001Also, if you have any material you wish to share with any board member, please give that to our executive assistant, Mrs. Mo, and we will take a break every two hours if needed. Before that, board members, just let me know. All right. The purpose of this workshop, I'm going to turn it over to the superintendent. Thank you, Madam Chair. Purpose of this workshop is to provide updates to the board as well as present uh items that will eventually come for approval during a upcoming business meeting. The first item on the agenda is a strategic plan and budget update. I'm going to begin this update myself and then I'll turn it over to our chief of staff and then Mr. Green. I'm going to provide an update regarding where we are with the assessments. We're in
002the middle of the window. Most districts are probably completing testing. We have a full week of testing going on for the remainder of this week. So, this is the information that we have available to us. You'll see slight tweaks probably um over the course of the next week, but we have enough data in that we can publicly share. So, in looking at ELA assessments, I'm going to break it down by grade. Overall, all of our third through 10th. Why are we sharing third through 10th? that makes up the school and district grades. You can see that we are both outperforming and outpacing the state. Once again, what does that mean? Outpacing means we're growing at a faster rate than the state. You don't you don't see the state's growth, but I'm telling you it is
003not as much as our growth as while at the same time outperforming a higher overall percent of students at three or above. This is a trend for uh this specific area for the last three years. ELA third grade, which was a focus area, 63 last year. Um, this year currently at 69. That's a six percentage point increase. That would be one of the top five scores in the state last year at 69. Can I stop you? Are those percentages? Those are all percents. Okay. Yes. So, it's a 5% increase. It's a five plus five percentage point. The plus is a point. Okay. That's what I'm asking. Okay. The ELA elementary school 62 to 65 that is outperforming. The state also grew three percentage points but they're 7 to eight percentage points below us in terms
004of students scoring at three. Elementary has been a solid investment for us for the last several years when it comes to academic growth. our middle schools where we've been providing a great deal of support over the last two years 52 to 62 that's a 10 percentage point increase outperforming and outpacing very very excited to see those numbers and then in ELA 56 to 61 once again outpacing outperforming so this is a key sign in terms of the strategy that we've been implementing and when I say the strategy it was very strategic to invest in our early grades to grow the totality of the system. So when you look at the overall percent of students scoring three or above, all of it is now in the 60s where in previous years you go back two and
005three years you're in the low 50s to be in the 60s across the board is absolutely outstanding. So this is just a testament to a the plan, the consistency, the quality of instruction. this strategic plan as we're getting ready to close out obviously is performing at a higher level outperforming and outpacing the state math a similar way of looking at it when you look at elementary school uh we are now at 71% of our students um in math elementary absolutely outstanding that is 71 is a significant number outperforming the state uh their growth state grew 10 three percentage points as well But they are looking up at us in terms of where we currently sit. Uh middle school math 50 to 58. That 8 percentage point increase is outstanding. So we are now outperforming outpacing
006in middle school math. And then our end of course exams which incorporates our high schools as well as students in middle school taking high school courses. Uh we grew one percentage point there. uh where the state I think grew two percentage points there, but we're still outperforming them significantly higher. So, what we're seeing across the board is a significant amount of growth at a faster rate. And we as a school system have really designed ourselves to learn faster. We we have our little tagline this year is that we're wired to learn fast. Meaning the faster that adults can learn regarding the impact of their behavior and practices and shift or change practice with the most relevant and meaningful information, we can accelerate student outcomes. And we've been very strategic in how we've been able to
007do this over the last five years. The rest of the data will be coming in this week, but we expect that trend to continue regarding where we're going to land um at the end of this particular year. And as I have that data, I I'll make it available as we transition into our conversation regarding our strategic plan. The the work has been good here and it has been very intense over the last several months in the creation of this strategic plan. So today we're going to talk to you about uh we are that we will be connected by our community fueled by innovation and driven by leadership. And these are the three specific areas in which we want to connect and begin to funnel this strategic plan. It's very interesting that today we're talking about
008um coming to a point where we begin to create strategies. my staff and and my team will be going back at the conclusion of this meeting and really begin to say what are the specific strategies that we need to focus in on in order to ensure that we are going to continue to see this rate of growth for the next five years. And the lowhanging fruit going from 38th to 9th into whatever we will be next year um has been something we all should be extremely proud of. But we need to be even more efficient and more connected and more aligned in our purpose. So as we talk through the strategic plan today, we are gonna kind of start with strategic plan and we're going to end with legislative priorities. I think we need to
009challenge ourselves to strengthen um the connectivity between strategic plan and legislative priorities. And when I say there, if we are to be the stake in the ground school system that all other districts can look at within Florida as well as the nation, what stands in the way? What state board rule, what legislative law is in place that would accelerate me and my team's ability to transform and innovate our schools? I don't know what specifically those are, but if there are opportunities to be a little bit more specific in what we're doing um regarding legislative priorities, that to me is a crystal clear example that this school district uh from the board all the way down to the whoever it would be is connected and aligned so intentional that we're just not talking overarching generic strategies
010or or legislative priorities. um that the other 66 districts are talking about. But drilling down to a level of specificity that says if we're gonna you know this year we really want to advocate for I'll give an example innovate high performing school districts which we are high performing school district. We want to continue we will be a a high performing school district next year. we are a role model when it comes to academic outcomes uh outperforming outpacing are there opportunities to provide additional funding for school systems that are truly truly innovative. I think there's other things that we can talk about so I I just think it's a a a great conversation. I don't think it's a oneanddone conversation, but I think we have established a a protocol this year uh in the creation of
011this strategic plan where the flow of communication from board to me and staff back up to the board has really really helping us figure out how we can with our specific roles continue all to have our shoulder to the wheel given our specific responsibilities to grow this system in a very very aggressive way. And I think a a innovative superintendent is is one thing. Um you know an outstanding cabinet which we we definitely have that uh but all of us saying you know what we're going to take this on collectively to transform public education and be role model in Florida and across the nation. If we have that opportunity that's why we all want to engage in this work. That's why you all want to engage in this work. So with that I'm going to
012swing it back over to Dr. Jacobs who will give us an update on the work that we've been doing to this point. Great. Good afternoon board. So up until this point uh we've been sharing various portions of our vision for the district strategic plan as well as the progress related to the work for um the development of the district strategic plan. And so we always want to start out with our why for why we do this work and it's to maximize the full potential of all students. That's why we exist um as a public school system and um you can see that is within our uh unified mission that we're proposing that we continue on um through the 2030 district strategic plan. You can see those big ideas that Dr. Moore referenced connected by community
013fueled by innovation and driven by leadership. that essential essentially if you connect that together that's a theory of action for how we will engage in this work over the next five years. Just to share a little bit more about what we mean by connected by community. This means we thrive together that we build strong, supportive and trusting relationships with family, staff and community partners. We know that we want to maximize the full potential of all students not only for students sake but for the sake of our community so that students can thrive tomorrow as well as our community can thrive tomorrow. Next, fueled by innovation, we challenge what's possible. And so we've done a very good job in the area of instructional supports and instructional improvement to challenge what is possible and continue to challenge
014what is possible to accelerate our outcomes. But we want that to pervade the entire system. So we embrace creative and forwarded thinking solutions that transform learning, inspire intellectual curiosity, and prepare students for the futures of tomorrow. And so you'll see a major thread, a major idea that throughout the district strategic plan as we bring that forward related to fueling ourselves through innovation. And finally, driven by leadership. And we don't just mean leadership at the administrative level, district level, school level leadership. We mean leading at every level. And so taking that whole guiding principle that we had before, empowering all decision makers at every level of the organization, we want to empower all individuals to take initiative, act with integrity, and accelerate progress. So really leading from where you're at, no matter where you're at, transformational
