001Good morning everyone and welcome to our workshop for May 4th, 20126. Before we begin the work of the district, let us stand for a moment of silence followed by 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. >> We have no public input cards. >> No. >> Okay. Right into the agenda. code of conduct. Uh, who's gonna present that? >> Uh, Mr. Mayberry. >> Mr. Mayabberry. >> Celis. >> And Mr. Celis. >> Good morning. >> Morning, Mr. Chair, board members, superintendent. Each year the uh student code of conduct and policy guide is revised to reflect statutory change changes um policy changes to make sure that we are in alignment
002with statute and policies throughout the code of conduct. that is done by committee and it is a committee of district and school level administrators um folks from our student services department our law enforcement um personnel and then ultimately reviewed by our our legal council to make sure that we are in alignment. Leading that work is Mr. Celis um and he is here to present that to you. He's done a great job of making sure that timelines are followed because this is a quite a lengthy process to get this ready to print for the 2627 school year. We're actually ahead of schedule right now um due to the work that Carlos has done. So, I'm gonna turn it over to Carlos and then we're here to answer any questions that you guys have. >> Uh good
003morning board, >> Miss Corning. >> Good morning. Uh thank you for giving me the time to uh present to you the updates for the 26 27 code of conduct. I want to let you know that um in the committee we have Miss Elizabeth Emory which I put there as a vice president of the LCA. It is a present. So I we're going to review that in the code of cond is going to be the right one. Also Mr. Luke Freeze is going to is the assistant principal in O park middle not east reach middle. So with that being said, the non substantive edits of this year uh for this next school year code of conduct, we have we're finally putting everything regarding the X platform. Anything that was saying Twitter, it got changed to Xplatform.
004Um also uh anything that in the code of conduct throughout that says medical provider or doctor has been changed to licensed health provider. Okay. So that means that anyone with a a nurse that has the license to provide any prescription can also it's not a doctor. It can be anyone else that is licensed to uh prescribe medicine. Uh also we have the section six of technology. The entire section has been revised by um by it to realign for grammar and flow. They just read it. They just put it. They didn't change anything. They just make the changes so it will flow better. Okay. Um again for the summer and basis for proposed revision we want to align with the Florida statute also with our policy and finally the language cleanup and clarification of our code
005of conduct. I'm going to be presenting to you uh statute alignment which is a FL DOE rule 68-1.0955 is the opt out form and uh it is also part of the code of conduct and the opt out form that now is digitally in focus. I'm going to go over those changes uh from those departments that have provide changes for this next school year. um with policy our instructional technology is adopting the new bill that is going to come out or that is coming out at this point about the student use of artificial intelligence AI. So we are being proactive. This is a topic that might be changing a lot in the next several years because we're reacting and but we're trying to be proactive about the technology. So um they are the IT department is
006adapting that policy of AI which is going to reflect in the code of conduct. Um also we are uh we changed the policies 5610 about corrective strategy parenting class and I'm going to touch bases on that in regard on that in a second. Then we have the language cleanup and clarification. Uh for the student services with have the access to student fura is a clean up clarification of the language. The in a school suspension pass cell phone policy and then the behavior range and corrective strategy and disciplinary action. We have cheating, plagiarism, false fire alarm, bullying harassment, threat and intimidation, and level three discipline. I will uh talk about that in a second. And the opt form, we have three options for parents at the beginning of the school year. The first one is a
007communication department's parents release. I'm going to talk about the graduation program. The second part is a student services about information to armed services of military recruiters. And then we have the option three which is the release of a student information for applications required for instruction. It is about clarifying the language and the YouTube for educational application. I'm going to talk about that and um I'm going to try to answer as many question as you can. If not we have people from it here. to help me out. Um, now if we go to our uh you got in front of you the revision, it looks like that. That's just a picture, but it looks like that. Um, the revision for the code of conduct. Okay. Um, student services in page 13, section three, public notice of
008student services align with FURPA. So we have a paragraph where it says that in the event that parents wants a third party who is not legal guardian and the student of the student including stepparents of grandparents to be provide access to student records the ability to communicate with the students teachers or to participate in educational school activities then both parents must provide a principal uh provide the principal prior reaching authorization. So furpa doesn't have that. Okay. Furpa allows a parent to come to the school and say I want this person stepdad stepmom grandparents to engage in the students record. So we are aligned with furpa law. Um and this was placed many many many years ago. So I we're we're just aligning with with that. Okay. So um in page um 28 just a clarification
009in the cell phone policy we are taking away and we're changing the word secure instead of leaving the store. So when the student are putting away their cell phone we're saying that the students have to put them in a secure in a boot pack. So there is not a if I store in my in my in the back of of of my purse or the backpack, it has to be secure so I don't run into a problem of taking out a book and the phone jumping out of my book bag and then I get in trouble. So we are trying to make sure that it's secure. And also we're taking away the part that says and this doesn't change anything with the with the statue. We're taking away the part that says as designated by
010the teacher. We have so many teachers and the designation by the teacher of an area to put the or what that means to put away the phones might change from not just from department to department but from one classroom to the next. So what's that? Is that the backpack? Is that a another place where you know locker class uh uh area in the classroom? So we're taking that away. So we clarify that language. Um then we have the part of AI and it's going to be lengthy so please bear with me. In page 30 it to align with the statue we have put two parts of the AI. One is about the academics and the second part is the nonacademic. Okay. And we have mentioned that the students students use of artificial intelligence AI students
011are expected to develop their own knowledge, skills and understanding of course material rather than relying solely on AI tools and they should ask their teachers when they have questions and or need assistance. Students may use the AI tools for academic purposes when specifically and clearly permitted by their teachers. The use of AI must be properly properly disclosed and cited in accordance with established guidelines and not be employed to undermine authentic learning and learning objective of the course or assignment. Okay. Um if the student have any question about whether they are permitted to use AI tools for a specific class assignment they should ask their teachers. Unauthorized use of AI tools will be considered a form of plagiarism, unauthorized collabor collaboration or mis mis representation of AI generated context as original work of any student found
012using these tools without permission or in a prohibited manner will be disciplined in accordance with the code of student conduct and policy 5500. Approve of use of AI as accommodation under IEP section 504 plans or English learning support plans are not prohibit and it is creating best practices to share with our faculties in the schools on how AI should look like. It's extremely different from a English class to a Spanish class to a culinary class the use of AI. So as so dictating something specific about AI will either make it too difficult. So but it is creating a best practices in how to deal with AI in the academic part. Now the second part is a nonacademic artificial intelligence AI and students are prohibited from using AI to create modify or distribute files or misleading
013depictions of any student, faculty, staff member, volunteer or schoolboard member. This include the use of AI to generate derogatory, threaten or offensive visual or verbal content. This applies to the distribution of such material through any platform including social media and private messages regardless of whether the student create the contact or obtain it from another source. So later in the presentation I'm going to talk about where in the code of conduct in the codes land the violation of the academic and the violation of the no academic of use of AI. in page 30 also uh I the the IT department is aligning the FL DOE rule 6A-1.0955 where in that page says that any parent that elects to opt out of their student data being shared with the online education application as provided in rule 68-1.0955
0140955. An applicable law might be might do so by selecting the option opt out of application not required by law on the parent opt out notification form located in the parent portal of the SIS or in the website. If the parent guardian does not have access to computer, any such opt will be administered in the matter and to extent permitted by law and might require alternative assignments or assignments or assessments. Okay. later in the at the end of the presentation. Um this is going to be more clear in the opt out form and it has express uh much in a better way that what is in the code of conduct in page 33435. Uh in page 33 we have the prescription prescription of medication bullet point 4 uh letter M medication is to be administered
015at home unless a licensed healthc care provider specifically directs it to be given during the school hours. So we're not uh student services is telling the schools the nurses that that medicine will be given to the student with the doctors or sorry a licensed healthcare provider that specifically say there has to be during the school hours. Um there I show the changes of medical to health care. Um in page in about required medication management plan also a student service has modified the part that says that parents must provide up todate medical documentation at the start of each school year instead of annually. So the the nurses can just concentrate that school year and you don't have to worry if I did it in October, I have to find, you know, follow up at next October
016to make sure that I'm doing the right thing. Um, in page 45 in a school suspension pass, we're taking away which we took several years ago. Um, all the parts that says social and emotional. Um we did it seems that we didn't catch that part. So we are clarifying that part. We're taking a while the pass in a school suspension the social emotional piece that we took before. Now in page 43 457 48 and 50 we're taking away as a corrective strategy the parenting class. This parenting class was put in place many many many years ago when we have I think it was um um >> when it was lake academy >> lake academy and they have a parenting class where the parents could take in lie of discipline now we kept that there we
017don't have any longer the class and parents are getting extremely confused and say I want to take this class because I want the referral of my student to go away. Well, first of all, the class was never for that purpose. It was for the purpose of the ISS or OSS if the parent took the class. But we don't have the class any longer. So, we took that away, which is going to alleviate this principles and assistant principles and deans to clarify what is that class. It was live live stream. >> Yeah. >> Uh that have that. So, we're taking that away. Then in page 47 about cheating, we're adding the part that says disincclude the misuse of AI artificial intelligent to submit AI generated content as their own work. So we're reflecting the academic part
018of the use of AI in a way that shouldn't be used in that classroom with cheating. We are also reflecting that part in plagiarism. Both of them are level one which it says this included misuse of a artificial intelligent to submit AI jurinary content of their own work. Okay. Then in page 50 in level three I last year we added this part in level four and zero tolerance and I'll take responsibility. We didn't put in the level three which the code of conduct allow the principles to alternative place the student. We're just saying that if the student is being looked for alternative placement if the student is recommended for alternative placement the student shall be suspended for 10 days. We did change it last year for level four and zero tolerant or we clarified last
019year. We're revising and updating the level three as well. In page 51, level three, false fire alarm 911 calls, we added the Alys's alert. So if any student get a hold to one of our strategic or whatever alicus alert we're using in the county and they start pressing it that will be in the code of cond refer reflecting the code of cond conduct as a violation of false false fire alarm calls if it's a if it's just a false one. Okay. Um then in page 55 now we're reflecting the nonacademic part of the AI misuse where we're going to say in the bullying the use of artificial intelligence to publicly or privately humiliate another person. Okay. So if the if the student is using AI to bullying we have the code changed. So we can
020um discipline the student according to the code of conduct. Also the harassment including artificial intellig intelligence also could be part of the harassment and also could be because I can use the AI in a threat and intimidation manner. We included the artificial intelligence. Okay. Now the last part of my presentation is the opt out form which is the next piece of paper or handout that you have there. Um the communication department in the OPTA one has added a part that the consent this consent applies only to the users described above and might be revoked prospectively by written notice to a school or district. So if they opt out and then they change their mind they can do that by do by following those instructions. Okay. Then the last subtype form it says name included in
021any live stream or recording of the high school graduation ceremony or in the graduation program whether share printed or online. So they can if they opt out about that but they also about the program the online/printed program for graduations. Okay, the optal two it says we added that for students in 11th and 12th grade this include the release of a student name, address and telephone numbers to the armed services and military recruiters. Not every year but many years sometimes the recruiters come to the schools and ask for the director of those student 11 12th graders and we are asking the parents if they don't want us to release that information to the armed services and military recruiters just to opt out. And last but not least um we have the opt out three which is
022the related to the to it about the student information application required for instruction. Okay, which is I'm I'm also citing or we're also citing again the rule 681.0955 0955 where it says the online educational application used for instruction might use a student data for rostering authentic authenticification sorry and progress monitoring in accordance with the rule 68-1.0955 0955. The district shall provide parents access to information requiring require online educational services that use a student data and any application parent choices concerning a student information. And then we clarify by saying any parent that elects the opt of the student data being shared with online education application not required by law. Okay. So those are the one that are not required by law. The ones that are not part of our students suite of applications uh that does
023the day-to-day learning might do so by selecting the application the option opt of application not required by law below. Opting out of the application not required by law might require students to complete alternative paperbased activities and assess assessment. Examples of the application required by law include digital version of textbook adopted by Lake County schools, the student information system, the single sign on portal, Google workspace including filter YouTube contact etc. And please click here if you're interested in reviewing the detail of the Lake County schools application required by law. That link is going to be live when we roll this by it is going to have the list of that and the parents can make a educated choice if they want to opt out if they are in agreement. And it says also please be advised
024that any changes to the selection will be required 24hour. um processing time. Um and then at the end of the opt we scratch off we took out the leg to the opt of the specific application for other reason and please list the application for which the student is opting out. It says that that the parents start picking left and right. I want out of Google but I don't want out of focus but I want out of this but I so it is mainstreaming this process to have a better process to start knowing what application the students opt out that is not required by law if you're required by law those are the application that I just mentioned or the sorry the it put in the opt out for. With that being said, and I know
025that I talk about a lot about the IT and my friends are back here, but I hope I did a good job to to tell you uh the in the best of my abilities what they changed and they want to express. If you have any questions, uh you know, this is the time to ask any question. If you don't, I appreciate your time. >> Board members, >> I have a couple. >> Yes. >> On the opt out notification, the part about recording, I assume you're talking about the official recording that's done by the school. Correct. >> Correct. the the official recording that we do provide a live life live feed to parents or to grandparents or to whoever is away. Yeah. >> Gotcha. >> Yeah. >> How does that display? How does that take away
026our liability when another parent since this doesn't make any mention that it's our recording? Say if another parent is there and they record the graduation and they put it on, I don't know, social media. How does this save us against the liability of that happening? >> All right. Um I can talk to Sherry, Miss Owens, to um to to reflect that part. >> Okay. >> I I think that's a good point. I think that is billable. So we can say that is the live stream or the provided by >> I think we need to point that out that we're talking about the official one that we provide because you know everybody has a cell phone. Everybody records and they love to post it before we get out of the >> so yes we will just
