001[Music] Hey, good morning and welcome as I call to order the October 3rd special meeting of the Escami County School Board. Whether you're joining us via live stream or in the audience, we appreciate your interest in education of the students of Escambia County, please salage your cell phones or other electronic devices at this time. There will be a public forum session for the agenda items only. If you wish to speak at the forum, you must complete the appropriate form located on the table at the rear of the room and bring it forward to Miss Harris at the front table. All speaker forms must be submitted prior to the start of agenda public forum. This meeting was properly advertised on September the 26, legal notice 11664900. At this time, we will move to the adoption of
002the agenda. Mr. Superintendent, are there any changes or deletions to your recommended agenda? >> Yes, sir. There's one item that has been added. It's under section five, curriculum, item A. >> Okay. Do I have a motion to adopt the agenda? >> So moved. I second. >> It's been moved and second. Any discussion? No discussion. Please vote. >> Adopted four to zero. >> Thank you. Now we will now begin the agenda. Public form. All forms must be submitted at this time. I do not have any forms. So we'll move on to human resources instructional professional first session. First session three section three human resources instructional and professional item AS. >> I'll move the motion for the appointments. >> I'll second that motion. It's been moved and second. Any discussion? No discussion. Please vote. approve four to
003zero. >> Thank you. Item B, reappointments. Can I get a motion? >> So moved. I'll >> second. So moved in and second. Any discussion? No discussion. Please vote. Approve four to zero. Item C out of field. >> I'll move that motion. >> I'll second that motion. >> Been moved and second. Any discussion? No discussion. Please vote. approved four to zero. Thank you. Next section four, human resources risk management. Item A is the mental and dental plan changes. >> I'll move that motion. >> I'll second. >> Any discussion? No discussion. Please vote. approve four to zero. Okay. Lastly, curriculum item A. >> I make the motion that we accept this curriculum item a memorandum of understanding with collaboration with University of West Florida. of Florida. That's University of Florida. Correct. >> And I'll second. >> Any
004discussion? Please vote. Approved. Four to zero. Okay. Anything else for the god of the >> pastor? >> Yes, sir. >> Go ahead. >> I'd like to remind everybody who's listening and everyone who's here and especially I'm going to be talking to uh Miss Morgan. I'm I know she watches this. She wouldn't miss it. It's better than soap operas. Um that Escambia High School is still in the running for the million dollars from T-Mobile to have the stadium redone. uh we have fallen behind compared to other high schools in the country uh because our city and community has not rallied around Escambia High like others have. And so I'm asking uh at least all the high schools and middle schools for the directors to encourage the principles to speak about it with their student body faculty
005and everyone else to be voting and try to get things going. uh everyone here at the hall center I've asked and and Elizabeth sent out yesterday that uh asking my fellow board members that if you have a social media platform please put on on that that anybody who follows you that they would also be voting every day uh for I don't know how many more days it goes actually but if uh if we could do that um I know Scambia High School will benefit and so will the entire district so thank you. >> Yes, I have. >> Um, I want to make the board aware of something and uh that is uh that has happened uh and it's in my district and it's something that has happened over a period of time and I've placed
006it on the agenda for discussion at the next meeting and it pertains to facility use agreements and I want to preface this the my remarks that I'm going to say today. Uh, I want to take a few minutes and give you a little history uh, of the why of things, the why we've gotten to this point. And it's one of those things that sometimes it's really nobody's fault. It's just something that's happened and accumulated over the period of time. We have a new policy here that was enacted in October of 24 pertaining to facility use agreements. And I'm talking about the Broenham Park area, you know, and that policy says that we are to have facility use agreements for anyone who uses our property on a regular basis. And that has not taken place over
007the years. Uh, and to my knowledge to this point, we have no facility use agreements and have not had any on those parking lots and grounds out for those three schools, which in my opinion places us in a tremendous liability place. The reason I'm bringing this up is November the 2nd through the 9th, the Southeastern Conference uh is bringing their soccer teams to that field. You're going to have 12 major university soccer teams, all their fan base, and all the other things that fit into that. Historically, they have used our parking lots, our roads, and things with no facility use agreement. So, and that's just something that has grown up over the years. I fully support the superintendent and everything he does. you know, 95% of the time I support him, his staff, they do
