School Board Workshop: September 9, 2025

001Good afternoon everyone. It's Tuesday, September 9th, 2025. This is a schoolboard workshop and the time is 100 p.m. Sergeant-at-Arms, has the lobby been attended to? Yes. Thank you. There are 11 items on the agenda. One, RSM statement of work. Board members questions followed by board auditor discussion, our safety update, construction change order report, construction projects by monthly update. 2526 student progression plan policy review briefing first reading phase 2 compensation district strategic priorities capital plan aligned with student growth. Public comment and go to the order or other business. Per board protocol, each board member should strive for four minutes for initial comment, two for followup with a total of 10 minutes during today's discussions. We are going to begin this afternoon with RSM statement of work. presenting to us this afternoon is Matthew Blondell, the director

002and manager, Jack Hughes. Thank you both for being here. Good afternoon. Thank you for having us. you'll notice I got Jack here with me today. He's a new face for you all. Weiss and his wife. welcomed a brand new baby boy last week. So, he's off enjoying his time with his new with his growing family. So, we got Jack here today. But, on your agenda for this evening, you have our statement of work, which was developed after our last meeting with you all back on August 5th. We talked through the potential audit plan, how we developed that in conjunction with the audit committee, and then you all basically approved for us to go ahead and create the statement of work based on that. And so, that was attached to your agenda for this evening. And

003so we're here to just answer any questions that you may have regarding that statement of work before the meeting this evening. Thank you. Board members, do you have any questions or comments at this time? None. Okay. I know that u Mr. Persons and Miss Jordan are not online right now. So we're going to continue on. Jack, I'm sorry it wasn't more exciting. The meeting, thank you for being here. Thank you. Next, we're going to move on to the discussion of the board auditor led by our board chair, Samuel Fiser. Thank you, Madam Chair. And this is going to just be a quick update and kind of where we're at with the board auditor at and Dr. Johnson and M. River joining us over there in that dis. So I appreciate that and I think they'll

004kind of give a quick overview but where we're at. We were last we had kind of had a kind of full discussion on this. We were trying to find additional applicants at that time. part of it was human resources which I had agreed with and we agreed was to kind of make sure that we have a bigger applicant pool so we're not just interviewing three people. we've obviously had some updates to that. So is it all right if I turn it over to you Dr. Johnson and Miss Rivera, trying to give where we're where we're at and what you're looking in order to expand upon the search. Sure. Do you want to go ahead? Sure. Hi, good afternoon. So, we have expanded the search per your request and what we did differently this time is

005we reached out to the city of Cape Coral because they've had a lot of experience with the recruitment and hiring of auditors. So, we have advertised it on some new avenues there. and we are currently accepting applications and we do have a few more applicants than we've had last time, brand new applicants. so we are generating a different pool this time around and it's currently still advertised. Could you also explain the other advertisement locations that you're trying to attract this auditor at? Yep. Sure. So, we actually expanded to the Association of Local Government Auditors. That's where we were. We had not previously advertised before, but that was somewhere that the city of Cape Coral highly encouraged us to go through. we've also done some paid advertisements, just boosted up our advertisements through our traditional media,

006which is like LinkedIn or Indeed. So, that seems to be helping in our search as far as we're recruiting a different we're seeing different names come through this time. and I will turn it I appreciate that. as I said, at this point, we have we do not have three applicants. I believe we're at one at the moment, if I recall. So, so this is the genesis behind this, making sure, and I appreciate, Dr. Johnson, Mr. Rivera going through and trying to find some additional outlets, especially utilizing the city of Cape Coral and going into the trade the fields themselves. I think that's very important. So, and as we kind of talked about, you know, we just need to make sure obviously that we have an applicant pool and that, you know, we all want one.

007It seems at least from the board has told us last time, but make sure we take the time to find the right person. So, if I can turn it back over to Madam Chair, if anyone obviously has any questions or follow-ups or concerns. Board members, any questions, follow-ups? Mr. Ribble? Yeah. What's the timeline on something like this? When are we going to close the applicant pool? I think a lot of it and I can confer obvious to human resource. I think it's going to depend on you know how many applicants we get. I mean it's obviously been a bit of an issue with that. So how long do we have the current advertisements up for? Sure. So the current advertisements are for 30 days and so we started it on August 13th. So we always

008have we do have the opportunity to extend those ads because we are coming up to that 30-day mark. so if we don't see the right candidates, if we want to expand it, we can certainly do that and advertise. The recommendation would be for another 30 days and what I can do as liaison on this I will continue and I've kept in in contact with HR Mr. very really appreciate all your hard work and all the questions able to answer is I will continue to provide updates to the board and when stuff comes in nothing okay okay so at this point as I said I will just continue as leaison for this position continue provide updates and work with HR and if there's anything you know please I would encourage obviously to to reach out to

009human resources so thank you both I appreciate all your help thank you both. Thank you, Chair Fischer. we now have our safety update. Dave Nulan will be presenting to us this afternoon. Good afternoon board superintendent Dr. Denise Carlin and our board of attorney Kathy Depri Bruno. here today to talk about training overall, but a lot of it's going to be concentration on transportation training. I also have with me is executive director of transportation Jerry McKenna, who's also going to talk about the training we did this summer and current training and future training as well, including transportation. So, one of the things we looked at, we have a lot of things we've done differently this year. We have new training for the first time. We have things we've thought that we do ongoing training and then

010things we want to do moving forward. So, one of the things we did this summer was we looked at active shooter training for our bus drivers and bus driver attendance deescalation techniques and going through different scenarios. So, I'm going to show you a video of some of the things they went through this summer. Here we go. Any volume? See? Oops. Let me adjust the volume real quick. Here we go. I think I have it. Let's try. Wait, hold on. You know what? Sorry, something got changed around. Go ahead. Well, unfortunately here maybe here a little bit, but this gives you an idea of the terrain they did over the summertime. They're going to work on it. But basically, gave it the drivers an opportunity to really look at what could happen actually on the bus

011with an active shooter type of training. Oh, we're going to try it again. Hold on one second. Let's see. All right, now we're good. Thank you. We talk about a lot of times we look at hardening hardening schools safety for our school sites which is obviously very important but the one thing today we're looking at too is if we have somebody that boards a bus forcibly or you have a shooter on the bus. What we're here today for the next few days is training bus drivers bus attendants of awareness what to look for and how to handle situation on a bus if you have an active shooter. Part of what they go over is deescalation techniques. Part of it is knowing what to look for, how to deal with situation like that's safe but also

012takes care of the situation. So just give you an idea a little bit the drivers that was the first time going through active steward type of training deescalation techniques. I know I'm let Jared kind of talk a little bit about what the experience was, the feedback from the drivers, but we all know that one of the vulnerabilities we look at for our schools is our buses. When buses leave campus with students, what are we doing to train them, protect them when they leave campus and our drivers absolutely love the training. A lot of them were very excited to actually try something new. not that we would ever want any of these kind of situations to happen, but to actually have know and have an idea of how to respond in that event. And they are

013very excited and thankful for it. There's a couple other things. so you'll see there a little bit just talks about defensive out driving, how to maneuver driving if you have something on your bus. So that they actually did this at one of the tarmacs or parking lot locations at at FDLE. They let us use their their parking lot for training. the other thing this our first time actually doing a full scale exercise this summer as well was our a lot of you were there was a reunification day train we had at least civic center. we had we have our policy the manual that we look at for the to follow but the big thing now was putting that into into place and seeing how that would work. We had all the school administration there. We

014had all our law enforcement partners there giving us an idea really what we need to work on, how we can improve moving forward. It was a great a good event to learn. We've gotten a lot of good feedback. So, obviously moving forward, this allows us to improve our training moving forward, do things different, u make some changes to our current plan, but we learned a lot from that day. Things we may need and things we need to change moving forward. We've actually added two or three more locations for reification sites since this training meeting with the chief in Santael and Cape Coral. So, we're expanding our locations that we can use at any time we want to for reunification. And this just show you some of the things that we did in Lee Civic Center.

015Again, it was it was a great great exercise, great time to train learn about the different aspects, the stages, the process when students and staff are getting to a reunification site to when parents or family arrive arrive as well. how do we reunite the student with the child with the parent? So, we went through all those little little factors and conversations about the whatifs, the difficulties you may be challenged with, somebody that may not have a an photo ID, for example, issues you may deal with at a reunification site. So, it was very good training. the other thing I'm going to have Jared talk about too is we did some other things as well this summer for bus driver training that I'll let Jared talk about as well. So this summer we decided to do

016some different training with the employees because sometimes doing the same thing over and over and repetitive it just you know people just come and just it really don't take anything away. So this summer we decided to partner with academics with HR with health services and ESSE to truly give hands-on training to all of our employees to understand that you know there are ways to deescalate behavior. There's different ways to deal with things to create an environment where students feel safe and happy and they want to be there. So just with doing that also giving them a collaboration within the district so they know that there are resources available to them. So it was very very nice. We set it up at South Fort Myers High School. We had five different classrooms and had them rotate

017like on a bail schedule. They absolutely loved it. And not only was it very informative but they also had a lot of time to talk with different departments and get a lot of hands-on training with them. So right now as all things were also the things we're also been doing as well was working with state attorney's office. some things are questions come up for example when things happen on the buses unfortunately when somebody forcibly boards the bus for example what statues are out there that exist that protect the drivers and protect the students. What can we do as an organization to make sure that they're protected moving forward? So we've had those conversations with the state attorney's office. We provide those statutes to our local law enforcement partners and talked about that process moving forward,

018how these things be handled. So, we all have a good idea now. We've all talked to had that conversation about what exists, what violations could happen. most that will happen on a bus, for example. Most of these are felonies that would occur if you force ran a bus. It is a felony charge. So, future training. So, this is again I mentioned before, you know, where do we go from here? We continue to do our ongoing training active shooter. we always move at different locations so we can use actual site as an example. We're going to incorporate that with our reification at different school sites. we're looking to partner with law enforcement on bus training as well if something was to happen. so the drivers and law enforcement have that communication. Each knows what to do.

019They know the expectations of the driver, the attendance. So, we're partnering, we're going to partner moving forward with law enforcement as well. you'll see tactical communications. One of the big things that you can look at as far as is not just your presence, but your verbal communication skills. So, we're going to work on enhancing those with different parts of the organization on hand on how to handle situation if you are confronted by somebody may a suspect on a bus or situation that you can avoid anything physical but using just your verbal command as well. So, we'll stand by for any any comments or questions about our future training or ongoing training. Dr. Carlin. Yes. Well, first of all, just thank you to Mr. Nulan and Mr. McKenna. they have been working extremely hard in the

020world of transportation this fall and just really appreciate all of your work through the summer and through the fall. I also want to tip my hat to both of them as leaders and being very proactive. I there was a number of years ago where I remember there was a very comprehensive training for our bus drivers and I know every single summer they do receive training but I really love what Mr. McKenna said about the partnership with our divisions and making sure that there's a multi-ivisional approach to it. Making sure that our drivers have everything that they need and then establishing relationships across our district so that they kind of know who does what. and we're able to all support our drivers because they deserve that. So just thank you. Hats off to your proactive leadership

021and just very thankful for both of you. So, turn it back to the board, Miss Shaviano. Yeah. So, I just wanted to say thank you to you both. I know I spoke to one of the groups when they were here for one of the training days. and they were excited to actually go and participate, which was great to see. and I was actually happy to see that was happening too because we do think about our schools and what we're doing there, but our transportation is transporting our most important things as well. So to see them and be able to know how to effectively deal with the with the situation, it puts them at ease as well because they are out there transporting our kids. so I'm happy that we're doing that. I'm happy they're able

022to get that training and support and thank you for taking the initiative and doing those extra things so they feel safe and secure doing their job because what they do isn't easy every day transporting all our kids. So, so thank you for that and I appreciate it and look forward to the rest of the trainings that I got to do. Thanks, Miss Giovanelli. Thank you. So, I love hearing the collaborative piece of training. That's awesome because you learn from others. So, I think that's really great and they kind of get in there and and the bus drivers are able to see what they do, how so important it is for their because they're key to getting our children our students to school and then for them to learn. I mean, they're just they're they're the

023key role to to everything for us. So, I appreciate that. I do have a couple questions regarding how's the new safe start initiative working with the the schedule change because I'm I'm really curious about that. I'm excited to see the the information and the data on that. So, can you just elaborate a little bit on that? Thank you. Okay. As of right now, you know, like everything has its challenges, but it's definitely we every week we are seeing an increase in our ontime arrival. we've gone from being I think it was like 70 something% in the morning and 60 in the afternoon to now we're in the 90s and close to the 80s in the afternoons. So, we are definitely on the rise getting there, you know, sorting. So, it's it's it's doing good right

024now. I would say it's definitely doing good. Great. I knew it would be a work in progress. I mean, especially at the beginning of the school year, it always is, but this was a whole new level of everything being new for for our bus drivers. So, hopefully they're hanging in there and, and so is our students and staff and teachers and everything else cuz it's it's a domino effect, you know. So, thank you. All right. Thank you, Miss Giovanelli, for bringing that up. I think it was a change that need to happen, but it's like ripping off a band-aid, you know, and it's a work in progress. thank you so much for all you do. I know that you have a job that wakes you up incredibly early. I do want to know what a

025happy bus is. And I would like to ride the bus. Any bus that I'm driving, right? Yeah. No, a happy bus is just creating a culture and environment where kids feel safe and actually respected and just creating a safe space for students. That what the happy bus is. Teaching the drivers how to maintain their attitude, their tone, and just make sure that the students feel safe with them and on their ride. Okay. Well, I'm going to take your invitation and ride on a happy bus here very soon. So, thank you so much. Mr. Nolan, thank you also for all that you do. I know the collaborative effort with the two two of you are creating an A+ team. So, thank you. Thank you. All right, we are going to move on to our construction change

026order report presented by Tina Silcox and Melissa Rivera. Hi, how are you? Good afternoon board members, superintendent Dr. Carlin and school board attorney Kathy Deway Bruno. Thank you for the opportunity to present the July 2025 monthly change order report and the construction project bimonthly update. As you can see on the front page, we have the summary of each type of of change order that we do in the construction department. The first report is direct material purchase change orders in the amount of 4,473 $73,27641. Of that total, we returned $253,474.35 back to the districts in tax savings. Report number two is nondirect material purchase change orders totaling the amount of $766,745.17. The total amount was returned back to the district as unused funds. Report number three, contingency adjustment change orders totaled 575,898.36. The total rep returned

027to the district for the month of July was 1,20,219.52. If you go to the next two pages, this provides a detailed explanation of each change order. We had four direct material purchase change orders, one each for Cape Coral Technical College expansion, Hector Cafaretta Junior K8 rebuild, Bonita Springs Elementary renovation, and Spring Creek Elementary HVAC renovation. We had seven non direct material purchase change orders. These change orders consisted of two time extensions, four unused funds, and one increase to the contract adding a portable restroom at Hector A. Caffereta Jr. temporary portable campus. And we also had four contingency adjustments for unseen conditions at East Zone Portable Relocation, Cypress Lake High School, ROC Tower, and Riverdale High School. These contingency adjustments were done within the total project cost line item. Any questions on the July 2025 change

028order report? Board members, any questions? You can continue. Okay. Thank you. Thank you. Ready. Moving on to the bimonthly construction project update. First up is Bayhore K8 expansion. The purchase order and notice to proceed has been issued to the construction management company to begin work. We are currently mobilizing. The construction trailer is on site and the temporary fence has been installed. BBB preK8, better known as quad 8. Oh, sorry. Can I just make I just wanted to point out that as the previous board members asked, we did a we did add the funding source to the slide. So you will see the funding sources on there. Quad 8 or BBB preK8 100% drawings were received on September 14th. We are currently in the permit process with the United States Fish and Wildlife Service and the

029Florida Department of Environmental Protection. Bonita Springs Elementary rebuild remodel. We have approximately 5 ft of CMU walls up on building number 20. Building 20 houses the administration, media, and 16 classrooms. Cape Coral Technical College foundations are complete. Casting beds are being constructed for pre-cast panable panel panels to be poured. We are hoping to start standing the pre-cast walls in November. Cypress Lake Middle School rebuild. If you've driven by there, you can see the progress. It's amazing. almost half of the pre-cast panels walls are standing for the three-story classroom building. Steel is flying and underground utilities are being installed. Hector A. Caparetta Jr. K8 rebuild. Buildings three and six have pre-cast panel wall standing with roofing in progress. Building three houses the classrooms and building six is the centralized energy plant. Elementary L and elementary M.

