001e e e good evening everyone welcome uh Welcome to our superintendent's Awards meeting and at this time I'm going to turn it over to the school uh superintendent uh we are in the Joan idet Junior Tec and I ask out of respect to everyone please silence all electronic devices Dr Moore thank you madam chair we do have two um brief presentations making up some time from last month's meeting so I'll turn it over to miss Maddox to present hi good evening thank you for those of you who are here with us tonight um I know we have one person who is on her way Dr MO um that is our casual for a cause presentation um The Casual For A Cause presentation is each month our district selects a predetermined organization to fundraise for with
002the organization changing monthly on our casual for a cause calendar in exchange for a small donation students and staff are allowed to dress down on a designated day last month we fundraised for safe families for children of the Treasure Coast and we're happy to have Jesse Ray our chapter director who I believe is on on her way here with us tonight so if we can just flip she said she should be here any moment she just texted me um and go on to our second presentation because I see that we have those attendees here and if I could please introduce Miss Jennifer Justice the principal of Pelican Island classical magnet school to do the next presentation thank you very much that's the first time I've been introduced as the principal of Pelican Island classical magnet
003school so that's pretty special and that's actually why I'm here tonight so I am here tonight to honor an amazing young student of ours Riley joined us at Pelican Island just last year she and I arrived actually at the same time but to watch her grow to watch her knowledge to watch her academic sore to watch her confidence sore has truly been an Educator's dream and quite an honor for me but for me that's not what's most impressive about Riley it is her quiet leadership to say that she is painfully shy is a true definition but to watch her be kind to be thoughtful compassionate all of those things is actually what matters most Riley so you are an inspiration to me as an educator because I wish I had a whole school full of
004Riley's it would make my job so much easier not not only that but she will surely leave an impact on whatever she chooses to do in this life she's already left an impact with us as Riley was our student Advocate who sat on the panel with us and she put forth the motion to rename our school Pelican Island classical magnet school so that's why we are honoring her here today so I will have Riley come up and join us with her family [Applause] so Riley this says your voice and dedication were instrumental as you initiated the motion to rename Pelican Island Elementary School to Pelican Island classical magnet school we honor your exceptional contributions and celebrate your successes yeah absolutely what am I gonna do that black congratulations Riley conations Riley good job thank you
005thank you good job okay and just in time we're going to circle back to our casual for the cause presentation um Miss Jesse Ray who is the chapter director of safe families for children of the Treasure Coast is here tonight and Jesse if you would come on up we have a donation for safe families for children for [Applause] $1,741 have a few words to say I just want to say thank you to the school district this is an incredible program um It's a Wonderful opportunity for non profits just to become better known in the community it's my kiddos you know been in the public school since kindergarten and it's always a fun time whether it's hats or socks or something fun like that and so um it's it's really just a a great program we
006really appreciate the support and thank you so much [Applause] [Laughter] [Applause] that concludes presentations all right this meeting is adjourned at 5:35 e e e good evening everyone welcome for those of you just joining us I'd like to welcome you to the Schoolboard business meeting at the Joan nidelet Jor Tec today is Monday March 10th 2025 and I'd like to call this meeting to order the time is 6: PM I ask that out of respect to everyone please silence all electronic devices at this time and also if you have any material you wish to share with a board member please bring that to Mrs Moray she's sitting right over there she is the executive assistant for the board all right so we're going to call for the Pledge of Allegiance which will be led by
007ver Beach High School's Air Force Junior Roc Detachment 043 under the direction of major retired Dean rasdale and senior master sergeant retired Shan Roode please stand I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the Republic for which it stands one nation under God indivisible liberty and justice for all for [Applause] I was told there were a lot of freshmen in that group so good job guys thank you all right so board members are there I'm I'm going to call for the adoption of the orders of the day are there any items that board members wish to move from consent to action or add to discussion Mr Rosario um can I'd like to move consent agenda item a approval of extended day day summer camp and before and after school
008fee schedule 4 a or 5A uh 6A 6A sent 6A okay okay anyone else yes yes I'd like to uh add an item and ask uh Mr Green to please give us a uh recap of the financial report based on the third calculation that we uh discussed in the workshop today uh to make sure that everybody understands where the dis is as it current plac do you want to add that as a discussion item or do you want to pull that item superintendent area if that's okay if we could do it in your okay yes thank you okay anything else all right board members I'm going to call for a motion to accept the orders of the day as amended so moved second Dr PCA Dr Jones all those in favor say I I I
009anyone opposed passes 5- Z thank you all right we are to the superintendent's report and I believe we're adding a budget item to that now I think we're g to do a proclamation first Madam chair so miss Maddox floor is yours good evening everyone thank you for being here with us tonight um tonight we have our Proclamation for Vaping awareness month which is March 2025 and I'd like to introduce Heather Holden our director of student services good evening everybody we have invited Thrive formerly the substance awareness Center to prevent to present in order to prevent our March vaping awareness Pro Proclamation We join every year with thrive on bringing this year the tall cop says stop presentation strengthening families classes uh the first annual Parent Academy the fourth annual family fund Fest and they also
010joined us at the Choice Fair they've also been in several of our fourth and fifth grade classrooms teaching aping prevention lessons so with us tonight from Thrive if you'll all stand up we have Carrie Lester who's the CEO uh then kidi excuse me Kylie mwala who's the director of data and outcomes Shelley Stewart director of Prevention Services April Lee who's one of their prevention specialist and we have a student with us Mimi null so if Carrie and Mimi would please come up to read the proclamation good evening as Dr Holden said my name is Carrie Lester I'm the CEO of Thrive formerly known as the substance awareness Center and I just want to thank you for having us here tonight and recognizing this Proclamation addressing vaping uh youth vaping we are grateful for your leadership
