##VIDEO ID:rcx8DVssdek## e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e [Music] [Music] [Music] good morning and I now call the January 23rd 2025 administrative briefing and work session of the mar Maran County School Board to order at 9:24 a.m. please silence your electronic devices to disturbing others mirroring and modeling how our students begin each day I ask that you please please pause with us for a moment of silence please join me thank you now I'm going to read our commitment statement we are the Maran County School District leadership team when we come together to work we are efficient effective and prod Ive 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'd now like to ask the Schoolboard attorney to explain the rules for this public work session good morning attorney Powers good morning this work session is a public meeting as defined in Florida 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 speakers names in the order received each speaker will have three minutes as required by Sunshine Law the board must maintain orderly conduct and proper decorum throughout this meeting 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 their names or other identifying information thank you for your attention to these important rules good morning Miss Martinez please provide the proof of publication for today's meeting good morning the notice for the January 23rd 2025 work session was published in The ocal Gazette on January 10th 2025 proof for publication has been attached to Bo do and approv for publication we will now begin the work session with the superintendent administrative briefing good morning Dr garlett good morning Madam chair members of the board uh on this cold morning yet again I want to start with um just a couple quick updates and and thanks to uh our entire uh District parents students uh with your um diligence through this weather we had um for the record no snow um no ice that I'm aware of and so uh safe travels to school and so we appreciate everybody's uh flexibility as we uh ensure that during the day as our students arrive to school that we had um activities held indoors to try to keep everybody warm but um and I would just want to um extend also um my thoughts to uh the folks out in California dealing with yet again more fires and they've lost schools already and so we have students that don't have places to go during the day and that is really hard for our children so I just want to extend my thoughts to them um knowing how hard that is so however we can help in the future we're happy to to do so uh board I also wanted to uh do a reminder that today we have our independent um oversight committee for our referendum oper operational referendum and then my team is going to present an update quarterly update to to that committee that you have um recommended and also a reminder for next week we have our two-hour early dismissal day on January 29th so that's coming up right around the corner that is next Wednesday and so uh we have three topics today board and we are going to um kick off with with the last of our strategic plan our goal five today and then we will as you know go back through do any updates and then go back through the cycle again so that's that concludes my uh update this morning chair if you would like me to introduce the first topic yes ma'am please do okay thank you so I'll bring Miss Harris forward who is going to kick off goal five that I referenced again this is a uh it is a standalone goal but also it is foundational to our other goals as it certainly includes key components of communication and you will hear as you always do how this fits in with all of our other goals and our work day-to-day um in our schools for our students so Miss Harris thank you wonderful thank you he so good morning chair Conrad Vice chair Cummings for members and superintendent Dr gullet this morning it is my pleasure to introduce the presenters that will share information on goal five of the Strategic plan again I am shaana Harris executive director of K12 support I'm joined by Mr Kevin Christian director of public relations Megan magabo executive director of public education foundation and yamali Gonzalez our Communications manager goal five focuses on enhancing Community engagement and communication by by increasing stakeholder dialogue Partnerships and collaboration to meet the needs and of our staff and celebrate success key strategies include expanding Community Partnerships to support Student Success strengthening two-way communication with families through improved transparency and engagement we also strive to enhance internal Communications by improving information access and recognizing employee contributions additionally through go five the district will engage families and communi as partners to support student achievement attendance and well-being through initiatives such as community events family engagement initiatives and professional learning opportunities for our school advisory councils these efforts will Foster strong connections Trust in a culture of collaboration across the district Key Milestones have been achieved in advancing Community engagement and communication a district leaon has been established to enhance collaboration between the school district and various stakeholders ensuring effective communication the implementation of the code of Civility has farther strengthened respectful and productive Partnerships between schools and the community additionally Family Focus events which are now in go five have been success have successfully exceeded their participation targets reflecting the district's commitment to fostering meaningful family engagement and support each goal was assigned a board member to review its outcome metrics asso and Associated targets during our team discussions we emphasize the importance of prioritizing quality metrics over purely quantitative of Wands the first two metrics highlighted in green exemplify this focus by measuring meaningful engagement rather than the numbers our goal is to amplify family Voice by intentionally increasing survey participation to assess event satisfaction and gather valuable feedback on future topics and areas of improvement additionally we have chosen to track returning families recognizing that much like customers families return to experiences they find beneficial and impactful furthermore four additional metrics also highlighted in green were introduced to evaluate and enhance our social media presence pres we aim to increase audience engagement across the platforms representing Maran County Public Schools ensuring our Outreach efforts effectively connect and inform our community now coming to the podium will be Mr Kevin chrisan good morning to each of you good morning I have five layers on so I'm still cold but nevertheless uh you'll see the next slide there expanding and monitoring our Community Partnerships continues to create new student learning opportunities and some of our steps to doing so include the tools that you see listed there first up Community partner meetings these are generally held on a monthly basis and offer communication exchange between our school district and various external agencies and organizations these exchanges often lead to opportunities for students students to volunteer and also for Community involvement adult volunteer opportunities benefiting students and schools and even some idea exchanges that spark additional partnership opportunities between everybody in the room participating so those are those are valuable to us our next tool is peach jar are you are you familiar with peach jar hopefully you are yes Peach jar is our eflyer program that basically replaces putting paper based bed flyers in backpacks that usually end up on the floor of the bus or buried at the bottom of the backpack and are not seen by parents and families until days after that event takes place or whatever that is promoting but the peach jar service provides Community organizations the opportunity to share their information directly with our school communities this past year our Peach jar activities included 239 internal Flyers that's sent from the central office and from schools themselves 2,081 external flyers from outside entities interestingly I always love this number we avoided 2.8 million pieces of paper being handled in our district and we are one of 21 Florida school districts that use the peach jar service and we do not pay for that service it is uh we we paid what nine years ago when we established the service and we do not pay to use it on an annual basis it is funded through those entities that wish to use it to share their information Dr James I see you sh sh in your head you you're familiar with it I'm sure so moving on collaboration with our local governments led to of course the interlocal agreement that now benefits our district when it comes to new growth and how that growth is funded at least in part we also had great participation in our three recent groundbreakings for new schools from our partnering government entities and we look forward to even more collaboration now that our new government relations director is on board next up leadership mcps is now in its third year and will graduate its latest members in just a few months this year-long program offers monthly meetings that dive deep into our District Operations and academic opportunities to help our community members better understand how we operate on a day-to-day basis and we now have a great opportunity for an alumni group to continue graduate involvement with our district following graduation another high-profile partnership involves our district and local veterans groups to present our community's official Veterans Day ceremony each November our latest program was our 18th Annual presentation and involved more than 3,000 students from over 30 schools plus hundreds of community members who attended to show their appreciation to local veterans and we are grateful to those of you who were able to join us that day the weather was dramatically different that day than it is today continuing on with this same strategy additional partnership opportunities includes D include dads on duty and of course this involves male member mentoring groups who volunteer on our campuses to support students and provide encouragement with simple smiles and gestures as more males qualify to volunteer we hope this program expands to even more campuses the third annual back to school Community give back event provided over 6,000 backpacks to our students who responded to nine locations throughout Marian County most of those events were on the same Saturday back in July hundreds of volunteers including students helped to this event succeed even more than in previous years so that's a I think a newer event that has quickly become a an annual tradition and a wonderful opportunity for lots of organizations to be part of the same mission on the same day next up uh your interaction with state legislators continues and your legislative agenda continues as well and we're grateful for that in addition some of our schools host State Legislature and even Congressional visits from time to time with our elected officials wanting to learn more or share more about our community with our students with our schools and as I mentioned with our community itself we also continue partnering with the c and appreciate their help in supporting both the interlocal agreement and promoting the half Sal sales tax approved by voters just a few months ago we look forward to this continuing partnership as we continue growing and appreciate their support in helping with our recent groundbreaking Ceremonies for our new schools thank them for the shovels we are grateful to that and I believe Dr gullet you had the opportunity to present to Mr shelle yesterday his departure next up uh the Maran County Hospital District and its fans program okay quick quiz fans stands for Fitness and Nutrition in schools well done Bard well done this provides tasty and meaningful opportunities to our students at all grade levels to be more active when it comes to their own diets their exercise routines and their Lifestyles band's contributions lead to ra or have led to raised garden beds crop growing and even taste testing new vegetables all educating students about new menu options and healthy choices finally Career Source provides incredible support to numerous events throughout the year primarily with our human resources department Career Fairs involving students and job fairs attracting employees but now you know this young lady Miss Megan magal thank you Mr Christian and good morning all as the 501c3 nonprofit organization serving Maran County Public School schs the public Education Foundation supports the district goals in many ways and today I'm proud to share updates on goal 5 specifically for expanding and monitoring Partnerships increasing student learning opportunities and I will start with the continued partnership work we have with the district's mental health and wellness team with the shared goal of building student resiliency while the majority of the partnership efforts launched in the 2023 24 school year we expanded that partnership to continue additional support going into summer and quarter 1 of this school year which included trauma-based informed care support for wyomina Park Elementary mentoring services for summer programming through Children's Alliance for the students participating in the skip program resiliency based exposure trips for mcps students participating in Cut difference mentoring program and we helped purchase and provide each School in our distri district with resiliency themed a based reading materials that were identified and promoted by the Department of Education commissioner Manny Diaz expanded Partnerships year two with the district safe schools team is thanks to our continued partnership with McKenzie's Moment by the end of this spring we will have provided approximately $435,000 in support for safe schools efforts across the district with our shared goal to make schools safer faster that partnership with McKenzie's moment also led to a new partnership with our homeless department or families in transition they provided $10,000 in support for the angel tree so that the families in need during the holidays had gifts for Christmas our continued partnership to support Career and Technical education includes the world Equestrian Center support for culinary programs bringing celebrity chefs to meet and Inspire our students to providing hands on experience at the world Equestrian Center this partnership has provided $775,000 to date to go towards enhancing culinary equipment providing student resources uniforms Etc and of course the magical Priceless moments of having celebrity chefs shake hands with our students and say things like you are incredible and as soon as you graduate Marian County Public Schools I have a job for you a new partnership through our foundation that was announced at the start of of this school year is thanks to HCA Florida Healthcare a commitment of $60,000 to increase student participation in our Healthcare Pathways and increase certification completion rates Additionally the foundation's partnership with Duca Foundation from the prior year resulted in the first behavioral mental health technician certification pathway launched at Bellevue high school this fall with Westport HIgh School seated to launch for next year and we also continued and and expanded our partnership to support Family Focus events into year 2 thanks to Florida KidCare these Partnerships that I've identified alone are an increase in $374,000 for student learning opportunities additional examples of Partnerships that are new or expanded through the foundation we are a proud new partner with University of Florida's Lastinger Center through the new world's reading initiative promoting Literacy for VPK through fifth grade families from the summer into the fall we already partnered and assisted with hosting literacy events at East Maring Elementary Spar Elementary College Park Elementary and their Community Partnership School Reddit Coler Elementary and we have three more events that we will sponsor and support this spring for year two of our partnership with the Okala film Derby the foundation is proud to support facilitating and managing their newly established student scholarships so now not only does that partnership provide that real hands-on experience for our students but it's tied to their academic Journey for postsecondary opportunities we continued into year five of our partnership with the Okala horse Alliance and continue supporting their efforts for the Black Stallion reading project in each of our District's elementary schools we continued support for the district's launching literacy and the community efforts and purchased additional books and coins for the book vending machine that we had purchased last year we continue supporting the kids tag art program as their Fiscal Agent in partnership with Maring County tax collector's office we continue partnering with the Silver River Museum Educational Center and science lab to support stem initiatives thanks to incredible donors like Duke Energy loed Martin and the felburn foundation and we are proud sponsors of the upcoming Big Spring stem fair to expand college readiness opportunities we have new Partnerships this year with Wells Fargo South State Bank to increase financial literacy efforts and a new partnership with AT&T to help students cross the digital divide and address cyber safety issues especially with our students about to head off to college a new partnership with the Marian theater in downtown Okala was launched this summer and continued into first semester with the introduction of resiliency reels familyfriendly movies for students and their family to attend for free tied to the resilience characteristics embedded in our K through 12 curriculum promoting student resiliency and the last slide for my Foundation updates regarding strategy 5A will review our signature programs of the foundation f stock and children and our senior scholarship program both provided student scholarships totaling more than $360,000 for students who entered the fall 2024 College semester there are tools for teaching program we provided more than 500,000 in classroom supplies last year thanks to an incredible and very long list of partners that make that work possible that list could go on and on but all to equip our teachers and be able to help their students exceed succeed in the classroom and a brand new partnership with tools for teaching is thanks to altrusa last week thanks to altrusa we were able to open the Nook which is a teacher space for teachers to come and sit and Network have a cup of coffee read motivational materials like Chicken Soup for the teacher's soul and honestly just breathe and feel loved our school Business Partnership program we continue to match our schools with businesses to support their efforts we will have a historic year in financial contributions previously $200,000 for the year was our um our goal and this year we are on track to be over 300,000 in support through takestock and children we continue to provide the scholarships mentors in Hope for our deserving low-income students serving more than 200 students per year thanks to Partnerships like project SOS and signature Brands and their scholarships through our grants for great ideas program we partner with the Consortium of Florida Education Foundation to increase opportunities for teachers and schools to have Innovative projects focusing on stem literacy increasing graduation rates assisting low performing students Career and Technical education and supporting our students in need before the winter break we sent out $61,000 in funds so schools could Implement their amazing grant for great idea proposals and we will be opening a second round of grant funding for the spring and now I bring up Mr Kevin Christian for strategy 5B you've never been involved with those reading those grant for great grants for great ideas application that's fun I encourage you to do that yes moving on to strategy 5B when it comes to strengthening two-way District communication and engagement with families and with our community I'd like to Showcase several of the tools that we use first up you see fast facts hopefully you're familiar with that that as a quick summary of recent Schoolboard decisions that you have made that's shared immediately immediately following each Schoolboard meeting this e newsletter is emailed internally to all employees and posted on multiple web pages on our website including your Schoolboard page for easy access and I'm happy to share that once again fast facts earned an honorable mention honor from enpr the national school public relations Association Next Up and perhaps most familiar with with people in our community our Sky alert messaging that is our primary communications platform when it comes to both school and district-based messaging here's some interesting stats for you this past year we shared over 3.7 million phone calls 3.2 million emails and 52,000 text messages those numbers are 5 to 35% higher than the previous year proving that we are sharing more information with more people as well the district itself utilized Skyler more than 315 times with an average per message success rate surpassing 93% and I will tell you that that 93% in in talking with vendors who offer Communications platforms throughout the country 93% is unheard of it's usually 75% 80% maybe 83 84 85% but 93% what that means is that our schools are doing a great job of ensuring that they have accurate working contact information for students and employees the message that went out last night had a 94.1% success rate so I'm very proud of that number but there's a lot of people behind the scenes that make that number happen next up streaming our Schoolboard meetings and work sessions provides a valuable service to those unable to join us in person for whatever reason our YouTube audience analytics will be shared shortly but I'm happy to say we have just under 10,000 subscribers that may have Sur P pass that number the most we've ever had and of course we also utilize our district YouTube channel for additional programming like the Ocala Christmas parade the golden apple Gaya and the Maring County student media Festival our next request platform is where we handle public records requests from the public in 202 23 we closed 222 requests last year we had 169 that were closed and this year this is outdated we have seven we have 10 so far this service offers community members a quick and easy way to request public records throughout the year and provides a documented process to help us receive process and meet requests for public information continuing on with strategy 5B our media releases we regularly communicate with more than 75 local media contacts from Gainesville to Orlando to Tampa last year we used 67 media releases to do so and so far this year we're at 31 so we're pretty much right on track to meet or even exceed what we did last year media releases are also shared internally with all employees and posted to our website for Public Access one media release alone last year and I'll let you guess which one received an Award of Excellence from enpr and garnered $ 57,4 in earned media value at no cost to the district want to guess our groundbreakings moving on the success of Family Focus events has been previously shared and there is more to follow but it's certainly On Target to say these events are growing and attracting more families and perhaps more importantly engaging them we continue using internal and external surveys to gauge audience engagement those surveys include skylert and Survey Monkey tools along with cognia which administers its own survey based on our input the importance of these surveys is proven with our District's recent cognia accrediation another valuable tool for communicating is the school Marquee for schools with functioning electronic ones along with the traditional block letter mares you know where you put those plastic letters up this visual reminder is a constant and reliable tool to share information Dr Campbell I I'll mention this to you because I know you would say this to me but is it truly two-way communication I would argue that yes it is because people see and read that information that they later act on most prominently either with their attendance or other some form of support so while they may not verbalize that they are showing up with their attendance based on the information that they see on the school Market all right finally snippet stories come from our digital media producers it's part of the public relations team these short form videos not reals right not reals okay showcase student and staff achievement current trends and topics and other topics they are shared on our YouTube channel and our social media platforms and even generate traditional media coverage from time to time our most popular snippet story last year featured band students rehearsing their marching program during football season that video I believe went viral with over 13 no I'm sorry 10,000 may not sound like a a whole lot in the social media world but for us 10,000 views that's a lot of people watching so now speaking of social media I'd like to introduce to you formally for the first time Miss yamali Gonzalez our Communications manager she's been with us since August but she hasn't had a chance to present morning good morning morning I think you all can tell I've taught Kevin one or two things about social media so that's my first thing um the district is active on Facebook YouTube and X to improve communication and strengthen engagement with families and the community we are currently Planning and Building content to reactivate our Instagram account the public education found Foundation can also be found on Facebook based on social media analytics engagement increased by 4286 across all platforms November 15th uh 2023 to November 6th 2024 Facebook saw 45.8% increase in content interaction during this period most metrics show increased reach engagement post link clicks and Impressions across our social media channels as of yesterday our Facebook page reached 10,000 followers X has 4.3 th000 YouTube we were closed 9.9 th000 subscribers and Instagram 459 one of our posts with the most engagement was during Hurricane Milton on October 9th we featured shelter workers on our Facebook and the post received 336 likes 20 shares 15 comments and reached 13,000 people posts with similar engagement include the national principal month graphic a post recognizing oest Cara Williams and her achievements and this year's principal and AP of the Year each received over 200 likes and in total received 111 comments and reached two 22,000 people total one of our top performing videos was of Miss Shannon Randolph um from trans ation explaining a day in the life of a bus driver and the need for mcps bus drivers it gained 13.8 th000 views 123 likes 18 comments and 42 shares so for our plan for 2025 is to establish a consistent posting schedule and post at least twice a day to maximize audience engagement we also aim to reactivate Instagram to connect with a younger audience especially our students post will vary between Facebook X and Instagram to suit the different audiences on each platform since August we've contacted all schools to ensure their social media pages are under District management this helps protect the page administrators from public records law and ensures all posts are archived however while the district manages the pages the district does not post on individual school media pages the family engagement team hosts quarterly Family Focus events with a range of themes designed to support families throughout the school year these events help families get off to a strong start at the beginning of the year assist students in transitioning from Key grade levels to college or postsecondary plans and prepare them for a productive summer to make these events more accessible each one is hosted in a different Middle School across the district the family focused mobile unit also attends both daytime and evening school events providing valuable academic resources for parents of students from prek through 12th grade is actually out today because of the cold weather it was struggling getting started at first but it is going to two uh schools today so that's just a real time update families are encouraged to explore the unit together and participate in Hands-On activities and create make and take materials to support learning at home our learning labs are are a vehicle to build capacity in our family engagement liaison we continue to offer professional learning to our family engagement Liaisons that culminates with a family engagement showcase the family engagement District advisory Council serves as a venue for parents to influence decisions that impact their child's education we work together with other families Educators and community members to create Positive Solutions for our school community and provide input on districtwide family engagement initiative the council meets four times annually Federal programs offer offers four professional learning opportunities to school advisory Council chairs and co-chairs to create um site-based community and family engagement dialogue amongst St stakeholders to build capacity and to use datadriven decisions and identify problem areas develop Improvement strategies and cultivate Partnerships to improve student achievement during the 2324 school year the number of completed surveys doubled from the beginning of the year to receiving 10 surveys to 20 at our final event this year you can see our progress from our first event in September getting a return of 29 surveys from our families and our November event with 58 we are looking to continue and getting feedback from our families to further enhance participation and achieve our goals several initiatives have been implemented participant Bingo cards they offer an opportunity for our families to go to our exhibitors in our exhibit hall and get a sticker on the back of that there is a survey but it ERS them to receive free prizes we have put the surveys in different locations um throughout the event so they could also give us feedback electronically via QR codes and then it's also the physical form for those that prefer to write on it and also it is feature in another language um of Spanish so our parents will be able to have access to give us feedback Additionally the spin the will initiative if they return a survey they're also allowed to Sprint a wheel to get a free gift for their child upon completing our survey for strategy 5c our focus is also on increasing the number of families attending two or more in-person Family Focus events throughout the school year in the 203 24th school year 14 families met this Milestone and our goal is to increase that number to 23 families to achieve this we will Implement several key initiatives the family focused loyalty program will encourage continued participation by offering incentives and recognition we are also enhancing Outreach efforts by providing personal invitations to our families for each event additionally our family engagement liaison will be equipped with session topics scripts for phone calls and marketing ideas to better promote events within their networks at each of their schools the family focused mobile unit plays a crucial role in advertising at events and serving as a visible promotional tool our team also actively engages with attendees at each event to promote future opportunities to expand our reach we are forming Partnerships with youth programs in different religious institutions broadening our community engagement and ensuring more families benefit from these valuable experiences I just realized my stuff moving on to strategy 5D strengthening internal communication and recognizing our employees contributions is our next strategy we'll start with crisis Communications an Ever evolving and we hope ever improving process we noted major growth with audience satisfaction this past year during Hurricane Season when we were able to notify our own families and employees first when school was cancelled this major Milestone and I will give Dr gullet credit because she deserves it and it's very important allowed us to build credibility and Trust within our own audiences so that they heard the news from us first before seeing or reading about it anywhere else in coming months we hope to consider an all-encompassing communications platform that will enhance these efforts even more as well expanding and using more internal texting groups now provides identical information to multiple audiences in a quick and efficient manner and I believe each of you is included at least in one or two of those groups so up