001Tey said yes. And I'm going to turn this over to Mr. Russell. I have the easy part. I'll introduce, of course, Ms. Andrew Messina From the Florida School Board association that Will be leading this workshop for you. Hello, board members. It is a pleasure to be with you here today. It's an exciting day. We're going to be talking today about your applicants for the position of superintendent. Do want to provide a few overview comments? First, you should know that your pool of applicants is the most robust pool of applicants we've had probably in the last six years. 32 applications is quite a lot. As I was telling your chair as I was driving here, I was talking to some people in St. John's who, as you know, is also running a superintendent search concurrently with
002you. And they had 29 applicants. And so they said, why did they get more than we did? So I just want you to know that this is a desirable district. People recognize that. And that's typically why you'd see the number of applicants. You have 32 here. 11 states are represented, which is indicative kind of of the scope of people who have applied. You have 17 of your 32 applicants who possess a doctorate degree. You have four current sitting superintendents and three former superintendents. So you have people with superintendent experience. You have people from Florida, you have people from out of the state. It's a really good pool of applicants. I am going to turn the immediate review of the applicants over to my colleague, Dr. Deborah Pace. She's just going to go briefly through each
003one of them, and then we'll talk about how we're going to determine who our semifinalists are. Okay, Dr. Pace. Thank you, Ms. Messina. Good afternoon, Chair, Chairwoman Kahn and members of the board. We're excited again, as Messina said, to be here with you this afternoon to review what is a very rich and talented pool, highly representative of the qualities and qualifications that you as a board and that your community identified are important. For the next Monroe school board. We'll start with candidate number one, Dr. Claude Tiller. This will be either their current or previous position. Chief executive officer for Rise Preparatory Academy in Georgia. You have Mr. Adam Taylor. Mr. Taylor is one who applied in both St. John's and Monroe. He is currently serving as a consultant with Darrell Richardson, LLC. You also have
004Dr. Antoine Reed, also a candidate who applied in both St. John's and Monroe. Last position served as an assistant superintendent and chief of equity in Rockford Public schools in Illinois. Dr. Garrett Askew also has applied. He's assistant superintendent of Operations with the Clark County School district in Georgia. Mr. Terrence Cunningham, the Director of Innovation and Development, Learn Regional educational service center. Dr. Mark Davis, number six, is also a candidate in both Monroe and St. John's and he has most recently served as the School Founders Fellow with the New Schools for Alabama. Number seven is David Raleigh, superintendent with the Jamestown School District in Rhode Island. Candidate number eight is Edward Tierney. He's currently serving as the Deputy Superintendent Chief of Schools in Palm beach county in Florida. Number nine is Dr. Dr. Dustin Micah Seaman,
005the Assistant Superintendent of Educational Services and also a principal with the Moreno Continuation High Schools in Beverly Hills, California. Number 10 is Dr. Brian McCrory. He also is one who is a candidate in both Monroe and St. John's although he did withdraw from the St. John's pool. He is currently serving as a superintendent with the Prairie Lee Independent School District in Texas. Candidate number 11, Dr. Kim LeBlanc Esparza, is currently the Deputy Superintendent with the Jefferson County Public Schools in Colorado. Number 12 is Dr. Michael George, currently the principal at the Atlantic Coast High School here in Florida. Number 13, Paul Aventinozzi, the Associate Superintendent for Student support services with St. John's School District. Number 14 is Dr. John Millay. He's currently the consultant and partner with Checkmate Safety Solutions, former superintendent in Martin County.
006Number 15 is James Taeger, currently the superintendent with the Bangor School Department in Maine. Number 16 is Laura Latart, principal of Coral Shores High School there in Monroe. And again, I apologize to any of the candidates who are listening if I mispronounce your name this afternoon. Candidate number 17, Amber Acevedo, currently serving as the Deputy Superintendent with Monroe public schools. Number 18, Kristen McPherson, also is from Monroe, currently serving as the Executive Director of Student Services. Number 19, William Michael Noe, the Chief Academic Officer and federal Programs Director for Mangan County School District in North Carolina. Number 20 is Dr. Melanie Stavanowitz, currently the Chief Executive officer with the Early Learning Coalition of southwest Florida. Number 21 is Jillian Stewart Gregory. She currently is the program director for the College of Education, Health and Human
007Services at Florida State University. Candidate number 22 is also a candidate in St. John's and Monroe. Dr. Patrick Clayton Clay Carmichael, currently listed as a visiting professor with the University of North Florida. Candidate number 23 is Dr. Eric Stair, currently serving as the assistant principal at Poynt Elementary School there in Monroe. Number 24 is Dr. Darren Edward Burkett, currently serving as the Deputy Superintendent with Collier County Schools in Florida. Candidate number 25, Melissa. Also Brooks is currently the principal at Gerald Adams Elementary School, also there in Monroe. Candidate number 26 is Dr. Daniel Lewis Ivacone, currently serving as the Principal of CES Academy of St. Petersburg in Florida. Number 27 is Dr. Davion R. Lewis, currently the Assistant Superintendent CEO of the South Bend Empowerment Zone in Indiana. 28 is Dr. Kevin Blankenship, currently the
008Superintendent with the Scott Morgan CUSD District in Illinois. Candidate number 29 applied in both St. John's and Monroe. Sherry Forrest, she's currently the Chief academic officer and the executive director to the Superintendent with Atlanta Public Schools in Georgia. Candidate number 30 is Dr. Isidro Penske, currently a business consultant with the Chamber of Commerce in Palm Beach, Florida. Number 31 is Scott Lakram, who is a pre doctoral fellow with the Smithsonian National Museum of National History Lecture located in Illinois. And finally, number 32 is Curtis Gauss, currently a chemistry and physical science teacher with Charleston County School District in Georgia. All of the information prepared for you in the final applicant's summary is what was submitted in the candidates resumes and letters of interest. It's not been independently verified. However, as a reminder, all of the
009semi finalists you select tonight will have a complete background check conducted by our attorney Tammy Austin with Green Spoon water. And that's all unless the board has questions for me. Otherwise I'll turn it back over to Mrs. Messina. Any questions? No. Thank you. Okay, so board members, what we're going to do, what I'm going to ask you to do is give me the name and the applicant number of those applicants that you believe the board ought to continue to consider. And I'll remind you, we try to keep the pool as large as we can as long as we can. We don't know many. Some of you asked me if we could identify which applicants also applied in St. John's which we've pointed out for you. But we also Florida runs superintendent searches differently than other
010states. So I can't confirm or deny if some of these applicants have applied in other states where they don't have public release of information until they have finalists. So it's a very different process. If you choose people as semifinalists, we can ask them have they applied anywhere else in other states and then we would have that information as well, but it's not currently publicly available. The reason I say that is because we don't know who among this group may accept a job tomorrow or next week or drop out before the finalist interviews because they have some competing other opportunities. So we try to have include as many people as we can as long as we can. That you believe the board ought to continue to consider. So what we'll do is I'll go through each
011board member. It doesn't have to be in the order that it appears on your chart. If somebody wants to go first, we can go first. What I'll ask you to tell me is, for example, if you believe we ought to consider applicant number 33, 35, 37, 39, then I will repeat the numbers back to you. That way we all make sure we have them accurately recorded and then we'll move to the next board member. Okay. Is there anyone who's ready to go and wants to go? First question. You're good? I'm good. There is not a maximum amount of numbers, is that correct? Anyone that we're interested in, we can. Yes. Is that correct? We're not asking for a minimum number or a maximum number. Once we have all the board members interests tallied, then we'll
012discuss which ones. We're going to move forward as a group. So you can have as few or as many as you like. Okay. Just wanted to be clear. Thank you. Yes, ma'am. John, do you mind starting us off? I'll start. 8, 24, 17, 18. All right, I want to repeat these back to you. I have district number four, board member John Dick. He would like to continue to have considered applicant number eight, Edward Tierney. Applicant 17, Amber Acevedo. Applicant 18, Christina McPherson. Applicant 24, Darren Burkhett. Is that correct? Correct. Thank you, Yvette. I have a few more than Mr. Dick. That's okay. Number 3. Number 8, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 20, 24 and 25. All right, let me make sure I've captured this accurately. I have board member mira Talbot. District 2. You'd like
013to see number three. Dr. Antwan Reed. Number eight, Edward Tierney. Number 14, Dr. John Millay. Number 15, James Taker. Number 16, Laura Leithart. Number 17, Amber Acevedo. Number 18, Christina McPherson. Number 20, Dr. Melanie Stefanowitz. Number 24, Darren Burkett. And number 25, Melissa. Also Brooks. Correct. Thank you, Darren. So I too have number 8, 14, 16, 18, 20, 21, 23 and 24. All right, let's make sure we have this one correct. District number one, board member. Do we say Haran? Thank you. I want to make sure I say it correctly. Applicant number 8, Edward Tierney. Applicant number 14, Dr. John Millay. Applicant 16, Laura Leiter. Applicant 18, Christina McPherson. Applicant 20, Dr. Melanie Stefanowitz. 21. Jillian Gregory. 23, Dr. Eric Stair. 24, Darren Burkett. Correct. Sue? Yeah, I am. Number 7. Number 8, 12, 14,
01415, 16, 17, 18, 20, 24, 25. Okay, Dr. Woltanski. District 5. I have number 7, David Raleigh. Number 8, Edward Tierney. Number 12, Dr. Michael George. Number 14, Dr. John Millay. Number 15, James Taggar. Number 16, Laura Leitert. Number 17, Amber Acevedo. Number 18, Christina McPherson. Number 20, Dr. Melanie Stefanowitz. Number 24, Darren Burkett. Number 25, Melissa. Also Brooks. Thank you. And then I have 4, 5, 8, 11, 12, 14, 16, 18, 20, 21, 24. All right, Chair Khan, District 3. I have Dr. Garrick Askew. Applicant 4, applicant 5, Terrence Cunningham. Applicant 8, Edward Tierney. Applicant 11, Dr. Kim LeBlanc Esparza. Applicant 12, Dr. Michael George. Applicant 14, Dr. John Millay. Applicant 16, Laura Leithert. Applicant 18, Christina McPerson. Applicant 20, Dr. Melanie Stefanowitz. Applicant 21, Jillian Gregory. Applicant 24, Darren Burkett. Is that correct?
