Welcome everyone to the Independent Citizens Referendum Oversight Committee. I apologize that we're starting three minutes late. That is fully my responsibility. Um we will start if everyone will please uh uh stand and we'll do the pledge of allegiance. >> I pledge allegiance to the flag of the
United States of America >> to the republic for which it stands one nation indivisible with liberty and justice for all. Well, thank you. I uh appreciate everyone who's here. Uh Dr. Brewer and
staff and um I know uh board member Conrad texted me that she was not able to make it but wanted to express her gratitude for everything this board does. Um and so with that, let's do our uh roll call.
>> Okay. Um I have quite a few names, so either Oh. Thank you. Um, Angie, would you start us, please? >> Angie Lester, >> Ken Osley, >> Jennifer Edgars,
>> Diana Williams, and Melanie Lyster. >> All right, very good. That's quorum, correct? >> Yes. Okay. Excellent. Um, so acceptance of the minutes from the last meeting, we I think there was a brief discussion
that uh Jane came a few minutes late and um didn't end up on those. So we need to make that correction of her being present at the meeting, but with that correction, I would um accept a motion to approve those minutes. >> Second. >> Motion to approve.
>> Motion to approve. Second. >> All in favor? >> I. >> All right. Motion passes. All right. Um, well, I say Dr. Brewer, but uh, let's start with the district overview. So, >> great. Well, good afternoon or almost
evening. Happy New Year to the members of the committee. Thank you for being here. Uh, thanks to the staff for being here as well. I'm Mr. Robert Rios Wells, Chief Financial Officer, Marian County Public Schools. Um today we're going to be going through um our regular quarterly presentation for referendum
and we have a few uh presenters uh that are here. And uh before, you know, I jump into it, I just really want to point out um that we really look forward to these presentations because it gives us an opportunity to talk about how these referendum dollars are being used
responsibly, transparently, and uh have the greatest impact on our students, our staff, and our community. Um so with that I'm going to go through and just introduce our uh presenters. We have slide
uh Charity Cornelison coordinator physical education. Katherine OD coordinator career and technical education Hughes coordinator media related instructional services. Brooke Hudo coordinator visual and
performing arts. uh and Miss Charity Courtney Leon will be presenting on her her behalf. Um Mark Ingram, coordinator K through 12 academics and Mr. Dennis McFaten, executive director for Safe Schools. I am a little parched to this
evening, so if I have to clear my throat, please excuse me. Okay, so we're going to jump into it here with our overview. As a quick reminder, um, our one mill advalorum property tax was approved November 8th,
2022, uh, and became effective July 1st, 2023, running through June 30th of 2027. These funds can be used only for very specific purposes like reading, PE, art, music, library, and media, and
vocational programs. They also help us meet our class size requirements and help us to maintain our uh certified ret excuse me s retain our certified teachers, pair professionals and support our school safety initiatives.
These voter approved funding, this voter approved funding uh shows just how committed the community is to quality education uh safe and enriching environments. From the time the referendum began, including this year's budget, we expect
to collect about $262 million in total. Our projected revenues, excuse me, our projected expenditures are about $252 million. So, a very large amount of money uh since the time of its inception
to current. And we hope that that can continue into the foreseeable future. On the next slide of the financial overview, you'll see a couple pie charts here. And so to date, we've received total revenues of about 14% and
expenditures tracking closely at around 38% which reflects solid responsible management keeping funds aligned with our planned priorities. As I mentioned earlier, the next slide goes through our current
year budget uh of $42 million in total expenditures. These dollars are distributed across all program areas, as you'll see in the next few slides, supporting our teachers, students, and essential programs that make a difference uh every day. And as you can
see from the slide, um, our kindergarten professionals at 5.7, physical education at almost $10.2 million, uh, vocational, library, and media at almost 4.5, art at
5.3, and music at 5.8. And rounding us out with professional development with the smallest share, but certainly very important at almost $900,000. and school safety at a little north of 7 million. The next slide gives us a historical uh
overview. Um and so here from 2021 through the first quarter of 2526 it's helpful to really point out that over time these funds have really helped us to provide uh stability consistency and sustained support for these critical
instructional areas. Um, and as you can tell by the overtime uh charts there, that class size reduction over time has received the largest share, the line share of dollars over time, totaling some upwards of $55
million with phys physical education coming in at about half of that amount over the same period. and the vocational uh library and media, art, music, and professional development and school safety rounding us out. So, I just
wanted to mention and it's important to point out that the lion share of those dollars are going towards class size reduction. We're going to talk about fund balance in the next slide. So, at the end of 2425 school year,
we had an ending fund balance of $13.3 million, which rolled into 2526. For this year, we're budgeting $41 million in revenue, $42 million in expenditures, leaving a fund balance of about $12 million that we expect at the
end of this year. Any unspent referendum dollars will be carried forward into the next year, ensuring that we can maintain program continuity. Just as a reminder, the funds are restricted and they can only be used for
the purposes approved by the voters. And then lastly, as we take a closer look at the general funds, we'll also do a review of the charter school allocation separately, uh, as we are statutoily required to pass on funds to
the charter schools here in Marian County. Okay. So, I'm going to talk first about our kindergarten pair professionals. So, our total budget for kindergarten pair professionals is $5.7 million and
we've spent about $2.6 million so far. This helps to fund 161 pair professionals. This is a lot of folks that do critical work in the classroom with some of our uh youngest and most vulnerable students who really need that support at an early age. Pair
professionals are an allowable expense under the referendum funding because they directly support learning in the classroom uh classroom instruction which both align with educational purposes outlined in the referendum. Referendum dollars can be used to fund staffing positions and
enhance instructional support, improve student outcomes, and maintain manageable class sizes. Pair professionals play a vital role in these areas by assisting teachers with instruction, providing individual or small groupoup support, and helping meet
the diverse needs of students. With that, I'm going to turn it over to Miss Charity Cornelius, who's going to walk us through um the funds that are used to support uh physical education, which is uh the next largest share of where the dollars have been going for
