001Good evening. It is Monday, April 14th. I'd like to call this regular schoolboard meeting to order. Uh please stand for a moment of silence followed by the pledge of 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. Right. Got a nice crowd tonight. Always happy to see that. Um, moving on to item two. Any changes, amendments, additions, or deletions to the agenda board? Do you have any changes? Superintendent. So, we pulled item 8.07 for no action, and we'll be bringing that back at a later date. All right, sounds good. Approval of the minutes. Um, superintendent, do you have a recommendation? Recommend approval of the minutes from the regular school board meeting March 24th, 2025, and
002the special meeting of the financing corporation on March 24th, 2025. So moved. Second. Got a motion by Mr. Mthi, second by Dr. Luke. All those in favor? I I passes 5. Uh, representation. We've got a couple presentations tonight. Uh, first up is Miss Francis Celis doing the presentation of the Cambridge District of the Year Award. Good evening board members. We have a very special presentation tonight and I'd like to go ahead and introduce to you our CBridge ACE program leaders Jeff Brewer and Allison Ibara and they're going to explain this recognition that we've received as a district. Good evening, Superintendent Cornnegie, members of the board, Lake County educators, families, and students. It is a great honor to join you tonight to formally recognize Lake County Schools as Cambridge's district of the year and the medium
003district category for the 2425 academic school year. Each year, this award is presented to three districts across the country that demonstrate outstanding commitment to expanding access to rigorous Cambridge programs, sustaining or improving student success on Cambridge assessments, and advancing educational opportunity in meaningful and measurable ways. Lake County has achieved all of this and more. With 11 Cambridge schools thriving across the district, you've made advanced learning accessible to more students than ever before. Despite increased participation, student performance has remained strong, reflecting not just academic rigor, but also the strength of your support systems and your belief in your students potential. This award belongs to the entire Lake County schools community. Starting from the district leaders and school administrators whose decisions made this vision possible to the educators who brought it to life every day in the
004classroom. To the students who rise to meet every challenge and to the families who walk alongside them every step of the way. To the students and educators of Lake County. Your students are not only excelling on rigorous international assessments, but they're also building the skills, confidence, and global mindset that will shape their future and the future of their communities. None of that is possible without the unwavering dedication of your educators who inspire curiosity, model resilience, and create classroom where excellence becomes the norm. Together they are building a legacy of achievement that extends far beyond test scores in the classroom. Superintendent Cordigy, this is a reflection of your leadership, but it's also a celebration of an entire community that works together to make opportunity real for all students. On behalf of Cambridge, thank you for your
005leadership, your vision, and determination to allow every student to succeed. Congratulations to all of you on this incredible accomplishment. It is our honor to partner with Lake County and we look forward to continuing this important journey together. Thank you. [Applause] Thank you, Cambridge team. Um would like to echo those comments to our educators, students, and family in the room tonight and watching online. Um this is all made possible because of your hard work. So, thank you for all that you continue to do for our students. Next up, item 4.02, some district athletic recognition. Mr. Patrick Todd. Good evening. Thanks for having us here this evening. It's always exciting to recognize student athletes and their accomplishments and uh and the and the support system that they have on their campuses. Tonight we have uh two distinct
006groups we'd like to honor. Our first is the Tavaris High School unified basketball class 2A state championship team and we're certainly excited about what they've done. Michelle Matheni and Michelle Long are our coordinators. Our head coaches are Jordan Townage, Matthew Griffin, Michelle Matheni, and then our student athletes. And as I call your name, why don't you come forward and we have some medals for you each. And so, Coach Jordan Town, [Applause] Assistant Coach Matthew Griffin. [Applause] Assistant Coach Michelle [Applause] Matheni and our student athletes Elliot Middleton, James Dean, Tais Lima, [Applause] Alan Andino [Applause] Cruz, Uzziah Deleon, Jeremiah Jones. To give you a little background on this group, it's really amazing the things that they've accomplished. As the season progressed, the team grew stronger, fueled by the camaraderie built during practices and the success they
