Regular School Board Workshop 06/16/25

001That's true. [Music] Good morning, ladies and gentlemen. Welcome to the call to order the June workshop of the Escamia County School Board. The purpose of this workshop is an open discussion on items brought forth by the board and the superintendent along with review of the agenda items for our regular meeting. Please silence your cell phones and other electronic devices at this time. If you wish to speak at public forum, you must complete a speaker request form located on the table at the rear of the room and bring it to Miss Harris at the front. First item of discussion, I believe, is the calendar. If all school board members will take out your calendar, let's look over uh June and July. One of the things that Yes, sir. Mr. We would like to request is forum

002available that we have a board meeting on June 30th for the cops like Pensacola PD or Scami County Sheriff's Office, but our COP series certificates of participation. Um, we would like to be able to do that on June 30th. June 30th, up to y'all 9:00. You know how we have to have the separate meeting, all that good stuff. June 30th. June 30th. Th this to be clear, this is the leasing corporation. It's it's um there's are resolutions that have to be approved in order to um fund the certificates of participation that are being issued for this year. And so this is for the purpose of the lease incorporation meeting to issue that resolution. Exactly what we're asking for. Um could we push it to 9:30, sir? Yes, I think better. Um, and I did I

003did want to also ask the board um we have for the first time had a parent file exceptions to a hearing officer's recommended order. They basically have identified reasons that they don't agree with it. Um, parents are entitled to a hearing on the exceptions um if they are legally sufficient. Um those particular kinds of meetings are absolutely confidential and exempt from any kind of meetings notice as it pertains to student discipline. Obviously the public does not have the right to attend. Um interestingly there is a provision that allows a parent to make it public if they want to in which in in which case we would have to advertise it. Um but in this particular instance, the parent does not wish to, but they want to address the board to raise the issues that they

004have with the hearing officer's recommendation. Um and I what I would like to request is that on that same day when the leasing corporation meeting is adjourned that the school board go into a shade meeting under this this specific statutory provision to hear the exceptions and to hear from the parent. What time it it would be just whenever the leasing corporation I would defer to Mr. Saint Seir regarding how long he expects that meeting would take Mr. Chair. Yes. I will not be able to attend and if there's be on on the 30th we should have enough quarum. Right. Okay. Right. I would also since we were doing things catchup, I'd like to ask for an executive session to discuss upcoming bargaining and negotiations and stuff and can can a board member attend an executive

005session by phone? It is not recommended um simply because uh there have been instances in which a board member attended remotely and there were other people in the room and that voids the confidentiality and we can certainly trust people to you know abide by that but we would do so at our own peril. I I would I would recommend against it. Uh when will you be back? on July 5th July 5th. I know we have a we have the board training on the 9th 10. Can we do something before that that training on the 9th at executive session for like it we're supposed to start at noon at 11 I work for the superintendent and Mr. Sier session on the 9th at 11 at 11. Okay. Thank you. Let's back up and be clear about

006this. Uh we're going through certified board training on the 9th uh from 12 to 3. So you're and the front end of that at 11 an executive session. Yeah, because we could do it at the back end and do it at you know three. That's a you'd rather do it that way. I just uh what you're proposing is fine with me. It's just that I just want to be sure that um that uh was clear. Well, I I just know that there are things coming up and we should have budget from the state at that point and things that need to be discussed and said I think we all need to be there. So, you say 11:00, you think one hour will be enough? Yeah, I would. I'm thinking Okay. And if it's not, we

007could plan a different meeting after that. But unless you want to do it earlier, sir, if you think we need more time, that's I'm supposed to meet with the superintendent. I usually meet with you on that day at 9:00. Yes, we meet at 9:30, I believe. Um, the way I the way I see this particular meeting is just the initial meeting that helps us get prepared for what we need to be doing going forward as it relates to collective bargaining. There'll be a lot of work that takes place between now and you establishing and firming up your budget and then us knowing what we're going to be able to do for all of our employees as we get into 25 26. Let's leave it at 11 if that's okay with you. 11th of 11 o'clock.

008Okay. Anything else in the month of June before we go to July again? Mr. Leonard, let me ask if we could go ahead and prepare some time on the 30th for a budget little budget workshop preceding or or after the regular board meeting or the special board meeting. uh the leasing comp corporation meeting. So uh we've got uh Friday we got the state allocation for education. I'm going to touch on it this morning. Just touch on it because I haven't had time to really analyze. Um but we have a lot of other budget stuff too that we need to start working on and we'll deal with some of that executive staff today. So, I wonder if the 30th we could spend a little bit of time as a budget workshop. That will have to be

009separately noticed as a schoolboard workshop. Um, the one at 10 is a shade meeting that does not require advertising. We'll work our way. It's there. There'll be a lot occurring on the 30th, it appears. And we'll make sure we work our way through making certain that each meeting that needs to be advertised is advertised appropriately. And I would not be surprised if there doesn't end up with other items on the June 30th meeting. As you look at this meeting, we had several ads and deletes. It's just a very busy time of year. So, we'll work with everybody to make sure we get advertised and updated as we need to. Thank you. Okay, Miss Bwell, you sent out the correspondence to all the school board members. Um, anything in the month of June? Anything else in

010the month of June? I hate this on on the 24th. Uh, will there be a quorum? I tenatively will not be in town on the 24th, but if there's not enough, I'll try to July. I'm July. Yeah, I've moved to July. I'm sorry. I 24th is approve the budget for advertising that require everybody or fine I be okay that's three anything else in the month of July hearing none we move on to the next item is um public form update Thanks, Mr. Superintendent. Any public forum update? No, sir. That brings us to book review process. Mr. Adams, book review process. Water. Thank you, Mr. Chair. Um, I had told Ellen about two hours ago, Tampa Bay Times got a big article out on what Orange County, what Pasco, what Hillsboro's doing with the attorney general's

011order and the board of education. Um, and I it's been a changing thing. You remember last month, I guess it was on a Thursday workshop, I didn't know the next day what was going to happen happen, you know. So, times are changing. Uh me and Keith had talked about possible some changes. We're looking at Latchwood County. Okay. Because with their system um their their committees make a recommendation. So, if it's a recommendation for it to go back in the it has to come to the board, which I think with what we got going on, it' probably be very wise that we go down the same path, you know, cuz the five of us are the ones that going to get charged if there's criminal violation. And um we got a we got a attorney general

012I I I believe he's going to be more tougher than Pam Bondi. So he uh he had I think a sheriff in South Florida the other day that was doing one of those sanctuary things and he got a letter from the attorney general and that guy says okay you know but if you read the Tampa Bay Time article is pretty good you know it it tells what Hillsboro Hillsboro doing the rest of them Orange County said they don't want to get in front of that train either you know but uh so what I'm looking at because we have an appointed superintendent is that this board give the superintendent some direction And it's also kind of a statement. I made it kind of short. I want to go on to the board agenda board agenda for

013tomorrow night. I made it kind of short, but it tells other stakeholders, citizens in Tallahassee where we sit. Now, I don't know if I'm going to be by myself or it's going to be two, but I I was going to put it forward. If you'll let me give Ellen that one and I will go down what I'm looking at. But um so basically what I have put on here is to form county school board direct the superintendent eliminate all pornographic age inappropriate books from the district media centers as identified on the department of education book removal list without further review. Uh the second one is and this is all together. I just broke it off in little paragraphs, but books on the state removal list and local challenges required approval from the Scami County School

014Board for his returning back to the media centers. That's the same thing we're talking about Latchel County. I'm not going to get too far in details because I know Keith will look at all this and decide what he wants to propose on any policy change. Um the scam county school board directs the superintendent delay media center purchases until a process in place place to prevent obscene pornographic age inappropriate books from entering the school district. Keith, that's one we talked about and I it's up to you. Okay. But if you need a pause with what's all going on to get you get it together, that's fine. But this will show to the state that u we are serious. You know, even if some get in, which I hear is a pretty good amount that we got,

015you know, it's on the list. So, um, but we we got to do everything possible to prevent putting children at risk and undermining parental rights in that process. Um, you know, attorney general's got that new parental office. Okay. Um, uh, the federal judge wanted us to make the process quicker and the motion and this motion will help speed up that process. I I love what Keith did is presenting for us tomorrow night where he's got that compiled list. He states the reasons. He's recommending those books be pulled. Great job, Keith. That's that's good. Um the uh the I got on here the board the board members will be held responsible attorney general for obscene pornographic age and inappropriate materials in our media centers also you know with the commissioner education and the uh and the

016uh board educ uh board education the uh book review committees only make a recommendation like the latch school district and the board must prove any recommendation to return the book back to the med media centers. And this is not a 8020 issue. What I'm getting ready to say, it's a 9010 issue. And I don't know if you know what I'm talking about. 86% for 10% again or 20% against. No parent wants someone else to indoctrinate their child or in introduce their child to obscene pornographic age inappropriate content. This is a nonpartisan issue. Nonpartisan. I don't care if it's Democrat mom, MPA mom, or Republican mom. They want to know when they go to our schools their child won't be accidentally introduced to something that they don't approve of. Okay. Um so I I think we

017need to get ahead of this issue. Um u it will help if we can get a handle on it that we don't lose more students to vouchers because some of these parents are just not going to put up with their child being able to access pornographic material in our system. But uh that's what I I got on the table right there and I think it send a good message to state that we're serious. Give Keith some time to where he can come up with any policy changes. So he thinks it's applicable to get him to that point that he's not standing in front of the commissioner of education along with this chair and her. You know, it wasn't a fun time for the Hillsboro superintendent. It won't be a fun time for you guys. So,

018uh, with that, Keith, do you have anything to add on to what I said? Know that Judge Weatherall has instructed or expects us to do better. Um, I have watched video from the state board of education meeting. I, you know, I've gone there one time. It was about the charter school, one of the charter schools in our our district. certainly don't mind going back if that's what's called for, but it's not something that uh you know I write home write a letter home to anybody. Um this is I think what the conversation you and I had. I think this encapsulates that. Yep. Uh I do know that I talked to other board members. Um I want to see uh there's I can't remember on this agenda. There's either 17 or 18. I do want you

019as a board and a as a public since we're in a public meeting to know that those are books that we have poured over um for for quite some time uh to to get to the decision to bring them to you. Uh when I say we, as Miss Vincent and I going straight through your your current board policy, do I think there are some things that are occurring in other school districts more expeditiously get decisions made. Absolutely. And I think this perhaps will help us do that. Right. We've only this I think Miss Burggosh and I were talking before the meeting. I we've made decisions on 48 and there's 236 or something something challenges. So I I would agree with Judge Weatherall. We need to do better. Uh, so anything that will help us expedite

020the process and get us to where we need to go. And I think it's also important to note we were trying to do everything we could from a school district standpoint to um provide a buffer from a from a political standpoint for you as a school board. We also feel like that's part of our responsibility. This again uh will be a decision that you have to make as a school board which direction you want us to go. And I really do appreciate the fact that you're you're talking about it. You're letting us know um what your expectations are so that we can write a policy and then abide by that policy and we will do it just as quickly as we as we can. So, thank you for that opportunity this morning. Thank you, sir.

