08/26/25 Flagler School Board Information Workshop

001Good afternoon. I now call to order the Tuesday, August 26, 2025 1 p.m. school board workshop. Please rise for a moment of silence followed by the pledge of allegiance and the national anthem. Please join me in the pledge of allegiance. 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. [Music] You see the dawn [Music] We last night starred. [Music] [Applause] [Music] still there [Music] for [Music] Please be seated. Okay, we'll now um do roll call. >> Lauren RmIrez, present. >> Jamie Ready, present. >> Derek Bar's here. Christy Chong present. >> Okay. Um so we will uh move on to uh board member leaison updates. Start with you Mans. >> All right. I have

002quite a few. So here we go. All right. So Matanis High School, we had our first SAC meeting. Uh parents that aren't aware what that is, it's school advisory council. So they're responsible for decision- making. Um, SAC will give parents and the community a voice in deciding how school improvement funds are spent. So, for example, title one schools receive funding. Uh, A-rated schools receive funding. So, if parents are able to attend and be part of SAC, it is very beneficial. I want to acknowledge Mr. Reer, Miss Doyle, Miss Novak, and Mr. Raldi. They held an excellent meeting. A couple wins from that meeting. Overall academic wise, Matanis is doing fantastic from the scores. Uh I'd like to highlight social studies, they were at 83%. So that overall with the national testing, their ESSE was second

003highest in the county. And our career and technical education, so the CTE, it went from 63% to 71% pass rate. And we know that that's a huge goal across the district. So we'll be reviewing bylaws. Next meeting is September 10th, so mark your calendar. Beltier Elementary also hosted their sack meeting and their PTO, parent teacher organization. So as a reminder, PTO uh for parents, community members, volunteers, strong uh community connection with parents, small businesses to support the schools. Miss Metti and her team, uh Dr. Schaefer, now the PTO president officially has her doctorate degree and her team, Miss Gibson, Mr. ready and Mr. Ford did a great job. We reviewed our SIP, our school improvement plan. So, for those that are wondering what SIP is, you'll hear that a lot. We reviewed it. We re

004approved it. And something I'd like to say uh that I took back there, they voted on a $500 scholarship for uh past Beltier Elementary students that are now seniors to go for the Ed Foundation scholarship. So, I thought that was pretty neat. So the PTO is going to provide funding for that. Next meeting will be September 11th. So mark your calendars. PTO for Rimfire. I know it's not my liaison school, but I was able to attend. It was amazing. So they have Miss Ward, their new PTO president. I want to acknowledge the hard work and her team did. Uh Miss SE and Mr. Lee, what I took back from that, they have FPC student government students volunteering, watching the the kids. I brought two of my kids. They don't even go to that school and

005they had the time of their life. They had pizza snacks. Um they have many business sponsors. Arc Therapies, Hara, another company. They're donating things for their sensory room which will be opening Thursday, August 28th. We have my next leazison EPAC. So that meeting will be happening September 10th. A lot of stuff's going on that day, so not sure I'll be able to try to figure out how to do both. But um that is our exceptional student education parent advisory council. So I urge any parents with ESC students to try to attend these meetings. It will be September 10th here at 6 PM in this building. They're going to be focusing on paratraining and collaboration, family communication and transparency and inclusion in school life. So those are some really great goals. upcoming focus on youth coal

006coalition as well as the uh the teen um so basically advocating for our youth you know substance abuse reducing that uh delinquency so Miss Msaro and Miss Williams are leading that and that is actually the 27th so I think that's tomorrow um but it's online virtual and FSBA so now I'm the official liaison wanted to just let everyone know on September 18th and September 19th school board members have the opportunity to attend the policy governance forum and bargaining 101. So, um I know some of us will be attending that. It will go towards our if we're looking to get a certified board member designation. So, one point for one hour and just more learning and uh looking forward to that. September 17th is the opening for our national conference. So, all right, we've been busy.

007So, I will uh let the next leazison updates go. Thank you. Awesome. Thanks so much. Uh yeah, so off to a great start of the school year. I want to shout out Mr. Bosterette's link crew at FPC, which is a um essentially a mentorship program or welcoming program for upper classmen to support uh incoming freshmen. And that program um is made possible by Miss Frederickard and um uh Dave Holidayiday, the grad coach. And we've already received a lot of positive community sentiment about how uh that has made such an overwhelming difference in the start of their high school um uh career as compared to uh you know while great previous uh children that they've had experience with it just went much more smoothly. They felt more welcomed. So that's been wonderful. Um, Buddy Taylor Middle

008School, uh, Miss Hansen is off to, uh, a great start in leading that and helming that school. Their SAC meeting is September 4th. Again, uh, you know, it's it's required as part of the SAC committee that there are community members and not just a uh, a panel of teachers from that school. So, we do encourage that participation. Last year um we only had really two very active parents join. So there's a lot of room. Do not feel intimidated. That space is definitely for you. We want to hear from you. We want you to be involved. Um BTMS uh BTMS is also hosting some activities around literacy day for September 8th. Um and uh we know that all schools soon uh especially BTMS has math fast testing um on Thursday I believe. So make sure your

009children are participating taking that seriously. Uh again it's progress monitoring. So it's not uh that anxiety inducing one final test. It's uh the first of many to ensure that they grow throughout the year. But we should take still take that seriously. Um, while I'm not uh the liaison for Rimfire, I did attend an event this past week which was amazing. Advent Health had sponsored um a book vending machine uh and uh was able to secure a NASCAR race driver to come and read to the students at Rimfire. uh one of the first books taken from the vending machine. And that vending machine is going to be used for their positive behavior systems program where students can earn tokens to use in that vending machine. And it's very very colorful, NASCAR themed. Um uh great lights,

010looks like an arcade game actually placed in the cafeteria. And I was already hearing students asking how they might earn a token, which was really wonderful. And um FTC uh Flaggler Technical College um was able to purchase uh an excavator for the heavy equipment uh program. And so we're excited to be able to ensure that our um uh tools and resources uh vehicles are up to date be able to service the students who are interested in those programs. That's all for me. >> Uh thank you. Uh thank you all for uh going to Rimfire and being a part of that. But uh that next day I was at Rimfire as well. They were having um teacher appreciation. and the the PTO was working uh setting up the hydration station for all the teachers. It was

011uh uh a great opportunity for them to come in um and kind of get them a nice drink that they had set up for them. Um but then also u Mr. Travis had um he had set up a meeting with a lot of the new parents that were coming in just had information that Mr. Lee was I'm sorry Mr. had um a lot of the parents that were in there just to get information about the school year that wanted more information. So, he was really communicating well with them about what was going on. So, I really appreciate what he was doing. But the PTO had like five boxes of donuts that I just couldn't partake in because but they were so good looking for sure. But they it was a great time. And then this

012coming week on Thursday is our sack meeting uh at 8 o'clock. So, we look forward to participating in that. uh that same day that we uh I was there went over to Banell Elementary School, which is yours. Uh but they were so busy testing and getting ready. So I just went in and said hello and got out. Um they were they were too busy. Um so they were just running around really, you know, focused on what they needed to be doing. Uh and of course it being the first week of school. Uh legislative liaison, we've uh got the uh the brothers here is what I call them. I got one online and one out in the audience here. The Sarah brothers are here. Um, but we are working through our legislative priorities. Uh, we will

013continue to have those discussions today. So, I won't talk go into that, but I appreciate them being here today. Um, and then just participating in a lot of different activities that are going around the district. We are in our first week of couple of weeks of school. There's so many things that are going on. People trying to get settled, trying to get into a new norm. Um, so I really appreciate what I've seen, the communication piece of making sure that we're communicating out to our families and parents and and alike. Um, and then for DJJ, I apologize, Mr. Finelli. I was out of town, did not make the DJJ meeting last week, but I think it was pretty short. Um, so I don't have much to report out of that. And then our CGST meeting

014that we had, uh, we had our proclamation uh that was presented our last board meeting on uh on uh just bicycle and pedestrian safety. So, we're still moving forward. Um we have a lot of stuff going on and really proud of the uh the start of the new year even with some of the bumps in the road that I know that we had. >> All right. Um Banell's PTO will be later today about 4:15. So we got to try to get over there. Um her school health advisory. We got to get together on scheduling for the upcoming year. Um Wadssworth I know has a new playground in the works. We've been waiting patiently for that. So we look forward to seeing that soon. Uh they will have a PTO fundraiser uh with Sweet Melissa's Ice

015Cream on September 8th. Um I Flaggler, you know, on the first day we got to go and see their space. Very nice to see that. I'm so glad that they have that and just a great uh first day being able to get out there on campuses and see everybody. Um, I know this first couple of weeks we've all we're all getting messages and hey, this is going on and touching base with parents and everything and but like you said, overall a great first week, couple weeks. >> Great. Thanks for all the updates. All right, so now we'll move on to public comment. Is there any uh public comments? >> Okay, great. So, um, we'll now uh go to our um Oh, well, actually, I apologize. I jumped over the uh agenda. Um do uh are

016there any changes to today's agenda? Superintendent Moore. >> Yes. I I asked that we move um 8.01 the transportation update up to after public comment to allow for um that team um to be available for the dismosa process. >> Okay. So since um we so what we'll do is um need a motion to adopt this agenda as uh amended. >> Motion to approve. >> Have a motion by Mr. ours >> second by Miss Ready. All in favor? >> I opposed. Very none. We'll move forward with today's agenda. >> Um so let's bring um 8.01 information only transportation through Walker. Welcome Mr. Walker. >> Thank you. Thank you. >> All right. Good afternoon board and superintendent. So I'm just here to give a comprehensive overview of the direction that transportation is moving as far as transporting

017our students in a safe and timely manner and the technology that we're using and how we're trying to improve our communications to our families and communities. So right now our position controls we're allocated for we were allocated for 74 drivers. We just achieved four more allocations to that which will take us up to 78 allocations. Um we also allocated for 31 bus aids. We currently have 30 full-time bus aids and we have four van drivers. We currently have two subd drivers and 12 substitute aids. So technology we are continuing to use easy routing which is our routing database used for student transportation and planning and communication platform. We have the ability to send real-time notic notifications I'm sorry that are customizable by bus load by bus stop by individual student or mass communications for routed

018and enrolled students. These messages are sent via text message and our email. So the direction that transportation is going as far as routing, we're moving towards a standard routing scheme, which means that we're going to permanent designated stops. These stops will be fixed and remain consistent from year to year. The routing system will support the ability to add stops as needed, especially in response to new housing developments. Um, addition to current housing developments, we're also moving toward a three- tier route assignment. Um, meaning that the same bus will accommodate elementary, high, and middle school. In that, we're trying to build relationships between the bus drivers and the families. um if they have the same bus driver for the elementary students, the high school students, it's more efficient to build that tr that relationship. Um it

019also helps to simplify navigation for substitute drivers if they're going to the same location for high school, middle school, and elementary. That helps to redact any delays in student pickup and transporting. Um, and it also provides better continuity for our families with children's on multiple grade levels. And it also enhances student sibling support. Um, if the parent is not there to pick up the kindergarten student or a student that may be in elementary, they have the older sibling that will be there to provide that accommodation. We're also doing monthly route audits at the end of the month. This will help us verify route accuracy. It will help us in ensure that designated stops and schedules are being accommodated um to monitor student writership and capacity levels when we need to balance out a load. It

020will also help us identify any safety concerns and operational inefficiencies. It helps us with on-time performance tracking. And one thing that we implemented this year, it was a problem that we encountered last year with kindergartenings kindergarteners being dismissed from the bus without parental supervision. So we made these K's, red K's that are magnetized that we stick over the seat of the kindergartener. So if a substitute is driving that bus, they know that that's a seat for kindergarters. We do not let them off unless they have parental supervision. >> I like it. And that is the direction that transportation is heading. Um we are continuing to improve our communications. We did meet with Miss board member Rudy in regards to that with it. So we are working on some things as far as improving our communications.

021Any questions? >> Yeah, I love the direction on some of these. You're definitely looking at operational efficiency, but what parents see right is is the bus here? And if not, do I know why the bus is not here? So, um, we I really appreciate, uh, Mr. Walker, Mr. Diesing, and Miss Phillips who sat down and we did some brainstorming in terms of what could we do right now to improve that communication and what can we do long term. And essentially, um, you know, Mr. Walker was, uh, very open and had some great ideas and Mr. Ding's department was also very supportive. And so one of the things that I've seen already come to fruition is while we would love to get give personalized messages directly to everybody's phone about their students bus, there are some

022inefficiencies in how two of the software systems are working and coordinating together. And the long-term vision is to correct that. But the shortterm solution is to provide a bust status page which I was surprised that Miss Phillips has already um made magically appear and uh is working in tandem not to be an additional uh reporting mechanism for you but is also a tool that you use to communicate to your bus drivers. And so if we are able to then send one message to all families and have that one central location where the statuses of every bus is updated in real time that will serve as the temporary communication uh gap fill while we evaluate under um the scenario analysis that Mr. deing department is going to work with you on how we can get a

023more um elegant system uh evolved later. So I really appreciate everybody being very open and that's the kind of progress you can make when you come with uh problem-solving ideas and not to just right tear each other apart. So I appreciate that. >> Yeah. I'd like to add in um I appreciate your team as well. So, so we're in week three of of school and you know it's a challenge for every every department, you know, kids, parents, teachers. Um, but I do appreciate you meeting up and listening because Miss Moore said before school started, we don't know what we don't know, right? So, if a parent or community member or a board member or staff has an idea, um, I appreciate that it's thought about like, can this work? Can it not work? I've already

024has se have seen positive things like the kindergarten that right there that that's it seems little but it's it's major so thank you for thinking of that and it's something you just don't think about uh so I appreciate it and we still have a lot to do but we're doing things I have only seen positive so thank you and to the parents thank you for you know bringing any concerns or questions to us because when you bring it to us and we have meetings it things can get done it won't be done overnight but I since week one, I've seen things positive, positive, positive, and then okay, what's happening with this and okay, we're working on it. So, thank you and your team. I I have seen great things and I know we're going to

025see more. So, I appreciate it. >> I I have a couple questions. Uh just just to follow up and I really do appreciate everything that the the team has done to to make things uh much better. A couple of things with the substitute drivers. uh with only two substitute drivers and 12 aids, how do you think that we're going to be able to handle some of the unexpected absences and maybe that high people being out and so forth like that? Are we do we feel like that's enough or how how are we going to address some of those issues? >> That is not enough. The um ideal would be to fill every full-time allocation and then have at least 10 to 12 substitute drivers. That's what we will continue to strive for. Um, as we

026get applicants in, we pull the applicants. It's contingent upon whether we need to start from scratch with them by scratch. And I know you know from the transportation world, um, whether they have a CL or not because they can't we can't put them into training until they obtain that CL. So, in that I'm looking for ways to if someone comes with a class E, is there a voluntary class that we can provide for them to help them get that CL? Um so we are looking for ways to do that. >> Have we are we communicating with our own uh at FTC with our commercial vehicle driver training school to be able to be that liaison piece for that to be able to to make that connection with some of the drivers that were there or

027if you have someone that we could work with them to put them in that program. >> We are not but that is a good idea. >> So we we have our own driver training school here. So I think we need to try to how how we coordinate that together to you know for our own benefit right now not only for the public but also for within within the district. >> Yes. Because what's happening right now is transportation is doing much of the not much all of the training um for individuals who come without the the proper lensure. And so um that doesn't allow for them because there are not just full-time trainers or full-time individuals that do that. You have individuals that are running double duty. For instance, you have a driver that's, you know,

028driving a route van training because we don't have just an allocated training. So, one of the major things that um we've done is really looking at the allocations that transportation has and um to Mr. Walker's defense um we've been talking a lot about our budget and making sure that we were within budget and so he was trying his best to really stick with the allocations that he was given. However, it does he needed additional staffing and we were able to do that and um that's going to alleviate um some of the issues that we were having in the first couple weeks um around to your point only having those two subd drivers. So, we've done some things with his staffing in order to give him an opportunity to have truly enough drivers as well as

029some subd drivers as well because the first couple days of school, first two weeks of school, everyone within the department was driving and there were not any um back there wasn't the ability to back field. And so that causes delay in communication that that causes delays in um us being able to route um efficiently and those things. Um so to his defense, he was trying to stay within that allocation. However, uh what we we we determined is that um we needed to be above that allocation for him. >> I was talking to a board member today and I was saying this is something that is common in schools, right? our te our classes right now. You may get a parent that comes home and says, "Well, my, you know, my kid says they have this

030many students in their class because we're waiting after the 10day count. We make the adjustment, add additional staff, all of those things." >> It's one thing for that to happen in a school. It's another thing to happen when you're trying to transport um students or cost. And so, um, that is something that we as leadership, we own that piece of it that, um, I think his current staffing that he now has, um, is going to help him to be definitely more efficient and then begin to pull and, uh, build up his subd drivers. I also want to comment and shout out um how really dedicated our entire Flaggler um public schools community is um to making uh every aspect of the students day a positive one and that includes Brandon Seminara and Mr. Martin Evans

