Nothing else. I know that $10. We call this meeting to order. Please rise. We give the invocation of the bless. Our father who in heaven be thy name. Th kingdom come, thy will be done
on earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread. Forgive us as we forgive those tres against us and glory forever. Amen. To the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which
it stands. One nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. Everybody, it's uh good to see a full boardroom this evening. Yeah. Uh looks like we will start off with um
citizen comment. Mr. Superintendent, do we have any citizen comment? Let's see. Yes, Mr. Chairman, we do have some citizen comment. Um, I have a stack of them here. If anyone still has any, if they will, we'll make sure that Miss Aretta in the front gets those. And if
not, then the chair will call you. And when you come up, if you will come forward to the podium, state your name, your address, and you'll have 3 minutes. Yes, madam attorney. All time keep. So, you'll hear the timer go off, and that concludes your time.
All right. We appreciate your cooperation in advance. So, we'll start with Mr. Robert Kingman. Would you please uh come forward? The fourth. I apologize. I forgot the fourth. I want to short
you. Hello, my name is Robert. Uh 55 Blades Avenue. So, I started fire class my very first year freshman year. My very first year freshman year. Um, Cath was really nice. Thing is, I
started with both of them, criminal justice and fire. Criminal justice I didn't like cuz there wasn't enough discipline there. I was wild. I was just all over the place. But when I was in fire, he like put me the class put me in my place. Every time I messed up, I did
push-ups. I it just helped me stay better this year. I was a lot better a lot better in class. Mons was more spunky. I was I had better grades, better attendance. I had just more
focus, better just better in general. Building trades, too. I took building trades this year. The class is nice. Teaches you how to use power tools. Like if I ever in a situation I need to build a house, I already know how to do that. Um
it was somebody else. So you don't have to use You don't have to use it all. It's up to you. Thank you. Good. Thank you. Okay, Jackie works for me.
Hi, I'm Jackie Ratica from Florida, 5130 Martin Street, and I'm also a city commissioner. So, I'd like to say thank you for allowing me to come over here and address you guys very much. Um, as you know, that was my grandson. I'm very happy with the work rise progress he's
made being in the fire academy. I think it's a very important class. It has shown him tremendous dis discipline from last year to this year. I was really surprised at when he came over and spent time with me that it was yes ma'am, no ma'am, yes sir, no sir, yes I'll do
this, yes, no that. So, I was really impressed with the changes that it's made. And I know as I looked up the the curriculum from the Florida Department of Education and the things that this fire academy can show for these kids, very very important. And he's been in it
for two years. He wanted to do a new role. He even kind of made a life change where he wanted to become a paramedic possibly is where he's looking into it. So, I'm just here to make complete that we can try to keep that fire academy as well as the shop class. I think it's
very important. Those are things that the kids need. Not every child has come out to go to college. I didn't go to college, but I still made a good business for myself. I'm a certified building contractor, so I do okay for myself. But not everybody has to go into that college field. So if they're not,
some of these other things teaches them how to to spread their wings and how to be themselves. And that was one thing that I did find with Robert that he actually found himself in this class. So it was a big a big thing even between the two. So I'm just here to beg and
plea if there's any possible way you guys can find it that we can keep these classes because I think it's very very important for the future of these kids. Thank you. All right. Next will be Julie Wilkins.
For the record, I'm Julie Wilkins, mayor of the city l. My address is 222 Martin Street in Lel. and I'm here on behalf of the city as a person or an institution that actually hires um your graduates. We have two right now from the fire
academy and I talked to our fire chief couldn't be here on short notice. We just found out that the class wasn't continuing and um they're they're strongly in favor of having class. We have brain drain and we have
high turnover. people are going to other areas after reframe. We all know the feeling. We do it with school teachers all the time. So, it it's it's an it's it's an unusual situation for us, but it's one we like to stop. And my our
fire chief specifically said that he he would rather h excuse me, hire hometown kids that know our streets, know the area, and are invested in the community and don't want to leave and avoid that. So I would like us if it's not something
that's tenable and I just spoke with the superintendent if again short notice not a lot of background um that we find business education partners we find a way to fund the teacher and keep the program going and the program needs a little tweaking so they graduate as a
fire one. We've got scholarships available from the Southwest Heroes Foundation and some other organizations that would take them to FIRE, too. And and we can hire them immediately out of high school. And we're moving towards 100% uh full-time. It's transition. We're a
hybrid system right now. So, we have full-time firemen, firefighters. Sorry. We have women as well. My apologies. Um, so it it's it's a strong program that that is helping us solve issues. And on the side of construction, having been in
the industry with my family business, my husband's business, um, we need the trades and the kids need to be trained because that's the one thing they don't have. They walk on to a job, I know how to do this. No, you don't. You don't have a clue. But if they at least have the basics and
understand the to understand how to use the tools and the safety and just understand how to be on the job with the responsibility and the respect of being taught, it's it's a critical critical program. So I'm not condemning you for for not continuing with the program. I'm
saying let's find an option. Let's work together because vocational and education partnerships, occupation, career trip, they've been going on for, you know, hundreds of years and and we can keep and we can make it happen if you know y'all with us. So, thank you.
Good job. All right. Next we'll have Jacob Bishel. Is that correct? For the record, my name is Jacob Michelle. My address is 120 Street. I live here in When I first went into my freshman
year of high school, I didn't want to be fired. I wanted criminal justice originally. Then after I learned who would be in charge of the fire class and who would be teaching it and what his character was and how much how involved he was with kids, I be switched to fire.
Um firefighting, taking firefighting out of high school has taught me so much um more just past just um how to be a firefighter, what happens and all that. It's taught me character. It's taught me I can do things that I didn't originally
think I could do because I've been pushed to do things that I didn't think I could do. And that I believe that's something that can only be taught by certain people. Um I also think that it's good to keep the fire
class because um the people that live around here that would take the class would know the area. You also get more train move through the high school instead of just going to fire school. And you have more people that are involved in the community.
And that's it. Thank you. Aiden Barios. Is that right? Um, I want to talk about um the snow a little bit. Um, when I was 8th grade, I um went to
the spring. We learned a lot of things. Um, and I saw Mr. St's everything. I thought it was great idea to take the class from my freshman year. I did get the class in my freshman
year. Um then um I joined also joined football when I was freshman but then I didn't know but didn't play football man like yes sir
man. Um so I well quitted football and I joined his guard team and we have had um good communication with each other for the past 6 months. Um I just want to say that he is very
responsible, respected, respectful man and most honest person I have met and I like no like um I just want to say that I think we should keep this because he also teaches
us how to live to protect other people, how to save people's lives and to make matters good. We should help more society become more better and more experienced as a person.
Thank you, sir. Thank you, Emily Smith. For the record, my name is Emily Smith. My address is 312 by the day. Um, as I'm sure all of us know by now, there is a petition going around to save the fire academy at LHS. I happen to be the
one to create it. Now, I have never once wanted to be a firefighter, but this program is so much more than just the fundamentals of that. It not only are we learning what we would learn in fire school, but we're learning character. We're learning how to be better people.
And that's what a good program does. My freshman year, I would have never imagined standing here speaking to this room making a petition. But because of the character that has been built through that class and with that
teacher, here I am today speaking and standing up for what I believe in. And not only that, but we we learn how to use fire extinguishers and that could save someone's life on a day-to-day basis. You don't need to want to go to
fire school or be a firefighter to enjoy this program, to enjoy what it has to offer. So, I I encourage you and I know 900 other people at least support me in this. If there is any way to save this program, it would be greatly appreciated by not
only me, the students back there, but 900 people in this community. Thank you. Go back to Perkins. I'm Rebecca Perkins, 3115 Perkins Drive. Our first encounter with Mr.
Snell, or as his students call him, Cat was my son's sophomore year at LHS open house. Walking into his class and hearing all the former and president students coming by to say hello. Hey Cat, how's it
going? It was very impressive. You could tell he had made an impact on his kids. Since my son has been in both fire and EMR classes and a member of the Lavel honor guard, myself as well as family and close friends has
seen a tremendous change in him. The classes teach life-saving skills along with morals and values that we so desperately need to see with our young these days. The teacher cat has went out to bat for
my son whenever a fellow teacher refused to put grades in after being asked repeatedly over and over again. My son came home and told me what happened and I said, "Well, I'll be there first thing in the morning." He said, "No, it's all right.
