001All right, let's open up this meeting. Superintendent, do you have somebody to say the Pledge? Yes, sir. The Pledge will be led by Ms. Lily Soka. I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the Republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. I recommend the board adopt the agenda as presented. So moved. Second. Is there any discussion? Hearing none, the agenda is adopted. I recommend the board approve the minutes from the April 7th, 2026 school board meeting. So moved. Second. Discussion? Yes. Um, if you go down to board member comments I appear to have claimed that I attended a play that didn't happen until after this board meeting. So I would like to amend the minutes so it says that I
002Dr. Waltanski encouraged everyone to attend Matilda performed by the Key Largo Drama School Drama Club, period, and get out praising the production. I'll do that next time after I've actually seen it. Okay, well then, everybody's okay with that change? Then we will accept the minutes as amended. Now I'd ask Deputy Superintendent Acevedo to help us honor some individuals who have contributed some great educational moments for students. Good evening, everyone. It's nice to see everyone here. At this time, I would like to invite the chairman the board, Mr. Dick, and Superintendent Tierney to come forward and help to recognize some of our gems. At this time, I would like to call up Miss Donna Tedesco, who is our STEM coordinator, and also students Braylon Dixon, who is from Key Largo School, and Also, Miss Lily Soka,
003who is from Coral Shores High School, and Aidan McElhaney, who is from Ocean Studies Charter. If these 3 students and their principals can come up, if their principals are here, please join us. These amazing students represented Monroe County School District recently at the state STEM fair, and they did phenomenal work at the regional STEM fair, but They also made a huge impression at the state fair. And I am going to kind of read this because when you hear me talk a little bit about their science experiments, you will understand why, because they are very, very intricate. So Braylon Dixon, who is an 8th grade student in Miss Gretchen Curl's science class at Key Largo School, designed an experiment to study if the sap from the fruit extract from the sapodilla tree affects seed germination. The
004sapodilla tree is an ornamental tree species originally from Central America. And although that fruit can have commercial value, the highly invasive tree invades and outcompetes native trees and shrubs in our tropical hammocks. Breiland studied the effects of the oils from the invasive sapodilla fruit on the germination of the rougeberry seeds. Rougeberry is a native shrub in our hammocks. She found that the oils from the sapodilla inhibited seed germination of our native shrub by an impressive 35%. The results may indicate a mechanism by which the sapodilla tree can outcompete a native species. She presented her experimental findings at the 71st State Science and Engineering Fair in April. Braylin won two awards for her research in the junior division earth and environmental category, special recognition and a cash award from the Indian Regional Science Fair. So congratulations,
005Braylin, for your very intensive study. Next we have Lily Soka. She is a senior in Miss Beth Rosenau's Marine Science II honors class here at Coral Shores High School. Lily conducted an experiment evaluating the effects of the Australian pine needles on ocean chemistry. More specifically, the experiment examined the effect of the oils released from the Australian pine needles on ocean pH by creating controlled environments and varying the number of needles. Her experiment demonstrated that the pine needles from the invasive tree species decreased pH as needle quantity increased. Her conclusion supported that increasing number of pine needles from the invasive species increases ocean acidification, affecting our fragile marine ecosystems and organisms. Lily also presented her experimental results at the Science STEM Fair And she earned a cash prize from the Florida Science Education Leaders Association for
006special recognition in the Earth and Environmental Senior Division. Congratulations, Lily. Aiden is a 7th grader in Miss Sarah Naylor's 7th grade science class at Ocean Studies Charter School. Aiden conducted a STEM experiment to determine the most efficient wingtip design to decrease wingtip vortices affecting flight. They are the rotating patterns of air left behind a wind as a wind generates lift. Aidan engineered and constructed a wind tunnel, and he used his invention to evaluate a T-shaped wingtip versus an L-shaped winglet at a constant speed. Aidan then used a fog machine and a grid made of straws to be able to visualize the wind flow to measure the size of the vortices for each wingtip. Winglet. Aiden discovered the biggest vortex came from the presence of no winglet. Small controlled vortices are highly beneficial for flight as