031whose jobs are not bus drivers but have actually completed the uh CDL certification and are acting as substitute bus riders drivers and you have two additional team members right who are currently going through that same program. um you know uh it's easy to say hey that's not our job but it's also a creative way where if some folks want to earn some extra money and be able to fill in for substitutes that's that availability is there so I commend the team for >> and and I'm glad that you mentioned those two individuals because them doing that allows for um right now Mr. walker. We want to get him back because he's he's running dispatch, right? We're we have others that are going over and assisting as we feel those necessary positions. And so we do

032appreciate them being willing to say we know if our our students are um have a good start and a good end to their day. It helps the organization as a whole. So, um we do appreciate those two individuals for stepping up and being willing to help. Yeah, I do have a couple of more just comments and a couple of questions that I think pretty just the we talked about the three tier uh alignment earlier for being flexible and so forth. Do you think that that's uh different in some of our rural areas? Is that going to be it is >> how how that affects you know the west? >> It is a lot different in the rural areas. It's more common for us to do it centralized in the city of Palm Coast. Um, for

033the more rural areas, it may be a two-tier. They may have the same driver for middle school and elementary because they won't be able to accommodate a high school, but definitely in within Palm Coast, that's the direction that we're heading. >> Okay, perfect. And the other couple of questions I have, and I won't hold up all the time here, but because this is just really to kind of focus, I know a lot of these things are probably already being done, um, but I want to highlight them. Um, you know, last year we had an issue over on White View and not being a safe stop and so forth. We corrected that and sometimes the routing software and stuff may not necessarily say, "Hey, this is, you know, not a great place and so forth." So,

034being able to put those eyes on that particular stop in that location is going to be key, I think, to ensure that we do not have to go back out there and change that stop. So, is there are we doing that? I would assume that we are making sure that that stop is a safe stop even though it's not routed. The route may say it is, but is it? >> It isn't. Yes, that's part of the monthly route audits. Perfect. So, >> and families and community like our community members typically email us if they feel like there is a issue with a stop and um Mr. Walker or one of the supervisors will go out and assess that stop. But parents also can complete the form um the transportation communication form. if they go on

035to that form, they can indicate that their stop is um what they consider a hazardous stop or they there's a concern with the stop that goes in um and and to the supervisors and to Mr. Walker and then they can go out and they will go out and um assess that stop as well. So there's a a way for families to continuously do it in the event that there is something that is not identified in the monthly audit. Um, but as they go out monthly to assess these stops as well, they'll know then about construction that's happening and different other plans that that have that that's happened within the city. We also get communication mainly from the city of Palm Coast. They are often um sending us information about different road closures or if a

036community member has reached out to them directly. So those are the forms. community members, they typically email us or email you, email the city, they get that information over to us. But our parents, they go onto the communication form. Some of them email us, but they go into the communication form, they put the information, their concern, and then that concern is addressed that way. >> All right, I have two more and I'm going to be done. So, um, sometimes I I would like for us to maybe look if it's not already being done for what the bus drivers can expect when it comes to law enforcement responding to them if they happen to be on the side of the road, uh, whether they're waiting on law enforcement and when they get there, whether it's a

037crash or whether it's disruptive student or a parent, whatever the issues may happen to be. Um, and be really kind of what they need to do while they're waiting. uh go through different scenarios to ensure that the bus drivers actually understand what they need to do and and working with the sheriff's office and our SRO's on that particular front. >> So that was something that myself, Mr. Tucson Robersonson and Dave Berdet worked on. So we built a SOP for those type situations. This summer I had my supervisors create a binder with all of our SOPs. They are placed on every bus. And then tomorrow we're having a training. If we could just re make sure that we address that at the training tomorrow because um a lot of the focus is around of what we

038focus on is around um what do you do with the students? How do you address the parents? But making sure that they understand like what their expectation is for their engagement with law enforcement. um we can actually um make sure that that is addressed tomorrow doing the training tomorrow. Um but and unfortunately or fortunate, you know, they we've had some drivers already to have that to um um be a need this this year with what do you do when a parent is on um a parent arrives at a stop. We cannot stress enough to our parents um do not enter our bus. If they enter our bus, we will trespass them. Like you cannot enter our bus. If there is an issue, you do not take it up with a driver. Please call transportation, call

039one of the board members, um call me, um any of those things, but do not enter our bus. And so our drivers are uh very much trained with if there is an emergency to make sure that door remains closed until we always dispatch somebody out to assist because even on the side of the road we have to make sure we have a process that we are following when it comes to releasing students to families as well. And so those families have to show up. They have to have their ID. They have to be on Skyward. And those are the parts that really frustrate the family sometimes, like, you know, the bus is pulled over because we're waiting on law enforcement or EMS or whatever the issue is. Parents show up at wherever the bus is

040because they're tracking or they're tracking their kid and they show up and they want their student off of the bus and we often have to tell them, you have to wait until we can get some assistance out there for the driver. Also, um waiting until we have EMS or um law enforcement or whatever. So, we focus more on that side, but making sure they understand what the interaction needs to look like directly with law enforcement. We'll make sure we highlight that as well. >> Thank you for doing that. I just wanted you to highlight that as well, knowing that you had done that. And then the last thing is knowing that uh pay for our bus drivers is always going to be an issue as we continue to compete with Valuchia, Flaggler, and other surrounding

041counties. To ensure that we have the best candidates that are working for us is what we need to be looking for. And so as we move into the next legislative session and making that really part of our uh our stance again through the rural renaissance I hope I know I don't know if it'll be called that or not this coming year but making sure that we're really fighting for that for the transportation piece that we're getting every dollar that we can to come back to Flaggler for example because we have got to make sure that we are competitive and not and drivers want to come here and I know I know the other counties want that too but I I'm not worried about them. To be honest with you, I'm worried about what we're doing

042to make sure that our students are taken care of and that we have the best possible candidates. So, I know that that would be a fight that we're going to have to continue to fight this year that we did last year. And I'm hoping that that will be will be more successful as as we move forward. So, thank you for the questions and listening and hearing me out. >> You're welcome. >> Can I just add one more? Um, I know we talked, but just for the community that has reached out. So, a lot of parents had questions about ESE training with bus aids and bus drivers. So, I just want them all to know that are listening or here that we met uh last week, you know, with HR, ESE, transportation. It was a fantastic

043meeting and obviously, you know, so things are in the works of everything just getting better. But I do want parents to know that, you know, Dr. holiday, which I don't see her in here, but she has consistently done the past two years, she incorporated ESSE training um in some type of uh way with, you know, the inservice. So, I'm looking forward to hearing more about that in the future. And then also uh just to understand with the pay, you know, other counties may have a millage, you know, some type of differences with taxes and things like that. So, I want community members to know like that potentially is could be a big reason why they may be getting paid slightly more than our county. But, but thank you again for meeting and I look forward

044to the future. >> Thank you, Mr. >> Okay. So, now we'll move on to academic services 6.01 uh student safety and bullying prevention. Uh and that is Mr. Glasco and Mr. Finelli. Welcome. [Music] Good afternoon board. Good afternoon, Superintendent Moore. Um, at the request of board member Ready, I believe it was last time, just having a open conversation and uh about bullying and where we are at as a district regarding our processes and procedures. So, we uh prepared a presentation to present and it's not up for vote or anything like that. It's just purely forformational purposes. Let me go to the beginning. So what we want to do is start off with the the definition in which we operate off off of within our school district regarding bullying. And what that is is that bullying

045includes cyber bullying. It means systematically and chronically inflicting physical hurt or psychological distress on one or more students and may involve teasing, social exclusion, threat, intimidation, stalking, physical violence, theft, sexual, religious or racial harassment, public or private humiliation, or destruction of property. The uh state statute also goes on to define cyber bullying. I won't read all of it, but it is there as far as um being very specific in what bullying may look like through the use of technology. And then we also operate off of the definition of harassment. So within our processes within the school, we make sure that we just don't start off with the definition of bullying. We start off with definition of bullying and harassment and we start at that level of evidence and questioning and we work our way down

046um through that. So it may not be bullying or harassment. It may be a violation of student code of conduct, one of our other definitions, or it may not be a violation at all, but we will still take a look at interventions and supports for students. Why both terms? Um, they're I don't want to say they're synonymous, but they they often look similar. Um, whether it's name calling, threats, or exclusion. And then we want to be making sure that we consider both terms throughout um to make sure that our investigative processes are are similar along the way and to make sure that no students fall through the crack along our process. Going into reporting instances of bullying, Fogger Schools does a phenomenal job of putting out uh ways in which our families and students can

047report bullying. Uh one of the major ways is through our school and district landing pages. If you'll go to the next slide, please. So it's it's on the very front uh portion. It's report bullying. It's also listed on each individual one of our schools through there. Parents can report on that form. That form comes to me and then I form it out to the schools. I ask them to look into it. They look into it and then they give me a response when when it's been addressed. Anytime bullying is reported, we have a initial screening portion that goes through which is our our bullying screener. So we also get that to be able to help quantify the amount that's coming in and then what were the outcomes of the investigations. We also have a see

048something say something initiative through Fortify Florida. So this is a way that our families can report not only to the school system but also include law enforcement. We encourage our families that if anything goes on off of our campuses to make sure that we also include law enforcement in that and it may not need to have a 911 response, but they can definitely contact the uh non-emergency line and at least have it documented uh through law enforcement that these things are occurring. And then that actually helps us within the school system if we do have that documentation that we'll pair up with law enforcement and work to best support the student. We encourage all of our students and families to know that everyone within uh Flagger Schools is someone that they can report bullying to.

049We have our school-based teams. You can contact the student services department, myself directly, our teachers, bus drivers, food service custodial, anyone within our school board um and school employee can have bullying reported to them and then they are all trained on the next steps as far as who to go to. And we'll talk a little bit more about that next. We also have a parent support form. So if parents are wondering what is the process like, what can they expect during the investigation, what can they expect after the investigation, we have a one-pager that we can provide to our family and it outlines exactly what our schoolboard policy is. It does need to be updated once uh Neiola is approved. Um once it is for that, we'll get that updated. But it's definition of what

050is bullying and then what to expect during the investigation and what happens after the investigation. We also have our student code of conduct. Uh the board just recently approved the most recent edition of it. So both elementary and secondary versions of it include approximately 10 pages of information in there and it's everything from definitions to investigation processes to potential outcomes and helping support students. What happens next? So after a a report occurs, the next steps are is that we will always do a bullying screener that um satisfies the state requirement of initial reporting. And it's a quick tool for our teams to be able to use to capture the information and determine whether it needs to go to in full investigation or um just documenting supports and interventions that put into place. If the initial

051report doesn't support a uh full investigation, it could be a referral for one or more or one or all of the students to receive additional supports. We provide hope scholarship to the alleged victim and then possible code of conduct violations more or other than bullying and harassment. All the families of both the alleged perpetrator and the alleged victim are notified of the initial report. And then if the initial report does require investigation, we go into the next portion about our investigative procedures. And what that looks like is that all students are interviewed separately. It it's never done together. We encourage the students and the families to provide us with any information that would help either substantiate or um support that their student wasn't a part of bullying in it. And that would include written statements,

052photos, videos, or other witness input. We have a standardized investigation checklist that we train our teams on to go through each part of the process, making sure that it's documented about times and dates and who was contacted and then the outcomes of those investigations. After it, we have to notify all parties in writing. Uh we document accordingly. So if it's substantiated bullying, we use the state reporting code of BU or for bullying and then unsubstantiated which is UDL or UHR if it's harassment. And then I'll talk more about it, but we also now include unknown perpetrator reporting in that. Um, and what that does is it uses the same incident number if a viol if it is a violation of code of conduct. We refer all involved for counseling uh regardless if it's alleged victim

053or alleged perpetrator. Both students are referred for uh school-based counseling. And then we submit the completed checklist and the reports to student services. And then we apply the discipline matrix as it's needed. And then we encourage all those schools to uh retain a copy of the investigation in its entirety. The next slide, it's just giving an outline of what both the checklist and what the report form looks like. The report form um is that uh not the initial, but once a bullying screener is done, it's determined that an investigation needs to be completed. The report form is completed. I receive that within 24 hours. we notify the families of the next steps of that we're going to be investigating it and then at the end once all is said and done with it um and

054the outcome is recorded that we complete the checklist and submit that to our office as well. What happens after the investigation? So if it's unsubstantiated uh and we have an alleged victim, we we could possibly have a facilitated conversation between all the students in involved and again that's if it's appropriate. We could take a look at schedule or classroom adjustments. We could do check-ins with a counselor or school social worker. And we could also provide a referral to behavior or academic uh MTSS tier 2 supports. And then also take a look at developing a mental health support plan for a student. If you're alleged perpetrator, it would uh possibly include a behavior contract or agreement and that's signed by the student, the parent, and administrator. We we want to make sure that we're including our

055parents as part of the process, not doing the process to them. um and getting their input through that as well. Referral to behavioral supports through MTSS, social skills training, increased monitoring and check-ins for alleged perpetrators, and then again parent collaboration plans. If it is substantiated, it is a notification to the family. There is state level assessor coding that's associated with it. The consequences uh include out of school suspension at a minimum. If it's ongoing severe persistent cases, we can consider alternative placement up and through expulsion and then also work with our law enforcement side as well to see if the um the behaviors that we're witnessing meets a criminal threshold to get law enforcement involved. Interventions that are put into place, of course, MTSS referrals, uh behavior intervention plans, counseling or skills groups, and then

056re-entry and accountability plan. So, even if a student's out on out of school suspension or an extended suspension, while we're bringing them back, we want to make sure that we have an open and honest conversation with the student and our expectations of how we want uh them to be within our schools and then also include the family in on that so they're aware of it as well. Reporting bullying outcomes. So, the way that we do this is through Skyward, our student information system that connects directly to the state. Um what we've implemented here recently is also doing a unknown perpetrator entry. So we were doing the bullying screener alone and now we've reached out to other NEAC districts and found out that the way that they report it and report it to the state is

057through unknown perpetrator. And what that does is it generates an incident number so we can track it and report to the state that it was reported but was unfounded. It's not associated with a particular student. So there therefore if a student is alleged to have been a bully and it was found to not be true then it's unsubstantiated and it doesn't follow them and track on their official record. It does still report to the state and then any violation of code of conduct it can be used in conjunction with that incident number so that way we can track the outcome. So if someone reports bullying, we find that it doesn't meet the definition of bullying or harassment, but it does meet a violation of code of conduct, hypothetically misconduct, too. We can see that reporting,

058bullying reporting happened. We investigated didn't meet the definition. It did meet the definition of misconduct. So that was the referral. And then we can take a look at the discipline outcomes that would be associated with misconduct, too. >> And and I know that we're holding questions, but I want to just make a point to this. This um relates to like when we hear in the community individuals saying well why is our number not larger um for the unsubstantiated or substantiated? This is the change that he is referencing. We'll see some of those those numbers and what that will play out in actual um um our skyward data. Um, so that's where that connection goes to is when we hear that in the community from individuals saying, "Well, you're not investigating it because what's reported through

059the state looked differently." Um, and so that I just wanted to add that. I know that you're going to talk a little bit more about it once you get to the to the data. >> Yes, ma'am. So, if a instance is substantiated, it looks a little bit different. Um, it will be under the perpetrator Skyward profile and it is a discipline incident. So if it's found to be billing, it will be attached to that specific student and will carry along with them. Um generally what that means is for a student who does receive a cessor level referral that anytime that discipline is requested from a college or technical school or a job, that is what we're mandatory uh reporting as far as cessor level events. So it does come with consequences outside of the school

060district. They just may not incur them now while they're in school. It may occur later on. And then of course just the the level of job or opportunity that they're seeking would depend on how far the potential uh employer or school may look back in in a student's history. So things that occur in middle school could affect a student later on in life or you know maybe not but it would it the reporting is there and it can be found if if uh employers or schools reach out about it. Um it's also >> processor level. Yes, ma'am. >> Changes of practice and I've already alluded to this a little bit. Uh prior to we we just relied solely just on the bullying screener. Um and then that was a way of just you know what

061was the outcome? Was it bullying? Was it not? And then was it a violation of code of conduct? Was it not? And then what interventions and supports were put into place. Now we put it with unknown perpetrators. that we do both processes so that way we can track uh track specific outcomes and again uh this does not attach to a specific student if it's unsubstantiated training uh just a little bit of focus on how our teams are supported throughout the year. We always start annually with our school environment safety incident reporting also known as assessor. Uh it's an annual training and that includes bullying and harassment specifically. Uh we also have our annual student services training including the bullying investigative processes to start off the school year. This includes our student services uh assistant principles,

062our deans, behavior intervention and school counselors and social workers. We also train quarterly with our deans and just reviewing our practices and procedures with bullying and investigations. At faculty and staff meetings, our deans are encouraged to get facetime with our with our teams and just let them know about investigative processes and how to report at their school areas. Also, schools can uh request support as well from from my position or Mr. Finelli's position regarding supporting uh schools through investigations or initial reports. I know we had one even before stepping in here today. I've already reached out addressed, hey, I'll give you a call. we'll we'll do all the factf finding and we'll provide as much information as we can or support to the school as we can. And then the last piece is just our

063screener outcomes from the 2425 school year. So, and I didn't want to um change it out. We hadn't reset it from the year previous. So, we're currently to include this school year we're at 135 uh responses. And so we're actually for last year we're approximately at 120 overall responses. So we will get this cleared out but I didn't want to post one and then change it up last second. Um out of that so out of the 135 responses approximately 44% of them were at the time the information provided does not result in the need for further investigation and it does not uh violate student code of conduct. If we go up from there, um 31% uh at this time the information provided does not require full bullying. However, it does violate the code of conduct.

