Session begins in 2 minutes. The schoolboard work session begins in 1 minute. Please take your seats. Again, the schoolboard work session begins in 1 minute. Good morning. Good morning. I now call the March 5th, 2026 administrative
briefing and work session of the Marian County School Board to order at 900 a.m. We are now going to take a brief recess for an off air attorney client session at 9:01 and we should be back very briefly. Thank you. She made me.
>> Good morning. Sorry, I was muted. Good morning. We are back from our attorney client session at 9:22. Please silence your electronic devices to avoid disturbing others. Mirroring and modeling how our students begin each day. I ask that you please pause with us
for a moment of silence. Please join me. I will now read our board commitment statement. We are the Marian County School District Leadership Team. When we come together to work, we are efficient, effective, and productive. Our three most important characteristics are dedicated, transparent, and individually
responsible. To work well together, we must demonstrate respect, confront reality, and be accountable. We will always put students first, and we will leave a legacy of success. I would like to ask the schoolboard attorney to explain the rules for this public workshop. Good morning, Attorney Powers.
>> Good morning, and thank you. This work session is a public meeting as defined in Florida's Sunshine Law. The board is dedicated to full transparency in its meetings and its work. In compliance with the Sunshine Law, the board has adopted uniform meeting procedures, including the right for citizens to
participate. The board will allow public comment regarding any work session item listed on today's agenda at the appropriate time. Speakers must fill out a request form located in the lobby and hand it to the board clerk. After the board and superintendent have completed
discussion, >> the board clerk will call the speaker's name. Hang on just a second. >> Each speaker will have three minutes as required by the Sunshine Law. The board must maintain orderly conduct and proper
decorum throughout this meeting. Speakers may criticize subject matter and decisions in a respectful manner but not people. Finally, speakers must be very careful not to violate privacy rights of others, especially students and their family members by mentioning name their names or other identifying
information. Thank you for your attention to these important rules. >> Thank you, Attorney Powers. Miss Rantino Jean, can you please provide the proof of publication for today's meeting? >> The notice for the March 5th, 2026 work session is placed on the district website on Thursday, February 26, 2026.
>> Thank you, Miss Martinez Young. Uh welcome everyone to our workshop today. I will start with the administrative briefing uh by our superintendent, Dr. Brewer. >> Thank you. Good morning and thank you for all that are in attendance. Today we um we're going to begin I want to recognize two exciting things that are
taking place in our schools right now. We have read across America and I know many of you have been reading in classrooms. I have and I have as well. And so it's been a great week. So, thank you to all of our schools that have prioritized this
initiative. We also are celebrating our social workers this week for social work awareness and we could not do what we do in our schools each day without the support of our social workers. So, I want to recognize our social workers publicly this morning. Today's agenda
has um we have five important topics. So, it's going to be a lengthy morning um but we appreciate your dialogue as we um bring back some items to you. Our first item is will be presented by Laurel Lingal with Gallagher sorry with Gallagher and
then we will um re Mr. White House will bring back the topic of resoning to you and as you know we have had multiple presentations of our resoning and provided our recommendations. So he will continue that presentation this morning. We also will have a booster stadium and
athletics update for you as requested by the board. Um, Dr. Curley will provide the update for our code of student conduct and Miss Morant will provide the updates for our district staffing plan. And that's all my briefings this morning. Dr. Chair, Dr. James, >> Dr. Chair,
>> Dr. Chair, >> we are having some significant feedback. Um, I'm just going to give it. Okay, maybe that was better. Um, so we are going to get started with item 4.1, which is our Gallagher compensation. I want to
welcome Mr. Rios Welsh, our CFO, to the podium to begin the presentation. Thank you. >> Good morning. >> Good morning. >> Okay, great. Uh, I'm Mr. Rios Welsh, chief financial officer for Marian County School District. Uh so there were
some questions at one of our previous uh board meetings related to the compensation structure for Gallagher uh which is the vendor that we use for actuarial services uh and various services related to our benefits department. So, I'm going to have um our
coordinator Stacy Roth come up uh and kind of set the stage for us in terms of uh the presentation and then Miss Laura Lingal uh who works with Gallagher will come up and talk through the details of the compensation structure and then we'll open it up for some questions. So,
thank you. And with that, Miss Roth and Miss Laura Lingal. >> Good morning. >> Good morning. Um as Mr. Welsh had stated before um we had some questions that were asked during our December meeting
with the renewal of the Gallagher contract. Um we work directly with Gallagher to make sure that our insurance plans are within compliance um as well as other additional um things that they assist us with through the district and through the year. So, um,
with the questions that came up in regards to the compensation structure that they have, we wanted to clarify things and, um, so we kind of put together a presentation so that you can see everything that's happening within the district, um, and how we compensate
their services to us. >> Thank you. Good morning. >> Morning. Good morning, Dr. Brewer, Attorney Powers, board members. Um, I'm excited to bring to you Kevin, do we have the presentation? Okay, perfect.
Um, some additional information about Gallagher's compensation, the services that we provide um, to the board for that compensation, and then some alternative compensation structures for the board to consider as um, we move
forward through the contract. Um, so I'm going to review total compensation and the lines of coverage that we administered to for that compensation. Um, the added services that we provide since the 2020 contract, which was the prior contract. Also some
comparisons to other public entities within Marian County and then also Lake County Schools. Um, and then go through those compensation structure options for you to consider. And then finally um just some additional information about our RFP consulting services.
So our current compensation um this is a highle overview of the lines of coverage that we administer to and the overarching compensation that we receive. So for the medical insurance with Florida Blue um we are comparing to
2020 since that was the last um contract that was initiated. Many of these compensation structures actually date further back than 2020, but um for today's presentation, those will be the years that we're utilizing. So, with Florida Blue, um it is a $3.50 per
employee per month compensation. Um just a note that in 2020, um we were fully insured for 2021. We moved to self-funded and but the compensation did not change at that time. For dental, um we are at a 2% commission. um that is
with delta. You can see in 2025 we did have the RFP that resulted in a rate decrease. So um anytime there is a percentage compensation a rate decrease would also result in a decrease in our compensation um for each uh policy.
Vision similarly is a 7% commission um that is through Humanana. We will be going to RFP for um vision services this year and we'll talk a little bit about that um later on in the presentation for life and voluntary life. So each
full-time benefit eligible employee receives a basic life policy that is paid for by the district. It is one and a half times their salary. Um there are some minimums and maximums on that, but one and a half times the salary is um pretty standard. again 2% commission in
um 2025. We also did an RFP resulting in decreased cost on that plan which um you know decreased our compensation as well. Um long-term and short-term disabilities. So there was some um clarification on these two policies from
2020 to 2024. It was through the standard. We offered two long-term disability policies, but one of them was advertised to employees as a short-term disability policy because it only paid for five years versus a traditional long-term disability policy that pays
through the age of 65 or normal social security retirement. So, you can see 10% commission there. When we went to RFP in 2025, US ABLE, which is a sister company of Florida Blue, won that RFP. um and they had some reduced rates, but it went
to what I would call a traditional um setup where there's a short-term disability policy, a long-term disability policy. Employees can choose one or the other or they can pair them together for for full coverage. Um the Medicare Advantage plan is a plan that
we offer to retirees, so 65 plus. This was put in long before 2020. Um dates back to before 2010. It was a solution to um have an alternative for employees to get off of the active plans when they
were 65 and eligible for Medicare. Um over the last couple of years, we've actually looked at alternatives to this because in the last two years, we've only had one one retiree select this plan. Outside in the general Medicare marketplace, they have several options
to choose from. We are very limited into what we can offer. Um, so we are looking at sunsetting this offering and and providing alternative options for employees to select outside in the general marketplace. Um, and then stop-loss. Again, this
pairs with your self-funded health plan. So from 2021 to 2026, you have been with ISU, which again is a sister company of Florida Blue. Um, we do not receive any compensation off of this contract, but we do negotiate every year um for that contract. At the bottom you'll see the
footnote about supplemental compensation. There was a question about supplemental compensation. This is um between carriers and brokers. Um you know all brokers have this with carriers. It is at a national level. I do not know what the supplemental
compensation for every carrier is that Gallagher may receive. It's not directly tied to Marian County School Board or any one employer. Um, and it if it is returned to the carrier, it's not ever returned to the client. So, it's not
something that the school board would benefit from receiving supplemental compensation back. Um so current compensation um again just a highle overview of um the compensation
per employee or per contract and then the amount received in 2025. So these are the Florida blue plans. Um you can see we have the medical and pharmaceutical and Medicare advantage there. The stop-loss again no compensation and then the two disability
policies. So in 2025, the compensation for those lines of coverage that we received was just over um $318,000. Um when we look at the ancillary coverage with dental um through Delta, Humanana, and then the life insurance through the standard, that resulted in
just over 99,000. And then we look at the um portions that we give back to the district. So we are providing funding for one of the benefits coordinators. We also facilitate the payment for the administration of the flex spending
account. Um so in 2025 that was $85,000. Um there was an extra payment in the October payment of $10,000 which is why it is um $10,000 higher than it normally is. So normally it would be $75,000.
Back to the district. In 2025, it was $85,000. So when we look at all of that, the total compensation received in 2025 with the reimbursements back to the district was just over $332,000. Um some of the things that we have added
in our consulting services since the 2020 contract and the majority of these are related to the self-funded services. So, um, when we moved to that in 2021, these are a lot of these are services that were added as a result of that. Um, so you have an actuary and an
underwriter that looks at your um, plans, your claims, and that makes projections for what rate increases um, should look like for the following year. We also assist with the state filings um, and national filings. So for Corey incurred but not reported and then we
are working on right now the OIR state filing for the self-funded health plan. We have a team of Orisa attorneys that support us whenever we have compliance questions um either internally or if Stacy and her team receive a question that they need additional support on.
Those um ORISA attorneys provide that support to us. Um we do an annual stop-loss RFP and negotiations each year. Again, we've talked about this in the past with the timing of the stop-loss policy. It's not something that can go through the formal board
process. So, we are administering to that through um our internal Gallagher process. We provide a monthly financial monitoring report. So, this looks at all of the plans, the breakdown of the number of employees that are in each plan, the claims that come through for
those employees and their dependent um and provide that reporting each year. We added the benefit advocate center. So, this is a a place that employees can call in for support during open enrollment throughout the year if they're a new hireer and have questions about the benefits. So, it's from
everything from I got an explanation of benefits and I don't understand it or I need assistance pulling an ID card or finding a provider. Um, I'm not sure how my benefit would work in this situation. The benefit advocate center can support um the members in that way. And then
just a few administrative things. Um we have created a virtual new hire benefit presentation as well as a benefit guide in both English and Spanish to support the employees again not only during open enrollment but for new hires and throughout the year.
Um this is a comparison of again a couple of the public entities in Marian County who are self-funded um as well as Lake County Schools. I know that's a district that we often um you know look at just because of the proximity and the number of employees. So you can see that
we have listed um benefit eligible employees. So this essentially is the number of employees that are enrolled in the basic life insurance. Um any benefit eligible employee would receive that benefit even if they're not enrolled in any of the other coverages. So Gallagher
consults both for Marian County and Lake County schools. So that that information um Lake County schools is as of September 1st their numbers that is their open enrollment. Um Marian County schools is numbers as of January 1st and then City of Ocala and Marian County
Board of County Commissioners those numbers um came to us from Florida Blue. So, um, as you can see, we, um, remain very competitive with our per employee per year number. I do know there was some questions about, um, why the
discrepancy between Lake County schools and Marian County Schools with the number of employees. Um, while I can't speak to their staffing plan, we do have 15 more schools than they do. So I imagine that a significant number of or
the significant de difference is from the number of schools that we operate in comparison to them. Um but we did we did confirm those numbers and they had 5,300 employees on their basic life insurance um which would be benefit eligible employees.
Um we also did look at their website. Their website indicates 5,500 total employees. Um, I would imagine that that is because they have some part-time employees just like the district employees more than 6,500, but that's just the benefit eligible number.
Um, so as we move into what options are available for compensation, um, really there are three options that, um, we see in in our industry. So currently you have option number one, your commissions and fees are built into the carriers
rates and are paid to Gallagher by the carriers. Um option number two is that you can have a consulting agreement in place for the board paid benefits. Essentially, the district would pay um a compensation directly to Gallagher for those services and then the fees remain
in the um benefits for the ancillary or the um optional benefits or you can go to a consulting agreement for for all services. So, I I listed some pros and cons for each of the um options there.
So, if you were to remain with the current compensation structure, you would have to renegotiate and and that's probably not the correct term because you're not negotiating rates, but you would need to redo the contract which with each of those carriers um removing
the compensation from the contract. So, um that would be something that could take some time and we would have to go to each of the carriers to do that. Um so, if you stayed that way, you wouldn't have to do that. Um if for the benefits that are on a commissionbased
um you know percentage anytime we reduce the cost of the benefit during an RFP you are benefiting from that as well. So the employees and you are benefit benefiting from that rate reduction. So if we go to a a straight amount any RFP
resulting in a reduction wouldn't re result in a reduction for the district. Um and right now again the district is only responsible for compensation for the health plan and the basic life insurance. Um so a couple of cons staying with this um is that our
compensation can increase based on enrollment um but can also decrease based on enrollment. So if enrollment in any of the plans decreases obviously our compensation decreases and vice versa. And then I think this is the question that maybe some of the board members had
is most certainly this does result in fluctuating compensation based on what the enrollment is with this setup. If we were to move to option two which again is a consulting agreement for board paid benefits and then leaving the
compensation built into the benefits for any optional benefits. Um so you would not have to renegotiate um for those lines of coverage listed there. you would have to renegotiate or redo the contracts for the health and the life insurance. Um again, anytime a
reduction in an RFP occurs, that is beneficial to the district and to the employees of the district. And then um if there is growth in medical or uh increases in salary on the life, this model would not result in additional
compensation for Gallagher. Um again the cons you would have to do some renegotiating or redoing of the contracts for health and life. Um there would be some additional administrative burden on the district and then um the
district will pay the same compensation for medical even if there are decreases. And then lastly the um consulting agreement across all lines of coverage. Again pro this would be the most transparent. It is one number regardless
of any type of enrollment. Um and growth in enrollment or salary increases does not re result in additional compensation. We would need to redis all of the contracts with the carriers. If we move to this option, um it would most certainly create additional
administrative burden um for the finance team and the risk management team because they would need to ensure that the district is made whole for any benefit that is strictly employee paid. So right now whatever the commission is
the employee paid benefits are covering that. So there would be a lot of calculation that would need to go into making sure that the district is made whole for those benefits. Um and then any decrease in enrollment does not result in decrease in compensation. Um
and again if we negotiate an RFP and reduce the cost of the plan that would also not result in any decreases for the employees or the district. And then lastly, um there were some questions about the RFP consulting. Um
so prior to 2024, the district was utilizing um another service for RFP consulting and paying that vendor. In years where there were multiple RFPs needing to be done, anytime that vendor
could make over $50,000, they were actually having to do an RFP to determine the vendor that they would use for RFPs. Um so we um supported the district in those um RFP services. Um from my understanding, our our charges
were less than what they were currently paying and again it didn't result in multiple RFPs to to have that service. So, in 2024, we assisted with the dental, the short-term and long-term disability, um, life, basic life, and then there was a medical claims audit.
This last year, we assisted with the medical and the pharmacy benefit manager. I did receive some additional information since this presentation was submitted. So, on the pharmacy benefit manager contract, we are expecting about $3 million more in rebates this year
since the negotiation of that contract. Um so that is again that is based on current utilization of um brand medication. It's based on the current um rebates that we anticipate to receive. But we will start receiving those
additional rebates after the first quarter. So they look at the rebates on a quarterly basis and then there's some lag time for the claims to all hit. But we are anticipating an additional $3 million um above what we are currently receiving in rebates. The medical RFP
resulted in some savings in the administrative fee. Um just over $89,000 a year in savings on that. And then we did also receive um 150 um,000 in additional wellness um funds from that RFP.
This year we are to be going out to um RFP for vision. We actually were just working with attorney powers this week to see how we can move that RFP into what we would consider an included service um in Gallagher's contract. So
anytime we don't have to go through the formal RFP process that is included in our scope of work. Um so I think we have found a solution to be able to do that where we will be posting it publicly for
public bids and then we will be um evaluating internally with Gallagher and then providing results for um the risk management department to make the ultimate decision on the winner of the RFP.
Um and again the services that we provide internally as part of our um consulting agreement we did the COBRA retirey billing each year we do the stop loss and this year we'll be doing flexible spending and the employee assistance program. Um so I know that's a lot of information
and I'm happy to answer any questions that you have as a result. >> Thank you Miss Lingal. appreciate you coming and providing that comprehensive overview of your compensation and um with Gallagher and what that all looks like. Board, I open it up. Dr. Campbell, >> thank you. Thank you for coming, Miss
Lingal. I think the reason that this presentation is here because of the questions that I had. So, I just want to say thank you for the very detailed presentation and giving us the information and actually the questions have now been answered many of the questions that I asked in the board meeting uh when we were having this
conversation. The most important thing here is things we do cost money and and when we make specific decisions, there are associated costs with those decisions. Interestingly enough, the last comment I'll make, uh, interestingly enough, I
think that you're putting Lake County in this presentation actually, the information there potentially will help guide future conversations we have even today. I think it is interesting to note that exactly what you said. We have more
schools than they do by more than a dozen I believe. >> Um yet they have the same number of students. They h they have 1,200 less employees than we have yet they have the same number of
students. and they are an A-rated school district that is doing exceptionally great work for students all throughout Lake County. So, it's interesting that that wasn't the purpose of this presentation, but I do think just the fact that you included that does give us
further context for tough conversations that we have to have. I stated last year, and this is unrelated as well, I stated last year when we were adding two new elementary schools, and we're about to online a new high school as well. The district pays us based on the number of,
excuse me, the state pays us based on the number of students we have. They don't care how many schools we use to operate and to actually provide the services and education to those students. And so when we were adding all of those costs and obviously adding employees because we had new campuses to
add the costs associated with that, it it was just on us to figure out because the state pays us based on the number of students. And so um thank you for actually including that and it not even being intentional. Uh but I I think it'll help drive this conversation. But
thank you also for answering all the questions uh that I had posed in the board meeting. It's a very comprehensive presentation and I'm sure the community appreciates it as well. >> Wonderful. Thank you. And and Dr. Brewer was actually the one that brought that up. I was not aware that Lake County had the same number of students. So when we presented to the executive cabinet, she
asked how the discrepancy was. So we went back to confirm that the numbers that we presented were accurate and and they were. And so that caused us to dig deeper and and that's when we determined that it was about 15 less schools for for Lake County. >> Thank you.
>> Thank you, board. Uh I see board member Thor, you have any comments? >> Uh yes, thank you. Thank you for this important review. Um I look forward to hearing risk management's uh recommendations, you know, based on what you shared, um for how we can move
forward to continue our great relationship, uh take care of our employees at a reduced cost if possible, um but not reduce quality. So thank you for your long-term partnership. Look forward to continuing to work with you. It's presentations like this that that
prove uh how important this relationship is. Thank you. >> Thank you, >> Reverend Cummings. >> Thank you um for the presentation. Um very interesting to me is the fact that as you were going through the presentation, you saw that there were
certain things that were no longer uh beneficial to us as a district. I think the uh the one with the Medicare advantage which is not good right now for us. So thank you for um giving us a thorough presentation and
and let letting us be able to see the complete picture. So thanks >> anything board member Conrad >> just want to say thank you um for the presentation this morning and the very specific information that you provided to us and um for the community. So thank you for being here this morning. Great.
Thank you. >> Uh and I'll just close. I just have one question. So, um, and you may not be able to answer this today, but um, as our plans are used, so as employees use pharmaceuticals and some some of our employees have very expensive
pharmaceuticals, um, and then, um, as our employees use their health plan, some employees don't use their health plan at all. I I don't use my health plan at all. Um, but others use it a lot. Is Gallagher compensated
um if use is higher is Gallagher compensated at a higher rate? >> No, our our compensation isn't based on claims or utilization at all. It's strictly the number of employees that are enrolled. Okay. >> Thank you for clarifying that. Um well, that concludes my comment and I think
the board's comment. So again, I want to thank you to not only our staff um but also you for coming forward and providing this comprehensive overview and um we'll look forward to seeing you again soon, I'm sure. >> Yes. >> Is there any public comment on this item for today?
>> All right, hearing none, that will conclude item 4.1 and we will move on to Mr. Rezwell, did you have anything you wanted to add? Sorry. >> No, thank you. I just wanted to mention um it goes without saying that we are um in budget development and so working
with Gallagher to look at uh plan design changes uh and even to your your question about utilization and pharmaceuticals uh those are all areas that we're we're looking at now. And so as we go back uh with the staff to look at the pros and cons uh we do expect
within the next uh year or two as this contract is still um underway uh we'll be able to have some recommendations. So, just wanted to mention that. Thank you. >> Thank you very much, Mr. Rios Walsh. Uh, and that will conclude item 4.1. We will move on to item 5.1, which is resoning
update with, um, I believe Mr. White House coming forward to kick us off. Um, before we get into the weeds, I obviously see we have a variety of community members here. Um, Miss Martina Jang, do you know how many public speakers we have? >> We have 12. >> 12. Okay. So, seeing as we have 12 and a
30 minute cap, based on board policy, that would reduce people's time to two minutes. um seeing as it's in the range of 10 to 16 um with the policy that we adopted recently. Board, are we comfortable with moving forward with that?
