04/28/26 Flagler School Board Information Workshop

001I will call to order the Tuesday April 28th 1:00 p.m. school board workshop. Please rise for a moment of silence followed by the pledge of allegiance and our national anthem. I pledge allegiance >> to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. >> [snorts] [music] >> Thank you, may we proceed? >> [cough and clears throat] >> Okay, we will move on to our board member liaison updates. Oh, I'm sorry, roll call. >> Lauren Ramirez, present. >> Janey Ready, present. >> Will Floyd, present. >> Stacey Chum. >> The Shakamore. >> Okay, now with our board member liaison updates starting with this Ramirez. All right, so we're going to start with our Beltare Elementary School. And they had

002their recent SAC meeting and I know I talk a lot about SAC and PTO and during SAC meetings they present a lot of data. So, if you're a parent, guardian, or community member and trying to just see updates on where campuses are showing uh growth, this is a great time to go and watch. So, they're seeing really strong academic growth overall across their campus. Over 60% of students have already met their yearly reading growth and more than half in math with students overall exceeding expectations growth for the year. I asked actually at that meeting I'm like, "How are you guys doing this?" Cuz it it the data was great. Like they had the charts and everything and you could tell how proud they were talking about it and they're really just using group um methods

003uh that they're learning with their professional learning and it was new obviously for everyone across the district, but they they're showing that it's working. So, change is hard for everybody, but I just want to let parents know the data is showing growth and that's just one campus. So, go to a SAC meeting, you're going to be very impressed with the growth that we're seeing. Even 1% if you see 1% growth, that's amazing. So, just know that uh when you see that. Um Uh we're also seeing big increase in students performing at or above grade level in both reading and math. And then, um they're targeting They're going to finish this year strong. They have a dance on Friday. So, let's [snorts] then move down to Matanzas High School. So, so many things going on. So,

004just quickly I'll just share a couple things. I had the opportunity to attend the military service honor cord ceremony at the VFW. It was really great to see our students even Olivia, our own school board student um member was there and it was, you know, it was pretty neat. Mr. Doug Blasco was the guest speaker. He did a great job. And then, I also attended the junior ROTC military ball with Mr. Furry and his son was there and it was at the Hard Rock in Daytona. Beautiful. The students were so proud. They it was great. So, the recognition that we give our students for different types of activities it's mind-blowing and they work really hard with fundraising and just making it happen for our students. Their SAC meeting that they had at Matanzas, it it's

005always great there. That one I wasn't able to physically attend. I had the meeting minutes and reached back out to the campus. They always do mini grants and very proud that these faculty are working hard with their classroom students to request money. Over 500 certified pirate shirts will be celebrated amongst students. They're trying to show more initiative and you know, with our diploma plus program, I know we hear about it a lot, but since I've been on the board, the numbers are I mean, we're probably close to a thousand, I'm sure. And when it was first talked about, it was hundreds. So, it The things that we're doing in our district are increasing and just every day, every year getting better. Virtual Teen Town Hall, they had their their annual summit that they had. Over

00670 students were there. I know our Sheriff's Department, they do a lot with that. Ms. Moore was one of the guest speakers. So, if you have a middle school student, a high school student, I talk about this all the time, but these are really great opportunities. I know a lot of students have sports and clubs, so they can't always attend, but if there's a day that it works, just throw them over there, you know, they will like it. Um June 6th, the Flagler Youth Coalition will be hosting a pickleball fundraiser. So, stay tuned with that. So, fund- the fundraising will go towards the youth and things like that. >> [clears throat] >> EPAC, so our Exceptional Parent Advisory Council, they are looking for new parent leadership. So, as you're aware, students when they graduate, sometimes

007parents, you know, they're going to kind of graduate with them. So, if you're a parent that is interested, want to be involved, go ahead and reach out to our ESE Department, Dr. Holliday. And on uh Fridays, our ESE classroom, so a a lot of our campuses have that, but Indian Trails, they're right across the street from my house, so on Friday, they sell coffee for a dollar, and the ESE classroom, they make it, they serve it, they deliver it. So, I've been trying to go there on Fridays, and they recognize me, uh and it's just really great. They're teaching them life skills, and those faculty in the classrooms, they're doing such a good job with our students. So, I just, you know, cheers to all of our ESE paras and our teachers and our campuses.

008Very hands-on over at that campus and our others. For Florida School Board Association, so there's so many things going on, um you know, we could go on all day, but at a state level, so a budget agreement has been reached, and a special session, it's expected to take place May 12th through May 29th. Conference Committee, they're going to meet mid-May, final vote after Memorial Day. So, this is dealing with uh money for our schools. And FSBA, so Florida School Board Association, they also continue to provide strong support for our districts, and they have always offered a member services specialist training, like additional training opportunities, and our our camp or our support staff here will be participating in some of the training, so I'm happy to hear about that. So, that will just help programs that

009school boards need with our support staff, so they can help assist us and get things done and share best practices and make sure that board expectations are met with what we do >> [clears throat] >> for our our job. So, excited about that. And that is what I have, so I'll go ahead and let Ms. Ready take over. Thank you. >> Thanks so much. Um so, yeah, there's so much happening during this time of year, so it's seems like it's been forever, but it's only been a couple of weeks, and there've been so many great activities. First, I want to shout out Ms. Alves and the Flagler Science Expo that they had held over at Buddy Worth. That's where students put on their own presentations from the local science fair at their schools. The top

010awardees went to the district, and then we had three or four wonderful students recognized for their scientific investigations and experiments, and received awards, but all of the projects really blown away. As a former science teacher, I definitely grilled a couple students, and they knew their stuff. And then, there were stations where volunteers were able to do some hands-on science with the students, and I was happy to join and do a chemical change lab with some students who participated. And, you know, it's that hands-on component they're really love and eager. And we see when we have student work on display, how eager parents are to join and participate. So, that was really wonderful. And they had the star dome there, which is a great experience if you've never got to check that out, please do. So,

011thank you to Miss Alves and her team for that. Um, I also attended I wasn't the turnaround event. This is something Mr. Finelli and Mr. Glasgow put together to recognize those students who are changing their either behavior or academics for the better many times in conjunction what they've been able to accomplish with the support [clears throat] staff and interventions was just astounding. And we had our culinary program provide a wonderful meal and the Attorney General came and was able to provide some wonderful message of hope and it's not about the trip. You know, you may falter, but it's how you pick yourself up after it that counts. And those students are really showing that they're learning from that message. And you know, are willing to take that responsibility and leverage the resources that are being

012provided to them. So, kudos to them. On top of that recognition, I was able to attend last night FPC had their academic awards presentation. So, this is recently started. I think maybe this is the third year. >> Um, >> Or second >> Maybe the second year. >> So, it's new and working out the kinks, but um, you know, to think that we're recognizing almost 300 students for their academics, for IB, AP, for club participation. Uh, that's it's a huge undertaking and I thank the Ed Foundation. They supplied the funds for the cords and so students are able to wear special regalia uh, from their participation >> [clears throat] >> uh, and leadership in those clubs and their academic prowess as well as diploma plus earnings. I believe there were around 256 seniors [clears throat] who

013were recognized in some way. Um, and that is uh, probably uh, just about half, right, of the senior class at FPC? >> Uh, which is wonderful. That's amazing. Um, and uh, we're hoping to see that number grow every year. Um, the uh, Buddy Taylor and FPC have been working really tightly together in course selection uh, for those rising eighth graders. Um, there was also the BTMS Expo um, last week and so uh, you know, the community can come out and see what Buddy Taylor has to offer their students, but this is a transition time. Everybody's thinking about next year, but I was really impressed with the collaboration between BTMS and FPC in getting um, both students and parents involved in understanding a little bit more about uh, the offerings because it can be very complex.

014There are way more offerings than many of the parents uh, experienced when they went to school. So it's a little bit more complex and we're continuing to work on that, but I've seen some growth there and that's wonderful. I also visited uh, both, uh, Bunnell Elementary School uh, VPK program and the Rim Fire VPK and uh, ASD, I'm sorry, not VPK, kindergarten and ASD program. So, I was looking for um, the a relationship and how paras are being utilized in our classrooms, how those classrooms are structured for our special needs students, um, what teachers are looking for in preparing students for kindergarten readiness. So, I appreciate everybody welcoming me with open arms and taking the time, um, to allow me to shadow and and have some conversations, um, but it was very helpful as, uh,

015kindergarten readiness is a strategic element on our road map uh, that we're going to be focusing in on and I really wanted to learn what those needs are in the current state. So, I appreciate that. Um, I also attended the FPC SAC Committee last night, um, the last one of the year and, uh, there were some discussions about, um, the struggle in on one hand, we want to provide as many offerings as we can for students, but the other hand, right? There are time and space and, uh, teacher constraints. So, for those of you who have are in that, uh, school and maybe we're looking at particular programs, sometimes it's hard when we hear a program has maybe been removed, many times it's because it's being replaced by something that is in higher demand from

016students. Um, however, I did communicate some concern that, um, it's been difficult to source, uh, physics and biology for students who want to pursue that as their HL for IB. Uh and you know, how do we wrestle with if there are 10 or 12 students who want that class, they are a component of that IB class. While that may be small when you think of FPC as a whole, what is the ratio of the IB students um compared to the to the whole, right? Um and so we've got to make sure we're thinking about those things strategically and we're trying to do our best there. And so if you're seeing programs that are no longer offered, uh just know that it is uh a balance and [clears throat] that really we need to drive the

017student interest in those areas because that's going to be the response. And so what I came away with is that we need to do better marketing with our IB program. Um students and parents are not as familiar with IB compared to dual enrollment or AP. And uh I think that there's uh sometimes a misunderstanding of what the benefits could be there. So we've had some discussions in that SAC meeting around that and that was really uh beneficial. Finally, I'll end with um I'm on the AI um committee for FSBA and we had a meeting around uh the um current [clears throat] developments that are going on in the uh Florida legislature. And so there was a push for some additional guide guardrails around AI from the Florida legislature, but that is look looking like it's

018falling through and there's been some Not that there isn't interest in it, but a push from our representatives to have something that's consistent on a federal level. Because if you think of it, all the vendors who are service us, right? They're nationwide. Um and so, uh we'll keep you updated with that. I'll also share with the superintendent, who can pass out to the other school board members, there is a uh a LM notebook where the AI policies of the districts in Florida that have some sort of AI policy or um procedure that's been documented has been shared in this notebook. So, it would uh be a wonderful resource for us to be able to review and pull information and compare our policies um to what's being developed because we know this is uh ever-changing. Um

019and that's all I have. Thank you. >> Okay, I will start with the uh Volusia Flagler Transportation Board. Um just want to remind everybody that this is uh distracted driving awareness month. And um [clears throat] you know, distracted driving is a preventable threat. And in 2023 alone, 32 3,275 people were killed in crashes involving uh distracted driving. So, here's some ways uh that we can prevent that. You know, silence and stow your phone before you roll. Set it Set it and forget it if you're putting your navigation in. Uh make passengers your designated texter. No scrolling at stop lights. Eat at the table, not behind the wheel. Pull over for anything urgent. Uh be a role model for young drivers. They're they're watching while we are driving. So, uh be good role models there. Um

020speak up as a passenger. If you're in in the car and you see the driver texting, say something to them and and encourage them to to to stop that. Um and um and uh those are just some tips that to help us uh save lives on the road. And um >> [clears throat] >> for Indian Trails, uh they had a a very active April. They hosted the Mustang Roundup welcoming incoming students and families and highlighted academic um and extracurricular opportunities, which is great for the transition enrollment momentum. That'll be great for our new students coming in. Um also, um they held a book fair and they will be performing um uh a production of Shrek Jr. I believe that Is that tonight at the >> Tonight and tomorrow. >> Yeah, tonight. >> Tonight and tomorrow

021at the Matanzas High School. So, um and uh Old Kings, uh they had a strong month. Uh they they placed uh second and third in the district science competition, which is a a great reflection of their STEM focus and especially tied to their marine science program. Um and also, uh along with Mr. Ramirez, I did attend the JROTC uh ball and it was a wonderful event to celebrate the cadets, including my son. Um and it was a it was a quite an interesting uh event during the ball. There's a traditional drink called a grog that uh is is uh prepared right there [clears throat] and all the ingredients are inspired by something that that had had some meaning to the stu- to the cadets over the year. And I'll they had to come up and

022present them and there was they were Although these were all food-grade ingredients, they were very convincing to make us believe they put motor oil in there, dirt, stale milk. Uh they did actually put Vienna sausage juice in there. >> [laughter] >> And the sausage is >> Yeah, it's uh and uh Mr. Ramirez, I both tried to skip out before that we had the taste of it, but somehow they caught me and [laughter] uh And as a just being a good sport, I decided to do it. It wasn't as bad as it sounded, so I'll say that. But I I'm just grateful for the leadership of uh Sergeant Major uh Spano and uh Major Mallet. They're doing a great job in that program and uh that's all I have for today. >> Okay. All right, I'll

023start with the Chamber of Commerce. I know that they had their the Top Golf [clears throat] Songwriters Festival was this past weekend. I saw you guys attended that. It looked like there was a a great turnout for that. Uh May 1st, I believe that's this weekend, will be the Home and Garden Show coming up. And May 26th, Mayor Robinson Robinson will be host hosting a state of the city of Bunnell address, so um just something to consider attending. All right, and the Flagler Education Foundation, um they recently had the Joe Rizzello Memorial Golf Classic. I know some of us um stopped in and out um there and just just very impressed with how awesome that event is and so well put together and um just grateful to the Ed Foundation for all that they do.