011and support in addressing this critical issue in our community and aspect of prevention and before I have Mimi read the proclamation I did just want to take a brief moment to introduce you to our new Mission and assure you that although we have a new name in new Mission our work remains on unchanged our name and Mission really the new name and Mission really reflect our renewed commitment to our work and we think it better aligns with our vision and our goals for our community and so now as Thrive IRC our mission is to protect and Empower our community by providing resources prevention strategies and Recovery Services that address substance misuse and Behavioral Health promoting long-term wellness and so we do that by leaning into five mission pillars our first Mission pillar is thought leadership
012we have been in this community serving for 35 years promoting best practices for prevention and Recovery all of our programs are licensed and accredited assuring that we are meeting the highest standards set forth in the industry our next mission pillar is community awareness is prevention is awareness we lead our community prevention coalition to address risk and protective factors in our community that uh impact over uh impact seven problem adolescent behaviors we also bring training education and resources to our community so that we can make informed decisions to keep our children and our families safe and Dr Holden mentioned a couple of the activities we do under our community awareness education is our third mission pillar we've been in this community providing evidence-based prevention curricula to our youth over the over the past two decades at
013the least and we have we are trained in this evidence-based curricula we have trainer of trainers on staff and we are are committed to the prevention science to ensure we bring the best to the youth in our community our fourth Mission pillar is early intervention and Adolescent Treatment and so we provide indicated Prevention Services for youth who've been identified as engaging in health risk behaviors and for those youth who are demonstrating signs and symptoms of substance use we now provide Adolescent Treatment programming and our last mission pillar is recovery with results we offer um uh we offer licensed andoc edited substance abuse treatment programming peer support services and two recovery homes for adults with substance use or co-occurring mental health disorders and so with our new name we remain committed to serving in our community
014we appreciate our partnership with the school district and we look forward to continuing to work together as a community that cares we thank you for your time tonight and with no further Ado me me all um vaping Awareness Month March 2025 addressing youth vaping epidemic whereas the federal government declared youth e cigarette use or vaping a nationwide epidemic and whereas in 20124 14.5% of high schoolers and 99.1% of middle schoolers reported trying ecigarettes and whereas Indian River County has made progress in reducing youth vaping through the dedication of schools and Community Partners advancing youth substance use prevention and whereas e cigarettes are unsafe for for kids teens and young adults and whereas ecigarettes typically contain nicotine which is a highly addictive chemical and the developing youth brain is more vulnerable to its effects including reduced
015impulse control deficits in attention and cognition and mood disorders and whereas ecigarettes aerosol is not harmless water vapor and aerosol that users breathe from ecigarette device can and exhale can contain harmful and potentially harmful substances including cancer causing chemicals and heavy metals such as nickel tin and lead and whereas the focus of March 2025 is to get accurate information about Youth and ecigarette use into the hands of our students and parents which is an important step to revising this alarming Trend in our schools and whereas Indian River county is committed to the goals and objectives of vaping Awareness Month through local prevention and initiatives and public health programs and therefore the school board of Indy River County Florida hereby proclaims March 2025 as vaping awareness month thank you so much for that okay board members
016we have a proclamation on the table um I'm going to call for a vote to approve the proclamation of March as vaping awareness Awareness Month all those in favor say I I I I anyone opposed it carries 5 Z thank you so much for reading that [Laughter] [Music] be specific with this group your excuse me now the res okay so if we can pull up the superintendent's report this will be a a relatively brief report because there's only been two weeks in between our last business meeting um so we'll begin um the presentation on February 25th this is a partnership that we're doing with the our our own board our own Ed fund board uh it is a partnership where we brought together um this is the second session we're calling it The Indian River
017Leadership Institute and we're bringing together leaders in our schools as well as Leaders within Piper leaders within each of the two individual Banks um that are on our board and really engaging in conversation about building leaders across our entire Community uh this has been two extremely powerful sessions the takeaway is for us from my perspective is to grow awareness about who is Le leading our schools the depth of who those individuals are how well they speak uh and what exceptional leaders they are well at the same time allowing us to connect engage and learn from them so we have one more session but what we're doing in this session this is the one of the first things uh that we're doing right out of the gate uh with the edboard and it's just absolutely amazing
018um get more connected was on February 25th the highlight of that was to make sure all of our families understood uh that we were walking into the I ready assessments that took place all of last week wanting to make sure that that information that the students provided to us allowed us that last little tweak uh so we can provide the most meaningful uh instruction to our students six weeks uh leading into the upcoming assessment had the opportunity to review some of that data today as it was coming in and once again I I am very very encouraged and look forward to sharing that information uh with the board in our next presentation um it was referenced during our Workshop today but this was the IND River um County's children services golden impact Awards and they
019wanted to acknowledge both of our High School principles for their uh leadership around graduation rate uh we have a graduation rate of 96% and because of the work of uh those two gentlemen um in between uh Kelly Miss basura um we're seeing great great outcomes and they represent us in absolutely outstanding ways uh we had new book Curious George happy St Patrick's Day um will we be recording reading of of that as well okay all right I'm getting in on it this time and then uh National School breakfast week uh as you can see our schools are are fully participating there um both our cafeteria staff as well as our our principls I think that's Mr fa but he's dressed up every day so I don't know what's different about that picture and then I
