The schoolboard work session begins in 2 minutes. Please take your seats. Again, the schoolboard work session begins in two minutes. The schoolboard work session begins in 1 minute. Please take your seats. Again, the schoolboard work session begins in
one minute. Good morning. I now call the December 18th, 2025 administrative briefing and work session of the Maring County School Board to order at 900 a.m. Please silence your electronic devices to avoid disturbing others. Mirroring and modeling how our students begin each
day, I ask that you please pause with us for a moment of silence. Please join me. I will now read our board commitment statement. We are the Maring County School District Leadership Team. When we come together to work, we are efficient,
effective, and productive. Our three most important characteristics are dedicated, transparent, and individually responsible. To work well together, we must demonstrate respect, confront reality, and be accountable. We will always put students first, and we will
leave a legacy of success. I would like to ask the schoolboard attorney to explain the rules for this public workshop. Good morning, Attorney Powers. >> Good morning, Dr. James. This work session is a public meeting as defined in Florida's Sunshine Law. The board is dedicated to full transparency in its
meetings and its work. In compliance with the Sunshine Law, the board has adopted uniform meeting procedures, including the right for citizens to participate. The board will allow public comment regarding any work session item listed on today's agenda at the appropriate time. Speakers must fill out
a request form located in the lobby and hand it to the board clerk. After the board and superintendent have completed their discussion on a particular agenda item, the board clerk will call the speaker's name in the order received. Excuse me. Each speaker will have three
minutes. As required by Sunshine Law, the board must maintain orderly conduct and proper decorum throughout this meeting. Speakers may criticize subject matter and decisions in a respectful manner, but not people. Finally, speakers must be very careful not to violate the privacy rights of others,
especially students and their family members, by mentioning names or other identifying information. Thank you for your attention to these important rules. >> Thank you, Attorney Powers. Miss Martinez Young, can you please provide the proof of publication for today's meeting?
>> The notice for the December 18th, 2025 work session was published in the Ocala Gazette on December 5th, 2025. Proof of publication has been attached to board ducks under proof of publication. Thank you. And um we are going to start this morning with our internal audit and
we will be going off air for it the cyber security portion. So at this time we at 9:03 we will go into a brief recess for our cyber security briefing. Thank you. >> Can you say out loud for the direct for the technology team if you're directly
>> Yeah. directly connected to technology um cyber security. You can come back with us. >> Which one of these do we need to carry with us? >> Neither. >> Neither of these need to go. >> I don't think >> I don't think we just this. >> I just have to tell.
>> Do we need any of the materials that have been provided back with us? No. Okay, there we go. >> Just these two items. Right. >> See Are you gonna call, Mr. Walsh? >> Oh, we're live. Sorry. Thank you. I was
thinking it was going to run. Uh, good morning. We're back from our recess at 9:31 and we are going to go back into our RSM audit. So, I will call Mr. Welsh up if you want to introduce RSM
formally. We obviously were off there doing a cyber security briefing. Uh, and then we'll get into the rest of our audit. Thank you. >> Thank you. Good morning, everyone. Hope everybody's ready for the holiday. Uh, I have a lovely sweater on. Thank you, team.
I appreciate that. I'm going to ask RSM to come up. They're going to be giving us a briefing um on the public portion of the RSM audit. Thank you. >> Good morning everyone. Clary Yuing, managing director with RSM. Lovely to
see you all again. And I love how festive everyone is. Matthew Blondelle, I'm sure, is upset he didn't know he he loves a theme. He usually wins all of our theme days. All right. But we're here now to go over just our overall follow-up report. And
do I have a does this clicker? If you want to go to this work, this is it's not moving. Okay. Um All right. We just went through our data protection. If you want to
click forward, um this is just an overview of our risk ratings that you all are familiar with when we issue our reports. High, med, high, moderate, and low. How should the district um prioritize the observations that we've identified? You want to go to the next next one.
And one more. Okay, one more. Sorry. All right. Um this is our overview. So, what we did, we did our follow-up session on our previously issued reports. As you can see here, we had data protection, timekeeping and stimulus funding that were still open and where the
observations were ready for followup. You see on this listing employee recruiting and onboarding and purchasing and procurement. These will be in our next phase of follow-up when those observations are ready to be followed up on. If you recall, we have our estimated completion dates and all the reports
that we issued in the observations and when management intends to remediate and those are not ready yet. um but they're on track for timing. Um so the first one is timekeeping. We issued this one back in um two years ago, September 23. We
were able to close one observation this round and there are four still open. But the story around the four that are still open, the district is in the process of implementing a a new system and this system true time is going to help with the
enhancements and the observations that we had noted before and those observations are around the manual timekeeping process um timekeeping documentation, time authorization and um those are really going to help
strengthen those controls and hopefully remediate the observations that were identified as part of that process. You know, they're in a very phased approach right now, which they should be, and it takes time. When you're implementing a new system, things like this take time to make sure that it's working
effectively. You have various vast amounts of employee employee classification, employee types. So, not everything fits the one kind of classification. So you have to make sure that the controls and the processes work best um for the various types of individuals and classifications that you
have working at the district. Any questions around timekeeping followup? Our next um area was stimulus fun. You can stay there. I'm sorry. Was stimulus funding. We had four open observations and we were able to close all four observations during this round of
testing and those observations were around procurement compliance sir3 program documentation um manual spin pay process I'm sorry stipen process and standard operating procedures and we were able to
close all four of those observations at this time. Any questions? All right. Next up, you want to just go forward one one more. All right. We have our internal audit of the planning, design, and construction process. This is one of our traditional
internal audits. And I have with here um Matthew Blondell. He is a director within our team. His primary focus is construction. So he does construction for um a lot of our government services clients whether it's a school district, counties, cities, state agencies, and he
does this on our commercial side as well. So he's looking at construction processes day in and day out with a variety of entities and he's been doing this for oh gosh over 10 years now. So I will bring up to the table Matthew Blondelle. >> Good morning. As Clara mentioned, we are
here to present the results of the planning, design, and construction audit. So we looked at the entire process uh that the district uses for planning through procurement, construction project management, invoice review, change order review all the way
through closeout um and and sampled a a selection of projects that have been most recently gone through that. We understand that there were some changes made over the past few years to this process to many of these processes and so we really focused on what the current process is rather than going back too far to the prior to the prior processes.
So what we did was we selected a sample of projects that had recently gone through the procurement process. Uh obviously those had not necessarily completed through the closeout process. So we selected a separate sample of projects then to focus on the project management aspects through through
closeout. So obviously the fir we approached this in multiple phases. The first phase included really just walkthroughs, understanding what the current processes are, looking at procedural documents that the district has, reviewing that with the team and understanding how what the controls are to identify those those primary controls
and how they're are were intended to be operating. And then we can through our testing uh evaluated whether or not those controls were operating as we as we heard during our walkthroughs and then of course ultimately culminated to this report. Go to the next slide please. So we have four moderate uh
rated observations that we'll talk through today uh at a fairly high level. So the first one is related to contract cost support documentation. So the district's construction contracts are currently structured in a way that require documents to support actual
costs incurred. As you might imagine, uh that in many cases is as simple as an invoice from a vendor. Uh but in other cases can be rather complicated when it comes to labor and types of transactions that a construction manager might use to support their actual labor costs. As is relatively common in in the government
entities and and really in the industry as a whole, the district has elected in in many cases to negotiate things like labor rates, insurance rates, uh as opposed to considering the cost. This is an effective way to do this to save um administrative burden on the team uh so
that you know you can negotiate things up front make sure that everybody is understanding and feels that the the rates are uh appropriate for the marketplace. U we understand that the district has been doing that. However, it just didn't see a connect between the actual contract documents and the
negotiated rate. So there's kind of two options here. either we can continue with requiring the construction managers to provide everything at actual costs to reduce the administrative burden on the team throughout the projects. One option would be to conduct audits either beginning at the beginning of the project or at the end of the project to
validate that the construction manager is billing those more complicated things at actual cost uh like labor, insurance, bonds, those sorts of things. or if you if they are going to negotiate those to be specific rates to execute an amendment to the agreement to just very
clearly state what those rates are. So those are kind of the two options that the district um we would recommend the district do based on conversations with management and the management response. Uh it sounds like the district is going to lean towards uh kind of a hybrid approach for some of the contracts that
are currently ongoing. they're intending to um conduct some audits at the end once they once they've uh reached closeout. That way they can validate whether or not there is any recovery opportunity there and then also in some cases moving forward to move towards ne
uh documenting any of these negotiated rates in actual contract amendments. So it's very clearly stated uh what they're supposed to be so there's no confusion related to that. Any questions on that before I move to the next one? Okay, the second we can stay on the last
slide please. The second one uh is related to project monitoring uh and and facilities project monitoring really a construction project management software. So important to note that while we didn't really see we did not have any observations related to how change
orders how uh pay applications were processed nothing that was a major concern there. However, we did note that the processes that are currently in place uh by the using the team is very manual. So there's lots of spreadsheets, a lot of paper documents. Um, and where we see larger school districts are
starting have have recently moved more towards using construction project management and program management software to corral all of the project data and information into uh a software system that will allow for data mining later on. So it allows for very
important things like vendors can upload contracts, they can workflows can be established uh where vendors can upload their documentation. They can be reviewed in a in a structured way in the system. Everything's documented in the system which then also on the back end allows for data mining in the end. So at
the click of a button, you could say what are all the change orders that have been processed in the last 90 days? What's the average over the last five years? What are the reasons why we're having change orders? Those sorts of things. right now. I'm sure that information is available just in spreadsheets, so it's harder to obtain. Uh and in in moving towards a
best-in-class process, we really recommend uh that the district explore some options for uh getting a program management or project management software. Uh based on the management response, it sounds like uh the district is in support of this and we'll begin looking at uh some oper uh options for
program and project management softwares. The third observation is related to highnee asset maintenance reporting. So this really concerns the decisions that are made when larger assets uh perhaps
as they're nearing their their end of their useful life and and and they're becoming more costly to maintain rather than to replace having those decisions based on specific data. Uh so right now as we understand there's there's a pretty frequent
informal anecdotal discussion between the facilities and the maintenance departments to identify things that are high need like assets that might be aging or might be costing more to maintain than would make more sense to replace in future years as we're thinking about planning uh the capital
spend in the next year or five years. Um however it's not based on specific data and so the data is available as we understand through our conversations in the management uh the the maintenance management system and so we're just recommending to supplement those already recurring conversations with some
datadriven information. So poll reports, hey, what are the assets in the past year that have been uh that have had and what is the cost uh frequency of maintenance activities that have happened on these assets so that we can make in more informed data driven decisions on what to replace rather than continue to repair. Again, management's
response is supportive of this and I believe they've said they were going to implement a quarterly process by which they'll run these reports from the maintenance system and use that to to drive conversations uh with with the maintenance and facilities teams together. And then the last observation is related
to the de the current decentralized uh procurement administration of construction procurement. So right now there is a collaborative effort between facilities purchasing and legal to go through a construction procurement statutes uh district policy construction
procurements are generally pretty unique in terms of how procurements uh are are done. And so there certainly is an understanding and a need to have a significant facilities involvement as an expert there in the process. However, understanding that all statutes change
and that procurement requirements uh from the from the statuto level as well as from the board policy level are going to require a very strict regimented set of rules. Procurement should also be involved. And so our recommendation here was was really to continue this collaboration but define more
specifically who uh is responsible for which specific task just to make sure that things don't fall through the cracks and requirements aren't missed. Again, we didn't have any observations with uh with the set of the sampled procurements that we looked at that were done relatively recently. However, uh we
just wanted to you make this recommendation to make sure that that is that collaboration is more very specific. In our conversations as we are working through this, we understand that the district is in process of of creating a contract manager position that will focus specifically on construction procurements but sit within
the procurement function. I think that's a great idea. that we've got somebody with a direct line to facilities so they can understand the process, understand the the nuances of construction procurement, but also sitting within procurement to make sure that the eyes are dotted and the tees are crossed, so
to speak. So again, like we mentioned, uh this was something that was already in place. We we absolutely support continuing that uh to create kind of a hybrid uh cons somebody you know focused on procurement compliance but also very specifically with the with the construction procurement uh
understanding and knowledge. So that's it. That's the four uh as Clara mentioned you know we've done many of these audits uh over the past uh more than a decade at many school districts here in Florida and across the country at other governmental entities. I mean these are not things that uh come as a great surprise to me. Many many um
organizations have very similar observations. Um but I think this represents positive movement based on what we've understand some of the history has been here. So happy to answer any questions if you have any. >> Thank you so much. We really do appreciate you all being here and kind
of um checking back in with us annually on the areas of improvement. board, I'll open it up to you for questions or comments on any of the items that we've been um presented with this morning. Uh board member Thor,
>> thank you. And I'll just say I'm really glad to have this uh partnership. I I think as we have continued to grow and evolve um from a you know small town district where everybody knows each other um we're at the point in time
where our institutional knowledge is starting to retire and those beautiful spreadsheets that were wellowned by certain people. Uh we can't count on that anymore. So I'm really glad to see this evolution. you know, just formalizing our systems and our
processes uh before, during, and after these projects. I think it's important um to us as as a district in terms of professional practice, and it's also important to the community as we're all taxpayers to really be able to show clearly um how we're monitoring things.
So, I really continue to appreciate um the partnership with RSM. Thank you. >> Thank you, board member Thorer. Dr. Campbell. >> Sure. Thank you. I, as board member Thrower was just saying, grateful that we now have internal auditors when you
think about not ever having this um several years ago before becoming a board member. And so grateful for the work that you guys have done and for acknowledging the work that we are putting into place, but still have not
fully met the goal. And so um that is a team effort and that includes their internal audit team to help us get there and making sure that we are putting systems in place that are a work in progress and we continue to to move forward with that. I also am grateful
for your presentation that was very high level and it kept one slide on this and we have the full detailed report that anybody can pull up and look at if they want to see the the more detail uh available. But yeah, thank you so much Thank you, Dr. Campbell, board member
Cummings or board member Conrad. >> Okay, thank you. >> I think I can just wrap it up. I what I've learned as a board member and and knew previously as an educator, but um the organization of the public school system, especially one of our size, is a
pretty big ship to turn. And so sometimes it takes what seems like uh an obscene amount of time to make changes that would seem very quick to change. Um but you know with we are the largest employer in our entire county. And so
when we talk about some of our internal practices making those transitions and shifts takes a little bit of time or a lot of bit of time depending on the department. And so certainly I have spent lots of energy focused on facility management and procurement over the three years that I've been a board
member and I think that we are seeing improvement in our procurement processes and we still have room for improvement but I think that you know we're if we're shooting for the stars there's always going to be ways and means that we can make improvements. So um I think overall this briefing has been positive. We're
trending in the right direction. My only question would be um shortly after I got on the board, we identified the things that were most important to us. And my hope would be a year from now, maybe we'll see you all again and you'll tell
us we have a clean bill of health and we're doing all things the way we should. What will then be our next steps to continue improvement as a board? And um certainly the thing because I if I recall correctly board there was a plethora of things we could choose and
we chose I think we were told to choose three or four and we chose more than that because we we we struggled to fit it in. So what happens next after we presumably do everything we need to do to meet expectation in the next year? >> Great question. So we're still working through the currently the current
approved internal audit plan. And Michelle, it just left my mind. What else do we have on the plan? It's half. >> Okay. So, we'll be kicking off ha our halfsent internal audit that you all chose. Um, so we we'll be kicking that off next month. And so, Michelle and I were talking on the way here. We'd like
to get in front of you again hopefully around the May time frame. And in preparation for that, we'll have our one-on-one discussions with you to talk about that next round, those next topics, and present what we think the next audit plan should be for you all to approve or to modify.
>> Okay. I think that would be wonderful. I'm sure Dr. can get you into a work session um in May and that time frame. That's a busy month for us with graduation. So staff will work with >> maybe early June or something before the end of this the the school year >> before the end of the fiscal year. Okay,
we can definitely make that work. Um board, how does that sound to you all? We'll see them again in about six months and um hopefully we'll have lots of improvement to demonstrate to you as well. Um Dr. Brewer, did you have anything you wanted to add? >> No, thank you. They um I met with the our team met with them about a few weeks
ago and they shared this information and it's just very thorough and I told them then but I appreciated the detailed report um and then again today for your high high level overview. So thank you. >> Thank you for having us. >> Yes, we appreciate your time and dedication to working with Marian County Public Schools and thank you for being
here in person today. >> Happy holidays to everyone. >> Same to you. >> Thank you. >> All right. Well, with the conclusion of our RSM audit um board, we did move up the workforce housing discussion. >> Oh, is there any public comment? Thank you, Dr. Campbell.
>> Okay. Hearing none. I appreciate the reminder. Um we did move up the workforce housing conversation because Mr. Roberts is here in person and he was going to give us a brief update. Um the expectation here board is this should be a pretty brief update. Um we're not going to have a pretty in-depth
conversation. At least that's the intention. And then um Dr. Brewer, we were having the C as the next item after that, right? >> They will be here at 11 o'clock. >> Okay. So then we probably will then move forward with our um as presented agenda
item board and then plug the C in from the end of the agenda up a little bit prior to lunch. Um the intention is to take a break at 11:30 or as close to that as possible um for us to take 30 minutes for lunch. And Dr. Brewer also has a call with a Congress um
Congresswoman Cat Came. Okay. So, we will uh welcome Mr. Roberts to the um podium for our workforce housing discussion and update. >> Hello. Good morning. >> Good morning. >> Um it's good to see I'll try to It's pretty loud. Is that okay? >> You're good.
>> Fine. >> Um thank you. It's been uh we've been very busy working in the the background, but we felt like a good uh catch up was overdue of to catch you guys up on all the work that we've been doing on
providing the workforce housing solution for staff. And so, um I'll go through some of our challenges and some of the things that roadblocks that we've hit, but I also want to go through some of the amazing things that are working for you. And uh so I'll bounce around quite
a bit, but just make sure that I can give it to you and at any point in time, raise your hand, interrupt me, ask questions. This is a two-way conversation for sure. Um so we've been moving along. We have a piece of property selected. Uh we were we had a
Dr. Brewer was instrumental helping us get access to one school. We did a staff meeting to kind of identify if the need was there. uh we had it was a test to kind of see how are we going to do managing of interviewing staff and doing those things. So we were moving very far
along and then we had also continued the legal discussions uh with the council Mr. powers is great. Then also staff's council and they are from Marian and said, "Hey, one of the main components to this being affordable is that it's
exempt from property taxes and it's treated at school district owned property and things there." And so we might want to triple check with the county and making sure that it's going to be treated that way or if it's going to be treated that way today, is there any way language we can get to say it's not going to be reversed in the future?
And so we said, "Sure." So we want that same concern and risk eliminated as well. So, we went and met with the county and the county said, "Look, we are supportive of this project. We're supportive of the plan. However, we don't see that there's any legal language that says the school district
can have property exempt for housing, but we do see that they have it for buildings and all these other things." So, we said, "Well, that's one legal hurdle. Let's see if we can go get legal clarification for that to assist making everybody, us and you, both sleep good at night." that that's not going to be a
surprise in the future for future board members in future deals. So, um there's also another program we vowed to you guys that we were going to do everything we could to make sure we didn't hinder your finances, your financials going forward if you want to build more schools. This is supposed to be revenue
neutral and a positive thing. And so there's a couple programs out there um that with the current legislation, the current language out there that if we did another lease with you and our lease didn't work out, it could cause that program problems. Even though we did
everything legally correct on our end, it doesn't mean that it doesn't affect you. So, we're sticking to our word and doing very ex extensive resources and research and findings to make sure that we honor our word with you, that we're doing this to
enhance your lives and not make your lives more difficult and burden you with hundreds of millions of dollars of lease revenue that could be considered debt. And so, we're just uh working through those issues. Uh what we have done to create solutions for these problems is
we have shifted on the current location to the county because the county does have home rule and we're in discussions with the county about saying will you have home rule you have legal precedent of offering workforce housing to your staff? Could you do this for us and
still dedicate a number of units to the school district because we've been started with the school districts. This how we were invited here was Mr. Kirk Kelly and the school district's been amazing to work with. So if you're we have people that we're trying to take care of, is there a way we can facilitate this by doing a portion of this in the county employees, portion of
the city employees, and a portion of that for the school district staff? Um that would change who is responsible for the master lease, but it doesn't mean that we're not fighting for you to get units to solve the initial problem that we came here to solve.