024I also had a chance to attend their board meeting last Friday um just to catch all their updates and Miss Ellis, she also brought an update on AI, a presentation that I thought was very good and I know we'll be talking about some of that today as well. Senior scholarship nights are coming up May 6th and 7th, and make sure you save the date. June 4th will be the annual dinner for the Ed Foundation. That's a great event to attend. All right, and the Fitzgerald Auditorium, we go over to that. There's a couple dates in May where FPC will be doing a musical for Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat. May 19th will be the FPC Spring Band Concert. And May 28th, there will be a Spotlight on Flagler Youth Talent Show. Okay. And Bunnell

025Elementary, April 29th is Kindergarten Roundup. Chance for next year's kindergarteners to meet the teachers, see the classrooms, get a get an idea of what kindergarten's going to be like for them on their first day. They're also heading into FAST testing, I believe, next week. So, make sure your child gets plenty of rest, has a good breakfast. Um just also be aware we have free breakfast at our schools. And remember to stay positive and encourage your children children to do their best. Wadsworth Elementary, they had their kindergarten roundup last week, April 21st. And the Boys and Girls Club will be hosting their summer camp this year at Wadsworth Elementary. They will offer daily breakfast, field trips, STEM learning, fine arts, and computer literacy. I've also been attending the um Carver Center meetings. Um we'll be bringing

026some information before the board, so I'll probably share some of that a little bit later after when we get to the end of our meeting, so you guys are aware of that. And hopefully that's it. Okay. So, we'll move on to any changes or additions to the agenda. >> We do not have any changes or additions to the addition to the agenda. I do want to say to the public that we do understand that Board Docs is down. However, if you go to Flagler Schools website, there is a pop-up that will come up that will lead you to um the agenda for today as well as all of the attachments. You can go to flaglerschools.com in order to get it for the 1:00 p.m. meeting as well as for the 6:00 p.m. meeting. >> Madam

027Chair. Um I Do you I would like us to chat about the June meeting because there is a school board uh training in Tampa uh that week and >> Okay. >> Uh we've got a uh yeah, that'd be great. Thank you. >> Okay. Making a motion to approve today's agenda. >> Move to approve. >> Second. >> Moved by Ms. Ready, seconded by Mr. Curry. All in favor? >> Aye. >> Motion carries. Do we have anybody for public comment? >> We do not We do not have any public comments. >> Then we'll move on to 5.01, [clears throat] financial update and bucket of funds with Ms. Foreman and Ms. Bush. >> Good afternoon, Madam Chair, board members, and Superintendent Moore. Ms. Bush and I are here to um just give a brief update um on finances

028and then go over what we refer to as bucket of funds, which is all of our um different pots of money, if you will. My controls? >> I'm not sure. >> Is she controlling from here? >> Just go ahead and try. >> Yes. >> Thank you. >> All right. First, I just want to give a um overview of the FEFP calculations. There are five FEFP calculations throughout um the fiscal year. The first calculation comes after legislation um has been completed and it gives us our first uh look at our budget for the next fiscal year. The second calculate and just as a note, the first calculation is driven off of FTE forecasting that's done in January, which we'll touch on later. The second calculation uh the only thing that really changes in there is our

029RLE, which is needed for our trim um board meetings that we do during the summer, and that is set to be distributed no later than July 19th. The third calculation is the calculation that all school districts wait for, um, and probably keep them up at night. This is based on our October FTE counts. This is when we find out whether we hit our target forecast or whether we did not. That usually comes out, um, in January or February. The fourth calculation is, um, a snapshot of our February FTE, and this will adjust our revenue for the end of the fiscal year. And the fifth calculation is received about a year later. Uh, just briefly touching on the actual FEFP calculation. Like I mentioned, the FTE forecasting is done in January, and it does project the

030revenue for the next fiscal year. The The tricky part of that is you're forecasting 6 months in advance. Um, and and you're either going to hit it or you're not, and hopefully you're close. DOE does give, um, eight forecasting models to each school district, and, uh, they do suggest three or four to actually choose from based on prior enrollments. So, that is, uh, what we review every every January with the superintendent before signing off on it to make sure that it does jive with our numbers. We also involve our, um, planner, Lisa Davina, in this. She does her own calculations as well, and based on the projected forecast that DOE was recommending for 2026-2027, it did align with with her data. Uh, like I mentioned, the third calc drives the revenue for the rest of

031the fiscal year once we get that in January. And the changes in funding are wholly based from state revenue is wholly based on the FTE. It is enrollment driven, and that is what we are funded for from the state. This is a quick pie chart of how our revenue is broken down for the general fund. You can see that almost half of it is our 1.5 mil property tax revenue. When we um assess the 1.5 mil, part of that is general discretionary, the other part is the 1.5 capital funds. 40% of it comes from our state FEFP, which as I just mentioned is based on student um enrollment. And then we have a small portion that comes from local revenue, such as um FTC classes, um BPK, wrap around, just things like that. That's a

032very small portion of it, but as you can see the bulk of it comes from the state FEFP and the local property taxes. So, now we're going to move into what we refer to as bucket of funds. There are many different funds uh within a school district. The general fund, as you know, is our main operating fund. This is what we tend to focus on most because this is what pays for um the bulk of the personnel cost, our overhead cost. It is what we we need to keep the most secure. Um this is the fund balance that we focus on the most. Uh as I mentioned, this is made up of revenues from the FEFP state funding and local property taxes for the vast majority of it. What we talk about a lot in

033senior cabinet is preserving the fund balance, and we talk about that at many meetings here. As you know, um board policy is to have a fund balance reserve of 5 to 8% of next year's projected revenues. At June 30th, 2025, we ended up with an unrestricted fund balance of 10.2. Our total fund balance was about 11.2. The restricted piece is inventory and it's uh state categoricals that we carry over. So, that's about a million dollars of it. And we ended up at 7.8% I will state what's pretty important to know is we are allowed to transfer capital funds um by statute for certain items such as um relocatables which is portables, for property insurance, for maintenance cost, and for personnel costs as recently as about 3 years ago personnel costs of the bus drivers. Just

034to put things in perspective um a 10.2 million dollars of unrestricted fund balance that made up that is made up of 7.5 million dollars of capital transfers. We are in a fortunate situation where our capital fund our 1.5 mil is is relatively healthy. However, as we struggle to try to maintain a decent healthy fund balance, it's being driven off of the capital fund. So, it's important for us to balance what we can do in our capital fund knowing that this has been pretty much the the picture for the past couple years as we struggle with um losing students to scholarships, not even getting students into our schools to begin with. Um that's the reality of the situation, but you know, superintendent will tell you we have these conversations all all the time and this is

035our main focus is just try to keep a healthy fund balance. 10.2 million of unrestricted to break that down a bi-monthly payroll is 5 million dollars. So, that represents roughly two payrolls, one month of payroll. Any questions on the on this slide? >> Um so, you had the pie chart [clears throat] of general fund balance um I it is the half-penny sales tax not listed in there because it's FEFP specific. The general fund is only for FEFP and 1.5 property tax. You'll see the sales tax at the capital outlay coming up. >> Thank you. >> You're welcome. The next bucket of funds we'll talk about is the debt service fund. >> [snorts] >> We paid off our COP 2014 and 2025-26. Our last payment was in August. Our COP series 2024 is our last remaining

036COP. This was originated in 2005 and we have refunded it twice in order to recognize savings in the interest. This is due to mature in 2030-31 and as of today we have 19.3 million left on it. This was originally taken out to fund Rymfire Elementary School, Matanzas High School and our portion of the GSB building here. A few years ago we took out a bus lease purchase to buy 14 buses in order to try to get our fleet back up and running um with where we needed to be. And as of today we have 1.4 million remaining on that. That's due to be paid off in 2 years. And the last of our debt is the capital improvement revenue bonds. The remaining amount is 554,000 and this is due to mature in 2028-29. So as

037you can see the largest debt remaining is our COP series 2024. This will only change if we have to build a school in the future and do not have enough impact fees to cover the the the cost of that school. >> Um can we go back just briefly around the general fund? I think it's also important to [clears throat] to note here that um the board's focus to keep the uh fund balance healthy while also preserving the level of service that we want to see here in our community. Um and so that is important to also look at because um there are districts and other organizations that may be um going in a different direction with that and and reducing the level of services. But when we look at what we've been able to provide

038to our our students and our our community is really making sure that we're keeping our funding, especially at our teachers and our school base as much as possible. And so any cuts and things that we have had to make, we are we're doing that while also making sure that we are prioritizing our schools and our classrooms. >> And the um important part to that piece that Superintendent Moore just stated is our general fund, the expenses, over 80% of it is personnel cost. So that is the struggle that we do um have to balance throughout every fiscal year. All right, our next um bucket of funds is our capital outlay funds. There are several different items in here. The first one, as you can see, is PECO. Years and years ago, the school districts used to

039get a portion of PECO funds. For probably the past 10 years at least, those funds only go to the charter school. We are just simply a pass-through. The second one is what's referred to as CO&DS, which stands for capital outlay and debt service fund. This is um additional funding we get from the state for renovation projects. Our current um amount that we got this past year was about $640,000. It does not um come to the school district until the very end of the fiscal year. So our plant services plans to use that on different projects, and they have a budget every year to use those funds up. Our biggest source of uh capital revenue is a 1.5 mil. This is solely funded through our local property taxes. Beginning in legislation, I want to say about

0403 years ago, this funding is now required to be shared with our charter schools. This year, it was $435,000 that went to our charter school. How that is determined is every year um the superintendent and I have to sign off on a document that shows a calculation of our total property taxes less debt. So, they do take out the debt service piece to make sure that we're not hit by that. And then the charter schools get a pro rata portion of it. That is stepped in. Um I want to say 3 years ago it started and it's increasing 20% every year until we get to the 5 years where they are getting 100% of their portion. The next one is half-cent sales tax. This is also um required to be shared with our charter schools.

041Their portion is $650,000 for the 2025-2026 fiscal year. This is a 10-year referendum that was passed in November of 2022 and was effective as of January 2023. This supports safety and security projects and um renovations, remodeling, technology hardware and software. All of that comes out of here, um and this fund is overseen primarily by Mr. DeCianne and his team. The last one is impact fees. As you know, these funds can only be spent on new growth um as well as debt service for any new buildings or growth. What's currently spent out of here in the past couple years is the debt service on the what originated as the COP series, which is now the 2024, because that did pay for the Renfroe and Matanzas. So, we have separate amortization schedules for those two school projects

042and how much it cost. So, we do use that to pay the debt service throughout the year. And as you know, most recently the the MHS expansion project that was recently completed. Other than that, the impact fees do continue to build until we get to the point where we do need to build a new school. >> I have one question. For our half half cent sales [clears throat] tax and that funding, I know we have we can only use it on certain items. When we give the like 650,000 to our charter school, are they also supposed to only use it on certain items or are they able to use that 650,000 on anything for specifically the half cent sales tax? I'm just curious. >> Mr. Duson, correct me if I'm wrong, they're able to spend

043it on on what they want, which I do believe is currently being spent on their lease. >> Okay. So, they don't have they don't carry the same restrictions? >> Our referendum is what governs us as to what to spend it and it No, the short answer is no. >> So, when Rimfire was built gosh, 20 years ago now, right? Um and then they had the addition. Uh at that time uh that was financed. Are we seeing an increase in the rate of impact fees so that if we were to need to build a school in 5 years, we would have a far less finance requirement? Uh >> I would I mean, I would have to defer that to our our planner and Mr. Freeman. I can tell you just based on conversations we've had and

044what a cost of a school is I can guarantee we most likely will need to take out another COP series cuz we would not have enough impact fees to support it depending on whether it's elementary, middle, or high school. But, the cost that I've seen of a high school it are substantial. So, I would say if we had to build [clears throat] another school the impact fees wouldn't support all of it. And you also want to keep some of those impact fees to continue to pay off your debt until it's paid off. The current debt. >> On the impact fees in that 2022 um revision to the how the impact fees were collected, what were the Do you recall what the percentages were? Upfront there was I think it's It was 10% in the beginning

045and then it it gradually >> I don't recall, but we can get that information. >> get to that. >> We can get with Mr. Franklin and [clears throat] get with him. >> on on that. And just because it it it If we're looking at those numbers to build a new school, are we Are we factoring in the future payments that would come in later when the pro- cuz some of these projects aren't don't break ground right away. Um they could be several years out. So, just to kind of get an idea of the the the future impact fees that are eventually coming that may not have already been paid into the account. >> Any other questions on this slide? Our next one is our federal grant funds. There's two separate funds here, the school food

046service and the other federal grants. I'll go ahead and um turn this over to Mrs. Bush to discuss the school food service fund. >> Thank you. So, the school food service fund is the bucket that supports the the revenue and the expenses that are um incurred to support the school meal programs and that covers breakfast, lunch, after school meals, and summer meals as well. And it's just important to note um that we are still currently under the community eligibility program in Flagler schools um and all of those meal programs are at no cost to our students and their families. >> And the last year of that program before we had to relook at it is next year. >> year, 2026-2027. We will have to reevaluate the calculations that implemented the program. >> Thank you. Um

047our other federal grants are um we have a plethora of grants. Our main ones though are Title I and IDEA. They make up probably about um 80% of our total federal grants. I will just give a shout-out to uh Mrs. Tammy York. The Title I grant was audited during the 2024-2025 uh state audit. And uh there were no findings on that grant, which is pretty awesome. Um it's a big grant and she has a lot um undertaking with managing that grant. So, the grants that they do audit, they rotate every couple years. So, they're probably on like a 3-year rotation. Next year will either be IDEA or school food service. Um I just wanted to touch base just briefly on our dish uh district internal accounts. These are the accounts managed by the schools. These

048are primarily made up of fundraising um and don- and donations and use of facilities. These are managed by the bookkeepers and the principals of each school. And I will let you know that our district internal accounts are audited on an annual basis by external an external auditor. James [clears throat] Moore and Company has been our auditor for a few years. And we present this audit report every year in the fall. This was recently presented, I want to say in in in January. Just a summary of our family empowerment scholarships. You can see since legislation changed how much this has grown. And um you know how much how many people are taking the choice opportunity to to use these scholarships. As I mentioned before, this is embedded in our FEFP, but it also comes out in

049the third calc, and you'll see in a future um meeting where you'll see that budget revision, how we have to adjust out the scholarships out of our revenue and our expenses. >> And this doesn't really reflect the true cost because often until uh which the legislature has failed to do this year again, until they improve the accountability of those funds, we very often are educating students who come back to us who otherwise took that money or it was paid to another institution, and of course we will provide their education, but we're if they're not there during those FTE counts, we're not getting those that funding. >> This data is pulled straight from the third calc, which is just the only raw data we have, which comes straight from DOE. >> But we do have students

050that may um um be sitting with us that their family um has received a scholarship. I mean, so there is a uh very extensive process that we have to go through in order to get those funds released to us here at the district um office, um as well as just making sure that we don't have those duplications uh present. And so, um though I think that our DOE would agree there's still work to be done on that. Um we appreciate that it is getting better than what where it was, but still continues to be an issue. >> And last fiscal year, after they redid the calculation, it was about $96,000 that they come back to our district um >> [clears throat] >> for that for that fiscal year. This is a summary of our 25-26

051third calc just to show you how we analyze this and go over this with the superintendent. We take our second calc and compare it to our third calc [clears throat] to see where we increased or decreased. At the bottom right, even though it shows 1.3 million of an increase, it is important to note that the vast majority of that, if not more than that, was due to the increase in scholarship funding. That is not what came directly back to the district's base funding. In total, the district lost about $400,000 uh in the third calc based on where our forecast was versus our survey two. >> So, why is that not separated on the line item to give that true picture? >> The House and the Senate go back and forth on this. I can't remember

052which one always wants to include it and which one doesn't want to include it. Um I'd have to consult our lobbyist, but that's been going back and forth, you know, a couple years. This information here um is straight information from from the third calc. When you look at the third calc, it is separated out for the scholarships, so that's where I I can tell you um that that 1.3 is mainly scholarships. It It is something that I will note um in the future to possibly just show a picture of what is the district's loss versus the scholarship gain, like you had just asked. >> So, they're just because that money is coming to our district, they're counting it as being expended to us, but it's not necessarily all of our hours because it's just what's

053being spent on education in our district, not coming directly to our school. >> Correct. Uh the FEFP includes the scholarships in our funding calculations, which is why you're not able to see a clear picture like you used to before the scholarships just off in 2021. >> Right. And that's why you provide that addendum in our reporting, which is available in BoardDocs when that is provided where we can see a clear picture. >> Correct, the previous slide about the scholarships is exactly what's provided after the third calc in BoardDocs. >> And I think I'm glad that the two [clears throat] of you used that the term of like the calculation. And so these funds are not coming to us. These are the funds that are allocated to educate children within our community. But you know, >>

054[clears throat] >> we're not receiving the 14 million or a portion of that. Those dollars are provided directly to the family or directly to the institution that they have indicated. >> It is part of our original budget and then removed in the third calc as Superintendent has stated. >> I have a question. >> Sure. >> Um so that that 400,000 that we lost, we realized that last October. Is that when we turn when we when we were when we knew we had that loss? >> We realized that in the third calc that came in January. We did not know how much we were losing. Um >> January 26th? >> Yes. >> Okay. >> That's when we get Yes, every January is when we get the third calc. >> And so you [clears throat] know, as