Cat took care of it." We need these classes and teachers like Cats. If you look at the headlines in Henry County lately, they are very disheartening. Classes like EMR and fire as long as well as the honor guard keeping our kids on the right path,
keeping them out of trouble. I have had the privilege of being around these students and to see the bond and respect not only for each other but for our country and our community. It's nothing I've ever seen
before. My son didn't go into the fire academy thinking he wanted to be a firefighter. After only a few short months into the academy, he was certain that's what he wanted to be. I hope this
is everyone sees that this is a huge mistake after the testimonies that you'll hear today and the ones we've already heard. Um, we need more teachers like him. We need more programs like him, like this, these programs to keep our kids on the right path. We have a lot of people moving in here
and I'm sure a lot of them aren't so great. They're trying to come and have our lifestyle because they're escaping what they came from. Um, a lot of the childrens have had traumatic experiences in their life. Mine being one of them. Um,
before he started his freshman year, two weeks before he started his freshman year, we lost my husband. Not anything was offered to not one of my kids. Now, we did have up the growth come and pay their respects, but no one reached
out from the school board. No one said, "Hey, how can I help you?" But this teacher made a difference in his life. He stepped up when no one else did. This program is very beneficial. The I don't know if I mean I know you
guys have seen what he does for the kids. just received an award and then a couple days later got fired. But um it's it's just very disheartening and our kids as you can tell they've been moved by the program and they've been
moved by this teacher. I think we need to keep the programs and this teacher for sure. Thank you. Thank you. Jimmy Orlinsky brought notes just in case I messed up just like
you. Ladies and gentlemen, the board, my name is Jimmy Wolinsky. I live at 1660 Ivan Boulevard. Um, I want to start this off by saying first of all, firefighters are way cooler than cops. I was a firefighter for 24
years. My son, since he has been in this class, has I call him like a Banny Rooster. I guess everybody can probably put that on those terms. He walks around the proud just like every one of these kids that are talking. the strength that this class has given them to come up
here and talk in front of you and the crowd. Kudos to you. Um, discipline. My son's usually disciplined many ways, but just watching the character of my son. Grocery store the
other day, lady with water bottles, older lady walks up to her, scared the heck out of her, don't get me wrong, and said, "Ma'am, can I put those in a car for you on his own? This is the type of discipline that we need in our schools. This is what we
need to show. These kids being proud of walking around in your uniforms. I think is it Thursdays you guys wear your uniforms? Wednesdays. Wednesdays. Just just the proudly wearable, you know. Um I come from a my son comes from a divorced family. So when he forgets his
uniform, I pride his mom's because he wants his uniform. That's how proud he is of this. Ron has done awesome things with these kids. You know, after school, I'll see him, he goes, "Hey, you know, let me see today."
You know, might want to check on him or something like I do. Me and my son talk very well. But I do want to just stress what role this plays. Let's go with this. Um I'm director with Hendrick County Utilities, Port Bay Utilities.
If um let's say two two two graduates are looking for the same job at the academy or not the academy at the firehouse itself. You have one that has four years of an academy in school versus one that just came out and done it. Who you going to
choose? I'm going to go with the kid that doesn't quit. He showed me that he wants to stay and be part of this. That's the guy I'm going to hire. Thank you. Thank you, Nancy
Michelle. My name is Tara Miller. I'm on behalf of Nancy Bishaw. She resides at 120 North Riverview Street, Label. I have been a resident of Henry County for 20 Excuse me. I'm sorry. You have to stay here doing this. Oh, I'm so sorry.
Terrible. My name is Nancy Bishaw and I have been a resident of Henry County for 20 years working and volunteering in this county for more than 22. I'm not I'm not able to be at the meeting tonight. So, I'm sending my statement with Tara Miller. I have two children in
the Henry County school district. A son who will be a senior at Laval High School and a son who will be a fifth grader at Upboro. In the 22 years I have been in this community, I've watched Label Burrow transform in many ways. My husband's family has been in Henry County since the 1960s with my late
father-in-law graduating from Lal High. His aunt Noble graduating from Cleman. The growth that the county has seen in the last three years alone has been amazing, but also riddled with challenges. With the influx of people in new homes comes not only increased revenues and taxes, but an increase in
the need for a diverse and quality education. One of the greatest challenges that I see as a parent is the need for more programs within the school system. Our schools are bursting at the seams with new families every single year. As administrators and board
members, you all need to understand the need for quality educators, but also diverse programs of study. Not every child is going to be an athlete and excel in that avenue and play at the collegiate level. Not every child will excel academically and take
AP classes at go to receive scholarships or college. There will be children who need these CTE programs, the programs that keep them excited about coming to school. the programs that we will train them for a future in public service or trades,
not just academics. These alternative career path programs are vital for some of these children who are not going to be able to afford to go to college. Talk to the students, talk to parents, talk to the community. We all need those willing to go into public
service, those willing to build homes and roads, those willing to risk their lives to save yours. In August 2022, my son Jacob joined Captain Snow's Fire Academy as his education track for high school. This was hands down the best decision ever
because he was a little nervous about high school. This program helped him become more confident, helped him to make some amazing friends, to be involved in the school and community. Jacob fell in love with firefighting and the science behind it all and felt like he finally found his place. He then
joined honor guard with Captain Snell and began becoming more interested in not only firefighting but also began heavily considering joining the military. Through Honor Guard, he has learned how to handle our nation's flag, the proper etiquette of the flags, how
to handle and present a rifle, how to march. He has presented our flag at numerous football games, band competitions, senior awards ceremonies, and various other places throughout the community. They honored our veterans by placing flags and braces on the graves
of the veterans. If you could do closing comments, please. We come before you today to ask that you not cut the fire academy at Alabama High. Do not eliminate the honor guard. Do not cut Captain Snow from this position. All right, we're now we're going to call
you back up. Do you need to speak? You going to speak twice? Are you going to speak? Um, yes. I have my own. You have your own already. My name is Sarah Miller. I reside at 6379 State Road 29 in Label. Um, I have a freshman in the firefighting academy
as well as honor guard. um he spoke here a few moments ago. Before honor guard and before firefighting, he would not have came up here. U Mr. Snow, he has said in the past has helped him with his communication skills. He's also helped
him with his morale and his undetermined skill to try to help people that are in need. I see it every day with my son. I see him walk into the grocery store. If somebody has two cases of water they can't carry, my son is
offering. We need first responders. We need There's 23 out of a thousand kids ages 10 to 17 that get arrested in Henry County. And that's just in 2023. These kids need something to look
forward to. They need to be able to to have I'm sorry. I got hers and my eggs together. Um, it's a blessing to our kids to be able to offer this in school. It is $4,000 per kid to take to Fire Academy.
They wanted to leave Laval High School and go to Fire Academy is $4,000 for them just to be able to attend something that's been a blessing for them to be able to receive. My son has been through strategies to save lives. That's what they're teaching these kids. They're teaching them real life scenarios.
something happens at the high school, these kids, they're trained to help and save lives possibly. The honor guard, I cannot touch base on that enough. We need people that honor our military. We need people that are respectful. They stand for God and
country, and that's what these kids do. They're respectful. They're respectful to everyone here. They'll be respectful to complete strangers that they don't know. And that's what this world needs. While there's kids going out there doing crazy things at school, these kids are learning how to be real life adults,
too, with real life problems. Some of these kids have had really tragic lives, and that teacher and specifically has helped a lot of these kids be able to find their voice and be able to live through things. Um, dignity and pride is just another thing I can touch base on.
Um, I I I really took a look at financial statements through the school board and there's a lot of really red flags going on with other expenses, furniture. There's millions and millions of dollars to be wasted working programs like this. Thank you,
Apollo Hester. For the record, my name is Apollo Hesser. I reside at 1175 Tampa Avenue in Boston. Um, I'm here tonight because I have four kids in this school district. And this school district is failing our children. Not just in cutting programs
like the fire academy, which as a veteran, I love hearing what these people are saying about the fire academy and the honor guard because the military taught me honor, taught me discipline, taught me accountability. When I had none of that direction, if these if I would have got that in high school, oh
man, my life would have been so much different. Again, the trade support, not all of our kids are cut out for college. That's just part of why I wasn't, you know, and learning a skilled trade is
what puts food on my family's table. And cutting programs like this is robbing our children of their futures. And then on top of that, we have administrators and staff in these schools who are subpar and unacceptable, who take it upon
themselves to disregard disciplinary board recommendations and do other things outside of those disciplinary board recommendations and remove children from school when the incident wasn't even that child's fault. Things
like that go unchecked and get swept under the rug. Hush, hush. No one cares. What that hurts is the student. We got rid of LDA because of budget cuts. These kids who are at risk have nowhere to go. They they get sent home and they're told to go to school online. That's not good
for atrisisk kids. They need structure. They need someone there in the classroom with that guy. So, this school board is failing our students. And I've got names I'll gladly give you guys. Since there's a a TV camera here, I'm not going to do it in front of everyone, but if you guys
would like, I have several names I'm glad to give to you all about people you need to look at within our schools. But at the end of the day, this district is failing our students and the buck stops with you guys. And I expect more out of
my public servants because at the end of the day, that's what y'all are. You're public servants. You're here to listen to the community and then instill what the community wants into the district. So, I expect you guys to do better. Thank you.
Okay, that uh we do not do do we have any other comment cards turned in? That's all. We did not have any. Um I have one board member that would like to uh to speak real quickly. Mr.