next superintendent visits these happen kind of sporadically and with surprise when someone recognizes an employee for going above and beyond when serving students we generally recognize these with social media posts and in superintendent weekly wrap-up episodes Dr gullet simply shows up by surprise in these classrooms or office areas to present a certificate that says thank you for going above and beyond when it comes to our students so that's always fun fun to see happen our media recognitions come in the form of outside entities recognizing our employees and they can come from media ganette for example or from private entities that publicize their honores that may include various professional organizations via media releases such as state organizations who name one of our employees as their teacher of the year or whatever the case may be or HCA Okala for example with their recognized teacher program that Megan will share more more about in a minute and then you as Schoolboard members also help us recognize employees on a regular basis your recognitions both individually meaning like School audits for example and collectively for years of service or other large scale recognitions share the appre appreciation that we all have for employees doing more than just a good job moving on our annual principal and assistant principal of the year recognitions Shine the spotlight on school leaders making the biggest impact in their respective communities these top-notch professionals move on to state level competition just like our golden apple teachers do for Florida's teacher of the year honors and finally on this screen as I mentioned a new partnership with HDA oala thanks to a community nominated teacher each month with personal congratulations and food and Megan will share more about that in just a moment continuing on additional tools that we use to enhance communication with and recognition of our employees include the events and happenings calendar that is an internal facing calendar accessible to school administrators and their secretaries along with District leaders and their secretaries and you I believe also have access to view that as you requested we have added your generally scheduled Schoolboard meetings and work sessions to this calendar to reduce and hopefully avoid conflicts with school-based events as previously mentioned recognizing our employees for the years of service and celebrating that success now comes with Schoolboard recognition and a special breakfast event compliments of the public Education Foundation these efforts share the importance of appreciating individuals for their contributions to Student Success including often people who work behind the scenes the superintendent's weekly wrap-up is generally a 3 to five minute video recorded in the field and covering a particular topic of Dr gullets choosing supported with Boll video and occasional on camera guests each episode is shared via email link with all employees promoted in various District based efforts and shared on social media for our entire Community to enjoy weekly views generally run between 500 to a th000 so while not viral in some terms these videos still share important information and perspective with lots of people each week episodes are produced during the regular calendar school year next up our mcps highlights newsletter shares at the district level each week and includes General updates about elementary and secondary curriculum the latest news and school accomplishments Transportation statistics and information and vacancy numbers for that week among other information these efforts present the same information to multiple audience members so everyone has the same facts and the latest information when it comes to District highlights finally we are working on a formalized internal Communications plan to better guide us in crisis situations realizing this will be a living document once developed and documented and before I ask Megan to come back up I just want to remind everyone that while we may be the pr team and and and other members of Miss Harris's departments communication is on all of us we are all part of the team we are all ambassadors for our district so while we may talk about certain tools and and other channels that we use sharing information with those we know face to face and other personal contact methods invaluable so I appreciate all that you all do to help us successfully communicate with them again Mr Christian continuing with strategy 5D specifically the recognition of employees contributions I will begin with reviewing the foundation's golden apple program which recognizing recognizes outstanding Educators in our district starting from the school level with our school-based teachers of the year and rookies of the year who then submit teacher portfolios participate in interviews and classroom observations for then a new golden apple class to be selected elected two Saturdays from now we hope to see all of our school board members there in person or in spirit as we will be celebrating all of the teachers in our district and announcing Maring County's teacher of the year but the golden apple program itself does not end after the beautiful Gayla in fact for our golden apples it's just the beginning of what it means to truly be a part of the golden apple Academy they contrib rute to elevating teachers promoting positivity among their peers and they roll up their sleeves for everything and anything to help our foundation serve our mission the academy hosts breakfast with our superintendent they volunteer to help host the foundation's annual pop and drop teacher event which serves a thousand or more teachers each year they serve as panelists and pres presenters for new teacher orientation and professional de development and Leadership and learning sessions they volunteer at our tools for teaching store and serve on many committees but two new initiatives that came from our very own Golden Apple program this year the first is called apps Apple paper scissors modeled after the Ed Camp concept this event was organized by teachers for teachers in a non-traditional professional development format the second initiative as Mr Kevin Christian spoke to is the thank a teacher program it's a partnership in thanks to HCA Florida Okala where every month a teacher is selected from CommunityWide nominations he or she is recognized and surprised at their school not only do they receive recognition and some gifts but their entire campus is able to celebrate and receive support whether it's breakfast lunch or treats the foundation also recognizes the contributions of the incredible non-instructional staff of the district through our school related employee of the year program through nominations non-instructional employees are recognized with one being named The District school related employee of the year last year Mr Edward Lanza named Marin County's School related employee of the year would then become the state of Florida's School related employee of the year this year Miss Franchesca Jimenez from Liberty Middle School has been named and she will continue on to complete compete at the state level through the foundation's teacher Tobe scholarship program we recognize the commitment of District employees who have chosen to continue their education to work towards completing their education and become a classroom teacher they are committed to staying in our district and we are committed to the path that they have chosen this past fall we awarded six additional District employees with the scholarship opportunity valued at up to $2500 for each of them it is incredible when you attend Great Beginnings or a new teacher orientation event and teachers come up to you and say thank you I am now teaching in our district because of the foundation's teacher to be scholarship in fact last year's District Rookie of the Year and this year's District Rookie of the Year became teachers in our district through our teacher Tobe program and then recognizing employee contributions but at the other end of their career the foundation hosts retirement celebration between the start of a career in our district all the way to retirement there are many touch points where Community engagement and Partnerships through our foundation provides the resources support and the opportunities to be recognized and celebrated and while these touch points might vary greatly maybe partnership with Advent Health to provide words of encouragement and support to principles during a principal meeting maybe it's the district secretary spending the last two days at the foundation to the Grand scale level of Partnerships like the Gayla where we will Elevate teacher recognition and have a red carpet Affair but recognizing employee contributions can also be as simple as the teacher note cards that now sit in the nook at the foundation office where teachers can visit take a note read words of encouragement and it may just be the exact words that he or she needs to read to say wow I can keep going I matter I am valued I'm G to show up for my students tomorrow in closing I call your attention to the bottom left picture on my final Slide the foundation created and shared this post on social media as our district prepared for Hurricane Milton and our schools were serving as shelters our team of foundation staff and board members gathered to make shelter baskets to then deliver out with this very important message not all heroes wear capes some wear mcps badges your public Education Foundation believes in recognizing the heroes we have right here in our district every day thank you feel like I should applaud I know I know that was great well said Miss magal thank you and I want to comment on the Nook I I know it seems pretty simple to probably those who are watching but I've been there as you know a couple times when I was meeting with a group of teachers several groups of teachers of last week and that space um is inspiring and just lets everyone know how important they are that we appreciate our employees and so thank you all for what you've shared on board as you can see I mean I think we are living amongst U many Heroes that are doing the work day-to-day for our students and really appreciate um and I'm proud of our employees so we'll be happy to answer any questions you have thank you for all yes I'll start since I was ready to applaud anyway um I just wanted to thank all of you for um a tremendously inspiring positive and and uplifting presentation um there is so much good happening in this district and that only happens when the whole team pulls together and I see the continuing growth of that can do type culture in this District which is really refreshing um to me because we've been through a lot as as a district as most districts have I mean public education is very challenging these days um and I think that it is up to us as Leaders to continue to inspire to continue to cultivate and and model that can do spirit so there's a lot of little things that that I wrote down as I continued to listen to your presentation and a couple of touch points for me obviously we're you know we're all ambassadors for our school system and especially um for our students and sometimes I think as Leaders we forget the the impact that we really have um it's almost I don't know humbling and embarrassing at the same time you know that people put so much um weight into what we say and and and how we say it and I certainly take that responsibility very seriously I loved hearing about the behavioral mental health technician I think it was new program that's going to be expanding to other high schools that comes directly from our student board Representatives it was something that we knew but they articulated and so that's awesome um the social media like it or not that's the arena and you can feel like a gladiator sometimes um but again if we continue to project the positive message not shying away from the issues that we have of course but but setting the standard uh we're we're going to win it and and I heard several things surveys marketing social media and all I could think of was one of our partners um Kia because I Haven have a Kia I've had several Kia and talk about the private sector and communication I get a survey you know how was your oil change you know do you need a new car you know and and so those are the kinds of things um that that we can emulate as well that the private sector has always done well and and for some reason I don't know the public education has you know we use that term told our story as as well as as we could have all along and and and I see an acceleration in this and that's just going to contribute to our faster Improvement so that was great um let me just see if there was anything else quick the the Community Partnerships um that that have been built uh big and small is also very incredible obviously the Ocala horse Alliance is close to my heart I'm waiting for the email from Ellie Truman about the 3500 books that need to be labeled and packaged and everything else and and our district p in and and helps make sure that those books get to all of the elementary schools so hats off to all of you and and everyone in the community that is seeing the positive things that we're doing and continuing to build on the positive momentum that you have helped create thank you Dr Campbell sure why not we'll just go down the line um so board you know this is the the goal that I'm most passionate about they all know it as well uh was grateful to be a part of of this team when we were working on updating some of the goals couple of things I wanted to take note of I would be remiss if I didn't mention the annual family survey that is currently going on right now completed it as a as a parent uh this week and I'm not certain if some of the questions have changed but I love the way they were worded it felt like we were asking for some of the things that we're hoping to actually be able to measure and so I'm I'm looking forward to to the response is and anybody's listening out there that is app parent please go you can even find it on the slider on the website I just wanted to make sure it was there and saw that it is so you should have gotten email and there's social media posts about there's lots of things about the annual family survey but please complete that because it only will help us continue to enhance as as what um Miss Thor was saying that we're we're accelerating and we are doing things a a lot more and the survey will help validate that as well as give us additional ideas where we we can continually improve also grateful to hear the um about the internal crisis communication plan that's underway and grateful that we're moving forward in that I know that's something that has been on the radar for a while and so grateful that that is moving forward also grateful hearing the words alumni after leadership mcps so I know I mentioned that in the work session I think our last work session so I I'll be interested to see what that looks like and how that's going to evolve I think they would make great ambassadors and a great advocacy committee and uh how we as board members can participate with them I think that will be um really really powerful also grateful to continue to see expanded Partnerships and new opportunities that we have I continue to think and as we talked about in our committee and I'll say it again publicly that there is an an additional element that I know is going to take a full-time staff person to get there with really really enhancing Partners in education and uh where we can be so I I'll give you an example board yesterday when we were touring the bus garage and they were talking about the car wash area or the bus G bus wash area and my mind immediately went to that feels like a sponsorship opportunity because they're having struggles with the facility with the cost of the capital and and what would that look like and and how would we those are the kinds of things I'm I'm talking about that would be something no one's talking about something no one's thinking about but whenever we're continuing to expand opportunities for Capital Money having someone dedicated to be seeking out those unique Partnerships similar to the Jenkins Auto Group one that worked out several years ago with the teacher of the year getting a car a three-year leasee on a car every year there are so many more opportunities like that and as we're continuing to build schools and build new places where people's names could be on them uh having people de a person not people having a person dedicated to that because I know how intense that could be and that relationship building how long that can take would not want to tax Miss magam Mall's staff at their current Staffing capacity with that um so I would be in supportive at being a district person or a foundation person Foundation board hear my words uh but I I know that's still something that that I hope to see us as a district continue to pursue but thank you for your wonderful presentation and and I didn't have to ask questions of Kevin that he knew the answers to or he knew I was going to ask anyway thank you oh yes just because it's Tim liit I just wanted to piggy back on something that uh board member Campbell shared and it is about the um the bus wash station at at the main compound um I was speaking about that yesterday with um Mr ronic and it it really wasn't I said it sort of as a joke but I said it's really not a joke because we all joke about how many car washes are being built in town and maybe race wash would sponsor uh a bus wash because who doesn't like to see a nice gleaming clean bus you know it just makes you think that hey you know we're looking good so I I think that's a great opportunity and and it's just so funny the different aspects of our job let's talk about car washes okay so that's all right thank you thank you board member thrower Reverend Cummings listen thank you for the presentation you guys are doing a great job in um the collaboration with our our community as well as the communication because I think communication is necessary and vital to us sist I'm not going to talk a long time like my colleagues did because we got a long day so thank y'all we just said it all already right Dr James um thank thank you Dr Campbell for mentioning the family survey I must have missed that Sky alert so I do see it on the website but maybe if we could do another round or I don't know when it expires the family survey that's out of our Title One Department we are have been working with them but we'll certainly touch Bas with them and see if they would like us to do opportun round well this board member would like you to do another one because I missed it I didn't know it was happening and I feel like I'm rather involved so well I'm sorry I didn't I don't want to interrupt but that's actually I I guess I received it because my I have a student in a title one school and your students are not in a title one school so that would actually make sense because the information came from the assistant principal of the school okay yeah I'm like there's no I like I don't miss stuff so are are all families supposed to complete the survey because my child school I just looked and I'm very satisfied I can't answer that question because the survey doesn't come from my department well what I will say is this the survey does have my child's school on it and my child's school is not a title one school which would make sense why I didn't receive the communication but if all schools are intended to complete the survey then all schools need to receive the communication via Sky alert that would be my request as a board member if we're if we're going to collect responses from all schools then certainly they need to know about it speaking of surveys do all surveys live in this land so surveys on like the surveys for our administrator performance does that come from this land that does not come through this land okay it comes through that land your land no I'm just kidding um my land there's a there's a song in every sentence that you speak yes um I believe that that survey comes through human resources and that's where those I hesitate to use the word evaluation but for lack of a better word right now okay Human Resources owns that land understood okay so that would have been a different goal I wanted to just note I'm still looking for an adjustment to how we do administrative surveys so understanding it's not appropriate for the nature of the conversation today but I would like the board at some point to have continued conversation about it because I've asked for for us to have expanded administrative evaluations and I I haven't seen that that happen yet um the I wanted to note Miss magal mentioned that we've had a significant increase in the um Partnerships and there's one particular donor whose significant contribution to the North End has made that happen and I will not mention his name but I think it is important to acknowledge that this one individual has shown passion and commitment to every school that lies in my district and we have created such a strong partnership and I do think that we're going to continue to see some um continued improvements on the north end and it's all because of one individual and his commitment to the public education system in Maring County specifically on the North End um and so I'm grateful for that partnership we've been able to create um and then finally internal communication within our organization is that also shared under this goal or is that goal separate from from what's Happening here cuz I I know that we talked a lot about external communication so communication with our stakeholders but I didn't see a lot of information in here about internal communication among ourselves yes ma'am that is strategy five I think it's C strategy 5D yes ma'am five what 5D is in Delta um I don't have a slide um okay yes so that's slide 18 um so that wasn't I guess what I was looking for then so what I'm speaking towards is our communication and and the ways we effectively or not effectively communicate within our organization about things that are occurring things that are forthcoming changes that are occurring where how are we um is there a metric to um do you know what word I'm looking for is there a metric to quantify that type of communication short of surveying our employees specifically to ask them how satisfied they are with internal Communications uh and we would we would have to Define that because internal depends on the audience that you're part of correct internal at a school is different than internal at the district vice versa so board member would be very excited um about a survey that talks about that and understands how each school because every school Community is different how each school's internal communication is going seeing as we have an entire goal on communication what is the internal communication at schools how does it vary between Elementary and secondary what is the internal communication in the central office and that communication from central office to schools I think some of that is covered under the parent survey that was previously mentioned because some of those questions do Target School Communications absolutely that's but that is still with an external stakeholder that's not with an internal stakeholder I would beg to differ well I just took the survey and it was well well I mean parents are a target audience or sure but they are not um what I'm talking about is internal communication within our organization employee to employee oh so you're just talking employee to employee yes yes our employee internal Communication in our organization often times things come up um and I know I'm not unique in this things come up and uh I mean this morning is an example of it right and so things come up and person a and person B and maybe person C no one has communicated about what we're doing and so we find ourselves in a situation where communication is the Crux of why we failed to know where we were supposed to be that day or how we were supposed to um navigate the conversation or be best prepared and so I would like to see some metrics attached to the internal communication within our organization with our employees at sites like how do employees at a site feel their leaders communicating with them which may be represented in their administrative survey part of the site survey but there is no survey from the district office and how employees feel the central office is communicating with them how then the central office leaders how their departments feel they're communicating with them all of those other surveys are not captured to my knowledge and so we have no metric to reflect on as to how our internal communication is working doly noted okay right yes board member thrower thanks um I have a suggestion um regarding this topic and I would offer that um we lead it and start with ourselves sure and then um you know added as a work session topic and what we want to see and Lead it and model it I I agree um chair uh if we could have that as an upcoming work session topic so that way we would be able to uh let Dr gullet and her staff know exactly the questions that we're interested in having asked and how we want them cross referenced from site to District district back to site uh if it's uh Department based based if we want specific information about specific departments schools feeling communication from some departments better than others those that they engage with the most um absolutely I've been asking for it since I became a board member I think that that's a piece of this communication puzzle that's been missing and so I um satisfaction or lack of satisfaction there's no metric to quantify that um and so we've just been going on feelings and feelings are not the best metric to use so thank you okay thank you uh for that robust conversation um want to thank you all for your presentation uh this morning communication is I'm not an expert um but because I came straight from the classroom um it one of my first meetings with Dr gullet it was definitely a high priority for me and so if we're not telling our story somebody else is and so I am excited to see um spe specific our Facebook communication um picking up because I noticed that that's where our families are engaged the most that's where they tend to interact with us uh the most consistently didn't say it was all positive Miss thrower I just said that's where they tend to communicate um so I am I know you mentioned that um I'm not sure the term that you use but that each school is connected with you for their Facebook page is that correct okay so a while ago and um I don't think it was the appropriate time because I don't think we were in the same space that we are now but this board member would like a list if possible of each of our Facebook pages because I do try to engage and share with the activities that are going on at school and I know that that's a little challenging because particularly our high schools have many accounts you know they their Athletics have an account um their a department has an account and so I would be interested so I can look those up and be involved and help sharing that message so and the school Pages still have social media if it's not under us it just they're not under our protection okay so we can still I mean that's what I'm under what I'm doing right now just trying to get everyone under our um management but otherwise it's still this is still the school administrator okay you just had to make sure it's the right page so getting the right page is tricky because you go in or I have gone in and searched and I it is difficult to find what you're looking for so I would appreciate any guidance you can give me on getting connected with um schools across the district all right thank you very much did think of one other thing yes go ahead um we all know we have a very active par um parent Facebook page in Maran County with a lot of um individuals is our district Facebook presence a member of the that Facebook group I believe you can see it but we we don't post anything understood but what what I would love to see is us commenting with District data so whether that's a district Facebook post that shared information about a school closure or maybe a link to our website which indicates our fast facts or our um what do you call those um the misnomers we have a page where we have our um he what I'm trying to say rumor control page right and so I would love to see us not engage in discourse but simply comment to say hey um those looking for um School the calendar comes up every day in that group right and and honestly one member of our community Jamie nicewonger I feel like more often than not does a very good job of providing accurate information but I would love to see the district post the information so from our seat we say here's the link to the 24 25 calendar or here's the link to the 25 26 Calendar so that we are providing accurate information to the parent directly instead of potentially them receiving misinformation and so if not to engage in discourse about feelings but simply to share information that would be um what I would love to see I don't know if the rest of the board agrees but that's certainly something I would like to see I would love to see it but I'd like to acknowledge that's very tricky um you know not to engage in any of the negativity which I personally find is a lot but to just go in and basically post a link to the correct information or repost um something that's you know Kevin you've shared on our page um I just I want to acknowledge that I understand that is a a tricky place to be yes board member thower right um I can see tremendous value um I think that there are plenty of people that work for the district that are members of the site that was just mentioned um that see the wildly inaccurate information being posted including by the person who was just specifically named um so we do need a counter to that and coming having it come from the district is in my opinion uh better than coming from random people in the district and to put something simple like a link to C Maran County website to help I was thinking about this last night when I was reviewing this how to keep driving people to our Facebook page where the accurate information is being shared now I will offer that probably most of them know that there's a Maran County Facebook page and there is a level of love for engaging in toxicity across social media there just is so I think we just need to accept that and continue to rise above that and do our level best to say Hey you know point you in the right direction here and you know what whatever the topic is but carefully and I my suggestion would be doing it using linking back to us all the time see this see this see this for more information because we know there's plenty of us that are looking at it anyway and I I just may offer you know um a couple of weeks ago I mentioned forum's um Early Learning page it is very productive and so maybe the answer is not us tagging into that page maybe we have a page that is interactive that we can monitor you know we have the ability to to delete misinformation and but it's a place place where parents can converse and ask questions um but we we are in charge of what's being shared just as a response that is purpose of our district Facebook page um we would never delete a post unless it used City or identified a student because every post made to every social media account that the district record okay so we would not delete it we would take it down but it would still be in our okay so sorry wrong lingo on that but and and I appreciate the discussion about sharing information on that particular web web page there could be Merit to that I have grave concerns could be Merit to it absolutely but yeah and maybe it's a trial maybe you try it out and see how it goes I don't know yes board member um Campbell personally this board member is not in favor of the district directly engaging in that page the existence of that page with thousands of people already on it predated the district's Facebook page now that we have our own the way we combat the negative that happens on that is to post on our own page the accurate information and then if any one of us or anyone else chose to share the post from the official page into the parent page that's the way we handle that but I am not in I mean certainly y'all can decide what you want to do in an executive cabinet but I am not in favor of Maran County Public Schools commenting directly to anything unless Maran County Public Schools is specifically tagged and there is a justification similarly to way we are tagged sometimes as individual board members and then we may comment I don't comment on anything unless somebody has engaged with me in there and I am not in favor of that at all so that's my personal opinion take it or leave