001Good morning everyone. >> Good morning. >> Welcome to 2026, our first workshop of the year. Uh it's been an exciting start already to uh the second half of the school year. Uh the agenda is in front of us is for the workshop and the first thing is to uh I guess we have no public comments signed up. So we'll go right into the first agenda item which is the citizens financial audit committee. So I will turn that over to Miss Sellers, uh Mr. Chapman and the RSM. >> Hi, good morning. Um uh here with us today is RSM, our internal auditors, and also Mr. Jim Daniel. He is the chair of the audit committee. So I'm going to turn this over to Mr. Daniels to um make the introductions of the um internal audit team.
002Thank you. >> If you could pull your microphones closer to you. Thank you. >> Y thank you madam chair. Members, >> we do have RSM here with several reports that have been approved by the audit committee and recommended for approval by you. The first of all will be the sales tax report on what we've gotten. The other one that is here for approval is the AAA school questions and they have got those in your hands. They've provided those previously. Uh they will be going through those. uh they'll give you an update on the millillage report which is in process. We did that second so that they could use the sales tax methodology to step into the millillage know who's who on what base and go through it more effectively and efficiently. The last item they're
003going to bring forward to you is the five-year risk assessment that is required by statute. This is the game plan that we use to figure out what we're going to be doing, what activities we're going to look at, what systems we may need to review, and have them review. We have three members of RSM with us today. First is the managing director of the internal audit department, Claire Ewing. We have the director, Matt Blondelle, and we have the manager, Ava Dorasami. And I'm going to shut up and turn it over to them. Come on down. >> I'll give Ava and Matthew a quick minute to set up just to um thank you for having us here this morning. I'm Clary Euing with RSM. We are the fifth largest accounting firm um nationally. I lead our
004internal audit services for our government clients here um nationally and I'm based here in Florida. We have 10 other school districts and we provide internal audit services here in Florida. And we are Matthew and I and Ava, we all travel a lot of other places as well to provide internal audit services to various counties, cities, and school districts. So, we're happy to be here. Ava and Matthew, this is their home, so they're happy to be 20 minutes away from you all. So, thank you for having us today and I'll turn it over to them. Thank you. >> Thank you. >> Perfect. Hi. Can everyone hear me? Okay. I was told the microphone situation I don't want to leave. >> You're good. I can hear you. >> All right. Well, you guys aren't that far away,
005so hopefully we're okay. >> Um, all right. I will be starting with the halfsent sales certax internal audit report. Um this is our first operational internal audit report for you all. Um I'll give kind of a brief overview of what our our scope and approach was, what our goal was uh on the onset of this review. Um and then I'll talk about what our process is and in working with um the CPAC or the audit committee uh and go through the observations of course. So the goal of this particular internal audit was to get an understanding of the halfsent sales certex program and perform an assessment of how data is collected, how it's uh reconciled, reported and monitored including both expenditures and revenues. Uh we spend a lot of time looking at the control environment.
006Um so how exactly an expenditure is approved, what types of expenditures can be approved, if they are in alignment with the eligibility uh or allowability parameters in state statute and uh in the referendum language. Um we do some data analytics on a population of expenditures as well to make sure from a 50,000 foot overview, are there any anomalies that stand out that we need to be aware of? Um and then of course we dive in to do detailed testing of specific expenditures um and take a look at the procurement of those expenditures, the support of those expenditures, how they were reviewed, um and if the math is literally tying out to to make sure that we have accurate data of what we've spent money on uh related to halfsent. Uh pages four through seven uh
007give a lot of background information. And this is something that we include in every single internal audit report. Um, and it's just to give the reader if there is no ex pre-existing understanding of halfsent, hopefully by the time they finish through these few pages, they have a good general understanding of what we mean by halfsent. Um, so there's an overview of the process. Um, there's an overview of allowability parameters. Again, that's through the referendum uh language of the resolution language and state statute. Um we also talk about roles and responsibilities. So who the key players are, who do we need to be aware of between um SEFAC, the finance department, purchasing department, the capital committee. So a lot of background information in there um for you all. The objectives and approach are on page eight,
008which I spoke to briefly just a second ago. And then on page nine, we have the observations matrix starting. Um before I get into the details here, I just want to highlight this was a very positive uh internal audit for us. We do have sentent reviews all over the state. Um and I think the results in here have we have two low-risk observations in one process improvement opportunity. Overall very positive. Just some opportunities to tighten up our controls. Uh make sure we have our our tees crossed and our eyes dotted and we're minimizing risk where we can. So the first observation was related to how halfsent expenditures are reviewed and more specifically what the documentation looks like for that review. We have some recommendations here to try and uh reinforce consistency of allowability reviews specifically.
009Um so who is looking at each expenditure to make sure it's in alignment with uh the spend parameters. I will note we didn't have any exceptions to reviews uh related to um the inter the specific departments. Um we didn't have any issues of expenditures not being allowable. So that was the big one. There was no uh found instances of that in our sample selection. So really just some opportunities to document the reviews that are taking place uh to get those on a regular cadence, make sure nothing kind of slips through the cracks. management's working on a uh action plan there and we'll have uh kind of some revised controls implemented uh by March of this year. The second observation here is related to the website. Um so we did have some opportunities to make sure
010that the data on the website is brought up to date. Um there is a couple years there where we're just missing some information the more recent years and then to make sure that the data that is posted there is exactly related to halfsent. So um we took a look and found some some issues where maybe a project listed on there appears to be funded by halfsent and wasn't. Um so just some links that needed to be corrected which uh as of the time that we are here today has already been corrected. Um management has fixed that really quickly. Um and then also some opportunities to enhance the type of information that's there to show um the public and taxpayers here's where halfsent dollars are going. Um we brought some examples what we would call best-in-class
011examples from our experience doing this type of review for other school districts um to management. And I understand that's going to be used as as kind of a a pathway forward to try and enhance and say here public here's here's all the the uh projects that we've been funding through halfsent and if you want to drill in deeper by school or or by location then that option could be there. So um the team has like I mentioned already corrected some of the data relevance issues that we noted and is working on the data recency issue and data completeness. those two subheaders. Uh they're working on that in February of this year. The last thing I'll note here is a process improvement opportunity. This is not a compliance issue. It's it's you could say lower than
012a lowrisk observation. Um and it's related to our use of piggyback contracts. No issues with piggyback contracts being used. They offer a lot of uh efficiencies. Um we didn't find any compliance issues in our samples either. Um but we did note there is some room to maybe uh enhance the level of documentation or review of the in the entity that we're piggybacking from of their procurement records. Um we find all the time issues with procurement being done incorrectly. Um the auditor general does as well. So just making sure that we have maybe that double check review of the the entity we're procuring from so that here at Manatee we're not at risk of any clawbacks or any any findings related to procurement because we utilize someone else's. Um that is that's the last item in
013this report. >> Are we using gr? >> No we are not using gran. So if you have questions, you'll just have to kind of >> Okay. Way better at her. >> Um thank you for this um question on Certax um audit and this is maybe from the board Mr. Daniels remember if whoever can answer this um maybe attorneys obviously in this last one you did we didn't have the charter schools involved. They weren't getting anything. >> Right >> now they are. Uh, and moving forward, we have a gliding scale that we're going up. They're going to get get a percentage. Are they going to be audited just like this? Um, on on what they're using those funds are is my first question. So, you >> if I may. >> Yeah, please. We've had other parts
014of awards to the charter schools for technology, for other things. We did get and inspect those invoices. I would expect to continue the same process. Okay. >> Uh they are sub statute to be reviewed. Right. >> Uh we have not discussed it yet with RSM, but there will be need to be modification to the program to incorporate those incorporate them into the scope to do the selection. >> Perfect. >> I don't know until we work that out whether it'll be a separate test or more just included in our overall population. >> Okay. But we will we will be required to look at >> I thought we talked about that when we during the whole discussion of >> whether or not to include them or not, you know, and give them some of the proportionate share.