030Madam Chair, I have a question on Hector and this may be for Madame Superintendent and I don't need the answer now. Do we know how far off theou is down the line for the city cape coral? I it's my understanding that's still u in progress. Mr. Anise, would you care to weigh in? Yes, we have a draft that we have presented to them for review. and we are actively pursuing discussing that draft and or getting their concurrence with the draft so that we can get it to you all for approval. We're just you know actively pursuing contact with them and once we have established the contact and gotten the feedback that we need we will get that up to you as soon as possible. Thank you sir. Thank you madam chair. No problem. Sorry, elementary

031L and Elementary M. We both we have 100% drawings on both projects and we are waiting the Army Court's permits high school NN. The substantial completion has been moved to the June to June of 2027 and we are waiting on the Florida Wildlife Services Consultation release which will allow Southwest Florida Water Management to complete the permitting process. Can I just pause right here? Can you just say the address like where this school is going to be located? Which property or parcel? It's on there. It's on the corner of Joel and Tuck. Okay. Thank you. And then if you go back to the L, can you just let the p public know which parcel of land this is? L is L and O are on Highway 82 and what will be the Leico connection. Okay. Thank

032you. you. I just wanted the public to know which site is which. Thank you. So, O is Oh, we're back to NNN. Sorry. high school NN substantial completion has been moved to June of 2027. We are waiting on the Florida Wildlife Services Consultation to release rel to be released which will allow South Florida Water Management to complete the permitting process and we will present the total project cost to you next month October 7th for approval. OO middle school is also next to elementary L on 82 and the lo extension. We have also received the 100% drawings on that project and we are waiting for the army courts permit. Riverdale High School renovation. We have received the substantial completion for phase 2BA. We received that substantial completion on August 29th. They have 30 days to concrete

033to complete the punch list. and that will be September 29th. We are currently gathering closeout documents so that we can begin the audit process. Veterans Park Academy of the Arch HVAC controls are close to being completed. Till middle school renovations are complete and the certificate for the blackbox theater will be received by the end of this week. Any questions? Oh, sorry. And the next sheet is our all of our projects and their schedules. You can look on that and see our substantial completions. the estimated substantial completions. We have a total of 39 on schedule projects. Two behind schedule, two on hold, and four that have drawings ready to be built after we get the permits and five in the audit process. Any questions? Miss Ganelli, the blackbox theater. So when when is that I saw

034when it was supposed to be completed and when are we going to have like usually like a little you know groundbreaking or you know ribbon cutting. Yeah. Do we know? I have that has not been scheduled at this time and I'll reach out and get back to you on that. Okay. Thank you. Mr. Ribble. Yeah. Could you just repeat which two projects are behind behind schedule? Yes. That will be the Trafalgar Elementary and Middle parent pickup traffic improvements. We gave the schools three options to choose from and they have tried those options and selected and now we will complete those drawings and move forward. Thank you. Mhm. Thank you so much. the only thing I don't know, superintendent, I know we have a couple of pieces of property that are just a little they're a

035high they're they're a hot topic, you know, in the community. So maybe my suggestion moving forward is when we have a BBB and OO and NN, perhaps there could be just an address just for the public to be able to point in to just to understand where that actually is located. like for example that I know the former innovation school maybe they could just add the actual location so that the people in that part of the zone kind of know where they're talking about and then we got NN and L and O. Absolutely. Yeah, we'd be happy to do that actually on all of our slides actually. I wrote a note I got right. I would say we would add that for all of ours just so the public is aware where these properties are

036located and so thank you very much for the suggestion. No problem. Thank you. Thank you so much for the work behind this. All right. next up we have the student progression plan. This afternoon we are going to welcome Dr. Nathan Shaker and Lorie Brooks to present Apologize. We just had to catch the title real quick. All right. Good afternoon, superintendent. Good afternoon board. thank you for hearing us today. We are here to share the any changes to the student progression plan as well as the secondary course catalog. We'll give you a brief overview here today. but also included was actually the student progression plan in the course catalog redlinined, a redline version of it to review. no substantial changes this year, but we will make sure you understand a couple of the adjustments that were

037made. The student progression plan, it contains two sections. one is what's actually considered the student progression plan. in this area, we've adjusted it in certain places for legislative updates. as well as aligning it with state requirements. Following the student progression plan, you'll see the secondary course catalog. this gets updated every year to reflect the most recent offerings. every year the state typically comes out with some courses that we would call daggered that need to be removed or the descriptions need to be updated. and you'll see some some changes in the course catalog related to to aligning with the states catalog. secondary course catalog, academic policies and course be aligned. They're aligned to state statutes, state board of education rules, Florida Department of Education updates. So, as those come in every year, we need to update

038our student progression plan to align we need to align it to the state course code directory as well as making sure that our focus scheduling system and all of our schools that are assigning courses are aligned to everything all the way up to those statutes and education rules. one of the main updates that we want to draw your attention to is, third grade retention rules have been adjusted slightly. This did go into effect last year, but the formal FLOE rule came out a little bit after the approval of our, student progression plan. So, this year, we've added it to the student progression plan. And really it reads that a retained third grade student is eligible for mid-year promotion if the student scores a level two or above on PM1 of the grade three fast ELA

039reading assessment. And there is evident the student is evidence the student is progressing sufficiently to master appropriate grade four reading skills. So really this is an opportunity for our students now that they take a PM1. remember at the beginning of the year many of them are engaged in it this week even they take a PM2 usually that happens around December or January depending on the grade level and then they take a PM3 PM standing for progress monitoring and that's the summitive assessment at the end now if we have a retained third grader if they take an assessment at the beginning of third grade and they get a two or higher on that we can move them to fourth grade we don't have to have them redo all of third grade they've shown mastery with that

040level two at PM1. So this is now built into our student progression plan. Yeah, I think he's got Mr. Fischer. Thank you, Madam Chair. Dr. Shaker, so you said on that for midyear. So would it be a So could you essentially under this as soon as they get that PM PM1 result back move up at that point? It wouldn't have to hold till December or January? No. The term mid-year promotion is anything any promotion that does not occur at the end of the year at the start of the year. So midyear really we try to move them as quickly as possible within 10 days of the assessment. Thank you for that clarification. Yeah, Miss Jim Elli. So my question really is more about the data. So we'll be monitoring that. I will be I would

041love an update I don't know in a to see how many students that actually you know impacts. So, is that is that something possible? Absolutely. It will take a few weeks just to get through all of PM1 testing. We have to do the makeups and there, but I will put it into the weekly board update. I can give you an update on on the number of retained third graders that were promoted because of PM1 performance. And then if you don't mind, I'm going to ask you to also tell me the ones the number that did not m meet that meet that criteria. I can definitely share it as a percentage and we can do that by school even Miss Gio Vanelli. There's we got a pretty good data machine these days. Awesome. Thank you. Okay.

042there was one middle school update we wanted to draw your attention to. There's a line that said reading instruction is required for all middle school students in grades 6 through 8. We did remove this from the student progression plan, but we wanted to clarify what it means. previously this was a district level mandate. It was a district-based decision. we're required to provide reading instruction to our level 1 and two students. we have been providing global perspectives as a reading course for our three, four, and five students. Many of our schools are still providing global perspectives right now, but we did want to provide them with some opportunities to expand upon enrichment for our level three, four, and five readers. So, we have some schools that are looking at other opportunities for enrichment. They may put

043global perspectives to the side. they may offer other courses within the ACE catalog. some of them have kind of ventured into offering high school biology as an enrichment opportunity. So we have opened up the ability for our middle schools to offer a variety of enrichment opportunities to our level three through five students. Do you want to do high school? Sure. Thank you. High school updates. This year, as a result of House Bill 1105, there is a new fourth opportunity for students to waiver the hope course, two years of marching band shall satisfy the one credit requirement in PE, otherwise known as hope in this case, or the one credit requirement in performing arts. So now students have this fourth opportunity to waiver hope should they choose to do so. this bill also amended requirements for

044the high school diploma by removing certificates of completion and that starts this school year. There will be guidance forthcoming by January 1st, 2026 from the Department of Education and this is one of those statutory updates where what we do know is they've removed certificates of completion and then we wait for the DOE to provide the actual guidance of what that looks like. It also requires Bright Futures volunteer service hours to change just a little bit. As you may know, there are four scholarship programs in Bright Futures. They require 75 volunteer service hours or 100. We have two other scholarships, the Gold Seal Vocational and the Gold Seal Cape Scholars that required only 35 hours, and they have been updated now starting with students entering grade 9 in the 2425 school year. So, our sophomores this

045year and younger will be required to actually achieve 75 hours of volunteer service hours. So they have leveled up those requirements so that now all four versions of the bright future scholarship reflect the same requirements for volunteer service hours. We had some GED updates this year to the student progression plan and they're actually reflective of as Dr. Shaker said earlier a state board of education rule that did not have an adoption until November of last school year. So, we miss the deadline then to put it into this codified document by the board. It does not mean we did not put it into place. It just means it was not in our document. And we've now updated the GED requirements. basically we have followed them since last year and we just updated the language and it

046reflects the removal of the GED preparation course for a student. if they fail to achieve a passing score on a practice test. Certain weeks of GED prep were mandated and now it is up to the student and parent if they would like to do the GED preparation courses. It's no longer mandated. It's recommended. I'm sorry to interrupt, but really quick going back to the Bright Future Scholarship, Miss Brooks, I know we keep saying volunteer, but can you clarify that it's also volunteer plus work now? because it used to be one or the other. Can you just absolutely clarify that? So, the volunteer service hour thresholds that I just discussed were based on the four different levels of scholarship. However, on any of those four types of bright futures, students could opt to submit 100 paid

047work hours or a combination of volunteer service and paid work hours, which at that time the threshold still is at 100 across the board. So the variation we have is with the volunteer service hours. Thank you. I know that change was made while some of us were on the board and not while some newer members would be on the board. So I just wanted to make sure that our board was aware that it used to be one or the other. Now it's a combination of both. But thank you for clarifying for the public. Absolutely. Okay. This time any comments or board discussion will open. Any comments or questions board members? Miss Shaviano, thank you for, the presentation. I did have a followup on the certificates of completion. I know we're waiting till January. and I

048had a few people that I know reach out in regards to some concern because that goes against what students with disabilities are usually those that are impacted. is the understanding that they're going to be replaced with something else, not necessarily called a certificate of a completion, or do we have any idea of what that looks like for graduation for those students? Yes. So, the language in the bill references post-secondary opportunities such as access to career certificate programs. And this is where we're actually leaning in and looking forward to the guidance because we believe that it may provide our students with additional beneficial pathways than the traditional certificate of completion did. I'd also like to address related to our students with disabilities. The vast majority of our certificates of completion are provided to students that fail

049to achieve one or both must pass assessment scores for the standard diploma. And our students with disabilities because they have access to an assessment waiver frequently earn the standard high school diploma. And I know that was a piece on the media that we've worked really hard to ensure we educate families that assessment waiver actually mitigates this for a lot of our students with disabilities because they are able to achieve the standard diploma. So hopefully that's good news to those families. Yeah, I appreciate the clarification because I saw a lot of the information come out. So look forward to a little bit more information in January and how we plan on approaching that with our students. So, thank you. Thank you. the only thing I would I kind of want to t tip my hat to

050Jennifer Celich. I was able to attend a stero high school last Friday. I spent about an hour at the school. incredibly impressive environment that's being created over there. one of the things that they are working on in their media department and they're I mean I highly recommend anybody go check this media department out. It's it's topnotch. One of the things they're doing as far as course work, which was back on the one of the beginning slides you were talking about courses, they are actually having the students make commercials on courses that are available to students who may not know that these even exist in their high school. And I thought that was a fabulous idea because students listen to their peers almost more than they listen to their, you know, not peers. so I just

051I wanted to tap tip my hat to her because I thought that's a great out ofthe- box thinking idea to advertise what your school is offering. So perhaps it would be one of those you know th those special courses that are whether they're aligned to something that they would take postsecary education you know into college or or or trade. I just thought it was a great idea. So I just wanted to share all the wonderful things that our schools are doing. Thank you so much. Thank you. next we have the policy review briefing first reading. Our presentation will be from Miss Kathy Dupe Bruno and Benny Brophy. We'll just give them a few minutes to move from one side of the room to the other. Good afternoon, board members. You've had an opportunity to review

052the policies. Are there any comments, questions, suggestions? Board members, any comments, questions, or suggestions regarding these policies? Mr. Fischer, can I go to policy 131.1? I'm just bringing it up myself. Technical corrections. Whenever you're ready, madam attorney. Yes, sir. This was a last minute one. My apologies. I know we usually go over this. technical corrections. I know by statute a lot that changed. My only question is because we talk about you know let's say there's a name you know type or anything like that the last part where it just says technical changes and corrections to citations or grammatic grammatical typographical similar errors do not affect the substance of the policy. So you're saying you don't think we again is this niola? Yes. So you don't think we need anything again pointing out like position names

053and changes? I know that originally was in it. I just Yeah. So for a plain reading standpoint so it's going to be substantive. So, if we're just changing one of the ones that's very common is when we change our person who is responsible for equity complaints and that's just a name change. That does not require that's not a substantive change. But let's say that it's going to be something a little bit deeper where we're actually changing some of the responsibilities or something like that affiliated with that position. I would consider that a substantive change. And I know I'm looking more I didn't know if it's worthwhile on that one to maintain an example or two. Okay. Like names or something like that. Like the again the name of the position or something like that. Okay.

