School Board Workshop: March 10, 2026

001Good afternoon. Today's Tuesday, March 10th. This is a school board workshop and the time is exactly 1:00. Sergeant- Arms, has the front lobby been attended to? Yes. Thank you, Chief. Dr. Collin is unavailable today instead. Please welcome Deputy Superintendent Dr. Ken Savage. Dr. Savage, good to see you. There are 10 items on the agenda today. Construction change orders January 2026. Construction projects update and bimonthly updates. Safety update operational. Number four, 2026 2027 code of conduct for students and 2026 27 code of conduct for adults. Number five is policy review briefing the first reading. Six, district strategy priorities, CT partnerships and updates. Seventh, the audit quarterly update. Eight, ESC clustering for FY27. nine public comment and 10 for the good of the order and other business. Per board protocol, each member should aim for four minutes

002for their initial comments and two minutes for followup for a total of 10 minutes during the discussion. The next on the agenda is our first agenda item. We have construction change orders January 26 and also projects by monthly update by Scott Rickenbacher and Melissa Rivera. Good afternoon board members. Good afternoon deputy superintendent. Good afternoon board attorney. My name is Scott Ricker, director of construction. I have my coordinator Melissa Rivera with me. We're going to start off with a change order report that you can see up on your screens and this is for January 2026. We currently had direct material purchase orders in the amount of $339,780 which returned an amount of $19,280 back to the district. We had non-direct material purchases mostly the returns $492 and some change returning $369,492 in change. A lot of

003that is actual closing out of the projects and return of unused project funds back to the district. and we had contingency adjustments equaling $334,539 on the front sheet. If you go to the second sheet, that's your backup sheet that tells you where all of the dollars were spent and where the money was coming from. We had one large DMP change order for structural steel and that is on the base shore K8 school and that returned the $19,280 that I spoke to. We had three pure change orders and the biggest reductions returning the money back to the district were from Lehigh senior court improvements and that was done in order to put the staging campus for elementary L in that area. We had to shift some of the courts and provide that for the high school

004and that money 134,675 was returned unused funds for the project. We also had Royal Palm exceptional HVAC upgrade and that from that contract was a return to the district of 322,600367. And last but not least, Gulf Point, we had a Hector Cafaretta. We had in some of the design we had to add locks, the uniform locks to all of the cabinetry within the classrooms, which is our district standard. But in the PPP, you basically it's a school in the box and that was missed. So that accomp accomplishes that task of locking up all the cabinets. Below we have the contingency adjustments. Cypress Lake High School HVAC some coordination in the C plant with dampers and duck work in unforeseen conditions for the amount of $68,594 and some change. Cypress Lake High School HBAC. This was

005painting of the sprinkler pipe which is our standard when it's it was exposed. it wasn't caught in the design. So we call this first cost. We don't pay for the design cost. We pay for the actual work implemented in the pipe through the contingency program. East Zone Elementary School additional fire hydrants that were required and missed by the civil engineer on that pro property. 60,776 the Alba school are permanent traffic improvements in that back area. We had some fencing that actually was not on our property and encroached on people who lived behind the school's property, been there for a number of years. So, a lot of this expenditure for this was to bring it back into our property and get off our adjacent neighbors property officially for the tune of $81,138. And it also included

006some trees and so forth that had to be removed in order to make the adjustments to the parking road. let's see. Stera High School RTC towers. This was for lightning protection on the tower. It wasn't called in the original drawing. So, we added lightning protection to protect that structure and adjacent surfaces. Is there any questions on the change order reports? Word. Okay. Next, we get to the big meeting the potatoes, which is your two-month annual. What I'll do is I'll go over the slides. I'm not going to read the whole slides. We've changed it up a little bit this month. We've actually added a few pictures for you folks so you can actually see real time what's occurring out at these sites if you haven't had a chance to to get out there. Beayhore K8

007experience currently right now we're in the process of finishing up the structural steel within the new addition building out there and the roof decking has begun as well out there. Once the roof decking is on then we can get the building watertight, put the roof on and get what we call dried in and that allows us to start on all the interior finishes. So, if you switch to the next slide, you'll see the structure. It's pretty massive. A really constrained site. All of the things where the crane sits are casting beds. Those have all been stood and the casting beds themselves have been crunched up, munched up, and that'll be used for subbase in the roadways and parking lots out in that area. And you can see to the right some of our new technology.

008Now, we actually put the school name in the concrete. So, when we pour the concrete, it actually shows up than when the building's painted. So, get a little little bit of a nicer touch. Any questions on Beayshore? Okay. BBB preK8. Right now, we're waiting, still waiting on our development order and the Southwest Florida Water Management completion of the permitting on that site. We just received our final drawings and we are getting ready to send that out to bid probably around Juneish. That'll be put out for public bid so we can stay on project schedule and have that school open. There's no associated pictures with that school. Obviously, it's not being built. Any questions on BBB? Bonita Springs Elementary, the what I call the shoehorn site. I don't know if you've been there, but it's looking

009pretty amazing. We got the structure up right now. The windows are done. The roof is completely on. The building is dried in. We are painting the first floor of that facility and the second floor we're completing all sheetrock, tape, and spackle up on the second floor. And we expect, knock on wood, we expect the chillers for that project to be delivered next week. And then we can get those connected in, tied in and try to get some cold air blowing for humidity control within that structure. And if you look, you can also see where we've created the front entry scaffoldings in place for the stucco. And you can see all of the remainder of the building to the right, which now the structural steel, all those columns have been poured and the structural steel is

010actually going inside. Any questions on Yeah, I have a I have a question. I've been dying to ask this ever since you sent this slide out. So, why why September of 27? I mean, you folks are moving along with this project like gang busters. Well, you're you're seeing you are seeing the big the big piece of the pie. We still have to go back and renovate a lot of the campus and the grounds. Okay. It's kind of like, you know, people say I look like Brad Pitt, but you got to look a lot deeper. A lot deeper to see that. Oh, I clearly understand. It's a great analogy. Thank you. See that one? Got 11. next up is Kate Coral Technical College. I understand a lot of you have gone out and do a tour

011out at that school. It's pretty amazing. We're polishing the floors. getting that ready. We're putting in the rollup doors. Right now, the exterior painting is almost complete. We're inside doing all the interior paint. We expect the AC hopefully to be on it by the end of this week and paving of that entire complex is just about done and we should start striping of that of roadways and parking areas next week. And you can see there's some pretty nice pictures. It's going to be really awesome facility when it's done for adult education. So, any questions? Okay, next up, Cypress Lake Middle School. going great guns out there as well. interior paint is ongoing. Exterior paint is ongoing where 80% of the underground in that facility is complete around the facility for all utilities. Windows and the

012roof are done. So, we're dried in and right now permanent power. We're hoping to have that done for the end of this week. Get the transformer fired up and get that school under control. Any questions on that, Lisa? I see substantial completion February 27. the final would be when then that's that's the partial, right? What it is we're having substantial completion in October. So there is a third quarter, fourth quarter. I'm sorry I'm not a teacher, but there's a 4-day break and the principal has asked us to move it in October, one week so that they can move in over that 4-day period. The reason for February is we still have to decommission all the portables and reclaim that area where they sit and finish that off and final it up. So that's why you're

013seeing completing in February, but the substantial completion where we get an occupancy certificate and take beneficial use of the facility will be in in third week of October. So the students would be in there in October. Yes. Okay. Okay. If the principal chooses October of October of 26, right? Yes. Right. Okay. Correct. Is there any way to have that information in there because now we're getting a little confused confusing because February I feel like just popped out at me. We can do that. You get that? February is just the total project completion of the area, but the actual substantial co kids in the school will be October of 26. Okay. because I was thinking it was August of 26th they would be able to get in there. So it was got bumped out a little

014bit and it could very well portable behind me. So that's that remember it's all on the same site. So as they move into the one that's still part of that same bill is that whole aspect of the whole portable piece as well behind it. So while the while the students will physically be able to enter we anticipate that third week of October of 26 exactly as you said by the February 17th the entire project everything else is supposed to be we're anticipating a substantial completion of the entire project which would include everything in the portable behind any additional detail that and correct and the reason this we would have liked to have had this in August it's always been October and the reason for that is we had a construction management firm in place we

015could not reach a negotiation for fee. So we lost about two or 3 months. Hence why it's pushed in. Okay. Thank you. Now one one more question. Those portables, do we own all of those or are we renting some and own some? We own most of them. There are a few that are leased and the ones that are leased will be returned to the leasing company and the others. Operations is working on a plan on remobilizing those and repurposing them for the district future use. Okay. And because I had a constituent ask me about being able to buy or purchase one of those if we own them or if we're going to you know sometimes we get rid of them or whatever. They're going to send me an email and then I'll get it to

016the district and then then y'all can go from there. But that was one of my questions because I didn't I thought we own some and we actually lease some. So I was just needed a refresher. Thank you Miss Chie. I just wanted to give you kudos for bringing that up because I love the format of the way you all have this PowerPoint set up in our in our updates. and I have had a couple of people ask me too, when do students walk through the door? Yeah. And I think if it was just clear, so I understand where you're coming from. Just maybe adding that date like October 31st, 2027, whatever that is, it would it would be helpful just if somebody were to pull this up. That's my only that's my only thing. So,

017thank you for bringing that up. Thank you. Absolutely. We'll do. So, did we see the pictures already? Yep. Okay. Next up is Hector Cafaretic Junior K8 out in the Cape. Currently, right now, the sewer, water, and electric are all active. We're hooked up. We're running. the parking lot, the asphalt is currently ongoing. We're marching around trying to get that all squared away. All the offsite work is complete in terms of utilities, meaning a force main and a water main. We have to go back and follow up with the sidewalks that go on top of where we disturb the work. and the AC is this week. We should have we have what we call HVAC fans running. the chillers, we're hoping to have chilled air by the end of this week, which will provide humidity control

018and we can really start dropping the tiles and do the interior finishes. and all the storefronts that go around, those are the major entries, the aluminum entries, those are going in this week as well. So, windows are already in. And you can see it's a pretty massive school. It's huge if you haven't been out there, but it's come along great. Quality control is really good out there and we're excited to get that finished up. Any questions? Just Yeah. I just want to say whoever took the picture, thank you for the rainbow. Yeah, that was beautiful. Yeah. Thank you. See that? That goes to the project manager, Debbie Kurchin, for my department who took that out there right before the project meeting. Wow. Next up is Green Metal Elementary. Right now, Green Metal Elementary, formerly known

019as Elementary School L, is on the same site as OO Middle, and that's on Daniels and 82. So, the primary force in this will be all the permitting that carries in in the site development through the OO project. We are doing the staging school L, which is behind Lehigh Senior High School. That's underway. The portables are all set. We do have an issue where a couple of the larger extended size portables that we wanted to use for the front office areas just won't be ready potentially. They'll have the ones in a couple weeks which would be the dining and the food prep portables ready so we can have them out in a couple of weeks and get them set up. But we're going to probably look to some of our existing school sites where we

020have empty portables currently owned by the district and bringing those out to support the administration portion in the front of the building. Portables are a hot commodity now to lease. So, we've got to try and make ends meet any which way we can. So, that's our right now. We're working with Joel and planning to find some portables that we can snatch, refurbish, and get them out there for this school site on site. the DO is imminent. We're about one month away. So, this is a big home run on this entire project with the county. we have a LDO is currently approved for all of the off-site work with the county and we're working with the utilities to come up the road to service this campus along with another developer which is out there. So we're

021working hand inand to come up with the water service split some of those costs for the water service which helps save the district some money as well. So the timing of that they're going to be a little bit ahead of us and the timing of that is working working through the system and we're getting that schedule developed. So, are there any questions on the L or the Green Meadows and the OO middle site, combined site? Elementary M drawings are complete and right now we're just working on permitting through the Army Corps, South Florida Water Management. We did get Lampstead has agreed to take all of our on-site water, which is a huge, huge help for us. So, that's been one positive note. And that school should be going out for bid shortly as well. Alba

022High School, we just had the ribbon cutting last week. you can see this the strip site. it's it's a big campus. It's a huge campus and we're underway. We're already starting with our direct material purchases and shop drawings. So, you'll see more of those big DMP tax savings coming to you in the change order reports in the following months to occur as we develop this site. Are there any questions on that? Okay, Debbie. Okay, I'm a little bit confused. So, did we don't need a permit or we don't have the permit? When I'm reading it says no permit required. That's correct. That's from Army Corps of Engineer. No permit required. Okay, we still have to get Southwest Florida Water Management, which we have gotten just recently. That went through FWC. There was one last check

023off. We got that at my last reporting to you and we're moving forward. Now, we are working with the offsite, which is with FGA for the water service and the sewer service connection fee. So, that will be those drawings are done. We're working out the logistics and those approvals will have to come before the FGUA board and also your board as well. But pretty much all of it has been locked in and then we can start the off-site work concurrently. So we're not it's not pending. We have it because it says pending on here. The Southwest Florida one. Yes, we have that. We have it. So we probably should just say we have it now. Did we just get that? That way it's clean if we have it. Thank you. Yes. And we'll change that

024in the report so it reflects that. And then you'll see the attached monthly construction services report. You're going to see a new addition coming forward. We got rid of a lot of the color and what we've tried to do is organize it by work scope. So you'll have HVAC compiled in a group. So we got rid of the alphabetical and we're just doing it by new construction, traffic improvements, roofing, HVAC project, so you can see what's happening. And the gray and white shaving is shading is just to alternate that to make it a little bit easier to see those various clusters. And currently we have 32 projects on schedule. Six are in permitting. One is in bidding, eight are in closeout, six are in audit for a total of 53 projects. Any questions? Mr. Scott,

025can you please tell me we still use a method for we still have that method for how they get on this list? Correct. As we new new items that come on, we have a way of putting them on the list. Correct. Oh, that's that's us, right? Okay. I just want to make sure we're still using that. We're not moving things off. It's just as they come in, we put them on. I leave everything on until it's comes to the board and it gets final. The release of retainage on any product gets approved by you for payment. Everything stays on here. So, when you see something in the audit process, we're literally probably one to two reports away from that coming off of the actual list. Once you approve the final payment, then that's project complete

026in my world. Thank you. Okay. But we have the capital plan for all new construction. The capital plan is the directive that gets me to put the large capital projects on here as well as the operations. Any projects we get from facility modifications when those are engaged and we have funding again my department we put them on this list for everybody's use. Okay, that's it. Any questions? Dr. Savage, any comments? Well, just I just wanted to for the record really make it very clear that no one has ever confused Brad Pitt with Scott Ricker. That was all. You'd be surprised. Okay, any other comments? This is always a great way to start our meeting, our workshop. It's always positive. I get excited. The nice thing is looking across your scheduling, it says everything's on schedule.

