it. Yeah, let let us know. I mean, I I think a a good effort would be to work through our community centers and through kids who are in our program who have parents because obviously they meet the guidelines for for low income. So, if we could share that with the parents, that would be great. Commissioner May, if I can ask a couple I don't know if it was last meeting or the meeting before we talked about septic to sewer um that goes along with this with uh rehab or um nonhomestead. Is that moving forward
to come back to the board? We we did do an analysis on that uh for Brownsville. Um, we did want to bring it forward to see if we can reinstate that uh for non-h homestead um residents uh in in a different CRA so we can get more people connected. So, we have a timeline ever. No, uh just bring it to you. So, Mike, and let me help. And I don't know if they're ready for presentation today, but particularly in Brownsville, and I know we have a new CRA uh person that's on
board. I'd love to continue to see the analysis. Um, particularly in a place like Brownsville when probably 80% of the home the ownership are landlords and not owners and developers. You know, I just want to be very careful about granting that money to developers and to landlords rather than homeowners. I mean, and you know, the adverse effect of that as well is when you if we give developers or or or landlords money to convert and we pay for that and they still pass on the
monthly bill of sewer to the residents who are already low income. And so as as a sewer, they're not paying a monthly bill, but once they become sewer, they're gonna uh increase another monthly bill. So with all that, I'd love to see the entire analysis, you know, I mean, the economic effect of what happens whenever we do this, particularly to tenants who are section 8 tenants, who are tenants who are barely making u means meet. Who who's doing what anal I mean, is this done by who's doing an analysis? What analysis? We asked for CRA to do it last CR
meeting. Okay. So we we did analysis of the number of people that were homestead and non-h homestead. Um we on West Dotto and Lee Street um on Westto of the 36 laterals that were installed only uh 22% connected. Yeah. Um and on Lee Street of the 76 that were installed uh only 26% connected. So we have a big discrepancy on number of people that connect. Do we know which ones
of those are homesteaded versus not homesteaded? Um, of homesteaded, um, on Dotto, uh, 15 of them were nonh homesteaded and on Lee Street, 26 of them were not homesteaded. Those are low hanging fruit. The ones that are homesteaded. Yeah, the homestead are low hanging fruit. Yeah. I mean, so, and I'm very supportive of the homestead. I'm not supportive of non-h homesteaded. So, what percentage of homesteaded properties do we have in that CRA that you guys took a look at? Um,
the ones that we just the the analysis we did it basically were the ones that connected on the homestead and non-h homesteaded. Um, so what percentage of homesteaded connected? Um, seven uh 16%. 15%. 15%. Right. So, of all the people that connected to our program, only 15% were homestead, right? So, to my point, I I just like to see more. I I see both you both points, but for me, it's an environmental impact as well that we're not considering. Um,
I'll be interested to see what we come back with, you know, and well, what's what's interesting to ECUA is that you have these established historical neighborhoods or the oldest neighborhoods and you still don't have access to it. And so I mean, you know, it's one thing to provide, you know, these subsidies uh for developers to tie in. It's another thing to work with ECUA to create the infrastructure that we don't have in Inglewood and a lot of your districts too as well. In a lot of my districts, I mean, in 2025 in Englewood, and Brownsville, we still don't have access to
public sewer. And quite frankly, it's it's more critical to have that for the business development, for the business corridor that's coming through your district and my district rather than the residential. So, I mean, if we create jobs and we create commercial, uh, people will be able to afford it. I mean, and so now we can't even create commerce or or business in in the Brownsville because people they don't have public sewer for the businesses and that's why many of them have closed down. I've heard that several times as well, Commissioner May. So, I I I agree with that. So, and you mentioned a environmental issue. I just want to highlight
um we do have on the county website now at the top of the page where you can check the waterways and Sanders Beach, Bayou Tahar and Bayou Chico have all had advisories out in the last month due to E.coli. So those are those neighborhood kids that are swimming in that. I mean we've got to do better. Okay. I that was good discussion. I just wanted to follow up. Thank you. Was there anything else ever you need to add about sewer deceptic analysis? U no that was the basically
the analysis that we did. So so basically we've only connected 15 of the grants that we've issued only 15% of those have gone to homeowners right in Brownsville. Brownsville in the in the Brownsville. Yeah. But but that's our model. That's that's our precedent right now. Yeah. Have you guys looked at Warrington? Cuz I remember originally are you planning on looking at the other series? Yeah, we had looked at warrant. Well, we just use uh Brownsville as our model for now, but we can look at warranty or you know, so cuz I know so why don't we just have a look at all of them by by the next meeting. That would help me out. Why don't you look at all of them and tell us
what percentage of these CRAAS are home ownership that have tied into our store and what is the home ownership in those different CRAAS? Okay. Because Mike, I mean, here's when you write a CRA plan, each plan is different for each, you know, each each neighborhood. And so, it needs to be targeted, specific to how we're looking at each one of these neighborhoods and have a a clear path or solution per CRA, not one broad overview of what we should do in a CRA. I mean, Mike's Warrington CRA is going to look a lot different than Inglewood or Brownsville CRA,
right? And Ashley's CRA will be completely different and the needs are completely different. So, we need a need assessment. Uh, we need to see a benchmark of where we are in order for us to make some decisions. Okay. I do want to highlight, you brought up a really good point at one of the last meetings that a lot of your family homes aren't homesteaded, that they're held in a trust. And I think u Miss Clara was going to look and see what percentage of those are held by an LLC versus a trust. And then we were going to try to work with the trust families as well. Okay. Right. If it's in an estate and it's in that family, I mean, that'd be critical information to know as well.
because it may not be homesteaded but it may be in an estate that's a part of the family legacy. So if we can somewhat try to gather that information in some concise form to be able to present at the next CRA meeting I think it'll be beneficial to all of us. Now you want that for just for Brownsville or just every CRA. Every CRA. Okay. You got a lot of homework. Sorry, man. Well, you got some new staff. I mean maybe we'll get it done. Yeah. Oh, most definitely. Anything else for discussion? No. No. Nothing else. Uh, Mr. Chairman, we uh stand ajourned. Thank you so much.
All right, Mr. Chairman, it's all yours. Okay. Uh, good morning every morning. Mr. Chairman, right here. Oh, hey, if I could before we get started. Sure, Wes. I know everybody sees the units around the room. Those are heaters. Everybody knows we've been freezing to death down here past couple of weeks. Uh, so I apologize for the intrusiveness, a little bit of extra noise, but uh, we're expecting our boilers, we're expecting the whole repair to be done by hopefully the end of December, hopefully before, but I know it's been a little tough. So, just please
excuse the the added uh, noise and intrusion. Also, this morning, I'd like to introduce Andrew Ruiz. He's our new mosquito control uh, manager. He's a board-certified enmologist, has over 10 years of specialized experience in mosquito and pest control operations. He comes to us from the Centers of Disease Control in Atlanta where he provided national guidance on mosquito surveillance and emergency response for Zika and Westnile virus. And he's a doctor of public health candidate at the University of Georgia with a completion date of December of 2025. So, Andrew,
welcome aboard. Looking forward to good things for you. Thank you. Thank you, Wes. Uh board, I'm just going to ask for if is there anything on the agenda tonight that we need to discuss before uh we go into the cow. Commissioner Barry, you have anything on this evening's agenda? No. Commissioner May? Okay. Commissioner Stroberger. Okay. You okay? Okay. Good. All right. We'll go into the committee, the hold meeting. Um this is the board of county commissioners regular meeting November 6 at the Ernie Lee McGee government building. We're going to call this to order. Uh,
Commissioner Hoffber, will you lead us in the pledge? Absolutely. Please stand. I pledge algiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, liberty and justice for all. Okay. Uh, has this meeting been properly advertised? Mr. Mr. Chairman, the meeting was advertised in the Pensacola News Journal on October 30th, 2025 in the board's weekly
meeting schedule. Okay. Thank you very much. Um, Commissioner Hoffberger, this was your uh Cal I would you like to leave to say? Thank you so much for everyone being here. Last month, we had a great presentation from from Florida West on the new companies they're bringing in, how the county can partner with them to provide better jobs, and one of the things that keeps coming up is workforce development. So, everyone here today has a stake in that and can help us accelerate that. And I just wanted all of the parties at the table so we can have a open
conversation about how we can support each other and hold each other accountable. So, thank you so much for being here today and I'm looking forward to a lively conversation. Dr. Meadows from Pensacola State College, you're first up. Now, good morning everyone. Uh, you know, before I start, uh, as I, as I look at the county commissioners here, uh, I see partnerships over the years that have blossomed into a lot of success. Uh, starting with, uh, Commissioner Barry with the kids college program at Sentry,
economically depressed area. And, uh, this is an academic initiative in partnership with the county commission. Lumen May, a commencement speaker, graduate, his daughter graduated from our nursing program, an outstanding alumnest. and uh of course uh Ashley Hoffberger uh working with her to increase the EMTs and paramedics uh to support the county's efforts with uh getting people that need to get to a hospital quickly and uh and of course uh Commissioner Culler uh named an
outstanding uh alumnus u last year and uh helps me with the Navy uh keeping the um Warrington campus uh front tidy where they own the drainage uh district there. And uh Commissioner Marino just told me that um we had put a 100 uh county employees through the CDL truck driver training program. So that's a wonderful opportunity for uh the partnership of our CDL training center in Santa Rosa County. And of course um back to uh Miss Hoffberger and also to Pam Childers there.
