5. And so, thank you all so much for being here. Hard to believe it's already February and what? February 9th. >> Don't anyone forget that needs to remember that Valentine's Day is coming up. Um, Mr. Marco, would you please um
Well, first of all, let me call the meeting to order at 5:45 p.m. And Mr. Marco, would you please call the role to see if we have a report? >> Sure. Good evening everybody. >> Barbara McQueen, District 1.
>> Christine Tibs, District 2, >> here. >> Melissa Casiliano, District Three, >> present. >> Nathan Collins, District 4, >> here. >> Dr. Holly Seinfield, District 5.
Laura Felman, District 6. James Waldron, District 7. >> Evening. Shmaine Postol, PTA PTSA County Council.
Latoya Hillard, Coalition for Black Student Achievement. Regginald Dwandis, IGT and action, >> present. Online, >> Randy Gabriel, District ESC Advisory Committee, >> present.
Sheila Scott Luben, Palm Beach State College. >> We have a quorum of seven. Yes, >> that is great news. Um I was thinking how long we've got a pump, but they didn't. So that's wonderful. Um is there
um I know that we've all received our minutes from Mr. DeMarco. Um, and and I know we've all read them. So, is there a motion to approve the minutes from our January meeting? >> I make a motion to approve the minutes
from January meeting. >> Is there a second? >> Second a motion. >> Thank you. Do we have um I'm so sorry. Do we have any discussion, corrections? Hearing none. All those who approve. All
those who approve of approving the minutes. >> I thank you. >> I >> Okay. Any nays? Hearing none. Minutes are approved. Thank you. Do we have any uh public here
joining us this evening? >> Gloria Branch, school board member, district 5. >> Okay, Miss Branch. I don't think you're public, but that's okay. >> Well, it's all right. >> Holly Seinfeld's about to get a game also.
>> I'm here. Holly Sidenfeld's here. >> Okay. And we're so happy to have you with Miss Branch. All right. So, hearing no public comment. >> We do have one. >> I'm sorry. Please. I'm going to let you guys handle it from that end.
>> Go ahead. He'll introduce himself again. Sorry, it's Ken her from Palm Beach Gardens. >> And Mr. Hero, do you have comments for us? >> No, I just think this is a very interesting meeting.
>> Well, we've had some very interesting ones. This looks like a light agenda tonight, but welcome. Glad to have you join us. So, we will move and I think we are only at 5:49 to our chief academic officer, Miss Bishop's update.
Good evening again everyone. How are you? I was wondering if it would be okay if we move um the presentation by our chief communications here who's here joining us today. Can we go to him next and then I can do my CEO updates after that?
>> Absolutely. Yes. >> All right, then I'm going to turn it right over to Mr. Culie. >> All right. Um well, thank you, Miss Bishop. And um are we able to show my presentation in uh Google Slides if I send it to you or email it to you?
Give us just a moment. We're going to get my my presentation pulled up. Um thank you, Chair McQuinn, for the opportunity. It's nice to hear Miss Branch on on the line and and Mrs. Bishop, thank you for allowing me to be here as well. Give us just one moment while we get
that pulled up. Okay, I'm gonna go >> Don. The whole presentation was up a second ago. >> All the slides were up. We could see them. >> Yes. I just I have something in the the actual slides I want to make sure I
show. Uh it's a video so it won't come through on the PowerPoint part of it or on the PDF part. Okay. Perfect. Thank you so much. Okay. Thank you for your patience everyone. >> Okay. All right.
Um well again good evening. My name is Sean Kulie. I serve as the chief of strategic communications and engagement for the school district. Um and before we dive into enrollment, I would like to give a little overview of what my department does. So you have some some context to work within. Um so my
department is responsible for district level communications. Everything from content creation, so creating videos or taking photos to managing our phone operators. We produce two newsletters uh every week, one for employees and one for our community. We handle emergency
communications uh in crisis moments. We handle executive communications, so supporting the superintendent and deputy superintendent. Of course, we stream our schoolboard meetings and graduations. We handle media relations. Um, our social media, which you of course will know
about, uh, website management, volunteer and business partners. And then I the third from last bullet I'm going to move to the bottom is strategic marketing campaigns. And that's going to be the focus of um, my presentation this evening. So, we do a lot for the school
district and we're evolving in how we uh communicate on behalf of the school district because the landscape of um our community and and public education is certainly changing. So, let's talk about what marketing is. Marketing is uh talking about the
product or services that you have. And in Palm Beach County, we're very very fortunate because we have a great product. So, we've got a wonderful um public education system. The vast majority of our schools are A and B. We've got um record number of state athletic champions. We have our highest
ever graduation rate. Congrats to Mrs. Bishop and her team on that. And so our product is really good, which is a good thing when you're doing the marketing. And in Palm Beach County, we also represent the largest uh educational
provider in the county. So we represent uh we have about 78% of the K through 12 students in Palm Beach County. About 10% of students in Palm Beach County go to to charter and about 12% of students that are accounted for by the state uh accept the voucher. So there are private
school students that do not um accept the voucher. So they're not captured in these numbers since we don't have oversight into them. But uh out of all of the students who accept public funding, whether they come through the school district of Palm Beach County, a charter school, or they accept the voucher, Palm Beach County Schools
maintains its market share at about 78%. And then to ground us in what we're doing, um I want to talk a little bit about our enrollment both at the district and the state level. So, in Palm Beach County over the last 5 years, we've been very fortunate to see growth in our enrollment with the exception of
this last school year. And so, we've seen growth year-over-year u from 22 to 23 23 24 25. And this year, we saw an unexpected decline in about 6,000 students. Um, and then
for the last 5 years, charter schools have been seeing a slow decline and they also experienced a decline as well with us. So both us and charter schools lost students this last year. Charter schools have been losing students for a couple of years in Palm Beach County. It's a little different than the statewide