027added that so reflects that part. >> Okay. Um and on the medication just for clarification I understand about and I agree you know we shouldn't be giving medicine but do we need to state or do we need to be very explicit and make sure parents understand the example that I would give you is a lot of time doctors write prescriptions that say to be given three times a day. Now you and I know you can do that at home. You don't have to give the medicine at school but parents don't understand that and that's their argument usually when they come in. you know, this means my kid has to get medicine in the middle of the day, which is not the case. >> Yeah. >> So, if we're going to ask parents to adhere to
028this, I think somehow we need to make it clear that those words have to be included, you know, that it should not be given during the during this school day because parents don't get that sometimes. >> All right. So, um I'll get with Dr. Lander. I hear that maybe we might put something that adds that it has to be part of the prescription that says >> exactly >> that says that the medicine should be given at 11:00 which is lunchtime or 12:00. So I will put something that reflects that part which it makes sense that the prescription of the doctor has to expressively said >> okay >> that they have to be during the school hours. >> Is that something normally done that they would give a specific time? I no >> I don't think
029so. >> I don't know how you would >> I've I've seen that I've seen a specific time for for a student in the past that I taught. Um but >> I I I don't know if three times a day I almost feel like one of those times falls during the school day. >> Correct. >> Well, now I've had doctors tell me that it doesn't that a parent can get up, you know, before the child goes to school, they can give them the medication. They can be in school all day and as soon as they return home they can have the medication and then they can have it again before they go to bed. So that equates to three times a day. But I think we have to be very clear because most people interpret it
030exactly as Mr. Dodd said. >> Okay. No, no, clear. >> Okay. We're going to have a phone or friend. >> Hi. Good morning. >> Um we are really not talking about the three times a day. Um what we're having problems with is >> um more advanced medication. Say for example a steroid that says give every 12 hours and occasionally a parent will say I gave it very early in the morning and I need you to give it at the end of the school day and we're really not comfortable with that. The three times a day we do really interpret as we're going to give the lunch dose. So it's really um just those medic medications that are a little bit more um advanced. >> But I do like your idea. We are going to um
031clarify. >> Okay. Because I'm not understanding how we if the parent says I gave it to him 12 hours ago, how do we say well we're not going to give it? >> Well, that's why we're putting in here to say unless it says that we it must be given at school or during school hours, then really we expect you to give it at home. >> Okay. >> So, parents are going to be told that when they visit with their doctor, it has to be specific or it's going to be expected that it would not be during school days. If they just came in with a bottle, then >> it just has to be specific. >> It has to be specific. >> Yes. And if it just says three times a day, we accept that as
032morning, lunch, and end of the day. It's not really that one. Or is that going to confuse people? >> Yes. I think it's going to confuse people because you're saying that it's the >> it's the medications that are more intense, I guess, is the word. I don't know. that you're really concerned about, >> not the one three times a day, >> right? >> It seems like there's there um dosing schedules that are avoidable to be during the school day and some that are not three day three times a day. You probably can't avoid that. You're going to have something, but twice a day you can probably avoid that. So, it seems like that's what we're trying to target. The ones where the parent could really devise their schedule at home to avoid the school dose,
033but they for whatever reason choose not to. >> Correct. And if what is wrong with getting the dose at the school? >> What is the issue? >> Um our clinics are very busy and typically those higher more intense medications. Um we just prefer that a dose be given at home as well. I know if we're talking about steroids and and you're welcome to correct me if I'm wrong, but Jace has um on occasion had to do a steroid treatment and we have a nebulizer at home that has to be plugged in. It takes 30 minutes >> to sit and inhale the steroid and then he acts a little bit wilder when he finishes. So, we go outside and run around the yard 87 times because he can't I mean, I've taken it myself whenever I've
034had an upper respiratory infection and it makes my heart like beat rapidly. like it bothers me to even have to give it at all. So, I don't know if that's an example, but it takes the machine, it takes the inhalation, and then it sometimes can modify their behavior. >> And if they're giving one dose at home, it makes sense for us for them to do both doses at home. >> Is that the example you're talking about when the >> steroids? Mhm. >> Yes, sir. >> So, in that case, they would have to bring a machine in. >> Yeah. And we do have we do have that on some of our campuses um because the doctor says they do need a midday nebulizer treatment and we do do that. But unless the doctor specifies it, we
035really prefer parents handle it at home. Just better for the for the student. >> It's better for Jayce. Whatever we're deciding, my concern is that we just be very specific. >> Okay. Exactly what we're saying. >> Make sure that it's clear. Yes. Yes. Yeah, it seems it seems like the maybe a little more thought to the wording because it >> Yeah, >> it's kind of up in the air whether to do it or not do it, right? >> Okay, let's do that. >> Last question. >> Okay, >> back to the cell phones. Um, just because I'm not real clear. I I understand what's written, but I'm not sure how that takes care of the problem that the parent came before the board for. remember her concern was that her child's cell phone fell out and
036she picked it up and she was charged or was whatever the teacher or whomever so thought she was violating the cell phone policy. I don't really see anything in here that clarifies that >> the secure part. So if >> can I just interrupt? So I met with the parent. She and I had a very long conversation. We went through the verbiage together and this was her recommendation was to take out the word stored and enter the word secured. Um in her mind that would have had the have the child secured the phone. Um the then it would have not resulted in the disciplinary action that was taken. So she that was her recommendation that I agreed to. Um and also the removal of as designated by the teacher just to make it more her concern
037was child goes to one classroom they say no put it in your book bag they go to the next room and say no put it in your pocket. So we took out that verbiage and that was all based on her recommendations. >> Okay. Well I think that's excellent cuz to take it out based on the teacher because that way they could have six different ways. Um, I'm just not understanding how changing from stored to secured would keep something like that from happening. But if she's satisfied and we're good with it, so am I. But >> yeah, >> I mean, if it's in the backpack and it falls out, it falls out. >> Yeah. Yeah. >> Correct. And that meets the definition of what we're using as secured, right? I mean, you secured it in the
038backpack. It fell out. >> No, secured that. >> Which word are we changing? Did they be in violation? >> Security storage, >> right? But we're not changing what they have to do. >> Secure mean locked. >> No. >> Yeah. See, that's my question. >> Secure would mean like in a zipper inside of the case. >> Yeah. So, how do you secure it in a pocket? >> Right. >> Mine's secured. It's not going to fall out right now. >> Is it stored in your pocket? >> It is. And secured secured exceeding expectations. >> Where's your phone? >> It's in my pocket. >> Let me see how it's secured. >> It's secured. It's not going to fall out. And and >> is it just stuck in your pocket or do you have it like zipped up in
039your pocket? >> No, it's just sitting in my pocket >> sitting in. >> But I'm be more like stored. >> It's secured. But administrators, you know, administrators are not jumping to to come after kids for dropping cell phones. It fell out. You know, if it's multiple infractions, which I understand in this particular case that we're talking about was like third or fourth. >> Okay. >> You know, a little different. >> Yeah. I think the investigation of the administrator dean in the situation, >> it wasn't as simple as what it was >> made out to be. It didn't just fall out and now she gets hit with discipline. It's >> okay. >> This is the fourth time we've had to talk to you about your phone type thing. >> Gotcha. >> Thank you. >> But to
040Mrs. Cunningham, the defining of secured versus stored, it to me, if you put it in your pocket, you're storing it in your pocket. secured has a different level of of care to be taken. >> There's behind some velcro semantic. It's not going to fall out zipper snaps. He's made sure it's not going to fall out. >> Yeah, I've ensured that my phone will not fall out wherever it's stored right now or secured on my person >> and you're not a middle schooler, right? So, my question the semantics part of it is what you just said. That's it's it's interpretation. And so what I think I heard you say is that we're trying to eliminate the interpretation, but I don't think we've eliminated interpretation. And I don't think that this is going to prevent anybody from
041going from one teacher to the next teacher and having different expectations for phones either. So I don't know what the point is if I'm being really honest with you. If the point is to get a consistent understanding of cell phone policy, I feel like that should come from the leadership at the school. I are we trying to tell teachers like if you see a phone, you're going to write a referral. Are we trying to tell them uh you know give them a couple of opport stuff that probably should be discussed in a PLC setting that probably will differentiate depending on the level of the building that whether it's K through five or 6 through eight or 9 through 12. I I don't I've had I've had upper upper teachers tell the students like I'm not
042going to dictate to you guys are adults and you're great students. I've also had people say I if I see it you're out the door. And if the point of the cell phone rule is to increase engagement in instruction, then I do think we should be supportive of those conversations. Like if a teacher says, "I don't want to see your cell phone," we should support them in that. So I I have lots of feelings about the cell phone. But I don't think this wording, and this is no, I mean, I think we're all kind of in uncharted territory similar to the AI. That was my question coming up, too. But I just if we're looking at discipline versus non-discipline, it's got to be a there's got to be a complete understanding with full backing with
043what we say, >> right? And and honestly, that's the case with a lot of the discipline codes that that we deal with because I'm sure, you know, we disagregate the data and we see we're we're getting close to the end of the school year. And >> you you can see where uh one school their focus really is like tardy sweeps because they have this many referrals. And another one is cell phone infractions. They focused on that that year. It just becomes an administrative focus depending sight to sight. So >> I don't think the students have as much a problem with it as the parents do when they get disciplined. >> Yeah. Okay. So, what did you just say? >> Right. I that that I don't I agree with you that semantics are still within this
044the way that we wrote it. So, I don't know that to me I'm with you that secured means like it's not going to fall out. >> Mhm. >> I went and put my pocket secured. I did drop a phone in a toilet at Walmart once from my back pocket. >> No, that was not secured. >> It wasn't secured. >> But it was in my pocket, which is your definition of secured. So, it's just in >> for me. >> So, what did I just say? I don't know. Summarize it for me. Oh, no. What? Actually, cutting started. >> I'm sorry. And you know what? I I forgot. I do have another one. It's not about the cell phone. >> Wait, wait, wait. So, are y'all going to go back and rethink what you put here? Is
045that what we're asking? >> I don't think it matters what the word is to be honest. >> That was my position on it. It was to me it didn't matter if it was stored or secured. I think Well, what I know is that our schools have done a good job of of coming together and what does this mean for us? they've developed um the discipline ladders that were adopted through the teacher um advisory group and all of those are in play. >> Good. And so there is some consistency within a school typically um and across the district as middle schools met together through those committees to talk about developing this ladders and >> I think that >> yeah we are starting to align and with what she's speaking about with our discipline ladder and matrix
046and and all of that we are getting representation from um all schools in that to to develop that and it's >> this year they review it again to make sure that they're not going too drastic one way or the other. So they it's a working document that we're revising every year, the latter, so they share it. >> Okay, very last question. >> No worries. >> It states that only high schoolers will use their cell phones during instructional time. Do we no longer have middle schools who utilize cell phones during instructional time? >> Correct. last year uh when we were when I was we were sitting at this moment last year, we were proactively changing to that because then in the summer the house bill passed where it says that elementary school and middle school are
047prohibited of use of the cell phone >> during instructional time. >> Correct. >> Okay. I'm sorry. What statute was that? >> Ah, >> you can text it. Okay. Are you not not during the school board meeting though? >> No. >> Yeah. >> I will send an email to >> That's fine. >> Can I ask one question? >> Can I ask a question? >> I Mr. Dod. >> Oh, go Mr. D. You're done. >> Oh, well, if it's related to that or something. >> No, no, no, no. All right. Well, I have a couple questions. >> Uh, okay. So, let's talk about AI for just a quick second. And I'm I'm focusing I'm honing in really on the non-academic use of it. Uh so students can't use AI to modify or distribute false misleading depictions of
048students. Um and and so so my wondering here is sometimes you get I don't know student groups to I don't know they get together and they're let's say the football players are all making themselves use AI to to look like superheroes or something like that or or um somebody's trying to I don't know eliminate somebody's cast from somebody's arm right in a picture. Um, so so in in or or how about let's say Instagram with a dog filter, right? Suddenly everybody in the picture looks like a dog, right? Um, so none of that would be allowed under this regardless of whether it's malicious or whether it's consensual or any of those. It is if it lands on the bullying harassment. If the victim is feeling harass or bully or threat threatened by that Instagram by
049that, >> right? >> Then it it comes on the on the code of conduct, >> right? So So the bullying part is included in there. >> But the way I read this first line is that you can't distribute any false or misleading depictions of a student or regard. So, so like so like group of friends, right? They all, hey, hey, let's make ourselves look like dogs using this this whatever the filter. Haha, you got you got ears and and a tongue hanging out. And then they they they text that picture to their friends. That's that's essentially AI created. >> They want a phone. >> And um >> yeah, >> and and clearly in that context, it was not malicious, right? They've got the consent of everybody in the picture. Um but you know kids kids
050use kids use AI all all the time now to you know make their group of friends I don't know like superheroes. >> Yeah I will talk to it. I think that if we put something in the code of cond hasn't been it's not consent it's not consensual you know because I can be part of that to make me look taller or buffer or not you know but but we can probably put that then that says you know there is no consent by the >> yeah I think my my when I'm interpreting I think the the intent of this policy we're looking against the things that are you you know, distributed non-consensually or the things that maybe would be conceived as potential bullying or harassment or um you know, doing something in a derogatory manner. But
051I guess >> so maybe something as simple as without mutual consent, students are prohibited. Boom, boom, boom. >> Yeah, maybe maybe that's it. >> Okay. >> You know, cuz Yeah, that that makes sense. The other part, right? like if I'm part of it, I'm not violating the code of conduct if I'm we're doing a something that >> yeah, you know, maybe maybe in a theatrical production and we're we're built we're creating, you know, some sort of play bill for that and suddenly I want to AI a background of me, you know, or something. I I don't know that >> I think there are responsible uses of it, right? And then there are some that, you know, cross the line into what would be really a code of conduct violation in my mind. Uh my other
052wondering is many of the offenses as we get towards the back of the code of conduct, some of them have stipulations that they're reported to law enforcement, right? >> I I guess all of those must be driven from state rules or cessor or something along those lines. >> Three years ago. Yes. >> So is there anything that might prohibit us from deciding that we want to report some of all of these to law enforcement? for instance. So, as I'm thinking about tobacco and vaping violations that are occurring in bathrooms um in a school, I've from what I understand, some administrators will just take the device and send the kid back to class and maybe there may or may not be even any discipline that goes with that. Sometimes there is discipline that goes with that
053and sometimes it gets reported to law enforcement. We're all over the board on what happens with that. Yeah. >> And so um >> so if >> I'm just wondering >> if the code says that you must report or consult with the law enforcement that was given by Cesar about 3 years ago that they changed all that and they put up and we update the code of conduct that year. So they should be I mean they should they must consult law enforcement if it's one of those. >> Right. Right. if it's not the assistant that the the discipline officer has the right like if they believe that it could bring you know they could bring law enforcement at any time to consult on them on any code whatsoever. It doesn't have to be only sensors. >>
054Yeah. I guess my wondering is if so, you know, Joe and I sat in his office one day and pulled up the uh the the Halo um reporting of one of our high schools and and the vape violations in in a bathroom and there were just hundreds there were literally like hundreds of alerts that that thing was was sending off. But then when we look at the actual reporting or findings, there's like two violations for the whole week and you say, "What is happening here?" And I and I've I've you know I very familiar with some of the students who have been in those bathrooms and they say often times the administration will come in and they'll just oh they'll take the device and send the kid back to class and then they say well
