Regular School Board Workshop 7/10/25

001Yeah, man. Good afternoon, ladies and gentlemen. Welcomes. I call to order the July workshop of the Escambia County School Board. The purpose of this workshop is an open discussion on items brought forth by the board and 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 the public forum, you must complete a speaker request form located on the table at the rear of the room and bring it to Miss Harold at the front table. Moving into our discussion, first thing we have board members is the calendar. We will look at the rest of July and August and also look at a date in September. So if everyone would look at July any additions or

002corrections to July calendar let's move on to August. We have on the 31st of July the adoption of the tenative budget. Oh, and Mr. Superintendent on the administrative conference where on this 22nd, where's that located? What's Bailey Middle School daily? Look forward to having all of you present. Okay. The administrative conference in July 22nd at Bailey Middle School. It actually I think they'll have some light refreshments beginning at 7:15 and the conference actually starts at 8. Okay. We'll adopt the tenative budget on the 24th. The 31st is adoption of the tenative budget. August uh we have discussion workshop on the 14th. regular board meeting on the 19th and the uh school board is going through master board training. So, I'd like to look at September 3rd, the 11th. Uh we're going to meet that morning

003at 8:30, but we need to have a um it's approval of AFR on that day. So, we can meet at 11:30. Every board member can make that thing. September 11th, 11:30 8:30 is the master board and then we we have to approve the annual financial report. So, we're going to do that at 11:30 and then we'll have our discussion at 1 p.m. All board members okay with that? Anything else for the calendar we move on next, Mr. Superintendent? We have public forum update. Um, we had quite a number of speakers. Uh, the majority of them were on book in the book review process and there's a couple items on this this month's agenda that uh should address all of those public forum updates. Okay. Thank you. At this time, we're going to move item 41

00443A. Uh going to move that up from the general from the regular agenda. This is the appointment of the internal audit. Mr. Bryant, David Bryant is here to answer any questions that we may have. So, David is wearing UWF colors today. I think it might be Pensacola State. And this is Todd Wilson, chair of our audit committee. Thank you for being here, Todd. I actually was going to go over a couple things. Um there's actually an item underneath the uh the auditing agenda as well. I figured we would kind of knock them all out at one time if that's okay with the board. Um yes, the uh the one item underneath internal auditing is the uh quality assurance review. Um everybody always loves to ask who audits the auditors and uh this is who audits

005the auditors. Uh our standards require that every five years an independent body come in and assess our compliance with the uh the global standards. And so they look at everything from uh the way the department's designed, our charters, schoolboard policy, uh how we uh manage the department, how we uh conduct our audits, what our reports look like, how we follow up on findings, you name it. There's about 150 175 standards that they test us against. And so, uh, the way the process works is they have a bunch of different bodies that will do this for you. Um, we go through the association of local government auditors. They, uh, randomly assign people. Uh, the two people that came to, uh, to our district, one was from Washington State and one was from Miami Dade. And so,

006um, they were here the week of June the 9th. And so they look at all of our audits, all of our paperwork. Uh they conduct some interviews and then they uh determine compliance with the standards and they issue this report. And so uh the the highest level of conformity that you can get is that you generally comply with the standards. And that's what our office got. And uh they did have one recommendation and it had to do with uh with doing uh annual internal assessments of your quality. Uh when it comes to quality, you can either build those processes or build that quality into your processes. Make sure that you have people that review things and make sure that you have uh just different things as part of the ongoing process. But uh what the

007standards like to see now is that you basically every single year kind of do a mini assessment of yourself and they want that process to be formalized. And so uh that was their recommendation to us. um we did respond and say that that we agree with that and so we'll develop a process by which uh every single year um they'll pick some standards to look at and kind of do a mini assessment to say this is where we're at with the compliance. The the standards uh require that um we present to the board this conversation, this report, the management letter that they sent with the recommendation and what the district's response was. So, that's the one item under uh under internal auditing. Um I did want to give you another update. I think Miss Odum

008sent it out to you yesterday or the day before. Um for those of you that were here, weren't here. Um we had lots of problems with FEMA on our debris and they wanted to pretty much question every single dollar of it. And uh after a lot of time being fed up, we decided that we were just going to go to arbitration with them. It was a binding oper um arbitration and um pleased to report that uh the arbitration board found completely in our favor. Um over a million dollars that FEMA was holding out on us um just for ridiculous reasons. And so they uh they dismissed all of FEMA's administrative arguments. Um and then when it came to the merits, they said, "Look, you know, you've documented your debris so many different ways." And they

009said, "Uh, you know, you're entitled to all of it." And so what will happen now is that order will get entered into like the Florida public assistance database and then uh that money will become obligated. So they've already obligated a portion of it but they'll obligate the rest of it. Um there's no huge timeline or known timeline for when that'll happen. But uh the way it traditionally works even with all the other projects is once they obligate it then we show them because it works on a reimbursement basis. Uh we show them that we spent the money. We give them the invoices. We give them the proof of payments, time sheets, all those different things. And then they'll send us the money. And then we work with revenue when we know how much it's going

010to be. Um we'll let revenue know, hey, just be on the lookout for this. And then um they'll let us know when it comes in. So um that should put an end to our debris saga. Um yeah. Yeah. And and that money comes in um you know, however um Mr. s here. We'll figure out the best way to use that. But, uh, um, you know, I'm I'm sure he could use a million dollars right about now. So, um, because, you know, it's money that we spent four years ago, five years ago. Um, and and thank you for that doing that. That was that was great along with Ellen working with you. So, good good job by the team. Whoever the team is all is. Okay. It was it was an interesting process. You know, it's

011it's one of those things where you're really um you're really passionate because you know you're right. can't believe the obstruction that you get and so you um you just write with lots of passion and uh and like I said for them to come back as convincingly they as they did and I mean they used the word frivolous more than once when it came to FEMA. So it was it was a good day for the district. Um, the last thing we have, which is the item that uh was on the agenda, um, as you know, I'm I'm no longer here. Um, but I'm like the cat that you feed. You just can't get rid of me. But, uh, um, so we had talked previously about the process for my replacement. Mom, it was one of the

012things that I was committed to helping the district do. And so uh we established a pretty lengthy process where um you know we did the advertisement, we sent it out to professional organizations. Uh we advertised with LinkedIn, we put it in um you know news journal, all those different things. Uh we had the applications come in. Um we formed a committee. The committee was um Miss Odum, uh Mr. Windham, uh Miss Pam Riley who is over school internal accounts in finance because that's so much of what internal auditing does. and then myself and then a lot of you know Miss Kiker who's a former auditor in the office. You know who better to to judge the the boss than someone that was under the boss for 20 years. And so uh that was the initial

013committee made up of district people. And so that committee held interviews over two days, interviewed seven different people. And so that committee ranked the individuals and made a recommendation to the audit committee to interview someone. And so the uh school board policy and the audit committee charter says that the audit committee is responsible for providing a recommendation to the school board uh for the hiring, firing uh evaluation of the director of internal auditing. And so uh that committee made the recommendation to the audit committee. The audit committee met on June 30th um and conducted the interview and um overwhelmingly agreed with the committee person that we thought was a good replacement for me. Um the person that uh that we recommended, the person that they're recommending, former member in the office, um bachelor's degree, master's

014degree, um has a certified fraud examiner certification, has worked in the department, familiar with the district. So, uh think it'll be a good fit, a good transition. Um this person has done inventories, this person has done school internal accounts audits, this person has experienced FEMA. Um this person sat across from principles before uh doing exit conferences. Um so it's going to be I think it'll be a really good transition for the district. Has a good demeanor when it comes to people as well. And I think that's important. I think uh she recognizes that um you know we're here at a spirit to help and uh it's not about gota auditing, it's about helping people and that we're all on the same team and that that was really important to me when I was here and

015I think that she's going to kind of carry that on. So, uh, Mr. Wilson from the audit committee chair, he's here. And also Miss Lane, the the recommended candidate, she's here as well. If if anyone has any questions, anything from the board. Can we bring this link? Bring her up. Miss McKenzie late. Yeah. Would you like to say anything, M? Um, well, just I want to thank the interview committee, the audit committee. I'm really excited to uh be back. Of course, once y'all approve me, please. But, uh, someone asked me actually this week, did I feel like I was going home? And I said, actually, yes. The district feels like home. So, I'm really excited to be back. So, well, thank you. Thank you. Malcolm and Mr. Brian, thank you for all you've done for

016our district. Really appreciate it. You'll be missed, but we know where to find you. Dave, Dave, oh, David, same same for me. U great job. Your your staff did a great job on all these audits. Whenever you go out and look for all that equipment, everything. And I remember with the federal government, I did it with the Department of Defense. That's a hard thing to do to track down everything. But, uh, who's going to eyeball those booster clubs? We still There's still someone in the office that does that. The inventory position is actually vacant right now. Um you'll probably get a recommendation from the audit committee about adjusting that job description. Um they had a meeting to discuss that. Um but uh that position I I figured before I'd let the new director handle some

017of those things. Um and that way that person gets an opportunity to put their stamp on the staff and and how they want to run the show. And so I think that's best. Mr. Har. Uh David, I want to thank you for your service to the district and all you've done and thank you for the million dollars too. and you and Miss Odum, it couldn't have come at a more timely time. We wish you well in your new endeavor and thank you again for all of your years of service and all the things that you've done for this district. That's f and David, I want to thank you too for all the years that you've been here, the way you've carried yourself, the way you've conducted business, the way you've treated people has given everyone