What we've also done is um we are moving forward with a couple of other counties that have courted us to help them and that's going to give us some legal precedent making the properties exempt from property taxes there. We also contacted and enrolled several political
figures and lobbyists and groups that are helping us communicate our message to some very powerful people in the legislature. Everybody I've met politically loves this and they're kind of now aware that this is an actual real problem that people are wanting to create a solution from the private
sector to solve this problem without government funds. So, we've gotten a whole team behind us that we're going to spend that money on our dime to help advance this program to make it crystal clear for the school districts, your school district first, but also the
other school districts of the state of Florida saying you can provide housing for your staff and the housing for your staff will be exempt from property taxes and it will fit in this very narrow program that makes everything crystal clear, crystal clean that cannot be
redacted and taken away from you because we don't want to put staff in houses under a financial model that we are providing 100% of the capital for and then have that emotional trauma of removing staff out of a house. That's our biggest concern. And so,
um, with that said, I think we have a lot of the good thing is is the problem has been identified. The good thing is is we have the resources and capital to solve the problem. But where we're at now is in vocabulary on paper is got to
be crystal clear for future generations, future school board members, and for the staff just to make sure that everything is good for our investment to do it here, but also is good for the district so we don't have to have disruption to staff. And so, um, with that said, I just it was lots
of back and forth with legals. Nobody from the legislature responds quickly. uh just want you know we've been working on it. We are very impressed with staff. We're thankful that the the attorneys did give us this advice on trying to sort some of these issues out way ahead
of time. And this is why we we know that sometime there's always an asteroid out there that's about to come in and blow up the deal. But you know we don't mind being cautious. We don't mind being slow. We don't mind being very
detailoriented and thorough um for your protection and for ours where you're our partner and so that's what we've been working on very hard and we're going to continue investing in resources. We don't expect to get a legislative update for language that would help the schools
do this independently on their own until March. But the good news is we're going into session. We've geared those folks up. We've already got those meetings scheduled. I was in Florida all day yesterday facilitating those things and um we have meetings starting January
13th throughout session. They're going to want to talk to you. We'd love to introduce you to them. So, they hear it directly from you that you want us to provide this solution and this is going to be beneficial to your school district. Uh they're also going to want to take credit for it and we want you guys to get the credit for it.
So, all those things are going to happen. Um, if at any point in time you don't want me to pursue this and you don't want us to, you know, pursue these avenues, you just just let us know. But we're we're taking, you know, your guidance doing this for you. We think
it's the right thing to do. And, uh, we're going to put an enormous amount of resources behind it. And so, probably won't have a full legal resolution, but we'd be able to start moving things in March, possibly June. But that doesn't mean that we're not working with you for
you in the meantime to provide housing for you through another conduit avenue that is crystal clear. >> Is that helpful? >> Yes, definitely. >> Okay. >> Board comments, questions. Um I I did
hear Mr. Roberts kind of say, you know, if you don't want me to do this, then let me know. And so does anyone have any passionate feelings about that right now or are you looking forward to continued conversation? Does anyone want to weigh in on that, Dr. Campbell? >> Sure. So, I mean, I'll I'll kick it off.
I I am interested to hear what the rest of the board says. Very passionate about making this happen, having heard conversations in many other districts as well about how they're coming up with creative solutions to try to get a couple of
apartments here or a couple of something there. And this is a from the beginning believed in this project and believed in what was trying to be done. also understanding the challenges and the hurdles and I had an opportunity at FSBA in Tampa to to speak with our bond
council and George and I talked about it and so understanding all of the challenges that we now have been presented and and what you are willing to undertake in Tallahassee to try to even make this happen so that school districts will have the ability to do it even with the certificates of
participation that we all have or that some of us have. But I am still of the mindset that this is a direction that we need to move forward in that we have staff members that absolutely would benefit from housing. Uh that we I got
the emails from Mr. Christian last night that there's going to be an internal survey that's going to be done just asking our employees what their kind of not really interest in it but more like what are your housing considerations right now? Would you prefer to own or
rent? would you know how many bedrooms do you have? What is your approximate mortgage pay? You know, those kinds of things. Certainly voluntary if our employees want to participate in that. But just to help frame even more of the internal conversation as to really the
need and I think that we will be I believe that we'll be shocked to see what the need really is. Uh we certainly have the higher level paid employees that we interact with on a regular basis, but we have a lot of folks. When you get to 7,000 almost employees,
there's a lot of folks making a lot of different amounts of money, putting a lot of money towards housing and and we know that those of us who were at the C breakfast yesterday heard that again from Mark Wilson from the Chamber Foundation. So, uh, there's just a a lot
that I believe in with this project. And if it means that the county is able to get this done and we have an interlocal agreement with them that we then have a certain set number of houses out of the complex that's built, I'm using the word complex, but out of the neighborhood
that's built, that this board member is still all on board with whatever it looks like, even if phase one looks different than what we thought it was going to look. So that's where I sit. Thank you. >> Thank you, Dr. Kimell. Board member Conrad.
>> Sure. Sure. Um I just want to say I'm excited to to hear that um there's a possibility of partnerships because I think early on um it was shared that that that wasn't ideal. And so I'm excited to hear that that is an option.
now. Um, and I appreciate all the work um that you've put into um bringing this forward, but I also want to say a thank you to our staff because they've put in um about 200 hours um because this is important for our community and and for
our staff. And so I too I agree with Dr. Campbell. I'm interested in seeing it move forward. However that looks, I'm open um to that conversation if it's the county that has to carry it. Um I I'm okay with that. >> Okay. Thank you for sharing. Board
member, >> thank you. It's uh good to see you again. It's always inspiring to have innovative ideas come into our boardroom. I I I believe that I'm sitting on a board that is always open for new ideas and and ways to improve
our services. um coordinated effort is what it takes. And I just think that innovation is hard. You know, innovation takes trust. Innovation takes
willingness to explode your silo and really start looking at our schools as our schools, not just the school board. uh what we do radiates out across our whole community. So having an exciting
opportunity to work together on something like this is is really music to my ears, but it's different and and it requires different thinking and it requires a lot of meetings and a lot of patience and a lot of
persistence. But that doesn't mean that means it's the right thing to do in in my opinion. So I say carry on. Um I am willing to continue to champion this this vision all the way to the finish line. We know that we just as an entity
we can't solve this by ourselves. We we simply don't have the resources to pay everyone their value so that they can afford to live in this community well and safely. So that takes broader solutions. So,
thank you for not giving up on us. Um, thank you for not giving up on your own vision to uh be part of the solution and let's keep going. >> Member Cummings, did you have thoughts? >> Uh, good morning. Uh, thank you for coming out this morning to share with
us. I too um want to consent continue to have the conversation um about this. This is a could possibly be something great for our community as a whole, especially for our staff, but it's not just going to be
a MCPS um undertaking. I think it's a community undertaking. It's a whole county undertaking. And I look forward to the conversations and seeing um how other governmental entities in the county and
the cities are willing or municipalities are willing to work with us in getting this across the finish line. I think it's a great benefit um for all of us um and it would definitely help our schools. So um let's continue the conversation.
>> Thank you. And um to summarize, I think they all said a lot of what I would say as well. And so I what I am committed to is finding affordable or at least more affordable options for our citizens. Um, specifically I'm partial to our
employees, but ultimately what I care about is our citizens and and the collective that are living in our community. And so partnering with the other municipalities to get that done, if that is a scenario where we can get to the finish line, I love it. Um, I
wouldn't say that I want to exclusively take that route if we can also find ways to do this on our own as well because I think um, being the largest employer, we have a significant amount of employees that would love to have support in this.
And so the survey that's going out, I've provided a little bit of feedback. I'm sure probably we all have. And so I think what what we've landed with I I think is very positive. Uh, and so I'm excited to see what our employees share
about their housing needs and desires and and their income thresholds, uh, and what they can afford and using that to make informed based decisions about what we're going to do next. Because ultimately, if our employees say, "I can't afford above X and the product
that you or anyone can deliver is higher than that," we we may wind up realizing that we're not quite in the perfect place for all of our employees. And um the affordable housing crisis is something that is facing you know a lot
of our state and so I look forward to I mean we meet with legislators often. We'll be in Tallahassee in January. Um so if there are conversations ahead of our visit um we're there the first week in January, right? Or second week? >> Last week.
>> Last week. Last week in January. The last Thursday in January I think is when we're meeting with legislators. Yeah. So, yeah, 28th, I believe, 29th, something like that. So, um if you have had conversations and um certainly we will be there meeting with legislators
about some of the things that are our top priority for us and I certainly wouldn't mind jettting off to have another conversation um about what affordable housing could look like for our employees. >> I I'll absolutely coordinate those with the speaker and the folks that we're
getting behind that have really taken this baton. They're going to want to hear from you. you know, they had they're they're you're the people they're trying and the staff are the ones they're they're trying to do this for. So, I I do think that I'm thankful you guys are leading. We don't want you to dedicate any more resources or time
to it till we get you solutions. We're kind of I use this example. We're we're going through the jungle chopping the first trail with a machete and it is tough. We are used to this, right? And but I mean, every difficulty that has
hit us has made us better. and it's vetted our process better, you know, and you you hit the nail on the head. And so we're thankful for these troubles. We're thankful for these hard times and we it just makes our culture of who we are and our organization a stronger, more solid
organization. If it would if it would be fall down after one bad meeting, it was never meant to be, right? And so we uh just want you to be available that January we'll we will definitely coordinate teeing you guys up with the people that we've chosen to uh get this
thing across the finish line. Uh but we are going to stay very active in the meantime. Uh we have seen a majority of the county has been yes we want to do this. Yes, we want to help the school board. And so we're seeing what we've clearly done is I've identified the problem. The problem's here. And that's
kind of why we did one school just to test it and then we backed out. We're like, we better make sure we have this figured out before we get people's hopes up and we promise people that we can deliver houses to them and then we come up short and disappoint. That's not going to be who we are. It's not what our name is. And so that's where we're
like, let's get the legal part. Let's get everything ironed out, all the wrinkles. We have the property and we figured that out. So we're we're committed. We're thankful for you. We would not pursue this if we were not optimistic and believe that we're about 99% chance we're going to be successful.
It's just going to take an enormous amount of effort. >> But that's how diamonds are made is time and pressure and we're good at both of those. So, we're going to figure that out. >> I was going to say welcome to Florida. Feels like feels like a lot of what we do requires a lot of effort. So, um
you've you you are amongst a lot of hard workers. So, yeah. Um, board, did anyone have any further comments? Board meur, >> I just want to share one more thing because it crossed my mind. You know, there we know there's precedent for this. We know there's need for it. There might not be a precedent for this
particular model. Um, but it makes me think about, you know, the Live Local Act, you know, that was passed a few years ago. Obviously, you know, it's been been acknowledged that the need is there. And I know one of the holdups to that is is that, well, it's a lot of red tape. Well, what in government isn't a lot of red tape? And that's where the
wherewithal comes in. And and we're hopefully as we're slogging through the red tape, we're able to simplify and deregulate some things and and and streamline some things so that it ends up being better um for everybody. But the good news is
is that as Chair James was saying, you know, everyone's well aware that workforce housing is a huge issue. You know, if you're a beginning teacher and your beginning salary can't even afford you to have a place by yourself, then something needs to change. And I'm just
using teachers as an example. We have all kinds of employees who are struggling with this. So anyway, uh >> yeah, no liberal gap is is definitely the avenue that we're going down amending and doing it since it's already state precedent set versus getting into the ch the education code and changing
that. That's what the legal team is preparing. Uh our biggest concern is is when you do a statewide amendment or clarity in this language, you still want to make it where they have the authority locally to vote on that and approve that, but you also don't want to open up the door to the
bad actors who are going to use that language to then implement programs and then we hear about a school district program that went failed and then that spreads like cancer across the program. So there's not only protections, we're
willing to do things that most people aren't and but we've also just got to make sure that the the legal team explains those things and lays those things out. And so lots of thought, more thought than I would like is going into this. Um
>> but you know, we are seeing um we do think it's very we are going to come back and we're going to win. We're going to come back with a very clear, comfortable, successful plan uh subject to basically the legislators just hearing it from you guys. And
that's really that's going to be very very easy. Just getting you in front of them, letting them know that this they're wanting to champion, they're wanting to create solutions. There's a lot of other stuff going on. This is a really weird time. They're talking about getting rid of property taxes. You know, that's how you guys pay your bills. So, it's a it is a very interesting time to
be proposing language for a school district, but I don't think I think this is of an opportunity versus uh anything else. So, >> absolutely and I'd say we agree. We think it's an awesome opportunity and so, you know, good things take lots of work and time and so we'll keep at it
and we'll look forward to an update maybe in the spring from you and your team about how it's going and how we can support the work. >> I'm available anytime. You'll be hearing from us for the January stuff. see if we can help you with that. And then you can call me anytime. I'm here all the time. So, I'm g head back home today after this. But thank you so much for being
you. Thank you for your time. And uh staff, if anything you have any questions, just call me. >> Thank you. >> Thanks, guys. >> Appreciate you being here today. >> Christmas. Merry Christmas. >> There any public comment about workforce housing? >> All right. Hearing none, we will move
into uh item 6.1. Dr. the fans in Marian County Hospital District Partnership. >> You This is Jessica Cole. You all know her well. Thank you for being here. She's representing the Marian County Hospital District.
>> It is my pleasure. Good morning, board chair, school board members, Dr. Brewer. Again, Jessica Cole, vice president of the community health projects with the Marian County Hospital District. In 2016, our CEO Kurt Browman was tasked by our board of trustees with coming up
with internal programming that would have a significant impact on population health throughout the county. So, over the course of one weekend, Kurt through much um research and evidence-based um learning, he developed two core programs that still exist and are thriving today.
One is the active Marian project. Currently you all have 65 teams that are very highly competitive in competing in a step challenge. We also developed the fitness and nutrition in schools program or fans. Fans was created to have an
impact on one of our strategic pillars of diabetes and obesity. And fans programming has really come a very long way over the last several years. We started out small in just a few schools. We now provide programming in every single public school. We fund four
positions that are designated to the fans programming and that's tailored to our components of fans of health education, physical education, and horiculture. So now I'd like to show you all a video that we created to highlight all of our performance measures and
outcomes for last school year. The fitness and nutrition in schools program provides a healthy road map designed to take on childhood obesity and diabetes. And it does that by targeting everyone in our school ecosystem, kids, parents, and staff. So, how does it work? Fan starts with the
basics, getting kids move. >> Oh, I I think we can't hear that obviously. >> Yeah, we need the volume. >> I was hearing a noise and I was trying to figure out what >> we start over and hold a microphone up to it. the fitness and nutrition in schools program.
>> Just give us a few minutes for technical difficulties. No problem. I think you he usually has to walk to the main computer to hold the microphone. >> They're hearing it back there. They're not hearing it in here.
>> I think Martin's working on it. Could we just take one of the mics and put it in the room? Would that work? Oh, we Yeah, maybe start it and then Okay, wait.
Okay. >> Provides a healthy road map designed to take on childhood obesity. Yes, it's >> and diabetes and it does that by targeting everyone in our school ecosystem, kids. Shall we shall we maybe come back to the
video and you guys can check out the >> I also brought it on a thumb drive that helps you guys >> parents and staff. >> The fitness and nutrition in schools program provides a healthy road designed to take on childhood obesity and diabetes and it does that by targeting
everyone in our school ecosystem, kids, parents and staff. So, how does it work? Fans starts with the basics. Getting kids moving more and making healthy choices routine. At the elementary level, we boosted the quality of physical education by giving physical
education teachers new resources. We also introduced active movement breaks in classrooms so students don't just sit all day. We got our hands dirty with raised garden beds at elementary schools. Kids plant, tend, and taste their own vegetables, giving them real
world lessons in nutrition. When students move up to middle and high school, the program kicks it up a notch. We built state-of-the-art green houses and learning landscapes. Actual crops are now growing in our schools. Even better, those veggies get served right in the cafeteria. Health education got a
major upgrade, too. Our new curriculum tackles today's tough issues: vaping, tobacco, nutrition, and the importance of water and daily exercise. Plus, our fans clubs in every middle and high school make health cool and social with taste tests, fun fitness challenges, and
awareness campaigns. Now, let's talk results. Every single performance measure for the 2024 to 25 school year, we exceeded them. Physical activity in both elementary and secondary classes shot up. The mayor's fitness challenge brought over 27,000 students together to
move more, and it was a hit. We piloted evidence-based health education in select fifth and eighth grade classes, targeting schools with more disciplinary infractions, and 176 students took part in our supportive enforcement program, keeping them in school and getting
support after a first time drugrelated offense instead of sending them away. On the horiculture side, every public elementary, 12 private schools, and five therapeutic sites dug in, planting gardens in both September and February. Studies show early exposure to veggies
shapes lifelong habits. And we saw it firsthand. Middle and high schools, they harvested over 9,000 pounds of produce. With more than 4,000 pounds served in cafeterias. Simply put, Fans is growing a culture of wellness that lasts. The proof is in the
numbers. And in every student who's now healthier, happier, and more connected to their own wellbeing. Thank you for supporting programs that truly change lives. Nope, you're good. Just has to turn you back on. >> Switch man. You hear me now? Okay. I'm glad we were able to show the video
because I feel like while we are here to talk about mostly our horiculture component of fans, I think it's really important for you to see the vast services that are provided on all of the school campuses through the fans programming and how much it's truly grown over the last several years. It
really last year was a truly banner year for horiculture. We have 18 fans green houses at the middle and high schools. The fact that they produce over 9,000 pounds of produce, that was several thousand pounds more than what we had even set forth for a goal. And then with
over 4,000 pounds going back into the school cafeteria and into culinary programs, it was really huge. And I really have to say that that is because of our partnership, not only with the school system, but with food and nutrition services. Ramona and her team and Heather Mlullen with Farm to School
are incredible. They help us communicate with cafeteria managers and and help facilitate getting produce from like a high school campus to perhaps an elementary campus. They do taste testing with our horiculture specialist Chris Roy there. I know they've done several
this week at several schools with local farms. It has been an incredible and just ever growing partnership over the last several years. So, I truly appreciate them. I'm going to hand the mic over to Ramona so she can share the rest of the presentation. I will say really quickly, so far this year over
2,000 pounds of produce has been harvested with over 1,400 pounds going back into your school cafeteria. So, it just gets better every single year. And I will stick around for any questions. >> Thank you. >> You're welcome. >> Good morning.
>> Good morning, board members and superintendent. I am excited to share the wonderful things that are going on in our farm to school program. We're also going to watch a fun video. So, I'm glad you got the sound um taken care of. And it's going to show us how we show you how we team up with the fans program
to bring in fresh, locally grown produce. So, let's dig in. Hi there. I'm Heather Mlullen, the farm to school area specialist for Marian County Public Schools food and nutrition services and I'm joined here today by Christopher Roy, the horiculture
coordinator for our district. We are excited to share how our partnership with the Mary County Hospital District's fans program Hi there. I'm Heather Mcclullen, the farm to school area specialist for Marian County Public Schools Food and
Nutrition Services, and I'm joined here today by Christopher Roy, the horiculture coordinator for our district. We are excited to share how our partnership with the Mary County Hospital District's fans program, short for fitness and nutrition in schools, is
flourishing. Both initiatives recognize the significance of fresh healthy eating and the fact that students are more inclined to enjoy the food they help grow. >> Thanks to the fans program, 32 of our elementary schools have raised garden beds while our secondary schools benefit
from learning landscapes and hydroponic green houses. This collaboration between farm to school and fans programs has allowed us to harvest over 9,000 pounds of fresh vegetables during the 2425 school year. The harvests are being directly distributed to our culinary
programs, cafeterias, and the community. In fact, over 3,000 pounds of student grown produce was served in the cafeteria. That's food grown by students for students. As the farm-to-school specialist, I also collaborate with local farms to provide
fresh, locally sourced produce to be served in school cafeterias to our students. This initiative not only supports local economies, but also helps children and communities connect with the source of their food. Today, we're at Amber Brook Farm in Eustace, and we
are here collecting corn. We're having a great time and we're going to take this corn. and it'll be delivered to the warehouse tomorrow where it will be distributed amongst all 31 of our elementary schools. This harvest that we're getting in from Amber Brook Farms in Eustace will
provide over 8,000 servings to our local students in Marian County. This is truly a historic moment. We are looking forward to working with more local farms and bringing fresh produce into our farm to school initiative in Marian County.
You're back on. >> Okay. So, we had a bountiful harvest last year with um as the video said, over 3,000 pounds of produce straight from our school gardens into the cafeteria. As you can see, Heather and Chris are the dynamic duo. Behind these scenes, they brainstorm which crops to
plant while researching market prices so they can create a fair price list. When the veggies are ready for their big debut in our kitchens, the agriculture teacher sends a bill to food nutrition and the profits go back to the program.