055we we one of the couple things that that we have done to I think set ourself as much aside from others that in the middle of the year you may hear of a district they're like, we're cutting this many. Is one, we are staying aligned to what the allocation is that they're forecasting for us. And that's hard, right? It's hard for our schools and our departments when they're saying, but we know more students are going to come than what is allocated what is forecasted for us. But we stay true that to that so that in the end we're not having to cut millions of dollars. So, that's um the first thing. And again, as the uh state as FLDOE and districts continue to work together to verify who's with us, who is on scholarship, then

056we can get a better picture, so that we're not at a place that we're okay, this is 400,000. And so, when um we went into this anticipating, we knew exactly how many that we could uh anticipate or um being down, you know, if it's 100 students, we're down 100 students. So, we knew that and we could already start working to make sure that we're in a good place financially for the anticipated loss of that $400,000. >> impacts families is they'll often see, and especially in lower grade levels like kindergarten, where, you know, there's an unknown element there, but um after the first month of school, you'll see a lot of teacher change placements because we held back on hiring until we actually had those kids in the seats, and then we could say, all right,

057yes, we now we know we have this many, we can bring on additional staff. And so, it does create some movement, and that's um how it you know, the reason for that movement and why that's delayed. It's not because we had a hard time necessarily filling that position, it's because we're trying to be fiscally responsible um or meeting the need the numbers, the projections that they're providing us. >> Um Sorry. >> Um Miss Warmack, you had stated that this year it was about $400,000 in terms of the difference for the FE FP for the scholarships. Um that has remained pretty consistent over the last 4 years. >> The $400,000 I mentioned is what the loss to the district was based on our forecast versus the survey two in October. That is not the same amount

058every year. It ebbs and flows. Last year in 2024-2025 was one of the first years that we saw um a rather larger decrease where we did not hit our forecasted numbers. We continued to grow or stay stable up to that point and this shifted in 2024-2025. When the forecast came out in January of this year for 2026-2027, DOE did have us down another 130 students from the previous forecast, which does align because we came up about 100 students short. >> Right. >> And you know, a lot of community members they're under this mis- um understanding that they see all these developments they're like, "When are you guys building the newest school?" And we're like, "We're not we're not there. Uh we're not busting at the seams especially in our elementary schools in most of them."

059Uh for a couple of reasons, right? Birth rate is down. Uh and so we have lower numbers coming into kindergarten first grade. Number two, uh the immigration policies have um caused some changes there as well. Um we know that in uh Florida uh we had a high number of um all sorts of immigrants uh from across the world and we've seen a decrease in numbers there. And number three, what I've noticed is that even though we have all these developments, the average age of a Palm Coastian or Flagler County-an hasn't really gone down. So we're still not bringing in the folks with families. It's still a higher number of retirees or people who are having second homes. >> [clears throat] >> Um and so while we see this boom in development, we haven't seen the

060family numbers come in. Uh you know And I I looked at the Davis report that was provided in 2023. Um Mr. Freeman, thank you for providing that to me. Even that report had us projected at over 14,000 students by this year. And that's before a lot of the development that came in and we're not hitting that. So, there's kind of a myriad of uh items that are affecting that that enrollment. >> Yeah. >> And one of the struggles that we've talked [clears throat] about often for 26-27, we um for years were able to take the current year kinder numbers and use them as our projection. This is the first year where DOE has And this is just not Flagler. Superintendent Moore has spoken about this a few times at leadership meetings. This is a statewide

061issue where our kinder numbers all going down for the first time in quite a while. The issue that we will struggle with as we tend to every year is a lot of kinders don't get registered until sometime in the summer. So, it's really hard to predict. And we know that the best thing for students is to not change your kindergarten's teacher, right? So, that's the that's the balance that we have to figure out ourselves. Does that make sense? >> Mhm. >> Um just to add a couple couple pieces to this. Um when we look at first about building uh schools, I think it's important to for our community understand the desire of the board to be fiscally responsible with what's changing in our community as well as what's changing in education, right? And so, when

062we think about how education has changed, especially with the introduction of universal vouchers, how that has changed, it would be irresponsible to just throw up a school right now where we can point to there's a need here, there's a need there. So, our community is changing as well as education is changing. We have to have some data to support like what is the true projection now to your point around Davis report. Across the state, there are I think only five districts that are school districts that are growing where their forecast is forecasting them for growth. So, it's not that we don't have new students coming into [clears throat] the organ into the organization because we do. We have students that are coming to us that are new outside of our community that were in home

063school, coming from private school, all of those. But, it's this change, this fluid change that is happening in education across the state that we also have to just continue to to watch. Another thing that isn't here is that it doesn't account for students that may be taking the voucher program, but also coming to us still. Maybe they're coming to us through partial enrollment. So, their families are paying us directly or they're coming through to us for full time they're coming and taking a full schedule. However, they're not considered a full-time enrolled student because they are a part of the voucher program. So, remembering that if they're going to be a part of FES, UA, and all of those other programs, that those individuals have to withdraw from the school district in order to be a

064part of it. So, it doesn't account for for all of it. But, when you look at our numbers, um especially in the increase, if we go back one slide to where you see the number of scholarships increasing, that It's okay. She's like, "I don't know how to [laughter] go back." You see the number the amount increasing, but to Ms. Warmack's point, last year and this year was the first time we experienced that impacting our enrollment. Many of our scholarship recipients and still to this day are students who were never in public education with Flagler County. And so many of them are students who were already home school, already [clears throat] private, already being educated in a different way. And so now we have last year and this year had the impact of students that have

065left us and taken the scholarship. So a lot of that a lot of different things are happening at one time that impacts all of these numbers and also impacts our decision to to to build a school, right? When we think about a few years ago when the board was discussing building a a new potentially a new high school, well that was way before they started talking about let's move west, you know, within our our county. And so we want to make sure that when a school is built it's going to meet the needs of our community that is growing and changing as well. >> Well, and you also want to be able to fill that high school in five years. If our elementary enrollment is down, we'd rather have short-term uh, you know, portables than

066build a $80 million high school that is going to end up being halfway empty in five years. >> In the previous years we've had large large um >> [snorts] >> classes um grades. Um this is the final year where the enrollment is starting to taper off and like you mentioned earlier about the birth rates they have consistently decreased. Our outgoing seniors is much larger than our incoming freshmen and our outgoing fifth graders is much larger than our incoming kinders. So the elementary definitely will feel the squeeze as we start to try to plan for those kinder numbers, but it's not going forward it's not going to be that much of a difference just because all of our large grades of students are really have gone through at this point. >> Right. But the uh scholarships

067they they attach them to our district by their address. Is it by their physical address? >> Here in our community. >> Right. So their address is automatically if they have a if they have an address within our district, that's how they uh apply the scholarships to our budget, right? >> I I Yeah, there there have been some anomalies where um districts are saying they have a student that is outside of their county that is attached to them in some way, but the the Well, for us, I mean, there may be an anomaly here or there. These are individuals that live within Flagler County or at least lived within Flagler County at the point of them applying for the scholarship. >> Cuz you know when you look at it, for example, you have 1926 here um

068attributing that to to the to the um Harvard scholarship, right? So, I think it's one of the things that's important to highlight is that we didn't have you know, 1,900 students leave our schools, right? That and I think that that is some of the confusion here. And I do think for transparency it would be great to have these, you know, separated uh cuz it can be confusing, but I think as a district we we really need to hone in on not what we what we're not getting, right? Because that was a choice the parents have the freedom to choose that. Uh we need to be more laser focused on the numbers that are actually affecting us and that is the actual enrollment. And as I look at other um districts around the state uh Flagler

069County, you know, when we're talking about losing 100 students uh compared to thousands, and closing schools, yeah, we may not be building schools, but we're not also shutting them down because we don't have students to put in. >> And we can pull the numbers to get again state district. We're working together to clean it up as much as possible, but we can bring back for this board and for the public the students that we the data that we have on students that are leaving us and choosing to go the route of scholarship and not then circling back to us. And when I say circling back to us, they're not leaving us taking the scholarship but still staying with us in our physical um, school. So, we can definitely get that information, but I agree with

070you, Mr. Furry. We we have really remained from the lens of um, looking within ourselves saying, "How do we make the best become the best choice for individuals in our community?" There's a lot of things related to the scholarships, but this is what I will add it and there will be some people that may not like this, but there are some freedoms that come with the scholarship that are not afforded to us here within the public sector. And so, there is a thought process from individuals that do believe that this is more of a financial decision than an educational decision. Not for all, but for some because individuals do believe or feel like they can get more options and more things by going the route of the scholarships. And so, there going to be people

071that are not going to choose us and that is absolutely okay. But for us, we are really reflecting and you as a board approved for us to have last year our support individuals that are working with these families. When a family is leaving us, we are following up with them and saying to them what tell us your reason for leaving and what is it that we could have done differently in order for you to continue to choose us. And we are taking that information and if it's something that we can improve and address, we approve it and we address it. But we have families that still come back and choose us. They are leaving, they're receiving the scholarship, but they're they're still connected to us in some way and we want to continue to do

072that because the reality is this is where this is the environment that we live and work in right now and so we are not going to spend our energy, you know, kind of focus on some of the other piece. We're going to just really focus on the pieces that we can control and that's just focusing on being the best choice. >> On the flip side of this, I think a unique challenge that we have is because some of our neighboring districts to the north and south are having you know, to close schools I've heard from especially in the elementary schools the number of people actually moving to Palm Coast because of our schools because they at one time chose a private school or the scholarship because their student has some special needs or ASD, they're

073actually coming here specifically because of our uh structure with the ASD programs, but that puts additional challenge on us because right, those students come with additional services that we have to provide and we want to make sure that you know, how are we supplementing the difference in the funding that we receive for those students. So, on one hand, that's a great compliment, right? And is counter [clears throat] to what's happening in some other districts. On the other hand, it's a new challenge for us. And so, it's kind of dictating some changes in our classroom structures, the the staffing that we're that we're looking at. And it'll be something we need to monitor. I think also that would be interesting to see when we're having students come in without having a formalized education in the past,

074right? What made them come into our schools? Where are they coming from? What was that experience before? Why are they choosing us? >> We I think another thing is to to also consider like for us for for Third Calc to be down 100 students, right? 100 students across our organization is not going to result in us um decrease in positions, you know, because it could be five kids here, 20 students over here. And so, we may not see a reduction in the number of teachers. We may not see support staff or clerical, whatever change. This is 100 students across the entire organization. Well, even if it's 300 or 400, we make the adjustments that we we make, but it's very difficult for us to compress the when you only left lost 300, you know, 300

075students. So, [clears throat] let's say it's $400,000. Well, that $400,000 of lost funding is a big deal because that $400,000 also covers the $300,000 that you had to improve increase last month on the fuel that we needed more fuel for. So, I think that's another piece for our community to to see and understand that when we begin when we're talking about compressing in for the changes that we are experiencing here in Flagler County, it is difficult for us to do because it's not really being felt so widespread, which is a good thing and a bad thing, right? Um so widespread, but those those resources, those revenues are still not coming in to us, but we're still having to expand out more funding than what we are receiving in, which is why it is so critical

076that we have a healthy fund balance. And I I know even, you know, at the end of this, every dollar we can save back, we're going to save back to it, and that may frustrate um individuals and you know, I I I think that when we go to bargaining, sometimes that may come up as like, "Wait, you said that we were going to have 10 million, but you have 11 million." Well, we we saved and pulled back everything that we could pull back because when it's $300,000 for the fuel, it's $100,000 more for for custodial support, uh almost a million dollars more for um insurance, where does it come from? >> Yeah, and and this is not a time to be playing around with reserves um in in this landscape. There's I I I don't

077remember the county and I probably wouldn't say it anyways at the board meeting, but there is a a county right now that they've basically have said the school's going bankrupt. >> Two Two counties There are two counties right now that are fiscally constrained to the point that the state is having to help, and the projections say that this will There that will continue to increase across districts, and so we are doing our best on the back end to say, "What How can we save again while also um keeping the same level of service that we want to provide, especially into our classrooms. And so, we have had we have uh budget meetings coming up with our departments and things. And we're saying to them, "We're We're not telling you to cut this many or that

078many. We're saying we all have to squeeze in. Let's Let's create a plan for you to be able to do that." And we've been able to do it, which is why you don't hear, you know, us like some other districts saying, "We're cutting this many positions or that many teaching um spots, as well." >> Um the next slide is just other factors that have a financial impact. As uh Mrs. Ruddy just stated, in the past 2 years, including this year, we have had to add um a large number of ESC paras, um ESC teachers for support. It started about 2 years ago. There was a large influx of um ESC um kids needing one-on-one support coming in from other states. The last couple years was about a million dollars additional that was not budgeted for,

079and we are definitely on that same track for this year. That is something that we we can't I mean, there's nothing we can do about it. It's required by law, and we have to keep our kids safe and and give them what they're required to get. Um and you'll see um later on this week, in one of our meetings, you'll see that that breakdown in the vast majority of it is unplanned for cost that we could not imagine were was going to impact us, just because of kids coming in from um out of the area. The other thing, as I mentioned already, is the increase in overhead cost um from FPL to water sewer. The biggest one, as I mentioned, diesel gasoline, that was about 350,000 we had to add for transportation and fleet to

080get through the end of this fiscal year. And um custodial supplies. When we do the budgets, the budgets are realigned with actual cost of the ending fiscal year. So, it's not that these costs were cut or they were shorted. It's unforeseen circumstances that are out of our control. Sometimes we do get information in advance about rate increases, but not always. As I mentioned previously, the timing of the growth first, the FTE forecast, we forecast six months in advance and that's usually not a great thing. [laughter] Um, you don't know when the kids are going to come. And we already talked about the scholarship growth impacts. And as Superintendent Moore mentioned and Mrs. Ruddy mentioned, we continue to see significant increases in our health insurance premiums. That is um, an astounding number and has had a

081a a big financial impact on our self-insurance fund. And finally, the district actions to um, address budget constraints. As Superintendent Moore has mentioned, we have already started our first round of school staff meetings. Um, they already have all of their staffing for next year. The only thing that might change for that, like I mentioned, is kindergarten. It's going to be, you know, something we need to track very, very heavily throughout the summer. Our department meetings start tomorrow and we'll be having the same conversations with them that Superintendent Moore just mentioned. And as well as as she mentioned, we our plan is to absorb any allocations that are going away because of enrollment through attrition. Um, that's what we have successfully done over the past several years and and we look forward to to being able

082to keep that status. >> I like to say I think a lot compared to other districts that are having a lot of challenges that many people are reading in the news, what you just stated and you've always said and what we've been doing even prior, a lot of districts haven't done that and I think that's, you know, a positive that we've we've kept compared to other districts that are, you know, they haven't done that specifically and then now they're having to cut more and more. So, hopefully the attrition >> I think a big piece of it, too, in looking at this data is how well we managed our SR grant funds and did not just use the funds to create new positions. >> And that's an I was going to bring that up. Um we

083didn't do that and a lot of districts did and the ones that we're hearing about that are cutting hundreds and hundreds of positions that potentially is a big part of it. So, for what we did with those funds are helping us now in the future. >> Yeah, that that's a when you put non-recurring into recurring, uh when it no longer is coming in, that that's what happens. >> That is the first thing I ever learned at one of my first, um first conferences is the from the former St. John's CFO is the quickest way for a school district to go bankrupt is to use non-recurring revenue on recurring expenses. >> So, when we're absorbing positions through attrition at the schools, um you know, and adjusting some of the student head count in classes, are we

