001We're going to call the meeting to order and start with the pledge. Jennifer, if you would lead us, please. I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the Republic from which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. Superintendent, have there been any requests to adjust the agenda? No, Madam Chair. Can I get a motion to adopt the agenda and format? So moved. Second. Motion by Mr. Horan. Second by Mrs. Talbot. Any comments, Any no votes? Hearing none. The motion passes approval of meeting minutes. Can I get a motion? Move. I'll second. Motion by Mr. Horan. Second by Mr. Dick. Any discussion? Any? No votes? Hearing none. The minutes are passed. We are now going to recess our regular. Or not recess. Yeah, we
002are. We're going to recess the regular meeting and open our budget hearing. This time, I'd like to invite Dr. White, executive director of Finance and Performance, to present our first budget hearing and proposed millage rates. I don't think your mic's on. On now. Yes. Thank you. It's really hard to do this before you. You realize that this is your night. Okay. Thank you for everything. Chair Kahn, Superintendent Tierney, Superintendent Axford,Superintendent, leadership team, everybody in attendance, thank you very much for listening to this presentation. Preparing the 25, 26 budget has been a team effort is what I want to say, but I think it's very good information. We have a balanced budget. I'm sure there'll be questions, but I'll do the presentation tonight and then the next meeting will be a workshop and be glad to
003answer any additional questions you might have at that point in time. The agenda tonight. You got it or you want me to do it? Maria, thank you. And excuse me, I've had a sinus infection and so I've got a something in my mouth. We will discuss the timetable. We've already discussed the items to advertise, but we will go over those again as well. We'll go over property taxes, we'll go over the millage information. The rollback rate has been calculated. And then we will have budget highlights. This is our first budget meeting of our tentative budget. So please know that there may be minor changes to the budget, but this is the tentative budget. John Dick, One of the things you usually ask for is safety and security. We're working on that information. We're working on
004closing the books for 24, 25. It has actual numbers in it, so we will add it to the workshop next time. But the rest of the schedule is right there. We will have the workshop and then we'll have the final budget meeting. In your budget book, these are the pages where the actual ads that we discussed on July 22 are posted. There have been no changes to any of those. We have got the newspapers. Everything was advertised as requested. It was on two pages. You didn't have to flip a page. But hopefully next year we'll be able to get it all on one page instead of at the bottom of two pages. Property taxes. This is probably very repetitive to a lot of you, very knowledgeable of this information, but do want to reiterate that
005the property tax, the appraiser establishes the assessed values. We wait to get those assessed values from the property assessor. We also go look at save our homes. And the homesteaded property can only be increased by 2.9% this year. That is, we go to that website and check that percentage. The maximum it can be is 3% every year. This year it's 2.9. The tax collector's office does collect the taxes. And then in the last paragraph, property tax revenue from all the 67 counties in the state of Florida are combined with the sales tax revenue to provide the funding for all school operations. This is one of the most informational slides in my opinion. It can show you the history of what our millage rates have been. This is what was advertised as well. The 1.049 in
006RLE is combined of two numbers 1.047 plus a 0.002 adjustment from prior year. That was about $118,000. It was in our favor discretionary. Discretionary has been 0.748 for years. The voted millage is 0.55, 0.5 is the operational millage, 0.05 is the safety and security portion and again as discussed previously, we'll provide more information of a roll forward of those numbers. Capital Projects is 0.6 for a total millage of 2.9470. This slide shows the history of property value and the millage rates. Please know one of the discussions that several board members discuss is even though property values increase, you know you would think that we would just have all kinds of money there. But the state adjusts that based on our RLA so our required local effort will go down some as property values go up.
007This slide shows all the millage levy information. Compared to last year we had an increase of.083 which is a 2.9% increase on the millage levy information as advertised. We must levy the RLE to receive state funding of the $19 million 19 374610. I will at our budget workshop we will discuss that number in more detail as well. Did go through the calculation again of the impact on the increase in values. There were questions on the $500,000amount. Austin our CSI guy for budget we did find an article that from the State of Florida that does say that a homesteaded residential property owner with an average appraised taxable value of 500,777.90 will see a $2.54 monthly increase for countywide services. The big dollar amount though. That's why we still go with the 500,000. Not many homes around
008here are sell for $100,000 more like a million dollars. So you can just double the numbers and then you'll have your idea of the estimate there. Do realize that each taxpayer's situation is quite different. So these are all estimates for taxpayers. The rollback rate that we have to go through the calculation and I have to make a note to myself but the rollback rate is if we had the same revenue as last year but based on the new property tax value, what would be our rate? So the increase is the.083 the next slide has the actual calculation. In the calculation you have to take out new construction but the rollback rate ends up being 2.7453. Budget highlights. Not much on the budget highlights has changed from last year. Our goal this year with so many
009different factors, you know we've got some impacts on enrollment right now because of FES, because of the federal government and changes in some of the federal grants. Just a lot of unknown factors out there. But we have successfully gotten to a balanced budget. The main focus we made, you know, we've had to work on the health insurance fund but also wanted to have a raise if we were going to have an increase in the health insurance fund. Again, we've not gone through collective bargaining because we didn't get the numbers as early as we usually do. Again, we've tried to calculate a raise. We are going to go back in after Labor Day weekend and look at what actual enrollment is. But this is the plan for right now budget wise. How to go forward. The
010general fund. This is estimated right now. The estimate is 29.4 million. The unassigned is 27 million. What I do want you to know is that what we try to do at the end of June 30th is we try to make our numbers look as good as possible at June 30th because that's where a lot of financial decisions are made. What is not considered here is the potential transfer to the health insurance fund this year. The estimate for this year is 4 million. The hope is next year will be 2 and then down to 0. So we've got a three year plan with the health insurance committee to try to take care of the health insurance fund. Any questions on that one? I just would like to. Okay, the special revenue funds, those are our federal
011funds. They're just. I'm sorry, I do. Can you do the math for me? So if we take 4 million out of that 27 million, what percent is out of our, do you know? It is right at 13? I think it's right at 13%. Thank you. I can have that for sure at the workshop. The special net revenue funds, those are our federal funds. Lots of unknowns and that right now a hold put on those funds. But now we've been told they're going to release those funds but we don't have not have any dollar amounts yet back debt service. The great news there is that one of our largest debts will be paid off at the end of 2526. The capital funds. From looking at the capital budget at this point in time. The hurricane reserve
012we can estimate to be $9.5 million, which is fantastic. We had to come to you and go down to 5 million this last year. We will get through the approval of this general budget and that'll be, you know, the last meeting is in September. So hopefully later in September, October, we'll start having discussions on the capital budget. This diagram, this is some of what I'd like to discuss at the workshop as well. Several questions that you had was on the FEFP and instruction and where the 12 million in instruction dollars came from. It was, if you look at this, we do get the 8.6 million on class size. That's the bottom right hand number. It's really hard for you to see, isn't it? And then what we get, the net adjusted state FEFP is $1.5
013million. And we'll be able to discuss that further. Where is the additional funding being spent? We have about $5.2 million in, in additional funding. Our goal is for compensation for salary and benefits. If we have an increase in health insurance premiums, that will also cost the district extra in benefits that the district has to pay. We have an increase in FRS that all totaled about 5.32 million. So this is where we had many discussions at SLT and these discussions actually started in February and March when the budget originally started. Those discussions started. Everybody came forward and found areas that, that we could cut. You know, we did not want to even think about people. We wanted to look at contracts. You know, is a contract, does it replicate something else? Is it a duplication of
