The schoolboard work session begins in 1 minute. Please take your seats. Again, the schoolboard work session begins in one minute. [Music]
Heat. Heat. [Music]
Good morning. I now call the May 22nd, 2025 administrative briefing and work session of the Marian County School Board to order at 9:00 a.m. Please silence your electronic devices to avoid disturbing others. Mirroring and modeling how our students begin each day, I ask that you
please pause with us for a moment of silence. Please join me. Thank you. I'll now read the board commitment statement. We are the Marian County School District Leadership Team. When we come together to work, we are efficient,
effective, and productive. Our three most important characteristics are dedicated, transparent, and individually responsible. To work well together, we must demonstrate respect, confront reality, and be accountable. We will all
always put students first. We will leave a legacy of success. I would like now like to ask the school board attorney to explain the rules for this public workshop. Good morning, Attorney Powers. Morning and thank you. This work session is a public meeting as defined in Florida's Sunshine Law. The board is
dedicated to full transparency in its meetings and its work. In compliance with Sunshine Law, the board has adopted uniform meeting procedures, including the right for citizens to participate. The board will allow public comment regarding any work session item listed on today's agenda at the appropriate
time. Speakers must fill out a request form located in the lobby and hand it to the board clerk. After the board and superintendent have completed their discussion on a particular agenda item, the board clerk will call the speaker's name in the order received. Each speaker
will have three minutes 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 to vi not to violate privacy rights of
others, especially students and their family members by mentioning their names or other identifying information. Please thank you for your attention to these important rules. Thank you, Attorney Powers. Good morning, Miss Martinez Young. Can you provide the proof of publication for us? Morning, Chair. The
notice for the May 22nd, 2025 work session was published in the Ocala Gazette on May 9th, 2025. Proof of publication has been attached to board docks under proof of publication. Thank you. We'll now begin our work session. Um Dr. Golet, you'd like to
begin with our briefing? I certainly will. Thank you. Good morning, Madam Chair, members of the board. Nice to see you this morning. Um as you know, we kicked off uh graduation season at Hellrest and want to thank Miss Manress and her whole team for doing a fabulous job um and and showcasing how we help
every student succeed because everything we do is about students. So appreciate that. Looking forward to the rest of our graduation, celebrating our graduates. We have 3,000 this year. So, um, also want to remind everybody that a week from today, hard to believe, is the last day of school. So, we want to encourage
our students to keep learning, but thank our teachers and all of our staff for a very productive year. Um, and a little bit of housekeeping this morning, Madam Chair, and board. Uh, Dr. Brewer is going to come in the last two items. I'm doing the first two because they speak to the work that we're doing right now
and celebrating um our graduates from our leadership class in the audience and and talking about all the mentoring programs that we do to support our students and their success and then Dr. Brewer will come in and do the remaining two that speak to the work coming up for the 2526 school year. That concludes my
briefing. Thank you. Thank you Dr. Glet. All right. Um you want to introduce our leadership class? I would be I would be very pleased to. This is very near and dear to my heart. So the first item on our agenda today board is uh celebration of leadership class number three, cohort
number three. And as you recall number of years ago um actually one of the first conversations I had publicly was um sharing that I my part of my vision of helping every student succeed is creating a leadership class. And the reason that this is important is it
engages with our community deeply so they better have an understanding of what we do and how we support our students and also engaging in and more of a two-way conversation which I think is really important. Not just sharing what we're doing, but hearing from them and their perspectives of their
experiences and their expertise of what we can do better. You know, always setting the bar high is really important. And I want to thank um everyone who's here today. I know everyone can't always be here because they're all really busy in their careers and and their workplaces, but uh want to thank them for their genuine engagement
in this conversation. Um we you've met uh former graduates before that are that are now very involved in a lot of our committees and a lot of our work, but we do not do this work alone. We should never do this work in isolation. And so engaging deeply and
meaningfully with our community is really important. And I hope that will continue in the future. here. But I really just want to say personal thanks to all of you for engaging so deeply and committing your time and I hope that your engagement with us will continue and your advocacy for our students will
continue. We really really appreciate you. So I'll turn it over to Mr. Griffith so that we can recognize each one of them individually. Thank you, Dr. Gullet. Good morning, Chair Conrad, fellow board members. Uh I just want to say briefly about uh the leadership class that it's wonderful and
amazing and all of the members of the class this year have been a delight to work with. Uh I think that this is a very valuable thing that MCPS does. It allows members of the community to come in and learn so much about the school district and then they can go out and be
ambassadors for us. And I think that's a key aspect that we need to acknowledge. And these are some wonderful ambassadors. And so without further delay, I'm going to introduce them. uh they're going to come up and I'm g going to give them their certificate of recognition. I'm sad that I won't be
seeing them again other than around town, but I'm hoping that it's some of the places we took them throughout their their course that they will be involved. I think a lot of them really have that itch already. So, to start, uh I'd like to introduce Amy Dean.
[Applause] if you want to come stand up here. And next we have Rebecca [Applause] Fello, Mr. Robert Hegy,
[Applause] Mr. Brent Johnson, [Applause] Kristen [Applause]
Milbrandt, Mel Pool. [Applause] Renee [Applause] Robinson. Thank you for coming. And last
but not least, Miss Tammy Warren. [Applause] I am going to ask for one more just overall round of applause because they really have been wonderful and I appreciate it. Thank you. If we'll hold for just a
second, I'm sure the board would like to come down um and grab a picture with y'all. We certainly do. Um as I look, I see a lot of familiar faces. Uh, I know that you're busy each and every day. So, we sure do appreciate your commitment um to being part of this class and
understanding um the ins and outs of public education. So, hold on just a second. We'll come down and grab a picture with you. You see, would you like to be up there? Sure, I can see everybody. If I may add, Madam Chair, I'd love that
if if any of our ambassadors ran for a school board in the future, that would be exciting, too. They know all about public education. They know a lot. call with any questions. Right. Wealth of information right here. Right. Okay. Ready to continue with
that? Um Dr. Glet, would you like to introduce our um next staff member to begin the mentoring programs? We need public comment. Oh, any public comment even though we're very happy to see Miss Yes. Okay. Seeing none no public comment,
we'll move on to uh mentoring programs. Very good. Thank you, Madam Chair. So, I'm pleased to have Miss Harris here who's going to talk to us about all of our mentoring programs and as I said earlier, the ways that we serve our students and UC board, a number of our very committed and dedicated community
members here also this morning committing of their time today and and every day to help our students be successful. So, I'll turn it over to Miss Harris for introductions. Thank you. Absolutely. Thank you, Dr. Glet. Good morning, Chair Conrad, Vice Chair Cummings, our schoolboard members,
Attorney Powers, and Miss Martinez. Thank you for allowing our team the opportunity to speak with you today about an essential component of student success, mentoring. For the purpose of today's presentation, we
define mentoring as a structured supportive relationship in which a more experienced individual provides guidance, encouragement, and direction to a student. It is more than just an academic support. It fosters well-being,
builds self-confidence, and helps students navigate challenges inside and outside of the classroom. In our district, we are proud to have a variety of mentoring programs led by dedicated educators, staff, and our community
partners. These initiatives provide students with trusted adults who offer guidance, encouragement, and stability throughout their educational journey. So today I am joined by four staff members and of course our distinguished
guests who are excited to highlight various mentoring programs and share the ways they are positively shaping students experiences and opportunities for continued growth. So I want to talk a little bit
about the benefits of mentoring. Extensive research confirms the powerful impact of effective mentoring in the K12 setting. Students who participate in mentoring programs develop increased
self-confidence and self-awareness, enhanced communication skills, and a greater ability to engage in self-reflection. They are exposed to new perspectives, gain valuable goal setting skills, and experience high levels of academic
achievement. Additionally, mentoring has been shown to improve school attendance, boost motivation, and foster a stronger sense of belonging. Mentoring is a beneficial relationship for the mentors that gain
valuable skills including enhanced leadership, communication, and a deeper sense of fulfillment from making a meaningful impact in a student's life. Before I turn it over to Miss Cino, I would like to introduce the first program that is very dear to my
heart. The first one that you will hear about today was born from the leadership of Dr. Dr. Gulllet and Dr. Margaret Talbert Irving. They charged me with developing an internal mentorship initiative that would leverage the
talent and leadership already within our school district. After thoroughly reviewing existing mentoring programs and identifying our service gaps, it became clear that our middle school students were often underserved in this
critical area of support. Drawing from my training and knowledge of the researchbased 40 developmental assets, I created what is now known as Elevate Marion mentorship program. What is unique about the 40
developmental assets is that they focus not only on the academic support but on the whole child addressing social and developmental needs that research shows are essential for positive youth development. These assets are grounded
in decades of data and proven to help young people grow up healthy, caring, and responsible. Elevate Marian program is really unique to our district. And with that being said, now
Miss Cino, coordinator of professional leadership and learning, will tell you a little bit more. Good morning. Good morning. Elevate Marian mentorship program originated from this administration's vision to have an internal monitoring opportunities for students in the middle
school setting. The purpose of the mentorship program is to provide students with mentors to empower them to succeed in all areas of their lives. The program is designed for each mentor to support their assigned mentee from grades 6 through 8. The selection
criteria for students encourage school leaders to identify grade six students with a level two on the ELA 2024 spring assessment, an early warning indicator for behavior, parent guardian consent, and completion of surveys. The parent
survey allowed parents to share their hopes and dreams for their children, and students had to convey areas they would like to see improved and their hobbies. District leaders were provided an overview of the expectations of the mentorship program. District leaders had
to have completed our youth mental health first aid certification, commit to 60 minutes each month, and complete a survey indicating interest in mentoring and hobbies. A virtual meeting was scheduled for all mentors to discuss expectations
of the program and the reporting progress. The mentors were given strategies for the first meeting and several questions and activities to build relationships with their mentee. Finally, family engagement liaison in many of the settings serve as the
contact person for mentors when they would like to build relationships with the family of their mentee. Developmental relationships are found the foundation for young people to thrive and exhibit resilience irrespective of their backgrounds or circumstances.
The Elevate Marian mentorship program is influenced by research conducted by the search institute. The developmental re relationships framework is comprised of five themes of asset development. We support young people by focusing on five
critical characteristics of asset development. Ensuring that every young person has access to the developmental relationships they need is a vital predictor of their productivity as adults in our community and our society. In the virtual initial virtual training,
the five Cs were discussed and mentors were instructed to choose one or more of the five C's to focus on during their mentoring session. Connection refers to positive relationships with families, peers, school, and community. Confidence refers to students belief in one's
ability. Character refers to students demonstrating integrity and responsibility. Contribution refers to students being active participants in areas of their world. And competence refers to having a sense of mastery and achievement in various areas of their
life. Looking at our participation growth, we now have 16 students in sixth grade, 10 students in seventh grade, and seven students in eighth grade. And we have a mentor in our professional learning and leadership department that
has shared her mentees story with me, and I'm going to share it with you. I'm honored to share my mentee success story as she is become is truly blossoming into a young adult with a voice and she is using it to advocate for herself and those around her. She is preparing to
transition to high school and has carefully selected her future academic home based on her love of baseball. However, a young lady like her can't have just one passion. She has recently taken up volleyball as well. I am impressed by her forward-thinking
approach and her commitment to choosing a future based on potential opportunities for success. To make the most of our visits, she requested that I meet with her on Friday afternoons to ensure she doesn't miss any critical information during certain class periods. She's also trying to stay on
top of her grades in all subjects, even those she finds less exciting. Her passion and compassion extend beyond the classroom. Her face lights up at the mention of her two little brothers and she loves sharing stories and pictures of them. I truly enjoy meeting with my mentee and I wa
and watching her transition into this new chapter of her life. I look forward to continuing as her mentor and supporting her growth in the years to come. And I also would like to share that um our department just took some of the eighth grade students to Tallahassee
um last month and they got to tour FSU and FAMU and even eat in the dining hall at FAMU sponsored by our um MCPS foundation ed foundation and they love that was their favorite part. but they also got to do tours and they got to
hear about the um application and enrollment process and scholarship opportunities and we even had a mom go with the group. So it was very very exciting and they learned a lot. Elevate Marian mentorship program initially launched in November of 2022
and currently in grade 8 100% of the students had been promoted throughout middle school. Um, you can see cohorts one in the darkest blue colors. In gray, cohort one had the first year with a mentor where absences reduced
significantly. The lighter blue represents cohort 1's second year in the program and absences continue to drop. The number of ISS and OSS days has reduced as well and the number of discipline referrals has drastically decreased. And now you will hear about
dare to be great from Dvita Randolph. Thank you. Good morning board, Superintendent Dr. Gullled, Chair Conrad, Con Conrad, and board members and guests. My name is Dvita Randolph and I am currently the
program manager at Howard Academy Community Center. One of the programs that we have that is very near and dear to my heart is our dare to be great mentoring program. We are in our third year of the program and have maintained
anywhere from 12 to 21 girls at all times. We will celebrate 11 of those young ladies at our annual catillion on July 19th, 2025 4 p.m. at the Mary Sue Rich Center. Let me tell you a little
bit about our program. Our mission to adequately prepare young girls for life through classes and handson learning, teaching them life skills and equipping them with the knowledge to survive. There is no cost to the district. We raise our money. they we
receive donations and we also have a small little program that we have through the Maring County Hospital District that helps us offset our cost. Currently, we have 21 girls from Howard Middle and 14 with the majority of the
girls coming from Howard Middle. We assist these young ladies struggling to adjust to middle school because that is a very tough years in their life, 6th through 8th grade. This program helps build confidence and self-esteem. They attend sessions provided by our
community partners and we have some awesome community partners. The Maring County um hospital district, the community home project, Ocala Police Department, arts and health and the list goes on. Some of the things that we partner with them to teach our girls is
consequences of their actions, cyber bullying, life skills, etiquette, life coaching, nutrition and exercise and more. We meet twice a month. The sessions are 90 minutes and with the support from those local agencies, we
equip these girls with the skills they need to survive as they go through middle school and essentially move on to high school. Each lady is assigned a mentor at the beginning of the program that works with her to help reach goals that are set at the beginning of the
program. And our mentors go the extra step by visiting the schools, monitoring their attendance, their behavior. They even have lunch with them. and that means a lot to the girls. Mandatory parent meetings are a must. We meet with
our parents every quarter to discuss the young lady's progress with their discipline, attendance, and their grades. Monthly meetings are the last Tuesday of each month where our clerk specialist at Howard Academy goes to Howard Academy and meets with the girls
at the end of the month just to do some more talking to them and some encouragement. Community service is mandatory. The young ladies perform community service projects each quarter. They have adopted an an initiative which we did with the
first set of girls in which they help people that are experiencing homelessness. And we have this huge event in November, a huge giveaway during the holidays where we give away food and care packages to our homeless population. And at the end of this
nine-month program is followed by a beautiful catilium where we dress the girls up and they're they're so beautiful and they're so confident about theirelves and everything that they've learned throughout their those nine months is celebrated at the end of that
program. That's it. Thank you. Yes. Hold on just one one second. U Miss Thrower has a question for you. Good morning, Dvita. What is the date again in July of the Catilian? July 19th. Okay. 4 p.m. Yes, ma'am. 4
p.m. at the Mary Sue Rich Center. And I will make sure you guys get an invitation. Okay. 4 p.m. Put it in my calendar. Yes, ma'am. Thank you. Beautiful. Good morning. Good morning.
Okay. So, I'm going to talk a little bit about our Spark mentoring program. The SparkCC curriculum has been published in four academic journals for its efficacy in creating individual and systemic change. It's implemented in 42 states and 36 countries around the world. This
program is designed to be used as a curriculum to provide support and guidance for on-site mentoring by school-based staff. The program helps staff introduce and reinforce concepts and skills related to building resilience, emotional regulation
strategies, and executive functioning skills. Curriculum lessons include topics such as goal setting, understanding feelings, responsible decision making, navigating frustration and stress, effective communication, and realizing one's own potential. As you
may note, these are aligned to our resiliency skills. offering the mentor and mentee additional opportunities to explore, build upon, and solidify skills in these areas. The pre-teen curriculum adds lessons on navigating healthy relationships, and the teen curriculum
adds lessons on navigating healthy dating relationships. This is the first year MCPS is piloting the Spark mentoring program. 17 school sites had the opportunity to claim a license uh giving them access to the interventions online
platform and the physical kits which I brought an example of. Um the district team will be reviewing the student progress monitoring data and school feedback to determine how the intervention curriculum will be used in the future. Several elementary schools seen here claimed the license to
implement the program this year. We currently have three middle schools who attended the training and elected to implement the program as well. That includes Fort McCoy, MTI, and OciOla Middle. And lastly, these are the high schools that are currently implementing
the program. In addition to these in-house programs and supports, MCPS works with additional community groups and organizations for additional mentoring opportunities on our school campuses. With us this morning, we have representatives from these groups to provide some information about their
respective programs and supports. At this time, I'd like to welcome Miss Megan Maggamal to start us off and tell us a bit more about Take Stocking Children. Thank you. Good morning, Chair Conrad, school board members, and superintendent Dr. Gullet.
The mission of Take Stock and Children, a program of our public education foundation, is to break the cycle of poverty through education and mentoring. Our program started in 1996 here in Marian County Public Schools and has a unique formula identifying low-income
atrisisk youth starting in our eighth grades and then providing support to our students through high school, post-secary education and into the workforce by providing scholarships, mentoring, and hope. Students are selected through a competitive
application and interview process in 8th grade. And once selected, the students along with their parents and guardians sign an accountability con contract. From 8th grade through 12th grade in our district, our taketo
students are required to maintain a 2.5 unweighted GPA, abide by our school code of conduct, remain crime and drug-free, participate in our college and career readiness workshops and events. They must attend required scheduled sessions
with their college success coaches. And the most important part of this agreement with the students is that they must meet with their assigned wonderful, caring mentor a minimum of 15 times during the school year. If our students
complete these requirements, they will earn upon high school graduation a two-year college tuition scholarship through our foundation. And that college decision looks different for each of our students. Our scholarship will support
students who are continuing on a career and technical education path and achieving their associates degree, bachelor's degree, and beyond. We serve all Marian County public middle and high schools. Approximately 50 students in each grade cohort. This
school year, a total of 256 students were served, each having a volunteer mentor assigned. The total mentoring sessions provided this year, 3,449 sessions and still going. For the graduating class, which we hosted a take
stock and children graduation ceremony two weeks ago, we awarded $330,000 in college tuition scholarships. We also have embedded into our Take Stock program. It's called Take Stock in College and it allows a support
network to continue providing services to students even after they graduate from Marian County Public Schools and become alumni. Since our program started in 1996, we do have a lot of data that we have to be able to demonstrate the program results.
Here is a snapshot. 98% of our students complete our program in good standing and graduate from high school. 91% of our students enroll in college as compared to 52% for the statewide average for low-income atrisisk youth.
And 73% of our program graduates are achieving their college education in comparison to 29% of students not a part of the take stock and children program. I do want to go back one slide and bring your attention to the picture here and
share a full circle story that truly depicts the program success but what it looks like by changing the life of one student. On the far left of this picture is one of our Takestock program graduates, Michael Mills. He graduated from Vanguard High School in
2006. His mentor while in our schools was our very own Mr. Kevin Christian. After graduation from our district, Mike went on to serve in the Navy. He achieved his mers in business administration and then came back to Marian County and became an integral
part of our community. Returning here as a proud local businessman and now a parent of a student in our district. Well, Mike decided to give back to the Taketock program. He became a volunteer mentor. He is currently working with two students. In this picture, this was
2023. Mike was named Florida's Take Stock and Children Alumni of the Year. And just this week, Tuesday morning, at our foundation board meeting, Mike was elected as our incoming board chairman for the 2025 2026 school year. This will
be the first time our organization is being led by a program graduate who attributes much of his success to the mentoring and support received from Take Stock and Children. Thank you for allowing me to share how scholarships, mentoring, and hope through the takes
program is supporting Marian County Public Schools. And if I may go off script for a minute, I'd like to give a shout out to Mr. Griffith's MCPS leadership class. Out of that class alone, two will be serving on our board of directors for this coming school
year. Two have already been named to be slated for the additional school year for 2627. and two are signing up to become mentors for take stock and children. So our leadership program works. Thank you all. I would now like to invite our
representative from Big Brothers Big Sisters to Miss Alexander to share some remarks. Thank you, Megan. Good morning. Good morning. Thank you for having me. My name is Susan Alexander and I am the partnership
manager with Big Brothers Big Sisters here in Marian County. Uh we are a national organization. We have been in existence over a hundred years old uh for over a hundred years. We're in every state in the United States of America.
Um we uh have been local here in Marian County for about the last three years. We were here years ago. um we it did dissolve during that time and then three years ago we came back under the uh Tampa Bay agency which was a wonderful
um occurrence for us. It has given us a lot of leverage. Um there are nine counties that fall under that Tampa Bay footprint um all the way from Elatchua down into the Tampa Bay area. But just to know that we are local here in Marian
County. Our staff is all local here in Maring County and we are servicing the children here in Maring County. Um we have two main types of programs that I wanted to mention. One is our community-based program. That might be one you've heard more about where we
match a child with a mentor and they go out and do fun things with them in the community. Uh these mentors spend about eight hours a month with those um littles. We call them littles and bigs with their littles. And we do ask for at least a 15-month commitment from them
because as you all know a lot of these children that come from adversity in their lives and they've had some um tough a lot of them are living with grandparents and other relatives and whatnot. We don't want to cause any more loss in their lives. So we do ask for a 15-month commitment from those mentors.
