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good morning everyone and I now call the February 6 2025 administrative briefing work session of the Maran County School Board to order at 900 a.m. please silence your electronic devices to avoid disturbing others mirroring and modeling our how our students begin each day I ask that you please pause with us for just a moment of silence please join me
thank you I now good morning attorney Powers I
now ask the Schoolboard attorney to explain the rules for this public Workshop good morning chair Conrad thank you this work session is a public meeting as defined in Florida's Sunshine Law the board is dedicated to full transparency in its meetings and its work in compliance with the Sunshine Law the board has adopted uniform meeting procedures including the right for citizens to participate the board will allow public comment regarding any work session item listed on today's agenda at the appropriate time speakers must fill
out a request form located in the lobby and hand it to the board clerk after the board and superintendent have completed their discussion on a particular agenda item the board clerk will call the speaker's name in the order received each speaker will have three minutes of time as required by the Sunshine Law the board must maintain orderly conduct and proper decorum throughout the meeting speakers May criticize subject matter and decisions in a respectful manner but not people finally speakers must be very careful careful not to violate the Privacy
rights of others especially students and their family members by mentioning their names or other identifying information thank you for your attention to these important rules Dr do have some yeah I was disappointing thank you madam chair was just pointing to somebody in the audience to please go out and check thank you very much all right good morning Miss Martinez can you please provide the proof of publication for today's meeting good morning the notice for the February
6 2025 work session was published in the Ocala Gazette on January 31st 2025 proof of publication has been attached to board dos on the proof of publication thank you we will now begin the work session with the superintendent's briefing administrative briefing good morning Madam chair members of the board please forgive the voice so it's just moving into the cough another sinus infection but it's getting better so I want to mention a couple things I know we have another full agenda board but I wouldn't be remiss of I didn't uh mention a couple of these
items and some will come back up again next week at our board meeting want to congratulate um several of our schools for being Rec recognized nationally for their uh success with magnet programs as you know Belleview High School Dr NH Jones Elementary denell enh high and Howard Middle earn the magnet school of Distinction honors this year and there's a lot of work a lot of work to be recognized um it's a very rigorous process very very proud of the team and
the efforts and what they're doing for students and I wanted to mention for Janelle in high school it's the fourth year in a row to be named a magnet school of Distinction so incredible recognition for our schools and and the great work they're doing um it is also National School counseling week so a special um thank you as always to our counselors and what they're doing for our students to help make sure that they get their needs met and they're on the correct pathway and have all the supports in place to be successful I saw
a few counselors yesterday ated a school and U they're quite busy every day so we really appreciate their work um as you know it's black history month so a lot more to come on that uh we have a lot of events going on stopping by one tonight at one of our schools and um so really appreciate um everyone's recognition of how important this is um in Maran County Public Schools district will be closed on Monday February 17th it is President's Day so we hope everyone
enjoys um the Monday and I would be remiss also if I didn't say a special thank you to the team for the upgrading of the MTI Auditorium the lighting um you may not be able to see on screen if you're watching but in the the auditorium the seating is is beautiful it is um illuminated in a much better way a more professional way everyone can be seen and uh we really appreciate the very profession Professional upgrade and
much needed upgrade I think it's been how many years decades decades Decades of year it's been decades since it's been done I don't think it's been upgraded since the high school was here is I think what I was told so a long time so thank you all for that great work um behind the scenes so if you are ready Madam CH I'll move on to the first item okay thank you so the first item today as as Mr aonic is going to come forward he is here uh Bard
as you recall he's going to provide um a bus fleet update and Bard you had the opportunity to go out and spend time hearing from Transportation team on the work that's happening maintenance and see for yourself what I've had the opportunity to see ENT tour that facility so Mr aonic is here as a followup um with some more information and an answer any questions you've had after today's presentation and of course due to the the tour you had an opportunity to participate in thank you
um and board this is a fairly short um presentation so I think we'll hold the um questions and comments to the end if that's good with everyone good morning good morning everyone thank you for having me and thank you guys for coming out and visiting our transportation complex um a couple weeks ago um I think my team really enjoyed the fact that you guys were there getting to kind of show off what we do and um all the things that we offer for for our school system with the within the real of
Transportation um I'm going to uh kind of go through quickly here um some things that we have shared with you guys during that that um that trip and and then if you have any questions afterwards I'll be more than happy to try to answer them our bus fleet that we currently have I'm going to go through our numbers and and talk about that right here the recommendation for the industry standard of of buses is is to replace them
between about 10 and 12 years old or 250,000 miles um obviously we have a very large District so the mileage racks up very quickly uh when we're transporting 22,000 kids morning and afternoon within our district our current bus fleet has 341 total buses um now that that number includes our Boneyard which all our buses that we use for parts and we have
31 buses within that realm uh we also have uh the five activity buses we have three training buses that we use to try to to work with our new drivers to get them uh CDL certified and then we also lease buses to a Cali charter school and we have buses that we Supply um two buses for Silver River Museum that we uh keep over there for getting kids back and forth during the day for their field trip for Silver
River continuing on with our bus fleet by the numbers when you take away those buses that are being used for other things and when I say those buses those are some um those buses are the older ones in our Fleet um that moves us to 293 remaining buses and there's still some within that 293 that are outside of that 10 to 12 year range of of uh further age um you look here the breakdown for
the differ Siz buses we have we have 47 passenger 65 passenger 83 passenger and 77 passenger buses um out of those the 47 passenger buses we do not use for the most part it it's um they they are for extreme emergencies um and that's because of the capacity range that they have um those buses are wheelchair lift buses and they're older and some of them don't have air conditioner air conditioning in them so we want to make sure that um for our um our population
that needs to have a lift bus we try to make sure that that they obviously have AC and when when we transport those students and speaking of that all of our main buses that we use that are assigned to a route have AC sometimes they have to be repaired um obviously you know it doesn't work every day just like our own Vehicles sometimes you got to do a little maintenance on them but they all do have AC in those buses um the and you'll see on here the main buses we have the 261 of them
there's 77 passenger that those are the ones that we use mostly and we do have 13 of the 83 passengers and those buses are between they're 2004 2005 buses those are your flatnose buses that you see um and they're uh actually require a little more specialty training um to be able to drive those buses but all of our drivers receive that training
now if you look at this slide it's just a fleet purchase by year um and you see it goes all the way back to 1986 um for buses that we still have that were within our Fleet uh you'll see a large number on there for 2020 that's when uh the board approved a purchase for 129 buses at that point um which was from what I understand I wasn't in this position but it was a dire need at that point um so it's much appreciated uh the where that comes into play now is when
you look at our Fleet the best thing to do within the fleet would be to buy 10% of your buses um you know turn your Fleet over every 10 years so every year byy 10% of your buses that's a large number that that's an expensive uh ask and we'll talk about that in a couple slides from now of how the price of buses has increased um over the years um but to do that to get 10% of our Fleet would be about 30 to 30 buses that we
would need yearly um and that would keep all our buses where we wouldn't have anything that's older than 10 years um and that would you know that would be ideal we currently have 33 buses within our Fleet that H still have warranty remaining on them um and so that's and you know we have 15 buses on order that we ordered for this year obviously those 15 buses will have warranty um you know
factory warranty that's available to be used we have a great garage staff that keeps our buses running and on the road you know they're they're whatever they can do um to make sure that our our buses are in place um they do it they they try to work as quickly as possible um our garage runs from 5:00 in the morning to 11 o'clock at night um and so we we run a couple shifts there and and and there as far as the main compound is concerned um and we also have a a garage
at each one of our our main zones you look at the bus cost comparison this is what I was talking about a few minutes ago um in 2000 you can buy a bus for $499,000 unfortunately we can't even buy a car hardly for that anymore um and currently the last buses we ordered were in that hund approximately $160,000 range um that's that's a large jump and even if you look from 2020 when we got
got our bus for $105,000 you know there there's a there's a large discrepancy there and and I greatly appreciate you know the funding that has been put in place um for transportation and for our bus purchases um but if you over the last five years we're we're only able to buy half of what we you know what we used to be able to pretty much um because the cost is increasing um at such a rapid rate
moving on from our our Fleet um some of the things that we've talked about I think at the last uh time I was here I was asked a few questions about um turn-by-turn directions and that uh so I want to talk about that um we have tablets currently on our buses um our routing software as far as meeting up for the turn-by-turn directions um and and we lease those the tablets that are there that's through covia um the routing software that we currently use um doesn't allow us to do
the the turn-by-turn directions with the software that we currently have and obvious and those tablets have gotten older we've had them for you know technology is we've had them for four or five years now um and and Technology rapidly um updates uh so the turn-by-turn directions if we were to move on to a company that we that would work for us now um which is uh a Tyler the Tyler Drive um is what it's called
they have multiple things within this uh tablet system that can be used it has a dynamic run capability um you have unlimited users it has electronic seating charts electronic pre-trip inspections driver attendance report uh access to all routes and runs right there on the tablet for so if you have a driver that's filling in they're able to uh use that information they can type in the rout the the route number or even the run for that route and it's going to give them turn-by-turn directions it's
going to tell them what kids are on the bus it's going to tell them if there's drop off restrictions for a student um things like that for safety obviously um but that's when we talk about these things they come with a cost um you know so there's uh the next slide I think we'll talk about the cost a little bit I inan this instead of leasing the tablets we would own these tablets with this company U but You' be looking at a onetime fee up front of of $ 1,22 th000
basically to get the get the tablets get them installed within all of our Fleet um have the have the Wi-Fi Tech capabilities and everything that we would need um for for this all the wiring and everything and then there's a recurring fee of $255,000 a year roughly in that range um I can tell you we currently have about $18,000 a year that we currently pay so there's an offset there on that aspect of it um but obviously that's a lot of money
um we currently use paper directions um that are printed off for our drivers um so there's there's a uh we do need to move into you know the 21st century to be able to uh have GPS turn BYT navigation um but like I said everything comes with a an asterisk and that's that's called money the other question I was asked was about the stop arm cameras um so I kind
of did a little little more research with that and we currently use gatekeeper for our our video systems within our buses um the stop arm C they have a stop arm division um so I reached out to them and and they had a uh um just to go over kind of what they offer and what they have the state statute right now says that you have to if you put um stop arm cameras on you have to have them on both sides of the bus so if you have to have them to catch the leftand side and the right hand side um of the bus okay Believe It or Not people
actually pass on the right hand side where the students are um you know it's bad enough it's on the left but they how they can go on the S of the students is beyond me but um I I've seen the video and it does happen um you also have to have an interlocal agreement with the your um police agencies and Sheriff's Office to do this so there has to be a working relationship there um and with whatever the charge is um you know for a citation um there's there has to be a
processing fee the company itself has a $25 fee that they charge and then there would be a a portion of that pie that would go to the um the local sheriff's office for um taking care of their processing part of the ticket also or the citation excuse me um statute requires uh like I already said that statute requires both sides of the bus to have a camera um and the camera systems can be purchased or leased so we
can buy them outright or they can be leased um I did it um when I did the pricing I did it for 20 buses because I think it's one of those things I don't think you would want to put on the entire fleet but if you had a small number and you could put them move those buses to your hot zones um and then that I think that would be where in my view if we were going to do it that would be the way to to move into the Stu firm camera system um the purchase uh options are if we were to buy it outright for 20 buses it' be
$113,000 roughly a little plus a little change there and then the lease option for 20 buses would be $6,500 a month um so that's and that covers the all all 20 buses the thing to think about here obviously there's always you know there's always a few other things currently we only have one technician that covers all of our electronics for our buses um and he he's our he he covers the the um video equipment the
radios um all of that with within our department we are cross training because I'm a big believer in Cross training um so we have some mechanics that we we that go with him some and and kind of learn what what he does within his work and um just so we have we have a backup plan because that's uh just a where we're at right now um so it's a it's a large uh amount of material to learn um
so it takes someone that that wants to dive into it to be able to understand the complexities of of the electronics on the buses oh I forgot to skip over to this slide so we could see the numbers there and the last slide is just the garage tour it kind of goes over the different things that we were had a chance to look at whenever you guys visited um on here and like I said it was a it was a it was
a good morale boost for my team I think they enjoyed the fact of seeing everyone and being able to kind of um just just show off what we do um and and I appreciated that so thank you guys very much for coming coming over for the visit that is it for me if you guys have questions I'll be more than happy to answer them happens I never usually turn that off thank you so much yes ma'am look forward any questions you have I just wanted to say thank you again um I know
I know this was said previously but really enjoyed the tour um being able to see what you do right up front and and what a great job your team does so thank you for taking time out of your busy schedule uh for us to be able to see it up close and personal and it with that I'll open it up to board questions and comments yep board member to sure thank you I'll start um good morning thank you for the great president presentation and
I I just to start off I wanted to to ask how many um students do we have riding the bus currently approximately or how many are eligible I know those are two different numbers yes B we have about 22,000 registered Riders um so morning and afternoon um FTE we're in the middle of that right now um so we will get a a number of what we have writing and then we compare that to What U the FTE from from the fall um and that gives us our our exact number for that we report to the state okay so that's we'll have that
number here shortly but it's usually around in between 21 and 22,000 okay thank you and it to me that just illustrates the importance of your department because almost half of our students are eligible to ride the bus and probably more of them are becoming daily Riders because we're up to what 93% on time delivery yes ma'am from last week so that's that number we're very proud of by the way from where from where we started to where we're at right now
absolutely and that definitely takes a total team effort so glad to be a part of that from where I sit and um keep up the great work anything we can do to help make our uh drivers and AIDS jobs safer and more enjoyable is only going to benefit us because if the kids are getting to school on time you know and and they're comfortable and the driver is too then that just starts everybody off on a better day um I have a question I have a couple questions my first one
is about these tablets sounds like great technology and we all know that paper still works too so there's a backup if a tablet for some reason doesn't work what is their consistency of um working in outlying areas you know like out in the forest and things like that the connection our our connection for the tablets I don't know I don't think we have any dead zones that I'm aware of um for them working um and I I don't want to say that 100% but I have not received
a complaint on that at all okay that's really good to know because as we know that wasn't always the case is the technology was first coming out um updating our our buses those technology enhancements obviously are really important and also expensive um just my comment on the on the stop arms a couple things uh I want to commend the sheriff's department you know I'm out in the county and 27 West uh coming into town has just been a racetrack and I've noticed lately that