007they improve lift. Aiden presented his experiment and he won special recognition for his achievements in the Engineering Junior Division. Congratulations, Aiden. So as you can see why I had to read the very detailed and the high level of intensity that they put into the work because this is work they do over time. And it just shows the rigor and the dedication they have to conducting their experiment and to the support of their families and their teachers because it doesn't happen overnight. It really takes a lot of time and dedication. So you can see they've earned a gem because they have created some very big, great educational moments. Congratulations to all of you. All right, thank you all, and thank you to all the families for coming. And next, I would like to call up Marathon
008High School's Champions for a Change. Women first, and then they should stand in this order. Mr. Day, will you come please? All right. Yes, they're going to come back for a report. No, she's here. Yep. So as they come on up, I'm going to tell you just a small bit about what Marathon High School's Champion for Change has done, not only for Marathon High School, but also for no, step up here, ladies, don't hide in the shadows but for the entire district. Oh, there we go. They are a dedicated youth division of Educational Coalition for Monroe County, and they are made up of students from the 8th to 12th grade who work under the guidance of Martina and Dr. Christina Bellotti. Let's give them a hand because the work they do is phenomenal. Their mission
009is to prevent drug and alcohol use among their peers and to support Marathon High School students facing poverty or other challenges so they can better focus on learning. Throughout the year, Champions for the Change leads a wide variety of service and prevention efforts, from monthly educational activities and assemblies to operating the clothing exchange, preparing teen weekend food bags. Their annual initiatives include the September 11th Advocacy Project, Red Ribbon Week in partnership with the DEA, Gifts for teens and holiday food distribution, safe and sober prom programming, and participation in conferences where the students speak about various things. And they've even been to Capitol Hill talking about prevention needs in Monroe County. They also serve as the youth sector for the Monroe County Coalition, with several members selected as youth leaders. For the past 2 years, this
010group has hosted a countywide leadership summit, and they bring together students from Key West High School, Marathon, and Coral Shores, and now College of the Florida Keys Academy, and they have a full day of leadership activities and development and prevention-focused workshops. And to see all of these students come together from the various schools district-wide, there's over 100 students, there's guest speakers, they have fun activities, they mix and mingle, and they really learn from each other and from the adults who are there to support them. And then they take all of that back and they, as leaders in their school, spread those messages. And so their work not only affects Marathon High, but it truly does affect us district-wide. The members exemplify leadership, compassion, and commitment, and their work is making a meaningful and very lasting
011impression not only on Marathon High School and the Dolphin community, but across the district. So we want to thank all of them for the huge amount of work they're doing and the difference they are making. So congratulations. And so before we do that, let me tell you who they are so you can come up and get your certificates. We have Martina Bellotti. Oh, there you go. And Christina Bellotti. There we go. Kenier Torres Garcia. Should be pretty much in order. And Alea Torna Garcia. Peyton Sharf. Elizabeth Perez, Yariel Nunez Garcia, Justin Lopez, Kylie Christofek, Alyssa Delatorre, Jocelyn Sinto Martinez, Adriana Cavo, and Suseli Bonilla. And these are some of the representatives. There are a lot more, but they're playing on softball fields, doing athletics, or other leadership activities. So again, congratulations, and let's all squeeze
012in nice and tight so we can get a group picture. Thank you. Do we have anybody signed up to speak? We do. First off, we have Miss Teresa Axford requesting 3 minutes. Okay, let me read this first, Miss Axford. Presentations to the board are limited to 3 minutes for each individual speaker and 5 minutes for the representative of the designated group. 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 be directed towards the board. 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
013code of conduct for citizen input. School Board Policy 0169.1 and will begin their presentation by stating their full name and their city or town of residence for the record. Thank you. Good afternoon. Teresa Axford, 1401 Fourth Street, Key West, Florida. Good afternoon, Superintendent and board members. Thank you for this opportunity. I have two passions. One is education and the other is the arts. And when the two converge, I am really thrilled. And that's what's been happening in Monroe County this spring. I would like to thank our principals for their tenacity and their intelligence and their foresight in bringing forward the productions that have happened in our schools this spring. It's been like Broadway in the Keys. I attended Legally Blonde at Key West High School. The production was superior. The students were well trained and