015Thank you. All right, so when we look at it, we see applicant number eight, Edward Tierney, has five board members who would like to see him continue to be considered. Applicant 18, Christina McPherson, has five board members who would like to see her continue to be considered. And applicant 24, Darren Burkett, who five board members would like to see continue to be considered. Can we all agree that those five should start our semifinalist pool? We'll talk about the others, but can we go ahead and move those into semifinalist pool? There are three of them. Correct. Applicant 8, 18 and 24. They all had five board members. Can we agree? Yes. All right, so we're going to move forward. Applicant 8, 18 and 24. Now, we're going to look at those applicants that have four board
016members who would like to see them move forward. We have applicant 14, Dr. John Millay. We have applicant 16, Laura Leitert. We have applicant 20, Melanie Stefanowitz. Let me just go through it one more time. Four board members. All right, so we have three more applicants that four board members would like to see move forward. Applicant 14, Dr. John Millay. 16 Laura Leiter. And 20 Dr. Melanie Stefanowitz. Would the board like to have those put into the semifinalist pool? Yes. All right, so now we're going to have to be clear. We have six so far. Applicants 8, 14, 16, 18, 20 and 24, each of whom had four or five board members that wanted to see he or she move forward in the process. Now we're going to look at those applicants that have three
017board members who would like to see them move forward. So before you go on, I have a question. Yes, ma'am. So at this point, we have six people and for finalists, we want around three. How many more should we be including? The board can decide as many as they choose. I've seen as many as 11 or 12 in the semifinalist pool. And then for the finalist pool, we've had as many as five, as few as two. What I will say is we only had one search that had two finalists and it ended up the dynamics of two did not serve the community well because people felt like they had to choose sides as opposed to choose from among the best. So I recommend at least three finalists and typically we would have three to five.
018So when I look, I am not seeing. Let me just confirm. Oh, here's one. Amber acevedo, applicant number 17 has three. Three. She is the only applicant that has three. Would you like to see her included in the semifinalist pool? Yes. All right, so we're going to move over applicant 17, Amber Acevedo. We have a number of applicants that have two board members who would like to see them more move forward. We have applicant number 12, Dr. Michael George. Applicant 15, James Tager. Applicant 21, Jillian Gregory. And applicant 25, Melissa. Also Brooks. How would the board like me to move forward with those 1, 2, 3, 4 additional applicants? We currently have 1, 2, 3, 4, 6, Can we have a good discussion for a second? So absolutely. We all know, Melissa, I will tell
019you that of their own volition, school board members from the districts of the other three called me to tell me how amazing they were. Specifically, what's it? Is it Michael George? I was told that Michael George is a rock star, but his CV does not show that. So I think it would be helpful for at least to give him the chance to move him forward. And if we do that, I would be in favor. Yeah. And I just to say the other ones, I was told Darren Burkett is amazing and that James or no, Darren Burkett is fantastic and James Taggar is amazing by board members who had worked with them. So I would. I'd like us to move all four of the ones with two so that we can see their answers and maybe
020get a better idea of what they are all about. Thank you, Dr. Watanski. And I do want to remind the board members what the semifinalists will be asked to do is to respond to the five questions. Each of you gave me a question. We're going to talk in just a minute. Which ones we want to have video responses. Which ones we want to have written responses. You see the five questions on your, on your table up there. So each of the semifinalists will receive A congratulatory letter, the five questions, given instructions how to answer those questions. You'll get all those responses, and then from all of your semifinalists, you'll decide who the board would like to continue to consider. So as a semifinalist, they would respond to those five questions, providing you additional information to
021determine if you want to move them forward at that. That final step. So at this point, we have 1, 2, 3. You have 7, 5, 6, 7. And if we add everyone who got two check marks, that's 11, and we wanted to be between 7 and 10. I'd hate to keep one of the people off that got two votes. So if everybody agrees, we'll take all the two vote people and have a semifinalist pool of 11 candidates. Okay, you still have some candidates that had one board member who wanted to see them move forward. Would you like to continue to discuss them? I say no. Sue. No, I'm fine with what I can. Okay, so let me repeat to you the 11 names and numbers that I have, which would be your semifinalist pool. I
022have Applicant 8, Edward Tierney. Applicant 12, Dr. Michael George. Applicant 14, Dr. John Millay. Applicant 15, James Tager. Applicant 16, Laura Leitert. Applicant 17, Amber Acevedo. Applicant 18, Christina McPherson. Applicant 20, Dr. Melanie Stefanowitz. Applicant 21, Jillian Gregory. Applicant 24, Darren Burkett. Applicant 25, Melissa. Also Brooks. That's what I have. Okay, then, though, that pool will come to you at your board meeting in, you know, 45 minutes, or let me see what time it is, 40 minutes for formal approval. What we need to then consider if you'll go to the next document. On your dais, you have five questions in front of you. These are the questions, one of which was provided by each of the board members. We'd like to determine which of these questions should be a video response, which of these questions
023should be a written response to remind you? Written responses will be 500 words or less. Video responses will be three minutes or less. So, so typically, we would have three video responses three minutes or less, but we give them a total of 10 minutes in case it runs a few seconds over, and then the two written responses are 500 words or less. I typically recommend that you would want the video responses to be those questions that you would like to see some passion from the person so that you can gauge that in the video response. Sometimes the written responses might be more appropriate for the more technical type questions. So I've got the five questions here. Each of you should recognize the one you worked with me on. And does anyone have any that they
024say, you know what I really want my question to be video or written or strong feelings about that. Mine can be written. You'd like yours to be written. Okay. And nobody knows which one is yours. So I'm going to say if it's okay with everybody, question number two could be written. So I had the opportunity to look at these questions beforehand and I was looking at which ones I'd want somebody to be able to discuss as opposed to write. I thought maybe the questions that had more objective answers should be written. So I was thinking 1 and 5 for written and then 2, 3 and 4 for video. Not about who wrote it, but more about. Which lends itself to a written response versus which lends itself better to a video response. Well, I didn't
025know what was yours. Yeah, to me it's six and one, half dozen the other. I mean, the response is going to be the response. I left it pretty much in an open ended kind of question because I'm more focused on where their headspace is at as opposed to, you know, finding the right answer. So it doesn't matter to me if they do written or video. I guess my question to everybody would be, are you okay with 1 and 5 being the written answers and 2, 3, 4 being the video answers. Yvette? I was interested in seeing number five on video, but I don't feel that strongly about it. So that's what the rest of quorrance. It's fine. Sue. I really have no strong opinions. I'm okay with. It's just objective. Yeah, one in five is
026fine. Well, you know, actually though, I don't. If Darren doesn't care if his is done and Yvette would really like to see the other one done, I would also be interested in just going one and two written. And since I don't. It doesn't matter. And we've made no progress. I can't hear you. I'm sorry. And we've made no progress. I'm hearing 1 and 2 or 1 and 5. So can we all agree that number one can be written? Yes. All right, let's do that. Now three. Anybody like to advocate for two or five? Three and four can definitely be video. All right. Somewhere between two and five. Yes. And we can. You want to take a poll on video versus written on question two? John? Yeah, go ahead. What do you think? Video. Wait, wait.
