001events with FBLA. He's been doing that for many many years and there are countless number of students who have gone on to have great careers and leadership skills because of his hard work and his efforts. So kudos to him. Uh you know I can remember a few years back we had a student who graduated with the most industry certifications we had ever seen from a student and that young man went on to work uh in IT immediately out of high school and at that time was making a salary close to what my salary was after many many years in the field. So, uh, if you don't believe what we're doing is working, think again. Come back and see cuz we we've got some students here who are going to tell you what they're doing right
002now so that they can kind of keep that tradition of, uh, excellence that's happening at the Tate High School, uh, Game and Application Development Academy going. So, without further ado, I'm going to step aside and let them step on up. Thank you all so much for this opportunity. Well, I didn't realize Mr. Herrell was going to make me teeyed. Um it's a blessing to be here, an honor, right? Um it's um we've this is my second opportunity to present in front of you guys. Um we did that with the young man that earned 36 industry certifications with four years. Um the most that we've uh we've ever seen. And yes, he's still um he's doing really really well. um works from home and um makes a lot more money than we do. So, it's it's
003good to see. I'm asking them to give back, but they haven't done that yet. Um but I'm Tommy Mayor and um I'm the lead instructor for Taste Game Simulation Animation Academy and it's an honor to present six wonderful students for you today. And we have Brooke Holland, Brighton Mlullen, Isa, Gavin Van Landingham, Carly Gray, and Rihanna McClung. The core sequence offered through the gaming academy begins with the students freshman year with game and simulation foundations. This class introduces design tools and concepts using Adobe Illustrator. Freshman can also take another class that is called digital design one. This class also introduces design tools and concepts using Adobe Photoshop. Sophomore year students take game and simulation design. This class introduces 2D game design and C# programming using Unity. Junior year students can take game and simulation programming
004which introduces 3D game design while still using Unity. And finally, senior year students take multi-user game and simulation which introduces advanced projects, collaborations, and VR AR applications while also still using Unity. Students can also take web design, digital information technology, digital design 2, AP computer science principles, and may have the opportunity to work in the IT department like myself and Gavin at Taten Ransom as interns. There are 115 students enrolled in the gaming academy. Some extracurricular activities that are offered through the gaming academy begin with an organization called FLA that I am lucky enough to be president of. FBALA stands for future business leaders of America. Events held through this organization throughout the school year are the district fall leadership conference and then the district, state, and national leadership conferences. As you could tell, FBA
005provides many opportunities for student for students to learn how to be a leader and what it takes to become a great leader. Some volunteer opportunities through offered through FBLA within the gaming academy are Memorial Park cleanup, Special Olympics, and Miracle League. The Gaming Academy also offers National Technical Honor Society, which which specializes in students enrolled in career and technical organization programs. And finally, the Gaming Academy also offers esports to students who are interested. In our academy, we offer many different skills and industry certifications that students can earn. Those include Photoshop, Illustrator, Unity's Artist, Programmer, VR, and computational thinking. Since 2014 to 2015, the Gaming Academy has offered 106 different industry certifications, and students have earned over 1,600 certifications. The career opportunities for academy graduates are game designer and programmer, 2D and 3D animator, software developer,
006multimedia and digital artist, which is my career choice, AI, machine learning, cyber security and engineering. going off the opportunities. These are pathways that our academy has actually produced many successful students who have uh who that work for these that work for these listed fields. We currently have graduates that work for Microsoft Electronic Arts, Navy Federal Gwinds, the Institute of Human and Machine Cognition, Iris, a US defense contractor, DICCom, and Walmart as a senior incident response engineer. These career pathways are increasingly important in our modern world. Tech workers maintain and improve systems for not only local government and businesses but federal government and international corporations as well. Technology also drives economic growth and optimization and innovation in production can benefit the whole world. Uh the academy prepares students for a wide range of jobs including cyber
007security, tech support and engineering. Uh these technical careers drive innovation in education as you see with adaptive tests and lessons and more engaging course material. Healthcare has been revolutionized by tech from MRI machines which you've probably heard of to uh newer Da Vinci machines which help surgeons with extremely precise procedures. We have two or three of these machines in Pensacola actually. They're really cool. Um, as for defense, we have drones and other unmanned equipment, and surveillance continues to improve. Entertainment innovations can be found in visual effects in movies, uh, immersive video game graphics, crisp TV displays, and music that is assisted by or created entirely in computer programs. Technology is becoming becoming the backbone of our world and Tate's Game and Simulation Academy develops the skills students need to step up and take an active
008role in the upkeep upkeep and improvement of that backbone. Lastly, you're going to need to find schools for your programs. Technical schools, colleges, and universities offering game design, animation, simulation, and computer science are UWF, PSSE, Georgestone, UCF, USF, UF, FSU, FAMU, and Florida Tech Polytech. Florida Polytech and Fullale University. Thank you. Are you guys going to ask any questions that you may have? I'm sure we will. And Mr. Arrow. Um, first of all, I want to thank the teacher for being a part of these young people's lives. Uh, let's give him a round of applause. Okay. Okay. [Applause] You know, not only is it important for you to be good at the skill set that you're developing, but it's also important to be good public speakers. Uh, uh, everything has a human side to it.
009And you what you demonstrated here today when each of you spoke was that you recognized that you were wellprepared. You spoke fluently and the board could understand everything you said. I think we could understand everything we're saying. Some of the terminology may may be a little beyond us because of our years. I also want to commend you for the number of certifications that uh the program has received and also want to commend I I saw a lot of local effort there where many of the students were employed within the uh within the local region here and that's important and just curiosity how many of you plan to leave high school and go right into the field any of you okay very good thank you that's all I have Dr. We miss Burgos. Yes. I first
010I would like to commend the the instructor. Thank you so much for providing these opportunities, great opportunities for these students. Um technology is not my middle name, but I commend all of you for working very diligently and working hard for on this program. I um also would like to echo what um our board member said about public speaking. Not only did you do very well in your academics but public speaking you were prepared you were you know you uh prepared you notes. So I just wanted to say that it's very very commendable of you. Thank you. I want to congratulate the instructor and all the students and the administration for what you're doing. Um, I go back a long time and I could remember sitting and watching my oldest son in front of an Atari
011and Nintendo, which you may not know as so antiquated, thinking what in the world would he ever do to to earn a living. Well, you all have proven me wrong and that as things have progressed that it's not really just games. when you talked about the defense and the medical and and on all the other areas that rely on those technology skills, you know, the the sky's is the limit with what you all will be able to do if you you choose to do it. So, I thank you for that. I thank you for taking it so seriously. I know that the hook was probably gaming. You're like, "Oh, I if it's a game, I could get through this." and but the work behind the game is what you've learned to appreciate, accomplish, and and
012be a part of. And and it also explains that every time I go to visit Miss Touchstone, she has one of those things on, and in her world, I don't exist, so she doesn't have to talk to me. So, you've made her life better already. But, uh, I do appreciate it. I wish I understood more about it. I think that they would probably keep me from things like Photoshop because I would be touching up some pictures of other people in this room. Um, but uh but I but I am very proud of you and I am proud of of what you are doing with your lives and how you are making us all a better a better school district and a better community. So, thank you all. Yes. And I just like to say I
013had some questions to ask you but you answered all of them in your presentation. So you did a great job and one of the things I was going to ask about the career pathways and you covered that there's numerous career pathways and then also future education um possibilities and you answered that as well. So outstanding presentation. Uh I want to commend the instructor and also probably one of the best principles in in Escambia County, Miss Touchdown. I say that because she made me look really good when she worked with me at Pensacola High School. So, so I know that. But congratulations. Outstanding job. And uh you make us proud. Thank you. Let's give them a round of appl applause. Yeah. Are there any parents that came or anybody anybody else if you'll please stand as
014well? Thank you. [Applause] Thank you very much. And you're welcome to stay for the rest of the meeting if you like, but if you if you skip out, we understand. So, we're stopping by some ice cream. Thank y'all very much. We're moving to our calendar if board members will pull out their calendars and let's look over October and November. Any additions or deletions that we need to make? looking first at uh the month of October. Dr. Williams, I just want to remind everyone that on October 28th uh beginning at 6:00 at Booker T. Washington High School will be the expo, all themies from all of our schools and students and parents will have the opportunity to attend. Really a big night. A lot of work goes into it. So, okay. And we have the all
015county chorus on the 21st. Is all county orchestra on the 23rd? Yes. Remember that. Yes. Okay. So, the all county orchestra is on the 23rd as well. At the single 6:30, I believe it is. I think so. Yes, sir. On the 28th, we have uh council, the military uh joint council with the school district at 4:00 at Washington High School, at uh at Career Expo, uh Choice Expo at 6:00 on that same day at Washington High School. Anything else in the month of October? Let's look at November. Um I have on the 5th of November is the memorial service that Escambia High School does every year. Yes. For the fallen service members from that graduated from Escambia and those who haven't been to that before. It's a very moving, emotional, and and solemn ceremony and
