Testing. Testing. One, two, three. Welcome to our fall edition of the town hall for Henry County Schools. Um we thank you for taking your time to be with us tonight. Take just a couple minutes to recognize a few folks we have in the room. We have a board member, Miss Bon, uh with us this evening. Um we
are honored to have um three members uh from the Bureau of School Improvement. They are here today doing some very important work uh with our phenomenal Digital Academy of Florida which they can see us right now but we can't see them. Is that right? >> Yes. All right. >> Is that right? Can we switch to them so
we can see them? Is that possible? >> Yes. >> We need to do the impossible. Let them know we see them and they see us. Yeah, we can do >> that. Yeah, right.
>> No, sir. It's just on camera. >> She's Hey, how are you? We're saying hello. There's Mr. Clark Barry, Mr. Barry, executive director for Digital County of Florida. And Miss DS is the director of
schools for Regional Academy of Florida. They're a seller. Incredible team that has led the charge to some phenomenal growth that the Bureau of School improvement today. Got to look over and see and we're incredibly proud of the things that are happening. Um and that branch of Hendry County Schools we call Digital Academy. Thank you guys for
taking your time to be with us this evening and thank all the rest of you as well. We have a whole host of folks from around the district here and we have one pair. Is that correct? friends. >> All right. What's your name? >> Rebecca Mandy. >> Miss Miley is here. So, thank you for being here, Miss Miley. We appreciate
you. Um, if anybody has, as we go through this, we want this to be an interactive conversational discussion. Our goal here today is to kind of update you on where we are in Henry County Schools and in digital county, Florida. And so, if you see things that you want to know more about, please stop us. Let's talk about that's the whole point
of being here. So, now we can go back. Francisco or whoever's got the console. >> Yes, sir. and we will start. So, we've got a handful of slides. We don't want to kill you with a slide presentation this evening, but we do want to give you some graphical data um so that you can kind
of see uh where we are and what's going on and and kind of bear witness to some of the things that we're doing in Hendrick County schools. Um you can go ahead first slide. So, uh, we don't want to go, uh, at the
first town hall meeting, we spent quite a bit of time talking about, um, our vision, our mission, and as well as our strategic plan. We spent a lot of time over the past several months reviewing those and updating those. Um, they're there. They're on our website. Uh basically we try to keep students keep
student focused and and do the things around that that help drive student uh achievement. Whether that be collaborating with community partners such as we're doing this evening, no matter if it deals with their finances or whatever that may be, the whole point of what we do through our strategic plan is make sure that we focus around
learning um for the learners that we have the honor and and privilege to serve here. And all these six things um kind of surround that and make that possible. But we're really really proud of some of the things that we have done in Henry County Schools and we have a lot to be proud of and so we're going to
talk to you about a couple of those this evening. So one of the things is that for the first time in the history of Henderson school grades and district rates have been a thing. We are a D rated school district. We're incredibly proud of
that. Um we can make excuses and we did make excuses but at the end of the day we know that good teaching and good learning is where uh we get the most gains and where we get the academic growth across our district right now. Seven of our 10 schools are either an A or B. We had three of them that were C's
and those three C's are on an incredible upward trajectory. So we're excited about where we are. We know that the students we're serving are getting good quality academic career and and education and so we're incredibly proud of what we are doing there. So, we're very proud of our staff and where it matters is in the classroom. Those
teachers and the work they do and the learning that the students are doing. It's not me. It's not any it's not that every day. It's the whole team making that happen. I couldn't be prouder of the team that we have. So, we have four main pillars that we
