e e e e e e the Martin County school board meeting is called to order please take your seats I would like to call Pastor James
harp to give us the invitation please Our Father who art in heaven Hallowed Be Your Name may your kingdom come and your will be done on Earth as it is in heaven and right here as it is in heaven may
your will be done Lord we ask you to be with this meeting today we ask that you would give Your Divine wisdom and guidance Lord we thank you for each one that's here and the reasons they're here today is because they care they care God
about their children their school and so God we thank you that you care about what we care about and so God we just commit this meeting into your hands I pray today as I pray frequently Lord for protection I pray that you'd be with our
students our teachers our administrators faculty uh those who take care of the the grounds and the buildings Lord everyone that has anything to do uh with Martin County Schools God I ask you your blessing to be upon them and your
protection Lord to be upon them as well Lord there's decisions that need to be made today and we do ask that you would give that wisdom you tell us in your scriptures Lord that if anyone lacks wisdom that we're to ask in faith in believing God and that you will give
wisdom to those who ask in faith so I I pray that today Father and again I thank you for this privilege of being able to pray to pray a blessing upon each one that's here those that may be watching online all that are affiliated and Associated Lord with our schools we thank you God
for what you're doing we thank you for who you are Christ's name I pray amen amen pledge of allegiance of the United States of America and to the Republic for which it
stands one nation under God indivisible with liberty and justice for all we are waiting for the um Stuart Middle School ban to arrive they had a little Transportation issue so we are going to go a little bit out of order so miss
Falls would you call the role please Dr morard here Mrs Roberts here Mrs Powers here Mrs Russell here Mrs pritchet here he I'm going to ask for approval of
the agenda and addendum with the following following items added 7.03 items updated 4.03 9.01 9.02 18.03
18. 08 and 19.01.2016 all in favor I I okay so now I would like to ask
for um let's see we are going to move up uh our agenda we're going to do first review of school board policy with um Don Calderon
agenda cons oh I apologize you can still come up I need a motion to approve the consent agenda so I moved 11 through or 3 through 11 uh motion by Miss Roberts second by
Miss Russell all in favor I I mov okay good afternoon Madam chair members of the board superintendent Maine I am Don C own director of risk management and employee benefits with the Martin County School District and I am here
today to continue the discussion uh regarding board policy 6560 which is the we met at the February 4th board workshop and the consensus of the board at that time was to um ensure that
anybody that has already retired retired or will retire by June 30th 2025 that the policy that has been in place since November of 2015 will continue to be in
place in full effect for those people so remember we're talking about two buckets of people right the um retirees that are under age 65 and the retirees that are over the age of 65 so um before you is the board policy
6560 With The Changes um that have been made um for your first review here today um and that encompasses what the board consensus was at that February 4th Workshop so you can clearly see
that this policy refers to employees that have retired or will retire by June 30th 2025 and the changes have been um highlighted in green and for the years of service
contribution um still the same as it has always been um except that the um percentage of the contribution based on the active contribution of medical insurance um has just been changed to a dollar amount and that dollar amount is
the same um as it has been based on the $6,500 okay and then if you scroll down um for the next bucket of people that we've been talking about is the retirees that are over age 65 um the board um consensus was to
ensure that those retirees that are over 65 continue to receive the same benefit um based in the form of the Martin County health insurance subsidy as they have been since the policy went to effect in in November of 2015 so all we
did there was um just made some minor changes highlighted in green that says if you retired between December 31st 2015 and June 30th 20125 you will still receive that health insurance subsidy for $5 for every year
of service up to 30 years um paid out each month to you um with no end date so it it goes through until the retirees um passing um so any questions from the
board based on on that so I was just going to say on the 6,500 using that dollar amount what if it changes well that would be the the board's discretion is if they wanted to to
increase that amount um it's been $6,500 I believe since the policy went into effect so um I would I would suggest that we cap it at the 6,500 a percentage of a a maximum of 6,500 and
then if it goes down if the ma if for whatever reason it goes down I don't anticipate that it ever would um given the way Insurance costs are but then we would um use the lesser of 6,500 or whatever the max
contribution we're making to our current employees if it's lower so I think we can do that with the sentence at the end of that section dawn after you say d 30e 6500
if you added a sentence in there that said the 6,500 is the maximum based on the amount that is being paid currently or being paid to um active employees this would be the maximum amount that would be paid that
if the amount that's paid to active employees goes down um well every percentage would change then it would then it would revert to the percentages I mean I yeah because it's if it's a percentage of 6500 these are the numbers but if it
were a percentage of 5,000 every number would change not just the 6500 so we need to create the maximum of the maximum the percentages are based on a maximum of
$6,500 and then or the if if it the maximum if the 6,500 were to decrease for our current employees then that would it would be based on the lesser of the two yeah but the percentage languages come out completely The
Proposal I think it just needs to say it is capped at $6,500 it's very simple if that's okay it's going to be capped at $6,500 right but if the percentage we're not doing percentages
though we're we're we're not naming percentages they are coming out I think what except that the it it is a percentage of this so if the number goes down it's not going to be 1625 for a person employed it's going
that's going to go down as well so they wouldn't be subject to the maximum so if we just put that language the first a b and c wouldn't would never change it would only be this maximum 30-year retirees that would see a change theirs
would go down but nobody else's would if we don't put the right language in there yeah so I just think if you had a in the event that the the board contribution to active employe Contra active employee in health insurance decreases from
$6,500 um retirees will be paid a percentage of the lesser amount based on years of service based on years of service and then put in the um 15 years 25% and do it that way I think if you did that then it just a one sentence
piece so you're just figuring I don't really think it's ever going to go down from the 6500 but I see your point of um doing it that way yeah okay it I had one other and so this um
the the originally posted agenda item that had this um was not contemplating the possibility of crossing over for instance a a retiree who is currently getting under the age of 65 who's currently getting the 6,500 or whatever
percentage thereof who within the next couple of years or whenever transitions into Medicare and then would be able to get the Martin County health insurance subsidy which would then plus the state subsidy um so this new language that is
in the updated version of the agenda which is the language that is here now in front of us um is language that takes care of that um correct yeah there was a clerical error on the um posted policy um it was
updated this morning with the correct language that basically States if you're current retire and you're 63 years old Once you turn 65 you would still receive the $5 per month for your service until you pass away y so this would maintain everything exactly the same if you're if
you're currently retired or retired before June 30th of 2025 it's exactly the same as how it's been for the last um 10 years exactly yes yep I would just want to also make sure that people know that this this policy
as it's written now only applies to people that are currently retired or that will retire there will be another policy that will apply to our active employees that will retire in the
future yes or it will be added to this I don't know how if we do a separate policy because I don't know what that is like but I know we have until June 30th to get the language right and it's extremely complicated just in the
discussions that we've had so we need to make sure that we have our all of our dates right and I know we were waiting for um Mr Harmon the to weigh in on that as well so this policy that we're talking about
tonight only applies to current retired former employees not our current employees that will retire after June 30th of 2025 yes perfectly stated thank you thank you so are you looking for approval for
the advertising thing or you would be taking public comment before you that Mr George do we have to have public comment before an advertising review approval you do not have to it's your discretion whether you want
to I can't hear I'm sorry I can't hear you sorry it's okay may I have a motion to approve uh policy 6560 with the changes that we stated today so move for the advertising review
second motion by Miss Roberts second by Miss Powers all those in favor I I opposed um for to one with Dr marior dissenting okay would you like me to proceed um or
is the is the band here okay let's let them you can take a a break and I'm ju they have to set up it's going to take a few minutes so we're going to just take a very short recess while the band sets
up give them a little time time thank you e e e e e e e e e
we're back we're back in session can everyone take their seats and give the Stuart Middle School Bandon opportunity I would like to welcome the Stuart Middle School band under the direction of Emily Roberts aspect and one of the
members will be introducing the song selections so take it away thank you ma' good evening the songs we'll be playing tonight are the theme from Spider-Man followed by the chicken I hope you all enjoy
w [Music] la
[Music]
w w [Music] la
[Music]
uh [Music] sh
[Music]
[Applause] [Music] a
[Music]
thank you so much let's give it a round of applause again for the Stewart Middle School band thank you so much we're going to let them clear out for okay Mr Calderone you're back up okay I'd rather listen to the music
myself but um okay so just to reiterate for um the the people that are in the audience because I know we had some people that were just entering um and then for everybody watching um at home um the board is in agreement that
they're going to continue this policy if you were retired or will retire by June 30th 2025 it will be the same structure as it has been for you since the board created the policy back in 2015 okay
so the next um thing we're going to talk about is we're going to talk about some different options for the groups of people that the board wanted to discuss for those that will retire after June 30th 2025 so that we're looking at
options for those that retire July 1st 2025 and Beyond um I skip the the first SL because we just went over that with um the discussion of the policy so um at the February 4th Workshop there was um
some additional information that the board requested and they wanted to look at information regarding uh three groups of people um employees that are in the pension plan that are currently in the
drop program and they asked to have any uh enrollment in that updated because we were looking at uh enrollment as of September 2024 it's February 2025 so we went ahead and did that um we also wanted to take a look at two groups of people that we haven't um discussed
previously um those that are in the pension plan but that are not currently in drop and then those employees that are in the investment plan so um you know for those that are
not in the drop program that are in the pension plan and those that are in the investment plan it's difficult to um have a crystal ball and figure out when they're going to retire so we did have to make some assumptions in um the data that we're going to present to you here
um I have these laid out here but um basically what we're talking about is um you know if you're under 65 years old we're assuming that you're going to retire after 30 years of service because 30 years is a magic number as um as outlined in that board policy that's
when you get the large contribution towards your retire health insurance um and then some other assumptions are that if you're over um 65 that you will retire um when you get to that age um
when you hit that years of service um when we start talking about options for retirees that are over the age of 65 um we made some assumptions we actually uh researched what the average life expectancy in the State of Florida is and that's 80 years old and um the last
thing that we um had to take a look at was um you know how far out we're going to take a look at this so we we are um going out about 14 years until June 30th 2039 and we use that number for a
specific reason and we'll we'll show you that when we get to that um that slide there okay so just an update um for employees that are in the pension plan uh we reran the numbers and these are the people that are in drop okay so
as of February 4th we reran the numbers we have 88 employees that are in the pension plan in drop so we know um based on that drop end date when they literally have to retire they could retire before that point uh but they do
have to retire at that date um for this exercise we go we are going to be assuming that they work until their drop end date um right now we have 88 current employees in drop 24 of them are currently over the age of 65 64 are
under the age of 65 and coincidentally enough exactly half will be under the age of 65 when their drop period ends and half will be over 65 the next group of people that we are going to be looking at are those active
employees that are in the pension plan but have not entered drop yet they they may or they may not it's their own personal decision um overall we have, 1500 employees working at the school district that are in the pension plan um for this purpose for this exercise we
are looking at those that are between the ages of 50 and 64 so out of that 1500 we have 616 employees that are between the ages of 50 and 64 and and we have uh 76 employees that are over the
age of 65 okay and the last group of people um are those that are in the investment plan so um the investment plan is another F FRS option for active employees we have 990 that are currently
enrolled and 300 of those employees are between the ages of 50 and 64 71 of them are already over the age of 65 okay um so we we have some estimated costs here we broke it down um between
now and the next 15 years as of June 30th 2039 taking a look at those three buckets of people um estimated costs is about 71,000 for those that are in drop um 7.9 million is um a an estimate of
what it costs um for retire health insurance for those that are in the pension plan not and drop that are between the ages of 50 and 64 and 844 th000 is the cost for those that are in the investment plan uh between the ages of 50 and
64 so that is the assumptions we've made that's the general costs um so what we have here before the board is we have um six options
trying to capture everything I'm doing the best I can here um but we have six options for the board to consider um for employees that are under the age of 65 and we do have it broken down into those
three buckets of people um the first bucket of people that we're going to discuss are those that are currently in the job program okay that are under 65 so um options a through f are outlined here option A is kind of what we call
the do nothing uh plan or do do nothing option so for option A you'll see that um you will continue the current arrangement of funding the retire health insurance for those that are under the age of
65 forever and ever there's no end date there but for the purpose of this exercise we do have the last year where there's um a budget allocated to that um through June 30th
2038 because we know based on the employees that are in the drop program that um those employees the last employee that would would be receiving um a retiree health insurance contribution based on their age would be
in the year 20138 okay so just kind of keep that in mind um and then for option b we took a look at if you kept it the same Arrangement based on the um the money that is allocated towards contribution
based on years of service if you end it in five years in 2030 option C same thing goes out to 2035 so it's a 10-year Lookout um option D is to keep everything the same the same Arrangement the same funding
arrangement for those under 65 but end it on June 30th 2038 and you'll see here that option D is the the cost of 71,000 is the same as that in option A however option D ends
that retiree health insurance contribution to those retirees under the age of 65 on June 30th 2038 so what that would allow is that anybody that is currently in drop or um yeah that is currently in drop they will
not be negatively affected at all so it would keep the funding for those employees under the age of 65 the same until June 30th 2038 then after June 30th 2038 um there's no line there for 3839
cost because we would end it on July 1st 2038 um option e is a option that just takes a look at seeing well what if we um incentivized the um the years of service
between 20 and 29 years and 30 years um just a little playing with the numbers a little bit um it basically doesn't do anything it's the same cost um because what we find is that the majority of people retire between the years of
service 20 to 30 and then option F was um just another option that just took a look at um paying a retiree uh bonus like an incentive when they retire rather than doing a health insurance uh contribution um we have it based on