015Um but I just want to make sure. Perfect. That's it. Thank you very much. >> If as long as we're on this point, Madam Chair, can I just jump in for a second? >> Absolutely. >> Um on a follow-up question that's because that's kind of news to me. I thought previously the each individual charter school was required to get their own auditor and produce an annual report on how they're using this money. >> They are and they do they do turn them into us. We review them. They're included, their results are included in the act for each year. But this is a separate requirement by statute and by the uh resolution to get this certification done. Uh just like when we had the technology monies passed down, it was not uh their auditor is doing
016a financial audit, not an inspection audit of this nature. So it is a different type of procedures, different type of responsibilities. uh you're the ones that are ultimately responsible and if that's the case, we're going to look at it. >> Right. Right. Okay. Thank you. I I was just kind of missing that second step there. Okay. Thanks, Chad. >> Right. Um >> I'm good. That's all I had. >> I just wanted to make a point that you know during the meeting that I was at. Um thank you for allowing me to be there. Um, when you talked about the piggyback uh, contracts, I just want the board to know that we get everything in our agenda that we need to see, but they're saying to actually have more of the materials from the piggyback maybe
017county that we're coming from, >> more material at the purchasing level and the procurement level, not necessarily attach it to our agenda. that would make our agenda massively bigger. So, I just wanted to point that out to the board. So, >> and Madam Chair, if I may. >> Sure. >> I said one thing real quick. Um, Ava, if you could just kind of like >> take just take a step back higher level, and this is more for the public. Could you talk about the difference in auditing terms between a finding and an observation? >> Sure. Um, for us, we always use the the language observation. um finding uh I think other teams have used when we're talking about the internal audit control environment like Mr. Daniel mentioned before, we're talking about operations. So controls at
018every level, whether it's a small expenditure or a large expenditure. And if we do find anything as an exception, that's vetted through the management team, through the process owners, and if it remains, it would end in an observation, which have three different risk ratings, which are defined earlier in the report. And then I know this is a little bit outside of your question, but the process improvement opportunity would be um not an observation, but something that we noted as an opportunity to enhance controls, but it's not a compliance issue. >> Okay. So, if we're out of compliance, that is still in in your terms, that's an observation. >> Correct. >> Okay. Gotcha. Okay. >> And compliance, if I can build a little bit more on that, is just one of the things that we address
019in our internal audit reports. We also take a look at performance efficiency. Um if there's any financial items that we know as well that would be noted. Compliance is something that could end up in a report if we see non-compliance but we could also have an observation that um is related to financial matters or legal matters or uh an efficiency matter too. Oh >> okay. Okay. >> If I may. >> Thank you. Um, if we do have a high level observation with a high level of risk, the findings, as I understand it, come from you and from the attorneys for the board and for the district. We're preparing the report to tell you what we find. You would make the determination if there's an issue. Does that make sense? I mean, we would tell you
020the observation. We would tell you it's high risk, what has happened, what's going there. But as I understand it, we are reporting this to you for you to make your assessment >> of the school district, right? >> Program. Gotcha. Okay. >> So that's why we don't call it a finding. It would be a finding at your level. >> Understood. Okay. Now, now it makes sense. I just for so many years have just put my faith in the audit committee and the auditors. So if you say there's something wrong, like I'll just Okay, I'll take that in face value. >> Absolutely. But we're dealing with a a resolution. we're dealing with statutory issues. Uh there's I would imagine and I'm not an attorney but steps that do need to be taken and and and the corrective
021policy would need to come from this dis. >> Sure. >> Uh whatever we would need to do or you would need to do, you would have to be the making that determination. We can recommend they can recommend but you have to make the decision. >> Very similar like one of the recommendations about the website. We could we could say no, we don't want not saying we want this, but we could say no, we don't want that transparency on our website. You know what I mean? And so they're giving that as an observation and it's a low risk, but we could say no, we don't want that. >> Yeah. >> Okay. Not saying we do. >> Go ahead. So on page nine in the first paragraph the last sentence says through discussions with management we noted
022allowability reviews may occur but are not documented and then in the in management's response at the bottom the kind of the second to last sentence says the approval flow through peopleoft documents the staff approval the purchase orders. So, this is either maybe for Miss Sellers or Dr. Brereslin. How who has the final say on whether or not these are since there are statutory and legal issues involved, does Mr. Penalty's eyes get put on it on it or is that too bureaucratically burdensome to have him look at all the these expenditures or how do we assure that we're in compliance? >> Uh, certainly. And Rachel, if you want to talk about the process that goes through purchasing, but yes, Mr. definely uh would put eyes on on most of the things that would pass through when
023it comes to the board. >> Okay. >> He's a part of the approval process through peak. >> Okay. >> Yes. The are the district's controls is to document that approval process >> um all the way from the decisions starting from when the capital committee first chose where to put it. uh the documentation as far as who's approving uh whether the purchasing on the purchasing side um we have documents inside that has the various lay layers of individuals in the approval flow their documentation then also even on the payment side over in accounts payable. Uh so those those approval processes are documented. I believe that that's what they're they're pointing out that we that the um that the district does have certain controls already documenting that approval process. >> Well, that's why I'm a little confused
024because it sounds like we have a process, but then the first line, the last line of the first paragraph says through discussions with management, we noted allow allow allowability reviews may occur but are not documented. Is it saying that there's it's there's not a written process of how we do it? or is it saying that we we do it but we don't have a written process to to say how we do it? >> Sure. If I may, I can provide some some color on there. Um there are many approvals that take place for an individual expenditure like Miss Miss Sellers mentioned. Um the capital committee kind of starts there. Then it takes input from finance and from procurement from the end user department who's requesting that good or service. Mhm. >> Um the management action
025plan is noting the peopleoft workflow which we had no uh exceptions to. There is an approval that's outside of the peopleoft workflow. Um that's an individual from the the finance team who specifically reviews expenditures for allowability. That individual was able to walk us through in in great detail what that review process looks like, but it's not one that's documented. Um, so I believe the enhancement to the control structure here is going to be continue doing that review as it's currently performed, but to make sure it's documented so that we have a clear history. Everything has been reviewed up to X date. The next time everything's been reviewed up to this date. Um, so we have that that complete solid kind of bulletproof picture of where that expenditure has been and all of the people who
026have looked at it. Is that is that not already documented in peopleoft or is it >> um so the peopleoft is the different layers. This is actually um uh documentation that we need to add more in regards to um the individual the capital accountant that's keeping track of that since that is taking the information that was conveyed from the capital committee meeting that's held monthly. um as far as improving the decisions that got made during those monthly ma meetings documenting that kind of like minutes but it looks a little different because it's you know it's on an Excel type worksheet so better documentation with those decisions that got made and then um implementing that when um uh the different flows of the uh funding source is being applied um which happens behind the scenes within
027a chart string, that kind of thing. So, better documentation of that thought process that occurred, but more documented on on some somewhere where it's written after the fact, including the discussions and like minutes from even the committee so that you can see why she applied that because the group said something first. So, okay. >> Um, and we didn't have it more or less you could see the end result of certain things. So, we're going to look to see what kind of process we can apply to document that a little bit better, which occurs before you see it inside people's office. >> Does it But are I just want to make sure that we're not we're not doing it sounds like some extra work and some extra bureaucracy, right? Is it or is it not? Or
028is it >> Well, it it is it's almost like you need to have that documentation so you can be audited later on. And if you if you don't have that, you don't know what somebody was thinking. >> Okay? >> So, it's almost like writing when somebody goes to app a proven invoice. >> If you didn't have somebody write that on that sheet of paper, sign up, whether it was uh handwritten and then got scanned in or something. So, it's just filling in the blanks so that it can be followed in an audit trail versus this is the end result and yes, it got applied where it was. They're talking about that process in between. >> So, Mr. They are doing the steps, but just making sure we correctly document it so when it's audited, it
029can be seen. >> Great. >> Right. >> I guess as I was listening to what you said, I I just want to make sure we're not doing extra bureaucracy, it's it's not necessary, but if this is necessary bureaucracy in your professional opinions that it needs to be done for auditing purposes, that's fine. But it sounds like there was already a process in place. But apparently for auditing purposes, we need a little bit more bureaucracy. And if it's necessary, okay, >> they they need that for the audit trail to be able to see how how that occurred. So, um so we're going to look to see it. It's not it the job is being done. It's just putting it down probably a little bit better to be able to so that so that someone can follow
030up behind and know that it got applied that way. >> Some bureaucracy unfortunately. >> Yeah. >> An organization with a $1.6 billion budget and 6,200 employees. I get it. All right. Thank you. That's all I have. >> Anybody else? Okay. Thank you. >> The next item I'd like to walk through is the special review which was requested of the AAA high school construction manager at risk or affectionately known as Seymar. Um that particular review. >> Sorry. So, as you may recall, um this was something that was brought up kind of uh in addition to some of the in-flight internal audit work that was already being performed um where time was of the essence. Um so, we jumped in and took a took a look at the procurement of this specific SEAR agreement for the AAA
031high school. Our objective here, as you may recall, um was to make sure that we were in compliance with district policy and state statute specifically for the procurement process of this agreement um for the high school. And the 10,000 foot overview is right there on the first page. Um is that we did not identify any instances of non-compliance that would negate or invalidate the procurement process. Um, we did identify some areas for opportunity to improve um to make sure that we have all our basis coverage as it relates to conflicts of interest as it relates to procurement scoring and as it relates to um the language in the RFQ to make sure we're in aligned with state statute. Um going in a little bit more detail, um we'll start with uh number one on the
032results page. Thank you. Um this is related like I mentioned conf conflict of interest. Um we do recommend that the district develop procedures requiring selection committee mandatory disclosure of any potential conflicts of interest prior to participating in the selection committee. Um these procedures do exist um for proposers but do not exist the other way around. So from selection committee to potential vendors before they're being evaluated. Um the district is working on improving those procedures. Now second observation or not observation, this is results. It was a little bit different um because it it's a special review. So the second item in the results memo here um is related to the RFQ language. Um we did find that there was a directive from purchasing to provide a preliminary estimate on this work. Um however uh there are
