heat heat [Music]
good evening and welcome to the march 11th 2025 meeting of the marian county school board it's called to order mirroring and modeling the way our students begin each day i ask that we observe a moment of silence at this time please join me thank
you reverend cummings would you please read the board commitment st statement yes ma'am madam chair 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 individually
responsible to work well together we must demonstrate respect confront reality and be accountable we'll always put students first we will leave a legacy of success thank you for the courtesy of those listening to the meeting i am requesting everyone in the audience to please turn off their
electronic devices or put them on vibrate later in the meeting up to 30 minutes will be provided for individuals to address the board on matters concerning the operation of the marian county school system or the school board only presentations to the board are limited to five minutes and are
televised if you wish to address the board regarding a regular agenda item or matters on which the board customarily takes action you must first complete a peach form that is located in the lobby if you wish to address the board regarding a public hearing or a student
discipline matter please complete a lime green form these forms must be fully completed and received by the board to the board clerk no later than 5:40 p.m the procedures applicable for each are on separate sheets good evening miss martinez can you please call the role
good evening dr allison campbell district 1 here mrs lori conrad district two here mr eric cummings district three here mrs nancy thrower district 4 here dr sarah james district 5 here khloe costix forest high school carson switzer north marian high school here dr diane
gullet superintendent here mr jeremy power school board attorney here thank you miss martinez dr gullet please share information about who will be inspiring us this evening and leading in our pledge good evening madam chair members of the board well i think it's important that we always start with students so dr
brewer is here to introduce um some very special and talented students the national merit finalist and as a parent a proud parent of a national merit finalist i know these students have a lot of options they've accomplished a lot so i've been talking with some of the the families tonight but really
proud of them and dr i'm pleased to have you introduce them thank you good afternoon chair conrad board members and superintendent dr gullet i have the privilege of introducing you the 2025 national merit finalists each year
15,000 students in the united states are named as national merit finalists this year four belong to marian county public schools during october of their junior year these students sat for a psat you
all are familiar with that exam from those scores the national merit scholarship corporation uses its own selection index to determine which students qualify as commended students in semifinalists and then in september
about onethird of those students which are about 50,000 high scores on the psat are notified that they qualified as semi-finalists and then we wait patiently for the announcement in
february and in february over 15,000 semi-finalists are then notified that they have advanced to the finalist standing this month approximately 7,250 finalists will be selected to
receive a merit scholarship award they are chosen from this finalist group based on their abilities skills and accomplishments florida students who are awarded the national merit scholarship also qualify for the benisto scholarship
program which is equal to listen to this amount the institutional cost of attendance for an instate student minus the sum of bright futures and the national merit award now i would like to introduce our
finalists as they await their final award and after this introduction we will have rachel lead with her peers us in the pledge of allegiance so please come on up and i would like to introduce each of you each of the students to
you come on over you can face the board members we have cody louu from forest high school yep just stand right there cody right there and then we have sanj sanjay karthik from vanguard high school we have angelina kovalechuk from
vanguard high school and rachel milbrandt from vanguard high school we also have both principles um mr rimbert from forest high school and miss colleen wade from vanguard high school with us this evening thank you i just i just quickly want to say we
are so proud of you um and excited as they go into this final phase correct okay and what is the timeline on that do we know soon soon may may may all right so we're waiting to hear back so just thinking about all four of you um as you
move forward in this and we as the board would love to come down and grab a picture with you because we are super proud of the work that you've already completed [Applause] this is martinez any
speakers i'm good but i would like students to stay behind so i can get a picture please stand for the pledge of allegiance i pledge allegiance to the flag of the united states of america and to the
republic for which it stands one nation under god indivisible with liberty and justice for all thank you thank you dr brewer that really was an inspiring start um to our meeting dr glet i understand we have two
recognitions this evening would you like to share those with us we certainly do thank you madam chair i'd be pleased to the first one is we have a lot of students here tonight as you can see board and we have students here that we were participating in the we the people so they represent college park south
ocala and saddlewood elementary school so i'm pleased to have miss rle come forward and introduce this to the board thank you good afternoon board chair conrad dr gullet and board members we the people is a nationally acclaimed curriculum
that helps students discover the relevance of the constitution of the united states and our bill of rights participating in this opportunity helps students to build confidence practice public speaking and teaches them how to
respectfully debate critical issues at this time i would like to introduce dr ellis principal of south ocala elementary and mrs miller assistant principal at south ocala elementary who will be recognizing the very special students who will have an opportunity to
participate in we the people this year good evening school board members dr gullet and honored guests thank you mrs rto for the opportunity to recognize the teachers and students this evening who will participate in we the people
mrs miller south ocala's assistant principal will share additional details about this special program hello the we the people program is designed to teach students about civics government and the fundamental
principles of american democracy more than just learning historical facts these students actively engage with the core ideas that have helped shape our nation developing a deeper appreciation for the rights and the freedoms that they enjoy today the benefits of this
program are abundant firstly it fosters critical thinking students don't just memorize dates and names from histories they actually analyze landmark supreme court cases debate constitutional issues and apply their knowledge to real world situations this program also enhances
students public speaking and collaboration skills through the simulated congressional hearing event students will present their research defend their arguments and engage in thoughtful but very respectful discourse with peers i do want to quickly talk
about how this all got started so the origins of this program with the marian county and a large part of its current success are due to two individuals that i want to mention and they are here this evening buddy oswald and mcmillan are retired mcps teachers who taught we
the people for many years in marian county they work very hard to keep it alive today even though they're retired they give their time and energy by volunteering in the schools that implement this program they coach our students and teachers and help facilitate our annual simulated
congressional hearing event i also want to mention that they are both golden apple teachers was awarded her teacher of the year apple the very first year that marian county had the golden apple academy that was in 1991 and buddy
earned his golden apple in 2009 he also earned the national american civic educator award which is only awarded to one of three teachers in the entire nation so as you can see we have the best of the best giving back to our students even in retirement i should add
so to the board fellow educators parents and community members let's continue to champion this program and its growth in marian county let's ensure that every student has the opportunity to develop the knowledge and skills necessary to be active and engaged civic students
supporting civ civic education as you know is one of the most valuable in investments that we can make so thank you for listening and supporting them this evening now for the special recognitions for them special thank you to mrs miller for
coordinating with other schools and wholeheartedly planning and implementing this program we also want to thank buddy and for working with schools to encourage civics's education in elementary school we are excited that
maplewood elementary and oakrest elementary will be joining this year and they are in the process of establishing their team college park elementary saddlewood elementary and south ocala elementary's teams to include the teachers and students are in the
audience we take a moment to recognize buddy the teachers students in the audience participating in we the people at this time please come forward and stand in front of the stage facing the school board as we take the time to
recognize your efforts so buddy osborne teachers our students turn around and turn around and face the school board great turn
out thank you for your dedication to civics's education thank you for working so hard and we are looking forward to an amazing we the people experience on may 22nd okay i just want to say very quickly um
i believe every board member that's up here has participated in some fashion with the program we the people and i'm only going to speak for myself not going to speak for my fellow board members but it was really an eyeopening experience
and i want to applaud you all for the work that you do to pre prepare um for your activities and we the people i had the opportunity to speak with a couple of you um before our school board meeting started but i also want to say a big thank you to the parents in the
audience if you are a parent would you please stand up [Applause] um as a board member that has children that went through marian county public schools i know that many of the
activities and preparation um begin at home so i want to thank you parents for your commitment um to helping your students succeed um in this avenue um and buddy i want to say thank you to you you all are really not retired
because i see you everywhere and when we came in and i was visiting buddy is brainstorming on what the next step is for we the people with our middle school students and high schools and how we can um continue this program and so with
that i just want to say thank you to all of you boys and girls what a great job you're doing i know that's a commitment um to do the research and all that you have to do to succeed in this program and parents and staff members we appreciate you too and we'd like to run down real quick and grab a picture with
you to honor this moment i don't think so she said she said yeah hallelujah [Applause] you want to go you want to stay you want to go better than trying to get everybody in
the same frame and i know i know she's coming wait just one second okay thank you dr galler would you like to introduce our second recognition certainly thank you madam chair so i'm pleased to introduce dr barner who is coming forward to introduce the ocala
marian county association of realtors tonight thank you good evening board chair uh mrs conrad board members and superintendent dr gullet i am happy to introduce ocala marian county realators this evening