015impacts. In our 2025 strategic plan, we had transformational impacts. essentially what would education look like if we achieved all of the goals and employed the strategies with fidelity that are outlined in our plan. So at the top of each one of these um sections you can see the transformational impact that was our 2025 impact. So on the first one all students are accepted and included with our school communities. So we wanted to really expand that to not only are they accepted and included but every student and family feels a deep sense of belonging, connection and support within our school community. So that really says you know what are the major ingredients of that feeling of accept acceptance and inclusion. The next one all classrooms are designed to meet the needs of students in the 21st
016century. We're proposing that all learning spaces are dynamic and future ready environments that evolve with the changing world and equip 21st century learners with skills to thrive. And so again, that really gives us a better, clearer picture of what we want our learning spaces and our student learning experiences to look like. The next one, all students have access to programs that support their talents and interests. We are proposing all students access future focused programs that spark their interests, nurture their talents and connect them to meaningful learning pathways. So the idea behind that is at the earlier ages such as the elementary level that students are exposed to different um professions, different content areas to really spark their interest and help them explore where they might intersect best um with those things. then nurturing their talents
017and connecting them to meaningful learning pathways as they move through the secondary spaces. The next transformational impact 2025 all employees are respected and valued as part of an innovative workforce and again with that emphasis on leadership. Leadership at all levels driven by the contributions of every individual fuels lasting transformation in our school district. And then finally, all students graduate and are prepared to be global leaders and innovators of the future. Every student graduates ready to lead and innovate in a glo global world world. And that's just a little more succinct there. Um so with those transformational impacts and I can go back um to the previous slide if needed. Do we have any board member feedback on thoughts of those revisions? Just to set up the board has a a conversation. We're we're talking through
018transformational impacts and then guiding principles today. Yes. And when you look at them at face value, you may just think, well, those are just the things that those are the aspirational things, transformational impacts that they want to do and guiding principles are just guiding the work. So much deeper than that from a systems perspective. What we're really talking about are belief systems. And when you look at these um transformational impacts, it's connecting and helping individuals across the entire organization establish their belief as to why this work is so important. So rather than just saying we believe all students can learn, we've engaged in countless hours of conversations of being able to put it in statements that everyone across the community can understand and associate that belief statement with their own belief statement which allows us
019to strengthen why people do this work across the organization. That's why transformational uh impacts are so important. When we're connect every single person in this system as to why this work is so important, you have outcomes that we have. When everyone doesn't understand why they're doing this work or they don't understand the purpose and the power of what this work can be, they they become disconnected. When we finish this conversation, we're going to go into um our guiding principles. Our guiding principles specifically look at our behaviors. So just talking about how you believe and uniting us in belief is a key indicator that we need to have in place to drive success. But when we're able to take it through our guiding principles and connect it to the behaviors at every level of the organization.
020Now what we have done before we've talked about one strategy at all is ensure everyone in the organization has a deep understanding as to how this system believes regarding the impact we can have on community and then we strengthen that on a daily basis with the alignment of behaviors that everyone knows everyone knows these are the behaviors that need to be consistent by the people who work in the system uh in order to be successful. ful. So a lot of times you see you see these things in the beginning of strategic plans and it sounds a little bit like fluff. It's absolutely not fluff. Systems that aren't paying enough attention to your transformational impacts, your guiding principles, your beliefs, and your behaviors, then you're not going to find the success that we experience on a
021daily basis. All right, back to transformationational impacts. Did you want board member feedback? Yes, ma'am. Okay. Any board members? Doc, first of all, thank you. The data given at the beginning of this, um, we're looking pretty good and hopefully that continues. Having the real- time data is very important. Uh, a couple things really stuck out with me because when we have to when we look at our strategies and we align them with legislative priorities, it just makes sense. I don't know what the top five are from the board, but um, those were hard to choose. But the thing that I keep coming back to and so do other board members is that early learning and how that will help us for kindergarten, third grade which determines you know high school graduation and many times. So
022um I think that's very very important and the words that keep coming out in this are you know being supportive trusting strong but you've got to have the right leaders to lead this you know just because you're a leader that you don't demand respect you have to earn it and you earn it through your actions and I think that's very very important. Um, you know, who knows what this next strategic plan will look like is who knows what we can create. I think we've done a good job as far as teaching our standards and looking at the results there. But this will be so important in this next five years because, you know, the public education is changing. You know, we have a lot of things that we have to deal with on a regular
023basis. So creating these 21st century learners will just absolutely be key and um so that they understand the learning pathway they are taking. They know the why. So that's important. Thank you. Yeah, Dr. Prosa. I think uh most of it looks excellent and uh like great ideas that we can move forward with. Uh my only kind of constructive feedback is on this slide. Um so it says all students graduate and are prepared to be the global leaders and innovators of the future. Um I I would prefer my personal opinion would be that we grow students that are prepared to lead America. Um, and obviously that is probably not something mutually exclusive to you. Um, I don't think you put that up there with that idea. Um, and then under that it says every student graduates
024ready to lead and innovate in a global world. Um, I just my thought is that you know there are young global leaders. That's a graduate program from the World Economic Forum and um, most of these people like Justin Trudeau, Dan Krenshaw, the list goes on and on. they they come back to their home country and they oftentimes really support a lot of policies that are detrimental to that country um at the expense of the people in that country. So I I think we should focus on training leaders for America um that can operate in a complex modern America. I think that should be the focus. Mr. Dyer. Yeah. First uh thank you for making innovation a little more important which it did come through in this one. So, thank you for doing that. You know,
025the only thing that I I and I like the transformational impacts and with Dr. Pasca with uh uh I get the idea to lead a global world, but honestly, I I think that he probably is more on point uh with uh to train the leaders for our country. So maybe that does uh does would have some additional in impact and and focus and we'd think about it a little differently. Uh the other thing that I didn't get clearly in this was the ability to compete in the new environment. I mean, I know we say when we do innovate, but there is really kind of a nuance over the next five years of how public education competes against everything that's going on with the uh w with the empowerment scholarships, which is taking away funds uh
026from public schools from kids that have never been in a public school in their life, but they're still funded through the public school programs uh like they had been in the schools uh all the time and I think that's a challenge. Uh how do we create where we compete school by school where we're the preferred choice? So it just seems like there's something in there because of the environment we're in that is going to be the story will be told over the next five years. So maybe we should think about more how we're going to lead lead the discussion. I have more on that later, but we'll see where else in the in the board meeting that works. All good points. I think, you know, good point. Good point. Um I really like the three
027statements that you made uh connected by community, fueled by innovation, and driven by leadership. I think that those are our three key statements for moving forward with this plan. Um to be, you know, how we say we're transforming um you know, using that with our transformation. So, I think that's a really good point. Yeah. I I really think you've got something there, Mr. Dyer, that we need to focus on and put in here. Yep. All right. So, as Dr. Moore alluded to, our guiding principles, um we are not recommending major changes to this. Um the first guiding principle is invest in collaborative cultures that promote the growth of all. Communicate with transparency and integrity with all stakeholders. Empower problem solvers at every level of the organization. So that ties back to the leadership at all
028levels. Engage in innovative practices to optimize outcomes and provide high quality, rigorous and accessible instruction for all students. Could Could you tell me what some of these things mean? It's uh Sure. It's a little word solid in some of them to me. I just want to understand. So make so we so I'm thinking the way you're thinking. So from a organizational standpoint from from my office all the way down to a common planning team uh at Felms Mayor Elementary School, we are very specific in the creation of these guiding principal statements. so it can connect to everybody in the organization. Invest in collaborative cultures that promote the growth of all that we are going to be collaborative and grow all individuals across the entire organization. So when you're in a space in which something doesn't