018the confidence that that you earned and and you definitely deserve. We had never a doubt that when you brought something forward that you did it to the best of anybody's ability and that we could count on everything you did as being complete and right and and just. So if you continue that in the future, you'll continue to go wherever wherever it is your heart leads you. Thank you, Miss Bosch. And David, I would like to echo all my board members. Thank you so much for your work and your dedication to our district. I haven't had the opportunity to work with you as a board member, but I've worked with you in the past. So, thank you very much for your your hard work and your love for the district. It really shows. And we can

019always find you if you wear that green tie. There you go. Thanks. Yeah, Mr. Superintendent. Yeah. So, David, on behalf of all the staff here at the district, 52 57 different call centers, thank you for everything that you've done. Uh, and also on behalf of an old social studies teacher, I'm very, very proud of you, young man. Thank you. Yep. Way to go. [Applause] Thank you guys. Next we have, Mr. Superintendent, the school board policies 2520 and 2522. Yes, sir. Hopefully I got each of you a paper copy of 2520 and 2522. Uh the first thing I I believe that you should always do is give credit where credit is due. And it is not due to me. It is due to Miss Odum and a couple of other ladies that work diligently to get

020all of this together u for it to be in front of you today. And I think it would be appropriate uh for us to take 2521st and go page by page and as each board member sees something that perhaps is not exactly the way they want it. we can have that conversation or if you see things that are completely in alignment with the direction you have provided really as all five board members we'll put our stamp of approval on that and we'll get ready to go forward with the advertising and eventually the approval. So on page one of five on 2520 you do not see any highlighted information so that should be exactly the same. Um, Miss Odum will stop me where I go. Arai on page two of five. Once you get under adoption

021of instructional materials, right below the superintendent shall maintain a list of adopted instructional materials. Now you see the green highlighted print. Does anybody have any comment or wish to make any additions there? Miss Odel, I did want to point out that in the in the language that I believe Mr. Harold gave me, um, he had said he had s said that he wanted verbiage that said there would be no sexually explicit material in instructional materials, supplemental reading, and library books. The way this rule is laid out, the first section, it's a little misleading because Neiola doesn't do a great job of having different font sizes and and and enumerating different sections, but the first part of this has to do with the selection of instructional and supplemental materials. Um, and so I split those two.

022That's why you you will see something that appears to be a bit redundant, but um a little bit more than halfway down the page. No, actually, I'm sorry. It's where is the beginning of um I placed I placed a section under adoption of instructional materials that included language that there would be no sexually explicit material in supplemental uh instructional and uh required reading lists. And then I repeated that when we get down to the section that deals specifically with selection of library and media center collections. So if you see some redundancy that's the reason I'm very comfortable with that. My only concern is I would like to include in that language as far as instructional supplemental um donation books donated books. So when we have community members we know that it's specific. Can we do

023that? Thought that was in there somewhere. It is. It's um Oh, gotcha. Gotcha. [Music] It's in the library. But what about classroom books like library class? It it addresses classroom um library collections. Okay. Let me I've written down a word here. Do I need to not write down a word? Do I not do we need do we not need to worry about putting donated u in the adoption of instructional materials? I I would I would probably defer to Miss Venson on whether or not that's that's even an issue. Um I don't Okay. The only example that I can think of and we met the other day. We did have one one instance of a a really good group of people that are well that was well intended. Um have you ever heard of riff reading

024is fundamental? I mean we had a situation one time two you have any thoughts on the donating portion and adoption of instructional materials. We got a couple more months that we'll be able to look at and we'll make good solid decisions. The next section with highlighted print is in school library um media centers and reading lists. See that there? Give each individual board member the opportunity to discuss this language. I I would just like to note that the word donated is in the sentence above there with that in those materials. That was your concern, Mrs. Posh. You can see that uh it says donated or otherwise made available to students. Um, and I uh that certainly satisfies the language that I had submitted. Thank you. I I think um Keith, you can correct me, but

025isn't there a form they got to fill even if somebody wants to bring a movie into a class is outside or what? Is there a form they're supposed to there's a form that the uh the teacher, the certified staff member and the principal sign off on for that material to be used if it comes from outside of Yes, sir. Yeah. I think Okaloosa got caught in that on that um they did one movie. Yes. It was not the historical movie. I think Mr. Adams that also applies to if you bring a guest speaker in. It does. Um I don't know if if this is the exact right time for me to mention this to you, Ellen and Mr. Wilson, uh Mr. Alabc and Miss Vincent, we've all had these conversations from time to time. Our

026students really we have quite a number of students that take intern they're in the international balart program. They are in um AP courses, dual enrollment courses. So we want to make certain that we also provide opportunities for those students especially with the required instruction or reading that might be required by that particular course that we don't hamstring them from being able to take AP. So far the the I I shouldn't say the biggest regret. Um, one of the regrets that I have was early on we had to make a decision and we made it quickly about AP psychology and our students lost the opportunity for that entire school year to take AP psychology. That that's not today we've been in master board training and overwhelmingly everybody talked about students first all of us. So we

027want to make sure we keep that not in the oipital lobe but in the front of our mind. So keep that in mind as you go through all of these these two policies and in particular when we we do something else in today's agenda because there may be a few instance instances where I have to tell you uh maybe there were 12 books that were on certain lists that have been used in IB AP and dual enrollment. We want to make certain that our students have that opportunity. We do have a mechanism that would allow that to occur if this board is in agree agreement with it. All right, we'll move to page 30 of five. And there's quite a bit of uh highlight here. Uh Miss Odum can help us if you have anything

028that you need uh that is not here or if you would like to amend it. And thank you. I can tell all of you have gone through this with a fine tooth comb. Yes, sir. I figured it's better for us to hear you talk than me, right? I like the fact that uh the a uh the API IB and other similar programs that you have there that option there gives an option for the superintendent there. So that's I I would like to see us do that. I don't know how the other board members agree uh that I I will say this that presently is not and this is what's going to be coming up for discussion on later agenda items. Um, as we understood the directive that was given by the board, um, if titles

029were removed by the department of reported on the Department of Education's website as having been removed by other school districts, then they were to be removed from our schools as well. If we just went straight with that, as our rule stands right now with that directive from the board, the books that have been used in the AP and IB curriculum would be out. They would be gone. Um, so that is something that I think Mr. um Mr. Leonard was hoping to get some additional guidance as to whether or not is it your intention that that we just go ahead and remove all these books or are do we have some flexibility to say we can hang on to these books until this policy gets into place and those kinds of books will be made available

030with parental consent. Right. Exactly. And I did I did want to let the board know um you'll see that I've put some options in here kind of you probably remember when we were going through the whole Niola process and you could choose this option or that option. I I borrowed that strategy because as I was you know there are a lot of decisions in here that are not my decision to make. They're not Mr. Leonard's decision to make. It's up to you. Um, and so the first one that I was that I was considering is um, you know, do you want it to be a blanket application that if a book has ever been removed by any school district, it's out or it falls under whatever the parameters are that we're going to establish? Or

031do you want to look at if a certain number of school districts have removed it? You know, you can certainly go down that road. I I'd rather just leave it. Yeah, I can I'm in agreement, too. I think if if it it's been reviewed by other states, we don't need to waste our resources and review it again. But with the exception of the API, we need to look at it more closely. And and I'll tell you, board, if it if it's something that's really really bad, you know, we're going to have a room full of people here that's going to let us know, right? I've already spoken, so I know this guy's light on. Thank you, sir. Remember Bob's rules. We're working on it. Um I agree with my fellow board members. If it's been

032removed somewhere, um it needs to be one that is removed. if it is utilized in any of these uh specific programs or for some other um approvable application in the future that's not listed here. there there is then keeping that possibility to look at that and bring it back on an individual CA basis. And that dovtales nicely into the next option that you have is uh the sentence would then read books of which which have been removed by other school districts shall not be selected period or may be selected only um upon approval by the school board. Um, so frankly you could you could well I think what Mr. Fetszkco was saying is there may be instances in which you decide you there may be a reason to keep just the AP and IB. Well

033this this is going this is going to get to a larger issue for discussion later and I'm sorry for jumbling it all up but it it's it's a topic that needs to be broached. There are books that have made it all the way through our review committee um and all the way through board decision. Uh the example that I think of is The Bluest Eye by Tony Morrison. Um we remember the 1:00 a.m. board meeting at which it it was restricted to 11th and 12th grade. However, however, some school districts have removed it. Right. So, do we stick with the decision that the school board made regarding maintaining that book at 11th and 12th grade or do we remove it because the direct if the directive is that you have to remove any book that

034has been removed by another school district then the bluest eye has to go as well in spite of the work that this board did. Yes, sir. Mr. Fisco. Yes, ma'am. And my understanding when the the blest eye was discussed and gone through was that we kept it in because it was being used instructionally in IB at that time. I do think that that is one that has been used in AP and IB. Um however there are other books uh similar um the nowhere girls I think is that one. Uh, nowhere girls was a book that the school the school board again read the book and decided to keep it at high school level only 11th and 12th grade. If there's an exception, all all he has to do is come back to the board and

035say, "Hey, we we found something here we think." Yeah, that's it. But I just want to make sure that and we'll talk about book committees here in a little bit. Okay. But I just want to make sure that everybody knows the game plan and we're not going to have things swinging back into that media center without the board knowing because we five are liable for whatever pornographic stuff is in our libraries. So we just want to make sure that there is no way that something's going to slide in there without us knowing it. So, so what what I would I would respectfully suggest then is you know somebody had said shall not be selected period I would suggest that that consistent with what I think that I'm hearing it would actually be may only be