Miss Hawberger is on our foundation, college foundation and pound children's daughter is on our foundation. So, and I don't want to leave the other two commissioners out. Um, but um I'm sure you uh like most of the people in the audience here have uh a relationship with a college either whether you're maybe your family member or you actually uh attended Pensacola State. Could I see a show of hands if you have a connection to Pensacola State College? Yay. Thank you. So,
you know, we're no stranger to Escambia County and Santa Rosa County. Uh, and I and I appreciate the opportunity to to talk to you in a slightly different way. We just completed an economic impact statement for our system. Pensacola State College is one of 28 in the Florida College system. We are ranked, our system is ranked number one in the nation in workforce development and uh that's by US News and World Report. Um we also um are ranked by US News and World Report in a lot
of different categories for excellence in academic programs and I'll touch on that in just a moment. academic programs. Uh we have over 121 um active programs at P Pensacola State College, including the University Transfer Associate of Arts degree, three workforce balor degrees. We were the first institution of higher education in the state of Florida to offer a bachelor of science in cyber security. We have over 400 students enrolled in that program.
uh our nursing degree program uh RN licensed practical nursing and BSN. Our BSN program is nationally ranked and the one of the top two in the state of Florida uh for graduation rates and quality. It is dually nationally accredited. We have u 34 associate and science degree programs and those are our workforce associate degree programs. Uh at the Warrington campus, we have 17 nationally accredited associate degree programs in health science, five
advanced technical certificates, uh two applied technology diplomas, 55 technical certificates, and uh 21 uh career certificates. We also have a special program uh through Lyft Technologies based out of Detroit, their advanced manufacturing research where we uh if you have exiting uh military people and their family members can come and enter in a uh 6 to 8 week nonredit workforce
degree program for immediate employment into the workforce. So, not only do we have the recognized certificates, degrees, but we also have the nonredit skill sets that we teach as well. If you look at the next slide, uh these are some of the partnerships. You'd wanted to see the kinds of partnerships that we have. And of course, I just mentioned the partnership with the Scami County Commission. Uh but we have partnerships with all the area hospitals for clinical settings with our
students in health science and nursing. We have one of the largest nursing programs in the state, by the way. But our institution among the 28 is a midsize institution, but we do have over 13,000 students enrolled, headcount students, uh uh this year, which we haven't had that many students since 2015. And if you look at our growth over the last two years, uh we we're for 34% increase in growth. Um, but some of the uh programs aside from uh the medical fields, ST Engineering, uh
Leonora helicopter in Santa Rosa County, the Santa Rosa County Commission, the city of Pensacola, um Pair Credit Union, and and many, many others there uh that you can uh look at to see. Triumph G Coast is a wonderful funding source for us, and we've utilized them heavily for many of our new programs and technology. I'm particularly proud of the fact that we are starting a respiratory care associate degree program. Right now there are 50 vacancies in the 4ount area. So that program
will be starting this fall. If you look at uh the next slide, u we're 20% of our students are affiliated with military and veterans uh and their dependent. And uh we have a a wonderful um u relationship with the local military um with NAS in particular. Um so if you look at the next slide you'll see that um what I what I was talking about um this says 32%
but the latest updates is actually 34% increase in enrollment uh over the last uh several years. You've got this slide in front of you. uh it is a slide that uh denotes a lot of the characteristics of the college uh in terms of demographics. The average age is 25 but we do have uh a lot of traditional age students and and particularly um the fact that we have the um charter academy uh
with over 300 students this fall 9th through 12th. It is a a school. Uh only one of two high schools in Escami County as a A school. Uh we also have um our part-time enrollment if you'll see there is u 58% part-time. Um and um 65% almost 66% of our student population is female. That has risen over the last five years. It was 61%. It's always been about 59 to 60% but we have a tremendous rise in
female uh student population. Our residency uh 93.76 are are residents local non-residents are only 6.25. Uh the interesting thing about most of the state colleges is that over 90% of our graduates stay in the region and work. So they stay home. they don't leave the community and those that do leave a lot of them come back. Uh ethnicity uh we have Hispanic is 10% that's risen
recently as well as uh the non-Hispanic population. the um workforce education students. Uh we're looking at 35% uh of our total population uh of students in credit programs, not counting our nonredit programs that are in a um a workforce related program. And um I've already gone over the uh the demographics on the percentage of uh of the different types of
uh formalized certificates, diplomas, and degrees that we offer. About 10% of our students are in workforce balor degree programs. Uh this was um an opportunity the legislature saw um back about 25 years ago to allow um the state colleges to offer workforce balor degrees that do not compete with the universities uh only in the case of where there's a severe shortage like nursing but principally we are an associate degree granting institution. Um and so we we don't mind being
called a community college at all. Um the the uh the next slide shows um the uh innovative services that we continue to offer uh in in programs like uh immediate impact employment jobs and culinary and hospitality management welding. We have three welding programs. One in Santa Rosa County, one in Sentry, and one at the Pensacola campus. Um, and we're always looking at the horizon for
new types of programs that are needed in emerging workforce. Uh, we have a um um a program that is in its second semester uh temporarily housed at ST Engineering and the airframe and and aviation mechanics program. Um I understand we'll be um in the last phase of approvals to begin construction of our own facility next to hangar 3 and that will uh some of you came to the groundbreaking and
uh so we'll hopefully have the ribbon cutting in about 18 months with that facility. We're also uh be breaking ground at the CDL truck driver training site for a diesel and marine mechanics program later uh in probably within the next three months. The uh um Pensacola State College has been uh awarded a half a million dollars in National Science Foundation research grants and both and both of the grants that we received are in workforce development uh in advanced
manufacturing and also uh we were awarded uh a workday higher education uh innovation award and that's our administrative software uh that we went to a number of years ago to better serve serve our student population. The um the next slide shows Veterans and Military Family Student Center. Um we will have on November the 21st uh from 9:30 to 12, we'll have a comprehensive
one-stop center at the Milton campus for military, active military, their dependents, veterans, and their dependent at the Milton campus. and um that uh is going to bring together all of the different agencies that serve the military in Escambia County into one location to help uh the community in Santa Rosa County. Uh the uh we also have a legislative ask this year of a half a million dollars to expand our military centers across uh the campus uh and centers at Pensacola State. And
of course we have three campuses and four centers. And so um believe it or not u some of the greatest needs of the military is transportation. Uh you would not think that in today but um the military and their dependents do have a a need for better transportation particularly in Escambia County as related about them in a study that we did. um and other opportunities to support and collaborate
uh with veterans and the active military in in addition to transportation uh is that uh our uh veteran center uh housed right now u in the um at the Pensacola campus. We have a food bank there and and a a closed bank there and a lot of them um particularly right now are looking for ways to feed their families. So uh that's an opportunity for uh the county commission to step forward
uh and partner with Pensacola State College. Uh as I said 20% of our student population is related either to active military or veterans and their dependents. And there's an increasing number of um of veterans in particular that uh are needing um mental health services. The next the economic impact um study, I'll go over this with you. Um operations and spending is
$82.4 million a year. The uh construction spending impact is $ 8.2 2 million a year. Student spending impact is $27.3 million a year. The alumni impact in just a Scampi County is $411.1 million a year for a total economic impact of $529 million a year. And that's equivalent to the employment
of almost 7,000 people in Escambia County each year. Uh the activities of Pensacola State and its students support one out of every 43 jobs in the metrop Pensacola metropolitan statistical area. Um the Aspen prize is uh by offered by the um community college of excellence Aspen Institute. Um has uh recognized Pensacola State in the top 20% of all associate degree granting
institutions in the nation. And that's uh we're among 200 out of a thousand that are now eligible to apply for the Aspen prize of $1 million. um if you don't get the very first prize, there are other smaller amounts like a 100,000. Uh so um but just to be named in the top 200 out of a thousand is quite an honor uh for the Aston Institute to recognize the college as a college of excellence. Um I think my five minutes may be plus over but if you have any questions I'll be glad to
answer those. Go first. Dr. Meadows that I I love the brief. Um I don't know if you know this. I'm on the Northwest Florida Defense Coalition and I'm looking at your military numbers and you said I think you said 20% are related to military veterans. Right. Right. How much of that comes out of the GI Bill and TA? Would that be about 100 plus million dollars? I don't know the amount, but it's a huge amount. The reason I asked because if that program was to go away, it would have a significant impact in all of Scamp County. I didn't realize that much money
was coming in through GI and tuition assistance. But if I look at the numbers that you present, I'm just assuming a fifth of that's coming through that portability. Um, is there any way you could find that out? Well, we certainly can. I just want to use it when we go to Congress to make sure that we lobby that program so it doesn't go away. I I'll reach out to UWF as well. I like your thinking and we'll get that information for you and put it on our priority list. Thank you, Commissioner May. You had a question. Yes. Thank you, Commissioner Hullberger. Um Dr. Med,
thank you as always. Uh we love Pensacola State. Um I think one of the best programs is the dual enrollment for economic development and workforce. Uh two of my kids went through the program and seem to be doing remarkably well. Uh, one thing and I don't know if Claire will or I'll talk about it today is the partnership that we have with HVAC, the carpentry and the construction program and sorry I miss I missed mentioning that but you know the the skills trades in construction are extremely important and Commissioner May has been instrumental over the years in finding ways