027So, but if we can move up that Bonita Springs Elementary, I might get you a signed autograph Brad Pitt picture just to help you out a little bit. Okay. Thank you very much. Thank you. You guys have a great day. Say the same. Okay, next we have the safety update in particular the open gate process presented by Dave Nulan and Lisa Barnes. Okay, good afternoon board members, Deputy Superintendent Dr. Ken Savage and our board attorney Rob Dodig. Again, today's presentation is about open gate. It's just an update on certain things we as we move forwards as again we started this project back in 2023. Oops, sorry. Let's skip the one. So, earlier this year, you know, there was this news story of a 5-year-old that brought a loaded firearm into one of our schools. Unfortunately,

028this was put in the backpack by a parent. The child was unaware. And luckily for us, open gate had discovered this alerted as he as a student came into the school and this could have prevented it could have been very tragic, but luckily with our open gate system, this was identified. before identifi in introducing open gate to our school district in 2022 we had three firearm incidents on campus of students bringing firearms on campus. Since we've introduced opengate there has no there's been zero firearm incidents on campus except for the one I me just mentioned u of one being detected by opengate. We had one last year by a parent. So opengate has again been served as purpose. I also want to thank the board for your support in this project that we started back

029in 2023. So, thank you. Thank you for your support in this project. Our strategy first of all for opengate is added layers of security at school sites to prevent a active shooter from getting into our school. We look at all type of vulnerabilities. They site nationwide trends and what makes sense or what fits our district with our current safety and security protocol. As we all know, it takes seconds for somebody to come into our school bringing a loaded firearm and unload a full magazine. It takes seconds. And I remember looking back, I can give you personal examples of things that we saw we encountered on our on our campuses that really made all a lot of us think, myself think, and others that how can we what can we do? How do we can prevent

030knowing somebody can bring something across our threshold? How are we going to prevent that? Because if it gets across threshold is in a backpack, like I said, it takes seconds to do that. So, how can we prevent that? That really led us to look at weapon detection systems. so we did a pilot program. If you remember, we tried different systems. Then we end up choosing OpenGate based on our pilot program, but also based on other locations that had given their input on using the same system. The other thing too is as far as deployment strategy. So when we started the program, we initiated open gate. The then the big project was or obstacle was how do we deploy this because we have we have so many schools. How do you start a program like this?

031So first we had to go through the training. We had the company come down to train everybody. We looked at all of our school sites. We rated schools based on early adapters, those that wanted to u volunteer to use the system. We also looked at every school based on design. So we had some schools that were based on less or less degree of difficulty based on how they were set up, maybe more of an indoor school. We had other schools that were more more challenging that we would call a high degree of difficulty. So once we had that established, we identified that we also we walked every campus and one of the things we also want to try to do is control student or pedestrian traffic. We want to be able to limit as much

032as we can locations that students come in. So if a school maybe had six locations, can we reduce that to four for example? Let's try to control that pedestrian traffic and have them walk where we want them to walk. And so based on that, we at that time we released so many schools at a time were being deployed as our staff were out at every single school making sure that we worked that school until we felt they had obviously they've trained they practiced not only the staff but also students and that was it was a successful deployment. So but at that time we had completed all of our schools by two by end of two 2023. So, one of the things I want to look at is talk about here is you see this slide

033here. When we first looked at open gate, the wondering was there ever going to be was there a correlation once we started this program to incidents that occur on campus. When I say that, I mean arrests, notice to appear and civil citations. And those you don't know what notes to appear is, notice to appear is not actually a physical arrest, but is a citation that you're given a court date that you must appear in front of court. A civil citation is a little different. Basically, those are lower level crimes that students can have diversion versus having an arrest record. So, by statute, the agencies work obviously try to go with civil citations, but there are there is a process in place that happens with that. they have to accept guilt. The parents must agree to

034it and there are certain things that the student must agree to do. So that's that's what a civil citation is. So if you look at the slides overall you'll see in a 2023 to 25 comparison. This again this is mid year. That's why it's 25. Just go into the mid year because we're at right now. you'll see overall for the most part there's a downward trend going from 2023 going to 2025. You have a couple that are higher possibly o obviously overall you've seen from 604 and 23 to 420 in 2025. I can talk about from for example for police department I can talk that out a little bit. Why is are they a little bit higher now I can the thing is that the things that we worry about or I say worry about

035everything but the things that have gone down obviously are weapons and threats. Those are the things that we always look at primarily. But these things that we talk about and they really addressed the issues with maybe a lot of was vaping other things marijuana use that they had basically started issuing notes to appear and being a little more I guess strict on on the violations. So but now they've now after December now they're seeing a downward trend. So you'll see after f after this new part of the year 2026 you'll now see a downward trend. So, for example, if you go to back to January of 2025 with Fort Myers, they had over 20 reported incidents. In January of this year, they had nine. So, they're seeing a very big decrease now, starting to decrease.

036That's due to early intervention, better collaboration working with the schools and just the consequences of, for example, maybe THC vaping of how they're handling those situations to reduce somebody from u being a second repeat violator, for example. So, those are some of the things you'll you'll see you see an increase now, but we're looking to hopefully see a decrease the second half of the year. for Cape Coral, you see a big decrease as 245 in 2023 to 54. And really, that's just they took a change in leadership over use youth services and really just for the most part more serious holding holding students more accountable primarily has changed. So we have better you know we have better communication with Cape Coral the change in leadership. So it's just been a good relationship not that hasn't

037been in the past but then again just with leadership a different focus. So this is an overall comparison you'll see for in 2023 to 2025 overall again you see a 30% decrease. LCSO Lee County Sheriff's Office has a has a small decrease of 3%. As I mentioned before for Mars police department a slight increase of 22% but again then again we are see now seeing a downward trend starting in January and all those increases have been explained each month like I said every month I get stats from each agency and they explain what the increase is about and what they're doing how how they're going how they're going to address it. So we have that constant communication with every single agency. Cape Coral Police Department, like I mentioned as well too, you'll see a big

038decrease, but again, it's where their focus is going this time versus last last year with different leadership. one of the things we look at too is very important with open gate is periodic updates and then and training. Training is very important because every year open gate there may be changes in the system, change in the settings. I always call training I always say is muscle memory. We want to make sure that staff, it's important every year we send out reminders. We do training with the staff just to remind them of the dos and don'ts, the things that maybe come up that we've recognized that have to be changed. It could be things based on new settings. and again, our staff will will actually take working with the law enforcement. They'll test every all different type

039of items will test through the system randomly. We'll bring stuff to this office and we'll test to see what alerts and what doesn't. Why not as we adjust settings working with CHA who's the developer of Open Gate, what's a good setting that fits for a school venue because again we're not like TSA. We can put on a metal detector signal and it can take it could take hours. we have a so that's when we talk when we say weapons of mass casualty that's what we focus on and that's what the settings are for new schools I want to bring this up as well we work with operations so any new schools that you heard Scott Renbacher talking about we've met with that team to talk about as a new school gets built open gate is

040included with it so open gate the equipment is going to be included in all new school builds so we have that discussion is how many systems per school site based on its design and location. we look at every single firearm incident again to review those just to make sure that so we look at everything. We really keep track of working with the agencies. We always looking to improve or anything we see as a problem we want to address and get in front of it. In fact, just recently we just completed a new standard operation operating procedure on opengate with our new template adding things to that again and that reflects on the changes I mentioned as far as settings practice changes in practice things we've corrected or look at and even updates from CHA the

041organization. If you look at overall police activity, this is really another breakdown, but you can see just for example, gives you kind of a more a visual view of if you break it down by arrest again, civil citations and those two appears for the most part you see a downward trend. the trends that you see higher are the things that are I mentioned before are lower level. the things that we talk about with weapons, firearms, threats, those have gone down and those are the things that we we'll look at everything, but those are things we we focus on and look at. So, like again, I mentioned before, for example, if you look at Fort Mars Police Department, they had an increase in civil citations. I mentioned before that's partially due to the either vaping violations

042or maybe possession of marijuana, stuff like that. So, these are things that we've had discussions about and we get the breakdown every single month. let me try to show you the video really quick. This is an important message from the school district of Lee County. The number one priority for the school district of Lee County is the safety and security of our student, staff, and schools. A key part of this commitment is keeping weapons off campus. We are proud to be Florida's only school district requiring everyone on campus to pass through the open gate weapon detection system. But we also need your support in maintaining a strong commitment to gun safety at home and in our community. Gun owners should always store firearms out of the reach of children. Use a child-resistant gun lock and

043a locked container to secure your firearm when not in use. Store ammunition in a separate lock container that is also out of the reach and sight of children. Combination locks, safes, and fingerprint recognition devices provide additional layers of protection. When a firearm is not being stored, it should remain in your immediate possession and control at all times. If you carry a firearm in your vehicle, keep it in a lockable container so it can be secured whenever you're away from your vehicle. Talk to your children about gun safety. They should understand that firearms are not toys and if they ever encounter one, they should leave it alone and immediately alert an adult. By working together, we can create the safest possible environment for every student. Gun safety saves lives and your partnership helps keep our schools

044secure. So, I just wanted to highlight that just to really kind of show that first of all, thank all the agencies for doing the PSA together, but also a big part we can catch the firearms coming through, but it really is a community effort on everybody to make sure that those that do have firearms to please lock them up safely, have those conversations with your kids. that's a big part of that, too. So, this is really a community effort to keep our schools safe. And I'll stand by for any questions. Thank you. Thank you. thank you Dave for the great update today and just really I want to kind of echo the great credit to this board for having the wisdom to really invest in safety as priority. It's you know to be one of

045the only districts in the whole country that has this level of investment for weapons deterrent. it's a pretty awesome awesome thing to do to for our entire community and so just really a credit to this board and supporting that work. that said we stand ready to answer any of your questions. Miss Fine. I don't have I don't have any questions, but I do have a kudos. Mr. Nuland, I cannot tell you how many times I go out in public and people are so they're feeling so much more confident walking into our schools, walking into our extracurricular activities. and it's something that the public school offers that not every other school does. And safety is our number one concern. And I'm I mean I'll I'll talk for myself, but I know that all of you on

046this day has feel the same exact way that putting our kids safety physically and mentally first is all of our priorities. So I just want to always applaud you for being innovative and being a step ahead. And I know that there's more to come, but this is definitely one of those things that I hear kudos all day long about at any school. And the staff enjoys it. They enjoy is not the right word. the staff is appreciative of the fact that students and teachers and adults have to walk through these to make sure that their day-to-day job is safe. So, thank you. Thank you. Any other comments from board members? Question. Thank you. Mr. New when you were speaking about the adding the open gate. So when we look at the new when they're budgeting

047the schools then it's going to be all incorporated into that for every all the needs for every open gate. So not only the bill the final bill that we look at will have all of that included and how many will be needed for that just like our desks and everything else that are incorporated in what goes into a school. Yes. So we have the discussions not only the systems itself the table signs. Yeah, everything that's required is part of that. So, an inclusive cost. Thank you for that. And everything that Miss Jada said, we all agree with that, too. Yeah, Miss Fleming hit it out of the park, but I just want to add the SRO element to this thing. every school I went to last week, I was really impressed with the activities of

048the SRO's, particularly addressing the children and the parents as they pull up in their cars. It's amazing how this Friday the SRO he knew every parent that pulled up and I was just really impressed with that because it really sets the tone for security. So, so great job. Thank you. I did want to recognize also if I forget the schools too because I know this when we went down this endeavor of opengate and putting this in all the schools that their their support their staffing every day doing this really want to thank them to make this come true too as well. So, just want to thank them for all our efforts. Okay. Thank you very much. Excellent presentation. Okay. Talking about school safety, move right along. Here's the next one's very connected to this last

049presentation. We have the 26 2027 code of conduct for students and the 2026 2027 code of conduct for adults. The briefing by Dr. Coen Tim and Tammy Scott. Good afternoon. Tammy's going to go ahead and start us off and you'll hear some repeat of what we've talked about before and then we have a little bit of new information to share with you. All right. Good afternoon. This is our second time coming before you. You have another document that was uploaded that ha that looks all red and underlined and those are all of the additions and the language that's being proposed at the current time to be included in our new code of conduct. As you are aware, we surveyed a bunch of people in December and January. We received over 500 we received 589 responses

050to our survey and of those responses 40% came from our parents. Okay. And 36 came from our teachers 36% and then 20% came from our administration. So, we got a good survey of our constituents out there when our parents are surveying more than our administrators and our teachers are surveying more than our administrators. So, that's a great a great poll that we received. So, one of the questions was directly related to our wireless communication device, the cell phone policy this year, turning it off and putting it away. And as we suspected, there was an overwhelming sense of support in regards to the increase in instruction in the classroom. But we did kind of expect that little friction from the students. and that is that is fine. We are prepared for that. but overall the reception

051of having the wireless communication device put away was positive. But what came out of the open-ended comment from the survey was important as well. So there is a call for stricter enforcement for our cell phones. making sure that our teachers don't feel like they're the cell phone police, but we do need to partner with them so they are enforcing that rule within their classroom. and there was a high interest in wanting more in regards to locking them away in some kind of pouch and those kinds of things. also recognizing that the cell phone is a distraction. but then the attempts of using their Chromebooks for place for things rather than the cell phone being the option. Then overall there was an end at the end of the survey there was an open box a dialogue

052that asked if you have any input whatsoever and here were the themes that came out of that. So definitely a desire for stricter enforcement of the cell phone to combat issues students that strong desire that they have to engage with their phones. our Chromebook problem of them tunneling into other websites that we don't want them to engage with. having consistency with the discipline piece has always been something that we've discussed every year. but it does come up within our survey. what's really wonderful to see is that instruction the quality of instruction where there is a call to come back from that technology piece which is absolutely supported in the efforts from our teaching and learning division this year when we are trying to have no tech Tuesdays. We are out really collaborating with our teachers

053and getting them to increase that student engagement or that collaboration with one another rather than being embedded in the com into their computer. And then safety and communication, that hesitation from parents having that sense of feeling of wanting to be connected with their students. Okay. next up, we took a look again at taking a firm stand on our behaviors, especially our more serious behaviors, and also limiting the number of times that students can go to our alternative placement settings. So, we will be based on your approval implementing the three strikes rule for the success academy. closing loopholes. Here we had talked with you previously about inserting language regarding the vaping devices across the different categories of consequences. Aligning the consequences so that we're treating the possession, use distribution of alcohol, drugs, tobacco all comparably across

054the code of conduct. and then clarifying the consequences for repeat offenses. modernizing our approach to replica weapons. Again, we talked about that. and again, this does fall very nicely on the heels of the presentation just before us in terms of treating those replica weapons that cause fear, cause a disruption to the environment in the same way that we do actual weapons. And then here is a new piece for you, technology and AI. there's a lot of rumbling within legislation about what's going to happen with AI. It appears that is probably at a standstill at the current time. I want to point out that our handbook already addresses AI in terms of cheating. So when we took a look at what might come to pass with legislation, we felt that our current code of conduct treats

055very well the use the inappropriate use of AI. but we have added in just proactively a piece about the parental rights. So this will appear in in the code of conduct and then on our website where all of the other notifications for parents under the parental rights lives. And then another piece of it is and this kind of goes along with the mental health and we will be talking with kids through the student advisory group fourth quarter about how much technology is too much technology. But this idea that technology could replace a human relationship in your in your life. So just helping kids develop good awareness and balance with AI and that it doesn't replace social interactions. And then adult code of conduct, we did not have any updates for you. So just to provide

056a few snippets of the quotes from our constituents in regards to the survey. there were three that I definitely wanted to highlight for you today. one says that the clarity around safety procedures and what is not tolerated on campus makes me feel much more comfortable sending my child to school every morning. The next one was I appreciate that the current code emphasizes respect and responsibility. It sets a professional tone for our students that will serve them well beyond high school. And a third one is the Chromebooks have become more of a digital tool toy than a learning tool. We need a code of conduct that treats off task device use as a significant disruption, not a minor tech glitch. So that definitely will carry over in the conversations with the student advisory in the next

057couple months. So we are currently in that phase of our final feedback from you and the next time you see the code it will be finalized and ready for your approval. And with that I would send it back to Dr. Savage. Well again thank you Dr. Tim and Miss Scott for helping to brief this material forward. You can tell I've definitely taken a lot of feedback and summarize it very effectively across all the different groups. We stand ready to answer any board member questions on this board questions. Miss Fleming. Sure. so many there are so many things in the code of conduct, but one of the things that is highlighted the most when I'm around is like school uniforms or school student attire, dress code issues, etc. Could you just touch briefly for the public?