007achieved in games. Under their leadership of head coach Jordan Townage with the assistant coaches of Matt Griffin, Michelle Matheni, the team's hard work and unity were on display every day. They had an undefeated season going 7-0 culminating with the state championship victory 48 to 41 over Cyprus. Our class 2A unified state basketball champions to various high school. You guys want to come up? Oh, backwards. Let's go to Congratulations. [Applause] Congratulations. Congratulations. Congratulations. Okay. Next group of athletes we'd like to honor is the Leburg High School girls weightlifting team. This year they are the district runner up in the Olympic lift, regional champion in the Olympic lift, regional runner up in the traditional lift, state runner up in the traditional lift, and state champions for the second year in a row in the Olympic lift, which
008is really a remarkable accomplishment. Our student athletes are Hannah [Applause] Stubs, Josiana Perilla, Malaysia Lebron Esquardo. To give you some information about Malaysia, she she was the state champion in the Olympic and traditional lift in her weight class. She set state records in snatch with 125 lb snatch and Olympic lift total of 280 pounds. Quite an accomplishment. Kayla Nord, state runner up in traditional lift and third place medalist Olympic lift in her weight class. [Applause] Congratulations, Na Wells, state champion in traditional lift with a 500 lb total and state runner up in Olympic [Applause] lift. And just a little information about coach Josh Brier. This was his fifth team state championship since he's been at Leburg High School three times. In addition to that, his teams have finished as state runnerup. He's produced 149 FHSA
009state qualifiers which have won uh 100 FHSA state medals. Quite an accomplishment. 17 individual uh FHSA state champions, 21 individual state runner-ups, one national champion, one national runnerup, 35 FWF state champions, and in 2023, he was named Florida Dairy Farmers Boys Weightlifting Coach of the Year and Florida Dairy Farmers Girls Weightlifting Coach of the Year. He also serves on the FHSA weightlifting advisory board. And this past Saturday, his boys team completed a three repeat and winning another state championship in the Olympic lift. And we'll honor those athletes in May. Coach Josh Ber [Applause] We appreciate the board recognize our student athletes. I certainly want to also mention the support that uh Dr. Keenney and uh Gavin Jones and uh Trey Grant give to their Tarver's athletes and the support that Miss Payatt, Spencer Haye, and
010um and Coach Campbell give to our Leburg athletes. We really appreciate honoring our student athletes in this way. Thank you. Congratulations. [Applause] Congratulations. Thank you. Congratulations. Thank you, Coach Todd, and congratulations again to Various High School and Leburg High School on two very well-deserved honors. All right, we do have a couple public input cards this evening. Uh, first up is Miss Elizabeth Emory, LCA. Hi, good evening. Good evening, Chairperson Brandon Berg, Superintendent Cornnegie, and members of the board. I want to first thank you and and say we really appreciate the district leadership making space for our employees to be heard at the joint insurance on the road uh advisory um meeting that happened. I think it was last Wednesday. Um, and I also want to thank the superintendent uh and uh chairperson Brandenburgg as well
011as risk management director Rob Oyer for meeting with us last week as well as this week uh so that we could address some of the employee concerns about the challenges that we've been having with our prescription benefit manager um transition to Vivo. We recognize how challenging it is to have these conversations. Um they're they're difficult. Um but we've got to get employee benefits right. Uh since the mid-year transition, employees have been facing barriers to essential medications, and that has consequences on their health, their peace of mind, and their ability to serve the students of Lake County schools. The communication and transparency is really critical moving forward. And so, we did talk about those things in those meetings and those conversations that we had. We're asking for your continued partnership and collaboration to make sure that
012our employees receive the healthc care benefits that they're entitled to. We've asked for additional benefit support after instructional contract hours because many of our employees have the same hours as the benefit support staff. And so we've asked if there's some way that they could receive some additional support so they're not calling during their lunch or their planning period to address these concerns. We we've asked for grace fills or bridge fills through the open enrollment period so that folks can make sure that they get their medication until their prescription or their um insurance plans change. And we've also talked about advanced notice, um, more employee input and clear, often early communication. Uh, today I think I was even quoted about overcommunicating is better than undercommunicating. So, I'm happy to see that we're being heard and those