every year they offer our schools an opportunity to apply for many grants to support their innovative ideas in the classrooms or at the school level this year they awarded our schools $10,000 to recognize the schools who were awarded
their uh their grants are randy behind me sue shields nancy johnson and darlene yachts thank you dr barner thank you doc good evening randy
everyone's stealing my thunder here tonight um so when i kevin walked up to us on the uh front porch out there you know because i usually open this up by saying how many years we've been doing this kevin walks up it's like "what is this randy your 87th year doing this." so i'm not going to use that line this
time kevin but we have been doing this since 2004 um so and we started out in 2004 um with $1,000 to offer across the county and all the teachers uh we quickly upgraded that to 3,000 then
6,000 and now we've been at 10,000 for the last few years so i'm happy to do that we did um we do have with us tonight nancy johnson our chair and i don't know why everybody else decided not to come up but they should be up here um we have jeannie rit um carolyn
tory antoanet jarrett um kyle morrison and darlene yans our amcar ceo so we appreciate everyone coming tonight um again like i said this is our 21st year we hope to be doing this many more years maybe one year i will not have to do the
the presentation u but until then kevin i'm here next year will be the 93rd year if you want to bump it up a little bit so um but we are here but we had um we did things a little bit different this year we broke down the grants um we offered them in $250 $500
$750 and $1,000 grant so no one person could ask for the whole amount and believe it or not we've had that happen before so we uh broke it up a little bit um it seemed to work well and and we're we're always constantly trying to improve on the grant program that we offer the teachers of marian county um
so what uh nancy and i would like to do is just read through real quick uh um i've got to throw out there one thing too when buddy came up here so so buddy and i serve in kuanas together i had the honor of being the president of the kuanas club this year i thought buddy that's all he did was kuanas club so now
it's just amazing to me how engaged our community is and it's just uh it makes me very happy to see things like that so i'm going to start by reading the uh teacher and the school and the teacher and hopefully they're all here and we can come up and get a big picture so from st weale elementary we have miss
brittany fitch south ocala elementary jessica day and these are $250 uh grant winners from ward highlands elementary we have julie smith westport high ginger i'm sorry stephen co lakewear high amal
hannah danellen elementary sherry large belleview santos elementary janine hair hillrest school rachel van buskerk sunrise elementary rebecca rose north marian middle dylan jones hillrest
school beth fowler hillrest school charetta welcome and okala springs elementary laura merritt and nancy will take over from there okay at liberty middle was colleen to
talton hillrest school was maletta collins westport high is chris weisman oyola middle ashley grimes lakew weir high is margaret kerry and for the
750 grants we have meredith waller from hillcrest school everett nelson from belleview santos elementary and elena manubans from hillrest school
then our we have two $1,000 grants and that was from oyola middle emily carva and forest high school amanda shine corbin congratulations
[Applause] randy could you tell us a little bit about the grant application what does that look like for our teachers sure um so what um and again who's in charge of that the um the grant application we
want it for durable use you know so it's it's an ongoing project could be used year after year now again sometimes we get grant applications i know a couple of years ago we did um awarded in a grant for a play production at lakewear high school so again we kind of shake up
the criteria but most of the time we're looking for durable goods that will last you know have some longevity in the classroom and we also look at the number of students it's serving as well again again five students are just as important as 500 students we know that so we we and again i i applaud everyone
that wrote them because i mean they're really well-crafted grant applications and it's it's actually very difficult for us and these folks that are standing here behind me that sit in there going over all those grant applications we hate saying no to anyone um and most of the time it's just on a tiny little
technicality or something because we'd love to be able to give everybody that request one so um but we've been doing it for 21 years and um we look forward to continuing well randy i just want to say thank you um we see in education you
see a lot of programs come and go um they cycle in and out and so we just really appreciate your continued support of our educators which directly supports our students so thank you for your commitment um i did run into your daughter the other day at forest high
school but we appreciate you supporting so many of our students here in marian county and teachers i want to say i'm just grateful i i know every minute of your day is slammed you are so busy so thank you for taking the time to be
creative and come up with ideas and solutions to help your students we're just really grateful that you take that opportunity and i i think it's it's great that we have so many applications and while while randy was talking you guys were facing this way but the team
his team behind him was shaking their heads saying yes it's just so hard um to pick you know which grants are going to move forward so want to say thank you again for your efforts and we'd like to come down and take a picture and celebrate with you [Music]
get kevin's attention okay me only wow you're going to get it run up there and take picture we want to take a picture we were wanting to take a picture of the group all right oh they're just are you are you the
principal apparently done for me it wasn't it was four years ago randy turn around well this is not going to work get out of their way what are we doing taking a picture
but we just took a picture but i need a picture oh well then i guess i have to go back in h this is one we're taking oh is that your excuse yeah we're taking i was already in the other one i was in the know when kevin's here yeah no i i know
yeah there we go sorry sir hold on perfect thanks guys thank you good job [Applause]
bless america i love that yes dr g will you make a recommendation on the agenda i certainly will thank you so much i recommend approval of the agenda for the march 11th 2025 school board meeting with the materials in the board packet those materials distributed
to board members at the meeting and the audio recording included as part of the official record of the meeting with the exception of the following items d18.1 d18.2 d18.3 and
d18.4 that have been placed under discussion thank you yes thank you may i have a motion on the superintendent's recommendation so move second thank you um reverend cummings thank you dr campbell um all those in favor say i i any
opposed motion passes 5-0 may i have a motion to approve the minutes for the january 28 2025 school board meeting motion to approve the minutes thank you miss thrower second second reverend cummings are there any additions or corrections to the minutes hearing and
seeing none all those in favor say i i any opposed motion passes 5-0 may i have a motion to approve the minutes for the february 6 2025 administrative briefing and work session motion to approve thank you dr campbell second second thank you
dr james are there any additions or corrections to the minutes hearing none all all those in favor say i i any opposed motion passes 5 may i have a motion to approve the minutes for the february 11th 2025 school board
meeting motion to approve the minutes second thrower thank you and a second by reverend cummings are there any additions or corrections to the minutes seeing none all those in favor say i i i any opposed motion passes 5-0 may i have
a motion to approve the minutes for the february 20th 2025 school board meeting special school board meeting excuse me may i have a motion so move thank you reverend cummings second second by miss thrower are there any additions or corrections to the
minutes seeing none all those in favor say "i." i any opposed motion passes 50 miss martinez please provide the proof of publication for tonight's schoolboard meeting the notice for the march 11th 2025 schoolboard meeting ran in the
ocala gazette on february 28th 2025 the proof of publication has been attached in board docks under proof of publication thank you good evening attorney powers please explain the rules governing persons who wish to address the school board this evening thank you
madam chair in compliance with section 286.00114 of florida statutes the school board has adopted uniform procedures for public speakers who wish to speak at this evening's meeting either regarding one of today's agenda items or a matter relating to the operations of the school
district board policy 0169.1 outlines these rules and as been provided prior to tonight's meeting on and are available in the table in the lobby madame clerk have any speakers registered to speak tonight no sir given
that as there are no speakers who have indicated desire to participate thank you for your attention in the board's requirements madam chair that concludes my explanatory remarks thank you i'm i was sorry we were adjusting the mic miss martinez did you say we had any speakers no ma'am okay thank you very much i
appreciate that all right um board will move forward with someformational items we are on item 8.1 the school district used a construction management delivery method including a guaranteed maximum price to perform construction work on the
following projects to allow the district to purchase materials through the owner direct purchase process to save sales tax the construction manager needs to return the funds to the owner via a deductive change order the superintendent has signed and approved
the change orders per b policy 6345 the superintendent is authorized to approve and execute any construction contract change order that will increase the construction contract by $25,000 or less or that will decrease the construction
contract amount provided the approval will be in her judgment in the best interest of the board such change orders will be binding upon execution by the superintendent the superintendent shall report each change order that the approve that she approved to the board at the board meeting that follows her
approval the superintendent's approval of the change orders will be entered into the official minutes of the board meeting item 8.1 amendment number three to the construction manager contract guaranteed maximum price for labor and materials consisting of interior
construction related to the construction of new elementary school x change order number 10 amendment number three project 24-102 this purchase will allow the district to save approximately $10,415.87 in sales
tax item 8.2 construction of new aviation and diesel autochanic program building at marian technical college change order number two work authorization number 13 project 24-110 this purchase will allow the district to
save approximately $20,89161 in sales tax the total sales tax savings of $31,3756 the school district used a construction management delivery method method including a guaranteed maximum price to perform construction work on
the following projects there were unused funds on the projects since the projects were delivered using a con construction management delivery with a gmp format unused dollars regardless of the item are returned to the owner the unspent monies will be returned to the owner via
change order which will close the financial books on these projects the superintendent has signed and approved the change order per board policy 6345 the superintendent is authorized to approve and execute any construction contract change order that will increase