055gosh why is the penalty greater for being late to class than it was to be vaping in the bathroom. Yeah. >> And so my wondering is how do we create some teeth around that where the administration can't just take the device and send them back to class. >> Instead they have to actually address that when when that happens. Well, the the administrators by taking by having cesar you know they they they did the certified assessor disciplinary officers they should be doing every cessor. It doesn't matter what they should be doing. If he if he meets the definition of tobacco, they should be carrying on with with the discipline or the coding. The discipline, the outcome of the discipline might be different, but the coding um we meet with the assistant principles, deans every July to
056train them, to revise, to remind, to to re you know, say it again. And I will make sure that I have a slide that says the cessor. It doesn't matter what it is. Um, if we have a knife, it's a knife. It doesn't matter. Gray, if it's a tobacco, it's a tobacco. It doesn't matter what it is. And we have to follow because that will bring down the province of Well, he Yeah, the AP saw this person didn't get a referral. So, yes, I will revise that. But yes, they should know all of them should know that they have to that's that's that's the code and the assessor is and they can call me and say hey Carlos is this tobacco or not I will revisit bounce ideas but if it's tobacco is tobacco if
057the law enforcement or the babe said that it's tobacco there's no there's not a warning and >> yeah I guess the problem is they don't have to turn those over to law enforcement based on this code of conduct. And so, you know, if the law enforcement catches them, then they'll get the citation for it. But if the AP catches it, they might just say, well, the com the popular phrasing is put away your white out and go back to class. >> That's not white out. >> So, but that's what's happening. And so, so, so I I don't know, maybe this is beyond a code of conduct. Maybe this is a different sort of >> it's it's more about the >> it's about >> following the the Cessor rules of >> if if the the kid
058broke the Cessor rule. >> Right. Right. >> This is what have to happen. >> Okay. Uh and and again because we meet with all of them or most of them trying to say it many as many times as we can that we need to follow the assessors and if they broke a cessor rule or any rule but definitely the sessor we have to follow suit on that regard. >> Yeah. Okay. Okay. I I only one question and it's maybe more of a statement than a question but you had mentioned that um the IT department who was amazing educational partners in in regards to professional development with um the use of AI in the classroom but is our curriculum instruction department like our is that department looking at doing some teacher training everybody is nodding okay
059I just didn't want it to just fall in that role I think we probably even have some teachers that have really embraced it and are doing amazing things so I just wanted to make sure >> yes >> thanks >> I've got no comment so Thank you. Thank you. >> Thanks board. >> Thank you. >> Now then we'll have well um wellness way discussion with Mrs. Randall. >> Let me skip the >> student pressure. >> Oh, excuse me. You're not stay where you are. Student progression plan says sorry. I'm just going to let Francis start here for support and answer questions. >> All right. Good morning, board and Miss Cornnegie. Um, here for my annual student progression plan updates for the 2627 school year. Hopefully, you all received the revision summary as well as the whole
060doc that was redlined. I did notice one revision and didn't end up redlined in my printout. I I I don't know at this point if it got to yours or not either in the middle school section, but I when I get there, we'll address that. Um, House Bill 1279 was signed late Thursday or sometime Friday. There are revisions in there that will most likely need to make it to the student progression plan. um one was simple around language around identified deficiencies in K4 and involving making sure that the new world's reading curriculum is um used with those students or introduced. Another one of note that definitely I'll have to add some language in here once it's decided is the uniform waiting of courses among districts. Um, so when we get to that, whatever the state
061decides will be the uniform weight, we would need to change ours. If ours is not in line currently with what that is, I have a feeling it's probably not. Um, but I don't know if they're going to pick a 4.5 for honors and a five for AP still enrollment or if they're going to pick a five and a six. I don't know which way the state's going to go. we currently do 456 and if they do four 4.55 then we would have to change that notation in the student progression plan and then look at how does that affect all the things. So that language I I read this morning I was like oh okay so that's something that we'll have to um address most likely when that gets determined if we're outside of whatever um
062the state decides. So, those are the couple things that I just um scanned quickly today when I got back in office. Um, as you know, we do this based on statute. All those different statutes that get passed every year and all the different laws is what gets reinccluded into this and that's why we update it annually. Um, besides just changing it for our different practices and procedures as a district. This is our student progression plan committee. um they all do a great job of going back through this document every year, finding all the different things that we've just not seen after we've read it 40,000 million times or making actual updates to our policies. So, as far as non-substantive edits, um throughout you'll see grade level clarifications and cohort year updates. You know, now things
063will say starting 23 24 school year as opposed to 22 23 when you think of those nth grade cohorts. Um the links to the handbooks have been updated as those links change within the systems and then the language has been changed for clarity. Um we found a lot of capitalization errors this year. So I changed all those and fixed those. So I didn't make that in your um giant massive document. And then the updated tables for the statewide assessments concordance scores. Um we did kind of go into that a little bit in the in the change document. So we'll kind of talk through those. One thing that was reflected throughout and I referenced this last year and I didn't change it last year because I didn't have a name of said finalizing document for students
064who formerly would have earned a certificate of completion. The state eliminated that language in terms of that piece of paper. But everything else associated with that piece of paper did not change. So they actually just changed they just took away the name and they changed the withdrawal codes. So for the purpose of the student code of oh nope switch student progression plan I changed it to high school credit completion award. That's what we decided to call it. And then this is what we're having created for each school because we no longer can use our former certificate of completion that we would order from our diploma agencies. So through college and career readiness, we created our own piece of paper that will be distributed now for students who earn the former certificate of completion because the
065language is still there that a student who completes their credits, all their credits and or GPA but haven't passed those assessments would earn a high school credit completion award and still be able to do that fifth year. That language did not change in in statute. do the fifth year to either get that 2.0 GPA if that's what they're missing or assessments if that's what they're missing um for that purpose. They can still um participate in graduation if they've met the other eligibility criteria for participating in graduation. That didn't change. So really all that changed is the name when it all came down to it. So that's everywhere in here that the certificate completion is referenced in many many many different pieces and parts of the student progression plan. So when you see that that's what
066that means in a nutshell. Um so I think he's going to get the summary up for me now. Yay. Um, so the first part the these aren't really substantive changes, but it was a lot of red and green. And so I thought I would just make sure that we like we knew that it was really just we changed the names. So the access for ills, it's called the WEDA access. We just corrected the name of that assessment. Um, the fair test is gone. So that has been removed. The next piece the star. So we coordinated screening and progress monitoring. We just gave it its real name which is the starfast PM 1 through3. When you think about the VPK through grade 2, right? So we just made the name correct. Um continuing that same vein,
067we made the name correct. It's the fast PM 1 and two. And then we just kind of gave some clarifications of what those are. Fast PM3 and then the best writing. it all the the best writing and the PM all used to be kind of in this one red lined out thing that we have there. I don't know why it's not all lined out. It should all be lined out. Everything that's red should be lined out um on my screen. And then we just put the correct names in and descriptions. But again, it's not really new. It's just like making it clearer in this document. Just clarifying that PSAT NSQT is grade 9 through 11. I'm not really sure why I said grain 11 TBD before. And then I ready math is the only thing
068used for progress monitoring not not reading. So that's why reading is struck through on that one. And then finally a mirror that should all be struck. I don't know why it's not struck on my screen. Um is no longer used for assessment or for um third grade promotion. It's admentum that's being used for third grade promotion summitive assessment. So remember this is just the assessment piece of the calendar. my calendar document. After that, the only real um changes that we had this year are in this section, the famous grading policy section that we adjust this paragraph every single year. Um so, but before that, and actually you can see it better here. So, this is the middle school section. um what has all what has existed for a long time since I've been doing the
069student progression plan, we've had some specific language around long-term assignments and what how much can or cannot be reduced in terms of those being interned in late. Um so it was brought up that when you think about daily assignments and home or not you can't grade homework work um there wasn't really any sort of parameter around how much could technically be taken off for being late or not. So we just wrote language that makes those two things match. So long-term assignments you have all the language there. And I changed will to may. Not all teachers take off points for things being late. You may, they may. Um, and then we added the daily assignment sentence there that any work or assignment submitted after the due date may result in a grade reduction no more than
07010% for each day not turned in. The language matches it puts a parameter in place. Maybe we'll keep some of the differences. Thinking about the cell phone policy from class to class to class and every class you could have a different rule. The same thing happens with assignments sometimes um where teachers may take off more or less work. So, we tried to put a parameter that matched the long-term assignment parameter that was in place. Um, that was a recommendation that is repeated in all three um sections. Even though elementary didn't have a long-term assignment piece, I still went ahead and added that same language to the elementary section um under just the grading policies right there within. So, that language is written three times in there in each section and that's new. the other new
071language because again that paragraph five that we like to um tweak every year and rightly so right as as we work on making sure we're doing what's best for students while also protecting everyone else in the world. Um we added the line in collabor thinking of reduce right this is that that policy um in collaboration with school admin with school administrators and colleagues teaching similar courses teachers will devise redo policies appropriate for their teaching assignment including timelines for redoss. So again thinking about and that's not even right in collaboration school the feedback we get well it might be different for this class or this class. So what we would like for teachers to do and we worked with the union on actually this the union recommended this language for us um LCA is just thinking
072about how can we make sure are a practice that students have access to that but that teachers have a say in like what that might look like. So if we are a fourth grade team right like we are as the fourth grade team with our admin collaboration we are going to set like what reds look like for us is there a timeline for that what does that look like? So each team or department will be able to like set some best practices for what that looks like for them um and for their students. So that will give some probably help us with some of the ambiguity sometimes where we get well I want to redo this thing 50 times. they'll be able to set some of those guidelines and parameters for their department, for their
073team, for their students. Um, with the with the idea that reduc are require like we have to we have to allow that for students. So, we thought that would help us kind of all the way around help our teachers feel a little bit more empowered to like help make some of their policies and procedures, set some of their timelines as well as making sure that we are providing those opportunities for students as well because it goes both ways. >> Anything to not right now? >> Yeah. And then >> can we stop right there for this one? Does anybody have any comments about this >> because this one this one there was a whole lot of discussion about >> a lot of discussion about this always. >> Anybody have any opinions? >> We all probably have
074opinions. >> Well, now I just asked for Okay. I don't have an opinion. >> I don't have an opinion on this one either. >> I have an opinion, but it goes in with the others. So, I don't know if now's the appropriate. >> Okay. So, we want to wait for that question. I can do mine. I don't mind. >> I think the only thing that's still really um an outlier for me is I'm thinking about um when it gets close to the final grading, like the end of the grading period. And so, like there's an opportunity for them to participate in a redo opportunity as a reteing some intervention and then they're going to retake it. And what if it's two weeks before the final and where's the opportunity to do that? Mhm. >> Um,
075so that's something they could be working out like as their departments, but technically you can grade change. Like there's a whole other section about grade changing. So if a student was to have the opportunity to fix something, let's say that was the week before, right? And they still have need time. A teacher can twofold. Grades are never due until almost a week after grading technically ends. >> Yep. >> But then teachers can grade change. like there's a whole process for turning in a grade change if a student were to correct a grade or do a redo that would positively impact their grade. >> And then on the other side of that, what about the student that didn't redo the work that was done the first or second week of the nine weeks and now it's
076the ninth and they want to submit it. >> That's a problem and that's where we hear from teachers from the teacher side. That's what their frustration is. Like we do say quarter is realistic but if they haven't done the work now uh order to do the redo there has to be work done. So if student has not done any relearning then you don't have to provide a redo. So I think that's the language I would use if students didn't. Now I think hopefully that's on a limited case. I think I would call in my administration if I get a habitual student that's not doing any work and then trying to grade everything at the end or turn everything at the end. >> Um >> they have support for not providing an opportunity for a redo
077in that situation. >> I I would say yes. >> Okay. >> Yeah. >> Okay. >> I agree with you. I mean I >> So so what would that because it doesn't make any sense if you have a student who habitually doesn't do the work. >> Yeah. >> That where's that intervention because you have this expectation they can do this redo or turn in late >> and but where are they getting the help if the teacher recognizes they're not they're not turning in they're not turning in they're not turning in but they're the child can at the end turn it all in at one time I guess. >> Yeah. That's a whole separate process outside of the redo. So like what I hear you're saying is that's a separate issue and that that is separate issue
078and that's where >> it kind of falls into the same expectation that >> that's where you involve your administration, your school counselors, your different assistants that you have on campus that might fall into an MTSS process of what you know why isn't the student attorney in their work. So there's a different there other processes that we would be using to engage students and figure out like what's going on. Why are >> we turn Matias I think we have model schools that have actually structured something. Some have like a Google form that a teacher fills out and it might be attendance. It might be turning in late work. It might doing any work that they actually have a committee that talks about individual students. Now do we catch every student? I don't think we do yet
079but I think that would be the goal. I mean we are about every student that we serve. um it might be coordinating with a parent. I think we do have a system in place for that. I live with one that's 16 that can't turn anything on time. Um that's extremely frustrating. Um and I think he has a supportive family, right? But it's still that trying to get him to do the work to turn things in. So I'm a little bit afraid of this late policy of 10% because I can't get anything to him to turn on time. It's in his backpack and it still doesn't get to the teacher. So, >> um I I'm truly saying it is a work in progress with every family and every student. >> Explain to me how the 10%
080works by the way because is that typically how an assignment like if it's an English assignment? >> Most of the letter grade. I mean, I've got several things that are late and that's not even in our policy, but a teacher does take points off um for something being in um not on time. Again, teachers want to teach students responsibility. that comes up over and over again. So, I think this whole like, can I wait till the last minute to turn everything in? That isn't best practice. That's not what we're trying to encourage. We're trying to encourage that students, if this was important for you to learn, that they've learned it and we haven't really got it right yet. >> Right. Yeah, >> but you also um >> and this is a little bit personal because
081my my uh daughter-in-law is a professor college level >> and they have the same issues by the way with college kids >> and and but for her spirit because she gives every one of them till midnight the last day and the last second because she wants to inspire them to to learn English literature >> not to be punitive right >> so there's that window I mean I'm reaching but I can also see where kids that if they they have no expectation to be able to pass a course, they give up, right? >> And uh and the redoss are a burden on the teacher. >> Yeah. >> So, but what's good for kids? >> Yeah. We're we're trying to inspire a spirit of hope. Even if I haven't learned it yet, I still have the opportunity.