Okay, sounds good. So, uh um I see hands in the audience. Mr. White House, maybe could you facilitate? I think there are some questions regarding the public comment. Y so based on board policy um just for transparency to the community the question was asked does the time change
after 10 based on the board policy that was adopted recently that is in fact the case so we can certainly if you feel confident we can stop at um 10 public comments which yields three minutes for every public speaker um board my last question on would be that I would like
to do public comment um at least to some degree um ahead of our comment. I think public comment should determine um and have impact on the comments that we have. Certainly the board can have comment ahead of it, but then I would like to offer the board comment
afterwards as well. Is that comfortable with the board? >> Yes. >> Okay. Well, then we will get started with Mr. White House and um public I will let you know when it's your turn. Okay. Thank you. Thank you, chair. Good morning, board, and good morning, superintendent. Um, at our last work
session, uh, we did present again an update to our proposal for the north end resoning and the potential of, um, combining schools in the future. Uh, the board asked that work session that we come back at this work session and present a new plan, uh, that would allow
for moving all of the students off of Spar campus for the 2627 school year. And so we have come back with that plan. So you'll see here this is the attendance boundary map that exists for each of our current elementary schools in the north end that we are going to be
discussing today. Um areas A, B, and C. Those are all SPAR elementary. As we talked about before with reszoning, um we break up our zones into quadrants based on natural barriers that exist uh within those attendance zones to make it easier to talk about groups of students
um as we look at balancing enrollment. So each of those areas are the Spar Elementary. If you go down to the bottom letter F, that is um part of the old Evergreen, the auxiliary zone that currently travels to Spar Elementary. And then G and O over there are Ocala
Springs. So this just gives you some quick numbers about what this could look like if we make some shifts in our attendance boundaries as they exist now. Um so Reddit collar, you'll see the capacity there at 686. They have just under 300
students in zone right now. Um, as of February, they had just over 300 students attending that school. So, the proposal would take all of the SPAR district, which were letters A, B, and C, that's the entire current SPAR attendance boundary, um, and move those
students, which is roughly 397 students, over to Reic Collier, uh, which would put Reic Collier just over capacity in zone at just over 100%. Spar Elementary, obviously with those students shifting over, would have no students assigned to that campus for
next school year. Anthony Elementary School, their current capacity is 462 in zone just under 300. Enrollment in February is just north of 300. Uh we would move the current letter F, which are the students from the Evergreen Auxiliary that are traveling to Spar
right now to Anthony. And we would also take letters G and O from Ocala Springs to reduce some of the overcrowding at Cal Springs over to Anthony. Uh again would put Anthony just at about 100% capacity for next school year. Ocala Springs would only be losing students to
Anthony. So we reduce about 74 students to that school. Um again the capacity there is actually a little bit greater with the portable locations that are at that campus. Um and this is looking at inzone numbers of course not necessarily the students who actually attend at that
school. So anticipated cost. So we did want to take a look at Reddit collar that would be the one area that we would have to make some investments. We mentioned the last time building 10 which is the oldest building built in 1952 is not currently being utilized for student stations. Um though it does does still
carry fish student stations. So we went through with our facilities team just to take a look at what would be required to get it ready. um for the fall. So, we estimate about $19,000 in repair costs. Most of that's just to update the current bathrooms that are there. Um and then we would have to add technology to
the building. Um there is some existing technology structure, but they still have chalkboards and they don't have interactive flat panels in most of the rooms. So, we would have to um take those items from Spar Elementary School and shift them over to Reic Collier. A lot of that will also depend on what the
wiring needs are. If we can get into spar over the summer and we can utilize most of the wiring that's um in the campus right now, we could utilize that wiring again at Reddic and save us some some funds down the road. So, there's a couple of things still to be determined. Um one, again, if you saw, we're just
over 100% fish capacity. So, we would have to work with the principal, look at the number of students to make sure we know if we need to add some portables to Reddit collar for next year as that would be an additional cost if we do have to move a portable over there. Um, and we also have several ESSE self-contained classrooms that are
currently at SPAR. Um, and we would have to look at reassigning for those students and doing a little bit of uh realigning of our ESSE self-contained needs between our existing schools on the north end that would remain for next school year. So, just a quick timeline. Um, as we
mentioned before, we have rescheduled our community meetings for each of the impacted schools. So, those will take place during the month of March. Our spar community meeting will be this coming Monday, March the 9th in the evening at 5:30. And then we have the other two, Reic and Anthony, March 25th
and 26 after spring break, also at 5:30. April 2nd work session, that will be our rule development work session. April 28th would be the rule making and vote. And then May would be our parent notification for next school year.
And that is the short of the presentation. >> Thank you, Mr. White House. Uh, I will open it first up for board comments. Uh, and then I will turn it over to the public for some comment and then further board comments. So, does anyone want to make comments right now? Uh, board member Thor,
>> I'll just say that I'd like to reserve my comments until we hear from the community. I think they took time out of work and out of their day. Um, so I would love to hear them sooner than later. >> Okay. >> I concur that. Um, I think the community should be able to give their input. >> All right. Well, then we will um hand it
over to Miss Martinez Young to facilitate our public comment. >> Mr. Dan Davis. >> Hello, Mr. Davis. >> Good morning, superintendent and members of the board. Um, I'm pleased to be here this morning. My name is Dan Davis and I'm a retired Marian County School
Administrator working having worked at North Marian High School, Fort McCoy Middle School, and retiring from Marian Technical College. and I'm also a lifelong resident of the Spar community and a longtime member of Spar Baptist Church where I currently
serve as a church elder. I come before you today to speak in support of maintaining Spar Elementary School as the community school for the Spar area. Spar Elementary is a true community school. It's in an old historic area
that enjoys and benefits from the support of Marian County residents, including the parents, businesses, and churches in the area. Involvement by the community reflects the concern that our children in the in the North Marian area and in the Spar area uh have the
opportunity to attend and participate in their school in their local community. Currently, students who attend Spar Elementary School will metriculate to North Marian Middle School and then North Marian High School. These three schools are all located on Highway 329
and within just a few miles of each other. That is true community. It's important. We believe that community is important to our schools, important to our kids, and they best learn when they're in community. One area that I'm particularly pleased about and compelled to mention is that
the is the relationship and cooperation that exists between Spar Elementary School and Spar Baptist Church. This relationship has developed over many years and it includes an afterchool faith champions program where we serve about 70 children that participate in
that program. We also from the church provide adult volunteers that assist teachers in the classroom as well as individual tutoring in specific areas and especially in the reading area and also as you would expect these
volunteers dem uh close relationships with the students as well as with teachers and they serve as a quality community role model for those children. Additionally, we frequently share our facilities with Spar Elementary School.
Many work days uh and meeting days. They come to our church building and meet in our fellowship hall where we also serve meals for them and participate with them in the educational process. We believe that the church and school cooperation and involvement has resulted
in substantial gains educationally for the children as well as having develop helping develop their spiritual lives and several families of these children now attend the church also as well. I want to I'm sure you're aware of this,
but um I want to mention that posted on the walls of Spar Elementary School is a set of rules that they call the big three. These rules were adopted and used. >> Just wrap up your last sentence, please.
>> Were adopted and used by the great coach Lou Holtz in his role coaching football. They've been posted at North Marion High School and several other schools in the district. These rules are do your best, do what's right, treat others the way you want to be treated. We know these are biblically based, but they're valuable rules for children to grow and
live by. We ask the board to consider the big three and consider the children of the spar community as you make your decisions related to the future of that school. Thank you very much. >> Thank you, Mr. Davis. Jackie Beard. >> Good morning, Mr. Beard.
>> Hi. Good morning, everybody. Uh, my name is Jackie Beard. I am a resident of SPAR. I'm here to talk about the history of Spar Elementary. Spa Elementary was established. That school was established for all
blacks when that school was established. Eric Foden was my principal and that school has a lot of history, has a lot of concern for our community and I don't think that we should take that from our community. That's history
and I think that school should remain open if it's possible because that's part of my life. All my kids come through that school and without a good foundation they won't be nothing. and all my oldest son has has a doctor
degree. My male boy worked for the school board. My youngest son worked for uh a mortgage company in Detroit. And my daughter is now graduating this year with her masters. And without Spar Elementary being a foundation school for
them, my kids would not be where they are today. And I'm here to say that I'm proud of our school. I'm proud to say that I used to go to that school. Matter of fact, I went from a run portable in
Fort McCoy when it's all when it was a black school. I went to Central School, which is now at Spar Elementary School as the music room and the art room. I went from there to Spar Elementary. And
I'm standing here to say that I'm proud that I have come to Spar Elementary. I'm proud of our foundation. I'm asking y'all to consider our school, please. Thank you so much. >> Thank you, Mr. Beard.
Mr. David Hartley. >> Good morning, Mr. Hartley. >> Good morning. Thank you for the opportunity to speak before you today. My name is David Hartley and I serve as a librarian and media specialist at Spar Elementary School. At the end of this school year, I will have been uh the media specialist at
SPAR for 11 years. I've served in the Maring County Schools since 1990. I agree with the community members and the uh other speakers that have spoken already and that represent the 426 students who are at Spar currently and I was desired to come to the situation from a little bit of a
different perspective. I know that some in the district have expressed the idea that even if we follow the same path forward and taking an elementary school offline, more time to organize and plan for the inevitable would be the better course of action. I feel that we need to take into consideration uh we may even
have uh today uh some indication uh but nothing is going to be official at SPAR until as far as taking SPAR offline until the end of April. schools, individuals, families need to start making plans well before that timeline becomes official and permanent. It would
be an inequitable situation for all the personnel at an institution such as SPAR to have to seek employment by going into the transfer portal before having all the facts laid before them, which is what occurs when the transfer portal opens at the end of March with final decisions not known about offlining SPAR
until a month later. Teachers and staff from other schools entering the transfer portal are doing so on a case-byase manner. While at SPAR, all teachers and staff dive into the portal after uh after hearing about the potential of going offline only a short time ago and
being unaware what the final decision of SPAR will be. This seems an inequitable situation for the sparse school and the administrators as well because if the decision to offline the school does not go through because so many of the teachers and staff have had to make the decision to move. The school will be
without the staff needed to move forward productively. Now, I realize you have a much larger picture to look at than what I'm involved with at this time, but I hope to bring to you at least one perspective on how this very important decision will be so impactful. Thank you for the opportunity to speak before you.
I wish you all the wisdom as you move forward in this. >> Thank you, Mr. Hartley. >> Miss Maline Rainey, >> can you spell that, Miss Martinez? >> Last name Rainey. R A I N E Y. Maline. M A D E L Y.
>> Thank you. Good morning, Miss Rainey. >> Good morning. Thank you for allowing me to speak today. I recognize that the decisions before you are not simple. I understand that there are financial realities and organizational challenges involved. I do not stand here pretending
those factors don't matter in your decisionmaking. But I do stand here asking that these considerations remain centered on one thing above all else, the well-being of the children. For elementary age children, school is so much more than a building. It is where
they learn how to form friendships, how to trust adults outside of their family, how to manage big emotions, and how to feel safe and confident in the world around them. Research consistently shows that school stability in the early years supports strong literacy development,
emotional regulation, social confidence, and long-term academic success. On the contrary, students receiving academic interventions like special education services or social emotional support are impacted by school instability by
showing lower test scores, increased disciplinary actions, and greater long-term disengagement. When a school closes, children don't simply change locations. They lose teachers who know their personalities, their strengths, and their struggles. They lose
friendships that feel like their whole world at this age. For many of these children, teachers are daily encouraers in their steady presence. They are safe adults. Those relationships shape how children view learning and sometimes how they view themselves. This can also be
said of our non-instructional staff, our parent and non-parent volunteers, including the involvement of our local Spar Baptist church, which I am a proud member of. And I'd like to inform the board that the students of faith champions 329 has doubled from last
year. And praise God for that. A neighborhood school like Spar is a community anchor. It's where families connect, where traditions are built, and where children feel rooted. When we talk about closing a school, we are talking about disrupting something that has been carefully woven and knit together since
1964. My hope is not rooted in resistance, but rather love for our children and the small community. If closure must be considered, I respectfully ask that adequate time be given for transitional purposes and not with the urgency we are
seeing before us. I ask that you weigh not only the numbers on a page, but the developmental impact on these children whose lives are shaped in these early years. Scripture reminds us in 1 Corinthians 16:14, "Let all that you do be done in love." I trust that wisdom
and compassion can guide each member of the board before us as you make these difficult decisions. My prayer is that whatever path is chosen reflects care, thoughtfulness, and deep consideration for the children and families entrusted to this community. Thank you for your time.
>> Thank you, Miss Rainey. >> Miss Dana Cluly. >> Good morning, Miss Cluey. >> Good morning. Hi, guys. Thank you for having me. My name is Dana Cluly and I'm a parent to three boys at Spar Elementary. I'm
here today to talk to you about having a child with a different ability and how Spar teachers and administration have helped guide me through this journey. As a parent of a not average sometimes, >> Miss Cle, I'm just going to pause you and reset you. Just I want to make sure
the mic works. Okay. So, you'll get all your time back. >> Thank you. testing. >> All right. If you want to just take it from the top. >> I am Dana Cluey. I am a parent of three at Spar.
>> Hold on, man. Hold on. Hold on. >> I grew up. That one's not working at all. >> God bless. >> That one attorney powers the mic. That wasn't working at all. >> Okay. No, I thought you were coming to get
another. >> You're doing a wonderful job. God, >> thank you for your patience. >> Yes, I tell my public speaking students, imagine what's the worst thing that could happen. This isn't it. I promise. Hello. Okay, we all have compassion for
you right now. So, >> thank you. >> Third time's the charm. We'll go ahead and get started. >> I'm a parent at Spar Elementary to three boys and I'm here today to talk about having a child with a different ability and how Spar teachers and administration
have helped guide me through this journey. As a parent of your not average, sometimes bad kid, but also incredibly smart child, I've sat through lots of IEP meetings in hopes of finding the best way to help my child succeed.
Because of that support of SPAR teachers, he has built trust and relationships with them. Moving schools would mean starting over again with new teachers who don't yet know his abilities, routines and new expectations
and will barely even know his name. For a child with ADHD and OD that can sudden change isn't small. It can affect his focus and all the progress that he has worked so hard for in these short years.
This rapid school change leaves no time to restructure my child's life and other children in the same situation. The teachers at SPAR see his strengths, not just his struggles. They consistently meet his accommodations set in his IEP,
making sure all of his needs are met. Even sometimes showing up to his extracurriculars to see how he's doing. I ask you as a parent to please consider and be in our shoes as a parent yourself. Change is good. Don't get me
wrong. But what feels as a split-second decision is something that could be very dramatic, a very dramatic educational decline for the new school year. Thank you all for your time and I please hope you find in your heart to make the right decision.
>> Thank you, Miss Cluey, and we appreciate your willingness to roll with the punches there. Kayla Han. >> Good morning, Miss Han. >> Good morning. My name is Kayla Han and I'm the ESC teacher for kindergarten and first grade at the EBD units at Spar
Elementary. >> The American Psychiatric Association states, "One major impact of moving schools is the disruption of routine and predictability. Students with ASD often experience distress with familiar schedules, environments, and expectations change because insisting on
sameness and difficult uh sorry are core characteristics of autism. Students with EDB EBD depend on consistent behavior systems and clear expectations. Entering a new school with unfamiliar rules and staff can increase emotional
dysregulation and problem behaviors. Our students have established relationship with us and have preferred staff. We are made strides with our students that they may be integrated back into general education classrooms. One example is my kindergarten student who at the beginning of the year could
not trans transition independently and would have tantrums even becoming physical at times to now is in the process of joining a general education classroom for you. Part of this is due to the size of SPAR's classroom allowing us to teach the necessary skills such such as
regulation, social and emotional skills. As I've spoken about the importance of relationships with our students, we have worked hard and long to build a bond, a personal connection with each of our children. There goes a lot into teaching our students that I don't have the time to go into. We But we must be purposeful
and consistent above all patient. With that said, we have put the time in to provide those needs and care for our kids deeply. At Spar, we have amazing students, amazing team for these students. We all work together in a way that is rare. This couldn't be done without the assistance of our administrators who support the needs of
our students and staff. We are a team at Spar and that shows great success among our students. We are all needed to keep up this great success. We all play a part of the those parts work great together. We ask that you consider to us to allowing us to continue the important
work we are doing with both our EBD and our general ed education classes. Thank you for your time. >> Thank you, Miss Han. Shannon Wood. >> Good morning, Miss Wood. >> Hi, my name is Miss Wood and I'm a
teacher at Spar Elementary School. Thank you for allowing me this opportunity to speak with you. As a teacher, this is a very scary space to speak to the school board. It is also very scary place not knowing where I will work in August.
I teach fifth grade science. There is a place for me at Spar next year, but will there be a place for me at Reddic next year? That I do not know. If I trans if the transfer period is opened before the decision is made, that leaves the teachers and support staff
with no sense of job security. The transfer portal will open and close before the final decision is made. The transfer portal will not offer an accurate number of teaching and support staff positions during the transfer portal period. I was a teacher at
Evergreen Elementary School the year it closed. That feeling of uncertainty is now before me again. Starting at a new school was not easy for the teachers or for the students. The Evergreen students were divided amongst several different elementary schools. The offlining of
Evergreen created long bus rides for many of the Evergreen students and my fear is that our SPAR students will be faced with the same extended bus rides and new environment they are not familiar with. Evergreen was a neighborhood school just as Spar is a neighborhood school with many of our
students living close by. I live in southeast Ocala and I drive 15 miles one way to school each day. I do this because Spar Elementary School culture is worth it. Our school staff and students have an unbreakable bond.
We get to know our students, their families, and are actively engaged in their extracurricular activities to show our support to our SPAR students and their families. We attend the youth fair yearly to watch all of our students participate. I previously taught second
grade at the SPAR and now I am teaching fifth grade. My second grade students are very excited to have me as their teacher when they enter fifth grade next school year. Pinky promises were made that I would be their student, their teacher next year when they enter fifth
grade. I took those pinky promises very seriously with my second graders. Now they are asking me what's going to happen next year if we are all no longer at SPAR. And I have no answers for them. SPAR is at 100% capacity and we have 23
acres of land and opportunity to grow our tiny school. I do do not understand how emptying one school to fill another school solves the problem of the one school needing more students. Spar school is operating at 100% capacity. It
is simply does not make sense to offline SPAR to solve a capacity issue at another school. Thank you for listening to our concerns and we trust that you take our concerns to heart and make a fair and appropriate decision to allow Spar Elementary School to be a part of
the educational needs of the North Side students that are currently in the current Spar Elementary School Zone. Thank you. >> Thank you, Miss Wood. Samantha Hopp. >> Good morning, Miss Hoppp.
>> Sorry, my daughter is one of the ones who pinky promised, so it was a little emotional for me. Okay. Good morning. I'm speaking as a school choice parent at Spar Elementary and someone who attended Spar as a child. I'm asking you to pause before making a decision that could permanently reshape education on
the north end of our county. We have lived through something very similar before. Evergreen Elementary was an AV school in the late 2000s. In 2010, the district approved a building of a 1012 classroom addition. I've researched and researched. I can't find where those students came from or where they were
moved from. Shortly after Evergreen's grade began to fall, enrollment declined, and the school eventually became low capacity. In 2018, the district moved Evergreen's gifted program to South Okala, which removed a high performing population that contributed proficiency. Without that
change, Evergreen likely could have achieved a passing grade. I bring this up because I'm concerned we may be repeating a pattern. If students spar students are relocated to Reic, a significantly farther and less direct commute, many families will exercise school choice rather than make that
drive. The students who remain will largely be those who depend on district transportation. When students are forced to change schools unexpectedly, we often see drops in math and reading performance, increased absence, and an adjustment related behavior issues, especially in
younger elementary grades. Stability matters, and it matters even more in rural communities where support is limited. We also need to consider long-term planning. Anthony Elementary sits on only 8.35 acres with an additional 2.5 acres owned by the district that would
require students to cross northeast 95th lane or for that road to be closed. That does not look like a scalable solution for growth on the north side of the county. And growth is happening. Many of us remember when Highway 200 was still two lanes west of 60th Avenue. Over the last 15 to 20 years, we've watched
massive expansion. As the southside fills in, development pressure is already moving north. So where where will future families go to the school if we remove capacity from this area now? With the proposed resoning attendance boundaries, this will leave the remaining north end schools well over
100% capacity. Spar is not just a building to flip a coin over. It is a functioning neighborhood school serving a rural community and it already is over 100% capacity. Based on the recent resoning update to presented today, there is 397 students being moved from
SPAR which does not include the school choice students. This is much greater than the original 170 discussed at the previous meeting. When rural schools close, the impact is not neutral. There is longer bus rides, less parent involvement, added strain on receiving schools, and often declining property
values. There is also human cost. At least 26 staff members will be directly affected by this decision, not including teachers who may struggle to secure transfers. Before closing a functional neighborhood school, we need transparent data showing this is truly the best long-term solution, not simply the
quickest financial fix. At the end of the day, this decision won't just affect buildings, budgets, or charts. It will affect children. The 5-year-old with a much longer bus ride, the struggling reader adjusting to a new classroom. Before we disrupt that stability, we owe it to these children to be absolutely certain this is the right decision
because once a community school is closed, it rarely comes back. Thank you for your time. Thank you, Miss Hubble. >> Mr. Andrew Smith. >> Good morning, Mr. Smith. >> Good morning.