013employee concerns are being heard and that some of those changes are already going to be implemented moving forward. Um, we've also talked about trying to work on an FAQ. We've developed one through LCA, but we believe, you know, if we can work with the district to help create a better FAQ and communication, that would be really beneficial. So, we would like to continue to work with the district and follow up on these steps. It's important we do this for our employees because our health and their health is essential to the success that they do and the work that they do for their students. So, thank you so much for your time. Thank you, Miss Emory. Um, and our other card this evening is Miss Kathy Smith. I'd like to just say ditto, of course. Um,
014but there's a a couple other things that I can add to that in the fact that um un unfortunately the the meeting went as well as we could expect. Thank you for having the meeting and doing the traveling insurance meeting, let's call it. Uh we look forward to the one in May, which is May 15th at Umatillaa High School. So hopefully that will be um after speaking with the superintendent, she offered that she would come also and speak and be there in attendance. Uh I think which is which is wonderful. I think we do need to collaborate and continue with some of those things. um because yes, it was stated that they were told in September, but unfortunately now we realize most of the people were not notified until December of the the issue and
015the changes and that really affected them trying to get their medications and get their bridge fills is what we've been calling it now, the bridge fills. So there are still several people who unfortunately are still affected by um the benefits and changing the PBM to Vivo. Um and I think most employees understand the idea of why it was switched. But we have also asked for more communication on that also so that everybody can understand. I think when most employees when they really get the information and receive the information and truly understand it, then they're okay with a lot more of the issues and what happens. So that communication really is the key on everything. It really is. Um going forward, you know, how can we help? How can we do things? I mean, I think
016we do need to, you know, this kind of showed we do need the communication. we do need to know the plan as to where we go and how we go from here and know the process and what we're doing is to help all employees at this point. So, thank you very much. Thank you, Mrs. Smith. All right, those are the only public input cards I had this evening. Um, moving on to item 6.01, the Education Foundation report. Dr. Elizabeth Johnson. Good evening, superintendent and board members. The spring is my favorite time of year because I have a lot of things to share with you all this evening. Particularly, scholarship awards are being finalized and students are starting to be notified. I'm excited to share that we have awarded $106,62 going to 69 different scholarship recipients.
017Um, we anticipate awarding seven more scholarships in the coming weeks and we'll have the opportunity to attend a number of scholarship and senior celebrations over the coming weeks. Our development director, Casey, is also working with our Academy of Teachers, which includes past teacher and rookie teacher of the year winners to engage them in our work with the education foundation, particularly gauging their interest in getting involved with social media contributions, community engagement opportunities, classroom grant reviews, um volunteering at our events, and offering their professional insight. And so we're excited to really engage those folks. We also have received furniture donations from Westgate Resorts as they remodel some of their locations and so we are working with the warehouse and grounds team to distribute those accordingly to schools in the district. Um and we're glad to be
018able to bring those resources to Lake County. Some event updates for you all. We will be celebrating our 33 graduating seniors from the Take Stock and Children program next Tuesday, April 22nd. I'm also excited to share that we have another soldout event with our ladies for education on April 25th. Uh that'll be at Continental Country Club and we have 15 teams that are participating to raise funds for Lake County schools, teachers, and students. Additionally, we are looking forward to next month's retirement dinner and the take stock and children mentor celebration. Also, an update for you all regarding the New World's Read initiative program. We held an event on Thursday, April 3rd at Groveland Elementary School and we have a number of upcoming ones including April 29th at Futland Park Elementary School and May 15th at
019Triangle Elementary School, which was a rescheduled one from last month. We did announce that ticket sales and sponsorship opportunities for stepping out for education are available. That event is July 25th and 26th. And this probably doesn't surprise you, but planning is underway for the 2025 Renaissance Fair, which is the first two weeks of November. Other than events, we are at 821 Apple Mart visits for the school year, which equals $127,24 worth of school supplies going to our teachers in their classrooms. I did have the opportunity to attend the Incubator EDU's district pitch competition this morning, which was super impressive um with the school presentations of those. And then finally, the Education Foundation staff has five more employee giving presentations and we are trending 3% higher on employee giving from last year. Are there any questions?
