001Good evening. It is Monday, October 27th, 2025, and I'd like to call this regular school board meeting to order. Please stand for a moment of silence followed by the pledge of allegiance. >> Thank you. 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. >> Good evening, Mr. Deputy Superintendent, board, community, staff. Uh, thank you for being here this evening. Um, moving on to item two, changes, amendments, additions, or deletions to the agenda. Board, do we have any changes this evening, Mr. Deputy Superintendent? There are no changes. >> All right. Hearing none, we'll proceed with the agenda as presented. Um, approval of the minutes. Deputy Superintendent. Do you have a recommendation? >> I recommend
002approval of the minutes from the regular school board meeting October 13, 2025. >> So moved. >> Second. >> Got a motion by Mr. Matias, second by Mr. Dodd. All those in favor? >> I I passes 50. Uh, representation. We have none. Public input. I did get a couple cards this evening. Uh, first up is Mr. Farmer Bank Selfridge. Farmer Banks Hellfrick Clay Road District South Lake County farm tip of the day. U the cool weather months of fall and winter. Now is the time to put uh brachius and carciferous uh vegetables into the ground such as broccoli, cauliflower, cabbage, Brussels sprouts, um kale, spinaches. Uh, also it's the best time to put uh root vegetables into the ground such as uh carrots, onions, um, beets, and uh, turnups grow like weeds in Florida. Uh, also
003lettucees and also the the quintessential fruit vegetable, the tomato. This is the best time to put it in the ground. Um, chairman, um, vice uh, superintendent, >> deputy, >> um, deputy superintendent. [laughter] I was going to say madam super um distinguished guests um roughly 250 years ago um our constitution was signed and ratified uh and immediately thereafter our forefathers began working on the amendments the changes to the constitution. The first 10 amendments of the constitution are considered to be the bill of rights. Quite an appropo name for rights given to us the citizens. These rights include um the right to u petition our government, the right uh to free speech, the right to worship whoever or whatever we want to worship, the right to assemble, the right to press, uh the right to bear arms,
004um the right to due process. Um these rights are explicitly written in our bill of rights slash amendments. Um however with them comes one caveat and that is all these rights have with them an individual responsibility. So yes you can go out into the middle of the street, you can go on social media, you can go into the market square and you can exclaim at the top of your lungs um your views. However, deep down inside, you are responsible for what you say. My mom always said to me, be careful what you say. Use your words wisely because they will stay with you for the rest of your life. Rights come with responsibilities. I am Farmer Banks Helfrick. May you all be blessed. Thank you for allowing me to speak. >> Thank you, Farmer Banks.
005>> Next up, Miss Leland Tero. >> Thank you for getting that right. I love that. So, good evening deputy superintendent board members Matias Brandenburg, Dodd Cunningham and Luke. Um, I am Leland Taro and I represent Lake Community Arts in partnership with the Orlando Philarmonic Orchestra. We're excited to bring the Young People's Concert to Lake County this fall on November 13th and 14th. It's almost here. We're so excited. There's going to be two performances at Lake Minioli High School on Thursday and two performances at Leburg High School on Friday. Um we'd love for you to join us at the VIP reception which is on Thursday morning at 9:30 at Lake Minnola High School. Um and then the concert starts at 10:30. It lasts about 45 minutes, so it's not very long, but it is extremely entertaining
006and you should consider staying for that. Um, we're really grateful to all of the people who have lend us support, including Disney, the Florida Theatrical Association, Mount Dora Community Foundation, Bill Matias, the Logan Foundation, and Cindy Brown. We're still finalizing transportation funding for South County students with the Community Foundation of South Lake, and we have only $4,000 left to raise for all of the costs of this event. On September 12th, we hosted a countywide professional development day for all Lake County music teachers at Mission in the uh in in Howie in the hills. The teachers explored classroom integrations of the young people's concerts, expanded middle school programming, and learned how high school students can earn the Florida Seal of Fine Arts at their graduation. We also worked on vertical alignment to strengthen the music education