it okay anything else board all right thank you again for your very informative presentation we appreciate all of you is there any public comment okay see seeing and hearing none Dr gullet I think we're ready to go on to our next item thank you madam chair uh yes I'd like to bring forward uh Cynthia Barnes who is representing the office of safe schools today and she has uh an update for you regarding inspections thank you Miss Mars good morning to each one of you chair comment got to speak up so you can hear a little yes okay thank you Cynthia the other members of the board and um superintendent Dr gullet the quarterly compliance inspection report in response to Florida State Statute 101212 the department of education's office of State schools developed and adopted a Florida safe School compliance inspection report to document compliance or non-compliance with school safety requirements mandated by law or Rule and the adherence to established school safety best practices to evaluate the safety security and emergency response of the schools the office of safe schools conducts unannounced infections of all public and Charter Schools while school is in session and investigates reports of non-compliance with school safety requirements thereafter the office of safe schools provide quarterly reports to each district school superintendent and school SEC school safety specialist identifying the number and percentage of schools including charter schools that were inspected or reinspected during that quarter and the number and percentage of inspected schools with no school safety requirement deficiencies to maintain the Safety and Security of the district the report provided by the state does not contain detailed information the office of safe schools reported the following further quarterly report for the District of Maran County the number of schools inspected or reinspected is 12 percentage of schools inspected or reinspected is 2222 the number of inspected schools with no safety requirement deficiencies five percentage of inspected schools with no school safety requirement deficiencies is 41.67 this concludes the compliance inspection quarterly report thank you thank you for your time and attention Okay board I I'm going to offer comments but we have do have to be careful um about our questioning and and our comments so just leave that there will we be individually briefed or receive a executive session on shade shade session on those that yes the answer is that you will be briefed on this whether individ whether that occurs individually or via shade session thank you thank you Mrs Barnes we appreciate you waiting and presenting for us this morning thank you all right Dr gullet that takes us oh excuse me any public comment okay seeing and hearing none Dr gullet that takes us to our last item on the resoning update there we go good morning again thank you madam chair yes it certainly does Mr Aris is coming forward and he is going to provide uh rezoning information for you for your consideration thank you Mr s thank you I have as promised the paper maps do I want I thank you Mr I have mine from my meeting so I have mine from my meeting too attorney pow you need one Jeremy thank you Mr rers I have one have one good good morning good morning Madam chair Pastor co-chair board members Dr gullet attorney Powers Miss Martinez today I'm presenting resoning information for the 2526 as a review there are three types of resoning technical targeted and relief technical resoning is used to correct mapping errors it is located in uninhabited areas and no students are impacted targeted reson and alleviates localized overcrowding and a limited number of students are affected relief resoning is used to alleviate widespread overcrowding it involves opening new schools which impacts a large number of students projections are developed using the growth rate of school zones calculated using a combination of power schools Predictive Analytics and historical student enrollment rates the capacity of schools is determined by the Florida inventory Schoolhouse fish seats which are determined by the Florida Department of Education fish seats are adjusted annually as new classroom wings are added and portable classrooms are changed the utilization percentage of schools is determined by comparing student population and available fish SE three targeted resoning options will be presented Katie Hollow area resoning for elementary Liberty Howard resoning for middle and the former Ever Green Elementary auxiliary zones this slide shows the map of the Shady Hollow area south of the existing walk zone for Dr NH Jones Elementary they are currently 17 students elementary students in the reasoned area which is zoned for Saddlewood Elementary targeted resoning is recommended for the Shady Hollow area elementary students the next steps are listed on this slide a community meeting was held on September 11th 2024 at the Shady Hollow Community Center today's work session is a rule development meeting and a making public hearing and vote will be scheduled for February 25th if we have consensus if the board approves the resoning during the February 25th meeting it will be effective for the 25 26 school year before I move on I want to ask if there's any questions on this area thank you Mr SS uh that's what I you read my mind that's what I was thinking also board do we have any questions or comments you want to share on this particular section um I'll I'll share um myself and Reverend Cummings I know attended the community meeting back in the fall I think it was in September um and I I felt overwhelmingly that the families who came to the community meeting desired for their students to be able to attend NH H Jones um they shared concerns about Transportation which probably has improved since the start of the school year um but they did share concerns about transportation and then they divulged maybe that they're not always safely transporting their children because they're putting them all in one vehicle and kind of just trying to get them to school if the bus is laid and so this is in the best interest of those students I do believe um I do think Reverend Cummings maybe can share a little bit about the walking and the pattern there because that was discussed but um I'm certainly in support of this change I think it's necessary and appropriate and in the best interest of the students thank you Reverend Cummings yes um that was in September when we um went over to the community meeting and it was very to me it was very productive meeting because um there's a desire for those parents to have their kids to be able to go at school sish and the concern initially was the route of how they would get to school um for that I think there has to be some collaboration with City officials and those Property Owners on the path that they'll get to school um I think it's a no-brainer this one is a no-brainer to me that these kids are right basically right around the corner across the field from a school that and and I think these kids um would be very very successful there I don't I don't believe the these are level one or level lower level type kids these are kids that can function well at Dr NX Jones so we want to make sure they get the get there get to that school and I I believe and I don't want to speak for you Reverend cing but my understanding is we've already kind of had preliminary conversations with um some City Council Members to productively and collaboratively make sure that these children have a walk path that's appropriate talking with OPD if necessary to make sure that the um there's a safe path a safe path uh and so I certainly will be a collaborative team member to make sure that we have those conversations and and ensure that students are and the parents Shar too they would drop them off I mean yes it's in the walk Zone but they're already at least in the in the fall they were sharing they were basically already driving them to Saddlewood anyways and NH Jones is closer so they wouldn't be against just throwing them in the vehicle and driving them to NHS right I mean it's less than a mile it's really less than a mile um I'll just start by saying on behalf of Transportation Transportation has definitely improved um anything we continue can continue to do um for the health safety and Welfare of our students to get them walking and biking to school safely I am 100% for I think it reduces uh frisky behaviors when you really need them to be focused it gives them a chance to you know get some exercise to and from school um I love the downtown Ocala's vision of making everywhere we more walkable and and safer um my only and and Mr AR you know this from our our conversation in our briefing for me it is about provide making sure that the parents feel like that it is safe and not just safe but encouraging you know let's build some Trails whatever it takes not let's because that's something they would do but but you see my point it's all part of growing our our city um in a way that matches their Vision I think so I mentioned crossing guards and and appropriate lighting too if they're crossing any streets you know that's topic for another portion of this but um I I definitely agree with it with a few C I also agree it's the right decision oh that's the shortest I've heard you speak so so hearing the board consensus we will move forward with a um rule making public hearing that's currently scheduled for um February 25th yes and Mr s before you go ahead I I shared this concern yesterday but I just do want to say it publicly um as far as getting um those students do it to NH Jones it is important to me on the educational end that um we look at each of those I think it's 17 students uh that there's if there's any needs that they are services that they are providing at their at Saddlewood currently that we are prepared and ready to serve them when they show up at NH Jones the beginning of August okay because we have a list of their needs and I know we talked about this yesterday um and that's not something he couldn't get that information for me today um that we are not dragging our feet on getting what those students need um on that campus okay thank you very much and and the other thing that um that always bothers me when we do these types of um rezonings um there's a tendency and I don't know if it's who who who does this that we start labeling these kids that come out of the community going to these schools they start calling them the neighborhood kids we do not need that type of rhetoric with these kids they're just kids that are going to a school that that's right across the field from their house so I'm praying that and I'm not saying that's going to happen to Dr n Jones but it's happened at other schools we a that's something that just can't be tolerated so no and and Reverend Cummings I hope you did not take my statement as such because I just want to clarify um when there was a move I'm going to tell a little story here um when we shifted students before you have to understand that each School receives different levels of training and so my ask is you know at the school level that we're we wherever a student has moved they're moved to Saddlewood or they're moved to East Maran wherever they are moved we have a responsibility to make sure that that the staff and the teachers and the administrators that are at that school have what they need to meet the need of the students that are coming to them and that doesn't mean in the third nine weeks it means when they show up on the first day of school that we're ready to serve them well and if I could add I mean I know that it's not always appropriate but 17 students that should be I mean as intimate as a um transition meeting like in an IEP you know it 17 students is a small enough of students that there's no reason why the principal of Saddlewood and the principal at nhh Jones along with some support staff can't sit down and go through each individual child talk about on on the school side you would talk about their pink or blue card right so you would talk about what are some unique strengths unique weaknesses what are some ways so that we can best help that child acclimate so seven you know you can't do that if it's hundreds of students and we are going to talk about hundreds of students today but for 17 students it's that that should be well within the scope of what those two schools can do to assimilate the students yes and if our goal is that every student succeeds we need to be proactive and not reactive right and Madam Chair by no means that I you just you just kind of triggered something in my head that made me think about that because in in times past whenever we kind of did some certain things um and again I don't know how it starts or but they when the kids come they start they're they're not ready and then they group these kids into a label and call them neighborhood kids all of them are neighborhood kids hey we used to all have neighborhood school so I I just don't like that label and now I go to certain schools and I hear that label those are the neighborhood kids what does that mean you know because of where the schools the neighborhood that the school's in what I I don't I just don't like that phrase okay thank you board member Thor yes you definitely pushed a button for me um it's undoing uh Decades of of mindset and and culture and in the behavior world you know it's all about planed transition wait hoping that they're going to do okay or worst statement ever let's see how they do uh no we need to be better than that and as mentioned earlier about my suggestion that we lead you know strengthening internal communication between schools it doesn't matter if it's one kid or a hundred kids you know you can find those commonalities and and especially when students are leaving middle school or Elementary School maybe had a tough time there's always this tendency you know oh well he's he yours now how many times have we heard that yes we've heard it and and I know we can be better so to me this is just another example of leading from the front plan transitions let's look at strengthening that internal communication between schools and I'm reminded at North Maran Middle School years ago the the guidance counselor didn't come back until well into the summer and they walk in and there's these stacks of cume folders well how are you going to go through all those stacks and these were just kids with valp you know and truly be planned truly be ready to receive those students with a wide smile and feeling confident that at least you're going to get through the first pretty well and set a good tone so thank you um board member Cummings I don't know that we can't that we can say that enough of what you just all right Mr s thank you for the leeway there I appreciate it not a problem you're doing good that's it you're rolling the next targeted resoning is a Liberty Howard Middle resoning this slide shows the current enrollment data and utilization percentages for Liberty Middle and Howard Middle Schools please note that this slide also reflects an increase in fish seats at Liberty Middle School when the new 16 classroom Wing opens in August 2025 this slide also shows the projected enrollment and utilization through the 2728 school year this slide shows the potential zone change that would move students from Liberty Middle to Howard Middle School the map shows two areas identified as Liberty Zone a and Liberty Zone B there are currently 163 as zoned middle school students in these zones the chart on this slide shows the projected enrollment and utilization percentages of Liberty in Howard middle school after the potential resoning please note that the enrollment and utilization percentages for Liberty Middle School do not take into account the Liberty Middle will be open for controlled open enrollment after the potential resoning targeted resoning is recommended for the Liberty Howard Middle resoning area if we have consensus from the board The Next Step will include scheduling community and stakeholder input meetings in February a rule development work session in March during which community and stakeholder input would be presented if there is consensus to move forward after that work session a rule making public hearing and vote will be scheduled for April if the board approves the resoning in April the rezoning will be affected for the 2526 school year thank you Mr SS will'll open it up to um conversation and comment board I don't mind starting because I think this stem from uh the community meeting we attended in September so we were there for the resoning of shady uh of Saddlewood to anat Jones and those parents said well what about Liberty and I didn't even know what they were talking about and so in conversation they said yeah our kids get busted and so I pulled up my map and they were busing almost seven miles from that particular Community we were at to Liberty and they were in walk distance of both Oola and Howard and so um that's I think where this stemmed from was our our participation in that meeting and saying hey well let's look at this because that seems like a transportation Nightmare and we're talking about trying to improve our ontime arrivals and we're doing such a good job in that in that department so why are we busing kids almost seven miles when they we wouldn't even have to provide transportation for these students they're in a walk zone so um I think this is a wonderful plan I think this is more than necessary and to me this is setting Liberty up for future success because we understand that the growth is happening in southwest and so we are just providing more available seats at liberty for the future so I I think that this is um I think this is a positive so I'm on board for sure concur okay only only thing I want to state with this is that um there is a need for crossing guards crossing guards and uh the safety aspect effects of Crossing cross uh Highway 40 uh 40 and Marther King that's the area that they would definitely need somewhere there is a crossing guard at um 27th and Martha King but there needs to be one at uh 40 and address that once after after I have consensus at the community meetings I will be working with safe schools to show what that potentially would look like yes to to address those thank you yes board member thrower yes and again this comes as no surprise to you um I will reemphasize the Need for for safety and Confidence from the families that it is a great idea for the kids to walk and and ride their bikes and continue to have um the outflow from the downtown community get the benefit of making things more walkable and bikable and and safer Highway 27 is no longer a country road and yes there's crossing guards there but any of you that drive that during uh during the school day when kids are on the move there are no lights at that intersection there's no big gritting I know this has come to the huge attention and concern of one of our state reps and as we continue to bring more students back you know to Howard and uh board member Cummings remind me you know when we had that desegregation order there was I think that was part of the reason why we ended up with Transportation zones like this so again it's just part of the cleanup of Decades of dysfunction yes and that doesn't happen overnight but this is a huge great step but in our advocacy um board member Campbell I believe when we go up to Tallahasse we really need to talk about Highway 27 well and I'll I'll add I when I got on the board I would was campaigning on the corner and I noticed the just the fact that there was not a school zone on Highway 27 and that no one abides by the red light turning red and so I started advocating with the do about my issues and concern and basically they said well school zones aren't required um because on that road and they gave me some right and so they I I asked I took it up and they did a study and then by the time I remembered that they were supposed to have told me about a study that person no longer was with the do and so it's been this round and round and rep Hinson and I have had a conversation about it and so I because they do have a school zone on Highway 27 in Willison so I know for a fact they will put a school zone on Highway 27 because they did it in Levy County and so I am a full proponent of making that school zone not just on M but also on Highway 27 and slowing down I think it's because the traffic light the traffic light is the reason they won't do the school zone um because the traffic light slows down traffic and they're able to cross but I I yeah and so I would be a full proponent of doing whatever is necessary to advocate for a school zone getting on Highway 27 I've I've tried and I have hit roadblocks but that traffic needs to slow down with the amount of students because they don't just cross one time they cross they chitchat they cross back to go to the jfy store then they get buy them a Coca-Cola and then they cross again right and and as long as they're on time to school that's what we care about so I want to see a school on Highway 27 absolutely and I think we're all proponents of that and I think that has to be something that we all bring forth in tah has se in a couple weeks that that section of Highway 27 from uh I can't say where I guess by the auto part store um West to probably the next auto part store need or to the Tesla place needs to be some type of school zone because um you have kids that are abely in that area yep thank you yes my suggestion would be and total agreement let's unite our voices we have a joint meeting coming up of elected officials that could be something that could be added um to the agenda I I think maybe even the technical working group uh you know let's let's get this activated and it would be nice for I I know that the county because it's not a County Road I've because I talked to B I talked to the sheriff I talked to some County Commissioners they all basically said it's a DOT thing it's not a us thing and so if we can all unanimously as Maring County elected officials have a unanimous voice on it then maybe we will be heard better so certainly bringing it up in the joint meeting would be a great idea because nobody wants to own it so tell something tragic C and that's what I said does a kid have and the next day magically it we'll have a school zone I know and I don't think we should have to wait for a school I mean I'm working trying to work on a four-way stop at East Mary it's the same scenario they're like well we don't there's been no fatalities and I'm like dear God we have to wait on a there are kids crossing over that ride their bike and there's no four-way stop there's only a two-way stop at East Maran and so those kids are like playing Frogger to cross because there's no crossing guard and it's like we have to wait for a fatality for a student to and so they're doing a traffic study again but you know and then there's bellw yeah yeah and so let's shall we not digress because we could really just digress into a whole Transportation saf conversation yes okay Dr cble we haven't heard from you I agree with this rezoning recommendation I also want to stress as we continue to talk about walking and biking they do have an extensive and very active car line so there is also that option we don't want to always say if you're within that two miles you absolutely have to walk or ride your bike um but families are certainly able to also transport their students if they'd like but I agree with this recommendation right thank you very much all right Mr I just want to tie this one up I'm hearing a consensus from the board that we're going to move forward corre right so so the you're two for two so far the the timeline on here is just um potential right now because obviously I've got rule making and development rules and dates that I have to follow plus the community meetings that we have to schedule and go forward so my goal is to have done by but and M Eris just um going back to the communication piece from the Strategic goal um please let us know so we can because you know we want to come to the community meetings to support and what is the dead stop for this U Ru making hearing to occur for us to have a change for August is there a is there a dead stop date that has to occur um I I I there's not a a formal one we would like to have it done by the end of May just because there's lots of behind the scenes things that have to happen and so there's no rule or thing like that but my personal goal would be by the end of May and I think we definitely can get that done wonderful and that would be time enough to communicate everything to the correct those communities thank you because also I'm sorry but I just thought of this when do our middle schools go to the elementary school feeders to do scheduling for middle school because now so in some way or form or fashion we're going to need to capture these hund whatever children because Liberty is going to go to their zoned school and do scheduling to the fifth graders and there will need to be some level of cooperation cooperation because also programmatically there are slightly different programs at Howard than there are at Liberty so um just ensuring that I I mean I I don't know that it's appropriate to get ahead of final decisions but if there was a way that Howard and Liberty could start having conversation I don't know those are occurring okay oh perfect thank you Mr SS I think we're on to the next first next section the next targeted rezoning is the former Evergreen auxiliary zones this targeted rezoning is not recommended for the 2526 school year this targeted resoning will be addressed for the 27 8 school year after all former Evergreen students transition out of elementary school if rezoning occurs before 2027 students will be placed in their third Elementary School this slide stated that they will be zoned for the third time which is incorrect they will be potentially attending their third Elementary School okay board yes board member thrower thank you um having been been quite familiar with Evergreen since it's been in my district since I was elected in 2018 I although I don't like it I completely understand and I do support waiting um on behalf of the kids so that's where I am short and sweet and I too um being very familiar with this uh process with Evergreen and those kids have been shuffled to shuffled shuffled um I think there needs to be some stability that we're giving them I think U waiting to their they've transitioned out of elementary school is the proper thing to do so so if I may in my conversation with Mr S I asked some pretty data driven questions because um I wanted to understand well that's kind of how this language change from rezoning to placement occurred but can you can you sh what is the youngest grade a student is in that remains they're they're currently in third grade so they're they're they have two more years of elementary school left the youngest child right and there's only 20 of them correct there are there are over 315 students currently in the zone not not counting fifth graders and 19 of those are the former ever stud right so 19 we're talking about 19 students yes so I and all of those 19 this would be their third placement if this if we reone them it would be their third placement okay so one of the things because again 19 is a very small number it's a very different number than we talked about eight you know eight 12 months ago I would like to see personal conversations occur with the families because if those families would desire for their child to attend a school closer to home because for some of these students they are being picked up at 6:05 in the morning from their bus stop to get to Shady Hill so I would like to see those families connected with and asked hey would you prefer your your I mean we we we could see how their closest school by proximity would be a different school for instance all of these school students in The Spar auxiliary Zone which could you you help me understand then why there are so many dots if there are 19 students the dots you know the the dots represent residences with students in them it could be one student it could be a k it could be a thing I I I shouldn't have put the dots on there but the dots are are are are helpful to show density okay you know where students are density from but a DOT on the map represents a residence with a student in it and it could be a VPK through well it must be more students because because there's not obviously not 300 and something dotts on this paper so okay so we also include this would include P3 students you know VPK students which there are quite a few but I did not include those in my account so two things that I would request because I'm I'm in agreement I certainly would not want to choose that we change a child's placement a third time especially when the number is just 19 students when this came up I was under the impression based on the information we received last year that we were in the hundreds of students but what I would like to see is us reach out to those families and ask them if they would rather attend a school closer um and and provide that opportunity so with Transportation because these families are being incredibly disserved by their students being picked up at 6 o'clock in the morning they're standing on the side of the road very dark only because they're going to a school we told them they had to go to and they're driving past multiple schools otherwise so if that family would desire to have a school closer to them like oakrest or Anthony then I would love to see us reach out and ask them that and then the other component I have is when we are identifying students who live in this area for the next two years that are identified as prekese we should be identifying them and supporting them by placing them in a school that is the closest to their residence not the one they are zoned for so we have families that are being identified that live in this area and and one particular case I know of for sure they live in the Shady Hill auxiliary Zone they were offered placement at Shady Hill for pre K but Shady Hill there's it's not even close to their house and so we need to for these 19 which is probably not even 19 households it's probably less than 19 maybe and so I would like to see us have individual conversations with those 19 families and then pre any of any new prekese students who may be identified because they may not be in our system yet and finding them a resource that is the closest to their address not reflection of this auxiliary zone so those are my two requests based on this seeing as we're not going to move forward with the rezoning for the students that can be done so just for clarification again this Zone the way we're looking at it right here is only representative for those Evergreen Elementary students if there are any households in these areas they go to a different School no no ma'am those zones if you live if you move into that area you go to that auxiliary Zone school that's why there's two there's 315 approximate families or students elementary students that are in those zones okay and the reason these zones exist is because of Evergreen going away I understand that so at what point do you recommend well this is the greater question board at what point are we having real conversation about north side and consolidation of locations and rezoning the entire north side I was going to have that conversation after we talk about the high school but if we want to talk about it now well I mean it it is it works with this conversation because these are the students that are also going to be impacted potentially I'm ready to play ball whenever the board wants to play ball about it it's on my agenda so as mine as well when would you like to have the conversation we can entertain it now all right uh you want to start well it first of all if we have 300 yeah go ahead and have a seat Mr SS I told you it was coming you knew we were gonna have this conversation so did I um so we know we have 3155 students that are being impacted that are not just these 19 students that were former Evergreen students uh but as they move in and we know there are developments also occurring in some of these areas that aren't necessarily marked here this is a transportation challenge that we're continuing to try to impact transportation in positive ways however we can do that so that's the first piece to this because some of the locations again they're passing by oakrest just right there uh and anyway so that's one piece to this conversation because I think that it's imperative that we get real focused on what our real goal is there with all of that all of those areas but we have a school on the far Northeast Northwest sorry Northwest side of Maran County that has an exorbitant amount of seats available and at some point which I hope it's today we start having real conversation about