014efforts anywhere? So we're challenging contracts as we go throughout the year. Travel, you know, we're down here in Key West, Florida. Travel is really expensive. Do we need to make that travel? So we're challenging the travel supplies. You know, we. One program is, you know, leader in me. We've reduced it by $20,000. Deputy Superintendent Acevedo, she looked at Avid, decreasing it $10,000. You know, you think with $170 million budget, 10 here or 20 there, that isn't very much. But when you add it all together, it, it comes up to a larger dollar amount. Want to mention HR? HR looked at their budget. They cut 45,000, I believe, in their budget. So everybody on the senior leadership team looked at their budgets, came together and tried to help with the budget this year. We went above
015and beyond on those discussions as well, simply because of the potential changes in federal funding if we don't have it this year, if they release all the money we know we've got to prepare for the future. So we've had a lot of discussions on federal grants and how we will change those programs as well to make sure we still offer the best that we can for our students. The main thing we've tried to keep in mind is it part of the strategic plan and does it benefit the students? And even though I'm your number cruncher, sitting behind an Excel spreadsheet all day long, that, that is my love and that is my passion as well, is to make sure we take care of these students. Any discussions on that presentation? I do have a couple
016of comments I'd like to make on the budget book. Would you like for me to do that first? Yes, please. Okay. On the budget book, if on page 10 the instruction line shows an increase of. Yeah, let me wait. Thank you, Maria. It shows an increase of 12 million in instruction. Right. Now, please keep in mind we just got budget numbers a week ago on Friday. So we've not even had the numbers for 10 days. So we are diligently working on these numbers. But all the increases, salary, benefits, FRS, it's all included in the instruction number. It will be distributed among the functions moved to administration, things like that in our next workshop. But you know, John, Dick caught it. Thank you so much, sir. 5.3 million increase in expenditures doesn't explain that full 12
017million. The other difference is 5 million from FEFP. And I will share it with you at the, at the workshop, we get a net of about 1.5 million on FEFP. And if you take on page nine, we go back one page in the state revenue Florida Education Finance program line, the first one under state, you see the 6, 5, 7, 8. That is the total revenue. That's the gross revenue per the FEFP that we receive. So we had to put $5 million. I can show you where the 5 million comes from in a calculation at the workshop. In addition, in this expenditure amount, because we actually don't receive that full 6.5 million. So then if you take the 5 million plus the 5.3, it makes up a majority of the $12 million increase. Everybody get
018that? That is the, excuse me, the 6.5, 7, 8 is the, what is the state funding not including class size? That's exactly right. It is the net state FEFP, which is then adjusted for the adjustment for FES, which is a negative $9.2 million number. It's also adjusted back for state funded discretionary supplement of 4.1 million. That gets you to the 1.5 million. So, Charlene, so I understand you know what happened with the instruction amount, and that's fine. And you were parking the raises for everybody in there. So that brings me then to the question of why is the instructional staff training going up $182,000, which is 12% of its budget, especially if we were cutting programs. And what would make that go up so much, percentage wise? Great question. If you don't mind, I will
019have that answer for you at our workshop. Okay, that's fine. And I'll get you the detail of what makes up that number. Anything else on that part. Okay, then, if one other item I need to mention is. It's on page 11 is the food service fund. And what we have presented here is a balanced food service fund. At this point in time, we have to be balanced. We cannot have a negative fund balance. In all honesty, in that section, we are still working on our food service expenditures. And when we get to the workshop, we will be able to provide updated information on that. There is a chance that we might have to borrow from the general fund, but then we will be. They will reimburse the general fund for any deficit that they might
020have. Why would that number be so off? We are investigating that right now, and we will have additional discussions at the workshop, if that's all right with you. Yes. Okay. Any other questions? That concludes my presentation for today for the tentative budget. Thank you. Okay. Thank you so much. We are going to recess the Madam Chair? Yes. Did you want to open it up for public comment before you close the budget hearing? Okay. Is there any public comment on the budget? Hearing none. We are going to recess the budget hearing and move on to our recognition of excellence in the Monroe county schools. Celebrating Mrs. Theresa Axford, our superintendent, and discussing all that she's done for the district. Thank you. At this time, I'd like to invite madam chair, Mrs. Kahn down and Superintendent Tierney
021to come down to present the ultimate gem to Ms. Theresa Axford. So I'd like her to join in an unusual spot, and that will be in the middle and the focus of attention. [ APPLAUSE ] So she really doesn't like it when I use something to read, but there's just so much. So I'm going to do my best, and I figure she'll be able to tell me one more time. But I think it's also very important. After nearly five decades of service to education 38 with the Monroe county schools, Theresa Axford retires as superintendent, leaving behind a legacy defined by vision, compassion, and transformative impact. And we are so proud to honor her tonight. She began her journey in 1976 as an English teacher at Mary Immaculate High School in Key West. Over the years,
022she has served as a teacher, assistant principal, principal, district administrator, and ultimately superintendent. Her leadership was marked by a rare blend of strategic foresight and deep empathy, always putting students and staff at the heart of every decision. Appointed as the first female superintendent in 2020, she guided this district through the unprecedented challenges of the COVID 19 pandemic, forming a countywide task force to ensure that we had safe and effective learning as students returned. Her tenure has seen bold initiatives that reshaped the district with the board support, a 29% increase in starting teacher salaries, securing $5.5 million in state funding for an affordable housing project, and the highlight, of course, the charge for rigor and constant improvement, bringing this district an A grade. This year, under her leadership, the district became the first east coast Ocean
023Guardian school district. We earned recognition as Florida's first suicide prevention certified district, ensuring that every staff member was trained to support student mental health. These, along with so many other milestones, reflect her commitment to academic excellence, environmental stewardship and student well being. Her ability to inspire trust and unity was evident in the overwhelming community support for two critical referendums passed in a single year, securing essential funding for teacher salary, school safety and facility improvements. Her tenure has also seen a dramatic expansion of community partnerships, cultural events and parent engagement, reinforcing schools as hubs of connection and care. Her legacy is not only in the accolades, but in the relationship she has built and the belief she has instilled in others. She showed us that great things are possible when we lead with purpose. As she
024passes the torch to incoming superintendent Ed Tierney, we honor Theresa Axford not just for what she's accomplished, but for how she led. With heart, integrity and unwavering dedication, she will be forever be a part of the story and the spirit of the Monroe county schools. So tonight, Mrs. Axford, we want to show you our gratitude by making you the ultimate gem for creating thousands of great educational moments for so many students and so many of us. For all the chapters of your life that you have given to this district, we say thank you and we wish you all the best in your next chapter on your journey. Thank you so much for everything. [ APPLAUSE ] Thank you. All right, if I can ask the board to come down, and while they're coming down, I'll
025have her family come on up. We are so very happy tonight to have her son Rob, daughter in law Rebecca and Isabella, who many of Us have seen, grown up with her, who have been there as part of the journey. And if we could have the board who has worked so diligently with her and alongside of her and supporting those huge accomplishments. And while we're doing that, if the executive leadership team will make their way down here so we could have one last picture. And now we'll give the floor to Superintendent Axford. But you read that beautifully, Amber. I actually loved it. So I just want to say thank you. I mean, I can't say thank you enough to the board for the opportunity of serving as superintendent. It was the thrill of my career.