084doing a similar evaluation with the administrative um and district level roles? >> Every department. Every department. Yeah. And we've done that. We did We did it last year. Um and as Ms. Waring um stated, uh tomorrow they'll we'll start doing it with departments for this year. Yeah. >> So, um you know, the as your previous slide mentioned, the utilities have been going up uh dramatically, uh probably a similar increase to health insurance. Um and I've seen some changes in the solar landscape where uh instead of having to purchase panels, it's a lease uh where essentially it's like a subscription and that it would uh you significantly cut your electric bill or um schools are essentially leasing the roof space because so it's like passive income because we have very flat roofs many times. Um uh

085they can put up several panels. Have we done uh any exploration into some passive income sources uh like that for those utilities in this in the solar area? >> I have to defer to Mr. Freeman um on that on that as far as uh what Ms. Reddy is asking [clears throat] about. I thought we had something brought to the board last year. >> Afternoon, board. Good morning. Chair, um a couple years ago we had an opportunity with Florida Power. They had a uh lease program and um we I brought that to the board with a It showed a I think a payback of about 5 to 7 years. Um and we decided not to go with that. Uh I don't think FPL is doing that same similar program, but I did speak with uh Lauren

086Johnston. Uh I know that the city has done some grant programs and that's something that we could potentially look into. >> There's a lot There's about I think there's like five to seven companies that are now uh especially since in a residential side the rebates went away, right? So people instead of spending 30 to 40,000 hours and not getting that rebate, they're subscribing and they don't uh uh they basically pay kind of like, you know, a subscription fee and the panels, even though they never own them, it's reducing their electricity and they're not required to have maintenance in that. And that's different from the FPL where with FPL you actually have to pay to be part on their grid and then they build it in some solar farm that we don't see. So, I think

087I would like to explore that as well as some other passive income ways to generate revenue off of those properties that we own, right? Cell towers, I've read of other districts where even for agricultural purposes you can lease the land for grazing for cattle in some areas. We have wetlands. Is there mitigation? Could we sell some of that for mitigation credits which are a premium dollars, right? Um the you know, certain uses for the county. Um, some where I don't want to get into having to administer it, but can we come into some agreements where we're essentially allowing use and leasing and getting this passive income to help us with our uh disparate financial situation. >> And we at a future meeting we're going to be bringing specifically the lay out a conversation around the

088different land that you as a board have and some conversations around you know, next steps with any of those things. The one thing that I would I will always say is >> [clears throat] >> you know, we we have to stay true to our core mission as well. And so, as we explore different options, making sure that we have the capacity to support whatever it is that you as a board are wanting wanting to to do and whatever that adventure is, you know, is what I would always say especially if it requires staff to be able to maintain and manage whatever it is. We will bring some information about because there are some companies that have reached out in the past. We can bring some information about the solar and then in a future meeting,

089we will bring bring forward a conversation around your property. We provided that we provided it to the community so the community can have access to what is owned and if it there is any next step and direction that you as a board have related to that property. >> [clears throat] >> Great. Thank you, Ms. >> Thank you. >> Great presentation. >> Thank you. And thank you board for requesting that. We think it is a good uh preview as we get ready to go into budget season and have different budget meetings that our community can be abreast of the different funds that we have available to us. >> All right, 9.01 AI education update Mr. Deesing. >> Good afternoon. So I have Teresa Phillips with me today and she's going to help kind of go through

090the presentation. We've got some data that we'd like to kind of share with you that we've been collecting and then just really give you an update of where we're at and where we're moving. >> All right. >> Hi, so we'll go ahead and start with some of the information we have. We did we've done a survey for the past 3 years now just kind of gather information from the teachers. We opened it up to faculty and staff and you can see here we started asking about what their current level of AI knowledge was when we started and you can see that it was kind of at the novice end of things when we were in 2024 and that's kind of shifted up more towards being more knowledgeable from it now like to a level four.

091And then we also asked originally in 2024 about the current feeling of AI use in education, and they were kind of neutral at the beginning cuz they didn't really know too much about it. And you can see after learning more about it, that's kind of shifted over as well. And then this one we asked to find out who uses, how often they use AI. And you can kind of see when we started in 2024, the question actually then was, do you use it? Have you ever used it? And it was, you know, 72% said yes, they had tried it, and 27% no. And then we kind of changed the questioning in 2025 and 2026 to see how often they used it. And you can see now that's kind of moved up, so almost virtually everybody

092does use it. Um this was from the faculty and staff side of things. And then we were talking about we looked at student use of AI in the classroom. In 2025, students didn't have They had access to AI through tools like Magic School, where teachers could go and then specifically assign tasks, or they could use it whole group in the class, and we just wanted to see which students had your students had an opportunity to use it or experience it in the classroom. And you can see from there till then this year the major trans- transition was we moved to all of our students in grades 6 through 12 have access to Conmigo as well as Google Gemini student version of AI. So they all have access to those tools. It's um pretty limited, like

093student-focused tools. It's not like wide open any type of AI use. Um it's done in a very responsible way, paying attention obviously to safety and security with that with students. But you can see more students have had access of using those tools independently now this year. >> And I think that's driven a lot by our teachers being more comfortable and understanding with it. Um you know, with a focus on um training our teachers, I think that's really where you see our folks getting more comfortable with those tools. We've had opportunity to train specifically with the tools that we've adopted so far. I think that's really driven the comfort level with our teachers to be able to start working through those with our students. And then being careful of which opportunities that we put in available

094for our students from a perspective of not just looking at okay, what what are we doing from you know, high school, but what opportunities do our middle school students have and then what rails and things can we put up to make sure that our elementary students have some exposure and understanding of what it is, but really limit and focus what they have available to them to make sure that it's appropriate and they have the right training and enabled to work through those tools specifically that the teacher has assigned. >> And speaking of the tools, we also asked them which tools they're using. Most faculty and staff are using Google Gemini. Quite a few are still using chat GPT. >> [clears throat and cough] >> We've actually made sure both chat GPT and Gemini now we

095have EDU plans for Flagler schools so our data is maintained in house and it's not being trained on and that type of thing. Many also use Canva and Magic School AI. So these are just kind of the tools that the teachers are using in the classroom. And then we asked about when they're generating the AI content, what are the following steps they consistently take? Luckily none of them said I use that but exactly as is and trusted 100%. You know, they do know to look at the data and modify it to meet their needs and to make the change. Make sure they're kind of the message that they they were trying to get out of it. Um we also want to know how do they typically initiate the interaction with AI cuz some of our

096platforms like Conmigo's and Magic School AI and Brisk have kind of pre-done prompts where you can go in and if you specifically are looking for a lesson plan if you're looking for a you know a quiz on a YouTube video or information they kind of have the prompt done for you and it's kind of like fill in and some of them are opened up like Gemini where the teachers create engineer the prompt so they want to get specifically what they want. Most of the teachers are doing the custom prompting now and I think that comes back to one of our focuses in a lot of our professional learning has been how do you ask the questions or work with AI to get the results that you're looking for like it's not just a Google search

097like how do they do that? Um other ones kind of do that hybrid approach where they may start with a template and then go in and ask the questions back and forth just to kind of get information. >> I just have a question on the prompting. So when one instructor puts in some prompting and they get a result that's desirable because of that prompting. If somebody else was in their account and did the same exact prompt, do we find that the AI uh responds in the same way or does is it really different every time based on how that person interacts with other things in in the uh in in the account? >> depend It would depend on the tool that they're using cuz like the AI model does kind of learn from you like

098my account knows what I'm asking for and what my job position is you know and that type of thing. Um it is nice set up now so that with Gemini you can share prompts through gems so if it's something that you constantly are doing or maybe you're asking you want questions and these questioning stems you can kind of save that really quality prompt and can use it over and over again and even share it with some of your colleagues. >> Okay that's what I was getting at so that once somebody's perfected this is it oh I've got finally got a good cuz I've prompted and got things that didn't really help me and other times it was really excellent you know so that that's what I wanted to understand. >> Yeah so it takes some

099work and revision yeah. >> to work through that. Okay just as we don't duplicate work once somebody's figured it out, just pass it on. >> Yeah, they will do that and share it. >> You know, we were pretty excited with Magic School AI when that first came out and we've been using now that that product for 3 years because there's some very good guide rails and we identified that as a great step-in tool. When you have those prompts that are already created, you kind of go through it and you can select and then it gives you a better understanding cuz you see what that prompt is and then you're able to make modifications to it so that when you do get access to say let's say Gemini Plus, you're able to kind of better understand

100what that prompting potentially would look like. >> And you can pull in now, too, like your resources. So, you can hit the plus button and you can pull in an article specific PDFs that you have. You can actually pull in your whole notebook LM into Gemini now and it can reference what's in the notebook LM you've built plus outside things to work with. So, we're also working with that to be very for teachers to be very specific about what they're trying to get out of it and how they can include those resources that they have as well. >> notebook kind of like the flagship for app within Gemini that people are using or is it really just a mix bag? >> It's just it's another tool. I think when you have like a set of

101knowledge and you build it. So, it could be websites, it could be PDF documents, it could be legislate legislation, it could be news articles that you put in there as a reference for a particular [clears throat] topic and then it will use that that information and framework to respond to your prompt. >> Got it. >> Which is really neat from like an example that that we were working through is, okay, so not only is a teacher wanting to create, let's say, a lesson plan, but you can then tie that in with CPALMS for the website. So, you can specifically align what what those goals are for for them >> [laughter] >> directly with CPALMS, which is which is kind of neat because otherwise you'd be sitting kind of going through and going to the website

102which class am I aligning this with what what uh >> It can control the source. >> Correct. >> The source is it's a finite control source. >> It's siloed and it will only >> It's like a little language model, not a large It's just it's the small one. The other nice thing with Notebook LM from the instructional educational purpose, it also gives you study resources. So you can go in and it'll quiz you as a student. So I could create a custom set of information. I could share that with you as the student and you can go in and it'll quiz you or you can go in and you [clears throat] can listen to the audio notes that I'd created just from those resources or it'll go in and give flash cards for you. So

103you have a lot more control over that model. And now luckily Gemini just released a few weeks ago where you can pull in your controlled model and have it use it plus outside stuff for you to get information from. >> I was going to add when you mentioned, you know, a lot of it with our faculty as they're getting trained, they're utilizing it more and more with their students. So exactly what you just said, I've been hearing from students like Notebook LM. Now it's available. I don't know if it's certain grades but or if it's the whole county, but they're utilizing it for what you just mentioned like so the instructors are having them, okay, let's make a study guide and then they're utilizing it for that and then studying and testing themselves. But I've

104heard really great feedback and I'm happy that the LM part is open cuz it's helping those with different learning styles, all of them, whether they need the visual, the audio. So I think everything like specially I know there's so many tools but the Notebook LM and then now with it incorporating with the Gemini and then the instructors learning those tools. So thank you for that. >> It's been nice. Um and then just looking at what tools we do have. So our teachers and staff have access to all these primarily their large language models we're using are Google Gemini and Chat GPT. We also We Conmigo which is Khan Academy's Magic School and Brio Teaching. And those are all kind of aligned educational specific. Like a lot of their back-end prompting information's in there for education.

105Apple Intelligence has a lot of things built into our physical devices we have. And then we also have other programs like Canva and Way Around and Nearpod that that have AI tools built in to help you. So like let's say in Way Around if I wanted to make an interactive passage so that like it could you could have a passage and then it would give you questions. Instead of me having to type the whole passage in and type all my question types in, I can take a PDF of the passage and the questions and it kind of scans it and it'll create it and make it an interactive version of that material that I gave it. So it's not really creating things necessarily with AI, but it's using you to help the efficiency from the

106teacher's side of things. And then as far as what students have access to, um all of the students right now they have access to Magic School, but teachers have to specifically give the access to the classroom. So I can give you access and I'm going to let you chat with a character that I set up from history that we're studying here and I'm going to let you, you know, research and study based on these materials or I can even give you an open chatbot with it. Um there's limited like AI creation tools within Canva. It's not really a chat thing, but they might help give me I need an image of I can describe a scene in a story and it'll give me an image representing that. And then our students in grades 6 through

10712 have access to Brio Teaching, the Con Migo, and Gemini. And then high school has what tools are built into the Mac as well. We've done a lot with AI literacy for both teachers and students at the same time and it's more than just how to use it. It's really like understanding what AI is and how it works and then also how to use it and then really importantly how to evaluate output. Um and that's an important skill and actually our students are probably better than our teachers of like looking at images and material and being able to tell you if it was AI generated or not, they tend to get tricked a lot less than our teachers necessarily do. So, it's looking through those. We have a lot of resources available for teachers and

108students. And this past year ISTE has worked alongside Google to come up with a lot more training and resources that are free and available for teachers as well as and from you know, resources for teachers. And >> And UF has the professional development as well, right? >> Yeah, and we work through them too as well with the resources through the Florida um >> Coxwell. >> Um and this is through ISTE and we were actually went out to uh a summit on AI and education. We were asked to go out to earlier this year with people from all over the world to work towards some of this how you're seeing it in the school systems. And it's all working towards you know, like a profile of an AI-ready graduate. Like how are we preparing our students

109to be ready for what's coming for them? Um this year so far we've had 2,275 hours of professional learning targeted towards AI. And this is just a list of some of the I mean some of the topics that we've covered. And we also feature something in Tech Tuesday usually um as well as we have tech teams at each school of kind of tech team or teacher leaders that are in technology that we meet with and kind of we'll go over and point things out for them to also disseminate. And then some of the national conferences that we go to also to get that information and bring back as well. Um this summer or earlier this year we worked with a group of teachers from both high schools to kind of develop our generative AI best

110practices for students. So, that this these resource was shared with all the students in the district kind of go over. And we'll review it again this summer especially as quickly as everything's changing. We always want to we're kind of continuously circling back through our resources making sure it's still relevant and we don't need to add anything or take anything away. Um we have been following the proposed bill of rights um that they're that they're working for just to kind of see where we are, make sure we're not surprised by anything. Um like I said, we don't provide access to AI. They said grade six and up and that's kind of where we are. Um if we had to have a mandatory parental opt-out, we can include that information we have in our digital learning handbook

111for next year what tools are available and we can have it set up to do that opt-out with it as well. Um the proposed legislation had to be able to give parents a view of what's being done and they can do that upon request with some of our auditing features that we have. Um they've also asked to make sure none of the AI companies are from countries of concern and we don't currently contract with any of those as well. Um one of the things was making sure parents specified consent for companion chatbots and we don't have companion chatbots set up for our students as well. And um as far as disclosing any personal information, that's kind of already covered with our student data privacy agreements. >> Yeah, all of our adopted AI tools are have

112student data privacy agreements in place for them. >> Just want to make sure we're not caught off guard by anything. >> Even including ChatGPT. So, we were able to be a part of a pilot program with them unidentified. So, um we essentially have our own enterprise ChatGPT licensing. So, um anything entered into that if you're using a Flagler Schools is still separated from the larger element. >> I mean, there's some ways that we're using it to help with operational efficiency. It was like the notebook LM. We have, you know, we put all of our policies for the district in there. That helped the chatbot on the website. One of the biggest ways we found recently too is as we prepare for the um making sure everything's WCAG compliant, which they've actually pushed out another year,

