001as you have. Look out for us, dear heavenly father. We ask that you continue to do so during this time. Lord, we have people hurting. Lord, please be with those people and comfort them as only as you can. Please be with the friends that are leaving us to take new opportunities, new milestones in life. Please, as we come into what many people don't realize is a busy season, give us guidance and wisdom. As always, Lord, please use us to better serve you in Jesus name. Amen. >> Amen. >> 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. >> Hogan, do we have any changes to the agenda? >> No, Madam Chair. >> Do
002I have a motion to adopt the agenda? been moved. Second. >> It's been moved and seconded. All those in favor say I. I. >> Motion passes. I'd like to welcome everyone this morning and we will kick things off with Miss Bole. Superintendent highlight. >> Yes. And I will welcome Mrs. Ricky Richardson to the podium to give us a presentation on her outdoor education. >> Hi everybody. Uh thank you for giving me this opportunity to come in to talk about my school. I love to brag about it as much as I can. So it's always every year when you have to come and present because you're like, "All right, I'm supposed to present about something that's new and different at our school." So, sometimes that's hard to do. But we're very excited um to talk about
003outdoor education this morning. It's an eighth grade class um and they get half a high school credit for taking it and it's something that Town has had in the past. Um and it did it went away for a little bit and then we're bringing it back and anytime I can bring back a tradition u makes my heart happy. Um, so our eighth grade education, um, our eighth graders take this class, um, is, uh, like a PE credit. Um, students are building confidence, teamwork, leadership skills through hands-on real life experiences like archery, environmental exploration, outdoor challenges, learning beyond the classroom, uh, where they can grow, connect, create memories that last a lifetime. If you've talked to anyone who has taken this class before, um, 40, 50, 60 years old, they'll still talk about this class and
004things they did in it. So, um, and Mr. um, oh my name is left me. Who who taught it at Jamestown Forever? The science teacher. It'll come to me. Um, so we've partnered this class with FWC, the Coast Guard, and Community Partners. Uh, when I got moved over to Yankee Town this year, I knew I wanted to bring this class back, and I called FWC right away, um, and I said, "Hey, uh, this is a class I'm looking what can you do? How can you help me? Um, and Captain Rama Schustster, who is a Navy Town alumni, said, I have been waiting for this phone call for 15 years. He's like, I will do whatever I can to make this happen for you. I will co-e, I will part, I will support, I will do
005whatever I need to, and he has. He's been amazing. So, some of the main topics that we've done with our class is, um, all the kids got their boater's license. Um, our kids have taken their hunter safety course. Um, and FWC has helped support both of those things. Um, my coach has taught archery, um, which is done by an organization called Natural, uh, National Archery in the Classroom Program, and he was trained over the summer to be able to teach it. Um, and FWC has also helped with that. Um, we did first aid with, um, Jason Hughes from Levy EMF. Um, we did outdoor experiences like building tents and fires. Um, boating, kaying, um, I've got some pictures of that in a minute. And just kind of learning about Florida and, uh, other ecosystems in
006the country. So, we did archery. Um, archery was a huge thing that I wanted to bring to the school. Um, and I knew um through a personal connection that Yankee Town used to have, um, bows and that they were currently housed at Willisville High School, but they weren't using them. So, the second I got over there, I called D and I said, "I want my bows back." So, u, we went over and picked them up and then coach wrote a grant with the school's foundation and, um, to have all of them refurbished. And I called Jerry's Archery in Ocala and I said, "Um, this is what we're doing." um this is what I'd like to do. Can you give me like a rough estimate of how much it would cost so we can write this
007grant? He's like, "My dad went to Game Town and he did boats and he did a hunter safety course and I was like, great, full circle. Give me a good deal." Um so, and he did. They helped us all out. I took him one boat in three different pieces and he was like, "Oh, no problem. I can put it back together." So, um the the kids have loved it. I've loved it. Um it's great to see them out there doing something that kind of out of their comfort zone. Um SWC uh youth director called me and he said that from now on he will re um furbish our bows every year free of cost. Um that's how much they're supporting us and the community loves it. That's just a couple of Facebook comments that people
