001Good evening and welcome to the Penllis County Schools Community Forum on the federal funding freeze of certain grants and their impact on students and programs in our community. I am the Penelis County School Board Chairperson, Laura Hine. And again, welcome to those of you who are joining us here in Largo online and also at the Foundation for a Healthy St. Petersburg. I'm joined tonight by our superintendent Kevin Hendrickk, Vice Chairperson Caprice Edmund, board member Katie Blackburg, board member Lisa Kaine, board member Eileen Long, and board member Stephanie Meyer. In addition, we have the CEO of the Juvenile Welfare Board with us tonight, Mike Mccurick. Thank you for being here, Mike. We also have the COO of the Juvenile Welfare Board, Karen Burgess, with us. We are honored to welcome representatives from the offices of US
002Representative Luna, Olivia Carson, as well as a representative from the office of US Representative Kathy Caster, Jameson Carnegie. Also joining us tonight is the chair of the Penllis Education Foundation, Bob Bick. Thank you for being here, Bob. Our agenda has been shared online. For those who would like to find it, you can find it at pcsb.org/funding and you will see it here on the TVs in the conference room as well. Let's review the agenda for this evening. We will start with an overview of the district budget and funding which will be presented by our superintendent Mr. Hendrickk about how our schools are funded, how those resources are allocated, and also the financial challenges and opportunities that we have in front of us ahead. We will also review the community and legislative report that we are
003receiving, but also how you can support our schools during this time and all the time in meaningful ways. We will then move to questions and public feedback. this will not be like a public school board meeting where there's time at the podium, but it will be like our listen and learn sessions if any of you have been to any of those. So staff members are around the room. you can get cards, raise your hand if you would like one. You can submit your questions. You can also submit your questions online for those of you online. and we have staff who will collect them, put them together and ask the key questions, the key topics. also if you don't think of something tonight or your question doesn't get answered, we will compile collect and compile them
004all and you can also email, we made a special email address that's funding pcsb.org and we would like for you to email us. All of those comments, suggestions, questions will be compiled and provided to the school board and the superintendent on Monday. So, please get those comments and questions end in as soon as you can. Finally, at the conclusion, we do plan to end the program at 7:30 p.m. promptly, but we will all remain here and able to answer questions and talk to you as you would like after the forum is complete. Finally, one note before I turn it over to Mr. Hendrick. I would like you to know that our school board unanimously supported hosting this forum tonight to provide as much clear information to the public as we could and also unanimously support
005the unfreezing of these funds. With that, I'll turn it over to our superintendent, Mr. Kevin Hendrickk. Thank you, Mrs. time and welcome to everyone here in conference hall and also at the foundation for healthy St. Petersburg and the hundreds of individuals watching online. tonight we're going to start really first anytime we have a room full of constituents and folks who are interested in public education. We have to talk about our district. So you thought you were coming to talk about funding but really this is an advertisement for Penelis County Schools. And so we want to celebrate our students. This last year, our students across our district, 89% of district schools earned an A or a B. Only 13 schools earned a C. Nobody earned a D or an F. And we were an A-rated district
006for the second straight year. And we're very proud of our students. And so tonight, that is both a compliment to our students and to all of you in this room who care about public education. As we talk about the funding situation in our district tonight, I do want to just take a moment to let you know a little bit more about what guides our work. We do have a vision of 100% student success and that means every student in our district. We're guided by this mission of educating and preparing each student for college, career, and life. And we operate under this set of six core values. And we value these core values and operate under them in everything that we try to do. It's not just something that's on a wall, but we have a
007system where employees can recognize one another when they demonstrate these core values. And last year, we had over 17,000 submissions by employees recognizing their colleagues for doing things extraordinary under this under these core values. And so tonight, as we're here tonight, I hope that you see these core values in action. So our topic tonight is our funding freeze from the federal government. And to understand that, I will walk you through at a high level a little bit about the district's budget. So our budget is a $ 1.6 billion budget. That is a large number and it comes in a variety of ways and formats and much much of those dollars have specific things that they must be spent on. So, you can see that 72% of our funding comes from local sources, local property tax,
008a local millillage for capital improvements, including maintenance and facilities, and then our voterapproved referendum. Thank you for supporting our referendum. The referendum went from a half mill to a mill, and our employees have begun to realize those salary increases this month. But as you see, the state funds about 18.9% of our budget and the federal government for funds a little less than 9%. And as you see, for example, food and nutrition that is there is really our federal lunch program. It's not money that actually comes into the district or we use for other purposes. It simply is based on the number of students that eat school lunch. And so this funding formula is not the same in every district in the state. It's based on the property tax of the property tax value of individual
009districts. And so districts with a large property tax base end up paying a larger percentage of the overall cost of educating children. But in Florida, we have the same base rate for every student. So it's roughly $9,000, a little bit more for every student in your school district. But some districts pay a lot more into it. Other districts pay less based on the property tax values in that particular district. The largest one in terms of percentage is Key West. Monroe County pays has the largest tax base that pays in. And then there are some rural counties where it's actually the opposite. The state pays about 80% and the local tax base can only cover about 20%. But having said that, as you look at the federal funding, we're talking about $9 million in federal grants,
010title 2, three, four, and adult education. And we'll dive in to what those look like in just a moment. But I do want you to know that as we look at our budget, is 9 million a small amount out of 1.6 billion? Of course it is. But the way that these grants and our funding comes in, a lot of these things are what are called categoricals. They have to be spent in certain ways. And so tonight, as we walk through that, we wanted you to understand that highlevel look. And so as property tax owners in Penllis County, you are contributing to our budget. You can see the local funding and you can see how we spend that and that where the referendum is, how much goes towards building maintenance and repairs. And so in order
011to understand our budget and the reason for this meeting this evening, it's important to understand the timeline. We operate on a July 1st through June 30th fiscal year with the school year starting of course in August. And it takes several months, as you can imagine, to put together the budget, to plan on how many students will be in our schools, school by school by school, to plan the number of teachers that should be allocated school by school. And you can see a little bit of what that looks like. And so in January, we begin staffing for the next year. The governor releases a budget, then the legislature reviews the budget and eventually, gives that out. This year, of course, it was a little bit later when the legislative session ended. And then by that time,
012we've finalized our budget. And so when we meet with our school board in June of each summer, we have a workshop on our budget and there's a process that we go through that is required by the by state law about advertising our millage rate, advertising our budget, public hearings. There's two, the first of which is this Tuesday night coming up and then the second is in the beginning of September. But all that to say, the process is cyclical. And as you can imagine, if you're planning your own budget at home or in a business, there are definite deadlines and highlights of that process. And so when we met with our board on June 24th, we overviewed all of the items in that budget that I showed you at the start of this presentation. So why
013we're meeting this evening is because on June 24th when we met with our board and talked about our tenative budget, we had a discussion about federal funds. And in fact, we said we know that because of changing priorities in Washington DC, the federal funds that we're receiving for the this current fiscal year now 2526 likely would be reduced in certain categories by up to twothirds of their current value. So for example, if we were receiving $3 million for a particular initiative in future years, we should expect maybe to only receive $1 million for that same category. And we had that discussion about 2627. We even briefly touched on things like Medicaid changes, other changes that might be coming and those things were on record discussed at our meeting. But when we looked at this year's
014budget that began on July 1st, we anticipated the $9 million in title two, title three, title four that I'll talk about in a in just a moment. But on June 30th, states across the United States received a letter from the United States Department of Education saying that the funding that we would to expect and that were included in budgets across the country, this is not unique to Penllis, were frozen for a review on certain grants. And so our fiscal year began the next day. and then following that, additional items happened and you can see some of those and we'll talk about those this evening leading including to this event tonight. So that review of these grants is what's causing us to be here this evening and the US Department of Education notifying us that the
015funds were frozen for review with no timeline on when or if those funds would be released. So what are we talking about in Penllis County? So there are, as you see on the screen, five different grants. Title two, title three, four, which has two parts, and then an adult education grant. You can see the dollar amounts listed there. Those dollar amounts are based on the number of students that we have in our district. Some of those are in the entire district. So for example, title two, which is for professional development of teachers for the most part, it's based on the number of students we have. So our district receives a proportionate share from whatever the state budget is that it's received. Miami Dade, Broward, Orange County, which have larger student populations, receive more money than