trend. Uh in Florida, charter school enrollment has been growing very uh steadily over the last 5 years. Um but what I want us to all take note of is uh last year in traditional district operated schools, the state also experienced a significant decline. So,
just to put all that in context, but we were growing in Palm Beach County, beating out um our charter schools locally, beating out the the average for charter schools statewide, and beating out public school enrollment statewide. We were doing something really well in Palm Beach County. Um and then last
year, all of us faced a decline in students across the board. Um, and that's really uh we'll get into a little bit more of the reasons, but uh that really kind of caught us off guard at the district level and caught the state off guard as well. We weren't expecting
to to lose that many students, but we're not alone in Florida. So, I put some some headlines up across the uh country, school district, public school districts are seeing uh enrollments go down. Uh and so it's not just a Palm Beach County thing. It's not just a
state of Florida thing and it's certainly not um it's not just a an isolated issue in our country. It's happening in in all the large urban school districts across the nation. So, we'll we'll take that aside. That's
our enrollment trends and I want to talk a little bit more about Palm Beach County specifically and what what we're seeing. So, uh, on this map, this is Palm Beach County and, um, where you see the yellow or orange, you're, uh, that represents a decline in population. So,
less people in those areas than before. Where you see white, it's a relatively the same. And then where you see the teal or the dark blue, there's growth. So, if you're familiar with Palm Beach County, um, you'll see a lot more yellow and orange than you would expect. Um, me as a Palm Beach County resident, I was surprised when I saw this, too. Um, but
what we're seeing is a lot of homes are people are moving out of their homes and less people are moving in. Um, so in certain parts of our county, for example, in in West Palm Beach, um, people are buying lots that maybe have who housed a a family of four and
they're building a mansion on it and it's just them and and their spouse. So, we're seeing some some changing population there. But the places where we are seeing growth, um the Westlake community, you'll see towards the northern end of the map, Lotus West down in the south uh portion of the map, uh
those homes are getting increasingly more expensive. So, we don't expect that all those students will come into public schools. But you can see while we have had population growth in Florida um and our neighbors to the north have certainly experienced that and we've had pockets of it in Palm Beach County, much
of the growth um that Florida's experiencing is in more of its rural areas. So, uh anyone of course who's from South Florida, you see Port St. Lucy or Indian River County and you your your mind is blown at the amount of growth that they've had and we know that a lot of our families are moving there because it's more affordable.
Um, also bringing this up, so the two areas circled in yellow are areas in which um, we have seen declining public school enrollment a little bit above average in Palm Beach County. But why I bring this up is because the red and
pink on this map show you affordability. So these places where we're seeing declining enrollment, there is also a correlation or relationship to the affordability of housing in those areas. So, it's getting um less and less affordable to live in those areas and
public school enrollment is is declining along with it. And then just another stat here. So, um the blue and dark blue represent homes that are half a million dollars or more. >> Mr. Kley, I apologize. Laura Felman has her hand up.
>> Oh, yes, ma'am. I'm sorry. I didn't see that. >> Well, you wouldn't. >> Sorry. It was um so I understand that the affordability are you stating um concern are you stating that because of the decrease in affordability that we've had
people moving out the because I guess my question is really ultimately how much of the or is there an estimate of the decrease in population in our public traditional public schools due to
people moving out of the county versus um people choosing other means of educating their children. >> Yeah. What what we'll come to probably towards the end of the presentation but the short answer is uh it's all of it. So,
so yes and so it's a combination of affordability people moving out. Um the people who are moving in to replace those people are people who either uh don't have children or have already had children. So um the the family of four
that that grew up in West Palm sells their it gets expensive, their kids go to college, they sell their house, they move away, they're way more likely to sell to someone who is uh wealthier or who doesn't have children. Um, so it's it's both of those things and then um we are seeing some impacts uh of the
vouchers but it's it's only a small piece of the puzzle. Did that help answer your question? >> It does but um do we have an idea as to the percentage of the you know if we've dro we've dropped I forget if it was 6 or 7,000 we've
dropped quite the number of students. So the question is is are approximately 50% of those because families have moved or is it closer to 20%, that's what I'm trying to understand. >> So the best number I can give you is
about 30%. So we had we we dropped 6,000 students, but I'm let's put that number to the side just so I can give some more context. So last year we we look at both overall enrollment, right? So the number of students in schools, but then we also look at the students who were with us
who didn't return to us. And so last year um we had about 15,000 students who were with us for kindergarten through 11th grade who did not return to us for 1st through 12th grade. So it's a metric that I look at. I call them non-
returnturners. But in theory, right, if you're with us for K through 11, you should come back to us for 1st through 12th. and we lost about 16,000 students um in that non- returnturn. So we we lost 6,000 overall students if you look at the the pure numbers, but we had
16,000 students not come back to us. And that's that's not too abnormal from year to year. So people when their life circumstances change oftent times don't move until the summertime. Um, but about 30% of those 16,000 non- returnturners
uh told us that they didn't come back to us because they moved out because of cost of living. >> So, is that telling us we had 16,000 non- returnturners and then we had >> um new students come in? So, that's why we
see only the net difference of 6,000. >> Correct. >> Got it. Interesting. Thank you. >> Yeah. and that it's the numbers are a little funky because our our our student population changes from year to year naturally. So, you know, this year's
kindergarten class might be a little smaller than the year before and then two years might be a little bigger and so um you look at both overall enrollment and then also those non-returning students as well. >> Thank you, Mr. Curley.