064So now with unknown perpetrator being added in there, we can actually track when that is selected. We can say okay well what did it actually lead to at the end. Um and then from there it's the at this time the information provided does not require a full investigation. However, um it does meet the threshold for harassment. So we can have that differentiation between bullying and harassment and then um the blue being that 13% that they do involve a full investigation to come out >> by school. Um these are the breakdowns for each of the schools and and who's reporting >> reporting bullying >> just the just received the reports and then entered in a a bullying screener for that. >> I don't see Matanza on it. So, what I will say about that is that

065and I can go to I don't know. It doesn't want to update. They are on there. It's a small slice. It's on the one of two drop down. >> So, I see like there's um kind of this maybe more maroon red. >> That skinny one. Is that what you're saying? >> It it could be that one. Ma'am, I would. >> So, you're saying they have less bullying reports than Belter. And even though their feeder school Indian trails is at 23% the largest it's that small >> possibly >> based on the data. Yes. To answer based on the data. Yes. >> Yes. >> And who fills this out? >> So this is filled out by the schools based on what's reported to the school. >> So primarily it would be the dean of that school or

066is it the requirement of the assistant principal? >> No, each school kind of does it different and then it also depends on just the the day. Primarily it is deans and school counselors that fill it out, but we do have administrators that do fill in and fill it out as well. >> Can we take a look and ensure that Manzis is uh identified an individual that is supposed to be filling this out because that uh right seems trust but verify. >> Yes, >> we can get to that. >> Absolutely. >> Moving on. Um we do ask if it's if the behavior is repeated or not. So out of the responses that were gained uh 61 instances was one or two times. Uh 51% of them is three or more times. And then out of out

067of all of them five times it was none of the above. Uh going into that is there a real or perceived imbalance of power for the alleged victim? And here it says 32% approximately is a yes whereas 50% or 57% is a no. And then the team's identified as 11% as being neither. >> I don't understand that. >> As in >> not so if they say is there an imbalanced power? They say no. So it was one question supposed to be yes but one of the two because how could it be neither or no? Aren't those the same responses? So what we do is the and it's it's really just the the the structure of the form itself and not trying to make it a long process for teams. Again the the bullying screener should

068just be a quick reference to anytime a team feels like that the information is gained that it would require more then there that's our process is that we can we don't have to do the screener initially we can include it. >> So you're saying those are nonresponses? Those are not. So it just may not even be >> They may say bowling, right? You're not requiring every field to be filled in. >> No, ma'am. >> Okay. >> Malicious intent and it's the same thing here, Miss Ready, as well. Um, is it is it one or is it all or is it none of the above? because the report that was given doesn't even taken like it doesn't it wasn't mean rude or malicious based on the information that was gained initially >> but none of the

069above would require a response whereas the other one a nonresponse is a different situation. So you're saying all the other questions people did respond to but that other one they did leave some blank. >> It's it's possible. It just depends on what information that they have, what's given. >> Moving forward, I think that's it. That's the last slide. I didn't put in a question slide. >> Yeah. So I think that this is, you know, this shows our dedication to uh fulfill the and and go beyond the requirements of the Florida statute and that we know that mental health and um the ability to feel safe in the classroom is paramount. I do have a question around uh essentially the triggering process of the investigation, right? where there's an initial report where um there's a fork

070in the road. Does this support a a full investigation? Uh is this essentially bullying or harassment or not? Is I what I'm wondering is um how is that determined, right? And if it is up to let's say the dean, are there spot spot checks, let's say, from your particular uh level to say because I'm sure not every report comes up to you or maybe I'm wrong. Does every So is there a spot check system in place to say, hey, are our team members trained enough in order to recognize it so that it's not held back at that first particular incident? because you know I'm thinking of we uh on here there was a certain percentage that related to it qualified as an imbalance of power um which was previously reported as the biggest issue of

071these bullying uh items not being able to progress. But it looks like that's 33% while the number of bullying uh uh uh full investigations that made it through that uh that level were 13. So if that was the blocker, there must be other blockers that are maybe larger than the imbalance of power. Um, so I would just wonder if we could take a look at that because if that's where the majority of the parents concerns are, uh, and it may be that it's spot on, right? Um, but it's a quality assurance control, right? you have a systems checklist, but that checklist uh doesn't necessarily help uh somebody uh it's not a a taxonomic key of identifying bullying or harassment. And I I'm imagining we have deans are typically a first introduction to the administrative level

072at our schools and they need maybe some additional training or support. It's a way for us to monitor that. I think that might be helpful. >> I do. >> May I provide a short response, please? >> So, Miss Ready, I totally agree and I think that's a great question uh that's being proposed. We do uh in our trainings now, we do scenario-based and we do try to take in consideration both elementary and secondary situations. um the older students are, the bigger they are, the bigger the problems as compared to the uh the younger students. So, one of the things that we've done this year is we've split our meetings and trainings up into elementary versus secondary. So, that'll be one of the changes and then our scenarios and the things that we can do can

073be more targeted directly to to those deans and and those teams. >> That's great. That's awesome. Um when you uh state that you notify all families in writing uh you know we have obviously have to take certain care because of furpa but what is included because uh when I've had some conversations essentially um they're say some of the responses I don't even know what happened all I was offered was to change schools. So um what is typically required in that communication um and uh for example if it does not move forward right that's an example of a hope uh scholarship option uh are they provided the reasoning are they introduced to a little bit of that um hey here's what classifies as bullying here's what classifies as harassment here's unsubstantiated here's substantiated here's Here's what

074we found evidence for, here's what we didn't, and this is why it cannot proceed. Does it go into that depth? >> So, that conversation is held with the families and then in writing, it would just be the overall outcome and then next steps. If there's interventions and supports put in place, it's there. Um, if there is discipline consequences, it's listed. If it's any more information than that, to your point, HIPPO, we can't be putting information into our emails like that. But we encourage any of our families that if they have more questions, it's not just reporting bullying, but if they want followup, they're more than welcome to, you know, contact their schoolbased teams or even reach out to the student services department. >> Do you feel the schoolbased teams are um uh understanding what they

075can and cannot communicate? Because if we're hearing from some of the community members, their concern is that they they don't really know why we were just told to change schools. is that >> I think one of the main things that we get from parents who are upset with the findings is we are not saying to them directly what the consequence is that the other student received. So let's say it is bullying or it's some other violation. Families want to know one what the specific consequence is and let's say they find out and we because we don't give that information. and we just say that we we'll address it appropriately and follow the matrix or whatever. But if they find out, you know, somebody told somebody this is what it is. The second thing that parents

076um are concerned about is if they do not believe that that consequence is sufficient in their eyes as to what the student um should receive. Those are the major things that we we get from families related to um bullying is they they know that it's substantiated or unsubstantiated. To your point with a hope scholarship, um we can definitely go back to make sure that our teams are explaining the hope scholarship better because I think that is definitely an area we can grow. But when it reaches my um level, which is is is often very quickly that they'll just email me or call or whatever the case is, is when they receive that letter. Often times though we're required to provide it to them, they receive that as this is us saying if you're not happy

077with what we're doing, go somewhere else. And that is not our our place at all. What we're saying is if your child if you're saying that your child was bullied um be it they were or they want we must provide you with this information and I think that is an area that we can grow based on the feedback that I receive from families who often feel like you know they they didn't tell me what happened to the kid. I know the kid got a consequence. It wasn't good enough, but I was given this letter and said, "Too bad, so sad. Take your kid somewhere else." And that's how the parent receives it because I believe that my child has been wrong. Then now you're telling me my kid can move classes if it was unsubstantiated.

078My kid can move classes. Well, my why does my kid have to move classes? Why doesn't this kid move classes? Or why am I being given a letter saying that I can take my student even to a different school? It's all about framing and positioning because we're saying while this didn't work, right, there's still some sort of distress to your child and we're giving another alternative >> um so that you don't feel powerless and to stay in a situation, right? >> And that is the point of the state is they don't want a family to feel like you are forced to stay if you feel your child has been wrong. So, we must provide that documentation. But when a parent is upset and they feel their child has been wrong, they're taking it as if

079we're saying here, you know, this gives you permission to go somewhere else. >> In the investigation checklist, I see that there um is a section where it says uh for to consider ELLL, um uh race, um disability. Why would that be taken into consideration on determining it whether or not it's bullying? So we want to make sure that we're following federal and state processes to so more specifically to that whether it's a title six or title 9 violation to make sure that we're following our process. >> I see. So if it was um somebody with a disability then essentially uh that may have additional reporting requirements >> triggers. Got okay thank you for that. So it's not to consider right whether or not it can proceed. >> Yes. If a student with a disability is

080the one that's being bully or bullying, um they still will be put in as the assessor for bullying, but it's to make sure that we're always thinking about what are the additional steps that we may need to take if the um victim is in these some of these categories as well. >> I have one other question and I would really love to hear Mr. Bars from the um you know the uh law enforcement aspect of it. um when uh you have maybe a student Sally comes forward, makes these claims, Jimmy comes forward and makes these claims, but yet individually they were not um substantiated. Are we tracking the number? is that this next level that you're alluding to where it's tracking the number of not uh uh the reporter is different and so we're able

081to say well now maybe there's a pattern here and and can you tell me how easy is that for your schoolbased administration to see or is that a report or something they must dig into? >> So we're able to pull that report using the unknown perpetrator portion. Perfect. Um the new school board policy 5610 it's very explicit in saying that it can not only be an individual it can be a group of individuals and that's not necessarily just students it can be towards adults staff >> any group. So, okay. Um, if little Doug is always the one that is having his name brought up, but it's never found that little Doug is doing these things at a certain point, it the team would be able to take in all the information and say little Doug

082has behaviors and he is bullying. It's not to individuals, but maybe it is to a group of people. So, then we can move forward and still process, you know, give the interventions and supports and consequences to little Doug even though it wasn't to an individual, but to a group. >> Yeah. Well, thank you so much for this reporting so we could really have an in-depth conversation. I like a lot of the progress. I think you know um just doing some of the spot checks. I'd be interested in hearing an update of that throughout the throughout the school year. Um, and you know, when to your point, Miss Moore, when families are not happy about what the discipline has been or meeted out, we have a very solid discipline matrix that not only upholds our um,

083you know, values as a school system, but also understands that these are children and they are going to make mistakes and need time and the ability to uh, correct, but also keep uh, the rest of the students safe and free from harm both physical and mental. Thank you. >> I do have a couple questions for chair mind. Um so it's just you mentioned earlier about the reporting piece. It might be a little bit different comparing from one school to the next school or who may be doing it and so forth like that. I think that might be a little inconsistent with how we want to do that. I would think and we need to kind of come up I would I'm just suggesting it just seems like you would want that consistency about who's responsible

084for what at each school if that makes sense. >> So to clarify to that point it's our primary contacts are our deans and school counselors. Okay. So, a lot of times we do hear about allegations of bullying in within a dean's office just like our school counselors do as far as when our students are experiencing mental health concerns and they're in there, they're crying, they're upset, they're saying, "Why are they doing this?" This, you know, then the school counselor then starts probing and asking and then they're trained just we're actually about to do that training with our school counselors uh tomorrow. So it's they have that training and then the student services APs and admin also have that training and when I say that they may be in and out but so like for tomorrow

085school counselors won't be on campus they'll be training so our admin will have to cover for them during that time and then we have deans meetings tomorrow morning and tomorrow afternoon and that transition time something could occur where our administration has to step in >> and it depends on levels too. So when you think about um elementary level you may have when you look at the back of the the data when we say inconsist um not inconsistency but different people when you look at a at the elementary level you may see more often and an AP that is doing some of the reporting versus like if you get to the secondary you may see less of that a little bit because of the resources that we have within in the school. So, you would see

086a lot of that going through the dean's office, you know, as a place or a hub to report um those things, but it's those categories of people. So, it wouldn't be, you know, someone outside of those scopes. It would be a dean, a school counselor, it would be an administrator that will be doing that. What I heard to that though um is that especially when we look at some of the data, one that jumped out and jumps out is Matanis is to say we have these practices. If a parent says it is bullying, you should be reporting it in the the system because I think that is another piece that you hear out in the community. Well, are they are they actually doing the screeners? Well, when you look at that data, it would suggest

087are they? you know, because of how few it is. And so for me, our directive is if they say that it is this, you do the screener because the screener will weed out if it is or if it isn't. But we have no way of saying that if Exactly. Unless the um that one particular school really only had that many. However, there it it kind of suggests that maybe a different practice was in place and so we can rectify that going forward for sure. And I think just the other part is just making sure that we are on top and I know that we will be but just more of a statement more than anything is that we are on top of repeat uh offenders and patterns that are out there. Um you know one

088two and three times you got on this one one slide. I mean to me that's just unacceptable man. Um, and so making sure that we're staying on top of that and addressing those as quick as possible so it doesn't turn into the law enforcement issue where they're going to have to deal with it when it gets out of hand. So that's to >> just more of a statement. >> Yes, sir. Um, to that point, we did and the board did approve on some several of our student code of conduct changes. Uh and we are able to support our students more through the code of conduct now based on some language that was added. >> Correct. Yeah. >> And and bringing um bringing different processes together because to your point, Mr. as far as when you

089hear the repeated the multiple students, right? Those students if they're we're seeing that that student probably should be going through um or we should have looked through the threat management process for that student because those are concerning behaviors that we're seeing. And so um it may not be that it's bullying and over here, however, it may be something else and making sure that we're following um those those systems all the way through. >> Yeah. Well, thank thank you very much. I appreciate it. >> Yes, sir. >> And I just have a just a couple questions. So, one, if a student is getting bullied and their guardian parent is not the one to put it in to log it or the student themselves is not, but a teacher or staff, they feel that are they allowed

090or able to go ahead and report that themselves. So or the student. >> So if a teacher thinks that a student is being bullied, can a teacher bring report that to the dean's office and the >> like in the report like on the website and >> absolutely anyone and everyone's encouraged to report. They can use the district website or the Florida. It doesn't have to be a parent or guardian or a student. >> The teacher, they see it. They know it's happening, but they know it's not they know the parent is out of the picture or the student is, you know, not going. We've even had third party that they heard from from someone who heard from someone. >> Yeah. No, that's good to know. Like I didn't know if teachers, you know, if they

091had it, you know, standard, you know, allowed to do. Uh so, thank you for that. Um the unsubstantial reporting where um it it tracks them or it follows them through. Is that new? So, how how new is that? >> Unknown perpetrator. So it's it's not a new process to our nephew >> district >> like 10 years ago if someone was a bully and you know it's not going to show up. So um the reason I ask is that may be something and maybe it's happening but letting students know when they have their orientation you know first week of school and I know faculty and staff are talking about you know we don't accept bullying like this is not going to happen in our school we know you know this should not happen letting them know

092this will follow you potentially you know if you want to go to college you wanna you know have this uh I think just just as a secure blanket for them knowing hey I better you know uh you know if you're good at home and you know if you want to play the video game you better not hit your brother you know like just them knowing that because that that's new I mean to me I think that would be something good for students to know and maybe help them like PBIS you know like >> the impact assessment >> and then so thank you for that uh I do want everyone to know too so these are just two comments so between the five school board members and then of course our superintendent if parents or faculty

093or anybody they don't feel, you know, they feel like their student or their child's getting bullied. We don't do anything about it. I urge everyone email the five of us and I guarantee one of us will email you, call you or meet you, especially like the team that we have now. So, just reach out. So, and I'll give you, you know, some data just today, right before this meeting, I sent an email as I'm on the elevator. This team right here, they're already on it. I I didn't even I literally hit the send button and next thing I know so if you have an issue parents or kids just email one of us one of us will help you because our time is different and we'll be able to respond. So thank you and uh

094that's about it. Appreciate it. >> Well I just want to thank you for an excellent presentation. You know this is this slide deck is I think this is going to be very helpful uh for the community as well. U I think that this segment of this meeting could be a good one to um to pull out and and and isolate along with the slide deck with members of the community. Uh ask about this because this is something that comes up from time to time. This is a quick way to send them some information they can digest very quickly to understand the flow and process. So well done on that for sure. >> Thank you. >> All right. Thank you. >> Thank you very much. Okay. So, we'll move on to 6.02 strategic strategic plan update.