014creative, and there were 25 boys in the production, which was absolutely amazing. I've seen the productions and the videos and the pictures, uh, that have been happening in the other schools, and I'm absolutely amazed by our, um, ability to bring forth the creative arts in our students. And I know the principals have to undertake to support these productions, and it's a lot of work. They have many, many different things pulling at them all the time, and it's wonderful that they've accepted this as a priority. So it's a fantastic direction executed by them and our schools, and bravo to Monroe County for outstanding work for the arts. Next up to speak, we have Anna Richards requesting 3 minutes. Anna Richards, Isla Morada, Florida. And I guess you could say my passion would be baseball today because
015we are still dragging out, waiting to get a baseball field up here. To say I graduated from Coral Shores, all 4 of my kids graduated from Coral Shores, and both my sons played Little League, travel ball, high school ball, college ball, you name it. I've been to more fields than I can count. Everybody in this community pays a whole lot of money in taxes, just like Key West, and I think it's only fair that these kids get the same amenities and the same treatment that everybody else gets in this, in this county. I'm not sure what the delay is, honestly. I'm way past even caring at this point. I just think it's time that everybody stops and thinks about the kids and do what's right for them. So I would appreciate it if you guys
016would really focus in and get that taken care of. Thank you. That concludes citizens' input. Okay. 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. I recommend the board approve the consent agenda as presented. So moved. Second. Any discussion? Hearing none, the consent agenda is approved. We have 3 reports this evening. We're going to start off with with Ms. McPherson talking about the work we've done on transition to kindergarten, specifically our kindergarten kickoff. This is a project that I've worked on
017for many years, but I've never seen it done as well as it's been done in Monroe County. I'm very grateful to the work of the school principals and staff, the district staff as well. So with that, Ms. McPherson. Good evening, Chairman Dick, school board members, and Superintendent Tierney. Tonight we are here to celebrate the class of 2039. Pretty incredible. As we begin our kindergarten kickoff kickoff week, we are looking forward to welcoming kindergarten students and families into our buildings with open arms. Some tomorrow night are going to get a special family dinner. If you haven't already watched Key Largo School Mr. Pays Is Here, We Saved a Seat for You video, please take a moment to watch. It's like a competition live between schools now. The school teams have definitely become competitive in sharing their
018outreach. Yesterday, the Gerald Adams team welcomed close to 90 parents and students and provided a wonderful, informative performance and presentation, a tour, and personal classroom visit. Students received activity bags, books, were fitted with bike helmets, and of course, the personalized Monroe County famous Playing Our Way to K game board. We'll hear more about that in a moment. Kindergarten builds essential academic skills social-emotional regulations, executive function, and daily routines that prepare children for success in elementary school. Full-day programs further deepen learning, foster independence and confidence, and are linked to higher long-term achievement and lower rates of retention. Let's hear personally from our students who celebrate their kindergarten experiences. As you can see, during the month of April, Kindergarten Kickoff spotlighted advertising on Conch Country, WEOW, US1 Radio, and Keys Talk Radio, including 2-week newspaper ads in
019the Keys Weekly and the Key West Citizen. This campaign delivered 126 radio spots and 2 newspaper commercials spanning the month of April. At Monroe County School District, we build safe, nurturing schools where every student is known, respected, and supported. Our programs pair rigorous academic and early literacy foundation with hands-on learning, including our robust arts, music, and STEM programs as we partner closely with families. Why Monroe County School District? Let's hear from our team. [ VIDEO PLAYING ] Our kindergarten kickoff dates offer a morning and evening session throughout the week. Tonight we would like to unveil our Playing Our Way to K board game. So the company that let me get back by the mic that produced the board game in partnership with all of our community partners, Lakeshore Company, was astonished at the number of
020community partners that have, in a very quick turnaround time we started in January, and with Jennifer Walker and her team, within 2 months we had all of these community partners. And really, we know that next year we start in August, this board is going to be huge. But every kindergartner that registers this week and even beyond this week will receive everybody's fighting to see who gets the board to hang up their own Playing Our Way to Kindergarten math and literacy skills game. And so these already were distributed in some schools and people were trying to argue and fight about can they get theirs. So we're definitely going to have to order some more, but it has their own almost like a Candyland Chutes and Ladders and it builds on their literacy and their math skills.