stand on that we feel like are key that have driven our school district to a safer place and to a better place academically. One of those things is that when when the parents or the guardians of these ch children when they wake them up in the morning and they send them to us or bring them to us, they've got to know they're safe. The
students have to know that they're safe while they're in our custody. So, there's a lot of things that we have done and again, I'm not going to sit and read things to you. Every single one of you can read probably better than I can, but we have gone the extra mile. We would we like to we like to at least think that we are some of the trends
setters in the state with some of the things that we're doing with regard to our guardians with regard to our metal detection system with our stance toward the things that we accept and don't accept on our campuses. And so safety is the utmost importance. Um this year we have hired guardians and so we have
guardians that we are paying to be a part as well as an SRO on campuses. We've had the sheriff and law enforcement on our campuses multiple times talking to students, trying to be proactive, let them know, you know, that we're there for them and we're partnering with them to keep them safe. Um, and so there's we're constantly in
front of um other groups letting the community know that what we're doing and the private things that we're doing as well. All of that has led to the point where we have other districts from around the state constantly reaching out to either myself, Mr. play or other leaders want to know how we're doing that, what we're doing, how are we
making these things happen. And so we like to think that we're one of the uh trailblazers in the state when it comes to school safety and how to keep our students safe. And we're proud of that. Next slide is dealing with the academics. If we do not know, you know,
our our goal here is to teach students. That's what we're for. That's what a school does, right? School. We know that students learn in different ways. And so we have many different layers of academics, but at the end of the day, good teaching is where we have focused enormous amount of our efforts in the last 5 years. How do we prepare our
teachers to be better teachers in the classroom so that they connect with students and they deliver the highest level of of rigor that a student can achieve while they're in the classroom? Doesn't matter if they're in one of our brick and mortar classrooms or if they're in one of our online schools through digital academy in Florida or
anywhere in between. We want to ensure that our teachers are prepared and they're doing the right things and they're aligned with state standards and they're bringing the relevance to the things that students need to know so that number one they can be successful as they evaluated in the state and as they leave us and they move into the
life format and they need to go be happy and be productive. So, we feel like we're doing a much better job we've ever done in that and we're on an upward trajectory and we're very very proud of that. There's a whole lot of reasons why we're doing that. Uh we were talking earlier uh in the week and we're kind of
evaluating ourselves. 5 years ago, walking into a classroom, evaluating what a teacher was doing on a random basis didn't happen. Today is standard practice. We do those things. Standards based planning is where our teachers sit and they plan together on grade level content um materials and they share
their information. and they work together to make sure that the students are receiving that on a very widespread basis in a very common format. We have some of the best leaders in the state here in the district with regards to what we're doing with standardsbased planning and we're sharing that with across our district and with other
schools and even in now on digital academy they're receiving that. So we're super proud of that. So we try to rub as much love as we can on our staff and our people through our supports and the things that we do. And one of the things that's not up there this year, we received the donation and so we're doing
um appreciation. Uh we we're doing ice cream, we're doing coffee, and we're just the district staff is going to the schools and you wouldn't believe the joy you bring to a teacher. You know, when you hand them a cup of coffee, you say, "Thank you for everything you do." Or ice cream. You know, I love ice cream.