008have um commented on our our post. They they just absolutely love it. Um they've learned to put tents together and build fires. I was very nervous that day um out there with the fire extinguisher in case anything happened. Um, but they've had a blast. Um, I did call Rama and I said, "Hey, you mentioned you had some canoes. You want to take our kids canoeing?" And so he was like, "Absolutely. You know, give me just a minute. I'll call you right back." And so they had actually loaned out their canoes. And so he borrowed another counties, Marian County's kayaks. Um, and so before our kids went, uh, we had them do a presentation where they had to pick a wildlife or plant life to present that they were going to see on the river and
009they had to do some background information on the Lakui and present to their class. So that was fun. Gave them a little bit of knowledge before we left. Um, and then we walked across the street to uh, Brooks Stockside. There's a little uh, boat ramp right there. And so we put in and we went all the way down to the um Coast Guard station um and had uh the Coast Guard show us around um which was really fun. And the kids I mean they're they're teenagers so they're very much like I don't want to do this. And then the second we did it on the way home they were like can we do it again? This was so awesome. So um and Rama was here again and he did a great job and made it
010fun for the kids. There's some more. That's the Coast Guard pictures down there in the bottom. I didn't realize there were so many people at the Coast Guard station. Um whenever I drive by there, there's like nobody there because they're all parked around back, I guess. But we went in and there was like 18 people sitting in the cafeteria. I was like, "Oh my gosh." Um that's just some more Facebook people loving uh the support and and retelling stories from when they were kids like, "Oh, we did that." Um, one of the things we wanted to our kids to be able to have is like real life um, situations where it would benefit them. So, we wanted them to get CPR certified. Um, and they get they got adult, child, and infant and first aid
011trained. Um, and it cost us $20 a student. Um, and we had money in our middle school account that we were able to purchase that with so our kids didn't have to come up with that. Um, but uh it was a lot of fun for the kids um and a life skill that a lot of them live with their grandparents or have younger siblings. And we also wanted it to be a market marketable thing for some of our girls that babysit over the summer. So, some of them have already gotten babysitting jobs because they've been able to say they're CPR certified. So, that was um that was really cool. Um and our FNBC came in to present which was also a Yankee Town alumni. um and he they were able to kind of answer any
012questions that the kids had, kind of just talk about what they do for the day. Um which was very interesting for our students. So, we're really excited about this class and we can't wait to grow each year. There's not a whole lot of stipulations on what you have to do. So, you really can take it in any direction that you want, which is really cool, a good opportunity. Um and we just feel like it's something we can build on every year and things like I've already hit FWC up for our canoeing trip next year. Um, and they're more than happy to help us out. It's just we want to bring a little tradition back and something that kids can can talk about and remember. >> I think that's it. So, you have any questions? >>
013I don't have a question. I just I love it. It's such a relevant class for Yankee Town kids. And it gets to show them, you know, I could be in the Coast Guard. I could be a FWC agent. It's just so Yeah. This is awesome. >> Yeah. >> Have a son wishes that he probably had this at Wilson. I know he tell you Tucker will be all over this. >> Well, my husband teaches this class too and that was where I got the idea um and he's taught at a couple different schools and he said Denal currently and so my coach will talk to him and be like, "Hey, what are you doing this week? What are you doing next week? Can I get some ideas?" And my husband took a climber stand to school
014to show kids how to use a climber stand. And so my coach was like, "Oh, I got a ladder stand at home." I'm like, "Absolutely not. >> Our Yankee Town kids will be 30 feet in the air in about 30 seconds not bringing a cler to school." But it's fun. >> Yeah, it's awesome. >> It is. >> It was great to see the archery in action when we went for the school visit. >> And I was I'm supposed to um have a shoot off with one of my students, my eighth graders. Um and I'm going to win, but he was sick all last week and we were supposed to shoot off last week. So, we have we he's currently making up some assessments right now that he missed, but we're we'll do it before the
015end of the year. >> We have to film that. >> Yes. >> Put it in your presentation for next year. That's awesome. >> Cool. >> Thank you. >> Appreciate it. >> Thank you, Miss Frozen. >> Next on the agenda is Miss Graham. >> I almost said Miss Dola. >> I know. I thought the same thing. >> All right. Good morning. My name is Chelsea Graham and I'm talking about ADA compliance specifically with social media. Um, to introduce myself, I have five fun facts. So, um, I graduated from the University of Florida with my degree in public relations. I've taught for six years. I taught um, kindergarten and first grade. My mom has taught Ley County for 32 years. She's retiring this year. We have her return on Thursday, so that's super exciting. Um, a Levy