036selected upon approval by the school board. So what that would mean is if there is this exception with the book for whatever reason and Mr. Leonard comes forward and says hey I think this is a book that's appropriate. it's already been through the full school board review process and we think it's appropriate to keep it in our schools at these grade levels. Um then then it's up to the board to decide that that book can stay. So what you're saying is it going to be pulled ex unless the firms asked for board approval. Right. Okay. We would and we actually talked about this more than once several days. um you're going to make whatever decisions you make and then Tuesday night you're going to make the decision and it may be all of a sudden

037at beginning of next school year they list two books for u AP uh that need to be read. They're going to be required readings. I would do everything I could to get those to you on a board agenda as quickly as possible. Right. Yeah. That's that's that would be the plan um of action. touch when we do. Yeah. Are you good, Ellen, with what we talked about? Okay. So, the next section is the following standard shall be applied in considering whether to select a title. I have a I have a suggestion on for that one. Yes, sir. I got Klay County here. Okay. And they use that junior high and high school. So for they call junior high or middle school it would be limited profanity, racial or religious slurs. And then on high school

038it's no pervasive use of racial slurs are crude or excessively profanity. And me and Keith talked about this because you know we had that one book um you you read the professional review it said didn't alert you to nothing and there was 480 FUS in the book. Okay. So some of it's going to have to be common sense if there's just one or two things in there. Well, there's a whole bunch, you know. So that's what I'm thinking. So that they got it kind of aligned. I could pass this around. You see you want to see that? See that? Okay. Pass it. David might want to look at it if I got it highlighted. And that' be a easy way. And if if it don't work, we can come back and do it again. I

039looked at that, Mr. Adams also. And on my notes here, I put down li limited profanity at middle school and uh no excessive profanity in high school. That's pretty close. When you look at Klay County, I've got Klay County. Oh, do you? So that's that's where I borrowed that from, but I left off the part about the racial slurs and things like that. We haven't had a problem with that. And I don't know how we would You want to see that, Mr. L? Yes, I I have it. Okay. So, uh I just said limited profanity and no excessive uh at that. And then you get into the question what is excessive and what is limited and things like that. That's what the committee and the board's there for. You know, that's that's that's that's where

040our purview comes in once the superintendent brings it to us. I feel like I'm back in the meeting we had two days ago with our our team because those were the same questions. You know, what's excessive? Yeah. By and limited, right? It's all about perception and perspective, isn't it? Didn't we talk about that today? Well, I would imagine a media director or media special wouldn't want to come to the board with a recommendation on a book that has FU 480 times. I don't see no literacy value to that. Um, and then really we don't see anything else new until you get right above purchase of instructional materials. Uh, yeah. Down where it says coordinator immediate highlighted in green just above purchase of instructional materials. Okay. Yeah. What do you think? Page 305. You want to

041green? This is This is the area the coordinator of media services and the media specialists. Um should we also include donated in that area? It says um purchases of books, supplemental materials or meeting lists to include donated materials. So what you know to get back what we were talking about what's excessive, what's not. Well, I think we need to be very specific about you could just say acquisitions rather than p purchases. Sure, that's fine. Tom, did this have enough accountability built in that you wanted? Yeah, I I do I would like to get some clarity um on with regard I've I've made the notes just look at Klay County's language, but you Klay County specifically has profanity, racial slurs, etc. And I want to know what the board's will. Um it says no crude elementary

042no crude profanity. Here's the funny thing. This is how my mind works. No crude profanity, racial or religious slurs, but just regular profanity and racial slurs are fine if they're not crude. So, um I would I would phrase it differently, but you could you can do that. Okay. As long as you get the same intent. Um but then so I guess I guess my question is do we want to include the language regarding racial or religious slurs? And uh Mr. Mr. Harold and I had a conversation about this and um I I'm absolutely fine putting in whatever we want. It's just we I think we need to make sure that we have something that is sufficiently clear. Um because what some what one individual considers to be a religious slur may not be considered a

043religious slur to someone else. Um, and you know, this is this is kind of this interesting place we are where um, did Tom write his about the way you think it should been or uh, No, no, no. He he didn't know that. I don't know that your had any proposed language this specific. We just had g very general conversations about it. If you want to give your I'm perfectly fine with use with using this. Like I said, if you want to include profanity, racial, or religious slurs, I'm happy to put it in there. I just need to know that that's what the board wants. That's that's fine with me. I just wanted I just think that we need to have some a little clarification there. I had written in my notes here uh to leave

044it the way it was, the way you originally put it, Miss ODM, but then I put uh for middle school limited uh profanity and no excessive profanity. And then again, you come back to the judgment, but as I said before, that's where the board comes in. the superintendent brings us and we if if if a book that has the the f-word in it 243 times that I looked at the other day that to me that's excessive that's excessive yes yes and that probably wouldn't be one that we wouldn't have to bring back but one that has uh four or five in it and but the way the content in it may be something that we have to look at so uh I'm fine with what Miss ODM put down on the first one and if

045y'all want to add the racial I I'll go along with that doesn't matter to me what you got there is only serves the same same purpose. Uh I don't want to address the board members though, but we go ahead. I'm okay with it. Okay. I I So I need Okay. What are we okay with? I I think we're going to we're going to use some modification of the clay language. Okay. Good. Anything else on page three of five? Did you cover the part about certification there, Mr. Leonard? Yeah, at the bottom there uh right above purchase of instructional materials and I think she added the donate to get the donation there. That's where we were. We added the word acquisition. I'm going to change that to acquisition. So, anything that we obtain any new incoming

046books regardless of whether it's by purchase, donation. Okay. Um, that was a thing that I had handed in to as one of the things I just wanted to be sure that we were very clear that the media specialist and the media coordinator were to certify to the superintendent. That's our our plus there that uh that that that it does not have any sexually explicit materials in it. Okay. Thank you. We we need to make darn sure the front door is closed for that kind of stuff. So, while we're dealing with what's already in there, not have to deal with more coming in. So, I think that wraps us up in 25. Anything else that you guys have seen in your reviews of other um other school districts challenge policies that you would like to see

047reflected? Are there any other thoughts that you would like to share that I can figure out how to word smith to get it in here or do you feel like this is a good starting point? Okay. So, we'll move to 2522. And I believe we can go all the way to page 305. And if I I think a lot of this language is not necessarily redundant, but it is repeated in the early one just with a few other items added on page. three of five. And it's not green this time. It should be gray on your print. So what this first paragraph does is uh you know we already have an existing provision that allows the superintendent and Mrs. Venson to make a decision that a book just it it exceeds any standards that we

048want and it's going to be removed. What this first paragraph does is it says that um if there is a book that is challenged that doesn't meet the selection criteria set forth in the prior rule then they can they can just decide to remove it. So if we have a book that is challenged because it's on the DOE list that doesn't meet with the se selection criteria and they they don't have to we don't have to consider the challenge any further. They can just say yep it doesn't meet the selection criteria and it's off the list. So that's the effect of that first language. And then the second l uh paragraph that was added was um that would allow the um superintendent in consultation with the coordinator of media services to dismiss a challenge that

049is frivolous or lacking in reasonable merit. Um, I've added that in bas basically because a question that Judge Weather kept asking us was what what if somebody challenges Draw Me not Draw Me a Star um The Hungry Caterpillar. The Hungry Caterpillar by Eric Carl, illustrated children's board book. There's nothing obscene or pornographic about it. It's about a caterpillar that eats a bunch of food and turns into a butterfly at the end. and um what if we got a challenge but somebody said somebody said it's pornographic by operation of the statute if they challenge it on that basis we have to pull it out of circulation until the review the challenge is completed and as Judge Weatherall said that book would sit in purgatory until the the decision was made and I apologize he may not

050have been the one who used purgatory that may have actually been the plaintiffs in one of the book lawsuits However, you get my point. Um, this would give the superintendent and Miss Vincson the ability to look at a book challenge and say, "There is nothing wrong with this book." Um, and and just put it back on the shelves and not waste any more um taxpayer dollars and district resources and considering something that's just just frivolous. I agree. And once again, that's something if it's I don't think he would make the wrong decision or but if if the people citizens thought so, they come here to this boardroom and we'll listen to it and we can we can do something if required. So I I agree with that. I I agree and I think this is

051exactly what was said a long time ago that the superintendent does have the authority to do these things. So, we should make sure that that authority and responsibility is still in his hands. Go ahead. No, go ahead. Uh, I agree with that totally. The superintendent has to make the SU school district work on a daily basis. He has to he's the front line out there and he needs to have the authority to look at these and decide whether this is appropriate under our policy or not and move forward. That's that's what we would expect of him and that's what he does. So, uh, I I agree with that totally. Okay. Thank you. So, Mr. Williams, you got anything? Okay. So, we go to M before you go off there because we it's right below there.

