Regular School Board Workshop 8/14/25

001Good afternoon, ladies and gentlemen. Welcome, as I call to order, the August workshop of the Scammy County School Board. The purpose of this workshop is an open discussion on items brought forth by the board and the superintendent along with a review of the agenda items for our regular meeting. Please silence your cell phones and other electronic devices at this time. If you wish to speak at public forum, you must complete a speaker request form located on the table at the rear of the room and bring it to Miss Harris at the front of the table. We will now move into our first U outline item under discussion calendar. Um board members, please review our calendar of August. Any additions or deletions uh for August? I believe on August 21st, Mr. Superintendent, you'll be at a

002state of education lunchon. Yes, sir. Okay. Anything else? In August? Yes. I will be attending the military affairs committee meeting on the 19th. On the 19th, anything else in August? Hearing none, let's move to September. We'll be completing our master board on the 11th. And so on the 11th, there's quite a few other items. Uh backing up to the knife, we have um elementary school open house, elementary school open house on the 9th and the 11th. Our discussions at one o'clock and our regular board meeting will be on the 16th. That's on the 17th and 18th of September. Okay. Anything else for the month of September? I've got a question in here. It says 11:30 on the 23rd. a meeting. Escambia County Public Schools foundation. Okay. Foundation. That's just the foundation meeting. Yes, sir. Have

003a question. Yes. I have a question. On the 25th, that is Blue Angels Elementary School. That correct? Correct. Huh? I was almost there later. Anything else for the month of September? We'll move on to our next item under discussion, the public forum update. Mr. Superintendent, any updates for public forum? No, sir. brings us to state bill uh number 268. Mr. Harold, thank you, Dr. Williams. Uh and going over the uh some summaries from the Florida legislature this past session, I ran across a bill that you didn't hear much about and that's shielding of public employ or school board members, superintendent. This shielding uh used to apply only to uh judges and uh police officers and there was select class. So, I asked Mrs. ODM to look into that and she did and I believe Miss

004Buswell sent the board some backup information that with ah with a form for that purpose. Uh it allows us now as board members to shield certain things and I believe it's your address, phone number and things like that uh uh in documents. Uh so just wanted to bring that to the board's attention and make you aware of that and also uh if that's something you want to do. And Miss ODM, you want to add anything to what I was saying? Yeah. Um no. Florida has a very broad public records law and um ton of personnel information is available to the public on request. Um and as Mr. Herold mentioned, there's an entire list of individuals who are entitled to have their home addresses, their spouses work locations, their children's school addresses, etc. exempt from disclosure

005under public records. And this legislation expanded it to include constitutional officers, including superintendents and schoolboard members. Um what's interesting about this one and which is which is different I just discussed this with Mrs. Burggosh uh is that it is limited only to that time when you are in office. So once you cease to be a constitutional officer that exemption goes away. Um so um I I prepared an affidavit for us to use going forward if any of you are interested in availing yourselves of that. Um I I believe a copy of it is included in the the board backup. Also, I believe Miss ODM, correct me if I'm wrong, but it applies to your children, but only minor children. Minor children only. Question along those lines. As uh people apply to uh run for office

006have to disclose that information. That's what I was thinking. Supervis election. It's kind of a and it it really is kind of a mixed bag because the um anywhere your information resides, you have to reach out to the entity that holds that information and request the exemption. Um so for instance, I I claim an exemption by virtue of having been an assistant public defender earlier in my career. Um, so I would have to file with the courthouse. I would have to file with the public defenders office. I'd file with the school district and any any other public agency who's subject to public records. Form six. So I I don't file a form six. No, I mean that being sure. Yeah. Us. And and um yours uh your exemption is more limited than others. Um they

007still require you to list I want to say it's the zip code. I'm not looking at it right. I don't have it before me right now, but um there is s enough information that the public can have access to, I guess, to establish that you do in fact live in the the residential area, but it's not your complete address. Um but uh street number, street, etc. That's all exempt. When I was uh running for election this last time, there was when you look people up, there was a number of folks that had theirs uh u redacted so that you could not see that during the last campaign. And I I don't know. I guess you would have to take a form over to the supervisor of election for that. Is that not right? It is.

008And they may have their own forms that they prefer that you fill out. A and to to be clear, this is not something that is automatic. If you want to avail yourself of this, you affirmatively have to file the affidavit requesting that exemption. And is Miss Miss Cross Tag is she set up to handle that for us? Uh so and do you have a notary there to do that for us also? Yeah. Okay. So we fill out the form, come down, sign it in the notary's presence, and then you you take care of it from there. Yeah. Yes, I I actually brought the exemption forms with me if you want to take them today and then you can get them notorized yourselves. You can bring them down to us and we can notoriize them with

009you. Miss Buswell is a notary and she generally travels with her stamp. So, not today. I I used my exemption and um because of Gary and what I did I do have to file a form with the supervisor but you know and I I used a I use a PO box. That's a PO box. Mhm. Um thank you Dr. Williams. That's all I have. Any further discussion? Yes. And next we have the trans transportation for magnet program. Mr. fesco. Yes sir. Um this year I had a quite a few calls from people who had been accepted into magnet programs but their acceptance came after the cutoff to put in a form to get the transportation. So there's a lot of and and the biggest problem becomes when you have ninth graders because they're not able

010to drive at that point and and and so um I had uh reached out to a school but hadn't heard back from them yet um about this to ask if at orientation or at some point there's some way someone somewhere is doing some pooling kind of an app or whatever, you know, so that the parents who really live in different areas can carpool or, you know, take three kids instead of just their own. And and so that, you know, being done, um I advised that parent, I said, you know, um at the school site, you know, you'll need to talk to somebody at orientation if indeed they do that. And I think in the past um as something like that did occur, there was some conversation. I'm looking at somebody that would have a little

011bit of knowledge about that. Um and and so if that's still done, but the other part about it is this because there's a goodly number. I say goodly, there are several who have real problems with parents who are working and doing that. I know that when somebody doesn't end up um going to their magnet choice, they make a different one. I don't know how quick of response time we have to be able to say, "Oh, we have an open slot and if there's some waiting list, I bring this up only for discussion purposes and and to say, is there something we can do for people who have transportation problems or we at a point to say um whenever anybody decides to put an application in, they should automatically put a transportation slip in at the

012same time? Thank you, Miss Hart. And we'll get Miss Payne here in a minute, too. So, so we send every year on February the 1st, we open up the application process so that parents who choose magnet schools are able to go ahead and request the transportation. So, that opens on February the 1st. It's a first come, first- serve basis. And we work that list um all the way through the summer up until uh we were here on Saturday. Uh I I was at West Florida High School on Saturday. We send out three or four call outs to parents asking them if they have uh a already uh transportation, a seat. We ask them if they still need it. So, we work those continuously to get as many students on the bus as as we can.

013Um, and in the beginning when they choose a magnet school, they also acknowledge that transportation may not be available to them, that it is a first come, first- serve basis. Uh and and I I I give you great accolades for the work that you do with transportation and looking at those things, Miss Hart. Uh I know that you go out of your way to do that. I just wanted to know if if indeed the ones who couldn't couldn't get our transportation had some way to access each other to to do some car pooling type situation. Darlene, not only did they work on Saturday, I think you had 109 voicemails when you got to work on Monday. Yeah. So, they work all the time. Go ahead, Miss P. Yes, ma'am. I don't know uh necessarily about

014u the car pooling aspect. I do know a couple things and that is when they start before we even start the application process, you'll remember and recall that we have an open house. We had and I say we because I'm just always going to be a part of we I guess in my mind but there's always an open house. That open house takes place either right before the applications or during the time that the application is open. One of the things we spent a lot of time in the past and not right now because it has not changed that that particular magnet school when you speak to West Florida does not have and has not ever had an attendance zone. So you're running anywhere from uh century to the other end. And so because there

015is no attendance zone then they know naturally there's not a residential zone for transportation. So when we uh get together for open house one of the things we spend a lot of time talking about is transportation. In the past on occasions transportation department has been very faithful in coming to us and sitting with us at open house to answer questions about transportation. Now talk about open house that is not the same as orientation because by that time that's already passed and like Miss Hart said the deadline for opening. But we talk to parents a lot about this could be your choice, but can you get here? And one of the things she's mentioned also is reminding them that it does not come automatically with transportation and it can be a chore. I do remember that

016when we transfer when we moved now, you had a a little bit more open as far as transportation when we were on the Longleaf site because we were right next door to Pine Forest and that was a part of their attendance zone. So students could have could avail themselves to the buses that road to pine forest as long again same thing seats has to be available had to be available when we moved um the other Mr. Harold in the back when he was the department uh the director for transportation back in those time transitioning from Long Leaf to Burgess Road we knew there was going that was going to be different because we were losing an attendant zone that we'd had transportation for and now we're trying to figure out while we are grateful for

017the move the transportation piece was a lot different and so at that time uh we came up with the idea and we met with our parents Mr. Harold and I together met with parents in the cafeteria to talk about that very thing, how it was going to look different. So every year and at that time they started the um riding with those students that are um going to Brown barge and some other opening up some areas that way. But you're right in that it is difficult. It does cause some students at the beginning of the year. People are excited when they get their letter to come. But when you realize that the transportation with no attendance zone is something that you may have to bear, then it does and and we've had instances and they

018still do where students cannot come and they end up in their zone school and and where there's transportation provided. But I do know that there is a lot of time spent talking to parents. Some of uh those uh right up there with you have been a parent and they've heard the conversations about the transportation piece. I don't know if um car pooling is something, you know, of course, for the liability sake, we wouldn't make that suggestion to them. We kind of let them do that on their own if it's something they wanted to do. But I I think it's certainly not for people not knowing it. Sometimes it's it's hard to you think it will work out. That's what a lot of parents they just believe and we hope it does, but a lot of

019times it is just it is a lot because kids live everywhere and having to get there. Um, the trunk routes work really well, but even that sometimes can be a chore. Do we have students though who get notified about their acceptance after the February date? I'd have to look back at the timeline. I think they run pretty close, but that knowledge is why I mentioned the open house. It is not something that we don't spend up because we've done it for so long. You you can anticipate what's going to happen and where your troubles are going to lie possibly. So, we spend a lot of time talking about that piece, but I think that they come around, they probably run pretty quickly, pretty closely together. Mr. McFarland can tell you better than I can. I

020don't have it in my mind like I used to, but they're pretty close together. And again, I And then you still have time. I'm sorry. Still, you still there's still a waiting list that comes up and kids because what happens in your first lottery and your second lottery, you have kids that will decide they're not going to come for whatever reason. Friend didn't get in, whatever. But then so you may have some spaces available then but it is we can always do more as uh as a part of communicating that but it's certainly because we have not been communicating it. It just doesn't always work out. No I I agree. I I think that every effort is made for those who go through the normal process do it from the beginning get their notice first

