001meeting to order and I'd ask Mr. Whitehurst to lead us in our invocation and our pledge. Bow our head. Dear Lord, just thank you for allowing us to come together today. Lord, help us make decisions to honor you, Lord, and benefit our students and our faculty and staff. Lord, and Lord, is it storming. Lord, we know that many people have a storm of life that they're going through. Lord, help lift them up, listen to the spoken and unspoken prayers. Lord, just thank you for all you do and Lord, bless this day. In Jesus name we pray. Amen. >> Amen. >> Dress the flag. I pledge algiance 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. >>
002All right. I will entertain a motion to adopt our agenda. So move. >> Second. >> Have a motion and a second. All those in favor, please say I. >> I. >> Any opposed? >> Motion carries. Good morning, everybody. >> Morning. >> Ain't it a good day to be here? >> And we going to call on Miss Young and Miss Clock. First of all, clock, I ain't seen you in forever. How you doing? >> I'm well. How are you? >> Good. >> I'm back. stand. >> So, every year we will rewrite the mental health plan and this is what we would like to get approval and submission for our um plan for this year. We've been working on it. Marcy under Marcy's guidance. I'm learning the mental health piece of of the new job. So um
003that's this is I have put on a PowerPoint a few slides of just the highlights of the changes and what we'll continue to do and work on under mental health. We have some exciting things. So for staff we have we used to have contracted mental health counselors that came into our schools and this year we were able to direct hire a mental health coordinator, a school psychologist. uh part of our behavior person will be 50% um paid out of this fund and then a school counselor, a school counselor. So that's does not cover our school counselors that are in the school. It's an additional school counselor. Okay. >> So um that will hopefully save us some money and um be better for our students because these people will be embedded in our community and our
004employees versus coming in from the outside. Yeah, absolutely. >> Uh, our curriculum is, as you know, it's required um regulation for us to have required instruction for the high schoolers so many hours a year. So, we will uh continue to receive that through our base um curriculum. And this year, we're trying to add insights and zones of regulation that's in our new plan. What that's going to do is give that universal screening for all ages, pre-K through 12th grade, and then the adolescence that may go with us so we can find those at risk students and the ones who were needing the mental health counseling. And then um for professional learning, of course, we have the youth mental health first aid. It will cover that training if we need to pay a trainer or substitutes,
005travel, stipens, and then materials for program implementation. So that's what the funds cover. This year, we want to improve our overall wellness and resiliency through required instruction and positive behavior strategies that we're using in the classroom. And then streamline the referral process uh when the child does need additional services and mental health counseling to increase efficiency and and students that we serve. Focus on building resiliency through early learning, skill development, and intervention. and then quarterly treatment reviews to make sure our students are making progress and if not getting them referred then to outside services wraparound care CAT team meridian outside um for them and the family. We want to make sure we're encompassing not just the student that we're serving but offering services um or referrals for services outside of our school too for others.
006So that is our our plan in a nutshell. Any questions? Um, so the psych the psychologist, right, is the coordinator. Okay. No, >> Laura is Laura is the coordinator. Laura is our coordinator. >> The psychologist is the what? >> School psychologist is Dr. Pratt and she has been working at Willston Middle High School and Williston Elementary School for five yearsish. I think she started before co um and she serves Willist Middle High, Willist Elementary. Um and what we'll be adding to that is an additional licensed mental health counselor. Um we have a a school counselor that is now going to be providing or continue to provide counseling services and we have one vacancy. Um and we're in the hiring process hopefully for a social worker to um meet that. So we'll have four direct hire
007clinicians to be providing mental health services in the schools as opposed to contracted services. >> I like that. >> So we hope to have them community based um so that then um you guys remember back uh Gail Corner, social worker that retired um she was trying struggling trying to be a social worker for all of the communities. um we were able to kind of you we elected to use those funds to increase our mental health services so that we could embed folks in the community and then they'll kind of serve as that bridge and liaison kind of like a social worker with our family liaison to make sure that our families are getting the support that they need as well. So we'll have someone housed in Bronson, we'll have someone housed in Chiefland, Dr. Proud
008will continue to be housed in Willist and then our um the person that we're working on hiring. Um we haven't decided yet, but most likely she'll be helping out at um Joyce Bulock and Yankee Town and our we're deciding which one of our other folks is going to help out in Cedar Key. Um if it's going to be our Bronson person or our Chief person, we're just waiting to get them on board when school starts and all of that to determine what's more appropriate based on their schedules. So, there will be more counseling going on in our schools. >> Yes. Okay. That is our goal and our hope. And our hope is to be able to um we had a lot of success at Bronson Middle High and Bronson Elementary last year with adding that
009person because they're there more often. One of the problems we were having with our contracted services is they were there like one day a week or two days a week. It's really hard to get in the flow of the school when you're only there that often and the teachers don't know you. the building the relationships and the trust just wasn't there. But by having someone stationed there more often, it um really improved the relationships at the school level and supported them. >> So in the consent agenda, there's a position a psychiatrist is it? >> That's contracted services for our evaluations. >> That's >> it's a psychologist. It's um Mr. Jim Houston who's been our school psychologist since oh the early 2000s. >> So that is the person who comes in and does the evaluations. Yes.