there's a lot more enforcement you know going on out there so thank you to the mar County Sheriff's Department for continuing to partner with us on those safety initiatives because enforcement is is the name of the game and and I've heard from a lot of drivers that they feel that the stop arms would be helpful and and I agree we should be doing a pilot um on that and just doing all we can to help the drivers know that they are supported um I know that it's going
to take an inter interlocal agreement and I would like to think that the sheriff's department would be up for the conversation um to give that a try and then my last question is on the buses that would be supplied with these stop arm cameras are there also would there also be little signs on the buses that motorists could see like hey you're on camera you know yes ma'am there there's State Statute that has requirements as to what you have to place on the bus
right you have to um I think it's a 60-day program advertising program that you have to get out to our community um so they know that we're doing it um so there's certain steps you have to follow okay because it just seems like fair warning and then maybe people will start slowing down if if they see that so those are the few things that are on my mind and um thanks again for everything you do because if transportation's not successful our district is not going to be successful as we know we want it to
be yes ma'am thank you thank you yes Dr Campbell thank you so we're having this presentation now because we are heading into budgeting I know Miss Boston Ellis and you're probably looking for direction from the board as to the prioritization of these Financial opportunities that we have before us board where I sit the financial obligations that we have this navigation ter by turn I believe is imperative that
we move forward with this expense this upcoming year I was in one of our uh locations and I was watching in real time our dispatcher having to talk through the directions with a new with a person who was filling in on a route who was looking at their paper probably while they're driving a bus on a new route and they were having to say oh no no you missed that you missed that turn or or there there's a you know right
right at that stop sign you need it and and so they were having to because they can see it at Dispatch they could see what the route was but the person actually on the route could not that at that moment I think I contacted Mr standing and said okay so when when are we getting this turn by turn thing going so that is an absolute priority for me I I I know that that's a a high ticket item as far as a million dollars for us just to find for this upcoming school year but I I believe that that's imperative and certainly if the board has consensus I I think that that's um a
direction we should move forward uh another item that you were mentioning and you told us this on the tour thank you again for that tour that we had that right now we're purchasing about 15 buses a year we really need to get to that industry recommendation of of doubling that really that's a big big ticket item the way I see it and board certainly this is open to conversation the way I see it we have a couple of mandated things we do with students
educating them is obviously number one we feed them that's right up there with number two and these things are obviously a part of state and federal law but transporting them so they can be educated and fed absolutely is in that top three you might even put transporting ahead of it because they have to be in school in order to be fed and educated so I know it's going to take some
strategy and I know it's going to take some idea generating of how we're going to work our capital budget to get on that industry recommendation but I am up for the conversation so wherever that needs to go I I believe we need to get there because transporting our kids is a top priority for this board member um I can appreciate the stop AR cameras I I have mixed feelings about them I
know it's a much lower ticket item than these other two items I've just mentioned so I understand that I can go either way honestly I'm not certain that the deterrent of the ticket is going to really get people's attention as much as we're hoping that it will pay for itself and I don't know that that actually will be the case and also we know it takes that interlocal agreement with our local law enforcement and potentially also with um the f um Florida Department of
Transportation there's there's just lots of things I have to I know other districts are doing it probably because it's a lower ticket item for them and they have a lot more students and they can absorb the cost more um final thing I wanted to say is about career opportunities for students I know I mentioned that when we were there as we continue to enhance our dual enrollment in our career Fields as as well and we are currently under construction with a
diesel mechanic garage at Maran Technical College we will have more opportunities for students who will be trained in earlier years to be that and so I'm looking forward to continued exploration so that students if it starts with a field trip which is kind of what we talked about perfect but I I think the more opportunities that we have on our career signing day that we used to have I would like for us to get back to that um but actually having a
career Signing Day for our students as well and make sure we have plenty of students getting opportunities to come work for Maran County Public Schools upon receiving their high school diploma thank you yes ma'am thank you right thank you yes Dr James thank you first it sounds so good in here it I I was gonna say yeah it sounds really good in here so um I I wanted to ask um there's not so the bus sleet purchase uh which
is slide four you mentioned that we've already ordered the 15 for 2026 is that out of this year's budget or is next year's budet yes we ordered them in in August or September right there off of um the budget for this year but it usually takes a year for them for us to receive them okay okay so we budgeted 15 for this year and Miss Boston Ellis you could just nod do we budget 15 a year basically is that what's in our current budget or
no so I don't so the piece that I'm um if we're if we're being asked to make a decision today which maybe we are maybe we aren't the piece that I'm missing is the financial impact in our budget what is the budget for transportation look like and then what is the impact of these decisions because I don't disagree with Dr Campbell on the necessity for the turn by turn and prioritizing these expenditures but I don't see the whole picture um I don't see I don't have at
Handy what we budgeted for transportation this past year and and what the impact of increasing our bus purchases and then this additional million dooll purchase for turn by turn what that what that impact would have on the capital budget and so I don't know that I feel comfortable making a decision just yet until I can understand the impact it will have and what we're going to have to how much we're going to have to move from other because it's a capital expens so we're going to have to move um we're going to have to build
something less we're going to have to not do Portables or not do Wings is the way I understand the budget right I see heads nodding and so we're going to be prioritizing some expenditures and transportation so that and and that will come from fixed buildings or portables for students learning and so it's just a complex conversation and I want to understand how much money we're talking about and moving to be able to be able to really get there
so I don't know if yeah I I don't know if we we can talk rough numbers or just along with that may I ask also if you can address Miss Dobbins is Tyler the only company being considered for software Hardware improvements are we going to review our options with RFP or has that been done um because that that's another question that we have so I'll address uh Dr James first and then let's let Mr aonic address your question so at as you're aware yes when we
purchase buses or we purchase Vans or we purchase certain White Fleet that money comes from our capital outlay budget so for the 15 buses that were referenced earlier we budgeted and you approved um just ow slightly over two million in the capital outlay budget this past year so we take with no changes to the cost of buses if we're going to look at purchasing 30 buses then you're looking at an additional $2 million but as you
you know buses are going to go up so so probably a safe number would be budgeting 4.5 million instead of the 2 million when you looked at that slide four you saw there was a couple of years that we didn't purchase buses at all or we purchased very few we also leveraged Esser dollars in the past to to purchase some buses I think it was around 10 buses um that was prior to us our campaign and getting the impact fees and the sales tax so in in in light of those
things those become part of the revenue source that we will would look at to get to that 30 buses a year number okay so we're looking at an additional two and a half million for buses which would be in a perfect world an annual reoccurring expense because of what I hear Mr aonic saying is essentially we need to be ordering 30 buses every year to be properly replacing our bus is that kind of what I've heard you say absolutely if
you recall on that slide as well and and Mr aonic I don't know if you want to um you saw a mass P purchase back in two uh 2020 of buses if you you recall um we took a loan to do that and we are still paying for that loan it gets smaller each year but again um that's not a practice that that our team would recommend at least from transportation and operations because then not only are you paying for the bus you're paying for the interest to that loan so we do want
to establish that rotation if we look at 30 buses we're going to look at a reoccurring cost around four million plus each year out of the capital budget okay thank you for that clarification so we're talking about an increase of about two and a half million in purchasing of buses and then above what we've previously budgeted and then we're talking about another million dollars well 1.25 million the first year and then a reoccurring to 250 for the
navigation and that out of that 250 we're already paying about 180 for the tablets we have a year so oh okay so so there's going to be an offset there so we're paying more but there will be an Offset you know so it won't be the whole 225 because we're already used to paying 180,000 a year understood okay those are just I'm like a math visual kind of learning if I could chime in on that however that would not be Capital funds that's General funds Capital fund is only for for the
buses Vehicles the the softwares and all of those purchases come out of our general fund okay from our like technology budget would it be under Mr benanti's budget no it's in the transportation general fund budget okay okay um okay well I mean I definitely agree with Dr Campbell that we have got we have we have a lot of things we have to prioritize and so and we have a lot of deficits and so we're trying to close a
lot of gaps and that's I think the hardest part and I guess that's why we're sitting here as elected officials because we have to decide what is going to be the most precedent but I do not disagree that we have to start making Transportation a priority I think this last year we've seen such significant Improvement on ontime arrivals and um even ontime dismissals we talked about the nuances of like what that looks like because I feel like you're not doing yourself Justice with how we're measuring that because you know anyhow but um I I agree in
prioritizing this I just would love to see Miss Boston Ellis explain or share because we right now have buttoned up pretty much the sales tax because we have all of these other big plans and so I don't want to if we're going to use sales tax for this then how are we what are we getting rid of and so I just I know Miss Boston El always says yes you can have it but you got to get rid of something else um she always says the is yes but and so what are we going to as a board have to let go of to get
here I guess is ultimately my question so what you would see Dr James is as far as the capital outlay we wait for the state to to provide our our budgetary numbers which our department receives from Miss Boston Ellis and then in July you would have that work session where we present The Five-Year Plan and within that Five-Year Plan you see the bus amount being allocated and then you see all the projects that we're recommending funded and all the projects unfunded so
it would be at that point we would engage in those conversations to to readjust priorities based on your recommendations as well so so let's say we put 4.5 million into transportation for for buses in The Five-Year Plan but there was a project that turned out to be unfunded and you think would be a priority those things would be adjusted as we have those conversations in that work session in July and then we bring back the final document for The Five-Year Plan in uh
September which must be approved by October 1st okay thank you I think I have a good understanding thank you Dr James Reverend Cummings no comment at this time okay um oh sorry go ahead Dr Campell sorry I just wanted to go back I I was curious about attorney power's question and I don't think Mr answered it okay I'm gonna answer that the best I can I'm not a technology Guru at all that's so just so want everybody to know that up front um with that being said we
have transversa for our routing software um we're switching over currently to that it's it's we we um we've been in a lot of meetings and and there's a lot of behind the scenes buildup to switch um switch programs so we're in the middle of that right now now that program the the way points so that's how they decide where you know kind of the GPS tracking and all that so the way points are owned by by by
transversa um they to to be able to have updated right now we change a route it's on the it's on the um the tablet where you can see it on the bus without having to wait or anything you have to use their from from their routing software to their program um so if you use a different program you got to create all new waypoints you have there's there's a a lot more that goes into it so it and it doesn't have from my understanding and
like I said this is a a very rookie um understanding of of of Technology um but you can't um take the way points from someone else and have the immediate updates like what we want for our drivers if that somewhat makes sense Mr Powers you looking at me like I'm trying to say does that make sense or not I I just mean uh is the reason we're sticking with the company is
because they have proprietary software that we can't replicate correct that that would but we we have GPS coordinates for every bus stop in the in the district and we can provide those those GPS coordinates to an alternative vendor but but it can't the the way you got to be able to pull it from your routing software you got to be able to pull it from your routing software and transfer it over to the the software that's needed to be able to to view it like you so if we change a route you know because we change routes all
the time a kid drops drops on the kid drops off and you can't take it from that software to just any program if so you have to be able to transfer theirs seamlessly does it it transfers right in there's no issues no problems there's no weight okay so um have we is that something that we have considered an RFB process to find out other companies that can help us with that or is that or or I mean I I guess the question
is how would we know if we haven't asked I well I've looked into other programs because I was trying to find other programs that we could use and when I asked is this going to work where it we get live updates the answer was no for the for the programs that I looked into thank you thank you yes thank you and just speaking on the um cost of Transportation I know historically it
has not covered our expense the appropriation that we receive and I believe uh that was probably pays about half okay thank you CFO for nodding and confirming that and while we're obviously grateful for the compression funds we've received from the state in the past we are not the only District according to my understanding that suffers from this
deficit so I'm thinking about when we're going up um board member Campbell um to STK later or soon and then also in our conversations um we can think about making this a priority as we speak to our legislators as well and I think you had mentioned banding together with some counties through the Coalition um to unify that that voice and that need because it is a
requirement for us to get our kids to school and and get them to school safely and on time and have the right drivers to do it so that's may be another opportunity to where we'll be heard and perhaps the appropriation will be increased and that'll end up being a cost savings across the board I would think eventually we know it's okay thank you um I just have a a question quick question and you explained this when we toured um the bus
garage but I wanted the public to hear back on slide one um where we were talking about oh actually it's not slide one second okay about our warranties and the mileage would you just go into a little more detail like you did for us um at the bus garage so the public understands how many miles um we put on buses in a year and a year and a half and so they
have a better understanding of the struggle we're facing just for being in Maran County yes ma'am um and I think Mr Grell finger he he was explaining this when we were over the fleet manager um our bus is just like a car you buy them and they're going to have a warranty um and your bumper to- bumper warranty and don't quote me on this but say it's 5 years 100,000 miles um and so when you reach either one of those points which we usually always reach to mileage before we reach the years um you're out
of warranty U so the companies if if it's under warranty they send out a technician they fix it if it's not something they can fix in the field or at our shop they'll they'll take the bus back to their main main area or their main compound which most of ours are in Orlando Tampa areas um they go down there and then they'll work on it and they'll send it back um once it's out of warranty then we do all the all the maintenance or I shouldn't say maintenance we do all the repair work on the buses at that point and and you know
so that brings kind of another point that I didn't mention you know all of our buses are inspected every 28 days and and we do that um to meet our our um mechanics they have to receive a state inspector um certification and they go through once every 28 days the bus comes in and it gets inspected and there's a there's a long um list of things they have to go through it doesn't matter whether it's the seat belts make sure the seats are all tightened down down um make sure that the windshield wipers work you know all the maintenance stuff
the brakes anything like that that's on the bus there's a checklist for them to go through and and make sure that everything's okay but for back to the warranty um it just it we usually run out like I said the mileage because our county is so big much sooner than we do the years right so I think the the number that was shared we're you know we're spending $116,000 on a bus which we're you know we don't have a lot of options on buying a new bus but because of the mileage um that our buses Drive every
day that warranty is out in about two and two and a half years so that's the challenge um I just wanted the public to understand that yes we have new buses but our warranties are only lasting half the time um that they are designed for um so thank you for um our buses are on state bid by also there's the three main bus companies they provide a state bid and that's what they they cost across the state just so everybody's aware of that okay thank you the other question I