021off the whole thing. It's those that that might fall between a crack here or there and there's not that many of them. So, it's not like adding another bus is going to do anything because it's countywide. It things don't work that well. I'm just trying to look at to to let people know who are out there that if they wanted to look at some situation with car pooling or something different, then it's up to them to do that. There's But at this point, we don't have somebody who is like we don't say call Mr. McFarland and he'll take a list of all those that live on the west side and get you back in touch with each other and lend you a mini but no I you know so to answer Miss P everything that

022Miss Payne said we actually go to the orientation and to the open house and to uh we on Saturday the expo uh we attend that all saying the same thing. Put your application in for transportation on February the 1st. It doesn't matter whether or not you've gotten your acceptance letter. We want them to put it in first. And it's easy to see that they're not going to be going to West Florida or to Brown Barge or to Cook. It's easy for us to see that. And so that's not even a concern. But those people if they like if they got notified in March after the initial or or after the initial uh few are accepted and then later when the second uh chance comes through all of those go in the order received and so

023they have an opportunity long before they get their acceptance letter we we encourage them to put that in February the 1st way ahead of time even if they don't Thank you. I I appreciate that your question. No one knows by February 1st. The middle and high school letters go out the second week of April of February, I'm sorry. And the elementary letters go out the end of March, but their email has the link to apply for transportation. So, we run the lotteryies for middle and high school, and those acceptance letters go out the second Friday in February. And the elementary letters go out the Friday before kindergarten registration starts. And kindergarten registration usually always starts the last Monday in March. But like Miss Hart said, they already have the link where they can apply and

024then the route managers know whether or not they were accepted. I thank everyone for the work and due diligence that goes into it. I just had more calls this time than ever before and and that's understandable, but but there's and and I'm very honest. I said the chances of you getting transportation at this point are not reasonable. It's it's most likely it's not going to happen. I said at the at the Christmas break if somebody moves out of town or whatever and opening, you have to be on that list to be able to be picked up next. So I I say that and I do want to also let people who may be watching thinking about this there going to one of the magnet schools is a great opportunity but we have great opportunities at

025every school. So it you know it may not be the one that was your first choice but you'll still have a lot of good choices if you attend your home school. Miss Adams. Yeah. Yeah. And um I I'm glad you brought this up because it is important because we don't want to lose no kids out of the school district, okay, to go Catholic or whoever they're going to go to. But uh cuz I got Purita Key that's a hot spot. We usually will get one truck a bus loaded and then it' be about half that we can't allocate another bus cuz there's not enough of them. And Darlene might correct me, but we've had that in the past. We we're not having that this year, are we? Are we got a problem with parents out

026Pita Key like we usually do? Okay. Okay. Okay. But I I I thought you hit on something good because you know I I'm connected to some of them Facebook groups like MB MB Cooks where they put all the information on that and it would seem like that magnet school I I know it'd be an extra duty, but if they had a Facebook group for parents that wanted to announce they they're looking for people, you know, just as a helpful thing. Um I agree. We some cases we're not going to be able to provide transportation but that might help they they they have to v maybe sign a foreign len have to get involved in that whether they got to sign a form but they could put their information I got one child two child and

027need to get to West Florida or Brown barge or MB Cook but that might be a good idea. Thank you Mr. Har. Uh I want to ask uh Miss Hart a question if I could. How many u how many special requests do you get? I saw somewhere it was 2,300 and I bet it's even more than that. Is that not correct? Wow. Wow. Um I just want to commend you and your staff. I'm I'm one of those board members that didn't get a single call from a parent who was upset about transportation. So So uh uh good job, Miss Hart, for you and your staff and all the good things you do for boys and girls. I tell you, transportation is probably one of the toughest issues that we face other than trying to do

028everything we can for academics and also uh we've got someone there who seems to put that puzzle together very well. So, I commend you for that. Thank you. I appreciate Mr. Fesco's comment about the other opportunities out there, but I think it also is important to acknowledge that this board and this superintendent are gracious enough to even offer magnet transportation. Our magnet trunk routes are 100% nonfunded. We fund it locally. And if you recognize that the state doesn't even fund traditional transportation to a full 100%. It is a very gracious thing that we do as a district that very few if any other districts that offer magnet programs offer. And that bears that bears being said. I I do want to say that none of the calls I had were complaints. I had no no

029complaints the first week of school from anyone. These were calls ahead of time asking about what can we do. It was more informational and it was it again it was very it was not a displeasurable thing. It was it was can you help or do you know something and and so yeah I I I knew what to tell him. No, but but I did say I would bring it up so that we might brainstorm some way and the the Facebook thing is might be an option. Thank you. You know, um I want to say one more Mr. Williams. Yes, sir. Can I say something else or you going to speak? No, no, no. Uh Mr. Dennis, you're exactly right there. But that's one of the reasons our magnet schools thrive. That's one of the reasons

030we have so many parents that just busting to get into their children into these programs. And it's also uh that's a that is a good expenditure of our money because it increases our FTEEs. Yeah. Thank you. Just want to add something real quick about the Facebook page. Um, when I was at the base, that's what I would encourage families to reach out to NAS Pensacola spouses page and they were able to communicate with each other and help each other out. You know, they're new families that come in, they don't they they're coming after the fact. People put put their stuff they would put the area they're at, you know, let them know. Yeah. Exactly. Yeah. I think that's a good idea. Yeah. Yeah. And I just like to conclude the the number of communications and

031outreach that transportation has done and also the operations. That's that's great. Um you've did it in several different ways and it's hard for a parent to miss that. So uh I really appreciate you doing that. And also I I didn't get any calls either, but Lumen May got a call and he and he called me. Uh but but he handled it. I don't know how they got me mixed up with Lumen. I'm I'm a whole foot taller than he is. 12 foot. Okay. But thank you, Department of Transportation. Outstanding job for the first few days of school. Thank you so much. Uh next we have uh Superintendent's Watchdog Committee update. Oh, I'm sorry. Miss I'm sorry. I skipped Miss Adams. Miss Adams, stop arm cameras. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Um, I wanted to I think I

032know where we were at because I know Darlene worked hard on this and it kind of got kind of stopped, you know, but um I I talked to Keith about it and uh you know, Santa Rosa's got $1.2 million off theirs. You know, I'm not even going to tell you what Miami Dade was. So, when we're looking for dollars, plus it's an incentive to for these people that are blowing past these stop signs. And I was on Ni Road heading east. had one of Darlene's buses down there in front of me and um it was I was heading east so it was a new apartment's on the right at the creek you know down there and um me and the person in front of me we stopped you know and two of them blew right

033past her right in front of me okay I say her could be him but um so to me this is an important safety issue but you get an income stream and I told Keith you know if it's if you know Maybe it's at the point, I don't know, it may be at the point he needs to talk to Chip Simmons and see where the staff, you know, maybe stopped at and see what we can do to set because right there center county got Bob is Bob Johnson does the sheriff. Yeah. And uh uh you know, bus patrol is one of the major ones at it and they got they got they do 400 school districts across the United States in 22 states, you know. So this this is working in places. Um um Andrea Geen,

034she's from Bus Patrol. She saw I was going to have this on here and she said she stopped by if any board member has a question, you know, and she's going to lay it back. But I think we're now at a point that it needs to be top leadership talking, you know, to say, "Okay, what's your problem? How can we get this done?" Because we want kids to be safe and but we don't want it to be a hassle for you or or a cost burden, you know? So that's what I'm looking at now. Um but uh these people have just gotten a point now they just it's not everybody but there's some that they they don't even pay attention they just go. Fortunately our bus drivers have made sure we have kids get hit

035yet. I have one question for you Mr. Adams. How how does it work? Is the camera on the bus take the name plate the license plate number? Is that how it works? Yes please. Yeah you come on. You want you want to hear from your vendor or potential vendor rather than your staff. Oh, I'm sorry, Mr. Lena. Did you have something for Let Miss Lena speak first. Okay. What um I think it would be wise for for y'all to let me talk to Miss Andrea. Uh and you remember Mr. Wolf that came to one of our board meetings as well. So, I've met with them before. I have never met Andrea until today. Uh glad to meet you. Um I also miss Danny tell you get phone calls request to meet with other groups. So

036you know we'll make certain that we've done that. The key ingredient is um having a meeting with the two jurisdictional law enforcement providers, the Scami County Sheriff's Office and the Pensacola Police Department. I will tell you that about a year and a half ago um we were pushing pushing pushing um we started hearing some things that had happened in other school districts that were a little bit um it gave us pause um and then just recently had a conversation with another vendor about what they're doing and in the school districts they're doing it in in Florida. I do believe that our transportation department or division has met with a couple of the vendors, one being the one um that we've talked to before. So, we'll pick that conversation back up. Um, one of the things

037that I did early this morning is I went back and reviewed the different times this board whether it might it might have been different members have actually talked about this issue goes all the way back I believe uh Mr. Adams brought it in 22. So, uh, we've come a long ways from a transportation perspective, and I I'll use the word surveillance, camera, security, all the different things that we are able to avail ourselves to. Um, but as far as the income stream, we have not done that. Um, y'all remember here recently when the city put in um, cameras on stop lightss. Well, those became an issue with a lot of other uh individuals, not just individual citizens, but employers who had company vehicles. So, uh that's another thing that we'll have to look at. Yeah.