years of service and um if the board was interested in that that would be the cost um the cost payout would be when those employees actually retire you would pay it out um 7,500 if they worked here between 20 and 29 years 12,500 if
they work 30 years or more um so those are the six options and we present uh we have in the additional slides the cost for each of those buckets of people um the next slide would look at those that
are um in the pension plan but not in drop and then the third one would be um those that are in the investment plan as well so um that's kind of the the budget um
Lookout of those that are under h65 happy to answer any questions you may have Mr calone and do you have a staff recommendation for each of these three buckets I do um my my recom our staff
recommendation would be option D for each three of those buckets of people and the reason being is because for if you chose option D those that are currently in drop there would be no employees negatively impacted it would cover every body in drop they would
still be getting the same contribution um based on the board policy if you change that end dat to 2038 that they were thinking they were getting when they entered into drop um and then um for those that maybe
are not in the um the drop program just yet but they're they are in the pension plan um you can see option D here for these group of people um it's the the total savings is only $175,000 to the district um it only
would negatively affect 27 employees um and then option uh D for those that are in the investment plan um between the ages of 50 and 64 um it would basically make all of those employees whole um except for just
three of them so it does it the least amount of um negative impact to those employees and it also gives employees um a 13-year kind of window to take a look at what their options are and to plan
and you know giving them 13 years Lookout and when you combine the 13 years from now and add it to the 10 years that the board policy has been in place um it's it's quite a bit of time that would be my staff recommendation
for under 65 retire health insurance um this is a question for Carter um so I know that in a lot of The Correspondents that I've been getting there have been a lot of um comments about how our neighbors to the north and
to the South their salaries are you know people could employees could be leaving and going to the North and the South to get more money um and I also know that the tsia money that the governor has put out there has kind of equalized that
playing field so I was just wondering if you have those numbers on the top of your head that if I came to the district with say zero years of experience or five years of experience as a teacher and I was coming to work do you have I'm sorry to put you on the spot like that
but do you have the number that if I came what's the difference if I came to the Martin County School District as opposed to going to my neighbor to the North or the South what I can answer is that um yes over the last several years we have made a a
Herculean effort to put more monies into the base salaries particular for teachers using the governor's money uh from the teacher salary increase allocation plus our own local dollars just this year alone we we pledged over $1.3 million it was uh very good to know
at the table that the very first session that we had with mcea we we came to an agreement on on pretty much largely the wage issue um if I can just get a moment to pull up my spreadsheet I will tell you just from memory that a new teacher in the
district um The Experience placement schedule will then will now put them at $1,345 years of experience Etc up the scale I will have to get those numbers for you if you would just bear with me for a second appreciate that and and I guess you know the number of what it is
if I went to Palm Beach or to St Lucy County I don't have those updated numbers with me at this time but I can certainly get that for you subsequent to the meeting okay thank you okay while Carter is doing that could
you explain the other 66 districts and what they are um giving to their employees in retire health benefits right so there's 67 um districts in the State of Florida um our department is part of um a Florida Educational risk
management Association which is made up of directors of risk management employee benefits in the school districts public school districts in Florida we we did a survey uh request and we asked all 67 of those members to please provide us
information on how you contribute to your contribute to over 65 okay um for under 65 we found two school districts that do um Madison County School District they give their retirees $100 off per month
for retire health insurance for one year and Swan County um does something similar to what we do um you have to have at least 20 years of experience with the district um you do receive the same contribution as as an active
employee however whatever F FRS is giving you they shave that off of their contribution so it's less and you only get it for five years so um from a recruit from a retention standpoint I feel like option D will keep um employees that are
currently working here um it gives them an incentive to stay here because we would contribute to their retire health insurance under 65 uh for another 13 years thank
you um Mr main I know that you meet for Labor Relations meetings with our various um entities and I was just wondering if in any of those meetings any of them have weighed in on their feelings on retire health
insurance um just just the thought that retiree health insurance is is continuing to go up and this is something that often times surprises them when I'm able to speak at the table that this is something that we've even provided or remotely get close to providing for our employees um it is
something that other school districts would even remotely be considering at this time given the current state of finances throughout uh many of the districts um I believe that option D being the most imp employee friendly and giving them an additional 13 years of
payout and to be able to provide another op you know go a different direction after 13 years is more than than fair and Equitable uh while also keeping that employee the the employees first in mind as we move forward um out of 67 districts in the State of Florida you'd
be hard pressed out of the 22 that did respond in my collaboration with other superintendents I'm not sure other than those other two that there are any that provide or contribute to their retiree Insurance thank you
M chair thank you for recognizing me yes based on the experience placement schedule as I mentioned with teacher with uh brand new teacher to the district would be starting at 51,0 34 5 years would be 51 385 10 years
would be 51823 15 years 52 349 20 years 54 398 and up to 30 years 5978 I just want to make the point also that this is just for new folks coming
in but those who are already with us have had the benefit of those raises compounding over time as well as just to point out that the board also um has an agreement with mcea regarding the millage funds that they also receive on
top of that and in closing just to reiterate and support um Mr calderon's Point um we I had also a conversation with the actuaries today uh regarding the actuar liability that's carried on our balance sheet with respect to some of these items and they also were
hardpressed to think of um clients that they had that still do this um so I just wanted to also put that in front of the board as well thank you you can proceed okay thank you okay um so let's take a look at at
um estimated cost for for future retirees over age 65 looking at a 15-year window through June 30th 2039 um based on the assumptions we listed on page three we're expecting for over
65 um the cost of um retire health insurance for those employees in the pension drop to be about 99,000 uh for those that are in the F FRS pension but not entered drop 3.2 milon
8420 for those that are in the investment plan so um remember over 65 is a different bucket of people so once you hit 65 the way that the policy is currently written and if you've retired prior to June 30th
2025 um the board gives you $5 per month per year service with a 30-year maximum so this one we have four options here options a through D option A is the make no changes you keep it at $5 per year
service each month with a 30-year Max with no end date in sight keep it on forever and ever um we have that listed um based on those that are currently in drop over 65 um the total cost would be
999,000 through the 3839 year um if you were to continue it after July 1st 2025 to for those that are retire and turn 65 5 um if you change it to 250 a month
drop it down it's 456,000 uh option C is the option where if you retire after the age of 65 after July 1st there is no longer a Martin County health insurance subsidy um paid out um the savings is uh
95,000 because the contributions start the contributions end excuse me the subsidy ends and then option D is if you took a look at considering um a retiree uh payout a one-time bonus payout based
on years of service and we did the same exercise and estimates for those that are in the pension plan but not in drop over 65 and those that are in the investment plan over 65 options a through
D and what is your Rec recommendation on the over 65 uh for new retirees that retire after July 1st 2025 that are 65 the staff recommends option C to no longer provide that because none of the
other school districts in the area are doing that um we just feel like between the F FRS um contribution and the cost of Medicare and the supplements that um that option C would would be the
staff recommendation we discussion about this I should just leave it on yeah it's okay I'm asking for a motion to take staff's recommendation and uh go with option C for uh those who are retiring
after June 30th 2025 for for over 65 for over 65 so let me understand your three pieces first so the staff recommendation for the the under 65 that are currently in
drop right yes is a recommendation of number of letter D correct yes d as in dog which means that that will continue so whe if I'm in drop um right now that
will continue and I will continue to get if I happen to be have 30 years of service and be very very young um with D I would continue to get payments through 20 38 through June of
2038 and so if I'm under age 65 and I am in drop and I'm going to be um 65 in two years I would be treated just the same way that the retirees are being treated correct as far as that the
um 6,500 goes correct yes um and then the people the recommendation for the people that are under 65 that are not in drop which includes um Pension Plan people who
didn't join up with drop and includes investment plan people who don't have the ability to be in drop the recommendation is also D to treat those the same and have a a Sunset date on that of
June 2038 yes which means that anybody who is um who would retire under the age of 65 anybody whose birthday puts them the the people that it negatively impacts are
people who will not be 65 by 2038 and who retire before then correct so for instance if if I if I'm going to turn 65 in 2040 right as an
example right right right and then I retire I have 30 years of experience and I retire tomorrow I will get 6,500 through June of 38 correct but I will miss a couple of years correct correct that's who I would name okay and then
your third recommendation is for the Martin County health insurance subsidy and your recommendation for that is item is letter C for over 65 which means that anybody
over the age of 65 who does who is not a current retiree would not be getting a health insurance subsidy correct correct okay thank you I just I'll make a motion to do all three
of those then to treat the under 65 people in drop with letter D to treat the under 65 people not drop meaning they're on the pension plan or the investment plan um recommendation
D and for the people over the age of 65 as far as the Martin County health insurance subsidy goes to use recommendation C that's my we make those as separate motions or oh if you want me to yeah okay so I'll make a motion for
the first one for under 65 people in drop um letter D second Miss Roberts motion Miss po second all those in
favor I I all those opposed motion carries next motion under 65 not in drop meaning you're in the pension plan or investment plan but you have't indicated or signed up for drop um for that group
of people item d that's my motion second motion by Miss Roberts second by Miss Powers all those in favor I all those opposed motion carries unanimously item three for the people
who are over 65 as far as the Martin County health insurance subsidy for retirees retiring after the date of June 30 2025 item um selection C that's my motion second motion by Miss Roberts second by
Miss Powers all those in favor I all those opposed opposed uh motion carries with do marior dissenting 4 to one oh I'm sorry and uh um
3-2 Miss Russell and Dr Mari Ari presenting so then it's my understanding now that these will go um through the attorney to have the correct policy written which
would drive this and then we will have a first advertising review correct Miss Falls when if anybody wanted to talk about it again we can talk about it again we could make changes at that time to the policy if we so chose to if there
were no changes to the policy or at that time or if changes were made it then goes to the final review and then the final review is a public hearing people can talk about it again and when it if it is approved at the final no changes can be made at the final hearing at the
final hearing it's either accepting that or going back to a new advertising review is that correct and all that has to be done before June 30th well I don't think it necess yeah it has to be done by June 30th in order to cover the people who retire after
June 30th thank you thank you thank you we are going to move to board member discussion Madam chair It's Five O'Clock we have public comment oh sure okay I'm
G to call your name and then I'm going to call who comes after you Colette Hensen Rivera followed by Tom Higgins good afternoon okay um last week my son came
home from school um can you read this um sorry UNC consolable saing coming off the bus uh the bus staff as well as my son said that his par professional h him uh HT my son Hudson my son cried and
said he squeezed his hand and he hurt me my son does does speak but not fully in conversation he's in an ESC class he's five so this really upset me I had to watch a video of my 5-year-old son being aggressively mishandled by a power professional and it has caused my family so much mental stress along with my son
being sad um about what happened constantly I went to see the video footage here at the school board and it was unimaginable to have to see my son being hurt by a school staff member uh uh the man picked up my son three times while he was sitting Indian style waiting for the bus and put him down
aggressively for no reason take your time the other families are very concerned as well um they have not been informed of this issue there are non-verbal kids in his class and how long is this going to go on before someone has to defend our children they
need extra care um my question questions going forward were were the proper procedural steps followed was the school board notified of these past incidents of what action was taken um what steps have been taken to make sure this individual is not employed by the Martin
County School District in the future um I was come to find out tonight was his um resignation that's why I'm here um when I emailed the board this morning I didn't know it was tonight um I was informed of it later on after I had sent my email to you guys um just FYI um and
also would like to make sure that in his personal record this incident was documented if there's a way to get that in writing um there also needs to be better guidelines for power professionals to be able to work with special kids with special needs um pretty much that's going really fast but
um yeah that's about it right now all right thank you um Miss [Music] Estes I'm going to let uh superintendent Maine speak okay normally we don't address public public comment but I would like to take the opportunity to
address your concerns um I appreciate you coming forward this evening and speaking on behalf of your of your child um it is very heartfelt and understanding and you have every right to to speak up on behalf of your your your student I want you to know that a
thorough investigation was completed uh due process rights were provided to the employee my recommendation moving forward to the board was going to be termination for this employee and we still are obligated as a district to refer the employee to the Professional
Standards division at the doe that will all be happening the employee chose to resign in Li of termination uh and they have the right to do that but I want you to know that my recommendation to the board was after the investigation was
completed uh was going to be termination to the board and we will be reporting as we always do to the department uh of Professional Standards Tom Higgins followed by Julie Roberts Julie Roberts followed by Jody wintercorn good afternoon
my name is Julie Roberts and I'm speaking on behalf of myself my sister Jean right here who is here with me and the devoted employees of the Martin County School District I want to speak to you today about the matter that we've all been talking about and that's the insurance in
2015 the Martin County School District employees were promised a very meaningful benefit when we retire to help us with our insurance and I know you've we've gone all over all of that tonight but I still want to speak to it we were promised that when we retire we
would be given a district supplement of $5 per year of service up to 30 years to supplement our health insurance cost at this time that promise is now in Jeopardy of being taking away from us I'm here to once again ask you to
consider taking the stance of leaving it in place for those of us who are still in job so that as we were guaranteed for many of us we are longtime employes of the district this is what we've been waiting for the ability to know that when we retire after giving so many