Who doesn't love ice cream? And so when you do the little things, we drive culture, making our teachers show see that we're proud of who they are and that they're with us. And those little things do matter for everything that they do. So academics is definitely one of the legs on the stool that's holding
up what we're doing here today. >> I'm sorry. >> So I've said it 1 million and 1 million times and 1 million times again that it doesn't matter how you look at it. We are a business. We are an academic business. Our job is teaching. But at
the end of the day, we are a business. We have income and we have expenses and we have to monitor that just like any business would monitor their income and expenses. It is very important that we live within our means. It's very important that we take the means that we have and we drive it toward that the
things that are important on our on our strategic plan and our mission and our vision, which is educating the babies and the students that come to us every single day. And so we're very proud of the fact that we have had some incredible uh financial growth over the last handful of years. In fact, the
state rates each school district, all 67 school district gets a financial rating. And we're proud to be at the top of that list based on how we use the FBFP money that we're given invest on how we invest the money back into our students and then and how we are good stewards of
taxpayer dollars. So we're very proud of that. And so, uh, that has to that has to be, you know, a pillar on where we stand. We today have an exact balanced budget and that's important. You know, not not a lot of school districts can say that. They're either parenting
students, they've lost the value of that BFF, or for various reasons. We are at a balanced budget. The money that we're taking in is exactly what we're projecting to spend at the end of the year. And we have a healthy financial reserve. And so, we're very, very proud of where we are financially. that
enables us to continue thinking of how we're going to invest and how we're going to continue to upward climb academically and safely um in the rest of those areas that we talk about. And the last area that we're going to talk about is going to be the culture of our district. The culture of our district is
very important. We are in a choice. The parents have choices. The students have choices. So what we want to do is create a culture where they want to be a culture that's an inviting welcoming Mormon where the stu the students know that they're coming to learn and be challenged with the educational uh rigor
that that we have prepared for them and that they're safe when they're here. We want a culture that our employees know that they're appreciated and that our employees know that they've got the opportunity to learn and grow themselves. And so all these things are important to us. And so we're trying to create that high culture business
climate and an education arena that produces, you know, a high quality public school being able to to support what we need to be able to do to educate students. We believe that it's working. We know that our retention rate last year was incredible. We hired we had to look for less teachers than we had to
last year that we had in a very long time. Um we're doing a lot of grow our own. We've had a lot of students that have come back in our teaching ranks. We got a lot of pair of professionals now that have worked their way through their college coursework and now they're teaching with us. And so we know that we
believe that that we create that cultural environment where people want to be and our employees want to stay and grow and learn. Part of that is making sure that those strong finances are shown through their uh through their paycheck. Right now our starter teacher salary is $52,000. That's one of the
highest in the rural districts uh in in the state of Florida. And so we're trying to make sure we invest the money in the places that show the large return back for us as a school district. And there's no better way to do it than culturally so that we're a place where we and parents and students all love to
be, work, and and grow together. So those are the four pillars that we feel like have really made uh Henry County Schools strong as a district and that we're standing on strong ground and strong legs. We're going to continue that. We're not perfect. We know we've got room to grow. We know we have areas
that we still need to shore up. I don't think that will ever change. I don't matter. Doesn't matter where we are, you know, uh when when we reach the point where we're in a district, we're still going to have areas that we need to improve in that we need to grow in. But and that's where we are today. We're proud of where we are. We know we've had
a a good a great journey upward climb and we know we've got more to do. We're going to continue doing that. We're going to continue looking for factors to make us better teachers, better leaders as we go forward. One of the things that one of the things that's really important you you fine
that one of the things that's very important >> wants to talk about playful >> oh 10 seconds >> okay >> just real quick we're piloting a new program in January and we just want um parents to know um that this is coming
it is to help support students with mental health needs in our district and it's going to address um not just those big intense, you know, therapy issues, but stress, family life, stress, daily life stress, stress about a test, those kind of things. But it's a digital
platform that allows students to text with coaches or access it through uh the computer where they text with coaches who are trained and supervised by licensed mental health counselors. And the owner herself is a licensed mental health counselor. And so, uh, we're going to pilot that the next semester,
get some data back, and then we'll look at whether we wish to continue to use that. And this is all from a grant. >> Yes. And it's all from a grant that we >> some incredible business partners of the region that helped us get there and mental health is one of the things that has really escalated exponentially in
the district. I don't know if it's since co or if it's just sign of the times or whatever it is and so we have wrapped a lot and this Miss White and her team has done an enormous amount around that. Yes ma'am. >> Yes. I love a question. Um, Miss White, how many
for Clayfield who has access to be a a referral or is that for every single student? >> Every student in middle and high school will have access to it. Um, they they do not have to use it. It's not mandatory. Parents will have the right to opt out
if they do not want their child to access it. And if a child tries, at that point, the system will not allow them. So they're automatically enrolled until a parent opts out. >> Yes. We're going to send out flyers and letters that say all that. There'll be a big push in January where you'll see that information going out. >> Okay. >> And then if it if for some reason a
parent the child gets online, they didn't know that happened and then the parent comes. So we can always at that time opt them out. >> And is that going to be accessible to DA or students as well? >> Just it will just be >> and our HSA
success. And it does not take the place of school counselors or people >> in addition to >> Yes. And then because they don't always feel comfortable reaching out to the adult, right? You know, they're we're going to try technology and see how that goes. >> They can access it through class link
and also on text. Yes. >> So, we can probably all easily agree that one of the components that a student needs to learn is to be in school. No matter if that's in school, bring water. manifest online. We know that attendance is important. They need to be in the
presence of of that teaching when it's happening. Um, and I will I will shamefully and willfully admit that I stole I completely stole this idea from a colleague superintendent in the panhandle and they are doing a superintendent challenge for attendance.