020had the opportunity in Atlanta last week on March 4th to present around to 600 people uh across the um this this side of the United States our presentation which we've entired wire to learn fast and wire to learn fast is the response that I provide when people ask what's going on differently in Indian River County the most or the best thing about this presentation it was I gave the opening keynote which was during lunch and I was up giving my presentation while everyone was having their lunch three of the 500 people over there got sick um and because I was giving my presentation I did not get sick um and no one got sick because I was the one presenting it was definitely something in in the food but that was absolutely outstanding um a
021lot of great feedback on the work that we're doing um I was featured in the school transportation news just just highlighting the work that we're doing they called and asked for for pictures and some quotes and we just had what we did for our bus drivers the first 10 days of school so that was just that's us right there welcoming our bus drivers back making sure they get the much deserved love that they need um and then last Thursday March 6 was the announcement for National superintendent of the year um and it was absolutely overwhelming so the gentleman from Alabama is the national superintendent um and I honestly did not realize the the acknowledge M of being one of four finalists until I actually got there and it was truly truly eye openening for me
022the doors that have opened for this district for myself as a result of the collective work that we have done is truly truly uh allowed me to reflect and say wow we are really doing something different and if you were to look at the outcomes of this school system and the growth of this school system um it truly set sets itself apart so each of us should be extremely extremely proud of of that work um just since leaving that event um very very very humbled I was glad I get to experience it with some of my staff uh and my wife who was in the middle of of that picture there so it was a great great great time um and then I also while I was there did a number of speaking events but
023I did uh participated in a superintendent unplugged which is a a podcast we'll let you know when that's coming out that's not actually a picture of that particular podcast um but it's the best we can find um and then the district strategic planning Town Hall meetings we had two take place over the last several uh since our last board meeting that's this was actually on March 13th um and to take us home Mr Green will highlight some of the information that we shared during our Workshop today regarding our our budget and the information that we have available to us as we kick off uh budget season three months earlier than we did in previous years thank you Dr Moore through the chair um so today we did kick off the 2526 budget um development and
024approval process last year we started that on June 10th this year we started it on March 10th so three months earlier to the day which was good and um we started that with a review of this year's budget because school district budgets are unique from any other budget that I know because you're funded on the students who show up and there's no way they know who shows up last summer when they give you your budget so that's based on projections October the state surveys all of the school districts around the state and say how many kids do you have and what courses on the are they in and how are we going to pay you the results of that survey get calculated into what's called a calculation of the budget which we just received last
025week on March 3D typically we get that early January so that's a little bit delayed this year that calculation is the first time we have seen um our budget changes based on actual student enrollment and um course and scheduling so that is from October which generates half of our budget um they just surveyed us this last month in February across the state for the second half of our budget so that will be processed and then in May or early June we'll get What's called the fourth calculation and that will show us the full budget from October to no November so today we um kind of went over that ffp the Florida Educational Finance program formula on how we're funded we gave an overview of our FTE and what our enrollments look like across traditional and
026virtual and Charter and um Family empowerment and all the various components of the budget we went through the various funds and how those are broken down and then we started talking about some of the various budget impactors that we'll have for next year some of the typical ones that we have um raises for employees in health insurance and also enrollment and things that we just have to tackle and start budgeting for so for the next three months we'll be doing workshops and aligning that budget to the Strategic plan as it's developed and then over the summer we'll go through an official process that's a little more formalized where we will be having public hearings and meetings to express to the community what the millage rates on their tax um forms are going to look like
027for next year and all the way up until um next September when we will adopt the final final budget for the 2526 school year so today was a a day to give that overview of where we're at so far how our um funding has been affected and how we're using that to plan for the rest of the year and to kick off the budget for next year now was our funding affected our funding was affected so we were adjusted overall net of Nets to .7 million reduction to our um funding in the budget and the there we were down 88 FTE is a district overall that includes family empowerment Charter and traditional um but the vast majority of that impact was from um students electing the family empowerment scholarship which we had budgeted for 14.8
028million that um came in in October at 16.8 million for family empowerment so that additional 2 million is something that we um we are finding out now from October and that's what we are working through from now to the end of the year to um have a Balan budget and maintain our fund balance going into the summer all right board members any comments good all right thank you thank you how you done superintendent more okay thank you all right so it is time for public input these are the guidelines for public input according to Schoolboard policy 01691 during regular business meetings of the board the board offers the following two opportunities for public input one on an any agenda item consent agenda and or action item prior to the board taking official action on a
029proposition and two during the public input section for items not on the agenda for those who are watching please understand that though we have established proper decorum and expectations of professionalism when it comes to individuals who wish to provide public input this is a live broadcast each individual speaker shall be allotted up to three minutes during public input and up to three minutes to an item on the consent agenda and or action agenda item as indicated on the order of business as it exists at the time of the meeting at the start of the meeting the time period may be adjusted by the presiding officer individuals may only speak once about any given item item individuals who have filled out the speaker's form are allowed to address the board individuals may not delegate their allotted