113but we have a great tool that'll go in and it scans everything for you and it'll automatically go in and add those tagging information to bring it up to code, which has saved countless hours of people having to go through and do that manually. Our in-house development team uses it for some things with coding, assist with bus routing. So, there's lots of different ways that we kind of are utilizing it to help around with our efficiencies. >> Is that policy notebook, is that public-facing on our website? If somebody wanted to use that access that, is it through our Is it connected to the chatbot? >> It's the one the policy notebook we have set up because some of the documents in there are you have to be Flagler schools to view. So, that one is

114set up on our intranet, but the chatbot on our website would search through all the policies for that. So, we have like an inward-facing one and an outward-facing one. >> wanted to find locate a policy using our chatbot when you log when you go on to the web >> It has references to be able to >> It will go It can find that information. >> Word docs when it's working. >> [laughter] >> Yes, it does. >> Sorry. Some of our goals moving forward we're working to put together a Flagler schools AI guidebook just taking all of our different resources information kind of in one space to make it easy. We're working towards developing a specific digital tool evaluation rubric that we'd use towards those two using some of the SD guidelines that they have set

115up as well as usage numbers. The real shift has been from like doing it faster to doing it better. Like it's not just a tool to make it, you know, easier. It's really to help you get a better result out of it. Continuing to look at the quality and human oversight as well as accuracy. We'll review our AI literacy lessons and plans to make sure we have the latest information out there for that but as well as it's changing and keeping an eye on the legislation that's coming out as well. And then additional learning opportunities. >> I have a couple of items that So, in terms of the measurement of the educator self-efficacy, one thing that I would like to see in future surveys is how are they measuring themselves? I could say I'm awesome

116at AI, but if I'm only asking it recipes, right? I have got ketchup and noodles in my pantry. What can you make for me? Is that really AI literacy? So, what is the foundation for a level 1 2 3 4 for self-reported self-efficacy and >> We have some tools that we're working through both from ISTE as well as CoSN that are actually just that, a self-reflection guide to kind of walk you through and then use a rubric to kind of self-score. So, we're looking at how to adapt that. But, it's a great point. >> I also noticed from 2025 to 2026, the number of teachers reporting that they're not using it because they don't think that students need to be exposed to it doubled. So, I think and what I've seen in terms of not

117data specific to us, but in in whole is real concern over AI. I think part of it is, you know, mistrust, mistrust in tech companies, capitalism, owning this data, replacement of jobs, but also this move towards, you know, how much screen time is appropriate. I think it would be appropriate for us to have some town halls with parents because we would need to help educate them along this journey and inform them on what is AI in that classroom, right? Which may be different from at home. I also think that us as a board need to have some conversations and maybe direct some policy around what is our I guess philosophy on the extent to AI. So, you know, if we're going to really move it, use it for operational efficiency, but for increasing academic achievement,

118one of the questions might be and one thing I didn't see in here is, well, if I'm a teacher, I would put in the lesson plan that I've developed and say, "Can you modify this for and give me um challenge material? Can you give me accommodations for uh based upon these modifications that I would like to see? Are we That's one level. Do we believe that we could say, "All right, with student information removed, I'm going to provide this student's data, meaning performance data, academic performance data, and load in the [clears throat] IEP goals that are in there and have AI essentially act as a consultant. How How well is this student achieving those goals based upon the data I put in?" Is that something we're willing to go to? Is that You know, I'm

119I I can almost go back and forth with it in my own head. So, I think it's a It warrants a discussion. Um and if we do, at what point do we require human oversight in that, right? I would like to see some formalized AI literacy um expectations by grade band. And I saw in your student handout that there was an element there that said, "Oh, check it against other sources." One thing that I see as a big red flag is that we're seeing a bigger gap, right? And this started with just technology in general, right? If you look at Bloom's technology knowledge analysis or knowledge application analysis evaluation synthesis, right? We have now taken away essentially most of that knowledge and application piece. And now we're giving it to technology, which puts students who

120are at a maybe academic challenge at a greater disadvantage because you now have to move right to evaluation synthesis. If I put some data into AI, I have to be thinking at that level to determine if I want to use that information. But yet we've got students who they're not cognitively at that that level. So we have to concretely and plainly uh teach students how to analyze and evaluate that what makes your spidey sense go off in something like this, right? Um and some people have them innately, right? Uh for example, I did some measurements. I was trying to build a I wanted to build like a modified Murphy bed. So I gave it some measurements and I said, "Tell me uh show me the cut pieces and how much of wood I would need

121to get from Home Depot, right?" Trying to compare if I should buy it or build it. So then I'm looking at it and I'm like, "That's way too much lumber." And so I tell it that get can't be possible that Oh, you're right. I I double-counted this. But not everybody Some people would just just blatantly take that at face value. So um what we're countering is that AI is a tool that they want you to buy and keep using. So it is a customer service thing. It wants to please you. You have to almost tell it, "Don't If you If it doesn't make me happy, that's okay. Give me the right answer." So I think that that's a big challenge for us and it's a big challenge even if we wait till 6th grade for

122students to use AI. I think that those literacy components not just in how to use it to access information, but that agentic piece. I think that there's value here in AI for the workforce. Right now, everybody out there is trying to get an AI certificate to keep themselves valid in the workforce. This is a great diploma plus program I would like to see. Um I'd also like to see us have some discussions or decide uh are we going to Should we require teachers to indicate the level of AI uh permissions on different assignments? Make that very clear and communicate up front so we don't get any back and forth with "Oh, I thought I could. They didn't tell us I could." Uh there was a district where they were implementing a like a traffic light

123signal, green, yellow, red. And each one of those meant a certain level of AI access that they could use. And so with that same regard, incorporating what is our AI citation expectations and policies? Um because we have that in our student code of conduct, but if we haven't spelled out what is our policy regarding AI citation, how can we hold them accountable to the the code of conduct expectations? You spoke about the vendor view review. So some of my concern is um that there's a kind of a a a misalignment in EdTech versus what's going on with parents and teachers and their feelings on education. You talk to somebody in EdTech, they want more AI the better the faster, right? So while it may comply with our PII and COPPA and FERPA, the question is

124how fast they're updating their materials, how much are they changing that tool, right? So yes, we may have a privacy agreement, but is it pinging us if a student says, "Even though it might not be a personalized chatbot, a student doesn't know the difference." They might go, "Uh I'm so angry I got this question wrong again. Uh I hate my math teacher. I feel like hitting her or something." We would want to have a uh a notice about that. But if that's not their realm because they didn't anticipate some some student putting that information in, they may not collect it. How does the tool respond if a student puts that into the system, right? >> alerts with Conmigo when something like that comes in. It's >> And that's what we want to make sure standard

125across all of the tools we use, right? Um You mentioned accessibility, so I think that's good. Uh yeah, and so um You talked about the AI detectors, and I think we we have a presentation from Gaggle where they touch on this, where uh there's not only the automated AI detectors, but at what point is there human involved to kind of like all right, uh let me see exactly what's going on here and not just get raw data or numbers, right? Is do we have any systems where if in students put in something concerning, there's a a human-to-human alert that we could take action right away? >> That that would be >> Yes. Uh that would be our our Lightspeed product. >> Alert. >> So we're working through um the procedures for how that all all

126will come together, but absolutely we we do. >> I feel like academic integrity with the AI detector side things, we really use two folds with that. One is an AI trust you, which is what teachers use to kind of share their expectations for what they want on an assignment. And then if it's an assignment that has that required, students then use it to like kind of send back to the teacher like a report on how they did use it. And then through brisk teaching, which is available in the high schools, that gives like a almost a feedback of a Google Doc that's turned in that kind of gives you a timeline to tell you how long it took the student to do it, what was copied and pasted in, what resources this came from, kind

127of how the document was built and put together. Because the AI detection tools are not accurate. >> Sure. >> Yeah, we're working >> can make it Google and copy and paste it over, and it would and it's not that we don't want them using we want them to use it responsibly. It's just that it's so fast and sometimes in order to develop their cognitive capabilities, we want to say hey, there're going to be assignments where we don't want any AI and we have to educate the students and parents as why and then we're going to have assignments where we do. And we have to but that could seem like conflicting messaging and that's where if we have a clear kind of like practice where we're communicating that on the assignment instructions then that's going to

128avoid arguments, make it very clear on why there are times when it's beneficial and why there's times when it's not. >> And how they cite this is what I I've used of it. Yeah. >> I have mixed emotions as well. I mean AI it's I mean you can use it for good things, you know, and you're kind of at the place it's like you can't fall behind in technology, but you also want to make sure that we add the human aspect and like you said it can be wrong at times. We use it in health care now and I have to make sure that it what it says that it heard me correctly, you know, sometimes it's wrong. Um and it's funny that you brought up like the kids too as well. They they know

129better than we do that they can look at something and be like that's AI and like, you know, whereas my parents may not they can't tell at all. >> [laughter] >> But um >> And and so when you take and apply you cuz we were talking about the image, right? So when you take and apply someone's ability to detect that an image, just imagine when it's content, when it's information, people being able to to miss Ruddy's point, look at it and say that's way too much lumber. And so, you know, you know, we are always talking about the human in the loop part of it. You you have to um be knowledgeable about what type of things are you expecting this to come back with and being able to sift through quickly and say "Mhm,

130this is this is too far or not." Um, we we I'm sure everyone um here has heard of it in um our our community as well that, you know, it is it it can hallucinate. It can provide information to you that may not um be accurate, which is why we have to make sure that we have a human in the loop um related to this. You will have >> Mhm. >> Cuz there was training that we had with, you know, between the different AIs, um and I'm sure your faculty are getting the exact same training, but from what I'm hearing, maybe with Miss Roddy's thinking and like just from our kids, you know, as long as they're being told, like, "Hey, you know, for example, the chat GPT." They were saying how much, you know,

131it can hallucinate in the lumber, but they're not going to know that. They will go and buy the lumber for whatever it is. Um so, I think just educating them, but I'm sure I know the faculty are getting that, but just making sure our students, whether they're a high school student or if we go into the elementary level, but they that your AI can hallucinate, you know, and this is what that means, you know, the lumber is a good example, I think, for a child to understand, but yeah, it's there's a lot to it, but >> And just the fact with the student that it's not a human on the other end of this. Like, this is an AI tool. So, it is, it's a lot of education that's around that. So, it's not just

132a here we're going to use it for everything. It's going to solve all the problems. It's it's a tool and it is important that we keep safety in mind and the AI literacy part of it and the education part of it behind it to be able to use it safely and effectively. >> Do you think that it would be something where our students would need some type of a certification? Like, where, for example, and I remember I mentioned it a while ago, but if they were to start utilizing AI for their classroom, they have to pass, and I say pass, but, you know, go through a little like almost like when you're on boarded for a position for a job, where is that something that you're thinking may be needed for some of these tools

133that they need to go through a little training that's catered to their age. So, six you know, an 11-year-old for them to understand. So, I think and I'm just trying to think of different job opportunities like so in the health care field, you know, you have OSHA, you have HIPAA, you have blood borne pathogens, like little things so you know, hey, wash your hands. So, something very simple, but that's my take. >> digital >> Yeah, and nothing to make it cuz you know, we don't want more work for anybody, but that's what I feel it may be leading to just to protect >> Magic School has that built into it already. So, like when they get on the first time, it is that. That's kind of like some of the expectations we put together at

134the beginning of the year, some of the digital citizenship and AI literacy that was rolled out to all of the students to cover some of those. >> And then even adding the [clears throat] grading because if I'm a student, you know, I'm 11 years old and like, oh, I I didn't know that and but you know, just giving them that little training ahead of time and they sign off on it and it's almost like to say, hey, well, we did this. >> I think it absolutely become a a bigger role in our digital citizenship training that we're already doing. I think it will become a a more significant portion of that while some things will >> But I mean, I think we're doing all the right things and there it's never ending, but to me

135that's what sounds like the next step might have to be where they get little badges and >> So, you're going to So, we already have a board policy, but the board policy is going to be coming back before you again. And so, I think it's also important that you as a board just continue to have this conversation to Miss Ruddy's point of what does this look like here in Flagler related to our our staff and then our student use [clears throat] and how do we empower people to make sure that they have the information to be able to do their jobs or learn in our in this learning environment. >> And you did say the kids don't have access to the chats within our school system, correct? >> No, they don't have like the the

136chats like it's not like another human type that type of thing. No. >> I just want to make sure AI is not encouraging them to do something wrong. >> Yeah. >> But they have their own phone. So. >> [laughter] >> Mhm. >> But that's part of our like the AI literacy kind of covers, you know, just the information of that. Like we could take it away and not give them access, but they still have access to it. So we want to make sure they're educated on what do you have to be aware of and know that, you know, that's not a human and you can't just take what they say as true. So that's >> The latest number is about almost 60% of fifth graders have personal phone, personal device. >> I would have thought

137it'd be more. >> Well, I think this is a national statistic. I think probably in our local community it may be higher, but I don't know what that number is. >> You know what is fascinating about is so in my uh other job, right? We're pushed to use AI as much as possible, right? And then I talk with my kids and they are completely anti-AI. Um I mean, they're you know, they yell at me for using it for and they're like, "Mom, you just" I'm like, "You don't understand. I have to know how to use this, right? So um we at the same token, we don't want to scare them away or make it this feel like you're guilty cheating when you're using it. Because it does have real application and benefits in the workforce.