And what they are doing, they are going to so basically we're going to the tested schools and any students who has perfect attendance in January, February, March, and April, we're going to put their names into a hat, a bowl, whatever, and draw one, and they're going to get a $100 bill. And so, it's
an incentive. It's a carrot is to drive up attendance. The one district that I copied that from, they noticed remarkable growth um in the 100% category um of students. And so getting the students there if we have to if we have to give them incentives or rewards
for doing that in this manner we're glad to do it at the end of the day what we want we want students in school we want students learning and if this is just one way we can do it then that's what we're trying to do. So this really important you'll learn more about that we're going to talk about it next week at the board meeting and then we're going to really roll it out with a video
within Hendry County Schools um starting next week as well. So lots of information to come about that. Okay. We great. Go ahead. >> It's just a thank you. >> Yep. Yep. Thank you for everyone. Um our parents are very important. The district staff works really hard. Uh we got great
partners in BSI and DAOF. So we thank everyone uh for their work. Um this really the the lift that has happened here is because of everyone in this room, including our board being supportive and helping us being able to get to where we are. We have had phenomenal growth. We're in a we're in a
great place for any school district in Florida in my mind. And so we're we're proud to be here. So thank you all for the work that you do. So I think now Dr. Steve is going to come up and kind of go through some data. >> Are you going to keep doing that? You
want me to take it? It'll work. But it's in my hand. It's closer to that computer. We'll just be in my heck of a So, the digital county of Florida when
we were here the last time, we laid out their our district managed turnaround plan for DAOF because they are in a turnaround because of their two D's in a row. Um, we have put things in place for
them to turn around the school and to prevent a third D. Oh, a fourth. Um, oh, okay. I was like, it's not working. You said it was working closer. So,
these are the things that um surround DAOF, the Digital Academy of Florida. What we saw in our first meeting in October was the total enrollment was 7,69.
I believe the total enrollment right now is 5,611 and that is targeted and intentional. So I'll explain that in just a little bit. But um the the facts around all of that
are the systems that we have changed and put into place to put students where they belong and sometimes they don't belong in a digital um platform. So sometimes we need to go to brick and
mortar. So that is part of the the push for DAO to change in those systems and that's what they have so rightfully done. So this is where we were. This is these are the D's. This is last year's
data and we're not going to harp too much on that because even right now it's different. So this is where we want to be. Uh last year we had 43% of the points. This year we would like to get to 54% of the points and those are the target areas and that those are the
targets and we had this on the last last presentation as well. So that that is that is the target right now and I can tell you that um even even now some of those are we are exceeding some of those. So and we're halfway through the year. So this was part of the
improvement plan. Again, I'm not this this was on the last slide presentation, but I I just want you to know and be reminded that the area of focus was ensuring benchmark aligned instruction and providing equivalent experiences
throughout lessons. This is in the SIP plan, the school improvement plan for DAOF and um this was area number one for focus. So, we are changing the instruction. we are targeting the
instruction and we are um monitoring as a district the instruction that is going on. So right now here's our DAFF walkthrough data tracking um and our expectations are learning targets embedded within a performance scale.