So in 2425, we upped our game with uh we were working with nine secondary schools and we increased it to 13. So our garden to cafeteria efforts have paid off with purchases jumping from about $2,000 to roughly almost 4,000, which is quite a
growth spurt. The partnership between food and nutrition services and the fans program exemplifies a successful collaboration that supports local food integration and education. By sourcing produce from school gardens, we foster
hands-on learning experience for the students in the agriculture program. We're also growing partnerships with the local farms. We recently hosted our first cultivating connections farmer meeting, bringing together local growers, community partners with a
commitment to nourishing students through local food. Farmers across the area joined us with representatives from the Florida Department of Agriculture, um the hospital district, and the fans program. The meeting focused on benefits of supplying locally sourced products to
Maring County Public Schools. farmers received all of the necessary paperwork to apply to become vendors and we had the opportunity to connect and learn from one another. And this slide um features the current farms that we are working with in addition to fruits and
veggies. You might find it interesting that we also are exploring procuring local beef. So, for a limited time, North Marion High, North Marion Middle, Oyola Middle School, Lake High, and Vanguard High School will serve local
beef from right here in Marian County, courtesy of Fort McCoy Beef Farm. We're creating a campaign centered around our new recipe, the Cowboy Burger. The Cowboy Burger is a 4 oz grass-fed organic beef patty topped with cheese,
French fried onions, bacon bits, and barbecue sauce served on a warm bio bun. >> Yeah. >> It's going to be North Marion Middle, North Marian Height. It's going to start um late January. We chose locations that
were close to Fort McCoy and then a couple of uh places in town. So you guys, this is the secret. Nobody even knows about this yet. So you're the first wanting to know if you brought demonstration samples. >> No, I did. >> Personal invitations to the grand opening. >> We'll we'll do that.
>> Please. >> We're excited to announce our plans for um expanding the farm to school program, which does include the development of a 900 square foot uh cooler freezer storage facility. This project is scheduled to begin in the summer of 2026
and is located at Howard Academy on Northwest 7th Avenue. Additionally, we have taken advantage of the Florida Sheriff's Association contract to purchase a 16 ft refrigerated truck. This truck will be used to transport products from our hub
to school cafeterias. The board did approve this purchase on December 9th. The presentation does paint a positive picture, but we also need to talk about the challenges we encounter. And one of the major challenges is the availab availability of local produce, which
varies with limited growing seasons and fluctuating harvest due to weather conditions that can lead to unexpected changes in availability. For example, we were bringing in bok choy for December, but it was delayed due to the cold snap in November. So it does impact our
purchasing plans. So in order to adapt, we just try to remain flexible with our menus. We may not always post our farm to school stuff publicly because it changes quickly. Typically sourcing local is more expensive and I originally thought it
was around a 20% um price increase, but we did a more detailed market analysis now that we have been purchasing more and um we found it could be up to 50% higher. So as a result, we do closely monitor what we spend and we limit
farm-to-school items to once a month and then for taste testing events. A big challenge is logistics and transporting fresh produce. That does complicate matters mostly for our farmers who cannot deliver to 51
schools. So, a farm to school hub is needed because it will serve as a single delivery site and storage location and then we'll use the refrigerated truck for fresh deliveries and arrange pickups from local farms as needed. We have learned that effective
communication is crucial since many farmers may lack easy access to computers, email, or their phones while they're in the fields. This can lead to gaps in communication. We are working to understand the reasons behind this and we find ways to improve it. Whether it's
addressing their timing issue like maybe we approach them at the wrong time of their busy season or going to the farmers in person to um better grab their attention. We are always evaluating our efforts. We're very proud that we have increased
our purchases from the nine um secondary schools to 13 which did le lead into a 72% increase in purchases and this growth is like Jessica said it's due to the fans program involvement with the agriculture teachers. We also partnered
with we only had two partnerships last year with our farm to school program and we've added three this year and plan to engage even more local farmers. We continue to promote fans the farm to school initiatives through social media, YouTube videos,
newsletters, campaigns, and educational signage. Through education and curriculum integration, we do create um digital magazines, provide lunchtimes, lessons, taste testing events, and digital marketing on our TVs. So, one of the um
lunchtime lessons in October was farm to school month. So we did celebrated we hosted eight sunflower events um with the assistance of the fans program in Amberbrook Farms to educate elementary students on the edible parts of the sunflower. Um the kids were super
excited. They got to see Sunny the sunflower. They got to taste um sunflower seeds and they also got to take sunflower seeds home with them to plant. We are very passionate about the farm to school program and its mission to connect children with fresh local food.
Through hands-on experiences like our sunflower events, we educate students about healthy eating and foster appreciation for agriculture and the environment. By engaging young minds, we promote lifelong healthy habits and community connections. Thank you. And
with that, I'll open it up to the board or the superintendent. >> Thank you. Uh Dr. library. >> I I always just want to comment on the work that in this partnership has just been so amazing between our and there's so many different departments. We have the food and nutrition services of
course that Miss Belchure is leading and our fans team um which is of course sponsored by the Marian County Hospital District and it's just been beautiful to watch how this has just blossomed over the last few years and um you know we all cheered last December 9th when that
refrigerated truck was board approved. So, we're just looking forward to this continued growth and we love seeing all the students taste test and they're eating radishes and lettuce and it's just it's beautiful. So, thank you Miss Belchure for providing this presentation and to Miss Cole. Did Jessica have to
leave? Oh, there she is. Thank you. Thank you so much. >> Wonderful. Uh well, board comments, questions. >> I'll just offer a thank you, too. uh just really excited about this program and the hands-on learning that it provides for our students and the growth
that we've seen, the excitement that you that we see, you know, when we go into schools and that it's it's also healthy and good for them. So, I just want to thank you uh for your continued support um and guidance as we move to extending this program. So, thank you for all you
do. or member Thrower. >> All I can say is we have come full circle and thank God for that because I remember long about 2010 we were in the great recession and uh the school
district at the time was was touting, you know, everything that we were doing to save money, including uh the kitchens were so much smaller because all you needed for the prepackaged food were these little warming ovens. >> Yeah. And I'll never forget steak nuggets that I think the first
ingredient was like applesauce or something. It the food was terrible and and people were literally saying, you know, bring back scratch cooking, you know, the cafeteria ladies were the favorites. And when those big mixers got
rolled out of there and the cinnamon rolls were gone, not that those are absolutely healthy, but they're a good thing to have, you know, as part of a balanced diet, I will defend. Um, but so much scratch cooking was was taking place through all those years. And then we went to this really strange point in
time where the nutritional value uh was not that great. And now look where we are now. It is just incredible. And being a farming community traditionally, it there's just so many embedded lessons in in all of this. So I'm wondering
about blueberries specifically because blueberries have gotten really good in this area. They're coming. They're coming. They're Well, I don't want to make promises because things happen, but we do have it in the works to bring in local strawberries and blueberries in the spring.
>> That is awesome. Great support for our local farmers and it got me thinking back to, you know, whatever happened to Zelwood corn and sweet corn is just amazing. But I know that there was some environmental problems with the muck farms around Lake Aopka. So, you
couldn't even advertise Zelwood corn. remember we used to always get it at Publix, you know. Um, but Sweet Corn is experiencing a comeback obviously locally and and that's a really good thing, too. So, yeah, thank you so much. This this we're so blessed to have the partnership of the hospital district and
the dynamic people that are part of it. >> Thank you, >> Dr. Campbell. Anything? >> Sure. I I just wanted to say I'm grateful that we have the opportunity to thank you publicly and to not just highlight what we're doing, but also to offer it as an opportunity to say thank
you. We know back when the hospital district was created, schools just kind of became an an I don't want to say an immediate partnership, but this was a really easy way to get a lot of people active in what you guys were doing really quickly. and um
just grateful for the partnership and the opportunity to say thanks. And also, Miss Belter, you're doing a wonderful job ensuring that our students are getting a well-rounded approach in uh all the food that we're serving to our students. So, thank you so much,
>> Reverend Cummings. >> Thank you guys for the presentation. I am truly a fan of fans. So, uh, I when I when I got on the board, I think I went to I think they had about seven or eight new, um, gardens that they were doing in
2018. And I think I went to all of them because I I saw the value in it as far as kids getting their hands in the dirt and understanding where where these these vegetables that show up on their dinner table, where they actually come
from. So, um, and and thank you, um, board member Thor. I remember those Zelwood corn festivals that they used to have. So, when I was watching the video, I was like, when when did they start growing corn in Houston? I was still I was thinking about Zelwood corn, right?
Real real sweet corn. Sarah, it was down in your area. So, you should remember that as well. I don't know. You were much younger than us, so >> No, I I remember that's my Zelwood was my neighbor growing up. >> Okay. So, that that corn. So, we love corn. So, um that keep keep doing what
you're doing. And I think um what you're doing is exposing uh some of these kids to some things that they may have never ever had the opportunity to see how how how it gets from the ground to their table. So, that's important. So, thank you.
>> And just to summarize, I think we are all so grateful, myself included. Um I I'd connected I hopefully that's the meat factory in Fort McCoy. a connection I reached out to you about. We had um a local individual buy lots of land out there and wanted to connect with us
about getting some local meat into our schools. And so I'm happy to see the North End is going to get some good stuff. >> It feels like so long ago that is how that happened. We we went and visited them right away. We were He was like, "Why aren't we doing business in Marian County?" I said, "I don't know. Why aren't we?" >> Yeah. I love it.
And well, and I love that the North End um is going to eat North End schools will eat meat from a North End um farm, you know, and and just all of that inner connection that we have, you know, as our community continues to grow and we have grow growth pains and, you know,
just takes one trip down Facebook alley to hear all the things that people are upset about with regard to growth. I love that we have an opportunity publicly to highlight how we're still staying so tight and so small um and really using the connections within our
community to strengthen the experiences our students get to have. So um I want to give a shout out um Mr. Edwards Andy Edwards who is at North Mary Middle School. He had the most production last year um which is really amazing. But we
worked together at Belleview High School um when we were both there and he was the horiculture guy. That's his thing. Um and so he can do the animals and he you know they they do the class animal for um fair and stuff but really he's a
horiculture guy and um I can't barely grow a fern. So I've always um been intrigued by what he can do because I I can't I can't keep anything green alive. And um he was so proud when I visited him. It was probably at the start of the school year. He came to um with his
little handout showing me how they had produced more food there I think than any school um any secondary school. And truly just to just to see a a middle school which is not very large. It's one of our smaller middle schools um
producing that much food that we're then able to share with our other schools throughout the district is wonderful. So, and it's all this would not be possible financially without the support of the hospital district truly. And so, um that connection um and your your
all's willingness to financially support the learning that takes place outside of the four walls of a classroom. Um there's no words to describe as an educator myself how grateful I am for for that financial contribution because
some students remember thrower talks about this all the time. Some students don't the only reason they're coming to school is because they get to go work in the greenhouse. And so if if that is the only reason they're coming and and you all are able to give us the resources to
make that happen for them, we're we're saving one kid at a time. So we're really very appreciative. >> Madam Chair, I got a question. >> Yes. >> So where's the beef? >> It hasn't been delivered yet. It's half Fort McCoy. >> Is it a long time? >> North Marian Middle, North Marian High.
And if you're close by Oyola Middle in January, I'll let you know. I want >> you to >> All right. >> We'll get a calendar invite maybe for for lunch at at North Marine Middle or North Marine High, but the farm is in Fort McCoy. It's at Big B Farm out in Fort McCoy. So, um, wonderful stuff.
Well, board, any further comments? All right. Any public comment on, um, our update from fans in the hospital district? >> Dr. Brewer, anything? >> All right. Well, with that, I want to thank you both for being here and um willing to share the testimony of fans
in the hospital district with Mary County Public Schools. >> It's our pleasure. Thank you guys so much and merry Christmas. >> Thank you. Merry Christmas to you as well. All right. Uh board, at this time, we're going to go ahead and move to item 11.1, which is our C membership. We have
um some guests here um that are here to um they're a little time sensitive so we're going to move them up and then when this item concludes u more than likely we will be breaking for lunch um and Dr. Brewer has that uh call with Cat Karmac. So Dr. Bur
I'll hand it over to you. >> Okay. I'd actually like to introduce it looks like Mr. McCormack has made his way to the podium. So there you go. We want to welcome the C with us today. Um we know we're this is going to be a couple people are going to speak. Um but welcome to Marian County. We're so glad
to have you and of course I've shared with you all already board but his daughter began at Forest High School and um and I've heard things are going really well and she's had some great students that have kind of had some coffee and shared some experiences with her. >> It's been great.
>> Welcome. >> Thank you very much. I appreciate it. Uh yeah, it's been a great experience. She's finishing up her twoe semester uh at school here. So, it has been and I tell you from the from the start to the finish, it has been an a fantastic experience for her. Um, I I joke around
a lot that I moved whenever I was a kid a number of times. And the worst part about moving and going to a new school is lunch. Lunch is the hardest thing to do because you don't know anybody. And there were some wonderful students that invited her to come sit and eat with them. Uh, which is speaks highly of what
our schools are doing and the students that we have. So, thank you very much. Um, I'll jump in a little bit. Let me introduce myself. I'm Matt McCormack. I'm the new guy at the C. Uh, I've been there. I'm wrapping up week four being here. Uh, so I'm learning a lot. And I appreciate y'all giving us the
opportunity to speak. It actually gave me the chance to, uh, meet with our team about the things that we partnered together on everything that we've done over the last year and bring me up to speed on these things. We did give you uh, I think Beth uh, provided and was passed out a one-pager. What we wanted
to do is provide you with a number of things uh that we have going on or that we've done over the last year. This is kind of our top hits, if you will. These are kind of some highlights. Beth did a great job of reaching out to our team and asking them to say, "Hey, what is everything we're involved with?" And then kind of boiled that down to some of
the top. I'm not going to go through all those because there's a lot of them there, but here's some highlights. Uh one to start off, I just mainly wanted to say thank you for the partnership. It has been a great partnership. One of the things I learned whenever I came here, one of the things that we were able to research coming here was how great of a school system that we do have, which was
encouraging. We talked a lot, you'll hear me say a lot of times, if you go back to that proverbial three-legged stool, uh, and looking at it from our point of view, the three-legged stool that makes up a great community, the three parts to that is a strong business community, a strong municipalities,
city, county, if you will, uh, take care of our public safety, take care of our roads, and a strong school system. I had a friend tell me a long time ago, and this is how I've I've carried this through my career in chamber and economic development work for for the last 28 years, is the community with the
best schools win. And it's that simple. The communities with the best schools win. And we want to win. All of us do. And so that's always our commitment from our point of view with our school district is have a great partnership together. So, if you take a look, we've got a number of things in here from
voter engagement of the school referendum and the 10-year halfpenny sales tax uh to our relationship with Miss with sorry with sorry, I moved here from Missouri, so if I accidentally say Missouri, please forgive me. I was there for the last 12 years. Uh so the Marian uh technical college uh our partnerships
with them around the semi-truckss, their aviation programs. Uh one of the really cool things that I did get to learn about was uh having having a business, an active business in all of our schools. That's so important. Our partners in education is is kind of the tag that I always use in those is making
sure our businesses are in with our schools and our schools have a relationship with our business community. A lot of our CTE around equin uh around the construction academy healthc care uh then going into uh the things around construction automotive
nearly 400 students participate uh with 60 industry leaders. I'm learning about our uh leadership of Cal Metro Youth. 50 students completed the program in 2025. That is an amazing program uh and all the things that that they work on um
through there. So that's just we wanted to give you a highlight of what we have there, answer any questions. What you see there at the bottom uh is the partnership uh benefits uh at the level that you're that the school system is at. Uh so we want to make sure you had that. Uh that is kind of the list.
Everything all the partnership benefits that are above that is is also included. But what you have list there is that what's on top of those uh what the what's on top of those. We wanted to keep it to one page because we know you get lots of paper. So uh but we also want to answer any questions that you want you might have. Uh but we do
appreciate the time. And I'm loving the sweaters by the way. Thank y'all for doing that. That's awesome. I love that. And I didn't know Beth if you had anything that you want to throw in or answer any questions that you might have. >> Yeah. Thank you for being here. We really appreciate you taking the time to come kind of formally introduce
yourselves and let us um get to know you. We have um this there's been a lot of changes in our whole community, right? The C's experienced a change. We're going through a superintendent search. Um we're going to have another election next year which will potentially change lots of elected seats
throughout the community. And so in this season of change, I think the board really wanted to have an opportunity to not only hear what the C is doing for us and what that partnership looks like, but also to be able to at least have a discussion about what the board would like to see as we proceed forward in
this relationship and what um what potentially we'd love to see enhanced or things that we're just not using to our potential that maybe we could replace with something else. And so I'll open it up to the board maybe who um want to give some comment or remarks and then we
can just have some dialogue if that's okay. >> Are there any board members who'd like to give feedback? >> Reverend Cummings? >> Yes, I'll go first. Um thank you Mr. McCory for finally u get us get an opportunity to come forth and meet you.
Um, since I've been on the board, I have definitely uh saw the benefits the benefits, the pros of uh the C being involved with the Marian County School Board. You guys have been a tremendous
partner with us. Um, and and you have a former school board member with you that works with the C. That definitely straight u top notch. So that makes it even more better for this community that we do have that strong
relationship when we've had um initiatives or or different um issues that needed to go forward. Um the input from the C really helped us to get certain things done. So I appreciate that. I I I I love the fact that we are
a part we have been a part of the CP. I'm praying that we continue to be a part of the C and the input and that relationship just continues to get stronger and stronger. I I I as one board member see the need. >> I see the need. So
>> I appreciate that. It's been you know that was one of the exciting things whenever we were researching the C whenever we were researching OCAL and whenever I say we this is a family thing for us whenever we move as I told I told the search committee there's no me if there's no we. This is you know I've got
family too and this is a family family process. us. And one of the things that we enjoyed seeing from a personal note was a the partnership between the organ between the C and the school district, but then also the great things the school really and truly is doing. I mean, I've learned so much just for the 30 minutes I've been sitting here.
That's amazing. Um, so I appreciate that partnership and look forward to it. >> And and you said something early. I just it just kind of hit me. I got to I I got to kind of correct you on something. You talked about the uh three-legged stool. >> Yeah. >> It's a four-legged stool. Let me give you the fourth one. A strong faith
community. >> Amen. You were correct. Thank you. >> Dr. Campbell, did you have a merge? >> Sure. Thank you. I I think we're having this conversation because I inadvertently the last two years in a row have got actually the last year I
guess have gotten the invoice for the C. And I'm not sure how the finance department has my email, but I'm the one that's getting the invoice. So that started the conversation in June, I believe, whenever we got that. and and understood that December was whenever our actual membership renewal comes up
and so that's how we got here today. Um >> well pleasant mistake. I'm glad >> there you go. Well and and also watching the local conversation in municipality government around the community and other folks in our community have had
conversation about it as well and we have not and so that's part part of the reason that I thought it would be helpful and thank you Dr. for allowing us to have this conversation, putting on the work session agenda. I I think the reason that I'm interested in the
conversation more so than anything is in my involvement around the state with other school boards around the state, just kind of asking how many of you guys pay to be a part of your local chambers of commerce. So, I know that one of the things that makes Marian County unique is we only have one.
>> So, if you're in Lake County, I think there's like 15 or something. I mean, every little tiny community in Lake County has a, you know, there's a South Lake and North Lake and all Tavaris and all the different ones. And so, I know that there's, you know, that makes us unique that there is one uh uh apart
from having multiple, but the question kind of just remains. I understand obviously from a business owner myself and from being in corporate I understand how important education is and the school system is to ensuring we have
employees that are educated a educated workforce is is the heart of the community. So I understand why the partnership exists for sure. The question for me just had been, so how if if your local school district, again asking state friends, if your local
school district does pay to be a part, how much is that? >> And so I honestly coming from Missouri, I'm I'm a little curious, and I'm not asking you or putting you on the spot, but is that something that you're traditionally seeing that $10,000
membership is what you're having a school district pay into a chamber of commerce? Now, I appre certainly all of the benefits. Could not agree more. You guys have done an amazing job on a lot of things. Grateful for the support on the referendum and and all of that that
had been done. I know other communities do that differently as well. The Orange County one that they just got passed again is through their realtors association, which that really has nothing to do with, you know, they're not paying to be a part of the realtors association certainly. So, there's just a lot of question that I have around
that. And in this past year, we did have a $64 million shortfall. And we had several uh board members that were looking at even our own membership into certain organizations and choosing one way or the other uh to put basically the equivalent of $10,000 not um to pay
those memberships. And so it kind of was a happy accident, I guess, in a way that getting this so we could have this public conversation about it. And that's just where I'm asking the question more. So I I obviously appreciate my son's participated in Lomi. Like I, you know,
I'm a leadership of Calum myself. Like I I'm my business is a member. I I I certainly am a a huge proponent of all that you guys do and the partnership with the public ed foundation and making sure we have business partners, all those things. I I don't know that those things would go away if we weren't
paying to play. So that that's kind of I mean I to put it as crudely as possible, $10,000 is a big price tag to be a part of a chamber of commerce for a school district. whenever we have all the benefits of what I just explained to you. Understand that you need us and to have the partnership to have the
educated workforce that provides that for your businesses. So that's where I sit and I'm just interested in the conversation. >> That's a great question. Um and so let me give you a little bit of my background and I can give you what my experience has been through my 20. So I've been in the chamber economic development industry for 20 28 years.