Um another type of program that we have that we absolutely love is our schoolbased program which is called sitebased. And this is where our mentors are matched with a child in um one of our schools and they spend an hour a
week with them. Um and it's really just being a positive role model for them. It's not so much educationbased. Also, some of those mentors do spend some time working through some things that these children might be having trouble with. The main basis for this relationship is
being a positive role model and somebody that they can look up to. And these children absolutely love spending time with their mentors. Uh we ask for a 12-month commitment for that program from our mentors. Um and they usually
see them the same time every week. Um and they usually see them during either lunchtime or one of their special times um of the day. We currently are in Oakrest Elementary School for that program. We have um about currently
we're serving about 40 children um in all in Marian County and we hope to just continuously grow and grow and grow that program. Our biggest need is mentors. Of course we have the children. We could serve gazillion children in this county
and there's such a need um and we would love to be in every single school um that we could be here but it's a matter of getting those mentors. Um we have two amazing champions here in the community. Um uh Chief Balkan, who actually is a
big brother in our program, um is a big supporter and also Mayor Marciano is another big supporter of our program. Um and so with their help, we are um connecting a lot with a lot more organizations and a lot more of um the
community to be able to provide more mentors for these children. Um, our results are are out there. They are amazing. 99% of our children uh avoid the juvenile justice system. 97%
um were promoted to the next grade level. 97% of our littles maintained or improved their educational aspirations and 83% of those little maintained or improved their academic performance.
Um we um let's see if there's anything that I left out here. Um we would love to absolutely um connect with any more businesses, any more corporations to expand to even
additional programs within the area too. Um when we Let's see. I just don't want to leave anything out. I know I only have three minutes here. Um, we have we have over 2,000 um, matches within our footprint
of the um, Big Brothers Big Sisters of Tampa Bay. Um, so that's all I have. Thank you for giving me this time. I really appreciate it. I'm open to any questions that you have and I would love to talk to anybody
additionally about any other collaborations um within the community to help serve more children here. Thank you very much board. Any questions bring forward? N we're just thankful for the work that you do. Thank you. Thank
you. Am I supposed to clean this? Okay. Good morning. Good morning. I am Rometha Gilmore, founder of Girls on the Rise Mentoring. Um I am going to take a different approach because
everybody um so many ladies have come forth and already spoken about mentoring and the benefits of mentorship. And for me, um, it just takes a different approach. Again, Girls on the Rise began in
2022 and it started as a summer program. And I wanted to give something back or give the girls something to do to keep them out of trouble. And when I talk about girls, I want to make certain that I identify African-American girls. I
wanted to focus on black and um black and brown girls because we often don't have anything in the community to do to keep ourselves out of trouble. Um a lot of times parents don't have funding to put their kids in different programs. So
I wanted to start something that would give them opportunities to participate in things over the summer um to reduce different type behaviors. Um, one of the things or when I started Girls on the Rise, I was working here in Marian
County and so I'm an educator of 20 years and that meant that I had to go back to work in July um because I was an administrator. And so in 2023, I knew that there was a greater need um where these girls needed to be seen more than
just over the summer. And so I resigned in 2023 to do this full-time, to mentor the girls full-time. And so I visit schools Monday through Thursday. I started out visiting Monday through Thursday um various schools. Lateware Middle School is one of the schools that
initially invited me to come on their campus. And right now I see approximately 25 to 30 girls. And I say 25 to 30 girls because I have had a few girls who have um been in trouble
because the girls are they're not perfect. So we're trying to get them first of all um to love themselves. And if we can get them to love themselves, then we can get them to believe in themselves and see how important school is and that they need school um to be
successful. Um, one of the things in dealing with um, minority girls right now, we're disproportionately being suspended at higher rates and so trying to combat that again and showing the
girls that they can achieve greatness um, they can overcome any obstacles they face and that is what Girls on the Rise is about right now in our county and it may have changed. um African-American girls or minority girls. We are 20% of
the population yet 40% of the incidents that happen here in the county. So again, we are being suspended, expelled, and alternatively placed at higher rates. So we need something to combat that to close those gaps. And again,
this is a way for us to help close the gap. Um, one of the girls, um, just sharing some information with about some of my girls. I received a text message yesterday from one of my students at the high school and I would say she was in
crisis. Um, I generally attend North Marian High School on Thursdays, but she reached out to me and she said she needed to speak to me immediately. And so I when I arrived on campus, she had me concerned because I did not know what the issue would be. But when I arrived
on campus, she was having some issues at home and we had a conversation and tried to talk with her about getting her to go home because she was not going to go home. Um her conversation to me is that I'm not going back. There's too much going on. And so again, I I serve as
that um mediator to try to get the girls to understand again, you know, you need to follow directions, you need to follow rules. And with this particular baby, I did I was able to talk her into going home. And I just talked to her this morning um before I got here. And so,
Girls on the Rise, again, we're here to support all girls, but there's a focus on African-American girls, minority girls. That means girls who are um biracial. And we want to just close the gap. And we do that when we're on campus. We check our bags daily when
we're there. And that means behavior, attendance, grades, and then social emotional because reality is that we can focus on a lot of times the point, the grades, but a lot of our kids are broken. Um, they're broken emotionally.
And a lot of times that's where we need to meet them at in order for them to be successful in the classroom with their grades, with their test scores, um, and their classroom grades. Um I want to leave with a card from another young
lady and I did say the focus is on minority girls. However, I will see any girl based on um early warning indicators or when staff members, administrators, teachers have come together to identify students. Um so
this particular baby here is actually she's a Caucasian girl. So last week I visited a school or during teacher appreciation week and I had the kids to write notes to their teachers. They had to find one teacher that they could thank during that week. And this is a
card that I received after telling them they couldn't write it to me, but she did. It says to Mrs. Gilmore, "Hi, I just wanted to say thank you. I thank you for always bringing a smile to my face. I also wanted to say thank you for always being a positive light. You truly
do make me happy. You are someone I appreciate and entrust. Thank you for believing in me. I may not always show how much you mean to me, but I cannot ask for a better teacher. And again, that's from one of my Caucasian students. And I just say that because we
have so many students that need help. And I do understand from um an administrative background, we've had times where we've tried to pair students up with teachers and administrators at the beginning of the year in the schools or on the school campuses, and we know
that that doesn't work. So, we we've been doing it for years, but it doesn't work. So, just trying to figure out different ways um to again close the gaps. And I do believe that Girls on the Rise is a program that can help close some of the gaps that can help our girls
be confident to believe in themselves and do what they need to do on campus. And I will say one more thing. I'm not sure how much time I have. Um, but we don't just do I don't just mentor on the campuses. It goes outside of that. The girls are able to participate in our
summer program um if they choose to. the parents have to provide transportation for that. And I would say here recently on March 17th, I took about 10 girls to um the capitol. We spent a day at the cap. Um we participated in the mayor's
cleanup day. We participated in the Habitat for Humanities Strawberry Festival. So there are so many things that we are trying to do to help the girls be well-rounded, not just on the school campuses, but here in the community as well. um and that is Girls
on the Rise and I am open. I thank you for the opportunity. I will answer any questions that you may have. Thank you very much for your presentation and for the work that you do um for our students board. Any questions or comments? I was just saving
my questions for the end. Okay. Sure. All right. All right. Thank you. All right. Thank you. Good morning board comrade board members. Uh Dr. Thrower uh you guys got me behind all the heavy hitters. I'm a little nervous
now. All right. But uh I do um Jamie Gilmore with Cut Different. Um I do want to acknowledge uh my team. We have Rory Carter, Eddie Rocker, uh KJ Kinsler in the back. If you wave your hand so they can see y'all. All right. So these things wouldn't happen without those gentlemen. So super uh proud and and happy to have them. Um, one thing I do
want to start, I want to give, um, like a origin story of who we are, why we are. Um, a kid, a product of Okala, um, born and raised here, product of the Marian County Public Schools. Uh, graduated when it did a couple things and came back and, uh, came back with with a couple accolades and still felt
lost, still felt like I had no direction, still felt like I didn't know what to do. And after, you know, finding the right mentorship, finding the right guidance, um, that helped me get on track. And with that being said, uh even during that time I was trying to figure it out. I really didn't want to stay in
Ocala. I thought I was going to go to like Orlando or Tampa or something. But um my mom, she actually uh worked at Evergreen Elementary at the time and she asked me to come um volunteer and work with some young men that they were they were in trouble. They get they were getting in trouble, fourth and fifth graders. Uh I sat at a round table with these young men and they were able to
verbally tell me what they did and why it was wrong. So I'm like, "Hold on, you knew it was wrong and you still did it?" They're like, "Yeah." And I was like, "Okay, so we got to do something about this." And uh what's the distinction from someone knowing something wrong and still doing it? It's accountability. These young people had no one to hold them accountable for their actions. They
had no one to be able to go home and look in the eye and say that they felt disappointed that they came home with a referral. And I know that's what allowed me to be the young man that I am. I grew up with with with principles. I grew up with morals. I grew up with expectations for myself. There's certain things I could do and certain things that I
couldn't do. Um coming from the household I did. Um, so with all that being said, we wanted to create a system for young people that they felt the same level of accountability and that's how cut different was birthed. So our mission is to guide young men to own their greatness. When I say greatness, greatness looks different for most
everybody. God created us all to be great. Um, but our young people, we have this thing called social media, right? And our young people get on these things and they start acting out and being characters that's not them. Um, so at the core of what we do, we help with young people with self-discovery, helping them answer two questions. who
am I and where am I going? All right, so that's just a little about cut different. But what we're here about today, as you can see, our empowerment program. Um, as you can see, I don't want to you all can read and I know you probably seen what we do, but a couple things that I I do want to start off with the empowerment program. I I truly thank you all for your partnership. And
I say that because when we started Cut Different, we knew we can reach young people. Um, but one thing we asked oursel is we told ourselves we had to meet young people where they at. And a kid may never go to church. Your kid may never go to a recreation center, but most of our kids, they should be at school. So, we had to meet them where we
at. So, we're able to partner with you all uh about four years ago. It's been a long time. Um we we we started um off in a couple schools and we we've expanded it since. Um and it's been a great connection for us. Every day my day is calling from uh parents who reach out to
schools and schools are directing them to us. So, I truly thank you for your partnership. Uh right now, we're currently in five schools. Uh we see 82 students um within those five schools. Uh self-discovery is a big part of what we do. Um again a lot of people talked about mentorship so I I won't you know
beat the dead horse but uh just to talk about the importance and the work that we doing that I think sets us apart. Um the self-discovery work each young man in our program gets a journal when we start. Every day we do journal questions asking these young people questions to be able to figure out who they are. Um you can't you know put a a test in front
of somebody and it's just struggling to try to figure out who they are at the core. Um, so we're trying to help them out with that. Um, and another one is connectedness. Connectedness. So I'm a team player. I played uh team sports all my life. Uh, one thing about those team sports, I always felt the camaraderie. A lot of kids are coming to schools and
they're feeling like they're against against. It's it's it's like I'm on the other side. So you go there essentially, well, she did what he did. Even from the parents, well, you call a parent, you talk to a parent, well, it's they. It should never be they. It's us. It's a game. It's a it's a full connection uh for our kids to be successful. um and we
know and we we we pinpointed that. So what we do, we work to to to build the bridge um between home and between schools. So when that comes with contacting with get in contact with parents, uh making sure the parents are um coming on campus, making sure the parents are we're having quarterly meetings with parents um and we're getting them involved in education. I
tell our parents to make us a household uh part of their their uh dinner table conversation. Um so these parents and and kids are know that we are there for them. Um, another thing, uh, our curriculum is based around skill building, teaching these young people simple things, relationship building. It's one thing you, well I should I say
simple, but it's not so simple. Uh, teaching them how to, uh, be able to build relationships with people, have empathy, be able to, uh, sympathize for another person. Uh, so a lot of those are skill-based. And just to get into some, uh, statistics, uh, I know they are here. Uh, I put them in the board docs on a one pager. Uh, but one thing
that I'm really excited about, we had a 6% of, uh, participation. students made a full year's growth in reading and measured uh by their MP3s at Oakrest um Lake uh Liberty I mean Lake Middle School. I'm really excited. So we uh we actually just got this in yesterday, but we had a a 2.49 average GPA. We see 36
kids at that school. So um if you understand, you know, the the young man, the struggles that they had when we got there, we're really excited about that. Um and and just discipline. Every time we work with young men, you can go on any campus and we're seeing the discipline. We track uh GPA, behavior, attendance, and connectedness. and again
making those kids feel like they're part of school. Um and our program does and I know we you know focus on what goes on in between in the in the in the walls but uh one thing uh that's cool about uh the connection that we do get with these kids within the school. It does go outside of school. Uh we have a multifaceted organization. Uh we're
seeing young kids in the after school programs. Uh we partner with different community uh hospital district and other folks as well to provide after school mentorship. So we're seeing kids on campus then they're come to coming to us after school. Uh, and then we have a a great summer program that's about to start up June 2nd. And we also have a
date July 25th. I hope you all can put it on your calendar uh that we have in our summer gallow. And you'll see a lot of young men that that walk your hallways. You'll see them walking into their greatness uh being dapper uh speaking um and just owning their greatness. So, in a nutshell, um that's
who we are. Uh and I do want to share so one one um young man, I'm not going to say his name, but he's a young man over at Oakris Elementary School. This young man started off the school year. He lost his father. We seen a defeated young man. I mean defeated. He was defeated. Uh but through mentorship, through
guidance uh that young man got and through the help of his school as well. Um that young man got back on track and he won a guaranteed spot into our summer program this year. So we truly excited about him. I'm pretty sure you all see good things about him uh this summer. And last thing I do want to share, I I really want to um highlight the school
personnel. Uh we have some great teachers, some great personnel on these school campuses and they make it the job that we do easy. Uh mentor is able to come on campus and have everything they need laid out for them and uh you have a lot of people on those campuses that really want the best for the students. So I'm truly happy to partner with you
all and I'll take any questions if you have. Thank you Jamie. I think we're going to wait till the end. Yeah. Thank you. Good morning board. Morning. Thank you for having us. I'm Beth McCall and I have the honor of serving as the
executive director of the Marian County Children's Alliance. And today I'm here to introduce to you our skip program supporting kids involving parents which came about in 2019. We were funded through the Department of Juvenile Justice. With me today are
Kelly Wenda Martin, who is the project director, who will talk more about Skip, and Jeremy Vickers, who is our project specialist for skip. But as I'm introducing them, I want to share with you that this summer through the Department of Juvenile Justice
leadership, they had a panel and they asked Kelly to serve on that panel. And I want to share with you the remarks that they said about Kelly Wenda Martin and the program of skip that she has built. Kelly has extensive experience in
managing mentoring, community engagement, and violence prevention. This initi all these initiatives in Marian County. Her leadership has helped build one of the region's most impactful and sustainable
youth mentoring programs in the region. So, we have touched over 1,000 and supported over 1,000 children in Marian County public schools. So, I now introduce Kelly and Jeremy to share our skip mentoring program.
Hi, thank you for allowing us to come and talk about skip today which she said is supporting kids involving parents and we were receive a grant through department of juvenile justice in 2019 to serve at risk students ages 5 to 17
male and female. Since we started and launched it, we started with five sites. We are now at 10 schools. We are one of only seven programs statewide to continue through mentoring through the one child, one mentor initiative. This has been at zero cost to the school
system. Once students are referred through the school system, we then go into the schools and give them a prevention assessment. That assessment assessment identifies risk factors such as family instability, academic struggles, behavior issues, substance
exposure, and mental health concerns. I will say alarming thing is that no student has ever um had less than three risk factors that we're seeing. We then do we do pair them with a mentor at that time that first visit they're creating two goals and attendance and we do track
their attendance behavior and grades. Um some kind we also use a botin evidence-based curriculum that we've purchased. We have eight staff members. Some highlights about our program. This year we have served between for mentoring and
tutoring 266 youth, our highest ever. Um like Beth said, we have served over a thousand students between for mentoring and tutoring since 2020. Our recetism rate is 2.5% that we've had between four out of the five years we've been
serving. We have 105 youth with prior juvenile justice involvement. 97% of those youth remained crime-free after completing our program. So, yes, we do see students that have records. Um, I feel like if they've completed their probation or they're following their
probation terms, then I know that they're going to work in our program very well. So, I'll never say no. Um, I think what makes the Children's Alliance a little unique is that we have a lot of programs under there. So although we offer mentoring and tutoring services to
Marian County schools, we have a drug prevention program that allows us to offer programming such as Friday night done right and natural high to our families, which is free. And that could be a movie night or that could be a skate night. We also have fatherdaughter date nights, mother son brunches. We do
a holiday drive. We do a school supply drive. Um we do offer staff hidden in plain sight and know the law. Hidden plain sight. I'm not sure if anybody's been through it, but it's a mock teenage bedroom and there's over 40 items um that could be hidden in there. So, teaching our staff what to look for and
teaching our parents and we offer that free of charge. We also give out gunlocks. We um give out med medicine disposal bags and lock your meds bags. Um so, that was pretty quick. They told me I only had three minutes. I was talking pretty fast. So, um I do want to
touch base that our students are seen once a week for at least 30 minutes. We do offer one-on-one and then we do have group mentoring. It just depends how that student um if it work if he works well or she works well with group or one-on-one
better if you have any questions. Okay. Thank you very much. Okay, perfect. As you can see from our map, mentorship is thriving across our district. Each of our schools represent a place where students have been
supported, encouraged, and empowered through mentorship programs like the ones we highlighted today. These programs are more than just initiatives. They are life-changing opportunities that help students develop confidence, set goals, and realize their full
potential. With the dedication of our mentors, staff, and community partners, we are creating a culture of support that extends beyond the classroom. Thank you for your time. And thank you for your time. Thank you, Miss Harris. Okay, at this
time, board, I want to open it up for comments and questions. Um, Dr. James. Sure. Um, I want to first thank all of you for coming and sharing your mission and what you are doing. I think it is important that we have a variety of programs that are going to serve a
variety of students. All of our students don't look the same and don't act the same. And it takes a whole group of human beings that have a shared mission to be able to reach every student. And so I'm honored to be able to see all of you working with Marian County Public Schools and meeting different students
needs. I have had the pleasure of being a taketock mentor myself for the last two years. My mentee is finishing 10th grade now and it has been an honor to serve her. It um truly is a blessing. I bring her lunch basically every other week and we get to chitchat and catch
up. Um and it kind of fills that part of my soul that left when you don't serve students every day like you used like I used to in a school setting. you get that opportunity to get that connection again with kids which is one of the main reasons a lot of us are in education and
so I've truly enjoyed being a take stock mentor. One of the components that most of the um presenters were didn't share which I'm I'm just hopeful we could get maybe a followup on is the cost to Marian County Public Schools to operate
the program. So, um, I noted that Dared to be and skip shared that there's zero cost. And I believe that I'm aware that there are other programs that are self-funded and zero cost, but what I would love to see is a maybe an updated email of the cost to Marian County Public Schools um, for each of these
programs and then if it's possible, how many students they serve total. So, a cost and then how many students are served total and then the funding source. So, if Marian County is paying for it, is it coming out of title money? Is it principal discretion? That kind of thing. So, if there's a way we could just maybe get that little chart as
summary just to understand that is a question that gets presented I know at least to me in the community and comes up and having the information to be able to articulate that would be helpful. Thank you all. Thank you Dr. James. Oh yes, Reverend Cummings. Thank you. Um
thank you to all of you that came out this morning. Um, the mentoring programs are vital to these kids being successful and each one of you have your own special uh group or niche or of kids that that you're reaching and I
appreciate that. Um, it makes a difference when these these young people know that they have somebody that they can reach out to. Um especially u as I heard a couple times when they hit those crisis moments and and the parents may not be there or the right people may not
be around them that they have someone else that they can they can touch. I I do I have a question. I have one question. This is for um Mr. Randolph. Um because I'm looking at this map. I don't see there to be great on this map.
Is there a reason why it's not on this map? Slide 23. And because that's one of ours that's one of the in-house ones. Yes, we'll add it. I'm not sure why it wasn't on the map. I thought y'all were shutting it down or something. I didn't
see it on there. Oh, no. Okay. Okay. We We'll make sure we add it to the map. And then I do want to Thank you. And I do want to also add this to um all of you that do reach out to different community uh partners to to help in um
doing the work that you do. Often times I know Dr. James just asked for a breakdown of of um of how how your programs are funded. But I also know behind the scenes that there's a lot of people that donate that contribute to help you make sure that these kids get
what you need. And I appreciate those community partners that do that that's not always out in the front that's sometimes behind the behind the screen that help make those funding um uh opportunities to your group. So I thank you guys for what you're doing and I thank you for u just making sure that we
we are reaching those kids that need to be reached. Thank you, Reverend Cummings, Dr. Campbell. Sure. I'm I'm down here. Don't mind me. I'm the mom of a of a graduate and I'm a little bit emotional right now because
I'm also trying to not be emotional as I as I sit here and think about mentorship. First of all, I'll say I too have been a Take Stock mentor the last two years and that's been an amazing opportunity for me and I'm super grateful for all the things that my student is doing and she's a sophomore
right now and she's going to be an amazing human. She already is. But I'm being emotional because I understand how important mentorship is. um because a student that my husband and I had the opportunity um to mentor as a as a college freshman
um actually was wrongfully arrested here in Marian County and um we got really involved with he and his mom whenever he was in jail and we had to figure out how to get him out and she was more than 3,000 miles away and um I'm just being reflective because I
understand how important we were able to pour into that young man while he was here in Ocala. and still have. And last night I watched him on the sidelines of um an NBA team because he started more than 20 games for a team that's right now in the Eastern Conference Finals.
And we're a part of that success story and he knows it. And so I'm I know how important mentorship is when you get paired with the right mentors and you get paired with people that care. And so thank you to all of you for all you're doing for all the different students that you're impacting. Thank you to
those of you who are paid for it and those of you who aren't because honestly uh it all comes from a part a place in your heart that you care about kids and uh as we all share in love for these kids who may either be away from home
for whatever reason but still have loving parents. So keep that in mind. Some kids may be in foster care but still have loving parents. Or some kids may be away from but still have loving family members that want to pour into them. They need someone else that's
apart from their family to be that extra support. And so um that's all I have to say. I just I I'm emotional right now for a lot of reasons and this has just sent me over the edge just thinking about last night and how amazing he looked on that sideline when I saw him
jump on the court after they won. And um yeah, thank you. Okay. Okay. Thank you. Um great presentations um all of you and and thank you. I had a question about funding um regarding the
Department of Juvenile Justice. And so I'm wondering what the size of the grant is and if it is recurring or if it's something you have to reapply for every year. I guess that's where I'll start.