016us. The smallest districts in the state receive far less. There are other grants though, like Title Three, which is about English language instruction. So, students learning the English language, where it's strictly based on how many students in your district are learning English language based on their testing that comes in. And by the way, that's federal law. We are required to run an English language learner program. We are required to test students. There are federal laws that govern that and these funds support that process. In Penllis County, you can see what we receive as part of title 3. There's also migrant education funds. In Penllis, we receive zero dollars for migrant education because we do not have migrant students in our district. But in other districts in the state of Florida, Kier County, which includes Naples,
017for example, receives $3 million for migrant education because they have a large migrant population on the east side of Kier County near the Everglades. So you can see the breakdown of dollars. Now, Title 4 Part B, which is 21st century learning programs, those funds were released. a notice went out to to states last Friday night, and we received notice on Monday that the funds would be released. Title 4 part B is a competitive grant. You have to apply for those funds and there are six schools in our district that have afterchool programs that are run through this grant program. Of all of these, I would say it's the least impactful because through our partnerships with the juvenile welfare board and a number of municipalities, we have strong after-school programs across our district. So, if we
018didn't receive those funds in this way, our community would run after school programs at those six schools anyway. And we'll touch on that in just a moment. So, I'm going to run through each title grant really quick. If you've been paying attention or if you went to our website, you'll see some of these items there, but title 2, $3.5 million, includes professional development. So, we have a professional development department and almost our entire department is funded through this grant. So, it's providing teachers with growth opportunities to learn. It's providing the opportunity for people to transition into teaching. So over half of most teachers that en come to the state of Florida now doesn't matter the district do not have education degrees. They did not go to college to be teachers. They went to be mathematicians
019or perhaps journalists and then they become teachers. And when they do that they have to earn certification and they can do that by going to a college and earning that certification or they can do it through our district's professional development department. We do that. It takes them sometimes two years and then they become fully certified. So that's an example of one. We have leadership programs where plan operators and bookkeepers and principles go through leadership development programs. We obviously do a lot of training and those of you that are familiar with education understand that. So it's a large it's not a large department but it carries a large value. We do a lot of instructional coaching in our district supporting teachers with the implementation of curriculum supporting teachers with extracurricular activities. A lot of that is
020funded there. And as per our one of our big initiatives in our strategic plan is supporting a middle school innovation roll out which we happen to fund in this grant in title three as I mentioned earlier it is support for students learning the English language and so it's direct support in terms of personnel going in and teaching students. It's professional development and it's also community engagement supporting parents who may or may not know the English language in helping them engage with their children. And we have been very successful in proficiency rates on state exams, on graduation rates, on collegegoing rates for students who have learned the English language while attending Penllis County Schools. And you can see that's just under $900,000 is what we anticipated this year. $2.1 million in title 4 part A. This
021particular grant is designed around enrichment, mental health, and technology. Again, these are not our determinations. This is what the federal government says. We're giving you these dollars so that you provide more mental health supports for students so that you enrich their experience in school and that you can upgrade technology. And you can see what that looks like for our students in our particular district. Other districts may spend these funds in in different particular buckets but still under those same themes. And now title four part B which I already mentioned which was the afterchool programs at six particular schools and this is a little bit under $1 million and those funds have been released and so we will be implementing those programs at the six schools this year. The final grant that has been frozen is
022around adult education $1.4 million. This grant is designed for our adult education programs and our technical colleges to implement adult education programs to get adults who are not reading at a fifth grade level up to a fifth grade level and help them earn a GED if they need it or perhaps just provide literacy skills to make them employable. obviously across our district, a million or across our county, a million residents. We have a number of individuals that need that support and our adult education programs provide that. We also work with some in the community to help us with that and it the number and population of students we serve adults there changes each and every month. So, with that as an overview, we wanted to share a little bit of thinking of what the board
023and the conversation we've had and some of our thoughts. So, first of all, the board unanimously believes that program reviews for compliance, which is what the United States Department of Education has said that they are doing right now, is completely reasonable. We expect our district and every other district in the in the country to implement these funds in the way that the law requires. And whether that law involves diversity, equity, and inclusion or age groups of students or accounting principles with finance, whatever the strings are that are attached, they should be implemented with fidelity. We 100% agree. And we would say that our district, we can't speak for everybody else in the country, but our district has implemented all these programs with great fidelity. We receive audits on them. Our state of Florida audits us
024on these, and we've had no audit findings that ever have shown any compliance issues. What we argue is that the timing of this review is not reasonable. To do so the day before a fiscal year begins when we've hired 47 people off of these grants into positions is not a reasonable expectation. Yes, Florida starts school maybe two or three weeks earlier than other parts in the country, but it really doesn't matter if it's August 10th or September 2nd. To do so a month before the start of school is not a reasonable expectation. We also believe that changing priorities at the at the federal level or at the local level are reasonable. And so if the United States Department of Education wants to shift the priority of these grants over time, that's a reasonable expectation. When
025we have a new superintendent, we have a new schoolboard chair, you have a new mayor, new governor, priorities change. And that's the reality of elections and our democracy. And we support that. And so if next year the 26 27 school year the federal government decides to use these funds in a different manner whatever that manner may be that's that's okay. But to change that priority if that's part of this review process today is not a reasonable expectation for school districts or any local government. So, the board has been unanimous in supporting and the reason we're having this tonight is to advocate for the release of these funds and to do so immediately so that school districts can move forward with their plans and also if if plans are changing or whatever the situation might be,
026just bring closure to the situation because we our employees return to work on August 1st. That's next week. And so if we're not having funding for some of those positions, we have to find other places for those individuals and we have to find other ways to either eliminate or accommodate the programs that they were running or the supports that they provided to our children in our county. And so we don't have a month or two months or six months to figure this out. We have to act on this now. And by the way, back in that timeline, the federal government's fiscal year begins on October 1st. So they do operate on a different timeline and that perhaps might be part of the reason that they're taking their time. But in either case, it's not fair
027to local districts who are trying to do the very best they can for the children across the nation. So a couple things that have happened since the initial discussion at our school board about this. the state did release what are called rollover funds. So, these are funds that were unspent by our school district last year in these same buckets. And you may say, how do you receive these funds and not spend them all? There's a variety of reasons. We can't overspend. So, you plan for the maximum amount and if fewer people show up to training, you pay a little bit less. But also, when we have vacant positions, we typically don't fill them during the school year because we don't want to take someone out of a classroom to fill a coaching position across the
028district. We just hire it for the next school year. So, you can see in the different title programs, we have rollover funds, that add up to, around, you know, $2 million or so out of the 9 million that we were expecting. and then we plan for about a million dollars in our budget for unexpected expenses in these areas, supports that we need. So, there's about $3 million in actual funds. Now, the other funds, the after school funds have been released, so it's really $4 million to address $9 million in plans. The total salary is about $5.2 million and the total in programs across these grants is about 3.7 million. And I mentioned 47 positions were affected overall. And so before we get into more details on on specific changes and shifts in that, I want
029to invite up three individuals who have advocated for us and have helped us help to solve some of these issues. the first individual I'll call is Mike McCurrick. He's the CEO of the Juvenile Welfare Board. If you're not familiar with the Juvenile Welfare Board, you should be. it is an agency going on 80 years in Penllis County that receives taxes tax property tax revenue in order to support the welfare of children across our district. Mr. Mccurak as the CEO we reached out to the organization and said we looks like we're going to lose supports for mental health. How can you help us? That's a key pillar of juvenile welfare board. And so I'll let Mr. McCurrick share what the juvenile welfare board is doing to support the children of Penllis County. Mike, good evening everyone.