027What did you want? I don't want you. I prefer written. So then written. But again, I want to do what's best for the whole group here. No, you were the one that came up with that one. So I prefer. Yeah, so I guess written. Okay, so we'll do 1 and 2 is written and 3, 4 and 5 is video. Okay. Then my crackerjack team, who's on video here, is gonna start working on the email messaging that will go out to your finalists that will have those questions and the instructions. Our next task for today you should have on your desk interview question categories chart that looks like this interview question categories chart you will recall. Well, first off, you should recognize your strategic plan categories. But we also, when we did our community survey, these
028were the categories that we used. So we propose that to prepare the materials for the public interview that's going to be held on Thursday, that the questions would be asked in these categories and that each board member select one of these categories. Once we've decided who's going to do which category of questions, then I'll explain to you how we'll get to the questions and what we'll do with those questions to prepare you for that public interview. So I'm going to ask. Well, I'm going to tell you all that I'm willing to take whatever's left over. So I'll start there. I guess my first question, is there anybody who feels very strongly about one particular area? Sue? John? No, no, I'll take anyone. Okay. Sue, pick a question. I'll take whole child. Darren. I'll do leadership.
029Yvette, promoting success of all students. Did I hear her say recruit and retain? No, she said promoting success of all students. Okay, thank you. I'm glad I asked. John. I'll recruit and retain. And that makes. Me maintain safe environments, which is actually perfect. Yes. Because I talk about it all the time. Perfect. So I have board member Talbot, promoting success for all students. Dr. Woltanski, develop the whole child. Board member Dick, recruit and retain. A premier workforce. Chair Khan, maintaining safe environments. And board member Horan, leadership. Okay. All right. So let me tell you the next steps. We will be reaching out to all of the applicants, those that you've selected as semifinalists and those that you did not. We'll let the ones that you did not know how much we appreciate their interest, but
030that we're moving forward with another group. Those people who are identified as semifinalists will receive both a phone call from our team as well as a follow up email. The phone call will tell them to expect the email Contained within the email will be the questions that they will be asked to respond to. They're given seven days to respond, which Overlaps with the weekend so they have some weekend time to address it. Harry, I don't have my timeline in front of me. Can you give me the exact date, 5pm that questions are due? Do you have that in front of you? All right. I can grab it from my iPad in just a second. When I receive all of the responses written and video, we will be forwarding them to you on the day that
031they're due, which is on your timeline. I just have to go pull it up or if one of my team can text it to me while I'm standing here, that would be helpful. My goal is to get it to you by 6pm that day. Just so you know, whenever they send me the video links, I test the links for the video quality, make sure it's audio, make sure it's accessible, all of that. Every now and then we have a little bit of a hiccup. So you'll get a little chart that has all of the links in it as well as attachments with the written ANSWERS. Hopefully by 6pm on that day. It's April 14th, 5pm thank you, team. Then the next morning, your staff will post those videos and they will post those written responses.
032Your community then has 11 semifinalists. They can watch 11 videos. Read. Well, it'll be 22 answers to questions and we'll have a QR code available for them to provide input on the semi finalists responses so they can provide whatever input they want. We will pull that input before you make your selection for finalists so you can see the feedback from your community. And then when we come back to choose the finalists, I'm going to work with each one of you between now and then on your category, your thematic category of questions. So I'll provide each of you a question bank in your thematic category. I don't know, 25 to 40 questions in your category. You do not have to use my questions. I'm just providing them to help you. But what I do need from
033you when we select the finalists, right. Then I need the five to six questions that you want to ask in your thematic category for the public interview. So I can create a little worksheet for each interview. So you'll get a question bank for your thematic category for the public interview. Then the very next day, you'll recall is a one on one private interview between you and each of the finalists. You'll have the full question bank, 230 some odd questions that you could choose from if you want. You're not obligated. I just want to provide you additional options in your one on ones so that you have whatever resources that you need. We are taking the semi finalists. All 11 of them will be sharing their names with our legal team. They'll be running the background
034checks. We've already received releases from each one of them to do those background checks. I just want to remind you that the highest level of background check cannot be done until there is an offer of employment. So we'll get you as much as we can. Once you decide on the night you select who the next superintendent is going to be and there's an offer on the table, your HR department will do that highest level of background check. But also what we're going to be doing between now and when you select your finalists, we'll be doing some reference checking. We'll be doing some. We'll be requesting personnel records. We'll be looking at court cases where they may be named, whether they're named because of their level of leadership or whether they're being named because they're being
035accused of something. We want to know the full context of everything that exists with these applicants. If something comes back in someone's background check that might raise a yellow or red flag, we will talk to the applicant about that item. We will ask for some clarification. And sometimes it's a simple clarification. I'll give you an example. I may have said this to you before, but in one of our searches, somebody was named in a home foreclosure. And so we kind of wanted to know about that. But what happened was he was the seller of the home, the purchasers of the home is who was being foreclosed on, but his name was listed in the court case. So sometimes it's a very simple explanation, but other times we might need some additional information. There are times
036when it could be the person that you right now think you're going to like the most. And you see their video responses, you see their written responses, you're like, wow, I really like that candidate. And it might be that something comes up in the background search and you might see that person withdraw from consideration or they may get offer another job in another area, they may withdraw from consideration. Typically between semifinalists and finalists will have at least one withdrawal for any number of reasons. If there's anything that we believe is a disqualifier, we'll bring it to your attention. But all of the background information we're going to be sharing with your legal counsel, who's going to be consulting with you to make sure that you know what's there. I'm happy to answer any additional questions
037that you might have. Any questions? You did such a good job with your team that there are no questions from the board. And thank you all for the work that you've been doing. I told Angie a pre meeting but now that you guys are here, I want you to know as well, you have been making this a super great and easy process for us and we appreciate you. Thank you. We'll take a break until the regular business meeting, but since it's time approximately. [ RECESS ] Okay. We're going to open today's business meeting. Welcome, everyone . Mrs. Conn. We're going to have Taylor and Colin lead us in the pledge, if they will, that everyone please stand. I pledge allegiance to the Flag of the United States of America and to the Republic for which
038it stands, one Nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. Adopt the agenda, the agenda as presented. Mrs. Conn. So moved. Second. Motion by Mr. Horan. Second by Ms. Talbott. Any discussion? Any no votes? Hearing none. The motion passes. Next. I also recommend approval of the minutes from March 25th, that school board meeting. So moved. I'll second. Motion by Mrs. Talbott. Second by Mr. Dick. Any comment? Any no votes? Hearing none. The motion passes. Thank you so much. And because we have a little extra time tonight, I'm going to ask for one of our reports to be given. So we're going to go forward with our first report and that is about our Head Start Grant continuation. And Jennifer Walker is going to make that presentation. Good evening, Madam Chair, board members and
039Superintendent Axford. Thank you for your time tonight and allowing me to share information regarding our Head Start Grant for the 2025 - 2026 school year. The Head Start Grant is awarded every five years so that recipients do not need to recompete for funding each year. What you have is the continuation grant. We are in year two of the five year cycle. We aligned our 2024 through 2029 strategic improvement plan to resemble the district's improvement plan. You can see we have four goals with two to three objectives for each. Additionally, the Office of Head Start requires standalone school readiness goals. Ours align directly to the Head Start Early Learnings Outcomes framework which describes how children progress across key areas of learning and development. Our end of year monitoring goal is for 70% of students to meet
040or exceed the expectation in each goal area. What we are finding is that student challenges are making it more difficult to reach these goals and making it difficult to prepare teachers for these classroom challenges. While there are many Head Start program performance standards, program operations offers the best insight on the day to day of Head Start. We are required to be fully enrolled with 180 students. Students are enrolled based on income, eligibility and need. You may have noted on slide two that attendance is an objective of goal number one and Head Start is required to have an 85% attendance rate. However, to help parents understand the importance of regular attendance. We strive to meet the district's 95%. Head start not only supports students, we support families through parent, family and community engagement to build relationships
041and to help parents fulfill their own goals. What you might expect to see from a Head Start site When you walk in you will see three and four year olds together in a classroom of 20 with two instructional staff members. Our lead instructional staff are required to have an associate's or higher degree in early childhood education and our paraprofessionals must obtain a CDA within two years. Our program offers meals and transportations to students. We have family advocates and managers at each of our Head Start sites. Our program requires not only the education staff, but our family advocates, our families and our management team to participate in required professional learning. The classroom demographic is play based and so much fun when you come in to look at our students. We use the Creative Curriculum for preschool
042that's aligned with the Head Start Early Learning Outcomes Framework as well as the Florida Standards. Part of that curriculum is called Al's Pals. It's a social emotional component to that curriculum. We also have Ready Rosie which is a parent engagement modeled moments so that the resources extend beyond the classroom into the home. The way that we progress monitoring our curriculum is through Teaching Strategies Gold. It is progress monitored three times per year and aligned with the 38 objectives of the creative curriculum. Additionally, our four year olds participate in the STAR Early Literacy Assessment and Brain Spring Power Hour which is an Orton Gillingham method of learning phonics and extending their literacy. Other things that you can expect to see in a Head Start program is health, safety, mental health and wellness. Our resources reach beyond
043just the classroom. We require students to have an annual physical. We require daily toothbrushing of our little ones. 90 days from the start of enrollment our students are required to have dental exams completed and within 45 days we complete vision and hearing screeners, developmental and social emotional screeners as well as health and safety screeners in the classroom. We also offer nutrition activities in the classroom and mental health services for anyone who is not able to support that on their own. Additionally, we provide transportation training to the bus drivers as well as the bus aides and we do transportation training with our little ones so they know how to get on the bus. You will note at the bottom of the slide, head start requires 10% rate of disabilities for our students. When you look at