>> Thank Thank you. Um, so looking at median home values here, um, none of us, it's not a surprise to any of us, but it's expensive to live in Palm Beach County. Um, and then like I said, a lot of those families who are or those individuals who are moving to South
Florida, um, if they can afford a half a million dollar plus home, um, they often don't have young children or children in school. Um, and then those that do are more likely to choose, um, private school. So, of course, our job is to help to market us. So, talking about
those 16,000 non- returnturners, those K through 11 students who were with us last school year who did not return for 1 through 12th grade with us, about 2,200 of those went to private school. Um, you'll see the sub bullets there. FES uh stands for Florida Empowerment
Scholarship. So, about 1,600 of those accepted the scholarship. The other 630 uh did not uh accept a scholarship at the time of withdrawal but um may have well since then but about 2200 left us for private school. About uh 2500 went
to charter schools. About 600 to homeschool. Um 3,800 do not did not return. Uh that means that they didn't return to us and they didn't tell us why. Uh and the schools try to follow up with those uh individuals. And then about 6,600 moved and about a hundred
dropped out or had some other type of personal issue that uh didn't allow them to enroll in public school. So of course we're putting our marketing caps on and we wanted to know, okay, those 1600 families, why did you leave us, right? Like we're trying to make
sure we have a good product and we are communicating our good product because we we have great graduation rate, we got great schools. Um, and so aside from the 6,600 that moved, and we asked them to, and the the prevailing answers were um someone in the family got a new job or
Palm Beach County was far too expensive. Um, but the the other students, the 10,000 students who um who did not return to us this year, we asked them why, and I put a word cloud up there um uh to share with you the answers, but we
got a myriad of responses back. Uh so it wasn't um it wasn't one thing that really led a mass exodus of people and so uh that was interesting for us in the communications and marketing world because uh we believe that we we do ex
uh education very well and we have a lot of excellent schools and so to us this is a communications challenge not a not necessarily a school challenge. Um but it was good for us to to get this feedback and we did share uh the feedback with the individual schools. So, um, you know, we have 183 schools.
We asked all of those families that left why they didn't come back. And with whatever schools that their their kids went to, they the specific feedback was shared with the schools. But we encouraged our our principles overall and our team, our marketing team internally to make sure that we are communicating about these things cuz uh,
for example, lack of gifted programming. We have very robust gifted programming available for public school students and so we've got to make sure that we're telling that story. Um bullying was an item that that came up. Um we've got a pretty robust response to bullying and a very um formalized process to address
bullying. So means that on the communications front we've got to do a little better. It sorry to jump in but does it really mean that it's solely a communications or does it mean that the approach that we have done is insufficient to address
the needs? Because the lack, sorry for jumping in, but the lack of gifted programming might not be the lack of it. Maybe it should be better phrased of that the family felt that there was a it
wasn't meeting the gifted programming available wasn't meeting the needs of the students or for example that while there are robust programs for bullying perhaps the way that they were implemented is the issue which is not just a communications issue.
>> I think that Mr. Cool. Right now it's giving us a a broader picture rather than I don't know if you're going Sean to go into those individual pieces. >> No, I understand that it's it's a broader picture, but the summation of that broader picture was that this is a
communication issue and it's not clear to me that it's a communication issue. It's it's people talked about having deficits in these areas essentially and that's not just a communication issue. could be a performance issue.
>> Yeah, that that's a good point. I I view it from a communications uh perspective just because of my my lens and and what we're doing in the marketing front. But you are right and that that is why we shared it to with the school so that uh and their the schools and their supervisor so they can see these themes
and then address the if there is a programmatic issue. Um I will share we didn't see a whole lot of the same issues at schools. So, I didn't see any school that had 20 complaints of bullying, right? I saw a school that had
one complaint of bullying, one complaint of learning supports, one complaint of emotional support. Um, but we did share all that feedback with the schools and their supervisors so that they could keep that in mind and then make sure that um from a communication standpoint that they're talking with their families
about those um areas of improvement so that families know that the school principal cares and wants to address it. I think I saw Mr. Little's hand up. >> Uh, yes. I I Miss Miss LF kind of, you
know, took my point of, you know, seeing these again. I can understand from your lens perspective cuz I did a little bit of marketing when I was at the Pentagon. And yeah, definitely you, you know, you see these things and you have to look at your pool and see exactly how many things you're pulling and then you got
to look at your deltas and all these other things. But I think the discussion of maybe the processes that Miss LF is talking about is definitely something that we could discuss. Perhaps not right now since we're focused on marketing, but it is something to kind of keep into, you know, uh keep in our hats, so
to say, for later. >> No, I think I still see your hand up. >> Uh yes. Um, and the the question I have is um I you mentioned that the information has gone back to a school. Has this
information been analyzed on a regional level as well? >> I'm not sure. I'll have to I'll have to check I don't think we've provided at a regional level um because we didn't really see a whole lot of trends that lended itself there. But
I'll double check. Um, but we have shared >> question. I can see that the trends might not be there on a school level, but I'd be curious if there are trends on a regional level. >> We'll take a look. >> Thank you. >> Thank you. Thank you for raising it, too.
Miss Branch, >> Mr. Kulie, I don't recall after I looked at some of the reports, it it's we're so big. I did not see one complaint that overshadowed everything else. Um,
and you can take a look at it too, but I remember looking at reports and we are such a enormous county that, you know, the south county may have a different one than the north county and west and the central, but I did not see one complaint or even two that overshadowed
everything else. So your your information when I looked at it was that's kind of what I took away from it. So um you've done a great job. Thank you. >> Thank you. Yes, ma'am. No, we didn't. It would have made a marketer's job a lot easier if everybody had the same
answer and we could address it uh that way. But the it was very much a mixed bag. >> Um okay, one other obser observation I want to point out. So, we've talked about um public school enrollment in Florida is is and nationally is heading down. We've
talked about affordability in Palm Beach County, both um housing as well as um housing, I'm sorry, and uh median home values. And then, um we've talked about population growth in Palm Beach counties going down in in certain areas. There's
only a few pockets where we're having big population growth. And then the last piece of this enrollment puzzle is um birth rates. And so people are having less kids than they used to have. If if you anyone knows any teenagers or young adults, I feel like that's certainly a
talking point for them. Um but look at today's kindergarteners. We have about um 10,500 kindergarteners in our classroom right now. And last year we graduated about 13,000 seniors. So if you look at just over time what's going into the public
school system and what's coming out um we are putting out more graduates and we are bringing in um kindergarteners. And so that's a symbol of our our birth rate uh changing in Palm Beach County as well as our our families changing. So we used to have lots of young families moved to Palm Beach County. people stayed here
and had children and we're seeing uh less of that and that's bearing itself out in our class of 2038 which I struggle to say every time I see it. Um so just to kind of summarize uh we're seeing changing demographics so that the
types of families that are enrolling in our schools are changing um cost of living is an impact birth rates school options. So if we if we think about the the non- returnturners, you know, we had um a good number of folks who went to charter, a good number who went didn't
accepted the voucher, a large number who moved away, um a number who had complaints about schools, a very small number who were unable to reenroll for personal reasons. And so as we think about this from a a district level perspective, it's an all hands- on deck
and a continuation of our our your best choice um efforts for customer service as well as better understanding the uh population that we're serving and how we can can better market to them and then better serve them. Um so enrollment
efforts things that we've done this year. So one the superintendent launched a enrollment strategy committee. So that's made up of school and district administrators who um talk about different ideas on how to address uh enrollment both school specific and
districtwide. And I'll I'll talk a little bit more about that in our our next slide. Um we're also ramping up our our district level marketing efforts. And so I think we uh we've taken for granted that we have a great product and we don't we didn't have to sell it as hard because people just kind of knew.