have is a little bit about technology um and so when you're when when you're leasing tablets um do they get upgraded so how does that contract work when you have tablets for four years then is there a certain point where they get upgraded how does that work they they have not been upgraded during the time we've had them I think you you lease those tablet until we turn them back in okay and so
you would have the option to start a new lease with an upgraded tablet yes ma'am I believe you would have to do a new contract and a new lease okay Mr Powers maybe could answer that better than me probably so yeah and the the the companies that we've worked with with those um I'm trying toia fres senovia right um I I think that overall we're continuing Mr aic's been good about contacting me and I've tried to help them as much as they can with some of
those items um I think that when when we're dealing with tablet replacement or tablet software those leases are for a term they're for a period That's typically three to four years or they can be an outright purchase now I'm not sure I'd have to rec recollect where we are with with ours I I don't know I I want to say we're um we just rid a year because it also there's the one thing
was in there it also has here comes the bus the app parents right so so there's that crossover there um that we have this company here that we were talking about part of it they have their own app that's the same as or very similar to the here comes the bus app okay and that's an example of where proprietary technology doesn't get in the way because there's an identical one for a different need so we're we're in good shape there so and I I am confident that
if they have any difficulties with those we can work together to figure those out Madame chairman yes ma'am thank you um Mr aonic thank you again to you and your team for the Improvement of the ontime arrival I really I really appreciate it wanted to um ask you and I hate to put you on the spot I know you may not know this directly but as the board has to conversation we talked about the 22,000 registered voter of
Voters interesting isn't it writers writers where voters came from um but also the whole context of being the fifth largest Geographic size District in the state so the complexities if you think about how we're serving students because of our distance almost Coast to Coast right as opposed to an urban area where you have adjustments that can be made that are more easy to adjust
hopping off one bus to a nearby bus those kinds of things have you seen any direct connection with distance because of the geographic size an impact on not just miles that was referred to on page one but other items as well in cost and wear and tear yes ma'am I I mean when you look at maintenance items like tires and and and brakes and things like that I mean the more miles you put on them the faster you're going to have to replace them and
our our district is so large you you you have those issues um we've done um some things I think on the garage tour one of the things everybody got to see we we got a new machine for for balancing our tires and that's helping us that's helping us uh uh increase the life expectancy of the tire for the bus um you know so just there's things like that that we do to try to help um increase those life expectancies um but like everything else it it takes paper
and ink you know it takes money to try to get those things done thank you madam chair yes sir um thank you Mr stonic and M dobins for the tour that we came on a couple weeks ago I'm just kind of backing up just making sure I'm wrapping some numbers around my head um conversation that uh Dr James and Dr Campell were saying about the 30 new buses per year is roughly about 4.5 yes sir million a year for 30 buses a
year that's 2025 cor right because I'm looking when I look at the numbers I look at from 2020 to 2025 the cost per bus went up by $11,000 per year so I mean it's going to be much more than 4.5 million that we're going to have every year coming from Capital Outlet am I hearing that right yes sir uh it's uh the the bid for the state the the the three main manufacturers uh Thomas Matthews and
international they they provide a bid yearly and that's that's the price for for their their buses and Equipment um for that year very good point I I think that well as we all know back in 2020 what happened we saw the the increase in in the cost of Steel and and a lot of other things I I think also given um our economic uh uncertainty in America we
could certainly see for vehicles a significant increase and that's going to impact that capital budget as well and and that's something that we're going to have to monitor and assess fortunately we do have the state bid uh to to utilize as well but I I would suspect that we're going to continue to see increases in vehicle cost and and just as Dr gullet pointed out um 22,000 students transported in Maring county is way more expensive than 22,000 students
transported in a smaller demographic uh County thank and thank you for saying that because I'm I'm the way I'm looking at this that we're still growing this county is growing um costs are going to continue to go up at some point we won't be able to do 30 buses a year or we going to have to drop to 2015 because we're going to out cost it's going to out cost us especially at the rate of per bus like I said just from 2020 to
2025 per bus cost increase $1,000 I anticipate just on the the situation right now that's going to be much greater than $1,000 per year you agree as a man of faith I'm going to say I'm going to hold on to faith that as our County grows and we have implemented the sales tax that also our sales tax revenue will also increase will it balance out I don't have that crystal
ball that was a great answer bar that good answer you you worked that one that was good thank you thank you okay oh Dr Campbell one more sure thank you for that conversation every Cummings I actually had wrote written this note and was just going to wait until later to say it but something El we also we have to keep in mind I'm looking forward to having our first capital outlay budget conversation with impact fees because we haven't ever had one of those and as we are aware
currently our impact fees are at 40% I think in two years we can revisit that conversation and so that is an opportunity as our community continues to grow potentially some of these Capital outlay funding things that have been unfunded it flips the script when we actually do have a revenue Source now we haven't actually heard how much money we're bringing in on that yet but I think that at least is going to be an opportunity for a conversation we will have basically a full year that we
should have been collecting whenever we're having this Capital Outlet conversation uh but I think as we continue to explore additional Revenue sources including talking to the legislature as well my hope is we'll be able to continue on the industry standard of replacing at least 30 buses a year okay all right thank you very much for a great presentation this morning board thank you for um some very enlightening conversation and uh we will
see you soon all right thank you thank you you have a great day you twoo is there any public comment okay seeing none Dr gullet I think we're ready for our next presentation yes we certainly are thank you madam chair as you see Mr ARS has made his way to the podium he is going to present a couple of our correction corrective action plans for our Charter Schools thank you Mr Eric good morning Madam chair chair board
members Dr gullet attorney powers and M Martinez Florida Statutes and State Board of Education rules require lower performing charter schools to develop and Implement strategies to raise student performance the director or principal and a representative of the governing board of a charter school that earned a grade of D or an F shall appear before the sponsored present the information concerning deficiencies the director or principal
and a governing board representative shall submit to the sponsor for approval an academic corrective action plan to raise student performance okali Charter High and McIntosh area school are here this morning to present their academic corrective action plans the plans were uploaded to board docs prior to this meeting I would like to now introduce Miss TC Matthews executive director of Clear Choice she have has with her a board member and she will present the academic corrective action plan Pro Cali
Charter High good morning good morning TC how are you good thank you chairperson Conrad uh board members superintendent gullet thank you it's always a pleasure to speak in front of you um not always on this topic mind you but nonetheless I feel confident that we've put a plan in place that's going to continue to accelerate um the academic success of our students you all received my report
so today I'd just like to focus on three really important areas uh where we have placed a lot of our attention so the very first um being our strategic planning and Staffing and I feel like I'm going to be preaching to the choir a little bit but you know that our school grades are directly correlated to the success of our teachers highly qualified highly impactful teachers who motivate students and and insist that students
Master content is where we find our greatest success and so as we look at hiring people for um the ocali team we began to really focus on the best of the best and part of doing that was to bring on board um benefit packages that were similar um albeit not quite exact to that that the the School District offers um and so this was our first year of really offering those types of services for our staff um and so we look to get
the best of the best in there uh because in all honesty if you have a great teacher Nothing Else Matters technology does not matter facilities do not matter what matters is that we have strong teachers in there and they are focused on Mastery of content with our students uh we also were able we actually only brought over two teachers teachers with us this year from our last year staff so we retained two of our
teachers both of which were highly effective teachers and um then we were able to hire more teachers to come on board I feel like we got three really strong ones but as you know one of our challenges in the world of Education right now is finding people to hire in the capacity of an educator and so we had a couple of newbies that we had to bring on as well and we've implemented a couple couple of different approaches to ensure that those new teachers are very
deliberately focused on Content Mastery I tell our teachers all the time we pay you to ensure Content Mastery of students we don't pay you to argue with students to deal with bad behavior all of those sorts of things that can derail the academic success of our students and so working with brand new teachers many of whom have never had any coursework on how to be a teacher which is just so foreign to me because that was my whole
cours work right um but really helping them to understand classroom management and that takes us into our next point of really like laser focus on a concept that came from my childhood um my daddy ran Morrison's Cafeteria I think you guys know that and so when you're running a restaurant you have to keep an eye on the pennies or you'll lose the dollar actually yeah I I look back because you guys do that as well right if we don't keep an eye on the pennies we're going to lose the dollars and the
same thing goes for classroom management if we don't keep an eye on the tiny insignificant behavior um derailment that students do in a classroom that keep us from our instructional time um then we begin to lose the dollars and the dollars are academic success so we've really focused with our teachers at both schools on on on really redirecting those tiny behaviors so that we're not losing
instructional instructional time and so um that also helps us to keep away from the the dollar so we don't I'm Gonna Knock on some wood here fights aren't happening at oali they're just not because of the way that we're managing both of the schools but specifically for your interest today the high school and so part of that is keeping a real handle on just the D in of instructional time and being true to this to the work that we're doing and that's Mastery of
content ultimately and building relationships right and then the last area that we know to be true is is and you guys are going to chuckle because this one's a doozy student motivation and parent engagement right and so how do we motivate and and here's the thing at the high school level it's not even I mean yes it's about our school grade but it's more about High Stakes you don't pass that algebra exam and you don't pass that 10th grade ELA
those two things are are check off points for your high school diploma and so really helping students of that age bracket people of that age bracket to understand what doors will close if you don't get a high school diploma and why these tests are so important in order to prove that you've mastered content to the level of of um acceptability to get your high school diploma uh we had several
students last year who who had you could look at their scores over the over the years and it's it's gone down right they were a four they were a three they were a two and so we we talked to them after actually the beginning of this year what happened here we had several students say oh I just didn't I just didn't do it excuse me what do you mean you just didn't do it well what's the big deal uh your high school diploma is the big deal
I had two of those take the test in the fall because they get retakes they got fours so helping kids and and I think really the reason we feel it we have 25 kids taking that test you guys have thousands of kids taking that test 20% of them don't care about it that's a problem and so really working in student motivation to understand as and it really is about their life life path and their success you have to pass this test this is super important and it's not
just something that's going to go away um and then with that is parent engagement uh you all know that parent engagement sometimes falls off at the high school level and so we've developed a lot of programs to bring those parents in and to help those parents continue to be part of their students success I will tell you this this year we are still only 9th 10th and 11th so we will not be receiving as we did not last year we will not be receiving the score for graduation rate or the score for
acceleration rate that makes it challenging um but we're doing everything in our power to get those learning gains up uh because I think that's where our um our success lies questions you for yes Dr Campbell good morning good morning Dr Campell I don't have any questions but I just wanted to make a comment to say missing those learning gains is something that I noted all throughout
your report because when you think about it this is your Baseline your TC and so knowing how data Works having a baseline is a Baseline and and so once you have that which in a first year is all you got um then you really can't go anywhere but up in in a lot of ways and so I'm grateful for the work that I know that you and your team have put into this plan a very detailed plan um that I read through and just looking forward to continued growth I I appreciate that we
do have an alternative small high school that is a public school Public Charter School here in Marian County and and I I know a couple of families there that love that we have that op option for their students as well so um just Kudos I'm I'm looking forward to you not having to come back before us in this particular capacity in the future thank you thank you Dr K yes Dr James thank
you um and I will say I I'm I wasn't I was a little disheartened but not surprised when we got your school grade because school grade is one big math equation and when you're denominator is small and I say this about some of our smaller School sites too when your denominator is small the math is really hard to manipulate and part of school grade is figuring out you know you have students who maybe historically are under achievers and so you you could maybe go in and you do a little math predetermination to try to figure out
where you're going to fall and so the smaller your denominator is and the less subgroups you're able to represent in in that big calculation the harder it is and so I fully believed that your grade was a reflection of your denominator um and and that was all it was for me understanding that the work of Cali Charter Middle has done and continues to do and the students that they are producing and understanding the
connection and the bridge that's going to come from the Middle School to the high school I don't foresee this being a consistent issue with oal Charter High School I it may be an issue again this year if we're being transparent and honest because the math is the math and it's really hard um when you're missing grad rate when you're missing acceleration points I mean those are acceleration points to me is the easiest um bucket to get lots of points in because there are a variety of ways students can get acceleration points and
so not being able to work within that bucket is already a huge downfall so I understand and appreciate where you guys are from a numbers perspective and I imagine as your population grows and as you're able to fulfill all of the buckets we I I expect that we are going to see a successful High schol school that matches the performance of the rest of the high schools in Maring County thank you I do want you to know this
though um Miss Brown and I take full responsibility for this grade and I appreciate that you identified that the mathematics were against us but we do not take this lightly and I want each and every one of you to know it is our commitment to always provide the highest level of academic Excellence for the students that make a personal choice to go to our small school I think all of our our high schools in Maran County are doing an amazing job and I think we serveice a very uh important little
niche that will enhance Maran County School District so thank you for for seeing that but do know we do not take this lightly and we hope that that you will be correct in saying that these scores will go up yes absolutely and I appreciate you you guys taking ownership because ultimately that's where the buck stops right um but it's the first year is the hardest year and and honestly you know when you you Monday morning Monday Morning Quarterback it could you have
opened with all of your grades and taken opened your Charter up and allowed all students to enroll potentially because that would have allowed you to manipulate the school grade a little differently but if that wasn't the way you wanted to build the culture at your school then then you you want to look at that too so I appreciate the the walk you all are walking on and I I think that it's going to I know know it's going to be productive thank you yes um thank you Miss Matthews for the the
presentation and for number one for me the accountability um that's that shows that things are going to uh go in the right direction and as as Dr James has stated and and Dr um Campbell stated um those acceleration points the grad rates all those things are just growing pains and so as you grow as we as the school grow grows you're you're in year one so as it grows we expect that it will get better but I appreciate the
accountability and I do do believe that um you may have to come back one more year I hope not but but I if it does we know why and so we're going to work our district is going to work with you because you are meeting a certain niche of kids that are not going to do as well in a in a traditional high school so we do need you around so thank you again thank you yes thank you and it's always great to see you and in whatever capacity because
you're so authentic and authentically committed to students success um you know from my view uh this our school district has a great reputation for supporting our public charter schools and and understanding the nuances of of some years being more successful than others and and doing all we can to hang with you and and support you um and you're just out of the gate and you're going to hit your stride um you've got a proven formula as evidenced