021Any other board members? I like to say something. Um thank you for bringing this to our attention. Um the last paragraph where it says media center book purchases, I would like to see maybe um something in there to say donations and books. Um we have some people that may donate books. So I want to make sure that you have it on your laptop. Yeah. to make that change um to include that because um you know I'm not saying it does happen in this community but I know it's happened in other places where people have agendas. They try to come in and they want to expose their children to this type of um material. So I just want to make sure that's on the the agenda as well. Um as far as I have I've email

022received emails countless on both sides and received phone calls both sides and you know I have to look at this from an educator and also as a parent and as a parent I would not want my children exposed to anything that may may interfere with our beliefs. And when I deal with this, we have to follow the law. And um you know, if it's if it's already been reviewed by another state, another county in our state, then why are we reviewing it as well? And I know that motion takes care of that. So if it's if it's on right county or anybody else, then it comes off, you know, until somebody up high says it's good to go back. Right. Exactly. And so, you know, I I love our review committees. I I received an

023email yesterday in regards to these review committees. They are absolutely a cross section of the community. I've served as a parent representative in Middle School with other um spouses, retired teachers, retired military personnel, grandparents, and engaged citizens. So, I do want to keep this, but I caution that just like Mr. Leonard has said, we received 236 challenge books. Only 48 have been reviewed. So, I want to make sure we expedite this as much as possible and give parents that that um sense of relief that that their children are not going to be exposed to anything that they do not want. Um, so thank you for bringing this. I appreciate it. Um, it takes a lot of common sense really. Um, you know, we don't want we don't want to uh not follow the law. We

024want to make sure we do follow the law. So it's almost a statement from a saying. Yes. Yes. Exactly. A proclamation is almost like that. I think that's it. Yes. Um, I want to say that I support this entirely. uh with additions. Okay. Okay. I'd like us to have a statement if we're going to do something and develop some policy that we do officially say that our media center books um must rise to the same level as classroom materials. It's not an exemption in this county. If you did not watch the state board of education video when they had Hillsboro superintendent there, um it's one that you won't forget once you do watch it. The state board, the commissioner, the attorney general just were are scathing about it. And it says that, you know, common

025sense. Gave them gave them a week to get the other ones or they going to have criminal charges. The the other thing that I'd like to do, and I think that I'm going to reach out to Michelle Salsman as our representative, is that the state takes some responsibility to stop the influx of inappropriate materials from publishers. Talk about donations. A lot of books come, things do get ordered, but there's additional things sent in. They didn't ask for them. They didn't even purchase them. They were just sent. And and those need to stop. But the state needs to stop that. They need to get with the publishers and say, "We're not going to let you be part of our bid process for textbooks if you keep trying to do this to the the schools and the

026children of Florida." They they can put a a nip this in the bud, so to speak. They need to take that kind of action to do something, too. Um, I think that uh we need to move ahead. I like the idea that it is just a review by the committees. The committees and and when I did what our attorney suggested, she said to look at the books that were up for removal. I did and to make sure that you know we have reasons for it. Well, the you know the reason being, you know, the superintendent's reason is good and I agree with it. There was nobody who no media center uh specialist who requested the books. So those are easy. Okay. But the other part about it is I'd like the process for the media

027center to use for any new purchases is nothing will come in unless it is ordered by that media center specialist and reviewed. And if it's not been ordered by them, it doesn't even darken the door. It could go right into the recycle bin. Um, then we'll know who's bringing what in and who's not. As as the state board meeting talked about, the state board members were very adamant. They said, they told the superintendent in Hillsboro County, you should fire every media specialist that you have because they have done a disservice to the students. Um, that's a little bit ludicrous. It's a little bit off the top, but but that that's the flavor of the meeting from the state board. Um, but I kind of feel the same way. At the very beginning of this process,

028everybody asked, "How'd they get in here? How' these books get here? Who's responsible?" And there's not really somebody that you could go back to and you could can can say, "Oh, Mrs. Smith is the one who ordered this book." It really doesn't that that information is not available I hope. Uh but if it is then then that people need to be told you are accountable for the things coming into your media center and and you need to step up change your views or or or or know what the view of the board is and go from there. So, I I'd like us to really to get in line with what the new attorney general, the state board, and other districts are doing and to do it as quickly as possible. I'm I'm good with taking

029every one of the books that have uh been reviewed, like we said, by other districts and removed and just automatically they're gone. We don't need to duplicate another committee. uh if you feel that we do and and I'm in isolation on that. Okay. But I also think that that the uh what comes to us what should come to us as a recommendation from the committee because as we've seen when we were doing the votes we did not agree most of the time with what was recommended by the committees. Why that is I won't go into that. I have opinions, but they're just an opinion. But I'd like us to say that that the board will vote on what is going to stay in and what's not. Thank you. Thank you, Miss Arrow. One one thing,

030Paul, um you'll see on that first bullet, it says without review. So those temporary books would be pulled off. Yeah. Until the state says it's good. Yeah. Thank you, Mr. Adams, for bringing this uh before the board today. You know, uh, I've wrestled with this issue, uh, through a long campaign through the last six months, and the thing that keeps popping in my mind is that why isn't the process moving a little faster and a little smoother. It it's been bogged down. And in my mind, there's several reasons. One of them is we had a federal lawsuit, two of them hanging over our head. So, people were very cautious. Board members were very cautious as a result of that. Now I'm six months into a term along with my colleague here and we've made very

031little progress on this. We need to move forward. I mean I always use an analogy of climbing the steps. Well folks, we hadn't climbed any steps. You know, we ought to be at step 15 with this process and we're at step one. I agree with what you said. I agree with this emotion and I also agree with the fact that those books that have been reviewed by other school districts that we need to uh uh that we need to look very closely at at removing them. Um I've talked to the board attorney several times about my personal feelings about this and I've also uh uh wrestled with this ex ex extensively. Uh but the bottom line comes to this sexually explicit material does not need to be in our schools. Period. Period. And uh I

032I would like to include on any policy that we write the following. It is the intent of this board that there shall be no sexually explicit content in instructional material, supplemental material, library center books, or reading lists. Plain and simple. that would go very good in our policy under media center here and it sends a message out there to our media specialists to our community that sexually explicit material shall not be in our schools. When I was looking, we wouldn't allow that if there was a math equation word problem and uh we wouldn't allow sexually explicit material in that. If we had a science project uh in one of our science books, we wouldn't allow sexually explicit material in that. I took the attorney's suggestion and of course I was going to do it anyway

033and read through all of those books that are being recommended to him. And at the state board of education they asked the uh superintendent in Hillsboro County to read one of the passages and he refused. And I wouldn't read those passages in some of those books that were there. I I wouldn't read them here today. And a matter of fact, I believe that there's some rules against that from the communication boards. You know, I'm not sure on that, but I believe there is. I mean, some of that stuff uh and some of the images is just not appropriate. This has gone on too long. We are a community that wants the very best for our children. Everyone's not going to agree with this, but I agree with what you're saying. Something else that has crossed

034my mind, Mr. Adams and my fellow board members in all our conversations I heard I have not heard anything about actions that for those folks who I'm concerned that I I read books that have been in our media center since 2010 2014 that have pictures of sexual acts uh illicit sex language that is so demeaning that it's unbelievable you know and some of those books that uh we were that we are reviewing for the tomorrow's board meeting have that in Uh, our community is better than this. We're better than this. And as representatives of that community, it's time for us not to move like the turtle, but like the rabbit. We need to move forward and we need to get these materials uh uh removed. I would like to see some consequences. You know, I

035would like for our policy to state right up front, right up front that we uh that we're not going to have this. And I gave an example here that I'll be glad to share with the superintendent, but I think that we need to have something like this in our policy also. The coordinator of media services and the media specialists at each school or center must certify in writing to the superintendent, put their name on the paper, you know, so that there's consequences. We're not holding anyone accountable for this. And as Mr. Fesco said, we can't go back and look at all of this, you know, uh uh and and find that. But by golly, we can from this point forward if we write our policy right. We are the governing board for the Escambia County

036School Board. The superintendent is the administer administrator of that. So, we're giving him some ideas today. And this is one that I would like to see included that every purchase that they make that they put their name, they're certifying to the superintendent that it's free of illicit sex and the other things. Of course, these things will have to be defined. they'll have to be uh according to state statute. But if we start our policy out with that uh then with those words, something similar to what I said, and define it and make sure it covers statute, then we're sending a message out there. And then these media specialists and others need to be held accountable. When I read the reviews from national publications of these books and I read the book, they're nothing like what's

037in the book. I mean, it's they don't even give you a hint that some of that stuff is in the book. They they make they they make the book see some of the books seem like oh they're so sweet and everything is so nice and then you turn to page open the page and there's graphic sexual intercourse pictures in there you know and illicit sex and things like this. Um I'm on board with what you're saying Mr. Adams. I would just like to see number one that the policy be well defined upfront you know right at the beginning that it go through legal review that the superintendent is comfortable and everybody else with it. And then let's let's make sure that these media specialists through training and other things know that they're going to have

038to sign their name on the dotted line that says that they certify that they're not violating that policy. That gives the superintendent and his staff actionable items for them during evaluation time and so forth. And so I probably said enough. Yeah. But you know what? This is an important issue and if it takes two hours, three hours, four hours for us to discuss that, we need and every board member needs to weigh in on this. This is something that we need to say to our community loud and clear that we're not going to allow this type of material in our schools. There's too much good and positive other things in uh that we can offer to children without that. All right, I'm through. Thank you for your comment. I come come to you. I'm not

039sure which one's next, but I do want to say this that if we get this right this time, we prevent this from being a problem in our district from for decades to come. Uh and I think we want what's best for our students in Escamia County, accountability as well. Uh I want to commend the committee and all those uh community members who volunteered. Well, they somewhat volunteered and recommended and serving also the superintendent for the job you've done thus far. But we at a point where we've got to make a decision and move forward and I appreciate the board for their support in that that aspect. So I'm not sure who's next. So he said several times. So, I'm going to go next. Okay. Yes. The only thing I want He's had his three minutes.

