School Board Workshop 5-12-25 (fix)

001Good morning folks and welcome to today's school board workshop and uh colleagues as usual we'll just go through every item on the agenda and if you have a question 25 kids tag art program winners presented by Mr. Ben Anderson, Okaloosa County tax collector. Then 3.2, recognition of Connley Grill of Dest Middle School, first place in the state of Florida in the Daughters of the American Revolution annual American History Essay Contest presented by Superintendent Chambers. Then section six, 6.1, Northwest Florida State College Collegiate High School, a charter school and restricted fund of Northwest Florida State College financial statements and supplemental information for the year ended June 30th, 2024 and 2023, presented by Miss Perry, chief financial officer. Then we move to section seven, consent agenda. First will be 7.1 the approval of the consent agenda. 7.2

002is the approval of the minutes of the student disciplinary hearing of April 28, 2025. Minutes of the workshop meeting of April 28, 2025. Minutes of the regular meeting of April 28, 2025. All recommended by the superintendent. 7.3 budget amendment number seven fiscal year 2425 presented by Miss Perry and recommended by the superintendent. Mr. Chairman, I have a question on that. Um sir, Miss Perry, what is our FTE reserve? Because I see some of that's coming out of our reserve. Yes, sir. After after that, I still have almost three million. I normally keep between two and a half three million. I had set aside enough money because the state had overprotected us listing for 2425. So I had set money aside in the FTE reserves and I had set money aside to pay back FE the

003family empowerment scholarships based on their projections. So between all of that we were able to cover it. Do we have a a policy in our district on the p is there a percentage of FTE reserve you try to keep or uh No, there's no policy. That's just kind of a rule of of thumb based on 20 years history, right? Okay. Yeah. Thank you. Okay. All right. So, that takes us to uh 7.4 monthly financial statements for March 25, 2025, presented by Miss Perry and recommended by the superintendent. 7.5 invoices to be approved for payment presented by Miss Perry and recommended by the superintendent. 7.6 Six, school donations presented by Miss Perry, recommended by the superintendent. Mr. Chairman, I would just like to make a um Yes, sir. Comment on that. We're up to $440,000 in

004in excess of that for the year. Yep. That's pretty impressive. Um and I these are donations over $500. So the donations that come under $500 don't even register on that. Is that correct? Yes, sir. Good point. Thank you, sir. And Dr. White. Yes, sir. Mr. Chen, if you don't mind. Yes, sir. If I go back to 7.3. 7.3. Okay. That I thought there might be some more about that. Go ahead. And based on that that question, and this is just an example when you look at our budget that comes out every year, and you'll see it in this budget as well for the next year. And then you see that we're paying back the 17.9 million. That 17.9 million comes to us. That's part of our budget. So it looks as though that's money for

005the school district when in when in actuality it is not. So this is just the example where now that 17.9 is being pulled back. And so that amount of money again that's incorporated within our budget is truly not part of our budget. That goes to the family empowerment scholarships wi-i which is what is called on the street the voucher program. Correct. Correct. I just wanted to make sure that for the the YouTube audience out there because that's a little confusing to our constituents and it's money we don't get. We just we're a pass through entity for that money. And the reality is of the number of vouchers that go out, the larger portion of those vouchers of that of students that receive it have never attended Okaloosa schools. That's a lot of money. And and

006the and I I appreciate the clarification, Superintendent, because and Mr. Heinley, too, because they they list it as it as it would show as a positive on our budget, but it's moved out. Okay. Mr. uh Mr. chambers real quick. Uh you were talking about the uh amount of students that don't actually attend Okaloosa. Do we have a number number range there? Yes. And Mr. Spolski, make sure I say this correctly or rather than making sure I say it correctly, just of that 2400 this year, how many actually were in our schools? The numbers that I looked at last week, Mr. Bryant, uh 2643 was the number that we had uh calculated. 1,888 of them did not attend our schools. So if you do rough numbers, 2,600 to,900. That's that's the difference. Um, and so Miss

007Perry, her staff, Miss Merur, my staff are looking closely at those numbers so that we can provide our superintendent and and talk to the fads leaders and to the different people who are working on on this. I will tell you briefly and then sit down, sir, that we had a phone call last week um with someone from Florida Department of Education who is starting to create a form now to um hold people accountable to this. Yeah, I think there's legislation out there that will require them to uh if you do take a voucher to have to fill out that form and we we'll be able to kind of keep track of where or they will be able to keep track the whole state. Yes, sir. Yes. And to add to yours, Mr. Bryant, and I'll