the last few years. So with that, Mr. J Cornel, make sure I haven't skipped forward too far. Excellent. All right. First of all, thank you so much for taking the time to be here and giving us the opportunity to really share out things that we may not have the chance to share out, not just with
you all, but with everyone who might be tuning in and listening or watching this at a later date. Because referendum dollars fully fund physical education teachers, our students receive highquality instruction that is intentional, inclusive, and impactful. Here you see MCPS students
participating in the stackup event in November where they actually helped set a Guinness World Record for the most people sport stacking at multiple locations. More than 784,000 participants worldwide and our students were a part of that achievement. While
the world record is exciting, the real value is what students gained through the experience. Sport stacking develops focus, perseverance, coordination, and sportsmanship. Students practice goal setting, learn from mistakes, and celebrate success together. These outcomes don't happen by
chance. They are result of certified physical education teachers who design lessons that engage every learner and build confidence and resilience. This is what referendum funding supports. Educators who create meaningful learning experiences that help students succeed
both in and beyond the classroom. This slide showcases the elementary soccer jamboree. And if you've been on the board for any length of time, you see this about this time of year every year. Another example of how physical education builds lifelong skills.
This year was our largest group to participate ever with 14 Marian County elementary schools. They came together at the Rotary Sportslex for an event focused on sportsmanship, teamwork, and fun. Physical education teachers served as both instructors and coaches,
ensuring the environment emphasized respect, effort, and positive behavior, not just competition. For many students, this was their first experience participating in an organized athletic event. Physical education provides a safe place to take risks, learn how to
handle challenges, and grow through both success and adversity. These experiences help students develop confidence, perseverance, and social skills that carry into the classroom and everyday life. Again, referendum funding makes this possible by supporting the professionals who plan, organize, and
lead these opportunities for students. This slide highlights a broader community impact of physical education. By the numbers, this soccer event included 14 elementary schools, 30 physical education teachers and soccer
coaches, 336 student athletes, 20 high school student volunteers, and more than 150 parents, and spectators. We've seen higher parent attendance this year than ever before, which reinforces how physical education connects schools,
family, and community. I also want to recognize our volunteers from Vanguard High School's teacher academy. Their support was essential to the success of this event and they served as outstanding role models for our elementary students. Seeing older students lead, encourage, and give back
reinforces leadership, responsibility, and the value of service. This event reflects the ripple effect of investing in physical education teachers. When we fund educators, we create opportunities that build resilient students, foster sportsmanship, engage families, and
inspire future leaders. This is the return on the investment of referendum funding, and it's one we're proud to share. Thank you. >> Thank you, Charity. Let's move to the next slide. Okay. So,
um this is a breakout of the physical education dollars. So, as you can see here, $10 million budget with $3.9 million spent to date or about 40%. Um so, these funds cover things like salaries, benefits, uh for 106 PE
teachers and 24 PE techs plus capital outlay for equipment, materials, and supplies. Okay. All right. With that, we're going to go to the next area, which is vocational programs. And I'm going to ask Miss Kathy OD to come up and share some updates.
>> Good afternoon. We're fortunate we're fortunate to offer 35 CTE pathways to students that encompass encompasses over 14 career clusters and touches 15,000 students in our district. Um, I always like to start off and share that same line because I feel like it's so
impactful for our students and just to see the broad number of students that we're touching in all the different career areas. Referendum helps us to support some of the teacher units for these programs, but it helps us to provide equipment um, industry standard equipment for all of
the programs. So shown here in the picture are a few of our recent student events that took place. The top picture shows Westport Engineering students on a tour of E1 in celebration of manufacturing day. We're fortunate to have very strong support from the Mid Florida Regional
Manufacturing Association. They helped us coordinate tours of E1 custom windows and Cardinal Glass to give our students a look at what's happening in industry. And then on the back side of that referendum helps us to bring that equipment and the things that they're seeing on those tours into our classrooms so our students can learn how
to use them. We are also in the full swing of student CTSO events. CTSOs are student leadership organizations that are tied to their specific CTE program. Um, a few that you may be familiar with are the Future Business Leaders of America and
the Future Farmers of America. We recently hosted 160 students at the district FFA event. At this competition, students are pre participating in leadership events such as public speaking and parliamentary procedure. We also hosted, and that's the bottom
picture there, the regional HOSA competition, which is our future health professionals competition for middle school students. We had over 170 students attend that event, and they'll go on to compete at their state competition this spring. And as we continue into the spring semester, we'll
continue hosting many more of these events for students. Now, I'd like to share some of the recent business and industry connections we've had in our CTE programs. This is just a highlight of the many activities we have going on this spring. In November, through a partnership with
Career Source, we hosted our annual Youth Career Expo. This event takes place at Circle Square Cultural Center and allows eighth grade students to interact with business and industry members and explore their high school opportunities for CTE. This year, we had a 425 students from across the district
attend that event. We also highlighted Vanguard High School as the fall site for the CTE and magnet showcase. At this event, we invite community and business members in to see the amazing things happening in our school during the school day. This year, we highlighted horiculture, vet assisting, future
educators, and the digital video program at Vanguard High. During the event, community members follow a studentled tour to see some of the hands-on learning our students participate in. Lastly, I'm excited to share that all of our CTE programs have local college
articulation agreements. This means that students who complete a program have the opportunity to earn free credit in that pathway if they choose to continue in it. During quarter 2, we were able to share with over 351 high school classes about this opportunity.