Um but we are making sure that people know of the quality of our school district. Um we're one of only 13 academically high performing districts in the state. We're A-rated. We we've got a lot of really great um programs and schools in our school district. So we want to make sure we're we're not
taking that for granted and that we're getting the word out on those. Um we're continuing to ramp up our customer service initiatives. So if you walk into a a charter or private school, you're probably going to be greeted very friendly. you're going to get a great concierge experience and you're going to
you're um they're going to want your business as a family that wants to enroll their child in in a school. Um we want to make sure that people are getting that same um level of customer service from our employees as well. And then we are uh asking our school principles to do a little bit more with
uh at their school sites and to do school tours with uh prospective families so that families can get a feel of the campus that they might want to enroll their child in. Um and this next video is why we had a little bit of a delay, but I want to show you one of our our kind of newfound marketing efforts
that we launched this year. The school district county was my best choice. It gave me all the opportunity I could possibly ask for. From elementary school to high school now school, the future went on. We went all over the place. I've been to
the ever grades, zoos, museums. Just seeing those things inspires children. to be in a middle school middle school with the pre-eng engineering program with Miss Joyce. She really pushed me forward as well in terms of want to be engineering. I mean science academy my
future career at beach community high school like a full class where we get certified. I loved it and found a passion for it and my part after I graduated so I can actually get paid to fly drones. That was like really cool. Without the teacher at the school, I would not be able to really uh push
yourself as far as I did. No matter where you look, there's always something that can be done that you can do. And you always find your place no matter where you go. The school of Palm Beach County is amazing place to get an opportunity. They really prepare me and I think it's going to definitely give me the tools I need to do my career.
All right. So, we're doing more of those efforts, right? So, I could I could spend all night showing you some of the great stories that are coming out of our schools, both from students and families, but also our our principles and teachers. So, trying to make sure that people can peel back the layers here and see what's happening and and
get to hear from real people who work for us or real people who've attended our schools. Um, so the enrollment committee is the last thing I want to touch on and just share with you some of the work that they're doing. So, understanding these enrollment trends and and data. So again, uh we've been
very fortunate in Palm Beach County to have um public school enrollment growth for the last couple of years and and really since our inception, we've had a pretty strong trajectory of growth in Palm Beach County. But as we all know, the traffic's getting worse and there's not a whole lot of places to build new homes. So that growth is is starting to
come to a halt. Uh and the growth that is happening in our community is um a lot of people who do not have school age children. So um we're trying to understand um both those trends and then why people have have decided to leave us. Um we're trying to also gather best
practices internally. What's working uh to encourage enrollment in enrollment growth in schools and what's not working. Um the committee is making recommendations on process and procedural improvements. Um and then some of the projects they're working on. We we've talked about the survey of non- returnturners. Um testimonials from
students, families, and staff. Um we are launching we've launched a dedicated school district enrollment web page so that families have one place to go to get their child registered for school. Um looking at school specific supports. So what works in Bokeh might not work in West Palm might not work out in the
Glades. So providing school specific supports to them and then also supporting schools with some uh targeted digital advertising. So, uh, those efforts are ongoing and I don't have a whole lot more to share on on the committee's work, uh, yet because it is still underway. And that's it. I know
we've had some discussion throughout, but I'm very happy to answer any questions and and very much appreciate the opportunity to, um, talk about the good work of the committee uh, that's happening as well as our marketing and enrollment efforts overall. So, thank you. >> ESC
Yes, >> great presentation, Mr. Kulie. Thank you very, very much. I do have um one or two questions. We're saying that 12% of total students have private school vouchers currently.
And um so those would be the homeschoolers get private school reimbur um get money get part of that money and private people going to private schools for tuition. We all know it boils down
to the FTE dollar amount. What is the dollar amount the the private school vouchers are costing this district and lost revenue? >> It's about $8,000. I'd have to get uh get you more specific numbers from our
um CFO and her team, but it's about 8,000. >> 8,000 per student. >> Yes, ma'am. >> Okay. >> So, you know, that's a big big loss right there. Um and uh
That's all for now. >> Thank you. >> Thank you. >> Laura, sorry. >> That's okay. And thank you. And I've um greatly uh appreciated getting um this information. Um I do have uh two
questions actually. Um, we talked about the reasons um that people have given for deciding to leave the school district, but have we is there a list of or surveys of criteria
that families are using to choose the education for their children? Um, you know, specifically what is their decision criteria? because it'd be interesting to see what the differences are between why
they left and why they decided to enroll in Palm Beach County schools. And then um because that could tell us if we we're evaluate if we are surveying both people who have uh chosen to attend
Palm Beach County schools, traditional public schools, as well as those who've chosen homeschool or um or charter schools or whichever other private private schools or other things
because that could be um their reasoning might not line up. Um and so that could be an interesting thing to pull out. The other um question is is are there efforts to reach out to
prek students and families? by I guess not so much students but families um I guess in the springtime before they are choosing what where they will enroll their students for kindergarten.