095We have Miss O'Brien and Mr. Reynolds. Good afternoon, board. Furry, Mr. or M. Moore. Um, we have two things to update you on this afternoon. First, we're going to go through the school grade updates from this past school year, and then we'll switch over to our end of year strategic plan overview. Um, so for school grades, our overview, you can see most of our schools were able to maintain their school grades this year and we did have a couple of schools who who did drop. We're addressing that. Going moving on. For the district grade, uh we did go up in ELA achievement, grade three ELA achievement, math achievement, social studies achievement, and graduation rate >> And science. Yes. And we maintained our grade of B. Um this year we ended the year two points away

096from an A. and we'll talk about the escalation clause that actually brings us to three points away from an A for next year for federal point of index. Um this is calculated um as the same components as the school grade but they isolate this the specific population of different subgroups. There are um several different subgroups that the state looks at. One is all students. Then we have students with disabilities, our economically disadvantaged students which used to be called free and reduced lunch, our English language learners, and then there are several racial or ethnic identities. The ones that are bolded are ones that historically we have fallen under the 41% threshold um in the past or currently um because that is the federal minimum is that 41%. So for the identified subgroups for student with disabilities

097at the end of last year we had nine schools who were below that 41% threshold or sorry 2023 was nine. Last year was eight and this year we are down to six schools below that 41% threshold. And then for all of the other identified subgroups that we've had some issues with historically, we now have zero schools under that 41%. So students with disabilities is the only subgroup that we have schools below that 41%. Um specific to students with disabilities, you can see by school over the last three years um their historic data. And so this past year, Beltter, Old Kings, Matanzis, and FPC were above or above that 41% threshold. Some other celebrations uh at the individual level for schools at Banell, math achievement went up 13% and science achievement went up 10. Beltter had

098an overall increase of 15 points. At Old Kings, their black and African-American subgroup um was below that 41% and they actually increased it by 28% in one year. At Remfire, they had an overall increase of 19 points. They were our most improved elementary school. Wodssworth, their grade three ELA achievement specifically increased by 12%. I Flaggler, we were able to get enough students to come in and test that so that they earned their first grade since COVID had um come. Uh Buddy Taylor ELA ELA achievement went up 4%. Indian Trail Social Studies went up 7%. At FPC, they were our most improved school overall. Their overall increase was 30 points across all of their components. Matanzis, their science achievement went up 9%. And as a district um the one of our proud points is that every

099academic core area increased in achievement. These were some areas that we identified at the end of last year as areas for growth and I wanted to update you on those specific pieces for college and career acceleration. Remember this is lag data that looks at um it looks at the college and career acceleration for the previous school year's graduation class. Um and because it is lag data, we technically don't know who is on our final cohort because that happens in December with late grads and and all of the roll backs from the state. Um, but the initial data that we've pulled does look promising that we are going to look at a hopefully double-digit increase in that component for next year. Grade five, we increased in every content area and that was one of our issues

100or concerns last year. Grade 8 math increased by 15% and grade 10 biology increased by 15%. So, our specific strategies that identified things to do in these areas worked in our school plans. >> Um, I mentioned the escalation clause. This is a a statute that got passed uh a year or two ago where if over 75% of a certain school category earns an A or a B that all of the cut scores for the grade levels in that category go up to the next 5%. So high schools and combination schools did hit that 75% threshold this past year. And so all of their cut scores for the different school grades went up to the closest 5%. So now instead of a 64% for an A, you need a 65%. B went up to 60. C

101went up to 45 D 35. And that the state considers districts as combination schools. So that also changed district grades as well. So getting to our A-rated district level, um across the 12 components that we have, we need a total of 25 points. And so breaking that down, um I'll actually start at the bottom with college and career acceleration, we're pretty comfortable with saying that we can expect about a 12% increase, if not more, based on our initial data. And so with those 12 points um I went through each of the other components and um predicted some realistic increases at a minimum. And so the three other areas that we're really looking at are the ELA learning gains and both of our lowest cortile learning gains because we need a couple more points in those

102areas. So, we'll switch over to the strate strategic plan update and as we go through the goal leads for each goal are going to come up. Um, >> do we want are there questions about that portion of of the data? I'm sure sure that there are a couple. >> Certainly, what we can do break here. So, let's ask about school grades. Any any comments or questions? >> I do have a question. if we made um you know I'm looking at some of the raw data from the district grade um slide where um that's slide three where we have those numbers right and those numbers um look very little changed comparative to some of the winds that we're highlighting for example no schools with uh students within those uh SWD categories below 70 uh 41 1%.

103So, does that mean another subgroup had to drop in order for us to essentially have those same scores? >> Um, well, we did in a lot of our school grades increased as far as percentage or the number of points, but because then they divided by the number of components, it ended up falling within the same grade level. And remembering when we look at this right now, we're really f we're focused on our 10 tradition, our nine and our chart, our nine and our virtual school. Remembering too that what's not highlighted here or showcased here is imagine because they are part of our our our district grade and their um performance impacts that as as well. Could I see um as a followup a similar format of the report in the district grade slide but broken

104out for every school? >> That is a part of our grading component. >> Thank you. In in regards to imagine so and I know that they're part of our overall grade. Are they is it graded equally as if they were one of our schools? So I'm just I'm just trying to think, you know, so last year they were a B, this year they were a C. you know next year if they're a B or if they're a D or a C you know how much impact in comparison is it equal not equal just trying to see the future and how what can we do if anything >> right so the district grade is calculated as a total number of students in a denominator versus the total number of students who earned that component and so

105imagine it's just included in that total number it doesn't average the schools by like it doesn't divide by 11 because we have 11 schools. It's just depending on the total population. >> So they're included there. The students that are there are included like the students that are at Wadssworth Elementary School or Banell Elementary School as well. >> Got it. >> But they they do have their own board that that operates. We have very little control if any with it comes to this here on those outcomes because they have their own school board that is managed by the the charter school itself. Yes, we do work with them on a schoolwide improvement plan and we do provide feedback for them and we do meet with them and discuss, you know, the data that hap that came

106out last year and some ideas and we've also connected them with a bureau of school improvement that we've partnered with the last couple of years to hopefully get them into Imagine to help them through that process as well. So although we don't necessarily have a direct say as as an organization, we are investing to help them any way we can if they so if they choose to take that help to get them back up on the scale. >> Absolutely. And they have been receptive to to our support. >> Very good. >> Thank you. >> All right. Any other questions on school grades? >> Okay. Here you know we let's move forward with strategic plan. >> Okay. And the reason we really started with that is because goal one encompasses a lot of that data. So

107we wanted you to have that background uh before we head into this. So uh the strategic plan update will um really go forward with our kind of our year in review. So where did we end um school year 2425. Um and this is the same strategic plan that was developed um starting in 2021. um goal areas including academics, educational equity, resiliency and well-being, talent, operational efficiencies, and communication. Um and this current strategic plan will be implemented through this coming school year. So through the 2526 school year. So today we'll be giving you an update um on our year-end goals and then we'll be discussing next steps for implementation of a revised or a new strategic plan that would start in 2627. Um so just to go over our goal areas again um we have our

108our goal statements there on that first slide and we will head right into goal one academics. We have uh two main categories for goal one. One is our core content and the other one is kindergarten readiness. For our core subjects ELA math and science. Um for ELA the achievement goal is to get up to 62% by the end of this school year. For math, we're looking to get up to 64. Science up to 65, and social studies up to 73. Kindergarten readiness is the percentage of students who demonstrate readiness in kindergarten through their PM1 score as a kindergartener. Um, and our goal is to get up to 55% by the end of well, when they take their test this week. >> And that's overall as the district grade, you're saying? >> Yes. There's a certain

109cut score that the state uses for kindergarten readiness. So, it's not passing PM1. >> Oh, no. I was talking about the ELA not the secondary one because you know 7% increase in ELA. That's a lot. So, have we ever in our history increased 7% as a district as a whole? Is that how So, you're saying that you've done some feasibility studies of this? >> Um, these numbers actually because this was an extension. So these numbers were original to the previous strategic plan and we just kept those goals and figured out how much further we needed to get to from the end of last year. >> Oh, and it was and it was a two year. So that 7% is over two years. >> So we're getting to the I see. So that means what? That's

110is it 3% what were we at this what percent? >> And about 3% achievement is reasonable within a year's time period. So >> thank you. Mhm. >> So for um ELA achievement last year we ended at 55. Our goal for this year as a midway point was 58 and we reached 59%. So we are on our way to reach that 62%. For math at the end of last year we were at 58%. So our midpoint goal was 61. We hit 62. So again we're on our way to that 64. Science we ended last year at 61. Our midyear was 63. We reached 64 and our total goal overall is 65. Social studies, last year we ended at 69. Our midyear, our midpoint goal was 71. We reached 73. So we've already achieved our goal for

111the strategic plan. Um for kindergarten readiness, uh we ended last year at 53. Our goal this year was to get to 54 and we did end the year at 49. And so our goal is to get to that 55 still by the end of the strategic plan. And we do have um the next slide goes into detail about kindergarten readiness because we did see that drop and that concerned us. Um so we dug into that. One thing to note is that they changed the cut score on us. So last year the cut score increased by 17 points. >> Um went from a 690 to a 707 um for kindergarten readiness. Um so we attribute that drop part mostly to that. Um and we also wanted to see is is what is the cause or what

112population specifically is um attributing to that drop. And so we looked at our Flagler P BPK students and we actually noticed that if we used the new cut score and compared um last year to this year, our students actually went up from 58% to 62% even though our overall kindergarten kindergarten readiness went from 53 to 49%. So you're saying if parents had their students participate in a Flaggler schools run BPK program, they would have not only met the standard set before but also would have exceeded the new goal set forward. So that must mean that the other students either not participating in VPK or other programs are actually performing at that much wider of a gap. Do you have numbers on distinguishing between the two between those who participate in VPK outside of Flaggler and

113uh those who who don't? >> The state used to report it separately. Um, but this this year for some reason they stopped reporting it that way. So I currently don't have that data. >> I can tell you this though, Mr. Ready, we are working with the early learning coalition. I'm on the board and uh we are working on developing anou so we can kind of share the data and see where our students are at. In addition, uh something that state started this year was a summer bridge program for PBK completers who did not meet the percentile of where they need to be. And so for the first year, we offered that to our schools as well, our students in the community. And we've talked about the ability to get those students information quicker because right

114now it doesn't happen till the end of PM3, which is days before summer BPK actually starts. So, we're working on a number of fronts to kind of help in this space to help uh engage our parents. We've opened another uh VPK unit at Old Kings as we continue to expand our opportunities for families in the community as well as work with our private providers. >> Right. So, just as a kind of observational context, I uh during the first week of school, I went and volunteered specifically for the car rider line to help with kindergarteners. And I will say that parents who do not take advantage of BPK, beyond the learning component, there's a social anxiety and mental health issue of putting your child in this really large, busy environment where now maybe for the first

115time they're leaving you for hours on end with what they perceive are strangers. And that is a hard toll to witness when they're part of VPK where it's a part-time thing, right? Very um you know exploration environment. They are so much well suited. you you in conversations with our educational professionals, they're like, "We can notice the minute they step out of that car or bus which students are emotionally ready for kindergarten just by by watching that first interaction. And so it's it's a a matter of almost you know supporting their uh emotional well-being for this trans you know transition in their life. It's huge. Um so and these numbers show that >> and for the the just benefit of of the public is this kindergarten readiness. Um it's it's a bold it's bold for us

116to take on because we are really impacting it through of course the um BPK programs that we offer um as well as awareness to the community bringing awareness to the community partnering with the early learning coalition um because you know we typically have not had more than let's go for an aggressive point and say 50% of our students that participate in our programs versus not. And so these students are taking this assessment within the first 30 days of of school. And so this is coming in. Are you ready? We have not provided any instruction to them. And so I just always like to make sure that that our community is aware of what this number represent. Are you ready for kindergarten? And um we know that this has a direct correlation to our um grade

117three ELA as well and and so forth. >> Absolutely. And one of the things we did is a comprehensive literacy state development grant we wrote three years ago and part of it allows us to try and push it to private providers to provide literacy components and instructional support. >> Uh we did that through our federal programs in Tammy York and our team >> and we were able to get into four of our private providers. obviously wanted to get to more of them, but to try and stand up and support knowing the literacy and the math expectations as well as the social emotional pieces as those students transition to kindergarten. >> And we do have resources on our website for families who don't go to PPK about what specific skills they can work on at home

118to to have their child be more ready academically for kindergarten. >> Well, let can I just say one thing about kindergarten teachers real quick? God loved them and I am proud of every single one of them and I value them tremendously. I've had a family member doing that for 30 years teaching kindergarten and it you go to bed early and you get up early and it is I I'm all seriousness I I really that is they are setting the stage for students moving forward right then and so I tip my hat to all teachers of course but since we're talking about them I tip my hat to what they do every single day goodness gracious special place in appropriate to say. Okay, thank you Jeff. >> Moving to go two, >> educational equity and um

119we'll invite our new coordinator of exceptional student education, Dr. Jennifer Wright to the table. Not sure if everyone's had a chance to meet her yet. >> Partners with Dr. Hel. >> Yes. Um, so for educational equity, we are looking at increasing the academic performance of some specific subgroups. Uh, the two that were identified in the strategic plan were black African-American students and our students with disabilities. Our goal for um students with disabilities was to get up to six schools above that 41% threshold um by the end of last year um but really by the end of next year and then increase the number of schools above that 41% to nine schools um by the end of strategic plan for black African-American students. And then additionally to increase um our college and career acceleration rate at

120our high schools up to 54% at the end of this by the end of this year. So looking at our metrics, we ended last year with eight of our schools above that 41%. Our goal was to get to nine schools and we ended up at 10. So we surpassed our goal. For students with disabilities, we ended last year with two schools above 41%. Our goal was to get to six this year. Um, and we ended the year at four. So, our goal is to get to that six by the end of this year. >> And then for college and career acceleration, we uh last year had 48%. Our goal for this midpoint was 51. Uh, we ended up with 47. Um, but we're going to stick to our goal of 54 for next year. Any

121questions about goal two? >> I like the aggressiveness >> and our for college career acceleration specifically. Our data does show that we >> we should get there. >> Great. >> Thank you. >> Well, she got all these. >> She did. >> We take it easy on your first round. >> First round. >> Next time. Uh goal three is uh student services and a little bit of HR with resiliency and well-being. The first goal is to mitigate chronic absenteeism and get our chronic absenteeism rate below 5%. And the other one deals with our wellness center and to get to 36% participation by the end of this school year. So looking at the specific metrics with our chronic absenteeism which is absent for 21 or more days we ended last year at right about 5%. Our goal

122was to get below 5% or remain below 5%. We did end this year at 8.82%. >> Our goal is to get back under 5%. >> What what's the reason for that's a pretty big jump. uh you know we didn't have any crazy disruptions things of that nature. Now I know part of the challenges defining absent so when you say um absent are we saying the full day part of the day what's absent >> so I could speak to that um we're really looking at unexcused absences so these are absences that are not medical excusals or parents have five excused absences for the fall and five for the spring. Some of this is just the parent not utilizing their excused absences. We do have a new system this year through Parent Square where parents are able

123to um excuse the absences through the parent excusal through the app. So, we're hoping that that'll help get the word out to parents um and bring that number back in alignment with >> Was there a certain ratio of let's say tardies like you're you come a half hour, an hour late to school that equals one absence or no? Is that just >> so so tardies are three tardies equals an absence okay is how we count it >> and that is an that would fall under the unexcused but parents also have like a certain number that they can excuse of those. >> Yes. So they can they can use them and excuse them for either the day or for tardy. So they have five for the fall, five for the spring. >> Okay. And um I

124don't know if you guys were going to talk to this. I mean five below 5% is extremely aggressive when you look at what is happening across the state. I mean I I know our goal is to get below 5% but 8% is amazing for where we are as a state because what is happening to your point Miss Ruddy we didn't have any major disruptions but we do see um students staying home more often right um you know I'm not feeling well or whatever the case may be uh travel whatever but um below 5% is extremely aggressive um for where we are as a What is the average right now? >> And we we revisi so it it is closer to 10. We revised this um target last year when we revised the strate strategic plan.