My name is Andrew Smith. Not only a parent of two amazing students of SPAR, but I'm also the husband, excuse me, also a husband of one of the most passionate, caring, dedicated EBD paras you will ever meet.
So, when I heard that our closing of our community school was even on the table after such a short discussion at the February 19th meeting, like many others, it caught me completely off guard. I decided to speak today to bring forth some of the questions I have based on
the board's previously mentioned statements about the North's future. Where is the logic of offplanning the school that has 20 plus acres and reszoning kids to other schools which would then put those schools at over 100% occupancy? What are the future
plans to address the occupancy there by using the numbers given during the October 16th meeting? Anony's projected 20-year maintenance costs are 7.2 million with 5.8 million of that within the next five years. That equates to
240,000 annually. The annual, excuse me, 360,000 for the next 20 years. SPARS at 4.8, 3.5 being within the next five years. The annual operating cost for the two schools is 3.5 and 3.7 respectfully. So,
if my math is correct, there's only an $80,000 annual difference in the two schools. Also per per the update given today that shows the offlining is spar the student population of Anthony is to increase by approximately 195 students.
What is the projection for the Anthony maintenance cost to increase with that 30% increase. During the February 19th meeting it was mentioned that Orange County is looking to close six elementary schools. I took the time to compare their numbers to ours. Marian County has approximately 35
K5 schools to Orange County is approximately 135. Average percentage of utilization for the schools potentially closing Marian 101% Orange 57. Now, am I standing here demanding that Spar be the recipient of a multi-million
dollar brand new campus? Absolutely not. My request today is simple. Do not make this fear out do not make this decision out of a fear of a scarlet letter. Make it out of courage to do what is right. And when you do, remember that there happens to be four letters that do
matter to our com our community and they happen to be the ones branded in maroon and gold. Thank you. >> Thank you, Mr. Smith. Caleb Bowman. >> Good morning, Miss Bowman. Do you have things you want to give to the board?
>> Um, when I finish, if I can hand it over to the secretary, that'd be great. >> Okay. The attorney will have to review it first. So, if you want to give it to Mr. Christian, he can give it to the um attorney to review. Thank you. You can get started whenever you're ready. >> Morning board. Um again, I want to start
from a place of gratitude and compassion. Um also to all the teams that work hard every day like Mr. White House to evaluate all the moving pieces. The work you put in is impressive. Um, I know it's not comparable, but we put in many hours ourselves in a short amount of time in an attempt to gain better
knowledge and understanding of your perspective. I see many reasons why you're conflicted and under an intense amount of stress to make these decisions. We are one piece to a very large puzzle, but one piece we are. I'd like to briefly discuss the concept of school choice and open enrollment. The
way I understand it, it's rooted in a simple yet powerful principle that parents, not systems, should decide what's best for their children. This stems from what we call the free market philosophy that our country is built on. This philosophy teaches us that when there are options, it drives competition, innovation, and
improvement. Spar Elementary has stepped up to that plate. We might not pull off the highest letter grade, but we have built an atmosphere where students are thriving and working hard, and our reputation and growing enrollment supports this. We keep to ourselves, and our campus isn't fancy. It's certainly overdue for some improvement, but I
think I can speak for the majority of the north side when I say keeping up with the Jones just isn't really our priority. Do we deserve the same funding and attention as the rest of the district? Absolutely. But if that means offlining a growing school that supports its community, the carrot becomes much less appetizing.
Reddic Collier has been underutilized for almost 20 years. Our governor is holding districts accountable and putting pressure on efficiency. I understand the urgency all of a sudden, but as the old saying goes, your lack of preparation should not constitute an emergency on our part. As I believe was
mentioned in past meetings, the only way to guarantee failure is inaction. I can agree with that. The inaction of addressing reic fish capacity has resulted in failure in terms of utilization. Change isn't the only thing that's hard. Failure's hard, too. I guess the question is, who ends up with
the consequences of those hard lessons? So, I'll end with this. My trust in my family's future is rooted in God's provision in our life. Which is why I can stand here and confidently say I'm not fearful of the outcome. Um, and I pray that every spare spar family and as far as it can spread can feel that same
peace and confidence. But what I do ask is that you explore every option that is fiscally responsible that doesn't involve compromising the stability of students and families. I hope you find it valuable to preserve our wonderful school. And at minimum, I pray you deem it responsible and necessary to slow
down just a tick and create a long-term plan to allow us choices that we deserve and not make any major changes until the 2728 school year. This might not be from the textbooks, but my daddy always taught me, measure twice, cut once. Nevertheless, if the trend continues that the north side gets the short end
of the stick, we'll do as it was already mentioned. We'll figure it out. If the public school system won't provide the community with sufficient options, we will work just as diligently to find some more. You never know what doors will open when one closes. Thank you again for your time and patience. >> Thank you, Miss Bowman.
Is that all 10? >> Yes, ma'am. >> Is there anyone else um at this point that had public comment? Okay. I just wanted to confirm. So, I'm gonna >> Mark Avery is walking down the aisle. >> Oh, okay. >> But that's not >> that's Yeah, Mr. Avery um represents the
MEA. So, um Mr. Avery, you'll have three minutes. We're going against our own policy, Mr. Avery, just because you came in late after we announced the policy. >> Well, I read the email and the email specifically only address school board meetings, not work sessions. So, unless
I misread it, then >> we're we're moving forward. >> We're we're not going to need to get in the weeds on it. You have three minutes, Mr. Avery. >> Good morning. My name is Mark Avery. I'm the president of the Maran Education Association and I understand your tough decisions and there's not a good time to
make those decisions. But this year with the sitebased budgeting has put a new wrinkle into this because all 50 schools are struggling to figure out how to align their staff. And in my opinion, it appears that all 50 schools are reducing
their staff in some capacity. I don't have those numbers yet, and I don't believe the district has them yet either. But to add that on top of closing a school where the entire staff will then possibly be out of a position and that
coming in the end of April puts them in an unfair position and it also puts you in a position that you've never had before because that word layoff would become prevalent and posted and shouted from the rooftops and I don't think that's
what the board's goal here is. So, what I would ask the board to do is to direct the district um HR department to make those staff members a priority and when we come back after spring break when there's going to be the involuntary
transfer period to make them a priority to place them in a position so that they're all know before the transfer period where they're going to be working. and that would also alleviate some of the other language in the contract that could affect movement of
employees if we wait until the end of April. So that is my ask if you decide to continue on this course. Thank you. >> Thank you, Mr. Avery, for coming forward. We appreciate the MEA having representation today. Um, for transparency, the board policy that was
updated is reflective for all public meetings held by the Marian County School Board, which includes work sessions and schoolboard meetings. Um, in a schoolboard meeting, the comment ahead of an agenda is related to the business, and the comments after the agenda are related to work that has to do with the business of the school
district, but not related to an agenda specific item. So, um, now that we've cleared that up, I'll open it up to the board for discussion. Who would like to begin? I can most certainly kick us off if we're looking. >> Love to hear from a board member who hasn't already shared if possible to get
us started. >> Board member Thor, did you want to get started or no? I certainly don't want you to feel >> Oh, I don't feel any pressure. I'm happy to go whenever. Chair, if you have comments you'd like to share ahead of mine, that's fine. I know I'll get my turn. >> Yeah. Um, I mean, >> I'll go I'll go since y'all debating
about who going to talk. >> Thank you. Listen, let me um >> first of all, I want to thank the community for coming out um this morning and sharing your concerns. Your concerns are extremely valid and uh necessary for
any decision that's going to be made concerning um the North End schools and Spar, Anthony, Reic, or any other school that may be up there that they're that's being talked about. Um I heard I heard a statement state um
someone stated that um that spar is one piece of the puzzle. Um when I think of a puzzle puzzle is not complete unless you have all the pieces to the puzzle. So your one piece makes the puzzle complete and we can't make
decisions if your one piece isn't considered. I'll say that I think personally timing is everything and we have to make sure that whatever we do, we do it in the right timing. Make sure it's done uh for the right reasons and
not rushed. Um I I love this the statement that you you measure twice and cut once. Um I I'm thinking personally that um we know some things were coming were going to come down the pike concern of this, but I do think in our last
presentation u we kind of push to make this move faster than it has to necessarily move. I think we need to consider um the stability of the students, the stability of the community, um the stability of the
staff. We've heard all that and um sometimes you need to you need to press pause and and move judiciously and move wisely instead of moving recklessly and and with speed. So, um I I'm I'm not thinking that this is something that
needs to be done immediately, but I do think the conversation has to continue and I do think there has to be a plan, a real plan put in place for the Spark community, for the Anthony community, for the Reddit community, for the work that Mr. White House and his team has
put together. They they they brought back a proposal. They brought back some suggestions and we have to be able to listen to that. We want to do community meetings. We need to do those community meetings, but it does not need to be a rush. There needs to be some common sense um listening because if if if the
decisions already made to do it, then there's no need to have the community meetings because basically you're saying that the decision is already made and we're just we're just going through it formality. If we're going to have true legitimate conversation, true legitimate dialogue, then let's slow this thing
down and and move forward in a in a in a in a a judicious manner. So, y wanted to hear from me. You got it. >> Thank you. >> Thank you, Reverend Cummings. So, um, and and board, I am going to seek us each as board members to provide
some clarity and direction regarding some of the strategic things that have been mentioned not just today, but in prior work sessions. So, um, seeing as you just gave comment, Rever would you like to provide perspective on the resoning request that's before us,
which is for resoning right now? Okay, >> that was my comment concerning this. Thank you. >> Got it. Board member Thor, would you like to go next? >> Certainly. Okay. Thank you. >> Um I'd like to start with uh Mr. White
House actually if if you wouldn't mind. um because it will be staff that will be carrying out and implementing whatever the board directs. So what I would like to know is is it the recommendation of
of staff um Dr. Brewer, Dr. White House that we move forward with big changes to the north side um for this upcoming school year starting in August. I'm trying to be direct. >> You want to take that or you want me to? >> Yeah, go ahead. Oh, I thought you were
looking at me, Mr. White House. Sorry. >> Sorry, I was looking at the superintendent. >> Go ahead. We We've had, as you know, many conversations about this. Mr. White House can respond. >> Certainly. So, I think our recommendation would be to move at a slower pace. I think what we had proposed previously um looks at again
long-term plans for combining campuses, which we certainly can do. Uh we certainly know it's needed that we've got to have some conversations about how the north end is structured for elementary schools. Um but our recommendation would be not moving immediately at this juncture. There's there's a lot of moving parts that we
have looked at. Um can we make it happen if we're asked to do so? Absolutely. Is it the best thing to do in this situation? No. >> Thank you very much. I appreciate the concise response. Um I agree 100%. It would be one thing if a I don't even
want to say the h word had just hit spar and it was an emergency and something had to happen. I don't see that sense of urgency in this case. Um what I will say that um it's very important to me as a
board member always to maintain the support and confidence of of the community. um everyone that's here today and everyone that is representing who isn't here today, you know, you're the heartbeat of
the school and and the community and just from what I have listened to and researched, I don't really see data
that supports closing SPAR. are I really don't um compared to other schools. Um we really have decisions that that we need to make um for fiscal
responsibility. We have not yet had the presentation um from our joint meeting of elected officials that's coming up, believe it or not, on April Fool's Day. um to hear about uh future development
and for us to assess how that may impact um school enrollment. Um I see the the north side as also having a southeast north side and a southwest north side. Uh it appears that there is
a lot of development going on in the you know OPAL park estates area. Uh, a lot of growth there. A lot of growth near, you know, everyone knows where it is, Terry's Bar. I can't believe how many rooftops have gone in over there. And in
conversation with other elected officials, you know, they say, you know, we really don't know how what how what we approve is going to affect the school system. So that is a
gap that we need to close so that we can you know better predict and make better decisions and and more thoughtful um decisions. And I agree that it old schools take
more maintenance but new schools require maintenance too at at a very high cost. We know how much construction costs have escal escalated in the last few years. And when it comes to education, you know, I'll just say
that well, we have Ward Highlands Elementary School and they have 19 portables and it's an A school. Uh we have Hillrest and that houses the current principal of the year while she's in brick and mortar
but also 12 portables where our current teacher of the year resides in a portable and I will also share and hi Mr. Davis that I started my career at North Marian High and
guess where I was in a portable portable city. So, I think that just kind of goes to show that it's not it's not the building, it's the heartbeats of the people within it. And
if we don't take the input of the heartbeats of the people very seriously, then we're going to lose support. the support that and trust that we have worked so hard to gain, including our
funding referendums, three in a row, going for a fourth, the half penny sales tax, and with school choice. You know, kids are going everywhere these days. And we have to address the needs where they are and be very strategic. So
again, thank you, Miss White House, Dr. Brewer for sharing that. Um, your recommendation is to not move forward to create this upheaval in August and to clear the lens a lot more so we can make
the best decision. not my decision, not Cummings decision, you know, the the the community's way, the the third way so that everyone's input is considered and the fiscal side of it obviously uh
is too and we all come to a decision that we can hopefully support and if we don't support at least we understand why it had to happen. Those are my comments. Thank you. >> Thank you, Barthur. Uh superintendent. Thank you, Miss Thrower. Um, I do want
to mention an email that was sent to the board just for the public's awareness. We we do realize that if we close to campus, either Spar or Anthony, per the discussion, we would save um between 1.3
1 um 5 million on that site due to the duplication of staff. So, I do I just want the public to realize that is the cost savings. In addition, there would be deferred maintenance that we would save, which would be close to $2 million.
>> Thank you, Superintendent. Um, I can go next if uh board member Campbell or Conrad or >> Go ahead. >> Okay. So, thank you. I appreciate Oh, Mr. White House, I don't think I need you. You can sit down. Thank you. Um, I want to say thank you to the
community for coming out and sharing your concerns. In addition to your emails, um, and phone calls, I've communicated with a variety of people on a variety of different ways, as I'm sure all of us have. And so, um, this conversation is a conversation that's
going to have to continue in some capacity. Consolidation is going to be a part of the future of Maring County Public Schools. Um, we're doing it in the south in Belleview. We We are moving forward with building a new Belleview
Elementary and closing Belleview Santos Elementary. Um, I don't think it's quite hit the headlines yet, but it is it is a board approved. I mean, the reasonzoning isn't technically yet, but the school is being built and the plan is going forward.
So um to that to that note, we also delivered two new schools on the southwest to reszone because of capacity and there's a lot of growth in the southwest and it necessitates
development. Um I stand by my statement at the board meeting that we will have um acquired close to 900 million in capital funds through sales tax and our cops which is called the the loan that's the acronym for the loan we've taken and
projects related to those two funding sources will be less than 1% for the north end as it stands right now with the plan. That is a real statement. Yes. Are we using millillage money to do maintenance on the north end or yes, have we built a cafeteria? Absolutely.
But we do maintenance across the district as needed. The AC goes out at Belleview Belleview Middle. We're now moving that up on the list because that's the reality of maintenance work. It's also the reality of um
schools aging. And on the north end, we got some pretty old schools and they're cherished and they're historic. And so no matter which school we address, a community is going to be disrupted because they cherish the school that
they have attended. But the reality is we will have to consolidate on the north end. It is just a reality because we are we are not being the best financial stewards by operating smaller schools. Now, the recommendation I made the last
time we had this conversation was a 2728 resoning, which would give more than ample time for us to do proper staffing and moving staffing, giving staff opportunity. It would have allowed for school choice. Um, and I was outnumbered on that. And so, we landed here today
because it the um majority of the board's expectation was to move forward with a resoning for this school year. I stand by that statement which is I don't think we need to reszone right now. I think we need to give enough time for community to do what you need to do uh
whatever that looks like for your family um to get to the resoning. I also would like to see data to support where the new school that I believe the north end deserves goes whether that's Anthony or at Spar. There is more land
at Spar. Absolutely. However, when we look at development and we look at the um capacity at our schools that are quote in town, we'll call them south of 35th Street, almost all of those schools are maxed out. The only school um that
isn't is Oakrest, but there's a neighborhood being built on essentially on 28th Street. Uh and so the reality is our intown schools are are very close to being maxed out. And so we're going to have to start with resoning, shifting some kids further north. and Ocala
Springs is already way far beyond capacity. Um, and so is the best decision to put it at Spar or is a better decision to put it at Anthony, this new school that I want that I have to convince two other people to agree with me on. I don't have the answer to that question, but there is data and
really smart people to help make that decision. That's the decision that I've been asking for us to get to for three and a half years. So, at this point, what I would say is I I maintain I would like for this to be a 2728 resoning and a conversation about
what comes next because ultimately if SPAR is the best place for the school, then we build a school at SPAR, which outlined in the I believe February 19th presentation from Mr. White House. There's essentially enough funds to make
it happen with the savings from um the the savings from the Belleview Santos um the reallocation for Denellan High School's new school and then delaying Denellan High School one year. We essentially put ourselves in a position to be able to fund a school. And I think
that that makes sense. But we the reality and and the uncomfortable thing in the room is that Reddit Collier is under capacity and if we don't reszone right now, we're just we're gambling on schools of hope and that's a decision the board will have to make as to
whether we're going to get an application or not. Um and and and that's we'll have to live with that decision, whatever that looks like. Uh and so we can cross that bridge when we get there. Uh or we can do something about it right now. And that's essentially where we are. So, my recommendation would be to delay the
resoning so that we can have um a real database decision about building a new something on the north end to address consolidation and then timing the resoning conversation more effectively to make sure that staff have
a plan a chance to get to a different place if they so desire as well as families with school choice who've missed the school choice window. So, that's where I'll I'll land with my comments for now. Board member Conrad Campbell. >> Sure. I'll jump in. Um, first I want to
thank um everybody for being here today. I I know it's a challenge to to be here and show up in the middle of the day um for our work session. So, I just I want to make sure to tell you all thank you. I appreciate um all the input you provided for us today, all your emails
and phone calls. Um, and I will say I just want to comment that with parent phone calls, the biggest concern I've heard is that parents want their children to stay together. You know, they've been in the same community school for a while and they want their,
um, families and their friends to stay together. And so, um, in listening to all the comments today, I I, you know, I hear a lot of community, a lot of partnership. And I just want to say you don't have to throw the baby out with
the bathwater. You can have community and partnership at another school because it is the people. It is the heartbeat that makes a community what it is. And we're sitting in a great example of it right now. This
used to be Forest High School. This is where I went to school. My parents went to school here. My in-laws went to school here. But guess what? It's falling down around us. And so there's a new Forest High School right down the road. They didn't lose
their traditions. They didn't lose their school spirit. Um they are moving forward, charging forward um with great community and great partnership. And so I say that because
as Dr. James shared, we we have to do something. we cannot continue on um the way things have been going. And I also heard words like split-second decisions at the last minute, you know, last minute discussion. And that's not true.
We also heard Reic has been under capacity for 20 years, and I don't have that number in front of me, but I'm quoting what someone else said today. This conversation has been rolling forward for a very long time and now the rubber has hit the road because the
state of Florida has an eye on the schools in Florida and wants to know if they're at capacity and capacity for us is two different things. We need 650 students at a school to break even. Also, we have capacity like was shared
today as far as at capacity student-wise, the amount of students in can hold. But do we break even? No, we don't. We're losing money. And so, there's a lot of pieces to this conversation. I am in favor of moving forward um with the resoning project. I
know that it's going to be difficult. I know there are challenges um particularly um the partnership with Spar Baptist Church. I have um Alan Perimeter was kind enough to send me a list uh of all the activities which were shared first on with our first speaker
uh honor and Mr. Davis. Is that right? Did I get that right? Okay. Mr. Davis shared at the beginning. Um that that partnership is I mean I can't even put into words. It's just a an amazing and wonderful thing. And my hope
would be that that partnership continued if if most of those students are at Reddit Collier. There's there's no reason for that to go away. Um those things can continue. As I look at the afterchool um thank you for the packet. Of course, I just got to glance at it briefly, but all of those wonderful
afterchool activities and partnerships can continue. Um there's no need for those things to go away. um the wonderful things that make SPAR a community school can continue at at Reddit Collier. Uh so I'm in favor of
moving uh this conversation forward. I also will share and I haven't I haven't stated this publicly, but I do I personally feel like in several years there will be a new school. I hope there's a new school on the Spark campus. I I think it's the best place um for that. So we do have growing pains.