044this, I included head Start and VPK because when you look at the number of IEPs at mid year in 2024 and 2025, there's not much of a discrepancy. You heard me mention the challenges that we face in the classroom. What is more of a challenge for us is when you look further down. The number of students in referral in the Head Start program in 2024 was 10. The number of students in the referral process in 2025 is 22. When you look at VPK, it's very similar in nature. The number of IEPs at mid year were very comparable. The number of referrals at mid year went from 9 to 20. That's a significant increase from one year to the other. We also have some challenges with dual language students. We have some 69% in our Head
045Start program and 44% in the VPK program. In looking at what's required for program operations in our yearly continuation application, we have to determine the most effective way to use funds to meet our program goals and requirements. When you look at the top two areas on this slide, salaries and benefits, you see that it encompasses the majority of our grant. We are very fortunate in that the district covers 34% as in kind so that we can compete with Monroe County School District for teacher retention. And that's exactly what we want is to keep our teachers in the classrooms. You will also see travel and T&TA, which is a little bit further down. Head Start requires that professional learning take place to keep all staff up to date with the best practices and program changes. And
046again, this includes teachers, paraprofessionals, the management team, family advocates, stakeholders and families in that professional learning. You will note that we have equipment listed on there. Part of that is funding for a new playground and for safety radios for each of our sites so that teachers are able to reach out in case of an emergency to make sure that they get the assistance quickly. You will see supplies on there as well that encompasses any consumable classroom supplies, family engagement and nutrition activity supplies, and curriculum instruction materials. We include contracts for comprehensive student services like dental, medical, nutritionists and mental health in case that families are unable to afford those services on their own. We also have interpretation services and food services for our students. Additionally, we have the community assessment which we complete every five
047years that helps drive our our Future program goals. We will be completing that this year as well. And the last is other in which things like substitutes professional dues and background screenings for families so that they can take part in volunteering and participating in field trips and activities for their children. You see here how the budget feeds the goals. Our budget plays a critical role in supporting and driving the achievement of The Head Start Strategic Improvement Plan goals and objectives. And we strive to ensure that the funds that are allocated are allocated towards those key priorities in areas that are going to have the most impact for our student and our family. Success. Thank you. Do you have any questions? Are you okay? I have two. Can you go back to where you Talked about
048the IEPs? Sure. So is this meant to imply that you are identifying twice as many kids now or that there's a problem in getting them through the IEP process? No, we're identifying more students now. It does take a little bit longer to get them through because when they come to us, of course there is a process in place. Fortunately, with early childhood and with pre K with we don't have to wait the six to eight weeks. If we see something that's identified early on, we can go ahead and get that process started immediately. Okay. And then if you can go back to the assessment part. My understanding from before was that where is it? But the progress monitoring that you do with Teaching Strategies Gold is a Early learning or Head Start required progress monitoring.
049We do it with both Head Start and vpk. And it's required by the program. Yes. Or it's our choice. It is our choice to do that progress monitoring because it aligns with the 38 objectives. So it's not an assessment that students complete. It is a progression that teachers complete based on what students are. It's an observational tool. And then the Start Star, Early Literacy as part of the state's progress monitoring. State mandated progress monitoring. All right, thank you. Any other? Yep. Wonderful presentation. Very informative. Thank you. But why do you think there are. So many student challenges at this age? Our 4 year olds were Covid babies, my grandson included. He was born in 2020, right in the midst of the shutdown. So many of the students that we're seeing come through the program now
050are just a little delayed because they were never exposed. And is there a plan as to what we're going to do with that? We have a couple of plans in place. One is looking at the curriculum. Creative curriculum has been fantastic. We are working with them because there is a new and improved curricula. So we're taking a look at that. It's right now with the division of Early Learning. Professional learning is always step one. Our teachers are expressing that they're having difficulty with the tools that we've always had in the toolbox. Those tools are no longer working. So we're looking for new tools. And we do that through professional learning. And then additionally at the what we're looking towards in the summer is we have some management team that are 12 month employees. So rather
051than begin these 45 and 90 day screenings when school starts in August, we start identifying these students, we work with them, we complete these screenings at the, at the summertime or just at pre planning and then start to. To get that ball rolling ahead of time. Thank you so much. Anyone else, any other questions? The referrals, their IEP referrals, specifically? Yes. And is there a specific kind of referral that you see more often than others? Like are these socialization issues because you're saying they're the COVID babies. Like what are the types of referrals that you're talking about? Typically what you see in early childhood is developmental delay. They're a little more hesitant unless it's something extremely specific to give a child a label of sorts. So we are seeing a lot of developmental delay. And
052also speech and language are weighing heavy. Thanks so much. That was very informative. All right, thank you. Thank you, Mrs. Walker. And with that said, Mrs. Kahn, we have an exciting program this afternoon with Gems and other recognitions. So I'm going to ask Mrs. Acevedo to lead us in that. Good afternoon. And yes, we do have an exciting time for gems and recognition. And first, I would like the superintendent and the board chair to please come down. And I would like to call up the members of Keys to be the Change. I believe that we have, of course, their director, Heidi Go Lightly. And we have board members Andrea Spotswood, Shawn Brandenburg and Floyd Jenkins to come up because they are being recognized as our community gem. Our community Gem is one of the most
053prestigious that we award because it is given to a group who has given back to Monroe County School district and its students over time and in so many ways. And there is no one more fitting than Keys to be the Change. They're a nonprofit organization and they stand as a testament to the power of education, mentorship and advocacy. Through their unwavering commitment, they touch the lives of nearly 500 students a year on a regular basis. They instill confidence, self esteem, and a sense of purpose. And the really interesting thing is the ages of those students range. And the reason why is Keys to be the Change has programs for high school students to empower, educate and uplift others. They do things such as drug prevention programs in the school. They do special activities. But one
054of the most powerful things that they do is their mentorship of the younger students through Keith to Be the Change. And that group, they not only get out into the community. They share their message of positivity and empowerment with the community, but they share it with the elementary students. They go, they read to them, they uplift them by just giving them the big brother, big sister, someone who can come and meet with them and listen to them on a regular basis and imagine what that does to the students that are in Keys to be the Change at the high school level. It teaches them so much and Keys to Be the Change Again. As an organization, many of you have seen them because they are non stop under Heidi Golightly. They are a powerhouse. They
055are everywhere. They are a lifeline for countless children and families. So honoring their leaders and their remarkable work means recognizing the huge difference that they have made in the lives and the futures that they have helped build. Because when one person is empowered to succeed, of course our entire community rises. So again, we are so proud and pleased to award this community Gems to Keys to Be the Change. Thank you for all you do. Okay. Thank you. Thank you so much. Next, I would like to call up Crystal and chip Hendricks from HoB along with principal Brian Desalitz, Crystal and Chip Hendricks have been nominated for the Munro County School District GEMS award for their tremendous dedication to the program and students at Hob Horace O'Brien School, but mostly because they have been such an
056inspiration to others. Dedicated is a word that might be used lightly, but they are truly the face of dedication in the face of an unimaginable tragedy. They demonstrated extraordinary compassion and selflessness in supporting a student and their family who lost multiple family members in a fire. The Hendricks went above and beyond from the day of they went out of their way. They made trips to Miami. They made sure that this HOB student knew that they had a feeling of safety and security in the middle of so much loss. And it took a lot of moving parts. And they didn't do it alone, but they definitely stood at the front and brought so many things together. And that is just a testament to how they are with the students and the people around them. They are
057always showing kindness and compassion for others. And it's such a strong thing when you see it every day with the kids and so forth. But when it comes forth in such a manner to where nothing else matters but the security and the safety and the kindness for one of their own, one of their own students that they take in and treat as their own to make sure that their needs are met and the academics come next, they did that with the HOB community. And I know they stand here and say they share that with the HoB community. But we want to commend the Hendricks and say thank you. Thank you, thank you. You definitely have created great educational Mom. Thank you so much. And now we always have students doing outstanding things, but tonight we
058have a special treat. I'd like to call up Taylor Thomason and Colin Palomino, please, with their principal, Mr. Trevor Tyler. Tonight you're going to kind of notice a theme here. We are celebrating now young scientists, Mr. Kevin Walden, the AP as well. So we're going to begin with Taylor. Taylor's an eighth grader at Sugarloaf School, a very talented eighth grader in so many ways. But recently she showcased her continued research. Now I have to look at the paper because this is a mouthful. On microplastics impact on shrimp. At the state science and engineering fair in Lakeland, she was expanding on her previous award winning study and she explored how microplastics affect shrimp exoskeletons and behavior. Her commitment as a steward of the environment and to further exploring the work that she began early in her
059middle school career. By the way, hard for me to say. She began exploring this in the beginning of her middle school career and this year we are proud to say she placed first in the entire state of Florida. She won in the Earth and environmental sciences category, and she got another recommendation for the Thermo Fisher Junior Innovators Challenge that will allow her to continue to share her work on a bigger stage. And as she looks ahead to next year's competition, we definitely applaud her success and dedication. And with her, Colin Palomino, also an eighth grader at Sugarloaf, presented his second year project, temperature regulation for sea turtle Nests. Using a burlap and wind stake canopy, he devised a method to counteract rising salmon temperatures, ensuring that a balanced sex ratio in sea turtle populations exist.