008just speak for me, you know, I'm I'm I'm all for parental choice and that they can make the decisions that they would like for their children, but one of the things that we've asked is for the family empowerment scholarship dollars to not be a part of the FFP, to not be a part of that formula. When you look at 1,800 students that never attended Okaloosa, which means that they were either homeschooled or private already, and then they get is it 9,000 Julie? Approximately 9,000. So 1,800* 9,000 is 16.2 million. So I'll just stop there. And but for clarification, when we give that money back, where are we sending that money to? at 17 point something. It never it never actually came to us. We just reduced the budget. Yeah. So I agree with you. Don't

009even just keep us out of it. But that's how they show the increase. Yeah. I mean because it makes them look good. Yeah. But it's it's a detriment to us. Right. Chairman, can I jump back just to Mr. Dest to um the donations? Um Mr. Heinley hit it. Uh 440,000 is a lot and we are we've still got uh a little bit of time left in the fiscal year. It's really remarkable how how much this uh community really does put its arms around our schools. And you, we all know how difficult it is to try to make our budgets balanced. Uh especially in an environment where we're constantly uh making sure trying to make sure that the legislature looks after us and all of our all of the the state's children. But uh these parent

010teacher student associations are vital at every single one of the schools and some of the schools don't have them. But I just wanted to do a personal shout out to the Dest Middle School. Um so we had $48,000. Well, uh, donated this time and, uh, 46,000 of it came from basically the PTO over at Destined Middle trying to get them clear touches, which is what we're trying to do all the time. And so to have partners like that is pretty pretty special. And I don't know if they're going to get the kudos they deserve, but I just wanted to put a little footnote on that to say how much I know I personally, and I know you guys probably do, too, uh, their efforts to to help us get the students the resources that they

011need. Y, Mr. Mr. Des, I'd like to I agree with your intent totally, but I want to change your verbiage a little bit. It's not the state's children, it's the children in the state. All right. Okay. So, moving on now to 7.7, uh, ITB25-06, chemicals for cooling towers, presented by Mr. Windom and recommended by the superintendent. 7.8, 8 exempted purchase over 50,000 to HMH Education Company presented by Mr. Windham and recommended by the superintendent. 7.9 Exempted purchase over 50,000 curriculum associates presented by Mr. Windham and recommended by the superintendent. 7.10 Amendment to service agreement number 25-42 Savis Learning Company presented by Mr. Windom and recommended by the superintendent. 7.11 agreement between the school board of Okaloosa County and Aramark Education Services to provide services related to the award of RFP25-01 school food service management operations

012presented by Mr. Wendham and recommended by the superintendent. Dr. White, can I ask uh Mr. Meyer a quick question regarding this? Uh I know we still have a few employees within within food services that are still employees of the school district. The uh transition from nutrition group to Aramark, are all those employees going to be offered jobs basically to stay? Is that how the transition's going to be? So if they're district employees, they'll remain district employees. If they're uh TNG employees, uh this week uh and the first week of June, Aramark is here with their HR department. Okay. and then we'll be rolling that information out for those employees uh to to come on board with Airmark. Okay. All right. Thank you. And while you're there, Mr. Meyer, this is a one-year contract renewable every

013for four years. Is Ben here? That is correct. Yes, sir. All right. Thank you. All right. 7.12. Uh self-help project purchase and install a new play structure at Edge Elementary presented by Dr. Smith and recommended by the superintendent. 7.13 Carl Perkins postsecary entitlement grant for the 2526 school year by Mr. John Williams director Okaloosa Technical College and recommended by the superintendent. 7.14 Florida Postsecary Comprehensive Transition Program Okaloosa upgra for a three-year period presented by Mr. John Williams, Okaloosa Technical College, and recommended by the superintendent. And Dr. White, if you don't mind, this this is a this is a special program. Mr. Williams, come forward really quickly. Welcome, Mr. Williams. And just do do us a favor. Give a brief uh description of this uh program. Sure. This is Okaloosa UP. It stands for unique professionals.