058I think I already know the answer, but how schools or principles go about deciding whether or not they would like their students to be in uniform, out of uniform, certain colors. Could you just touch on that for the public to hear about how that the process for that? Thank you. Are you referring more to when a school adopts a different dress code? Yes, please. And so there is a very formal process. It is embedded within a policy of the school district. there are many schools that did that many many years ago and it has has continued on with that policy that creates an environment where the parents were on board and voted for it, the staff, all of that. So they've gone through that process. we there are schools that have had a certain school

059dress code procedure or requirement for a couple decades. So that is definitely something that schools have the opportunity to do if they so choose, but there is a direct policy that outlines that. Okay, Mr. Thank you for the presentation. My question is on the AI and technology. So, how do and I see that so we have this in the code of conduct, but how do how are we teaching our teachers to understand? For instance, there was something that just took place the other day and a child was told that they used AI because their writing was not consistent. It was different. So obviously they had to use AI which in fact they had not used it. A parent was called on it and a conversation was had. So and the parent was there when the

060child wrote it. So no big deal. Hence they know that it was not AI but then they went on and on about the integrity of the students because it was it was through AI. So, how do we make sure that does not take place? And how are we training people to because I could look at this, I would not know if that AI generated or not. My grandkids can look at it and tell me it is because I don't know what to look for. So, how are we doing that? Because I don't want that situation to occur when we are now saying that students are not using their own mind, but they're using AI to create their stories. I think or assignments. That's a good question. And we are certainly in our beginning stages of

061implementing AI. We actually now have an AI governance committee that's meeting regularly to provide guidance to our teachers and to our principles. So we will continue to get better. We you know if you look at what we're doing this summer with the summer summit, it's going to be a beautiful blend of of your traditional teaching that you know requires active engagement and collaboration away from technology as well as with technology. So, it's incumbent on us as a district just to continue to provide that training to our staff. And, you know, I hate to say it, but accusing students or considering that students might have cheated if they did or didn't, that's been around as long as we've had paper and pencil as well, right? So, we just have to continue to to train our staff.

062There are tools that you can use. They're continuously evolving. Nothing's going to be foolproof. I think one of our biggest things is to be able to sit down with the student and ask them some follow-up questions if they know and understand what they wrote. But we'll get better at providing that guidance to our staff. That's a that's a fair question. Well, thank you. Cuz I really felt bad that took place and the accusations were had and then the parents were involved and it just became a bigger situation. Sure. None of us want that. And then oh and then my other question is and I don't know if it's in the student in conduct as I've been I'm like everywhere. So I been seeing these like snack snackle boxes or they're like boxes for behavior. So

063if a child is sitting down or behaving, they get a piece of candy or they get something to almost like you do an animal pretty much, but they're given this be for behavior. Is that part of this possibly and it's it's in more than one school. I think they're called snackle boxes. token economy is how I'm used to referring to that. And again, those came out of PBIS work a long time ago. Sometimes you see those through ESSE programs. So schools could still have elements of that where you are rewarding good behavior. It might be for specific students that are on a particular improvement plan, but that is not something that is widespread pushed out from the district office at this time. So it could be happening again within a school or for particular students.

064Well, I appreciate it because I have never seen that until lately when I'm out there and I'm thinking, why would you give a child candy when they're already hyper? So, you're going to But okay, thank you for that. That's it. Thank you, chair. Yeah, Melissa, I do have So, I have a question back regarding the code of conduct and the dress code. So I think when we were having just recently when we had that cold spell and they and I can't remember exactly what happened but I saw all over Facebook how parents were you know the jackets and there was schools were telling them to go buy jackets and I don't know there was I refresh my memory but how do you that's going off their code of conduct right that's what they did so

065I how was that addressed and how was that communicated to all schools and to the community because that was that was near just to to wear warm clothes was a an issue. Okay. So, can we talk about that a little bit, please? Well, I would say, you know, there was a message that went out from Dr. Carlin encouraging families to make sure that their students were equipped, you know, wardrobe wise for the for the cold weather. And then any family that would have been struggling in that time would have been able to go to their counselor, their social worker. We would have marshaled resources to help those students be equipped for that cold weather. But yeah, there was definitely information on those cold days. School was going to be in session and make sure that

066you were as prepared for it as as you can. And I know I know that's a challenge here, but I'm going to tell you back in Wisconsin, it's the same challenge we have telling people to prepare to wait for the bus in 30 below weather. So, you know, it's always going to be a challenge. Schools will help out wherever they can. Thank you. I think I one of the issues was I don't think they wanted to have school the next day because it was going to be, you know, 30. but so I mean, and we didn't close schools down so because kids had to walk in the cold weather, which it was 30. But you know I think you know we have we take a priority in education and we can't miss a day and

067you know as I was told butts in the seats or yeah butts in the seats how many butts are in the seats because it's important for their for them to be have that instructional time and so yes it was a cold day I mean I think even some people kept their child home that day so it's a priority for us. So, we're not going to deviate from that. And I just wanted to have that conversation. Thank you. Yeah. I just have two comments, then I'll go to Mr. Savage. I two kudos actually. we went out two weeks ago with Dr. Carlin and we did a two data reviews, talking about achievement and u moving the numbers and showing some progress as what our children learn and the results of that. we went into the lunchroom

068just on a fluke thing. Then we decided to go in the lunchroom the second school and we were amazed how the children were interacting with each other and we didn't see any earbuds or phones. So we're two for two. I don't know about the rest of the schools but that was really good to see and again that was just two weeks ago. Then as you probably know there's a lot of activity out in the community where different folks from the district are getting involved and asking to attend meetings. And one of the things that's discussed is the code of conduct. particularly last week we had a presentation on success academy and one of the things that folks constantly asked what are we doing with repeat offenders. So your presentation on that's really going to hit

069a home run in the community because people are tired of hearing about the same children doing the same thing over and over and over again and not being held accountable. So you folks are moving everything in the right direction. I was just telling a group of folks last night I was with, I was really impressed watching the last six years what you folks have done with a code of conduct. We really have this thing pretty well lined up to where it needs to be and I think Miss Fleming mentioned it. Our teachers have the confidence that they're safe in the workplace now and they're not going to be accosted by a child that's in a rage. So good job. Dr. Savage, did you have a comment? Yeah, it was it was really just to make

070sure we I was concerned that with Miss Juvenelli's comment related to the cold weather and it being addressed the code of conduct and students violating the code of not having the proper uniform and whatnot. I wanted to make sure I also took this moment to surface. You know, one of the one of the big, you know, kind of benefits that we've had by partnering with United Way is that, you know, as a school district, we recognize that it's the entire community working together for the benefit of our students. And obviously, parents are our primary partners in supporting their child. And we do ask that they always take care of all the needs that they need to make sure their students can get to and from school, that they can maintain, you know, warmth and whatnot.

071And obviously, we send out those additional communications. But additional to that, we have in our building a school resource center that essentially helps to fill in the gap. If a family doesn't have some of those needs if they can't necessarily figure out how to help support their child in that way, we allow them to work in partnership with all of our schools, our social workers, all sorts of basic needs met. That can include school uniforms, that can include toiletries, that can include all manner of things, including things like jackets, backpacks, you name it. and it's brand new because they're able to leverage the partners of donation donations with other businesses and they're able to do that. And so one of the things we do is we just really want to make sure people know about

072it so that families all they have to do it can come from any direction. It can come from the social worker. It can come from the teacher who's concerned the child's coming with the wrong things, the administration. We just want to make sure that students do come to school, but we don't necessarily think that families, you know, we recognize that not all families are able to meet all the needs. That's why I just wanted to highlight that great partnership as a good example as well. Okay. Oh, go ahead. So, the school just would need to send a message to the United Way here and they would have it delivered right to the school, right? They request they utilize our pony system. It's out of this world and it can come from any of those directions.

073It could have come from a teacher, could come from social worker. It's just one of those things to make sure that if families have it and they're uncomfortable with it, if we see a need that we're able to respond to that need so the student doesn't miss school. That's why I want to make that connection because I think our we did take a little bit of flack over that you know we were putting you know we weren't kind of looking at safety and I just wanted to kind of debunk that a little bit and say you know not only are we doing those things but we're also providing that incredible benefit to our to all of our students and their families. Thank you. Okay. Thank you both. Just real quick on what Dr. Savage was

074just saying and when it goes back to the school they have no idea who it is because their names are not on it. So it's all by initials. So there's no ever a shame for anything. And a lot of the principles sent out notification to all their parents on what to wear like pants, jeans, whatever was acceptable. But that went out across the district as well. Thank you. Okay. Thank you very much. Okay. Next, we have the policy review briefing first reading by Mr. for Robert Dodig and Miss Brophy. Did I miss her? All right. So, I'll give Miss Brophy a chance to get up there. Oh, okay. before I turn it over to the board and ask if you have any questions, I want to thank Miss Broofphy for all of her help in

075organizing and collecting feedback from the district's various departments on these policies. There's about 55 of them or so here today. It is a huge task and her help has been invaluable and as you know, we've been in a little bit of a transition in the board attorney's office. So all of that work was accomplished while that was going on. So thank you Benny. So today we have 55 revisions to the current bylaws or policies. These are all recommended by Niola and have been reviewed by appropriate staff in each department and my office. There are two technical updates to policies, one new policy and one rescended policy. You have all had the chance to review the policies in advance and we are here today to answer any questions from the board that you may have. Miss

076Fischer. Thank you, Mr. Chair. Attorney Dodig, thank you. Can you please explain why policy 2461 is currently coming before this board at this moment as a new policy? Yes. So, 2461 is regarding the recording of IEP meetings. Back in October of 2023, when the board mass approved the NEOLA policies, this policy was missed. So, Benny in her review of everything realized that. So, we're bring it has been in the policy manual for a couple of years. and we're bringing it forward today to be approved or for first reading today and for approval next month. So, back in October of 23, it did not get approved on that day. Sure. I just want to thank Miss Brophie for her diligence on that. Thank you. Okay, another question. M Jordan, I think that this is coming before

077it's in the house or something. There's a bill for this. So, I don't know. Are we going to create this and then bring it back again? I don't depending on the legislation. Yes. there's a bill to possibly upon a parents election ask for a camera to be set up in a ES classroom different than this. This is recording an IEP meeting. I thought it was for the meetings. I thought I read that it was it's for a classroom. Okay. Yeah. Thank you. Good question. Good. Back on this at the bottom it says if the district audio records. So they don't always audio record. It's is not necessary. So who So a parent would have to request for that. Parent requests and then the district would record it also. So, if the parent requests that an

078IEP meeting be recorded in some fashion or they're going to record it with their iPhone or whatever, we would then similarly record. I mean, that's really how we've done it for years. There is a provision under IDA if a parent needs a meeting recorded because of a disability or they have a difficult time understanding, the district is required to record it. Thank you. You're welcome. Any other comments? Thank you all. We will bring these forward for approval in April and we'll have some more for first reading in May. So, thank you all. Okay. Thank you. Next, we have the district strategic priorities, the CTE partnership update presented by Ed Matthews, Clayton Simmons, and Matthew Franken Camp. Last time we didn't have it on. Good afternoon everyone. My name is Ed Matthews, associate superintendent for career

079technical education. And with me I have Brent Matt Bredenamp director for career technical education. And all the way to our left we have Mr. Clayton Simmons, executive director for the school district of Lee County. So if you go back real quick, we have a 20 to 30 minute presentation depending on our questions and comments in regards to our career technical education program for the school district of Lee County and our focus on business partnerships. this is a great opportunity to show off all the work that we have done for this past year. So up on the screen here you will see that here recently our governor Mr. DSantis recently declared that we are number one in the entire nation in Florida CTE for our workforce development program. that was based off goals that he created

080a few years ago to reach by 2030 and we have already reached those goals here in 2026. You can see that the key factors for reaching those goals are at the bottom of that slide. And now this is for the state of Florida, but it directs relate directly to Lee County as well is the focus on our local advisory committees that help with all of our careermies, our workbased learning opportunities as well as our employer input to make sure that we are meeting industry standard. On the right, you'll see that we have four challenges across the state as well as here in Lee County that we are looking to overcome. number one, we need to do a better job of highlighting our public our business partners in regards to what they do for us as

081a school district and for our students. we need to do a better job in naming our partners and programs as they work with all of our careermies. Need to make sure that is a part of our vocabulary and everything that we think, say, and do. And this one right here that will go into greater detail is about our scale and network issue that we have across the state and as well here in Lee County. So a good way to think of this is if you look at the entire state of Florida, you have about four major metro areas. You have Jacksonville, Orlando, Tampa, and Miami. students that live in those areas have a greater opportunity for all the businesses that are located in those metro areas as opposed to students who are in more of

082our rural areas such as Glades, Henry County, you know, Gilchrist, places like that. So, because of that, some areas are going to have more robust business opportunities as opposed to others who will be very very limited. We see that with our schools as well too in Lee County where some of our schools that are located by a busy area have great opportunities for their students and then other areas where they're more isolated, it's very very difficult. however, we are thinking outside the box to create more of a business partner interest to connect with those schools that are more isolated. And then finally, we want to make sure that our alignment is with state priorities. And one of the big state priorities is a national priority as well too is we want to accelerate the number

083of our students going directly into the workforce as soon as possible being career ready and every year you know that quota is getting higher and higher because we have more and more people who are retiring and we need those individuals to be replaced by highquality individuals to keep those businesses running. So up here up on the screen as well as on your computer you'll see that we have three columns in regards to our career technical education programs. You have our middle schools that are more of an exploratory pro approach to our career technical education opportunities. In the middle you have our high school opportunities and then all the way to the right are the 17 individualized program clusters that have been classified by the state of Florida. We have all of all 17 reflected in

084all of our high schools. And here recently, we added three new additions through our CAP grant, which was several million dollars. One, we added dig 3D digital design to North Fort Meyers. being that they are a arts center, we wanted to make sure that we blended career technical education there. Fort Myers with its high academics and with their IB program, we've infused it such as cyber security so more students can connect with not only IB but also getting in the cyber security world. And then finally with Bonita Springs, the Bull Sharks have a great location and they already have an outstanding aviation program. So we are adding an aviation mechanics program as well too. all of these different programs have allowed our students to have great success in in the 17 different program clusters. And

085at this time, Mr. Breden Camp will take over. All right. Thank you, Mr. Matthews. one one initiative I'm really excited to share with you all today is a an idea that we came up with has not been done as far as I'm as far as I know in the past. It's not been done before, but we've created a database of sorts for our business partners to know where our business partners are connecting with our schools. So, specifically with CTE programs. So, the idea is to strategically, you know, place these partnerships and relationships with the various CTEmmies so that they have support from the business community. So, that provides the strategic alignment with those entities as well as providing direct pipelines for employment. So that's that's the idea of what we're we're trying to accomplish by