Learning target is aligned to the critical content of the standard. Learning target is accessible and communicated um to students throughout the lesson. and then student actions and data demonstrate that they understand the critical content. These are the areas
that we chose to focus on to raise that academic rigor. In September, you'll see blue um October orange and now November gray. the amount of um areas that we are seeing and the amount of walkthroughs
that we are doing as a district and the DAOF is doing um with their admin is admirable and what we are seeing is vast improvement in what they are doing as a school for instruction. And then our
look fors um instruction is aligned to grade level benchmark expectations, tasks are aligned and teacher uses effective engagement strategies. And you can see in the gray how much improvement they have gone from September to
November. And this is this again this is what we are looking for every time we go into their classrooms. And we are doing walkthroughs. And when I say walkthroughs, no, we are not physically walking through like we do in brick and mortar, but we are sitting online and
walking through and getting into those classrooms and looking at the student engagement and watching how they are um targeting their lessons, putting up targets on on each slide. All of the things that we are doing brick and mortar that we know work, we have put
into place at DAOF and they have taken it and they have run with it and they're doing a fantastic job. So, one of the things um forever with an online school is attendance. And we'll talk about um their actual attendance,
but I want to talk about their PM2 um attendance as well. So right now our target is 95% attendance for PM2. And so right now with the second week and I think today was where we stopped
for this data, 87% have been tested in ELA and 86% have been tested in math which is phenomenal. Um, with 9 days in, they have the rest of, well, they have tomorrow, the rest of this week, they have tomorrow, and they have all of next
week to finish to get that 95%. The testing window technically does not end until January 25th, but we um are under the gun with DAO because there is a state board meeting
on January 21st where we have to present um our PM2 data. So, we have asked and they have delivered that all all or most of their students are done before Christmas. So, we're getting there and it's it's
been amazing. So, this is the proficiency data for math and ELA um in December. Now, this is yearover-year. So this is PM2 data last year in 2024 and PM2 data currently in
2025. So you'll see the percentages um math was about 26% I believe and we are up to 20 was it 28 29 and then um ELA proficiency was at 37
and then um our current proficiency is about 47. So about across the board, Roberto, it was about 10% um increase. Now some of this has changed because of this week's data. So some of it has gone
up a little bit um because we did this a couple of days ago. So the the data that we are showing has vast improvements and we are very excited and so excited to be working with them and be able to show a
difference in 5600 kids. So the other area of focus was attendance. Um before last before this year attendance was a a hit or miss. They pulled kids in
and um what do you say? They just some of the kids worked asynchronously a lot. Some of the kids worked worked synchronously. So this year one of the um absolutes for the district and then the absolute for DAO was that kids are
present, kids are on on camera and kids are participating. So you'll see a couple of different different attendance. um data that show what we've done. So here now
is the average um weekly attendance for all of the weeks of this year start I think it's September that we started in. So week eight you the blue is 2425 and the orange is 2526 and you will see in
week 16 they're up to 95% attendance of kids logging in every day to where to their classes. So what we had decided um as a team um dio decided that this this is great news
but not quite good enough for the tracking. So they wanted to improve it even more. So what this is is the weekly attendance rate for these three criteria.