Quarter 3 minutes two and a half two and a half Paul say I'm a board member from Lel Florida my son was in the fire academy for 4 years that my son is not an academic
student in middle school we went struck by look up online every week and follow his grades oh look at this when you had a D window sticker all all the time. It seemed like sometimes he's rounded, sometimes not. Okay. Every week we're
doing this all through middle school. Okay. It went on and he joined the fire academy. All of a sudden, talk about character development changes. You heard that every time someone spoke their character, his character changed so
much. Yes, sir. No, sir. That's unbelievable. He would I said, "Well, I got to check your grades." Well, you don't have to check my grades. I check my grades. That's part of the academy. I have to do this. I have to keep my grades above C's otherwise I have issues
there. But he loved them arm. He walked tall and he did that for four years and I'll tell you it made a big change and it's both our lives. So I you know I think it it does provide a service that
I you can't deny. Uh now he did not I would have thought he's always going to be a fireman. I mean Christmas we buy him the fire bags and all everything he needed then he moved into a different direction. So not everybody that goes through that program but the character
development counts and so maybe we can service them in another way if we're not doing that. We need I think that whole concept of that is really important. Thank you. Yes
sir. I will say that I am a big advocate of the CTE programs. U you know the the I'm into the trades. That's what I do for a living. That's what makes that's like much most of you. That's what puts
food on my table. Okay. That's what has uh provided for me for many of years. Okay. So, um, believe me when we talk about having to cut anything that has to do with that kind of stuff because I agree wholeheartedly with most of you
about the fact that some of these kids just aren't going to college. Some of these kids, these programs are what actually keeps them coming back to school, right? I agree 100%. Um, you know, and I think our staff, Mr. swindled his all his staff does a
fantastic job of realizing that and understanding and and I don't think that they look at anything like that in a just a willy-nilly way. I think they they really do try everything that they can. So, but here's what I'm going to do
is I'm going to ask them to look at it extremely hard to make darn sure there is absolutely no way that we can do it. if there's a any way possible to make something else happen, I think he will do that. Um, and we're going to ask him to do that. Just take one more real good
look at it and and see what we can do. If there is a a possibility financially, folks, the reality, I understand, is it's like running a business. You you're you aren't going to be able to run a business and go broke and keep running the business, right? So, that that's
kind of where we're at. Um, you know, so my heart's with you guys. It really is. I I don't want to see any programs get cut from our school system. Not like this. So, um any other board members?
So, I'd like to commend everybody for having the courage to get up here and speak before a public audience today. Um particularly with the news cameras in the back room. I know that's not easy for many people. Um I want everybody to know I heard what you said loud and clear and particularly I heard what Mr.
Hester said loud and clear and I don't take that his words as an insult. I I take that as a reality check and um and I take that seriously because I know the kind of public servant that I want and
that guides the kind of public servant that I want to be for the community. And so I think that being said, there is a lot of um misconception on
how decisions are made. And so the best way to describe this is the board collectively says this is what we what we're focused on the what the what we want and the
administration their job is to figure out how to do that and um so what the board wants is a balanced budget. I don't think we have delved in to that and if I can um you know lovingly
criticize ourselves here. You know, I think that we would all be better served if we took a more hands-on approach to the fiscal planning um as outlined in the development of the fiscal planning as outlined in our existing policy about
fiscal planning. Um that being said, like I hear what you're saying loud and clear. I know how programs can be lifelines for families, save families, and I think the ones and and children. Um, and so I want to echo what Chairman
Baswin said and ask Mr. Swindle if he would be willing to at this point like walk us through the decision-m process and then explain the decision-m process where we're at right now and see if we can go back
and configure and figure out how much because I heard a a promise of community collaboration on this and figure out what is the dollar the exact dollar amount that it's going to require
every year, not just one year, every year for this to be sustainable and put up put the numbers down on where this program is now and where it has to be for continued sustainability because I I
may be misspeaking on this, but I feel like, you know, we're not getting any more money from the the legislature. We don't get to it comes it filters down to us. We get a pot of money and this is how we have to spend it. And it's very much we're very much told what we can
spend it on. I a comment about furniture expenditures. Well, that comes from a different pot of money than what we can spend on career technical education. We literally have to spend that money LCIF or sales tax money or whatever it is on specific things. And so,
um, I just would like, you know, the superintendent maybe speak to the decision-m process and sit down and figure out what that number is for sustainability and see, put that number on paper and then reach out to the community partners who
are here to voice support for this and see if this is something that we can work towards and get that enrollment and those certifications up where they are as sustainable because Mr. Swindle knows. I mean, he knows more than anybody. When we hired him, gosh, how many years ago it was, we
had a a CTE program that I don't even know if we could afford a secretary for you at that point. And we had the board had to put the front money up, but then he had to make it sustainable. And so, every program is like that. And so, just finding that number and what it's going to take to get there, I think, is would
be very important. So, if you would like to Sure. separate from that. Sure. Absolutely. So, let me let me say that um you may or may not know that my background is CT. I was an A teacher my whole career before I went into
administration for the school. So, um to the students and the parents, I know firsthand what you're saying uh and the impact that the CTE programs have on students lives. I know firsthand what impact the Label Fire Academy has on students lives. I've seen it. I've been there. I've been in games. I've been in the classroom. I've observed. Um uh and
so I I'm with you. I don't disagree whatsoever. However, um what Miss Bon was uh referring to was was that we're also a business and within a business you have to make sure that you don't spend uh more than what you can afford to pay. Um no in a business or in home
or your bank account or no matter where that may be. And ultimately what we look at is we look at a number what's known as a student load that a program or any class has. and classes have to maintain a minimum student load of a certain amount to be able to that the funding that we get from the state to sustain
the break even point um for that said classroom teacher and the expenses that go along with it and and simply in this situation the fire academy numbers just basically got below the break even point of what we were receiving and has been there for a couple of years and we've been working with them and hoping that it would get more and the students that
we have here tonight are wonderful there's a ton of success that that's going on there but simply the quantity of them do not make get sustainable as a business. So, um I think what I heard from Mary Wilkins was that, hey, let us step in and help, you know, shore up the funding and support with that. I think
what I'm hearing from the board is if you can work with them and make that happen, then I'm I'm all ears and I'm more than willing to put that on the table. But I'm telling you as a school board that we can't afford to to stay in a situation to where it cost us money uh to run programs that way and then sustain our business at the end of the
day. And so um what we have done by looking at these programs uh from a district level and on each school level is we call it uh right sizing if you will right uh making sure that we have the right right number of students to support the program support the teacher and and make that a viable business if
you will I know it's education and I know that that's where the two clash because we know the value of this program but we also know the economics that we receive don't support that. So, if the community, the city wants to meet us with that and help us shore that up or fund fund it, you know, uh we'll
provide the place, we can provide the students and the access. If this if y'all want to provide the teacher for it, we're all here. We're more than willing to work to make that happen. Now, we got to do it in pretty short order because we're on a kind of a short time here. But if that's the case, then I'm absolutely willing to work that out
and bring that back to the table. Mr. Yes, sir. Dollars. Do we know how much? Cuz that I can I don't off the top of my head sitting here today, I couldn't tell you. I do, but it's pretty easy to come up with and and we can provide that. Let us let us know, please. Okay, we'll do.