years of our dedicated service to the district and students we will have this support after all when we retire we only receive 75% of our pay having our pay cut and then having to provide insurance for ourselves in the future is going to place a hardship on our
incomes we all know that as a school district the teacher retention is an area that we do struggle with and taking this benefit away would only make th as we were promised would only keep this spiral going downward my daughter who is
a registered nurse sees this all the time she has seen so many people who don't know how they're going to pay their hospital bills their doctor bills their testing bills only with Medicare because Medicare only pays 80% that leaves 20% for them to pay that's an
astronomical and unattainable figure to many people this would mean lack of health care services for many of us because that 20% is massive at times especially in a hospital state that could be over $100,000 that would still leave $20,000 to pay our friends in law
enforcement that I've spoken to friends who are firefighters in Martin County they are receiving benefits that they were promised that's what we would expect after devoting our full adult lives to our to this one profession I am respectfully requesting that you
would strongly consider keeping this benefit in place for your devoted and long-term employees there are many other niceties but not Necessities that we could find to be cut and please show us that you care thank you so much thank
you Jody winter corn followed by Stephanie Davis Chang good evening every job is the self-portrait of the person who does it autograph your work with Excellence when I read those words they
really stuck with me because I live them my job is a reflection of who I am and from the winter corner at JD Parker to The Innovation Center at Jensen Beach High I am proud of the job that I have
done for the last 26 years for this district and I've been blessed to work alongside some of the greatest Educators who have become the best of friends and I stand before you today on behalf of them and myself on behalf of
those who mentored me decades ago and Those whom I Mentor today because to me the best part of this job is building relationships and not just with colleagues with my students it's the people who make mcsd matter
unfortunately lately I feel like this Humanity has has been slipping from this very room we the people have simply become numbers on a screen all of the numbers thrown around matter so much to the people who
sit stand before you who are at their second or third jobs right now and can't be here because when it comes down to it yes giving us giving the people in drop giving the retired
what you've given tonight is appreciated however we don't make the salary to back funding our retirement as it now stands so I've been here 26 years almost I'm going to be 48
years old here so I am one of those young people who will be retiring with 30 years perhaps fairly young but I don't make a livable wage the cost of living here is much higher
than my $55,000 that is only a few thousand more than what that first year teacher makes my numbers 26 years working at two mcsd schools zero the amount I might receive
and health benefits When I retire two the number of jobs I turn down last year because I was so close to that magic number of 30 years board members I hope that when you
look back on the self-portrait of your job with Martin County School Board that you see exactly what you've done to and for the people you serve I encourage you to make decisions that allow you and yours to look with pride on your legacy
thank you Stephanie Davis Chang followed by Katherine spor hello good afternoon Madam chair superintendent Maine board members and esteemed attendees thank you for allowing me to speak on an issue that cuts deeper than just budgets our worth
as Educators my name is Stephanie Davis Chang and I have been a proud teacher in this district for five years I am a CTE marketing teacher a Martin County C CTE marketing teacher of the
year and a proud mother of a jbhs graduate like so many others in this District I pour my heart and my soul into my students every single day teachers are not just employees we are
mentors guides and role models who shape the future we work tirelessly sacrificing time with our own family to ensure our students succeed yet today we are being treated as nothing more than numbers on a spreadsheet cutting our benefits tells us that our dedication
and our passion are disposable that after years of shaping young minds our well-being simply doesn't matter I teach my students that word of mouth is the most powerful marketing tool right now
word of mouth is spreading fast and it's what what it is saying is this Martin County School District does not value its teachers we are already underpaid compared to surrounded districts and States many of us
including myself hold Advanced degrees I hold a masters from FIU in marketing and could easily take our experience and expertise elsewhere yet we stay because we believe in our students we used to
believe in this district and in the impact act we make but if this is Attack on our livelihood continues then things are going to change good teachers will leave and finding passionate experienced Educators to replace them will not be
easy we are an a-rated School District but when it comes to valuing and supporting our teachers this board has earned an F the Educators who have built this District success deserves more than empty words we deserve the respect Fair pay and benefits that we've worked for
if must be made Why not start with a board's own budget why are teachers who are already sacrificing so much and they be the first to be targeted instead of diminishing teacher benefits I urge you to reassess District spending as a whole I urge you to do what is right stand
with your teachers honor your commitments show us that we are more than just an expense on a balance sheet because right now all we're hearing is that we don't matter and if that message continues you will watch your best Educators walk away the choice is yours
and the stakes could not be higher what is your word of mouth saying thank you dear super intendent and board members this is the third time I've come before you over the course of three years essentially pleading with you regarding the same thing the
circumstances are different but ultimately the consequences are more of the same teacher and staff attrition and retention today I'm wearing a shirt that says we are Citrus we say this phrase every day at our school both our staff and students I adore my school and my
community ultimately our school is more than just a building where people meet to learn things and grow we are a community together our teachers and staff are the ones who make our school what it is for our students and families we are Citrus the same could be said of the teachers and staff at every single
one of our schools in the district I can't tell you the number of times over the nine years I've worked in Martin County that I've asked both different teachers and staff across the district how many more years do you have till you retire and they will respond oh so and so many years I'm trying to get to 30 years so all have my insurance covered
which is usually followed with they make more in Palm Beach County but I'm staying for the insurance personally I can't afford to use the not so great District Insurance I need a quality po as my providers and Specialists are not covered by your HMO poo plans I'm blessed to have a husband with great insurance and I'm on his plan so what
you are discussing to do with retirement benefits does not directly affect me but it indirectly affects me I standing here in again for the co-workers that are to me like family your decision affects me because we are Community the loss of staff that could result in the change of your policies without replacing them
with something similar before the June 30th date is going to cause my beloved co-workers across the district to look elsewhere we just lost someone last week I found out another friend left this time surprisingly for St Lucy County now the students at her school are short another amazing teacher teach I stay at
my school because not only do I love it I live here and I want to make a difference in my community while I know others feel the same many of them are not in a financial pos position to do so as they are nearing retirement age and have planned on this benefit throughout their years of dedication to Martin County according to miss sessa's HR
presentation which I looked at last week but you're going to look at it today since 2021 we have lost 526 instructional staff members 779 asme staff members 20 27 administrators and 56 protex staff members Al together that
is 1,388 staff members it might be higher now I don't know that is not a good number each of those numbers is a person quite a lot of them were beloved members of our community while some are our retirees many of them are people who went to work elsewhere thank you for
proposing to grandfather in our retirees however keeping this benefit for all staff is important I share the concerns voiced at the last Workshop that staff members will either retire or or leave for greener pastures I'd really like to keep the rest of my co-workers providing benefits to staff
that encourage longevity commitment and investment in our schools benefits all stakeholders not just staff members parents want to send their children to schools where their teachers and staff members are involved care and are invested in their schools at Citrus we strive to go above and beyond every day please show that you are going above and
beyond for us and our students do everything you can to cut something else and keep our future retirement benefits thank you thank you missy Campbell hi I'm Missy Campbell I'm a retired teacher and thank you for making
that Gap because I'm not quite 65 but I will be there soon um I'm a little bit concerned about what this is going to do to um the rest of our staff I appreciate that you're taking care of the retirees because that is what we were promised and everybody keeps saying in 2015 I
signed my first contract in 1984 okay it was back then too it was changed in 2015 so it's not just since 2015 all of us that are sitting here we were promises a long time ago and I
think that you're going to have to work on some kind of tiered system I realized you can't keep paying this for everybody but we have to show our young teachers and the teachers that we have that we care about them and we want to retain them there are many ways that you can do that besides just money a little respect
goes a long way and letting them know how much they're valued is very important I'm just sharing my little tidbit of information and I hope you have a great day thanks thank you Alec McIntyre followed by Carrie McIntyre um good evening superintendent and
school board members uh I'm Alec McIntyre I'm a proud professional educator at Jensen Beach High School um so the workshop a couple weeks ago um I really appreciated a lot of the board sentiments um about treating the Diaries
right and I think you guys said the right things um one of the things you guys also talked about was well I wonder if current teachers are watching um I was we were I was here
a lot of my colleagues were you know at home looking at it online but we were and we are and I was kind of a little bit thrown off about tonight like I know at the workshop um with the retirees you guys had public
comment from them and processed all of that so I thought that was kind of a little bit of a curveball that surprised me I thought we were going to get some um public uh comment before you guys put that vote um but sounds like there's still the advertisement things so
perhaps you still guys still have time to process this um the county survey about the other counties um I thought that was interesting and and if we're the best about retirement benefits um let's keep it that
way um so please um don't sacrifice the long-term Integrity of the school district uh for some short-term Cuts uh to do so would be uh Penny wise and
pound foolish um my wife and I are each um going on 20 years um 21 years teaching 19 years in the district and what are we going to do um if these kind of changes go
through um I don't know I'm not sure what we're going to do thank you thank you harri McIntyre followed by Kelly Coleman hi thank you so much uh for this opportunity to speak and um this will
highly as my husband mentioned it will highly affect us we have been in the district for 20 years and we are part of the investment plan um I have something I'd like to read from one of my colleagues uh she says I stand before
you today with a heavy heart and a deep sense of concern for the teachers who have dedicated their lives to shaping the future of our children as you considered the decision to take back health insurance for retired teachers I ask that you reflect on the commitment these Educators made to this community
these teachers spent years sometimes decades shaping young minds and giving everything they had to ensure that the Next Generation could succeed in return we promised them a sense of security a promise of Health Care when they needed it most it is a promise that should not
be broken today I wore black many of us wore black some may see it as just a color but for me it's a symbol of mourning of a broken en promise it is a reflection of the sadness and disappointment felt by many of us in this room in the community we represent
I want to share with you a conversation I had with my seven-year-old daughter this morning as she asked me why I chose to wear black today she asked Mom why are you wearing that color today I told her that it was because I was upset about the decision that might hurt the people who helped me and my friends
learn when we were in school but why Mom she asked again looking puzzled I explained when people work really hard to help others like teachers do they should be treated fairly even after they retire taking away their health insurance would
make them sad and worried we don't want that for the people who gave us so much my daughter thought for a moment and said why is the school board wanting to take away the walkers from the old ladies as I realized this conversation was difficult for her to understand I
saw the Walker as a symbol of support representing health insurance many teachers in this District do not end their service to this District after they retire they come back because they are invested in Martin County and in the future of Martin County the promise of
health insurance was part of the contract these teachers signed with the district it's not just a benefit it's a trust and a trust once broken is very difficult to rebuild thank you thank you so good evening Madam chair school board
members and superintendent Michael Maine Excuse excuse me you can't do that you have to sit down thank you you're not going to be you're not going to speak until that is sitting down I'm turning off the mic sit down no posters
I'm not going to let her speak until the posters are down poster down please put the poster down I don't know how many ways to say it go ahead all right so I stand before you tonight not just as a teacher but as
a deeply disappointed and frustrated employee of the Martin County School District with 24 years of service to this District I may live in St Lucy County but for all these years I've communed to Martin County because I was willing to make sacrifices sacrifices that I was told
would be rewarded with promises especially in regard to my health insurance upon retirement but tonight I'm here to call out the complete disregard for those promises specifically the promise I've relied on that now seem to be crumbling before my eyes let's talk about what a change in
Schoolboard policy 6560 would mean to change this policy the Schoolboard needed only a majority of votes would be undermining the hard work and loyalty of dedicated teachers over the years I've watched as St Lucy County has made incredible strides to compete with
Martin County School District my commute has grown longer the cost of living has risen but through it all I've stayed banking on the promise that when I retire at 57 I would have health insurance until I'm old enough for Medicare this was a promise that kept me
here this and only this but now here I am staring down a future with only thinking that has kept me in this district is being Stripped Away the school board has consistently broken promises I have been compelled to speak out three times this year three um to
just get basic answers to implore you to treat teachers with respect and yet with each passing day I'm left with nothing but empty words and broken trust so how is it the school board is constantly asking for sacrifices from us teachers but never once seems to be willing to
make a sacrifice for the sake of us how does taking away a promise that was made to us show that you value your Educators it doesn't it shows utter disregard for our commitment and it's an insult to those of us who have given Decades of
service to this District I know my worth I know what I bring to the table as a veteran teacher and let me be clear if I have to go elsewhere I will there are many of us in the same position teachers who have given everything to Martin County only to met with betrayal the
question is simple why did we stay only for you to take the promise away it's time to stop attacking teachers if Cuts need to be made make them in other areas stop sending the wrong message time and time again it's beyond frustrating and it's damaging to the very Foundation of
this district and let's not forget everyone in this room we still don't have a contract this year about that so this is absurd how do you expect us to feel valued respected and motivated Ed to be number one in the state which I do believe we could be number one in the
state with the district that can't even bother to treat us with basic fairness and dignity and I'm going to say it time and again enough is enough thank
[Applause] you all right we're GNA go back to board member discussion does anyone have anything
they want to discuss so I just wanted to give a quick update to the board um we had a meeting today uh that was attended by Dr Miller uh Dan Moore and Mark cows um that we met with the but the Martin County