086doing this. I'll go ahead and open it real quick if that can happen. There we go. so as you can see each school we worked with to kind of get a recording of what current business partners they work with. what sort of contribution and details that they that what kind of contributions they have made to the school whether it be you know public speaking or monetary donation or equipment donation anything of that sort and what they've done so far for the schools. This has really helped us again not only what businesses are helping out our schools but how they're helping out our schools. So, and it'll help us to target also the programs that don't currently have a business partner that are tied to them to be able to match them up and help that

087process. so, this is exciting for for myself and my team to be able to be able to really support the schools at even a higher level. with that, here's some, you know, numbers that go along with that data collection that we did. the high schools have 164 individual relationships with with different business partners. The tech colleges and apprentice programs have 275 partnerships and the career and teched department has 51 different partnerships for the various events that we hold and things like that. while some of these some of the companies in these in these numbers may be may be duplicated their their contributions may be different to the different entities. So, you know, I wanted to count it as a different relationship because you may you may donate to a high school differently and contribute to

088a high school differently than you would to a tech college, or even the career tech department. So, you're you're it looks a little different for each entity. So, I just wanted to highlight it as being a separate relationship that does lead us to 490 different relationships with our business partners throughout the district. one of those relationships was kind of it kind of began organically last year with with aviation precision technology. It's a it's a company with with now has been paired with Bonita Springs High School, but initially it was identified on our comprehensive local needs assessment as being part of an industry that was going to be an emerging emerging industry in our area. so by tying an academy to this company, we've been able to establish that relationship between Bonita Springs High School and

089Aviation Precision Technology. With that relationship, we've been able to apply for the CAP grant, as you know, and we were awarded money to begin that academy which will be starting you know, the fleshing out of how we're going to spend the money and that's all starting now. So, we've been awarded the money and we're we're starting that the building of that program now. and aviation precision technology is pretty exciting. They're they're they're very excited about this because we very much so can help with their workforce moving forward and they're even looking at ways to potentially donate even a an entire jet engine to the to the program to be able to display it at Bonita Springs and have the kids be able to see the different parts and clean it up, work on it, and

090I don't know if it'll end up back in a plane or not. It might be a retired engine, but but it will but it would be one that it would have a wow factor for sure. For sure. So very excited about that. And with that, I'll hand it over to Mr. Matthews to talk about the firemies. Awesome. So, I have two other highlights that I want to showcase for you. in the center there, you'll see that we have a highlight with Ida Baker High School and Cape Coral Fire Department. one of the first things that occurred as coming on board here at the district office, we did an audit of all of our programs, the return on investment, you know, how much money are we spending in versus what we're getting out of it. and

091we discovered that the current way that we were doing our fire academy programs was extremely extremely expensive and the return on our investment was very limited. currently at this time we have three separate programs, one at Eastley County, one at South and one at IdaBaker High School and then at the end there were really only about four kids their senior year that could really move on. some other things that could be added into it but it was really an outdated model. the principal of IdaBaker High School wanted to sit down and say, "Hey, can we really think about this because Cape Coral Fire Department's very passionate about the growth that they have coming up in the next 5 10 15 years and they really want to grow their own. So through some collaboration with the

092fire chief at Cape Coral Fire Department, we were able to come to an understanding where we will have Cape Coral Fire Department have a full academy at IdaBaker High School where they are paying for everything except we will cover the cost of the instructor. And so the outcome which would have been before only give or take four or five students from IdaBaker graduating into the fire academy, I mean into fire 2. and now it'll be up to 20 to 24 kids. So, it's a huge huge endeavor. And you know, Cape Coral Fire Department needs these individuals yesterday. They're going to be expanding. I believe it is eight firehouses in the next 15 years. And so, that is a lot of firefighters and they have a lot of individuals retiring. And so, we want to grow

093our own and make sure that those students are successful. And then all the way to the right on your display there, you're going to see Lee Health. we have gone allin on Lee Health. They are number one employer for for Lee County as a whole. We've already had a sitdown summit with all of our principles, district officials. I believe Miss Jordan was there as well, too. I mean, they are very in on growing their own with with us as school district of Lee County. our students can start at $20 an hour. Every position for them starts at $20 an hour, which is a great entry point. Currently at this time, we have a very robust medical program throughout all of our high schools, but we're adding on to it. we were adding four this year

094and we're looking to add more as the years go on. We just have to look at funding and interest and instructors. So, there's a lot of collaboration going on. But one of the things that I'm really excited to share with you, the date has not been confirmed. but, we have it we have discussions going on. We are going to do a medical signing day of all of our medical academy students at the Minnesota Twins Lee Health Park. So all the students who are in our medicalies will meet at Lee Health Park. The ones that are going into the workforce will be celebrated. The ones that are going into college will be celebrated. And Lee Health will also have an a job fair for any of our students or anybody from the community, parents, family members

095who want to join. Lee Health on any given day give or take has about a thousand open jobs and so we want to be good partners with them and create more and more opportunities for our students. So what is what are the benefits of having a business partner? I know a lot of times when we talk casually about it, I mean it seems like a no-brainer. Of course it's a benefit, but really what is the benefit of a business partner? So when you're looking at our as as us as a school district, you know, we want the input of the school of the businesses to know exactly what industry standard is. You know, it's a classic saying where somebody comes to the job site and says, "Well, they'll learn, right?" Well, the reason why they

096learn is because they learn the industry standard while they're on the job site. So we want to bridge that gap before they get to the job site so that we don't have as big of a learning curve where we have individuals from the industry come in allow our students and our teachers to know what industry standard is at that time. Resources and funding. there are so many different opportunities for businesses to come in to donate items that are up to technology standard to provide funding for things that would be extracurricular for us but they're very doable for them. teacher support. This is a huge one right here. a lot. We have a difficult time finding teachers for a lot of our CTE courses because the income the salary for those positions is generally a lot

097higher than what it would be to teach that course. However, through networking, we're able to find different individuals that are in different places of their career where we're able to bring them back into our classrooms and teach for our career education programs. And through all of this, it creates a cycle of success. So, as the businesses are helping back into the schools, they're it then reciprocates back into the businesses where every it's a win-win for everybody for our students. There's no better reason as to why students are having success than the fact that they get hands-on experience. So often students who do not want to go to school, students who are having a hard time, whatever it might be, when you actually get them in the work field and they're actually working, they reconnect and

098their imagination grows and they want to be there. job ready skills. U, like I said before, working on the job site. And this is a huge one right here, mentorship and networking. you know, I go to a lot of different community events and I'll have individuals who are either retired or still in the workforce who will ask me about different students and the students will ask me about them because they've created that relationship in regards to learning whatever that industry is. And then finally for our businesses, we want them to understand that having a partnership with us is a win-win financial success for you. It creates a talent pipeline. the skills are upgraded where they don't have to pay for them. We can help them with that and in the end it's it creates a

099win-win cycle for everyone. Now, at this time, I'll have Mr. Simmons take over. Thank you, Mr. Matthews. So, when Dr. Carlin came on board, she really tasked us, our department, with increasing business partners in the community and and having a bigger footprint with that. So, I'm excited to share some positive progress we've made in increasing our district business partners. And one big one is the career advisory boards. I know many of you have been to been to them. and they started last year and you can see the enrollment on the screen. The 63 was our first one and then 91 at the end of last year. This year, the first one at a stero we increased all the way to 112 participant. That's business partners. And then Dunar, we were at 123 this past one.

100You remember the one at Dunar was the coldest day of the year. So it was great that they all showed up to that. But we're also learning as we as we have these. And this we learned that we have a captive audience and when you have a captive audience of business partners, we have designed the meetings so at the beginning we gather information from them which helps us make better decisions on how we're going to operate. And one of them is we give them a survey based on the workforce needs that they have in their particular field. So we can gather that information right there in real time and then use that to make decisions on how we're going to grow our programs. The second component is we when you have it at the beginning

101and they're excited, you can you can ask them how are you going to commit to the students in schools and then we have they list how they're going to commit and what what how they can commit. and then we reach back out to them and we recruit them to become business partners and help our schools. So, this has been a fantastic program. You can see that we have grown 95% since September of 2024. The next one that we are excited about is something called pathways to success. And these are where this is a tier one and we'll talk a little bit about tiers in a little bit. A tier one is how they can get involved with the district making a slight commitment. And what that is coming in speaking to our students. And we

102reach out to local business leaders and people of different professions to come in and speak to our students in an intimate setting. usually it's between 40 to 100 students. they're in there. They sit up front as a panel. we do seed the students with some beginning questions and then once it gets rolling it kind of grows and grows and grows and the kids are and the students are really excited and it's it's really interesting to hear how you know how these business leaders and professionals you know how they became interested their education and what our students would need to do if they were interested in a similar profession. So, this is this has really grown and we our goal is to have it at nine different sites this year and we've had well over 400

103students participate so far this year. So, if you have the opportunity we'd love to have you come witness one of those. It's a really cool setting. The next page, we're just showcasing some of our biggest business partners that we have in Lee County. And this is a very small percentage, but you'll recognize a lot of these. Some of these are big-time companies and big- time, you know, people and businesses that we have here in Lee County. Right now, I'll turn it back over to Mr. Matthews. Okay. So, what are our current what are our current methods for involvement for our business leaders? we have found that best practice across the state is number one is just for the business leaders to come in to speak to our students and to our teachers to get a

104feel for our schools. You know, there's always a misconception about what what's it really like to be back in school. once they get back in we find that after about two or three engagements we find that then they want to become an industry adviser where they come in and advise us on whether it's our electricalmies our automotivemies our nursingies whatever it might be they get more involved in regards to what we're actually teaching and then we always have businesses who are interested in donating money or supplies of some type for our students. this is something that we're going to become more focused on in regards to the giving because we do know that some businesses have a budget line where they're interested in just giving sort of a blank donation, but we want to be

105more strategic with that as we move forward. we one of the things that I found out in in putting this presentation together is we have a lot of anonymous donors who donate to Fort Myers Technical College for any of our for some of our students who need anything at FMTC or Cape Coral Tech and they do not want recognition at all and actually there's quite a few of them. So, there's always a helping hand from our community for for those who need it. And then I really want to focus all the way on the right where this is really our career technical education department to the next level of what we're really working on and that's with job shadowing, work-based learning, internships, clinicals, and pathways to employment. job shadowing, just so we're all on the

106same page, a little bit of a norming here is where an individual, a student goes to a job site, they walk around, they pay attention. What does this person do? What does that person do? Maybe they get assigned to a person and just watch that person as to what their their day looks like. A work-based learning is where they learn key skills during their classroom time and then they then go to the work site and then practice those specific job skills that they worked on in the classroom. And then finally, we see with our internships and our clinicals, we see this a lot in our medicalies where they then go out and they work the job. They work the job. They have a supervisor. They're expected to show up at a certain time, have the

107duties of a regular individual, and then at the end of the day, they clock out and they're graded on how they perform those duties. and then finally, the pathways to employment that goes directly into what we do with not only with our career technical education program, but then how it then bridges into OJT with on the job training where we then go into pre-apprenticeship or apprenticeship in general. we do that on our own as well as have partnerships with other entities such as Junior Achievement where a lot of our students by the time that they leave us at the end of high school go right into a well-paying job. So, what is our expansion for all of our partnerships? This is just our our starting point right here. So, we're at 490 and you know

108the goal is not just to have partnerships to partnerships. We want to have quality partnerships where everybody is is receiving a win-win scenario. So, we want to strengthen our advisory boards. We want to make sure that all of our schools have an advisor who's in the industry that can help those boards create the best quality product with that being the students in the workforce. we want to increase our work-based learning opportunities. Open up some more of our businesses. You know, we have some businesses that are just absolutely amazing with work-based learning. I, you know, I can name a few that you would already know like Lee Health, BNI, United Mechanical, some of our Sam Galloway Ford. I mean, there's a lot that do a great job with this. We need to allow some others to

109realize it's a great opportunity. pursue more funding and partnership opportunities. Again, be strategic and allowing that to grow on its own. And then community engagement that goes along with the workforce signing day that we're doing with medical at Lee Health. We want more of those events. where more and more individuals know, specifically students and their families, that there is an opportunity for everyone once they leave high school. And then finally, at the end there, these are just hot off the press. I will be giving you or someone from the team will be giving you cards that you can take and as a schoolboard member, we would love for you to help recruit business leaders to get connected with the school district from your area to the schools in your area. All they have to do

110is scan that QR code, they fill it out, and we will have somebody contact them, and that can help us with career fairs, internships, pathways for employment, any type of classroom. it's a great engagement piece for you and your constituents. And then this right here is a little bit more of a detailed look in regards to what does expansion really look like? we talked about our advisory boards where we need every school and we'll talk about that in our in our goals here to have a strong adviser on every board. We need to strengthen our regional partners. we have a lot in our area and we just need to we already have a good relationship with some but we just need to you know go more in the cadence of of a yearly cycle that

111being like career source junior achievement you know through throughout the district to to really make that excel and expanding the way that we do our the progression of job shadowing internships pre-apprenticeship and apprenticeships. we recently just had a meeting with Junior Achievement and I think they were I think they were taken back by the fact that we were like, you know, we need to scale this up. You know, we're not we're not a little we're not a little dog anymore. We're the big dogs now. You know, we get we got to get this thing going. And so, they were excited about that. So, we'll see some promise to that. and then, you know, Mr. Breenamp talked about the comprehensive needs assessment. Everything that we do is purposeful. You know, we don't just throw something and,

112you know, sort of spitball it and see if it works. Everything has a place and a purpose. we want to be strategic with our time and our resources. And then those last two categories on the bottom there you're going to see are things that we're currently working on at this time. best practices throughout the state is the fact that we create a business partner guide and explaining a little bit more we would like what we would like from our business partners as well as some tiers and incentives. so we're working through that right now as a team. And then on the on the right here, it's really been an honor to work with the communications team as they've been great at all the things you've seen on social media as well as on the website.