Thanks for coming down, Kelly. So, are you asking the amount per fiscal year what they give us? Yes. So, our grant was a three-year grant and so it's built every year we've been added on money and we got renewal for the last three years. That renewal they cannot
expand any further. So we applied for another grant and it's 150,000 even that will that's each fiscal fiscal year we will receive 150,000 for the next three years. Okay. Because the other grant has
ended. Okay. So it's 150,000 um a year for the next three years that that you know you don't have to worry about. Yes ma'am. Okay. That is great because for sustainability um we know it takes time. We know it takes talent. We know it takes treasure
and you know where your treasure is coming from. Yes, ma'am. And that's wonderful. And that is the uh Department of Juvenile Justice, which I believe is supported by all of our tax dollars. And I can't think of any better way to spend some of my tax dollars than having them
go towards this program. So, um that's that's wonderful. And in my vein of thinking, when students are struggling, we're going to pay one way or another. And it would seem to make a lot
more sense to pay on the front end, you know, proactively in helping kids where they are and preventing them from getting engaged with the Department of Juvenile Justice. So your kids don't have to be already in the system to qualify for
your program. No. And if the numbers I gave, we've only had probably likeund and over a hundred kids actually have a record. Um anywhere from a misdemeanor I have taken kids with felony charges. We had a student at Surermy that we followed through. He's started playing football at the high school here and now
he's going off to play ball. So he did have a higher felony charge. I saw he was, you know, doing his probation. Um, so that told me he was going to pour into our program, too. So they can have those. It's case by case, but if I see they're doing their work, I'm not going to say no at all. And and the staff
knows that at schools that we will see those students. Right. Yes, ma'am. Right. Redemption is a thing. So I would like to share that um the 150 each year is for a certain amount. We we are very limited in how many kids we could see.
If we had more funding, we could see more kids. This our skip program is our program that we do have the juvenile justice kids in the program, but we could have more kids in our skip program because we could provide more mentors.
Our mentors are paid. Right. Okay. And your program is is created not by the Department of Juvenile Justice. That is correct. It is created by the Maring County Children's Alliance. a portion of it. It is now funded by the Department of Juvenile Justice for
$150,000 a year. If we had more funding through other sources, we could help more children. Right. You can it's you can take skip more places. Correct. I understand. Okay. Well, that that's I'm asking these questions because it's important for anyone that is trying to
serve kids and and trying to come up with the resources to serve kids. So, I am hopeful that the Department of Juvenile Justice and I'm sure they really recognize, you know, the your success and that of your program and
that there's other programs like them right here in Marian County, not the same, but that are doing great things. And I would like to see that umbrella go up and get bigger. We we we would too. And Kelly has built a very model program
in the state. They use our skip program on how to have successful mentoring programs in the state through the juvenile justice grant. Absolutely. Absolutely. It's just so commendable. And as I we all sat here today and
listened to the variations on the theme. Um it's all based on reaching kids and different ways of of doing that. Um different kids have have different needs. So I really appreciate that uh deeper information. Um, I worked a program called Check and Connect for
years and the the outcomes were incredible, you know. Um, and that was work that I took on in my position that I was doing at the time just because I was so convinced that it would work help
and help kids uh with with behavior issues. So, there's just a lot of ways to do this. Um, thank you for that. Um, as I sat here and listened to all of them, I was thinking, you know, we we are where we are, um, in society today.
Um, it seemed like there used to be more more naturally occurring mentors. You know, um, neighbors knew their neighbors, families lived close to each other, you know, the the the ripple of of friends and teachers and coaches. It
was a much tighter network. Um, you know, it's a lot easier to get around now than it used to be. So people disperse and there's really no substitute for a strong family unit. Um and these formal mentoring programs, you know, they're they're not substitutes or
replacements for strong family units, but you guys are volunteering to stand in the gap. I love how that was said, stand in the gap, because the gap is there. It's real. It's increasing. certainly from my observations over the
years and all of you are willing to put the right systems in place and take a strong role in supporting children. um you're meeting them where they are at least most of the time and it's at
school and it is this school board board's number one legislative priority to ensure that they are in school so that they can connect and they can access the systems um that every child really needs to have
those many windows of opportunity to be successful. Sounds simple, right? But but those of us that work it know that that it's not easy. Um so I just again want to say thank you for for sharing your time, your talent, your treasure,
sharing some uh post-program and school outcomes. Those metrics really are important. Um those there's only so many dollars to go around. Some of the return on investment is not quantifiable for years down the road till you get that
phone call from a kid that says, "Hey, I just want to let you know I'm doing great. I have my own this or I'm doing this." And that's when you know that you've really done something, you know, and and that can take years. So, so the investment and the seeds that you're
planting are critical. And in my mind, there's not one program that's any less important or critical than any other one because you all have that same mission, that same heart to serve kids and help make things better for them. So, thank
you. Thank you, board member Thrower. Um, and I I couldn't have said it better. Uh we all know the landscape of public education has changed drastically um you know in the last several years and the
needs of our students are great and many um and so this presentation this morning was an ask actually of this board because I think all of us um are involved in mentoring in some way shape or form and it is near and dear to our
heart. uh and we know that it improves the chances of success for all of our students. So, I'm just really grateful um for every single one of you and the work that you do. Um as I as I'm thinking about your presentations this
morning um and the ease in which you presented the work that you do. We know the reality of that work is not easy. It's daytoday keeping up with students and helping them through challenging times, filling that gap. Um, I couldn't
have said it better, board member Thrower, that the breakdown of the family unit and just having someone that a student is accountable for stepping into that space. So, I'm just very grateful for the work that you do. Um, Marian County Public Schools would not
look the same. we wouldn't have the same success uh without you um in that space. So, just want to thank you again for all that you've done. Thank you for taking your time today um to come and share your mission with us. And I'll just close with that. And madam chair, I got
one more thing. I got one more thing as I was just thinking and looking at some stuff. I I kept I've kept looking at that slide on on 23. that slide. Marian County is a huge county, extremely huge county, and one
mentoring program could not possibly cover the entire district. Um, so we need more. We need we need you guys to be able to expand and be do more because we know that you're hitting a certain amount of
kids, but we know that there's many more out there that also need someone to stand the gap for them as well. And when I looked at that, uh, I just thought about, um, and I heard, um, someone talk about cost. It is costly to deal with,
um, what you're doing. And I thank God for the ones that are able to volunteer, but I also know that we're in a time where where it costs to drive across a county that's the size of a state. I I get that. and to be able to pour into these people and these kids. And it's
it's not always um conducive to be able to have volunteers do all this. That's why you see the juvenile Department of Justice pouring in money. So, the cost to to mentor these kids. We appreciate it. We appreciate the the people that
that make donations that um go ab above and beyond to help. But um I rather I rather I rather invest in these kids early than later. Um I rather invest in them at a at a at a at a age or stage
where they can be me molded and shaped into something positive rather than um the other end where I worked before because you you gonna pay one way or the other. I rather make sure that I get a good return on my investment. I think you get a better ROI when you invest in
these young people through these mentoring programs in the early age than when they get to the prison system. So I I pray none of them get there and I think what you guys are doing are going to prevent many of them from never stepping foot in those places. So thank
you again. I really appreciate you guys. Thank you so much. Thank you Reverend Cummings for for sharing that. um because that's a note that I made um while you all were talking is is we're going to pay as a community one way or the other. But at this point, we have a
chance to make it an investment in our community, an investment to make Marian County better with the students success um you know that we set forth out into Marian County. And so thank you for sharing that because I had made a note of that also. Anything further from the
board? All right, with that we'll take public comment. Any public comment? Okay, thank you very much. Miss Harris, did you have something else you wanted to add? Okay, I would like that.
I think we're ready. If you don't mind, board, we would like a picture with all of our partners and also our district staff um that have provided this wonderful service to our district. Thank you for the request. I think that's a wonderful idea. Thank
you. But seriously, I'm just sitting here and I I'm like an emotional B. Encouraged his mother then to finish college and she just graduated. So she's now but he graduated. He's playing overseas and he's in the
Madison Square Garden watching the next play. And I was like, "Go help my Stacy." He's jumping up and down like the first one. Sorry. I'm I'm just looking to see if I can see
everyone's face. Just scoot just a little too. There you go. And the Boys and Girls Club. There you go. Boys and Girls Club. Yeah. Just make sure you look this way. Here we go. One, two, three. Couple more. My apologies. Big brothers, big
sisters. I said the other one. My apologies. Thank you. couple. Yay. What is going on with that? That is crazy. And the guy's emails. Oh, really?
Good plan. He's just so enjoy. Um, Dr. Are you good? Are you're leaving now? She's good. Okay. Or did you want to take a brief break before we um move into our next session? And that will give an opportunity for Dr. Brewer and
Dr. Gullet to switch places. So, thank you. Um, we'll rece um just take a brief recess for 10 minutes. Yep. Okay. Thank you. You were right. I'm sorry. Did you have to say about this? Good morning again. We are returning
from a brief recess at 10:34. Moving on to our next agenda item. Um, Miss Dr. Dr. Brewer, I will have you. We're glad to have you first of all this morning and then we'll let you introduce our next item. Thank you. Okay. in response to the Marjorie
Stolman Douglas um public safety act. Um the bill was passed by the Florida legislature on February 14th, 2018 after the shooting at Marjgery Stolman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida. Each school district it was required to implement a school-based mental health
assistance program. The legislation emphasized early detection response training and a comprehensive support for student mental health needs. Today we have Miss Ivet Del Nodal and Miss Amanda Stecman. They will present the plan in detail. Following their pre
presentation, they will be available to answer any questions you may have. Miss Thank you, Dr. Brewer. Good morning. Good morning again. Um we're excited to be here and continue the conversation about services and supports for our students. Um so this morning we'll be reviewing the Marian County Public
Schools comprehensive mental health plan. Each Florida district, as Dr. Dr. Brewer mentioned is required to develop and implement a mental health plan outlining the management and the utilization of the mental health assistance allocation funds that are provided by the state specifically to
address mental health needs of our students. This plan is routinely reviewed and assessed to ensure that we continue to improve upon and um to improve upon our current practices, adjust to meet our new needs um and challenges and to maximize the
impact of our services. Always ensuring that our main emphasis is to remain committed to our foundational goals that we set forth in the development of the initial plan in 2018. Miss Amanda Stecman joins me this morning to provide an overview of the MCPS mental health
plan framework and its related services. Miss Steckman serves as a mental health coordinator, which is a required component of the mental health plan as mandated by the state. Miss Steekman oversees the implementation of the mental health plan and the allocation of its resources. She has held this role
since 2020, giving her in-depth knowledge and familiarity with the components of the plan. At this time, I invite Miss Steman to provide additional information. Thank you. Good morning. Hello. Good morning. Um, as we stated before, the Marjory
Stoman Douglas High School Public Safety Act was enacted in 2018 to support school safety and student engagement in Florida schools. This law funds our safe schools requirements uh for physical school safety as well as the mental health and behavioral prevention and
intervention requirements of the mental health assistance allocation which is what we are reviewing today. This plan outlines uh five goals each meeting the requirements provided to us by the state. Goal number one provides and increases access to mental
health and behavioral services for our students. Goal number two provides those services utilizing a multi-tered system of support framework. Goal number three provides professional development to staff on how to identify and support students with mental health challenges.
Goal number four explains how we work with our community partners to connect students and families to mental health resources uh both within Marian County Public Schools and the community, which we actually saw an example of just uh a while ago. And then goal number five
engages our families by building relationships and assisting them with service navigation. So looking at our first goal, uh the Florida Department of Education requires the use of our mental health assistance allocation to fund additional school-based mental health
providers in order to reduce the studentto provider ratio and increase those direct mental health supports to students. We plan to fund one additional school counselor, five additional school psychologist and 10 additional school
social worker uh positions for the 2425 school year under this plan. So this is in addition to what we already fund through the general fund with the mental health allocation. We're adding to um those mental health personnel by reducing ratios for our
schoolbased mental health providers. These professionals will have more time to provide direct intervention and support to our students to address those mental health and behavioral concerns. Uh those size alike districts that uh we are comparing to include Lake, Manatee,
Sarasota, St. John's, and St. Lucy counties. Another way to provide access to students is to identify those youth who are in need of intervention and support. Uh we accomplish this at the elementary level by providing a behavior observation rating tool for teachers to
complete. This rating tool is used to measure externalizing behaviors. So for example, does the student have poor self-control and internalizing behaviors such as does the student worry often? Results are provided back to those school teams just within a few days uh
for further review. This is one one data point to be considered with other sources of information. Other sources may include office discipline referrals and also staff and parent input. At the secondary level, we depend on staff and parent referral to identify
students in need of further intervention. The behavior observation tool is then administered to the student to complete and provide additional information to that school team. At this time, we do not utilize the behavior observation tool as a universal screener at the secondary level due to it being a
student completed screening tool. However, you'll see uh secondary student data there on your screen for Fort McCoy Middle and Horizon Academy who are participating in a pilot program um actually for the past couple of years uh
utilizing the tool as a universal screening instrument. Meaning the students are able to take that rating scale and we are able to see based on self-report externalizing behaviors such as I have I have uh poor self-control and internalizing behavior such as I
worry often. So the student is actually reflecting on their own behaviors. Again here we see the results of these two pilot schools. And you'll notice as a self-report behavior screener, we have identified a high percentage of students to be considered
by those school teams. To support this, in addition to the school-based mental health providers at these schools, we have contracted mental health counselors through Ocala Consulting and Prevention, as well as additional coaching to these school-based teams to know how to offer
supports to those students who have been identified. School teams obtain staff and parent input by utilizing the multiddisciplinary team referral form as you see there. This provides additional key information to the school-based team for
consideration of further support and intervention for students. Again, this is information to be paired with the behavior observation tool results and also reviewed with other data sources. It is important for teams to look at multiple sources of data to make good decisions in regards to what supports
would need to be would be appropriate uh to put in place for students. School-based teams are also comprised of stakeholders from varying backgrounds to ensure all perspectives are considered. School-based team members include school administrators, school counselors,
school psychologists, school social workers, student services managers, and school resource officers. Our second goal is to pro provide mental health and behavioral supports utilizing a multi-tered system of support
approach. Tier one supports are provided at to all students in the classroom setting. These programs teach student resiliency skills and how to get along with others. Our continued focus for the upcoming school year is to increase the knowledge and skills to implement these
resources in the classrooms effectively. Tier 2 supports are provided to groups of students by the multiddisciplinary team members to meet the students identified needs. Interventions are matched to the areas of concern identified by the multi-disiplinary team
and they are also monitored to see whether or not those interventions are effective for the students receiving the additional instruction. Tier three supports are provided to students in which tier one and tier 2 supports have been unsuccessful for the student. Those
interventions are intensified and individualized to provide the highest level of care for those students. As we continue to see our student population grow, we have seen an increase in student need across our Marian County uh schools. The number of
students referred for assistance to our multid-disiplinary teams has increased by,464 referrals since the 2122 school year. So, we've seen an increase every year. Our teams are responding appropriately as we see an increase in
our student population, which leads to more students being identified for those services. New this year, we have requested school-based multiddisciplinary teams to obtain teacher feedback regarding internalizing and externalizing behaviors once the
student has been placed in an intervention. So before we talked about using data to determine what interventions would be most appropriate. Now we're going to talk about the data being utilized once they're placed in that intervention how successful that imple uh that intervention actually is
for that student. This information is important for the multi-disiplinary teams to consider because the goal is not only to teach the students the targeted skills within a small group setting but to also have the student generalize those skills into the classroom which why which is why
it's so important to have that teacher feedback. The teacher observation is a total of 12 questions. Um again we look at internalizing and externalizing. Um questions could uh be student seems to worry um or uh six questions that are
externalizing behavior questions such as student argues, threatens and/or fights with peers. This information is submitted to the team bi-weekly and grafted by our mental health division for teams to review at their at their meetings. In the upcoming slides, we
will begin reviewing the progress monitoring data that has been collected this school year as our initial year. Um, as we review this information, please keep in mind the teacher observation ratings had a total max score of 24 with a score of 24 being the
high highest level of concerning behavior. So with that in mind, the lower the score, the better the student was performing in the classroom. As our school teams received professional development and coaching on implementing the new progress monitoring measure, we saw an increase in the
number of students who were actually being progress monitored each month. Um starting with a slow start, as you'll see in the month of September with a total of 50 students being progress monitored. Um all the way up to March, you'll see 264 students um that were
being actively progress monitored. At this highest point, approximately 22% of the students were actively receiving interventions and being progress monitored. And we do recognize that that is a low number. Uh knowing that this is our first year that we've requested
teams to do this additional data collection, uh we will be actively working on coaching and support for teams for the next school year. As we begin looking for uh looking at the overall behavior rating trends, please keep in mind the number of students that were actively monitored
each month from the previous slide. At the elementary level, we saw more concern for externalizing behaviors with the highest average ratings peaking in November at the score of 13 out of 24 possible points. For internalizing
behaviors, the highest average ratings peaked in December at a score of five out of 24 possible points. At the middle school level, we had peak ratings for externalizing behaviors in the months of October and February with an average score of six
and peak ratings for internalizing behaviors once again in December with an average score of five. Finally, at the high school level, we saw peak ratings for externalizing behaviors in November and January with average scores of four and 3.5
respectively and peak ratings for internalizing behaviors in January with an average score of 3.4. Uh here we can look at overall trends at all grade levels. uh showing on average most students receiving interventions demonstrated externalizing
behaviors in the classroom during the month of November and demonstrated internalizing behaviors in the month of December. Reviewing these data trends districtwide will help our team with planning and providing resources to school teams that align with the
students current needs. As we review suicide assessment and threat assessment numbers historically, we can uh we can see an overall trend of the number of suicide assessments staying consistent across time. However, threat assessment numbers
have fluctuated within the last six years with the highest number of threat assessments completed this school year. Although the number of threat assessments have increased overall, um I received some additional information from Mr. Taylor. Um and he said approximately 80% of these assessments
are summarily closed by the school level chair. Uh to summarily close a threat, the case would be unfounded, determined as self harm only, or designated as a low-level threat that did not require the full team. Starting in 2018, the state has
required all staff employed by the school district to be trained in youth mental health first aid. This training provides information regarding early signs and symptoms of youth experiencing mental health challenges as well as those that are in crisis. Participants
learn to appropriately respond to these identified youth and how to refer students to professional mental health supports. In in 2022, an additional requirement for school districts was to annually verify that 80% of all elementary, middle, and high school
personnel have been trained in this youth mental health awareness certification. Marian County continues to lead the state in the number of employees meeting this requirement. I am very happy to report we are looking at 97% of our staff trained.
We attribute our success uh to the fact that we never stopped our training plan from when it first began in 2018. Um including our time of distance learning during COVID. At that time, we switched over to a state approved virtual platform to ensure employees continue to
have access to our nationally certified youth mental health first aid instructors so they can meet this requirement. As you can see, we are currently exceeding that 80% in um this school year with additional offerings still available to employees prior to
submitting our certification to the state. Marian County Public Schools works with public and state agencies to identify and problem solve barriers to students and families receiving mental health and behavioral support. Uh this has led to our continuum of school mental health service meetings. We meet
as a community team once every other month uh to provide updates on our current available resources and discuss trends in our respective agencies. This has led to many different benefits including the creation of a service navigation tool to assist families with navigating resources available both in
Maring County Public Schools and the community. In addition, local reviewed team meetings provide an opportunity for various agencies involved with the student and their family to communicate and work together to support that youth. These community collaborations are
imperative to the success that we see with our students. As we review our Baker Act data, is important to note this data is reflective of each Baker Act incident. Therefore, multiple incidents may be attributed to one student. As we review
this slide, you will notice an increase in the number of student Baker acts this school year. This data was actively reviewed by our district team early in the year, and a plan was developed to provide additional training and information to the school-based teams and the school resource officers. We
partnered with SMA Healthcare, our our county's Baker Act receiving facility to present information on the mobile response team, which can be utilized by schools for the purpose of deescalating students in crisis to pro and to provide input um to school resource officers
when they're determining if a student is making Baker Act, I'm sorry, is meeting Baker Act criteria. After collaborate after collaborating with SMA and sharing resources available to school teams, the usage of the mobile response team services increased countywide and we did
begin to see a decrease in those Baker Act numbers. So, as we reviewed um the data as a team, we addressed it um and we believe that schools were better prepared to handle students in crisis and that's why we saw that reduction at
that time. Moving on to our last slide uh or sorry our last goal which is family engagement. Schools work with families to assist with accessing mental health services and support uh for their children. We have multiple ways in which we provide information to families. Uh
for example, finding creative ways to connect parents and students in our mental health and wellness web page by creating posters as you can see on that slide. And we are currently working on updating that poster as our website did update um this school year. Um so with
that poster for example, parents are or students are able to uh scan the QR code and this would direct them uh to our mental health resources web page. Um we also participate in those family focus events that happen
quarterly. Um, we provide information directly to families in regards to how to access mental health resources here in Marian County Public Schools and what those resources look like for students. Uh, in addition to that, we offer uh Marian County Counseling
Services availability list. Uh, and this list is a community-based agency and service uh service list addressing uh mental health and behavioral needs in our community. I will add uh for the upcoming school year, this is not on the slide, but for the upcoming school year,
we are partnering uh with an agency called Brave. Um this is a service navigation uh partnership. We're able to refer students to Brave. um they are connecting with those families and once they connect with the families they are working with them um to look at their
insurance to see what services are available in the community and then from there um they're able to u determine what's most appropriate and the school gets direct feedback of when those families are engaging with those services which is really really great because a lot of times we provide the
information but we don't always know if the family completely engaged in those community um services. Our plan for the mental health assistance allocation is to continue what we've um done in previous years, and that's to support uh providing direct services to students by funding
school-based and contracted mental health providers. Therefore, 90% of the budget will be allocated to funding mental health staff, which includes 17 additional school-based mental health providers such as the school counselor, psychologists, and social workers. Um,
and then also four mental health staff, which provide district level support to implement the mental health allocation. And that is all I have. So, I'll turn it over if we have any comments or questions. Thank you, Mrs. Steman. board. I'll open it up for
conversation and questions. Anyone? Okay, Dr. Campbell. Thank you. I I think some of it is more commentary than less than questions, but thank you for going over the Baker Act data a bit
on slide 18. I believe there is a community conversation that might not be fully accurate about Baker Acts, but uh knowing that your one of the previous slides noted that we had 650 suicide assessments and 900 threat assessments
does dictate that there are students in crisis and from time to time it is absolutely necessary to save a life to have that student Baker acted. But I am grateful to hear you say that there's been additional training. So
this might not be a question you can answer. But how quickly does an SRO that is becoming an SRO and being assigned to a school get that training? Because I think that's the community misconception. They think that our
school teams are baker acting students when in actuality the law dictates that only a law enforcement officer can actually baker act a child. But if that SRO is on the campus and isn't sufficiently trained of the other
opportunities from a threat assessment standpoint and how they can deescalate the situation. My concern is that we might have SRO's on campuses that might not be as trained in that protocol as possible. You may or may not have an answer to that, but uh perhaps we can get an
answer from uh the sheriff's office and OPD and and just asking what their protocol is on ensuring that all the people they assign to our schools are trained in this in addition to all the other things they need to be trained in. I will say um we are in constant
communication with the SRO supervisors. We have a great partnership. um they sit on our district multi-disiplinary team um for example and so they're well aware of what this framework looks like included in our procedures uh when we complete a suicide risk assessment it's
a certified mental health provider that's completing that initial assessment and it's only when it's determined that it's a high-risisk situation is when the school resource officer is being involved and included in that in that conversation. Um that is very purposeful because we want to make
sure that we have the opportunity to deescalate before bringing in um someone with maybe a little bit more authority um that could escalate the situation un unintentionally. Right. Yeah. Thank you for that. the the concern I I continue
to have secondarily from that is what happens after the Baker Act and that's more of a I think there's a state funding issue that needs to be addressed in Tallahassee about who actually pays for that because if the if the students family does have insurance and they're
not like a Medicaid family or what have you there's a significant cost to that uh and people don't especially if for some reason that student then has to be transported by ambulance or depending on the severity of the
issue. That's a challenge for me knowing that if a student is in crisis, I I don't know that a family needs to incumber additional financial costs because they're going to have to encumber financial costs for the ongoing counseling potentially of that student.