060Now, some of you have seen those messages, be watchful of sea turtle nesting and so forth. Well, he has definitely taken it a step further. He wants to make sure there's some equality in the sea turtle population. So his innovative work earned him the outstanding project recognition and the Thomas Edison Achievement award in the animal category at the state level. So congratulations to Colin. He also has plans to further his research. And with that, Colin's efforts hold a promise for conservation efforts and again show amazing tenacity and ingenuity. So both of these students are such an exciting example of our goal of environmental stewards of our STEM program and how our students are learning, exploring and giving back to the community. And they definitely are gems in our eyes. So congratulations. Thank you. Congratulations. Thank
061you. So our last recognition is certificate of achievements. And these are for Key West High School's Miami Herald Silver Night Award nominees. Now, the Silver Knights Award is one of the most prestigious student recognition programs because they celebrate the students who excel in academics while they make a meaningful impact on their schools and their communities. They're using their gifts and talents to give back to those around them. And this was started by the Miami Herald and John S. Knight. And the nominees across Miami Dade and Monroe county go across 15 categories. And key West High School is actually proud to have submitted six. And again, the nominations are very prestigious and they have different categories. And tonight, I believe we have one with us. Please come forward. And also. Oh, come forward, please. All right.
062I'm sorry. One snuck in on me. So we have tonight with us Shane Miller in the category of journalism, and he'll be attending FIU in the fall. And we have Nestle Attila for speech, and she has been accepted at Yale and Harvard. Neslo. Oh, sorry. I was looking at the big. The long name. I apologize. We have four others that couldn't be with us tonight. We have Sam Holland, who is in for athletics, but he has to practice because he has big games coming up this week. For the baseball team, we have Antonio Gomez and Shane and William Forrester and Marcus Crew, who were unable to be with us tonight. But we are very proud of the six students who have earned the Silver Knights nomination for Key West High School for all of their
063work, for their commitment, and for their drive for excellence. So congratulations. Thank you. Here are them tonight. Nellis Ballard, I apologize I didn't call you up, but I will give the certificates for the rest of them. Now at this time, we will let the two of you go back to enjoy the next presentation. And the next presentation is not one that I am going to give, but I do want to call up our STEM coordinator, Donna Tedesco. We have earned the Cognia STEM accreditation, and she's going to share that with you at the end. And this has been through a focus on the science, technology, engineering and math fields throughout the district, in the classrooms, and in innovative activities that she's going to share with you, such as our Sea Perch that's coming up, Big
064middle school competition here to help us celebrate. And those that help us lead the way to earn it are our principals. We have Melissa. Also Brooks from Gerald Adams, please come forward. Mr. Trevor Tyler, please come forward. From Sugarloaf, we have Yanelis Ballard representing Key West High School. And we have Brian Deslitz from HOB and Kevin Walden. Please come on up because you're an administrator in the House and it takes all of us to get this cogni of STEM accreditation. It is an arduous process, but a labor of love most of the time by Ms. Tedesco, who truly has been a champion through it. And she's going to share with you just a snippet of some of the exciting things that have been going on. Ms. Tedesco, thank you. First, I'd like to thank the
065principals that are here with me and the vice principals. Putting together the STEM accreditation could not have been done without members of your faculty who helped with the heavy lift. And even members are standing here that provided a lot of artifacts and evidentiary pieces. We have a couple things to celebrate. One of them, we are the first in the nation to accomplish the Ocean Guardian School District Year One initiative. I misspoke. First on the east coast, second in the nation. The first one is Monterey Bay, California. If you know marine ecosystems, yeah, that's the epicenter of marine ecosystem research. So we're in very good company. But we are the largest in the country to accomplish this. The primary stakeholders are NOAA with the Ocean Guardian School District, the National Marine Sanctuary and United Way. And
066there's a link to the United Way press release to our accomplishment of year one. This is a three year initiative that encompasses one initiative across the district. Up to at least 55% of the campuses within our district. Monterey Bay only had three. So we're already ahead of the game because we did three this year. These gardens are student designed, student driven, student installed. So it celebrates the research they've done and the efforts that they're making for environmental stewardship. A rainwater filtration garden is around a storm drain on one of our campuses. And they're low shrubs of native species, and the roots actually extract up to 90% of the contaminants from runoff, which is impressive. The kids have chosen their storm drains and they've moved forward to implement which of the native species. And then we
067sourced them all the way through up to Orlando, brought them down and did the installations. These gardens also provide outdoor classroom opportunities that favor a large number of tested standards at each level. We can go to the next slide. So Poinciana was the first installation on March 11th. We had Melissa Burns, fifth grade class and the whole grade, actually. She's the STEM teacher. The key west police showed up to support. They brought their representatives from their mounted division and their motorcycle division who Actually helped dig when they got to the limestone level. And we had a ribbon cutting with the young lady who designed the garden. Key West High school happened on April 2. The contingency of students from Key West High School started this planning last year. This is a year into the fruition
068for them. Those five students that were able to be there gave a speech at the ribbon cutting. Their garden encompassed about 170 plants. That was quite an undertaking and actually took them two full days to plant that. We had representatives from Shannon Duffy's environmental classes and Team Blue Pat rec and her avid students with their community service and United Way present with us and some of the agricultural students. We also had NOAA representatives there for the groundbreaking with the shovel with the first dig and more United Way representatives at the ribbon cutting. Our final school was Sugarloaf, and that happened April 4th. We had Monroe County Sheriff's office there, the Monroe County Fire Department there, who realized that once we got to the limestone there, they called in Pierce's tree service on the spot who
069showed right up with a jackhammer. And there's a picture of deputy Barrios there using the jackhammer for that. We had four young ladies who designed this garden and they incorporated a fin to represent their sharks, which they did in stone. And they planted about 40 gardens that day. Again, we had United Way and NOAA representatives there. The work of these gardens, the intent, was highlighted in our STEM accreditation. The finalization came in about the same time that we received word that we did receive STEM accreditation, which is a very large accomplishment from an international corporation. And the evidence that we put forward is now serving as the exemplar pieces that they're requiring from all districts. So that's our cogni estimate clarification. And that superintendent concludes our great news for tonight. Thank you so much, Mrs.