029feel collaborative as something's being done to you versus something's being done with you, we preach then call it out. Because if we believe this is how we should be acting as an organization and you're feeling as if there's things that are contradictory to our guiding principles, I don't want someone to go home and feel as if, well, you know what, we we really don't promote the growth of all. We don't invest in collaborative cultures. They're just telling us what to do. Our system is to grow thinking as fast as possible, and we want to make sure everyone ultimately believes it. Uh, communicate with transparency, integrity with all stakeholders. I get that one. Okay. So, I mean that was uh envou empowering problem solvers at every level of the organization is that when it comes to
030cleaning a school love Bruce, but the custodian head custodian at Vero Beach Senior High School probably has 20 better ideas on how to do it than Bruce does. And if he has an idea on how to innovate and reform, we need to be wired in a way where we can get that information. So we want everybody to help solve the problems that they're closest to. So very formal structures when we push or change a practice, what who's being impacted by this decision and is their voice even if it's a custodian is their voice in this decision that I'm about to make. uh engaging in innovative practice uh to optimize uh outcomes. When you look at some of the things that we're doing in our with and I'll pick on Kelly this time regarding instructional routines,
031it doesn't come from Kelly's team. It comes from a practice that they observed at a school site and it is ensuring hey we know the curriculum but you've charged us to think about how to do this best and I can save 20 minutes of my planning time if I use this specific tool or this specific resource and then we as an organization push that out across the totality of of the system. So we're trying to get innovation as close to uh students as possible. We're trying to get problem solvers as close to their responsibilities as as possible. These behaviors uh have been with me really for the last since even my the education transformation office. But it when you talk about people being passionate and understanding and believing their work uh without transformational impacts and
032without um our guiding principles, we would not be where we currently are today. This is a key ingredient to the culture of our system that is basically surrounding all of surrounding what we call our way of work. They they live better with a little explanation. Well, yeah. And I would challenge you when you're you're out and about. You mean you just spent the entire last three days with faculty and staff. Um but everyone should know these. Okay. And may they may not be able to articulate empowering problem solvers at every level of the organization but hey tell me about how you're conducting in your common planning session at your leadership council. What does that look like? These these are things that we're connecting and guiding beliefs. Okay. All right. The next areas are the focus
033areas. We had talked at previous workshop about um the consideration of whether we would maintain the five focus areas that were in the achieve 2025 district strategic plan or we would change or modify those in some way. In discussing this with the team, um we really thought that to ensure long-term impact, to continue to align the work in ways that um we've experienced success with and continuity, we are still proposing to have the five um focus areas for the strategic plan. You can see that the icons have been updated to look a little bit more innovative um than they were. But um within each of these areas, I can assure you as we develop the strategies and the targets that you will see a very clear thread of ideas about that connected community, the innovation
034as well as the leadership. Um in fact, Dr. Shafty and I have been working on um really aligning the district innovation work that she has been leading with the district strategic plan. And so a lot of those strategies that will be implemented on uh linked directly to innovation, you'll also see embedded within our district strategic plan. So at the beginning of this um presentation, Dr. Moore had referenced that we will be moving on to strategy development. So the team will be taking all of the information that we gathered through the listen and learn sessions as well as an evaluation of our existing data to develop evidence-based strategies that will be embedded within each of those five focus areas. Ju just to share a bit of background on how we go about that strategy development. I
035wanted to provide you with an exemplar. I'm providing you an exemplar linked to the area of innovation. You can see our design ed um team up there. This was a team of secondary high potential teachers as well as some of our district staff who really engaged in thinking around innovating in our secondary spaces and we have developed some strategies for our innovation plan directly out of that work. So our action steps, we've done a lot of talking about our listen, learn, and reviewing um through our focus groups through our engagement and work with design edg groups. We organized and then then evaluated all that information. So we took all of the qualitative data and we analyzed that qualitative data for themes um and identified those themes and documented those themes. We have summarized and reflected
036on what has been shared through that um gathered additional feedback through board member um feedback sessions. And now we're to the point where we're identifying the gap between our current reality or where we're currently at as a district in various areas and where we want to be. So where we want to be will end up being our annual and five-year targets. Um and then prioritizing our strategic areas of investment. So we really want to ensure that the strategy are um high leverage strategies and high impact strategies so that we're not just writing down a bunch of strategies that aren't going to lead to the impacts that we want to see. And then finally crafting our targets. So what that looks like in innovation is the data gathering piece. We looked at student enrollment trends, interest
037surveys from family, student achievement data, various research on school models, board member feedback, and then various evidencebased frameworks. During that analysis stage, um what we noticed as we've talked about um with the board is the decreasing student enrollment through our family surveys. There was a desire for expanded magnet school options and that's how we identified that we wanted to add this option to the um our portfolio of schools. And then there was a need for classical school option to expand. We don't have a classical school option right now. Um, and then finally, uh, I know the team that's been working on the framework and development of the classical school, there's a companion school in South Florida, the only other non-charter traditional public school that's going to be a classical school. And so, we have an
038active thought partner in that work. So, what would the strategies look like in the district strategic plan? If you saw them, you would the strategies that you would see would be that we would launch a K through 12 classical education choice school that we survey families um sixth grade families. So, I'm building out the electives portion of that classical school as well as our other K through8s. A survey went out to see what type of extracurricular classes would be desired by the families and the students that are enrolling in those schools and then adopt a proven contentrich curriculum rooted in classical principles. So this is just one minor example. um as we bring the strategies in the complete uh draft of the district strategic plan, you'll see a lot of strategies that are well be
039um move well beyond this particular area. And then finally, I just want to say a little bit about the alignment between the school district of Indian River County and the Indian River Education Fund. So we as a school district have a district strategic plan that outline our strategic priorities and our way of work for everyone in the district. Similarly, the ED fund identifies strategic priorities for which they provide investment and invest their intellectual capital, their financial capital into working with Miss Kep um she has also along with her board identified innovation and leadership as their strategic priorities. In that way, we are in strategic alignment with the education fund. Um, from mud, I understand across the state of Florida, this is not the norm. Um, typically education funds um, work on the priorities that are
040identified by their board, but not necessarily in alignment with the district's strategic priorities. And so I'm very encouraged by that alignment between um the two entities because it creates for um more more powerful uh ability to engage in the work. And then you can see our kids at the high school swap which was a a great event. You'll hear more about that tonight. But any additional board feedback at this time? Board members. Yes. Go ahead. I just just so thank you. Um you know our focus areas that talk about success, safety, communication and engagement, talent development and fiscal responsibility. We're not changing those correct because they are good. And then once we get our alignment with our legislative priorities with our strategic plan, it all comes full circle. Thank you. Um just one thing I
041want to bring up is um you talked about doing surveys for sixth grade students for those K8 schools for interest and I know we're gearing those schools up for sixth grade next year. Have we already done those uh surveys and what are the results? Yes, we have already done the surveys for the electives and we serve just to be very clear we surveyed the families not the students. Um so Dr. Shafty can speak a little bit about what we have found from the surveys. Okay. Uh through the chair, we surveyed families to determine their interest in band, orchestra, fine arts programming. We looked at North County and the available pathway of band and South County having an available pathway between band and orchestra. It was really important for us that the pathways are K12. And
042uh the the data shows us that uh Felsmere had the highest response rate ask requesting band if possible on the elective wheel while the other schools Rosewood and Oyola were split. Uh a handful at Rosewood, nine wanted band, 10 orchestra, but 19 traditional. Traditional meaning the current wheel that's in place. Um and then 16 families at Oyola band, seven orchestra, 36 traditional. Um if you our thought is looking at it, we need to find a way to create those experiences while maintaining the tradition. Um it was clear that at least at Rosewood and Oyola, the families are opting into a sixth grade experience that looks like fifth grade and we are approaching it based on a school by school basis to ensure that the programming that's in place meets the needs of that school community.