138We've just got to help them cultivate their brain first before they over rely on it. And so that's what's been fascinating in my home anyway. I don't know if that's similar, but I I have seen some statistics. Parents are >> [laughter] >> Not for it. >> Yeah, right. Uh so, >> You know, you know, one of the things uh and this is just a a personal reference, but um from the standpoint if you [snorts] remember when Google got big and the impact that internet and Google search engines, I'm not talking just internet, but when you had these major search engines, it would have been YouWho >> Yeah. Yahoo. >> Yahoo. Meaningless. That's how often that's used anymore, right? And then, you know, Google. So, um you see a lot of parallels to this. So, I

139found myself looking back. Like, some of these [clears throat] same impacts, remember we're having a conversation, what's 21st century digital literacy look like? And it's how do you use How do you use a browser? How do you uh how do you create the the right thing to ask? Um how do you give references so that you can say I want a different perspective of what the response is. You know, being able to kind of set those and learn how to do it and how to vet content, right? Because the the joke today still Oh, it's on the internet, it must be true, right? >> Yeah. >> Well, it's in AI, it must be true. Um so, I think those are a parallel thing to keep in mind. Um and where I keep going with this

140is, you know, I was on the younger side of that and now I'm on the older side looking at it and I kind of look at it was like, you're the perspective wants to be Oh, we just got to can't deal with this. We're just going to block it all. But if you think back to where that was, what did we do? We we worked through it uh from an education standpoint, it became a very, very valuable tool. Like, I remember having the conversations where you are not going to use a website for a reference >> Mhm. >> um for for any type of report. >> of Wikipedia. Oh my goodness. Now it's a valid >> Now there's there's a there's a whole citing process for websites, for Wikipedia. So those things I think are

141are coming and in the works. I just feel like where AI has gotten is, you know, [clears throat] the adoption of the internet was right the dot com booms all the adoption of the internet and kind of how it blew up. It is just that much faster. Uh with with what AI is doing. Like substantially faster. So I of my personal opinion, like we can sit and kind of go which a lot of districts I I was we been at some really great conferences. I've been to Chicago with with CoSN recently. We've been out to San Diego with ISTE ASCD and been invited to participate in some of these and there there are districts um that are like, "Hey, we're just going to draw a line in the sand and we're going to wait for

142all of this to come and let us know what the best way of moving forward is." Um I think you you're you're you then take the opportunities that those students to learn and you push that back down the road. Um because just looking at it from the standpoint of where things are from an AI implementation and you look at what's happening out in um in business and in manufacturing and all those those pieces it's being very very impactful. So we need to make sure that we're aligning what we're doing the best that we possibly can making sure that our teachers are in the middle, that they're still the teacher, that this is another another tool and take that perspective. And as things change, which they're moving very very fast, we need to be able to

143change and move with them. So, you know, that's some of the things that we're talking about like, you know, some some things as far as you see some districts with some very very specific board policy that's been implemented which a lot of times even if you look at our original one that we brought forward. It was it wasn't even in place for 3 months and we're talking about we're already in violation of our board policy because right? So I think that's the thing is like I like the fact that we have the opportunity to sit with our board and continue to have these conversations and and continue to move forward. We've got great teams in our schools for our tech teams some of the stuff that we brought back from the SDA SD is how

144do we incorporate students all the way down into really fourth and fifth grade. There's some great opportunity in there's some districts that have had success with that. So that's not only just what's best for the kids from the standpoint of like I have a voice but it gives a better perspective as you know, as an adult to to what that impact potentially is on those students within those grade within those grade levels. So I would just say I think you know, perspective-wise having the opportunity to work on this stuff on a on a national level. I feel like we are we are in a good place. We're having the right conversations. We're having them at the right time and in the fact of the matter is is we have great infrastructure and tools in place

145for our students to be successful at this. We we are not still sitting talking about whether or not a student has access but we have controlled access. We put things in place to ensure that our students data is is secured. That we're not pumping all kinds of data out into you know, the worldwide web of web of LLMs, right? So I feel like we we are in a good place and so the continued dialogue not only from administration district level but all the way down into our classroom level teachers has just been >> [clears throat] >> invaluable. >> Yeah. >> So, you know, we we want the opportunity for our teachers to bring these ideas up, and we've built things in place so that, you know, we've got these opportunities to bring them up through

146the district. I mean, all of these tools that we have adopted have come through conversation short of I would say Google Gemini just because that really is part of our infrastructure that we have, right? But, um all of those have come from teachers, classroom uh folks that have said, "Hey, we want to try this. What does this look like, right?" And And as we continue to work through that, we're able to narrow it down and put what the right tool what we feel, right, is the right tools for, you know, our our classrooms. >> Yeah. Yeah. Excellent. >> Great. We're giving you this, Phillips. Mr. D, we appreciate it. >> Thank you very much. >> Thank you. >> Do we need a break, or is everybody okay? >> I'm good. >> I'm okay. >> All

147right. So, I know you guys are probably thinking, "Wait, we just went through a lot of board all of our board policies. How in the world are we updating um more?" And so, this was really around our conversation and your decision to go with Neo. What it's to have a process for us to continuously bring back your policies against um changes in statute, uh federal changes, and such. So, um there are, I think, 40 um po- 48 policies here. We do not intend to cover them all here today. We are not asking for advertisement. >> [laughter] >> We are not asking for advertisement on this yet. So, this is our first read-through, but what we do what we would like to do is begin with trying to get through maybe 10 of these and then

148um adding determination conversation and then we come back with more. If you guys are feeling like, you know, we get we got through 10 pretty quickly and we want to go on to 15, we can do that. But I just for the public and for you as a board, it is not our intention to go through all of these today cuz we're not asking for advertisement yet. We're just giving a first read first discussion. >> Yeah. Should we go through I was just going to say uh board chair, do you think that when you come back from recess then do you want to ask each board member if there's a policy or two that they want to triage and pull forward faster than some of the others? >> Sure. In my apology >> were very

149like it was just grammatical. >> Yes and yes. >> Since we board docs has been up and down, I I honestly have not had a good chance to look at some of these. So, um yeah. >> All right. Well, I'll be back in 5 minutes. >> 5 minutes. Okay, perfect. >> Mhm. >> The conversation was to just talk about policies that you specifically want to talk about to begin with and then if we have some time we'll go through a group of them at this >> Yeah, because most of them just had some minor grammar or language changes like instead of development they switched it to learning. But there was a new policy right 6608 that's one that I wanted us to kind of have a conversation about regarding the crowdfunding district disbursements. Are there

150any others that the board would want to pull forward? >> We could start there and we'll >> Yeah, just list the ones that that you want to go over and then we can run through the others. >> What number was >> Uh the one that I thought we should have a conversation of is 6608. >> 6608 and I'll ask Patty Warmack Ms. Warmack if she's available to come up. Ms. Warmack. >> Yes. >> We're going to start off at 6608. >> 08. >> So this is about crowdfunding like GoFundMe and such. So, first of all, what uh practices do we currently have in place? Um and my understanding of this policy, this is only if it is a PTO or a teacher, PTA, SAC, not necessarily if it was like uh >> a parent outside

151of any of those organizations. So, if they you know, wanted, for example, right? Future Problem Solvers is raising funds for their state. Or we recently had where there was a teacher who had uh extensive medical bills. There was a family member or uh a teacher not affiliated with any of these groups, but maybe that parent who wanted to raise funds individually. Um and, you know, GoFundMe is easy when their families are out of state law and such. So, I think my concern is that there's a fine line there, right? Uh Uh and how do how would we provide that oversight? Or could we run into a situation where somebody says, "Well, you could do the GoFundMe just as long as it's not through the PTO, but I you didn't hear it from me, you know,

152kind of thing." We don't want to make it more difficult. Are we seeing you know, uh accounting issues that are resulting from this? Are we worried about fraud? Is that what it is? >> Uh not to my knowledge. We came up with a Thank you. We came up with um This started to get I don't want to say out of hand, but it wasn't consistent between school from school to school for the the crowdfunding. So, about 2 years ago, one of our staff who was the liaison for bookkeepers created um a process for them to follow. So, that everyone's following the same thing. There were specific um guidelines such as what percent of a fee they can charge. Some of these that um we were getting for crowdfunding or even fundraising were charging large amounts

153of fees. >> The the the platform? >> Mhm. >> And but we can't necessarily control that. >> Well, we put the What was happening was we were having some businesses charge a substantial amount that didn't make any sense. So, there was no control over it because there was not a process in place that governed every single school. So, our staff created um a procedure to specifically address crowdfunding. Crowdfunding wasn't a a huge thing until the last several years, which is why it kind of started to get out of control. So, we do have processes in place. I I don't feel I on my level, I don't feel that that there's a concern about fraud. I think it's just making sure that people stick within the guidelines and and trying to ensure that the schools do

154stick within those guidelines. >> So, what are what are the the guidelines here? Because I'm also worried, are we creating more administrative work for bookkeepers? Because it seems like if uh And if you could give me some clarity, but if there's a PTO or a booster club, they're technically a separate entity. So, why would the school bookkeeper be involved in their financial fundraising? That should be on them as a separate registered entity. >> Can you point me to what section you're looking at for that specific question? >> Um It says Um Profit and loss report must be prepared or submitted to the principal design it on a monthly basis. >> That's already required for our booster >> Okay. >> [clears throat] >> So that's included. It's not And that's what I'm looking for. Is there

155anything extra that would be on top of what they're already doing? How Essentially, how is this different from what they're being required to do already? >> There is not a substantial difference to this at all. When Mrs. Bush and I went through this to edit it up, there were other recommendations by Nilo that we took out because it would it would cause a lot of administrative oversight and the process that we had in place is what we feel is currently working. >> Okay. How about B and B number four, description of disbursements to schools directly? Reports must be submitted to the book school bookkeeper on a monthly basis. The report of each fundraiser shall be approved by the principal or designee. So that's where I'm um you know, if if it's a parent group that's

156its own 501 or 401c, you know, those boosters, aren't they complete They have their own reporting requirements? >> [clears throat] >> And I think with what I I'm thinking too, so like I'll use just parent teacher organization that mainly elementary schools have and then booster clubs I know is primarily high school. So parent teacher organization, completely voluntary for these parents or guardians. It's a lot of work. You do have to have a treasurer. It's in the bylaws. Being a treasurer, you're almost it's almost like owning a business. You're your own CPA. It's a lot of work and at one point my husband was the treasurer at for Bel Air. Um >> My husband was the treasurer for FPC band. >> somebody and [laughter] um he knows finance. So he was like, "Oh, a piece of

157cake." But when the bookkeeper's like, "Hey, we need such and such." And this was years ago. Like, "Well, here is the bank account information. Here's that. But if you need that, that's I mean you're not getting paid to be a a PTO treasurer and it's a lot of work. So, I feel there's making That's where I'm at because people are not going to be in these roles and you have to have those roles. >> going to say no, no crowdfunding because it's too much of a hassle. We don't have time to meet with the bookkeeper and then we're at a disadvantage, right? >> I'm saying having access to like here's the bank account and at the meetings they show, you know, we would pull up the bank account and you know, everything but I'm just

158trying to find a happy medium if you want to be >> were looking at this particular one before, we actually the recommendation was not on a monthly basis but on a weekly basis. And so we felt that was just way out of control. For us for B4, it was [clears throat] more about making sure of the accountability of the funds. If someone's giving our school bookkeeper funds, there should be some kind of accountability acknowledging you you did receive these funds. So >> Why are they being given to the school bookkeeper because the if it's a PTO and we're saying that's what this policy would fall under, not a separate parent acting on their own, it's the PTO or school, you know, they have a booster, they those funds would not trickle into the school. They

159have their own bank account and everything. Or are you talking about school groups within the school? Because that this is parent group organized fundraising, non-custodial funds. >> Right. So, the custodial funds are the actual internal accounts, right? All of the clubs and athletics. This is if someone goes out on their own and is doing their own fund their own fundraising. If they choose to donate to donate funds that they raised to the school for a certain program, that would have to flow through the bookkeeper. Or their other option is to buy something on their own as the PTO group. >> But you're so okay, if I'm a parent and I'm going to have a [clears throat] art auction. I'm going to you know auction off a piece of art, have some people fancy you a

160lot. Now you're going to make me instead of saying here you go, here's I made you guys a thousand dollars. Everybody's happy. We're now going to say they have to prepare and submit a profit and loss statement and if this fundraiser were to go on for one month or more, monthly reports to our bookkeeper. Even if it's not within a PTO group. >> The P&L is for section A, correct? >> I'm I'm looking at section section B right now. Parent group organized fundraising. >> [clears throat] >> So I think first let's just classify this. First we're talking about parent groups out non-custodial funds that would be like the PTO, okay. They have their separate bank account. Are they reporting financial statements to us now? >> Not that I'm aware of. >> So why do they

161need to report these financial statements? I I could see us saying, hey, if you're raising funds on the behalf of a school, what we would like you to do is make plain the administrative costs and then it's up to the person who's donating the money. But if we're not intermingled with our funds, why would we need them to report this? On the other half is if it's an individual parent. I mean bless them for wanting to raise money to us. Why do we want to put more obstacles in place here? >> If the if the PTO is just raising funds on their own, I don't see that that that falls in this category. How we are reading this is that if they are giving the funds directly to the school, there has to be some

162kind of accountability for that. That section four there specifically talks about if the disbursements are given to the schools. If the PTO raises their own funds and buys their own thing, that doesn't that doesn't that's not cash going to the school. >> But the I guess I guess my question is and and maybe I'm overthinking this the the point of a PTO is all the money is supposed to go to the school eventually and then you keep, you know, a balance like whatever. >> If you use it to buy the stuff, then she's saying we don't care if you do that. It's if you cut the school a check. >> But typically if if anyone, you know, with these PTO meetings, that's what the school wants, you know, they're like, "Hey, I'm a fifth-grade teacher.

163Do you mind PTO purchasing our our helping with the t-shirts for our graduation?" And they're never going to say no. And usually whoever has that checkbook, it's to Bell Terre Elementary School. So, I guess I'm just I'm just trying to understand. I mean, they have access monthly for the bank account, but >> This whole section here is something that to my recollection is new. There was never any accountability over non-custodial funds. Everything that we had in our procedures was about the custodial funds, which is the internal accounts. So, this section I do believe was a lot bigger than what it what we paired it down to. So, this is a discussion as we're having now for the board. I mean, it's good conversation. It's it's really a the choice that we can just talk through.

164>> ask Mr. Delaney to give us some insight. >> In my experience, what I've seen and talking to colleagues around the state, um if there are not controls and oversight in place, fraud will occur. I mean, misuse of funds. >> But that there's a difference here, right? There's a difference between internal student groups and I can understand if it's a if it is a club within the school, SeaPerch. They want to go raise money. That is technically, you know, only one degree move removed from us, it's still under our umbrella. The money funnels through our bookkeeper. I understand that. What I don't understand is if it's a PTO in which they have their separate treasurer, they have a separate bank account, they're they're required [clears throat] to actually do reporting to the state on who

165the treasurer is, right? And do their annual accounting reports. Why would we police that and make it more difficult when they already have their own standards of reporting? >> The the answer is those funds will be sooner or later. I don't mean to disparage any local groups, but just based on what I see around going on around the state, funds will be diverted. Funds will be mismanaged. These funds are going to be raised in the name of the district. The the district for these other organizations, these support organizations, does not have the ability to police every single fundraising effort or every single flyer or bit of information that goes out. So, the general public is not going to understand these distinctions. There is going to be negative press and media attention and investigations when someone

166eventually does get arrested cuz that's what happens. If there's not oversight of these funds sitting there that have been raised on behalf of students for the district, there sooner or later there tends to be negative >> Okay, so let me just kind of let let's picture this in in in reality, how this would work, right? PTO has a fundraiser. They're going to send the report to the bookkeeper. Now we're saying if the oversight is the bookkeeper's responsibility, then that means we're liable if they mismanage the funds. But yet we're going off of reporting that is generated by a single source, so there is no checks and balance because this person, our bookkeeper, doesn't have access to their bank account. They don't have access to the administrative side of the crowdsourcing funding source. So we would

167be getting entangled in an area we don't want to. If there is fraud under that PTO that's a standalone organization, then they're liable. If we connect it and say we're supposed to provide the oversight, we're now co-liable and we're putting additional work on the on a bookkeeper. Like I I feel like they're separate entities for that reason. They have their own oversight. [snorts] They have their own reporting um that is supposed [clears throat] to happen. >> I'm on honestly a bit confused with the with all these different um definitions and and the scenarios. Bottom Bottom line, what what has changed in this policy that that has [clears throat] um that was there before and what are we changing now? >> It's a completely new policy. >> Okay, so this completely new from the ground up.