uh for us to partner through federal grants and the current program now certainly is uh putting people to work in a much needed area. um for the construction skills. So, I appreciate it, Commissioner. No, we appreciate you and your staff and and hopefully Claire, we can get some numbers and some stats that kind of correlate the success of that. I mean, job placements to add it to these numbers going in the future of what we've done because I know chips, do I restore grant? Do I block byblock? into your workforce and other federal dollars. Uh I've gone
to several graduations and I think there are young people who've gotten jobs and so I think that'd be great to I'll put some together some data for you on that as well. That would be I'd be most thankful. And my last question um Dr. Mendes um we appreciate everything that you do uh for our workforce. I I think it's a great community college, state college and was honored to be there as a commencement speaker. Um, but on our end when we're looking at economic development, workforce training, job creation, what are the gaps and how do we help? I mean, whether they're
creating jobs at ST aerospace or whether they're creating uh manufacturing jobs or high-tech, how do we align our economic development strategies uh with our educational attainments with our kids and how can we help fill that gap uh to create jobs for people who live here? I mean, I know sometimes we do economic development and we got to import people in from Okaloosa, Santa Rosa. I guess, you know, my question is how do we help uh provide jobs for people who live here in Escambia County? Well, uh I uh I see we have Florida West Economic Development Alliance sitting behind me and I'm on
that board and so with their staff, uh they are very quick to include Pensacola State College uh in discussions for the the future workforce needs in recruiting andor expansion of existing business and industry. We also work uh closely with Florida Great Northwest and of course Shannon Ogal Tree over in San Rosa County. So, uh, we're we're um um we're always looking for ways in which Pensacola State can step up and be a part of the solution uh to expansion and attraction of uh of
new business and industry. Uh there's always room for improvement though. Um, one of the I can't mention everything in five minutes, but we do have a a wonderful working relationship with uh a scam county school system. Uh and the and the superintendent in particular is very amanable to um articulation agreements where we can advance place their students from their technical programs into the higher level programs at Pensacola State College and u workforce escarosa um Dr.
Mars Paride has formed a group of us that meet on a regular basis, the superintendent, UWF, Pensacola State, and others uh to talk about ways to collaborate. Um but if the county commission um has additional ideas and suggestions for greater collaboration, we're all ears because we want to be a part of a working solution for a better Scami County. Thank you. And I'll be reaching out, so I appreciate it. Thank you. We'll go to five sisters. Thank you, Ash. One of the things that
you mentioned was better transportation. Is that mass transit through ECAT? And if so, do you have some recommendations that we could maybe put into play? All ears again. So, y'all Yeah. And I'm getting old, so if y'all would just send me an email to remind me what we what I agreed to provide and and talk about, that would be much appreciated. and uh that way it it doesn't rely on my memory till I get back to my office and write it down. So, um I'll definitely send
you an email on that and maybe that's something that we can collaborate and if we need to add more bus path bus paths or we need to add more stops or whatever that looks like or maybe we need to change the timing of drop off and pickup, we can look at that because I know we want to get as many people into education as possible. Okay. Thank you. All right. Yeah. Any other questions? Thank you again for the opportunity to tell you about what Pensacola State College is all about. Thank you. Lindsay Walk, senior director of career development and community engagement
at UWF. If you want to speak. Thank you so much for being here today. We appreciate it. Thanks for having me. Um so, uh as Commissioner Hoffber mentioned, my name is Lindseay Walk and um I've worked with the university for about 12 years now. uh always with the career development and community engagement office, but I've had some opportunities in the last couple of years to kind of uh look at things uh from a more institutional perspective. So, I'm going to talk to you about some different initiatives that we have going on on campus. Some of them I know a lot about, some of them I only know enough to be dangerous, but if you have questions, I can I'm always happy to
um follow up with folks and get that information for you. So, I'm going to start with my department um the office of career development and community engagement. This is going to be your traditional career center. So, um, we're preparing students, uh, for future careers through career readiness initiatives like, um, softskll development. We're hosting career fairs. We're working with employers on, um, building a recruiting plan on campus, establishing internship programs, um, but traditional career services work. Another initiative that we have going on right now,
um, actually it's pretty recent, and you all may know, um, the leader of this initiative, Dr. Sher Hartnett. um she is leading our office of workforce development and they have a program called the talent catalyst program and that is where they're working spec with specific companies in the area uh they have more of a significant hiring need I would say but they are willing to work with companies that have smaller hiring needs as well but the idea is that we place students as early as possible into part-time positions with these companies and then the students work with
them over the course of their two three four years whatever they have left and then that transitions to a full-time position at the um time that they graduate. So, she's already I think uh had a few students who have made it through the program and it's really only been going about a year, year and a half. So, uh already seeing some success out of that. Uh we have our continuing education department and that's going to be your non-deree seeeking students. They're really looking at upskilling and reskilling. They work with a lot of companies in the area to build customized training programs based on uh what that company needs. The Center for Cyber Security does a lot of work with
um uh to fill the shortages in cyber and IT where they're working with a lot of military uh veterans, but also local and state government. I don't know if you all have seen, but uh there are some like free cyber security trainings that they've put out that are available to local and state government folks. Um and a quick story, this might take me over my five. I'm going to try to hurry. So, uh, a friend of mine, he went through their cyber skills to work program, and he is someone who his background has always been in retail. He had no cyber security experience at
all, but he went through their 10-month program, and at the conclusion of it, uh, he was offered a job with a local defense contractor making $90,000 a year. So, I mean, they're they're really uh giving students the skills that they need to be successful in that field. uh the HOS center uh that is uh they're they're really working on regional workforce and economic data. So working with companies to kind of figure out what the training needs are. They also put out a really great report recently about um what areas of focus in terms of industry that
we should be looking at. And for Escambia County, it is uh computer and mathematical uh that industry. And then for Santa Rosa County, it's transportation and material management. So, we do have programs that lots of programs that address both of those things. In terms of uh challenges or gaps in the workforce. So, one of the things that we see in our office quite a bit um are students seeking internships and there aren't enough opportunities available for them in the local area. And this is more of a recent thing because um the um the internships have
become a lot more competitive just with everything happening right now in today's labor market. So, we've got, you know, 10 students competing for the same $20 an hour internships internship where it used to be like a few students. Um, this this is something that I think we could partner with you all on. Um, one of the things that I just wanted to note on this is that there is a 60 between like a 60 and 70% conversion rate from internships to full-time positions. that's at a national level,
but um you know that's really a a good pipeline to employment for students. As far as um kind of like an an actionable thing that we could do, something that's really near and dear to me is uh funding for internships. I was talking to someone who um she used to work for a local nonprofit, now she owns a a small business in the area and she has just started recruiting at UWF. And I said, "You know, what would have been helpful to you um that would have gotten you here sooner?" Because you she's had her business for a few years now and she's just now at the point where she can
take on interns and additional help. And she was like, "Really? I couldn't afford the overhead that came with the interns." And so if there was some type of funding advocacy that we could do to help small businesses, nonprofits, community agencies, organizations pay those interns, that would be helpful. um she she said something to the effect of, you know, it's great that they get the exposure, but exposure doesn't pay the bills. And I was like that yes, that is the sentiment that we often hear um from our students that they do need to work while they're in school. Uh so that would be a way that I think uh the county could help us really
impact um impact thing in the internship realm. Another thing is really working with companies to build internship programs. I mean you all the the county wouldn't be building them but they would be connecting them with us and PSC and the other folks career source that uh can help them build those programs. That's all I've got. Any questions? Yes. Um so you mentioned that you're in need of more internship programs. If there's small businesses or even larger corporations out there, man, that sounds like a really good idea. Sure. How do they go about working with
the university to make that happen? So for us, uh, we're actually the point of entry, the office of career development and community engagement. I have an industry engagement team that will set up a quick virtual consult with them and walk them through that process. And then if they want more help um because some of them they have a general idea of what they want, but if they just don't even know where to start, then we can uh schedule a longer time to work with them on actually building out that program and what it would look like. Wonderful. And then have you seen with the students that are coming into the university any gaps that you're like, man, I wish they could address that before they get to us that maybe we can help with. Sure. So soft
skills are the are the biggest thing? And we hear it from employers even when you're talking about the like part-time positions. They're like, man, I really wish they had better communication skills or um you know, I wish they would step up and take initiative. And so one of the initiatives that we have going on in our office, it's called Argo to pro and we focus on the eight career readiness competencies that were established by the National Association of Colleges and Employers. And I mean these are things that are uh important regardless of industry, communication, teamwork, technology, leadership, critical thinking, professionalism, those those types of things.
