--------- [BLANK_AUDIO] [BLANK_AUDIO] [BLANK_AUDIO] >> Sorry. the draft budget going into this fiscal year. As you know, there's a lot of moving parts in the budget with lots of different revenue streams and expenses, but I do want to preface this that this is a tight, tight budget year. And you're gonna kind of be seeing some of the factors that are affecting this budget. And with that, I'll turn it over to our CFO to kind of give us our first walkthrough. - Good morning. - Good morning. So I just wanted to start out saying we're gonna do the workshop presentation a little bit differently. We changed it up last year,
we're changing it up again. We're going to start with the general funds this year and go into capital as time permits. And each person is gonna be presenting a different area, so I'm gonna let them introduce themselves as they come up to the podium. And we will have an opportunity to ask questions after every section, but if you want to ask something as we're moving along and it's important to you, please feel free. You don't need to wait till the end of the section, but we will have an opportunity to ask any questions. So all of the documents we'll be discussing, which is a lot,
we put it in one book this year. - Thank you. - Thank you. - Are included, including the budget ads are in the back, and the full capital plan for the 10-year plan with the associated projects are in the back. We won't go over that in detail, but if you have any questions after you review the details of that, please feel free to reach out about that too. So we're gonna start with the trim timeline. So Florida law is very specific in defining the process and the timeline that we have to follow when adopting the budget and the ad
valorem property tax millage rates. This official kickoff begins on July 1st each year and that kicks off with the certification by the property appraiser of taxable value. And the actual budget development process begins much earlier though in February internally staff are working on that and receiving requests from staff on the new budget year. We are required to hold two public hearings on the proposed budget and millage rates and the first hearing is scheduled for next Tuesday,
July 21st at 6 p.m. and the second and final hearing will be on September 8th at 6 p.m. So we had things, again, as Dr. Legg said, our budget development this year. The biggest challenge that we have is continuing of the declining enrollment and I know Chris gave you a presentation and he has some slides that he's going to be talking about that further along in the presentation but
you know we continue to have the hurdle of aligning our funding and resources to the available appropriations in order to balance the budget and as Dr. Legg says it has been very challenging this year And we'll go over some further details as we get into the summary ad. Other factors that continue to impact our budget are minimal increases in state funding, employee benefit costs, and the rising costs of materials, equipment, and supplies. The district is fortunate to have the salary referendum and the voted additional
millage in order to provide additional salary support to eligible employees. So that was our positive and continues to be our positive. So the total tentative budget, and the budget is required to adopt the balance budget each year for all funds under its authority. So I know we talk a lot about the general fund, and it's the main and largest fund of the district. However, you have to approve a balanced budget for all funds, and all funds are included on this page. If you compare the prior
year to this year, we are down about.9% total. And if you look across the lines, it's mainly related to capital projects, spend down that we've had, and large construction projects that we've spent down those bonds and proceeds and completing those projects, and then debt service payments that have also been reduced in the budget. The general fund has a slight increase of 2.3%, but this is mainly due to the additional revenue that's included in our budget for
charter schools and FES. The district's actual funding from the state is down $2.1 million. All other funds that are listed below there are either allocated by law agreement or a restriction of use. So for example, the Internal Service Funds includes the health insurance fund and those funds need to be restricted for that use in that fund to provide the documentation that we need for the state.
The next slide, four, we'll go into the actual budget summary ad. This includes the proposed millage levies, the revenues, expenditures, and fund balances by each fund. This form will be in the advertisement. It's required as part of the trim notice. So for the prior fiscal year, we adopted a budget that projected drawing down $13.5 million in the general fund. At this time, the fund balance that's included in the summary
has a reduction of approximately $7 million. So we have spent down $7 million of reserves versus the projected 13.5 million. Although this outcome is $6.5 million better than expected, the district has not experienced an actual decline in fund balance in many years since I've been here. I did look at some prior budgets before I've been here and typically you did approve budgets that were spending down fund balance but that wasn't actually what happened and that was mainly due to our allocated positions and vacancies.
As our vacancies continue to decline, we don't have as much remaining in budget to actual to be able to roll forward. So we are going to experience spend down this year. So 25-26 is not finalized yet. I believe this is the worst case scenario that you have here and it will continue to get better between the tentative and final budget. We have a lot of things that are accrued at year end that we look at expenditures. The biggest portion of our expenditures are posted which are salaries and benefits, but we still have to look at accrual. So we expect this number
to be a little bit better once you see the final budget, and we don't expect it to be any worse. So if we look to the fund balance for the new fiscal year of '26, '27, we did balance that utilizing $10.4 million in reserves from the fund balance. And as we work through the closeout, as I said, We will continue to adjust revenue sources and look at expenditure requests. We'll look at budget to actuals. We continue to do those reviews to
hopefully improve that final amount that you will see in the final budget in September. I did wanna point out that the fund balance amount included does continue to meet the board's goal of the 5% of expenditures. - That's my question. - Yeah. (laughing) - I knew that would be the big question. And we have really struggled like for the new year, 26, 27, we are right there at 5%. We cannot go below, we cannot draw down fund balance again. This is the last time. And again, the actual outcome when we get to this time next year
may be better than projected, it typically is, but we have to plan and allocate and budget for all of our positions as if they were filled, right? And this is very close, I don't like being this close. I don't like drawing down on fund balance. So I'm very conservative in those areas. So we will continue to look at expenditures and everything through the year. And we, you know, at our 10-day count, look at our counts. Hopefully they're increasing and they'll continue to go down. But we -- on next year, this year will be about -- if we were to close today, which I know is going to be
better than what we're projecting, you would have about a 5.3 percent reserve. But the new budget is right exactly at 5 percent. and that's how we balanced it. And again, I talked about our actuals have typically trended better than budgeted amounts and any further drawdown though would go below our 5%. So we will continue to monitor the budget to actuals and provide updates to the board as they become available. - Thank you. - I have a quick question in the record. 'Cause last
year I think we were at 6% for our reserve. And so with that 0.9% decrease for this year, I know you mentioned some of that had to do with capital projects and debt service, but do we foresee that in the next coming fiscal year that we would see another percentage decrease? I know that that's a bit far out to project, but is that something we need to be mindful of? - Yes, that's what I said. When we talk this time next year, if we draw down what we're projecting, which I hope won't be the case, - Yes, we would have to
have serious discussions to be able to balance the budget. - For our reserves. - For our 5% reserves. - Thank you. - Yep. - I just wanted to clarify that for our listeners. - Yes, yes. - Can I ask you a quick question? - Sure. - If you don't mind. So is this tentative budget page, it's out there by any chance? Is anybody has-- - It will be posted by Thursday or Friday, it has to be. - Is there any way-- - Within two to five days of your tentative budget hearing. - Great. Is there any way possible to put a little start right next to the general fund? I just, you know, when people look at 2.3% increase, they automatically assume that,
you know, we got all this funding that is coming in, $26 million. So is there any way possible that we can showcase that that is due to charter schools and FEFEs so that people can relay that that's money that is passed through, not an increase, per se? - We can't put anything in the budget summary that you see on page four. That is determined by trim process. and has specific requirements. We could add in, 'cause we post online now, not in the newspaper, we could add some language at the bottom of the-- - Yeah, I think some clarification as
to the 2.3% will go a long way for the community. - Yep, and that's the other thing I wanted to point out too. Included in our revenues is charter schools and FES. However, FES doesn't actually flow through to us. So when you see the third calc, you see a large, very large budget amendment taking those revenues back out. So right now we have a revenue and appropriation that equals each other to balance the budget, but that actually comes out where charter schools are a little bit different. We do
receive those funds and then we disperse them to the charter schools. - I just wanna make sure the community understand that we just didn't see a $26 million increase. - Yes. - That's all. - Yep. Thank you, Mr. Hernandez. So the next page just details a little bit more general fund appropriations and this page will be included in the tentative budget book that you will see posted later today and have for next week. And basically this is just detailing that, you know, 90.7% of
our appropriations are allocated at school level expenses and as we continue to celebrate our success as an A district, you know, we want to continue to prioritize our strategic plan and the goals when we do our budget development. >> Absolutely. >> So that was it on my slides. Is there any questions before I'm going to have Janie here come up next, our director of finance. Any other questions on those slides before we end it over? Good. Thank you. >> Thank you. >> Thank you.
