The schoolboard work session begins in two minutes. Please take your seats. Again, the schoolboard work session begins in two minutes. The schoolboard work session begins in one minute. Please take your seats. Again, the schoolboard work session
begins in one minute. Good morning. I now call the August 7th, 2025 administrative briefing and work session of the Marian County School Board to order at 9:00 a.m. Please silent silence your electronic devices to avoid disturbing others.
mirroring and modeling how our students begin each day. I ask that you please pause with us for a moment of silence. Thank you. I'll now read our board commitment statement. We are the Marian County School District Leadership Team. When we work together, we are efficient,
effective, and productive. Our three most important characteristics are dedicated, transparent, and individually responsible. To work well together, we must demonstrate respect, confront reality, and be accountable. We will always put students first. We will leave
a legacy of success. I'd now like to ask the board attorney to explain the public workshop, the rules for the public workshop. Good morning, Attorney Powers. Good morning, and thank you. This work session is a public meeting as defined in Florida's sunshine law. The board is dedicated to full transparency in its
meetings and its work. In compliance with the Sunshine Law, the board has adopted uniform meeting procedures, including the rights 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 as required by Sunshine Law. The board must
maintain orderly conduct and proper decorum throughout this meeting. Finally, speakers must be 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. Thank you, Attorney Powers. Miss Martinez, good morning. Would you provide proof of publication, please? The notice for the August 7th, 2025 work session was published in the Ocala Gazette on July 25th, 2025. Proof of publication has been attached to board ducks under proof of publication.
Thank you. Good morning, Dr. Brewer. Good morning. How are you? Great, thank you. Good. Would you like to start us off with our first presentation? Absolutely. We have Miss Boston Ellis and her team will present to us the um
the budget update for the general fund. Chair Conrad, board members, interim superintendent Dr. Brewer. Good morning. Good morning, Miss Boston Ellis. It's um I can't say it's exciting, but
the adrenaline is flowing um as we uh go to the next step for the tenative budget. And today we're going to discuss the general fund combined.
And you may um remember that that includes the general fund operating, the adult education, and the referendum. Okay, it's not moving. Bostonis, Miss Bostonellis, can I ask a
favor as you're going through every once in a while, will you give us a slide number? Oh, yes, I will. Okay, that'll be great. Thank you. Okay. So, um this is slide one and it's the budget topics that will be discussed
today. You have a lot of uh um goodies. There's a uh PowerPoint for today, a hard copy of that. Um and there's also some handouts and we'll pause and talk about them um as we go along.
So the first thing we'll talk about is the all fund summary. We'll we'll um talk a little bit about our property valid uh values and the millage rate and then we'll go on to the infamous FEFP
and then we'll look at each specific fund uh and then a little bit of historical data. Um as with always if there is a question uh please stop me and if we don't have the answer today we
will bring it back um at the next work session. So we will start on slide three just bringing back to your attention that our total tenative budget for the 2526 year
is 1.2 2 million dollar billion dollars. Um this is about 50 million less than the prior approved adopted budget. But today we will talk about the general fund operating the general fund adult
education and the general fund referendum. The three of those total F 652 88 81130 U million dollar and that's about 51% of
the entire budget. What governs the local revenue that we received is Florida statues and fondly known as the truth and millillage or trim. And there are specific timelines that we have to follow. And uh as you
can see, we are on schedule. We did um have um receive the property appraisers certified value on July 1. And then after that uh you approved uh the budget and the millages so that we could
advertise. And then we had the public hearing uh for the tenative budget where we set the millages and you adopted the tenative budget. The next um item that will happen uh
because you approved the tenative millages that has gone to the property appraiser and our um citizens will start receiving uh their estimated uh tax bills and then you and our department will
start getting calls about uh that um in the very near future. So, the first um attachment that I would like for you to pull out is the property values and it it's the millillage history
and that has um a lot of detail. It started in 1999 at least this analysis started in 1999 um and continued on through what we are saying is the second calculation for the
2526 year and you can see that the property values um if you can only imagine uh $6.9 billion in 1999 and for the 2526 six, it's $42.9
billion. So that's uh quite a bit of an increase and indicative of how our uh district is growing. Uh but less we forget, if you'll look at the 2009 10 year, that is
when um the recession hit and the property values uh started declining for a few years. the rebounded in 201516 and why is that important be-c because
that determines what our local uh contribution is for public school funding. So it's it's very um something we should always do in that to be uh a breast of what what property values are
doing uh and be prepared if there is a a turn in the economy. Uh at that time, Marian County uh when the economy uh sort of faltered, we were in a fairly decent position, better than some
districts because what happened is um there were a lot of districts that were involved in a lot of debt at that time and it caused a lot of problems with them being able to make debt payments. uh so we have to always keep our eye on
uh as the property values increase. On slide six, this is looking at our property values and the millage rates from the 2017 18 year all the way through the proposed 256 year. And as
you can see the values are continuing to increase. As a matter of fact, from last year to this year, there is a 10.8% increase in property values and that is indicative of a um increase in the
proceeds that we will receive. Um this schedule also includes a line that shows you what our millillage would be if we didn't have the referendum. We started including this because a board member had requested that. And that's
another thing we've done as we've gone through through the years. We've hopefully addressing uh questions that board members have had and incorporated that in um the presentation. So also um you you um can see that our
millillage is decreasing um basically because of the required local effort which is set by the legislators that is the minimum that we have to contribute from a local level in
order to receive state dollars. So those that millillage is going down but it has not really um decreased a lot of the revenue that we receive because our property values continue to increase uh
10 11% over um each year. So looking continuing to look at the millillage levies um again our pro postVAB uh taxable value and that's the value adjustment board uh evaluates requests
by taxpayers and uh what happens year after year the uh the actual value will decrease. So um the postVAB for 2425 was 38.7
billion. Uh the the taxable value for 2526 is 42.9 billion. So there is an increase of $4.2 billion in our taxable value. Again a 10.86
uh increase. And this is just showing you a comparison. Um and and as you can see all of the millages remain the same except for the required local effort and that decreased point. 030.
So last year 2425 our total millage was 6.3230 and 2526 it's 6.32. Looking at the change in the revenue based on the change in the taxable
value, you will see that we have a lower um state millillage. It went excuse me higher. It went from $114 million to $126.5
million. So there is an increase of 12.2 2 million again based on the increase in the um property value for the local the discretionary and the local capital
improvement which is our 1.5 mil even though those were the same millages from year to year because of property values we are receiving uh proposed $9.1 million
in addition uh for the 2526 year. And then our voter approval voter approval millage that's the one 1 point um mills which is a referendum. Um
it increased by $4 million. So our local taxes overall increased 25.4 million and that's the revenue that the district will receive. Uh for the 2526
year the total will be 260 million which reflects a mil $25 million increase. The general fund of that 260 million will be allocated 198.5
million. That's in the general fund combined. So it'll be in the general fund operating as well as the referendum. and then the capital will receive 61.8 million. We have a couple of examples um for the
impact on a property owner. So, uh we have the assessed value. We're using an estimate of 350 million uh reduced by the home homestead exemption of 25,000.
So the taxable value is 325,000 for the 2425 year. And if there is no increase in in an owner's uh assessed value, uh the um
taxable value would also be 325,000. What you can see here is the different millages for the 2425 year will generate or will be the uh property owner will be assessed $2,54.98.
But for the 25 26 year that same taxpayer if there is no increase in the assessed value would be assessed $254 which is a decrease of 98.
So in reality, most of our property values will increase. But there is something called a save our homes um law that came about and what that law
says is that we can we have to um assess the value or the increase can only be up to the change in the CPI or 3%. So the maximum
um a homeowner would see as an increase in their assessed value is 3%. And I think you also have an attachment for that as well. Um it should be tab three slide 10
and that gives you the save our homes. Um not only the 2.9% limit but it also gives you a little verbiage on um how that came about. here. Thank you, Miss Fosellis. Um, before we
I know the next part we're getting into FEFP. So, while we're talking millillage and and all the things, I think it's important for us and we all are aware of this, but just if anybody out there is listening to this conversation, yes, you will have $63 more on your tax
bill this year if you have been in that home for an extended period. you know, it if you purchased your home new this year, you're going to see a pretty shocking um tax bill. Most likely if but if you've stayed in your home for an
extended period of time and you're you're homesteaded, you have the save your like all the things, it's going to be a $63 increase year-over-year. Um, but for those people that buy a new home or move locations, that's where it gets really shocking. That first time
property tax bill, those are usually the ones we hear from the most. So, I just wanted to bring that up. Thank you so much. Thank you for that comment. Are there any other questions? Because we are moving to the FEFP next. So, we talked a lot about the local uh
contribution and I think think that's another thing that our community um might not quite understand and again it's based on our constitution which says that um um for FEFP it will be our
primary mechanism for funding the operating rating costs. It's calculated five times a year, but in order to receive those state dollars, the local community has to make a contribution. Sometimes we get calls that say, um, I
don't have children in the the system and we just try to remind them that this was based on the constitution and our legislators have determined that that's how the state of Florida will fund education.
So the funding components on slide 14 um just basically we look at full-time equivalent students and if you just look at the number of hours that a student actually uh is getting instruction but
to simplify it we just use the number of students uh that we have and that number is multiplied times what is called a program cost factor. The assumption is a student that requires additional uh
support uh will create additional costs. So uh we have to submit information to the department of education whether it's an exception student exception student or whether it is a
vocational student. um those type of students based on the cost report require additional funding. So they look at each student, they multiply it times what's called a program cost factor and that comes up with your weighted FTE
that is multiplied times the base student allocation which is the same for every student in the state of Florida again determined by our legislators. And then that's multiplied times something called a comparable wage factor. It used
to be called the DCD. And they really looked at the economy of your community and uh they had a formula for that. They looked at things like wages, cost of food. Um and then they would look at it
over a three-year average. And a lot of districts complained about um that this was not equitable. And so they came up with something called a comparable wage factor. And most of the school districts are at a one meaning you take that
number times one. But the larger school districts are a little bit higher. So you think about the Miami Dade, the West Palm, the Hillsboro, they're still getting an additional amount. uh but but for Marian County we're using that their
uh the one factor and then all the other things that are added um whether it's categoricals or other specific uh allocations u due to school districts.
So here's the infamous formula. Um all the items that are in blue are considered categorical funding and they're basically coming up with an appropriation for those fundings and then they look at the number of students
that we have and uh allocated based on that. Uh what I would like to bring to your attention is in that third column it's called academic acceleration option. Uh you may recall there was discussion about getting rid of the
add-on for our programs such as ACE AP and IB programs. They've done away with doing the add-on but we have a categorical now uh that takes the place of that. And so our allocation is about
7 million and we're working with uh Mr. White House through the technical uh way of how to apply this to our schools. They'll still get the bonus and then we've got to determine that this even includes the cape funding, the vocational funding. So, we've got to
take that money and sort of pull it apart and provide it to the programs that have earned those dollars. But there was a lot of work done and so it didn't go away. It's just back to us in the form of a categorical.
So, victory to the schools. On the fourth um column or fourth level, there's something called statef funded discretionary supplement and that's 11.8 million.
This is only available to the district if the uh estimate of family empowerment scholarships goes over what they what they have allocated for us. So if it goes over then they will use those
dollars. So we can't budget that money. We have to wait and see how the family empowerment scholarship numbers come in. The other item I'd like to point out to you a few years ago uh instructional
materials the teacher salary increase and I believe it was another category uh read the reading program were also categoricals. those funding sources have been rolled into the base student allocation and that's typically what happens. So, we're
still providing uh the district uh departments who are handling these funds. We're still providing the dollars for the teacher salary increase. As a matter of fact, uh this district gives more than what they're allocating. I
think uh they allocated a little less than 1% for teacher salary increase but Marian County School District has always uh provided additional funding up over and above what has been allocated.
Yes, I think that's important to Yes. Thrower. Yes. As you were sharing um just wanted to ask where the extra money comes from. What what funding mechanism do we have
to pay our teachers more of a salary increase than you said how much one it's a little under 1% I believe under 1% is what we are being allocated for raises for teachers this year
um like everything else like the increase in retirement um it's pretty much coming from um just what's available so if you think about it we're setting aside money in the budget uh to
pay those additional uh dollars to our teachers and or instructional staff. Um it it should be included in the base student allocation, but if you think about our base student allocation only increased $41.
That's a lot of items that are embedded in that. So, it's sort of hard to pull it apart and tell you how how much and where it comes from. It just gets put in the pot. And it's it's another one of those uh unfunded mandates are partially
funded mandates. That would be the best answer that I I have for that. Right. and and thank you for fleshing that out because it's again it's it's a community awareness thing because what I'm understanding is is that every year
we're taking money from our reserves, you know, uh to pay for recurring costs. So if I know teachers would not be satisfied with a less than 1% raise, nor should they be. Um, but we fill in the
gap by using resources that we have at the moment, but that we might not have in the future. And that is the conundrum and something that I'm looking forward to getting much more specific about. I'm
asked all the time, well, what are these unfunded mandates? You know, what do you mean you don't have enough money or or partially funded mandates? Because if we only use the money for our budget, know to to build our budget with what we're
actually being given. It would be interesting to see that difference in number, you know, uh which means the rest of the money has to come from somewhere to do everything that we're needing to do. And those are a few somewhere now. We finally got sales tax after what a
13-year hiatus. We've had the funding referendum several times around now, which is up to 41 million now. Um, so those are the things that are rolling through my mind that are really important for the community to begin to understand at more than a basic level or
at no level at all. It answers a lot of questions about why we're where we are. I think if you look year overyear, the revenue that that we receive is typically less than our expenditures.
and we have been um living off our fund balance. Some other things that we do as well is we get around to March and April and we start analyzing the budget. You know, is this something you really need to purchase for the current year because
the funding should benefit students um and and our entire population. It should benefit in the year uh that we receive it. So we do things like uh cut off uh spending. We look at other ways of of um
using the funds that are available at that time. And I don't want to say we were supplanting, but we're looking at is this something that really is supplemental and could be paid out of a grant. And so there's a a lot of work
done towards that. and and I believe that um that our district is in a great position that we're going to look at all of this a whole lot earlier um you know December, January and make decisions that impact the current year and of
course the future year. Um we've had really good discussions with Dr. Brewer and Mr. White House and the leadership team about, you know, starting earlier and looking earlier. But a lot of times we're caught in that um waiting to see
what our legislators are going to do. Um waiting to see what kind of funding we're going to get. You may recall we should have um been through with the budget April, May, and it ended up going through the end of June. So,
a if we're in a good position where we're only spending what we're receiving, then we wouldn't have these issues. But again, just like you said, we wouldn't be providing additional funding for things like uh raises and um
other needs of the district. Right. and and this year I think that you started plenty early, but they weren't the good numbers that we needed to work with because our our allocation hadn't been released. It took so long.
And then right when the federal dollars were supposed to be released, I believe it was that day that they were supposed to be released on a Friday, we got the notification that they were being held, you know, for review. Um, which isn't a bad thing. It was just bad timing. I
wish if they were going to review it, they would. If they do it next year, please, again, since we're talking about doing things early, you know, let's get it done so that we have numbers that are true numbers to really be able to work with. Um, I'm glad you mentioned the federal dollars because that's also part of it. You
know, as I sit here and think about it, we've got state, federal, and the required local effort funds, but anything else is we're having to either find a way to pay for it or go to the community and ask for more money. So,
and our community has been very generous. Um, Dr. Campbell um and Dr. James brought that up. Uh that we are very much indebted to our community for their financial support and we are we believe that they see the need and they
support the need. Absolutely. And we all have said that. Yes. We've been very conservative in not asking. I don't know what how many other districts asked for a half penny or a full penny long before us. Yes. But those of us
long before us. Long before us. But those of us that have lived here a long time saw how bad it was and you know people were suffering. So, we didn't want to put any more on them until we really were proving the need to say, "Hey, you know, come and take a look, you know,
and and you're right, the timing, the um impact fee stopped because basically we said there was really not that much growth and then the sales tax was discontinued because of the um economy at that time." And we we uh we didn't
approve to extend it because we could have done that at that time. Right. Thank you. Appreciate it. All right. Dr. James, I I just want to highlight one of the things that you said, which was that fairly consistently our
expenditures outpace our revenue. And it comes down to what we're prioritizing because we only have so much money and then we decide we're going to take whatever money we have left over um from
a previous year and we prioritize different things and as the board changes the board priorities change and we see that um we've been very lucky I think as a community to have a board that stayed the same it will have stayed the same for four years um because we've
had a level of consistency among ourselves But I do think it's going to be time for us to really dig in and take a look at what are we prioritizing collectively across the entire district. And we can't maintain overspending
um our revenue. And so we have to really spend some time in this next year, next six months really, determining how far over our skis are we and what do we really have to cut as we head into next
school year. Um because the late in the game approach is not healthy for anyone. No one enjoys it. And I think the part that most of our community doesn't understand is, yeah, we built two new schools, but that money is different money. That money is in this bucket, and
that bucket has nothing to do with the other bucket. And so teacher raises can't come from this bucket because this bucket is allocated for facilities and operational expenses. And so continuing to really just transparently discuss how
much money really is in the bucket to address operational expenses and then how far over we are from expenditures to revenue perspective because a business wouldn't continue to operate the way that public education really has
operated, right? It would eventually fold because you'd say, "Hey, this is enough. We can't continue to overspend like this. We're going to have to figure it out." And so I think it's time and you know for Dr. Brewer it's quite a task to take on as the interim superintendent but I think we have to really dig in and have that conversation
and start problem solving ahead of time so that people can be prepared and we can really have some constructive conversations about what we're going to do. Agree. Thank you. Dr. James Yes. Sure. I appreciate this conversation because
it's obviously it's timely. were talking about budget. Um, and correct me if I'm wrong, but we have been able to use money from positions that were funded but never filled to help carry us.
Correct. And we are not going to be in that position now like we were with increasing ratios which this board was really against doing. Um, and we still disagreed, you know, we still were not willing to do it
for kindergarten parents, but uh, this is definitely a new horizon for us. And the what you were saying, board member James, about, you know, money is can only be used for certain things from
certain buckets. I I do know now that um there is a funding mechanism for the upcoming tax referendum to consider tax neutral um flexible funding and that's something Kier County has been doing that I'm going to delve into more but it
apparently you know the simplified version is it allows them the flexibility to use shift some money from capital to operating but they're under a different uh situation because they're able to build schools for cash because they've had so much money rolling in,
but I was not aware that until very recently that there was even something called tax neutral flexible funding referendum. So, it's something to delve more into. Um, you know, nothing nothing like a a good uh late session
to get you really thinking hard about, you know, where we are and how vulnerable we are and at the mercy of a lot of other entities. So, whatever we can do to have
our house be, you know, as tight as possible is only going to benefit everybody. So yeah, I think there are all kinds of things that we could have charged to capital, but we have had all these unfunded needs for years and I think the latest
estimate for the next 10 years is 2.9 billion and that's even with the sales tax. Um so that I believe that's been our issue because I can reme remember it being 500 um million dollars many years
ago and thinking, "Oh, that's terrible." But um it's grown over the since then and that was when um when um Steve Barrett was here and we used to talk about wow that's you know that is a lot
but we have so many old schools and we have so many needs that have been neglected um for so many years um I I think that's why you don't see that happening um also We could have
charged technology to the capital. Uh we we did borrow money to uh purchase buses and I know you're familiar with that. And we turn around and pay for that out of capital. So we've been stretching those dollars for for many many years
and all it's doing is growing. God we weren't in all that debt years ago when things got so bad. And that's a testament, you know. Um, we're not going to be taking much from capital because the needs are just too great.
Exactly. Thank you. Just to wrap us back up and get us back. I I we have almost a hundred slides to go. I know, Miss Fosellis. Um, just tying into the things that fellow board members have mentioned here. Uh, I think the decades I I hate
to use the word neglect, but the decades of a a difference in thought process on how we were raising money for capital caused us to have gone two decades without having a new school. And so while multiple developments have gone up
all around our community with all kinds of new residential construction and even newa uh you know commercial construction, unfortunately the school district has not had that same uh opportunity. We haven't been building new until now and grateful that we have
a different mindset and our community has certainly supported how we get there. Getting back to kind of where we are here and I'm also going to use a foreshadow of what Dr. James just said because uh you and I had a brief conversation about this yesterday. The thing that's most interesting to me about slide 15 I think and and our
community may not really acknowledge it in in some ways is the fact that the total local funding we receive the 156 million plus uh obviously we have the voted in millillage and so forth as well but but the required local funding that
we have is about 10% of our budget. So, I mean, yes, their property values continue to go up. Yes, all of that. But the state is also collecting money from them in other ways. Um, sorry, we have a board member on uh
telephonically and so the phone keeps doing things, but u nevertheless, the state is collecting money from citizens in other ways to also pay for education. So, I think that's kind of not really understood some ways. Yes, absolutely. We appreciate everything our local
citizens are putting in and what they personally see on their property tax bill that goes to Marian County Public Schools, but please understand that the state is funding education in greater ways and it's also through taxation in various ways. So, um, just for the
community's sake, I think that that's an interesting point to note that I don't know that I've ever brought up whenever we're talking FEFP and required local effort versus total budget numbers. The other thing that Dr. James pointed out was about us having new schools and that coming from different buckets of money
and you can't do this for that and and so forth. The thing that we'll see though when we get to slide 33 is the added cost to our fund balance to operate those new schools. And I I've said this multiple times. I said it a couple of years ago when I had the opportunity to speak in front of
community groups a lot in in 2024. Uh that the thing that people don't really realize is the state gives you this amount of money based on the number of students you have regardless of how many schools you use to operate to educate
that number of students. You get this pocket of money. So we can have 50 schools to do that. We can have 60 schools to do that. We can have 30 schools to do that. It's still the same pocket of money. And we have to figure out how to educate the number of
students in the best possible way we can. We know that newer is better. It it just is. We know that newer is better and and certainly it's better to have students in as small a classes as they possibly can be to be best educated. But I think that all of that is is going to be pertinent as we continue this
discussion. That it is costing us almost $5 million more this year than in prior years because of two new schools coming on board. And that's foreshadowing for us for next year when we have a high school that's probably going to be uh
two to three times what elementary schools are bringing on board. So, okay, that's what I wanted to I think that might get us back on track. You use the word neglect. I think it's important to remind the public that we
weren't neglectful. And in 2010, we did run a referendum for a half mill for operating and a half mill for capital, not for building schools, but for maintenance. You know, it was on the horizon back then and it failed miserably. Uh it was a different mindset
in the community back then. Um truthfully, it as a grassroots group, we didn't get ahead, you know, early enough um to really push it as hard as it needed to be pushed. So this is something that has been on our radar for
a very long time. It just continues to be difficult to fund everything that we need and want to do. So thank you for taking a little extended version on that. You know, I feel like these are the work sessions on the budget where these conversations need to be happening
because we'll probably, you know, who knows what we'll we'll be asking for in the near future. Okay. All right. Back to you, Miss Boston. Slide 16. And thank you for reminding me it's 103, but it'll speed up in a little bit.