what that looks like from a consolidation standpoint uh we fortunately have not been in the same situation that some of our Schoolboard colleagues around the state are having where we are having uh reduced U attendant not attendance reduced enrollment thank you reduced enrollment and needing to consolidate schools for that purpose the justification I believe for consolidation at least a conversation of consolidation is because where our folks are moving is not necessarily into the areas in the north part of the the county so and when we originally zoned these schools the Farmland preservation area did not exist and in the county comprehensive plan that's not going away so as long as the Farmland preservation area exists we can understand that development will not occur on the grand scale that it's going to be occurring in the southwest part of our County and I'm ready to have this conversation if chair and if I can I want to just go to the first because you made me think of something that I've been trying to get my brain to grasp so Mr SS this is back to this Evergreen auxiliary Zone you said there are 19 students and their lowest grade is third grade but I don't if someone buys a home in this the the whole reason this came up in all transparency board is someone who is very important to me bought a home in an area and in my brain she was going to be zoned for Oak Crest and then she was Z for Shady Hill and it was because she was just north of 35th Street on Gainesville Road and so all of this happened and so this family you you reminded me that if someone buys a home in this auxiliary Zone tomorrow the youngest is really the youngest kid third grade because are all of the kids purely Evergreen reone kids no no ma'am so when we created the the Evergreen auxilary zones we had dictation we were dictated by Doe about we could only rezone those schools and all students needed to be accounted for not just students that attended Evergreen yes but potentially could attend every for those years so that's why those auxiliary zones were created and they were specifically created for schools that met the criteria but we're making this decision based on what's best for these 19 students to not have a third placement but in two years more than likely statistically there is going to be a student who has moved into this auxiliary Zone and is not a rising sixth grader and we will still be rezoning that child so we are we are maybe not three times but maybe I mean maybe that child lived on Southwest I mean we can't say for certain who's going to buy a home in this auxiliary zone so my point is that we're never not going to have students there there there's always going to be students in this auxiliary Zone that are getting reson so when you say there are 19 students those are 19 of the purely Evergreen students purely Evergreen students how many students are being and so that is why I misunderstood that statement and so Dr Campbell thank you for clarifying that because I thought you were saying there was only 19 students in this exal I know you said 315 live in but only 19 are evergreen rezoned students but how many students are as attending would be rezoned I think that's what I'm trying to ask 315 number as attending or as attending yes that live in that zone that are attending those that were schools we took out the kids that are going to Jones and Madison Street on choice so there are 3 15 15 students as attending between the four schools yes yes and those numbers are the blue box numbers on map D so there are 124 students going to spar that as attending well I don't have that I don't have that number broken out the the the number 315 Encompass all four zones right but there's a number in The Spar box and it's 124 there's a number in the Shady Hill shade which is 147 yeah that number is not accurate yeah those were the numbers those were numbers from a year ago that included fifth graders that have since rolled out okay so well I want to say this because I'm ready to have this conversation Dr Campbell and I think um based on my conversation with Mr SS to days ago what I will say is this I think we're going to need um a rezoning update part two and I would like to see that scheduled in the next month because I think that I know for sure I if two other board members agree with me I'm going to task staff to bring back some more data Finance data and other numbers Data before I feel prepared to make a a a firm decision on anything that we talk about today so chair that would be my recommendation certainly we can get to the end of this conversation and see but I think a part two is going to be necessary because I misunderstood what you said Mr SS I thought you were saying there was only 19 students but it's 19 who were Evergreen students ma there are 315 and so I want to see a map like map D that has updated numbers on it because in my in my I want to see what happens because I I would rather offer remain in place to the 19 students and rezone the rest of it like I don't want to make a decision that impacts these schools where we have a lot of overcrowding and they could go to a school that doesn't have overcrowding because of 19 students I don't think that is an appropriate thing for this board to do at all but I didn't understand the data and so I apologize for my misunderstanding board so the first thing I want to see come back to us is how many as attending students are going to Shady Hill Ward Highland South ofala and Spar because that to me is a piece of the puzzle that needs to be a part of the conversation that comes next which is what we're doing with Anthony Spar reic and fezan so I can pause there yes or I can I can rip the bandaid off which would you prefer Dr I I just want to Quick make a quick comment this was a concern I had yesterday when I went um with Mr SS also that um they're only 19 students and so I anticipated that we would need a second Workshop so I am not surprised by that um I think that's going to be helpful in so we can make a good decision that's the other piece to me which we're about to have the conversation of what we're doing on the North side but the other piece to me is the reason that we created all of these four boxes that did not include oakrest no longer exists either or Anthony Anthony and oakrest correct yes so the reason that both of those schools were excluded no longer exists right and oh sorry go ahead so for that purpose I believe we need to have this greater North Side reone conversation because Ward Highlands we know is operating at what 100 I was trying to get some numbers here Ward Highlands is at 112% um South Okala is at 98% Shady Hills at 88 but oakrest is at 73% and so we have space there we have space at Anthony right now though that's going to be a part of a greater conversation just a moment and so those two schools that no longer are we excluded them for a reason that reason no longer exists what was that reason because they were failing schol because they were exactly right so and and when I we had this conversation eight 10 months ago now I had Mr White House's Department pull the data for the students that would be getting reasoned and they actually improved oakrest school grade so part of the part two can be the pm2 data or go back to pm3 data from last year for all of the students who would be rezoned and a recalculation of the school grade at oakrest and then Anthony or whatever other school we want to talk about because data should drive it's a part of the decision for sure and when we talked about it eight months ago the students that were a part of basically Shady Hill Ward Highlands in South Okala had they been rezoned to oakrest they would have actually improved oakrest school grade by two points and someone can correct me if I'm wrong but that was the data that I was presented so they would not hurt the oakrest school grade by any means they would improve oakrest school grade and from a statistici perspective increasing denominator almost always makes the situation better it does not make it worse so shall we move to the next part since we're talking about ripping off the Band-Aid um first of all the I think that we need to continue to be very cognizant of you can say it's just 19 kids but if it was your kid it'd be a different perspective um that all of those families went through a lot and Des deserve some continued support and protection um I will say also representing oakrest I mean these schools have had had a lot of challenges yes and a lot of reasons that were frustrating as to why we couldn't change things to try to make it better because of all these requirements and regulations and blah blah but it is we're things are continue to evolve we have such a great partnership with oakrest and Vanguard High School and I've often wondered wouldn't it be potentially in the best interest of the kids that oakrest to have the opportunity to stay at oakrest as middle schoolers and make that into a combination school and continue that partnership with Vanguard with kind of the uh expectation and I didn't know the the actual numbers and you might not know them off the top of your head but how many oakrest kids are zoned for Vanguard you know um how much connection is being done already you know uard high school kids students come down there and uh do interning you know with a I want to say teacher to be but all the different programs the the sports teams come down and support and we know that so many kids at Oak Crest have so many deep needs and if they had an actual Pipeline and path to be able to be at oakrest from prek till the end of eth grade with a lot of transition planning support and Partnerships you know uh vanguard's going to be your high school that's that's what we're thinking and to be able to go and be successful a lot of our kids at oakrest have so much upheaval all the time and to have something stable and steady and to be able to build that next step because it really isn't a very close uh Middle School um you know you've got Fort King and you you have Howard but you've got Vanguard High School right down the street where there's already all these Partnerships taking place so it was just something that had come into my mind it's something that different uh parents had mentioned to me um former principles at oakrest had mentioned to me so for the the scope of the conversation since we're in the Band-Aid ripping business there you go right um shall I continue so I I I want to I guess I'm going to make some recommendations to the board and if is that the best way to proceed chair would you like me to make some recommendations and then we can go into conversation yes okay so one of the things uh one of the pieces of a part two conversation that I want Miss Boston and her team to present to the board we have had conversation as a board about our priorities prior to the sales tax passing and then miss dobins and the facilities team presented their recommendation for an order and we had conversation and kind of came up with a PR preliminary plan which is that we don't want to borrow any more money and that we want to just kind of start planning everything and then we want to I I feel like we're kind of in a holding pattern now what we said was plan everything and let's stay in a holding pattern but a piece of the puzzle that I feel like was missing was the recommendation from our finance department as to what is in the best interest of our finances in our plan so we had these priorities which included new Wings closing schools merging schools repurposing schools um but but our finance our CFO has not come before us and said this is in the best interest of our money and I I while I understand in the business of human capital we are ultimately the people who are responsible for finance and I would like to see that component to our plan because I think it plays into what I'm about to say so so part two for me encompasses Miss Boston Ella's coming forward and sharing a little bit about the financial impact of our decisions with rezoning and also our future planning with the sales tax um we've already been told that essentially Elementary X and Elementary W are going to add 2 and a half million reoccurring cost for auxiliary staff to run the site not including the teachers that will follow the students that's $5 million this year and that's $5 million every year going forward in addition next year 2026 we're going to be adding a high school one is going to guess that the high school is going to cost more than two and a half million right if an elementary is is two and a half a high school is going to be more than that our budget does not have the bandwidth to take on additional person Personnel cost like that without offlining from other places starting with acknowledging that we have a job for everyone because we have a lot of vacancies so no one is losing a job and what I certainly my intention is no one is losing a job in the plan I'm about to present because we have more than enough jobs to go around so I believe that it is the most and I would like Miss Boston Ellis to bring numbers to back up my claim but I believe that it's in the best financial interest of this board that as we online new sites we are offlining sites so that we are trying to Net Zero uh costs as close as possible to the auxiliary staff that is required to run sites um and so what to me that looks like is prioritizing the 30 million at Spar and going ahead and closing Anthony Elementary as an elementary site and making Spar large enough to service the students at Anthony and Spar understanding that some level of rezoning has to occur but I'm talking in purely quads right now so I guess bear with me as I'm kind of looking at the schools as um four squares uh and so I would like to see a conversation and some information about how much in a 10year look forward how much are we going to save or spend by prioritizing 30 million at Spar and offlining Anthony as an elementary site and servicing all those students in one place because while the teachers will follow the students we would be able to use those supplemental staff in other places throughout our district in our vacancies and support our new schools and other schools throughout our County and we wouldn't necessarily add an additional two and a half million if that were to be a wash um because we're adding and taking away the other side of 441 we have fezan and reic reic has been at 50% occupancy for the sake of the conversation um for a long time when my husband went there 30 years ago it was not it was a it was a bustling school but it is not anymore and to Dr Campbell's point the Farmland preservation boundary is going to significantly limit the amount of homes and new families that move into the area to uh respect the Farmland that is in that area so my recommendation there would be that we offline fezan as a element El school and those students in some capacity are rezoned to reic uh and I would like to see fesan turned into something similar to what we have done at Howard Academy which is a community center I would love to see fesan be a home of potentially a program that MTC has that is most appropriate for the north end I would love to see Fan's playground and um Jim turned into um a partnership with Maring County for when we're sitting in the perfect place to have that conversation for Parks and Recreation it has a beautiful playground it has a great kickball field donated by their business partner the gym just received air conditioning so I would love to see that become a Community Access Park which we know our community talks about all of the time wanting to access our sites I would love to see high school and GED programmatic options offered there I would love to see a health department program offered there so that families can go there to receive dental services and other health related Services um I think that is taking it back to um a level of what fezan was in the beginning which was fesan Academy and serving students in a different capacity while also serving our community and putting students at a school like reic which is more better equipped to serve them it is a facility that has um newer newer everything pretty much except for the electric which was redone at fezan um it has more than enough space it is a beautiful property and I do believe it would be in the best interest of the students so that I think encumbers the uh thoughts that I have so board we can chat about it yes so I am pretty much concurring with just about everything that was said I have a different thought for what fendon can be used for um but I mean I don't know if you want me to elaborate on that now I agree with part of what you said I believe the property at fendon elementary school is is the perfect location for a special need shelter a regional special need shelter there is vacant land there that could be used regionally uh it is the perfect location between I75 and 441 I could see it being a collaboration between the county and the state and potentially our role in it is the donation of the land that's my initial thought there's a lot of conversation that would need to happen there I think there needs to be a part partership with the Early Learning Coalition there needs to be a VPK program on that site I do believe the county could run uh as a community center of sorts I believe the state could use it as part of a black history museum project that they started in other communities that they could expand to Maran County so during the day it would have lots of opportunities to not just be a vacant facility but actually have hustle and bustle occurring on that campus that may or may not be under the purview of Marian County public schools because I think part of offlining a site is also offlining the cost of that site and so that's what I too have had very similar thoughts of doing all that we need to do to rezone these kids and and move them we have made facility upgrades to fezen recently but not enough that are making such a significant impact that that we don't continue to have facility struggles on on that campus I I think there are historic parts of it and less historic parts of that campus and when we were at the EOC for the Hurricanes I thought that's the perfect spot it's between I75 and 441 and we already heard it needs to be between Maran County and alatua County it it that's my personal opinion of of what we could do with that I have had offline conversations with a couple of folks about that who are interested in that thought process but each time I've said this is an Allison Campbell idea the school board has not heard my idea today you're hearing my idea of what that would look like um but can I just add one thing to your thought real quick okay I just want to say that I I think that the community should lead a uh I think that the Board needs to make a decision about the site being in elementary school and then a Community Committee works with our staff to come up with the programmatics of what the site will serve in the future so I I wanted to clarify and I don't want to speak for you but I think you probably agree to some some extent I want to make a decision about where we serve as students for prek through 12 education and then I want the community along with our staff to make a decision about what we do at the site and so I wanted to be clear about that um and I'm sorry to interrupt you but I just it pay you back to what you were saying I mean I I agree I think we need to make the decision first of determining whether or not we are using that as a a Maran County Public School is is it's beyond just the elementary school conversation it's whether or not Maran County Public Schools continues to operate a school on that campus Dr James recommended some things about MTC and some other things and I I'm not certain again if we're offlining a campus I believe that it might behoove us to offline a campus and so with that conversation I do believe the community needs to be a significant part of that conversation I know that they are an active Community they have active alumni they are very proud of the site and as are we uh and that's why I think if it went even became a state park of sorts uh that there are other things that that site could be used for that could become a site I'm not going to say similar to Fort King but if it became a state park for black history and all the history that is there similar to what we have at Howard academy uh but it it could be expanded and then County partially running things there as well as state I could see that being a huge benefit but that certainly would need to come as a recommendation from staff before we made a vote on that um but first decision is consolidation and I am in favor of this conversation can I just clarify are you in favor of prioritizing building at Spar because we would have to build something at Spar to consolidate an I was prepared today to have the conversation about reic and fezen I was not coming to talk about Spar and Anthony but I could have that conversation I I think that as we get into the middle school conversation in just a moment Mr SS high school well yes but uh there is the Middle School conversation that we've had about Liberty and Howard I was going to bring up at the end to say when are we having a conversation about the lakee Middle School site because I do think I know we don't even have a construction manager chosen yet but this board is a Forward Thinking board and we need to start considering what that property will become and what we need to do with the bellw elementary Belleview Santos when we were touring the bus garage yesterday there is a transportation location at Lake R Middle School we can't just automatically Offline that as a property until we come up with what we're going to do about that so there's a lot of moving Parts on this that I'm grateful we're starting to have the conversation um but we are going to have to have those Middle School conversations too we have kind of oneof tier we did the the liberty and and um the one we did last year uh with liberty and Horizon excuse me liberty and Horizon to try to help with the marry and Oaks overcrowding and now we're having uh the conversation about Liberty and Howard trying to correct something that doesn't need correct correcting any longer and so trying to so we're doing that but we're going to be moving Lake rear Middle School to a completely different part of our community and so and I'm grateful for that because we've owned that land for a long time and that's where the students are coming from for predominantly so that's good but then the Laker middle school property becomes another conversation that potentially lands in this funding prioritization that we didn't even talk about so um whether we have to move a bus garage to what is now bellw Santos and we build something there I there's just a lot that we need to talk about but I know today is about North End so let's talk about that and I think part of the reason I want Miss Boston Ellis to bring forward finances is is the rough numbers that I did and I presented a little bit when we talked about our priorities in the fall in 10 years prioritizing 30 million at um Spar pays for itself when we offline Anthony and when we when we take out the continued maintenance that we would be required at Spar and so I I know my math is Fuzzy Math and our CFO is acclaimed and so I want to see her come forward and share the math so that there's Financial substance in a potential plan so I welcome comments from um I'll just quickly say board and then I'll I'll get further comments this came up in my conversation with Mr s yesterday and my concern about um low enroll rment in the North End particularly um with reic and fezan so I am on board for that conversation board member thrower so much to unpack here um reic reic has been underutilized for a really long time so we definitely need to do something about reic as far as offlining other schools you only U reduce expense by doing nothing with them that cost the school board any money so that's something to keep in mind um on reiterating she's saying what I if we turn it into MTC I think what I hear you're saying is if we if we she's agreeing with you I think that turning into Mt depends on what what if a committee decides that they want to repurpose it for something education related you know then we're going to be costing again so you're talking about selling it to development then it's off our books so I know that's a widespread um as far as well I'll just stick I'll just stick with with reic we we really need to come up with a solution for reic it is one of our funny to even say it one of our newer schools you know a lot of capacity there um I'm I can't remember exactly what the acreage is but to to throw something else into this what are what are our other our other primary challenges are finding people to work finding a place them finding a place to live while they work for us something that we have is being land rich on our school grounds um I would welcome conversation about educator Villages that we don't run that the legal things are all taken care of but utilizing some of our school properties so that people can afford to work for us and and make it convenient and so that's something else to be thinking about um peasant in has always been a place for Education when there was no other access so honoring the that pretty sacred place is going to be top of mine for me and in any decision or vote I would make I think it's important to have conversation to include everybody that is invested in that um but I see that as compared to some decisions that we need to make now and could probably make with less complications I think we're looking at Short medium and long-term goals and you know keep in mind we have have two elementary schools that we're opening a high school that we're opening um in the meantime there's a lot going on to manage so those are those are my initial thoughts and I feel like what I'm hearing is is that there's going to be a delay in what we're doing with rezoning of the North End um which Mr Ayers came to us today looking for consensus um and there's a timeline that is important to meet so families know what's going on I don't want to end up putting everybody into a tail spin by having too much too many spinning plates either so those are my initial thoughts um with this we were talking about U the Evergreen Elementary auxiliary initially and we've jumped to spar and Anthony um consolidating one closing then we've jump to um V reic solid and closing and anytime we start talking about closing schools and consolidating I think we need to be cautious extremely cautious I I kept hearing the phrase ripping the Band-Aid off so obviously if you know there's a Band-Aid there you know there's a wound there you know there's going to be some hurt in this conversation so I think we need to stick to what we were here to do and deal with the uh Evergreen we do need to have Community input we start talking about ripping Band-Aids off CU who are we ripping who whose Band-Aids getting ripped off and we as a board do have U the responsibility to make good decisions um fiscal decisions but we also have a right to do things morally right and the recommendation Mr Mr SS didn't bring that he he brought us certain specific things I think we can have a workshop and discuss the consolidation of those schools or the closing of those schools or whatever we need to do I think right now we need to be cautious on how you proceed because if you proceed the wrong way you're going to get a war that you're not ready for and I can tell you it's going to be a war that's going to be very unpopular I already know that um board member Thor you and I have been on the board when those situations came up Rose before and the and the uh the feedback was not productive it matter of fact our some of the conversation are in the community I'm not just talking about one community in the community as a whole disintegrated to stuff that it shouldn't disintegrated so can we deal with Evergreen and this auxiliary and the recommendation that Mr Aris has just put before us and then he's we got to deal with it eventually and I'm not saying kick it way down the road I'm saying I don't think this so I want to say this and I think um the reason Dr and I were prepared I know to have this conversation I was is because it is a part of the Evergreen plan so right now you have students going to spar who would theoretically reone to Anthony because that that school is closer to them and they are in The Spar auxiliary Zone but if we are going to do something with Spar and Anthony there would be no sense in making those kids go to Anthony if one or two years down the road they're going to wind up back at Spar that's not in the best interest of the student so having an understanding of what Our intention is on the North End is also in conjunction with this Evergreen plan I think they are one of the same so I I want to say first that is why I think they go together I want to also say um similar to what board member thrower had shared a conversation I actually had with the county commissioner it's been probably six plus months now they were at a conference and a school district T took a vacated School site and turned it into essentially an educator Village and I I and my brain see that happening at Anthony Elementary I think that Anthony Elementary um has potential walkability you can walk to multiple Dollar Generals um there's a jiffy store there and so there's a way to get Market goods and I think that it is also pretty centrally located on the North End and so um in my brain I kind of say I could see Anthony becoming a bit of an educator Village it has that really historic cafeteria which we could kind of turn into a common space um and essentially what I've gathered is you create a developers agreement of some sort and so a develop you you give it to a developer who then turns it into an educator village and we're hands off it's not a part of us at all but we have some kind ofou that essentially says our employees can live there at kind of a fixed rate and we we come up with this whole scenario so I absolutely would be on board with that um as a potential repurpose of Anthony Elementary even um and finally I want to say the Band-Aid we're ripping off is on the adults the adults in our community that's where the Band-Aid lives the wound is from past history with adults the Band-Aid is not on the children the children will be just as excited to go to a school that is newer and fresher and more advanced than the school they are in now if we prioritized the the sales tax money at Spar we would essentially be rezoning students and all of those students would be a new site and the students at fezan would be attending a newer site and a fresher site at reic so the children have no B uh band-aid and the children have no wound the Band-Aid is covering a wound for the adults and what we say is we're going to do what's best for students always and so understanding there are very big feelings for some of the adults and hearing those feelings but making courageous decisions for what's best for students that is what I'm prepared to do so I think that a part two conversation for me includes what of these auxiliary zones to go back to the original conversation how many students would be going to oakrest and how many students would be going to Anthony because those are the two sites that this board has at least said have availability if the plan from staff looks different than I look forward to receiving that but that to me is a part of this conversation and then data from our uh financial office on the finances behind School repurposing uh site closure and and rezoning on the North End for those four schools so I'm not prepared to make a decision today about Evergreen um because I need further information and we have said we haven't even had for the Liberty Middle School we haven't even had the community input meeting yet but I feel urgency about the Evergreen rezoning and I feel urgency about the North End since I've gotten on this board I've shared with our superintendent my desires and we've had this conversation for two plus years now we are not in a financial position to continue to delay conversations like this and we need to be as effectively um communicating and and looking at our timeline as aggressively as possible to ensure that we are making decisions timely in my opinion thank you Dr James any further comment I agree wholeheartedly okay board member thrower just to be clear um we gave Mr A's consensus on the um Liberty Howard reson so we're still good there we're good yes and with more information that is being requested I would ask and make sure that we have a followup as soon as possible because if we're talking about you know we we were talking about not do you know holding holding steady and now we're going to have the community needs attention so the followup