040Just a real quick Only thing I want. I just need to Can I mute? Can I mute them? Point point of order of customarily you let everyone speak before moving on to the next board. Before you speak twice, somebody else has the first has to have. Go ahead, Paul. This is my second time though, too. So, I believe he's spoken thrice. But what happened is that Mr. Harold reminded me when you know he he talked about he likes analogies and I've shared this analogy but I'm I want to do it again because I think that our board meetings are watched by the state board people by the commissioner and by a lot of others and rightly so then we're given a lot of influence the state has to take that you know action about the

041publisher sending stuff the other thing is I would like our attorney general because he seems to have a real feel for this to look at what it means educationally in when they use the phrase when taken as a whole because all of us or the majority of us have an education background. We know from the very beginning that we are at a high we are looked at as having to reach a higher level of uh morality of um of all the things that we we are looked at at a different level. the standards for us are above what the general public would be and I think that needs to be the same thing that goes when we talk about these materials when taken as a whole. Okay, I use the analogy and I you could

042frown when you went though, Miss Odum of many people have seen the movie The Help. That chocolate pie when taken as a whole looked delicious. But if you happen to get the slice of that chocolate pie that had, as Larry DS would say, feal matters, then when taken as a whole is not something we would want to serve to anybody to anybody. We wouldn't want us to have it or our kids to have it. And so when taken as a whole does not seem to to be an appropriate reason in my opinion when it comes to educationally appropriate materials. The other way we would do it is with safety when taken as a whole. You know a school bus is the safest vehicle going. But if they don't put the seat belts on there or

043something isn't checked or something's let go or say, "Oh, you really don't need that mirror." Whatever the first time there's an accident, when taken as a whole is going to hurt somebody. I believe when taken as a whole is not an appropriate defense in materials that have this type of verbiage and depiction and and just trash. This type of feal matter does not belong in the books that we're serving to our kids. Thank you, Mr. Adams. Since C said something that I wanted to follow up on, can I can will you pass it on to M? I'm still remembering the point. Mr. Williams, you okay with that? Okay. You know, when I read 847 repeatedly, I could not find that. And our attorney pointed out to me that it's in the definitions. And then when

044you read the definitions, that's true. But let me just say this, what you were saying about that, Paul, we as a board can right up front before anything else say that we don't want these items uh in our schools. You know, that's part of the review process when taken as a whole. You know, and I believe I'm correct on that. The board attorney will correct me if I'm not, but I believe we have the right and the authority under state statutes to say upfront that we do not we're not going to allow this type of material in our schools. That's all I have to say. Thank you. Well, and I would tell you and and the Orange County when you go to article that's on Tampa Bay Times, the the the council for Orange County

045said, "Well, I don't believe those are not pornographic." Made a statement, but I will not differ with the attorney general. Uh what they're seeing is and what I was told over the weekend by somebody, they believe people has been using this as a pass around a pass through to get pornographic material up there. And they said, "This pornographic, it don't belong there." What? And I printed out some stuff. I like to get this out of memory of my printer, you know, of all these sexual acts and pictures of it. No. And so it, you know, you got the red team, you got the blue team. We got it on the committees and everything. So the blue team thinks this is okay. I mean, it's just the way they think. That's the way it is. You

046got the red team says, "Oh, heck no. It shouldn't be there." you know what we got going on now. We got the state attorney general saying it, the commissioner of education saying it and the board of education saying it. And and as I said before, we don't belong in the sex business. We got enough issues just trying to make sure these kids are educated and they they got a bright future. We don't need this hanging over us. But now what I was going to say before I forget, Paul wanted to add something on. Okay? And if you guys are okay with it, he can get with Elizabeth. She's got the word doc to make the change. You want to state again what you it was on the um go by the same standards, right? To

047officially make it that we would adhere to media center books the same as classroom books that but I'll do a better job of wording that y'all. Okay. Okay. All right. And and I just want to thank y'all. I I just really think this is an issue that we just need to get on it fast. I I believe Keith would listen to every one of y'all and I know y'all will talk to him more and he'll bring a policy to it. But for right now, this will get us by and show the state we're serious to get these items that even the attorney general said should be off, you know, out of out of out of media centers. Yes. No, just one more thing. We need to move on. Yeah. Uh, one more thing I want

048to also say that I will I want to be sure that we include upfront, you know, whatever policy we have upfront as I suggested a while ago and I have some examples here and also holding people accountable. I don't want to see this happen what happened in January, February at our board meeting. We talked about a matrix and most of us on this board if I remember correctly were in favor of a matrix and then it sort of disappeared. Yeah, this is not going to disappear. This is something that we need to this needs to be 15 steps up that ladder I talked about, you know, and soon and soon. Okay, I agree. I agree. Thank you, board. Superintendent, you didn't have anything you No, only thing I would I would say is get it

049in good bullet points, not in not in a policy provision. let us work to write the policy for you. But good bullet points that provides the direction that can take place immediately because board policy does take time and and that's what I tried to do with this motion of what I'm hearing what I'm hearing is too many things perhaps other than just good firm like where it started was just good firm directive. Don't get yourself down a rabbit trail trying to get everything in one place for Tuesday night. Oh, no, no. This this motion I kept it out of the weeds, but just letting you know that the board wants you to remove all restricted books that are on that list. Yeah. Yes. Yeah. And comply with what the I trust with Ellen and Elizabeth

050working through it, you'll have it in a provision that gives us clear direction for immediate action that will also provide the opportunity uh like I've heard a couple of you say, Mr. Williams and Mr. Harold where we don't find ourselves in this position right three or four years down the road I I purposely stayed out of the weeds on that the biggest thing is what the state's got and what state says needs to be out if it's on that book and that and the other county I liked what you did for us on that meeting tomorrow night you stated on there and you showed the counties that already reviewed this um so those books come off they don't go underneath another review until the the state says they're Okay, we need to move on board.

051Let's move on to the agenda. Next, we have Mr. Fesco review of DHP conference. Thank you. I I'll do this quickly. Uh last week, week before last actually, uh the uh student education, uh Dr. Janet Piltchure and Dr. Robin L are the CEOs of Stutter Education. Although the name is there, I don't know that that Quint has a lot of input with it. And the a large number of people in this audience and in the past have uh been through the stutter training and by that I mean what he's done with health care to improve employee satisfaction and customer satisfaction. So there are departments that have already embraced and are going forward. I know the superintendent is behind this. Uh I want to say that to the other board members that the uh DHP conference

052had to do with u higher education uh primarily, but the way that people interact with employees and public is the same. And and so as we go um back into looking at at some of these uh processes and um the things that are recommended uh I wanted you to know that you know if you have a chance in the future if you've not been part of the stutter training there will be opportunities through our uh professional learning department. Um and then there are many who have already taken great steps such as HR uh working through this. So uh it it was really good it was good to see that uh we have the support of of Janet and Robin and uh Dr. Owens, KK Owens, is assigned to work with a lot of our leadership

053at this point. And so those names in itself carry a lot of weight in knowing that what they're doing is is valuable and and good. Um I I do want to thank them for the invitation for making us a part of it and uh then Mr. Superintendent if there anything you want to say about it as far as your desire in this regard. Yeah, we, you know, after the admin conference last year, we had a couple of sessions with Dr. Owens that went really, really good as it relates to two items on the flywheel. Um, I want to go ahead and tell you right now that our admin conference is July 22nd. All of you are invited. This year it will be at Bailey Middle School. Be the first year in a long time. It

054hasn't been at Washington by 22nd and um HR embraced it. Many of our departments and schools have embraced it. I remember my first session um with those principles um where it was at a meeting at Myrtle Grove Baptist Church back years and years ago. Um, but anytime you can make your employees feel like what they do is purposeful and worthwhile work, uh, you can let your employees know they are valued and they value the experience that you bring as an individual and you work as a team. Um, doesn't mean each and every day is going to be great, but each and day can be the greatest it can be. Um we are very very fortunate to have them local. So that makes it even better. I want to say they invited 30 participants from our

055school district for that last um high performance destination high performing uh free of charge. So there's a lot of things that we get because of our our our localal. Um, but I want to thank several of our leaders for participating and continue to participate. Uh, so it will help us only get better. Very, very, very, very proud of our team. Thank you, Mr. Fesco. Yeah. What was that date again? July 22nd and it's at Bailey Middle School. Oh, if you get there at 9:00, you'll probably be a little bit late. Breakfast is usually at 7:30 and then um begin speaking around 8. And I hope I'm close to the times. Yep. Elizabeth, can you send out a reminder on that? Thank you. Any any other comments on that? If not, we'll move to Mr. Harold.