008a great job. This is something that's not really their fault. It's something that has happened over the years. Previously, we left it totally to principles to uh to take those facility use, put them in. When I was principal uh there uh at two of the schools there for 15 years, five years at Westgate and five or 10 years at U Lipkcom. uh when at both places I saw some things that alarmed me. So I brought it to uh senior staff and they said, "Oh, Tom, let's just leave it alone." But and then the same thing at Westgate. Let's just leave it alone. So it was kind of carried over the years that we just kind of passively allowed them to use our facilities. But now we have a policy in place that says that they
009have to construct they have to complete a facility use agreement. And that has not played in place. Now, picture this if you would. That whole area out there is overwhelmed when this happens. And every time they have these tournaments out there, it's overwhelmed. Uh uh again, this is something that I fully support having uh competition there. I think it's a great thing for our community. It brings a lot of dollars in uh restaurants, hotels, things like this, but it's also a lot of wear and tear on our facilities out there. Uh let let me start by giving you a little history on uh 10mi road. 10mi road is a very narrow road. The rideaways are very small there and it was never made to hold the traffic. It's at maximum now. I came by there
010this morning uh intentionally on my way. I usually avoid that area. I came by there this morning because uh I wanted to see what it was like again. So I went by there and I left the house at 7:30. Well, at 7:40 I'm in front of MacArthur. Yeah. And then a guy comes past pay flying. He goes all well I cross the railroad track and he comes by all of us flying probably 70 miles an hour. Runs the red light there and turns left onto old palif fox. We have this all the time in that area. Uh on 10 milei road people it's used as a major cut through because 9mi road is so heavily traveled. They cut through there and go down uh 10 milei road and the first object that they run into
011is 100 yards in there. there's a traffic light. So, traffic is backed up all down 29 in both directions, north and south. So, the next obstacle they come to is a railroad track that if you're on a bus, you can see over that, but you cannot if you're in a car. So, you're you're parked there. And when you go over that over or go over that hump there for the railroad track, there's a large subdivision on the left there that's called Maple Oaks. A huge number of houses in there. There's apartment complexes on the right. So, it's a constant hazard there that backs traffic up, people trying to get in and out. As a matter of fact, those residents there go all the way to the back end of the subdivision, cut through and come
012up bet mark so they can even get in line. They're hoping that someone will let them in line. Uh, as you go down next, there's a large subdivision called Old Dair. It's been there for a number of years. The homes in there are 750,000 to 1.2 million. You know, they're sitting on one and two acre lots. You go down a little farther, there's Betmark. There's houses all up and down that road. You go down a little farther, you've got uh u Dove Dove homes in the $500 750,000 range. So, you got residents in there constantly trying to get out in and out there. So, the point that I'm making here is a here is a road that's already overtaxed, that's going to be overwhelmed at a time when when these tournaments occur, and they're getting
013more and more. Now, let's go to Broingham. Let's go to Broingham Road. We have three schools there on Broeningham. We have MacArthur, Westgate, and we have Lipkcom. If you go down Rosingham Road, uh the first thing I want you to notice, and I'm going to suggest that you do this between the next board meeting, now you go out there and look at this at the red light there. And I want to say something about that red light. We worked for seven years to get that light there. We paid a crossing guard for seven years there and we got absolutely no cooperation from the county. I remember us three principles meeting with them, meeting with the property owners and it went on and on and on. It was not a pleasant experience and we would couldn't
014even get a letter of corporation from the county for that light. The lady who owned the property there said that she would give permission. She would not give it to the county, but she give it to the school board to uh to put that light up there. Now, the county owns that whole track of land there, which is all grassed and mowed and everything, and it's supposed to be, if my understanding is, it's supposed to be a fire station eventually. Perfect area for them to have parking. Uh then you come to uh MacArthur. MacArthur Elementary School has a new parking lot and we have the uh we have the ability to cordon that lot off if we want to. Okay. Uh it has pole gates there and along the edges of the parking lot it
015has white cement post things that uh well they're pipes but uh they're cemented in to keep people from violating that. And you look there, I was looking this morning, five or six of those have already been hit. So we go down a little farther, we've got Westgate. We have absolutely no way of securing that Westgate parking lot in the front. You go down to Lipkcom, we have uh uh well I say we don't have a way of securing it. We do have security. When we did protective fencing, we did not we did not encapsulate because of the cost. I understand uh MacArthur Elementary has 113 parking spaces. Westgate has 57 and Lipkcom has 117 if I remember the information that I correct got correctly. And we have never had a facility use agreement for that.