Um, we've got a lot of moving pieces in Marian County. You know, I wish that growth was distributed evenly throughout our district, but it's not. Um, so although this is one piece of the puzzle, there are other puzzle pieces
that are being moved and placed. And so hopefully all of those pieces will come together to make Marian County um a successful district as an a district um but also the best environment for all of our students and their families. So
that's all I have. Thank you. >> Thank you. Dr. Campbell, did you want to share remarks? >> Sure. Thank you. And thank you again to everyone has come today to share with us your thoughts. Uh,
I want to be very purposeful and intentional in the things that that I say today because I've clearly spoken loudly about this previously. If we just take a look at this specific school year, thank you to the gentleman
who brought up the October 16th work session date. And I know Mr. Christian's bringing me another microphone because it mine's staticky. Um, >> thank you. >> Testing. Try again. Thank you for bringing up October 16th. I have
worksheets up from, I think, five, potentially six different work sessions that we've held just this school year. And so, that one was one I didn't have pulled up. So, thank you for referencing that because if we go back to that specific date, that's when this conversation
really really started and that's when we started talking about moving the forom kids and changing Madison Street and all. So, this and and at that time concept three was to combine Spar and Anthony. So, again, this is not out of
left field. This is not a brand new conversation that was presented to us in this same school year, but also is a conversation that we have been having much longer than that. It just isn't a formal presentation on that specific date.
At that time, we started talking more heavily about Forom and Madison Street and and different things that were school choice related because Madison Street doesn't have a zone and, you know, all all of the things that we've already belabored and and gone through.
Um, concept three at that time showed that we would design and build, excuse me, let me go all the way back, that we would temporarily relocate, I'll reference page slide 21 of concept three
on October 16th, that we would temporarily relocate Spar Elementary, hold those students at Anthony, and phase in a building. That was a recommendation made on October 16th. We didn't take that
recommendation at that point, but again, the district has presented to us different options and that happened to be one of them that we would rebuild something on the SPAR site. So without going over all the things that
have already been discussed, the reason that I still believe moving forward with this decision right now comes down to the operational costs of having
248 students on the Spar campus while we build. And that was the recommendation I believe from the October work session or the November. They're all running together. I should have dated my my print out here, but the most recent recommendation we had from the
attendance boundary advisory committee, which thank you to those community members who served on that, uh that we would build on the SPAR campus while we still have 250 some odd SPAR
students on that campus. That's where I believe board member Conrad and I then said in our most recent work session, why are we going to have those operational costs, the 1 some odd million dollars of operation for 200
students? I also want to note that from the beginning of this conversation to where we are today that we've lost 20 to 30 students at least in that zone already. I mean, you may not be watching those numbers also, but that's part of the conversation. We know that people
are changing where they're living. We know that people are not having as many children. We we know that there's a lot of transient nature to Marian County. And so if you look back on the dates and the the numbers that we had back in November in each one of these schools,
Reic, Spar, Anthony, and even Ocala Springs, the enrollment numbers today are different than what they were then. And it's not to the good, it's to the to the lesser. So I all of those are factors that we have to take into consideration and the unfortunate nature that I have said from the moment I became a board member is every single
student has a dollar sign attached to them. I know that sounds very callous and very crass but every single student has a dollar sign attached to them and never more than today is every member of the the employment of Marian County Public Schools starting to really
understand that. I mean, I've said that for six years on this board. Sitebased budgeting, not just school-based budgeting, but sitebased budgeting, including departments, is something that we have needed to implement in this district for the whole
six years that that I've been here. So, I I'll I'll say all of that. I'm grateful that we are in the process of really starting to understand what that looks like because not only is the state of Florida talking to us about schools of hope, they're also having a real keen eye on every district that has 6,500
employees for the same number of students with Lake County only having 5,300. Those are all real factors that you better believe the governor's got his eye on and whoever the next governor is will as well.
So, with that being said, we have $13 million right now that can be reallocated to start building something on the north side because those are dollars we're saving from the Belleview Santos and Belleview Elementary
combination. Thank you, Dr. James for telling the community that those are dollars that are being saved there uh that we can do for not operations, those are facility numbers. Chair, I am still in favor of moving
forward with combining student enrollment, however that resoning looks in this upcoming school year and then constructing on whichever site needs to
be and I I've said from the beginning that the team knows this too. Let's reszone it and you tell us where you're moving the students. So once we have the zones fixed, if Anthony makes the most sense to be that temporarily holding spot, so be it. If Spar makes the most
sense to have that temporary and we're building on the other, so be it. But that's that's not a decision I want to make right now because I want to know which site is the better one to build on. What needs to be built to house that number of students once we combine them?
Um I I understand it's going to cause disruption. I understand it's going to cause concern. It does not mean that from this seat I'm saying no construction happens whatsoever, but I know the proposals that have been put forth right now say that we would be
postponing Dunellan. I brought that up to the Dunellan community when I was out there this week. They had no idea that that was a conversation that we're even having. They had no concept. Wait a minute. What? You're saying that we're not going to get because the timeline that what what that that what we're
deciding up there is impacting what we're doing out here. Our district is decades behind in construction and facilities. The things that Orange County has on us is they've had a 20-year sales tax that they just
renewed for another 20 years. They've been building and constructing brand new facilities all across that county. Yes, absolutely. They service a lot more students and have a lot more schools, but they have really good school building locations that we just don't
have. Impact fees were something that we put in place just a couple years ago. The sales tax just got put in. Thank you. Thank you, Marian County voters. We actually have the ability to have this conversation because of that. We took out a $330 million loan because we were
in the financial position to do so and because we couldn't wait any longer for us to be able to build, for us to be able to actually fix some of these decades old challenges from facilities that we have. And by the way, Ross
Prairie opened and today it's at 104% capacity and it just opened in August. So, I want everyone to understand we know what a 100% capacity looks like and a school we open this year is already over it,
which is incredibly unfortunate on a whole different scale of things. So, that's where I sit. It sounds like Miss Conrad and I are in the minority on that because it does sound like the three of us don't want to proceed with uh the plan for us to do this this next school
year. But I have to express how vitally important it is and how absolutely necessary it is that we reszone these north side elementary schools because this conversation should have happened years ago. >> Board member Thor. Thank you. And um
thank you board member Campbell for your comments and for making it crystal clear, you know, to the community and to all of us that, you know, uh change is inevitable and I think we all know that and we all agree with it. It's how the change is
made. Um you know, the devil's always in the details, right? And so as a board member, I'm hearing from staff that is going to be tasked with making all of this happen. Their recommendation is is not to move forward this year. And I
also look at that personally as as a parent. Um our kids, not one of them went to Forest High School even though we were zoned for Forest. We chose Vanguard IB for two of them and the other one chose Westport for the Mecca
program. So, I would not do to other families what I would resent having done to me. And if we go through with this, then all of these families have missed the school
choice window. And I think that the parent to my all of the parents to my left would not be happy um if that had been done to them. And I think it there's somewhere it says do unto others as you would have them do unto you. What
I'm hearing is recognition that change needs to happen. That's what I'm hearing from the community that starting to understand, you know, that toll road is all the way up to Crystal River now and Reic is going to continue to see growth like
they have never seen before. Some people are thrilled about that, but we haven't even really touched on that piece of the conversation. So, as we begin to do this, I want to rely on the the staff that is tasked with making it happen to
come back with further recommendations about what the north side would look like. I agree that the writing is pretty much on the wall if you truly look at the data and everything that we have
tried to do over the years, including special putting special programs out at REDIC, including uh different uh magnet type, you know, pipeline with with equin. You know, it's not like things haven't been tried, but
the fact of the matter is is that there's a lot less big thoroughbred racehorse farms up there than there were before. And they were sustaining a lot of the people's employment. And now a lot of the people that are young are now working in town. And we're seeing that with Ross Prairie. Same thing happened
with Saddlewood. when it opened, it opened with portables, which just seemed ridiculous, but that's how the state says we have to do it in terms of how many seats we actually get to put in. So, so there is historical precedence for a lot of this, but I also feel like
what I'm hearing is that, you know, we complain all the time that kids don't know their history. Well, if we keep tearing it down, then that's not all that helpful. So, as we look at schools like like Anthony, you know, with the very historic parts of that campus and
same thing with Feezan, you know, I know that we can come to a plan that that brings everything that is the essence of Marian County and protects that as best we can while still acknowledging our current realities. And I also want to
compliment Mr. heirs because I know that uh resoning is very disruptive but we've been successful so far at the resoning we have done with very minimal upset because we have honored the community. We've listened to them. We have uh we
have made it possible for them to absorb the change and make the changes they need to make within their families um to be able to accommodate. So let's keep doing right what we've been doing and while acknowledging the reality that
change is coming. That would be my ask. >> Thank you board member. Um and I want to just piggyback for a second. Um, I appreciate bringing up the October 16th work session and if I my memory recalls, I was a fierce advocate for concept
three, which was a combination of Spar and Anthony and it would require some relocation at some point and then we would build a brand new school that would be able to service the community. And um, I lost that battle. And
had we made this decision in October, this decision wouldn't be on our doorstep now. And every all of the issues that are in front of us would not be issues in front of us because we would have properly addressed them. But we didn't make the decision in October.
We didn't land on concept 3 or any concept. If I recall, we just shuffled the deck and sent it back out for redistribution. and we've just circled this conversation for the last six months. And so,
yes, from October 16th, concept three, where do I sign? That's what I want to do. But I have and I'm so grateful to hear more board members agree that building something on the north end is a necessity. Um, or I don't want to put words in your mouth, but it's something
you're agreeable to. But now it's it's it's too late to make the decision now because so many things have already happened. So yes, let's go back. Let's have a work session where concept 3 comes back before the board. Let's talk about maybe the students
don't go to Anthony to hold for a year. Maybe they go to Reddit because that's where the space is and we build the school at Spar and and we do let's okay let's do the thing then that's fine with me. But it's too late now to make that decision because again to board member
thrower's point as a parent of choice I we're we're they've missed out on the opportunity. The employees will miss out on the opportunity for transfer but the plan that was presented from the ABAC didn't work for me either because that was just transferring the problem the problem
from reddic to spar by having low enrollment and then opening up schools of hope to come there. So that was not a solution either. what was a solution and still is is concept three from October 16th. So I would love to see us move forward with that. So um Dr. Campbell,
>> thank you. U if if I'm not mistaken, yes, concept 3 was something that you were in favor of, but it was also Hugh that brought up the concept of moving Madison Street students to form on that same date. So I just I want to make sure that we're clear on that. So >> because there was a bigger conversation
about Bridgeway and alternative learning >> understand but dominoes >> the disruption that occurred wasn't entirely just because no one was on board with concept three. Nevertheless, I I hear where we're moving and it sounds as if we will
reszone for the following school year. I also want to say something that you just mentioned about the attendance boundary advisory committee. while their recommendation to us did not come forth um
in in a way that was something that we necessarily would get on board with. I believe that the recommendations that we've even just talked about today with combining campuses and building on the SPAR campus was something that was brought up in that attendance boundary advisory committee and it was shot down
that also shot was shot down in that room also because they were told it couldn't be done. So I just it can be done. I I appreciate those community members that sat in that committee. I've heard from multiple of them that have not appreciated the way their
recommendations were have been presented publicly. So I I just want to give them that um appreciation because we hear them and we're grateful for the things that they talked about and the ideas that they had there. Sounds as if we're moving forward potentially to do it next year. But obviously there's going to be
community meetings that happen in the interim because those are still happening. So I guess my question then is for Mr. Ays, Mr. White House. Are there going to be additional options that are presented when the community meeting happens to show if we moved all
the students here temporarily, we would build it spar? If we moved them all, then we would build it and like what does that community meeting actually look like to help us then form our opinions. >> So again, I agree with you. I think we need to move forward with community meetings. We've rescheduled them once. We have them on the calendar. I think
our our communities are ready for them. I think at this time the most prudent thing for us to do would be to gather community input about some of the proposals we put out there and and just kind of gauge some of their feedback on what that could look like in the future and then we can come back with a future recommendation taking in all that input for the board.
>> Okay. So, it's different than our community meetings when we are outright resoning and there's the maps and all of that stuff that this will be just community input, but please make the community aware that for the 2728 school year, there 100% will be north end
resoning. I believe we all agree with that. Am I mistaken on that? >> I don't think that that's an assertion. I mean, yes, I agree we need to reszone, but to to stand and say 100% certain this is going to happen without the facts laid before us is a completely improper statement. Certainly does not
speak for me. I'm waiting to see facts. I'm waiting to see funding for a school. I'm waiting to see a plan. And when a plan is presented that puts these students in a place where I would want my student to be, then we will move forward. But we cannot say 100%
absolutely not. No, not from my seat. >> Okay. Well, from this seat, I will say there has to be reszoning because we cannot continue to have Reddit call your operating at 47% capacity. And with us saying that we're not saying there's going to be any reasonzoning whatsoever on the north side, I will never get
behind us not saying that in community meetings because that's the whole reason we're here. The whole reason the north side needs to have this conversation is because of Reddit Collier. And it's been that way for ever since I've been a board member, but it's really come to
light of late. And so we have to be purposeful in our intention for these community meetings. Otherwise, we're just getting people's feedback and they're coming to us and saying,"I have a historic school at Anthony. I have a historic school at Spar. I have a historic school at Fezendon." We know
that. All of that is accurate information that still does not solve the issue that the school board has before us that has to be solved. So, I see you shaking your head, Mr. White House, but there's probably nothing else to add. I don't know. No, I I think that's accurate and I I think we've
shared publicly that we feel that we need to have some reasonzoning conversations for the north end and we need to look at combining schools so we can certainly be direct in that conversation and gathering input on that. >> I'm sorry board member Thor had lean forward. Go ahead member Thor. >> I'll defer to Cummings and then me.
>> No, go ahead ladies first. >> Thank you. Um, all right. A couple other things that we haven't talked about. You know, as first of all, I need confirmation that before we even look at building another school or closing a
school, resoning is step one, right? Okay. And that's a requirement, right? >> It depends on how we want to approach it. Um, so there's going to have to be reszoning at some point in that conversation if we're looking at combining campuses 100%.
>> Okay. And I pointed out SPAR because of the well over a decade of of declining enrollment and there really does not seem to be a forecast for enrollment to boost up anytime soon. >> I think you meant REIC did
>> reic. I meant say Rick. Sorry. Um sorry. Uh so no no no oper no no real forecast for that area around reic to bring in a lot of young kids anytime soon.
That said um the population out there is is aging and this is what I mean by taking a little bit of extra time and coming up with a community type concept. I'm not sitting here saying Spar needs
to close. It may I mean Reic needs to close. Why do I keep saying that? Um but what I am saying is is that we need to look at the whole North Side area as we make these
decisions. Fezondon is an historic school, but not every building on the Fezendon campus is historic. So that opens up opportunity if we're looking at the whole community and the community's needs. One of the speakers said that one
of the difficulties of living up there, and I remember that as being absolutely true, is access, you know, to services. So there's already community school concepts that we're implementing right now at East Marian and also at College Park that are innovative and really help
the community. So, I guess that's why I keep saying is that, you know, we have to get started, but the conversation also needs to continue so we can land on on the right thing that's going to take us forward into the future and and protect the schools that we
have. You know, Reic is our youngest school and it still isn't even that new, but we just need to protect it as best we can. And and that is what started this conversation with the schools of hope.
Well, now the legislature is in the process of hopefully putting up some guidelines around how schools of hope can come in. That legislative session hasn't even ended yet. So that circles us right back around to the data that we need to be able to help make the best
decisions as board members upon getting the best recommendations of the current playing field which has changed and I want to thank the attendance boundary committee as well um for their great work because again if I feel like it's been pretty much
confirmed that that's where we start and we do it methodically and step by step and with an eye to continuing to protect every asset that we have because think of all the folks that bought all this land years ago when prices started to go
up up up. Good thing previous boards didn't sell it because evidently we needed it to build schools and if we hadn't had the land it would have been exponentially more expensive. So thinking far into the future as as we make these short-term plans I think is
really important. >> Thank you Reverend Cummings. So um we we jump back to option three and October and all that kind of thing that conversation. I don't think in October um when option those options were presented I don't
think the majority of us were against any of the options in per se I think what we were talking about was at that time there was no real community input that was the issue that the community
had not had opportunity to talk that's why Madison Street um came forth and said what they said and we were talking about Spar and and Anthony and they had not had the community input. So I think when we said kind of like paused then it wasn't to put a hold or to stop anything
from going forward. It was more so to get the input of the the stakeholders. Um we're talking about we're talking about people's lives. We're talking about stability. We're talking about these kids being shifted or even bust across miles and miles across the county. And
it it's it's if if it's not your kid that's being busted, then people may not have that that that person may not have that much concern about it. But when it's your kid, when this community is saying, "My kid is going to be bus cross county for an hour or so or more, it m it makes a it makes a huge difference.
We have to when we when we're looking at doing this and and and yes, we have to have the conversation about reszoning. We have to have the conversation about redistricing. Thank Mr. Aris and Mr. White House them for for even taking on that challenge of looking at how to do this in an equitable way where is where
it's the the least painful but it's going to be some pain. Heck, we know it's going to be some pain. But in doing that and making in in making these decision, you still have to protect the history of the school. You still have to protect the culture of the community and you still have to protect the legacy of
these educational institutions in Marian County. you you you just don't just don't pull the trigger because you can you you do it in such a way. Dr. Kim, I appreciate everything that you're saying and and how we have to come back. But we can't say 100% these things without
getting the community input because I think that's the vital piece of the puzzle. That's the part of the puzzle that's going to make this thing work. Because if we don't have that input, we gonna keep we're gonna keep kicking it down the road. We're gonna keep having the same conversation over and over. And
we can't afford to do that. We have to take the stakeholders voices and then make a good decision. And there's going to be some folk that's going to be upset. We know that. That's they know that. The community, you know, that community knows that. But at least we
had the opportunity to do it in such a way where we had the right conversations. We didn't force anything. We didn't force feed anything down anyone's throat and we didn't hurt our staff in the process of doing this. That's that's the thing that we have to think about. So, I'm through with it.
>> Thank you, Reverend Cummings. >> Board member Conrad, >> I just have a very brief thing and just because I think um as people share stories and comments, um one word is said and then another word is shared. And so, I just want to clarify that when I I say closing, um I'm not saying tear
down. I'm not saying demolish, any of those words. Closing is very different. closing can be repurposed, rebuilt, any of those things. And so I just want to clarify because when I get out into the community and part of conversation, oh well you said you were going to demolish our school. No, actually that's not what
I said. So I just want to clarify that because for me personally that's very very different. I also want to um just share that we are not talking about busing students across the district. It literally it's 7.2 two miles um from
Spar to Reic um because I would not be in favor of busing our littles all the way across the district. So, I just wanted to clarify that even though we're not doing that right now. Um I just wanted you um to know the facts of what that means. So, thank you.
>> Thank you. Um so, I'm going to go ahead and summarize us if that's okay. And then, u Mr. White House, I think you're probably good for now, unless you want to keep standing there. Uh and then um we will need to ultimately land on a moving forward for reic. So um what I
hear the board um majority of us agreeing to is we are looking to postpone a resoning for SPAR and not move forward with resoning for the 2627 school year. >> I agree.
>> Okay, I see I see three of us agreeing to that. In addition, we are going to have community meetings starting as early as next week that are already on the calendar. The board's expectation is that those community meetings are informative about updates that have occurred in meetings like this.
transparently communicating that consolidation and resoning is a high probability for what needs to happen on the north end and gather community input as to solutions for how we could go about that that would appease the community and be best aligned with the
community's values board. Would you agree that that's a goal? >> I Okay, board member Thor. Yes, I would agree with that. And and again, I think we have to think of the whole north side in in totality. You know, Okala Springs, Fezidin on up
north. >> Correct. >> We have three community meetings scheduled right now specifically at the three main schools that were going to be impacted by this, which was Reddit, Collier, Spar, and Anthony. Obviously, we may need to have some additional community meetings to gather support from some other parts of our community
as the communication and and conversation proceeds. >> Yes. Thank you. >> Okay. Um so board at this point we do have an agenda item on the um a give me a date if someone could help me. April 3rd
April 2nd work session which is the rule making and development. At this point board I would say that um we are going to not need rule making and development but maybe um that will be a conclusion of the community meetings. Would you like to see an update from the community meetings during that meeting?