And I do want to say to all the students and parents that came tonight, we appreciate you coming and advocating um the matter for this or any program. Um and again, just rest assured, we're there with you. It's not that we think this is not a good program. I love Mr. Snell, Mr. Snell myself. He's a great guy and uh and I know the impact he
does. So, I appreciate you doing that and I appreciate the city and the constituents and the supporters saying that this is important to you too and we'll work with you to make it happen. Mr. Chair. Yes, ma'am. Could we work towards having something at the next meeting in in L? We don't have to do it at a meeting. So, the board So,
basically what Miss Men says is they set they set their expectations and the administration carries that out the expectations there. So, if it can happen then we can do this, right? Okay. Thank you. Thank you very much. All right. Thank y'all. And y'all are welcome to stay for the next four hours of meeting
if y'all want to. That's totally up to y'all, but uh that depends. Is there going to be more budget cuts? We'll stick around. I'm sorry. Is there going to be more budget cuts? Cuz we'll stick around. So, what I can tell you about that is is
right now that the uh Florida House of Representatives has recommended $4 billion cut to the state budget. And if that happens, there will be more cuts. There's no way around it. Right. So, what's being in place of the fire academy and the the construction trade that's being taken from? We're looking
at uh we did a survey amongst the students on on Friday and we had 138 students ask before lunch on Friday say, "Please make sure I get into the culinary class." Can I comment on that? I don't know that I don't know that we want to go into comment. I mean, I don't mean to be rude and disrespectful, but
it's really meetings are not meant to be back and forth or questions and answer sessions until they took the class. Nothing new that's what they wanted to do. And I have the financials for the school board right here for the 2025 2026. I mean, sure, you do what you want, but I Well, we're going to again,
not to be rude, we can't we can't keep going like this. We do have to conduct a business meeting yet, folks. And we do we do great and I appreciate all of your comment inputs, but we do have other business that we have to attend to and I'm happy to meet with anyone. So if any parent wants to meet with me, I happily
take up the governor an email. I may hear back from him in person. Awesome. Thank you. Schedule a meeting with you, sir. Please do. Thank you. How do we do that? Uh through Miss Alexis Senna. If you go on the website, our number and email and everything's on there. All right. Thank you. I appreciate you guys' time. I didn't mean anything. I said
it's an insult. Okay. Did didn't take it that way that way, Mr. We appreciate you showing up. Thank you. Okay, we will move on to the consent agenda. So, do we uh have any board
member that would like to have anything from the consent agenda removed and put on an action item? Mr. Chairman, I like item D. Um, annual Florida School Board Association dues. Moved to an action item, please. Okay. So, action. So,
consent agenda D. Item D will become action item F. Do we have any we just discussed item E starting and stopping time starting. I just want to know are they the state kept changing it at the
legislature. Are we good with the state legislators starting trying to stop us? One of the last things the legislature did last week was give us the option that uh they still say we still want you to abide by this unless you within your local districts want to change it and
you can show us why it's good for you. So we have the option to either stay where we are or go to the new one or anything in between. So they did give us that ability. So with this are we approving the start time stop times? We're approved. We do it every every year we approve the the coming year's
times and there was some tweaks to the clue side mainly for the bus routing was what we had to do it for. So there was no major change in it and it wasn't to take effect until the 26 27 school year if we had to change it anyway. So we still have one more year to go. But now
what what my intentions and I believe the uh district's direction is going to be let's do what's right for our schools. Let's do what's right for Henry. And that's what statewide everybody was kind of just saying, you know, there were some districts that went on ahead and changed to it and were okay with it. There were some that did
had to switch back. They weren't. And so we're just saying let's every year we'll look and we'll make what changes we need to make that's best for our families, our schools, our transportation department and and do what's right. I just didn't want to be in conflict. We are not we are not we will we will have
to do next year if we don't go to the new times we will have to work with the state to give them the justification for why we did not but they've already give us the outline and guidance for it we shouldn't have any problems doing that and when you talk to the principles and stuff like that see people seem pretty happy with the schedule we've been happy
that's right yes we give them the opportunity to talk and have buy in on that and and so far um and we uh and I'll get to it later but um we did the uh superintendent uh talk schools last week and um out of the people that we
surveyed anyway 100% said they did not were not in favor of switching to the uh state uh recommended times. Wow. So not one person was in favor of it. That being said, there were a handful. It was but he is telling the truth about the
handful of folks. 100% of the small handful said that. No, that answers my question. Okay. But I I didn't see it as an action item. We have sedential here tonight with the presentation. Yes, sir. No, it's action item uh D. Oh, further down in your action. It's an
action. It's an action item. That's okay. Got it. Thank you. Okay. All right. Anything else from the board before we move forward with it? Mr. Superintendent, do we have a recommendation on the consent agenda? Yes, sir. Mr. Chairman, I recommend the
approval of the consent agenda uh with the exception of item D. So, move second. Motion by Mrs. Bon, seconded by Mr. Nelson. Do we have any further discussion? Hearing no discussion. All in favor say I. I. Opposed? Motion carries.
5-0. Okay, we will move on to action items. Superintendent. Action item 4A, new personnel allocation request. Yes, sir. Uh yes sir. Action item 4A. Because of our growing school population in the
label side, we're having to add a unit at Label, excuse me, at Country Oaks Elementary. And that's what this uh action item covers. The new position that we need to add there. So I recommend approval of action item 48. So second by Miss Nelson, seconded by
Reverend Brown. Do we have any discussion? Um yes, Mr. Super or Mr. Chairman. um looking at those enrollment numbers. So it's not like Ciston where you know the elementary schools just like get divvied up equally. U there it's
geographic zoning and I've noticed just like a huge increase in the enrollment at Country Oaks is and then other have had like moderate increases. Is there any kind of like consideration
for how we determine enrollment or school zones or We've talked about we've talked about that and as a matter of fact we've gotten to a point where we actually were full of country Oaks and we were moving some of the students to other schools and and so the short answer is yes, but the long answer is
once we move those schools in two years, it's all going to have to be redone anyway. And so we just are kind of dragging our feet doing what we got to do to get to that point in two years where we can make one official move and be done with it. All right. I didn't think about that. Okay. Thank you. Yep.
Okay. Any further discussion? No. Hearing no discussion. All in favor? I. All opposed? Motion carries. We'll move on to action item 4B. Another new personnel allocation request for behavioral health data specialist for
ESC. Yes, sir. Believe this one for um pretty self-explanatory within the description and in the in the print. And so therefore, I recommend approval of action on 4B as presented. Second motion by Mrs. Houston by Miss Nelson. Do we have any discussion? Just
a quick question. We we have five action items printed here, but on my computer on my I only see two. So like I wanted you didn't have you you get an old version or something. I don't know.
Certainly. Okay. We have to work with it to make sure what you're looking at. See, I got two today. Maybe it's an old. Did you close out and reopen it today? Mr. Sam broke it. You might have the
wrong meeting. here. Just look at my location. I still look at your Thanks. All right. Thank you. That answers my question. All right. So, do we have a recommendation? We had your recommendation. So, we need a
motion and a second. So, move. Second. Mr. Samike and then seconded by Mrs. Benton. Do we have any discussion here? No other discussion. All in favor? I opposed. Motion carries. We will move on
to action item 4 C, permission to advertise the notice of proposed policy updates. Yes, sir. This is another round of our uh efforts to keep up with the everchanging legislative bodies and the rules that come down with the Department of Education, especially through our
NEOA services. Um these obviously have to be advertised for a set period of time and then they'll come back to you ultimately for their vote and adoption. Um however, but we do have to advertise them. So I recommend um approval of action item 4C um the permission to advertise as presented. So second we
have a motion. So move second motion by M seconded by Reverend Brown. Do we have any discussion hearing? No discussion. All in favor say I. I. I oppose. Motion carries. 5-0. We'll move on to action
item 4 D, approval of the Sedexo award, food service management, RFP, superintendent. Okay. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Um, as you well know, Sedexo has been a partner with Henry County with food services for several years. Um, we have gone through an RFP process
and tonight they're here to give you um, a presentation and answer a few questions that were were asked at the last board meeting. Um I know Ron uh is a great representative. I know we got Kevin you going to introduce rest your team so everybody kind of knows who everyone is just to be on Sarah. So uh
Mr. Superintendent Ter members of the board my name is Ron Gomez director of business development for Sedexo and I'm responsible for the Florida market for new sales and retention. And with me here today is Kevin district manager who focuses specifically on Florida business. And then we have Tmmy which is
our senior vice president. She manages I lose track of a number of states but a lot of states. So she's responsible for a large book of business, but uh our partnership here is very important. So we wanted to make sure that we came here and we were able to address any question that you have regarding the food management company. And then you already
know uh Evan and Mike and Sanita. So I'm not going to introduce them. But um as you know, we uh put together a food services bid and at the last board meeting the question was asked about some of the things that we've done within the nutrition program. So, first I'm going to go over some of the things
that we've done in the past and then I'm going to talk about what we're going to do moving forward. So, just a few things in regards to the meal count. You take a look at the breakfastes that we did. I'm going to call out a couple of things. So, uh with breakfast the year prior to Sedexo, we were roughly at 2,000 meals
per day. Uh this last year, we finished up and we were at 2500 meals per day. So, while it says 21% increase since the beginning of the contract, if you look back before the contract started, we've increased 25%. So, this is the only time I'll talk about some of the things that we're going to do in the future, but we're also going to add breakfast cards
and work with the superintendent and the administration to make sure that we continue to increase the number of meals. You're not at a 3minut time limit. You got to slow this down. Oh, yeah. I'm like marathon listening over here. All right. So, I will take my
time. 97. So, breakfast, we went from 2,000 meals per day before uh the contract started with today. So, we've increased 25%. So, we're going to add breakfast parts moving forward. So, you're going to see those numbers increase even more. The second thing is when you focus on
the average daily participation, if you take a look at at uh the fourth line, we had 7,000 meals average per day before Sedexo started, we've gone up almost 20% at 8,300 meals per day. And then when you take a look at
Olive Cart, Olive Cart is where students actually come in and they pay money for the food. So typically, but when you see a high number like you did before we started, that means that kids may not have likely being served for free. So they ended up spending their own money. So a good indication of a strong program where kids want to eat the food is what
that number continues to go down. So you see a progressive reduction of kids and now are no longer spending their money. They're taking the food that's available to them for free. Especially with Henry County where it's a community eligibility participation program, that means that all students are eligible for free. So you want it to be appealing. So that way uh kids are nourished and
they're able to focus on education. Then the last thing that I'm going to talk about is uh from a financial standpoint when we first started with the partnership with Hendrick County, you have a child nutrition fund balance. They can only be spent on that child nutrition fund. So no matter how much you make, you can only spend it on child
nutrition fund activities. So for example, furniture, equipment, things of that nature. When we started with county, you were $400,000 in this fund balance. The most you can carry is three months worth of operating expenses. So roughly $2 million. That's the cap that you can