The referendum funds help us to provide these experiences and opportunities for students and we look forward to continue making these connections as the year progresses. Thank you, Kathy. Okay, and with that, I'm going to go over some numbers here. And um I was
able to get over to Marian Technical College and very much impressed with all of the programs there and the great work that they're doing um with these referendum dollars. So, uh with that, I'll go over their budget. $2.4 $4 million funding 16 vocational
uh teachers. So far, we've spent about 33% and this covers things like salaries, benefits, uh capital outlay, and purchase services. Uh purchase services include contracted work to expand programs like our new aviotics
program uh for the new high school. Uh, with that, I'm going to move on to the next area and ask Miss Breaking Hughes to come up and she's going to tell us what's happening in library and media programs. >> Good afternoon.
Media specialists on each of our campuses are busy at work preparing for the upcoming Celebrate Literacy Week. This year, the state is celebrating 250 chapters of America. Celebrate Literacy Week is designed to raise awareness about the importance of reading and to
inspire Florida students and families to make reading a priority in their daily routines. With the support of the staff across each campus, media specialists will support and participate in different reading challenges and activities throughout the week. Some of the ideas
that have been shared in preparation for this event include celebrate stories across America, dress for a decade, celebrate your chapter in America's story, guest readers, highlighting American history, and these are just some of the
few great ideas that are happening that week. I encourage you to visit a campus during Celebrate Literacy Week, which is January 26 through the 30th, and see the amazing things that are happening in our media centers across Marian County. Along with supporting statewide
initiatives, our media specialists also plan and host great events. Pictured here, Mr. and Mrs. Osley at Winding Oaks Elementary were reading books during a literacy event. So, that was exciting to see. I also got to participate in that. So that was amazing to be on those
campuses and or on that campus supporting read literacy. In another photo you can see the media specialist has created a book display asking students to identify the connections between the titles. And if you look closely the connections are 67 which if
you know anything about kids you know how popular that is right now. So it's great to see our media specialists diving into some pop culture to invite readers into their space. All of our media specialists are hard at work supporting learning in many ways on
each campus. Our community of students on each of our campuses continues to grow, which is a blessing, but can also create challenges for our media specialists to keep current and up-to-date resources available to all of our students. With a collection of over
700,000 books districtwide, our media specialists will often rely on each other to request and share collections from school to school through interl loans. This process has helped provide books of interest and keep books in hands of all of our students.
Each of our schools continues to boost circulation month over month to continue to build that love for literacy that we all know is valuable for all of our students. Finally, I would like to recognize two of our media specialists from an elementary school as well as a high
school. Shelley Kerr started her career as an educator in 1999 in Cleveland, Ohio. And in 2004, she and her family moved to to Florida and she taught in Lee County for over 10 years. In 2014, Mrs. Kerr joined Marian County Public
Schools where she taught at North Marian High, Lakewear High, and Lake Weir High before settling into her role as the media specialist at Wimita Park Elementary where she has been for the past 10 years. Throughout her time at Wimina Park, Mrs. Kerr has worked tirelessly to put quality literature
into the hands of her students and families at Wimina. Recently, Wimina transitioned from a tra a traditional elementary school to provide a year-round program to better suit the needs of the students and families that attend Wameita Park. Decreasing the number of weeks in the
summer has helped to prevent a loss of learning and provides the teachers and staff at Wita Park the opportunity to provide year-round access to [clears throat] high quality teaching and learning. Miss Kerr looks forward to many more years of designing literacy programming to grow her students into
lifelong readers and learners. Stephanie Sover joined Marian County Public Schools in January of 2014, transitioning from law librarian to high school media specialist at North Marian High School under the administrative leadership of Mr. White House and Dr.
Brewer. Over the last 12 years, Miss Silver has taken an additional taken on additional responsibilities within the school, including serving as a school web website master, afterchool tutoring coordinator, title title one liaison,
academic team, book club sponsor, new teacher academy contributor, and graduation coordinator, just to name a few of her extra projects that she takes on each year. Helping in different roles has allowed Misstover better under to better understand student and staff
needs with developing a meaningful and useful media center. Currently, Mistover is working on genreing the fiction collection to help support reluctant readers, boost reader book selection independence, and save students time with the ability to locate desired genre
faster. North Marian High's Media Center provides a balance of collegiate atmosphere and fun high school environment. It hosts a morning coffee shop engaging students in conversation and community. North Marian High also offers a study lounge, research
resources, and computer access for all of the students. Miss Silver's goal is to make the media center a place that fits the needs of all students, staff, and community. Thank you. >> Thank you. All right. By the way, board, it's a
great way to be involved to go read. We had a blast. And you see both my wife and I holding the book up. That's not because I needed help reading the book. That's because she's a fluent Spanish speaker. So, every book we did, we did in English and in Spanish. And by the end of each book, she had all
the non-speakers at least learning two or three Spanish words. It was totally fun. We had a blast. >> That's great. Well, certainly reading is is fundamental and I'm always glad to see, you know, two staff members that have joined us and are wearing multiple hats. uh it seems like a really good
return on investment. And with that, I'll go to the next slide uh which just walks through uh the budget for media and library, which is $4.4 million, of which we've spent $1.7 million to date, or about 39%.