033state stat uh state statutes 287 and 255 um which states that agencies must first identify kind of that short list of vendors that are most qualified um and that cost estimates are not to be used as part of that step in the procurement process but can be used afterwards once we have the short list. Um there was no evidence that the cost estimates that were uh requested were used as evaluative crit criteria. Um all vendors provided this information um but there was no evidence that it was used as part of the scoring um which if if it was that maybe would have changed the results a little bit but we didn't see evidence of that occurring and the intent of requesting this this estimate may have been to understand whether the short potential shortlisted vendors
034understood understood that scope of work. Um, but we do recommend that we revise the RFQ language related to procurement directives to kind of clear up any ambiguity here about why we're requesting the things that we're requesting just to to kind of make sure there's no real or perceived biases or inappropriate evaluation criteria. The third item here is related to selection committee scoring. Um, I'll be pretty brief on this one. Page six breaks down the specifics. Um but we did note that there were some slight errors in the calculation of um of the evaluative criteria for vendors. Overall the error rate was less than 1%. So the nominal ranking of rating of vendors would not have changed even after we kind of corrected for those errors. So again, not something that resulted in in a difference
035in who was awarded, but is um something that we have some recommendations on how to improve the review process of the scoring, which the district uh is working on now. >> I have a question, please. >> Question. >> Mayor, this is for you, Dr. Bzen. So, how are we how are we going to try and make sure that the the scoring issue doesn't happen again? I mean, what what what are we doing differently or what changes are we going to make? >> There's already been um changes related to the scoring. The scoring was very complicated as as you can see. Um so, just simplifying that process um as recommended by RSM. Um the team has already looked at that to uh do this for future bids. >> Okay. So, so the next time this h
036like >> is there is there will there be a verification process after it's all done? Some some outside eyes will look at it >> or maybe they did the last time. I don't know. I'm just surprised because we're very professional around here and that >> right >> that this got >> it just it's unusual. >> Right. And I will say that um right the district also had a verification process at the time >> uh that caught some of the um one of the evaluators errors. >> Okay. >> Um but then adding in an overall score. So yes, you can see that it's um small details but important details. So we'll >> we'll make sure that those are verified. >> Absolutely. >> So obviously if it if it had changed the scoring that would be that'd
037be a big problem. >> Absolutely. I I understand human beings are involved in this and no human endeavor is perfect but uh >> right >> better checks are needed for sure. Yes sir. >> Thank you. >> My question would be on uh number one conflict of interest and disclosure. Um have we never had anything in place for this? Because it sounds like we haven't. >> Mrs. spray. I can't say that we never had anything in place. I don't know that history. Um, but it certainly at the very least shows that there may be some inconsistency and so we that has uh already been from my understanding corrected. Uh, so that it is now in place. >> That's from an evaluator standpoint. Right. >> Right. Right. The evaluator standpoint. >> Absolutely. >> Right. when they're going
038through the process of looking at the different uh contractors who would get the bid. >> My wife works here or whatever. >> Right. Um Right. >> Yeah. Because I don't know if any other board members I've been to that process meeting. It's called a prototype meeting and the people who do the scoring are district employees. Um, and I don't know if we ever rotate them out or if it's the same team every time. Uh, I think I made a recommendation at one point that there should be a community member involved in that >> as well. Uh, I think that would offer uh more community involvement and offer transparency as well. Mhm. >> So, I would look at maybe adding a community member to that committee in the future um because that's the thing that stood
039out to me. The scoring it was so minor >> that it didn't raise a red flag to me. But for the um uh conflict of interest disclosure, that was the biggest thing for me. So, >> and if I may add just a little bit more color, we did do some procedures on this specific procurement to see, okay, there wasn't documentation that a conflict of interest occurred from the district side out, but we did do some procedures to see whether or not any may have existed and we didn't find any exceptions for this this particular procurement, which is good news. And the last thing I'll mention, um I know that the next report we're going through is the risk assessment, which does include um a a broader look at purchasing and vendor management, specifically competitive p
040purchasing. So the controls in which we're doing all procurements from a competitive perspective would be reviewed if that audit is is approved. >> Okay. Just for added context, >> Mr. Kennedy. >> Uh yeah, thank you, Madam Chair. Um, I just want to express I agree with you that uh that's an interesting idea to provide some additional transparency with a member of the public to join. I would just request that that person have some expertise or experience in the industry >> in construction. Yeah, >> that's the only one. And then just one other comment before we keep moving um on this um on this report specifically and I said this during the SEAC meeting. I just want to say it for the rest of the board and the public. I really appreciate the quickness with which
041this got turned around. It got kind of thrown at you. And we had to dig into the um uh unaccounted for minutes. What's the term for that again on the on on the audit plan? Um >> Unallocated. Thank you, Jim. Um and here we are sitting with this report in front of us already. So, thank you RS for getting that done so fast. So, thank you. >> There was a very quick turnaround. We appreciate that. >> My pleasure. >> Anybody else? >> Before she goes on Oh, >> go ahead. I just want to note that the millage report is not included. They are in process. They're using similar procedures to what's going on uh with the sales tax uh as far as verification of the items that are in there and it is expected to
042be at the audit committee meeting in March and then to you for approval and it will be before the deadline. >> Okay. Very well. And next up, all right, the last item that we have for you all today is the five-year risk assessment. Few things uh I'll mention to begin with starting on page three. Um this gives an overview of of what some of the key pillars are in the risk assessment process in alignment with industry frameworks. Um the there is language on this page which I do want to highlight that this document is is real time. Um it's labeled as as kind of a proposed internal audit plan because it's a living document. In subsequent pages, you'll notice that there is a five-year um internal audit plan. But of course, if we get into
043year two or year three and priorities change or there's another special request, we do have room for special requests. And if we want to move anything around then this document is meant to be agile to work with you all um and can be updated as needed. The um subsequent pages um page four lists some of the key components to have in mind for your internal audit function. Um risk assessment there on the top right. That's of course where we we're also executing components of the audit plan. Um, but also built into your internal audit function of course are follow-up over previously issued observations. So, for example, the two observations we just went through with HalfScent. Um, those are meant not to just stay in that report and die there, um, for lack of a better
044term, but it's something that we'll be following up on to make sure that if we have controls and recommendations that are being made, um, we can follow up periodically and confirm that any recommendations or if the district goes a different way to remediate that risk. We're verifying that that's been completed. Starting on page five, this walks through the risk assessment process in greater detail, starting with collecting stakeholder input. Um so of course um you may recall some of our meetings with you all. Um we also met um with district leadership and with management and process owners to understand um what are some potential difficulties or potential risks that we need to be cognizant of um that are specific to Manatee schools. Page six talks about um some further identification of risks. Um we consider risks
045from a number of different lenses. Um risks in areas where there are no controls, risks in areas where there are controls. So this page kind of talks a little bit more about that process before getting to um our risk analysis on page seven. Page seven um lists the the additional lenses that we review risk from. And I spoke to this a little bit earlier. Um, we're looking at financial materiality, um, reputational risk, of course, operational complexity. If there's many changes in an operational environment, sometimes that's, um, a good time to take a look at what those changes were. Um, compliance, of course, um, previous audit findings, audit recency. If this is an area that hasn't been audited at all in the last six years, maybe that's something that would need to be brought up a
046little bit higher on the list. kind of goes into more detail on some of those other risk categories, but just wanted to call that out before we get to page eight, which lists um the kind of first half of the five-year proposed internal audit plan. So, you'll notice in the first column on page eight, that's uh where we are now, our current fiscal year. Um halfsent sales sir tax, of course, we just walked through that that's in progress. Um mill Mr. Daniel just gave an update on that one. That's also in progress. The risk assessment is where we are now. Followup. This is something I talked briefly about earlier and it's something that would be occurring every year. But the next two internal audits on this proposed plan are maintenance work orders >> and payroll
047processing um payroll and compensation. So just to give you a very quick overview of of what those particular areas would look like, they're detailed on pages 10 and 11. But um at a high level, the review of uh payroll and compensation looks at again that control structure around benefits, salary, salary adjustments, deductions, any supplemental pay. Um looking at compliance and operating effectiveness of what that process looks like from start to finish. So from the time uh an employee is being set up in the system to the time an employee is being paid looking at the year-end pay um pay controls. And then segregation of duties of course is something that's kind of baked into all of the internal audits making sure that we have the right people performing the right functions and there is no
048overlap for real or perceived biases or for controls to be circumvented. maintenance. Like I mentioned, this is the second um remaining area for this fiscal year. And this would be taking a look at the work order system, how we're managing vendors and contracts related to maintenance, making sure that as the district grows, we have the right controls in place to that so that we can keep up with the maintenance of our current assets and facilities. Um that could be work order identification, how a need is identified, how a need is prioritized. Um the completion of a maintenance work order and the review of a maintenance work order to make sure that um we have like I mentioned the right controls in place to not just make sure that we're in compliance, but everything is being
049done in a safe and efficient way. Those are very high level overviews of what the next two internal audits are on this proposed plan. Um, as you can see, there are many internal audits for the remaining years, fiscal year 27 through 30. And these areas are proposed and as I mentioned earlier, can change if we need them to change. So, I'll pause here if there's any updates or or or questions rather. I'm happy to go through those. >> Question. >> So, the the schedule that we have here in front of us, was that developed in conjunction with the audit committee? Okay, >> we asked them to do it independently of us coming in with their professional assessments, >> right? >> Fresh set of eyes, no bias >> in in place. Uh we are required to
050do that every five years. I think they did a wonderful job. >> But uh again, no, we just said here's what we need, go do it because we did not want to uh impact or affect what they were doing and what they were seeing. We wanted it to be an independent assessment, >> right? But you all reviewed their plan and >> and we have >> gave it the thumbs up basically. >> We have somebody assigned to uh each one of these jobs from our committee. I was the one on this risk assessment and they went back and looked at several things based on what I was able to give them some history. But again, let them take it with a fresh set of eyes without me trying to color them before they looked at anything.
051Uh again with the way we try to do all of these is the reason we bring them in and with their professionalism, their experience and their independence, we get the good product. If we're trying to direct it too much, we bias what they find and uh trying to have I guess a purity to it. >> Okay, >> that's all I have. Thank you. >> Okay, Mr. Kennedy. >> No, I'm good. >> Nothing. Nothing. >> Okay. If I may, we're going to use this though. We have assigned the work. Miss Menner is going to work with them on the payroll. I'm going to work with them on the uh maintenance requests. The next one in line, I believe, is a capital program. Look, we've got uh Mr. Belga signed up to be the representative on that.