by okal Charter Middle School and I too am very grateful that there is this option available for students and families and so that's what I have for you thank you TC I just want to say I'm always happy um to see no matter what you're presenting to us because um the word authentic is um just so true for you it was as a parent in elementary school um
and as a leader of our charter school and so um I just thank you for the work that that you're doing and your sincere investment in the students that choose to attend your school so thank you for being here thank you for your presentation I look forward to seeing you again thank you very much Madam chair may I make a comment while Mr sis is coming forward um appreciate the charter schools that are here I I wanted you board to know that our Charter School leaders participate
in our principal meetings too so it's nice that they come and they they participate all together and part of that professional Learning Community just thought you should know that thank you for sharing that yes uh Tuesday was excellent by the way thank you to your staff because we get so much information from that and the inclusiv inclusivity that you provide us is really um necessary for us to be successful so thank you thank you for engaging thank
you I had it written down but I didn't say it before that the corrective action plan presented by um local Charter height does meet the requirements of state board education Rule and I'm going to come back after and talk again after I introduce Mr David freedlander and staff he is the principal of Macintosh area school he will present the corrective action plan for Macintosh
area school which also meets the requirements of the State Board of Education rule thank you Mr SS do we need to do public comment after I was going to do it after this one oh okay good morning good morning Dr James Mrs thrower Reverend Cummings Dr Campbell Mrs Conrad and Dr gullet it's a pleasure
under these circumstances though to present you with our um academic Improvement plan that we've submitted to you you do have it so I'm going to keep my comments brief um this is Mrs Beals who's our curriculum coordinator and AP as well um so she'll assist in any answering questions as well the 2023 uh 24 academic year was the thir third year of the new Florida standard and the Macintosh area school received an f grade uh for the 2324
after receiving a c the year prior with the new standards the size of the overall student population and enrollment per grade critically affected our schools results for the 2324 Academic Year a total of 46 students enrolled within the year of this population only 12 students from third through fifth grade counted for the overall school grade and were assessed cumulatively as one proficiency component and were not eligible for inclusion in the other scoring components per state
requirements Additionally the student population was not high enough in each grade to allow growth to be considered in the overall score outcome despite these factors mases analyzed individual student performance in progress across all grade levels and that analysis revealed gaps in performance we needed to address the leadership team um has intensely focused on these gaps and implemented adjustments to Personnel curriculum student support family
engagement and school day changes schedule changes to address the deficiencies and raise that standard across the entire School population for 24-25 so you do have our our report and um certainly I don't want to there's a lot of detail a lot of data in there but just moving forward um I just wanted to make sure that we uh brought out the fact that we we have made tremendous strides in our 2223 Academic Year where we turned around that student
performance from an F to a c we are very proud of that but significantly disappointed we did not sustain the success the following year within the 23 24 year in retrospect we were not able to overcome the new student influx that brought significant needs to Mas identified after the pm1 or pm2 assessment coupled with scored tabulations not allowing for growth for small smaller School populations um however we still we are using our tutoring remediation and
skills reinforcement uh strategies to to overcome the significant inherited shortfalls and we are prepared for this moving forward um we do take that that we don't take that lightly as was mentioned previously however we also are looking ahead to the Future to make sure that our students are getting uh the resources the instructional strategy and the the quality education that they deserve academic deficiencies will be
will continue to be a concern moving forward we recognize that due to absenteeism and systemic losses as a result of a loss of schooling during covid while we acknowledge this fact we do not accept it um we do not accept the fact that we cannot get our students back on track with the standards and grade level expectations we continue to incorporate effective instructional strategies uh and Tool use tools and strategies to strengthen our academic rigor assessment um staff instructional
techniques and overall student achievement goals we are committed as we have always been to educating and nurturing both the academic social and emotional growth of each and every student at our school to assist in our plan we have also looked at enhancing our student enrichment with Art Club running clubs theater clubs and have a new um Boy Scouts of America sponsored Cub Scout Pack for our families up in Macintosh in that area um these
enrichments augment the student Eagle life experience while also increasing student enrollment for Learning and family engagement the 232 or 2425 student body enrollment is currently at 45 and of that population 44% are new to the school um I also would like to add at this point that out of that population 20 approximately 25% of our students have either an IEP or a 504
plan um while the same student body for True continued growth for comparison is difficult we nevertheless have pm1 to pm2 promising gains due to student staff hard work parent engagement tutoring interventions and Remediation as we present this plan we have the benefit of being able to report on the status assessment of our action plan at mid year so we have made um gains in those areas and we will continue to look forward to the
future and as I said you have our report so now I'm just going to allow you know provide you with that opportunity to ask questions right yes Dr Kamp so I'll just ask the first question and then I'm sure there will be others because I'm not looking at your report I'm actually looking at your at the districtwide 100 day membership count so while I certainly appreciate 45 students you actually only have 15 that will be tested that are in grades three
through five I'm looking at this is the 100 day count again six third graders four fourth graders and five fifth graders is that correct or is has something changed since will it's 14 that will be 14 that will be tested okay so that's more of a comment than a question but I'm I'm grateful that you clarified uh because I I start to see issues just from previous conversation we had as far
as the math mathing um and I'll let Dr James take it from there as she's leaning forward because I I I love the fact that we have continue to discuss the the attendance the enrollment challenges that you have experienced and the fact that you do have 11 kindergarteners and 12 first graders it seems like you're on a positive trend potenti uh but in these upper grades where your school grade
counts uh 14 students is going to be tough to uh get to the level that needs to be thank you Dr Campbell yes Dr James yeah thank you um I was I was gonna highlight what I said to the previous presenter which is the denominator is the struggle and I think the denominator has consistently been the struggle at least for the last couple of years for you all because there is is not a lot of students to to maximize your school
grade and also as you said you can't even participate in every bucket of the school grade calculation so inherently you're going into school grade already hamstrung to very tight requirements and so then when you couple that with the unique demographic that you serve um you're putting Where We Are colle itively putting you in a position where it is going to be hard to be successful based on school grade and I wish school
grade was not calculated the way it was calculated because it is not a reflection of the work that happens on our campuses often times we see schools that are underperforming but if you walk into them and you walk into the teachers classrooms and you see the work they're doing you are you're seeing so much potential and so much is happening and sometimes like just this morning we we had a student outside many of us heard
right we have students coming to our campuses every day that are experiencing such significant need that sometimes be meeting their base level human needs is what's most important on that day and so because if they're not fed if they're not well taken care of if the trauma that they're bringing from their home is not addressed then we are not ever going to be able to educate them because if you're in fight ORF flight you're not even in a space to receive Ed education and so school grade doesn't take any of that into consideration and the board is
is that is our metric we don't get we don't get to use something else the state comes to us and says these are the schools and this is and we have an ESC situation we have to deal with as a district ourselves because we have underperformance in many of our schools for ESC as well so I think it's just a series of unfortunate math dilemmas that has put us here and I I do have concerns about what the school grade will look like for you all this year and what that will mean for this board for next steps
transparently I think that that conversation has to happen because I'm not sure that we can continue we'll be able to continue to offer the charter if the charter is from a school grade perspective not succeeding and so those are those are the concerns I have maintained um and I you know I pray that we're going to oh did back out that was weird academic success but um we're just going to have to see how it all plays out okay thank you Dr
James um Reverend Cummings or board member thrower anything to add sure board member I'll just say that um it is a tremendous challenge that you guys have and there is the wherewithal where you're continuing to do your best to serve the kids that come to you and provide an authentic education to them where it gets really hard as a school board member is you know at this
local level is that there's a whole another layer of bureaucracy that we have no say over and correct me if I'm wrong um and I don't even want to speak this into existence but I believe it's a fact that if a if a school fails two years in a row then the state does their thing and and it's not pretty and I've been around long enough to know how important Macintosh area school has been um to a
significant but small number of Learners um that we're getting left behind and so that is the heartbreaker you know for me as as an educator knowing and understanding the the challenge that you're under pulling for you every step of the way uh you know you're serving kids that need to be served just like any other kids and so I'm just going to keep the faith that this is going to work out and um and we'll just continue
to support and go from there so thank you for coming down today and uh please get back up there and and continue to do all you can thank you you thank you you will I know you will thank you all right um thank you for your presentation I really can't say it uh any better than my fellow board members but we appreciate um you being here today and presenting your program we wish you the best of luck thank
you um is there any public comment on the oala Chari oh so Mr SS is coming forward he's giving me the the finger not that finger a different finger but a finger sorry I apologize I just up I appreciate the the charter schools that they've come out um I think the board has identified the unique features that each charter school is facing um I just want to talk about next
steps um that is State Statute required and State Board of Education rule um they will be monitored um and continued monitor like we always do to make sure they're adhering to their plan when next year school grade comes out again we will then monitor again and for a school that receives three consecutive grades below a c they will continue to have to come every year to do a corrective action plan on their third year below a
c they have to do an improvement plan which is similar to what we had to do with Evergreen where there's three options that they do hopefully we don't get to that point if a school gets to as Mr ow mentioned two consecutive Fs in a row then the state will cancel the charter on that aspect yes Dr James is the charter cancelled at the conclusion of the school year so what what are what is what are the new for
what's best for students right so school grade comes out whenever the state feels like it but this year it was in July um so what does that look like well actually this year the final school grade after all appeals it was in October when that okay it's very clear in State Statute and state board they cannot act until not only final grades are officially released by the state but all appeals have gone through so we can predict you know what possible
school grade can be after pm3 comes down because we'll have those scores but the state will not take action on anything until um this final rule that's why normally we would come earlier in September to do academic and um correction action plan but we didn't receive the final notification from the state till December which means after all appeals happened so then understanding that does the state take immediate action or is it action following the conclusion of the school
year that those students are in my understanding is it's immediate action by the state so then um when we have our PR preliminary numbers as a district will we how will we navigate that um to to best for the students so um if there were to be an F again potentially how do we navigate what's best for those students students and and getting because transitioning mid year is also not very conducive unfortunately
State Statute is very clear on the ways that a local board can terminate a contract and a local board cannot terminate a contract because of the predicted school grade termination of contract of double F comes from the state and that's after all appeals have taken place um what I mean is communication with families so is is there are we allowed to communicate with the families of what the projection looks like is that something that they
would do on site I'm just thinking for the families for potentially changing their student prior to school starting right if they if they see the projection and they want their child to have a conducive learning environment well upon under 102 and I'm sure Mr sis can correct me um if I'm wrong here under 102. 399 and3 um that's the provision that says that a charter school automatically terminates after the two consecutive F grades and then uh
further down within that it actually outlines that that um an indep an independent audit starts 30 days after the notice of nonrenewal termination um and then also each Charter School's govering board must appoint a representative to facilitate parental involvement provide access to information ass ass parents with questions concerns resolve disputes it it sets out a a laundry list of actions
that have to happen on a schedule okay is that fair okay right anything else you want to share with us Mr rers all right thank you for joining us this morning it's always good to see you um is there any public comment for oali Charter of high school okay seeing none do we have any public comments for Macintosh area school all right thank you Dr gullet I think we're ready to move on to our next
topic terrific thank you mam chair board um today our last scheduled item is is an update for you on our year round pilot as you know we're one of very few districts in the state that are providing a um Innovative pilot for year round at wyam Park for us and so Mr Frasier is here just to provide you an update on how that's going thank you good morning Mr Frasier good morning chair Conrad Vice chair Cummings board members and Dr gullet I'm
excited to share with you an update on the midyear progress of our five-year pilot of our what the state coined is year round but it's really a non-traditional CER uh at wyam Park Elementary so the first slide that I would direct your attention to is our fast data comparison from our 2023 2024 school year to our for our 2024 2025 school year for pm1 and pm2 for our English language
arts as you can see for the overall proficiency level for grades three through five for the 2024 2025 school year they're started out at pm1 at 12% and increased by 8% to 20% this school year overall 3 through five proficiency began pm1 at 15% and increased 10% to 25% showing a 5% increase in proficiency of all grades three through
five in English language arts in third grade I would direct your attention they began in 2324 at 11% making an 8% growth in third grade in proficiency this school year starting at 7% increasing by 10% to 177% in third grade in fourth grade beginning 2 24 at 9% increasing 13 percentage points to 22% and then in
2425 beginning at 25% increasing 7% to 32% overall grade five began 2324 at 177% increasing 3% to 20% proficiency 2425 began at 18% increasing 133% to 31% Proficiency in fifth grade so overall if you look at a cohort to cohort Trend we are seeing an improvement in proficiencies across
grades three through five the next slide is the three through five comparison for Proficiency in math beginning overall 3 through five proficiency began in 23 24 at 3% increasing 10% to 133% the beginning of this school year they began at 3% overall proficiency increasing 12% to 15% third grade began 2324 pm1 at 4% increasing 11% to 15 percentage of
proficiency third grade began this school year at 1% increasing 13 percentage points to 14% grade four began 23 24 at 3% increasing 5% to 8% proficiency beginning this school year pm1 at 7% proficiency increasing 7 percentage points to 14% proficiency grade five beginning at 3% proficient in 23 24 increasing 11% to
14% proficiency 2425 began the school year at 2% proficient in fifth grade increasing 15 percentage points to 177% proficient overall the course of pm1 to pm2 growth as we look at w Park and looking to continue to improve move for overall learning gains and proficiency from pm1 to pm2 we do have student specific action plans for all grade levels in
third fourth and fifth grade looking at our lowest quartile students looking at our individual subgroups that were under 41% currently if the school was able to capture all of their Verge students which in ela we would uh we would look at that being a 7 to 10 percentage Point uh gain for them s to 10 points from pm1 to pm2 their possible school grade sits at 52% of their overall points putting
them two percentage points away from a b and so there's a lot of potential there moving from pm2 to pm3 shair is it possible to ask a data question real quick absolutely so I heard you say cohort comparison but um I want to make sure I understand the table that's presented because it looks it looks really promising and very productive but if we go back to slide one real quick cohort cohort data would be that I'm assuming grade two is at the top is that
correct no it's grade three it's just the overall grade level proficiency for three through fifth okay okay I got it so if I'm looking at the eight% for grade three or if I take it to the 19% 19% for grade three and 23 and 2324 goes to fourth grades 32% right correct and so I just wanted and 19 to 32 is not a 7% increase so I
heard you say the word cohort but I don't think the data is in this chart is showing cohort data right okay so I wasn't trying to like correct you I just want to make sure that that's clear because from a data perspective the students in third grade in 23 24 who were 19% proficient in pm2 are now the 32% for pm2 and then if you go to grade four it's 22 to