have before the state comes in and says, "Hey, we need a plan on what you're going to do to spend this money down in order to make sure that you're reinvesting into the program." So what we're proud of is over the 10 years we've taken you from $400,000 to $4.5 million. So we've increased that number by uh over 10 times. And the only reason
we're able to do that is because you see the growth of the participation. So now it's become uh something where you have a lot of uh hold on this cable. So now you're in a position where you're in a very strong uh financial statement. So you think about if you were in the stock market if you were
able to get a 10 times return over 10 years I think it's an indication of the strong program that we've been able to do not just with our work but it's also in partnership with the administration when we bring in creative ideas that we work on implementing. So that's what we've done in uh the past. Now let's
talk about the teacher. What about teacher lunches? Um do we have a teacher? We do. We can get you that number. But yeah, there was a significant increase for teachers. Okay. Especially in the last 5 years. So we'll get that information. If I'm not mistaken, one of the things that
that the board had requested was that the teachers have some differentiated type of meals. And I think that uh my my response that I received back was that leaders were very happy with the options that uh Irwin and team provided there. So now the way I described is this is
the evolution of the child nutrition program. So now that we focus on getting you into a strong financial footing now what's next for the program. So it continues to go ahead and have an upward trajectory. So there's certain things that we did as part of the proposal design for this upcoming factors. One of the first ones is we're investing into
uh um what's called the game changer smokers at the high schools. So the game changer smokers, we introduced them a couple years ago in Swani County when we uh were awarded the business right there. And it's essentially a commercial grade indoor smoker where you can go ahead and program it and do any type of meats that are on there. You just like
you would at traditional RBG place. You have different blends of wood that you could go ahead and put in there, wood cuts, and it actually uh has the aroma in here when you're going into the cafeteria. So here's a few different things that we've done with the menus that were favorites from Sony. We had our national chef come in create some
recipes specifically for schools that we know going to meet the USDA guidelines and also uh student tested. So we had a focus group where we brought in students and we wanted them to give us their input on what they thought were their favorites and these are the things that uh students here at Hendrick County will
see in the upcoming year. So excuse me Mr. It wasn't Henry County students who got to sample food. No, this was when we first launched the smoker, it was 2 years ago. So, we were already here. So, based on the success that we saw to Wani County, we're bringing some of those
recipes here. So, we'll definitely be able to do some focus groups right here once we installed smokers and what are their names because sometimes there are some regional uh differences and that'll be some of the things that we'll be able to do. So, we have this is a catalog of different recipes. So, we'll be able to go ahead and test those out here and
make sure that we're uh uh providing what the students like because at the end of the day, just like what you saw that first page where we have the number of meals, that's our score. We're looking at how many meals can we go ahead and increase introducing programs. Thank you. You're
welcome. So, how do you sign up to be a part of the adult focus group? Yeah. And Kevin's taking notes over there. Lunch soon. Oh, by the way, the other thing that we're doing, I already mentioned it is the breakfast cards. That's another thing that will be
introduced this upcoming year so we can go ahead and get more students. Sometimes there's logistical challenges with where a student gets dropped off between them being able to get to class, being on time, etc. So, we're working with the administration to make sure that we provide these uh breakfast cards that are strategically placed so
students are fed. So what will the what will be on the breakfast carts? Normally it's grab and go items so it's on the go. So we can put it uh a mobile POS and as kids get off the bus if they're in some areas they may get dropped off further away from the cafeteria so they
don't have to go there. They only have 5 minutes. So we're going to uh work with the administration on where we place these carts at a convenient location that doesn't bother them at certain areas but kids still get have an opportunity to eat. I guess what question is is what? So I believe it's like muffins, right? I guess muffin and a wrapper and
fruits. Yeah, you got you got your basic you got to add like a milk or juice your fruit and a breakfast item. Uh breakfast items will be you know something cold. It could be something warm. You know we do a biscuit or something here and there
just we we have a rotating Okay. So it'll be the same thing every day. It'll be something they can put on that. Seems you can grab a biscuit and keep walking your class to eat it. Okay. Yeah. And and that's what I was wondering cuz I mean, you know, you can't it's kind of hard to take the milk and the in and cereal and walk and eat it and and that's why I was at what are we going to
be putting on this car? Like that it may be different from one campus to the next because of where the kids are going to be able to stop and eat that. Uh the other thing that we're going to look at doing is second chance. So sometimes kids get to school late and we'll work with the administration between first and second period where they're able to
grab a lunch and or a breakfast and eat a meal as well. We've seen a lot of positive results with programs like that and getting more kids to eat breakfast. Thank you. Another thing that we're doing uh is we have a food truck that's going to be introduced uh in the fall.
So with this, we have different things. We'll rotate the menis and it'll have traditional themed uh food truck items. So you see some things on here. Uh in the fall, we're going to do a tour of major uh major cities and their cuisine. uh throughout the US. So you here see
for example uh stop one will be the Chicago Italian beef sandwich. We'll have a Boston chicken parmesan Billy sal cheesecake. So it's just things to go ahead and get kids excited about the uh program and do different limited time offerings that generate uh interest and increase students participating in the
lunch program. And then one of the other things we wanted to we would not have been able to have the success that we've had here in Hendrick County without the employees. One of the things that I think you should be proud of is you're one of the few child nutritional programs um in the state of Zedexo has a
great uh program that we've been able to leverage having a good amount of food service workers uh and uh very little vacancies. Other food service programs don't have that. Uh but we want to make sure that we are providing a strong uh uh wage for employees and we show them
our appreciation. So there's a few things that we did as part of this uh offer. One of them is uh at the start of the contract, every employee is going to receive a 3.5% increase. They're going to receive a $1,000 retention bonus. Uh and I think one of the things that was uh very strong and positive when I I
talked to Mr. Swindle is that you're going to have a dedicated chef. We're going to hire an executive chef that's going to be specifically dedicated to Henry County. So, this uh chef, you you all just talked about the culinary program. that's going to be something that you can go ahead and get involved.
He or she could get involved in um with your culinary program, but the primary focus is going to be coming in uh teaching culinary skills to uh or enhance culinary skills to our employees, coming up with different creative items. So, we talked about the smoke. There's some certain recipes that
we get some feedback on that's specific to the Hendrick County area. He'll be able to generate some of those recipes. He'll have the support from higher level chefs. I mentioned the national chef that came in and worked on some of these recipes. Those are some of the access things that you'll have that your students will have as part of our offer
for this upcoming year. And then the last thing is, you know, we talked about what were some of the things that we're going to do from a negotiation standpoint. We appreciate the business of Henry County. We wanted to make sure that we um addressed uh pricing. So, we did uh go to a 3.99
price and then we said, "Look, we're so confident that we're going to be able to generate a strong surplus and increase student participation that we're going to offer a guaranteed surplus." So, we're guaranteeing that uh in this upcoming year after you pay us and all
the bills that uh are um attributed to the child nutrition fund, there is going to be an $800,000 surplus that will work with Henry County to continue to reinvest some of these funds into different things. So, uh, one of the ideas that we heard and, uh, we're going to look to make sure that we make it
happen for year two is a, uh, tortilla maker. So, we'll see. Um, you know, I don't know if y'all been to Chevy. If you've been to Orlando, they have the tortilla, something along those lines. So, we have crushed tortillas. So, stuff like that is important to make sure that we're
bringing different innovations. But not just that that we're putting you in a position where there's forward thinking going on and kind of what we're going to do to reinvest some of these funds that are being generated by the food service program. And I'd like to add to that that Mr. Buchin and his team also have been doing a really good job with regard
to the fund balance and if you go in our cafeteria is pretty much all new floors, painting tables where when you go in it's a nice appearing place. Um not dingy floors and dirty stuffs. Um the kitchen areas I think I know we've got some new coolers, new freezers. Um we we
added on uh CEC has got a brand new kitchen cooler and everything there and so it uh not only the food quality which is really what we're asking them to invest their time making sure it's good. We're taking that fun balance and making sure that our appearance and then our ability to to look like a cafeteria in a
in a high quality food area, you know, is appealing to the students as well. And on behalf of the rest of this exo team, thank thank you for seeing being such a great partner and your administration, Mr. Sure. Absolutely. We're glad to do it. I have a question. Yes. All right. Mr. Sure. So, our
parents in especially the elementary schools, I try to get in all the elementary schools like the lunchrooms and stuff like that. And our parents because we got prek and stuff like that. Our parents are so helpful to our students. A lot of times have to carry
the trays, they open the the milk, they do all this. And I thought maybe at Christmas you could recognize our parents. It's very nice that you send a school board a big fruit basket every year to all the members, but they're
never in the cafeters. They're not helping the kids. They're not helping Sedexo, but we're contract. We're right till we sign the contract. I thought, you know, some little gift or something to the these people that they do all that work every every day. they're
carrying it and they like it and get the napkins and the kids are doing great and they're eating it and so forth. But I thought maybe you could give a little something for our particular school. I appreciate that Mr. Sam. I think this is more of a question for the vice
president. Okay. So yes, just a little recognition. No, absolutely. Look, I I know they love I mean our terrorists love the kids and they were so our thank you for being so nice to our kids. I agree, Mr. Sam. Right. They're
doing the Lord's work. I was got the close and early learning with the three and the fouryear-olds and wo I mean these people are going to heaven for sure. And so they're making it happen for Sedexo and like you know indirect partners but they are definitely making
it happen. And sure those kids can That's great to hear. Look, I definitely appreciate it and I'm sure that the next time I'm at a school and Kevin or anybody else on our team, we'll make sure that we uh thank them because we we visit school. We're not always there to see some of those things in action. So, it's good to be
here. So, anybody else? So, is the buffet in the back? Because the Girl Scouts are showing you up. So, that's so you know the brisket and all that. Yeah, I mean we're at the
smoker made us look bad. We should have got the memo like that with some samples. You know, all I have is a pop. Yeah. I want some samples from this smoker. I'm like, you got me intrigued. No. Look at one of the things that we did at Henry County. Um after a couple
months, we actually had some training for our employees. We invited anybody who wanted to come in and we did a sample there. So, I'm sure we'll do that here uh sometime in October. um right have a um almost like a u ribbon cutting ceremony so y'all can go ahead and see what are some of the things that we
should be offering and give us some feedback. I mean there may be a thing where uh when we did it in county we had a number of different things and you know you just want to hear hey these are the one this is awesome here like yeah you know what maybe it works further in the northern side of the state but not
over here so yeah we welcome the feedback and we'll go be sure to set something up you know smoking is not an easy uh thing to do you can mess up some food real quick and and you can make some real real good stuff too so I'll be curious to see how that works out I like
the I like the thought though. That's great. I smoke some good me so I can appreciate what you're saying. Yes, sir. All right. Thank you all for your time. Thank you. Thank you very much. I just want to say quickly do we have addition
of an executive chef and and with Mike as my operations manager, I look forward to my golf game getting I'll be breaking 80. I mean, do we provide the the very best service that we can?