030just again as as the superintendent has said, the juvenile welfare board is turning 80 in 2026. If you don't know this, you should. The juvenile welfare board was the first ever created w child welfare board in the United States under a legislative act. so we are unique in Penelis County of being the first that has ever been focused on children and that's an important thing to think about because as we move forward we are continue as part of our motto our mission to make sure that that we stay in that focus. the JWB strengthens it's got strengthen its roots. It's our ability to use information and data to drive directions and decisions to find solutions to meet and improve the children's future. JWB JWB recently held very similar to the school board listening sessions. We
031called in our four f our partners, our funding agencies as well as other agencies and said, "Tell us what you think. Where are you having problems? What's going to happen? I don't have any money for you today, but I want to know about what's going to happen to you and where you think this might go. And in the future, as we create our new strategy starting in 2026, we'll consider these things. Well, as we started to do that, we found out that there were some actions that we could possibly take both in advoc advocacy training funding development and we can we could make some contract amendments by being a little bit more flexible which all were budget neutral to what JWB had. So the funds that we're talking about tonight are funds that we had
032in our budget. We call it lapse, but our lapse is funds aren't being used, won't be used before the end of the end of the our budget year and they're available and could be available. So, we made some budget changes specifically in this area. We really looked at the at the gaps, the funding gaps and the and the potential for how we might be able to address this specifically in the mental health area. We have two organizations that we've worked with in the past or continue to work with. That's the Sun Coast Center and Directions for Living both had lapsed funds. The Sun Coast Center had $400,000 worth of laps lapse funds, but those laps funds mean that they had therapists ready to go, ready to be able to help and support the children of
033our community. Directions for Living had two and part of their group that had laps funds that were ready to ready to be able to support the community. So, we then spoke to those two agencies and said, "We're going to take those funds. We're going to utilize the staff that you have, the therapists that you have, and as the school district needs to be able to provide these services, be able to reach out and use these services will both be provided by Sun Coast Center and both by Directions for Living. Directions for Living has actually is in five schools already. So, they're ready and available to to meet the needs of the of those five schools immediately. directions has the has been working in the school system as as well and so referrals can go directly
034to these organizations and to the children specifically within this. That means that we will be able to serve an additional 300 students that need mental health services that will need this support. And we're proud that we're able to do that. And we've and we're working with other organizations as well to help look at where funding gaps might be and how we can be flexible within our budgets and to utilize funds that are budget neutral. Very clear. So, we spoke to our board this morning about that. These are not new funds. These are not funds that come out of our budget, but there were funds that we found that were lapsed and could be better used in this in this environment. So, we're we're going to do that. So that's $600,000 that we can we can
035provide that actually helps students from four to 17 and we'll continue to have who need and continue will seek care in a mental health arena. what we really want to be able to do is to continue to be a real strong partner of the school system be a real strong partner to the community. Our focus again is to provide value added services for the children of this community to give them an opportunity to be who they want to be and we'll continue our to continue to focus on that as we move forward into the future. So look be be on the lookout to hear more about what JWB is going to be because we've been a very quiet organization. Not very many people really know about us or what we've done, but be assured in
0362026 you're going to hear a lot more about us. Thank you. Thank you, Mr. McCur. So, in in short, $600,000 that we used to pay for therapists to support students who needed additional therapy that we would not provide from our regular social workers or psychologists, typically outside the school day with parent consent. JWB is going to pick that up. And so, we would not have had that without these funds and we thank them for that. Next, I'd like to invite up Olivia Carson, chief of staff, I believe, for US Representative Anna Paulina Luna, Florida's 13th, district. Just for context, myself and board members met with both Representative Luna and Representative Caster over a year ago and shared with them that as the federal government changes their priorities, and here's a list of all these programs
037that are paid for out of the United States Department of Education, we gave our input into the ones that we thought benefited Penllis County students the most and others that we felt if cuts were needed, these would be the areas identified to cut. And I appreciate both representatives being open to that conversation and listening to us, which is why tonight we're proud to say both representatives issued letters of support in releasing these funds. And so that everyone in the room knows, Representative Luna and Representative Caster, as well as our two United States senators voted to appropriate these $9 million in their congressional budget and passed it over to the executive branch where this holdup is happening in the office of budget management. So, first up, Miss Carson, if you'd like to come up and share
038the letter of support from Representative Luna. Good evening, everybody. If you don't mind, I'm just going to hold it. It's easier for me. I'm not going to bore you with the details of the letter. I have plenty here in my hand. If anybody wants a copy, come up and grab it from me. it's very similar to what Superintendent Hedrickk Hendrick said, so I appreciate for that. I appreciate the community support. I'm amazed how many people showed up. This is wonderful. Making your voices heard is amazing. I'm a graduate of Penllis County Schools. So being here to advocate on have unfreezing the funds was an honor I took. So as superintendent said, the congresswoman voted to appropriate the money. It was passed over. Unfortunately, it is frozen. We have written a very detailed letter urging the
039executive branch and Secretary McMahon to release those funding. we went through a very descriptive presentation here on how important it is. Again, if you have any questions about how the federal process of appropriations works, how it gets stuck up through Congress up into the executive branch, please don't hesitate to ask. I'm here to answer any questions. And my office is open all the time. I'm here all the time. I'm sure a lot of you recognize my face. I've been around for a while. But again, we wrote a letter of support. I've got plenty of copies of it. If you want it, please ask me. Take it home. Read it to your friends and family. We'd really appreciate it. So, thank you so much. Thank you, Miss Carson. And representing Florida's 14th district is US Representative
040Kathy Caster. And here tonight to speak on her behalf is outreach coordinator Jameson Carnegie. Mr. Carnegie. Thank you, Superintendent. good evening everyone and thank you all for being here. While we are not your immediate representatives here, we're right next door to you. So anything that goes on with Pineella School Boards also affects our district in District 14. So, this is, something that's very sentimental to the congresswoman. and she would like to be here, but, of course, you know, there's some other things to fight to continue to protect democracy that's going on. So, I will read this briefly. I'll touch on a few points because, as Superintendent Superintendent Hendricks covered in his in his pres presentation, there's a lot of those things in here in this letter. So, I'll just start from the basics and then,
041I'll pivot from there. so Dear Secretary McMahon and Director Vault, I urge you to admittedly release the over 6 billion in funding for local school districts around the country, including an estimated 398 million for the state of Florida, which represents 15% of the state's federal K through2 budget. Freezing these funds without warning and with no indication of timing for their release has caused great uncertainty as local school districts are currently finalizing their budgets for 2005 2026 academic year. The critical funding streams that are being withheld were approved by a part bipartisan Congress to aid schools and training teachers, providing a well-rounded education and supporting safe and healthy schools and after school initiatives. These free this freeze is also affecting adult education initiatives that help prepare adult learners for success in the workplace, enhancing their skills
042and allowing them to successfully fill jobs in the Tampa Bay area. The Panelis County School District is the sorry, excuse me. The Pineellis County School District is the ninth largest local education agency in the state of Florida, serving over 91,000 of our young neighbors and their families. The funding freeze has a potent potential to impact nearly nearly 9 million in the district, and I've heard directly from those in the district about how beneficial these funings will be. Outside of the important K- through2 initiatives, Panos County School Board is also impacted by a freeze of 1.4 four million in in adult education basic grants in states to states funding which supports adult education and literacy programs that allow adult learners to succeed in the workplace. Panelis County School Board urges these career paths for training, credit
043and recovery and so much more to our to our neighbors here in Florida. It allows these students to enhance the knowledge and skills they need to to subject in subjects like reading, writing, digital learning and math to allow them to fill needed work workforce positions in Panelis County. The troubling delay of funding is unnecessarily disrupting budgeting and planning for the PA fast approach to the 2005 2025 2026 academic school year jeopardizing education initiatives for students and families resulting in programmed cancellations. Therefore, I ask for you to please respond to the following questions by July 23rd. When will the administration release the funding d funding directed for state and local education agencies by Congress? What outreach and communication has administration done to support state and local agencies for education for education in the period of uncertainty?