the construction contract by $25,000 or less or that will decrease the construction contract amount provided that approval shall be in her judgment in the best interest of the board such change orders shall be binding upon execution by the superintendent the
superintendent shall report each change order that she approves to the board that the board meeting at the board meeting that follows her approval the superintendent's approval of the change orders shall be entered into the official minutes of the board
meeting item 8.3 guaranteed maximum price for primary conduits at new elementary school x change order number one work authorization 9 project 24-102 unused funds were in the amount of
$15,12420 item 8.4 new fire line technical service building change order number one work authorization number 38 project 23-129 the unused funds were in the
amount of 31,4428 item 8.5 replacement of technical service building phase one metal building procurement change order number one work authorization number 34 project 23-129 unused funds in the amount of
$5,928.88 the total unused funds are $52,457.36 board this concludes theformational items for today's meeting we are now going to move on to consent agenda items may i have a motion to approve consent agenda items c10.1 through
c15.1 with the exception of items d18.1 d18.2 d18.3 and d18.4 that have been placed under discussion regular agenda items or discussion pulled agenda items may i
have a motion so move thank you reverend cummings may i have a second second uh thank you dr james all those in favor say i i any opposed motion passes 5 before addressing expulsion matters i
wish to acknowledge that board members have received the alternative placement list for students through february 7th 2025 miss martinez are there any parents who have submitted a timely request to speak on their child's disciplinary matter no madam chair thank you miss martinez may i have a motion to approve
the expulsion of student jd25-179e jd25-180 jd25-181e jd25-182e jd25-183 jd25-184 jd25-186e
jd25-190 jd25-1 1 95 jd25-211 jd25-212 for the remainder of the 2024 2025 school year and the first second and third quarters of the 2025 2026
school year may i have a motion motion to approve thank you dr james may i have a second second thank you dr campbell all those in favor say i i any opposed motion passes 50- 0 may i have a motion
to approve the expulsion of student jd25-185e jd25-189 with off-campus virtual learning for the remainder of the 2024 2025 school year and the first second and third quarters of the 2025 2026
school year may i have a motion motion to approve thank you dr campbell may i have a second second thank you dr james all those in favor say i i any opposed motion passes
5-0 may i have a motion to approve bid 4114gm districtwide wireless access point replacement project may i have a motion motion to approve thank you miss thrower may i have a second second uh thank you dr campbell dr gullet i believe you have information to
share with us regarding this item i do thank you madam chair board uh this request is uh $650,000 mr ben venudity is going to come forward but essentially we are asking uh for support in addressing our aging wireless um access points which actually will be at 41
schools so mr ben venudi will provide additional details thank you thank you uh good evening board chair conrad board members and superintendent dr gullet tonight i'd like to bring forward an important item that will enhance the technology infrastructure for in our schools through the federal program
we're leveraging funding to replace 2,390 aging wireless access points across 41 schools in our district this competitive bid includes both the equipment and labor necessary to ensure seamless upgrade providing our students
and staff with improved connectivity and a more reliable digital learning environment for those who may not be familiar with the -ray program it's a federal initiative administered by the fcc that provides discounts to schools and libraries for essential
telecommunications and internet services this program helps to ensure that students have access to the technology they need for learning by offsetting the costs associated with neur sorry network infrastructure upgrades by strategically utilizing these funds we can make
necessarily improvements while reducing financial burden on the district it's important to note that this project specifically excludes high schools as we're already have an ongoing initiative to upgrade those locations using other funding sources by carefully planning
our technological investments we ensure that all schools receive the necessary upgrades most coste effectively this investment in other previously approved initiatives such as the network switch project which you previously approved
will modernize our entire network infrastructure in the district with the latest technology this ensures our ability to provide innovative solutions enhance high quality digital learning experiences and bolster our network
security for both our students and staff thank you for your support i'm here if you have any questions mr ben venudi i want to thank you i i know when you came at on board we were at a deficit with um some of our technology um throughout the district and so i just want to thank you
for your continued commitment um to make marian county better and more up to-date so thank you for that for your commitment um board are there any comments or concerns okay with that all those in
favor say i i any opposed motion passes 50 thank you mr benudi may i have a motion to approve guaranteed maximum price for the renovations of the covered walkways at howard middle school project 24-121 may i have motion
thank you reverend cummings may i have a second second thank you miss thrower dr gullet i believe you have some information regarding this items you and i were both able to um see the need for this last night um as we walked to the
cafeteria at howard and saw a lot of the issues that they're having so i'll turn it over to you thank you madam chair yes and i think chuckled about not really chuckled but um commented on how it was one of my first school visits when i came to marian county and took pictures i still have my phone saying we have
work to be there's work to be done so um but i'm glad we're getting that work done now so uh board the next three items are grouped as we've done typically and miss boombach is already at the podium but i'll start with this first one and yes this is for obviously for covered walkways at howard middle the cost for this is
1.5 approximately $ 1.55 million and so i'll let miss boomach provide some additional details about this project thank you good evening miss boom good evening board chair conrad vice chair cummings board members and superintendent dr galllet um as you
mentioned uh the covered walkways at howard middle school they have outlived their expected lifespan and they need replacement the frames of the existing walkways are in good um working order they are structurally sound and those
will remain um we will approximately replace 38,000 square foot of roof material the roof material will be res replaced throughout the campus with new standing seam metal panels uh including
met new gutters and downspouts a new bus canopy will also be installed the start of construction is at the end of may with a substantial completion date of august 7 just before students arrive back on campus we also have included a
3% uh contingency for unforeseen um situations okay thank you board any comments or concerns m just thank you yes miss boom beck i had one question you me mentioned um adding gutters there
are not gutters on there now are there they are there are okay a lot of them are rusted out really okay all right so we just they they're not there anymore okay thank you i was just i was wondering if that will help prolong the life of the next this next renovation so
thank you for that i appreciate it without any further discussion all those in favor say i i any opposed motion passes 50 thank you miss boomach may i have a motion to approve guaranteed maximum price for the installation of the bathroom portable lift station at
denellan high school project 25-10 may i have a motion thank you reverend cummings may i have thank you dr campbell um dr gulla you have some information regarding this item thank you yes again madame chair and members of the board the cost for
this uh request is approximately $246,000 and board you know that we have a large field of portables at denellan high school and there there's a need to be able to to service those portables and so miss boom will provide additional details to support the portables
yes so we have a uh a bathroom portable ordered for that site to service um the uh portables in that area and that um lift station will directly support that new bathroom portable um it will service
all the students and staff members that are occupying those uh portables the gmp covers all labor and equipment and material to complete the installation of that new lift station there's an 8-week lead time uh to purchase that lift
station construction will duration will be approximately one month and the substantial completion date is set for may 30th 2025 just when students leave but we will be ready for the new school
year all right thank you miss boom board any comments or questions no um the first thing i just real quick want to say is i think about the instructional time we're going to gain back with having a a restroom i just all of the students going back and forth um as a
trek so i'm excited that we'll be recovering some of that instructional instructional time so thank you miss boom um board any other discussion i think everybody oh wait yes dr james i would just add the educators too some of the educators that are out there um i
mean every teacher always feels a little bit trapped in their room because you you kind of have to have coverage to be able to use the bathroom but when you're out there you can't jet down the hall and use the bathroom in a four or five minute class change and so um it's a it's a significant burden and so when i was out visiting a few weeks ago i was
excited to you know hear from the principal that we were adding that and then i was at belleview recently and belleview is is almost done i think and so you know miss guest just spoke to how excited she is for these teachers out in this portable village to be able to have
access to a toilet quicker so all right thank you dr james any further comment okay thank you board um all those in favor say i i any opposed motion passes 5
may i have a motion to approve minor renovations door and window replacements at north marian high change order number one work authorization number six project 23-107 may i have a motion motion to approve thank you dr campbell a second
second uh thank you dr james dr gulla you have some information regarding this item yes thank you so board this item is a little different uh we've had a lot of public conversation and board you had a lot of discussion around the door and window replacement project at north marian high school so what we have
received is a proposal to address um consideration for some um correction to the the project and how it went so this this pertains to a courtyard enhancement i can tell you that uh principal matt johnson was
involved in this and this is what he suggested he would like to see to enhance north marian high school which is what the board um had declared that they would um have some interest in hearing what they would come up with the company would come up with so that's what you have presented in front of you
miss boomach will provide some wow that's really close uh miss boomach's here to provide some additional details and on behalf of principal johnson uh mr styra is here also in case you have additional questions on behalf of the school thank you thank you so as you
know we uh replaced all the doors and windows on campus and we had some significant delays especially in the window installation we finally have um substantial completion reached on march uh on january 23rd uh substantial
completion was issued um this was a 146 day delay um if we look at the liquidated damages for $1,000 a day we would have looked at $146,000 um instead of liquidated