026And then working with my leadership team, they were absolutely amazing, every one of them. They supported me in every way possible. And then they went out and did incredible work. So I want to thank the leadership team, and it was great working with each one of you. And I know you're going to continue to do great things for the district. And then my principal team, Amber and I hired every principal in the district, and so we're just really thrilled with them. They worked so hard this year and brought that a home. And so for me, it was the capstone of I just couldn't say enough about how proud I was. This whole building must have heard me scream bloody murder when I heard that. We got that A. And then I also want to thank
027the team that worked with me on the housing. And I've been looking at emails that are flying around that looks like they're going to be looking at Trumbo for demolition sometimes in the near future. And so when you hear demolition, you know that it means that those 150 units of affordable housing are actually going to happen. And so Brian Greene was here, but he left. He and Ed Swift. I've been talking back and forth with Ed Swift just a couple of days because he's in the hospital, but they were on that task force from day one. And I was just putting together all the artifacts for Mr. Tierney. And he was saying, wow, 2020, 20 21. All those meetings and all that data that Patty just came and put in order for me. So that
028is just amazing. And Anna Maria Rodriguez and Jim Mooney, they brought it home for us this year. 3.5 million in the state budget this year and 2 million in 2022, or, excuse me, 2023, to the tune of $5.5 million. And what a tremendous commitment they've made to Monroe county schools. And so Jen Barrios is sitting here. She's like the Terry whisperer. We've been joined at the hip for, I don't know, 10 or 12 years now. And I can't thank her enough for leading curriculum the way she did all year and the huge contribution that she made to that a grade. And on the other side, at the other hip, Amber Acevedo, who was totally with me every minute and made that a happen and did tremendous work for the budget this year, helping us cut
029the budget to the tune of $1.5 million. So, Amber, God bless you. And I know Mr. Tierney is going to love working with you. And Sarah can't say enough about you. It's been so wonderful working with you. And she cried when I became superintendent. Now she's crying again today. So I know that she's really there. And my family, I'm so proud of them and they are inspiring. Both of them have high level jobs and they don't have high blood pressure. So they are my inspiration. I want to be just like them. God bless you all and my faithful companion Patty. For 20 years she was my assistant and she was absolutely amazing. She's here today and of course she gave me all the encouragement about Maria and Maria has become absolutely amazing in this job.
030So, thank you all. Thank you. Thank you very much. I love all of you and I expect great things of Monroe county schools. [ APPLAUSE ] We will now open the meeting to citizen input. Do we have anybody signed up? Maria? Yes, we do. First up to speak, we have Ms. Michelle Cohen requesting three minutes. Michelle, have you read the rules for citizen input or would you like me to read them now? Presentations to the board are limited to three minutes for each individual speaker and five minutes for the representative of a designated group. Transfer of time between individuals and or groups is not permitted. Letters submitted to each board member and or the board secretary prior to a board meeting will not additionally be read into the record at the meeting. All statements must
031be directed toward the board meeting. No person may address or question board members individually and board members will not engage in a dialogue with persons making public comment. Furthermore, all speakers agree to abide by the code of conduct for citizen input, school board policy 016 9.1 and will begin their presentation by stating their full name and city or town of residence before. For the record. Point of order on this today's public comment. Can we waive the addressing things that people want to say to Mrs. Axford? Say if you want to address Mrs. Axford directly, you do not need to address your comments to the board. She's not a board member. Go right ahead. So am I addressing them to you or to her? Okay. And I'm making a disclaimer. I did not read the rules.
032Obviously, that's why I graduated from Mary Magaly. Because I couldn't follow the rules and I got shipped out of public school. I'm not my sister. Just being honest. Mrs. Axford, I just wanted to take this opportunity on behalf of our class to congratulate you on your stellar career with Monroe County School board or school system and your much deserved retirement. Here I have some letters from our classmates showing what an example you were and what a rule. What? Excuse me? What an example you were and what an impact you made in our lives. You will forever be very special to us. Not only were you our principal, you are a role model. You were our friend, our mentor. And you shaped us into the individuals we are today. Thank you. You will forever hold a
033very special place in our heart. And when you read those letters, you'll see the impact you made in our lives. Thank you. [ APPLAUSE ] Next up, we have Mr. John Jochim requesting five minutes. Good evening, Madam Chair and board members. I wear glasses now. My name is John Joakim. I'm from Kajo Key. I've been published as a teenager. I'm the author of four best selling books. I've taught college. I've been quoted In Yahoo Finance and USA Today. And I'm a good friend of Tony Robinson. A little birdie told me that you missed me. So here I am. I come to you this evening with a change of heart. I really want you to put the words global citizens back in the mission statement. I really feel bad about my followers perverting those high minded
034words. I know you had good intentions, but I'm thinking in less selfish nationalistic terms these days because I'm falling on hard times. My girlfriend's Only fans page has been taken down. All of her clients have been rounded up by ice. So I've been hit. I've taken a hit financially. I may have to leave the keys, but before I do, I wanted to set the record straight. Everything I said when board member Griffiths, when I said he was right, I was wrong. But please suspend this search idea. Please. This is. It's a big mistake. It's a huge mistake. I've changed my mind. Just. Just hire Mrs. Axford back before she retires. It's not too late. My reasons. My reasons are just crystal clear. You're once again an A district. You're moving up. Congratulations. Learning gains are
035back as measures and this is where you shine. She's brought millions of tax dollars, millions of state dollars in in tight budget years demonstrated that time in Tallahassee is a good investment. As well as tourism dollars to improve facilities and federal funding for the affordable housing development. You've been talking about this affordable housing since John Padgett was superintendent 22 years ago. But during her tenure, it is on the. It is coming to fruition. Teacher salaries are up during her tenure. Five years more than the previous 10 years. I had to bother Charlene for that today. I felt so bad on day of all day. And then I asked chat ChatGPT and it knew. So this housing will be a game changer for Monroe county schools. It'll be a game changer for recruitment and retention. As
036we all know, recruitment and retention of quality teachers is without a doubt the number one ingredient for student success. So please don't let her go in all serious. Madam Chair and board members. In my 32 years with bun River County Schools, I have worked with 10 superintendents, elected, appointed and hired. And not to diminish the accomplishments of those nine before Mrs. Axford, this one's a winner. Her team has always been aligned in pursuit of the mission. Aligned. And congratulations to Mr. Tierney. You've got a tough act to follow. You've got my number. So Madam Chair and board members, I come here this evening to personally and publicly acknowledge Superintendent Axford and thank her for over 40 years of dedicated service to the students of Monroe County. Thank you. [ APPLAUSE ] Is there anyone else
037for public comment? That concludes citizens input. Thank you. First of all, Mr. Griffiths, you're no John Joakum. All right. I would like to add as being the second longest board member during her term, you know, I can go over all the same things of the housing and. And the COVID but to me, I don't know if everybody understands how bad that Covid thing was and the problems it put on the superintendent. I mean, rules were changing on a daily basis. Students in. No, they can't come in half day. It was going. It was a lot. And for the superintendent to stay up on really was tough times. And then what happened also, you know, when people saw what was going on in school districts, when they started seeing, you know, the work at home and
038the video, and they saw what was happening in some of the districts around the country, and they felt that that was, you know, really outrageous. Well, people started to think, oh, that's happening all over. And we started, as Mr. Griffiths had touched on, we had people coming to our meetings, acting as if we were doing these types of things. And then, not only that, then it really got tough for Ms. Axford because they kept on saying, well, when are you going to get a new superintendent? So she was coming here to meetings and having public input almost every time, asking, when are we going to do a search for a new superintendent? When are we going to do this? So to put that into context with what she did, you know, it really was. There
039was a lot of factors making this job much harder than it should have been. And Covid was a real big one. And the other things that spawned from that also, you know, I said to her earlier, when you deal with the politicians in Washington and in Tallahassee, yeah, they always say, you're going to get the money. Don't worry, it's on there, it's going. And, you know, there were so many false times where it didn't show up. And there was always some last minute, somebody cut it at the end. I give her a lot of credit to stay with it and keep on working with these politicians to come to fruition, because I don't know if I would have stayed so long with it. And of course, the benefit, of course, is Monroe County School district
040and the students, but I can say, and then, of course, to see the district become the A again, it really is. So, I've worked Not with as many superintendents, but quite a few. And Ms. Axford has brought the district further on than any of the others, and under conditions that I would say are way harder than any of the other superintendents I work with. She was under the gun for a lot of reasons that were not her fault. It was just, I guess, the luck of the draw to be at that time. So, I commend Ms. Axford for what she's done and what she's brought to this district. I am very glad that I was on the board with her. And thank you very much, Ms. Axford. [ APPLAUSE ] I would like to take