054We can add that. Don't mind me. And then did you have any more Mr. Fisher? Yes. If that's all right, Madam Chair. going to 5136 for illustrative purposes. Yes. I just wanted to highlight and I know this is already practice but more just for the community standpoint. and I know this is just a first reading going down to exception standpoint for wireless communication devices cuz I've heard a bit about this and I know it's already in practice but talking about you know let's say we have medical devices you know like a diabetes pump or something like that which I know is already covered but just for to let the community know and I know this will be assuming we all pass this obviously go into policy I just wanted to highlight that and I appreciate

055that being specifically laid out over there. Yes, absolutely. So, if there's any medical conditions and there's a doctor's note as to why you need to have your phone in the classroom, we will definitely abide by that. And of course, if there's anything in your IEP. Okay. I do have another one going down to gifts. remind me what that one is 7230, Mr. So, we had talked about setting a threshold for what should be board approval. Mike suggestion to the board would be set the same threshold we do for anything else we do with the board and superintendent of being $50,000 or above. I don't know if my colleagues have any thoughts on that. And just for clarification to what Mr. Fischer is speaking of, this policy is the ability to approve any gifts that are

056received on behalf of the school district. So I'm requesting that the board give me some direction in terms of what that value amount should be. And Mr. Fischer is saying the same threshold of $50,000 as for expenditures. So, this would be the superintendent being able to just accept a gift on behalf of the school board. Any any comments on this, Mr. Ribble? Yeah. What's the number we're using at the ethics training? Isn't it under $100 or no? Well, this is going to be a little different. the the number for the ethics training. Superintendent can receive personal gifts up to $100, board members $50. This would be a gift to the school district as a whole. So, it'll be most likely property pro. It could be a gift of of land. It could be a gift

057of, you know, this month we're going to comp you so much for food for your seminar. So, different things like that on behalf of the school district itself. So, a little different than the ethics responsibilities you have. Yes, Miss Chanelli, what is best practices? What are other districts? What do they do? So, I will tell you that we did some research with regards to other districts. They're not as clear. Some don't even have a number. I can tell you that Miami date is 50,000. But I it's really hard to determine from the other districts because not all of them have a similar policy and a lot of them don't have a number. So could this be something such as I'm sorry I missed you. Did you get your question yet? I mean to interrupt. so

058could this be something like I see equipment. could this be someone donates a $49,000 golf cart to a football program here in the district? Like, absolutely. That's what all this falls under. Correct. Yes. Okay. It could be land. It could be Okay. Equipment. Mr. Fischer. My reasoning for the $50,000 was any other purchasing authority by the superintendent. That's the same level. I figured we'd keep internal consistent that standpoint and I figured it was a easy number that satisfies both. I agree. Mr. Ribble, wouldn't the purpose of this statute though or this policy prevent folks from buying influence within the district? Well, that's really what this is for. So, I don't I think you I think you got to be careful if you put a big number in there. Suppose you have a developer that donates,

059he wants to give you $100,000 because he wants to bid on a $3 million school that you know that could be a conflict. So very good point, Mr. Ribble. So we do have specific policies that would address conflict of interest and we do have of course chapter 112 that specifically talks about the ethical responsibilities and of course you know anything dealing with procurement and those types of things very very clear. So I think this one is more in terms of if somebody let's say Publix decides that I'm going to provide you with 100,000 balloons to 10 schools for graduation and is the superintendent allowed to accept that if it's over a certain amount of money or if it's more than that amount of money that the board gives direction then the board needs to know

060about it and the board needs to approve it. So, it's something like that. Or if somebody decides that I'm going to gift you this land or if a if a developer says I do want to be able to gift you this much, certain things do have to be approved or accepted and that's what we're trying to figure out from the board in terms of what's that number that you want. Mr. Fisher, thank you. I was just there there's Mr. Ribble just commenting on there's already a process the superintendent her team would already be checking just as they do for any purchases under $50,000. So up to the $50,000 would be the onus would be on the superintendent and her staff then to review these. So there it would be going through you know however the

061process re happens for our superintendent. This just means if it's over that then the board should get involved. It's not there there'll still be review. So board members, do you is can we at least say 50,000 and below as a gift to add to policy? This is again the first reading. Miss Giovanelli, my concern would only be the transparency aspect of it and oversight to make sure that we are brought back in because I know when some purchases are made that are right at the threshold of the 50,000 and I can name it. One was a tanker truck that we didn't find out about it until later when it was a problem. So, I don't know. How do we avoid and that's kind of separate from this, but how do we make sure that we're

062we're being apprised of something of that nature of a gift? So, the board speaks through its policies. Its direction is through its policies. So, this is why we're asking for that number. If you're not comfortable with 50,000, then the board can have a discussion and try to determine what number it is comfortable with. the only thing I would caution, you may have multiple $100 or $50 or $200 gifts that I don't think the, you know, the board really wants to know about all of those min minimal types of contributions. So, the question is what is the board's appetite in terms of how much are you willing to allow the superintendent to have the authority to accept on your behalf? That's really what the question is, Dr. Carlin. Yes, if I may. Madam Chair, so 50,000,

063you know, first of all, we're always benchmarking ourselves against what the best-in-class do and I heard Miami Dade, I did not hear other districts in terms of the dollars. What I would say is 50,000 is manageable and let me share with you the practical aspects of this and Miss Dupri Bruno just started to speak to it a moment ago. We have schools out there, particularly our high schools that receive donations of equipment for career and technicalmies, whether it be old cars, HVAC equipment, things like that. So certainly 50,000 feels like the right number just because I don't want you to get in the position of we get a car donated and it's an older car, it's $8,000, we need to bring that here. Well, we're going to be at this table approving a whole lot

064of those types of things because we have a very generous community who supports career and technical education. you know, and I don't think that's really the intention here. So, again, I would lean on best-in-class Miami Dade would be one. certainly we'd want to emulate. again, Mr. Pre Bruno brought up a numerous situations, 18 years of leading schools. I can tell you we receive donations, gift cards for children to go out and purchase school supplies. I mean that the a list is endless. So to me 50,000 feels right, not only because we have one of our districts that's bestin-class, but also the practical aspect of that would be very appropriate. So just wanted to weigh in as superintendent and share with you the practical aspects of this of this policy. Thank you. So board members, are

065we okay with moving ahead with the number 50,000? Can we agree? Okay. I'm seeing a lot of nodding heads. Yes, ma'am. Do you have your direction? I see Mr. Fisher. Mr. Fischer. Two more. Is that right? Oh, yeah. Of course. Absolutely. Is that all right? Sorry to the new board members. I love reviewing policy as madam attorney knows. So, the Can we go to the name, image, likeness? It's 20 24 3106. Yes. And that is again so that is just now cuz you had indicated we had the prior policy from right last year. So this just mirrors NEOLA then what other districts are doing? So what so our original policy was one that was drafted by us prior to Niola issuing a NIL policy and once they issued that we reviewed it and it was

066very very similar to ours. So, we recommend adopting the language from Niola. And the reason we do that is when there is a law change, Niola will provide us with an update and it will follow their already written policy and we can make sure that we're in line with that. In addition, Niola will guarantee its policy. So, if somebody decides to sue us based on that policy, there is a guarantee that they will defend us. So, that's why we're recommending that we go ahead and adopt that language. Okay. Thank you. That and one more. You had a few more. Yes. Go ahead, Mr. Fisher. Oh, there's 5514 board responsibility on bicycles. And this might not I just want to put this in the ear maybe of madam superintendent. so this is saying for example bicycles

067and I know this was amending it was already in there electronic scooters. So anything that happens to them is not the responsibility of the board and the district. Correct. because there's been a little bit of I've either heard from parents or well as administrators, you know, they talk about let's say the electric scooters being out in the rain or something like that. I just was bring that up. I just something I've heard. I know it doesn't directly, but I know it kind of is addressing our policy. I just wanted to to mention that. So, okay, last one and then I'm done. I swear. 5600 And can we go to page two on 5600 or at least page two to us? I don't know if it's Yep. Right there. I just want to highlight and I

068believe that's by the new statute if you can kind of just review that attorney Bruno briefly the changes in regarding how principles and or how teachers and discipline in the schools are being backed up now through state statute. Yeah. So, this is really is just a continuation of the teachers bill of rights where teachers now have and have had some authority in terms of the behaviors in their classrooms and outlines the steps that are necessary to be taken with regards to that. may I mad chair may I read one line from it? One that really stands out to me. The principal or designate must give full consideration to the recommendation for discipline made by a teacher or other member of the instructional staff or bus driver when making a decision regarding student referral for discipline.

069I think that's fantastic. Absolutely. Yes. And then I will say that I know that academic services and conver conversations with our chief officer Nathan Shaker that processes and relating to this policies are in place to ensure that does occur and that the teachers voice and bus driver's voice is heard when these things take place with regards to discipline and referrals. Thank you madam attorney. Thank you board member for going through me with that. No worries Mr. or excuse me Dr. Carlin. Yes. And I just wanted to piggyback on the comments. Remember we have spoken before about the importance of management of student behavior as it pertains to teacher retention. So on the campaign trail, just a reminder, one of the things we talked about with teachers is what drives you from the profession. and certainly

070student behavior is a is a is a opportunity for us to improve in that area and not that you know the children come as they are right. So it's really more about our processes and my vision as superintendent is for us to have somebody in each school that has exemplary performance in terms of helping to manage student behavior and to redirect and to do all of those things. So, that is where we're heading as a district. And I know want to publicly call out Dr. Shaker, Dr. Tim, and all of the team members that are working to support our teachers in their classrooms because student learning is what we're about. And whenever we have student behavior that impedes that, we want to make sure that we address that in a timely fashion and an appropriate

071fashion. So, very supportive of this policy. Thank you. All right. I Oh, Miss Shaviano, sorry. No, you're fine. I didn't have anything that was on here, but I did want to bring up one of our bylaws, which is 0164.1, which is meeting location and board member participation. so this is in regards to obviously attending and being able to participate in meetings if you're not available. in these meetings, it says members may vote in instances where if they are confined to their home or hospital due to illness or accident or a situation where a board member's absence is due to death or serious illness of a family member or in situations where they required to be out of the country out of the county or due to a business commitment. I'm bringing this up more so

072because of the meeting that we had in June. Obviously, prior to me being elected in November, I had a a family vacation planned and since we only have so many meetings, I feel like even though it's one meeting, if you can make the meeting, you should be able to participate. so I did dial into that meeting but was not able to vote. So I would like to bring that up for discussion. We are in a day of technology where we are able to dial in from anywhere as we do have people join meetings from teams. So I want to see or have a discussion in regards to those voting instances for members and we can discuss that. Okay. No not at this time you cannot I'll I'll let the Yeah. So just to clarify, so

0730164.1 basically says that board members, you are able to vote if you are ill or if you are out for a business commitment. and I do believe it talks about hospital if you're in the hospital, you have a family member in the hospital, there's an accident, that's what the policy allow that's under those circumstances is what the policy allows you to vote. If you are out because of a vacation or something else, the policy does not allow you to vote on anything, but you obviously you can call in and participate in the meeting, but you're not able to vote. So, I just need direction from the board as to whether or not you want that language changed to make it more flexible. And I also just one thing as well, I don't know if there

074was any other statute that supports this or if this is strictly policy. This one is policy. There is a statute that allows us to use telecommunication for board members to participate in action meetings and special meetings so long as there's a physical quum. Mr. Fiser, I'd be willing to have the discussion, but I'm not willing at the moment to go forward in in this meeting at least with any language change on that. So, I mean member Juvenelli and member Langford Fleming, we went through this two I think it was about two years ago and we kind of went back and forth. We had a bit of a discussion on that regards to the cuz we adjusted or maybe it was longer ago, but the remote policy. So, again, I'm not opposed to discussing it. I

075believe we had also looked at other school districts and other municipalities and this was very similar to what they do. So, but I'm I'm willing to hear out anyone on that and willing to listen. So, I would love to continue the discussion. I brought this up a couple years ago and just to see what the statute was like your first question. I feel as though our board meeting meetings are public anyway. So, should a vacation arise or something, I would not want to penalize one of our board members for spending time with their own family because it falls on a day of that we do have a meeting and since we do only have one meeting a month, give or take, I don't think that it's, you know, I think it's important that we each

076get that, not just to call in, but also to vote and also because it is a It's a it's a public meeting. Now, I know that shaded sessions are completely off the table. but that but I think that a conversation this warrants a conversation with the board perhaps when we have everyone back. Thank you for bringing it up. Board members, anything else with this or other policy? Oh, with regards to policies, I do have one. So, just for clarification though, 0164.1 will hold and then perhaps have some discussions in our one-on- ones and then bring this back for the board to give me further direction. Thank you. Okay. 7105 is a site selection committee and this one originally we had nine members and this is on behalf of Miss Debbie Jordan who's not able to

077attend today. She did ask me to share this with the board. Originally, we had nine members on the site selection committee. three are being removed because we no longer have the EDAC committee. So, that leaves us with six. her recommendation would be to have one more person added to that committee. So, it's an odd number. so she would suggest perhaps getting somebody from ISO to volunteer, but it's up to the board as to how you would like to proceed with that recommendation. board members. Miss Janelli, I have to thank Miss Jordan for bringing this up and thank you attorney Dupri Bruno. I actually agree, but I actually think as a board member, we should have we should be able to pick someone as well. I think that definitely going from 9 to six, I'm not

078going to be agreeing to that. and I think that we should have someone that's part of for me that would be part of some little bit of oversight that I have ability to do. and since there's been some issues with the on the audit, I'm on the audit committee. and they actually complained about not having the construction advisory guiding some of this. at least then we would have a little say if each board member was able to have you know you know appoint someone to this committee at this as well otherwise we have no control over it at all really thank you so Mr. Vinelli, just so that I'm clear, your recommendation would be for the board members to appoint somebody to the committee or like we appoint we used to appoint on these other

079we have no appointments anymore. We well except for like ISO audit and what's the other one? ISOC and audit. Yeah, I think that's the only one appoint someone to. So yeah, there you go. I think that we should have be able to appoint someone to this committee as well. regarding site selection just to have because we are all in a separate districts and then we have two all county seats. I think that that gives it makes it diverse somewhat and have that you know each district have a voice. so that would be my that would be my recommendation. Miss Ganelli, I just want to clarify that I'm understanding also. So would you prefer it to be seven on the board or would you prefer it to be 13 like the six plus the ones we

080appoint? What? Thank you. I'm just asking six plus what is appointed by the soup. I don't want to take any power from the district. I want to have just a little you know district two to have some representation. Okay. I just wanted to clarify. Thank you. And a voice at the table. Thank you. Thank you. Board members, do you have any comments or followup to Miss Jim Jell's idea regarding this? I think an odd number just because I I think an odd number makes sense. I have no problem appointing from each one of our seats with our contacts. I mean, I know this is first reading, but Miss Javiano, no, I agree with not doing the six and doing an odd. I actually sat on EDAC and I was on the site selection committee, so

081I see the value in having, as Mr. Juvenile said, someone from each district. My only concern would be I think it's there's been an issue in the past getting committee members for the appointments. so also kind of seeing us each having a spot. Maybe it's three seats or four seats. I just know in the past it's been a little difficult to fill those seats as well. so I'm all for an odd number. I'm all for representation. but maybe like a staggered a staggered middle ground on that for sure. But I do see the value in that. So madam chair if I may just to make sure that the board understands once you add board leaison you're changing the type of committee right. So once this becomes more like a board advisory committee cuz you have

082your own leaison, this will become a sunshine committee. Right now it's more of a staff committee, a superintendent committee that basically assists staff with the review of land purchases, etc. So I just want to make sure that the board understands that. Dr. Carlin. Yes. just for a point of clarification, I want to make sure we add to the conversation and that the board does approve every land acquisition. So, I want to make sure it's clear for the public as well as the board that you do maintain oversight of that. If there's land that is selected and you reject that idea, then certainly you do have oversight with the ability to do that. and so this is just, you know, basically folks that are weighing in prior to the acquisition of land. but again, you always

083have the final say on whether we proceed or not. So, just wanted that point of clarification. Mr. Viser, I'm comfortable going forward with seven, but yeah, I don't I would not be in favor of adding anyone from the board, especially with any kind of the sunshine implications and the things we've dealt with before. I'd rather keep that separate from us. So, that's just my two cents. Miss D Oh, Miss Janelli. So, I understand where everyone where you're coming from and I and I thank you superintendent for weighing in because I that is important. My only concern is we have no one from the public on this committee. So, and we've we're already reaping we're getting, you know, a lot of heat from the regarding the NN school. And so, I think with at least someone