010>> So, Dr. Pratt that we have as a direct hire >> exclusively does counseling services. >> Okay. Good. >> And then we contract for the evaluation purposes cuz that's more of like an in and out kind of job. They come, they see, sit, meet with the kid, >> do their testing, leave and write a report. >> Okay. >> Um I know I noticed in your goal, which I love seeing stream the referral process. What are what are the goals there? what exactly how are you going to serve? >> So having Celeste in the school setting last year as a former school counselor really helped us to see some of the holes and our referral process to get from kids needing assistance to getting to her. Um some of the kids that were being referred weren't
011the kids that she was being able to pick up in other ways as really being in need of support. So she worked closely with a school counselor there at both of the schools to kind of directly have those conversations and and tackle it more in a face toface kind of environment. And um we're going to be relying on Celeste to kind of duplicate what she did at Bronson Elementary and Bronson Middle High School at our other schools as appropriate for their setting. You know, all the schools are a little bit different, but >> that's good. the support >> and using that universal screener too to help guide >> who needs >> the intensive. >> We had some predictions that there are some kids that we're missing because they are more of internalizing kids and they're
012the kids who are getting referred are always the ones whose behaviors we see who may be disrespectful, refuse, use profanity, those kinds of things. They're getting referred at a really high rate. But those kids who may be more quiet, withdrawn, anxious, depressed, aren't getting refer referred as often. So, we want to make sure we're capturing the gamut. And so, the universal screener will be key in that. >> Okay. Thank you. Do you have just a quick question, do you have the universal screener in Spanish, too? Do you do both? >> Yes. The one that we're hoping to be able to utilize is insights. Um we're excited about that because it's um more competency based for our little kids um kindergarten through 8ighth grade. So it's more like it shows a picture of a person and
013asks them like to match an emotion to what they see. So it's more skill-based whereas our 9 through 12 is more like directs like how often do you feel sad every week or you know questions like that. Um and it is in English and Spanish and it reads to them. Um it's done virtually. Um, so it'll be providing all that kind of support. That's great. >> All right. >> We just don't have the counseling in Spanish. >> Yeah. >> Looking for a motion to approve. So move. >> Second. >> We have a motion and a second. Any more discussion? >> All those in favor, please say I. >> Any opposed? Motion carried. Thank y'all. Now, Mr. Lot, >> double duty. Good morning. >> Hard time. He's having to work double time. >> Yes. Um just
014um want to bring forward uh some policies that have been proposed uh for adoption. These I just want to remind the board of the procedure that we go through. These policies come from Nect. Um they have a team that creates these policies uh based on changes in state statute. Almost all of these that we'll bring before you today are a result of changes in state statute. Um some of these changes will then have to go that are made by statute then go before the the state board who then makes rules in regard to that. So there will be another batch of these um that will come later um once the state board changes some of the rules that may impact our policies. uh but today um I bring forward you these these policies what we
015do is once they come in from NE effect I give them to different people within our organization that that's their area of expertise for example um the first one 3.06 uh was sent to uh our director of safety Mr. board who looked it over, made sure um everything was uh was correct and um and then we then resubmit that to the board. Uh Miss Wade had some of these. Uh Miss Lake had some of these. Our director of transportation transportation, Joe Wayne, had one of these. So, they go out to various people within our organization. They look them over before they then come back to you. So, I'm just going to go through and introduce these. our processes that we introduce these um and then they are reviewed at our next meeting and then the
016following meeting we would probably at that point unless there are some significant changes ask you to approve them. So we'll start with 3.06 which is a a change in safe and secure schools. Uh this came about because of a state statute change 1006.07. Um there are there is some new language for gates and other access points um that have changed and uh have been clarified. So I'm just going to go through them. There's about 12 13 of these. >> Yes, sir. >> Okay. Um the next policy is 330. Uh that's a statute change 1003.457. And uh this deals with AED training requirements. Um and there's also something called pulse. There's a pulse requirement in there which is something new. U pulse I'm sure you you have no idea what that stands for but that is
017a plan a plan for urgent life saving emergency. So could fall within the AED or something else. And so that's a change in statutory language and therefore a change in our policy. Uh the next one is 4.141 which is our wellness policy. As you probably know uh there are certain policies that have to uh come before the board on a regular basis. Wellness policy is one that has to come before the board and for public input and allow that uh annually. This is an annual one. Uh corporal punishment is another one that comes before the board every three years. Um so we're not on that cycle for them for that one. But wellness policy is one that is coming for you for annual review as required by statute. Uh there were no changes in this
018policy at the present. Uh 5.03 uh student attendance and absesses. Uh this was amended uh due to a change in statute a couple statutes actually 985.03 and also 103.27. Uh those changes uh resulted in some uh new truency requirements and procedures and those are outlined in the policy 5.13 zero tolerance for school related crime. This was a change in statute 1006.07 106.08. Um, one of the changes is that they removed the word serious in front of threat. Um, and so now it says acts that pose a threat to school safety. Uh, serious is sort of uh subjective, right? And so I was glad to see that they did change that uh to a threat instead of just, you know, leaving it up to someone else to decide what's serious and what is not serious. Um
019the this the new language also allows the superintendent to extend an expulsion of a student outside the normal 2-year um range if it's recommended by the threat assessment team that it's in to the benefit of the school safety to do so. So, a a serious case um where removing that student from say uh an expulsion either maybe in focus or outside of focus. Um but basically allows the superintendent uh with in conjunction with the threat uh management team to extend that expulsion period. Uh 5.15 um administration of medication. This was changes in statute 1002.20 20 and basically it changed some language uh basically Narcan is has now been changed within the policy and I'm assuming statute uh to emergency opo opioid antagonist or an EO and so all that language that previously said Narcan would
020had to be changed. I guess I saw I figured that was just because it's a brand so they went to more generic. Okay, that's what I figured. >> Uh 5.011 foreign exchange students. This updated some federal language uh and information. The current policy that we had had not been uh updated since 2002. And so we looked at this and uh our recommendation is to completely remove the old language and the old policy and replace that with the new language. Basically start fresh 6.032 appointment of employment requirements statutory changes to 102.22.799 22.799. Uh these are new requirements and guidelines for employees who are arrested for a felony or certain misdemeanors. Um it's also outlined, you know, what those misdemeanors might entail. Um you know, basically these are red flags that would come up if someone was
021applying for employment. um the stat the statute that it points to will give you a long list of those. But for example, um child abuse would be one. So if someone it may be a misdemeanor, child abuse, but it's still a red flag and something that we should consider uh for employment purposes. 6.04 04 uh star is a statutory change. This deals with certification of administrative instructional and non-deree vocational personnel. Uh there were three statutes that changed 102.392.562.315. Uh the certification procedures changed. There are new rules for non-deree vocational personnel. um they went from uh six years of expertise in order to get that uh certification to three years which that actually should be beneficial um to us. It opens up uh a whole new range of people who could potentially uh be placed in
022those vocational positions. And so that's a welcome change uh by this the new statute. um and also gives some new certificate renewal procedures that we would have to adjust. 8.12 Florida statute uh 218.755 changed and uh there are new requirements in regard to construction change orders. I don't know that we'll be doing any new construction anytime soon. So probably uh won't come into play but there are some changes there. And finally uh 9.08 uh transported students and eligible riders. Uh Florida statute 810.097 regarding student transportation change. Uh the current policy that we had um was last revised in 2003. And so this is another one of those policies that because of the age um we felt like it was most beneficial just to eliminate the current policy entirely and adopt a a completely new policy
023as given to us by neect. So that's all of them. Are there any questions? >> That's it. >> I have one question. >> Yes. um under the zero tolerance where um it was stated that um if the superintendent decides to extend the expulsion, is that something that has to come before the board or is that within that that's taken care of? Um, I'd have to double check the statuto language, but I think that that's the superintendent's authority with the recommendation of the >> from what I I read this the statute uh didn't mention any board action. >> Okay. >> The board has already expelled the school. >> Right. Right. That's why I was wondering if they got back in it. Yeah. >> And so, you know, because of school safety, >> it gives, you know,