School U Martin County School the Martin County Commissioner Sarah herd and the Martin County um black Heritage initiatives and I don't know if you all have been yet to the one room school house is located in across the street
from Murray middle school and one of the things that the um the group wants to create um a living history they've done some work already with um um some some like uh posters and things they've
had a few events at the schoolhouse but when Lloyd Jones who is a retired Captain with the Martin County Sheriff's Office is who's really invested in this he he um approached me about it and asked how the school district could be involved and I sent him to um the Little
Red Schoolhouse down in Palm Beach County if you've ever been it's it's a very very cool um um his living Historical Museum and the kids go and um they get a character are you know
they're a person who actually attended the school they follow the same rules they pack the same lunch they do the same math problems um it's a really it was very impactful for my children and so when we were talking about it and talking with um Mark cows about how we
could integrate something like that into Martin County um Mark and the superintendent were both very enthusiastic and I just kind of wanted to share with you all where we were it would be something that eventually would come will come to the board if we get to that point um we talked a little bit
today about fundraising for the cost of field trips um things like that so dreaming we would like it to become something like the environmental study center that all fourth graders would go it would be part because that's when
they learn about Florida history and they would be learning about the history right here in our community in the new Monrovia community and it's um it's really really exciting we have had a c there were um a couple of students that were there today that not our students but college students that were so
passionate about creating Liv living history um program for Martin County um there were funders that were there um the school district the county um everybody is really really enthusiastic and I just kind of wanted to share that
with you all and know that it'll probably be something that the superintendent will bring back in the future um and if you want to learn more about it I'm happy to um connect you with um Lloyd Jones and the the teacher that was the teacher at the one room
Schoolhouse she was there today and one of the students so it was really cool to hear their stories and for our own students to learn what life was like and take on those um those people and learning about history specifically in
Martin County but it'll be General history as well so those were exciting so thank you it's coming back thank you anyone for discussion uh yeah Madam chair um i' had been talking with Mr CEST uh about the pool and it seemed
like there was a significant development uh I wondered if this might be appropriate time to let Mr sess quickly update us on the status of the pool um we'll do that in in reports okay okay that be great Roberts anything I have two things I would like
to share number one we now have a date in June for fsba masterboard training and I would like to ask the board to reconsider having it sooner June is way
off and I think we need to uh develop as a board together sooner and that training is really valuable I got some dates and I was also told if we did March 13th and 14th which is a Thursday
and a Friday Friday we could do four hours each day the Thursday could be the afternoon and the Friday could be the morning that's one option that was the only time we could split and then the other dates available are April 4th 9th
10th and 14th and I'm asking the board to consider having it sooner than June and if I'm not sure how to whether we should pin it down right now or give you a dat or so and then I think it's better
to to pin it down now and and have a little discussion about it because as I said I think June is is too far out I think we need to uh collaborate now so I'm asking the board to weigh in and tell me what they could
do idea I'm available in March it would be the 13th and the 14th we could do like a 12 to four on the Thursday and then the 14th we could do like 8 to 12 and that would be our eight
hours Madam Madam chair I'm not available any of those times I I I share your feel your sentiment I I did schedule off for the June one to attend but if you can come up with some other dates I'd consider but none of those that you've mentioned I could make unfortunately okay well um those are the
only dates that we can get April April Griffith if we want to get someone else I would like the board to weigh in on that because we can't wait till June that's we we need to do it
sooner who are the other trainers I think Carol and uh Tina pink is Tina Pon do do you wan to I mean you can get I I'm I'm fine getting some dates I would only be available on the dates
that you gave is the um is the March 13th and 14th but I have 11 I have an 11:30 meeting on the 14th so I would have to be so we maybe do five hours but if um Bri Brian can't make it so we can get additional all of
all of the the members um so do you do you want to talk about Tina or Carol doing so what does your schedule usually look like I know that you will yeah I mean I'm I'm booked out for months unfortunately I did book out that June date and actually turn down
something else to make that June date but I understand the sentiment of the board I really would like to be there and I can be there on that June date so I guess it's up to you guys to decide so do you have any dates in the next couple months before June or I mean I I could
look at that all right start everything presented I cannot make sure could you possibly give the dates you are available before June to Diane so that I have something to work with with the other um
trainers and and could you do that like soon as possible i' really appreciate it okay thank you the next thing I want to discuss is um you all received an email uh discussing the
um December 3D opinion and Sarasota decision regarding the Boys and Girls Club of Martin County and their wish to um have us change our
policy to incorporate what they would like and I would like to know if we have any any um further discussion on it do is there anyone who wants to say anything about it i' I'd like to see
that on a future agenda we need consensus to do that right that's me I'm one so I um I I go back to what I originally said when this was brought to us very much like like the original
lease with the boys and girls club and how that was done um was the board said board chair superintendent go to their CEO and their people and get our attorneys together we need to understand
all of the ramifications of a decision decision and an exception because there's two pieces here there is um the request to amend the lease um which cannot be done and and if we want to move forward with the request
to amend the lease we have to amend our policy so there are two parts to that but as I've been talking to the superintendent and we've been getting additional information we need to know what make a really good decision we need
to know what the ramifications are for the school district so what does that mean for our our own insurance what does that mean for sovereign an immunity what does that mean for so many factors that I think that the negotiation and the
conversation should and I mean if there's not consensus to move forward then the superintendent has the policy he he and we're not going to change it or there's not consensus to change it then but I don't know that we have enough information to
say oh this is a definitive no because we don't truly understand and I don't want to I'm not really ready to say no until we have all the information so if if there's I know that uh the superintendent has had conversations
with Terry Harmon I don't know that he's even had time to really reach out and talk about with our liability insurance coverage there's so many factors that go into it that I think I would like to task the superintendent and the board chair with
bringing all that information back to us so that we can make that decision and then decide hey we need to bring this to a future meeting or or the superintendent can act on it if we decide not to change the policy he has
he has the authority to act on that current policy I think we need more information and I think being task with superintendent or lawyers to figure out what is right before we make any decisions the best to
go Roberts um and I thought that's what we said in November I thought in November we had um said that if it was going to go anywhere it would be the board chair and the superintendent to talk to the attorney and figure out whether it needs
to go anywhere um quite personally I'll give you my opinion I mean I think it's a law for a reason um I'm not interested in and I I could change and of course whatever the board decides to do I would support whatever the board wanted to do but I kind of feel like it's a law for a
reason um I think it's it's not just whether we can find a loophole or a way around something I think when you're talking about serving alcohol and tying alcohol to the name of the Martin County School District there's some Optics that
we need to be concerned about and there's some precedent we need to be concerned about so even if it is somebody who is um leaving a Martin County school property like even now somebody who went to a show at a high school and leaves the property and has
an unfortunate accident and it it is found that they have a high either drug or alcohol content Etc and if if we weren't I don't want to say complicit but complicit but if we had no involvement in it if we know for a fact
that no it did not happen on our property our policy the way the state does the state says you can't do it we also have reiterative that you can't do it um we've looked at this we've said that this isn't something we're interested in doing I think that's a lot easier than doing a tap dance and
whistle to try to explain yeah but they've got insurance so it's not going to be a liability to us and yeah the guy really wasn't drinking on our property he was drinking somewhere else I mean I just think once the Optics go out there I think it puts us in a position where
we're having to backpedal and having to do that I also think that I know for example example the I think it's a library Foundation that does that has done book Mania in the past at Jensen Beach High School I know that we've had other um entities that have come forward
that have used our facility that have always known you're not having any alcohol there and if that means you're going to have to go somewhere else you're going somewhere else I know that we have a um a lease in the works with the Martin County Council for the Arts for them to refurbish the old um Stuart
High School on East Ocean Boulevard where we used to meet meet and I think that um as we as we find exceptions and loopholes to do things I think we need to look at what that looks like for everything because I think that what that puts us in a position where well
you did it for them you know we're we're just about the same as they are and you know you should do it for us and I think that I'm not sure that's a road that I personally want to go down I mean but um I think if the the appropriate place for it to go is for the chair and the superintendent to gather whatever in
information that they need to gather to bring us back um if and if we're going to have a workshop I guess we can share all this information again at a workshop and decide what to do I don't necessarily think that we need to have the discussion again at the workshop I think that the chair and the superintendent need to have the
conversations they need to gather all the information and facts that we need to do and bring a recommendation to the board and we'll make a decision or or not I'm it it's you know the superintendent has the authority to
make a decision now um now if the consensus of the board is that to me he should we he right now is should deny the lease Amendment because that's what our policy says um now I think once
we have the information if there's consensus at that point to bring the policy forward then that's different that is a different um way that we we as a board would then act on that is to review the policy
superintendent yes ma'am so I have some of the information that I need I'm waiting for the rest of it those conversations have been uh taking place uh the policy currently as Mrs Powers um stated is currently that alcohol is not
to be served on any of our campuses so I uphold the policy if there is a way to navigate this with without the policy then that that's the Avenues that I'm exploring right now with legal council uh if legal council has an Avenue around
the policy to do it legally then that is what we will bring you and I will discuss and bring forward to the board for a decision or I'll we will make the decision to um as is being discussed tonight so I just have one or two more key pieces of information that that I
need to get for you and I to sit and thoroughly be able to to to discuss it I think we're close okay so at this time we are just going to wait for future information the superintendent and the attorney and I
will will discuss it and if we can bring it forward in a in a way that is legal and and right for all of us that's that's what we'll do so at this time we we're just going to wait until
we have further information okay thank you I I just want to be clear in my mind just from the training that I've had is that you have the laws of the State of Florida then you have Schoolboard
policy and then from there then you have other things that you can do but in order for us if we have something explicitly said in policy um a a loophole doesn't allow us to work around
the policy I just want to understand that that is the understanding is that correct well I agree with you how the higher Ary of how the laws and policies go I 100% agree with you and I think where that comes in is that there have been other school
districts that have done that and and I'm okay if the superintendent comes back to us and the board chair and say we're just creating a loophole that this is not best practice or whatever that may be I'm I'm okay with that but
we need to know that because we have gotten a request from one of our longstanding partners in the community and I think that we should honor that and do our due diligence get all the information that we can and then as a board we make that decision based on the
information that we have the thorough information but I do agree with you on that hierarchy okay of Statute you know Trump's policy okay okay thank you thank you which which is complicating the matter um but I do also
want to say that the that the reason why remind the board that the reason why this came forward was because the boys and girls club were requesting to have a fundraiser in December which was very close and out of order with when we were going to be able to naturally have our
next board meeting for a decision requiring us to call a special board meeting which was in my opinion not a appropriate for their uh timing of their event the second request is being brought forward because a fundraisers
wanting to be have again in March which again goes against the timing of what we have laid out to be able to make these decisions while I'm not opposed to those fundraisers I don't believe that it is I'm not going to put myself in a situation nor the board in in in a
situation to rush a decision without all the information to make their deadline of a fundraiser I guess if I'm being completely transparent and open and honest so when we're ready when I'm ready to be able to bring that forward with the board chair to the board a decision will be made at
that time thank you hey we're going to move on to recognition 13.01 2024 stock market gamewinners 2025 Mena excellence and reading award mark
cowls good evening superintendent Maine Madam chair members of the board members of the Martin County Community I'm Mark CS coordinator of Martin County School District uh at this time I'm going to bring up two awesome Educators um Kimberly Anderson and Angela Jameson
from Crystal Lake Elementary and they're going to talk about some uh awesome and patient Hawks and honor what they did um in the areas of financial literacy and reading so uh come on up please
[Applause] uh good evening um Kimberly Anderson from Crystal Lake and we're here to um celebrate the accomplishment of Leo bonadeo Matthew Talton and Wyatt Wiggins
uh these students are the winning team of the spring 24 stock market game for Florida South Elementary division they learned about companies businesses corporations that provided goods and services they learned about the distinctions between private and public
entities uh shares stocks ticker symbols and the New York Stock Exchange they invested a virtual virtual $100,000 in the live stock market game throughout the simulation and throughout the session the teams are
continuously ranked um with our school teams competing with other Elementary age teams from Orlando to Key West um at the end of the four month session the team with the highest portfolio uh gains is declared winner and this is the
winning team in addition to winning in addition to winning um these boys have acted as advisers to this year's fourth grade teams so if you need any stock tips these students are enthusiastic about their knowledge of the market and they convince their
teacher eat against us this year aesome thank you congratulations can we get a a [Applause] picture okay um hello oh my name's Angela Jameson I'm the third grade gifted
teacher at Crystal Lake Elementary and I'd like to introduce um Leo cak right here um let me give you a little bit of background briefly if you're not familiar with the meno Foundation um it is a nonprofit organization that supports gifted people and intelligence
research the foundation's mission is to advance intelligence and benefit Society now the Mena reading for excellence program is under that umbrella of the Mena program um of the Mena foundation and it
invites readers of all ages to explore expertly curated list of classic literature these lists inspired by the National Endowment for the Humanities includes Timeless works that offer profound insights into The Human Experience and cultivate critical s
thinking now Leo um I have the list for K through three and this list includes 63 of those curated books which are great children's literature 18 of which is what I call