damages the contractor has asked um and we have discussed this in one of the board meetings on september 10th um to provide you with a project that might uh benefit the students instead and this project was coordinated with the school
we looked at several ideas um and it was intended to directly benefit the students that um have suffered under closed windows for so long the layout is attached to that packet you have received uh the drawings were provided
by the architect and um the contractor would mobilize in june when students are not on campus anymore because that courtyard is so in the middle of of building one um so we didn't want to disturb uh any students especially in may with all the testing going on and
completion would be in july 11th um are we able to pull that rendering up kevin the rendering of the courtyard is that a possibility did everybody have the opportunity to see okay yes well i meant for the public i
know and they have that opportunity also but may not have seen i have a question while we're doing yes absolutely i was going to say while kevin is pulling that up does anybody have a concern dr james um more of a question miss boomach um where in the
attachment is the number $187,14 that might not be in the attachment that was a schedule of value we received from the contractor breaking down the cost per line item okay it would have been helpful to have that to understand
um how they how they landed on that number the cost coming yes um i will add i think that it's really important that this board continues to provide oversight for things like this because had we not refused to extend the timeline we
would not be receiving a brand new courtyard at north maran high school um and so because myself and the rest of the board chose to not extend the timeline and to hold the contractor accountable for the
shortcomings we now are going to have a new courtyard in august at north brain high school which is much needed and i'm i am in full support of in in lie of money coming into the district this project being complete so i'm in full support of moving forward and i'm in
full support of this board continuing to be very diligent about seeing extensions and change orders so that this is the type of thing we can continue to do when is necessary to hold accountability where it should fall
thank you dr james yes sure uh i as a student of north marion i walk by this uh this area every day and i can say that i have never seen a student in there like they even keep the doors locked because there's no like use for it and so i think this is a very efficient and practical way to like uh
kind of use what the money that we could gain from something else and put it into something to help the students enjoy their time more and even give them some shaded area to sit down outside so i really enjoy the idea and a little sad it won't be there when i'm there thank
you for your input yes anyone else okay seeing no further discussion board all those in favor say i i any opposed motion passes 5-0 thank you miss boom and thank you mr christian for pulling that up uh for everyone to
see board there's an administrative briefing and work session on march 13 2025 at 900 a.m the next school board meeting is scheduled for march 25th 2025 at 5:30 p.m uh and with that we are
going to go into board comments and and with that i'm going to take a brief um point of privilege i just wanted to take uh a moment to acknowledge dr gullet um she submitted her letter of resignation yesterday afternoon um it will be
effective july 11th um after notifying the board she sent a district-wide letter out to all marian county uh public schools employees and i want to thank her for her years of service for marian county public schools and we wish her all the best as she begins a new
chapter in her career and dr dr i wanted to give you the opportunity um just to share your thoughts if you have any thank you madam chair members of the board i i appreciate that and as i said in my letter uh it's been an honor and a blessing to serve as the first appointed
superintendent it's a big change for the community um big change for everyone and everyone's been so gracious and supportive i've had an outpouring of course of of messages that i'm i will get back to everybody who's who's reached out so be patient with me but uh
i really appreciate the board support um and the employees i've had um just great memories and appreciation for outstanding committed um professionals that work day in and day out nearly
7,000 of them for students everything we've done has been about students and it will continue to be i know we've accomplished a lot and there's a lot more work to be done but i um i am just again very very grateful um for having the ability to serve alongside such a
dedicated team and so thank you so much yes thank you dr glet i appreciate that um khloe is not here tonight she was unable to attend but i know dr campbell has her oh carson okay sure all right carson go right ahead all right so to
begin i just have some couple updates that i'd like to do what's going on at our school uh seniors are getting ready for grad bash and prom i know that i was hit the very deadline to turn in my my uh required paperwork and buy the ticket but i will be going to grad bash so i'm
looking forward to that and then we we just the forms were put out for prom recently so all the seniors are getting their getting their dresses getting their suits and looking forward to prom all the juniors on campus are provided with the opportunity to take the sat
tomorrow which is which is really amazing i know that they had the psat national merit um finalist there and it's it usually the kids who did well at the psat and got that recognition early on do well at the sat as well and so the
juniors are looking forward to the opportunity to kind of see their score in relation to the psat as well as jotc is holding a field day for middle school students come enjoy activity with our cadetses with our junior cadetses this thursday so we'll be having some middle
school students from north mar and um another middle school to just come enjoy doing activities uh which that's a great opportunity so we'll be looking forward to hosting them and of course spring break begins at the end of this week which i'm very much ready for and the rest of our students were glad for a
break and looking forward to going to the beach and getting some more money at work uh and then just another thing i wanted to say about the courtyard is uh ironically the leadership class that i'm in we're working on actually planning it to use that courtyard for one week
during our drive for life week for part of the impact that that week has uh tenatively we're we're kind of mapping out what we're going to use it for but when we talked to the principal and he told us that they'd be renovating it we thought that this was a great way to kind of end what it looks like now and
have a good final positive impact for the school and then i just want to say thank you to the superintendent you've had a great impact on the community and uh hope that your future plans go well and the rest of your career and then finally since this will be my last
meeting i've been so honored to be a part of this board during this third quarter and i thank you guys for the opportunity and i look forward to keeping up with the meetings during this next quarter and it might be a little easier since i'll be able to skip forward a little bit i love his trans thank thank you carson
we we always um value your input so thank you so much we'll miss you um at at our next meeting dr campbell thank you so i will share on behalf of khloe costitz our uh student representative from forest high school she unfortunately was unable to be with us today the life of a senior can be quite
busy especially this time of year we're starting to get into that season where seniors are busy every day uh but khloe had a couple of comments she wanted to share from forest she first of all wanted to say that their dance marathon was a huge success i believe they were raising some money for a great cause and
so they had a great success at that she also wanted to say how proud forest high school is of their merit finalist who we saw this evening cody louu and she also wanted to mention uh how much forest students are looking forward to a very busy ap season as all of those
culminating exams are starting to to ramp up for students um i'll just roll right into that and say i was grateful that just within the last week or so to be able to go to forest high school and tour their ccap program uh i do have a senior myself and so when that ccap
program was just getting off the ground was the last time i'd seen a real official tour and so that would have been four years ago and oh how they've grown and what it looks like now and what they've been able to create and adapt and i was just really impressed
told mr crawford that directly but just very impressed about how much work they've put in and how far they've come and what that program looks like now is vastly different than what it looked like four years ago and students are definitely they have taken on the vision
of helping every student succeed and that's exactly what they're doing in the ccap program um and chair if it's okay i'll just go ahead and roll into the rest of my comments sure absolutely terrific so uh wanted to say tonight in the consent agenda that we approved a way to schedule updates for marian
afterchool programs which always gives me an opportunity to say thank you to all of the marian afterchool programs we used to always call it extended day uh but those employees are valuable to student learning every day it really is just extended time of learning it's not
just playtime or something like that it's not daycare it's not babysitting it's extended learning and those uh instructors that are working with marian after school programs deserve a lot of accolades and i love to give that every chance i can and so thank you to those
folks and now they're uh wage schedule has been approved they're going to get a little bit of bump in their pay so congratulations to them i've also been out visiting some of our principles about sitebased budgeting i'm excited to uh see where that is going i know that the principles that are piloting that
are excited as well and are starting to understand what the challenges are going to look like a sitebased budget for a seven period day looks different than a sightbased budget for a sixth period day and a sitebased budget for an elementary school looks a lot different than what
people might realize uh and how high schools have been helping some of our elementary schools it it's going to be a big transition for this district but it's not one that we can't undertake we have a lot of problem solvers in the district and we'll be able to take that on in stride and i'm really excited to
see that progress uh during the central florida public school board coalition meeting this week i wanted to say thank you publicly to our transportation team we had uh i think seven of the 14 districts on the call this week and able
to have our transportation team talk about how we've been kind of innovative in some of the things that we've done and how we've been able to uh really make a significant effort to help our transportation department succeed even more so than they had been before uh our
am ontime arrival continues to increase more than 90% our vacancy rate continues to decline and actually we're just about fully staffed there and just really excited about being able to share the progress we have in marian county public schools with our fellow districts around
the state and in the central florida area last evening i had the opportunity to be a part of belleview high school capstone project that is one of my favorite things that i do as a board member every year and uh unfortunately we were all unable to be there this evening but my son is currently
presenting which rolls right into the we the people piece uh carson and i were walking up here and saying he's like "wow where do they do elementary school wow i wish they had that when i was yes absolutely i i wish that we could do things like that in all of our schools." and i say that because my son's capstone