168In this scenario, I I I I heard you, Ms. Warmack, say that you were not seeing this as a policy for PTOs at one moment and and in a moment in the conversation. So if if a PTO did a GoFundMe and then and raised that money and put it into their accounts and then just bought things from their account for the school, t-shirts, they pencils, whatever it is, um this would not apply in that situation. Is that Is that >> I The way I read the second part of that, and I'll have um our attorney um clarify this, is the detailed listing of what they give if they're giving us items or funds, then it should be there should be some kind of uh documentation for that. >> Where the money came from. >> To

169justify, yes. >> Okay. So, it's basically a a We're just It's a It's a It's a money trail. How How How they acquired the money and and before Where it came The source of the funds. What What is the source of the donation? >> So, when we This is very similar to what we require for um for our current fundraisers in the schools, which would be custodial funds, because it's our our own clubs and and and programs. They have to fill out a fundraiser form. It has to be very specific as to what the funds are going to. What's happened in the past is there would be fundraisers. It wasn't specific as to what group the funds were going to, and we got caught on an audit with it because it it's not clear. So,

170if they're going to fundraise, it needs to be very This is going back to FPC band. And so, that wasn't really happening, which is why we created a couple years ago this whole um manual over this. This non-custodial funds was never a part of that. We only were governing the custodial funds. So, when this new policy came up um that Marcus gave us, this is the first time we actually saw the non-custodial funds. And And like I said, we did change some things so that it wasn't as re- as >> restrictive. Yes, thank you. >> So, would the Ed Foundation fall under this? That they are What was the other >> There's a separate There's a separate policy for the Ed Foundation. >> And why? If they're a separate 4013B and so would a booster

171club or a PTO? How is that different? >> There's a separate policy that deals specifically with the direct [clears throat] support organizations. >> How but how is a PTO or a booster club not a direct support organization? >> The direct support organizations are defined I know it's outlined in our audit report what defines that they are not a direct support >> It's a that is state statute definition of what that is. So that right. >> I think so I guess and this may this is why I have so many questions cuz I've been so involved with it. So every campus that has a PTO or PTA or they [clears throat] go they have a bylaw. So I think what we may have to consider and that's why this is going going to be a little

172bit more we may need countywide bylaws. So if Rimfire has they have like you can pull up their bylaws that's their rules and regulations. So it's similar to a policy like our school board policies they have bylaws. So that's where all of these rules come in like they have if it says they have to have a treasurer and the treasurer has to report and I'm just saying he has to report the the amount of money in the bank account at every school PTO meeting you know whatever it may be. So if we're if we're going to have a school board policy all of the campuses have different bylaws already so we would have to all the bylaws would have to go away. We'd have to have a district-wide bylaw for not only all of our

173PTOs if we have them and then also booster clubs. And then it would probably have to be an internal training almost like our volunteers that we have come in and get get a background check because if they break these rules then they're you know they're not following our school board policy so what are the ramifications? So it's almost like and I'm [clears throat] not saying it will make it harder, but people that like to volunteer, bless you, will volunteer cuz they enjoy it. And the ones that don't, they're not going to do it, which is fine. But, if we go with this, I mean, I'm fine with doing everything to, you know, with fraud related, you know, cuz not everyone is honest, but a lot of people are honest. But, we may have to do

174something more internal for a meeting, like training for every elementary school. All the bylaws need to be the same, and everyone has to know, like be on the same page, similar to volunteering. >> What is the problem with the separate >> What is the problem this is creating in a in a simplified state? Like, when we put this here, day one, >> Number one. >> What's the What's the Is the simple line? What is What problem do we create? >> one, not all of our schools even have PTOs. When you have PTOs, they're meeting in the evening. We've got parents who have to work. How are they going to have time to go meet with a bookkeeper and do this? >> Okay, well, so, what we have to we have to have oversight and accountability.

175>> But, if it's not in our account, my concern is if we're saying we're the oversight, then to me, we're absorbing that liability if they if there is something wrong with their accounting. >> Well, I think we should look at this more procedurally because we can't say what That's for the attorney to say what what on on liability that we're we're we're creating more liability for ourselves, that's a legal question. But, what I'm saying is I'm saying [clears throat] what >> Okay, so, I >> we we put this policy in, all right? From from from the views of that you've shared at the table today, you're saying that it's going to create a problem for these organizations. So, >> It's duplicate reporting for people who are already volunteering their time. So, it's just this just

176an example. So, I don't know, 5 years ago, I was PTO president at Bel Terra Elementary. And I loved it. And I I would do it again, right? But when I was the PTO president, I was my current job at the time I was traveling, I was never home. I did a lot of stuff online. And then we had a treasurer, but if the treasurer wasn't doing it, you know, then I I'm responsible for it, which is fine. You're volunteering. When you have your meetings, so you have your principal, you have to show the bank account. And for me, the easiest thing, I would literally [clears throat] pull the bank account up, log in in front, everyone sees it, it's live, this is what it is. But what this is requiring, it's requiring more work,

177more like if you own a business, and I own a business. And that's why I have a an accountant, a CPA, you know, my husband, everyone does that, cuz I don't have the time as a volunteer to do that. And so, it's going to make it very challenging that someone that doesn't have that background or able to do provide all that information to the bookkeeper, like a profit and loss, someone may not even know what that is. And so, >> Well, >> what's happening now is you're required to show the bank account statements, how much money, what's our balance, um how much what did we spend this money on, what was our profit loss of like the dance and all that. So, [clears throat] this is requiring like more reporting at a monthly part to

178provide other than here's the bank account, you can look at it, you can see what's been taken out, what's been spent, but for a volunteer to basically run the fundraising, it's like the mini Ed Foundation of each campus. >> Yeah, but but what we're saying here is that this may create a problem. When somebody volunteers for a position, right? And and your situation at the time or another volunteer situation at time, that may have been your individual situation. >> like every >> you have a responsibility. >> That's what I'm saying. You do you have to put a scope of when you say, "Listen, we this is the treasurer's job. Here's the job description for the PTO. This is the for whatever. This These are the demands of the role. Can you do it? Yes or

179no. If they can't do it, then somebody There may be somebody else that That's what a board does. You bring in Everybody has different talents and and and abilities and come together and get the job done. >> There's no one. >> No one in the world. >> Who attends the PTO meetings? >> the board >> This is a policy that is recommended for the board to consider. The board does not have to >> Yeah. >> take this policy. However, we do still have a responsibility of reporting for funds that are provided to us from a public provided to the public entity on behalf of Flagler Schools, behalf of our our schools our schools from private entities. And so, what we would ask is that continue to mull over it, you know, do some additional research.

180We can bring some more information back to the board related to to this topic, but we do have a level of responsibility for the dollars that are coming to us that have been fund-raised on our behalf and >> And I think it would be fine, but I think we'd have to really There's going to be more that needs to be done like bylaws. >> But I think just consider this. Every time you write a policy, every time you change a policy, that is the purpose of staff. We have to then go and put procedures in place in order to bring forward your policy. And so, I think for this particular policy, what it seems that we need to do from staff and the board's perspective is to say, is it a requirement to uh for

181us to have Is this a nice-to-have or a need for us to have? And if it's a nice-to-have and the board says no, great. But if it's a need-to-have, then how do we um go forward with um making sure that we we have it in place and we have it in place properly while also um respecting the time and effort of our staff as well as these organizations that are here just for the purpose of supporting our schools. >> I have a question before you move on. Ms. Reddy, is it the whole policy that you're not >> No, just B. I totally get the >> Uh I I don't I would have to speak with Ms. Womack and a bookkeeper to see what does that donation look like, but I am not in favor of

182us requiring additional meetings or paperwork. If we just want to say, "Hey, we'll provide copies of that organization's, you know, disclosure financial disclosures." That's fine, but I'm not in favor of adding additional reporting to them. But part A is totally in line because those funds are commingled with our school funds. >> So just so that way as we're going back for potential some additional language coming forward, you would like B [clears throat] it to include only what is absolutely required for us as a school district to be in compliance with receiving of any type of donation. >> I'm assuming that if you're saying when they donate money, if the PTO donates it, there is a statement from the treasurer signed up by the president, "These funds were raised uh through campaigns from this date to

183this date." Otherwise, we don't need weekly, monthly financial disclosures. We don't need that. That they're a separate entity. Our bank accounts don't touch. That's a donation. I I don't want to put that work on our bookkeepers. I don't want to put that additional work on the treasure of those organizations we which we can barely find. >> I have a suggestion. How many of these are new versus updates? >> This is the only new one. Okay. Because this one here which I'm glad you pulled it out. >> a good one. >> Yeah, you did. >> [laughter] >> No, because >> 10 just went down to five. >> Yeah, well no because I think this one we we need to we need to workshop on its own because there's a lot obviously there's a lot of differences

184of opinion on this particular part. Most of the ones I went through are just lineal changes. This one needs more conversation. So I would say I think we've got some things out on the table here and maybe we should pull this back as an individual >> Yeah. >> agenda item and and hash this one out since it's a brand new policy. >> Okay. Are there any others that stand out that we need to look at now? Or do we want to let Mr. Sanfilippo just go through them? Um >> And of course he has a running checklist to ensure that we've addressed every one of them before we go to advertisement. >> Yeah, unless somebody has another one to pull specifically. I say let's just run down. >> Yeah, I just had just a question

185and you may be able to answer it. So 50 5330 so the epinephrine Um let me just pull it up now. Um I just wanted to ask it was talking about physician oversight. Do we have 5330.01? >> Yeah. >> Dr. O'Brien. >> Just a little bit more information on because I know that that section is new. >> Mhm. >> I just want to know like what are we what are we currently doing if we for other items? Is this something we can you know, kind of two for one and is there external like are we are where do we already have our administrative guidelines for these medications coming from? I thought it was the nurse that we would have hired, but now it's saying it requires a physician. Well, is that what you're saying? >>

186I don't think this is much different than what >> Statute requires us to have a plan that is overseen by um a physician, which we're able to use the Department of Health to create that plan and they're just going to have to look at it, make sure it's ready to go. >> That was my question. And then with everything else so and it has like who can be trained and I I know we have training that's done with whoever if you know, if something were to happen and an individual that was not trained like they weren't an individual that went to this training, you know, cuz the principal will say these are the ones that we need or and I know we have field trips, they have that. If someone were to utilize an EpiPen

187on [snorts] a student, a faculty staff, a volunteer, someone that's on the campus, they know how to use it, they use it, but they weren't the one that was in that specific training, are they still covered um liability-wise because they were potentially able to save their life. Um I just want to see how that will work if you're an individual at a campus and you utilize the EpiPen and you weren't on that list of >> Sure. Um we would make every effort for the person intervening to be someone who is trained, but it's my understanding that I don't know if this is the right law, but good Samaritan would cover like saving measures that we would have to provide. Yeah. >> All right. That's what I was just curious if the good Samaritan cuz I've

188had a lot of people ask that if that would be covered at our campuses and I know we're working on a lot of updating safety policies. So, I guess the area we would be concerned with is if we did not equip enough people to be trained in it where a a Samaritan had to stand in, then we're negligent of equipping our staff to handle with that situation and putting a non uh trained person in that position. >> And there is no language that specific that says like how many or what percentage or >> No. >> any of that. >> And we've done our best effort to identify the the the positions that we believe would be best suited to be uh trained. And so we have that list that >> The ones who are >>

189administrators. >> respond to calls to um >> Why are they just focused on these items? Cuz there other medications that uh you know, are invasively delivered administered, [clears throat] but they're only uh focused on diabetic, pancreatic enzymes, and enzymatic medications, and epinephrine. >> Yeah. >> I'm not sure. >> It's just that >> So like otherwise for the other ones, how does that work? Uh is it just the nurse? Or do we train other If If we would train them on the epinephrine, we'd probably train them to deliver those other medications. The others that we we have We have certain staff that are medication administration trained trained, but we do we wouldn't train everybody >> No. On that. No. >> And then when they go on field trips, so they'll make sure that one person is

190has had that training cuz those are the common, you know, diabetic um epinephrine and you may be allergic and may not be. >> need to act fast. >> And that can lead to cardiac arrest, so But no, that Thank you. That answered my question um for that first part. Thank you. >> All right, let's let Mr. Sandefur go run through. >> Okay, starting at the top. >> [clears throat] >> If you look at the first policy, it's 01431 resident areas. Uh this is the language added here is statutory language for a resident area or board. And all that is added new added language from the statute. Questions? The next group on here is I'm going to jump real quick. There's 15 policies kind of jump together. I'm not going to pull them up. I'm going

191to ask if you you just review them. The 15 policies, majority of them are changing the professional development language to professional learning. So, it is one word change. And then there's additional where in 4120 they get rid of highly qualified for a power professionals and put state level requirements in there. So, they just changed the requirement levels. And then a grammar change in 3243. And then in in policy 8700 someone misspelled forgery forging. So, do foregoing. So, that was changed in that policy. All are simple changes. So, I'll just If you want to see one of them I can, otherwise I'll check through that. Okay. >> And then the other big one was um the graduation requirements because the state pulled away from the certificates of completion for students with severe disabilities. >> That is

192straight. >> Yeah. So, that was changed because of that. So, they removed that reference. >> Okay. >> Uh, another bylaw is 0169.1 public participation at school board uh, meetings. Again, it was just statutory language that was changed uh, based on the presiding officer has the first issue a warning that continued to interference with a person so for disorderly to be removed. So, that language was added. There was language removed that said after being warned that the continued interference with orderly possession at the will result in removal. So, they just changed the line of there again. Not a big change, statutory change. Any questions? Move on. 11:39 was a technical correction, so there's no action required. It's just going to be um consent item. Policy 12:11, 32:11, 42:11. I can pull up one of them. The

193language here is um just provide clarification on reporting. That was the only added language in there that dealt with the whistleblower protections. Okay. 21:25 would be the next one. There's no action required. It was a technical correction and grammatical issue there, so that was a technical correction. 22:60 Let me find this one. Um it just removes some references to the Title IX ruling that is in here. The policy 22:64 that is removed, we never adopted that in the first place. So, somehow when we made our changes, this got put in the policy. It shouldn't have been there in the first place. That's being removed. Okay. 22:66 uh definition of fondling. Uh so, that information was changed again just to meet the National Incident-Based Reporting System. And then sexual orientation and gender identity was removed. Questions?