>> Yes. All right. So if Dr. if that's um acceptable. Um we'll instead of doing rulemaking and development on April 2nd, we will look to have a um updated conversation about the community meetings and potentially a plan for what we could look like going forward for the
2728 school year. Um then obviously on April 28th when we would have a board agenda item for voting on resoning, that item will no longer be on that agenda. Okay. Um now board the the last piece of this puzzle is leaving Reddit Collier at its current capacity. So I just would
like to make sure that we are all in the understanding and awareness that um in delaying this conversation we will not be addressing capacity with reszoning at Reddit Collier. So, um I know for me my hope would be that we continue to have innovative conversations about what we
could do with fiddlers or otherwise to occupy similar to what we've done at Forom Early Learning to occupy that site um and fill it um to alleviate the threat of schools of hope. That's my perspective board. Does anyone else have
conversation regarding Reddit Collier and um what we would do there? Uh board member Thor. Thank you. I will I I agree and I thank you very much for for honoring the importance of holding on to
our schools as we navigate current legislation and where that lands and so we can make the best decision. Thank you. >> Dr. Campbell, did you have a perspective? So if we relocate fiddlers to reddit Collier the impact of that then classroom space
for the north side school if we say fiddlers is a temporary location then I can be on board with that. I just I I don't want us to make a concrete decision on a permanent home for them. >> Absolutely. >> In a classroom building that we need for
students. >> Absolutely. And so I think it'd probably be most appropriate for that April 2nd work session or I believe it's April 2nd for you guys um from for staff, Mr. White House and Dr. Brewer to include some um problem solving for the 2627 school year for the Reddit Collier site
in its utilization board. Would that suffice? >> Yes. >> All right. Um so I do feel like that gets us to a landing place. Dr. Bird, do you feel like you have um >> Yes. Thank you. >> Okay. Thank you board. Um and we have already taken public comment on this item. Just one more time. Was there
anyone who had any additional remarks? >> You have to come. >> We We just can't hear you, Miss Bowman. >> Down here. >> And I will say the com the packet was very helpful in summarizing public comment. So that was that was helpful for the organization of today.
>> Thank you. Yes. The only thing I wanted to say about the packet, I was going to say it at the end was that that very last page, if you've seen it, has a list of questions we've compiled. We were going, our 11th speaker was going to just rattle off those questions. So, if you guys would just take the time to read those absolutely a summary of our
kind of more specific questions. >> Thank you. We'll make sure that staff reviews these and has some updates if we have them for the community meetings. Otherwise, we will um be able to hopefully address them April 2nd. All right. Hearing no further comment from the board or the public on this item, um I will conclude this item and we will
>> chair. So just for clarity, we're still going forward with the community meetings as schedule right now. Correct. >> Correct. >> Okay. >> Um for the sake of time, um I would normally take a a little quick break right now, but for the sake of time, I'm going to move forward. Um board member
Thrower is leaving. >> We can take a quick break if >> Okay, that's fine. So we'll take a 5m minute break at 11:32 and we will come back at 11:37. Thank you. Thank you. We are back from recess at 11:39 and I want to welcome Mr. Tucker
to the podium. We're going to move into um item 6.1 which is booster stadium stadium and athletic updates. Thank you, Dr. James. Good morning, uh Dr. Brewer, board chair James, school board members. Um it's a pleasure to be
here before you again today um to talk about a lot of positive things um that are happening in the in the world of uh of athletics and and some of the things that are that have been voted on and and given to our department um to move forward with. So, just a little brief
review. Um, last year about this same time, um, we were blessed with $2 million from the halfsent sales tax, which I I would be remiss if I didn't go back and thank the community again. I know that's been done once earlier in a
in another presentation. Um, but without that halfcent sales tax, the things we're going to talk about today that we're doing presently, um, would not have been possible. Um, so we we presented a plan to use that $2 million to improve some of our athletic facilities across um for all of our high
schools throughout the district. The plan that we proposed last year included new bleachers at baseball and softball fields, uh, storage buildings at each campus, uh, resurfacing tennis and pickle ball courts at existing sites, and adding courts to schools that do not currently
have uh, tennis courts or pickle ball courts on their campus. um scoreboards and shot clocks, brand new for all all high school gymnasiums. Um and then a rubberized track at Westport High School.
Where are we currently? Currently, we have the scoreboards and shot clocks are being installed. I know everyone received uh an email earlier in the week and since that uh Belleview has been completed and Lakeware High School has
also been completed and uh I want to a little quick shout out to uh Mr. Duncan and his crew uh and facilities. They are are doing getting getting these in um and installed. Uh and then they have a plan
for the rest of the schools. They're moving around the district. Um next would we would go Forest High School and then probably Vanguard, Westport across the district that way. And the last school would be North Marian. Um the reason for that was
earlier in the uh when we started this plan to install uh North Marian, it looked like they had an opportunity to kind of go a little bit farther in the playoffs than they actually went. So, um, unfortunately they're they're vacant now. Um, so we we can move up there at
any time, but we're going to continue with the plan that we had, uh, moving forward. So, um, that's with the shot clocks. Other updates, so the tennis court, storage buildings, and bleachers, they all involve some some form of
concrete. Um, and part of the problem was our bid that we had of the amount of concrete we had to use on the current bid that we had was not going to be enough. So, there was a bid put out. Uh, no one really put in on the bid. So, the
bid was rejected and it was rejected by the board, I believe, at the last school board meeting in February. Um, since then, I know Mr. Mr. Duncan has been working on um an agreement and as soon as that agreement is in with legal at
this time and as soon as it gets approved and we can move forward with more concrete we will start we will finish the rest of these projects. So um the bleachers have been ordered. They're sitting at the warehouse. Um we're just waiting for the concrete pads so we can
put the bleachers together, install them um and move forward with that project. And then the storage buildings, they've been designed. Um, the only reason they haven't been ordered is because we have to pour the concrete pads and they have to have a significant amount of time to
cure. It's at least a twoe minimum. And for all those things to happen, I didn't want this company to have to sit and hold our our storage building. So, but all that stuff is in place and we're ready to go um with those things as well. So, currently with the $2 million
Oh, sorry. Um, we have we started with $2 million. We have purchased the bleachers and we have purchased the shot clocks and scoreboards. So, to date, we have spent $471,1826 of the $2 million. Um, so remaining we
have a little over a million and a half, but the budgeted purchases that we had um in in the first proposal is approximately 866,000 left. Um so after all that is is taken away we will be
left with 662,98174 which that the majority of that was supposed to be used for the rubberized track project um at Westport. So I know we had some conversations individually um so the proposal for the remaining funds would be as you see in
the presentation. Um we continue with the Westport High School track project. Um, I've had some meetings with different companies that install tracks and what the thing that kept coming up was if you're going to consider doing
anything on the inside of that track anytime in the future, it's better to go from the inside out. And I believe that's the conversation that we had. Um, and so the ask would be to use some of next year's money to add artificial turf
along with the rubberized track at Westport High School. And that would leave us with 800,000 for the rest of the schools. Some of the projects that these guys have come up with already at the remaining schools, we have schools that need beach volleyball courts. Um, we have schools that need locker rooms
for some of their outdoor facilities. Uh we have some schools that need scoreboards on some of their outdoor facilities. So there's several things that we can use the remaining money for. Um if that's what this board chooses to do in the direction for next year as far
as Westport High School is concerned. Um that's it for the athletic facilities updates. Does anybody have any questions or comments or do you want to continue with >> I just have a clarifying question. Go ahead. What is the out the door cost for a turf field and track rubberized track?
>> So it's in the neighborhood of 1.8 million. >> Okay. So that's taking the 1.2 from Well, all of this is assuming you're going to be given another $2 million for next year. >> Correct. >> Um which I believe the board has has been pretty vocal to make a commitment
to do. Um but we just transparently should at least honor that. Uh in addition, I want to just a little point of clarification. The funds for athletics are not coming from the sales tax directly because our sales tax was not approved to pay for athletics. The
use of sales tax to fund other projects has allowed the mill to be used to fund athletics. And so I just wanted as a point of clarification on one of those first slides just to reframe that a little bit. But absolutely because of the sales tax funding and helping with
other capital projects that's allowed for us to prioritize athletics for the first time in a very long time. Um so thank you. I just wanted to understand um what that would look like. Um so then I'll just say for me to kick it off real quick. My only question would be um
after next year with the 800,000 doing those other small projects, what's the next big project then? That would be my only question. um after West what? >> So my question would be what's the next big question? So that's all my question
would be about this but I know that we have to talk about booster stadium too. So um I do we want to just keep going forward and then that we'll just go forward because I know board member Thorough has to leave. >> All right. So thank you Mr. Christian. So, the picture that he currently has up
there is the one that got emailed out, and that was our most current up-to-date rendering. Um, and I'll I'll talk through some of the things so you guys can know the difference um on what is shown here versus what was shown previously. So, let's start with the
building on the front and we'll work our way around the stadium. So, the the building on the front that says Booster Stadium on the facade, um, it said it's been shrunk. So, it's not near as wide as it was before. And part of the talk was to
cut a little bit of the funds that would be required for this project would be to not do anything on the middle two floors and they would be vacant. So, it would just be a solid like wall and they would come up with something to to fill that space, right? So, we would have a ground
floor and then we would have the press box up top. Um the bleacher size would and we we talked about this in our last in the last deal to kind of cut the bleachers. Concrete bleachers like this are expensive. Um they go for about
$1,000 per seat. So we we talked about reducing the capacity to 8,000 from 10 which that the math on that that would be an $8 million bill just for the bleachers alone. Um,
so and then like we talked about a while ago, a rubberized track turf field, you're talking anywhere in the neighborhood of 1.8. It just depends on what's underneath and what all has to be done for the drainage system and all those types of things. Um, to the south
of the stadium, which would be on the left side of that picture, you can see a runway. That would be a runway for Javelin, which that was one of the things that we couldn't come up with before. Um, and the talk was, why have a track if we can't do all the events? So,
on the east side of that little patch of grass, opposite where the runway is, that would be where the discus would be thrown. It would be thrown in the opposite direction. And then you have the javelin could be thrown um toward the other direction. And there's plenty of room in there. It's all been measured
out. Um, one of the questions before was parking also. And for a seating capacity of 8,000, um the requirements would be 2500 parking spots at least and it's been measured out and that we would have
enough room for over 2,800 parking spaces. So parking would not be an issue. Um we have an opportunity to throw the javelin, the discus, um and the shot put. So all those things, all those questions would have been answered and all of our problems as far as
hosting track meets and stuff would be solved. we could host any level track meet we wanted there. Um now some things that have happened with this project since the last presentation I have been involved in a meeting with um so there's
a soccer team that is looking at hosting games and this is a league one soccer team so it's like a semi lower level professional team right and they are looking to host games and they they're looking to bring a team here to Marian
County and it's my understanding that they're looking to do something in Elatchua County as well. So throughout those meetings, they had a couple ask which are simple things and it's it's things that we can do. Um but one of the major things is bringing a team like
that playing in a stadium like this. They're looking at you're talking bringing in $500,000 or more per year. Um how long that lasts, I couldn't tell you. That's something that has to be worked out contractually. Um, but those
are some of the things that have already come about. There's been other conversations that I've had with folks. Um, once I go back to the committee at Vanguard, then I know there's some people there once we have the final rendering that would talk about wanting
to be either title sponsors or something to this project. So, I mean, I I know part of the goal is to see what kind of money we can have guaranteed coming in um before we embark on a project like this, but just knowing that there's there's things that that want to come and there's people that want to be
involved is a good thing. Um nothing else changed with the design of the stadium. So, where you see those buildings beside the the front right there, um that would be on both sides. And as we discussed before, that would continue to be locker rooms, restrooms,
concession stands. So everything would be contained um underneath the bleachers. And so um that's kind of where we are with that project right now. And any questions? >> I'll leave it to board member Thorough to kick us off.
>> Thank you. Thank you so much. And thank you for your understanding. It is very very difficult for me to have to leave any meeting early, let alone miss one. Um, but sometimes family first, right? Um, I'm really excited to see this updated rendering. My, uh, stance on
this continues to be that not only does Vanguard High School need a good place to play with some updated facilities, but also something that the community can get behind, be really proud of, be a revenue generator. Um, as you were going
through your presentation and your points, I was glad to hear the the javelin and the disticus areas got worked out because, you know, we if we're going to do this, we want to be able to have um the the level of competition that would bring in uh the
revenue and uh we really enjoy the Friday night lights at the other uh high schools, you know, that have their own stadiums. They've been getting some great upgrades and in the meantime, you know, booster is continuing to just degrade. So, uh, we know where that gets
us. It gets us decades behind. Uh, so combining providing a a stadium for Vanguard High School with the revenue generation, I really hope that that can be a partnership um that the whole community will will get behind and and
be able to enjoy as we go along. So, those would be my comments. >> All right. Thank you, board member Thor. Dr. Campbell, did you want to kick us off? >> Yes. I'm sorry. I have a sick child that I'm trying to >> Okay, I can >> husband to deal with. Go ahead. >> Thank you, Mr. Tucker. Um I was glad to
get the email. Um I think that was last evening or the evening before. But anyway, um this looks this looks like um something that's going to be something that we needed for a long time. Um a long time. that played on
Booster Booster Stadium. Um, this has been a long time coming. I remember those old those old uh the fieldhouse and everything when I was there. Um, and they were old then. And so this is a much improved improvement to what we
what we need for this area. And I think this just brings us this makes us compatible with other other other areas and other counties. So, thank you for the rendering. Dr. Hambo, >> thank you. And sorry for my texting
during a board meeting that or board that is never something I ever do, but when it's my family, I have to try and when mom handles all the doctor's appointments. Okay. Uh my biggest question on this, Mr. Tucker, and I am completely in favor of us moving forward
with Booster Stadium, and I I even advocated to say that I think that we could say the sales tax was used in because it is for the health and safety of our students. Um, nevertheless, I understand that we're not using it for that, but I think we could make a case for sales tax
dollars being used towards it. U, additionally, visitor and convention bureau grants and things like that that I know we've discussed and and title sponsors and all the wonderful things that Dr. Brewer and I have talked about about community partnerships. biggest question.
These renderings are essentially showing that the CDL program that is at booster will not be there is the way this looks in all the renderings that we've seen. We have an appropriation request to build a new building essentially to go with Marian Technical College. So I
don't know how we're working that out and maybe you have an update on conversations with Mr. Smallidge to tell us where that program will go. >> Yes. So, the last conversations we had was that would be the biggest task, right, is finding a place for that program to go. Um, I don't know if
there's any been any updates. A couple of the places that we talked about previously, um, one of them, one of the big ones was where we're about to build the data center, um, where the warehouse is currently. Um, so that was that was
out and I do know that, you know, after speaking with Mr. Small words. That is something that um it has to stay in town. It has to stay local. Um I don't know that. I mean, he's got all the portables and stuff at MTC, so there's no room for him to do that there
currently. Um that would be our biggest task. Now, if that can't move, something like this really isn't going to be able to take place, not with the track. Um now, we we have talked about the possibility of being able to move the bleachers back farther. Um, we probably
have about 50 to 80 feet that we could move the bleachers back to create more space in between because of the close proximity and the fact that Vanguard can't play a legit soccer game in there right now um because the lines get right up on the fence, right? So, there is a way that we could do that, but there
would you would not be able to have the track like we could still redo the bleachers. We could still have new, you know, new locker rooms and all that kind of stuff. Um, but it would not we would need the rest of that property on back
to the back to be able to make this a reality. So, >> thank you. So, I think that's the real question that's before the board. Honestly, I I mean I I think that we understand well I don't want to speak for the whole board. We've heard from three of us that all would seem to be in
in favor of moving forward with something like this. I Vanguard needs a a better facility to play in, but we just need a revenue generating athletic facility that this would give us so many opportunities that for all the reasons. It's not
located on a school property. You can have events all hours of the day, all days of the week, all of the things that it would do from a revenue generating standpoint. Uh soccer team not included. you know, we we weren't even considering
what that looked like. The other things that we were considering, concerts, I mean, there's there's so many potential opportunities for us to to do it. So, I I do believe the biggest question then before the board is, especially in light of us having an appropriation request where we're potentially trying to build
a building that would go on the site that is currently being housed by Marian Technical College. What how do we feel about that and what does that look like for us? Uh, >> Mr. White House, those remarks to provide. Certainly. So, um, in conversation with
Small Ridge, one of the things we're working on right now is clearing out that portable village that's on the MTC campus. Uh, we've cleared out a number of the staff that are in portables to vacate them. And we're working with Miss Usher's team to start tearing some of those portables down. Um, if we can clear all those portables out of there, we do have enough space in that area
that we could build another building to accommodate what our appropriation request is for. >> Okay. Thank you. That that solves that piece of it. The CDL program then is still the other factor. And if we were to build that building there, what do we
have the ability to build a pad there or they just use the road between them and signature brands? Like what what happens there? >> Yeah, the the CDL is the complicated part is it's the thickness of the concrete that matters. Um and so we would have to keep exploring that. Uh I think you know we have time obviously
this is not a a next month or even next year kind of thing but we so we would have to keep looking at that options but there are some possibilities and we'll just have to explore them. >> Well and board member >> thanks and and the CP was vital to
getting that CDL program going and and helping pay for the pad. I think they did right. Um, so and I would think that the CP would very much be behind what our vision is for Booster Stadium. So hopefully if we can find the right spot,
um, there may be some opportunities for a partnership with with funding again or or whatever. Um, but it just goes to show you the importance of community partnerships, right, as we continue to think and grow as as a community. Um, so
thank you. I really appreciate it. Um, and I I just one of the things that I would add too is um I I can I I love the idea of a new stadium here and I love the idea of a profit generating stadium. So having a place that we can
generate revenue. Um I think that for me it is going to come down to how are we funding it? Um because we don't have we uh it's you didn't include the updated cost for these new renderings. I don't know if you have that. >> It's It's You're still looking in the
neighborhood of $20 million, >> right? So, we'll just use an easy 20 million just for talking purposes. Um 20 million is not going to come from our traditional maintenance money without drastically impacting the rest of our
school district with paint and floor and and AC's. So, the reality is we can't we can't pull it from there. Um, and even if we can pull it from sales tax, um, to Dr. Campbell's point earlier in the conversation, it would further delay the
Denellan project, um, aside from what we may or may not do on the north end. Um, so the the only way I see us funding something like this is to take out an additional loan. Um, and so my question would go to our CFO and their staff. Uh,
what is our bond, our further bond capacity? We have >> we have the numbers. >> Wonderful. >> Thank you. Yeah, this is uh very timely. We've actually um had some initial discussions. Um right now um we have
about $340 million in additional capacity through 2046. Uh so that is a long ways out. Uh that is long-term planning. Uh and so internally uh we would need to go back
and talk to bond council uh do an analysis and feasibility to determine the best path forward. Uh but preliminarily in our discussions uh with one of our previous advisors JP Morgan, we do have additional capacity up to
that $340 million through 2046. >> Thank you. and and that's not a conversation I think we need to get in the weeds on today, but understanding how we're going to pay for it as we further this conversation is certainly something that needs to be considered um and what and what the risk the board is willing to take. Personally, I'm a
little bit more willing to take um a borrow more money if it means we have locked in a um I don't know 30-year triple net lease with someone to pay $500,000 a year. That sounds like a great idea to me. I think we it all but pays for itself. um threequarters of the
way it's going to be have paid for itself at $500,000 a year for 30 years. So that's going to be my question is from a business perspective, how are we positioning ourselves to recoup revenue that we are bonding on? Now obviously 20 million is not going to cost 20 million when it's borrowed. It's going to cost
more than that. >> Yes, ma'am. Certainly. And another consideration is making sure that we have the ability to make those debt payments. uh whether those funds are taken from impact fees or other revenues, uh we need to be able to look at the totality of the situation so that
whether it's revenue coming in to help subsidize uh the operation and construction of a booster stadium and being able to make those uh debt payments far out into the future and of course contextually uh what that means in terms of development for Marian County and what impact fees uh could or
could not look like and its impact on that scenario >> and and for I know you know this but for transparency for the We cannot use impact fees to pay for booster stadium. Correct. >> I would say yes. We'll we'll Yes. >> Okay. So, I just wanted to clarify that
point. So, impact fees could pay for new development in other parts of what would be district 4 because that's board member Thrower's district, but they would not be able to be used for the development of an athletic facility. Yeah, I think we've had some previous discussion around uh the use of impact
fees uh on debt and so we would we would continue to look at that. >> Okay. Thank you. Um so so member Conrad, do you have remarks? >> Really just I'm in alignment with the rest of the board. I'm I'm excited um to see this uh come before us again and
look forward to the next piece when we can figure out where we can put the CDL program um and and how we're going to pay for it. So that'll be what you'll bring to us next, Mr. Tucker.