041a moment and honor the career of this wonderful woman, this great leader. And I never write down anything, but on this very important occasion, I did not want to forget anything. So here goes. I do want to honor her career, her leadership, and unwavering dedication of Our outgoing superintendent, Mrs. Theresa Axford, first female superintendent in history of Monroe County Schools. And that's quite a feat. While I've only had the opportunity to work with Mrs. Axford for a very short time, I have been fortunate to know her for almost 40 years, first as an educator and later on as a friend. And throughout her 48 years of service, she has guided Monroe county students and educators with deep commitment and educational. And a commitment to educational excellence. And those just aren't kind words because Mrs. Axford
042backed that up with meaningful action. Thanks to her direction and her collaboration with the remarkable team of teachers and administrators and the bus workers and the cafeteria leaders, and of course, her wonderful support staff and team, she is leaving quite a legacy, and that is an A district school for Monroe county, and I could not be prouder of that for her. It's a remarkable accomplishment, and it is amazing by any standard. I also had the opportunity to travel to Tallahassee with Mrs. Axford and the deputy, and I got to see her in action in Tallahassee. And she fiercely and passionately advocated for our district. I believe Mr. Horan set the challenge. Bring back the money. And she did. After, I think, several years of relentless efforts, she's brought back $5.5 million in funding from Monroe
043County. These funds will have a lasting impact, and that's something we really need to remember, because what's going to happen is that money is going to be dedicated to the construction of teacher housing, which is so needed in our district now. We'll be able to hopefully make Mr. Russell's job a little easier to recruit and retain our students, our teachers and educators. And it's also going to hopefully also help with the construction and renovation of Bruce Hall. And we can move our admin building there, which is a much, much needed project. But I'm going to say that the best quality that Mrs. Axford has is her passion for students. I've had the opportunity to sit with her many times in her office and speak with her. And every time you talk about a student, she
044is just beaming with pride. She is concerned about their education, their future, their potential and meeting all their educational needs. So I think that is probably one of the most important qualities that I have seen in her. Monroe county has been very fortunate to have you at the helm, and I think that I personally am grateful for everything you're going to leave behind, which is a stronger district, a bright future for our kids, and you're leaving us with a better prepared school system for the future. I want to thank you for everything that you've done, and I think that as time goes by, we will all realize the true impact you had on Monroe County Schools, because it's going to be here for many generations to come. So thank you for all that you did.
045Well, I certainly wasn't here as long as Andy, and not as John, but as long as John. But I will say that, Ms. Axford, I don't think that anybody could have handled the last four years as well as you could have. You got dealt crisis after crisis after crisis, and you managed to navigate every single one of them with grace and dignity. And he made us proud of you as a superintendent. So I want to congratulate you for your tenure and good luck in your future endeavors. Writing it down, that was a smart move. It's been a real pleasure working with Mrs. Axford. And I first worked with her when I was a public commenter and she was in teaching and learning. And about two days later, she called me and, you know, to discuss
046what I had talked about. And so that was. And since that time, coming on as the board, I think people, our school board members that I know from across the state will often ask me, you know, they'll call me up and they say, what is Monroe doing about this? What is Monroe doing about that? And I can honestly say that Monroe is always doing the right thing for kids, that that's what we do, and that's the secret of our success. And she was the heart of that, probably beyond, you know, before her five years as a superintendent, you know, as long as she focused on what the kids needed and she knew that that was the right thing and so I'm really proud of this district for that and for her leadership in that. And
047just as an example, when Esser funds were coming in, her first idea was to improve mental health services for kids because that's what our kids needed. We got assist, administrative assist assistance for our counselors so they could actually be out seeing kids. She was in the front of getting social workers so families could help get their lives back together. And you know, the academic, you know, sorry Jennifer, but you know, but you know the academics are there, but they're not. You can't do the academics if the kids are in pieces. And so by putting the kids back together, they were able to focus on what was needed and that is the academic success that we had. It took vision to recognize the children needed the support in order to be successful. For that, I'm ever
048grateful and so happy to have been on this board serving with you. Thank you. Many of you probably don't know this, but Terry and I have been working together since she was principal at school and I was her SAC chair. We did fundraisers together, we brought lots of programs to Sugarloaf and wherever she would lead at Sugarloaf, I would follow. We now get to end Terry's career as she retires with myself as board chair instead of SAC chair and her as superintendent rather than principal for many years together and your many years for this district, we thank you, congratulate you and wish you luck as you move on. So I know we're done with board comments. Well, not board comments, but citizens input. If there's anybody that wants to step up though that's not on
049the list and say anything, we will give you that opportunity. Okay, moving on to the consent agenda. 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 items and may request that any item be moved to an action item for individual consideration. That being said, I recommend approval of the consent agenda as presented. I'll move approval. I'll second. Motion by Mr. Dick. Second by Dr. Woltanski. Any discussion? Any no votes? Hearing none, the motion passes. Moving on to reports. Our first report, Accountability and assessment data review. I don't see her. No. Yannelis Ballard, our brand new
050Director of accountability and assessment should be joining us on teams. This is her first board report and although TEAMS is not the ideal way because the data is in and we know how important it is for you all to receive it and get an overview. Yannelis is going to present from her conference, which is for Directors of Accountability and Assessment. The school improvement plans are due for their primary look August 1, which is around the corner. So they're utilizing this data so you can see Yannelis there and I'm just here to make sure that the tech works and you all can hear her presentation. So Yannelis, you're up. Good evening, Madam Chair, Board Superintendent Tierney, Superintendent Axford and all our stakeholders. I'm very excited to share with you a summary of our 20242025 school grades
051data that led to our A district. I will break down our school Data by elementary, K8 and high schools. You will see the blue highlighted column is our 2023-2024 school grading components for comparison. The green cells represent an increase in that grading component from last year to this year. Two of the four elementary schools, Stanley Switlick and Gerald Adams, they demonstrated gains in grade 3 English language arts, referred as ELA, and overall ELA achievement. All three public elementary schools showed improvements in mathematics achievement. Gerald Adams elementary stood out with Notable increases including 17 points increase in grade 3 ELA, 16 points in mathematics achievements, 21 points in mathematics learning gains, 16 points in learning gains for the lowest quartile. In math, Stanley Swidlick elementary shows significant growth in both Grade three ELA and math, and
052Poinciana elementary recorded its most substantial improvement in math learning gains for the lowest quartile of students. The areas identified for continued growth across schools or across our elementary schools include overall ELA learning gains, our lowest quartile ELA gains and science achievement. Now we're going to transition to our K8 schools. Elargo School moved from a B to an A to join Plantation Key School and Charter School 6B, Treasure Village, Montessori and Ocean Studies. Sugarloaf School maintained a B grade and they were just one point shy of an A. HOB remained at a C, but they did increase in overall points and may stand school remained A C. All 8K8 schools increased in ELA achievement showing district wide literacy growth. Six of our eight schools including HoB, Key Largo School, Plantation and Sugarloaf improved in math achievements
053and five schools including Key Largo and Plantation Key increased in science and four including HOV and Key Largo increased in social studies. In middle school acceleration, two schools showed 40 plus point gains including Sugarloaf with 40 points in Treasure Village with 47 points to support an overall district wide gain of 19 points in our middle school acceleration grading component per district growth areas for K8 schools include English language arts, math learning games for the lowest quartile. And now we have our high schools. High school highlights include three of the five high schools, Key West High, Marathon High and CFK Academy. Increase in total points earned, with Marathon High gaining 39 points and CFK gaining 100 points. All schools except Somerset Prep showed 5% or higher increase in ELA achievement. All schools except Key West High
054show growth in math achievement, while Somerset Prep posted strong gains in both Math achievements with 15 points and math learning gains 16 points. Areas for growth for ELA learning gains for the lowest quartile, social studies achievement, college and career acceleration, and graduation rate. Any questions thus far? I actually have a question. With HoB being our only C school, what are we perceiving as the issue there and what are we doing to get that grade up because enrollment at HOB continues to decrease? That question would be for further conversation with our deputy superintendent, as she has been very informed and very involved with the schools and moving them forward. Yes. Thanks, Yanelis. So HOB continues to look at their formulas for scheduling, scheduling their ESE students, because the SWD subgroup is one that is not moving.