We have a recommendation. Um, yes, sir. We have some we uh we will have a recommendation, but I need to preface that with I'm not going to ask for a vote tonight. Um, and we'll we'll come to the reason why here in just a moment, but I would like to say that um uh we
went through the entire RFP process. Um and through the RFP process, we selected two of the top ranking um um I'm sorry, after the RFP, we've selected two of the highest uh ranking based on the the submissions. Two of those came in and
gave presentations. Out of those two, um during the presentation, um Sedexo uh was an obvious and clear winner based on several factors that we look for with regard to our food service um provider. On top of that, Sedexo has been an
excellent partner uh meeting, you know, the challenges that we've had and meeting the requirements and requests of the board, the principles, and everyone involved. Um, and I would also say the community to don't forget that two years ago this month, we had a roof blow off of a nursing home. Nothing to do with the school system, but Irwin, San
Monita, and team showed up at Clon High School and fed an entire nursing home that night because they had lost their entire building. So, they've been a great school partner, a good community partner. We're very grateful for them. Based on uh the April 15th meeting, this board empowered me and team to go back
and renegotiate and or further negotiate on a couple of items such as the pricing and some other items and and those were addressed tonight. And um so they did adjust their price down a little bit. So it's roughly a 9 to 10 cent different
within price. um they they are offering the the executive chef employee um raises which you all know are very important to all of us even though they're their employees they're our people right and so we're very very grateful for that um I will recommend um
at the proper time um Sedexo be continued and renewed for the food service contract however there's a specific reason that we cannot do it tonight I'm going to let um attorney Tanner explain that to you yes and I'll be very brief we received a notice of intent to protest from another bidder.
So pursuant to our board procedures specifically board procedure 6326 we have to stay further um process of awarding the contract to ensure that
we abide by that policy. It's questionable whether or not the notice and intention process was timely. So we're going to investigate that. there's a chance that it was not and there's no further action needed on that front and we can proceed with the consideration of
the um superintendent's recommendation. But to ensure that we abide by all of the rules that we have to, we are going to move this agenda item to another night so that we can explore what we need to do on the other. Great. Any
questions about that? My intentions will be to bring this back, have it resolved and bring it back to you on the May 20th board agenda. So, we just want to make sure that we do it correctly and follow procedures so we don't have to go back and uh readress the RFP and or reissue the RFP and go through the process
again. We'd rather get it right rather than that. So, want to make sure you guys are aware of that as well. And we wanted to make sure that you had the chance to present anyway since you came tonight. You were here so we didn't want to tell you. Yes, exactly. So, thank you for your time. Thank you. Yes.
Appreciate you. Appreciate you guys. So, that will be moved to our next our next meeting. That is correct. All right. So, we'll take that. Thank you for coming and presenting. Again, very uh you're welcome to say the next three hours of the meeting if you want. Two and a half.
That's good. All right. We will move on to uh action item 4E then. Non-instructional reappoints. Mr. Superintendent, do we have a recommendation? Yes, sir. I recommend action item 4E uh for your favor consideration as presented. So move.
Second. Motion by Mrs. D, seconded by Reverend Brown. Do we have any discussion? Hearing no discussion. All in favor say I. I. Opposed. Motion carries. 5. We will move on
to which is now our action item 4F, our annual FSBA dues. Mr. Superintendent, do we have a recommendation? Yes, sir. I recommend approval of action item 4F, your annual FSBA news.
So, second, Mr. Saned by Mrs. Nelson. I know we have some discussion. Imagine that. Um, so I would like to invoke my right to not join um Florida schoolboard associations. I like tried to give them another whirl.
I just don't feel like this is the association that kind of ali aligns with my politics or my values. And um there is another association out there. It's the Florida Coalition of Conservative School Board Members. Their
U dues are under $500 as opposed to like the 3,000. And um I just feel like this association is smaller. It's leaner. Um and I feel like it has better connections with the legislature and the
governor's office. And for me and my constituents, I think that's just in a better alignment. And so I would like to um you know decline the opportunity to be in our schoolboard associations and then bring back a um an invoice from the
other coalition just as you know if you don't know if you don't try it. Are you going to get that? Yes, I'll get that. I don't mind helping you with that. Just don't know anything. Yeah, I'll get it. And then um you know that leaves a balance of a generous balance after that to just free up for um professional development
and and stuff that uh a lot of that at the conservative schoolboard member coalition just as a member it provides that as just a part of your dues. So, I just feel like it was particularly as we're facing budget cuts and everything,
it seems more fiscally responsible to me. Good. All right. Well, we have any further discussion on this hearing. No other discussion. Wait, are you going to move forward?
So, I guess my question would be are do the rest of the board members choose to stay in FSBA? Yes. Okay. Right. Okay. All right. So, we need to amend the uh you want to change my recommendation. Yes. Okay. My recommendation then would
be to approve um the annual FSBA dues minus Miss Bon's membership. So move. Motion by Mr. Samra, seconded by Mrs. Nelson. We have any discussion on that? Hearing no discussion on that. All
in favor? I I opposed. Motion carries. Okay, thank you for that. And we will move on to old business. Mr. Superintendent, we have some uh updates on the new Label High School. Yes, sir.
Um the new Lavel High School is um um continuing to move and and and gaining a lot of speed as it comes forward and the and the things that are happening. Um it's taken as we knew it would, you know, a lot of uh a lot of energy and time and attention. It's been
very very fun and interesting on on I believe I can speak for all of our behalfs because it it's you know we know the gravity of what's going on and the impact that it's going to have and so we're very excited to be doing the work. Um so we're still we're learning a lot almost every single day and uh but it's
been very good. Um to give you some specific updates on where we are, I'll let Mr. Bus give you some of the specific information and things that's happening. every day. It has been it's been been moving quickly and it's been fun because every decision that we make every day is going to
impact our students and impact our community for years to come. I mean we're working on geotechnic cores for cores. We're getting results back over this of how we need to do our foundations where we're learning where we have to tie in for this is growing. We're going to tie in to our scores for
assistant cities. Um, we're still on track for ground work in late July. Um, I mean, we're still working on I mean, that's for all our utilities, all of our drains, all of our water, um, our elevations. I mean, it's it's a great
learning experience. Um, on Monday, probably at 11:59, we'll get 60% plans from our architect. We're having two weekly meetings per with CRA and both which have been very in informative and very happy with the progress they're
making. Um our civil engineers are in on board with this. There's like seven sometimes seven or eight of us at the board or at the at the table. Not always present, but we're using Google leads and everything. Um if we asked them to be here, they would all be here if we would have wanted to be. But we're
trying to work with people that are further away. Um, we are planning on Oak is planning on having a site visit for their uh uh their subcontractors here probably in the fourth week of May. So, we're going to have a uh we're going to have a site
visit and they're we're going to drive the site and they're going to be able to see what we what our site is and and then they're going to start submitting their bids on uh anything from uh fencing for the for the new construction to uh concrete to elevations to I mean
it's it's just it's there's a lot of moving pieces and we've been in first gear for you know we've been in low gear for a long time. I think we switched to second gear and we're going to move it along. Questions, comments, thoughts, something else that you don't want to know or what you do want to know. I'm
excited. you are. And there's a one of the things that you are going to notice um is at the board meetings that we're probably going to have a special section, you know, within the finance piece because once once the once this gets started, it's going to be almost every board
meeting and sometimes we will have to invoke the second board meeting of the month that we, you know, chose to do as a as a uh extra board meeting because we'll have so many buying things that can't wait. And so there'll be over the next 18 months, you're going to see it really ramping up really quickly. And then it's just going to be we got to get
approval for this purchase, this contract or this set of materials or these these framing walls or whatever it may be. And and so there's going to be a lot of that. So that'll be something that you will actually be encountering here within the next six month period, I suspect.