The kids have to be on camera and engaged. They have to all of the absences are excused and unexcused so they don't make a make it different. Um, a lot of the schools brick and mortar excused don't
really count as a full absence. Um, but unexcused do. And then the unengaged student is marked as absent. So if if a if a teacher has a child in class that is not participating, maybe, you know,
sometimes you see just their little little head or you see their pillow in the back or another, whatever it is that they see. um they're not participating, they are marked absent. They get enough of these and they go through an ex
escalation process where they the the process is you know they they get counseledled they get um spoken to not not just they the parents um they all have meetings with their principles with their teachers with it's it's a great ex
escalation process. Some of them get a second chance to go back and be part participatory in all of their classes and some of them it's not the place for them and they need to go to brick and mortar. So the sheer fact that they are keeping this data is in and of itself
amazing uh because we could just go with the 95% that are logging in but that's not where we want to be. That's not where we want to land. We want to do better and they are. They're doing fantastic with this. And then their early warning system,
they have a um what does she and I can't I don't want to ask Laura because I really want um massive no >> monster monster tracker. I always I always forget that the M word. Um the
monster tracker where they have all 5600 and some 5600 and some students that are um on this and then they track all of the status. So their their student enrollment obviously their their attendance they look at 10% or more
school days that are that are out suspensions. Yes, they still have suspensions and um in in a virtual platform level level one on ELA or math substantial deficiencies in reading andor math and then retentions and they are targeting each and every one of
these areas with um improvement. So even with like substantial deficiencies they are pulling kids and they are doing small group work just like we would do in brick and mortar. And then these are the three
commissioners requirements that we are required to report on in January. Um they have not changed. Um so it's hiring a principal for DAO. We did that and she unfortunately could not be here tonight because her um
daughter is graduating from college at UCF. But Mrs. Rosa Perez is now the principal um in county for DAO and she has been in every classroom, in every planning period, in every everything she
can get her hands on. she's doing um taking notes, using her data, asking them for, you know, all of their data and just really working with them and making sure that that that they are working on their turnaround because she has done it and
she knows what what is needed. And so then the smaller class sizes, I I did not put this on here, but um we have reduced the class sizes by hiring more teachers. So I believe the ratio was 1
to 50 in elementary and 1 to 175 in in middle and high. Whereas last year it was one to it was it depends on the day. I think um Clark said today it was 1 to 220 210. Last year in secondary and it was 1
to 65 in elementary. So they have reduced those numbers as well which all of these changes we are seeing in the academic performance of these kids and that is our goal. Any questions? >> Anything I can answer
>> comments clarifications >> as a parent. We had one parent. I wonder if there anything specific she wanted to know. You want to put her on the spot? >> I just wonder if there's anything she wanted to ask or know about specifically? >> Not at the moment. >> Okay. >> Yes, ma'am.
>> We we just, you know, really wanted to say on behalf of the department that the school district as well as the school has um been phenomenal partners. We are very happy about the work that has been done this year. And so, we just wanted to also offer that publicly that you are
on track with your plan. you have met um those requirements and continue to always um bring what you need to the table. And so we appreciate that partnership and the willingness to be transparent and those things that we do need to have the harder conversations around. And so we look forward to those
results and continuing on midyear to the end of this journey. >> Awesome. >> We appreciate you. There have been there have been tears. There have been nashing of teeth mainly for me. Um but it has been it it will be worth it. It will be
worth it because we are doing good things for these kids. >> I have a comment. >> Yes ma'am. >> So um I was at the last town hall meeting and I had some spirited um comments to share and um tonight's no different. And
so my position on this is that like I'm I'm passionate about kids. a passion about kids outcomes. Um I made a comment today. I heard what the um commissioner of education said at the Florida School
Board Association meeting and um you know it would it's been a little frustrating for me. Like I I'm in it for the kids. Like that's whose side I'm on. I'm always going to choose their side. I'm always going to choose the side of outcome. And
it's just been a little disheartening to me to see how long that the subpar outcomes have been able to go on without oversight from the state coming in and saying this is what we need to do now.