082Um but we're also not trying to teach lazy students that don't do anything until the end and still can pass. Um >> but don't you think that lazy student still has they just haven't we just haven't found the right court? I trust that the case. Yes, sir. >> Yeah. >> Listen, I I Yes, I trust that eventually it will click. >> I mean, >> yeah, that is that's very it's real to me. I mean, >> I also think that some students um I think children in general from the age of two to the age of 20 know their they know their limits just like they know if mom says no, I'm going to go ask dad. like they will push and push and push. And so it's not a lack of being inspired. It's not
083a lack of having boundaries. It's literally a I know I don't have to do this work because this teacher will let me turn it in late. This they are so smart. That's what bothers me sometimes. It's not the the students that you're talking about, which is the hardest part of this is the other ones that we we Gabby see at the secondary the post-secary level. We are training them to be teachers and they're submitting stuff so late that you're like I what are you my always response is well how would you handle this situation with a student in your classroom >> but how are we allowing we allow them to do it so there's different students there are different students that we're all speaking about >> I am irritated by the students who take advantage
084of the system because it's an opportunity for them and then it creates more work for teachers it creates I mean parents are going crazy >> so those are the students students that I feel like we're not doing a service for by allowing them to >> and and I think it's really challenging to figure out how exactly to land a policy that captures that because because in my house I have kids who are not using this policy to take advantage of the system. Instead, they're using the policy as a chance to further their learning and to create more mastery. But I know there are students who are >> I have one that's taking advantage of it. >> Then then you got Well, I don't know what kind of parenting is going on in her household, but
085we know exactly. >> She is a genius actually. We we got some other things wrong, but this this one's going all right for us. Um, and all right, we got sidetracked. So, so my my question is is really about the best practices. And I love the idea of developing best practices. And I love the idea of having teacher voice in this, right? To figure out how do we get to a system that um that is generating more mastery for students, increased learning opportunities, that we don't give up, that you scored low and I'm not just going to put the 25 in the gradebook and move on and not care whether or not you've learned it, right? side we still have that going on. So it's a work in progress and on students continue. Um so
086so but will this best practices potentially look different in fourth grade versus sixth grade, seventh grade, 9th grade, 10th grade, uh ELA versus science versus social studies versus an elective. And I'm nervous that that's going to be all over the board that suddenly >> all over the board. >> Right. Right. But like but but in the absence of of more specific language, right? That that I I've have had kids who have had teachers who say the redo has to occur the following day. Well, there was like zero time for actual relearning in there, right? Or the um the the redo has to occur in flex time. Well, if you were absent on flex time or you had two flex times to go to and you went to this other one, sorry, there's no relearning opportunity
087for you anymore and therefore you cannot do the redo. Well, you know, it be becomes so regimented and and specific. And so I'm my wondering is like is the ELA team at a a high school going to say this is our best practice. It has to be occurring in a flex time, you missed it, you lose out. Versus the science says, oh, you get a week versus the math says, well, you get two days to go home and do some test corrections. And so what does that look like? >> Well, I think we put in there by by department or by team. >> Yeah, >> I'm trusting I we would like to see by school. So I think that's that next step administration's involved. If I'm at X school, this is the way that we
088do business. And then eventually we may get to as a district, but first we have to we have to challenge if this is our school, how are we going to run? Just like when teachers show up late, how do we handle that as a school system? So I think we can we just honor that we actually have something that supports kids. >> Yeah. >> I mean really I mean not every district has a opportunity for kids to learn. So I'm very proud of the fact that we have that. So let's recognize one and all we're trying every year we come to the table trying to make it better. >> And what we're trying not to do is have a manual that everybody has to follow because we do want teachers to have some autonomy when
089it comes to what happens in the classroom. Um, but as far as the redo now adding administration is a great collaboration with LCA just to be able to have what are teachers saying, what is their frustrations? And we haven't definitely reached every aha for teachers yet. >> I know I didn't answer your question. >> Well, okay. So, so the first few words here, it talks about being in collaboration with school administrators. Yes. So, the school administrator is going to presumably have heard the discussion from their their various teams and said, "Yes, that sounds like a a great plan that meets the spirit of this versus you all just do it and I'll just sign off on." Well, because I mean teachers deise the >> true collaboration and we want feedback from teachers. What works, what
090doesn't. The intent is not to give 90 redos that I feel when I heard teachers do that. That's not the spirit of what's happening, right? So, we continue to inform leaders on best practice. What would I have? How do I coach through that conversation with my teams um and just continuing to receive feedback from teachers? What are they saying? What are their frustrations? And the other one that we hear are um a student that tries the first time and gets a 90, right? How is that fair to the student that had three opportunities to get that 90? We hear that same argument. And I don't have a great answer. the the bottom line is it's such a competitive world we live in. We want all students to be successful in the learning. That's the message.
091So, um that's what we're working toward. >> So, we we like the feedback. I mean, so I don't take I I want to honor the work that's been done because I think there has been a lot of great work. Um so, the feedback that you guys provide us is does not fall on deaf ears. And how do we adjust this policy to fit all all students and teachers for our district? And I think the hope also in some of this language is we've created this language every year with feedback but the idea for the actual different teams and departments to sit and go okay this is with admin right because I think the admin piece of it will hopefully help one of the concerns of if every if I have seven teachers and they all
092have something crazy different right in terms of their policies we're hoping the administration involvement will get to more of a school level and but the teachers having input so it's not like every I think it will help the teachers feel more empowered with it and then be able to set what they determined for their department is a realistic expectation so it's not everything from first night first week trying to redo the last because now I saw my grade right like setting some of those things in place to help students manage their time hopefully more more successfully as well as help teachers manage this policy more successfully in a way that is truly in the spirit of doing what's best for kids. >> I think doing it timely, it meets the spirit, right? Like I shouldn't
093wait eight weeks from this other just because I see the grade at the end of the semester. I should have been motivated to relearn, right? Because I didn't master at that. >> At the same time, I struggle with the teacher who says the redo happens the following day. >> Well, and then we also have teachers that say, "You can redo that at the end of the semester because you missed that day of school." So, right, there's every >> every gamut of expectation out there. So, from students to teachers to schools. So it's it's very varied and again I think that the conversations in the groups and the teams will get us on the page of everyone feeling a bit more involved in the process and doing what's best for their kids that year. We anticipate
094this to be an annual conversation that might adjust as they learn about their kids and their parents and their students. >> So if a team says it's best practice that we not use any um instructional time during the school day for these redos or relearnings and we require you to become to come in before school. Is that is that an acceptable best practice? >> I think we can require that. I think that isn't a best practice. I mean, we we understand families don't have those opportunities. That's why we built in that during the school day. There is an excuse for that. There isn't. >> So, the only negative I've heard and and I think it's more important for the for the child to learn the content and then move on. But I've heard from teachers
095that said they've been required to change grades and um and I just want to make sure that the kids are actually having to do the work and that we're not telling someone you have to do this. >> I would agree. They stu we are we're never going to say students shouldn't do the work, right? Yeah. They need to do the work. >> Okay. Anything else? Okay. We got sideways. Continue. >> I don't think there is anything else. Let me just go. Oh, I thought there was another one more little part >> because that's and then the rest is no changes. >> You have any comments on that? >> This year was very um we didn't have many statute changes yet. Well, of course, now they're coming. Um there weren't a lot of of changes. We
096just like that one >> and this paragraph will come back next year with some other tweak that we've, you know, found out as we've had collaboration with teachers and admins and kind of seeing what that looks like. we may come up with some language that we might want to more universally apply and put in in addition to those collaborations. So, um this is going to come back every year as we just continue to do what's best for students while also supporting teachers and knowing the load that that that is as we work towards the student um successes. >> But we also share what schools have put into practice that have been successful with other schools. So, I think from that side, we do try to collaborate from school to school. If they found a system
097that works for their school, how do we share that for other schools? Super. Thank you'all very much. >> Thank you. >> Okay. Now we have wellness way discussion. Mrs. Randall's present. >> Can you guys hear me? Okay. >> Yes, ma'am. >> All right. Thank you. Well, thank you for the opportunity to discuss wellness way yet again. Um, this is uh the I'm sorry, Natalie and Jessica are handing out um copies of the presentation. I apologize for the the kind of last minute nature of this, but um it is ever developing. Um and so I think we'll probably hopefully have a lot more discussions about this over the next um year or so before we can kind of finally get to a resolution. Um so this is a site that Lake County um Commissioner Parks and
098uh Kathleen Dial have been working very hard to get this developer to the table and so you know we've been um working through the process kind of getting to a certain point and I think it's time to to come talk to you about it. Um, so this is a site, the Panther Run. If you remember a couple of years ago, G GT Homes um made the news by buying up a a large portion of Wellness Way. And so this site is owned by GT Homes. Um, they had come to us through Commissioner Parks um back in late last year. And so after some discussion, we um provided them with a letter of intent um by the the board or I'm sorry by the superintendent um to just go ahead and explore the options on this
099site. So it's about 50 acres. Um discussion is that the developer would provide grading access roads and utility connections. Um we did at the time we went ahead and ordered two appraisals and then we um hired Shingle Schultz and KLMA Weeks to do just some preliminary site assessment. I want to note that does not lock us in any way into using them when we get to final design. That will still be a competitive process. This was sheerely for preliminary um for preliminary site assessment and the developer has been very um cooperative. they provided their geotechnical analysis that they had already done um to help us with that assessment. So just some orientation um this is kind of wellness way overall the plan obviously kind of changes as developers come in but this gives you a
100a picture of what it it could look like. Um the red box there on the I don't know if the thing works not very well. Um the red box is kind of the indicator of where this site would be. So if you're familiar, the west side there is US27. The east side where it goes into gray is actually Orange County. Then you have the connector between the 429 and US 27 running kind of horizontally across that. Um, as you move forward up, you've got Scoffield Road coming off of Trout Lake and then you've got Wellness Way that runs across um, east west and then on the west side of this particular property is the 455 extension. Um, it's Hardle Road and then it goes down eventually it connects down to um, just south of Srass
101Bay Boulevard uh, Saranoa area. Um, and then just below where the road kind of curves in the gray area is actually Sawrass Bay Elementary. And I'm sorry, my pointer doesn't work very well. So, that's just kind of an orientation of where we're looking at. This is a closer version of that. Again, um, one of the things is that yes, it's this site is on the county boundary. I I always say it's not ideal, but I have discovered there's nothing that is ideal in um in Wellness Way for us. So, one of the things that we would look at is that it actually has very good road access, right? So, you have access to um to all of that development that's going on north of the connector road and then actually through the 455 connector. Um
102once that goes all the way through, you'll have access to that whole area around Sawrass Bay. Um students coming from Four Corners or all the way down from like Lake Point Academy area would have to go on 27 until they kind of wind back through 455. But um but for the most part, it's actually very good access. And when we run the um the kind of draft student attendance zone, it's actually in a very good location as far as that north south balance of um of where students are. or we had always kind of said the attendance boundary would be somewhere right around that Scoffield um TRA lake area and um and so it kind of puts it on the north end but you know relatively center um and then this is just a indicator
103from the developers engineer of where the potential high school site could be. Um, one of the things I want you to to look at is that if you see it, it's that block off to the to the right side of this map. Um, but there is a round circle in the middle of that. That is actually a pond, an existing pond. Um, so that'll be important as we go through this process. Right. So, this is the um a potential high school test fit layout that the developers um planner actually made. And so they show the high school kind of wrapping around this pond. Again, not ideal. So, um but you know, their point was you could fit on here. um you'd have kids having to walk back and forth across the pond. Um it just
104becomes very awkward. It's kind of a Jesus >> around the pond. I guess not across it unless we put a bridge across there. Um but you know, so it's again not ideal, but one of the things that they did show is that old YMCA Road is going to be extended across the north side of this. um they will be you'll see the Hardle Road 455 extension on the west side and then there is they would um actually put in a secondary access point. So the primary access would be on Old YMCA Road. A secondary access point would come in kind of south of that intersection and allow us to have a separated bus loop. Okay. Mhm. >> So, I had Shenko Schultz take the geotechnical information that they already had and um do an a
105site assessment. Um it's on board docs. I'm not sure whether it was printed and given to you, but it'll it's available. There you go. That's um their preliminary site assessment. Again, it's very limited based on the geotechnical data that they already had. Um so basically what they they found that concerns them is that pond area that's in the middle right um what they also found is that pending more in depth the geote techchnical analysis which they recommend is that um they think that that pond actually could be moved which is an interesting concept right so there is cost associated with that >> but If it does, it opens up this site to a fairly square 50 acre site, which makes it a lot more usable than it would be with the pond right in the
106middle of it. Um, so that's what these next two pages, this page specifically kind of talks about. And then the next page, um, lists everything that they say. You know, this is basically standard due diligence. Um there is some more indepth kind of geotechnical data that they would ask for including some ground penetrating radar and so basically they want to confirm that yes the pond is actually movable and you know that is very timeconsuming right so um so basically none of this is I'm not going to come to you with a contract well maybe we'll talk about whether we come to you with a contract but um but all of this takes a long time to do that assessment to work through this whole process. Um the other thing Oh, so this is the test