to this part two needs to occur much sooner than later um however be comprehensive enough with data and and answers that we can have a real yeah agree so that's right and I think this board shows willingness to schedule special meetings so I'm not even suggesting that we need to fit this into an already existing timeline understanding that we only meet at most twice a month for work sessions so I would be more than happy to find dates to have special conversations so that we can ensure that we are respecting a timeline that's necessary to have this conversation want to be chair yeah just want to be ready for and the parents to be ready to know what's going on for for August correct and and not backup staff because of all of these requirements and Ru making and meetings and you know the timeline okay one last concern I wanted to bring forward which I shared with you yesterday is our special need students and how long they are in buses so I would like to know a number um of how many of these 315 um students are attending a hub and how long they're on the bus um because I would like that to be a priority I do have some plinary data on that there are 28 students in those auxiliary zones all encompassing that receive special Transportation via Ese and the average pickup time for those students at 6:30 a.m. um and and how long is their bus ride um the I can tell you this that also the data that I received Transportation the average pickup time for all elementary school students in the district is 6:15 a.m. or the school arrival time between 7:05 and 7:15 so if we go by that information it's probably a you know 35 40 minute bus ride but that's consistent with the rest of them okay because that thank you for that Mr ears you did um that very quickly because I just saw you yesterday so thank you for that but um it it is a complaint that comes forward uh I will say frequently um with concerns for special needs students being on on the bus for an hour or longer so I just want to make sure if we are able um if those situations are happening um here in this zoning that that we're able to address it and make it better anything else no Dr gullet we go again thank you madam chair before Mr SS continues the presentation because we're right in the middle of that Mr SS do you have any questions as to next steps on the board's conversation so um I just want to be clear um because there's two there's there's multiple um facets that would need to be included into the next presentation not only my data which is strictly student enrollment student placement potential numbers of students going to potential schools but what all and I'm I'm clear on data that is but facilities would have to be involved because there would be facilities type questions what questions I mean what direction because their facili is not here right now but I mean I'm sure they're listening what direction would they need to have information and data to be presented at the next work session on this topic I would I mean if I can I think Miss dobins has already put all this information together she did a very extensive um Excel spreadsheet that shows the work needed now and work needed in a five 10 10 15 Year look forward and so I mean I know I used that information when I was kind of coming up with my numbers back in the fall so I would think that the information can just come from the work she's already gathered personally and thank you in tandem with what she's created though estimated costs on what it would take to do certain things so like if we have the roof is in red I'm using the example of the Excel spreadsheet we've all seen if the roof is in red what's the approximate cost that's going to be and the timeline on when we need to repair replace it because then that gives us a five to 10 year I think she maybe that is on the bottom of the sheet I have to think about it but yeah I think she put the red the yellows and then the greens there so yeah it's that probably just for the public to see I mean we certainly anybody who wants a public records request could request it right now but U for the public to see as a part of a presentation I think that would be helpful on you know what they already have in the C and what they already have in the fiveyear work plan that may already be in the plan that obviously we know is unfunded but um that and then also the operating costs so that's where the the finance side comes into play it's not just the facilities hard costs it's also the operating costs and what it would look like to completely offline a particular property what obviously all of those people as Dr James said there are PL plenty of places to go we can find you a place to be right now uh we have two schools that are three schools coming on board the next two years so um I I think those are the three components you already understand what your I do and I would also add with the facilities aspect because without having running the hard through numbers of knowing because we we're just assuming right now which I could get on board with that there are two schools that these all these students can fit at potentially there may be need to be Portables put on those campuses to accommodate that so that cost would be included okay that's fine I mean yes I mean I think understanding and of course also in very raw form what we're saying is fesen goes to reic Anthony goes to spar but in your side of the house there are there are sometimes it's not that pure actually probably all of the time it is not that pure so acknowledging a conversation around maybe it isn't that pure and we need to talk about what it could look like or what what else it would shake out to or so I just want to further clar ver ification I just heard something that you said that maybe expand what I thought I was going to do at the next work session what I was intending to do was to deal with strictly the Evergreen auxiliary Zone and potentially what school would all those students go to and what that would look like you just mentioned pezan and moving those that's a separate conversation that I I'm assuming that's a separate oh that from this work session because this was just be dealing so in my brain the next time we talk about this we're talking about all of it am I I see Dr Campbell shaking her head I I mean I I we we have to have a a global conversation about if we're going to move forward with any of these things in tandem with that this expanded potentially oakrest Zone and expanded potentially Anthony zone is a part of that conversation so whether those two things happen separately as two different items on a work session they have to happen on the same day agreed because they are related I can agree with that yeah I can agree with that I just don't want us to I don't believe in kneejerk well I would like to be clear this is no knee jerking for me I have been spending two years or more thinking about this and having conversation with Mr SS and Dr gullet so while this is the first time we're having a public conversation about this since I've been on the board there is in no way shape or form knee- jerking happening from this board members and it's not it's it's been conversation that's been going on for years and years and years and they're tough decisions um and and we are in a position to have to make some tough decisions and um I didn't add this into my comments earlier but when I spoke with Mr SS and Miss Boston Ellis after making the decision I think one of you also said this um bringing the community in um to be included in the conversation is really the most important aspect of this because I am interested in what their ideas are what what are they interested in using fezan 4 what other what other purposes um you know would meet the needs that they want for their community and so I just want to emphasize that because the term rip the Band-Aid off has a very negative um connotation and you know some sometimes times difficult decisions they are hard but it doesn't mean that they're not good in what needs to be done for the community and so change is hard for really e everyone and so this is a difficult conversation it's a hard conversation um and and I personally I want everybody to be at the table I want to get everybody's input and so um I just I just want to round out with that Mr SS well I just had a clarifying question on what you said do you want the community do you want this board to make a decision about resoning separate from the community having input on what happens next at the facility I believe we have to decide what we're doing first and then thank you for clarify the community comes in to tell us what what we do next yes okay and I wanted to clarify that because I thought that's what you were saying but I didn't receive I'm not sure everyone received it the same way so I don't receive it that way I I I don't I don't I don't receive it that way I think we need to uh in all conversations concerning this the community needs to be product we'll have a community hearing as we are supposed to but I think ultimately this Board needs to make a decision about rezoning and then what we do next at the facility becomes an all-inclusive Community conversation because I think the financial piece which is we're what we're responsible for Miss Boston Ellis has to share with us um is it fiscally responsible I believe it is going to be fiscally responsible but I want to see the numbers and so that to me has to come first are we going to make a fiscally responsible decision decision and if the answer is yes then we're asking the community what what is your pleasure I we all receiv anything else Reverend Cummings I don't know okay Dr gullet leaning forward yes thank you I was going to ask similarly to Dr James clarification so what I picturing um occurring at the an upcoming work session is a list of options many different options based on all the conversations you've had today what the costs would be what the facilities needs would be and bringing all those options so the board can have discussion and then we decide on next steps then the community input comes correct okay so we're not doing any Community input bring those I haven't acknowledged other board members here my back was turned so is there anything um board member throw or Dr cample that you'd like to add uh I agree with the assessment that Dr goet has just given I I believe the board can make the decision we're going to hear it's GNA be we're going to hear from people between this very moment and whatever time we have that public conversation and we potentially will have public comment that day and all all of that as well um so I I'm not concerned about the community speaking to us I don't think it requires the district to do any formal communication efforts whatsoever like a survey or community meeting none of that I think the board can have the decision I do want to express I understand the value of Education continuing to happen on that site but I don't think it requires Maran County Public Schools to be the one that's providing the education that's why I mentioned An Early Learning Coalition partnership or something like that that isn't necessarily us providing that because one of the suggestions as an option to us in my opinion would be completely offlining that property entirely um certainly there can be other options that are presented if it's an MTC site or or something but I I would recommend at least one of the options to be completely not having that as a Marian County Public School site number thrower well this conversation originated in saving money and offlining schools to do it so that's what I would want to know is do offline a school completely that we're talking about then what's the savings um and then there's all these other right possibilities which I want to make clear to the community right at this moment are simply conversational it is the duty of this board to continue to to continue to grow our district in a way that that best need meets the needs of the kids the families the community the taxpayer and um there's always going to be a lot of different um reactions you know we're never going to get 100% approval on on anything that we do uh but it doesn't mean that we shouldn't have the conversation okay m S I just want to make sure that I'm perfectly clear on because there's multiple layers there's multiple layers to this next meeting that we're going to have from my seat my department what I'm going to provide what I anticipate and correct me if I'm wrong board member is two plans one plan that just involves the rezoning of the auxiliary sites what schools they would go to and what that would mean to those schools absent of any other possible offline year closing and then a second resoning plan is if specific facilities were offlined where would those students go and then do a complete resoning of that whole area so on the student enrollment and Zoning side I'm seeing bringing two options one that is just independent of any offlining of any schools and one that would include what what it looked like with that and then working with facilities find out what that would entail on their end and then getting with Miss Bellis and the finance department because there would be more questions about what the what the fiscal impact of plus or minus of of all of those am I I think I think you got it a question I just would like to have covered is is when we when we present that Evergreen rezoning option of the 19 students that are the original Evergreen students a question I will have is how many of them are receiving Transportation because sometimes when we reone we say intend to remain but we won't provide or we will provide and so I would I would certainly love to consider something unique for those 19 students if if the board moves in that direction and understanding whether we transport them or not would definitely be a part of the conversation good point yes because I correct me if I'm wrong Cummings but I believe that that was completely what we did you know we provided transportation for the Evergreen kids and so I can't imagine that we wouldn't continue to to offer that you know on out of here yes and so I would just like to know that number that would be something I know Mr Jacob back in the office watching this now so we will and I would I would be remiss if I didn't say none of this would be possible without the team effort um right for that so we will start working on that now okay would do you mind if we take a f minute break not at all okay thank you very much um board we're just going to recess for five minutes use the restroom and will'll see you back here thank you e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e they not ready I apologize there we are okay we are back it is 12:29 board uh Mr SS we're going to turn it over to you just before we move on I just wanted to put a bow on this last thing as we as staff start working on your requests we may need clarification again because this may expand into more questions and more things to make sure that we're all in the same time so I just wanted to let you know that okay thank you for that chair understanding a timeline when do you think looking at future work session agendas is there room on a future work session I know we have one February 6th and then we have one February 20th but you know do we need to have a special work session we just have just I think so because I I believed I was glancing at dror Gad and she kind of made large eyes in fact that the agenda is already full and so I'm I'm for a special session it is labor intensive yes thank you madam chair memb of the board I we were just discussing that I think I think it's probably going to need its own work session and as we were discussing and hearing the board's input I've made a lot of notes um and I know teams watching also um virtually it's going to take some time to lay all these out and I think more importantly the discussion that the Board needs to have is going to take it's going to take quite some time so I think we will need to if you could um allow us to go back today and we're going to meet we just talked about we're going to meet um as a team and look at what that's going to take and then we can I can give you an update next week of what we think that looks like if that's okay okay board is that code for you yes I just I know if we're going to make a decision for August of 25 we need to have timely discussion and so I don't want to get to the end of February to have this discussion again I would like I would like it's possible for us to be having this discussion in the first week or two of February so um I know that that might be outside of the scope of possibility but I um I don't want a timeline to put this off a whole another year if that's possible so just do your best Mr and understanding that the board is not available the 12th and 13th of February so that anyway I I agree the sooner the better but we also have some calendar constraints ourselves so we'll move as as quickly as we can and and I do agree that it now that the board's had this public conversation we're going to move forward we need to move forward um sooner than later thank you right the next resoning I will present is relief resoning for high school CCC in the southwest part of the county this slide shows the site plan and Architectural rendering of the new school the high school is scheduled to open in August 2026 with 2011 student stations for for for future expansion of 700 additional students relief school rezoning for high school CCC was developed in collaboration with the student assignment and Records facilities and curriculum departments the next slide will present the proposed attendance Zone and enrollment projections for high school CCC and other affected high schools the proposed attendant zones were created after consideration of all options and current data this slide contains a chart showing the current Year's High School enrollment and utilization percentages also included in the chart are the percentage of zon students who attend a zoned high school and the percentages of students who attend non Zone High School this information is used when projecting enrollment this slide contains a map showing the proposed attendance zone for high school CCC the proposed attendance Zone contains student populations from bellw high dellen high and Westport HIgh this slide shows the projected enrollment of impacted high schools after sorry here we go this slide shows the adzone students who reside in the proposed attendance Zone area the high schools they are currently zoned for the number in the 80% column indicates the number of students that typically attend the Zone school this slide shows the proposed attendant zone changes for other high schools the additional zone changes were proposed to level School enrollment and alleviate overcrowding the chart shows the as Zone students residing in the Pres proposed zone change areas the number in the 80% column indicates the number of students that typically attend their Zone School this slide shows the projected enrollment of impacted high schools after zoning changes High School CCC and proposed zoning changes would be effective for the 2627 school year shown in yellow the 2526 school year is listed to provide a baseline enrollment for projections please note that High School CCC is listed twice both with and without the completed third floor that would increase their student their fish seats this slide shows the map for the proposed attendance zones for high school CCC and other affected high schools the colors on the map represent the new School boundaries and the black line represent the current boundaries the next step for the proposed zoning changes for high school CCC include scheduling community and stakeholder meetings a rule development work session and a rule making public hearing and vote if approved the zoning changes would be effective for the 26 27 school year okay thank you Mr s board I'll turn it over to you okay sure go ahead Dr James so in the briefing that we had one of the things that was mentioned was that there was an alternative plan where denell and high school was left pretty empty can you elaborate on that conversation we had Mr SS because that is something that I would like to see brought back to this part two work session referring to this slide one of when we first initially did the resoning we pulled the students out of Dunellen High School there were 1167 students which left the with 80% about it would be 93 for and that would make Dell and approximately 600 students which is a very utilized you know very underutilized school zone and hearing you know conversations from the board every time we come up to resoning we said well let's go ahead and do District resoning while we're doing this and that's where the plan came we pulled students out of Westport to fill up dellan high school to utilize that facility while also you know reducing the overcrowding at Westport so Bard um I'm not sure if we all had that conversation or not so I wanted him to say it for the record I wanted to offer something Bard one of the things that we chose as a priority was a denell and middle high school if we were to get presented an alternative option to this in a part two of a workshop that left denell and high school underutilized with the rezoning that would be done for high school it would essentially afford the opportunity for Den Nan Middle School which has 712 students currently to all but fit into dellan high school which would allow us to offline danella middle school and offlining danella middle school which is a conversation we've already had as a board in some degree um because when we're adding High School CCC we're adding more than $2 and A5 million dollars in residual Personnel costs and so if we were to able to offline dellan Middle School at the same time I believe it would put us in a stronger financial position so I this board member would like to see in our part two a presentation that includes what Mr SS has alluded to which is leaving denell and high school rather empty and then essentially moving denell and excuse me denell and middle onto the denell and High School site I think that that simply allows us to continue a conversation we can still rebuild denell and high as a denell and Middle High um from from a programmatic perspective we would be able to it's secondary we would be able to facilitate the learning as it exists and then we make a transition um in building a new site with the sales tax dollars um and I would love again the financial office to provide what that looks like what that how that impacts our financial position so that is a thought I had um when Mr I hadn't had it until Mr ER said about the option one that's not presented here that under utiliz denell and high school and I thought well why don't we just put denell and middle on dellan heest campus to start then so that would be the thought I had uh one of the thoughts I had board if we wanted to start there maybe if anyone else is interested well I just attorney Paris I'm not sure I how much I can say um I just do have some concerns with that plan and so um security wise I just don't know that I'd be in favor with that so I guess that's probably all I can say 12 school just using Janelle and high that all I can say to to alleviate there there are facility issu concerns yes that's better than combining Mr the schools now instead of a doing it as a purpose-built school but those aren't those concerns are outside of my scope of expertise yeah I guess I'm confused because the same number of students would be serving getting served as is being served right now so I don't I don't I guess we would have to have an executive session so I could better understand that statement am I the only one that's confused I I don't really understand what the conversation is it's happening about the facility of dellen high school in in general so um had not considered the possibility of combining them sooner rather than later the statement based on what you've presented to us that I'll make about this conversation is in analyzing the map a bit more I understand why we've chosen to pull certain pockets of students out of the Westport HIgh School Zone and move them to dellen I just can't imagine how the close proximity of some of those students are to Westport for them to go all the way to dellen is a is a big big ask for me so um that's that's the only piece that that I see about this that is in relation to uh because I I understand why we're trying to do it and I am all for rezoning the whole County when we're talking high school because we're bringing on an entirely new high school we do need to reone the entire County for high school completely agree with that um but that one I'm I'm looking at map H the one pocket of green that we are going to be pulling from Westport Zone and move to dellen um that's just some of those students in that in that corner that Southeast corner of that are going to be really close to Westport and we're going to send them out to to dellen but I guess we already do that in in some ways so where what you talking about map H the top green I think you're on the right one just the top yes that because that's what the recommendation is and and it's in relation to what Dr James was just talking about because that's where they're pulling the students in to repopulate dellen because if we leave it as is and pull all the students from dellen that is already a part of the plan into High School CCC then they have to repopulate Dell and high school and that's where they're pulling them from is that Westport Zone I I am all in favor of anything we can do to alleviate pressure on westport's population I would prefer it being 2500 students are under um 3,000 is is I my opinion individual board member is becoming unmanageable certainly that's my opinion it's not from Administration or anyone else there I it's the same conversation I mentioned before uh the winter break to say how large do how large is too large for an elementary school how large is too large for a middle school and I'm going to say how large is too large for a high school in in our community other communities with hundreds of thousands of students may have different um metrics on what they believe is too large but I think that's a conversation that this board has to ultimately have at some point when we're continuing to add wings and wings that's not this High School conversation um but I am grateful that this will be alleviating pressure off of Westport High School and look forward to that um I too am grateful there would be a relief of pressure um just Mr s can you address because I had that same concern that Dr Campbell just shared can you just reiterate the explanation that you gave me about distance and um yeah the the the distance that was considered but the multiple things when we look for students we look for distance to the school we look at neighborhood contingency contingency and we look at Major roads try to do that and I completely understand what you're saying Dr cble about the distance but there's all you know we're we're leaving that somewhere sometimes it's just it's difficult to do because you know there's no other group of students that we could pull out of the Westport Zone to repopulate that would not create even more problems what that is okay yes coming and Mr SS and I'm I I'm probably going back some time before there was Westport there if I'm not mistaken that same area part of that area was going to done all anyway correct I believe it was yes so it's not something new heard it's been done in the past exactly so prior to their being a Westport that was the Dunellen um area um I don't think I don't see it as being such a pool for me thank you Reverend C J Dr James I have proximity questions that are not addressed to dellan so do we want to move Beyond dellan I just don't want to change I just didn't hear from board member thrower so let me just check board member thrower do you have input um I'll I'll just say that again you know we have to Define what offlining means um in terms of the fiscal side of it you know if if we're talking getting out of the education business completely on that property and selling that property that's one definition of offline if it's getting out of the education business but keeping the property that's another offline so I just need more specific definitions about intended use of offline schools before I would agree to vote to offline scho so my concern um oh did you want to talk oh yes I'm sorry go ahead as to your question um Miss Conrad um the exempt portion of a meeting that could Reve reveal any security plan or portion thereof is made confidential exempt by public records law and also the Sunshine Law and so specifically it's that portion of a meeting so if there is anything of value that needs to be discussed with that what we would need to do is to go into close session and we can reconvene you know take five minutes but um if there was anything about your concern what you wanted to address we would just simply need to go offline have it address addressed with security personnel and then we could we could reconvene I appreciate that attorney Powers I just don't think it's necessary at this time but thank you understood thank you so um going to the other side of the county and looking at the forest boundary that would be created um two things that I'd like to see I want to know how many students are impacted that would be turning green from the orange um and if you don't know what I mean when I say that I'm just referencing map H um it appears and this map is not perfect but based on pulling up Apple Maps on my phone it appears we're literally cutting a neighborhood in half um with that green and orange boundary line and it looks like it's going the cut line is Southeast 64th Avenue Road is what I'm gathering and that that road just goes into a neighborhood and so um I'm I always struggle when one side of the road goes to one school and one side of the road goes to another school that was me and I can tell you that when we looked on that we looked at different ways to do that that is a main a main road through that subdivision yes and with zoning in a conversation I've had the line gets drawn somewhere I understand understand and so that's we picked the main road as opposed to it's not a neighborhood Road it is a main road but it does split houses I mean there's houses on both sides of the road so what I'd like to know is how many students are in that green what is the how many what is the number 315 as zon students for Forest that are currently attending Forest as zoned and oh because that's on our previous slide sorry I didn't make that connection okay I um and I know we talked about this and it's I um you feel confident in saying that that dot that's going to be created for the Green Boundary that's now inside Forest existing zone is more than two miles away from Forest High School so if I were to take the corner of that green um I have not mapped that out I don't know that um so I I but I want to feel super confident that we're not drawing a boundary line but I can tell you those students do not walk to Forest they receive transportation to Forest because of the main road understanding that yes but if I live less than two miles I just would like to know for certain that that boundary line is outside of the two miles because in public discourse what we have decided is that if you live within two miles of a school generally speaking unless you walk Zone unless it's not walking like a oakrest or I mean a Okala Springs or like this and we provide transportation so what I don't want to see is a boundary line created that is less than two miles from Forest High School and then we're going to bust them all the way to Lake Weir that is just yeah um and then and so I want to see where I and I don't I this map is hard for me to interpret so I don't really know exactly um but I would like to see that information as how far away that boundary line is and then from a programmatic perspective and I know this is a further conversation because we talk about who goes and who stays um and we talked about this when we met but each of these high schools has programs that are unique some of the students attend the high school because they are zoned and they also are in the program so they didn't apply for school choice but they they are there as a Zone student who is now attending in that program the enrollment data for me needs to be updated the next time we receive this presentation to include students who are an active student enrolled in the choice program at that school because what we know is that more often than not parents are going to figure out how to get their kid to stay stay in that program and so how many of these Forest students as an example since that's what I was just talking about how many of these four students are in in the c cap CCAP C I