084from the public on it would help with, you know, weighing in and giving that perspective that we're I don't believe that we they don't feel it. the Alva people don't they don't feel that they were represented and at least with someone from the public we would have some representation of the public deciding on what we're doing and it maybe it needs to be someone with some you know a real estate background if that's what you want they don't meet that often and it could be Zoom so I think participation would be irrelevant because I'm sure they probably do meet Zoom so I still believe that I think we need to have the public involvement we get in our credentiing and so forth, we don't have enough, we don't engage the public enough. So, how do

085we do that? This is a committee that we would have that opportunity. So, I'm I still think we need to have some public engagement. Mr. Fischer, then Mr. Ribble. Madame Attorney, could you clarify through the schools through DAC who can be on DAC? So, DAC is made up of members of SAC. So, and those usually are parents or those involved with the school. But can anyone join SAC? Yeah, because it's usually people who are involved with the school, but SAC has very specific statutory guide guidelines that are required. so I know that our intent when we were going to have DAC be the primary board advisory committee was to encourage folks from the public to participate in the school so that they can, you know, kind of be member of sack and then end up

086being a member of DAC. What I'm asking is it does not have to just parent. No, no. Any member of the public that is involved with that school can participate. That's just my clarity. Mhm. I'm going to go to Mr. Ribble first, then Mr. Jven. Yeah. I just had the million-dollar question. So, if you're going to go from six to seven, who's going to pick the person? Who's going to make the decision on who the public person is? Yeah, good question. And so, okay, so I understand the whole DAC process and that's and so forth, but we just had a complaint this week where someone on DAC or SAC and the SAC actually wanted to be on DAC and that is selected by the principal and the principal didn't give that opportunity to that committee

087person. I will tell you that the representatives on DAC are strictly selected by a principal and controlled by that. and by witness of that, if you read the complaint that we received in the email this week, it happens. So, if you think that everything's perfect, it's we're not we don't live in a perfect world. And so, I'll leave it at that. Thanks, Dr. A couple of things that I was going to suggest. First of all, may I suggest that we look at representatives from each school region because now we are organized by region which would then give you eight members. we certainly open to some suggestions around that ninth person if you'd like to do that. The other piece to remember about DAC and I hear exactly what you're saying Miss Ganelli they were in

088schools for 18 years. So here's how DAC works. Okay, you're at a SAC meeting and we say as principles, who would like to serve on DAC? And everybody pulls out their calendars and they sit down and they look and sometimes it turns out where nobody wants to do it. So that is not an option for principles because they are required to have a DAC representative. So if everybody pulls out their calendars and then looks at the floor, gets up and goes to the restroom, the principal is encouraging somebody to do it, right? So I will I will say we do hold principles responsible for making sure there is a DAC member. I can just share with myself as principal. I did not select the DAC person. but there were times where I had to say

089okay we're not leaving until somebody volunteers. so again it is a voluntary process. we you know and then the other piece I wanted to clarify is the membership of of sack you know certainly does include you know a teacher you know somebody from support staff but it also includes a community member and parents. So I just wanted to make sure everybody understood the full composition of the school advisory council. I know in my schools I had community folks that were involved as well and actually I do believe that's a requirement. so I just want to be want to be clear that members of DAC do are comprised of parents but they're also comprised of community members. I served as the staff liaison for that committee for two years and I do remember there being community

090members in there as well as parents and certainly teachers periodically would step up. So just wanted to clarify those pieces. And just to just to add to what Dr. Carlin said that's actually a statutory requirement that you have members of the community, members of the business community. statute actually requires you to also take into consideration the composition of those that are in that school in that community from an economic standpoint etc. So it's supposed to be comprehensive and a good reflection of what that community surrounding that school is. And I think that's great, but I don't know how I was on on DAG and they were mostly teachers or you know staff and parents. I don't recall it being really being any community members. And let's face it, if they weren't showing up for EDAC

091and the other construction advisory and so forth, why are they going to go and go to a school? Why is a business person going to go to a school and attend a meeting that very few do? so if you they're not going to attend the a DACK a SAC meeting and I just I think and much less a DAC meeting and volunteer to be on deck from just being a community member. I So we're just eliminating that. That's, you know, I think it's a great concept, but I haven't seen it been been really effective. Dr. Carlin, so I really like the idea and I want to just weigh in on something real quickly. Like the idea of having an odd number of members. So, a couple of ideas could be looking for one person to

092be appointed as a representative from the construction industry or the real estate industry. That could perhaps happen. We also have a wonderful partner in our foundation for Lake County Public Schools. Wonder if they would be willing to have a member of their team serve on the site selection committee. Again, it doesn't meet often but it is an opportunity to include our foundation and that could be the ninth member. So just trying to move toward that idea. That's a great idea, Miss Shamiano. Yeah, I wanted to piggy back off of that. So I again my experience in sack and PTO and all of the things, right? when you think back to when these appointments happen traditionally, it's the first meeting of the year. You get your sack done and then you do your DAC meeting. And

093it is a volunteer volunttold situation. and it's usually the same group of people from SAC and DAC traditionally. his parents that have been involved and I personally would did sack and I did DACK. I also think it's part of our school communication to do a better job of outreach in the community because when you think about the PTO and bringing in those partnerships and bringing in those community members, that was always our piece when we're trying to raise funds and do sponsorships and do events, like who are we partnering with and can we bring them in? but again, our schools are limited in what they can do day-to-day and who they can bring in. So, I do see what you're seeing, Miss Janelli, and I do like the recommendation, Dr. Carlin, and maybe if it's

094something we just open up the one appointment and we just open it up to the community overall versus specific organizations that already partner us with us, maybe there's another organization or somebody that we don't know that wants to take part and we just maybe look outside of our current bubble and see who wants to participate. So I am open for it being an odd number and opening it up to that community and it being an appointment from the board to to get that additional number well this is actually a question for Mr. Bruno, the DAC three representatives they would not be typically or Yeah. Okay. Two, whatever. But Oh, yeah. Okay. So, they would they would not necessarily meet any criteria of being in the construction business or real estate. Am I correct? That's correct.

095So, I do like the superintendent's idea of someone being in the in the in that kind of business in the real estate business. you know, but I still at that point then would it would that because I don't think we approve who these do we actually does the board approve who's selected for that or would so like how would would that look? So, we're going back again to this very fine line in terms of what's the purpose of this committee, right? So this committee right now is a committee that is to assist the superintendent in bringing forward recommendations to the board. If you start having the board select and put somebody on there now it's becoming a committee that's directly impacting and helping the board with decisionm. So there's a fine line in terms of

096when this becomes a sunshine committee. So if the board wants to do that it's definitely within your purview to do that. I mean these policies is how you govern. So, if you choose to do that, that's within your purview. one thought would be something similar to what we do now with the value adjustment board, how we select those individuals. We bring you a list and then you decide. Again, you're opening it up. Now, if you want to keep it as a committee to assist the superintendent with her recommendations for site selection, etc. And as she did state, some of these things do come back before you because you have to authorize. then I would not have the board making selections to participate in that committee. you can direct the superintendent when you're looking at your

097site selection. Superintendent, please, make sure that there's somebody with this background on there. we can put that in the policy, but it's not somebody that's being selected by the school board. Dr. Carlin, do you have a follow-up? Yes, I do. so I just want to u make sure that we just state for the public the purpose of the committee is to keep the public informed about the district's potential land purchases and planned sites. It is not the intent of the committee to have any decision-making authority over the acquisition of real property but rather to provide information, recommendations and knowledge to district staff prior to the acquisition of real property or the placement of a new school site. That's why I was advocating perhaps for us to have two representatives from each region because now we're

098divided even further subdivided outside of the enrollment zones. So we would have somebody from two people from the north, south, west, and east, which is broader reaching into the pockets of our neighborhoods and our communities. and again, because we want to have that advice about where school sites could be, then that would help address some of the comments I've heard relative to active and engaged participation because if it's going to be in my neck of the woods in my region, I probably have some strong feelings about where that should or shouldn't be. So, that's why I'm advocating for the regions. And also, like I said, I would be happy to assist the board with bring forward recommendations of somebody perhaps with a real estate background or somebody that might have some knowledge in that area.

099That way, you have truly parents that are helping to make recommendations around the intention of this committee and also having somebody that may have a real estate background. So, certainly happy to offer to help with that. and I really did like Mr. Pri Bruno's suggestion around like something similar to the value adjustment board. attorney. So, let this would be my recommendation. we're not going to go to second reading on this policy. I'm going to think this through and process this a little bit and and talk to Dr. Carlin and see if we can come up with a recommendation for the board and we'll have another first reading on this policy. Okay. Thank you. All right. Thank you. Any other policies that anyone has questions with this afternoon? All right. Thank you both. We are going

100to move on. Next, we have the phase 2 compensation. I'd like to invite Dr. Shannon Johnston and Dr. Ron Arusi to the podium. They will be presenting this afternoon. More fun stuff. Oh my god. Sweet. Yeah. All right. Good afternoon, Madam Chair, board members, Superintendent Carlin, and Attorney Dep Bruno. Dr. Ayarusi and I are here to talk to you about phase 2 compensation. Today's presentation focuses on our continued evolution of the phase 2 compensation work and we'll begin today by talking about the philosophy that grounds this work. Then we'll provide a phase one recap and then next we'll introduce phase two which digs deeper into the structure and implementation. And this section will walk through the current state, the transition state, and which are the strategies and actions we're taking right now to bridge the

101gap between where we are and where we need to be, and the future straight state, which is our long-term vision. Finally, we'll define what success looks like within phase two. Our why is simple but powerful. We know that in today's competitive market, the ability to attack, attract, not attack, attract and retain top talent is one of the most important levers that we have for student success. And to do that, we must provide a compensation system that is clear and responsive to the needs of our workforce. We're not just enhancing pay structures, we're strengthening our value proposition as an employer. Our vision for success outlines what we're building toward an objective open range compensation system. One that is easy to understand, transparent, and accessible to every current and future employee. On the right, you'll see our

102success pyramid, which illustrates the key outcomes we are aiming for in this work. At the base, employees understand how compensation is determined. This is where clarity and communication begin. Next, salary structures that are competitive within our region so we remain a desirable destination for talent. Then, pay practices that support internal mobility and growth, rewarding development and encouraging longevity. Next is high performers are recognized and retained so that excellence is not only appreciated but sustained. And finally at the top pay is perceived as fair and transparent which is ultimate the ultimate measure of trust in any compensation system. Each layer builds upon the last to ensure that our compensation system not only functions but inspires confidence and pride in our workforce. This is the future that we're trying to build together. started to understand where we

103are going. It's important to reflect on where we have been. This slides, this slide provides a snapshot of the evolution of our compensation philosophy over the past several years. As you can see from the timeline, in 2018, our district operated under a stepbased salary schedule, which offered predictable progression but lacked responsiveness to market conditions or differentiated performance. By 2019, we shifted to a market rate model for certain groups. While this was a step forward, it still left us with multiple disconnected compensation systems. In 2025, our goal is to imple implement a fully integrated open range system, a sustainable model that supports both consistency and flexibility across all job families. What this timeline shows is a clear historical lack or a historic lack of consistency. That's why phase 2 is so critical. It's not just a

104redesign. It's a realignment of our entire compensation philosophy. Today, our current compensation philosophy is rooted in in five core principles. external competitiveness, internal equity, pay for performance, transparency, and fiscal responsibility. Before I turn it over to Dr. Ayurusi, I want to address address a myth head on. Sometimes when people hear compensation work, they immediately think everyone is going to get a raise and that compensation is only about money. That is simply not true. Compensation work is much more than money. It's about fairness, transparency, career pathways, recognition, job role reviews, and aligning pay with the work being done. To help illustrate this, we've given you each a $100,000 grandb bar. When this candy bar was invented by Nestle in 1966, the name played on the idea that wealth alone was all that mattered. But just like

105our compensation system, the real value is what's inside. The layers of caramel, the chocolate, and the crisp that makes it whole. In the same way, our compensation strategy is layered. Fair placement for the work being done. Transparency. so employees easily understand the system pathways so people see how they can grow an impact that align with student success. So again compensation is more than just about money. It's about creating a system that supports sustains and retains our people. This work has not been done to this degree in our district before. And so now Dr. Ayurusi is going to explain. Thank you Dr. Johnson. And good afternoon board members, Superintendent Dr. Carlin, Attorney Deploy Bruno. It's a pleasure to be here to talk about, as Dr. Johnson kind of, illustrated in her presentation, the excitement around what

106we're trying to do with compensation. And I can tell you from my years of experience over 20 years in educational administration, I've never seen anything quite like it. And so, the complexity, but the comprehensive nature of what's happening with our compensation, is some really exciting things that are going on. today I'd like to give you start with a little bit of a phase one recap. so that we can kind of see where we started with this whole idea of establishing the current pay system that we're trying to implement at this point in time. So it's really about the open range system that we are currently implementing. So, it started back in October of 23 2023 when the district brought Evergreen in to do a comprehensive study of the salary system and the pay structure that

107we currently had in the district. And as you know, Dr. Johnston referred to the market range system and what we had currently in place at that time and do some recommendations on salary adjustments and putting a paygrade system in. that really is everything that Dr. Johnson tu h t t t t t t t t t t t t t t t t t t t t talked about. and so Ever when Evergreen came in, they started with doing some really some research into what the district currently had. So they did some focus groups, did some job analysis, did some surveys, and also did some market research to see what currently exists in the district so that they could make a comprehensive recommendation about how the district should move forward. So part of that recommendation

108is really what encompasses phase one of what you know the current structure that we're trying to implement and that was developing the paygrade system that we would use to place all of our employee groups on. So really we're talking about the recommendation for the district to move to an open range system. And to try to summarize that in a couple sentences is a little difficult because it is a little bit more complex. And so the paygrade system basically is a range that starts with a minimum salary, a midpoint of that salary range, and a maximum. And really, they're intended to be aligned with the job descriptions, the responsibilities, and the duties that we are asking all of our employees to perform. So there is a paygrade assigned to the current job descriptions. That's really about

109what phase one entailed, the development of the paygrades, assigning them to certain job descriptions and to areas and work groups. and then that would be the implementation of placing our current employees within those pay grades. So that's really what phase one is all about. And Dr. Johnson said we have some mythbusters in here. So because of the evergreen study was it automatically meant that every employee would get a raise? And at that point no that was not the intent of what the evergreen study was. It was really an analysis and a determination to begin to implement a structure that would evolve over time to get to the full implementation of an open range system. And so phase one really was about making the recommendations of what pay grade should be assigned to what employee groups

110and within those employee groups what individual job titles existed. And so after May May 2024 when Evergreen made those recommendations, the district took a step really to implement and develop a compensation department. And so now we have a an a director of compensation. actually it's a senior coordinator at this time of compensation. And there are three analysts that really assist in that to really do a lot of the work. not only are they doing current work, which is, you know, helping to establish what, you know, new employees, existing employees, what their salaries are, but really to to really dive in and do the work of taking these pay grades and start to implement the phase two part of that, which now we'll kind of get into. So, in November 2024, Evergreen came to the board,

111they gave their presentation, they made the recommendations that, you know, we establish the paygrades, and at that time, we move forward. So in between November of 2024 and December of 2024, that's where we established and implemented paygrades for all of our unbargain positions. As you know, they we also have bargain positions. And at that point, Spal was introduced to the open range pay system and through bargaining that year, there was an agreement to implement those pay grades at that point. And so still part of phase one is really then putting our existing employees within those pay grades. Once that happens, now we can start to enter phase two, which is actually a very complex and comprehensive analysis of all of our departments to see that we have the right job descriptions, develop job families, the