016County graduate and I have a son, Tatum, who's almost one and I think he's adorable. So, yeah, just some fun facts about me. So, what I do for Levy County, I am what you would call the social media girl. So, I work part time and I oversee our Facebook account, Parent Square, and our website. So, we're just going to dive right in. Okay, so digital accessibility. What I want you guys to think of is think of ADA. So when you go into a building, you want to make sure that there's compliance with wheelchair accessibility, that we don't just have stairs, that we have accommodations for everyone. So take that and put it in the internet form. So we want to make sure that we have internet that everyone can engage with, okay? That we don't
017just have one thing that a screen reader wouldn't be able to pick up. So right here, you can see we want to make sure that there's access to interact with online content. So the fancy rule happened in April of 2024. The DOJ issued a final rule on ADA which established that web content accessibility guidelines. We're going to refer to that as WAG. A mouthful, but that's what everyone refers to. I'm sorry. Bless you. Um, and so that's the standard that needs to be in place for all of our website content, all of our Facebook, anything that like goes that part, it's going to be with WAG. So when you hear me say WCAG that that was the final ruling. So what does the WCAG guidelines apply to? Now before I dive into this I want
018to say I am not an expert in ADA. Um this came to my attention when I was at the NEP conference and everyone was talking about this saying we need to get on board. So from that point forward I went ahead and I found any type of webinar I could on ADA and attended it. So this is from of that I attended and at the bottom it said etc. So, there's a lot of gray area on this, but these are the ones that we're going to focus on. And the DOJ, I'm hoping, we're all hoping in the PR world that they're going to come up with more specific guidelines that it's not going to be so great. But for now, we can focus on this. We have our website, our social media, um, photos and
019graphics goes into that, videos, email signatures. That one worries me a little bit, but we can go across the board. Flyers, and then our Google Docs. So, when does it go into effect? For our district, it's April 26th of 2028. So, originally it was going to be next year, but the DOJ pushed everybody back a year. So, that is good news that we have more time to prep for this. One thing I want to stress though, we don't need to wait until April 25th and be like, "Okay, let's go ahead and like let's get this set up. Let's go ahead and start complying now. That way we can kind of work out any of the bumps and then we can make sure by April 26 we don't face any of the consequences that that could
020arise. So where schools typically miss the mark. Um alt text is a really big one. PDFs that are not screen reader friendly, poor color contrast. This would be like if you had a lime green background with yellow font um and our lovely colors. We worked together on um Yankee Town, but we were in compliance there, so that's good. Um but videos without captions, that's a big one. Videos are really strong right now. That that's where for Facebook and all of social media, we're all posting videos. Nobody wants to read anything anymore. They just want to watch it. So now we just need to make sure that we have captions. So, um, inconsistent navigation across campuses and then the overuse of images instead of real text and that's more of your like emojis. So, um, if
021you see a post with lots of emojis, a screen reader, that's just not very friendly. It's going to be like star emoji, star emoji, star emoji. No, I don't want that. So, that's one thing that we have to be on the lookout for. The good news is is that we recently went to a new website and we have parent square and it is pretty difficult to break the vocab standards. It's not impossible. So we still have to train people but it doesn't make it difficult. This is the back end of the website. So I created each school's website and this is just a screenshot of it. So you can see in the green that's everything that's ADA compliance. The yellow is saying this isn't going to work. you you'll you might get fined. Okay. Um
022where it's not what I would call dummy proof is you can hit okay and it'll still go up. So we want to make sure that when people see this that are working on our website that they do not click okay. They make sure that all the green boxes are green and we're good to go. So the impact for social media, we want to keep captions for all photos. We want or we need captions for all photos and we want to stick to 10 photos or less. We need to have alt text on every single image. Um, again, the color contrast, we're pretty good across the district with that. Closed captions for videos, videos that don't include talking, they need to have a caption in the description. And then short links, which we're also pretty good