044So I urge you to end the pause and immediately release these funds that are critical to our students, families, schools, and local economies in the Tampa Bay area. Sincerely, sincerely, Kathy Casser. so not only is the congresswoman fighting here for our education, but also for wraparound services, whether that's in mortality rate, mortality rate, young students, education, mental health, whether it's after school programs. This is something that's very interesting and very heartfelt to the congresswoman. So, thank you guys for having us here. And if you guys have any more questions, please reach out to our office. if there's certain things that you know you guys can that you guys need help with, whether it's the beach nourishment or any other issues that you guys are facing, please reach out to our office. Thank you. Thank you,
045Mr. Carnegie. And just for clarification, I saw a few eyes say, "What do you mean you don't represent Penel County Schools?" So, the school board office is in Representative Luna's district. Representative Caster does represent portions of St. Petersburg. so I want to just share a few more items and that is so what specifically is being cut. So on our funding website that you had access to, you have a QR code there to go to that funding website. The QR code is also on the screen. We've listed an updated list of every single item that is funded in each one of these grants, what our current plans are as of this moment. And you'll see it, it's still a draft and there's even a few typos and things in there of what will be kept, what
046will be used with those roll forward funds. What are some funds that we can find in other places? We mentioned the juvenile welfare board is supporting some. And so I'm not going to go line by line. The intention tonight is to is not to have a discussion about every one of these items, but I'll just share a few highlights and you can find them on this website that we've posted. And we will continue to work through this process. And if the funds return, obviously some of these programs and positions will return as well. Knowing that though a year from now, we do expect only a third of these dollars to come through. So this has forced us to accelerate that change in philosophy by 12 months. So on under title two which is professional development
047I mentioned earlier we will be reducing four positions in our human resources and professional development departments that support directly support bringing in new teachers. We will be reducing the pay for teacher mentors. We typically pay experienced, successful teachers to mentor what we call zeroyear teachers, brand new and then first and second year teachers. Due to these cuts, we'll only be able to do that for brand new zeryear teachers. We will be reducing a number of opportunities for professional development for our teachers and any sort of ability for them to attend travel or anything outside the district using these funds has been cut as well. some of the support for certification would be reduced in this grant as well. Not comprehensive list but you can find that on our website. Under title three which is cut
048this is probably the largest cut is a reduction of 13 ESOL positions. Those are teacher positions in schools and so those are in elementary schools. The way that works is ESOL stands for English speakers of other languages. It requires a special certification by the teacher. They're typically also certified in elementary education and so those individuals will move towards vacant classroom positions and be regular full-time teachers. Not every district has certified ESOL teachers. Some just use bilingual assistants. In our district, we have both ESOL teachers and bilingual assistants, which mean is one of the reasons why we've been successful. And so that is one of the largest cuts and helps to fund some of the other opportunities that you see in title four part A. there's a lot of elimination things you'll see on there from
049student field trips and things like that we're looking to either use referendum funds if there's any available or other opportunities. there will be a number of those coaches, those instructional staff developers eliminated or moved to other positions. due to the fact that juvenile welfare board stepped in, we were able to keep those six positions for supporting students in social work and supporting mental health. As was mentioned, the title 4 part B is fully funded. So we'll run those programs at the six schools. And then in adult general education, much of that because the roll forward was so large and we do have a workforce fund balance that we can utilize, we'll be able to do not all but much of that support through our penelis technical colleges and the fact that we had a large
050roll forward. But the largest cuts would be in title two in title three and the enrichment support. It is important to know that no employee in our district will lose their job as a result of this. and affected employees, even if their position is changing, their salary will stay the same for this school year. As was mentioned, we knew this, the board had a discussion about this for 2627. So, we know that those long-term impacts are changing as the federal priorities in education change. And so, you can find that list of programs to be modified or eliminated. Again, I can't say it enough. It is a draft. It will continue to evolve as we work with staff and notify employees. And so, at this point, I'm going to pass it back to Mrs. Hine, who's
051going to share a little bit more of how you can support and then we'll get to our feedback portion. Mrs. Hine, thank you. There's a lot of details there and I do recommend you look at that document that has been posted online. I'm sure for you, just as for me and all the schoolboard members here, it's hard to hear some of these impacts to our students and our programs and our community. but hopefully you also see that you have schoolboard members and district leadership who are committed to ensuring that we continue to provide excellence in our schools. Our schools impact all of us. Whether you have kids in school today or it's been a long time or you even haven't, it affects our entire community. So, one of the things we're here tonight is to
052ask for you to help, to ask for you to engage and tell you the different ways that you can. So, so, so certainly one is through being involved in our schools. I imagine each one of you has a school within a couple of miles of your home. and so you can volunteer, you can mentor in your schools. And I want to tell you, it makes a difference. I've seen it at my own kids' schools. When you just show up and say, "What can I do for you?" You know what that does to a teacher, to a to to to a principal, it means a big deal. We have someone from our office of strategic partnerships here tonight. Can we point them out? Missine doll. Yeah, there's you saw her outside. Missine wave. Thank you. And
053so if you want to find out more about volunteering, mentoring, have your having your company do those things, please see Miss Dean. You can also find the information online. A second way. So as you've heard, the Juvenile Welfare Board is helping us pick up some of this funding gap. Thank you. we also have the Penllis Education Foundation. So, the Penllis Education Foundation champions mainly innovative programs that lead to student achievement and student success. They have raised more than $200 million in the support of of of students. And we will also be asking them to step in to try to financially support some of the key programs that we're going to be losing. So, if you could contribute, get businesses to contribute to the Penllis Education Foundation, those will be put to direct and good use.
