001Good evening. It is Monday, July 28th, 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. >> As you guys can see, the superintendent the superintendent is not with us this evening. Uh Mr. Farnsworth, our deputy superintendent, will be sitting in her place. Um board, do we have any changes, amendments, additions, or deletions to the agenda this evening? >> No, sir. >> Mr. Deputy Superintendent, any changes? >> There are no changes. >> All right. Perfect. Um seeing none, we'll move forward to the approval of the minutes.
002Uh Mr. Deputy Superintendent, do you have a recommendation? >> I recommend approval of the minutes from the regular school board meeting July 14th, 2025. >> So moved. >> Second. Got a motion by Mr. Matias. Second by Mr. Dodd. Any discussion? All those in favor? I >> I passes 40. Um representation this evening we have none. Um moving on to public input. We did get a couple cards. Uh first up, Miss Amanda Bertrand. >> Good evening. My name is Amanda Bertrand and I live at 497 Lamington Lane in the Villages. I am speaking on behalf of my friend Farmer Banks Hellfrick who resides in the Clay Road district of South Lake County. First, the farm tip of the day. Did you know that immature loofah fruit can be cooked and eaten like cucumber or squash and
003that it is highly nutritious? In fact, it has two growing seasons here in Florida. Early March to late July and again from late July to late November. Lofah used in Asian cooking is becoming an increasingly profitable vegetable crop in Florida. The variety of lofah I think of first is called the ball lofah and is rarely if ever eaten. These ball lofah when dried are what many of us use in the shower to exfoliate our skin. Additionally, lofah sponges are recyclable and biodegradable and can be applied as an eco-friendly material in packaging, water absorption, and water waste treatment. Mr. Deputy Superintendent, board, and distinguished guests, grocery prices have climbed, putting pressure on our fixed income Floridaidians. More and more of our neighbors are becoming hungry and homeless because of it. The increased cost of food over
004the past five years has placed Flidians in a difficult predicament of having to choose between paying for housing and medicines or being able to feed their families. So, how do we get food costs under control? Agrarian societies have existed in various parts of the world as far back as 10,000 years ago. So, in a way, we have all descended from a traditional a tradition of gardening. We have lived off the land until the last 100 years as we entered the industrial revolution. Today, farmtotable has become a marketing term rather than a way of life. There is one solution that we can all try. We can venture into our own backyards to clear a plot and create a raised bed garden. With limited space, container gardening using pots on the lai or on a window sill
005can provide enough produce for a homegrown salad. If we start by growing our own groceries, our rediscovered green thumbs could become resources to encourage more community gardens reminiscent of victory gardens. These gardens were encouraged during World War I and World War II, not only to supplement rations, but also to boost morale. Unfortunately, it's not food rationing that is the current challenge of many people in our cities, county, and state, but the unaffordability of that food. Thank you for your attention and for allowing me to speak on behalf of Farmer Banks Health. >> Thank you, Amanda. It would not be the same without an update from Farmer Bank. So, we appreciate you being here. Uh, next up, Miss Jessica Siki, LCA. Good evening, chair, board members, deputy superintendent, and community members. On behalf of the Lake
006County Education Association, we want to extend our sincere thanks to Rob Oyer and Scott Ward for their time, leadership, and collaboration during last week's insurance meeting. We appreciate your thoughtful approach in developing a strategic plan to address employee healthcare and your willingness to join us for the insurance Q&A session this Thursday. These efforts go a long way in building trust and transparency. We would also like to thank Mr. Ward for explaining financial information. We value the opportunity to work together and dig deeper, thinking outside the box and exploring creative strategic solutions that prioritize the needs of our students, educators, and support staff, especially in such challenging times. LCA is looking forward to participating in Launch into Lake this week. We're excited to welcome our newest educators and share in the energy of a new school
007year. We'll be providing lunch on Wednesday and we look forward to building relationships and supporting our newest colleagues from the start of their career here in Lake County. We continue to appreciate the collaboration, look forward to more opportunities to make Lake a great place to work, learn, and grow. Thank you. >> Excellent. Thank you, Jessica. All right. Any other public input this evening? All right. Seeing none, we'll move on um to the reports. Uh 6.01 attorney report. Mr. Cole, >> no report. >> All right. Um we also don't have any unfinished business this evening. So, moving on to the consent agenda. Uh Mr. Deputy Superintendent, do you have a recommendation? >> Yes. I recommend approval of the consent agenda items 8.01 through 10.05. >> So moved. >> Second. Got a motion by Mr. Matias, second
008by Mr. Dodd. Any discussion? All those in favor? I >> I passes 40. Um, moving on to discussion. Um, item 11.01, public hearing, Mr. Cole. >> Yes, sir. At this time, we open the meeting uh for a public hearing on final approval of policies uh 2800. That one is rescended, educational services for students in Department of J juvenile justice education programs. 3120.03 3 athletic coaches 3120.08 part-time extracurricular personnel 4120.03 athletic coaches 4120.08 part-time extracurricular personnel at this time. Would anyone like to uh have public input on these uh policies? Seeing none, the public hearing is closed. >> Mr. Deputy Superintendent, do you have a recommendation? I recommend final approval of the policies as presented. >> So moved. >> Second. >> Got a motion by Mr. Matthi, second by Mrs. Cunningham. Any discussion? All those in