056Honoring students who made a max score on the fast of Florida assessment of of stu of student learning thinking. Excuse me. Thank you. Thank you, Mr. Williams. Um uh what got me started on uh this or looking at this was when students uh I was perceiving it as a perfect score uh but uh Mr. Bobett pointed out that it's a max score. Uh these are students who made the max score on the fast test and each board member has a copy of this and it was brought to my attention that other districts around the state are honoring these uh students at the board meetings and so I've watched several of those. I've watched Guff County, I've watched Martin County, and I've watched uh uh one school in West Palm Beach. From near as I can

057tell, those other count, the smaller counties, they bring the students up and give them a certificate in September, you know, August, September after school starts, sometimes in that range. Um when you look at the list of those students who have made a uh a max score on that uh there we have 24 at the elementary level 34 at the middle and 96 at the high school. Now we probably couldn't bring the high school in here for uh because our facility is not big enough unless we move somewhere else. But I would like to propose to the board that uh uh something like this that we bring the elementary and middle school uh students in uh and that we honor them with a certificate here at the board. And then we have high school students that

058we send something out and ask the principal to do that. And also on the second page of this, we have those students who uh have increased two levels on the fast test. And some districts honor those students as well in some way. What I would like to see us do here and propose to the board and get your uh input on this is that uh uh that we uh that the superintendent encourage principles to do this sometimes at in the fall of the year. Now, what the literature that I've read on this has said that uh what what this does, it encourages when you do it at the school level, it encourages others to try to get that so they can earn that certificate. And we're all about academic excellence. And when I looked at

059this list, the number that increased uh 4,482 students. Isn't that remarkable? But you have to remember when we start out with uh progress monitoring one that those students haven't been taught that. So we're going to see a dramatic increase in progress monitoring two when they are taught that. But when you get to three, you know, and they've been taught all the benchmarks, uh then uh that's the point you're going to see that uh remarkable achievement. We're all about academic achievement. Let's honor them in some way. You know, I know they're going to get a certificate from the commissioner of Ed sometimes in January. What uh if I was looking online at that the various certificates that the kids were holding up, it's a letter from the commissioner on one side and a certificate on the

060other. But other counties are doing this to encourage academic achievement from the front end. And that's what I would like to see us do. I would like to see this board bring those elementary kids up, those middle school kids, make sure that the principal is doing something at the high school level, uh, giving these certificates out. Uh, when you have something positive like that to bring to the board, it filters throughout the community. When you honor children, their parents, they they talk about it and they're their friends and neighbors and so forth. It's tremendous PR. But the important thing is that many districts believe and I think we do here, you know, that that's going to help improve academic achievement. So, I'd like some thoughts on the board from this. Okay. I I'm okay with

061it, but I was more concerned what his thoughts were, Keith, because it's it'll be on you on this. Do you have any problems with it? No. He actually asked me, I believe it was last month, what I do, um, I'm not big on me letters. Like, I mean, I think it's great that a student gets a mimograph letter from the commissioner of education, but, you know, they're going out to literally tens of thousands of kids all throughout the state of Florida. I'm bigger on being able to personally be able to congratulate um with a handwritten letter, but I couldn't handr write. I mean, I could. It just take a long time. I know Dane and I looked at it last year. I can't remember how many we ended up sending. It wasn't It wasn't this

062many. So, um might have to use one of them auto pins I hear about. Yeah. Um, we have an electronic signature, but even that sometimes kind of loses its flare. But I do agree with Mr. Herrell. Anything we can do that celebrates these young students that are performing at a high level, we certainly need to do. The other thing that I was sharing with Mr. Herald today is what I don't want to do is block whatever may be some really good things going on at the school. So, I need to find out exactly what we're doing in particularly at the high school level because that's where you had the number that you felt like, if I heard you correctly, might not be a good number to have that many 100 kids come to the schoolboard

063meeting. Um, but I also don't want that to be an excuse for why we don't do something. So, let's let's let's figure it out. Um, we've got till, like you said, September maybe to come up with a good solution, but I do believe it needs to be recognized. I can talk to our high school and middle school, elementary school directors. They can get with their principles and know exactly what's going on at the school level. But I do believe that you said 24 and 34 for middle school and some of those may be duplicates because, you know, they may earn it in two areas. Yeah, I can certainly do that. Um, make that happen for you. Tom, you got my support. gone. Yes. Um I I do um do support this. I think it's wonderful.

064I think we do, like the superintendent mentioned, we need to celebrate these children, but it also incentivizes to other kids and have them reach a goal and say, "Oh, I'm going to try to do this for next year." Um I think it's wonderful. I think we need to pursue this. Thank you. Anybody ask? Yeah, I I agree with it. If we don't celebrate academics, then why are we here? Period. And and just as we do our athletics, which are very important, and our fine arts and everything else, but but this is a core reason that we are in existence. So, I am in favor of this. um whatever group or committee you have that looks at doing this that you know I I would like to participate if I can. Um the high school level

065to me is the one that that you know we actually need to do something a little bit more for because typically they're not the ones who get the recognition. At the elementary, you have the parents, the teachers, the administration are more warm and fuzzy, as we say. At high school, you kind of get something passed to you and that's it. So, I was thinking something along the line that even if we went to every one of our seven major high schools, however it worked out, the numbers to go as a group and have them called forward and and and you like morning announcements. The following students report to the front office. um and and whether we did an ice cream party for them or, you know, cupcakes or whatever, but then have it announced that

066these students are being brought forward to for this purpose. Just an idea there, too. But thank you, Mr. Harold, for bringing this forth. Anything we can do to honor our students and spotlight them, I think, is great. So, I'm in agreement with supporting this. Can I can I make one more statements here? Uh, so what I hear you saying is you're going to get with your staff and we're going to try to do something for this in maybe September. Yeah. Yeah. Because remember me telling you I was trying to figure out what we had done last year. Some days I can have trouble remember what I did yesterday. Yes. Um I believe what happened last year and I can't tell you if it was all 96 or if it was 100. Abrahammy, there was a

067letter that was sent from our district school counseling division to each of those students that scored the max score from me. But sounds like you either want to bring them here or if that's not feasible that that letter be from myself and all of you which is it's already occurring. So, it's just a matter of adding some names. Sounds good. Okay. Okay. Thank you. And the next item is my item. As as you know, we're part of the Florida School Board Association for the state of Florida where um I've served as the representative for Escamia County. And myself and Mr. Harrow had opportunity to go to Tampa this past week, June 11th through the 13th. And I just want to give you a debriefing of some of the things we experienced and the meeting with

068the other counties from around the state. U one board that I'm on is the Florida school labor relations um service board which is chaired by Marcus Chambers who is the superintendent of Okaloosa County. Kevin Watson is the executive director of that that organization. And I just wanted to let you know he praised our HR department under the leadership of Miss Crossad, Miss Adams, and also our negotiator, Caroline Gray, of what a great job and representation that they do for Escamia County. And that was said in front of everybody in the entire state of Florida. So, um, we do have a great team and I appreciate you, Miss Crossad, for what you've done and Caroline, for your negotiation. Now that I got the good news out of the way, I can tell you the bad. Uh,

069in that meeting, Florida, the Florida School of Labor Relations, um, proposed uh, increasing our membership dues. It had not been increased over the last 19 years. Uh, the dues were $3,100 and it proposed us to move up to $3,900, which is an increase of $850 uh, for membership dues. uh breakout sessions that I attended uh talked about the US Department of Education uh changes and the n the 119th Congress spending and policy legislation that affects school districts in Florida. There's extensive talk about uh the how it was going to affect Florida. Florida's pretty in a pretty good situation financially because we've been able to take care of our education system for many many years. But still it was a it was a hot topic. AI and education. Pasco County has this streamlining communication at 24

070hours. It's called a chat box that they gave real-time responses to parents and stakeholders. There's something uh new that's happening across the state and AI is a very positive um not positive but a very strong entity that's coming. So I think that's something we we need to eventually uh start talking about is how AI and education is going to affect us here in Escambia County. And the general session there was one person who talked about strategic planning Tim Weismer um he's the director of Florida Realtors and gave a really inspiring speech and and when he was talking about the strategic plan I I was very proud to say that um Escamia County has addressed their strategic plan. and they're following it. Not so many other uh counties around the state are in a good situation

071like we are. So whenever we go to this conference, you you learn a lot and then sometimes you you feel pretty good about yourself because you realize your county is doing a a pretty good job um compared to other gigantic counties around the state of Florida. So that was my take. Mr. Harold went as well. I didn't know if you wanted to mention anything about what he experienced there as well. Just a few comments here. One of the things that was very nice about the conference was there was a lot of superintendent there uh and uh you get to also network with superintendent and get some feelings for things for other how other counties are handling things and I agree with Mr. Williams that uh when uh we're talking about these uh subjects there, the

072various subjects that we all face, all 67 counties, we're doing very well in that respect. So, the this this county is doing well. Uh I think Santa Rosa County had uh four of their five board members there and the superintendent. Uh and uh the one on strategic planning really struck a nerve with me as Mr. Williams said that I was in that session and uh that particular one we're we're out in front on that. So that's that is a good thing. The superintendent and his staff and others need to be commended for that. I attended one on how to manage a meeting and uh I listened to all of the things that they were saying and I was checking them off. So Mr. Williams, you do a good job with I don't know sometime Mr.

073Adams, Mr. Fesco make my job hard up here. So after checking off about four or five things, I said maybe I should have found me another one. But it's a good one. And I also attended the one about the US Department of Education and uh it was going through all the different scenarios and uh when you got to the the end the bottom line is they're it's they're probably going to do away with it, you know, is was the kind of feeling, but it's going to take some legislation and other things to do that. But um and um the one on uh AI uh that was pretty good. Uh I enjoyed that one. Uh and then the one on data from the Florida uh uh Chamber of Commerce, that was outstanding. If you go to

074their site, you can uh pull up all sorts of data from all over the state to use in the decision- making process. So that's pretty well it. It was a good conference. Uh uh it was a short one. It was a day and a half for me. I know Mr. Williams was there was a little longer because he's on some of the boards there uh and in the board of directors but uh it was good it was worthwhile and I gained valuable information and thank you for uh uh for uh being there also Mr. Williams. Yes sir. Uh next we move on Mr. Superintendent UN preliminary academic review. Yep. I'm going to ask Mr. Bobbit come forward and take us through preliminary results from the academic year. uh speaking to celebrating performance and academics being

075our number one priority. Really do appreciate Jim and the work that he does along with many other individuals within our district. So Jim, we'll turn it over to you. Good morning everybody. Um this is actually the first time I've been able to do it this way um since I've gotten this job because it's the first year that we've had two years in a row consistent. So um I'm taking us through how our data compares with ourselves from last year. We are still waiting for the official state data to be released and we're still also relating for the um alternative assessment for the um students with disabilities. Those scores have still not been released. So we don't have an overall grades yet. Um so those are still pending. So starting out, this is a comparison of

076our average proficiency by grade level um from third through 10th in uh ELA. And you can see that for every grade level, we are above where we were either the same for a couple grades or above where we were last year. And this is waiting on comments. I was kind of watching people's eyes. Um I did want to point out that we have uh it's been interesting. We've talked about how that fifth grade group moving through has been a very strong group because of the end of COVID and the testing. Um you can see the big jump in sixth grade but also there wasn't a drop in fifth grade which is amazing because we've been watching that all year long and we've been seeing a decrease in fifth grade and at the end they managed