always want to say CPAP and I know it's not CPAP and so okay I was so perplexed on not saying CPAP that I couldn't figure it out how many of those 300 and whatever students are in the CCAP program and again I know you don't like to make assumptions but I want to know the data point of how many of those kids are there because maybe those families would choose to continue to transport or find transportation for their child so that they could continue their program at Forest because Lake Weir to my understanding from a programmatic perspective does not have anything close to that so I would the the comments that I would make on that is I would caution on making a zoning decision that's going to be a long range zoning decision based on immediate current data and also to make it on well this is not enough students because of what potential decisions may or may not be made by parents in Choice aspect that's why whenever I rezone I always look at as zoned students because that's my debt liability that's what my potential number could be corre and so the decision of what you're addressing which would be to you know which students would get to stay and which students would not get that's a board decision that would be made on grandfathering or pratic decisions after the resoning you know is done to be able to establish the process like in the past we've done Rising fifth graders and stay and grandfather den and things like that and so that's a SE sort to me that's a separate conversation from the actual line of resoning which is a long range aspect as opposed to a today aspect I understand and I can I can agree with that I just think that part of the board's decision is based on the numbers that you've presented and those numbers I just this board member needs another column that says how many of those as Zone students are also participating in the program at that base school and if no other board member wants that then that's fine we don't have to do it and so that's you know I and I can I can agree with what you're saying that's why I have the column in there as as zoned attending and as Zone not Zone attending because those are percentages that I have to use to project out and so that's not today and I didn't pull every single parent or every child are you wanting to say or not but I have to use a baseline And so those percentages are the baselines that I use for my long range projection obviously those long range projections could change based on parent decisions or decisions of allowing to stay or not right and so I would I that that is be writed I would just hate to confuse the the image with today right now decisions that would impact a long range rezoning anyone else so I mean I'm just pulling Maps just for conversation sake and and for Dr James Point um I understand why Southeast 64th Avenue Road would be a delineation line for zoning because it it while it separates the pecans in Silver Spring Shores it doesn't go right down the middle of one neighborhood I mean it's there's so many different neighborhoods out there but to her point just looking at one of the addresses that are in the proposed Zone it is 1.6 miles from Forest High School and that's from actually I think the parking lot of forest not actually the outs so it would it would be within the two miles of of forest just for conversation sake but I I do understand rezoning some of those students from forest to Lake Weir uh in the Silver Spring Shores area I mean we're going to potentially have some of those conversations again when we have lakee Middle School conversations too um about the Belleview high and and those kids where they're going right now uh B middle Bev High I I don't know that there's another road to use um in in the shores if we were to to pick a different one I mean if you used Pine Road perhaps then you're probably if you use pine again not splitting through neighborhoods but if you use Pine Road and Silver Spring Shores then you probably would be outside that two miles um of the walkable U the county and the county and the state have been trying to build sidewalks out in Mar Camp it's taking them forever and it's not going to be uh ready by any stretch so kids are not walking from Southeast 64,000 a new road to Forest I dare say that if if there are some God bless of and protect them Lord um crossing over Baseline in May Camp is on foot or by bicycle would not be recommended by this board member um nevertheless I I understand why we would need to do that um I don't know if there is another delineation line that we could use and I guess my recommendation would be Pine Road if we were to do that well and I to that point so and I again this map is a little confusing but are you saying the majority of those 300 and something students live in these homes that are right here between Southeast 64th Avenue in the Walmart yeah I that's I don't have that in front of me but I would assume that well that that so I would really like to get that information because but again that's students living today right sure tomorrow 5 years from now 10 years from now when this zoning will still be in effect we've got to do long range assumptions as well I understand I'm just thinking um you know Midway Road which is the road the Walmart is on would not break up that neighborhood but if the purpose is the fact that there are 300 students living in that neighborhood greater neighborhood I'm using the word neighborhood is is more of a collection of homes no Midway right here mid Way Road is where the Walmart is Walmart the shores yeah so I mean if you did everything north of the Walmart kept it at Forest that would certainly I just I'm not sure that as a board member I feel confident having conversations with parents who live less than two miles from forest and telling them they're going to get now bused to Lake rear I I don't feel confident in that conversation and that's never going to change because that house is never moving and Forest is never moving so that component is never going to change probably confident Mr Jacobs is watching this and so I can assume that he is as we speak ping up the maps and and looking at that I can tell you if we just did a two mile you know just go out two miles it will be splitting neighborhood neighborhood neighborhood driveable even Pine Road is yeah we can look at the number of existing students now and possibly using Bea or mid way you know road that that we can look at that and look at those numbers to me that's the only real issue if we're keeping this as it's presented right now the only real issue I see is that particular issue because Forest is so close to that boundary that we're now creating um the rest of them are pretty you know to some degree in the middle of of the boundaries and so that is the struggle that I have um that I would like to at least address again and I'm I you know the denell I'm it's not a hill all Dion at all so if we're if no one's interested in that then by all means we can just proceed forward but I'm chair the the only reason I'm interested in potentially the dellen conversation is just for the point that I made earlier and and understanding the historical nature of it that these kids went to dellen before there was a Westport HIgh but I mean we're talking two plus decades ago before we had a Westport HIgh so I mean I I um I mean for was built since Westport has been so um well and I was talking about the Middle School component right so I I just um that I no I understand what you're talking about but the only way we could get to that is if we didn't have this green box annexed into dellen high school and so right now the recommendation is that we correct rezone to refill um the dellen high school and so my concerns again are are are taking those particular students from Westport I certainly can respect the need to alleviate the pressure off of Westport so I I can see the reason why we need to pull them from dellen or excuse me to add them to Dunellen and pull them from Westport there and I can see how the roads you've chosen are definitive and strong delineation lines but if we were to have that conversation about combining the two schools at some point then that that would be the decision to be made that we're not pulling those kids from Westport and they're going to still continue to go to Westport and then Ellen would then have the reduced population but these are conversations we have to have right now like I I don't want to have I don't want us to decide next year that we're going to go ahead and build this Dell and Middle High all of a sudden we need to pull some students in or what and then we rezoned again like yeah that's we have to have this conversation now and that was kind of the heart of my trying to be proactive about it is we talk about not wanting to reone students multiple times and that is the reason for delaying conversations so ahead of ahead of this conversation if there are other because we also understand from the Banes study that the denalan population in its core is continuing to grow so adding more students to denell and high which is essentially what that we would be taking these Westport kids and putting them at dellan understanding we're taking kids from dellan to put to high school CCC but if we're filling some seats here that we're then we already understand dellan is projected to continue to grow and we have the board has already said we want to do a denell middle high combo site because we think that is what best for the community are we setting ourselves up for success by doing this now or will we just have to redo it in five years and that's why I wanted to bring it up we have um Reverend Cummings or member I think I've shared what I okay okay honest with you we can't hear you if we going to make tough DEC decisions let's make the to decisions um I I like what Mr is person I do too um I'll just say you know this is the I would need a lot more information about what offlining the definitions of offlining in school means and until I have that then I'm ready to go with the map as presented I mean we can par this all day long um and I appreciate the conversation greatly because the the difficult is always in the details and trying to think forward but we also have to take care of the here and now and go on projections that we have an expert standing in front of us that's done this for a long time um is working on and and there may be some adjust adjustability with Midway I think you mentioned and and the other road that your man behind the curtain is currently working on so if that changes and you can let us know I this board member is not okay with it as presented with the forest boundary being less than two miles so I can get on board with that this board member at a minimum wants to see some options in that forest and Lake wear resoning pattern and understanding is that really the hard stop because I I those are going to be some difficult phone calls from parents they live less than two miles from a school so I would like to avoid that if possible I don't and so I guess how many if there are three board members that want to see that then maybe we can I I would like to see that too and I I could too I guess I just want to make sure that I I didn't have an address to pull that corner in that green section there to make sure that that's not within two miles of Westport High because if we're going to have that conversation about two miles then have about two miles so if you're going to do it on one side of C let's do making a math equation what's done on the other side ofal sign on side come on y'all I don't I don't think any of the other boundaries are within two miles I mean they're that green area for d i could guarantee some of those are within two miles of of Westport yeah I I don't Mr SS what I'm hearing is that the board would like to see scalability schools you know students not rezoned if within two miles that would be our goal so if you can get us and I can do that but also understand that may involve not hard stop roads the best that you can do or at least seeing the map as presented today and where those boundaries fall in distance to schools yes so at least understanding the information that we have presented because it's really hard to look at it like this without Road names or anything so I at least need to see the you know even a little like one inch equals 2 miles and I can take a little ruler I don't know but if I can I can probably help adjust that a little bit my goal because that would be back on my next steps once I got consensus from the board to move forward even with extra potential changes we have a website that we currently have to find your school zone and we have it set up right now for the 25 2 425 current school year and the 2526 school year once I have a go ahead I can do a proposed website there that that way you'll be able to Zone down on a granular to the house level once I can put it on that I did not want to put it out there on that until I at least had some consensus from the board that yes and I'm I'd be okay with yes this plan looks okay with some possible adjustments based on the mileage to the schools and things like that and then once I can put it out there then that's easily scalable easily gone down to the granular level easily looked at for better yes so what I would say to that Mr SS is your zone for high school CCC I completely agree with so I I don't think that should be expanded anymore I don't think it should be altered anymore the students that you have pulling from dellan the Westport Belleview high and then the students in that section in Summerfield that will now be going to Lake Weare High all of those things I can I can completely be on board with I think the only questions that I have and then we all can speak to that statement I completely agree with the high school CCC Zone that you've created here beyond that I think there are a couple of questions specifically about the the students currently zoned for Forest going out to Lake Weir and where that line actually needs to be and additionally how close the closest spot is in this new Westport going now to Dunellen is to Westport HIgh School and if that is not within two miles then I'm going to be fine with that as well I can I can that's easily created a data that I can share with the board um I would say by the end of the day tomorrow yeah we can I can share that yeah I'm in complete agreement with everything Dr Campbell just said I just want to know if this if this Green Boundary enforce is within the two miles I'd like to to see an alternative option that is where I where I stand oh and I left out we're also adding students to North Marian that that was the other thing that I left out of that that are currently going to Westport so that is I can do that so um board CH Direction my next slide okay is next steps so hearing what I'm what I'm hearing from the board I'm going to provide for you the email by the end of the day tomorrow a map that shows the two mile for that Dunellen Westport to Dunellen and that Forest to Lake Weir Zone to show you there and a potential alternative of to if we want to move that out what it would be and what that impact would be I can do that by the end of the day tomorrow to you then what I would need and attorney Powers may have to help me here is can we because right now what I'm hearing is I don't have have consensus from the board to move forward with the current plan until you see that revised data given the fact that we want that done have this done because we've got to schedule Community meetings and this is going to be a lot of community meetings that will have to be scheduled and make sure a lot of calendars are done so how can I receive consensus from the board after they get the revised no no um perhaps as a suggestion at the chair's discretion that we could add this into board discussion for our Tuesday evening board meeting I understand that we're having extensive public conversation about this right now the public has been duly notified about this conversation and if that is the only thing we need to button up on Tuesday evening is which of two maps to choose then would that be okay if the chair agrees that we add that to the Tuesday night board meeting and then we can reach consensus at that time without an actual official board vote but it could just be a conversation for discussion I want to make that clear none of this is an official board vote sure this would be for consensus building it could be in common it could being right but being added to Tuesday evening as when you could get at least consensus one way or another and that's attorney Powers I'm looking at him procedurally that would be fine I would say that it needs to be put on if we know that it's going to be put on uh for discussion should be put on as an agenda item instead of as a walk on just during our right uh comments that way those items can be uploaded because there are things that you'll be relying on and that would be up to the chair and all of us understanding now that the chair would make this an item for Tuesday evening knowing that the board that the community had full notice that today we were having this conversation including the maps and all of that because I know sometimes that has been a concern of board members that we have something that the that the community wasn't fully aware of seven days prior but if we are having that conversation now and with the chair's approval adding that as a board discussion item to Tuesday evening's board meeting where we're not voting we're just reaching consensus and then Miss Martinez could create the item upload these items and then whatever you come up with as the new thing we received I I feel comfortable with that there would be no procedural bar to what you described that's what the board I I don't know why we need to add an item though I don't know why the superintendent in her comments could not say B Mr SS has emailed you following up the conversation from the 23rd Mr SS has emailed you two maps which of those Maps do you show preference to why does it have to be adding an additional item he just trying to be more transparent so the community can actually see the item as we're discussing it and what we're specifically discussing that's correct the item actually is a choice between two maps that for transparency purposes that would be something that um the public should be provided with well then they should have been properly noticed which they have been for today I agree I agree that's I mean I'm never going to be in agreement with adding an item to a meeting I I know it is a stick it's an emergency it's not an emergency this school opens in 18 months right and so it doesn't require uh you know consensus it requires I mean it at this point it's under the chair's if that's what the chair would said I Mr s if you're comfortable I'm comfortable with adding that to Tuesday night I'm I will do what the board that's enough time for you and you can have two maps prepared for us to go over I should have the two maps I mean I would I would want to say by the end of the day today but I got stuff that I mean did we give you a list I have a few other things on my tabl I mean that that is that is and I know because I'm often in the same boat that Mr SS finds himself in right now that is a rapid turnaround time for him to get a lot of things the board's requesting done so procedurally I was careful to say there's no bar to this you can set it that way you can you can make it on this hustle however that does mean that everything else he's got going on in his career right now everything else he's got going on with with his with his assignments and responsibilities has to go on a hold because this is going to have to go be a priority item so I'm want a clarification when I look at my timeline line if you can look at I'm on slide 19 you're able to see that my goal was to get this done by the end of April but if we need to push back to get a proper notice and a proper you know discussion item that's not a vote and that's what I want to make it clear this is not a vote these are the we these are the things this is what I'm requesting from the board is once we settle on a map this is just the preliminary map that we're going to go forward that we're going to seek input from and all that I still have to have rule development work sessions and in my my mind I'm planning two of those you know an initial one where we present or the board could say hey based upon imput we we want to see another option and go back so I have I would do another before we would even go forward with that the goal here is yes the school opens August 2026 my goal is to give families as much time especially at high school not to say that elementary middle school but there's lots of decisions need to be made at a high school level the window opens for applications for magnet programs is November 1st so hypothetically anytime before November 1st we're okay but we want to give PL plenty of time so if we have to wait until a proper notice is done I just don't know why we have the time to do that if that is required if that is required or needed or the board I just don't think we should we should not provide proper notice to the community when there this is is not an emergency we could have this this be a very quick agenda item on February 6th work session you present the two options we make a decision and then it can already be an agenda item for the following Schoolboard meeting and it doesn't even need to be an item so we can have a discussion February six then you proceed I mean the students who did school choice for this school year who are going to be freshman next year in 25 already I mean in seven days that seven eight days that that that opportunity is closed so those students are already going to be making decisions about school choice this spring and they would be freshman next year and then presumably be rezoned so that is already happening so the urgency attached to this is really not going to make any difference for those Rising freshmen other than maybe their parents in May or or this summer would decide you know what we're not going to do school choice for um this school because we're going to get rezoned to this school in a year from now so I don't I don't understand the urgency and I don't see why we should we should not provide public notice if there is I mean two weeks is not going to make a difference okay Mr SS it seems like it's the pleasure of the board to do this on uh February 6 so if that's good for you already hear that I thought I thought we just said we were G to do it Tuesday night yeah I I did too and it and it's up to you chair this is you can certainly take our input but as a previous chair and I think all the ones of us who've served it's completely up to you where you want to put this on an agenda yes Board number thrower thank you okay so I'm confused because we were originally talking about putting this in during the superintendent's comment time in which there would have been no public notice at all um and I wasn't really comfortable with that if there was the chair's discretion could go ahead and put it on as an item considering that we have extensive conversation today that anyone can go back and look at and we're going to post all the maps and show the timeline um I I feel like we're going down the road of of adjusting operations timelines and and determining whether or not they're valid or not when this is what's been presented to us is what they feel they need to do the job right so I I my input is let's go ahead and put it on as a discussion item for Tuesday night that's what I would do as the board chair considering this everything I just said and let's get this done and let's try to stick to the timeline that has been presented to us by the people that have been doing this well and I the reason that I moved forward that originally is because Mr a said and I felt like not under duress that he could get this to us tomorrow by tomorrow right so I didn't and Mr s correct me if I'm wrong um I felt that was a very doable thing and for me the discussion is all fresh in our mind the community knows um that we were having this conversation today so I don't I didn't feel like we were pulling something you know out of our hat a surprise agenda item um so Cummings would you like to weigh in I thought we were going to hear it Tuesday night so okay I'm hearing the same thing that it's doable he would like love for he's not going to say that but I'll say it for him let's get it done and get pushed through so let's have the conversation to okay so I'm amending my previous statement uh at the pleasure of the majority of the board We'll add this to Tuesday the sorry I closed up my calendar the 28th January 28th now M Martinez for creation of the item does Mr um is that going to be you that creates the item or is it okay Mr SS uh can you get with yes Miss Martinez to upload the items necessary for that agenda item and so what I will be uploading is our original map okay yes one and then map of option two which will basically adjust the forest to Lake Weir outside of a two- mile Zone and if the dellan Westport is within the two M Zone adjustment of that in have right Madam chair if I may clarify then the documents you've just referenced Mr erors would be uploaded submitted for up uploading by the end of the day tomorrow if I could beg the Bo's permission yes because that will give me the rest of today and tomorrow to not rush it but make sure that the data is because I say I Mr Jacobs you know is going to create the maps and then we'll review the maps and go and double check everything to do that so yes I think if I could give it to by by five o' tomorrow be uploaded the board dos I think that will give me enough time to to verify the data and do all that very good and so by uploading that will preclude me having to email each one of you we be a correct okay anything else from Mr SS right Mr a thank you very much for all of your expertise and patience today as we work through a lot of these zoning thank you very much thank you is there any public comment okay seeing and hearing none um let me just ask on that item you want that to be a a voting item to choose between the two or is it my understanding is it the consensus item discussion with consensus no vote for a while I just wanted to confirm thank you thank you okay meeting reminders um there's a Schoolboard meeting scheduled for January 28th 2025 at 5:30 p.m which we were just discussing um I have a here note here that will be moving back um no that we will be here at the county commissioner's Auditorium uh sorry about that there's a special board meeting on February 6th at 7 a.m. the next administrative briefing and work session is set scheduled for February 6th 2025 at 9:00 a.m. a reminder that um MTI board meetings will be back at MTI for the month of February Dr goet we have confirmation on that that the auditorium is will be ready thank you madam chair I have not received any update to the contrary that it would not be ready but I'll certainly let the board know uh today if I hear anything different okay perect very good all right thank you for that um I'm going to go around for board comments excuse me board comments uh Miss Martinez yes Madam chair just two items um board members your reservation for February 12th and 13th those packets will be in your mailbox by the end of to day and then I received an email from fsba for day in the legislator for March 19th and 20th Tallahassee so I just would like to know by tomorrow by 5 who's planning to attend because it's my understanding from the email that fsba will not be holding any rooms or blocks of rooms so I can't guarantee you know that you will all be in the same Hotel should you decide to come but if you could let me know by tomorrow by 5 I would appreciate it so I could get started on those reservations okay for those those days question spring break that dur spring break yes it's always during spring break on my list I I was going to bring it up to at a spring break yes would you like anyone to let you know if they're not going to be going because I'm not going to be going I'm not either I'm not I won't be going we're I'm not going okay so no one's going yeah not I no so we're not going you're not going that was easy was easy peasy I like that yeah the timing is really challenging our day in the legislator's in February yes yes it is yeah that's spring break we need we gonna need a break by that thank you Bor okay anything else Miss Martinez that's it thank you okay thank you attorney Powers just wanted to uh make sure all board members were aware uh every month we have Tru Andy Court um once a month uh next it's not this Friday but next Friday June 31st of course most of you have attended at some point or another um just kind of see what happens introduce yourself to the judge get also to see a little bit about how TR Andy court operates and works and answer any questions you might have um you are certainly all welcome and any or all of you to attend it's uh January 31st report begins at 9:00 we usually have status conference hearings um through 10:30 and then 10:30 we generally move into order to show cause hearings for situations in which there's not been compliance um however um you get to see the ups and downs and the positives and success stories and the ones that are still in progress so if uh any of you would like to do that you are certainly welcome to attend uh if you'll let me know in advance I'll print out extra copies of paperwork for you guys to have so you can follow along thank you that was very very interesting can I ask attorney of powers yes sir can we just get legal to send us like a standing caler invite for that because often times I want to go but it's yeah I find a day of so if we just going to standing Cal oh i' i' I'd be happy to yeah you know my my tendency is always try not to not to bother you guys with stuff that I find routine but sometimes I forget that you really you know that that's really important stuff for you guys to see and that you enjoy doing that so yeah um I would I would be honored and happy to send you invites to that thank you okay thank you all right Dr G thank you uh Madam chair just to confirm I already have received information that the boardroom will be ready at MTI for February so as planned uh and that concludes my comments thank you all right thank you Reverend Cummings um very interesting meeting always um lot of robust conversation I I I enjoy being on this board guys because um there is diversity of our thinking on what we want to do for the district so I appreciate that um just a PSA um it's going to be cold the next few nights um I know we get the the uh weather briefing from EOC but we need to kind of remind people that there are some cold weather shelters I would hate to see we do have some homeless homeless families they need to know that there is um Salvation Army is and it's that's it all right thank you re Cummings Dr James thank you uh to that note I wanted I wanted to say um I'm grateful that we did not close our schools because of the cold weather um I saw a comment on social media and it and it reminded me of of why it is so important we remain open because had we closed there are a lot of families who do not have heat in their homes and those students would have been in a home with no heat instead of in a school with heat and so keeping our schools open at all possible in my opinion is always going to be the best interest of our students um attorney powers or chair Conrad do you have an update on our listing agreement I know when we finish that in our last meeting we kind of said the chair is going to make decisions and we're going to so are we listed are we in action do we have an update I actually I haven't received an update that um we finished I can have funing for you by Tuesday I don't I don't have an immediate one now it it did take two days I I had to sign a an amendment for a name there was a spelling or an issue with the name um and so it did take me I think two days to get connected um with Mr McGrath for that so um but I haven't heard anything since then okay um well this board member wants to see that property get listed um so whatever we can do to communicate with Mr McGrath to ensure that that's getting taken care of um I would like to see happen because we have an opportunity to create a little bit of Revenue to offset some of our other costs so um that's the only other thing I have okay duly noted thank you all right member thrower thank you um yep another uh robust meeting for sure and um also very glad that we did not close schools um you know we'll never have 100% approval but we're always working to try to do uh offer opportunities um for for everyone and I felt like it got a little lost in the translation that if anyone wasn't feeling like it was the right thing for their child to come to school there's way too many