054and their and their information is peneliseducation dot dot.org. A third way that's extraordinarily important is to contact your elected and appointed leaders. So, as Mr. Hendrickk explained the legislative side, the Congress and Senate has appropriated the funds. This is being held up by the executive offices and so if you could contact and that that information is there. If if you could contact even our state our state commissioner of education, our state governor who can then advocate at the executive level level federally and let them know how much you care about our schools, then I think that would be useful. You can also directly contact the US Department of Education. Let them know that you know that these dollars are going to important use and you advocate for the unfreezing of these dollars. So we do
055need your voice. We and we do need your advocacy. as we said earlier, if if you have ideas that come up, you can email that funding pcsb.org. as well. We're going to move into the questions and feedback section of this evening. Again, please submit those cards or questions online. I do want to mention while I'm currently the chairperson of the school board and that changes regularly. It just means I'm tasked to administer meetings, but it does not mean what what I want to say is that every school board member has an equal voice and equal vote at this table. So certainly contact us as well if you have any questions or or or ideas. we'll get started with those questions. School schoolboard members, I will just open it up if you have anything you want
056to say while they're gathering the first couple of questions before they ask. I welcome them. Madam Chair, before the board gives some comments, if you do have a question that you've written out, if you'll just hold that up and staff members will be around to pick those up. we also have comments that are being left online as well as at the location in St. Petersburg. So, if you could hand those up, our staff will be ready to organize them and ask the questions after some brief comments from the board. Mrs. Meyer, thank you so much. I just want to thank all of you for being here tonight. this is really remarkable to see our community surround us, surround our district in this way to be here for and to advocate for these federal dollars to
057be released. I want to thank every single one of you for being here tonight. We appreciate you and I look forward to hearing your questions and answering your questions, Miss Edmond. And this evening, you've heard about the power of collaboration and partnerships. Your viewership and attendance today is extremely important not only for advocacy to release the frozen federal funds, but your continued support of our school district. So, thank you again for being here. Miss Long, thank you. One more. Okay. thank you all for being here. We are really feeling this impact and this is my 44th year in Penelis County Schools. I taught for 34 years. I'm not going to cry. This is heartbreaking. This is the only career I've ever known. And I love our children. My two children are products of Penllis County
058Schools. And we all benefit from their education. You know, I'm getting older. I might be seeing some of my former students in a nursing home someday. And y'all, you need to think about that. But we're seven in our administration, but there are so many out of you out here tonight that can think outside of the box and think of ideas that maybe we didn't think of. You know, you're so focused sometimes the idea goes right past you and it's sitting in your front of you. So, please, please get engaged. Please continue to see what's going on and any way you can help us. You're not helping the school board, you're helping our children. And they are the most important part of our county. So, thank you so much, Miss Blackburg. just to echo my colleague
059sentiments, I appreciate all of you being here in person and online. I understand you're taking time out of busy day and away from your families to advocate and that is what we're here to do. None of these decisions have been made lightly or without a tremendous amount of effort and thought put into place by the superintendent and administration. So, while this is heartbreaking and very hard, it is heartwarming and fills me with a lot of joy to see so many people here that are willing to stand up and advocate on behalf of our kids and our schools. So, thank you, Mrs. Kaine. Thank you so much. and to echo my colleague Simeon's, thank you all for being here. Every single person who has taken the time out of their week and their the middle of
060their week to be here to support the kids of Penllis County Schools. I want you to know that we on the board are thinking creatively. I know in times like this, it's easy to get wrapped up in the panic and the negativity in what may not be able to happen or we can't make happen. But I think it's important to remain thinking creatively in how we as a community can pull together to fill these gaps to help our kids to have all of the programs that they're used to having so we're not taking away from their opportunities and their educational opportunities in the future. So, please, please, please if you see there are ways that the community can support so that we're not even in the interim while we're waiting and advocating and trying to
061get these funds released federally, we can continue to fill those gaps in Penelis County Schools. And I think you know, as a mom of four, sometimes you've got to make something out of nothing. And I think this is one of those moments when you're looking in your fridge and there's nothing to eat, but you've got to be creative and sometimes you make the best meals out of those opportunities. So sometimes it feels negative, but you come out better in the end sometimes. So I want us to remain focused on that and let you all know that on the school board, we're continuing to think creatively and we're going to do our very very best to make sure that our kids continue to have the best opportunities in Penllis schools. Thank you for being here. Thank
062you. We will go ahead and start with the questions. The first question from the administration building. What actions have the school board and superintendent taken to put pressure on our represent on representative Luna and the governor to demand the department of education release these funds? Our school board has taken the opportunity to write letters to all of the elected leaders in the state and federal. So, we we drafted and unanimously signed letters to the US Department of Education as as well as to the Office of Management Budget, the OM as well as to the Florida Department or the Florida Commissioner of of Education, our governor, and then our local delegation. And we appreciate both US representatives who have written letters advocating for the release of these funds including Representative Luna and Representative Caster. We are
063also a part of several groups as Florida Schoolboard Association members. We are represented by COSBA and nationally they are advocating for these dollars. We are also members of the council of greater city schools who are also advocating on on our behalf as well as the entire nation for the unfreezing of these funds. So, thank you very much for the question. I just wanted to reiterate as well that Representative Caster and Representative Luna did in fact vote for the release of these funds. So, I just want to make sure that that came across as well. Thank you. Next question. Several questions have come in online and here in person that state their children have IEPs and they're wondering what services will be cut. so the answer is nothing in this in these title grants relate to
064students with disabilities. There are there's a separate grant, the Individuals with Disabilities Act, which we receive about $30 million from. It was one of the items on the slides that has not been touched at all, and there's no anticipated changes to the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act. So, as far as students with disabilities is concerned, neither state funding nor federal funding has changed this year regarding that. And so, you shouldn't see any service cuts. Next question. Several questions focus around this topic. Could the district post a sample of how community members can advocate on behalf of the district so they can copy and paste the language into an email or letter? We certainly can we certainly can do that. I would suggest though that it's really helpful if you customize it. And I'll just let
065you know as an elected person, we know when it's been copied and pasted and sent through chats and sent through bots or or or whatnot. We know. And so really, I just want to tell you frankly that it's most effective when you speak from your heart and your experience and they know that this is coming from a constituent, an individual, a citizen who cares about this. We'd be happy to provide you language, but I would just recommend you take what we have on that funding site and whatever hits your heart the most and write a letter. Next question from in person. Have these funds only been frozen or have they been diverted to other areas or budget lines? So, as of now, they've been frozen. one of our advocacy points, as I mentioned earlier, was
066for just a conclusion. And so, you know, you can read, I can read, we can all surmise that perhaps these funds might be repurposed to some other reason. We don't know. that's part of the problem here is we don't know. And so, could they be repurposed? They could. Could they be never given out? They could. might they be given out tonight? Maybe. but we don't know. And so they could be repurposed to other things. and we have been told that, you know, school choice is one of those areas of of federal priority that is coming. And so these funds could be used for that purpose, but we don't know as we sit here tonight. Next question from in person. How long can we wait before having to take action on the money lost? We have