31% so when we're looking at their pm2 data from a cohort perspective um that that would be what we're looking at yeah correct which is also very promising because what it's showing is the students are showing significant gains not just from pm1 to pm2 in their current grade level and from comparing third graders now to third graders last year year but we're also seeing the student as a whole human is improving academically across the entire cohort
and we see it I mean we math is a little bit less productive than Ela but um we're still seeing pretty consistent data at least in math on improvements absolutely it's also important to note that for our Ela benchmarks we've taught all of them by mid year and so at this point it's all we're going back through all of those benchmarks all throughout from p pm2 to pm3 which is where we usually see some pretty significant gains but very important to note like whenever you look at 23 24 for pm1 they
started third grade at 11% they started fourth grade at 25% proficient right so quite a bit of gains in regards to where they were starting and of course where they were able to make in regards to growth measures as well as overall proficiency yes and I think it's speaking to the work we're doing in the summer because starting starting third at 11% and starting fourth grade at 25% is significant and that's speaking to not just the work we're doing during the
school year but the work we're also doing over the summer to prevent summer slide so it the ELA specifically looks very positive and I think most of us would agree that Ela is the foundation for all the rest because math the math test is now a reading test it's just you have to read the math but same for Science and so it's very promising that our Ela scores are improving with such consistency because it's putting us in a better position to be more successful in the other sub subjects absolutely we're
very proud of the the staff and the students at w Park they're they're really working hard um every single day and if they continue to monitor which they are there are student specific action plans that they have in place for individual students and the possibility that they have the potential uh to get to a school grade calculation of 52% over the overall points is very encouraging considering last year um they were sitting as a school grade of a d according to our Florida school accountability system they moved out of
that D into a SE we started our first year pilot this year now we're seeing significant progress as well so we are certainly hopeful and we'll continue to work that plan to make sure that we see every child moving forward and these are just proficiency numbers these aren't looking at learning gains overall as a whole or Lis quti so there's a there's a lot of possibility and potential at w mina park that we're very excited about thank you absolutely so the next slide that we'll take a look at is really looking at attendance data
comparison the first that I'll draw you to is in 2324 uh we were sitting at a total enrollment of 586 students this school year we had 513 which is 73 fewer students than we had when we look at that overall as a whole and students have been transferring in and out of yamina since the beginning of the school year we have some students that didn't start uh when we first initially started in July who either elected not to start school until we started on August in August or that have
um moved into the area and came in and so we've worked with our student information reporting to make sure that we have those students coded in Skyward so that whenever we start pulling reports for pm3 we can disaggregate that data and look at students that actually started on time whenever we started in July and students that joined uh W Park as the rest of the year continue to move forward so it'll be an interesting look whenever we have an opportunity to look at that data and look at students that
started on time when we started in July and then students that joined that school as we continue to move throughout the course of the school year looking at the attendance data knowing that there are 73 fewer students in 2324 we were looking at 88 88.4 2% um year-to dat tenant and this is pulled year-to-year comparison it was pulled on July the 31st as far as our numbers go that's where all these comparable numbers are for attendance and discipline as well as year-to date so that we can look at
comparable numbers those apples to apples looking at 2425 uh currently right now we're sitting at 9.26% of our year-to-date attendance which is an increase of 1.84% in our attendance uh they have worked a variety of plans as well over the course of the last few years trying to make sure that they have lots of incentives and things in place to make sure that students are at school each and every day working very hard to make sure that if if they're not there we can't teach them so we definitely want
to get them there on a regular basis 90% is definitely a good Target to start from 100% is always where we want to be but we're certainly working towards that goal looking at our dis discipline data comparison this is as a year-to DAT um same time frames as well 2324 we had a total of 706 office referrals that is not disaggregated as far as how many students got multiple referrals as well that was just a total
number of 76 2425 same year to date we are at 523 um also making sure that we think about the fact that there are 73 less students than what were in the prior year uh but overall it's a decrease of 183 office discipline referrals throughout the course of this school year long the school this year has created a comprehensive PBIS program that provides ongoing scheduled incentives to students for academics as well as for behavior and discipline this
year they rolled out a tribe system it's basically a house system um to where each individual grade level has their own house and within that they earn points for academics they earn points for attendance and for representing the warrior way uh the school's also part of a trauma informed care pilot with the mental health and wellness Department this schol school year as well we're looking at our teacher vacancy comparison from
2324 last year we were sitting with nine teacher vacancies throughout the course of the school year at yamina this school year we actually have six the slide says five but it is actually six and currently those are a uh first grade teacher a second grade teacher a fourth grade ELA teacher where our content area specialist is in covering that that class a grade five science and social studies teacher where we have content specialists in they're covering there as well um an ASD gen ed class from K5 and
an ASD prek position that we are currently working with a marriages to fill that ASD general education a Maris is that company that we use to help with ESC Staffing positions that are very difficult to staff and so we are hoping to be able to fill that position we're in communication with them right now and working someone through our human resources process to hire them into that position so just an update on our fall
intercession as you well know from our calendar that's non-traditional they did have a 10day span that they were off school that was not aligned with our traditional counter that we have within that we uh made a statement to parents that we would offer a non-academic time for them to be able to come onto the school campus as a safe place where we would be able to offer um food as well as offer you know incentives and academic enrichment and Remediation from that we also had a
hurricane that fell in those time frames at well that put us off for a couple days so this is eight days in total this shows you the average student attendance for each one of those days and as you can see it started off on September the 23rd with 151 students in attendance and began to decline to where we had at the end on October the 4th 131 one students that were in attendance Just for information for the board this was an item that we do not receive FTE funding
for and so covering that cost is something that I worked very closely with Miss Boston Ellis on for your information the grand total for those eight days to staff the school to and this does not include electricity Transportation this is just the salaries that it cost to have that school open for eight days that were non-traditional was $ 28,8 5050 um we estimated a grand total based upon the 80% of the FTE of the students that were at that school that's how we
estimated how many would come uh we did have a lot of parents sign up to be able to attend uh but the grand total that we estimated that would cost us for all 15 days was $1,420 51 so quite a bit difference in regards to what it actually took to keep that school open we'll be able to pull that data as well as we move to our spring intercession which is a week prior five days prior to our traditional spring break that the school will be off that
we will be open as well and offering transportation for those days I wanted to bring that to your attention because I think it's very important to pay very close attention to how many students are in attendance as well as the cost factor that it does because this is not a budgeted expense uh that we had looked at trying to offer for our families to offer them a a safe environment for their students to be in if they have have to work or whatever that may be um and so looking through this as we continue to move forward we are looking for outside Community Partnerships I
know Ocala parks and Rex has reached out to try to partner with us to see if they could potentially offer a program during our 2526 school year so that that would not be a cost burden on the school district so I will keep you informed as we're continuing to to Garner those Partnerships and to see if there's any possibility to do something a little bit differently in regards to that so looking at we did do a district
survey that Mr Christian put out through Sky alert the school also used Class Dojo to communicate this to the variety of their families it was open from January the 7th it closed the evening of January the 16th as you can see from that we did not get a tremendous amount of participation from that survey from the draft a and draft B calendar that was proposed for 25 and 26 there was a meeting held at the school um on November the 20th where we had a variety
of Staff members only a couple of parents attended we had mea Mees representation as well as District staff to look at what we had learned from this year from that non-traditional calendar and what we could look at the implementation for the 2526 calendar moving forward from that uh survey as you can see we only received 7 uh6 responses of those responses I'm going flip to the next slide and I can come back from those 50 were parents and
Guardians 38 were teachers and employees for a total of 88 responses overall overwhelmingly they did choose uh calendar B which I will be emailing to you after this presentation so that you can take a look at that and provide feedback as well for our calendar option as additional communication to our families trying to Garner as much feedback as we could for our proposed calendars for A and B the school sent an additional flyer with an additional survey out from the school itself too to
try to make sure that we were getting as much feedback as possible from that it was posted daily on Class Dojo from January the 29th through February the 3 it was shared daily through a sky alert message from January the 23rd to February the 3rd it was posted we posted flyers in the laundry rooms and the mailboxes at the local apartment complexes on Wednesday January the 29th we distributed Flyers at Berkeley Point
afternoon bus stop on Friday January the 31st we distributed in Carline a flyers to each individual car coming through on Thursday January the 30th we posted on the front office the front office countertop on Wednesday January the 29th as well and then every classro had a flyer posted for the parent night event that occurred on Thursday January the 30th as well well so trying to put as much communication as we can out there to our community so they know exactly when we're starting so that hopefully
our students one that we could Garner feedback around that calendar and also so that we could make sure that we received as much as we could and and they knew exactly when we were planning to start moving forward from that survey that the school put out Beyond just what the district did overall as a whole we received 87 responses from that survey 51 were parents 25 were staff and 11 were community members from that 61% of those chose draft B which I will be emailing to you today for your feedback
and review uh moving forward and so from there I'll turn it back over to Dr gullet and answer any questions you may have thank you Mr Frasier I want to thank you for your support of the school and I really want to commend wayam minina Park Board because every time I go the collaboration that's happening and the the way that they're working with the community to meet the students where they are in a very Innovative model is is very much appreciated so we look forward to your
questions Dr C sure I agree um Dr goet Miss hunt was so excited after her pm2 data came out she's like these are almost like pm3 numbers for us she was she was so excited and the kids are showing tremendous growth there's just an energy at wyomina Park that um it's palpable and it's not saying that yamina Park hasn't always been a really great school but there's just a little bit different vibe right now and grateful to the state that they've allowed us to be one of these part U pilot schools hopefully as they see our data and I
know that she shares a lot with a counterpart in alacha County that's also in this pilot and as we continue to see this data I'll be interested to see what the state chooses to do with it because we are seeing a lot of success and I know our original request was that we wouldn't just pilot one school we could pilot two schools uh potentially as feeder patterns and so I'll be interested to see when we started this I with yina park being one of the district one schools that I represent I had talked to folks about what does this
mean so a five-year pilot is really long and so my anecdotal thought was if the state sees after a year two or three that this is not being successful at all we may not have to go five years but if they see after year three or so that we are being incredibly successful then who knows maybe they will actually allow a feeder pattern school to because if we have kids that are having such gain in third to fourth grade and fourth to fifth grade as we're seeing right now just in progress monitoring 2 Data then
how much more growth do we want to follow those same students on and what that would look like potentially in a feeder pattern so I'm excited about what wyam park is able to do in Miss hunt and her team and uh just looking forward to seeing what this calendar looks like and grateful that you that you and the school worked hard to get as many responses as there were I know it may seem low but whenever you combine the 80 sum that the district had with the 70 sum that they had we're we're getting a
pretty decent number based on survey you know 500 plus students and you're getting 150 responses it's not too bad ultimately so um and the overwhelming number selecting uh calendar B so I'll be looking forward to seeing what that looks like thank you thank you Dr ke one thing that I would point out really quickly chair Conrad is whenever you have an opportunity to review that calendar that I'm going to email to you after this work session is done um I would point a couple of things out we have worked very closely with our elra
County counterparts to learn from some of the things that they've learned from and also uh to collaborate back and forth so one of the things that you'll notice within that calendar is within looking in July so our initial start date is on July the 22nd which is very close to where we started this school year as well but in talking with alacha County and looking at some of the lessons that we learned last school year during the summer time as well we did elect for a 4-day work week during those uh July dates because our district has
shut down on Fridays and it was very difficult to ensure that the school had adequate support on those days and as well as Transportation all the different things that were happening so we did move there were three dates in particular July the 18th which is the first Friday um that's actually a pre-planning day so it doesn't impact our students July 25th and August 1st are the two two Fridays that align with our district calendar that ensure that we are running that school in accordance with when we're o the district office
open so we can ensure that they have a adequate amount of support and the intercession weeks look a little bit different and talking with the staff and talking with you know some of the parents that were throughout the community they really felt like a 10day window that we were looking at before when we looked at September and early October that that was difficult in regards to child care regardless of what we were offering at the school and so we really looked at spreading those out a little bit more so if you you'll notice within that calendar there is a week for our first inter intercession week is in
September 15th through the 19th that's the first five days that they are off and that came from a lot of feedback from the staff as well where they felt like that would be a very welcome break not only for our families and our students but also for the teachers and the staff as well because it would kind of break up uh that time frame and then they have two additional intercession dates that are different and they didn't want a full five days off they only wanted a couple days off so it's October 20th and the 21st is whenever as talking
with the staff that they felt like that would be a a good time for it's a a little bit of a break it's a longer weekend because it happens with a Monday and a Tuesday and then uh they're right back in school on Wednesday and they're not losing that amount of time as well and then the only other intercession date that you'll notice that's different than our traditional calendar is on March the 9th through the 13th that's that week prior to our traditional spring break just like it is this year where they're off those 5 days prior as well other than that all of our traditional holidays that align with our
traditional calendar everything matches up the same exact way it is 100 student day 180 student days 196 work days for our instructional employees and so it aligns nicely but we've really kind of looked at how we could learn from the lessons that we learned last year as well as what alacha has learned as well to try to really work to make a calendar that works well for everyone okay thank you Mr Frasier um Dr James did you have a comment um I just wanted to know I know we had talked you and I Mr Fraser about boys and girls club um
where are we if anywhere with a with a connection there so we have been in communication with boys and girls club we are still trying to uh partner with them and work that agreement out uh but that's something that is taking a bit more time than we initially anticipated because I know we had discussed and I gu for the rest of the board to maybe know our discussion a little bit but uh boys and girls club actually came to me and were talking to me about wanting to do
Boys and Girls Club on site which is the model that I remember growing up in Orange County we didn't I mean I'm sure we had clubs in Orange County too but I remember having Boys and Girls Club on site and so we talked about that and maybe during intercession them being able to lead work um but we're we're still trying I guess to work that out and and to get to a place where and maybe hopefully by the start of school next year we can kind of have something established I think that the um the club is doing wonderful stuff and would be great for the community so I would love