113We're going to have a dedicated page on the website for our CTE business partners as well as telling their stories, our student success stories, metrics to show how it works and an annual impact report. So more and more of what you will see from career technical education is going to be a community cycle of success for our students. So as we as we mentioned earlier in the presentation based on the data that was collected by the schools and what business partners were involved in their school in their CTU programs we did see some gaps where we can we can help fill and we want to we want to strive to do that. So, we had we made some goals to be able to, connect, more businesses with this with the CTE careermies. And so, by

114June 2027, we want to be sure to, secure at least one active business partner per academy. And, while some have, you know, three or four in one for one academy, there aremies out there that do not have any. And as we growmies, as we make newmies, we want to make sure that they have a business partner alongside them. so we want to ensure that they all have at least one business partner to be able to tie those kids into real world experiences. but by 2029 we want to see at least three in each. So we really want to push the schools to continue nurturing those relationships, growing those relationships, and as new new businesses even come into the area, being able to connect those new businesses to the schools. but but never never stopping and

115leaving it at status quo because as soon as the company closes or moves on or moves out of the area that academy may no longer have support. So we want to make sure that we're really cultivating the relationships and growing those relationships over time. So those are our goals over the next three years. excited to do that and see the work that it creates. So thank you. And if you have any questions or comments I'm I'm excited to the team here is excited to answer. Then you're next. Well, I just want to say thank you again. Obviously, you know, Mr. Matthews, Mr. Breen, Mr. Simmons, you the very exciting presentation today. A lot of material in there. but actually the comment that I have is really directed towards our board members. So, you know, you

116saw a few slides back there was a little QR about connecting. But here's something that I think, you know, a lot of folks don't always realize. You as our board members, you're also business people. And a lot of the people you interact with are business people. You know, people out in the community. It doesn't mean they have to own the business, but if they have a business interest, this is an area that you can help us because right they're they're out there beating the bushes. They're they're tracking and organizing schools that don't have anything. But what a great question you can ask anyone who happens to strike up a conversation with you is, hey, which school program are you partnered with? And if they answer is, well, I didn't know how to do say, well,

117you know, would you like to be right and that and that can look as small or as little because I've got this little QR. What you can help do is grease that wheel. you give them that little QR, there's no excuse because sometimes they don't know. They have to call somebody. They're gonna schedule a meeting. Maybe they'll get back with me. Maybe they won't. They're organizing this so that you can help grease that wheel because you're out in our community. You're talking to people. The best way to help, you know, change the perception that the school district isn't interested in meeting the current demands is to partner up. And our schools need it, and you can be that help. So, I it's really an ask to you all to help be their partners. and then

118if you don't feel like you have enough breath to know some of the schools, whenever you go to a school visit, make sure to ask, I want to see Dr. Carlin, come on. I want to see some of these career teched programs as well. You know, push to get your eyes on those programs that maybe have great interest in because you all have those connections and this is a great way you can help create real opportunities for our students. so that said, we stand ready for any questions or comments you have for the team. So, I'm going to piggyback off of that, Dr. Savage because I can tell you that the board of realtors would love to be a partner and that in fact I had already made that note and was going to say

119something before you mentioned the card because they've numerous times. So, first of all, also thank you for this whole presentation and taking it to the level that it's it is at because it's not been at this level where where you've engaged us as well as the community as being part of the partnership because really it takes it takes a village and in asking for our help in that and I believe every one of us at this table has has somebody they know that can aid in in in our school system and would want to and don't they don't know how to where where to start. So I think this is a start. in fact I have a question. I have a couple questions. So let me just jump back for a second regarding the IDBaker

120with the fire academy. Love it. So and this is a conversation that Dr. Matthew I mean Mr. Matthews that we've had. So it's not going to be at South anymore. you're going to take that down and can you explain that a little bit that I think that program is not going to be there's not going to be a fire academy there anymore? Yeah, I can explain that. so number one, we did not tell them that you know they so number one, we looked at it and the the best return on investment wasn't fire one. The actual best return on investment was for the students to go into EMT. because number one, no pun intended, the when they graduate with fire one, they're going to have to get EMT and then do fire two regardless. And

121a lot of times our students, they go to the military, they go to college, whatever it might be. And there's a two-year window that if they don't use that fire one, they lose it. And so we had a lot of students who were going through fire one then they would go off and do whatever and they never continued on with with what they were supposed to be doing. So the thinking is for some of our students it would be better just to finish their EMT because once they finish their EMT they can go immediately into the workforce because with fire one you cannot go into the workforce. You can go in as a volunteer but you're not going to get paid. you. But with EMT, not only can you work as, let's say, emergency services,

122but you can also work in hospitals, different daycare facilities, things of that nature. And so, that was the opportunity. However, unfortunately, at South Myers High School, they made the decision to stop it all together because the enrollment just wasn't there. They just weren't getting the interest for the number of students that they had. And so they're planning to go in a different direction other than going through that fire location. Now in regards to Ida Baker High School, one of the main reasons why this makes so much sense that Ida Baker High School is because literally Caddy Corner from Ida Baker High School the city of Cape Coral has create has built a training center for new firefighters very close to their facility. So, in talking to their fire chief and his team, it was really

123a win-win scenario for everybody. The stars were in alignment for that particular scenario. So, thank you for that because I actually personally have some friends that their their children had done some they did EMT backwards and the fire. So, I think that is the first step because if they don't get the EMT, they cannot be a fireman. My understanding, correct? So, I think it's important that we start the path correctly if we can just be and like you said because they could get out of high school and be and have a job immediately. Actually, one of my friends, they're she's making her son do that first, take that employment before even becoming a fireman. because she feels like and they're not wanting to. Some of them are not want I've got more than one friend

124doing this, but they one of them doesn't want to do that, but she the other mom is like, I see this as a learning, you know, learning the job and this is a key element to doing this first. So, I thought that was interesting. She was like and and she wants to she's making him do that and if he's going to stand under her roof that's what she's planning and they've worked it out but I thought that was interesting especially since that you're kind of redirecting redirecting that pathway you know career pathway and I I don't want to share it publicly at this time but we also have interest from a couple one one in particular state excuse me city entity that also is looking to sponsor another fire academy as well too. But we

125do not you know we don't have everything finalized so I don't want to make that public yet. Right. So thank you for that. and then regarding the link to the business partner is that for public as well is that anyone can look at that or is that just inhouse internal the data are you talking about the database that we that we have that is just internal. Okay. So, and that as a realtor by day, I in fact I've some of these I have referred out my shower door has done a few shower doors for me for clients. So, I think it's would behoove us to have that ability. If someone wanted to get on our website and look at who our partnership, they want to patronize them. I would prefer to patronize them that supports

126our community than someone that just came from, I don't know, New York and decided to open up shop here. You know what I'm saying? I just I think that local people I think that's very smart and I agree with you and we will make sure that's part of our business partnership web page that'll be a part of the district site. I mean, I think that would be a selling point for any business that wants to do business with us and partner up that we are promoting them by our own means, which is I would see that as a possible incentive as to why they would want to do that. Yes. Right. So, that's my point. and then I'm I've almost one more question. Sprouts. So, I don't see that as a business partner, but yet

127in my mindset they are. And so I because I went and looked at hospital I would consider them part of hospitality and they're not just gardens. We could have students that go to work at Sprouts. They could probably mentor. They probably would help teach the management. I just think that's an opportunity that we're missing. And Sprouts gives us a lot of money that I think we they should be up here on this on all with next to Cape Coral or whatever. So, I don't know how cuz I know this is kind of out of your realm a little bit, but yet I don't think it is. My I am excited about sprouts. If you're excited about sprouts and we will make sprouts a part of that inventory. Well, I think we all sprouted. I think

128you got the message. But I mean, that's just an example. I think there's probably more that I'm not aware of, honestly. And I know this is probably not really your umbrella, but yet I feel like it kind of is. So, you know, and I believe today's presentation, I just want everybody to understand that this is a, you know, much like everything else we do. It's a it's a continuation of work. It's not a destination. I'm I'm actually pretty excited the fact that we have 490 business partners and I'm I'm excited about the fact that we were able to provide you that information to where you could, you know, sort of pat him on the back. and like you said, we would like to invite more and we would like to recognize more. I believe we

129did that audit what over about a month. about a month, six weeks. And so as the year goes on, if we can add to that, and please email me, text me, you have my number, anything, and we'll make sure that either myself or someone on the team follows up with them, and I want to make sure that it's a win-win for everybody. Thank you. Okay, Miss Shio. Yeah. so yeah, thank you for this. I guess one of the areas and I know I met with you in regards to CTE. Is there are there any programs currently where we could use more partners maybe is there one specific academy or program where we were lacking in that partner support that we need to do a better outreach for? I think I believe that if you were

130to look at look at the map of the district and look at our schools that are in more of an isolated area, those schools need more help. and the reason being is they they just do not have the business partners by them to to get connected. You know, that's something that we're constantly working through. but if you look at the schools that are more of an in a busier area, they tend to do pretty well. You know, it's a neighborhood kind of of thing. So, I think if you know, I don't want to name any particular school. I don't want to make it seem like it's a negative. I think it's just a challenge. No, I just meant like the actualmies itself. Not even a school. Is there an actual academy or a program that

131just needs more partner support than others? I would say your smaller and newer ones you know for example you know you know coming from Bonita Springs High School that the HVAC program for example there's not really a whole lot there would be would be one example but your newer ones that you know that you're not able to to pair up right away with with with one we when we had started it before. I think just, you know, that's that's probably that's probably off the top of my head anyway. That's what that's what I would say. And then and then there's some that would be not necessarily a straight link. for example, like digital design doesn't necessarily have a direct link to a to a specific business, but you could get really most businesses involved with

132that because they have a marketing component to them. So, so that's that's areas where we could grow. But I think a lot of this will come down to also just educating the schoolbased administration, the the staff at the school and how we cultivate business relationships because I don't think they're used to this either. They're not used to this connecting them with a business partner and growing that relationship. So, I think that that training and that that helpful hand from us down here helping them with all of that, I think that will will help at least start some and then hopefully help build them. And if anything, the one other thing I would add too is and we really do not have a problem per se with the partners in this industry is just sometimes I

133feel like we overuse them a little bit. I think we wear them out is you know, and I believe Miss Jordan could attest to this is in the hospitality, the restaurant lodging association. We have some amazing amazing partners. and I think if anytime you're out and there's a business partner that owns a restaurant, lodge, you know, hospitality kind of a scenario that wants to get involved, I think the more of those individuals, the better because, as you know, the hospitality business is very timeconuming and anytime we get them out of their business to help our students, it really wears on them and I'd like to get that a little bit more diversified if we could. Fair. Yeah. Thank you. Jordan is right. Yes, sir. Me. Okay. well, I am really excited about this. Thank you

134so much for for this presentation and Mr. Simmons, you spoke about the pathways. I've seen that and I've seen the students really get engaged with that and I think that is really great because they do start off quiet and then they all of a sudden everybody has a question. So I really appreciate being able to attend those to to witness what is actually taking place which is always a positive on on site on site three where you have the difference of the middle school the high school. when I'm looking at that, this is a great tool for parents when they're looking at where do I want my kids to go and they're looking at all these programs that we offer. But then I have to go to to a certain school and when I look

135at how we cut the proximity Fort Myers Fort Myers Middle, we have one program there where Dumbar Middle, which is part of that as well, has five. We would love to see more at Fort Myers Middle. Well, it's I'm actually very excited that you're sharing that because we are going we are actually working with Dr. Gibson at this time in implementing a robotics club for his students that we're going to be working with ROC and a and a junior leadership program. So, we're we're in the process of making that occur at this time. Okay. Well, I would love to see that because I know that a lot of these schools are feeder schools and I think you spoke about that and it used to be the ripple to the wave which really doesn't work anymore.

136It's usually the ripple to south or everywhere else. So, when you look at middle schools, I think parents do look at where where's the next step for my child after middle school. How does that, you know, co how does that work? You know, one thing I'd like to add statistically is we are seeing a real evolution of career technical education over the past 5 10 years. And I know that statistically AC, you know, just in our county alone, the interest of students who are looking to go to a tech school, two-year school, some sort right after a high school, has grown by has doubled actually. So it went from about 15% to now about a third of our students actively want to go and that's what they're telling us. So that number is actually probably

137higher. So, we're seeing more and more of the families as well as the students who are actively looking at this and want to be a part of it. So, I would expect that like at the middle school level and at the high school level, you'll see more and more of our schools showcasing this information to to get student interest. Yeah. And I agree with you there because I know as a parent, I wanted my kids to go to college. That was my Mhm. I was honing in on that. But now with all my grandkids, I'm like, "Okay, okay. We need a mechanic. We need a plumber. We need this." So now it's like, "Okay, and you can get a job right out of school." So yes, the times are changing and I just really thank

138you and I can't wait to have that card. And you know, and I just one other statistic I want to share with you. The average salary of one of our students leaving Cape Coral Tech or Fort Myers Tech is 56,000 a year. So, I mean, if you really think about that with a PEL grant, the BAS and you're starting working at age 18 or 19 on your income already with no debt, that's you're you're going in a very positive direction. Thank you. Thank Fisher. Thank you, Mr. Chair. thank you, gentlemen, for all your hard work. It's been appreciated. We've talked about business partnerships for a long time, this district, and I'm glad to see there's some action occurring at this point. So, thank you, gentlemen. two comments. first one is kind of all-encompassing on this

139of how we look at districtwide our students. One of the things I want to continue to beat the drum on is even CT partnerships and exposure with our elementary schools. For example, Ray Porf with the new Lee Health Challenger campus right over there. Again, it's going to be different than middle school or high school, but I want to make sure our students in elementary school still get that exposure and see, you know, whether these business owners and people come into the schools, talk to them, and show them different kinds of areas of work because I think that's important. So, second thing, I just wanted to, say thank you to, Chief Mike Russell from Cape Coral Fire Department and the Cape Coral Fire Department for making this happen. Thank you, gentlemen. Thank you. Okay, one more

140thing. for the expansions that we have for K through8. So we have the west zone and the south zone that are going to come into the middle school. Where are they on like Hector who's going to be a K through8 now? So they're going to have the middle school component. You have JC Colin English as well. What does that look like for them on a track with these middle school programs? Do we know? just to to help put the middle schools in perspective and what's recently happened with with CTE in middle school. so this past summer the state passed legislation that is now moved what's called a digital tool certification that they used to be able to earn at the middle school level. They've moved that to fifth grade which is great for the elementary

141schools but leaves a gap in funding for middle schools. so it's now a challenge and you know I've challenged my team with with looking at different different ways to incorporate the middle schools into CTE without putting a burden on the school's budget. So for me that's looking at looking at the for us that's looking at the different grants that we have coming through CTE and looking how we can redistribute to help middle schools. How can we help support them and their their endeavors with that? But then it's also communicating with the elementary schools their opportunity to now earn digital tool certifications. So that's something that a lot of the districts were holding back on implementing because it changes a lot of different things at the elementary school level in terms of when are you going

142to have the time to put this into the curriculum and and into the schedule. so that's a conversation to have with the with the elementary school principles. But not not to go too round about what you were looking for in your answer there, but I wanted to make sure you knew that there is now that potential funding gap between high school and elementary school that we have with middle schools that makes it a little more challenging with the K8s, the ones that are becoming K8s. I would I would treat that exactly like I would any other middle school. It would be a 6 through eight type of initiative. So any any middle school initi initiatives that are done would be geared towards that six through eight grade level, not just not just the middle schools

143that are labeled middle schools. Miss Fleming, you comment? Yeah, thank you. So a couple of things. This is exactly why all of us I feel on this day like get out into the community. We sometimes get a little a little backlash about why we're out and where we're at and what we're doing etc. And it's to make these connections because I can't tell you how many times I have a conversation with someone that asks how to help because you don't know where where the need is if if no one has ever told you. A lot of these not just small businesses, medium business, you know, large businesses, corporations, they want to buy into what the public school district is offering their employers children. and they and so it's great that we're out doing things like

144that, having these conversations. I'm not going to get into the mailer, but a mailer went out about maybe a week or two ago. These are this is exactly what the community also needs to know what we are offering outside of any other educational environment, what this public school district is offering. And it's really important to get our message out. And this is a way to get our message out. It whether it's a commercial, whether it's a mailer. I mean, let's face it, we are in a competitive environment with Step Up and this is a something that we offer that other people don't. And I'm I'm I'm not talking negatively or or positively about but but we are in the market now of customer service and this is a service that the public school district offers.