007pathway from elementary through middle through high school. The day was a great success and we are partnering with Sicily Bosley at the I think you call it the department of professional learning, right? Did I get that right? I'm not sure. Um anyway, we're doing another district-wide professional development day this time for all arts education, dance, music, theater, and visual art that will go um and again probably at uh Mission and it was a good central location for everybody. So, we're going to do that on March 6th. Our community choir is also underway and our first performance is November 22nd. If you would like to come out and hear us, we'll be at Claremont Celebrates on November 22nd on the steps of City Hall at 5:00. Um we rehearse on Tuesdays from 6:30 to 8:30. If
008you want to come and sing with us at the Performing Arts Center, you are welcomed to visit um anytime you want. I am leaving some business cards uh for each of you and please reach out any time with any of your thoughts or comments. Thanks. >> Thank you, Mr. Terry. Great work as always. >> Thank you. >> All right, moving on to the attorney's report this evening. Mr. Cole, >> no report. >> Perfect. We also don't have any unfinished business. So, moving on to the consent agenda. Mr. Deputy Superintendent, do you have a recommendation? >> Yes, I recommend approval of the consent agenda items 8.01 01 through 10.03. >> Moved. >> Second. >> Got a motion by Mr. Dodd, second by Mr. Matias. Any discussion? All those in favor? >> I I passes 50. >>
009Moving on to discussion this evening. Um item 11.01, a public hearing. Mr. Cole. >> Yes, sir. Uh at this time we will open the meeting to a public hearing for tenative approval of policies 5136 wireless communication devices 5500 student conduct 56000 student discipline and 9800 charter schools. At this time is there any public input? >> Seeing none the uh public hearing is closed. >> Thank you sir. Deputy superintendent do you have a recommendation? I recommend ten of approval of the policies as presented. >> So moved. >> Second. Got a motion by Mr. Mthi. Second by Mr. Dodd. Any discussion? All those in favor? >> I. Passes 50. Uh moving on to the deputy superintendent report this evening. >> Um just like to take a moment to a little bit of a flood update. Um wanted
010to thank our staff for the flexibility uh this morning. I know some of my crew were out at 4:30, 5:00 this morning. um just trying to get things ready. So, I want to thank them and our transportation, grounds, maintenance, teachers, administrators, sports staff, just everybody involved that that kicked in this morning to keep things running smoothly in the impacted areas. So, uh thank you so much for that. Um we had one award I want to mention on the superintendent's behalf. Uh just congratulating the district of winning the 2025 SpeakOut outstanding program support award from the Crimeline Board of Directors. This is a recognition of our participation in the SpeakOut program that allows students to report safety concerns anonymously at 800423 TIPS. Uh we have embraced that program and been able to intervene in numerous situations
011as a result. So we're proud of this award. >> Thank you, sir. Dr. Dr. Luke, any comments this evening? >> No, I think I just like to echo my sentiments to Mr. Farnsworth. I know I was in the US area this morning and there's some things that were overwhelming, but there were also some a lot of instances of um the staff and the students and the um administrators coming together to make sure that school was as normal as possible um for the students that did come to school in my district this morning and then those that didn't. So, I also want to appreciate um the communication that was going on. And I know that the district always feels pressure in regards to releasing communication in a timely manner. And I felt like um the reasonleness
012of checking roads and making sure thing was things were protocols were followed and students were safe and buses were ran than giving an option for parents who didn't feel safe was a was a was a good way to navigate something that could potentially um be challenging. It was very challenging. So thank you to everybody that showed up today. That's all I have. >> Thank you, Dr. Luke. Mrs. Cunningham, >> I concur. Uh, I think the district staff handle our inclement weather extremely well. I got a couple of phone calls and I could very confidently say to them, don't worry, they're taking care of it. So, it's always nice to be able to say that. So, thank you very much, Deputy Superintendent, and your entire staff. You did a great job. No further comments. >> Mr.