And so if there were ways that the school system could really kind of hone in on those eight areas, I think that would that would help us as they're preparing for future positions. Wonderful. Thank you, Steve. Is that something that we could partner with you or you could partner with WF on maybe? Absolutely. We we use Florida Ready to Work uh currently and we are implementing it in more and more of our programs. So the Florida Ready to Work program does exactly that. It's funded by the state and the schools actually get funding for every child that finishes the program.
Uh so there there's a a win-win involved there. Uh so yeah, we hear this all the time too. Soft skills come up in every advisory meeting that we have and we're doing everything we can to deliver more of that. But I'd be happy to focus on ways we can tailor our instruction on Florida ready to work to more align with your needs as well. Wonderful. Thank you so much. Thank you Lindsay. I appreciate you being here. Thank you. Um and Steve, you're actually up next. So, Steve Harold, work for workforce director, the school board of Escambia County. Thank you for being here. And you have the most awesome tie I've ever seen. So, thank you for that. Thank you for It's It's got my
family on it. Uh, if I'm going to wear a tie, it's going to have something good-looking on it. Uh, and you kind of stole my thunder because I was going to step up and say that uh, you know, I'm Steve Herrell and I have the best job in Escambia County Public Schools. Uh, because as the director of workforce education, I get to manage programs that help people get ready for the next step in life. Um, and we do that from everything from school age child care programs at at our elementary schools right on up to our pro-secary center at Georgestone Technical College. Um, I made some notes of some things that I wanted to read uh about what we do around the district. So,
little known fact u that the office where I work, we manage 29 school age child care programs. Five of them are district-run and 24 of them are contracted, but they all go through our office. And uh don't ever forget that those child care programs are helping parents be able to work. So if you want to talk about, you know, community development, find ways to get child care for folks to be able to go to work. Um and we we do a good job of providing some uh lowcost and safe child care opportunities for parents throughout the community. Um Steve, who's funding those
childare programs? So it there's a a mix of where that funding comes from, but uh the five that are run by the district, they we pay for the staffing, but the parents pay for uh the child participation and we have scholarship amounts that uh knock that down pretty low for parents who are in need. So uh we we have ways that we can help parents meet the cost. And when I say very low, I mean it's it's pretty low for parents. Um I' I'd have to get the the chart, but we're talking $20 a week if you know in some cases. So it's in it's income based. It's income based. Yes. So if you qualify for any
kind of public assistance, we're going to give you the scholarship rate for uh child care. Okay. Is there a waiting list? Uh in some cases there is. Uh most of the time we can get people in. So it varies from sight to sight. So you're funding this out of you're out of schoolboard tax dollars, I would assume. Are you are you getting any other funding like children trust or any other? We are not currently. No. Okay. So what sorry what age does that start at? So it it's kindergarten. Uh so we we start when the child enters that school. So the the childcare that we're providing is for
the students that are uh attendees of that school where the the program is located. These teenage moms, correct? Say again. The these are kids who are in school or these are kids from the school. So if you attend that school, we have a childare program at that school that you can qualify for. We're not going to take students from the another school at this one. It needs to be at the school where they attend. The point of that is you go from the classroom directly to the childare until the evening when the parent can pick you up. So, um we also manage all of the career and technical
programs throughout our middle school and high school and post-secary program. We currently have 11 middle school careermies, 43 high school careermies, and 27 programs at George Stone. uh that includes our new paramedic program. Very uh off to a very good start, very successful. So what that equates to a number of uh enroles is um high school 6,777 students are currently in uh CTE programs. At middle school, we've got 4564 and at George Stone we have 1,173. So, a very high
proportion of our middle and high school students are in a career and technical training program of some some sort. Um, industry certifications are really the the big push in Florida. It's been that way for quite some time. Uh, because when a a student earns those industry certifications, they're verifying to an employer that they have that skill set and it's been verified by this industry recognized credential. And, uh, our students are really really racking them up. Um, so last year, um, we earned 13,492 certifications across the district. That's a it's a pretty good,
uh, number of, uh, students leaving us ready to work or to go on to continue post-secondary training afterwards. Um, so, uh, let me let me check my notes here. I had some other things I wanted to say. I I have some things to echo about what was said earlier. Um the importance of students getting work-based learning opportunities is paramount. We can give these kids all the industry certifications in the world, but if they're not out there applying those skills, it's not going to translate to an opportunity later. The best work-based learning experience
is one that pays. Um we have tons of students who are in what you would know as OJT and DCT. Um, so they have completed enough uh of their graduation requirements where they're real close to graduation and they may have five elective opportunities. Well, they can spend five hours working somewhere and uh my office would be the point of entry for that for an employer looking for someone to take advantage of the type of internship opportunities that we were discussing a moment ago. Um, there is a specialist in my office, Miss Lori Anderson, who works directly
with our workbased learning coordinators at each of the high schools around the district. and there are tons of kids out there that are looking for a place to work. This spring is the time to talk to us about that for next year's placements. Um that that's a a good time for us to have a collaboration sometime after Christmas so we can say let's look at what students are in the 11th grade now going to be a senior next year and are looking for those opportunities so that we can go ahead and start placing them with employers early on. Um, so the big question here was what
can we do as a a commission to help us with what we do in our schools? And I I think recognizing those industry certifications as valuable to employment is helpful for us. Um, it doesn't do a student much good if they earn a fistful of industry certification and the employer says, "I don't care. I don't know what that is." Um you'll notice in the IT community that when you come with industry certifications, no offense to the postsecondary institutions in the room because we're one too, but the degree is often less important than the actual certification in the
product that is being used by that employer. You translate that over to the world of construction and sometimes it's not as readily recognized. Welding is not the case. When when a student earns an industry certification in welding, that employer is chomping at the bit to hire them. You should know that at uh Pensacola High School, we brought dual enrollment welding back several years ago using a state grant for clock hour dual enrollment. And that program is going gang busters. It is awesome. Uh if you ever have an opportunity and want to swing by the school,
I'd be glad to take you on a tour. Our instructor, Mr. Moss, is amazing. has students coming in there before and after school who are IB kids that are trying to learn about welding because they want to be a metallurgist or a structural engineer later. Never expected that to happen. It wasn't happening in the past. After the 10th grade, an IB kid is so busy uh they're not interested in a CTE course. Well, that has changed. Um and and it's meaningful. So, that program is a dual enrollment opportunity or a high school opportunity. So, if a student says, "I want to be dual enrolled," we
can make that happen through George Stone right there on the campus at PHS. If the student says, "I'm not interested in dual enrollment. I just want to learn welding," we can put them in the high school version of the same course. And both are happening in addition to students who aren't even in the course who are coming before school and after school to learn welding. I say all that to say this, it is important that we add more hands-on skills-based training. And I'm talking about the stuff that puts calluses on your hands to all of our schools. We have skilled trades
programs where we do an introductory look at HVAC, electrical, plumbing, um, carpentry. We have them spread throughout the district and they're doing great, but it's time that we focus in on some now. So, welding at PHS was a test for me to see how successful this would be. It is very successful. Our students are earning AWS certifications by the fistful. It's time that we expand that further. So, we wrote a triumph grant to get automotive service brought back to Tate High School. That automotive service program, uh, Mr. Barry will remember when we were students there, it was doing
great and they shut it down shortly after we left and, uh, it sat idle for many, many years. Well, uh, before the building turned into something else. I wanted to bring it back, and it is back. We have wall-to-wall snap-on tools in that program now. Thank you, Triumph GF Coast. Um, and I would have you all out to come see it right now, except that I'm waiting on some classroom furniture and some custom toolboxes that got held up somewhere in production. Any day now, that will happen. And I'll get you an invite to come to our open house to see it. So, you can see what can happen when we come together as a community and start looking at what can we do to put kids
to work right now with skilled trades. And I am just teeing this one up to say the big ask here. Uh, I want to do the same thing at Escambia High School for HVAC. The wealthiest person I know owns an HVAC business and the more of us need to have the opportunity to do the same. So, at Escambia High School in the very near future, we are going to start uh HVAC training. And my hope would be that we attract the students from the kid who is bordering on dropping out all the way up to
the kid who wants to be an engineer who designs commercial HVAC systems. We want to give that opportunity to every student to learn HVAC skills and put them to work right here in our community. It warms my heart when a kid graduates from one of our programs and goes on to Pensacola State and then or or UWF and gets a job somewhere, but it warms my soul when they get a job here in Escambia County. And that that's what we need to do. And look around you, there's construction blowing up all over the place. We need more trained HBAC technicians to step in and and fill that gap. Um,
so that's the next big push. Um, so I want I took a few notes here to make sure that Oh, yeah. that the folks before me were talking about that it's important that we find a way to help a business hire uh students. Now, please help us with that. If an employer says, "I can't afford to bring this student on board," I would say they can't afford not to. If it's just money, let's find a way to solve them that problem by helping them find the money to employ that student. And to put a student in an internship unpaid does about half as much to build that student self e efficacy as putting them
in an internship that is paid. So we need to put students to work but we need to put them to work with a paycheck attached to it. Um yeah I okay I have a thousand other things in my notes but I you know if you want to ask me some questions I'm I'm here for that. You go first. Thank thanks a lot. I know you went to God's country with Commissioner Barry. you know, we we didn't get out there, but uh I was listening to Andy Challenger uh and we talked about October has probably been um uh the most job loss in technology. Uh and we're still preparing for those technology jobs.