125It was closer to 10 and we were showing rates closer to 10 pre- pandemic but we saw a few years post pandemic that were >> five six% and so uh that's why we went with a more aggressive target. Um, I will also note that we were trending to meet the goal um, in April, but in May is when we saw students hitting that threshold. So, if we would report on our data through April, we would have met this, but it ballooned almost 3% from April to May of the end of the school year. >> Wow. >> Unfortunately. >> Yeah. So we have essentially almost 10% of our students missing 11% of the school year, >> but I think Miss Moore has a good point. So students that aren't feeling well, so they're coughing, right? >>

126But you don't have 3% increase in every year. >> It's so easy for students to log online and, you know, on their iPad, they can all their worksheets are on there. So if they're not feeling well, I can see how, you know, a lot of parents work from home. So that could be why >> my argument though is those I'm not saying it's okay >> those assignments are supposed to be proof and evidence of the learning in the classroom they are not the learning if they could do those assignments at competency without attending the lesson then we wouldn't need school right but that's not the point and I think parents and students misunderstand just turning in something as opposed to participating in a lesson >> we also have an attendance plan for this year that's

127very aggressive with um putting out uh communication throughout the year to families via social media and our other platforms to just remind them of the importance of daily school attendance. So, we're going to be working hard this year to get that number back to that 500 >> and making sure that families understand that school is still happening in May, you know, to the point that we are trending for this to to reach this goal and we have this jump in the last month of school. So, making sure that we're saying to our families, school and learning is still happening, but also that we are addressing it with our faculty, our staff, and our our administrators to say, we're not saying to schools, to to families or to students that they don't have to come because

128my my grade is already tested, so I can just stay home. Those types of thing that we're not kind of creating this in the last month of school ourselves. There's always, you know, more experiential activities you could do, previewing content for the next year. The school year does not end with the test. Exactly. >> And does not end when the grades are submitted into Skyward. >> And so, uh, you know, >> I agree. >> And again, that needs to be underscored with the faculty as well that we don't have two weeks of board games and videos, right? who are articulating to to students, you don't have to come today, right? Because if that parent is saying, well, the they're just testing today, but the parent isn't going forth to use their absence or they're like,

129why am I using it? So, just it's educ education on on both sides, >> right? parents swear I think will help though because when a student's absent if you don't like you said I mean there >> there was a time I was like oh I didn't put in that you know the attendance and it counts towards the student but it also counts towards the school so I think parent square is really going to help I'm curious to see how much but I think it you know everything's built in there it's just easier for everyone >> it still means they were absent so the the just the fact that we have this 10 more than 10% of the school year that goes beyond I think what is typically appropriate. So I think a couple of things

130I I would love us to think outside the box and try to come up with a positive reinforcement. Do we have some friendly competition among schools to get the lowest reported you know u absences you know per quarter or something like that. um and and kind of focus on the positive as opposed to the negative. But also uh are there resources that maybe our teaching and learning department could provide as ideas for that post test time that we can capitalize on. Real quick to your point of being able to do it in the app and this year is we we talk about communication a lot so we probably overload on some of that I'm sure to some degree. How are how are we are we pushing that out to let them know that that option

131is there to be able to help them since it's new. >> Yes. So they'll they'll get a um a message from parent square letting them know that their child was not in school today. Okay. and then they can respond back and their response back actually counts as the um as the parent excusal. >> Okay, great. Okay, thank you. >> Yep. >> Perfect. >> Uh the second goal under this the second metric under this goal is our wellness center participation. Um and so because it opened right before the end of the school year, um we didn't include that data, but I don't know if uh Mr. Ollet or Mr. Walker has some initial numbers, but our goal by the end of the school year is to get up to 36% utilization. >> Good afternoon, board. >>

132Welcome. >> I'm board. Uh, as you know, you know, we only recently opened. So, the full scale of uh, you know, where we are as far as meeting this goal are not yet realized. Um, I will say that as of um, you know, the early numbers, we were already at what 17% utilization. Um, and so that's those are promising early numbers. I mean, we still have a long way to go to make sure >> 70% of >> 17 Oh, sorry. 17% >> I like your numbers. >> Yeah, sorry. >> 17% of those who have elected to take our health insurance. And so do we have numbers on uh you know we offered some different plans um different uh contributions from the board to try to improve the family contribute uh the family um uh participation.

133Do we have any uh data around how those numbers have changed in each of those buckets? >> Those final numbers will be ready for the next insurance committee meeting. um as far as um all the numbers as far as our new enrollies. >> Yeah. So, what's going to happen is with all of our new folks that recently joined the district, they all had start dates of August. So, with August, they they essentially have until the end of September to make their elections. So, we've been working with Brian and Brian to look at that migration and they'll be running an updated report the first week in October that'll have a complete picture of, hey, everything through open enrollment, all our folks that dropped from the plan, all of our new employees that have gone on and

134made elections, whether it's going from base um to the HSA to the premium, whether it's employee only or family, we are going to have a presentation in October for the board showing that migration and where we're currently at for our insurance. Can I ask during that presentation that we note what the financial impact is because I believe that some of our >> uh some of our decisions around that were hey we're hoping this number sign up for this particular plan in order for us to um um be within our overall budget. >> Uh yeah >> absolutely. So, similar to what was presented to the board when you guys approved the rate plan and structure for this year and it showed, hey, we're thinking we're going to have say 100 people in this bucket, 100 people

135in this, and based on those uh funding levels, how we anticipate it um impacting our self- insurance fund, we will have that mirrored to what the actual numbers are. >> Yeah. But even those numbers will be just the starting point because it's really going to see how it bears out as far as usage across the year. >> Okay. And and is is that also where we're going to hopefully see um that next level of analysis from that um gosh >> delete >> words are hard. >> Trust the trust. >> Yes. The uh uh basically the catastrophic type of insurance that you have. Stop loss. There we go. >> Stop loss. Um actually um that contract is is up right about now and and um Brown and Brown will be bringing us forward. Um >> no

136I remember remember the guy the trust. Um I currently am working on our next level meeting with them. Uh the last place we left it is uh um once we gave them our most current um uh data as far as uh our enrollment um um they were going to do some modeling for us. Yes. Uh I don't have >> and I know there was a transition for them. So >> So I don't have the modeling yet, but we are in the process of scheduling that meeting. Matter of fact, uh um Heather reached out to them today to make sure we get that. >> Start stocking them a little bit. Okay, great. Perfect. >> We literally spoke about this today. >> Yeah. >> Yes, we are. That's where we are right now. >> Thank you. And

137when are you guys going to survey out employees on the time of the office? So to see like, oh, is this time frame working for you? Is it not? like what's your goal on how long are you waiting till it's been open? Um just I'm curious to see like it looks great but >> and and part of our discussions are what we don't want to do is make a million small changes. What we what we really want to do is is collect um at at least a half year of data to understand. Yeah. So we'd hate to just like tweak the time here and then then you know look at other other tweets. We we really kind of do it thoughtful and databased and be able to come forward and say this is what you

138at the half year our folks are saying pluses and deltas about >> and looking at the fill rate. Are we filling up the positions? How far out are our appointments and stuff going? um are we are um our staff, you know, for instance, I know if you go on to schedule an appointment right now, you're about a week out for an appointment, but if you are needing to be seen sooner, you give them a call and they're able to get you in within this week. Um, so, um, we're looking at all of that, but we will be we will be surveying them to find out did they not choose the health center at any point because of the hours in order to determine if we need to choose it, but we we're going to give

139it six months, which we're we're we're already well into that fast it goes. Yes, it does. >> But a week is an amazing turnaround. >> Yes. If you go just onto the website and select an appointment, you can get get an appointment for next week. But if you call for something like urgent like a follow, you know, a followup from an emergency room visit or any of those things, they're getting them in um >> virtual, right? They're still they can still do >> and that was even not even offering the virtual. If I want to be seen, if you want to go on and be seen right now, there are slots that they have open. Um you're not more than a week and a half out. I mean, I'm just saying right now you can't

140get into some appointment some places in months, you know, and so >> yeah, I called I had an ear infection. They'll say two months I'm I'll be deaf by then. >> Right. Exactly. >> Now, with the utilization and participation, um, you know, our goal is the 36. What are we what is constituting utilization? Is that just somebody visiting and receiving a service or do members also select our center our wellness center as a like a primary care provider? >> So the engagement numbers and what they look at as far as our tone on return on investment is just utilizing it for the service. So when we look at those utilization data so we're at about 17% right now that would be someone coming in for say whether it's an acute visit, a primary visit or

141a lab visit. it's they are engaging with the center itself. Now, we'll be able to go forward as it gets farther and farther down the line on getting an idea of how many folks are making the choice to move to um the wellness center for her to be their provider. Um but really as we look to drive engagement utilization, it's based on just using the services at the center kind of seen as a gateway because once they start using it, then they get more comfortable and it increases their likelihood of maybe even making it their primary care. Well, you know, I I I think in the in the long run, >> the more that we can get in that status >> would be help us get to a healthier workforce, too, because it's just like

142having a relationship with your doctor. They h they have that history to follow up on rather than just coming in, you know, I'm just coming in for this one thing and then uh that would be ideal in in in the long-term goal uh to encourage that. >> Yes. No, that's exactly right. I mean the utilization was just the entry level metric we're using but the actuaries the the back end of this is is what they want to see is that you know um we're not using the other more expensive uh routes as far as the emergency room things like that. And the second piece on that is that by by using the access point with the wellness center we are our folks are actually getting ahead of what could be potential chronic illnesses later on

143and that would be where the real cost savings is. And those are kind of softer numbers that would kind of lag as an indicator under utilization. >> Okay, great. >> While it's not highlighted in here, I just want to note too that we have experienced very quick turnaround with new employee drug screens um using the wellness center and so that's really helped with our onboarding, the pace of our onboarding. >> Um so >> so there's additional efficiencies that we're seeing that we may not have calculated in all the total benefits. Great. >> And a lot of people are taking the advice from the provider. So the back to school breakfast, I told Miss Moore, you know, we were all serving breakfast and >> probably about I don't know, five, six people were like, "Oh, nope.

144I've been going to the wellness center." They said, "Watch out for the carbs and watch out like they but they were serious." And so I'm very proud of everyone that has been utilizing >> the wellness center. >> Great feedback. >> Okay, transitioning to goal four is talent. Um, so looking at our recruitment and our vacant and our vacant instructional and vacant non-instructional positions at day one of each semester, our goal for instructional is to get to 4% or less by the end of the school year and for non-instructional 6% or less. Um, looking at the metrics for instructional positions, we ended last year at 5%. Our midpoint goal was 4.5% and I gave you both numbers there for the fall and the spring because we measure it on day one of each semester and we

145were at 2.8% in the fall and 1.6% in the spring. So we have well surpassed our goal. Same thing with non-instructional. Our goal this year was 6.5% and we hit 4.4% in the fall and 1.7% in the spring. >> Great. Should we be adjusting then our goals for fall and spring because those are big differences. >> Um that is an interesting point and I think that can be something that we look at for the next plan. >> Any other just stay on that target that two point >> that is significantly under the industry standard just to point out. >> That's a great question. What what is that? What is statewide? >> We set the go. We set the target based on um the statewide. >> Okay. >> Uh >> and as the the state and

146I can't remember the exact number um but there was a memo that was sent out about it because there has been a a great improvement in vacancy instructional vacancies um across the state but not not to where we we are right now. >> Yeah. And we also for the the extension, we also identified when we were going to measure it because we were kind of measuring it at different points throughout the year, but really identifying that it's really important on day one for students to have a teacher in their classroom. >> Okay, we'll go on to goal five, which is operations. So, we have plant and custodial services uh with the average number of days to complete a work order. We have food and nutrition services with their meals per labor hour, transportation with on-time

147arrivals, uh finance with our general fund balance, and technology with a professional learning plan. So, we'll start with our work order completion time and meals per labor hour. Um, for work orders, last year we ended at 14 days to complete a work order. Our goal this year was for 12. Um and for this year we are sitting at 6.25 and that asterisk is because um the software that we use changed how they reported it and so we were unable to filter out some of our routine maintenance or long-term work orders just sit there because they're for all year. Um, and so we we pulled the data from last July to this March because in April is when the software changed how it reports and so we weren't getting accurate data at that point. So we

148were sitting at 6.25 at by the end of March >> which met our goal. And then for meals per labor hour, we ended last year at 19. Our goal was 20. This is one of those goals that we want to go up. Um, and this year we ended at 15.9 meals per labor hour. >> Is that because fewer students were eating the meals or is it >> the the two primary reasons um were a decrease in breakfast participation, a significant decrease um in breakfast participation and then also in smart snack sales. So the numerator part of the fraction went down. Our labor hours stayed pretty steady. Why do you think they're not eating breakfast? >> Um, we're digging into that. There is some indication that it's related to the first part of the school year,

149and that's just a tough part of the year to get everybody back in >> um and organized, but I we're looking sight by sight. I believe there's there's different barriers at different schools. Um, and so we're trying to assess what those barriers are and overcome them. >> Time is a factor, too. I feel like just getting through the car ride in the class. >> Absolutely. >> Right. But that would have been baked into previous year's data as well. Do you know what I mean? So to have the decrease from last year, >> I think kids too like one day mine are like, "Oh, I'm going to eat at school." Today nobody wanted to eat at school. They ate breakfast. So I I don't know why either, but I don't know. It's good to I guess

150look into. But >> we are digging into that. >> Yeah. and really looking at it sight by sight. Looking at, you know, some other data related to that. Is it a backup in car rider line? Are do we have late buses that are coming in to that site? Um any of related to breakfast? Um what is the practice at those schools when students are coming in late or it is a backed up line? Is that breakfast still there and available and students know that and we're encouraging them to still take advantage of that opportunity. um how easily all of those those pieces around arrival time um makes a difference. >> And you also said it was a decrease in smart snack sales. What are some examples of the smart snacks? >> The smart snacks are

151anything that we sell outside of the breakfast meal, lunch meal, or the afterchool meal. So, um it might be Rice Krispie treats, it might be baked chips, it might be a Power Aid, um that are sold in addition for at cash value or with a cash cost um in addition to the meal programs. >> Are these all uh prepackaged type of things that we're reselling or or do we like rice? Do we make the rice receipts or do we just have the the prepackaged ones? >> Generally, it's prepackaged. >> Yes. >> On occasion, we do OMC. >> Oh, no. that like all like the ice cream, the cookies, but so the restriction on the app now, I mean, I'm sure it's been there, but there's a restriction on it. So parents like I just restricted

152and I should have done it years ago, but they're only allowed to get two items. It was one item a day and then now it's two, but they're only allowed on Friday, you know, because but maybe the restrictions on the app are too restrictive. I don't know. I mean I parents control, you know. But I mean, yeah, we we had that problem in our house, too, >> but uh but it also could just be, you know, maybe some families are a little squeezed on disposable income and they're not spending money on these >> extra items. So, there's that. >> But I did find out they can bring cash and give it to the and I didn't know that until I saw I said, "I didn't put $20 in there. Where did it come from?" So,

153so I'm learning tricks, but um yeah, they can >> definitely add cash to their account. >> A child can give them. >> So, just to be clear, I thought you were saying the smart snack sales are driving down the meals per hour because they're choosing snacks and that's not counted as a meal that's prepared. But you're saying no, those snack sales are also decreased. >> Gotcha. >> Correct. They're an additional factor. >> Thank you. Yes. >> You need pizza and corn, you'll be all right. Beets and corn. >> Pizza and corn. That's all we got. >> First day of school, pizza and corn. >> Mr. I do like the new bars did ask me. He's like, you know, first day of school was always pizza and corn. Do you think that's what we're having? I'm

154like, I don't know that that's what we're having today. A lot's changed since, you know, >> I think it was pizza. >> I think it was lunches themed breakfastes. I mean, it's pretty. >> If all else fails, that's what we got. >> Yes. Pizza. >> Pizza corn pizza. That's right. >> It really wasn't good either. >> Okay. Um, for bus on time arrivals, >> I think they're I think we we can talk to it. >> Um, we ended last year at 90%. Our goal for this year was 91 and we reached 93%. So, we've already surpassed our strategic plan goal. >> That's arrival to the school. >> Yes. It's not at the stops too. >> Um, >> I'm not going to ask. Okay. Um for this it is their arrival for the getting um to

155the school >> on time their arrival. Okay. The completion of the routes. >> Okay. So if a bus is broken down or there's a missing driver, is that data included in that overall or is that only a functioning and staffed bus? I think if the bus eventually if the the sub the sub bus comes in potentially and picks up students and gives them on time counts as >> so this is all counting everything nothing left out. Gotcha. Thank you. >> Because they have to log in whatever bus they're driving. They have to log into the system for it to begin to to track them. And I I believe our previous strategic plan had breakdowns on it and we we had surpassed our goal so we took it off >> our plan. Uh for the general

156fund balance last year we ended at 8.5%. Our goal is always to have more than 5%. Um and I we don't have an exact number but we are above that 5% at the end of this year. Um and then for technology um Mr. piecing here. The goal is to develop a comprehensive technology professional learning plan. Um, and we are in in progress of developing and implementing that plan. So, we continue to develop and implement a comprehensive professional learning plan centered on technology and education and artificial intelligence targeting completion for the 25 26 school year. Uh, our Flaggler uh schools AI task force continues to meet uh to address evolving needs. Significant progress has been made in advancing AI in the classroom with professional learning sessions, engaging teachers in various subject areas, providing training on tools

157such as Magic School, Conigo, uh Google Gemini, Brisk, and Notebook LM. Um we've collaborative collaboratively developed a a generative AI best practices for both students and teachers and have completed some pre and post uh surveys for uh teacher and student use and we saw a lot of pro uh positive improvement with that and that was primarily focused on background knowledge and perception. So going through those trainings have definitely uh allowed our staff to engage with AI in a different manner. uh as it not being such a big um kind of scary thing. Uh obviously the more folks get to know about it, the the comfort level continues to um improve. Uh we've offered um uh various uh additional learning opportunities including uh pre pre-planning choice sessions uh established a digital learning hub for training needs.