038Oh, absolutely. I'm not saying that. So, there are other moving parts. So, I think the next thing I know Darlene met with another provider just recently. What I will do is I'll make certain that I talk to Miss Gene. Uh that I talked to Miss Hart and her team along with Mr. Dennis and then the other provider that I know contacted me last week. I'll make sure I talk to them and it will simply be to talk, right? let them provide us with information and then after I've heard from all of those parties, I'll go straight to the new chief and to our sheriff and make certain I've had that convers because it it is the honorous is on at least a part of the day would be on that law enforcement provider to tell

039us who is guilty and sometimes you end up with challenges on who is guilty and who is not guilty and then how those play out. I've talked to Mrs. Odum about that before. Who do they challenge? Do they challenge the school district or the sheriff's department? Uh we'll get to the bottom of all of that because it is being done. Yeah, it's right next door. Right next door. So, we'll make sure we have that and hopefully uh here very soon I'll be able to bring the respective parties back and we'll have a good conversation and I'll make sure I get Miss Geen's number and call her uh tomorrow. Okay. Yeah. Thanks a lot. Thanks a lot. Hopefully we can get this moving. Thank you. If there's no more discussion on that, now we'll move to

040Mr. Superintendent to watch committee update. Yeah, we're we're fortunate to have with us today uh Mr. Joe Hooton who'll do a presentation on what's been going on with our halfsent sale sales tax. Thank you, Mr. Hootton. He and I used to meet a lot this time of the year right before the first football game. Yeah. Friday nights every time. Um, members of the board, guest, district staff, and superintendent Leonard, my name is Joe Hooton. I'm currently serving as the chairman of the Citizens Halfscent Sales Tax Watchdog Committee. This committee was created in 1998 as part of the first referendum that was passed by the voters of Escambia County to um to authorize the collection of the halfsent sales tax to support and enhance K12 public education in Escambia County, Florida. As stated in our bylaws,

041the committee is to act as an independent entity to review the expenditure of funds collected by the halfsent sales tax. The committee is to meet regularly to receive reports and briefings from key members of the staff. At each of our meetings, we are briefed by Mr. Dennis, Mr. Wisden about the planned projects and the progress of the ongoing projects. We also receive detailed funding and financial reports from Miss Williams. Our meetings are advertised and they are open to members of the public who are always welcome to attend. The members of the committee are appointed. Each board member and the superintendent appoint one member. This ensures that each district is represented. As members, we serve the citizens of Escambia County and we take our responsibilities very seriously. Historically, the first 5-year referendum was passed in 1998

042and lasted until 2002. During that period, 87,32,544 were collected. The second five-year referendum began in 2003 through 2007 and 1 million or 116,395,29941 were collected. The first 10-year referendum began in 2008 through 2017. During that period, $219,992,981.35 cents was collected. The second 10-year referendum, which we're currently in, began in 2018 and will uh actually go through 2027 up to since 2018 to 2025. That referendum has collected $254,796,25.34. Fortunately, in the last election, the citizens of Escambia County voted to approve another 10-year referendum that will kick in in 20 uh 28 when the current referendum expires, and it will run through 2037. That's really good news for for the school district. Of course, each time this referendum has been on the ballot for renewal, the support of the voters has increased. This is a clear indication

043that the voters see and support the impact that is clearly visible all over the district that these funds have. This ongoing and increasing support also reflects the confidence that our citizens have in you as a board and in our district staff to be good stewards of this money. We're proud of the role that the watchdog committee plays and we we feel like that we're a very important part of the process and we don't take that lightly. Thank you very much. If you have any questions, um, if I can't answer them, we got people here who can. M, I want to thank you. Oh, I want to thank you for your service. I've attended one of the meetings and I was very impressed with the way everything was done. Uh, during the last campaign, I really

044talked up the half cent sales tax. I'm sure all the fellow board members did also because parents can see in the community visual evidence of all of the work that goes into that when they see new playgrounds, when they see classroom additions, when they've seen windows replaced and all those things that are occupy student stations. So, thank you and please go back and thank your committee on behalf of the the board at least from the district 5 and Mr. Hootin is a is a district five resident. He's my thank thank you so much Mr. for what you do. Okay. I'm sure it was next and and I'm just going to tell you too I thank you and your committee. I served on it myself. You know we were how long that was or what years

045it was but uh but yeah it's a very important duty on that committee. Uh make sure those funds are being spent wisely and and it's been a great program that Sean there's been running on the operations side. Uh, you know, I tell people, uh, I was in Department of Defense with NAPAC, Naval Air Facilities Command, and we didn't have near the amount of contracts that he has going on every year at the to manage this school district. So, great job by all. Appreciate you. Thank you. I have not had a chance to meet with you, but thank you so much for your work and uh this is an opportunity that the community can come out and support our district schools. But I do want to ask you a question. Maybe Mr. Dennis can help. I

046wanted to find out specifically what kind of projects can we use for this? I know Harold had mentioned windows, schools, retrofitting schools, buildings, but I wanted to find out just some other information. Well, I do know that uh the funding is strictly for the students. I mean, we we don't put a roof on this building or something with half cent sales tax. It's strictly to to go towards the roofs, anything that schools I'm sure Sean can Yes, ma'am. It's any it's any capital improvement including technology okay associated with any facility that houses students essentially. So if there are classrooms or students there so obviously the hall center um McDaniel we do not use half sales tax there solely for our schools and our school facilities. Okay. Thank you. Thank you very much. Welcome. Thank you.

047Thank you. Uh lastly under this um this section, Mr. Superintendent, schoolboard policy 2520 and 2522. I appreciate you saying my name. Actually, uh Miss Odum has worked diligently uh to get everything in order. So today, what we really want to be able to talk about is board policy 2520. We handed those to you. Uh they'll be on the screen. Miss Buswell can put those up there for you to see them as well. Um, I think you also have copy of 2522 because there are some mentions. There are items that are mentioned in each uh that correspond. Want to hear your conversation, what your expectations are. ODM will keep me straight and tell me what we need to do to make certain to have this as soon as possible for advertisement and adoption. here. I I

048had one I should have asked before the meeting, but um Keith Keith, you know, I discussed about the book committee having that um not an executive role to put the books back on for it to come to the board, you know, book the challenge. Did we have it in the new policy? You have to go back and you have to be at both of them, 2520 and 2522. Um let me Thought I brought mine with the green. We're being held legally responsible as attorney general and all them. But uh and I thought you agreed with that too. I don't have any problem with it. Um am I correct to ask them to look at page 305? Won't you miss you lead us through this since you did all of the work? Okay. First I I

049want it understood. This is not my policy. I don't I this is all based on input that I received from the board at the last meeting. Um so there is a provision in um just to be clear um the two different policies that we have. Uh 2520 is the one that generally has to do with how we get books in the libraries in classrooms etc. and then if if uh you know what the selection criteria is. Um and then 2522 governs if there are any challenges to it and how we're going to handle that. Um and when when we kind of started this out, I was really sort of focusing on the challenge policy because that's where all the derm strang is. That's, you know, how do we challenge books? Um, but I realized that

050based on the things that the board was saying that the appropriate place to put the kinds of standards that you were talking about, the things that you want to see and the things that you don't want to see really more properly belongs in the selection criteria so that the media specialists have information on the front end as to what it is that you expect them to be doing. Um, so that's why there are more revisions to the selection policy rather than the challenge policy. And then the challenge policy simply it the the main addition to that is that it says basically that the superintendent has the authority to remove any books that have not been selected in accordance with the selection policy. Um there is a provision in the selection policy that says um that

051if I don't know that there's anything that expressly states that if a committee votes to keep a book that the board must approve that um and and that's what my concern was because we have no committees that can do an executive action, you know. So they make a recommendation to the board. I just want to make sure that we don't have to go back and rehash things because we get a book committee that puts it back on the shelf. Well, the in the individual challenger, that's where the board relies on the individual challenger to if they don't believe that um the committee got it right. They have the ability to appeal it to the board. Well, I um that's where I think that we need to make sure that that committee cannot put one of

052them books been challenged, especially the ones that state on state list back on. It had to come to the board. Well, there is there is a specific there is a specific provision in here that if a book has been removed, if it's on the state board's removal list, it can't be selected on the front end. If it's challenged and it's on the state list, it's supposed to be removed and then it cannot be put back unless it is brought to the board and is specifically approved. That's what I'm looking for. It can't go back. That is that is absolutely in here. But that that doesn't really have anything to do with the committee process. That has to do with um if if it's as you know, we the board voted at the last meeting to

053remove the books that were on the DOE list. Um they're Uh the example that I will use is the bluest eye. This board, not necessarily these constituent members, but the school board of Escambia County conducted a full review of The Bluest Eye by Tony Morrison. And a at 2:00 in the morning, you may recall that you voted to keep that book to res but to restrict it to certain grade grade levels. So, this school board has determined that that book is appropriate for 11th and 12th graders if I remember correctly. I think that was the the age designation. Uh, but other school districts have voted to remove it. So, what clarify it? I voted no on that to go back on the shelf. Sure. However, I had two other board members here. A majority a

054majority of the board voted to retain it and that's what carries the day. So the question is if uh and the bluest eye is a book that is used in AP curricula uh AP curriculum um and so in order for it we we've got two competing decisions here. I'm I'm not talking about Keith and his executive role. I'm just talking about this committee that gets a challenge. Okay, where they vote to put the book back on the shelf, right? That's the part I'm talking about. That's the part where I believe it needs to come to the board if it comes back to the shelf. That's that's make a recommendation that's that that would that would comp if if that is the case then we would want we if that is the will of the board

055then we would do away with the requirement that the challenger has to appeal it because if um we're just going to challenge it every time anyway right now so not necessarily we have there are books that that the challenger decided not to um my my part what I'm worried about is what we're legally responsible for okay cuz We're going to be held crimly liable if the committee puts something back on that shelf. That attorney general or the board of education, he'll be called down there to Tallahassee. Okay. You might have to go with him. I don't know. Okay. But I know he's going to be called and that guy right there as chair. So that's my concern right there. That way we know it comes to the board. we take a quick look at and

056but Keith would recommend us to approve the committee's um recommendation and then we could vote on it. So and understanding what you just said once that book is removed is impossible for it to come back around. Isn't it on a a list and it wouldn't be back up for a challenge? How could it come back around for a challenge when we've already removed it? I wasn't talking about that though. Okay. I'm talking about brand new challenges coming in. Yeah. Oh, brand new challenges, not books that's already been been been removed. I think she's got a pretty phone up with Okay. the state list. Let me see if I can Let me Let me see if I can try to figure out what it is that you want. Um, so if a book has been challenged

057and it's not something that in consultation with Miss Vincent, we believe that we can just make a bilateral decision that we remove that book. So we send it to um the district review committee, right? And the district review committee goes through it and they vote to keep that book. um the challenger does not appeal. There's a timeline. There's so many days within the they receive the committee's decision that they have the challenger has to make a decision to appeal. If what you're saying is prior to us putting that book back on the shelf, even though there was not an appeal, we just bring a listing to you when we get Well, the agenda item. Yeah. And it's got the book titles on the agenda right there. The public can see the public see what being

058put back on. That's what you're saying. We didn't put that in here. That's something we can work on. Um what I'm thinking and I get why I can I can whether you think they work or they don't work. I do believe it is important to have engaged citizens from each of your districts to tell us what they think. All right. I I just I that's personal with me. That's fine. Um the one thing that I really want you to look at today cuz we need some decisions on this is on page three of five where we've listed those standards that you talked about. We wanted to make certain that those reflect pretty much like with the standards that you requested through Clay counties. We did put a lot of language in here about sexually explicit

059where that is prohibited. Um, but also in here is the AP, IB, and dual enrollment language because we didn't want to get caught in preventing a student from being able to use the curriculum. I emailed it to you in those particular I think I'm looking the wrong place. Which one are you in, Mr. Adams? This one. There's three or five over here, too. Okay. All right. Um, oh, it's it's Yeah, I I like the standards there. That's good. But we can work on the committee and what that would look like. I've heard from this is, you know, how you say you don't get any phone calls or about the start of school. I haven't had as many on that as I've had on this. So, we need to make certain that we're diligent and do