021So we are so excited. At Gerald Adams yesterday, they were running up, opening the packages and so excited to play. So with this release of the game, we're going to provide throughout the summer every week a 30-second blast to families about how to increase their kindergarten readiness before they start school. We already let you look at it again once more. We're very proud of this board. So at this time, our Plantation [ VIDEO PLAYING ] Thank you to Amanda Erickson. And we would like to personally thank our community and partners who generously donated over $28,000 of their time and financial support for our Kindergarten Kickoff initiative. Our team is going out into all the schools this week and just celebrating and welcoming all the students back into school. And we look forward to the opportunity
022to increase not only our kindergarten readiness but enrollment in our schools as well. Thank you. And do you have any questions at this time? Not so much a question, but more of a generalized statement, because Dr. Waltanski brought it up, I think, at our marathon board meeting, to the business communities, our business leaders out there, that don't, don't worry, you will be have a chance to get your name on there. I know it's mostly Key West-centric. That's because it was rushed really quickly to do this, but we are going to provide this for businesses up and down the Keys. So please don't feel that you were shunned. It was not a matter of that. It was just try to get this out as fast as possible so you will have an opportunity. I was just
023going to comment that I had the opportunity to attend Gerald Adams yesterday and it was fantastic. The amount of work that the school put into it was unbelievable and I look forward to attending some of the others that are coming up in the next few days. I think it's going to go a long way in helping our enrollment and I encourage every parent who hasn't had the opportunity to get out, meet your teachers, meet your, you know, check out your school and enroll in our school system. We have so much to offer. and a special thank you to the principals that are here that helped identify the landmarks for your community. I appreciated your help and feedback. So they're all in there, Key West to Key Largo. So thank you. Thank you, Mrs. Pearson. Excellent
024job. Next we're going to hear from Dr. And some students talking about the impressive work that they're doing around student leadership. Evening. Real quick, we have a kind of hot off the presses announcement to make. So the students that you see up in front of you and one additional one that is on the field playing softball tonight out here, they will be partnering with the Guidance Care Center, West Care, and they've been trained. And starting May 1st, they will be teaching 4 lessons of a vaping prevention program, peer-to-peer. To 7th and 8th grade AVID students at Marathon High School, and it's called Catch Your Breath, and so they're really excited to be doing that. And if it goes well, which I would see that happening, then next year we're gonna work through all the 8th
025grade, probably social studies classes, to do a peer-to-peer and teach that program. So today we're here to share about the countywide leadership summit that we hosted in Marathon on Friday, March 27th, and it was our second annual, it was very successful, I'm gonna hand it over to 4 of our Champions for Change youth leaders to tell you a little bit more. Hello. As stated before, we managed to have 4 schools attend our leadership summit this year. We had Marathon High School, Key West High School, Coral Shores High School, and College of the Florida Keys Academy. We had roughly 40 students from both Coral Shores and Key West come, and 8 students from the College of the Florida Keys Academy. This led to our turnout number being 135 students, which is amazing for this year. Some
026of the goals and outcomes that we noticed while we were at the summit was that we were able to bring together countywide leadership and AVID high school students for leadership and prevention training. We were able to network and share ideas. We were able to talk about issues important to participants. We were able to strengthen leadership skills, provide students with time to share their voice, and unify our counties. We had many during the summit, we had many activities and trainings that included goal settings, media workshops, a student showcase, and connection contests. The kids were split into 14 groups, and in those 14 groups, all day they competed for points. And now I'm going to pass it to Kenir to talk about our guests and speakers. Our guest speakers were Morrow County School District Deputy Superintendent Amber
027Acevedo, who is in here with us today. Um, Mrs. Acevedo was in charge of the welcoming and opening address of the event. We had the presence of DEA Special Agent Oscar Nigron, who gave a prevention award to the Balartes for their outstanding efforts in prevention programs. We had the presence of ByBeat Teen co-founder and national speaker Jake White, who did a great job engaging students and organizing the event. And we also had the presence of our local agencies that you guys can see on the screen. The students will now give you a brief overview of what they personally got out of the conference or why they found it to be important. Hello again. For me, the thing that stood out the most at this leadership summit was the subtle theme of kindness, which I really