052I want to talk to the board about an issue. I talked to Keith about it with us trying to move these books quickly and make sure we um don't have any migrating back in. I told Keith, I don't see the reasons to have a book committee as it is now. I told Keith he can have his own little district, little committee. So if they they look at the book and think it needs to come to the board, it just comes right to the board, you know, and make decision instead of going through a blue team, red team, how many's on each kit committee coming down here. We're ultimately going to be the ones that make the decision at the end. And I just think it's it's probably time because if not, we're going we're probably

053going to vote 50 on something and we're going to have a committee vote 50 the other way, you know, and the committee is not we can't delegate our responsibility to the committee because we're held responsible on these books. So you're and I really I try to talk to all five of you. Yeah. Um and we talk about a lot of different things and it's it's a welcome conversation. Yeah. Tell you exactly um why it's not what I can tell you I think that would be important is at the last board meeting as we were having conversations here at the dis that sentiment was not unified. We what you're going to see Miss Odum has worked on is it we we still have the district review material committees is in this language. So, if that's something

054that three out of the five or all five of you want to change, um we we need to know. You don't have to do it right now. Uh because, you know, there'll be another time when it comes before, but the other night when we were all together, uh at the board meeting, um that was not a unified. I don't think we even mentioned that part of it. I don't think we talked that much about that. But as I was looking at at what how the motions got incorporated in this. Yes, sir. You know, to move quickly so we don't pay $300,000. I'm sorry. Point of order. I think Mr. Harrow was next. Let me give everyone a chance to speak. Give everyone a chance to speak on it. Then we'll we'll move on. I'm wondering

055I want to ask Miss ODM a question. Isn't it Aren't there some statutes that say we have to have community input in this? There are various aspects of the law with regard to selection of books that require us to have community input. Um I Does it specifically say we have to have a committee to look at? I don't I don't recall. It's it's been a minute since I've looked at that and there have been a lot of other issues that have cropped up between um this and 1467 I think is which is what got the ball rolling. Clay County has a district review committee that is district. We don't we're not required to have it. But so the federal judge that's weatherall that's what he said. I got no what what what he was referring

056to is there is nothing in our current policy that requires a book to be resolved through we we have a committee but he said that under our policy it doesn't have to go to that committee. Yeah. Our policy said it may go to the it could have come straight to the board but we didn't do that. Um, I'm not I'm not opposed to what Mr. Adams is saying here about taking that out. I I think we just have to move a little cautiously, you know, that uh with that. I I I agree with the concept that it's got to come to the board anyway. Come to the board anyway. Yeah. There you go. So, why why put us why put citizens through that? Yeah. I just wanted to be the point that I was trying

057to make. I wanted to be sure that uh if we do that that we're not violating any statutes or or community input and things like that. and he he could still have that district committee where they have the principal and the parent on there however they want it but just not the way we're doing it. Mos I agree with Mr. Adams mile hesitancy I think we need to move slowly on if we were looking at uh community input because I think that's very valuable. Um so I I'm going to pause on that right now. uh you know I I think the the book review committees can be very instrumental. I do agree that maybe we need to revamp some of those committees because I think maybe some of them may have their own agenda and

058they want to you know kind of styy our book review process. So that's my only concern. But I I do agree that we need to look more closely, but let's just do it cautiously. And I would like I at least like to have the option still have that option uh as a resource because we don't know what's going to happen in the future that we might need public input on something. U I'm I'm open to still holding on to the committee, but I do understand what you're saying. I figure we won't get plenty of input, public input right there at that podium like we usually do. But uh I was going to tell you even the Supreme Court is split on different agendas. So we've seen these last couple of votes. You had the conservative

059side and you know I was the one that that proposed to put I wasn't going to bring people from each board members and it got into a game on phone calls I had and people trying to game the system. And in the end the state attorney said you five are held legally responsible. That's why I didn't want the board and I hope we got it in there. I don't know, Ellen, that if we do keep the committee, they should not have the power to put a book back on that bookshelf. It has come to the board. It has been challenged. Okay. I believe the way I've read it is even if it went to a district review committee, it would still come to the board for final approval. You mean the DOE the books that

060have been removed because of the DOE removal? No, I'm talking about just a regular challenge coming in. What we've had in the past is the book committee can approve that book to go back on that shelf without it ever coming through the board. Correct. Because be but the challenger has the option of appealing that. And if they choose not to to appeal it, that's I'm not concerned about the challenger. I'm concerned about us five board members who are legally responsible for that book going back on that shelf from a committee. Okay. And we've had many many examples of the book the the board being 180 degrees out with committee. So that's where that's why I put that in that motion I had is they Zazak makes a recommendation on the tennis zones but they don't

061go out and reszone. You know, I mean, we don't have a committee that has a executive authority, but how we got this committee, they could place a book right back on there, unless somebody calls us and lets us know we got a problem then. So, yeah, let us do a little more work on it. We hope to be able to have it on the agenda for you uh next month, but let us do some work. Let me talk to Mrs. ODM and she'll set me straight about how we can word it to where um it went through the district review committee. Regardless of the decision, it would come back to the board for final approval. If you want to keep the district in if they want to rec the way it is now, I don't

062know. Does it go? Yes, sir. Thank you. Uh my initial blink of the light was uh to talk about what Mr. Herold brought up. Was there a requirement to have the committee and that's been taken care of. Then I listened to Mrs. Burggosh and I agreed with her like oh let's not knee-jerk reaction. But as I sit here and listen and contemplate and think about the history of this whole thing. Yes. uh we uh we have seen our own creation kind of work against us and at this point uh I know there'll be consternation and nashing of teeth and the whole bit but I I would be more in favor of saying okay we are not going to have a standing committee if at some point in the future we need to assign or come

063up with a committee to do something we'll do it at that point but it comes back to us we do it and we don't have the committee is going and and I'd rather just nip it in the bud right now because it has not served us well or the it has not served the students in my opinion well. Miss I think Miss the one the one thing I will say with regard to the book committees is um we will still have numerous challenges. I haven't I haven't done the math, so I don't know what the numbers are, but after we eliminate all of the books, let's say for the sake of argument that all of the books on the DOE list are removed from our shelves, we're still going to have some books that have

064not been removed that are under challenge and we we need to have a way to address those. Well, I what I had told Keith, we have a media director, we have media specialists, and they should make a recommendation to that superintendent. do we keep it or not? And and Keith will bring it to the board and say, "Hey, I recommend this book to go back on the shelf. I don't believe that challenge was." So I I can give you a little So that's that's where I'm at. There probably I I don't want to put Bradley on the spot or myself. There are probably quite a number of books that are still challenged that Miss Vincent and I have gone through all of them. And once again today we were talking about perception and perspective. We

065would look at those. We'd say, you know, really what we want to do here is have what we some people call them the coffee crew. I didn't know that's what they were called, but it's a group of our media specialists that review and make some really solid decisions about different books and whether or not they're going to have them in on their shelves. Um Bradley, am I close when I would if I guess 20 of them that that's what we wanted to occur more than that. So it certain certainly can be something that we do that just has never been codified in a policy, right? But that is and that's one of the reasons it was uh that's one of the reasons it probably didn't happen as expeditiously as everybody wanted it to, right? And

066see that goes to Tom's accountability issues. So we we got an accountability process there. meet the specialist, get together, what whatever team you want to set up, you know, and make the recommendation to you, bring it to board, and as long as somebody don't tell us there's 248 vulgar words or something at this podium, you know, we'll we'll go with your recommendation. Yeah, Mr. Williams, you cannot. It's my turn again. You know, we just went through a board certified board train. I want to be sure [Laughter] [Music] All right. Um, protocol. Uh, protocol. That's right. U, what I wanted to say is I'm not opposed to a district committee looking at that. I'm not oppo and and I like what Miss Bgosh said, maybe move a little slow. Maybe that what we need to do

067is go ahead and take care of the changes that we have and come back and look again after the superintendent's had a little chance to look at this. the district committee uh the uh uh that uh Klay County has that might be something we want to have a standing district. I'm not opposed to that either. I do think that what Miss Bgar said is so important. We don't want to look like that we're shutting out the community. Uh we don't want to look like that the community is not going to have a chance for input. Of course, they have lots of input here from that podium every board meeting, which is a good thing. And and statutes do say that they have to to do that. I' I'd like to see the process streamlined. I

068agree with Mr. Adams on that. I'd like to see uh uh we've got so much business to conduct and this certainly this is part of it and it's putting boys and girls first. But uh uh what what I think that uh that we do is maybe move on with what we got and take a look at this and add it add something to it and come back to us. That that's just my opinion. Thank you. very comfortable with that and um appreciate the work Miss ODM did to get us where we are today. Uh and it will be better to in my opinion to pause and sort of slow down get what we've got. Um because we did not talk about not having the district material review committees at the last board meeting. I wouldn't

069want to show up next month and say we are. So I appreciate your your attitude and the way you've worked through it. Any other questions on 2520 or 2522? on on page four or five it was highlighted unmitted. Are we leaving that or that's that's that's um just kind of a stylistic thing. Um I noticed that it it referred to what is required by the policy but then the policy also has a lot of permissive. So it's just it's just making sure that we know we're talking about not only what is required but also what is permitted. All right. Uh can I make another comment here? Uh when we start uh Mr. Adams, I commend you last time for bringing the uh book issue up and the resolution that you did. What it did, it

070moved us all center and got us started on a process. So, thank you for that. The other thing I wanted to say was that I brought up the point that we needed to revamp our policy and uh the board indicated all the different things that they wanted to have included in that and I commend Miss Odum and the superintendent for making that happen in a timely manner. Okay. Uh what I was mo mainly interested in is that we got rid of explicit sex and material that we had some accountability you know and that the process could go much smoother and all of those things I think will happen as a result of this and thank you miss ODM and thank you Mr. Superintendent for that. Okay, this brings us to item three on the agenda,

071Mr. Superintendent and additional comments. We got we got quite a few today. Okay, so it's going to take a little while. Um, I think would like to start off with Mr. Bobbit and this is really what we're all about. This is the academic achievement um for the 2425 school year. He he has a really good PowerPoint presentation. We'll make sure all of you get a copy so when you're out there at your different meetings you can brag about what we've done. Thank you sir. Good afternoon everybody. A quick uh start with a reminder that uh for this year we have two different grading scales. One for elementary and then one for middle, high and what are called composite schools which includes the district grade. I am anticipating that next year we will have three scales.