Um that helps to fund 49 media specialists, including the two that you just heard about. It's doing some really good work in our schools. Uh the referendum dollars are crucial for our media centers. um they're really the hubs for learning, creativity, uh and
research. And so we're really thankful uh to have the support from the community because reading is fundamental and we know if children are reading uh and reading early and often, they can do anything and be anybody. With that, I'm going to ask Miss Charity Cornelius to come up and she's going to walk us
through uh what's going on with visual arts and music programs. Hello again. All right. The second quarter has been quite eventful for our fine arts programs. The
58th annual Ocala Arts Festival sponsored by Fine Arts for Ocala was held on October 25th through 26th at Citizen Circle in downtown Ocala. Approximately 1,800 pieces of student art were on display in grades K through 12. These pieces were judged and 12
awards of merit were given for elementary. First through fifth place for middle and high and an overall best of show award given for middle and high schools. We had seven of our elementary students receive an award of merit. In middle
school, our students placed fourth, third, second, and Rashny Vishanagra from Belleview middle or from Belleview took the middle school best in show. In high school, our students took fifth, third, second, first, and Corey Taylor
from Westport was our high school best and show winner. These students were all recognized at the FAFO awards reception on November 18th at the Appleton Museum. This quarter, we also held our first annual Superintendent Choice Award. On
October 24th, we held judging for this new award in conjunction with the 58th annual arts Okala Arts Festival. One piece of student artwork from each participating K through2 MCPS art program was selected by our panel of
judges which included Dr. Brewer, Mr. White House, Mr. Rebert, Mrs. Kard, and Mr. Frasier. All of the selected students were recognized at the November 11th schoolboard me. The final image displayed is by Camila
Kobak. I'm gonna say this wrong. Arbaninois, an eighth grade student at Belleview Middle School. She was selected to represent Marian County in this year's Art in the Capital competition. Authorized by Florida statutes, Art in
the Capital is a voluntary statewide visual arts competition that allows each school district to annually hold an art competition for all students in grades six through eight attending public schools, charter schools, private schools, and home education students in
Florida. The artwork was judged by a selection committee consisting of art teachers whose students did not submit work for the competition. and Camila's piece received 81% of the votes. A print of her piece will hang in the Capitol in
Tallahassee for the duration of the 2026 legislative session. In performing arts, we had nine of our schools from elementary to high school participate in the Ocala Arts Festival, showcasing their talents throughout the weekend at Citizen Circle. Pictured on
the left are five students from Dr. NH Jones who were selected from over 1,000 auditions to participate in the allstate ORF ensemble. Overall, 20 of our K12 students from Belleview Middle School, Howard Middle School, Belleview High
School, Forest High School, and Westport High School will represent MCPS in Florida all state ensembles in Tampa this week. This is actually where Brucato is right now. why I am filling it. At the FMEA state conference in
December, 14 of our middle and high school student band programs performed at the Ocala Christmas Parade. Pictured are some of our band and color guard directors who work so diligently to prepare their students for this 2.7 mile parade every year.
And I can attest to that because while I'm physical education, my son was in the band all through and he's at UF in the band now. but it is every bit of 2.7 miles. And finally, this quarter, our theater students across the county prepared to present a variety of events, including
musicals, costume, and makeup design, and their acting talents at the junior student thespians middle school and district thespians high school competitions. Horizon Academy received three superior and 13 excellent medals for their events at junior thespians.
Belleview High School received one superior, 90 excellent, and one good rating. Vanguard High School received four superior, and four excellent ratings. And Westport High School received 18 superior and 18 excellent ratings. This includes top honors for
three of their entries in duet acting, costume design, and makeup design. and their main stage play, Radium Girls, was only one of only 10 schools in the state that were asked to showcase their performance at the state thespian competition in Tampa in March. We are so
thankful to the voters of Marian County for their support of the referendum, which allows our students and teachers to have these incredible opportunities and to showcase their passion in the arts. Thank you. Thank you, Jody.
With that, I will go through uh some of our art financial information. Um so, here we have a couple of different um pie charts, graphs that articulate the $5.2 million budget that we have um this
year, of which we've spent $2 million uh so far. This helps support 55 art teachers, 12 paraprofessionals, and one half of a coordinator position. Next slide, I'm going to jump into uh
the music program, which I'm glad to hear um the last comments on her her son playing in the band and walking. That's great. It's like you get the physical education and and the music at the same time. So, I love to love to love to see it and hear it. U for the music program,
the budget is about $5.7 million and we've spent about $2.2 million to date. Uh these funds help support 56 music teachers, 12 pair of professionals, and one half of a coordinator position. Uh these funds help us to replace
instruments, refresh supplies, and sustain creative programmings that enrich uh the learning and inspire lifelong appreciation for the arts, which is critical. Uh many school districts uh don't have these resources available. So, we are really thankful for the support from the community uh to
be able to provide all of these various uh programs to enhance our students experience here in Marian County. With that, I'm going to ask Mr. Mark Ingram to come up and talk a little bit about professional leadership and learning.
>> Thank you. >> Good afternoon. >> I'm here to talk about professional leadership and learning and our induction and mentoring program. This slide shows the updated numbers from October for novice and early career teachers. Overall, we've gained 19
teachers into our induction and mentoring program, which is funded through referendum funds. First year teachers all receive a one-on-one mentor, while the sitebased lead generally supports all career or second all early career or secondyear teachers.