to see it happen abely we we'll certainly continue to work with them to see if we can work through the various departments that it requires to make sure that that's an option for our students um we will continue to work with Okala parks and re because they they did actually reach out to us as well about offering our program during those time frames and so really want to make sure that we're boing Our Community Partnerships to make sure that it's it's a community issue when when students are aren't in school it's not just Marian County Public Schools issue it is a community issue so working together to make sure that we're meeting
the needs of our families is definitely going to be pivotal well I'm I'm excited I think this is wonderful I personally love the calendar um I think that it affords opportunity for families to um families who have privilege to take vacations to be able to take those when school is not in session and um I see often um people are taking these trips during the school year and my husband always laughs at me because I like scoff at it because I'm such an
educator and it's to me respecting instructional time has so much value and so it would be so hard for me to like take a vacation during a standard instructional time because we have built in opportunities for vacation but this non-traditional calendar affords other opportunities to take a take a break as a family and go on a trip without interrup ing instructional time I love the calendar I would fully support doing it districtwide I absolutely love it I think it is an amazing um approach and
I'm interested to see how the four-day work week goes for um because there are other districts that are piloting four day work weeks that you know for their entire school year not just for summer um which is really very out of the box but I would I I look forward to seeing how this continues to go and using this as a road map for maybe future successes in other schools in Maring County thank you Dr James any other
yes I I guess I guess um thank you Mr Frasier um you know I was very um involved in in the initiation of how we were going to roll this out I'm pleased with so far with how things have been going I definitely am pleased with the um the communication effort to get this information to the community and to the parents as well um based on what I saw I saw um and as Dr James made sure that we
saw the cohorts going the right way it there is great gains I see great gains and I see great potential so this pilot so far is working is working and it's beneficial to the students so I look forward to seeing um future data see what happens from there thank you okay thank you and and thank you Mr Frasier thank you Dr gullet for everything you did to qualify us to be
able to be part of this pilot uh the initial data is is very encouraging um something that comes to my mind knowing that why me and too many of our schools actually have had a lot of movement of students you know they're in they're out you know they're there for a while they go somewhere else and then they Circle back so thinking in terms of the cohorts it's interesting to me I would love to know which ones were the kids that were there last year you know through the
whole year and because if that is a fractured number um then it is even more a testament to the the system the schedule and the quality of the instruction um so that's just a couple thoughts on on the the cohort categories um thank you for sharing uh deeply about intercession because it is an expense to us and obviously with hurricanes you know things were going to go down um but if we're going to offer
it we we want the kids to to show up and as as many as possible so it was just interesting to hear some of the reasons why um kids weren't participating and and what we might be able to do about that and incredible thank you to parks and wreck it always makes my heart sing when it is demonstrated that these are our kids you know they're the parents' children but but these are the community's kids and so for them to step
up and and think about offering to pull with us that's pretty great um and then finally as uh board member Cummings was saying you know the the positive communication the depths of authentic communication and Outreach is just looks like it's really paying off and every time we do this you know that authentic pulling on the same side of the rope with the same intentions look what you
get so great stuff thank you thank you um Mr Frasier thank you for the presentation this morning and the first thing I want to say is I'm just really um grateful and proud actually for the work that the staff has done to communicate with students and families you offered a shared with us a lot of ways that we communicated to try to get input and so I appreciate you all going the taking the extra step that there's every opportunity to get input uh from
the community and our fam so um thank you for that I did have one question is there a particular hurdle that we are struggling with to get Boys and Girls Club in uh because I know they also approached me we had a conversation with April and um they're really excited um to help in that area so I just was wondering if there's there's a particular you know something a a difficulty that we've we have no' I I will certainly communicate that with the board whenever we are moving through
this process I'll continue to work with our departments and our legal department to look at our options of how I know I've been in communication with their local uh president CEO on a regular basis and so I'll continue to follow up with them to see how we can make that happen okay thank you I and I did want to add um for our intercession numbers I particularly I thought they were fairly good U that's a pretty good amount of students that come up but you know it did cost us approximately $3,000 a day
so you know and that doesn't count all the extra you know the transportation all the other things so um anyway glad that you're um working on some workarounds for for that so thank you are there any mam chair I do got a question for Mr Frasier for that intercession um and this is just something I'm requesting can you tell me exactly how much was spent on transportation for that inter and the reason I asked that because there's a lot of kids that walk to that
school they in the neighborhood so they I would love to see how much is actually being spent with the transportation versus those that have walking school yes sir I will certainly have that information pull pulled and emailed the entire board that information thank you I would assume it's probably a a smaller fee than what you imagine because why meina doesn't have a tremendous amount of buses there are a lot of students that are in that walks on that walk to and from school thank you okay thank you very much Mr Frasier is there any public
comment okay all right um seeing none at this time uh I recognize attorney Powers thank you madam chair board members I'm notifying you that um the design of the dgh legal PLC Law Firm has informed me the advice is needed regarding case number 2023 CA 1444 styled Tony Willcox individually and as personal representative of the
state of DZ a minor versus the school board of maring County Florida pursuant to section 28601 Florida statute known as the government Sunshine act on behalf of dgh legal I am requesting an attorney client session with the board for the purpose of discussing the evaluation Andor compromise of said matter I've have asked the board's clerk to cause reasonable public notice of the time and date of this attorney client session and the names of the persons
attending to be published it suggested the attorney client session should be held beginning at 9:02 a.m. during a recess of the February 20th 2025 administrative briefing and work session scheduled or as soon thereafter as may be heard as required by this statute only the following individuals will be present Allison Campbell School Board member Conrad Schoolboard chair Eric Cummings Vice chair Nancy thrower Schoolboard member Sarah James Schoolboard member superintendent Diane gullet Daniel Blackman staff attorney
and Jeremy poers Schoolboard attorney as well as the designate of the ggh legal pllc Law Firm I have asked the court reporter to record the session also as required by Statute her notes will be fully transcribed and filed with the board clerk upon the conclusion of any litigation and or settlement out of all claims arising from the matter the transcript will be made public record um I recommend the board hold an attorney client session pursuant to section 286 011 Florida statute to
discuss the pending matter if there is no if there are no objections the attorney client session should occur during a recess of the February 20th 2025 administrative briefing and work session starting at 9:02 a.m. or as soon thereafter as the matter may be heard yes um my understanding is Dr gull's on attending that work session so I don't know that she should be public I mean she can certainly share her calendar but
I think what I'm remembering is that day we were talking about the internal audit which was a board item and Dr goet had a conflict and so I I don't know that she should be included in the her her attendance is not mandatory but her Representatives can be there okay this is a board board decision ultimately but it's uh informationally she's invited okay I just wanted you said it was something about public and her the people who are attending so I just wanted to make sure that was those are the yeah those are the people who were authorized to attend okay all right and with that board we're
going to head into um public comments and Oh attorney poers you took a breath anything else to share no okay you're good I just want to make sure that we didn't have anything else you needed to share with us um board today I I would like to go first just because we have a um matter we need to discuss um about holding our um board meetings and where that location would be um there's been an opportunity for us to continue use of
the County Commissioners building for board meetings only and so I wanted to open and up I know there were a few concerns uh brought forward at least to me uh uh concerning the use of that building and so I just want to open up the floor to have conversation I can go first yes sir Dr James thank you um I obviously we found out with um the at
least for me I found out with the calendar invite update from our board clerk um and so I wasn't aware that we were changing our location and I I think I would have appreciated the opportunity to have board discussion about the location um public not not just for the board as as not just the five of us attend but the superintendent our clerk the attorney and then some of our staff
come to those meetings at the county commissions that we've experienced this last month including Mr Christian and then the staff that present um so to have that discussion for us all to come to a best decision but also for the public to know where we are going to be um and so it's my understanding that we've had a shift and a change for as soon as next Tuesday um which causes me pause and hesitation because I I don't know that we have done a very good job of publicly
relaying that information to the individuals who would come to a board meeting my other reservations reside just around um the functionality of that space and the county commission's work and the way in which we will navigate into their work is there a cost to rent the space who's paying for their staff to stay late um what will happen if their meetings go beyond our start time
of of I think five o'clock was kind of our really the latest we wanted to get into the space so I have questions about how we'll navigate that as a board and this board member just wants to say I don't I do not want this board to put ourselves in a position personally where we are limiting the work of another publicly elected board and so understanding that their meetings sometimes go pretty
late due to complexities of conversations um I would like to understand how we're going to not intrude on their work as a publicly elected board as well sharing the same evening um thank you Dr James and Bor I want to tell you um this was tricky and I don't know that I navigated it um in the best way I should have and so I apologize for that um because of the timeline and when I was going to see you
and bring this forward for public conversation I in no way shape or form was not trying to be transparent and so um I offer any and all conversation I too uh it's important to me that our staff and the public knows where we are meeting and so I just I just wanted you all to know that um there was no ill intent um in how this conversation came forward it was a tight timeline the opportunity came forward I was asked to
make a decision and so um here we are having discussion so Dr James thank you for bringing your concerns forward um do we have anyone else that would like to share Reverend Cummings I want let me let me say this thank you for um being transparent about that and saying what you're saying um I don't think any of us was at least not me I didn't think it I didn't have any U think that it was any ill intent in your or decision I think
it was um just a quick reaction to opportunity and I do understand the um I do understand part of the reason why let me sit back let me do this because Kevin I want to commend you because I can finally sit back and talk and hear because I don't know what you did I don't know what's happened but it sounds great in here right now um so um and one of the things my concerns were I know that you could hear better in that
building and so I understood that your decision was partly because you were trying to accommodate something that was going on but I'm I my my stance would have been that rather than us move over there and utilize their building that we get our system together so that we can be here so right now I hope this is good because it sounds good to me um and hopefully we don't even have to keep having this conversation but um I had some of the
same concerns too as well as um are we going to be paying uh County officials to hold our meetings over there and and is what's that cost going to be and then again I also thought about the fact that when we held our organizational meeting that the the decision was uh discussed where we have meetings and the times that we have meeting so um I don't again I don't think mam chair that there was any ill intent I think you were just trying to do something quick so don't
worry about that part don't worry about that part um but let's work this one out because right now we sound good um if I I think we sound good don't we sound good can y'all hear us out there Blackman better it sounds good to me and I don't know if you can hear sh she heard me breathe and stopped me so you know I think it's pretty good if we keep it like this I don't think we even have to have this conversation thank you uh Reverend Cummings and yes um the audio was a huge concern and um the reason I
was interested in moving forward but um I didn't know we were going to have an audio I don't know do we have an audio upgrade or things are just it is very different today so thank you for whatever you and your team um did because for me personally what it's usually my challenge for and so uh you know I apologize that that um sometimes makes it difficult for you but it is much better for me today so thank you very much I I appreciate it greatly tell
Kevin tell them to mark the board where everything is right now that they need to let it stay set there period because I'm serious I feel like I could sing this morning it sounds so good so I'm not gonna sing but it sounds that good taking us to church and I'm a preacher so I know this is and I can lean back and talk y'all hear me this is good get relax and get right in it exactly yes board member thrower thank you and and I am grateful to the County
Commissioners for offering up the space when we needed it uh you know for me we are the mayor and County School Board and whatever accommodations need to be made at you know so that we can have a good solid meeting here then that's what I want really want to put my money towards um you know I'll just say there's no place like home and this is this is our building this is our board and I do agree with board member Cummings that the we voted on times
dates and location you know at our organizational meeting and that was all publicly noticed now for a temporary change um that's you know different but but I expected it to be temporary and I'm just glad to be back so I'm I'm really happy that that you feel like this is working for you because that was it's important for all of us you know to be able to hear and see and participate um thank you board I just do want to share that um that decision uh we there
was a lot of discussion between legal um Miss Martinez superintendent and so legally we were not out of um we were not out of compliance at all and so um I just I want to share with that with you um so that you feel confident um in that yes Dr James I mean Dr camp thank you I too was shocked to see U the calendar announcements come across so I'm glad that we're able to have the public
conversation it is sounding wonderful in here so that's terrific but I do think it warrants us to have a little bit of a greater conversation now that we're having this opportunity because we have now sat in the chambers of another elected body in this County seeing it being completely remodeled recently as well as if you've visited the city council's Chambers they have also recently completely remodeled their Chambers I've advocated for a couple of
times now and I'll Advocate again this is the most proper opportunity for tech services to potentially build us something that is different than plastic tables and black tablecloths with black boxes and it it does warrant an opportunity for this school board to start start looking professionally like we did the past month in January where we had the opportunity to be in a very professionall looking setting for an elected body in this County I'm grateful
that I believe we have consensus we're not going to go back there because I did not like how it was set up with our student board members being up in never ever on camera ever ever ever except for the moments they would have a chance to speak and that I think has been a disservice to them so I'm grateful that they'll have the opportunity to be here with us on Tuesday evening um with in the in the Avenue that their predecessors and future student board members um have had so I know I've
brought it up before it didn't seem to go anywhere the past couple of times I've brought it up but if there would be consensus of the board and at the direction of the chair for tech services design something for us whether it's on Wheels I know it it there would take some work I understand that but this space that we have right now is wider than the spaces that we had at the County Commission I don't know that we need this much space per person I I
think there's a lot of ways that that could be done I would love to see something that looked in my opinion more professional from a government body than tablecloths and black uh black tablecloths and plastic tables Dr Campbell I I wholeheartedly agree with you on that I think that um because we don't see in the near future that we're going to be moving anywhere and so this is home so we might
might as well adjust to this and start um looking like we're supposed to look and not being redheaded step kits and get those things in place that whether it's it rolls out whether it's behind the screen whatever we need to go ahead and and make that um initial investment and start looking like we're supposed to look as a board I agree completely with thank you um board I do believe that uh Miss Dobbins is working on some ideas to bring forward to us to um
further upgrade uh the space here and so I don't have a timeline on that but I do think she and Miss bombach are working on something to share with us uh to ease the fluidity of of the work and also the challenge that we have of sharing the space with a lot of other people Dr did you have a comment yes thank you madam chair Miss dobins is looking at something internally so really no cost um board taking you back to our first year when I was here in trying to create