016definitely worth attending. Anything else in the month of October, I mean November, excuse me. 18th is organizational meeting and board meeting. Is that when someone else will take over as chair of this? Uh, that's why you have all those circles and stars around that date on your eyes. Um, I mentioned it. So, yes. I have November 13th at 6:30 is all county band. Is that Is that confirmed, Mr. Superintendent? [Music] That'll be at the Sanger. They're the all county band, Orchestra, and chorus are all at with the Sanger. 6:30 uh November 13. Is there anything else with with calendar hearing? And we'll move on to Mr. Superintendent public forum update. I I do not have anything to date for that, sir. Thank you. Uh, next we have Mr. Harold, student recognition. Excuse me. Thank you,
017Dr. Williams. I put this on the agenda because um several months ago we approached the board did about or I I mentioned it and the board agreed that we ought to recognize those students that uh or we should recognize those students that have made max scores on the uh uh statewide testing and uh uh that the last one the we did the elementary last meeting and that turned out so well. As parents came in, we were having a board meeting and they gathered in the outside area here and the camaraderie was just wonderful from what I understand. There was a lot of congratulations to each other and then a lot of the parents afterwards took their children out to eat and then they got on social media and that's what I wanted to talk about
018a few minutes. So they got on social media and the response was just outstanding. Uh, one of those responses was on Tik Tok and it got 40,000 views as of last Tuesday. 40 I'm gonna repeat that. 40,000 views. All right. It had 1,600 likes, 74 shares, and 70 comments. And the comments went something like this. Uh, they're congratulating the board for doing that, congratulating the children, wishing other boards were doing the same thing. one one fourth grader said, "I I I wish my my school board had done that because you know it is an honor." So when you and that doesn't count the fact all of the parents who went home and texted or sent to their grandparents or through the various forms of social media. So Dr. Williams, our chair, always says that we
019need to do more to tell the good news. Well, we did more that night, you know, and we're about to do more again this month. We're going to recognize the middle school. Also, uh, in my district, the two high schools there, Northview and Tate, I noticed on Northcambia.com, both of them have already have already done their recognition for the high school. So, the plan that the superintendent put forth, and I commend him for this, was it it worked perfectly. You know, we had elementary, middle here, high school did their own recognition and it was a nice event, but the social media was just tremendous on this. And so, and we couldn't buy that type of positive interaction in the community by any type of advertisements or anything. So, it one big positive for the for
020the students that night. It was so good. One of the comments was it was so good for uh children to come up and experience the next level up, you know, how to behave, how to act, and and you could look out across the audience and just see how proud the parents were. Okay, that's all I have on that. Dr. Williams, if anybody else want to come, Thank you for coming up with that idea. But the next one is also um I believe it's yours as well, Mr. Harold. Um FSBA training. Yes. Thank you, Dr. Williams. Um, anytime we go to training, I feel like it's important to uh uh come back and give a little report on that. So, that's what this is all about. And uh two of us went uh uh my fellow
021board member here and I the first as always when we go to these trainings, the first thing they do is they say, "Okay, Sunshine Law, if you can't sit at the same table, you have to be across the room from each other." So, so that you abide by that. So, we didn't get to sit together, do we? But uh uh and that that's the general rule with all of those things. But the first day was governance and we spent the whole day talking about schoolboard policy. And the first thing I noticed with when we went in there was some of them came in with these big books and that was mostly the smaller districts. The others of us came in with our laptops and our Kindles and so forth to go through it. But we
022spent a good portion of the morning that the presenter did throwing out ideas and we had to look it up on our board policy. So if we were not familiar with board policy, we sure were familiar with it by lunchtime. So and I'm not saying that we were. I'm just saying that was a good indicator. And but we also had a lot of fun doing that, didn't we? We found out things how other districts policies are different from ours. And it it was a wonderful interaction. I thoroughly enjoyed that day. The second day we did collective bargaining and it was uh it was good, but not as good as the first day. you know, how can you how can you take that and twist it around and make but it was it was very informative.
023I learned a lot of dos and don'ts and that sort of thing. But overall, the training was excellent and I recommend it for any new board member like myself. I've only been on the board a year now. It was it was a good introduction and also a good training exercise. Okay. So, that's all I want to say on that. I'd like to add a few more things. Yes. uh we did have to sit separately but the good thing about that you get to meet board members from across the state get to network and um I was fortunate I had an attorney on my on at my table at the board he's an attorney but he's a school board member u but he was able to assist me with policy helped me find help use the
024search engine so that was really great um the next day the budget the government bargaining bargaining I can't even say it um it wasn't as interactive but it was still very informative and so I really appreciate this training and I do recommend this training for future board members thank you very much uh next we have the facility usage agreement Mr. Harold thank you Dr. Williams. Uh I originally had planned to give out some things and discuss it tonight uh today rather this afternoon. But what I would like to do is hold off on this. And the reason I'd like to hold off is because uh uh the person who handles the facility use agreements is not here with us today. It's our deputy superintendent. And also I would like to hold off a little while
025because uh I want to be sure that uh uh I I met with the superintendent yesterday about this and I know Mr. Adams is not here today too. So, uh I'm I'm going to hold this until the next uh uh workshop so that we can all what I'm moving toward is tweaking our policy a little is what I and I've got some suggestions I want to share with the board and also and I say a little I'm talking about a little little tweak to it and also uh different ideas about things that uh that with the facilities like I said last time we want I would like to see us secure two sites so at least that we've got the parking lot secure and uh So if would if the board doesn't mind, I'd like
026to hold off on that so that we can have the other board member here and also have the deputy superintendent here. So uh and then I'll try to meet with him before then and bring some proposals to the board. M appreciate appreciate you, Mr. Harold. He he's absolutely correct. We had good conversation yesterday. Miss Payne had personal commitment that she had to take care of today and tomorrow. And then also I talked to him about want to have the full composition of our board as we begin to talk about this um I these ideas. So I want to tell you thank you sir. Thank you. I mean so since this workshop we don't have to say use the word table or anything like that. We just Okay. I just bring it back up. Okay. Uh
027next we have the legislative priorities. The platform that we will present from the Escami County School District. Uh these are a couple that I have placed on uh for us to consider. Um and it's a working document. So if any schoolboard member and the superintendent have anything they'd like to add to this, uh you can add at this time. The first one I had up was attendance and accountability, which possibly has already been approved, but with some uh guidelines in it. I know that there was an old rule that you had to wait so many days before you unexcused days before you did a report. Uh so I'd like to get clarification on that and if we can move forward with that. Also u base student allocation the uh up under education funding and fiscal
028responsibility mental health safe schools workforce and full-time u pre pre kindergarten. So I'll open it up for anyone to add other items they'd like to see on uh legislative priorities that represented Scamia County School District. I'm I'm in agreement with the ones that you have here already, sir, but I really don't understand the workforce development capitalization incentive. I think it was an incentive grant. It was funded, but I think it um was in question how much money it was funded. I don't know if Mr. Harold has any information on that. If you don't mind, while he comes up, I'm going to ask Mr. Bobbit to come as well, and they can Mr. Harold and Mr. about it can talk to you about two others what we're very interested in as well talking about the cap
029grant from the state what the state total was I can't remember what the total number I mean but it's still in existence they they hadn't didn't cut it they didn't that's correct it's still in existence we could still apply for one going forward okay okay just want to make sure we was still intact with the workforce development in Escambia County oh we're doing great okay we're doing great okay that clarify for Mr. That's somewhat somewhat I any specific question I'll just get with Mr. Herrell at a later time. Yes, Mr. Bobbit. Uh kind of tying in what Mr. Harold said there um one of the things that's affecting our graduation rate is the kids who leave us and earn a GED before their graduation class would graduate. So they make a choice that is better
030for them. A lot of them go to George Stone, earn industry certifications and the state proposed a program two years ago called the GATE program specifically for those students and you have to apply for it become a gate center. Unfortunately, the program requires a result in a GED which counts against the district and the school's graduation rate. I would like us to ask the state if we could either count GEDs that are earned before graduation as part of our graduation or at least have them removed from the calculation so they're not harming us. So they're are neutral because we remove kids who go to private school, homechool, other programs. They come out of our denominator and they don't affect the graduation rate. So GEDs are not easy to get. And if there are programs out
031there, especially George Stone could easily become a center where kids are graduating really and moving on with those kind of programs. It should not be a detriment to the district. Isn't GED, Mr. Bet, not PSAT or anything like that? Um, oh, no, no, sir. It's it's just the straight the GED program. Now, one of the things that's kind of different from that and that I'm not sure this is where you want me to talk about the PSAT as well. PSAT and the impact of administering that now and what happens when a student passes it now and then thinks they don't have to worry about what happens at the end of the year which impacts the school grade and teachers. Okay. And then the gate program. So we we that was the gate program with the
032GEDs. So any So the the PSAT has now become an alternate concordance score for graduation, which is great for for ELA. It hasn't been it's been for math, but it hasn't been for ELA. We administer the PSAT this week or next week to all 10th graders. The state pays for it and we administer it. The kids get their scores in February. Our kids are pretty bright. They're going to know that based on that score they have met graduation. Now we come to May. What's the incentive for the kids to do well on the state exam in May? Especially our high performing kids, the kids that are level three, four, and five. They already know they have their graduation requirement. And I'm very worried that's going to have a significant impact on all of our schools.