060what we need to do. Miss Odum did a tremendous job. She did really good reflecting in here what your conversations have been. Um, I think it's difficult to capture exactly what all five of you may want because I can tell you I did hear during that one meeting that we w that we shouldn't have district review committees and then I also heard other board members say that no, we need to we need but what I want to do what we need to do as a district staff is what three of the five of you tell us we need to do going forward. Yeah. That's what we're prepared to do. Yeah. and and and that's my only concern. It would give a sanity check to the board so we'll know these five titles went right the

061committee voted it back on and it would give us a chance any uh meeting for us we'd be at a workshop and we can say hey we we don't agree with this one you know and it might be five of us saying we don't agree that has happened before with this book committee I I I like how they're serve it on their public but it has been 50 votes on this board and to to remove the book and 50 votes to put it back on, you know, with the book committee. So, I just like to see us part of that process that we at least can take a sanity check, see it. Miss Vincent, do you know, have you heard anything from the state on the listing? Okay. So, we haven't there'll be another listing

062of books that'll be coming forward. We just don't we don't have that yet. But the conversation has been really good because it's led to trying to figure out a couple of things. Um, you know, we've we've done exactly what you told us with your directive. Not purchased anything. We're not, but we have some schools that because that's taken literally by O'Keefe. They have book at one school, but they don't have that same book at another school, but they'd like to order that same book. And so far, O'Keefe's told them no, cuz we said we wasn't purchasing anything until we got clear guidance from y'all. So, it I mean, I can think of a title, you know, life from a deer stand or something like that. Um I'm not sure which one who is next but

063Mr. Har let Mr. Here, I'll go next. Let's go. Let's go. Those are the kind of questions we need to answer. But the this the deal what I'm saying, Keith, is it's whether you are comfortable that the current process. Okay. Now, we're working on the future right here. Make sure that we don't get a book that's got 488 FUS in it. What you're doing, and that's that's intolerable right there. when you finally when you finally pass this to me that's pretty clear guidance about how many words of profanity you might see in one book versus another what level it may be which will be helpful but it I mean you I think you're right this new policy is going to fix that it it absolutely should um you also you also said something that I

064want to make certain everybody hears me say Um, honor, you know what? I'll talk to all of you privately. Yeah. When I get the chance uh about one thing as it relates to I think it's important that you hear me talk to you about it, but I'll do that privately. I think that'd be in our all of our best interest. Thank you, Dr. Williams. Um uh I originally proposed uh that we review this policy and I'm so glad we did because it's generated a very wholesome conversation here. It was something that we needed to do that we needed to follow through with u the things that I had requested are all here. I wanted us to put some definitive words here that pertain to illicit sexual activity and things like that. We have that. We've

065defined profanity and those other things that are here. I'm very pleased with that. And also I wanted some accountability and at the end we have that where it's held accountable where last board meeting I was uh unsure uh one of our board members made the motion or not the motion brought up the uh possibility I forget sometimes we're at a workshop but brought up the possibility of doing away with the district committees and I have thought about this I've waffled back and forth u uh uh I think three of us said that we need we need some parental input put but when I look at this uh I have given this so much thought I've talked to Miss Odum probably more times than I should about it I said this is the pest again calling

066but anyway uh uh what I'm trying to say here is do we really need a representative from each each of our district uh in that in that committee do if we're going to have that committee do is it enough to have just one parent serve on that you know so that we've got some parental input I'm Just throwing out some ideas here. Uh uh two of the board members said, "Let's just do away with it." And I'm not totally unopposed to that, but I've got this gut feeling that says we need a parent, you know, we need a parent's perspective, you know, because they're they're the ones that are are are with the children, you know, they're their children and and we need some opportunity for that. So, I'd love to hear what some of

067the other board members are saying about that. Tom, the only thing I'm saying is this. The reason why I said it, we can't delegate off our responsibility on this one. You know, we're the ones that are going to be in front of the judge or whatever. We're we're the ones legally liable. Mhm. And you just can't delegate that to committee, which we know we've had little battles about who's how means on one bit committee and another. And it just gets down to where the committee leans to the left, it's going to get approved. Then lean to the right, it's not going to be approved. I think it comes down to us, Mr. Adam, after that. So that's that's the only reason and Keith can have just a a district review committee of just a few

068folks, you know, to do do a sanity check on it. Is it does it got 480FUS in it or does it Yeah, I'd like to give Mr. Fesco a chance to speak before we come back around another time. Well, first I want to say that I was pleased to see that the um if it's used in an academic program API as we did with the blest eyes um I understand that um if it's in that curriculum and and and I say this I don't know where that title is in terms of the state list of books that they wanted to removed. Um, do you or Bradley happen to know if the bluest eye by Tony Morrison is on the state removal list? It it's been removed by other districts, but it was not one of

069the ones that was listed by the attorney general as being right. All right. I I one of the 50 55 I just want to make sure that when we do something that goes contrary to what our standards are, we do it for the right reason because it's needed for students to pass a course AP or IB and that the state hasn't definitely said no, this is out. That's right. To to be clear, um I I am unaware of any official formal rulemaking action that has established that those books are prohibited, are off limits, etc. However, as we saw, uh the superintendent of Hillsboro County was questioned vigorously regarding why those books were on his shelf when in the attorney general's estimation they were pornography on pornographic on their face. Um, so there there there is

070a list out there of 55 books that the attorney or I don't believe it was the attorney general, it was a repres a state representative who identified these books um as being pornographic. But to my knowledge that has not been adopted as a rule. It has not been adopted as any kind of guideline. It's just something that has been circulated as uh books of concern for the state board of education. All right. I I thank you and I like what's here with the um standards for the books. I'm in agreement with that. I'm still on the fence about the committees and the makeup. Um, and I'm on the fence with it, not because having the committee, it's in the time that it takes the committees to convene, review, and make a decision. And and that's

071comes back to what the judge has said. So, is is what we're doing efficient, effective, and and timely, and and if so, okay, let's just stay with it. If not, might we look at something different? Not for today. Just just Oh, I forget what I wanted to say. But um you know, I do like this policy. I like the way it's written. I like the standards, but I still talking about the committees. I still want to keep the committees. I think it's important and valuable to have a community involvement parents, but we need to maybe revamp and revisit that and see what type of makeup because we don't want to those communities to slow the process and that's what's happened in the past. These books have been in been aside or been in jail if

072you will and we need to go ahead and quickly review. So, we need to revamp those committees. That's my feel on this. Um, but I do like policy. Anything else? I was waiting on you to opportunities. Go ahead. Um, I want to come back to the committees for a few moments. Uh, I'm wondering uh, and I asked this question before. Uh, there's some input upfront from parents in the selection of the books. I asked Miss ODM that question. Is that not correct, Miss uh, Miss Odum, when we were talking about that? I I I would say I would answer that question no and yes. Um very lawyerly answer there. Um the requirement that media specialists get input from stakeholders is a recent development within the past couple of years legislative sessions. So we've got books

073that have been in some of our libraries for decades. Um, and there's no way to determine whether or not there was any parental input because it was not required to my knowledge when those books may have come into the library. So, there are certainly books on our shelves where there may not have been any parental input whatsoever regarding the selection of those books. Anything selected since that legislation went into effect. 1465 was that one. 146. Yes. 1467 2022 I believe. Um so anything selected since then would have gone through the library advisory committee uh which does have stakeholders. So it's not just uh parents, it's also community members weighing in on whether or not these books should be selected. Um so I it's I would not make the assertion that every book on our library

074shelves has had parental input putut in its selection. Okay. Thank you for the information. So, what would it look like if if we did not have the committee? What would the policy look like that it would say that uh would it just be the superintendent that we would do it right here and go to whatever the superintendent want to do with the staff? on that particular policy. Go to page 305. Okay. And where it says superintendent and cons. What I would tell you is what what I guess would occur is you see the top one, two, three, four, five paragraphs. Mhm. Then there's B which is Mhm. that would be removed. Bradley, if Miss Vincent and I uh in consultation couldn't make a decision, bring it to you. Right. I think that's to me with

075the all right the the thing that I want us to make certain and you you actually said this to me the other right um talking about due diligence feed quite a number of books that uh we need to go through um know that you want to spend as much y'all did it at one time where you had to read every book to firm that you read that that's what I really think you need to think hard on where you want. So we would basically we would get rid of the first B and only have the second B on page 305 and the committee wouldn't need that. The committee wouldn't need the second B. Right language where we're bringing it to you. I'll tell you what I was going to say earlier u because I think

076it is fair going to keep the committees take our time and for you as an individual board member. It would be in my opinion prudent on you to select your representatives that are truly going to reflect what type of decision you would make if you read the text. That's not going to work. I got them dropping. They don't want to read the books. They don't want to read nasty books. So, you're only getting Yeah. Unfortunately, we have found that there were some in there that shouldn't have been. I mean, I I get it. I get it. My wife didn't even want me to bring them books in the house. Um, that's that's one of that's why I said I was going to talk to you privately, but I think it's important that I share all

077with you. Share it all with you. So, that's where I was. Um the and also just as important u we're we're working on some information or ideas with Mr. Wilson and Miss Vincent and they're Miss Sweding as well to deselect some books like Mrs. Odin was talking about. We got books that been here a long long time and some of them haven't been checked out but once in 15 years. Good to go. So that's going to take a little while but that's one of the things we're working through as well. So really today we got good information about where you think you want to go. If you can give us some more guidance about what to do next. And I need to know how you feel about if we've got book A at Sherwood Elementary.