158So this is available to all of our teachers as we continue develop them. We continue to add them. A lot of it comes from questions and answers. Um, a lot of it comes in with responses to our uh Tech Tuesday that Terresa Phillips continues to put out. Um, so she gets a ton of questions back and then we look at those and continue to uh create additional kind of just in time how-tos. These aren't long um trainings but more of in the line of five, six, seven uh minutes to really uh share that knowledge at a just in time level. Uh we've developed tech teams that have been formed for each school to facilitate feedback and training. Uh we did a train the trainer summer boot camp uh this summer with a focus on a

159AI component tools uh creating district-wide device care and acceptable uh use policy resources. So one of the things that we really heard feedback from was teachers um having resources to be able to share just around uh how to use the devices, how to take care of them. So that team actually developed several videos uh targeted both from elementary, middle and high school. So they were generated by those different teams with those targeted audiences uh in mind. Um we have significantly improved staff and student knowledge in the use of uh techn of of technology and we've offered over a thousand training seats uh filled in various formats covering AI digital tools uh and efficiency. So this wasn't just for our instructional staff. Um, we continue to research and learn about the use of AI in education

160by attending conferences, national conferences, um, and participating in the, uh, state of Florida AI task force. Uh, and then kind of touched on it, but just wanted to again highlight the Tech Tuesday newsletter. It continues to get a lot of great feedback and continues to be one of the most digested um, newsletters that we put out for our our staff and employees. When we say that we got it's development the plan's being developed and it's in progress what what is the uh the end date force of completion >> the end of next >> course is the end of this this school year >> okay thank you >> so that's why it says NA for goal for >> just completion >> it's just a yes or no it's not on >> that so that's what I

161think that was a great overview of the impact of your department and there's no question it is a gem and the envy of many districts Um, but I think for here this particular goal is talking about operational efficiency. So I'm wondering if there's an opportunity to maybe uh clarify or tweak it to something under that particular strategic plan um um topic. For example, um how many fewer um uh tickets are coming in about hey I don't know how to use the software or uh what's your number >> turnover time for closing out the tickets >> right number of times to close the the tickets or you know um maybe uh you know whenever we have new uh hires or new software there's always an adoption lag right to our software are we uh is your

162team which I'm you are doing through this PL plan shortening that time to implementation or adoption and what does that look like are we uh and that way all of those things that you do every day are influencing those operational efficiencies but yeah um you know just to kind of identify one to work on and measure the number of and and that progress towards reaching that goal Oh, >> I see. >> Yeah, I was thinking like like similar to plant services, they have ticket ticket orders or ticket times. You know, if there's an issue, so if a parent reaches out or faculty or staff, oh, you know, my Skyward, you know, is not working. it saying my student or my child doesn't go here but you know is that something we could is that what

163we're looking for for you know ticket time operations for technology because that >> I think the um when this was adjusted to be around the technology PL plan was also to ensure that as dollars change and we are not in a position to offer some of the trainings that we've had we're not losing the investment that we've made to our to our teacher not to our teachers to our staff to be able to provide them with professional learning. So you know the team is looking at what are those things we can offer face to face what are those things that are sustained over time what are those things that are now available on demand to them so I think that that is I don't think I know that that is where that was really influenced

164behind because when we start looking at all of the cuts that have been made to the dollars that are available it's it's easy to say we're just going to reduce this prof the profession the area of professional learning learning and reduce the area of professional learning from from technology. But when we look at the data of our teachers sign our teachers signing up for it, but our staff going and asking for these levels of support, we need to ensure that we created something that was comprehensive that would allow for us to continue to sustain those opportunities for for our workforce. >> Totally agree. >> I'm sorry. But in in that though what you're kind of talking about leading I mean it's learning and development to some degree as well out of that instead of a

165true operational efficiency of I call your team member and I need something how long is it going to take you to get it fixed I mean in I mean that's real >> and what I will say and we can definitely change that but what you will find with our technology team specifically is when it comes to operational efficiency there the goals that they have. They're always things to work on. But they are one of the most efficient >> departments in the organization. And so we would just have to be very creative at the target area we need to look at. But here it was a really around dollars may go away. We still have to keep the organization moving and professional learning being provided to them. So we can definitely look at changing this. the

166number of participants, right, could have been, you know, because obviously you have to be quite efficient to figure out how do we deliver PL to a mass of people without necessarily holding conference style sessions, right? Or even I know Miss um Copac, she is on a campus every day all the time in classrooms. How many classes are you able to service? Right. So I think those things could definitely tie into this PL plan. How do we know the PL plan is improving efficiency which in thus uh is retaining or making the best pos possible use of the dollars available. I think that's what we're coming from. I know you have to establish the plan but then there has to be a measure of success from the plan. >> We definitely can bring back some options.

167>> Okay. But I am excited to hear all the things that you guys have been learning and then obviously Tech Tuesday all those items how we can and I see you know on the agenda how we can implement that into our district to make things more efficient. So not only in the classroom but how can we make it more efficient as a family as a district and you know make things run smooth. I think part of it when we talk about comprehensive in my mind a lot of this wasn't that it was directly um pointed at classroom that it was um kind of um a response to the AI task force where we had >> almost a hundred employees that have been volunteering time um to to kind of help us kind of evolve what

168those what those ideas and goals are and not just from teachers, not from just a student perspective, not just administration, but folks from transportation, folks from facilities, folks from uh custodial services. um having those voices and then that's helping to kind of drive so that there's opportunities to kind of connect some of the technology with the day-to-day operations um to take advantage of those because just because you may be very familiar and very good with a particular area of AI if you can't apply it to what your day-to-day work is becomes very difficult to implement those. So, it's such a good value to have folks that are are learning that piece of it to be able to tie it in specifically to the work that they do every day. And as we transition to communication,

169I do want to just take a moment to u recognize um Miss Copac and um Miss Teresa Phillips um as well because you know you several board members have recognized them, but these two individuals um are servicing the this entire district, the instructional staff and not just the instructional staff um but also our entire staff base u with different things and the technology department is a great department but this week alone I've had two parents that have given me compliments on the work that they do with really living out our guiding principles of getting to yes and being willing to work you know after hours or whatever it takes in order to make sure that those devices are in in the hands of our students. and that our our our workforce feels empowered to really

170really utilize them. So, in front of everyone, I we appreciate you guys and we we thank you guys for your hard work because they've been doing it for a number of years, just the two of them. And u we appreciate them and all their hard work because it it's often behind the scenes. >> Okay, >> thank you so much. Transitioning into our final goal, communication. Um, our two metrics are to increase engagement within social media by 5% by the end of the school year and to increase positive perceptions of school district communication as measured by our annual family survey from 82 to 84. Uh, looking at the two metrics, um, it was close for social media. Um, just kidding. um we got up to 681,091 engagements. So we almost doubled our goal for the end

171of the strategic plan. Um and with positive perception on the family survey, our goal this year was 83%. We did hit that goal and our goal is to get one more percent for next year. >> You know the question I'm going to ask, right? If we superseded our goal right by 100%. Why would we set the goal lower than what we achieved for the next year? >> It's they were they were set when we revised the plan last year. We set the the two-year outcome mark. >> And when we talk about the new timeline, you yes, this is just an update of where we were and what was already set. So, we're gonna talk about how do we go forward and we're gonna bring some additional things to you for >> options for us to

172change. >> Yes. >> I thought it was because baby sub caught that 300. >> Yeah. We got all of that. >> We couldn't top that one ever. >> I could that could that could have been 100. A lot of it definitely is content produced, but the other half of it is we've done a lot of hard work between Miss Henderson and myself of doing actual engagement with families and making sure we're very visible and commenting with them even in a public forum when appropriate. So, it's not just that family gets help, but the rest of the uh the market that we're marketing to now sees how helpful we are. Yeah, >> that was one of the things I wanted to bring up was I noticed a lot of times on Facebook or Instagram, whatever, that

173I noticed that one or both of you will respond to whomever has made a comment to say, "If you have a problem, please email me or call me at this particular number and they'll call you and you can get it resolved." I mean, sometimes I think maybe you'll probably get something that is on a private message >> that is more of a public that probably should have been public, but you get a private message to say, "Hey, this has already been resolved." And I know that those are happening, but to see you having that interaction kind of basically live uh is noticeable. I I noticed it. I'm sure other people do too. >> But uh it's just really good to see that we are making that kind of that instant. And I noticed it on

174the first couple of days that we had some bus issues. Call me. Call me. You got an issue. Call me here now so we can start working on the and resolving the issue. So thank you very much for that. >> Thank you. >> Yeah. And I I'll say that's very encouraging just based on the the measure that I personally can can measure from 22 when I started to now and the emails I would get about why aren't you getting at things more out on social media because that's where we are. That was the parent speaking, right? Um emails are are definitely still effective but that that's not where the parents they're they're right there on their on their social media. So, and though I have I don't remember the last time I've gotten that complaint.

175So, this is obviously a testimony that we're we're reaching more >> and we're building relationships with families who are well-versed if they catch something, if there's a question. And that's the one thing I will say is there are a lot of things that we can do better. Lots of things that we can do better. And if a a but for one thing I say confidently if a parent or a community member if they're reaching out to us we are responding. There may be times that you may not like what the response is but we are responding. We respond to our families. We respond to our community. And if you have messaged us and we haven't responded, message us again. Give us a call. You know we got to keep double-checking that spam folder because we

176do respond. And that's what I say to families all the times. I say to our community, they are always welcome to email you. They are welcome to reach out to you, but we don't respond just because they reach out to you. We respond because that's what's best for our students and that's what's best for our community. Um, so this is something we are very we are very passionate about is making sure that if someone reaches out to us, we're getting the information to them and we're getting it to them in a timely manner. >> We actually another side that's give given birth to is here lately. We've had situations that will arise. We'll encourage that one-on-one communication. And um one situation I'm thinking of Miss Henderson, I was just talking about was it was a

177parent who had a concern about a procedure on campus u and very much wanted to question us. Why do we not have x, y, or z? To which I said, you know, we'll look into that. We'd be glad to find out what we need to find out for you. No, we're going to bring this to a schoolboard meeting. And I'm like, oh, excellent. That's exactly what. Please bring it to we want we want you to be heard on all front. So, you know, when the midterm, we encourage them to and hopefully they'll be here this evening with us. So, it opens up all kinds of communication avenues we're excited about. >> And good job with the videos. Like when an event happens, it's it's posted within 30 minutes. So, I think parents appreciate that. Thank

178you. So, >> and the uh on board together, that's also another good one. >> Oh, yeah. That's it's very cute >> with the surfboard and >> keep sharing your content. We're glad to help. I was going to say that's your pitch right there, Don. say Mr. Fley to say continue to show share the information. >> Thank you. >> All right, let's talk about next steps for our strategic plan. >> All right, so we have um just kind of sketched out a timeline for a new strategic plan. You know, as a reminder, this uh current plan will take us through um this school year that we're in now. So, um you just received the end ofear update. uh we are looking to gather stakeholder feedback um and that would include from employees, community members, from you

179as a board um September through de December and during that time we would hold a board workshop so that we can really spend some time um getting your thoughts and direction on uh next steps. We would then work with our departments to uh draft that new plan January through March of 2026 and get the first draft to you in April. um we'd be looking at revisions based on that feedback and our end of year data uh May to June and then final approval uh from you in July of next year. Um this is what we've sketched out. We're looking for feedback from you. Um if that seems like an okay uh uh timeline, that's kind of where we stand right now. >> Okay. >> Thank you. >> Thanks. >> Very good. >> All right. Thank

180you very much for a great presentation. Um board before we move on uh we'll take a five minute recess. >> I'm just going to ask you Everybody back? Okay. Yeah. All right. Now resume the meeting and uh we are going to move on to agenda item uh 9.01 01 AI chatbot and notebook and we have uh Mr. Ding, Miss Phillips and let's go back. >> Thanks. We just wanted to give you an update of some things that we have for testing out or piloting. Um the first one is on our website itself and it's an AI chatbot. We haven't really officially named it yet. It's like ask Flaggler schools, ask AI. We're not sure of that yet, but it's here. We rolled it out first with NGSB, just the staff that was here to have

181them test it. You know, give it a try. Pretend you're a parent, ask questions, how did it do, did really well. We got feedback and then we went out to all the admins. And now it's live on our site. We haven't really promoted that it's there. We just wanted to kind of see what, you know, what feedback they get just from doing it. But it's down in the bottom right hand corner. It's there now if you're on it. But >> you can go play on this, too. >> Yeah. So, if you click here, it just says, "Hi, I'm Ask Flaggler, >> you know, your AI assistant. How can I help you? So, is there a question one of you guys would like to ask a parent? >> Uh, do you need to take art to

182graduate high school? And so then it'll go through and it's indexing or searching all of our sites and it says, "Yes, you can earn a standard high school diploma from Flaggler schools. students need one credit in fine art, physical art, and it went through and then it references the website where it goes to. >> So, um, if it's a question that it doesn't know the answer to, it comes through and it prompts you and says, you know, this information is not here. Please complete this contact us for so up top where we have this contact us. Eventually, that's going to kind of phase out or redirect to have the AI pop up first for them to ask the question and then if it's not there, they'll do that. Sometimes it'll even give you the specific

183person to reach out to if it's like a, you know, if I asked a question about federal funds, it would might route me to Tammy York with a question if I couldn't find it. So, the feedback so far is pretty good. Um, >> well, I got to share one of the first things that I jumped on here and did as soon as we got it up, I put in when is spring break? Because if you look at some of the info of what the searches and things that you get, the number one is always calendar. Um, and it's not always easy to find out those things. So, when is spring break? Put it on your own calendar. How many times you go, man, I don't remember the 20th. >> Literally pulls up in this stuff

184and put in uh it is it's pretty slick. I even uh sat down and asked it uh what are our um hurricane makeup days, right? Because that's a little more obscure, right, >> than what, you know, is is that you know, spring break or not? So even being able to do that, I specifically broke them out, told each single day, uh, and then, uh, referenced the two documents that reference those days. So, uh, it's pretty pretty intuitive and it's done a really good job. Lots of good feedback. We did launch this, uh, within our own staff, administrators, our principles. Um, so there it did bring forth some things that we needed to to work through. It's gotten several updates like just out of date information on the website, not necessarily like pulling wrong stuff if

185the information we had out was wrong. So like that way it's kind of identified a few things we've gone out to fix. This is the um dashboard that we can see as far as uses. You can see it's not super high. Like I said, we haven't put it out, but you are able to go in and I can see all the chat logs. So you can download and look through those and see what questions are being asked and what questions, you know, the responses. You can we can customize the knowledge base. So right now we just have the flag schools website as the one there. But when I can also put in a PDF document of all schoolboard policies like we can add other documents to this that it'll reference as well. Um you can

186even set up the appearance and I can make the tone or voice like I had it friendly and warm first because that's what I would pick but it was really really long long responses. So then we switched to professional and polite and then we did yeah direct just to kind of get that answer is what we've kind of seen with that. So you have some of these settings you know that we can customize for it as well. >> And I see it's bilingual because I put hello and it just came all the way back to me in Spanish but I said English and then it's like okay sure I can speak to you in English. >> Yeah. It'll translate that too. So >> So all of this information is just off our current website. you'll

187eventually be able to just add to that from anything else >> under so one of the things that we're digging through now is which uh web links do we do we add so essentially we can add additional websites or different additional documents to the knowledge base uh that's referenced so um right now it's just flaggler schools but looking at some of those that was a big example that we we talked about was >> adding the the DOE specific >> because a lot of our own documents uh reference those. Uh we'll have our schoolboard policy uh put into those as well. So, not only will the uh responses be specific to Flaggler, but also if they do reference like uh Department of Education reference um any of those things uh as well as statute. Eventually, we're

188going to start building those things out where they're appropriate um based off of kind of what we see uh people searching for and what's uh the best source of information for someone. >> So, will it go into say or docs? Uh how will it get our policies in there? You have the >> physical probably upload a PDF version of all the policies because that's easier for it to search. It could go through board docs, but because that's a separate one outside of it and then it won't do anything password protected. So, like it won't do our local internal sites, but it will go out to that one, but we'll add the PDF of that for it to search through. We also downloaded all of the questions we've gotten through contact us to kind of sort

189through some of those and see what are the most common ones and kind of build up an FAQ document to have up here too that'll just have, you know, answers to specific questions. What I do want to be careful of though is because this is a closed system AI, meaning that we have to make sure the material is accurate and up to date. So I you know we've had in this in some instances pages in our website that reference people who don't work here anymore. So number one we have to make sure that there's a quick turnaround time if we're pointing this as a source of correct information but also in determining what are the new resources we're going to make because then that means we'd have to upkeep it. For example, part of the

190benefit of Neiola is that they trigger and let us know things are changing. If we're going to feed it the PDFs, then that means somebody's got to put it on their task list that every time there's a policy change to download it and upload it. Or if there's a fact document, then if there's something that changes over here, that fact document then needs to be updated. I would just kind of like make sure where we can we can scale and take on those additional pieces and it's a timesaver as opposed to a time spender because that's the whole point here. We want accuracy in information as well as um to time saved for like you know specifically guidance counselors or uh student services. these common questions that that people are getting. Um, but I am

191just blown away at what you guys have created is final site. So is uh >> final site is the platform that our websites are hosted on already and it's like an addon package that they had was askai. So we rolled it out on flagschools.com right now and then eventually it will get rolled out. It'll be it's searching our other ele like our school sites too but we'll have that pop up on the school sites as well. Could you um instead of uploading a PDF, will it read a live document like for example Google? So then that would be an opportunity for our policies, you know, we have them, you know, in a live document so when they get upd updated >> and ideally we'll get most of that information that's pertinent on the website anyways.