070Acevedo. I think we're. Do we have any. I don't. He hasn't made it back yet, so. We don't have anyone signed up for citizen input at this time. Alrighty. Well, with that said, I recommend that we move to the consent agenda. And all items listed as consent agenda items are considered routine and non controversial by the school board and will be approved by a single motion. There will be no separate discussion of these items prior to this meeting. Board members have had the opportunity to review each of these and request that the item be removed if they would like to discuss it further. And there have been no requests by board members to remove an item. So with that said, I recommend approval of the consent agenda. So moved. Second. Motion by Dr. Woltanski. Second
071by Mr. Horan. Any no votes? Any discussion? Hearing none. The motion passes. And next we move to Goal Area 2. And a presentation by Mr. Laffier on the Rex Reach improvements. And I believe he's accompanied by architect Mr. Bill Horn. Good evening, Madam Chair, board members, Madam Superintendent, the intent tonight is just to give you a quick update on the Reynolds School project. We briefed it to you back in February. Not much has really changed from the overall design, but between now and then, we've added a little bit of detail which I'll get into along with Mr. Horn here. Reynolds School or Rex Wech? What am I saying? Did I say Reynolds School? You did. That's the last design I looked at before standing up. My apologies, Madam Chair. Rex Weach, baseball field improvements is
072what we're going to talk about tonight. The last time we spoke to you, we were in design development, but not quite there all the way. Now we believe we are complete with design development and would like to move forward to the final phase of design, which is the construction documents themselves. So we wanted to bring it back to you one more time just to make sure there was no objections on your end. Again, the big picture design hasn't really changed since we showed it to you last time. Those architectural plans are about the same, but what was developed between then and now are all of the mechanical, electrical, plumbing, and all those designs, which if you've kind of skimmed through the set of designs that are attached to the agenda, you'll see all that. So
073that's what. That's what Bill and his team have been working on since this last time. But we did want to talk to you a little bit about some of the detail in the, in the concession and, and museum building. And Bill's going to cover a little bit about how he's been working with the rest of the design team on outfitting the training area. So he'll cover that piece. Pat, just real quick, I have talked to Claude Gardner. Can we just kind of keep them updated as to this progress? Because I was the first one to send them anything, and that was a week ago. Okay, we can absolutely do that. No problem. No problem. So this is. This is the same design that we showed you last time with the entry. Very cool decorative gates.
074It's a pedestrian entrance there under the sign that says Rex Huge field. And on the left there, you can see there's a vehicle gate. I have a quick question. Do we know where the conch shell is going to go? Yeah, I think it's staying where it's at. Okay, thanks. That's what I thought. So this is the detail on the concession stand and the museum building itself. You can see the concession stand on the north side of it, the baseball museum on the south side of it. We've got covered walkways and both the north and south side of it with stairs leading up on the north side and a ramp going up on the south side. Inside the concession stand. I'll zoom in a little bit so we can see it a little better. I'll start
075on the top right. Come. And this, this is your order window, pickup window. And on this side here, moving inside, you've got a hand sink, some shelving for storage there, the ice machine, the refrigerator, a janitor closet, the freezer moving down into the fryer, the range and ovens, and the hood element there. Down on the bottom you've got a three compartment sink. In the middle is the prep table and then some more racks for shelving and such. So a little bit more detail on that. And then some work's been done on the museum side, obviously a lot of display cases and walls. They've requested a television to have continually running video and promotion on that. And then this north wall is intended to be for pictures that they will be able to move in and
076out a storage area that they requested. And then we did have to add a. An electrical room there. Is there a barbecue area as part of the concession? I can answer that. So they did not want to have an outside barbecue. Say like the football thing. They've got it inside and the whole grill and everything is where they're going. To be cooking with the range area. Yeah. Thank you. Thanks. Any other questions on the museum concession? And I'll call up the separate slide. That's going to be the training area. That Bill's going to speak to the museum. What's the capacity for a room, a building, a room that size, like how many people could be in that museum at a time? I don't have that readily available, but we'll get. I'll get with our building
077official and have that calculated and pass it to you. Thank you. It's not going to be a lot of people because we're a little bit limited on square footage. We wanted to stay under later repeated. We wanted this building so we didn't have to fire sprinkle it. Although the hood is sprinkler, fire extinguisher system. We wanted to keep it under a thousand square feet enclosed so we didn't have to have the expense of a fire sprinkler system brought in from the street and everything. And so that's the kind of the square. We're kind of maxed out with what we have right now. But you know, you probably get 15, could get 20 people in there, but it's not going to get 50 people. It's right. I'm just managing expectations. Yeah, thanks. Go into the. Okay,
078good. Okay. Yeah. Okay. Good evening, Madam Chair board members, Bill Horn. So we submitted the design development drawings a week ago Tuesday and everybody's been looking at them. And then Friday we had a meeting with the big group at the high school and went over everything and everything seems to be going good. They're anxious to keep going, jump into the next phase. We're ready. Tucker Finney, you know, the building official and Doug have been going back and forth daily and phone calls and emails, reviewing stuff already and coordinating it. And one of the things we did while we were working, Tyler Kirsch from msa, our sports expert in baseball, part of the team, started developing like on this one, this is, this is the tunnels that has the batting and the pitching. And we were
079developing the lighting. And then he also was developing where this hit tracks system, computerized system with high speed cameras will go for the hitting. And it's. Let me show you. So this is the side that's closest to the field and then there's this hitting cage, this one, this one and that one, there's four. And this bottom one is where we're going to have, have a big camera up top for this hit track system. And what that does is it records the batter and it records all of his movements, how soon or how late he's hitting the ball. It can calculate how far that ball is going to go when he hits it if it was out on a real field. And then it can provide instant feedback. So the coach could be standing there with
080gonna have like a table like this and a computer. And then we're also gonna have like a big screen TV up here in the corner. So they get instant feedback on, on how they're doing or they're doing things right or wrong. And so they're all excited about that. I have an odd question. What is there to protect the TV from foul ball type hits? So defense, let me just go down downstairs here to the floor and you can see the green area that is fenced with a netting. Not fencing, it's netting. That is a netting system. And then it goes between also all of the four different things and it's movable. So it can open all up, it can close up. So the theory is it's designed to keep the balls in that. That tunnel.
081That particular tunnel, yeah. Okay. So speaking of that, this, this first one is going to be used for pitching. And I think Ralph already has a camera that he's going to be mounting over here to record the pitcher. It's a different thing than the hit tracks, but it also will record all of the pitcher and what he's doing in the speed of his throws and all that kind of stuff. So it's a pretty high tech place. And let me just go in that. That is going to have a big screen TV over here. And then you also have the cart with the computer, which you could just immediately look at the computer screen. But also you get a big TV like this that everybody could be standing around looking at. You can get feedback of
082what you've done over the last six months. You can compare yourself to another baseball player and you can even simulate a real game. And then you got a hit and try and score runs and things like that. So it's a fun system. So we were talking about that and we actually developed it two more times today with Ralph and Tyler and me going back and forth. So it's moving along. Everything's moving along pretty good. And we're ready to jump into the CDs and get this thing done. That's great. Thank you so much. Any questions? Yeah, Pat, are you also kind of like looking at this as a standpoint, something you can do up in Founders park as well, or we kind of just limited on space. They've kind of got their own vision on what
083they want to do at Founders. They're a little bit space constrained on what they can do with buildings. But I think I've told you all, we've had that first meeting and gave the kind of initial guidance we needed to the architects and engineers and they're starting to do their preliminary analysis of the site to see what of the scope of work that the school is requesting is going to be feasible on that location. Yeah, same team. I'm actually going up there to mar to take a look at the trees and see how intrusive they are. Because they weren't on the survey, but they're getting put on the survey. But I want to see how big the canopy is going to see how much room we have. That's going to be the big problem. And I
084believe we're naming that area after the Knight Foundation. Where is that plaque? Planning on Being or how is that all going to work? If you look at the 3D or the elevations, the training facility has got his name on. On both sides that the side towards the field and then the side towards the parking lot and bathroom. You know. Beautiful. Thank you. Real big. Yeah, yeah. So the. Excuse me, the. What did you call it? Hit tracks. The hit tracks is paid with the grant money from the. The Knight Foundation. I don't think so. I think that's just on a separate thing. Like you're buying the kitchen equipment. It's the same Madam Chair. There's the blow up of the name of the training center. Thanks. That's beautiful. And I believe those types of equipment are
085already purchased or being purchased by the baseball league team. Okay. Yeah. It's kind of separate from the construction. But just hoping if we build this world class training facility that's got a lot of bells and whistles that other teams in the county would be able to maybe make use of some of that. I don't know how that works, but that's what I was wondering where the funding was coming from. But if the team is raising it themselves, that's fine. Okay. With nothing else to ask, unless there's any objections, we're going to move forward into the development of the construction documents. That would be great. Thank you. Do we have a proposed date to begin the work? Well, that's. We've talked a lot about the whole schedule and everything. We probably are two months out. If