078You not want us to purchase book A for Pine Meadow Elementary. And and to be clear, he's not referring to books that are currently under challenge. It's you know talking about Dr. See for for me if you're comfortable with your current process like you sent me that email the other day about and I told you I said I am holding you responsible to make sure every book is uh and you should okay you should that was battle of the books I sent that email to all of you cuz the schools needed to be able to purchase those so they can have that competition u and Miss Vincent and Miss Sweding check vetted all of those books so I'm very comfortable with that. So that's where I'm at. Keith, if you are satisfied, if you feel

079comfortable that you're not going to have an attorney general, I don't want to tell, you know, one elementary school that doesn't have a copy of a book that nine other elementary schools have. I feel very comfortable with that. You uh we want those instructional and instructional support materials, me center things out there. If superintendent's com I'm comfortable with that, but then then he then at as Mr. Adams says, then he's held responsible for that. Right. That's right. I'm very comfortable with that. The back to the committee just for a few minutes uh uh since I had I had the floor and I kind of lost it. But that's all right that this is a good process. Um I I I would just like to say this. Uh I would uh I I would support doing

080away with the committees, but I think that it needs a little bit more thought and the board members to think about it a little bit more, you know, uh about this. uh my it says to me that uh parents are an important part. I learned as a principal that uh when you have parental support and everything, it just goes like this, you know, uh volunteer hours, mentors, business people, and others. I I don't want to see us do something that says we're excluding them from a process, but my gut feeling tells me the committees just haven't been working. And I don't mean that negatively toward our coordinator or anything, but my parents that have been on that have have indicated to me that they they had real concerns in that area. So, um I' I'd

081like to suggest this to the board that we come back and revisit just that section if the board is comfortable with that and and give us some a month to breathe on that and think about it. I'm very comfortable with the other with all the other things over here. uh all the things that I ask for in there. And I that resonated for some of the other boards, but let's board members, but uh uh give this section and then if we have suggestions about if we're going to keep committees, how we would structure that. You know, right now we're kind of uh flying by the seat of our pants trying to think about this. You know, because this is a lot to digest this policy. So that that's my suggestion. Let's let's give this one

082more month on this because as Mr. Leonard said before, we need to get that right this time. And I agree with that. Um, and before we I'm going to take Oh, you want to say something? I got a follow up. Actually, you you go ahead. Yeah, go ahead. Um, and if we're going to keep the committee, that's where I want to come back where they can only recommend a book, the one back on the shelf on new challenges and then that comes to us so we can see it on the agenda and it may be just okay, you know, but we can we're the ones going to be held responsible and all we're going to see is a left right fight at the meetings and we'll go one o'clock in the morning. I I certainly

083miss I certainly want to move this process along and I know my fellow board members do. you want to see this process, you want us to have a policy, advertise it, so forth. Uh but uh I think in this one here, we need to just uh come back with some suggestions next time for that. So we do it with Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. But thanks very much input, but but I did read somewhere. I'm not sure Mr. Leonard if that's right or not, but Escambia County is in the top of removing books in the state of Florida that we are pretty much number one. No, we're not. We're not. Well, well, not not overall. Um, but what the statistic that I saw reported was that we hold the record for removing the most books in a

084single vote. Okay. And that would be accurate. Okay. And they were counting like this large number board. They were counting this. I think it was a was it a thousand 2,000? We only voted to move at that time five books or whatever it was. It was a crazy number. But when you get groups, special interest groups, and they and they tell a lie, they'll just keep telling that lie over and over again till it becomes the truth. That's the way it goes. And we're going to take a if if everybody's in agreement. You want to say something? Go ahead. Um be I understand you're about to recess, but before we do, um I would like to introduce uh the board. Um, you may recall that Steve Baker, who has been our um, attorney for decades,

085I think 35 years, has finally decided to call it quits. And the board entered into a contract with Brian Kirkland of the firm of Kirkland, McGee, and GAN. And Mr. Kirkland is here to introduce himself to the board. Folks, just want to say it's an honor to be in front of you today. It's an honor to take this job over from Steve Baker, who's a friend of mine and I know did great work for y'all for many years. And I look forward to continuing that tradition. And I have an open door. I'm willing to talk with anybody on issues at any time y'all need me. And I just look forward to good working relationship and defending the interest of the school board. Thank you. Welcome. Thank you, sir. Yeah. Thank you, Mr. Kirk. Good to

086meet all you. You've listened to this meeting for a while. You still feel that way? Yeah. I get to leave now. So y'all take care. We're going to recess for about 5 minutes. Okay, we're back. I think this uh if I'm not mistaken, it brings us to comments from the superintendent. Brings us item three. Mr. Superintendent, any addition any additional comments? Um wanted to make certain of two things. Um, remember a couple of months ago, Mr. Saint Seir was talking to us about our inventory. I hate David Garner's left. It was him and many other people that worked on it, but think about all the moving parts. What we ended up with was a 0.5 zero five percent. So that's pretty incredible. So if you see David, his team members and other members from that

087staff that have worked on it, that's pretty incredible when you think about all we have. And then I'm going to turn it over just for a little bit to Mr. Saints here and then we'll be ready to get into the agenda and and also Mr. Superintendent Christy Hayes of our accounting shop. Great job with that inventory, working with the inventory folks and David Garner. Okay, I've got a lot of numbers, but I'm going to hit the highlights because this is FYI stuff. This is, let me set up how all of these are run. At the far right typically is going to be 2005 fiscal year. And then you see the preceding years in order. So, prior year 1, two, and three. That's historical data. This is a balance sheet that I want to show you

088the bottom line is fund balance. This is where we were uh 20 thou we'll probably wind up very close to this in 2025 about 356 million fund balance. That is a $10.3 million draw down from when we started the fiscal year. That means revenue did revenue was expenditures exceeded revenue by about that much. And we're still working it trying to make that number a little bit better hopefully as we get some more information and work a few other things out. So probably well certainly before the final budget hearing on the 16th we'll have nailed all of the fund balances across the board. In the previous years, you'll see last year we had or year before last, we had a fund balance of 45.9 million, 42.8 million the year before and then it was pretty low

08936 million. That year where we had the 36 million fund balance, total fund balance, that was a year that we lost revenue mid year from those scholarships. the state had miscalculated the number of scholarships and on the third FEP calculation in January, we had about a $12 million negative when we started out the year with only a third of that. And so the state had really miscalculated that and we saw the we saw that bear itself out in that year. We lo we were down about 11 million uh from where we started the year at. All right, let's go real quick. Uh this is revenue historical. This goes all the way back to the shutdown 2020. This is total general fund revenue including transfers. So from about 320 million and the prior year four which

090was 2021 fiscal year we were held harmless by the state for the FFP. So that revenue didn't change a lot. Even though we lost about one uh 1,600 students right off the bat, didn't come back after shutdown. The revenue wasn't affected because the state held us harmless. But then you start seeing some differences in the preceding year 309 million and in that number at right below that that -12 that's the change from the prior year. Change from the prior year. So, we saw it actually happen and then it bounced back up and then all the way up to 2025 where we're going to end the year close to that 369.6 million total revenue and fund B total revenue including transfers. This is the detail. I won't get into the detail except I highlighted everything that

091makes up the FFP. So, we have the FFP state portion. See where it's about 158 million in 2020, it's still about 158 million in 2025. That's adjusted state revenue. When they take out the uh scholarships, has stayed about the same. And then class size reduction has its own revenue code. That's what we get for class size categorical. And then you see the state I or the local portion which is made up of require local effort and the discretionary operating these the state the district school taxes are the is the required local effort and that discretionary the board does not you just adopt those just like we talked about before. You just adopt what the state provides for us. Does not include the capital outlay 1.5 mil or anything uh related to that millage rate. This

092is general fund only. Yes, sir. Terry, what why would not the FFP drop? I mean, it's it's we got enrollment going down. I mean, why wouldn't that be? Yeah. Well, the revenue, you know, they increase the revenue every year some percentage. So, it's kind of offset itself. Same amount. Huh. They've offset itself. And it's not just uh the fact that the revenue, there's also other adjustments in there, but it is what it is. That's the number. So, it's gone from about 158.1 million. Then it went down uh significantly in 2022. It bounced back up some. 2022 was that year where the scholarships uh would gave us that mid-year cut, that big midyear cut, and then we've come back. But yeah, I mean if the state increases the FEFP by uh five or 6%. But we

093lose students until the last year or so we have still exceeded um the prior year revenue. So it's it's the revenue increases have offset the student loss until this past year. This past year we saw a a big decline in terms of the overall uh fund balance. Yeah. But as far as the revenue, you're going to see an offset when I get to the expenditures. Mr. Chair, yes. Um Mr. Saintier, where it says class size reduction, I see is that money from the state and why is it decreases it? That's all state revenue. Okay. Okay. Everything in that top where uh the FFP all the way down through the other miscellaneous and then the bottom you'll see the bottom uh 33- dash state that's state that's all state revenue. So for I'm sorry it's from

094the first year that you you have on this paper 42 million to now 34 million last year. Why is that reduced? Is that just a for for one reduction year which would have been that prior year three they changed the way it was calculated but combine that with student decline and that's what you're seeing. Okay. Okay. So it's a student steady decline in students then they made a calculation change in that 2022 prior year three. Okay. Thank you. And again, district school taxes have gone up purely by the state required local effort calculation against the certified tax role because if the tax role goes up, everything's going to go up if nothing changes. All right. Um this is a detum of the expenditures by object. Summary of expenditures by object starting with salaries all the

095way down through the various object categories. So um see the bottom line the net change in fund value and fund balance. That's the difference between the fund balance uh in the prior year compared to the year that you're looking at. So in year prior year five, we had an increase in fund balance of 1.7 million over the prior year and so on. And then when we talked about the revenue cuts mid year due to scholarships prior year three we had that big decline in our fund balance because of the revenue. Uh Terry, why such a large increase on 2425 for total expenditures? I mean that jacked up pretty good. I mean you look at prior years. What what was what was the thing behind that? Well, take a look at the salaries and I'm going

096to detail salaries on the next slide. Salaries. Yeah. Salaries over the prior year 196.9 year before 2024 and then 20 thou 216.5 million 196 million against 216.5 million in and also benefits 66 million 2024 74.4 million 2025. Those changes were out of the ordinary. If you look at the history, those were significant changes. If you look at bottom, you're saying two 10 million short and then above it's, you know, for total expenditures 379,889 significantly more than the other prior years. So that's what I'm what I was wondering about. We're supposed to be going down, not the Well, the re the expenditures are hardly ever going to go down because when we get there, what are you going what's going to go down? I mean, you know, well, if you drop enrollment, you're going to have

097less teachers and all that. That's what we're supposed to be doing. I I know we're doing that. We're going down, but uh I just curious. It was such a remarkable increase in expenditures in prior years for this current year. Yeah. Yeah. probably the cost of it's the cost of you know just huh the yeah 30 million I would think from the prior year 2025 about 20 million the year before that and then about uh 9 million the year before that and a lot of this is coming out of the er years coming out of the er years with salaries and benefits some of the some of the things that were done and Esther were maintained. Mr. Leonard, if anytime you want to say anything, but some of those things we added some uh units to

098I think assistant principles. Yeah, I and a number of things. I just wanted to point out when you talk about that difference, Mr. Adams, when you look at the difference in the salaries, okay, you're already talking $20,000 from one year to the next increase. That's what I'm wonder why it happened. Well, be So that and and then the benefits is another I'm not a finance guy but u they did a holiday in once. So it was um there was two or three things that I know occurred. If you look at employee benefits do y'all remember when we got down to like $400,000 and our trust fund? Really got nervous. Really got nervous. It's the second worst I've ever seen it and I've been doing this since 2003. That was a pretty significant increase. Um, and