>> Excellent. Um so sure I'll start with your first question. So decision criteria we this is the the secret sauce that both us charter schools and private private schools are trying to figure out like what what makes a family want to pick a school. Um, so I I like your
feedback on h asking families that question. Um, so we are as part of the enrollment committee's work and our marketing work, we'll be doing focus groups with families who are with us. So that'll be a question uh for them. Um, and also we'll see if we can figure out a way to to get that question more
broadly asked across the school district because that is a it's a good point. Um, we know that uh from nationwide research that like word of mouth and school culture are the number one reasons why a family picks a school. So if you on a
general perspect on a general note, if you have a family and you say, "Hey, why'd you pick this school?" They're most likely to tell you either their friend recommended it or they heard good things about it. Um, and so we know that those tend to be the the big deciding factors from a a general perspective.
And one of the reasons that we are trying to do some more school specific marketing instead of focusing on um exclusively district-wide marketing um and so one of the initiatives that I have going on is looking at school rating. So, when you go to realtor.com
or you're on the Zillow app, uh, as many families do when they're looking to relocate to Palm Beach County, we want to make sure that our schools appear in those searches for um, school opportunities and that the ratings that they see on those uh, reflect what the schools are in the neighborhood. So, um,
great great observation and and feedback there because we do want to better understand those deciding factors so that we're a good part of the decision that our information is a part of their decision-m process. And then on prek, um, this is a a big effort by Mrs.
Bishop and her team. Uh so we have a step into kindergarten uh campaign where our uh VBK providers are contacted um and often connected with their vocal school principal who will go and do uh
anywhere from a hello check-in to story time with the VBK uh students that are there and weave information about kindergarten enrollment with the VBK providers. So Mrs. Bishop team team takes the lead on that that effort and um it's it's been very successful as a
part of that we uh provide uh kindergarten readiness kits to each of the uh families who enroll and that provides them an opportunity to practice those kindergarten skills before the child is actually enrolled with us for kindergarten. Uh still work to do there. We have 500 plus VBK providers in Palm
Beach County. So uh I think we got to continue to strive towards that. But we're doing we're doing some pretty good work there. Um, and I'm hoping that we can kind of replicate that community level engagement for our schools across the the spectrum. So, not just happening in in kindergarten, but uh, our sixth
grade, our middle school is doing that for fifth graders across the county. Our high school is doing that for middle schoolers. Miss Bishop, anything you want to add on that? I don't want to step on your toes. >> No, you did a great job. I think I talked about it a little bit last time when I gave you an update and I'll bring it back again um with all the exact
dates of when the schools are opening up. They're having their programs, their tours, um presentations for the parents, um all to really attract the parents, especially those siblings that we already have on campus, but also the community. And that's why I think that
they do this excellent work of reaching out to the community. We have four ambassadors that work with our team that are in the community all the time visiting the providers um and you just letting them know what a great choice we are we do have. And then we ordered some kits. The principles are
going to start their readaloud campaign in the schools this spring where they'll be visiting the VPK providers in their communities and they are reading uh we the ELC provided us a book um that will be read by the principles to the students. So, another great way of of um
you know making those touch points at the schools and getting to know them as well. So, and I'll bring you more on that. >> Families and sorry, interrupt. Are the families invited to those readalouds? >> They happen at the schools. So, they go into the classroom. So, no, but the
families and the communities are invited to come to the school for their um their events. So they each school is going to have a an a program during the school day as well as one in the evening in April. Um those are our
>> our kickoff events. >> Kickoff events. So the teacher >> No, I was just thinking that you became parent and it's nice to know that the principal from the elementary school came and visited your student, but it's
an added le um added level of connection if there's a way for the parent to meet the principal at the BPK center versus making the parent come to the elementary school. I know it takes a lot of time
and effort to do that, but I would think it would that that builds a stronger connection, I would think. >> Great feedback. Let's start with Miss Clips and I hope you come back to the other. >> Hi, thank you. Um, on this topic with
VPK, I know that the numbers shown tonight are um, I guess the first graders or I guess incoming first graders that didn't um, I guess return. Is there a way to add um, I guess the
number of VPK students who, you know, did their VPK at Palm Beach County schools but then decided not to enroll in kindergarten with Palm Beach County schools? Are are those numbers available? It it's something we could look into. I don't have them readily read readily
available. No. >> Okay. I'm just wondering because Oh, sorry. You'll hear my daughter in the background. Um if there's a big push for VPK um into kindergarten, like those numbers would be important, too, because we already have the enrollment from the VPK
kids and then they didn't convert to kindergarteners. >> Yep. Good feedback. I'll take that back. If Miss Bishop can perhaps bring that back to us next time. >> Yes, we we I will bring that back once we have that information available.
>> Thanks. And um back to ESC. Okay. Thank you. Um I have friends all around the country that that are in education and social work and you know when I've talked to them they said that they have lost a lot
of students in their schools in their area wherever it may be um because certain authent certain nationalities let's say are not sending their children to school you know they're not they're just not sending them to school and the
The reason is fear, but um have we is is that part of the problem for non-returning students here? >> So, I can speak to the the data aspect of it. And the short answer is I I think
so, but let me talk about the data just so we're all on the same page. Um so we didn't have a recurring theme in the responses back from the surveys of PE people who didn't come back to us. So nobody said uh listed fear um or safety
uh as it relates to immigration or any of any of that in the surveys. So maybe one or two but it was it it wasn't a theme um at all. But I I will share too, we have seen um a decrease in uh ELELLL
students, so English language learners um this school year versus other school years. So in previous school years we were growing um in ELLL students and this school year we have seen a a decrease. So, uh it's it's hard to to to
give a definite like yes or no on this, but I think it is a piece of the puzzle uh for us and it's something that we're we're monitoring and watching too and we'll you know me from a enrollment perspective I'll be very curious to see if that replicates itself next year. um
if if those trends continue or if that's a one-time blip um so that we can better adjust our our marketing efforts and then and also better improve internally so that we don't uh lose those students if possible. >> Do you have any idea the percentage or
the um of um ELLL students or the number has dropped this year versus last year? >> So my numbers are a little old on it. we were growing by a few thousand in previous school years each year. Um this year, the school year, in the beginning
of the school year, we were down about 4,000. So, um you know, you look at the net change, it can be significant. Um but also just kind of a nuance on that, you know, students are aren't always identified as ELLL at the beginning of the school year. So, we need to look at
them again to have to have a little more fresh perspective on it. But yes, there's definitely a a noticeable change between the previous school years and this school year. >> Thank you, Mr. >> Mr. W. >> Oh, thank you. Yes. So, uh if I could
just give one uh recommendation, I think that would be a positive for us when we're talking with marketing. Uh, I believe Miss Bishop did provide us some great information at the previous meetings talking about students that did go to VPK
by the numbers just outshined other students that did not attend VPK. So maybe something that could be good for marketing this coming April or whenever you guys decide to do it is to present that to parents that might even have
other kids or other young kids around them and say, "Listen, uh VPK will help prepare you and give you a step ahead of other kids that do not go to VPK." It's just an idea. Thank you. >> Oh, I'm so sorry, Mr. Siliano. I got
your name right this morning. >> You did. Thank you. Uh thank you so much for your presentation, Sean. Um definitely informative. What I just have a question about and from an ESC standpoint as well um is is there a
breakdown of we have the E uh the FES is there an FES UA how many left us to get those scholarships and do we have a breakdown of any ESSE students that left as well? Is there any data available?