024the superintendent and a threat assessment team, >> right, the authority to do that. >> We have a district threat assessment team. I'm on that team. It's headed by Mr. Gore, >> but u we meet uh monthly >> and as needed to address various threats within the district. So it would be the recommendation of that team first to the superintendent and then the superintendent would extend the expulsions the way I read it. >> Okay. >> Need a motion to advertise. >> So moved. >> Second. >> Have a motion. Any further questions? >> All those in favor, please say I. >> I. >> Any opposed? Motion carries. Thank you, Mr. Lot. Mrs. Lewis, come on down >> in her Willist red. I celebrate. >> That's right. >> Good morning. >> Um I'm very excited to share our
025end of the year data presentation that um we give each year. Um we all know that just a few weeks ago school grades uh were released district and school grades. And so we are celebrating that our district is a B. Um our post actually is one point difference because there's something called the elevator clause that the state says that once a school type so you have elementary middle combined combination schools and district once a group uh reaches a certain point 75% of them um earn an A or B then it will move up to the next five or zero on the ranges. So, this school year we've just ended. We were in two different school grading buckets. Next year we'll be in three. And I'll explain that um near the end. But um we were
026celebrating because we're only four points from an A. But because of that elevator clause, it bumped uh combination in districts up to 65%. So now we're actually five points from an A. But we're going to get there. So um go to the next slide. This is um the slide that shows you by school. So you'll see on the left you have Bronson Middle High School. All of the schools are listed across and the district is on the right in the colors. Um along the left hand side, those are all the school grade components um that um each school may or may not be judged on. The blacked out areas show you that those schools don't have those areas. And um a couple like Whispering Winds has a couple of NAS because they did not have
027a sale size of 10 in order to qualify for that component this year, but normally they would have it. Um on the far right column, you're going to see the increase or decrease from last year comparing that component. And then across the bottom, the very bottom, you're going to see the change from uh for that particular school from last year to this year in their um percent of points. Um so uh looking below the colors where you see total points there um every school grade component counts for 100 and so um all of those numbers and colors add up to that total points and then the um it is divided by the number of components that the school has for their percent of total points. The color coding at the bottom right corner is marked
028for you. So obviously we don't want red or yellow. Um, we only want green or above and in fact we really just want purple. Um, but Morgan, if you will skip to the next slide, this is going to be very small, but what I want to show you cuz colors say a lot. If you look at the very bottom of the screen, you'll see a couple of reds, you'll see some yellow, uh, you'll see green, then you've got some sprinkle of blue and purple. If you jump up to the next um, set, that's from uh, at the very bottom is 2122. Then you go up to 22 23. uh that year there were no learning gains so you it's a smaller set and but you do see less yellow and less reds. Moving up to
029uh our previous the last school year 23 24 you see even less yellow no reds and more greens, blues and purples and then uh looking at 2425. So at the very top um you'll see that we have even more greens, blues and purples. So our our work is making change. If you look at the colors, you can kind of see that just in an image. >> You go to the next one, Morgan. >> What is white? >> White is nothing. Uh, go back to that. Oh, um, sorry. Back one. >> White is just, um, it's that total points. So, it doesn't color code because it's not in the 0 to 100 range. >> Just a moment. Black. Yeah. Black means they didn't have a black actually or white means they didn't have that school gray
030component that year. on the next slides. Um this one in particular is each elementary school over the last four years. So you can see um and this is their percent of total points. So on the left 2122 you can see where a school was then 22 23 23 24 25. The two columns on the right uh the first one is the change from last school year. So comparing 23 to 24. So, what change did we make in a year? And then the far right column is what change did we make over um four years? Blue is what you want. That's our it's 10 or more. Um green made it 0 to 10 points increase. And red is anything in the negative. Ignore I should have taken the coloring off the bottom chart because that is
031um it's the total points. So they're obviously all very large numbers. You can skip to the next one, Morgan. These are our secondary schools. So you'll see the change in one year and then the change over four years. Go the next one. Morgan, the next slides are going to show each component. So this one in particular is ELA proficiency. Elementary is on the lefthand side, secondary is on the right. You will notice Yankee Town and Cedar Key are on both sides and that is a combination of all their grade levels. So, uh because you can't with school grade, you can't pull out uh particular parts. Um so you'll see on the left Cedar Key is the same thing as Cedar Key on the right. So that's K10 or sorry 310 compared to uh elementary is
032just 35 on the left and then 610 on the right for the secondary schools. or you go the next one. This is just uh we know that the new component of third grade all by themselves now count as 100 points in the um in the school grade. So this is where our third graders performed level three and above. that has only counted the last two years, but we did pull in uh the two years previous to that so that we can watch uh we can see how we've come over four years with them as well. All right, this one is ELA learning gains. At the top, it's all students. What percent of students made a learning gain? At the bottom, it's our lowest 25%. So lowest cortile notice 22 23 is blank because we did
033not have learning games that year. All right, next one. Now moving on to math. And next one, these are our math learning games. If all students are at the top, elementary on the left, secondary on the right, and bottom 25% of students are at the bottom. Okay, I think I did repeat. Next one. This is our science component. So at the top you're looking at fifth grade science alone. At the bottom you'll see um that's eighth grade science and biology. All right. Next. Social studies. The next one. Okay. Writing is not captured in school grade >> yet is what they say. They say it won't be in school grade next year, but we are already tracking and monitoring it. >> Um at the top you'll see the grade level. So you've got fourth through 10th
034grade. It's not just a fourth grade assessment anymore. All fourth through 10th graders um take the writing assessment. Along the left you'll see it's broken down by the state average um district and then each of our schools. Um writing is scored out of 12 possible points. And so there's two different columns for each grade level. So if you look at fourth grade in that first set we the state has 74% of students um made six out of the 12 points where 24% made seven out of the 12 points. So there's a huge gap between how kids are performing in fourth grade and all grades as you can see purples versus reds um across the state. Next, going down the next row, you'll see our district uh 66% of our fourth graders are at 6 out
035of 12 where 38% are 7 out of 12. Um we do um you've seen on a previous board meeting, we are uh re-implementing core connections, which is a writing program that our district used several years ago. And it's not an extra program or an extra curriculum. It's actually professional learning for teachers of how to use the reading program and their other content areas. Um it's uh strategies and structure to use with a platform that they already have. Um so we are hoping to see um the 7 plus percentages um increase next year. Last year was our first year of having districtwide school data chat forms and so we have um we heard some really good feedback from teachers and from administrators. We have made some tweaks to them for this year um based on teacher
036feedback. So actually um the one on the far left is what the K2 uh school data chat will look like for this year. It's going to have a focus on not only the students fast um level, but also um their I Ready level because we're learning that I Ready um the expectations of I Ready is a closer alignment to how kids perform in third grade on FAST. Um as well as Stu Greenberg has um worked with us over the last two years and he's also going to be be speaking to teachers on the professional learning day. We're going to have a closer focus on percentiles this year in K2 because we need our kids meeting the 60th percentile by second grade in order for that to transfer to them being ready to be a level
037three in third grade. So, those are some things. I know it's small, but that's some things that um our K2 teachers will be talking about with parents and with um the kids as they set goals for the year. You'll see the one in the middle and the one on the right look very similar. Um really the difference is you got third through fifth in the middle. 610 is on the right. The only difference really is um I ready is in the 35 part and is in 610. So um we'll be our teachers will be using this and I will say they receive this in view only. They can make a copy of it. They can spruce it up, add their school logos to it. Um but the whole goal is that um all of our