030time to speak to other individuals If an item is moved from either the consent agenda or discussion agenda to the action agenda individuals will have the opportunity to speak to an item prior to the vote of the board during the meeting please refrain from clapping or outbursts of any sort so that we can proceed with dignity and decorum by not infringing on any individual's first Amendment rights in this limited public forum setting as board members listen to individuals without interruption individuals are asked to give board members the same respect please board members may or may not address any individual statements at the end of all public input comments under Section 1000 1. 372 subsection 3 Florida Statutes the presiding officer May order the removal from a public meeting held by The District School Board of
031any person interfering with the expeditious or orderly process of such meeting provided such officer has first issued a warning and that continued interference with the orderly process of the meeting will result in that removal all right after I've read that we are going to recognize the citizens in the order that we have received their um forms and they are timestamped we only have three tonight I think that's a record all right our first speaker is Dr Margie Flanigan and the next will be Liz Caldwell thank you good evening I'm Dr Margie Flanigan chair of Education Champions advocates for public education last week Margaret Murray and I were honored to tour the renovated Media Center at Vero Beach High School and we want to take the opportunity to highlight The Splendid work of the staff students
032and administrators there first let me say that we hope to also tour the media center at Sebastian River High School we've heard from many sources how impressive that facility is and we can't wait to visit there soon initially we stopped at Vero Bean the student run coffee shop inside the media center it's a welcoming and well organized spot where students prepare popular cold and Frozen Beverages and gain firsthand entrepreneurship experience under the skilled teaching of Miss Addison tesy any profit is used for student scholarships the media center is nothing like what I pictured a high school library to be instead it's designed with a mixture of group spaces and private spots for individual work it's truly state-of-the-art and we saw students working on laptops reading quietly and working on class assignments the soon to be
033launched first rate esport Sports room will be an attractive draw but my most lasting impression came from our talks with a student and a teacher that we had there unsolicited the student told us how grateful she was for the Indian River County Teachers she's had from elementary school to now she graduates in May and hopes to enter a nursing program next fall a teacher shared a story of one of her students who faces significant living situation challenges who told us that for him school is a safe place at a time when we hear so much negative chatter we wanted to share this positive experience with you we know the New Media Center is just one of many excellent opportunities available in our district kudos to all the Stellar work tackled daily to enrich our students
034we want to thank Dr Peggy Jones for arranging the V visit for us and Vero Beach high school media specialist Miss Sherry white for the tour and for her enthusiasm the media center showcases the district's Innovative efforts in preparing our students for a productive future and spotlights public education as an essential benefit to our community thank you thank you Liz Caldwell is our next speaker Thomas Kenny will be our last speaker good evening everyone um my name is Li is Caldwell uh I'm a retired food service worker and I'm a former own owner of several restaurants so um I'm reading off of this okay so this is my first time doing this uh so I would say it's safe for me to know a little bit about what goes on in a kitchen and how
035it's ran um I'm a representative of food service for CWA 3180 and I'm here to represent the support staff and in these kitchens we have been going uh through the school uh I do hope that you receive the video and find the humor in some of the ladies that uh put that video together for some of the equipment that has been broken for a long time in these cafeterias it's becoming very stressful for them and uh this is why we're here to see if we can uh work together and I have to say that um our acting president Lori Taylor informed me uh this evening that um Mr Green they had um appropriated some funds to start fixing some of this equipment but there's a lot going on in these schools and for these Lunch
036Ladies to come in to be happy to be there every day and do their job and it's extremely hard on them when they don't have the equipment to work with um and short supplies of things that they need sanitizer um broken ovens the pass through garbage disposal malfunctioning freezer some mold going on um and it's very hard for them to come in and you know feel good about doing this and serving food to our children um the workers are expected to report to work and still do their job routinely as everything is working just fine um they want them to be at a speed to get this food out it's very hard when the equipment that they're supposed to be using should be a reach in that they just reach in behind them instead they
037have to stop doing on the line go further into the kitchen to bring their food out and do that and it's it's just been this has been going on for several years not just weeks this equipment has been broke for a long time so we are looking very very forward to meeting with Mr Green to see if we can get some of these issues resolved and this equipment fixed so these ladies can come in and do their job and for these children to have you know food that is at temp because also when the board of health comes in and if that food is not up to Temp it is written up and you all can find that with through the managers and the food service director of being written up one was written up
038last week for not having the food up to Temp because of this equipment being broke uh it's extremely extremely important to have this equipment working and having these ladies come in to work and feel like they are doing their job thank thank you very much thank you Thomas Kenny congratulations Dr Moore you know it's always good when I see you doing these Awards things and stuff like that your wife's beside you I think it's you know the family aspect of of who you are is something that is undeniable and it's really appreciated and your executive team is the same so I just want to say congratulations to that and I appreciate what you're doing in this school system so now I get to do all the fun stuff um last week there was a presentation
039about reading scores of being 63% uh fourth in the state if I'm not mistaken rank we're basically where we were in 2013 when TLA started here the schools were had a 63% grade three and above efficiency and Theo and the schools were ranked 31st so there's been a lot of falling in the state the state apparently is number one in the country which means the country is slipping in education at the time though what's really important to understand we had 17,19 students and today we're at the 14,000 so it's different that's a number that needs to come up with the grades I I don't look at this school system in terms of State raking because 63 and I think the highest we've seen since 2013 is a 64 which was just the previous year by
040the way during that time it dipped all the way down to 53 by 2015 and through rendell's tenure a lot of you guys none of you guys were here mostly but all that to say I think what's going to happen in the coming years is this school system is going to become number one but it's going to become number one with grades and not just rankings and I think that's the most important thing this school system should be shooting for number one in the county when it comes to grades it should beat charters it should beat these other places that are taking your students because that's the only way your students will come back to you is by winning and giving great instruction that you all seem to be working towards right now so I