Where can we get that in the future? >> Great question. I'll have to double check. I don't believe the state informs us what type of fees scholarship that they accept. Just it's more of like a hey, we're funding this this child, so
don't you know, you're not going to get fund for them is is kind of how it's presented to us. Um, also look at the ESC component too to see if there were any any trends there. But we'll know obviously we received the we received the money for them of that population
for the state so we know how much left um so that data would be available if we can pull it up or if somebody can present it um at a later later time with these numbers I think that's something useful just going back also to families
who left us and uh just being in that community which is something you hear often so the numbers I think are useful so I appreciate it. >> Thank you. Yeah. And one of the data points we did look at initially when we were trying to determine the the drop in
students and the and the trends, you know, was are we seeing this among a certain race or um gender. We kind of pulled up all those kind of general metrics for your reduced lunch status, students with disabilities. Um, and we didn't there weren't any noticeable
trends that I recall from that. But we'll we'll look specifically at ESSE students and see if there was a a difference there. But I think most subgroups followed the general population changes. So there um you know even Hispanic students uh you know there
was a lot of talk of of mass exit of Hispanic students and I we didn't see that in the data. They followed the same trends as white and black students did. But we we did start to see that when we looked at the ELLL the component of it. Um but I'll I I took a note to follow up
on the ESSE component and and we'll follow back up. Thank you. >> Okay. Um Mr. Culie, thank you for that very informative um presentation. We appreciate it very much and we look
forward to getting the um some feedback from the questions that were asked. Thank you again so very much. >> Thank you, Miss McQuinn. And thank you to the committee for being interested in my favorite topic. So I always love to talk about enrollment and marketing. So I appreciate it. Thank you. >> You're a great committee. And I think
now we're going back to Ro um Nolan Library Media Update. Miss Bishop, >> I'm not sure if he's on, but um I do want to first thank you. We got you up here. >> You got me. Yes. Yes. I do want to thank
Chief Kulie for being here, bringing us this excellent presentation. Um just to give you some context, we have been we always discuss everything that's happening in the district and we were discussing the budget forecast and discussing the number of students at the decline in enrollment and I had told
them about the work that we're doing and so they wanted to hear it firsthand from you. So we it was a treat for us to hear from the chief himself. So we appreciate that. Um and our committee members always have really great questions and they really give us good feedback and make us think. So, we will definitely
take back all the questions and I'll bring back all the follow-up information as soon as we have it. So, thank you and have a nice evening. >> Thank you, Miss Bishop. >> All right, let me go to our presentation here.
Oops. Oh, no. Sorry. I always forget I have to use the mouse here. Slideshow. Alrighty. Good evening again. I bring you a few updates. Um, let's see what we have. I'm going to start with some
really great news here. Um, so we recently, I think it was last week or the week before, had the fifth annual celebrate the grade awards. Um, where we celebrate outstanding principles, assistant principles, school related
employee of the years, teacher of the years. So each region is able to nominate one person for each of these categories. Um, so that in itself is a great honor for the for our employees to be nominated and celebrated by their
region. And then everyone submits their their packets and then the Ed Foundation really puts on this event for us, coordinates, um, is in charge of of the judging and bringing together different
of our community partners to help us with this event and provide the the prizes as well. And so that was held last week and then the fi the finalists were selected and so we're really proud of our employees here that were nominated. We have Miss Balden for
Pahokei Elementary as the assistant principal of the year. School related employee of the year is Miss Connie Sterling from Equestrian Trails Elementary. Principal of the year Dr. Tama Robinson from St. Lucia High School and teacher of the year Miss Lana
Jackson from Galaxy Elementary School. And it was s such a great reception and each of the candidates had um do some remarkable work and so we were able to recognize them, celebrate them and then all of our winners had just incredible
speeches that really inspired us and hopefully inspire the rest of our employees to do their best. So we're really proud of the talent that we have here in Palm Beach County and and so happy that we were able to celebrate them. Um and then continuing with the great news, Mrs. Alana Elena Vani from Lakew
Worth Community High School was recognized as a champion of the arts. 2025 Florida Art Education Association named her principal of the year and that's in the state. So very high um recognition.
And then we have Mr. Ryan Scott from Marsh Point Elementary School was recognized by the Florida Association for Media and Education or FAME as being uh the 2026 recipient of the Principal Advocacy Award. So, excellent work
there. And then uh Mrs. Sandra Edwards, principal of Atlantic High School, was honored um and recognized as a 2026 Florida Tax Watch Principal Leadership Award. And what's unique about about this award is that
it's not that somebody was nominated or somebody applied for this. It's the state that looking at the data, they recognize uh the top performing Florida principal and based on significant gains in graduation rates and college readiness. So, we're super proud of our
administrators and all the work that they do. And speaking of graduation rates, we're excited to report that we increased our overall graduation rate, including charter schools. We went from 92.1% to 93.5%.