grit books and their chapter books which might include Charlotte's Web the cricet in Time Square um the mouse in the motorcycle Little House in the prairie we're talking great children's literature Leo is only the second
student to my knowledge in CLE history to ever complete all 63 of those books so it is a huge accomplish Leo has grit um and the neat thing is he
was five books short going into fourth grade Mrs Anderson found something that I wasn't even aware of if he read five non-fiction books at his level they could plug in for some of the missing non-fiction books which he did um so
while I'm bragging on Leo I do need to give a shout out to his mom and dad Mr Mr cich um I'm just telling you myself as a teacher and I'm going to just speak for probably every teacher um thank you for being the parents you are
um you have either eliminated limited or monitored social media screen time video games telephone usage and the reason I know that is because this young man could not have read 63 books if he had
spent his time on a couch with a phone so thank you Mr cak and Leo this is my desire for you okay as you continue your reading Adventure between the cover of every great book you are going to meet new friends you're going to go to
exciting places and you're going to have F fabulous Adventures so I hope that the four through six levels continues all through high school you can keep reading no don't moan look forward to it buddy and just continue the adventure and
thank you again C for your help he he he couldn't have done it without you so thank you you [Applause] [Applause]
hey we now have a presentation Avid District leadership review Danielle Farrell congratulations to the teachers at Crystal Lake too just want to thank you very much appreciate it yes congratulations they can't do it without
you good evening Madame chair pret school board members superintendent main esteemed colleagues and guests my name is Danielle Farrell and I serve as the coordinator of innovation and choice and the Avid District director for the Martin County School District and with
me tonight is my colleague Kristen register I'm an instructional coach in professional learning and the C- District director so tonight we're going to provide you with a very brief snapshot of what Avid has brought to the Martin County School District and give you some insight to
our future plans so as most of you are aware Avid is a system that is incorporated into our schools and it's an acronym Avid stands for advancement via individual determination and it's how we find that
inner Drive in students to be successful and encourage them to be the best that they can be and be future ready we have a framework Avid provides us with the tools the structures everything that we need to be successful not only as
systems that happen in our school but breaks it down to educator behaviors and student behaviors our Educators must do certain things to ensure our students success and our Learning Journey with our Educators helps to ensure that they
do what they need to do in order for students to be successful it's represented in this College and Career Readiness framework which in our Avid schools we use this to guide our work it guides everything that we do in our school if we're doing something and it
doesn't fit into the framework we need to ask ourselves well why are we doing this is this what's best for kids some interesting data for you because I know we all love some good data we P the top arated school districts in the State of Florida we
looked a little deeper as to those 2022 school districts that how many of them are Avid how many of them are implementing College and Career Readiness systems for their students 10 out of the 22 a-rated school districts I'm sorry six out of
yeah that's right 10 out of the 22 a-rated school districts are Avid 45% when we looked deeper into the Avid school districts we thought wow look how many have grown from a b to an a that is
our goal as well and you have six out of the 10 in the last two years that have brought their grades up to an a from a be and that is our journey and our vision and we're happy to have Avid with us to help us get there we're going to be there right up on that chart next
year so we've had ad AVID for eight years in this school district and here's just a little snapshot of the 11 schools that are current Avid schools you will see that we have schools that have been here since the beginning Martin County High School and Anderson then you see
that we've created a tiered support here of how many years the school has been with us and the support that we push in we're in a building phase right now with Avid we've had it for eight years it's been a journey and now in my new role
and with Kristen helping me lead the way we're taking all the pieces and the parts that help students be future ready and aligning them to a common culture we're aligning them to a common Vision so that all schools can help all students with whatever their goals are
we are 100% implemented right now with our traditional secondary schools and as you can see we have three elementary schools right now that are Avid so here here's a couple pieces that are really important for us to celebrate when we look at what Avid has done for
our students when we take a look and see in the Avid elective that happens at our secondary schools how students are graduating and what they're graduating with are they ready for their Futures 98% of our Avid elective graduates are
ready for college they've met the college requirements and that's something for us to celebrate we also look at attendance and we're seeing that the Avid elective students are attending school a bit more frequently than students that are not in the Avid
elective 3% higher rate on that and I think one of something to really shout out is dual enrollment our Avid elective students 32% of them currently have completed a dual enrollment class that
means they're getting a step ahead on their future that is up 22% in one one year it's something to celebrate because in the Avid elective that is where our students receive the the support they need for that rigorous academic work
that they're being faced with we're really proud of that as well as 100% of our administrators right now are trained in the Avid systems so we're starting to build this common culture and language for Success across our school
district a firsttime honor for us in the Martin County School District is to celebrate Port salaro Elementary as they have achieved their school grade as we know and has increased that from a d to a b Avid is honoring them as a national
showcase school this is a first time honor and we congratulate principal gford and her entire staff and the students for all the hard work that they put in and and really looking at what do I need to be a successful learner and working hard to become that so we invite
you to join us at their National showcase on March 4th in the morning at Port CNO [Applause] yay so here's the future the future with Avid is bright we are pairing Avid with
acceleration for our students by 2030 our goal is to have all traditional Martin County Schools become Avid schools with the goal that all students graduate college and career ready how are we going to achieve that and how are we going going to measure it is that our goal is that every high
school student graduates with an acceleration credit and a head start on life we also are looking at eighth grade students we would love for them to leave middle school with an acceleration credit for high school to get ahead start and then breaking it down to our
elementaries when we look at fifth grade students and their Ela proficiency we're aiming at 62% we've done some research and realized that a school districts that's a sweet number for them so of course we would like that to be higher but that's going to be our measurement to know that we are accelerating our
Learners with the Avid supports alignment really quick you have a attachment and you'll see there's an avid one pager and I broke it down for you to show you that where we're headed as a district and our themes for our strategic plan are all aligned to this
College and Career Readiness Avid can help us get there it's more than future Readiness Avid helps us align the work that we do every day in schools to the work that we want to do as a school district as a whole something unique um about Avid is that in the summer we go to What's
called a um a summer Institute it's more than a professional learning conference um it's composed of these communities of practice they actually have uh 47 of them that are very specific and targeted to the teachers needs um who attend and there's a whole time set aside for this the teams from the schools to do work
around their how their Avid work connects to their um their sip goals and like start doing that work in the summer so it's pretty amazing opportunity for our um teachers and staff and in fact we would like to invite you um to come it's on June 17th and sit side by side with an educator and experience it for
yourself so if you're available let Daniel know so we can expect you it is a school board meeting date sorry we hope you can still come it's in Orlando you can make it back on time yeah okay so basically in summary this is what's
next for Avid we're looking at a multi-year contract this year we've never done this before and the reason why is because this four-year multi-year contract will align with the funding that's provided to Avid from millage so with the millage renewal for the next four years we have Avid being funded
through that in four years our goal is to have every one of our schools Avid our traditional schools so we we have nine elementary schools that we're looking to on board over the course of the next three years three schools a year and then it would just be a
continuous building of the culture to ensure students are supported in their learning as they accelerate and get ready for the world to come in front of them we know we can do it it's all gas no breaks we can do it with Avid and Avid is the way to go so if you have any
questions you want to talk further about this I love talking about AV so please reach out and we are more than happy to give you some more information thanks thank you yeah so I had a few questions for you and I have been twice to the summer
um session that was in Orlando and I think it is really nice my question is um so the people who are going to the summer session at the teams the school teams that are going is it the same people going every year or is it new people going every year it's a mixture
of both to be honest with you if we have an avid elective teacher there is three years that they go so that they learn Avid elective one two and three because the goal would be that they loop with their students so if I'm a ninth grade Avid elective teacher I'm going to go to
10th grade with my Avid students in 11 and 12 so they could go as much as four years um all of our administrators have been trained so we're not looking this year to send administrators again we want to make sure we have a foundation of that and our site each Avid School
the 11 of them have a site coordinator so that site coordinator usually tends one to two years to make sure that they can leave the work happening at their schools we also don't send first year teachers we're strategic to make sure that we're sending teachers that are experienced so that they can take what
they learn from Avid and just continue their journey of professional learning so it's a combination okay um and my other questions are you have 32% of the Educators that are a trained M so I know that when I was in the one in Orlando
one of them they talked about how they will come to your district and not charge you to come here to do the training here so I was wondering as you're doing this and as you're expanding you know I mean I know this has been for eight years now I don't know in your educator list of training
in your initial schools which would be Anderson and Martin County High School what the percentage is of those teachers trained in Avid and I know that it's not just the elective teachers who need to be trained it's since it is a change in school
culture so I guess my question is um is there a plan for how you're going to up that 32% and can you provide us with some numbers that show us by school the percentage of Educators that are trained in each of those schools as you're talking about tiers or cohorts so that's
one question okay the second question is you tell me that there's 32% of Avid High School elective students that completed a dual enrollment class so then that begs the question of how many Avid High School
elective students are there so if you can get me that information that says for example we have say 4,000 students that are in high school if the Avid elective students what is that number is it a thousand children in Avid elective
or is it a 100 students in Avid elective you know what is that number and then as you're looking at 32 are we looking also at expanding two numbers one the number of people taking the Avid elective and then to the percentage of those people to
move it up Beyond 32 so those are my three questions if you could address those and send the information I think probably the rest of the board would be interested it as well or you could come back and and yeah I can send it to you via email right now we have 1,600 students plus registered um in the Avid
elective course which is our secondary so this is grades 6 through 12 1,000 of those students uh represent our minority subgroups I will get you the high school numbers specifically as um Tisha Freeman works on my team and I can get you the
joal enrollment numbers for that and give you that information um as far as every site coordinator coordinator of their school knows who is trained on their campus as we keep detailed records um the 32% represents a lots of movement
we even keep track of movements of teachers so if they're moving from school to school they're still trained but if they leave the district though that's how our numbers have gotten down um due to teacher turnover and such so right and I I guess the where I'm going
with this is you know we do really well in the district of bringing new projects and new initiatives on and as we're looking at Avid as an eight-year history to it and as we're expanding Avid and as we have the ability to have the funding for that and I know that as we look hard
at the budget one of the things we're looking at is return on investment and we're looking for student centered activities so I think those type of numbers will give us some idea and if we have some idea from you as to what your plan is for how you're getting to whatever your next goals are that will
help us yes I've included that in the attachments that I sent you in the next four years what the pricing would be and what the tiered structure of how many people from each school would attend Avid based on their implementation year so in the first two years of new schools
we send uh six people each year so all those new elementaries we have 12 people um I'm sorry 18 people attending each year I do have prices also for you what it costs because it does cost money to bring them on site we would think like we would save a lot of money bringing
them here but we have to guarantee in one scenario 100 people we only have an option to bring like five communities of practice here where if they go away they get 47 they miss the energy and the vibe and of the Avid session but it would
cost us about 110,000 to bring it in um and it would have to be done in the first two weeks of the summer because avid's Summer Institute schedule fills up their summer so it's not oh because when I was talking to them they would do it not necessarily during the summer
piece they were available to come to your school but I I don't want to take up a whole lot of time here but at the same time I just want to say thank you for the information about the all the options the investment part I'm looking for The Return part now the other side right I totally I totally agree we are
building teachers capacity and giving them more strategies to help student learning so like the higher our graduation rates go Avid helps all that work thank you so thank you thank you so can I just ask a couple questions so I guess I'm really interested in seeing
the dat on the schools that have been in the program over five years so Indian I know we showcase Port solo that's four years but um Anderson Martin County Indiantown middle and I I like Miss Roberts I'm kind of interested to see
how the number of students dual rolling um compared to like the whole and how that has progressed over the years so has Avid been the encouragement for students to go into dual enrollment because we should be able to see that when Avid
started um in the number of students so I'm kind of interested but I'm interested in any data we can get on the four schools that have been in the program over five years and where their grades have gone how their data Stacks up comparatively okay we can pull that
thank you thank you thank you so much Madam Madam chair for I think what I want to emphasize with the board is the lack of consistency that has occurred over the last eight years in implementation and Fidelity of avid we've been in Avid district for eight
years but when I go around the district and we visit schools with the team there's very little evidence of avid until just the last couple of years recently so I res I appreciate that request for data because we need to show from the time we ramped up to re bring
this back forward again to say if we're saying we're Avid we need to be Avid uh and the quest to be 100% avid districtwide so uh there has been inconsistencies but that is the role of Danielle and the team and her position to change that inconsistency with the
administrators to be consistent in the use of throughout every single school so does avid the Avid elective account as a acceleration the Avid elective right now is not an honors course but by having
the Avid elective the student student is enrolled in something else so what we're saying is AVID and what so what acceleration course is the student enrolled in that Avid elective is going to support them to be successful Avid is