Not intimidated by that anymore after years. It's like we get through it. On this particular slide, I just like to point out again, the funding we get is based on the number of students. That's that's the first prong in that whole
calculation. But I'd like to point out that our unweighted FTE increased from 2425 to the 2526 year, it increased by 1,875.93. But I'd also like to bring to your
attention that of that 187593 1218 1,218 is due to fees. So their growth is twice the growth in the um school district. So
Marian County public school is estimated to increase in unweighted FTE by 657.93. But my point there is that's another piece of the equation um that we have to always keep in the
back of our mind. Uh it looks like we're growing financially. number of students, but you have to peel back and look at well, what's creating that growth? And granted, this is just an estimate. Um, but this is something we'll be watching
uh for the third calc and um hopefully we'll get the fourth calc for 2425 uh sooner than later and we can see where we actually ended up. Uh but real quick, just in the future, what I would love to see is because there's a
narrative that we're losing students, but we're not losing students. No, most of those students are students who were private educated all of the time and their parent is just now using public education money to pay for their private education. Which, you know, the carrots there, you might as well use it. I get it. But if there was a way for us from a
data analysis perspective to identify how many of those kids that were passing that money through were kids we actually lost. They were public kids that went to private and how many of them were just never in us. They were never in our entity and they just are now using fees
money. If there's a way to do that, I think that would be really empowerful because our number of actually homegrown students continues to grow as our community grows. And we're not losing students. We are just losing the fun. The funding mechanism is coming through
us and passing back to them into the private education system for private education kids that were always private education kids. So, if there was a way in the future to look into that, that would be wonderful just as a little nugget to have to share with the community. um can certainly
talk to Mr. Ays and Miss Vicky Vans. I know originally we were able to identify fees family empowerment scholarships because DOE required us to reconcile but then two years ago we we had no control
over that. Uh what I had heard was going to happen is that the the students in the private schools were going to get a number or an identifier. I just don't know if that actually happened. It did happen. It's supposed to be happening. Yeah. Okay. So then we would be able
So it'll be interesting to see if we can really track it like that because, you know, I would love to know how many kids are we losing and why are we losing them? Why are they choosing private? Those kinds of things because how could we work on our customer service and our delivery to perfect that from our side of the table? But also potentially what
I think to be true is most of them are private kids who are just now using public taking advantage of it, right? Because which like rightfully so. I don't want it to sound bad like the money is there. Go ahead and go for it. Right. But it's a it paints a clear picture when we know all the pieces. Right.
Chair. And sorry, I promise we're not going to have narrative on every single slide, Miss Boss Ellis. But I think it's a very interesting point for us right now as we think about legislative priorities. We're going to talk about later today. Having conversations with other districts around the state, we are in a
unique position. There are not very many districts that are gaining students and we continue to gain students and to Dr. James point again a bit about the private school, public school use of fees, all of all of that. Agreed. Money's there. It's the way the state's
moving. Use it if it you funnels through us. So be it. But last night in a freshman uh new student orientation, I ran into at least a halfozen families that I personally know. And I'm sure there were many others that I didn't, but a half dozen families I personally know that are
coming from private to public because of what we offer at the high school level. So we also have that happening that I think is powerful for us that we are gaining students as well. But that does speak to okay for those students that we are losing at what grade levels are we losing them why are we you know are
there certain pockets of the community who offer something differently? Uh I think that that's powerful but we are unique. So the fact and I'm going to foreshadow again for something later our conversation. I know last year one of our legislative priorities had to do with uh capital funding mechanisms and
so forth. I can tell you that is not going to resonate at all at the state level because no one is gaining students at a large level for them to even consider putting money into capital. I mean they do not want to consider putting even charter school capital. they don't really even want to do that
because they see what this um family empowerment scholarship has done. And so that's kind of a non-starter and I would recommend us not making that one of our priorities, but we can talk about that later. Thank you. Thank you. Again, I talked about this a little bit
earlier. uh the program cost factor as you can see that determines it's a it's a piece of the funding that we receive. Um just want to bring to your attention this again is based on costs. They look
at the costs from the last three years and average it um overall not not district by district and determine what those factors should be. So our um program cost factors for K3 uh went
down. Um as you can see the 48 is sort of like the base. So it stays at one and then the 912 it also went down uh from the prior year. our ESOL
uh program cost factor went down as well and uh believe it or not the ESC support level four it decreased as well but the ESC support level five it increased um career education increased. There were a
few years where that factor was even less than the 912, but it is slowly increasing again based on the cost to run these different programs. So, it's important for us to make sure we're when
it's an ESSE that we're filing EA IEPs that we're uh submitting the information and um because as you can see, we get the greatest weight from that level five and also um that level probably costs a
whole lot more than the basic unit. So, that's also important when you multiply it times the unweighted FTE. You'll see here the weighted FTE change from last year to this year on slide 18 was just
uh 331 and I started thinking about wow why has that not gone up very much and then it goes back to that add-on FTE for all those other programs that we used to receive and now it's a categorical
so um sometimes you have to follow the money to see what happens so our weighted FTE only increased 330. We talked a little bit about the base student allocation and the fact that there are some items that were rolled
into the base student allocation. Um I asked Sherry to provide some information for that. And when we look at instructional materials, um we're pretty much continuing to provide them with the same allocation we
did uh a few years ago. that ends up uh not being uh very much. I think in total we used to provide about $3 million for in instructional materials. So, we're continuing to provide uh that same
funding. Um also the what we used to call the teacher lead, but it's the classroom supply money. um they now dictate $300 per eligible uh teacher, but remember a few years ago we decided that all teachers didn't matter. So we
use their funding for teachers who meet the criteria and then the district pays for those uh teachers who don't meet the criteria. um as well as um FEFP reading used to be a separate categorical and
now that is also rolled into the base student allocation and as you can see that increased uh $41 per student. uh the prior year it was over $100 increase and that's when they actually uh said
we're no longer going to show this as a categorical we're going to roll it in the base student allocation and that um sometimes happens a lot. Uh we used to have a technology uh categorical and there were a few more
categorical dollars that we used to have and those were rolled into the base student allocation. So again, it um we're providing the same funding or more um but not really able to track or pull
apart that base student allocation to see what actually is covered and what isn't. Here's that comparable wage factor. You can see in 2324 on slide 20 where um the
uh state went to 1.0 0 factor for most districts. And again, there are still about uh 10 districts that are higher than the 1.0. As I explained earlier, the West Palm, the Miami Dade, the
Hillsboro, the huge districts, they're getting a little bit more uh with the assumption that it costs more um to live in those areas. So after all of that is put in the pot for state and local funding, uh we
calculate what's a per pupil funding and for Marian County um it is $8,94320. Um for the state average it's $9,12684. So, you're probably asking, you know, what what about that difference? And
that's when we come up with that comp um the um there's another pot of money uh called a 748 mills compression. So the rule says if your funding is less than
the state average, which ours is, uh we get additional funding if we levy that full.748 mill. So we're getting additional funding uh because our per pupil funding
is less than the state average. Okay. So, we're going to start talking about revenue, general fund revenue. We have a couple of comparisons and I've sort of asked staff to go through and uh
pick out some large amounts, but if you uh want additional information, we'll bring that back um next week or we'll create um an email to share that with you. So um the general fund operating
um is made up of federal federal through state um the some state and local funding. The approved budget for 2425 was 465.6 million. Bless you. And um as of July
18th, of course, we hadn't we're not uh finalizing or we've not finished with our year end yet, but as of July 18th, our um fiscal year 2425 actual revenue
uh that we have received was 437 million. Our tenative budget is 497 million. So you'll see changes from budget to budget uh total of 31.8 8
million and changes from the actual 2425 to the tenative budget for 2526. There was a um a change of 60.5 million. And instead of sitting here, we'll just
um I skipped one. Okay. Sorry. This is basically saying the total budget is 584 million and it's made of 2.6 million for federal. Our beginning
fund balance was 86.7 million. We had transfers totaling 8.6 million. Our local was 172 million and our state was 313 million. And that's the tenative budget
for 2526. So got ahead of myself. Instead of looking at this at the summary level, we'll go ahead and look at it at each one of the levels. So, uh the federal and federal through state. Uh we have
several u pots of money that we receive. There's the ROC and um we do receive a portion of the costs to have these programs at our high schools. Um
we budgeted uh 445,000 for 2425. Uh we have received to date uh 515,000 and we just use the same dollar amount um as being conservative
um in terms of what will be reimbursed by uh the uh reserve programs. Uh we also receive federal money for Medicaid and this is another pot of money that is changing. Don't know if it's going to be positive or negative for school
districts, but we receive uh additional funding uh for students who are Medicaid eligible uh to cover some of the costs of the services that are required if they require additional services. Uh we
do share money with the county with the national forest. Uh whenever the trees are cut we see receive a portion of it and and the state uh the county as well. Um when we have miscellaneous
revenue I think there was some interest in what the miscellaneous revenue is. Um let's see. And that was uh several early childhood
program music programs uh that we've had and basically uh because of the red book and that's how we do the chart of accounts. That's what's uh provided to us from the state. Anything that is not specifically um if we're not
specifically told put this in this account falls into this uh other category. And so in that uh there were some money that we received for the early childhood music education program and I think there were selected schools
for students in kindergarten through 2 grade uh including A Street, Forom, Oakrest, Okalis Springs and Reic. The next is the state dollars. Uh there were some again the FY 2425 budget is
that first column that was the adopted budget and then the 2425 actual is what the expenditures were at July 18th for the 2425 year. The tenative budget is the next column. the changes from budget
to budget um is the next column and then the change from actual to tenative is the next um item. The first uh item we'll look at the basic FEFP and really
uh that increased because of additional full-time equivalent students as well as the property tax. remember a portion of that goes to um who no yes the basic FEFP because the
the local contribution is made the state will allocate funds to us. So based on the additional FTE as well as um any of the additional categoricals we receive,
it appears that we will go from budget to budget to $15.8 million. Uh the other ones that I'd like to uh bring to your attention, class size reduction is increasing because of an increase in FTE.
Um the school recognition does not have a budget. That information is provided to us after the grades have come in and so we know who has increased their grade by one letter and also um who has maintained the A. So once we get that
information from um Department of Education, then we amend it into the budget. So that's why it looks like there's a negative uh 1 million because we don't put it in the budget until we know how much we're actually getting. There's a
small um increase in the VPK program. Um the reading program is actually a grant um that we received and um the other miscellaneous revenue
was also a grant. So, we'll move on to the increases in the local revenue, the district school tax. Um, again, that's because of the property values. Uh, there was uh there is a projected
increase from budget to budget uh of about $14 million. Uh if you go down to investment income, we had projected $4 million and we've actually received $4.8 million. Again,
we're always conservative about investments and that's based on um our excess funds. And we also have a company PFM that helps with investments to make sure our funds are liquid. They're available if we need them. And uh these
are very conservative um investment tools that we use, but we're we'll stay conservative and we're estimating $4 million in uh investment income. Uh you'll see extended day fees. We have
budgeted about $6 million and it it appears that they will or have received about 6.4 4 million and we're estimating about $6 million for the 2526 year in 3491.
Um there are a lot of miscellaneous items. There's uh sale of of junk. Um there's -ate dollars that we receive. Um I think Mr. Benudi uh brings something to the board and say you know we're
going to spend this much money but we'll get this amount back uh after we submit the paperwork to the federal government. So um that's a part of that miscellaneous revenue as well.
But the largest part is the federal indirect costs and that's what we are allowed to uh charge to our supplemental funding like the grants title one title two title three we are allowed to charge an indirect cost for things that we
cover such as uh payroll such as um purchasing and all the uh employment services all these services that that the grants are required. irring and we're allowed to charge them um an
indirect cost and I I believe it's under 5%. I'm not sure. 3.6. Thank you. Thank you, Kayla. And only 73 more slides to go. So, we're moving slow. We're moving, but we're moving
slow. It's a lot of content. It is a lot of content. She's so good at actually telling the story. Well, that's good. Making sense of it. Yeah, we're talking about you in case you can't hear us. Okay. Thank you for telling. No, it was all
good. It was Yes, it was. Yeah, we just how good you are at telling the story and giving detailed illustrations as to why things are moving and changing and adapting. So, thank you. Okay. So other financing sources
um that's on slide 29. Uh the major amounts in that is the transfer from capital fund to the general fund. So that's where you see things like um
if there is a capital dollars that belong to the charter schools, it's recorded in uh the capital fund and but it's transferred to the general fund and then we pay it to them. I think um Miss Conrad had talked about the pass through
funds and uh we'll I I think we'll talk about that when we do the capital next week. We'll talk about all the dollars that we receive and then they're moved over to the general fund and then they're distributed to whomever. Um also
in uh this there was sale of land and this was the land behind the warehouse wasn't the warehouse. Um and then there's also uh funds that we receive from the insurance loss recovery. Um, again, we don't budget
that because we don't know what's going to happen, but we have received $572,000. Okay. So, now we'll move on to the general fund operating expenditures. And just a summary and again we'll go
into the detail. Um but uh our budget expenditures are 30.6 million more than the prior year adopted budget. And you can see this is the makeup of it. Uh salary and benefits were 8.6 million.
Purchase services 19.6. Our energy actually went down 1.3 million. materials and supplies 3.3 capital outlay uh decreased as well 1.6 and then that other category 8.6
but let's look at them a little bit detailed. So you have a handout that has uh details of the salary. It tells you what object those are in.
You also have a handout that has all of the general fund objects. And we will post all of this uh additional information after the meeting. But as you can see um when it says,00
this tells you all of the different positions that are in that particular object. Um so within like the 1100 you'll see there's school administration. Um you'll see some central office uh
positions. Um then if you go to 1200 which is basically our instructional staff. Miss Bostonellis can I stop for you a second? I don't have that insert. I have the PowerPoint insert but I don't have that
one. I'm sorry. That's okay. Most of the things we do are like hot off the press behind slide six or tab six. Yeah. Thank you. I should say general fund 1000.
Yeah. Okay. So this is just to give you an idea of how we are required to accumulate the cost based on the position of the employee. So again the 1200s are all of our uh
instructional positions and then 1300 uh include things like uh behavior analysts. Uh it also includes ESC specialists. Um we have the counselors
in this category. Um we also have um psychologists. They're in this 1300 category as well. social workers. And then in the 1500 um we have like our paras professionals,
attendance specialists, uh our technicians, our Esau Paris and then in the 1600s where you will find um u employees like bus drivers. Uh
I think that's the largest. Uh we have attendance clerks, we have account clerk, clerk specialists, um data entry clerks, all of those type of positions are recorded under that
foreman, groundskeepers. So this is just to give you an idea of who's in those particular groups without going through each one. Yes. Go ahead, Mr. Miss Boston, um,
under, uh, other certified instruction, it what number? It's, on the pie chart on slide 33, it says other certified instruction, 6.9%. What number would they be? Do would they
have their own object number? It's 1300. They're the 1300s. Okay. So, that would be I see. You got it. I thought it was probably the ones you were just talking about, the ESC specialists and yes, ESC specialists,
behavior specialists and so on. Yes. Most of all of these have to be certified teachers to get into these positions. Anyway, and again, we are required to code certain positions and under certain objects,
right? it makes sense um because that way all of the different reports can be provided and hopefully they're the same across districts um in this in the state of Florida. Right. And a lot of these positions, as I look for them, even though they're
classified as other, they're also re required or positions that we're required to to have in in many respects, especially through the ESC department. Looking at some of those, the 1600, yeah, 13 and 1600 behavior analyst,
behavior specialists, um the ESC specialists, the ones that do all the specialized paperwork for IEPs. You find a lot of our maintenance staff, a lot of u um the bus drivers, the um
central office secretaries, um electricians, carpenters, at least one. Okay, thank you. This is a good desk back here.
So, as you pause to look at um slides 32 33 um I just wanted to uh bring to your attention um some of the larger changes. Um
thank you Dr. Campbell. you uh reminded us of and and we were working through all the different uh changes, but I I think you were a little alarmed at that increase in the um the uh 1600
and I'm I'm on slide 33 and they're categor categorized on the left. So, I'll just use that one as a way to explain the changes. We had budgeted 60.2 million in the
adopted budget of 2425. We've actually spent 61.3 million as of July 18th and we are projecting to uh spend for uh salaries in this
category for tenative budget 64.7 million. So, from budget to budget, there was about a $4.5 million increase. And Miss Austin, while we're on that slide as well, I know it shows that we're going to have an increase in
schoolboard member salaries. Um, if things stay the same, our schoolboard salaries by statute are dictated by our beginning teacher salaries. And most likely that I know it's just
$1,000, but most likely we're not going to need that increase there as well because it statute says either the calculation the state gives us or the beginning teacher salary pay and whichever is less. And so last year was
the first year that the increase actually said that we would have had an increase, but beginning teacher salary um was at $50,000. And so I I don't know where we're going to land yet entirely, but I I would believe we're going to be closer to that than so showing the
school board also gets a pay increase, right? And and you're right, it's just $1,000 and we have to wait until we get that information. Um, and uh, it you're exactly right. It dictates what the salary is,
but just for the community sake, we're not trying to give ourselves a raise, even if it's just a small amount of money. That is not intentional, nor is it intending for us to budget it that way. Statutoily, that's what the law says we're supposed to do. either the
beginning teacher salary, which last year was $50,000, which is why we budgeted more than actually what the actual was. Yes. And to piggyback on that, another mythbuster is exactly what you just said. Our
salaries are not based on population increase as other elected officials salaries are. So, it is a challenge for us. Not that we don't love people that love coming to Florida, but it it creates funding challenges for us. It
doesn't necessarily create funding uh flourishment, shall we say. It's it's supposed to be part-time, but you're full-time part-time. I forgotten about that. That's right. We're supposed to be part time.
Right. And the other agencies, it is based on population. And I think the assumption is those are full-time jobs. Um I think school boards have have morphed into um doing more and being more involved um
with the school district. So it's different than it was 20 years ago. So um Mr. Thomas Dyke who is um he's extraordinary in terms of uh
keeping up with our u staffing uh provided this analysis for me and uh for the 1600s from 2425 to 2526 there was there's an estimated increase of 4.5
million. So you're wondering you know why what what happened there? A lot of these changes were items that were unfunded in the 2425 year and they um received budget for the 2526 year as
well as additional units for our new school and I believe someone brought that up that even though we have um funding for the two new elementary schools, additional funding is not provided for their operating expenses
such as the principal, the AP, the guidance counselor. So, um just because we're moving students over to another school, um you still have those uh what I call those are fixed costs that occur
in in a school that we don't we can't charge a principal to capital outlay. it has to be an operating expense which if I can just add the number that you hypothesized was 2.5 million per school and we're at 4.45 45. So outside
of the administrators, which is maybe a couple hundred thousand at each site, we're tracking pretty close to accurate on all of the auxiliary and what it costs to operate a new site, which I dare digress into our conversations from
a few months back, but which is why we need to continue to have further conversation. Thank you. So that includes custodians. There were nine custodians um in addition to that there were five diesel gas mechanics um
that we have budgeted that had been unfunded last year. I don't know that these positions have been filled yet, but these are positions that have been unfunded last year and they have funds um for this year with the diesel gas
mechanics. I do recall Mr. Oanic talking about a buses coming off of warranty and the need to have uh these type of people uh to service the buses because they're no longer under warranty. And there were
some miscellaneous p uh positions like guidance clerk. Uh there's also um a a planner. I know we haven't hired that person yet. Couple of plumbers. um purchasing specialists for facilities
which I know we have not hired yet. Um then there's uh custodians and um attendance clerk. So the total of that netted out to um 58 units with an
estimated cost of about 4.5 unit uh 4.5 million. And that number also is just a estimate of of raises if we are able to do that. Are there any more questions on that
slide? No, the slide 33. Thank you, Miss Bosnell for that. I know I called and spoke with you yesterday about that because as we go to the next couple of slides, you'll see that we are decreasing exactly in several other categories. And so that one was just alarming to me to see that
that one slide is 5 million 5.6 million increase and as we had extensive conversations a few weeks ago every department is cutting x percentage you know and so but again onboarding two new schools comes
with an extensive cost that we haven't had before. So, thank you for the explanation and all of the additional ancillary departments that also are impacted by that. New bus routes would warrant new diesel mechanics because and fortunately, we're going to be
onboarding a new program at Marian Technical College where we'll be training diesel mechanics. So, hopefully that'll be something that we'll be able to hire our own eventually. So, thank you for that, Miss Bosnellis. Okay. So, if I could just go back to slide 31 really quickly and and
and uh you can see the energy services have gone down, materials and supplies, capital um as Dr. Campbell um uh said, uh this is where we went back and worked with
Mr. White House and evaluated department budgets and um looked at where we could make some cuts. So, thank you for bringing that up. So, the next area is benefits. Um,
basically the budget is built off of um the number of employees and we know that there are some uh benefits that are tied into the salary cost. We know that DOE uh provides uh what our percentage for
retirement should be and you'll see in in this calculation on slide 35 uh the retirement is the highest. Uh we really don't know what that number will be in actuality. It's just based on uh the
percentage that that is provided to us in the legislation and then we look at what we uh have paid out the prior year and then increase that percentage. Um, so you can see that we're pretty
much on point uh for the if you look at 2100 retirement budgeted 37.3 million and uh we've paid to date about 36 million and estimating about 39 million which would be reflective of what we
were provided u from the legislators. and we don't get money for retirement. That's put into the pot of our increase. The next is purchase services. Um, if you go to slide 37,
it I'll grab some items. Thanks to Miss Sher Simmons. I think she probably knows every requisition that's paid out of uh district funds. She's she's been awesome.
Um professional and technical services. Uh she also provided some examples of what would be charged to that. Uh that's where we record the family empowerment scholarship that we anticipating
um being paid out. Uh also there are professional and technical services for departments like data center um for our board attorney's office, the specialized attorneys that we may or uh uh need um
risk management. Um we also record in that object the contracts that we have with Pace Center for girls, their dual enrollment contract with the college um mental health contracts
and the ESC contracted services and you've heard a lot about that um for the last few board member u meetings. And now what I bring to your attention is that we had originally budgeted $7 million for 2425 and we have actually
spent 7.9 million uh dollars on ESC contracted services. That's why it's so so important uh that we have IEPs done and that we are maximizing the funding that we can receive for ESC because they
are requiring additional expenditures. So basically all of our contracts uh with outside professional uh agencies are included in that number. So that's you see that $18 million increase budget
over budget. Um Miss Bosnellis, is there anything that would prevent us statutoily again from actually having that as that separate cate category, giving it a 3,100.5
or something just to pull out family empowerment scholarships and actually show it regularly so we can see and try. I mean, I know you guys are tracking it, but publicly, can we track it as well? And is there something against that?
There might be. That's That's why I'm not public. Yeah. I mean, I I don't know. Is there would that be a challenge for us in the future on this chart to because it's going to be a continuing line item. It's going to be a continuing increased line
item. And I think it would be helpful for us to see the purchase services family empowerment scholarship as its own separate item and pull that out. So when we see an 18 million increase and we know that predominantly at least 10 to 15 million of that is family
empowerment, then it doesn't give us that pause to say, "Wait a minute, what are we doing? Who who do we need to go after? What department's not doing what they're supposed to be doing?" Does that make sense? Yes. And um I think we could from um just presentation. Yes.
But it all rolls up into that account number. Okay. So we don't want to have its own separate account number associated for it's still going to roll up into the 3000s. with a star beside it.