>> Good morning. >> Good morning. Thank you for having us. So I'm gonna go over a little bit of what Tammy touched on, but I'll go more in detail. So some information on our declining enrollment. When you look at the overall total of FTE that we are projecting for the year, including charter and FES, we are looking at an increase. the traditional district is projecting a 2,301
FTE decrease. We hope on the 10 day count that is not what we see, but that is our projection. In this coming year, we do have two new charter schools opening, Matter Academy, Northwood Elementary School and Middle School. And the charters are expecting to see an increase of 1,334. and FES were projecting 1,899. So a little bit more about FES. We continue to see this program increasing. And this coming year,
we're expecting an increase of $16.5 million of our FEFP funding going to FES. Like Tammy said, the FES is included in our original budget and in the third calc, we do remove that budget. The budget is $87.5 million. This is a net amount. So FES, the amount is $106.1 million and it's netted down with our state funded discretionary supplement,
which is $18.5 million, which gets us back to the 87.5 million. Going into our employee benefit costs, this is a large portion of our benefits that we provide our employees for the 2026 calendar year. So the benefit costs are based on calendar year, so it will change in January this coming year. But for 2026, the calendar year was 9,500 and 4,000. $49 per employee and this includes medical life and EAP benefits.
This past year the insurance committee has worked extensively on reviewing our expenditures and making planned design changes for the calendar year 2026 which we have seen a benefit into those changes. The team is continuing to evaluate for the 2027 year. And we do predict some more plan design changes and the anticipation of having a new vendor come on for the 2027 year, which we expect to help with the financial
stability of the insurance fund. - That's good. - Is it expected to help employees? - Yeah. - Yeah. - And employees. - Because that's been an ongoing concern. - Concern. that we hear from employees. Is that access to providers? - The cost, it's gone up. - There are copayments and things. - We are hoping when we did the bid for the vendors, which will be, I think, later today for your approval, we do hope that the change will help to
impact the employees and we'll be able to make plain design changes for them in mind. - Thank you for working on that. One benefit for this year is the Florida retirement rate, which we are all thankful for, but they have decreased the rate for this coming year, which did impact the district. The FRS expenses on this graph are for all funds, so not just general fund, they're all funds and we're predicting a decrease of 2.9 million dollars for the FRS retirement
rates. And that reduction is overall that's not per employee rate and that's is that because we've had a reduction in allocation? So it will be a combination of a reduction in allocation and a reduction in the percentage. Okay. And then that rate is for every employee. The regular employee, yes. Yes, there are different rates. - Not special class, right, right, right. - And there are different rates for drop. So this is just regular class.
Some FEFP funding changes. This year we did see an increase from the state for BSA, the base student allocation of $85. And then the total funds per unweighted FTE also increase by $257. But like Tammy mentioned, the overall, due to declining enrollment, the district is actually projecting a $2.1 million decrease in state funds. And
within these funds includes a lot of restricted programs, such as safe schools, mental health, and academic acceleration, which was a new categorical that the state included last year. And those are fully funded, so we have to go back and add them up. Then going into a little bit about the millage that we levy and the resolution will be provided to you next week. The state requires, or the legislator sets,
the state required local effort, and the district has that limited flexibility in setting the millage rate. State law requires the district to levy the full discretionary amount in order to receive the state education funding, which is, I'm sorry, $618 million. So within our millage levy, you can see a history. We have the capital outlay tax millage, which goes into our capital millage fund that the team will review later on. The
general operations tax millage is set to 3.684 and within this amount is our discretionary effort mill of 0.748. And then thankfully we do have our additional voted tax millage which you will also refer to as referendum funds of our one mill for the total of 6.84. - But even then, it's gone down. - Yeah. - It's still lower than last time. - It's still rolled
back, yeah. - It is, yes. - 6.2 last time, now it's 6.18. - And the property value has to deal with that since our property value continues to increase our smillage is able to decrease, so it is. - Yeah, but I think though in that same regard, If that were the full case, we would have seen an increase in the RLE in like 2008 and we didn't. Right? Because there was a housing bust. So I feel like that's a little bit, yeah. >> Still every year rolls back. >> Yeah. And so the next slide you can
see year over year that we are seeing a decrease of.09 mill for this coming year. And under this proposed millage rate the owner of a $350,000 home after the deduction of the homestead exemption would pay $2009.80 which is a decrease of $29.25 compared to
last year and that's if their property value stayed the same. So one thing that we are very happy that our citizens have voted for is the salary referendum revenue and thankfully that was approved in August of 2022 and this will be on the ballot in November of 2026. And one thing that we just want to set
and make others aware is if this does not get approve this could be a reduction of an average of 12% for the eligible employees that are part of this program and those employees include teachers, bus drivers, food and nutrition staff, custodians, ASAP employees, IAs and with this funding the district has been able to increase the starting teachers salaries by $3,000 with an average
teacher supplement of $6,050. In the projected revenue for this coming year is $67.7 million. In this I can speak for my department. I have seen a benefit of these funds for my staff and retaining the staff because we're able to be more compatible to salaries around the state. We always appreciate, we always express our appreciation to the voters for that but I
also want to emphasize something that I think sometimes people miss is that we do have that citizens oversight committee and they do meet and analyze and ensure that we're spending the money the way that we said we were going to spend it so we do have people separate from the district that continue to meet and look at it for our voters, our taxpayers. And they do ask very good questions about what we're spending our funds on. Thank you. And then the
next slide is our staffing allocations. This is going to be the comparison of all funds, which I know Kevin and his team also presented back a few board meetings ago, but the overall decrease for staffing is 476.12, and the general fund decreases 235 allocations. >> Madam Chair, on this slide, I just wanted to point out something just to draw your attention
to you because it's a trend line that's underneath the -- kind of the surface, but it it pops up in the budget. If you look at, you know, most, the staffing reductions are a result of the declining enrollment, but you'll see one line item in specifically that you see a pretty significant increase in staffing, and that's our ESC population. While we have a declining enrollment in our overall population, we have a straight up arrow in kind of our ESC population, and the intensity of needs that they
need to be serviced as well. We've made it a priority of this district over the last 18 months to ensure that our classrooms are focused on instruction and we provide support and the necessary services for our students and we continue to do so. But I wanted to emphasize those, the revenue that's created through the ESC allocation does nowhere near cover the cost of the ESC services. If you read in between the lines of what I'm saying is, we have an ESC population that is
growing and we don't see it slowing down and it's an expensive prop, expensive to do and it has effects throughout our whole district. So, you know, and then I may not have a specific question on it, but we do have one line item with increasing allocations and that is specifically to service our ESC population because of the needs that they have and the growing population. And what I'm hearing from our colleagues around the state, and I don't have the data here to show
it, but I can just say anecdotally what I'm hearing from other superintendents, we're not alone that the ESC population is significantly growing in our schools. So I just wanna make that aware 'cause it is adding an additional layer of complexity as we staff our schools, as we go into the classrooms and we make sure that we provide the level of service students need while at the same time focusing on academics. And finding people to fill those positions has been challenging too. And that's a great point too, because what I see on the health side of the House is about a 15% growth year over year.
So that will continue. At least the trend is that it will continue to actually showcase in these numbers, probably a higher rate. I just also wanted to point out that the state did provide a declining enrollment supplement to a lot of districts that originally when I looked at it, I thought we would be eligible for because of our declining enrollment and we did not receive that because our weighted FTE had gone up and they based it on weighted FTE which has to do with our disabled students and
other factors for those higher factor students. So it was a little bit disappointing that that's the number they used but we were not eligible for that because our weighted FTE had gone up even though our unweighted went down. - Did they also end up factoring in, like if we're a rural district to that too, I couldn't remember if they tied it to that piece as well. - They do that in every calc, but we don't ever qualify. - Yeah, I know. I wasn't sure if it was or or an A. - Yeah. - Yeah.
- Are there any other questions? - I do. - Okay. - On page 10, when you talk about those limited, I just want to-- it's kind of a comment. Those limited funds that are restricted for those specific purposes like mental health, safe schools, and academic acceleration options, correct me if I'm wrong, but they'll give us some money, but we still-- it's never enough, so we still have to fund extra for that, right? I see Ms. Taylor shaking. OK. I just wanted to point that out because I know every budget student and I do point that out. And it's-- I know especially safe schools,
that's something that we're constantly having to put extra money into. So while it looks like we might have an increase, we really don't. Chief Baumister I know works hard in trying to find other resources and grants to help supplement that. Well we'll move on to the capital plan and I will welcome Chris. Good morning Mr. William. Good morning. Good morning. So kicking off the capital plan for this coming year and so we In putting together
a capital plan every year, there's several goals that we take a look at in looking at projects for the capital plan, and those are outlined on this next page. And so we're always seeking to be very proactive with our capital plan. You know, in the past you've seen districts who are well behind in keeping up with HVAC or whatever the case may be, but we really try to develop a proactive, comprehensive capital plan that we're taking forecasting what our needs are and trying to
meet those needs each and every year. Also, we're seeking to build cost effective facilities for the long term, not just the short term. Of course, our goal is to ensure that our facilities meet the needs of not only the students but also the staff. And then developing a working plan where we're balancing the priorities of what we need with the available resources that we have. Our team also collaborates with the instructional departments and works to find solutions to improve the design
of our new schools and then of course we're always seeking to provide safe and secure schools. In looking at figuring out what are the needs at each and every school. So of course we're looking at the overall school as a whole and with that we're have an eye to what and condition of each of the facilities are and keeping that in mind when was the last time they were renovated, et cetera. We are also reviewing each of the building systems at the schools, whether it be electrical,
plumbing, HVAC, whatever the case, and as needed we come in and do individual site assessments for those systems. And then we always, again, are looking at what our existing capacity and -- are at each and every school and looking at where our future growth is going to be and trying to make sure we're ahead of that as well. And then we enlist professional consultants, of course, as needed. In looking at -- when we're looking at projects and what projects are going to be
included on our capital plan, some of the criteria we take a look at, of course, projects that best going to serve the needs of our students. That's absolutely the biggest criteria. Of course we're including projects that we need to do to bring schools in line with ADA compliance and health and safety projects. Of course we're always looking to enhance our educational technology at our schools, especially our older schools. We want to provide -- we always strive to provide
comparable facilities. Of course it's you know we're building brand-new schools so it's also trying to keep up our older schools with those whether it's technology or just the look and appearance of those schools. Of course we're ensuring that mandates are addressed in our capital plan and we use best design practices for the intended use of each and every school. And then as As far as priorities, putting together the capital plan, of course, we prioritize student learning and success, and as well as college and career readiness.