I mean, it's probably been uh the least amount of jobs in 20 years are the technology jobs, but we've certainly grown construction jobs and as you said, hands-on jobs. So, I wanted to hear your plans because as we and and I say this because I'm I'm a big athletic person. We have thousands of young people who play sports across this county expecting to get division one scholarships and when they turn 19 they have nowhere to go because they were not prepared and easy entry as you said uh some of my friends who do plumbing and HVAC are the wealthiest people I know and you know
they don't have a PhD many of them have GEDs so I guess my question would be how do we help and I know the HVAC works we just graduated at CLA 13 people I believe through our block byblock HVAC but with AI coming uh with tele medicine coming and construction and we're seeing a decline uh in technology jobs. what are we doing sort of to prepare the next generation of workforce and you know the final question is not only ask those questions but how do we help uh get that message and help you with understanding that that you know there's not the technology jobs are
somewhat I think you just did help because you're you're backing up what I'm saying that some of the wealthiest people that we know are people who have skilled trades and that built up a business based on that. The more we get that word out there, the more we legitimize the skilled trades as not as a second choice, but as a first choice for a young person, the better off we're going to be. In the past, this commission has helped us uh open up new programs for firefighting and for uh criminal justice that I was a part of, and I'm going to tell you those programs have run their course at this point. But your efforts were not in vain. Those programs are are now closed just this
past year. Um, but those programs produced tons of students that went into those fields and went on to our post-secary training. Now, it's time that we continue to back up what we're doing for welding, what we're doing for automotive service, and what we're about to do for HVAC. So, when you ask how you can help there, there's lots of ways. Just getting that word out there that legitimizes these as meaningful careers helps us. But if if there are uh monetary donations as we get started that we can use as matching funds for additional grants, we'd be open to that as well. Um you know,
as Dr. Meadow said, my ears are wide open. But whether whether we get support or not, th this guy right here is going to make HBAC come to Escambia High School one way or another. And I won't stop there. We need to continue getting more skilled trades. What you said about uh technology training is very interesting because at it 10 wired I don't want to say who said this to the people on on staff in my office but multiple people said are you sure you want students coming here and learning this they'd make a lot more money in the skilled trades like HBAC not not not just one but
multiples now okay I we still need people to work in IT we still need people doing cyber security but AI is taking over that realm to such a degree where we need fewer people in those positions. AI is never going to make a new air conditioning unit install itself in your house. You know, AI may help us tell us what's wrong with your car, but it's not going to put the new part on the car. Uh we still need students who are heavily trained in those areas to be able to do that. Now, we're still going to run our game and application development academy at Tate High School with Mr.
Tommy Mayor. That academy is crushing it. And we have tons of students coming out of there that that are ready to program that are ready to use AI and virtual reality. They're they're programming virtual reality headsets in that classroom today. But we need more of the students who are getting calluses on their hands. And I I I I don't mean to dance around the subject here. Uh because I'm that's really not my intent. Instead, I'm I'm wanting to reiterate the importance of what you're saying. Call me. Come to our advisory council meetings. That was something that my uh fellow co-workers put on our on the notes here to remind me to say, "Please come to our advisory
council meetings because especially if we have one that's in one of your uh districts, uh we'll make sure to get you an invite and maybe you come and sit and listen to what's happening with within our schools, the business community comes to those and they tell us regularly what we need to change, what we need to adjust." Um that would be a good place for for you all to start as well to come be a part of that. uh even if you could just come to one a year, I think you you would learn a lot about what's happening, you know, inside the four walls of the schools as well. Thank I know we're
limited on time, but I hope that Claire and her staff will get to talk about our HVAC program so there won't be duplication of of services because I know I've gone to a couple HVAC graduations and uh friends of mine like Peter Dall are always looking I don't think we could duplicate too much. For example, you know, with the when we look at our aviation maintenance training, we've been uh putting out aviation uh airframe and power plant mechanics for 9 years now, and we're not even scratching the surface of what we need in our community. I think the same thing can be said for
the skilled trades. If we all open facilities tomorrow and we were, you know, stuffed full of students, we would not be graduating enough people to to meet the demand that's out there. So I, you know, yes, we don't want to duplicate efforts, but instead, why don't we work together to make sure that what we're doing is creating pathways that uh the training can go even further. High school kids need to be doing these skill trades. They we need more of it. We already are throughout the district, but we need more. And Steve, and and and I'll end, you're absolutely right. And
the way in which we look, tech parks are a thing of the past almost. I mean, the technology is a different direction. And it is technology, but it's AI in the skill sets of plumbers for the cooling systems, the HVAC systems, the heating systems, because we're going to have these large AI units of storage that's really going to change the way of we do deliverables in in the future. So hopefully we're getting uh prepared for that with our young people because they can be great jobs that you don't need a PhD for, but you can make a ton of money and be a part of the new technology that's about to Couldn't agree with you more. Yeah. Thank you, Mr. Chair. Any other questions?