038teachers know how to talk the language of learning gains for state assessments and that um the expectation of using I Ready and Il are there next. So you probably saw this post yesterday. Uh we're very excited. Uh last year we were 95% graduation rate and we are again this year and so we're number five in the state. That's very exciting graduation rate. And then um our last slide is just something that you saw a few weeks ago. Um and so that is Cedar Key is an A school and uh Bronson Middle High, Chief Middle High, Joyce Bullet, Wilson Elementary, Wilson Middle, Whispering Winds, and Yankee Town are all B schools. And then we have Bronson, Chief Lenel, Nature Coast who are all moving close to also being a B as well. So very exciting. And
039we are five points away and we know we're going to get it. >> That's right. >> It will be a celebration when we get there or something for that. >> Um so I know just like every year it's a lot of numbers and a lot of things. Um any questions you have um our all of our school administrators, coaches, uh AVID coordinators all got together on June 5th. They completed a data reflection worksheet. So they talked about like looking at all of those over four years. What has happened at your school? What's working? What's not working? Like what are your what have your been been your school improvement goals in the past? What do you need to tweak? What support do you need from us? Um so they did a lot of work digging in
040to what for you know for a school where something's going everything looks good cuz you're a what can you pick out that can like push you even higher? And then for our schools that might be on the more struggling end, you know, what do they need? What do they need from us? Um, so it was a really good day. We followed up with going to AVID, learning some new strategies. On June 26th, we all came back together and they worked again on like what putting it all kind of into play. Um, each school will have a portfolio this year. So, it's a slide deck like this, but and it has a lot of the same slides in it where they're looking at their um, scores over four years. They're going to be using that during
041their SAP presentations this year. Um they'll have a goal for each school grade component. So we have um some cool things in place not just to things to talk about but like what are we going to do? And then we're going to follow up with schools throughout the year like are they happening? Do you need help to make them happen? Is it something that isn't needed anymore? So we're going to be following up on things like that. >> Is there much collaboration between them other than during the summer like during that workshop? I mean, are you just kind of the vessel that kind of goes around? >> Every month when they come together here, most every month we have some sort of data um activity where they're um working on something and we generally have
042them either depending on what we're doing that day. We'll have them in >> um like Bronson, Bronson Middle High will be together >> if we need to do something K12 or we might have elementary together, secondary together so they can collaborate together. >> Okay. Thank you. >> We have a lot of new people in different positions. It's well, it'll be interesting to see what happens next year because I know everyone's super excited with their new jobs and >> it'll be interesting to see the data next year. >> Yeah. >> Well, we had a surprise, too. So, um we knew Wilson Elementary was right on the line of hoping that they might make it from the C to a B and um so it was very exciting whenever there's their their grade came out that they
043did achieve a B. And then um Wilson Middle also moved from a C to a B this year. So, super exciting. >> Yeah. Very good. >> Yes. and she won not sorry. Cedar Key keeps their title of school of excellence >> um as an A. So that's >> I might have even lost count. Five >> years that they've been a school of excellence. So that's that's very exciting. >> Yeah. Very good. >> All right. >> Thank you. >> You guys have any questions anytime just let me know. >> Okay. >> Thank you, Miss Louis. >> Mrs. like >> this time I let all the good information and good news go first. If you feel like we're gating there and we're hitting a brick wall on my side of the house, all right, so Miss Jerry's
044going to come up here in a few minutes and talk us a little bit about title, but we'll move through the proposed budget. So for anyone new to this process, the statute decide or determines that we have to uh submit a proposed budget to the board by the 24th of the month. Your proposed budget is identical to your tenative. They are one and the same. So, um, you guys that are here now, you'll hear this spiel twice and those who are missing will get an opportunity to hear it for the first time on the 31st where we adopt the tenative mill and budget. So, my budget workshop was June 24th. So, just remember that date as we start going through all the fun things that happened after June 24th in a span of about 4
045days. So, the first thing was June 26. We found out that um the final payment to all school districts uh statewide was about 47 million less than expected. We had a reduction of a little over 60,000, which doesn't sound like a lot, but it was about one teaching unit for a year. and we uh found out that there are about 25,000 students that are being counted um for both SC as scholarship recipients and who are also sitting in a public school somewhere. So those are those duplicates that we talk about and the funding uh is not flowing to the district. The funding continues to flow to the scholarship. So DOE is working on that which will lead me in a minute to why we still do not have our fourth calculation which is problematic as
046we build this budget. Um there is an educational stabilization fund that is used to fund districts. Um I'm going to make it real simple. When our FTE declines rapidly, it kind of comes in and helps soften that. That cannot be used to offset the uh reduction that we're looking at up there because that's due to scholarships, not just due to decline in IT. Districts were notified of that deficit late on June 26. We didn't know that was coming and DOE says they are working on a solution for the shortfall but we do not know what that is at this time. So then two what was that 4 days later we have uh federal funding that was frozen or withheld. So just real quickly statewide that was about um 400 million for the state of Florida.
047Uh quickly there was a suspension of some title two funds is what we thought at that time. Um, and on July 1st, uh, the adjustments to title one came out and it was a slight reduction there with no explanation on why. So, I will let Miss Jerry come up and talk just a little bit about what's going on in the federal world. >> Good morning. >> Usually, I'm the fun one cuz I have all the money and it's um, looking a little different um, right now. I wanted to just you go ahead and to the next one, please. You've heard it in the news. You've seen it. We've been back and forth. We've been living a roller coaster with the big titles, as I call them, the instructional titles. So, I just kind of wanted
048to give you a where are we today? What exactly does it mean for us in a really quick snip? Title One Part A is going to be funded. It is not it. There's been no indications that they're going to pull back. And I'll just pause and add as well as IDA. So from the beginning, we have felt fairly secure with title one part A and IDA funding. However, Title One came with a reduction to the state of Florida. That's nothing new in Title One world. Our allocation fluctuates from year to year. Schools are prepared for that. They know that they've been operating off of a tenative budget. Um, but it was a sad year to see Title One come in because as you can imagine, in the absence of other federal funding, all heads are
049going to swivel to Title One and IDA to hopefully cover some of the things that we're possibly going to lose to the other federal funding. So, just a note that there is an impact to Title One. I'll be working directly with principles over the next few days to decide what can they trim back on in their Title One budget. what can they do to balance the books and how can we move forward? It wasn't substantial. It it's it's nothing more than they're used to dealing with on a normal year. Title two title 2 2526 allocation has been withheld. That is a funding we've known it was on the chopping block of the current administration in DC. They do not like it. Just as a reminder, title 2 was all about professional learning. Um so what
050are we operating on? We are operating on what was left over out of 242 25 funds. Thanks to ESSER, we had some substantial roll forward in each of these federals. And so because of that roll forward, the the concerns that we're watching and that we're prioritizing are we have reading coach salaries that come out of title 2. So we have prioritized keeping those salaries afloat one more year. Um, we have lots of professional learning and stipens and and things that teachers are accustomed to that are probably going to feel very very very different this year. Some of that has already begun in the summer as we began pulling back on July trainings and and kind of looking at what what are we so deep into we have to continue and then what do we need
051to pull back on. That whole theory is going to continue uh as we are really carrying forward on title two on this small little pot of leftover money. I can tell you that one thing that the superintendent has prioritized in title two just under those salaries is that core connections writing training that Melissa alluded to a little bit earlier that is fully funded out of title two. It's a good cost. It's a it's a substantial cost, but it is something that she feels is the top of the priority list. So, professional learning stipens, those are going to feel and and look a little different this year. Uh, as we move forward, title three, you know, that's for Esau, language instruction for English learners, not funded. We are uh finishing up with some instructional programs that