055Also, they had over the past two years probably the largest influx of EL students. So that is another area that while we see may decrease this year, the challenges of that. There was a lot of intense work that went into some of the newer students that we think in year two, when they will actually count in the denominator, we'll see the benefits of the work that we did last year because a lot of them were new. Therefore, in the raw data, you saw larger numbers. Now you see a little bit more movement in the proficiency numbers and percentages getting slightly higher because of that. So we hope to continue to see that trend, particularly with the EL subgroup. The other thing that Superintendent Tierney and I have talked about and with the curriculum team is
056really a targeted approach to HoB. Dependent on their enrollment and numbers. Their middle school continues to stay large and their elementary smaller. So focusing more intense work with our curriculum team in to support their new teachers and their current teachers. It's that drill down to the teacher level. So all of that is in place. And actually we begin to do that with the entire administrative team on Thursday when we have our leadership meeting. Thank you. Can I ask a question? I'm sorry. So hob, do we know what the path to them is like, how many. What students are from elementary school are heading there and how Many of them are from the charter schools coming there. And do we know where they like, where do Big Pine kids go and where do the Maisons kids
057go? The path Mae Sands students tend to stay at Mae sands Montessori through 8th Big Pine Charter. The trends are to attend Sugarloaf in that area. And HOB trends to of course pull from Gerald Adams and Poinciana as well as their own younger school. They don't tend. The trend has not been for them to pull in from Sigsbee Charter, for example, who now has a robust K8. And of course, we know that BASILICA has a robust Now K through 12 moving to a K through 12 program. But we are trending the students coming in. It's one of the discussions we'll have with HoB, particularly because seeing the growth and for example, sixth graders coming in, we want to be able to build on that individual student growth. And so again, that drill down to the
058student level and really taking them from where they are and moving them forward is work that began intensely last year. And again, you do see some gains and that will continue as we move forward this year. Yeah, because there. It's an unusual school in our district because it has, you know, unlike in the upper keys, they're all K8, so they mesh when they go to high school. This is a school that gets graded on both elementary. I'd be sort of curious to see what the breakdown of their elementary grades and their middle school grades to sort of know where the emphasis needs to be. And I can tell you we had that discussion that with the curriculum team last year. Superintendent Axford had us look at that. And Superintendent Tierney asked the same question. So
059what we do know and why we are putting such a high focus emphasis is because of that exact setup. The elementary school is smaller. The middle school numbers at hob, and I cannot be exact, but I am very approximate and I feel comfortable in. This is approximately 50% of all of the other middle schools. So if you put together the other middle schools, they together in their achievement make up or are balanced against hob's middle school. So that is where we have to. And we started again last year targeting our focus more to the middle school because that is where we see students staying longer or moving up. And it is the place where we can have the biggest impact in terms of not only the HoB students and their performance and their school grade,
060but also the district grade. Thank you. I'm sorry, I don't understand what you just said. Oh, that's okay. So are you talking about? About the number of students district wide versus HOB, not the achievement levels. Correct. So, when you look at the denominator and you're looking at the percentage or the number of students that are making up our total district grade, when you look at plantation key, that is approximately 600 to 700 students, for example, they as Dr. Woltanski said, are more evenly balanced. It's like 100 kids and again I'm using approximate numbers but 100 kids at every grade level and that makes up their numbers. So their middle school balances out to their elementary school. They're not higher extremely in one area than the other. Where Hob their middle school numbers they have a
061thousand students and their middle school can be upwards of 600 students versus an elementary school that without pre K would be maybe 300 students. So they're much more not a traditional K8. It's not evenly distributed. So most of their grade comes from the middle school. So as Dr. Woltanski asked, where does their grade majority come from? It is the performance of the middle school and in relation to the entire district. If you put all of our middle school students together, Hob's middle school being so much larger accounts for a larger percentage of how our students do in the middle school overall. So the bottom line is getting into HOB and really focusing on those middle school students can again and in depth work started last year. We saw some growth. We're going to continue it
062with, you know, even more further to get in there because we feel like we can make a huge difference, build on the success we've seen and it will not only help Hobs grade, but then when you put that all together, their improvement means our district grade improves overall. You know, I don't know why worry about whether it's the middle school or the grammar school. I mean you can just look at the grades and see the scores and you know, where the problems are. I mean to, to worry about whether it's a, you know, you're just going to fix wherever the problem is, whether it's middle school or grammar school. So and that is true, that is where we differentiate at every level. But just asking, you know, Dr. Woltanski asked that, so that might have
063been a longer explanation than needed. But that was to her comment where it is not like the other K8 schools. However, we independently and differentiate for our students and our schools. So we will continue to do that to bring improvement. Good. Any other questions on the school grades? Next Genelis is going to take you into the request of PM1 to PM3 data comparison. You know, if your microphone is sounding strange again, try again. Yes, go ahead. Can you hear me now? It's not very well. So, Yanella, stay right there on the line and I am going to go over the PM1 to PM3 data and then you can be on the line for question, please. So, Mrs. Kahn, you asked for the PM1 to PM3. So, the chart that Mrs. Ballard has prepared, you can
064see that the Munro County School District met or exceeded PM3 scores for second, third and sixth grades. The highest growth was presented by third grade with 36% growth from PM1 to PM3 in that grade level and again highlighted in green. Second grade is not part of school grading components. However, it is displayed for longitudinal growth. And again, that's cohort comparison for the following year. This data is that raw data, meaning it is inclusive of all students that took PM1 because it is just from within the year. Moving on to the next slide. This is our math PM1 for elementary schools. Monroe County School District met or exceeded the state PM3 scores for second, third, sixth, and seventh grades. The highest growth was presented again by third grade with 57% growth from progress monitoring one to
065three. Again, you see, second grade. That is not part of the school grading component. To note, 272 of our 681 or 40% of our 8th graders were placed in algebra. So that also makes a difference when you look at math PM1 to PM3. I thought we stopped that for students going to algebra in eighth grade. Okay, eighth grade. Yes. Thank you. No, you still sound like you're in a fishbowl. It needs to give you a new computer. Trying to do the mic, the headset, but I don't think it's working properly. For 9th grade and 10th grade. Who had the lowest growth? Yes. Do we know what their PM3s were the year prior? Is that a cohort issue or something else? I don't have that data right here, but yes, Mrs. Ballard can pull that cohort