077to match last year. So, is the sliding scale the same as it was last year? Yes, sir. It's the same same as last year. Good. Yeah. Um, and now we can see that the learning gains um I did have there were a couple little drops um but not much. And third grade, remember the only students that can make learning gains in third grade are the students who are repeat third graders. So, that was a little drop, but it was still in the 70s that those students made learning gains. But you can see that um we we see increases through most of the grades and learning days as well for the public because they they've got it in their mind that this students take a test ABC you know but this is a little bit more

078complicated on how they figure out scores right. Yes sir. Um it's uh the it's these are branching tests now. And so when a student gets a question right, they get a slightly more difficult level of question. If they get it wrong, they get a slightly lower level. And it's more about the number the level of the questions the students get right than the number of questions they get right. I had a phone call from a school with a parent concerned and I knew this was going to happen. um they had two students who had the according to the report they got from the state had the exact same num number of points correct but one student had a four and one had a two. So it was about the level of question the one student

079had versus the other. Perfectly good sense, huh? Well, think of it like basketball shooting a free throw being worth one point, shooting a three-pointer being worth three points. So some questions are worth more than others. Moving on to math and this is only through eighth grade because at this point once you pass the eighth grade test you're moving into algebra and geometry and again you can see that we had growth across all grade levels uh in proficiency and I know the seventh grade looks low but remember the seventh grade students that are proficient take mostly take our accelerated seventh grade test and they're taking the eighth grade test now so they're not including included with the grade seven testing. Those are students who were mostly non-proficient the year before. So, they're moving towards proficiency. And

080then for learning gains, we see the same thing. So, moving on to the EOCC testing with our middle school and our high school algebra. Um, I do anticipate based on these numbers that our middle school algebra should be above the state average middle school algebra this year and our high school will be coming close. learning gains. Um we are um go back 49 and 47 in geometry and that 3% it's a rounding difference one rounded up one rounded down and so it I I know I'm not a math person and you are it was above 2.5 difference so it rounds learning gains we did see a top in geometry. Um we're already looking at how to address that to make sure that we correct that moving forward. Um we did see a big change in

081uh high school algebra um with learning gains and proficiency. Um we we know that a lot of the students coming into high school are coming in non-proficient algebra, but we um were giving students that were our most struggling students actually a um not a remediation class, a separate math class that actually supported them. Um and we that's something we tried and it seems to work very well for the high schools. uh science little bit of drop in fifth grade but again last year we this is where we did see a little bit difference with last year's fifth grade to this year's fifth grade anticipating seeing in other areas but we saw it here a little bit and we now have eight uh most of our middle schools all but one are offering biology so that

082biology is a combination of middle school and high school but it is up overall between social studies is both up. We were a little bit worried about science and social studies this year because this is the first time that those subject areas also had branching test for the first time and so we did not see a drop in proficiency with those new tests. And same thing with US history it was rounding up 64 to 69. I think one to ask. This time it went the opposite direction. Okay. And I think you will like this slide. This is right now very tentative. We still have seniors who are taking courses and taking um tests this summer. So these numbers may go up even higher than what we're seeing, but you see an increase across the board.

083And I will throw one caveat on this. Um, we've been using a new test, the CLT, as approved as a concordant test. Um, they did announce that they will be raising those concordance scores and affecting the rising 11th graders for the future and it will will have an impact. So they have raised the concordance scores won't affect next year seniors but the following years. It really helped this this group and this year's graduation affects next year's school grade. So this will not show up in this year's school grade. It'll show up next year. But last year was up above the year before. So we've three points each year is what it looks like as the least. So now I have a breakdown by school of the total points they've earned so far. This is on

084fast for elementary and fast and best for middle and high. Um so this is gives an idea of how many points difference we've either gone up or down from last year overall. And again this does not include the alternative assessment. Um so those will be factored in. So still not and it doesn't have the official from the state numbers. So it's not a projection of the school grade. It's just a comparison of where we were last year to this year because last year the alternative test did not count at all. What went on with Brad? Um I would have to talk with the principal to know exactly what happened, you know, in an individual school. Uh but we did see a drop. Um they scored very high last year so they came down a little

085bit. So it could be anything from learning gains, it could be teacher change. It's you know hard to say without looking to the principal. It takes a few slides to get through elementary. There's quite a few of them. um sorry um I'm thinking turn to my boss remember exactly because we round and like I said this does not include FAA and this is why I'm not talking about school grades because there are some schools that this will affect their school grade. They're right on that boundary. I understand you have some missing information on this. I'm just curious in my own mind as I look through this list what it takes to move up. Sorry. It's different for elementary and secondary. So, and naturally, I'm like the other board members, we're all looking at our own

086district here. Of course, we're looking at the whole uh the whole the whole school district, but we're looking at our individual district school district. I do anticipate overall we will see an an increase in the number of A and B schools. How many? It's going to depend on those FA results because literally we have schools who have the exact right number to be a certain grade and FAA scores could drop them a little or it could raise them a little. So can't really know until then. And hopefully they'll be out soon. And Miss Bob, you say soon. What can you estimate when? Before August. Okay. Say, all I can say is soon at this point. Um I uh talked with Mr. Hayeswinkle this morning and he called down there and did not get an answer.

087One example that I've looked at all of this and I'm the one who asked Mr. above it just to give it to it in points because there's too many other variables. But like Molino Park, you can see there was a 41 difference, 41 point difference. Yet all the variables show that they would still earn an A with 533 points. Uh 493 for an A. Like I said, these will be affected depending on the school and how many students they have by FAA. Um I I know one school um we've talked before about their subgroup, the ESSA subgroup. Um we're not really even projecting those because one high school has a third of their students with disabilities still pending their scores. So that their score could go anywhere at this point. Last side for Mr. B,

088are we going to get uh uh when do you anticipate we'll get a definitive information on this? By August. August. That's the best I have right now. And is this report here available to uh in a hard copy now or or an electronic copy that board members can come back and refer to? Okay. Um these are remember these are unofficial results. Me comparing where we were last year to this year um when the state publishes the scores they publish um the results by what they call all curriculum groups which is students that don't necessarily affect the score rate. all students who test. So there their numbers will be different usually, but this will be affecting our school grade. Oops, there's middle school. Yeah. Um, and I am anticipating possibly the rule is once a level

089has 75% of the schools in that level make an A or B, they change the scale for that level. I'm actually anticipating a change for high school the next year, but we will not know that until the scores come out and they tell us they were at 72% last year for high school. High school There's still Yeah, I I have no problem saying there'll be an A at all. What is a total point for high school? It's a thousand total points. Uh so to be for for an A high school is 635. 635. West Florida's definitely safe. There's some significant improvements here or change uh in in the high school level. significant. When you look at this, I would say over all the districts, every cell will be up in high school. Um because we

090know our graduation is up, we know our acceleration is up from last year, and it's going to be up higher even this year. So, um looking at the data, every cell should be up. Other questions? That's where we are compared to where we were last year. Yeah. Thank you, Mr. Bob. Mr. Thank you, Mr. Bob. Mr. Fesco, Mr. Williams. I I I had called Mr. Bob at several times this last week and uh he is so easy to work with. He I said, "I don't want you to do something that is going to take a lot of your time because I know you're busy with scores and things." And he said, "Well, that's what I do and I'll have it to you by this date." And two days before that, I get it. So, I

091appreciate it. What I'm trying to do is commend you, Mr. Bobbit, for uh for helping me. he he's the one who uh sent me the uh number of students who made max scores and so uh naturally uh he's our data person. So thank you Mr. Bobbit for doing that and thank you for doing it in a timely manner before you said you were even going to give it to me. I appreciate it. Well, I do want to point out that um I cannot do my job without the help of um Mr. Hayes, Evaluation Services, a whole team and also um Mr. um uh Doug Pillard and his team. That that's what makes my job is I can get the information because they make it easy for me. I just wanted to take this opportunity. Thank

092you for doing what you do and doing this and I know that although this happens once in a while for the board, this is a regular thing that you do with the people who need this information on a daily basis. Um, it doesn't happen all the time, but I look here and I I'm looking at those uh in the back row who have their heads down continuing to work as meetings go on. And I know that the work that our directors are doing with the schools and assisting the principles and teachers. Uh I appreciate it very much and I commend you and you don't always get a lot of recognition, but you sure do deserve it. So, thank you all. Yeah. Um, okay. Um, great job and u, and I feel the same as other

093board members, especially for our educators that are out there working this, but it's good for them to be able to see if they're ahead or behind or how they got to go. So, um, Mr. Leonard, good job getting this data to where it's making a difference. So, and to the staff, thank you for what you've been doing. Thank you. Any other comments before we move on? We're going to recess for about uh 10 No, you're fine. Brings us to um comments from the superintendent. This brings us to item number three on the agenda. Mr. Chair, sir, could I add something real? Yes, sir. Point of order. Um there was a little bit of confusion on on the motion earlier in this meeting and uh and I talked to Mr. Leonard. He took I think what

094the confusion was was on the details that people wanted on the policy to be created in the future. But the motion is just on those items there plus the Paul has um Carissa the board attorney tells me on the donation issue you're worried about is already included in state law. Okay. Yeah. So there's no problem. So whether it's on the motions on the board agenda or where the books are voted on it, it don't matter. Whatever Ella and you decide it, I can do it either way. Right. I'll give that to you before we leave here today. Okay. I I do want to caution that a lot of what Mr. Adams has in his original motion is it's fine. it's the board giving direction to the superintendent, but when you start getting to specifics and

095standards and whatnot, then some rule making may be required. So, um I would just suggest that um as part of this, uh you know, it may not be that everything that everyone wants can be done as of the vote tomorrow. Some of it may require future rule making and I would hope that that would be reflected in whatever motion and that's why we kept it without getting in the weeds. But the rest of board members brought up some good issues that you want done in the new policies when done and that's when each board member needs to work with the superintendent. So he he's he's good to go on this. So uh do you think it should be on the board agenda items or I I I think the more notice to the public the