So if there's a project that we need for CTE, of course, those kind of things are prioritized. We're also looking for projects that are going to reduce our maintenance and operating costs over the long term. We -- as I mentioned, we're looking at doing technology enhancements. another priority, and then again, what facility needs. Of course, if something's down or broken, of course, we're going to address that and make that a priority. And then, again, we're looking at what is our current enrollment and what our future enrollment is and prioritizing
things that we need to mitigate over capacity schools. looking at the year that we just completed, 25-26, some significant milestones. The Kirkland Ranch KH gymnasium was just completed. The Pasco High School classroom wing and new brand new cafeteria was completed this past year. Of course, we completed the conversion of of Chasco K8 with combining Calusa,
Chasco Elementary and Chasco Middle into Chasco K8. Built a brand new school at West Sever Hills Elementary and then also opened the brand new Skybrook K8. In looking ahead to this coming year, our major projects, continuing to work on Cypress Elementary's, the full school renovation there. That's nearing completion hopefully in the next few months that'll be finished. Also continuing to work on Gulf Middle School and the complete renovation kind of new facility
out at Gulf Middle School. We just started the Kirkland Ranch K-8 wing and so that's under construction. Also Two Rivers K-8 is under construction now. The new high School triple-o is hopefully about to be under construction so that's coming soon as well. Also we have several athletics complex renovations in in process Hudson High School, Land O'Lakes High School as well as Pasco High School. You've probably seen Pasco High. It's it's
well along in the process so excited to see that. And also school furniture refreshes which we're doing a much better job at now and so we're year by year we're tackling those and so you see those Centennial Middle, Pasco K8, Pasco High School, Paul R. Smith Middle, sorry Paul R. Smith K8, Pineview Middle School and San Antonio Elementary School. That's great. I always like to present our ADM projection maps for the coming So these are
based on our projections for this coming year. And so these are actual numbers, but they're what we're projecting for the elementary, middle, and high school outlook for this coming year. So if you look at elementary schools, you certainly see a lot of green, which means green is under capacity. The darker the green, the more under capacity they are. And so as Janie referred to, declining enrollment. So that has an impact on this map as well as the
facilities we've built the last 20 years in catching up with some of our overcapacity challenges around the county. So you see the west side, the central, mostly under capacity. Odessa Elementary is still a little bit over capacity. And then kind of on the east side where West the chapel on up into along the I-75 corridor that's our greatest challenge right now with the growth that is happening still on that side of the county. And so with two
rivers K-8 coming online in a couple of years that'll have a significant impact on helping with capacity in that region and West the chapel as well as the new wing at Kirkland Ranch K8 will also help this map with some of the slightly over capacity schools like Wiregrass, West of Chapel Elementary, San Antonio Elementary, etc. Looking at the middle school map again similar Westside Central in good shape as far as capacity
under capacity Seven Springs is little bit just over capacity. Certainly Wesley Chapel again with the growth that continues to happen there. Weitman Middle and John Long Middle over capacity. We anticipate again the new Kirkland Ranch K-8 wing to help us with the capacity at Weitman Middle. Two rivers K-8 will be a zone school but we anticipate that be some choice available in that
school so that may have some impact on Waiteman Middle and John Long as well. And then also Janie mentioned the new charter along County Line Road which is not too far from John Long Middle and Waiteman remains to be seen whether that has any impact or not. And then the high school map. Again you can kind of see the 54-56 corridor is where the challenge is
here with high school. Mitchell High still over capacity but again Mitchell's not in a growing area so that tends to remain consistently at around 110%. Sun like and line of likes a bit over but our biggest challenge is Westlake Chapel high and Wiregrass Ranch high significantly over. But again the new high school triple O is right smack dab in between those two schools.
So we anticipate that new school which will come online in 2028 having significant impact on the capacity of those schools and reducing the overcrowded conditions at those two schools. That's a huge jump at Sunlink isn't it from last year? That's like when in decrease I mean yes, yeah, that's great. Yes So we do also of course have additional school sites planned for the future to help us with as Growth continues and wherever we
feel like that's popping up. We we are blessed to have school sites in the bank for for the future Any questions on those maps or future. I'm just seeing what Dr. Lang has mentioned before about the high schools, you know, strong enrollment by our middle school and elementary, you know,
revisiting ways to get students in. Well, and one of the concerns in this, you know, in this probably a discussion for another day is that you know we're seeing that it's birth rate and so that what my concern is here and it is that these numbers will just go up meaning up in grades so while we have lower kindergarten class that means the following years will be a lower K and first we don't know how how much that will continue to where where the new where the new norm is but we we are seeing and we'll see that when we do our 20-day count actually but
we're the early numbers showing us that we're having smaller kindergarteners coming in. So numbers. You know and as I mentioned before it's causing us we're in a position now that we've not been in before because we've we've been very proactive and in building building building and now we still may need to build. Yeah. But we are trying to be very careful in looking at do we need to brand-new school maybe there's opportunity to build a wing and
not build a huge new school. You know just being strategic in those kind of decisions. Yeah because we've got a lot of space in our central middle schools too. Correct. Yes. All right I'm gonna turn it over to Randy who's going to continue our capital plan presentation. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Good morning. Good morning, how are you? So today I'm going to talk about projected capital revenue and what impacts that.
When we see an increase in tax rolls, that's going to increase the millage revenue. So we are looking at an increase of 5.3%, which will generate about $101.2 million in revenue this year. impact fee collections are projected to be 48.5 million. Those collections have been decreasing due to offsetting credits for our construction that we do and declining
building permits. Penny for Pasco collections are projected to increase with collections. There's a very high collection rate on the penny per pass go. We're anticipating $51.9 million in revenue which is the highest level since the penny has been in place. For penny three, we just wanted to note that that collection started in January of 2025.
>> Could I make a comment? >> Of course. up to the local millage saying that it's going to increase 5.3%. I want people to realize some of that is due to new home construction. So it's not that your people's homes, individual homes have gone up that much. It's the total collection of current homes plus the new homes that were constructed this year, which brings in more students. So I just wanted to point that out.
>> Okay, so sources of funds for capital projects where we actually get the money from. A large portion of it comes from impact fees. Our millage, as we said, the challenge with the millage is the proportionate chair of the charter schools, which we'll get into on the next slide. This year though, some good news. We got a state appropriation restricted to Pasco High School athletics of $5.5 million. So that will help
in the construction of Pasco and the updating of Pasco, one of the oldest schools in our district. impacts to our capital budget. Charter schools currently this year fiscal year 27 will receive 80% of our PICO. Next year they are state mandated to receive 100% of that PICO. This year we have a new fund, COPS 2026A,
which is refunding three previous COPS funds that we had as an effort to save some money there. Unfortunately, our capital costs are outpacing our revenues, but our current debt, which will be reduced this year as Janie and Tammy spoke to. We have no more computer leases so that'll be removed from capital. John will also speak to that. We have three bus leases that'll go
through 2029 and then we'll be done with that. So there is a reduction there in expense. expansion of charter schools, more charter schools coming in, we're anticipating that to continue. And yeah, pretty much that. >> Can you help me understand what you said about PICO because it was my understanding we haven't gotten PICO in a long time. So I was just confused when you said you went from 80 percent, I believe 200 when.
>> Oh, okay. That's why I was confused. >> Okay. >> We haven't had that for a year. >> I was like, I think she just swapped it. >> I'm sorry. >> Yes, capital out. >> Okay. >> My handwritten notes was wrong. >> Okay. >> Thank you. >> Thank you. >> And John, we'll come up and finish the last of the couple. >> Good morning. Good morning. Good morning.