So I I do want to ask I know that cuz I did attend one of the meetings u you know I want to I want to see what's going on the curiosity and and everything. They were they were 30 60 90% is what
they were looking at. Oak was talking about with bids from contractors and you had just mentioned 60% coming in. Are they keeping you guys up to speed on where they're at with their contractors handing their their pricing into them to
help before this they were getting Ir. So is that where are we at with that? Are they keeping you guys up to speed on where they are getting their pricing in from the subs? Well, right now we're just getting budget numbers from our subs subs and from what they
are um with who they're working with right now. Um we have we have a brand new QR code that we can that given out to all of our vendors and we have it on our website of uh we have a QR code at the meetings that you were at and the two meetings that we had. So we have
another QR code for that. I've been passing it out to all of our vendors, everybody that we work with, and that will be on our website. We have a tab on our website that you can just QR code to it. You get signed up for that. But right now, they're working on budgets and after we get 60%, that's when all the subural contractors will be
submitting their bids and it will be an RFP RFP process through oak. Um, so it'll be above the principal board for special facilities use and also protected, you know, under the school board allocations. Yeah, cuz I know Oak
was wanting the 30 60 90% three different bids from our contracts. I thought that was kind of excessive. My understanding was budget numbers. But still, I mean, but as budgets, that's a lot asking turned in three different times. That's why I was wondering where we were at with and they were, you know,
they were asking people and my understanding, Mr. Correct me if I wrong, but you know, before 60, they were just looking for budget numbers to see where we were with the project. And now since it's 60% that's when the real RFPs are coming out for the real bits.
So on the 60% budget they'll start they're going to start releasing it because they did ask for three initially the 30 60 90% um three different ones cuz I spoke with you know some other contractors about that and and I think you and I had some conversations about that. So I just want
to see were they still kind of going in that direction. Yeah. Once they get the 60% um estimations from the contractors, they'll turn back around and start releasing those. Especially on earth work, we got to get past. Yeah. So, we're fixing to get started on that by the summertime. So, and and by this time
next year, you'll see concrete floors, you'll see walls, you know, you'll see you'll see the shell of the building there. And so, it's it's it's going to start coming out of the ground pretty quickly over the next 6 to 9 months. Start turning dirt. There's a lot of foundation stuff underneath the dirt before they ever see. That's right. That's right. Bit of concrete up. So,
yep. A lot of work to it and our official ground. We we are looking at we were going to try to get it done before school got out, but right now it's still a field. But when we come back when school starts, there will be a field. There'll be earth being moved. There'll
be yellow machines. There'll be somewhat of a parking lot where people, you know, we can pull in and park and and we can do it more like a road groundbreaking with commissioners, mayors. Yes, sir. Absolutely. people on horses and cowboys and stuff like that and bands and so that that's the whole that's the plan.
Yep. I don't have an exact date yet. So, we're going to wait till we get back to school and get that hammered down on the kneecap work. We get around on a horse I think is what the goal is. Not a buggy, but a horse. We're going to get you on a horse. A
sh You better stop messing with my friend like that. A horse. told me they're short though. Leave them alone. Keep it moving. Yeah, I couldn't resist. I apologize. So, all right. Well,
uh, we will move on if we have anything else there. Let's Madam Attorney, do we have any updates? Nothing in addition to what are you here or anything that you want? Very good. Very good. All right. Well, board member business. Uh, Mr. Superintendent, I'm
assuming you've got some some board member business for us. Yeah, I do. Two two really quick items. And the and the and the most important one first, I I think I've spoken with everyone individually, but if I have not, Miss Alexis Aretta, she's over there. We got to move that podium. I got to be able to see her. She's got to be able to give me
the eye if I'm doing something wrong. Um so Miss Alexis Arieta is assuming the role of a board secretary. So she's your secretary and my executive assistant. Um same same location you know as as has been in the past. Um she brings a plethora of experience professionalism
to the table. We're very excited to work with her and the changes and things that she'll bring on behalf of of our office. So obviously if you need to reach out to her um you know you know where to find her, know how to get a hold of her. you'll start getting we'll loop her in on the textformational text that we blast out to you guys periodically so
you'll be see it make sure you get her number and so you'll know who she is and we'll make sure that you're on that as well. So honored to have her on board and looking forward to good times ahead. Last week, um, item number two, real quick, last week we held our Let's
Talk Schools, um, uh, program, uh, two in Lebl and two in Fston at 6 an 9:00 a.m. and at 6 p.m. one. Um and our and our our goal was to engage the community on what's going on with our school system. Give them the opportunity to talk talk to them and talk to us about
strategic plan, academic student growth, school calendar start times, and then gave them the opportunity just to talk, you know, and ask us random questions. Um, we had a total of on all four of the different sessions 12 inerson folks and
I think Francisco said 30 online and roughly 30 online folks that followed along, paid attention and listen to that there. And I did actually have some of them reach out to me and say I I wasn't able to be there but I did watch it. It was interesting. So, we know that that it that it was um obviously, you know,
we had hoped for a bigger splash, you know, but at the end of the day, this is our first attempt and we felt like a good one to reach out and give uh an update on where we were and what we were doing and give the the community the opportunity to buy into us, give us some direction on what they were doing. We
took a lot of notes from from the ones that we did have um and we're working on that. The strategic plan was one of the main things there and we are putting some of the final touches on that and we hope to have that back to you also at the May 20th meeting for final adoption and approval. Um, one of the things that we
did uh work on out of that, Dr. Mundy has a um a requirement that she engages the public, Miss White does. Um, and so we have a lot of caveats throughout the state that requires us to engage. So what we're going to do is we're going to come up with a school board advisory council and and have quarterly meetings
and we'll rotate them back and forth post label post label and hopefully just start garnering you know a following and people that we can get to come to these and get them to give us the information. Let let Dr. Mundy and and Miss White and whoever else that we have to have community engagement, use that as a
meeting platform to do that and as well as give those citizens the opportunity to give us feedback, you know, on on how's it going, what do you see like here, what can we do better to serve your students and stuff like that. So, so um I appreciate uh some of you board members made it. We're glad glad you did. Glad to have you. And for the folks
that were able to attend, we're we're glad that they attended as well. So, thank you very much. That's all I have at this time. Yes, ma'am. We need to vote on um from HR2 because there was an agenda request
attached there. So, okay. I'm sorry. There is. Do you have that? Does everyone have that? Yes. Okay. And and so this is and I apologize. It was on the bottom and I did overlook that. And essentially what
we're doing is we're moving um the board meeting personnel reappoints and at the bottom of that for county office is where we're moving Miss Alexis Aretta from HR to the executive assistant position. And so therefore, Mr. Chairman, I move to approve the county
off the transfer and personnel reappointments of Mrs. Alexis area to the county office administrative executive assistant. So move second. We have a motion by Mr. Sam, second by Mrs. Nelson. Do we have any further discussion on it? Hearing no discussion.