043So the sixth grade parents from that are going to be sixth grade parents next year, the ones that you survey. Correct. Um, so they're going to determine what happens in the future for that school forever. We want to elevate parent voice. I know, but I'm saying they want what they want for their children, but that's going to probably continue for the next several years. Correct. So let me a small intimate experience, right? What we challenge our we have that validation at the same time being very strategic growing the arts in our schools arts in schools in most counties um is dwindling away. So if there are opportunities to provide exposure in sixth, seventh and eighth more in seventh than eighth. I know he's talking to me. Um then that's what we we should do. So
044the challenge is hey let's give them the small environment that they want while at the same time enhancing their leadership at that particular school while at the same time giving them exposure to what is in our high schools while at the same time maximizing the theme or education what's unique about that specific school. So I I think what you're going to see at those schools coming out in eighth grade are students who have much more exposure to leadership opportunities blending back into the K12 34 the elementary space. Uh we're incorporating some service learning uh into those K8. So really identifying a key issue within their school in which they're going to create identify a problem do the research validate that it's a problem and then create and implement a solution whether it's within the school
045or within the community that will be school specific and they can incorporate their specific theme. So maybe Oyola wants to look at a math and science concern and create identify a concern within the community within the school and work together. So it it is honoring what the parents want. And at at the end of the day, students who choose a K8 are going to want a smaller, more nurturing environment that is academically solid. It is accelerating student outcomes. Uh the seventh and eighth grade year will be filled with very similar to some of our um middle schools with the Mi high school courses to make sure at the end of the day regardless of the middle school option you select, we are propelling you forward in terms of the exposure of courses that you can
046take in 11th and 12th grade. Maximize AP, maximize dual enrollment, maximize IB, whatever it may be. So, I'm hearing with all that I'm I'm hearing that we're looking at a wheel for the sixth graders. When we say a wheel, the current programming for for fifth grade, it will be very reflective to sixth grade. Okay. Now, the wheel would be exposure opportunities, whether it be middle school or high school teachers who have programs that we want to expose them to. So, they have what do they call it, Kelly? They don't call it a wheel. They call it the special. The special the special. So very similar on I have art, then I have PE, then I have music. Not PEP is not one of them. I have art, I have music, I have media center. It
047it's using that that will continue just as it does in fifth grade. Okay. With the same resources with added exposures, very strategic to to grow them. Okay. So they would get that exposure then because that's what I've been asked. Okay. Um as most of you know, Indian River County is known for some really great things. number one are academics, our extracurriculars and band. And I've shared this with Dr. Moore and Miss Basura. Um, and looking at the schedules for sixth grade if they do want to do band or orchestra and how that could work. We just want to make sure that these feeder programs will continue to work with our high schools to have the effect that we've had for many, many years that the community really loves. And I know the band teachers were
048worried about that a little bit, but hopefully that's being worked on and we've got some strategies to make it work. Thank you. and the coral teachers were worried as well. So, I just want to make a shout out for them. Okay, thank you Dr. Moore through the chair. So, um as you'll notice, we don't have a PowerPoint for the budget workshop um update today. some um some negotiations failed between the House and Senate over the last couple of weeks and I believe it was on the 9th um districts were notified that the Senate was not bringing the House's uh I think it was over their overall tax uh cut proposals having to do with sales tax and reductions um bringing that forward to the governor. So they have um temporarily paused and I'm not sure
049if they've resumed. I had heard it was going to be after Memorial Day. So, I think probably next week they will resume. Which means for us um in the two House and Senate proposals that we were looking at, one of them removed the family empowerment scholarship budgeting and formula out of the FEFP completely. The other one kept it in. One removed the educational stabilization funds. One kept it in. One increased the base student uh allocation by $50, one by 67. And if remember the governor's original budget was $95. So those items um at the teacher salary increase one had a larger and one had a smaller. Those are u major major impactors on and um how we would budget. Um there was also some reductions proposed in the advanced coursework API dual enrollment and those
050things um 50% reduction. And I know all those are being negotiated, but at this time we don't have any updates. However, what we are continuing to do is our process and as Dr. Moore shared before, our um our staff allocation model that we've had for now five, four years um that we have fine-tuned to operate in a declining enrollment to be able to predict. We've done those predictions and we are staffing schools at those levels and we are um working on placing teachers. All that stuff is still happening in the staff allocation model. We're meeting um but we don't have an update yet on the budget. So as far as those impactors and offsets um at the next workshop we are hopeful. Just a reminder, we still do have some time. Our um trim, we
051would be approving our trim ad on June 15th and then on June 28th um appro approving, you know, a tenative budget and then moving into September before a final. So, we still have time to, you know, work through our workshops. And last year, our first workshop was actually on June 10th. Um we've started our workshops on March 10th this time a little bit early and um as of right now I don't have any updates to share on the budget um from the governor or house and senate and with that uh Dr. Shad present items mi Mr. Dyer. Oh, yeah. I I had I had just a couple of comments on that. One is we know that we're starting with the $2 million we missed from the third cut and additional 500 scholarships of which if
052it holds true to the past, about 70% of them were kids that were never in school. So, we're faced with a $7 million cut uh uh right now regardless of what they uh they give us in the increase. Uh we also know that from the uh uh from the financing from the state they have an amazing slight of hand. They give it to you over here and take it away over there. uh I believe in the last one where they took uh additional allocations and put them into the base allocation and we wound up rather than the projected 12% increase after you took away the uh scholarships from kids that weren't in public schools at all and the decreases from the extra allocations, we wound up negative budget. We know our capital budget from 2008
0532009 only got back to where it was in 2008 in 2023 because of cuts that the state have done. Uh so you you could say that regardless of what the numbers are, it's probably not going to be better uh than than you than you're anticipating right now. It will probably be worse uh depending on the outcome of the legislative session. the the one thing that I think that's that would help highlight some and maybe if the other rest of the board concurs on this that would would help highlight some of these numbers is I know in business every business uses a this year last year plan we just look at this year we do it only in the context of what's going on now and not in the context of what has been and I
054think that uh that kind of clouds what's really been happening with the financing and Dr. Moore I saw in one of your presentations I don't know which one because I've seen a lot where it showed the academic outcome going up exponentially and the funding going down exponentially. I think that that ought to be uh broadcast rather widely too. So, I mean, if if other people would kind of agree to it, I think that looking at a this year, last year plan as we look at the numbers will at least give us a foundation of where we're building our budget from rather than having to go back and dig it out ourselves. Anybody else feel that that would be helpful? Yeah, I think in the past we have looked at that. Um, yeah, we're not. Yeah,
055that's Yeah, you're going to do that again. Yeah, that'd be great. Okay, perfect. Good. Yeah. Well, go ahead, Dr. Pos. Um yeah, I would agree that's I would like that number. You know, look at the last year, this year, and then the forward projection. I know we do that sometimes, but um it's always probably helpful to look at it in the context of we can bring that where we were last year. Um if it's reasonably doable. Um and then the um I did have one other comment. Um oh boy, what was it? Um I'll I'll go back to it. I got to remember here all day. It's a slow train. You'll catch it. Yeah. Dr. Jones. Um, just I concur with uh Mr. Dyer on looking at last year. It just helps. And you know,
056we we've got to make sure our public knows when they say, "Oh, our base student allocations going up, but what they did is roll categoricals in there." It's it's just like you've got to like find it to see what's really really happening. Um, I was talking to Mr. Bracket the other day. He was getting going back up to Tallahassee and I asked him to come to an event July 1st. He said, "Okay, as long as we're done with the legislature by July 1st." He wasn't kidding. But anyway, um those are the things are we continue to do more with less. You know, we continue to I mean, if anybody looked at this strategic plan and what we're doing at our guiding principles and our focus areas, we're working our tails off. And I think that
057Dr. Moore said like when he started here five years ago, we had 200 more teachers. Doc, was that correct? So, we continue to do more with less. And obviously our budget's based on attendance, so we've got to get out there and market what we do because we do a pretty darn good job. Thank you, Dr. Fusk. You remember? I did. Yes. So, you were talking about the um Florida State Legislaturator's budget. I was trying to follow that over the last two weeks. Um it was difficult to make complete sense of it obviously um from my perspective without a really good analysis page that um I didn't see. But from what I could ascertain, it looked like the governor's budget proposals uh were probably better at funding the school system than either the Senate or the
058houses. Is that accurate based on what we have now? Yes. Okay. All right. I mean, that's just it was important for me to know that. Um, and just to know the governor puts his budget out way earlier in the year and as I shared at the last workshop, I don't think they had all of the family empowerment actual numbers that they were trying to track down. So the because when his budget came out with a $95 increase in the BSA, he was basing that, for example, we had $1,850 students in Indian River County on a family empowerment scholarship, FTE1850. his budget was based on $18.990 only going up 50. After they did that accounting the House and Senate through the estimating conference that happens in February, they all agree that it's going to be 2310.