014So, uh, it is a a federally started federally grant that flows through the state of Florida at the University of Central Florida for persons with with disabilities. Uh, that that terminology is now unique ability students. Uh, and so these students are adults. They have to have graduated from high school. In most cases, they've graduated in county from varying exceptionality programs throughout our district. And now all the way until just like our traditional adults there at OTC, they might be 40, 50 year old, you know, adult students with unique abilities that are just seeking employment and the dignity of a great job. And so we're able to provide that to them. In the past, those students still came to our college, but we weren't necessarily able to provide them the services and support. This grant provides

015all of that support, and they do so very well. the dollars for that program are pretty substantial and pay for all of the staff. Uh it also has a companion grant that pays for the students to go to school. So they actually earn just like they would uh earning PEL dollars to go to school and um they meet with our industry partners. We just were over at uh JoJo's Coffee and Goodness the other day and trying to get some opportunities for them to hire our students. So it's a great opportunity and this is the three-year renewal. So we've already been through three good years with this program. Good. Excellent. Great. And you also have a graduation coming up too, correct? We do. Yeah, we we we graduate them each semester like we do some of

016our other programs. So, this is a pretty high heavy graduating class for that program. There'll be several. Yeah. Awesome. Awesome. So, while you're there, um if I could, Mr. Chairman. Um Yes, sir. Uh so, 713, 714, 716. These are all the grants coming from federal and state into us and we're send them right back out to all the all all three of those items. They are uh 716 is is uh I believe is a secondary program with Miss Beasley, but uh it's similar to our postsecondary grant. So there are two different ones for the Carl Perkins uh grant. One for secondary, one for postsecary. and and you're one who specifically uh has some federal money coming in and those are guaranteed in in case there's some cuts at the federal level. I mean the ones

017that you've signed up that money is coming in. That's my understanding is those are guaranteed. Now it doesn't uh necessarily mean that there aren't some parameters uh you know um there's various metrics that we have to meet to access those dollars. So um in in my case in postsecary there's sometimes some things that we have to uh to show in terms of placement uh for students those kinds of things. So uh it it is guaranteed money but with conditions you know and we got to meet it. Yeah there's the advisory panel component. Correct Mr. Williams? Correct. Correct. So, uh, I've known John since high school when we were both at Fort Walton and we've been friends ever since. And, uh, he he got me before even I I I, uh, knew I was interested in

018running for school board and got the restaurants and and, um, the, uh, the ice cream shop involved in the advisory component of Okaloosa up where we we go in uh, about year every year and review the the program, make sure that uh, they're meeting all of their their metrics. And I can't say enough good things. Those kids are remarkable. But yeah, there are hoops that you got to jump through and but I I couldn't be more thrilled that we have this in in Oka County and to even be affiliated at the level I'm at. I just I love going to those things. Those kids are awesome. Very good. Thank you, Mr. William. And also to your question dealing with the federal dollars and not all I don't believe all the federal dollars have flowed in

019yet but there are federal dollars that have already started to flow in for next year's budget such as title one as well. That's good. All right. 7.15 IT seat management outsourcing agreement contract modification change order number one presented by Mr. and recommended by the superintendent for approval. 7.16 Carl Perkins Secondary Entitlement Grant for fiscal year 2526 presented by Miss Jennifer Beasley, program director, CTE, and recommended by the superintendent for approval. All right, that takes us through the consent and moves us into section 8, superintendent's human resources recommendations. 8.1 information only employees on admin leave presented by Dr. Hail 8.2 information only deferred retirement option program presented by Dr. Hail and then 8.3 out of field report for the 2425 school year presented by Miss Duron and recommended by the superintendent for approval. 8.4 Department staffing

020restructure curriculum presented by Dr. Hail and recommended by the superintendent for approval. I have a question on that one there, Mr. Chairman. So, I saw in there that the the retiring um specialist 20% of the funding was title 9 funding um and the director coming in to replace that. Is there not title n funding for that? Do we have any? No, sir. No. Okay. Just curious. Okay. Anything further on that one? All right. Yes. Excuse me. I'm sorry. I just want to make for clarification for for the public that we're not creating any new positions. This is just shifting around some people and as we mentioned, we have an employee retiring and allows us to make that change. So, it'll be a new position for the next year offset by a position that's already there,