067to take action. So this coming Tuesday on July 29th at 6:30m time certain will be our first public hearing of our budget and millage rates this coming Tuesday. That's why we're talking with you this evening. But as Mr. Hendrick mentioned earlier, July 1st started our fiscal year. So we are already spending money. So we are we are going to have to take action immediately. Next question from in person. Will referendum monies be reappropriated? So, the referendum is very specific and what it's used for. 80% for salaries. hold on, I need to update my language. 85% for salaries, teachers and support staff, everyone who's not an administrator, and then 15% on programs. And so, within those program areas, things can be reappropriated every year, and they are. So, for example, there's a field trip that was
068funded out of the Title 4 grant to the Florida Orchestra for students in elementary school. And so, because those funds will not be there, we are looking for funds within the referendum to do that this year. and that changes each year. And so, with within the referendum, there is flexibility. You'll see the referendum noted a few times, but most of those funds just like the rest of the budgets that we talked about, we had public or committee meetings with members of the public. Our board attended those committee meetings. They set out a budget for this year. And so for the most part, it's difficult to change those priorities. and we're not looking to supplant and change the referendum into these federal grants. We want the referendum to be in addition to. So there'll be a
069few items that the referendum can support, but for the most part, no. I also want to mention on that question, we have what's called ICROCK, the independent citizens referendum oversight committee and those independent citizens review exactly how we spend all referendum dollars to make sure that they are in compliance with the voter approved language. So we will absolutely spend those funds as approved by the voters. Next question from online and in person. Several questions have circulated around will funding for food service be affected. There's no change to food service as a result of this freeze. There have been other changes around food service, not that are none of which are new or or even loosely related to this. but the way that students apply for free or reduced lunch has been updated and changed, but
070we've known about those for quite some time. as you might know, there there are other changes related to food service in the SNAP program and other things that touch that. So, I think food service in general across the country might have some changes, but not specifically today as we sit here as it relates to children in schools. Next question from in person. Is there any possibility of state funds being available to offset these massive cuts? Are there any conversations with the state department of education officials at this time, especially related to civics and workforce readiness programs that have been emphasized by legislators? I can tell you that the letters that we authored and signed to our state legislators do ask you one that they advocate for the release of these funds and then two if
071they are not released to please step in and support us in continuing to achieve the excellence we are by supplying these funds. We have also all I know a number of us have been in in in touch with our locally elected state representatives who who we know are advocating on our behalf. So we have asked it would be great but again it's one of those things that is not con not not conclusive at this time. Next question from in person. If some of the funds are released what are the priorities? It's an excellent question and so because some of this involves programs and some involve positions the answer would be different on both sides. So programs are easy to put back in and things that don't involve people are easy to put back in. So
072if it's training, if it's field trips, if it's after school programs, things like that are funded in these grants, it's pretty easy to just re-up those right away. The mentoring piece, things like that. On the personnel side, it's not as easy because you've moved someone to a new position. are you going to then move them back just to finish out this school year and then know that next year that position is being eliminated because you don't have the funding for it. So you have to look and see what is best there. in terms of priorities, we have a really clear district strategic plan and we try to follow that. so those pillars would lead us, but having students in classrooms with certified teachers and the supports that come in the classroom are first and then
073we work our way out from there. I would say though that can change in terms of what those priorities are today. And I'll give a good example. we mentioned four positions in human resources and professional development. we don't like eliminating any of those positions, but the fact remains that we are onboarding fewer people because we've had a higher retention rate and we need fewer employees because there's fewer students. So, we don't have as many hires going on right now and so the volume of work in human resources is a little bit less than it's been in say some other summers. So, we look at at what is the need today. So, if the funds are released next week, that priority might be different than if the funds are released two months from now. Next question
074from online and in person. What will happen for magnet funding or other special district application program funding? It's not impacted by these grants. the magnet funding, transportation, teacher salaries, all of that is out of our operating budget. Next question from in person. How were the areas to cut determined? It's a good question. And so when you look at these budgets, I mentioned briefly in my comments that these are the ways that we choose to use these grant dollars. Other districts may prioritize other things within these grants as long as they're within the umbrella. but for example the fact that we have certain teaching and learning positions as instructional coaches on these grants and not in our operating budget or not in the referendum budget where there are those positions there as well I don't want
075to say is arbitrary but if you have say 40 positions total and 18 are funded here and 22 are funded over there it is slightly arbitrary in terms of which is on which one you have all of them but the funding source can change yeartoyear So when you look at that, we're not just looking at the grant, but we're looking at the whole of the picture. We're looking at everything that's impacted by that. so how are these cuts determined? They were determined talking to the leadership team, looking at student data, looking at what we have the ability to fund other places. And then also in some cases, not all of the people in these positions are certified teachers. And so if there's no other position in the district that you can fill, then that's not
076a position we can reasonably cut and offer you something. We're not going to not have someone come to work. So for example, there are positions in our research department that these are folks that went to school to be researchers. They have doctorate degrees in research, but they're not classroom teachers. And so they're that position can't just be moved somewhere else. You either have to fire or non-renew that person. and we've already committed to the contract for this year as for the reasons we said earlier. So all of those things came into play. but ultimately it was you know like any other thing end of the day conversation amongst district leadership and amongst the people who support all of these departments to say where can we best live if we don't have these funds. Next question
077from online. How is the enhanced middle school experience affected by the freeze? Yeah, really good question. We have had great success in our middle schools the last several years. It's been a priority of the board through some of our objectives on our district strategic plan. and part of that is through teacher most of that is through teacher training and changing the way that we try to make middle school more age appropriate for the middle school brain. And those of you that have middle schoolers know what I'm referring to when I say the middle school brain. And so that training teachers supporting them in that those efforts. So, we were going to and the board was really clear with me that is an initiative we do not want to touch. and so we're keeping that training
078alive. there'll be a little less in terms of money dedicated to it, but all the processes, the things that we've set up are running forward. but you know, maybe the trainings that we do aren't as grand, aren't as as large, maybe not as as many items, maybe you don't get a book to take back to your classroom, maybe you don't have the extra resources and supplies that go back to your classroom through it. By and large, that is an initiative that the board was really clear. It's part of our district strategic plan. It needs to continue regardless of funding. I'd like to mention a couple things on that topic, too, just to demonstrate to you that we have a return on investment for these tax dollars. So, if any of you want to talk about
079ROI and how these tax dollars are being invested. So, in the middle school experience program, we just started this three years ago. We started it in in in 2022. At that time, eight of our middle schools were A or B schools. Eight. In three years, 20 of our middle schools, 90% of them are A or B schools. That's an extraordinary ROI on those tax dollars. And so, we would like to see that funding continue for sure. I'm I'm a mom of two middle schoolers essentially, and we all know that adolescence is a powerful age. That is the way I choose to say it. It's a powerful age. they are becoming right in front of our eyes. It is also the age where we lose kids. Yeah, that's why this program has been so important and