It rolls up. So, it's a 31 something. And so, it's um Okay. I because I mean I see we have all just the 3100, 3200, 3,300. I I understand that. I just And it's you want a subcontract. Yes. I think for that specific one for
future public conversations even if it's like indented or something I I think that would be helpful for us to see whatever that 31 we can to see it pulled out. Okay,
does that make sense? Okay, good. I because again that's going to be an increasing number we're going to see year over year. We don't see the legislature changing that anytime soon. And it will be really helpful for us to acknowledge that that's not something that our district
is doing that we're outspending what we have, right? And it um majority of that 18 million is the family empowerment. Um we had originally budgeted 32 million in the 2425 year because that's what they
told us to budget and um for the year 2526 right now it's looking like about 50.4 four million and then every dollar we go over we get to start capitalizing on that FTE money
that's not in the budget but we'll get to draw down hopefully and Okay, but I mean it just offsets it's a pass. Yes. Yes. Okay. It's it's one of those pass through, right? Miss Conrad pointed that out to us. Yes.
Um the only other one I'd bring to your attention is rentals and uh rentals range from an actual rental but it also includes um maintenance software licenses uh all different kind of licenses that
we have uh for cape uh there's also licenses that we have to get mental health. So that's it's it's not just like renting a vehicle, it's rental of licenses. There's quite a few departments and
schools um that have this particular item. And as you stated earlier, a lot of them are reflecting reductions or small increases from budget to budget. Uh the only other thing that I'd point
out with other purchase services and what goes into that category again it's it's we put it in the previous categories but if it doesn't fit the other categories it goes into other and the types of things that are in there
are amounts that we pay for the charter schools. uh also the ameris contract that we have for ESC um also uh maintenance reimbursement and then charter school uh allocations again
a pass through we their funds are a part of our funds and then we pay them out of that okay so energy is The next one and we had some discussions about this because
you'll see uh what's included in this is uh natural and bottled gas electricity. Uh we had budgeted 11 million and uh we've actually paid out about 10 million for the 2425 year and we are budgeting
about um $10.7 million for electricity even with the two new schools. So, we'll be watching to make sure we're on point with that, but we did not spend as much as what we thought we would uh in electricity costs. And if you think
about the number of buildings we have, um it's a a pretty good bill, $11 million, $10 million for electricity. And then um gas and diesel fuel uh $3.5
million was budgeted uh for 2425. We had only spent about 2.1 million through um July 18th for the 2425 year. So we're holding steady with about 2.5 million. Again, uh that's our best
estimate. We'll see how or if the routes cause um an increase for the two new schools, materials and supplies. Um this category I would take you down
to textbooks uh uh which is recorded in a object 5200. Uh the 9.9 million for the adopted budget included carryovers uh from the prior year. Uh you can see
we've spent 6.4 4 million as of July 18th and anticipating with the carryover for that and their regular allocation that they will um u be budgeting 7.4 million
textbooks is a number that really hasn't changed very much over the many many years. Um we did use esser funds to make some purchasing. Um there was an adoption and Sherry did tell me what
that adoption was. Was it a science this year? Social studies. Social studies. So um we did spend that. But again uh one of the I guess help from Esser was to be able to do uh more
adoptions and purchase uh more textbooks for our students. We went away from the weekly I remember that. Yes. the weekly reader for social studies. I'll move on to capital outlay. So, Capital Outlay, um,
bring your attention to the building. That's the tech service building from the fire. I think we're really getting close to that being finalized. Uh, furniture also includes um computers, Chromebooks. So, it's not just the
classroom furniture, but it that's where we have to record that. And then uh the land improvements uh let's see 6700 remodeling is also the tech service building from the fire as well.
Um let's see land improvement. Oh special fuel tax. We receive a credit u from fuel tax and we have very specific uh items that we can spend that on asphalt and so if we don't use it we
roll it over to the next year and facilities helps us identify a project that we can use those dollars for as well. Okay, we're in other expenses and transfers. Um 7,300 dues and fees. Um
these are uh basically for we have the teacher exchange program and our advanced placement ACE FEP. These are fees that uh that we have to pay on behalf of these programs. Um
then other personal services um that includes things like stipens um as well and then the miscellaneous is where you will see a lot of the categorical carryovers which includes
dual enrollment cape mental health um and advanced placement u the IB categorical carryover and what happens is it's recorded in that 7900 function and then the departments or schools will tell us where to put it,
where to move that. We want to move it to testing, we want to move it to materials and suppliers. But this is pretty much the holding account for all the majority of the carryovers. And then the the small amount down at the bottom which is transfer to food
service. We have camp kowanas and um as long as the reimbursement uh equals the actual expenditure of camp kowanas there is no charge but it's usually about between 15 and $20,000 that the district has to uh transfer to
food service to cover any additional cost of camp kowanas that is not reimbursed. And this is for food only. Are we ready to talk about fund balance? If we can get through the general fund, we could probably take a break after that. Maybe.
Okay, you're muted. Okay, you probably are tired of hearing us talk about fund balance and the importance of having that. Um, and and basically it's the excess of our assets over liabilities.
Um, there was some statue uh many years ago after the recession uh that said we had to keep in reserve at least 3% uh for fund balance and again a lot of districts ran into trouble when um the
recession occurred and they wanted to maintain and for a couple of years we had to turn in a monthly analysis of what our fund balance was. Um and then after a couple of years that went away. So if it went under 3% we would have to
alert department of education and we would have to alert you as the board and give you a plan to get back to 3%. And then if it went below 2% uh that was the time when we had to present to the board
and to department of education a plan of how to get back to three. And the first thing that was impacted or we were told impacted would be um administrative salaries. But after a couple of years and I think the economy stabilized, they
went away from requesting that information. So the auditors recommend that we have between five and 7% in fund balance and that's 5 to 7% of our the revenue.
uh our financial rating agencies recommended doubledigit uh percentages. So they're looking for anything that's 10% and over. Um and it's it's really um sort of uh a balancing act because we
want to have a good credit rating. Uh that allowed us to get a lower interest rate uh when we borrowed the money uh as well as just having that financial stability. Um, and we're always told
that we should not be using fund balance for recurring costs. And if I could emphasize that to to you, um, I don't know how to emphasize it more, but we need to be careful about adding staff
back during this year. uh because those are recurring costs and we just we need to make sure that we're being frugal and um uh just watching that what we're adding back or additional expenditures
are things that are not reoccurring. Um so that's my speech. I hear you here. So there are some classifications for accounting purposes of how we record um
fund balance. Uh just to simplify things, non-spendable is things like inventory or prepaid expenditures. And I say inventory because it's an asset, but we don't expense it until we use it. So as long as it is an asset, we have to
recoord or put set aside money to cover that cost. Um also there's restricted all those categoricals are restricted. There are for specific purposes and if they're not spent we have to carry them over to the
next year. Uh a couple of years ago we uh used this new category called committed and um these are reported as committed. Our board policy calls for I believe we named it a stabilization
fund. Oh, just in time, Mr. Powers. And I know Dr. Campbell um is saying that we've got to do something special. I went back and looked at the language and that policy and I'll have to get with you on that, but I think it said that
the board could make a change. Uh if they needed to make a change, but I'm not sure that we have to go through doing anything to the policy, but I'm I'm going to get with you this week. Uh but it did say that you had the right to do it. And I I believe Mr. I do I
remember Mr. White House got up and got your permission to use a portion of that stabilization fund because it was about 14 million and we we we used half of that uh for to help balance the budget for 2526.
So I'll come a knocking to make sure we we're doing it the right way. This is just showing you the ending fund balance for the last looks like nine or 10 years um based on the the categories
uh of non-spendable, restricted, committed, assigned and unassigned. And the other thing I wanted to say about assigned and unassigned, we put aside money in assigned in case the FEFP or the FTE does not come in as was uh um I
guess estimated in case there are errors in an audit and um we put aside between$1 to2 million so that uh we are able to to um make those type payments. Um and then the unassigned of course is
the 3% and anything else that is left over on that calculation. You do have a you do have a handout. I believe last year um we were requested to provide a
10-year analysis of the adopted budget versus what actually happened um at the end of the year. and also a historical fund balance comparison. I believe that was a request from last year. So, we
included that again. Uh but I want to bring your attention to um a pie chart for the general fund operating for 2526. you were provided some additional information, but I just wanted to show
you that um we are projecting $33.6 million or 6.75% of revenue in the fund balance and here are the components. Our committed is uh $7.5 million. Uh we do not uh project
restricted or non-spendable. is just we just do a minimum amount of a million um assigned that FTE audit that I talked to you about and we typically between one and $2 million have to make adjustments um based on audits and then the
unassigned as well. Um our um uh the credit rating agencies like for us to look at what they call financial condition ratios and that's the total assigned plus the unassigned
and that is um 5.04%. And that again is in line with your with the board policy that says if we go under five we have to come and report to you the board. Uh, but it's only required to have 3% in those categories.
Miss Boston Ellis. Yes, sir. Question. Um, and good morning to everyone. I'm looking at slide 49 and I think I heard you right, but I'm not sure. Um,
on slide 49, 2526, I don't see anything for restricted. Right. We don't record or restrict it until the actual year end. The assumption when we do the budget is that everything that is budgeted will be
spent. Um and we know that it won't but we don't we don't come up with a percentage for a restricted category the categoricals because we are rebudgeting whatever was carried over. We're
rebudgeting it uh for that full amount. Thank you. So, Miss Conrad, if there are no more questions, would you like to take a break before we do adult? I would I would like to take a quick break break and let you get a chance to get maybe a sip of water because you've
been talking for a long time. So, um board, it is 10:49. Let's recess for 10 minutes and I'll see you back here. Thank you. I was trying to make Welcome back. It's 11 o'clock. We're going to turn it back over to Miss
Boston Ellis as we head into general fund discussion on adult education. Okay. Right before we um go into adult ed, you should have received a couple of um handouts and I promise you we'll make
sure all the handouts are uploaded um so that the public can see as well. Um, Miss Conra had asked about pass through revenues and the first one, the general fund pass through revenue. Um, family empowerment
is one, the charter school FEFP and these are dollars that are recorded in the revenue of the district. The charter school FEFP and the charter school capital outlay, we receive those dollars and then we pay
them out. The fees is recorded in our revenue, but we never see those dollars. They just disappear after the third calc. It's just a reduction in revenue. So, if you think about it, $60.5 million
we're recording as revenue that we are not using. Thank you very much, Miss Bosellis. I just I think that's so important for um the community under to understand that yes, we do those those funds do pass through us, but we don't get to use
them. We get don't get to do anything with them. And so I just think that's an important part of the conversation. Yes. Thank you for bringing that up. And then the referendum, which we hadn't got to yet, there was a pass through. If you recall, uh, legis legislation changed so
that we have to share the referendum dollars and we are sharing those with the charter school to the tune of $853,000 basically. So we'll move on to the adult education
program. Um it is funded but from the state as well as local local fees that the students pay. Their budget is 14.4 million. Um their beginning fund balance is included in
that dollar amount. It was 4.8 million. Uh the local which are for the most part the fees the students pay 4.4 4 million and the state allocation is 5 uh2 million with a small federal uh revenue
of 2400. So this is the summary of the categories for revenue. We'll we'll look at them by themselves. Um so federal through state uh there is a miscellaneous state
revenue I believe that is that is a grant. It's um the Florida Post Secondary Career Education Student Assistant Grant um otherwise known as
FSA program. And this is financial aid assistance for tuition through the state for our students at adult education. They also receive um funds from the
state uh workforce development about 4.7 million and then there is a funding uh workforce performance incentive grant as well. We talked about the local revenue. Um,
for the most part, you'll see these are fees paid by uh the the students uh to the tune of about $4.2 million. Also, their miscellaneous local includes um companies such as Pearson and the
National Testing Network. They pay MTC for being a host site uh of their test. So their expenditures are $2.4 million less than the prior year adopted budget. Slight increase in
salary and benefits. A reduction in purchase services. A reduction in energy services, reduction in materials and supplies, reduction in capital outlay 2.4 million and other expenses about
19,000. Like to give Mr. Smallro credit where it is due. This program was kind of suffering before he came and um he's done a really good job stabilizing the funding. Um, and maximizing the use of
of grants and such. Yeah. And buying lots of stuff. Miss Boston Ellis, pardon me. Buying lots of stuff. Yes. Airplanes and all kinds of things. Yes. Actually, he while we were up here, he sent me a picture of one
that they're working on right now. So, yes, I'm sure we're going to both get in trouble for that. Um, uh, you also have a handout tab three, um, slide 59
through 61. And again, that explains, uh, the assignment of the positions that are included. Um MTC has about five folks that are considered um administrative.
Um they have about 16 or excuse me they have eight and then they have about 16 uh that are categorized in 1,200 which are those teachers, 1300 um which are those other certified
instruction. They have three um one pair professional in the 1500 and then in 1600 there's about 26 and that ranges from an account clerk, bookkeeper,
um clerk typist and um other um folks in their main office. So, they have a total of about 54.5 um employees. I believe these are
full-time. They may have some part-time, but I believe these are full-time. Again, the benefits are associated with the the uh number of staff that they have. So we'll move on to purchase services.
You also have another handouts tab three page 58 through 71 and that is um sort of a summary of all the particular objects um comparing 2425 to 2526.
So purchase services in the 3100 category. This is a contractor is paid for electrical apprenticeship instructional hours. Um there is another contractor that's paid for medical
direction teaching for the EMT and the fire EMT programs. Um there is also um financial aid services for student file compliance review. So those are in that 3100 function. In the other purchase
services we have the fire college. They also receive cape funds. Um there's also uh a contractor who is pouring slabs for training courses, uh water rescue training and fire EMT
testing, the welding certification testing and the administrative credit card processing fees. uh as well for energy. Um not much there. Uh they
do pay their own electricity bills. Um they have just a couple of vehicles for materials and supplies. um your basic supplies for the classroom, but also other materials and supplies. Um the vocational class
supplies include, of course, baking. There's supplies for the fire EMT, um fog nozzles, hoses, uniforms. There's supplies for the welding, cosmetology, and also uh the HVAC class.
for capital outlay slide. Let's see. For capital outlay, there's um uh furniture and fixture, which is uh typically also desk and chairs and some Chromebooks.
Um that's pretty much um there was some remodeling uh done in the 2425 year um assuming it's completed because they didn't budget uh any additional money for 2526.
Um as well as building and fixed equipment. Um there is nothing budgeted for 2526 and other expenses and transfers. Um 7,300 are dues and fees um for the FSA financial aid aid
payments to students. Um the and also the carryover for their cape funding for their CNA program. CNA program 7,900 miscellaneous revenue in 2425. Um there was a budget transfer that was
made to cover the cost of cosmetology part-time salaries and also for curriculum for various programs and to cover repairs and maintenance. Of course, their fund balance is uh
restricted. What they don't spend uh is rolled over to the next year in this particular fund. Um as I stated earlier, you can see how um the fund balance has continued to grow over the last four to
five years. Um I think what helped them as well is to expand programs and they received some ESER funding as well. So, uh, they have a very healthy fund balance. So, we'll move on to referendum.
So this is one mill advalorum property tax. Um November 2022 the voters renewed this millillage and it is extended uh for four it was extended for four more years and it expires in June 2027.
The estimated revenue for 2526 is 41.2 2 million. And as you can see, these are the categories that the language allows us to use those funds for. Reading, physical education, art, music, library,
media, vocational programs, safe schools, meet class size, retain state certified teachers, and pair professionals. So the referendum revenue is 54.5 million. Um
the beginning fund balance of 13.3 million and then the local revenue calculation is estimated to be $ 41.2 million. Again, all of this is from local sources
and we do have a a little interest that is calculated um on the balance in these accounts as well as tax redemptions. So, a small amount about $100,000. The increase budget to budget is based
on the property value has changed. Um again we said about 10% so that change from budget to budget is due to that property value increase.
We'll look at referendum a little bit different because this is set up by programs. As you can see the total budgeted expenditures are 41.8 million. Um and it's based on all of these categories. I know it says class
size but that's really the kindergarten paras. Uh it's about 14%. Uh the next category is physical education. It includes the teachers as well as uh PE techs. Vocational programs
is about 20 teachers and then supplies. Um also in physical education each of the elementary schools are allocated $2 times the number of students. Um media uh is media specialists
and the art and music uh again includes teaching teachers as well as um some parents to support the classes and we'll go over it in detail in a little bit. professional development
um safe schools and of course the charter school distribution that we are now required to share. So class size again as I said it's made up of the kindergarten paras uh 5.9
million it's 165 par profofessionals and 90,000 is the charter school physical education 109 PE teachers 23 PE techs the materials and supplies and
charter schools about 216,000 they're using the same category ories that we have because of the language in the referendum. Um they don't have to use all the categories but they are lining up their um requests based on the
actual language in the referendum. vocational programs as said said previously 20 teachers. Uh there's some rentals to the tune of 379,000. Um I think vocational has benefited with
the referendum because some of the equipment that they uh use some of their supplies pretty expensive and they are um able to purchase these items uh because of the referendum. media service 50 media specialists and
of course uh library materials uh books, DVDs and equipment. Art is 55 art teachers, 13 pair of professionals supporting the art classes in elementary, a half of a
coordinator, uh materials and supplies, and of course the charter school distribution, music, 57 teachers, 13 paraprofessionals, the other half of the coordinator. Um there is a music allocation that is shared with the high
the secondary as well as the elementary and the charter school distribution of 95,000. Our professional development totals 770,000 um new teacher training. There are
supplements for mentor teachers. Um, of course supplies and materials that are needed and the charter school distribution. Safe school allocation is a little over 7 million. Purchase services include a
portion of the school resource officers. Um, miscellaneous includes the the estimated cost of guardians and then some security equipment and the charter school distribution of 244,000.
Miss Bosnell, can and you may not know this number off the top of your head. Sorry, chair. I just interjected without asking. um the SRO the portion that is paid that 5 point almost 5.8 8 million our total contract for all SRO's we just
have had this conversation recently is is that about 75 80 90% I I just I I can't remember what the overall cost of SRO's is off the top of my head you may be able to get somebody might be able to get that and and while we're
Patton um he just sent the email with I know I'm like contracts wait I I just am curious to know what the actual percentage is for community purposes. Um, and I'm also grateful that you've put these charts up on each of these subsequent pages showing how over
the last two years we have reallocated all of the dollars in referendum to fully fund exactly what the referendum says instead of partially funding. So, I mean, not that we weren't using the referendum dollars for all the things it said, but
we're using them to fully fund our media specialist, fully fund our physical education, fully fund art, fully fund music, and and now fully fund kindergarten paras since that's a board initiative um more than a a state
mandate of sorts. So I I think that that's imperative to show and also can potentially guide our conversation as we move forward with uh talks of extending the referendum if we choose to do that
from a ballot perspective. It shows what the actual costs are associated with enhancements to our school that I believe are necessities certainly u but also I think as we delve more into what this contract looks like for SRO's
needing to fully fund SRO's out of the referendum I think that also can speak volumes as to if that money went away then how do we fund this unfunded mandate at PE additionally is an unfunded mandate like
we are required that art and music are not required. They need to be I mean you know there's there's parts of that but PE is one of those especially at the elementary level that is required and so fully funding all of these things out of the referendum just further shows the
need for it. So that's my purpose on that thought. I I think you're talking about the the initiative last year where we actually move the class-siz teachers from referendum, put them in the general fund operating and then move the um arts
and media and we move them from the general fund um to the referendum. Right. Yes. And thank you for that further clarification. I it the reason I'm thinking about the kindergarten pair as being in that class size bucket and re you know changing all of the
allocations. I think that as we move forward if we choose to go out for the ballot uh initiative again for the referendum the data that we're collecting this school year on our incoming kindergarteners and that data that we had not been capturing because the test that you mentioned that you
used to have to do that was so uh detailed. Maybe there's more things in that that we I don't remember what it was called. What was it called? Flickers. Flickers. Okay. Sorry. Not being a classroom teacher. I don't Flickers was cumbersome. I'm certain for kindergarten teachers and and kindergarten paras. But
some of that data that's no longer captured is going to be somewhat captured in the handful of questions that we're asking hopefully for our kindergarten teachers this year. But that kind of kindergarten preparedness detail is going to help us say and this is why we have to have and so maybe it's
not class size reduction. Maybe it's kindergarten readiness is how it's phrased in the actual ballot language. If in fact we choose to I I continue to say if. We haven't had that conversation yet, but that's what I'm kind of leaning to especially knowing that's what that
I'm using the word categorical that we have in our own referendum. Uh for that right now it's class size, but kindergarten pairs are funded there. So I I think that we have our own district data to back up why we need to have those individuals in those classrooms.
And when we talk about that, a conversation I've had even with kindergarten teachers is I believe and this is a further conversation, we have to have a separate conversation about a job description specifically for kindergarten paras that allows for expansion of their duties at around
Christmas time when the kindergarten readiness gets to be in more ready because in the beginning they show up in August and God bless them some of them ain't never even pulled up their own zipper before and then by Christmas because our kindergarten teachers are amazing. They've started to figure it
out and they're they those kindergarten pairs are less of a necessity, but we need as a we need to empower our leaders to be able to use them. And yes, theoretically they're just a pair professional, but the way they're funded is we decide kindergarten parent. And so we just need to really think to impact
does it look different? Do we have a different job description so that we can ensure we're using them flexibly as the year progresses to ensure that we're meeting all students needs, etc., etc. Thank you, Dr. James. I I hear the word seasonal, I'm sorry, in my mind because that's what I've continued to talk
about, that specific role. I think there will be pockets and we will we will learn that through this data and maybe we collect the data again in January to say how many students, you know, regressed and didn't keep up with all the things that So, but seasonal is the term I've continued to use on that specific position. You guys know that.
I've said that multiple times because I'm not certain that it is as warranted for the entire school year as we currently are using it. But without the actual data on knowing how our students are progressing, we'll learn that in progress monitor or it's not progress. It's still progress monitoring. It's not
called that. It's what we do and the STAR assessment or whatever it's called. See, good. I'm remembering things. Um, but as we're collecting that data and really understanding where those kindergarteners are, they may need to be used differently than they're currently
being used, but still even in those kindergarten classes. So, grateful for that dialogue and conversation. I am always up for expanding and adjusting job descriptions. Chair Conrad, can I add something to Dr. Campbell's um statement about our SRO
contract? So my notes for that, Miss Boston, correct me if I'm if I capture this wrong, but the total contract is 5.3 million. Um we she just stated on the referendum it is the what is it 3.3.
Um the other the difference in that money is from the safe schools allocation from the state and that total is 4.7 million we get and part we use two million of that for the SRO contract. So just to add that difference
in there. Okay. So again the total contract for SRO's remind me of that again. You just said 5.3 5.3 but our resource allocation to the referendum is 5.7. So that's not
Yeah, I that may be incorrect. That's going to be incorrect. I'm I'm sorry. I just somehow there's our numbers aren't aren't our math isn't mathing to to use a a phrase from down that's probably an error. Okay. So we'll get the correct amount.
Okay. All right. Perfect. Because we do get safe schools allocation from the state. It's categorical as we talked about on it's about $4 million. Yes. And we do pay for some of them out of Okay. general fund and some of them out of the referendum.
Okay. Thank you. So, am I hearing that the categorical that we're allocated is not enough to cover our needs to keep our schools safe? So, that's why we need referendum money and money from general funds. Yes. Seeing lots of head nons.