192So it's just that'll come up there too. But no, we'll try to keep as much of it live as possible because we don't want to have to be >> Have have you have you found uh did you do any prompts that may have returned inaccurate information yet? Have you seen that happen? >> The only thing would be like a misname. So it would tell me to contact somebody and that person had left, but it was on our website had that name. So then we knew to go in and correct that page and that type of thing. So, we'll do a a review of the website, too, to have each one of the departments kind of go through their specific areas to just make sure our information is updated and current like we do every so

193often. >> What is, you know, when you have a use policy, you know, what what are we what are we saying in the use policy that this is deemed credible or accurate but not guaranteed? Uh I'm just saying because if people are my only concern is is that if people are making actionable decisions based on what the findings back here what are the consequences then at that point when they say well that's what the AI told me you know and and uh that that's my only concern or to look at a a safeguard for something like that. >> The difference here though is this is not AI that's pulling from general data. This is pulling from our website. So if we have put it up in our website and they could have gotten that information

194regardless of going through this AI bot and then we would have been liable for not having that accurate information. So this is different from chat GPT. This is our own closed system >> version >> and we can customize whatever we like you know we can customize the question or the welcome text but it is more off. I think the nice part about this is every time you ask a question, it will reference the material where it found the response. >> It's like so you have access to those links. So specific, you know, uh board policy, if you start asking questions of board policy, it will reference the link where that is housed. >> Okay? And the source, not just an answer is the source. and they get an answer right away because when they hit

195a contact us, I mean, that's >> hundreds if not thousands coming in and there's a few people on the back end answering those and they don't get an instant answer and sometimes it's, you know, we'll get to it as quickly as we can, but there's only right, >> you know, a few people. So, this I think will be and if you know they want to know at 10:00 at night, they'll get an answer right away. >> Is it um does it cost anything or is it hard to do? Is there a reason why we haven't been using this? I mean, I'm just I love it that we have it, but most websites have something like this. So >> there isn't an additional cost for it. They just recently have released this feature to work on

196top of our final site. >> Okay. >> Where it is. >> So it's just kind of as things evolve and come about. I think though that the the people time in fielding these questions as well as the possible retention of students because of parents getting correct answers is is worth you know a particular level of investment here. But I think that to uh your point of our site needing to be updated and you're reaching out, is there a um like for example each department, do they have is there an owner of each page in our site and that when they want to submit changes, is there a ticket system, a form that they fill out, is there a process? Because uh you know to Mr. Furry's point, we now have double duty to ensure that

197this website is accurate. >> Yeah, there's staff from each individual department that have access and can update. And we also have a form um that you can submit from any one of those individual departments and we'll help get those updates. >> So, it's a combination of both. >> And so, >> same with schools, individual schools as well. And how much more did this add to our package or hosting cost for this year for this feature? >> It was like six or 7,000 was what it'll be for the year >> annually. >> Mhm. >> Which I mean when you consider especially just the amount of time it takes a person to hire to answer the number of questions and things that are coming in through there. >> Yeah. I mean you can definitely justify it. There's

198a there's a matrix there, but you know I I just look at you know we're we're we're paying 6,000 great but then um you know chat GPT is can can be free right so I'm just saying is it uh what are the guard this is this providing certain we don't want obviously chat GBT just to go out and look at the whole world but I'm just saying we you know when you get into enterprise everybody wants to charge us a a fortune right and And then you you go over here and you have um you know you have these lower cost you know applications that that do uh AI. So, did we look at some other options outside of front line for this? As far as >> there there's there are other uh options. I

199mean, we've we've been working through this stuff for probably several months. Um, and we have looked at kind of doing our our own and develop them developing them. um the issue becomes is just the the amount of time that it takes to kind of put put into them. And uh in this kind of scenario, we wouldn't want to use like the free version of a chat GBT. Uh we we would definitely need to use u the enterprise version which does follow a cost model. Um and then essentially the the amount of data that you put in and kind of house then dictates how much it costs and then the number of uh quests or queries against it uh continues to instance. So it becomes kind of uh not only manhour time >> um but also

200the the uh the licensing side. >> I mean I I think for at 6,000 it's it's not you know exorbitant in theory, right? I and I guess it's gonna this is one of those ones it's a new technology. How many queries are we getting? Um how many people are using it to to justify the the spend? Um but just just just for comparison because I I you know I know that um like the that like the chat GPT model u it's it's if you go into the enterprise isn't it like around uh like $500 in that in that range? Uh cuz I know I pay $25 for just a personal use. Um you know, and I'm only using chat GPT as the as the example because that's kind of the most known. I know there's

201many other technologies out there, but uh oftentimes when it's just kind of built in, it's like when you buy new when you buy a car, if you get the if you get the upgrade from the dealer, it's always cost so much more. um you know are we paying more because we bought it from the dealer and that we could have got uh got better or the same for you know less annually and get the same results. I would say look into that. >> I say so the the cheapest one that I that we've come across so far was about 4500 and that being kind of set up as a as a framework to develop. Mhm. >> So on top of that, you would still need to do some development to put that in place. >>

202Um I think the attractive piece of this is that it is directly integrated with uh the existing site that we have. >> Um I think in the course of probably the next year and a half, we'll probably be looking at what opportunities we have uh to, you know, re look at the entire web footprint that we do have. Uh we've been with Final Sight now. I think it's coming up on five years. >> So we're right at that point of saying okay well our site our content rest of those. So those that will become uh more and more important as part of those conversations >> that go but just the ease of kind of managing this. So, not only does it uh have it set up where we don't have a ton of overhead to

203put into this um but the maintenance side of it even because it's already tied to the website. As soon as we know we have those pages updated, we know that we're going to be able to uh go through the site and those pages are updated real time access. So, kind of what you're talking about with, you know, uh, scraping sites and those things because that's typically what you would see done. Uh, and then you don't always have control of what sites they're scraping. >> So, the what's neat about this piece, at least in my opinion, is we're able to build out individual sites uh, and links that we deem valuable um, and put them into it as as additional data and reference. So, >> those are the things that I see advantage. Are they the

204school sites all linked into this as well? So, so to all of our This this is not just for our district sites. This will branch out to all of our schools websites >> eventually. But you have it set up right now with the district site, >> right? >> Rev instances that we have. It'll be all of our all of our schools, our I Flagler, um the district site as well as our FIGO technical college. And is this is this is there instances where this could cost more if you have more queries or if you >> No. So that that price is actually the blanket to cover for all of our sites. So right now um as we got going with this that is not what we're what we're paying. That would be full-blown uh across

205the entire district. Right now, we've got it really just tied to flaggerschools.com >> um with the intention of doing similar to what we've done with the district page, which start making them available on the back end so that some of those folks like Flaggler Palm Coast High School when we get to that point, we'll bring that site up uh on the back end. It won't be forward facing and allow those teams to start asking questions that are pertinent that they believe uh would be um you know, needed from their their side. So that potentially then gives them the the opportunity to dig through those and if there is identify information that maybe needs to be updated >> and this site's very parent friendly and user friendly for the public which is why we kind of

206went that route. We do also have flip which is notebook LM which is part of our Gemini AI package that we use in the district and what this allows us to do is we can load up specific documents and it almost is a research tool through it. So, this we put together and we've shared with other people in the district, but it has our digital learning handbook, the code of conduct, it has schoolboard policy, professional standards handbook, any of those official documents and the website. And you can go in here and ask a specific question. It's going to find the answer for you. Cite where it is in all of those documents for you. >> So, that's our internal version. >> This is more of an internal version, but if you look like this isn't

207very userfriendly, >> and you can train each one of those notebooks specifically to a topic. So, you know what I see here is that yeah, chat GPT is a generic, but they're in business for themselves in order to expand that and have their add-ons. Their business model isn't to create something that you integrate into your own software, website, whatever. What I'm seeing here in terms of just the couple of backend pieces from final site is it is blending our site data with the queries and activity that's happening from the AI of which we would have to develop our own um software to track that um or additional software and additionally it is embedding nicely and behaving nicely with our website itself again with no upfront cost or another third party or things of that nature.

208And you know, we did approve a student services whole entire uh position at $70,000 a year, which a lot of the questions that people are going to put in here regarding school choice, uh high school requirements, things of that nature, that one individual can now focus more on the escalated cases rather than the broad outreach of just general information knowledge. And that way we'll get a better return on our investment for that particular position. >> Yeah. I mean I'm sure through efficiency we could clearly justify. I mean >> I just wanted to get some understanding and perspective. So and you did did a great job of doing that. Thank you. >> I think families are going to love this. Thanks. I know a lot of us that are using this document too internally. It's helped

209a lot coming up with those answers instead of flipping through all you know multiple pages to find things. in and the notebook LM piece that we just kind of wanted to highlight was I think um Miss Ruddy talked about this a little bit when when you requested bring some of this info forward for discussion. Um really when you can set the source data uh and reference it like when you do a query here um it will give you direct links into those documents so that you can go back and read the highlighted paragraphs that it references. Uh so you know just been a huge thing uh just background knowledge on this. We we were using this as part of the Neola process. So uh working with Marcus to kind of peel all of these out

210looking at our current board policy with the proposed Neola and then going through and asking questions of this was was just really great because it gave you direct feedback uh looking at those too. So it made it a lot easier. I think when you uh talk to Miola, us being able to do a lot of this within 6 months is pretty unheard of. >> Very aggressive. >> We went at the speed of AI. >> I should have done that. >> We did leverage to help >> and this is available for teachers. >> Pretty aggressive. >> Yeah. >> So this platform LM is available for teachers and students. So they can use it to help them study. It can make podcasts for them through videos or flashcards. It's got a lot of >> Well, the the

211biggest part is to have the guard rails that this thing is it stays in siloed into the data we wanted to to to source. So >> 100% control. >> Okay, great. Any other questions? >> Love it. >> Great. All right. Thank you. Appreciate you. >> Last topic. >> All right. >> We have 10.01 01 legislative platform and we have Mr. John Sarah. Welcome. Thank you for your patience. >> He works in Tallahassee. He's used to >> this. This was enjoyable to be patient, you know, to learn and to see you all work is is wonderful. Um, thank you all for inviting me and having Bob online as we uh present today. Um obviously we hope to fulfill and finalize the platform that we've been working on for the past several months. Um in successfully completing

212the pl the platform the work will allow us to uh provide statewide agree to our own uh local platform and then provide some information to our statewide uh partners uh adding FSBA platform to their so we can have this information for their deadline to participate with uh Flagler County's joint platform as well. and that we were finally included last year because we weren't able to get our information ahead of schedule. Um, remember that interimm committee weeks start October the 6th and will run through January 1st ultimately and then the start of session is January 13th. Uh, and then 60 days of session starting January 13. Uh, before you guys is the document that Bob and the superintendent has prepared for you. Um the first proposal comes from uh Sarah consulting group with a long discussion

213with the cabinet the superintendent for over a month or so and including comments from individual board members who have had time to work with Bob and myself on creating uh issues and working forward towards the platform. Uh in addition, there was a workshop two weeks ago where we were able to discuss some of these issues uh in the open forum. Um and and then second, the second proposal came from Miss Ruddy and we appreciate the work that she has done with discussions from the community and working with Rome priorities is to discuss these issues with us so we can try to prepare and provide a platform issue. Um if there are consensus around the issues or anything other added to the platform, it will become part of the platform as the priority document considered for

214our adoption later. If there's no consensus, it could be brought up to the next meeting. We can bring a motion up for the next meeting. Um, obviously we'll work to forge your platform at every opportunity that we can and the sooner that we are able to put this document together, we able to utilize this both in the community and in Tallahassee as soon as possible. Um, our advice is that the local priority platform um only have about one to three issues. Um, our advice also is that the platform is composed of critical issues that apply to Flaggler schools much more than the average district in the state. We encourage you to uh place statewide issues in the state. Uh we encourage you to uh adopt the statewide issues and send them to our our local

215partners and other organizations. In the discussion draft, the type priority is the rural renaissance that we've discussed all last year being passed and funded this s this this session. In addition to bringing significant recurring revenues to the district, the proposal will allow to strengthen and renew the regional educational consortional organizations which include the Northeast Florida Educational Consortium. Within the proposal, there are sign significant opportunities to improve uh teacher recruitment efforts, career and technic education, all students acceleration of pro programs and improve student performance and statewide exams and graduation. Increase student service programs including student mental health services and guidance. These are some of the items that are supported within the rural renaissance and we hope the passage of that program next year will be able to bring a lot of uh opportunities to the district

216and other districts across the state. The second priority will help retain significant 1.5 million funding for the district as all students served by the district would get a share of that funding and not just K12 students as all students need the facilities. This will preserve meaningful portion of our local funds and the district's overall improvement for the five-year capital plan in future years. Um, if there is any discussion on local priorities, uh, please, uh, if there's any discussion or information and I know I sort of rolled through that. Um if we want to start with the first local priority. >> Okay. So we have uh in board docs a list of the priorities and um what we reviewed last meeting. Uh we also have another proposal um attached submitted by Miss Ruddy as well um

217which is an additional uh special project. Um so we need to to evaluate these here and see if there's consent what the consensus is to move forward with these items. I'd definitely like to try for the Royal Renaissance again. >> Sorry. I'd like to go for the Royal Renaissance again. >> Do we Is there um just I think that's an important piece. We talked about it earlier because I think it does a lot for the district just overall. Um is there a champion this year again? Do we know that yet? Um, we do not know if they will continue to have the same sponsors as last year. Uh, we would hope that they would continue with the same sponsorship, but at at this stage, uh, we do not know that. >> Okay. I didn't know

218if that had already been established yet, been discussed. I mean, it's kind of early, but I'm just curious if they were having the same ones or not. Okay. >> In years past, it would continue with the same folks, but at this stage, uh, we have not seen those bills filed. And have we spoken with um uh Senator Leak and uh Rep. Greco regarding these priorities? >> Not as of yet. We have not discussed with either the senator or the representative until we've had a uh workshop until we've actually had this priorities uh uh voted on by the board and fulfilled so that we would work on the platform with those folks as well as other folks in the community and in the state. >> Is there is there is there seem to be some support

219in the legislature for this uh >> for continuation of the renaissance program? Yes. I mean, unfortunately, at the end of session, um, as you well know, we we we met a wall and had to go into a special session in an extend time. In doing so, uh, some of the priorities that uh, the other leaders pushed forward created um, a delay in this program. Um, and increasing spending for the state was one of those things that created the delay for this during special session. But as um things start to level out, we will be be able to begin to create that uh new momentum. >> I I will say, Mr. Chairman, I spoke last week with uh with Representative Draco on this particular issue because me as a as an individual board member wanting to

220make sure this goes forward and get support from him. So, of course, he is aware of it, but um you know, we just have need to make sure that I have not spoken to Senator Lee as it yet, but I'm sure it's on their radar screen, but I do know that Representative Graco is. Yes. >> Okay. And this was a main priority of the Senate president of last year and unfortunately um it was not fulfilled during the 25 20 25 session and hopefully as we move forward uh during the 26 session um this the Senate will be able to uh work to fulfill their priorities. Are there other school districts that are also um who would have benefited from rural renaissance also putting this on their local priorities? >> At this stage, I do not

221know specifically of those, but yes, there are uh 40 plus uh districts that would uh benefit from this in one shape or another. and several of our small districts um are utilizing this as a way to uh uplift their district and create an opportunity in their rural areas. >> Yeah. So when I spoke with uh your brother on this on several occasions and you know he identified that he feels that the package is going to be relatively the same but uh you know uh we are gambling a little bit because it's not really defined uh in terms of the initial proposal uh when they first brought up the rural renaissance was that it would um preclude Flaggler from some of those funds because they wanted to make get more population based. The latter version did

222not. So that made me more comfortable. But I also don't know how much it might change going into the new session. And I don't know how that works to be quite honest. So let's say that they pick up this this uh initiative from last year and all the documentation that's already around it um and they want to pick up the ball to take it to the next uh down the field more, right? Do they usually kind of start from scratch and say, "Well, let's open this up." Or do they say, "No, let's pick up from where we left off." >> Um, yes. Normally, I would say they will will start at a ending point where we were at the stage that it fell off the cliff, for lack of a better word, at the end

223of the legislative session or during special session. And I have to imagine because I was not in these rooms, but a lot of these issues were negotiated and they got to an ending point and unfortunately it was not part of the ending package or the full package that was provided to >> the House and Senate last year. Um the fact of the matter is is that this does provide us an opportunity to build capacity with our members, build capacity with our friends in other districts, uh learn what's going on with their rural initiatives, >> and also be able to once again, like you stated, we were not a part of this from day one, but with the work that Bob and I and others have done, we have made sure that Flaggler would be a

224part of this rural initiative as it was stated last year. And it will be our our goal to maintain where we were at the um within that package as it was pro proposed last year. >> Can I just say this piece just maybe give you a little bit of um maybe calm out of that would be it doesn't matter what you put forward you're taking a gamble, >> right? >> So it really it does you it doesn't really you could put something else in there. They may not ever pick it up. But it's not like we like this is not an application that we just own like maybe some of our other local park, >> you know. So, um I I agree with that. I think it would be beneficial. I'm just wondering like we

225also don't want to be the only district going forward. This is going to benefit others. I would like to see basically everybody who's going to be benefit uh from this put on their local priority. I think the other thing that's kind of a conundrum for me is that they've said that whatever you put forth, you need to also fulfill 50% of the funding. But this is different. This is unique. Essentially, we're saying, "Hey, you know what? This is so important from us. We're going to put aside another ask and just say if you would just move this across the finish line that that this this is what we would also like to um um again, words are hard. uh promote. >> Yes, ma'am. And and the truth is is that that it would provide us

226with opportunities that we do not have. And I hate to to say it this way, but if we were able to work um if there was transportation in this funding in in this program, it would help us on issues that we're already dealing with with with transportation. And I don't know specifically what those will be, but at the end of the day, um the idea is for the small and rural to give them the ability to make other decisions and provide some opportunities that you just do not have right now. and to work with other um yes, if we had our own um funding uh al request, we would have to if we requested a million, we would have to have $500,000 in a bank account to show our willingness to support and invest in

227that same proposition. This program, because it came out of the Senate and came out of the leadership from the Senate, is just a little bit different. And because our those group of leadership has proposed this, we believe that they're super smart and would provide us with some opportunities. And so we would like to support them, especially since it was their idea. And we believe now that with some help and support and some handholding together with other districts, we can get this past the finish line this year. >> Okay, great. So I think some of what we need to decide because you said you say one to three local priorities. You're trying to keep it very niche, right? You guys had recommended two this one and then the um regarding the capital outlay funds, correct? Right.