099of course that's shared between employees and the school district. So those increases are going to have to be continue to be a shared cost. The other thing that I remember I'll have to help me on this staff is that and Mr. Fetsco he's he's been a part of this before. We were always struggled to find out where we're going to have enough money to keep the teacher assistance and bus aids. One year, you know, well, we can cover it out of general fund. The next year, we got more money in IDA. Well, we all know what going on with IDA and federal funds. Um, that finally hit. um on Esser. The only the only one that I can tell you that I can remember for certain is the um we took all those RTI coaches

100and while we knew that that was important and they would make a difference at the school, we kept them but we put them on that grid. They were still an expense. We still get their services. Um but it's just part of what what we see in that grid. Um whenever you have like the two that I can remember is the uh assistant principles, one additional one at high school and one additional one at middle school and that's because we have a middle school now that's almost well it is bigger than Bailey and Baileyy's always had two for for me. Ransom's always had two. Um, and then I it's going to sound like I'm blaming things, but I'm not. Um, you're going to always need to have um art, music, and PE unless you don't want

101to have it. And if you're going to have it at every site, there's an expense to that because not every school's going to earn a art teacher. They may earn a 6 three days, but then you got to have the other point4 be somewhere else. Um, what we continue to do is look for places that we can cut. And what I'll do is whenever you get through with all of it, I'll give all of them some numbers about what we've done thus far and what we're hoping to be able to to get further along this year. The other thing I want to remind you is we spent about $9 million giving everybody a salary increase. That's on top of what we were spending. So that's nine more million dollars that we spent and it may

102have been closer to 10. That's right. Do I think our people and I know you do too. Do I think our people are worth it? Yes. We got to make certain we hope that got you where you needed to be from a number standpoint. Thank you. That's right. I mean that's I'm glad you said that was what I was going to emphasize is each year we've been running 8 to10 million general fund that's general fund this is general fund not counting all the federal uh and salary increases benefits increases when we have to raise rates and and that sort of thing so that's why you're going to see that year overyear the offset to that would be um some other category story typically. But I want to um also emphasize, we talked about losing students.

103We have lost tons of students, but they're not all at one school. That doesn't necessarily mean we have a whole bunch of teachers that are going to offset due to that because we have three or four or five or 10 at 52 locations. doesn't always equate to what you're thinking if you just took the whole group and divided it by the number to get the unit number of units. We still have to run school even though the classes may be too small. So, you're not going to get a correlation like that. If they were all at one school, you would, but not at 52 different locations. So, it's not going to always equal what uh what we would think in terms of losing 4,200 students in five years. Okay. So, bottom line on this page

104is what I want you to know. We're going to start the year for the current year uh new year June 30th at about a $10 million draw down in fund balance. All right. Here's the detail of what Mr. Leonard was talking about. in just a minute here. Take the salaries and uh pulled out contract salaries only, not overtime, not extra pay, not anything else, not leave payouts or anything. This is contract salaries. This equates to a person uh in that position. So, uh administration, you can see an increase over the prior year. And I looked at the administration yesterday uh with one of our staff um Debbie Russo pulled this for me. Um and we don't have the detail yet, but we pulled administrators from federal ESSER and that are now in general. And there's

105we talked about some of that. So that we didn't add administrators. We didn't add a million dollars in. We just moved their funding. This is general fund. So that's the difference plus uh salary increases. Okay. Same thing for the teachers. The next row there 7.4 million. O uh change from prior year added about 7.4 million in cost for teachers. Uh other certified instructional about 1.9 1.85 853. This is what Mr. Leonard was talking about with these uh teacher aids. We have about $7.3 million of teacher aids that we had no place to go but general because we had no room in the federal. But they've got the uh these a lot of them are bus aids. A lot of them are bus aids that they need out there to keep control of the buses um

106or the discipline on the buses. These are things that are these are problems that we have to try to work through. Um and so on. So about 19 million of salaries, that's not benefits, that's salaries only. Contract salaries only about $19 million over the prior year. So that's most of your cost increase. All right. This is a detail I won't get into. You've got it though. That's your detail. Um this one is a quick overview of a millillage. You look at 2020 against 2026 proposed. You see through the state required local effort discretionary operating those two categories set by the state of Florida. The board simply adopts uh total state imposed. You'll see that portion of the millage rate and all the only portion that you have control over is the capital outlay which is

107less than 30% of the total millage. Okay? So less than 30% of the total millage is uh discretionary by the board. And here's the last thing I want to show you. We've talked about this and it's been on the news. The state required local e the state imposed require local effort was 1.2 1.72% uh below uh percent change below roll back rate. What that means is that was the only year in the last six or seven uh budget years in which there would not have been a automatic tax increase. just by the state imposed portion. So in 2020 the state the calculation of the required local effort against roll back rate just for that piece would uh have not generated a tax increase. The other years the state imposed require local effort in itself generated

108the tax increase from 2021 to 2026. We would have advertised a tax increase no matter what without the board doing anything but adopting what it had to adopt. And then you'll see the next column that says total rate as a percent change of roll back rate. This is all the millage including capital. So um again 2020 no tax increase because the total millage rate uh percent change over roll back rate was a negative. If it's zero or negative there's no tax increase. The other years was a mixed back. 2021 there was a tax increase because the percent change um exceeded zero. 5.928 total mills. The year after that, zero. There's no tax increase. 2023 24 advertised a tax increase. 2025, we did not. 2026, we did. This is not anything new. We've done this throughout

109history. advertise a tax increase one year and didn't do it another year. That's just the way it works out. So, the capital side of all of this is the one that's at your mercy. And the capital side sometimes if you try to hit roll back rate, and we've talked about this time and time again, if you try to hit roll back rate, the only thing you can adjust is capital. And that may not be sufficient to operate your school district. that may not be sufficient to buy the school buses. Uh provide for the maintenance work order system transfers into general to protect general property insurance to protect general debt service requirements technology rotations. All of that I have. You've got it. I gave it to you. You've got all of the capital outlay needs. If

110we would have levy roll back rate this year, I'm telling you from the CFO standpoint, we're going to do whatever we need to do. If we'd let we'd have been about eight 78 million short of our needs and about uh of just actually just debt service requirements and transfers to general, we'd have been about 7 million short. that doesn't count outfitting the schools with their required rotations of technology of um anything else that they might need from an equipment standpoint being able to put on a roof on this building or anything like that. So, I'm just uh wanted to give you the facts. I mean, there's a lot out there, but I'm just giving you what we go through as a staff with the superintendent about what we need from year to year. Okay, that's

111all I got. Thank you. Thank you, Mr. S. Um, don't have anything on the committees and department reports. And now we review the regular monthly agenda meeting. Uh Mr. Superintendent. Yes. Uh are you still on committee reports? I mean that was the next one. What? Yes. I didn't think we had anything under committee report. I I wanted to say one thing. I'm the board's representative on the foundation of excellence. They had a wonderful workshop on August the 5th. Unfortunately, it was uh that morning was orientation for elementary and that afternoon was middle school. I did uh attend that workshop from 11 uh 11:30 to till the ransom orientation started and uh uh every one of the board of directors for the foundation was there. The superintendent spoke uh very positive speech giving the foundation of

112excellence a report. Uh I followed up with a few words and also on behalf of the board uh uh mentioned that superintendent had an excellent article in the Pensacola News Journal that uh uh kind of capsulated the academic achievement for the year. So uh uh the speaker at this foundation of excellence uh uh workshop was a Tracy Burgerer and she was doing an excellent job firing everybody up and getting them ready to start a new school year. The the foundation for excellence does wonderful things for this district. We need to build them up. We need to help them all we can. Uh they're uh they contribute so much to the viability of our district. So thanks goes to Joanne MacArthur, the director, uh for bringing all that together. So I just wanted to give you

113all that little report on that. Okay. Thank you, Mr. Williams. Dr. Yeah. Thank you, M. Burgos, your lights on. You had anything your lights on? Oh, anything else? Uh now, Mr. Mr. Superintendent, are there any additions on deletions to this month's agenda? Um, yes, sir. Uh, under section 21, consent finance, accounting operations, item B has been added. Under section 24, consent finance procurement. Item P is deleted. Items U and V are added. And then under section 31 consent operations item B is deleted. And then the only other thing I would tell you we have a quite a number. Mr. Williams and I met yesterday. Dr. Williams and I met yesterday. There will be a lot of um celebrations on Tuesday night. So wear comfortable shoes, comfortable clothing. We'll be out front a lot. So I

114want to be sure you knew that. Thank you. Okay. Thank you. It's uh Miss Fesco month to bring the invocation and pledge. Uh moving into uh the minutes for July. Uh no unfinished business or administrative appointments. No first reads items for public uh hearing. There's one item for public hearing this month. Uh Dr. Williams, that's 7320 for public hearing. Is that correct? Uh that's the second reading on that. Is that correct, Miss Odum? So, after this it will come policy. This is the one that had the information for memorial legacy and historical items in it. And uh again, I want to thank Mr. Dennis for his hard work, him and his staff on that. Uh this is something that's been needed a long time in our district. It's something that uh uh is a good

115first step in making sure that uh we protect those items. And also, I uh I believe Mr. Dennis said they were going to put together the proper forms and everything that go with that. is that so uh uh I'm just saying that uh after this it will become policy uh missum at the next at the following board meeting after that that's all I have Dr. Williams. Thank you sir. We move into item number eight consent agenda. Starting with curriculum items 8 through 19. Not any items in curriculum for discussion. Hearing none, we move to finance items 20 through 24. Any items for discussion under finance? I have a question about 24 s school bus. I got an email from Mr. Dennis. I asked about I'm sorry I asked about the cost of the buses and

116how much they were in years past as compared what they are now. This is all money that we have have improved for that our community has has engaged in capital outlay can't talk capital outlay and just wanted to kind of touch base with the expenses that have been going on in our district and if I could just ask superintendent if he would like to join. Absolutely Sean Mr. Dennis. So, just as a a quick and dirty, we took a look at our bust costs over the past 5 years and then look back 10 years just to give you a sense for escalation. And they somewhat emulate just about everything we do, whether it's parts for white fleet vehicles, parts for building componentry. Uh, and we looked at a 77 passenger, which is our standard bus.