041want to say that with much Clarity because my tax dollars a lot of us who own homes who don't maybe have students in the school don't have kids all grown up whatever you know we're still paying for this and so it's important that this is under understood and stressed and I believe you're on your way there evidence in government Awards and all that stuff is fun but evidence with the people who pay for this every day when they start supporting you it's going to be really good thank you okay before we respond to anything I'd just like to welcome all the students that are here tonight um it's nice to see you all here for school school board meeting so welcome uh Dr Moore want to respond um very quickly yes Miss Codwell I'm going
042to invite you back next month I'm allowed to do that um to provide an update and as information comes to me so disappointed disappointed in terms of leadership and providing the needed resources that need to be available in order to ensure everyone has what they need in order to do their jobs um so I say evaluate or problem solve is really what I'm doing with where's where's that that's where the issue lies um so I know Mr Christo Foley will be working through some of the issues uh Mr Green is just going to provide some of the money in order to to fix some of those issues um most of it would be Miss Christa Foley um but I'm looking forward to connecting over the course of the next month um in order to uh
043ensure we have everything we need to have um quality food but I'm disappointed and in uh what I've learned in regards to systems of support and we hold ourselves accountable for support disappointed I'll leave that right where that's at um just in terms of of academic performance I mean 46 47% of our schools were an A or a B five years ago 95% of our schools are now uh an A or a B uh I concur that you know I said it five years ago every single School uh in this District should be an a and that's the pathway that we are on uh and that is the the clear unwavering expectation um an a school district is is nice um and we'll be an a um always moving forward it is not the expectation
044anymore that was loow hanging fruit um our our challenge is to create meaningful instructional programs uh that are first and foremost safe and comfortable um in order to revive our school system so those those are my remarks okay anyone else Mr Zario yeah Dr Mo um uh I did we have a different I don't know um the title but did we have a different president for CWA I thought that we had a different representative just curious because we usually see someone else leadership Chang in the C there is a a change in leadership Miss Christa foly can probably speak to it uh Joe who's been our voted in president uh for personal reasons um and being available to what's most important to him H has stepped down um and now they have to go through
045the process of electing a a new a new president um Liz who spoke today Miss cwell who spoke today uh is a retired cafeteria worker not necessarily part of the leadership and if I'm okay I'm seeing a head shaking so that's it but miss christop can you give a a better response to what I just said yes so through the chair uh Mr Rabino resigned his position as president last Monday I believe and so um per the contract when that occurs the vice president steps up and so I was just speaking with them about their process and they're going to update me when they have their new positions in place okay CU I am um certainly no disrespect because this issue whatever the issues are they have to be addressed and I'm sure that um
046the superintendent will get on it right away um so I do appreciate reaching out for sure um uh the other thing and again no disrespect but I was under the impression that union representative need to be employees um and so I'm certain that that's a conversation that um the superintendent will have separately um but I'm not I'm not I'm not sure about that and maybe that's a oh I don't know the answer oh okay maybe that would be illegal just for our under for our I guess purposes of knowing what the roles are is that something that you'll get back to us on available all day tomorrow so um we will we will look into it and and understand what you're saying the current vice president is not a employee of the system my understanding
047is that is acceptable within the the CWA structure um but I don't want to misspeak so let us research uh and provide that information back to the board sure and I do again appreciate you reaching out to us it's the only way that we can address things that happen is if we know what's going on so I appreciate that may I speak no no thank you thank you no she'll speak to after the meeting if you want okay thank you Dr Jones uh thank you Dr Mr Green for looking into this when we received the email I sent it right to you and I just know as a former principal if things aren't working in the cafeteria that's not good because the one thing the kids look forward to is lunch every day and they
048are ready to eat so thank you for looking into this Dr more Mr Green yeah um I'd just like to say you know it's sad that you had to come to the board for that um when you're saying this has been years that it's going on no that's not good so um I'm sure he will get to the bottom of why it took years and you coming to the board and being on camera for that to happen so thank you for doing that um I understand why a person that's retired would come and do that um but somebody else doesn't need to feel like they they shouldn't have to be able to do that they can do that if they want okay thank you all right did you want to speak Dr pascus okay all
049right so um moving on we're going to ask for the approval of consent agenda items as amended I call for a motion to approve the consent agenda a motion I'll second okay sorry who said it you both said at the same time I'll give it to Dr POS okay and Miss Rosaria for a second yeah okay all those in favor say I I I anyone opposed all right that passes thank you so items pulled from consent to action we have one it is 6 from Miss Rosario so thank you um board members I just thought that this was an item we talked about it earlier during the day it's certainly an item that affected the community um in terms of the history so I just thought it would be appropriate for us to pull it
050so that we can just make it clear once again for those parents and community members who didn't see um the workshop this morning last year we had the same exact item that came to us um the board approved for an increase in um in the the fee schedule for the uh summer camp and before and after school schedule and um apparently it was way too much and so community members reached out to us um then parents actually reached out and said it's way too costly um and time they needed time to prepare for the increases and so all of those concerns were brought to the superintendent and to cabinet and um other board members received the same concerns I'm I am grateful for the board um to support uh the the recommendation from the cabinet