112leveling that we have within the organization is appropriate for the work that we're done. So before we actually decide where our employees actually should be on the paygrades, we have to do all of that work and analysis before we can do that. That's really what phase two is all about. And that's why it takes a little bit longer to get all of that work done because we are beginning that work with each one of our departments. So the comprehensive analysis of each one of those departments is starting to take place. And so we put together a steering committee to make sure that we would help in gathering the right information, getting all of our chiefs of all of our departments on board, explaining to them what the process would look like. we also started to

113communicate that with our building principles. And kind of what evolved through that phase two piece was actually the discussion about differentiation that should take place within our school district and how that differentiation affects our school buildings. And so that work evolved into as well collaborating with our talc committees. We have a turnaround committee that was really geared towards talking about differentiation within our buildings. We got principal feedback. We work with tal to and that's where the idea of the risk levels came from through all of that work. So we have the paygrades, we have people placed on the pay grades and we have to do all of the work and the analysis to get to the end of phase two, but we need to transition from phase one to phase two. And that's kind of

114the current state of where we're at. So, we've had the established paygrades, we've placed people on the paygrades at their current salary, and now we have to transition to phase two. And so, this is a process and it's probably going to take at least a year to get all of our departments taken care of before we can fully implement phase two. So, we're working with the pay grades we currently have and some of these are some of the temporary measures. And another myth, salary data demotivates employees. One of the things that we're trying to do in this data is also provide some motivation to our employees because part of this work is also setting career pathways. So you may be at a certain place within the pay grades and you can actually see where you

115need to be, what skills you need to require if you would like to move it. And that's really what a comprehensive pay system is all about. So these are the different employee groups and where they're at currently in the transition state. our school-based administrators, we had lots of discussion about where they were last year and how they will be placed on the paygrades in the future. Right now, we have three areas of school-based administrators. We have athletic directors, assistant principles, and principles that we're really working with. So, we put together an advisory group to talk about what is, you know, paygrade U8 for our assistant principles and pay grade U20 look like and what criteria should be established to decide where they should be at. And we got a lot of great feedback from our

116principal advisory committee. We have representatives from each zone, from each level. The risk levels are represented in there and they've given us, we've had five meetings so far and we think we're probably our goal is to wrap this up by the end of September so that we can have an implementation, you know, by December. I think we're really headed in that direction and we'll have a nice comprehensive very transparent and simple to to navigate through as far as administrator pay schedule. for the central office administration. Obviously, you know, we went through a pretty intensive reorganization. there were office administrators who were affected by that and there's some office administrators who weren't affected by that. And so, a lot of the work that's being done in phase two and departmentwise is really looking at a lot

117of not only our central office administration but those other areas that exist within the buildings and eventually they will be you know part of that analysis. But in transition, we're actually looking at collecting some of their resumes and looking at where they could be in temporary transition to be placed according to their years of experience, the skills that they bring and the knowledge before we finished phase two. So that's transition for central office administration. talc and spal we're working on currently as you all know we have a tenative agreement with spal. Actually the letters went out to them today which for all of our employees will tell them you know what the tenative agreement would do as far as their salary ranges. They have implemented all of the paygrades for spout and so the collection

118of those resumes and the analysis analysis of that will actually help place them appropriately where they're at. And I know that they're very excited and very appreciative of that work that's been done with spalc. we are at current negotiations with talc. We had another session last night and we're hopeful that we can come to an agreement with them in transition as well. schedule N typically in the district follows what we do with spal because there's a lot of similarities between our schedule and employees and what they do what they're required to do with our spal employees. So we are in the process of of collecting all the work experience for all of our schedule N employees as well and that will follow kind of the process that we've used with spal. This is a kind

119of a timeline and as I said it's a very comprehensive process and I'll get into a little bit about specifics about what what the process actually entails but this is the timelines to get to each one of our departments and you can see there's a couple pages here. We've already started with transportation with our casual employees. We're doing the work with school administrators which we hope to end by the end of September and fully implement by the November pay pay checks. we're working on in CTE, legal services, public safety, and you can see I won't go through every one of these, but this is the timeline that will bring us all the way actually if you look at the next next page, it will take us till spring of 2027 to complete all of this

120work. So, everybody's kind of in transition until we're able to get to each one of these departments to do all of the analysis. So this is a little bit about the process that's used in phase two to do all of the analysis work within each of our departments. So our compensation team goes into the department. They do kind of a lot of the similar work to what Evergreen did does. They collect the job titles. They meet with the administration within that department. They talk to employees and they really try to figure out and develop appropriate job descriptions that actually fit the work that they're doing. We haven't done a comprehensive job description analysis, especially in some areas, for quite some time. And so that's some really important work to make sure that as we've evolved

121and changed throughout the years that those job descriptions really reflect the work that they're doing. As a part of that too, we are starting to develop job families. Where are there similarities within that department? And then leveling within those jobs families. So who should be a coordinator? Do we need a coordinator one, coordinator two based on those job descriptions? and what is the analysis of each one of those departments and that's what the compensation team does. That's part of their expertise in determining that. So once the evaluation is done then goes back to the chiefs and the administration for approvals and eventually then would come back to the board as part of that you know implementation piece for approval before it's implemented. Again a lot more work goes into the analysis of all of the

122different departments. We have to make sure that all of our job descriptions meet the fair fair labor standards act. So there are qual there are there are requirements to determine whether or not a position should be a bargain position or an unbargain position. Also hourly rate employees whether they should be exempt or whether they should be non-exempt. And our comp team has all of that information. They have checklists to go through each one of those job descriptions to make sure that they follow the Fair Labor Standards Act. And again, the best in classes. I think there's a myth out there that once the Evergreen study is done and phase two is done that we're done, that we don't need a comp team anymore. But this is a continual process because we as we evolve and

123change, the job market changes. This has to be done on a yearly basis to make sure that we are up to speed and up to date and that all of our employees are doing the work that we need to and they're compensated accordingly. Okay. So, at the end of the day, we're building a system that ultimately puts students first because that's what we're about. because when we attract support and retain top talent, students are the ones that benefit and that's why we're here. So, this new role really, this new model really pays for the work and ensures that compensation is based on the roles, the complexity and the impact of that work. our goal is to have consistency like Dr. Ayurusi talked about in and both the method and the communication used to determine the

124compensation for every employee and that means that every employee can expect the process to be easily understood transparent and accessible and we're achieving this through the continued work of the job families and leveling just as Dr. IRUi talked about and then assigning each position to the appropriate pay grade based on a clear set of standards. this entire compensation philosophy is built directly to support our district strategic plan specifically in the area of recruitment and retention. And as Dr. Iusi said, this work really is never done. It is cyclical in nature and will just continuously improve. But we've got to get this we've got to get it complete right now to be able to continuously improve if that makes sense. So all right so as we bring this presentation to a close we want to leave

125you with a clear sense of what is ahead the future state. So we're finalizing pay administrative guidelines for all groups. These guidelines will will provide clear direction on how compensation decisions are made and applied across the district and the day-to-day operations. For current employees, we are launching a total compensation visual through Peopleoft, which I'm being told will be completed in about a month. We're very excited about that. This tool will allow employees to easily view and understand their full comp compensation package which includes salary benefits and other additional contributions for f for future employees. Our website will be updated. We're also if effective if it's clearly understood together. This communication campaign ensures that our compensation work is not only thoughtfully designed but also clearly communicated and widely understood because clarity builds trust and trust is

126the foundation of any successful system especially when it comes to compensation. So at this time we will take superintendent comments and board member discussion. Thank you very much and thank you very much and first of all just appreciation to Dr. Johnston and Dr. Ayarusi for all of your work in the area of compensation and beyond. I just will continue to brag about our HR team and all of the work that you're doing during the day and late into the evening hours. a special thank you to Dr. Arusi for all the work he's doing as our chief negotiator this year and lots of good things happening in the world of bargaining. So thank you. Just want to comment on a couple of things. First of all, I heard today compensation is a complex body of work

127and there is no doubt that is true. I would argue also worthwhile. I really appreciate the clarification around evergreen the evergreen study. that was something I heard a lot about on the campaign trail. What is this evergreen study? What happened? this was all supposed to give us a raise. That was what the scuttle was out there in the community, especially among our internal stakeholders. and thank you for clarifying that it really is around job analysis, looking at market research and really being the body of information that would help drive a lot of our compensation work moving forward. So, thank you for that. also want to point out the statement around a lack of a consistent compensation model for for the school district and the work that you all are doing to make sure it's not

128just a one-time deal that it is ongoing work that will be addressed with a timeline which I think our employees are cheering about because that is certainly something that has been missing and we appreciate your work on that. I'm also excited about the notion of succession planning. That is something that I've heard for many years in our district that we have. I had actually when I was a member of cabinet asked for a copy of our succession plan and it was really a struggle that would even be provided. So just to hear you all talking about I'm an employee in the school district and now I will know the path to move me forward to any job that I may aspire to have. So just really appreciate the clarity of that presentation and the work

129that's to come regarding succession plan and I always share with our team I will not be here forever. So we are looking for who's going to be next as the superintendent and so I take that work as the successor for me very seriously. and I also look out into the audience and see a number of our senior leaders who will not be here forever. And so we want to make sure that we have employees that are working their way through the organization to reach their dream job and also to make sure that we're we have succession planning for the future because that's important to the future of this school district. so just those are my comments. Really appreciate the work and we look forward to your comments as a board. Thank you. Thank you, Superintendent

130Carlin. Board member comments. I think Miss Chaviano then Mr. Rubble was first. Thank you, Chair Fischer. so thank you both for all of the work. again coming from the private sector corporate and seeing this I understand what an undertaking this is and this is huge. especially with a district of this size, the amount of people that are employed here. so seeing the timeline and seeing the work that's been done it is commendable and I know it's not easy. So, I'm happy to see that there's a plan in place for our team because I think and I think I've had this conversation in the past. It's nice to say, okay, here's where I am and here's where I can go. and having that map and that succession and say I can go here, but I also

131have the skill set to go here based on my current position. so, I think it just opens up opportunity for other individuals that may not know what's available to them. So, kudos to that. but I did have a question on slide seven in regards to the transition state and there was a comment made in regards to résumés and I was like wait a minute so central office you're saying schedule end and résumés are being collected can you explain are we requesting résumés from our individuals what is that and so I'll use I'll start with spalc because that's a really good example of of what we've done with spal to really address you know where they're at on the pay grade. So again, in phase one, establish the paygrades. Everybody then is placed on the pay

132grade, and we created at that point what's called an observable range. So maybe the pay grade went from, you know, $20 an hour up all the way up to $54 an hour, but most of our employees are sitting at maybe $26 an hour, regardless of the experience they brought in or the skills they brought in, the additional certifications within that. So if if you really want to do the right thing in relation to an open range system and really take a look at the work that's being required and then placing the employee appropriately, you have to do an analysis of the skills they brought in and the experience. So that's we, you know, one of at the last bargaining session, we agreed to to a collaborative effort to collect work experience from those employees. And

133that's really what the comp team has been focusing on and they've gone out and recruited a lot of people to help in that area just to really determine the amount of what we call years E, which is the experience that they bring to to the table in that area. And that's really what we want to continue to do with all of our employee groups. So once we get that experience, what we did was, okay, so if you're on, you know, S8, which I believe is an electrician, and you have you're at $28 an hour, but really you had 18 years of experience, you have three different certifications, maybe you should be above that, but we can't place everybody where they're they should be on the pay grade. So what we agreed to in Spalc is

134we would take you 50% of the way there. So we looked at where you should be, where you're currently at, and what that raise then was determined by the 50% range. So you know, that kind of concept is being spread throughout the rest of our employee group. So right now we're in the process of scheduling or gathering work experience from schedule N. The conversation we had with our school-based administrators is, you know, throughout the years they were allowed to get credited for certain types of experience and that has changed as as we look at the different structures that we had. So, we want to really hone in on what is the actual experience if you're a principal, what are you actually bringing to the table? What experience should be credited for you to move on

135that pay grade? So, collecting the work experience or resumes, if you will, is part of that process. I I don't know if I completely answered that or not. Yeah, it was a long answer too. It was It was good though. Thank you. It's not the only part of the process though. Yeah. So, I have two more kind of piggybacking on one of them piggyback. So, in people soft now that we have that profile, are they able to create because every person would have their profile. Were they able to say I have a master's degree, I have this much. Are they inputting that information inside of peopleoft so it's just there and you can pull it? Are we asking them to update that? Yes, that is part of the process. Yes. Cool. Okay, then last thing

136and then you can have it. Bo, I promise. for slide 13 for when you were talking about now we're for current employees, we're doing a total compensation visual. I was a little shocked. So, what do they get like how do they know now like what they're they don't they're just yay. Okay. So, I mean that's that's I believe that's pretty critical. You know, that's like wait. Okay. I don't I can remember when I was a young teacher and I didn't really dive into my paycheck as much but I didn't actually realize the value of you know your F FRS retirement your benefits that you get in healthare you know those those kinds of things so the idea behind the total compensation is really you know so our employees really realize too what the value of

137their their position is and so that they can go in and see that and they can do a check and balance against that as well when they see the total compensation. No, I think that's great because it gives you a true full visual of everything that it is. It's more paycheck. Yeah. Some things you're not considering. When I'm 20 years old, I don't I'm not thinking about when I'm retiring, right? But I'm getting a little older and I'm like now I'm looking at it. So, that makes sense. So, I think that's great. Thank you. Yeah. I just want to comment on a couple things. Finesscent hit some really good good key points that I was going to talk about. But but moving along, secession planning, as Dr. Carling knows, is really one of my hot

138buttons for any organization to be successful. We have to have good secession plans. I think we're we're on the right track here in in the school district. I really believe in promoting from within. So this whole piece with Peopleoft and updating their their achievements and documenting that so anyone can go in at any point in time and see where this person is. Are they really qualified for that next step? And more importantly, what do they need to do? Because promotion's not based on politics. It's based on achievement and a track record of being successful and and also being able to get along with people. that's another that's another key to to success having that civil nature about your demeanor. But I was at the insurance task force meeting as our two folks to my left

139over here were also there Thursday and I'm really happy to report that the word is out on this process. I was really pleased with the union officials and I'm not going to name anybody and embarrass them that we're talking about this and it was talked about in a very successful way particularly the piece that we're starting now where folks are learning to be able to talk about their full compensation package not only the wage but the benefits and how valuable that is to their to their home life and to their families. So that was very very positive to hear. we had a couple other social events over the weekend which folks were there and everyone's talking about this in a very positive way. So the word is out. I think people are impressed because you've

140actually have started to engage them so they really see the light at the end of the tunnel instead of it being a mystery. So I applaud you on that communications and I'm really anxious to hear as we move along the successful stories that we produce out of this demeanor. great job. Thank you. Mrs. Juvenile, thank you so much. this was actually great and I love seeing where we're going. I have a couple questions just regarding some of the things that you said regarding collecting the resumeumés. So, I sort of think about that like people in maintenance that may not have computers or how how are we assisting them with that because I mean they may not even have a resume much less a computer. I mean, I'm I'm assuming that maintenance has computers they could

141use, but if they don't even have a resume put together because they been in landscaping all their life, they I mean, so how are we assisting with that? Great question. so that's really the work part of the work that the compensation team has done. So they've had they've actually went out to like the transportation barns, had open office hours, set up times where employees can come in obviously through phone and you know we made that available. We actually created a Google form for them. So if they didn't know really they didn't have a resume, but we really didn't. And then you know they on that Google form there was a number that they could call. We did try to school up as much as we could, our supervisors and administrators to really help them if