Started right out of college. Uh I spent the last 12 years in Columbia, Missouri. Uh, prior to that, I have spent my entire life. I was born and raised and my career was in Texas. Uh, so that's where I'm from up up until 12 years ago when we moved to Columbia, Missouri to to run that chamber. Uh, and I can tell
you my experience and I've ran um, so this is my fourth chamber to run, my fifth chamber to work for. Uh, so in every one of those that we've been able to do, we've had great working relationships and partnerships with our school with our school system. that did include an investment into the to the
local partnership into the local chamber if you will. Uh so every one of them the last one I was at and yeah they usually have been around that those dollar figures. I can't quote what all of them were uh you know over 28 years I kind of start forgetting some of that information and the reason being is because whenever you take a look at uh
so I'll use for example in Colombia had a wonderful relationship with our superintendent there and had a wonderful relationship with that with that school system and help them do a lot of these things as well. But one of the things that uh and I can just put it the way the superintendent put it for me was you
know the reason that we invest into the into the local chamber is because that gives us the ability and the resources and the personnel to be able to do these things. So if it isn't for those investments, would these things go away? Maybe, maybe not. That would be up for our board to decide on how that is. But
the resources of the people um and the cost to do these things uh we need those we need those dollars to make sure that we can do those and continue doing these things for our partners like uh like the like the school system. Uh so that's where it has been. I'm learning how it's
been structured in Florida. Been here four weeks, but I can only go back to my experience in Missouri and Texas and uh and all those that we've had a really we've had relationships like these uh with our local school system. uh and that is because so that we can have the resources to be able to do these type of
things uh and continue to fight these battles to make sure that we do have the best schools uh that we can possibly have. >> Thank you for that. And I wanted to welcome um if Mr. Smallidge could come up just because as a point of clarification, while it all is Maring County Public School money or taxpayer money, it actually comes out of Mr.
Smallg's budget, not our general fund as the school board. So, I was hopeful you could maybe just provide brief context on the funding sources and and and why you're choosing to continue to prioritize the partnership with the chamber. >> Sure. Thank you. Yeah, it's not Marian
County Public Schools membership. It's actually Marian Technical Colleg's membership. Um, and we do pay for that out of our funds. It's workforce money. And I can give you examples. This year, our membership, um, basically when when I go to events, I mean, I'm not just
there to enjoy it. I'm walking around. I'm meeting people. We have contacts. So, I've met people through the membership that recently led us to purchasing two semi-truckss for about half price, which more than paid for a couple years worth of membership just
from that one, um business deal. And so, uh I benefit from it. My first year getting into this job, you know, like uh our our partner right here that's been here four weeks, takes a while to get your feet on the ground. And I questioned the membership amount as well
because I saw a $10,000 um invoice come in and um had some people at our college questioning it. But the more I got into it and and made those relationships and those connections, uh we recently had someone in the health uh part of the C
put us onto a company that does the background checks and some drug uh testing and that might streamline our commercial driving program. We're working on that right now. on. So there they it's constantly meeting people and things that can work for us that we uh make those relationships. So I I benefit
from it. Um I could we step down a notch possibly, but my recommendation is to let you guys pay half of it and I'll pay half and um and then we'll keep the same membership level because you guys do benefit from it. We do invite you to most of the
events and so forth. So that's my recommendation. They've they've helped us with the um with the appropriations request with supporting us, wrote a nice letter or gave us all the documentation to show that what we're asking for uh was um warranted. They've recently
written us another uh letter with the latest appropriation that we have out right now that we're asking for $3 million in support to build some new programs. So, I I'm benefiting from it. I can give you other examples of how we benefit from it. My only recommendation, and you might have gotten that bill
indirectly because I've actually put it in a courier envelope and sent it to the district a couple years back asking to pay that $5,000 bill and I'd pay the next one and it came back to me. So, um, >> that might be why you got it. >> Well, and and Mr. Smaridge, I live my
life by the motto that the answer is always no if you don't ask. So, I'll I'll give you props for willing to ask us to foot 50% of the bill with you. >> It's reasonable. I'm not sure we're in the position of negotiation at the moment, but I can
appreciate your uh your I was looking for a a publicly appropriate phrase, which I can't come up with, but we all know what I mean. So, um board, who else has questions or comments about the C membership? >> Sure. >> Board member Conrad, I
>> I don't have a lot of questions, so I just have a couple comments. Um also a personal business owner. Um and we have a partnership with the C. Also a school sponsor. um which we do, you know, through the CP C and the foundation for several schools. Um and I I'm looking
out at the audience as I see part of your team. Um and the value comes for me in the relationship piece, which is really what Mr. Smallbridge shared also. Um I can pick up the phone, I can call Beth, I can call Thomas. Um they answer
questions, they help me get um what I need uh resources. And so on top of all of these things, two pages, um that provide uh a lot of financial um support, um a lot of relationship
support, um a lot of intellectual >> working. >> So really, I I'm a big fan of the C. Um and I know we've had the chance, Matt, to have a couple of brief conversations.
And so I know that your heart um is in support of education also. And so I am looking forward to furthering those conversations um to get the whole community involved um and how we can bring ourselves to a level of having the best schools in the
state of Florida. So I just wanted to share my support uh and I'm looking forward to continuing the partnership. So thank you. >> Do you have anything board member? >> Yes. Thank you and and welcome uh Mr. McCormack. Welcome to Marian County and specifically to Marian County Public
Schools and you're coming on at a very exciting time, a much different era than it was uh when your predecessor began. I believe we were at about 15% unemployment at that time and we were pretty much in the gutter uh
economically. So, we've definitely come a long way and and I believe that we're very well positioned, you know, um for the future. This is a very dynamic school system, a very committed team. Um the partnerships
that sometimes you could say we've exhausted ourselves to try to build um and and succeeded in doing that. An earlier conversation this morning is that innovation is hard. You know, it takes effort and it takes courage and vision. So, um the C has been a great
community partner. Um, and and I understand, you know, in in the business community, it's all about ROI, right? And so you're expecting a return on on your investment in us, just like we're expecting a return on investment, you
know, in in you. And when I look at the I love the the one pager front and back um at all of the accomplishments and and support it crossed my mind the old adage um there's
you can be pennywise and pound foolish you know um there is a tremendous need as our explosive growth continues to have unity and to be pulling on on the same side of
of the rope and learning from any stumbles that that any of us, you know, singly or as a group have made. Um, own them and and be better for it, you know. Um, I think that it's very similar to
the conversations we've had about our Florida School Boards Association participation. uh the return on investment there and and the clout that being with them provides us I think vastly offsets you
know the cost. Um the good news is is that there's multiple ways to participate in in in both of these both you know personally professionally and and financially. um in your situation, you know, the cost is the cost, but with FSBA, you know, some of us participate,
you know, as our board member to my far right, you know, at a very high level. She's the president-elect for next year. Never happened in Marian County. And then there are those of us that, you know, go down for the day. Um, and but but I think that
finding a way to all work together, finding ways ways to all work together is only going to continue to move our community forward. And and and I love seeing the documentation um on this on this uh paper, you know, we all knew it
was there, but to have the support to do what we're doing now, we needed that half penny sales tax. uh we really needed um and I will say we're going to need again um the the funding referendum. You know, all of these
innovative things that we're doing are not cheap and the partially funded mandates keep coming. So, I think that we need to be honest with our community and our taxpayers about why these partnerships are so important and and recognize the value of of working
together and um with our eye on the same ball. Thank you, board member Thrower. Um, well, I will wrap it up. I think we've all gotten to share, is anyone else got anything to add? So, I for me, one of the things that I
would love to see us continue to do, and really this is more to Mr. Smallidge than anyone, but I would love to see um, for instance, we get 16 seats at the breakfast, I believe, but we hardly ever fill all 16 seats. Um, sometimes we do, but oftentimes we don't. Would that be
an accurate assessment, Mr. Smallidge? >> We fill them when people RSVP and then they say they're not coming, then I can replace the seat. So, we have like 12, I want to say. >> Okay. >> Wednesday. So, I just I would love to see us maximize what we're doing and
continue to fully utilize um and and you know, as a business owner myself, I understand the power of the networking and getting in rooms with people who are can open doors and windows and um opportunities for you to other things, which is really probably the most bang
for buck that Mr. Small Rich has personally got from that, right? you get a connection, you save 50% on a semi. Well, there it it's ROI, right? The $10,000 membership has already paid for itself. Um, so when I think about yes, this is a Marian Technical College
expense and your partnership um that you share with the Marian County School Board, but if we are in the spirit of sharing and the school board is to continue to be a part of this partnership, which I believe I mean Marian Technical College's logo isn't the only one in the boardroom, right?
Marian County Public Schools logo is in the boardroom as well. Um, and so I think that it is important that we continue to connect with whether that's the school board or the superintendent or the staff
that the superintendent would choose to speak for the school board and what that partnership and benefits can continue to look like as we continue our partnership because I do think and and we're meeting
next week so maybe we can talk a little a little bit about that. But from my perspective, unique perspective, but I think that there are opportunities for the school board's participation um I guess whether that's I guess for free because Mr. Snaridge pays our bill, but
how that can continue to strengthen so that we feel like we're maximizing our exposure and what that looks like. Um I've said it before and I'll say it again. It's not lost on me that the C solely funded our our sales tax campaign to the tune of $220,000.
And like it or not, the only people who win elections, generally speaking, and the only campaigns that win are ones that are well funded. That's just the way it works um really globally, but certainly in Maring County. And so it is not lost on me that our ability to build
uh and do for our community what we are doing is is truly because of the connections and financial contribution that the CDP didn't do on their own, but you connected with the right people to make things happen. Um and and there's
value there 100 110%. So, I just want us to continue to maximize what we're doing and maybe get a little bit more strategic about what that looks like and the conversations we have so that we can ensure that we're putting the right people in the right room all the time and having the right connections. And
that's just from from my board seat, but I know that collectively we are all incredibly grateful for the C's willingness to continue to support the campaigns politically for the school board and and what that means ultimately for our schools, which I hear is a priority for you and the business
community because quality schools is what brings um amazing people to our town. So, we are grateful for that. Board, did anyone have any further comments? Board member Thor. >> Thank you. And and to to piggyback on on those ideas, it makes me think that it's really important for the C to know uh
what our local school board's legislative priorities are, you know, every year. And you you may or may not know them, but attendance, regular school attendance is our number one. And that statute has not been revisited since 1980. And you think about how
things have changed. And I'm tying that in exactly to workforce development. you know, 99% of life is showing up. You know, you can be the most genius, innovative person in the world, but if you're unreliable, it's pretty hard to work with you. So, um, might as well
leave you with an ask, right? Um, we would really like to or I would love and I hope I have the board support in this um to make sure that that you're well briefed on our legislative priorities and how they connect to the C's goals and initiatives so we can
continue to amplify those foundational things that are going to make kids successful, graduate on time because they're excited about what they're learning and jump right into the community and do great things. >> Yeah. And we can I can bring the the information next Tuesday. Um, but Dr.
Campbell is like our uh keeper of the keeper of the legislative priorities. She is that is um definitely the hat she wears for the board. So, I can I can um >> Yes, I I know the C has the information because Jessica Mlan put it together for you guys. So, she worked with me earlier
uh to make sure that when our priorities were set in place, but you personally haven't been briefed on them, so we can ensure that that happens. >> Absolutely. Um, so with that, did you all have anything else you wanted to add? >> Yes. I just want to let you know that a
lot of the support that the CP C gave us as a school um when we were writing the grants and the appropriation request is now we're we're bearing the fruit of that. January 7th is our first day to take in diesel mechanic students uh into
the new building. The FAA with their uh delay and government shutdown, we have not been reviewed yet. So, we're hoping to have that program um not up in the air, but off the ground, I guess, uh in July. So, we're that we're on target there. And the other project that we
just finished was the new AV or HVAC lab and classroom and the second welding lab and classroom. Students are now in there using it every day. And we're hiring a second instructor for HBAC to have a day cohort starting January 7th as well. So
we had 52 students on a waiting list from our last filling of the HBAC night class and we have filled that class for starting in January. So three of the four big projects are having students in them either now or by January 7th and
the last one was the the aviation one that will start in July. So we're actually getting a lot done. >> Thank you for that update. We know you're getting a lot done. There's no question there. Mr. Small Ridge, anything else? Yeah, in my closing, I just say one, I appreciate the partnership uh with MTC. It's been great
learning what they're doing, the amazing things that they're doing for our workforce with our school system. Um, and I look forward to learning even more of everything that's out there. I had the opportunity to do a a buzz uh out there in their aviation uh hanger, which was pretty impressive. >> You did a buzz right by an airplane.
>> Yes, I did. And uh and so that it's impressive to see what's going there. And that partnership uh with us, with MTC, with the school district uh is is impressive. Another thing, you know, some of you were at the breakfast yesterday morning. We had the president of the state chamber of commerce and
speaking and he spoke a lot around education. Uh and a lot of it goes back to what you were saying is preparedness for our kids and our school system start with the kids showing up and being able to make sure they're showing up and how how much those things are linked. So, I'm thrilled to hear that. I can't wait to see the rest of the priorities. Just
on behalf of myself, A big thank you, Dr. Brewer. I appreciate the times you've reached out and the and the times that we've gotten to talk for a few minutes and uh and for the others and those that I'm getting to. And I I'll I look forward to sitting down with each and every one of you. And that's what I'd like to do is sit down with each and
every one of you and talk uh and see and and make sure that we've got that relationship where it needs to be. And so I appreciate Thank you. >> Thank you. >> Thank you. >> Is there any public comment on this item? All right. Hearing none, thank you for being here. We appreciate uh you taking
the time to spend this morning with us. >> Appreciate it. >> Absolutely. >> Thank you. >> Um board, my understanding is um Mr. Taylor's threat management item is very quick. >> Okay. Very short. So, we're going to knock that out before we take our lunch. So, I will bring Mr. Taylor to the
podium um for item 7.1, which is the threat management metrics. >> And board, I did email Mr. McCormack the legislative priorities, so he will have the language prior to your meetings. Yes, ma'am.
>> Good morning, Mr. Taylor. >> Board Chair, Dr. Sarah James, members of the board, interim superintendent Dr. Danielle Brewer, and colleagues. Good morning. Thank you for the opportunity to provide a follow-up to Chief McFaten's September presentation
regarding behavioral threat assessment activity and threat management trends across Maring County Public Schools during the 2024 2025 school year. As Chief McFaten shared, during that school year, the district completed 1,171
behavioral threat assessments in response to reports of concerning or threatening behaviors. Those assessments were conducted in alignment with Florida's harmrevention and threat management statutory framework, which emphasizes early identification,
structured decision-making, and proportional responses that prioritize both safety and student support. During that presentation, the board requested two specific follow-up items. One, that campus trend data be aligned to the
district's categor categorization of elementary and secondary grade levels. and two that threat management dis dispositions be broken down by grade level. Today my remarks are focused on directly addressing those requests. When
a concern is reported, it is first reviewed through a triage process conducted by the school-based threat management team chair. During triage, the chair evaluates objective factors such as credibility, intent, means,
immediiacy, warning signs, and available contextual information. Based on that review, cases generally fall into one of two pathways. summary closures, which occur when a concern is determined to be non-serious or easily resolved through
initial review and referral to the full school-based threat management team, which is reserved for cases that appear more serious, involve unresolved underly underlining issues, present additional warning signs, or indicate a need for coordinated monitoring and support
through a student support management plan, commonly referred to as an SSMP. Of the 1,171 total behavioral threat assessments, the majority were resolved through summary closure. When those 938 summary closures are examined using the
district's elementary and secondary grade level categories, the data shows the following. 154 cases were closed as unfounded. 76 occurred at the elementary level, 78 at the secondary. 30 cases were summarily closed as self
harm only referrals. 22 occurred at the elementary level, eight at the secondary. And lastly, 754 cases were summarily closed as low level of concern with no SS SMPP. 535 of those cases
occurred at the elementary level, 219 at the secondary. This distribution is consistent with developmental expectations. Elementary campuses account for a larger volume of low-level of concerns, many of which are impulsive, situational, or
quickly resolved through routine school-based interventions. At the secondary level, while overall volume decreases, concerns tend to be more nuanced and therefore require closer review. The board also requested a closer look at cases referred to the
full school-based threat management team. There were 233 such cases representing 19.9% of all behavioral threat assessments. When those cases are examined by final disposition and again aligned to elementary and secondary
grade levels, the data shows there was a total of one case that was designated as unfounded and that lone case occurred at the secondary level. 64 cases were designated as low level of concern. 38 occurred at the elementary, 26 at
secondary. 154 cases were designated as medium level of concern. 75 at the elementary level, 79 at the secondary. And lastly, there were 14 places cases that were designated as high level of
concern. Six at the elementary level, eight at the secondary. Several key observations emerged from this breakdown. First, even among cases referred for full evaluation, the overwhelming majority did not rise to a high level of concern. Highle cases
represented approximately 1.2% of all threat assessments districtwide, indicating that the system is identifying concerns early and applying intensive interventions only when clearly warranted. Second, medium level cases comprise the largest share of full
evaluations. These cases often involve students with identifiable stressors or warning signs but no imminent intent. And these cases are precisely the type that structured supports, monitoring, and collaboration are most
effective in preventing escalation. Third, while elementary schools generate a higher overall volume of assessments, secondary cases are proportionately more likely to require full evaluation, reinforcing the importance of maintaining strong threat management
practices across all grade levels. In summary, the data presented today demonstrates that Florida's harm prevention and threat management framework is enabling early intervention, informed decision-making and student centered responses that prioritize both safety and well-being.
We appreciate the board's thoughtful questions and guidance, and we remain committed to transparency, continuous improvement, and ensuring that our threat management practices remain aligned with statutory requirements and best practices. Thank you. And I'm happy to answer any questions.
>> Thank you, Mr. Taylor. That was very thorough and eloquent. Yes, ma'am. >> Does anyone have any comments regarding the information presented? No, >> I don't have any questions. I just want to say thank you for bringing this back to us. Um it helps to have the numbers
um in front of us. So, thank you for your work in providing it for us. >> Yes, ma'am. >> Um I didn't unless I'm looking at an expired screen. I don't see it on board docs. Was it uploaded to board docs? >> No. Okay. Um,
yes, I understand. There's just an item I'm asking. Should it be uploaded to board docs or was it secured information not to be distributed online? >> I mean, he he just shared >> Yeah, I I would agree. >> That's included in it. So, I don't think there would be a problem with uploading. >> Okay. So, if we could just make sure
Miss Martinez Young gets a digital version so she can get it uploaded to Board Docs. Um, publication that would be wonderful >> board. Did anyone have any further remarks? >> Okay. Well, we appreciate you coming forward and providing that followup and just really giving us a full scope of um
the threat management that we had for last school year. Is there any public comment? All right. Hearing none at this time, we are going to take a recess until 12. Um so board about 35 minute break and we will come back at 12 to do our final
three items. Thank you. Thank you. And we will come back from recess at 12:07. Uh and we will welcome our um curriculum staff up for item 8.1, adoption of instructional materials.
Welcome this afternoon. It is good afternoon. >> Good afternoon. >> Good afternoon. Originally said good morning, but good afternoon board chair and school board members, interim superintendent. I am excited to share updates regarding the adoption of
updated materials for 13 specified courses in K12 English language arts. The adoption process always begins with a call for publisher submissions. The call for publishers opened on September 9th. Publishers submitted responses and
required documentation via Google Forms. The response from publishers was positive and each of the three publishers approved by the state also submitted forms and samples to MCPS for the review process. After the intent to adopt letters were
sent out to publishers, district evaluation committees were formed to assist with the first phase of review. The district evaluation committee included personnel from elementary and secondary curriculum, ESSE and ESOL as well as the technology department. The review process of submitted proposals
took place from September 22nd through October 3rd. The district evaluation committees reviewed materials of all submitted proposals to ensure that the publishers selected followed both state and federal statutes. The district evaluation team then convened discussed findings using the
core questions rubric provided by the state and selected two publishers for K5, two publishers for 68 and two publishers for 912. For K5 English language arts, the district evaluation team selected benchmark education company Florida
Benchmark Advance and McGraw Hill Florida Wonders. For 68 English Language Arts, the district evaluation team selected McGraw Hill Study Sync and Savis Learning Company, My Perspectives, Florida English Language Arts.