We we split the cost. Um not 5050, but depends on what's in the budget for um safe schools. It covers the department. It covers um the
salaries, the the uh equipment and um I believe we purchase the vehicles out of referendum. So, it's sort of a hodge podge. Some things come out of the general fund operating, some kind come out of referendum,
but we could probably bring that back next time and give you a that would be great breakdown of that. Thank you. And just I shouldn't but to be just for the light of the conversation. So it would be safe to assume that we really unless we're
taking money from another pot of of money which is already scarce. We don't have an extra millions of dollars sitting around to cover the costs ourselves unless we make adjustments. Okay. So, we would we would have to we
have to be careful with the referendum because you can't do big capital projects. You can buy equipment, you can buy cameras, you can buy the buzzers, but the like the fencing, we actually had a grant to pay for the fencing because you couldn't pay for that out of
the referendum, right? And then the people, the SRO's obviously, right? And the children, all 47,000 of them are change are all citizens of Maring County. Right. Okay. Just
but we'll we'll get this corrected and bring back a breakdown of what gets paid and um I guess I missed it the conversation, but we'll Okay. We we It's not towards you. It was more like a public comment to public statement go into the public
that our children are citizens of Marian County. We have them for 180 days of the year about six to seven hours a day. All of their parents are citizens of Marian County. So just to elaborate on your
comments, thank you. And so we should protect the citizens of Marian County collectively, right? Any way they need it. Any way they need it. Okay. Right. Next, Miss Boston. Leave that alone. Grown folks
conversation. Um, let's see. Where are we for purchase services for the referendum? Like as I stated, it's um um cameras. Uh
we we also have um some items for vocational um as well as additional expenses for um the safe schools department and I'm looking at the breakdown and I believe
looks like it's 4.1 million but again we'll get the breakdown for that. Let's bring it back next week. I'll stop. I'll let that go. Um for supplies.
Um I guess I skipped energy. Not not much there. This is usually vocational programs and um field trips and the fuel associated with those field trips.
Materials and supplies um in other materials and supplies. Uh there is some storefront door locks to say that really slowly but that's where that is recorded in other materials and supplies to the
tune of about a million dollars uh budgeted for 2526 year. Okay for capital outlay. Um there was some furniture that was purchased uh for
vocational desk chairs and then safe schools uh additional safe school cameras. Uh, let's see. 95 under
on slide 95, 7,300 were dues and fees and miscellaneous expenditures include uh payments to the Florida School Music Association for dues for high schools
and middle school bands. And then for safe schools, this is where we recorded the ex extra SRO's for graduation. As with adult education, um the fund balance for referendum
is restricted and the whatever is remaining is carried over to the following year, which is a good thing because we don't receive proceeds until around November, December. mber. So these uh fund balance or these carryover
amounts are used to sustain the program until we start receiving tax receipts. We had two more things that we wanted to uh clear up. And then also um there's some additional referendum items um that
you received. They have a 2425 referendum funded units and then the projected cost of the 2526 referendum units. Just wanted to point out to you there's a total of 500 units
being funded through referendum. I think that's important for you to know. All of which provide direct All of which provide direct support to students. Yes. Library media specialists. All of them
provide direct support. Art, music, media, PE, kindergarten, Paris, vocational. Yes. And they received supplemental funds to help with those programs as well. So I
believe the schools provided allocation for the programs but these are supplemental um dollars that are used enhancing not only the art and music programs uh but as the um PE um when
they do the quarterly presentations our our um staff do an excellent job reporting on what those funds were spent for uh in that particular quarter. and um it's very very very good.
Are you talking about because I know the school board through the years has provided extra dollars per student and is that what you're talking about or is that a a different funding? No, this um in the beginning of this
there was a request from schools for equipment, right? supplies in the elementary schools in addition to what they already allocate to them. So, it was determined that we would provide $2, I think it started out as $1 and then it turned
into $2 per student that would be allocated um to the school for use of these specific programs. Okay. Thank you. That's why I said they do such a great job. They tell you exactly what they did with the money and um it's illustrated
very well in the their reports. Good. Um when you when we talk about miss this is uh one thing that we want to clear up about lottery funds. I I think that's always a question and we have been told
all along um that the lottery funds and and when you mentioned Paris do I don't know if you remember Miss Thrower we used to pay for kindergarten pairs out of lottery funds in the beginning too again these programs come and go and
change so when when those kinds of things are taken away you have to find a home for them so that that was a great example for that. Um, we were under the impression that lottery dollars were were used uh to pay
the um what we call the school recognition for the schools that went up one grade or they maintain an A. And it used to be an allocation of like um I I can't even remember what the
dollar amount was, but if you had any money left over, you would allocate that money to the schools for their their sacks. So that's what you see in the blue. And then you can see that during
COVID that went away. Uh 2122 there were no grades. So there was no funds for um school recognition. The school recognition came back in 2223. Uh what we have found out in a rears is
that this school recognition money was actually now being paid out of state general revenue. So it's no longer being paid out of lottery. But we also found out that the lottery dollars in addition to paying for bright future, they're
also supporting um or supported the class size reduction amendment when they provided money to the schools to uh build wings. I remember when when uh Marian County
Public Schools built wings uh to meet class size. And so now the lottery dollars are used to pay back that debt. It's put on our books, but we uh we're we're not involved in that. So the state
is paying for that debt. Um also lottery money is being used to pay for some portion of class size reduction that the funds that we get for that. Um, and lottery dollars are also being used to
fund the workforce development. So, I think it was a conversation I had with you, Dr. Campbell, and we went back and did some research about that and um found out that this is uh while we call it the lottery, the history of lottery
funds, there's been some movement on how things are funded. And just wanted to clear that up. And when when people ask you about what happened to the lottery dollars, they are being used, but they're not coming directly to us other
than through FEFP or paying off a debt from when we had some class size funds for building and basically um shoring up the entire budget for the
state. I hope I'm not confusing. That's good. That was a good a good clarification. So, we have an updated slide for that and we'll we'll fix that for you next time. Um, and this is the other item. When uh
teachers talk about their supply assistant funds, it's come a long way, too. they would give us a dollar amount and we'd split it up between um the number of eligible teachers and um one one of the years the board members did
not like the fact that teachers were excluded. So, here's another item that is being funded not only by the money that we get, but the district is also kicking in to fund um dollars for the
teachers who don't um who don't necessarily fit the the criteria for this. So for the last three years uh we have been providing $300 per uh eligible full-time teacher
and again this amount is rolled up into the base student allocation. Uh so we can't really say how much um we're actually being provided for this specifically. Um, another thing I would add to this is
now we're using a vendor and the teachers can go out and use this this funds. Uh, there's so many different vendors they can uh use. I mean from the Dollar Tree to um all different kind of
places that they can order this. Um there were criteria. We had to send in money uh for teachers who were uh I guess they were eligible August 1 and then we have to send it in September one
for the teachers that were hired in between August 1 and September 1. So if you hear conversations from schools, it's if they didn't meet the first uh cutoff, they'll get in for the second cut off. We used to write a check to each school
and then the school had to write a lot of checks to each teacher. So, it's now online and it's so much better for them and us for the bookkeeping. If they don't spend all their money, it goes directly to their sack. So, that's a good thing as well. Some teachers just
they don't want it um for whatever reason. So that money will go into their sack for the sack to decide how to spend those dollars. Yes. Yes. And and just to confirm and clarify for the community that this $300 is in
addition to what our fantastic public education foundation does and all of these folks. Yes. you know, nonprofits across the community and private citizens and and the county commission, you know, with their bus brigade and just countless
opportunities to get school supplies to start the year, right? So, that's all separate from this $300. Yes. Okay. Yes. This was a categorical, too, but it was rolled into the BSA,
which is $41 and something this year. It's interesting how much is going into that. Yes. So, Dr. Brewer, she's happily passing the baton. Yes. And we we shared this earlier, but
Miss Boston Ellis and her entire team Yeah. um just does an amazing job. They have walked us through this for the last few months, and just today's presentation truly just walks tells the whole story, and it kind of puts all the puzzle pieces together. So, we're just
incredibly grateful for all of the work that she and her team have have done this spring, summer, spring, and you are right. We will um we've already begun to measure and make adjustments for next year. We will not wait till the spring
to do that. And um we're we're very aware of the board's um requests to be on top of our expenditures and our return on investments on everything we're spending. So, anything for you? Thank you, Dr. Brewer. I think um board member Thrower has a comment.
No, I just wanted to make sure that we did public comment. Oh, that's what she said. Okay. No. Anybody else? Any comments? Okay. I um first we'll ask for public comment. Okay. Seeing none, I too want to say thank you um Teresa to you and your
team. Um a year for me, I feel like it's a year's worth of work. you're working year round um on our budget and so thank you for the time you spent this morning to present it to us and providing all the details. It's just greatly appreciated.
Yeah, they did the hard work, the heavy lift. Tell them we said thank you if they're not watching. You see them right here. They call me names, but they still love me. But thank you. And we do appreciate the
help u from Dr. Brewer and Mr. White House and the leadership team, it it was refreshing to be able to be open and honest about things and they they understood what the mission was and and I believe we got there. You know, there
was scars, but I think we got to where we needed to be and um I think they'll be ready to go forward and um continue the work. Okay. Thank you very much. Thank you very much. All right, board. Um, I would like to recommend that we break for take
a recess and break for lunch. Oh, sorry. I would just kindly disagree. I think there are people who've been waiting and there's staff who's here and I think at minimum the next summer school wrap-up is not going to take very long. But
yes, Miss and Miss Brazington are here for that presentation. Okay. It's up to you. Okay. We could I thought they just walked in. So, they did in their office is here. So, it's up to you. We can do either one. Can you give me an anticipated timeline? Um, I can't imagine more than 15 minutes
for that presentation. Okay. Which would take us to 12:00, so I'm good with that. Okay. Then, all right. We'll welcome Mrs. Deborah Reedle and Jamie Brazington and looks like Mr. White House. They're
all going to share the summer school wrapup. And as you know and they will explain we had a scaledback version of summer school this year and um but we're happy to report it was successful and they will share some data that reflects that. Mr. White House.
Yes ma'am. Thank you Dr. Brewer. Uh good morning still board members. Uh we are going to provide just some quick data and some um information on how our summer school programs wrapped up for this year. As Dr. Bura mentioned this was our a very scaleback summer
school compared to what we'd seen the last four years um without ESSER funding this year. We essentially reverted back to what we've done in the past with summer school which was making sure we provided uh third grade reading camp to our students who were facing potential retentions. U VPK programs for students
that were eligible. Um and then credit recovery at both the middle and high school for students that needed to recover uh work from the prior year. Driver's education of course for our high school programs. and then our algebra 1 refreshers. So, we're going to start off this morning um talking about
our elementary programs uh with Miss Rita, our director of elementary curriculum. Um and then we'll move on from there. Thank you, Mr. White House. Thank you. Good morning. Good morning. Whoops. There we go. Thank you. All
right. Uh so summer reading camp is a program designed to help third grade level one students strengthen their foundational literacy skills and reading comprehension through targeted instruction and interactive activities. As a result, students receive the essential practice they need to build
critical skills that help them become fluent, confident readers. Our program this year was called Splash into Summer Learning for our third graders. It was four weeks long and it ran from June 4th to July 2nd.
We had 716 third graders attend uh third grade reading camp at 10 sites. Belleview Elementary, Fort McCoy, East Marian, Maplewood, Marian Oaks, Oakrest, Anthony, Romeo, Saddlewood, and Shady Hill. Marian Oaks, uh that site had the
highest enrollment. They had 131 students. Um, and those students there were from Marian Oaks, Hammet, Bowen, Hammet, Bowen, and um, Sunrise Elementary. We had 621 third graders assigned and routed to receive bus transportation.
Um, and in addition to third grade summer reading camp, we had 179 students attend our um, ESY or extended learning. uh and 242 students attended the 21st century program at either Stanton
Wesdale or Belleview Middle. As you know, third third grade students who score a level one on the third grade fast assessment must be retained unless eligible for a good cause exemption under the Florida statute 108.25.
As of May, before school let out, 572 third graders were promoted for cause by way of one of the six exe exemptions allowed by the state. Um, that was 58 more students than last year. We were at 514.
Throughout the summer, third grade summer reading camp, we had 66 more third grade students promoted for cause through either the I Ready assessment or the STAR reading assessment. And then in July, for the first time, uh the state allowed, um what we called a
PM4 assessment. It was the fast assessment. So schools were able to bring back some third graders um who were on the schedule to be retained to give them that assessment in July. Um we had 325 students come in and take that
assessment. 76 of them were promoted um because they scored a level two or higher. We actually had eight students who scored a level three and one student who scored a level four when they came back in July.
Uh so we had a total of 714 third graders promoted either by a good cause exemption or by that July FAST window. Can I ask a clarifying question? Yes. So on slide two, it starts out by saying 716 third grade students attended
at 10 sites. Yes. That does not include the 572 that got good cause prior to summer. It could because any student who scores a level one is um invited. Okay. I guess then for clarification, it
doesn't say 716 students were invited. It says 17. It's implying that 716 students attended summer school. Correct. Did 716 students attend summer school? Yes. So then I need help with clarification
because if 572 students got good cause in May, why would they come to summer school? Um because even though they're a level one student, we don't if they get good cause, we don't uninvite them. So they're still welcome to come. Sure. But how many of them actually came
of the good of the 572 students? How many actually came? So we have to go back and pull that data um because uh like I said all the level one students were invited. So whether they were promoted for good cause or not um they a lot of them still came. So
we'd have to go back and retrieve that data because my concern is that 66 plus 76 is 142. And so 142 of 716 attendees is 19%. Now in your final statement there, you
kind of encompassed the 572. And so you said 700 and what was the number you just said at the end in your last statement? Uh 714. So the the the culmination of that statement is like every kid who came to summer school got
promoted. But that's not the case. No. Do you see what where I'm getting at with this? So, I'm I'm looking to see how successful summer school is at getting students to the next step. And the raw data that I look
at of 66 plus 76 is only 19% of students. And then whatever crossover there are of those 572 who are double dipped in both denominators. But my concern is that which I wanted I'm gonna want to know but the looking off the cuff here it
looks like 19% of students who attended summer school were promoted and I'm not sure the um what's the phrase I'm looking for is escaping me but I'm not sure the uh the value is there if only 19% of students are getting promoted
and keeping in mind too that the 76 students from July they may or may not have come to summer school. So, the parents had to bring them in to test. So, those would be students who weren't promoted any other way. So, they may or
may not have attended summer school. Um, but we can say for certain that the 66 were promoted um for cause during summer school through I Ready or Star Reading. So, those 66 did attend summer school.
76, some of them may have, some may not have. Right. So that makes sense. It's just it's a rather and the US couple of slides of numbers and so if we could just get very clear and concise numbers of how many heartbeats you know were actually showed up to
summer school and how many of from summer school how many of them got promotion because that's what as summer school costs us money and if it is not providing value and we are not seeing student achievement from it which I still am completely in disagreement with
that like somehow miraculously they pass a test so they're ready for fourth grade. Not really. Like it's nothing magical, incredibly magical is happening other than maybe some continued enrichment, but that my concern is that we're spending a lot of money on something and we're not getting a lot of
value out of it. I'll just uh Miss Rita, I'll piggyback on that. That's a concern I've been trying to track the last couple of years. Also, um, you know, I believe in the idea of summer school, but the challenge we face is the students we
need the most to attend summer school. We can't make them attend summer school. So, we're relying on their parents to get them to summer school or to get them on the bus, whatever that looks like. And when I visited school sites over the summer, um, I was really disappointed in
the numbers, in the attendance. Um, and I'm looking kind of what Dr. James says, I'm looking at, okay, we're paying this person, this person as I look around the staff and and there's 38 students on the campus, right? And so then out of the students that are showing up, we've got 19% that are
passing. And so, as much as I would love to say that our kids are showing up to summer school and it's making a a difference in their academic journey, I I'm not sure that's the most bang for our buck. Madam Chair. Yes, Reverend Cummings. Go ahead.
Yes. Um, this is a this is a concern for me as well because um I'm not seeing the return on investment with the summer schools. Um, we know that there are many more kids out there that should be in summer school, but are we getting them
there? Are we doing we are we doing the best is this the best thing for them um with these small numbers that I'm looking at right now? Sorry, I do just want to add in just for a couple clarifying points. One, we are required to offer a third grade reading
camp. Um, and so that is something that regardless of the outcome, we still have to be able to provide programs for these students. One of the things that I think is not capturing the data and we can we can try to pull what we can from this is not even if they didn't score level two, how much progress is made. And you got to remember level one is subdivided into
three different sub levels. And a year's learning gain is counted for moving from the lowest suble of level one to a mid suble. So a student jumping from a low suble one all the way up to level two is actually several years worth of anticipated gain. So what we can
certainly do next year, we'll have better data because next year the the goal is for the state to offer PM4 in June. So this year PM4 was offered at the same time as high school, which was the second week of July. Our third grade camp was already over. We had no guaranteed transportation to get those
students in there. So not every student could test unless the parents could bring them. Um, so next year being able to actually provide the fast PM4 test to every student that attends will give us better data in terms of how much those students grew from the PM3 assessment to the PM4 assessment.
Okay. Thank you, Mr. White House, for that clarification. That was actually there were a couple things in there that I did not know. And so can you share with us what the requirement requirement is um for our part on the third grade reading camp? Yes, we we have to provide third grade reading camp for students who score
level one. We also have to now as of this year provide VPK program services for students to score below the 10th percentile when they take the PM3 assessment for STAR. Um so those are the two requirements that we have. The rest of the programs that we offer we offer
because we know they're they're valuable and they're needed. Okay. So we're required to offer it but they're not required to attend. That's correct. Is that correct? Yes. There's no mandatory attendance for students. We have to have the program available. We invite them. We want them to come. We reach out when students don't come. We the schools make sure
they're calling daily to try and find additional students who might be interested in coming from students that said they were coming. What can we do to problem solve getting them there? Um but at the end of the day, you know, parents get to the summer and they have plans. They have summer vacations. They have things going on and and we can't always
get all of them to come. Mr. White House. Yes, sir. Madam Chair, um when do at what point in the school year do we start notifying the parent that their child is not um being successful at that
level and that they that they should plan on their child attending summer school? So we don't really say that you need to attend summer school until after PM3, which for third grade is given the first week of May. Usually the first day of May, we give the third grade assessment.
After PM2, which occurs in December before winter break, students that score at the level one, we certainly began communication with families at that point to let them know um what the expectations are and that we are going to continue to work with their child, but um we've seen plenty of students score a level one and PM2 and not score
a level one, PM3. So, it hard to say that just because you scored at a PM2, you wouldn't need to plan to be at summer school. I I think I think this is just me. I think that we wait so long that parents go ahead and plan for their summer
vacation with these kids not realizing at such a late game that they're their student really needs to be need some extra help. Um I think if we start notifying them before spring break they may properly play for having more kids in summer school or reading camp. Thank
you. Thank you Reverend Cummings. I I actually think and I I have no idea if anybody is would agree with me, but I actually think that needs to be after PM1 that conversation needs to happen. If your child scores a one, we're saying we need you to plan on being at summer
school. And then if they their level comes up, well then great, we're going to celebrate. Um but that's a little incentive. um you know if you have family vacation planned but your child is not doing well in school um we we
want to see you you know on campus. So I those are just challenging conversations. Um and Dr. Campbell Dr. Campbell. So there's there's been lots of conversation. I wanted to weigh in a little earlier. I I want to start on what you just said. That's concerning to me to consider. We would alert everyone
to say hey by the way on the very first day of school. and we're taking these assessments in like the first two weeks of school or something. So, by the way, your kids scored a level one, you need to go ahead and plan on being with us through the months of June and and part of July because then that doesn't speak
to what that incredible teacher is going to do with that student in the course of the first several weeks of school and and up to January. So I I believe it's important that we really start communicating with families earlier
about what the steps are that being a level one means this and I I don't know that we communicate as effectively as we could about every progress monitoring test that's taken what each student's
score is that families are really notified. I mean my kid comes home and says I got this score. Great. I didn't hear that from the school. I heard it from my child. And so that's where I think we need to just overall do a better job of communicating at each one
of those levels. Not necessarily saying summer school's in your future perhaps, but saying that is a possibility if we don't continue to see this growth. Okay, I can understand that. Uh, a couple of other things tying into the conversation that's already been had.
I I want to first start by saying 700 some odd students participating in summer school at the third grade level and only seeing 19% growth. There is a huge cost understandably. I want to first say could we potentially look at regionalizing this even more so than we
already do. Can we only have four sites or six? you know, is is there a way and that would cut down the cost because if you're getting to more 150 kids per school as opposed to 30 that granted then that may add transportation cost.
So, I understand there's a catchall and and all of that, but I also don't want to discredit that 19%. Because I I feel like there's been a lot of conversation just up here today saying that's not enough bang for our buck. It's almost the starfish mentality. Well, it
mattered to that 19%. It mattered to those kids that did make that growth. The kid that did get a level four, the kid that did get a level three, it mattered to them. Does the C is the ROI there for the overall cost? Probably not. But I I don't want us to decis discredit the
work that has been done and it it did matter to those students that did make that progress. So, those were the thoughts I had about summer school. I agree though. I think there are ways that we can look at this differently. We already have had to look at it differently because ESR dollars went
away. Uh but capturing those students earlier, all those first and second graders that were not required to have in summer school, but certainly some of those educators that were staffed to be there for well more than 30 could have
helped first and second graders as well. And we we have that data. If your level ones at first and second grade, you need to be invited to summer school. And it's expensive, but I I get it. I'm just we we need to continue to brainstorm how we really make movement in our early grades.
Chair, just if I could do one quick in closing, when summer school comes to us next year prior to the plan being solidified, what I would like to know is the true data of how what's the attendance rate and what's the student achievement? Because if we're going to continue to look at our budget and
really trim every possible program, then the programs we're doing need to meet and exceed the intention. And we need it doesn't diminish the 19% but then maybe the 19% or 25% are the only ones that need to be
attending. The ones who we can really use the data to disagregate to decide they are the ones that are really they're going to attend their student attend. Look at their school year attendance. Do they come to school during the school year? because if they don't come to the school during the school year, they're probably not going to come in the summer. So, why are we inviting them to reading camp, right?
And so, just dig into all that data. We don't have to do it right now, but really having a whole picture of it before the plan comes before us because it costs money. And I realize it's going to hurt our own teachers pockets because they plan on teaching summer school as well. But, we have to really we got to we're going to have to look at it all in the next year.
Yes, board member Thor. Um, and thank you for bringing up attendance and all of this. It's it's very clear that focusing on this in third grade is it just becomes too late and then too late and then too late. And and we know this from from all of the
data that our kids need to be coming to school regularly in kindergarten, you know, to to have that success. What I'm hearing is that we are obligated. We don't have the choice. Even if it's not a money maker, even if it puts us underwater, we have to offer the third grade reading camp. Is that accurate?