020Thank you, Dr. Johnson. Fantastic report as always. Thank you for all that you and your team continue to do. Um 6.02 attorney report. Mr. Cole, report. Perfect. Um item seven, unfinished business. We also have none. Um consent agenda. Superintendent, do you have a recommendation? I do. I recommend approval of consent agenda items 8.01 to 8.06 and 8.08 to 10.07. So moved. Second. Got a motion by Mr. Matias. Second by Mr. Dodd. Um any discussion? All those in favor? I passes 50. All right. Moving on to the discussion items for tonight. Um item 11.01. Uh Mr. Cole. Yes, sir. Uh the item before uh the board is uh a request for Molly Cunningham, school board member, district 4, uh to travel to attend the FSBA annual conference June 11th to 13, 2025 at the Grand Hyatt
021Tampa Bay. Um the board would need to confirm that the travel is for official school business and the travel complies with the rules of the state board of education and Florida statute 101.39 sub paragraph 1. Uh according to the statute, the public must an opportunity to speak on this specific travel item. So, at this time, is there any public input? Seeing uh seeing none, um that is uh that is my report on that. Do I have any recommendations on this item? I move we approve the travel expense. Second. Got a motion by Mr. Second by Dr. Luke. Any discussion? All those in favor? I passes 50. Um 11:02, Mr. Cole. Yes, sir. A similar item, this one for uh chair Tyler Brendenburgg uh district two, the travel to attend the FSBA summer conference. Um at
022this time, is there any public comment on this item? Hearing none, back to the chair. Have a recommendation on this item. Move we approve. Second. Got a motion by Mr. Matias, second by Mrs. Cunningham. Any discussion? All those in favor? I passes 50. And item 11.03, Mr. Nicole. Yes, sir. At this time, uh, I will open a public meeting, uh, for tenative approval of policies 5610.05, participation in extracurricular activities and 9800 charter schools, and ask if there's any public input on either of these. Seeing none, I close the public hearing. Superintendent, do you have a recommendation on this item? Recommendative approval of the policies as listed. So moved. Got a motion by Mr. Matthi, second by Dr. Luke. Any discussion? All those in favor? I I passes 50. Uh superintendent, your report this evening. Oh,
023well, first of all, um I want to recognize some other folks in the audience tonight. We have with us the principal and board members from Ali Academy. Want to welcome you all and um thank you for your continued partnership. Also, um while I accepted this plaque this evening, um I really just share this op um this recognition with so many people um and those that that of course the individuals from Cambridge International mentioned, but certainly um to our college and career readiness team. Thank you for your leadership and all your support in growing this program. To the education foundation who has financially supported all of our new programs as they've launched across the district. um and really the the teachers and the school administrators who are the ones who are making this happen for our
024kids every day and just the opportunity to continue to expand these opportunities for um international diplomas as well as advanced diplomas is certainly a great thing for our kids. So, we're excited about that. So, I just want to say thank you for all that you do and to our students for all their success. Um also wanted to give a shout out to um Scott Ward, our CFO and his team. Um, we were recently learned that both credit rating agencies have issued reports praising the district for its prudent spending and solid policies that guide our finances, improving us to a rating of an A+. So, great report card, Mr. Ward, to you and your team and thank you for what you do. Also, we had a great time last week celebrating the ribbon cutting at Futland
025Park Elementary School. It's a beautiful facility and we look forward to having students in that building soon. And um lastly, I want to give out uh an update on the Carver Middle School students who competed in the Florida Civics and Debate Initiative State Championship representing all of us in Lake County. One of the students, Sky, made it through six rounds and landed in the finals. And out of 63 competitors in her category, she placed fifth overall in the state. So that's a great celebration for those Carver students. Also to other students, Christian and Aaliyah made it through three rounds. And also just want to give a shout out and thanks to their coach Wendy Drake from Carver Middle. She was named coach of the year for the state. That is an incredible recognition for her