project he's doing right now actually potentially even right now uh is on being a legislative aid and how a bill becomes a law and what all that looks like uh potentially as a career choice and imagine if he had been able to get that experience and exposure as an
elementary school student and what that could have looked like and how that would have potentially changed his trajectory on classes he took at the high school level so i'm excited to see these students and how this uh progresses with their learning and what we're able to do also looking forward to
tomorrow's intergovernmental meeting we'll be meeting with the county and the and the municipalities tomorrow at 9:00 am at the southeast livestock pavilion it's already been mentioned about spring break and so that starts for students on friday please everyone be safe teachers
still be here on friday so you can enter all those grades uh but please everyone be safe uh we want it to be a wonderful time of break and rest but also uh we want everyone to come back safe and and
happy and well refreshed as i say thank you to the superintendent um i do want to make some recommendations also as i wrap up my comments u but dr gallet i made a quote in the paper today and i've told you this but i'm going to say it
publicly as well i had the opportunity i sit on the florida school music association as a representative for for the florida school boards association and the representative from the florida um association of district school superintendent sat beside me at this
past board meeting and he said to me unsolicited that diane gullet is the smartest woman in every room and i made that comment today in a quote in a newspaper because i don't think anybody really realizes that and
to have a peer of yours unsolicited to say that i think should tell this community what a gem we've had for the last five years and you've done so humbly because while
many of us have known you're the smartest person in every room other people didn't because you weren't trying to to seek accolades and you weren't trying to act like a politician and be in every photograph and you weren't there to just shake
hands and kiss babies you were there to make a difference and that's what you've done for the last five years so i'm very grateful for what you've done in this district getting us on a strategic plan and on a trae tra trajectory that will
last well beyond all of us so thank you thank you very much um with that i do want to make a couple of recommendations uh board and i have three different uh recommendations and then if we want to talk about them great um but i i'm not
certain if any of you have had the opportunity to speak with the florida school boards association but i have um so i would like to request chair um firstly to amend thursday's work session that you would have the ability to do that with cause to replace item 7.1 that
is currently to discuss the superintendent's evaluation tool and replace that with a superintendent search forecasting and preparation as that agenda item could be changed with cause under your purview additionally i recommend if we move forward in that
recommendation that we do have andrea msina from fsba to be a part of that meeting either um electronically or in person that time certain potentially one:00 or whatever we determine because it is a very long agenda on thursday
uh what i would like the reason that i think that would be necessary is to answer questions that we might have about the process and the timeline and regardless of whether we choose fsba or not to do the search for us as members of fsba they provide consulting services
to boards who are in transition like we're about to be in so she can offer suggestions and details of a timeline and she already gave some of that to me but i think it would be important for us to have that collective conversation uh as we could get our questions answered
and finally my final recommendation um is that if she would be willing to serve i would like this board to recommend choosing board member nancy thrower to be lead board member in charge of the process over what we're going to be doing as a board member who
was a part of the process the last time we did that uh i could see that being an opportunity for miss thrower to go out with a bang and to help us through the process if she was willing to serve in that capacity those are my three recommendations um as we head into this
transition and that concludes my comments chair thank you uh dr dr campbell i'm going to just pause right here for a second before we go on through comments just because i need to respond um some of to dr campbell's comments and so um i appreciate your
your forethought um i i am in the process of meeting with attorney powers um and terry and so my goal is to have some options for you on thursday so uh your first recommendation of replacing uh the agenda item i am good with
depending on the rest of the board with um advertised to the public understandably but we were going to be talking about a superintendent's evaluation tool that is no longer necessary i totally agree with that i think removing the item and withdrawing it from the agenda is fine but i think
replacing it and and we have individuals of our staff including the schoolboard attorney who have a lot of work to do to prepare for questions that this board is going to have um and i i do not think that i it is appropriate to not give
proper notice to the community yes we can what we can do and what we should do are always two different things for me um and i have i've steadfast felt this same way about changing agendas that are already published but this is i mean we're talking 36 hours notice and so i
don't feel comfortable with changing the agenda item personally well and my recommendation was going to be that i come thursday um with some options for us to discuss and then we would set up a work session where at that point um we
can ask andrea can come in we can answer questions at that point the board and our attorney has some preparation time that's fine and if if chair come or vice chair cummings and and board member thorer think that we shouldn't make the change to the agenda then so be it um i
just either we withdraw 7.1 i'm i'm not certain where it's going to land what chair conrad has just said unless we change the amend uh agenda that she has the purview to do we're publicly discussing it now we did not know this would be a public change until yesterday
about this time so if we leave it as the superintendent's evaluation tool that is an inaccurate agenda well and we i i don't have a problem with removing it um if that's the consensus of the board my issue would be adding something different um at the last minute and
that's fine i just without having the will it just be in board comments i guess that you then share your thoughts is that how we'll correct yes i i actually hope to have a document for you i mean it hasn't i don't it's maybe been 24 hours so um in preparation for today
we also have a big meeting tomorrow in preparation for tomorrow um i personally just haven't had the opportunity to sit down and have a one-on-one conversation um to get guidance on how we're going to move forward and so i would like that opportunity to have the time to do that
reverend cummings um i i concur that we need to um remove the evaluation tool from that agenda it's no longer needed um there's no need in wasting time having a discussion about something that's new um
i i could i could go along with us um resetting and figuring out how we're going to pro proceed and give you the opportunity you're the chair you're the chair so we we'll take your recommendation on what you bring forth on thursday and see where we need to go from there i'm good with that thank you
yes board member thank you and um i see the value of of all of i in this situation i agree that we need some
time i agree that 7.1 needs to be removed okay and then we'll just proceed by step i i do want to say this um madam chair um we we're getting a couple of us were
here in this process before and i thank um board member campbell for that recommendation but i think as we move forward in this um this process we need to make sure that we're doing it together and that we don't have any long
rangers going out doing anything because it i feel that that that u tanks any process however whatever decision the way we go i think we need to make sure that um um whatever we want individually
is not is is our own individual want but whatever decision comes about as far as getting a superintendent will be a board decision it won't be one person's so we have to make sure that we do this as a board and do it the correct way absolutely thank you cummings yes and
i'll just say you know thank you board member campbell you know for your confidence in in me and and also board member cummings you know for having been through it once already certainly look forward to participating fully and and actively in whatever process we choose
to take which there's any number of processes that we can choose to take and that we you know do that um very uh transparently and and professionally and always with what's best for our kids in
mind and just move from there so go ahead okay thank you yes dr james i'd just like to add a point of clarification um unless we have a discussion about a meeting the week of the
24th tonight just even just having that discussion because of publications in spring break we will not be having that a work session until april so my recommendation would be um on the back of what dr campbell has shared is that
we pick a date the week of the 24th so that our clerk miss martinez can publicize it tomorrow by noon with the gazette to run in the for on run on the 14th if it runs on the 14th the earliest we could have the meeting would be the
21st in that spring break which would mean really the earliest we could have the meeting is the 24th so in the spirit of dr campbell's um comment i think that it would be appropriate for this board to have a brief discussion about the week of the 24th for and just go ahead
and schedule it and then on thursday we could discuss an agenda and maybe we can dig into the nitty-gritty a little bit more about what we want to discuss as a board um but i think that that needs to occur i i agree and i think that that was also on a list on my list um to talk
about and so um because we are about coming back from spring break is is tight so board if you look at the beginning of your week on march 24th or 25th uh does any either of those dates work for you i'm available either of
those days so are you saying that we need to decide tonight about if we want to meet we have to if we want it to get published because it has to be published by tomorrow because of publication deadlines the 24th i'm available until 11:00 a.m okay
24th between 9 and 11 that's what i think reverend cummings would you be available the 24th on the in the morning yes okay miss martinez i'm hearing consensus uh for the morning of the 24th to add a work session um to what the
process is going to be start making decisions on the process moving forward of selecting a new superintendent with a start time of 9:00 a.m yes ma'am and just for clarity um item 7.1 cannot be withdrawn because it has been published but it will be publicized as withdrawn
on the agenda but it will not perfect thank you very much for that clarification board any further comments about the work session i see attorney powers leaning forward yes sir for clarification for the agenda so we will just create an agenda item for uh a work
session on the 24th for 9:00 a.m with just an opening blank that just says that we're going to use this an opportunity for discussion of how would we like to phrase it superintendent search procedures superintendent search
procedures and otherwise we won't have anything further on the best practice form just an open wide open uh um agenda there for us to discuss that um that will then for our agenda for thursday the modification as she indicated will not be it won't be it'll show as