117the since 2015, so roughly 10 years, the cost of one of those buses has increased 33%. What's interesting is the cost has escalated more rapidly almost exponentially in the last few years. And this year, just a few months ago, for the first time that I know, we actually had a midcycle increase on the bus. the state actually went back to the manufacturers and generated another increase in price authorization because of their manufacturing cost escalations. So we've averaged about a 5% increase in bus costs over the last five or six years every year 33 over the past 10 years and a interesting dynamic this past year that we've never seen before. So it's a very real situation. Um, but fortunately we have been able to manage our fleet to a point where we're doing exactly 10%

118every year. And we actually rolled back and took a we sharpened our pencil after the initial submitt this year and took a couple of the buses that we were going to buy off the table and reduced it to exactly 10% including wheelchair buses. So, um, that's that's kind of the long and short of of bus costs, but it's it's definitely a challenge and that's for the exact same bus with the same features over time. Thank you. Superintendent would tell you dad. Yes, ma'am. One of the things that I did this morning as well, um, when I was looking for how many times we've had the bus arm stuff brought back, I looked at tires, other facade for for transportation, white feet. It's pretty amazing. That's before I knew you were going to ask that question.

119Got in there together on it. Work trucks. pretty good deal on them and they're still pretty expensive. Um I just appreciate the support that we have here with your school board. All do out there in transportation is pretty amazing. Started to think this through. Um if we sometimes you know how you you have successes and they end up bringing some pain with them. Remember when we had an incredible amount of vacancies? One of the things that a vacancy does for you, uh, is it pretty much puts you in a position where you're not getting the teaching done that you need to have done. Sometimes you save money from a budgetary standpoint. I'd rather have my budget at zero and have every vacancy we have filled and figure out a way we're going to squeeze that

120dime. So that's how I wanted to say that. Well, thank you. When I think of school buses, 250 buses about transporting our kids to and from school. We want to make sure we have the safest vehicles and the most qualified drivers. So we want to make sure we have all the maintenance on there to ensure the safety of our children. Okay. Thank you. Moving into human re any any more comments for finance 20 through 24 moving in human resources 25- 29. Any items for discussion? I want to ask Kelly something. I hope I said the right number on the radio the other day. How how many of the foreign international workers we have right now? Teachers. 51. 51. Okay. I I probably close. You Yeah, you you did good. I pay attention sometimes. Uh moving

121in operations items 30 through 39. Mr. Williams, I want to uh question item that's been deleted, item four, conveyance of uh vacant land. Uh uh I've asked the superintendent for some detailed information and I've asked to meet with him on that particular project. This is the old Myrtle Grove property and I have some concerns uh some deep concerns about uh that that uh how uh things like how much property is there? What's the appraisal? How many of those have been done when if this is going to be conveyed through a uh a quick claim deed? How is that process going to work? Uh uh I uh when this comes before the board, if it does, I would uh ask that we uh we all ask some very detailed questions on that. This is a valuable

122piece of property. And this property uh uh they're wanting to build a uh a media center there and uh also they're wanting to build a splash pad. That's a very viable thing for our community and I'm not against that. But we're in, as Mr. St. Sir just said we're in some very difficult financial situation here. Uh is that there's so many questions that could be asked about is it part of the redevelopment plan that the county has? Is it something that uh is something that could we sell to a developer for as much as half million dollar? These I don't know these answers to these questions, but I intend to uh I intend to pursue that very vehemently before we start giving away just giving something to another organization when we can generate funds for

123that. So, just wanted to make that point. It's uh 31B, but it's been pulled. And so, I don't want to say a lot about that till after I meet with the superintendent on it because I don't want to uh I want to be sure that I understand everything that's taking place there and how it's going. It was briefly discussed at last uh uh at last month's workshop and now it was on here to convey that land over there to the county in in a short period of time. I think we need more discussion there. We need to find out more about that. We need to find out the insuranceances that in in in whatever conveyance uh whether it's a quick claim deed, how it's going to be done, these sorts of things. I I have

124a multitude of questions about that and I think that that that's something that might not should take place quickly until those questions are answered and then I encourage you to look into that deeply too. It might be December or January if we might ultimately do that. But let's uh let's let's take the time necessary to take a close look at this issue. Okay. Mr. Yes, sir. I brought it up because I've been working closely with Mike Kohler, commissioner from district 2. U it is part of the community redevelopment um trying to do things to stimulate what's going on in the Myrtle Grove area. That land has been vacant for 20 years um over 20 years, 23 years. Um it we looked at doing things with it internally. Uh in my talking with the commissioner Kohler,

125he wanted to do something with the community that would also serve children. Uh with us having the new Myrtle Grove Elementary School two blocks away from that. It is an after hours opportunity for students to get to a library. It would be similar to the southwest uh public library on Gulf Beach Highway, similar to the one that's uh at by Belleview Elementary School in dis in district 1, similar to the uh library that was established at the old Molino Center that was again lands and buildings and stuff conveyed to the the county. But what we've done and what I've been really pleased is in district two, uh, Commissioner Kohler has been the first commissioner that we've had in that district in my memory who's actually done the things for the school district that we've asked

126him to do. He's, uh, built sidewalks along Jackson Street, uh, West Jackson Street, and up the roads to get to Myrtle Grove Elementary School, to get to Escambia High School. He's put millions of dollars aside each year for that. I worked with him in the conveyance of the um fire station um that's out there adjacent to Warrington Elementary School. And and what my understanding is is we would have the same kind of agreement, a re uh revision clause that if the county stopped using that building for a public library and the splash pad and the other things for that community, that would all including the structure built revert back to the school district. I think that the uh cooperation that I've had from from Mike Kohler in several other things, he's gone out of his

127way to make sure that he's done things for the kids at Sherwood Elementary, at uh Oakrest Elementary, at West Pensacola Elementary, and at Warrington and Navy Point, all in dealing with bicycle safety. Uh bringing things in for that. So, he's he's really been good. This was something he asked what we were doing with that property. When I went to Mr. Dennis at the at the first of this or the beginning of it, um the things that we were going to do as a school district fell through. So, as part of that whole community and and where it's being located because, uh, further down 57th Avenue, which is one of the it's at Lillian and 57th, further down is the, uh, I'm trying to remember the the exact name for it, but it's the senior citizen

128center that is in a state of uh, not the best repair. the co the county is going to work on that, but they wanted to have another place that both the seniors who lived in the Myrtle Grove area and the students, the children in the Myrtle Grove area could come together and do things. So, I have been 100% in favor of it. I want us to do our due diligence. I want us to make sure that it is something that's going to benefit our students as well as that community. Um, we've had great support, like I said, from that commissioner and and I really uh I want us to move forward with it. Um, I I'd like to make an additional comment. I agree with the things that you said. All of those are important,

129but what's the big rush here? We know we need to slow this down and do do a little bit more due diligence on this. I don't know the value of that property. You know, I've never seen it. I don't know what uh if we've tried to sell it in the past, how much is there? Uh think about the if that went back on the tax role, the amount of money that that would generate for property tax in that area. And and I'm glad you've had some some corporation in that area over the years. Uh you know, with with the board of county commissioners, uh uh I have not experienced that. Well, this this has just been with my commissioner Kohler. Uh I'll say that and and I've worked with him. He's done well. um the

130uh early on and that it triggered something. Um if we talk about it one month and the next month the reason that's a little too soon I'm thinking no the reason that there was moving forward in a timely response is the commissioner has grant or some type of funding that really needs to be encumbered within a certain time frame. That's why we moved at it at this point. I don't know if Mr. Dennis has some numbers on what the value of the property is. I know that for it to have been vacant and unused for 23 years, there hasn't been a great demand from anybody to get that property, but I'll I'll leave it to to do due diligence, all the examination, but in terms of what's been explained to me, I'm I'm still very

131much in favor of that cooperation. And I'm going to schedule a meeting with the superintendent and get as much information as I can uh about that. I'm uh uh I'm concerned that the quickness of this all of a sudden it's at one board meeting and then the next board board meeting you know it's on the agenda to uh to be conveyed but of course that has been pulled that has been deleted but uh and I'm you know for very for whatever reason but I'm sure the superintendent will make me aware of that but I I'm just I'm I'm alerting the board that you know let's let's take another look at this you know let's uh let's take another look at it all the options are there think about if there's four acres there five I

132don't know at this point you know how many patio homes would be there and what the tax base would generate there for that you know uh thing things along that line is adjacent to the school the the new school would YMCA used to be right there's old YMCA my first Right. At one point that was where uh special ed, the uh visiting teachers and the subject area specialist offices all were. Um and that was uh in the uh from the 8 mid80s on it was used that way and then it closed down when the hall center was revamped and curriculum move everyone was moved over here. The the assistant superintendent Mr. Kell was in there and Mr. Wattley and all of those and the offices just had petition and one talked you heard it all

133the way over the building. We have improved that so much. It said well and and again that the buildings themselves became in such a a manner of decay that they just had to be raised. And and the intent at that point at one point was to have a second bus barn over on the west side of town. But that was not cost effective for what has gone on. And so again, that property has been vacant and and unused for 23 years at this point. Um I I being living in Myrtle Grove myself, uh I would think that a public library on that space is easily accessible to that community in in total. Um I know that it's location two blocks from well from both u pleas Myrtle Grove Elementary and Escambia High School High School

134probably about six blocks from West Pensacola and with because crossing over uh Fairfield Drive wouldn't be good. It's still maybe a quarter of mile as the crow flies from Sherwood Elementary. So there are a lot of schoolage children and and that was the idea with the splash pad. There are schoolaged kids especially in the summertime when the YMCA was open there. There used to be a pool and there were things that that could be done for the students. There's not a lot in the community at at this time for our students to do in the summer that's recreational and instructive. And and so when the commissioner came to me and asked me about that site, I said, "Well, I do have a great history with it, having spent probably 10 years in an office over

135there." I talked with Mr. Dennis. I talked with the superintendent. Um and and he told me that that the reason that there was some timeliness to it was his source of funding for that construction. So you could do more. You and the superintendent, Mr. Dennis, do due diligence and and we'll all become better informed. But I I look forward to One of the concerns I had was that uh one of the concerns I had was I have constituents asking me if you're if the if we're going to raise taxes that we have vacant land we can sell. So this is a bad time, a bad optics. That's why I said we need to look at this if we're going to convey property to the board of county commissioners through a quick claim deed or wherever

136we're going to do that. You know, at a time when we're facing budgetary constraints and people are saying, why don't you just sell more of the property? Now, I know that we've sold a bunch of property and Mr. Dennis's operation has done a fantastic job in doing that and I appreciate that, you know. Uh but uh uh we're going to vote, you know, on the budget again at at similar time that this is right. It's bad. It it's just bad optics optics to the community in my opinion to say we're going to raise your taxes, but we're going to give we're going to give property away. It may be bad optics to one community. It may be a saving grace to another community. I'm done with that. Thank you. Let's let's move very happy. Let's