052What we do is help identify the scope, make sure they're hitting points that we're aware of. It's like I talked about, I had a historical perspective that was able to bring to them, but uh we don't just send them out there in the dark. We we do have somebody that they can talk to. That also helps us as a committee have one of the committee members having touched it through the whole process and able to keep us apprised of what was done. uh we found that that's a process that's worked several very well within this committee for the last years and uh that's where we're going. Whereas they've identified these two that are be planned to be done by June 30th, we're also looking ahead and forward planning into the next fiscal year so we
053don't just get to it stop and have to start all over again. Uh there'll be uh the items on the 27 will be looked at before we get to the end of the year. Uh, as far as timing, coordinating with the staff, making sure that there's no stumbles. As we did with the AAA report, from time to time, things come up. We do have unallocated time in our budget. If that happens, we will, of course, shift gears and and and do like we did. Uh, I authorize that on the basis of the committee even without being able to talk to the other members because of the nature and the critical need for it. uh everybody ratified it once we got together but uh we will try to be flexible, try to be quick, try to
054be responsive to your needs. >> Okay, thank you. >> That concludes my report. Unless there's any questions >> based on what from that committee meeting there was discussion on well even when they presented they represent several school districts throughout the state and based on what they've seen in their districts they kind of use that as a platform as to what need would need to be looked at over the next five years and Even on page I think it's the last page maybe page 19 is a little heat map which I liked. Yes. >> And that just kind of shows you what areas in other districts as well of not just school districts but other places that they audit. Those were the areas of highest concern. So they took those into account as to how they
055would build out our five-year u audit plan. So >> Mrs. Spray, if I may, it's really helpful to us, especially as a new superintendent, um, because they're able to to identify what I should really be looking at in terms of anything that might be a risk, but also point out what other districts might be doing really well, >> um, as helpful helpful suggestion. So, it's a great partnership all the way around >> indeed. >> Okay. The last things to note is on your meeting on the 20th, you have uh the audit report for the acter coming from the auditor general. You also have their operational audit. Those don't come out of our committee. They come directly to you from the auditor general. >> But we have looked at those uh and recommend that you do
056accept. You don't approve their work. You accept it. Recommend you do accept the audit. Uh the financial audit was clean, no adjustments. I got to give kudos to the staff. The other thing that I give kudos to the staff for is they actually write their own acter the actual report. Many other districts will hire an expert to come in from outside and yet to be able to do it and not have any significant changes other than some reclassifications, that's high praise. The other thing is on the operational audit. I think you've already heard the points on there, but they were relatively minor and and dealt with and and that again says where we've come from with all the issues back in 18 and 19 and uh to get to this point, it just really says
057a lot for the staff and what has developed within the district in that interim. And I give uh high praise to the finance team and the others involved in these processes. Thank you, Mr. Daniels. Thank you for serving on this committee as well. So, and and all the other members, they're right. They're highly engaged in that committee when uh when they meet and and uh Mr. Kennedy for the liaison and the things that he does for that. We appreciate it. >> Definitely. Thank you. >> You have a question? Go ahead. >> Uh just one more comment. I just wanted to update the board. The the integration of the former financial oversight committee and the audit committee is complete. Mrs. Harrian has jumped in from day one but Mr. D. Celestro um also joined us last
058week for his first meeting. So the whole I think for the first for the first time since we integrated the whole team was together. >> So >> and it was a very productive very engaging everyone was very engaging. So >> absolutely >> I think it was a good thing. >> Okay. Anything else? >> Thank you very much. >> Thank you very much. Appreciate it. Thank you Rachel. Okay. And then the next item on the agenda is the Greater Florida Consortium of School Boards. Um, this is the uh federal, not the state, but the federal proposal for uh legislative uh program. Uh I know everyone received that, looked at it. I kind of served on that subcommittee when that was being uh rolled out. Uh I don't think there's any issues with it from what I
059see. Uh if any of board members has any comments on that. Uh this would be on our agenda as well as the uh report from RSM will be on our agenda for the 20th to accept. But I think we're all good with that. No. Any questions on that? Okay. And next up, we are going to have discussion on our draft strategic plan. And that will be Mr. Chapman and Mr. Omar Edwards. >> Mrs. Spray, if I may. I'm sure very excited. um for their presentation and thank you both for your your time and for preparing this um but to get feedback from all the board on on how we will plan for the next strategic plan. This is a really exciting opportunity. Um so looking forward to all of your your feedback. Mr. Chapman has
060questions um at the end that I think will really um promote some really good conversation for from you all. So thank you. >> Thank you. uh Dr. Brereslin and Madam Chair and board. Uh good morning. >> Morning. >> Uh I'm joined by uh my colleague Omar Edwards who's still suffering from his uh uh old miss loss. He's got a little cold but uh you know >> loves company. >> But uh uh but Omar uh and I have been kind of tag teaming the strategic plan over over the years. And um uh I've got a couple of slides like Dr. Brereslin said and then we've got some kind of discussion points at at the end. Um this first slide uh was kind of giving you a little background about where how we got here. Um I
061started six years ago uh and I was essentially hired to build the first strategic plan uh which you'll see there uh which was a two-year plan. Um, and it was really to kind of uh it was titled Investing in Our Students, Employees, and Community. Again, it was a two-year plan, and uh it was really meant to uh seeing where the county was headed and kind of the state of where the school district was. It was it was really just to kind of get the foundations and infrastructure uh in place uh to begin uh really seeing where where this district was headed. Uh we then got hit with uh a pandemic. Uh so this plan uh kind of guided us through that. So it was actually good that it was a two-year plan and uh it
062was it was pretty successful and that led us then into the strategic plan that we are in right now which is a four-year plan uh that started in uh late 2022 and it will end and conclude at the end of June of this year of June of of 26. So, uh, it was, uh, called ready 2026. Uh and I think uh everybody that board at time uh and the school leadership at that time and the community leadership really had some very good foresight to to to really put together a four-year plan that got us to this year for that very purpose. Knowing uh of the tremendous growth this county was going to go through uh and how to set up a school district to be ready for that growth both on the operational side and
063the instructional side. So, um, uh, the table of contents I have on the next page, um, really you'll see why it was structured this way over the last four years. Uh, we really, uh, wanted to focus, uh, in a strong way on kindergarten readiness, on that ready to learn, on those early years. Um, for you all who've been here for several years, you've you've seen that, right? You've seen Dr. for helping and her team and uh many on the curriculum side build that uh all that early learning uh and and the successes of that and and it took you know as you know it takes a few years to put all that together. Uh so we've seen and then the data shows that we've seen tremendous success uh in in that area. And then let
064next was ready for life. Um, you know, one of the biggest success stories here in Manatee County is our graduation rate and how and how our our uh district team and and school principles and teachers have really worked hard to to continue to grow that graduation rate and uh Dr. Gansmir and his team growing out uh so many of the uh college and career readiness programs. Uh and you've seen that successes right here at this podium. uh um and uh that really that section we have continued to to grow uh and that was really that preparing kids for life uh and that's there's some great successes there. Uh and then that third section ready to grow uh right so next week uh we're going to have some hard hat tours of our two new elementary
065schools. We're going to you all are going to break ground on our eighth high school. Uh we've we've opened up uh a a uh our full first full-size K8. We grew Guy Harvey or not Guy Harvey Barbara Harvey. We did grow Guy Harvey, but we uh we grew uh Barb Barbara Harvey. I mean, that takes years and years of planning, right? And both on the financial side, the operational side, and that's really what that section is. uh and look at all the safety and security systems we've put in and improved. Uh really uh took the years to do that and you just heard from our audit team about our financial stability uh and passing the millillage and and doing all those things. So that's really uh those three sections have been uh really seen as
066great success in this district and uh really those six years of strategic planning got us to this point. Uh, and I think we're seeing that uh both academically and and operationally at the success level of uh uh of this district. Um, I'm going to give the microphone here to to Omar to talk a little bit about um the mission and vision and and core values which is something that Omar is really uh you know really uh cheerleads around the district around the county about our mission and vision and core values. later we'll have a discussion point on this but I'll throw it to you uh Omar. >> All right. Thank you so much again. Uh as we look at our current mission I can truly stand here and say that one of the first tasks
067I was tasked with is to really get it out there and make sure that we're well aware who we are and what we do. And whether it was PTO meetings, SAC meetings, department meetings, community meetings, we really clearly conveyed our mission to make sure that we will educate and develop our students today for their success tomorrow. We want to make sure that we care about our students past high school. We have to equip them with the tools that they're going to need to be successful, but it has to be post high school to ensure that they are successful in life. And our vision is to be an exemplary student for school system that develops lifelong learners to be globally competitive. I remind them when we do presentations that we have to ensure that our students
068are ready to compete with students outside of Manatee County. We have to be able to compete globally and we have to ensure that our students are really prepared for that. So you have our vision right here in front of you. But the essence of the plan and any plan really lies in your core values and to have academic excellence through innovation and teamwork. We share that. It's really important that we work as a team and we all work together to do that. We could not have the accomplishments that we've had without everyone working as a team uh to support our fearless leader. Uh to have professional responsibility and respect at all levels. We know that's not only going to help you in school, but it's going to help you in life. But the the greatest
069part about the core values is to have transparent communication at all levels. You just heard about our financial stability and where we are with our audit team. You know, we're fully transparent. We put it all out on our websites. We communicate and when there are issues, we take them head on and we embrace that. Do we have a perfect system? Does a perfect system exist? You know, we try hard each and every day to be the best that we can possibly be. Quality schools strengthen our community. I'm from here. I truly know that the only way that we're going to truly impact our community is to have quality schools that strengthen our community. And we need our students to stay here. We don't need our best and brightest to leave us. We need them to
070reinvest in our community. And the greatest part about what we do each and every day is our commitment and dedication to each and every student. We don't pick our students. If you walk in the door, whether you have a disability or whether you have a handicap or whether you can't read or can't write or can't speak English, we're going to embrace you the same way each and every day. Now, the current plan has gotten us to where we are. And it may take a new mission, a new vision and core values to get us to the next level because we still haven't embraced that a right now. So whatever it takes for us to get together to to help us accomplish a new mission, a new vision or core values or take part of the
071current plan that we have, what can we pull out of there that is working? Ready to life, ready to learn, ready to grow, whatever components. But at the end of the day, it's where we all work together for a common good to get us to turn the corner and be the best school district we can possibly be. >> Thanks, Omar. Um, this is uh kind of a draft timeline that uh again, this current plan ends at the end of June uh of this year. And so, uh, it would be, uh, a great goal for us, uh, as a district leadership team, as a school leadership team, and as a school board to and as a community to come together and produce a a new strategic plan by, uh, by July so that we can um,