So, that that's a that's a conversation I think that needs to be had at higher levels about what that looks like. Um the a couple of other comments I miss Delodall and I spoke not long ago about getting to some of the root causes of
some of these crises that students are experiencing and the lack of availability of counselors trained in certain types of counseling needs. I I think it's interesting that this ties in similarly to our mentoring
programs that we just talked about. We have students that are acting out aggressively in certain ways where in actuality if we got to the root cause of what actually happened to that child at whatever trauma event or multiple trauma events that have occurred in their lives
some of those counseling resources there is a lack of folks that are sufficiently trained in that I don't know how we solve that. I don't know how we fully address it as a district who's dealing with the external of what the student is
doing versus how we can actually help them recover and heal and become whole again from whatever has occurred for them. Again, just kind of commentary if you have feedback on that I am certainly open to it. I mean, I would say it's a
two-part. So, one is identifying identifying early that this child has a need that needs to be addressed. Um, and that's part of what that multid-disciplinary team framework is, is to identify those students early on. The second part is resources. Do we have the resources to be able to meet the
needs of all of our students? And that's why I am so excited about that brave partnership because that opens the doors to so many more resources that we did not have access to previously. Okay, awesome. And my last comment, I promise this is it board. Uh, I appreciate the poster. I think that was kind of
something that came out of a conversation we had in a meeting like this. I I appreciate that. I just went to your website to see I I recently had a presentation with the Florida Public Relations Association talking about Gen Z and what they're going to look like in the workforce and how value how much
value they put on mental health resources. And so I I appreciate the poster and the idea. When I went to the website, I'm I'm curious if we might want to change the tone of some of the language and actually talk about it from a more of a we're here for you as
opposed to the third person students receive this. And so if our target audience of a poster is to get a student to actually get the information, if we're not talking to them like a person, but talking to them in third person or
our employees talking to talking about them in third person, I think there's just a tonality thing that could be adjusted in some of that communication. I think the more that we flip the script on how we're actually addressing this to make them feel we are here for you. this
is all it, you know, let us help you kind of approach. I I think that it normally you don't want to use you because you're trying to call them out, but in this scenario, I think they want to feel heard and they want to feel appreciated. They we we want to feel heard. We want to feel appreciated and
understand that the district does have their mental health issues at the forefront of what we care about. So, those are all my comments. Thank you. All right. Thank you, Dr. Campbell. Anyone else? All right, board member Thor.
Thank you. Um, thank you for the great and and in-depth presentation. It's it's such a shift, you know, u mental mental health and emotional issues. we're always buried, you know, people continue to be a
little reluctant, you know, to share. But, but I see that shift and that changing. And as uh board member Campbell alluded to and and as we have every single one of our schoolboard meetings, I know you guys tune in, our student school board member
representatives, basically every meeting talk about the need and and the desire for mental health resources. I believe we're working on something with maybe MTC uh a pipeline
for getting to a point where we have more trained, compassionate folks available that understand mental health services in a school setting, including avoiding Baker Acts because it's very nuanced. Um some
parents are like, "Please Baker Act my child. we're at the end of our ropes. And others are like, if you would if we can document it that I get called first because I can deescalate, you know, this kid and he already is in counseling, you
know, but it you have to be able to take care of the situation while it's occurring on a school campus. There's a sense of urgency obviously. Um, so there's just a lot in this. I look forward to continuing to do what we've been doing with pipelines for for
paras and and teachers and and reducing costs and and having those partnerships where we can really look and I think it'll be well supported uh by by students in the first person and that they'll even think about there's a little bit of interest now from our
young people about coming back coming into the field of teaching and I think it's that compassion that that they have um for the for each um and they want to be part of the solution. So, I would certainly look forward to any presentation that we can
find a way to support um to bring more mental health professionals on board. Um just a quick glance at our vacancies, I think for social workers and that was just at a quick glance. Um so, you know, private
practice is probably more lucrative. So, yes, hopefully those won't be there for long because we we've got several applicants already, but it is um we um are always um looking for u mental health professionals. We do have a lot of them that once they get
licensed, find other opportunities. There's so much out there now um that there's a lot of interest for folks to finding other things to do and private practice is one of them as well. Um but we have some amazing folks that work for us right now. Um, I'm excited that we always have new applicants. I'm also
very excited that we get to partner with our universities and talk to our students. So, we're always invited to sit on um the new student panels, uh, interview panels for UF when we're looking at the school's psychology program. Um, we're starting to have some of those conversations with other university programs for social work as
well, so that we encourage more people. Every time I hear one of the students and they're up there talking about mental health, I'm like, "Come talk to me. I'll tell you what a great uh job I can get you um when you when you're ready to go into college and look for your further degree. So yes. Yes. And I'm thinking and is this accurate that
we are now um paying for the internships for for school psychology? Yes. So our school psychology internships are a whole year long internship. Um and so our for the past maybe three years I think now three or four years um we've had paid internships for them. Okay.
Great. because I know that that really has helped a lot with other uh fields as well and and it also truly gives them a chance to see what they're getting into, you know, and and what they're getting into is something obviously awesome and amazing. You know, we think so, but
forewarned is forearmmed, right? We have a great partnership with our local universities. So, we accept students that are doing practicum hours. Um, and then it's been kind of the trend that they do practicum and they always come back and interview for internship as
well. Um, and over the past several years we've also hired many of those interns and so we kind of start to foster that interest in Marian County and they usually want to stay or come back. Great. Thank you. Thank you, board member Thrower. I just
have what first thank you um both of you uh for your passion and for helping our students and I just have a few clarifying questions. So um the assessment tool that's done it is the Basque 3. Did I say that correctly? Is that's what it is and it is it an
upgraded version of the BES tool or it's a separate tool? It's just a new addition. It's a new addition. Okay. And it's administered to every student? Every elementary student. Every elementary student. Okay. Um, and once we collect that, I'm sorry, that's for
elementary. It's a teacher observations tool tool. So, it's not administered to the student themselves at the elementary level. It's the teacher that's completing the observation for every student. Yes, ma'am. I I'm familiar with that. I just I I didn't realize it was just for elementary, which is wondering
I was wondering why it was only piloted for two middle schools. So, we don't have an overall screener that we use in middle school. not a universal one, but in middle school once they're referred to the MDT, then the students do go ahead and take that assessment.
I would be interested in further discussion um on a screener for our middle school since we see that is our highest rate of incidences in discipline and um uh with mental health challenges. Um
at least that looks like what the data is presenting to me. So, I would be interested in um what that looks like, you know, um making it available to our to our middle schoolers and our high schoolers. Um can parents still opt out of that
program? Okay. Can we work on that? Like legally it I mean because here I'm just going to be honest. I'm I'm going to be really honest as a teacher doing an observation. the observation that I
probably need to do the most and record would be the one that would opt out. So, you know, we give all of our state assessments to every single student. How come we cannot give the screener to every single student? You want uh so this actually comes back to
the parent bill of rights. So when we talk about um providing mental health screening instruments um both for teachers and students, we are limited in how we're able to administer that. Um we need for example and you had mentioned
um at the secondary level, why aren't we giving it to all students, middle and high? Um based off of the way that the law is written right now is that we would have to have opt-in consent from all of our parents at that point. um which as you could imagine that would be
a tremendous um ask. So there's many different reasons and I would love to engage in another conversation about it. Um we have talked about it um but at this time there's a lot of barriers that would prohibit us from administering it districtwide uh middle and high. Okay.
However, I would add to that to say we haven't had many instances of parents opting out. Um, and even when we're talking about interventions that we recommend at the secondary level, um, we haven't had many instances of parents opting out either. And whenever we do have a parent that's kind of reluctant,
we bring them in. We have a conversation with them. We'll share materials, show them this is what we're, you know, what we're planning to do with your student. This is what the intent is, what the purpose is. Um, and then we've been successful in those conversations thus far. Very good. And then does that data
um I don't mean is it documented and does it move forward with them as they go to middle school and high school as as a potential early indicator. Okay. Amanda's shaking her head. Yes. Yes. I was Was it the opt out or the
best? The best. Yes. Yes. Okay. All right. Hold on one second. I gota put my glass back on. Um uh um I want to thank also Dr. Campbell for bringing um awareness about the Baker Act that that is the SRO is called and I
think also there is a lot of community conversation about that and a lot of misconception um about that. So I just um thank you for that. And then my last question is um the challenges for funding for family engagement. And so
can you touch on that at all or share with us um you know we had this I feel like kind of a peak you know there was a lot of um awareness brought and now we're facing funding challenges and so what does that look like for your particular department and for our
students? Uh I mean we um are doing pretty well. I think we make the we make the best out of everything that we have. Um I think currently we have a really good and strong plan. Um and from the data that we've seen, we have been able to meet um
all of the needs that we've identified. Um for that parent engagement piece um I know several years ago we were very excited about some community partnerships with some activities that were happening. Um and we've seen kind of a decline in those as well, but we're seeking out more of those um
opportunities. Um with our family focus events, we're able to reach some parents. We really want to be able to collaborate with some other agencies in the community that have maybe some larger events where we can come and provide some information about our services. Um and also just provide some overall awareness. Um I know with our
youth mental health first aid, that was another goal that we had was to be able to provide um those courses to parents who wanted to come in. Um, and so we're just trying to get that word out there so that we can have some interest and we'd be able to do that. And most of the time our staff is amazing and they
volunteer to do that. Um, or we're able to find funding for them to be able to do those classes to give those classes. All right. Thank you both um for your work in this area and and for your passion to meet the needs of our our students and their families. Board, is there any anything else you'd like to
add? Okay. Thank you, ladies. So, with that, is there any public comment? Okay, seeing none, we'll go on to our next item. Um, Dr. Brewer, uh, would you like to introduce our next topic, central office
staffing plan? Yes, ma'am. Um, Miss Moran is walking up, but I want to say a few things. Um, as over the last several weeks, I have led the effort of restructuring our central office um to better align with the goals of of our strategic plan while also addressing the
challenges posed by a reduction in revenue. This revised plan is designed to ensure we maintain our focus on student achievement and operational efficiency even in the times of financial constraints. This morning, Miss Morant will present the details of
the plan following her presentation. Mr. White House, Miss Usher, and I will be available to answer any questions you may have. Um, before she begins, I would like her to provide you all an update on the exciting MCPS career hiring fair
that took place last weekend. So, Miss Mar, will you share some details? Yes. Thank you, and good morning, Dr. Brewer, Chair Conrad, and board members. Um, as mentioned, this past Saturday, under the leadership of our talent management director, Dr. Dr. Nisa Brockington and
the awesome planning and execution from our recruitment coordinator, Mrs. Tanya Nun. We had another successful MCPS career fair at the College of Central Florida. We welcomed more than 150 um potential candidates and signed 11
conditional instructional contracts on the spot on Saturday with several more pending. In addition, several schools offered non-instructional positions to candidates in attendance with scheduled interviews or follow-ups for others. There were 31 schools and four
departments represented and ready to greet and welcome potential members to the MCPS team. And I must give a special thank you to our future educator academy from Vanguard High School and members of our family focused team that both assisted at the fair as well as district
leadership that attended and support. Through the tireless efforts and great relationship building, Mrs. Nun forged numerous partnerships within the community that provided inind sponsorships and donations to help make our career fair a success. They include
the College of Central Florida, Career Source, Citrus, Levy, Marian County, ESS, Lamar Billboards, Grand Canyon University, the Public Edition, Frost and Beam LLC, and Truly Nolan. Truly Nolan is a new partnership
that purchased the t-shirts for all of our HR team. And we've also given a t-shirt to each of the board members. And you'll see the front of the shirt says, "It starts and ends with students." This is the focus and daily reminder of our HR team and the driving
force behind every endeavor and decision that we make. We are excited about the next two career fairs being held on Thursday, June 19th and Thursday, June 17th from 3:00 to 5:00 p.m. at the College of Central Florida. We invite each of you to stop by and see the great
things that are taking place. And of course, be sure to wear your t-shirts. So I thank you for the opportunity to share the awesome work that is happening in HR as we strive to get the right staff in the right positions to ensure that every student succeeds and every
child is a graduate. Any questions there before moving on to the central office staffing plan? I just want to share with you real quick board. I I'm anticipating this to be a robust conversation. So it it I just want to say we'll plan to
break around 12 if needed. So I just to share with you kind of what what we're looking at. So thank you Miss Morant. Sounds good. Thank you. So as shared by Dr. Brewer, um the staffing plan focuses on aligning our strategic goals and of
course we know Dr. Brewer's focus for 2526 is every child a graduate. And these proposed changes are with this goal in mind while also being mindful of our current budget challenges. So, as you shared, Chair Conrad, this will likely be a robust conversation because
there are quite a few um changes um to help us implement the the goals that we have in mind. But I will just touch base on a few of the highlevel proposed changes to the central office staffing plan which include the addition of a CFO for succession planning until August
31st, 2025 which is Mrs. Boston Ellis, Miss Boston Ellis's last day because of her upcoming and welldeserved and most definitely earned retirement. Also, we are moving back to the feeder pattern model model, reducing um from four
principal supervisors to three area superintendent, each representing our regional geographical areas. We've decreased the number of senior executive directors and executive directors with an overall decrease of five administrative positions. Please note,
as shared with board members on Tuesday afternoon, that we inadvertently omitted adding the new coordinator of ESC to the front summary sheet. However, it is listed correctly on page nine in the ESC section. Fourth, we've removed the
emergency management coordinator from safe schools and added a crisis response coordinator to public relations to support the rapid growth and required planning. A planning manager has been added to the operations team. To aid in the work of our student discipline
department, we've added a student discipline director. Also of note in this section, you'll notice that the past teachers and behavior tech have been removed from the central office staffing plan. And these positions have been moved to the NTI alternative learning school staffing plan.
Educational diagnosticians and attendance specialist positions will be cut through attrition which is also notated. And as a recommendation from our RSM audit and the review committee, we're adding a purchasing specialist that will be assigned to um solely to
projects in the facilities department as well as a contract manager. The estimated total cost of the proposed 2025 2026 central office staffing plan, including fringe and benefits, is $99 million. This includes $84 million from
general funds, which is an $8.2 $2 million increase over the 2425 um approved budget and the remainder of the various sources are grants such as idea B title one etc. This plan represents an overall decrease of 18
positions and I turn it back over to you Dr. Brewer and I know you've set up for any questions or concerns or further conversation. Thank you Miss Mar. Okay, great board. I'll open it up for discussion. Since money was just mentioned, what was the
cost of the central office staffing plan yesterday? Last year last year. Was the if it's a decrease in positions, I'm assuming it's a decrease in budget, but I didn't. You just said 8.2 million increase. So, for just general funding, it was approximately $76 million.
So, I'm um I heard what you said, but I I think I what I thought you said was talking about the type of budget it comes from, which is general fund. Okay. So, you said the total budget is $99 million. That includes all funds, correct? So, what is the total budget this year for the central office
staffing plan? I mean, last year. Oh, what was it with for all funds? I just have general for 2425 $90 million. Okay. So I I would like to just add a a point of clarification here. Miss Bosanellis,
you can nod or correct me if need be. But when we approve when we come to this moment and we approve the budget and we provide the amount during that year, we have different additions, we add different positions that when we give that amount. So this amount and the
difference is where we're at this point and then where we're starting. So there have been positions that have been added to the staffing plan between this time last year and now. Yes. So my question is probably the question on a lot of
people's minds. How are we less 18 positions and more $9 million? Because I think that's the math I just heard. Correct me if I'm wrong. So, we're less 18 positions and more 199
million and we cut like six executive positions. So, I'm just wondering the math doesn't math for me. And so, I'd love for the person who math maths for to tell me. Thank you.
It's still morning. Good morning. Morning. Good morning. Um that is the challenge that we um face every year when units are added or staff are added throughout the year. Um we don't
take that into consideration from budgeting perspective. We start with what you approved September that is our adopted budget. So when we're comparing what the cost change is, we're looking at what
you approved and what is in the preliminary budget. So an example is there were 54 units added during the year um to the staffing plan for general
fund, but we count those as new units if that answers your question. So how much did the 54 cost? I guess that would answer my question. Um, I don't think we have that. But when I asked the question
about why is there a difference, Thomas provided that there were 54 units that were added during the year. For the most part, it was in the schools. I would We're not talking about the schools right now. No, but we were
we were talking about the total costs and Oh, I see what you're saying. I don't I don't have that information. I understand. So, let me reframe because I want to make sure I'm clear. What I understand is that we were told that the projected cost of this staffing plan that's before us right now is $99
million. Correct. All in. Correct. And at this point last year, this plan looked different, but same plan cost $90 million. So, in this moment, it was $90 million last year. Um it was 90 million
when you approved correct the adopted budget. So it wasn't this time last year. The adopted budget that you approved in September. The staffing plan the sta the central office staffing plan we approved when we approved it cost $90
million. Correct. In September. Yes. Okay. So we didn't lose 54 units. We didn't add 54 units to the central office staffing plan. No. But I was just giving you an example of what happens during the year. I totally hear that. We
had teachers here and this here, but to me, and this is the narrative that I hear all of the time. And in this room, we can all disagree with the narrative, but these numbers don't paint a picture of disagreement with the narrative.
Those hold those positions we added to schools touch students. They are class size, so we add a unit. They are um we hit a threshold of 1,201 and so you get an AP, right? And so those are
positions that are facing a student, impacting a student every day and a student is generating FTE funding at that school. So it's easier to defend adding a unit to a school because that unit is then directly impacting student achievement. The
barrier I'm having in this moment is this plan cut 18 positions net and cost $9 million more. So what changed from September to this till yesterday and the central offing staffing plan that took
the number from 90 million to what? That's what I'm looking to that's what I'm how much did the central office staffing plan cost as of yesterday? I guess that's the question I'm really asking like what is it truly a $9 million increase or did we add 17 positions to central office
staffing plan over the last nine months and so it didn't really cost 90 million it cost 98 million. Do you know what I'm trying to get at? But when when you're asking for the costs we're using what was budgeted.
That is our point of reference. So this is what you approved. Um I don't think it's feasible to chase every time there is an adjustment to the budget to redo
um what the budget cost is at that time. Well, what's the net positive positions or net negative positions we added as of yesterday to the central office staffing plan? How many positions did we add to central office staffing plan from September until yesterday? Let me see if we have
that. I'm trying to make it not look as bad if I'm being honest. Like this looks really It looks bad. So I'm trying to defend the position because I understand that everything that's on here is necessary. So I'm trying to understand
what was added after September to to date office. So, we don't I don't have the exact numbers, but I I'll kind of try to break this down as simply as I can. Um, so when we're looking at adopted budget, even though you guys approve units in the central office
staffing plan, when we go to balance the budget, um, some of those units that are in the central office staffing plan, we will unfund or say we're like not going to hire x number of positions. So, we don't have to allocate those units. So
in the approved budget, even though the central office staffing plan comes with 400, this is just an example. I'm not sure how many units are there, 400. In order to balance the budget for the approved budget number, we'll say 50 of those we are going to unfund so we can
save x million of dollars in our budget. And so that is the big jump from the adopted budget to the central office staff right now because we're not looking at the cost of the central office staffing plan that was approved this time last year. We're looking at
what was actually budgeted in appropriations and the revenue and the number of units there. Does that make sense? It does make sense. I don't think it helps the conversation narrative because my my and I'll be done and I'll let Dr. Campbell go. My this is my concern then. The number that I'd be
looking for to be told today is how much did the central office staffing plan cost last last summer, last May when it came to the board because that's not 90 million. 90 million was what it cost in September when we froze however many units. So, it's not helpful because
we're comparing apples to oranges right now because we you may very well say we're going to go ahead and every we have 50 units that are going to be frozen and they're unfilled and all of that and then we're not going to spend 99 million. We're going to spend 90 million again and we'll have cut$ 18 million which is probably actually a net
negative when we taken raises and increased cost of insurance. But for today's narrative, that doesn't help this. Do you get what I'm trying to say? I understand what you're saying. We just when we pulled the numbers, we didn't pull based on the central office staffing plan because we don't have those in the budget. We have what we
budgeted, right? But in the conversation that occurred a year ago, we had to have asked how much the plan cost. And there's got to be somewhere where in this conversation a year ago, there was a number said for how much the the central office staffing plan was going to cost. And that's the number that I
was looking for. So, I will take a break after that. Dr. Campbell, thank you for waiting patiently. No, I I think I can clarify. So I the purpose of me trying to interject was to give an example. We approved a budget in September. I just happened to pull a a date of November
12th, 2024, which would have been after we approved the budget. And we increased during that board meeting in consent the central office staffing plan plus one. That happens multiple times throughout the budget year, of course. So that's
how we get from a budgeted amount to the amount we're talking about today. And whereas it looks like we're cutting 18 positions, the actual cost is greater than because of all that we added throughout the year. And that's what
makes the discrepancy and the difference. I would find it hard to believe that we added $9 million in positions from September to date. Okay. I'll have to look at each individual board meeting. This particular this particular one was a transportation mapping pro processor on that particular
day. Don't know how much that person was, but I I do believe that just about, you know, every month we're making a change to the positive to the central office staffing plan. We aren't cutting positions throughout the year. I mean,
that that's not something we do. We've added principles on assignment throughout the year that we didn't have budgeted when we had to make a principal move or I understand how and and absolutely we'll think about the cost of what that looks like. I I mean one principal on assignment is a six figure
plus amount then plus plus and and so that's just another one example but this please tell us what we can afford Miss Boston Ellis because that's where we need to go today. because we are in the throws of trying
to balance the budget still. Um I don't have an answer for you for that. But again, I just want to reiterate when we're talking about budgeting, what what we start with is the adopted budget from the prior year. I think you are correct.