107fit that Shankl actually did that kind of shows how it could work if the pond is moved. We'd actually probably flip that pond to the east side. Um which opens up the access to that secondary bus loop. Um but basically this is based on a high school that Oyola County um is currently building um on approximately 45 to 47 acres. So that's the prototype that they were working with. Um and then this is the appraisal. So we got two appraisals. The initial Panel and Carpenter initially came back at a price of 125,000 and then they contacted me about a week or two later and they said, "You know what? We have looked at some other comps in this area. We think that we were low. Do you want us to reassess it?" I said, "Yes,
108go ahead and reassess it." Cuz I thought they were probably a little low. Um the other appraiser used a different methodology and came back at 625,000. So we're good. This isn't ocean front. This is pond front. >> Well, did I know that movable pond? >> That was part of my my uh concern about both of these appraisers, right? So, Padel and Carpenter stayed very much to the Wellness Way area. They um they initially started off with some land that wasn't really comparable to this. It didn't have the same development allowances um but it was within Wellness Way. The other one was nowhere near Wellness Way, right? All there wasn't a site that was within 20 miles of Wellness Way. And so they basically focus primarily on development allowances and what you could build on that
109site, but they were kind of all over the place. So, um, I'm not sure I totally trust either of these, right? So, here's some of my possible next steps. And there are other sites in play. There are other things that we're pursuing that we're looking at. Um, but I am also very concerned about um trying to go ahead and get something locked up. Right. So, I'd like to kind of keep all of these things in play as we keep moving forward. So, just on this particular site and of course, you know, Commissioner Parks has also been very involved in keeping this developer in play. And so I I also want to respect the work that the county has done on um keeping something in play. So um there's a couple possible next steps, right? So
110if we want to keep consider considering this site, we can um we can look at the appraisals, focus on that specifically. I would say rather than just go out and get one more appraisal, I would actually encourage us to get two appraisals, right? and then we can throw out the highest and lowest and look at those values. Again, I don't really I don't have firm confidence in either of the appraisals that we've already gotten. Um, we can pursue a contract and the developer did come in and give me a figure which was the average of the original two appraisals. Um, and so, you know, we could look at doing a contract with that with a very adequate due diligence period, right? I think there's a lot of work that we need to do to make
111sure that this site actually would work for us. We would need um Sansk studies. There's a certain time period where you can do Sansk studies and so we would need to make sure that we had that due diligence period or we could do a combination of the two things, right? So, we could also do a contract that basically says, "Here's our due diligence period. Here's everything that we're going to look at and here's what we need to do, but we're also going to get two additional appraisals and those need to confirm that value of that site." Um and then you know there's still like I said there are other things in play and so if there are other things that you would like me to consider then um I am here to get your thoughts
112and um and see what the best way to to move forward is with this. >> Okay board members. >> Yeah. Um Kelly, a couple questions. Thank you for the overview. Um, and we talked about this a little bit beforehand, but I want to confirm the developers offer the average of the two. Is that the 125 and the 625 or the 200? >> Initial um, yes, his kind of initial offer and that was if we came to to contract pretty quickly. So, it was a I want to say it averaged to like 370, >> right? And I think you shared with me that if we didn't accept that route and went with another appraisal, then his wishes changed a little bit. That >> Yes. um you know he is interested in so so because of the
113pressure that the county is putting on him he is interested in moving forward with you know something as quickly as possible. So basically he he had told me >> that he um if it took longer to come to contract then he was going to lock in at 400 an acre. >> Well respectfully he also doesn't have any other uses for this site yet either so it's not like he's really trying to do us a favor. He's trying to offload it too which I can understand. Um, and I think the other thing worth discussing too is I agree. I think we need to at least pursue locking in something for due diligence sooner than later. Um, in light of all the work that's been done, but also cognizant of the other potential properties that are out
114there that Kathleen and the county continue to work on. If you can highlight those just a little bit for the board. >> Um, I I'm afraid I don't have a a map up here, but you know, there's a couple of other things that are going forward. Um, and you know, I'm hesitant to put anybody on the spot, but um, I know that Mr. Vanderberg has been working with um, some potential on the large chunk of land that Orange County owns there. I don't know if you're prepared to talk about that. >> No, there's not a ton of progress there. What I was hoping for at this point was at least now we've got some sort of a number that we can go back to either the legislator or whoever else and say that okay at
115375 we're looking at 17 $18 million just to purchase this property and is that worth putting a little more pressure on Orange County to hopefully get some land back that is in Lake County and has a public use in Lake County that wouldn't cost $18 million in any stretch. Um Kathleen Dial from the county also has some other property in mind off of Scoffield Road a little more in the heart of True Wellness Way without a sixacre pond in the middle that may or may not be able to be moved, which still I'm wrapping my head around that. We can move it left, we can move it right, we can move wherever we want it. Can we just move it off the property entirely? Obviously, I know we can't do that, but um I I
116don't know. There there's not a lot of great choices here. Um, but I'm hesitant to also just completely move forward with this one outside of trying to do some true due diligence and know that if it doesn't work that we are going to have the the trust and confidence to back out and find something that would be more conducive for a 50-year build. Um, so not a lot of answers to this point, but this does, I think, move us a little bit further down the board of what's the next step. >> Sure. >> Um, so not really a question more than just comments. >> We also have um John O'Grady is in the audience. he is with Florida Blueprint Schools and so he had met with us last week and um discussed you know some
117other options. Um I don't know that any of those are very far along as well. Um, this is, you know, right now the one that we have that seems most likely, right? Um, but I also think even going into contact contract doing some due diligence on it. >> Um, again, it may not end up being a good site for us. And so, you know, we would just need to make sure that that contract has the ability to to end on our terms. Mrs. Cutter Hill. >> Yeah, I'm done. >> Um, I am intrigued by being able to move a pond. Um, having just recently put in a pond, uh, >> it's the opposite. >> Gotcha. Uh, I'm aware that they're quite costly. So, my concern is actually moving one. I >> just can't fathom that.
118Um, I do have a concern about the uh lack of stability as far as the price. >> Um, I would really be very cautious about moving forward with a contract at this point based on the fact that we could do all of this and the property still might not be what we want. So, um, I wouldn't be ready to do a contract. >> Mr. Dod. >> All right. So, I really struggle on this one because I remember a decade ago going to these wellness way meetings and everybody saying, "Don't worry, we're going to take care of the school district. We'll make sure you get some land donated, >> right?" And that didn't happen. And then it was, "Oh, we'll get you some land at a real bargain price." And that didn't happen. And then it
119was like, "The only property we have, well, you can build 12 miles of roads and and get to it." And well, that's not going to work. Um, so the fact that you've gotten this far along now in a piece of property, I'm like, okay, well, part of me wants to just jump at it, but the other part of me says at $18.75 million, yikes, right? In our in our capital plan, did we only set aside like 9 million for >> So, >> what did that say? I'm trying to remember. >> 10 million in our land. Um, I will say, you know, we have a fairly hefty impact fee balance. So, as far as having the cash, I'm I'm not particularly concerned about it, right? But, um, but it's a lot. >> It's a lot. And
120then potentially, you know, locks us out of future projects that we're going to need to take care of, right? It's a lot for for one particular project. Um, so, uh, yeah, it's it's it's a struggle. How many students are we talking about in this school? So, um, so initially we started talking about 1,800. Um, I think, well, we would probably design the school for expandability to 2,200 like we did with, um, with actually all of our South County high schools. Um, and they've all kind of gotten to that physically gotten to that level at this point. Now, you know, Eastridge and South Lake are over that. >> Lake Manola kind of runs a little bit high above that, right? So, um, so, but I think probably it would be designed for a smaller population initially
121and then expandable to that larger population. >> Yeah. Um, so if we're talking about potentially throwing out these two, well, doing two more, throwing out your highest and lowest, are we expecting that the average would be dramatically different than that 375? >> Like you had some hunches of like, well, I think this one was too low. I thought this one was too high. Does that put you back at 375? >> I don't really know. Right. So, the county I I think things are changing so quickly in there. So my understanding is that the expressway authority is paying about 200,000 an acre for basically raw land, right? That's not the same necessarily as development land. Um and as they start as a connect what makes me very nervous honestly is the connector road. I live just
122north of Horizon's West and I know how much development happened once the 429 went down and the recession ended and all of that Horizon's West development came in about 10 years. >> And so that makes me very nervous at the speed of this development once it goes through. And I think you know do I think costs are going to go down? >> Probably not, right? I think as it as utilities as roads get connected through there um I think they probably will continue to rise. Um >> so what kind of timeline would be would we be looking at for these other potential properties to know whether they might pan out or not? >> What's the other potential properties? And gosh, you know, it's just >> Kathleen had a meeting last week scheduled with one of
123the parties um that was going to be some more of the decision makers to hopefully get some more clarity on where those next steps could be. Um so I think that'd be worth a phone call from probably Kelly or myself this week to get an idea of where that one is. That's the more um promising one of the two. I mean, as much as I'd love to get the Orange County piece done, that just keeps hitting roadblock after roadblock and nobody really wanting to make that move, even though it still makes all the logical sense in the world. Um but um Kathleen was hopeful that that conversation that she was hoping to have last week would at least let us know how likely that next step would be, which I think would be a more
124advantageous site at probably a more advantageous price or about the same but just be in a lot better location. The county would like this site to really be part of their economic hub. So this is really intended for manufacturing or industrial of some sort. Uh obviously they want us to get a high school, too. So, they're going to do what needs to be done, but um that the developer is having a harder time than he thought he would. So, now it's pushing back on us to put us behind the eightball when I really don't think we're there. >> How far is the 80 acres that Orange County has from the site? >> Uh it's that big green blob in the middle. I mean, that the county owns I think 2,000 acres and we're just looking
125for a sliver. big green mark right off of wellness way >> and that 80 acres of wooded area right there to the south of that big green blob above the the red areas would work well as >> well there are several green blocks all that land is county owned by county >> it's 2700 acres >> all of that county owns >> so it's just down the road that's right This is actually their um their infiltration basin. This is OCA um not sorry the utilities. So um and then they also own this area right here which is actually heavily pined. So they don't use that actively as part of conserve too. >> And the pined area is the one we're really interested in. That's >> we were at one point, but they've got active plans to
126develop that and it's been sitting there undone for 40 years. >> That was part of our >> But does it have infrastructure to it? >> It does not as of yet. No, >> I mean it's, you know, Scoffield. Uh, actually, you know what? I take that back. It's north of Scoffield about 40 acres north of >> Yeah. >> Um, so there right now there's no active connections. There's no active utilities. Some time ago, a previous board bought some land and there was no access to it and then ultimately couldn't be used and we just sold it not too long ago. >> Sure. >> So, I think this is a slightly different scenario though. That still wouldn't be ideal. I agree with you. Um, but that's more in the heart of where more of that develop
127everything around it is planned to go. So, I would happen to think that some infrastructure will be put around there. Um, and the other >> there is infrastructure at the the 50 acre site. So there there will be his timing is basically similar to our timing. So essentially we're looking at um starting construction in 3 years or so. And so um you know it would all be part of the contract that basically this 455 extension would be need to be done. the old YMCA um improvements would need to be done and um that the utilities would be would be there. You can get to this site right now, but it's not anything that's suitable for a school >> that access. >> I'm sorry, Mark. Were you finished? >> I just have anxiety over whether we
128do whether we do something or not do something. I have anxiety either way, you know. So, I I just know that Easter is sitting on like what, 2,600 kids. I mean, it is it is way too many kids for them to properly handle and and we need to relieve that. And I'm nervous if we let this one go, what are the odds of one of these others panning out? Because I've seen over the last decades how many things we thought were going to pan out and then they didn't. And so, but that $18 million, the >> same anxiety I'm feeling. >> So, 18 million in the big picture is not undoable. >> Maybe it's not right. Mhm. Right. >> Yeah. Right. So, >> okay. >> I mean, the fact is if I thought it was
129undoable, I would then present it, >> right? I wouldn't be here. >> Okay. Well, then maybe I'm leaning towards entering into some sort of contract that we can back out of based on due diligence, right? >> That was my question. >> I mean, so yeah, so if it's like there is a lot of geotech work that needs to be done, right? Um the the borings that the developer did basically that like you read can read in the preliminary assessment they went down 25 ft. The shenkle and Klema weeks encourage us to go much deeper. Right. This whole area is car topography which means that it is limestone. It is very subject to um to sinkholes to you know that kind of thing. So, we would want to make sure that we were 100% that we
130are not building on anything that's going to work. >> It's in the report though. It's in the first three pages very clearly lays out. >> Exactly. Yes. Um and so we would want to make very very certain that we are not building on something that is going to cause us long-term problems. And so, you know, that would be a big part of our our geotech work as long as well as the threatened and endangered species. They did give us a preliminary threatened and endangered that basically says that there's nothing really there. So, um that one doesn't make me as nervous. Um but the the geotechnical work um you know, we need to be 100% certain that this is going to be suitable for >> for a high school before we went into anything. And then,
131you know, if if you want additional appraisals on it, we need to be certain that we can justify that value as well or that at least we can get within a range that you guys are comfortable with um going forward with closing. So, you know, even if we we move into a contract, I I don't think this would be the last time that you would hear from me on it. >> Okay. >> That's good for me. So, so someone who filled in a wetland area on a lot that he was trying to sell, it took me four years to get St. John's to sign off on it. >> So, this is not an easy task. >> It is not an easy >> and so I don't know about that and we need to not think