066data to determine if it is a cohort issue. Between the 8th grade algebra the year previous, I mean, the 8th grade math, and those students that did move directly into algebra. We have some students who moved into foundational skills and they will take algebra next year. So the summary for algebra and geometry, as you can see, this is also raw data. And the green is where we did show some kind of improvement. If we move on, we move on to advanced Placement, which we usually say ap. That is our Advanced Placement courses. This is a Very busy slide, but one that has a lot of great things to say. And we did want to be inclusive of everything that our schools offer. They don't all offer the exact same thing. We also included the global
067and state averages. So the light green represents a score that is above the state average. Dark green represents a score that is above the global average. Yellow represents above the district average. So you can see there our comparison not only to the state, but again to a global aspect. Since Advanced Placement is given on a global level, our students surpassed either global or state averages in eight different AP exams with Coral Shores excelling. However, if you continue to look at our school level or look at the number of exams taken, we know one of the emphasis we have is to make sure that we are increasing our access to Advanced Placement tests. So you can see the number of exams taken increased by 13.8%, rising over 200. While the number of students taking those exams
068grew by 13.6% from 809 to 919. The overall pass rates also improved from 59% to 63%. So again, meeting our goal of trying to get more students in Advanced Placement classes and taking those Advanced Placement exams is being slowly climbing, yes, Ms. Khan? Is the numbers on here based on the AP exam results or on grades and overall results? Results in the classes? This is on AP exams. Yes, AP exams. Thank you. Yes, this is AP exams not taking into account whether they pass the course or not. And to further break down, just to give you a look at how the schools are doing school by school, Coral Shores has consistently increased their enrollment and pass rates over the last five years. I know the numbers are small for those looking at the screen, but
069you can see them attached to the agenda. And they are again in 14 various AP exams. They are meeting global, state and district averages. One of the high points is the next one, Marathon High School. The Advanced Placement program at Marathon High has made great gains rising to their highest level in all the years. Last five years, they had a 55% gain in number of exams and more than doubled the number of students with a score of 3 or higher. So they have definitely pushed their Advanced Placement program forward. They were equal or passed the global, state and district pass rate for AP English lit and composition. And finally, a look at Key West High School. Their enrollment has also increased to the highest level within the last five years, almost an additional 100 students.
070They also showed an increase in students scoring 3 or above and surpassed global, state and district averages in seven of the AP exams. So promoting the access which was very important for the board and for the schools and encouraging students to take Advanced placement classes, again providing support for success. The numbers here definitely show that. Are there any questions? Yes, sorry. That's okay. I'm looking at this slide that says exams taken only 13.8% and students taking the exam 13.6%. And passing scores are only 4% on the Which one? The total number or a specific score? Go ahead, Yannelis. 13.8%. That's the increase of exams taken since the prior school year. So when you look at the numbers of. Yeah, of the exams, we did have a 13.8% increasing rising from the 1625 to the 1849.
071The number of students taking the exams grew also by 13.6% from 809 to 919. So that kind of averages about two exams per student. So not only did we increase students and we increased number of exams, we also did increase our pass rate from 59 to 63%. So those are one of the things that we're looking at. Are we increasing the number of exams as well as the number of individual students taking AP exams? And how is the pass rate related to that increase? So we are increasing the number of students, we are increasing the number of exams and we are increasing our pass rate. So we pay for each of the AP students. Right. But the passing scores have only increased 4% with a 13% increase in the number of students and exams. So
072we're paying for a lot of students to be in APs that aren't getting the college AP credit because they're not passing the exams. And so I'm wondering why we're pushing students to take AP if not all of them are actually able or ready to be passing those classes exams. You are correct. We pay for the AP exams. So the students that we are offering more access to need more support in the pass rate. The other thing is, looking back at that global pass rate is always interesting because the percentage that pass globally sometimes will be an indicator that is not a normal exam. You know, 32% passing in chemistry, for example, AP Chem might be the global level where on a normal grading scale we wouldn't do that. However, to answer your question, one, it's
073very important that we are looking at grades, as you said, which is part of the monitoring that we do when a student enters AP exam class at any level to make sure they're getting support and that they can handle it. The secondary thing is that we have different opportunities for students to take dual enrollment or Advanced Placement. But areas also play an important part in that. For example, you see Coral Shores, and their numbers are increasing, so does their pass rate. Their DE opportunities are not as widespread and as you do have in Key West. So we try to give kids an opportunity that fits them best to be able to do it. But you are correct, if we're opening access, we have to provide the support to help these students not only successfully pass
074a class and get the credit, but also to get to that 3 level so that they can earn the college credit. So how does the failing of the AP exam affect that student's gpa? It does not. Right. Okay. And how many of the students that didn't get passing scores actually sat for the exam? If they have a score, that means they sat for the exam. Right. I'm talking about the students that did not have. So we have about 8 to 9% of students taking the exam not passing. So my first question would be, I'd like to know what the average grade is in the AP class for those students not passing the AP exam because there might be a disconnect between the material they're learning and they're sitting. Maybe that disconnect is the student struggles
075with exams. I don't know what the disconnect is because I don't know what their scores are for the class itself. But I'd also like to know how many students don't actually even sit for the exam that take the class. And I don't need that right now. I know you're not prepared for the question, but if I can get something via email on both those things, I would appreciate it. Let me make sure I captured it correctly. Average grade for students not passing AP exams. Can you. Can you hear me okay? Yes. Okay. So average grade for students not passing the AP exams and how many students did not sit for the AP exam that were enrolled in the course? Yes, Those two data pieces, please. I will get them for you. Thank you. Yes, ma'am.
076Right. So these numbers that you're giving here, number of AP students, that is just how many were registered in the class? Those are the students that staff for the exams. Yeah. So it is really important to see if there are students that are put in the class and then not taking the exam. We do have a district policy that if they're taking the course, they are expected to sit for the exam. So that. That is an expectation. And I will get the numbers to have concrete numbers for you as far as how many don't sit for it. Many of them do. It's really not a lot that decide not to sit for the exam. I have a question. So when we grow an AP program, we would like to get to, you know, successful outcomes.