It is not apples to apples. But when we are asked to provide the budget, we're going to say this is what you approved in the beginning and here is the proposed budget and here are the changes. So regardless if you're if we
are adding, if we're subtracting, people go come and go during the year. When we balance the budget, we're looking at an example would be transportation. uh we look at how many people they
actually hire and if it is I'm just saying 246 we will unfund 10 of those requests or whatever their total request is because we know that they will come and go and they've never reached that total
dollar amount. There are other positions that are unfunded when we go back to try to balance the budget. you will there will be positions again as as what Kayla was saying we'll go back and say okay uh
a diesel mechanic they're having a struggle right now just filling those positions so we'll unfund four of those knowing that if they get to the point where they need to add we will add those back. So from a budgeting perspective,
the numbers that we have provided to um to Miss Morant are correct. Now if you want us to go back and calculate what it was when you approved the staffing plan, we can do that. Well, I'm not even c I I'm feel confident the number was asked.
The board asks every year, how much does this cost? So in this meeting a year ago, I feel confident that a number was said for how much it was going to cost. And that's all I'm looking to compare. They share that because I I mean that's always a question we ask. So it's always
presented and I totally what you are saying is correct that this is how much it's going to cost right now. I totally appreciate that. I just the apple to orange comparison makes it look not great. But I also don't know what else we cut from here other
than cutting actual people. Um, I mean, I can tell you there were 45 that we unfunded. It was two account clerks, two assistant uh, site managers at MAPS, eight
behavior techs, one benefit clerk. So, what I'm telling you is we can reconcile the numbers that you approve versus what the preliminary numbers are. I can give you a list of those. I can provide that to you. But as far as um the number that
you uh did from last year for the staffing plan, we would have to go back and calculate that because that is a moving target. So the day you approve it, the next day they're making changes. I get and I'm not expecting time to be wasted on that. I think it was probably
mentioned in the work session. I can go back and re-watch that section of the work session that day as well. Miss Morant always says how much it's going to cost in every single time it's discussed. So, but between the time she tells you to the time that you actually approve, you've got to realize that there are even changes. What I'm hung up
on is understanding how much did you say it was going to cost this moment last year because right now it looks like a huge disparity, but it probably isn't a huge disparity because last year you probably said it was going to cost, I don't know, somewhere between 90 and
hundred million and then we cut stuff and then it got down to 90. So, for the purposes of today's conversation, if the if the budget uh if the proposed staffing plan a year ago was going to project it to be 95 million and now it's 99 million, well, all of the rate all of
the raises went up. All so that tracks a little bit better than a $9 million discrepancy, which is the the point I'm trying to make. But I got I I can find it in the work session. We can find it. You don't need to do the math on it. Please do not waste the time doing the math on it. you have way far too much to
do for me to have you do that. And I would assert too even the 99 million is going to go down if that's the point you're trying to make because we have not balanced the budget yet. Oh, I know it's going to go down. I And a lot of times what we do is unfund the position
in terms of balancing the budget. And if we see that fund balance comes in higher, we can add back additional units. But again, that is a very fluid process. Um, and we would basically have to recalculate it every day. But like I
said, we can go back, take the staffing plan that she brought to you on that day and calculate what it what it cost. I I do not want you to do that. I feel very confident it was said in the work session and I'm going to go find it. All right. Thank you, Dr. James. Thank
you, Miss Boston Ellis. Miss Thrower. Oh, Dr. Campbell. Thank you. So what I appreciate that has to be acknowledged is that at during budget approval process in September, we approved a central office staffing plan at $90
million because while we approved this at one point through the balancing of the budget process, you removed positions because we had a freeze on them or Dr. Gollet recommended let's unfund that because we can't do
that right now. But ultimately then what happens throughout the year is because when the board approved the central office staffing plan that position shows as it being funded throughout the year anybody can
go back to that and say but the board approved the central office staffing plan and this position is there. So then you have to find the funding, and I'm I'm using that term lightly, but you have to then find the funding because essentially we did already approve the central office staffing plan that all of those positions were supposed to be
funded, but in actuality, we didn't have the funding to fund it. And so that's how we wound up with the 90 million versus today the central office staffing plan saying 99 million because of the 45 positions that you unfunded. But what we
have to determine today, and we have to start determining if we're going to be a board that has hard conversations like every other board in the state has been having. I did hear the comment of getting rid of people. No, it's getting rid of positions. And we do have a lot
of positions in this district that other districts are having those hard conversations. You can see any newspaper article you want about any other district. They're being very transparent about what has to happen so they can balance their budget. In Marian County
Public Schools, we don't have those tough conversations. We continue to put this out and basically have the mindset and I'll use the phrase culturally embedded dysfunction to believe that once you become a Marian County Public Schools employee, you get to be here.
We're going to find a spot for you. You're just you're a part of us. And I appreciate that. I love the culture of what that family environment says, but we are running a $ 1.3 billion dollar business that is the largest employer in
Marian County. And our community expects expects us to have hard conversations about do we really need this many positions. I'm not talking about people because when we attach a person to the position, it becomes emotional. We have to have very hard
conversations. Do we really need this many positions in Marian County public schools? And I can make the recommendation right now or we can wait for Dr. Brewer to make it because she and I have had this conversation. board. I believe that even though on
January 14th of this year, we approved the school staffing plan, I believe we need to reopen it because the way the budget looks right now and what the conversations are, all these dollars coming out of the general fund, that hit
from family empowerment scholarships, we weren't planning for. We thought it was coming, but not quite to the extent that it did. and what the state is right now not even balancing their own budget. I mean, we still don't know what this really looks like. And if we don't have
hard conversations, we're going to be up the creek and our community is not excited to think that we are not doing what we need to do to keep our fiscal house in order.
Thank you, Dr. Campbell. I'm going to hop in here um because I feel like um my questions um and my ask falls in line with that. And Miss Boston Ellis, one of the things I'd like to see um just because it's it's the way my brain works is I would
like to see um the cost beside each position. So I can look at this and see what is what is each department costing us. And I think the same, in my opinion, is going to
have to happen at the school level. We have to know um in each department how much we're spending. Um, and then the other thing I'd like to know that goes along with that is is again we we have this great and wonderful family
atmosphere here at MCPS, but I need to know we've got um positions where the pay is frozen. Uh position where the pay is we're going to keep you at this pay for a year. I when
we look at these the salaries, I want to know who's on a frozen pay scale, who's on a one-year um adjusted pay scale. Um and then I want to know what the reason is. Why are some people
um you know, if they change positions, why do they get to keep that pay for six or seven years, however long it's been? And then we have people that are moved and they get one year um to keep the salary if it was greater. Uh I just think I need more clarity uh and what
we're spending um in each department and um I know that that's a big ask but I think we have a big job ahead of us and I think it will help the community conversation to understand
um what our challenge is chair Yes. So just for to clarify what you're asking is basically the detail of the budget by facility. So whether it's a school or whether it's a department and
are you talking about it um the original budget for 2425 or are you talking about the preliminary budget for 2526 the preliminary? The preliminary budget. Okay. And then when you when you mentioned
frozen um you are absolutely correct. There are positions that are frozen uh depending on the time uh that there's a change and that has been the the way the district has operated. Also, there are
positions. An example would be secretaries by no fault of their own when their their boss has been moved to another position, those positions are frozen as well. And I'm assuming that that's what you're talking about. I am.
And so as I as I think um as I as I envision where this conversation is going and the hard conversations that are happening, although we're not talking, we're hopefully not talking about losing people and losing
positions. I am much more in favor in getting the positions that we do have on the pay scale that they're supposed to have so we can keep other positions. And so I'm just thinking longitudinally, you know, how um we can be the most
conservative um for our staff. Yes, Dr. Cample wanted to say something. Thank you. Uh I I I appreciate the ask chair for sure uh what what is being asked for. I believe some of that hard work has been
done already of going department by department and cutting all the fringe and the extra things that the paper reams or or whatever like getting the budget itself to as bare bones as possible department by department. I see head nods from people in the audience.
It's people we know that our and positions excuse me positions. We know that our largest budget allocation 80 80% of the budget or so every year is salary and benefits on
positions. Even if right now we cut a hundred positions, we have 200 plus teacher vacancies. Every one of them could go in the classroom tomorrow. And we would we would potentially welcome that. if they've never had a teacher certification, we
can get you temporarily certified for seven years. So, we have spots for people. We don't have enough money to fund the positions that we have right now. And I this is where the last thing I'll talk about school staffing because
we're not officially opening it yet until we have consensus to do that. But I was the board member that requested the information from Miss Morant yesterday because this board had really good conversations about wanting to ensure that we had enough school counselors in our schools to meet the
mental health needs. Again, all these conversations are tying together, but we wanted to make sure our schools had enough school counselors to meet the mental health needs of our students. And you all received the chart last night that showed the 16 schools that would
have gotten that extra school counselor made 17 unit exchanges because we made a decision. We wanted them to have school counselors and they were like, "Nope, they're giving us an extra person. We want somebody else." That's a decision they'll easily be able to make when we're in sightbased budgeting.
But when we're making decisions based on ratios and based on we need to have x number of people for x number, those are decisions we need to stop making because it's causing us to have a budget that we can't fund. And and that's where I know Miss Boston Ellis and I have had a
couple of conversations. I know that other departments and we've seen emails that we're we're going to uh approve these positions, but then we're having a hiring freeze on anything that's open. We're we're going department by department to do 20% cuts. That's work honestly that the team has already done
and I know that they're a different team than we have currently in place. But all the work that's been happening since the fall that this a couple of these folks have been doing budget books and the rooms and all that all that hard work has already been done. So kind of we don't need to reinvent the wheel. We we
need to go back and see all the hard work, all the positions they're already considering being cut and talk about what that looked like because that got us closer to a balanced budget than we are today. Thank you board member Thor. Thank you. And you know this is uh deep
heavy and expected because Miss Boston Ellis you have shared with us for years that it's all about recurring costs and when you continue to budget recurring costs with no recurring
funding assurance and then you get a gigantic infusion of $150 million or whatever it was for ESSER which reminds me of the gigantic infusion we got years ago. go from ARA after we laid off all of our first and second year teachers. Um it's
a terrible cycle that just seems to continue to happen. On top of that, we have a lot of uncertainty right now. Um, we are probably one of the most highly audited agencies of of any
and yet we're not sure how decisions at the federal level are going to affect us and and how those decisions may cost us or not. Um, we have a state level squabble
uh ongoing which is preventing us from doing much of anything except ringing our hands and like when are we going to know what our budget is because all of this is projection and conjecture until
we know what we have coming in. Thank God for George Albbright, our tax collector, because he at least communicates right on time, and gives us the reassurance or the warning, you know, that uh property taxes seem to be rolling in at a at a good rate, so we'll
be able to to count on that. We have a funding referendum that this community has been incredibly generous and also really realistic. They have acknowledged that for what we are tasked to do to
publicly educate children, we don't get to raise our prices. All we can do is ask the community to continue to give, which includes every single one of us sitting up here. And I always like to say that because the taxpayers, well, the taxpayers are telling us this and
the taxpayers are telling us that. Well, hello. We're taxpayers, too. every decision that we make, everything that we vote for, now we have to pay it. So, I have a question and I know we are
really monitoring our enrollment because that's our FTE and and that's how we get money and I have news for the public. Um, when a student is identified with special needs, the extra extra money that that generates doesn't come close
to paying for the services that they need, especially if they're a very involved child. Uh, one assistive technology device for a student that is non-verbal, I mean, a few years ago it was over $20,000, so I'm sure it's a lot
more than that now. So that extra money in the matrix uh doesn't come close to covering the need or uh the skill level of the teacher that's needed to truly be able to help move that child. Um that takes a lot of extra training,
professional development, and passion. Uh I'm so glad we're having this conversation because it's it's the reality. It's it's what we're facing. If our enrollment is continuing to grow in spite of the family empowerment scholarships, well, that will sure be
helpful. Uh we're not a community right now that has a lot of other options. Um even in some of our charter schools, the waiting list is incredibly long. Um so, so we in this moment are the school system
of of choice. Uh possibly because of not as many choices as some parents wish that there were. Um, but also because I would like to think that with what we've put into place over the last few years. uh we are serving children and it with
the long view you know um I think I've mentioned before and I'll mention it again the the great state of Mississippi it took them 10 years to get from the tank to the middle but be they focused on the foundation and that is now paying huge dividends so one of my questions
really is what's the what's our enrollment projection because that's what generates our FTE and are we really looking at you Our budget looks so fat when you look at the family empowerment scholarship being in there, but but that's just a pass through. We and
there's other funds like that that that pass through that that we don't get to use, we don't get to touch, but yet we have to declare it as part of our balanced budget. Correct. Correct. And um I think I mentioned in the no gain,
right? I mentioned in the the update to you that the projection for family empowerment scholarships was about 4,000 which was to the tune of about 30 $39 million. When we received the third
calculation, that number is now over 6,000 and the revenue for for family empowerment scholarships is way over 50 million. So that was a an increase in our funding that is reflected on the
third calc of about 12 million but all of that and more belongs to the family empowerment scholarship. So we we ended up having just a small decrease in FTE of about 18. And uh I mean I believe
funding is very very complex and it's it's nothing that I can stand here and say A plus B equals C. There's so many components to what goes into the funding uh from as you stated uh Miss Thrower
our ESSE population as it expands our funding is not expanding but we have to provide those services whether it's contracted whether it's hiring and I believe the district is continually looking at how can we provide these services
um but maximize maximize the services but minimize the cost associated with it. Right. Um I I would say that our central office staff what we have provided to
you at this point today is 99 million. But even within that we had start making cuts. Not many, but we had start unfunding units. So, it's not even a
clear picture of of what's going on. And this will change every day. You were all aware of our meeting with Dr. Gullet. We've been doing that for weeks, going through every
department's budget in very much detail. And then now, Dr. Brewer and Mr. White House. We've been meeting with them as well. And what we've been providing is areas of increases and with their
expertise, they're deciding what's best for this school district. Um, I just don't want you to think that we take this lightly because it is not uh taken lightly. And what we're providing to you
is the best information that we have. And we always start with what you approved. We don't look at items that are added during the year very much, but we did discuss what happened between what you approved and this preliminary
budget. And there were reductions in the original budget that were added back during the year for for whatever reason. I think our struggle is we live off of our savings. And you know, I've said that to you year after year after year.
We're living off of our savings and even now we're waiting to see what fund balance is going to be. We live in a world of estimates and if it comes in higher, our suggestion always is to create a priority list and bring those
items back. But we will continue to do our very best to provide the information. Uh a lot of times when things are asked of us, we have to interpret what you really really want. And that's why I'm asked that question to you.
Um Mrs. Conrad, we we h we have to go back and look. Okay. We're going to take a snapshot at that, you know, uh what what happened that day. And if we would have known that that was what um you were looking for, we would have had
that, Dr. James. So, I mean it's we're very very transparent. We're going to give you whatever you on what whatever however you need the information. Just rest assured with that. Miss Pastnelis, I'm I'm going to don't do this very
often, but I'm going to speak for the board and say I think everyone up here trusts and knows that you put 150% into what you're doing every single day. So as as we work, you know, to support your
work, just know it is not my in my intention to question your work. It's to better understand and also share with the public what the challenges are. So I app I appreciate you. Yes. Yes. Likewise. And um because of the
transparency that has what has enabled us to get that half penny sales tax passed. that has enabled us to get the funding referendum passed, you know, three times. You know, we put it out there the the good, the bad, the ugly, and you give us a snapshot in time to
work from and always with an eye to protecting fund balance. There are many districts where their fund balance is like at the state required and that's scary. Somehow you've managed to navigate us through the toughest of times and here we are. Um, but as we get
better at finding and hiring teachers and, you know, using ESS and, you know, all of the great things that we've done to to try to get the the best people we possibly can with our kids every day, then we don't have as many vacant positions that we were using to live off
of. So that it's it's great, but it's also then presents it its own new challenge. So, um, again, I I really want to keep a good eye on our enrollment, um, because that is going to make a big
difference in determining and, you know, just please state us a budget, you know, and and again, we'll have to figure out what we think FES is going to be as well because it it's a part of
of our total revenue. So, that's the trick. It used to be a lot easier because the student had to be here one year. There had to be an income restriction and now it's just wide open. So, it's it's a hard thing and I think
our legislators have discovered that it's hard for us to monitor and for a couple of the years they've provided additional revenue to offset what they think the projection is. Um and and I think if things pass, uh those schools
will have now have to have an enrollment number so they'll be easier to trace because if we end up with those students and it's not FTE week, we don't get the funding. So, and I'm just going off topic, but this is this is what it's all
part of the story. This is what we we deal with as a district, you know, just like other districts as well. Um, so it it is a challenge and you know it's okay. I've got tough shoulders. I have a tough staff and they're probably trying
to figure out now how to calculate what Dr. James had thought she was going to get today and we will get that information um to you. So thank you. Thank you Dr. Campbell. I'm going to make a statement and then a request possibly but and then I think Dr. Brewer
wants to say something then Dr. T. So I'm like I'm seeing all the hands go up. So a first state, thank you. That's the first statement, but you know how much I appreciate you. Uh but uh I'm also grateful that you helped us when we adopted policies that we would enshrine
like a reserve and we were very diligent in making sure that we would fund that reserve. And my personal philosophy as you and I have talked about and this is an individual person. So I'm going to talk
only for me in my work on the executive committee at Florida Public Relations Association as well as Florida Schoolboards Association have helped both of those organizations ensure that they also have adequate reserves. So my personal philosophy is once you have it, don't take it away. Have it because
that's your rainy day. This is not a rainy day. We just have to get our house in order. So, thank you for helping us uh with that policy. My request uh and this may be a little unconventional, board, and I'm sure that it is, but you guys had months of work
in and you already knew some things that potentially were going to be recommended as positions that were going to be eliminated. if if the board would be interested in knowing or seeing what that month'sl long work looked like, I
certainly would be because they already had much of this work done before we made a change uh in April. And so I I would be interested in seeing what what was previously going to be recommended um because over the last five years, we've had a leader in place that knew
some of these hard things that were going to need to be done this year. Um so that that would be my request. Again, I don't know if the rest of the board would like to see that, but I I do believe that your finance team kind of already knows what some of those were going to look like. U so I would be all
in on on that specifically. Um but I know Dr. Brewer has something to say. Thank you. Yes. Thank you, Miss Bostonellis. Thank you um for your guidance and of course your expertise. I I want to share a few recommendations that we have already been working through um in the last few weeks, but it
really a big portion of it will rely on the board opening up that school staffing ratio um board approved document that you approved back on Jan back in January. We have with that plan, we increased special needs pair
professionals, 56 special needs pair professionals, which is over $2 million. We increased our ESAW pair professionals by 14 which is close to a million dollars. Um so but in order to really have a conversation about that we would
need the board to have a consensus to reopen that school level staffing rat that plan to really look at some of these ratios to determine what um what is happening at the school level. Um, in addition to that conversation, we um we
need to revisit the um seven period school day. Um having a school a seven period school day um increases the amount of teachers that you have to have. And while we know and I have been a huge advocate for a seven period day because of acceleration and remediation
um in a real difficult time, we may need to look at that because we are only funded for a six period day. So, those are some conversations we're having. Um, we are, um, trying to protect the committed fund balance that Dr. Campbell just mentioned. Um, we are trying to
protect that and of course there's a board policy with that. Um, Mr. White House and Miss Usher's team have worked closely with all of their departments to um reduce their operating budgets by 20% which is close to um well we don't want
to say too too much because we're still identifying some but we're already at close to $10 million with looking at identifying those budgets. Um so those are just a few items. In addition to that though, we have moved some items that were going to be in the general
fund this year and moved them into some of our federal entitlements. So that will help out. So those are just some things, but we would I I want to recommend that we open the school level staffing ratio conversation. Chair. Yes, Dr. James. Um, a couple
things. Um, because and I'll touch on what Dr. Brewer shared, but I've been kind of waiting. So when we were briefed and then even this uploaded document didn't have a number on it, which is why I didn't have an opportunity to prime Miss
Bosanellis or staff about my concerns about the discrepancy or disparity between the two numbers because I I don't know I didn't know the number. I don't think any of us knew the number. And so in future conversations as we go forward, it would be helpful when we're briefed to understand those numbers
because it always comes up and um problem solving potentially can occur ahead of a work session. Um I did go back and watch briefly uh rather I list I read the closed captioning last year's proposed cut 28 positions. I don't know
how many we added the you know the year prior but uh when it was presented to us last year there was a deduction of 28 units from the previous year. Um in regard to what Dr. Brewer has shared
um I believe that I I don't disagree. I have been an advocate from the beginning that I don't think we need three APs at certain schools and I don't think we need APs at all at some schools. And I mean, shoot, I started a whole conversation about merging schools so
that we could work on adjusting our overall uh cost of personnel. So, I most certainly am not against a conversation about school-based staffing plans.