Okay. So, and we always know, you know, we we sit up here and we talk about confronting reality and improving communication. There's always ways ways to do that without sounding, you know, negative or punitive. But it's something that I've liked about different tools in the past where it was, you know, green,
yellow, red. You know, if you're if you're using assessments with kids first very early in the school year and they're screaming red, you know, the parent needs to be texted that. You know, we we have to in terms of communication look for ways to continue
to reach parents in the mode that they are going to be most likely to open it and and digest it and and respond to it. And because that'll be a great day when the parents said, "Well, okay, I see my student is on red or on yellow. What do
I need to do to get them to green?" You know, that's when you know you're starting to get that reciprocal participation. Um, I'm happy for the kids that have done well. In fact, if all of them made it, if more of them made it, I'd be kind of a little suspicious, actually,
because you're you're talking about making up years of growth in a very short window of summer school time that they may or may not have even gone every day. So, it seems to me that the lower number would at least be a little bit more authentic that maybe there were
kids that were just on the bubble or that didn't try that day or were s, you know, all of those outlier things and the parents made them go because they felt like they could do it and and there you go, they did it. So, those are some of the things that that's on my mind. we we have to offer it because we're
required. But but how we keep as many as possible from not having to come is the eventual goal, right? Yeah. And I just wanted to clarify to the communication piece. Um we are required to send notification to parents at the beginning of the year um for
students who are non-proficient. Um, so our assistant principles, reading coaches, principles, they already have spreadsheets of students from last year. They give assessments at the end of the year. So they know on day one which kids need interventions. They're starting
interventions typically week two or three of school. Um, because they place those students immediately. Um the only students it might take a little bit longer for are the ones that are coming to us maybe from out of county or out of state or from private school um because
we need time to screen them. But um we have uh our interventions set up very early on. Um we're required by statute to send letters to parents of students who are substantially deficient in reading and math. Those go out at the
start of the school year. Um, and we also send um continued communication, but after PM2, any third grader in danger of being retent retained, um, they get a letter as well saying that this is a letter, a notice of possible
retention. So, parents get that in January as well. So, um, we we do know who those students are right now before they walk in the door because we do have second grade data, we do have first grade data. Um, so we've really gotten to the point where we don't waste any
time at the start of the year um to get those students in an intervention. And those progress monitoring meetings happen with APS, coaches, teachers, counselors, psychologists uh sometimes uh right after PM1. And so they talk
about every student one by one um and make adjustments in in interventions. Um and that's ongoing. those groups are very fluid throughout the year. So, um parents are they should be if they're not aware um they're not checking their
mail or emails because we are reaching out consistently throughout the year. It should never be a surprise u to a parent that their child might be retained when we get to the end of the school year. Correct. And I'm fully aware and respect that this side of the house is working
their tails off. knows who the kids are, are talking about them, reviewing the data, attending the exhausting meetings, you know, I've been to a lot of them, but all of that is for not if we're not getting parent response, you know, um, and I don't know, you know, that's
something for continued brainstorming opportunity, you know, not for today because when you're when you're sending the information out there and you're getting crickets, then that little starfish doesn't have much of a chance. So what what's the step? Um
and we sent about 1,200 invites. 966 parents registered their third grader. 716 attended. That's good information. So um but I just wanted to clarify the
question that was asked earlier to make sure we collect the correct data. So that there was a specific question about the 572 I think Dr. James, maybe I'm just trying to get clear on the
where the overlap is. So the unique identifier. So how many of the 572 students in May, how many of them participated in reading camp? So what's that crossover there? Because really what I'm trying to identify is how many kids
came to summer camp, summer reading camp, did not have their good cause exemption already, participated in summer reading camp, and the data for those unique kids. They came, they participated, whatever their attendance rate was, and then how many of them are
the 66, I guess, that that passed because maybe they are not the 76 or maybe some of them are part of the 76 who who took the test in July. but understanding those unique identifiers. Okay. Just a quick um question, Miss RLE. And
so I'm just going from previous experiences now been a couple years ago. So um so when we send out those letters at the beginning of the year because for us on the educational side, there are not very many surprises like you said, we get lists and spreadsheets of how our
students have performed historically. Um, and we have our groups really organized the first day of school and they are fluid and we move them. But when we send those notices home, is it is there a parent signature required? Do we get them back? So, when we send a
form home that says, you know, your child scored a level one. It just goes in their folder, you know, on Friday. What is the other side of that look like? Are we requiring a signature to get it back to to that they acknowledge that they received that letter? So there's not a signature on the
substantial reading or math letter, but teachers are to be meeting with those parents so that those parents are fully aware at the start of the year. We really emphasize communication because we never want a parent blindsided by a possible retention. Um we do have
something that's coming this year. Uh it's a progress monitoring plan. Um that's not new, but we have a specific form that's new that will require a parent signature. um for tier three students. So that's kind of in addition to the other forms of communication just
to say that hey we you know we had a conference with you we spoke to you acknowledge that you are aware your student is substantially deficient in reading or math. Okay, great. Because when we meet for PMPPS also, the parents don't attend those either. Correct.
Not the PMPs, but they would attend a PST, like a problemolving meeting if they're being moved, say, from tier 2 to tier three. Okay. All right. Thank you for those clarifications. I appreciate it. Okay. Anything else?
Okay. All right. I will continue on with the next pieces there. Thank you, Miss RLE. So, we have the our summer VPK re recap. We had two locations that participated in summer VPK this year, Emerald Shores
and Forom Early Learning. Uh we did have 28 students that were served between those two programs and 300 total hours that were completed. And this supports our students that are entering kindergarten. Um, worth noting, I shared earlier, one of our requirements is that we have to offer
that summer bridge program for VPK students that score below the 10th percentile. We had zero students um that scored below the 10th percentile um actually come back and participate. So, we sent out notifications for any of those students that fell into that category. Uh none of those parents opted
to participate and actually in conversation with other districts that are much larger than us, it was pretty common that no parents responded wanting to participate in the summer bridge. So the state I believe is looking at increasing that threshold to maybe the 20th percentile instead of just the below the 10th percentile so we can cast
a wider net for those students. I think the issue is there's very few children who fell within the threshold. So based on my my kind of private sector look at the data hardly any children actually even qualified because correct 10% is like it's just incredibly low.
Correct. All right. And then our summer school programs were offered at almost all of our middle and high schools. So we had credit recovery, as I mentioned before, at our middle school sites. We did offer extended school year at Hillrest. And then our high school sites had the credit recovery, our algebra boot camp
for students that need that took algebra and did not pass the algebra and a course assessment and of course driver's ed available at most of our high schools. We had 650 students attend on average um between those sites, but understanding that with credit recovery at the secondary level, it's fluid. So a
student may show up for a week, they recover the credit they need, they don't have to come back anymore if they've don't have any more credits to recover. Um so that definitely fluctuates. But the nice thing for those programs is for students in driver's ed, they are actually earning a half credit um for their participation. So it's not just the driver certification, but they are
earning credit um towards their graduation. So here are results. We had 66 students at Hillrest ESY. This year we had 1341 total credits recover between our secondary sites, 182 driver's education
credits earned, 37 algebra credits earned for our students that attended the boot camp. Uh 42 successful English language arts retake. So those are our juniors and seniors that needed to retake fast um to meet the graduation requirements. So, of the students that came back in July and tested with us,
uh, we had 42 that did meet that and then 36 that took the algebra EOC in the summer and were able to achieve a level three on the algebra EOC. Chair, I just real quick, I just want to duplicate my request for elementary to the secondary. So, these are wonderful
numbers, but in in in comparison to the denominator, what does it look like? And so, yes, 1300 credits recovered is wonderful, but how many students showed up for credit recovery because again, this is a very expensive item for us and we want those kids to
recover credits, but we need to also understand the bang for our buck. Absolutely. And I' I'd really like to see that by sight, you know, the the attendance. Yeah. Who showed up, you know, how many days were they present total? Um you so we we
can have a better understanding of of what this piece of success cost us. Yeah. Even like how many kids showed up for algebra boot camp and 37 total passed. So what what does that really look like? And is it working? Because if it's not working, we either need to fix
it or do something different. We have to or not do it at all. I don't know. But we can't just continue to do it's crazy to do the same thing over and over again with not, you know, the results not changing significantly. Certainly. All right. And then our final um data
from the end of the year, we did hold our summer graduation ceremony for our students that were able to make up their final missing credits that they needed in summer school. So on July 24th, we had 25 graduates that finished up their final requirements and were able to walk across stage right here at MTI um from
seven of our high schools. So it was a very good night and very exciting for those students to persist through and and continue on to their final graduation. Thank you very much, Mr. White House. Dr. Brewer, thank you. I do want to share that with the third grade reading um camp, that
funding source was the FEFP, the reading grant, and then for secondary, we use title one funding um this year for that. Just to put that in perspective. Thank you. Anything else from the board? Is there any public comment?
Okay. Thank you very much. With that board, we'll recess for lunch. It's uh 12:17. We'll meet you back here about 12:45. Thank you. Good afternoon and welcome back to our work session. I would like to invite Mr.
White House to the podium. We're going to discuss have conversation on graduation 2026. Good afternoon, Mr. White House. Good afternoon, everybody. All right. So, as promised, we're coming back with some um plans for graduation
for this year for discussion. I did want to highlight some of the considerations that we took into account as we work through this um and note that we did talk with each principal collectively and then I spoke with each one individually after we developed the plan options um and work with Mr. McAteir
even though he doesn't have a graduation this year. It was very helpful in trying to make sure we lined all these thoughts out. Um, so things that we paid attention to, number one, we heard loud and clear, no overlapping time. So you'll see that noted in both of these proposals. Um, trying to maximize the
use of our home campuses. Certainly understanding weather challenges. So we did present an option, we'll go over in a minute, that has more morning graduations. Um, no traditional high schools can graduate during the day while students who are in grades 9 through 11 are still attending. So
that's why we start our graduations when we do. um especially if you're graduating at your home stadium to try and manage your 9th through 11th graders taking finals and a graduation would not be possible. Um and also noting the summer school begins the first week of June. We'll talk about that in just a
minute. All right, so there are two plans for you. So this is plan A that we have listed out. Um plan A is a little more similar to what we have typically seen with our graduation schedule. So starting um towards the end of the
school year um and having graduations at separate times. You'll note um Belleview High School um and Lakewear High School are early in that schedule. Friday night for Lakewear at their stadium. Belleview traditionally is that Saturday morning
and so um their request was to keep that at their stadium Saturday morning. Uh, Wednesday the 27th at Stan Tu Memorial Stadium at North Marian High School for North Marian. Wednesday the 28th at Richard Kennedy at Denilan. Friday the 29th, Vanguard did request the
Southeastern Livestock Pavilion. Um, so we do have that included as the location for them. Um, and then we did confirm with World Equestion Center that they are available for Saturday, May 30th for our two largest high schools to be able to graduate at that location. Um, so Forest in the morning, Westport in the
evening. Um, and then the MTC graduation is on there. So that is plan A. Plan B was to try and look at a way to schedule all of our graduations in the morning since we're going to be uncovered if we're not um at Livestock
Pavilion for majority of graduations. How could we make that work? Um so you'll notice the difference with this plan is that we are shifting now more into June um because we can't double up a morning and evening graduation if everybody's graduating in the morning so that we don't have any overlap. Um
Belleview High School's graduation would remain the same. Vanguards would remain the same but would be in the morning on May the 29th. That is a teacher work day just for um understanding. So teachers are still on campus and the principal
felt even within 8 am that she could manage um teachers completing grades that day and and still be able to handle graduation early in the morning. Um Westports would stay at World Equestrian Center as they are the largest school and they have no way of accommodating all their guests at their home stadium
if they're graduating 700 plus graduates. Forest High School moving them back to Forest um at 8 a.m. on June 2nd. Lakew Weir on June 3, North Marion at their stadium June 5th, Denell at their stadium June 6. So this would all
be 8 am graduations. The caveat with this is that we would have to push summer school back by a week. Um we would not be able to run graduations in the morning while summer school is happening at the site for the same reason that we wouldn't want to do it while students in grades 9 through 11 are on campus. So summer school would be
delayed a week and then we would end up extending summer school an additional week into July to make sure that we capture all the required minutes to be able to issue credit for students who are taking driver's ed or algebra. Um when I talked with the principles just so you know their preference was
plan A. Um their big concern with plan B was not the morning. They like the idea of morning graduations. Their concern was the farther we get beyond the end of this teachers contract year, a lot of them start going on vacation and it would be harder into June to keep
teachers back and have a full garrison of teachers available to assist with all the volunteer work that's needed to be able to run a graduation. Um, so could they make it work? Yes. Given their preference, their preference was plan A over plan B. So that's the short and sweet and I will
turn it over to you all for questions. Okay. Thank you, Mr. White House. First, what I'd like to do is um first Dr. Rue, do you have anything you want to add before the board starts discussing? No, but this I just want to just remind the community that this um presentation to you is because of the request and the
concerns that the board shared from not just this past graduation, but the years prior. um especially with the growth that we have and our numbers and us utilizing the southeast um livestock pavilion where they have been great
host. We are just simply have we have outgrown that area so we needed to do something different and so I I appreciate Mr. White House and the principles for um coming together to look elsewhere even though we know it's hard to change. Change is hard.
It is even when it's good. It's hard. Um, so board, what I'd like to do first is just ask if you've got a preference on either of these um, plans. So then it may limit the conversation of what what we need to go through. So Dr. Campbell, do you have a preference?
Um, I have a preference and also a comment because both of them show the MTC graduation on June 11th. I don't know if there's any way to move that because that is and has been in the middle of the Florida Schoolboard Association conference. And so I will be
being sworn in as president on that day. And so I I don't know how that I I certainly won't be at MDC graduation on that day. If it could be moved back to the Monday of that week, I don't know if that's even a possibility. Uh but I know the Tuesday is a schoolboard meeting, but Wednesday through Friday is the
summer conference for Florida School Board Association. Anything. We could probably move it back backwards, but usually his dates um and that's what we're dealing with right now at the winter one. It's based on his program completion time. Okay. So then the week after maybe. But um anyway, it just that was uh but I think
I would probably lean towards plan A, but with a caveat, what we don't have knowledge of here is the cost associated with World Equestrian Center for a full day. And so a lot of this also and somewhat is going to tie down to cost
for me as well. U moving to the high school stadiums is a wonderful concept in theory. I understand that it still is about a $10,000 cost for Belleview to have it at their and that's shocking to some people. Part of that is because of the sound system. So I know we've just
done a really good job of making sure all the auditorium lighting has been changed. I don't know that we have done as much with audio maybe. So, and but even with that, they still have to rent out audio and so we don't know costs associated, but I'm still kind of leaning towards a
So, Belvy, just for your awareness on Campbell is actually in the process of purchasing a new sound system. Um, we're trying to get that agreement approved so that we can go ahead and get that purchase and installed. So, that could um alleviate that cost if we're able to get a much better sound system installed at the campus. Perfect. and the other stadium sound
systems. Do we have a running idea of what that would be like and how much? Because the predominant challenge that we had this past year was with a rental sound system. And so if that's going to be a challenge on any campus regardless of where we go,
then some of this conversation is moot. But it it's still not because we we have outgrown the livestock pavilion in a lot of ways. But um understandably Vanguard doesn't have a stadium on their campus. So they're going to have to be off campus anyway. And so I can respect that
they want to just go with what they've always done rather than going to booster which is something all brand new for them and not even on their campus. So I I can see why they're making that request. Uh but anyway, those are my initial thoughts. All right. Thank you, Dr. Campbell, Miss Thrower.
Plan A for sure. And I appreciate that the principles had so much voice in this. Um I don't think that they want their graduations to go off um uncomfortably either. Um so I think that our school board has made it clear that we want
these ceremonies, you know, to be honorable and and audible and you know, everything that you would expect while honoring some traditions. And I certainly hope that at some point in the nearest future that a booster will be able to be in play. We did use it in
2020, but there were much fewer kids. It happened to be a beautiful morning. It wasn't raining. You know, it it all just worked out. Um, but there's some infrastructure needs that really to make that viable need to happen. So, I'm I'm good with a and hopefully we can do
something with uh FSBA. That would be Eric, too. For sure. Yes. Okay. Thank you, Miss Thrower. Yes, Dr. James. Um, I prefer a feedback, just one piece of feedback I have. Since the livestock
pavilion is the um really only location undercover, would it be possible for Vanguards to move to the evening of Friday and take either North Marion or Denellins and move it to the morning of Friday? Um, we do two graduations on one day often. And so then knowing that
there's cover and so we know rain is less likely in the morning just alleviating one of those evenings and moving it to the morning. So taking either North Marian to Friday morning or Denellan to Friday morning and then moving Vanguard to Friday night which they're typically have a night
graduation anyways. Um that's just the feedback I have as a way to try and preserve get as many mornings as possible. Okay. Okay. I too am in um plan A. I although I understand uh the struggles
that Vanguard is facing with location, I'm not comfortable um at the Southeastern Livestock Pavilion um simply from a safety perspective. There were a lot of other challenges this last year. Um and I understand that I'm in
the minority up here, but um it I wouldn't feel right if I didn't express that concern upfront. um that last year during some of those graduations I personally did not feel safe and we had 16 SRO's um
on the grounds. So I just I want to state publicly that that is a concern for me over tradition over cost over audio over anything that's been discussed by this board. Um that still is a concern for me. And chair, can I
just add, you said something, but I want to clarify. They were not SRO's. They were hired detail of either MCSO or OPD. Okay. Thank you for that. So, just to clarify, they were not our SRO's that were there working. They were a hired detail. We paid
to the tune of 70ish dollars an hour, I believe, to be there. And I completely I mean, I'm not going to die on this hill, so we we can I'm cool to move forward with it. But I'm in complete agreement. To me, the livestock pavilion is unsafe.
I watched so many things happen and from where we sit, we can see a lot and there's a lot going on in the stadium that I don't know maybe if the officers need to hang out on the stage with us or something so they can see what's going on, but there's a significant amount of
disturbances that happen and it's just not respectful. The whole environment is not respectful to the to the allore of what graduation is supposed to be. But I'm not going to die on the hill today. All right. Thank you for that clarification. Um, Dr. James, where I'm
thinking about schools, I automatically go and think of SRO. So, thank you for that clarification. Anything else you'd like? Yes. Yes, Mr. Yes. And and also, I want to say to the rest of this board that if I had experienced what you all experienced with different schools at the Livestock Pavilion this past year, I would be
sharing the the exact same concerns. And maybe it's because Vanguard was the last one to go and they made it extra clear to the kids and families, you know, I don't know what they did, but I can tell you it was honorable. It was dignified. You were there, Dr. Brewer. Um, they
actually had changed parking for us. Um, they had made great. Yeah, they made some accommodations and adjustments and they were adamant that they wanted it to um continue there. So, I think that um again, I appreciate you guys not dying on the hill of making
everybody be the same and and considering, you know, uh the situations for as individual schools and pointing out that, you know, if if we're going to be paying good money for we should be expecting good security and and very
visible and all of the things that go along with that. And I'm no expert in that field. And so I would imagine that the the chief and the sheriff would address it. Yes. Okay.
All right. It sounds like Oh, Reverend Cummings. Chair, I'm just going to say, are you forgetting me? I got you. Not forgot. Listen, um I I think that graduation is a very
honorable followed um tradition that needs to be taken seriously. Um, we we witnessed some things this year at graduation that was not good. And so I didn't um I didn't personally I didn't like the last
soft. I I have to ask Mr. White House. Did they ever consider u having Vanguard's graduation at Booster Stadium? Yes, we we did talk about it. Um and as Mr. store point out we during co we did
graduate at booster that year and it was a very nice ceremony um but the facility is definitely needs some work and that's an upcoming work session as well um so the principal's preference when I spoke with her was certainly to have it there felt like their graduation went off without a hitch that they've been able
to pull off the last few graduations without any issue and they would like to be able to continue to use it okay uh and I had to ask that question to make sure that it was out there that we did uh consider that as a as a possibility. Um I prefer I prefer morning
graduations. However, if if we're going to go with a let's go with a but I do think we need to do something in the future about moving away from world equestrian as well. Um I see that forest
is is doing it on on one you have forest in the morning at world equesting but then on the other one you have forest in the morning at forest. What what precipitate that? So the the rationale for that is we could only get world equest for one day and so to not overlap if we did
everything in the morning only one school could graduate on the 30th. Their preference would be world equestion center. They are still a larger high school even though we could actually probably fit all of theirs into their stadium with some additional bleachers brought into the stadium. They felt more comfortable at World Equestrian Center.
Um but we can certainly reexamine that next year. Westport's graduation cohort will dip once we open our new high school because we know they're going to pull a large portion of those students away and so it may be more feasible at that point to start looking at everybody being at their home site.
Thank you. I just thought of one other thing. What um seeing as previously we our bad weather plan has been it rains when people come in but we're still undercover outside of Belleview High School where it has
rained once in like 30 years. So how what when are we establishing a bad weather plan for these graduations? Is that going to come now after this conversation concludes? will kind of start as a team. You guys will work on a plan or what does that look like?
Yeah. So, I mean from personal experience having sat through quite a few rainy graduations at Westport, I can tell you that the the goal is to always time the graduations early so that you have time to wait if it looks like a storm's coming. If you set graduation at
8:00 at night and there's rain coming at 8, you're stuck because nobody wants to stick around till 10 o'clock waiting on graduation. If we plan at 6, it looks stormy, it's Florida. Usually within 30 minutes to an hour, everything's cleared out and you can move forward. Um, which would still allow you reasonable time. I think in all the years I graduated at
Westport, we had one one evening where it rained the whole evening and we had to push it to the following morning for graduation and all the parents show back up the next morning and it rained anyways the next morning. So, we all got wet either way. So, um, that's just kind of the way of Florida. And that's just my concern to
your point of Wednesday the 27th for North Marion at 7 that I understand that 7 PM is the choice probably because it's a school day and getting everyone out and getting to this livestock pavilion. But if we moved them to the morning of Friday and Vanguard to the evening of
Friday, then North Marion would not have to be so late because to your point, if seven is the hard stop and then we are delayed 90 minutes, it's just not going to work out. So now there are differences though aren't there Mr. White House between
um which ones are undercover for audience versus also ones which are undercover in the totality and I believe that world equestrian center is um th those who are on the field are not right sheltered whereas even livestock pavilion everyone's sheltered
correct so that's an advantage they that livestock pavilion has though it may be a small advantage now my understanding is that livestock pavilion is also expensive, perhaps prohibitively so, but it's it is considerably more expensive.
Um, and I don't know if we've if the board wants to address any of the concerns of the livestock pavilion with those who run the livestock pavilion, which would be the Marian County Board of County Commissioners, I believe. No, we're good. So, okay, Madam Chair.
Yes, sir. Um, Mr. White House, I do have another question. A couple questions. With us being at World Quest a few years ago, it it rained us out really bad and we ended up having to go inside to do the
graduation inside. If that should happen, are we going to incur an additional cost? And then also this past year at um the livestock pavilion when the sound system wasn't working, we incurred another cost. I
think you talked about that in a school board meeting. Have those things been worked out where we're not going to incur costs because they're not they didn't do what they're supposed to do? Yes. So the to the first question, the World Equestion Center rental agreement
includes use of their indoor facility as a part of the agreement. That's actually where we stage the graduates prior to graduation. So they line up all the chairs for graduation and a stage in there just in case. Um and so that's a part of the cost. And so the only real challenge then is just moving all the
parents indoors and they obviously don't have as great of a view when they're indoors as they do in the stadium seating. Um but that is a part of the rental agreement with World Equestrian Center. Um the sound for uh livestock obviously we're we're just going to have to go in a different direction with with
who we choose and make sure that what we use is is quality and tested prior to graduation. Thanks. Okay. Thank you, Reverend Cummings. Anything further? Okay, Mr. White House, I think you have
consensus um on plan A um and a few items you're going to check on um about moving Vanguard to the evening of Friday and is it North Marian? You need one of them. I mean, yeah, you'll bring that back. Yes, you got to ask. You've got to have the conversation and see. So, you'll
bring a finalized recommendation to us. Yes, I will speak. Madam Chair, yes, sir. Um so, Mr. White House, you are going to try to work on the MTC date because again, as as Dr. Campbell said, that's always during our FSDA conference and
this year, we know that she's going to be the president. Um, and we need to be there. I think the board needs to be there to support her. Yes, sir. That's my first call when I leave here. Thank you. Thank you. All right. Thank you, Mr. White House. Is there any public comment?