051at that time uh from the superintendent um so that we could put a pause on last year's increase um which means that we have not had an increase in two years um at this point it's appropriate for us to be able to ask for you all to be able to ask for this increase um I'm going to be happy to support it um it's just a $5 increase uh so this $5 increase will be uh I'll I'll actually ask for U Miss Bora to kind of talk a little bit about it um but I think that at this point it is just an item that we ought to allow the community um some input on Dr M you okay Miss pasur there you go through the chair thank you Miss Rosario for bringing this to
052light uh yes we are requesting a $5 increase for the program the extended day program this is a program that is really a benefit and a convenience to our families if they were to have to go outside of the school where their children attend to to provide morning care and after care the average rate across our system in in our county is about $91 so we're asking for a $5 rate increase that would take the morning care and the after care um program up to $70 per week from $65 if they did morning and afternoon um we also surveyed our surrounding counties and neighboring counties who offer this not everyone does offer this as a convenience to their families um some do not offer morning care only afternoon care and we are at or below
053all of those costs as well so we're trying to be very cost efficient and effective for our families while still supporting them and their students thank you thank you thank you all right anyone else like to speak to that okay so um I'm going to call for a motion for item 6A I make a motion second M Rosario with the first Dr Jones with the second all those in favor say I I anyone opposed it passes 5 Z all right we are to our action agenda we have one item on our action agenda item okay but it is a long one we have several um revisions to Schoolboard policies there are several policies that we had to um update or change these are um result of April 2024 release of revisions to the uniform Grant
054guidelines guidance regulations and staff recommendations to align with all tobacco free Florida policy components Dr Moore would you like to tea up this item yes ma Madam chair um we will present the item the same way we did this morning for the benefit of our community um as a reminder we did pull one item in between workshop and today that was the item that Miss envil presented so we're g to respectfully skip you the the number on that item was the first one okay was so I believe Mr was it Mr Green that goes first following that item um Miss chrisa Foley chair there are two policies these are both in reference as you stated to the tacco free environments one is covers stud of code and conduct matching the language in the policy um
055instead of just a blanket statement that the Cod conduct will be followed it actually lays out what the discipline is for students that violate the policy and it we have changed and updated next year's code of conduct to match that language the other is for visitors same thing there will be instead of just saying it will be addressed it actually lays out that they will be given a warning to follow the policy of no tobacco or vaping on school property and then if it they do not follow that it gives the principal or supervisor the opportunity to decide what would happen after that any questions okay um the vast majority of the policies are around the um Edgar or education Department um guidance and regulations which is title two of the federal code of regulations
056and as they have made some federal changes to um how grants are managed and handled those changes have affected a variety of policies so as you can imagine when you're awarded a grant you have how do you accept the funds how do you do the bids to buy the equipment that you're going to use the funds for how do you uh do proper property records so the items um the board policies under my area are all regarding that section and they are updates to conflict of interest adding Schoolboard members and um specifically listed as um agents and officers of the board talking about things such as fraud whistleblower protections and ensuring that we are um uh reporting mandatory reporters for any uh waste fraud or abuse of federal dollars that we might receive through those
057grants internal controls on how we manage the grants also cash management so how we handle um the interest income how we report that on our books the cost principles the procedures for procurement travel and expenses um the disposition of any equipment and property that had been purchased with those federal dollars and how we inventory those property so those revisions um affect a lot of policies around how we manage everything we purchase and use and discard that have been bought with federal dollars through those grants and the last policy we have is 6671 which is District Foundation we are recommending recension of this policy given that we had previously passed a policy in 2023 related to direct support organizations and that's policy 9215 that is the item in where we are setting it for public hearing
058okay so I'm going to call for a motion to approve the amended action item agenda 9A um and request for set public hearing date to adopt uh revision to the school board policies I make a motion second I'm going to give that one to Mr D okay okay all right any discussion all those in favor say I I I anyone opposed app passes 5 Z we are to discussion and there are no discussion items double check and he got added no and we are now to school board member matters who would like to go first I'll go okay M Rosario I just wanted to um recognize the golden impact Awards um they really were um incredible um the story the stories the testimonies and all of the um people in our community who really get
059together and put kids first in in different aspects um is really very um admirable I I will say that um regarding the national superintendent of the year um I I came here to the district office and there were so many people here um it was it was it was well yes exactly because we were so excited and we were trying to listen and pay attention then all of a sudden it was over and it was like ah okay well that was pretty uneventful uh and disappointing so in our eyes Dr Moore you are certainly the national superintendent of the year um I can't imagine Alabama being better than than Florida sorry got to say it um I I do I sorry um I do appreciate all of the work and all of the effort and
060I'm glad that you were recognized um I don't know if you'll have a second chance at this again if we will have a second chance at this again but um if we do I'm hopeful that you will be the national the official national superintendent of the Year oh and Happy Spring break everybody because I know that's coming up next week he Dr Pasa sure I'll just um I want to talk a little bit since this is a kind of tobacco free month I wanted to talk a little bit about that and um most people don't realize that any ingestion of nicotine whether it's um in a cigarette or a pouch um or a tablet which contains nicotine um without tobacco so however you're getting the nicotine that nicotine um has cardiovascular effects of raising blood
061pressure and causing salt retention um and over time that leads to plaque buildup and it increase your your cardiovascular risk of stroke and heart attack um so any kind of nicotine they may say oh this is super clean it has nothing else in it but nicotine but it's still a risk um Additionally the the nicotine consumption there is independent risk of different cancers um so when you get nicotine it goes into your blood uh it circulates and it basically bathes uh your whole body um it reduces blood flow to the GI tract um and it predisposes to ulceration of the stomach and small bowel um it increases motility of the colon um causes flushing and vasod dilation as well um but these uh these effects are going to be present in whatever kind of product