That's a growth of 1.4 points. And if we just look at district operated schools, not including our charter schools, we increase from 95.9% to 96.7%. So our graduation rates are already very high and yet we still increase them. So
we exceed the state average. Um the graduation rates for all of 25 of our high school operated district operated high schools exceeded 92%. So really excellent work, excellent performance by our schools, our
teachers, our students. We're so proud of them. And then we had 10 high schools that had um 99% or higher graduation rates including the Rural Palm School and Palm Beach Virtual and they had 99% or higher
graduation rates outstanding there again. And if we look at our students within the following subgroups from FY24 to FY25, we see a 3.4% 4% increase in our black students, 1.3% for our Hispanic students. Our ELELLL or English language
learners increased by 4.4%. Our free reduced lunch students increased by 2.2% and our students with disabilities increased by 1.2%. So again, we're seeing growth across all of our subgroups. So again, I can't say enough of how proud we are of this
accomp of these accomplishments. And speaking of BPK, um I do want to recognize these schools. I think it's about 30 of them that are here for receiving the highest designation um awarded by the state as
far as and they look at school performance, the student performance um based on assessments also based on um visits to the schools, those evaluations. So these schools received exceeding expectations. So like the highest excellent the highest um
designation and they received a special certificate and letter from the early learning chancellor Carrie Miller. So we recognize these schools principles as well and okay so we're celebrating there. So
now we're going to talk about PM2 data. As you recall the last meeting I shared with you the results for our kindergarten through fifth grade students. So, our elementary schools because the secondary schools, middle and high schools were still testing. So, today I have for you the results of our
the rest of their of the tested grade levels. So, we just added on to the table that you recognized from last time. So, let's look take a look at reading the first table and I'm going to go down to the fourth um row there, which is grades six through eight. So we
see that our students are projected to be or to demonstrate a 4.2 increase in um achievement. So last year these students ended up at 59.3
and after PM2 data and checkpoint CP means checkpoint three. So our amazing team takes into consideration the data of the students how they did and then they p they p project as long as the students continue to make the same
growth that that number will go to 63.5 which is a 4.2 increase. So I just wanted to explain how that works. So if we look at students in in grades 9 through 12 we're also looking at a 3.4% increase from where they were last year.
They ended the year at 58.1 and right now after CP after PM2 if they continue to grow at the same rate rate we are looking at a 61.5%. And the again that is students scoring a level three or above on the fast. And if
we take a look at the next set of numbers we're looking at math. And if we look at again going down to the fourth row, grades 6 through 8, um you can see that we are looking at a projection of an increase of 5.1 percentage points. Uh
and then if we look at 9 through 12, according to this, we're going to stay about the same um at a 46.2. However, these are projections and so we know we're going to meet beat that projection as well. And so in math we've done we're really showing some great
growth and so we're really proud of that and we are continue to work and push forward. And if we look at science um science is an area that we've been a little bit flatline and when we look at grades 6 through 8th so the eighth grade
tests we're looking at a 1.3% increase. And if we look at 9 through 12, which is biology, we're looking at a 14.1% increase, which is very significant. Um, and then if we the next set of
tables, we look at algebra. And in grades 6 through 8, we're looking at an increase of 4.8%. As you know, it um in Palm Beach County, the school district, we promote our students and we um encourage accelerated
um that they take accelerated coursework. So, many of our students are taking algebra in uh middle school. Of course, these are students that are high performing students, so they usually do have um high um passing rates. You see that 94.2.
And then in grades 9 through 12 we have uh we're projected to take a little loss there at 4.9%. So that is an area of focus for us right now. And if we look at geometry again those students that are taking
geometry in middle school are advanced students and so we're looking at a 2.8% increase um projected to be at about 97.8%. And in grades 9 through 12th, we're also seeing an increase of 2.5 of geometry.
So at the bottom, you see the grand total of 2.8%. And then we look at social studies. Um both civics and US history were an area of opportunity for us. And so civics we're seeing u possibly a 2.0 um increase and US
history 12.3%. So that's looking really high. Now what we the what we tell our principles and our students is this is where we are right now and uh we and as I told you before what we did with elementary this is the time of the year where the
principles really and their teams take a look at this data. They um analyze it. They go student by student, teacher by teacher to see how they're doing and then create their action plans. And um really this is that
time of the year where all hands are on deck. We are putting our um crunch time plans is what we call it in in in place so that we make sure that our students meet their goals. Um that's where we are there. Let me see. And I did remember
you saw this slide last time. I included it here just so that you would see that this is what takes place. Um right now we just finished our essentials. Uh we had elementary on January 30th and just last week um February 5th we had
our secondary essentials and we brought all of our principles and they were able to bring one person from their their school-based teams with them and um curriculum shared the resources that we have available and how to use them. So
once they analyze the data how to use that how to use for retaching or enrich enrichment based on the needs of the students and then our um our data our profession performance accountability team came as well went over the data
reviewed it but then also to led the teams into some very um detailed extensive analysis of the data. We used AI um to really um pinpoint like our
secondary benchmarks, understanding what needs to be rettaught, but as well as grouping the students based on their data and helping group them and then helping also identify the resources. This AI is incredible. Um but you have to know how to use it. It's all about
the prompts and all that. Our teams worked tirelessly to create and to test different prompts and different um and it showed different strategies and different ways to save time by doing a lot of the analysis and um these prompts
to help the schools really pinpoint strengths, weaknesses, students that needed support and then what resources to use. That was very um very helpful and that's all I have. Um I also just want to say that we celebrated our
guidance counselors last week. Um we had a proclamation here at the boardroom and then also um the city of West Palm um Commissioner Flores did something for for the guidance counselors there as well. And we are in celebrating black
history this month as well. So our schools are engaged in a lot of different um activities and ways to celebrate. Our curriculum department has provided lots of resources and made them available to our schools. I think I see some hands up. >> You do.
>> Okay. >> I think I only see one hand. >> Okay. Go ahead. Is that um I don't have I only see ESC advisory on the screen. >> Oh, Miss Randy G. >> Yes.
>> Now you see me. Um is it possible to get a copy of this presentation? Is it on there? Is it in the invite? You do have it. If you go back to the invitation, the presentation is attached there. >> Okay. Thank you.