Stipens for the year as follows. 2,200 for each sitebased lead, 1,100 for each mentor and all teachers attending new teacher academy and mentor professional learning opportunities receive a stipen for their time as well. These are the topics for our
professional learning sessions called New Teacher Academy and New Teacher Academy 2.0. In September, we covered the classroom environment. We do separate our first year and early career secondyear teachers into the new teacher academy and 2.0 so that we're able to go
deeper into the topics with our 2.0 group. Uh in November we did lesson plan to action plan which was really about instructional delivery with students and then January we worked on engagement which was a district-wide priority. And
then in March and April, we'll do makeup sessions where we'll repeat those topics for our new hires or people who maybe weren't able to attend uh the other sessions. And then for our mentors, we also provide professional learning to help them support our teachers to give them
that support. In August, we we talked about program implementation and mentor responsibilities. In October, we talked about coaching conversations. As you can see pictured, we're doing a a role-play conversation activity with a mentor, teachers, coaching new teachers. Uh and
then in February, we'll cover goal setting and providing feedback so that we can keep our teachers on that path to greatness. Thank you. >> Thank you. >> Thank you, Mark. So with that, let's jump into some
financial information. So for professional development um I think it goes without saying how critically important this is as we have so many new teachers novice teachers first year you know first year teachers it's really important uh that we have this continuous support from referendum
dollars as you can see here uh the budget for this is $624 uh000 of which we've spent about $39,000 uh so far so it's gradually ticking up and we expect that uh expenditure uh
appropriation to increase over time. And again, similarly, this helps to directly, you know, invest in our educators providing training, mentorship, collaboration uh opportunities uh for these staff, which is really important. Um this ongoing
investment strengthens our teaching practices, supports innovation, and ensures the staff have the leadership skills and tools they need to be successful every day in the classroom. Uh, with that, I'm going to move to the next section, which is school safety. And I'm going to ask Mr. Dennis Madden
to come up. Good afternoon. The safe schools department continues to focus on the prevention, preparedness, and rapid response while maintaining compliance with statemandated school safety requirements. Referendum funds
approved by the voters are used to support security personnel, safety technology, and infrastructure improvements across Marian County Public Schools. The largest share of this quarter's referendum spending supported the school resource officer program,
which continues to be the foundation of our campuses security strategy. This quarter payments included $17,957 to the Belleview Police Department, $42,183 to the Okeella Police Department, and
$768,750 to Maran County Sheriff's Office for a total of8 $828,890. >> I'm so sorry. Um, does that mean that the balance of that um is paid out of the general fund? >> Yes, ma'am. Yes.
Uh these funds ensure consistent daily law enforcement presence on school campuses, allowing school resource officers to build relationships with students, respond quickly to emergencies, participate in threat assessments, and provide safety
education. Without referendum funding, the district would face major challenges to sustain this level of staffing or meet the state safety requirements. Additional expenditures included required employment cost for a new safe
schools officer with the with the safe schools department. Newly hired officers must go through drug screening and physical examinations prior to employment. These costs are part of a standard onboarding procedures and ensure compliance with health and
safety requirements prior to the assignment to school campuses. The safe schools department also hired a crisis response coordinator in September of of last year to handle emergency management for the district. This position also requires the employee to swiftly will require the employee to swiftly respond
to locations during emergency situations. Therefore, a dedicated vehicle is required. A purchase order was submitted in December utilizing referendum funds for $36,000. Um, but this it'll be paid uh once the
vehicle gets in, but right now it's it's we're still waiting on it. The district also continue to use the raptor visitor and volunteer management system to support consistent visitor screening and control access across the schools. This is uh our raptor reunification and
volunteer management system is a daily use uh tool. Um, every every person that comes onto the campus of of all of our schools are ran through this volunteer or this raptor system to ensure that they meet the Jessica Launcher.
Investments were also made to maintain and improve on the communications infrastructure for the 800 megahertz mobile radios that were placed in all school buses and safe schools vehicles in December 2023. A total of $48,136
was spent this year for a frame up frameware upgrade to the district's radio system, ensuring reliable and secure communications between school buses, safe school staff, and public safety partners. This upgrade improves system performance and long-term
reliability, supporting both routine operations and emergency response. But the district would also like to recognize the contributions of Alphonso Gordon, a radio systems manager for the public safety communications, whose leadership was instrumental in advancing
radio system upgrades that support district communications to local public safety access points. Although Al passed away in August of 2023, his work significantly strengthened system reliability and coverage across the district. Al was very passionate about
radio communications because his wife worked in the transportation department and we he realizes the void that was missing there and we have so many incidents as we see now on our school buses and out in the community and although they're not on school property
or school grounds the need for that response for law enforcement to get there in a timely manner for fights and different things. Um people parent some we've had instances where parents are getting on the school buses. We had an instance a year or so ago where a parent actually, you can see him on the video,
walking by with a firearm to confront another parent. So, his desire to get this radio communication on our buses was very instrumental. The improvements implemented under his recommendations continue to support daily operations and emergency communications throughout
Maring County Public Schools. As a result of these investments, the district has maintained consistent safety measures, improved communications reliability, and strengthened oversight of campus access. This oversight committee continues to provide essential
review and accountability of safe schools expenditures. Rising costs related to school resource officer contracts and safety infrastructure remain an area for ongoing monitoring as the district continues to prioritize student and staff safety through the
responsible use of referendum funds. Thank you. >> Thank you. >> Yeah, there's a question. Uh Mr. McFaden, I think we have a question. >> Just to clarify, are those radios on the buses linked in with MCSO and OPD?