Okay. See it on Facebook? Yes. Yes, we'll see it on Facebook. Thank you, Miss Thrower. All right. Okay. Okay. We're moving on to facilities, data center operations, a prioritization
list. Miss Usher is here. Good afternoon, Miss Usher. Sorry, she's still making her way down. Okay. Good afternoon, Dr. Brewer. Madame Chair board members. Um earlier this year you all directed us to to proceed
with the techn technology information services center and immediately we started working on it even though we didn't have the funds in place. Just to recap, in 2023, you all were um planning to do this center, but because of competing
priorities, we put the project on hold. And it was good that it was put on hold and not cancel because that way we're using the same architect and contractor, and that saves a whole lot of time. We have had several meetings with them already with Mr. Ben Venui. He had a
different um an additional department, so he needed a few more offices. We have been working with the architect and the contractor. Um right now we're negotiating a um a price with the architect and that soon we'll be coming to you for approval. We hope to break
ground in early next year and have it finished by early 27. Luckily, we do have the $1.9 million right now in the budget, so we can go ahead with the architect and the pre-construction costs and all that, but we're moving forward
with the project. Yep. So, to be clear, the 1.9 is from the warehouse sale. From the warehouse, that is. So, we basically were able to use that warehouse sale money to do all the pre-construction work for the data center, which I think is wonderful. So, we're gonna There were so many numbers by the
time we got to the end of the warehouse. I see Dr. Campbell shaking her head, but by and you were not a part of that, but we were at six and then it was seven and then it was nine and then I think we were at 12 at some point for the total cost all in. And so, where where do we
have a ballpark? Well, from all the that I looked at it was like 6.7 in 2023. Right now we're hoping to fund it from LCI as Miss Bosanelli said millillage um
uh in two years and we are estimating about 1230 million. Okay. So 13 million out the door and you want to fund it from where the local the um the 1.5 mil.
Okay. Yes, Mr. Um, and I completely agree. It's systems, technology is the heartbeat of of what we need and do. And but I would
also say that there's always a way to uh lean it out and with an eye to just protecting the the systems and and security, you know, of that operation. uh with what we don't know we're facing going into the next couple of years, it
is definitely a time in my mind um you know to focus on the mission and it would be great if some extra money was kicking around and make it look a little nicer or whatever, but the employees need to be comfortable where they're working and this and we don't want to
cut corners on protecting the systems. That would be my ask. Yes. Thank you. I wholeheartedly concur. Actually, what I love about the elementary schools is the concrete slab flooring that we just epoxied. Like, in my opinion, that should be our new standard.
I I think it is very trendy and and it is costefficient. It is easy to maintain. So, you know, as an example of an approach to potentially have a cost savings also potentially, and maybe this is for attorney powers, I'm not sure,
but can we go ahead and get an appraisal um for the property where technology is so that we can have an understanding of potential value once we vacate in early 27. understanding previously the
conversation was we couldn't move unless it was a long holiday which is whether Christmas break I remember um maybe Mr. Benoodi or maybe it was Mr. beer is saying even spring break transition is going to be a challenge
because of the the workload required to move the resources and so I would hope we could accomplish a Christmas move because otherwise we're going to be able to wait until theoretically summertime but could we get a valuation of
the old central elementary school with the data center property and understanding when we sell that as we did with this potentially putting that cost towards what this has all cost us. Yeah. Typically when we go for
appraisals we go for three. Well, that's what I mean. I mean the process. Yes. It is not inexpensive. Um it it it's tends to I mean the cost is significant for the appraisals and typically appraisals after a couple years have
gone by are no longer nearly as valid depending upon how the market fluctuates, right? So, we tend to want to get the appraisal as near in time to the potential sale as we can for accuracy. Otherwise, it's going to be discredited and people are just going to say, "Well,
cool." Yeah, absolutely. But anyway, if we're thinking of finishing something by it would, in my opinion, it would be really wonderful if we were turning things over quicker than just sitting on an asset. And then we spent I mean, how long has the warehouse been empty? At this point, it was When did we move the
warehouse? was that as long as it took them to finally get an appraisal, right? But so a survey. Exactly. But but to my point, right, the the process was quite cumbersome. And so some of these things can happen at the same time
because if we're building the data center, we know when that's going to be done. We can think to impact when that transition can occur. We could also be working on the sale on our end. So we're not just sitting on an asset when we need maybe a million $2 million. Again,
I'm just guessing to then help close the gap. That's my only thought on that. And like unlike other buyers or anything like that, when you've asked when the board has asked me to get a survey or an appraisal done um on properties, even with multiples, I mean, it's generally
been within 30 days. I can I can rally the troops to make that happen. So that was the fact that the other one took six months was definitely not Yeah. No, absolutely. The norm. I'm just thinking in the next six months we could work towards trying to start the sale of Central Elementary School
property and talk about that or no, can we not? Um Dr. James, I just as staff we want to make sure that that's where the board wants to go. So we will definitely sell that property. Well, I'm just one board member. I think you need to hear from everyone or we need to have a work session on it at another date. But I'm just asking for that to be in the hopper of
conversation, I guess, is what I'm saying. If we get an appraisal now and we decide to sell it, probably we'll have to update the appraisal, but it'll give you a a ballpark of how much it's worth. Dr. Dr. Campbell.
So, I agree with both points that I I think it would be helpful for us to have an idea of right now current market conditions, what the value of that property is. It is a full city block in downtown. got some historic building on it and and
all of that, but because of it formerly being an elementary school before it was the district offices, there might be an interest. We do have to do first ride refusal to charter schools or something like that first. So, I think it does warrant a work session agenda in the
future. Um maybe as we get a little further down the line, but so we could get a little bit of that information out in the public. We have in the past, Miss Usher, prior to your coming on board, had members of the community who were very engaged in the conversation about
that facility from the historical Ocala Preservation Society and all of the group that wants to see certain they lots of folks have agendas for what they want to happen with that property. We have not in several years discussed what our agenda is for that property. And so
I I think having a future work session maybe five, six months from now might work. I totally agree. I agree. Okay, I'll add I will mention that every time we bring up anything about doing with a property that has been retained or disused by us, we immediately have about eight
different entities who all decide we should donate it. Sure. Absolutely. And that is not on the table with this board member. We have to be very careful about that. Yeah. There's no donations, right? Exactly. Sorry. Is everyone coming? Everyone coming. Do you want to chime
in? I'm good. Okay. I I will say that we do need to get it out uh publicly uh in ad in advance. um give everyone an opportunity to be heard
so that we can listen and then make our best uh decision as as a board and we've already been through this rodeo once. We are so we know yes so we understand the systems and the potential prep falls
so we can be more prepared and chances are it's going to go a lot more smoothly. And if chair, I just thought of one other thing, not directly tied to this old central elementary, but looking at Belleview Santos because I believe 2027 is the date on that as well, that
merger elementary school. And so looking then again at that corner of 441 and putting that also in the hopper because that should also be a public discussion about what we're doing with that site and then moving forward. I just I want us to be as proactive as possible. Okay,
I'll include both of them. So, Madame Chair, you want us to proceed with an appraisal for the um the old site? No, I think what I'm hearing is we want we want to wait and have a work session first then. Yes. And then we'll give you a decision.
Sounds good. Start to develop a timeline. Okay. All right. Anything further? Is there any public comment? Okay. Seeing none, thank you so much, Miss Asher. We appreciate you. Thank you. chair. Can I comment on Miss Usher? I
just want you to comment on her while she's here. She has worked so hard to get our schools up and running. I was going to share a few words at the end, but while before she leaves, I just want you to know that she is I I don't believe stopped working to ensure that our two new elementary schools and the
renovations at Oyola and all the other schools are happening and she has stayed on top of everything. So, I just want to show you her my appreciation to her. Yes. Thank you, Miss Usher. Okay, at this time we're going to move on to legislative priorities and I'm I'm
going to turn it actually over to Dr. Campbell. Would you like to lead this conversation? U Thank you. I don't have to lead it. I I would love for this to be kind of a round table. I certainly have ideas that we can put forth. Um,
but I believe Miss Martinez Young sent you all our legislative priorities the last two years so you'd at least have them in front of you to be able to kind of gauge what we've done in the past. Uh, I spent considerable time yesterday emailing around some folks specifically
towards the gifted education conversation that we've had in the past to kind of see how we might want to tweak that a bit. U, a couple of things that I I can tell you upfront that might help guide us. I've already alluded to
the capital funding probably being a non-starter and and we certainly can keep it as a part of our platform, but in all honesty, we're we're an anomaly that folks are not growing and and because we
have received the sales tax and we do have impact fees and some other capital funding sources now from our community, I don't know that it warrants us the opportunity to put that in our priorities. So, I'll say that there. U the other two things I don't know if
you've had the opportunity to listen yet or particularly there's one that happened today. Um but the Florida Schoolboards Association legislative priority webinar that they held. They had a recording of that. It was in the newsletter that we received yesterday
and uh I I watched that back. A couple of things that Dr. Dr. Kim McDougall said specifically were related to safe schools. We need to continue to have safe schools in and and I think we have an item there that we have had before. We can just do a carryover whatever that
looks like. I think mental health still needs to be in the forefront and we might want to um adapt how we've had that in the past. The other thing that we're kind of talking about right now, and this may or may not be something we want specifically on our platform, but
it's something that we heard, if you were in the session with the Florida Chamber Foundation, I don't know if any of you sat in on that session during summer conference where they were talking data and the school readiness fund and how the school readiness fund
just changing and expanding the income placement. And I actually have some language on what that looked like. There was a bill that went really far this year but didn't get over the finish line that will impact the eligibility for kindergarten readiness funds for
communities and could really hit u some of that VPK. Well, FSBA has had VPK, full day VPK on their platform for years. It's it's kind of that non-starter honestly because legislators don't want to pay for nap time and when
you have four-y olds they need nap time and so they they don't want to pay for a full day unless they see it changed. Well, so this is a different way to go about that with the school readiness fund where certain income levels would be uh having the access to more uh
funding for what VPK would look like. So anyway, those are my beginning thoughts on that. I I would love to hear you guys have known this was coming. You got emails yesterday. Want to know what your thoughts are before I really delve into
what my considerations are. Yes, A is for attendance. And we got some good traction. Got a little ways down the track this year up there. Uh we are not the only district in Florida that continues to struggle with chronic absenteeism.
Uh continuing to request about the striking the 90-day calendar period and adding 365 calendar period as the time period. You know the talking points that we have had uh helping them understand that the simpler the better uh is going to be
important. I think I also want to remember that we really need to be thanking them for finally getting a phone cell phone law across the finish line. It's something we've been advocating for for years and now that it is actually a law. Um I think that we
are going to see a huge change for the better um in our schools in in terms of engagement. you know, we just needed that support because parents for, you know, very understandable reasons. Again, you were saying earlier, chair, change is hard, even if it's good change
and and it's going to be for the best. So thanking them for that and also thanking them for supporting the continuation of the acceleration and the cape funding and you know we were heard loud and clear and it just goes to show you that when the people come together you know they listen and I'm glad that
we're invited for a two-hour conversation to uh talk about what may be looming with property taxes. I'm all in on that one. So So I I'm going to continue to go with attendance as being first because the rest of it kind of all comes from that.
Can I ask a clarifying board member thrower? Yeah. Do do we still want to focus on age five for compulsory education because I know that was a part of the conversation, right? And so we're not able to start truency until age six, but they're starting at five. Some of them
are five. They're my own my oldest her birthday's in July. So she was five her entire kindergarten year. Theoretically, there was no way for those types of children to be held accountable. So, I don't know if that wants to be a part of our conversation as well, but that
compulsory at 5 um or five by September 1st or whatever it is, but Yes. And that was part of the reality. That's part of the reality that I believe they're open to hearing, you know, um they're the ones that are appropriating money for all these programs that we have. So, we might as
well get that ROI. And if they're not here, we're not getting it. So that was a part of our platform two years ago specifically and we did not include it last year and I'm completely fine with bringing that back. I think it begins the conversation to say let's now
that you have forced kindergarten to be rigorous then let's talk about how early these students really need to have the accountability at the prek12 that that we're responsible for. Um, so I I'm complet and we already have
that language in the two years ago. If we want to make school ages 5 to 16 with five by September one or if we want to adjust it, but if that's what we want, then I'm I'm all for that. That's fine. Um, the the conversation about
attendance, completely respect that and agree wholeheartedly. where that landed last year as you know uh Erica Representative Erica Booth spent considerable amount of time with us and we helped her as a as in addition to many other people in getting that
language the way it was written. There was definitely pieces that Marian County had a part of in that what the information she was really trying to get over the finish line was it was creating a definition for attendance was really what we were trying to have happen. The Senate then says it was too cumbersome
and and complicated what what the House actually did pass off the floor. So the Senate wasn't really ready to have that conversation. So, if there's some kind of playing field leveling that we want to try to do between create a a specific
statutory statutoily driven definition of attendance and, you know, uh initiate chronic absenteeism strategies immediately upon the 10th student absence. I think those two things in tandem would get across the finish line. what we're trying to do. Part of the challenge with the state
of Florida, as you all know, we've talked about it multiple times, is that there isn't a definition for attendance. And so that the interesting thing though about attendance, we we've had so many conversations lately. And by the way, the conference we're planning for December, I was in that conference. I I'll I'll talk about that in board
comments. It's going to be all AI heavy and it's going to be so fascinating all the different topics we're getting. But the interesting conversation about attendance though is as e-commerce that's another thing that you guys I'll talk about at board comments
as we get greater availability of creating opportunities for students who might not be full-time in the school system. What is attendance if you're only coming for one class period or only coming for two class like what does that look like? And so I don't know the
answer to that because it does feel like the legislature is pushing to the opportunities for more of an e-commerce platform where school districts who are losing seats and there are lots more than we are who have all of these available seats are going to sell those off in the marketplace and say come in for you know so then what does
attendance actually look like and so you can see them in the chair right let that be a jump I mean you can over complicate anything right but do you think there is space to clarify that by age group like to say in
elementary it looks like this and for middle school it because in high school I think is where we're going to have the biggest challenge identifying what is attendance if you're coming for one class or you're coming for all day but in elementary school it's pretty cut and dry we just want your bum in the seat
right so I I completely respect that and think that that would be a good way to bridge the two like a K8 definition versus a I maybe I I mean I I don't want to over complicate it, but I just I want us to have ideas and thoughts that will
get across the finish line. We really are looking ahead at what the challenges would be at getting across the finish line and I I agree with you. I think that is going to be a challenge. Yes. And the e-commerce uh thing is is just so interesting. I I participated in that webinar as well. Is that the one you
were on too? Okay. Yeah. And but again, if say you have a homeschooled student that's coming for, you know, a couple of accelerated classes, well, and that class meets five days a week at starting at 8 in the morning, you know, the expectation would be that would be your attendance, you know.
Um, so there there just has to be a way to make it as concise and clear and simple as possible that what attendance means is is that you show up on the days that you're signed up to be there, what your schedule says. is when you're supposed
to be there. And if you're not, you can be chronically absent from the one class that you're doing as an allocart. You know, it's it's still a problem because that could be what you need to graduate and then it affects our graduation rates.
Yes, it does. So, as we're trying to help Mr. Christian figure out how this is going to look because he he knows he's on a tight timeline. I you all know that we have our first meeting on Monday, right? So, if we were to start with what we think we want to start with, which is
attendance, do we want to say um using last year's language, amend uh 103.26 subsection 1 subsection B, maybe just say allow school districts to initiate chronic absenteeism strategies
immediately upon the 10th student absence. and or do we want to say something like define student attendance and amend this subsection and take out the eliminating 90-day period requirement? Like I I think both of
those things need to be talked about together. We do need to have a definition for attendance. There are other things that need to be talked about together with that too. And one of them is the fact that the legislature just passed through DJJ bills which are very diffic make it very difficult for us. One of those bills
being one which said that the maximum amount of time that we can have somebody on supervision for um parents or children for um truency purposes is a six-month time frame. Now that means that from the time that we get the
petition entered, we've got six months for them to show success. That has been challenging with a number of our cases already. I don't see an immediate need for us to find a way to expedite making sure that after 10 days hit the bell, we
can rapidly go into filing a petition. We can barely handle the amount of court time that we've got now. We spend an entire 9 plus hour day in court once a month dealing with truency petitions.
That's after the fact that we have res resolved most of the clogs from the system of ones that were habitually and painfully truent over years time. Um so at at this point trying to find ways to ensure that we can get them back into
the mix and back into the hopper is probably not the best option. And in fact, the best option may be to ensure that we have maximum um ability to achieve resolution within that sixmonth time frame. And then knowing that once
that time frame hits, if that's not ultimately successful, uh, despite a rapid, um, increase or or I should say escalation, we're going to have to escalate much more early before we could wait around and wait for slower progress. And we're going to have to
escalate much more early and we're going to have to escalate much more severely. Then when we get to the end of that period, um if the student had if that's not been successfully resolved, we're just going to have to go right back into getting them back into uh a second
filing. And a second filing then means yes, we can do this again. Yes, we can go in for another six-month whack at it. But ultimately um I think there are a lot more issues right now than there were six months ago to think about
because the legislature frankly I believe DJJ in this case took some great pains to try to sort assert its authority to handle things outside of the court and outside of school systems. DJJ simply wanted to exert its authority
to indicate that they didn't want bed space taken up by courts placing truent children. Um, and to my knowledge, uh, Marian County was one of a very few districts who were operating successfully and and and operating very
um um diligently in ensuring that there were consequences at all. But a couple of Department of Juvenile Justice attorneys didn't like that and pushed quite a bit back against it and
um they have the ear of the legislature and that's where why we ended up where we are. So what we can do at this point is we're going to have to hit it harder and faster with truency and then we're going to have to if that doesn't fix it, we'll hit it again.
and and that's that's so definitionally definitionally is important but kind of the least of our problems strategically is what we've got to do and if I I think a definition helps clear up the data amongst the school
districts because we're all looking at it through a different lens but that's really about data disagregation more than anything else from a practicality standpoint I think what is more important is going back to your language you head
essentially saying the 10 days and and also five by September 1st and and I think if that's the focus because the definition is about how we are all working in the state of Florida together but to your point attorney P
every district is still doing this very differently and not all of them are as hyperfocused on it as we have been and so maybe we just say the 10 days the statement about the 10 days and also five by September 1st. That would be my
agreed. I There are two different statutes that I want to make sure we incorporate the numbers so they know what they're adjusting. Um, I I want to make sure Attorney Powers I I know that what was passed this year is going to,
no pun intended, handcuff us a bit uh for the success that we've been having with truency court and grateful to Judge King for helping us with all the things on his docket um through truency court. But and obviously the team here, we we've got a great team that's that's
been doing that. Is there something that you would recommend that we do from a legislative advocacy perspective asking for that to be repealed in any way? And I'm the only reason I'm asking is because
I if we were the ones that were being successful making it happen and there's only one or two others of us that were and yet a laws been put into place so that we're not going to be successful. It's like the school start time thing. Yeah. It's only in place for a year. It was and and then there was also a school safety thing that just got so they put
something into place and then they don't really realize what the repercussions of that are going to be. And so the advantage of having a short time between them just ending session and heading into committee weeks like two weeks, three weeks from now is going to give it top of mind. It's still fresh
of mind. So well, one of the issues, and you've seen this when you've researched Florida statutes, we we've talked about this before. Um there are two or three ways to get to uh truent child determination. There's two or three different statutory paths to take and then once you get
there and the petition is entered there's a couple different paths. Civil enforcement versus uh criminal enforcement. And what you do from there is a different set of paths. That's why of 67 districts very few operate on any time on any framework that is consistent
with another. Now, I happen to believe that through hard work, we've gotten to something that is a highly consistent, highly legal, and highly technical framework that does require quite a expenditure of resources and dedication of judge, attorney, and staff. Um, but we've gotten there. I think we're we're
really kind of being a model there and it's frustrating then when we're being a model for that to have you know things sort of roadblocks thrown in the way um that you know just to create more more difficulty for us to get to the end result. Now what I will what I can say
along those lines is that if you if we aim to the unintended consequence the legislature is going to see isn't something that we have to teach them. it's something they're going to see because we have no other option. And that is that whereas we tried to be
gentle in the upswing of enforcing and saying, "Okay, well went from 10 days absent last month to eight days absent last this month. Good job. Let's see getting better." We're going to have to and we already have to some degree when when a student is absent for two months
time is is I'm sorry only two months in and they've made two months of solid improvement so they are at zero absences that third month we're excusing them from the program by go try it on your own. You know you this is great. On the other hand, what we're going to have to
do is, okay, you've gotten a petition filed against you and the very next month, you didn't you you didn't you you still missed six days. Student is going to have to start having some some consequences. Parent is going to have to start having some consequences. And it's going to be fast and people are going to it's going to make people's head spin
because they're going to say, "What? Oh my gosh, I I'm looking at a potential order to show cause and maybe going to jail for 30 to 60 days." Sure. you know, so we're going to have more consequences on more students faster. And so what
they've forced now our hand is to say, we slow rolled this. Only a handful of students actually had to go into DJJ last year. Now we're going to have potentially dozens depending on how many that looks like. And it's actually going to put more students in detention, I
think. Absolutely. And if I can say one more thing, the pressure release valve that has been I've seen it in court so many times is our net house and the shelter. Yes. Right. And that's what when but what we've used to say okay maybe in this instance what we try is that shelter situation first.
The problem is it is a wonderful program and it's a wonderful pressure release valve. You cannot replicate it by 60 kids a month. Right. It's it's it's impossible. Sure. So we can replicate it with two or three children here and there and and and
working it into the program. We cannot replicate it in mass. Um so that's going to prove difficult. Agreed. So, uh, I think what will be helpful for us as we go into our conversations and we're talking specifically about this that we not
necessarily keep that put that on our platform, but to have that bill number in our talking points to say, "And by the way, you know, we've been successful with give me some stats. Let me have those as readily available as you can." whoever's listening to this model, the
model tell us, you know, how many students we saw in the last two years in truency court, how many we've been able to, you know, successfully remediate and whatever all that looks like. Uh, but also understanding that the new statute
that's just gone into effect is going to hyperfocus us even more. So, just so legislators are aware, these two things are actually tied together because not being able to hold them accountable, but we're also wanting to be able to hold them accountable sooner.
So, I I think back to where we to for Mr. Christian, I think we are wanting to um using the point from the first uh bullet from last year, bullet point uh amend 3.26 26 subsection 1 subsection B
allowing school districts to initiate chronic absenteeism strategies immediately upon the 10th student absence and amend section this is from two years ago amend section 103.21 21
uh subsection one subsection A1 to be five years by September one of any school year. Are you seeing both of those being able to tie to I don't know if you have them pulled up like I do, but I have I have them both pulled up so I I'm able to see what because we're we're taking out some
language. So, I think uh we're taking out the eliminating the 90-day period requirement and we're just getting to the heart of what it is we want. And then also on um we we had said to make
school ages 5 to six 16. I think that I mean maybe both of them have to be done together, but we'll have to have a lot of justification as to why we want that age to be five. So, I'm going to lean on you guys when we're in some of these meetings to to talk about why that's
that's important for us to make a priority. Bigger. Do they think do they think they need to be do we think they need to be two separate priorities or in the same it's going to be a long bullet point, but do we think it needs to be in the same one or they need to be two separate ones? I think it's truency. I think it it is
it is all under the umbrella of attendance. And so I think it's the same point and we're just talking about two separate subsections but the collective point is we need to be able to be more aggressive. Okay. Also and also establish the habits
early. You know for what's being asked of students these days if they're not coming to school regularly when they're five years old unbelievably that has a tremendous impact on their success at third grade reading camp and only because I was in the meetings.