023with this. That would be like our tiny URLs that we use. So, here are some examples. So, you can see here over here, this would be the one where we have all of our star emojis. This is AI generated which is great. AI is an awesome tool. We can use AI. It's just not WAG proof. So use it but we still have to know the WAG standards over here. This is fine if we just did the medals. Good. It's where we have all these stars. Or we could go backwards. Don't have the medals. You can have stars. It's not saying that you can't have any emojis. It's just saying be conscious of the emojis that you're using because again for the screen reader it's just not very friendly over here. Um, right here for Yankee
024Town, this is great, but we have 40 extra images. So, as much as we want to see all these pictures, the problem with having 48 extra images is that Ricky or whoever is in charge of social media is going to have to go through caption every single picture and then put all text for every single picture. So, if we don't have those, then we're not in compliance. So, that's where MEC when I was over there, they said, "Let's just stick to 10 pictures or less." That way we can go ahead, we can catch them, we can all text and we're not spending five hours on that. Same thing with Wilson Middle. Over here we have 22 extra pictures. You also see PBI. We're not going to want to do any acronyms. We need to spell
025it all out. Once we spell it all out, then we can go and use acronyms, but we can't just throw up PB. So, those are some examples that we have there. Over here, you can see this is on the district page. We have a caption and then we have alt text. I you guys have ever had it, but because I have a one-year-old now and a computer, you this crazy thing comes up. This is saying what alt text is that you have alt text. So when you view an image, it's not going to say alt text is there. You have to specifically go in click a button and you may be saying, oh, they're not going to do that. Um, we've heard that they have hired the OJ has hired >> entities to go in
026and check each one. So that's where we just want to make sure that we have the the caption and just stick to the 10 photos or less. So, the consequences that we could face, um, we would have to go back, we'd fix the post, we'd fix anything on social media that we would need to. However, there's the lawsuits and settlements. We just don't want to get into that. Um, so there are legal costs. The first one starting out is $75,000, and that's for the first one. After that, it goes to $175,000. Um, and that's our posts right over here aren't in compliance. So, it's very easy to just post something. Um, but we have to make sure that everybody's up to speed on what we're posting. It's unfortunate that this is what we have to
027do, but um we just have to take the the extra steps. So, um one of the webinars that I attended, her name is Andrea Gribble. Um Melissa put me on her. She's amazing. She is like what you would call like the social media guru of public schools. And so this was her five-step accessibility playbook. So one, we need to audit. There are tools out there that we can use that we can identify the gaps that we'll need. Prioritize. We need to focus on our high traffic pages. Think about our website. Like I said, our website, it's it looks really good. Some of the stuff that we took from the old website and we updated just uploaded straight to our new one. Some of that stuff is not in WAD guidelines. So we do have some
028work that we need to fix there. um fix the fundamentals. Like I said, this is more so for our PR people at the schools. We want to make sure that they know that this is what they need to do from here on out. Train our team. So, anybody at the schools who will be posting, it doesn't just apply to the district page, it applies to any of our school pages. The gray area that we see and that we came up with at Nepek, >> is it going to be like a football booster team? Do they have to be in compliance? Does the volleyball team have to be in compliance? So, what we have said, if there's the football boosters and they post all these great pictures or any of this information, what we're going to
029need to do is we're going to take those pictures. We're going to make sure it's up to guidelines and then we post it from our page. So, instead of just resharing it, we're just going to have to make our own post. Now, with schools, we can reshare their information because they will be up to the guidelines. So, that's one thing that we're going to try to be doing. So we don't necessarily have to worry about all our extracurriculars. We're just focused right now on our schools and our district pages. And then five, monitor, maintain. So this is going to be a thing that's ongoing. It's not just a onetime fix. We got it going on. We're going to make sure that every single post, everything that goes up on the website has to be in