033I pulled the data for all the schools for the last two years and more kids made the score on the PSAT in 10th grade than made the score in May on the state exam. And I can just see the kids just going why? And so it seems like if they're going to do this and we're going to administer it early, that should count either for our for our schools and our district for meeting the requirement for the school grade and somehow build in learning gains and that because I'm really worried about those level four and five kids going eh and not making those level fours and fives and we see a drop in our learning gates. Is there any I'm sorry. No, no, go ahead. Yes, sir. Is there any legislator who's kind of taken
034the lead on any of these issues and understands them well enough to craft some legislation to address this? Leaving it to DOE doesn't always seem to be something that happens in way in in terms of what's happening in the field versus in at at our superintendent meeting um last month. DOE was there, commissioner was there and it was expressed to them and then all um Chancellor Burns, there were a couple of other staff members there. But the next day, um, the Senate President was there and it's this is a statewide issue, so it was brought up again. Um, I do believe that they will try to address it. I just don't know if they will get it addressed prior to the end of this particular session, which makes me nervous about the scores for next
035year. So sometimes things that they want to happen happen very very quickly like within the first session. Other items get pushed and then they don't get across the finish line. So but you will have all 67 school districts pushing for this in terms of the the way it's stated here. I I think that to put some more meat on these bones and taking it to FSBA for our conference coming up in the first week in December so that other districts also because again we're we're rather unique board and that that we have education backgrounds and the majority of boards don't have members who have that background and it may not be meaningful or impactful to them. So, if there's some way that you gentlemen could help with wording that would make that more yeah, you
036know, understandable to leadership throughout the state. Well, I I really want to say this about the the gate program that when it first came out, all of us that looked at it in my office and my colleagues all said, "What's the point if it's still going to be, you know, negatively impactful to a school grade?" You just created a program that incentivizes failure, right? And so I mean that's a very simple way to put it there because you're considering what is a huge success to be a failure. And as a country boy from cantomet let me put it to you this way. Some of the best people I work with started with the GED. Uh you know I I have a person that I work very closely with on a daily basis who is an
037absolute brilliant data management person. It's not this guy. uh it's a it's a different who who started with a GED and went on to get a college education after that. They just wanted to finish high school ahead of everybody else. Why should we punish someone for that? And we're going to give someone a GED they can leave right out of there and go join the army, the Air Force. They're going to hire them immediately. Stop acting like there's something wrong with that. It's a great great opportunity for the right person. And I want to take it a little bit further than Mr. Bobbit does. I don't want it to just count, you know, to be removed from the calculation. It needs to be a positive hit for us. I I think that I that I
038concur. I agree. I'm with you on this. I think that there's been a change philosophically, ideologically, statewide. There's been a push from the governor and and from DOE to look at things and kids getting more into career and tech education. That's not looking at the traditional diploma track and and so the GED does lean itself to that. that needs to be understood that it could be a very good thing to get the GED and then do the career and tech functions afterwards. And so that there needs to be this let's stop punishing the kids as you all have said and even to change the gate program to do the things that you're saying. It will be far more attractive to a greater audience of potential students because people are going to push it more behind
039the scenes. where where is the benefit for a high school administrator to say go get your GED right now if they know it's going to count against them that will keep that kid in that school and go right up to the four years even when there's no hope I'm talking about the student who is not just the kid that says I want to get a GED so I can get out of here and go get on with my life I'm talking about the kid who doesn't have direction and doesn't have enough credits to graduate yet who may actually pass that GED and we might give them a new vision of hope for their future and we need to make it easy for an administrator to be able to make that call. So, I'd be happy
040to to preach that that gospel to anybody who would listen, you know, call on me. I'll be glad to. Superintendent, one of the things that there's so many things that I'm proud um about our school district because of the way we approach students and what we're going to do for students. We realize gate program was set up, established, and it would end up being a negative impact uh on our school districts as it related to graduation. However, I can look out here and just about everybody that works for our school districts that are in these seats, uh, there have come a time there has come a time in a student's career that we purposefully said, the best thing for you to do is this. It is to go get your GED. We're going to help
041you because we're not going to override what's best for a student based on what's going to impact our graduation rate. So, I'm proud of of the stance that we have taken in our school district. What I wanted to make sure you knew, we'll put this together. I'll get these two gentlemen to help us draft really good language and then we'll get it to Miss Buswell for that final product. Okay. To go to our legislators and can we also send it to Jessica Janice to make sure she has it? Yeah. All right. Thank you, gentlemen. Mr. Appreciate you. I was just going to echo what Mr. FSCO said that uh and then I was going to suggest that we that we have them to put it all together and the superintendent did that. So I think
042that I agree with all of them that's listed here and I think we need to add that other one after the superintendent u brings it forward and if you think of any more after they I'm sure we can add to it as as well. Okay. Any more comments on that? Next, we have superintendent update on school uh school district initiatives. I know that I I printed it as a plural for today. However, it's going to be singular. We'll in either January or February, we'll bring some of our other programs and initiatives that are going. Um just want to give them a few more months to get some activity. I will tell you that I've been to Long Leaf a couple of times now and those two sixth grade classes are are rocking and rolling. What
043I want to do today is give the principal at Pensacola High School, Miss Amy B, Miss Amy Burns, I'm so sorry, Miss Amy Gordon, to give us the opportunity to fill us in where we are. I'm very excited about our next steps. Hi, good afternoon school board members and Superintendent Leonard. Um, thank you for having me here this afternoon. And I wanted to give you a little bit of an update on where we stand in terms of marketing and promotion for our seventh and eighth grade um that we plan to um start on our campus next fall 2026 2027 school year. So um we have worked really hard over the past couple weeks to market and promote our six our seventh and eighth grade. We've done a postcard mailer um and an an initial mailing
044to all the sixth graders at West Pensacola Elementary and at Cordova Park Elementary. um and all level four and five students in sixth and seventh grade. Um we have not sent anything to Brown Barge um but we have sent out to all the other middle schools and students in Escambia County Public Schools. Um we've worked with Mr. Strers and um his team to get billboards up across Escambia County. So we have those that are currently um on display across our county. We have social media channels and our school web page has been updated with middle school information. And we've had the opportunity even just last night I spoke to the parents at Cordova Park and did a parent night with those sixth grade parents and that was very wellreceived and very well attended. Um they
045asked some great questions. Um and they were incredibly enthusiastic and excited. Um and so that went really well and we have our first open house scheduled for tonight at 5:30 at PHS. Um we have a very robust agenda for our um interested parents. Um, and we have great enthusiasm among our faculty and our students. Um, and so we have, um, our agenda tonight includes a school tour. Um, we have classrooms that are set up in our west wing for them to tour and be able to see. Um, and we also have a parent, I'm sorry, a teacher panel and a student panel. Um, and as well as a general Q&A session available for parents to be able to ask us questions as well. Um, and then we will be present at the school choice expo
046on October 28th. And then we have a second open house scheduled on Saturday, November 1st. So that's where we stand in terms of promotion for our our middle school. Um we have been in communication with facilities planning regarding um some of our parking and restructuring of our parking lot um to best suit the needs of our um faculty, staff, students, and then potential middle school parent pickup and drop off um on our west side of the building. And we've also met with Mrs. Vincent and her team with regards to media services and circulation and making sure that we have um our media center set up to properly accommodate middle school um circulation needs. Just a question, there are criteria set up for the type of students that you are recruiting. We have worked with um
047Mr. McFarland and his team to set up requirements. um we are looking at accepting 1507th graders and 150 eighth graders. And so while we do have a set of requirements set, we're also flexible um because we want to make sure that we hit our enrollment numbers. Um and we're willing to take any student truly as long as their behavior and attendance is stellar. Thank you. I I appreciate that. But I know that there are a lot of students who tend to underachieve when they're uh when they don't feel like they fit in. And this may be an opportunity for some of those to go in to get their feet into it and say, "Hey, I finally find something that fits me." And so I'm I'm glad you're open to do that. Thank you. You're welcome.