145so and I and I applaud the whole entire team for this because this is the new era of a lot. I have a I have a son who's this is exactly what he wants to do and it he's in college right now and you know it's it's really important. The other thing is I don't think we've talked enough about our public our partnership with Lee Health. Mr. persons and I were able to attend a lunchon last week about the update of what Lee Health is doing in our community. 30 children a day are being born in Lee County. That's one classroom a day. I mean, do the math. Those kids are going to go into our schools. They're going to need classrooms. They're going to need seats. And they're going to need opportunity in 13

146years after they enter us. So, this is just such great information and the way you've laid it out, I really truly appreciate it. But I just think it's important that we really truly start to have these conversations that not just the trades, but also, you know, I was fortunate enough to go to the to the Fort Myers and Cape Coral technical graduations last year and I got to say it was one of like my favorite things I've ever been to. and to see those kids walk across this stage and know that at 20 years old they're going to make x amount of money and they're excited about it. So, you know, I just want to say thank you and thank you for all you're doing. If there's anything I can do and I know this

147board is ready to step out in the community and and meet people and greet people and educate them. So, I just want to say thank you for everything you guys are doing behind the scenes. Thank you. Okay, go ahead. Thank you for sharing that because that really just puts it like reality. 30 children are born a day. That's one classroom. I mean, thank you for that. Seriously. So, that's just puts it all in reality. Boom. Thank you. Yeah, that's Chris Simino's famous quote when he does foundation funding. That's very convincing. Okay. I just want to sum it up by just saying thank you for an excellent presentation. It's all about life after graduation. parents keep asking us. JD, you mentioned the comment about your own child. So, I'm looking forward to my recruitment cards, so

148put your seat belt on. You'll get a nice flow from from my district, I'm sure. Okay. Thanks again. Thank you. All right, moving right along. Next, we have the audit quarterly update presented by Dr. Jennifer Cuba McCoy. Perfect. Good afternoon, Chair Ribble, Board, Deputy Superintendent Savage, and Attorney Dodic. My co-presenter this afternoon is Dr. beige and we will be providing an update addressing the most recent auditor general report. However, before we get started, I do want to go on record in saying I have no idea how we are going to follow the team that just left here with this update. So, just needed to clear the air about that. Today's agenda encompasses three separate sections. The first will focus on the audit process and essentially this is what we use internally and we apply this

149to audits in terms of how we support in monitor. The second section will cover the current status and here we'll highlight the approach that's being used with the current 2425 auditor general findings. And finally the third section will provide some insight into the systemic approach that we want to engage with as a district. please bear in mind that sections one and three have been shared with you at previous board workshops. As a district, we undergo multiple audits from various entities and they occur concurrently, right? So there isn't ever really a downtime. And at any given moment, an audit can be in any one of these four segments. We can have an audit that is new and it's in the intake phase and simultaneously we can have an audit that's at the post audit phase and

150we are monitoring that specific audit every six months. So we do have work that's running concurrently in any and all of these sections. It's important for us to understand that following a process is important when we're dealing with audits. For the purposes of a shared understanding, I'd like to define the term process as we're using it today. In this case, it represents a repeatable set of actions that ensures the outcome is independent from the individual performing it. That's critically important. a repeatable set of actions that ensures the outcome is independent of the individual performing it. This helps us to build an effective system and an effective process. And this is necessary because an effective process safeguards against system failure particularly when institutional knowledge walks out the door or just from natural attrition. The 2024 2025

151AG audit is the most recent and these steps reflect our initial approach to addressing them. They've since further been refined and that will be discussed a little later in this presentation by Dr. Beige. But the steps as outlined here are in a sequential order and that is purposeful. It is intended to maximize efficiency and effectiveness. So for example, we wouldn't want to be at this third the third step where we are attempting to monitor implementation of a plan if we have no idea who the responsible parties are or even if those responsible parties have developed a plan which would be step two. So we're very purposeful about this approach. We're very disciplined about the approach. What we're doing in the strategy division is trying to avoid rushing to solutions and conclusions and then having to

152walk things back. And we're taking a very meth methodical disciplined approach to the way of work. We've received the AG's report that came in on February 17th. And about a week or so after that, we received follow-up communication from the AG's office around the corrective actions that need to occur. I'd like to emphasize this point and that is the corrective actions notification is embedded in the standard protocol that is used by the AG's office. So it's not unique to the school district of Lee County. So us having to provide an action plan within 45 days and then follow up within 180 days with evidence. It's not unique to us. that is the standard protocol that is applied to all school districts and other entities that they may audit. It is also important for us to

153note that audits do not occur in a vacuum. So we have a lot of them happening at the same time and that includes audits by RSM which is the board's auditor. The interesting thing about RSM that we'd like to share is we actually have developed a very positive collaborative relationship with RSM and that helps them to execute their functions expeditiously. in in some ways we serve as a conduit between the management staff on site and RSM so information doesn't lag and there's really free two-way communication. What we've also learned from working with RSM is just how to improve our own internal processes. I mean our knowledge base gets stronger that helps us to modify the work we do internally that helps us to streamline and strengthen our internal processes. Dr. Beige will provide us with

154some additional insights around how we are responding to the 2024 2025 auditor general's report. The intent here, however, is not for us to walk through the specific findings, but rather share the steps that we're using to address the findings. Here too, we're using a very disciplined approach. And while some things may sound repetitive, they are repetitive on purpose. Dr. Beige, thank you. So, a little more about the auditor general's audit. It is a 2425 fiscal year operational audit. This is a triannual audit. All school districts go through the same process. The state auditors were on site here at the district for the majority of March through December of last year. So they've they've been here a lot and they've seen a lot. While their primary focus was the 2425 fiscal year, their methodology explicitly states

155they'll also review selected actions prior and subsequent in a whatever they need to help us understand better where our internal controls are. Full final results are available on the auditor general's website, not only for Lee County, but for all CL counties. We routinely pull these up on a regular basis to look at how other counties are doing. That really helps us identify best practices and see potential gaps that we may have. Also, this particular audit resulted in seven findings. That's a significant long-term reduction from the 15 findings reported in the 2016 audit. We've now successfully sustained singledigit results over multiple cycles, reflecting a level of oversight that's significantly more sophisticated and proactive than it was a decade ago. We're encouraged by those results, but we're still dedicated to further tightening our controls and oversight. These

156audit findings provide us a clear set of priorities to improve our systems and our management oversightes. This is the process you've seen before with the addition of the extra two steps the state has asked for. As Dr. Cupid McCoy mentioned, they ask for these same two steps in every county. And as a reminder, a solid process is just a repeatable set of actions that ensures the right outcome every time independent of the individual performing the task. So we need the same discipline around the audit process as we do other processes. It's about building a system that outlasts any one person and that's how you create sustained change. So this is the same process as before with two asterisk additions. By early April, the state's asking for corrective action plans from us and that means providing

157them simply with a plan that's going to correct the findings. This fits into our existing audit process. Our first steps are always to identify process owners and develop realistic action plans that are dated. We've already begun that process for these findings and are well positioned for that April deadline. As we do with all audits now, the action plan includes ongoing monitoring steps. We want to make sure that we have an opportunity to find obstacles before they prevent us from meeting our deadlines. In mid August, we owe the state evidence of completed actions. This isn't just us saying that we finished. It's us actually showing that we've taken the actions we said we were going to take and those actions have resulted in better results. That gives both the district and the state confidence that the

158issues are resolved and the new processes are working. Step seven is the final step we're working to implement for all audits. We want to move beyond just fixing an audit finding and begin our own internal monitoring of internal controls. By building in our own regular testing, we make sure the changes stick long term, ultimately resulting in fewer findings. So this slide is one that you've seen before and remember I mentioned earlier that some things are being repeated on purpose. So these audit execution phases is our it's our attempt to create a systemic approach to a sustainable process. In year one there's a strong emphasis on a single source of truth. Having information scattered all about is helpful to no one because as people move in and out it becomes really difficult to find the data

159that you need. So it's important to create that single source of truth. In year two there's a focus on benchmarking. What is the bestin class really doing? How are they doing it? and what can we learn from them and apply to us. And then finally the year three of optimization is us as an organization gaining a much better understanding of our bodies of work. Are we at a point where we can determine the risk exposure and identify, mitigate certain strategies that will help us to strengthen our internal controls and put us in a much better situation. It in no way means that as an organization we won't have future findings. What it means, however, is that we're better positioned to eliminate repeat findings. An organization of this size should embrace audits because it's another pair

160of eyes into our way of work. So if we're able to work towards this sustainable process as an organization, we will begin the journey to becoming an enterprise riskmanagement organization. It helps us to be stronger with what we do. It helps us be able to handle leadership changes and not interrupt the workflow. As an organization, we will be better at embracing our audits. We will become better at understanding them. and our willingness to be transparent will improve this organization's efficiency and will most definitely strengthen the public trust in us. That concludes our presentation and at this time we'd like to turn it over to Dr. Savage and to the board for comments andor discussion. Well, thank you Dr. Cupid McCoy and Dr. Beige. just really appreciate the very structured kind of disciplined approach to kind

161of outlining this audit piece. One of the challenges that we have obviously organizationally over the many many years that I've worked in the organization is that there tends to be a reaction right they get an audit and so all of a sudden you know antennas go up and we're focused on the problem of the day solving that problem and then you know fast forward a couple months later you get a different audit from a different source and the same thing rinse repeat that same type of idea. Well strategy as a division really has two primary components. One is they hold the strategic plan which really outlines what we want to achieve and by when very simply organizationally it's that destination that we're trying to move towards. The second big bucket for for strategy is about

162the way of work and that's really what this presentation speaks to today. The idea of how we go about our work is sometimes more important the journey rather than the destination. And for you organizationally as a governing board, we want you to always have an understanding of how we are trying to mature as an organization in our way of work. Get out of a reactive firefighting mode and into a proactive strategic where we're just as focused about the process we're going through as it is the outcome that we're trying to achieve. And that's really the balance that you see when you're hearing from them. And this is a great illustration of that. I also really appreciated the notion that we really should look forward to audits. That sounds counterintuitive, right? But but why would we

163want to see negative things? Our hope is that we not hope, but we expect to see reductions of repeat findings because that shows that once something has been elevated, we have figured out the right appropriate strategy and counter measure and that we've repeatedly been able to minimize and document and move on to new problems. but what we also hope to see over time is that we aren't surprised by these things that they don't, you know, all of a sudden arrive at our doorstep and thinking, "Boy, I had no idea that was a real problem here." The more we start to minimize those as well. And the more we start to see things that become almost tickytac where well, yes, that's that's a failure, but we do expect in a enterprise of our size failures. They

164will occur. It's just the nature of bringing that many people and processes to boot every single day. However, right now the types of issues we're finding, just as was contrasted that since 2016 where they were massive and substantial, we saw even in the short period of engagement where the auditor general came and gave their preliminary down to what the finished report actually said was already a significant reduction after really a significant period of engagement with our staff. So there's already that ability of working together. I want to highlight even though it's not part of this RSM that is your auditor that you've chosen as a board to hire a firm. They are our partner as well. We're all partners in this work on behalf of the superintendent and the staff with with the board's auditor.

165And so just really appreciate any questions you may have about the process. If you have any specific items about the specific substantive findings, you know, I would say let's probably not dive too deep in as we are we're continuing to produce and following that plan related to the corrective action as well as a monitoring action. We have lots of opportunity to kind of bring you more feedback on specific findings. but if there is something burning that you felt you had to ask, certainly we'll we'll stand ready for any questions you may have. I don't I want to just make a comment. Usually I let my peers go first, but I feel strongly about about this audit process. And I come from a culture where we breed the eupheanism that we love bad news. We love

166bad news. And if we love bad news, that means people are going to be honest and they're going to use integrity reporting things that need to be improved. However, that loving bad news doesn't escape the accountability process. So there is accountability built into the bad news, but we want to know about shortcomings that we have in the workplace, in our school district, and then we can get them fixed. But if we overreact to the bad news, that's only going to cause people to hide hide items, not be honest, and then we're going to have bigger problems down the road. So I just want to move that on with our peers for comments. Miss Shio, you have a comment? Yes, thank you. So, thank you for the information and thank you for the time I know

167you spent with each of us kind of going through all these pieces. And there's three things that I kind of wanted to highlight and stress if it was missed. This type of audit happens every 3 years. So, it's not a surprise that we were receiving this audit. As one of the newer board members sitting here, this was the first one I had seen. So, that was my question of like when does this happen? It's like every three years. Ah, okay. Cool. Outside of that with the changes from when this was done in 24 and 25 again in the middle of our beginnings of of serving here when I joined the board there were already department changes and structural changes of responsibility and where these things fell. So there the strategy department and where you overseeing

168it. So now in the past where there wasn't ownership and it was kind of spread throughout as you had stressed there's now one department that is singly focused on on viewing all of these things. So that was my second point. Third, stressing that there were less findings than previous, which was again a kudos. I don't believe in perfection. I'm not saying that we're going to walk on water. I believe there's always there's always Yeah. room for improvement and to be better. So to to say that we're never going to have a finding. no, things change, people change, things happen. It's it's it's we have humans involved. so I'm not expecting perfection, but understanding that the changes were already occurring with this new change of the board and the administration and that ownership and that view

169because if the first thing I ask is, well, what are we doing about the old ones and how are we tracking this and making sure that we're doing something moving forward, but also stressing that, you know, when things are released out into the media, I feel like it's always a clickbait piece, but we were aware of this at the end of December or January. This information was shared with us. So, it wasn't something that we were just made aware of when it was announced in the news. So, I also want to stress that as well. that these conversations are happening behind the scenes and we're having our meetings and having these discussions. So, again, thank you for all of the hard work. We are a large district and there are a lot of moving pieces

170and I know there's actions and things that are taking place way before this audit came out for you guys to get a handle on that and track that appropriately for us. So, I appreciate it. Thank you. Okay. Any other comments? Okay. Last pass. No. No. You I'll just I'll just say I knew she was Dr. Cubin McCoy. I thought this was fascinating even after Dr. after Mr. Edwards and his team. So, thank you. Thank you very much. Tough act. Tough act to follow. I do. Go ahead. Real quick. So, oh, I'm sorry. I do have I have a couple questions. I'm sorry. He let you go soon and wasn't looking to his right. So, Well, all you have to do is My name's Bill. Okay. That's all you got to say is Well, Bill, you

171were you chose to talk first. So, yeah, but Oh, whoa, whoa, whoa. Okay, let's We're not going there. I'm not going there. First of all, thank you. And I just for his history history purposes, this is a lot different. We never really discussed an action plan was sent later. It was more like a rebuttal and then they waited for the state to rebuttal back. It was a it was a it was almost like tennis. They were playing tennis. Armor would enjoy that comment. So I appreciate the transparency and the accountability piece because it's huge in being better and trying and acknowledging that we can do better. and I'm on the audit committee. So, I just had a couple questions. I wanted to make sure that the audit committee received copies of the Florida auditor's reports

172as well as when you do the action plans that number one that we would receive a copy as well as the audit committee as well. And then I am curious like I didn't see in the actual process that you had a timeline expectation because I think that's really important of when the corrections are made and then like if we can be told that ever how you are notified that the board would be notified that the corrections have been made and here's what's happened. Here's the plan that h you know here's the compliance piece mainly because we are oversight and only way to have that oversight is to have the acknowledgement of it and get the information. So, that's really my that I find that's you know, we just need to have we need to be

173able to see the action plans because I understand that they may be corrected, but I would like to have the information to know it and just and not just say it was corrected. If that makes sense. That makes total sense. Thank you. Yeah, I could try to just real quick thank you for the feedback. So, you know, one thing is on this particular audit, not all of them are quite as rigid with the structure, but for any of the ones that come through the auditor general that are the trienal, the once every three-year AG operational audit, those have this defined the on on slide seven, the one that we have there, that is always the same time period. So, what they'll have and just for for all of you, there is a the board member