059So that had a big difference on the um the amount he would have budgeted in the governor's budget early on in the year. Okay. Moving on through the chair. I'm going to present both items back toback. They are continuation practices on the agenda. Item B is the renewal of GoG Guardian. GoG Guardian is the subscription service that allows the monitoring of our Chromebooks from a central location from the teacher. And then the second item is the approval to purchase Vonic panels. And those are the interactive display boards that Vera Beach High School is completely outfitted with. At this time, we would use these dollars to finish outfitting Sebastian River High School and then the middle schools. Um, all of these items you were briefed on during your individual board member briefings, but I am happy
060to answer any questions you may have. Anyone? I have I have one. Um, is there a way to monitor the the monitoring of the the teachers monitoring it? Yes. Okay. So, like principles know when teachers are using it or they're not. Okay. and they're looking to see whether or not we're getting good use of this. I'm sure they are. I hope. Okay. Thank you. You're welcome. I just don't like throwing money at something and wasting it. Yeah. I will say we are able to use GoG Guardian as a teaching tool. Um some of our you're able to push content through to the Chromebook. So it's it's also helpful not just for monitoring but for an instructional tool. Great. So just as a added piece of information, I forget Mr. Green and his team before he
061puts a dollar when a cabinet member requests instructional technology there's a process to validate what's the level of usage because we won't purchase something we're not using. Okay. So we're able to monitor usage across totality of the system before we we reup something. Right. What you call your 1.5 list. Ready. Good afternoon board members through the chair. As briefed in individual board briefings, uh I'm bringing to you the renewal for Lexia Learning. Lexia is one of our preK through 12 intervention components. It was approved by the board 5 years ago. We are going into a gap year for ELA materials, including intervention materials next year. Um and so we would like the board to extend the renewal of this curriculum for one more year while we uh go through the adoption process next year. This
062curriculum is used for tier 2 and tier three interventions. It is part of our reading plan, our um comprehensive evidence-based reading plan. It does it was approved and uh supported at the state level as well. We must be doing something right with the numbers we're getting. Anyone? Okay. Thank you, Mr. Green. Take us on. Yes. The next item E is for architectural services. Back in May of 22, the board approved um five various architectural services when we need to build or modify a building. That was a three-year contract with two one-year renewals. This is the first of those two oneyear renewals locking in the same terms and conditions um of those architects. That is a not to exceed a million dollars in a year and it's only for projects less than 7.5 million as was
063amended in Florida statute um last July 1st. Anyone? The next item F. Oh, sorry. That Sebast High School automotive program. Is that going to make it cooler in there? It is going to make it cooler without even air conditioning. You might have some large fans. Go up there and find out now, buddy. Um those are very large fans. No, you were just trying to get it. What kind are they? Um, they're big fans. Big fans. They have a nice acronym. Um, the next item F is the construction management at risk for the automotive upgrade. If you remember last April, we bought it um a grant, the CAP workforce capitalization grant. We've done some architectural services. Now, this is for Summit Construction to actually do that work over the summer and renovate the classroom and lab
064space within those automatives automotive spaces, electrical and all of those things with some very large fans to help for cooling. That will be happening over the summer. The next two items, G and H, are both painting. G is an ITB or an invitation to bid. So, you hear me say a lot about a three-year contract with two one-year. This is putting out for painters. We had um six respondents for one and five respondents for another one. Both of them were um are asked to be awarded to Kodiak Property Management. They've actually done some painting on Stormgard Middle School, but they were the lowest and best responsive bidder out of those biders. Um one is for Vera Beach High School exterior and the other is for Dodgertown. Um, the VO is $243,000 with a $60,000 contingency
065or $33,000 estimated cost. Dodgertown is $120,000 with a $30,000 contingency or $148,000 cost total. Yes. How often are we painting the schools now? I remember when Vero was last painted. Not as often as we used to. We used to try to be on a 10-year cycle, but as you can, Vero hasn't been painted since the renovation in Dodgertown. So, we do that when we can, but it's not a 10-year cycle anymore. Um, so really we're gauging the envelope or the outside and when that starts getting where moisture is coming in and damaging the building, it becomes a, you know, a critical to keep that sealed and painted. Thank you. The next item I if any of you were here at 6:30 this morning when one of the 2016 Windows servers went down on a day
066that Sebastian High School was testing, you will know why we are asking for an approval of some network servers and not to exceed $160,000 to Lenovo. These are servers that have our we already you already approved servers for our security cameras at a previous board meeting. These are for our file servers, network monitoring, printers, account creation, lock system, AC systems, all the other servers in the district. And uh that was awarded to Lenovo in a not to exceed 160,000 and includes a 5-year pro support and migration services from old servers to new. The last item J is for CI solutions and that is for our student identification badges. And you know, each year they'll move up to a new school or within the same school, a different grade level, get their picture updated, the name
067of the school. So that's about a $60,000 cost for that service and all of that with a $15,000 built-in for the printing supplies and the replacements and the contingencies. So that's an $85,000 um uh ask for CI Solutions to be able to print and deliver the student ID badges. Anyone on that one? How we doing with that the follow through on the badges? I wearing the badges the ideas the oh no we are I got to be honest over the course of the year the the implementation across the board really really really strong. We had probably a month ago a a a nice email from Dr. Moore reminding people of the expectation to have it. So, just being in schools over the last several weeks, um, looking really good. Looking looking really really good. So,
068we're we're in a good place. I like the fact that you required them to do outside activities like, um, going to the prom. Um, there were parents that were complaining about it, but there were other parents that were defending it and saying that's great because then, you know, it's those students are going to our promps. And I think that was wonderful. I think, and we'll talk about it tonight with with Cintigics, that one of the things that we should do a better job of marketing is we are the safest most secure place to educate your son or daughter. And then that statement is extremely extremely true. Um Mr. Tesy as we get ready to celebrate uh his retirement still still a ways away. Um but we are in in a really really good place always
069striving to do better but we we have to take advantage of that. Thank you. And the last item for me is K and that's our surplus material. Um we've got a laminator that's 22 years old and then we have five the last five buses. As you remembered we cycled out some buses under a grant where by replacing the diesel bus with a propane bus. We got a $25,000 credit per bus. We have to disable the bus's engine so it cannot run so that it can't be on, you know, the street. Um, and these are the last of that. And most of the items that follow that are things that come off the bus when we do it, like a camera system or whatnot. Um, and then there are some um projectors and at the very
070bottom that are 2019. Nothing of uh that still has a residual value. I thought I saw 10 buses on the list rather than five when I added them up. Um, so there are one, two, three, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine buses. You're correct. Um, oh, actually the one is a Panasonic. That's a recording. So they're um one, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine, 10. 10 buses. I misspoke. Yes, thank you. 10 buses that go with the grant. Mhm. And there were some buses just as we've, you know, reduced the routes over time, there were some very old buses outside the tent of the grant that we have gotten rid of as well that the mileage is are over like 280,000 miles. Transmission bad. I think we talked about one last time
071the turbo was bad. So, um, thank you. There are there are 10 on the surplus list. I misspoke. My question is, is there for the other buses there's no parts value to the to the district at all on some of those? We do as Yeah, we do as much as we can. The switch to propane, most of the parts don't go over. We do as much as we can of that and then we try to sell them on eBay or gov. But by the time we do it, the value of them is very minimal because by the time we get rid of them, they do have a lot of um things that need to be repaired on them and and high mileage. People are turning them into RVs. I know that. So, the item that