072uh, launch that plan and all of our uh, summer leadership conferences and uh, to our school, you know, to our schools before uh, the school year begins. So, you know, July, August, it'd be great to hit that timeline. So, or hit that goal. So, this is kind of a timeline that lays that out. Um, you know, it's worked in the past. Uh, so, uh, we're going to use that again. We're in the beginning of January here. So, we're essentially kind of kicking off the process here with this workshop. uh we're going to form a uh you know whether it's called a steering committee or you know whatever we we kind of call it but that's a committee that uh is made up of uh district and school uh staff. It's made up of community and
073and business leaders uh that will uh meet periodically uh to to work on this plan uh as we move forward. Uh so we're going to start that process here in January and February. Uh start to lay out some priorities. uh I'm going to get on the next slide uh about how we're going to kind of do that and what what mechanisms we're going to use to kind of put all that together. Uh you'll see you know around that May time uh is a busy time for us with graduations and and all of that but uh you know we're we're essentially out of testing. Uh so that's a good time to start to really kind of prior prioritize and really focus uh on what uh we learned in March and April uh with a lot of
074data and meetings and um uh surveying uh and then June uh get to that final strategic plan. Obviously we'll have a couple more workshops uh with you all to to start to finalize that uh start to see what it looks like. uh like Omar said, lay out some sections, some titles, things like that. Uh and try to get it finalized around that uh June July time frame, knowing it's the summer and and all that. But that would be a great goal and then obviously spend the fall communicating that out uh to the to the community. Uh so what uh under uh Dr. Brereslin's uh approval and and leadership here. We've uh brought back a group that used to be called Battel for Kids, but that was now taken on by the uh school superintendent association,
075which is fantastic. Uh Dr. Brereslin's a member of that association as is as is probably every superintendent in in Florida. Uh wonderful group. Uh and they uh do this for a living. They helped us build our portrait of a graduate. uh and you'll see that on the on the right hand side there. Uh so really we're going to use that as our as our base as our way to develop and integrate the new strategic plan and um AASA is going to help us uh kind of facilitate the process uh of of getting to the final strategic plan. Thought exchange on the bottom there is a is a is essentially a new uh software system we've we've brought on. Uh this is uh it's probably being used by every large school district in the state of
076Florida. Uh and it's uh really a platform uh that we've always needed uh that will host the strategic plan. Uh it will then everything is then built off of that. So, uh, when we survey parents and students and staff and the community, all that data can be stored in thought exchange and it's it's then related back to the strategic plan. Uh, it's got probably the most robust uh AI component that can uh start to filter and and process a lot of things. Uh, also all our school improvement plans uh can be put in here uh and can be built off of the strategic plan. So when schools come in August and they start to build their SIP plans, their school improvement plans, um now there's a place to hold those SIP plans and that they
077through AI and through this system can be connected to the district strategic plan uh and also all of that surveying all the data and it can keep going. Thought exchange has uh the capacity to uh you could store your your school walkthrough data uh uh all kinds of data points. So Evan McCarthy is obviously very excited about this because we can really have now a place where we can start to hold our KPIs and really see that. So it's a little you know for years we've been essentially been doing it manual through through spreadsheets and things but this is now our system to that can really hold the strategic plan. You all can can see it uh and it can then relate to a lot of uh stuff not only on the operational side but
078the curriculum side. So very excited about thought exchange uh and the school super Ascendants association helping us get to that um uh to that final product. So that leads us to the final slide which is for you all to um have some discussion uh if you will the first strategic plan discussion and um uh Chair Spray I've I've just laid them out. They're numbered. they don't we don't have to go in order but those are the questions there and um uh you know really um you all have mentioned to us over over the past couple of months you know kind of some ideas um uh so really that first question I'll ask it I guess is uh what uh when you think about a new strategic plan uh you know what are your top priorities
079and maybe number two uh how many years should it cover you know should it you'll You'll see how that first plan was two years because there was a lot of work to do, a lot of structure we needed to put in and then we had that four-year plan that really brought us to where we are today. Um, some some would say that uh, you know, a four-year plan is good. Some would say that it's hard to predict three or four years from now and it it can become stale a little bit in that third or fourth year considering budgets and things that are going on that are out of our control. But um uh I'll I'll leave you with questions one and two there as you as as as you >> first I want to
080make a couple of comments about the about the uh on page three. >> Okay. >> With your three groups >> ready to learn, ready to life, ready to grow. >> Those four three categories. I think last time there were 11 >> different categories or subcategories. So I want to first say thank you for reducing that because there was just too many of those categories. And then under every category there were um gosh >> all kinds of goals. >> All kinds of right goal one, goal two, goal three. and to try to bring all of those into that one group and then to to uh bring it all to the top of the whole strategic plan. It was so difficult and so hard and and even on agenda items, you could see five different applicable >>
081categories you could have put that in. >> So, first of all, thank you for doing that part. Um, and then on page four, and I'm probably still in thunder over here because I see Mr. Tatum has the same thing I do >> is changing that vision. Mhm. >> Uh because for if I look on our website and I look at the first page, I think it is if I can get there. Um there's only one member on the board that helped develop the the strategic the form the strategic plan we're in now and that's Mr. Kennedy. All of the other board members >> have served and gone on. So I think this plan and this vision should be changed to reflect this board for the next I don't know if we're going to go to
082four or five years whatever >> but that is going to be my big ask uh for this board to start thinking about how we want this to read because it's something we own. We read this at every meeting. So start brainstorming uh different versions of what you would like that to say. I would say about the same kind of number of words uh and maybe >> we can start filtering through that process as we go. I mean it doesn't have to be done now of course but >> Right. Right. process >> start thinking about and and I remember writing that at one of our master board meetings to do that and brought it to the table and it was like oh well we were just going to talk about it not really do it but
083I understand that now more so than when I first got on the board but hopefully everyone can think about how they want to language that. >> Yeah, thank you Chair Spray and and that group and and Omar and I will will be meeting individually with each one of you obviously uh and and uh uh and then and then collectively to to >> hone in on a on on what you all feel is a is the best mission and vision and and core values. >> Five people have different >> exactly >> different vision. However, >> all five of us might use the same word and what we think should be applicable to that statement. Mhm. >> So we can pick and you know >> and we're going to have that community input, that parent input, staff
084input, >> right? Right. >> So, >> and part of the process lends itself to that to allow time to really go through the process. >> Exactly. >> Come up with the the vision. Just a point of clarification. >> Are you referring to the mission and vision or just vision? >> I the vision that the board reads. >> Okay. at every me meeting. I the mission to me would be the district and and you know the staff and >> and the community to be honest. Okay. >> And then the vision that we as board members would expect from those particular entities. >> Good. >> That's kind of where I I see it. >> I don't know. >> Yeah. >> No, I would like to change this. >> Okay. Anyone else have comments, Miss Felton? >> Um,
085with regards to the mission and vision, I I agree. I think it needs some revamping. Um, but I think it would be if we're want to get community and staff buy in on the mission, then maybe we need a mission before we have a vision. >> Um, so that we can make sure that our vision reflects their mission or we do our vision first and then they figure out the mission. So, we need to kind of figure out how we are going to do that so we're not going in opposite directions at the same time. >> Mhm. Good. Um, if that makes sense. >> Good point. >> Um, I um I I like that we have three main topics because it's a lot, but there's also 22 things listed underneath those three main topics. Um,
086which is a lot. >> Um, so, you know, when people say, "Hey, what's your, you know, what is your I'm like, uh, I got to look that up because there's a lot of things." Mhm. >> Um, so I can't keep it in my my head much, you know, much less, you know, even remember parts of it. >> Um, I don't know if there's a way to refine this and make it tighter. >> Um, you know, that's an English teacher thing. You got to make a writing tighter. Um, but, um, if if there's a way to do that, um, that would be great. And then, of course, you can always click on it and see then see your elaborations underneath of these are ideas that we are looking to implement specifically. Um, one thing that I
087noticed actually after I was elected, um, when I quit here, and I'm sure you always all remember that because you were mostly on the board, um, that was in May of of 23, I came in very publicly quit. And I had pointed out under the ready to grow the retention was not there. >> And that was and and there was a lot of us that quit that year. Um, like six English teachers in my school quit that year. Um, and that was just my department. Um, they've added in retention since then. >> Um, and I was very happy to see that that that got added in like almost right away >> um, after that meeting and that was that was great to see and I want to make sure that we do continue to focus
088on that. >> Um, we are losing teachers. They are not happy and of course a lot of this is stuff the state shoves on us that we have to shove on them. Um, so you know, we've got to we've got to make sure we keep that as a important focus. That's just something that's really important to me. Um, that we we keep our teachers happy and our staff happy. Um, you know, because we can only do so much with the the money that the state gives us. >> Um, so I I want to make sure that that continues to be like a priority. Um, >> good feedback. And I think those were really my my my biggest thing. Um, and I'm going to go ahead and throw this out there. Um, we are living in
089a contentious political environment right now and I want to make sure that we keep politics out of it. Anything that could be construed as political, we keep it out of it. Um, so many districts are are putting things in there that the public gets mad about or one side or the other or everybody, you know, I just want to make sure that nothing can be construed as political because I think our board does a really good job of trying to keep politics out of what we do every day and I just want to make sure that the district stays that way. Thank you. Well, I guess I'll go next if I may, Mr. >> Oh, sure. Go right ahead. I'm sorry. >> Um, I'll just run right through the list. What do I think? What
090are my top priorities? um we could discuss um I guess I'll handle all of it with a semi- brief statement that this as as you guys have been doing the presentation I've been kind of looking through the table of contents and um and frankly I'm in a place where I'm like I don't really think there's anything wrong here like if it ain't broke don't fix it kind of mentality. Um, I'm sure the board and the community will come up with something that's not here that we can that we can add, but I don't see anything that should be taken out or that is should not remain a focus. Um, you know, kind of like the audit kind of like the audit plan, it's a living document that could that we can change as as needs
091arise um or as circumstances change. Um, but you know, having been through a few of these, Kevin, is this your third strategic plan? >> This should be my third. >> Yeah. Um, you know, it's um, >> and I I I don't say this to be dismissive at all, but you know, we've kind of been through this. Um, and we've got a really good um, group of priorities here. Um, I mean, I I really like the plan as it is and just because it the clock is up and it's 2026 now. I don't think we have to I'm more of like let's just make some small changes. Um, keep this structure, keep this format. Um, let's hear what the community brings to us or what school district employees bring to us. But I'm I'm really very
092happy with what we have in front of us now. Um so um how comprehensive should the KPIs be? Um you know I'm kind with strategic plans I'm kind of in the school of thought where two to three years is probably three is probably the maximum two is probably ideal maybe three but um you know when in doubt less is more. um you know kind of that first one where we had 40 something probably yeah we were you know we got a little >> we got a little out over our skis there but it was okay we were you know we're coming from you know we're coming from a good place but um I like that we got to this um smaller number of things to focus on and um I don't know I mean I