And for 912 English language arts, the district evaluation team selected McGraw Hill Study Sync and Savis Learning Company, My Perspectives, Florida Language Arts. The review committee is made up of 11 members, and these members included parents, teachers, and community
members. Parents and teachers each submit an application to participate in the review process. And our community members are those that have been appointed by a schoolboard member. Thank you so much for your appointments that you made to our committees. they were greatly valued. The review committee timeline, which
began back in October, provides our committee members with opportunities to review materials both physically and digitally. After the state mandated training, committee members reviewed materials from October 16th through November 7th. On November 3rd, the
community and administrator review evening took place. We collected recommend recommendations and comments that were left and that information was then shared with the ter the teacher parent and community committees during discussion before final recommendations were made. On November 10th, the
teacher, parent, and community committees met in person at the Robert Mack Dunwy Educational Complex. These committees were broken down by grade bands K2, 35, 68, and 912. During this discussion, committee members review data collected from the core questions
rubric provided by the state as well as community and administrator notes and recommendations. When the discussion concluded, each committee member completed individual recommendations. The committee recommendation process begins with the review of the materials
and feedback by the committee members. Committee members share feedback individually and as a group for the review of the data and feedback collected. During this process, all stakeholders are invited to participate. Finally, the committee recommendations are shared with the interim
superintendent, Dr. Brewer. Policy 2521 is the policy that allows the superintendent to make these recommendations. I'm excited to share the recommendations of the interim superintendent. K5 English language arts recommended
program is benchmark education company Florida benchmark advance 68 English language arts recommended program is Savis Learning Company my perspectives Florida English language arts and 912 English language arts
recommended program is McGraw Hill Florida Study Sync. The adoption process has many steps and takes several months. The next steps after today, community community members will have public access that opens the 20-day window of those
recommended tit titles. This information will be posted on the MCPS homepage. On January 13th, there will be a public hearing for the 2526 instructional materials for adoption. This will be public comment with no vote. And on January 27th, we will take the vote.
There will be 13 votes each course with a single line action item. This will also open the formal 30-day objection window. And then finally on March 3rd with a hearing officer if needed, otherwise hearing none after 30 days, ordering will begin with the overall
goal having access to materials accessible for the first day of school. Public access to the recommended recommended titles will be posted on the MCPS homepage later today. On the homepage, the public will find the login information as well as login instructions for each of the recommended
publishers. Materials are also available for review at the professional library located in building 20. Thank you. This concludes the updates and recommended programs for K12 English language arts instructional materials adoption. Thank you so much. We
appreciate you coming forward and bringing that information. Board, any questions or comments regarding this adoption? Remember Conrad, >> this may be um not the right time to ask the question, but um it's on my mind, so
I'm just going to share it. In my experience as an elementary school teacher, almost every um textbook textbook adoption, there are areas where there there is strength and there are
weaknesses. So, in through this process, have we identified um any weaknesses in the programs? Because I know we're limited, you know, what the state approves for us to choose from. And so, have there been any areas that um have identified weaknesses before we get
further into the process? >> So, I really facilitate the process. So, I will ask my colleagues to come up if they have anything to share. At this point, I'm not sure that we have gotten deep enough into the programming, but I will let Mrs. RLE come in. I understand that. Thank you.
>> Good afternoon. That's a great question and I think it really depends on who you ask. Um, we had a plethora of different groups coming in reviewing the materials. We had teachers, we had coaches come in, uh, school-based administrators, we had
area superintendent. And so, um, everyone's going to have their own opinion on the materials. Um, one thing I can tell you, um, that's a strength of this particular program, I know you're asking about weaknesses, but I think that just depends on what lens you're looking at it through. I think, uh, each
of the two, um, publishers, uh, brought different strengths and different areas for opportunity, but this particular, um, publisher offers a lot of writing. Um we've really been focusing on writing in elementary uh specifically K through
two um because that was an opportunity for us as you know and we've had this conversation before um and so the opportunities for writing and with this particular publisher um there's so many of them and the this particular book is
consumable um so students can write in it so the writing activities are embedded in with the text. So, um, again, I know you asked about opportunities, but this was a strength that I just wanted to make sure we pointed out that was kind of our overarching,
um, yes, it was rich in text, but those writing opportunities really align with our goals right now and the direction that we're heading. Um, but as far as opportunities, I think it's just going to depend on who you ask. >> Okay. All right. Well, thank you for that. I I know from experience that the
the writing opportunities for K through2 are huge. um what what the teacher makes them to be. Um and so we will continue with you fly for phonics. >> Correct. >> Okay. Other areas um that were assessed like vocabulary development.
>> Um I don't remember anything specifically about vocabulary um from the committee u meetings um but f there is a phonics component um which comes with leveled readers, right? Yeah. Comes with leveled readers. So, we'll get that component, but we will
use UFly um specifically for phonics for that 30 minute foundational skills every day. >> So, how will that affect the um guided reading portion if we're using I mean because I'm I'm going to assume that those two are not going to align and so will we have a plan of action on
>> they are align they actually are aligned. So, benchmark advance is aligned to youly. >> Okay. Yes, >> I'm gonna go buy a lottery ticket today because that's a miracle. >> Yes. >> Okay, that's great news. >> All right. Well, thank you for that. >> You're welcome.
>> Any other board members with comments? >> Uh board, just to remind you, we have um the Spanish adoption coming up and so I was planning to reach out to a few community members. So, if you have anyone in your um community interested in participating in reviewing Spanish
books, that is on our to-do list. All right. Well, hearing no further comment from the board, is there any public comment on this item? Hearing none, thank you ladies for both being here. We appreciate you. Um, and
we will move on to item 9.1, which is our PM2 update from Mr. White House board. As a reminder, this was a request from um us. Oh, I'm sorry. This was a request from us to bring an update about PM2 data. um understanding it's not
quite complete but this is a pretty thorough um highlevel view of our PM2 data and then board um if you will I would like when Mr. the White House has done for us to follow up our conversation we kind of put on pause on December 1st which is what we're doing
next about the superintendent search. Um I do need to get with HYA about what they can expect from us in January. Uh and so we will go over the data and then hopefully be able to have um some level of a conversation about next steps for that. Okay. Right. Mr. White House.
>> Thank you chair. Good afternoon board members. I bring you good tidings and positive news about our PM2 results and the growth of our schools from the start of the school year. So, as you all know, PM2, we assess both
English language arts skills and math in grades 3 through 10 in ELA and 3 through8 in math. Our kindergarten, first, and second grade students will be taking their PM2 tests when we return from the break to monitor the progress for those. But these obviously are the
tested grades that then factor into our school grades and our district grade. So what you'll notice on our assessment for this year when we compare our PM2 results overall as a district, which is combining all grade levels, which is what you would see on our district grade
for ELA. Uh currently we have 41% of all students tested grades three through eight that are on grade level, meaning they scored a three or higher on the assessment. And that's compared to 37% last year. So 4% growth compared to what we saw last year and we know last year
was our highest year that we had seen in ELA uh since switching to the fast. So really strong progress that we're seeing continue this year from our school. Uh every one of our grade levels when we compare PM2 to PM2 last year outperformed the prior year uh with the
exception of fourth grade which scored the exact same percent of students on grade level as the prior year. When we look at the cohorts of students, which for that we're looking at that same group of students, their prior year scores, so third to fourth, fourth to fifth, etc. Um, each of those cohorts
improved from their PM2 performance last year with the exception of 10th grade. So that fourth grade group, even though they were scoring at the same as last year's fourth grade group, when you look back at their third grade scores from the prior year, they did actually make some pretty strong gains from PM2 last year as third graders to PM2 this year
as fourth graders. for our math results. Math is a little bit different with ELA. Uh we only assess 13 benchmarks. We teach those benchmarks regularly throughout the year. Math has a ton of benchmarks. Uh so when we take PM1 and PM2, we know that we're assessing benchmarks that
have not yet been taught. We have an entire semester to go of benchmark instruction. So we expect these scores to look lower than our ELA scores with that understanding that they still have a lot of learning to do. Uh but still when we compare our results for three through eight last year to this year, we
are currently 27% of all students in grades 3 through eight are on grade level. Again, that's four points higher than where we were at this time last year. So continued strong performance uh moving the needle in the right direction with our math students. Our largest gains come from third grade, fifth
grade, and eighth grade when you look at those groups respectively. And we also know from that data, our greatest opportunity right now is in fourth grade. Uh you'll see when you look at the state results which are at the top of that chart. Fourth grade is also the weakest area for the state. Um part of
that is fourth grade is very heavy in fractions. That's where we really start to get into operations with fractions with students. We start teaching fractions in fourth grade in January. Um and so we know that students are going to run into those problems and they're it's going to cause some struggle. Um, I
did some data analysis of our fourth grade results and what I found was that our students in four of the five first questions that they encountered on PM2 saw benchmarks that they haven't been taught yet. So, when you talk about an adaptive test and the first four or five
questions you run into are things that you aren't familiar with and skills you don't quite have yet, um, that certainly causes some challenges for us to to then create that motivation for those students to press through. So, um, we know we have some work to do there. However, we also know that a large number of those benchmarks will be
taught second semester and we anticipate seeing much better results as we monitor that data throughout the second semester. So, the board also requested wanted to know how our new principles are doing at those schools, the ones that were appointed for this school year. Um, and
so on your data sheet, I highlighted each of those schools in yellow so you could um remember which of those schools schools we did appoint. Um, and so I I'll go through real quickly and just kind of share. We have seven elementary schools that have new principles. That does not include Ross Prairie and
Winding Oaks. Um, those principles were actually appointed midyear last year. And obviously we have no prior data to compare with those schools as they are brand new schools. Uh, so seven elementary schools. We have two middle schools, Bellev Middle and Lakeer Middle, and then two high schools, Lake High School and Forest High School.
So, when looking at those 11 schools, nine of those 11 have higher ELA scores compared to last year's PM2 results. Some um much stronger than last year, which is really encouraging. Um, and then eight of our nine schools that tested math had higher scores compared
to last year. Our high schools do not do math progress monitoring, so they only take the EOCC's for algebra and geometry. Um, so we don't get state results for them until the end of the year. We only get our local assessment results. Uh so very strong progress from those 11 principles that have been appointed to their schools newly this
year. And the board also asked about our D-rated schools. So as you know we have five schools that we're monitoring this year that received D-graded schools last year. Oakest being the only one that received a a second D in a row. The rest were single time D's. So of those five
D's schools when we look at their ELA performance, three of the five have higher overall ELA scores compared to PM2 last year. However, all five of them when you look at the cohort to cohort comparison show stronger gains between the cohort. So different group of kids
obviously moving into third grade, different group of kids that moved out from fifth grade um which can impact the overall results but we we are seeing growth within the cohort. And then all five of five have higher overall math scores compared to PM2 last year. So, um, promise. We know we still have a lot
of work to do with our D-rated schools. Uh, we're only halfway through and so we have to continue pushing that momentum forward, but we're we're excited to see some of the results that we are seeing so far. So before I get into the opportunities, I did just want to highlight I mentioned
to you all when I shared these um last night that we have schools that right now have PM2 results that are higher than PM3 last year, which is a huge accomplishment that midway through the year, we're already outperforming where we ended the year last year. So you
probably didn't have time to go through this last night. So I just want to run through and highlight those schools for you because we're really proud of the performance of of these schools. So, Bellev Elementary School, their fifth grade students outperformed PM3 last year uh at PM2 this year. Belleview Middle School, one of those new
principles that we have appointed. Believe me remember, was an A school last year and they are outperforming their pace for that Agrade last year. Their seventh and eighth graders are both outperforming where they ended the year last year, only midway through the year this year. Um, Emerald Shores
Elementary, another new principal that we have in place. their fourth grade PM2 data is outperforming PM3 last year. Fezant Elementary School, one of our D-rated schools, they've done a lot of work this year. Uh super proud of uh Principal Newman's the work that her
team is doing. We have two grades there, fourth and fifth already at this point at PM2 halfway through the year or outperforming their PM2 results or PM3 results for last year. Fort King Middle School, their eighth grade is outperforming PM3 last year. Hammet
Bowen Elementary, if you didn't get a chance to look at their data, um a newish principal, um Miss Ponder is doing a fantastic job there and their data is looking really strong. Their fourth grade scores outperforming already where they ended the year last year. Harborview Elementary, they're another new principal. Fifth grade is
outperforming PM3 last year. Marian Oaks Elementary, principal Dreer has been there several years and their data has been steadily improving each year, doing fantastic work there. It's continuing to look stronger this year in ELA than it has in the past. And Marin Oaks was one of our schools last year that had no
subgroups below the 41% FAPI threshold, which is a huge accomplishment given the diversity of that school. Um, including their students with disabilities and they're continuing to push that score even higher this year. So, we're excited about the work that they're doing. And that's their overall their overall score
for ELA last year was only at 36%. They're already at 35 halfway through the year um with a whole another half of the year to go. So really proud of the work they're doing. North Brand Middle School, their sixth grade results are very strong, outperforming PM3 last year. Oakrest Elementary, Miss Dobs and
her team are doing a fantastic job there. Again, still a lot of work to do um at that school, but that fifth grade data is stronger already midyear than PM3 last year. Oyola Middle School, again, another one of our A-rated middle schools that improved to an A last year,
continue to see stronger results this year. Their seventh grade data outperforming PM3 or matching their PM3 performance from last year. Reic Collier Elementary, again, one of our north end schools doing a lot of great work. Their fifth grade data is already outperforming PM3 from last year. Romeo
Elementary, Principal Hoo, is doing a great job continuing to push that school forward. I was out there a few weeks ago, bragged about the the amazing instruction I saw happening in the classroom. They're just doing great work. And so we see that fifth grade uh data is evidence of that.
Spar Elementary, their fourth grade data outperforming where they ended the year last year. Sunrise is fifth grade data and Vanguard, all of their data nth and tth grade already outperforming where they ended the year last year. So we're seeing some really great results. Again, we know it's halfway through the year.
Um, great results are good, but we know that we have to continue that momentum into the second semester for all of these schools. So, I've listed just some opportunities for growth, areas that we're going to be really focused in on for the second semester. Uh, one is third grade ELA. We know it's trending
higher, which is good. We've we've been improving third grade, but we have a lot more to do to accelerate that. third grade is a critical year and and we know from what we see in our data um that a lot of that is going to come down to our work also in our primary grades, our K1 and two as you all have certainly
discussed a lot this year. The students that are coming into kindergarten are at varying levels of um abilities in in reading and writing and so we know we have a lot to catch up with so many students, but we're going to be really squarely focused on those earlier grades. 10th grade ELA is the cohort
itself is lacking progress. Again, another critical area because we have seen increased graduation rates. We're going to maintain um our focus on supporting those 10th grade programs because that's where we really start to push um early graduation success for those students when they can feel that
success in 10th grade. It helps them to maintain that momentum into 11th and 12th grade. Uh our fourth grade benchmarks, as I mentioned, we've got a lot of critical benchmarks being taught this semester. And so we will be monitoring that through our district assessments to make sure we're making progress. Um and while it's not tested,
we are continuing to focus on algebra. We have some great things happening in our high schools with the work they're doing in supporting algebra instruction. Uh we've got a few of our schools that are going to be sharing some of that work at our next principal meeting just to talk about um how they've been building success with their algebra program. So, um, a lot to do, but we are
certainly super excited about the the data and the progress we're seeing so far. >> Dr. Ber. >> Okay. I I just want to comment on a couple things. He highlighted a lot of the schools which were so incredibly proud of and I want to recognize the team. A lot of them are not even here
today, but our school support from our curriculum team has been instrumental in ensuring that the curriculum maps are followed and they are the teachers are given resources to make sure those benchmarks are taught um appropriately in each of the classrooms and we can see
that it's working. And so we're incredibly proud of the teachers and the support of the administrators and of course the curriculum teams to ensure the benchmarks are taught to mastery. So we'll continue. We do know, he already stated, we have still plenty of work to do for the second semester, but I think
this um success will give us the momentum to really get through the second semester strong. And he shared the data with you for the graduation rate that isn't official until we hear it from the state, but we are incredibly proud of the work that the high schools have um done over the last two years. We
um as he shared, we are projecting at 7% of increase in our graduation rate. And so we um continue to recognize our high schools for that tremendous work. So those are my comments. Chair, >> thank you Dr. Brewer. Thank you, Mr. White House. Uh I actually just have some brief remarks about the data and
then board we can all kind of dig into the data a little bit. Um, I wanted to say as a parent of a third grader, and I'm sure board member Conrad is gonna this is going to resonate deep for you, but um, one of the conversations I've had not only with the principal at my
child's school, but also, um, with some of staff, we have got to strengthen what we're doing in second grade because the rigor is just not there in second grade. Um, and it smacks you in the face in third grade. and um I have pretty high
achieving kids and so our burden has certainly not been nearly as heavy to lift as it would be for a student who's already unbehind or um not reading on grade level or or not yet reading for comprehension. And so one of the things
that I want to see us continue to really dig into, and I I thought about bringing this up when we were talking the curriculum piece a few minutes ago, but we have got to increase the rigor in second grade. There has that has got to be a
tremendous focus so that parents and students, but the parents are the ones that are hopefully holding their children accountable for the homework and and all of the components. Uh, I think changing to grades K2 is going to help because it's putting a little bit more of a um
quantifiable accountability metric onto their students achievement for K2. But just the rigor and the the expectation for second graders, we have got to um we've got to make that that jump so that that jump from second to third is not as
significant. Uh, and as a parent of a third grader now, I would say also I think that we need to do a better job of communicating to parents as they leave us at the summer what they can do to strengthen their students success for the next grade. Um, there are things as
a parent that I would have done this summer had I known. And of course, your first child always gets um the the least prepared version of you, right? Because you learn things as you go. But we would have we would have done multiplication all summer as an example had I known
that she needed and and and we'll say well you don't need to know your multiplication facts till the end of um third grade but that is that's not actually true because the expectation is that they know multiplication to be able to then be successful even on PM1 for
third grade. And so had someone said hey do multiplication all summer as an involved parent I would have done that. And I know that there are lots of parents in our community who would have also done that. And so I would love for us to come up with a from a curriculum standpoint a
exit plan, bridg bridge, whatever we want to call it, so that the parents who who have the time and capacity to invest in their students over the summer can have resources to use for their students to find continued success, not only to prevent summer slide, but then to set
them up for um success in August as they enter into the next grade. And this is not just a second to third thing, although I I hear I see Miss Conrad nodding. I think that that is one of the biggest jumps. I know that there's also a fifth to sixth grade gap, rigor gap that I hear from middle school educators
a lot. So, um just as feedback, not not necessarily on this PM2 data, but just in general, those are some things that I would love to see us work on. Overall, I think the data um is is really trending positively and I'm grateful for the work that's happening in our schools with our
leaders and our educators, our cafeteria workers and custodial because none of this happens without the entire team being committed and honestly board member Thrower leading this attendance push since I've been on the board and really focusing on getting
kids to school. We are seeing I believe the fruits of that in our data because more our attendance is improving and so is our data and yes are our practices in the classrooms improving also yes but students are there to then benefit from
those improved practices so they go together for sure so I'll start there board anyone have comments on PM2 data >> board member Campbell >> sure sorry I was just checking something really quickly I the some of the things
have already kind of been touched on that I was going to mention. I I appreciate first of all the team getting this together for us in such a quick fashion because I know it was a difficult ask. Um I I did put input all
the data last night into the handy dandy tool that Dr. Brewer and I learned all about at FSBA. And so I I the one thing that I saw in um cohorts. So I'm most fascinated with cohorts. Certainly grade
level to grade level, it is what it is. But the cohorts are the ones that are really going to show you the tracking of what that student progression is going to be. And while you highlighted the fourth grade benchmark, the predominant decline I saw in math cohorts was the
fourth to fifth grade in multiple schools. So it that is starting to give you that indication of what it's going to look like when they do have to get to that algebra EOC because if they're not getting some of those basic com concepts in fourth grade I I use the word basic.