132about it. I'm very concerned about having an appraisal at one >> 200 200 and it goes to 600. >> And did and and did we pay for those? >> Sure. Yeah. >> And so we would pay for two more. Mhm. They're about $5,000. So, it's, you know, $10,000. >> But is there any questioning of the how did you get to six or how did you start at two? >> Is there any like It seems like such a spread. >> That's right. >> You know what we want to refund? >> We discovered over the last 20 years that appraisal is as much an art as it is a science, right? It is how they approach the appraisal and um what they use as comps. And so, you know, we had one appraiser who was very locked
133in on the geographic area and we had one appraiser who was very locked in on the development allowances for the site and so they approached them in very different ways and came up with very different results. Um I think with the revision I think that probably panel and carpenter is a little closer to the thing but I think um you know additional appraisals again as much an art as a science and they approach them different ways and so um >> but it sounds like the developers willing to go in the middle anyway. >> He was yeah he kind of ended in the the 375 although we haven't had a conversation since we had the the $200,000 revision. So he may be like, "Well, now now that average isn't the same anymore." So, um, >> and
134even though they're not the same, what did we pay for the elementary site? 125 or 150 an acre? >> 150. >> That's what I thought. And it's not that far away. >> Not that far away. >> Yeah. 15 acres, right, for that site. >> Mhm. >> Yeah. >> So, you know, >> and what do we compromise at 50 acres? Because we need 65. >> So, at 50 acres that And is the 50 include the pond? Yeah. So really >> 50 50 includes the fond. >> So what's usable? >> 40. >> So right now 45 that kind of wraps around it. Um so you know if but >> if we're able to reconfigure that pond, right? Then you can actually go deeper and so that some of that land. >> That's exactly what I said. >>
135We could just build a smaller pond deeper. >> Okay. Could be our rowing site. Yeah. A magna rowing. Right in the middle like one of those uh one of those water ski ponds >> if we wanted to do our due diligence and we have the ability to back away and that due diligence would have to be some it's going to take a while to sort out I just told you four years to do a little sinkhole thing I mean wetland thing so I don't know how long he would hang out u >> uh probably not four years But but I think that we could get some you know some some assurance or background in you know I I think that there's yes it's the same there's a process with St. John's that you have to
136work through. So um so I think that we could at least have some assurance that that is a possibility before we actually close on the possibility. Do we have any CL or any pressure we can apply that he needs these student stations to continue developing? >> Um, so he would have to do proportionate share mitigation. Um, that doesn't necessarily, you know, that's just money. So that doesn't necessarily apply that kind of pressure to them. it's, you know, the the best that honestly the best pressure that we've been able to do is, you know, through the county. Um, and that's kind of where he's he's feeling the pressure right now is that he wants some of this political um >> the political issues tied to this tied up before he tries to keep moving forward with
137this. >> Does anybody have any conversations with Sean Parks? Because this is his district, right? I've spoken with Sean about this when we've been at the Wellness Way roundts with the developer briefly. Um, but I I just think I' I'd want to be cautious. I'm not opposed to the due diligence and going under contract to at least consider, but I think the market has cooled off from when this gentleman bought this property. And I'm not certain that it's not going to continue to cool off or at least slow down the growth of what is coming out this way. So, unless this number were to go down a little bit more, I I still think it's too high. And with the uncertainty of splitting the difference between the two, he wants an exit. And I just
138I don't think we're that desperate to be his exit quite yet, unless that number gets better for the size of the site for the constraints, what we're going to have to deal with. Obviously, still do the due diligence either way, but 250, maybe 300 an acre seems more palatable to me. I know we've got the money in impact fees, but still the thought of paying $18 million for land on a site that's really not conducive for what we wanted, it it just it's a tough pill to swallow. Um, so I don't know. I'm just I'm hesitant on going gung-ho because I don't think we're there yet. >> And can I put Mr. O'Grady, can I put you on the spot for half a second because you've had an entire week. Uh, what do you think
139the real estate looks like in that area? >> Um, John O'Grady with Florida Blueprint Schools. Kelly's spot on. I mean, it's it's very tight. It keeps getting tighter. Um, she's on a path right now. We don't want to get involved in that. We want to assist where we can. We've been looking at several other properties and, you know, we have to have the buildable acres. That's the first thing you tell the developer. Uh, and then you work with the county on that. So, there's other sites I know Kelly's looking at as well and her team. Uh, and and and we're out there as well looking at different sites, talking to different people, probably some of the same. Uh, and it just it's a little different when the private sector comes in and talks to a
140developer than it is when the government. I think everybody in here knows that. Uh so that's that's the angle that we come at it. Uh so there's several ways to go about this and you you hit it uh right on the head um Mr. Matias that moving a pond just the mitigation credits alone take takes years. We just did something in Klay County took two years to move, you know, it was the size of this room, you know, half this room. Uh and and uh it's and and it cost quite a bit. Uh, so, you know, Kelly's on the path doing her due diligence. Uh, we're going to continue doing what we're doing and try to bring something to you a little bit more palatable. Uh, as the private sector, you know, I I think
141we can work some different different things around the wellness way. So, >> Okay. Thanks. >> Sometimes I think that when you go that we're Lake County schools, it has a different approach. You didn't see Walt Disney out buying land when he was going to do Disney. >> That's right. So, so having maybe that quieter approach um okay so in giving some direct I say it's um I'd have no problem with a uh entering a contract that's reasonable based on due diligence and and a prime is for me is that looking at the site plan that you almost have to do that pond has to be moved in my opinion Oh, I'm Yeah, I think if honestly I think that's the one thing that >> makes it a a usable site, right? If we can move
142the pond, it becomes um it becomes a square site. And that's where we've struggled is that, you know, you can look at this area and you can see there's a lot of lakes and wetlands and everything else. And so, you know, the the site that we've passed up in the past, Yep. It was a little bit larger, but it was flood planes. It was very long and skinny and the edges were, you know, not nice and square. This at least has the benefit if we can deal with the pond of being a relatively square site. So, um Okay. All right. Well, I >> and and we get it closer to the 200 hearing. Um >> yeah, I just I'm not >> Mr. Brand stays at that point. >> All right. we can see how amendable
143they are to >> to that. So, >> u may I make a request? Uh when you're doing your due diligence about whether or not we can move the pond, >> uh if you could please if there's certain tests that would indicate whether or not this is going to become a sinkhole because I can tell you as a principal who's had a sinkhole, that is not fun. >> No. >> Um so that, you know, concerns me a lot. ground penetrating radar that we could do and also um deeper borings, right? I mean, if you puncture through and you're in the aquifer, we're going to be like, "Yeah, that's probably not a good idea for us." So, um so there's definitely I think that would be a a very heavy part of what we do. >> Thank
144you. >> Okay. >> Moving ponds, no sink holes, >> priorities. >> Nobody likes sink holes. So, nobody. And then I'm assuming that we end up going vertical in order to get the same >> um so basically three stories. Um if you look at like the Oyola prototype and and most of the ones that they build on smaller schools uh or on smaller sites, you're you're going to have threetory classroom buildings. Um the rest may be, you know, twotory or one story. Um but uh but generally the classrooms have to go threetory in order to get that kind of number. >> I appreciate you. >> All right. Do we want to take a five minute break? >> Okay. >> We're going to take a break for five minutes. >> Yes. >> So And we're now going
145to look at referendum referendum campaign training. Steve Vancor, please. >> Thank you, Mr. Chairman. >> If you don't mind, I've I've stored my phone up here. >> Is it Is it secure? >> Is it secure? >> I um in case you have questions about the polling data, I have it on here as well. Um, I appreciate I appreciate you doing this. Um, as school board members and as electeds in Florida, you have really um, two challenges as to effective message delivery. One, Scott's not here at this very moment, but one of those are the legal restrictions as to what you can and cannot say, when you can and cannot say it, and what the district itself can do. So, uh, all of this is being done with his guidance and ultimately his approval because again,
146as I stated last time we talked, if there's a challenge of some sort, it's not good enough to say Steve Anor. The other uh issue is that as evidenced by this morning's meeting, you have a wide variety of challenges before you. And as smart people with a wide variety of challenges, sometimes it's hard to uh punch through the simplicity of what it takes to effectively communicate a message. And I want to demonstrate that in just a a couple of quick ways. Um when I was working on my uh master's degree way back in the black and white days, um my major professor told us that the average person receives about 400 paid advertising messages a day. that number now. And I asked my students to go through this and I asked them just do a
147quick search. The minimum number of paid advertising, this is just paid advertising messages a day that the typical person receives is now at 4,000. Um, and it's quite overwhelming. You see there's two numbers up there. Uh, Scott, you missed it. I got to talk about you while you were not here. So, >> it's always better to say things about the lawyer when they're in present. just that that everything we're doing is with your guidance and understanding because there are strict and clear laws. Well, sometimes not so clear in Florida about what we can and cannot say. But the second number there, I think, is the more important than the 4,000 overwhelming amount of information we receive every day. That's the average number of messages a typical person can recall from a day. So, we're competing
148against just the 4,000 messages as well as the fact that we can only recall 12. And I want to I want to use a couple of quick examples. Uh well, they've already got it up there. Um for those of you are familiar with this logo, Toyota without cheating, how many of you could have told me what their lo slogan was? Could you have told me what Toyota's slogan was? You could have. Did you know it was let's go places? Uh you're one of about five at about 3,000 people I've done this with. Billy. >> Um you're familiar with Home Depot. >> Well, by the way, Toyota spends about $200 million a year on their slogan and very few people recall it. Home Depot. Does anybody know what their slogan is without looking at the the
149documents? >> Also about 150 million a year on Home Depot promoting their their slogan. Uh Lowe's, does anybody knows what theirs are? There is >> I've heard that one. I can hear it in my head, but I can't remember. >> Right. It's It's like It's right there. And I remember uh Walmart for 27 of its first years. It was everyday low prices. They changed it. And I till this day, and I've done this presentation many times, still can't recall it. How about Nike? Does anybody know what Nike is? >> Of course we do. And why is that? Nike's never changed it. It's clean. It's clear. It's It's what? Eight letters. Let's just do it. Uh, and that speaks volumes when you're in a competitive market with 4,000 advertising messages a day. And that does not
150include, by the way, uh, my wife asked me to pick up half and half on the way home tonight. Uh, you've got Boy Scout meeting to get to, you have a pond that needs to be filled in or relocated, whatever those things are, that doesn't count in there. And so when you go through all of these, whether it's Home Depot, Walmart, what works for Nike, is their clearness, their consistency, and they've never gotten off it. And that's what I'm going to work with you today on is, you know, passing a referend like this is a lot of different things are going to happen. It's going to be relatively complicated, but when we're communicating it out to the public and the best way for them to understand this, I think we need to have a very
151clear, concise message. So to that end, what makes a good message, right? What what is what is a good message? And in the issue of um uh consistent with Nike's success and clear getting out a clear message, it needs to be clear, not convoluted, spoken language that the average person could understand. It needs to be concise. It's got to get right to the point and right to the point quickly. uh and that we need to be consistent so that if your superintendent's giving a speech to a a Kuanas club or a chamber group or an EDC or a group of parents uh or Mr. Dodd, you're doing the same. We want to make sure we're all saying the same thing so that we can be that laser beam like Nike and penetrate so that the
152public gets a full and complete and clear understanding of what we're trying to accomplish with this referenda. So looking at this, it's it looks quite complicated, right? Leon County School District adorum tax for teacher pay and school safety and then we have about a 68word summary, right? That's kind of complicated. So what I want to do with you today is work through a couple things. One, how do we speak about this fairly complex charter uh item in clear language? And then how do we get back to our messaging? And and it's an important point to understand which is you're going to have constituents ask you whether you're pushing the card at Publix and someone says, "Hey, what's up with this referenda?" Or you're in this room speaking and a constituents want answers or you're giving
153a town hall meeting. We have to be uh crystal clear as to what it is and uh comporting with Scott's guidance on what we can and cannot say. So we've developed it into two sets. our primary message and then our secondary message. And then what I want to do with you is walk through how do we our our job is to stay on message. Right? Our job is to clearly communicate to the public the hows and the wise of this. Not necessarily to always answer directly their questions which could take us off track but to get back to those messages. So, we've we've narrowed it down, and this is based largely on the polling that we did with you as to what are the most powerful and memorable messages and the ones that the public
154that you've built into the ballot language as a direct result of what the public told you they wanted. How do we get to that? So, our four top messages are first and foremost is to recruit and retain highquality teachers by increasing pay. Okay, clean and simple. that is the highest polling uh on on our poll is the highest number scored. Secondly, we want to fund safety and security and mental health services. Critical right after the and we we have language in there about the Margie Stoman Douglas Act which is all of that. And then really important for people to understand this money is not going to Tallahassee. God forbid it's not going to Washington. is staying right here in our local community to help our kids, to help our teachers, to help our schools. And
155then lastly, uh, and this is a combination of elements. People will ask you, well, how do I know? How do I know this is going? And the most frequently asked question, how do I know the money is going to go that way? Well, we have, uh, several layers of protection to ensure that. One, state law. These referenda are governed explicitly by state law. They're limited in how many years they can be on and what the money can be used for. For example, you can't buy a bus. You can't buy uh you can't put new carpeting in a school room, uh a school classroom. You can only do things that are explicitly laid out in statute. So, layer protection layer number one is Florida law. Protection layer number two is the ordinance you will pass. Protection
156layer number three, if they don't like what you've done with that money, Dr. Luke, they can unelect you. And lastly, we built in a citizens oversight committee. Not that they will have governing authority. That's st that stays with you whether you like it or not, but they can raise the red flag. And the way it usually operates is once a year or a couple times a year, you assemble that group in a room, you walk through the budget, you show how much money came in, and you show the allocations. And those four layers of protection usually will give the voters comfort to know that their money is being spent as intended. There are some other key points too that are not your primary messaging, but invariably you'll get to because I know it's a challenge.