withdrawn but it's not an item that we're that we're going to uh we can't truthfully withdraw because post publication so let me ask so madam chair you discussed that you wanted to get with the attorney and get some options so are you not bringing those options
thursday are you holding this to the my hope is to bring them on thursday but i i think that you may want to think about them like we'll talk about them we'll explain i know both of you have a lot of information that you might want to share with the board and so um my thought was
that i would bring some idea and it may be that you don't like the ideas that i bring forward and so i just want to have the opportunity to provide you with some ideas us to have some discussion i have things to learn from both of you and then we'll move forward there'll probably questions that'll need to be
answered um as we move into a work session yeah what i would indicate is that i would have the ability to bring because i obviously i'm also in the meetings tomorrow i'd have the ability to bring broad descriptors and meet with the board chair regarding prior um
superintendent searches as well as fsba and and other options that we have that would be admittedly a bit broad at that point for for thursday i'll have the ability to hone in a little bit more and provide some more feedback by the 24th
but again then that's going to be it there are many different avenues that can go so i'll need to get feedback from the board in order to find out what areas to to move forward further on so i'll try to find that sweet spot where you're going to have enough information
about options but then the discussion of how you'd like to flesh those out can be something to be had on the 24th so thank you attorney powers and that's that's my goal is that to provide enough um information for the board to have a healthy um conversation so we we can
give you some direction moving forward so thank you for that clarification dr james i i think what i understand is that the chair is going to bring forward some options on thursday as simply a part of her comments and then all of those options are going to show up in our work session that we're scheduling
but we're not going to get into discussion on thursday in any level of depth about i certainly wouldn't feel comfortable doing that as it was not agendaized so in her comments she's going to share some things that she's picked up along the way in the last 48
hours and then we will discuss all of those options and more options and other details in a work session and at that work session you would then direct me further as well as anyone else you need to in order to find out what areas you wanted me to explore and research but at
that point i'm not going to have all your answers on the 24th because i don't know all the questions so all right thank you yes board member thank you i i agree with um board member james here i can see us in our enthusiasm getting way deeper than we should be and if we're
taking the time to say that we're not going to discuss it then i think we need to make sure that we stick to that so if there's anything in writing and handouts um those could be you know posted and we will then have them to review and reflect on and be ready for a robust
conversation on the yes do have advanced permission if i do find anything that is of use after bring it through to the board chair's attention if i find things that will be potentially at least potentially useful for the 24th to post those regardless of when i encounter
them that's great thank you anything else dr cameron okay all right thank you all right board members that being said for thursday then will we also be still proceeding with item 8.1 which is if we're doing the super the superintendent evaluation tool we're
also doing i can't hear you very good can you we're also um the schoolboard attorney's evaluation tool is also set for the same date so on on thursday so um for that work session we've got sro contracts the mtc radiography program
update athletic facility prioritization and preferences the superintendent evaluation tool and the school board attorney attorney's evaluation tool what is the school board's pleasure yeah my my recommendation i i was going to wait till thursday when we began our meeting but my recommendation was going to be to
hold off um on working on your evaluation since it's not due till october and i feel like um you're going to be working on neiola updates as i talked with terry and we're going to have our hands full with um a new task of finding a superintendent so board i
don't know how you feel about that uh that was just as i looked at the uh agenda for thursday it is very full and um attorney p's evaluation is not due until october so that's not you know not at the top of my list yes board member
thrower i agree with the way things have unfolded that it makes sense um to to hold off i also haven't seen the examples of his evaluation tool uploaded yet so the public hasn't even had a chance to see them so i do think at this
point it's a little premature with everything else we have going on but can we just withdraw that as well yeah and board member thrower i i i will apologize but um miss morant reached out to me today about uploading those and i just didn't feel comfortable because it's just been a crazy couple of days
and so i i felt like if i personally didn't feel like i could get through all of that information it was a lot to ask um as the public facing the transparency portion of it so um thank you for that grace yes because i noticed it was a departure from what
we've been doing yes and remember board member cummings years ago they weren't on there any supporting documents whatsoever and we didn't even see them until that morning um so i just am glad to hear that this was an extenduating circumstance yes we're
gonna continue with our practice yes okay okay all right board member throw let's try again yeah let's try again okay i'm gonna start with dr gull um you know five years ago seems like a lifetime i think about where we were and what we were doing and wondering if the
world was coming to an end and if we were going to even have school you know in in its current form ever again it was just wild um and now you know here we are with tremendous things to celebrate
to tremendous accomplishments made in the midst of a very challenging you know environment and so while others have been you know busy talking um you've been busy working and i couldn't be more grateful um moving to an appointed
superintendent was i'll be honest it was it was not my uh my preference you know i take my vote very seriously and it wasn't something i was behind so i was very grateful um with the methodical
approach that the board took the time that we took the search that we did um the community engagement um that we had to land on our first appointed superintendent and so i just wanted to say thank you so much i hope that you
will continue with us through july we have we're rolling right into testing uh we need stability um we've had some other you know upending conversations where teachers and principles are wondering if there even is going to be that school next year so if we could
just please calm the waters and keep the focus so that we can take the best care we possibly can of our our kids our family our community our employees and um keep our eye on the ball so looking forward to riding riding out the storm with
you thank you all right um carson and khloe i know you're not here chloe maybe you're listening or you'll look at it later but i can't believe how fast the time has gone by and with with each student board representative that we have it's like another another level up
you know and you guys have just been tremendously engaged and amazing so spot-on with your comments i know you've really made me think and hopefully think better you know as as a board member with with your input and your enthusiasm i want to make sure we remember to take
a picture before you leave so let's not forget that it's become tradition usually one holds the gavl and you get to be in the seat of honor and go out with a bang and uh and chloe i'm i'm sorry you won't be here to celebrate that but i know i'll never
forget you um so many great things to celebrate read across america at uh south ocala elementary school i know other schools participate but again next level and i was invited i think i actually got uh not really punked but it was kind of funny when i watched i was
like "oh we combined two fifth grade classes and they're all inclusion." and i got to tell you there was no way you could tell who was who or what was what um the kids were just amazing including they had a sign language interpreter in there and i had
no idea you know what student was had hearing difficulty he was right in there talking with everybody else and they also have a volunteer in there and i can't remember her name i should have written it down she's been volunteering in that same fifth grade classroom for
12 years so ma'am i'm going to find you with dr gulla's help and bring you here and and recognize you hopefully and some other volunteers that are just unsung heroes you know of the classroom i just it was just such a tremendous uplifting experience and of course it
never hurts to get handwritten notes from from all of the students and including flags and just really neat things so that was an awesome day um also uh we the people this is why you need older people around because during
co uh mr oswald invited me to breakfast at wolfies and and there was a teacher there too whose name is escaping me at the moment but they were very concerned about the future of we the people and because it's so interactive and you had to be around people and next to people
and you know what was co going to do to all that well thank goodness dr gullet dr talbert irving they had heard of we the people really supported it and getting it going at the elementary level it used to be at the court courthouse with older kids and my first year on the school board you know we were down there
at the courthouse and it was just i was so impressed by it so i was really really happy to have all the kids here tonight and i was talking to them and one of them said i think it was a south of cal group one of them said yeah well we were somewhere and and they were talking all about the first 10
amendments but we were like how about the 14th amendment like you go and so just the enthusiasm from the kids and i'm thrilled to have maplewood and oakrest getting ready and gearing up to participate this year they're both in
my district so just continuing to to share and and spread the good news of of we the people um thank you to our board of or marian county association of realtors they're a great business partner for uh hillrest
school and also for the grants for great ideas hillrest was well represented tonight in the grant awards and something else that's uh really cool is that um and now i want to make sure i get this right there's a teacher that
started at hillrest then became a teach i think she was a parent then she became a teacher and moved to fort mccoy in the egg program well since there weren't um enough kids that you know were really able to raise a hog this year for
hillrest so dragon you got a break um fort uh fort mccoy raised that hog showed it and everything i think it went for 1050 a pound and all of the proceeds were evenly divided between hillrest school and hillrest sturrups and strides
therapeutic riding program i mean if that's not a partnership you know generosity it really is generosity and personifies you know who who we really try to be so that was just great uh let's see what else i attended the vanguard sac meeting and the reason why
that's so notable um is that it is well attended by multiple parents in addition to school staff and it is incredible to me what vanguard high school continues to do to elevate and support all students one example of that would be school day opportunities to take the sat
for free um they have so many things that they're doing there recognizing that not all kids are able to come and go and have transportation so they're doing so many things on campus including tying in and you'll love this board because it's our number one priority attendance to special events like grab