Mr. the White House probably because he has ultra access. Someone else I'm sure does too, can go into um our data management and pull East Marian's data for attendance and look at the kindergarteners compared to everyone else and then go pull their PM data and
look at that. It is eyeopening. I mean over 50% of kindergarteners are chronically absent compared to significantly lower numbers. And there is one key indicator there and that's because we cannot we can't enforce it because East Marian did has
done a tremendous job of enforcing attendance but there is no hammer for kindergarten. So that would be a data set that we and and a data set that we could take with us. East Marian from last year is and I'm sure Miss Dobs could help talk through exactly what we're looking for, but that would be um
that would be the perfect picture. No, that's perfect. That that makes complete and total sense because we're not able to actually hold fiveyear-old kindergarteners accountable for attendance the same way that we can. That makes complete and total sense. Okay. However, I have also seen in all truency cases where there are siblings involved.
I've never seen a single sibling that's has bad truency issues without the other students also having it as well. So, if we do have any of those kindergarters who have older siblings, perhaps we need to have develop an internal mechanism, and I'll speak to some staff about that for prioritizing those.
Um, because where we have sibling groups, I mean, honestly, some of our largest ones, we have we have folks with four or five siblings and all of them don't go to school, right, on a regular basis. And that's good point, you know. So that's accounted for five
of our cases at any given times five families that are that way. We've got you know four or five we got 20 25 which a third of our case load at any given moment that is just responsible with you know picking up with a very few a very small number of parents
they see it at East Marion all the time and the olders take care of the younger so when one person's sick they're all home because the parent still has to go to work. Right. Right. Right. Okay. So that's attendance. I wanting to try to move us along here a bit because we do still have a couple other items I think. Thank you.
So um what other topics are resonating with you guys that you want to ensure we talk about? Safety funding, right? Okay. So last year our specific statement was increase the FEFP safe schools allocations to include additional funding for school safety
initiatives including after school activities and school safety officers. It feels a little wordy to me. I don't know if there's another way to say it. I think we can continue to increase the FEFP safe schools allocations. Is can we just say unfunded mandates?
It's not really an unfunded mandate though because it is partially funded. It is underfunded. Underfunded. Yeah. I mean increasing the safe schools allocation. So I think we we today's a perfect day. We just talked about I think we get $4 million and our overall
cost is at least for the SRO's alone is more than five I think. Yeah, but that doesn't include the extra duties for gates and the this and the that and I mean all of the So I just if we call it an underfunded mandate I is that rude to say? I feel like we use it so publicly
unfunded and underfunded. We use those words so publicly essentially to take the first part of that statement about the FFP to address instead of putting all the rest of the language just saying the underfunded mandates that are in law. I mean the
gates are law, the locked doors are law. All of those things are laws over three years. Years. Oh, sorry, Dr. J. I'm sorry, Chair Conrad. I just want to clarify that SRO contract 5.3 is over three years. And so
what I shared earlier that safe schools allocation, we received 4.7 for safe school allocation. the dollar that um was different than what Miss Boston Ellis shared was the two million for SRO's. The other portion she included in
the um in her conversation. I just want to clarify that. So for Maring County Sheriff's Office, I believe it's like $3.45 million per year. Um and then um I don't know right off the top of my head with
the uh with Ocala Police Department. Um, MCSO is 3.3, OPD is 3.3 this year, it becomes 3.45 next year because of the new high school, right? And then Okala Police Department was um 2.1 and Belleview Police Department was
73,000. Yeah. So it's 5.3 million a year and it yeah it's over for the first so 5.3 is for the first year contractors for three years and it's roughly 16 million over the three years after we
add SRO's for the new schools. So that's what makes it a little complicated. So, if we're just increasing the FEFP safe schools allocations to match current needs and to match current not even needs though, current
legislative requirements, current legislative requirements. So, that's going to be debatable. Yeah. Because the push back we can easily get is that the legislature the legislature has given us a half a dozen ways. Yes. To potentially fill that role. We all
know that there's really only one way that success that's successful and that's the SRO model with you know our school safety staff as a as a a core provider in there but we are the school safety staff represent a tiny portion I
mean SRO's are what are what do this we can hire our own private security firm and I think pretty much everywhere around the state has said that's that's not the ideal option um and very few districts choose that option. The
guardians, that's another option for at least a large supplemental chunk. Most have determined that's not the primary option they'd go with. So, the legislature can always say, well, we just tell you here's here's plenty of ways to different to skin this cat. You can do it how you want to. Um, but we we
know that in good conscience, the model that we have that we're working with right now has has been the one we've chosen for a reason. So it they when we say it's a mandate, well it's a mandate that we cover somebody, but we could hire Wacken Hut Security to come in here
and but it's not just about SRO's. It's about all of the add-ons that they've added in the last couple of years about gates, about doors, about inspections. Yes. All of the things. So I think I think collectively looking at the whole
picture and saying it's still underfunded legislative requirements. we are everything they're asking us to do. Even if we took the cheapest approach, which we would not, to secure our schools, we still have to have the fences and we still have to have the the
guards at the gates and and so I I think even if you peeled it all the way back to the least expensive approach, we're still underfunded because all of the cameras and things have to be updated, too. You know, it's a constantly uh it's a constant need that's never going to go away. And I
believe that sheriffs across the state have a lot of clout. And I'm pretty certain that, you know, our experts in law enforcement in this county completely believe that the safest method and model is to be doing, you know, what we've been doing.
And you would think that that would resonate. So what where are we at with that statement, Dr. Campbell? So, I'm still struggling with the thought of just telling them that they continue to do unfunded mandates because we always try to have this as positive as we can. So,
I I I agree we need to increase the FEFP safe schools allocation. Last year, the reason we said was to include after school activities. Um I one thing that we always have to keep in mind in part that we've been talking about today with
budget perspective many other districts are not in the same situation with the school hardening and all of that. Many of them were have been turning over new buildings every 10 years or more and they've automatically been built with the buzzer systems and all. So I mean the things that we have been having to
play catch-up here in Marian County doesn't resonate all throughout the the state. Um but what is continuing to increase is the cost to provide safe schools and and meaning that the right yes um to maybe so it's increased the
safe schools ass allocation to meet the increasing demand of school safety or something like that. Um the increasing cost of ongoing providing ongoing school safety. Yeah. The rising cost to provide safe schools. Yeah.
Okay. because that's vague enough. Absolutely. We we've continued to have we've continued to have a um school safety is a human resources intensive um factor. Salaries go to a huge portion of that. Um that's a huge portion of the
cost. We do have a lot of money we spend on on but we can do some of that with grants on on the physical plant portions of it. But it's very human resources intensive. that adding to the state that the state to the fact that the state of Florida has been pushing very hard to
encourage um law enforcement officers to move here from other jurisdictions with their certification and maximize salaries of law enforcement officers throughout the state which is appropriate to do. Uh but in so doing it also increases our our our cost
increases our market cost for those law enforcement officers here because you have to pay them a living wage. So that's so I have increase FEFP safe schools allocation to match the rising human costs of providing safe schools.
M madam chair. Yes. And and I I like this Dr. Tim just said the rising human cost. However, there's a there's a cost of us maintaining or staying up to date with the current
technology that happens um so often as we go throughout the years with safe schools. We know that we have to continue to upgrade cameras every so often. We have to continue to upgrade different facets like the technology piece that Mr. McFad brings to us all
the time. those just maintaining those those uh technical aspects is rising every year every year. How about providing and maintaining human capital and technology school environments providing and maintaining
yes Dr. I I do want to comment that what Reverend Cummings just stated. So the school hardening grant that we also utilize for the security cameras and what else is in there? The keyless entry system, some of those those are from that school hardening grant and that has
greatly reduced over the last two years. This year we're at 635,000 I believe where just a few years ago it was over I think two or three million. Um that being a state grant. Yes. And so that's something that you could
incorporate because we need that we know that's only going to continue to decrease. So we need you can include that in your request. So for this bulleted item I have incre I've added a word. So um Reverend
Cummings hear this and see if this makes uh better sense a bit. Increase FEFP safe schools allocation to match the rising human costs of providing and maintaining safe schools. It's not just human costs. Okay. So, do I take the word human out alto together? Yeah, I was going to recommend human
capital and technology, but if you don't want to specify, you can just say the rising costs. I mean, covers all bases. It's across the board. Okay. People, right? It goes across the board of providing and maintaining safe schools. Okay.
Are we ready to move off move on from that one? I think so. Okay. Um, and Mr. Christian, I'm creating a document for you. Uh so what do we have as another uh topic of hot topic for us that we want to include? Do we want to revisit the gifted
allocation or ESC allocation in general or transportation? That's another transportation. So I think transportation is a good one. I I if you will allow me to elaborate a bit on gifted education. And so I threw out a couple of ideas yesterday to the
team and floated them to some gifted educators as well. There's a couple of thoughts I just want to put out and see um that are more specific than what we included last year. There could be a rule adjustment change that would require gifted EP meetings every two
years. Currently it's every three. And if you think of when a student might be put into the gifted classification, it it the way it says it's it's every three years, but it can be adjusted based on transition to elementary to
middle, middle to high. When I think of my own children's uh gifted at the secondary level, I went to one meeting of theirs in their four years. And so I I'm just curious if I I think that at least early on that if those EP meetings
were every two years instead of every three, I think that would be a benefit. At least that doesn't still get to what um we're we're needing to do all around. Uh I was also asking about uh potentially funding gifted teacher
stipens and determining specific ratios on gifted educators. also mentioned creating requirements specific to middle school gifted instruction. That seems to be this pocket where we're missing it's beyond acceleration. You get acceleration in high school, but if we
if we targeted middle school specific instruction for acceleration, there are course codes for u middle school gifted uh programming. So I there was I have probably 15 emails about this yesterday going around. I
gotten so much feedback from everybody. I I think we can enhance what that says, but I'm interested in hearing what you guys would like to see with us enhancing gifted instruction. So, I think one, I don't think we need a
rule change to do to change the way we do business in Marian County. Um, I could be wrong, but I think that we could move to doing annuals or every two-year EP revivals as a matter of practice. That's just simply a practical decision we can make. So I'm not sure we
want to spend time as a legislative agenda item on something that we can practically that's not a right word but change here in house. I think that the focus should be continuing to fund gifted education
because with more fund because we hate the red tape and so what we need may look different than what another district needs but you're you are completely correct. We lose it as soon as they get to sixth grade. When I was in sixth grade as a gifted student, I
had a gifted elective. I went to a teacher who was gifted endorsed and all she taught all day, I think, I don't know, maybe she taught other stuff, but I was in sixth grade, seventh grade, eighth grade, so I didn't pay close attention. I went for gifted and we did pretend stock market and like all this
really cool innovative stuff that like weird gifted kids love to do with their brains and it was really enriching and it was an elective course. I I had instead of chorus or PE or whatever. So, but we need funding for that because
we don't have the funding to add the instructional units because our ESSE money is being consumed by the other end of the spectrum and we're not prioritizing the unit on the on the gifted end of the spectrum because we just have so many needs on the other
end. And so, how do we ask for more funding so that in this district we can use it that way? Maybe in another district they use it differently. But we think I think collectively we've all kind of agreed it'd be great to hire a gifted endorsed teacher to run an elective at a middle school. That'd be
super cool. But we just don't have the funding source right now to do that. It would it would just be I don't know for because we've just had success uh protecting kids on the acceleration side
you know and I know that the gifted kids aren't the same but in a sense they are in the sense that they need a highle differentiated kind of program so since they were very receptive eventually to
continuing to fund that then to me this is just the next logical step. Here's another identified underserved group that is incredibly capable that are parents are clamoring. You're a parent.
You're a parent. You know, you're representing parents who are who are clamoring for these types of services so that they can also then benefit from everything that we have to offer. You know, we have kids coming from private school to our high schools because of
these programs. We want the gifted track to be the same. Well, and I think if we strengthened our middle school model, we wouldn't we're losing a lot of kids in middle school. They come back for high school. Yes. Like they really that I'm I don't have the data in my hand to prove it right now, but we lose them in middle school, they come back for high school. So,
if we strengthened our middle school delivery for those upper end kids, they wouldn't maybe leave for private to come back in for public and high school. Right. And I'm so glad you mentioned that because I don't know if this would be a legislative priority, but maybe it should be because we identified a group of middle school kids that did very well
with synchronous online learning. I think there were 300 of them and we wanted to pilot it, but we weren't allowed to do it because we needed to be, you know, we needed to be an a district before we could innovate, which was an odd, right? Yeah. So again, if we're talking about
school choice and all of cart and opportunities, if we can identify groups of students that could benefit and we have teachers that want to, you know, teach them online synchronously, then that should be a program if it'll if it'll fund 300 kids was a lot of kids. That is a lot of kids.
It was either 200 or 300, but it was a good chunk. So I agree with the full conversation that we're having here. I I I got a lot of feedback yesterday and a lot of different thoughts from so I think if we collective we almost need to have a work session topic just on gifted education in Marian County if everybody would
agree gifted education delivery in Marian County. Um I personally am still loving the idea of a hub perspective. I know that's transportation cost. I understand that. But if you were able to put my elementary school kids I've
talked about that before. I would provide my own transportation to bring them to a school one day a week and they would get full day gifted instruction with a gifted teacher and uh it was wonderful for them in their early years. And so I I love the idea of of hub
opportunities. a middle school model has has been a challenge for me because the way we deliver it currently and I I just speak personally the way we've delivered it currently you have a gifted educator that perhaps is either their language arts teacher or their science teacher or
whatever. And so in one grade level you'll have their language arts teachers where you get your gifted instruction and the next grade level you get it in science. The next grade level you'll get it in or civics would have been seventh, you know, like the next grade level. And so if that's not your giftedness,
but that's the gifted endorsed teacher, that's what you get. So your giftedness has to be in science even though you could literally care less about science or your giftedness has to be in civics where and you want to be a brain surgeon. Like so we really have been missing that in in my opinion as a
parent of gifted in uh students. So, I think that we can keep it the way we had it, but I'm going to make it a little different just to say allocate specific funding to meet the needs of K8 students with gifted education plans. The reason I want to say that is because the state of Florida, they accelerate and they
count IB and ACE and all. They think every gifted kid belongs in one of those programs. And okay, I mean there we know that some kids can be gifted in mechanics that may not be an ace student and they may, you know, something machinery wise and and they, you know,
they may be gifted in in other ways. They just it's a different way of learning. Uh but for now, we could probably uh approach what we're at least asking for is that specific funding for K8 and then that would at least help
meet the needs across the board. and understanding that we just did the fight with the acceleration points and they gave that for high schools. Yeah. Does that make sense? I think that's fair enough and it's broad enough that what other districts needs are can still be covered with what our needs are.
I love the idea of a work session in the in the future. Yeah, if you all agree with that, I think Yeah, I'd love to hear from teachers that are teaching gifted and what their challenges are and well and we, you know, we've changed the staffing plan when you used to have us, you know, where we're doing that through
gifted resource teacher and what that model looks like and because a couple two years ago, you guys know that was a big sticking point for me. Did away with the program specialist for gifted specifically, which was ironic that we're making this a legislative priority yet our district is approaching this very differently than the way the board
wants it. So, perfect. So, we'll have a work session in the future on that. Okay. I have three bullet points. What do we have? Another one. Give me another idea. Well, I think transportation funding is huge. Like, I mean, and I know we're unique, so it's it's going to it's like we almost want to say that the
FFP transportation amount should be based on the average mileage a bus drives or something. It shouldn't just be this blanket number because if the district is this tiny compared to our district that's outside of Rhode Island, it's not an equitable distribution of
money, right? And so how do we work how do how do we make it so that which that could hurt other districts because if they're smaller then they're going to get less money. So then you create like a minimum or something so districts don't lose transportation money if
they're a more compact district. But we need more transportation dollars and we used to we would get compression funds to help offset that. But again, it's still hasn't been enough to fill the gaps. We've been filling the gap as as our CFO would say, you know, with
fund balance and it's a recurring cost. So, uh, let let's talk a bit about transportation if you'll allow me to appine based on some conversations that I've had recently. The legislature is going to get really sticky in in some districts specifically about
transportation. They're going to want to know, are districts using AI for routing? Are they're making sure that they're, you know, rather than adding to your fleet, are you actually making the most of your routes and and that you're having the most efficiency in that area.
Um there's a conversation about hazardous walking conditions and and increasing what that looks like. Uh there actually you may or may not we may not not have talked about this collectively but this past year there was some transportation thought that
came forward a bit because a legislator actually moved and uh realized that he lived 1.7 miles from the school and so he wasn't going to be able to get a bus because he was so he actually had put forth legislation he wanted the two
miles to go to 1.5 but that wouldn't have been funded but anyway so that didn't go anywhere. I'm just I if there's some way that we can creatively approach transportation asking for more, but I I'm just throwing all those kinds of thoughts out to you to say what is it
that we could specifically ask for that would still get the point across. I I think it's interesting to talk about mileage because I mean that's but they're going to then ask like I said, are Yeah. What is your how's your routing done? And we just got GPS. So, I
mean that's that that wouldn't have helped us last year. So, we have to be really This is a new year. Yeah, it is. It is. We had GPS for a while. Uh, no, no, no, not in the buses. No, we haven't had GPS in the buses. We've had GPS. We bought GPS monitors for them. So, I don't know why that is.
Okay. No, what we bought was GPS on the bus so that the routers could watch them, not so the individual bus driver had turnbyturn directions because I watched it like they did not have turnbyturn. I I watched a a person at the transportation office saying they
just missed their turn on the radio. You just you need to go because they were watching it in the offices but the bus drivers didn't have turnbyturn. So that that's going to so yes completely agree that we need more transportation funding because we drive everywhere and to rebut
that from a legislative perspective. If we had had the funding we would have bought the term by term earlier, right? We can't buy stuff we don't have the money for. So if we properly funded transportation, we would then be able to Yes, absolutely. We So to get this extra money, you have to have boom boom boom
done in the next three years. You got it, buddy. If we have the money to buy it, we're going to buy it. Okay. It will also help our attendance issue. And this comes up more and more and we can tie it right back to attendance that if a student misses the bus and our hardworking parents are already at work
um and there is not a plan B, you know that kid stays home and it would be great if there was more community connection so that neighbors could help neighbors and you know you miss the bus and grandma across the street will get you there, whatever. But that doesn't
happen as often as it used to because the way the the way things are right now, it's it's either two parents in a household both working or one parent in the household working. So I'm just pulling up the FEFP and making sure that that Sorry, I need to
look at that categorical and see the chart that we had today. It's so perfect timing that we have here. Is there a categorical specific to transportation? Yeah, it's on the left side. Thank you. Student transportation. Got it. So, um
I'm not sure how that is calculated. So, um maybe our request is to adjust the student transportation
FEFP categorical to include something. I like I don't know what add on funding for districts who have surplus mileage over x amount of miles. Like maybe we don't change the FFP. We're just asking for districts that are
our size to get additional funding to aid in transportation aid in transportation efficiency. Yeah. Dr. Just two numbers for you to add to this. So, we have, I just pulled this the other day, 1,600 square miles that
we know we transport. And last year, we transported 21,000 students with 31,000 miles each day. Like, that's a 31,000 miles a day. Yeah. And we would have more kids riding the bus if uh parents could be assured. And
we're getting better on this with the on-time pickup and delivery, but a lot of parents, you know, are dropping their kids off because they just don't want them to miss the bus and and worry about them being home alone. So, long routes. Yeah.
Yeah. So, I think if we could add for an add-on, I don't know if the language there is absolutely correct, but for districts of like size, whatever that number is, whatever that mileage is, that square Yeah. Yes. square miles and and a supplement
because square I think it's not just a square mileage conversation because you have some districts that are large like Levy but the the population isn't very large right and so they don't need a ton of buses but we're we're pretty big and we got a decent amount of kids and so
coupling student enrollment and mileage and doing an add-on to boost funding for districts who have a lot of kids in a lot of places. Okay, I'm bear with me. I'm trying to type something up here. Um
with an I to you know because the eventual goal is is efficiency and increased student achievement. Um, so there this this would be a very specific one that would hit us and maybe Pulk and a
couple of others, but uh and so I I think that's okay. I liken it to the fact that there's a statute specific that allowed Orange County to have a chair that runs separately than all the rest of the board members. And so they have a four-year chair and it's a totally different seat. There's actually
a couple of other districts that could uh do that now, but it was written specifically so it says like a central Florida district of more than such and such number of students that blah blah blah and so it's written specific that they were the only one. So what if we were somehow increasing the FEFP
transportation categorical supplement for district or or maybe it's create a transportation categorical supplement for districts of more than 45,000 students and more than 1500 square miles. a good start. All right. It's very specific. I mean, it's it is it's specific, but it
would Pulk would fit that bill. Lake may like I there there may be other districts, but it would narrow down those that are smaller and that don't have as many students and and all of that. Um Miami Dade would qualify and Orange County would qualify.
So, which I'm sure they're underfunded for transportation as well. I mean those big districts with lots of kids are still also underfunded for transportation. They are the price of buses has tripled. Yes, they they are some of them do have
access to greater public transportation. So that's a a different caveat. Those larger metropolitan areas have have that. I think that's I think a specification like that is is good because then we're just saying this and it's a starting point.
It's a starting point. Starting point. So, I'm gonna say create FEFP transportation categorical supplement for districts of more than 45,000 students and more than 1500 square miles. Understanding if we fall below 45,000, we're not going to meet that. So, do we need to change that
number? I was thinking, yeah. Okay. You want to more than 40,000? Like, give us a little wiggle room. No, that's fine. We're never gonna I hear Eric. I didn't hear him. What did he say? 40,000. 40,000. 40,000. Okay. Going once. Going twice. I'm game.
Yep. Okay. Um, and then let's see what else we've had before that we might not have already talked about. We didn't talk about health. Mental health. Mental health. We didn't talk about mental health. And I also wanted to ask um, Dr. B, I don't know if you have this information yet, but two years ago we included the Marian Technical College
um, appropriation request. I know you spoke with Jessica Janese with yesterday. Do we have any indication that we want to move forward with a appropriation request in this cycle? Yes. So, and I haven't spoken to anyone else since I saw you. So, that was that's fine. All I know is you talked to
her. I don't know what to talk to her about. Yes. So, I I will share more, but we're going to have her come to um meet with all the board members and the district leadership in September so we can um we're going to have another conversation before that. Okay. Let me come let me share more. But I don't have anything for Monday's meeting
with um So, will there be an appropriation request for Marian County Public Schools? I believe our goal is to always have one. No, we we didn't last year. So that's what I I want to we have plenty of things to ask. Okay, perfect. Innovative and that would meet the
state's goal right now with especially career and technical education. So if we want for the purpose of this little to uh appropriate funding for Marian County public schools based on I don't know something like well I mean some something to do about
appropriation request forthcoming or something like that. I don't as our fifth item. Yes. Yes. And we want to do mental health. Well, and I think No, I I think the How many do we have? I think just adding a fifth item to address an a forthcoming appropriation tied to career and technical education.