How y'all doing? Good morning. My name is John Rettman. I'm the accounting manager for budget and capital. I will be giving a brief overview of the capital budget summary. This slide here, it shows our revenue. The projected carryover is what we are rolling forward from last year. The projected revenue is what we're estimating to receive for this fiscal year. Right now we are estimating $225 million for this year.
This slide shows our transfers for the fiscal year. Right now we are showing $91 million with majority of our transfers going towards debt service payments. Here we are showing our construction projects, our new school remodels and major renovations. Majority of the budgets in this section is going towards new schools and remodels as mentioned in the previous slides.
This is our maintenance project. This is mostly replacements, equipment replacements, preventive maintenance. One of the projects that is included in this section is the according indoor projects. To date, 644 walls have been built, replacing the cording indoors for a more conducive learning environment. - That's great. - We anticipate this to be the final year of the construction. - That's great. - The next two slides shows other capital projects. Some of them are funded by
Penny Three to include athletic renovations at Hudson High School and Landa Lakes High School. We also show a budget for buses which we are estimating to purchase 28 this year. >> Are they replacements for buses mostly or? Yes, okay. >> For this slide we show equipment and technology. Software is also included in
this budget. One of the things that I want to highlight is our computer budget. That's a little over $9 million. This budget will be used for our one-to-one computer pilot program at Wendell Crean, Angeline Academy of Innovation, and Kirkland Ranch Academy of Innovation. This slide shows -- summarizes our total revenue and total appropriations broken out by the different funding sources that we have. And as Randy mentioned, we no longer have computer leases. We
now have bus leases. And we have three years remaining for those. >> And not shown in this presentation, but it can be found in your booklets after page 40 of the summary of the 10-year plan as well as our 10-year projected appropriations by cost center. Are there any questions? >> We probably have more questions after I have more time. >> Yes, thank you. >> I need a digest-- >> Yeah. >> Yes. - I think a lot of times you've
given us a figure of, what the balanced capital is, but what our true need for capital is over what budget did. Did we do that this year or not? - I'm not sure what you're referring to. - Well, I guess on the 10 year plan, sometimes they've said, if we really did everything we needed to do, we would have a shortage of. But that's
when we've gone into a more detailed 10-year plan budget. So we might not have that figure. - Yeah, we have some of those things still in the out years. Like you said, in Penny, if we did everything in there, that it does not become balanced in the out years. So we do have to reprioritize each year what we're approving and putting in the five-year plan. And like to say, it's always shifting priorities, what comes up. The one great example is the walls when we prioritize that, we may have to move something else off. And again,
it depends on the funding source too of what's allowed in those funding sources. So we do have some leftover roll forward buddy and petty, but there are some restricted uses in there. Millage seems to always, because it can be, it's the most flexible source of funding. So usually it's spent down to the most. And then we have some very restricted sources like impact fees and other things. But I know if we go with the out years, you're correct. And we could give you that amount of just unfunded needs of the out
years we have. We call it the holding block out there with way out in the 10 to 15 years of a holding block where we place those projects that can't be funded in the current plan. - Yeah, I guess my point was not the exact figure but that we do have more capital needs than we have furniture. - Yeah, we have furniture. >> Any other questions? >> I had a question about the buses and so I don't know if this is for you or potentially Dr. Armando or someone else in transportation. So for purchasing 28 buses,
the goal is to then move away from leasing completely, right? So we're going to finish out our leasing and purchase 28. >> We've already moved away from -- it's just the remaining payments on those buses. The buses were longer terms on the computer, so we just have the remaining payments just like if you had your car payment we still have to keep paying on those but we have already moved away I believe three years ago. We've moved away from leasing anymore so everything is a new purchase now. But like I say it is a replacement schedule. We're not expanding the fleet. >> Just wanted
to make sure I was understanding how both of those numbers correlate. Thank you. >> You're welcome. >> Anything else? >> No. >> The moment. >> No. >> All right. Thank you for your time. And again, we hope to have the tentative budget book hosted by the end of the day today so you can review that. If there's any questions when you see that, the ads will go out Thursday or Friday on the website. We'll add that footnote in that you requested. And if there's anything else, please feel free to reach out. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Okay, that concludes the workshop. We have about nine minutes. Part: 2
silence all electronic devices. The agenda for the school board meeting is published and available at least one week prior to the board meeting. Any member of the public who wishes to speak on an agenda item requiring board action will have an opportunity to do so prior to final action being taken. Please fill out a green speaking request card available in the lobby. During the appropriate public comment portion of the meeting names will be called in the order in which they were received. Any member of the public wishing to speak to a non-agenda matter
of relevance to the school district will have an opportunity to speak at the end of the meeting. Please fill out a pink speaking request card available in the lobby. Names will be called in the order in which they were received. Please note that for speakers to address the board on either agenda items or non-agenda matters, their speaker request form must be submitted prior to the commencement of public comment on agenda items. We welcome members of the public to attend our meetings and we respect the public's right to speak to the board. We appreciate your interest
in Pasco County Schools. Our vision statement is all our students achieve success in college, career, and life and the thought for the day is from Mr. Hernandez. Thank you Madam Chair. Education is one of the greatest investments a community can make in its future. As we gather today, let us remember that every vote we take, every conversation we have, has the potential to shape a child's future. May we live with wisdom, listen with respect, and remain steadfast in our commitment to providing exceptional educational opportunities and a brighter future for every
student we serve. Thank You Mr. Hernandez. Please stand for the Pledge of Allegiance. I pledge allegiance to the flag 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. Please let the record reflect that all board members are present. At this time, I'd like to ask for a moment of silence for personal reflection. Thank you. The draft minutes of the June 16, 2026 board meeting were provided to
board members in advance of this meeting for their review and consideration. May I have a motion to approve the regular meeting minutes for June 16th as written. So moved approval. Second. It's motion by Mrs. Armstrong, second by Mrs. Harding. Any discussion? I almost said they're on. Okay all in favor? Aye. Opposed? Motion carries. It's Superintendent, do you have any agenda items?
Okay, thank you. That brings us to public comment on agenda items only. I do not see any green cards. - No green cards, so there'll be no public comment on agenda items. I will say that any let's talk comments that we may have received through the online platform will be made a part of the record. - Thank you. That brings us to United School of Employees at Pasco. I see Mr. Larson is here. Good morning. Good morning. There are a couple of agenda items
that I wanted to comment on this morning. Item 13.3 is the advertisement of the 26-27 proposed tentative budget. And of course we just had the budget review during the workshop. USEP is aware that this year, just like every year, the budget is going to be extremely tight. We also know that it is imperative to prioritize properly compensating employees for the wonderful work
that they have been doing with our children that has resulted in our district being in a district. We look forward to continuing the collective bargaining process to find positive outcomes for all employees, many of whom are working multiple jobs to make ends meet. I'd also like to address agenda item 13.9, which is the RFP for management services for our group health insurance. While we recognize that this agenda item by itself does not actually
represent any specific benefit plan changes, we do believe that this is a positive step forward. And we look forward to working collaboratively with district staff on potential improvements to the health insurance plan design and benefit options through the insurance committee. Thank you for your time. - Thank you, Mr. Larson. This brings us to board member committee reports. Mrs. Wright, did you have any committees? - Yes, I did, thank you. So I attended the, my apologies,
I attended the FSBA leadership services committee. I'm sorry, I'm struggling with the microphone today. I attended the FSBA Leadership Services Committee that was on July 15th at 9 a.m. Joe McGee, the FSBA Director of Advocacy and Legislative Services, and Tina Pinkenson, the Director of Leadership Services, provided an update on recently enacted education legislation. This is one of the sessions, though, too, that you can also go view on the FSBA website, and it is eligible for certified board member training. if you want to go back and view it. It was a lot
of heavy topics. I really kind of just picked the two main ones that had the most discussion. And Mrs. Armstrong, I know you're very passionate about this so I'll pause for any questions too. So one of the big topics of conversation was student athletics because of the two primary legislation changes that came along with that, one of which being the Teddy Bridgewater Act. And so I know some of these things we've been following since we were in Tallahassee, But what ended up passing, really the new law directs the Florida High School Athletic Association to adopt bylaws
allowing head coaches to use up to $15,000 of their own personal funds each year to support student athlete welfare. However, all of that will be subject to reporting requirements and safeguards against recruiting. The reason why this came about, it was inspired by a former NFL quarterback in Miami high school football coach, who was suspended after using his own money to provide meals, transportation, and recovery services for student athletes in need.