080has had the scale of impact that it has and it's a really important example to raise. I'm glad you asked that question. Next question from online and in person. If we are making cuts in the new teacher training, mentor programs, and professional development as a whole, how can we ensure our new teachers are getting the support they need to maintain excellence? Nobody else wants that. All right. it's a really valid question. And so I shared with you that more and more teachers are coming to the profession from other other areas. And that's just a fact. so how do we do that? that's part of the work of school administrators, principles, assistant principles, department chairs who lead these areas. And look, that's that's a hit. There's there's no way about that when there's fewer mentors who
081are paid, it doesn't mean that I mean, there's informal mentorship that goes on all the time in schools that is not paid for. But when you have paid mentors and you have regular meetings and you have a structured way of dialogue and making sure, hey, did you remember to do this? You know, do you need help with that? it makes a difference. And so how do we ensure those things happen? I'll just be honest with you, that's a real cut when you don't have the staff, when you don't have the same level of oversight because when you're paying people to do things, there's an expectation to do it and there's oversight to it. so that is a real cut. It's going to be a struggle. but it is it is something that we'll focus on,
082but I cannot promise you or our new teachers that's going to be perfect. Now the great news with teacher retention we had fewer teachers at our all week we had our embrace penelis and a lot of times we have 300 350 teachers this year we had 170 because we didn't have to hire as many teachers and so today as we sit here I believe we have 22 classroom vacancies all of which we expect to fill in the next two weeks and so that's a great problem. the last couple of years we've been in the close to a hundred in teacher vacancies at this time. I'm going to give a little ROI on this professional development in this professional development one as well. So the number one impact on a child learning outside of their home
083and we need you to do everything you can in your home supporting your your learners is the classroom teacher. and so if that's the case, we need to provide them the kind of training, experience, enthusiasm. We have certification programs, leadership programs, pipeline programs, ways to get them enthusiastic and supported in their jobs, which makes them shine in the classroom, right? A thriving teacher means a thriving classroom and thriving children. But the ROA, the ROI part of this is last year, the end of last school year, 80% of your Penelis County schools were A or B schools. 80%. This year, we just found out a few weeks ago, it's 90%. And that is due to our investment in our teachers. 10 years ago, guess what? It was 60%. 60%. We have made a conscientious commitment and
084investment in our teachers so that their delivery in their classrooms and commitment to their work yields these kinds of results. So I like to talk about ROI so that you taxpayers can know that we are investing it wisely for the success of our students. Next question from in person. Are prek3 programs at risk? Yes and no. so within our district, no. But some of the cuts in federal grants that trickle down to states and then to states involve early learning. So the local early learning coalition I believe $4 million less and I'm looking at my friends with JWB because one of the other buckets that they're supporting is investing in early learning. the data is as clear as could possibly be. Children who are ready for kindergarten are more likely to be successful in school,
085are more likely to be proficient in grade three as readers, are more likely to then go on and earn a higher living. And it sounds ridiculous that's true at age three, but that's the reality. So early childhood is so important. our funding for that has not been touched, but the early learning coalition's funding has been touched. and so and we were able to reallocate another 600,000 from JWB to support that. Yeah. Next question from in person. Will charter school funding be impacted and if so how? So each one of these grants there are there is funding for charter schools and private schools. All of these grants flow down and they just follow the students. So there is a proportionate share within these that go to private schools and charter schools. And just for example, out
086of the $3.5 million in title 2, $148,000 of that goes to charter schools and $434,000 goes to private schools. So it's based on enrollment and zip codes and a whole host of other factors. So those funds do never come to Penel County schools. They go directly to those either private schools or charter schools and they face the same cuts in this in this scenario. So if there are rollover funds from their allocations last year, they have access to those rollover funds, but otherwise they do not have the funds and we support their dispersement of those funds in terms of the accounting and sending it back up to Tallahassee and they're well aware of these cuts as well and should be advocating just like we are for the restoration. Next question from in person. Specifically, what
087STEM changes do you anticipate? Will STEM teachers be losing their programs at middle schools or high schools? One of the areas I recall seeing on here was about a STEM bus. We were we were looking at investing in two buses that would be able to move around and have experiential learning in the STEM field with our students. That is something we are going to have to put on hold and until we can receive funding for that. I'm not sure there are other specific stem. Let's highlight the fact that we're going to have one bus this year. so your seventh grade children, if you have one, will have an inschool field trip, which is a converted school bus that is now an innovation lab. And again, that's under the board's direction of our first strategic priority
088is to make school more fun, have these experiences that students remember. if we ever ask anyone, do you remember going to Enterprise Village? The answer is always yes, and I can tell you what my job was, right? The STEM bus will be like that. It's so interactive. It's so fun. we rolled it out to a few programs this summer and then it'll be in every seventh grade classroom this year. We wanted to have a second bus that was going to be paid for this right now. It's not there. We're going to go back to the drawing board, but obviously that's an enrichment that eventually we'll get done, but it's just not going to be this fall. Otherwise, the other STEM questions in terms of STEM teachers, the allocations for STEM after school programming all funded
089out of different sources. So, those will continue normally. Education Foundation helps us there's Bob. Education Foundation helps us with some of the afterchool programming through Duke Energy and other grants and then we dedicate a portion of our educational enrichment allocation which comes from the state towards STEM programming. Several questions in person and online circulate around what are the expectations for budget cuts for the 2026 2027 school year. That's a great question. I think, you know, in our in our workshop several several weeks ago, we were talking about anticipating federal funding cuts for next year. we weren't expecting them on June 30th for this year. so we aren't we really just aren't sure what those are going to be. We also it's it's unclear what our state funding will be, but those are th those are
090conversations that we continue to have throughout the school year. And again, this is some place where you advocating, if your state legislators, if your state department of education know that you care about public schools and you want to advocate for their full funding, they need to hear from you. They need to hear from you about your support for that. I can promise you that they hear from us. So, but but but like like Mrs. Long, I believe, said, there's seven of us. Look how many of you there are. So, we would love for your support in advocating for that. As of now, I'm not aware of any reductions. If I may, I'm going to put Miss Edund on the spot. She often puts me on the spot in public meetings, so this gives me an
091opportunity to flip the script. on behalf of the board, she attended a meeting in late May with the under secretary of the US Department of Education through one of the organizations that she mentioned we advocate with. So, she can give an update and she shared this with the board in June when we had that conversation at the workshop. Thank you. I am the president of the Greater Florida Consortium of School Boards and we represent and advocate legislatively for 10 districts around the coast. And when I went to Broward, we had the opportunity to speak with she wasn't the deputy secretary Penny Schwin at that time, but we spoke with her and she discussed some of the priorities of the federal administration as well as the significant changes, the priorities as well as the budgeting that
092will occur during the 26 and 27 school year to the tune of dropping onethird. So from a six billion to two billion. but they also plan on allocating funds differently. So what would what we would what we would receive for adult education it was said would come from the department of labor. So they're trying to find efficiencies in the way they manage the funds and streamlining it through various departments under the federal administration. Again, what that looks like is to be determined. exactly what the financial cuts can be. I can't speak to that as we're witnessing today. We were guaranteed funds that didn't make it. So again, I do know that we should expect significant federal cuts next year and in the years after afterwards as well as the priorities have changed under this administration
093as superintendent Hendris spoke about earlier. Next question from in person. If the community steps up and contributes funds to the schools, will the federal government then cut their federal future funding by that amount? I think that's an interesting question for certain, but what I will what I will offer is that our kids need you, you know, and so if if if there are philanthropic pathways that can help support things like Elevate Excellence or the English as a second language programs, please please bring them forward. I also would say that we are one of 67 districts in the state of Florida. We are one of the 30 largest districts in the country. but there are hundreds and hundreds of school districts across the country. I'm not sure if the philanthropic wave of support across the country