They're linked directly to the Maring County Sheriff's Office. The city of Okeella is working on some type of uh coordination between them and the sheriff's office to where it'll go directly to their dispatches. But right now, it's just the county that's on the 800 megahertz system. And we're hoping
that there's some type of collaboration between the two agencies to where they'll be working together to to where the the city will get 800 megahertz. Uh right now once uh radio is used the sheriff's office has to kind of patch
the city through to the emergency and and let them know the location of the bus and where to respond. >> Thank you, Dennis. Um really pleased to hear that we can honor Mr. Gordon's uh legacy with this particular project. It
is vitally important that students feel safe at school and we're very thankful to be able to have the resources uh to butress those safety uh efforts and countermeasures that we need to have in place uh on all of our campuses and access points. With that being said, I'll jump into a little bit of the the
numbers here uh for safe schools at $6.7 million uh budget that you have there in front of you. And we've spent about $1.9 million uh so far. And again, these dollars are used to ensure that our schools are safe and welcoming environments where our students can
learn and thrive every day. With that, I'm going to pivot a little bit and I'd like to call this version kind of the the miniature school version, the charter school version. It's effectively miniature version of what we've previously gone through, but
just for the charter schools specifically. So, as I said said in my opening comments, the charter schools uh statutoily are required uh to receive a portion of funds. And so, I'm going to go through what that looks like.
So, this next slide has the total budget expenditures of almost $900,000. and you'll see the breakout uh for all of the various areas that mirror the same areas that the district also has
which are um legally binding and restricted uh by the referendum vote. So you'll see their class size reduction, phys physical education, vocational programs, media, library, art, music, professional development and school
safety. The next slide talks about the total actual expenditures for the program which right now stand at about $450,000. And as you can see from going left to right on the schedule, classrooms
reduction sits at about 89,000 for the previous fiscal year. Uh and right now things um are charter schools are continuing to make those uh funding uh decisions in terms of procurement. I just want to uh remind the committee
that uh MCPS does not control uh the charter schools. Obviously they have to meet the requirements of how the funds should be spent. Uh but they are autonomous. So the next section you see there is physical education again library and
media, art, music, professional development and school safety which as you can see represents the line share of where they've decided to uh allocate uh their funds. The next slide here goes through physical education total budget of
$158,000. We spent about 50% to date which uh represents mostly uh purchase services. Next slide, we're going to go through art. U very similar here. $53,000 total
budget. Uh we've spent about 50% of that or 26,500 or as I should say, the charter schools have spent about 50% of that. For the music programming for charter schools, their budget stands at $80,000
and they have spent about 50% of that or $40,000 um to date. The next slide goes through professional development total budget at $235,000. They spent about 50% of that or $117,000
uh to date and tracks very similarly to what u the district itself uh uses those dollars for. Again, those those categories uh track and mirror closely for safe schools. So again, the line
share at $370,000 uh total budget with $186,000 spent to date by the charter schools. With that, that pretty much wraps us wraps us up and I will go through with
some closing comments um that we are extremely thankful uh to the committee it support uh and I do hope that as we enter um you know this new year and we're here uh we have a vote coming
up in November and the staff uh team look forward to continuing to share uh information with the committee. city and we hope that we continue to have your support uh and going out into the community and sharing the good work, the good oversight work that you've been
doing uh to make sure that dollars are being spent for what they um the voters uh have chose to spend those dollars on. And then in November, we'll have another vote and hopefully be able to lay the groundwork for another four-year uh
period of time uh which would cover uh July 1st of 2027 through June of 2031. Uh so with that, unless there's any other questions, uh that concludes uh the presentation. I do want to thank all
of the staff uh and of course yourselves for being here and supporting us. Can I ask a question? >> Yeah, a question. >> Um, I just noticed that on the handout for the referendum funded units, we have
a couple schools, Ward Highlands and Harborview, that are 1.4 for um, art and music and then 1.6. Um, the remainder of the schools are whole numbers. So I was just curious
as to is the again like the SRO's is the balance coming from the general fund? >> Uh that that would be correct. >> Okay. >> Yes. >> May I ask? >> Yes, please. Uh ask away by the way questions.
>> Uh professional development. Can you hear me? Okay. >> Yes, ma'am. >> The professional development area has decreased over the last two years pretty pretty significantly. Is that we're just moving dollars to cover bases or is that
lack of interest is so it's actually a reflection of the fact we're hiring less new teachers. Um and part of that is we had a reduction in units as you all recall. We we did some serious budget cuts uh coming into this school year and part of that was to eliminate a number of positions uh when
we adjusted class size and so we had less new teachers coming in that then needed to be trained using our mentor program. >> Okay. Thank you. >> All right. Any other questions? >> Okay. I didn't have it. >> No, go ahead. >> So I I submitted a question about the
allowable expenses under the professional development. um not not towards um Marian County public schools, but it actually stems from the charter school expenses. Um their their uh
allocation has increased significantly in that category and it is budgeted to go towards salary and benefits. So I was just wondering what type of um positions would that fall under? We use ours for stipens.
So, I'm I'm just curious like what type of positionings would they be spending that type of money on? >> Not sure. Yeah, come on up. Sorry. [clears throat] >> So, really two things could be a possibility. One is hiring a a on-site
professional developer um which in the past we've had those in place. We have a professional development team that we fund mostly out of our general fund. And so, a charter school would not have access to that because um they obviously are their own entity. Um, they would also have the opportunity to hire folks
to come in and provide some on-site training, which a lot of our charter and private schools do, is they'll contract with somebody um, who can come in in the summer or the fall or or, you know, at the semester break, etc. to be able to provide some on-site training for their staff. >> Okay, that makes sense. Thank you.