a a a way for us to have workshops our work session be more Workshop related we used to go on the floor and it was very conversational also with the distance and height here what would that look like in this Auditorium Bard if you have there's consensus the team can also look at the setting here that is not part of that what they're doing right now I know this has come up before to to Dr Campbell's point so if the board would like us to do that we can certainly look at options I'm not going to put our
schools on the spot but perhaps our students could come up with a project and we have great um projects that they're creating and we could look at what those options are if the board would like us to do that for this because I do agree it's going to be some time before we do anything else I did see Miss bomach was taking measurements and taking note um of the county commissioner's facility so I do think they are ready they do have enough information to get started on something um if that's the board's preference mam
chair and in saying that um one of the things and I'm I'm one of those people that just really will not complain about stuff but my biggest issue has been with the diets because when we're in a straight line it's not conducive to me it's not conducive to you as the chair to visibly see all of us because I can't see Miss Campbell right now and I know that's not how it's supposed supposed to be any kind of curvature so that we can interact with each other and so
um we've some kind of way the the ter the tables always kind of get put together so I think when we start talking about this that we look at that fact that um we need that cature we need to be able to have that high contact be able to once we add those students back into the the student board members all that makes a difference all that makes for having a good board meeting and not being uh just it just makes for better board meeting better presence better
presentation M chair I ask and and if I may also my recollection and a lot of that with the setup and I remember um Vice chair Cummings when we came over here initially you were um the chair the setup had to do with um not just lighting but also um being able to see it on camera right so Mr Christian is shaking his head so Bard if if that's again your pleasure we'll look at all those components of a setup that works
for the availability to see it on camera and do lighting and all of those things yes member thrower and I'm really glad we're having this conversation as as well one of my questions is because the move over here was supposed to be temporary well now it's years later you know here we still are is this the plan for the foreseeable future you know to be here because there's a adjustments that truly could can be made to make for more efficient and and communicative
board meetings I am personally proud of the fact that we put our eser money into the kids you know um so I'm fine in a one room Schoolhouse as long as a public can come and the sound is good and there's some heat and some air conditioning when it gets to be above 95 um and and I think that sends a great message to the community that I'd rather be good than look good um but there's also things in terms of making the
meeting more conducive um that do make sense to adjust as as as best we can so as long as I have some assurance that whatever we do here then two years later is now we're going somewhere else um then I'm all in on the conversation so far yes Dr James I agree with that and I I I just would like to know how much it's all going to cost and and just have that whole picture because I have have consistant as I think the board overall
has said and as board member thrower just said we're prioritizing funding for our students always and so which is why we don't have a brand new district office even though that conversation has come up because we realize that we can't build a brand new district office when we have schools that are crumbling and so I just want understand how much it's going to cost and what it's going to look like um because I don't disagree if this is our home and I don't see I don't see a place
like this where we're going to be able to continue to meet in this capacity anywhere in the future that's Center to our district so I I personally I like being here I like I actually love that we are a little bit more spread out it felt very tight in there and I I really didn't love that our team was not all together I didn't love that the students were um off camera and I you know we brought them on because we wanted them
to be a part of this and if if I'm putting myself in the shoes of a senior specifically in the fall who is trying to get into a top university I'm GNA try to pull some clips from some YouTubes and like see how I'm how I'm participating in in this board and that room doesn't afford a lot of opportunity for for that either so um I will certainly entertain some options of how we can improve what we're doing here for sure um to a degree in cost measure
absolutely and just uh with that you know the good news is that it appears to work very well for the board of County Commissioners and because it's their home yes you know and and it's it's great and so fortunate we were you know to have somewhere to go um but now with hopefully a few enhancements uh we'll be able to uh make this our our home for the foreseeable future and I don't know if this is anyone else's Vision but it would be my vision down the road to see
because it is a duplication of space right you know meeting places or meeting places and wouldn't it be great to come up with um a concept and a build that would accommodate even all three boards you know um in a centralized location and know that um in Pasco County they have a a complex like that and it's really great you know for getting around and so obviously that would be into the future
but um that would also be a tremendous Testament to our commitment to the community that we want to be together and have that One-Stop feeling and opportunity to to be close and and not be duplicating uh buildings when we really wouldn't have to I mean this building's already here so okay oh Dr G thank you that sounds like a wonderful agenda item for an intergovernmental meeting to see if there is an appetite among our other
elected bodies to see if there's an appetite I I'll just leave that there uh the last thing that I would like to say is certainly the intention is not for this to have a high dollar amount attached to it certainly there would be materials costs potentially labor would either be construction at lakee high school or somewhere else or tech services we could create our own design competition however we want to make it
work but I also want to say when Maran County building industry Association decided to have now two different locations their first original location and now their current location they've done that a lot through sponsorships and Partnerships within their own Partnerships and group within the association at the sound of my voice Maran County building industry Association if you want to come in and partner with us you hear what we're trying to do you partnered with our construction Academy at Lake Weir to bring them what um the program that they
have there up to a a different standard we I I believe that I've heard from at least the majority of the board we understand what this looks like in comparison to what it could look like and I am excited that the board is actually going to be interested in taking this on additionally if the cost is a couple hundred bucks I mean let's get a sponsor let let's if if that's all it's going to be in materials so I I don't want cost to be a deterrent
certainly if it's going to cost us $50,000 okay that's a real conversation we need to have but if we're talking a couple hundred bucks maybe even a$ thousand dollars please let's not let that be a deterrent for us to start looking professional thank you or let let's look for sponsorship but we also welcome uh Community Partnerships um to help with this because again we don't just represent us we represent the entire County so our look is the Cy's look so there's other businesses or or
companies that want to join in and make because it's going to cost more than a couple hundred bucks start the cample especially for the the yeah if you've been to Lowe's lately and looked at Lumber you you know it's it's going to cost but but we we want we want to be representative of our students of our staff of our parents and definitely of our County because the job that we do is very important very important okay board I I just want to tell you thank you again uh for your
patience and flexibility as we work through um I'll say a glitch um with location but what I'm hearing is a consensus to uh have both our board meetings and our work sessions here at MTI attorney powers can you share with us what needs to be done legally as far as uh correct notice yes ma'am whenever we have a situation like this arise where there's either an opportunity or there's an emergency the board chair and superintendent
collectively decide whether to move a meeting and then the uh the board is notified so that's what happened here but of course then as soon as we have the opportunity for public ability to discuss it publicly then we can do exactly what we did now what we do the very first thing we have to do is make sure everyone's noticed to the maximum degree possible now where the maximum degree possible comes in is typically within 24 to 48 hours and in some exceptions they even said just posting it on the door with the day before um is
sufficient we have gotten um it to post it on our website the meeting updates for uh the current what's up there right now says that the daytime meetings will be held um here and the evening meetings will be held at the board of County Commissioners starting with Tuesday the 11th now my understanding is as of right now consensus of the board is we are going to immediately even on the 11th
have all meetings here at this Auditorium and so what we're doing right now serves as partial public notice because we're having that noticed in public right now in addition um I'll ask the clerk to have it posted on our website for an update of that as well uh and then for the meetings as we advertise them for the future will any that have been uh altered during the time when this building is being worked on we'll shift it back to um to being
noticed for the future all to this building sound good yes thank you very much all right so just to make sure everyone knows that for us don't show up at the County Commission meeting board meetings anymore show up over here and we will we will uh have all of our meetings right here in this facility very good all right thank you attorney Powers um with that we will move into board comments Dr G nothing additional thank you madam
chair all right thank you Miss Martinez no ma'am thank you thank you attorney Powers I have nothing additional that I can think of at the moment okay all right thank you Dr James thank you um I have something for attorney Powers um we were corresponding yesterday about the sales tax committee would you be a able to provide insight to the entire board about where we are with the sales tax committee um and when those meetings are going to start the people that this comes from um my nominations had
corresponded with me asking for more details about when it's starting um trying to plan their lives and so um looking for information about that sure mid-march we'll be having an organizational meeting um I will coordinate with everyone's calendars to get that set up um that will not be something the board attends that'll be something that myself the board clerk uh the board chair um attend with the members of the committee then from there we will give them just like we did with ick we'll um assign their bylaws and uh
have them discuss those ask questions if they have them and then have them discuss their future meeting schedules and also select roles for themselves and get an overview of what their role and responsibilities will be so can I ask a question so my understanding the people that we're uh recommending they are not representative in the alternate they're both on the committee correct yes okay and the rules
are pretty much the same as IOP four times a year they're meeting in right and uh and there there's one we also will have one representative from the Maring County building industry Association and I've been in touch with them as well so they can appoint someone for us yes ma'am oh um chair are the bylaws something that the board will vote on or the committee vote on uh the committee will actually the
board has has previewed the bylaws that I presented to all of you before there were modifications that had to be made and the board chair can sign off on those and a copy will be presented to all of you and then in addition most of it's a matter of transferring it from a recommended document to a bylaws official document doent and uh uh but the content will be essentially the exact same as what you've already approved then the board will be provided with a copy of that they'll be provided
with a copy of that if at any time there's a need for them to alter or amend their by laws they have a procedure they can go through to do so is is it appropriate for us to know who others have already nominated I'll get a list of all those together and uh I'll I'll circulate that okay wonderful thank you for the update um my second question um I guess to Mr Griffith maybe your Dr Campbell we are planning to travel to Tallahassee next
week um and so my understanding is that the Committees will know um their meetings on Friday at some point okay and I'll give it the upate well so just let me real quick frame my question so um my understanding from Miss Martinez is that we are um um we can cancel our hotels up until Monday at midnight I this board member does not want to use taxpayer dollars nor do I want to stay in Tallahassee if we do not have a full
day um of activities and meetings on Thursday I would rather drive up and drive home that's just my personal preference so I'm looking to see our um schedule by Monday at noon so that I can try and make a most informed decision so yeah Dr Campbell if you want to up absolutely so that was actually what I was going to let you all know I've been in constant communication with Miss Janice sewitz who is working our schedule committee reports and us the schedule actually came out at five o'clock yesterday so they are working
today and hoping to get us our schedule by this afternoon tomorrow at the very latest we will know our exact schedule my intention though board is to stay overnight because I understand as prior years have happened at times legislators are like are you here for dinner tonight oh oh can you come and join us at the governor's what whatever and so there may be committee chairs or others that we have an opportunity to engage with that are not just our local delegation so I will be staying the night but
certainly respect your decisions if if you're not um going to be able to do that I know that at least one of our delegates is not going to be in the office at all on the 13th so and I think I may have already shared that with you so I know that that meeting definitely will happen on the 12th um but Miss Janice Seitz does know what the intention is because Dr gullet and her team are coming up for Wednesday only um and so she is aware of that but she also knows that I'm intending to be there on Thursday too in case they're additional yeah and I think Dr Campbell does a
wonderful job of representing the interest of the boards from a legislative and lobbyist perspective so I I feel confident with whatever conversations you may have on on on Thursday in the absence of myself or any other board member so thank you that's exciting I'm glad we'll have that and then I personally will communicate with Miss Martinez but the rest of the board so you know it's Monday at midnight so if you wanted to cancel your hotel we have until Monday at midnight to do so lastly board we um the work session we're having two weeks from today is a board the only item on the agenda is
well we have an attorney client session now briefly hopefully and then we have our internal audit um my uh I guess my request to the chair would be I have some information obviously the board is aware that I've asked lots of questions about Owner Direct purchase and the history of our use of Owner Direct purchase and I have been able to kind of come to conclusion in the questions I've had working with Miss bomach and her staff and so I
would appreciate the opportunity to be able to share that in a work session with the board um I don't obviously we don't have private conversations about things outside of public meetings and so I don't need a ton of time but I want to be able to provide you all with some update updated information that I have received um after working with Miss bomach and her staff and so being able I can either do that in comments um NE in two weeks from today or if we have made it an item I could certainly share it then because then I would be able to
upload some information I would be dispersing to you all so really asking for the item simply so that I can make sure that I properly include those uploads for you all to review ahead of time um would be my request chair and if understanding where we are going out of some of us at least are traveling out of maring County for a fsba meeting that afternoon um so I'm not looking to take a lot of time and respecting our travel time needed to get to our meeting um and if it needs to be in a further work session agenda chair then that's fine
too but um and again I can do it in comments but I think agendize gives opportunity for me to properly send you all the information ahead of time that I'll be discussing um I I agree Dr James and I also um you know I I've asked about uh for some presentations and informations on mentoring program so maybe there is a time where we can add we can have those two um things added for a work session I I I guess I have just a quick
question about the owner direct purchase so is that something that is going to be only a board conversation that we're having and is not going to require any of Dr gett staff to be present they're not going to be a staff presentation at all or that's my only question about having an agenda item because certainly I mean we've we've gotten a lot of information on Owner Direct P purchase via email and we know that we weren't doing it previously I we we
understand that entirely I think everything that we've seen that that was not prior work and this board has been very adamant that that is how we want business done moving forward and so we continue to have change orders with information given to the board and every single board meeting chair as you read uh the amount of money that we're saving in sales tax on many many purchases so again my my question about that specific item is it just an
intention for board conversation or is it something that we're asking staff to provide for us um well so this board member sat with Miss bomach obviously looked at purchase orders and then also went through pay applications and had conversations with Miss bomach and her staff about how we got where we are um and then understanding the impact and implications of potential lost savings that occurred over the period of time that I outlined in my request um and so
I don't need staff to be here by any means I think if Miss bomach wanted to be here to clarify anything I share but my interest would only be to replicate the conversation I've had with Miss bomach privately so and the information she's already provided so it's simply me sharing the spreadsheet she's provided and and kind of how she and I as well as her staff have kind of landed on how best to um understand potential savings we could have encumbered that we we lost