>> Dr. Campbell. >> And when we do that, I am hopeful and Dr. Brew and I have had some conversations about this as well. That we put together a a legitimate capital campaign, what that really looks like, what those naming opportunities are,
what those costs assoc associated with them are, and what this board is willing to fund raise apart from what we're borrowing. because with the potential for what this could be for our community, a public facility, not
private. This is not a for-profit company. This is a public facility that will be used accordingly and in unique ways uh for the purposes of our community and our schools and our
students. And I could see there would be businesses and corporations and even individuals that would be interested in helping us with that facility to the tune of several million dollars if we know exactly what we're asking for, exactly what our costs are, and exactly
what the benefits will be to them for having their name on such a facility. >> Thank you, Dr. Campbell. Um, and so, um, I think just to get us circled back around, the question I had was, uh, I know that Mr. Tucker is looking for us
to agree to prioritize a $1.8 million expenditure for a track and field at Westport. Um, and so board, are where are we with that answer? Dr. Campbell, >> I can tell you that I am in full support
of that. I understand that first of all, I'm in full support, this is Mr. Rio Wells. I'm in full support of allocating $2 million a year for as long as I sit here on this board for athletic facilities because they have been uh
grossly underutilized and prioritized. Uh and the scoreboards at Belleview High School look terrific. They worked wonderfully last night during the Vanguard Belleview boys volleyball game. So, I got to see them in action. Uh so the $2 million I I understood that we
tried to prioritize ensuring that we would have equitable distribution among our schools and we see what that looks like because as we do those projects, we're giving all our schools something, but we still have a lot of money left
over because it's tough to do that. And as we move forward, we're going to have to prioritize these topd dollar projects one at a time. And so Westport's where we already committed to do it. Let's go all in and then ensure that the rest of the money next year is allocated
accordingly among distributed among the schools. That's my position. >> All right. Um looking for some remarks from the rest of the board to give Mr. Tucker marching orders. Yes. >> Board member Conrad. >> Yes, I'm on board. Robert Cummings,
>> I'm sorry. >> Yes. >> All right. So, it looks like Mr. Tucker, you have um marching orders to borrow from next year's 2 million to be able to fund a track and field at Westport. Um my question would be when is how quickly
can that happen? So, it's a great question and the answer is as soon as I talked to the company like the first thing we would have to do is get with some civil engineers and they would have to start the project. It has to be approved through um St. John's
Water Management. The company that I've already talked to Miss Boombach and and facilities and the company that we would want to use has actually already worked with the company that we would want to do the turf and the track. They're the ones that did the turf at Rotary Sportslex. So, they already understand
their drainage concepts and all those kind of things. So, hopefully it could speed up the process. Talking to the company, that's usually a 30-day deal to get the the water rights and get all that stuff approved. Once they get that and they can start getting their permits, um they asked me the earliest
they could get in to Westport to start. And that date was after May 15th. And they said if as long as they have approval to start all these things, they could start as soon as the end of May and the project would be complete
barring weather over the summer. We know how Florida is. Um but it could be complete by the time they start football season in the fall. Worst case scenario, they have to move one or two football games and they get full access to their
stadium in September. So that's that's how quickly it could happen. >> Okay. And board, how do we feel about that timeline? I think that that is certainly sounds advantageous. Um, from a funding perspective, you obviously have the leftover money now and then our
budget cycle rolls over July 1, so it probably will all make sense financially. Um, from a budget perspective, I see heads nodding from the money people. So that's a positive. Um, board, does that timeline sound good? >> All right. So, it sounds like
congratulations. >> Thank you. >> My question still stands after next year when we spend 800,000 to do beach volleyball and some other things. What What then is the next big project
>> that that could be doing the same thing we're doing at Westport at the remaining high schools, which would leave that would leave five, right? with the understanding that Belleview High School does not have a track. Um they only have their field. So there would be there would have to be further discussion on
what happens there. Do you do something to the track at Belleview Middle because that's what Belleview High School uses. Um those kind of things would we would have to have some discussion on that. But that would that would be one of the things that I would propose moving forward. So, if we were in this conversation next year after those
things happen and the other $800,000 gets spent and we start making a proposal for moving forward, that would be one big ticket item that could happen at every school and separating the booster stadium project out. We would
already have Westport and Booster Stadium would be complete. So, that would leave us with five >> South Marian. >> What's that? >> South Marian will have a brand new facility as well. Um, and I I think I want to make sure I note this $2 million in my mind doesn't go to Booster
Stadium. This is a $2 million reoccurring expense or um expenditure that goes to address the facility needs across the district outside of Booster Stadium. >> Athletic. >> Athletic. Yeah, athletic. That's Yeah, sorry if I wasn't clear on that. But I don't believe that this $2 million that
we've earmarked for athletics across the district needs to go towards a booster stadium project. I think that is a greater conversation. And if we decide to not do this for booster, then we'll loop Booster Stadium back into the conversation for this two million reoccurring. >> Yes, ma'am.
>> Um, any further comment from the board on this this item? Is there any public comment on the athletic update in Booster Stadium? >> All right. Hearing Oh, I'm sorry, Dr. B. >> I just want to comment this is a huge win for athletics in Marian County. And I'm just incredibly appreciative to all
of you for advocating so much for our student athletes and our coaches that work so hard each day. And thank you to Mr. Tucker for bringing this presentation before us today. >> Thank you. >> What a beauty that Westport's going to have roundabouts and a new track and field. Uh so uh we will conclude this
item board. We're going to take a 30 minute recess for us to be able to eat a little bit and we will come back at 12:45 to resume the final two items for the day which are code of student conduct and the district staffing plan. Thank you. >> Thank you Sarah.
And we are back after a 30 minute recess at 12:47 and we will move on to item 7.1 which is our code of student conduct. I welcome Dr. Curley to the podium um to kick us off. >> All right. Good afternoon
board chair Dr. James, fellow board members and superintendent Dr. Brewer, I would like to continue the positive trajectory that we are on after Mr. Tucker's presentation as we keep that in mind going forward for the afternoon.
Thank you for this uh opportunity to bring the proposed changes to the 2025 2026 code of student conduct towards the draft of the 2026 2027 uh code of student conduct. Uh so first of all document review I have prepared a
number of documents for you as you can see and view in order I'd like to go over so you can see the full scope of everything that we have proposed to you and I'll just quickly review those documents that you have so you can orientate you to what you are looking at. So the first is my presentation and
the PowerPoint uh form. The next are the red line and clean copies of the elementary and secondary code of student conduct. The redline copies are provided so that you may see all the proposed changes in the document. And of course, the clean copy made it easier to
navigate through and be able to see all the changes without the red lines there. Obviously, that red line document being a very extensive document and give you an idea of the amount of revisions that we put into it. And finally is a chart of proposed changes. That's something
new that we put together for you this year. Uh this chart references the current as we work from left to right and the columns the first column references the current policy. The second references the page numbers and I
will reference you those page numbers are in reference to the secondary redline document as you follow down those page numbers in that column to the next the 2025 2026 current language and
then the 2627 proposed language and then the final column to the right which would be concrete examples of that that you may see in practice. this. So those are all the documents. Any questions in regards to those documents that you have
in front of you? Okay. And again located at the bottom of that chart is also a key of acronyms that are used not only through that chart itself but also throughout the code and also as I mentioned the page number reference is
at the bottom of that chart also. Please let me know if you have any questions as we proceed through. So, do I have >> Excellent. >> Yes, sir. So, first of all, I'd like to bring attention first of all to the
dedicated work of the committee that worked hard to put this proposal together and the proposed changes for the code of student conduct for next year. As you can see on the second slide, there are 46 members from across the district. And this committee began
our work in October and met four face-to-face times looking at revisions for this upcoming school year. So, first of all, the focus of the community uh committee during the four meetings, the entire code was reviewed
and the focus in addition to any substantive changes that we may have made was mainly in alignment with the Florida statutes and board policy. It was very important to pay attention to this as we went through it as we did see some adjustments that needed to be made
to make sure that those two documents were in alignment. Over the past several years in various additions, they had become out of alignment. So, as we went through that, we made those necessary adjustments. In addition to this alignment, a thorough copy edit of the
document was necessary. And this is necessary not only for quality but also readability. The final overall focus of the committee was reformatting of the digital document. This was incredibly important as we made very substantive changes to
the format of the document for this school year. So the reformatting of the digital document so that parents and schools were able to easily follow it was very very needed. It was also very needed for to follow ADA compliance as we brought that into compliance for this
school year. It uh was eye openening to understand how involved that process is to make sure that a reader can go through and read things like that. It cannot read charts and graphs and things like that. So it has to be completely
transformed so that it may be a to be readable and in ADA compliance. So that was certainly an eye-opening process. We feel that these folky have created a much more streamlined, readable, and aligned document for the 2026 2027
school year. So, on to the key updates. Again, you have the chart in front of you which you can follow that it really makes it easy for you to follow along. I can honestly say there weren't too many substantive changes going forward because many of those were done last year. But some of those that come out,
first of which is false information about a Maring County Public School employee or volunteer that's also listed on your chart. One of the biggest changes we've made there was adding a level two in that category mainly for elementary schools and students. In some
situations throughout this year, we have seen situations where students have brought false information but did not feel the school did not feel we did not feel it was appropriate necessarily to go to a level three offense there which may result in alternative placement. So we add in a level two there. The
committee felt relatively strongly about that and had consensus. We also reordered the substance abuse matrix as well which was very important. it was a little bit clunky and hard to follow and read in its previous format and including in this school year and so
we reworked that entire matrix specifically uh the process appeals also from ISS all the way through expulsion making this a very very clear and easy to follow process not only for schools but also families so they can see it in
writing know exactly the timelines that they need to respond who do they go to what questions they ask and what is the process again from inschool suspension all the way through expulsions. We also added back the parent opt out of directory information that was dropped I
think um involuntarily from last or this school years. We added that back in. So that is there as well. And an update to notices for bullying to be in line with department of education de definition statute and cessor codes. That was
incredibly um important. Now moving on to the overall goals of the committee. Um, and I do feel that we met every one of these goals mainly as I mentioned before aligning board policy and state statute. If you were to go
even in the previous document or or certainly ones prior to that, board policy and state statute did not line up. So if anyone especially in the digital document would to follow those links, they would not necessarily be in line. So that was incredibly important for this committee. And again a
reformatting the document for ease of understanding. Search is search ability right now is incredibly easy e if you are going searching the entire document if you were to download it or to go onto the searchable document that technology put together with us. It is very easy to
search for schools and families. And again as I mentioned before the ADA compliance. We also, as the board mentioned last year, um we will continue on a focus on implementation and a consistent application across all
schools, working individually with schools, both elementary and secondary, for their implementation as we begin the new school year. I know that has been a desire of the board to make sure that we are informing parents and families appropriately of what this code of
conduct is so that they are aware of it and as they follow these rules or in some cases obviously violate these rules, they know exactly what their consequences are. It's important to note and I believe this came up in the last um work session that you all had for a
specific plan to invol inform families as they enroll after the after they are enrolling after the school year has begun. So for instance, if they enroll September all the way through the end of the year that there is specific plan so that they are made aware of exactly what
the student code of conduct is so that there is no issues concerning that. And at this time, I yield back to Superintendent Dr. Brewer for her comments. >> Thank you, Dr. Curley. Anything, Dr. Brewer? >> I I just want to comment on the work that they have done and as you know,
I've done this work before and it's just I'm so proud of him and the team because this is a huge undertaking and I think he's provided a very clear and concise >> updated plan. >> Thank you, Dr. Burr. >> I could add one other comment. We are also four months ahead of schedule and
then we were in the previous year. We love being ahead of schedule. >> Um, so I will open it up to the board for some comments. I just have a few quick comments that I can start with or I can wait for the rest of the board. Okay. Um, so two things that are in here or that are not in here that I know have
come up historically. Um, at the beginning of the year, going back to last year's code of conduct, we addressed um I'm going to always advocate on behalf of tall females because our dress
code is not always and Dr. Curley um lives with some tall females himself and so um it is not always advantageous or supportive of little ladies who have long legs. And so we have talked about
shorts and we changed the language which we thought was going to be more helpful um to say mid thigh and then at the start of the school year we found ourselves in some muddy waters with what is the definition of mid thigh. Do we
feel like we have um landed in an appropriate place for what mid thigh is across the district? So a great point of discussion in regards to that specifically we had a parent reach out and in a situation that happened early in the school year possibly September I
believe it was we were able to talk that through with a parent who abs um actually is a teacher as well as a parent of a high school student separate schools and uh we were there was some misunderstanding I guess and we were able to talk through that. I actually invited her to be a member of the code
of student conduct. was and I think that we not only got an understanding there but helpful to clarify it >> and I think the difficulty there was the definition believe it or not of what mid thigh was and that's what I'm asking >> if I could be specific um I think the
understanding was mid thigh was from the waist or wherever that were to start to the top of the knee so actually that was the issue so technically the definition of mid thigh would be from lower, if I could be so crass to use the term, as
the crotch to the top of the knee is actually the definition of mid thigh. We really have not seen they haven't gotten to my level of issues or concerns of that. This one did and we haven't had any since. So, I'm hoping that we have helpfully hopefully clarified that. >> And I think that the the most um
appropriate way to refer to it would be like the inseam the inseam from the knee up would be maybe the most appropriate way to refer to it. Um, but yes, >> I will consult a tailor to get those numbers. >> So, I'm just so I'm glad that it hasn't
really been a repeating issue. Um, and um there's no need to further >> there's no need to further address it if it's no longer an issue. Um the other thing that often comes up is the shoulder and the essentially a cap
sleeve is required and not just a tank top because we have to cover the shoulder and so um do we feel like that that didn't really come up in the committee much regarding >> no it did not and I again I'll defer back to the committee one of the great things about the committee is we have a
large members of representation from all levels elementary middle school high school and parents and no that did not come up we did look at the definition and made sure that it was clarified. I can't remember off the top of my head if we'd made any clarifying statements in regards to the shoulder, but uh it did
not come up as a point of discussion any further than that. >> Okay. Thank you. Uh the last thing that's been brought to my attention by some people who work in the field as deans and APDs, tobacco offenses stop at a level two. >> I believe that is correct. Yes.
>> Okay. And I just confirmed it. So, um that wasn't meant to be a question. I'm so sorry that wasn't supposed to be a gotcha. Um, repeated misconduct doesn't have a level three, right? It used to be a repeated
misconduct of a more serious nature and that was removed because we wanted to qualify exactly what that repeated misconduct was and that should be then connected to a specific level three offense. So to your point, which I agree
with, what happens for a repeated misconduct of tobacco/vape? Where does it go? Because the what I'm hearing from the field is it stops at a two. There's nowhere for it to go. If a kid just keeps bringing a vape that is a level two offense and there's nowhere
for it to go to get to all placement or expulsion, there's no avenue if that is the only offense because there's no repeated misconduct avenue for them to go to. That isn't a good point and we'd have to look at that a little bit closer to get a a more of a specific answer in regards to that.
>> So my recommendation would be um I think everything presented is great and Mr. White House is coming forward Dr. Curley so I don't know if he has some context. >> I think what what we would advise schools to do in those situations is to do a behavior contract with students and behavior contracts certainly can outline
further expectations and consequences for students in those situations. So then a violation of the behavior contract would be the recommendation for all placement or expulsion >> which becomes repeated in subordination and those do go up to level three and we could examine that as possible. >> Okay. So so we don't necessarily need to
fix the code of conduct per se. But what I'm asking then is that we get very crystal clear with how secondary schools specifically can get to alt placement for repeated misconduct of tobacco because that is something that is occurring. Kids are keep they're just bringing a vape they get a level two.
bring in a vape, they get a level two, and if they're not an ESC kid, we just keep giving them five days, seven days, whatever, which just means they're missing seat time, and then they come back and they get caught with a vape. And so there's no real clear avenue. And so getting some clear understanding to
our middle school specifically um APDS about how to navigate that to get to all placement would be helpful. >> That that becomes a really good tabletop exercise that we can do with our discipline staff, which I know Dr. Curly is, you know, very passionate about working through some of those scenarios with them to make sure they can understand how to handle those.
>> Perfect. Okay. I love that creative solutions. So, if we can just help get those um solutions to the um site leaders, that'd be tremendous. >> Absolutely. We can add it to our implementation plan at the beginning of the school year. >> Perfect. Well, seeing as inseam and shoulders are not an issue, I have no other remarks.
>> Very well. >> Anyone else? I was kind of waiting for someone else to hop in. I just have a comment and so Dr. Curley with um implementation and consistent application across all schools. I'm just going to make a statement. I don't want to get in the weeds. We were told
recently we were weedy. So um I'm at two high schools each week and so I'm just going to say there is a lack of enforcement. It's not that it's not happening. You're not seeing it, but there are like tank top style shirts all day long.
Bike, I call them volleyball shorts. They're super short spandex and runner shorts and tennis skirts and all things that don't come close to being mid thigh um that are happening. >> They're just not, you know, there's no consequences. So, just I'll share that
as information. Well, and I will I to pay you back off that, what I will say is I personally am um the 3Bs was a I've said it before, no boot, uh no boobs, no butts, no
bellies. That was my personal approach. I will maintain my personal approach to um dress code specifically in secondary. I are they at school? Are they not a distraction? Are they learning? And if that's what they are doing, then then I'm a fan of it. Now, we have a code of
conduct and it's a little bit stricter than that. So, we need to enforce what we have. But if I was a high school administrator and a student was at school and her shorts were above mid thigh, I probably wouldn't give it much attention either because my goal is for them to be on campus learning. And that's just my personal approach. So,
that's just my philosophy. But again, we if we have rules, we should probably enforce them. >> I I got to chime in here. I got to um the distraction for who? Because um if I'm a high school kid um boy and she's
mid thigh, that is a distraction for for many young boys and um young men. I'm going to say young men. And so um if we're going to have a a code of conduct and a dress code, and I get some taller girls, I get all
that stuff. I get all that. But the place is not we're we send this kids to school to to get educated, not be a fashion show. And uh I just have to say it that way. Uh cuz that's how I talk to my kids and my grandkids about the same
thing. It it needs to be appropriate for the classroom. It's a not only a distraction to other students, it's a distraction to some of the teachers as well. And we have a lot of things that keep coming down the pack in our schools. We just need to enforce the clothes. Enforce the
dress code. So, >> don't need to be too short. They don't need to be too short. >> I just And I really didn't want to get in the weeds because I the last time we had this conversation, the board did not align. I was the outlier. But I just want I was trying to be courteous when I said they their behinds are hanging out.
>> So, I was just trying to be courteous, but it is very much a distraction when your cheeks are hanging out. And if you're in the tank top, the midriff is also showing. So, there's the specifics of it. Well, and your shoulders, which is also out of dress code if you're in a tank top. And I'm in agreement. It they
should not be they should not be a distraction. Um, but I will say if mid thigh is a distraction to young boys, young girls should not have to change the way they dress because young boys can't seem to get their minds right. So, women should never have to change the way we dress to make men feel
comfortable. So, I'm just going to say that. >> I'm not going on that. >> I I will. As a mom of boys, I'm just going to tell you that that is a completely inappropriate way to think that God created men and women. I'm sorry. Um,
we we are uniquely created beings and um God created men in a very unique way. And so I appreciate your being a former female administrator who would have had to be observing those kinds of um violations or lack thereof. However, I
would see a male dean or AP potentially looking at it differently. And so maybe that's our discrepancy. But I think we have a code for a reason. And I will lean very heavily towards Reverend Cummings point there, that yes,
certainly girls shouldn't have to worry about being inappropriately touched or anything like that, but but just walking down the hall and looking inappropriate can cause
>> a distraction. We'll just leave it at that. I I mean, lust of the eyes is in the scriptures for a reason. So, I I just I want to ensure that we have rules for a reason, and the reason is all of our employees need to be helping us follow the rules and helping all of our
students follow those rules. So, I I'm going to strongly disagree with the position that you're taking on that, Dr. James. >> I also Dr. Curley, I want to say I think another challenge is is there's really a heavy lift for that kind of like cell phones. I I would say, you know, as a as
an instructor of that, um, you know, if you don't do a heavy lift at the beginning of the year, then you get to where we are now after Christmas and I'm like, okay, so have the kids been wearing this all year, you know, now as a teacher, do I say, oh, you know, um, just really to zoom in on that and
everybody, like Dr. Campbell said every like to me I'm like you know when you're at a high school and they get through the front office and they get through here and then you know then you're at fourth period and I'm like how did you get all the way through the day like this? >> Right. >> And so I think that's the challenge for our staff is you know being vigilant
when there's a million other things to do the first couple weeks of school about dress code so that it doesn't go on all year and then you're trying to rein it in. So, >> and I think I think um many of the staff they have a huge herculean challenge in the things that they do daytoday and
they're they're saying >> I really don't feel like fighting with a teenage girl about her >> dress. That's that's where they say said I don't want to fall on that on a on that on that sword today. So, and they get all these pants. They get all these pants. But to be honest with you, um it
it it can be very distracting, very distracting for a lot for a lot more than just the boys in high school, but for staff as well. So >> well, if it was addressed in first period, if we attack if we had attacked dress code the way we have attacked cell
phones, which has worked very effectively, it would be it would it would stop being an issue. And if everyone had to stand up in first period and the code of conduct was enforced in first period, then it would probably curb itself. But
we don't have equal enforcement across campuses or even across classrooms. And so because of that, similar to the cell phone issue, it continues to be an issue. So whatever the code of conduct is that's board approved, that should be what we're implementing.