I mean, uh, Commissioner Strawber, are you up or you want me to go? Yeah, I wanted to say, let's see. I wrote it down so I wouldn't forget because I knew it was going to take a while for me to get able to talk. Well, that's right. Well, you know, something we're passionate about. Um, child care program. How many kids are in enrolled in a I'd have to get you the numbers. I I don't know the the total enrollment for our school age childcare programs around the district, but I can get you those numbers. Yeah, I'd be curious about that because I think the uh how many
kids are in those programs is it I think there's a direct correlation between how many kids have kids in those programs and how successful our kids are in Escambia and how it compares to other counties. I like metrics like that. Yeah, sure. We can we can pull some of that together for you. For sure. I I just have a question because I'm I'm a huge fan of the skills trade, but one of the it sounded like we're not maximizing the enrollment. Is that correct? And most of the programs are we filling up the enrollment or not enough kids are enrolling all the programs. So, difficult question to answer
because there's there's programs everywhere. Some are busting at the seams, some are, you know, could have a few more kids in there, but we can't keep a program running unless we have somewhere close to the 150 student mark uh in order to run a full program. Uh that that'll fund an FTE unit for a teacher. Uh sometimes we have to split a schedule where a student a teacher might do something else for a couple of periods of the day and then that career and technical program, but the goal is always to grow that program to be a full enrollment. And pretty much all
of our programs that are established are full with close to 150 students in them. Is there any of the programs where we need additional instructors? Just curiosity. So well uh I can tell you this when we start our HVAC program if we don't get 120 150 students enrolled right off the bat. We may need help to you know attract a teacher to to stay with that. Uh because it it is very very difficult to find someone qualified in HBAC who can also teach algebra. I mean, try try doing that one. That's that's really tough. So, when we wrote the uh triumph grant for Tate High School,
I made sure that the triumph grant was going to pay the teacher salary for the first couple of years. So, we don't have to worry about did we meet the enrollment, but the wonderful thing happened. We met the enrollment and then some, you know, there there program is full at Tate High School. So when we start this HBAC, we may run into a similar situation where, you know, we may need to have the position part partially funded by other means until we can meet full FTE. And that if you are starting a new program, it's often helpful for that because you can give the
teacher an extra planning period where they can spend time working on uh building curriculum and working with the business community. Um so we you know, we find ways to make that work. Uh but in terms of are we getting enough enrollment in our CTE programs, we wouldn't have them if we didn't have enough enrollment because they're they're funded through FTE primarily uh to pay for the teaching units themselves. Uh now all of the extra cost things, the specialized equipment and things like that come from uh cape funds from industry certifications that are earned and from Perkins
dollars and other funding sources. But to answer your question, if we have a program, it's likely full. Yeah. The reason I asked the question, I this week, I just heard that in Florida alone, we have a 500,000 gap just in skilled trading. So, I'm obviously very supportive of this. I just want to make sure we're maximizing any student that wants to get in and so hopefully the commission will help. But that that's my question. I appreciate the answer, Steve. The doors are open for all students. Uh, you know, when we started the program at TA, folks asked me, parents were
saying, "Well, my child is going to be in the 10th grade or the 11th grade next year or they're going to be a senior, so they can't start that new program." And that my answer is, "Oh, no, no. Yes, they can." Uh, if a student comes to us in in their senior year and they want to learn this this trade, we're going to find a way to make that work for them. Thank you. Yes, sir. So, the HBAC program does seem really exciting. What's preventing that from starting this next school year? Uh so we're going to need funding because there there is a lot of equipment involved. Uh buying the trainers for this is going to cost hundreds of thousands of dollars. Um and we
want these students to have the best opportunity for success. So uh we we're going to need to do some renovations on the facility. Uh and we are going to need to bring in lots of equipment. So got some vendors that are pitching equipment at this point and you know we're we're probably looking somewhere in the half million dollar range in terms of uh equipment that will be needed to get it started. Uh, but I'm more than happy to make it the $3 million range and have, you know, the best of the best there. Um, but honestly, it's getting all of those pieces in place ahead of time
for the facility buildout and for uh the equipment needs of the program. Curriculum is is pretty easy to come up with. There are a lot of package deals that have that readily prepared for students. But then beyond that, the challenge is how do we create the right opportunity for the students as they move through the program. Um and and I I want to say something that you mentioned uh what can we advi advocate for uh in terms of the feds or the the state level in ter for political advocacy. I want to say this every chance I get an opportunity to be in front of a board such as yourself. A GED
should count the same as a diploma towards the school grade. You know, let me say that again. A GED should count the same as a diploma in terms of school grade. When one gets a GED now, it does not say GED across the top. It says Florida high school diploma. And with the uh equivalency that it carries, we should respect it in terms of school grade with that same level of equivalency. Some of the highest performers that I work with today started with a GED for reasons that you wouldn't have expected, but the pathway is different for every person. So,
uh you may have a ton of questions about that. I would be happy to talk about it offline, but a GED should count towards school grade the same as a diploma. Um, it's something that I want to advocate for. So, and what is the timeline for getting the HBAC program going? We want to start next August if we can. Okay, wonderful. And then just a recommendation on getting the students who are coming out of the school with the career certificates. I have a feeling a lot of your small businesses don't know that and I know the school system has the billboards up. So,
if now is the time for the school businesses to be reaching out to the school, you might want to consider putting that one on on the billboard. That That's a very good point. Hire students. Yeah. Hire our students. Reach out to us now. Absolutely. Um if you guys have space on yours, we can put together some artwork um and share it with you. So, perfect. Well, we could definitely push that out on social media for sure. Outstanding. Thank you. Thank you so much. I appreciate it. Thank you all. Lindseay Cannon, the executive director of Escambia County Children's Trust. you'll come up. Thank you for being here today. We appreciate it. Um I'm excited that you're next
to last because I feel like you've heard a lot of the needs and maybe have some ideas on how we can bridge those gaps and use your entity to fill that space. So, thank you. Well, I was rapidly taking notes here listening to this. So, I appreciate being here because this is the first time that I've sat in on one of these conversations. Um we are the front end of this and your partner in this and the school district's partner in this. So, um just just some background um on what we're currently funding. We have over 41 contracts right now in varying different stages. And so
that's that's approximately 34 different agencies. Some have multiple different programs. Um when I started really digging into the what we're doing related to workforce, we have not done like a workforce RFP. Okay? There hasn't been something where we're saying we wanted to get kids ready for the workforce. However, we have programs that are actually doing that work from a soft skills perspective. Um, one of the things we know and if you haven't done your research on Gen Alpha, you need to do your research on them because it's very interesting talking about this AI issue that
we're having in the layoffs and those jobs and those kids know nothing or any life where they've had to be the remote for their parents to turn the TV off. um they are solely digital natives and so talking about these hard skills that they could um accomplish through these CTEs and different things like that, they don't have the soft skills to understand that. They don't know how to show up for work. Um so they're but they have an entrepreneur an entrepreneurial mindset which I think is really important when we're talking about hard skills like this and skilled trades. They're
the ones that are going to open these businesses within our community. So looking at those type of um qualities I think are some of the things that we're going to need to do going forward. We do have um I I would 10 programs currently that are focused on that higher education group. So you're talking your high school population um specifically focused on uh graduation and post-secary support getting them ready if they are going to go into a trade, they are going to go to a a university, a college, whatever that looks like or if they want to enter the workforce.
um we have informal mental health supports that are also going in and doing education with these youth on soft skills but helping them get employed. Um seeing that as a need and I think that's that's not exactly where their program started with us but recognizing the need they've been able to adjust and start to bring on other employers within our community that are interested. Now, I think what's really great about this and some of the things that I've heard is of course our partnership and I think that's a unique opportunity there with the youth employment program. We've really looked at it from a summer perspective, but conversations with Clara and her
team, you know, there's a desire to look at that as a year round type of employment program and those dollars can easily be used for that. Um, and especially if you have jobs that these kids can roll into that that is like a perfect opportunity for us to partner. we would need to know info on on what sort of things that employers would be looking for so that we can make sure from a from a show up and work perspective um so that we can start to infuse that into some of our programs um that are focused on our high schoolers. Um I wanted to give you an example also of something
that I think is really unique when I heard uh Dr. Meadows talking about um aviation. So we started Commissioner Kohler, you started that train with us with um connecting us with Admiral Koad. We are full-fledged going into our second year with National Flight Academy. We have youth from the seventh and eighth grade um as well as all the way up through the high school going in and doing a week camp at um National Flight Academy. But the question is what happens after that? So there's been a unique partnership. We funded uh Chappie James uh to do a summer program and a little bit