right now in talks with the state to have their Avid elective course in 11th and 12th grade be an honors level course so that the weighted GPA is a bit higher because we do get resistance that students don't want an onlevel course
and that's where we run into some issues with the Avid elective but Avid is realizing that and they're working on it with the state so I'm hopeful that that'll change for us next school year thank you and I appreciate your comments um superintendent Maine I have heard
from some teachers which is why I ask about the data and some of the acceleration is that I've heard some feedback that we're pushing students into Avid that really aren't ready for Aid it or probably shouldn't be taking a
dual enrollment class or you know I just want to be careful that we're just not pushing kids to take an acceleration when they're not truly ready because then it sets them up to fail and which it's a spiral so I just
want to it sounds like things H are changing and I appreciate that and so I'll be interested to see because we should be able to see that um in the data as well absolutely thank you for that feedback we've been working hard to make it very clear like who is the Avid
student and who is not and that goes back to the acronym advancement via individual determination we do not want to schedule kids in the Avid elective that don't want to be there because that's how Avid gets branded as a remediation course and not an
acceleration course so we're working hard to Rebrand that with our teachers inside our school community and outside of our school community Community as to what it really is and so that's part of our work and we need to do it correctly for the benefit of the students well in
for the benefit of the entire class because when you have students that you put in an avid elective that do not want to be there they're disrupting the rest of the Class A lot of times and that really puts a burden on our teachers as well so I just want to be careful that
we're implementing it the way it with Fidelity and the way it should be so it sounds like we're on the right track so thank you we have an interest form so if the students not interested in that first form we are not going to follow through with enrolling them so that is a common practice that we're putting forth
as we go perfect thank you thank you thank you before we move on I would like to recognize some people in the audience we have uh Jerry betari from JD Parker he has been named the interim super I'm
sorry I'm sorry the interim principal at JD Parker welcome and his family thank you so much for taking the charge and and doing this in the interim and we really appreciate it and we want to thank you and
then she gave your family I was gonna say she almost gave you a really big promotion yes I I caught myself Madam chair if I if I may uh thank you for that I had some things that I wanted to uh to quickly I know it's been a long night but um Mr batari is uh taking the
opportunity to step up into that role as we have a principal who's going out on leave and we've also added to that dynamic duo Dr Vanessa mudo who is our current coordinator of student services that is going out to the school to be uh the assistant principal in place of Dr
batari uh and or Greg and I will tell you Greg yes Greg it's okay I want I will tell you uh Greg has been a principal in New York for over 23 years he retired and came here to the Martin County School District to join us as an
assistant principal so this is just getting on the bike again and riding it down the street uh but the amount of momentum that uh Greg and Vanessa have brought to JD Parker in just the week that they've been there uh is has been incredible the stuff that you're putting
out there the things that you're emailing me and updating me on are student focused student driven and the urgency that I'm expecting and our administrators is there and I really appreciate that so thank you and thank you for the family who has come to support them and I know Dr mudo your
husband was here I don't know if I see him uh but but uh thank you because the spouses and the family are who we owed a Deb a gred to too because of the time that we spend away from our families so thank you appreciate that thank you both and I also want to recognize and
introduce Dana poera who is our new stand up Dana there you go our new principal of Anderson Middle School tonight's board meeting has been heavy that's not normal but I will because families are here and I will tell you there are cycles and Seasons to
our board meetings and tonight was one of those board meetings uh but I promise you you are joining one of the best school districts in the State of Florida I firmly believe that our staff believes that and I know that when you walked through our doors and you interviewed for that position
uh you brought that energy to the interview and the entire interview both panels were 100% unanimous in their selection of you as the next principal Dana has served proudly for six years as the principal of New Horizons Academy
wanted to get that right in Wellington and she's she lives in Stewart and has been driving for six years uh but we are honored and proud to bring you on our team here in the Martin County School District and welcome you into to the family and we know you're going to do a
great job so thank you thank you thank you for waiting hey we will now have uh Lana baros Career and Technical education month so good evening Madame chair pritchet school board members superintendent Maine esteemed colleagues
and community members my name is Lana baros and I'm the proud director of innovation and choice and tonight I'm joined with Miss Jessica Warren our CTE coach for the district and we're here to officially recognize February as Career and Technical Education Month and to
express to you our gratitude for your continued support of our high quality career acmy and K through2 awareness opportunities across our district I'm happy to report that CTE is thriving in the Martin County School District our
small but dedicated team coordinates all the Cur culum supplemental resources equipment professional learning and materials for our 57 CTE teachers across 146 unique course codes CTE courses require extensive cross um Department
collaboration and co- elevation and we work closely with our educational technology department where we have 50 um confidentiality agreements and unique uh resources for students we work closely with our facilities and safety team um ensuring that all of our
classrooms meet the state safety regulations and are equipped for our state-of-the-art equipment this entire team is supportive of our multifaceted CTE and with all of them represented here I look at them all and we've worked um collaboratively on many projects to
ensure our students are safe they have um their Risk insurance and all of the transportation needs and unique demands of CTE programs for our students we work closely with industry and Workforce Partners ensuring that all of our CTE
programs meet industry expectations and lead to local high demand careers we're incredibly proud of our many accomplishments and most importantly we're proud of our students and our teachers who lead them every day 75% of our high school students sitting in
Martin County right now have taken at least one CTE course 73 of our current sitting seniors hold an industry credential so that is very exciting and those credentials last year totaled
2377 and so far this year we have 1,120 and those credentials do sustain the programs because they bring back funding into our school district so we're very proud of that we haven't got the report from this year but we think we may have met the million dollar Mark so we're proud of that too through our
winning of the workforce capitalization Grant we have been able to fund a position for a Workforce coach and in the last months we've been able to spend down over a million dollars in grant funding that we secured coordinating the installation of Cutting Edge Equipment
and software in our classrooms this team has helped do a lot of that so thank you we also want to thank that you've added a coordinator to our team her role oversees Avid implementation K through 12 college career Readiness planning and all accelerated learning Pathways
districtwide this structural shift is activating our district strategic plan across all all acceleration Pathways not just CTE as we celebrate Career and Technical Education Month I want to remind you that be behind every CTE
success there's intentional planning barrier breaking and Relentless pursuit of student achievement happening every day CTE changes lives ultimately equips our students to make impact locally regionally and globally attach the item
the agenda item you'll find our guide book that describes every sing single one of our unique programs and all of the benefits attached to them you will see our Cape strategic plan and how we um have tasks in place that we complete
regularly every year to ensure our students have success I've attached president Trump's Declaration of CTE month and since the agenda dropped our governor has also put out a proclamation for CTE month we invite you to contact us to schedule a St of to schedule a
tour of our class classrooms come meet our outstanding teachers and see firsthand how our students are developing into the Future Ready graduates you want for our district thank you so much thank you now we have Citrus Grove Elementary
Community Partnership with Madame homes of Newfield uh Rosanna rinka and Ike Crumpler and James I forgot your last name Geral good job welcome I just wanted to introduce anybody everybody really quickly thank
you so much Bor thank you for your service to our community these difficult issues we appreciate all that you do supporting our teachers and students and their families it's been a real pleasure to have the opportunity to work with Madame e holes and team up with our neighboring school and that's Citrus Grove element I'm sorry Grove Elementary
thank you so I um I almost reverted back to when my daughter went to Crystal Lake Elementary but um anyways thank you so much we just wanted to share some what some of what we've done James Fitzgerald has Project Lead on Newfield and of course you know Rose forena she's your our principal thank
you Mrs P can you tell me which uh agenda item they are please sure it is um 1403 okay here good evening School Board chair Miss pritchet superintendent Mr uh Main and school board members my name is
James Fitzgerald I work with Madame Holmes and I've had the responsibility of bringing the Newfield project in Palm City to fruition uh I'm here today to express our gratitude to the Martin County School District and in particular the great neighbor that we found in Citrus Grove Elementary School Madame homes has
been proud to partner with principal rinsa and her team on a variety of activities that aimed to enhance educational opportunities and support the growth and development of the students at Citrus Grove just last month and for the second year in a row we had the privilege of hosting the go green club for uh Florida Arbor Day at the
newest trail head at the Kiplinger Conservancy where the club members planted two dozen slash pines uh with the assistance of the Newfield farm team then in may we were excited to have the opportunity to be a part of the award for the greatest of all time or
goat readers uh where Citrus Grove's vicious readers had the opportunity to lead actual goats on a two-mile goat walk at our uh casc Trails you can see in the pictures there so B and you know based on how much it seems that the kids enjoyed that as well as the feedback
that we've received at our farmers markets we're hopeful that we uh have the opportunity to participate in more goat walks in the future and um over the holidays which I think Rose is going to touch on we had the opportunity to partner together on a beautification project uh that consisted
of some landscape and uh irrigation Improvement so you want to take it away yes thank you um so happy to have partnered with Newfield and Madame Holmes and for a long time on Citrus Boulevard which is now called Newfield
Parkway uh it was just us Citrus Grove Elementary on that long stretch of of road but each night and each morning I would go by um Newfield and I would see those beautiful trees being put in and and Landscaping and I reached out to Ike
and James and said would you have any interest in doing a beautification project here at Citrus Grove and they jumped on it and I wanted to thank you um Dr Miller and Brian desuso they jumped forward and made sure that our sprinkler systems were working so they
could install this wonderful front entrance for us at Citrus Grove and right at the front of our building outside the principal's office and on the media center side is a is a wonderful new Landscaping they took our original plans that were uh designed
when Citrus Grove opened so they followed those plans to almost to a te and replaced a lot and the sprinklers were there to make sure that they were running each night and the plants are looking strong I just want to thank uh community members and parents s scove
for all that they do and especially tonight with Madame homes in Newfield thank you very much thank you Rose and so lastly um you know in terms of things that we've had going on recently we had the uh tortoise Trot and I think we had uh nine high
school students that were participants from three different high schools in the county attend so we appreciate the support and uh it's really nice just having that type of participation so I wanted to just kind of enclosing just say as a company that uh Madam strives to have a positive impact in all the
communities that we have the privilege to become a part of and we thank you for giving us a chance to do that I think that the the idea for Newfield which over a long long long time was refined and perfected through public Outreach to ensure that the final product reflected
the priorities of the community you know we recognize that we have a resp responsibility in the sense that we're bringing this to life and we look forward to Newfield providing fun and educational experiences for students teachers and families now and in the future thank you thank you so
[Applause] much hey we are now moving on to um reports we have our student representative Amir Mayan is taking Jamie Paulson's place today I welcome
you and thank you and you may begin okay so uh good evening sample of the human race anyway uh I'll have the news for Jensen Beach High School so Jensen Beach High School jazz band earned straight Superior ratings at the FBA District 13
Jazz MPA on Tuesday February 4th this is the 18th year that Jensen Beach High School has earned this top rating the American Sign Language Honor Society has returned to Jensen Beach Elementary to teach more ASL to fourth and fifth graders the students are is showing incredible leadership and empathy while
the students are so engaged by older students the Jensen Beach High School Key Club is partnering with the Jensen Beach High School leadership class and Junior Achievement to plan and teach financial literacy lessons to all the K to 12 K to2 classes at Felix A Williams
Elementary our members will be attending trainings this month well at least Key Club that's what they said their members will be attending trainings this month the the afjr o t has been visiting the Harrison assisted living facility and
participating in many community events such as the Baton Death March the Young Eagles Fly and operating the parking at the Women's Club Garden Expo they will also be celebrating their military ball at the end of the month now on to sou southw High School which is by far
definitely the superior Martin County school I'm biased though but anyway the South Fork girls weightlifting team took home two team trophies and multiple medal in the district finals at Sun Coast High School the girls battled their way to a second place finish in
both the Olympic and traditional categories the Olympic finishers are a freshman Sierra Delano second place sophomore Kiren wetstone second place sophomore Roxy aelia and I'll try my
best a Aela I'll try I hope I hope I didn't butcher that third third place and then freshman Cara O'Brien fourth place senior Jamie Paulson second place sophomore nichaela Maye fourth place and Senior Marley dockerty second
place freshman Maya G Gaston third place and Senior Bailey burer first place District Champion traditional finishers are Kiren wetstone second place Kira O'Brien first place District Champion Roxy
aan third place Jamie Paulson first place District Champion Nela May fourth place Marley doerty third place Alicia vanur fourth place Grayson Adams fourth place and Bailey burier second place the Bulldog
our FFA Florida culture team competed in the preliminary contest on January 28th placing 14th overall in the state and qualifying for the state finals in March the state qualifying team members are Cheyenne York ranked 11th Place in the
state individually Sophia Emerson Paige gray and Sophia morantes The Lady Bulldog soccer team won a district Title by beating Jensen Beach let's go 8 to zero in a contest cut short by the mercy rule congratulations to the second year
2024 to 2025 competitive cheerleading team for placing fifth at the FHSAA state championship please give huge congratulations to Jazz Band for receiving a superior at jazz music performance assessment for the first
time in three years everyone Clap the South for Key Club has been diligently working on a literacy a yeah literacy Grant project titled fostering the love of reading their efforts are focused on supporting Elevate hope and reena's House of blessings the students
generously donated backpacks filled with books socks hygiene products and other Essentials to these organizations in the hope of helping to make an extra special bright Valentine's Day for children parents and grandparents in need members of the Spanish National Honor Society
made Valentine's cards for patients of Discovery Village memory care home as well as for residents at Miss reena's House of blessings please join me in congratulating the 59 students for passing their certified veterinary assistant CVA exam this week as cvas
they will be licensed through the Florida Veterinary Medical Association and rep pois to enter the workforce in Animal Care positions at veterinary hospitals animal rescues and other facilities clap I have friends there please congratulate the 24 students who passed their