013Dud? Yes. Um, when I um heard the the storms and rain last night in Claremont and saw the message about the north end of the county, I thought it must be really bad up there. And so I'm grateful to all the staff who uh you know worked it from all different angles to ensure a safe experience for our faculty, our staff, our students and also our our facility assets. Uh this this past week I um watched a webinar by the consortium of Florida education foundations and I think Dr. Luke had a chance to view that as well. Um it was basically um all about capturing the market share. you know, we understand that public schools are in a unique state of of having to compete for our our customers, if you will, that a new
014level of of choice and what that looks like. And I think while there were a lot of statistics that were um maybe discouraging because they're so challenging to try to overcome, I think there's some great conversation to have in terms of how do we try to overcome that? um that I think they really got me thinking about what are some of the systems in place uh that might be a best practice that we might consider as a school district as well to think about how you capture that market share and what all the different angles of that um involve or include. So, u my recommendation was I got some value out of watching that and um so if anybody else is interested I think I think the link is available for anybody to go check
015that out and you know perhaps might be worthy of some district level discussion moving forward about how we might be able to take some of those concepts presented and and maybe uh get some of that market share back. >> Mrs. Owens and I also spoke about it. She was on the call as well and so was a superintendent. So I think it's that's >> agree. So may maybe since so many people have had the opportunity to participate, maybe we move forward into like a workshop where we can all now talk about what we you know because we can't really have many of those conversations outside of this meeting. I mean you can go talk to staff. I can go talk to staff but you know to be able to collaborate together and >> and I
016think it'd be worthy of discussion with the other board members too if you'll have an hour to dedicate to the webinar. It's I think it's worth uh worth worth looking at. >> What was it called? >> I can have I'll send >> we'll have Natalie send out the link. Okay. >> It's like market share like you said. [laughter] >> That's right. That's right. And you'll probably appreciate it just from the business side of things. So, uh, so no doubt and and and then after that, maybe it' be worthy of of having some sort of workshop and talk about how does this fit into the district strategy moving forward. >> Thank you, Mr. Dodd. Mr. Matias, >> I'll just set aside one hour in just in line with my four hours of ethics that I'm going
017to watch this weekend. So, to remind everybody that is due the first of the year. Um and and I would be remiss if we didn't talk about how we place ourselves that we are 65th out of 67 counties and that at some point we have to have equity and u that relationship. So that's all I have >> and ditto ditto on the the work that you did >> ditto those comments well. Um deputy superintendent your team always do an excellent job and we appreciate you today and every day. So thank you for that continued effort. Um wanted to give the board a brief update. The superintendent and I last Monday had a meeting in Orange County with the Orange County administrator and some members of public works regarding some of the 2,800 acres of land
018that Orange County owns in Lake County in the Wellness Way area and our desire to acquire some of that land for a high school. Um they were receptive to the conversation, not super receptive to moving forward with next steps, but certainly put their cards out on the table and we've got a good understanding of where we can u proceed from here. um myself, the superintendent, uh Kelly, and I believe Chad have a meeting, I think, tomorrow afternoon with Mr. Cole and members of the real estate team at Grey Robinson to look at those legal avenues that we may be able to consider. Um it's just such a beautiful piece of property that I can't see a reasonable reason why we can't acquire a a portion of it um for our efforts in public utility versus
019public utility. I think there's a an argument to be made uh to go with the next step. So once we have that call tomorrow, we'll certainly have some more information that I'm sure the superintendent will brief the rest of the board on. We'll continue to move forward on acquiring that land. Um, and also want to give a brief shout out to Principal Wolf and her team at Leburg Elementary. They did their first annual read and treat event last Thursday at the elementary school and I believe they had over 500 parents and students come out to that event. Um, so really good energy on campus. Um, it's been exciting to see how they've already embraced this school year and I'm expecting some really big results now and moving forward under principal's leadership. Um, and just really
020excited for what they've got to got to come. Um, anything else this evening board that we missed? Any objection to adjourning? >> We are adjourned. Thank you very much.