All in favor say I. I. Opposed. Motion carries. 5 Z. Very good. All right. Thank you. So move. I have nothing at this time. Mr. Samurike, do you have a couple of
quick things. I like all the uh information being presented on Facebook. we got in our school, all the different schools, different activities. It seems like every day there's something new on Facebook from Hendrick County Schools. And I just think that's great. You need
to be blasting that up because there's so many great things going on. Can we give can I give you an update, Francisco? I don't mean to catch you off guard, but do we have an update on how many views that we've had right now for this last year? 194 total. No, no, not
tonight. on the on the PTE push outs for Henry County. PT Oh, I I I do not have that in front of me. But there was one that had one alone had like 30,000 views. And so the total number the last we heard it was huge. It was huge. I think it's great. And that's you know we
talked about how do we reach our public? How do we share the positive image that we have? And and that was one way and I know that it costs money but we reached upwards of over 50,000 people so far. Some of them may have been the same ones looking at the ones over and over. But nonetheless, when 50,000 views of Henry County Schools in that light, you know,
that's a good thing. A lot of light. Yes. The only other thing was we have graduations coming up. So, how are we not like the first one before our next schoolboard meetings closed in on the 16th, right? Are you going to send out
do we meet somewhere? Yep. We'll we'll we'll push out the meeting place time and this year this is the first time I think ever. Yeah, we've staggered them so that we'll all be able to attend both if you're able to. We would love to have you on both. We'll have seating for you um on the field so we can all march out with students and really enjoy that. So,
yes, we'll make sure you all get that. Thank you. That was it. Um I'm glad you brought that up because I actually went on our website and it is not easy to find. I didn't see anything on there about graduation. Is that district one or you go to schools? I went on I pulled
up a little app on my phone and looked through there. I went to CL High School. It's it's not easy to find at all. I think we need to have that very visible for people that are out of town and you know looking to know, hey,
when's my niece graduate, my nephew graduating high school? I think we we definitely need to blast that out there where it can be seen very All right. No taken. Thank you, Mr. Nelson. Just had a brain
thing that meetings that you're discussing. Are you still going to do the morning and the evening or maybe I believe the team said just one a day. That's okay. Right. And the PM one, right? So, we were going to do one day felt like it wasn't quite as
interactive. Okay. Okay. that was just question but just basically happy teachers week and nurses because I know we have some nurses in the district. Yes. Thank you for mentioning that. I'm sorry I'm ashamed that I you know didn't have that on my list but yeah obviously we couldn't do what we do without our teachers and employees and so it is
teacher appreciation week. So if you see a teacher home just do education we're a village but teachers do need a little shout out. That's all. Oh, nothing but really appreciate our teachers. Um, we couldn't do what we do
without them. We appreciate them so much. Other than that, I have everything. All right, Mr. Houston, you know, I do. Um, want to echo the sentiments about appreciating our teachers. You know, thank you guys for showing up every day for these kids and um, not only giving
them an education, but fill in those cracks. um you know like we heard tonight about the character education and um and the you know countless things that that happen and go on that that maybe everybody doesn't know. Um so I
want to circle back um to a request. So, I made several comments during board member comments leading up to tonight about wanting to have more information and more
meaningful input into how or to what is going to happen with the school district as far as fiscal planning. Um, you know, like Mr.
Swindle said tonight, we're looking at right now looking at some pretty serious cuts, potential cuts. And you know, I know that I just would feel better like I don't like finding out about programs being cut online and
through petitions and screenshots. I would like for us to have the opportunity to sit down and have that information kind of ahead of just show us, you know, let's be transparent and talk about, you know, where our most critical needs are, where the programs
are that may not be making the cuts and so we can have more meaningful um input into the direction of our fiscal planning because I mean it does say I looked at the three policies, budget prep, um district budget, and the fiscal
planning. But in fiscal planning, it says um the board shall develop, advertise, and then um approve a budget. And so the shall is not may. The shall is you will, you should. Um, and so I would like for us to be able to just get
together and do that and maybe even look at potential um, policy revisions going forward that would address budgeting and how how we are doing that. And I know that what
Niola sends to us is is I consider almost like little bare bones policies and to ask for um our attorney, Miss Tanner, to have access to Niola to be able to tap into their database or to
their inventory of policies they have because they do this like country or you know across Florida to be able to bring back examples of what other districts budgeting and fiscal planning policies look like so we can lock something down
so we you know that's what we do that's our that's our shallow and um so I didn't know what other members of the board thought about the request from me tonight would be to miss give Miss Tanner that access
to Niola to bring I have access to the database yeah but like even have that contact information with Niola to say this is what I'm looking for and and bring it back because I just think it's going to be
crucial going forward because we we've had a tremendous amount of allocations after CO came in. We were just getting money pushed to us from every which way and now that's dry enough. And so I I think what you're saying is we
payola for them to provide a service to send us policies to ensure that we comply with the statutes and new regulations. But Miss Houston's request sounds like she's wanting me to explore what other options there are in policym specifically related to financial
planning and instead of me precreating the wheel going through to do so. Correct. I think they have some solid work in place and they work for just about every school district in Florida. So maybe I'm just confident saying Florida. I'm not I'm not branching into any other
state. Just you'll know. I want to make sure that we're clear. I've heard you loud and clear about the budget process. We we've not we don't have anything to touch yet until we get the funding mechanism from the state. We're just holding our breath. We have some things that we know, you know, we've started um
we started looking at personnel and a function of what happened tonight is what we call the right sizing. That has nothing to do with budget. And so that's different, you know. Um and so we know every year the team looks really hard, Miss Duncan, Mr. Sanchez finance and they all get together and they start looking at what the allocation should
look like, how many students we have, what's expected growth, how many are graduating, how many and and so there's a long algorithmic formula to coming up with what teachers need at what grade level and we do that every year. That's almost different. Now, budgetary wise, we have been preparing ourselves for,
you know, uh, a giant cut from the from the Florida legislature, and we have collapsed several positions. And we didn't bring that to you because that's an operational thing that we felt like had to happen regardless to be physically sound. Um, and depending on how deep those cuts are, it we may have
to cut more. So, we just don't know yet. But, we've not began anything budgetary. We don't have a budget yet to build around. What our plan was internally, what we had talked about was holding workshop and workshoping one or more if you'all like. It's up to you guys and what tolerance y'all had for how much
y'all wanted to hear, learn or engage and go through from the beginning. Here's what we have. Here's where we're looking and then, you know, and then it takes time to for that to be valuable, you know, for what that takes. I know Dr. Monday manages six grants, seven of
a lot of grants and seven and so they and so uh those are fairly rubricated from the federal government on where they have to be spent and what and so for us to sit down with her and tell her where she can and can't and stuff that's you know that's going to be a tough one because she's you know there's not a lot
of wiggle room there on what on what she's able to do and the same with Miss Duncan manage some miss everything she does is on a whole another side of a wall you know that's an adult head and manages grants. And so anyway, there's some opportunity for us to work together. Workshop was what we had envisioned on getting you guys engaged
in once we had that number, once we knew what budget looked like, once we knew where we needed to be and and work together on where we've seen them forecasting and allowing you guys to look at that and your input. I appreciate that. I I would like to know,
so I was listening to a training in um Orange County. I was doing my work and listening to it in the background and I liked how they differentiated the what of the school board from the how of the administration. And so I would like to know like what kind of budgets what you
know what kind of forecasted money allocations we're looking at getting and what inputs we're making into the students from with those allocations or proposed or anticipated allocations. Okay? because I think that's just a great value to us as board members.
Makes us better board members and more for board members when you know like we had the the discussion tonight that we're squandering money when we should be investing into this because we're buying furniture. And so, you know, that allows us in our job to help educate and
justify the community as to what that money is going for and why. That that's just my two cents. And it's a I will say and I don't I don't use this as a tool to make anybody feel inadequate whatsoever. But the the
school budgeting process is very long, hard, algorithmic, cryptic, and tough to understand, tougher to live through, right? And so it is it is difficult for a parent to see. You know, there's lots of money here, but they're talking about cutting teeth. You know what I mean? They don't understand. And I understand
and I get it. So I try not to you know make them like I said feel inadequate or anything but it is tough to understand but the better we are and the better our knowledge is about that the better ambassadors we are because I mean I I know that we're getting we're like getting inundated and and and a lot of
people will come to us because they're the person they elect we're the people that they've elected to be their representatives and to just have a a more comprehensive grasp of that knowledge to be able to be better ambassadors explain that I think would just be um a great value to the district
and and to the you know help quell that online chatter and and just you know give good factual information. I think I I never, you know, I know nobody here on the board likes to see our community like in an upro or upset about anything. And I sometimes I think it's just
misunderstanding of the information or misinformation that drives that. And so the the better we are and the better we are able to articulate that to our constituency, I think it's just a a positive for the district. Awesome. All right. Thank you. That concludes my comments. Can I add one thing? I have a
late breaking piece of data from Mr. Samberike in the last 90 days. So 3 months in 90 days we've had 718,54 views of content on Facebook that's um
367% higher than previously before we uh started pushing information out. So you know that's staggering that's staggering you know that that that's happening. I'm like I'm sorry I just said I would like Okay. You want to talk first? Go you talk first. Francisco. No, I was just
going to say that LA, yeah, just this last month it was over uh it was over 400,000 views. So that's I mean it's already a 50% increase. So yeah, definitely PT is definitely catching traction. Awesome. Yeah. So I'm going to circle back to what I said the last time
when we talked about social media views and I want to see how that's translating into enrollment and recruitment. And that's it. That really does this time conclude my apartment compensation. The only other thing I don't think anybody said was thank you
to the Girl Scouts for coming in and bringing us these treats. Yeah. Know, so thank you for that. Support the Girl Scouts. I think that is a great organization. So y'all go buy some cookies and uh Sedexo is going to follow up with us. Bring us some groceries next
time. That's right. So thank y'all for coming. This meeting is journey.