072I think that high school and composite which includes the district rate will go to a new scale next year of student percent of schools that made an A or B has gone above 75%. Yeah, they'll slide the scale for those two levels. They should let us know within the next couple weeks, but we should know before the school year starts. We I think we will see a third a third one. So didn't if Warrington with the charter school if it the scale had stayed the same they would have made it this time right would have made it last time and this time and so now they're going to raise it again and but not for middle I don't expect them to raise it for middle okay okay there was there was less there's about 68%

073of middle schools that made an A or B so the state law is written right now says when 75% of a level reaches an A or B the scale goes up I was a little surprised that for high school last year that they didn't set the scale higher because they were already at 72%. So, I was anticipating this change this year, this coming year. But we we should know in a week or two. And that may be something to put on our bullet for the for the legislators, you know, come on guys. Just going to keep sliding up, sliding up, sliding up. So, yeah, without providing all the resources you're required. Well, there was a bill that made it out of committee this year that you might want to look at that would move the

074scale to 70 80 90 in three years would mean we would have no way very few AAB schools would exist in the entire state if that bill actually made it out of committee this year. So, could be worse. It didn't make it to the governor's desk though, did it? Did that bill make it to the governor's desk? No, it did not make it. It did not make it to vote because of everything that happened, but it did make it out of committee. Tom, there was a huge amount of bills died on the Senate side from that battle between the the Senate and the House this year. And in some ways, it helped us. I'm going to do a little reality check. Okay. When No Child Left Behind, you remember that? Okay. came out, it was

075that every student or every school or whatever would be at 100% in 13 years. The the fallacy of that is 14% of our population is individuals with disabilities. So to expect 100% is is a goal that although nice to think of is not reasonable to that will ever be achieved and and likely or parallel to this is as they keep moving this higher and higher and higher. The reality of it is that no one is ever going to get to the point where everybody's an A school in the state of Florida. It's an it's a statistical impossibility. Yes, sir. Thank you. All right. I'm not as crazy as sometimes I think I am. I can go further if it's okay. Um the way the test is designed, um as a teacher, several teachers in here,

076I can design a test where everyone in the class makes an A. I can design a test where everyone makes an F. These tests are designed where 50 to 57 50 to 60% of the students will not make proficiency. They are designed that way and that's where the scale is set. Miss vomit. Okay. So overall um we are a B district. Our score went from a 59 to a 62. Um overall a as you remember the previous scale a 64 would have been an A. That doesn't mean we're two points away. That's on two points on 12 items. So, we're really about 22 points away from an A. But we have gone up 80 points since 2019, a little bit. We did rise a little bit on the list. Uh we are still overall um

077with a 62 just looking at that we're tied for 32nd. If you look at individual points, we're tied for we're at 40th. So we're we're but we're in the mix with all the other B schools. So much higher. You're going to see that rise because I do a comparison with how we've risen versus the state as a district. So I want to point this out and Mr. Herald would needs to stand up in a second back there. State of Florida, we are number one for middle school acceleration. [Applause] [Music] Now that is a combination of CT and our algebra and biology pass rates. So that combined we are number one in the state. So looking at school grades over the past uh four or five years since 2019 you will see that our A's and

078B's are the highest. Um C's are down a little bit but that's because our A's and B's are up but we do have 3D D schools but you can see the growth that we've had um and we have well surpassed 2019 and they have raised the expectation the level of testing in that time period. So how did we do uh by breakdown um at the by changing grade level? Six elementaryaries increased the grade level. Six however decreased. So we still have work to do. Uh middle school five increased to grade level one decreased and in high school three increased. It's one of those things that you move up and occasionally you like remember I said the fifth grade was so strong last year. When they moved to sixth grade, those fifth grade wasn't quite as

079strong. So, we saw a little bit of dip in places here and there, but there most of them were real close to being like just below where they were before. They weren't there were a couple that did drop a but most were like just barely dropping below. That is that is the change there. But we still as again we still have work to do. These are the state averages on each of the component each of the test versus our average. And you can see that we are still trailing the state. I said back last month and it my anticipation was correct. We did exceed the state average of middle school algebra for the first time. And we're much closer with high school as well. But areas that we still we can still we still have

080growth. We're looking at uh same thing for social studies and science and again elementary fifth grade science we are we are a point above the state average. So two areas we have uh reached above the state average. One of the things when the state put out the original growth they talked about how much they grow grew from last year. So here's a comparison for ELA. The state grew by 4% we grew by five. Stayed the same with M3 through 5th. 6 through 8, the state grew by five. We grew by eight. 9 and 10 the state grew by four. We grew by five. So we are closing that gap. half well outperform the state as far as growth. We haven't got there yet, but we are c we have we are closing the gap. that

081jump in middle school algebra and high school algebra. Social studies did however slip a little bit to fifth grade science. We are still above the state, but we the state grew and we actually decreased a little bit last year. But again, that fifth grade class that went through that was so strong. We came down a little bit federal index. This is the subgroups. Um I highlighted um the CSI part four. This is the first year that this is now implemented. We have after many years um finally reached year six for the first time last year. And so we do have some schools that will be classified CSNI not because of their school grade but because they have had a subgroup below six below 41 the old C for six years in a row. That breakdown

082a little history there. Um we do have fewer schools um that have a rating but we do have 15 schools that fall under CSNI now. Three of them at the 3D schools, six of them because of their overall index and those are our alternative schools. Success Academy Achieve um those the schools Jackie Harris that they don't have a rating but they're overall they're they're treated like they get a school grade in the federal index. We I thought I thought it was a tieback on those they also tie back and affect our schools. They do both. Oh my god. The school the kids count multiple multiple times, but we do have the six six of these CSNIs are there because they have six years in a row the students with disabilities overall like a school grade

083for them like their own separate school are below 41. Um, I will tell you that we were looking at having 15 schools in this coming into this year. We moved eight of them completely off the list. That would have gone into year six. So more than half, we took them off the list completely this year. questions. No questions. Great job, Mr. Bobbert. Thank you for the information. And hopefully next year it would be an A. Close. Getting close. 22 points. Unless they raise the scale, then it's let them raise. Let them raise the scale. But at least we That's what I love about our CNI group. They're goal oriented and they're going to talk about those 22 points and what they need to do to get there. Another place where there was huge improvement was

084in our middle schools wasn't just an acceleration. Uh it may be the best they've ever done. I I don't know all the history here, but very proud of that. High schools. Um last year, those of you that were at the admin conference, we talked about 14, 12, and 25 and how we wanted to turn that upside down. Well, we're on our way. So, thank you for all of you, all of the work that each of you do. Yeah. M Mr. Bob, when will we know how long of a field goal we got to kick next year? It has uh by state law, they have to tell us before school starts. Um the assessment conference is the last week of July. I expect they will announce that and the the schools will not have their school

085improvement plan finished by that time. So, they'll be able to adjust. They're due August 8th. So they have a week. Okay. M Yeah. I Keith, I want to thank you and your team. I'm gonna say team so I can cover everybody in there, educators, staff, everybody that worked. It was a a a good win this year getting those better grades. I know we got the three Ds and I know we're going to figure that out. It's critical for Warrington to come through. So I I hope something happens there. But uh but anyway, good job of moving up with the number of A's and B's. So thank you, sir. Um almost so Mr. Harold did you have something Warrington have we had any word on them because this is their third year right at a D.

086Have we had any word from the state on Oh it's it's more than their third year. It's more than that school's third year of a D. No. Um I know that the U turnaround statute speaks to so many years in turnaround status. Then you have contract that we have with that particular group. So I I will wait for the state board of education to tell me which meeting to be to. Yes, sir. Okay. They for sure have one more. Yes, sir. Um while Mr. St. Seir is coming up to the podium, I'll tell you one other thing. He's going to give us a budget update. We are in the midyear mid cycle of our uh accreditation. So I was hoping all of you could be at the um excuse me admin conference because we'll talk

087a little bit about that uh scambia learning model culture of learning all those things because we want to make certain that we all talk from the same or sing from the same sheet of music u so you may see cognia uh on our campuses early probably September October standpoint I'm sorry sir I will not be there I will be in Pennsylvania, but I am cutting it short so I could get back for the 24th in order to be here for the Yes, sir. Thank you. Sorry. Um, and Mr. Sincere, floor is yours, sir. Okay. Thank you very much. This is today we're going to talk a little bit about uh Capitol Mill and as we discussed a little bit yesterday, we're going to go through a list of departmental and school and overall district level

088needs in the millillage funds, capital mill 3,700 funds. And I'm just going we're going to Elizabeth's got it on the screen if you can see it. If not, we'll blow it up a little bit more. But we'll start with the departments and I don't really have any comments. If you have any, you go ahead and and voice them. Um, you see the departments and some of the proposed uh items that they need and really they when they send something over, they need it. I mean, that's just for the most part, they need it. Um, and this is what has uh and and this changes throughout the year. So, so here's where we're at to start the new year, and we want to show you how much it costs and what they're looking to uh to

089purchase. Any comments on that first section? I'm just comment. And so, this year is going to be a rough year of what I'm hearing. So, like I told the superintendent yesterday, it's a good year to look and say, do we got to have it? Is it necessary or can we do it another year? And that's that that's where I'm talking to superintendent work with his staff decide. I I don't think it'd be hard for us board to come down, but uh we're going to be needing a significant amount of money to uh get out of the hole. Miss St. here the the numbers that's in parenthesis is that the number of u like 16 is that mean 16 new buses right okay yes sir roll it a little Good. You back up to the computers.