028appreciate because kindness is something very very important, especially in prevention and in leadership. Throughout the leadership summit, we had activities and events and even contests. And in the end of the contest, it was revealed that one of the main point earners was acts of kindness. And I think that's just really something that's very important, especially now in this day and age. So I'm very glad that this leadership summit focused on kindness just a bit more. Some things that I got from the Youth Leadership Summit include, first of all, the opportunity to learn, develop, and put valuable skills such as leadership, communication, and cooperation. And additionally, we got to talk, work, and interact with students from other schools with varying degrees of training and skills, allowing, allowing us not only to learn from other but also
029to guide our peers and put our skills to work. Overall, the Youth Leadership Summit was an incredible, beneficial experience for everyone involved, and it was an honor to be part of it. Thank you. One thing I took away from the summit was how good it felt for all the schools to come together and actually work as one group. It showed me that when people communicate and collaborate, that it makes the experience way more meaningful and easier to connect with others. I learned that for schools that don't have prevention programs, it was a really good experience to gather ideas and put those ideas to use when they go back to their schools for prevention programs. Thank you so much. Any questions? All right. Just thank you for sharing your experience. It's, you know, it was great
030for you guys to put it all on, and I imagine that the students who didn't organize it have similar things to say about it. So I hope you got their feedback as well, but thank you for sharing it with us. Yes, we have a post-survey, so we do have feedback, and it's very similar. Yeah, it's just so everybody knows, Dr. Bellotti is the first graduate of Take Stock in Monroe County School District. She is the first one that ever graduated from the Take Stock, and it was because you were my aide when I worked at the high school. I was Mr. Dick's intern when he was the CAPS counselor at Marathon High School. There is a question here. I don't know. I was just going to say it's really exciting to see all the young
031people support one another. You guys are doing a remarkable thing doing this. Very much appreciated. Thank you. Thank you so much. And finally, we'll get a report from Dr. Kolodziej as she gives an update on the very complex, often very confusing world in IT. Is that right? Thank you very much. Good evening, Chairman Dick, the board, and Superintendent Tierney Good morning. I'm really excited to come back to all of you and speak to you about some of our project work. When I last spoke with all of you, we had committed to sharing some of that detail with all of you. And, you know, it's really not just about our projects. You know, it's really easy to come up here and kind of talk about, hey, we're doing this work and these projects and here we
032go. But it's much more nuanced than that. We everything that we're doing is rooted in more of what we call a shift left concept where instead of being in a reactive state where you have a problem, you go and solve it, and then you sort of lather, rinse, and repeat, right? So for us, it's really about moving us towards the left-hand side, which means we're moving more towards a proactive space where we want to use tools and technology to prevent rather than just resolve. And so it's really interesting for us when we think about transformation is to actually prevent any impact to the learning, to the environment, to everything that's happening day in and day out in our schools and in our district. And so shift left is really rooted in a software development lifecycle
033where folks that are designing applications in the front of that design really kind of figure out what the bugs are and what might impact production and resolve it then. It's like constructing a building. You don't want to fix the foundation after the building's built. You want to fix the foundation once, you know, once you've discovered that problem. And I think when we look at this shift left, it's also about reducing costs and time. So it's not just about technology as much as it's about how efficient can we be, how impactful can we be to preventing those issues, and then how do How do we lower the cost of service and create this great customer experience? So that's really what shift left is. And then we've designed our projects to facilitate that outcome, that transformation and
034that solution. So previously, when we look at how we, how we operated in the past, we'd have a problem, we have an event, it's unplanned, and our resources are at the ready. They respond. We don't necessarily prioritize. Prioritize that response. Everything is sort of an emergency, which means nothing is an emergency. So it's sort of a first in, first out without really context around what should we be working on first, what's the most effective thing to work on first, and then how do we make sure that those services continue to operate. And some of these are avoidable. If we have the right tools and the right resources and the right actions, we can avoid some of these impacts in the environment. So I think it's really important to understand sort of how we were operating.