026as well. And she works so hard to prepare these students and does so much for those students at Carver. So congratulations to all of those. So lots of celebrations tonight. Very nice. Dr. Luke is a season for celebrations. I feel like we have a lot of them coming up. The best ones of the year. Um I just wanted to give a huge shout out to Mr. Gomez at Lost Lake um elementary school and the region three team that came to support a day of professional learning along with Don Boyd. Um Lauren, the literacy coach at Los Lake Elementary worked alongside um faculty members from Lake Sumpre State to design our professional learning day number two for our Lake Sumpre second semester students. And we spent the day at Lost Lake Elementary School um working on
027reading and working on writing. We saw students working on reading and working on writing and um we had the presence of Dr. Felner to wrap up some learning and some learning in the around lunchtime and it was just a great day and they um just the school just really showcased what we wanted our students to see and emulate in the classroom in the future. So, we're always grateful for the partnership that we have. Thank you, Dr. Luke. Mrs. Cunningham, um I'd like to congratulate Miss Johnson of the Education Foundation. I have watched her just seamlessly take on her role and I hope she knows how much we appreciate her. Uh sometimes it's very difficult to replace someone with a huge personality and we all know that the previous director had a huge personality but she
028has certainly come in and she is doing a wonderful job and I just want her to know that it has been noticed and congratulations are certainly in order and Mr. Brandenburgg I want to thank you for adopting to varies but I want to remind you that they reside in district 4. Uh so I'd like to congratulate the Taris High School. Again, this is coming from your um representing board member. I am extremely proud of you. Um taking my spot at any time is well I was you know I know how enthusiastic you get. So I certainly didn't want to deprive you but I certainly want everyone to know that I too congratulate them. Um and I don't think I have anything else. Thank you. Mr. Nicole, isn't there some sort of statute that says that
029we're obligated to represent all students or the entire district? Mr. Dot. Okay. Mr. Dot, I don't recall the number, but I thought maybe you had it on the top of your head. No. So, uh, so tonight I kind of flashed back, uh, I guess it was like nearly a decade ago, sitting in my one-on-one interview with the superintendent when she came to town to apply for the job, and one of my questions was about, uh, what sort of advanced opportunities we should offer for kids. Do you even remember this? Well, you had a good answer at the time. Yeah, it was. It had something to do with, you know, every high performing district has an IB or an ACE program or something like that. We don't. If we want to be a high performing district,
030we need to have advanced opportunities for kids. And here we are, fast forward now to the present day and here we are getting recognized as the ACE district of the year. I mean, that's that's incredible, right? So, uh, congratulations for just building that culture of high expectations for kids and um and and it's a great achievement. So, I'm really excited about that. On the flip side, it just puzzles me why anybody in the legislature would think, hey, the most pressing issue in education is let's cut funding for advanced opportunities for kids. It blows my mind. So, I really hope that uh you know, our advocacy efforts as well as those of the other districts are influential in that arena because I would just I would just hate to see um programs such as these have
031to take some sacrifices or cuts because of them. But um I guess I guess I I guess hope is not a strategy, right? So, I I know I know our efforts are are um are strong and and um and anyway, let's keep them up. The uh the other item I just want to throw out a little bit of uh um observation of of thankfulness for uh LCA and the district. I am thankful for that collaborative spirit. Um certainly we are stronger when we work together and I know that there have been a number of speed bumps along the way on this roll out. It's not been the smoothest uh transition in the world and um and so I every time I think that we're there suddenly there's a a new message from an employee or