Will it be tied to career and technical? I think that's how that's where the I mean that's where the money's coming. That's that's the focus. And I wanted to share just when we were talking about the giftedness, um the work we're doing with expansions of industry certifications, even in middle
schools and in high school, we know a lot of our gifted students are thriving in um the Belleview High School robotics program. They will thrive in our aviation program. So, you're right. It's there's more than the college credit courses. Um so, the more we can even down school.
Yes. I mean, those Bobby Middle robotics kids are like national champions. Yes. And Howard, and he's retiring soon. It's really scary. Um, okay. So, how do I want to word this? Appropriate funding for forthcoming Marian County Public Schools
career and technical career initiative or request. Technical education request. Appropriate funding for forthcoming Marian County Public Schools career and technical education request. That doesn't sound right.
I feel like appropriate funding needs to be at the end, not at the beginning. I'm sorry. I feel like the appropriate funding should be at the end of the sentence, not at the beginning. Okay. Fourthcoming career and technical education initiative. Appropriation request.
Appropriation request. I don't know. That's just Does that sound better? forthcoming Marian County Public Schools career and technical education appropriation request. The only thing you could add is innovative. I I mean I could take out the word
forthcoming because we'll just tell them that we don't have in time for our meetings next because there we actually have two next week. I'll have to we're going to talk about that. You guys got some dates yesterday. An appropriation request for Uh, an innovative career and technical education program is forthcoming.
Marian County public schools. I'll just say Marian County Public Schools innovative career and technical education appropriation request and that's what I'm going to put that and that will be our bullet and okay so here's what I have to wrap this
up and then I'll send this document to Mr. Christian. I have amend 103.26 26 subsection 1 subsection B allowing school districts to initiate chronic absenteeism strategies immediately upon the 10th student absence and amend 3.21
to school ages 5 through 16 and subsection one subsection A subsection one to be five years by September 1st of any school year. I know that's long but it covers everything and we can talk about it and at length. Then I have
increase FEFP safe schools allocation to match the rising costs of providing and maintaining safe schools. Allocate specific funding to meet the needs of K8 students with gifted education plans. Create FEFP transportation categorical supplement for districts of more than
40,000 students and more than 1500 square miles. And Marian County Public Schools innovative career and technical education appropriation request doesn't begin with a verb. All the rest of them begin with a verb. Develop or submit.
Um, allocate maybe. Say it again. Say it again. So, we have amend, increase, allocate, create. And then the fourth one begins with Marian County Public Schools. Allocate funds to Marian County Public Schools
for Yeah. Allocate funds for allocate to MCPS for allocate funds for I'm just going to say MCPS. We don't have to do Marian County Public Schools. We got to get shorter. MCPS innovative.
So allocate funds for MCPS innovative career and technical education appropriation request. Shouldn't it be MCPS apostrophe like MCPS's? Yes. Right. Yeah. When I had I had an apostrophe on the end of schools, but I changed it to
MCPS. Yes. Yes. So, allocate funds for MCPS's innovative career and technical education appropriation request. I think that's good. Okay. Coming to you. Wait, wait, question. Because this is going back to the DJJ conversation now
having to be on a faster path. Yep. Um, and if that's really the case, then there are other states where a student is truent um, who during the school year has more than five unexcused absences. Why are we allowing 10 if we're going to have to move so quickly?
We should be getting started at five. I think we got to get started somewhere more than what it is right now. And maybe if we get to I mean, I'm all in favor of that. Well, the biggest issue I see we get a letter at three days and at five days they should be true. Honestly, I agree. But the biggest issue I see is
with staff expectations. Um, essentially once the ones that have hit 10 days, which might be might be a bit of an outlier. It might be because of some events that they didn't get excused or but whatever there was it was a month's
worth of bad luck that are that may resolve or may not. But we I we don't want to create the atmosphere that says that we're once a child has missed 10 days
within any time frame that that they now are the priority for truency. The priority for truencies are the ones that are con are showing that behavior consistently, not necessarily, you know,
now it's your 10th time, 10 times you're out because we're realistically not going to be able to fill those roles. We're not going to be able to consistently fill that. We're going to be able to consistently fill the ones that are showing um a pattern of truency. And the pattern of truency
might not be as bad. It might be six days every single month, but six days every single month out of 20 is horrible. You know, right, well taken. Um, however, if after five unexcused absences, the school there there is a process activated.
Okay, you have five unexcused absences. What's up? You know, are they going to end up being excused? It doesn't mean that they immediately go to court, but it means they immediately have to start uh connecting and explaining and getting
with the program because again there are states that a student is lawfully absent from school for the following reasons. Personal illness that would endanger the student's health or the health of others. And other than that, you need to
be in school. Well, and I think we have to keep moving the needle to get closer to that. But can't we from an again going to some other thing we said, oh, we were talking about um annual reviews for gifted. Can we not just start sending our letters at five days? Can is
can that be an internal? Yeah, the the thing is uh the the only part of the process that that is governed so much by time is filing with the court system, right? So we can we can start the process really early on, but I I I would really want for staff expectation to be that during the
initial part of that process, it's all about school working with home. It's not about how quick can we get to 10 and turn them over to the court system. No, because of course that's not what we do, nor is it what we want. End up being excused there. there could
be a health issue and the family's been embroiled and it just hasn't had a chance to reach out. We're still compassionate people. Correct. And so I think to board member Thorougher's point, we can just change our our operate our SOP on this and we can just if if we're all on the same page and it makes sense to Dr. and staff
like we just start at 5 days start with letters and we start really initiating procedures and we start having conversation because we knowing and acknowledging that the quicker we get on it hopefully we can address it and or we're not addressing it and it's a bigger issue
and look how disruptive and timeconuming it is when kids aren't in school regularly you know and I will I will just point out that eventually we're going to get to a point where we're gonna we're we're having And I think we're we're really getting close to that. We're having more
successes than we are having failures. And we're having a lot more positive um tracks back into regular attendance and kids feeling very successful. Families feeling successful, families having a better relationship with our schools than they've had in years. That's all going very very
positively. Um so that that's a very good thing. One of the things that we want to watch for on the other other extreme of that is once we get to a certain case load number, we're going to have to pick and choose what what our priorities are because because as of
now, I'll tell you, we're close to the maximum case load number that we can handle on a docket. So, um I think adding more is not Yeah, but I think starting the process earlier is creating a more proactive approach. I think it actually could eliminate. It's not going the kids who
are going to get to 10 get to 10. Like those families are the families that are getting there no matter what. So if we start the process earlier, we may very well be curbing the habit ahead of getting to 10. Yep. And and I think the reason why
we've been successful is because now we have learnf fair. Now we have their attention that we're really serious about this. And you know, think back when we first started, we were lucky to get one court date a, you know,
quarterly. Yeah. Every two months was was a was a success. Yes. To get to a half day court date. Yes. And, you know, we also have bolstered our support um in terms of the year- round support of of the attendance
process. So, I don't know. You know, maybe a smattering of court dates could be added if needed so that you wouldn't be doing nine hours in one day or whatever. I don't know. But but I do know we're we're we're paying for we're continuing to pay for it hard and while
we're on a roll if we can do it internally and and just make it clear to schools that the expectation is that after three days of an unexcused absence of self-generated from the new AI system that we just paid for can go out. you
know, a letter goes out and then on from there. And we're starting to get a lot more business because the schools also know they're getting supported where before was like we do all this work and nothing ever happens, right? You know, and that is true. That's what used to happen. So, just something to throw in the
hopper. Um, I can tell that this is going to generate a lot a lot of conversations and but I I think that the the the states and the districts that are having the best success have very stringent attendance policies.
They just do and they're more successful than we are. It's true. Okay. All right. That concludes that item. Okay. Do we have any public comment on our legislative priorities? Seeing none, we will move on. All right,
I think this is our last item. Woohoo. Um, workforce housing. Attorney Powers, do you have an update for us? I do, and I want to make it very, very short and sweet. Um, uh, we have Mr. Roberts will be here at our next work session. Um, Jason Roberts to discuss a
little bit more about, um, some ideas that they've come up with. Also has some presentation materials that will be helpful and useful. He has provided me with a number of materials including some just today um with videos that explain the the um the the triple N um
the yeah triple net lease and how that works so that it's from a you know non-awyer perspective so that it provides a little bit more understanding. Um, also we have been back and forth with some red lines.
Also, I have forwarded those to Miss Usher, so she can have those along with a list of uh potential questions that they may generate for for from my perspective and for her to add to. Um, I am going to meet with them by a team's
meeting prior to that time. And then um I believe that this the interim superintendent has also set a meeting with Miss Usher and her executive cabinet to meet on this process internally. Um I'll make myself available for that as well so that I can provide any additional detail that that
they provide to me. So that will all occur before you next meet and uh at that time hopefully we'll have more explanation and uh and news for you. Okay. Thank you. Anything to add?
No. Thank you, Attorney. Other than hot off the press is while you were talking it published. So like we have we have that information already online. So that was seriously while you were talking. Yep. Good job. Okay. Magic. Anything else from the board on that
item? Okay. Any public comment? Okay. Seeing none, we're on to meeting reminders. There is a special administrative briefing and work session scheduled for August 14th at 9:00 am. There's a special school board meeting scheduled
for August August 21st at 700 a.m. The next administrative briefing and work work session is scheduled for August 21st at 900 a.m. With that, we'll move on to board comments. Miss Martinez. No, Madam Chair. Thank you. Attorney Powers
believe I've made enough comments today. Okay. Thank you, Dr. Brewer. I've made enough, too. But I want to share a couple other things. This week, we were able to welcome back, well, last week and this week, we were um welcome back so many great staff members, but I want
to um comment on um we had our transportation team and some of the board, most of you, the board members were able to welcome them back as well, the transportation team. We had over 400 um staff returned for their welcome back meeting all day event at Westport High
School. So, that was a great turnout. The transportation team did a great job planning that day for them. We also had our food and nutrition team um meet up this week back um at Forest High School and it was extra nice because they gave a special recognition to Miss Boston
Ellis for her leadership because as you know she has supervised that department for quite some time on and off. So that was nice. Um and again they were they had a full day filled with just great activities and it was nice to be there. I want to acknowledge our custodians and
our maintenance teams across the district. They have worked tire tirelessly, if I could say that word easily. Um they just this week they've received over 573 work orders just this week since Monday.
And um they just have not stopped. And so I just want to comment on how much we appreciate them. Everything from our grounds crews to um the guys working hard just to get the floors finished and other upkeep. So, we're really appreciative of everything they have done. And of course, this week we had
our district inservice days um that took place in addition to all the work that the schools are doing to welcome back teachers. We had our elementary inservice day on Tuesday, middle school inservice day was yesterday at Belleview Middle School and then high schools were um took place today at Westport. So, a
lot of great things um took place this week welcoming the teachers back. And as I don't probably need to even remind everyone, school starts on Monday, August 11th, and we are just thrilled to have all of our students return. So, thank you, chair. Thank you, Dr. Brower. Dr. James,
thank you. I don't really have much to add at all. It's been a long and productive day. I'm excited to get back to school. It's fast summer. It was the fastest yet for me personally. Um, I imagine as my children get older, they will just go faster. That's what
everyone tells me. But it um was a very fast summer and we are super excited to be back to school and back into the swing of things and um I'm just looking forward to a safe start. Please, please, please everyone, all 21,000 and change
that ride school buses. The first day is never smooth. It's not. The buses are going to be delayed. They do this really cool thing where they put all these tags on kindergarteners so no one gets lost and that takes time. So, please just be
aware and and you would think, well, we're in high school, the kindergarten shouldn't slow us down. But if the bus is delayed in elementary and we are triple tiered, it's still going to be delayed when it gets to you from middle and high school. And so, just understanding that the first few days are chaotic. Caroline is going to be a
disaster and about two weeks in, it will all smooth out and everything will be kosher. So, uh, we have wonderful new systems for transportation, but we're going to have to work out the kinks and the bugs. So, stick with us. We promise that we will get it all right. It's just
going to take a little bit of time. Uh, but that's all I have. Thank you, Dr. James, Dr. Campbell. Thank you. Um, I have one question and then I have a couple of scheduling things that I need to talk through with you guys unfortunately. So, this may take us just a couple of minutes. Um, I did have a first question just because I
wasn't fully a part of actually wasn't a part at all of the RFP process for the superintendent search. Are we waiting on a contract or is there anything or is it already just done and they just going to start the I don't know how that works with an RFP because I wasn't a part of the process. So, I did want to ask that. I I think that uh that'll all be
concluded by September. I need to get with Mr. uh I need to get Mr. Collins and find out, you know, where where we are on that. I'm not I don't believe everything's been completely finalized, but it's it's closed. Okay. So, we're waiting on a contract, correct? Okay. All right. I was just curious because I didn't see it on the next
week's work session and excuse me, next week's board meeting, and I just didn't know when we might see that and not participating in those meetings. I wasn't fully aware. I remember a se midepptember timeline. Okay, perfect. Literally didn't pay any attention to any of it because I knew that I didn't want to taint the process.
Perfect. Uh, I did alert you all to the e-commerce webinar if you um are you guys still getting the FSBA newsletters. I don't know. Are you okay? All right. U well, there is a webinar that they held. I sent it to the team. So, I'm sure that they could send it out to everyone. I
think it'll be very fascinating for us to explore. uh the step up for students did a webinar with Florida schoolboards association essentially that pay for service for specifically for the home education students and more than 40% of districts are already signed up to do
that so our team now has that webinar it just happened uh and so you were part of it too Miss Thrower so that's great okay so scheduling wise I think Miss Martinez Young sent you guys a couple of dates specifically for a couple of legislator meetings hopefully those got to you yesterday and you were able to check
your calendars starting with Senator Mlan for August 13th at either 1:40 p.m. or 2:20 p.m. Um, do either of those uh times work for at least the majority of us? Can you say the times one more time?
Sure. So, we'll only have 30 minutes with Senator Mlan at his office and it'll e on August 13th either at 1:40 p.m. or 2:20 p.m. My question is, doesn't that overlap with Chamberlain starting at 2 or not.
Chamberlain is on the 19th. The 19th. Okay. So, the if we choose Chamberlain on the 19th. So, um let's start with MLAN because that's next week. I can do either of those. Okay. Either time. Okay. Perfect. So, you want to do the earlier one just so choose the earlier.
Okay. Perfect. I will let Jennifer know that. We will choose the earlier one. Okay. Um send out calendar invites. Um yes. I'll make sure Elena is copied on my emails to the folks. So, uh, and you'll have that then with Rep. Chamberlain, uh, he originally did
request a two-hour meeting. So, that I I'm not certain that that will take the full time. If you remember last year, we were with him for quite some time. Listen, so I'm not certain if that will be here on this campus or um in the office. He's in the same office as Senator Mlan now.
Uh, but the the date and time I wanted to propose first was August 19th at 2 PM. I just have a board briefing with Dr. Brewer at 3 p.m. So, I would have to leave by 2:50. Okay. Is everybody else available at 2 o'clock
and it may not go two hours? I mean, I just transparently I'll just have to leave. That's all. I'm fine with two o'clock. Perfect. Okay. So, 8:19 at two o'clock. Wonderful. Okay. I will schedule both of those. Hopefully Reverend Cummings heard that and he'll get the calendar invites
as well. U and I heard from Rep. Henson and Rep. Gentry. Both of them are getting calendars coordinated and they'll get back with me. So I'll let you know about them. Haven't heard yet from Rep Grow. Um and then we're obviously meeting with Rep SAP on
Monday. Okay, perfect. Um the other uh things I wanted to bring up, so October work session dates. So, first of all, the advantage of being president-elect of the Florida School Boards Association means that next year I'll get to schedule every single date around our
calendar every sing like because I will be a part of that. Unfortunately, I'm president-elect. So, this year's calendar has already been set. So, October 9th is a work session for Marian County Public Schools. Reverend Cummings and I will both be at an event uh
actually for two or three days, board of directors meeting and so forth. My request of this board, could we move that work session to October 2nd, which actually is the first Thursday of the month, but Dr. Brewer and I believe that
um previously the calendar may have been adjusted because of scheduling conflicts of our um immediate past superintendent. So, if it's possible for us to move October 9th to October 2nd, that actually is the first Thursday. And I just wanted to ask this board if that's
something we can do. I can do that. October 2nd. Does that work? Okay, perfect. This is the I'm just Yeah. No, go ahead. The easiest scheduling we've ever done. I know. Wood. Did Reverend Cummings hear that? Is he Well, I mean, he won't be available October 9th for sure. He I mean, because
that is the board of directors um training and all. he'll have to be in Orland or he'll supposed to be in Orlando with us. So, um and we're way ahead of I was helping Miss Martinez out because we're way ahead of whenever you're placing the ads and I'm like, let's do this a month and a half in advance. Um the other um request and
this is a little bit more challenging. I am supposed to also be away on October 23rd and that's just me. So, if I can't be here, so be it. Or I can maybe call in or something like that. Um, but if we were able to move that October 23rd work
session actually to earlier in that week, like a Monday or Tuesday, the 20th or 21st, if we can't, we can't. But I mean, I hate to ask for everybody to do that. Um, but unfortunately, there are just some responsibilities that are outside of my control. I guess my question would be, why
wouldn't we just reset October to be the 1st and third like it's supposed to be and make it the 16th, the the 2nd, and the 16th? And we could do the 16th. The only reason we normally don't do a board meeting and a work session in the same week, but we totally can. That was my only reason to because I was going to think the 16th and that would work as
well, but um you're right. That's my only and I'm fine with doing the 16th. I mean, or it'll be a jam-packed day, but it I mean it would be a jam-packed week, but I'm I'm open to either one of those suggestions. And certainly, like I said,
I I or I could do what I said and just call in. I'm supposed to be in Fort Walton Beach for another thing. So, yeah, either option would be fine for us. We can make arrangements. Um, Chair Conrad, we'd have to adjust the gender review if we moved it to October 20 21st
week, but also the 16th would be appropriate, too. Well, and we have we just have a hard stop which because we have eye croc, right? So, I'm open for any of that. If you guys are open to moving these dates, I'm sorry. is the most appropriate in my opinion because we may have work sess
standard work sessions on Thursdays. So that would be my first if we were going to make a change. That also just means though that we're not going to have a work session for three weeks. And so if there's work that needs to get discussed, we're going to give ourselves a three-week gap. And so that's not necessarily ideal because sometimes that
means it's quite a while for us to you know that we're always willing to meet. So sure, if you need us, we'll be here. Yeah. If we need to have another one 30th or whatever, then Reverend Cummings. So the six that week of the 13th through the good week at all for me
but um please I couldn't he said the week of the 13th is not good for him at all. And then what was the other thing you said? I made myself a vote. I didn't know that. What did you say?
Sorry. Did you guys hear me? No, sir. We We heard the the week of the 13th is not good for you. Week of the week of the 13th, October 13th is a bad very very I'm supposed to be out country. Um but I
probably won't. But it's a bad week. I'll make myself avail. I won't be in person. Does the next week work better, the 20th or 21st? That week works great. I just
I mean it's up to the I'm Yeah. And I'm personally of the opinion we should keep it it's a standard it's not a special board work session. It is a standard work session. We should keep it on a Thursday and it should be pretty standard to if we're going to move the second the 9th to the second let's move the 23rd to the 16th
and just have them on the first and third Thursdays which is the way we do our standard procedures except for the fact of that 3-week gap. I know we could always put in another meeting but that would that would lessen it to two weeks. the special meeting on
speaker anyway, right? And that would have to be moved also. So that would be for discipline to be aware that we might move that which we're we're surely still in a good time to do that. Um so we would be moving that special Thank you for that, Reverend Cummes. We'd be moving that special
board meeting as well um to whatever date we choose for the work session. Again, we're a month and we're more than, you know, school hasn't started yet, so hopefully we're in plenty of time on that. They just put a lot of work into the calendar. I have one comment. Um, October 2nd,
just to remind you, I know this is a nighttime event, but that is the night that we have the Oyola Centennial event starting around 6:00 PM. Yes. Yeah, we should be finished way before that. I just want to We're about to be finished. Make you aware. Way before that. So, yeah. No, thank
you. It's on the calendar. So, my vote is the second and the 16th. We're a second on the motion. Well, I made the request, so I don't care. I I just would I'm grateful that you guys are willing to move them. And then, like I said, once we set the calendar, then next year I'll be able to
just plug it in. Plug everything plug them. Now that we've got that settled out, between the 4th and the 22nd, I'm not available. I'm going to be out of state. So uh I will the whole month of October 14 22nd the 14 days. So uh during that
time period if there I'll keep them I'll monitor and if it is a meeting that uh looks to be you know packed then I will you know uh get coverage otherwise I'll do a callin and I will be available telephonically during that time. But if
it looks like something that going to go on for several hours at a time and I'm not going to be available because I may have intermittent access outside of Starlink, I will uh I'll have coverage. Okay. Okay. So, what do we land on?
We going with the 16th or I think we should go with the 16th just because it's it's what standard agreed. That'll be the 16th and and the second. Okay. Elena, did you get that? Okay. Thank you, Miss Martinez.
16th, right? Yes. Okay, perfect. And then the last thing, this is not um something we need to decide today. Just making you all aware of a couple of things from additional scheduling purposes. Um legislative session starts January 13th. The last
day is March 13th. The Florida School Board Association day in the legislature is January 28th through the 30th. Traditionally, this board has gone up during committee weeks. So, two potential proposals anytime, and I'm just giving them, you can tell me on Tuesday. Let's just look at your
schedules. Potentially November 3rd through the 7th, sometime in that window, or the last week of committee weeks is December 8th through the 12th. So, you guys just write those down, look at them later. Um, but those are the committee weeks that I'm potentially proposing, November 3rd through the 7th
or December 8th through the 12th. And then like I said, day in the legislature is January 28th through the 30th if you plan to attend that event. So that's all I had. Is that an overnight? Um yes, it probably would be. It has been in the past, but not everybody stays overnight. So that's why everybody
check your calendars to see what works the best for you. We would certainly we have no idea what our timeline would be and what meeting would be first. None of that. I just want us to get it on the radar. get it on the radar to know when we might be in Tallahassee for one night is typically what we have
done uh when those of us who stayed over have stayed. So the night before and done all day and then come back. Right. Right. So just look at those dates in your calendar and because we're talking legislative updates today, I thought it'd be appropriate to give you all of
that information to wrap up. Thank you so much. Thank you, Dr. Campbell, Miss Thrower. Thank you. Um yes, it is uh getting later and later. Um, but that's what it takes when you have a lot to discuss. So, appreciate all the conversation today and the decisions and the spirit
and I'm looking forward to Monday. That's all I have, Mr. and I just want to say good luck. Um, Dr. Brewer shared and we all know teachers are all back and and working hard getting ready uh for all the students that are going to arrive next
week and just wish for a safe and successful start um to this school year. So looking forward to next week. And with that, there being no further business, we will adjourn at 2:52. Thank you. Thank you. Give a chance to say
anything. Oh, Reverend Cummings. It's okay. It's okay. Oh, I'm sorry, Reverend Cummings. I'm sorry. What are your clos No comments. Go ahead. I'm good. Okay. Thank you.
Okay, board. Let me amend that. It's still 252. We are journeying at 252. Thank you.