of extended programming throughout the year, but they're going to be your long-term type of program that can work our youth right into a pilot's license. Um but also they're introducing those other parts of aviation that are not necessarily just flying the plane. There's a whole industry around and and well-paying jobs around that. So, so we've been able to fund a lot of those front-end type of get our kids interested. I know people think of the trust as just something that's just meeting all those basic needs and we are. We're funding ELC. We're in the process of
getting ready to do a a massive match grant with Head Start, Early Head Start with CAP C uh to ensure that we have staff available for all 469 slots that we have for children in our community. they have effect on our workforce so our parents can go to work but also um it creates uh a different type of system for our kids too coming in kindergarten ready and so um so I think that those are some ways that we're really contributing um we are really in our second and a half year we've literally just sunset our first um contract after three years so we're still
new to a lot of the the issues um or questions and ways that we can partner um but we are looking at these opportunities and hearing this has been really wonderful for me and my team. Um the the unique opportunity we have coming forward and I love the timing of this. We are in a new tax year. So we are starting and like I said suns setting some of those contracts a multitude of them after three years and we'll be putting out new RFP in January. And I think that's the time to really look at the things that we're hearing here and and look at our data that we've been looking at too,
which is looking at our county and where our gaps are. Where are we not funding things? Where do we need to push in? Um but then also looking at um more of our high school population. Um I I have a heart for that. I worked with homeless youth for a long time. So, um, I know what those challenges look like for a kid that's lost in in the system or at school and doesn't know, uh, what path to go. And so, looking at those type of focuses, I think not just on homeless youth, but our older population. The college is not for me. Or I thought I was going to go to a D1 school and that
did not happen. Now, what's left for me? So, um, I know that we have providers in our community that can focus on that, that can partner very well. Um, we just need to put it together. So, we would appreciate any feedback that you all have related to gaps that you see in your communities. Sort of looking outside of what's been shared today, what other industries would be very important. Um, and that we could certainly work with providers to try to partner on those. Um, so that's I had a lot
of other things, but those are really the things that we've we've been working on. And like I said, I think it's a it we're prime time now to really look at very focused three-year type of contract um moving forward that might be able to move the needle on some of these things. So, I'll answer any questions you may have. So, you mentioned that you have solicitation season right around the corner more or less. So, if the entities that were here today think, "Oh my goodness, I wish they knew about this." What is the best way for them to reach out to you and kind of collaborate on
some needs that that RFP could fill? Absolutely. We entertain meetings all the time. So all you got to do is email me and say jump on a Zoom, come to my office. I'll come to your office. We have these meetings regularly. I sitting at our desk does not solve the issues that we have within our community. So we all the time are meeting with different partners and people that want to come in. There's a lot of people that see a children's trust and want to come and bring their services. It doesn't necessarily mean they're right for our community, but we do need to know what others are doing so that we can remain competitive. if there are good outcomes, maybe that's a partnership
for one of our other providers. And so, what are some things that Children's Trust can fund versus things that they can't fund so that the group out here understands that? Absolutely. We are strictly prohibitive in funding anything directly related to the school district. So, we cannot pay teachers extra money. We can't go in and do any of that. We can contract with entities that can wrap services around them, but we're prohibited by statute from funding anything related to the school districts. Oh, that's under their perview. And and then you guys can do programming, but you can't buy say like a playground. Is that we we've bought playgrounds. So you can I I think it would depend
on the proposal related to that, but typically it would be a nonprofit, but like a school district couldn't come ask us to fund a playground because it would be under their purview. Okay, that makes sense. Wonderful. Thank you so much. Thank you. And Lindsay, I mean, and a point of point of clarification on that, maybe explain. I mean, we're funding millions of dollars to the school district through partnerships. Yes. I mean, millions. I don't know what the exact number is, but there are millions of dollars that the trust is funding going into the school district uh through different partners and wraparound. So like healthy schools of Scambia, we're doing four schools there. We fund the social service navigator that's in over 22 schools throughout the
community as well. And we have some after school programming that we do as well. And Lindsay, I mean just for me, I get the opportunity to uh work with the trust. Um I think that it's critical to start thinking about workforce. I mean it's I mean the other programs help me grow all those things. I mean if people don't get jobs they're going to have mental health problems. I mean so what we're hearing I think and Commissioner Hullberg thank you for putting this together that I mean there is a real concern about workforce and future workforce here in Escamia County and I think that
it would be great if the trust could more engage in looking at how we how we do that for workforce. Absolutely. Just invite me to the table. I'm I'm glad I'm glad to come. I like I said, I've I've I've spent a lot of time with that older population. So, I'm familiar with those particular work style issues that they have. Um, but also connecting with some from 15 years ago that are successful adults. So, I I do think that's an important piece. You know, we do that 0 to 18. So, we do look at our dollars around all of this builds on if you have a kid with developmental
delays that gets no services at that time because they don't qualify for early steps, but like help me grow can go in and do that. they're able to read or overcome those type of things, they'll enter school ready and we know when they enter school ready, they have a higher probability of um being successful and graduating. I do want to I do want to share this with you. You know, part of the things that we do at the trust also is research. And so when I first came on a year and a half ago, we did a core indicators report. And what we look at is um from Florida Policy Council,
if you haven't looked at their website, it gives us a pretty a pretty bleak vision of who we are as a Scambia County. When we started, we were at 58. 58 in the state out of 67 counties and child well-being. Um so how fortunate I feel like we are to have a trust that we can maneuver dollars. We don't have to rely on the state. We don't have to rely on the feds to tell us how to spend it. Um we can identify our gaps and go forward. Um I will tell you there is hope. Um, we looked at the child well-being score that's come out um for 2025 and we're at 55. Okay, that still stinks. Um,
but but it is step in the right direction and and so we started doing our dive. What made the difference? What made the difference? I will tell you that the Florida charts are not caught up. I mean, most of their data is from 2022, but two of the data points that actually had caught up and gave us new data since last March of 2024 was eighth grade math. It jumped by almost 10 points. That's significant. One thing we do know is we fund a lot of out of schooltime programs that do a whole lot of tutoring and mentoring. Um, and it's not just us. It's a community effort,
right? Um, but that was a huge data point for us. The other one is there's been a significant reduction in juvenile interactions with the um, Department of Juvenile Justice. Another area that we we target very heavily. We know the sheriff targets that very heavily. So, I think that those are things in the right direction. I can't wait to see what some of that other data looks like when the Florida charts catch up to that. Um, but you should know that initiatives, not just from the trust, but the trust as being a a pie piece of that is moving the needle slowly. I would like it to be much better um than 55,
but three points in a in a year since I've been here, I think it's pretty significant. So, if our if our 401ks went up like that, we would be excited, right? Always. So, anyway, any questions? Uh, Lindsay, I was happy to hear you say that, you know, something to the effect what happens after the flight academy, a follow-up type of program. Are you can you fund the development of something like that with the flight academy? Absolutely. I don't even know what that would look like. I don't
either, but I like the idea. If it's a Yeah, but it's got to be fun. Like like doing a deployment. I don't know what's more fun than doing that. Yeah. But we got to come up with I I think there needs to be more than one touch because I think because I was a facilitator there at the academy and I met kids even though they were there, they didn't think they were going to be pilots. Yeah. They were just there to have fun. Yeah. But they didn't think that was in their future. They just didn't think that they could ever get there. and do that. Yeah. So, I think they need to have more
touches and see just how fun it is so they'll they'll get that they'll get energized, you know, to keep pursuing this because I know that from for myself when you when you you want to do something very early on and you kind of keep, you know, and reinforcing the love for that, you know, the parents or whoever. I think there need to be some parent programs that get them to do that. Sure. Is you can become that. I I might I may have mentioned this before, but me and Hassan went to
um Sherwood. Yeah. They had a leadership um uh day there and we met a little girl. What was her name? Royalty. Royalty. Who said she wants to be an astronaut and she's going to be an astronaut. We got her picture with her because we know she's going to be one. She want she's been wanted to be one for a little while. We're going to introduce her to an astronaut. we have an astronaut in our community and um to reinforce that because it's going to help her. Yes. And and she just she's got that love and the sparkle in her eyes. She's she's going that direction. That's why I think we need
to have programs that reinforce things like this. Um one more thing, and this is more for Steve, okay? And I I don't think that I don't think you were diminishing the importance of AI when you were talking. Certainly not. I appreciate your passion for the trades. I I think you're probably the mic row of Escambia County. I'll take that. Yes. But kids are afraid of AI as and some adults are and I think there needs to be some AI understanding and some maybe some AI training.