>> Um, quick, we don't have any control over that, right? >> No. >> Uh, that is correct. As Mr. White House pointed out, they are autonomous. They have their own uh financial books statements. Um we do not control um their allocations, but we are required
to allow them to share in those funds. >> All right. There aren't any more questions. Maybe we get Mr. White House to come back up um and address an issue I have on there for the new high school athletic startup expenses. we had an email exchange and and I wanted him to
present this to the board for us uh for potential approval. >> Yes. Thank you, chair. Um so, as most you I'm sure are aware, we are getting ready to open a new high school this August, South Marian High School, which is located in the southernmost part of the county in the back of Marion Oaks. If you haven't had a chance to get by
there, it is a beautiful campus. Um it's made a lot of progress. Um the unique thing about South Marion, though, is this is a a school we're starting from scratch. The last school we opened was 25 years ago. It was Forest High School, which was a replacement school. Um, most of the things that Forest owned traveled
over to the new school with them. And so there's not as much things to buy. With a startup school that's brand new, uh, we have a lot of expenses, uh, that come with that school. Um, so we we are already looking at budgets that we've created out of the referendum funds to
cover art and music expenses, uh, purchasing band equipment, music equipment, art equipment, CT equipment. So all those things we know are a part of the the referendum allowance. Um but one of the expenses that we ran into that we just wanted to bring to the committee and get some feedback from you
all to make sure you agree this is an allowable expense before we move forward is with athletic equipment for the high school. Um so as you know our high schools have very large athletic programs for both boys and girls. Um athletic programs require equipment.
They also require uniforms. Um, typically our high schools fund raise for those. The teams do fundraisers during the year to be able to purchase new equipment, purchase new uniforms, etc. Um, however, these teams will not exist until school opens in August and
the athletic competitions start in August, which does not provide them any time to be able to do any type of fundraising. Um, so we've priced out being able to purchase new uniforms and equipment for all the boys and girls programs um at that school at roughly $350,000,
a ballpark number. Um, in our in our interpretation of this, we can say that that falls within physical education. And obviously athletic programs are an extension of physical education for our students. But um as this is something unique that we have not done in the
past, we just want to make sure that we um shared that information with you all to gather some feedback and make sure you all agreed with our interpretation before making any purchases. >> Yeah. Thank you. You know, like I said, we had this uh conversation via email.
Um I looked at, you know, the the ballot language, looked at everything, looked at the the situation. I personally don't have an issue with it. Um I don't I don't have an issue with the funds being used in that way, but I wanted the board to weigh in on that.
>> Uh so the funds would come from the fund balance that has either rolled over or will be left over at the end of the year. >> Yes, that's correct. Which is what we typically want for for fund balance expenses would be a one-time expense, not a recurring cost. And these obviously would be one-time expenses.
And then anything beyond that, the school teams will be responsible for fundraising. >> Is that going to infringe on any of the other benefits, >> other mean the other programs that we have in here? No. As uh Mr. Welsh shared at the beginning, we've got about $13 million in roll forward, which is ample
for us to be able to start off the new year. Um so we anticipate having a healthy fund balance. So even with a $350,000 expense out of here, it would certainly not it it would not detract from any of the programs we just shared. It would come from the fund balance but still allow us to carry it forward without any problem going into next year.
>> Okay. I don't see a problem with that. >> Yes. >> I would just say at high school it's really hard to start in a new school if it's legal for us to use these funds to help the kids get excited about doing something like that. I think it makes a lot of sense. >> Yeah.
>> Anybody else? >> Yep. I'd just like to make a comment that it's a one-time expense for that school, but any other new schools that we have, then we would need to provide for them as well, it seems. >> Yes, correct. Uh, we don't have any new high schools on the horizon. Um, the
only new secondary school we have on the horizon is Lake Middle, which is a replacement school. So, similar to Forest, all of the things that Lake owns would travel with them. Their band equipment, their art, music supplies, all that stuff. So, it's much more minimal in amount of what we would have to purchase for that school.
>> What about their music uh instruments and stuff than if we're providing uh uniforms? Are we also providing the musical instruments for the >> Yes. For South for South Mar High School? Yes. So, we um we have a whole budget list uh working with our coordinators that just presented today
that we came up with for purchasing all new band equipment. Um we we no longer require students in high school to bring band equipment. When I played in high school, we had to supply our own instruments, but we we supply everything now because they are really expensive and most students can't afford to bring them in. So, we plan to purchase all new
musical instruments for their band program. Um, we plan to purchase things for their course program. Um, all of the art music PE programs. >> Yeah. Was that that was factored into the budget those? >> Yes. >> Yeah. This one was just because it
wasn't because it was after school physical activity. It was it was the sports programs that it was it was a little bit more of a gray area. So, we wanted to have this conversation, but the other things are already factored in and covered. Correct. >> Y >> like the library books and all that
stuff. >> Yes, we will purchase all new library books for South Mar out of the referendum >> out of referendums. Any other questions or concerns? So, it sounds like >> a go. >> It's a go. This board's good with it.