142the if the employees needed help. you know, we had quite a bit. I mean, we still have a ways to go in that, but I believe almost 70% of our spouse employees turned some some of those that work experience into us. Now, we do have an opportunity to look through peopleoft of what their current experience has, but really if you wanted to do it the right way, we needed to collect that work experience information. but making themselves available, assisting in that conversation. And the another key part of that is we have to have verifiable credible years of experience. And so if we can't verify that experience that was on the work experience form or resume, then we really just can't can't give you that opportunity. So unfortunately, you know, you may have worked for a

143company that went out of business and if they don't have the records, we have no way of of verifying some of that experience. But but that was all discussed during bargaining with spal and that's that's really the message that goes out as long as we have credible verifiable years of experience we can apply. Okay. So and that leads me to like are you are you collecting resumes for bus drivers as well? That kind of thing too. Okay. Awesome. I was curious about that. The work with all of our spal employees is complete. So bus drivers, paras, food service workers, all of those folks have been assisted in providing us with their work experience. And then so and then I bumped into someone this weekend that asked me about it was a spouse employee asking about

144the 3% and I didn't want to go into details and they're waiting for your I guess you're going to have an email or something went out today, right? They asked is the 3% on their hourly rate or annual rate and I didn't want to I mean I didn't want to get into a conversation. I said I would ask and she was supposed to send me an email but I think if I think if the clear message is sent out hopefully and I just thought I'd bring that to your attention since I had that opportunity to. Thank you for that. And again, so the the correspondence that went out today and again, each each employee will receive a receive a detailed email with here's what your projected salary will be. Here's how the 3% cost of

145living adjustment in the order of operations. So the 3% added to their currently hourly rate. And then the idea behind the additional 3% was that was the pot of money that we needed to be able to move those employees to the 50% mark of their projected or targeted rate that they should get paid. So you know obviously then that would that would fluctuate. If you're already at the targeted rate you get the 3% cola but if you're below that then you'd get a certain percentage in addition to that increase to get you to your targeted rate. So, and that lead me to leads me to another regarding this 50%. So, the 50% puts you're going to put them at that today. You know what I mean? Or or is that their projected? So, that's what

146I that's what I want a little clarity on that 50%. Good question. And hopefully I can kind of explain this in an easy way. If you take a bus driver again who's you know the pay range may be $20 to $40. That would be the pay range for a bus driver. and most of our employees were at the same rate regardless of the number of years of experience. So, you know, if if $30 is the midpoint and most of our employees were at $24 and so for somebody who may have been here for five years, their projected rate may be right at the midpoint. Then the 3% cola would be applied and then whatever would take them to get to that $30 would be applied to them. that's where they should be or 50% of

147that. So in in essence, if they're supposed to be at 30, they were at 24 with 3% they were at 26. The 50% would give them to $28. Does that kind of clarify that? So yes, and I think that's where some of the confusion is with the 3% because it could be 3% plus a little bit more depending on the individual. And yeah, we tried to illustrate that in bargaining with some charts to show people who were there like here's where you're at. here's where the projections at. The cola would bring you to here and then the addition would be based on where you should be but only bringing you 50%. And hopefully if you know we continue to do what we're doing as we progress through the years the actual you know the goal

148would be to get people to to to where they should be in their target. Right. Right. You're going to come you're going to meet it. We should meet it. Correct. Yes. so then one other question. So I love the people program new aspect that I'm really excited about that. So, let's say and a teacher opted to not take the insurance. C is that in that program, are they going to be able to see what they're leaving on the table? And because I know we don't do any adjustments and I think that's something that I would love to see. where like myself, I don't take the insurance because I'm on my husband's plan. I think that should be an incentive for us since we are self-insured that if they chose not to take the insurance that

149option would be x am valued at x amount even though not maybe the full amount but maybe you know a portion of it that because it say it benefits us saves us money as well as how how do we benefit that employee so I just would love like and that's my question back to the people saw program do they does show what they're leaving the money that they're leaving on the table if they choose not to take it. I am assuming it does because it's programmed that way, but we still have to test it. So, we will double check that aspect. Thank you for that. Okay. Thank you. And that's all I have. So, thank you so much. Thank you, Miss Juvenile. Anyone else before I go through? Okay. I'll make this brief. So, Chief

150Johnston Rusi, great job. Thank you so much again and as well as Superintendent Carlin, thank you for highlighting Evergreen. when evergreen first came out in this district, it was touted as a solution as it wasn't as you had mentioned analysis or data in that aspect. So thank you for continuing to correct the record on that. I appreciate it. great job all around this. I'm excited especially especially for looking at the pay process for administrators, the transparency and now they'll be very processoriented. So hats off to that. And I have one more question. Go ahead. I didn't want to interrupt you. That's all I had. Go ahead. Member do I'm sorry. One more question. So like I know I've had in the past I've had teachers that they move here from another state and they have

151work experience and I've been told that we really don't give them credit for that. Is this new this process what you're doing right now? that accommodate some of that and give them the credit that they're they've missed from being from wherever to back into Florida. I mean, remember, we're we're in the process of bargaining. That has been a topic of the discussion. Oh. and actually, we've had this, so it's it's been, you know, it's it's part of the record, so it's in the minutes. We've had discussion about what we consider for teachers, they've always referred to it as years X. So the issue with years X is throughout the years even with legislation and this happens all over the country. So the amount of of work experience that you can bring into the district and

152get credit for unfortunately over the last 20 years has changed. At one point it might have been you your max number was five years regardless if you had 10 years and then it went to 10 years. Now it's at 20 years and that's what our policy is. So really determining what that year's X or the credible amount of service credit that teachers get is really up for discussion. We would like to get to that point where we have a system that, you know, recognizes, you know, what teachers bring to the table, but that's all part of the negotiations process and my apologies for that, but I think it's a really important work. So no, that's where my heart is. Thank you. Right. Okay. Thank you. Thank you both. I appreciate it. Thank you. We're now

153going to move on to item number nine, district strategic priorities with Miss Cox, Chief Nice, and Dr. Mallaloy. and I guess Mr. Alton too. Welcome whenever you're ready and chief new. Yes. Well, good morning or good afternoon board members, Superintendent Dr. Carlin and Attorney Depri Bruno. the team here today is excited to present to you our 10-year capital plan. so we will get right into it. On our agenda today, we'll go through with you our capital plan philosophy and this is what really drives the development of the capital plan. We'll also discuss the types of revenue that go into the plan, the impact of enrollment and capacity as that plays a large role on the need for the construction and potential remodeling of existing schools and then the types of projects in the plan itself

154as far as maintenance, safety, technology, transportation, and then some of the financial considerations where we were unable to meet some of the needs needed by the different departments. So ultimately, you know, students are the philosophy behind our capital plan, but in addition, you know, the capital plan is a reflection of our short and long-term strategies to build and maintain our current assets. You know, it's also a reflection of just some of our risk mitigation strategies to provide a safe environment to our students and ultimately give them the best learning experience. to get into the different types of revenue. We have first the largest funding source which is the 1.5 mil property tax. we also have the halfsent sales tax impact fees and charter school revenue. This is PICO revenue received for the charter schools and

155the district just serves as the pass through for that. But that is built into the capital plan itself. We have interest income because whenever we can invest our funds and earn some interest on dollars laying around, we want to make sure we're maximizing that. We also have miscellaneous revenues and these would be things such as if we sell land, fuel tax reimbursements from the state that would encompass miscellaneous revenues going into the plan. And then of course capital outlay and debt service. I do want to point out in the 10-year capital plan, you'll see that we do have a requirement that went into effect in the 23 24 school year where we are required to share property tax with charter schools and it's a phased in approach. So in fiscal year 26, the current year,

156we are sharing 60% of what they are eligible for. So by fiscal year 28, we'll get to 100% of what they would be due in property tax revenue. for our revenue projections in the plan. And this is just reflective of the five-year projections. Of course, property tax remains the largest and most stable source of revenue at this point in time. And you can see the current amount to be generated in the plan is over $243.5 million. we've had just the supplementation of sales tax revenue for the last several years. And you'll see where that falls off in fiscal year 29 as this sales tax is set to sunset in December of 2028. And then of course we have the additional revenue from impact fees. and that's through you know the collection on new residential homes,

157multifamily homes and mobile homes. Good afternoon. now we're going to take a look at enrollment and capacity. this slide presents the school district of Lee County's current capacity data which serves as the foundation for our enrollment projections and proposed new construction projects. we pulled this data on September 2nd, 2025. The district's total K12 student enrollment was 88,043 students. again, this figure reflects only traditional public school enrollment and does not include charter or private school enrollment. since the data was pulled last week, enrollment on this report has already increased by approximately 100 students and we expect additional fluctuations throughout the attendance cycles that we take throughout the year. the trend data displayed begins with the 2021 2022 school year and uses stable focus counts. It is important to note that while the current enrollment of 88,043

158students is lower than last year's count, the comparison is not exact since the timing of the data differs. The comparative bar graph on the right hand Oh, sorry. Sorry. The comparative bar graph on the right hand side illustrates that current enrollment already exceeds our fish capacity. fish capacity is the state approved number of students our buildings are designed to accommodate. Although some seats remain available, they are not evenly distributed across grade levels or geographic zones. this imbalance is the primary capacity challenge driving the need for additional facilities. This slide presents the district's projected 10-year student enrollment forecast. this is prepared by MGT, formerly Davis Demographics, our third-party demographic consultant. According to the forecast, the school district of Lee County is projected to serve 106,956 traditional K12 students by the 2034 2035 school year. This represents

159an increase of 18,913 students over the next decade. This anticipated growth is a key factor driving the development of new construction projects within the capital plan with projects targeted by school level and geographic zone. The 10-year forecast is updated annually using October cycle 2 enrollment data. Ongoing evaluation of enrollment trends ensures that capital planning remains proactive in addressing student growth and aligning capital projects with future needs. This slide highlights current building utilization across the district. At present, 34 schools are operating above 100% of their assigned building capacity. This number is expected to increase as additional students are assigned throughout the attendance cycles. Capacity pressures are not evenly distributed across the district. Nearly half of the schools over 100% of fish capacity are located in the east zone. In particular, elementary zones K and L and

160Lehigh acres contain eight schools. all of which are over building capacity. The image on this slide emphasizes the east zone high schools. Currently, only Dumbar and Riverdale remain under building capacity. However, Riverdale's enrollment was intentionally reduced during reconstruction and is expected to reach or exceed capacity within the current year. At the high school level, the E zone has 10,819 students, but only 10,463 available seats, creating a deficit of more than 350 seats. Without additional construction, this shortfall will continue to grow with a projected additional 5,000 new East Zone High School students arriving by 2035. This slide presents the number and distribution of relocatable classrooms or portables currently in use across the school district of Lee County. The district operates a total of 258 portables allocated as follows. We have 30 that are federally owned, 149

161that are district-owned and 79 leased portables. just some highlights in terms of the selected portable distribution. 44 are at the Hector Cafrada temporary campus. 37 are at the Cypress Lake Middle temporary campus. both of those temp campuses are identified by or by orange on the far right of the visual. We have nine 91 portables at elementary schools. 50 in the east, 10 in the west, 31 in the south. We have 36 portables at middle schools, 31 in the east, four in the west, one in the south, and then 26 at high schools. 22 in the east, and four in the south. you can see that portable classrooms continue to serve as a short-term solution to capacity challenges, but their widespread use underscores the urgency of new permanent construction. this slide highlights the board approved increases

162to school design capacities. middle school capacity has been raised from 1,200 to,500 students and high school capacity has been raised from 2,00 to 2,800 students. these adjustments will enable the school district to more effectively address capacity pressures at both the middle and high school levels. It is important to note that several new construction projects in the capital plan had already advanced through scoping and procurement before the board's approval of these higher capacities. As a result, their seat counts appear under the previous design standards rather than the updated capacities. Slide 11 provides a detailed overview of new construction projects, including seat counts, projected completion dates, estimated costs, and current status. These projects are also reviewed regularly through the district's bimonthly construction updates, of which you had one today. The expansion of student capacity begins in earnest

163next year with the full openings of Hector Caparata and Beayshores K8s. In addition, the portable swing site at Lehigh Senior High will accommodate approximately 400 elementary students until the opening of Elementary L in 2028. From 2026 through 2028, the district will undertake one of its largest capital construction efforts, opening three schools per year, nine in total, through a combination of remodels and new construction. This pace underscores the need for a comprehensive human capital plan to ensure staffing and resources align with facility growth. This slide outlines the new schools included in the capital plan and the total seat capacity each will provide. In total, these projects will generate 14,188 new student stations. In terms of strategic impact, the timing and location of these new schools closely mirror the projected enrollment trends, particularly in the east zone.

164The swing site scheduled for 2026 serves as a critical short-term mitigation strategy while permanent facilities come online. Slide 13 compares projected student enrollment shown in blue with the total student seats generated by the capital plan shown in orange. Based on the timing of planned projects, 2028 is the only year in which the district is projected to have sufficient capacity to meet student demand. Beyond that year, capacity deficits reemerge and become more pronounced as enrollment continues to grow after the final new school construction project is completed in 2032. This trend illustrates the ongoing challenge of balancing student growth with available facilities and underscores the need for continued capital investment beyond the current plan. Microphone, please. That's twice now. Two two meetings in a row I've done that. Good afternoon again everybody. Today I'll be covering the

165maintenance portion of this presentation. This slide here summarizes the district's anticipated capital projects over the next 10 years. An estimated $1.7 billion will be invested in HVAC, roofing, electrical systems, building improvements, and other operational areas such as plumbing, paving, and drainage. Okay. And this slide gives you a breakdown of capital projects that the maintenance department is managing just this year. There are 148 capital projects that will be completed this school year. The majority of the projects address building improvements such as electrical systems, heating, ventilation, and HVAC. Next slide. This slide shows you our current m current maintenance schedule compared to industry standards and recommendations. When comparing our rotation to industry recommendations, you can see that in many cases we are extending our rotation by five years and in some cases we're extending it up to

166eight up to 10 years. Next slide. This slide captures the total number of sales tax projects completed by the maintenance department. Year-to- date, a total of 583 sales tax projects have been completed since March of 2019. Thankfully, the sales tax has funded many projects related to building improvements that we may not have been able to fund without it. Okay. Okay. So, as we all know, the weather in Florida, as as you all know much better than I, the weather in Florida is, prone to storm events. and these storm events can definitely impact and accelerate our capital replacement schedule. In our district, we've seen instances with walkway covers, ceiling tiles, and chain link fences. for example, ceiling tiles have a life expectancy of 10 to 20 years. However, following a storm event, multiple classroom spaces may

167need to have ceiling tiles replaced from damage associated with water intrusions, and this can occur at nuis numerous locations simultaneously. Also, in the case of roofing, storm events not only accelerate the replacement schedules, but in the long term also affect the amount of funding that will be needed in future years because of the number of facilities that will require upgrades at that same interval. And these are just a couple examples of of of many that can be shown on how storms can impact our capital plan. Next, so this slide gives you an example of the tool we use to prioritize maintenance actions. when developing the district's capital plan, it's important to establish a tool that allows fair assessment and rating of building system systems. This tool utiliz is called the facility assessment tool and it

168allows the condition of buildings and systems to be rated on a scale from 1 to five. One being new and five being critical. It also allows us to set a priority for these building systems. The priorities range from one to four. One rep represents functional with only minimal defects and four represents risk that can lead to injury if not addressed. Next. And the last slide I have for today gives you a look at what the average lifespan of each of our facilities are throughout the district. The average lifespan for a school or a school facility is typically about 50 years. And as you as you see currently 76 of our facilities are between 0 and 60. 19 are between 61 and 80 years of age. Four are with between 81 and 100 years of age.