Um I was watching TV and uh the this weekend and maybe it was yesterday, maybe it was the day before. Uh the Nvidia CEO was on there and he was talking about them beingcoming a $5 trillion company and he was asked what's the what he uses AI for and he said I use it for everything. I use it prepare for this interview. I prep my research. He does it for everything. I think kids need to understand how important AI is for them. It's like having another brain and once they understand how
they can use AI, they'll get smarter and they'll be able to figure out a lot of stuff themselves. Um, getting back to the trades, I I'll tell you that my wife always gives me the first crack at fixing things around the house, but she knows she's going to have to call somebody. She knows she will. So, I appreciate that. Thank you, Commissioner Strober. I'm not sure. Guess the second brain's not working. But um Lindsay, I just, you know, I've been I think you guys are doing some good things and obviously I've been critical on you on some other stuff,
but the one thing I want to highlight and and it's it's I'm not on the school board, right? But if you look at the schools in district 2 historically for years, this isn't like last year, five years, 10 years. I went through four different cos that have complained about this. Finally, Warrington Prep got out of a failing grade. Navy Point went to a D. Miss Scami has been a C forever. Um, the schools in district two aren't moving. They're just not moving and they haven't moved from their grades very much in over a decade. And it comes up every time with with the leadership on the base
and and other things. I'm not, you know, I don't know what metrics you look at for the programs. I mean, I'm not on the children's trust, but I would think that any of the programs, and I know what you we worked with on the Naval Fighter Academy, should look at where the need is in the most troubled schools and focus those resources. And I'm not asking for a dissertation, but I think that's what I would be looking for. Um, because I think that's where we need the most help and some of the toughest schools. And I would say, we're not afraid to do anything. And we have
plenty of providers that would be pushed in. You do need to be invited to the table though, Commissioner. Uh we can't just There's been plenty. Let me just give you an example of this that wrote in to come to the table, but you may be careful. Yeah. Well, and I don't I don't mean your table. I mean like coming into a principal like you're coming into a principal's domain there. And we've had some that actually wrote in a proposal. They were going to go and serve all and Commissioner May knows this very well. They were going to go serve all these high schools and these principles are like, "You did not call me. You did not sell me. And I do not need that here." Yeah. So, so we've had to kind of shift the culture of of yeah, you want to win a grant,
but do you have letters of support from the people that are going to let you in the door, right? And so, although we have some of those very social support type of things in your community, in those particular schools, I do think there is a balance that the trust has to recognize um which has been kind of hard and our board's kind of been divided on it a little bit. We have to balance the basic needs with opportunity. the Flight Academy, Chappie James, those kind of things are career opportunities. Those are things they will never see. Pensacola Children's course gets a lot of heat, but I will tell you those kids get tutoring, they learn how to sing, and they're probably going
to, if our board approves it, go sing at Carnegie Hall. They would never get the opportunity to do that. So, our partnerships together and working to support that. So, when you see a school that's struggling, do you know someone in your community that's working alongside that's maybe a nonprofit or a business that's willing to push in that already has a partnership that we can talk to that we can say this is an RFP or maybe it's a sole source. Bring them to the table. I just don't know everybody. I mean, I know who I know and the people that call me. But when you have
those people connect us, I I'm glad to meet with them. I'm glad to see we bring a lot of small nonprofits along. It's it's a challenge daily um for them to understand government contracting and you can't just go spend our money on everything and we're going to deny some of these things and you're going to have to fund raise to figure it out. I mean there's a lot of that going on. Um but we're not scared of bringing them along either if they're going to tackle those type of things that you're talking about. So and Mike to this and and as you said it's a divided board for me. I mean,
you know, when you start funding things like ACT, SAT, preparatory classes in the high schools, when this kid has, as Steve just talked about, the GED is just as important, rather than teaching him how to change a call out in HVAC or how to drop an engine, something that's going to be practical. That's that's unreal. And I think that's why actually I appreciate you having this meeting because as a community we have to get on board and we have to begin to honor and respect those professions uh that may not have you in a suit like we have on. I mean and so I
I I think what you're saying it's kind of right. You know it's great to have and Lindsay all go informal mental health. I don't I for the life of me I still don't know what it is. U but it's other than I'm gonna be crazy when I don't have a job. Uh but if we could take those resources and get the PHS high school football team when we know by the real data less than 2% are going to go on to play college football and get those kids in something that's real and get them what Steve's talking about get them in those trades now and honor those trades and highlight those trades
and give them certificates for not just running a touchdown or dunking a ball or singing a song but highlight them with a job and don't give them a glass ceiling. That's really what it's about. give them something that's practical and that's real. And so I hope that as we get together we can make those things happen. Well, and I made the notes on that because we do have providers directly going in um too that right off the top of my head that are doing that work um and that was it. These kids are not going to go to to Pensacola State. They're and if they are they're scared um but they want to do a trade. So how do we do that? So that was something new. Well, it's hard
to go to P it's hard to go to PSC when you're used to getting free and reduced lunch and you go out there and you can't figure out how to eat because someone's telling you to go to school and life's going to be better. I'm not going to school to be better if I can't eat and I've been dependent on someone feeding me with free and reduced lunch and now you're telling me to go learn this trade without a job. So that's why I mean that's why the summer employment program was started uh because you know that if you're going to train kids, you got to pay them, you know, because they still need to eat, they still need gas, they still need clothes. Well, and I think you can use some of those dollars to bring these kids on like they're talking about. I think that would be that'd be an excellent partnership and of course we get the data and kick that back to you so you
can see what it looks like. So and I am a big fan of getting as much programming into the schools as possible. Um Steve, could Lindsay call you if she runs into a roadblock with teachers or principles? Sure. Okay. Wonderful. Thank you. Absolutely. All right. Thank you for your time. I appreciate the invite. Thank you. And Claire, I hope that Joe and our staff's working with this workforce with them. Uh Chris Plate, executive director of Florida West. I know you just presented last month. Very informative. Thank you. Um really I asked you to come here today so you could take all this in. And
then I know that you guys work with bringing a new industry and growing the industry that we currently have. What gaps are you seeing with the people here today? How can we help fill those gaps? Yeah, I really appreciate the opportunity to be a part of this too. um whether it's product development um and other things that are important to to help a community um be successful at economic development, workforce is right up there with everything else. Um typically what we will see companies when we survey our companies and talk to them about some you know
the training that they need it's really around meatronics, industrial machining, industrial maintenance and then it gets into the soft stuff. It's the supervisory and leadership training. It's understanding how to show up on time. I think that's already been mentioned several times that really as these new generations that focus on, hey, I can be a YouTube star. That's not real world, right? And so they're having to relearn and the reality of actually showing up and hitting a clock on time and u and being responsible. As you look to the clusters that we're targeting,
the four legs of the stool are aerospace, maritime, cyber AI, um, and life science. and cyber AI in aerospace also incorporate defense kind of covers all of those but the um you know it's composits and advanced materials it's clean room tech you know we're already putting that in place it's avionics&p electronics to go into the cyber to go into battery tech everything else and then programming so I think we have had gaps that are starting to get filled so it's really nice to
see what's happening at Pensacola State College with local school systems doing uh at UWF clearly what they have done too with Wave, you know, the the A&P school at at George Stone or the A&P that's breaking ground now at Pensacola State College. I'm a little surprised those weren't here before given the the cluster that we already have of aerospace. So, that's wonderful that those gaps are being filled. Um the big thing I think going back also is in the AI side is we
need to have classes to train children how to not use it as a Google but use it as a tool and learn how to be learn prompt development. So how do you maximize and get the most out of AI? I mean we're seeing that now where they're basically you can train. So we've done that even for Florida West is now we've trained a master profile then we've trained another profile underneath that and from there you can start to develop agents and it me it remembers things and those agents basically
are like employees that will do things for you but you have to know how to develop those prompts to tell it and ask it to do those things. So that's huge as I think you know math teachers of old hated when calculators showed up. You know, a lot of professors now in college will say, "If you use chat GPT, I'm going to fail you." Well, why? That's the tools that they're using when they get out. They should be taught how to use those, not be penalized for using them. So, I think those are some of the bigger things. Um the the other thing that I don't find clear that I
can't it may be here, but I haven't seen is we've talked about certifications. There's a pathway, right, for people as they want to continue to grow. How do you go from certification to associate to a bachelor's to whatever you want to beyond that it's there and I think the schools all of them work together to some degree to give a to give credit as you go from one school to the other but I don't think it's very clear to a student and so we I think we need to articulate those pathways that yes go get your certificate come out but as you may have opportunities to become a leader or
supervisor you need to go get an associates degree here's how to do that Um, so and then next thing up is you want to be in management. I need a bachelor's degree. So we'll show those people and you get credit at least within Escambia County within all of our systems that those will sort of keyhole right into each other. Um, the final thing for me is apprenticeships. You know, internships are fine. Apprenticeships are where careers are made. That's where you're learning on the job training that they're not going to give you with a if you just walk into a job
with a degree. Um, you need those apprenticeships. And I think apprenticeships in other communities have been really successful. I think we have a few here that have been successful. I think we need to broaden that. Um and that's really working with the companies and making sure that they commit to the education group that they're willing to support that because it really apprenticeships to be successful is the companies have to support it and pay those employees in that time. You know, I love how at a high school graduation, you'll hear or um they may gather the students for a
something in the in the gym and say, "This child got an a scholarship to University of Florida. This child got a scholarship to this." If you look at the value of a an apprenticeship, it dwarfs any other scholarship you would get at a major university. So, apprenticeships are a big big piece. I think we need to really grow. So, that's great information. Thank you so much. Okay. And I saw people behind you taking notes. That's a good sign. Uh, any questions? I don't know. Okay. Thank you so much. That's all I've got for All right. Thanks to all the presenters that
came today. Thanks, Commissioner Hoffberger for leading on this cow. Um, just for notes, we won't have a cow in December. So, our next cow will be in January. And other than that, I we'll meet tonight at 4:30 for public forum. This meeting's adjourned, everybody.