016This is a huge huge liability on this school district. Uh, and here's the other part of that problem. Here's the other part of the problem. It's a continuously moving target as to who's using the facilities. Okay? When you go down to where it dead ends, uh, and I will speak to that in just a few minutes. The county has all of their property where they can take a pole gate and close it off, any section of it that they want to. Okay? They have plenty of adequate parking there, but it's grassed areas and to my that they could use for parking that they don't really need ours on a daily basis. They might need it on a tournament basis, you know, but on a daily basis, they don't need that. But as you go down
017Broenham, instead of putting those fields in the back and putting the parking in the front, what the county did, they put the parking in the middle and then they put the fields up by the road. And as a result of that, what people do, the first thing they do as they come up with their wagons and their coolers and their popup shades and all that, the first thing they do is park all along that rideway. And I'm guilty of that. My daughter played soccer out there for many years. And what did I do when I drove up there? I parked right there on the rideway. There's a nice sidewalk. That sidewalk is encumbered there. Okay? Because of the people parking there. We have a tremendous number of walkers. As a matter of fact, I've gotten
018numerous calls when I got on the board. They wanted to open that back gate that belongs to us there. Uh that back gate is Ashton Brozen. Uh not Ashton Broham, is Jack Kaufman Lane. That gate and that property for that road is fully owned by the district by us. It has no connections to the county whatsoever. It's not maintained by the counter. And the reason that road is there, and this is another rub that I have with the county over this, if you go to the end of Broenham, you're going to we had an agreement that there would I won't say we had agreement. We had an understanding that we were going to get an exit out of there for RC Lipkcom and those three schools. We never got that exit. On the day that
019it came up before the county commission, they tabled it for 30 days and refused to come back to it. Then the county commission came back and built the parks and recreations uh building for the whole county there. It's beautiful facility there. Then they came next to that and built a nice soccer lighted soccer stadium that it's it's pretty it's very nice. It's a good place to have those things. Then next to that is another lighted soccer field. If you go out and look at the county's property there, there's these nice signs up. And what those signs say is this. It says if you want to use our property, then you have to call this number and get a permit. I don't know if you pay for that permit or not. And uh in the absence
020of getting that permit and you use our property, it's a $500 fine and six months in jail by county ordinance. And that's that sign is there on their property so that people understand that. But our property is all open there. Okay. So now we have a situation where we've got a road that's completely at its max. We've got a situation where we have three schools there that we've opened our parking lots up. We have no facility use agreement in violation of our own policy. Our own policy says as of last October, we should have a facility use agreement for grounds and facilities with this. So I've been talking to the superintendent about this. And again, I'm not pointing anything. We got a wonderful staff, deputy super, everybody involved with this is is is doing as
021good a job as they can. This is something that has grown up over the years and what I I would call casual acceptance. You know, that might not be the correct word for it. Um, but this is about to become a huge problem. Now, let me tell you what I witnessed last year. Uh, last year I was I got a call I I'd gotten numerous calls about people wanting that back gate open because they were used to walking. Now they've gotten used to that and have hushed about it. But what people do, there's a large number of people in that neighborhood. They walk down Broenham. They go in the Lipkcom parking lot and get on the uh Jack Kaufman road and walk down to where the gate is locked. Turn around and come back and
022walk. And apparently they've got it all mapped out their walking trail. But there's some hazards to that because cars are we've got a nice sidewalk there and the county has a nice sidewalk and they're they're up cars parked on it. So they have to walk in the road. So, uh, as principal, I witnessed many things just like I witnessed this morning that guy going 70 mph on the other side of the road down and running the red light. I I've witnessed many instances in on our property on our property where I had real concerns about it. All these coolers that are brought up there, tailgating on our property, you know, these coolers that we don't know what's in those coolers that they have sitting on the back of the truck. On lots of Saturdays, I
023would be in my office working at uh at Lipkcom and I'd look out of there. Some of the things I saw was not was not good. Uh I saw uh people angry throwing water bottles at each other. I saw families get into disturbance out there. Uh all of these things ran up a lot of red flags for me and the same at at Westgate. So we have a situation here and the superintendent has been working on it. You know, uh uh The problem is this. The county has agreements with all these different leagues, associations, and so forth to use those fields. And we don't know who they are. But yet, our policy says that we're supposed to have facility use agreements for people to use that field. And we assume all the liability when we