030compliance. >> Any questions? I know that was >> like on the Facebook post, you know, you said like over 10 pictures, but you can make multiple posts as long as they don't exceed 10 pictures. >> Correct. >> I mean, because I hate to choose, you know, there's like so many kids and you want every kid, you know, lots of them to try to get picture. So, you want available >> and that was just a guideline that we came up with at the event and PR marketing for an effect. Um, nowhere does it say 88 says you have to have 10 photos or less. It's just more so of the person going and like I said, taking the time caption each one and to do the alt text. So, it's just time consuming. Um, but yes,
031you want to show all the all the greatness that all the schools are doing, but they want to limit it. So, >> we won't be responsible if someone tags us in their post. Correct. >> As far as we know, that's correct. So, if you have like for your FWC, if they were to tag you in it, as long as you don't reshare it, which is a bummer, but you could just take any of the information that they have and then you would share it from your post. >> I know. When we're at those meetings, everybody's like, >> and then I I'm sure we're gonna do some type of PD with this, but I don't even know how to all whatever a picture. >> Yes, ma'am. Yeah, we'll have to go around and then anybody who
032has access to the website or social media, we're just going to have to train up. Um, and like I said, it's better that we start now. >> Um, and we can work out all the kinks. That way we don't have to worry about any of that money situation because that's no fun. Um, >> but yeah, sorry little little heavy the larger districts have to be prepared sooner than the smaller ones. So, I mean, we also will be learning from the larger district districts going through it before we have to go through it, right? >> I mean, that it's a plus, right? >> It's a small plus, but >> and I feel like somebody's going to come up with something that you can easily put your >> That's what we're waiting on. What company is going
033to do this? That would be really nice because like I said, um like chat GPT great, but it it doesn't have those standards yet built in. So, it does do a good job, but again, it's not in full compliance. >> A lot to think about. Thank you. >> Thank you. >> Presenting all. >> Thank you very much, >> Mr. Eastman. You're up. >> Morning. >> We have one bid to award this morning. This is one of our yearly bids that typically go. We have two bidensions on the end of it. We ran out of three years, so this is just one coming back around. Um, it's for liquid propane, and we typically only have two companies that um bid on it, which we ended up getting two more this time, which was Dyson pretty pretty
034close. But, um, my recommendation is going to be with propane, and this is our current company that we use. And I will make a note that the markup price is kind of what we're looking at. And that's the same markup price they gave us three years ago. So, it did not increase. >> They're locked into these prices. There's not field adjustments or anything they can do with rising racing. >> No, the current cost is what could go up, but the markup is locked. >> Okay. Do I hear a motion to approve the bid? >> So moved. Second. >> It's been moved and seconded. Any further discussion? Seeing none, all those in favor say I. I. >> Motion passes. >> Thank you, Mr. Eastman. >> Mr. Bennett. Morning. >> Good morning. >> So, as you may
035know, several years ago, the Florida legislature established some school start times for elementary, middle, and secondary schools. And then about a year ago, um, they provided school districts with some additional flexibility for compliance with that rule because many school districts are finding it challenging to meet all the requirements of the statutoily established school start times. So what you have before you today is a compliance plan, which is the avenue through which the legislature gave districts to be compliant if they were finding outright compliance challenging. So, in looking at this, we've had a couple of previous meetings where we've had opportunities for public comment on school start times, and in looking at our compliance as a district with it, we have some challenges in particular surrounding busing. So, for us to establish a later start time
036in particular for high school would require us uh in consultation with transportation to establish some additional bus routes, probably hire some additional drivers and also there will be some additional fuel costs involved. So there's a substantial financial issue here for us to to be compliant. Uh we're we're close in many cases. We're within 30 minutes frequently for the high school compliance time. Uh also another aspect of this which is kind of an unintended consequence for districts is if you start later as a high school that also means you're ending later as a high school. And when you in a high school. That means you're getting closer to after school athletic events, which means students miss more instructional time and have to leave early in order to make the start times for those events. So, those