So this piece, which would be FHSAA bylaws, is then also accompanied by the Senate Bill 538, which then allows school boards to adopt local policies as it relates to booster clubs and other organizations to provide funding for athletic coaches, extracurricular sponsors, however, we would need extensive guardrails for that. And so the big topic of conversation
is that while some of this legislation can expand opportunities, we also have to be very careful that we don't create any sort of inequities across the district and that we also remain in compliance with federal law, particularly Title IX. So I just wanna pause because that was There's a very meaty conversation, so if there's any questions about any of that. I know that it came up in part of conversation just in a booster club meeting last night. And where I was very clear, like, let's just take a pause. We all have some things we have to work
through and understand before we can truly actually move forward on that legislation. The other topic of conversation within that committee meeting that was largely focused on was the School Board Member Bill of Rights. And a lot of that language was about timely access to public records that board members are entitled to view. And then many school board members actually shared that they're not voting on job descriptions or salary ranges. And it seems that that issue right there is probably why some of the discussions that they're having or maybe tension that they're
having regarding appointments could be solved just by fulfilling that statutory requirement. It also provided a definition specifically for appointments and that good cause was narrowed to individual materially fabricated or exaggerated their credentials or background, does not meet the minimum qualifications for the position or their licensing was revoked by another state. So we also discussed that the minimum qualifications could extend beyond education and
experience should there be a statutory eligibility requirement for employment that would disqualify them. So there's a lot of discussion around those things, what that really means, and that it was very narrow to appointment that's outlined in chapter 1012. And then the last part is that the legislation prohibits any school district from requiring or incentivizing employees to sign non-disclosure or confidentiality agreements that would violate statute. So with that being said,
all stakeholders are still expected to abide by FERPA, HIPAA and all of our public records laws. So again, very meaty committee meeting. And if you want to view it yourself, it will be available later on the FSPA website. So that's it for me for committees. And then advocacy will meet September 17th. - Thank you. Mrs. Harding. - I had none. - I had none. - I have none. I had none either. Mine don't usually meet over the summer. Is it so? Dr. Legg? - Thank you, Madam Chair. I wanted
to just kind of give an update. We're kind of at that unique point in the school year where we're closer to the start of the school year than we are from the end of the last year's school year. So I wanted to take just a moment to set the stage of kind of where we are and where we're going. Last year here in Pasco, we had a historic year. Last year for the first time since 2009, we became an A-rated district. And I think that's something to celebrate. And for the first time since 2004 officially, we have no D or F schools anywhere in Pasco County. And that is
something to be very proud of. But I also wanted to kind of give you a deeper look at the numbers, like where do we rank in the school? Did the boat, did everybody rise? And did we just kind of stay the same? Last year we were ranked 39th in the state and we've rose to 25th in the state in terms of overall student achievement. So while the state is slowly getting better, we are improving faster than those around us. This accomplishments, these accomplishments are worth celebrating. But I wanna make a note that they're behind us now. Like we have to move on.
Those things or celebrations are yesterday. And yesterday is over and today is here and a new school year is about to begin. And that is what we're focusing on. We can't be satisfied with where we are because we have so much yet to do. We have so much yet to accomplish. I wanted to set something aware, to put it on your radar. And looking at the statewide numbers, only 11 school districts throughout the state of Florida had a 70% on the grading scale
in Florida. We want to be a top 10 district. So what does that mean that we have to get to 70%? This is not just an aspirational goal. This is what our students deserve. This is what our community deserves. This is what our community expects. They expect our students to be focused on academics. We know that we have a challenge before us. But what I want to be clear and just kind of take a breath and look at-- many folks are not realizing-- they look at the statute. The state statutes require the school grading scale increase and it will increase by five percentage points
which means 70% becomes the new benchmark for an A. So that is that is our minimal new goal minimal new goal going in. This last year we increased our statewide score by five percentage points. We can do it again. We will do it again. Our kids deserve it. Our kids deserve that and and that's a daunting task to think about but but the task is before us because our kids deserve a high quality education. Success will require us to be to have intentional focus
and intentionality has really been my word with with our principals. Our work with Will Center on two key concepts and they were our two key concepts for the last 18 months I'll be going in going in going into the new year and that is student achievement and removing distractions. And you'll see that in some of our presentations today that that is a priority removing distractions to allow our teachers to teach. One lesson that became abundantly clear last year for me is that parent engagement is essential. It is essential. The overwhelming majority of
our families are engaged and supportive of academic excellence. They're in our schools, they're volunteering, they're helping our teachers, they're working with our principals, they're working at our schools, they're creating partnerships supporting our schools. But it can't be optional. It has to be all of our parents. All of our parents have to engage and support our students. We are there to educate our students. We are not there to parent our students. That is the parents job. Why do I say this? Because we will keep our focus and we will
keep supporting our truancy court and we won't force it. We brought it on mid-year last year, we are starting this year already focused on it, communicating that attendance is not an option. Attendance is a requirement. We will enforce attendance requirements because our students deserve, our taxpayers are paying for an education and they deserve to be in school. We will continue to expect that our students come ready to learn. We'll continue to allow our principals to do
graded homework if they feel it's deserved in their classrooms and have structures to do that, to engage parents at their home that education is important. And without being just so direct, it's not our job for our teachers to change diapers and to for our students need to become school potty trained, ready to have academics. It is not our job of our teachers to be that parent, but it's to be that educator. We will also have focus like we had on behaviors. We will
not allow one student's disruption to disrupt the other students in the classroom. That is just not acceptable. Too much is at stake for all the other students. Their future is at risk. We cannot allow disruptions in the classroom. And we will continue to support our teachers. We will continue to support and assist those students in the proper setting that they need to be in if disruption is occurring. Why do I say that? is because that is the expectation of our community. We have shown
and demonstrated this year with intentional focus, academic excellence can be achieved. It can be achieved. We have achieved it. We must hold onto it, we must expand it, and we must rise even more. I'm excited because I see great things happening in our schools. I see great opportunities. And in sports, momentum is contagious. When you start winning, you win more. We had a good year last year, but we're going to have even a better year this year. So as you see some of the proposals
and discussions that we're having, I just want to remind the board of the vision that we have, student achievement and removing distractions. And we're going to keep moving that forward. I just want to thank this board for their support, because without this board, we would not have risen to 25th in the state. We would not have been in a district. We would not have been able to remove all the DNF schools. Now is the time to work together to stay focused on what is important. And that is our students and that is removing distractions in our schools. With that,
thank you, Madam Chair. - Thank you, Dr. Legg. Mr. Shibley. - I don't have anything to add other than the addendum in item 11.1. - Thank you. Ms. Taylor. - I just wanted to point out also item 13.3 includes the budget amounts for the tentative hearing advertisements as discussed in the workshop earlier today. The public notice and budget ad will be posted on the district's website, which will be available according to the Department of Revenue Trim Compliance by Friday,
July 24th. The school board is only approving the budget ads this evening. The public hearing to set the millage rates and adopt the tentative budget will be held next Tuesday, July 28th. The actual proposed millage rate has been rolled back by the state and is a decrease from the prior year of.090 mills down to 6.184 from 6.274 mills. This includes the voted additional millage and the basic discretionary operating millage is set by the legislator and must be levied in
order to receive $619 million in state funding. And finally, the budget includes $87.6 million appropriated to family empowerment scholarships and $107 million for charter schools. - Thank you. Dr. Legg, I had a couple of questions on that. I was gonna pull the item to ask them, would you prefer I just ask now? - Yes, if you want, is it for the CFO? - Yeah. - Yeah, absolutely. Please go ahead. - Okay. 'Cause then I won't need to pull the item. Ms. Taylor, you touched on some of this,
But could you also explain, well, that this is a tentative millage, so it could still change, right? And Dr. Lee. - At this point after it's advertised, it would have to be re-advertised. So that's why we're approving the advertisements now. - Right, yes. - Okay. - Yeah, we're just voting on the advertisement. - Yeah, I just wanted to clarify this for the public. And then my other question, if you want me to, is if you could explain, and I know I ask this every year, the rollback because it's very confusing to people. So if you could
please explain a little bit about that decrease. >> Yeah, so the rollback rate is 6.149 and is a millage rate that would generate the same amount of property tax from the existing property tax rolls which was generated last year. So because we are generating more, we have to advertise as an increase. >> We've actually had 6.184 which is a.57% increase over the prior year. >> That's an increase in the total but for the individual-- we're still
rolling back. We're not capitalizing on the-- >> No. >> Yeah. >> But if you use the same exact millage rate that we-- so they calculate what that millage rate would have equated to if they-- so they would have rolled it back to 6.149 And if the amount we're adopting, which is 6.184, is more, we have to advertise as an increase, which is a 0.57% increase. - Thank you. - Thank you. - Did anybody else have anything? - No, thank you for asking that. - Okay. Deputy Superintendent Ms. Coon. -
Good morning. I just wanted to point out that we do have Jordan Wise from Ajax Building Company here for 12.3 on consent agenda. That's the guaranteed maximum for high school triple O. It's not the full, we'll be back later for that. But just wanted to recognize them for being here. And then I'd also like to turn over to Dr. Romano to give an operations update. - Nice, thank you. - Thank you. - Madam Chair, before Dr. Romano jumps in, we wanted to have Dr. Romano to come 'cause a lot of, there's a misconception that by a very few people out there, that summer
is slow in the school district. - That's in my board report. Dr. Romano will here to show that there and I know the board is aware of this but kind of some of the things that are happening during the summer that many people think oh it's a summer summertime is slow at the school district office and She'll kind of show you some of the things that are happening behind the scenes. Thank you. Good morning. Good morning Good morning board chair school board members superintendent leg and Attorney meeker superintendent staff and of course the community this morning. I'd like to provide a brief operations update Highlighting the work taking place across our operations departments
to ensure students have safe schools reliable transportation Nutritious meals and facilities that support high quality learning. I'm gonna begin with maintenance and facilities Each summer our maintenance and facilities team works against the clock as you know to prepare our schools for the first day of classes While students are enjoying their break, hundreds of projects are underway behind the scenes to ensure our campuses are safe, comfortable, and ready for learning. One of our signature initiatives that you've heard today already continues to be the installation of
permanent pod walls, replacing aging accordion partitions with permanent classroom walls to improve safety, reduce noise, and create better instructional environments. In 2025, 112 pod walls were completed with 389 additional walls scheduled to be completed in 2026. And our final year we have 352 planned in 2027 representing a district wide investment of 1,153 permanent classroom walls. In your folder, it's purple, you have a flyer
that shows you the status, a status report for our pod wall so you can see what has been completed. Thank you. What they're still working on in our in our final year and 2027 what that looks like. Beyond our pod walls our team is completing dozens of additional summer improvement projects across the district including HVAC and chiller replacements and control system upgrades to improve indoor comfort and reliability. That included 13 new boiler systems this summer.