048And some some of the feedback that we received last night from Cordova Park parents was that they were very thrilled to have the opportunity to send their child to potentially send their child to um a middle school that's smaller. Um and you know with only having 157th graders or 150 eighth graders um they felt that would be a nice smaller environment that could really highlight and enrich their child. Mr. I had the opportunity to visit Pensacola High School uh a couple of weeks ago and we had a long conversation and thank you for taking your time giving me the tour. I was uh uh I had not been to the school in a long time and I was amazed at the improvement and the area that you I mean it was fantastic and I I
049don't mean that in any negative way. I'm just saying I know the superintendent's over here laughing. I don't mean that, but I was I was very amazed at that and I I've already commented to Dr. Williams about that how how nice it looked and the area. Uh I I had some concerns about this and I shared some of those with you. Uh one of them was the facilities being away from the regular traditional high school program. I feel very comfortable with that now. Uh I I I as we walked through the halls there, I was trying to envision middle school students having being an old middle school teacher here. I think they would thrive in that environment. I think they would do very well. Um uh the improvements uh that have been made uh there
050are just phenomenal. It it it gave the that area a whole different perspective, you know. Uh and there used to be some drainage problems there that have been solved. One of the questions though that I think it would be important for the board uh to hear is I asked you a series of questions and one of them was how are you going to provide music, art, special area workforce and other things uh that you would traditionally find in other middle schools. So could you elaborate on because I think your answer was excellent the other day when we were talking. So uh could you elaborate to the board a little on that? Sure. So we do have the capacity to offer orchestra, fine arts classes, band, and then we have our Air Force ROC. And so
051when I was the assistant principal at Washington, we would bring over eighth grade students from Workman to participate in the ROC program at Washington. They could earn high school credit there. And we can do the same thing at PHS for our students who are in eighth grade who would like to who would like to participate in ROTC. Um, so in addition to ROTC, like I said, we also have a robust band, orchestra, and fine arts department. Um, we also offer photography and that could be an option for them as well to be able to participate in. Thank you. Uh, that's that's all I have, Dr. Williams. Thank you. And and thank you for all the effort that you're doing toward that uh toward getting that program established. Miss Burgos, I guess being the third board
052member, you get a lot of questions that, well, that's just like what he said. But, um, I'm looking forward to coming to visit the school. I haven't, it's been a year since I've been there, so I need to come and visit. But, I want to ask about open house tonight. Have you received any interest or feedback from the community as, you know, as far as they're excited about this? Yes, I've received. So, our postcard went out last week. Okay. Um, and I my phone has been ringing off the hook and I've received countless emails from parents. So, um, we don't have we didn't do a sign up for tonight, so we don't know how many parents to anticipate. Um, but we are anticipating a nice turnout. Great. Okay. So, thank you. Yeah. And I just
053like to echo what everyone else has said other than I'm pretty jealous of everything that's happening at Pensacola High School right now. um parking that was been an issue for years, administrative suite, and then now we increase enrollment. But no, I'm really happy for what's happening at Pensacola High School and and what and the direction that you're leading that in. I do have one question couple of questions. Um what barriers have you um overcome trying to establish this program? Um, so in terms of barriers, it's really just planning and facilities and making sure that we can manage effectively the safety and security of our middle schoolers, making sure that we put procedures in place so that they are um so that they have a unique middle school experience. You know, they're are middle schoolers. We
054want to make sure they still have a middle school experience. Um, some of the things that we haven't quite ironed out yet that we're still um discussing are athletics and extracurriculars. And so if I had to mention two barriers, I think that would be um those are ongoing conversations that we haven't quite finalized yet. Okay. Thank you very much for that. And you know, one of the things that we get I'm sure the other board members got as well is that for some reason they're really concerned with the intermingling of seven and eighth graders with high school students. And I think you've already addressed that as well. And so and to convey that to the parents that they're they're going to be taken care of. Yes. And last night um in speaking with the Kova
055Park parents um I was very um candid about the opportunity to take adv advanced math classes and that would mean possibly taking classes with high schoolers. Um but it seemed to me the feedback from the parents was that they were overwhelmingly um more appreciative of having access to higher math classes than they were to the possibility of their child taking a class with a high schooler. Um so I encourage them to come out tonight to the open house. can actually see where their student classes would be. Um the majority of their courses will be with middle school students, right? There's exception would be if they're taking an advanced math class or an advanced um science class. Yeah. And this may be down the line. Is that opportunities for these students to maybe virtual like if
056if they wasn't if they can virtually be in a higher level math class or something like that. Is that a I mean if we offered on our campus we would like them to take it face to face. It just provides for um a greater and more enriched learning experience. Um I guess those are conversations that we can have individually with parents and students as they arise. Okay. And and Mr. Dennis, you were great when I was principal there, so I'm not um too disappointed in you that this didn't happen when I was principal at Pensacol. Well, thank you, Miss Miss Go an outstanding job. Thank you very much. Anything else? No, Dr. Williams, when I visited the office area there, she was talking about all of the new nice furniture they're going to get, but
057it wasn't there yet. It arrived uh Tuesday and Wednesday of this week. So, we're still unpacking today, but this week's been interesting. She had a table, but the rest of the office was complete. Yeah, but you don't notice the furniture for the building. Now, are you going to have any trepidation having to deal with two directors, high school and middle school? None at all. None at all. Dr. Roberts, of course, is wonderful and we love Miss Morgan. So, not stronger than people think. Mr. Lyn, I just want to make certain that I take the opportunity to thank you, Miss Gordon, for the work and the leadership that you've provided and doing everything you can to get this program started. It is going to be successful. Um, I probably, and this you need to hear this
058as a board, I probably drive our people crazy. I can assure you that math specialist, English language arts specialist, Mr. Wilson, um workforce, h well, how are we going to, you know, how you asked the question, what are we going to do and how are we going to do it? Well, figure it out. We have exceptional staff that have figured it out. And if they have to build it while we're riding it, that's what we do. But this is an opportunity for students, all the initiatives that we've put forward and sometimes we may move a little too fast and for some of you or for others we may move a little too slow. The key is that we are moving and we're doing things that provide opportunities for all of our students and I couldn't
059be any more proud of you and the team that's helped you get it going and we'll take it to the next level. So, thank you to all of y'all. Thank you. Thank you very much. Thank you very Have a good afternoon. Dr. Williams, can I make one final comment? You know, um, we throughout the country, we have K through 12 schools. So, this intermingling with high schools and so forth, you know, it it's not something that hadn't been done for many years already. You know, it's how you do it. It that makes the difference. And you definitely have a plan for this. The uh uh the questions that I asked you the other day, I think I asked you four or five, and I won't go into those, but I was very impressed with the
060answers that you had for those. So, thank you again. You're very welcome. Have a good afternoon. All right. Thank you. This brings us to item number three on the agenda. Miss Superintendent, any additional comments? Do have I have a couple. I'm going try to go through them really quick. If you have the opportunity over the next couple of weeks and you're out visiting schools, make certain to congratulate all of our teachers of the year. Um, I'll do the same. Um, I want to make certain Mr. Mr. Wilson, are we Do we have the video or is it not going to play? Not going to play. Yeah, I'm gonna talk to them about it. So, you can What do you need to do to do you have to go back there to push a button? So,
061as you um I'm gonna talk about this and then we'll do the tan and then we'll be able to move into whatever you want to. So, unfortunately, this is a really good time to talk about and to do what we're going to do. As as you know, a couple weeks ago, we had two students um whether it was a coincidence or it just happened or it was purposeful had a medical reaction after smoking a vape. We're in Red Ribbon month. We're coming up on just say no. That's my language and I said it on TV the other day. It may be cool to say yes, but it's cooler to say no. Um, this is a video that was put together um by our new partner that you'll be doing anou with, hope above fear. It