021right? There'll be no impact to this year's budget. It'll be a part of next year's budget. And this does what we've done in the past. It allows us to have someone in place with your approval so they can start hit the ground running in June. If there's any cause and effects of dominoes, it allows uh that to be in place as well. But in essence, it allows us to hit the ground running and get going in in June. Right. Is the actual savings over three grand. Yes, sir. All right. Very good. All right. 8.5 employment separations presented by Dr. Dr. Hail and recommended by the superintendent. 8.6 Personnel Recommendations presented by Dr. Hail and recommended by the superintendent. 8.7 employee transfers presented by Dr. Hail and recommended by the superintendent. And then 8.8 employee suspension

022presented by Dr. Hail and recommended by the superintendent. 8.9 reinstatement reimbursement of sick leave due to line of duty illness injury medical examination presented by Dr. Hail and recommended by the superintendent. And then 8.10 leave without pay presented by Dr. Hail and recommended by the superintendent. No items on discussion at this time. Section 10 construction program owners representatives business and 10.1 is a report. Sir, Mr. Heinley, we will have our construction meeting today at 11:00 a.m. and we will report tonight in the regular meeting. All right. Very good. Thank you. Remember that 10.2 2 and 10.3 are deleted. And that brings us to section 11, our attorney. Your business, sir. Well, it Mr. Chairman, I need to u schedule an attorney client meeting with the board prior to the next workshop on May the 27th

023at 8:15 a.m. And that is to uh review a matter of pending litigation, which is case number 2023, CA1313. It's FSBIT claim number AL 46056087. All right. Thank you, sir. Anything else? That was 8:15. 8:15 on May the 27th. You keep creeping earlier and earlier for us. Well, we have a disciplinary hearing at 8:30 that same morning. Oh, I got you. Okay. Okay. Same thing. Might as well be at 7. Y'all don't forget school some places starts at 7. Oo. All right. Anything else, Mr. Attorney? No, sir. Thank you. All right. Superintendent's business. Out of state student field trip request and then anything else you might have today, sir. Thank you, Dr. White. Schoolboard. I have a few uh announcements and then a uh an update from transportation and then an update from our communications

024department as well. Just want to give a reminder to the school board and to those who may be watching. It's graduation season. We actually kick off our school districtrun schools on Friday, May 16th with Richburg and then we conclude on the 23rd with Crestview and Fort Walton Beach High School. So, as you know, very exciting time for our seniors and their families and the schools. This uh afternoon at 4, we have our take stock and children um ceremony. That's always a great ceremony for those students to be awarded a full scholarship for two years. So, that's exciting. And then tomorrow, one of the best events that we have in the school district, our Cox Inspirational Student Hero Awards, seeing how students have overcome and that's a uh that one at times can be a little

025bit of a tearjerker. I just want to thank our school board and our students on the student roundt discussions. So, we have finished uh our roundt discussions with all the high schools and uh I'll just speak for myself. I thought they were extremely um enlightening. I say all the time that you know sometimes it's almost a a catchphrase that people say sometimes that if today's youth, if they're going to be our leaders, we're in trouble. I'd say if today's youth, if they're our leaders, we're in great hands. So, uh, I couldn't have been more impressed with their demeanor, how well spoken they were, um, their dress in terms of how they showed up. Um, pieces that they brought up from budget to school start times to extracurriculars. Um, for students to bring up budget and

026have a an interest in it and how things are funded, I thought was pretty incredible. how they brought up facilities um and understanding of the halfsent sales tax and then learning more about capital budgets I thought was impressive. So again I just appreciate our high schools for setting that up for us and I appreciate the students and then each of you uh being there and um again I I always like to say how many years ago was it Mr. handshake when you when you when you whispered that. Um it was during CO. So it was that first uh spring that we were in the COVID mode. So what was that 20? So going five five or six times we've done I'd like to I know that you had excuse me Miss Card take some notes.

027I'd be very interested and I maybe other board in knowing maybe a list of the 10 or 12 items and how it compares to whether it's in the a school in the north end versus middle you know just I I have a feeling the topics are very similar regardless of where they are in the district but um at some time when it's convenient I'd love to see that comp compiled list of the overall general topics that the students came up with absolutely so Katherine and Hillary diligently certainly took uh notes during that time. Friday was our last school uh with with Niceville. So, we we'll get that uh compiled and we make sure that we'll get uh each of you a copy of of those notes. Be excited. Thank you. Thank you, sir. Also, just