>> All the the Right. All of the presentations are attached for you there. >> Okay. Thank you. I didn't see it. So, thank you. >> Sure. >> Do we have any questions or comments for Miss Bishop? >> Hearing none, we are Do we have um
>> is Mr. Nolan on >> here. >> Oh, there you are. >> There we go. >> Thank you. I know. So, I always want to have you come um come on first because Mr. Ro has to sit on here and wait until it's his his turn after working a full
day. So, um do you have any updates to share with the team with the committee? >> Uh no. So, I mean, basically, thank you guys for the continued uh feedback that we're getting. Uh we do appreciate that. Uh, and then as we get closer to spring break, some deadlines for purchasing
will come up and so things should slow down a little bit. Um, but it probably won't slow down until those deadlines pass. So, uh, thank you guys for your feedback and we we appreciate it. >> Okay. Anybody have questions? Um, any
the new newer committee members? Do you have any questions for Mr. role about the assistance that they need from us. Okay. And I apologize. I know that I've been negligent. You see me squirming
here. I'm still dealing with this aftermath of shingles and it's so those of you who are of your co age and I am only speaking as a as an individual, but if you don't get your vaccination, you do not want shingles. I am telling you
now it's been rough people. Um do so we are let's see where are we? We're at 650. Do we have any questions, answers, anything for good of the order um from
the group? And I can't go around the table. So just please raise your hand if you have a question or comment. Okay, you're all tired tonight. It's Monday.
All right. Well, oh, I see. Um, don't make me say it again, Casiliano. Yes. Go ahead. You're muted. You're muted. Sorry. I just wanted to round back. I
know we discussed it um a few meetings back about those FSQs and parents not being able to view their children's unit tests and that continues to come up in the schools and it continues to be a parent concern because they feel that
they're not connected to their children's education because they're not able to see those errors. And um a conversation has been, you know, we see scores or they see scores and then you see district averages and they're
asked who um when those averages are kind of low, those parents are then being told that that's the normal. Like so say the average is 62% on a sixth grade science. Don't worry about that. That's the district average. and that's
like looking at scores differently in today's world. Um, I just want some clarity for the community on that and bringing that back to parents, but more so being able to view your children's work is the bigger concern um on the end of those unit tests.
>> Sure, I can speak to that a little bit. So, I did take that back to the team. So, the the thing is and I know that we're a little bit all over the place with that. So, we're going to work on some clarity around that, but those unit assessments are secure tests and they are not to be shared um with the parents
and I know that some schools do um because those are tests that you know schools administer at different times and they're just secure and we use them you know we we use them year after year. However, um there are other uh this
teach the teachers can share reports about it. They can share the standards. they can share um you know similar problems so that so that the school the parents are aware of that. So we're going to work on making sure that we
have a unified way of sharing that with the family so it's not up to each individual school what should I share to make it more um to provide a better product so that you understand you know where your child is is struggling um and
and I can appreciate that and like I say um on the education side of it you understand what a standard is right as a parent you know and an educator I understand that standard But what I'm hearing from the community, they don't understand those standards. And when we say we're using these tests year after
year, you know, we got better systems nowadays. Why can't we scramble these tests year after year now and kind of consider that as an option so that parents do feel more connected? Um, we do use curriculum, right? We we're
getting these great new curriculums and those uh companies, I'm sure, offer unit tests. I know we don't use them as a district. But the second part of this concern from parents and families is that their instruction in the classroom with those type of curriculums are not
matching those unit tests that we have. And that is a great concern. And that doesn't just come from parents. That comes from students who are frustrated when they come home um after studying. And I'm going to pinpoint more towards our older kids, our fifth graders. I'm
hearing from fifth to probably 8th grade um because our high schoolers become a little bit more independent but a little frustration that the concepts are there but the way that they're seeing them are different from those learning types in the classroom. So those are two things
to address when we're looking at th those uh FSQs and the and the parent concerns throughout the district. So the FSQs are optional. So that we could that can be shared, but the unit assessment at the end is the one that's not. And we
we do take items from from our our publishers and all that and our um our curriculum, but we have to we write those ourselves, the team does, and we update them, but we need to we have like a bank of questions that we keep, but
those are aligned to what they do in the classroom, but also aligned to the to the test uh specifications. Um but I will bring that back to the team um because and make sure that what we have in Blender for our school our
teachers to use um and I know that we do you know we have like for instance I know our math program has like daily quick checks daily spiral reviews that are all aligned um to those problems but sometimes you know we do have um yeah I
mean what we put out is definitely aligned. I just have to make sure that that all of the that that's being used in the school system. But what I will do with all this is I will take it back and as we every year we reflect, every year we are working on this alignment, I'll
make sure the team addresses that. Um >> it would greatly um serve the community for communication, right, and parent communication for those who um are involved, which we would hope that there's many who are involved, right?
So, I think that's just something to look at as well. So, I thank you and for hearing that again. >> Yeah, I will definitely and I'm going to have them spot check that, too. I'm going to have that that spot check like different um because I hear you saying more um you know, secondary and a little
bit of the like maybe fifth grade or sixth grade. So, I'm going to have them check check the all of that. >> I appreciate the feedback though. >> Thank you. >> Anyone else? Do I see a hand?
Okay. Well, then um all of you, we are coming up on some beautiful days of weather. Not too hot, not too cold. Sounds like a fairy tale. Um I am looking for Oh, before I leave, no, I already did that. Um I'm looking forward
to seeing all of you on March 2nd at 5:45. Again, Miss Bishop, thank you and thank to all of your staff. Mr. Marco, always appreciate your communications getting ready for the meetings. And so
with that, I leave you all. Take care. >> Oh, wait a minute. I didn't ask to be a journey. >> Just just to clarify, our next meeting is March 2. March >> second. >> Second. Yes. And I did not have a motion
to have the meeting adjourned. Is there a motion to move to adjourn the meeting? >> Thank you. Is there a second? second. >> Oh, thank you so much. And um hearing, are there any nays to I I apparently
have lost control here. Are there any naysay to adjourn the meeting at 6:58 p.m.? Hearing none, everyone be safe. See you next month. Bye. >> Thank you. Happy Valentine's Day. See you next month. Bye.