out on chair I'm I'm sorry if continue U so I mean I I certainly respect that you have delved into the emails extensively that we all have already received I I've looked at them as well um and certainly thank you for the research and the time that you've spent going back over what we've lost my concern is I'm I'm not certain while it would be helpful information just to know we lost X number of dollars over
the course of a certain period of time I believe that this board has already made a very firm statement that we're not going to do business like we used to do business and so I I think that I I'm not certain that it's necessary to rehash the past we understand that we've had Staffing changes in that department with totally different mindset that's been shifted because of Staffing changes we're all aware of that um so I mean certainly if if the consensus of the
board is that we need to have an entire item to discuss this at length what we have already seen an email what we already are aware that we have errors from the past that we have now corrected I personally don't see a need for an agenda item but certainly that will be the consensus of the board okay board members anyone like okay Miss thrower yes and um I was under the impression that we were all getting the same information because that's what is
supposed to be happening and I've been following it um really closely and I look forward to having this Rabbit Hole closed because what I have witnessed is a lot of Staff time being taken over a situation where over and over again it's been presented that no board policy was violated no procedures were violated ODP whether they use it or
not is always an operational decision um it gets I feel like it's getting to the point where there's interference with the operation of the district and that's the statutory violation that I'm starting to get worried about um there are counties that never use ODP at all and that would be Miami date there was an attorney general's opinion that went out on that that said although it may not be feasible to directly purchase all construction materials the district could directly purchase a large portion
of the required construction materials and benefit from sales tax so I'm wondering what the intention is here I'm confident that the intention through the years has been to do what's best for kids to get projects done faster to get them done over the summer to present to prevent classroom dis disruptions to um do as much work as
possible with a very limited facility staff because the amount of time that it has taken for this voluminous amount of information that has been demanded also cost staff time and if we're going to be looking at it as there's no excuse ever for not doing ODP then we are probably going to end up spending more on the type of staff that we will need to hire to be able to do
ODP in every single circumstance to me it's just not that black and white and I will take just as an example I think it was a chiller at oakrest it was literally being held together by duct tape you know uh the intention is to put what's best for the district and and the kids first instead of going on a Witch Hunt then I'm willing to continue to listen to this conversation and put it
to rest because personally um I'm I'm over it and I respect the interest in going deep we all do that with projects that that we feel could be um improved or made better but this has gone on long enough and I think it's time for the whole board to get on the same page of what we're doing why we're doing it with this ODP there's been things done in the
past that were definitely not above board across a whole cross-section of construction processes and I am personally very glad that we are have tightened up our procedures our policies we're moving forward and that's where I am with this okay um Reverend Cummings um comment on that topic Madam chair um Dr James ask could do we want to make an agenda item or do we want it to be in board comments
sound like it's going to be in board comments and absolutely and it'll be addressed and we keep moving so works for me I will communicate with attorney poers as to the best way to provide the information to the board ahead of time if available okay um and then my last comment I wanted to just mention Reddit CER has um expanded into having an equestrian program and um because lakew high school has come up today we lak
Weare High School is building the paddocks um for Reddit CER and so it has been a bit of a process um as most things with high schoolers are but they um Mr Manning actually sent me pictures this morning about with the students at work and they are building the padic and they are getting it done and um I love that we are able to use our students and put their practical skills to work not to benefit other students so really exciting stuff happening at reic that is
exciting I did not know that that was that like where was building the that's very ex yes yeah absolutely so that's all I have thank you thank you Reverend Cummings um just real quick um this past weekend we all well some of us were there for the the golden apple Gaya again congratulations to our golden apple winner again from Westport HIgh School it was truly a magnificent event
um Kevin and the kids did a Mr Wonderful I think that's what they called him Mr Wonderful they were wonderful actually good Mr wow that was it so it was good um but congratulations to all those that participated all those that um that recipients I thought it was a wonderful event so um I don't have any other comments I just want to make sure we told conratulations thank you re Cummings Miss thrower thank you yes um
just the public education foundation and Kevin and and Megan magal when when we think back and and you'll appreciate this uh chair Conrad of what Golden Apple used to be and and they'll compared to now on the level of celebr ation and and the formality of it all and just such a big night uh definitely hats off um I can't imagine that the teachers and did not feel
anything other than tremendously honored and and respected and congratulations all of you you know for making it that that far and it was interesting because we were at H Westport at the last second when Miss Jacobs was coming back from that field trip remember and you know she was just all about the kids and you could just see it feel it and the kids just love her and and so congratulations Miss Jacobs um I also wanted to acknowledge that we have a Community member here that is also participating in leadership mcps Mr Johnson you've been here for several meetings and uh
thank you for having the wherewithal to uh take an even deeper interest um yep and he's on our code of conduct committee and had the chance to spend a good chunk of time with you the other day at uh Maplewood and Hillcrest which were two schools that were on the Caravan for um leadership mcps and so just having these opportunities for the community to really see and and value what we do and and why the needs are are
so great um and it's because of trying to serve each and every student um to the very best of our ability um so thank you you know for taking the time again today to be with us um I also was interested because I walked out and I got the printed versions of of the handouts today for my own reference and congratulations to whoever printed them uh front and back save paper I notice that might as well and
and then um just finally uh we've had some kind of random conversation about uh public comment guidelines and this is definitely not something to come to decision on today but um I I think it would really be wonderful for the board to come to a real consistent procedure that that we actually stick to like the whole thing about the 30 minutes is set aside well that ends up we yeah and um in work sessions I believe it's three minutes
and in board board meetings it's five minutes I believe board member Campbell shared with all of your interactions across so many other boards that uh there's I think the the average seems to be what three minutes for public comment often it's two two okay um whatever we end up landing on I would like to see a consistent for both work sessions and board meetings um so the public knows what to expect because there are people that work hard to time their comments you know down to the last few seconds when they have a lot to say so just something to mul over um we can I'll
bring it back up I don't know you know maybe Tuesday in my comments we will need to be um uh Cog of the fact that we're gonna have to alter some of our um board policy right in regard that regard because we have a a set of proc procedural rules which are of course guidelines uh but the policy itself that we adopted about a year and a half ago um that's the one that's controlling it
gives us a fair degree of flexibility um however um it's also going to be in need of updating because there's been some recent case law in point as well so um good time for us to have some discussions about that and I would um ask that we don't enact any significant changes until policy is updated but as far as you know being able to be flexible on procedure maybe even what we identify by consensus the board uses that flexibility for it that's a good thing absolutely and it
sounds like it's it's timely to have the conversation and yet the consistency and the flexibility is does what is what worries me a little bit because um I certainly as a board member would never want to look like I'm giving preference to one group over another one uh public commenter over another I know we've given courtesy to elected officials that have rushed here from other places and we have let them speak outside of of of the time um but I just would really like
to have a conversation about tightening that up in a way that doesn't hamstring us but that also makes it very clear to the public that no matter who you are you know you're you're valued and you're going to get your done if I can I I I think that a work session item is necessary for this because I think there are some nuances that we really need to work out because I know one of the things from fsba I walked away with last time was they do the 30 minutes before the work of the meeting is only on agenda items and then every other public comment not attached
to an agenda item happens after the work of the meeting so that potentially most of the staff can go home and and we're respecting all of the other people who came for the work of the meeting and to be honest I think that is the way I would like to see this board proceed but we do need to get into conversation and a work work session so that we can really hash out what the board wants to see and then maybe that is in conjunction with addressing a policy and then we'll have to hear the policy and do all the things but um I I want to
have that conversation timely I do as well just ask attorney Powers is the updates to are the updates to the policy ready and available now they are not okay because that's I think what is going to drive this bus right and soon as we are notified they have that those are ready and have been provided then I can make any additional changes and items to them so we' some of
there's there there are at least two different case laws case law um findings that have come down uh in 2024 that alter some things about public comment so those are the the items that we're making sure that we're you know ready to update okay and so we're still in compliance now correct yes okay and however I will notify the board that if that if certain situations arise um I will ask the board to proceed in a different manner than is our current
policy and procedure um in order to avoid any conflict and any idea of in four years so thank you any idea of a timeline of when the updated policy will be available I can expect late March um um but I don't I I can't be certain do you think do you think it would be um and there's going to be a number of of policy updates at the same time sure do you think it would be a good use of our
time to have a work session ahead of the policy changes being well yeah we we we obviously have to do that um we do work sessions prior to each policy update um there will be a number of policy updates I don't think this is one that in and of itself should be pulled out separately from from the others we will have a list of you know I don't know anywhere from from 10 to 20 policy updates on average that will come forth you guys will likely decide that 13 or 14 of them you
don't really have any particular uh item that you wish to adjust or discuss and then there will be a couple that will be sort of the featured ones of that meeting and then we'll have a work session to have you be able to kick around ideas and discuss and then we'll move into policy updates I don't think it's one we'd set a separate update a separate work session solely for that so in other words every single time that we have sorry if that got confusing
every single time we have policy updates we have work session prior at least one within which you discuss what those would look like and what changes you'd like to see answer any questions everybody's got you know we've got the information there as to what case law applies and why we can or can't do certain things and then we move on and then there's a public hearing public notice and right the actual policy
adoption for the sake of the conversation are we thinking the end of March to get it on a work session yes item okay let's do it concludes that concludes okay all right Dr Campbell thank you um board just because it's an email that I've been working on a little bit uh and I'm sure this request is going to happen um of the chair and the superintendent one of the items for our board meeting on Tuesday evening is a job description that I've been working
with Miss Mor on obviously not being able to see until it was uploaded and so there are going to be some changes made to it and it there is a a revised job description so just making you aware if that comes forth as a recommendation um just know that you know how I am with descriptions it's the athletic trainer one and I was like I just want to make sure that this all aligns with the National Association anyway whatever so anyway we we got that all fixed but when you see that board docs item change know that that's why
it's changing so uh and I don't know if that means that it needs to be pulled that'll be up to you chair however you want to handle that okay uh but that just happened so uh thank you for mentioning Golden Apple uh grateful for the amazing work of the public Education Foundation just on a historical note it also was the 10y year anniversary of the in Auto Group partnership so I thought that it was kind of fun that in 2015 Bethany Crawford was the first teacher of the year to get a car and she actually escorted out our golden apple that spoke the gentleman that spoke from DaNell and middle so anyway that they
didn't put that into the program but I was sitting there thinking that because I remember when Bethany Crawford got that Mazda 6 um so that it was the 10 year anniversary of that partnership so 10 years of of teachers in Marian County receiving a car and then certainly that's now been replicated in Lake County and Citrus County and uh Duval County and and other places so that was is kind of fun uh wanted to let you know that I represented the the school board uh at the CF Nursing Center ribbon cutting so uh with other state local
officials many members of the city council County Commission State delegates there as well uh was grateful to be there it was interesting because several of the partners there obviously Advent health and Maring County Hospital District and others and the board of County Commissioners had contributed money obviously they had a state appropriation too so they're recognizing everybody for their money and I made sure that I went up to Dr Henning and said Dr henningson and said so the school district doesn't give you any money but you have our students so basically our host of students are now
filling them hallways and I talked to a couple of them so that was great to engage with our students it is a beautiful new building um the nursing center at CF so just wanted to make you aware um of that and representing uh the school board there um also Friday after Friday morning in truancy Court was a significant eye opener for me uh I just posted my checkin as board member thrower does all the time posted
my checkin that I was in court watching a feeling concern though watching watching I did 48 cases uh getting the the idea of what attorney powers and and the team within the district deal with uh at least monthly if not I another court date this week so uh it it has generated some conversation and there potentially are Community Partners that want to start addressing additional issues that that
are outside of our scope and so as that comes forward if there is additional updating that I can offer to you board I certainly will but it just has generated some Community conversation sometimes I think it's helpful for us to do I know I I'm looking at Miss thurer because she always does her check-ins when she's wherever she's going and I don't do it nearly as religiously as she does but I do think it opens conversation for people really to know what the behind
the scenes work is that's being done and and where we are and how the community really can help us in some very unique ways that we currently aren't tapping into and so our kids that we always say are our kids are the community kids and that we have them for a larger portion of their day than anybody else in the community does other than their own family and so how can we be partners with others that have their same interests in mind I'm I'm excited about
the potential for those conversations um so and excited to go back to truancy Court honestly it it was a very heavy day for me to process the things I was hearing both from parents and from students and so I'm I am excited to go back though because I I want to see the potential progress that can be made and then to see the accountability that also is
needed in certain circumstances that's unfortunate so those conclude my comments we have some hearings on uh Friday um but those are arrangments and and special cases uh I think the 28th is our next uh date February 28th is next time we'll actually have um our regular treny schedule so um again board members are welcome to attend thank you attorney Powers um real quick I just have a few things I want to
mention um first my gratitude uh for the board members that were able to attend the golden apple Gayla this is the first first year I've missed in a long time uh we had an outof Town wedding um that my granddaughter was in and so I was not able to attend but when I got back from the reception um I was in my hotel room watching it on YouTube and uh Kevin your performance with the kids literally brought tears to my eyes um happy tears
I will just say uh really feel even emotional just sharing that it was just so beautiful and that I can't imagine uh how great the performance was in person uh because even even through YouTube um the love and dedication for our students was shining through so thank you and you know every year after the gala Megan says okay next year it's going to be better it's going to be better I'm like oh every year I'm like how are you going to do better than this and so always
looking forward to that event and celebrating um our teachers so thank you for all all the work that's done there um want to say thank you again all the work that was done here uh at MTI the lights the new carpet um board you can't see from here but the front of the stage and the stairs um they have new carpet have been reinforced um really really nice and and when I think about that area I'm particularly thankful because we have a lot of uh kindergarten
graduations and first grade plays and those Littles aren't so great on the stairs and so they go up and down those stairs and so I'm I'm grateful uh that that was uh they were able to work that into um this update so thank you all for that that uh and I think that is it for me um I just had a I had a short list today so board we do have a school board meeting on February 11th at 5:30 and it will be
at MTI so I will I will see you all um then and there being no further business we're going to adjourn this work session at 12:03 thank you [Music]
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