157If you're giving the same speech over and over and over again and you're always saying the same simple, clear message, it becomes absolutely mind-numbing. I've done it. It It's tough because you want to you want to I've already said that 37 times. Great. That's good. Say it 38, right? Um but the other set of messages are it preserves important educ educational programs like art and music. Pleased to say that that also scored very well. Preserves and enhances career and technical programs. Kind of a growing thing uh as we see more and more people more and more need for uh trade labors vocational education etc. that works there too. And almost all funds go directly into the classroom. There are many many years of research on this. the more the money's in the classroom and less
158in buildings like this um or less in a new uh operations center, whatever, the more the public likes it. So, those are our secondary key points. So, um when we're message delivery, there's a temptation sometimes to kind of say, well, this is all it's going to cost you. Uh I suggest we lead with the positive. And I think I've used the example here before where if in 1993 when a cup of coffee was a buck 49, if I'd have said to you, I have a great idea. I'm going to open up a series of coffee shops. We're going to charge $7 for coffee. You'd say, Steve, you've lost your mind. Yet there's a Starbucks seemingly on every corner selling $7 caramel macchiat, right? Or $8 caramel macchiato. Why is that? They accentuate the positive. They
159sell what I call the foamy goodness. Talk about the good things this is going to do. And it is having stronger schools, having better schools, being able to pay our teachers more so we don't lose them to neighboring counties or to other professions is a good thing for our students. It's a good thing for our community. And I say wash, rinse, repeat. You've got to say this over and over and over again. Just like Nike, eventually it'll penetrate if we're lucky. Um, also, uh, as we work with the school district, what we're talking about you today is mostly speeches, right? Presentations, questions. Like I said, when you're talking to a neighbor uh on the street corner or in Publix, but also we have a number of platforms within the school district itself, the website, uh
160other tools, whether it's handouts to to teachers, whether it's social media posts or whatever those things are, we're going to try to enact message discipline so that we're saying the same thing not just uh vertically, but horizontally as well across all platforms. And then keep in mind, you can't win them all. um you're currently polling very high on this over 64% which means in a regular campaign election that would be a landslide right but that really what that means is one in third of the public might not support this and our job isn't necessarily to try to convert them although we should try right to tell everybody the foamy goodness here but also when you're being asked a question let's say you're in an audience like this and there's somebody who's uh pestering you with
161with really negative questions their mind is not changeable They're not necessarily your audience. We can't win them over, but you want to be respectful to those people. You want to understand where they're coming from, but we're also trying to make sure we hold the 64% and hopefully pick up more in the process as well. So, I it is frustrating sometimes to people when I'm working with them. They're like, "But I've got this one guy. He's just not We can't win them all. We should We could try. We want to be respectful of them and understand why they're concerned, but we have to recognize we can't win them all. We're just trying to do our very best to get this passed. Um, so how do we stay on message? We've developed a program and you've you've
162seen this in action, I'm sure, if you've ever watched the news for more than 3 minutes. Uh, it's a technique that we branded LAPS. Um, helps you keep you keep it in mind. My background originally was in, uh, chemistry where we used acronyms for every dang thing. And so we've developed an acronym for this. And let me show you what what the acronym does. It says listen to the question obviously, but that's important because sometimes uh you've heard that question 37 times and you there's a tendency to not uh let the person finish or get the full full question out. Then you acknowledge the questioner, you pivot to a positive statement, and then you speak on your positive message. For those of you who are English majors, you'll know I put take your laps, but
163I've only talked about talk talked about four. I'll get to that fifth one in a second. So, let me show you how it works. The first step is to stay on message is to listen carefully to the question. I think it was Mark Twain who said listen so that it pains the questioner. Really be an act of a good listener. Why are you doing that? Let's let's take our standard a journalist or a constituent asking you a question in town hall meeting. It's critical to listen for several reasons. One, you want to show that person respect. If they took the time out of their day of their life to be here with you, they clearly care about our schools. They care about our community. We always want to show them the utmost respect. You want
164to listen really carefully. But you're doing something else while you're listening. You're thinking about your answer so that your first words out of your mouth aren't uh it's more clear, more more getting on to your message. The second thing you want to do is acknowledge that person. Now, these are phrases that I've become comfortable using. Uh these are phrases, and there's a typo. Thank you for bringing up this very important issue. It's not supposed to be there, of course. Um is whatever statement that you're comfortable with, acknowledging the person, thanking them for being there, acknowledging that their question is a good one. You've heard this all the time, right? On a radio interview or TV interview, they say, "Oh, that's a great question. Thank you for asking." Well, that's an important component here because you're
165showing the other members of the audience, you're showing that person that you even though you may disagree with them, you respect their position. You're also further because those become on a little bit of autopilot, you're thinking about your answer. So, by listening carefully, you're buying a little time. You're thinking about your answer by acknowledging them with one of those standard phrases, which make it your own. I've had people say, "Well, that's that's how I would speak." Great. Say something that's acknowledgement and respect to that person. Uh but being, you know, you're building a little bit of time into into that as well. Uh and then after that, you want to pivot, right? You want to get to our messaging and almost anything. And I want to demonstrate this for you as well. You know, if
166they ask you, well, how do I know this money is being well spent? Listen carefully. That's a really good question. I was concerned about this too and I'm glad you asked it. We have four layers of protection to make sure every dollar stays right here in our community. Then you could walk through those four layers of protection. Okay. So it's listen, acknowledge, then pivot. What's really important to understand here? What's vital about this initiative? What's different? What makes this initiative different than other things? This money doesn't go into general revenue. It goes into a specific fund to go directly to the programs we've identified. Okay? So you pivot and then you speak on your message which is clear, consistent and concise. Now I said there's a a second S. Um in my early days of
167doing this program working with people uh there would be an article in the paper the next day and the person said there was something way off message and I'm like wait a second what what happened? I did exactly as you said Steve. I listened really respectful. I acknowledged it was a good question. I pivoted. I stayed on message. Yeah, but how did this quote come to be? Well, they didn't. The second S is they didn't stop talking because sometimes there's a tendency to overexlain. Once you've gotten your message out, just do it. You're clear. You're done. Um, so again, I just restated what our messages are. Recruit and retain highly correct teachers, fund safety and security, every dollar stays in our community, and several layers of protection. So that's the the uh second S is
168the stop talking. Um so to quick review um you know we our job is to stay on message because we have to break through that 4,000 messages a day and remembering they can only recall at most 12. We want one of those things to be ours. We start in a very good position thanks to your good work, the confidence they have in you. That's what the polling showed as well. We've developed language that based on what they told us, we think is is maximizes their concerns about where the money would be spent. And then our job is to continuously, repeatedly, and and effectively communicate a positive message about what this is going to do so that you don't have to hire a company to come in and and raise money on the side to do
169all this other stuff to try to get a campaign going. I think you're in good shape. And I think if we if we do these things, we could stay on message. So I'm happy if anybody wants to drill me, pretend you're a constituent, and ask a question to show you how this works uh in practice, happy to do it. Or anybody wants to be volunte volunteer to do this. I'm happy to work with you as well in doing that. So everybody want to want to try it out and see how it works. Or I can ask one of you guys a question. Up to you. >> Can I ask a question first? So, do we mention at all that this that we're adding a that we had this referendum that was safety, security, and and
170mental health and and the great work that it did? Does that get mentioned at all? >> It's well similar. So, I think we're we're limited. Am I right, Scott? We cannot say this is a continuation of By the way, very good question, Mr. Chairman. the uh so I think I think you can say >> because well one one of the one of the invariable questions is what's this going to cost right and I think that's where you can bring it up to say we've had a referenda in place like this for years that you guys voted on that voters voted on this is a modest increase to that because you're going from 3/4 to potentially up to a mill rep represents about $6 a month to the average homeowner and the question is Well, why
171do I have to pay more property taxes? Well, what you're getting for it, talk about the foamy goodness. We're getting better teacher pay. We want to keep and retain our teachers. We want to continue to have A+ schools. >> And do we speak about if the average home is $250,000 a year, that is $250 a year for this initiative for us to own this? >> That would be the cost. Yes, sir. Total. >> That's the appraised on these property appraisers website. So you're going from three quarters, which would be a continuation, no change in your taxes, to about a $6 a month increase. >> Is that going to be part of the messaging? >> Only in response to a question specifically about cost? Yes, sir. You'll notice I talk about always talk about the positive
172things in this thing, which is the goodness when the good things we're going to do with the money. And is it does it make any sense to kind of take ownership like like recently it made the news that Florida is 50th out of 51 states? Right. >> And funding. >> Yeah. >> And we're 59th out of 67 counties. So we're taking this to own our own destiny. >> Is this is there any framing of that? >> Yeah. You want you want to have what's called a close locus of control. You want to talk about taking care of our children, taking care of our teachers, taking care of our schools, and using words like stronger schools, better schools, safer schools. >> Yeah. I think that's what got the referendum initially passed is that we took we
173took ownership of safety and security and we added the mental health component. I think that's what got it passed twice. Once and then renewed. >> Yes, sir. >> This new one, we don't speak about renewal anymore, but do we combine the safety security? We own it. mental health, we own it, and retention, we own >> all of that. Yes, sir. Yeah. >> Uh you you know, you can say this is a continuation of a tax you guys already voted for. We're having a modest increase of it so we can expand those those very programs as well. Yes, sir. But it continue to talk about it's an instinct to talk about want to talk about the cost. My push back is talk about the positive things we're doing because we talk about $7 coffee. you know,
174my dad would be rolling over in his grave, right? But if I talk about the foamy goodness and the really good things we're going to do with this money, which is recruit and retrain, uh, retain high quality teachers, improve our mental health services, keep and preserve special programs. Seems like a pretty good deal for $6 a month. >> Yeah, right. I mean, we see those conversating a child or adopting a pet. I mean, it seems like you need to break it down to what it is per day, but I'm not >> But it doesn't sound like we do that. We We keep it more high profile at our level. >> I would. Yes, sir. >> Yeah. I mean, there uh some school districts have put uh charts on their website as to what you would
175pay if this was your appraised value. I I I found it makes no difference. People want to know what you're going to do with the money. What I have found and I've done as you know dozens of these is uh it's a myth that people are opposed to taxes. Uh they we don't like them. We play them reluctantly but if it's going towards good things we happily pay it. That's why 27 of 29 of these passed in 2024 because people were communicated to and the two that fail both failed by less than one point. Um so this is these are very popular with voters. One question I'm I'm already hearing from people is how much more are we going to pay teachers because of this? >> That's I don't know the answer to that question
176and it's >> hold on before we get the answer. Can you practice that with us? Here's your question. Ask it again. >> Thank you. >> How much more are teachers going to make because of this? >> Thank you for asking that question. It's a really good question. >> At this stage, at this point, it's not known because we have state allocation money to come. still understand what that's going to come from over the next four years as to where we're going to distribute the money, whether it's more in mental health programming or safety programming or just to recruit and retain teachers. It's that's an unknown answer, but but you can know this every dollar >> I don't know if I like that answer. You don't like that answer. >> Keep going. I'll keep you. >>
177You have that answer. I want to hear your answer, too. >> What were you gonna keep going? Go finish because you finish on the message. We what we do know is that every dollar will stay in the classroom. Every dollar will stay right here in Lake County. None of it's going to the state. So we will allocate that money according to how much money comes in. >> I mean you guys do you know the answer? >> No. >> Is that already laid out over the next four years? >> Come to the D. >> Well, we have something. >> No, you have you need to come up. Excuse me. If you know the answer, then yeah, because I didn't I didn't know that was a no. >> We don't we don't really know exactly the penny,
178right? Because obviously we have to bargain that and and so nobody really knows, right? But we have to be able to answer that question without >> there are things we do know >> with the facts that we do know. >> Yeah. >> It will increase. Teacher pay will increase. >> Yeah. >> So what we've been telling our >> Excuse me. Yeah. Please, please. >> Hi. Good morning. >> Um obviously we've had to promote this a little bit because we have our meeting today with the wonderful Steve as well. Um, so to promote it, we're talking about it at schools. And so when teachers ask us, well, how much will it be? We talk about the citizen oversight committee. We talk about collective bargaining. We say, we have meetings. Come to our next meeting. Let's talk
179about it so that we can come up with some plans to then present to you all. So we are working on that answer. And as of right now, that's kind of the answer we're telling people because we don't know that exact figure yet. But it's you will have a voice in that process. said, "If you're an educator and you care about it, come be a part of that conversation." So, does that help for now at least? >> I like hearing the uh you'll have a voice in that process, right? That's that's good phrasing in there. >> Okay. >> But are they are they do they understand that it's not guaranteed reoccurring dollars. So, these are not it's not going to be like a salary increase. Does everybody get that part? >> So, the folks that
180have been a part of those conversations understand that, >> right? But it helps to come to that meeting. It's hard to explain that in 2 minutes when they're coming through the lunchroom, >> right? >> So, >> but we are explaining that and those folks that are involved in those conversations understand. >> Yes. >> So, to that question, >> Model answer that is unknown. But here's what we do know. We know the money stays here. We know the money will be used in the classroom. We know there'll be an oversight committee and once we get those dollar figures, they'll be allocated according for these good things. Well, I mean, I think from a math perspective, we generated what, like 30 some odd million dollars off the 75? >> 38. >> Okay. So, then if you divide
181that by four and add it again, >> that wasn't our net. >> No, I know. But I'm saying then you'd have $8 million available for teacher pay and related support services at a global level. I mean, that's what's going to generate an additional new dollars. >> But do we even speak about that? Really >> to your point, I agree. But that's how you back into the numbers. >> Then it looks squishy, right? We can't know those numbers. Well, a new development may come in tomorrow and add 5,000 new homes. That will change the equation a little bit as well. And how you allocate the money, whether it's for mental health services, whether it's for teachers, whether it's for bus drivers, uh, cafeteria workers, other educational support personnel is yet to be known. But we will
182have extra dollars that will be targeted to keep highquality teachers in our community uh, and improve those other programs we're talking about. if you have something I want to add. >> Yeah, please. >> Obviously, our intention with the budget coming out from the state legislature and collective bargaining typically starting in the summer is to come up with a plan and have something in place, at least a preliminary agreement in conversation so that going into the election in the fall, educators have some idea or the community has some idea of the direction. Does that help? >> Yeah, it's a tough one. It's because you can't put an exact. You can't say $72 a month. >> Right. Right. >> Yeah. >> That's the question I keep hearing from people. >> How much will it be? Well, frankly,
183I love that question. I'll tell you why. It means they understand that it's going towards teacher pay. >> And if they feel it's going towards teacher pay, if it's we're moving it in the right direction, because you're right, we're 50th or 47th, whatever. We're behind where we should be. This moves us closer to where we can be. And and um do we know how many counties have an additional millillage that goes to teachers? >> We do. I don't know it off the top of my head. Did you Okay. >> The burning bush back there may know. >> I think it's 27 counties. >> There's not 27 >> 27 counties in the state >> that are in prox. Those are the competitor. I mean that's who we're competing with for teacher retention. >> Yeah. >> Are
184the ones that that would be Does Orange have one? So, Orange has one. Uh, Valuchia is actively working to potentially put one on the ballot. Reard is renewing theirs. Um, and then trying to think here locally. >> Oyola has one. Pulk is putting a new one on the ballot this year. >> Marian has one. >> Sumpter does not. >> Yeah. Marian has one and they're renewing it. And >> and theirs is for teacher. >> Crazy good. >> No. No. Marian renewal. >> Marian includes uh money for teacher pay. P will be exclusively prepared for teacher pay. >> Are they going for for a mill? >> Full mill >> and Valuchia is looking for a full mill >> for teachers. >> That's what we're working on. >> Wow. >> So, so our 025 are going to