028want to uh share with the board. I think as you know, student testing is well underway. We have some grade levels that have uh I should say some schools within grade levels that have fully tested. Uh but no one is completely done yet, but a lot of testing um has occurred. We are uh the the beauty of the testing now is you can track it along the way. So Joe Pete is tracking um data every day. So it's um it's fun to watch. Okay. So so more more more to come on that. I do want to say with the the budget, this is a probably his I'll use the word historic and uh and I could be wrong, but I think this is a historic budget season as the uh governor, the House, and the

029Senate look to um end this session right now in terms of where we are is um couple things. And I'm just going to kind of look at this and read it because it's changed. It was supposed to come back uh today and then end on June 6th. And usually it takes 8 to 10 days to formulate a budget, but some of that is changing. So right now um the final budget, it's not necessarily ready uh for consideration at this time and I think there are some conversations between the House Speaker and the Senate President. So, where it was supposed to be done by June 6, which is still the goal of the Senate, I think the House has said that this could go all the way to June 30th. So, you think about that. School

030districts across the uh the the state, and I'm not going to say that's 67 out of 67, but of course, you know, they get their staffing patterns out there so HR can do their piece, finance can do their piece, and of course, those schools can be prepared for the start of school. If nothing happened until June 30th, schools would be in an interesting um race to start the 2526 school year. Um very happy for the work that Julie and our senior staff has done to look at where the current proposed budgets are and to be able to be prepared for the upcoming school year. As you know, across the state, there's some school districts that have already started negotiating. Um we were prepared to start at the beginning of June and we'll have to see

031where that where that lies but uh things are in flux but I have confidence that uh well we'll get all this together. I have a question please. Yes ma'am. All right. Do we not have a timeline that we I know generally our board approves um our budget in um we have a July and the last board meeting in July you so I'm sure the state has a uh deadline that we have to do that right and what is that please so the state's deadline for the next year's budget in essence would be June 30th but I mean you know how we continue to go through and then we do the final Um we must have a deadline that we have to submit that to the state what we're doing. Yes, ma'am. Yes, ma'am. The um

032the state is supposed to we're supposed to we have to do the preliminary and tenative budget at that end of July meeting, but that means we have to be able to advertise the budget even before that. So around the middle of July, we've got to start hitting all of our deadlines for trim and everything, the Truth and Mill Act. So, I just want to make a statement that while this board and this district has to meet those um we have to meet those deadlines, I just want the public to know that if they move this out to June 30th, what position it puts us in in truly knowing how to make a budget for our school district. So, I I just I'm just going to state that out that uh uh I think it's uh

033ridiculous that they hold us off this much. It puts us in a lot of uh turmoil. And I just want it publicly known that this is not anything that's our district or this board that we're ready and we're going and as you said, superintendent and as always happened, this board and this district will do what we can with what we have to get school ready and going. We always have. We always will. But I think the public needs to know because it may not come out in the general media the position this is putting us in. And if I could just follow up, Mr. Vek, and and and certainly I concur with your statements and uh I'd just like to express appreciation to the superintendent and his staff because uh in light of not having

034those budget numbers, you are preparing a budget anyway. Yes, sir. so that we can do business. And uh I know that uh you uh are looking at some of the forecast for the state budget and uh I appreciate your efforts in preparing a conservative budget and anticipation of uh what what may prevail in Tallahassee that will affect us. And uh I appreciate your forthrightness on that. I appreciate your phone calls in sharing that information. and superintendent, I appreciate you directing your staff to to produce that budget. I'll just say though, you may want to have one or two others in pencil somewhere else because uh whenever Tallahassee whenever they meet, well, we we just don't know what what will come out of it. But thank you for doing what you've done. Thank you. Seems like

035the longer they take to meet, the less we get. And I would say, Dr. White to your point and the board knows we've been working on this budget for months. Um I think we were at a point where we thought we were at a where we thought maybe the budget would be and I think some adjustments have been made. So therefore we've adjusted accordingly. And to your point, in terms of if there are any adjustments going forward as we get to June 6th or June 30th, um we do have uh other lists of items to be prepared. But right now, I'm I'm proud of our senior staff finance also working with schools on different topics to get some input as well. Um to be in the spot where we are right now. This is a

036difficult budget season. Yep. All right. Anything else, sir? Yes. Okay. Sunspra. Yes. Sunspra silver award in digital media and publications. But now that I'm reading that, that does not sound for Sunspruck. Sun, Sunshine State School Public Relations Association. So, basically kind of leading to uh what we do for on the communication side, as you know, we had the annual report that we prepared last year. So, as you know, Bit Wizards uh partnered with us. Bit Wizards won an award for that publication. And now on the school related side, uh we we won a silver award on that. So, Mrs. card was there to um to receive that uh recognition on behalf of our school district as you know she led that venture. Uh we also had Mrs. Demurs who plays a strong role in that