Plumbing improvements including water main valves, kitchen grease tanks, floor drains and floor sinks, flooring replacements and cafeterias, kitchens and serving lines, mechanical system repairs including our air handlers, 13 boiler system replacements and different piping systems, campus paving and infrastructure improvements which you've probably seen as you've been out in the community in our different school sites. These projects might not always be visible to our students and families right they go on behind the scenes but they're essential to providing
safe reliable and well-maintained learning environments for every school in Pasco County. I just want to say thank you to our maintenance and facilities employees for their tremendous amount of work this summer and they accomplish things every single summer but this summer has been just an order a lot of different projects it's been a significant an extra ordinary so want to reach out and say thank you to them publicly. Their dedication ensures when students return next month, I can't believe it, they walk into schools that are ready to support teaching and learning
from day one. So thank you to them. Next I'll talk a little bit about food and nutrition services. So our food and nutrition services team continues to make remarkable impact every day. During the last school year they serve more than 23,500 breakfast and 41,400 lunches every single day, supported by over 680 dedicated employees. It's pretty incredible, right? Who ensure that students receive nutritious meals that fuel learning. That commitment continues throughout the summer. I
know many of us have been to our summer feeding sites. This year, our summer feeding program is operating 41 feeding sites across Pasco County. To date, the team has served over 48,000 breakfasts and 62,000 lunches providing more than 111,000 meals to children. Meals are available through partnerships with our libraries, YMCA, locations, daycare centers, parks and recreation facilities, aquatic centers, mobiles, bus stop locations, and if you haven't been to one of those, pretty neat,
and curbside meal distribution in our rural communities, ensuring students continue to have access to healthy meals even when school is not in session. And in your folder, you have a flyer on, we call it the FNS Fun Facts. So you'll be able to see that and have data right at your hands. Our planning department continues to monitor enrollment trends as you heard earlier today and strategically aligns facilities with future student growth. The greatest enrollment growth remains of course in the eastern portion of Pasco County, particularly in the Southeast. To meet this demand, as you know, construction continues on
the Two Rivers K8 and our new high school triple O, both scheduled to open in August of 2028. In addition, a new classroom wing at Kirkland Ranch K8 will open in August of 2027, providing additional capacity in one of our fastest growing areas. At the same time, we continue to evaluate opportunities to improve efficiency in areas experiencing stable or declining enrollment, including the successful transition this year to Paul R. Smith K8. Next on the transportation.
Transportation continues to make progress as we prepare for the start of the 26-27 school year. Last year, through the use of GPS data, route analysis and continuous reviews of all of our operational data and transportation, we improved on-time performance across all grade levels. High school on-time arrivals increased from 73% to 92%. Middle school improved from 72 to 95. and elementary schools improve from 81 to 86. We also increase the routing efficiency
by reducing the number of daily routes from 297 to 294 during the school year. As we prepare for the first day of school this year, I'm pleased to report that we've made even more progress. Today, we are scheduled to begin the school year operating with 293 routes. So last year we had 294, this year we'll have 293, Reflecting continued improvements in route efficiency and staffing even more importantly. We are beginning the year with only 17 route driver vacancies This
is supported by 24 relief drivers and 12 driver trainees currently in our July training class In addition more than 20 applicants are already in the pipeline for our August training class Giving us a little confidence that staffing will continue to improve this school year Thank you Just to give a comparison. Can you get the do you know the exact number where we were about this time last year? So last year we began the school year with 62 vacancies in our bus drivers. Yeah, see I said
63 I was wow - Big deal, big difference. - Big, big huge deal. We've stayed intentional and on it and amazing staff, amazing collaboration. So I just wanna say thank you. Huge shout out to our transportation team, but also our human resource department partners, Mary Falk and her team. They have an amazing partnership and they've just stayed really intentional around that. So I will keep you updated on things as we progress forward into August so we can stay intentional and on
track with it and don't take our eyes off of it, right? Next I'll move on to construction services. We continue to deliver projects that will benefit students for decades to come. In your flyer you have a construction services project flyer. You've seen it before. I just wanted to reiterate so you could have it all in one place and see the different projects that are occurring. Current work, they're very, very busy, includes major school replacement, classroom additions, athletic facility improvements, which you heard about earlier, and the construction of future schools that will support our growing community. And lastly, I wanted to mention our
furniture refresh program. It continues to modernize learning environments across the district by replacing aging classroom furniture in schools throughout Pasco County. You also have a furniture refresh flyer that's in your folder so you can see what schools are being addressed. And at this time, I'd like to share a brief one minute video thanks to our communications department Andy done in my mark heart Mike Carlson who helped put this video together just highlighting the outstanding work of our operations department this departments this summer thank you [MUSIC]
(upbeat music) (up [Music] So in closing, I hope you enjoyed the update and the video. Operations really is about creating the conditions for student success. Oftentimes, they operate behind the scenes, but their work does not go unnoticed. So whether it's maintaining safe schools, serving healthy meals, transporting students safely, planning for future growth, or building exceptional learning
environments, every member of our operation teams plays a really important role in learning, in building those learning environments. So I just wanna say thank you to our dedicated employees for their commitment to the excellence and the service that they provide. And thank you for the opportunity to provide this update. - Thank you. - Thank you. - Thank you. - Thank you. - That was a great update, thank you. - Again, we're not quiet in the summer, very busy. Deputy Superintendent Dr. or Mrs. Cohen did you have anything else? I'm sorry. Okay Dr. Ayl. Yes I did just want to give a brief overview of our IB and Advanced Placement exams. We did receive those results from
this past 25- 26 school year. Overall for the IB program for exams there we saw an increase of 14% of exams taken by students. The pass rate was 78%. It was a decline from 84% the previous year. Ultimately, we had 58 students who received the IB diploma. They earned over 2100 college credits, which was a savings to families of a half million dollars. I also want to highlight Land O'Lakes
High School. They had a 100% pass rate in their standards level anthropology course. That's awesome. And then for advanced placement, as you know, we are continually requesting high schools looking at students, putting them in more rigorous courses. The total number of exams taken last year increased 9% from 14,000 to over 15,000 exams. The total number of individual students taking the exams increased by 5%, and then the percent of
scores that received a three-year higher increased by 4%, going from 65% to 69%. Ultimately, overall, over 32,000 college credits were earned, which was a savings of 7.8 million to families. Additionally, with the capstone diploma piece, overall, with all of the different levels, we did see an increase. The total scholar designation increased 17.3% from 2300 students to 2700. We do
believe, as Florida Bright Futures is awarded for the AP scholars designation, we will continue to see an increase in that area. So I just wanted to provide a broad overview of that. >> Thank you. >> And we will have Cambridge results coming out on August 11th. >> That's great. >> Just one clarification on the AP exams taken. The handout says 9% increase, I think. >> That was for participation. >> Right, okay. I was thinking you said something about 5%. >> Yeah, the actual that
passed, the exam was increase of 5%. Oh and okay because we have 4% so it's 5%. Okay. Thank you Dr. Iles. I was just looking it over to see if I had any more questions. Okay so we have no expulsion recommendations which brings us to the consent agenda. Does any board member have any item they wish to remove. I just want to make a comment on 13.9 if you're mine. We can pull that then. That would be great. So and I already asked my questions about 13.3 so if I could get a motion to approve
the consent agenda and all consent agenda items including addenda or revisions as recommended by the superintendent with the exception of item 13.9. Motion by Mr. Hernandez, second by Mrs. Harding, all in favor? Aye. Opposed? Okay motion carries. That brings us to item 15. Make sure I have my pages. He has to make his comments on 13. Yeah, well that's what item 15 is. Sorry.