notes in my opinion that are accepted so you know write the note excuse the absence and move on with life um and I do worry about our staff you know they they come from long distances as well to drive to work and in those situations you know Common Sense really needs to Prevail I mean if you're trying to get out your driveway and there's a tree down and you don't have a chainsaw I mean I don't schools should not be closed because of that situation you know um so it's it's tough um because the last thing I would want would be for the board to be considered to be not sympathetic to anyone's individual situation but that's why we're here to stay open as much as we possibly can and then everyone else can make their individual um decision that's best for them and their family and there is a bright spot here because I did notice on social media people were saying well all they care about is attendance and I was like yes that that was a win in Nancy's book it is a top priority to to priority and so I think that that word is starting to get out that yes of course we care deeply about attendance but um we also understand excused absences emphasis on excused absence so let's uh keep our perspective here people I was disappointed because of the weather that it just wasn't the the best thing to um get over to Vanguard High School uh they had to bring for their inspection military inspe and ceremony they had to bring it indoors because um our Cadets are not issued um you know yes Michigan quality jackets so I was really sad about U missing that it was a much smaller ceremony than it typically is in the past and it was really hard for me to accept orders that were uh friendly made from Lieutenant Commander Davis but Lieutenant Commander Davis I I did listen to your orders at what was going on in the field um but I know it was great I heard from Dr gullet that you were already out and about and um were able to stop by briefly and and I know that um Lieutenant Commander Davis did Justice to uh the the event and and I was especially sorry because our former student board member uh Sanjay carthic who is um in that group had issued us personal invitations so anyway um sometimes it is really hard to make those those judgment calls and listen to others so uh with that that's that's all I have um have a great rest of the day thank you m yes Dr Campbell thank you I too am grateful we kept school open I know uh what the weather channel app was saying the projected temperatures were going to be were different than what the weather service was saying in the emergency um oper and I'm grateful first of all I think this has been an interesting science lesson for folks that have not grown up outside of the State of Florida that you won't have ice on roads if the actual temperature does not drop below 32 degrees doesn't hit 32 degrees let me say that and so folks who have only grown up in Florida don't often see those temperatures and so saying it's quote unquote freezing when actually it's not has been a real science lesson I think for a lot of folks and that is not windchill so windchill can be in the 20s it has to be the actual temperature that takes the water to below uh to freeze at at 32 degrees so it's been an interesting science lesson I think and and folks have been schooling each other I think on social media so that's been kind of interesting to watch but I too am grateful that we kept our schools open we already talked about the day in the legislature that was on my list I wanted to make sure that the board knew as your advocacy and legislatively a on that I am not going to be attending day in the legislature because it is during spring break and unfortunately that's the way it works sometimes with fsba additionally we have a regional Crown meeting that is on the same day as a Schoolboard work session which I told them that they might want to look at every school board's calendar about that we have a standing meeting all the time but yet they are still having that meeting so at this juncture I don't believe based until we see what that agenda is going to look like I don't think we can go to Bradford County for that either because of our work session that day um but just for a point of note you all probably have seen and and we received it from Jessica Janice sewitz that there is a special session that the governor has called for next week um but the committee meetings that were scheduled for this week have been delayed and cancelled because of the weather in Tallahassee so there there that actually freed up some things I talked to rep hence and she actually might be working on some language for something that um Dr James and I are very interested in um and so um nevertheless that potentially will alter somewhat uh committee week schedule the week we are going to be there because of this week's committee weeks being changes um canceled and so what we're going to be hearing when we're there may be altered um as soon as we know what that looks like and you all know they don't know what committee week schedule actually looks like until usually Thursday or Friday the week before so we won't know what the schedule is for our 12th and 13th yet and we probably won't until just a few days before so I just wanted to to make you all aware of that as I have told you um I know at least one of our legislators will not be there on the 13th so we will definitely need to meet with him on the 12th uh but there may be meetings on both days and we'll know that as soon as possible uh this has been a very productive meeting I continue to be grateful as Reverend Cummings mentioned the diversity of thought that we have on this board and uh the the research that each one of us does individually as well as the frame of reference that we come from when we when we each come to this table to make decisions I'm I'm grateful for I think that it's each one of our opinions are valid and we are all dually elected to do the job that we're here to Ser to serve the people and our students so um with that thank you so much thank you board I just have a few things um the ioc uh committee is meeting today at 4: I just a quick reminder I think Dr goet mentioned that at the beginning that was quite some time ago um Miss thrower I did go be to the Vanguard unit review yesterday Dr gullet did also um because MC he said mcps employees could go so I did go it really was um amazing uh sanay did a fabulous job uh the whole unit did a fantastic job and just really proud of the work that's going on um all over really all over the district um in the area of RC so just a shout out to them because they did have to amend their plan and their I won't say performance I don't think that's right but their routine their review and so they did a great job adjusting um and getting that done so it was that was a fabulous time um also last night there was a farewell for Kevin Shey um I just wanted to let you know that Dr goet and I happen to be there um we did have a card and a certificant for him to thank him uh for the work and effort um he's put into helping Maran County Schools move forward um particularly in the area of funding so wanted to let you know that um we did make a we did show up for that and was able to say thank you um I did ask Dr gullet for a work session item um I met with Beth McCall the other day and so um board I would like to find more information about the skip mentoring program there really is a lot um that goes into that uh mentoring program and so at the conclusion of our meeting she said I'm going to reach out and speak with each board member and I said well I'd really like that to be a public conversation I'd like for the public to know what our students receive you know all of the things that she was sharing with me and the resources that are available so I did ask Dr golet's going to work on that uh for me so that should be coming forward and yes just want to ask you a question about that for skip because I think it's a great idea and I'm thinking that it's in alignment with one of the goals of our strategic plan um the improving student performance and so on so that if we're going to do a work session with skip that it might not be a bad idea and this is just off the top of my head because you just said it um to include some of our other um mentoring organizations that are coming I did think that too yeah so that would be if we're going to extend an opportunity to one nonprofit to share what they do I think it would be in the best interest of our district to support uh to extend an opportunity for every nonprofit that is working with us in some capacity or I don't know come up with a threshold I don't know but I certainly wouldn't want to extend an opportunity to one nonprofit and sure I'm open to that it's just the the conversation lent itself to um Coming forward and they approached me and so um I'm open to that having everyone giving everybody the same opportunity is fine Dr gullet you're leaning forward any comment um not not specific to that it sounds like the board has had that conversation will include the mentoring programs all the mentoring programs we have it may even U if I may include the the internal one dear to be grade if that's if that's acceptable to the board I just actually sneak preview to an interview I did for my weekly update talking about how we're serving our our community uh I do have a question when you're done chair about um one of the work sessions coms I Dr G I think that might be um the end that's I think all that I had to share today so yes Dr goet thank you I know it's been a long day board I heard reference to the regional meeting for fsba so went to my calendar which is if this is correct February 20th which is our work session so I bring that up because the only topic right now on that particular one is an item for you board that's the RSM internal audit presentation I will not be here that meeting because that conflicted with the uh superintendent meeting out of town that came up after we did our organizational meeting so it's up to the board and Miss Boston Ellis because that's her item anyway for the board and of course the Auditors report to you if you want that moved we can move it if not leave that alone but um I won't be here either or you and you could let me know later I just thought this is a good time to bring that up since you mentioned and referenced that meeting here yes Elson what time does the crown meeting start I believe it starts at noon I'll double check that right now but I I believe it starts at noon uh and it is in Bradford County so we would have to have drive time how long is that travel time at least an hour at least an hour I mean if we do but we've already scheduled with the auditor though to come M Martinez is that do we that's a third party so I'm assuming some level of scheduling has already happened for them to come here May from you but I'm sure Mr we start at nine our work session if we don't add anything else to that agenda then we could leave and go okay I'm good with that yeah I don't want to I wouldn't want to reschedule on a third party it's not like we're rescheduling our own staff it's someone who's coming here to present to us so okay let's get it done so can we not add anything else to that agenda that that's the plan uh so that's why I say this is for you this is your purpose and I would agree I mean that we've scheduled with them I would have to ask if they could reschedule but I just heard the conversation I didn't know what the timing was for your meeting we'll move forward not right now thank you okay thank you all right there being I do I do have one update based on what was requested earlier um I reached out to uh Mr mcra and Alexander scales um while we were um having our board discussion they indicate that they just did speak with them they're building out the listing package now um and the photographer photographer will be on site Monday Warehouse should be listed early next week I do know that my office ordered the keys for the warehouse um and uh Miss scales picked them up and uh what we found out we got two sets of keys for them to get in and get to the gate and do all that so they can get in there for the photographer what I do know is that I did not know that we should have Al also ordered a alarm code so oh we we had a little bit of a of a quick of a quick response time to try to take care of that as well so um yes that would it will be listed early next week did okay well thank you for that that was very quick attorney Powers thank you for that and our Crown regional meeting actually on the 20th begins at 1 pm so we if we add nothing else to the agenda we should be but prior to your telling us we didn't know what was on that agenda so thank you all right we don't have access to that information okay star two quick quick quick things um because I didn't say it all other board members said I too am glad that we did not those schools not only is it a a warm place but it may have been an opportunity where a kid got a meal that they wouldn't have gotten absolutely had they been at home but then the other final thing is I do want to thank the uh Board of County Commissioners once again for allowing us to be in this um they have been very hospitable yes uh even though it's cold today they have been I think they trying to freeze us back home so but thank you for allowing to be here don't get too comfortable here okay last thing about that regional meeting sorry is that it does require registration so board perhaps individually we can let Miss Martinez know if by maybe tomorrow afternoon I'm going I'm going as well but anyway if we can email her so that way she can keep track of who all is going to try to go to that and who isn't uh then that would just be helpful for reporting purposes thank you hey great there being no further business you see how I slit how quickly I SL that in there will be absolutely no we will adjourn this work session at 1:42 pm thank you Ford thank you --------- ##VIDEO ID:Gp4Yzg7xjfU## e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e I'd like to welcome everybody to the independent citizens referendum oversight committee meeting for Thursday January 23rd 2025 and uh we'd like to start by asking everyone to stand and do our Pledge of Allegiance pled to the flag of the United States of America to the Republic for which it stands one nation God indivisible okay per our bylaws I'm going to turn this over to Mr Powers for organizational meeting thank you very much I'm Jeremy Powers I am the uh School Board attorney and for these purposes today good afternoon uh during the September 26 2023 Maran County school board meeting the school board approved updated bylaws for this board committee a copy of which has been provided to you it's my role to share with you a few of the items that have changed from previous iic bylaws terms of membership are now two-year terms with an option for reappointment for the remaining two years of the term for this four-year referendum we now have language to assist as to when this initial meeting is to occur as well as the that the school board attorney and School Board chair assist in the first meeting excuse me the duties and responsibilities of the ioc chairperson vice chairperson and secretary which you are voting on in just a moment the bylaws now require four meetings a year but do not specify that those meetings have to be exactly on a quarter basis we have found that some meeting times have been less attended than others so the school board did not want to force this committee into a quarter structure additionally one of the I chair's responsibilities will be to create and to provide an annual report of this committee's work to the school board are there any questions about any of these bylaws before proceeding into elections for officers no okay at this time then we'll begin with opening the floor for nominations for chair of the independent citizens referendum oversight committee I recommend or I um nominate k chair president again I second is that allowed on the bylaws for me to serve consecutive terms okay I would be willing to do that are there any additional nominations okay all in favor of Mr osley for chair say I I I all opposed say nay okay I'll at this time we will open the floor for nominations for vice chair of the iico I would like to nominate Floyd magwood as Vice chair magwood do you accept yes okay uh do we have a second we'll second that are there any additional nominations secretary Amendment for for the vice chair okay all in favor of Mr magwood for vice chair please uh signify by saying I I I all opposed say nay at this time we'll open the floor it passes um unanimously at this time we will open the floor for nominations for Secretary of the iic are there any nominations I would like to nominate Diana Williams I'll second that is Williams do accept that nomination Miss Williams having failed to accept that nomination are there any additional nominations not any ler I would second that and do you accept yesk all in favor signify by saying I I I any opposed say nay okay and uh just for the record I would like to make sure that we have um if each of you could identify yourselves by name so we have a attendance record of all who voted today so starting over here with Miss Lester if you could please Melanie ler leer okay Floyd magwood Obby Ken osley Jane mly Diana Williams Jennifer Edgars thank you very much at this time we will now turn the meeting over to the new chair same as the old chair right and uh at this time uh myself uh I I will excuse myself and allow you to conduct the remainder of your meeting thank you very much thank you Mr Bowers appreciate it uh I'd like to welcome everyone guests uh superintendent uh Dr Diane gullet um our board chair Lori Conrad and uh distinguished guests and District Personnel thank you for being here uh one order of business if I may um well let's do roll call First so I guess we technically kind of did kind of did so we're going to let that stand as our roll call because everyone identified themselves so we know who's here and who's not so that's done um we have in our packet the minutes from the October meeting and so if you've had a chance to review those um if there are no additions or deletions I would entertain a motion to approve those so move second that a second uh any any other discussion on that all in favor signify by saying I I any opposed all right that motion carries um before we jump into the presentation one thing really quick in your packet is uh as Mr Powers uh mentioned it is the chair's responsibility to put together a report so I did it on a year-by-year basis of 2024 report it's in here here I don't know if you've had a chance to look at it yet uh but we need to uh probably uh approve that and if you have any questions about it uh I can just give you a brief overview I just did an introduction of the um the officers of the of the board I looked at what our responsibilities are per the bylaws and just kind of laid those out uh I went through our different meetings that we held our public meetings that were required by bylaws to hold in the reporting I just uh briefly touched on the superintendent and her team and how they on a quarterly basis gave us thorough reporting both uh financial reporting and programmatic Reporting um and uh the details of that I also added that we did ask for additional enhancements uh instituted by the committee in 2024 was uh the top expenditures by program and purchase Services Material supplies and capital outlay and I saw that in our last board minutes provided uh we also were given opportunity to do school visits to oversee uh to look at the programs firsthand so I documented that and then uh my conclusion was that the committee can attest to the Maring County School Board that in 2024 based on the information we reviewed and visits we conducted the proceeds of the 1 Mill adorm tax were used for safe schools reading physical education art music library media vocational programs class siiz requirements and retaining State Certified teachers and Par professionals so if everyone is good with that um I would entertain a motion to approve that is that a motion and a second any further discussion that all in favor say I I I any opposed all right so that was hanging over my head I'm glad it's done uh actually the bylaws do require that the board chair give a verbal report to the school board uh which willing to do at any point this school year it's it's pretty straightforward but it would be good to uh to report to the board that U that the district is doing a really good job of using that that one mill so if whenever chair Conrad that you would want us to do that I'd be willing to do that thank you all right that sounds great with that um I'll give the floor to uh Dr gullet and the District staff to give us an overview of the last quarter good afternoon thank you Mr chair and committee members and I apologize I realize I was sitting up here and I can't really see you sitting up here all day so uh I want to start by just saying um thank you again for your service thank you for your leadership those of you who just um accepted that role um some of you again so thank you for that I know it takes a lot of time we really appreciate you I would be remiss if I also didn't say here on behalf of the school district thank you to the Maran County Board of County Commissioners for allowing us to use the space for even this meeting we've they've been very kind to us and we really appreciate that and and I'll be brief because you've had a lot of business today and you're going to hear from my team shortly U with with I think is always a robust update on our spending but something that really occurred to me the other day when I was personally sitting on a on a zoom call I sit on one of the boards I sit on in the community is the Appleton Museum of Art and we were talking about Partnerships we were talking about how we really serve our students as a whole community and I walked away from that meeting and what really struck me was this meeting today this update that I want you committee members to think about as you hear my team presenting how Partnerships are woven into the referendum how what we do with our staff and our dollars is uniquely supported by our incredibly generous Partnerships so I'm not sure that we've really talked about that before but I think you'll see that we I could mention several things like fans and and fafo and all that but I would like for you just to I wouldn't to play on the seed and have you think about that as we are providing any updates and as always if you have questions we're here to answer and look forward to any other information you need from us but uh that concludes my remarks and welcome again thank you Dr gullet good afternoon afternoon afternoon appreciate you as as Dr gullet said appreciate your time because we know this is uh volunteered so um I'm excited to be a part of this team I just have the numbers but um the team here can tell you exactly you know what they're doing with those funds so as you can see there's about seven of us that will uh make a presentation uh to you today and uh we'll get going with that this is for the cumulative information from July 1 through December 31st 2024 as you are aware this is a one mill adval tax and the uh voters approved it on November 8th it's effective from July 1 2023 through June 30 2027 so we are in our second of four years uh for the referendum and we've already talked about allowable use of funds which include uh reading uh physical education art music library media vocational to help us meet class siiz retains State Certified teachers par professionals and school safety as you can see the collections through 2324 um they totaled 199 million and we have spent from the beginning of the program 201516 through 2324 we have spent a total of 187 million we have budgeted this year uh revenue of 37.3 million and expenditures totaling 43.1 um I would I did share with you the last quarter but I'll remind you that our board uh provided us to do something a little bit different going forward uh in the past we have used our teachers that uh in that helped us reduce class size as well as pair professionals and those teachers were moved over into the general fund but we did move some of the art music media teachers that that that are being paid out of the general fund we moved them to the referendum so you'll see that slight change again our budget for revenue is 37.3 million we have received as of the end of December 4. $2 million uh these are tied to the the sell the uh tax proceeds that are paid from November through uh probably the end of June so uh we've received about 4.2 million and we've spent about 36% um which totals about 15.7 million for our budgeted expenditures there are eight categories and these are all funds um all this includes the charter schools as well as the general fund total 43.1 million and you can see the spread of the different programs that first one that says class size reduction are really the kindergarten uh pair professionals this slide is just to uh give you an idea of the categories that were spent since 2017 uh 18 and the last column is just our expenditures to date so it's not the full year it's just from July 1 through uh December 31 our beginning fund balance which is basically the money that was not spent in the prior year beginning fund balance was 11.7 million and I'm sure you aware that anything that we do not uh spend from one year it is re-budget in the next year so the beginning fund balance is 11.7 million uh we have budgeted uh expectation of Revenue with 37.3 million budgeted expenditures of 43 million and we're projecting that our ending fund balance for 2425 will be 5.9 million or um about $6 million I have a quick question yes when you said you shifted the teachers to the general fund that we had on there before and replaced them with the art music PE I guess everybody that's teaching in one of these programs here was it a similar value um it was probably about a million and a half difference l or more um more to the referendum we were trying to match it one to one but that was as close as we could get thank you thank you for asking so our first category are the kindergarten par professionals uh the budget for the general fund was 6 million and um our the no the number of PA professionals that were budget were 177 we have 16 9 actual and eight are unfilled positions they're vacant at the end of December and again we've spent to date about 45% of that $6 million budget so now we'll turn it over to miss Cornelius son to talk about the physical education program before you um does anybody have any questions for M Bell um before we start in the breakdown of this fiscal year that we're currently in um there were some um leftover expenditures from the previous fiscal year that you you said at our last meeting were still kind of being tallied up will we be caught up on those numbers at some point uh we can certainly update the very last report uh if that would be something that you would like yes pleas we can do that thank you afternoon afternoon afternoon I'll thank you a third time for taking your time to hear all of the great things that we get to witness every day in our County and especially in physical education uh when you look at the slide at the end of this you're going to see the vast majority of the budget is strictly paying for salaries and benefits there is a small portion that goes toward W um funding for equipment so it's my pleasure to share with you just some of the great things that I get to witness in with my colleagues throughout the year and you will see that on this first one here in November we had the elementary physical education um soccer jambur and that happens we hold it every year right before the break for Thanksgiving and this year we had 24 physical Educators and this is an opportunity for them to allow stud students who might not have the chance to participate in sports for example they may live in a more rural area or they might not have the means to participate in let's say a soccer at bigson or something gives them a chance during the school day like a field trip to come out and have a little Jamboree with a lot of other elementary schools so we had 24 physical Educators that volunteered to do that with us which represented 12 schools our participating schools were Madison Street 8th Street Maplewood and Ward Highlands were our in town schools what I think is pretty impressive is the amount of schools that are outlying are more rural schools that made the trip in for the day and that was Stanton weirdale Harborview Reddit Collier Spar Maran Oaks sunrise fezan and East marot and that's you may not realize how impactful that is because these are students who have to travel some of them over an hour to school on a bus to ride just to school and then they have to get them all all the way in town and then back out there in order for them to trans port in the morning and the afternoon so we crunch it all into like a power session of about 3 hours but they're able to make that long trip in and it's a lot of fun we had over 288 students participating that day in just the three-hour jamere um close to 300 parents were also there in attendance it was at The Rotary Sports plex right next to Forest High School and it was a great day they volunteer that space for us to use at no cost um it is supported by the fans program Dr gullet mentioned earlier Fitness and Nutrition in schools that help with things like providing meals for um our staff and people that help out and speaking of people who help help out I'm not sure if you're familiar Vanguard High School has a future teacher program and I utilize those students as volunteers anytime I can they're amazing so I had 20 student volunteers that participated in that as well and served as referees and gophers and just really made everything run smoothly and if you've never visited that or if you have had the opportunity to visit Miss AJ out there she's amazing and she does some really really great stuff push the right button uh also um you know the storms have made an impact on our schools and our schedules and they've really taken away from instructional time that we've had to make up uh typically after Christmas break we have a couple days usually a professional learning day and a teacher work day so this year we really had to shrink that down in order to make sure that we were meeting all the instructional minutes for our students so what happened was our elementary students missed out at the beginning of the year from the first hurricane their professional learning day and then we had to take it away again and just offer it as an optional or if you want to come kind of thing because you're really trading out your time to do lesson plans grades things like that and I had over 60 Educators attend which represented there was at least at least one to two from every Elementary School that were able to come for a couple sessions of professional learning uh we had a professional trainer come from St Petersburg and put on the session we had three hours of just in-depth professional learning specifically geared toward physical education which again we're very very grateful we were able to provide that also supported by fans but again it was optional that it was up to them whether they felt the need to come or not and I many of them chose to fill their professional learning boxes that day and I appreciated that thank you thank you thank you okay so our total budgeted expenditures for physical education are 9.5 million um again PE teachers totaled uh 106 three of which are vacant uh and then we also have peex and there are 25 that are filled and two that are vacant and they've spent to date about 40% of their budget which is pretty much in line um for spending that uh begins around August all the way through uh to December the majority of that um as Miss cornelus U mentioned is for salary and benefits of those PE teachers as well as the PE technicians and there are materials and supplies uh we allocate about $2 uh per Elementary student at each school and some of the things that uh they purchased were just uh supplies and and balls and such and also some equipment uh as well now we'll go on to the vocational program and uh um the explanation of the program will be given by Miss AI good afternoon so in CTE we're fortunate to offer 40 different CTE Pathways to students that Encompass over 14 different Career Cluster areas that ranges all the way from Health Science to engineering we have over 15,000 students across the district enrolled in these programs referendum helps us with some of those teacher units for those programs but also helps us to keep our equipment and our facilities up to date in all of those programs a big part of our students senior year is determining what pathway they're going to follow After High School the career planning guide is an initiative