035And then what we're looking towards now is in our previous state and I'm not going to read all this, obviously but in our previous state, it was more of that reactive space. In this future state, it's around defining those roles and responsibilities. It's implementing tools and services that can see the environment and prevent issues. And then it's also about implementing applications and solutions that can help transform the day in and day out and the tools that everybody's using. So it's really moving us from that reactive space into this more centralization of services, understanding how to react if there's an issue. And then working hard to prevent any issues in the first place. So now on to our projects. We're using Microsoft Planner today as a consolidated view into all of our work. So we are
036all and when I say we, meaning the IT department, as well as the other departments that we're working with. We're not an island of technology. We rely on all the departments across the district to help us be successful. And so we use Planner to help create that consolidated view. So today we have 65 active projects. About half of them are actually in flight right now. And we're going to take a little bit of a deeper dive into those projects. Not too deep. Just a little bit. Dip our toe. And then we have an additional 31 that are scheduled for either over the summer summer when we can really get into locations and sites to complete some of these projects and we don't disrupt the day-to-day operations. But we did complete 51 projects over the past
037year. So some of those projects are like our additional internet, our Starlink installations, our cloud-based ticketing tool. All of these went live this year. And some of the categories, I've separated the projects into categories. And you can see we even have maintenance on here and instructional, meaning that we're working with these organizations to deliver some of this technology. And our resources and support, certainly system administrators and technicians, but our MIS department, or our Management Information Services department, FOCUS, and some of those applications. Operations, our maintenance, and even external vendors that we help partner with to deliver on some of these services. So for our information technology overall, we are standardizing an operating model. So we've created service level agreements, which means we know what the category of a problem is, how we need to respond,
038and what that looks like. And then that feeds into our ticketing tool. And Dr. Waltanski, to answer your question from the last time, we're starting to see our assets, and we're starting to see how much use those assets get. So we can see now how many hours are being spent on Chromebooks. And so we're going to be able to come back to you based on some of these tools to answer some of those questions that you had brought forth. So that's really exciting for us as well, that it's had these additional benefits to answer some of those that information. E-rate, we spoke about this previously. Our E-rate E-rate is subsidized by the FCC. Right now, we were able to save $397,000 from last year's E-rate and this year's E-rate that we already had scheduled for
039upgrading switches. Our power, that's scheduled to save us approximately $430,000 for work that we needed to do anyway. And then our one device per user policy, just in equipment is targeted to save us $174,000, and that doesn't include licenses and the work that we have to do to support operations and field support. We have some pretty exciting projects, but the two I want to speak about is the IT support spot, which we use during new teacher onboarding. So one of those projects were to set up at every site for new teachers to come to us to us if they had any technical questions or problems. They didn't have to raise their hand and wait for us to find them. They can come to us with anything they needed technology-wise. And we just implemented our rounding
040initiative, which we, on a scheduled day and time, visit each office and each site and figure out if there's any issues that weren't reported or anything that we can help out and prevent. For our server and infrastructure, One of our services right now is deploying 4 new servers that, thank you very much, was approved at the last board meeting that I spoke at. Those servers are for our new phone system in the cloud. So that's going to go live in June, and we'll be moving all of our phones the phones will stay, we'll still have physical phones, but the service itself moves from aging servers at each site into the cloud. And then I'm not going to cover the cybersecurity. We did speak about that at the last meeting, but I am more than happy
041to answer any questions. But moving on to our network. Our network, again, the phone system to the cloud, that's on schedule to save us $230,000 by moving that and transitioning it out of a physical space. And then included in that is we're moving to WebEx. Based e-faxing solutions. And then one of the items that are on the schedule is our Clear Touch refresh. These Clear Touch devices that we're using today are scheduled soon for refresh, but we can't do that in a vacuum. So that's another example where we'll work with curriculum and folks in the district to determine what is the right solution. And we'll support the technology, but it's really up to the other departments departments to tell us what's needed, and then we work together to fill that need. That's it. I know
042that was a little bit like speed dating, but I want to make sure that, you know, we left time for questions or comments or feedback. Just, I'm glad to hear we're going to be able to track the usage. I mean, we spend a lot of money on these devices in the classrooms, and we need to know that they're being put to good use. Thank you. Thank you. Um, the students that are using these devices, do they have a direct line of communication to the IT in case they have an issue with the device, or they have to go through the teacher specific? They go through the teachers to open a ticket, but we can tie the ticket directly to the student and to the device so we can monitor and track that. I can't speak
043for the rest of the board, but I find technology about as intimidating as understanding insurance. And I want to say thank you to you because you really do a fantastic job of explaining it so that at least laymen like myself can truly understand it, and it's not as scary as it used to be. So thank you, and we're very privileged to have someone of your caliber at head of our IT department. So thank you for all you do. Thank you. I'm very grateful for the time. I appreciate it. Will you be able to tell us how much time a student, say for each grade, the average student is on the computers? Yes, we're working on that right now through a couple of tools. We're actually working with Google. We're not the only district to need