037are all things to consider uh and why we've chosen to maintain our status quo. So, given that, if you have any questions, we ask you to consider a motion to approve our complaints. It's been moved. Do we have a second? >> Second. >> It's been moved and seconded. Any discussion? >> Seeing none. All those in favor say I. >> All those opposed, same sign. Motion passes. Thank you, Mr. Bennett. Mr. Gore with our final safety report. >> Good morning. Morning. >> Final for this year, I should say. Um, thank you. I don't have anything cool to talk about like social media or outdoor education. Um, but we we did um we had one uh state audit during this quarter and four local audits. Um, and I'm pleased to report those no findings in any of
038those audits. So, that's pretty much that. um any questions from me norally give negative information because it's related to safety and convenience and that kind of stuff. So if you have any questions I'd be glad to answer. >> Question and there's none. Thank you so much. >> Thank you. and Miss Julia. >> Morning. >> Good morning. >> I am here to request the approval to advertise the wellness policy. It's an annual year to send out. Make sure everybody's aware and see if anybody wants to make changes. So move second. >> It's been moved and seconded. Any discussion? >> Seeing none, all those in favor say I. >> All those opposed, same sign. Motion passes. Thank you, Miss Julia. >> Appreciate it. >> And now is the time for public comments. Miss Graham, Miss Richardson, do
039you have any public comments? Seeing none, we'll move on to um a motion to approve the minutes. >> Do I have a motion? >> It's been moved. >> Second. >> It's been moved and seconded. All those in favor say I. I >> motion passes. >> Moving to the consent agenda. Mr. Asel, do you have any questions? >> I don't have any questions. I do have comments. I uh there's there's sadness and happiness. When you look at this, people moving on to new opportunities. It's great for them and sad u that they're leaving. There's uh retirements that are welld deserved. Uh there is a person who passed away. I mean, the all the emotions are right there in this one. And uh we have some folks that have done a fantastic job that are moving to
040other positions in our school system. They're going to do fantastic there. I wish everyone luck with that. And uh the ones that are leaving, we'll miss you. Miss you a lot. >> Thank you, M. Miss Campbell. >> We've given comments now or >> whatever you like. Do you have any questions or comments on the consent agenda? >> On the consent agenda, no, I have no questions. >> Mr. White. >> I'm going echo Mr. Asal's statement. Like I said, a lot of movement. I understand this time of year is, you know, being the fourth time or third third or fourth year I guess I've been through this. It's you know, you see a lot of people, you know, making career changes or just moving within the district. And uh certainly I'm kind of it's kind of
041hard for change, but understand that, you know, people's got to do what they need to do and what the district's got to do what they feel like they need to do, too. So, um just wish everybody the best. That's all I have. Same. I'll echo everything. I always hate to call out individuals and miss other wonderful people, but I am going to call out Miss Taylor. We are going to greatly miss you as a district and just want to thank you for everything you've done for us. And that is all I have. >> Did you have any comments or no? >> Just need the approval of the consent and finance agenda. >> So moved. >> Second. >> It's been moved and seconded. All those in favor say I. >> I. All those opposed same sign.
042Motion passes. Having a hard time with my computer this morning. Now's the time for superintendent comments. >> Thank you, Madam Chair. Um I echo what the board members um have said. It's it's a bittersweet consent agenda and I too wish Mrs. Taylor and again speak about Mrs. Lewis that are going into a different phase I guess of their life. Um so there's been hugs and flowers and you know sadness and and happy for both of them at the same time and wish them all the everything that they deserve. Um, I remember talking to Miss Tanya when I first stepped into this role and saw the what she built with the CTE and there was no doubt in my mind that as the board saw um that she should be named director and if you remember
043back then it was it was necessary and welld deserved. So, I appreciate both of you and what you have done for Levy County. You will be missed. Uh, in reference to the some of the changes, wishing all the best to the new APS that that are happening at Joyce Bulock and Chief Middle High. Um, I think they will do great things and that's a decision that you see there that that those wanted. So, I'm happy for them and I'm happy that they spoke up and and asked for it as well. A big shout out to Breezy. I know he's in the back again. Every year we talk about it, but him and his team, they do amazing things setting up for the graduations. And I know it's it's hard to go from one campus to