096better. It's already It would be a late ad. It is up to Mr. Williams to determine whether or not as a late ad um there's sufficient Okay. Well, board agenda. That's that's not a that's not really a legal question. Okay. Okay. Well, Elizabeth, don't matter for either one. I would I would think that if the this is not a legal opinion either. Um, but I think if it's going to be an an item where the board is providing direction to the superintendent, then it should be on the board agenda agenda, not on the superintendent. Okay. Okay. And that probably gives you part of the name there. You wanted Elizabeth the direction board directions and superintendent. Okay. Thank you, Mr. Chair. Mr. Chair. Yeah. Uh, Mr. Chair. Good. Uh, I understand what you're saying, Mr. Adams

097and I understand the the things that I brought up would be something that would consider later in a policy. What what we're considering now or will be considering is simply what you put forth. But uh and I think several of us, Mr. Fetco and Miss Bgosh did the same thing. We're wanting to ensure that the our policy is changed and it's uh and those things that we mentioned in the discussion before. So I understand. Thank you. Okay. And now u this brings us to item three. on the agenda. Mr. Superintendent, any additions or comments? The only other thing we wanted to make certain we did for you today was to have Mr. Saint Seir go through a little bit of the budget of Mr. Saint Seir. Okay. Good morning again board. Uh Mr. Superintendent, thank

098you. I'm going to go over the current year. I want to give you the reality of the current year. We've talked about it um all year long. It's just been a tough year. Uh next year doesn't look like it's going to be any better and probably a little bit worse. Uh so I want to go over um first we'll go over this budget status update of 2025. Keep in mind that uh this is work in progress still. We won't have 2025 closed for three months. will be probably two and a half months continuing to work on 2025 and get it closed uh and ready for AFR and uh and then of course we'll start working on the annual comprehensive financial report right after that. So it just builds all the way up through uh right

099at the Christmas break. So it's just a constant process. But as far as closing this current year physically, we're a couple months away. I'm going to give you an update of what it's looking like. This is projecting without any um any work to make it better. So, there's still a lot of things that we have to do. A lot of revenue that's going to be unaccounted for now that will be accounted for a little bit later. Not a lot, but some. Um, and then some expenditures that we'll try to make fit somewhere else in another fund so that it looks a little bit better. And I'll explain that a little bit better as we go through. Okay. So, this is current year. This is uh our student population. You've seen this slide before. We started

100out the year total 40,246 which includes 51 uh 4,125 family empowerment scholarships and 1500 charter schools. Um the uh traditional schools up at the top 34 233.6. So just kind of stripping out most of the stuff looking at traditional schools. We went from current from the beginning of the current year to third calculation which was which accounted for October survey and projected February survey. We had a decrease of about 278 unweed FTE. Now we don't have we don't even have fourth calculation yet. DOE is still working that up which will encompass the actual survey three in February. So that those numbers will update. I'll get those once we get the information. All right, you saw this um couple times ago. This is the flow from 2020. This is the shutdown year till projected 2026. Well,

101I haven't updated the chart, but I'm going to give you some updated numbers uh based on the legislature. We got the revenue on Friday night. uh did a lot of looking at it this morning before this meeting and updating a few things, but the number out to the far right at the bottom 41668. That was our projected. That's what we thought we were going to have. DOE is working with 41499 414.99 a little bit lower amount of unweighted FTE on the and some of that is family empowerment scholarships. So the scholarships we thought projecting into the new year based on DOE's information DOE's early information 6234 scholarships you'll see that on the scholarship line out to the far right. Well now they are projecting for the first FEF calculation of current of 2026 5996.75. So

102there's a decrease in DOE's projection of the family empowerment scholarships. Uh with a little bit of change there, we're probably going to bring down our traditional and bring up our traditional forecast that we had at 33762 on the top line for our right. 33762. Looks like that'll be uh in the neighborhood of 33,000. um 832 33,832. So that's just what it looks like off the first calculation which is based on projections. All right, just wanted to update some of those FTE numbers and again once we get the fourth FEFP calculation which is real is very late. is couple months late then we will uh update what actually happened in the current year for student population. All right, these are projected expenditures for the current year and backwards to 2022. the uh final expenditures and then

103projected 2025 expenditures change from the prior year is at the right hand column. So for current year we're projecting without working it up at all. There's a lot of work to be done to try to make this better as we uh just go through our counting our our fund transfers and different things like that. 30 397 million 3 39 379.2 2 million projected prior year 349.7 for a change of about 30 29.5 million increase in expenditures over the prior year just under 30 million increase in expenditures over prior year. Now the next slide now you can see the categories salaries benefits on down uh or the changes uh these are preliminary again so salaries and benefits are the main reason that we're uh significantly over prior year in terms of expenditures and that's to be

104expected somewhat about 8 and a half to nine million of that is salary increases the raises for the current here and the rest of that is the number is the personnel increases that came a lot of them came from the federal in the prior year to the current year. All right. So the next slide I'm going to break the salaries down a little bit more. uh administrators, classroom teachers, other certified instructional uh teacher aids and bus aids, uh other support staff, um the board and attorneys. So, here's the split of the salaries, not benefits, but salaries. salaries only. The change in the salaries, contract salaries only, contract salaries only, not overtime, not extra pay, just contract salaries. A change of about $20.3 million increase over the prior year. The biggest change is on those teacher

105aids and the bus aids. especially on a ratio basis. The reason is we had so many of those salaries that we were charging the federal that we had to bring back and those are disproportionately uh higher than the other um salary types. Okay. classroom teachers, other certified instructional, those are both on the instructional salary schedule. That's the extent of the instructional salary schedule. Other certified would be the media uh guidance counselors those types um of support to the classroom teachers. All right, this is the revenue. So in 2022 the revenue this is total revenue general fund total revenue all of this is general fund total revenue 309 million 2022 that includes transfers from capital outlay to cover eligible cost the um progression up to 2025 projected 357.7 million about a $4.2 million increase over the

106prior year. Now, that will continue to grow some. We might get a little more tax revenue, advalorum tax revenue that was budgeted. We only budget 96%. So, in our required local effort, uh we we may get 98% or 97 and a half% in the current year. So that number will go up and help the revenue. So there's there's still plenty of things that that could happen. All right. Now, just putting it together with the expenditures, let's look at the change in fund balance that's going to occur when you put these things together. So in the top row, the this is the revenue. The next row are all the expenditures. Net change in fund balance for current year would be a negative 21.5 million with those numbers unadjusted. Beginning fund balance July 1 was 45.9 million.

107Ending fund balance of June 30th would be 24.4 million with no adjustments. And we do scramble to make as much as we can uh make that better as much as we can from an accounting side standpoint. You see the split of the various categories in the fund balance. There's non-spendable. There's restricted. There's assigned and unassigned. The assigned and the unassigned are considered those are the only two categories that are considered unreserved because the assigned and the unassigned are not legally um restricted by either statute uh board rules or some sort of a grant requirements or anything like that. We can the assigned an example would be school budgets. Those are assigned. That's the category of it. They have a designation, but they don't have a legal un uh a legal restriction on them. So those

108in an emergency could be utilized at a district level. The others could not because they have a statute statuto DOE or categorical purpose. So the $24.4 million as a projected ending fund balance and the assigned and unassigned totaled against general fund revenue the financial condition ratio which we talk about a good bit would be about 4.4%. Current uh last year that financial condition ratio was 9.67. 67. So there's a whole lot of work that needs to be done to this general fund to get at least some mitigating uh change to the decrease that we're seeing in the fund balance which tells a real story that we've talked about many times. We're just uh it's decreasing in population. the revenue decre or doesn't grow as much or decreases and the expenditures just uh it just can't

109keep up with a decrease in the student population. All right, here's some we've talked about there was a lot of talk about I think last board meeting or so teacher salaries and I want I wanted to give you a visual of teacher salaries the um mill rates and and mainly some of the voted millages districtwide that are dedicated to salaries where we stand in all of So it's ranked in order. It's sorted from top to bottom. So Monroe is the high on the average salary. Monroe is 73 73,244. They have a 1.05 voted millillage dedicated to salaries. They also are a very high property, high valued property district. So you see where I have a column out called the original require local effort that comes from the first calculation 3.069 is their assigned original require

110local effort. They generate so much through the local based on property values that they exceed the state maximum of 90% local funding cap. The the local portion cannot exceed 90% of the per pupil funding. So if you look at the RLE column about the fourth one over from the left, the fourth one over from the left, their real required local effort had to be adjusted by the FFP calculation to 1.062 so that they did not exceed the 90%. So if you see anything out where it says original RLE, those are districts that are high value property tax, high value property, and they had to back off of the RLE to not exceed the 90% local cap. Capital Millage portion is uh right next to the voted debt service column. Monroe levies 1.0 capital outlay. The

111reason they do that instead of 1.5 is they generate so much just like we just said, they generate so much in property taxes that they can afford to back off of that. the rest of them uh in that original RLE there's several of them who reduce their capital millage to less than 1.5 but some that don't. The rest of the state is pretty much 1.5. You'll notice in the halfsent sales tax column, those are the districts that have a half cent sales tax. So I'll go down to the next page on this same concept. Escambia is on this scale. at 50,936. This is straight out of DOE's data. Anybody can look this up. So, are there any questions or comments? I just wanted y'all to have this because we're getting ready to go into tax

112um milligrate um season and we're going to see where we stand on that. See what we need to do there. Gulf County is on the capital 786. Their reason is the same as Monroe. They're a high high district, high value property tax property district. They afford to back off of the 1.5. they do have a voted millage for um dedicated to salaries. So I've highlighted all the columns that this is just information. And this is not advocation, but I want you to see all the data who has and who does not have a voted millage dedicated to salaries. And if there's any reason why somebody some district's salary is less than another, you might need to look at that just to see where they stand. Uh, one of the first ones I knew about years

113and years ago was um was Walton County. I had a one of my one of our um PAC districts him uh told me he said we're going to levy we're going to send it to the voters for salaries. I think these last uh four years before they go back to the voter I believe think I'm right on that. So, there's always a little bit of a chance, sometimes a great chance that that thing might get voted down and you're stuck with a bunch of salaries that you can't pay for. Okay. All right. So, that's that. Any questions or comments on that? Yes, sir. Um, you mentioned right at the very end the districts that have a a uh tax to pay salaries, but if it was not voted on, how long do those referendums go?