052we had committed to on title three and that will wipe out the little bit of leftover money that we have to carry on for title three. Title four withheld. No title four. You've seen me come before you for stakeholder meetings with title four. That's the fund grant I often refer to it. It's where we do lots of steam materials in the classroom. And that includes the fine arts, music department. It's where we have the mentoring program. All of those have been withheld. And the leftover the little bit of roll forward is paying for um I think many of you are familiar with Gizmo, Reflex. We have some math and science instructional programs. We had already signed contracts on those. So those instructional programs have been protected with the roll forward. Most every other activity is
053on, as I like to call it, pause. We're just pausing. We've not given up yet, but we are pausing. So, what's our concern? Lack of steam support in the classroom, the mentoring, and the supplemental math and science. And then title five um was great news. We we at one point didn't think we were going to get this either. This is the rural and low income that not every district qualifies for that Levy has always qualified for. we are kind of the definition of rural and low income. And so we did receive that allocation with a reduction. So that's just kind of where we are. Again, I spoke with Marcy this morning. IDEIDA came in just pretty much flatline funding. And then Title 9, which is McKenna Vento for the homeless students, has been funded with
054a slight decrease as well. Any questions on those? Okay. >> Thank you, Mr. J. >> Thank you. >> So, we'll continue to watch those federal grants and um work together to either reallocate or if we have to or what we need to do. Um so, we all know that we had an increased cost of uh FRS, so retirement. So, that's went up. It sounds small, but it's about 150,000 to leave. And on the the heels of the deaths that we have, it's it's rather large and that impacts federal as well. And then of course we have increased operational costs. We're seeing this across the state. Uh health insurance premiums are going up. Uh utility rates are increasing and those are straining district budgets as well. And then the growth in student scholarships that is up
055about 7 a little over 72,000 uh statewide. And so that costs about 650 million. And I think I said at the uh proposed budget that scholarships went up 3% and uh I think district growth or districts growth were under 2%. So that that is the decrease in state funding. Um several districts have it worse than us. We are experiencing a decline in our fund balance this year and then moving into the budget that I have created and we have several districts due to the federal freeze that are actually going under three. So we are blessed but this is a a statewide issue not just a leave issue and leave you sitting just slightly better currently and there is a lot of budget uncertainty. We don't have the fourth calculation. So we don't know the final
056decline to our funding uh for the 2425 school year. We will see any further reduction that we have there. We will see that December of this year. So it'll come on the heels of of this budget that's already reduced. So it's it's a different time. So let's talk a little bit about where we're at for 2425, the school year we just exited. We are still closing out our books. We are still getting very few revenues are coming in if any more but we still have expenditures that bills that are being paid out. Currently we have a deficit of a little under 845,000. That deficit was reduced from 1.8 million through the use of transfers. Statutoily we can move money from capital outlay to cover uh maintenance salaries and bus driver salaries. uh property and casualty
057insurance and um enterprise resource software which is our skyward. So we have moved for everything except bus drivers and we are still at a little over 800,000 deficit. That deficit will reduce our fund balance. Some of that loss was not budgeted in the 2425 school year. When I did this same process this time last year, we didn't know that there was going to be a proration. The proration is above a reduction in your FTE and it's where uh all school districts in the state of Florida share when the budget expenditures have increased have exceeded the approved budget by the state. They have to come in and rebalance their budget and they rebalance that through a prrated share of every school. And so ours was a little over 450,000. So this is looking at the second
058calculation that came out. It's comparing it to the third calculation, not the fourth. It should be comparing it to the fourth. So it is uh slightly skewed. So you can see we are seeing a state decrease in funding of around 265,000. And then local we have an increase of around uh 76 770,000 for a total increase of around 504,000. So some of the costs though that we're that 504,000 needs to pay for in this next budget, we have to move out the teacher salary increase allocation that's built into that growth. That's a little over 190,000. So then we're left with new money of around 490,000, but we have an F FRS increase of 150,000. We have health insurance right now. We don't know what that increase is going to be, but we're looking between 3
059to 500, and that will have to come out of the general fund, and then some other costs between an increase in supplements, an increase uh for textbook adoption was an ELA adoption year. you're looking at starting with a deficit of around 334,000. And that's just comparing growth. So the change in 2425 with any new money that might be coming in 2526. But that is not the deficit to the budget. So let's look a little bit at the revenue sources that are in the current budget and some change there. So you can see a decline in federal that decline is simply uh food um I'm sorry hurricanes. So our FEMA money will flow through there. It's not FEMA comes from the county but it kind of flows through there and some grants some different things that
060that flow through there. So it's really not um a decline in any consistent u funding that we get. State sources are down almost a million. Local sources are up, but again, there's grants in there. There is a cap grant in there that's like $1.7 million. So, it's skewing that change a little bit. Those interfs and employee bonuses to the tune of 1.6 6 million. So, it's down because we're not going to recover that money. Those were non-recurring expenditures, but we're not going to recover uh that money again from from ARP. And then other funding sources is just dependent upon how many insurance claims that is literally we've had had a lot of lightning strikes last year. Again, we're starting off good this year. Um so, that's just fluid and is based solely on insurance claims.
061So, it has a matching expenditure. When we look at our revenue source types, 66% comes from the state and 30 comes from local. And the local has been uh slightly increasing since I've been here, maybe 1%, but it is still slightly increasing and state is decreasing. Take a quick look at the expenditures in this budget. So salaries are down a million. So that million 800,000 of that were bonuses that were awarded in the compensation package this year. Not the same bonuses that I just talked about a minute ago. Those were the ART bonuses, but we also did around for uh longevity. So those are non-recurring. So you do see a reduction there for that. Employee benefits are up. Purchase services are up slightly. Again, when there's a grant like the CAP grant, it sits in
062all these categories and it can be increasing some of that. So, we go on to show though that we have reduced this budget by 1.3 million. Mostly those are non-recurring costs that have come out of that budget. There has not been a huge reduction in recurring costs. And that 300,000 at the bottom that is the general fund uh would have to do a permanent transfer to health insurance. So we're thinking between three and 500 and we will know that in February. And even if we don't have to do a permanent transfer in February, if we have to increase board contribution for premiums, that's where that will come from. So you can see the majority of our expenditures go for salaries and benefits. 78% of our budget is for salary and benefits which makes it difficult
063when you try to reduce a budget but not reduce it. Yeah. So this is our proposed operating budget. Again this will be the tenative I we have worked on it and we are still at a $ 1.8 million deficit. So that's the difference between budgeted revenues and budgeted expenditures. I have removed scholarships out. So when you see my budget summary ad, you're going to see that expenditures and revenues look more like 60 million. That's because each side has over 5 million in uh scholarships. So you have to budget the revenue and and an offsetting expenditure. But in order to keep it from skewing my budget, I always remove it from both sides. >> You just took the in and out. >> Yes. >> Yeah. Yes. >> So the sad part of that deficit, so remember
064earlier when I said this year we were at a $1.8 million deficit and we whittleled it down to 800,000 through use of transfers. That 1.8 includes a million dollars in transfers. And you can only transfer so much money from capital. First of all, statutoily, you can only transfer so much money from capital, but also that capital budget is used for all of our day-to-day maintenance to purchase school buses and other activities. So, you can only cannibalize so much of that budget or you are reducing what maintenance can do in the schools and our purchase of new school buses. So, uh, the capital budget is about $5 million moving into this year, and we still have one more payment for Chief Liinal High School with over 2 million that we have to to support. So, right
065now, in the short term, what we're we're doing to balance the budget. If we don't balance the budget, we will, of course, have to utilize reserve funding, which you will see the impact in a minute to our reserve funding. We're going to review and increase capital transfers that are allowable by statute. We're going to use those as much as we can. And we have already had several budget meetings with several departments or all departments including the schools to ask them to review all their costs and make cuts uh that have this sounds silly minimal impact on the classroom because essentially everything we do impacts the classroom. And it's sad to see when Melissa reports the growth that we're getting and now we're going to have to really pull the brakes on some of these things.