009favor? >> I I passes 40. Uh superintendent report this evening. Mr. Deputy Superintendent. >> Uh just a few things. Um kind of a exciting weekend. We were able to open it up. We're very grateful and thankful that we heard our federal funds are being released. So that's going to help us with some of those title funds. And I just want to thank our our staff and leaders across the district who are ever always ready to pivot at a moment's notice. Um especially in these uncertain economic times for education. So just happy to have those funds released. Uh so that's good news. Um lots of things going on as we get ready to crank up the new school year. Um launch in the lake uh begins tomorrow. We'll welcome our new teachers uh for the annual
010orientation. Uh our returning teachers will be back with us next week and the students will return on August 11th uh for the first day of classes. Um and we had a nice ribbon cutting at Min Horizon Academy. Want to thank all who were in attendance there and uh also our Fruitland Park school where students will start the new year at a new facility. Uh just a reminder because what's going on at a couple of our schools, uh students and teachers aren't the only ones getting ready for the school year. Uh our school resource officers and deputies and our school safety officers are preparing too. So they'll be participating in active asalent training sessions on Thursday at East Ridge Middle School and on Friday at Umatella High School. So these are interactive sessions with simulated gunfire
011and student actors on site to create real life situations. So if you see a large law enforcement present or presence or hear loud noises at those schools this week, don't be alarmed. Um they're just doing uh what they need to do to make sure that our campuses stay safe. And uh we want to offer also a thank you to our Lake County Sheriff's Office and all others that are involved. Um, and I'll just wrap up by uh congratulating our regional executive director, Marlene Strong, uh, who danced outside of her comfort zone and walked away with a mirrorball trophy this weekend, stepping out for education. She did a fabulous job and represented our district really well. So, thank you, Marlene. And thank you to the education foundation. Just another phenomenal event. everything from the dancers, the
012preparation, just the food, the atmosphere. It was just it was great. Top-notch as usual. So, just want to thank the education foundation for that. >> Mrs. Cunningham, >> good evening. Uh, I don't really have anything tonight. I'm just looking forward to launching the lake in the morning and having everyone return so that we can get back to the business of educating students. Thank you. >> Thank you, Mr. Dud. It's just so hard to believe the next time we're meeting, schools will already be back in session, we'll already have students on campuses. And so the remaining couple of weeks, I just wish everybody a great rest of the summer and welcome back to everybody. Okay, so I don't have any comments. Uh really excited. Seems like the summer flew by. Marlene, you were absolutely amazing, by
013the way, as were all of the dancers. You think about um our normal folks that have businesses and work and then they put themselves out to learn this dancing and it's intense, right? The training and and yet you wouldn't know it. It was I think this year was one of the one of the best. Um so very well done. And that's all I have. >> Yep. Ditto per usual. Um wanted to go back briefly to the Minnola Horizon's groundbreaking and thank you Mr. Mias for all the efforts you've put in over the years to make that school possible and that site possible. That was many years and many hours of a lot of hard work to really create a beautiful campus. So, thank you for all your efforts there. Um, also want to give a
014shout out to the Leburg community. We held our annual back to school bash last Saturday at the Venetian Center. Um, and a huge shout out to the Father's House, Church of the Lakes, uh, UF Health, and a few other sponsors, uh, for coming together and raising the funds to buy 750 backpacks, um, that all of our Leburg area schools, Futland Park, and the Vill's elementary participated in. Had a full house per usual, um, and really had a nice kickoff to the start of the school year and got kids back prepared um, and and ready to hit the ground running. Um, lastly, want to give a shout out as well. Um, as Jessica mentioned, to Rob and Scott Ward, um, and the insurance advisory team, um, LCA continues to come up with very creative ideas to
015address our, uh, budget deficits as it relates to the self- insurance fund. So, thank you, Jessica and Elizabeth, for your leadership, um, and your members leadership and coming up with creative ideas uh, to help alleviate um, the the budget shortfalls without decreasing the benefits we're able to offer to our members. So, thank you for your partnership. We appreciate it very much. Um, and lastly, want to give a shout out to Chad and Gary and their teams and grounds. They've been very busy this summer doing a lot of projects on a lot of different campuses. I'm really appreciative of what they've done and continue to do. I think we'll have a lot of kids and teachers ready to come back to campuses and see some shiny new um, paint jobs and parking lots and buildings that
016really are going to um, extend how we feel about starting the year as an A district. Um, so I think all that factors in. Um, and last but certainly not least, um, Marlene, congratulations on stepping out. Uh, but also want to give a shout out to Shane Stevenson and his team in warehouse for all the work they put into set up that room and tear it down, um, in just a few hours. They were there till late hours of the evening getting that place back in Sunday morning. You wouldn't even know an event was there. And that's a credit to Shane Stevenson and his team. Um, did we miss anything this evening? Any other comments? Any objection to adjourning? Yes, sir. >> We are adjourned. Thank you very much.