114I believe it's four years. Four years. Four years and a half. So there is the potential that then okay now I was skipping back to the very first page and on the first page that you you had the traditional schools the decrease and when we're talking FTE I'm talking when I see that I'm thinking students right each student is one FTE so in the traditional schools we've lost students but the family empowerment has gone up 922. So that's like a 600 and some higher new kids that they didn't get from us. Uh is that because of or what what is the reason that they could go up that high but they're not coming out of our schools? I think they are coming out of our schools. Well, but if we're only losing 300, 200. Well,

115not all of them, but I think many of those that we lost did go, right? But but that's still going to give six or 700 that that are now in the family empowerment. And and my first thought is, okay, are these previous private parochial kids who haven't asked for the money until now? That's what we assume. Or homeschoolers. There's a lot of homeschoolers getting that scholarship, too. Okay, that's that's a significant number. That's, you know, in one and a half elementary schools or a middle school. That's a lot of kids. That it's scary. And and the uh thing here is that when you look at the totals, you had the 40,2446 in 24 25 second calculation, but a third it went up. So, you know, when if you're looking at as a total enrollment kind

116of thing, it looks like we're really growing. We're not growing. That's right. And that's been a lot of the problems with the scholarships. And we thought they might do something different this year and pull them out of the calculation, but they left it in. They've left it in another another year. But yes, it is very deceiving. It looks like we're a growing traditional school district, but we're we're declining traditional and growing in total because of the scholarships. Mr. chair and um and me and superintendent has talked about this. At some point you got to right size a district. The easy thing is pass on tax increases to your citizens. The hard thing is right sizing your district like we should do. So, um, if this pattern keeps continuing, that's that's what we need to do.

117Any other comments? Thank you, Mr. S. Okay, I got Let me give you one more. We've got one more, Mr. Williams. Mhm. Okay. Okay. This is the preliminary tax ro. There you go. Okay. Preliminary tax ro June 1 35.8 billion. This will be very close to what July 1 is certified as 35.8. Now using that number and by the way DOE used DOE used um 36.4 in the calculations 36.4 billion. So their tax ro estimate was much higher than what uh our property appraiser has given us uh for preliminary June 1. So they used a much higher tax role, not a much higher but somewhat higher tax role to make the FEFP calculation for first calculation. That would change a little bit on the per pupil funding. That means that uh that's showing that the

118district would be funding more in required local effort than it probably will. So we'll see how those millage rates look when they when they get them to us in July. Second calculation now. Um can we blow that up a little a little bit? Maybe one or two. Yeah, that that I think that'll be okay. All right. So, I'm using the 35.8 at the top. 35.8 billion tax roll. Go down some. And I'm using the uh 1.5 mills for illustration. So, that would generate 51.6 million in revenue. 51. That's uh on the revenue line. 51.6 million at 1.5 mills. This is that would be the max. And then here are the really the hard costs that we have to fund that we must fund. We've got certificates of participation zero uh 2020 um cops series 2023A

119and our projected 2025A debt service on each one of those during the year. So debt service on each one of those. Then we have eligible maintenance costs that we would transfer from capital to cover general fund uh maintenance cost. Eligible maintenance cost 4.7 million. So that'd be a transfer from uh capital millage to general fund. We would and I'm projecting here because we need it. Projecting eligible transportation costs bus salaries and benefits. That is a new category for that we advertised last year and that we're going to advertise again. And that would generate that well it would generate uh in this case about 14 million in transfers to cover those costs. So that's close to what the salaries for school bus operators for the district. Property insurance we would transfer that Mr. Windham told me

120the other day it's a little bit less than the 7 million I've got there. That was um projected I think last year. I just left the number. So all of that would go into general. So we would transfer out of millillage 35.2 million either to debt service or general fund. Florida school portion we would be at 60% of the allocation. It ramps up over five years to 100%. So next year would be a 60% portion. um Bula on down to Warrington total would be 4 right at 470 million going I mean 470,000 going to charter schools for their portion of the 2 mill okay for ERP systems to run all of our payroll HR um curriculum 1.7 million for the ERP system software elig that is eligible for millillage. Not all software is eligible for

121millage. It has to be ERP system software about 1.7. Think we've got all of it. There may be a little that we need to add to it. Uh this is a just a general projection. Not sure how this is going to wind up, but I'm just giving you some numbers. school buses. Last year we had uh 28 school buses at about 4.5 million. White fleet at about a million. Of course, Mr. Dennis is working and his staff are working on all of this. The maintenance requirements, these are just some numbers that we had in last year that probably will be similar for the current year. About 5 million for maintenance and repair. Protection services had a um 400,000 in there. and so on. So th this is incomplete. We haven't even gone over this yet.

122And so with the revenue and all of those things in it, there'd be about $3.2 million excess revenue over expenditures. Okay. Any questions on that? That's kind of that's just a touch of what we're going to be looking at with our millillage funds. Okay. All right. That's all on the current year and then that was a little bit of new year. just to touch base a little bit on the uh revenue that that uh was released on Friday night uh for Scambia. Again, the projection was 41,499. [Music] That's a 500 505 increase over current year. All of that increase is scholarship. Um, base student allocation. You don't have this. I'm just going by because I haven't had time to I wasn't going to give you anything because I didn't have time to to really uh

123verify everything. But just some uh some key components. Base student allocation increase $42 over the pro current year about uh 78%. 78%. the um the per the total per pupil funding for the district and it's close for the state's a little bit more total per pupil funding prior to any adjustment for family empowerment scholarship was 1.37%. If we don't see at least a 3% increase, we know we're in trouble. We're going to probably go negative and that's what's going to happen next year. We're going to go negative next year again. Uh so there there has to be some some things that work out. We talk about executive session. I mean there's no room for salaries increases. We would have to intentionally draw down fund balance which is already going to be drawn down in the

124current year for salary increases. That's just the reality of where we're at. Um, after adjustments for family empowerment scholarships, new revenue may be in the neighborhood of a million dollars. It's only about 9.5 million when you include the scholarships. So, you know, there's not any room for anything. So, we're going to have to shove off as much salary as we can to the millillage funds that are eligible now, especially with the bus drivers. This is the first for us. We've never done this before. Didn't never want to do it. We didn't want to do this. It's a last resort, but that's that's where we're at. We're going to have to do it. We're going to push them off as many much as we can bring in capital to cover those salaries. Okay. All right. So,

125we'll have much more on June 30th. Okay. Thank you. Thank you, Mr. Sincere. Thank you, sir. Anything else, Mr. Superton? No, sir. Okay, we continue with agenda. Uh this coming tomorrow is Mr. Harold. It's your month to bring implication and pledge I believe. Okay. Okay. This moves us into um the minutes for May. We have um also administrative appointments and administrative reappointments. Yes sir. Yes sir. Is there uh on reappointments I will be abstaining from voting and pulling one item. Okay. Okay. Thank you. We have uh one item for first read the student progression plan. Any comments on that? Okay, we move now into our consent agenda. Are there any items to be discussed? Starting with curriculum items 8 through 19. 8 through 19. There is an item I will speak on that um 10B.

126I'll be abstaining from voting. 10B uh as being a member of the YMCA board of directors. Is there one that you need to abstain from as well, Mr. Feds go. No, this was Dr. Colo the BPK contract. What number? Just want to be sure. Dr. Koy told me about it the other day. Any more comments? Anything else may be pulled from items consent agenda for curriculum 8 through 19. I did mention Miss Bose I'd be abstaining items 10B. Uh next we have finance items 20 through 24. I would like to pull 24 C. Okay. Any others? Moving to human resources items 25 through 29. I would again like to pull 25D delta. Okay. 25 operations items 30 to 39. I'll be pulling item number 31B. And I just want ask a question about 32A and

12732F. Okay. Any more from operations? If not, we move to ascent superintendents 40 through 42. Oh, I'm sorry. Yes, sir. The Tate Auditorium. Oh, we're doing it now. I didn't know if you were going through. I didn't back. Yeah. Come back. Okay. So, that's fine. Okay. Got it. That's too uh 40 to 410. Okay. Now, now we discuss these items tomorrow. Did you want to discuss them tonight? Today? Okay. I wanted to discuss them today so I could get information and really not pull them tomorrow. Okay. All right. All right. Mr. Watson, on the Tate Auditorium, I thought that we were using the same template for all the auditoriums. We are, sir. But this is this says that it's architectural engineering and so we're redoing the architecture. No sir, we're using it's still prototypical. It's

128it's just like when we did the covered play buildings. Uh they we have to pay them for the actual design work of it. Uh there'll be slight modifications. So the brick, the front to make sure it matches the front of Tate High School and then all of the civil, the geotechnical, all of that goes into that as well. So it's prototypical in the sense that the basic design is there and we get a discount for that overall design. We just do not we're having to pay for the actual design of the building itself. Okay. I I just thought we have it designed already. We have the blueprints. We have everything ready to go. That's an awful lot of money for It's an awful lot of money, but they're color brick we're using. It it is.

129Well, it's not just brick. It's the site work as well. Every every when you position these things, there's different services going through them, you know, all the nuances associated with each unique site along with what he what he described, the design alignment. You don't want to put a purple brick next to a school that's all red brick. That kind of So, there's there's cosmetic stuff, but it is much more than that. I just didn't understand what all it included. Right. All your all your interior, if you think of the inside of the of the the room itself and the inner workings of a stage and auditorium, those are prototypical. Your fly your fly lofts, your fly, all that stuff is this is dealing with sight work. This is dealing with sight work and then the

130stuff that makes it align with the with the property. And you know, Tate is you know, Tate's Tate's I going to do this tongue and cheek, but Tate is 100 years old. So there's a hundred years worth of infrastructure out there. We have to discern what all that is, where it is, where we're going to get power, what we may have to modify, what we might not have to modify, those type of thing. There's a lot of infrastructure discussion that's going to go into that. So it'll be it'll be done exactly as though uh we did with the covered players. Each one of the sites is different. Um we get a discount for the actual construction uh design uh which we've already paid for, but all the other stuff is associated with that. That also

131includes construction materials testing, uh, geotechnical engineering, uh, the civil site work, the storm water, all of that goes into it as well. And then, uh, 32F has to do with the baseball field at West Florida High School. Yes, sir. All right. And so, we have bugs. We have bugs. We're not just going to kill them. We're going to remove all the sod and the bugs with them and hope the bugs don't come back to the new sod. Right. As of about two weeks ago, I'd never heard of a ground pearl. And Uh they are a invasive creature. Uh they are there is nothing in the United States that can kill them. Uh that's legal. All right. So uh so what they what we'll do is we will remove that. They the to to be clear