169And we have three that are 101 years plus of age. Now turn it over to Mr. L Nuland to cover security. Good afternoon. Looking at the capital plan for safety and security and transportation. And you've heard me talk about this before about looking at fencing and vestibules. The zone managers, they go out to every single site at least twice a year. to look at each campus, what's needed and again I talked about the fencing needs we've identified whether it be interior ornamental fencing or barrier fencing and also with the secure vestibules. You'll see on here 24 new fencing projects we've we've looked at one to add and 32 security vestibule projects as well over time getting these done. The next slide or next bullet point you'll see talks about the districtwide surveillance and access control

170systems. Dwayne Alton's going to cover that as part of his slide on on the next one. So, I'll let him cover that. And then the last part here talks about there are 245 school buses including corresponding cameras and GPS systems. So, right now we on the average we were at one point ordering 70 buses per year. We're down to 50 per year based on the basically on the minimizing the routing system. So, that's down to to 50 buses per year right now. That does include all the cameras, equipment that come with the buses and as well putting GPS's in all all of our vehicles in the yellow fleet and white fleet. Okay. So, I'll cover some of the well all a big picture overview of our technology. this is a 10-year picture. So, on the

171previous slide, you might have noticed some some of the security technologies on there. It's a different number. The that was a five-year picture. So, I'm showing you the 10-year projection. when we look at the C categories towards the top, these are the things that most people are familiar with seeing in our schools. And then the other projects, it seems like a big number. I'm going to go into that in a minute. That's a lot of the backend stuff that people don't see. So if we look at the just the first two categories there that is the think of that is the classroom and office technology in the schools. So if you notice that about 51% of our total expenditures around technology have to do with our devices for example student devices staff devices peripherals printers

172those kinds of things that are that you'll see in the classrooms and offices as well as the interactive technology packages which include the Prometheian panels audio systems and things like that in the classroom. So that's where a little over half of our technology money goes. you'll also see as a breakout the district office refresh. So the $5 million you see there that's what we spend to replace computers and peripherals within district offices over the 10 years. So the next category surveillance intrusion and crisis alert. So our security technologies like I said this is a 10-year view. so that is everything from your cameras to the access control systems you use to swipe into the schools. there's a little bit in there for alarm systems, but also the crisis alert system, which is where you can

173press the button on your badge in an emergency. And what you'll see there is those top categories, the ones you also that are the majority of that is funded through sales tax revenue. Then you have the other projects and I'll give you kind of a breakdown of what that is. That is other capital expenditures. that is not the front-end stuff that you see most of the time, not sales tax funded, but about 90 million of that number is capitalized software. That is the software is districtwide applications. So you talking about your enterprise resource planning, business software, student information systems, all of our Microsoft licensing, Google licensing, a lot of our cloud infrastructure. so for example we have virtualized environments for our career and teched classes to be able to simulate different types of environments all

174running in the cloud. So that's all in that area along as along with disaster recovery infrastructure. And then the remainder of it is some of the backend equipment that people rarely see and that is the equipment inside the data centers the servers that run the district in the district and the schools. networking equipment which is your wireless networks as well as your wired networks, the switches, routers, all that fun stuff that's in the closets. and then of course phone systems and the two-way radio systems that are in the schools where they can talk u and the repeater systems that allow them building wide coverage. So that's what that when you see the other projects that those are the categories that are within there. The last piece of the capital plan that we'll discuss today is

175debt. This makes up a large portion of the capital plan as this is how we construct our new schools. So in the five-year period, we're looking at taking on almost an additional $700 million in debt. And then I'm sorry the estimated debt payments in 5 years will be 523 million. Right. And so all of the schools that this will fund is laid out in the 10-year capital plan that was attached to this board agenda item. And those those projects are funded with primarily the capital millage fund. So we'll look at the board limitation on the debt service usage with capital millage as well as the statutoal statutoily debt service usage. So this graph displays where we are at with that capacity. For example, the blue is the 50% district desired not to use more than

17650% of our capital millage revenue to service debt. and the orange is the capacity that we're at with the statutory debt service usage. So, I'll give you an example. This year, our capital millage revenue will generate an approximate $243.5 million. And our district recommendation is not to use more than 50% of that revenue to service debt. So, that would be $121.8 million. So that's where you'll see at the beginning of this 2026 graph, we're not going to exceed that 50%, this is just showing you the capacity that we're at within that. And lastly, the this is just a list of some of the unmet financial needs that we have. Some of these are ongoing from prior years, such as the construction of some new schools, and then a lot of maintenance projects that we were

177unable to fit in the plan at this time. and there's some examples of those listed to the right of the screen for you. So, with that, we'll turn it over to the superintendent and board for discussion and questions. Thank you very much, Miss Cox, for you and your team's presentation. I appreciate it. this is obviously a very comprehensive, presentation today. So, I just thank you for the time and effort that you put into providing the board with all of this information. So, to our board, we can see that the students have not stopped coming. when we when we look at our initial enrollment, while we may be a little bit down at this point, people have discovered Southwest Florida and they will continue to discover it as we saw in some of our graphs where

178we see the student enrollment going up and so certainly there continues to be a need to keep our eye on construction projects. all of that simultaneously with the maintenance needs of this district, safety and security and technological needs of our district. also of important note, you saw like I did the number of buildings that are aging, right? So about 25% of our buildings are now well over the 61 to 101 years old, right? So that obviously gives me some a little bit of a heartache because I realize what we need to do as our buildings continue to age. So many of them are aging well. So that's a real tribute to those that came before us and put an investment into those. But as we know, we just took care of and are rebuilding Cypress

179Lake Middle School and obviously Hector Keeretta and then we just did Franklin Park. I mean, so there's a number of projects that we have begun, but that work is just beginning. I mean, there are going to be schools that are going to be needed and there are going to be schools that need to be rebuilt. So, obviously, this is something that we continue to talk about as a team. We continue to talk about the best ways to do that, knowing that there are many competing needs in this district, and we look forward to your conversation today so we may add it to the conversation we regularly have as a team. Thank you. Thank you, Superintendent Carlin. Board member questions, concerns, comments. Miss Juvenelli, I do have a question on on slide 11. I just want

180a little clarification. where we go on the so the project N&N it says 2027 is that what year is that supposed to be? So that as as Miss Silox Silox presented in the construction update with the recent information that we have as it relates to Army Corps and then waiting on the I believe they discussed some of the some of the wildlife we do believe that opening could be the fall or the what we would term fall even though it's like summer but August of 2027 yeah cuz the SL that's I went and looked at that slide 29. Yeah, it says 29. That's a big that's two two years difference. That's why I'm asking that clarity. If I may, I believe that project has been able to be moved up. there was some work through

181government relations in regard to the Army Corps of Engineers and I believe we were able to move that project up. Staff correct me if I am incorrect. Yeah, that is that is correct. I believe that it's been briefed maybe two times with 27 as the available with the recent information that we got from Army Corps which I thought it says 20 27 NN says June 2029 construction and that so like that for me that's really important because I because what I don't I don't know what I don't know what it is and the community really won't know and I think those dates are really important. So, I think it's exactly as Dr. Carlin had described, but I will add that we'll double check those dates and send out a message just to make sure that

182everybody has the correct information. Thank you. Cuz yeah, I don't it was confusing. So, if I'm confused, I can only imagine what the community the public thinks. Yeah. And that's why I'm I'd like to clarify if I can. just from earlier today that is something we do need to adjust in our presentation. the construction project update does indicate 2029. However, there was a note there that said that we did request from the Army Corps of Engineers additional we were able to request a permit and basically we were able to get two years in advance of that but we will we will clarify that is my understanding it is 2027. Thank you. Okay, thank you. thank you for that. So, I was looking at all the projects for maintenance. How do they handle all of that?

183I was just curious because that seems like a lot for our little maintenance department. That's a great question. It and it is a lot of work. I would say that our maintenance department works tirelessly to, you know, address the school and the student and the staff's needs. I would say that it's a constant balancing act between adequate staffing, adequate funding, and also good project management. And so we are working on all of those lines of effort to to really, you know, do the most we can with what we have while also making sure that we're good stewards u of taxpayer dollars and and you know, really doing the best we can with what we have. But but honestly, I do think on a on a typical month-to-month cycle, more comes in than than we can

184complete in a month. But we're still and you'll hear in the month to come, months months to come, Mr. Cook's going to do a presentation on RSM audit findings, and we'll talk about the different categories and how long each each type of request takes. And you'll find though that despite the extreme volume, we're doing a pretty good job of keeping up right now. Yes. So, first of all, welcome, Mr. Nice. I we've never met before, so I just want to say welcome. Thank you. and so then this is for the superintendent, the million-dollar question, and I so I'm going to be the one to say it. So, what is the plan for our halfsent sales tax? Because it ends before these projects end because these are never- ending projects, as you mentioned, and I think

185that I think you have to start talking about this now because I am concerned. So, I would love to hear the plan. Sure. Absolutely. And I'll answer it this way, Miss G. Vanelli. this is obviously a conversation that we need to have. We're in 2025. This is up in 2028. So it is 3 years before we absolutely have to make a decision as a board, as a governance team what we're going to do. in light of that, I have convened an internal task force of our staff to start to look at those options. very much like we did in 2000 prior to 2018. so our team will be convening that. I've asked for Miss Hulahan and a number of for her to gather a number of folks and to start that conversation. She will be

186working diligently with our staff. So, we look forward to having that conversation as a board. Again, we have a three-year one runway, but that three years will go fast and that's why we have kicked off those conversations. So, thank you for the question. Thank you. Is that all, Mr. Juven? Next was Mrs. Javiano. Thank you, chair for sure. So I had a question for slide 22 in regards to technology refresh and I think I've touched on this in the past. So I know like co pushed and we did a big push out with computers and all this stuff for our kids and everything else. I personally would love to see not so much technology for our like elementary school students. Like if we could just take those computers away that would be wonderful. only because

187I they are smarter than we are when it comes to technology. I'm they will be fine. I just feel like traditional instruction I'll call old school on that. if there's a way that we can save costs on that, I'm okay with middle school and high school. That's where I learned how to type and did all my classes in school and I can type very well. So, it's probably Miss Brook's class or one of those actually. So, thank you. But, I would love to see just less technology in elementary school. I don't know if that's a discussion for the piece and we can save some dollars there. But wherever we can look to where we're spending our dollars, I'm fine for that, but that's my two cents on Me too. Our dollars just Yeah. I mean,

188even with last year and like some of the stuff that they were doing, I would just Yeah, I would. Yeah. And I paper pencils. The one thing I can mention is that we're working with our academic services team. they are looking at how to restructure you know because the pendulum swings right some before co we were in a shared environment elementary co happened and we kind of went full boore and so now we're reassessing and we spent a lot of time analyzing software and are we really getting returns on some software and things like that so that process is already I don't want to I don't want to speak for our academic services folks but th those conversations are ongoing right now. Yeah. And I would just be curious to see cuz I know like

189your kids are turning them in, some kids get them during the summer, return them back. Like what does that look like for the computers that we are handing out and they are getting damaged. I know our parents are responsible for that. We sign that the beginning of the year saying we will pay if we do not turn in that charger and that computer 100%. So just curious to see like what that spend looks like and we could put together some stats on return rates, damage rates, things like that. That would be good. Thank you, Superintendent Carlin follow. Yes, if I may. Miss Chaviano, thank you very much for bringing this up. And this is a conversation currently we are having with our academic team. I would be remiss and much like Mr. Alton, I'd like

190to certainly hear from academic services, but kind of in life what I've used generally as a rule of thumb is either side of the pendulum is too far to go. and you know my USF education training is ringing in my ear right now. Computer assisted instruction can be valuable. in some respects I feel like I do agree with you that we have gone way over here on the pendulum and one of the things that elementary teachers would probably say if they were in the room would be everything in balance. and so there are things certainly differentiation of instruction can occur really well in a center but not as the primary driver in terms of technology. So I would just love to hear a little bit more from academic services as we bring you updates on

191our march toward becoming an aged school district. One of the requests I'll have of our team is to make sure we include for you how computer assisted instruction does help us not as the beall and endall but as one component of a center. It does help us differentiate instruction for students. So we'll look forward to our academic services providing that update with you. But couldn't agree more. Can't be can't be the beall and endall. That's for sure. Anything else? Mrs. Chaviano, did you have anything Mr. Ribble? Yeah, I just want to ask one one key question. Going back to slide 11, Mr. Chief Vanelli was talking about, I'm looking at that gigantic number on maintenance, the 1.763 billion, and I know we get a lot of complaints about plumbing and I was impressed when I

192went to the stadium last week at the Star High School because what two years ago when I was at a game there, there wasn't any plumbing. It was terrible. In fact, they had like eight urinals in there. Only one worked. Now, this past week when I was at the game, it was a whole different ball game. The school, the grade was repainted. so, obviously, some things are happening different in maintenance. But, but one of the things that one of the principles mentioned it to me is the number of days for an open concern on an a maintenance issue, whether it's electric, old, air conditioning, the leak in the roof, or whatever. Are we still measuring that? How long it by the time we get the complaint that something needs to be repaired, is it done

193within a week, two weeks, or are we do doing any better with responding to their issues of maintenance? Yes, absolutely. So, what you'll see, I believe at our next board meeting, it will be a presentation on just that. And what you'll see is the amount of time that it took or that we thought it took was approximately 104 days, which everybody can agree is way too long. But when we actually broke it down into manageable categories, whether it be urgent, routine, that type of thing, we noticed that all types of requests was going into that number. So you had SREF violations, you had, you know, new fields and roofs being put in, which some some of that work could take years to do. and so it skewed our numbers. And so now what we're doing

194really closely is tracking four categories. One is must respond today, immediate type urgent work. One is within 1 to two days, one is up to 30 days, and then another is up to, I believe, 60 days if memory serves. and we're tracking all of those metrics and we're making sure that we are inside of those goal dates which are set by industry standard and so far we're doing really well over the last couple of months and hitting those numbers in those key categories. So, yes. Okay. Thank you. Was that it, Mr. Ribble? Yes. Did you Mrs. Chave or did you have something else? I had one more piece on the unmet the financial considerations on 25. there's HVAC that's highlighted like everything else like cabinetry, flooring. Okay, HVAC like we're in Florida. what like what

195what does that mean? HVAC. Is it a system replacement? Is it an upgrade? Is it maintenance? Do we know specifically when we say HVAC what that is? So, if you look at our maintenance schedule, there are a lot of there's a scheduled system rotation. And so an unmet need would be simply something that we should be replacing or maintaining that we're not able to maintain and that would be an unmet need due to you know funding. So it would be a replacement or something to that nature then for HVAC possibly. Yes. Was that it? That's it. Thank you. Okay. I'm going to go ahead and give some comments and questions. great to see we're doing some catch up on maintenance. I'm excited we didn't see a slide and I hope we don't in the future

196touting that we're spending less than the state average. So I'm I'm impressed with what we're doing in maintenance. So I'm very glad to hear that. I am also excited and something I know we've talked about with Deputy Superintendent Savage before was the facility assessment tool. I'm excited to see that come back and be updated. So, that's a good thing. So, can we actually we're on the slide. Miss Javiano went to the slide that I was going to talk about. So, we have a lot of So, I'm going to talk about some of the unmet needs and just kind of, you know, maybe can have a discussion or at least in the future go over some of this. So, we have a lot of things going on. The east zone lately has become a priority which