077But I just want to highlight one thing in particular, is that when you look at Key West High, there, you know, precalculus is relatively new, and they really knocked it out of the park. They had 83% of those students passing. And we've had a hard time having an advanced math teacher there. I'm being told that his name is Mr. Stets, and his pre calculus kids did really well. And also in Calc ab, I don't think they had people passing last year. And they had 30% of their, I mean, three or four kids passing and they had a kid who passed B.C. so kudos to Mr. Stets for what he's doing at Key West High. You know, I hope he stays with us forever and builds that program. And so just because a school doesn't have
078levels over Florida or they don't match to Coral Shores, where virtually very, very few students take dual enrollment. And that's really a big part of the numbers difference, I think, is that it's much easier at Key West High and Marathon High to take dual enrollment and you get, you know, the guaranteed in state credit, but if you want to go out of state, you need AP credits to get for these things. And so the growth of the schools, you know, these numbers are good, but just like we look at growth with our progress monitoring data, the growth of these programs, you know, Coral Shores didn't get to its 100% of pre calculus overnight. They had Diane Wishmeyer, you know, working it over years to get kids involved and to encourage them. I remember, you know,
079she asked to be able to do algebra too, so that she could encourage students to continue on through pre calculus and calculus. And that's how you build these programs. It wasn't overnight. And so, you know, any success is good success. And these kids having the opportunity to take these classes and to, you know, to rise to the challenge is worthwhile. Like to add that the highlights, I only highlighted the cells that contain 15 or more students enrolled in the class. There are some cells that had below that that did beat the global average, but I just felt the number needed to be substantial to be able to highlight. And I also want to point out that Ms. Wishmeyer, for her pre-calculus is actually 51 students, not 49. There were two students in the data file
080that did not have the correct AI code that I will get rectified with College Board. So it's actually 100% of 51 students in Ms. Wishmeyer's class for Coral Shores High School. So that's a huge accomplishment for that course. Right. And she puts in the work. She goes and she does the table reads and the grading. And then I believe she comes back and works with teachers at the other schools as well. So, you know, she's a gem as well. Yes. And the training for our advanced Placement teachers and change in and change out can have a big effect. Are there any other questions for the data? And Ms. Ballard, we will make sure that we follow up and get Mrs. Kahn information that she has requested. If anyone else has questions, please don't hesitate to
081reach out to me. Thank you. Thank you. Moving on to human capital advances. Did you take AP classes when you were a high school student? Myself, No. I was talking show my age. We'll talk about that later. I would like to introduce Ritesh Patel. He is helping with the Tans transaction from a legal perspective. We also have John Ford online that is handling from the finance perspective. And I think, John, you are going to do the presentation, is that correct? That is correct. This is Jerry Ford, by the way. John is on his way to the airport in Kansas City and asked me to fill in for him tonight. So thank you. You all have issued tax anticipation notes in the. In. In the past. I'm going to run through this fairly quickly for you
082and if you have any questions, myself and Ritesh will be more than happy to answer them. First slide is simply a disclaimer saying that it's general information funding operations for your general fund. First of all, Florida school districts, as you know, are predominantly funded through the FEFP program. Let me share the screen for you. Can you all see the screen at this point? School districts are predominantly funded through the FEFP program that was enacted in 1973. And it's intended to equalize per student operating funding across the state to provide substantially equal access to programs and services. The FEFP determines how much of a school district's operating revenues must be generated through local property taxes. Revenues flow from the state to school districts every month, creating a rebel relatively level revenue stream. And property taxes, as
083you know, are almost entirely received from late November through mid January. A little bit dribbles in after that, but those are the primary. That's the primary time frame. So depending upon where you are in your prop. In your property tax values pursued, you fall roughly into one of the four quadrants on this screen. And this would be closer to you up here, where the vast majority of your money would come from your local tax revenues. And you see that by the end of October, there's a significant operating deficit there all the way down to small rural school districts who receive almost all of their money from the state and their revenues remain level over time. That 40% state, 60% local is pretty normal for large school districts. But you are at the very, very high
084end of that local contribution area. And so that creates a liquidity risk in here for you. And that's one reason having a robust fund balance at June 30th is so important for you, because it allows you to conduct business throughout the course of the year. So what do your general fund cash inflows look like? This chart shows the projections for the school year 25, 26. And you can see those inflows are fairly modest until you get to the November and December timeframe where the bulk of those ad valorem taxes come in. That small yellow bar that you see there, that is your state FEFP money and it stays constant throughout the year. But that doesn't cut it for you. It's those property taxes that really make the difference there. You can see it in the
085numbers below for your general fund receipts over the course of the year. 132 million plus from local ad valorem as opposed to 17 million 2 from FEFP and then another 32,3 in miscellaneous funding. So what is your general fund liquidity projection? Well, like the school districts that are heavily reliant on local property taxes and you, and nobody is more reliant on their local taxes than you are, that deficit occurs right at the end of the October through the beginning of November, and it reaches about 13 and a half million dollars in your general fund. That is the gap in your general fund. It then jumps up, it maxes out starting in December, and then you start spending down those property taxes that you have collected over the course of the year. So how do we
086issue tax anticipation notes? Where are we authorized to do that? Well, 10, 11, 13 in the Florida statutes allows the issuance of short term notes to alleviate general fund and for your cash flow pressure, they're commonly used by districts with relatively high reliance on local property taxes versus those monthly FEFP payments. So districts like yourself, Pinellas County, Palm Beach County, Broward County, Miami, Dade county, all on a regular basis, issue tax anticipation notes plus others. Okay, you've got to create a reliable set of general fund cash flows, both historical and perspective. And many districts issue tans through inner Avoid issuing tans through Interfund Borrowing, which is authorized under 101109 state statutes. Your finance team does a great job with their cash flows. They're very diligent with them. They tend to be relatively accurate, as accurate
087as you can be in this type of projection, but they do a great job with those. So what have your recent tan issues been? Well, back in 21-22 you issued $15 million through a private placement. In 2223 you issued through a bank loan. Did the same in 2324. We believe that the market this year is ripe for going out for a public offering and bidding competitively. Almost like an ebay situation where there will be a website called iprea where bidders from around the country, large broker dealers, will be able to log in and place their bid up until the deadline point for these for these tax anticipation notes. And the notes will go to that group offering the lowest interest cost. So what are the advantages and disadvantages between these bank loans and the public
088borrowing methods? The bank loan has a lower staff burden. There's no offering prospectus, what we call in the municipal world an official statement. It has lower issuance cost and lower continuing disclosure obligations. Its disadvantage are higher interest costs. They may have terms and conditions of the bank that are not as advantageous to you as going into the public market. They have a limited term and less structural freedom. On the public offering side, we're fairly certain that that will bring you a lower cost of capital. The terms are not limited. You have high market access. You're still able to have local participation. It does have a higher staff burden. It requires a prospectus and a credit rating. Both of those items are already in play. And it has somewhat higher issuance cost. So what are the
089estimates for this transaction, well, what we're asking is a not to exceed principal amount of $20 million. The proposed sale date is August 12, so it's soon the proposed issuance date, that would be the closing. The date on which you get your money would be August 28, 2025, and then they would mature on June 30th of 2026. And we estimate that net interest cost right now to be somewhere between a 2.7 and 2.9% based on current market conditions. And the, and the expected transaction expenses are $72,000. And we think that's more than offset by the differential in rates that we would get versus a bank loan. And that's why we have recommended going with a public offering. Your five year general fund history obviously has an impact on your credit rating, which has an impact
090on the way that bidders assess this loan and the interest rates that they will bid. So your general fund balances, as you can see down here under general fund, total general fund balance have risen from 6.7 million to 24 and a half million at the end of 2024, or about 15.3%, is the financial condition ratio that is calculated by Moody's. When they take a look at this, your cash and cash equivalents are about $32.5 million. And that's about 79 days cash on hand. So that is certainly higher than the 3% that the state requires as a minimum. But keep in mind that the state doesn't say that's a good fund balance. They say anything below that. You're in financial distress. And if you take a look at the fact that you're in a hurricane prone
091area and that you are highly reliant on property tax, what really matters is how much money you have on hand during hurricane season. So we think that you're in a solid position where you are. We think that you've done a good job over the last several years getting that fund balance up to a, to a reasonable level where it's looked at by the rating agencies positive. And that in a nutshell, is pretty much what the transaction will look like. Ritesh, do you have anything to add to that? No,Jerry I do think we have a couple of questions. Madam chair? Go ahead, Mr. Dick. Jerry, would it be worthwhile to. I guess also, how long does it take to get one of these going? Because the odds of the interest rates going down tomorrow are 4%.