I'm not a math person. I'm so using basic in math is not really it's like an oxymoron for me. Anyway, I that is a a concern and I think the more we're able to use these tools like to analyze the data even more
closely in a very quick fashion, it's going to help us see those indicators and how we can can narrow down uh a little bit more closely and focus in. The other main thing that I just wanted to say beyond just getting the information to us is the work that's
being done and how it is incredibly evident that the significant focus that we've had the last couple of years is in addition to attendance but uh just one team, one mission that we're we're
pulling out some good good progress. I want our community to still be aware because we're talking I mean we're we're seeing what really could be great things and and we're really starting to get that academic achievement to levels that
we haven't seen in the recent past. It still doesn't mean that we have 75 to 85% of our kids that are proficient. We are so far from that. But we know what our goal is. Our goal is 100% proficiency across the board,
every grade level, every student. But we we are seeing continual progress and it t progress is is slow as as Dr. James mentioned a little bit earlier today about that uh in the bureaucracy that
we're difficult big shift to big ship to move and when you're dealing with young people sometimes that can be even more challenging. But what I'm seeing here is positive and and it looks like that we definitely are headed in the right direction and some of the processes that
we've put in place over the last couple of years have really started to really um show their fruit and the fruits of the labor are looking good. So I think that's all I wanted to say about the data but I I do want to ensure I mean we
have been having conversation the back of my mind I'm still saying that kindergarten readiness piece and the early learning aspects the lack of preparedness that students come into us with and then the summer
slide is real because it's the lack of information that the student is going over in the summertime and we're about to have it again just this two weeks of of a winter Christmas break. If if kids aren't engaging in anything at all, ask
them what they're looking at in the grocery store. Ask them help them read directions when you're making your recipes and the holidays. Like all the different things that uh that we think of as we don't necessarily always think of learning opportunities. So, that
would be something really fast y'all could throw together. Just I'm I'm kidding. But just like, you know, a top 10 list of here's things how to keep your kids engaged over the holidays that would maybe it's a top three list. I don't care. But I mean, seriously, if it's, you know, help them have them measure something whenever you're baking
cookies or have them whatever that looks like. All of those are learning opportunities. And I don't think that all of our families and all of our community understands how important it is that this is a community initiative and a community effort. We're all in this together and
our kids are not just Marian County Public Schools kids. They are Marian County and we need to think about them as such. So, okay, that was a tangent. Thank you for the opportunity. >> All right, board. Does anyone else have comments on PM2 data?
Um, I'll just add, um, I love the idea Dr. James shared about really even over Christmas break that could be anytime we have a break, something available either on our website or that a grade level sends home
with their students over a break like, hey, this is what's coming up or this is what, you know, this is what you can use to prepare for fourth grade or fifth grade. Um, the biggest challenge I faced a as a fourth grade teacher was multiplication facts.
>> I I would guarantee to say almost every single math skill in fourth grade, you have to know your multiplication facts. Um, and in third grade, they weren't mastering their multiplication facts. So, that makes it really hard to be successful in fourth grade um when
you're trying to learn those as you're learning a new skill. Uh so that was a challenge I faced. I also agree um at least at the school-based level, second grade was always referred to as a review year. Um, and so we've got to change that, uh, and take a look at what skills
we can move and start introducing into second grade so they're better prepared for third grade because it's not only a big challenge academically. It's also a big challenge for them in the level of responsibility that they have going into
third grade where, you know, in second grade, your second grade teachers are more nurturing, helping you get all your things together and all the reminders. in third grade, you're you're kind of supposed to do it on your own, you know, when you're at school. And so I think there's a lot of change that happens from second to third grade. Um
so those would be my comments. Uh I I'm glad to see that our our data is trending up, of course. Um just continuing to look for ways that we can help our our families um that are engaged so that their students can be successful. >> So if I can touch on both those items,
chair, just for a moment. Um, one for second grade, we we have already taken a number of steps this year that I think are going to be beneficial as we continue down the road. Um, one is we actually instituted benchmark assessments for second grade throughout the year. And it's been pretty eye openening for teachers when they see the level of rigor in these questions that
we have aligned to state expectations um, and seeing their students having to grapple with those questions. And it helps them to then just like our third through 10th grade teachers be able to look at what do my students know, what do they not know, where are the misconceptions and how can I help that um that focus to really begin to push
the level of rigor in the classroom. Um I know our area superintendents as they visit have also prioritized second grade. So when they visit our elementary schools, walking second grade classrooms is a big part of that. Um Dr. James is aware that with our um high quality teaching task force, we focused in in the beginning of the year collecting data on second grade and really working
to develop plans for how we're supporting them. Um so the work is being done, but we know that there's still a lot of room for growth that we're going to continue to work on. Uh with the home learning piece, we do have resources available for families that they can utilize at home that our curriculum team pushes out. Um and so the the number one
thing parents can do at home is read with their kids. I mean, that is absolutely one of the best ways that we can support instruction at home. pick a good Christmas book, anything, sit down and read with the students and and that's going to pay dividends. But we've pushed, we have resources available. We actually sent out a letter from the commissioner that the department of
education also has resources available for helping students with math and ELA at home that we shared with all of the parents this week through Mr. Christian. So, um, the resources are there. We just have to encourage our families to use those and absolutely spend time with family, but make that family time also a
learning time. >> Sure. >> Yes. >> Question. I got a question from Mr. White House. Do we have um and I was just thinking, do we ever um like for the holidays, we we just talked about encouraging the the kids to read over the holidays. Do we ever put out on our
our website like a recommended Christmas reading list, uh age appropriate that we're doing something to put out there and the parents can have this quick resource? I know. Um, and it could be like a district-wide
reading list that whatever the Grinch, whatever, something. I'm just asking. >> So, so we certainly check out books for the holidays. Um, I know I was at Saddlewood Elementary yesterday reading to a kindergarten class and the the media specialist there had a whole range
of books available for students and teachers were bringing classrooms in to be able to look at those books. they were focused on the holidays, grade level appropriate, but also, you know, challenging reading material for our students that they can take home and be able to read over the break. Um, so yes, do we have a prescribed list? A little more challenging just because of access
to those books at home, right? >> Um, but absolutely, we we encourage our students to be able to check out books and take them home. >> One other thing. >> Go ahead. >> Just quick, Dr. James. Um, too, I just want to take that opportunity to give a shout out to our media specialists. they put a lot of work in getting um things
ready before uh the holiday break and so many of them wrap up all of the holiday books, you know, and and um so when the kids come in, they pick a book, but they don't know which Christmas book there. It makes it a little exciting. So, just a shout out to our media specialists who are doing everything they can to entice
our students into reading. And then Mr. House, Mr. Mr. White House, I wanted to say I I was really disheartened to hear you say that the first four questions on the fourth grade assessment they had not been introduced to. >> For the vast majority of students, yeah, it's it's a it's a random generated
test, so nobody sees the same test and it's luck of the draw. Um, and so with a lot of those students in fourth grade, the first question they saw was a fractionbased question or it was a geometric reasoning, which in fourth grade we teach about area and perimeter and we teach about angles, understanding acute, obtuse angles, etc. And so, um, a
lot of our students were confronted with that initially. Um, and so we know with students when they run into questions they're not familiar with, it builds a frustration level. Um, especially when early on you're seeing a lot of those questions that you struggle with. So the the questions when we analyze the data
the the benchmarks that we have taught them they did extremely well on >> right >> but for a lot of those students they didn't encounter those questions until you know 15 20 questions in they started seeing more of those questions and and feeling comfortable but um I expect to see really large gains in fourth grade
between PM2 and PM3 because we will at that point have covered a lot of those benchmarks. >> I appreciate that. I just my teacher heart hurts um when we talk about st you know testing is stressful for our students and and they have a lot of it
and so um thinking about the first couple questions you answer it that you're presented with as something that you haven't even been taught yet is really disheartening. Um, and so I guess that's an opportunity for test taking skills, you know, that we just talk to
our students about. Hey, the chances are you might get something that we haven't learned yet and to just let them know that that's okay. It's part of part of the process, but that's that's really a hard thing um, you know, for our young people. And so I just wanted to acknowledge that and and thank you for
bringing awareness to it. >> Yeah, it's good food for thought for our curriculum team, too. And I know we've had a lot of conversation, we'll continue to about how we do our curriculum mapping, pacing, and using the data that we get back from these assessments to really help us think through what that looks like for each of these grade levels. And so we we take
each of those um progress monitoring windows as bits of evidence that we can then use to better shape our year for next year. >> And and I don't know if you still if we're still using this, but we used to and I don't remember the name either, but we used to have a cyclical five or six question math um I don't even I
don't know what to call it. a quick um lesson or practice that they did right at the beginning of the math lesson. So, we could get a little, you know, some kids were ready for it, some kids were not, but it gave you a brief opportunity to introduce a skill that maybe you haven't covered yet. Um because math is
so cyclical in building, it's hard to pull something from the end of the year curriculum and weave it into um daily instruction. But I don't remember the name of that. I don't know if we're still doing it, but that would be one way um that our students get a little Okay, thank you, Dr. Brewer. >> Kickstarts.
>> It is called kickstarts. Thank you so much. And it's just very valuable. Um just a chance for your kids that are just, you know, on the verge of learning those skills so they get a little practice and um a little confidence and doing things that might be a little outside of their reach. Okay. Thank you.
Thank you, Dr. River. >> Board member. >> Thank you. And listening to all this encouraging news has got me thinking, you know, um we have stability in our favor right now. Um we
have over the years put a lot of things in place systems wise and and and academically and but there's always been pretty major distractions. you know, we had the little thing called the
pandemic, you know, just we were finding our feet and then Delta hit and we were like, "No, we have to do this again." You know, um, hurricanes, you know, time off of school and and I don't believe in jinxing
anything. I I I think it's important to acknowledge the positive momentum and the stability that we're currently experiencing, the f familiarity of people that have stayed. That sense of of calm creates the ability to really
focus um on the task at hand. And so I'm really grateful for this uh phase that we're in, you know, and it sure sounds to me like we're we're capitalizing on it. Um, it got me also thinking of
throughout the morning we've talked about the importance of community connections and and support that we do have. And as I was listening to the other board members, I'm thinking, well, where are people, you know, at this time of year? Well, they're out and about,
you know, they're they're at the stores, they're they're shopping, they're they're getting extra food, you know, all these things. And I don't know, you know, if there's already someone in place to do this type of outreach, but it would be really interesting to me. And it would probably benefit the businesses, too, because if a kid can
pronounce a word, then they can certainly then ask for it to be purchased and there may end up with more in the cart than what the parent wanted. But um you know as as you I guess what I was visualizing as I listen to these these comments is you know a parent family
going down like the grocery aisle and and there being like I don't know something some sort of visual that says hey did you ask your kid about this or that you know the whole thing about in the environment you know we all know what kids like and and grocery store
aisles and everything else and candy. Um, so take that into the the community and and again I I think that the businesses would probably benefit from it financially and I know our kids certainly would literacy wise and hey
did you know that you know uh this kid can help carry that small you know baseline just a million embedded opportunities for for learning speaking talking your child through the aisles instead of parking them in the cart, you know,
>> with the game. >> Yeah. With the traveling television. So, anyway, >> back to that look up campaign, right? Get off your devices and look up. >> Look up at the shelves. >> Yeah. Um, so I think great feedback from
the board. Overall, it looks like we're really going in a positive direction. Um, we have pockets that need more improvement than others and we obviously, to Dr. Campbell's point have a lot of work to still do to ensure that every student is crossing the finish
line, the graduation stage at the end of their time with Marian County Public Schools. Um board, I want to I guess get your guidance as to how would you like me to
give next steps to HYA, the firm we've hired for our superintendent search. on December 1st, we left off with them. Um, my task was to follow up with them uh after we had this conversation so that
they could proceed or not uh in January. So, they're expecting communication from me. So, if anyone on the board would like to start off that conversation, otherwise I will. But >> go ahead.
>> Okay. >> I figured Dr. That's fine. Um I I feel confident in the work that's being done with the leadership we have in Marian County Public Schools right now. Uh the PM2 data to me solidifies the work that is going on and the
improvements that are being made and the high school graduation rate improvement of seven points in the last two years really speaks to Dr. Brewer's leadership, seeing as she was working directly in that role during the time when those rates are reflective. And so
to board member Thrower's comments just a few moments ago about stability, uh, and I don't know if that's where you were going or not, board member Thrower, but um, it spoke to me in that this ship, as I referred to earlier, is
headed in a path that is positive and disrupting the leadership at this point. um I could see having negative implications on what we're doing. And so my recommendation would be to move forward in the
solidification of Dr. Brewer in this role and um let the attorney and attorneys do what attorneys do and let's continue this calm, steady waters we've been in and move forward in this direction. So I'll kick it off with
that. Is there anyone who has remarks about that? >> Board member. >> Sorry. >> Go ahead. Sorry. I was looking this way because I was expecting Dr. Campbell to jump in. I was watching. I was looking at her face. Um I agree. Uh Dr. James, I
I think that um we're in a good position. Um our data is trending upward. graduation is trending upward. Um staff when you visit schools are excited
about the direction um that we're moving and the relationships that are being built which I spoke of earlier. Um and so I too would be in favor in moving forward and solidifying our uh a contract and agreement with Dr.
Brewer as our superintendent. >> Board member Thor. I know you we're leaning forward. Did you have something you wanted to share? >> Oh, that's fine. Sure. Oh, I know we're all getting a chance. Um, thank you board and and and Dr. Brewer and the whole team for
um truly emphasizing the obvious. You know, if if kids aren't in school, how are they going to learn? You know, how are they going to do what what we need them to do? And I'm I'm even a little embarrassed at
this point because I feel like, oh, there she goes again, you know, saying something about attendance. Um, but I just don't think that that can be emphasized enough. Um, and it's also very obvious that the highest performing
districts have the lowest chronic absences. It's a handinhand thing. Now once you get them there you have to engage them which is you know step two and um that's another thing I'm very
proud of our district 4 is what we have done over the years um to truly adopt the mindset that every single individual child needs a path you know
and and that's not easy to accomplish but it's it's the old starfish theory, right? You know, there there's not one kid that's any more or less important than anyone else. And so that to me is where the one team, one one mission
comes in. Um I think that we're finally out we've internalized it a while ago, but I think it's now being externally demonstrated, you know, with with more and more energy, enthusiasm, sophistication, and follow through. Um, I also have been
around long enough to know that it is important to acknowledge the work of those that came before us. Um, when board member Cummings and I got on the board, we were in an interesting time. Um, but but every phase is a learning experience and you can walk away with
elements of that that can help improve you, you know, um, moving forward. So that is uh my perspective on this. Um I don't it's hard for me to think of a
downside at this point to not continuing with with the team we have in place and the and the momentum that we have um that is accelerating. I think that it's really important um to the the district and the community at large because you
know other stakeholders are watching and waiting too you know to to see what we're going to decide because one way or another it's going to trigger you know reactions and so I think that I am at the point of feeling you know
really comfortable in the phase that we're in now um to to keep it rolling and go from there. >> All right. Thank you, board member. >> So, that's an endorsement of Dr. Brewer and her team.
>> Sorry, I didn't mean to interrupt in case there was any uncertainty. >> Um, board member Cummings or Dr. Campbell, do you have remarks you'd like to add? >> Go ahead, Eric. >> Ladies first.
>> I'll um listen, you guys know where I've been from the beginning. Um, and I'm not going to waver in what I've said from the past. I fully support I do support Dr. Brewer, but I also support processes. Um,
and I understand um, we are riding a wave of momentum. Um, but I want us to be clear. Um, when we say something, we need to do what we say we're going to do. And we've told the community that we were going to do.
We had that we implemented a process of getting a superintendent. Um, and then now we want to um modify or alter that that route of getting a process. I have again I have no and I've talked to Dr.
Brewer. I have no problem with Dr. Brewer. I have no problem with the team that um she has assembled around her because they are doing the work. They definitely are doing the work. But I just wants to be clear um that when you
say something, you say it and it's on record what we say it. And so to modify at a time like this, um it's could be it could be done. It probably is going to be done, but I just want to be on record saying I believe in the process, but I also believe that Dr. Ver and the team
can get the job done. So, I don't I don't I'm not going to I'm not going to say let's change do anything. My yays are always going to be yays and my days going to be nay. So, >> okay. Thank you, Dr. Campbell >> pulling out scripture on us Cummings.
Um, yeah. So, here's where I sit. It's no secret that I was the only board member that did not uh choose to go with a a currently employed interim
superintendent. That was when we scored them, the candidates that we had outside of the district uh were the two that I had selected higher than the ones inside the district and that is publicly available and knowledge there. Um,
however, I have been more than pleasantly surprised and pleased with the results. I'm grateful that we are able to use data that we've just received to help form this opinion and
decision because student achievement has to be the primary focus and the goal of everything that we do. And I am grateful for the opportunities
to have several months in an interim phase. I I think this has been while not happened the way I had anticipated it would, we've been given this grace period of sorts where we've
been able to have kind of like I'm going to call it a trial run. And that sounds really tacky, but uh where where we could see what it would look like and we could see leadership that had been put in place by our interim superintendent, where we could see processes that were
being put in place. We hopefully are going to start undertaking our new strategic plan, which will then drive the evaluation of the superintendent. And so there's there's still things in place that are on the trajectory of
where we can continue to see increase and continue to move in the momentum that we have. As I said before uh the last time whenever we had HYA here, the the energy within the district is palpable. You can feel it, you can
see it, you understand that people feel the momentum. So it and obviously our scores are starting to reflect that as well. We can feel the momentum. That's all internal. So we have to make sure that the community also respects whatever decision we're going to make.
So that's I I completely appreciate what Reverend Cummings has just said. Uh because there's a process that we said we were going to undertake. However, where where I see the happy medium on that, and this probably isn't
something for today's conversation, but while we're going on the record saying things, I'm going on the record saying it. Several years ago, our community, I think 2018 ballot, right, voted to go with an elected, instead of an elected
superintendent, voted to go with an appointed superintendent. Ironically, many of the people that over the last four to five years have been advocating for us to go back to elected have also reached out to me and talked about how
they appreciated where we currently were and what it looks like over the last six months and that people just out of the woodwork have come to say, "Hey, I like her." Or whatever. And so this is very odd having you sit right there talking about you. So, by the way, just for the
record, um, but what I also could potentially see as that happy medium of sorts to say, yes, community, we understand that you voted to have an appointed superintendent. However,
we have chosen one within our ranks, but as we go into contract negotiations, we will not consider a salary of sorts that would have been the scope of a national search. So, again, very awkward
having this conversation with you sitting right there staring at me. >> I'm not. >> But no, no, no, you're no, no, no, you're not. You're not. I'm I'm not saying No, it just happens to be you're right there in my line of sight when I look to my left. So, Dr. James, you can lean forward if you'd like. That would help me a lot. But thank you. This is
such an odd um situation. So, while you all were talking, I I just happened to pull the salary progression and what that has looked like for elected superintendent. And I know we've talked about this before. If Marian County still had an elected superintendent, the
salary for 2526 would have been $217,448. that is not the 140 some odd thousand it was whenever they voted to go appointed. So there there is a there is a shift there for sure. It's all based on
population change. Uh so what I want to say is I can completely support moving forward with negotiation on a contract with Dr. Brewer to become our permanent superintendent within Marian County Public Schools. But I also want to see a
salary range in that contract that looks more like the elected salary schedule as opposed to the initial amounts that HYA was recommending if we were doing a national search and pulling from someone
with outside of Marian County experience. Now, however that is worded in the contract as to what it looks like for additional increases or whatever that looks like, I can tell you from 2023
to 2025, the increase by the state range was like a $42,000 increase. So, I mean, it's So, if we went with the elected salary schedule, then we would have to fork out the
$33,000 that went between 23 and 24. But I'm just I I do want to make that statement for the general public to understand that those that still want to bang that elected superintendent drum need to
understand what that price tag is and and how different it is than whenever they originally voted it in. Okay, that's enough about money. Last point has already been made that the data is looking positive. our students are are
improving. The leadership that has been put into place is exceeding expectations. Uh I had told Dr. Brewer in our very first meeting after she became the appointed the interim superintendent.
My very first meeting I I think I said I I'm looking for bold decisions. I'm I'm looking for, you know, not just trying to be a cookie cutter, but trying to actually, you know, lead lead through ambition and through um bold decisions.
And even the conversations we've had of what the North End school potential would be, and I know that's a conversation that will still come to us in the near future. Um there's there's just a lot of momentum that's headed in the right direction and I can completely
be on board with moving forward with a Dr. Brewer permanent superintendent position. >> Okay. Did you have something board member Thor? >> I do. Um when one of our major tasks is is fiscal
responsibility, you know, budget and policy. And that was another reason of many, trust me, that I came to what I said today because um I'm I want to be married to reality,
not to process. And the reality is and the community needs to know that at least my reality is is that we're we're on a good track. So why would we spend that money, you know, right now to do a
deep and wide national search, which was something I was pretty dead set on because it was like if people don't get a chance to vote, then the least we can do is bring in a lot of, you know, candidates and let them have a look see and and and weigh in and so on. Um, and
in theory that was great. Uh but in reality uh at least my current reality is is put me in a different mindset. Um so there there is that um when it comes
to you know elected and appointed all of the research shows that one is really no more significant than the other. It's woy dependent on the support of the community and the strength of the school board.