197I agree with and supporting all the schools out there because in the past it has not been a priority. looking back in the district I represent, where Mrs. Chaviano lives as well. So, and I've had this discussion with Dr. Mallaloy many times, we've kind of discussed this is, for example, Northwest Cape Coral, we're getting a housing development. I think it's going to have 3,000 plus houses. So, I know we talk about, for example, High School O, which is not currently on the plan due the money, and we've talked about that. I know we still have a little bit of, space left at Island Coast. middle school Hector. We're adding on those seats and I know there's some still seats at Mariner Middle as well as Challenger. So, we're going to have some issues with elementary

198going forward, but I'd like to see if we can figure out some other ways. I know this is it keeps me up at night just like Dr. Carlin is trying to figure out this. I mean, HVAC needs especially in some of those areas where those schools are important. I know there's, you know, a lot of issues and things they've had to do to keep them going running. So, kind of making a long story short, for example, high school OO, I don't know if we maybe need to have a discussion at some point is if we're not going to do a full high school, do we look at an expansion of one of the existing schools out there? I mean, there's pros and cons of that. We've dealt with that. or looking at other things we've

199talked about, I've brought this up before is Pulk County does the P3 where it's company has it leases back for 20 years. So, you're not putting out that same amount of capital. we're not getting in any difference of revenue. we have to figure out where we can make it up and keep up with the need. So, I don't know if board members have any thoughts or, you know, suggestions on that. Dr. Carlin, I just kind of want to put that out there as something we're dealing with. Miss Juvenile. So, I would agree with that wholeheartedly, that statement, because we won't be on the board, but I would hate to see how we're dealing with east the east zone right now and leaving that that legacy to the next board members to be dealing with this,

200let's say, in five, six, 10 years. And and then the shortage is we don't have enough seats in the west zone. And if we don't address it now, then we inevitably will be leaving that for someone else to figure out down the road. And at the end of the day, that's not what's best for students. So, if we can have this conversation and really figure out a plan, I'd love to hear what the superintendent I know that and the staff is thinking about that, but like I said, I don't I would hate to leave the legacy of what we're dealing with with the east zone now that happens in the west zone. Yeah, I if I may, first of all, just thank you for surfacing the issue and I'm sure Dr. Mr. Mallaloy over there

201is quaking knowing that there are certainly needs that we regretfully have to put on the unmet need in the column. those are conversations that we do have as a staff. everything in that you've mentioned is important. No doubt about it. I mean we want to make sure we take care of the east zone which has absolutely had explosive growth. and we all were many of us were on the cabinet where we saw that and there just were not enough dollars to be fast enough to be able to address that. we do not want that to happen in the west zone. So those are certainly things that we will continue to talk about as a team so that we are ma making as much of a dent into the unmet needs as possible. I just want

202to clarify with our team HVAC reduction of of capital projects doesn't mean elimination of those projects. It means a reduction. So, I don't want anybody walking away thinking we're not cognizant of the fact that we live in southwest Florida and is extremely warm in the summers. so, we want to make sure that we underscore that. So, your point is really well taken. We want to make sure we accommodate the growth in all areas of our county and we also want to be really using data to drive those decisions. So, that'll be the continuation of the conversation we'll have with planning and with our team. So, yes, thank you. It's on our radar. Mr. Juvenile then Mr. And just to add to that, so I think for me right now why that's why that the site

203selection committee is important is because the first thing we have to do is start recognizing the land and do we have that property available to build the unmet needs even if we don't have it then now that's the struggle and I trust that you're working on that I'm sure but are identifying the property that's needed and identifying where we can put the schools. Where the need is and where the school is doesn't always work in our favor where we get the property at, you know. Yes, I can assure you that our planning department has that definitely on their radar. So, thank you. Thank you, Mr. Ribble. Yeah, Mr. Fischer, you mentioned what Poke County was doing with leasebacks and I think we that's a whole avenue and area we really need to take a look

204at. I mean, it's we got to start getting into some joint ventures and getting some folks to share the pain with us for capital. And there's a lot of opportunities out there. We just have to sit down with some of these folks and ask them what they have on their mind and how can they partner with us and save ourselves a ton of money and at the end of the day, everyone shares the pain. I think the football field in in the village of Asterero is a great example on that campus. They got a $2 million plus football field plus other improvements to the campus and the village of Astero paid for it, not the school district. So, we need to take a look at some of these things and think outside the box. Was

205there anyone else? Okay. thank you for that board members and superintendent car again just a discussion. I was not expecting any kind of solution. I know it's not easy. I just wanted to at least get some of the discussion continuing on that on those things. I was actually going to bring up what Mr. Ribble said about Asterero. I think it's fantastic partnership with that city. I, you know, look forward to perhaps having some future partnerships like that throughout this county. I think it would be fantastic thing. So, that is all I have at the moment. So, we're going to move on now. thank you everyone for the discussion. We're going to move on to item number 10, public comment. I will turn that over to Attorney Puno to start. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. If I

206can have one moment, please schoolboard policy provides the opportunity at this point in the meeting to address the board concerning any matter on this meeting's agenda. If you completed a public comment card, please provide it to staff. Public comment will be held at the podium in the center aisle and in the front. Please be advised that the board will not respond during public comment to remarks made by speakers. Abusive language defined as swearing, use of profanity, or name calling is prohibited. Speakers who fail to follow proper decorum in the chambers will be ruled out of order. Any speaker continuing with such remarks will be required to relinquish the microphone per board policy 0169.1 and may be removed from the chambers. There will be one warning. Per board policy 0169.1. The time per speaker is 3

207minutes. Once your time has elapsed, the microphone will automatically shut off. Please state your name when you approach the microphone. Mr. Speak, Mr. Chairman, there are there's three plus one I believe that will be that wants to speak to the board during this workshop. Okay. Thank you, Madam Attorney. please make sure you've completed a public comment card if you intend to provide public comment. The card is a public record identifying those who speak and providing contact information to the staff for followup. The cards are located with the staff. Is there anyone in the audience that wishes to address the board that has not filled out a public comment card? I'm working on it. Yes, ma'am. So, outside of that, I just want to remind our public speakers that workshop comment is based on items on

208the agenda. It's not like public comment in the action meeting. So, whenever you're ready to start public comment, Attorney Brie Brona, please begin. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Will the following individuals please line up? Michael Anda, Marge Cox, Madlin Stewart. My name is Mike. I am a resident county for teacher. compensation is complicated apparent according to the phase 2 slides. from a teacher's perspective, having been a teacher for 30 years, it's not that complicated. Am I making enough money? Am I getting paid enough to make ends meet? Am I getting paid enough as a well- educated professional that I am so that I can have a professional lifestyle? Can I guarantee that next year with my increased experience that I'm going to be better off than I was this year and then better off the year

209after and then better off the year after that? These are not complicated questions from a teacher's point of view. They're immensely complicated in a county that it pays less than the state average in the lowest paying state. So until you're ready to address that, there's no you can put whatever you want on your PowerPoint slides, everything else from a teacher's point of view is meaningless because the next question is, can I do better somewhere else? And invariably the question the answer to that question in Lee County is yeah I can I can take my skill set and I can go somewhere else and do much better. And I hear I get I you know I talk to teachers teachers reach out to me. Many are doing exactly that or waiting the opportunity to do exactly

210that. So, I mean, I look and I saw your phase 2 plan and somehow the teachers perspective was conspicuously missing. It's like we're talking around the needs of the teachers rather than actually talking to the teachers about what they need. And I see the what I'm going to call propaganda that is on social media that's put out by the district or to the news media. And I'm talking to the teachers who are actually living it. And I can tell you what, it's not a ven diagram. It's two circles. There's two different worlds going on here. You're losing your teachers. I have been a teacher for 30 years. More than half of that was right here in Lee County. And I can tell you, I've never seen teacher morale as low as it is right now.

211So, I mean, you bring up I got to be honest and I hope I'm wrong about this. I got 17 seconds. So, I hope I'm wrong, but I'm looking at this open range stuff that you're presenting in your phase 2 and it reminds me of the bill of goods that was sold to the teachers with regard to the career ladder and how that was sold to them. There's a deficit here. Thank you for your comments. Your time is up, sir. Thank you, Kathy Wyn. Thank you for lining up. Hello, I'm March Cox. I'm a retired educator. I live in Bonita Springs. In September is library card signup month. And if we're looking at a way to make connections within the communities and to be able to share the good news from Lee County Schools in

212other places, our public libraries are an amazing place. I sent you an email last night and I brought paperwork today that reflects that says how to get a public library card if you don't have one. I hope you do. But ma'am, I just want to make sure this is related to an agenda item. needs to be based on Oh, okay. We were talking about education for kids. Reading is a part of that, I would assume. We weren't directly. So, so Miss Cox, it really has to be very specific to what was discussed today on the various agenda items. So, there was nothing with regards to library or reading or anything like that was presented today on the agenda. Okay. Okay. Thank you. Thank you, ma'am. Maline Stewart, good afternoon. first of all, I think you've

213just heard a fabulous case for the need for continued capital investment in our schools. And I hope that I under I'm glad that you brought up the half penny tax. We know that it sunsets in 2028, but what is the timeline for getting the referendum on the ballot so that the community can make the decision about the half penny tax because that's who makes the final decision as I understand it. And secondly, my question has my well my suggestion I would say I think partnerships sound wonderful. You have to look at a lot of different funding sources. But what about the millillage? As we know, Kier County, this is how Kier can pay their teachers more money. They are able to use part of the millillage for teacher salaries. And we don't have that ability.

214We have to find a way to pay our teachers a living fair wage. Otherwise, we're not going to be an A+ school district. The second thing I just want to say is I commend the decision to delay your discussion of the additions to policy 2522 which as you know is challenges to adoption or use of instructional library materials. You delayed the discussion because the additions that were proposed did not comport with Judge Carlos Mendoza's August 13th ruling. Now you know the law in question also includes students constitutional rights to access educational materials. Dr. Stewart, so we did not talk about that policy today. That policy was not brought before the board. It was removed. It will come at a later time. So I think the comment is probably best for that time period when the

215policy is coming forward because it's not before the board. Okay, thank you. Hello, I'm Kathy Wyn. I understand later today you plan to finalize the 2526 budget. as someone whose prevention specialist position was eliminated. Yes, please pause for a second. I just want to confirm with legal counsel again. We're not talk the budget was not on the agenda today. So there is public comment during the 5:05 p.m. meeting. Okay. I already have one written for that. Okay. Well, I will talk then a little bit about something else about the teacher pay. Okay. As long as it's related to the agenda. All right. So following what Michael was talking about with teacher pay, he is correct in the sense that you know we do need to earn a living wage. I stand before you as a

216teacher who is not teaching for money. Luckily I'm able to support myself from my years and years of work and I'm begging to come back to the district to teach. But a lot of teachers that I'm aware of are doing the opposite. Just as he said, finding a district, whether you if you live in you know, I had a friend who lived in Island Park, he went to Naples to teach. I have a friend that lives in North Fort Myers, they go to Charlotte County to teach. it does need to be addressed. and the fact that you do have, you know, teachers that were getting highly effective and so on. you know, evaluations to have their jobs taken away when they provided a valuable service. That's not that's not really good either. So, you're lacking

217in some some areas as far as finding out, you know, what is a living wage? Maybe you all aren't aware. I know, like I said, I'm fortunate that I don't live paycheck to paycheck and never have. but many people do and so, you know, rearranging things, you know, like you said, every year you want to make more because the cost of living is higher. So, please, if you want to retain the teachers you have, you need to, you know, look at that stronger. And when you have teachers that love their jobs, you should not eliminate their positions unless they have somehow aired in some way with the district. Thank you. That concludes public comment, but I just want to clarify for members of the public so we understand the rules for the workshop. This is

218coming from 0169.1 which explicitly states that speakers may only address an item on the workshop meeting agenda which is different than the action meeting which you can talk about anything that deals with the operation of the school district and obviously at the budget hearing you can speak about budget. So I just want to make sure that we understand where this rule is coming from and then as we're processing our comments that it is aligned with board policy with regards to workshop and what can be discussed. Thank you Mr. Chairman. Thank you madam attorney. is going to follow up at that and that's what I addressed the beginning before public comment. We do want to hear from all of you. We appreciate it, but it's my job as chair just as the rest of the board

219to follow our policy. So, I appreciate it when I gave that note. No interruption of the meeting, please. Warning. Okay, we're going to move on next on to the agenda end with Mrs. Chaviano. I will save it for the action meeting. Thank you, Mr. Ribble. Save action meeting. I will reserve my comments for this evening. Thank you. Am I going to be the only one that talks now? Okay. Oh, sorry. So, I just wanted to quick couple updates just based on some activities association. Dr. Carlin and I have attended the recent foundation for Lee County Schools. And I want to congratulate new board chair Noel bringing and thank Mike Wick for his service for that. Those are both fantastic people that are really helping to try to bridge any gap and support us in the

220communities of school district. So I want to thank them. Horizon Council I attended as well with Dr. Carlin. We had some great meetings and discussions. one was on I believe it's the boys and girls club of what they're doing in the community and you know assisting some of our students especially in need and providing places as well as interesting presentation on hurricane resiliency. So VAB we selected and our new fee structure that petitions will go up from $15 to 30. The original suggestion was $50. we set it as $30 as an interim. So value adjustment board. So whenever anyone's making an application for that and commissioner Pendergrass has been named chair of that and I'm the vice chair of that. So update as well on drug feed coalition. I was not able to go today

221but they did want me to thank everyone. They've had some fantastic new opportunities for partnerships within this district and I want to thank the board and the superintendent for that. So now on to attorney Bruno. Have no comments. Thank you. Superintendent Carlin and like you, Chair Fischer, just a few quick comments. First of all, the board did have a question about a ribbon cutting for Veterans Park and Teal Middle School that will be held in December on a date to be determined. So, we'll get that on your calendars as soon as possible. I did have the opportunity to tour the real time intelligence center and the school threat enforcement team located at the Lee County Sheriff's Office headquarters. it is absolutely both of those working in tandem to help keep our schools safe. Just so

222a real shout out to the team at Lee County Sheriff's Office and to our sheriff for continuing to support our schools in that way. Also a big thank you to Senator Barton. recently we had the opportunity to meet Miss Hulahan through government relations, myself and our transportation leadership team, Mr. Nulan, Mr. McKenna and the team just really to take a look at our transportation processes and just a big shout out to him because he is willing to help us smooth through any challenges that might come about as a result of legislation. And so really appreciate Senator Martin jumping in there and being of service to us and we just really appreciate that. beginning of the year report certainly we want to just talk real quickly about bus transportation. Thank you for mentioning that earlier today.

223we continue to experience a few little bumps here and there. however, the percentages of on-time arrivals in the morning continue to improve. but we will not be satisfied until we have 100% on time delivery and 100% on-time pickup and that is what transportation is striving to do as they work through those bumps. so just a real shout out to transportation and just a shout out also to HR. they continue to partner with our principles. As of today, we have 33 teacher vacancies. Remember, we do have teachers that have stepped into those roles. We do not expect our substitute teachers to do that. Those are folks that are actually certified on the teams at our individual schools and so they are stepping in and helping with that. And lastly, I did have a meeting recently with

224our county manager Dave Herer. He has offered apprenticeships to our students. So, we are getting that up and running and Mr. Matthews will be following up with the county this week to get those apprenticeships up and running for our high school students. So, always looking to our community to help us and just a big shout out to our county government for stepping up and being the latest group to assist us with getting kids internships. So, with that, those are all my comments and I'll reserve the rest for this evening. Thank you. Thank you, Madam Superintendent. Future meetings, we'll have a budget meeting today at 5:05 in these chambers followed by our schoolboard action meeting at 6:00. At this point, having no other business to come before this board, and seeing no objection, this meeting is

225hereby adjourned, and the time is 4:15.