086everything goes well, we get approval tonight and so forth that the drawings will be done. But then there's this whole thing of hiring the contractor and that. I'm not really that knowledgeable about the timing of that. But what we are planning on doing is before the 2026 season, we're hoping to have the batting facility building done, pretty much done. And the concession building, at least the shell done. And then while they're doing the 2026 season, we'll probably have a temporary concession trailer on the other side of the field while we're finishing out the inside of the concession building because that's got all the electrical and the AC and so forth, so. But that work will work simultaneously with the season. Yes, yes. The whole goal is that they can. Ralph can schedule his 26. 2026
087season and he's. Every meeting we go over that and we develop it even further, but we're not going to be complete by the 2026 season, but he should be able to function. We do have to work out like there's certain school Requirements of separation and stuff like that. But they basically are playing a lot the games in the evening. Yes. So this should be something that we could do. Great. Thank you so much for all your work. Legal, do you have a report for us? Oh, you jumped to me. I'm just reading. Yes. I've briefed you all on the results of the soils testing on the field, and I provided each of you with a report and some soil pictures and the results. And there is a problem, obviously. And so the next step for
088Legal with, you know, I'm advising you, what I plan to do unless I hear otherwise tonight, is to review all the contract documents and all the bids and everything to determine what, if any, accountability is appropriate for anyone involved in the project. And that report should be to you. In May for the May meeting. And because things have taken a turn. Here, I'm going to be doing more. Talking to you about these issues than putting things together for legal reports and such. And then I'd rather just you guys ask me questions, one on ones. Okay, thanks. Thank you, Superintendent. Thank you. Mrs. Conn. Just briefly, I don't believe I told you this. We made it into the house budget for $7 million. Many thanks to Representative Mooney for his advocacy and foresight in recognizing the
089quality and the impact of our request on both the district and Key Weston specifically. So if you see him in your travels, make sure to thank Representative Mooney for sticking by us and making that happen. Now, the way it works now is that the House and Senate gets together and there's a decision on, you know, whether or not it's funded. So, you know, we're still far out from that. But I was contacted, so I had to resubmit the federal earmark, which I did last week, that earmark for $3 million. And it was a quick turnaround, but I would like to thank Mayor Jim Scholl, Mayor Denise Dede Henriques, City Manager Brian Barrosa, and Carrie Baker, executive director of the Chamber, for writing support letters for us for that earmark. I attended and I was requested
090to attend a town hall meeting here in at City hall last night. And the topic was shall we maintain the workforce housing ordinance as it exists? Shall we expand it or shall we contract it or make it less? And so I was specifically asked to talk about our situation with teacher housing and if the new ordinance proposal was passed. And they're pretty far out from that because there's a lot of conversations to have as yet. One of the things that would help us is that parking below the building would not count as a story. So you would be able to build three stories above parking and that would change, you know, the height requirement. So as I said, this isn't a done deal and there's many conversations to be had, but that's one of the
091things that would appear in that ordinance. I also wanted to let you know that we have had at this time 65 downloaders, but actually nine applicants for our RFP for Trumbo. And those applicants are vescoring the Richmond Group who did come to meet with us and I researched them. The Michaels Development Company, Network Craze, Mark Master Inc. Energy, Air Inc. All Aspects Services, AIO Enterprise and Acco Brands USA llc. I would be glad to send those to you in an email if you want to. Here you have them, please. You know the RFP ends on April 23rd when the bids would be opened. So Nine is a good number for us. There's another matter. There's another matter that I have to talk to you about, and it's the funding for FTE and the way it
092looks. So I'm going to let Dr. White comment here, but it looks like we're going to be 2.6 million in deficit starting the year if the funding goes the way it is right now. And we hear that and we've filed all the information that we can to help people lobby for us to not have that happen. But Overall it's a 2.3% decrease. And so Dr. White is. Has been working with Austin and we've sent information to the Florida School Boards association and, excuse me, the Florida Superintendents association because they're lobbying to have the funding at least restored to what the level it was last year. So, Dr. White, would you like to comment? Yes, ma'am. They took us through an exercise to try to determine the impact of their changes on our district. Thank you
093to Dr. Woltanski for going up there and talking. I think the hallways are full of educators right now trying to change some minds. But right now we would be at a deficit of $2.7 million. It includes utilities, fuel, health insurance, increase instructional materials. I tried to find out the larger dollar items. We have not even begun budget hearings yet. They begin next week with principals and then the following two weeks will be departmental budget meetings. So try to get as much information ahead of time as we could just to try to put the puzzle pieces together for this budget and try to anticipate what might be happening. In addition to that, you know, there may be changes to federal dollars. Don't know what's going to happen there. But trying to go through there, get through
094all the grants. What are the dollar amounts with those grants, which ones are discretionary, which ones are not, how many employees are impacted by each grant. So try to do as much work ahead of time as we can to be as prepared as possible for this budget. It is going to be a more difficult budget. These Numbers, the negative 2.7 really does not include raises. We are working on the we had the health insurance committee meeting yesterday where we decided the recommendation is going to be to have a 13% increase in health insurance premiums, not the 15% that was last year. The recommendation we hope we can do is to have the same raises that we did last year, which it covered the 15%. So giving them a little additional raise if the insurance premiums,
095I can't say only go up 13%. But the health insurance fund is. We donated the General Fund, put $7 million in in 23, 6 million and 24. So the goal this year is to be 4 then 2 then 0. If we can't, we just got to get our health insurance fund healthy again. But hopefully with the increase in premiums, we save on the transfer from the general fund to the health insurance fund and that is what can be used for raises, a portion at least of the races. But what it looks like right now is we will be going into our fund balance at this point in time. It will not be anywhere to the point that, you know, it will be below any requirements that we would have to report to you guys or
096to the state. But that's the direction that it's looking. I will keep you as updated as I possibly can. Any information you have to share with me as well, please share with me. So last year around this time when we decided on the new insurance rate, I had a lot of questions about who pays what and how they pay. So once that gets decided, could we please have a report on how that all works? Yes, ma'am. Thank you so much. So we're all writing and talking and doing everything we can to let them know that this is going to be serious problem for us going forward if the funding level stays where it is. And the big districts, of course, are really having are in desperate times. Dade has said if this funding level would
097continue to collapse, they would be bankrupt in the next three years. So it's a serious matter and I think that, you know, anything we can do would be helpful. My last thing is I want to thank Maria Allen and Yesenia Morales for all the work that goes into the employee recognition banquet, which is on Friday. I hope you all will come. It's an opportunity for us to show support to our top performing employees. And it's a great evening for just saying you're outstanding and you deserve recognition. But these two have done everything to get ready for that banquet. So I want to publicly thank Maria and Yesenia for a job well done. And that's the end of my report. Can I ask, can you send us where the big increases in costs are going to
098be and how much the loss is in the funding that they cut off funding? Yes, sir. I can share this spreadsheet with you. Absolutely. And why don't we wait for the list of applicants until closing on April 23rd. But at that point, if you could send everybody, please, the list of applicants that would be greatly appreciated. You're talking about the. For the housing project? Yes, absolutely. And I know we've been asking everybody to pay the $50 for a guest, but next year I'd like to look at at least the award recipients getting one free guest. If we can cost that out. Because you get that kind of reward, you absolutely want somebody who's important to you if they want to bring more than one. I can see charging for more than one, but I'd like
099to sort of relook at what the cost is to let them each bring one person. Yes, we can cost that out. Thank you. And if it's too much, I'll sponsor. Okay, thank you. Thank you very much. If I'd have known that, I would. Have brought my wife. So with that said, it's Back to you, Mrs. Conn, Dr. Woltanski, any report? Yeah, there's two parts of the budget that was. I was up in Tallahassee last week with the Greater Florida Consortium, and most of the talk was about the budget because they had just dropped. They're going to probably be voted on. They will be voted on tomorrow by both the House and the Senate, and then they'll work to align them. The total funds per FTE for. For the state are increasing. In the House by,
100I believe it's 0.95% and in the Senate of 1.5%. And inflation currently is running at 3.1%. So it's not keeping up with inflation on top of that that they have decided. So several years ago, they took the teacher salary allocation in some categoricals and they put them all in the base student allocation. That was partly because they want to get the funding formula to be aligned with their school choice vision, where the funding follows the child. And some of the categoricals we were being funded for, like teacher salary allocation, wasn't something that was going to homeschoolers or voucher students. And so people were questioning why would they get a part of that. So all of that is put in to the base student allocation, which really ballooned the base student allocation by more than $1,000,
101I think that year. With that, we had performance funding incentives, add ons for advanced placement and dual enrollment and career and technical. So the amount and those are done as a percentage of an fte. So if a child, if my child passes an AP test this year, the next year, the school or the district where the child passed that or got the certification or passed dual enrollment would get somewhere between, depending on the certification, between 75 or 3. So 30% of FTE would come to that school, and 80% of that was supposed to be used for developing those programs. So that money does not follow the child. The child earns it and it goes to other kids, but it funds the program. And it was done as an incentive program. And it's been super successful.