185help us on retention. Start >> and on their full mill are they talking about it would be structured the same because again it's not recurring dollars so they can't give a raise. Please please >> you can but you might be in crisis in four years. >> Yeah in four years you might be >> it wouldn't be smart. >> Um Stephanie Conungle with the Florida Education Association. Good to see so many of you. Um every county um has anou um that they agree to with how to spend those dollars. um some will go 100% for salaries, some will choose to do an 8020 split where 80 goes to salaries, 20 goes to other um priorities. I think we're looking at with you all 7525 was what we had been initially discussing. So thatou as Elizabeth was
186kind of talking about we'll be able to flush that out with you all as to what how much the dollars would be and then it depends on again based on the agreement between the district and the and and um the collective bargaining agreement. Are you intending to use that as a recruitment and retention bonus? Essentially, a bonus. I use a bonus in air quotes. Do you do that two times a year? Do you do that uh per every paycheck? Do you do it as once a month? Um, so there's lots of way the I'm going to say this publicly without trying not to shoot myself in the foot and getting the legislature to come in and give us restrictions in the future, but you all get to have it's essentially choose your own adventure when
187it comes to these dollars. Um once the once your voters approve it, then you get to structure it in the best needs of what um educators um need in Lake City, in Lake County. Sorry, I was just in Lake City last night. Um different different places. Um and so that's why it's so important to talk about, you know, right here in Lake County. This is what we're doing for our educators and ultimately for the parents and students who rely on Lake County schools for that world-class education they need and deserve. Is there an opportunity for us to do that work on the forefront so that when we are out we can say this is what we have agreed to and as soon as that this is approved this is what will go into place. >>
188That is our intention to for for between the district and um and the the union to have thatou agreement so that as we're going out in the summer and we can talk in the community as well as in the schools what is that dollar amount that you're anticipating remembering that that money is anticipated. So if there is a shortfall, it may be less. If there is a windfall and you get incredible building um and construction here, it could be more. And that amount likely changes year after year. >> Sure. >> Sorry. Thank you. >> Yeah. And maybe we'll have a state budget by then. >> Maybe. >> Fingers crossed. >> Any other questions or comments or thoughts? >> I have one question just for clarification purposes. I know for elected officials and myself, we're very
189limited on what we can say is basically just providing this factual information and staying on message. What is the rule for district staff, teachers? Can they encourage? Can they say go out and vote and vote yes? Can they say all of the things that we're not able to say? Um, where are their restrictions? >> It's it's my understanding, and I'm going to look over at Scott to make sure he's either nodding in agreement or or negative. when you're on your own time, you could say whatever you want as a school employee. So, if you're at school pickup and a teacher, a a parent asks you, you want to you want to be an educator, not an advocator. But if you're at your, you know, kids boy scouts meeting or wherever at church and somebody asks
190you, I believe you're welcome to say whatever's on your mind. Uh either positive or negative. Uh we've had, you know, the chairman uh for example in uh St. Lucy County, the chairman of the uh political committee is the superintendent and is out there actively advocating and asking people to vote yes. He's doing that in his own capacity on his own time, not in his official capacity as superintendent. Obviously, it's it's Diane, when you walk out into the streets, people know you as the superintendent. Maybe your your husband or your mom or your your kids might see you also in a different capacity, but the public sees you as a superintendent. But it's my understanding if you're asked, you can say, "I'm voting I'm voting yes." Is that fair, Scott? >> The the you don't lose
191your First Amendment rights on your own time uh as a board member or as a superintendent, but as you said, in when you're acting in your capacity as a public employee, the the government can restrict what you say as a public employee. So, it is important. In fact, I always suggest if you're out at the soccer game to say something like, you know, I'm telling you what I think as a person and don't say, "Well, I'm the superintendent and here's why it's this." I think it's important to let people know this is my opinion. Now, everybody's going to know when you're superintendent and you're expressing your op opinion as an individual, that's the most informed opinion you're going to get. And so you that's fine, but it is important to that people understand you're not
192acting in your role as a as a public employee. >> And what about in the example like I I'm a head of a Kowanas club and I invite the superintendent to come in and I promote it superintendent of Lake County schools and she comes and speaks to that group. What What's the rule there? Is she >> If you're invited to go and speak about it, then as long as you're that's fine. No, no problem with that. You still don't want to you want to be careful in in moving too much into solicitation as opposed to giving the facts, but it's perfectly fine. It's really um when you're actively seeking that opportunity where it might be a little bit of a gray area, but if you're being invited to an event, perfectly fine to talk about
193here's what we're doing. Here's how the money we intend the money to be used. You know, here's, you know, the history of, you know, how we've used the money in the past. All of those things should be fine. >> So, in that capacity, you're up at the Kuanas. You was invited as superintendent or as chairman of the school board. Can you say and I'm voting for it? >> Oh, absolutely. Okay. You can you can always say personally what you're going to do. That's >> and it's nice. What your guidance though is to to have a little bit of a verbal dividing line. Yes. In my capacity as a school board chair, I I have to be neutral and educate. But as >> I want to stop you there for just one second because that's not
194what we've done in the past. That school board member elected school board member. >> I've been out advocating the last two times um for the passage and promoting it. I can't imagine that I fall under being like an employee because I'm like I'm an elected official and I think I can say whatever I want to say because I kind of have done that for the like last 14 years. Well, I think you have to be very careful in how you do that as a as a board member and it's not a hard thing to do. It's not a burden to say, you know, here here's what I think about this, right? I I but I do think you need to have some sort of >> delineating. Maybe maybe maybe I tempered it a little bit
195like I didn't come out and go as a school board member. I think that's not how I would approach it anyway. >> But people know who you are. >> They know. >> What the legislaturator is mostly worried about is that you're spending money to uh either educate or advocate. Reaching out to electors is what the statute says. that that's the big worry is are you using tax dollars to educate while advocating that that's a bigger concern. We have a couple of nits that Scott and I are still working through on that. But but I think um just like you said when we were standing at the urinal together that that we cover we cover an awful lot of things in a board meeting >> and I think people are going to look to us as
196leaders of the district that we know things and we can give them confidence of why they should do why they should vote for this and and um so I think being a school board member is kind of important to the discussion. >> Absolutely. Well, you're you're in theory you're the most knowledgeable about this. I'm sure there's somebody at home that's combing through the budget every day, but yeah, absolutely. You're you're an authority on this and they're looking to you and and a unanimous vote to put it on means a lot to voters. Um the ones that have failed, uh Stephanie and I have done several deep dive analyses, uh the one thing the ones that have failed in common is dissenting votes. uh that even what we still passed most of them even with dissenting
197votes but the ones who have failed always had dissenting votes so you're you're absolutely right and and and that law changed in 2022 tighten it up a little bit I think that's what Scott's also reacting to >> yeah they did they it used to be that it was just solicitation that was the issue and and factual things were fine and they changed the law but it's still um you do not lose your first amendment rights if you want to go out there as Bill Matias and you want to talk about it, you're perfectly free to do that. >> Even though we've been invited as school board member is going to give us an update to the Rotary Club, >> right? And then and as Steve said, the main thing is, you know, whose money is
198being spent here, right? Is are you to us on your personal time and not spending state res or local resources or are you getting reimbured for travel to go somewhere, right? The state funds that would be that would be a problem, right? >> Okay. All right. Good questions. Anything else? >> Guys, >> throw another practice. Throw another one. >> I thought I had a pretty good one there. >> Well, you threw me for a loop. See, you did. And I'm I'm I'm supposed to be good at this. >> So, do we do we mention again >> because we've got eight years of an established and we can't talk about the established. It's new. But because of the voters investing in our district, we have some really good data on the mental health side. We have
199some really good data on what we're doing with safety and security. Does any of that become part of? >> Yes, in writing. And so Sher and I have been working together on developing message points and things that we're going to build onto the website. And so we can populate that there. um the public is going to be less interested in the individual details of that than more money will be spent to help our children, you know, who are struggling with mental health, etc. >> But but I think that if you serve 10,000 kids in a year and you had three that that uh through early intervention may have prevented them doing harm to themselves or to others, that's powerful. Oh, if you have a personal story to tell in a presentation to lead with, when
200we instituted this, we didn't have have this program and now we have this program. That's maximum fobing goodness. Yes, sir. That's fantastic to say as a result of this. Uh we used an example in Manatee County. They had lost their teacher of the year to Sarasota County. They passed it, got the teacher back, and they were able to use that as a good story. Our teacher of the year came back because of this initiative. First time it squeaked through at 50.1. the next time it's squeak through with 67 something something like that and and has to do with personal storytelling. So yeah, if you've got good stories to share, obviously you don't want to call out a student by name. Joey Smith was violate HIPPA and everything else, but yeah, absolutely positive stories >> and
201we have those stories. So I don't know how we play that into I guess the like you said the website or whatever or and we have real data that shows how many kids we've served. Not necessarily. you bring mention the kids that were bakered or whatever, but but you can mention because I know for a fact one specifically one recently that um that because of the uh interventions that we have in place that >> it would be fantastic if you're giving a presentation, let's just use this mythical Kowanas club and you start out with that story and then go on to the 30,000 foot messaging. I think it's fantastic to show how it really impacted one of our children because that goes to the close locus of control which I'm very concerned about which is
202you know conservative taxpayers want things closer to home with liberals it takes a village conservatives it's family values right simplest way to understand that to talk about an individual child who lives in our community and how this helped that individual child it's fantastic as long as you're not violating any HIPPA rules or something like that for coming out the door. Come on in and tell them about it. Good idea. That ought to make national news. >> I think Anybody else got anything? >> Good. >> No. >> Appreciate it very much. Thank you. >> No, no, wait. Stand by. >> Oh, >> no. I just wanted to thank you, Vanessa, Stephanie. Thank you for being here today. Um, just some next steps. So, they'll be with us all day. We're going to be meeting with school
203leaders doing something similar for principles um this afternoon along with teachers later this afternoon. And so um thank you for spending the day with us just so that we all leave better um informed and prepared. Um and as we continue with preparation, he's been working very closely with Sherry. I think they talk probably I don't know how many times a week. So, they'll be providing us with some talking points as well as presentations so that we can actually start scheduling um who's going to go where in the community and kind of divide and conquer as we head into the summer, which I know will be my major focus as well as >> Yeah. And Sherry's been phenomenal to work with. >> Yeah, she's >> we had an exchange with the with the Orlando Sentinel the
204other day and she's like, "What? How about this as an answer?" And I'm like, "Oh, that's perfect." So, thank you. Appreciate it. We'll see you a little in a little bit. So, will we get any feedback for how these meetings go today? >> I'll be happy to give you some feedback. >> Are you going Are you going to all of them? >> I will be with the school leaders and I will stay for as long as I can with the teacher group. Yes. >> Perfect. Perfect. Thank you very much. >> Thank you. >> Okay, we're going to move right in because the day is getting long to a discussion of the Superintendent Portuguese annual evaluation and contract extension. Mr. Cole. >> Yes, sir. So in conjunction with schoolboard policy 1040 uh which is entitled evaluation
205of the appointed superintendent and the superintendent's employment agreement uh each board member must conduct an annual evaluation of the superintendent. Now the evaluation is broken into two parts. Uh part one is based on standards and professional practices derived in part from the Florida leadership standards. And those standards are one vision, culture and instructional leadership. Two is operations, resource and personnel management. Three is open uh I'm sorry board governance and policy. Four is communication and community relations. And five is ethical leadership. Now the five standards then are broken down into five subcategories. And the total points for all sections are then computed in making the evaluation. So the schoolboard members rank the superintendent's attainment of each indicator based on the following rubric. Exceed expectations gets three points. Meets expectations gets two points. Needs improvement gets one
206point. And unsatisfactory no points. So, what that means when you break it all down is that a perfect score for the entire board for part one is 375 points. The superintendent scored 370 points on part one. That works out to 98.7%. Which I think is an A+. >> Um, now part two. So part two of the evaluation is based on student performance objectives and is based on district goals specifi specific to student achievement. So the superintendent and the school board defined five objectives to serve as a as a priority focus and those objectives are first increase the performance from the baseline to endofear report for high school algebra 1 students. Two, increase grad graduation rates annually and maintain a rate of 90% or higher. Three, increase the percent of students earning industry certification or advanced
207credit. Increase the number of individual group counseling sessions provided to students across all grade groups. Increase behavioral and emotional support programs and services. And increase annually teacher retention rates based on a three-year average. Increase annually the percentage of teachers scoring highly effective in the instructional practices portion of their annual eval val evaluation. So for this section the rubric is meets or exceed expectations. If you do, you get two points. Needs improvement, you get one point. Unsatisfactory, no points. So the maximum score is a 2.0. The ratings were averaged and the superintendent scored 2.0 on this section. So 100% again an A+. So, Chair Mias, um at this time it would be appropriate for you to ask for a motion uh to approve the evaluation instrument ratings for the superintendent for the 2526 school year and
208after a second to allow all the board members to make any comments about the process or the superintendent and then that should be followed by a vote. >> And we can do this in a workshop. >> Oh, that's right. We're in a workshop, aren't we? Okay, never mind. Can you tell I took it from last year when we were at a four full meeting? Yes. You can still have your comments. >> We can have comments. >> You can have comments. Yes. Okay. >> Okay. So, we'll start with >> Yeah. I I think it speaks for itself once again the three four years that I've been here now for this process. Um it's always been somewhere around this 370 372 out of 375 which is just incredible. Um as I say every year, you three get
209a ton of credit for making this decision going on 10 years ago. Yes, we do. and we firmly now have the superintendent of the year for the state of Florida. We have achieved an A rating and all the things due to her leadership. So, we're just I'm just very thankful and appreciative to work alongside you all and with superintendent Cornet. >> Certainly, uh we have superintendent of the year because she deserves it. Uh we are very fortunate to have her. I believe that because of her being here, Lake County Schools is a much better place for children to be educated. Um, so we're grateful. Thank you for your service, >> Mr. Do. >> Well, I wrote a lot here. I don't know if I could possibly possibly say more, but uh >> Yeah, don't. >>
210Okay, I got other stuff to go on, but go ahead high spots. Go ahead. You >> I don't want to cut you off, but I just want to shorten you. >> Yeah, I don't think I can. I don't think I can. Well, I mean, I can say more, you know. Um, but uh >> you don't have to. >> But I don't have to because I think I think the evaluation really speaks for itself when you know you get five of us up here. >> Okay. Thank you, Dr. Luke. >> Go ahead. >> You done? >> I'm good. I'm good. How How do we censure the chair? Can we review that parliamentary procedure? We'll look into it. >> Thank you. >> Okay, Dr. Luke. >> Similarly, I wrote lots of comments, but obviously I'm proud to
211serve. So alongside you, thank you. >> It's been amazing. 10 years. Yeah, >> which then brings us up to the next topic, which is July the superintendent's contract expires. Um, so I think that that it would be appropriate for us to discuss now extending her contract for up to one year and if we could put that on the board agenda, that would be great. So, anybody have any comments about it? >> Okay, so we can add that >> speak. >> Change that to at least one year to >> at least one year >> to up to one year. to at least >> fully supportive. So, >> what how do you want what do you want to say? >> Up to one year. >> Yeah. >> One year. >> Up to one year. >> Yes. >>
212Yeah. Yeah. >> Okay. Okay. Because after that, then we'll have some other discussions. So, let's get this all through the um the vote on Monday and then we'll move forward with next steps. Okay. Okay. So, that was easy breezy. So that brings us to lost my agenda. We have >> board member comments. >> No comments. Good work. >> Yep. Likewise. >> Likewise. >> That was it. >> I thought if I got if I tried to say something. >> Yeah. Yeah. This is really good work today. So, uh, Superintendent, >> I'm good. >> You know, you going to say thank y'all very much for the >> Well, I was going to do that after y'all. after you approve it on under consent. >> Yeah. >> On Monday night. >> Oh, did you say so then pause?
213>> I will. I do want to acknowledge this is teacher appreciation week, so I'd be remiss if I didn't >> just publicly thank our teachers. We did a super Sunday on it yesterday, but just very grateful to them and wishing them a great week and all of our students great success as we head into testing week, too. >> And I really wish y'all good luck today. It'll be very interesting that how it's received and how positive we can make this. And then we're to attorney. >> Nothing. >> Okay. means dirt.