So in a wash situation like that, uh we've got a great team. We've got good momentum and hopefully we'll be able to save some money because we're not bringing in someone from the outside that has to be paid to move and everything else. You know, contract negotiations are what they are and
obviously Dr. Brewer, you'll be a big part of that because it's your job. Um, you know, there's all kinds of elements that can be built into things, uh, like contract negotiations. So, I'm even excited for that. Actually, if if I was you, I'd be excited for that.
Um, so anyway, I I'll just stop talking now. >> Okay. Well, what I hear is unanimous support for Dr. Brewer. Um, and the majority of us are willing to stop after phase one with HYA and move
forward with uh appointing Dr. Brewer a super permanent superintendent job. Uh, so what I would say next Well, I guess we'll have to Dr. Bird, would you accept? >> Yes. Is that what I do now?
>> Not really because that was very informal. Right. >> I just feel like we've talked about you for the last 30 minutes. So, I felt like, you know, we should at least try to include you a little bit. Um, so I think what what would be the best next steps board is we have a work session in
January, January 8th. And so I would ask that we get a board work session agenda item for us to hash out the things that we would like to see in the contract. Uh, we're also going to talk about the job description here in just a few minutes. Um, and some of those components may also to some degree be a
part of that conversation. But January 8th, we can add a work session agenda item to discuss things that are important to us. Um, Mr. Walsh would we'd like for him to be there probably because most of them will uh revolve
around compensation, whether that's a vehicle. I imagine Miss Marant would need to be there as well. Um, so there are some components that our previous contract had that we'll need to decide. Are we keeping those? Um, and I guess I would say board, if it's okay with you, Dr. Brewer, if there are things that you
would like to see included, potentially those could get sent um to staff ahead of time so we can at least have those um as part of our perspective. I certainly wouldn't want to waste time having a conversation on things that are non-starters and or otherwise. Do you
have um perspective on that, >> Reverend Cummings? >> I do. I do. I think um if you're going to proceed um the proper advice to Dr. Brewer would be for her attorney. >> Yeah. Well, that's what I mean. Her representation. I don't mean >> Okay. Because um
>> that if you're going to do contracts, it needs to be contracted. It needs to be the right conversation. >> Most certainly. So, what I meant I don't mean Dr. Brewer is going to personally I mean you can do whatever you want Dr. brewer. But I would say that if working with the your representation, if you
have things that you would like to see in a contract as we go to talk about those things in a work session, understanding what our employee would like to see, I think would be helpful to guide the conversation. Board member Conrad, you I'm sorry, you were muted.
>> Um I agree. I I would like to know um what Dr. Brewer is asking for when we come to the table. >> Okay. Okay. >> Is that something that you feel like with the holiday? Okay. Um, board, does that sound okay to you? >> Board member Thorougher, did you have >> Oh, just said I think we were on the
cusp of asking her if she really wanted to do this after this few months of deep aversion. >> Do you really want to do this, Dr. Burr? I I have just had just the honor of leading this incredible group and many of them are sitting right here with our one team one mission banner and so I I'm
not prepared to respond eloquently to that but I've just had the honor and I hope I can can continue to lead this great team. >> So Madam Chair, let me let me be let's be very clear what is happening because I want to be clear again. We're not
going to continue the process and we're going to enter into a period now of negotiating a contract with Dr. Bureau to not no longer be the interim but to be the permanent >> superintendent. >> Correct. >> Correct. >> That's I just wanted to state that
>> because whatever we do from here, let's do that. >> Let's not deviate. And I for the record, I was a board member who said I wanted a phased approach with our contract with HYA because I felt very confident in what Dr. Brewer was going to do. And I I
thought we would do phase one and and see what happened. And I've heard HYA say loudly that when a board is vocal as we have been, it is it is challenging to then get
people from around the country to apply for a job when the board has been pretty vocal that they're pretty comfortable with how it's going. So I think it's in our best financial interest and otherwise to move to proceed in this fashion. So, I mean, I feel very
confident with my decision personally. Dr. uh board member Conrad, >> you can add doctor if you'd like. That would be nice. Um I just want to add one thing for me because um I do agree with Reverend Cummings, you know, about about the process and and how we we discussed
that and that was our goal. But I also felt very confident in the feedback that we got back from the community. Um that they are also very um lack of a better word, just happy. I mean, staff members are happy and community members are
happy. Um, Dr. Brewer's been visible. Um, I I don't know when she sleeps. Actually, you or Ben, I don't know when you sleep. Um, but people are very happy to see that you are at the table. um you know
earlier today we talked about the community partnerships and and we need those in education you know and so um I feel very comfortable even though we have not followed through with the whole process I feel very comfortable with
board comments and the community's participation and their comments so I just I wanted to share that >> now where I will differ here is um is there an appointed superintendent they're appointed superintendent. I
don't think you penalize a person because we decided to do this um as far as their salary um in that contract. I don't like that part of it. I'm just be straightforward. Um if you're going to be an elected superintendent, there is a salary range for it. But to penalize Dr.
Brewer because we chose to not go through that process, I think that's part of wrong. And I think I would I would agree with you, Reverend Cummings, and I think January 8th would be a perfect time for us to hash that out. >> We can go over a lot of details. >> And I think um in preparation for that,
um Mr. Rio Walsh, maybe one of the things you could prepare for the board ahead of time would be um salary ranges for for appointed superintendent in a variety of positions across Florida. Um, I feel confident that even
if we proceeded in this process and and did the whole shebang that Dr. Brewer would come out ahead. And so I would agree that the pay should be reflective of an appointed superintendent. Um, and so we'll we'll hash that out in January 8th. We'll hash that out. Um, we'll
we'll hopefully have some stuff from council for Dr. Brewer and we can get some pen to paper and ink to paper and then hopefully by the end of January button this up and the work will continue. Um, I think that it is important that to note that as the
interim superintendent, Dr. Brewer has been you, she's not the the most senior compensated employee in Maring County. Um, she's ranked up there with some of the individuals who sit out in our audience today. And so, um, I think that
comp compensation is important and and recognition for work being done is important. And so, we will get there. Um, but is there any more board comment about the PM2 data and what we're doing next?
I will communicate with HYA based on this conversation. Is there any public comment about our PM2 data? Okay. Well, then we are going to go on to our last agenda item. Our last agenda item is the job description for the superintendent. That's item 10.1. board.
You all received information from Miss Marant and it's also uploaded in um board docs and Miss Morant and I discussed briefly yesterday. So I think the goal here is to go section by section and stay focused.
I I know how we can all be myself included. And so, uh, the goal is to, Miss Morant's going to lead us based on the new job description section by section to seek our agreement on things
that are there. And the only things that are in the JD right now are what the desired characteristics that HYA already provided us and then some of those nonHR non-negotiables, I guess, would be the best way to put it. So I will turn
the floor over to Miss Morant. >> Yes. Thank you uh board chair Dr. James, Dr. Brewer and board members. So as Dr. James shared, we're going to go through the JD and you should have received three documents also. Three are attached. So the current JD that was
board approved in 2019, the new JD um that's on the current template and then a combined. So you could see um the markups. And that one's to me a little probably um a little harder to decipher because the template's completely different. So, as Dr. James mentioned,
there are certain items that we have on the new template that we would keep. Those are the skills and abilities, physical requirements, physical activities, and the working conditions. Those are that's pretty much templated language. But where I want us to start would be in the essential functions. And
then we can move to position summary and then experience and qualifications. So you all I know in the previous work session as provided by HYA you should have or you receive the desired uh successor superintendent c um characteristics and those
characteristics that were identified were then translated to the essential functions. So um hopefully you all had an opportunity to review is there any feedback um any changes edits thoughts concerns? Starting with
essential functions board. Um any any necessity to make changes there? I know we had already come to consensus that we liked all of the uh send. Thank you. The word was escaping me. Essential functions from HYA and so those were essentially copy and pasted
over. Is there anything else that you would like to see or things that you want deleted? >> Member conf. Uh, Miss Maria, I talked with you a little bit about this in person, but um, one of the challenges I have, and I think it's just a per personal preference of mine. I don't I
don't think it's going to change because I think this is the way job descriptions look, but some of it is just so general. Um, you know, when you get uh, let me choose one. build trust and foster positive relationships across all stakeholders groups by demonstrating
transparency, authenticity, and consistent communication, including the ability to clearly articulate the why behind the decisions. So, I just anywhere else do we put bullet points under those like what that entails, what each of those pieces entails, or no,
that's just not best practice. >> So, I wouldn't put it in the job description, but certainly once the job description is approved and Dr. Dr. James or the board, however you all move forward with that and you're working with Dr. um Brewer, that's the opportune time to say, "Okay, this is what that
looks like. These are my expectations." And then when you go to the evaluation piece, this is how we would measure it. But to to then add the sub bullets for the JD, I I wouldn't recommend it. >> Thank you, Miss Maria. >> Of course.
>> Any other comments on this first section, essential functions? U Reverend Cummings or Dr. Campbell. I just I can't see you, Dr. >> I think that's I don't see anything that needs mention. >> Okay, >> Dr. Campbell. And I would just liken the
the job description to and and the generalities that are included that they're not ambiguous, they're just overarching more so. And so when you're thinking of a strategic plan, I would say these are the goals of what we're looking for. And then as we get into
actual real nitty-gritty, that's more of the strategy piece. And so you kind of have to break it down. And so we'll we'll get to that whenever we because under each one of these bullets essentially there is a sub bullet in our minds or multiple sub bullets. But you
have the job description that kind of is all-encompassing. So you ensure that everything that you want the superintendent to have the ability to do is somewhere encompassed in that. So there's never something that a superintendent has that falls under
other duties as assigned because really we need to assign every possible thing that they might do in this job description. So I I think that the what we've accomplished here does that. >> Okay. And I want just as a a point of
note once this is done and once our new strategic plan is done I do believe we are going to need probably at least one if not multiple work sessions to redo the evaluation. >> Of course. >> Yes. And I know that we had discussed redoing the evaluation for attorney
powers as well. So maybe we can put um some time in the spring on a work session um just to put aside so we can not forget to address um board member thorough I saw your finger. >> Yes. Thank you for mentioning that um because I was sitting here thinking that
what we're moving into are elements and of the evaluation tool and the artifacts that uh the superintendent will present you know as evidence of you know meeting our expectations. >> Yes. So we'll we will this is going to
be a multi-step process. Um so we all feel good about essential functions then. Okay. Next. >> Perfect. And then if you can take uh point your attention to the position summary. Give a moment to allow you to reread
that and see if there's anything you want to change, alter, update with that section, that first paragraph on the top of the job description. >> Thank you. >> Yes, it's at the very top. Yes, >> I did not have any changes there.
>> Just a grammatical question. >> Yes. >> Do do all of our job descriptions call us the school district of Marian County or do we call ourselves Marian County Public Schools in our job descriptions? And honestly, I can't think of that
right now. The only reason I'm asking is like I know Oyola County is very specific. They're always known as the school district of Oyola County. SDOC is what they call themselves. We always say MCPS. So that's just a question. I I don't know if if we the chief executive
officer of Marian County Public Schools is how that first um sentence needs to read or if it's the school district and I don't know the answer to that. >> Attorney powers. powers >> and it may be a little bit maybe a little bit different in our case because are we referring to the
superintendent's contract specifically >> the the job description >> contracting party is the school board of Marian County so um that would be how that would refer I mean >> so maybe let's just make sure there's synonymous with the language between
what her contract will read what the JD will read um >> so for now I'll do an edit in um cross out district and replace that with board. Would that be you think school board of Mary? >> I mean just wherever we have the entity name it has to be SBOMC.
>> Okay. >> It's not the chief but she would not be serving as the chief executive officer of the school board. >> Correct. >> She's the chief executive officer of Marian County Public Schools. It's it's just a question whether we want to say school district of Marian County or of Marian County Public Schools. And that's
my question. It's really just a semantic thing. I I think it has value though. I mean, I think that it needs to be synonymous with what we are doing in the rest of our >> JDS. I'm pretty sure it's MCPS, but I'll confirm >> that would >> um and allow that part to match.
>> That would you would be correct, Miss Morant. Um it it just doesn't have for the contracting portion, which is the only thing I'm referring to. It has to be specific as to SBOMC. As to everything else, it's MCPS, but MCPS is
not a legal entity. So, >> so we call ourselves. So, right. >> Yep. >> For the purpose of JD, I think it's adequate and certainly within your experience, I believe you'd agree. >> Okay. I agree. And I'll ensure that that's aligned, but I'm pretty sure it's the MCPS.
>> Board member Thorough. >> What else? >> Are we moving on to the second long sentence? >> Oh, yay. We're in position summary, so whatever fits your fancy. >> All right. Um because one thing I noticed in that sentence, the superintendent is responsible for ensuring and I was wondering everyone's
thoughts for ensuring that the safe, effective and efficient operation of schools. I just didn't see safe in there and love it. Yes, I would agree. I like to add the word safe. >> I agree. Okay, great. >> Well attended. No.
Uh any other changes to position summary? >> Do we want to include anything to do with finance at all in that position summary? I mean I think accountability and all of that is there. Efficient operation. I probably does. I'm just
>> think I'm like you. I think those words kind of cover efficient accountability. I think those kind of >> pull that in there. >> I mean I can agree. It's like we're just having this um talking it out just if
we're adding a a word like safe, which I completely agree with. I just want to make sure that there wasn't another missing element, but I think we could say it's encompassed in what's there. >> At least that's the intent of it, >> right?
I would agree. I think the words there are are covered. I think safe kind of wasn't covered. So, I I liked that from board member Thor. >> Moving forward. >> All right. Are we good with position summary then? >> With position summary, we're just going to update um the chief executive officer
of Marian County Public Schools confirming the alignment with other JDs and then in the second sentence adding safe. So, the superintendent is responsible for ensuring the safe, effective, and efficient operation. Dot dot dot. >> Yep. >> Yes. >> Perfect. Okay. So, thank you all. So
we're moving to the second to last page. So page three when we're looking at the position qualifications taking a look at education and experience. We can start with education. >> I I'm comfortable with education.
>> Good. >> Okay. I see you heads wonderful. And now moving to experience. Any feedback there? And experience does lead over to the the final the fourth and final page as well.
>> I do think one of the things that I would like to understand and I think include and this is not going to be reflective of Dr. Brewer, but I think it's important to note we're doing work that could theoretically be used in the future as well. Um this An appointed superintendent
needs to hold a educational leadership teaching certificate. Is that correct? >> That is correct. >> And I don't know that I see the certification requirement. >> Oh, look on page four. >> Yeah, it's there
>> under certificates and or licenses. >> Okay. So, sorry, I was thinking of it in in the experience section. Well, seeing as how the experience gives the opportunity for a senior level administrator in a large organization to potentially become superintendent, just
the eligibility of to sit for the certification exam is probably more appropriate. What do you mean? I'm sorry. I I think you were asking about that they would have the their teaching certificate essentially and and I think
that the experience as is written here gives the opportunity for someone outside of education and so having the teacher certification doesn't need to be an experience. It needs to be eligibility for it. >> Yes. Yes. Yes. I I agree. It's a more
appropriate place. >> Chair. Yes. Yes. Um, but Miss Morant, can you sit for the leadership certification without a bachelor's degree? >> Without a bachelor's degree? No. >> Well, we can't give you a job without a bachelor's degree. Yeah. You have to have a master's degree. >> You have to have a masters with doctoral preferred for this specific.
>> But I don't think you can get a educational leadership test done without an educational leadership degree. >> You can't. But someone could be working in the private sector in leadership, have a master's degree in ed leadership, and it it could it could still work out.
I mean, I think you should have an ed leadership certification to be a superintendent of a public school district personally, but >> and also keep in mind when we do job descriptions, this is I hate to say it, but it's bare minimum, you know? So,
it's what they have to have. This is the threshold they have to meet. And we we know who the incumbent is, but if if we were searching, you could still have screeners. And we do this with other JDs as well. This is the minimum to start day one, but you can still screen for higher requirements.
>> Yes. >> Okay. Well, then any other comments about experience? >> No. >> Okay. Board member Thor, we were discussing experience. Is there anything you wanted? We none of us had anything to change, but is there anything you'd
like to change for experience? >> Thank you. And no. >> Okay. What's next, Miss Bryant? >> That is all. Those were the items that we wanted to look at having your review. And the others, as I mentioned, the skills and ability, physical requirements, physical activities, and
working conditions that comes from our templated language. >> Okay. So then board next steps. This will be on an agenda in January. >> January 13th. we've placed a placeholder there for board approval. >> Um, so that sounds good. And then based on the timeline we discussed a little
bit ago, we'll have this approved prior to the contract agreement for a new superintendent. >> And question for you, when we upload it to board docs for the actual agenda that we're voting on, do you want us to put
the three different documents or just the track changes and the clean document? I know we need the track changes document, but I don't think it's as clear to follow without having the clean copy to accompany it, but just wanted that clarification prior to
moving forward either way. >> I would like you to upload the clean document. >> Okay. >> I agree. It's easier to follow. >> Well, and I think at um we've had a public work session where we discussed the changes. So, I think just moving forward with >> the clean one. >> The clean one. >> Perfect. Sounds good.