024don't, okay, if something happens. So, imagine if a child gets run over in one of those parking lots. Imagine if there's a fight and someone gets injured. Uh, imagine if there's a severe car wreck that has injuries and they're speed bumps on Jack Kaufman for a reason back there and they're not there because people are driving slow. Um, so let me sum this up for you. We we've kind of let this go where it's casual agreement to use our property where our policy now says that we're supposed to have facility use agreements. Both the attempts we had to make the situation better with the county. The attempt at the red light got no corporation blocked us from getting another exit out of there that would have benefited them as much as us causing us to
025build a road that cost $1 million to meet state requirements. That road is totally owned by us and it cost the school district $1 million. It cost us the cost of a a crossing guard there at uh at Jack uh or at Rosenham Road for seven years. We paid that. And on days that person was absent, I personally stood out there many days in direct traffic. We have an assistant superintendent who stood out there and directed traffic. Now, do I not want to see a tournament? Of course not. I want to see that tournament take place. But I also want us to make sure that we cover the liability this board is assuming there with that, you know. So I'm going to make the following suggestions. Okay. Suggestion number one that we communicate through a
026letter officially to the board to the parks director that any of the contracts they have with these people that we that they understand that they're going to use our facilities, then they need to uh to do a facility use agreement. and and that's available online or by contacting our deputy superintendent. Second thing that we act immediately to secure we don't have the ability to secure two of those parking lots now if we choose to. The county has the ability to. They have lowboy pole gates that secures all of their property. I was down there just this weekend looking at it and uh every one of their parking lots and every one of their areas is secure. They have additional land at the beginning of Brozenham they could use for parking space. If you go down
027directly across from directly across from uh uh Westgate is the gate that enters in there there. Go stand there. When you go look at look at the huge grass area there they that that they've got available for parking. You go down to the second gate for them. Look at that. another huge area that they've got there that for parking plus more parking there for the the access to the stadium. If you go down and look at their new parks office, which is beautiful, and I commend them for that. But if you go walk to the end of that and look out there, there's a 25 or 30 acre field that's all grass with a drive exit to go down to it. So, my recommendation is that for the casual use of our property that we
028end at. We need to start somewhere with this. So, what that casual use I mean is when people come to uh to uh to park, what happens is they park on the rideway blocking the sidewalk for walkers and then guess where they spill over to the school parking lots. Be I took pictures last week. Their parking lot is empty on the other side and all the people are parked up and down the road there, you know. uh and then using our facilities because it's shorter for them to get to those fields uh with those things. If we have something happen there, you know, we're going to assume the full liability for that and and I have some deep concerns about. So, here's what I'm saying. I'm not saying that we shouldn't use those, let them
029use those parking lots. I'm saying let's do it the way our policy says. Uh, if the Pensacola Sports Association wants to use ours, and I think the superintendent's in communication with them, they want to use our property, then do a facility use agreement. Let's do it right. Let's start getting us within the time frame that we are in the in the area that we need to be securing our property. We need to have the ability to secure those parking lots. So, I would recommend that this board asks the superintendent work expeditiously, and I use the word ask, to find some way of closing it off. One pole gate would close off the Lipkcom parking lot from cars, not from from walking traffic, would send it off from cars. And uh it's a little more difficult
030at the Westgate entrance, you know, because there's a long span across there. Uh and someone that's far smarter than me would have to look at that and see how we could secure that. and there's only 57 spaces there. But again, our policy says that we are to get facility use agreements. Now, I'm not trying I'm trying to protect this organization that I love dearly. I'm trying to protect our board's interest there. Uh facilities we have full control over and we delegate that authority to the superintendent. And for whatever the reason, the superintendent is doing a great job. His staff is doing a great job. They're doing everything that I've asked them to do in that area. It's just this is something that has happened and has dropped through the cracks over the years. So, I'd