062is very, very powerful. It is a video that we want to be able to show to our middle school and high school students about the dangers associated with a one-time try with a bait. what can happen. And I can tell you that um personally my my nephew is a teacher in Santa Rosa County. And um they've already played this video in Santa Rosa County. The only difference was they didn't allow everybody didn't get the chance to look at it before it played. And he said, "Whatever you do, Uncle Keith, make certain you let everybody see it administrator before it plays." because he wasn't prepared for what it did to him in front of his students. That's why we're making certain and Denny, is there anything that I left out you want to make certain that
063we talk about? Okay. So, this is powerful. I want you to see it and it's what our it's what our student body is. It's really what our community needs to see. So, thank you. [Laughter] They all say it will never happen to me. until it does. It's not the dark alleys where we find overdoses and fental poisoning. It's the basketball games, the skate park, and rehearsal after school. Fentanyl doesn't discriminate or care what school you go to or what hobbies you have. It will end your story all the same. [Music] [Laughter] I didn't hear the news. Um, I was working from home. My daughter was home. She said Bryant, who's one of Andrew's friends, just texted me and asked, "Where's Andrew? [Music] I immediately got up because I mean Andrew was 19 years old. He's,
064you know, we knew that he was smoking weed. We knew he and his friends partied a lot. We did not know anything about harder drugs. I jumped up, went to his room. His door was locked, which is normal for him. I knocked on it twice pretty loudly. I think I said, "I hope you're not naked and you better not be dead." And then I unlocked his door and opened it and saw his blue lifeless form laying on his bed with foam uh coming out of his nostrils and his mouth. Of course, I immediately grabbed His foot was the first the closest thing to me. So I grabbed it and it was ice cold. Um I had obviously screamed his name when I saw him trying to wake him up. Andrew before I touched him. Everything
065was fairly obvious. Um the fact that he was dead. So yeah, I didn't have to give help. I want this to stop. Um, our son wanted to have a good time. Our son was not did not want to die. He just wanted to have a good time with his friends. It's easy to get caught up with your friends to forget the risk you are taking. Be the friend you would want in your corner. Talk about it. Help each other. Drive your point home. [Music] You don't need anything to be who you want to be. You don't need anything to perform at your best. It's tempting to let drugs or your friends tell you otherwise, but that will only be an obstacle in your life. [Music] Let your voice be heard and met with the action.
066Stand firm with your friends and family and fight for your community. We all have the power to choose our story. [Music] [Applause] Feel like I don't know what to do. Dying for you. N if you are struggling, talk about it. Talk to your friends. Talk to your parents. Talk to someone. You are not alone. You decide the next chapter in your story. Carve your own path. Support each other. Find your harmony. This is not how your story ends. This is just the beginning. Thank you, Miss Simpleton. Um, I told you it was powerful. Um, don't just you you see the people. These are real. This is real life circumstances. This is happened. It is facts. And then when you see the the the the statistics that are written there as well, it certainly gets your
067attention when you see children the age of 12. But we need to do our part. They want us to be in Locust Apprentice. We get charged with doing all kinds of things. We need to make certain that we are honest and uh we tell the story that we need to tell. We're somebody they can trust. If you've got a problem, you come to us. We'll help you. um Hoots and Mr. Tommpkins, they were talking yesterday about a program that we're putting in place for diversion program, first offense instead of just saying, "Hey, we're going to suspend you for 5 days, whatever maybe we're going to give you an opportunity, be able to get it right." Um, but I wanted to be certain that y'all had the opportunity power that is there. And I I I
068am okay to take a break if that's what y'all want to do. I need to get uh George Smith and Bill Reed in here to do the next thing for us on the tan. Okay. Okay. Let's take five minutes. Let me see where we at. Okay. Yeah, let's let's uh the last thing was to Mr. Saint you want to take us through the tax note. All right. Thank you, Mr. Leonard. Uh item I don't remember the agenda item number. Um 20D is tax anticipation note. This will be a first for our district. We haven't done this before. This is a short-term note. It's really cash to get us through um some uneven cash flow period between the beginning of the fiscal year and uh tax season. Uh FEFP is made up of two parts of
069course state and local. The state portion is constant. It's a consistent amount but it's only a part of the FFP. The local portion is what you set required local effort and the discretionary piece for that's what we did back in the budget hearing and that uh provides the local portion of the FFP. Well, since we don't get that portion until starting in November, late November, and dealing with the environment that we're in, meaning a low beginning fund balance, that means less cash. Um, we had some elevated construction costs that went on in the beginning of the year, but even before all that, last year, we probably should have done this maybe two years ago. It gives us operating cash until we get to tax season to add to our normal revenue. So that's what this
070is all about. Need to do it. Uh I've got Will Reed and George Smith did the legal part. George, of course, is our bond counsel. He's note counsel on this. Will Reed's I'm a financial advisor. And uh I'm going to let Will if he uh would go ahead and take you through the process that he went through with the banks uh concerning the RFP process and the results uh and then we'll get to the resolution that you'll be looking at on Tuesday night. Will thank you Terry. Uh as Terry mentioned, the the tax anticipation note is on the operating side. It's not to be used for capital. It is a common practice for a number of school districts throughout the state to go through and do this because you have expenses that start at the
071beginning of the school year and you're not receiving a good portion of your money until halfway through the school year. Um, as the state has gone through and laid on additional expenses such as the fees and uh charter school sharing revenues, those are additional dollars that have to go out before you get that big chunk of of property taxes that come in to go through and offset those. So, this is something that's done as a matter of course at probably 10 to 12 other districts throughout the state. Uh, and we're seeing more and more go this direction. Uh, to go ahead and and do this, we went through and solicited uh, responses from banks. We went out to in the range of 45 to to 50 different banks to ask them to go through and
072send in proposals for providing this loan to you all. We ended up with seven responses with Wells Fargo providing the the lowest rate. Wells Fargo is also your bank of account. They have a very good relationship with the district and and they were they were excited to be able to go through and and continue that with you. Uh that rate was is an indicative rate. What they put in when we received the responses was 3.29%. As of today, that rate would be a 3.26. uh that rate will be set once you take action at the the meeting next week uh in advance of closing which would be next Thursday. Um going through uh I I do want to go through and point out that that is a very aggressive rate. Uh that's actually less than
073what you're earning in in the SBA currently on on funds that you have in hand. Um so it is it is a piece that that comes a tax anticipation come note comes with very little pain very little risk for the district uh but provides an insurance policy against any delays in receipts uh should a hurricane come late in the season and and impact your ability to go through and receive those property taxes on time. Uh we've seen that happen in Bay County who went through and did a tax anticipation note. We've seen that happen in Lee County who went ahead and did a tax anticipation note to just to go through and make sure that there was money in the bank to make the the the payroll payments when they come due. Uh so again,
074it's a it's an inexpensive insurance policy to go through and make sure that you can go through and and pay the bills when they when they come due. Um and is driven by the uh by the impact of the timing of when you receive funds verse when those expenses are incurred. I'm happy to answer any questions that you have on the on the the process or the the bid that we received. I'm sure that Mr. Saintier wishes I didn't ask the questions, but um I know enough about this to get in trouble. How much or what is the total amount that we are borrowing? 15 million. And and that's for the entire year, correct? uh through it'll be repaid on 6:30 and the re the timing behind the repayment it's so it stays within the
075fiscal year. The timing behind the repayment is uh looking at the receipts the the revenues as they come in to Escambia County uh and Escambia County schools and you have an interesting little hump right at year end where you receive another chunk of funds that come in at that point. Uh so this allows us one to keep the keep the funds outstanding the the loan outstanding a little bit longer because as we mentioned it's investment rates are currently higher than than the borrowing rate for what we're looking at here but it also provides protection over the that second chunk of property taxes that come in at the end of the fiscal year and and I understanding how we have to pay the money upfront and then it gets reimbursed it it does make sense I'm