062of nicotine you're using um and then you know Additionally the uh cancer risk is is there because it's absorbed into the blood and it's circulating around and bathing your organs so uh your pancreas is getting nicotine um your urothelial cells and your urer and your bladder and your uthra are getting nicotine so they are all being bathed in it um and getting predisposed to developing cancer um and so that's that's one issue is the nicotine itself but when you go and you start using things like vape pens or cigarettes and other things um there's now a bunch of other toxic chemicals in the product you're inhaling or ingesting um and some of these products you You' probably heard of uh uh VAP Vapor's lung um kids and their teens in early 20s were dying of
063vapor lung going on ventilators um it's because there's additives in the vape pens um that they may not even have on the label or anybody knows about it's a part of the manufacturing process and yeah we found heavy metals in a bunch of these vape pens that were killing kids across the country um so there's all these additives in there which cause their own effects um for lung disease and cancer risk um and then you go one step further and obviously they're putting things other than nicotine in the vape pens I think most people are aware of that a lot of these vape pens um have THC or potentially other uh illicit drugs and uh you know just remember you're if you're a minor and you're buying these you don't know where they came from
064um and there are cases where people are buying vape pens they think is one thing it ends up being something else or was purposely laced with something like Fentanyl and people are dying of overdoses um due to smoking what they think is a nicotine vape pen remember you didn't go into a store and buy that you bought it from somebody you really have no idea what they put in there um and actually it is extremely easy to go make your own vape pens it's a um it's a big business in a lot of uh counties at the community level and that's a lot of times what's sold in the schools are homemade vape pens because they can buy uh the nicotine liquid and extremely cheap vape pens that are rechargeable and put in themselves um
065and you really don't know what's in there so you know there's there's a lot of risk and I take care of kids that they're kids to me but they're they're 18 they're 19 they're 20 um in their early 20s who um are either dying or have chronic drug related illnesses and you know nobody thinks when they pick up a vape pen that that's where their future is going to go but um there's a very good chance if you get addicted to One Drug uh you will continue to get addicted to more and more more drugs and nicotine is one of the most addictive drugs out there um so once you start using that you will probably likely start using other drugs down the line um and you know it's it sounds silly because you've all
066heard it before but it's a slippery slope um and you know you're slowly destroying your life so just try to avoid ever taking part in it and if you can you know convince your friends to stop vaping you know they're vaping like I'm not saying be mean to them but like you know be nice and like try to get them to stop because you care about them and you want them to live a long happy healthy life with less anxiety less stress I mean people feel good when they're on the vape pen but they're more anxious majority of the day uh because of the rebound effects of the nicotine um so make make smart decisions make healthy decisions M Madam chair just for all the students that are in the audience he's a medical doctor
067so I hope you're paying attention literally all right Dr Jones which is not go ahead thank you Dr PCA I think you should visit our schools and we'll set up a schedule to talk yeah talk to more yes we have a perfect they don't want to hear me they're already bored and thank you for all of our students because uh you have a lot of influence on your friends um I brought this up at the workshop today on February 21st I saw a really great gathering with our children's service advisory Council and the golden impact Awards and our principles being awarded for graduation rate and I really think this is a community that is a good template a good pilot on how to make things work within our community so congratulations as Miss Rosario said
068those impact stories were heartfelt and um we are helping students with that um I attended an in River cares meeting at Richardson Center about 40 CEOs with just talking about this was led by environmental Learning Center uh Barbara Ford uh the organizations get together and how we can help one another and what we can do to make sure that everyone knows what each person is doing and how we can work on that just on a personal note um I went to the State basketball finals this past Thursday um William Wilson and three other students from sebas River High School were in the final four they all went to sebaz River High School um Williams dad Billy was the assistant principal there and we named a Jim at sebas Biv high school after him and the
069track is named after coach Wilson they played Orlando Evans and they played them well but um they're only a three-year-old school too Creek and um St John's County and it just so great seeing the class of 09 there represented for William it was a wonderful experience um parent meeting that we had at gford middle um uh that was presented uh it was a low in numbers but it was the first one again part of what we're trying to do in our community very good speakers very good inter interactions with the audience I attended two of the breakout sessions so I know we'll be doing that again it was very very good Miss Holden miss a very good uh I attended the gift to Camp again at Dodger toown and um uh thank you to the
070ladies who talked about Vero Beach High School and I want to continue to give credit to Carrie wall for redesigning these media centers uh we'll get you up to sebas River High School but what you saw at lunchtime was just phenomenal the kids coming in the business entrepreneurship with Vero Bean checking out uh the books uh using their iPads to do their work it was really a neat experience they were going into the media center at lunchtime that is not a norm Dr Moore for for the most part but they're going in there now they were crowded um just stepped into the GAC health fair a couple weeks ago just good you know good news for the community and making sure that our adults and students know what is available within the community and again
071um Dr Mar was at that game Thursday but I pushed on that link immediately and it was done quickly but um congratulations we're very proud of you and thank you for representing in River County thank you um Mr Dyer uh yes uh in the last uh month or so I've attended the uh Metropolitan planning organization uh meeting which I am the representative from the school board uh discuss the top projects in the county for roads and it's just done so if there's anything that's going to impact I guess the school transportation and bus routes that we're filled in I will tell you that I learned that the average pro uh Road Project has about 13 years from beginning to end so if you miss something in this meeting we'll catch it in the next one