031like to hear from the board members. I'd like to give you a copy of the of our own use agreement. Now, uh >> before before we board members, um Mr. Dennis or Mr. Windom, would you like to say anything? >> What I've what I've done this far um and he talked Mr. Harold talked to me probably earlier this week. I made certain that I didn't talk to any of you about it because I wanted you to be able to hear from him first. Um I have talked to Mr. Sir. >> Oh, okay. Mr. Palmer from the Pensacola Sports Association had a good conversation with him. And Mr. Mr. Harold will tell you that my first inclination or my first remark back to Mr. Herrell was, you know, I can do a lot of things, but
032I don't think I can stop the uh SEC soccer tournament. No, >> don't plan on doing that. Um, so we have used um I say we I should say I my daughter played soccer and played at that little complex there at Ashton Brozenham. And there were many days when I would go in the afternoon to pick her up and instead of driving to the middle of those fields, I would either park up near the fence, which is really where the sidewalk is now, on county property, or I would park over in the Libcom parking lot close to where they were practicing and wait for my daughter to finish practice. So, I get get where he's coming from. Um the I I guess you would have to go back a long long time. I can't tell
033you how many the 15 years ago were when you were principal at Westgate and Lipkcom. Um I didn't know the issue about the traffic light until you brought that up to me. It's the casual use of different facilities, not just at this particular location. you know, along the Longleaf corridor, there's three schools on that one road. Uh there's some other interest uh on some other or other areas where there's several schools or at least a couple of schools. Uh we do have county property and city property where we have an agreement to where both groups, the school district and the county and the city have access to those facilities. Uh we may have access just to that particular property uh whether it be gym Allen Scenic Heights uh during the school day and then the
034community has access to it in the evening time. So, this wouldn't be something we could just fix automatically, but it's something we can take a look at. Mr. Dennis, you have anything you want to add? >> Thank you, sir. Um, the superintendent mentioned our usages with other agencies. We do insist on facility use agreements for anyone that uses our schools with the exception in general of the county or the city. That is not an omission. That is intentional. And the reason is and and please don't mis misunder or misinterpret my comments as not being concerned about liability or a need to have a process. I'm the process guy in the room and I'll always be that guy. But if we are to go down this road of securing facility use agreement for this and any
035other instance that we have with the county, it is, as the superintendent began to allude, a bigger issue than something that's going to get resolved between now and the tournament. It simply is. Um I will tell you that the county many times has let our schools use a very the very property we're talking about Ashton Broenm Soccer Complex without agreement expectations of us for soccer teams to use when their stadiums are out of commission. Uh I believe the deputy that actually was one of the principles of West Florida when they use that for many many months. no agreement. It's kind of a I'm not going to excuse it that there is a courtesy between municipal agencies that we try to both mutually engage in. Uh I absolutely agree with Mr. Herold that there are liability
036issues that could arise anytime someone else uses our property. We're all familiar with what happened at Belleview Park, which by the way, we own part of that. Um, so there are provisions and and I don't want to step on the attorney's toes, but there are provisions on liability that are um that preclude us. If that is a major issue here, I think that it warrants a discussion on that. I just caution the board if we're going to go down this road, then you can expect, I would imagine, the county and the city to do the same for us and that becomes ownorous. Um, I don't know if it was during Keith time period or the prior superintendent. Um, weren't they trying to get a another road going out to the north? Um, they thought they
037had to buy Did that all end? >> Um, I know Mr. Dennis and I were involved. Go ahead, Sean. >> Yes, sir. For actually for many years, we attempted to figure out a way. It is a it is a dangerous proposition and I always used to joke if I ever found out who it was that built three schools on a dead-end road in a dark alley, I'd be happy to take care of business. >> Yeah. >> But because you can you can imagine if we have a significant issue, you have a railroad track parallel to those things. If you have a spill there, you've got three schools that need to get out in a hurry. >> So, one of the first things I did when we came into this position was to look for a
038way out. The only way out to north, we actually tried to buy residences. We actually there was a there was a there was actually conversation about imminent domain which nobody wants to go into that arena just to see if we could do that. We tried for many years just as Mr. Harold said it took seven years to get a light there. You can imagine what it must have been like back in the day and I was there back in the day when you had three schools coming in um with no with no traffic signal there. To the credit of the three principles that were there each and every year, they managed their parents and if it wasn't for their cooperation and understanding, we would have had a major snow and we still had challenges, but