090It was a fun. It's one to one for every student replacing those that are outdated. Is that how that works? That's uh I don't know if anybody from it is here, but Mr. Dennis can probably answer some of those for you. Um this is typical replacement cycle, Tom. I'm sorry. Yes, sir. This is to replace what we currently have. this not adding any additional capacity or or Yeah, I kind of figured that replacement. Yes, sir. Cuz we have and we have one one in grades 3 through 12. Um and then we have some schools that have greater or have have additional devices in lower grades as well. Okay. All right. Thank you. Sir, it's also important to note that we have a cycle. So, we don't replace everything at once. If we break one year

091cycle then it will domino down in in suing cycles done on those radios. Is that a annual purchase we do that many radios or is it No sir modernizing the whole fleet? Again it's very similar to what we deal with with almost every major aspect computers buses etc. There are cycles that we try and follow and adhere to. When we have a lean year we just draw it back as tightly as we possibly can. Okay, we can scroll down a little bit. These are not uh these pro where it says projects. These are more um not necessarily tied to departments, although departments need to order them, but it's things that they need um as you see listed there. And then there's a few schools that need some copers and we'll get into All right. So

092that really is the discretionary stuff. That's the stuff that is that is uh that are that is ordered by departments and schools um to take care of business to replace things that um are needed that wear out and and various other needs. So the next section we'll see transfers out of the capital millage into other funds. These are our cops debt service requirements. These are property in this is property insurance um transferring in to cover property insurance. So here's how it works. The uh capital millage is tied to all of our debt service except one which are the sales tax revenue bonds series 2016 which uh built BA middle school. The rest you'll see here I'll go ahead and name it the COP series 2020A. Uh the debt service requirements there are 0.58 millillage. So

093that 4.9 million is the millillage portion. There's also a sales tax portion to that one, but that built Pleasant Grove. The next one is series 2023A Myrtle Grove Elementary. Debt service requirements there for next year for current year is 1.8 million. That's interest only. Interest only. principle won't start there until after the sales tax referendum, the current one is over in 2027. Um sales tax, uh the new one that we're issuing that will be priced next Wednesday. Series 2025A debt service requirements preliminary preliminary debt service requirements 3.1 million. So those are our that's our debt service attached to Capitol Mill. Um and then we get into the eligible maintenance transfer into general. The the top three the cops were are we're moving transferring out of millage into debt service funds. They're each one of those

094has a separate debt service fund. Uh, and then the, like I say, the eligible maintenance costs, we're transferring those in as on an as needed basis as the work order system dictates and they get it in the system. Then we run reports, see what's eligible, and then transfer in from Capitol Mill into the general fund to cover those costs. Same thing with property insurance. Uh we've got about 6.5 million there. It might be a little bit more than that, but we could legally transfer in if we if it was that expensive 8.3 million. There is a cap at $200 per unweighted FTE for transferring into uh from millillage into general for property insurance. There's a cap of $200 per unweighted. We're under the cap. uh eligible. Here's the first time we'll do this is the

095current or the 2025 fiscal year and now we have it budgeted for the new fiscal year as eligible school bus operators salaries and benefits for that. That's been about two years now. This will be the third year that you could actually move uh from uh capital millage into general to cover those salaries and benefits costs. We haven't done it. We didn't do it the first year. We didn't want to do it the first year because now you're starting to have but we have no choice this in the current year and in next year to do that to try to at least get uh mitigate some of the negatives we'll be running. So we've got about 10 million there. Uh it could be a little more than that as we get through the actual salary and

096benefits costs but that's probably the floor there about 10 million. Uh so total transfers from general into other funds is 31 right now 31 million that is that is a hard cost. Then we have ERP system and I may have missed something here but this is close. We have ERP system uh you see the various uh vendors is corp skyward kronos uh focus canvas about 1.5 1.4 4 million. That's a pretty good estimate. And then we have the charter school portion. This is 60% of the earned millage that charter schools will receive from the district. 469,000. That's 60% of their total calculation. So next year 2027 it would be 80% and then the ne following year we'd be 100% which would be I think it's around three uh 3/4 of a million thereabouts all you

097know the total you'll see Warrington portion there 312,000 keep in mind I'll say it Warrington is not eligible for state capital outlay. But if you recall, there was a push from the state to hand it to them anyway. So there it is, 312 million. We have the list. All the schools above it are eligible for capital outlay from the state. If they're eligible from the state, they're eligible for local millillage, too. Okay. And what? Say it again, Sean. Right. Burnville is not eligible. Sean just reminded me. Burnville is the only school that we have, right? The only Yeah. The only one that's not eligible for for a millillage on the state list or the district list. Okay. All right. And then we always need something. So, we've got about 2.5 million that's un unidentified, but

098we know we'll be having some emergency issues. So, we've got that listed also. That's just a decent guess. Uh so, total about 48.3 million. All right. Now, here's the revenue. The revenue will be based on a certified tax ro of 36.1 billion. Then at 96% at 1.5 mills this is this is showing 1.5 mills the full eligible state eligible uh millillage that a district can levy 1.5 mills for capital outlay that's for capital outlay only 1.5 mills okay so the revenue for that at 96% would be 52 million so the 52 million minus the 48 we have about 3.7 million remaining that would be considered a fund balance uh reserve. Okay. So, that's pretty much it in a nutshell. That's what we'll be uh and we're still working it. So, there's other things that'll hit

099this, but we've got most of the costs and we've got pretty much all of the hard costs there. So, um, as we see, uh, things identified, we'll add them to the list or we'll we may delete some here and there, but probably that list is pretty complete. Thank you, Mr. Saints here. Thank you. I'm going to go ahead and bring up Mr. Wilson or he talked from right there about uh open house and orientations. Oh, I'm sorry. That's all right. A couple questions, Mr. Saint Seir. um this tw the 2425 school year. What was our um total millage revenue for the 2425? So we budgeted 32 million at 1.004 mills on a 34 point something billion dollar tax role. Okay. So that's over and done with then. And have you done or considered looking at

100um taking that number and reducing it the total revenue by 3 million 3.7 million? What would that do to the um millage rate? How much below 1.5 would that be? I haven't made the calculation. It's an easy calculation. and I just can't do it in my head. But if you want the number, I can get the number. Yeah. After I get back to my desk there. That that would be helpful. Thank you. Um Mr. Wilson, you want to talk to him about open house orientation and the fast student recognition? And Mr. Wisen, you can go ahead and start walking up this way. So, yesterday um the orientation dates were finalized. So, that list is complete for um all elementary, middle, and high school for orientation dates and open houses. So, I will also be getting

101that to um Miss Buswell so she can get those out. And then Cody's going to be doing that out in a press release as well. It's also going to be on all the level directors websites pages. Um I did have a good conversation with Mr. Harold last week about um the MAC score and so u Mr. Bobbit was kind enough to get me um the names that are associated with those numbers that we were given. So, there are um 35 elementary students including um two from Pensacola Beach that we will also include. Um they will come September 16th um to the um school board to um be recognized by the board. And then the middle school, including um some of our charter school students that perform really well at um Bula. and then there was

102one at Warrington. Um there's 34 total and that will be October 21st um school board meeting have any questions? Thank you. Thank you so much Mr. Wilson for your hard work on that and uh thank the fellow board members for uh for going along with that. I think it's so important to recognize those students who make the per I won't say perfect score the max score on the fast test. Uh it's tremendous PR for our district. Thank you Mr. Superintendent for your help. If I could add I'm sorry. Thank you. Thank you Mr. Herald. One thing the high school students remember the number is close to a hundred. And so, um, I think the idea there was we're going to continue with, um, Miss Morgan working with those principles and just making sure that those

103students also receive, um, some recognition. Thank you. Sorry, I didn't hear the middle school number. 34. 34. Thank you. So, Mr. Wisen, if you'll come up and talk a little bit about some construction that will occur through our certificate of participation. Yes, sir. I'll be glad to. Uh, as you all know, we had a meeting last week regarding a certificate of participation, which is looking at uh really four projects. Um, actually, we'll call it three projects and an initiative. Um, of course, Scambia U high school auditorium is one of those. Uh, Tate High School's auditorium is another one. Uh and then a gymnasium and gym, I affectionately call that thing that we we have over there. Um that will be converted into an auditorium for that facility. Um this is the last of the parody

104projects that we have had u many boards uh ago this parody uh came along to develop something at each that one of the schools that every other school has. Perfect example is our covered play buildings. That was the biggest initiative we have built covered play buildings at every elementary school. We're one of the few districts in the state that actually have covered play buildings uh at all of the elementary schools. Um the uh those started out as we call it version 1.0. Uh that was a pretty simple version of that. Uh we chose an architect for that and we stepped with that architect throughout that entire uh process. Uh we stopped uh at about 10 years ago and did version 2.0 0 which is just better. We have lessons learned how these things held up.