entrepreneurial and small business certification today clap [Applause] again congratulations to Bulldog sfiam and Emanuel cavalero for advancing the finalist standings of the National Merit Scholarship competition these young men
are now in the running to be scholarship recipients which will be determined in March the narrowing down from semi-finalist to finalist puts them in the running among 15,000 finalist Nationwide in which just under 7,000 will qualify for the scholarship Marissa
coats a member of our swim and dive team has been named Miss Martin County for the Martin County Fair now moving on to Martin County high school on Thursday February 20th Martin County High School will be hosting freshman preview beginning in the gym at 5:30 p.m. we
will be welcoming they will be welcoming future Tigers to our campus to get a Peak at all of the wonderful academics clubs and CTE programs at Martin County High School all eighth grade families are welcome to attend Martin County High School leadership will be hosting the
annual annual tiger Trot on February 22nd at Stewart Memorial Park proceeds from the proceeds from the race will benefit gertude Walden Child Care Center congratulations to the Martin County High School student artists who earned
25 Scholastic artart awards for the 2025 Regional contest for Palm Beach and Martin counties a special congratulations to the following gold key recipients whose artwork will go on to compete nationally Elizabeth gratzi Jamie Lopes Lopez Savannah mcglinn and
Ella Smith in additional congratulations to Silver Key recipients Gian Burgos Mia Clair Devin cratty Casey frier Anna Gonzalez an Ferrera Herman and Jamie Lopez is congratulations to Junior Ari
Smith for winning TC Palms athlete of the week the guards scored a team High three 23 points to help the Tigers win the district 13 to 6A title with a 74 to 69 win over Royal Palm Beach the Martin
County High School drama department will be performing their spring show you're a good man Charlie Brown from March 13th through the 15th break a leg Tigers so I'd like to Circle back on um South Fork High School um please feel free oh thank
thank you okay well first I'm going to talk about how blessed I am to be a South Fork High School student I was zoned for uh Jensen Beach because I'm only 10 minutes away yet I drive 40 minutes to go to South Fork that's how much it's it's worth it the IB program
is phenomenal the staff infrastructure is lacking but the the people make up for it I promise you I and if there conditioner doesn't work there are windows and there is Miss alvier with her fans so at the end of the day I I
still believe Southfork High School is the Hidden Gem of Martin County and and the people there are just phenomenal the teachers Mrs Gorton Mrs Beard oh my God I have to list all their names now Mr Hyde um Miss
Troy um oh God they're going to kill me if they don't hear their names um say all of them I'll say all the I'll go from first period to last period at least okay Miss B biology love her so what do I have second period I don't even remember what I have oh yeah Miss
Gorton math lover and then I don't remember my periods this is crazy you can just say all your teachers okay uh Mr Hyde Miss Bennett a special shout out to her uh Miss
Jacobs and Miss well chant and especially Dr Sutton hidden gems Mr Winningham I don't have him but he's still a Hidden Gem and these people they they're really bright and I can tell that they're qualified for things that
are way above just being high school teachers the reason why they're with Martin County is because there's something about it they're choosing to be here they care they really care and there's something about this District that's different from other districts and I have many friends who go through all sorts of districts there's some sort
of type of found family in Martin County School District that other school districts don't really have and I think that that's something to really not and again I also wanted to talk about something as much as we also love our teachers there another beloved teacher
that passed away regrettably last night of a heart attack he's um Mr Ian gagnan and uh I never had him as a student but I was I'm in the girls varsity bowling team cuz it's you know I can get of arle
letter without playing a sport and even though in in my it was my opinion that bowling does should not count as a sport because I get more exercise chewing the pizza than rolling the balls but Mr
gagnan was a really good coach and he's a he was a really good man and I I've heard from his students how supportive he was he was always understanding and especially when I was learning how to bowl cuz I joined I didn't I've never bowled in my life other than Wii sports
right and that that doesn't count because that's a video game so and I I remember he was so patient and he was always there to help me out and he would figure out what I couldn't figure out and he would sometimes take me to the side and
he would tell me some advice and cater to my needs and it was amazing to have that type of attention not I I don't know how many coaches really go above and beyond to help their students so he was really in guy very understanding and
we all miss him thank you Amir thanks for coming we appreciate it we will now follow that Derek our district upate I'm so nervous I can't even hold my phone sorry you get
to follow airor bear with me go for it okay I was gonna say Amira feel free to jump in and help Derek out I could use some help in the oneliner department um we'll we'll just get
started so we can move on uh Derek low members of the board good evening Mr Maine pleasure to be here and bring you this month's District update I want to start by um talking about our Martin County School District uh inaugural districtwide Black History Month
celebration happening this Saturday February 22nd at the Boys and Girls Club that's located off of Martin Luther King Jr Boulevard downtown this event is taking place from 9:00 a.m. to noon it's going to fe uh feature creative pieces of Art and captivating performances by
students from various schools across our district it is free to attend our full schedule of events can be found on our website under the web story for our Black History Month event uh to learn more about the upcoming celebration we also encourage you to listen to the latest episode of our Allin Martin
podcast that was released just three days ago it's on YouTube Spotify and apple music in this episode uh Stuart training school alumni share their firsthand experiences growing up in our County during segregation and desegregation reflecting on the
resilience of the community in the lasting impact of leaders like Dr David Anderson the Murray Family Dr Dr Jack White and many more it's a very good episode it's a little lengthy but I promise it's worth the listen moving on late last month the
district held its Elementary and secondary spelling bees each in their 59th annual year spellers put their skills to the test and let me tell you the competition was very Fierce our elementary B went 11 rounds the winning word that helped Crown our champion was
Unison our secondary B went even longer it was 18 round PS and the winning word uh for our middle school students was artificial we do want to again congratulate all of our spelling be participants many of which will be competing at the regional level next and a special thank you to board chair Mrs
pritchet and Mr Jeff Umba Who oversee the district's virtual school programs for serving as our annunciators we appreciate it and now I would like to just cut away to a quick video recap I know it's been a long night but uh these
students deserve it so bear with with me sear charge s r c h a r g e sear charge there's no extra cost no hidden fees just pure selling Talent on display at the 59th annual lilan aor Elementary School spelling be
j r k y jerky students lined up one by one spelling their hearts out of family and teachers each with their own little trick to nail the word the tips and tricks is to learn uh like especially i e and EI where that goes if uh it's o or
Au or something like that or anything else or remember House Is Not O students tackled challenging words like Melancholy eliminate and lers round after round they pushed forward showcasing their dedication and preparation I didn't have to practice
too much because I'm pretty good with words spelling but I had to practice like saying words out loud because I'm not as good with that I slip up sometimes as the rounds continued the words got tougher and the competition thinned it all came down to the one final word
unison u n i s o n Unison you're the winner with that winning word she earned the title I guess my title would be spelling the champion congratulations to Kin our second place winner Nicholas of
H Sound Elementary third place winner Logan Ferraro of Pinewood Elementary and all of this year's spellers who worked unbelievably hard we don't have time for the podcast not quite uh picking up where we left
off uh the South Fork High School army JROTC program recently received a $4,000 Grant from the Home Depot found Foundation allowing for critical renovations to its outdoor training facilities the upgrades which took place back on January 29th enhanced the
confidence Tower the Marksmanship range and the Raider obstacle course providing an improved training experience for our Cadets in addition to providing financial support the Home Depot uh Home Depot Foundation went a step further and also donated volunteer labor 14 of their
team members donated uh several hours of their time that day these Renovations have enhanced the Hands-On learning experience for our Cadets to gain through their participation in this program and I know this is a group photo but on the next slide here you can kind of see some of the before and after they
were out there several hours it was a nice morning and last but certainly not least if you went to elementary school in this District you know uh how big of a deal the Russell hallay track meet is every year 41 years strong this year but back
on February 1st our students battled it out at South Fork High School participating in several events such as the softball throw relay races the long jump 75 yard dash and for the fourth year in a row Citrus Grove we all know claim the top prize again followed by
Jensen Beach and Felix A Williams Elementary Warfield Elementary did win our Cheryl hubard sportsmanship Trophy this year their their cheerleaders were up in the stands all morning and even into their early afternoon uh cheering on their their classmates school board
members District leaders principals teachers coaches high school students and parents all want the extra mile and we appreciate you know their time and dedication and of course a special shout out to Mr schaer for uh helping organize uh this year's track meet as well and we look forward to being able to share a
video recap of that in the near future uh but for now that's all I have for this month till then you can find us on all of our streaming platforms and social media platforms and be back in 30 days thank you superintendent main yes Madam chair
thank you very much school board members it's my honor to be able to provide you the superintendent update this month we'll kick it off by thanking uh principal Schmidt who's in the audience tonight for organizing and helping facilitate the kindergarten blast off that we just recently had it was a huge
success uh we welcomed all of our incoming kindergarteners the class of 2038 if you can believe that um we were very excited to see the amount of families that showed up at at all of our schools it was very well attended parents and caregivers visited their
Home Zone schools they toured classrooms they met School leadership and they learned all about the essential services such as Transportation how School meals work and our extended day program they even got to watch a wonderful video that principal Schmidt recorded talking about
how parents can assist preparing their kindergarteners uh incoming kindergarteners for Success the event served as a valuable opportunity for families to connect with all of our schools and we would love to have you watch a quick video recap 1 2 3 4 5 that's right they're
blasting off into kindergarten hundreds of families visited Martin County School District's kindergarten blastoff orientation event on February 11th their mission finding out what makes our schools a amazing we have a lot of Hands On Learning we really believe thoroughly
in student engagement it's a great way for students to learn it helps them remember things and it just makes them really excited to come to school every day families of rising kindergarteners got a sneak peek of what to expect when their students enter the classroom that very first day of school she's been here
before with her brother but so she could really go into the classrooms because she hasn't been in there before meet some new friends and um see see what um kindergarten all going to about they explored every corner of their future School the classrooms Media Center
cafeteria and even the Carline they also met the mascot learned about school spirit and discovered all the Stellar clubs and programs and then way in the back is Mr David and Miss Angelina there're are extended day um manager and assistant manager they work miracles
after school on top of learning how to prepare for kindergarten really the biggest thing we can tell you is just to spend time with your child and talk to them and read to them a little bit every day um that's the biggest thing you can do to to have kindergarten Readiness the
night was purely a blast for everyone who came it's a great event it was so nice to have the backpacks and everything here and just like that the class of 2038 is ready to launch into kindergarten 3 2 1 I had the pleasure of joining Port
Sala elementary school and I forgot as an elementary principal how little they are when they walk in and where they end kindergarten and leave is just a is a beautiful thing for those that were unable to attend kindergarten registration remains open online families can find boundary maps and
required enrollment documents at martinschools.org we look forward to receiving the class of 2038 this fall also on our end was the Martin County School District college fair so we started and now we are closing out the year with all of our wonderful uh
high school students and what uh opportunities they will have uh in here in the local community as well as all of the universities and careers that they um the vendors that they may attend as we work towards the end of the school year many of those seniors are beginning to think about their next steps and life
beyond back in October the district held its annual college career in several University scholarship providers and even branches of the military were in attendance over 200 students from multip multiple grade levels attended the fair and gained valuable insights into the postsecondary education let's watch a
quick recap at this time it's never too early to plan for the future welcome to the college fair I came here because I thought it was a good opportunity to come and connect with some of the schools around my area and kind of see what they offer at the mcsd college fair dozens of colleges
universities military brand es and scholarship Representatives lined the Martin County High School cafeteria offering valuable insight for Life After High School it's his junior year so we're not on crunch time but I wanted him just to see what's available to him
there are some schools that we know for what he wants to do in college or the top schools like UCF or in riddle but I wanted him to explore and see was available students and families navigated through a buffet of options with tables and info sessions
highlighting programs majors and most importantly scholarships like there is a scholarship for literally everything like there's a scholarship for left-handed people like I was looking through it on Z and there's scholarships for literally anything you can imagine parents and students discover the impact
of instate scholarships like Bright Futures and how they could make College more affordable I wanted him to talk to the representatives about scholarships and those availabilities because those will be very helpful for him something I learned tonight is that the the instate
tuition versus out of state for Florida especially like Bright Futures and some of the scholarships that we have available to us it makes a very large difference whether students know what they want to do or where they want to go I wanted to do aerospace engineering as my major however I've been leaning
towards Film Production as my minor or they're still deciding planning for the future is just a little bit easier after attending the college fair being able to come out here tonight and see the majors that they have the program and the scholarships that they have for specific
majors and like passions coming out here and seeing that is definitely worth it and for seniors out there who have not already decided if and where they are attending college after graduation a friendly reminder that Indian River State College who is a wonderful partner
of our school district's promise program is back for another year uh this program benefits all graduating seniors from any public high school on the Treasure Coast the opportunity to obtain a tuition-free associates degree we have more information on our website and how
students can sign up to take the pledge and to take advantage of the promise program last month we celebrated over a hundred students 104 to be exact who earned perfect scores on at least one of the state assessments for the last school year which is incredibly
difficult to do many of our students not only earned one perfect score but some also earned as many as three perfect scores Ela math and science achieving Perfection is no simple task and I just want to reiterate our congratulations to all of these students their families
especially their teachers who help to uh prepare them and everyone else involved in their success their achievements serve as a powerful example of Excellence inspiring our entire District to reignite our vision of becoming Florida's top performing School District at this time this does wrap up my update
thank you uh Mark could you give your update about the pool please sure so good evening Madame chair board members and superintendent Maine so I'm excited we have some exciting news moving forward with the Martin County High School pool project um just to give