Item 15 is me going back to item 13.9. I think you guys have done that too far. Thank you. So, Mr. Hernandez. Yeah, and again, thank you Madam Chair. And this is just a comment. I wrote something down and I just want to make sure that I can share with my colleagues here. And also to, you know, it's not easy to perform, especially after so many years, a group health insurance change, right? Especially a carrier. So I would like to express my sincere gratitude to everyone who participated in this election process of our new self-funded health insurance program.
This is never an easy decision for those that have served through this process. You know that this process requires countless hours of analytics or analysis, thoughtful discussion, careful evaluation, and a commitment to asking difficult questions. While decisions of this magnitude can never come 100% certainty, and we know that right at the end this is health insurance, they can be made with confidence when they are grounded in diligence, integrity, and in the best interest on those we serve. I'm truly grateful for the consultant that we
selected through this process, the professionalism of the team, the expertise, and the collaboration demonstrated throughout this process. Every member of the selection committee invested their time and knowledge to ensure that the best informed decisions were made. level of commitment, recognition and appreciation. On behalf of the board, personally myself, I want to personally thank each and everyone for the dedication, the willingness to engage in respectful dialogue and your unwavering focus on finding the best path forward. I feel confident that because of the work
and the care that each brought to this effort, we have positioned ourselves well for the future. And I just want to say thank you to Kevin and the rest of the team great job on that end like I said it's not easy but I do think that this election process was very well made the process was tight and quite honestly I do think that ultimately the process bear what we kind of knew through the process that we needed something different we needed to engage probably a carrier that can engage in the community and I do believe that the carrier was ultimately selected not only
it's engaged through the process but it also is going to engage in the community which is something we haven't seen in the past. So I just want to say thank you. Hopefully too it will help relieve some of the burdens that we've been, that has helped the staff. Yep. And thank you Mr. Hernandez for your knowledge and your help with that as well because I know thank you. Months and months maybe a couple years ago you brought up we need to look at this again so thank you. I also was gonna thank you for your leadership in this area. Do you want to make a motion? A motion-- I'm sorry. I just made a motion to approve it. Second. All in favor? Aye. Opposed?
Motion carries. So item 13.9 is approved. That brings us to miscellaneous action items. So I need a motion to approve the student progression plan for 2026, 2027. So moved, approval. Second. Motion to approve by Mrs. Armstrong. Second by Mrs. Wright. Any discussion? No, we haven't had a lot of discussion. OK, so all in favor? Aye. Opposed? Motion carries. This brings us to individual board member reports. If you don't mind, Mrs. Wright, I'll start at that
end again. Yes, thank you. Hopefully, I won't struggle with my microphone as much this time. I appreciate everybody's comments in terms of how summer is not quiet. And I really want to take a few moments to shout out some of our staff that's been hard at work. Specifically our admin staff at our school sites and our 245 employees, they've been very busy preparing for the new year. And I know that it takes a lot of time from our teams to get our schools ready for students and for families. Specifically when we were talking about maintenance, I was at a school yesterday and we had to put chairs down on the floor. And as I'm looking around, I'm like,
this floor could be a mirror. It was so shiny. And I was like very peculiar about moving that chair, to cause streaks in their new wax. So I appreciate our maintenance team. Major shout out to our director of FNS, Stephanie Spiknall and her entire team for working with our school site teams to get information out about CEP and the free and reduced lunch applications nice and early so that we're prepared for the new school year. And also working with our FNS teams throughout the summer to make sure our students that are in need are still fed. I know that that's a huge lift and they do a
really great job making it very efficient. I also wanna give a shout out to Mary Falk and her team as well for the updated info about Teach Pasco Paid Pathway. This is a really great opportunity for our non-instructional employees who wanna earn their bachelor's degree in education and become teachers. You do have a pathway for this where we will work with you providing tuition assistance and the ability to continue receiving your regular pay while completing internship hours. I love that we do this because we're investing and our own employees who are already invested in us
and it helps us really grow our own. I also wanted to give a shout out to our communications and marketing department and I haven't said anything to them about this beforehand. So back in June, they did a session with some students at the YMCA for marketing and storytelling. And they might not know this, but the YMCA was like a second home to me growing up and we were there on scholarship, played a lot of sports, I volunteered there, I worked in the kids' room,
and it really has a special place in my heart. But I got a text message from the YMCA staff, and they just gave major kudos to how our staff interacted with the students, and they specifically wanted to know if Mr. Testoni always walks around like the president is about to walk in the room. And he does, he does always walk around like that. And I also wanted to thank them for their continued partnership with Johns Hopkins and John Hopkins generosity. Their community outreach team recently contacted me for support for their October fund run in Wesley Chapel.
And I've looped in Dr. Zeci for that so we can continue to partner with them in meaningful ways. I also had the opportunity to provide a legislative update at the Florida PTA convention out in Orlando. And I got to spend time with our parent leaders from across the state. And it was especially great to see some faces from our Pasco County Council PTA. And we also have someone new on the statewide board of directors as well. And so as we really recognize our staff who works hard over the summer, our parent volunteers actually also work over the summer. They do a lot
to prepare our schools for back to school and teacher appreciation events right in that first week of planning. And in that same vein, don't forget to renew your volunteer application. I also wanted to recognize the Pasco Education Foundation's back to school supply drive for Y supplies. My kiddos and I, we were able to drop off some supplies that we gathered from our neighbors and we dropped it off at one of those Walmart locations. And so you can also drop off supplies at any other time as well that can be added to the Y supply center. So just
huge thanks to the Pasco Education Foundation for that. And then this part I'm gonna show my true West Pasco colors. I saw an opportunity for families for Monster Jam. This also goes along with the Pasco Education Foundation for every ticket that you purchase. Two dollars will go back to the Pasco Education Foundation. So Monster Jam is a staple in our household, so you know, check it out. And lastly, major thanks to Mrs. Harding on her Public Servant of the Year Award too Chamber of Commerce, so congratulations.