>> I also think the things that we got rid of Um, the work that we're putting into this is based on a firm we hired to help us get here. So, we didn't just pull these out of thin air. So, the work's been done with a firm and this is this
is rooted in research from our community. This is what the community said that they wanted. >> So, we'll get this updated, the clean document with the two changes that we noted in position summary. >> Okay. Is there any public comment on the
superintendent job description? Okay, board. Anything else before we finish that item? All right. Well, then we will move on. Um, that concludes while we did jump around the agenda a bit, that does conclude all of our agenda items for
today's work session. um to discuss meeting reminders as an administrative briefing and work session is scheduled for January 8th, 2026 at 9:00 am. Um a schoolboard meeting is scheduled for January 13th at 5:30 and an IROC meeting
is scheduled for January 15th at 400 pm and we will get into board member comments. Miss Martinez Young. >> No, Madam Chair, thank you. >> All right. Um Dr. Burr. >> Yes, I have quite a quite a bit to share. Um, I want to just restate what Mr. White House already prepared for
you. We are incredibly proud of the work that the schools have done this year. Um, and I mentioned earlier the curriculum team, but it it's not just the curriculum team. It's the area superintendent that provide daily support to the schools. It's the non-instructional staff. It's our
operation side, the technology. I mean, the the list goes on and on. And um last but definitely not least, you may recall during our leadership summit in July, I actually shared how important bless you. She's very sick and so she's struggling
up here. But I I shared how important it is for the operation side to make sure that every single child is addressed and we're not overlooking anybody. And and this data speaks to that. And so I just appreciate all everyone that has been involved and that speaks to the one team
one mission. And I'm just so proud of everyone. I want to also acknowledge the RSM audit that was presented to us today. We and you know we began this work under Dr. Gullet's leadership with bringing in this um outside
perspective and it really has made a difference with us becoming more efficient with every area of our um school system. And we're going to continue as they shared the next project will be that half penny sales tax and they will provide a report to us and I
will add that to our um agenda and I think I wrote June on on there. Um also last week was so much fun. Thank you to for your participation in our golden apple caravan. It's just so exciting to be able to um work with the public
education foundation. And as you know, they sponsor that incredible event. And to go from school to school to recognize the teachers is just so heartwarming and the tears just made it even more special. Um, so for the community know we recognized five Golden Apple
teachers, but we also recognized the school related employee of the year, which was a nurse, um, which was the first time ever I believe a nurse was actually recognized. And we recognized the rookie teacher for Marian County. And so all of those will um all of our
garden all of our teachers of the years will be invited to a gayla at the end of July, I mean January to be recognized. Um we had the Ocala Christmas parade this past Saturday and our schoolboard members rode um on a nice float provided by Florida Express Environmental and
they looked festive. So it was fun. We even had our own Miss Elena Martinez Young in a Grinch costume dancing the night away. So that was a lot of fun. Um I already shared about our graduation rates and I can we continue to work and um we know that we still have work to do
until we are at 100% graduation but we're moving in the right direction and I think Dr. Campbell used this phrase earlier the energy is there and so when they see the success we it continues and we know it's working. Um and I appreciate Jason Roberts and Kurt Kelly
coming today to provide an update on the workforce housing project. We um we we know that we have and I think Miss Thrower made this comment. We can't pay everyone their value, but we can work to ensure that we have appropriate
resources for all. And so this is a step in the right direction with that project. And Mr. Powers, Attorney Powers, has spent countless hours on he and Terry Brown both have spent countless hours on this. And I just want to say thank you as well as attorney
Blackman and Miss Usher and um there's been a lot of work behind the scenes and if it was easy like was already shared it um it wouldn't be considered an innovative project and so I think this will be special if we can if it all works out. Um and want to remind
everyone that we have a town hall gathering tonight at Denellan Middle School. It is our final town hall event. We've had four this semester and we are proud of the um the community and the parents that have come out to either ask questions or just hear what's going on
in Marian County. So they um we are excited about our final one this evening. And last but definitely not least, I hope everyone has a wonderful holiday break. Um, staff, please return to us on January the 6th and students, please return to us on January the 7th,
which is a Wednesday. So, parents, keep that in mind. Um, but that's all my comments. Chair, >> thank you, Dr. Brewer. Attorney Powers, >> nothing from legal. Thank you. >> Okay, Dr. Campbell. I was actually just looking really quickly because I believe
that even though there is no school on January 6th, the county soccer tournament does start on that day. So students, if you happen to play varsity soccer, make sure you are back uh in plenty of time to make sure you can participate. And I know there are basketball teams that are participating
in other holiday tournaments and things around um the state. And so there's still lots of activity happening over the holidays even though uh we technically are not in school. Just a couple of quick things I wanted to mention. First of all that Miss Usher
sent us an email while we've been sitting here about the change in our substantial completion date for the Lake Wer Middle School replacement. And we have done a lot of work to try to
get that expedited with the Sandkink situation that we have. And just before this meeting, we did get confirmation that Congressman Fine's office had sent a letter and they will be following up next week. But it we can only push so hard. And so we're we're trying very
diligently to to do everything that we can, but unfortunately that substantial completion date is going to have to be moved to July. And it's of no fault of our own. So that no fault of anyone's other than sand skinks. So I I know that sometimes we have struggles whenever
we're having to change those dates and if it seems as if it's someone else's challenge that's causing it. And at this point absolutely no one else is to blame other than those pesky sand skinks. Nevertheless, we will have a new middle
school ready to go uh in August of 2027. So, we'll be able to to work towards what potential opportunities there are in other properties uh around the district. Looking forward to some of those conversations. I had the opportunity to shadow at Marian
Technical College, one of the clerks there, and it was a great opportunity to kind of see in action a student actually applying and what the process looks like. And uh was able to sit down with Mr. Smallidge afterwards and just offer a couple of pieces of information. one
of which he was like, I don't even know why that would be the case. I think it's just a switch we need to flip. So, I mean, it was it was just a good opportunity to have another set of eyes on something and talking a little bit about the appropriation request that we have in uh looking forward to that and
working with our legislators on that. Yesterday's uh C breakfast was incredibly eye openening. I know I have already alluded to it more than once, but Mark Wilson from the president of the
Florida Chambers of Commerce, he said a couple of very pointed things. He said that if we fix early learning, it fixes another 100 other things. And that's something we've been banging the drum
on. And we know that. we just need everyone else in the community to be banging the drum with us. And so he talked a lot about everyone needing to be on the same page and asks specifically if I were to go into a schoolboard meeting and a county
commission meeting and a city council meeting, are they all on the same page and saying the same things? So I just put that out as a statement from someone else, not from us. that was someone else coming into Marian County kind of
telling us what we can do to really drive the future economy of Marian County. The last thing that I wanted to mention that he talked about was how much wealth is also moving into Marian County. And he said, "If Marian County
was a state, we have more wealth coming in than many other states like Arkansas and Hawaii and Vermont." And it was just fascinating to see how much wealth is coming into the state of Florida and and
and in Marian County as well. And that leads me to my final point. And Dr. Dr. Brewer, you and I can talk more about this offline, but I do think it's imperative that we assign someone in the district to start seeking out those
partners in education. As Mr. McCormack said today that he's familiar with partners in education as the moniker more so than business partnerships and we appreciate every one of those. But I had a conversation with a staff member was
talking about we're going to have to have an increase in whatever. I'm not going to call it out right now, but we're have to have an increase in this specific thing. We're going to have to come to you and ask for more money for this. And I said, there's a company in town that provides that. Why are we not
seeking out a sponsorship? They could put their name on all of these things. We're not even approaching or working in that effort. And with the conversation yesterday with Mark Wilson talking about wealth coming in to the state and our community, we need to get more strategic
and more targeted on how we promote businesses who help us in in cost-saving measures. So, uh that that's really what I wanted to share about that. And finally, that's already been said. Um, hoping for everyone to have safe and
happy holidays. Happy Hanukkah. We are in the middle of Hanukkah season. Um, merry Christmas and happy holidays. Happy New Year. We're not going to have another meeting until that until we're in the new year in 2026. And I believe all finals of students were wrapping up
today, I think. So, students should have their final grades. I know I had one texting me during not supposed to be on his phone, but he was telling me, "We made it, mama. We made it." Because he got a grade he was hoping for. He was concerned this morning. So anyway, we
feel that. We know that students are working really hard and and our teachers and staff are really working hard to ensure that our students are learning every day. So hope everyone has a safe and happy time off and come back rejuvenated and ready to work. Thanks.
>> Thank you, Dr. Campbell. Reverend Cummings, >> I am so glad we are hours away from Christmas break. This has been uh this has been a whirlwind first semester to be honest with you guys. Um it seems like we just
started school and here we are already at the uh end of the first semester. Um let me move this. This don't look good in front of me. I'm looking at the camera. Looks like those little jello shots sitting in front of the camera. Did y'all see that? Come on, Tanisha.
Those like little jello shots. >> Those are Those are like I don't know what you're talking about. What do those look like, Reverend Cummings? I've never seen those before. Those are little Kit Kat. I brought >> Kiss Kat. Yeah, but for the record, those are Kit Kats, right? >> And the candy cane. So, but it look like
Joe when I looked. Okay. Anyway, um we we had a whirlwind a whirlwind first semester. A lot of things have gotten accomplished. A lot of things are um have been done. We can see where the hard work has paid off um in the um the
data that Mr. White House gave us on today. We can see where the work is going and how we are moving forward. So I appreciate and I appreciate um Dr. Brewer and and the team that she has assembled in such a short time to get
the work done. So I want to go ahead and say congratulations on moving forward the way we are moving forward. um today. I I appreciate the C coming as well. Um we see where when we have um
great collaborations and partnerships where this community benefits from it. And we need to continue to foster those relationships, continue to um encourage others as well as we look forward to
some of the things that um was just said about u reaching out to other entities and and and being partners with Marian County School District. We we are the we we're the best thing going right now. And uh I I I feel that we're going to
continue to be the best thing going. I know sometimes there's a push for other forms of education in our community. I'm I'm a public school kid. My kids are public school kids. My grandchildren are now public school kids. And I feel that
we we have the best uh best thing going for Maring County. So, um with us working together, it can only get better. It can only get better and better and better. Um leading kind of touching on some of the stuff that Dr. camel talk about um with
I didn't hear the speaker yesterday. I wasn't there, but I can I I'm sure it kind of lines up with some of the things I heard recently at our Florida School Board Association's um annual session where the speaker talked about um the
demographics of Florida. We And I said I think I've said it already once, I'll say it again. Um Dr. uh James We need to figure out how to get that speaker here um as a
collaboration with the other um governmental entities of Marian County municipalities because it's going to be beneficial not just for us, it's going to be beneficial for everyone. Dr. Brewer heard it. Doc, Miss Thor heard it. um we need to get that person here
and we need to do this sooner rather than later because um as we continue to grow and we're growing at astronomical rates every week you're seeing Marian County Ocala as being a place of growth, a place of um where people are coming to. We need to make sure that we
understand why it's growing this way, how it's growing, and how to um deal with this in a smart way. um hair that doesn't grow um that's not comb when it's grown is is a wild hair. And so we need to make sure that we
don't have a whole bunch of wild hairs growing. We need to make sure that it grows the right way. Y'all will get that, I'm sure. Um because if we don't, we we're going to end up having some wild some problems. And I want us to do it the right way. I think this is the
opportunity for us to do that. I think person. I can't think of his name. Dr. >> Johnson. >> Dr. Johnson. >> Johnson. >> Dr. Johnson. I think it would benefit every governmental, municipality, every it would benefit us as a whole. And I'm
not saying that we have to take it on all by ourselves to bring him here. But if we need to, then we need to because it's it's a worthwhile investment to get in here and um and and and at least have those conversations um going forward.
And then um I I enjoyed doing the Christmas parade with you guys the other night. It was it wasn't as cold. I I like cold Christmas parades. I like cold Christmas seasons. Um at least Florida cold. At least Florida cold. And uh but
it was a wonderful event. um just just to be a part of it. Uh we got a new crew that was on camera. We had our our new superintendent and uh Miss Morant and Kevin and someone else was there new I think. Um but it was a good it was a
good crew I saw. So um that was fun. As we as we get ready to leave um we got graduation tomorrow night. um um that's going to be at Forest. We got Yelrest uh Christmas parade tomorrow as well and we're going to be doing a a walk through
at the new high school um tomorrow. So um our our our break isn't there yet. >> Not yet. >> Not yet. >> Not till about 7 o'clock tomorrow when tomorrow and and the um and the um town hall tonight in Dundel. So um we're
still working. We're still working. But I do want to say this. Um, this is a holiday season. Um, Christmas season. We ought to celebrate it. We are to celebrate family and celebrate the gifts that we get. Um, and the greatest
gift that we've already gotten. Um, which is life and Christ. And I'm kind of going a little off script, but I am what I am. I am be that period no matter where I'm at. So, um, we need to
celebrate that. But I also want to say something and we we talked about a little bit today. Um, Mr. White House, um, I we had the opportunity to do some angel trees um, last week. um my my my church, my wife, my family and I um we
had the opportunity to do some angel trees and um it's quite interesting some of the things that were on the angel trees that people were requesting that these kids were requesting and uh one of the things that I saw on I think I had 10 of them that I saw all of the angel
trees the requests was books. >> Nice. >> Was books. So um uh and I made up in my mind I said you know and I push this from the pull pit u all the time that you know if kids can't read they can't do math they can't do any it it it hurts
them down the road so reading is fundamental to success and so I I I've encouraged folk that you know um we buy those $500 games video games and uh all kinds of stuff we buy uh listen my my
Florida got me yesterday um to buy my grandson, my oneyear-old grandson, some sneakers that he he barely can stand up. He can barely stand well, but he want these sneakers, these certain sneakers. I'm like, when he starts dunking a
basketball goal, then we'll get those sneakers. But, uh we have to start investing in our kids at an early age the right things and purchasing the right things. And books are the right things to purchase for kids. And so I want to encourage uh encourage us to to
give a kid a book this Christmas. Um that's the great that's a great gift that you can give a kid. Um buy all the other stuff you want to buy, but at least buy one book and encourage them to read it over this Christmas holiday. That's why I was thinking when Mr. White House was talking because um if they
can't read, it's it's going to be difficult and we have to keep pushing reading at every level as Dr. Camel was stating about the speaker yesterday about early learning. >> We got to start at some point, guys. And we got to keep pushing it and it needs
to be pushed from every every area, every every place that these kids have contact. Push reading, push reading, push reading. So, um, thank you guys. Um, I asked you a few weeks ago about the ugly sweaters. Um, I to be honest
with you, I haven't saw one ugly sweater to be honest with you. All yours yours is not ugly. It's it's it's different, but it's >> the one you had the other night was pretty ugly, >> was it? >> We've had fun. >> So, and it's been fun. Um
>> might have reindeer, that big, whatever it was. >> Yeah, it's it's been it's been fun and and it helps us to to decompress a little bit as well. And so I thank our our um our staff and employees who
thought it not robbery. U Mr. Powers to put on their ugly sweaters. He had he had some on uh at the Christopher Ray and the week before. So he gets a pass today. But I just really really really want to commend Attorney Blackman um because
I called him out the other week and he went back home and reset. I'm not sure if the camera can see him very >> from where he's >> Yeah, that's true. Maybe he needs to go. >> Go up to the podium. I think probably get a good one more time. >> Yeah. Oh, he hasn't been to the podium.
>> Black one, come walk to the podium. >> Been to the podium. >> Bring bring your glasses. >> Yeah, bring the glasses. >> Hold the whole get up >> because you've exceeded expectations on this one. >> Okay. The camera has to go to the podium though. >> Martin. Martin, are you still >> Make sure we have a camera at the
podium. He's gonna He's gonna walk to the podium. >> I think you need to walk down. >> Yeah, they need to have the angle >> so you can see the whole thing. Yeah. >> Okay. Make There you go. Here he comes. >> YAY. >> Get a question for me. >> No, thank you.
>> Absolutely. >> This is a three holiday suit. >> Three. >> He's modeling. is it's good for Christmas. It's good for Valentine's Day and St. Patrick's Day. >> There you go. >> I was worried when I got dressed this morning. I was like, "What if someone else wears the same thing?" >> Fear not.
>> You don't have to worry about that. Well, >> but it looks good on you. It looks good on you. So, um I I just want to thank you guys for humoring on this. And um and sometimes we got to do some things just to get our minds right. We deal with so many crazy things and and and
serious issues. Sometimes we just need to to have a break. Just have a break. And this was truly a break. So, thank you guys for for Miss um thank you for getting all the sweaters for those that did not have a sweater. Listen, you the you the official sweater person. One
team. That's right. You're the official sweater person for Mary County Public Schools. And uh and even at my church this weekend, we're having our our second I think it's our second annual ugly sweater contest. So, um, we just need to do some things to to to
decompress and I pray everybody have a great great Christmas. Um, enjoy your family. God bless. >> Thank you, Reverend Cummings. Board member Conrad. >> Thank you, Dr. James. I just have a few things. Um, and a few of them I'm going to skim over because they've been
mentioned. Um, I did want to thank uh Mr. White House uh joined me at Braver Angels meeting um yesterday evening and I was just tickled. Uh Luke, our board member previously was there and he shines just
as much in that space as he did as a as a board member. Um and we also had two young ladies that are juniors from Vanguard um that also joined us. I passed those names on to Dr. Campbell because I I asked them I'm like would you be interested in being a board
member you know a student board member next year. Um anyway there was great conversation um great participation um just looking forward uh to that committee or group moving forward. Uh so anyway just just a great experience and
so I wanted to wanted to share that with you. Um along the lines Dr. Campbell's already shared quite a bit about the C program yesterday. I I left really excited after listening to Mr. Wilson and then talking
to Matt afterwards and several of the things they talked about were wrapped in education. And so to afterwards engage in community conversation
where education stayed at the center of the conversation was exciting to me. It didn't get brushed aside like it does at many other meetings. And so um Mr. McCormick made the statement at the end. He said, "We need all the
municipalities at the table and we need to have five goals that we agree on together." And as he kind of started this discussion, at least two of those goals were
education and one was a focus on early education. So, I really um am excited about the upcoming year. I'm excited about at least the feeling of we are working together. We are we're gathering
a team of people. We have a new CEO. We almost have a new superintendent. Um and so I'm just really excited about the work um moving forward and and not just for Marian County Public Schools but for
Marian County. And so I wanted to wanted to share that uh with you all. Things to look forward to. I'm looking forward to the Hillrest parade on Friday. Um I did want to tell you a funny coincidence. After the um Golden Apple Caravan, I was
leaving Dr. NH Jones yesterday. I was checking out after the Howard Middle School band was playing for the NH Jones students. And as I left, this lady passed me and I'm like, "Oh, I know her." We She was in the caravan. and it was our employee of the year from
Anthony Element. So, it was just really great. So, her kids must go to N Jones and it was just really fun to see her out and about being a mom for just a few minutes and so um that was a that's just a great another way to celebrate um her. I did want to say Dr. Brewer, I'm not
going to make it to the town hall. We have America 250 meeting this afternoon and that runs almost into so I was visiting with Miss Connor and she she helped me align my calendar a little bit. It's going to be a a tough move. I
um I did check in with Miss Magamal and you guys have a good team. You'll be well well represented. So um all is well. Um, I I also want to piggyback, this was not on my list, but since Reverend Cummings brought it up, I'm just going to touch a little bit because we're
talking about early education, we're talking about PM2 scores and and and readiness and all of those things. And books are near and dear to my heart as a primary educator. And so, I just want to second what Reverend Cummings said, make
sure your kids get lots of books this Christmas. um you will enjoy it and they will enjoy it and it's also just so beneficial for them. So make sure to buy lots of books. They don't have to be Christmas books, any books that they're interested to interested in. Um I also would like to
ask I believe we had our last attendance boundary committee this week and so I would like to get an update um on where we are on that. >> Yes, thank you. I I should have shared that January 22nd we are planning on adding that to the as an agenda item.
Okay. >> And that will be the recommendations. >> Yes, ma'am. >> And that will be what? >> The recommendations. >> Okay. From the committee. >> Okay. All right. And with that, um, we're looking forward to the holiday season, but I want to especially wish
our staff, many of you are here, um, rest and relaxation. Enjoy your family. And the same for our students and their families as we visit campuses this week. Everybody's taking their finals and testing and everybody's exhausted. So,
just take this time to rest and recharge um and enjoy being with your family and friends. I wish you all a very merry Christmas. >> All right, board member Thor. >> All right. Thank you. So, uh, yes, we keep a pretty relentless pace and, um, I don't know, you know, I think that's
setting a great example for a lot of our students as well in terms of community commitment. Um, ran into former student board member Sanjay at Yes. at Vanguard on Monday. I was with Dr. Brewer and Mr.
White House and others for um the Navy JRTC uh their annual pass and and review which is incredibly poignant and official. And Commander Davis does a great job. And it was I received the invitation from cadet commanding officer
Misty Sandosh. And then to get a chance to see her in action um commanding those battalions was really impressive. Um, our young ladies are and our young men are doing incredible things. Sanjay is doing well. He sends his regards to all
of us. He's at UF. He had a good first semester and he's thrilled to have a month off. And I thought that was interesting. I think he was comparing it to back in high school when you when we had like two weeks off, right? So, a month sounded much better to him, which he probably needs. He probably has a very
relentless schedule. So, it was great to see him. A full circle moment. Um, and we've already mentioned the Hillrest Christmas Parade. I think that culminates the our parade season, and it's always a good uh, wonderful way to
wind it up. Uh, we do start back to school on January 7th, and that's kind of nice, you know. So, it's a three-day week, kids. So, you know, just think you only have to come for three days. That's like easy attendance right there. >> Teachers, too. >> Yeah, teachers, too.
Um, I think that's a nice way to begin to start back and just have that short week and then just keep it rolling. So, I'll just say that I continue to be proud of the example that the district is is setting. Congratulations. Uh, Dr.
Brewer, you know, taking that a nice big next step into becoming our uh permanent superintendent. Um, I'm grateful um to you and and there's been a lot of harshness in in society these days and and I don't know, you know, maybe it's
just my positive nature, but I really do feel like the school system sets the tone in so many ways in our community for how we operate, how we receive each other, how we try to include people. um sometimes reluctantly maybe, but but in
the end, you know, we're we're here to set the example for kids and and so I just wish everyone a really peaceful time across our community, an opportunity to do everything that you love to do and uh just remember to be back with maybe not bells on, but maybe
a nice suit on January 7th. >> Thank you, board member Thrower. Um, I will not dare try to repeat all of the things that my fellow board members have shared today. So, um, I will be brief. I want to give, um, congratulatory remarks
to Dr. Brewer as we start this process of, um, finalizing our superintendent search. And, uh, I want to wish everyone a happy holidays and a merry Christmas. Take some time, especially our employees, to unplug and celebrate your
family and have fellowship. And to us board as well, we've had a very busy season. And one of the things I love about being a part of the school system is when we go on break, things get really quiet and it's nice to just have a few days where it's there's not a
constant flow of communication and and I love that we as collective respect that time um for us to be with family and have fellowship. So with that and there being no further business, oh, Dr. Brewer did want me to say, I apologize.
Families, if you go to the website and click on parents, um, parents, students, and community, and then click parents, if you go down to the section F, uh, family learning connection, it will open up, and there are, um, supplemental
materials there for the best standards that can support your extended learning. If you find yourself desiring opportunities for extended learning over the break, I will say we um my kids got there was like a life-sized chess board
while we were traveling recently and they have now fallen into love with chess and so get a board game out, play the Monopoly. Monopoly is a great game to play. I mean, probably also you'll need a therapy session when it ends, but but Monopoly is a great way to practice
money and um just an opportunity to have fellowship and conversation, learn some problem solving skills. So, get get a few board games out, do a puzzle, uh and spend some time together. So, now there being no further business, we will adjourn this work session at 2:09 p.m.
Happy holidays. >> And can we find some air conditioning? So What?