044that information, and so we're we want to get it down specifically to the grade. We could see it at the school level today, but we're targeting now the next step is at the grade. Good. That would be very good. Thank you. Thank you, Dr. Kalogine. That concludes our reports. No report. No, sir, I cannot. So I'm gonna stick with the theme of kindergarten kickoff today. And as I mentioned earlier, I think this is the fourth iteration I think I've been involved in, and this is by far by far the best I've ever seen. So I'm grateful for the hard work of the principals and the school-based staff who have created such warm, inviting environments for families and protective students, and then for the district staff helping set up such a high-quality program to include the
045game that has been so well received. I'm also grateful for the school board for being so supportive, visiting and supporting these Kindergarten Kickoff events. So this kickoff is not an event in its entire It's the beginning of a relationship, certainly a relationship with parents and teachers and principals and schools, but also with the students. So we'll film videos to push out Ms. McPherson referenced that and we'll send them out weekly. We're going to send them out in English or Spanish or Haitian Creole, depending on the home language of the family, so a lack of English at home is not a barrier for getting our students ready to succeed in kindergarten on the first day. And thanks to the generosity of the community, community that Ms. McPherson referenced, the leadership, the principals, the hard work of
046the staff, we hope to have a large, robust, robust and well-prepared class of 2039 when we welcome them in August. So thank you. I just want to congratulate Stanley Switlik for such a fabulous poetry slam that I was fortunate enough to attend on my way up here today. Those kids are amazing and they seem to really enjoy the poetry, so that's, that's very exciting to see. And also, congratulations to Marathon High School baseball for winning their district tournament. And I want to wish Key West High School an awful lot of luck on Friday when they play satellite school high school. That's it. Yeah, I had a great time at PKS this morning. I'll be heading over to Key Largo go to school tomorrow. My favorite part was when the kids got on the bus for
047their 3-minute bus ride. The parents were sort of upset that they couldn't get on the bus with them. It was like, it was just like the first day of school. And the kids rode around. Apparently there were lots of songs sung on their little teeny bike ride. And when they came back, They ran off into their parents' arms so excited and so happy. And there was only one crier, but the crier hugged the bus driver and thanked her for the ride. And the bus driver was so moved that she was in tears at the end of the thing. It was just a beautiful event and it was like, you know, good things to come from that. And again, I'm going to say, I hear Matilda Jr. was really great over the weekend. I'm going this
048next weekend, and I hope no one misses it. It's at the PAC Center here. Thank you so much. So I guess there's a theme, the kindergarten kickoff. I don't think it can be overstated enough, the importance of getting kids, especially those In certain situations, i.e., the TPS, we only have an extension of 3 years, and those are gonna be the most needed kids for it to get to grades 1, kindergarten through 3rd grade. We need, if we have the space available, I know Mr. Tierney and I walked over to a couple schools yesterday, they probably gonna be filled, probably gonna have an overcapacity of kids that are probably gonna have to go back to homeschooling. If we have the space, we need to find it. We need to get as many of those kids in
049the schools for as long as we can keep 'em here until the government says otherwise. But those are vital to get those kids at least through 3rd grade. Okay, well, I'll see what it's all about tomorrow morning. So, uh, I'm sure we'll have a good event over at Switlik tomorrow. So thank you very much, and, uh, that's all I have to say. Can I ask about that though? So any kid who shows shows up, we are going to find space for. And I know that there may we may not appear to have space right now, but we don't turn anybody away. There is no cap on our enrollment. Everyone who comes can get enrolled and come into class. Well, we were at Gerald Adams yesterday and we talked to Melissa and she says she has
050a cap of 60 or 90. She said 90. 90, and usually over and above that. She says she squeezed in 107, but usually she would have to refer them back to homeschool after that. So there is I mean, there is a theoretical cap as to what she can take on based on staffing. Well, we would have to work that out. That's my point. So we are looking at FISH to see how many kindergarten seats we have across the district in case enrollment really increases, which I think is is a possibility. And then, you know, certainly we're prepared to allocate more staff positions should the enrollment warrant so. So we won't turn anybody away, and we look forward to welcoming a large class as we possibly can. Okay. All right, then at this time we will
051recess this here and open up for a second hearing on a possible on a policy of, uh, student support services. Do we have anyone here that wishes to speak to this item? We do not. Anybody on the board wishes to speak to this item? Nope. Okay, well then we're going to close this public hearing on the reading, on the policy reading, and we'll reconvene the regular board hearing, meeting. And now we're up to action items. I recommend the board approve policy revision for student support services administration of short-acting bronchodilators and components by trained school personnel. So moved. Second. Any discussion? Are there any no votes? Hearing none, the motion passes. I recommend the board approve the contract for FBMC Management Incorporated for Employee Benefits Section 125 and Voluntary Benefits Administration Broker and Consultant from 2026
052to 2029. So moved. Second. Discussion? Are there any no votes? Hearing none, the motion passes. I recommend the board approve Personnel Recommendations Addendum 2. So moved. Second. Discussion? Are there any no votes? Hearing none, the motion passes. At this time At this time, the meeting is adjourned.