093guess you you can all see where I'm going you know this is a process we we have to go through and we should go through um but I mean for the this part. I'm really I really like what we came up with, what we did with it. Um, if the state would stop moving goalposts, we probably would be an a district by now. Um, you know, because I think that's true. Like, and that because that is ultimately our our final measure of success, which the vast majority of the public probably isn't really up on the inner works in the district, but they know what our school district grade is or their or their kids school grade is, you know. Um but so please the OE stop moving the goalpost so we can um but they
094always will and we know that's going to happen and we'll just do our best to to um to achieve in the environment we're in. So um yeah, I mean that's kind of you know that's just my kind of my basic feedback as we kind of go through this process through June. I'll be happy to step in, but I just want to kind of share that like my how much I like the one that we're that we're working off now. >> Okay, Mr. Joe. Um, thanks. So, um, I'll say that I think one of the most important parts of the strategic plan is the community involvement, right? Um, because ultimately we're here because obviously we're representing the community and we're here to make sure that we're our education system is preparing our students to help our
095community, right? So I think getting the input from the community on what they want to see our students be able to do that portrait of a graduate, right? Like what what is what's the community's vision on what's a good community member when they graduate from high school, right? Um so I think that's really important and you mentioned that and and I knew I knew that was part of it. Um, before just kind of answering any of this, honestly, um, I think I don't think that there was any problem with the amount of stuff and the things that we had on there and and everything like that. I think it's two different I think there's two different versions to this strategic plan visually from a visual standpoint, right? I think you've got the overall strategic plan,
096ready to learn, ready to ready for life, ready for grow to grow, and you've got your basic couple in there that we're trying to focus on. And then you've got the one that's like down to the nitty-gritty of like how do we evaluate it? How does the staff evaluate it? And that's where you're going to get you can't sit there and say, so we like business plans and things like that. I'm been finishing one in my own like personal outside of here, right? So, like if you're going to say, "I'm going to do XYZ," you've got to explain how you're going to do XYZ. >> And so, how you do that is by subtitles underneath saying, "Well, I'm going to do this and I'm going to do that." So, the fact that we had all
097that stuff written out wasn't wrong. I just don't know if that present the like I think there should be a strategic plan like basic and a strategic plan we wouldn't say nitty-gritty but more u depth in-depth detailed how are we going to get to those steps right >> what he's saying >> and because you because you can't say we want to have 90% graduate from high school well how we want 90% of graduate from high school no like we're going to have to show steps on how we're going to get there what are we implementing what are we doing? You know, who we partnering with in the community? What what what are we doing as a as a as a district for, you know, different ways to help the graduation rate? We got to list
098how we're doing it. But I think it's it's how we present it. Like, here's here's the overall view. Here's the in-depth view. There are going to be some people that in the community like, "Oh, great. We're doing this. I don't need to see the nitty-gritty stuff. Like, I don't need to see how the sausage was made. It's fine. I'll just grill it and eat it." Right? But there are going to be some people that say, "I do want to see that sausage made." Like, how are you actually doing this? So, I think there's two different two different ways to to show it. I think you have to have the granular part. You have to have the details because that's the only way that we're going to be able to sit back eventually two or three
099years down the road and evaluate. Did we get there? Well, we didn't. Well, why not? Well, we said we were going to do A, but we didn't do A, or we didn't do it well enough or whatever. But if we don't even have A out there, we're never going to have a chance to to see that. So, I think it's two different things. I think it's how you know an in-depth and a and a 30,000 foot view one. So, where like when we're asked like what's your strategic plan? We can just rip off ready to learn, bang, ready for life, bang, ready to grow, bang, and not necessarily say, well, this is how we're going to do it. >> You know what I mean? Um, so I think that's that's just my first comment. Um,
100>> I agree with Mr. Kennedy to the point of I think we've got some really good stuff going on in our strategic plan now. I don't think we need to blow up anything and start like a brand new. >> I think we're doing some really good stuff. Um so I don't think that that for some of the priorities and stuff. We've we we kind of all said like early learning was a major priority for us and I still think that's the case. I mean I'm not speaking for everybody even at least for me. I still think that's definitely part of the case whether we're we when we move on to a new strategic plan. I definitely think that is I think for me personally um and I think it was ready and ready for life.
101Um I think we've got and and we're on the we're on the path and we've talked about changing you know beayhore and looking into adding some of the the polytechnical and the career and all that kind of stuff. I think in the education system in the last 20 plus years we have not done a very good job of off of showing our students and I'm not saying us I'm saying holistically >> of it's not just about going to college like you can go be a successful citizen human being father mother whoever whatever and you don't have to go to college right and so um and I would say that kind of turned right around like 2000 when like no kid left behind and I was in high school and it just kind like it was
102all geared towards college. So, I think we're getting there and I think we're doing the right steps, but that to me is a priority is making sure that we're showing every option, opportunity that's out there for our students, >> not just college. Um, as far as the mission, I'm just kind of going as far as the mission, vision, core values go, um, I think it's tough because I don't I don't particularly have a problem with our mission and vision and core value. I don't have a problem with any of them. I think that the mission I do agree, Miss Miss uh Spray, the mission is definitely from a holistic district level. Like what is the mission? I don't perceive I don't really have an issue with at all with what we say our mission is,
103which is to educate and develop all students today for their success tomorrow. Like I don't know what else we could say. Educate, develop, prepare. I mean, so the mission, I don't have a problem the vision. I mean, we can tweak it and do whatever we want. I don't really have a problem with that either. Um, you know, yes, we do want to be focused on lifelong learners, globally competitive. I could probably throw some stuff in there about um maybe some citizenship and and being a part of your community and things like that as well. >> Um, but I don't have a huge issue. I do think it needs to be centered around our core values though. Like if if if we're okay with our core values, our mission and vision can't be that much different
104than our core values, right? Um I think they all interlink together. um for a time for time. I think that that's something that has been asked like how long, you know, I think that that um so I I came in in the middle of on 21 and then we went through 22 to 26 and now we're here. I I think that um for a strategic plan, I think like a cycle of two to four years to where if a kid comes in, I I think about it like a like a freshman to a to a high school or even like elementary is that a little bit obviously longer, but as they go through their phases of of school, um how do we how do we transition? How do we how do we do that? I
105think five, what was this one? Four or five? >> Four. Four. for >> I I think the sweet spot is like two to three. >> Um because you should know within two or three years, hey, we we we're trying this right here, this this goal. We've done all six things underneath that we said we're going to do to get this goal and it's not working. So, we got to figure something else out. We shouldn't have to wait two more years to then change our goal from the strategic plan. I think you find I think you find out if if we're being successful or not within that two to three year range. >> Um I think for maybe a little too long. So I could see shrinking that a little bit. >> Um and then um
106yeah, other than that I that's all I got. I look forward to sitting down. I look forward to hearing what the community says. Y >> um and really kind of building it off of that of what do our stakeholders, what do our parents like, what do they want their kids to look like, right? Like mine are now gone and and done, but like what do they want their kids to look like >> in this age of what we're moving into of of of technology and different things like that. Um it's it's going to be interesting. I hope I would like to see somewhere this maybe getting like too granular right now but I would like to see something in there as I just said about technology like ready for life like I would like to
107see something in there and I don't think we necessarily have it something in there about like um like personal skills like personal like when I I mean skills of like >> techn Like talk no like just like like personality skills like talking to someone job interviews >> for ready for life right like >> can we add personal finance in >> sure we could do a lot of like personal like if we're going to be ready for life and ready for them to leave out of here >> we do have some like centered around real world skills civic involvement financial literacy arts integration so we do have that number four ready for life so so I would say that's another priority for me though is like we've got to make sure our kids are able to
108our students are able to leave here, sit in an interview, be able to talk to people, etc. Um, instead of, you know, using phones and things like that. >> This is my like old side coming out. Um, but no, that's it. That's all for now. Thank you. too. >> Well, yeah, I'll just go down these the discussion topics one by one, I guess, because that's what you're doing at this point, right? You're just kind of getting all of our opinions and you'll amalgamate >> things. My I kind of agree with the two gentlemen that everyone that's spoken, but the two gentlemen that have spoken, I'm not really upset with or have any issues with what we have here. are ready to learn, ready for life, and and ready to grow. I don't think anything's necessarily
109broken. I did I do think that the last strategic plan was too long and it was too much in there and difficult to kind of follow. some of the things that I don't see and maybe they're a little specific. I know we had to kind of focus the staff on things like transportation efficiency and stuff like that, you know, and some of some of the these are kind of high level like if you go over to let's see ready to grow I don't really I don't see anything in there about uh transportation. Is there something in there about transportation efficiency and >> help? >> Yeah, I think not. I think in probably if you if we opened up number four there on the ready to grow it, there's probably something in there. But I but
110I understand your point. You know, I think, you know, >> we can look now right at 2026 and beyond and and see uh some of the stuff Dr. Brees's working on, you know, the energy efficiency, the transportation efficiency. So we can see where there's some of these topics are the same, but there's a little more there's a it may be more specific, but it would it's going to >> help us be a better school district going going forward because essentially we're >> somewhat done building schools at the scale we were at the last four years. So, so this ready to grow section is more be maybe more ready to >> you know be more efficient or be more financially uh nimble or you know something where you could see where that could go that section
111about as budgets get tighter you know how do we start looking at you know saving money being a little more operationally uh efficient maybe something like that maybe I'm sure is going to come out of >> right >> this process I think is something you're saying >> and then and then maintaining maintaining what we have like doing a a better job I think of maintaining the infrastructure that we have because we're see you know in the time that I've been here which is three years I I've seen some we're we're like catching up on things we're not being proactive right like the problems that we have with the Lakewood Ranch high school track and the irrigation issues there and the underground piping it's like we're waiting for things to break and then we go fix
112them instead of >> trying to be more proactive >> in that area. While we're talking about it, I do know that one of the companies that does the energy management stuff also does apparently infrastructure planning and can help us, you know, if you have this type of infrastructure, here's like a proactive plan to maintain your facility. So, >> something like that. And I guess that's kind of included under under number four, but >> just making sure that we we focus on on that. >> Okay. So, let's see. One thing as far as number two, briefly discuss how many years the plan should cover. I know we're not doing it now, but I eventually think it should be basically aligned with the election cycle kind of on a two-year basis so that the new people that