072we're transitioning now is the uh conversation around legislative priorities. I do want to Miss Rosario is not here. She's got some mom responsibilities that she's fulfilling this morning and a really really cool trip for her son. She'll be with us this afternoon, but did have a conversation with her regarding uh legislative priorities. Some of the remarks that I made at the beginning regarding the alignment of potential uh legislative shifts aligned to our district's strategic plan. Uh kind of summarize a lot of those remarks. Um and I'm sure Dr. Shafty has her her feedback from the survey. So we'll be able to incorporate a a a good conversation or initial first conversation on legislative priorities. Thank you, Dr. Moore. Through the chair, there are two backup documents. Your previous year's legislative priorities as well as a
073brief PowerPoint of the survey results. Um we are following policy 1311.3. Uh we began this process last month where we began with last year's priorities. uh you had a very fruitful and productive discussion that led to the suggestion of let's survey the priorities to try and have a synthesized one-pager. So we did that. Uh I will tell you there are some minor updates since the time this was posted. So uh the third slide backup attachment should actually say four votes because those two bullets I need to stop you. Um it it says it's not working. It's not opening. Sorry. So try to go in again. It wouldn't load for me, but then it it worked. It'll Okay. It's cuz they changed it to diligent. Yeah. Um we're changing over slowly, I guess, to diligent. I
074don't know. I didn't think that was coming yet. And um it says you got it to open. Um yeah, I got it open, but I had to try it three times. Third time. Just keep going. Okay. Try three. Exit it and try again. But you're going to show it up here, right? You You probably have a driver that it installed while it was Yeah, I saw it at home. I don't see it now. I don't know. A third time was a charm for me. I went out and in, out and in. Did you get it open? Um, so the next slide is the policy that we're following. Um but we started in April and the goal is to have this conversation today to have a final list of or priority one pager in next month
075in June and then the next slide will begin the survey results. Thank you. One more. Perfect. So when we posted this Monday, it was three votes. Uh but now both of these bullets have stayed the same with an increase from three to four votes. The first around the safe schools categorical and then uh uh allocate additional non-restricted funds to high performing school districts. Say that again. We went from three votes to four votes. Yes, there are five of us. Correct. Um four of you uh voted these as these two items as a priority. These were the highest. That's what I'm I didn't understand what you were trying to say. Okay. Got it. And then to each of these bullets received two votes um with the new response received. The first bullet is to continue to
076increase the mental health funding. The second is 100% full day allocations for prek. Um you will add based on the the newly submitted survey provide flexibility for the use of the instructional materials allocation. then provide adequate funding to increase salaries, continue to increase the BSA to offset increased operational costs and invest in K8 school model configurations, career and technical education and future focused programming to expand academic pathways. Um, so these questions or these results really will contribute to your discussion. I will uh allow the chair to facilitate this piece and be an active listener. so that we can generate a legislative priorities most reflective of this board and the direction we wish to head in the future. Referring to slide four then okay can we go back to slide four there. Okay. So the questions
077for consideration would be the the last slide based on last month's conversation. What are the significant asks to outline uh based on the votes that have come in? How many priorities would you like to identify for continuity and consistency of communication? And there was a conversation about not losing track of ongoing commitments and how would you like that to be presented as part of your priority? Good. Sure. Um board members, do you mind if I I tell you a couple of things I got for feedback from people when I brought our priority lists up and walked in several um offices. Um one was with the mental health be more specific? what is our ask? Not just increase mental health funding. What is it that we're going to fund that money with? They want to know
078spec specifically what do we envision those funds going towards? And then um the prek, even though they do agree that that's a need and it's really important and it's working and it's awesome, um to fund it fully across the state would be astronomical in cost. 350 million. Yeah. For needs space. Yeah. So, um the thought is yes, it's great, it's wonderful, but how are we going to do it? So, we need the same when we did the fees scholarships. Maybe I like that. Um so, so maybe offering some suggestions or pairing down of that, right? Um then the other one was um staff salaries. Yeah. Basically, when we ask for like staff salaries and transportation and everything else, the the feedback I get back is where do you want me to take that money from?
079In other words, don't keep asking for specific even though they want specifics for mental health. Don't ask for specifics on funding. Ask for we need to increase the base student funding because XYZ. Um because when we start asking for funding for this and funding for that and funding for this, they're just shifting it around. And I think that's that's why we ask respond. Okay. I just wanted to ask you a question since you know the probably the legislative process better than anyone anyone on the board here. But the way I understood it from last time we have ours they get rolled up into the small district consortium and it may or may not be what we want. I mean it seemed like that what we presented in the last legislative session was pretty much what
080the small districts wanted. It wasn't our list that I understood. Is that how does how exactly ho how does our list influence what is actually presented or do we need to be our own advocates or both or what? So I advocate when I go up there, right? Um anybody that goes up on our behalf, any of us can go advocate for us and our priority list. Our uh lobbyists always get it. I give it to Rutled Einia. they have it and I give them several copies so that they can go advocate as well. Um, and I ask them specifically to meet with committee chairs, education chairs, people like that. Um, so that's our priority list. That's how it goes up there. Then, um, small schools, you know, we're part of that, but we're not limited
081to what's on theirs. You know, we can ask for our own ask. And same thing with FSBA. We're not limited to theirs. We can ask for our own ask. um where there's more power when you're when they're hearing it several times. And that's why some of the things you saw in our priority lists were the same similar wording as the things they had so that they heard it several different places from several different people, the same message coming across. That's why. Okay. So you said that our legislative priorities need to align with the strategic plan. Of the seven or eight that have been listed with four to two votes, which ones would we prioritize in your opinion? So I I think it's a both and not an either or conversation. I I think we need
082to identify some legislative priorities that using the strengthen numbers approach it's consistent across the overarching of of the system and then I think we need to challenge ourselves in addition to that are there policies which we obviously we control policies but are there statutes that we need to advocate for change so let me let me piggy back off that there are two that I can think of right away that would help with our strategic plan. And um not strengthen numbers across the state, but with some districts. And that is um one is the way that our um funding goes up to Tallahassee and then comes back to us and we always have that gap where we have to go out and um borrow money and that costs us money, you know. So we're we're losing
083money because we're a propertyrich county and the school district doesn't get that funding back. So there's a way every year I get frustrated with that because I was like wait a minute you know how can we adjust the way that we're getting our funds from the state in order to not have that gap and that gap is what a month maybe a month and a half to November from July. No. So actually um we're roughly 80% local funded 70 to 80% local funded 20. So our state funding that 25% is going to come in every two weeks starting in July, August, September. We don't get the bulk of our funding till November when the tax um so we get two large checks in November, another large check in December and then some more coming into
084January. So it is really up until November is the gap where we're paying payroll on a on a small that's always been one since I've gotten on the board that I gotten so frustrated by because it's it's only happening to a few districts. It's about 15 districts I think and um some of them they they're much bigger districts so they can float the money. They don't have to go out and and borrow. Um, and then we're not in the the practice of saving money and holding it aside, right? And and letting it acquire interest so that we can cover that gap. We can't do that. So, we're caught in this every other year or so, right? And it's very frustrating to lose. How much money was it last time? It was 50 grand. Um, two
085years ago, we did a 12 million. This last year was a $15 million tax anticipation note. And that might all in cost, you know, $200,000, but we do invest that money along the way as we distribute it and we get the vast majority of that back. So it might be a net 30 or $40,000 cost after we invest it, you know, in the best we can, but you also think of the manpower that we had to use to get that money back. So it's it's that's a frustrating thing to me. Um the other one is what you mentioned earlier which is innovating high performing school districts. So um if you've got high performing school districts that's great. We got a nice little attab boy but shouldn't we get something else? Shouldn't we advocate for that?