>> I mean, because I think about every year, every person who took that, you know, took their choice dollars and put them into there and those kids were not getting the outcomes that they needed. And that's just, you know, I'm not trying to like smack anybody around, but I just think that it it's just
concerning to me that it, you know, we've been in this relationship with DAO since 2019. And it, you know, the DOE finally coming to the table on this and saying like, you've got to turn this around and and helping working with the school district
and and to identify these areas and set these parameters so we have guard rails up so we didn't have triple D's and um so I'd really like the DOE to not let that happen. I mean I'll
just wish we would have sat in and made sure it was necessary. >> Yeah. um point taken. I think the first um D that was there was in you know that hold harmless and that's why you hear Dr. They say there's two D's. And so for that, because of the change in the
testing criteria, not just this school, but any school that earned that grade were held harmless because we were changing standards. We were changing tests and so we didn't penalize, right, as a state. I agree with you. I'm still passionate, right? Because kids sat
there during that time, right? And that's why even though we didn't penalize and step in on the first, you still see it reported on that slide and it was still brought up at the state board meeting as we know we've had two and that's why we're in a turnaround status. But we also know that three
would have been reported. So for that please understand >> because it's not like a it's not like a oh we have 700 kids at the school we have 7,000. That's like a whole district. >> Absolutely. And I think and that's like the scale of that is what has and the
kids who underperform and were allowed to underperform and like listening to it was not shocking to me because I had heard feedback um from just people because I made a spirited blog post about how I felt about PAF and I've been completely transparent and said everything I'm saying right here to the
leadership of DAOF. Um but it that was you know they weren't underperforming even in 2019 coming into the new um FSH right >> and so yeah and for us we um we look at
the district as the not the provider but the district's role in ensuring that also we the district are meeting the standard and so when we look at DAO they are um the provider that was chosen to
do that. But one of the criteria that was placed on the district was to assign that principal because we don't look at the provider as the source of um the turnaround effort. We look at the district and so that criteria being set
by the commissioner was to say that we are putting the onus on the district and not the provider so to speak to say that we are the ones monitoring. So they have stepped in to do that. Unfortunately with regard to you know how we enter
into the conversation is based on the statutory requirements. So that first D we give recommendations. The second D is a turnaround plan that's a little bit more stringent and there won't be an opportunity for a next D because that's already been set forth from the
commissioner's conditions that if that occurs their um next step would be to determine what they're going to do with regards to picking another provider or closing the school. So that's where we are. So I think you can kind of sit
confident in that either way student performance will go up or there will not be an opportunity to provide that service to students anymore because they will need to be serviced by the schools in their district or if they're in the district, the schools that are demonstrating success. I heard that loud
and clear um from the commissioner when I viewed that that video. And my my second thing I want to say is I hear people like, "Oh, we're an A, we're a B." And that means that's so
misleading to me because when I think about it and I think school grades the purpose of those are to let a lay people parents the community have an accurate reflection of how a school is performing. And when you say a is
somebody to a typical person who's not wrapped up in education, then they're thinking 90 to 100%. Or back in I was not so old with the 93 to 100%. And you know when we're looking at we're just not trying to be a D like D is a really
low bar. like when you're looking at proficiency in the games, all the things that go into that. And so, um, in the process of school improvement, like I like to see I don't want to see a just have to be a C because C's not when you look at the hard data on that, it's not
impressive. I would love to see hard numbers of this is what your minimum proficiency has to look like and that be above what the grade scale is with this because I just think it's so misleading. It's misleading to communities, parents, um when you are
looking at saying my kid's going to an A school when in Florida that's not exactly a barber. Um so um I just I think that there has it would be more beneficial and um clear to consu education consumers if there were
hard numbers that this is what you absolutely have to have not the gray number because that that goal moves back and forth too. The one >> we've heard that before. Unfortunately, that's way out of my jurisdiction in regard to accountability and research and measurement and how they measure
that versus what standard grading scale may be for ARB in school versus that bell curve when it comes to the outcome. So, um definitely appreciate that comment and we'll bring that back again. We're very privileged to be here. I will say that the leadership that is here has
been committed. your superintendent and deputy are in the room every single time. And I cannot say that for every district that we work with. And so many times we do not get to that level of leadership that says I am that committed to being a part of this process for my
district. They're always in the there's not a time that I've been here that Mr. Swindle, Dr. Staley have not been present. And that's if if I'm here, if they're here, whoever, it doesn't matter. if they're if we're here and we're having that conversation, they're both present and in the room. If we're
online and talking about something, one of the two are in the room, if not both. So, that is something that we don't often see and I commend that. So, I just wanted to to also let you know that from our standpoint, we work all over the state. It's not often that I have a
super. >> So, we've been talking about our race. >> Same. Same. Well, so you guys are you're the legacy superintendent and state sat you said that. So >> So I do I do want to take the opportunity to to expand on what the
conversation you guys are having. What I heard was the the grade is not always reflective of what's happening in in the school, right? And I want to make sure that we pull the curtain back a little bit on what went on within the digital academy in Florida. When you look at 3DS, one being a baseline year and then
two back toback years, they over the over the past year, they have improved a lot with regard to how they plan, how they deliver, and how they teach students. No doubt about that. But probably one of the biggest things in my opinion that really helped the academic growth that they've had was
the our our system overall, and I say our because digital cutting part is one of our schools. Um it was a come one come all bring you know whatever your issue is you you want to be in our school come on if you can make it if you want to be online be online if you can't
then just do it when you can and unfortunately what we know is that there is a sector of students and and there are learning partners that will allow that to become problematic and they'll take advantage of that situation. Simply put, we were at 7,000 students.