So, >> I I don't I don't know if we need to if if we agree that it that it it meets the ballot language and that it's an approved expense, then I think we're just overseeing that that's the case. So, I don't know if we need a motion for
that. >> That was correct. >> Yeah. >> All right. Great. >> Thank you for your feedback. Yep. Um, couple things. Uh, in keeping with my showing up three minutes late, I also sent you the annual
report right before this meeting, so it is in your packet. I don't know if anybody's had a chance to take a look at it. Um, but I would like for us to be able to approve that. Um it is uh similar to last year's though we um I
updated some of the reports that we get and some of the things that we that we uh looked at. So if you could just take a minute, it's not a super long report uh just to to briefly look at that and then we can approve it. Dr. for Brewer. While they are reading
that, um, we should be having our annual meeting. Right now, you want us just to handle that directly. I know in the past that the school board attorney has been here to kind of help guide that. I think we can
muddle our way through if that's okay. >> Okay, we'll muddle our way through. That sounds great. All right. >> Motion to approve your annual report. >> All right. So, there's a motion to approve the annual report. Is there a second? >> I second. >> All in favor? >> I.
>> Any opposed? All right. Dr. Bur, you now have an official report for from us. Um, all right. So, what we need to do as a board is Oh, actually one last thing before we move into to organizational meeting. Um, is there any public
comment? Anybody from the public who wants to address the board? All right. Seeing none, that's requirement by the way of our of our bylaws. Uh organizational meeting. We uh
this is when we elect officers for the year. I know this our terms of membership are two years with the school board members allowed to reappoint for two more years. We're just going to move forward because is anybody at the four-year mark?
>> I think I am. [laughter] I've been a board member since 2016. >> Okay. But maybe a different school board member appointed you. All right. [laughter] So, we'll look we'll look closer into that um as as we move ahead. But why
don't we do this? Why don't we elect officers for this year, set our dates, which are two things that we're required to do uh per our bylaws, and then we can revisit at our next board meeting. Uh board I I'll get with Dr. Brew and her
team to to get with to see where we're at with appointments and reappoints and terms to make sure that we're in compliance. And if if we're not, we can fix that at the next meeting. Does that work for everybody? >> Okay. All right. So
with that um as you guys saw from our last the uh this year obviously I I was chair uh Mr. Magwood Floyd Magwell was vice chair and and Melanie was secretary. Um Mr. Magwood is not here right now.
>> How convenient. >> Yeah. [laughter] >> What's that? >> Yeah. So, I'm I'm a little bit um I don't necessarily want to um elect somebody for the chair position who is not here to agree to the chair position.
So, with that in mind and and maybe we could reelect him to the vice chair position is would anybody else up here be interested in serving as our chair? I see some >> How about you?
>> Yes. Why did I go from secretary to >> because Floyd didn't show up? Is that a motion to >> Yes, a motion. >> That's a motion to uh >> That makes somebody else has to do the minutes. >> Yes. [laughter] So, we have a motion.
>> We have a motion. >> Do we have a second? >> Second. >> All right. So, we have a motion and a second uh for Melanie to serve as board chair this year. Any other discussion on that? >> All right. Um hearing none. Uh, all in favor say I. >> I. >> Any opposed? All right. Melanie, you'll
serve as I I Does anybody want to maybe nominate Mr. Magwood to serve again as vice chair? He's not here, but that's what he gets for not being here. >> Yeah. >> Oh, as long as he accepted. >> As long as he accepts. >> Yeah. >> Yeah. All right. Is this a motion? Do we
have a second? >> Second. All right. Motion to second. Any other discussion? All right. All in favor say I. >> I. >> Any oppose? All right. that passes. And then secretary, you've you've done it before. >> I've done it before many, many times.
>> It It really is about keeping the minutes is the big part of that. Correct. >> That's correct. >> Now, this is all recorded. So, it's not like you can't >> That's what I do. >> Yeah. >> I go back and watch it. >> You can go back and watch the recording and and do your minutes. And I bet AI
you could probably just download it into chat GPT and it'll create the minutes for you. >> But that's not what I do. [laughter] I help it gets help but it's not. But anyway, >> so anybody volunteering for that position?
>> Angie, >> anyone on that volunteer? >> No. >> All right. All right. So, Angie's willing to do it. All right. Is there a uh is there a motion for that? >> Second. >> All right. Any other discussion? >> All right. All in favor say I.
>> I. All right. All right. Great. >> Um, if it's okay with this board then, um, if you want to send out like we'll stay on the I think the quarterly that we have been. So, you can work with Elena
and the staff to set specific dates. It's usually the >> I believe we did that last meeting. It's in it's in the minutes. >> Correct. Um, so we set it for the second Thursday, third Thursday. >> And so those are in the previous minutes.
>> All right. >> Yeah, that's right. Okay. >> Oh, for all of them? >> Yeah. >> Oh, okay. >> All right. So, Dr. Brewer. >> Yes. Good evening. I just want to say take a minute just to say thank you so much for all of your work that we really
appreciate this oversight committee. um because as you know we value this referendum and we could not truly do what we do in the schools every single day without the voters voting for this referendum. So I just want to take a moment to thank you and to remind you of
the ICROC school visits that are taking place on January 28th and 29th. So I know you have that you have it on your calendar. If you have any questions or if you need help on locations please let us know. But again thank you for your time. >> Dr. Dr. Burr, I would like to extend a
thank you and to let your staff know that we we know preparing these documents and going over all this is very time consuming and I just want to extend a thank you to them. >> Thank you. We have an amazing team. So, >> yes, you do. >> Thank you.
>> All right. If there is no other comments or concerns, I think we can adjourn. >> Okay. >> Thank you guys. >> Yep. Thank you. >> Um, Angie, go ahead and mo note the time
of of German cuz I