137move on. And now we have the consent superh superintendent items 40 through 42. Any uh items for discussion hearing? None. We'll move on to items from the board. Um we have uh instate and out of state travel. Any discussion on those items? And this moves us to item C and D. The one that I brought before the board is um to amend and change the date from the primary election to the general election in 2026 concerning the appointment and uh an election of the superintendent. Uh I'm just making a recommendation that we uh we amend the resolution that we voted on in February 18th and 2025 to move it from the primary to the general election just to give a better um sample group of exactly what the voters in Escambia County wanted. I'm not

138sure if we will have 124,000 vote this time as it did the last time, but this will be the seventh time that this came up and I just feel like it's it would be better served to the community and to our public if we moved it from the primary to the uh general election and I'm sure we have to follow the Robert rules of order. I think it's section 35 motion to resend and amend something that previously has been adopted. So, um, and it would take two, uh, two motions, one to men and then the other one to carry it. So, uh, that was my thoughts and that's why I put it on the, uh, on the agenda, Mr. Chair. Yes, sir. Um, and I appreciate what you're trying to do, but I've gotten some

139feedback from people for a good vet here this last day or two. So, I'm going to be voting no on that item. Okay. Dr. Williams. Yes, sir. Uh, I will also be voting no on that. I've gotten a a good bit of push back in my district. As a matter of fact, uh when I attended the board of county commission, there's a special interest groups are are giving a lot of push back on this, won't it? When we discussed this before, what we determined was this was the best date for this to pass. Yes. Uh and uh it passed the board 32. And I would hope that the the board will continue to hold this where it is. uh when the referendum was put out there before and in other times there was so much

140favorability toward that and still it very narrowly passed uh in the general election. interest groups are uh to borrow a basketball term. There's a full co there's a full court press going on in the community over this from the special interest groups pushing this as much as they can because they know it's to their advantage to their advantage for appointed superintendent that time. But it's to our advantage as the board and we get to set that that ruling and which we have already done. And Florida law says it can be in a special election that's called. It can be in a primary or it can be clearly. And we have clearly stated that it was in that in the last motion. And I I would say that we need to stay with that. All right.

141This motion went to the county commissioner and instead of doing their ministerial duty, I'm holding up the the information from the county commission meetings and of course they're a constitutional body also. They can do what they want to do with that. And so during this time they they put three proposals out there and it created some discussion which later it was tabled. I believe Miss ODM was there also during that time. Uh it was tabled for 30 days part again of that special interest full press court that's going on here. Uh uh and one of them was to change it to the general election. You know another one was to leave it where it is. You know there are several uh there have been several lawsuits over this. I haven't had a chance to research

142the Indian River one, but both of the uh the Hillsboro case and the Klay County case uh ruled in favor of the board on on the school board on that. Uh I would say that because we're constitutional body here and that would be another constitutional body changing our desires on that. That's my personal opinion. I don't know that that's the case or not, but uh I would uh I would urge the board to stay the course on this. uh we had determined last time and it was discussed thoroughly last time why we were choosing that date. Okay. So I would encourage the board to stay with that date. Thank you. Miss Burgos, I am going to be in support of this. Um you know how I feel about appointed versus elected, but I also really

143feel it's important to have community input. And when we're looking at a general election, we have more voters come out. Yes, we're not going to get the 124,000. I would like to, but you know, I would rather see more people come out and support this or, you know, show their their wishes. Um, so this is why I'm going to vote yes. Okay. Any any further comments? Uh I'm open to to going that the chair brings good things. I've heard mainly people complain about the actual wording of the referendum, not the timing of it. That they said that when it went through in 2018, whatever, that the wording of the referendum as to what was going to happen was not easily understood. people said, "I believe I voted the wrong way because it was worded in

144such a way that it made it look whatever." Um, that's the feedback that I'm getting from everyone is they're more concerned about the um the wording of the referendum and what's going to be on the ballot versus when it happens. So I have a question, Miss Odin, and you might know the answer that if it stays on the primary, would it be a close or open primary? It it this is not something that would be subject to opened or closed primary. It would have to be printed on the ballot because it is a question that would have to be posed to all members of the community. So, if if I I'm not I have no idea who's running for what, so I don't know if there are going to be open and closed races. Um

145it's too soon to tell. Um but I anticipate that there would have to be two separate ballots printed for uh well, three. There are independents as well. Um, if it was a closed if if if it if if we only had a, you know, a party election, if there was a closed primary that only had offices up for one particular party, so that it was a closed party, uh, a closed primary, there would still nevertheless have to be a ballot printed um, just to ask the question of people who are not members of that party to be able to vote on the question of the the resolution and and I and I'll say this and I know that Mr. Har, you want to make a comment? And I've heard opposite from people from several different

146districts, not just my district, that they were in favor of the general election because they felt like it was a better picture, a better sample, and plus in doing research, all of us done research. You know, you want the best sample base to get the best picture of what you're proposing. So that's why I I um I'm imposing that we amend this and we go to the general election that we have a better picture of exactly what it's all of Scamia County wants, not just my district or any other district. Uh I I just feel like when we leave it in the primary, we are nonpartisan elected officials and we need to do everything nonpartisan as much as possible. So Mr. Mr. Harold, uh thank you Dr. Williams. Um, as I said about the full

147court press, probably the next thing that's going to come is to change the wording on the uh on the uh resolution that we sent over. You know, it's one it will be one thing after another. There was a large amount of money from special interest groups pushed this. One person, large amount of money. I'm I'm I'm not going to go that far. I'm just going to say there was a large sum of money that was uh that was placed into this. the wording on the referendum as as Mr. Fetszkco pointed out there were so many advantages to the other side. The advantages are this time are are is the way the resolution that we had and there are people in the community the special interest groups absolutely I believe can't stand that you know that

148the that the wording is is in favorable that and back to the county uh the board of county commissioners I have called them and you know how over this subject and just asked to chat with them about it you know many I've heard from one one of the county commissioners uh and I was at the meeting I was at that meeting and it wasn't the person that you were you were given accolades to a while ago because I haven't heard from that person. So, uh uh uh I think it's kind of uh interesting that this was put before the county commission and then when you asked to uh them to call you and speak to you about this uh that you get no response, you know, from them. So, uh except for the one. So,

149that's all I'm going to say on it. I will be voting no on that and I would encourage my fellow board members to do the same. Mr. Chair, yes sir. I I want to Paul I've looked at the wording. It's it's it's very good this time. I have no problem with it because it do you want it? Yes. You know, do you want to elect the superintendent last? You know, the other time it was it was the other way around, you know, and it kind of confused and that ballot too had many amendments when it like two pages on the ballot. I mean everything in the world. You get in that general and it's just mess bunch of mess across that that ballot. So this one, you know, your fivestar voters, I know they're going

150to be there. They've always been my my elections. And so if they want to vote, they'll have the opportunity to vote. You know, that's how I look at it. So I I'll be voting no on it. And any other comments? This brings us to Yes, sir. Would go to order? No, no, no. Another item. I got it for good old. Okay. Uh, this brings us to public forum. We have one speaker for public forum, Mr. Rich Hosnik. You have three minutes. Mr. Chair, members of the board, Mr. Superintendent Miss Odum. Um, sir, rep from district 5, I agree with you concerning the uh the vote and and when the vote should take place. Hold your ground on that. It should be it should be conducted on the primary just as you uh put forth. So,

151pardon me now. Yeah. Yeah. Okay. Yeah. As this board put forth. Exactly. Um, I just have one uh one comment and that's uh as you continue to deliberate on the role of book review committees um in the wake of the recent aggressive book removals, um I would strongly recommend just as the rep from District 1 uh spoke at length about that you that you never uh deputize the book review committee uh to put a you know a removed book back on the shelves. uh that that authority needs to be retained by the board. Now uh and I just would like to reiterate what's been said by members of the board on this. The rep from uh district 2 has said these book review committees have not served us well and they've not served our children

152well. The rep from district 5 said even even today the committees just have not been working. rep from district 1 has said that uh even appointing a representative to the book review committees has not worked. They don't want to read the books. Uh they're graphic, they're profane. Uh and essentially they've been a waste of time and most of the volunteers are wanting out from the book review committees. As much as you may want community input uh for the process, uh it's a very difficult thing to fix the composition of the book review committees so that you have a fairminded, evenhanded look at each book. Um the book review committees will almost invariably vote to retain a book. That's what we've seen for the last several years. they will vote to retain every book. In the

153in the cases when um a book review committee vote is challenged and then goes to the school board uh for uh a final determination. Um the the rep from district 1 is again correct because the the uh position of the book review committee is generally 180 degrees out of sync with that of the elected officials. you who uh determine what the community standard is. Um on at least one occasion, books that were unanimously voted to be retained by the book review committee were unanimously voted to be removed. That's just the way it is. Okay. So, um in some the book review committee process has been Oh, wow. It's been ineffectual. Um, I think we need to stick with the statutes and uh, thank you for your time. Wow, that that was fast. Sorry about that.

154Thank you. Now, is it now is anything uh, for the good, Mr. Mr. Adams? Yeah, I I know we all went to orientations. You know, I did four schools that day, but I do want to tell the superintendent and the board uh, for Longleaf, big crowd, very excited. parents were talking about how great it's going to be. They're going to be there from kindergarten to 8th grade and um and then they'd have a choice of going to pine forest or putting in for magnets or whatever they want to do. But very everybody I saw was just very upbeat about that which so that's why we want you to move more on some more you know right Paul. Yes. So man that's it it's just a it's great to see what happened there but every orientation

155was good. The middle schools were good and uh everybody did a great job for our employees. So appreciate what they did. Mr. Mr. Harold, uh it was wonderful, Mr. Adams, when we went to those things. I know. I I mean, when you went to yours, I got the same impression at mine. Uh I went two elementary schools and a middle school that morning. The excitement on the boys and girls face and even the excitement from the parents. I don't know if it was because, okay, they're going back to school or or is the excitement. Oh, yes. We we we're loving what's happening here. And hadn't it been a good school opening, everything has just been so smoothly. But I was noticing. Yeah, I know. I better be quiet. My last year as a principal, I've

156never had a bus accident. Had four. I told Miss the last year, but anyway, uh you're right. You're right, Mr. FCO. Anyway, what I wanted to say was that the two schools I visited, uh everybody was so positive and upbeat and uh excited. that and at ransom the crowd was absolutely huge. The gym was full. They were flowing all down the hallways and things like that. And uh everybody is just the excitement of opening the school and that's a wonderful time. And all the employees who work so hard and the superintendent, their staff, they need to be commended. We've had an excellent school opening. I've also forgot um every school was well kept. I mean I don't know how fast them guys are cutting grass, but at every one of mine, so it looked good.

157The schools look clean, walls look good. So, uh, appreciate what operations did to get everything ready, too. Yes, sir. I guess from the board, we need to applaud the people out here who made that happen. There you go. Yeah. Stand up. With that being said, this meets a journ back up again.