066So, an example of the types of cuts that we've discussed is reducing staff travel, reducing student travel for activity that's not covered by their internal accounts. So, you'd be looking at competitions and athletics. We haven't cut anything at this moment, but I do believe we are holding the schools to their limit of athletic games at this point. Um, we are going to have to review any new athletics coming into our school, those types of programs that would drive uh cost. We're going to look at software programs and try to cut anything that's redundant. Uh, believe it or not, we have a lot of copier agreements in the district. So, we've already asked schools to look at those copier agreements. Do they need as many copers? Can we reduce some of those agreements? Uh, continue to
067focus on any energy saving that we can districtwide. Staff reduction through attrition. So, to me, staff reduction through attrition is not the same as layoffs. That is when a vacancy occurs in a position that you may no longer need. You may be able to technology may allow us not to refill that position. Uh so every vacancy that occurs throughout the year, we're going to take a pause for just a second to look at that position to see if we need to fill it. Obviously, there's going to be classroom positions that have to be filled. So those will move a little bit quicker, but those are things that we're going to look at. Now, we're going to continue to review class size policies and procedures. Where this will have an impact will be when we do
068staffing allocations. I do not believe we we have that luxury anymore of looking at the classrooms based on the 18, 22, and 25 that the state uh says we should have because the state's not funding us to maintain those class sizes. Um, we are looking at our summer programs and summer hours. I don't know if you guys have ever seen the little booklet that it went out this year that we offer a lot of summer hours. We're going to have to look at pulling all of that back except for what is um required by law, which is extended school year and third grade reading camp. And then some of those additional hours that go for grounds and custodial and and um FFA, those were either we're going to have to find a different funding source
069or we're not going to be able to to support those summer hours. and we're looking at all discretionary budgets include including those that go to the schools and this year I've asked them to we haven't reduced their budget. It's reduced on its own because they have less students and it's based on the number of students. So there is already a reduction but we've asked them to maintain um their operations in just that discretionary budget and not use roll forward. if they use roll forward that further further reduces my fund balance. So we've asked for them to to pay attention to those all of the things I just named and I'm sure Mr. Whitehurst knows you don't get a lot of bang for your buck out of most those things I just named. Um but we
070are trying to make smart reductions and least painful reductions in terms of impacting student achievement and current staff for now and you won't get to layoffs, right? Layoffs will occur when we literally can't pay the bill. That's right. >> So layoffs aren't going layoffs aren't a great saver. They're a saver when you all you all be fully aware when we when we get to layoffs. So, we're just trying to do this smart. We're trying to do this uh with grace and compassion and as best we can. But this is the year, and I'm about to get to the thumbnails to show you if people do not take it seriously this year, we will be having a different discussion this time next year and the year after that. So, let's look at the fund balance and
071where we are now. So 2324 is there because that's where we ended moving into our previous school year. We started out with a $10 million fund balance. In that $10 million fund balance, um almost $600,000 is restricted. So it doesn't count towards our financial condition ratio and it's not funds that you can use for any other means than by which the state has determined. So, of that 10 million, we had about 9.5 going into last school year that is assigned and unassigned. And we usually run about 2.5 million assigned. Assigned would be your schoolhouse roll forward. They would be certain activities that we have deemed as management that we're going to hold that money. Any excess of that funding will sit there and they can be used for that same activity year after year. And
072then of course the unrestricted has your assigned your 5% uh financial condition ratio that is determined by the board and that's roughly it changes every year because it's based on revenues but it's around 2.7 million. So when we're ending the year that we just left we're going to end that year and again we're going to reduce that fund balance somewhere in the neighborhood of 800,000. So we're going to move into next year with a fund balance of 9.2 2 million which includes some uh restricted. So we have about 8.6 of assigned and unassigned available to us. So that 1.8 million that I'm talking about if everything holds true and that's where we end this time next year. That's where that 1.8 comes from. There are a lot of things happen between when we give you
073a proposed budget in July and when we close out a budget in the next July. A lot of things happen but being a perfect world uh it would it would reduce our fund balance down between this year we'll end at 16%. If the 1.8 hits next year we will end at almost 13%. Which is still well above the five and the three. But let's not look at the percent. Let's look at the dollars because those dollars get drained very quickly. That would leave us going into the 26 27th school year with about 6.8 million assigned and unassigned. So if you remove your 2 million or 2.5 million for assigned, what's left would have to have the uh 2.7 for the 5%. And so then we're left with about 1.5 million moving into the next year
074that's unassigned, which is still good. That still gives us 2 years in a perfect world to continue to make these cuts and hopefully find those. But I haven't mentioned at all compensation negotiation. I haven't mentioned anything else that will put pressures on the budget. Another pration next December of half a million dollars. All of these things will change these projections. But it is so important while we are still healthy to make these decisions so that we're not left with very painful hard decisions. I just can't urge that enough because I I think people get desensitized sometimes to finance directors because we're constantly um usually we're very conservative and we're usually always saying there's a problem but I am telling you there's a problem. There is a problem and it's coming. Let's use this time to
075try to thin that off. So we are we are starting to have those meetings and starting to have those discussions. So let's move to capital. Capital um this is where your 1.5 mil flows through. We are looking at state revenue or local revenues of about 5 million. So given the transfers I have embedded in here, the payback for Chief Middle High School, we look to uh end our fund b we have a fund balance of about 6 million at the end of next year. Next we have debt service. So debt service is where we have our racetracks. So the bonds we just renewed because we renewed those bonds and we had to. So we didn't really have any other option but interest rates are up. We have lost about 20,000 in revenue that would have
076normally set in the general fund because interest took that. We really weren't left with much options for that though. So we also have our cops. The good news, if I can have one piece of good news, is cops will be paid off in 2526 school year. So you will have an additional close to 700,000 in your capital budget in uh 2627. But on the flip side, we will then start sharing with the charters somewhere between 150 to 250,000. Just depends on their student population and dollar perhead at that point. But still our capital will get a little bit back. Food service. So our federal budgets, which food service is federal, these are just last year's. Uh they take a little bit longer for me to get all that information. So your federals will be updated