What I'm going to struggle with greatly is a conversation because essentially where we are with school-based staffing plans right now is the homeostasis kind of it was presented to the board. The board changed nothing
and we agreed to it. This we're now presented with this which was the work of the dis the work of central office. They brought it to the board. If we're going to cut from schools, we're going to cut still from central office and that is my firm belief. So, and it will
be apples to apples or more from central than from the schools. That is my firm position. It is not going to waver. And so I personally don't want to open the hornets's nest of sight school-based
staffing plans until we can itemize the financial implications of further cuts from the central office staffing plan so that we go into a discussion about the school-based staffing plan with an informed lens because otherwise I mean I
what I just what I just heard you share was we're talking three or four million between special needs parah ratios and ESOL parah ratios I think is what I heard was three or four those are just two examples examples right but what will be next is kindergarten paras and
then what will come and what will come so if we're going to get into splitting hairs in what I know for absolute certainty the data will show supports student achievement I'm going to really struggle
with not already coming to a conclusion on the cuts or the projected cuts from this central office staffing plan because what I know is that kindergarten parah directly impacts student achievement. It's hard for me. There's
no data point for me to take to a community member that a warehouse helper and courier driver directly impacts student achievement. Right? There's there it's hard for me to find the data point. Now, we could get there, but if I'm just scrolling through this plan, that's harder to justify.
So, in my opinion, I want to see a central office staffing plan round two before we open the hornets's nest of a school-based staffing plan. That is just my opinion. One last point I'd like to add. If we're looking at cuts and moving them into vacant teacher
positions, presuming the people on this at the last page, page 26, I would I would venture to guess most of academic services would be theoretically eligible for employment as a teacher. Maybe they
some of them don't have bachelor's degrees. I haven't gone through it, but we can't just cut a hundred people from academic services from the central office staffing plan. We can't. Now, sure, the superintendent has a teaching
certificate and you know, there are some people in safe schools that might have a teaching certificate, but most of operations doesn't have teaching certificates. They're driving buses. They're custodial workers. So, we we really have to be very careful about the
narrative we're sharing because yes, I would love to fill all of our teaching positions. And I strongly say we have enough positions for most anybody to work because we have enough teacher vacancies, but not every person that we would cut based on hierarchy and seniority is just going to be able to be
plucked right into a teaching position. Nor is that what's best for kids. So it is very important that we ensure that however we're going to proceed forward the premise is what's best for kids because taking someone who has a teaching certificate and or just
bachelor's degree and deciding that they can go be in front of my kid or anyone else's kid is not going to work for me either. So had those thoughts stirring for the last 15 or 20 minutes. That's what I got. Chair Conrad. Yes. Can I say something? Um so
currently um as of May f May May 1st so this is the number um if we froze all of the central office vacancies that we have already communicated um that is over $6 million and we have already communicated that those positions have
to go through an approval process before we are posting um for hire. Okay. Thank you Dr. Brewer. Yes Dr. Campbell. Thank you that and I appreciate that. The the challenge with just freezing the ones that are being recommended as new positions, which I know a couple of them we have actually
many of them we have job descriptions on Tuesday evening to approve. The challenge with just saying we're freezing all the new positions is that some of those positions are vitally important to the success of our school district over the course of the next year. I'm going to mention a planning manager for one. I'm certain that Miss
Usher would say we need to have that position. So it it's difficult to say we're just going to freeze everything without actually if the majority of the board would say yes, please show us what the plan looked like prior to April 20
something. Uh let us have an idea of what the idea was at that point and then we can say okay let's see how this then has changed or been impacted. Um, I agree that we continue to uh make
adjustments and changes to the central office staffing plan, but in tandem also look at school district a schoolsbased staffing plan. I know kindergarten Perez has been something that this board has
tried to enshrine and make what we were doing as a district. I dare say that not every school, every kindergarten teacher needs to have that, but because we have mandated it, that means that we have about 3,000 teachers and more than 1,000
paras in this district. And I had a group of of individuals I was saying yesterday, for anyone listening who doesn't know what that means, a paraprofessional is what we all knew as teacher aids. And so they were like, "What's a parah? What's what are you talking about? a teacher aid for every
three teachers we have a teachers aid and understandably some of those are ESSE spe um specialized paras that's a different category we they're different on the staffing plan because they're different on the salary schedule that that's actually a a different um
mechanism that we have uh but there are some other positions that we have throughout this district that we up here have dictated ratios that I'm concerned about because we aren't funded the way that we could be funded for all of the dictates that
we've been making. Chair, I just have a quick question for Dr. Campbell. Sure. Are you is your recommendation that you want to go back to the organizational chart and central office staffing plan projections that Dr. Gullet was developing? That is my recommendation because they spent months
on it prior to the last three weeks. So, In my opinion, firstly, Dr. Brewer was an integral part of those conversations. But furthermore, my concern is that we have selected an interim superintendent to lead this district. And this is the organizational chart that she has
decided to move forward with. And if this board wants to continue to cut it, we're going to continue to cut it. to I mean we got a school-based staffing a school-based staffing plan that had no changes on it under our under Dr. Gullet. So if if this forecast has been
the forecast and the crisis has been the crisis then why were there not changes recommended to the board then? No, absolutely. I I thank you. I'm sorry if if we can have open dialogue here, chair, uh we approved that in January. That was before session even started, before we even knew that we weren't
going to have a balanced budget coming out of Tallahassee. So if if you think of all of the changes that have happened before we really had the the counts. I mean, we had an October count, we hadn't had a February count yet. So we didn't really know some of the cha the impacts that we were going to have and see over the course of the last three to four
months. So there have been financial changes that have happened since January 13th when this board approved it. And honestly, we discussed it in the fall before it was approved in Jan. So those that would be my explanation. Maybe Miss Bosanellis has another one, but I I mean there have been significant financial
implications that have occurred over the last four months that were different than when we approved this in January. And I think you may recall that we did have board briefings with each of you and and really shared with you what we thought at that time where our deficits
were going to be. And um we did not have a lot of the information as uh Dr. Campbell is saying, but you you may recall we did share that with you. Um you know, it's it's water under the
bridge, but I've stood up before you for the last three years. Absolutely. That's my point. We've known for it's not like something radical has changed from January to April. My point is going back to an organizational chart and a plan
that was under a superintendent who is now leaving the district undermines the authority of the interim superintendent we have named. But furthermore would theoretically disrupt organizational changes that have already been announced within our organization at the district level and at school sites. So I am
vehemently against trying to go back to the way it was going to be because we have moved forward under Dr. Brewer's leadership. Thank you. Yes, Doc. Board member Throwber. Call her Dr. Thor. Just call her today. Just call me Nancy. All
right. I like that. What we have here is we're we're trying to hit a moving target. We have still an incredible number of of
variables and and huge ones that because of a timeline, Miss Boston Ellis, our CFO, and and her team are still forced to adhere to the timeline of providing a
budget, a balanced budget. But we don't have the information truly even in this moment to know what we're really going to be getting. You can project in their estimates and you do a great job of doing that and and some years have more uncertainties than
others. Um but but sitting up here as as a board member for a while, we've heard this coming and and adjustments have been made along the way. So, in my mind, it it doesn't hurt one bit to look at
what was what has already been discussed. And this is a transition time. So, I'm not going to get hung on undermining anyone's authority. Th this is a time to come together and acknowledge the reality of what we're dealing with. And the more information
we have, the better. And I'd like to caution this board. We hire people to be connected to students no matter what their job. We have people in our departments that are
uh mentoring students. We have people on this central office staffing plan that are absolutely integral to student success. And the last thing we need to be doing is is pitting us against them and that someone's more valuable than
another. That's what makes this so hard because I don't think that there is any position in Marian County Public Schools that doesn't have the expectation to have a direct influence on on children. So, I just hope that we can begin to
shift this conversation to acknowledging that we are in unprecedented times, at least from what I've witnessed through the years. I don't remember not having a budget this this late. Um maybe one comparison could be during the the great
recession and and that was really bad. But but but we made it through. So I hope we can shift the focus um to being willing to look at all plans and maybe come back with a an
adjusted version based on what we know today knowing and this is going to drive the narrative crazy. It's probably going to change because we don't have the big number yet. Thank you, board member Thor. Anyone
else? Um, thank you, Miss Boston Ellis. I'm I just I want to see I think everybody in the room is uh passionate about meeting the needs of every student, which we started our our meeting off with today. And so when I
think about um our conversations earlier about Esau paras and kindergarten paras um and special needs paras, it was because this board is passionate about meeting the needs of
every student. And so it's very difficult when the funding doesn't allow us to do that. Um, we have great people on staff in Marian County
Public Schools and and we know that they always rise to the job. Um, but import an important part even though this is a more of a curriculum piece is going to be as we as we look at losing positions, you know,
how are we going to meet the needs of our students with less people? It's really it's it's so frustrating that public education finds itself in this position. Um instead of moving forward that it appears we're we're with the
challen we've got the challenge of doing more with less. Um and it's continually asked of public education. Um so with that I just I want to thank um teams that are here this morning. a lot of
work, a lot of time, the commitment um to the students and staff of Marian County Public School and and thank you to the board um for this in-depth conversation to to you know, work at finding solutions that are least impactful
um in the in the idea of loss. You know, what are we going to lose and keep moving our educational gains forward? Yes, board member Thrower. At this point, um, I'd like to offer a recommendation because a lot of passion
and and and asks and and needs have been brought forward. Maybe we really do need a round two of this. You know, take back what what we have shared and and what you
think about it. And who knows, you know, maybe in another few days there'll be some more information that'll come out that is tangible to help narrow down these these conversations and and priorities. And I agree with you 100%
board member or chair Conrad, that in the moment in a classroom when you don't have the support that's needed to serve the kids that are in front of you, that is not going to get us to where we want and need to be.
So we have to prioritize the classroom. I love the idea of providing more flexibility to the schools. Uh you know we got some push back on that with the with the guidance counselors and it seemed counter counterintuitive. We're hearing from the students they want more
of that but then we also want better test results so they're trading them out for testing coordinators. Some schools obviously feel like that is they're they're okay with the guidance counselor. Would they like to have the more? Sure. But but they're prioritizing
testing. So So I just feel like the more flexibility we can provide to schools, if there is a school that will step up and say, "I don't need the third AP. I would rather have four paras." Um so be it. Uh but the landscape I'm seeing is
we have to be nimble. We have to be flexible. We have to stay within the law. And all of that is easy to say and hard to do in an organization of our size. But but we have to get better at it. Um at at innovating and and making sure that our our strategic overall goal
of helping every student succeed is is continuing. It's a it's definitely a new way of thinking. You know, I'm remembering back to the formula. You every school got like one principal and one AP and one dean and and that's just the way it was. Um, but that's not the way it is anymore. So, a followup I
think is in order. I'd love to know what the board thinks. Well, so we can keep going. I'm certainly don't feel like we have concluded this conversation. I'm actually not quite sure where we land at all right now. Um, because I don't believe any of us have offered anything to change on the plan that's been
presented. So, I didn't hear any I haven't heard the board say anything specifically line items that need to get adjusted. So, I don't know. Um I think without us giving specifics of what to change, it's really
hard for Miss Marant to come back for a round two. I totally agree with board member Thrower. I certainly don't feel settled and a round two is most definitely necessary, but I'm not sure how Miss Mar brings back a round two without us giving specifics as to what
to change. I'd also like to highlight this conversation happened March 28th last year. So, this is very late to have this conversation because we have already impacted the human beings who
sit in the positions on this plan. And July 1st is when it all rolls over. So how we go about changing this, we've already announced a princ principles movement because they're going to different schools or into executive
leadership. How we then navigate making changes to that when we have already communicated with our stakeholders those changes. But this conversation happening on May 22nd instead of March 28th, I do not believe falls on Dr.
Brewer. In my opinion, this should have already I do not I think this this should have already been planned to occur in March. I think that was the plan. I I mean I'm sorry if I may speak, but I think it falls on us as the board then
because we were then dictating who the leader was going to be in place to present this to us. And so I think that's where we go back in my recommendation again as I've said and I if we have the majority of us saying let's see what the plan would have been
on March 28th because there was a plan. And I and honestly I'm sitting here thinking I can't believe that our finance team has been sitting here for all these hours because I know they want to go back and crunch more numbers to try to make all this work and they've had to sit here with us and listen to us. I can sit here and tell you
positions that I think absolutely but I'm kind of curious to know what the rest of the team their monthsl long work that started back in the fall looked like and we don't see that right now. Uh, so I I would love to see that. Again, if the majority of the
board was interested in seeing what that looked like, I appreciate that there have already been principal move changes that have been expressed to folks. Please keep in mind the board hasn't actually officially voted on those changes yet. We have one coming on Tuesday night that will be an official
vote of the board, but the other communication that has happened ultimately still requires board final approval if I'm not mistaken. And so those changes honestly could still be made. Well, I the board is not allowed I think this was a big topic of FSBA
summer conference last year if I recall. The board is not allowed to change the personnel packet. We are not allowed to insert our opinion on the personnel packet. The personnel packet is the is the obligation of the superintendent. We simply approve it as a matter of a
formality. So but we approve the positions because the positions have to be funded. So I mean there there are things we have already approved absolutely but some of the positions that may be being created or what have you. This board does have the authority to say whether or not we want to fund
that position something that's created that's brand new. We have three positions being added to a certain area or one position being added to another area. Um there there are absolutely recommendations. I I don't know if we're ready to present some of those. I'm I'm currently waiting on a recommendation to
potentially go with EMT paramedics that MA Miami Dade does instead of having nurses because they do it differently and they fund it differently. So I there there are absolutely solutions. I don't know that we're ready to bring all of those forth, but I I don't know how we
send Miss Morant to problem solve the last 90 minutes when we haven't given any specific direction. We have offered no specifics. So, how can she bring that something back to us other than the only specific was Miss
Chair Conrad asking for the actual number, specific numbers, but nothing and that's not on Miss Mar? I don't think maybe it is, but there's no, we haven't offered any specific changes that have been presented. So, how can something come back to us for changes
when we haven't offered it? I my recommendation again is that we see what the plan would have looked like in March because I think there was a plan uh that was being worked in March and so I'm curious just to see how different it looks compared to the one we have in front of us Dr. B if I'm the only one who thinks that then you have an opinion
on the difference when you came in what did it look like versus where where'd you start do you have any opinion on it I I believe we and Dr. isn't here to speak to that and I believe she would she would need to contribute to that conversation. Okay, board member Thor. Thanks. Again,
it's just an acknowledgment of the unique times that by our own actions and by actions that continue to be inactions of this is where we are. So, I'm very interested to
hear about the EMT thing, you know. Um, this this conversation is is just starting and and I think that we've made it very clear what our concerns are and what the barriers are. And then the folks that
are tasked with doing this, you know, let's ask them is it based on this conversation, what else do you need to know from us for a follow-up conversation? because this isn't just Miss Morant. It's it's the whole team, you know. Um maybe they've got
innovative thoughts. I'm sure they probably do. Miss Maria, do you want to come forward? Maybe I shouldn't ask. Do you want to come? Would you please come forward? Coming forward. Would you please come?
Actually, let me grab my phone because I was making notes as you all. Madam Chair, as um Miss Moran is getting ready to come back up here, um I'm kind I'm listening to all of this and um listen to
everybody going back and forth with us. We we at some point we got we've had Mr. Boston Ellis here forever and has been sharing all of these concerns. This is not new. This is not new to us. these concerns. Um, as far as where we
are, we know that um, this board often times inserts itself as far as uh, picking certain positions and saying what need to be allocated. And I think sometimes we go very very far even
knowing they're getting the advice from our CFO and others that are saying that it's going to cost us. We going to have to pay for it sooner or later. They they say it all the time and we hedge forward anyway. So
um going backwards to see what what was going to happen. It may be it may be beneficial to us if it's going to help us um move forward now, but we we can't just we can't we we we we have to do
something now. Um we keep hearing about last year, this was in March. There's a lot of things that's happened in Tallahassee and other places that are preventing us from making those good decisions right now. So if we need to if we need to reset for a second and look
at what was going to be done and then move forward sometimes it's it's okay to take a step back if you're going to make more steps forward. So I don't have an issue with looking at the old um whatever was going to be presented but we need to do it fast. We don't need to wait. We need to do this if we got to
call special school board meeting whatever work session. We need to do what we need to do so we can get this down the road. Thank you Reverend Cummings. Yes. Well, and I I mean to that point, we have 39 days until July 1st, which is when this has to be approved by, we have two work sessions
scheduled, but because of publication and FSBA conference, we literally can't barely have more than the two that are scheduled because at this point for publication, we can't have one before the 5th because we have a special work
session. Sorry to interject, but you know, we've got a lot going on here. And if it's a shorter time of publication for something like this, then I hope the but rest of the board agrees that that's in the best interest of this district. Very important. And let me say, but I'm saying, let me say this. Let me say
this. This is more important than FSBA conference for me. I rather if we have to do what we need to do to cancel that, whatever, we need to prioritize the district right now and do what we need. AB and I totally agree with you. What I'm saying is the first day Elena can
even Miss Martinez Young can submit anything is next Wednesday the 28th. So I agree. Let's shorten that. If we can shorten the timeline, shorten the timeline. But we're still going I mean the first ad that would run is May 30th. And we already have a work session on the 5th. So it'll be an agendaized item.
We'll add it to the agenda for the 5th. But even if we had a meeting every week, we only we only have two other weeks and one of those weeks is FSBA. So, the board needs to make a decision about FSBA and that week. Um, so that's
all I'm that's all I'm offering is we're we're very limited on opportunities. Dr. Campbell, I mean, I I think that we could potentially have meetings the fourth, fifth, and sixth, and maybe even the 9th and 10th and 11th. I mean, I I
appreciate wanting to not go to FSBA, but honestly, when she posts a notice on May 30th then or, you know, whatever the date is, then let's just make meetings every day until we get it figured out.
Um, I know we have a fifth meeting. Maybe we can have one again. If it for publication purposes, then let's have it the sixth, let's have it the 9th, let's have it the 10th. Um, I mean, I haven't looked at my calendar actually to make sure that that would work for me personally, but I'm just saying I this
is this is incredibly important, but we also know the value of being at FSBA. So, I mean, I I don't want to try to split hairs on on why it's important for us to be there as well. And I know that one of us won't be there because of a personal arrangement that won't be able to be here either. So, darn weddings,
right? So, I mean, that's not really fair to us to say, well, well, let's just skip FSBA when we're not even taking into consideration. There are other reasons that those days my Yeah, her son's getting married, so she's not gonna Yeah, she's not going to be with So, that would already limit the number of people who could even be a part of
this conversation. So, I'm wide open 69th, 10th. So, I can fully commit to 6, 9th, 10th for work sessions if we wanted to have backtoback. So, thank you for the mindful of the sixth. While I'm sure everyone in this room will come on a Friday that we're off, but I know it
takes other staff that don't work or hourly. So, I would stay away from Fridays in June would be my recommendation. That was another barrier I forgot to mention. Okay. Yeah. But that is a starting earlier and ending later if
that helps. And another thing I would think about is backto back meetings like the 9th 10th. you know, if you come you you leave us with a lot of things to work on. So, we would need at least a day to work on that, get the document. We we wouldn't be able to leave a meeting and then come right back the
next day with that information and the research. So, give a few days buffer in between would be a a ask I have. Um, yes, I'm sorry. No, I just I still want clarity of what what we're bringing
back to you. Is it is it a reduction of a certain number of positions? Is it um just help me understand what our what our task is before we leave today? Um I would say it sounds like at least
four board members are interested in seeing what the plan was. March 28th I think is the the date that was shared. Whatever the date there was all the work that was being done before April. I think that that information being shared and giving the
board to take a look at it and then comment on it would be our first step. And I think if we do more than that, we're getting ahead of ourselves. We need to see if that we just I mean I don't even know what that looks like in comparison to what I have in front of me. Is it something I even want to
discuss? So that would be my first recommendation in addition to the school staffing plans if we also agree to that. Yes. So those two clarification on that last one. I'm sorry. And if that's okay, Dr. Brewer, may I ask a clarifying question? Yes, ma'am. So you're asking
are you looking at what was originally discussed or previously discussed? Are you asking for that staffing plan which has a different organizational model or are you asking for the positions that were cut? Because those are two
different things. And are you asking for what Dr. Gullet would have done, right? Yes. Yes. Yes. So, and I actually we have a board meeting on Tuesday. So, if I could just ask maybe because I don't certainly want to have a whole work session if it was actually going to cost the same amount or more. Right. You
don't even know what by Tuesday night could the superintendent please off be available to offer comments Dr. Glet's last meeting and she can say the central office staffing plan that they were working on would have cost x amount of money. And that would then allow the board to come to consensus. Do we want
to all have a full work session on that or do we not? Because if it was going to cost the same or more, what what's the difference? What's the There's no point then, right? Is that I mean, is that a valuable is that worth consideration?