072or or over the next four or five or over the next four or five years so uh that was uh moves a little slower than I thought uh also participated in as Dr morid said in his presentation the education fund uh leadership seminar which is the uh first series kind of the uh Guinea pegs going through it we talked about brand and culture uh from our experiences I I spoke along with uh Bill Penny who's uh CEO of Marine Bank and Matt of Northern Trust Bank here in town uh and uh uh also uh I wanted to talk about at the last uh board meeting we did see uh uh briefly in the beg beginning uh Awards presentation we saw a uh brief film that talked about the public private partnership between the Learning Alliance
073and the school board and I can say that that really has Mak has made a difference here in Indian River County yes we'd like our results to be better I believe this year's reading results Kelly we're going for Miss bour we're going for 75% we'll see if we make it that's to be a big jump from 63% uh in third grade literacy so I think that again we're on our way I would like to uh to say that that's a very unique thing and what we're doing here in Indian River County and the progress that we've made over the last uh certainly three years has been nothing nothing short of astounding uh in the state I'd also like to add which most people don't know the Learning Alliance gives $2 million directly to the school
074district to be used for 22 million uh 22 full-time teaching positions and four part-time teaching positions additionally they spend another 100 million another excuse me $1 million in after school programs that reaches 700 uh after school and summer programs it reaches 700 uh students so uh kudos to them and in the I think the documentary that'll be coming out this summer uh will really highlight what's been going on here in Indian River County and I think is really a terrific uh terrific thing uh the advancement that we've made under Dr Moore and his team's leadership and the board's leadership uh certainly even before I was here long before I was here here we've had some really great things going on uh I did ask Mr Green to talk about the budget a little bit today
075uh for a couple of reasons I wanted just people to understand the budget process in in a government uh situation is much different than uh what I've seen many times before in Private Industry uh and uh it is something that you don't make a budget you can't control your revenue and the state tells you what your Revenue six months is after you've spent it so uh What uh what we have uh in the district is a $2 million deficit coming in from the third calculation uh based on our original budget which we'll have to take a look at uh it's really a very convoluted way to do it but I can say that one of the things that's impacting the school district obviously are these scholarship programs uh that uh are now allowing kids to
076both home home school private school and charter school so I I think that his making a dent in the revenue I think about $15 million this year alone uh I am all for competition I think competition is great it's going to make the school district better and I really salute the school district for what they're doing to reinvent reinvent education and to uh really set us up for the future so uh that's uh it thank you all right um I attended the Treasure Coast council local governments meeting uh last Wednesday and uh our guest speaker was the new sheriff for St Lucy County Richard deloro he was quite impressive uh he did speak about um the accreditation of his office and also um how they fund their SRO down there which is a little different
077than how we do it here I really like how we do it here so I just like to say that um and uh couple items that were brought up were some of the legislative um bills that are going before in Tallahassee that were um of interest to all of our groups which represents city um municipality groups uh counties and uh school boards for four different counties and um affordable housing was one of them uh 184 and 247 923 and 943 were bills that we especially looking at for those and then uh Sovereign IM immunity which we spoke about today which if you don't know what that is that means that there's a cap right now when somebody sues a school district and then the taxpayers funds get put into this funding and then if um
078we get sued there's a cap on how much they can get from that uh case uh this is opening it up and so this is one to look at because this will cost taxpayers quite a bit where counties cities uh school districts you name it so that's kind of an interesting one to to really look at um also they have a P1 Motorsports thing that's starting in St Lucy County so anybody's into that that's happening down there um I went to uh zoning planning of course I I spoke a little bit about that last meeting about quail opening up Quail Valley is going to open up another really interesting little um not so little um facility that they're doing but other than that there lots of construction around town if you drive anywhere you'll see
079the construction so there were complaints from citizens about um traffic well I came from Houston Texas a long time ago and if you want to complain about traffic go there or Atlanta um so to me yes it takes a little longer to get across town and there are more cars on the road and I don't know it seems like they're driving like they have to be in a hurry all the time but um that that was kind of the biggest complaint uh congratulations to our finalist of national superintendent of the year um you have been a joy to work with and I'm so glad I was part of being able to hire you to come to to our school district and I keep assuring people that you're not leaving anytime soon because you have so
080much more to do um you know watch out St John's because they're number one in the state and I know You' you're kind of gunning for them so that will be good and and that's a reason to stay um like to say the media centers are so nice I've walked into both of them recently a couple of times and um to walk in at lunchtime and watch the kids use that facility for a grownup lunch it's kind of neat it's like being on a college campus and watching the kids really have lunch but have meaningful conversation and still talk about school because I did listen and on a couple conversations just to make sure it was like okay they're really in tune with what they have to do when they're there so that's really nice
081um and just a last comment happy birthday to my husband oh all right party ah it's not home because he's in Tallahassee all right how old did he turn how old is he yeah he's old enough my wife turned 38 this week oh he's a little older okay I have a child almost that age superintendent's closing um no real remarks just completely humbled the last several months have been extremely uh overwhelming to me and as I reflect back where this system is is it it is not because of one person at at all it's because of of everyone coming together together and and doing this this work you okay God bless you God bless you um it it it it really is so um I've always been the the transformation guy or the fix them
082guy um the growth of this system is something I just extremely extremely proud of um and yeah we have some very specific goals for for our outcomes this year thank you all right thank you and with that I'm going to call this meeting to an end at 707 Happ