077by your final budget. So nothing I'm going to show you now has been impacted by anything that uh Miss Jerry spoke about or and food service is continuing uh with last year's budget. One quick thing about food service is food service pays indirect costs to the general fund just like all federal budgets. Food service when I first started we didn't take any indirect costs. On average the last two to three years we've well we've taken anywhere from 100,000 to I think the largest was 188 last year. We took over 500,000 in indirect cost this year and still have still have an $800,000 deficit. That's where I'm saying we are utilizing all of our tools, but we have to reduce costs. Again, this is just 2425 and this will be updated by your final budget and
078revenues and expenditures always match in federal programs. So, your internal service, this is where we have our health insurance and you can see um the trouble on the horizon there. use. We are projecting expenditures of about 7.7 million. So, ending our fund balance next June at about 1.7, but we will know what's going on with a self- insurance. So, it runs calendar year. So, right now we're looking at um all the claims every month and we're measuring that against what fund balance we need in December. we will need two and a half times our claims, monthly claims, and they're a little um increased this period because we had some increased uh costs. So, that will be reviewed by our actuary in February and then we'll know if we either need to do a permanent transfer,
079but we'll know before then uh through negotiations what we're going to be able to do in terms of increasing those premiums, board or employee or both. So this is a notice of proposed tax increase. Uh we seem to be getting these every year because the value of uh homes keep increasing but our funding is not increasing. So this is just standard language that I have to to put out by trim. Next is our summary ad. So we are asking for approval. Well, we will ask for approval of a budget of close to 117 million with your general operating at close to 70. Again, that's increased a little bit because of those scholarships. It's an in and out, but it still increases that total budget. And this is our notice of school uh capital outlay. We
080have to put this ad out with what we intend to purchase. We have five school buses on here. We do not intend to purchase those until we know exactly how we're going to have to utilize that capital budget uh for operating and the impact of paying back two middle high school. We think that is a priority at this time, but you will see some new buses because we've had them on order for multiple years and they're slowly starting to come in. But if we have enough capital reserve, we will uh end up ordering us some buses. Fortunately for the bond refunding that you did is taking care of roofs so that that is taking a little bit of weight off of the capital budget. So the one thing I need today is just an approval
081of those ads so I can get those ads approved and posted. They'll run in the Gainesville Sun. I don't have an option right now due to time to run them locally. Last year we also had to use Gainesville Sun and those will run on the 29th and we will have our tenative budget hearing on the 31st. >> Do I hear a motion? >> So moved. >> Second motion second. Any questions? >> All those in favor please say I. I. >> Any opposed? Like sign? >> Motion carries. >> If no one has any questions about budget, >> can I answer lots? I have lots of questions. >> So do I. >> Um I'm just curious how um you you aren't mentioning negotiations or but have negotiations or has this new proposed budget affected what's happening in
082negotiations? >> I'm sure it will. We haven't met a second time. We have a very good relationship with the union. The union is fully aware of the financial difficulties statewide. Um, and with our district, this has come about. The the 1.8 million deficit for 2425 wasn't a surprise. I mean, it at 1.8 it was a little bit of a surprise, but we knew we were reaching into the fund balance when you all approved last year's compensation. We had hoped it hadn't extended beyond the non-recurring. So, we've gotten it down to about the non-recurring. What we didn't anticipate was what's going on federally that while it is not impacting the general fund yet, it potentially will. And we also didn't anticipate Senate Bill 2500 was a was even less than what the House was originally um
083proposing. So in years past the base student allocation has risen at such a rate that it has helped recover some of those recurring costs that we agreed with that we didn't have funds for. So basically you negotiated in 2324 and borrowed against revenues you were going to get in 2425 that has served us well over the last 3 to four years. It is not serving us well now. Now we can see that's not that's not going to be the case. Um, but we will continue. We meet with them again in August and we will continue to kind of tell them where we're at um, and see and talk and of course the board will know. Um, but I feel like they they do understand where we're at. We just may have different priorities. So, we
084need to sit down together and understand each other and each other's uh, priorities and direction. Will we be proceeding with the proposed uh new stipens or that we >> Those are supplements. Those have already been approved. Those have already been approved. Supplements can be controlled in some form or fashion and those are um meetings that we're continuing to have. And how to now, you know, do we need to reduce those budgets at school level? No, new sports would help. Like what do we do? But those are bigger discussions that we are having because we pay a lot in supplements >> and how and where we can reduce them. Some of them we can't reduce. So at the same time, it's kind of funny. Um HR is benefiting from this kind of change that's going on
085around us. They're getting access to more highly educated teachers to teachers with with greater years of experience at a time that the budget can't can't handle that. So the budget's like, I want all your new teachers with nothing but a bachelor's. And of course, what's better for our students in HR? They want all the teachers that have 20 plus years with masters. >> So, here's here's where the conflict lies. >> We also are going to we have this budget has benefited from laps time. So, teachers will leave and go. There's a fluidity. They could go anywhere they wanted. Now, you're going to see lockdown and people not want to leave. And so, we're not going to have that lapse time. So, this fund balance is going to continue to decline based on those activities. So
086now it has shifted from a personnel issue to a finance issue. >> Yay. Thank you. Thank you for all of you. >> Wait, we need a motion. >> Oh, they did. They did already. >> Oh, you did. I'm sorry. >> Yes, >> I know. It gets my brain, too. >> I'm just absorbed in all this money. >> All right. Thank you. Thank you, Mrs. Lake. All right. Do we have any uh public comments at this time? You here for that? >> I'm here for the show. It's all good. All that. It's all good. Good. >> There you go. >> All right. We will move ahead. Uh we move to our minutes. Has everyone had a chance to read over the minutes? >> Yes. >> I will entertain a motion to approve the minutes. So moved.
087>> Second. >> Motion and a second. All those in favor, please say I. I. >> Any opposed? Motion carries. Now we move on to our consent agenda. Mrs. Campbell, do you have any questions or concerns? >> No, I do. >> Or comments, >> Mr. White? >> All my questions are answered. >> Mrs. Clemensy, >> all mine are answered. >> All mine have been answered and handled. Well, I would make one comment. Uh I think to see if uh number what is that number 27 under P employee status change. Uh, Katherine Corbin, I know her as Katie. Seeing her coming back in that new position, that is an excellent move by our school district as far as I'm concerned. And anybody that ever had to work with her, dealt with her would probably agree with that.