092But the odds of the interest rate going down in September 16th is about 65%. So if we went after September 16th to go out. Would we still be able to get it in time? You would. If you go back to this chart in here, you can see that already after the end of August here in mid September, you're starting to be in that deficit position. So this is the area in which you start to have challenges. This is September 30th. September 16th would be about in here. So it's cutting close, but it certainly could happen. I think it's. Mr. Dick, I think it's a great question and it's the type of question I've come to expect from you over many years now. So it's not surprising. The only thing I would say to you is
093were you going to say something, sir? Well, you still charge us too much for what you do. Really, I'm not so sure that's the case. You know, there's even a, I believe there's a better than 4% chance for something to happen tomorrow. But I think that September, it's pretty much a lock that something's going to happen in September. That is a policy decision to make. I will tell you, and I don't mean to be flippant about this, but there have been people trying to call what the Fed is going to do now for the last couple of years and it's been extraordinarily difficult. They didn't have a president going over to the Fed building. No, they, no, they did not. That's, that's true. We were in the market two weeks ago with a long term
094transaction for Scambia county schools and we got into the market early. We ended the order period early. We had a very good transaction and we were waiting to reach the agreement with the underwriter when someone in the administration announced that they were going to fire Chairman Powell and the market backed off 8 basis points in about 20 minutes. And that was, we got the transaction done and got it done well. But that just shows you the volatility that's in this market. So, yes, you very well could wait and have a lower interest rate. There's nothing that says that if you wait, the interest rate won't be higher as well. Do I personally believe there's a chance that it's lower? Yes. Would I want to bet your money on that? Not me personally, but that's what
095y' all as policymakers do. So if you'd like us to hold off for a couple of weeks, we can, or we can go into the market in mid August as the timeline suggests. But that is, that is your call. Well, if you go into the market and put it in for a bid. What if we didn't accept anything? Can that happen? It can, it can, but it's. What would that cost us? It would hurt us when we went back the next time. Yeah. I mean, we're happy to do that, but it's, you know, it's a calling the market play. And if that's what the board would like to do, that's fine. Charlene, what do you think is our risk if we wait? Not the risk in terms of interest rate. We've got to be able
096to pay payroll. Okay. Gotta be able to pay. So what day do we need to have the Tanby? The proposal from them, that's okay. So there's not a lot of choice for us. There's not a lot of wiggle room. I don't think two weeks would. But there are so many unknowns in the market right now that this was one thing I wish we would be pretty certain on to be able to pay payroll. Thank you. Any other questions? Thank you so much, both of you. Do we have a report from legal? No report tonight, but happy to answer any questions you may have. Any questions for legal? Yeah. Any update on Tommy Roberts and the mediation? Their insurer is getting defense counsel form, so we're waiting on the that person to be appointed and then,
097you know. We'll talk with them further. Thanks. Any other questions for legal, Superintendent? Thank you, Madam Chair. I too would like to congratulate Superintendent Axford on a magnificent career and personally thank her for being so gracious with her time and wisdom and guidance. And I hope she enjoys a great retirement. And I look forward to maintaining relationship and friendship moving forward. Last Thursday we met with the principals. That was the first meeting of this school year. We congratulated them on their hard work that led to the district earning an A grade, key Largo school moving up their grade. And Gerald Adams and I thought the meeting was particularly well put together and run. I appreciate the efforts on the part of the staff to make such a meaningful event for our principals. This Thursday we
098have a retreat with school based administrators, district administrators, where we'll continue to try to tailor support as best we can for each individual school to continue improving academic performance and outcomes for all students. And finally by our next board meeting, school will be in session. So for teachers and students, I hope you enjoy the last couple days and weeks of summer and rest assured we are working hard to welcome you back. And certainly we all look forward to see you returning. Thank you, Madam Chair. Thank you. Moving on to board reports. Dr. Woltanski. I guess I just wanted to I guess I said what I needed to with Mrs. Axford, but I also am looking forward to the start of the school new school year and seeing what all that will bring. Let's get out
099of here because Mr. Griffiths has a bar tab that's probably being depleted right now. We don't drink. Mrs. Talbot? I'd like to say thank you to Dr. White for answering all of the questions and spending time and patience. So thank you so much, and it was a wonderful presentation. Thank you. Mr. Dick. I have nothing to say. And I'm good. So moving on to, do we have anything pending that we need to discuss? Okay, so I'm going to recess our meeting and open our public hearing regarding policies. The first is the first read of policies regarding student support services. Is that a NEOLA update? And then partially with the addition of Dana Portillo and the Department of Health. And she's on teams. If you have any questions. Do we have any questions from the board?
100Okay, moving on to second reading. Job description. Any public comment? Any questions from the board? I just want to reiterate at the meeting that it is my understanding that this is not an additional position, it's a reframing of a current position with additional duties. Is that correct? That is correct. Thank you. Any other questions? Okay. Let's reconvene for action. I recommend the board adopt resolution 2025001 for tentative millages required local effort 1.0470. So move. I'll second. Motion by Mr. Horan. Second by Mr. Dick. Any discussion? Any no votes Hearing None. The motion passes. Do we need a roll call on. Do we need a roll call on these? No. Last time around, you did roll call, but I don't think it's required. Okay. Action item number two. I recommend that the board adopt resolution 2025-001
101for tentative millages, prior year adjustment for value reduction 0.0020. I move approval. Second. Motion by Mr. Dick. Second by Mr. Horan. Any comments? Any no votes? Hearing None. The motion passes. I recommend the board adopt resolution 2025-001 for tentative millages. Basic discretionary local 0.7480. I'll move approval. Second. Motion by Mr. Dick. Second by Mr. Horan. Any discussion? Any no votes Hearing None. The motion passes. I recommend the board adopt resolution 2025-001 for tentative millage's additional operating voted millage 0.5500. I move approval. Second. Motion by Mr. Dick. Second by Mr. Horan. Any discussion, any no votes? Hearing none. The motion passes. I recommend the board adopt resolution 2025-001 for tentative millages capital outlay 0.6000. I'll move approval. Second. Motion by Mr. Dick. Second by Mrs. Talbot. Any discussion, any no votes? Hearing none. The motion passes.
102I recommend the board approve the resolution 2025002 to adopt tentative budget for the 2025-2026 fiscal year. I'll move approval. Second. Motion by Mr. Dick. Second by Mrs. Talbot. Any discussion, any no votes Hearing none. The motion passes. I recommend the board approve resolution authorizing the issuance of a tax anticipation note series 2025. I'll move approval. Second. Motion by Mr. Dick. Second by Dr. Woltanski. Any discussion? Any no votes? Hearing none. The motion passes. I recommend the board Approve Job description 81005 Director of maintenance. So, moved. Second. Motion by Dr. Woltanski. Second by Mrs. Talbot. Any discussion? Any no votes? Hearing none. The motion passes and this meeting is adjourned.