037getting all the pictures and all the animations and then Miss Card working with district staff and others and bit wizards to get all that together. So, that's a great um recognition for our communications department and for the school district and she did and they did such a good job they're preparing this year's annual report right now that will be going to bit wizards in terms of uh highlighting all the things that happened this school year. So, just appreciate uh the work of everybody involved in that. And then the last thing that I want to say is I want uh Mr. Meyer to come up. So, transportation, I take the school board back to about 5 years ago. We had the oldest bus fleet in the state of Florida. And uh I used to say we

038didn't want to be number one in that. And so, uh Mr. Meyer's been over that department for a good amount of time. As you know, Mr. Gore has now stepped into the role of leading transportation specifically, but uh wanted to give an update to the board so you can kind of see where we are in multiple fronts, not just school buses. Thank you, Mr. Chambers. Dr. Dwight board members, good morning. Morning. Um, so we felt like with the last few weeks of school uh and and approaching into summer, this would be a good time to to give you some updates with transportation and Mr. Gore has done a fantastic job stepping in. You know, Mr. McGinness was running that department for a long time and Mr. Gore's been on his own for second semester here.

039uh and not only taking on a large department that on a daily basis there's so many things going on getting our school uh to our schools our kids safely and efficiently. Um not only is that a task, he also has made a transition from our old software which that company was going out of business. So now we had to incorporate a new software routing system in about 6 months which usually takes about a year to do. But that training's been going on and his staff's doing a great job and he's leading that department uh very well. Um we wanted to give you updates on we're going to continue to push to hire drivers. We need drivers in the district. It's important. Um not only uh is that a push, he's also looking at new new

040ways of doing things with um a reservation system that is in place and is probably going to roll out today. Uh so he'll he'll go over that. Um, but a lot a lot of good things going on in transportation. U and we felt like today was a good time to to address that. So, I'm going to turn it over to Mr. Gore and I'll step in occasionally, but uh he has the details. Welcome, Mr. Dore. Good morning. How are y'all? We're good. Thank you. I'm have to buy Mr. Meyer lunch after that intro. So, I I appreciate uh the opportunity just to take a few minutes this morning and um highlight some of the positives in the department. Um discuss some challenges and then also just offer a preview of where we're trying to move

041as a department as a whole. Um I've I've enjoyed uh the past eight months. I've learned a lot. Uh Mr. McKennis, my prede predecessor, taught me a lot. Um but we have a great team down there. So, just want to highlight um where we're headed. So, I always like to start with the positive. As Mr. Chambers alluded to, uh we've made great strides in updating our fleet. So, just some general numbers. In our entire fleet, we have 224 buses. Approximately every day there's 151 on the road. That's our primary fleet. We hold about 73 in reserve um in case there are breakdowns, accidents, um inspections. We have to bring our buses in every 30 days uh to inspect them, make sure they're uh roadw worthy, and we document that for the state. So, when those

042come in for inspection, we put a reserve bus out there on the road um while it's in the shop. Um as you can see, the north end um is obviously our biggest with 101 buses. our primary fleet. We have eight have 80. We still have three that are non-airconditioned buses in the primary fleet. We hope to alleviate that with this next bus order. But what we do to offset that is we look at route distance. And so we try to find the shortest routes. Um I believe one is Bob Sykes, Davidson, and maybe another Bob Sykes route. Um but we we condense those routes so students are not on the bus for extended periods of times without AC. Um, Niceville, you can see we have 51 buses and the south end we have 72. And

043as you can see, since 2021, um, we have ordered over 100 buses and they have been delivered as well. All right. Now, some of the challenges, uh, staffing, um, it is a challenge for us. Um, as you can see, um, we still are dealing with a with a shortage of drivers. Um, obviously that was triggered, um, with the COVID pandemic. So, we're still struggling to get back back on par with that. Um, Crest View, and I have to forgive my eyesight. I overestimate my youth. Um, so we have 57 drivers up in Crest View. So, currently we have seven routes that are not filled. And so, what we do, um, and in collaboration with the union, which we appreciate them working with us, we do have 20 non non-transportation personnel driving. So, you're talking about