113are the new boards that sit if there are, you know, if they if there's an election and there's not a lot of change over, then maybe the board can say, I like, yeah, the plan's fine. We don't need it. We don't need to make any changes. But obviously when new people are elected then they they probably have some different priorities. And one might say well that doesn't allow for long-term planning. And well to me that's just unfortunately the nature of the electoral process is that when new people are elected they're going to have some some different priorities. I kind of felt if I remember correctly the the last plan did did we have we done this since I've been on the board kind of. No we haven't. Right. So it was done >> we started
114it right when we 22. >> Yeah. Right. right when you >> right before I was elected is I think it was approved like >> I think so >> like September October when I show up and you didn't have any input on it either vote was here >> so I I've always kind of felt like this isn't my plan you know but something to think about you know >> um aligning it with with the election cycles >> number three we should should we review the mission vision and core values during the process I think we should some words that I'd like to see somewhere in our missions and our and our vision statements are are our knowledgeable, virtuous, and patriotic. Like those are some words that I'd like to see. I think that our our visions
115and our mission, it's probably a bias I have with a preference for what I would call more classically or in education, but I think we should produce. We're going to use all this public money to educate all the all of our students. They should they should be patriotic and they should have a sense of not a sense of they should be to the extent we can virtuous people. It doesn't necessarily imply any kind of mor any particular moral system. It's more in line with like the classic virtues you might say of justice, temperance, wisdom, and courage. And just, you know, you look at a lot of the failures of people in society, and a lot of them are not technical failures. A lot of them are what I would call people failures where they somehow
116people made it to the highest ranks of whatever it is that they do and then they fail when they get there. And those are almost always people problems. they're not uh technical problems that they don't know how to do their job. And the most famous one I think lately is the kiss cam, right? Where, you know, I mean, these these were two people who were at the top of their game, you know, head of HR and a CEO of a of of a pretty, you know, mid-size company and just blew it. And and you just got to wonder along the line as they went through their education and you know K through 12 and college whenever they probably had master's degrees maybe even doctorates I don't know where they they taught them how to do
117something but they didn't teach them what they ought to do. So and that's that starts really early in in children's lives forming their mindset their their virtuous mindset. So so that's that. That's number three. What metrics are important to the board members? Transportation is important to me. I guess third grade reading is important I in the sense of it's you learn to read and then you read to learn. So graduation rate is to some degree Yeah, I guess it is. What else would be an important metric to me? I mean, I wouldn't want to see us go down in school grades. I don't I don't know that getting an A rating is I mean, it'd be nice to have, but I'm always concerned about focus when you start putting these those kind of metrics out
118there and you And then are we doing the right thing? Is this really what's best for our students or are we are we shooting for the for some for some a grade or a goal or whatever? And the best example to me of that is and we do the right thing with our eighth grade math and how we we could have better math scores, right? Or we we could have better letter grades at some of our schools for math, right? But we choose to take a different road and we accelerate our eighth grade math students, right? so that they and then that hurts our nth grade math scores. But my point is if we're just I'm not really all that concerned about getting an A. Although it' be nice if we could do it that
119way because we could I mean we could do things like that, right? We could switch up that math thing and who knows that maybe give us an A like that. So um how comprehensive should the KPIs be? I think less is better in that in that situation. Less is better. the more you have to measure, more bureaucracy there is. And it seemed like before we were we we were measuring things. I don't know what we were measuring, but I know when I got here, you know, these buses aren't running on time. And as I started to get into them, like I I remember some statistics like 25% of the middle school buses were not arriving on time. At one point, I just thought, how how is that not like why is that pri not priority
120number one? Why is that not fixed? like why are we and and we got focused on it and and we're doing much better in that area, but who knows what we were focused on, but we didn't seem to be focused on some of the what I would assume would be the bigger ones. Uh I like ready to learn, ready for life, and ready to grow. I agree with Mr. Ch about some things in the ready for life area. again developing those those people skills, public speaking skills and uh going back to the idea of being being virtuous and developing those those virtues that I talked about it just pays off so so much down the road in in students life and we really have to inculcate those things into students at the earliest possible moment.
121So, you know, there was over the weekend, right? We got a an email about or a text message from Dr. Brlin about two students at a charter school who were, you know, defacing I think public property or something like that, right? You know, you just think what what's going on? How could we? And obviously sometimes it's parental responsibility and it's not necessarily the school's job to raise kids, but I always wonder in those type of situations, what could we have done as a school system to to work with students to help them understand about courage, temperance, justice, and wisdom. So, all right. If not, what themes would you like us to explore? I think I just I just talked about what I'd like us like us to explore. Patriotism, virtue, and then knowledge. If you
122if if people can combine knowledge with with virtue, that's really where you get to be a good person, right? That a good human being. And then and I just think all this public money we're spending we we should develop patriotic graduate which to me is a healthy what I mean is a healthy love for our country and our culture and that you know I heard a great quote the other day. I read a I read a quote that said we you know if you're a well educated person it if everybody else if you were like you were on an island and you were the only person left on the face of the earth you could reconstruct your culture. I thought that's good, right? Like you you would know about the economic system of your culture,
123the basics of it and the moral system and the political system and you know you you would have that a basic understanding of your language and you could reconstruct your culture from the ground up to some degree as you produce more human beings and then pass along those things from your culture to the next generation. Uh Edmund Burke said something to the effect of the present culture's mission is to take the best from what's come from our culture, put it in a format that we can then provide it to the current generation and let them then transform it on pass it on to the the generations down the road. So that that culture transmission also I think is really important. We're probably getting into more pedagogy now than we are this strategic plan. But those
124are my thoughts on that. Thanks for letting me talk about that. That's all I have, Madam Chair. Thank you. >> Thank you. >> A couple of things I from all the other comments. Um Mr. Edward said in the very beginning, we want our students to stay here, >> but yet our mission or our statement says to be globally competitive. We want them to go out into the world. Well, I'm like, I would rather promote us and keep them here. Uh to Mr. Tatum's point for the ready for life. Um, I think that's where he's trying to dive into is putting them putting a um something there that promotes us again, you know, our our culture, our values, our community, and what what they can do to support our community. As students, uh, I don't think
125we do a good job at that. Um, there are some students that do volunteer work, but there are some students that don't even know the opportunities that they can serve in a volunteer capacity. Um, whether it's for a school or for the county or for an organization. So, maybe throwing something in that I think would be good. uh as far as a plan for the two-year election cycle, I think is good. Um because he's right, when we came on the board, we took whatever was handed to us from the former board members and we didn't have a say at all. And I think we did a good job at adhering to what they had put in place. Um, but I I do believe it should go by election cycle. I mean, by by the date
126timeline that we have on here, um, that would kind of go in with it. So, the end of August, you go into end of the election cycle and by the time you're ready to do it again in two years, you'd be right back at doing it. and and a lot of this would be carried over. So it wouldn't be a groundup thing every two years and put so much stress on the planning team >> and or the community members that participate. It would be just kind of like the roll over type things that you're always going to try to achieve. And to get to an A, that is one of my goals because that sells our district to others. It sells our district to people who want to loan us money. Oh, you're an aid
127district. So, yeah, you're doing a great job and you're doing a great job with the resources that you're getting. So, um and graduation rate, you know, when I first got on the board, I think it was in uh it was lower than it is now. I'll say that. I can't remember the numbers. And the reading has improved. Everything is because of the vision the former board had, but it was this board that actually put it through. >> So, it's one of those we want to focus on early education. So, we went forward with doing things to promote early learning and it's paying off. And during my briefing, I said yesterday I went to a school and when we say we have reading coaches in our schools, they're just not there. I saw reading coach sitting
128on the floor with students with a book and teaching them and allowing them to say the words on the page, not read to them, but them read to her. And that's a huge difference in that. And we all know that if you go to a school and see that reading to a student's well, well, and good when you're trying to teach them, but you need them to read to you so you know you're getting the message across. >> So, I I kind of agree that it should be a two-year plan uh to fall in love line with the election cycle. And um and again like I said the mission and vision by everybody working through you individually like I said all of us might have the same five word that we could collectively put that
129together into a sentence. >> So that's what I have. Miss Belton you have something to add. >> I didn't actually hit most of these. I just threw out two things but then everybody was hitting everything. So I have a couple of things I want to throw out there that I thought we were going to go back and discuss but we're just doing it all at once. So, I'm just going to hit the ones I didn't hit. Um, and kind of some of it I >> We all followed We followed Charlie's lean here. >> We did. Yeah, I know. So, I'm like, so I got to come back around. Um, but I do agree pretty much with almost everything the board said. Um, I really think it should be a living document. So, if you do
130the two-year cycle, we get to like this point in the year, January, February, we've completed the election. People are sworn in. and they've gotten their feet wet and now let's see if we need revisions, what things, you know, we all talk about what we want to do during the campaign, right? So once we get there and we actually kind of see how things work, maybe give them a semester or or a quarter, give them a quarter so they actually know how it works once they're actually in the seat and they're done drinking through the fire hose. Um that that you know h what revisions do you think we need to add? what things did you see through your campaign period where you felt like change was needed. Um so if you kind of make it
131like a living document and and do a review every two years and then we if we need to like in three or four years hit it hard we need to make major changes. >> Um >> but that way everybody gets to weigh in um you're you know like four of us here didn't didn't create this plan Dr. Brereslin didn't create this plan. Um, so as we go through that, then we can >> personalize it, add our own our own heart, our own feelings to it. >> Um, if you do it like a like that, I I think would be really great. And then of course, then we don't have to reinvent the wheel. Um, as well, I do agree. I I really like what we have. I don't think it needs major revisions. Um, just
132some tightening and some tweaking. Um, you know, we we do have a lot. I mean technology has changed, the world has changed. >> Um you know people are are not having babies. We I mean for our generations sitting here the the next generations are going to be smaller. >> Yeah. >> Children are not being born at the same rate. And when they talk about you declining enrollment, well well people are not having 2.5 children anymore. They're having 1.98. We're not even producing enough children to regrow our own generations. Each generation is getting smaller right now. So, that's something else we need to keep in mind that, you know, we're not we're not growing, but we need to reinforce what we've got. >> Um, and and you know, I just want to make sure that whatever
133we we do with this, we we have a new superintendent. her her priorities are not going to be the same as whoever was sitting in that chair when the first one was done. >> Um we need to make sure that we incorporate those. So that that I think would be the biggest revisions >> is making sure that Dr. Brereslin's vision, her goals are in here because she's the one leading the charge. You know, we sit up here and we we talk a good game, but really she's got to put it together. She's got to run it. She's got to implement it. So if if it's not something that she feels is a priority, then then maybe that needs to be shuffled around. So that's really I think where the big revisions would need to be