044the next and get everything done in a short amount of time, especially when you have four four graduations in one week. But thank you, Breezy, and your team for everything. And a big shout out to um the IT department and Lintasia. I don't know if any of you heard about the major thunderstorm that happened Saturday morning in Cedar. Some of you had graduation parties, but Cedar Key was just flooding and I think the power went out three four times and of course they did a new presentation in the gym. So, there were five different screens that they wanted going for their slideshow and they had to be reset four times. >> I I think right be five minutes before graduation started was the last time the car went out in and I think Miss Linda
045had to use a >> one of the blow dryer to dry her dress before >> it it was wet. But in the end, it stopped raining midway through the graduation and it turned out beautiful and everybody was was very very happy. Um, thank you, Miss Ricky, for showing your outdoor education and it was great to see that that day walking around. I mean, the kids, even the kids that were just sitting there watching the other kids shoot, I mean, they were, you could tell they were involved. >> Yeah, definitely engaged. It It was It was a great time. >> Um, looking forward to the summer and I certainly hope all the teachers and admin get a welldeserved break because I know that they've been working hard. And that's all I have. Thank you very much,
046>> Mr. Adel. Comments. >> Thank you, ma'am. Uh coming off graduation, it was fantastic. This is the good time of year. >> Um for everybody involved. Uh and then come come about Friday, it's really good for everybody under the age of 17 and little bit more work to be done around here. Uh and we get we get serious. Uh and I don't know about anybody else. I I'm going to deviate a little bit. I don't know if anybody else has gotten these calls, but I have gotten calls from people working for the Levy County School Board that we have these folks leaving and retiring and oh, what are we going to do? And it is no bad reflection on the people leaving. We have the best people you could possibly have. And guess what happens
047when you have the best people? Other places want the best people also. And the best people are going, they're like cream. they're going to rise and you can't stop that and you can't discourage that and if you're worth a darn, you want people to better and you and you will miss them. Um, but uh some people are calling it panic mode and all this kind of thing and everybody needs to calm down. We're going through some stuff, but I've pointed to this before. You see that sign? established in 1845. This sucker has been through some bad stuff. You think about 1845. We're all, some of y'all are, some of us aren't educated folks. About 1845, the Civil War broke out after we were established. Don't you think there was panic then? What are we going
048to do? But it kept going and each time it's gotten better. We've got great people here who have laid a groundwork, laid the foundation, and it keeps getting improved upon. Uh when I was a kid, I can't remember who ran this, who did that. None of those people are here now. And guess what? It didn't crumble. It didn't fall apart. It's gotten better. We're going to desperately miss you good folks. There's no doubt about that. But we got good people in place. This is more for those people that are calling me and all that. We got good people in place. We're going to find replacements. We're going to keep forging ahead and take what they started and keep going with it, make it better. I believe in us. And uh I look at it and
049that's shoot closing in on 200 years. I've been through it before. And as I heard a preacher one time say, ever thought about climbing a mountain? If it was smooth, could not climb. got to be rocky moments to climb a mountain. We're going to keep climbing this mountain. And when y'all get done playing in private industry, come on back. We'll take you, okay? But y'all are the cream of the crop. So, you're naturally going to rise. And I wish each one of you the best at sleep. You deserve it. You deserve all the rewards you possibly get. And it will be wrong. I love you and I want you to stay. And I'm that guy that'll sit here go, I don't know why anybody leave, but I won't hold against you. Anytime somebody tries to
050improve themselves, I am for that 100%. I appreciate what you've done and uh I look forward to the next folks and we're going to support them. We're going to have good people to keep going. That's all I have. >> Thank you, Mr. Adel. Miss Campbell. >> Well, I agree with everything so eloquently said. Um but I do want to thank Mr. a lot um for always being our guiding light, our beacon um through all my years of teaching and now on the school board. I I want to thank you for all of that, John and um Melissa and Tanya, I've learned so much from both of you and you've done a lot for our county and I am very grateful for that and I wish you all the best in your future. You deserve only
051good things to come your way. Um, the Yankee Town presentation, I loved it. The outdoor education, I enjoyed watching your archery class when we visited. And the family that, well, the two teachers that started it way long ago, which I've been around since way long ago, were the Steriston. >> Thank you. >> They started the cross country team and and the outdoor education way back. But you're doing a great job. I love it. And um the graduations um I really had the honor of attending all of them and and they were wonderful. And I I came away from each one of them thinking what a tremendous responsibility we have as a school board to make sure that our students reach this that you know moment. there's so many of them and uh yeah, even at