032and I know that Rob has been working so hard on this and so I don't think I can see you over there is the hand. Thank you. I have the right angle. So anyway, I want to thank you for the work that you've been doing behind the scenes because um I know that uh so many of our employees are depending on on us and Vivo to make sure that u that we're we're helping them out with their benefits and and with that, you know, I don't I don't know that I've run into the the circles of risk management on two issues at the same time, but another big thing, so I'll throw this one out there, another piggyback, uh lighting. So, a while back ago, um, some parents had ranted on Facebook about how dark
033Excalibur Road is in front of Eastridge and East Ridge High School and Middle School. And so, I went out there one morning and, uh, and sure enough, like I I couldn't see kids until they were like crossing like coming right up on me, standing there in the crosswalk. And so, um, so we partnered with the the county and and getting advocacy efforts from the city involved and and it looks like, I mean, granted, we're we're still subject to like government timelines, but it looks like we'll be able to to get some lighting involved in installed and and so I'm really thankful for that for these kids and um and hopefully that just promotes uh a continued atmosphere of safety out there. So, thanks. Thank you, Mr. Dodd. Mr. Matias, as I'm sitting here next to
034Mr. God, I just want to compliment him because it was each of us brings a different perspectus and different life experience and Mr. Dodd from day one that you came on the board was an advocate for the IB and and to that uh advanced placement programs and you've always been the the leader in that discussion and I admire you for that. So, so I celebrate this award with you and with the superintendent's leadership and all the people that made it possible. very well done. Fruitland Park, I had the opportunity to walk there and that was an interesting story. That's an eight-year saga. So, some eight years ago, Superintendent Cornnegie and I went over there because the the teachers, they were put in sandbags when it rained. It was it was a bit of a mess.
035But we also couldn't afford then to take on any more debt. And that was a time when we were addressing the debt. And you see that today with our uh credit rating. You see it with the dollars back in the classroom as limited as we they are. Um and I think we're down to a little over hundred million. It was 468 million when I came on the board. So the pay as you go strategy has worked for us. But also it worked in that they ended up with an amazing school with no debt and that's the celebration and and some of the kids weren't even born at the time when those discussions were going on. But I was very proud to walk through that campus. I'm very proud of what this board did, staying the
036course with pay as you go and also doing what we said when we set about uh the priority list. We've met it. So that's all I have. Thank you, Mr. Mthi. Um first, I'd like to give a shout out to Miss Dominique Ward and the team at Rymes Early Learning Center in addition to Mrs. Cunningham uh for trekking into district 2 last week to attend Rymes Literacy Night with me. Uh we had a great evening um with with those kids. U Miss Ward and her team do such a great job keeping the community engaged there and want to give a shout out um to her for that. Um and also want to give a shout out to LCA. Um as Kathy Elizabeth mentioned, we had a very productive conversation this morning um off of a
037very uh productive uh town hall meeting last week or the week prior. Um looking forward to another one. Um and looking forward to continue to work with you all to get um answers to your questions and make sure we get this rolled out the right way. Uh but also want to piggy back off Mr. Dodd. Uh Mr. Oyer, Marisol, Santiago, and their team and benefits have been working their tails off 24/7 to remedy as many of these issues as we can as quickly as possible and are not going to stop until we get them all handled. Uh so a total team effort um looking forward to continue to find those solutions to find creative ways to solve problems um without just giving up and not finding creative solutions. It's very easy to raise insurance premiums
038or cut benefits or do other things and try to find creative ways to still maintain that level of care for our employees and trying to maintain as Mr. Dodd mentioned uh very little to no budget increases if so decreases this year and find ways to do all the things that we we all want to do in the betterment of kids um and working together to do that. So, thank you all for your continued support um and looking forward to those future conversations. Did we miss anything this evening? Is there any objection to adjourning? No, sir. All right, we are adjourned. Thank you very much.