039it did take seven years to do that. That's a fact. So to answer your question, sir, yes, we did try and make attempts to do that, but it was not from my recollection, it was not hindered so much from the county as it was the availability of property sufficient enough to put a road bed through. You'd have to take you'd have to buy two to three houses side by side. All it takes is one resident to say no. >> Right. >> And that's exactly what happened. >> Well, on the issue of them parking on sidewalks on the rideway, can we just put those u tote, you know, you'll be towed away if you park on the rightway and like he said, just put one of them simple swing gates, metal pole gates that closes the
040parking lot. We need to >> if if we are talking about the public right of way we don't that enforcement is not our bailey wick that's >> well I mean but we can we can request to have those signs put in can't we >> the county can but enforcement enforcement of those kinds of parking issues is not that is not a power of the school board we we can't enforce traffic uh state statutes on parking on the public rightway um unless it's on our property we do not have the authority to enforce statutes >> um on public land. >> You know, they had a little phone number call where your car is. >> I mean, the state the state or the county could do that, but we cannot. >> Well, but I mean, that might
041be a request to go to the your county commissioner if y'all think that'll work. >> All right. I'm going to weigh in here. Uh long before RC Limbskum was built, um I spent many, many, many weekends at what used to be the equestrian center, which is now the soccer complex, >> right? >> Um and at that time there, the road that was kind of an unpaved used road to exit that area, which now is blocked off with the gate, did go down to Chemstrand. the the issue became residents who lived from where the gate is now to Chemstrand petitioned or worked with the county to stop that. That's why there's not an exit. It's the people who live along there. I could name names, but I won't. Um, again, at that time it was the
042equestrian thing, so I got to see a lot of the rear end of horses and and it didn't stop when the animals were gone. Um, but in the meantime, uh, there is a way for us to block off all of our schools. We have uh about 350 mobile yellow >> exactly >> uh what do I say instruments that can block off anything >> barricade >> that could barricade yes those instruments are out here could be moved and moved along there we could block off the whole thing if we so desire number one are we going to do that I don't know number two, are there a lot of citizens that are going to then be angry with the school district for that happening? And and that's an issue, too, that we are here to to
043work with the public and the public is doing stuff for us. And so, how angry do we want to make them? >> Number three, it could be turned into a fundraiser by the PTSAs >> out there. They could block it off, rope it off, have somebody there and collect $5 each for parking on those things and it becomes a win-win for us >> and for them. And then there is somebody watching what's going on. Whether the PTA wanted to take it on or if not the PTA, there are other organizations that could do that. you have NG ROC groups that would be willing to take and and and do that section it off, be there the whole time, whatever. Those fundraisers would be a a better way of doing it, opening it up, keeping it
044safer and and being able to monitor. Uh I agree with you. My granddaughter played soccer there. It is a it is a terrible situation when you have so many people trying to get into all these places and somebody's running late. They're going to pull in any which way they want to. But if we do it as a controlled chaos and have somebody leading it and directing or whatever, it can be a win-win for us and for them. Can we do it? Yes. do. And I would I'd like to see us try something that way first before just blocking it off entirely, letting it sit vacant and having some of our constituents drive up and say, "Well, apparently there are still some horses backsides that come along here and they're the ones keeping us from being
045able to park somewhere that we used to." Um, leaving it at that, I I know that I have to about 10 more minutes before I'm going to have to run to another appointment. But, uh, you know, yes, the the gentleman's agreement or what we've had with the county, I'd hate to put that in jeopardy. I think we do need to have discussion with parks and recreation and with our county commissioners. each one of us could talk to the ones that that represent us and say, "Hey, because we have other areas that are going to have similar situations, there are things that are going to come up that we don't see right now that parking is going to become an issue for somebody somewhere, either for us needing to use theirs or them having to use