And that's it for me, Chair. - Thank you. Mrs. Harding? - Yeah. So I have the privilege of serving on Pasco County's Commission on Human Trafficking and one of the projects that I have been honored to help lead is the development of the Comprehensive Human Trafficking Awareness Training for Pasco County Schools. This training was created to ensure that our district meets the state requirement and that all school employees receive annual training on this critical topic. And we've also shared this training with all of our charter schools as well. I know you guys have heard me talk about it, but I wanted to give you guys a little update on it. This training launched
at the beginning of last month, and to date we've had 671 employees successfully complete it. That's during summer. So we've had pre and post data. In addition to this training, we've partnered with the USF TIP Lab to evaluate this effectiveness. Staff members complete both the pre-training and post-training survey to measure changes in their knowledge, awareness, and confidence in recognizing and responding to potential signs of human trafficking. those the difficult and often emotional topic the feedback from our employees has been over mill overwhelmingly positive and I'd like to share a few comments from staff members that highlight the impact that
this training is already having. One staff member said that the part of the training they found most valuable in her professional role was learning the warning signs and indicators of human trafficking that may appear in the school setting. As an educator it was especially helpful to better understand behavioral emotional and attendance related red flags that could signal a student that may be at risk. Another comment that was made was, "I would rate the overall quality of this training as excellent. The content was well organized, clearly presented and aligned with the practical realities educators face. The structure made the material easy to
follow while addressing a complex and sensitive topics in the appropriate link level of depth." USF is also going to administer follow-up surveys at the three and six month mark to help measure the long-term impacts of this training. They will analyze the results and share that data with us, giving us valuable insight on how this training is increasing awareness and preparedness among our staff. I want to give I want to extend a heartfelt thank you to Mrs. Kuhn for her tremendous work in helping bring this project to life so thank you Mrs. Kuhn and I'd like to recognize Dr. Iles, Mrs. Musselwhite and Mr. Chasen and Student Services for their partnership and support
and helping get this launched as well throughout this process so thank you very much. I'm really excited to see more and more of the results and I'll keep you guys updated as we go. I know this was mentioned earlier Dr. Lang I'm going to reiterate a few things if that's okay. While we've celebrated this achievement several times it is now official right if the grades came out and I would like to take a moment to once again recognize our students, teachers, staff, school leaders, and families that is now official that Pasco County Schools is a rated school district. This accomplishment is the result of years of hard work, dedication, and unwavering commitment to student success. It reflects the countless hours our teachers spend
planning engaging lessons in the leadership of our administrators, the support of our staff, the perseverance of our students, and the partnership of our families and community. This achievement truly belongs to every person who has played a role in helping our students succeed. But as we move through the school year, I would ask, and Dr. Leguir already mentioned, that you continue to provide the board with updates of the progress that we're making, the interventions and strategies being implemented to maintain our A rating, and the areas where we will still opportunities to improve. While we should be absolutely celebrating this historic
milestone we also recognize that the continuous improvement is what will keep us moving forward as well as the areas that we need to continue to work on and A rating is not the finish line as you mentioned it is a foundation we will continue to build upon as we strive to provide the best education for every student. Congratulations again to our students, teachers, staff, school leaders and families. Thank you for your dedication, your resilience and your unwavering commitment to making Pasco County Schools a district where our entire community can be proud of. I also wanted to provide a brief update to my peers. I know in the past I brought up wanting to create a financial transparency dashboard. This continues to be a priority of mine
because I do believe that our community deserves some pictures and clear accessible and easy to understand information how this district resources are being utilized. And so I know Mrs. Taylor and her team have been working really hard on this and I'm so grateful. They have sent me some preliminary things to look at and I a follow-up meeting scheduled with staff in the coming weeks to review the progress that has been made to see what has been developed thus far and I appreciate the work that has already gone into this project and I look forward to continuing our collaboration so that's that's my report thank you. Thank you. Mrs. Armstrong. All right well I really appreciate
all the staff comments and my school board members comments about everything that district staff has done over the summer. It really is amazing how much goes on because I do get that question a lot. It's a district you know there's a little bit slower now aren't they and I said no not really because also including that is the budget as well as everything else that was mentioned. But I'd also want to mention that the teachers they don't get the whole summer off. Most of them are out there during professional development,
they're doing advanced planning for the school year to make sure they get off to a strong start. So while we hope they had a very nice, took some family time to recharge their their batteries, we do recognize that a lot of them are doing professional development and planning. Something that I got to do that was fun. I went out to the EMC, which is on the coast where we take the kids out to learn all about what happens out in the Gulf and what happens right along the
coast. And they're working currently on the Durney Key, which is an island that's a short boat ride off of our EMC. They're able to take students out to Durney Key because of two pontoon boats that were provided by the Restore Act funds. And so what's going on out there, especially high school kids are going out there, They're doing surveys of the plants and animals on the key. They're restoring the native plants and helping get rid of the invasive plants, while still maintaining it as
a place for recreation, because a lot of boaters do use that for recreation. And along those lines, there's a plan to put out oyster domes along the island. That's going to help prevent erosions. It's also going to help promote the growth of oysters. It helps purify the water. So along with -- I went out to my Rotary Club that did -- Rotary did do a grant to support this effort. So we had a work evening after we visited the island making oyster domes, pouring
concrete, all that was involved in putting the molds together, pouring the concrete, doing what has to be done and seeing the finished products. They've managed to get all the students involved in that. High school kids are very involved in making the domes. In fact, we had one daughter from a member that was out there, had been out there a lot of the summer donating time, volunteering time, so she was helping us know exactly how to build these oyster domes. And then
the younger students are having the experience of actually cementing oyster shells onto the dome to help promote some more growth. So it's a very great project. All the data they're collecting is being shared out there. I know the University of South Florida, I think, is looking at that data. So it's an amazing learning experience for the kids. And it was just fun to see everything that goes out, goes on out the EMC. So that was my fun experience this summer at the school system.
Thank you, Mrs. Armstrong. Mr. Hernandez. Thank you, Madam Chair. I also like to take a moment to recognize and thank everyone across our district for what has been an extraordinary year. Take time to enjoy it as well. Sometimes we look ahead, but we need to take time to enjoy it. and now having to maintain an A-rated district status is a tremendous accomplishment and a lot of tremendous work that got into it. Moving from a 39th to 25th in the state is more than just an improvement in ranking. It reflects the dedication,
the perseverance, and the unwavering commitment of our teachers, support staff, administrators, students, and families. While we should absolutely celebrate his achievement, we also recognize that excellence is not a destination but it is a marathon. As our superintendent commented our responsibility is to continue building on this momentum and never become complacent. I also want to acknowledge the incredible work of our transportation department. Beginning the school year with only 17 vacancies is a tremendous and remarkable achievement
especially considering the work for challenges that the district faces across the state and that we continue to face. That progress is the result of intentional planning, strong leadership, and a team committed to ensuring our students arrive at school safely and on time. I'd like to express my appreciation for today's budget workshop. The transparency, clarity, and thoughtful discussion provided a strong understanding of our financial position and the priorities ahead. Responsible stewardship of taxpayers dollars is one of the most important responsibilities that we all have. And I have and I appreciate the work
that went into presenting the information in such clear and comprehensive manner. Thank you to everyone who has contributed to this success. We have much to be proud of but even more to strive for. I look forward to witness where this journey will take the district as we serve our students, support employees and strengthen our community. And for her award and her ongoing commitment and contributions to our community. Thank you. I met with the leader
of Discovery Academy of Science Charter School of Pinellas because they will be coming to Pasco and wanted to build relationships so they just shared a little bit about what they're going to offer for our Pasco students. I also have talked to staff about the family exit surveys and asked for updates to see if data shows any families leaving any schools due to lack of transportation and and or if they are leaving the district for that reason and where they're going are they going to other zone schools so I know they're looking into that I know we have a new process in place to get
more surveys completed which I am pleased about and I'm hopeful that the information we see helps us make decisions going forward now as we prepare for 2627. I know it seems like old news now but we haven't met since the grades were released so I too feel compelled to say congratulations to our students, families, teachers, support, staff, administrators, and our leaders. Earning an A district grade is an accomplishment that reflects years of hard work, a commitment to
continuous improvement, and a shared belief that every child deserves a high-quality education. I am especially pleased that we have no DRF schools. While school grades are only one measure of success and never tell the complete story of a school, they are an important benchmark for our community and a reflection of the progress being made across our district. These results did not happen overnight. They are a product of dedicated educators who show up every day to support students, bus drivers who safely transport our children, paraprofessionals
who provide critical assistance, and countless employees working behind the scenes to ensure our schools operate successfully and safely and our teachers have the resources they need. I also wanna thank our community. The Pasco County Schools salary referendum that the Pasco citizens supported in 2022 has helped us remain competitive in attracting and retaining high quality teachers and non-administrator staff. When our community voted to invest in our schools,
they invested in people. And these results are a reminder that investing in people matters. There is still work to be due and we will never stop striving to improve. But tonight I wanna thank everyone who played a role in the success. Thank you to your commitment, to our students, and for helping make Pasco County Schools a district we can all be proud of. I also wanna thank staff for meeting with the USF team about possible partnerships to provide more opportunities for students. We have so many wonderful community partners who
invest in the future of our students. So thank you for our team. You know, we get, I'm sure you all do, we get people reaching out to us all the time and I feel I pass a lot of things on to Dr. Zeci. And I appreciate that there's always follow up on that. So thank you. And one thing I just wanted to revisit, We talked about it last spring maybe, is trying to maybe have workshop on a non-school board meeting day. And so I just wanted to follow up and
see if maybe -- I know it's hard with everyone's schedules, but I know there's some topics that sometimes we want to have longer discussions on, so I just wanted to kind of put it on the radar again. Sure. And just as a follow-up to that, and I hope that sounds like I make an excuse here, the challenge has been is getting everybody's schedule together and that work for everyone. You know our board assistant will continue to kind of try to coordinate your schedule So I don't want to put it back on the team, you know But it is the biggest hurdle is just getting everyone's skin. So is everyone still interested in that maybe if it works? Yeah Yeah, I've been interested Yes,
thank you, I think that's all I had do you have any other new business? Okay attorney meeker Yes one matter for the board as you may recall during the last board meeting I had requested a closed litigation session in order to get advice from the board on some litigation strategy today After that we probably noticed a closed litigation session and today I would like for the board to take a recess from this meeting so we can have that closed litigation session and then of course After the session we will reconvene the meeting just for public notice purposes
that the closed litigation session will include all board members, myself, and the superintendent, and that it should probably -- I would say it would take hopefully no longer than an hour, but again, it depends on questions from the board. And this will be on the matter of ISA minor plaintiff versus the District School Board of Pasco County. The case number It's going to be 2025 CA003723 CAAXES. And that is a case that's in the circuit court of the six judicial
circuit in Infor, Pasco County, Florida. So if it is okay with the board, I would request that we recess the school board meeting so that we can conduct a closed litigation session at this time. >> Okay. I just wanted to clarify for the public. recess the meeting so we will have to clear the room to have that, but then we will reconvene and we will have our public comment. I know I've got four cards here, so we are not ignoring you. We will come back and finish the meeting. So at this time, I'm going to go ahead and recess it for our closed session.