076just I'm just a little bit uh disappointed that we've gotten our into the position where we're having to do this where typically our fund balance was healthy enough that we didn't and talked about this when we talked about the budget to begin with knew that we were heading into some uncharted waters for us and I I don't have a problem with going through this. I just want to know amounts and rates and things like that. I which are very good questions and that that's why we're here to to go through and walk through and answer any questions you have. Um I would be remiss if I didn't bring up the the fund balance measure is traditionally done at fiscal year end. That's what shows up in the audit. That doesn't coincide with your cash flow
077low point. So that's a a piece that that going through looking at the the fund balance target that that you have is at a point where you still have more cash in the bank as opposed to going through looking at at what it would be in the November time frame, which is part of the impetus behind going through and doing this is to to make sure that that again we have as much protection in place as possible. And you mentioned the repayment date. What was that date again? 6:30 of 26. Why why are we stretching it out this long? And is there a penalty that if we repay the money before then or do we have to wait till June 30th to pay it? Uh no, it we're looking to keep it out through June
07830th. The the reason we're going through and stretching it out is is uh there there are a couple of reasons for that. One, it increases the interest in banks to be willing to come in and compete because they have the ability to earn interest a little bit longer as opposed to it being a short loan. It's not necessarily worth the time for them to go through and do the do all the credit work. The fact that you receive seven bids coming through for this is is a a very strong showing based off what we've seen in in other issues coming through. Uh the other reason was to go through and protect against that again the that next flow of funds that you get at the end of the fiscal year which is a little different
079than we see in in some other districts. Um it's actually one of the things I want to reach out to the property appraiser and just get a little bit more color there. But my guess is that it has to do with the timing of the sales tax certificates and the receipts of of those funds. Um but again because you get another chunk of funds coming in right at the end there it provides protection over over that time as well and at the the current investment rates versus the the the cost of these funds. Uh and given the fact that it is a short-term borrowing, which allows you to uh to keep any of the the arbitrage there, uh there's not there's not as much pain as there would be keeping it outstanding if you were
080paying more than you were receiving. Does this affect our bonding rate in any It does not. Okay. Uh these are distinct. The and that's a a very good question. The bonding was all going through on the capital side. That's repaid out of the capital funds. Your one and a half mills. This is repaid out of the operating side. This is the only avenue that Florida school districts have to to go through and borrow anything on the operating side. And as I've mentioned, many districts go through and issue TANS. It doesn't have any impact on the the rating process. And frankly, many of the the the frequent borrowers on the capital side also tend to be districts that go through and and borrow heavily on the the tax anticipation note side. Uh yes. Um I just
081want to make sure when and this might have been mentioned before u Mr. St. Z. When or when does the school district receive funds from the state? FP is year round, so it's split into uh two per month and they're very even cash flows. Problem is that's only part of the FFP. The local portion of the FFP is the required local effort and the local and the operating discretionary operating that won't happen until November through uh the next two or three months and then as Will said we get a big chunk. We got about 25 million at June 30th last year. So um it's an uneven cash flow. Mhm. along with all of the things that have happened in this district with the FEA with the student decline, the revenue is just not like it
082used to be. And therefore, this is first and we like I say, we should have done this two years ago. We raid every bit of cash that we can find. Every bit of it, every fund we go get cash. Well, we're at we're at the point now um we're about to in in get into some uh u investments and I don't want to get into investments. We've got cash but a lot of it is tied up in investments and this will bridge the gap. This is a normal borrowing process that districts go through when they're in the same situation as we are. And many of those districts are some of the high property districts where they get almost nothing in state revenue. 90% of theirs is local. So they don't get but 10%. Some of
083these districts like Walton County, um districts similar to that, Kaire County, Monroe County, uh they're getting almost nothing upfront. And so this would be the scenario for them also. But for us with our declining enrollment situation and the revenue like it is, we're just bridging the gap. We'll have the revenue. We'll have the cash, but we're going to get it later in the year because we have all of these payrolls. All of that just drains us until right now in October is the worst month. November, we'll start catching up with some property taxes. Also, um I know my board member asked a question about penalty for prepayment or is there I didn't c catch that answer. Uh so this is set up to not have that prepayment. Prepayment typically comes with an additional cost and
084given the timing of that second trunch of of receipts and the the frankly the the low rate that Wells Fargo is going through and charging for these funds. uh the ability to go through and and keep that out at a lower rate when we know that we want to keep the protection in place for that $25 million of receipts that were coming in at the end of the fiscal year uh made financial sense. Okay, thank you. Different question and something that said fees was mentioned that the family empowerment scholarships. Yep. Ju just the fact that the students have migrate so many students have migrated out of our district into the fees. It has nothing to do with the fees per se. It's just the effect of it. Okay. And the revenue and the revenue um
085has followed the student, right? Okay. It we're not having to pay that that revenue and wait on the state to reimburse us. that comes out of the calculation. We never see that. Okay. We never It never comes to the district. Thank you. Okay. Thank you. Any more questions? Anything else, Mr. Superintendent? Okay. I said thank you to all three of you. Sorry to Mr. Speaker. Appreciate you. And thank you. Any more um committee of department reports? That's it. Uh moving on now to the agenda review. If everyone look at the reg agenda, Mr. Superintendent, are there any additions or deletions to this month's agenda? We have one ad. It's under section 24 consent finance procurement. We have added item N. That's it. Thank you. finance uh procurement. It is um I could tell you the
086actual I think it's the Kelda. It's Dalin applied. Okay, I see it. Oh, thank you. Yeah, it's Miss Burgos to bring the invocation and pledge. Okay. Next, we had a minutes of se from September. We have two items of public hearing this month. Policy 2520 and 2522. This u is this the uh this is the second reading on that. Is that correct? Second reading. Second reading. Okay. need need to ask for we'll just put it out there today and then hopefully during your discussion on Tuesday night you can give us a clear clear path forward. So we we we we do have the listing for the 2425 school year that all the school districts have to submit to DOE that said they have these books have been removed other 66 counties libraries. Okay. Um we'll
087hopefully be able to bring that list to you in November. One of the things we're looking for clarity on is and Wilson make sure I get this right or if Bradley's here. So you'll see it that there are certain counties and certain grade levels are the only place that particular school district removed a book from Bay County. Uh I'm just making up a school district. Don't hold removed the book. Starlight seventh and eighth grade only. So it was still available in high school. Is that we need this board to tell us if that's how they want us to follow the removal. Um if it's removed from sixth through 8th grade, that makes it simple. We know it's just in high school. Or if it's been removed from one grade level, do you want it fully
088removed from all libraries u in our school district? So, I'm asking you that today so it gives you time to think it through and then we'll ask for clarity on um Tuesday night. Okay. Any comments? Um no, I I do, sir. Um in school visits last month talking with media specialist and I believe I spoke with you, Mr. Superintendent, afterwards. There's there's an issue that has come up and it's something that we need to be aware of and keep it in mind as we go forward. There are some books that have been removed and I'm going to use one in particular, The Diary of Anne Frank. Having read that as a student myself, I don't remember anything in that that would be offensive. But there are two versions which I didn't know. The one version
089is the one that I read which was talked about this atic experience of of a child hiding for her life. But the second version has sexual content which I didn't even know was a possibility. So there are two diaries of Anne Frank. I would want us to have the ability in some way to say, "Hey, the the nonsexual one doesn't need to be removed." But at this point, there's not a distinction. So, every diary of Anne Frank is removed. And and I think that we need to be aware of that and we need to understand. And there was there was a time that and I'm I'm going to attribute it to to Rich Holtzeneck made the comment he said that there are abridged versions of material. So why weren't we looking at the abridged versions?