Cost is one thing and coverage is another. What do you mean cost versus coverage? I would just caution um putting that ask on Dr. Gallet without her being here. I don't want to assume that she would be able to provide that information. Um,
but we can definitely take it back to her. I just don't want to assure you that she's going to have that information prepared on Tuesday because after Tuesday, we won't be together again for 10 days. And I mean, my understanding is the
information was already prepared. So, it's just is she willing to share it with us? Is that is that what the challenge may be? Because the information was already prepared. Is that correct with a plan that you were working on? So, I have a version, but I I don't know if that was the last
version. I don't think that was a final version. It was a working version. So, I I lean towards uh Dr. Brewer's comments. I'm very hesitant to speak on behalf of Dr. Gullet and just presenting something
that may or may not have been a final version, but was indeed a working version. But then we transitioned and begin working on the the current organizational chart that we've or structure that we've presented to you. So that's why I wanted clarification on the question. And I don't know if this
maybe should just be a question for Dr. Gulllet as Dr. Brewer has has mentioned. Not that we're trying to hide anything. We just don't want to present something that's not accurate. And then once you put it out there, um it like we said, it starts a narrative that's
not true. Okay. Yeah. Bo member th and and the authentic goal would be to perhaps there's things about that plan that that we can do a hybrid, you know, version that is going to save us money, uh help
us cover the the the spots that are the the passion of of the board. Um, you know, we have to get realistic, but at the same time, you know, we don't want to shoot ourselves in the foot either of not providing what we know is needed from what we hear from our schools. So,
that's the I'll speak for myself. That's my intent and and if we can get that information if it was a working document with crossout house whatever um so that we come to the best decision that we can in the times that we are in
and I don't know how we're going to come up with a balanced budget if if session gets extended. I mean they're required I guess to have theirs to us but if we get it at midnight on the 30th you know that's kind of a time crunch. we're
talking about time crunch now. Uh this could get really interesting. So in the spirit of that, I don't like to waste money even if it's, you know, $100 or whatever, but I think we need to notice some meetings and if we have to cancel them, you know, so be it. Which stinks because but we're talking a budget here.
So for advertising to me, that's poultry compared to doing everything we can to just get this as right as we can. Okay, we can do that. I I um Miss Maran, I do want to say you were kind of making a h face as we were discussing this. Are
you uncomfortable sharing kind of a a working document with us? Not that I'm uncomfortable, but in all transparency, I guess I'm trying to grasp the the why. And without fully understanding the why, I I I'm just if we're just saying it
because we want to see if there's reductions, then okay, great. But the organizational model that Dr. Brewer is proposing to move forward with is different than what Dr. Gullet is was proposing to move forward with. Not saying one's right, one's wrong. It's
just different. So to bring recommendations that Dr. Gulllet may have had, you may see cuts, but it may be contradicting the model that's going forward. So if our why is because we maybe want to as the board look at doing
a different model than Dr. Brewer is saying then okay but if it's just to look for cuts I don't know that that would be beneficial. I would think maybe asking Dr. um Brewer like hey we're looking at more cuts go back with the team to look at more cuts. So um that's
that's just my thought want to understand the why. Yeah and I think I think Dr. James asked that just a few minutes ago that we just want to know did was that plan going to save us money? And I that's the thing I don't I to me I don't need to see the plan. I just by Tuesday night I just want to
know was Dr. God's plan going to cost about the same less or more and then let's get into the weeds in it if if it truly was going to save a bunch of money. But there are what what I know right, wrong or indifferent is there are
heartbeats attached to positions. And when we reopen a plan that no longer currently exists and things have been announced and changed, we are going to if we dig that back up and open that back up, we are
going to put ourselves in a very tricky conversation probably from an HR perspective as well. That's that's what I'm trying to get to to when we're looking at the why because even though we do not publish the people's names and I understand we have to make those hard
conversations there's still people attached to it. So then to present a document or information without explanation behind it. All folks will see is that it was proposed that their position be cut not understanding that that may have moved somewhere else or if
we are to the point I was making earlier with the structure and the organizational structures being different that cuts Dr. Gullet may have proposed may have been based on that structure versus Dr. bureau mate can go back and recommend cuts because if we're
just looking at cutting more people then allow my recommendation is to allow her to do that or positions or money but just to bring that plan back. It it's complaining it's comparing apples to oranges. The plans the structures are
different. And Chair Conrad, could I is it I'm not sure um what work Dr. Gullet is is doing today, but is it is there we're probably going to be here for another little bit because we still have a whole another item. Is it possible for Dr. Brewer to reach out to Dr. Gullet or
Miss Morant and have Dr. Gullet just give her thought pattern on the staffing plan that has been presented by Dr. Brewer's team and just offer her opinion. Um, is she in support of this plan? Does she feel like this is best? Should we go back and just trim it a little bit more?
And I would love to just hear her thought pattern on it and maybe she could join us. Whether that's calling Dr. Brewer or calling Miss Morant or coming in, I'm not sure. But if she were just able to offer insight right now, we might be able to make some informed
decisions as to how to proceed. Feel comfortable with that if if that's the ask of the board. Well, I just I think it would save it would save on some of the confusion if Dr. Gullet could offer her opinion. Right. So, to clarify your you want Dr.
Gullet to come back to this meeting or are you saying a future work session or now? Okay. I'm saying today today someone reaching out to her or you or do you want are you reaching out to her? I will reach out to her. Okay. Let's just if if we could just get an answer. If she says, "Yeah, this is the this is the
best we got. I support Dr. Brewer's plan. We need to make further cuts. Let's make further cuts." Great. If she says, "Yeah, no, this this is not aligned with what I was going to do. The board should see what I was going to do." Great. Let's talk about it then. But if she's in support of this plan, I don't think we need to go back and and get into the weeds in it. We need to
just say, "Staff, find 10 more million from the central office staffing plan and cut it or whatever the number is." Okay, Dr. Campbell, I I I appreciate that. I I hope Dr. Gullet is is able and willing to do what we're potentially asking her to do. Um I also would ask
the board, are we willing to also allow Dr. Gullet to offer us recommendations she would make to the school staffing plan at the same time? I mean, what like open them both up at the same time? I mean, we have to have consensus to agree on school staffing because we've already approved it, board approved in a board
meeting. So, um I I don't know if we want to go there, but if if we're getting all the information out on the table and we're hearing from Dr. golet almost one last time because we'll see her on Tuesday night for her last official board meeting with us. That that's a question of the board
if we want it all. My philosophy is the more information you have the better decisions you can make. So if Dr. Gullet wants to offer her recommendation, that's fine. That's fine by me. I'll take it in consideration with what's being put before us.
and board member Thor just professionally speaking again I think we need to pause on this move on with our agenda and give these good people a chance to have a conversation you know bringing someone in from the field having no idea where
they are in the middle of a board meeting I just think that that we can do better our superintendent of schools I don't think she's someone she's our superintendent of schools she's following the work she's she is she's working every day and it's going to be a lot of work
for staff to go and and the HR nightmare that's going to come from publishing a would have been central office staffing plan is significant. So I really think we should think that to impact before we just say this is what it would have been
because people will say oh she was going to cut me but now I got saved by her or she did cut me and I was going to be saved by her and it is going to be an HR nightmare. So in before we open that up let's just see if Dr. Gullet would even make that recommendation.
And I would say this whole transition is becoming an HR nightmare, but um well I I just I'll chime in there. I think it's gone very well. This is a challenging moment, but I I actually have been very proud of of both leaders um and and this
is a challenging conversation. And so I will just say my intention is to not make anyone uncomfortable, but it is for us to be timely um and value the time of our staff and what we're asking of them. So, board, we you know, I had I told you we were going to recess for lunch. We
are way past that timeline. What I'd like to do now is offer that we're going to recess and take a brief break. I'm going to ask Dr. Brewer if you will make that phone call, see if Dr. Gullet is available, if she minds um you know, chiming in, giving us her input, and
then we will follow what happens next. Would you like um if she's able to do so, would you like that as a written response? Sure. Sure. by email to the board. That's actually would be wonderful to the board. Yes. And please tell her it doesn't have to be, you
know, just just an answer. Do you have a time frame? Um, let's recess for 30 minutes. Okay. Thank you. No. Why not 30 minutes? What? Some of us need to eat. Yeah. 30. I think it 1:30 1:30. Thank you, staff.
Thank you, board. to see. Good afternoon. Welcome back to our work session. It's 11:31. I'm going to ask Dr. Brewer, were you able to get a hold of Dr. Gullet? Yes, ma'am. I contacted um Dr. Gullet by telephone. she's participating in a
community meeting. So, she did step out so I could speak with her. Um, I shared with her just a summary of our conversation this morning and I gave her the ask of the board and she stated that when I so I'll tell you in her words
when um I was appointed um as the interim superintendent, she did not provide any additional input on the central office staffing plan and um stated that these would be my decisions and she did just like she cautioned me, just like she cautioned and the public
that um there would need to be cuts made due to needing to balance the budget like we do have, you know, that we have to every year. Okay. Thank you. All right. So, board, you want to chime in
on um where you want to head from here? Um you're looking at me, so I can go first. Sure. Um, I think that we need to agend put this on the agenda for
June 5th work session to have a part two discussion. My understanding talking with staff some in our recess is that there's still cuts being done. We obviously received communication from Dr. Brewer earlier in the week and it's been said publicly
that we've frozen all unfilled positions and so I would like to see an uploaded document that indicates what is frozen and how much that is and all of those
all of those other components in addition to whatever other cuts need to be made to get this to where it needs to get. Um, and personally, this board member is only interested in opening the school-based staffing plans if we're
going to continue to um if we're going to continue to really address whatever possible areas of the central office staffing plan we can. Okay. Thank you very much, Dr. James. Anyone else?
I'm looking. No one else. Okay. So, it sounds like we're going to Oh, did you raise your hand, Miss? No. Okay. Sorry. I saw something out of corner of my eye. I thought, "Oh, I might need to ask you." Um, and so it looks like Miss Mar, we're looking at um the work session on
the 5th. Is that correct? I'm sorry. You just probably sat down. Yes, I'm pretty sure that is the next one and I know we tentatively um it is correct. So, thank you. Um we were planning for the work session to
include um this topic as well. Um I am not clear maybe Dr. Brewer is or Mr. White House on exactly what we're bringing to that work session. I did hear just now about uploading a document that includes the
vacant and unfunded positions. Any additional positions that are proposed being cut. I know you've asked Miss Boston for the cost by each position by facility that includes the 2526 preliminary budget like a detailed
budget. You want a list of the salaries that are frozen or on adjusted pay scale and an explanation as to why you um that asks for both schools and central office and you want the cost of the staffing plan presented at last year's work
session. Right. Correct. Okay. So, um Mr. Ben White, Mr. White House, do you want to add to that? Yes, ma'am. Just for clarification, I want to make sure what we're bringing back because when we froze the current central office
staffing plan positions, we're freezing positions based on the 2425 staffing plan. We have not frozen anything for next year's staffing plan because it has not been approved. So, I just want to make sure what we're bringing back because we can bring you back positions
that currently exist that we're not filling but may not exist in next year's plan because this plan already removes them. But there is crossover. There is some crossover. Yes. So my my thought pattern is if we're freezing it now and it's
representative in the 2526 plan, then it would also be frozen. Yes. Is that like a correct assumption? If it's something that we had expected to cross forward, yes, that is the case. Okay. So what I'm saying is if we have something that
because like freezing freezing right now for the next 39 days isn't going to make a huge impact. So I would like to see this this central office staffing plan with a different color maybe blue I don't know that is is
all of the positions that we are essentially unfunding or we are not filling as it is presented because that was this in my reflection of this morning that was the consensus of the conversation was yes this is basically
worst case scenario and then we take six million out of it over the course of the next six weeks and then we add back three million of it over the course of the year. So I would it's it's very muddy and it it to me lacks transparency
to the public and before we enter into cutting from schools. I really want to know where we're landing with central office. So maybe we can choose a different color and whatever is crossing over that's frozen now that will maintain being frozen. I'd like to see that at least um that would be my
recommendation at least. I think that's a great idea. And Mr. White House, I think you shared earlier that there's there's already been quite a few cuts made. I would be interested. I don't know what the best way to present that is. Um even if it's just a list form of
the cuts that have already been made. So if we do enter into looking at and opening up school staffing plans, we we have that as a reference. It just it gives us some some data. Yes, ma'am. We can do that. The the other thing I would keep in mind is
that when we talk about our central office staffing plan, we do have different funding sources that are that are intermingled. So some of the positions that are currently frozen are not funded through general fund. They're IDA funded. They're mental health and wellness plan funded. So that has no impact on us being able to balance the
budget for general fund. Do you want those separated out as well? Um yes, that Thank you. That was Thank you for helping me clarify that. Yes. I think that would be valuable um for us moving forward and we you know I just I feel like we're trying to get a a clear
picture um and there's so many different components um you know that we're trying to pull together and of course the timeline is tricky because we're waiting to hear from the state. So um board any any further comment Dr. Campbell? So yeah, I think definitely the am the hit
on general fund is what's concerning me the most at all times, always and forever. Uh when we have additional funding sources, obviously we still are a little bit unsure about how some of those are still going to be working out uh with IDEIDA grant and different things, titles, what what all those are
going to look like. Uh I think general fund hit is is always the biggest. Uh I I guess and I this is getting into the weeds a bit. I know there's just been a ton of work of potentially recommendations out of finance that have said please go back and look at this department or go back and look at this
department because they also have the year-over-year five years that we've grown from I'm just going to use general numbers we've grown from a department of three to a department of 14. We've grown from a department of 20 to a department
of 53. they have all that uh long-term knowledge to say, do we really need every one of those positions? Just because we have an increase of students doesn't always mean an increase of people. Um fewer people less working
more efficiently and effectively uh often fewer positions working more efficiently and effectively often get us a much better outcome. Uh so those are the things as we talked about prior to the lunch break as we talked about
potentially a hybrid between what was being discussed before and what is being dis presented today. I I believe that there are opportunities to hear from the team that sees the numbers every day to say these are the departments specifically that we
need to take a look at so that the board if we are going to do this work which it kind of seems like we're going to um if we are going to do this work then we need to see which areas specifically the finance team would recommend for us to look at.
That's my recommendation. Okay. Anything else? Thrower. Reverend Cummings. Okay. Thank you, Mr. White House. Thank you, Miss Morant. Thank you, Miss Bostonellis. Is there any public
comment? Okay, seeing none, we will move on. Thank you, Dr. Brewer. We enjoyed having you join us this morning. Thank you. We are going to move on to our next agenda item
superintendent search firm. I can't say good morning anymore. It's good afternoon. Good afternoon everyone. you have been waiting quite a while on us. Thank you. You're welcome. Um, so briefly, uh, and y'all can guide me if
I'm if I get off on a tangent or I'm not, uh, addressing things like you would like, just let me know. Um, but I have mainly four bullet points that I was going to talk through with you uh, as far as how the RFP process would work.
Um the first being RFP development. Um my plan would be that we would work off the previous RFP that we did in 2019. Um and then if modifications are needed to the scope or the evaluation criteria,
um y'all are more than welcome to to give that feedback. um part of that because you're the board um and you know you can't converse uh and just open um at any time. Um I don't know how we how you want to go
about that if you want um I guess I should go back. The other attachment that I have is the the RFP from 2019. Um you don't have to read through all of it because a lot of it's our standard terms and conditions. uh
the main the main points that I would ask you to look at is uh section nine which begins on page eight which is the scope of work uh section 13 which begins on page 11 um and along with that the proposal form is tied to that u and that begins on
page 27. So those are the three key areas that I would ask that y'all review um and make suggestions on what you would like to update or if anything. Um, I think the previous search went went well. Um, and I think the vendors
provided good adequate information for the board to make a a determination. So, I don't you know, I don't know that a lot of change is needed, but um, again, that's that's for y'all to look at and decide. Um, and then how y'all go about conveying that message. I don't know if
you want to funnel that through Mr. Powers or directly email me. Um, and then you know, we we work on a draft eventually, however y'all want to do that. Um, y'all can just give me direction on that. Um, as far as RFP
timeline, typical timeline for RFPs is 12 to 14 weeks. Uh, we like to put the RFP out, uh, because, you know, unlike a invitation to bid where you're just getting a price, um, there's a lot more involved in an RFP. Um, so the vendors
need adequate time to be able to develop a good proposal, uh, a robust proposal that gives all the information that you've requested. Um, so we leave that out for a month. Typically, we can do it for less time than that if the board sees fit. Um, so there's a month built
in right there after it's released. Um, after proposals come in on the due date, I go through them, look look through them to make sure I can deem them responsive, meaning they've signed all the forms, they've turned everything in that they needed to. Um, and then I
disperse those out to the evaluation committee, which in this case would be you. Um, as soon as possible, typically I do that within the same day that I open them. um or I try to uh typically y'all have about a week's
uh time to go through the proposals that we receive um to individually evaluate those um preliminarily score those um and then we would come back to an evaluation meeting
um you would have your public discussion uh and then uh discuss any issues any concerns concerns. Um, turn in your scoring to me. I would tabulate it at that meeting. And then based on how the scoring falls,
uh, if you have one standout firm that you, you know, well above all the others, then you may decide you don't want to do interviews. Um, if you have two or three that are pretty similar or neck and neck, then you may decide that you want to do interviews. Um, so usually we build a three to four days a
week in between the evaluation meeting and when we hold interviews. uh because typically we'll give the firms that are going to be shortlisted to go into the interview phase time to um address any questions that we might give them to talk about during the
interview. So there's a a week's time in there typically. Um if if we do hold interviews, we'll usually hold those in the morning, then have a lunch break, and then that afternoon we'll do the evaluation of the the interview portion, and then we come up with our final score
to know who, you know, how they rank. Um and then at that point, we move into working on negotiating a contract with them. And then at whatever the scheduled board meeting is is when the we would then bring the RFP process and the
contract to you for approval. Okay. So that's that's it in a nutshell. I probably skipped over some things but Okay. Thank you very much. Board, you have any questions, comments, concerns? Yes, Dr. Campbell. So, if if today's
purpose is for us to kind of nail down what the RFP needs to say, and that may or may not be what today's full purpose is, but if we're looking specifically at at the section 9 U A, it does put in the RFP a desired start date for the new superintendent.
So, we kind of need to land on that. It does also assign that the board would have someone serve as the person who coordinates the activities among the board and any third parties. So, we would also potentially need to have con conversation about who that person would
be. Um, I think the community input and engagement, I don't think that it's necessary for us necessarily to say inclusive of survey, focus groups, town halls, unless we want to because right now it doesn't actually dictate what that says in in item C. Uh, because it
does say to develop and implement a plan and a schedule and calendar of events, but it doesn't say what those might be. And so if we want to include that, I think that might be something we need to at least talk through. Uh and and then based on the timeline that you
potentially have given us also, Mr. Collins is that the anticipated date that we might have the RFP and contract ready to go is in August I think based on 12 to 14 weeks that we would approve
the actual um contracted choice if and so that is then obviously the work that we're going to be doing in in the summer months and that's fine. I mean that that puts the primary work on the board so that we're getting all of that done in the summer so that
hopefully by early to mid August. We could have an approval of who the search firm company is so that we can get a move on. I know at one point we had put out a date in the spring that we wanted to have a new superintendent based on the recommendations that we received uh
from Andrea Msina just as the ideal time frame that superintendent candidates say to come in. Uh I don't know if we still want to go with that, but those are my initial thoughts on this. Thank you again, Mr. Collins, for being here with us all morning long. Yes, all morning long. board. I I wanted to make a
recommendation that um what what you do is take take time over the next two weeks to review the scope of services. Um do your own research to see if there's other things you want to add,
things you want to take out. Uh instead of having all of that conversation right now, I know that each one of you has u very strong thoughts on on what you want to do. So, I'd just like to offer that um we look at coming back at the June
5th meeting and be prepared to discuss the scope of services after you have had the time to study, research, and bring what's most important to you forward. So then that puts us I'm sorry I didn't
mean to interject, but that that puts us then in September before we have a search firm chosen that then pushes their process even further out and so meeting a spring deadline of a superintendent being seated gets further and further away from possibility. So
that's madam chair I think when we originally start this I I because Mr. Thor and I were in the last process. I kind of told him this this process is not going to be a fast process. Mr. Collins was there as well. Um I advised that we need to take our time because I
I remember the process of how long it took for us just to get the search firm. I don't I don't anticipate us I I know what Miss Campbell just said. I don't anticipate us getting a search firm in place until actually probably
September. And then you got to have that time for that firm to be able to do what they need to do. Advertise, you got to have a period of advertising. So for us to keep saying that we're looking for a originally we were saying I I was hearing I wasn't saying they want someone in place by February 1. That
wasn't going I just did not see that happening. Um, I think we need to not try to lock ourselves down to a spring date um for this because it may the last time CO happened in the middle of all of this and we had to we had to readjust
and reo all different types of things. I think we need to have a idea of where we want to be at. I don't think the spring is going to because you got spring break, you got the holidays, you got all these different things that's going to be coming up in the process of trying to go through this this get a superintendent. we need to be sure on
how we're going to move forward um realistically. Um and that date that July 1, 2020 date that was planned without even without knowing anything about CO and that was just going to be a regular us superintendent. So I I
currently like that same date. I think if we have to adjust um having that person start earlier because you still got to go through contract negotiations once you get the person that you so it's it's not going to be a fast process like we keep trying
to push it. So I like the July one date. Reverend Cummings, I appreciate your input and in listening to the wants of the board. Um I felt that you all felt the job is too important that we're not going to hurry. We're going to choose to
be thorough um in in the process. And so um that that is where my thoughts were in bringing forward that um recommendation. Anyone else? Um Oh, go ahead. Okay. Uh, and I I mean I would
like to lean on the subject matter exp expert and if the RFP that we've uploaded here, we can go back and review it and meet again in two weeks. If this is the recommendation that the
board move forward with other than some dates and some timelines, I certainly don't want to get in the weeds in adjusting this RFP if if a subject matter expert thinks it's best. And I think that we go forward and we start
this process um recognizing that our neighbor to the north just gave another year-long extension to their superintendent. Um, Manatee County is now doing a search and
so I'm I'm hesitant to see what is going to come from a search. So, let's let's pick a firm. Let's do some surveys once we have a firm selected and let's start the process and see where it takes us.