094is going to be enough to factor into the federal government deciding, you know what, we don't need to do this anymore. People are just going to give to their schools. it's an interesting question. I can understand asking it. But what I would say is we can demonstrate the ROI on your philanthropy with our schools and they will be put to good use just as the education foundation knows with the programs that they've invest in invested in and we've shown that return in terms of academic excellence. So I also believe that this is an area that I wish we had we had expanded on some time ago. I mean I don't know about you all but I've been to plenty of fundraisers around the county for lots of different things. Why don't we raise funds for
095our school to support a whole range of activities whether it's social work, mental health elements or after school or before school or learning elements but also athletics, arts, you know, a range of things. So I personally would advocate and ask you for your philanthropy. Miss Blackburg, I would just like to say I know that this is frustrating for us to sit up here and say we don't know. It is frustrating for us. We had a workshop on Tuesday that was fiveish hours about and we asked many of the same questions that you all are here asking tonight and it is it's frustrating because we got the same answer. We don't know. all I ask is for some grace because we are doing the very best that we can. we care and we want, excuse me,
096to be able, you know, to support our teachers and students the best way that we're able to, again, without knowing. So, I just wanted to add that little bit in there because we're all frustrated, too. Next question from online. Will educational alternative services be affected? education alternative services or dropout prevention which has you know a number of schools and programs. No, there are no anticipated changes in that regard. Next question from in person. What will happen with laptop distribution? Is this going to be affected by the frozen funds? It is not going to be affected. That's paid for out of our capital budget which you saw earlier. for Penelis County Schools taxpayers directly to the school district. No frozen funds, no hang-ups, so we're good. Next question from in person. Will all schools funding be
097affected equally? the answer to that is really as you see in most of these positions and services, they are things to support schools. So are they going to be affected equally? No, because the level of service at each school depends on different things. Do you have more new teachers or or fewer new teachers? Do you have more English speaker speakers of other languages or fewer speakers of other languages? So, it really does depend on what you have at your school. but really by and large it is equalized, but I don't want to pretend that it's perfectly equalized because part of it depends on on what you have at your school. I do want to mention one thing because it we mentioned the referendum earlier. The best part of this situation for our employees is because
098of the voters in Penllis County and because those dollars come directly to the school district, every employee in Penllis County, our teachers will see over $4,000 raise this year as a result of local property taxes. And every support staff member who's not a teacher will rece receive $2,900 increase as a result of that referendum. So, as we talk about all of these things and it seems so bad and it is, our employees will receive raises because of Penllis County residents that does not involve the state and does not involve the federal government. And so, as you leave tonight or later or talk about this, just know that's a really important part and we cannot thank our community enough for that. Next question from online. When will the revised budget be completed and is that something
099that the public can view? so July 29th is the first budget hearing. It goes again in September and it is updated each time. It's also updated throughout the school year and at every school board meeting. There are documents and the board votes on any budget amendments or changes to the budget. The budget actually changes all year long because our funding is based on student enrollment. And so as we have more students, you may receive additional dollars. As you have fewer students, you receive less dollars. And so it fluctuates all year. That's a normal process. So the overall budget numbers and the general number is pretty similar throughout the year, but it does change. So you'll see the budgets already been adjusted as a result of these for Tuesday night. And then we'll have another one
100in September that's sort of a finalized budget that the board votes on, but then it does have slight adjustments throughout the year as revenue is received or not received. Next question. And those items are posted online. If you visit pcsb.org, you can view the agenda for our next school board meeting next week and time certain at 6:30. It includes the budget hearing, the first budget hearing. I just want to mention one thing on the budget as well. So it's money in and money out, right? just like our households. And so the money comes in from federal, state, local sources. We certainly advocated for and thank you for passing that referendum. So we have, you know, the slightest amount of influence, I guess, on money in, but otherwise we are allocated money. The state tells us
101this is what your budget is. The federal government says this is what your budget is. And then our role is to allocate the resources that we're given in the very best way we can to ensure that 100% student success that we were talking about. So, I just wanted to share that with you. If I would love for you to look at the budget, as Miss Edmond said, it's available online now. and if you have any input certainly on how we allocate those resources or the specific ideas right now around how we're dealing with this $9 million, we definitely want to hear from you. we need you to advocate in other pathways for the money in part. our voice, our host in the back, if we'll do two more questions and then we'll conclude and give
102the opportunity for individual conversations. Next question from in person. Teachers are mandated to have so many hours of training in reading and ESO ESE to be able to reertify. If coaches are being moved out, how will our teachers get those hours? Those hours are actually not done through coaching during the day. They're done through training at night in the summer, other times. So, all of those will still be available. we offer them as a school district. Penel County Classroom Teachers Association offers some of those. You can get them online other places. So there's a variety of places that those can occur. So there'll be no changes there. This question is from in person and our last question. If the funds become available, how can the community advocate on the district's district's behalf to address the
103tur turmoil that the executive branch has c has caused across our district? I think we touched on it earlier where we just want answers. If we're not getting money or if we're getting a third of the money that we originally, you know, projected to have, we just would like answers. So clear and concise. again where when is it coming is it not coming is it half is it a third and time for us to be able to plan and budget. So I think any sort of advocacy on that behalf would be we need a timeline. Everybody every business works on a budget and a timeline. So I think that would be what I would suggest. I just want to say this to all of you. It's obvious that our community cares and that every one
104of you are concerned about education. And I was guilty of this when I was young and we were raising kids. I didn't pay a lot of attention to the impact of legislature in the state and the federal. But now that I'm getting older, every single one of us in here pay taxes that go to the federal government, that go to the state, and they need to quit playing political games. This is not about politics. This is about our children. And anyway, let us bombard them. Let them hear your voices because it is your money that they're using. That's the bottom line. So, I beg you, I beg you to get involved. Even if your kids are grown, we might have grandchildren. Who knows? I'm hoping soon. But, no, I better not say that out loud.
105Anyway, that still affects me. And I have younger friends that are having children, and I love them like I'm a grandma. They call me mama long from when I taught and I really am mama long. So step up. You're not You have a right. You have a right and use it. That's the vote and write. Don't stay silent. Let them hear your voice. Thank you, Mrs. Long. thank you everyone for being here tonight. But what I do want to do is I want to thank our superintendent and our staff who has been communicative, transparent at all points, keeping the all all all schoolboard members advised about what's going on and as well as providing as much information as we can to you. And I hope that you see that. I hope you see that we
106will answer any questions that you have and provide you the information so that you can advocate for our kids and for your schools. You have exceptional schools here in Penllis County. You can be proud of them. We are proud of them. But they are built and rebuilt every day by the people who engage in them and that's you. And so we do ask for you to step up and continue to advocate and participate in our schools. thank you. Thank you for being here. We will all be here. If you have any other questions or discussions, we're we're we're happy to continue to talk to you this evening. Thank you for joining us. Also, I just want to take a quick second to say thank you for all those of you who joined us in the
107overflow room downstairs. It is amazing. It is like like Miss Blackburg said earlier, this is both heart-wrenching news but heartwarming to have the kind of support show