090The Reader Digest that that took out things that were offensive or what have you. And and so if those possibilities are there, you know, there there may be some things that we would look at. and and that was the only thing that takes me to the work having merit that it is something that students could learn from such as the diary of Anne Frank and what the struggles were at that time in Nazi Germany and and in Europe period uh because of of religious beliefs and so that needs in my opinion is a very valuable and important thing for students to to know and understand. But the sexualization of that novel is a different issue because when I read it, it didn't matter. It didn't add to anything that was important to know about. So,
091you know, I know that this is going to take time, but I think that we have a group of very dedicated media specialists who have been able to identify these kind of idiosyncrasies in what's going on. So I would like us to heir on the side of caution but also have a gate on how to reintroduce materials that definitely are worthwhile at some point. That's all. There is a there is verbiage in the new proposed rule that says it's not clearly spelled out from a procedural standpoint, but there is language that says any book that's been removed by the school board by virtue of having been on this list uh can't be returned to the shelves except with the express approval from the school board. And what we've been discussing is these kinds of books.
092Uh uh I know that I've already seen one um I I don't even remember what it was, but um a language arts teacher saying, "Hey, this book is important. It's been used in AP curricula. I think it should be returned to the shelves." And so I what I think the new policy would allow once it's adopted would be if there is a a media specialist who feels very strongly about this particular version of the diary of Anne Frank. I would like to have it back. They can approach the superintendent about it. U you know go through their principal and say I would like to have this book back have it returned. Um, I do want to make sure that all the board members know that with regard to the books that we have that are
093being pulled, we're not getting rid of any of them. Um, we I I don't know what the longhaul solution is going to be, but it's not going to be like we're getting rid of all these books and then all of a sudden we're going to have to go out and reby copies of the diary of Anne Frank. um if we have the the version that you're referring to uh and it is approved by the school board um then it can go back on the shelves and we just pull it out of out of the storage. Um I agree with Mr. Fetsco what what you said about I read the diary of an Frank. you know, uh we're both ancient giants and uh uh I did not know that there were two versions and so you
094learn something every day. Uh I think that we our policy that we're about to put in place gives all the things that we need to do that. If they if anyone wants a book return, they take it to the superintendent and then they bring it to the board. You know, that would it's just very simple. In the interim, if someone wanted to bring something to the superintendent, the board could look at it on an individual basis. And so I'm very comfortable with that portion of it. Uh I visited a lot of I've been visiting a lot of schools uh and uh when I go to the schools I ask the media specialists I say do you have any books that have been pulled and you know and they tell me the number and it's range
095from 50 down that sort of thing. Uh but they keep every one of them said this said we have series books that we're we're still waiting on and so if we moved anywhere on that Mr. Uh, Leonard series books. Yeah. What do you mean by uh it's it's uh it'll be a series and the kids are waiting on the next few books too that they can read that. We have um we approved a bunch of purchases last month with Miss Vincent. I received communication from her earlier this week about the next round of purchases. I wanted to make certain that we end up with a board policy that we know that we've adhered to before I gave her the all clear on that. Um I don't know how many of them were in the U
096that I don't know how many of those are series books. I read I read the email. The other thing I want to make certain of that's a really good question, but it also goes to the diary of Anne Frank because I've received that request as well. make certain you look at the um the proposed policy and if it's a book the diary of Annef Frank is a book that's been used in AP studies I'm not certain that the current proposal requires for that to come back to the board if it's been used in AP and we know it's been used in AP it takes parental consent for that book for the diary of Anne Frank to be used again if I'm reading this new proposal correctly. Um to make certain we're all on the same
097page. That's why that's why we have these meetings and that's why we'll have Tuesday night. I want to make certain that when we get there, we're getting there and we're ready to go. Uh I probably shut up. The the media specialists at our uh were mostly at elementary schools and th those are the ones they understand that there's a new policy coming. They understand that we're not quite there yet. They also understand but they as one of them told me just yesterday said here's a series and you know we've got so many more books and the kids have read up to this point and they're anxiously awaiting for this to the next one but uh and I my answer to them was it's coming you know it's going to be it's it's it's give us
098a little bit more time. It's coming. We're going to work through this. Uh uh but uh there there are some anxious media specialists and some anxious children wanting some of these series books back. So just that that's all in point. Oh um I don't have the policy right in front of me but I does it does say something about you know the books that are currently on the AP list or any others that enhance our curriculum are considered on the list. they're not um removed. But um you know when as I mentioned in the past if there's a particular book and the parent or an educator has a concern why it was removed they can bring that concern to either us or the superintendent with a specific educational or specific enhancement to our curriculum. I
099think that needs to be looked at and that's that was listed on there as well by correct I um I would say not not entirely correct but the board's the board's vote was to remove the books on the DOE list. So even if they were used in an AP curriculum because this policy has not been adopted yet right um they have been technically removed but you know we still have the books they're just not they're not in circulation and they're not available to students. Um, I I I think I would be wary of having parents come to Well, no, no, no. I won't say that. If you have a parent that says they're interested in a book for a particular curricular reason, I would suggest that you encourage them to go talk to their school's
100media specialist. Okay? Uh because it's important to keep in mind that under Florida law, any book that we make available to students in a classroom, library, a media center, or on a recommended reading list has got to be selected by a school district employee specialist certification. Okay. I am not aware of anybody on the board or Mr. Leonard holding such a certification, but you certainly can direct. Uh they are they are the people who are going to be responsible for selecting those titles. So I would suggest that that you know if you do have those kinds of inquiries from parents that you you have them contact their students media specialist and those media specialists are very aware of the new policy because all of them I ask them if that you know the board is
101divided oh yeah we know all about it we're accountable we've got to we've got to make sure that we follow that and all that and that's that's a good thing you know that's a good thing so they are aware of that followup that I have is that there are unintended consequences that come out and and so after last month's meeting and Leanne Eubanks came and she spoke and she's the social studies teacher from Escambia High School. My visit to Escambia High, I wanted to find out, okay, what's going on? Well, the other unintended consequence is that um Amy Hornick, who is who was recently an angel in our midst for her teaching of Latin all these years at Escambia High School and six state championships and every other year coming in second, I believe, statewide.