052Cedar Key even though there were only seven. Um but yeah, I just it's it's a tremendous responsibility and and I look forward to continue to work toward that in the next two years. Um and then we're having our young authors conference on the 28th and uh if anyone's able to come, it's a great morning. Um, the kids have been writing and ready to publish and share their works and we have some great guests. So, thank you and I do wish everyone a good a happy and a safe summer. >> Thank you, Miss Campbell. Mr. White, >> I can't put it as eloquently as Mr. Asbel always does. He always has the best ways to word stuff. >> Call it full bull. >> Full bull. Well, whatever it is, you always do a good job. like
053saying that's I said 1845 that is interesting kind of reflect. Yeah, >> Miss Taylor remember when she was my daughter's avid teacher and just kind of had this spark to her and I'm just glad that she was able to kind of move up and this thing she did for the district. um just pushing the CTE and just really been amazing what you've kind of done and certain will be missed but like Cameron says I guess the cream kind of rises top and like I said people's always kind of recruiting highly skilled people no doubt about it in the private industry that Melissa wish all the best um and Mr. a lot. Certainly appreciate you've been here a long time and sitting there seeing I mean our principles, the teacher and I said assistant superintendent I
054said just you've been through all the different parts of the the district and certainly touched many people and will be missed and appreciate you staying home as part time through some transition you know and that's means a lot and I know So just appreciate you a lot. And um I said as far as graduations, I only went to Wilson's, but it was it was good. Had uh over I had 165 graduates. I think like 155 walked is what I'm told. So it was certainly a lot. I mean um it's hard to see hard believe how many people are have graduated from Wilson nowadays. And I think we have about 110 or so somewhere around that. So certainly growing um and just um I said it's a lot to do all these different schools. I don't
055know how many total graduates we probably had across the district. >> Yeah, about that 4000 and >> chief middle high. >> Yeah. I mean we do we bear a lot of responsibility to make sure we educate these people and you know stay in compliance and you know just all the things you know it's a it's a big organization that you know is run and that um we just have to keep going and um I said there's the eb and flow but like I said since 1845 that's been going and I said there's been multiple board members multiple superintendents but the ship keeps on going. But while we're here, we have to keep making sure we make the best decision for it. So, um I'm just excited for summer. I know my kids are. They're already
056uh planning all the stuff they got to do over the summer and they kind of after yesterday it was kind of like, hey, ain't summer time yet. We got school tomorrow. Got we got to get finished this week. Um but this hope everybody has a good summer and it's all happen. Thank you. >> Thank you. Um it's my favorite time of the year, too. I feel like it's just the ending of the graduates. It's so exciting and the Facebook posts and the parties and um always my favorite takeaway are the kids that we have expelled that we I have a funny story. My oldest son when he was sitting at graduation and I was up on the stage, he said the boy next to him said, "You see that?" He didn't say lady, he said
057something else. She expelled me a couple years ago. But even though he was like, "Yeah, that's my mom." But but I love I love seeing those kids that have walked the line and and end up graduating. Um thank you to our presentations. Miss Graham makes me feel super old that you're here. And that was a that was a heavy presentation. A lot for us to think about. A lot on the person's plate at the individual schools that they're now going to have to, you know, dot their eyes and cross their tees. And Miss Richardson, I loved your presentation, too. Again, so relevant. Growing up, we did square dancing. I don't know what that where that got us in life, but there's the funny meme like we square danced but didn't learn how to do our
058taxes. So, this is a very relevant class with CPR and again all the career opportunities. Um, and Yankee Town has a big week this week with kindergarten, pre-K graduation, kinder graduation Thursday and Friday. Anything else while you're here? >> 8th grade is Friday. >> Friday. Yeah, that's right. >> Ringing the bell, the whole thing. It's a new bell. Got a new bell. >> Yeah, not fall on anybody. And with that, I've already said a lot about Miss Taylor and Miss um Lewis, but you guys will be greatly missed and good luck in your future. And if we have no further business, the meeting is adjourned. Executive session to follow.