105Uh each one of those facilities has the same exact building. However, it is made to fit the facade of the school. What that basically means is we go in, we've got this project designed and the only thing that we really have to manipulate is the site work. Where we're going to put it, what kind of we're going to have chill water system, we're going to have a split system, whatever the case may be. Um, and then we try to make that building fit with the architecture of the school by making sure that the colors match the rest of the school, making sure that the brick matches the rest of the school so we don't wind up with something looks like a bowling shoe. Uh, that's effectively what it looks like in many many facilities. Um,

106the same uh same holds true with our with our auditoriums. Um, the auditorium that we we started with is a prototypical design u by state statute. you know, we we're required um uh SREF uh state requirements for educational facilities outlines how we do things and how we're supposed to what we're supposed to have in buildings based on the state requirements. So, an auditorium should have X, Y, and Z. We can put more than X, Y, and Z into it, but we've got to have at least X, Y, and Z in that facility. So, what we what we did is the we chose an architect for that program, uh which is which is the prototypical design. Uh and then we got input from across the board. Um we had Mr. Sllayton came into the to the

107design review meetings. We had all of the schools all the their folks at the time had input in it. Our fine arts department had input into the development of it. So that when we finished with what we had is we had a prototypical design that met all the requirements of SREF and all the requirements of the other facilities that would be getting that same type of facility or same type of building. So effectively what that meant was then we went step back and had to design it so that it fit the facade of the school. So there's a big difference in the way a scambia looks and the way Tate looks. Uh the the Tate building was that's primary building in the front was built about 1960. Uh there's one building the Lipkcom building kind

108of behind that was built prior to that. Those are the two oldest buildings on campus at Escambia. The entire school was built at one time. Um, and it was it's a it's a um um mid-century modern look. So, what we want to do is try and honor some of that architecture. So, the pictures and renderings that you have seen are for the uh for the Escambia facade. Uh we have not gotten to that point with Tate yet, although that's something we will be doing. Obviously, it's the same facility. It functions in the same manner. It meets the same requirements that Escambia has. We tried to meet the requirements of both schools. While Tate has a very large marching band, um Escambia has a uh has a great deal of um um what was it that

109we we have a recording studio inside the facility. Uh I don't necessarily know that we'll have that at Tate. We may have that at Tate and then we have a kickoff meeting. We begin to design the next round of work in this in in Tate. We will have the input from their people who are on the ground in that. But the basic building itself will be will remain the same. And then we will make it look as though it was always there. We'll match the brick. We'll try to honor some of the architecture of the tape building. You It's got arches in the front of it. The location, we don't exactly know yet, but we're still working on that. Same thing holds true for the uh the gymnasium at um uh uh at Pine Forest.

110Uh we will do something similar to that. We'll honor the architecture of the building. Once again, try not to make the place look like a bowling shoot. Look like we continue to add here and add there. Um those are the those are the initiatives that we have currently going on that we are the obviously we have an architect for the for the two auditoriums. We do not have an architect chosen yet for the um uh for the gym and and gym renovation. We'll be doing that here in the next few months. Uh and then the other portion of this initiative is a class prototypical classroom addition that we will do. Um, essentially what we'll do with that is we'll have to have pretty much two different types of prototypical design. We need classroom additions at

111high school and we need classroom additions at elementary schools. This is to do away with our modular and portable uh inventory that we have and have permanent classroom structures in those places. If you take a look, uh, we will probably have a high school/middle school prototypical, uh, building because it's easier to pull the high school down to a middle school level than a than a middle an elementary up to a high school level. So, those are kind of the the the initiatives we've got. And then the next um um uh the next cop that we will have will have a additional classroom additions and the um BU intermediate I'll call it. I'll be glad to answer any questions you got if that answered any questions that you might have. Thank you, Mr. Watson. I asked

112the superintendent to ask you to come and give the board a quick update on that because it started with some concern at Tate High School with the picture that was in North Scampia about it not matching the facade of the front of the school. So, I wanted to be sure that everyone understood that it it is going to match, the brick's going to match, the the architecture and so forth will match just like what they selected at at Escambia. So, uh, thank you for the update. That was very informative and appreciate it. This will be an opportunity for us to change the elevation of both high schools. So, this will give some lipstick to the front of the schools. We'll have a different It'll have a totally different look coming down 65th to to Escambia.

113Um, it will have a totally different look at Tate. Uh, it'll dress up the front. It'll give us an opportunity to fix a lot of problems. Fixing a lot of problems at Escambia, flooding and things like that. and uh Tate as well give us an opportunity to change some of the way that facility looks. Another thing that uh I wanted to mention was uh uh when we had talked earlier uh all of the community input and everything that was put into this and I I wanted to be sure the board realized that there had been a a tremendous amount of community input into these into these projects. And thank you. Bear in mind, too, our phase 2 and phase three meetings are public meetings. They're open to the public. We advertise them just like we

114advertise your meetings. Uh so anyone from the public can sit sit in on any of our design review meetings. Uh they're long and can be kind of boring to be honest with you unless you just get into the stuff like I do. Uh but uh uh but yeah, it's anybody can come to them, sit in them, and be glad to let you know, listen to anything anybody has to say. Um these wings you're developing, well, they could also be used for the K8 that we're going to be doing in Yes, sir. It's it's it's basically it's just it's a very basic classroom addition. Um it's it's not unlike you go to Workman has a classroom edition. Uh Brentwood has a classroom edition similar to that. Uh Belleview similar to something like that. Something to that

115effect. We don't know exactly what that looks like yet, but that would be what you you would absolutely be able to add uh capacity. All right. Um out of left field here, um where are we with u the Myrtle Grove Elementary? Myrtle Grove Elementary is ahead of schedule. Uh considerably ahead of schedule. Uh matter of fact, I walked the level directors through last week. Uh it is in it's fantastic looking. I I mean I can't take y'all in there just yet. It's still pretty much under construction, but we're doing very well. It's uh we're very happy. Knockwood uh uh barring any type of bad weather event. Fortunately, we're out of the ground and covered up, dried in. We shouldn't have too many problem. But we're doing we're doing very well on that. Very excited about

116it. Still shooting for December. Yes, sir. Yes, sir. We we will we've we've moved our our FFN delivery up a little bit uh about a month. Uh but we're we're in really good shape. Uh I think you guys will be really pleased with it. There's some really neat elements. Uh if you're not aware of it, um we went to the extent of saving brick from the original school and incorporating brick into the to the um to the main stairwell area. There'll be a mural that'll outline a lot of the history that went into the to the to the community and the school itself. Um, we've used shutter doors uh for or doors from the from the stage that we're using for shutters inside. Um, and part of the original stage is being made into a

117conference room table uh for um uh for the for the for the for the administrative area. Uh so we tried to honor as much of that as we could and try to keep the architecture going back to what you said, we try to not just honor the architecture of the school but also the architecture of the of the community itself. um that that could not look like some mid-century modern school. It needed to look like an older schoolhouse. And it does, but it's completely modern. Terzo floors. It's it's it's really neat. I I had the opportunity in uh May before school was out that the principal snuck me in. And uh I have to say those Turzo floors are gorgeous. They are. They're going to It's going to turn out really well. Really really pleased

118with that. And the way it's been done, color kind of color coding different wings and stuff with it. We call it wavefinding. Yes, sir. It is. It's gorgeous. Thank you. Yes, sir. Tazzo, were you going to have wax or is it the other type? No, it is it's actually it's not the old school terazzo. It's actually an epoxy terazzo. It's 38 of an inch thick. Uh but it's it's just almost as bulletproof as the original stuff. Thank y'all. Thank you. Take a break. We're going to reset for So, [Music] This brings us to our agenda item review. Mr. Superintendent, are there any additions or deletions to this month's agenda? Ended up with a couple um or quite a few. Under section 16, consent curriculum, student services, student services, item C has been added. Section 20,

119curriculum finance. Item B, excuse me, consent finance. Item B, item C, and item D have been added. And then, uh, we deleted item D and added item E. I think I got that correct. Um, and then under section 31, consent, operations, facilities, planning, uh, we added item B. And under section 44, items from the superintendent, we deleted item B and added item F. I think that was all. Thank you, Mr. Thank you, sir. Thank you, Williams. Yes. I'm also looking at a contract right now that has to do with student transportation that I anticipate it. It's obviously not been to the superintendent yet, but um I think will be added before school. Uh it should be winding its way to you. Okay. Thank you very much. If I remember, uh Allison told us told us

120about it yesterday. So, it's something we have to do. Just a matter of getting it to you. Okay. Uh it is Mr. Adams month to bring the invocation and pledge. Okay. Uh this moves into the minutes for June. June 16th, June 17th, regular meeting. June 30th, we have our budget workshop. June 30th, a special meeting. Uh, next we have administrative appointments, Mr. Superintendent. Yes, sir. Be bringing one interim assistant principal for your your approval Tuesday night. Okay. Thank you. Um, items requiring public hearing. There are two items for public hearing this month. Only thing I want to make certain of is after y'all approve this Tuesday night, we will get some information to you about the new law as it relates to cell phones and particularly at elementary and middle. And we will be doing

121some public announcements, phone calls to all the moms and dads so that they know what that rule is. And that'll be a subject of the conversation also at the admin conference because it will it will be a little bit different in particularly at the middle school. We want to make sure everybody's aware. I know the media had asked me some couple of questions, but I wasn't going to do anything until you've approved this new policy, and that's what we'll be doing. Okay. Yes, sir. Thank you. Um, yes, ma'am. Uh, superintendent, are are we still doing the um the state going to be doing that? It got vetoed. Yeah. Okay. The funding the funding for the the pouches and all that, it got vetoed. So, no, ma'am. We're not going to fund it on our own.