046ours. And so let's let's get that formalized and do it in a cooperative manner before we do something that starts to build walls instead of bridges. >> You're um you're going to speak to it? >> Yeah, I'm just saying that any any other comments I want to bring this close. >> I would like to I'd like to point several things out. I agree with a lot of things that Mr. Fesco just said. Uh uh what I was thinking more in line was let's put that pole gate up at Lipkcom and let's secure our facilities. Let's let's get it so that we at least have the poss in in a short range possibility. Nobody's talking about we don't have the authority to cancel the southeastern conference. That's the thing and nobody wants to do that and
047we want to be the beginning of our policy says we want to be cooperative uh with the county with all of the agencies out there whether but we also have to follow our own rules. If something happens out there the first thing that the attorney is going to say this board didn't follow their own rules out there you know and sooner or later we have been very lucky sooner or later that's going to happen. Let me give you another example. Last year I wasn't on the board yet. So I my phone was ringing off the hook. So uh I said, "Golly, I better go up there and see what's going on up there." So I left my home on the other side of I've been in that home 45 years and I know that community
048very well. I left and went up Chem. I got to Chemist and the traffic was blocked. It took me 20 minutes to get to the first point where the school was, which was Jack Kaufman. And I was appalled at what I saw. Our gate had been opened. just opened up our security to the back of our counts. There were two police officers there, deputies collecting money for parking, you know, that we had no knowledge of. And I started asking questions, who gave the facility use, that sort of thing. Those are the types of things that are happening there. They're using a road that cost us a million dollars and there were thousands of cars crossed that road that day, you know, with no facility use agreement in place. possibility of a wrecks were great there
049so forth. So those are the loopholes that I would like us for to correct, but I'd like for us to do it in a very palatable manner, one that protects everyone's feelings and everyone's there. And I really think that begins by notifying the parks department that y'all have your policy. You've got it posted on signs out here. We have our policy. So, less uh when you're talking to these groups and you're establishing yours, they need to know that they need to contact us to to follow our rules just like they're following the park rules. That's all I'm saying, you know. Nobody's saying let's let's make this a contous issue, you know, because I don't want that, you know, cuz I've got to face those constituents out there too every day and they can get real
050vocal. Uh what I am saying is let's follow our own rules. And Mr. Dennis brought up a good point. We do have, it mentions in our policy in section B. It says that the intent of this policy is not to circumvent any of the pre-existing policies or rules that we have. So, but it's still intended that we follow this this facility use thing. What I could envision us doing is gradually rain this in, you know, gradually begin to rain it in so that we cut down some of the liability that we have here. We don't want to upset all of those walkers that are out there, you know, by closing that area off. We don't want to upset those parents, but if we get them accustomed to parking where they're supposed to park instead of
051our areas, that would be good. We could close put a gate there and close it one time and see how much flack we get, you know, and just see how that that works out. I'm I'm saying let's do this in a palatable manner, but let's get this under control and let's get it under control by our by policy that you have before you that this board has approved last October. Okay, that's all I'm saying. Let's and I brought this up to raise attention to it because the soccer tournament's coming up. I brought it up so the the board would know that we're what we're doing now is not within our policy as not we're not operating within our policy that uh as it's written now. If the board wants to take another look at that,
052that's certainly the board's prerogative. I have some things that I would like to see in here to tweak it. But uh and again, the po the purpose of bringing this up has nothing to do with the uh the wonderful wonderful administrators we have out there who work very hard and every day. This is one of those things that just kind of gradually over the years crept in till we got to a point where and then when we changed the policy before it was left to principles, you know, uh and then it we just sent the facility use to the deputy superintendent. Now we have a policy in place that says we must do this this and this. That's all I'm making the board aware, not trying to create a disturbance with the the county or
053anything, but uh really the corporation in my opinion was less than it would should it should be in that area. But that's that's all the intent is in this. Let's take a look at it. Let's see. At a minimum, I think we need to uh uh to secure have the ability to secure our facilities if no other reason in emergency situations. And I I've said all I need to say on that. Thank you. have put this on the agenda for further discussion at the workshop. Okay. After you've had a chance to read read the policy and so forth. >> That's all I have, Mr. Williams. >> Anything else? Coming good, Mr. Superintendent? Yes, sir. >> Okay. Uh if there's nothing further, this meeting is a journal.