132and this did some research from my staff. Uh these things move about 4 centimeters a year. So it's not like you can move them off and they're going to come right back. It's not like fire ants. They'll run, you know, they'll they'll beat you back to the field. Um these things actually once you eradicate move remove the soil it's highly unlikely that they'll come back. Uh University of Florida just to be clear University of Florida is very close to having something that will kill these things. All right. I I just thought wait a minute because you know you're going to replace the whole field and there's no guarantee they won't be there. That now that is true but there we're working very diligent. If we go down about 8 in and take that out it's

133a high likelihood it won't be there because they have to feed on the roots. So anything down in below that, you know, below 8 inches, there's very unlikely that you have any root system. All right. It just it was strange to me. So I thought it was some clarification. I I imagine the previous principal might have left that there to just a thought. I don't know. Thank you, sir. Yes, sir. Mr. Chair. Yes. Um before you walk off the um so how much of the savings is it for us to have that master design review? Uh, I can't remember off the top of my head. I'll look it up and and and get I'm just curious that Yeah, it's it's 20% or it's it's not it's not 40%. No, sir. Uh, I'll have to go

134back and look at what the contract said. I can't remember off the top of my head, but I I'll send you send you guys information on that. Yes, sir. Anything else, Mr. Chair? I'll ask those questions tomorrow night. That's fine. Okay. Thank you. Do that. Okay. Item number 43. Next item is the uh FSBA advocacy representative and alternate. Having served this year, I'm willing to let somebody else have that opportunity. It it really was very enlightening. I I and there wasn't a whole lot of time to do it, but um somebody who's really more into the legislative side of it, the governmental might want to all is it it involves at least two like Zoom meetings and and then at the conference there's typically a movie a meeting of the advocacy group and it it

135talks about ways to advocate for public education. that deals more with what interaction with the legislature. [Music] Somebody would like to do that, I'd like for them to do it. I'll put my hand in try it. There you go. Okay. If Yes. Well, I'll do the alternate because you're already on so many things. I'll be the alternate, but if you'll do it. Okay. You help me out. All right. Okay. Thank you. Miss, you send that information into FSBA. Okay. Thank you. All right. Item number 44, moving into items for superintendent media center services recommendation for removal. You have any questions? No, I don't. Okay, last item. There's one item, internal audit and internal reports. Inventory reports, excuse me. Hearing none, that brings us to our public forum. We have three speakers with three minutes each.

136Uh, the first person, I'm sorry, I can read your last name, B. Is it Buy? Well, thank you. You have three minutes, sir. Good morning, or I think it's still morning. Uh, Keith Bo, uh, District 2 out of Warrington. Uh what I'd like to address is on I'm I'm I'm a member of the book review committee and in it there is a functional problem that I would like to address that hopefully you will take action on and make a correction and that is in the review process you we start out with a binary choice between the circle and the triangle. in the circle is where we feel that it should a a book should be removed entirely from the library. Now, the problem with it being binary in that regard, when we get to the

137triangle and decide what grade level we want uh books to be at, anybody that voted within the circle is now discluded from being part of the triangle. What I what I would like to see is the top of the triangle to be books removed because if you have a tie in the triangle, you have the different uh uh upper high school, high school, uh pre high school, and elementary school. All right. Well, if you want the book removed, but the book doesn't have the four votes or five votes to get it removed, your votes no longer count to what level you want that book in at in the school level. So if you have two votes to remove a book, but then the other six votes decide what level that book should be in. Maybe

138you have one that wants it in elementary school, maybe you have two that wants it in ninth and tth grade. uh and you might have the uh remaining part saying it's okay if in the 11th and 12th grade. But if you include the the books, it's it's only logical that if you don't want the book in the library, you don't want it at a lower level in the library. So if we take that circle which is to remove a book from the school library put it at the top of the triangle then you have that will graduate into the upper level to the the four vote you know in other words we have eight votes and and it takes four votes I believe to remove a book maybe it's five votes to remove a book

139from the library. All right. But if you don't have those votes to begin with, then you don't have a voice by voting to have it removed. You don't have a voice at what level you want it in the school library. And there's books that may be appropriate for 11th and 12th grade, but you don't have the sway from the people that didn't want it in there anymore. So in other words, what I'm trying to say is instead of a separate circle and the and the triangle, we should have just the triangle with the the circle that t. Thank you. Thank you for that makes sense. Thank you for your information. Thank you. Next we have Leah Schultz Schultz. Three minutes. Thank you. Hi there. My name is Leah Schultz. I was just coming by to

140introduce myself today. Um, so I am the development coordinator for the Wildlife Sanctuary of Northwest Florida. Um, many of you may be familiar, some of you may not. We've been around since 1982. Um, and we provide a free service to the public, a wildlife hospital that anyone can come and bring injured wildlife to and we'll take it in and do our best to take care of it and release it. We also offer educational programming. We are now working to expand this programming with the addition of my position. I'm very excited about that. Um, but we offer um field trip programming. We also can come to um schools and do bring raptors or do owl pellet dissections. Really fun stuff. Um, so I wanted to let all of you know about that that we're available as

141a resource. We work within budgets um and things like that. So, just wanted to say hi today and hope you all have a great day. Thank you. Mr. Williams, may I add something? I I served on the board of the wildlife sanctuary for probably 10 or 15 years. And if you don't know about it, it's right around the corner from the McDaniel building. Um they offer free tours. You can walk through and see some of the most remarkable creatures. um they have some captive um populations that can't be released back into the wild, but the work that those people do on just very little money through the support of donors is truly remarkable. So, congratulations and say say hi to everybody for me. Any other comments? Thank you very much. Uh um our final speaker,

142Mr. Rick Hullneck Holm, I'm sorry, mess your name up. You have three minutes, sir. Oh, next. I like the casual look and I like what I heard today. A lot of what I heard today. Uh, we're moving in the right direction. We're trending in the right direction, but we're not there yet. You, sir, are right from District 5. Um, we we we haven't seen the beef yet on this stuff. Uh, I know you get it. Uh, but now we need to see something happen tangibly. Um uh I I like district one. Thank you for your leadership, sir. Uh we need to remove those books on the state list and we need to remove it without review. Amen. District two, apply the same statutes to the libraries to the classroom. Amen to that. Great idea. District

143three, Mr. Chair, we have an opportunity to write this ship for the next decade. We do. Amen to that. District four. Amen. also not just the acquisitions but the donations. Yes. And and I applaud you also stepping up to another position of leadership. Bravo, sir. Again, we're not moving fast enough. I agree 100%. Judge Weatherall says the same thing. Now, as to you, sir. Now, there's safety in a multitude of counselors. These guys are giving you very good counsel right now. Very good counsel. and you'd be wise to to heed it. The right number of books to be removed is not 18. That would be virtue signaling. It's a lot more than that. He's right on this. The books that have already been removed, pull them. We don't need to provide a political buffer to

144these guys right now. You know why? Because we got an attorney general who gets it. We got an education commissioner who gets it. We got a state board of education that gets it. We got Judge Weatherall that gets it. You don't need cover. You don't need cover. This is the time to do the right thing to protect the kids and to ensure compliance with Florida statute. That's what this is about. This is what's going to happen if it's anything less than 400 books tomorrow or soon thereafter. You guys have watched the uh the Hillsboro superintendent in the hot seat. They're going to ask with that with that parental office. Now, stuff is going to get funneled in there, sir. We love you. We don't want you in that hot seat. They're going to ask you

145to read from one of the books that's not on your list of 18 from the other 400 plus. They're going to say, "Could you read page one, paragraph one from this book?" And you're going to say, "I don't want to read this. It's disgusting." So, take the lead. Take the counsel. These guys, they know what they're doing. They're giving you good counsel. and bring yourself into alignment with state leadership right now so we can affect change for the next decade and beyond. I applaud what you're doing. We got more work to do and I hope to see the start of that tomorrow, the first fruits of it tomorrow. Thank you. Okay. Thank you for your comments. Um if there's nothing else, anything else? Yes, sir. Um, what Mr. Bo just said causes me to go,

146huh? And and so I've got to question it now. So if you're on a book review committee, and I'm I'm looking at Bradley and I'm looking at the superintendent. If you're on a book review committee, and let's say that for purposes here, there are eight people on it. Two are voting to remove the book, but it the other six say no, so the book is retained. Those two who voted no don't get to continue to participate in what level the book is appropriate for. What I did is I wrote down what he said because I know I went to Auburn, but he confused me when he talked about circles and triangles. So, I wanted to make sure I got back with Mr. Bo and I would talk, but not today. I wanted to make sure

147because I I don't think it's a 10-minute conversation, right? Yeah. I want to make sure I talk to him and to Bradley about the circle and the triangle. Yeah. Because I don't see somebody being somebody's opinion. Well, he also said four votes to remove a vote or keep a book. That would depend on who those four votes were in your current board policy. So, I need to make sure I talked to him because we just listened to him for three minutes and I was confused, too. Well, I I think that there's a lot of things that what we develop as a policy and and we've seen this a hundred times when it comes to things that come from DOE. There's a there there is a uh statute or or or whatever comes to us uh

148for implementation and what was written in the statute versus how it's implemented don't jive and and what I'm hearing from Mr. O is what I consider to happen in the book review process doesn't jive with what's occur apparently occurring in in that process. So I'll let you look into it first, Mr. Superintendent, but then then we'll have a conversation after. Thank you, Mr. Williams. I want to remind everyone that the Foundation uh for excellence uh lunchon uh started at 11:00. So when this meeting is over, if any of you want to go, I'm going to ride over there myself since Sam Hall's representative in that group. So okay, anything else? It's Yes, sir. I am ready to go, but I want to make sure I tell you this so that you'll know tomorrow. I have

149limited mobility. So you know how we usually get out front and greet y'all go right ahead on, but I'm gonna sit right here tomorrow. But I'd like for you to be able to greet those new appointments. So, just want to be sure I said that out loud. Thank you, sir. Mr. Chair, I I want to commend Superintendent on you the weather, you know, and I had to tell him the other day that he needed to go home, you know, and get some rest. So, we want to see you get better quickly and and try to get that rest. I know you're trying to handle a big school district with a lot of issues, but uh be careful. Yes, this meeting is adjourned.