102You know, Florida now has more students taking AP and more kids passing AP and getting credit than any other state the country. And we now are celebrating all our career and technical achievements as well. The Senate has decided to cut the incentive funding for that in half to the cost of about $290 million to the state of Florida. The House, in addition, is cutting the incentive funding for career and technical. The Senate is just doing it for the college readiness. The House is doing it for career and college readiness. And they say that we don't need all that money for those programs, but they're not putting the money into the fefp. It was in the Senate staff analysis. It said that there would. With the slashing of. They didn't use the word slashing in the
103staff analysis. They made it sound nicer. But with the slashing of that, the state could see a savings of $290 million. So that when I heard that, I got on the phone to Mrs. Axford and Ms. White about to find out what that impact would be, because I wanted to be able to testify about it. And the word from our CTE program was that it would be devastating. And it was harder to get the details on the ap. But for Coral Shores, it was the cost of about a teacher and a half, which I explained to the House committee that since each teacher teaches core classes in addition to their AP courses, that would mean multiple programs that would be. Would suffer. This has been. So this second part of the budget has really enraged
104people because people are outraged because it's really outrageous because they funded these things. It was super successful. Kids are getting more college credit. It has decreased our two and four year college graduation rates. It has increased that they, they are graduating on time in two and four years because they had college credit when they were in high school. And that's what makes us number one. By U.S. news & World reports, the incentive funding worked and kids are more college and career ready than they used to be. There's a lot of people who are advocating about that. And Jim Mooney and Kate deloach is getting with both Jim and with Anna Maria to let them know what those impacts would be on our programs. The overall budget is increased by 9 for K12. The FTE is
105increased by $984.5 million this year. And over 700 million of that is for voucher expansion. And 60,000 of those students that are expanded were never in public school. And so if there's a kid in public school, they're funded in the formula. So where they go doesn't affect the funding of the formula. It just affects where the money is going to go. But when you bring 60,000 new kids in, you have to fund them completely. So there is a billion dollar increase in K12 education and 70% of it is going to vouchers this year. And it was really difficult to get them to understand they would still, the appropriations chairs were like, look, it's an increase. We're funding you more than last year. So yeah, Miami Dade said two to three years they could be bankrupt.
106And this year there's supposed to be a $2 billion surplus and there's a projected almost $3 billion. What's the opposite of deficit? What's the opposite of surplus? Deficit next year and almost $7 billion deficit the following year. And that's because of multiple programs that are getting bigger and bigger that the funding now is outpacing the. Even with a booming economy, the funding is outpacing that. So we, according to Kate, we expect that both budgets will pass tomorrow. And then they have to, then they go in to negotiate with each other. And like Mrs. Axford said, pretty much every single district has their lobbyists. It's all running around talking about the same thing. So we're hoping that there can be some softening because with the $2 billion surplus, it seems it's, you know, whatever. Budgets reflect
107priorities. That's all I'm going to say. Dr. Woltanski. That 290 million that comes out of the college and career readiness and cte, that still stays in the education pot, or. I mean, where is that 290 million going? The committee, the chair of Education Appropriations, insisted that they were adding it in so we could have flexibility. But in the staff analysis, it says it's a savings to the state. So, you know, that it's. I think it's the same. It's not coming out of the general. It's not. Yeah. It's not allowed for flexibility. You know, the issue with that, too, is that the schools that got that money earned that money. And so if. And so, though. And it's from a small. A group of very committed students in schools. And so when. If. Even if they
108took that money and then they spread it across all the schools for flexibility, you're still taking it away from the programs that are flourishing, that are. Yeah. That were raising the funds. Yeah. Thank you, Mr. Horan. So I'm aware of the unfortunate back and forth between Basilica and Marathon, and I'm hoping that cooler heads can prevail and all that, but please keep me posted on the outcome of all that. Mrs. Talbot, just a quick thank you to Andrea Messina for all of her help through this very important process that we're going through. And a big thank you to Maria Allen. She was so helpful with this enormous binder she provided us, but it was so helpful in disseminating the information. And anyway, I'm extremely. I think we're all very grateful for all of your help
109in the process. Thank you. Mr. Dick would like to reiterate my thank you to everybody for their work. The superintendent search is a big undertaking. We're all taking it very seriously. We're happy for the help, whether it comes to binders or fsba. And Andrea and her team, we want to do it right. And we're very hopeful and excited at the prospects that we're interested in. Monroe. So thanks to everybody for their work, and we all just need to keep our fingers crossed for the budget, so thank you. And moving on, if there's nothing else from board members. So on pending. Mrs. Kahn, I just wanted to mention that Erin Williams was unable to be with us this evening, so we will have a report on April 22 from her regarding the Stop the Violence grant.
110And we do have an update from Christina on charter schools. Just a brief update. Thank you. Good evening. We've just completed all charter reviews for the seven charter schools during the visit, we've conducted classroom walkthroughs and Reviewed their progress monitoring data with them. In addition, we completed a post walkthrough action plan which is similar to the 10 public schools as well. Points of celebration as well as areas identified for focus were presented at that time. Moving forward, will the board expect certain elements, test results or different aspects of the charter school programs that you would like to see reported on? Any comments by board members as what you'd like to see in regard to charter school reports? You know, there's been a lot of changes in standards and all of that sort of thing. I
111just want to make sure that their charter that they're working under is what they're actually doing that we haven't updated and that they're one that they're lying to. Because I think a few years back there was a charter school that came for renewal and they weren't doing any of the things that were in their previous contract. So like a compliance sort of thing. And that's the purpose of the visit, is we have them upload into teams folder all the documents, including facilities, any contracts, all of their attendance. So that's all uploaded, including student progression and part of the monitoring visit to make sure we're in compliance with their contracts. Anyone else? Yeah. How are they doing on matching the community that they serve? That is an area for growth. Send us how what they're all.
112What they all look like. Yes, I can definitely do that. That was going to be my request as well. If you could forward us what you. Found learned in your visits, I'd appreciate it. Thank you. Yes, thank you. For me, I'd like to see some financial information because now that we have this requirement to give them part of funding, it's important to me that that funding, if it's going to charter schools, is being spent in the ways that it needs to be. And then also I'm interested in not the makeup of the student populations per se, although I am interested in that, but the numbers based on what they expected, based on what they asked for originally, based on where they're at currently, those types of things. Thank you so much. Thank you. Anything on
113Coral Shores athletic fields? No, nothing more than that. What we mentioned during the rec sweet process, the initial meeting happened and the architects and engineers have taken the input they received from that meeting to kind of start seeing what's feasible. As Bill mentioned, he's heading up there tomorrow to take a look at some of the things on site. Great, thank you. So at this time, we're going to recess the business meeting and open the public hearing. We have A first reading of a job description. Do we have anyone from the public here to speak on that first reading? So that Mrs. Conn, is a rewriting of the policy to align or rewriting of the job description. Excuse me, to align with the grant requirements for the position. And it is not a new person. And
114that also is the case with the second one, a job description. 61198. Do we have anybody to speak on either of those? And then what about on the adoption materials? Yes. And so this is the requirement for the adoption of new materials that the website has the notice on it and access to all of the materials on science and personal money management are available for the public to examine. And that's why we've got it here as a public hearing. And is there anybody from the public here to speak on that? Thank you. At this time, I'm going to recess the public hearing and reconvene our regular business meeting for action items. And so I think we do we need to go back to Andrea for this. You want to approve. I recommend that you approve
115the semifinalists in the superintendent search. Do you need to read out the names again? I think we should. For the record. Okay. Earlier today in your workshop we discussed that you had 32 applicants from 11 states, 17 with doctorate degrees, four current superintendents and three former superintendents. The board discussed moving a pool forward of 11 semifinalists. Those 11 semifinalists would be applicant number eight, Edward Tierney. Applicant number 12, Dr. Michael George. Applicant number 14, Dr. John Millay. Applicant number 15, James Tager. Applicant 16, Laura Leitert. Applicant 17, Amber Acevedo. Applicant 18, Christina McPherson. Applicant 20, Dr. Melanie Stefanowitz. Applicant 21, Jillian Gregory. Applicant 24, Darren Burkett. And applicant 25, Melissa. Also Brooks. Read by Mrs. Messina. So move. Second. Motion by Mr. Haran. Second by Mr. Dick. Any discussion, Any no votes hearing none or
116a semifinalist list is approved. And action item number two, Mrs. Kahn. I recommend approval of May 1st at 9am for school board public interviews for the superintendent finalists. So move. I'll Second. Motion by Mr. Horan. Second by Mr. Dick. Just comment on this is that we are starting that at 9am the reason for that is however many finalists there are, we're going to have to do everybody in a single day. So we apologize for any inconvenience in terms of public wanting to go. And I know it's during a workday. It will be aired. And in addition, I talked to Mr. Russell. We're going to figure out something for parking since it's during the school day. And that concludes our business. Any no votes. Wait, wait, wait. I'm sorry. This is to be done at Marathon
117High School or. Where are we? Marathon High School. Okay. And I'll be conducting my interviews via teams or over the phone. Okay. Any further discussion? Any no votes? Hearing none. The motion passes and this meeting is adjourned.