>> Agreed. Is there any further comment from the board? >> Um, my my only comment I'm just because it continues to be an issue that we potentially see from time to time with families coming before us with expulsions and so forth. I I'm just
trying to see specifically what was changed on the self-defense. >> Yeah, I I'm I I'm struggling with because the number you have here is not is the sort of the PDF number, but it's not really the page. Anyway, pages 20 and 21. I'm I'm just trying to see
specifically how that change was worded. And I mean I I I believe at times and I'll make this as a blanket statement certainly not approaching any specific fight that has come before us in the
past as a blanket statement. I believe that self-defense might look differently than what we have been interpreting it as. And so that's what I I'm just trying to see specifically how we it was this board
that put in place self-defense in the first place. Like we didn't actually used to have to my knowledge several years ago if if I'm not mistaken. We we never even had that as a as something and and it is absolutely something. And uh so the duty to retreat is is what it
says the duty to retreat. But I want to understand that we at least in my mind's eye for administrator interpretation on that that sometimes duty to retreat also includes fighting back. And so I I think that we have been in the administrator
interpretation in the past has been very strong on that the kid essentially is running away. >> That is what self-defense is. >> Can I say that? Can I say something on that too? because um this this is one that I've have I've had a a
this is one that's just been bothering me the whole time I've been on the board because when you say duty retreat there are times there are incidences u situations where there is no retreat and the only retreat is to fight back to get yourself out of that so when I see that
duty to retreat I I have a duty to survive that's that's that's my first that's my first duty to survive and if I got to fight to survive if I got throw a chair or whatever I got to do survive especially when it's two and three people on one we've seen those videos um where those things are
happening so I'm I'm kind of stuck on I'm kind of not feeling this I'm not feeling this one curly Dr. Curley it it doesn't make sense to me duty retreat >> I'd like to bring attorney Blackman up he's looking like he has maybe some context Dr. early.
>> Well, I could I could mention a couple of things. So, we could there could be an endless amount of definitions placed. So, we could look at a specific definition of self-defense which may include a duty to retreat. So, in other words, we and you bring up a a good point, Reverend Cummings, there might not be an opportunity. I might to bring
up a very simple example might be a wall right behind me and I don't have the ability to get anywhere to go in front of me. And I can tell you that we have looked at si significant situations throughout the year in this and I believe and have a lot of faith in the structure that we have put up to evaluate these things that have taken
place. And when I say that if it's at a suspension level, the school typically handles that. However, some of those um appeals as I mentioned before get to us. Certainly with alternative placements and certainly expulsions as well. We look at those and there have been situations in which we have evaluated those situations and found exactly what
the two of you are saying is that these are self-defense situations even when a arm may have been thrown and you could argue that that's a punch. Uh I don't like to use the word fight back in that respect because we have the definition of fighting actually defined in the code
of conduct, but we could work to specifically have a definition a working definition of what self-defense is. I'll let attorney Blackman add to that. >> To be clear though, it's already done. There is a definition for self-defense in the code. So, it says strike. So, like you are allowed to hit
>> if you are >> I will read I will read page 14 of >> trying to find it. >> So, it's on page 14 of the secondary code of conduct. It's um the second sentence says self-defense may include asking an adult for help, restraining or blocking the attacker, shielding oneself
or others from being hit, or pushing or striking to get away from the attacker. So, a student is allowed to engage in a brief form of physical aggression back to be able to get away from the situation. That that brief ends when it is no longer brief and it's a continued
engagement when an opportunity has presented itself to break away. >> So, I'll ask a couple things. First of all, yes, that being the definition, the committee did look at all of these definitions, including that one. There were no suggested changes to that one whatsoever. And second, I would ask
seeing that definition and if you have it in front of you, are there any specific questions or additions that you may have in regards to that working definition as we have it now? >> So looking at the working definition, then I guess a question
is a secondary question to my initial one. The secondary question is saying shielding oneself or others from being hit. And that then if you're not real careful whether you're looking this way or this
way or how you're shielding somebody else from being hit can also be accused as a twoon-one. I if if you're then engaging in trying to protect someone else any
I'm I'm grateful we have at least some definition for self-defense. It is a much further step than we had when we both first started in this. So, we at least have that there. Um, but even including the shielding others from
being hit, my hope is in the subjective nature of reviewing all of this that you take into consideration when that comes as across as being a twoon-one because somebody's now engaging into somebody else's fight to try to help in self-defense from someone who's
indefensible. I I don't I don't know. >> Agreed. And we have actually had situations like that come up this year and committee which would include attorney Blackman have looked at those and agreed that there are self-defense characteristics that took place and that they would not then result in
alternative placement or expulsion. >> I mean um y'all know I come from law enforcement side of this thing and from the prison side. I'm just that that last statement of self-defense. The students should only use the amount of force necessary to stop a violent act against
themselves and leave the situation as soon as it is safe to do so. Sometimes what they do don't stop the situ doesn't stop the violent act and they never they never they never get out of the act until staff gets there. And often times
staff will approach the scene and the first thing staff says they were fighting. And so that puts it in a bad it puts in a bad light. Um, and then even though you try to go back and review it, depending on what staff is writing the report and what staff is
is is doing the witness statement, they're going to say, "Well, I saw him fighting. I saw him throwing hands. I saw him doing this." But how do you how do you get self-defense out of this? I >> I think attorney Blackman can provide a more detailed answer. Attorney Blackman would know how I feel about this because
when I was on the student code of cut last year, this is one of the same things I kept praying for this self-defense thing. So, >> so the the self-defense is specifically designed to be vague because the more you tend to get specific sort of
examples or definitions, the more it becomes impractical. So, this definition is based off of the common law definition of self-defense, which maybe with a slight change to it. The idea being is you can't create the danger. So you can't be as the kids might say bowing up to each other or get in
someone's face or so on and then have the kid hit you and then say, "Well, I'm self-defending." You are part of the escalation. So that's what that's supposed to sort of encourage a deescalation of the situation. The idea being here is we're not really operating in a regular um society where they may
be like down an alleyway somewhere. We're talking about a school where there's always staff members nearby. We encourage you go get a staff member, try to get an adult, try to deescalate these situations prior to turning into something dangerous. However, in the event that you are approached and someone is coming after you, you are
absolutely allowed to strike back. The only part about when it comes to as much as necessary, that is very case specific. So, if you're in a corner and and there's at no point that you're able to stop because you're in a corner, then that would be okay. And it's it's a
matter of you being able to have some bodily autonom autonomy to be able to protect yourself and you don't have to sit there and just take a beating. We don't want that. I know that was important to you, Reverend Cummings, and that was we made sure we put that in the code uh for that situation. To go to the
point about intervention, I think Dr. Campbell is kind of what you were saying about when someone intervenes, we have an intervention definition. And the way I like to think about it is it's like when a referee intervenes into a fight on a sporting event. You know when a referee's intervening what it looks like
and you know what it looks like when one of the players comes by and joins in on the fight. Like it's a very clear distinction. I think it's very obvious difference. One is maybe a grabbing, stopping, getting between like what a referee might do. And another situation might be someone off the bench coming in and sort of joining in on the moment and
punching. Like it's it's it ends up being usually pretty clear in that situation. So, that would be the difference between a twoon-one and an intervention, which would be an appropriate amount. But interventions cannot include punching. Just as we wouldn't expect referees to punch players trying to break up a fight, we wouldn't expect other kids to come in
and um throw any punches to break up a fight either. I'm happy to answer any of the questions. I really This is a common law kind of definition. The one thing you'll see that's different than from Florida law. One of the big things is we talk about stand your ground in Florida where you don't have to retreat. That's one of
the things that was removed on the stand your ground law. We don't have that here because once again you have adults nearby at all times. So we want to encourage deescalation and that was something that was specifically there. So if two kids are getting ready to kind of back and forth at each other, you
need to if possible leave. But there's situations where you can't leave. You're cornered threeon-one. Whatever it might be, you're allowed to defend yourself. That's okay. You just can't contribute to the beginning of the fight though. So that's that's how the definition is written and I'm happy to answer any
other questions. Um >> so so as long as they didn't throw the first punch, they're able to defend themselves and and deescalate >> as long as they're not contributing to the fight as a whole. So if you have two kids coming up to each other and they're, you know,
>> well, if somebody come up and smack me, I can't defend myself. >> You absolutely. Well, if someone slaps you in that moment, you should be able to do what's necessary to prevent any further harm to yourself, >> which would be a slap back, >> right? >> Possibly. >> So, I mean, if it's just a slap and they've stopped, you shouldn't do
anything back. >> They hear what I'm saying because that's a fight because once you hit me, it's it's on and popping because I'm not going to just I'm not I don't I don't teach I don't Hold on, hold on, hold on. I don't teach my kids I don't teach my kids or or grandkids that, hey, just
stand there and take a lick. you we don't teach that. People don't teach that. They teach to defend yourself and get away from the situation as fast as you can. But that's some great that's a lot of gray area there. >> There was always going to be gray. And I think what we find is the more we define
it, the more problems we're going to have to actually implement it. But I would define if someone came up and sucker punched you and walked away, there's no further self-defense needed. At that point, you should report it to a teacher and there should be a consequence for the individual who did
the sucker punch. >> And that would be battery and that can actually it actually would escalate it potentially to a three just that in of itself. So there's a higher consequence for someone who's just kind of coming in and attacking without there being the mutual combatant. So, but in the situation of someone punches you and
they're still kind of like >> squared off against you, >> then yeah, you can defend yourself. I mean, you're allowed to defend. You have bodily autonomy. Okay, I'm I'm'll be looking for that now. >> I've been in complete support of this and um and I have been consistent on this definition as well.
>> Okay. Okay. >> I and I'd like to add I'm not aware of any issues where people have felt self-defense should have been used and it wasn't in the last year. This definition has been the same. It didn't change. This is what we've been operating with for the last year and I'm
not aware of instances that people have felt that have been brought to our attention by any means and certainly people >> they didn't find it. >> Yeah, they yeah there there are people that just aren't fighting the expulsions or or they're and so that that is occurring. So you're you're correct that
they haven't come before us. >> I apologize for interrupting. I can speak specifically in a student uh situation where a student was recommended for alternative placement in which we met with the parent who was alleging self-defense in this situation. There was video evidence, very clear video evidence and we sided with the
family and the parent and student in that situation and we did not uphold alternative placement and the student was there was some culpability there for the fact that they did not do some of the things they should have but alternative placement was not recommended and we not did not uphold
it. I I certainly am not Solomon. However, I do believe that I have a lot of faith in our department to view these. Obviously, film is going to be very very important. There would be no way to corroborate these things unless there was some film. And and obviously the day and age in which we live in now,
there's almost always some film, whether it's coming from a student or one of our own individual cameras, which in some situations muddies the waters, but in a lot of situations makes it much more clear. And I always defer to a lot of opinion from my team which of course
attorney Blackman is part of that gives us advice all the time and I think it has worked very very well and I have no problem dealing with those situations as they come up and doing so from a very unbiased position >> please.
I don't see all the cases. I see a lot of them though, but I have had several cases where someone has gone to challenge it in DOA and the whole claim was it's self-defense and and I' I've watched the videos on all the ones that have been appealed to DOA and none of them are self-defense is
our code. Both individuals were mutual combatants from the start. They were both involved from the start. I if it was self-defense, I'd be the first person to talk to Dr. Curley and say, "Hey, we got to dismiss this." I have no problem with dismissing cases, but the ones that I saw and I had to handle,
they the concept of what self-defense is, I think I'll say in the real world versus our code of conduct, they are a bit different. And I sense I also think a sense of what's necessary in the real world is different than what's necessary in a school. We have several thousand kids located in one small area. We have
to have a priority towards deescalation. Out in the real world where there's less no SRO's nearby, no teachers nearby, maybe those rules are a bit different. But in our school where things can escalate quickly, we have to have a prioritization towards deescalation because we know things can get out of hand very quickly.
>> Thinking about one in particular and I don't want to just keep dragging it. I'm thinking about one in particular and this was this year I think um the kid I won't say what school they went in the restroom. They they had already been having issues with some other kids. They
went in the restroom and a group of kids followed them into the restroom to fight them in the bathroom. Now they have to fight to get out of there. >> That's not so but but they got suspended too. They got expelled too.
I don't recall >> because that would have been that would because it looked uh it was there was evidence of something had happened prior to however when it and I'm not trying to re re relitigate the whole thing but um
the kid did claim self-defense but um and they of course the other kids that came in the bathroom was more than one so how are they going to get out of there but they got they end up getting off place behind be behind this >> and if I remember this specifically though. I believe there was an intention
to meet in the bathroom. >> No, not this. I know the one you're talking about. That's not the one you're talking about. >> I'm sorry. I can't speak. Obviously, I couldn't comment regardless. However, I'm not sure. Uh it could have been different rule at the time. It could have been different interpretation, but I would say I will just speak in
generalities. If three kids came into a bathroom and follow someone and they intended to fight or they had started to fight, that kid that kid who is on the one would have every right to defend themselves. Of course, I would encourage that kid as soon as possible, get out of there. Um, and that would be what the
rule would require. But until things are safe for that kid to leave, he is able to defend himself with striking and punching and do what he needs to do. Like I said, bodily autonomy is important. >> Okay. >> Is there any further conversation from the board?
>> Only comment I wanted to make is you referenced an SRO on campus and it is not their responsibility to engage in anything discipline related. So, I just want to make sure we're clearing that, clearing the air on that. Unless the administration asks them to intervene, an SRO is not supposed to get involved in discipline actions. That is, that is
not what they're there for. Again, unless an administrator asks them to get involved, but the second an SRO gets involved, that student now has law enforcement activities that are happening for them, and an administrator has to ask them to do that. So my hope is that we didn't just put out in the atmosphere that SRO are supposed to
intervene in fights because that is not what needs to happen unless an administrator is asking for it. >> Go ahead, Dr. Curley. We we need to respond to that statement. >> Yeah. So I didn't reference SRO. However, I can tell you absolutely unequivocally in elementary, middle, and
high school if there is a physical altercation taking place, which is a fight there, an SRO will absolutely intervene and separate students. It is their duty to do so. We don't have to ask specifically for them to do that. We don't give them specific jurisdiction to be there. They have the ability to be
there and would always intervene. And as an administrator, I would expect them to do so to help and maintain the safety and order of not only those two students, but the rest of the school. >> So, I appreciate that thought process. I'm I'm looking directly to Mr. McFaten. I remember a case a couple of years ago
in a in a high school where the SRO got involved but was not asked to get involved and then that escalated the situation even that much worse uh particularly in a hallway. We had video evidence of such and some things that occurred in that incident. So perhaps we've changed our procedures on that and
we uh now want SRO's to engage but that particular one actually escalated that situation much more heavily than it should have ever been because the SRO got involved. Well, just because an SRO gets involved doesn't mean it's it's going to land as an arrestable offense, though.
>> So, so those two are not unilaterally connected. So, the SRO can help break up a fight, but that doesn't mean that they're going to arrest the student for fighting. >> Good. And that's pretty much it. You're right. If an SRO is witnessing a potential crime, they have to intervene.
It doesn't necessarily mean that they're going to take it to the level of making an arrest, but just say in the process of breaking up that fight, the student hits the SRO or bites the SRO, whatever, then it could. So, SRO's are really there to break it up, intervene. They
have to, but it doesn't necessarily mean that they're going to arrest them. They still want to leave that up to the the uh school staff to administer discipline. Okay, that definitely sounds like a change in the way we're doing things because I have been on two different campuses over the course of
the last five years where that is not at all the practice that we've had with then when an FR SRO gets involved then those students have faced either tasing or an arrest. I mean there have absolutely been times that SRO's were not supposed to get involved because the administration did not ask them to do
so. So, if we have a new procedure on that and we anticipate that SRO's get involved in any fight that happens on a campus, that's news to me. But I'm glad to have it out in the public because we needed to have that because it definitely has not been the practice.
>> Anyway, >> my understanding is from the state attorney's office, their process is uh they don't want arrests to occur and they want the school to handle fights. uh other things they'll get involved in, but that's my understanding in speaking with the agency that they believe those
are more school- related matters. So I maybe some of the confusion is physically intervening is one thing and then arresting or trying to seek some sort of judicial intervention is something different. U that that may be where I'm not sure how things used to work, but that's my understanding of the SAO the state attorney's office guidance
towards um the um SRO's right now. >> Okay. Well, thank you. I mean, as we all know, the whole purpose of an SRO has nothing to do with this. For decades and centuries, school fights happened on on campuses, and we never had law
enforcement officers ever on campus. The reason we have them is for potential mass violent offenses that could potentially could happen and have happened on campuses, which is why we now have all the law in place for us to be required to have law enforcement or
guardian or or what have you. Um, so fights had been handled by administration long before now. So that I just wanted that out in the air. If that's what we're expecting of our SRO's as a part of their contract with us that we want them to intervene,
that's that's news to me. Thank you. Any further comment about code of conduct? All right. Any public comment regarding our code of conduct? Sounds good. Uh we will conclude 7.1. Thank you Dr. Curley for your work uh
and your leadership in this and we will move on to item 8.1 which is our district staffing plan. I welcome Miss Marant to come forward as our leader in this department. >> Thank you and good afternoon Dr. Brewer, Dr. James, and board members. As
mentioned, I'll be sharing the proposed changes to the 2026 2027 central office staffing plan. And I agree with Dr. Curley. We want to keep the momentum that has started this morning. The proposed changes to the 2026 2027
central office staffing plan are minimal and they continue to align the strategies that have been set forth in ensuring that every student succeeds and every child is a graduate. The highle proposed changes include the following. Updating Mr. White House's title from
deputy superintendent of curriculum and instruction to deputy superintendent to better align the scope of work which encompasses both academics and operations. In this role, he will also directly oversee technology, transportation, and operations. The
senior executive director of operations will be elevated to chief operations officer. The supervisors of employment services, food and nutrition services, maintenance, payroll, and transportation will be elevated to directors of their respective departments. The coordinator
too of custodial services will become a supervisor and the risk management risk management specialist too will become a coordinator. As you all know, our compensation study was completed a few years ago and the board provided direction at that time um to work on
implementing the recommended salary adjustments. However, due to budget constraints and timing, this muchneeded initiative has been delayed a few times. And recognizing the responsibilities of the aforementioned positions, the need for alignment, and as an effort to move us just a bit closer to the salary study
recommendations, we believe the um upgrades are important and timely. The estimated total increase, not including benefits or proposed salary increases for all of the upgrades I just mentioned, is under $80,000 annually. As
we continue through with additional changes that we're proposing on page three, we begin those changes. You will notice that we've eliminated the vacant secretary position in the legal department. Other reductions include the following positions: coordinator of K12
academics, program specialist of K12 academics, content area specialist of K12 academics, director of strategic partnerships, and intermediate research teacher. There are also a few department moves that will take place to better align the working needs of the district.
They include the coordinator of assessment, accountability, and research will move to secondary curriculum. The account clerk and public relations will move to athletics and activities. The secretary secretary, excuse me, of academics will move to secondary
curriculum. Two program specialists in K12 academics will move to assessment, accountability, and research and elementary curriculum. The program specialist in early learning will now be an AP on assignment for a secondary curriculum. Lastly, there are several
additional positions that will be added and most of those are supporting South Marin High School. They include an HVAC mechanic for South Maran High School, 14 custodians for South Marin High School, uh, head a uh, head to, excuse me,
custodian for South Maran High School, desktop support for South Marin High School, general maintenance for South Marian High School, and then an addition of groundskeeper, groundspray technician, locksmith, refrigeration mechanic, director of secondary
education, and finance clerk. I will also like to make note that four bus aid positions are on the March 10th meeting agenda for approval and will be included in the final central office staffing plan. The total cost of the
proposed 2026 2027 central office staffing plan is $98.9 million. Of that amount, 83.6 million will be paid from general funds. The total cost includes all positions inclusive of French
benefits and projected salary increases for 2627. The adopted budget approved by the board for the 2526 central office staffing plan was $93.9 million with $79.3
million from general funds. This represents a year-over-year increase of approximately $4.8 million or 5.2%. The increase is primarily attributed to the new positions added for South Marin High School positions added throughout
the year and then of course budgeted increases for staff. As Mr. Rios Welsh often likes to remind us, these amounts are moving target and by statute the budget must be balanced. Therefore, if needed, positions may be revisited once
more definitive revenue numbers are received. The proposed staffing plan reflects our continued effort to be thoughtful and strategic in how we structure and support the work of the district while remaining mindful of fiscal responsibility. With that, I turn
it over to Dr. Brewer for any additional comments and or questions from the board. >> Thank you, Miss Mar. Did you have anything to add, Dr. Ber? >> Thank you, Miss Mar. >> I open it up to the board for comments and questions. >> Dr. handbook. >> Um my my first comment, thank you for
your presentation, Miss Morant. In the future, if there's a possibility when we have an item like this come before us, she rattled off an awful lot of numbers and a lot awful lot of information that we received in our individual briefings, but those documents are not included here. It's there's not a presentation
here. So unless someone is following along with the autogenerated captions with the uh video recording of this, they very well may not have I know I wasn't writing and so there's a lot of information um the the way that was just presented. So if there's a way we can
present it differently in the future that >> and I we can add that highlights page the same page we shared with the board members during briefings. We can add that to our board docs today. >> That would be wonderful. Um, and the other question and and just because I I
believe it is a community question that I am going to keep talking, but I don't know that my microphone is still on. I believe you're on. Yeah. >> Okay. Thank you. Uh, it's on. I'm good. So, um I just looking I I know that you said that the changes with the
supervisors becoming directors and coordinator becoming supervisors and and moving and moving and that all of that was at the cost of about $80,000. And so those are a lot of moves and I agree with all of those transitions. The the one question that I though have
that I don't know that I actually asked before. So I'm sorry that I haven't asked this, but I did bring it up yesterday at the or two days ago at the groundbreaking. Um changing the senior executive director of operations to a chief operating
officer is chief operating officer currently is not on our salary schedule. So will that move that position from a 94 pay grade to a 97 where our chief financial officer is >> a 96 >> a 96. Okay. So that will be at the 96
level. Okay. Um be because just from a overall thought process and perspective on that I I'm not saying that I disagree with that decision. I'm just saying that having a title of chief operating officer and not actually being over all of the operations is a little bit of a
semantic struggle for me. Uh because we are removing operations departments from the leadership of the chief operations officer. So I I'm not saying I disagree with it. I'm just saying it it's not making a ton of semantic sense to me. Um
if you're chief operating officer, you need to be overseeing a lot of operations departments and we're taking them. So essentially the way of work that we've been having right now has the the title at senior executive director of operations and all of those
departments currently report to that person. We are now promoting that title to chief operating officer and removing departments from them. So that's >> my only primary question.