102Um her entire classroom set is no longer usable, which is needed for those competitions. And the reason was that her classroom set like Leanne Eubanks um had been gone through previously when we said all classroom books needed to be reviewed, but it wasn't done and put into the Destiny system. And because it's not in Destiny, it's not they're not usable. But in order to get all those I'm going to say 50 to 200 books put in time has to be found because there's only a limited number of people who could do that now. Miss Vincent is one of them and her assistant is the other and I don't think anybody else um in the summer there were additional ones but there aren't now. So, it's very imperative to me that Miss Hornick and Miss Eubanks
103get their classroom sets put into Destiny and approved. Otherwise, we've kind of created our own problem with that. And so, I just want people to be aware of it. Not that, you know, I know I spoke with a superintendent. He talked with Bradley. they're doing everything in their power to rectify that. But those are some unintended things that have happened that uh I think Miss Eubanks brought it to my attention. I had no idea until then. So, in a large district like this, we're going to have things like that in any process that we're going through. And uh those and and when it comes to our attention, the key word is what you said, Mr. Pesco, is that the superintendent and the staff are aware and they're working on it. you know those uh uh
104I anyway that's all I want to say. Thank you. Moving now to consent agenda. Are there any items to be discussed? Starting with curriculum numbers 8 through 19. Next is finance items um 20 through 24. Yes. I have a question about 20B. Okay. That's the um RFP that was audit. Oh, just about the operational audit where we stand. Yeah. Do do you just want a overview or do you have a question about it? I I just an overview because firstly when I looked at it I'm like what am I looking at? So I just wanted to just to kind of let myself know and also the community know as well. Okay. Operational audits are standard. Uh auditor general rotational every third year they do an operational. They used to combine it with the financial years
105ago and then they pulled them apart and they do them separately. So an operational audit findings are strictly operational issues dealing with process procedure statutory uh compliance and those sort of things which is what you see on the findings on those um uh let's see that I think we've got a um process of um going through and taking care of the issues uh doing some compliance with uh their recommendations That process will go through the next month, about another month, less about a month. It was 45 days. And what we'll do there is uh just put all of our uh actions that we're doing to correct things, corrective actions really in uh in the in the form that they want and then we'll send it up to them. All the responses were done back right
106after they sent us preliminary and tenative and that's what you see in the final audit report. you see our responses there. It's in in the back of the report. Um, and now we're showing them what we're doing to correct. So, it's just uh it's just a little it's normal proc procedure, but all of these things follow the legislative auditing committee um things that they focus on from year to year. and some of the things that we're seeing in this audit audit uh operational audit reflected that. Uh none of it was earth shaking. I can't remember if there was anything that was really new. Um we've gone through most of this stuff before similar to it. U I think we we yeah we had five findings. Um, it could have been there was a year or
107two a while back maybe 10 years ago or less that we had like 12 to 15. I can't remember the number. So, it really varies. It's not that we're necessarily doing things better or worse. we could be, but sometimes their focus is so um they've they've got so many issues that they're trying to deal with that they may have tons of findings and it may be related to a statewide issue that nobody's dealt with before and they'll come up with recommendations for that. Um in our case, uh we've corrected everything. We'll be sending that up to DOE and uh or to the AG and then typically we'll see Department of Education follow up on some of that but that'll be a little bit down the road. Well, few of them gave me a little bit
108of heartburn to to the idea that students aren't doing the required resiliency training. I had been in schools and saw that there were classes of kids doing it, but uh certain ones weren't reported that it's there there was a lot of ambiguous discussion as to why you would have such a large number of students not doing what's required by the state and and not reporting it and somebody not following through to make sure that that does get reported. Likewise, the uh the uh hours, you know, the that are being reported for things at George Stone. Um I I remember having been in a seat down there and and having those issues come and having to work on, okay, how are we going to do time sheets and who's going to be responsible and so on
109and so forth. And it seems like we've kind of lost step in that somehow or some way. And yeah, there's change in personnel and I get that too, but there were some very large numbers of hours being over or under reported and and so I didn't see a lot in the report that gave any finality into how things were going to be corrected. Just kind of some blanket statement. So that is that'll be part of our corrective action plan that we'll give you a copy of that of course whenever we get that done and you can see that we how we responded to AG in terms of correcting those findings like we said we would when we responded originally you know off the top of my head I know that I've remembered I I read
110through all the the ones that were reported but those are two that stood out to me in terms of Okay. The the idea that uh we're not complying with something that you know the students have to do. It looks like we're not complying. Yeah. What I will tell you that I'm I'm and I'm going to be really I'm going to be the best I can be. I'm going be very well behaved when I tell you this. Our staff because what you're proving is what the auditor general has said. Uh we had the opportunity to meet with the auditor general staff a couple of times and vigorously most I didn't necessarily I wasn't vigorous but the staff really they they stood up for what we're doing. Um there are a couple of them a couple of
111findings that we know um we we need to do better. I want to say the one at Georgestone, that's the second time that that's been one of our findings. And it's also the second time that um up-to-date background screenings, and I shouldn't say the initial background screening, but that one that has to be done without within the 5-year period because I was in HR when that had been a finding previously. You know, they keep changing the system. Um the the part on the resiliency training, I can't remember the exact numbers in my head. Lisa Joiner, do you were we at 87% but you got to be at 100%. 84%. correct? I mean, all right. So, we're at 84%. Uh, anything under 100 is what I So, that was argued. Mr. Dennis did a really good
112job of arguing one as it comes related to uh safety officers on campus. Um, you'll see this information in the next items that will be brought to you, but I y'all did really good. And I think is it next Monday or the following Monday that we finalize a response back next executive staff meeting. Okay. Yeah. Yes, sir. Mr. Fesco, I thank you. and and and having been in a different seat, I understand that process, but I also understand if somebody picks up our agenda and reads through it, they're not going to understand it the same way. And that's I my reason for talking about it now is to have people say, "Hey, it looks one way, but that's not necessarily the way it is." And and so there is discussion. And there are things that
113will go and there will be changes based upon what's reported. I also know that that the auditors are very uh much u compelled to find some findings and and and so you'll look for the needle in the hay stack and you'll find a needle. Um but but that doesn't mean that it won't be taken care of and I I get that. But but uh again I I brought it up because it needed to be discussed before somebody else looked at it and said, "Hey, we're not even talking about it." But we are. Thank you. Moving into human resources item number 25 through 29. I did want to comment about the uh report from Miss Adams and her uh good work on that report. Thank you. Operations items 30 through 39, Dr. Williams. Uh uh item
11432, I would uh item D E I Okay. Someone prepared. What questions you have? Yes. Uh I was waiting to see if someone else had anything else. I'm waiting. Thank you, Dr. Williams. So, uh I want to I have a question about the Ernest Ward room de demolition. Okay. if I could. Um, it's the wait room. Uh, yeah, it's the weight room. It's It's the old uh It's the old locker room, wait room uh that was part of Ernest Ward High School, right? I visited that. I went through that. It's the conditions in that thing are terrible. Awful. Absolutely. It's awful. Uh that whole wing there coming off of the gym that that was in, that whole thing's going to be demolished. And and there was, if I remember correctly, the water came in there
115and there was a drainage issue where it splashed up against that wall. Is there any corrections? Yes, sir. When we do that, we'll rectify those issues. The drainage problem there with that. Um, what we're actually leaving is there's also all of the gym is actually fed, the electrical portion of that is fed through that. So, this is a little bit of a surgical demolition. So, we'll demolish what is the old weight room, but the boiler room and the um electrical room will stay in place to begin provide service. So, all that'll be graded and all the issues will take care of the civil. Yeah. I I for some reason I thought that there was going to be one of those rooms left there. Uh I don't know something in the back of my mind when
116I was touring that a while back. That's what my thought was one look at it bulldoze the whole thing down. Well, we would if we but we it would cost a considerable amount of money re to rep run that electrical service through there. So, right. I understand. Now that's that's now where are we with we're just appointing a uh construction manager for the tape project. We haven't started anything on that. Which which one is that? The uh that's a gem repair. Yes, sir. That's the um the Fryman gym has a water intrusion issue. Considerable water intrusion issue. That's the front of it. Yeah. Yes, sir. That's a that's an ephas system on the front of that and uh that we don't allow ephus or stucco in the district for obvious reasons any longer. Uh but
117that will be rectified in this. Okay. And uh the next one here, Pine Meadow, uh the kitchen and so forth is Pine Meadow. I can't remember if it's Pine Meadow or if it's Jim Allen, but they were built about the same time. have these huge fans up there that back years ago kept the flies out of the cafeteria and all that and the principles them were want is that Pine Meadow where that is we have we there we're required to have those fly fans at every entrance that goes you know for the exterior of the building by by health code so there are fans back there and those will be all that will be they're not as big as they used to be so uh they're much smaller and and not as not as obtrusive
118and those windows that they're putting in that's at the front facade of the school, isn't it? No. Uh, you're talking about at Pine Meadow. Yes, sir. Yes, sir. Okay. Uh, and you know, um All right. And then one more and I'll leave you alone here. I just want to uh you and I had communicated about Brat Elementary and you said it was going to end. Are we actually are we finished with that now? Yes, sir. As a matter of fact, um Mr. Leonard asked me that yesterday. We're doing what we call uh TAB, which is test and balance. So, the system is being tested and balanced as we speak. Uh once we get a tab report uh we'll consider it substantially complete and then we'll finalize the project. But the the grounds and everything that's
119all we're just doing actual testing at the end. Yes sir. All they're doing is testing the flow on the air conditioning system and making sure that it's balanced and functioning properly. All right. That's all. Thank you, doc. Yes, sir. Before you leave. Sir, um before you leave, I did want to take the opportunity. I've had phone calls from the people who live adjacent to Sherwood. Yes, sir. and they wanted to to let me know how appreciative they are of the work that you've done. And in the 20 or 30 years that there's been issues with drainage, this is the first time that somebody has really taken the initiative to rectify it and they wanted to personally thank you and I promised that I would do that. Thank you, sir. Appreciate that. Makes a lot makes
120a big difference. Looks a lot better, too. Thank you. And moving into the consent, uh, superintendent items 40- 42 hearing. None. This brings us to public forum. We do not have any public forum forms. There's nothing else. This meeting's adjourned. Vote for SC.