Today we're at 5,600 students and the the grades skyrocketed. What I'm what I'm saying is there's always been good teaching and learning happening at Digital Academy of Florida. However, that data was getting drowned by those 1500 students who were gaming the system
so they could legally be enrolled and have zero engagement into the school whatsoever. And so when they were removed and you truly look behind the curtain of what's going on, although they haven't improved a lot, it was always pretty good. and the students that were learning and engaging were getting a good education. It wasn't that
there was 6,000 students sitting there that were these students. That was not the case at all. So, I wanted to say that and to their defense, the wonderful director of schools, Laura DS, and the executive director Clark Barry, they were sounding that alarm for two years there saying we've got to address this.
We know this is killing us. And so that so they really drove that change this year and made that happen. And so all of that together we know is going to create a great learning environment where the grade set the bar where you want grading however you want. We know those students that are there are engaging in learning
and we're proud of that. So all of together has worked very well. >> Thank you for your time. >> Yelcome. >> Anyone have anything else? Yes, sir. not on the online title. I
kind of watched the last school board meeting in the vote >> and I completely understand the whole thing. Where are we sitting with the new high school? >> We are we are sitting on pins and needles waiting for South Florida Water
Management District to issue our final construction permit which we think will happen no later than a week from tomorrow. no later than that. If we're lucky at all, we'll have them before then. So, in under seven days, we hope to have a permit in hand and we can post that on a plaque outside of the property
and the contractors will start immobilizing equipment and go to work, >> which means a groundbreaking is is shortly after that. >> We're we're looking at possibly midFebruary for a groundbreaking ceremony. We want to make sure that they've had enough time to mix and mounds of dirt and stuff happening where
it looks like a construction site and not just a bare field with equipment. >> Are we aiming for a new class of 29 to graduate? >> 27. >> Yeah. Yeah. So, we will be in we still
we're at at today, right? We're roughly 4 months behind where our anticipated start date was originally, but we still anticipate moving in that school in August of 27. Now, it may not be 100% complete, but where where that where the
students are to be sitting and learning will be and we may be doing acting things around campus and ties up other pieces and then so that class of 27 should graduate which will be in 28, right? Starting at 27, graduating 28. we anticipate them graduating from that
facility. Good questions we've had and I, you know, uh, we get that a lot, you know, and we just kind of keep waiting. We any day we okay, we're going to get it. We're going to get it for like over a month now. And so we we're glad we're very proud of where we we are. We're
sorry it took so long. Uh, Mr. Men is he didn't have any gray hairs when he started. Any other questions? Well, thank you to our parent who came and thank you to the BSI team and staff that is here. Thank you district team for taking the time to be with us.
>> Please don't forget to sign in. >> Yes, if you have not signed in, please do so. Other than that, thank you all very much. Have a safe travel. You best be careful.