088Uh, if there are no other comments or questions, I'll entertain a motion to approve the consent agenda. >> So moved. >> Second. >> A motion and a second. All those in favor, please say I. I. >> Any opposed? Motion carries. We'll now move into finance. Does anyone have any questions on the consent finance agenda? Mrs. Campbell, anything? >> No questions. >> Mr. Wyhurst. >> Good. >> No question. >> Mr. Lindseay, I don't either. It's all fairly self-explanatory. And I'll entertain a motion to approve. >> So move. >> Second. >> Have a motion and a second. All those in favor, please say I. >> Any oppose? Motion carries. We now move to our superintendent's comments. Mr. Mr. Lot, any comments today? >> Uh, I do. I have a few comments of my own before I I
089read some that uh Superintendent Bole had sent me. But as as you know, yesterday afternoon about 4:00, we had a lightning strike here at our district office. Um and when we left uh yesterday evening, we didn't didn't even know if we would be able to have the meeting here this morning. Uh, but I I do want to to thank our maintenance department, Breezy and Mac, uh, and and that entire crew for, you know, getting on that as fast as possible, making sure we had electricity, making sure that we, you know, there wasn't a danger to the facility. You know, you don't want to leave and the place burned down. Um, those kind of things. So, they were really helpful and our MIS department, um, you know, in looking at potential damage. We're still assessing that.
090We'll know more. We do believe our phone system was uh damaged and probably beyond repair at this point and we'll have to replace that. Our generator outside um which is supposed to kick on when you don't have electricity. Well, the panel it was damaged too beyond. So, we'll have uh to get that repaired. So, we're assessing that damage. But, I do want to thank all of them. And I also want to thank Central Florida Electric Co-op. Before I even left yesterday evening, there was a truck sitting waiting to make repairs as soon as it was safe to do so. And uh you know, Danny George and Central Florida has always been a very good partner for us and and really given us a priority when we're down in electricity at any of our uh schools.
091And I do want to thank them for for that uh that service. Uh also I want to recognize our our advanced placement teachers. Um you saw on the board uh agenda that um we had given them a bonus. You know uh any advanced placement student who passes the AP test um with a three or higher that teacher is rewarded. Um, I've been calculating those totals for many years now and I would say that um, this is as far as passing percentage for our kids as a whole, as a district, this is the highest that we've ever had. I mean, we had some teachers that had 100% pass rate. Um, and all of them did an excellent job in teaching those kids as as evidenced. Uh, I, you know, overall our pass rate was higher than
092the state average. um you know as a whole. So um good job to to those um teachers and I do want to recognize their hard work. Um Superintendent Bole sent me some things to talk about. Um she said that she neglected to mention that Riley Lockach uh has been awarded the district vi state vice president FFA officer and um she knows she'll represent Levy County uh in an excellent manner. and she wanted to shout out to our district staff for hosting another Elevate New Teachers event uh at Chief Middle High School. They had two days. It was amazing. Uh a lot of hard work went into that. Um creating those presentations and welcoming the new teachers and some veteran teachers who have found their way back to Levy County. So all indications that went very
093well. Uh at the teacher of the year Gayla event uh was last week and our own McKenzie um Mulligan was there. Uh the superintendent was there. Ricky Richardson and Cesley Smith from Willist Elementary School was there as well. Um and and and basically they were announced uh uh Senora Rosario was also there to support McKenzie and they just she wanted to point out uh that and also recognized their dedication and you know unwavering support for all of our students and um Superintendent Bole and a lot of our administrators and some some of our district personnel are are are there at uh NEAC summer leadership conference uh today. They were they were there uh yesterday as well. And um she just wanted to recognize that she wasn't sure based on the reduction of the federal funds
094if that was even going to be possible. But uh did want to recognize that NEAC offered uh some additional scholarships for some of our people to attend. Otherwise, many of our principles and school administrators would not have been able to attend the summer leadership conference without the sport and effect. And that's it. >> Thank you, Mr. Lot. Mr. Campbell, any comments? >> Yes. Um, first of all, I want to definitely applaud our district. Um, the B-grade is fantastic. I know we're five away from A, but I know what it takes to get to where we are. And I I just want to applaud all the growth at every school. Um and and to congratulate the district support team, um the teachers, administrators, and students at all the schools because I do know the blood, sweat,
095and tears that goes into all of it. And I'm very proud of Libby County. I was so proud to hear about the uh graduation rate, too, because I think that kind of sums it up. you know, we're graduating kids who are ready to go out and and um conquer the world. Um I do want to welcome the new teachers that have come in and uh I heard that the uh Elevate program was fantastic again this year and I know that that's a great way to start our teachers out and and I offer my support to all of them as they come into Levy County. they're coming into a great system. Um, and the AVID training I heard went very well and I'm very proud of the teachers who took time out of this summer to
096attend that because it's so important. Um, very happy to hear that our core connections is preserved through the title funds. So needed and um, looking forward to that. I'd like to be part of that, too. Um, and that the reading coaches are being preserved. Um, and I hope that we'll make use of the reading coaches since we are going to have to um streamline our professional development. Our reading coaches are the best way of getting um all of that necessary professional development to our teachers right there in their schools. So, I hope that that that will happen. and thank you all for all of your hard work. Um, the finances I I don't know how you do it. It's amazing to me and I do thank you for making it somewhat easy to understand. Thank
097you very much. >> Thank you, Mr. White. >> Um, I echo a lot of the sentiments of Miss Campbell as far as the the grades and the graduation rate and certainly a lot of hard work goes into that and much appreciated. Um, and like I said, all the presentations, you know, going from, you know, the good stuff to the not so good stuff. But luckily, you know, as far as a finance side, you know, we've kind of put oursel in position through the years of being conservative, having a good fund ratio that we can weather some of these storms. But but like Miss Lake said, you know, it's good to kind of make incremental changes versus when your back's against the wall and you have to really make tough decisions. So luckily the district's in
098a position to where we're not that. But certainly we need to start, you know, making changes to where we can, you know, trim it a little bit here or there cuz you got to save them pennies to make them dollars. So um, you know, certainly good. So I appreciate everybody and um, that's all I have. Thank you. >> Thank you, Mr. Pers. Mr. >> Same is what they both said. Um, so proud of our district with the B-grade. Proud of being fifth in the state overall. That's just a huge accomplishment. Um, thank you to Miss Jerry and Kim, um, who is a Lugler who was from Willist, by the way. So, you really That's That's the Lugler coming out of >> We all have our little fantasy. >> And, um, summer's always a super busy
099time on the school campus. And I talked to Ricky this morning or last night and she said that the custodial crew at Yankee Town, which they're just fabulous anyway, they're way ahead of schedule and painting. She wanted me to give a big shout out to the maintenance crew. So, she said you guys have been super helpful over the summer um and are there whenever she needs you guys. There is a community prayer um not Yankee Town sponsored, community sponsored um August 3rd and an open house on August 9th for back to school. And that's all I have. >> Thank you, ma'am. Uh I won't cons continue to beat the same topics. Yes, that's a Williston leg, but that's really a Bronson product. And I'm here to tell you, okay, I'm gonna leave you at this.
100We are looking at some hard times. That's why I'm glad we have a Bronson person in charge of that. Okay, and I say that because you don't try to grow anything in the sand of Bronson. That's why we're tough and we can get it done. We ain't giving nothing. So, I'm glad I got that on my side. All right. So we're going to be okay. >> If there is nothing else meeting a journal. >> Thank you.