bash um prom things like that there's a window of time and they're counting those excused and unexcused absences and holding kids accountable um because that's the real world so i was just really grateful to be there for that the other night
um finally uh the in the vein of attendance i had a meeting with uh dr don nodal and um miss harris and sherry lauria our trucey court and attendance advocate uh they reviewed the two uh
bills on attendance and right now they're in committee they haven't moved yet they're both pretty far apart so there's not agreement yet but that doesn't mean that there won't be and so they had uh some a couple of points to make that i thought were very valid just
for clarity to make sure that truency and chronic absenteeism were well delineated and also principal or design all the way through the bill because the principal isn't going to be doing this by themselves it really is going to be the team and the design so they were
grateful um to be included in in the conversation because they're the ones that are going to be implementing you know with the schools so thank you um board member campbell for what you continue to do to tie us all together from the legislative level all the way
down um to truncate to have the need for it but it appears to be necessary so i think that's all i have for tonight and with that i will close my comments thank you all right thank you um board real quick
uh miss thrower chimed in about taking attorney p's evaluation off thursday's agenda but i did not hear from anybody else so before we make a decision so i can give miss martinez some guidance how does the rest of the board feel on that dr james it's fine with me i mean we can
address it in the summer when we get maybe get some decisions made about the superintendent search okay thank you reverend cummings but okay dr campbell i'm fine with that it's already been done okay i mean we already thank you miss martinez i just as as nancy as nancy was talking i thought "oh i didn't
get input from other board members." so you might have been nodding but i just want to make sure that everybody had the opportunity um to chime in on that so thank you so much uh reverend cummings board comments yes ma'am thank you u madam chair um very good meeting very quick meeting
um and i'm not going to prolong the hour uh i we start off the meeting with these national merit scholars um truly that's a great thing four out of 15 uh came from marian county that's truly an accomplishment and it seems that every
year we have some uh some on that list so that's that tells you that there are some great things happening here in marian county with our students um we want to also thank the uh the realtors association for that uh 21st year or
87th year whichever one it is kevin um for them coming back they can they can come back every week if they want to and and bring a check um those grants are needed in the classrooms and i think i want to thank those um those teachers and that staff for uh taking the
initiative to go beyond their work hours to apply for those grants and to see that there's a need and to that that tells you the commitment that they want their classrooms they want their schools to be better and so we have some um awesome staff that want things to be
better in the school for their kids and for themselves um the we the people i've had the pleasure to participate in we the people on every level for elementary middle and high that is a um that is a very very needful
program i thank uh mr oswald for his commitment and uh they they do a tremendous job and it's it's engaging these kids at a early level to understand government and to understand the processes of how this country uh
came to be and the how how we how how how we move within the within the country so it's very needed um i'm grateful for um that program and i i hope that it continues for many many many more years so that uh people can be engaged um i do want to go back a couple
weeks um i had the pleasure to um along with uh dr campbell and and dr gullet to attend the um the gayla the black history gayla and uh the archives service at uh the college of central florida and at that service at that
gayla they recognized uh principles and assistant principles um truly uh a great night i didn't get the chance to stay the whole time however however however i did get the opportunity to see something that i had never seen before and that
was the superintendent and dr campbell doing the electric slide um i i i did record it i promise you i haven't showed it to anybody but but anytime anytime i we prepare that for the work session on thursday i think i
need to upload it to board docs but like since we've taken her evaluation off i think we have space to add it to the the agenda but uh truly uh i i won't show anybody
y'all y'all y'all did okay uh did okay i love it i love it it was it was it was it was a good night but um i thank you guys for being there but i really want to thank the uh principles and assistant principles for
um being uh what they do every day and i thank miss dvita randolph for uh thinking and not robbing to recognize them at that um gay to uh carson and khloe you guys have um as as the other board members have
said you've um you've come you came onto this uh dis you came and it was engaging it wasn't just to be in the seat to be seen or to be on tv or or anything of such you came with with um uh insight
and i i appreciate you guys being engaging with the board uh i i i'm sure your parents are proud of you u for being um students that uh that are thinkers uh i'm sure that your
principles and your schools are proud of you because they selected you to come represent their schools and you did very well you you represented extremely well and your peers should be proud of you too because you're representing the class of 2025 so uh great job great job
great job um i i i'm looking forward to see what the future holds for you um carson i'm just say you you weren't scared to say anything that came to your mind you just just said it and uh and that's that's good that's good sometimes
you need people in the right places at the right tables to just say it and not be afraid to say what's what needs to be said so i appreciate you and chloe as well she did the same thing um it's almost um you guys were on that same wavelength and just being uh forthcoming
and and stating what needed to be said um to our superintendent finally um i i i was a part of the process for you coming here um board member thor and i myself we were on that that selection
committee um but i want to say this it wasn't just our decision it was a community decision um when we go back and look at that entire process we were in a transition um from an elected superintendent to a
an appointed superintendent um there was a lot of research there was a lot of things done to make sure that we got that our first appointed superintendent would be someone that would be great for this district that would be able to come in um and help the district to move
forward and then in the middle of the process covid happened and so it it it it threw another wrinkle into it uh on what we were looking for and what we needed at that time and so i i have to give you um high praise because you came
in into this district during a time where we weren't even in classes we weren't even in school and you had to navigate some treacherous waters and uh you had to build a team around you and put people in place to uh make sure that
uh instruction and learning and education continued and you did a tremendous job of that i appreciate everything you did did for for the district and have done and will continue to do until july 11th um as i shared
with you yesterday personally um i i have nothing but good things to say about you and i i wish you well in wherever god is going to take you on on your next uh pathway um i think our district is is better uh than it was and
i this is how i judge things i judge things is when i go somewhere i want the place that i'm leaving to be better than it was when i got there and you can put that on your resume that marian county public schools is better than it was
when you came here so thank you thank you reverend cummings um dr james thank you um i'll actually start with the superintendent as uh reverend cummings finished i wanted to thank you for your time and effort in marian
county academically we are in a better place than we were 5 years ago we are moving in the right direction and the things happening in our classrooms are wonderful and we have the right tools for our teachers and so i'm grateful for the effort that's been given for the
last five years and looking forward to what the future will hold as we go through this together as a board and as a community um i want to thank also uh what i love carson is the candidness um i like to take a page out of that book
myself and um it you're going to have to have broad shoulders if you're going to keep being that candid but there's a lot of value in speaking from your heart and so um i want to say these board student board members have been probably the most participatory that we've had and it
made me think tonight as um we were discussing it there is so much value in student feedback and i want to encourage our students who maybe are in sgaa or in other high school organizations who maybe don't have the opportunity to sit up here study some board agendas and
send us some feedback i would love to get oftentimes the only feedback we get is um people who are not very pleased with what we're doing and it's either via email or in person but it's not from students and um making helping students
um helping every student succeed is our focus and so i would love to hear from student government organizations um and maybe we can work on that at the high school level and try to engage some of our students providing feedback if they're interested i would love to receive that as a board member myself um over the last two weeks i've gotten to
travel all across the district visiting schools um spending time on campuses fort mccoy career day redic collier has a new paddic built by lakewware high school's construction students um fezden's black history event was wonderful and and full of lots of memories uh east marian is in the middle
of march madness their attendance incentive um for the month of march into april and we will be playing kickball um on friday the 4th of april so if anyone is interested i have first base covered and i would love to have you come out it is quite we play the winning team um and
we may or may not sandbag it and let them win but it is a really good time um and so i would encourage you to come out even just for the show because it's a good show uh also was at south ocala for um the reading event uh i mistakenly
decided to read fox and socks and if you know fox and socks it's been a minute since i read it and i had a bit of a head cold and my really had to use some big old brain power to read fox and socks and the uh students that i was in the room with had no hesitation in
correcting me when i failed to read the alliterations correctly um got to visit ociola middle school was at stanton wearsdale walking and then i um finished last week at belleview high school and then was there again last night i have
to say i haven't been um on a tour of belleview's campus in at least a year i've visited but i haven't been on a full tour and so when i got there miss guest said "let's get in a golf cart." uh and so the expansion of portable city um the addition of the portable for
toileting just everything that's going on out there the athletic facilities continue to grow they look wonderful for the most part and so um it was wonderful to just take a quick tour and see truly what's going on um beyond just the front lobby and which also looks wonderful we
had that water intrusion about a year ago and that front lobby is more secure than it's ever been and so um just lots of really awesome stuff and then last night the i've done capstones probably five years i think i've participated in capstones because obviously when i was an employee there i worked um and did