228And so was it your position that you were going with two because you're thinking this first one is so large we're doubling down on that? Um the the truth is within this I mean we could have one to three and sometimes and we have not done this but we could have zero priorities relative to a platform. What the platform provides us and an opportunity to do is speak on your behalf, speak with a unified voice because the board and district has decided to move forward on this and it gives us an opportunity to work with both staff and our legislators to to push this this program. Um so really at the end of the day it really gives us a framework where we're able to work and provide opportunity and consistency with the folks that

229we work with. >> Yeah. And so you know when I >> so I am I don't mean to interrupt you. I'm a little bit different than my brother and sometimes I feel less is more than more is less. So I am >> I can understand especially if there's like a big ask somewhere in there. And so, um, I think part of I just wanted to explain why I put a, um, uh, something to also consider is that, uh, in discussions with Miss Moore, this legislative platform is our platform. And so, in our last workshop, you know, we, uh, I was hoping that we would be brainstorming and bringing forth bunch of different ideas that we all want to see growth in from this county, right? And so um after we had some of that discussion

230and brought forward some of those ideas the there was um you know something that I felt passionate about in terms of well you know what could we um also possibly use that third spot for if if in these local priorities and met the criteria of it needs to affect us specifically and we need to be able to um fund it at 50%. And I know Mr. bars has been very involved with FTC, but um and we've seen time and again the impact of the regionalization on um of the uh career uh source program on their funding and um how that funding of them servicing any of our high school students for pre-apprenticeship programs in a district where our unemployment rate is higher than uh the state average. Those types of programs are what is under

231our governor's um goal to be the number one right in career and technical education by 2030. But yet our particular, you know, because we're this middlesiz um teen where we don't we need still need some support, right? that that program needs to be jolted into the 21st century and ex you know being able to better equip the needs of our um employers in the area as well. We have a lot of unfilled skilled uh job openings that are not getting filled because we don't have uh the the community members who have the the skills or certifications necessary to fill them. And so, um, you know, that was the only reason not to tread on what the folks who do this every day know what to do, how to do it. And, uh, you know, obviously,

232um, I just felt maybe there was space because of those changes that had directly impacted Flaggler specifically, uh, and that re regionalization um, for our technical education. Where is so in that are we we can talk about that third one or we need to >> Well, yeah. What what I think we need to do is is you need to talk about a little bit. We have to decide if whether or not we want to bring that in. But one thing one point that at least from from what I did and I miss Rody I I see you did a lot of work on this. So, you know, thank you for doing that. And, you know, career technical education is definitely some an area we want to invest in. Um my only concern on this proposal

233is exactly what you just mentioned that we would have to to fund half of of those dollars in in this special project where the rural Renaissance if we're successful will get us between one and a half to two, you know, two and a half million without a match and actually can address a lot of the items that are listed in in your um proposal here. Uh so it's a matter of how much effort we're going to we're going to uh divide our lobbyist ef lobbying effort on um and and also do we have the the resources to commit half of this project if it got gets approved. So >> Sure. Yeah. So first of all with the rural renaissance right um you know what is that uh $2 million that's going to go fast. We

234probably have a long list there. Transportation items, other items that we've discussed. Oh, maybe it could go into that bucket. Maybe it can go into that bucket. So, um, that's where I thought it was probably important to separate that out for FTC because also whatever investment we do in FTC, FTC doesn't just impact our K12 students, but also as the beneficial beneficiary of the community um, and other adults who might take those programs, right? And so um that's where I felt it was maybe pertinent to say you know what uh this money um um this ask is to support FTC which yes will support our students but also the community at large and that the rural renaissance money is spent specifically that impacts our students only. But in terms of the match and the funding

235um already uh uh the FTC brings in fund funding from Perkins and WEOA and also charges tuition. So what the proposal includes is essentially an initial infusion in order to um attack what is a problem for Miss Kirkland is that um you know they they don't have the people who are if you're an electrician you're pulling in six figures you're not going over there for $20 an hour to teach a class. So we need to change the model where we are providing the theory component online by uh adopting career and technical um um uh curriculum. um it put into an online learning management system supported by instructional designers. But then we can pay more per hour for those particular skilled trades people in the actual lab hours uh and uh you know um essentially divide

236up their time. That way they're they're still spending the time in the skill that they love without spending that time in the the the that content. And I've seen this model successful with the Alabama Community College System. They received statewide funding for their um program to turn um electrician, HVAC, um heavy equipment operator, all of the theorybased content into interactive activities on a learning management system that they needed to uh blend in with the hands-on lab component. and there were um uh the there organizations of skilled people who essentially vetted the the curriculum, right? Um and that it's accurate, up-to-date and things of that nature. Um and then focused that live time in that hands-on reducing necessarily the instructional component uh for these skilled trades people, but they're spending that time teaching them and showing

237them the actual lab. And that would mean also expanding some of the lab um um equipment and materials. So after we get the influx for the transition of the curriculum and that lab, yes, then it's running like before where we're contributing for our uh students who are dual enrolled in the FTC. uh they're receiving Perkins and we are uh what they don't have is the money to transform that program at this point. So, so with that, >> let me just add just one one piece um of clarification for that because um the the instructors unless they are I mean uh even if they are um as needed instructors if they are full-time instructors there those individuals are in the bargaining unit and we would have to make sure that we are going through the bargaining

238process related to their salary. That's the longterm vision. Just putting that out there so I don't want, you know, anybody to hear and think, well, we're arbitrarily saying that we're going to make changes to their salary. That's all. Yes. >> So, we're talking about say our EMT program, our program. So, we have you're talking about they would have to go in the bargaining unit. >> No, no. I'm I'm talking to the comment about being able to pay those individuals differently based on them coming in with the skill and experience. those ones that are full are in the bargaining unit. Anybody that's in the bargaining unit, that's something that we have to go through the bargaining process with. So what I'm hearing Miss Ruddy say is that the investment is really in order to support the

239transferring or turning that program some of those programs into more of a blended model of some of the learning will be done on a learning management system that would have to be purchased adopted unless they're going through what we already have. And then some of that will be lab time where the individual that's coming in is going to be spending time teaching um the skill that they are very very passionate about the hands-on pieces of it instead of some of the things that are required for them. Right now, everything is live. And some of the pain points I've heard from Miss Kirkland is, well, they can get some instructors for the fall, but then they they uh they might go away for the winter because they're technically retired professionals and they're visiting their family. Well,

240if we can change it to where, okay, let's make the hands-on component for when that instructor's available and then when they're not, they're doing the theory content in the LMS. So, >> but I like Oh, I was going to say the LMS programs though, those are very expensive. So, I feel like >> we already have one. >> We have one that >> Well, we run through I Flaggler >> which LMS and then Schooly is technically an LMS as well. >> Yeah. So, we run um schooly we also the I Flagler is Florida virtual school. Mhm. Uh well, Florida virtual school is the curriculum, but the platform they use is is that D2 Law or Canvas? >> No. Um it's not Canvas. It is. It's the one through Florida virtual school. The whole package is through

241them. I'll have to Okay. >> But it's all we only pay we pay one amount, right? Yeah. Florida virtual school platform, >> right? And that's part of that infusion is to be able to get something like that set up and then essentially, you know, um um that the tuition rates to be able to sustain it um over time. But more and more programs are going that way. Um and it's to help us keep keep up to date because we're not going to be able to grow those programs the way they want us to with the current funding that we have. If you've taken a look at what they provided us, >> I'm concerned about that, you know, potentially, you know, long-term losing some of those programs because other institutions will pay the instructors more to

242come in than what we're paying them. But with that being said, there are some I like the idea. I I really really do like the idea. And I want to think here real quickly about how do we get the match piece of this because I know that Miss Kirkland has been working on a couple of different grant opportunities. one from the driver training school potential through uh through the feds and then there's another one that she'd mentioned she was frame if if we can be successful in those two grant opportunities will that count towards this potential 50% or half or whatever or or are we just I know we're rolling dice here but um I don't want to speak and say that I know how the state will react to uh utilizing federal money to

243covered any money in or how >> we're we're bringing this in to help us get to this 50%. We want this money to do this, but we also think that we can bring additional money in to help support >> maybe I'll say it this way. Um how we get the match in the bank to to provide that is up to the board and the district and um I and so if it came through federal money or if it came through local state taxes or if it came through donations >> doesn't seem like it matters much. >> No sir. So in the application it does define federal local like where you're getting the money monies and I kind of like pulled in what they've received through like VIOA and what we think you know obviously I

244want Miss Kirkland to finalize that but I also evaluated against other applications from previous years that did win and they did have >> fields filled in for federal dollars and stuff because otherwise you know where where do educational some of the issues. Up until up until last year, there was not a a uh >> the state was not asking um folks who were requesting an allocation of appropriations to match voluntarily. >> This started about last year both money >> both to create um >> accountability on both the ask and uh fulfilling the desire. if you really wanted a building that the building, you know, you really wanted it. So we tried to raise money locally and then also got money from the state because the state re realized that we could not build a building

245without their help but wanted to see that we had local buyin and then provided but that started last year and that's why unfortunately with our meeting with uh representative Greco and Senator Leak uh at the town hall meeting last year um they expressed at that point that they had received that information and would not move forward with any other appropriations unless there was a >> I mean I think it's smart it's a way to filter so that people you know that the requests coming in are those serious ones I don't know about 50% for you know some of the different organizations depending but you know I I do understand the need for that >> and and just as a historical understanding years ago we didmies and we were able to get $250,000 for the for

246the district the first year that we decided to work on that we actually put it on hold because it wasn't ready for prime time at that point. Even though the information was provided uh our members were just had we had discussions with our members at the time and they believed in the project. Unfortunately, we weren't ready with all of our dots and our our our tees, our eyes and our tees. And so ultimately, we took uh 6 months off. Uh got our information put together and then redid it and it passed the next year with flying colors. Partially because we were able to do some of the leg work before the ask and then when the ask was put in, all the information was already provided and everybody was happy and understood that this was

247a large need for the district. Yeah. So, and with this being said, I think I think we need to see if she can give us the dollar amount for what these grants particularly are particular that she's applying for and would they go into these in this federal match piece. I don't know that it will, but I mean, we need to find that out. Now, the difference is that I mean I know we want to get things in the document and into the the the the county document, but ultimately if this is something that the board would like to pause on and next month if this was something that was it be became an issue that we were able to come to consensus on, um it does not have to be added to that book. it

248still could be a part of our platform and priorities and that those are things that we will share with our our delegation and other members. >> That's good. >> Well, we have it on action for tonight, so we'd have to change that for tonight if we we want. >> Well, I'm I'm saying I'm sorry. We could pass this and have this prepared to go into the the county document. we can get the other um issues agreed upon so we can share with other organizations that we work with and if there are other issues that come up um we might have an issue in November that we do not know exists today um if that happens the board would take action the same way so just because we know about this issue >> um doesn't mean

249that it cannot come back up in November or December the biggest issue about the appropriation is that we are behind timelines as well that the state puts us to have that application in and I believe that's November. >> So we h you have time between now and the November to get to some of this information. >> It just I I 100% want to applaud you, Mrs. Rudd, um for doing this and listening and it goes in line with the the comments and listening to the staff there that I think we've all heard. So, but I do think we going to have to find some of that federal piece if we even got a chance for it. That's all. We're going to have to maybe not agree to that tonight and get the additional information, but

250I do think that this is something that is >> brings value >> too. So, you know, you said it if we're in it to win it, right? And so I think last year, you know, when we all went, we worked really hard and I felt really good about it, but what can we do differently if you know, if we're going for the same thing and then maybe potentially adding on something additional, we need to get our community more involved of, you know, writing to them like, hey, this is why we need this XYZ for whatever we decide. But I'm wondering too, do you feel that this would be enough funding to support this project? I love the project, but I'm wondering potentially. >> It would have to probably >> Yes, that's my $2 million. I

251think the request was like $2 million. So, um yes, I I do think that if it were >> the number of programs that are currently served, like for example, um you wouldn't necessarily put every program in this. Yeah. >> Right. like so you'd um u probably kickstart it, but I think that there there's enough there with um 500,000 you can get probably four sets of curriculum into an an LMS, right? So then essentially the rest of it was going to upgrading some of the lab supplies and uh you know being able to which that's where that's not within my scope of expertise. So I just kind of like went and some referenced um you know some your marks and some convers looking at what her current budget is which I think last year it was

252like a million dollars total is what they got. So she's running eight program 10 pro uh certification programs with a million. So can imagine what $2 million would do for her. >> So if I hear hearing consensus that we we move forward with the platform that we have here and then get more data on Miss Ruddy's proposal to see if it's feasible through federal funding or >> the amount of money >> and then we can we can add that in add that in later uh by the November meeting. Is that right? and and remembering tonight when you come and correct me if I'm wrong wrong, Mr. Delaney, what we have um here for your for the draft and um all of this is what's considered for tonight and then tonight you would make a motion

253around what parts are included and what is not. So, um, we're going to, unless there's something you want us to add between now and and then, this is the information that is is on for tonight, and you will consider that in the motion uh into these different um separ um separator. So, we have those two for the local priorities. We have the things that we're going to send as our state priorities. And then you are considering if you will also include this additional funding um request that uh Miss Ruddy is proposing. >> We just make a motion of how we want to proceed with that. >> Absolutely. Absolutely. >> And so are we as far as the all all the list of items here for our state priorities or state issues are are we because

254the document here as a whole is is it's all-encompassing. Is everybody in consensus on on that or is there items we want would want to remove or >> was the wording updated? Um I don't have the document from last time from the the wording, Miss Ready. You were asking about the wording for one of them. Just >> the number two. >> Yeah, >> that's what I I was wondering if that was updated because that was just the >> Yeah. Um I think that Miss Ruddy and Mr. Um Bob Sarah talked about the language that is here that it covers um not adding capacity but acknowledging um the students toward the capital outlay um >> so what I was getting at is tonight when we're voting we're either going to vote for this as a whole

255document or individual items. Uh so I uh if there's anything that is of concern uh with any of the priorities we we should talk about them now. Um otherwise we can just adopt them all into the uh as as a single document here >> and then the local priorities will be sent to the the local document and then the other statewide issues or it be sent to our community card. Well, that's my understanding is the statewide issues would the onus on that would be with Lauren and uh Miss Chung in order to submit as the legislative liaison. >> Correct. >> Yes. we will be submitting that to their plan for consideration. >> And I personally am excited to see some of the changes like the request to help us um uh with the dis disproportionate

256um payment for teachers on the salary scale. um as well as uh the safe schools allocation to try to um state, you know, hey, if we got to pay for our school protection through that safe schools allocation, uh we cannot pay those collaborative partners in excess with the increases that we receive from that safe schools allocation. So I think those things are um are in our best interest and can only be um championed at the state level. >> Right. >> Yeah. >> And there has been times when it's extraordinary. There's been issues that have been extraordinary where we would put that as one of our local priorities as well as the statewide. But you're exactly right because they cross over so far that it would be best to utilize our friends in other places because

257it could it would require stat statute changes in some cases or at least the exclusion. >> Yes. I really apprec I really appreciate the time that y'all take listening to us and Bob for the hours on the phone and really appreciate it very much trying to walk walk through this and understanding and helping us. So thank you. I think you're online still. >> Yep. and Miss Ready, that I do um appreciate what you did because this is it's true, you know, we want our students to stay in this community and work, but we need the resources to provide the tools and otherwise it can't it can't happen. So, >> yes, thanks M. Appreciate it the effort and um that moves us on now to public comment. >> Thank you, Sarah. >> She said no comment

258>> no comment. We'll move that. >> You have a >> uh board member requests. >> I have one. >> Sure. >> If it's no one else but to my right does. So, uh, I've talked about this before and just want to make this as a topic as moving forward is basically on energy savings for all of our schools and looking at ways that Flaggler schools can be a um, I would use the word energy star program that started in the '9s for us to look at how we can conserve energy more efficiently for and then maybe have some way of working with Florida Power and Light and working with uh, uh, Mr. Mr. Bush and his team. U there are other districts across the state that are doing uh programs like this that I would

259like to see how we can be more efficient, you know, turning lights off when we need to. I mean, just small things to make large impacts on being able to save in this particular part of our budgets and then we can help hopefully start redistributing those funds to where they need to go to in the classroom and so forth. So, I would like for uh for you all to take a look at this uh start beginning that research. I've already provided you with some information, some stuff that I had done over the last few days um and how we can look at um moving forward in those call settings. >> Okay. Thank you, Mr. Mars. Um there are any more requests? We'll move on to closing comments. Any closing comments from the board? >> Nope.

260>> All right. This meeting is a journ. >> Thank you.