we started for students that are in grades 8 through 12 that us utilizes a career exploration tool called Z the career planning guide helps students make decisions about their future and culminates in them selecting an e um on the screen or on your slides there you can see what our seniors are planning to do so far this year After High School we've got 60% planning to um enroll in some type of school whether that be Technical College a university any kind of further education 22% are planning to go straight into the employment field 8% are planning to do some kind of small business operation or move into something work for yourself and 8% of our students are planning to enlist um whether students are preparing for college or the workforce our CTE Stu programs are there to help them get on those right Pathways in CTE we also recently had four schools compete in the University of Florida Duke Energy challenge I'm excited to share that Maring County teams took both first place and second place at that competition um the up-to-date equipment and software in our engineering and Manufacturing programs is really what made them able to do that and prepare for that competition now I want to share some of our recent business and industry interactions these are um just things that happened during quarter two only um and it's just a highlight of some of the many things that took place in November through a partnership with a career source we hosted our annual youth career Expo this event takes place at circle square cultural center and allows eighth graders to interact with business and industry members and explore their High School magnet options um this year we had 380 students from all 10 of our middle schools attend that event the picture there on the bottom is a student um getting to test out some virtual virtual reality equipment at the event we also had over 300 business and health science students tour the programs at CF so they could better explore their options some as degree programs and some other options they may not have been aware of um we have two schools we're really excited we just started a partnership with the Florida connect Academy this semester that Academy is designed for students who don't have concrete plan After High School to explore the field of civil construction so they'll be learning about civil construction all this last semester of school and then they'll have the opportunity to be hired in that field upon graduation pictured on the top here you can see some of our robotics um Automation and design students last year they completed a project with UCF and NASA and pictured here um in December they actually got to present the findings from that project to Aerospace professionals so we were really really excited for them to do that and lastly I'm excited to share um every one of our CTE programs has an articulation agreement with the local college and what that means is that students in our programs when they complete the program which is considered three years of a program they can um qualify for free college credit free college credits if they go into that area of study um so we were able to share the information about that with 56 CTE classes in November and December so we're really excited to spread the word about that encourage our students to take advantage the referendum funds help us to provide these experiences and opportunities for students and we look forward to continuing to make these connections for them in the future a quick question on that free college credit if I could um is it the high school credits that convert to college credit or is it when they go to college that they get some free credits and how many so it's different for every program um basically we work with the related program at the col to determine what the professors think they should get so basically they go through what they learned in high school and they'll say um okay basically you're exempt from this introductory class we're going to just give you the credit for that or if you took an industry certification that'll take you out of this class so it's kind of like clapping out of course um they don't get it until they graduate and enroll in the college but at that point they can get the credits thank you I think what is uh great about the vocational programs is some of the equipment is fairly expensive so the the referendum uh helps to defer some of those costs and you can see uh with in addition to the uh 20 teachers that are budgeted there is also uh different software licensing uh that is purchased uh textbooks it accessories um some technical classroom supplies and then of course there's it equipment um Chromebooks computers and monitors and iPads the total budget for vocational is 2.4 million and again it covers uh costs of vocational programs including a budget for 20 instructional units we'll move on now to library media um Miss Reagan Hughes will present the programs that have occurred under this project afternoon in each of our schools elementary middle and high our media Specialists are working hard to meet the needs of the students and teachers on each of our campuses one one of the components of being a library media specialist is being library media certified to add this certificate media Specialists take a state assessment and when pass the certification is added to their teaching certificate as of December all of our media Specialists are certified which is a big beat this is an important component to the success of our schools in order to follow state [Music] requirements state requirements supplemental resources classroom libraries as well as library books must go through a review process the review process must be completed by a person with a valid media specialist certificate this update is important for the success of all of our school sites as I shared in our last update beanstack is a program that each of our schools use for several purposes but one of the main features of beack is to the is the review and approval of classroom libraries per state statute classroom libraries must be shared in a searchable format and be stack meets those requirements our Librarians have reviewed 13,910 titles on beanstack with these approvals students have access to a wide range of books outside of just the Campus Library along with reviewing titles that may exist in a classroom Library our media Specialists are also tasked with approving classroom supplemental resources supplemental resources are any resource that is not part of District purchase curriculum teachers may use supplemental resources to support standards based instruction but prior to use these resources must be vetted and approved by the media specialist as well as posted on the school-based web pages this is another component of State Statute that our media Specialists support every day on their campuses while many of the components of being a librarian are associated with state laws and requirements our media specialist centers or excuse me our media centers across the county are also a hub for fun learning and building confidence in all of our readers media Specialists across the county work hard to build and maintain relationships with community members as well as other organizations in some of the photos here we have an author visiting Fort McCoy School sharing her love for writing as well as reading with students in kindergarten through second grade and some of the other photos Mr Scott Mitchell from the Silver Silver River Museum took a special visit visit to bidan Elementary Miss Magby the media specialist at president Elementary helped plan and coordinate this special event with Silver River Museum during his visit Mr Scott provided instruction on local Florida history during Native American heritage month this field trip provided students with the opportunity to see touch and learn about Native Americans and how they have had a lasting impact on the history here Ina coming up next week the annual state literacy initiative celebrate literacy week will take place this year's theme for this event building literacy constructing the foundation for success is intended to continue to raise awareness about the importance of reading and to inspire Florida's students and families to make Reading part of their daily routine media Specialists across the county help to plan organize and support reading across each campus every day with a special highlight throughout the week of January 27th Library circulation is also a component that our media Specialists are proud to discuss and highlight recently I had a conversation with one of our media Specialists and he had a goal to double last year's circulation for his Media Center by the end of this school year he was glad to tell me that he has already achieved his goal he has he is excited to continue to support reading across his campus outside of classroom libraries beanstack is also used as a digital reading log each quarter the district has a reading challenge and our media specialists at each School help promote and monitor student reading students are encouraged to log into beanstack from their student desktops and log their daily reading the quarter two reading challenge was The Great Escape highlighting that reading can take you to different places students earned 34,653 15 bcks and an astonishing 85,3 minutes were tracked on bean stock quarter 3 reading challenge is bundle up with books get comfy and read a good book but a great time it's been quite C this week I look forward to tracking student logging throughout quarter three again um our library media uh had a $4 million budget covered the cost of of uh media Specialists and that total is 48 um they are all filled and they've spent to date 41% of their budget and some of the things outside of salary and benefits things that they purchase uh paper pens laminating materials construction paper shelves and student reading materials next we'll discuss uh the Fine Arts Visual Art and Miss hudo will provide that presentation and she'll also move over into music and I'll come back when she's finished those two areas hello again hello uh thank you guys always as being here and contributing your time to this group we very much appreciate you um in October 50 of our schools participated in the 57th annual annual Okala Arts Festival sponsored by Fine Arts for Okala also known as fafo every year fafo hosts a jured student art show for all Maron County schools in grades K to 12 judges selected 13 Awards of Merit at the elementary level 12 of which were from our mcps schools at the middle school and high school levels the judges selected overall winners in a first through fifth place and then they choose a best and show winner for each of those areas um our students received three of the Middle School awards including best and show and five High School awards including the best and show winner these students were all recognized at an award ceremony at the Appleton Museum in November on November 11th our Maring County Schools hosted their annual Veterans Day ceremony at Veterans Memorial Park over 1200 of our mcps students were in attendance and we were thankful to have performances from kindergarteners from Hammet Bowen Elementary Reddit colar Elementary's Mustang music Club Forest High School's Kento cats choir and the forest vidiian big band it's their jazz band in addition to having these incredible students perform at our County Event we also had schools across the county hosting their own Veterans Day ceremonies and performances to honor those who served our country um if you take take a look at the picture in the bottom middle that is um one of our performances at Mo's Elementary um and so that's Miss Tanya kofer the Elementary music teacher there and she sent me some some wonderful pictures of her students participating in their veterans day ceremony and then finally in the past couple of months we have had performing arts groups representing Maring County not just in the county but also all the way across Florida 14 of our middle and high school bands performed for over 80,000 members of our community at the Ocala Christmas parade in December Forest High School and Westport HIgh School participated in epcot's annual Christmas candl light event performing for over 1,000 attendees on both on each night wport high school and Horizon Academy participated in their District thespians competition which was held at Easter Ridge High School in Claremont Horizon took home nine excellent and five Superior ratings Westport took home nine excellent and 13 Superior ratings in addition to having three students win highest honors for their categories pictured in the center is Elizabeth Connelly from Westport HIgh School she won a $1,000 scholarship and was chosen to represent our state um to repres present our district at state thespians competition in the area of costume design um in the other picture in the top corner you can see the gator logo up there um our Panther choir from Dr NH Jones uh sang the national anthem at one of the UF basketball games in December and Shady Hill Elementary's choir will also be singing the National Anthem in February um and then finally in the bottom right hand corner you can also see um we held our annual Maran All County Middle School band um we 120 students representing 10 of our Middle School band programs performed under a guest conductor at the Riley Arts Center and I know Dr gullet mentioned earlier um All About Partnerships and so we are incredibly thankful that we have these wonderful Arts organizations in this County we have fafo we have the Riley art center we have the Appleton and all of those groups are so influential in making our event so successful and they work with us constantly to make sure that we have all of the um you know all of the things that we need and they partner a lot with us in making sure that we can present these types of events and stuff for our students and have those opportunities so we are so proud of the Visual and Performing Arts programs in Maring County these programs offer so much to our students helping to develop their social and emotional and interpersonal skills enrich their life experiences improve focus and bolster academic achievement and we are incredibly thankful for the community continuing to support the referendum which allows us to keep offering this level of Excellence to the students of mcps so thank you thank you very exciting things are happening I'll go back and um we'll talk about um the art first okay so we'll start with the art uh it's point five of the coordinator and it also covers the cost of 54 art teachers and 12 uh PA Professionals in art uh the total budget is 4.8 million and they have spent uh 41% of their budget uh some examples of the things that are purchased in addition to salary and benefits or paint paint brushes markers uh travel for the Florida art Education Association and then membership in the Florida art Education Association and we'll move on to the music um that budget is 5.2 million and it covers the cost of 57 music teachers uh 0.5 coordinator and uh 12 PA professionals that support the music class um in addition to salary and benefits some of the other items that are purchased include uh Quaver Music license Instrument Repair sheet music fuel for field trips some instruments and sheet music as well as other consumables uh which include small musical equipment so it's a lot going on in both of those programs next we'll have Miss hazer who is a program specialist with professional leadership and learning good afternoon good afternoon so really excited to be here and share all the great things we're doing to help retain and support our early career and novice educat so this year we have a new program called the new teacher Academy we hosted three sessions during the first semester Educators with with less than three years of experience are invited to register for the course each session includes a mini lesson on a specific topic followed by breakout sessions led by veteran teachers in those participants subject areas registration for the semester 2 course opened up in December and we filled all of the slots so they're showing up and coming and we are so excited to be able to offer this on the screen you can see a shout out from one of our participants she said because of class on Tuesday I was able to rock my classroom visit on Wednesday your class gave me the enthusiasm I needed to reach the depth of the standard that my principal was looking for so thank you and that was an eighth grade ELA teacher 98% of our participant based on a survey were very extremely satisfied the 2% weren't which was two people I reached out to we offer an in-person and a virtual session and lead us to say the virtual session had some pickups so once we reached out to them and we worked with them and trained our facilitators and our participants since then those hiccups have been fixed so we are very excited they continue to offer that quick question was there anyone on the waiting list to take that class or were you able to accept all the people that wanted to participate our virtual always has a waiting list we have a waiting list for virtual our in person fill slots we generally if there's a couple extra we let them in but with virtual um our largest virtual session I think was 53 people and when virtual gets too big it loses its Effectiveness so we definitely get on our virtual we do have a wait list and we always offer them the next first dibs on the next session the other half of mentor and induction are the people that support mentor and work with our early career and novice Educators mentors receive training on how to conduct effective conversations that enhance capacity and efficacy of our novice Educators leads participate in workshops where they learn best practices for developing and implementing site-based learning for early career Educators during this time after we have our meetings they go back onto their sites and they apply their skills that they've learned working with their novice and early career educators on site in the first semester program specialist conducted over 80 site visits so we've been able to go out and support 80 schools whether that was through leads mentors or working with early career novice Educators during these visits we collaborate with novice educ novice and early career Educators assist leads in creating plans for site based professional learning and we also evaluate the implementation of Concepts learned from new teacher Academy and we meet with the mentors and the teachers if they request it referendum funds that you provide help us support induction and mentoring the tiered structures we have in place allow us to provide support for teachers within their first three years of their educational Journey our goal is to make sure that every educator feels valued supported and equipped to help students succeed we want to create a smooth transition into the teaching profession help develop effective teaching techniques and encourage ongoing professional growth for our early career Educators most of these funds are paid out towards the end of the fiscal year because they are designated for the mentor and Lead Mentor supplements hours are documented throughout the year through monthly surveys completed by both mentors and novice Educators early career Educators and leads leads and mentors receive their supplement payment by June teachers that are identified as novice have less than six months teachers with that are identified as early career Educators or anybody with one year to three years experience in the classroom we currently have 233 teachers who fall into the category of novice educator that are assigned a one-on-one Mentor as positions continue to be filled and numbers and student and teachers get cleared those numbers tend to increase mentors dedicate 30 hours of support which is the approximately 1 hour a week growing our newest teachers these supplements full amount are $1,100 lead mentors are selected by school administrators at all School sites to work with early career Educators early career Educators have taught for two to three years leads facilitate monthly meetings for them that provide professional training they also follow up with them on a weekly basis with one-on ones just to touch base and provide additional supports this year we were really excited to partner with the fine arts department because teachers that work in specialized areas often don't have another teacher on campus that teaches the same thing they do so they now have their own virtual monthly session in addition to their on-site supports an expert teacher in that area is able to provide support on that content based on their specialized needs our Fine Arts cohort has hosted two sessions and the participants shared out what a huge difference this is made for them in the classroom so thank you for your continued support of induction and mentoring I do have a question yes ma'am um this is kind of out of left field uh how do we still have permanent Subs in positions that are not filled by certified teachers is that something that we still have are you referring to what we call a classroom sub it's a person who is there every day yeah yes we still have those positions okay I was just curious um speaking from experience I've I've been in positions where uh I've seen a permanent sub there for the full year I don't know that that's the case now but I was just curious um how that would fall into being supported by this program if they're committed to being there for a majority of the school year is that something that would be offered to them at this time induction mentoring is offered to teachers that are working on a temporary certificate moving towards a okay thank you there are some additional programs and I don't want to speak to them but there are programs that are encouraging our pair professionals to seek um their degrees as well so um that's that does go on okay question I have about that what what budget are they coming out of the clroom Subs right like the more the the general f okay yes I was just curious thank during our federal funds um you know the Esser funds those dollars are over we did charge the classroom Subs to that uh funding source but now they're back in the back in the general General okay yes me so the professional development which is uh typically paid out at the end of the year they requested $627,000 and of course they have not spent any to date um as the slide mentions the new teacher training um occurs over the summer break as well and and that's paid out at that time so now we'll move on to a new category uh that was implemented in our second or our first renewal uh for referendum and that is uh safe schools and Mr Dennis mcpatt will discuss that good afternoon and thank you again for your time and the commitment you have made to um volunteer for this committee as always we're happy to come before you and share with you what we are doing in the in our schools as we approach the second half of this 2425 fiscal year we want to highlight and give you some updates on our spending um one of the things that we have here with our school resource officer program it is not fully funded through the referendum but the is partially funded however what we do with them is a three-year contract and that contract is coming to uh soon soon to expire and we are beginning to plan for its renewal the partnership with our law enforcement agencies is a critical part of maintaining a safe environment on our campuses as you can see just like a fence camera door buers they're probably the most highest visibility of our security measure that we have referendum funds are allocated to partially support the payment of for sro's with additional Personnel expected as we prepare for opening of no schools such as elementary schools W and X High School CCC and a new Middle School by these School may not open for several months or even years it is important to plan and budget for a seamless transition typically we enter into threeyear agreements with our SRO contracts and currently we have a total of 63 SRO positions under contract distributed as follows 41 school resource officers and one RoR with the Marion County Sheriff's Office 20 SRO with Oella police department and one SRO with the city of bevie in addition as part of our own on goinging efforts to improve school safety we have implemented the Alysa alert Alysa alert mobile Panic alert system in compliance with Florida Statutes this system integrates with local public safety answering points infrastructure and ensures realtime coordination among first responder agencies during emergencies to meet this requirement we transition from the Raptor system to the cic veral badge platform in August of 2024 this transition was further underscored by the tragic shooting incident in Georgia on September 4th 2024 where a 14-year-old student open fire resulted in multiple fatalities and injuries during the aftermath we gained valuable insights as a district that reinforc the importance of Technologies like the Strategic platform which was used to notify staff students and first responder community of the active event helping to save lives building on this we upgraded our intercom systems at school sites to enable immediate audible announcements during critical incidents such as an active as salent event and so what we had to do is we our intercoms they would our principes and staff would actually have to physically go get on the intercom and announc lockdown lock down we had language that we PR pre-planned for them to use used but with this new system and the way we upgraded and had that you know do some upgrading to our intercom system the intercom system itself now announces the alert it it it actually tells them uh for example lockdown lockdown this is not a drill get to a safe space and initiate Alice protocol again in the past our staff was responsible for saying that which put them at a higher level of danger or risk so now this new system does it for us uh additionally information will be rapidly disseminated via voice calls text messages push notifications desktop alerts flashing scroll lights and social media so we're trying to use every possible thing we can on site to notify them that a situation is happening um what the CES uh does is got these scroll lights and it actually flashes into the in all around the school so you know when you see this flashing it is a serious incident and for you to go into the Alice protocol but in addition we realize that we have to notify ourselves uh the Dr gullet our leadership team and then eventually the community so we're working hard to make sure that we push out not just push out information but accurate and timely information it is so much easier if we send out the accurate information initially than trying to correct mistakes that we've made by premature sending out information that's not true okay so our goal is to provide a comprehensive Mass notification system that ensures quick accurate communication during emergencies reducing panic and helping to guide everyone to safety so again thank you for your support as we continue to prioritize the safety and well-being of our students and staff should you have any questions or need additional information please do not hesitate to call us any questions Mr MCAT I quick quickly I know we talked briefly and I'm blanking on the name of the program that the state started with with um yourability and I know in connection with law enforcement to train on-site staff and is that is that program going well I know you can't talk in detail about it but is that program going well yes it is and it's it's one of those uh programs called The Guardian program and it's utilized Statewide in a variety of ways and in Maran County we here at this District uniquely put it together put it in place that's unique for our district good excellent thank you so as you can see there are a lot of expenditures associated with uh keeping our schools students staff safe uh during these triangle times um so without the uh referendum uh we would have been not been able to do some of these items um the total budget was 9.6 million and they've spent about 21% of the budget to date um as Mr MC faten mentioned this covers uh the majority of the costs of the SRO uh but it also covers those things like cameras and um different accessories for our doors uh radios door buzzers um again cameras um as such and it does include the cost of the stiping that is paid to the Guardians I'll take the next few minutes just to go through uh the charter schools uh we now have to share these funds uh with the charter schools and the process that was created is uh we looked at the number of students that they have uh to the total number of maring County students to come up with what their allocation should be so their total budget of 746,000 uh we provided uh what the law allows to them and then they provided a budget back to us as to how they want to spend their dollars and and you can see that um here how how the budget was set up for the charter schools and the next slide as of the end of December we have allocated about 358,000 uh to the Charter Schools based on uh their allocation and um they have used it in the same categories that we have um as a school district and so you can see that their class size is about $73,000 and they've spent about 50% that makes s sense since we have allocated about half of that budget to them uh the next category is physical education their budget is 182,000 and they've spent about 46% of that budget the next category is is art a budget of 50,000 and they've spent about 49 uh% of that budget and uh music is the next category 78,000 and they've spent about 50% of of that budget another category professional development 149,000 and again they spent about 50% of that budget they we've allocated those funds to them just like we allocate their dollars for the regular ffp as well and then safe schools $22,000 and they've spent about 46% of that budget when they submit their budget um do they break down similar to what you're sharing with us what what types of items they're spending like is it is it Personnel is it similar to a lot of the categories we have it you know a majority of it is Personnel salaries and benefits is that the type of thing that you're seeing as well that's what they budget they tell us what they Budget on that but we don't really see what their actual expenditures are until the end of of the year but they will they'll use it for this pretty much the same things that we are using it for say say teachers or professional development um but they don't provide the uh specifics as to what professional development but we have given them a criteria of what they have to follow okay and they follow that and they are audited at the end of the year like we are as well so are there any other additional questions or comments I have a question um with regards to the safe schools I noticed that it's like a 20 21% 22% whereas everything else is sort of in the 40 4 fives or you know averaging does that is it because it's different because it's like spread out through a year or are you or are you holding back in an effort to budget like to hold back some of those funds for the upcoming schools or how does is that you're talking about the charter schools no no no I'm sorry I'm sorry I was going on to the next questions and comments okay for for um for the district it's it's 20% because that's all they've spent they might have ordered cameras they might have ordered other equipment spending is but we haven't paid for it yet okay okay yeah thank thank you Mr any other questions uh thank you so much bellish appreciate it thank you thank you all right with that um we I think we have laid out our dates for our meetings for this year and uh trying to stick to a similar schedule about once a quarter on a Thursday day at 4 and I do not have those dates in front of me but I know we have them somewhere yes October July and oer were those dates sent out I don't think they have been sent out yet do we have do you have those we have the dates at yes you bring them to yeah that would be great let's go ahead and just kind of get those in the record oh yeah right great all right so obviously we know about the uh January meeting um and then uh April 17th July 17th and October 16th so we will we will those will go out in the minutes but we'll send those out as well maybe even send them out as calendar invites that way they actually land in our calendars appropriately um and so those are our meeting dates for the year are there any other matters for the board at this point uh the I put this in the agenda because um after reviewing the bylaws we we are supposed to open up for public comments so is there any public comment this afternoon all right seeing none I'll entertain a motion to adjourn motion to adjourn second all in favor we're adjourn thank you very much