But I think I totally agree. Bringing in a superintendent in July for the same exact reasons. I did not want that to happen to Dr. Brewer. I agree with. Um and so I don't know if we've backed ourselves. If we're going to back ourselves in too tight of a timeline and
someone coming in in July is not ideal, then does it have to get longer? I don't know. These are the things that I'm gonna want to hear from the people who are experts in this field. But I definitely think that we're going to, if we haven't already, run out of time for
a spring start. And what does that look like next then? So after the firm was chosen, I really kind of was out of the mix then, but I I do recall as uh Mr. Cummings spoke um that it was quite a bit of time after
they were hired to when ultimately a superintendent was chosen. So, um, just looking back, we, so this was for a July 1st of 2020 start date. We issued this RFP in March of 19. So, we're kind of, you know, already behind the eight-ball
if for a July start just because of the all the the time it took once a firm was hired for them to do all of their proper steps and and work. So, basically that was 15 months, right? Then, is what you're saying? It was essentially March to then the following July. Correct.
Yeah. the RFP didn't take that long, but then once a firm was in place, then it takes them quite a long time to do what they need to do to find qual qualified and quality applicants. So, and let me and let me add this to and Ricky, I'm sure you remember the reason that we had
that July 1 date was because the outgoing superintendent, correct, ended June 30th. That was the reason we had the July one date. Yes, that was the only reason we had the July one date. Um, and so I would just lean
on historical experts. Would we have chosen an earlier date had we not been stuck on July 1st? Or was July 1st the most aggressive it was going to be no matter what? I I really couldn't interject on that
because this was the first time we had ever done it. So there was no real timeline to know how that would shake out. And we did it during COVID which is a very different time for a lot of reasons than it is now. I mean when we when we talk about I think and Dr.
Campbell may be able to quote the number but there's of of superintendent since 2020 there's only like four or five left. And so this the culture of superintendent searches is so drastically different than it was five years ago. And
so I I I think we move forward. we button this up and we do the RFP and we select the firm. Uh I I think we're going to have a hard time picking a date, but that's just that's just my two cents. I'm not sure what we do about that. Like is there a way we can navigate the language to be a little bit
more flexible? Do we have to have a hard date? Attorney Powers can probably help us with that. I think I think for them to be able to give you know close estimate pricing to to then ultimately come up with in a contract with they they got to kind of know an end date so
that they can work from that date and know and and I think the end date that we had not think I know the reason we had that end date was one because of the the outgoing superintendent two so that they can in their advertisement to
prospective candidates those prospective candidates had an ideal date of that a date anticipated date that they could possibly start in that position especially um if they were coming from another district such as Dr. Gullet came from Nevada she kind of wanted to know
what date anticipated date to start if she was going to start here. So that helped them in their uh advertising of the position. All right. Thank you board members. Yes, Dr. Campbell. I would be completely fine with us actually moving on with the RFP
as presented with the exception of us figuring out right now what that start date is. So we actually are not delaying another two weeks before we send Mr. Collins on with a document. Uh because I believe the date may be about the only thing that really we know needs to be
changed. Then I would propose we certainly could do a July 1, 2026 date if we wanted. I would say honor before. So that way it gives us the flexibility to know that we have an interim superintendent who's under contract
until April 27th. What do we do? Put her monthtomonth after that? And that's right. But that's we could absolutely that's not been something we've discussed. Well, her contract allows it. Okay. But understood, but that's not something we've fully discussed what that look what a monthto-month contract
with a interimm superintendent looks like while it's actually allowable according to our contract. So, I would be completely fine with commissioning him to move on today and not waiting till June 5th to actually get this out and then we could say honor before July
1st, 2026. And so that way it gives us the flexibility if we're able to once we find the search firm say our ideal start date is actually in April or sooner or whatever. But, you know, this this is kind of the end all beall. Um the
interesting thing in 2020 obviously there was COVID that you didn't know whenever you were doing this actually other than what the board would have had chosen the final date of the elected superintendent would have been in November of 2020. So the board
made the decision to make it July 1 and worked backwards then to make sure that the elected superintendent was out June 30. So it wasn't a lot of negotiation. There was a lot of work and I I know you did all that work Reverend Cummings. So I I don't want to negate all the hard work you did, but actually the last date
of that superintendent would have been in November, right? So because she was still elected. Absolutely. So the board made that decision to choose July 1 based on fiscal year. I mean there's lots of things I think that matter for July 1. Um that an honor before date in
my opinion would work really well and we just go ahead and commission Mr. Collins to go on and put this out. That would be my recommendation. any I I'm I'm fine to proceed. Let's just get the process started. Okay. So,
I was not planning on that this morning, so I didn't bring like a calendar of board meetings. Be honest with you. I wasn't either. Um if we're if we're going to do that, then we kind of have to nail down the evaluation committee dates and the
possible dates for interviews. Um as well as what schoolboard meeting this would be going to. I just I'm going to I'm going to insert right here. This this is why I would like I would like for us to come back board in two weeks um with tasks we
need to have completed and be ready to discuss. Mr. Collins, could you maybe write us an email by the end of the day tomorrow with like the date ranges or frames and so we can come prepared to have public discourse together about scheduling those because that does need
to be included. Sure. Sure. Because otherwise, board, I just see we're going to have another three hours of conversation here this afternoon. I completely respect that. However, in the RFP, I don't see that. I I see the RFP specifically saying that the board will develop a calendar, but that's
after we've chosen the firm. So, like we can be working on that while the RFP is already out and we're selecting unless there's a section you want to direct us to that has specific dates in the RFP. Um in section on page five section three we have we list the time schedule um
because the evaluation committee meeting is a public meeting anybody can come listen to that so that has to be announced and advertised in advance. Sure. um at for the location, the time. Um interviews, that's another thing I was going to talk about. Uh if you do
select vendors uh to short list vendors to hold interviews with, those can be held out of the sunshine because um they have to be recorded obviously, but you don't want, you know, vendor A listening to vendor C um do their interview because, you know, they might find
something out that would be um not fair. So, uh, those would be held off the record. Um, I don't know if if you would want to do that at our office to where it's more, you know, a intimate setting or if you want to do it in here. That's up to y'all. Um, Mr. Collins, didn't the
last ones we did virtually? Am I correct? Well, that was probably because of co I couldn't I couldn't recall that. I did uh asked Mr. Christian that and he he he said they were virtual, too. So, they were virtual. My memory is not that good. So,
They were they were virtual. You know, these they're probably national companies, so it may be more advantageous to do that this go around when we could do it via teams. Um yeah, however, however y'all decide. Um let's see. Well, we got to pick all
those dates, right? So, I I can uh I will send y'all an email. I think that with what dates we need to it's best if you if you kind of work from a board approval date backwards and then just knowing the time frames, you know, that we leave it out for a month, give a a
week for y'all to evaluate them, that kind of thing. Um I think I think we need to listen to the chair and kind of come back and set those dates and that would be a good idea. Okay, I will I will send that to y'all via email. Um, so that's all that I really had as
far as timeline. Um, I was going to quickly discuss uh the potential vendors. I was obviously going to invite the ones that participated in the previous RFP to participate again and then obviously we'll be sending it out to all applicable uh commodity lists
within vendor link. Um, so maybe we'll get new players. Um, and then it'll obviously be advertised publicly on our purchasing website as well. Um, and then lastly, I was going to address just the cone of silence. Uh, just make sure that you're aware of that policy and, uh,
it'll it'll begin once we release the RFP publicly and it will be in place till the board uh, approves the process at the end. Um, any questions that come in, they the vendors will be directed to ask those questions within vendor link.
um depending on the question that's asked, if it's something that I can address that's not, you know, scope related, then I will obviously just address that and handle it um on your behalf, but if it's a scope related question, then I will have to pose that
to y'all. I don't know how how you want to go about that process being that you're the board. So, it makes it makes it a little, you know, harder. Um but maybe that's something I can discuss with Mr. Powers and we can work through that. But uh chair, I just have a
thought. Yes. Um I understand that Dr. Campbell is looking for us to get it done as am I. I just occurred to me when you said cone of silence that we're going to FSBA conference in three weeks. And so would it be most appropriate for this to go live after we attend a
multiple day conference for FSBA? I certainly wouldn't want a potential us to have all been for days at an FSBA conference. and they are I mean it's been mentioned at least by Dr. Campbell that they are an interested participant and so I I would I would really not want
us to be in a position where we were in an cone of silence but also at FSBA conference. Um but then that puts the publication obviously after conference ends which is the second week in June. So that's just a thought I had when cone of silence got mentioned which maybe
didn't happen last time. I don't know Reverend Cummings or B Thorough would have to share but do you remember the con the con silence wasn't the issue um the last time um FSBA was one of the the vendors that put
in that did RF RFP um so it didn't it never became an issue but you didn't go to conference during the RFP yes we did oh you did okay you did but you don't talk about it yeah you just don't well I understand the rules obviously but I'm
thinking more the perception from the community because the RFP was submitted in March of 2019. Correct. That's when we released it. That's when they released it. Well, then you wouldn't have gone to conference. Summer conference conference until June. We went to summer conference and we didn't choose them until when
June 11th is what the date the scheduled board date was June 11th. Yeah. So that was the that was the Tuesday of the week of conference. So you voted on it before you went to conference. Yeah. Yes. Board member. I'm just, you know, that that why waste two weeks if if we
can backward plan. I mean, our schoolboard meetings, we know when they typically occur and we're only talking about one, two, three, four, you know, what, three, six, seven dates? Um, would it be possible to get the timeline to attorney powers and then he could give
it to us during his board comments on Tuesday night so we can get moving with this? Because the R the RFP is the RFP. You had mentioned board member Campbell about a couple of specific additions, but but we can ask about, you know, we can we can say that that's what we want.
You know, that what you were talking about is is pretty basic to a search. I just would like if we're going to do this, I'd like to get moving on it and give ourselves as much time as as we can. Okay. So, we need to we need to come to consensus on what we're going to do
here. I'm fine with getting some dates emailed to us and having time to look at our calendars and solidifying this in two weeks. That's what I'm fine with. And I'm also would like guidance because last year, last time this was done, we were not at FSBA conference and I have
hesitation to go to FSBA conference in the middle of an RFP. Okay, I'll get clarifi I will get clarifications on that and have um Attorney Powers brief send a brief to each board member. Reverend Cummings, what's your preference? It's either it's
fine. They can they can email us the dates, potential dates. That's fine. I don't care. Okay. Email the dates. And they and the evaluation meeting. I mean, that would be a special meeting, right? You don't want to try to schedule that at a already scheduled work session. Are
you going to have a special meeting strictly for the RFP evaluation? There was a special meeting. I thought I I think that's what we did the last time. I think it deserves its own. It deserves Yeah. Okay. Yeah, just for that, right? Okay. So, maybe list out three potential
dates in a week, right? Um and then y'all can discuss it at the meeting. Okay. And just I'll say as far as FSBA is concerned, um one of us, that is me, is not going at all because of the wedding. Um some of us are only driving down and driving back. Others are going
to be there longer. So, you know, it's not the hill I'm going to die on. But, uh, we've had many things happen in the past where we've all been together down there and we're on our honor not to be discussing things. Well, I think my what I'm bringing up is not not being an
environment with the vendor. It's not about us. We go places all the time and don't discuss things. What I'm saying is we're in the house of the vendor who would be applying. That's that's say she won't uh the vendor won't approach us about anything. I understand. And I just think the community likes to take
opportunity when it looks like the waters could be muddy. And so it's the point I'm trying to make. Okay. Mr. Collins, do you have clarity on where we're headed? Send you an email as soon as I can. Tomorrow possibly um
with potential dates, uh release date, meeting dates, and a potential board approval date. Okay. And and let me mad chair, let me add one more thing to that. We did not um and Mr. Thor, you you'll you'll remember this. We did not
go to FSBA conference during that time. However, we were in FSBA training during that time because we're doing masterboard training. So, they were here. So, the vendor, that potential vendor was still in in our presence and we didn't violate the code of signals.
All right. Thank you for that clarification. anything for and if a vendor does a you know try to talk about it then that's grounds for for them to be thrown out. Correct. So all right that's pretty clear. It is clear and I'm not I'm just not that interested in adjusting our time frame when we're
already compressed because of someone else's poor professionalism. I I'm already scheduled to be out the week of July 4th. Um so if depending on how the opening date falls um I still like when we can the district is on I think is out
that week. So we'll take that into we'll work around that you know possibly put some language in the RFP to say you know no questions will be addressed during this time frame or something like that. Okay. All right. Well thank you very much Mr. Collins for being here with us
today all day long and also thank you for the time that you spent on the phone with me over the last couple of weeks. So, I appreciate you being here today and helping us get started. Yes, ma'am. So, just for my clarity, too, y'all will I'll send you the email. Y'all will discuss this Tuesday night. So, I I
don't need to be prepared to come back to the next work session. If we get the dates established, I can release it and I'm Yep. good to move forward. I'll touch base with you after Tuesday just to make sure. Okay. All right. All right. Thank you so much. Thank you.
Is there any public comment? Okay, seeing none, board, we have another agenda item that is um superintendent search discussion. Does anybody have anything they want to add uh to what we've already discussed today? You're talking about comments?
Yes. Well, no, just that was a placeholder. Yeah, it was a placeholder, but we um we had a request for to be very specific about the topics we were going to discuss. So I just want to say is there anything separate that you want to share about the superintendent
search? Okay. Any comments about the about the superintendent search? Okay. Seeing none, I'm going to move on to meeting reminders. There is a special school board meeting scheduled for June 5th, 2025 at 700 a.m. The next
administrative briefing and work session is scheduled for June 5th, 2025 at 9:00 a.m. Our next regularly scheduled schoolboard meeting is scheduled on June 10th, 2025 at 5:30 p.m. And with that, we'll go into board comments. Miss
Martinez Young. No, Madam Chair. Thank you. Okay. Thank you, Dr. James. Uh, thank you. I just have um a quick question, chair, and then a comment. Um because I've already received
communication from a school um leader. Are we opening up school staffing plans on the 5th or are we not opening up school staffing plans on the 5th? Did we make a decision on that? I don't think we made a decision on that.
I don't did we did the board I mean I know I know Dr. Campbell had an ask. Um I don't know. I do you want to chime in on that? I think there's definitely um uncertainty in the air at schools
because it could be people and positions and so school ends obviously next Thursday. So the next time we meet is after school is out. So, if we're going to make changes to site site staffing plans, it will be
once school is out. Um, and so I think we need to know, are we talking about it next Thursday? And if we're not talking about next Thursday, then goodness, are we talking it about it later in June? So, I personally would not like to discuss it until we have central office
handled. But I agree with that. I'd like to get through the central office staffing plan and then come to a conclusion after that board. Then I would recommend it's an agenda item and then another agenda item. So we get central staffing plan figured out and
then a couple of items later we talk about school staffing plans if that's the direction that we want to go. I will maintain that in a right to work state positions can be eliminated and and I understand that that's causing people angst and confusion and all the concerns, but we need to be honest about
the budget that we're looking at right now and it is not pretty and and I know that there are other districts I've seen a video out of Lake County where they're being very transparent about all the cuts that they're going to have to make because of how bad their budget looks and we're one district that isn't doing
that. And so I from this seat I'm saying we need to have those conversations. So chair I just want to know the direction so that the community can understand what it looks like. That's all I'm asking. And then I have one other comment. So I'll let you lead the discussion. Just give me one moment and let me get input from each board
member. Yeah. Yes. Board member Thrower. If I recall I believe it was our incoming interim superintendent that made that request. She did open. Yes. Okay. Thank you for that reminder. Board member Thrower. So I'm you're in favor
of that. I will support it because she has her reasons. Thank you. Board member Thrower. Reverend Cummings. He's nodding. He's in support. Dr. James, what I'm hearing is we will have um that will be up for discussion. Okay. Then my request it would just be agenda as Dr. Campbell mentioned after the central office staffing. Okay. So we can at
least have that discussion first. So then my only other remark board um we had a discussion about beyond forom two weeks ago in our work session and we talked about what we were doing and I think the majority of the board has shared we we weren't really super excited about what happened this year
and we want it to be better for next year but I want to make sure that everyone all of the board members are aware that after that meeting concluded and I don't think this was the direction that we intended but it was brought to my attention this morning that the students who were left in the
beyond forom group were then put on the waiting list at sites ahead of siblings. So they they may have been seventh on the list at Jones or Madison and they got moved to number one ahead
of the siblings that are attending that school. And I'm not sure that that was the direction the board went. I feel confident that wasn't the direction that I shared. at least I'm almost positive of that. And furthermore, the principles of those sites were not told that that
was happening. So, um I I guess Chair Conrad, I'm requesting that maybe you can dig into exactly what's going on there. But site principles were not made aware those kids were being placed and
jumped ahead of siblings. And now those principles are having to have discussions with the siblings parents who now are lower on the waiting list because other students have been placed ahead of them. And I don't believe that was the direction the board gave. And maybe if the board wants to weigh in, but that's not what I heard from that
discussion last two Thursdays ago. Um, and so we all understand how hot uh getting into choice schools is and so I wanted to make sure everyone was aware. Uh thank you Dr. James for sharing. Um and
we did have um I did mention that we'd make sure that that for next year is a work session. Um the last update I received was with Dr. Brewer and I'm trying to recollect. I don't I don't believe that specifically was shared,
but that what I was told board members is that they were on a waiting list and so they were working on getting them into their third choice. That was the last update I received as the chair. So, I will follow up um and ask that you all
be briefed on um what is happening there. Okay. Thank you. All right. Remington comments. Oh, no comments. Other than graduation, we're in graduation. We're in graduation season. Um yesterday was good at Hillrest. I'm sorry. Yesterday was good
at Hillrest. Westport is Saturday morning. Not Westport. Belleview. Belleview is Saturday morning. And again, the biggest and we can't change it, but we're getting a lot of heat about Vanguard and Forest at the same time. Um, we have to do better. We
cannot um divide families, right? We can't do that. I agree. That's it. All right. Thank you, Reverend Cummings. Board member Thrower. Thank you. I'll just quickly echo that as always. Um, Hillrest was just one of the most
heartwarming events. Uh, their graduation always is. And it's especially uh, poignant, you know, this year as I was reflecting that I think it was my 21st graduation. Um, and so it's getting to the point where I don't recognize as
many of the kids as I used to. They're there a long time, but um, you know, they they they grow up for sure. So, continue to do what you need to do. students. Um, your time's really winding down now. I think I said we were in the home stretch uh at the school board
meeting and uh now we're at the eighth pole. So, um, but there's I'm getting I'm getting messages that kids are making it happen. They're still making it happen and they may have to change graduation colors, but uh they're they're they're going to walk. So, um,
my my heart and prayers go out to them and their families that they're able to get it done. That's all. Right. Thank you, board member Thrower. Dr. Campbell. Thank you. I just have one comment and it's hopefully not going to belabor us and we can we can determine if we want to have this conversation another date.
Uh, but I actually mentioned this a couple of weeks ago based on a conversation city council was having. And I'm going to give you the biggest ironic thing that happened this week board while we've been talking all of this money. uh on Tuesday at 11:23 a.m.
Somehow I inadvertently got the invoice for our C membership. So I know I had brought it up. City council was talking about the C and if they were going to pay all the money that they and somehow it was sent to Allison Campbell instead of whomever
normally gets it. So I don't have any idea how that happened, but I thought it would give us at least the opportunity to say the cost that the school board has been paying. Actually, it comes, I think, through Marian Technical Colleg's budget. MTC MTC pays for it, but we
obviously oversee that budget in part as well. We have to approve it. Um, it is a $5,000 semianual membership. So, we are actually paying $10,000 a year to be a member of the C. I don't know if while we're having cost-saving measures and we're talking about it and we're opening
everything up, if we also want to say what does it look like if we were only at a $5,000 level or at a $7,500 level or if we're cutting I I just wanted to open that up to the board if we want to bring it up for a later conversation. We certainly can. I don't know what those other partnership levels look like, but
I don't know if we need to pay $10,000 to pay to play. That's just my input. So I I think I think we'll add that to another agenda item. Um I do I can share with you that I know that it has been discussed with Dr. Gullet and Mr. Small
Ridge spent quite a bit of time discussing it last year um and the value um you know of our you know of our technical college and um anyway so there's a lot to discuss there and a lot to unpack about are we getting the most
bang for our buck. So, um, if I can just add one thought, uh, what I will tell you only because I have a my business has a membership that I have, um, looking to make changes on personally. Um, when you pay monthly or semiannually, you're going to pay the
money no matter what. So, the only time to cancel is at your renewal. So, if we're not at if this is not the renewal invoice and it's the middle of the year invoice, there's nothing we're going to do about it right now. So, this is the renewal. It says renewal partner semianually 50 or $5,000 total due June
1st. Okay. So, it'd be interesting to know whether it's the re like if if that's if the renewal means it's starting our date is that or not. I'm just be interested to know um because that is something I learned. All right. Well, thank you very much. Thank you, Dr. Campbell, for bringing that forward.
I will um I guess you'll forward that to who it needs to go to. I guess I um I'm assuming at the information, right? Yeah. I don't I don't know who it maybe we can talk about it again on Tuesday night. I know I brought it up in board comments. May y'all bring it up again in board comments if I learn more information if if that's okay with you
all. Dr. Camel, is that something that the attorney can send to all of us? Um I can certainly send it to attorney powers and ask him to do that. Thank you. I I I I think that isn't it Mr. Smallidge's site decision? I mean, it's his budget.
It's his budget and it's his money. So, I'm not sure that it's I think we can weigh in on our thought pattern on it, but I think it's Mr. Small Ridg's decision just like we empower other principles to make sitebased decisions about their what they spend their mentoring on or how they spend their
title money. So, I I'm not against I I I have feelings um but I think that it's ultimately Mr. Small's decision. So, well, and it it previously was discussed as a partnership. I know that Dr. Dr. Gullet and Mr. Small Ridge. So, we need
to give Dr. Brewer the opportunity to visit uh with Mr. Small Ridge and for them to weigh in on on their thoughts. Also, there may be benefits that we're unaware aware of. So, anyway, with that, um I will just wrap up with saying thank
you uh to our staff. Um good luck to our What's that? I did I did do miss throwing. Okay. Um thank you to our staff. That memorable. Good luck to all of our students. be safe. Um, as we do enter into this
graduation season, we look forward to shaking your hands and celebrating with you as you step into this uh, new part of your journey. And so with that, we will adjourn at 2:24. Thank you. [Music]