194Okay. I think you have a couple more. >> Okay. >> [laughter] >> For three more minutes of the board chair, if we can get three more What we can get done in three more minutes and then >> Career and technical education was revised again based on statute. That's some statutory language in here. Um digital materials CAPE digital tools certifications and CAPE industrial certifications, that language was added. >> Uh Yeah. So, I I I need an explanation of that. Uh what So, that those are materials to be made available for grades pre-K through 12. What What are specifically CAPE digital certificates? Are Are Are there certain items that we do that are funded by those dollars and that's why they're called CAPE or >> There are some um that we do specifically and pay out of

195the CAPE dollars. >> And that's what they're referring to, that basically when we get that money we have to >> Mhm. >> Okay. And that I see. How do we monitor that then? >> I I don't understand. I'm sorry. >> Uh how do we monitor because that's pretty broad to say we have to provide it to K- pre-K through 12. >> So, it is done through in collaboration with um Martin Evans, which is our CTE um specialist as well as Mr. Scott Reynolds through our um assessment and accountability. So, working together um for any assessments and such that need to be ordered um for um our students and making sure that the right funding source is used to make those assessments available. >> So, you're saying just at some point through that pre-K through 12,

196we have to provide that not necessarily that every year there's some sort of digital literacy or certification offering cuz I'm sitting there going, "What would pre-K through grade three want to have?" >> And we don't offer anything um at that level that I I can think of at at the top of my head, but if we did >> of my concern with the way this is written. It makes it seem like we have to provide something for every grade level, which is nonsensical. >> Well, we do >> But like the digital so >> For the certification. >> the digital you know, digital resources access. I'm sure we use that money appropriately, but it's certif- certif- certifications. >> I mean, we we have done it at >> just within their academic career? It would be available

197>> mean, for us, we have not gone lower than um sixth grade for it for any of those things, but if there were something that it would um this would be appropriate for them, then we should be using those dollars for it. >> And the wording shall make available, so that's where Right, that's the like it's not necessarily we have to. It's like if I don't know if that helps. >> [clears throat] >> If I may. >> Yes, please. >> This is how the statute was written. We don't understand why they said pre-K through 12, but the the legislature authorized that spectrum. The board could limit it if they wanted to and exclude those. I also struggle with the concept of of what those programs would look like. But this is intended to give the

198board maximum flexibility up to the allowance of the statute. >> So if like Advent Health said, "Hey, we're going to provide a certification for your VPK like or a reading company, then that's what or that would be like through K I mean like if we had the opportunity we could. So that's why it has the K through 12. >> I guess it would be highly unlikely that it would be VPK, but what I guess what would what are we trying to protect ourselves from if we limit it limit the policy? >> No, I was just it almost made it sound like we had to have to provide these and so >> If we don't. >> Right, which is So is this saying that we it does we don't have to, we just can. >> make

199available >> That's what I that's what I was >> That was who just clarified that the industry certification is now greater. >> But we're all we all I think we're we in the understanding now that that it's optional. >> Okay, well if we're if it's optional I don't think we have to limit it, but it was good >> But you >> to know that if we were required >> have some [laughter] 9-year-old insisting that they must take VPK. >> Give me a certificate. >> We need >> [laughter] >> reading readiness and >> Ready to go to work. >> I can see things brainstorming with our VPK and kindergarten in the future for Flagler County. So I I feel like you don't know. We may have some type of certifications for them. I don't know. >>

200You know? >> You never know. >> Leave it let it be broad for now and we find a problem then we can tighten it up later. >> I agree. >> Thank you. >> [snorts] >> Another question is 24.21? All right, 24.50 adult education community education. Again, this is based on um rule change. Language is added. And specific to enrollment. >> Well, you know, there's still quite a lot of policies here. I mean, so are we comfortable reading these on our own? >> That's a duplicate. That part was in the last one, too. I I guess they're just reiterating it. >> This is the last one we're going to stop at anyways for today. >> all I see is all the way down to 9700 and I >> No. No. >> [laughter] >> Remember, we're not

201asking for advertisement, but we are going to bring it back. You're going to see it again and we're going to go through them. >> The thing is what I think what might be helpful in the future with these cuz now we're learning this process. This is new, right? We're going to get get these things regularly now through from NEOLA. But I think we if we segment them in in the future, so we say, "Okay, this is a recommended new policy. Okay, so we know that, hey, this is going to have a broader discussion more than likely. These are states These are legislative updates that that we really have no say. We have to put them in there. And then here's the ones that we can Like Mr. Delaney said, we could limit that there. And

202if we do that, I think we'll get a a much better conversation and and direction on these here. >> Well, when we come back the next time, since we have going to continue to come back with these updates, we definitely will do it. We'll do that. >> ask a question? So, at one of the trainings at Notebook LM, I know we've been talking about it and there was a lot of training. Um, so at previous conference, they mentioned This may be a Mr. Delaney question for sure or for sure a question for you. They mentioned other districts that were utilizing it like before we started using using it. They are able to use it with items like this and it does not violate sunshine when you have So, not It's similar to a Google Doc

203where you're sharing, but in Notebook LM, there's a a way to have it where there's no way to tell who is putting what with notes. Is that something that would be helpful here or potentially not? It was stated that it could be useful for doing things like this where in Notebook LM, not Google Doc per se, but an actual the portion where it is anonymous and it may help with or even >> Are you talking about for board member input? >> For board member input with this or if not you know, whatever Mr. He's saying no, so that's that's why >> That's what I'm saying. That's the free slope. >> potentially >> [laughter] >> Mr. Marcus and his team if it was not board member, but board member and then they have cuz I know

204you have your charts, it may be helpful with all of these. >> I think right now as we are getting, you know, we're getting our first year under our belts. I think that the it's it takes time on your part, but I think it's valuable to the community to kind of hear some of the discussion. And so um as we continue to work at it, I think that we look at ways to make it more efficient like let's reorganize this, but I I think it's helpful to to kind of hear the perspective of each member related to the policy. I mean this is the major work, you know. >> Um so right now we recommend just let's take our time, go through each one of them. We'll have an opportunity come in you can listen

205and and then continue to move forward. >> Does is this helpful audible that was shared with you when it's the breakdown of each policy with little synopsis on the policy what the change was? >> Yes. >> Yeah. >> Yes. >> Absolutely. >> Thank you. What you've done it's been very helpful. I apologize. >> All right. We got to keep moving through it. >> Thank you appreciate it. >> Okay, do we have anybody for public comments? >> Good afternoon, Superintendent Moore and Chair Chong and school board. First of all, thank you. It was great work today. I enjoyed the conversations and I think it's great for the community to hear all the conversations. And I want to give a shout-out to Patty. She needs to be recognized and I hope that and the community needs to

206know that she takes care of our finances in a conservative manner. Because of Patty, those ESSER funds were not misused because of her oversight and the direction of the superintendent. So, other counties did misuse their ESSER funds and they did use them for non-recurring positions that they wanted to be recurring. And that's why that some of them are in um uh bankrupt situations. So, kudos to Patty. Um also, kudos to this board for the past several years of building up the reserve funds. Um that needs to be known throughout the county. That needs to be known throughout the staff. The importance of those reserve funds and how dangerously low they were before. So, kudos to this board for being able to raise those funds and this admin to bring those funds up to where we

207have a safety net because nothing happens unless we're safe. And that was during the time where other people were misspending funds and using ESSER funds for recurring. You were not only not doing that, but you were building up reserves. And just the I'm very grateful that you brought up I want to talk about 5.01 the finances because [clears throat] a lot of people think they know a know a lot about budgets and finances, but what they don't know about is school board finance because it's quite different. And so, thank you for bringing that forward, especially before you start a budget, because that's invaluable for the public to know. And some of the things that weren't talked about that I just made little notes just wanted to bring awareness to because you had great conversation about

208the ins and outs of the vouchers. So, just some notes. One is um even though preschool and kindergarten numbers are lower than what our graduates are, there's a jump in the middle of that where like our Imagine Town Center does not have high school. So, those kids from that school feed back into our schools. And there's often I think from the groups that I've talked to, parents that choose to put their children in high our high schools once they get through middle school because of the opportunity that our high schools offer that they can't offer on their own home. Also, there is a private school when you're considering the numbers, there is a private school in the county that is in that has lots of land and room to build and they're currently building a

20912 20,000 square foot building. I don't know if you're aware of that. There are also a lot of micro schools that are going on. I know teachers that when they got in their own childbearing years um uh pulled their child started having their children, pulled their children out, they stopped teaching, pulled their children [music] out and have started little micro schools that grow and they're and now all those parents are using the vouchers. So, those I don't think will lessen, they'll probably continue to grow. Um and some people aren't in my conversations with my constituents or people in the public, some people are not taking vouchers yet. They're waiting for all the dust to settle and the process to be easier. So, there there are still people out there that have not ever been in

210our system that yet to get the vouchers that will as soon as it straightens out. Um And then, one thing I would love to be shared because unless there's knowledge, we don't know what to do with it, is has the board been shared the exit interviews with the families? The families that have left, those converse No, I know I'm not so sure that you get real candid conversations, but you get some because some those parents when they're leaving may want to come back. And so, they're they're careful not to burn bridges or or be too critical even though they might have So, sometimes they keep things close to chest. But, I think it's critical that those things be shared with the board what those exit interviews say um when those parents remove their children. Um

211so, that that can be a goal. Those I I and I understand that those are goals of staff, but the board needs to know what those goal goals are and even on the public so that you can turn that around into a positive and address it and public relations might be something simple so that public relations can improve because from what I'm hearing from people, a lot of the exits over the years have been a over trust. And so, we need to earn the trust back of the public to get those people to come back to our schools because our schools are good schools to get them to um want to come back. And so, it's about earning their trust and the only way to earn trust is to be transparent. So, thank you and

212see you later tonight. >> Thank you, Mr. Chairman. >> Thank you. >> [clears throat] >> Any other uh public comments? >> No. >> Okay. We'll move on to board member requests. Ms. Reddy, if you want to start with that June meeting. >> Yes. Uh June, uh our we have a school board meeting on that Tuesday evening and we're, uh, those of us attending the Florida School Board Association trainings during that week would need to travel to Tampa. >> [clears throat] >> Um, and so I'm looking at opening up the discussion for an alternative date. >> What if we just did it earlier? >> I >> Cuz the the the the next day that the check-in for the conference is is at 1:45 >> Mhm. >> uh, on Wednesday. Um, would it be better to Could

213we do it just earlier on >> do it earlier. Yeah, last time I drove after the end of the meeting and so I think I didn't get there till like 11:30. >> Oh, yeah. >> You know, that's pretty long, so. >> I mean, do you think if we if you if we did it at 1:00, if that works for everybody to >> We could even come earlier. I mean, >> Or earlier, I I mean, yeah. >> I would say earlier the better. >> Yeah, I just didn't know what it was scheduled. I can come I can start in the morning if it's if that's better for everybody else. >> We have a um, [clears throat] we have a uh, uh, school improvement development day that day. So, if we could not start before 11:00, that

214would be helpful to kind of get that started and then we can join. >> Otherwise, the other day I would say is like June 2nd. But, I'm fine with starting earlier, too, if Which district's okay? >> What was the date you said? >> June 2nd is pretty late. >> So, that's the Tuesday before >> And I'm not sure what what Mr. Delaney's schedule. I know you're scheduled to be here be with us for the 9th, so, you know, we'll make whatever, um, work. Um, what needs to work work. Um, staff may just be limited that day since they'll be supporting schools. >> What do y'all want to do? >> Um, I mean, uh, you have a meeting at 11:00. You anticipate that going till like 1:00? >> No, I It starts at 8:00. So, I'm

215saying if we can start at 11:00 or later. >> That would allow >> Yeah. Yeah, even even if we bumped it up just to 1:00 p.m. because then, you know, >> Well, we can try and keep the agenda kind of light for that meeting so that it's not likely to run late. >> Well, this one's also early. The last time we had a workshop and a school board meeting >> Yeah, that was back to back. Right. >> So, I'm just, you know, even if we just bumped this up 1:00 would be totally fine. We'd be able to manage a full agenda if that works with your staff. >> 1:00. >> Yeah. >> 1:00. >> Okay. And since we're speaking of meetings, on May 19th, cuz I know in May things change just cuz with graduation,

216I know we have a workshop and a school board meeting. I wanted to let you know I'll probably take that via phone that day, both of them. I talked with Miss Moore. It didn't look like anything. I know I can't make any votes at the 6:00, but there's just, you know, there's some really important things with my kids and it's a I'm I can take the phone call if that's all right, and then >> Yeah, cuz we're I mean, we'll have quorum, so that's >> So, if there is a vote but that day >> [clears throat] >> It's um it's um the third Tuesday of the month on the 19th. >> Yeah, it was moved up. >> Yeah, so typically I know we're the fourth Tuesday, but we have promotions. So, for me, the 19th,

217that's the third Tuesday of the month. I will plan to not be here physically in person at 1:00 p.m. or at 6:00 p.m. So, I just wanted to let you know. >> Okay. >> So. It's It's busy time. >> Yeah. >> I know it's busy for everybody, but All right. >> what other board members are with us? >> Okay. Um do you have any >> Yeah, and then the only other thing I just wanted to um I didn't see on the list of board member requests like for things coming for agenda items like the review of the salary matrix for non-union administrators. >> Yes, we will. >> Okay, so I just wanted to make sure it wasn't missed, but otherwise um I thought I don't have anything. >> All right. Sorry. >> No, yeah, I'll

218reiterate one of my questions was not only the review of the salary matrix, but essentially how is how is the determination of the step placement made? Um and if we could review for our knowledge as well as the public's knowledge on how that step progression, if any, works for non-instructional staff versus instructional staff. Um I'd also very interested in us exploring if there's some opportunity for passive income sources for things like the solar lease on or if it can offset some of our energy uh usage. Thank you. >> Um and I just want to tell you all a little bit about the Carver Center so that we can hopefully bring that plan to put it on the agenda, but they are [clears throat] hoping to pave their parking lot because of drainage issues. Um they

219first need the engineering, that's the first step. It's about $7,000. Um I know that they have reached out to all the government municipalities to see um what kind of funding they can get. To me it's a drop in the bucket, but of course I can't promise them anything without you guys. Um you know, meeting them halfway or a percentage or something, so we'd like to get that on the agenda. Um I also may ask one of you to participate in the upcoming meeting cuz I I'm also have some vacation time planned, so just so somebody else is there for that, but I will let you know. >> And when >> Carver Center meeting, you mean? For the for their board meeting? >> For their meeting. >> Um and for the Carver Center, are you wanting

220us You're wanting to get this on the agenda once we have from them that they're ready to move forward, you're asking for this to be added to the agenda? >> Yeah, I know that they have the letter they sent out had a time like to get a response from all the other governments, the city of Bunnell, and all those and what kind of participation they could have, but hopefully the sooner the better. >> And the 7,000 is the total, not the 7,000 that is what they're asking for from from the board. >> Right. >> 7,000 is the total. >> That's the total for engineering. >> Just to get the engineering >> engineering, not the total. >> They've been working on that for a while. I know that cuz when I was on that board. One

221thing to just to keep in mind as far as my memory serves me, that building's owned or that's county property, isn't it? >> Um the HUD owns that building. >> The the property? >> The owns the owns the land where the parking lot is. >> Oh, okay. HUD does. >> And then the county owns the building. >> Okay. >> And but we do have the Career Source representative housed there that is providing services for we're supposed to be providing some deliverables for our students and community. >> cuz we do support we give we do support the the Carver Center with the >> And I do know that parking lot I know all of us have been there. It is It's It's a pretty big safety hazard how it is, but >> Well, but what what

222what Well, I guess we'll we'll save this for the agenda item cuz >> [laughter] >> we'll get in the weeds here. Just know it's coming for Okay. >> Thank you. >> Okay. Any other board member request? Move on to closing comments and starting with Ms. Vergara. >> Thank you staff for all your hard work and presentations today and I'll save my comments for this evening. >> Yeah, I'll save my comments. I appreciate the wonderful conversations especially with the tech department. We don't know how fortunate we are. You know, I know we're pushing as a board but we're are very far ahead of the majority of the counties in the district and in the state. [clears throat] We're just looking to stay ahead so that we can provide your students and our staff with the most

223up-to-date and safe education utilizing AI as a tool. Yeah. >> Yes, just want to thank staff for great presentation today especially just want to highlight Ms. Cormack. I think that was a very meaningful update on how school board finances work especially for the community because that's often you know, when they see that you have a $350 million budget and then you say you don't have any money they go why? Well, here's some some reasons why because all those buckets don't pay for the things that you want to do. So, and on top of that unfunded mandates which we didn't even get into but that's a topic for another day. So, >> We were well behaved. >> All right, that's all right. >> I'll just ask that we keep the Lugo family in our thoughts and

224prayers. The old King's family yesterday their child suffered a brain bleed so just very concerned for them. They do have a GoFundMe going and I know that schools also reaching out to family to see how we can help them so continue to pray for them. >> Happy 158th day of school and we'll see you guys tonight. >> Thank you. >> Hey.