122Okay, thank you. Now moving into the consent agenda. Are any items for to be discussed? Starting with curriculum items 8 through 19. 8 through 19. Yes, Miss Burgos. I have 16A, a Escambia County School District Mental Health. Yes, Mr. Wilson. Mr. Bgosh, I think you had a specific question. I did. I did. Yes. Um, mental health is very important. And um, in there they talked about different tiers, tier one, tier two, and tier three. I wanted to find out how is that thrives. So, which schools? So, you can think of the tiers just like you would from an academic perspective. This is more of the mental health obviously. So tier one is more of that preventative um mental health for all students and that would be delivered by school staff through either a program um

123like bullying awareness those type of activities that's given to all students to promote general mental health. Okay. Then when you get to tier two, that's when a student self discloses something that needs to be addressed. A parent might come in and say, "I need some help with my student." Um, it could be a referral from a teacher. And that's where those services would come through more of your school-based guidance counselors, those type of things. And then, of course, the tier three is identified when you have some significant mental health needs. that that's where your licensed mental health counselors maybe even referral to outside agencies. So that's how the tiers are broken out. Thank you. Yes. Um I am very happy to hear about tier one that is for all students. I think that's something very

124we need to be very proactive and not reactive. Okay. Thank you. I will be pulling item 18e abstain from voting on that due to being a member of the YMCA board of directors. Next we have finance items 20 through 24. Hearing none moving on to items 25 through 29 human resources. Hearing none and consent agenda superintendent items, excuse me, operations 30 through 39. And now the consent uh superintendent items 40- 42. Anything? Item 44. Moving to items from the superintendent. Yes. I I think perhaps this is where Miss Odum wanted to make sure we spend a little time. So there are books and there are categories for each of the books that are listed. We want to be certain that you are aware of uh what category they are in and what may have to

125happen down the road and that y'all are going to try to address that in your policy. So if a book was not necessarily um on our objection list but is in our catalog but it had been removed in another school district and was on the state list for removal. It is on this list for you to approve. The way I understand it is if um you know here in the next couple weeks they tell us that AP class you're going to read the bluest eye, you were going to remove it even though you'd approved it through your vote a couple years ago. We would come back to you and say we need to bring bluest by bluest eye that title back for our IB program. That's what I heard. Okay. Thank you. I don't have

126any other questions that I wanted to ask of you for the listing. Um, but I wanted to make sure I felt Ratty, you did great. Dana, Melinda Cruz, all the ladies in that worked on this, thank you for putting this together. This is a monumental task. What What was the number of of books on this close to I didn't I didn't I didn't take the time to count them. I I was going to try to put it back in the spreadsheet, you know. I I didn't know. But it's fine. But I believe this board will move quickly if you got an exception, you know, if you bring it to us. Yes, sir. And I need to move back to one item. Oh, excuse me. Miss you. Wait. You good? I'll just have a conversation with

127superintendent. Okay. Uh item 4 told me it's like 400 and something 410 maybe good odd number yeah back up the number 43 Mr. I have uh items from the board. Let me get this speaker on here. The other day I was uh uh reading an article uh in one of the local social media sites and it had information about uh the board of county commissioners and then the next day it showed up on uh uh northcambia.com. So, I went to the board of county commissioners and looked at what they're doing pertaining to the referendum or the resolution that we sent them for the election. Okay. Pardon me. Go ahead. Oh, u M Mr. Mr. Harold brought to my attention that the um the county commission has a meeting tonight at which they are considering um

128three different ordinances to effectuate the placement of our question on the ballot. Um and it basically has to do with whether it's going to be held at the general election in 2026, the primary in um or at a special election at the determination of the supervisor of elections. Um and Mr. Harold contacted me and said, "Our resolution said it's supposed to be on the primary," which is August 18th. Um, can I interrupt you there? I felt very uncomfortable with that at the time, my fellow board members, because that it looked to me like they were changing our resolution and making three different things out of it, changing the dates and things like that. And I didn't, my instincts told me that that was not something that needed to take place. They don't get the authority

129to change another another one's resolutions and so forth. So that's the reason I contacted Minnesota. So go ahead. I'm sorry. So I' I've been in contact with um I've not spoken with Allison Rogers who is the the county attorney, but I have spoken with someone in her office and um I you know have communicated the concerns that my interpretation of the statute is that the school board gets to decide what the date is. Um, I think that if you had left the question silent as to whether it would be a general, a primary, or a special election, then it would be up to the BCC to decide which of those it was going to. But the board specifically decided that it was going to be at the statewide primary and uh we'll we'll see what

130the county commission does. They're meeting tonight. Um, and uh, you know, my my position has been made known to them. Um, so we we shall see what they do. There's a um and I I do intend to uh attend that meeting this evening and and I'm going to attend that meeting also tonight. It's at the end of the agenda, so it's going to be a long day because it's items from the attorney there tonight. But uh uh my feeling is this. The majority of this board has spoken very clearly as to what they want. We want it on the ballot. It was indicated on there the wording that we wanted on the ballot. it was sent to them and the statutes to me are very clear that they uh it's the reason I referred it

131to Miss Odum that uh they need to honor that, you know, not go changing it. So, they've got three proposals there which I've given you a copy of and they're going to have a public hearing on August the 7th at 5:30 and then following that public hearing, they're going to make their final decision on which one of the three. Well, at that point, you know, uh uh I don't believe that they're acting I I don't believe they're acting in our best interest there. You know, we set the date. We chose that date because we thought it was the best one for the uh the resolution to pass. Uh and now they're wanting to change change it for some reason maybe to the third or let Mr. Bender have the commission. To me, they're they're out

132of bounds there. So, I'd like to hear from the board what their feelings are on that. But I, you know, they can go ahead and take the vote, but it won't be a legal vote. I mean, it's a it's clear by law. I mean, there's already been cases in South Florida on this, and uh it's really just a formality. It's passed to them. They send it on to Robert Bender. And I mean that's all that should happen because we we placed the date and we placed the times and so you know down South Florida a commission voted not to have a referendum and that was overturned pretty quickly you know so uh so they got they got a pretty experienced attorney in I know this one knows talks through every once in a while so

133and and relay the information but uh I I I hope they don't make a lot of drama out of it because it shouldn't No, I agree with you, Mr. Adams. It shouldn't be a drama. We were very specific in what we asked. The majority of the board spoke very clearly and uh uh I I don't believe that they need to be changing our resolutions or coming up with other dates and things. And I may be ODM, I know you may. I I will say um I have a ve I have an excellent working relationship with the county attorney's office and I don't I do not think that this is arising out of any attempt to undermine what the board has done. It's my understanding that they have operated for a long time with the understanding

134that this is how those kinds of things are done. I wasn't here in 2018, so I don't know how they handled the resolution the first time it went around. Um, but I I don't I genuinely think it has to do with this is the way they've handled it in the past. I don't I don't I've not heard that there's any kind of, you know, cloak and dagger attempt to undermine the school board's authority. Well, I I hope you're right there. I hope that uh that is the case. But uh in any instance, it needs to be monitored very closely what what's happening here because it could affect that uh uh that election. Uh my the board has spoken very clearly. They want that on the primary, you know, and that's what we're expecting them to

135do. And a special election is going to cost money that we don't need to spend anyway. So, um yeah. So, but some of them court cases to be fair also came after that 2018 um referendum, I believe. So, they that may be why they just didn't realize, right? And that that was a conversation that I had. The Hillsboro case was in 2024. It involved a different statute, but it it still had to do with the school board placing something on the ballot through the county commission. And the the Klay County one did have something to do with the date. It was in 14. There's two there's two cases there. And they wanted to change it to 16. And the judge says, "Oh, no, no, no. the board the the the the school school board in

136uh Klay County was very specific that's the date they wanted and they had to honor it. So I think that's what uh that's the message that I'm going to give them anyway. You know that we were very specific on that and that's the date we want to honor this board does. Okay. Next we have um public forum. We have one speaker Mr. Rich Hoseneck. You have three minutes. Uh, thank you, Mr. Chair, members of the board, Miss Odum, Mr. Superintendent. Uh, I just didn't know how this workshop input worked from the community. So, um, I I could just table this, but I'll just say a couple of thoughts from listening. Um, very good discussion today. A lot of hard work by members of your staff. I applaud this. I would say to uh the reps

137from district 1 and two, your instincts are correct when it comes to the u the book review committee. And uh I I reference, in fact, I read it to uh the rep from District 5 um during the break, but the uh the letter from the attorney general to the Hillsboro County School Board uh by name, he uh he he put them on notice that they were in violation of Florida statutes uh by allowing these books to be there. It doesn't matter how they got there, but they were in violation. And then he went on to say that um I will monitor I will carefully monitor your actions to determine what formal legal actions uh by my office is warranted. So in other words, you got to be careful. Yeah. You want the you you want

138it's a trust and verify kind of thing again. So I I would um be careful before you um turn over your responsibility even to our esteemed superintendent. Now the uh the commissioner of education had his own letter to the superintendent over there at uh Hillsboro also that put him on notice separately. But this is your responsibility. Don't delegate it to anyone else because you'll remain culpable if that material remains in the libraries. Uh one second said this as Florida's chief legal officer I write to request immediate removal of certain materials available in school libraries in Hillsboro County. And then he went on to say these materials are patently pornographic. your district's provision of them to minors is uh violative of your obligations under Florida law. You're the ones held responsible under Florida law. Don't delegate

139that to anybody else, not even to the superintendent. Thank you. Is there anything else from the board? Superintendent, there's nothing else. This meeting is ajourned.