you a little history at the November 19th meeting the school board decided on option one which is course of action number one and course of action number 6A so those two items were involved under option number one so as of um the
board upload which is currently on there we only had it a February 3rd date which we were starting the proposal for the um the proposal request for the items under C of action number one which is the non-electrical items but on February 7th the purchase orders was issued for
the electrical items to the electrical contractor as of 212 we had the proposal request done for the non- electrical items and that went out to the contractors and then as of today February 18th the the electrical
contractor actually started the items under 6A so he has started that process at the pool um they were there I don't know how long today but he one of my staff members met him on site so they have started the electrical work we will have the um proposal due for the
non-electrical work that's the easiest way to explain this you have electrical work and non-electrical work the non-electrical work will be due on 321 so all this information now is uploaded on the website under the facilities Department and it's actually going to be uploaded to the Joint
meeting um presentation that I will give then on the 7th so this Target's moving every seven to 10 days we're moving forward thank you that's good news Madam chair I just want to thank Mr CES for his diligence and his hard work on this
project I know a lot of people have been asking about it and uh Mr secis is right on top of it and I appreciate him and his team's efforts so thank you thank you Mark we are now action only item 18 School Board
travel may I have a motion to approve do we have any I'm sorry I'll say it in the group are there any public comments on any of these items being none uh 1801 School Board travel can I have a motion to approve
motion to approve second motion by Miss Russell second by Dr Mari Ari all in favor I all opposed unanimous 1802 request approval to renew
piggyback Palm Beach County School District balog discounts miscellaneous janitorial supplies through 12226 I have a motion to approve move approval second Miss Roberts motion Miss Powers
second all those in favor I motion carries unanimous 1803 requisitions to be approved for purchase orders over $100,000 may have a motion to approve approve second Miss Russell
motion Dr Mari already second all those in favor I motion unanimous 18 four request authorization to utilize St Lucy County bid purchase of janitorial supplies and chemicals may have a motion
to approve move approval second um Miss Roberts motion Miss Po's approve uh second all those in favor I I unanimous 1805 Murray Middle School Multiplex agreement for band inquire
approval all those I'm sorry motion to approve move approval second thank you po motion Miss Roberts second all those in favor I I unanimous 18.06 Anderson Middle School enhanced security project proposal
approval may have a motion to approve who Moved second motion by Miss power second by Miss Russell all those in favor I unanimous 18.07% motion move approval of 1807
second motion by Miss power second by Dr marii all those in favor I I unanimous [Music] 18.085 school year approval okay Sor Miss Powers motion
Miss Robert second all those in favor I unanimous 1809 ancillary Insurance renewals for the 2025 26 employee benefits program may I have a motion
second motion by Miss Russell second by Dr Mari Ari all those in favor I I motion carries unanimously 1810 controlled open and enrollment and choice for 2526 school year may have a
motion second motion by Miss Roberts second by Miss Powers all those in favor I motion carried unanimously 1811 renewal Avid multi-year agreement Danielle Farrell
may have a motion to approve I move to approve motion by Dr Mari Ari second by Miss Russell all those in favor I I motion carries unanimously 18.2 2526 code of student conduct Dr
Katherine perendi may I have a motion to approve I move approval and I'd like to thank Dr perendi and her people for getting this done so quickly and so far ahead of time it's really appreciated I'd like a second okay fight
here Miss Roberts motion Miss poers second all those in favor I I motion carries unanimously I have one question Madam chair is 1806 and 1807 is that um sales tax money
Carter so can we U Can we update and make that notation in the uploaded documents in the agenda item just so we know that that's what it is thank you because I know that safety enhancement and that's one of the categories from that appreciate it it's
in it's okay I would like to ask for a short recess e e e e okay we're going to be moving moving on to our public hearing of Schoolboard
policy do I have any members of the audience who would like to make a public comment I'm learning job job Madam chair hey 20.01 legislative policymaking
move approval of 20.01 Miss Po's motion uh motion second by Miss Russell all those in favor I I motion carries unanimously uh
20.02 meetings may I have a motion move approval of 20.02 second motion by Miss Powers second by Miss Russell all those in favor I unanimous
20.3 superintendent relationship may I have a motion approval second uh motion by Miss Russell second by Miss Powers all those in favor I I motion carries unanimously Miss Falls you got it or do
you want me to go back okay I just want to make sure 20.04 posting of vacancies this is a resend I'd like a motion motion to approve 1119 3119 and 4119 second motion by Miss Roberts
second by Miss Powers all those in favor I motion carries unanimously 20.05 1112 9.01 312 9.01 412 9.01 this is a new policy tutoring may I have a
motion approval second motion by Miss Roberts second by Miss Russell all those in favor I I motion carries unanimously 20.06 1150 3150 4150 resignation procedure may
I have a motion move approval second motion by Miss Roberts second by Miss Powers all those in favor I motion carries unanimously 20.07% Roberts second by Miss Russell all those
in favor I motion carries unanimously 20.08 waiver modification of rule School improvement process this is a recension may I have a motion move to approve 20.08 second motion by Dr Mari Ari second by Miss Powers all those in favor
I motion carries unanimously 20.9 summer programs may I have a motion move to approve 20.9 second motion by Dr marior second by Miss Powers all those in favor I I motion carries
unanimously 20.10 Dropout prevention and academic intervention programs may I have a motion move to approve 20.10 second motion by Dr marii second by Miss Powers all those in favor I motion carries
unanimously 20.11 exceptional student education may I have a motion move to approve 20.11 second motion by Dr maror second by Miss Powers all those in favor I unanimous
20.2 selection and Adoption of instructional materials may I have a motion move approval of 20.12 second motion by Miss power second by Dr mariar all those in favor I motion carries
unanimously 20.13 instructional materials program may I have a motion move approval of 20.1 three second motion by Miss power second by Dr marior all those in favor I I unanimous
2.14 academically High performing school districts this is a new policy may have a motion move pille of 20.1 four second motion by Miss power second by Miss Roberts all those in favor I I motion carries unanimously
20.15 at uh 31203 and 412 to 41203 athletic coaches may I have a motion move app move approval I'll second that and I just have a question so this is about um all Public School
coaches being certified and we're passing this now do we have all of them up to date and certified I'm going to refer that to Dr Miller who oversees our athletic directors yes ma'am according to the athletic directors they are okay thank
you than made a motion second sure you made the motion I made the motion I miss pow yeah uh motion by Miss power second by Miss Roberts all those in favor I motion carries
unanimously 20.16 3.12 0.08 412 0.08 part-time extracurricular Personnel may I have a motion move approval I'll second that again and and
Dr Miller are you also um certifying to us that the ones that are not full-time also have those certifications yes I believe that to be correct but I will confirm okay thank you a second okay Miss Powers uh motion
Miss Robert second all those in favor I motion carries unanimously 20.7 contracts for confidential positions this is a new policy may have have a motion to approve second it Miss Russell
motion Dr Mari already second all those in favor I motion carries unanimously 20.18 school choice intra District resend may I have a motion I moved second motion by Miss Roberts second by
Miss Russell all those in favor I motion carries 20.19 school choice for full fulltime employees may I have a motion I moved second motion by Miss Roberts second by Miss Powers all those in favor
I 20.20 school choice for residents and non-residents this is a new policy move approval second I have a motion by Dr Mari AR and a second by Miss Powers all those in favor I I motion carries unanimously 20. 21
controlled open enrollment may I have a motion moved second motion by Miss power second by Dr Mari Ari all those in favor Miss Roberts but yes oh did I I apologize it's motion by Miss Roberts
second by Dr mariarti all those in favor hi uh there's smoke coming out of Miss falls's pen right now was that controlled opening I missed my okay yeah 2022 withdrawal from school
may I have a motion motion to approve second motion by Miss Russell second by Dr maror all those in favor I I motion carries unanimously 2023 self-administered medication and epinephrine may I have a
motion the moved uh a second okay Miss Roberts motion Miss Russell second all those in favor I I motion carries unanimously 20. 24 student progression may I have a
motion moved second motion by Miss Roberts second by Dr Mari Ari all those in favor I motion carries unanimously 20.25 reporting student progress may I have a motion moved second motion by Miss Roberts second by Dr marior all
those in favor I motion carries unanimously 2026 graduation requirements may I have a motion moved second motion by Miss Roberts second by Dr marior all those in favor I motion carries
unanimously 2027 credits from other schools may I have a motion moved motion by Miss Roberts second by Dr Mari Ary all those in favor I motion carries unanimously 20.28 general education
development may I have a motion move second motion by Miss power second by Dr Mari Ari all those in fav favor I motion carries unanimously good job chair okay breath I pronounced epinephrine quite well I thought good
job ay okay we now have open to the board I have two things uh Madame chair uh first I want to give a shout out to NL and the Police Athletic League for all the great work they're doing with our students here in Martin County they're working with many challenging
cases and getting great results um I also have talked with Dr P and doy uh about trying to get some data on how those kids are improving how their attendance is going up how the grades are going up and how the number of infarctions are also going down so we're
going to be working with her and I appreciate her help on this to help put some real hard data to validate this great program that's uh partnering with Martin County and the other thing I have is uh every February we celebrate holidays
like Valentine's Day and President's Day but one February event that we should we also shouldn't forget is the tragedy that occurred in Parkland that claims 17 victims at martyy stowman Douglas High School this week marks the seventh year anniversary as we look back we continue
to pray for the victims and their families and we vow to never have an event like that in our schools again so to ensure that I'm challenging our Safety and Security teams our sro's our staff and even our students to assess their school RS and bring any findings
to this board's attention the Safety and Security of our children is our top priority and we hope to keep it that way thank you thank you m Roberts um just want to say that I went to kindergarten blast off at JD Parker and I think that's a absolutely
excellent selection for that team and there's a lot of energy and a lot of positive um Vibes coming from the neighborhood and I look for great things to be coming from there so thank you Mr Russell Hour um yes just a couple of
things um just a reminder that VPK enrollment is also underway and um you can apply for your uh for parents that have a four-year-old um for the upcoming school year you can apply for your uh free VPK certificate at uh the Early
Learning Coalition I also um I spoke to quite a few teachers this week and one I just want to say h how much positive feedback I've received about our cell phone policy it continues to be um something that I think has really made a
difference in classrooms and so I know that it it was you know gets off to a rocky start because change is really hard but um I just think that it was really the right thing and we're seeing the results of that in Behavior but also in the decrease in the number of kids
that are um have their cell phones out but also the productivity that's happening in the classroom and then one thing that Derek failed to mention and this is one of my very favorite times of year is the spelling bee and for those of you that don't know I was the fifth
grade winner of the spelling bee at Indian toown middle school so um next year don't forget just kidding so but thank you that's it for me superintendent Maine
just a couple comments um there's a lot going on in my head right now but I'm going to try to just be very concise and articulate uh with what was discussed tonight and be brief um I just want to put some from data out there the Martin County School District retention rate because I know we have teachers that are
watching and I know tonight's uh meeting was heavy but I also want you to know that there's a lot of work that goes on behind the scenes collectively with staff and I want to say thank you to Don Calderone and team for a lot of work um many weeks in collecting all of that
data and meeting with individual board members to make sure that they have everything that they need necessary to make an informed decision and sometimes decisions are not easy even with the amount of data or um information that's before you anytime we have to make a
decision collectively that that um is going to impact either former staff or current staff is never easy decisions but at some point we have to draw a line in the the sand on making sure that we are valuing all of our current employees
and the salaries and their requests to increase salaries and so again I will commit to you and I know the board has committed that we will continue to do what we can to make sure that we are increasing salaries and that we're being competitive that we are always competitive with our surrounding
districts and our surrounding counties because we know that we have to have the very best teachers up in front of students in order to get to that number one position as a as a state and as a District as a district I say that to share with you that earlier today I sent an email to
the entire board and also the Chief Financial Officer Mr Morrison and the entire staff my executive leadership team knows that I'm asking for every single Department to look at a 30% decrease in their expenditures um and they we will go line
item by line item to make sure that we are rolling back our budget to make sure that we are making fiscally responsible decisions we look at all of our contracts we'll look at uh retirement and insurance as we did we'll look at every aspect of how we run our district
operationally in order to make sure that we are aligning our Resources with the appropriate FTE that we're bringing into the district we cannot spend more than we're bringing in I also want our teachers to understand and the community to understand that unlike our sister
District to the um north of us we are experiencing a decline in FTE okay either we are flat or in some cases a decline in overall FTE meaning we are not generating and bringing in the revenue that the other District to the
north is they're experiencing a lot of growth in their area with growth comes increased FTE and with increased FTE comes increased revenue and funding but I continue to be proud of the work that
is happening with the board and staff that even in the midst of having decreases in FTE and enrollment we are making sure that we're prioritizing our employees first we have not decreased salaries we've increased salaries every single year we just brought forward a
competitive increase to our administrative salaries to match St Lucy and also Palm Beach and to come in at a very competitive rate with what those administrators are making so I know we haven't had a whole lot of time time to discuss this yes insurance is one piece
but it's one piece to the puzzle we will be bringing forward other Financial areas that we will be decreasing so that we can continue to give the board the best leverage that they have to continue paying the employees that we do have what they are worth and what they
deserve the Martin County School District retention rate is 87% the last state Florida State reported retention rate was 77% so we we far exceed the state average by over 10% and I want you to know that the teacher shortage is not
a Martin County situation it is a national situation that is happening throughout and the salaries for teachers is not a Martin County problem it is a national problem it is a state problem that we continue to try to tackle and do the very best we can with every single
day so I just want our staff to know that we remain committed to you we remain committed to being pH Al responsible so that the board can make the decisions that they need to make on behalf of their constituents and on behalf of our students and our employees
and um we've got great things that are happening in this District every single day and there were a handful that aren't happy here in the audience today but that does not represent us being the second largest employer in the Martin County School District in in the community I should say in the Martin
County and we have a lot of very proud very happy very steadfast and dedicated employees to the cause and so I just wanted to end with that thank you and with that the meeting is adjourned for