>> I would agree with Dr. Campbell. >> What what I'm sorry what is the question? >> I don't think it's a question. It's a statement okay of I don't mean to speak for you Dr. Campbell but I can try to reiterate it in aism. Um, I think that that the position right
now is senior executive director >> and it is currently holding leadership over all operations within the school district. Is that an accurate statement? >> No, not all operations. Um, but a a nice bit of them. >> Okay. What is left out currently?
>> So, HR is left out. Um, finance that's under finance is left out. Um these are the ones off the top of my head. So >> risk management >> risk management yes is left out. >> Okay. So and now we're upgrading the
position and we're removing the responsibility of transportation and custodial. >> No transportation >> um >> technology will move under um the deputy superintendent. So, so the thought
pattern here is we are elevating the rate of pay and taking away responsibility. It seems a little counterproductive. >> Yes. And and the reason for that is because of the increased work and our maintenance and our construction um just
work that we're having to do in Marian County with the growth and the improvements, especially with the um approval of the half penny sales tax. the um we needed the intense focus to be on those two departments for that position. >> And so like um my question would be then
would a more appropriate name be like a chief facilities officer because and this maybe again to Dr. Hamill's point seems very in the weeds and semantics but the chief operations officer is not going to be over all operations. Um as you already stated as a senior executive
director she isn't now. Um but we're removing responsibility and essentially honing in on the focus of this position to be solely on the work within our facility. So custodial is a part of their respon. So what is the what we'll report down from this chief operations
officer position. >> So the biggest piece will be our construction piece, maintenance, facilities is still there, custodial is still there under um and also um that that's it actually. So maybe it's
about um a name being more appropriately fitted for the work that's happening within that organizational tree. I definitely think that it's appropriate to recognize that we are doing more construction work now than probably this
district has ever actually done at one time. Um, I mean, we'd go back 20 or 30 years to even begin to have comparison, but maybe it's a chief facilities officer and they're managing everything that happens within the facilities department, facilities, construction,
maintenance, custodial, all the stuff inside the walls and maybe that's just >> word smith that and bring something. >> I don't know if that is appeasing or if that was where you were trying to get, Dr. Campbell, but I I could I think I would at least be more aligned with that. So that if I'm a community member, I'm not thinking this person is over all
of operations. Kind of like back in the day for those of us, take it back 10 years when we had the two deputies, right? And we had the deputy over curriculum and then we had the deputy over essentially like operations and really everything related to operations reported up to the person who was in
charge of operations. But that's not what this structure is. And so, um, clarity I think would be helpful because it essentially feels like it should be like Mr. White House's curriculum and then this other person is the other thing. Except that's not actually how it's going to work. >> Correct.
>> So, chair, with with all of that conversation that we're having and looking at the salary schedule, I agree with semantically changing the title. I am going to disagree with moving it to a 96. I I am the more that we're talking
about it and the more it seems as if the um information I I understand we're doing more building than we've ever done before, but we've been working and having this way of work with multiple departments reporting to that person while we've built three
brand new schools top to bottom. And so I know we have a lot of other ancillary projects that are happening and we have a lot more funding streams coming in. I get that funding streams all come through Mr. Rios Welsh. So there's I I think I'm going to disagree with that
one specific change. Whatever we want to call the title, I'm fine with. But um I I think that the title should align with the pay and chief operating officer. I I can get behind that being a you know a 90 even a 97 if it's a chief operating
officer that's legit taking all the operations. But we understand operations HR that reports directly to the superintendent and it has for quite some time. So I understand that as an operations function but when we we've always had that that way.
So the the curriculum type departments reporting to our deputy superintendent completely fine completely fine with all the other transportation can study all the things reporting to deputy superintendent that's fine. I'm I am just struggling with this semantically
as well as even the pay on it. Even I don't I don't care if it's just $8,000 in a difference. It I'm just struggling with it. Just looking at the salary schedule. What's the difference? Here's the salary schedule currently. So, you can see the difference in the 94 to 96
to 97. Does um Reverend Cummings, did you have comments you wanted to provide regarding this specific name or >> This needs to needs to have the alignment. I'm just in agreement with Dr. Campbell. Um the title should align
with the salary schedule, whatever that alignment may be. We're making some moves. Um there's some promotions or whatever they whatever they are, adjustments, and I and I get that based on the um the the wage study and stuff, but we need to If we're going to do it
now, we're making those increments now. Do it where it's in alignment across the board. >> Um, did you have anything for member Conrad? >> Do um changing the title I think is wise. I
think it's logical. Um, I really would need to take a few more minutes to look at the pay schedule before I gave my honest opinion on that. Well, and I'll be I'm not hung up on the pay as much as I just want the title to be reflective of the work. So, I mean,
we have a billion dollar budget. $8,000 is really like not something we need to write a home about in my opinion, but I do think that the title needs to reflect the work and so a shift in the in some language
choice there I think would be more appropriate. >> And chair, if I may. Oh, go ahead, Reverend. And I agree, we do have a billion dollar budget and we do, you know, $8,000 may not seem like a lot and it's not in a billion dollar budget, but as we continue to look at staffing plans
and schools with the sitebased budgeting, we got to we got to we got to make sure we do it right. Again, we got to make sure that we're conveying the right message because people are going to be affected by the things that's happening. So, >> correct. And I would just say I think if we look at the number of employees that
are reporting up in this reporting structure um my memory would make me believe that there's a significant amount of employees in this reporting structure because of the custodial even removing the transportation. There's still a
significant amount of employees in the reporting structure. And so because of the size of the reporting structure, the pay is appropriate because of of how many people are metriculating up through this particular part of the organization, which is why I think the
$8,000 is not a big deal because ultimately their supervision of the number of employees is significant. Um and so I think I think we just figure out the name so that it's more aligned with the
work >> and chair. Um and the request from the department was to add an additional um person to do the work. And so this was our way of not adding an additional staff member but instead giving more responsibilities to um the person in
that current role. That's our justification for it. >> I'm good with that. here. >> Okay. Uh Dr. Campbell. >> So, chair, I I'm just I'm just going to have heartburn all over the place on on it, honestly. And I'm going to go back to the very first presentation that we had today and learning that Lake County
only has 5,300 employees. I I I kind of want to say hiring freeze, nobody gets new people. I understand we need a locksmith. I get that. But, um and I I also respect that we want to elevate positions and and give people pay increases. I and I also respect
that. But the expectation that I would have is if you have a title increase, you're going to and and a pay increase because titles mean money. Title increase and a pay increase means your responsibility increases. And um with
that increasing of responsibility, then eventually that means that other people and I I hate to say lower down the totem pole. I don't even know what that looks like right now, but we have to somehow get to where we're living within our means and the people who are at the top are doing either more work or using AI
more or something where the efficiency increases immensely among this community. And so we have to get closer to at least 6,000 employees instead of 7,000. Um so I um
that's all I'm going to say about that. I mean, I we just we're increasing people's titles, which means more pay and increase. And I understand it's only $80,000 quote. That was the quote. So, we don't like have it in front of us on the chart. Show us all the numbers and where all the where all the $80,000 is
coming from. Um yeah, that's where I am. >> So, I think it's important to note that um the people who are getting increases in rank, their job title is changing. This is simply a recognition of the work
they're already doing. They are doing work that they are not being paid to do. Um, one of the things that comes with being a director, and this conversation came up with Mr. Chief McFaten a couple years ago, was I said if a person is expected to work
24/7, then there should be they should be at a director status, which is when m Mr. McFaten. Chief McFaten was moved from the position and title he was in into the elevated director role because the expectation was at 3:00 a.m. if the phone rings, you're going to answer it.
When there is no power at Ocala Springs at 2 a.m., Mr. Duncan is the one, and I hate to use names, but let's just use names. Mr. Duncan is the one answering the phone. And when when the bus driver calls out at 4:00 a.m. on a Tuesday morning, Mr. Ostanic is the one who's solving the problem. So, these people
are already doing the work. This is simply us being behind the game and recognizing their effort and their commitment with a title and and pay in my opinion. Um I can totally appreciate that we we have too many positions and
sitebased budgeting is the perfect way for us to start identifying that because we are cutting positions across the district. One of the things when I had my briefing though, I really wish there was a clearer way on this district staffing plan for us to say which were
schoolbased positions that are funded from the district because isn't it something like 20 positions on here that we're adding are actually for South Marian? >> Um, it's actually more than that. I think they're like 26 cuz 14 of those
are custodians, >> right? So 26 positions that are being added to the district staffing plan are funded out of the district staffing plan but are actually being used on the campus of South Marian. So this increase
is only occurring because we are opening a new high school. If we were not opening a new high school, we would be 26 less positions. Um to Dr. Campbell's point earlier, I have said as when we opened two new schools last year, I said we should be offlining schools if we're on onlineing schools because we are not
in a position to continue to add employees to our payload. So, um those are conversations for greater times, but I thought it was important to make sure that I put into record the individuals who are getting pay increases and um bumps to director are doing the work
already. They're simply now going to be receiving recognition for the work they're doing. Dr. Campbell >> and and I can respect that and I completely understand the logic and the thought process there. Again, um the expectation though then will be uh since
they're already doing the work then how can we do that work even that much more efficiently and effectively and as we have attrition and so forth and don't ask for another position. Um like how how can we how can we just start doing
things differently? Uh but again to the the point I made the same point about how many of these district staffing plan positions are going to South Marian High. Again I was hoping that that it would include some kind of presentation that would have said that that I I mentioned that in in our briefing to say
when you present this and I know you did it verbally but when you present this this is the the piece that's missing for everybody in the in the public to see. So when that is uploaded hopefully that will be a little clearer. um it it wasn't even on the document whenever we
saw it u previously. So perhaps that document that we saw needs to be um changed a bit. But anyway, it the 19 positions. So it shows we're adding 19 positions, but you say 26 positions are being >> add because as a reminder, we're cutting
some positions as well. Um but we can upload the highlights and it does indicate which positions are notated for South Mary High School. I would like to confirm I'm clear on where we're at with these positions. What I think I heard is that the upgrades from direct all of the
other upgrades that we talked about that we're good moving forward. I'm not all the way clear with the one for chief operations officer. What I have notated is that we're moving forward, but we're going to wordsmith or work on the actual title. I just wanted to confirm that
I've heard that correctly. >> That's what I heard. >> I believe so. And then is the JD need to be updated also? >> So either way the JD has to be updated. Yeah. >> And and madam chair um there are um I and I heard what Dr. Cam
Dr. James was saying about some people were being um doing the work but they were not in alignment to what they weren't being >> compensated >> compensated or at that. But we also have to also acknowledge just for the record that there are other other staff member
in the district that are not aligned yet and that at some point we have to consider looking at that based on those wage studies. So, um just because they didn't get it now doesn't mean that they may not get it later on um if they ask for people to be upgraded because I know that there are people that are lower
than these positions that are um that um their supervisors put in for them to get upgraded but they did not get those upgrades. Correct. >> Not entirely. So this so there were requests for upgrades for salary salary
and where those land. So what we're doing here, we're talking about positions and actual position upgrades. So those conversations will come when we're actually upgrading and looking at the actual salary schedule. So it's two different two different things. But I I hear you.
So any other >> So are we going to be clear on that position? We're we're worksmithing the title. >> That that's what I've that's what I've taken note of. Yes. >> But it's staying at the salary schedule of 96. >> Correct. >> That's fine with me. Perfect.
>> How where does the rest of the board land on that? >> Okay, that's perhaps the salary schedule's come around, we'll create a 95 or maybe there was one before. I I don't know. I'm >> So the only thing I would um say with
that, if you all remember, and I know it's probably been two years now with the salary schedules, um when we had that compensation study, they actually said we had too much going on. We have like 20 plus salary schedules in the different lines. So that I don't know just adding one if we were going to
change some of it. I really would think we should look at actually revamping it which was part of their um >> they talked about collapsing some of them. Correct. >> Correct. Because the it's um it's hard to move and progress through because we someone's like, "Oh, I don't like this
number. Let's add." And so you kind of add it in there um without looking at it in totality. Of course, we move at the direction when it comes to this for the board, but the recommendation based on the compensation study we had would not be to add that. >> Understood.
>> Uh, attorney Powers, >> let's see. Is this working there? Okay. >> Yep. >> Um, Dr. Campbell correctly pointed out there's a lot of numbers being asked to be considered by the board. Um, I just want to point out that as of right now,
uh, statewide there are a number of financial audit audits that are con constantly going on regarding funding. Um, boards get caught up in that because of budget and finance being your two roles and responsibilities. If you feel uncertain at all, board,
about the numbers and what the amounts are going to be, I would guide the board toward making sure you ask the questions and get those numbers satisfied, maybe received in an email or whatever the case may be, so that you feel
confident going in and making this whatever decisions that you're giving rather than rapidly giving consensus at one time when I don't think any of us know what total numbers there are here. So, >> well,
>> I'm just I I'm advising the board, not advising staff to do anything. I'm advising the board to look cautiously and carefully at this because these are the things that I've seen in other districts having difficulties with
perhaps completely justified expenses and perhaps completely justified personnel changes. Um, but they needed to ensure that they spelled it out, that they indicated they were on uh the same page with it and that they understood
what they were asking for and how they were doing it. And I'm certain, I have great faith in our HR and our finance staff to be able to whip up whatever you need to be able to consider that, but the board needs to be able to say that that those items have been considered.
>> Yeah. Well, I think just as a point of clarity, it's already whipped up. It's already been done. That work's already been done. We were all individually briefed. If we want hard copies of what we were briefed on, it can be provided. >> And that that's the takeaway I had that you're asking that we upload the
highlights. Is there something else specific that you're referencing, Attorney Powers? >> What I'm referencing is the total number of payroll costs. Um, that's one. The total ranking. >> Yes, that's whipped up. We can up each board member feels confident and secure
of that then that's totally fine. >> I can tell you at this >> to ensure that you all make sure that you are >> I can tell you at this juncture I'm not comfortable and I'll tell you why because we see that snapshot in a oneh hour window we are not able to take that
with us. So, I looked at it for one hour and there was a lot of information that was given in that one hour and again not being able to have that not it being available to the public to view. I'm not comfortable with moving forward with this just yet. Um perhaps via email I
might get more comfortable. I mean again that's that's potentially an option here but I I need to see the dollars again. >> And this item is on the board agenda for Tuesday night. Is that correct? >> Not March 10th but the March 24th. >> Okay. I knew it. So that I'm thinking agenda reviews. Yeah. Yes. So it is on
the agenda for the 24th. So um it sounds like we would like to get the information that we were provided emailed to us and uploaded here to board docs. Board members, if you have further questions, you're absolutely can and have one-on-one conversations. And then the central office staffing plan is set
to come before the board uh in a little over two weeks which is a pretty significant date in the scope of planning as related to the district. Is that correct? >> That is correct.
>> Okay. >> And if we get the information emailed to us then we can express ourselves during board comment in five days from now. >> So I mean that that's fine. we we can have conversation on March 10th about this. >> So So my takeaway so far, the updates
that we're going to make, one is the title. We're going to work with that. Also, what we're going to do is upload to board docs the highlights, also the financial snapshot, the information that I read, and we'll also email that to each of the board members and we'll be sure to copy you as well, Attorney
Powers. Is that correct? Perfect. >> Correct. and we don't have another work session this month to put it on. Otherwise, that would be the recommendation I would make. Um, but because of spring break, we we don't have another work session. So, the board can work individually with HR. Um, we
have a public board meeting in about five days and then we'll have it on the agenda in two and a half weeks from now. >> Thank you, Miss Morat. >> Thank you. >> Is there any further comment from the board? >> Is there any public comment on the central office staffing plan?
All right, hearing none, um we will go into meeting reminders. There is a schoolboard meeting scheduled for March 10th, 2026 at 5:30 p.m. And then our next administrative briefing and work session that's regularly scheduled will not be until April. We do have a few
other um meetings coming up and I will reference those in the board meeting next Tuesday. Moving into board comments, Miss Martinez Jang, did you have any remarks? >> No, Madam Chair. attorney powers. >> Nothing from legal. Thank you, >> Dr. Burr. >> The only comment I'd like to make is you
probably noticed today there was um an update to expulsions for the next board meeting. Those will not come before you quite yet for a dispute because those are going to DOA. So, I want to make that clear that on April 2nd, we will
not have a special board meeting to hear those disputes because they're disputes of facts, not the consequences. Understood. Uh, Reverend Cummings, >> comments. >> Okay. Uh, Dr. Campbell, >> my only comment is in the last week I've
had the opportunity to go to basketball games and the new Oyola gymnasium as well as I already mentioned the volleyball game at Belleview High watching the scoreboard. Thank you board for the work that we have put in to ensure that we have adequate and
beautiful facilities um for those types of events that bring in lots of folks from the community. So the new gym's awesome >> board member Conrad. >> Here you go. I I'm good. I had turn it turned it off. Um thank you um chair. I
just have a few quick things. I I wanted to say thank you to South Ocala. Um this we earlier this week we did Read Across America. Um and I was paired with a class who um had several hearing impaired students and so really um hit
home hit close to home for me and so I actually took out my hearing devices. We had a little conversation. I wore their external mic um and so I always enjoy going going and reading with students but um reading the kissing hand with first graders this year was extra
special. So, I just wanted to say thank you um to the team at South Ocala because they do such a great job. Um everything's so organized and and beautiful and all the things. So, just thank you. It was a wonderful experience. Um I also wanted to share if you don't have plans tonight um the
Charlie Dixon choir is tonight at First Baptist Church. Sorry, I couldn't read my own writing. That's terrible. Um and so I've been able to go in the years past. Um, and it is just phenomenal to see so many young
people in a church uh, singing and performing. And so if you don't have plans plans and you need to be uplifted a little bit, I encourage you to stop by um, because it's it's a great time. Um, and lastly, I just I just want to thank
uh the board and community members for the conversation about SPAR today. Difficult conversations. I know there's more to come, but I just I really appreciate uh particularly the group from SPAR. Um everything I received via phone call, email, or even public
presentation was so respectful um even though it was heartfelt and and so important. So anyway, I just want to give a shout out to Spar and the Spar community um for their professionalism and kindness um during these difficult conversations. And that's all I have. Thank you, Chair.
>> Thank you, Bar Member Conrad. I I could not have said that better myself. Um I said to them actually as we went on a brief break after we concluded that item um it was it's incredibly refreshing to have constructive and professional and
responsible public disagreement um especially um in some of the things that this board has um participated in and and been um victim to throughout the course of this school year. It was it's been um very enlightening to be able to
participate in public discourse that is productive um and not accusatory, inflammatory, disrespectful. And so I'm grateful for that. Um I actually mentioned to one of the ladies who's spoken a few times, she sounds like she'd make a great school board member
one day. >> Agreed. Uh so um grateful for all of the public comment today and the work of the um staff. Dr. Brewery, your staff has worked tirelessly on a we had a lot of agenda items today. Proud that we are finishing right at about 2:00. Lots of
quality conversation and the team is very committed to making sure we balance a budget. We are in such a better place than most school districts. Um we really really are. And I know sometimes when you're just watching the headlines on the news locally or otherwise, it may be hard to believe that, but in comparison
to our 66 peers across the state, we really are for the most part sitting much better than most. And so while we have our own unique struggles and need to continue to make um challenging decisions to have excellent results, we are really sitting very good. And that's
in part due mostly to the wonderful staff that we have with our executive cabinet and Dr. Brewer and her leadership. So grateful for all of you. Um there being no further business, we will adjourn this work session at 2:9 p.m. Thank you everyone.