086And there what 17 high performing districts I believe. I don't know. I don't even know if it's that many. It it probably I I I don't have the number off the top of my head but it could be around around there. It can't be any more than a number of you. Had to be an A district. And I think there's only I thought there were 17, but I don't know. Do they have no audit exceptions? Probably not. And do they meet class size? Not all of them probably do. So if you're doing a remarkable job with less funding, right? And um people are coming here to see what we're doing. Why not give us an extra opportunity to show 10 10 other 10 to show off what we're doing and um giving that bonus that
087we could do some innovative things with more innovative things with so as an um and I don't think some of these things that are directly linked to the strategic plan and legislative priorities I think it's on me to go back and come back to the board and say these are some things but as I think it was Kier was Dr. Shafty was presenting or I'm sorry Miss Bassur was was presenting one of them might be around flexibility in the selection of curriculum as Miss Bassur is about to go through an adoption of curriculum we're held to the curriculum for the system this is when we're going to say that Dr. more shouldn't speak and unless he's prepped. This is about this is about what I can tell by Cara's face. Um we're we're bound to
088that curriculum and if we don't purchase from that curriculum, we have to use other funds that are provided from the state. In order for us to compete, the other competitors aren't held to that same standard. If I am a private school, I can pick whatever curriculum I want to pick and I can go and market to the families and provide it. If I am a home school, well, you obviously can pick whatever you want. So, there are obstacles and challenges that may lie within there to give us higher levels of flexibility based on a legislative requirement that we can advocate for. If we embrace choice as a state, then embrace choice as a state and level the playing ground and give us equal footing to have that same rate less burden in terms of some
089of those changes. That's just based on that conversation that we we could be asking them to say, you know what, we need more flexibility in uh the selection of curriculum because we as a school system, you know, classical is relatively straightforward, but maybe next week or or a couple more months, it's a different curriculum and we begin to lose money or advocate to find funding to buy curriculum that covers the gamut. all standard, all aligned to the standards, but we're minimizing our opportunity as the public school system to provide choice based on something that may be a request to change. So, we can be just as competitive as everybody else. What I like about that is it doesn't cost them any money and it can be used as a pilot. Okay, you've got these 10
090performing school districts. Let's go ahead and let them do this and see what happens. I love that because I think that would um help a a legislator say, "Oh, that's kind of an interesting pilot to propose." That's a good idea, too. More more flexibility as a high perform. I like that idea, too. Okay. I think Peggy. Yes. Yes. Dr. Pusca. Okay. So, yeah, I'll I'll start with the conversation about curriculum because it's something that we've brought up a few times over the last several months that um we are we have limited choices and options, especially once you pick something. Um, and somehow if we can change the legislation to allow us more flexibility, I think that would be huge because I, you know, just in the um, the science books that we recently reviewed, like
091I really don't think any of those are a good book that I would teach my kid with. Um, they're just not readable or written in a way that really is allowing the kids to focus on the the material that really matters at their level. Um, so if we can increase flexibility, I think you'll find that kids are reading these textbooks. They're understanding it. Um, they're teaching themselves and they're going to score way better. They're going to enjoy it. Um, so we're spending a lot of money on books that are just quite frankly not very good. Um, so that I think that would be a massive thing and it it does tie into the strategic plan. This would be a very innovative um, fascinating approach that's not really being done anywhere in the public school system.
092um that once again makes us much more um competitive to private schools. Um so I think as we increase that comp competition, public schools are going to do better. Um, I do like the idea of maybe limiting this to or if they, you know, they so chose piloting it in outperforming districts that are maybe more trusted and able to do this uh kind of a aggressive plan uh at at going after these uh other curriculums. I think that would be a fantastic idea. Um, and then as far as the funding, you know, I I mimic your initial points like if I was reading this, can I have money for this? Can I have money for this? Can I have just more money in general? Um, can I have more money for staff? Obviously, we we
093want all those things. I would probably just turn it into one base point. Um, and I would start with something like increase the base student allocation and increase uh funding for outperforming districts. And then I would give the reasons why um to improve teacher salaries. And why do we need that to to retain teachers? There's a teacher crisis. um to continue to increase our safety and security measures to reach uh best practices because most schools across the state have not really reach best practices in various ways for safety and security. Um and you can go down a few of these more important things, but I I probably would not have bullet points for can we fund mental health, can we fund prek, can we I wouldn't probably go after it in that way. Yes, Dr.