174who's not here today, Mr. person's the chairman of of our you know who's who again we're is is you know he is the member who sits in when they initially come for their their previewing. So he has that piece and brings that awareness back to board of hey there was that initial piece again it's all kind of predetermined and they do the same process with all the boards where we've actually gone an extra step a little deeper is that we're we've asked you know and this is something you all talked about with RSM is to have a quarterly update with our strategy piece and so they're working in concert to close and report to you findings both to you to the audit committee on any of these particular audits so that we're gaining deeper transparency

175independent of the specific audit, but really just looking at closure of open items versus closed items. They're tracking them. We didn't go into it today. We didn't go through all the details, but they basically have developed a comprehensive tracking system for all audit findings related to any source of audit. So, you as a board because you are ultimately responsible as the governing body for this organization. So, that's a very fair point. But as the executive side, our job is to close that loop for you that while you are the responsible entity, we want to provide you that transparency and that level of detail. And that's why it was just as important for them today to kind of articulate the process so that you can start to map this process in your mind so that as

176you have questions about any of these things, you'll have who's the owner. So it doesn't matter if they leave the organization because I bet you Melissa, you've been on this board a long time. You probably heard that. Well, there's been a change in leadership. Oh, there's a new new superintendent. Oh, there's a new department or right. So, it was really clear that we had those owners to be resistant among those things. So, I hope that speaks to your question on that and we'll make sure if there's any additional details, we'll get you that as well. But, thank you so much for raising those issues. Thank you. if it's okay to just add the two dates you want to keep an eye on are early April is when our action plans are due to the state

177and then mid August is when the evidence that those corrections have been made are due back to the state and we'll make sure to work with the audit committee for other specific dates. Thank you for that. Thank you so much. Okay, that it. Yeah, as a wise old auctioneer said, "Are we all in or are we all done and are we through?" Sounds like we are. Yeah. Thank you. Okay. Thank Thank you very much. All in. Okay. Next, we have the ESC clustering for year 2027 by Rachel Gold, Amy Burke, Susan Ellinger, and Scott Kazowski. Mhm. What else? Good afternoon. I'm happy to be here. My name is Rachel Gold. I'm here with Amy Burke, Susan Ellinger, and Scott Kazowski. And we are working with our ESSE department. We are presenting a new ESSE service

178delivery model which focuses on implementing the cluster school model. Our ultimate goal with this transformation is to enhance student outcomes, better support our staff, and maximize our district resources. Looking at our student outcomes, the data reveals a concerning achievement gap when we are com when we compare students in Lee County with students with disabilities to the state average. Additionally, the nationwide teacher and speech therapist shortage is actually is acutely impacting our ability to meet the demands for ESC teachers and therapists compounding these academic challenges and fiscal responsibility. Our current resource distribution is financially unsustainable as our current spending significantly exceeds our budget limits. In order to protect the integrity of our instructional programs, we must align our spending more closely with student outcomes. To address these challenges, we are implementing a shift from diluted resources

179to centers of excellence. Currently, our resources are spread too thin across multiple campuses, resulting in itinerant staff losing valuable instruction time to travel and specialized equipment going underutilized. The solution is the cluster school model, which concentrates specific programs to ensure that specialized resources, equipment, and expert staff are pushed directly to students who need them. These clusters will focus on functional and life skills, social communication and behavior support. We based our models on three strategic pillars. Starting off, we're focusing on the benefits for students because that's why we're here. Clustering our programs will allow our students to access wraparound services by our specialists and therapists truly enhancing our multidisciplinary teams at the schools. We are also able to invest in specialized equipment which includes self-regulation spaces spaces and incorporating daily life skills into classrooms. Additionally, it

180will provide us an opportunity to create meaningful cohorts for our 18 to 22 year old students who need age appropriate peer groups. Next, we focus on teacher retention and staff support. Clustering our programs will foster professional collaboration for teachers to share resources and support one another. It provides full-time behavior support for our behavior clusters. It also allows for clearer definitions of our service delivery models which will not only assist our teachers but our families as well. Lastly, we will focus on itinerant efficiency and resources. Instead of our itinerant staff worrying about Lee County traffic and road detours, they can focus on providing the services that our students stu that our students need during their school day. That means our speech language pathologists, our occupational therapists and physical therapists, and our behavior specialists can be face-toface

181with our students, not on the road with our sightseers. Additionally, the return on investment with our adaptive and sensory equipment can be increased due to the fact that it will be available to 20 to 30 students or even more instead of the 5 to 10 we currently accommodate with the number of classroom and sites we service. So, if we take a closer look at the three specialized clusters that we're creating, one would be a daily living skills type of cluster that's going to focus on our students who require intensive support for their functional and life skills. these are our students who are on alternate assessment and who are in access points classes. they need access to water, kitchenetses, facilities like that where we can truly teach hands-on daily living skills. So, by clustering those types

182of students together at specific locations, we'll be able to have access to those facilities and really maximize what we have. the next cluster is our social communications cluster. this cluster provides comprehensive support for students with autism, students with some developmental delays. They all kind of fall into this social communication group. This will allow us to serve both students who have social communication needs who are on access points and in general education by both push-in and pull out models, but really concentrating the resources that those students need at specific cluster sites. And then we would have a behavioral support cluster. Those students would receive specialized behavior intervention. We'll have the assignment of full-time behavior specialists in place to really provide consistent interventions and supports at those locations. Additionally, we're going to create transition work study hubs

183at the high school level. these are really going to be specialized programs for our students ages 18 to 22. These are students who have met graduation requirements and then deferred receipt of their standard diploma because their IEP team has determined that they continue to benefit from further pre-employment skills training, social skills training, independent functioning training. so we plan to create these these strategically placed hubs, one in each of our four regions where those students can learn really with their same aged peers instead of still being combined into programs with our 9th through 12th grade students who are still working on their graduation requirements. So just using West Elementary as a proof of concept model, you can see that over the next two-year period from now until 2728, if you just look at West Elementary, currently

184we have a total of 56 ESse self-contained classrooms and in 2728 that would be consolidated down to 38 self-contained classrooms. So you can see the breakdown of those that life skills, functional skills is kind of what we're referring to as those cognitive units would go from 11 to six. Our social communication units would go from 42 to 28. And our behavior clusters or behavior units would be clustered from five down to three. so that is the concept we have you developed for districtwide through all the regions to look at more efficiently serving our students. So I just want to add to this slide. It's not that we are not providing services, it's that we're providing the services more efficiently. So rather than having the program scattered throughout the regions, we're able to make sure students

185are placed in the appropriate setting and so that we don't have classes of two students and three students and we have a full class rolling this out will be a delivered two two-year process. stage one or phase one, excuse me, has already been completed. This is where we reviewed all the IEPs and separated them into categories to ensure that their needs were going to get met. step part two was looking at staff inventories, faculty audits. We were looking at the resources of each one of the buildings to properly place each one of the programs. right now we're on phase three, which is the communication phase. after this briefing is when we'll start communicating with with families and ensuring that they know their their steps that they can take as we roll this out. And then

186phase four was be working with the schools in order to get their master schedules put together to make sure all the needs get met at the school level. We do recognize that this is a very significant transition and we're committed to being transparent in our communication with parents and schools and families. but what we're looking at really doing is really taking these these resources and putting them together to really do what's best for students and that's where our focus is. as you can see in this illustration, what we would be doing is an example, we would be closing, isolated units at Pelican and Littleton and consoling them consolidating them into a robust program at Hector, Caparetta, and Patriot so we can really hone in on on those best practices at those individual sites. In summary,

187this transformation creates a unified vision for success. Students will get the right support in the right environment. Teachers will gain a community of peers and role clarity and the district will maximize its resources and efficiency. Our immediate next steps are to begin phase two and phase three which would be the communication. We look forward to your comments and questions. Just really a big thank you to the team and I know board members I know this is you know very important to you all as well. I just thought I'd mention to you though that when I was an I was a my fifth year of teaching for the first time brand new ESC teacher and I had the privilege of teaching at a cluster type of site that ex uses the exact model that's being portrayed

188to you and even though I wasn't a brand new teacher I was a fifth year teacher it was my first year teaching completely self-contained students with disabilities I had never done that before and they were all there for behavioral disabilities and I worked in a site like this and I got to tell you it was an incredible envir environment as for my students, for me as a te as a brand new teacher because you had a much more robust support system by consolidating resources in fewer schools. And it was in Gainesville where I taught this, but it was incredible. I got to learn from incredible masters who folks who'd been doing it their entire career. Whereas in our current model, the way it's distributed across all of our sites, there may be only two self-contained

189classrooms and one of them might even be a vacant classroom. So, what happens when your pair of professional is sick that day? What happens when you're not going to be there? What happens if your colleague isn't there? There's no support system. It's just it's kind of figure it out. When you're in a robust site like this, it's just it's good for students. It's good for for teachers. And it is a much more efficient model for doing business. And I think the only reason we probably didn't do it is because of the choice system, the way it's currently set up. We wanted to make sure all the schools had different programs. And so the intention was very good. But the application of it, particularly when you have vacancies, your highest area vacancy, this is just a

190very strategic, very thoughtful, but I wanted to tell you as a person who was one of those teachers, it was the best thing that could have ever happened to me professionally and for my students. So, I just wanted to credit them, the work, and then we stand ready for your questions. Okay, board members, questions. Debbie, thank you. I really think that this is a great tool for our families. I really love this. However, I see West Zone Elementary, but what happens to the other zones? Where are they at? I did I miss it? We just put one example in. I can give you the sheet of So, there are because I think everybody will be looking at this and going there's only one in West Zone. We forgot. I just want to make sure that's

191out there. Yeah. Each region has their set of clusters. Okay. Yes. in in every zone. And then so that's for elementary and middle. Elementary, middle, and high school. Okay, perfect. Because that wasn't middle wasn't on here either. So, thank you for saying that. And then transportation for those children in those zones will be provided for them. Correct. Correct. Okay. I just want to make sure of that. And then and in speaking with Jared Edy, he's Jared Edy, the other Jarrett McKini, he is he's excited about this plan because he thinks it will be more efficient for his drivers as well. And rather than picking up, you know, three different buses on one street, it will it will be more efficient. Okay. So then in saying that with the students that you're picking up, are you

192picking them up at their door or are you picking them up at a stop or is that something that you It will depend on what their IEP says. Okay. Thank you. and then my last question is I don't I don't know if you're going to incorporate that here, but the three to five I think it's called the foundation. Yes. I can't remember what it's called now. It's foundations at at baby success. Correct. What are we because there's like two children in there. So, what are we doing with with them? Are we going to incorporate those children into this program? Because I heard Dr. Savage when he said, "I'm a teacher. I was a teacher and I was put in there." He did not understand how that all worked. And that is what we're doing right

193now. We have teachers in there who are teachers and have never been a part of the behavior. And I witnessed it the other day. So, it's like I'll be happy just to share on that. So, so there this specific strategy related to the clustering isn't isn't really related to the obviously from an alternative standpoint where one of the things that we do with success academy others it's designed to try to support when from a more of a conduct related issue whereas this is more global strategy related to all of our ESC global programs related to that aspect of it the specific things that happen at our special centers or alternative programming for students who essentially qualify into those pieces based on failures within in you know student code of conduct and the inability of the

194district to support in other ways or different term placements. I would say just I want to be very clear for all of our board members. So just from a questioning standpoint that's maybe a very specific question. We'll be happy to kind of address any it's obviously early program just went into effect this year. happy to talk about any specific challenges with that program and the its effectiveness at this point. But I just didn't want to conflate that particular one with this more global piece of it. But I appreciate the question. We'll certainly be able to to get some information together on that and bring more comprehensive information on that program so far. No. And I appreciate that. I just because there was the one part in here which spoke about behavior. So that's why I

195brought that up. So thank you. Thank you. Yes. Okay. Lisa, you got some? Yeah, I got lots of questions. Mine are Yeah. Okay. Thank you for some of the information because it helped shed some light because but I am curious like middle school what what middle school is going to be that cluster school. so I would like the list and when are you ro like telling staff and when are you telling parents? We wanted to make sure that you were briefed before we told parent parents and staff. so principles will be working with their staff over the next few weeks and parents the school where the student currently is. The principles will be making phone calls starting tomorrow to those families very specifically. We have a list of those students and they will make the

196phone calls letting them know where their new new school will be. We will also send a follow-up letter to families and we have those ready to go as well. So what do we do if a parent says they don't want to their child doing that they don't want them to be because like for for instance I was looking for just for the high school Bonita Springs High is very far from Fort Meyers and I know that there's ESE classes in Fort Myers. So I I start thinking what happens to those students? What happens to those to that staff? You know I so I'm not an educator so I'll say that first. That disclaimer is out there first. So, I I mean, I'm asking the experts, but mine is just logistics. Like, you answered the transportation

197piece. I still think that could be a little questionable, but I' I've have confidence in our transportation staff to work through those, but like I'm just going to start rattling off my questions because I mine are all logistics. So, like what about Spal and Top contracts? How would this affect the contracts? You know, were they included in the conversations? you know was the principles included and engaged in this the collaboration of this planning and this decision changing because they are all y'all are the experts so I'm want to make sure that was done because I'm wor I'm worried about the transition who then obviously ESC budgets are larger than regular budgets so how does this affect the budget in that school does it affect them to the school's budget separately or is this the district's

198budget it like I've got lots of questions so I'm just going to keep rattling them off. do you do you expect her to answer them or what? No. Well, she might have to come back with me so or they may have to come back with me. So that's why I'm just going to keep going. because a million things went through my head. reg I'm concerned over retention. What happens now? You don't have an ESC department at Fort Meyers or classrooms at Fort Myers High School. Now, those teachers are they if to have a job, do they have to go to Bonita? And if not, like what are their are they going to have other opportunities? And I just going to leave it at that because that's not my part, but I'm just concerned for them

199all involved. back regarding the budget, I the budget is a big concern because I know that ESC department's budgets have to be larger than just an average regular school budget that doesn't have ESSE classrooms. So cuz there has to be accommodations made for safety at Y safety for the staff, safety for the children. these rooms are designed for specific, you know, and if some like if for say for example for Bonita Springs doesn't have rooms that have already been remodeled for ESSE, what happens like when's that going that process going to change and accommodations are going to be made for that remodel? Because that's more expense. I'm just thinking about moneywise. what this is something back to the district and like I said I get answers later but like are these teachers that are going

200to have to go to Bonita are they is that going to be opportunity for them to have that the bonus money that's in place that we've had for our other schools because I mean they're you're asking them to really go to a higher need school a higher need classroom. So what happens there? you know and are these schools going to get additional staff you know especially behavioral specialists extraaras in the classroom. I'm really concerned over that. You know again I've got like building modifications like what is that going to cost? you answered one of my questions about the parents. I'm concerned over the retention and in class, you know, if this is not I mean, you have teachers that maybe, like I said, at Fort Myers High now, they're going to have to travel to

201Bonita. They might say, "I might I might want to go to Gartner now. I don't need to do this. This is getting too complicated." You know, a fear of the unknown. Dr. Dr. Savage says it's more support, but when they someone doesn't know that, they don't know that it's it's more support and they're going to be concerned over the over that like are they really going to have that support? I think that's going to be the biggest question. Are the supports going to be there in the classroom and to make their life easier, not harder? And are they going to have to or are they going to have to work harder? I just and I want to go I want also want to say ESSE has always been evol since I've been here since 2016.