134that it it suits the things that she's putting in place. Um so she's not implementing somebody else's vision for the district. Um um in terms of of wording, uh Richard, I'd like to throw out the word integrity. Um when I when I was a teacher, as you know, I taught high school. Um and I had a juniors my last year, but I did juniors and seniors and most of the time. And my my thing for them was was two things. One of them was integrity. Uh I had a massive flag in my classroom that said, um you know, in a world where you can be anything, be kind. >> And I I was one of the graduation speakers for class of 22, I think. Um, and that was really that was the theme of my
135my graduation speech is because you know, you know, at that time things were very contentious out in the world and and be kind. You don't know what the people around you are dealing with. You know, they may be reacting to something that's that's personally they're having a really hard time, they're struggling with something and they're reacting and try and keep those things in mind and don't react back, you know. Um, so you know, and that was a important uh lesson in my classroom and and it and we really enforced that and my kids were great. Um, and in integrity because you know, and then of course I had a poster u and we talked about it frequently about integrity is doing the right thing even when no one is looking. >> Um, and we talked
136about that a lot. And then the last thing that I I did with every single grade I taught was that you need to have a marketable skill. And I think that's something that really as a district that we need to encourage. And I would tell my kiddos, I'm like, look, I don't care what it is you want to do when you get out of here. That is your goal. What I want you to do is have a marketable skill. And you can get that in many ways. Technical school, two-year college, four-year college, any additional schooling you want to do after that. the military is a very viable option. They will train you and pay you at the same time. And if when you're done with your service, you don't have to go for life. When
137you're done with your service, you have a skill that you can take out into the world because you don't want to be, you know, ju just the the burger flipper with a bunch of teenagers when you're 40 years old. You know, you can't support a family on that. And so that marketable skill, regardless of how you get it, what educational path you choose, you need to have a path. You need to have a pathway to get there. And and so when you're looking at, you know, ready for life, those that is one of those priorities that I always had with my students >> is reinforcing that that, you know, I mean, look at my own kids. One went to four-year college, one went to technical school. And now my four-year college kid is in technical
138school. You know, um they have their own views of what they want to do with their lives and they are happy in their work and and they're paying their bills and that as a parent is what I want for my kids. That is a teacher is what I wanted for my students. Um, and I feel like that should obviously be a goal for our district is that they are a happy in their work. >> We don't want to send kids out to do a job that they hate, >> right? >> Just because they can make money. You know, we have all I'm sure all of us have been in a job that we hated. I know I have. And I made some good money, but I sure hated going to work every day. you know,
139if we can make sure they are happy in their work and they are able to provide for themselves, I think we've reached our goal of of the ready to for life. Um, so that's just something I I think that we should really keep in mind. >> Um, it it's it's just a really it's just a really important thing for me. Um because you know when I hear back from students later and they're like oh Miss Felton I'm doing this or hey I learned this in your class and now I can apply it here or you know oh I I really loved you know this program that I did at school and now I'm doing this because I took those skills from here and now I got more educ and I'm doing this now. You know
140I that to me is is hey we did our job. Okay, I can check that. I don't have to worry about that kid anymore. I know they've got a plan. They're in place. So, these are, you know, so again, it goes back to integrity, >> um kindness, and and a marketable skill. Those are those are the three things. And yes, I taught English, you know, but if I could get those other things in there, teaching English, then I feel like I did my job. And and so those are just and I feel like we can incorporate that into the learn life grow. Mhm. >> Um but you know, again with the grow, we're not really growing. We need, and I agree with Richard, we need to kind of batten down our hatches and see see
141how we can structure that um to for sustainability and and accountability. Um are they're, you know, they're talking about auditing all the school districts and that we're wasting money. I don't know how we're wasting money because they don't give us enough money to run things. and the majority of every school district's uh budget goes to salaries. So, I'm not quite sure where the waste is coming in unless they want us to fire people. Um but uh but still, I mean, but we need to be accountable. We need to show that we are doing that. You know, we need to show that we are being uh financially responsible and that we are um using our funds to the very best of our abilities. and and that I think should should fit into that that last category
142if it need it needs a little tweaking. Um, but otherwise, I mean, I agree with pretty much everything everybody said up here. >> Um, but I just want to throw out those last things that I've been thinking about. Um, and uh, yeah, but everything else I'm >> I'm on there with. >> So, thank you for giving me the opportunity to wrap that up. >> No problem. >> Thank you. The only thing I did not mention was um I know that we have an effort for manity in the middle to focus on our middle, >> but I did look under the ready for life. >> Um number eight, expand acceleration opportunities for all middle >> and high school students. >> So I'm glad to see that there. And then like on that same thing, ready to
143grow number four, civic involvement. If that were me doing that word smithing, I would put community involvement. >> I like that. >> You know, because like you said, we want them to come back here. We're just like in a profession when you start a job at one level, your entry level, you want that pipeline going forward. And we talk about that all the time. a pipeline for our district who's going to be in line for the next principal or AP then the principal and then to a district director and so on. >> We need to have that same mindset with our students that we're building a pipeline to our employers to our colleges to MTC. Uh USF is just how many is right at the end of the county line right >> right here. You
144don't even have to go to another county to get your four-year degree. And if you want to go to another country and do education, all well and good, but our pipeline should be focused on here. That's kind of my little final thought is that's our pipeline. Our students when you walk through those halls, that's our pipeline to all of our employers and professions that we need here. Lawyers, doctors, all of it, it's right here. So that would be my final thought on that. >> So >> one more thought. >> Sure. So >> this is more of a policy procedural. I know that when we look at agenda items, is it still the policy that we have to align agenda items with something on the strategic plan? And in conversations that I've had with people, let's
145say my understanding is generally the way that it works is there's something we want to do and then they come up with the agenda item, whoever comes up with it, and then then they go into the strategic plan and they go, "Well, which one of these best fits?" >> And it could all be applicable. >> And it's just something that, you know, it's up to you. It's your kind of how you run things and it's a policy. But just, you know, that's one less step of bureaucracy that if it if if you if there's a need for that, fine. But it just I don't I don't think people look at the strategic plan and go, "What could I do to support the strategic plan?" Seems to be the other way around. It's like, "Well, I
146got something I got to get done around here. I got to go find something." And that probably aligns with 2.5. Great. I'll just write that down. So, you know, take that for what it's worth. And if there's a little piece of bureaucracy we can get rid of and you know to me that would be the leaders >> the the senior leaders of the of the departments where those initiatives are coming from they should be familiar with with this ready to learn ready for life and ready to grow and if they're why did you put whatever for because it you know I think it's it helps us ready for do ready for life and I you know they should be able to explain it and it's just one little less step of bureaucracy but again that's
147up to you madam superintendent how you want to run that. So that's all. >> Thank you. I I like that idea actually. So, >> and as it relates to the timeline, like if we find that something is not working, we're not going to wait two years to figure it out. >> Our our leader is going to be on it right away. You know, Dr. Brlin would we would change and make an adjustment. So, even if it's a two-year plan, we're not going to sit and wait for two years. If we see something not working in the first year, we'll make those adjustments. And you could always bring that up to us any. >> Right. Right. >> Anything else, Mr. Chapman? Mr. Edwards? >> No, Madam Chair. Thank you. Yeah. Thank you for your feedback. Well,
148>> I do know that Miss Belton is eagerly wanting to make some comments about the fair, I guess, before we adjourn this meeting. So, go ahead. >> Thank you very much. I appreciate the opportunity. Um, so, as you all should know, um, the fair kicks off Thursday, right? Um the district uh Mr. Chapman has been very valuable in helping get this going. Uh we are partnering with the fair for the first ever media day. I've mentioned it before. We have a group of schools that are coming to participate. It's a smallish group. I think there's 12 um including Rowlette is is participating as well. And we are going to have kiddos. I'm going to be there all day on Thursday. If you get bored, come over and hang out. It starts at noon. And um
149you can find me. I'll be wearing my red jacket. And uh and we're gonna have groups of kiddos and they're going to go around and they're going to be doing video filming and and making a news report about the fair. And then they're going to enter those um at for competition. Uh I'm really excited about it. This I' I've been really involved in this as well. Um and it's it's going to be a lot of fun. There's elementary all the way up through high school coming to participate. Um, so I'm excited to see what their turnout is. Mr. Chapman and staff have helped create press passes with lanyards for all the kiddos. So they'll have their school district lanyard with their press pass on it and their name on school on it. Um, and uh,
150so it's going to be a really great thing. So that's one way in which we're getting our kids involved in the fair process. Um also, um nutrition has also um uh teamed up with some of the fair folks, the media folks for the fair and they are they're having fair food day in the cafeterias uh across the county uh I think this week and they've gotten posters from the the fair to put up in the cafeterias to help promote the fair as well. Um uh Monday is fair a free day for kids that starts at noon. Um so you know hopefully the public is aware of that. You can bring your kiddos for free. Um as well uh there are and of course all of our our student a groups are going to be there
151with their animals. Please come check them out. Dress warm. It's fair week. you know, we're going to freeze um because that's the way it is in Manatee County. Um and the cold weather is already kicking in. So, uh dress warm, but please come out, visit, you know, talk to our kids who are sitting there with their pigs in the, you know, in the 40°ree weather and and you know, give them cuddles. Um because they do that. Um and, uh a has always been really near and dear to my heart. I I covered a as a journalist and and uh you know, and and and love doing that. So, um, it's great to see our kids involved and how much love and compassion and stuff they put into raising their animals and showing them and participating
152as well. So, I just want to pl plug that. Please come out and visit the fair. Um, Mr. Edwards has has parking passes that you can get and tickets and things like that as well. Um, and uh, really that was it. So, thank you very much for the opportunity to put that out there because by the time we have our meeting next Tuesday, we're we're almost done. So, I just wanted to get that out there. >> That was it. Thanks a lot. >> All well and good. >> Yeah. >> Well, I don't think there's anything else we need to talk about. I want to thank you for the presentation. Uh to everybody that you know did presentations today, uh most of this not the strategic plan will be on our agenda uh for Tuesday on
153the 20th. So with that, go to the fair. Not only look at the animals, but look at the artwork that's in the building as well. And Mr. Edwards is manning a table at in Veterans Hall. So come by and see us there. And if you have time, go out and visit with him as well. And that's to, you know, people to apply or to get information about our district and and hopefully >> Yeah. promote our district >> and promote our district districtwide, including MTC. So, it's all going to be a good thing. And I'm so glad. >> I'm taking credit for that one because I'm the one that pushed that we did that because that's a very active building. Yeah. >> And uh I think it's a perfect spot just right next to the county.
154So, we got we're compete with them, but I think we can outshine them. >> Okay. Okay, with that this meeting is ajourned. >> Thank you madam chair.