094Jones. Um, I agree with, you know, what's been said by our board members, especially on non-restrictive funds. I think that's important for a school district, you know, knowing their community and the best things we can do for our children. Um, as far as legislative priorities, you know, we talk about this all the time. When I was on the state and federal policy, people are always talking about more money for transportation, increasing base student allocation. Um, you know, Florida is still like number 42 in average per pupil funding, you know, and I will speak to my representatives about that as I always do, but that kind of thing could then help us on what we want to do for um you know, not as many people are going into education as they used to. So, it's
095very very important that they know they are valued hopefully with some financial increases, but it's harder to do uh when you're losing students. Um, I know 100% prek is something that a lot of people want, but even if we could increase it to 60% because getting those students in great prek programs will help them get ready for kindergarten and then help them in when they're in third grade to see if they can move on on level. So, um, good discussion and Dr. Moore, what is the how do we approach that? We're a high performing district. You've got to have we ever gotten anything for doing that as far as a high performing district? Anybody ever come back and say yes, you can do this? Not to my knowledge. No. No. You had two things that
096they released you on that, but they weren't something, but I couldn't. Yeah. uh the the start time of of the school year um which we and the other was um virtual days of instruction something something which that's a that's a a good start but at the end of the day um I I think there is more that kind of sets the president that there would be a the availability to do so I I challenge your team to put your thinking caps on and think of all the different ways that an innovating school could be more innovative ative if our hands weren't tied and not that it would cost them money. It would be if you release this, watch what we do. I I agree. I think that's great. Question. Yes, Mr. Dire. Yeah, I said
097I I think that that's a great suggestion. I agree with what Dr. Pasca said 100%. Also, I mean, as I think about the strategy and again, you know, with you, since you have FABY and you have the small school district, should our priorities be things that are more unique to us, understanding that the others are going to be lapped up by kind of a general consensus, but ours to me seem to be more specific to our district and uh and in the place that we are. uh and it is probably a justification to get uh uh more funding for being a high performance district to do innovation. However we define that, it just seems like and I know we had to pick from a list of 50 items. So they were pretty much pre-ordained. So
098it was made it a little harder to get into this specific conversation for us. But as a strategy, can the other two take the lead on some things that we don't have to do and us just come down to just the I agree three or four bullet points that really will make a difference in our district? It's a lot easier to discuss that up there. The other thing is while you were saying that, it reminded me of what do other districts do when they want something specific for their community, for their needs, for their community? They ask for an appropriations fund, right? And this year appropriations were like forget it because they were cutting the budget. But we could tie an appropriation ask with an innovation ask. And we've been talking about that this last
099year. We've been asking about um he and I have been discussing now we can kind of talk about it because it's open. Um about what's your innovation? What do you see happening that we need to fund that we can ask for? and seeing that we're on the rise say innovative school district should be able to do this and then watch use that as a pilot to see what happens with that. It's a good point. It it sounds like the board has a desire to continue to elevate innovation and the priorities. So if we connect some of the things that we've talked about today, it's almost like legislative priorities and they're all grounded in the flexibility to fuel innovation here. So we can continue some of those talking points and generate because we're doing these things
100and I think we have an opportunity to define what innovation is because we're setting the pace for that. I think we use some of these words and somebody externally may not understand we are the first district to trying this. we are offering this and maybe that's the pathway for these priorities is to not just use the word innovation but to showcase how we're innovating. So another point I want to make with that is um when you do an ask for an appropriation he and I went through this this year um you need to show that you're getting your funding from somewhere in the community also they don't want to fund it 100%. They want to see like the education fund funding half of it or a third of it and then we get grants for
101the other third and then we ask them for the other third. They want to see that the community is also invested in it. And I think that's that's the ask. If we're going to ask for an appropriation, we need to make sure that we're all behind it and we got the education fund in be in in it as well. And then that's the ask. Okay. Hello. Hello. Mr. Rosario. Yes. Did you hear me? Yes. Okay. Is it um is it appropriate to talk right now? It is. Okay. Um sorry everyone for not being there in person. Um, I don't know. I didn't catch the beginning of the meeting. So, I do appreciate you all understanding. Um, I am bringing my son to Pompo for a missions trip. So, hopefully I'll be able to get there
102in time for the business meeting. Um, but, uh, I do understand that you all are talking closing up the session on legislative priorities. Is that correct? Yes. Yes. Okay. Okay. So, I caught some of the I was trying to get on teams. Um, I caught some of the discussion. I don't disagree with where you all are on um the legislative priorities. I do though uh I'm sorry, nobody said anything. Okay. I do however just um ask that the the um board the uh superintendent and um Dr. shafty and hopefully the board will support um a better link between our strategic plan and our legislative priorities. We typically over the years like most school districts they have a separate strategic plan and then they have created a list of priorities you know for the legislative priorities
103and oftentimes those things don't match. We have a really really good opportunity here to link the both of them with obviously the classical education um um um choice school that we are opening up here um and the K8 model schools that the superintendent proposed to us of which all of these items the board has already previously approved through official action. So, it would be um I think we would be one of the only districts who would truly be able to link some of our priorities to our strategic plan. I think it would be a great um uh uh conversation, I guess, with our uh legislators to be able to say, "Look, not only do we have these priorities, um but hey, here they are in action here. The board is so committed to these things.
104They are in our strategic plan. Here is our plan moving forward for the next two years, three years, five years and eight years. Um, moving on. And I think the flexibility in curriculum um which we had if I remember and of course I don't have it in front of me. Um, which I believe we had as one of our priorities last year for the first time I think we had it. um which is exactly that the flexibility in curriculum um that would also support the K8 model schools and the classical um school for school choice. Um, another one that the super that we haven't heard a lot of, um, which is a another model that the superintendent has presented to us. Um, and he's talked about this since he was hired, which is the boutique
105high school uh, boutique and technical high schools. Um, both of those uh, have not actually been fully discussed. Um but that I think can fall under um flexibility of funding for school choice models. And if there's a way that Dr. Shafty can craft all of that so that we can have a better link between those two documents, um I think it can only help us moving forward. Yeah, I I don't think you caught the beginning of our conversation because that's actually what um the conversation started with was aligning the strategic plan to the asks that we're going to put in our priorities. Um the other thing is the the appropriations bill that superintendent and I were um discussing for this year was for the innovative high boutique high school. So, um I'm not sure if
106that's what we want to continue to ask for or not, but that was one that we had we had discussed um privately privately in my one-on-one with the superintendent. Oh. Oh, okay. I gotcha. Okay. I understand. Yeah, that'll be that's that that's where I stand on legislative priorities and the strategic plan. So, um moving forward, I I look forward to it sounds like we're all on the same page. So, I I look forward to hearing how Dr. Shafty and the superintendent will draft the the the proposal up and and bring it back to us. Okay. Okay. And I think we're whatever the board wants to do, but I think we're at a a point where we place this back on the next workshop agenda and then retool some of the information and then me and
107my team look for very specifically within where are the opportunities to create that alignment. I think we're very solid regarding strategic plan, but where is the the push and the rub and the lack of ability for us to be to move as fast as we would like? uh aligning those clearly defined priorities in the strategic plan to the legislative priorities and then I will take a stab at how this would visually present overarching you know strengthen numbers legislative priorities u district alignment between uh legislative priorities and district strategic plan which me personally I think when you're in the room that's going to keep you in the room when you're talking very specifically about um shifts or change in state state law to allow us to accelerate but ultimately allow our legislators to lead from the
108front because ultimately any shift or change that we would have uh is going to have a positive impact on other systems and for us to rather just complain about we it's not the it's not a fair playing ground public educa. we can be very specific in helping our legislators take action uh to address the things that ultimately are slowing down public education. Right. I think it's it's a good focus that we're on. All right. Um so are you done with all of yours? Okay. So I'm just going to give you a a last update that I have for legislative updates. Um so HB1 1631 um which is extending session for to June 6th is the last one they voted on. So when you were wondering when they're going to come back the tentative date and
109I say tentative because you never know. June 6th is um what happened. There were statements from oh gosh from speaker Perez from President Albrittain and from the governor back and forth and back and forth about what's going on. And I think we're in a kind of a cooling off stage right now. Um so it'll be interesting to see what happens. School safety and start times was done. It's waiting on the governor's signature. So um soon as the governor signs that, then we'll know what we can start doing for town halls and getting information out to our parents about school start times for the following school year. Uh 1255 was the um kind of got bundled. So uh lots of things got added. This is when you have what they call train bills where you have
110bills that die but yet that same language pops up somewhere else. That's what's happening. So watch bill 1255. Um that's Rep. Trabolce's bill and that wrapped in new world scholarship, corporal punishment, discipline guidelines, intensive reading, liability insurance, all packed into one, which I don't know how they all relate but they did. Um the budget expires June 30th. So something's got to be done by then. I think uh 11:05 is certificates of completion is gone, but they added a marching band um allowance for using it for PE or fine arts requirement and or a math endorsement. I'm not sure how the math endorsement works with that, but that was added. Uh 123 and 140 were the charter bills. The bills died but the language got moved to 11:05. So 11:15 is schools of hope that died
111but probably will come back next year. That was the thinking. Uh 443 charter schools or more restrictive property of first refusal is out. Um but that one's still kind of hanging in there. The rest of the bill and then HB 1105 is the big train bill. That's the one that has um all the smaller bills kind of got pushed into one. The langu it's now a very long bill. The language um kind of adds conversion of charters. Cell phone bill was added to that. All the other ones that I mentioned were added to that. Um this the cell phone bill is interesting. What the where where it sits right now is that K8s the they cannot bring a school no phones on the campus period. um for middle for high school it's pilot programs and
112let's watch. So that's where it sits right now. Um nothing's been signed, nothing's been agreed to on those. So that's where we are sitting. Uh we'll wait until June 6 to see what happens and just stay tuned. Okay. Anything anybody else have anything for the good of the group? All right. Then we're going to call this workshop completed at 1:35.