202It's has changed so many times and it's always been evolving to not quite make the grade. So, I'm not trying to be the Debbie Downer if it's Debbie, but I want to make sure that we're addressing like we're making sure that our staff and students are safe and this is the best case scenario. Like, I want to know if Gainesville is an A school district because they do this clustering. and any other school districts that do the clustering, I want to know their grades and outcome because I think that it's it's important to know the if this is successful or not to make this change because this is a drastic change. People don't realize that, but it's pretty drastic. I'm just about the I'm worried about the roll out for it to be next year

203and it and then our with without un intentional consequences because we know that happens regardless it was unplanned consequences that we can't help you know are we going to I was hoping and I'm sorry for all the questions but are we I would like to seen this piloted a little bit you know maybe first maybe And I don't know, I'm not the educator. I don't know. Elementary versus high school. Maybe high school is better, but I don't know. but I just I was glad to hear that you have, you know, that experience, Dr. Savage, because like I just worry about, you know, I want to make sure the schools are have the extra staffing and the retention because I fear that you're going to have teachers that are going to say put on the brakes

204and say, "I this is it. I'm not good. I am not going to Bonita Springs to work when I live in Cape Coral or vice versa. and I think I Kayla, can I think I asked I'm going to call you in a second, Vanessa, but I just want to respond to these questions. Back in 1996, I had the opportunity to host Henry Kissinger at an event and every attorney in Philadelphia showed up and they had questions like that and he took two steps back from the podium and said, "These are very difficult questions. I'm very impressed with your questions, but perhaps had you give me these questions before my presentation, I would have been prepared to answer them." So maybe we need to go upstream and we know we're going to have this presentation. They're

205impressive. Trust me. Guess how many of those I thought of? Zero. You did a great job. You I learned something. But I would rather see the process given to the presenter before we present than get into the weeds here because now we got to go back to the transcript and we got to go reading each one of these questions because there's a ton of them. So, I actually I'm confident in staff they understand where I'm coming from. and because I think most of them have been educators for a very long time. So, I'm not I'm not worried about that as much. I just I just want to see success and I'm and the logistics of that and the cost of that's a it affects budget and that's my that is in my lane. So I

206will always expect accountability for that and one and none of that was talked about. So no offense to the presentation but there was you know nothing talked about that and that's can be expensive. Okay, good comments Vanessa. Thank you. I can answer one question. TAC is aware of it. Thank you. You're welcome. Thank you, Mr. Dodic. So, real quick, because I know we talked about this briefly in our one-on-one, and a lot of these questions and they were asked and addressed, but more specifically on slide six when we were talking about time and location. These zones, my understanding, have a group of teachers that travel to each school based on the zone. So, they're already traveling to these schools with these students. So the travel is already happening. Now we're just asking them not to

207travel as much. The other component in terms of the schools, these schools that were selected, and I know we had this conversation again during our one-on-one, are already equipped, which is why these schools were selected. Correct. So that piece. And then in terms of the dollars, the dollars follow the children with those accommodations. So the budget is reflected with those students that are assigned to those schools. because I know that was another question in terms of fiscal responsibility are we saving the money? Are we doing right by our teachers because they're transferring? And then what additional cost is that going to be to our current facilities? And that was all addressed during our oneonone. So, I appreciate it. So, I just wanted to maybe clarify that because I know I had those questions when we

208had our one-on-one when this was addressed. and that's all. Thank you so much. Thank you. Okay. Any other questions or comments? All right. No. Go ahead. This was not brought up in my 101, so I need to talk about that because this was very new to me. I would imagine if there were high level I mean all of your one-on-one agendas are all identical. The only exception to that being if there's a specific board member question that a single board member raises then that item is dressed one off with the board member and then shared on the board weekly. So the agendas are the same. sometimes the questions board members ask are different or maybe they ask more penetrating questions at that moment in time because the staff is there. So when we've been meeting

209just in general for everyone, we'll typically book the conference room, we'll bring in the superintendent, we'll bring in the board member and we'll bring in all the related staff for each of their areas. Then when they present their particular area, the board member has an opportunity to ask them questions. In some cases, we actually have even done one-on-one private briefings with board members so they can get a little bit more in-depth with just the staff and we do those occasionally. you know, I'd have to go back and check to see which of these were which things on that because I seem to recall you all coming to one of them or at least addressing it or at least some of it. Maybe it was Miss was Miss Gould. sadly folks, my it runs together in

210my mind. But that said that the sent just to kind of kind of go back and address I thank member Javiana for kind of highlighting that some of your questions were answered for Miss Janelli what I would take from that is the overall sentiment from all the questions because there probably about 20 there but I would say most of them are they're just details wanting to ensure that all the details in the logistics have been thought through and I take that sentiment in a positive light and say that's an opportunity just to ensure because what you're really saying to me I take is you want to be successful you want to be well communicated and well thought through every aspect of it. And I can assure you that's really our job, the team to do

211exactly that, to think through the details, communicate them effectively, and then implement them. So that's what the team has been working on, and they've been working long before they got to this presentation to try to think through a lot of those things you mentioned. So it'll be more than happy for us to share those with you at the proper time. and we'll make sure that you have answers to all those things and more because again most everything that I heard you say I think they have actually had they have answers to all those things as part of their planning process and their communication process. so really appreciate you doing it and I appreciate just the trust to to say, "Hey, I'm going to share this concern, but I'm I'm giving you all that benefit of

212the doubt." So, thank you for that as well. Right. And I mean the a PowerPoint was just in the workshop. So that's when I saw this and that's when I raised my questions for the first time you know once I in the PowerPoint. So that wasn't presented before. So I just wanted to you know save that because I would have had a lot of questions at the time. I can assure you. Thank you. We'll work on that for you. Is that it? Moving right along. Okay, we have no public comment. Is that correct? That's correct, sir. Mr. Dota, so we can dispense from reading the rules. Okay, any comments for good of the order? Okay, moving right along. That takes us up to board member comments. Mr. Fischer. Thank you, chair. there was a FSB

213board of directors that I attended virtually last week. I sent you all a recap of what happened there from them. there's some changes to the strategic plan as well as some nomination processes, procedures. So if anyone has any questions, feel please feel free to reach out. going to other committees, drug free coalition. There is a very interesting video explaining drug house odyssey that was produced. I'm happy to share that if anyone wishes to look at that. That's all I have for this time. I'll leave the rest for tonight. Thank you, Mr. Jelly, I'll be short and brief. I just I know cuz we've all been was Read Across America. I think I probably had the funnest time this past week. especially for some of the books that I read, they already knew the answer. So,

214they were pretty much like guessing before I knew cuz I it was a new book that I thought it was new, but it wasn't. Apparently, they knew the answer. So, it was kind of cute. that was kindergarten. so I just like I had a great time with that. Couple things I want to bring up to the superintendent. I had a call and I know that they were they were going to reach out to other board members, but I we have and this to bring it to the safety attention. We have crossuards that are directing traffic and I that's not their job. They're not even directing traffic to allow students to pass and cross. they're going out in the middle of McGregor to be honest and having them go left when and so I and the

215other concern was that when they tried to contact the superintendent's office, the constituent the whoever answers the phone was not polite and disconnected them. And so this person is very this constituent in our community is also a government employee as well. though they're well aware of how things should be and the they she felt she was getting the runaround. So, she's supposed to be sending an email. Like I said, I know she was reaching out to others, but this is not the first time that the cross crossing guard has been caught allowing traffic to make lefthand turns and you know, helping traffic out when it's not their job. Thank you for raising it to attention. Yeah, because I think it's a safety issue because now they're they're doing another job and not really where do

216they where are the kids at on this? Crossing guards are not permitted to direct traffic. That's not the We'll We'll certainly follow up and we'll make sure on both of those items. Okay. And I think that is it. I do have another another one I'll offline I will talk to you about. But anyways, that's all I have. It was a great week. Thank you. Hey, Jordan. Okay. Well, I was going to pull an item for this evening, but instead I'm just going to read this brief my little brief thing here. Just saying. Okay. And this is regarding consent M4. The board's fiduciary duty is evaluating candidates for the deputy chief of school of operations and others extends beyond confirming minimum qualifications to ensure appropriate alignment between the person, the position and the process given the

217substantial financial logistics and systemwide operation responsibility of the role. While certain candidates meet the baseline eligibility criteria outlined in the HR rubric, the board was also considered demonstrated performance and outcomes, particular where documented school level budget challenges raised reasonable questions regarding readiness for oversight of a multi-million dollar budget and district-wide operation controls. Consistent with its duties of care and stewardship of public resources, the board must prioritize candidates whose record of financial fiscal discipline and operational leadership aligns with the scale, complexity, and the risk profile of the position. And even though I know that by our statute we must approve what comes before us unless there is something outrageous. I just want to make sure that I have my concerns and I just wanted to put that out there and I thank you very much. Okay.

218Thank you. Thank you. Yes. I also had such an amazing time at all of the schools for read across America. Literacy week is always fun. I come from that elementary school world and there's a theme every day and it's it's just exciting to see children be excited about reading because I have a high schooler and a collegeaged child that doesn't love to read anymore. So, I just, you know, it's I just to to share that joy of reading is amazing. I do want to give a safe a shack update really quick to the board. we had the most amazing man come and we are many of us are getting ready to go to the JOTC ball to celebrate our JOTC students and the bullet points he went over and the success stories of these students

219who he has been able to he's too humble to say he's inspired but I'm telling you, this man has inspired many people. and we're going to probably see him this week. but the character education that is being taught at JOTC, and by the way, we are still number one in the nation for our JOTC members. teaching the kids to be involved in their community, whatever capacity that looks like, was so inspiring. he even shared a story of a young man who was homeless at 18, had been you know asked to not live with his home anymore and is now gosh I want to say a sergeant in the army and it was just it was just incredibly inspiring to hear these stories. So you know I definitely want to spread the word there. Over $10

220million in scholarships are given to our J JOTC students. 17% of our JOTC students enter the military and that's that might flu I'm sure that fluctuates here or there. many of the combined amount of volunteer service with the JRTC in Lee County is 40,000 hours. and let's see, 24% of our students in Lee County are in the JOTC. So, that is growing. so I was just I was very touched by how our, you know, we have them come and introduce them to do our pledge and we'll have some tonight. But th those leaders and teachers and mentors are just they're really are touching lives that we probably we have no idea how many lives are touching but it's in certainly inspiring. then we also had a presentation from Alanon which is a really great resource

221for our students who's has a family member dealing with alcoholism or drug abuse in their home. And I know that some that on our website we can there's a there's somewhere on our website to reach out for help and students can also go to their school guidance counselor and they have all that information obviously absolutely anonymous for them to be able to reach out for help. There is a hybrid option for students to be able to attend a class if they can't get a ride hybrid. and also I know that someone will come to the school. So, one in four kids are affected by a family member that has an alcohol problem. and that was just a stat shared during the meeting. So, I just wanted to share all that information. And Heather does such

222a great job at leaving on such a positive note and I just she doesn't get enough accolades and I just you know I leave there smiling and then she makes us all drink a bunch of water that whole day and it's it's a it's a very it's a it's just a great group of people. So I really appreciate them. the drug house Odyssey I heard was an incredible success and they're looking to grow that program. I know they changed it a little bit this year and they had a lot of positive feedback about how they ran it and I'll say the rest of my comments for tonight. Thank you. So I also participated in Read Across America, but what I got to do most is I got to chaperone the fifth grade my daughter's fifth

223grade class to their field trip which was interesting in all itself because of all the parents and teachers involved. And I just again I I know I stress this, but like thank you to all of our teachers for everything you do above and beyond the classroom. because I mean I don't even know if I can stress like what it is that they do, but those teachers that are shoping and they're out there and they're having fun and they're they're doing their things with their kids. I mean, they love what they do and these kids love them and just it's just so great to see and and kind of be out there out of the school element and in a theme park and kind of just chasing children all around. it's a good time. So, just

224thank you to to our teachers and our staff that just make the school year an incredible experience for them. I greatly appreciate it. That's it. Okay. I just have a couple quick comments. I also was involved in the read across America and I recruited another person to come along which happened to be my wife who taught for 30 years. So it was nice to see on a sad note there was a student not every student comes to school without having conflict in the in the family and there was a young lady in the third grade that had been arguing with her mother and she was in full tears getting out of the car and I was totally impressed the way my wife grabbed you were there for that Debbie. my wife grabbed the child and

225escorted her to her room and she was gone for about 20 minutes, but she addressed the situation and I learned a couple things from it. But anyway, overall it was a great activity and we enjoyed what we did. On a sad note, I have some bad news about our cost of insurance. We're $20 million in the rears and we really are concerned about this. We need to take a look at this. We do have a couple new initiatives that we've talked about implementing last year and now they're actually going to put these out for bid. One of them is called stop loss insurance which means any claim that's over a4 million dollars we're going to pass on to another insurance company. There's going to be a premium but AON's going to do a study for

226us to looking at last year. What in fact if we would have had this insurance last year, how many millions of dollars would we have saved on these high cost claims? The other thing Etna is going to finally do, which we've been bugging them for about eight months, is to put case management people, our case nurses on each and every one of our claims or patients that are over a quarter of a million dollars. So, not a better way of making sure that I know we basically deal with Lee Health, but let's make sure that we have the right doctors, the right diagnosis. I'm hearing stories we all had hearing it over the weekend. We had some friends that recently went into the hospital and they go in on a weekend and they're not looked

227at by a doctor until Monday. That's just not a good deal for our patients. We're paying for that service and they're not getting medical detention and it's getting delayed in some cases up to a week. So, these case managers are really take a dive into these patients to make sure that our employees are receiving the attention that they professionally deserve to have. And then last but not least, I know Jada brought this up earlier about communications and I think our communication department is doing just an outstanding job in communicate communicating with the public. I hear a lot of comments in my community from a lot of folks that I deal especially through the chamber business people that are impressed with some of the things that we're doing. We can't get that word out unless we

228have the printed material. I know in some cases we have these materials going to a dentist office, a doctor's office and on and on so that folks can scan the QR code and come up with a document on their phone and have resources where they can go and reach out to folks. but on a side note to that in some cases some of us here on the deis are getting a little out of our lane in some of our communicating things. And I hope we take a step back before we say something publicly or communicate something. Let's make sure that it's the right message. Let's make sure that it's been approved by our communications people so we all are saying the same thing professionally and with credibility. So if the shoe fits, wear it. If

229it doesn't, throw it out the window. That's how that works. Okay, moving right along. Mr. Dodic, you have comments. Yeah, a couple just quick positive comments. I want to applaud the staff just we're like in mid-season form with presentations. I have sat through done them myself. I mean, they're they're awesome. I mean, frankly, and I just want to tell you all I impressed. I mean, we struggled for a long time with presentations, so they're in mid-season form. The second thing, I'd be remiss. My wife's a teacher. Next week's spring break. So, I wish all of the teachers and school staff good spring break. That's all. I just wanted to piggyback off of what member Langford Fleming had said just because she had said it was on our website and she's absolutely right. if parents go

230through the parent portal, they'll find the mental health and wellness portal. It has not only does it have ALNOT, it has alcoholics anonymous, cocaine anonymous, narcotics anonymous and many other resources and then additionally the prevention services on the website also has some additional things well beyond that as well. So just a lot of resources for any families that heard the message today and wanted to know more, want to connect more, wanted to have that as well. And that's all I have. Okay, just in closing future meetings tonight. Tonight we have a student performance at 5:45 p.m. followed by the school board action meeting at 6 o'clock. At this point, having no other business to come before this body and seeing no objection, the meeting is now adjourned and the time is 4:09 p.m. Thank you.