capstones last night was the best group of students i have ever had for capstone they were so prepared they were so articulate they had not just pulled it together two days ago which some if you've done senior capstones sometimes
you wonder um they and i i made sure to let miss guest and and the um leaders there know and the teachers know the students were really very well prepared and they're going some to fsu some to uf um the gentleman sitting next to me works for um the maring county fire rescue and these students some of them
basically had a job interview and he was talking to them afterwards about job placement so it was really really awesome and productive time so i enjoyed it um i just wanted to give attorney blackman a shout out lots of staff have been sharing how helpful you have been
attorney blackman um and so i wanted to just give that compliment to you this the principles have shared some struggles they've been having and they have name dropped you on multiple occasions sharing your um help and how it has guided them so i wanted to make sure i shared that compliment with you publicly um and then finally i just have
something prepared i want to read so on friday i had the pleasure of traveling to tallahassee again this time to the district court of appeals for months now i've quietly been dealing with an ethics complaint filed by my co-orker board member thrower after a brief testimony from the advocate and myself the
commission found me to have no probable cause for the two actions that i was accused of and in fact one commissioner went as far as to apologize to me for the ridiculousness that i've been through for more than 24 months individuals have tried to paint me as the villain when all i've tried to do is
get rid of their bureaucracy and be fiscally responsible and now some want to blame me for being overbudget on high school ccc i'd like to briefly go back to a few current projects and see where our budgetary crisis has truly originated ociola middle school wing was
advertised in the rfq as costing 6 million for building and site work the max gmp which the board approved in may of 2024 was 9.8 million plus we've paid another contractor 232,000 for the demo totaling 10 million that's 68% over
budget elementary school w was advertised in the rfq as costing 32 million for building and site work the max gmp which the board approved in two amendments totaled 46.7 million plus we paid another contractor 226,000 for the demo
totaling 46.9 million that's 47% over budget elementary school x was advertised in the rfq as costing 32 million for building and site work the max gmp which the board approved in three amendments totaled 47.9 million
that's 49% over budget if you're keeping track between these three projects alone that's 35 million or 66% over budget and then there's high school ccc it was advertised in the rfq as costing 130 million for building and site work the board was told we were under budget and
had to uh allocate more funds to uh allocate more funds late last year and it's projected to cost a total of 164 million as of right now that's 28% over budget the least overbudget project of the four mentioned to summarize it appears we have a budgeting issue it
would appear to me that our former facilities employee that was non-renewed and then conveniently resigned was running rogue with no oversight and now this board is paying the price we've got big issues and we need to address them our taxpayers deserve the fiscal responsibility and oversight that we are
capable of and were elected to provide going forward this board member will continue to do what i've been doing which is showing up prepared researched and ready to participate in a diplomatic way with my fellow board members while being a fiscally responsible leader and with that i conclude my comments okay
madam chair thank you thank you dr james chair um one thing i forgot to mention in my comments um from march 5th to march 14th we need this right now um there are some schools that are being named and there's a survey that's out
there for those schools in the district i think that's very important for the for the community to know that we need to um participate in that survey of the elementary schools in uh district 3 um the survey closes on this friday the 14th um i'm asking the community to
please uh participate in the survey and and help us to name those two elementary schools as we prepare to open them in august thank you and if you're looking for that information i believe it is on the front page of marian
county so it's not difficult to find you can it's right there on the front so so please help us out in in naming those two schools i'm getting some thumbs up from the audience i'm really excited out there which is mostly our staff but that they're excited so i'm excited to um you
guys participate yes yes okay yes board member thor thank you and since i was named i will respond um just because someone's uh actions don't rise to the level of
statutory violations by a certain commission on ethics doesn't mean that they're right and you'd have to have a bag over your head to not know that we have struggled in transportation for a very long time and
district three or zone 3 for example has been our most difficult and so when we have a sitting board member that has a private preschool and then puts our transportation staff in the terrible
position of having to either agree or disagree to post and use our school resources our school district resources to make colorful copies of oh i need a bus driver um that's
putting our staff as a school board member in a position that they should never be put in and then when that driver is subsequently after summer recruited to be a full-time
driver by the same board member now we're talking oh probably if they if they were driving just a morning and an afternoon route let alone picking up other routes probably more than a hundred kids not getting to school on
time and getting home late so i will always stand for it's pretty simple right is right and wrong is wrong and that is my barometer so i took this forward of my own valition didn't bring it in front of the board but since this
board member chose to that is my response it's all i have okay um board thank you for all of your comments this evening um there's a lot of great things going on uh in our
schools and within our staff and so at this moment i'm going to choose to focus on that i'm going to continue on um with the positive things that i want to highlight from the last week or so and so um the first thing uh i want to um
acknowledge is a few things that were mentioned by fellow board members uh this past weekend uh my son got married which any of you who have gone through a wedding with one of your children is a lot and so um in the last week my board members really stepped up um to fill in
some spots and participate in events that i was unable to attend um so reverend cummings and board member campbell and dr gullet thank you for showing up and doing the electric slide um for the gala um i hated to miss it
and so i just really appreciate you all picking up uh and and doing that for me i was also unable to attend the event at vezin um which you know there's been a lot of discussion a lot of public input and so that was also important to me and
it was at the exact same time um as rehearsal dinner that we were of course in charge of and so i know u board member thrower um dr james you all were able to do and attend that and so just really thank you all for stepping into that space and and helping make sure
that the board was represented at each of those events so thank you uh so very much um this last week i was able to uh attend forest's forest had a state championship um reunion that they were recognized
before uh a regular game and so that was really um fun and they're going to continue to get together uh over the next year or two but it was a great way um it's just a good reminder that our our high school campuses continue to be an important part of the community not
just for our students that are enrolled right this very minute um but 10 year later 10 years later uh you know students are showing up uh to participate and celebrate what they accomplished but also the accomplishments of the students that are on campus right now and so i thought
that was pretty amazing um briefly i wanted to touch um i too was able to go over the orientation kind of that mr crawford provided for the ccap what was really um exciting to me is the the depth and the width um of the student
interest uh that that program covers and so it's really excited it's just so diverse and so you know uh meeting the needs and accelerating the needs of our students with interest in the arts or a
vocational piece or literature or stem all of those things are just that's such a variety of students to meet the needs of and so i was super excited board i want to encourage if you weren't able to make it he's mr mr crawford's excited to share about this program and so if you
have a moment reach out to him i'm sure he would love to share more of the specifics with you um because i do see that program continuing to grow they're already working on other avenues other um classes to add and it was also
exciting for me to learn about the um tutoring opportunities that were available after school for forest that are not just for the ccap students but any student uh can come after school and receive tutoring for free so that was a great resource um i was happy to learn
about and and grateful that our children uh have that opportunity um a shout out to to south ocala what a great read across america uh they do it really well it's so organized and when you walk up to the school you can feel that it is a celebration it's a celebration of
reading and so just want to give um all those at south ocala a shout out for the work um that goes into preparing an event like that on top of all the curriculum needs that they have every single day so very excited about that uh last week i had the opportunity to
present to not really present we were in in discussion um it was the stiletto group uh it is a women's group that's associated with the c and and they were just interested in in what's going on in public education and so i was thankful to be invited into that space um and
thankful that we have members in the community that are interested in what's going on uh in marian county public schools and you know if there's a space that they can assist us as we um when we experience challenges so i was really grateful for that opportunity
um buddy and the work they're doing with we the people i i know every single board member is thankful for that uh i too am thankful um for the work that they lead it's such a commitment um academically and timewise and so thankful for all that are are helping
with that uh a special s shout out we just finished last night our last resoning meeting um and we had staff that showed up at every meeting and so um they were prepared to set up their maps and and their powerpoint and had
handouts for parents and took questions and so just want to say thank you to our staff that went above and beyond um several nights over the last couple weeks um to make sure that our our parents felt heard um and that they understand understood the changes that were coming forward and so just really
grateful i know that eats into your family time um your extracurricular things that you do and so just really appreciate you and the time that you give to marian county public schools and the betterment of our community um excited about spring break
is coming up and i'm reeling from the time change monday was really hard i was talking to miss bostonellis on monday and we were we were both on our second cup of caffeine monday morning so hope everybody is adjust adjusted from the time change we are looking forward um to
spring break and so um with that there's just many great things to celebrate in marian county public schools um board if there's no further business may i have a motion to adjurnn thank you re reverend cummings thank you board member
thrower all those in favor i i motion passes 5 with that our meeting is adjourned at 7:28 thank you [Music]