044football coaches, um, regular coaches, teachers, they step in and fill those gaps for us. Um, but with those 20 additional personnel, we're still seven drivers short. And that's if we're fully staffed. Okay? So, where it can get a little hairy in the mornings is if you're seven routes short with everybody showing up to work and then at 4:30 in the morning, somebody calls in sick, you know, somebody has a car breakdown. where um that can cause a domino effect on some routes and trying to build it while you drive it almost to borrow the borrow a little metaphor. Uh so Niceville we have 23 drivers uh we currently have eight routes that are currently not filled and then for wall we have 34 drivers with seven um currently not filled. So again the effects what

045we do to offset that is we'll consolidate routes. Um you may hear the term double run. That's kind of the dreaded term um where a bus has to go out and do a run, come back to the school and pick up a second run. That typically happens when we are short staffed and we have multiple folks calling out. Um a lot of times I'll go cover the phone in an office, whoever's hurting the most. Um because we may have all office personnel out driving, so that way we have phone coverage um and communication with parents. Dr. White, I have a question for Mr. regarding uh transportation itself as far as the bus routes. Uh so, you know, you talked about double fill and you know, double runs and things like that. Uh the three buses

046that didn't have air conditioning, uh typically less than 30 minutes. So, what's about the average time for a route to say? It's going to vary by by geographic zone. Um I I would say when you get into Crest View, you're probably looking about 45 minutes to an hour. Um, now if you're ranging out to the county line, depending on traffic, of course, um, everybody that has driven through Crest View at 3:00 in the afternoon knows it can get a little dicey. Uh, but we try to keep them around 45 minutes hour max. So, and Mr. Gore, you you may uh be covering this shortly, but uh I don't know that. So, um, does this, uh, new software provide for parent notification or is there some mechanism that we use to do that? Dr. White's still

047in my thunder. He's always Okay, sorry. But short answer is yes, but I'll elaborate a little. When you said double run and I saw all those buses, I was just thinking, well, we got to be able to tell those folks. So, so currently, just to address that briefly, we do have software called bus bulletin. that we can send out notifications to parents and schools. The downside to that is they have to voluntarily go sign up for that. Okay. And so part of an initiative is we've transitioned to Thrillshare. Okay. Um so we will not be renewing Bus Bullet the next year. Okay. We're going to use Thrillshare which we can notify parents on a um if their student is assigned to a route. Okay. We can push that notification out to them via phone call

048and text. Okay. Good. And so if their contact information is in focus, which it is, they're going to get that notification. They do not have to sign up. Okay. So now we can hit all of them in one time. That's right. Thank you. And just for the board, the thrill share that that's the callout system. That's the text system. So now it's just it's a part of that as opposed to a separate entity. Good. Good. All right. Good job. So some of the effects of staffing just we have consolidated routes which can lead to longer run times. um you may have one and a half routes on a bus versus just the one. Um we do stagger shifts in the office. So our our coverage, we have folks coming on site um 4:30 in the

049morning and they're there till about 5:30 in the afternoon till our buses get back. Um that's to ensure um communication with parents. If there's an issue, mechanical issue with the bus, we have folks on site to help get it going or get a reserve bus up if we need to. Uh and I'll highlight it is a true team effort. Um it takes everybody rode in the same direction. It's a big operation to move, you know, 13 to 15,000 students in a small window of time. Um you know, not to say there are not days are not issues. Um but I will say everybody has that can do attitude. And so um without them, we would be in in much worse shape. So and to that point, so you go up to a bus barn and

050you'll see the secretary personnel and there answering phones and doing their business. You see the route coordinators leading what's going on. You walk out, you see the mechanics. You walk out, you see bus drivers coming. And it's just um when you say the team effort, it's just amazing to see all of those different uh pieces working together. Many times we think of bus drivers, but there's so many uh folks who are part of transportation being successful. And um just wanted to share that. So, in terms of trying to attract new new personnel and we think about just drivers and that they are very critical, but also bus assistants, um mechanics, things of that nature. So, we're trying to get out in the community a little bit more, be a little more visual. Um so, there's

051some community events this year and actually they some of the drivers approached me and said, "Hey, we'd love to get in some of these, you know, community parades and there's an event called Touch a Truck." So, we try to become visible in the community. um we'll take information about working for the school district when we go out there. Um just information on the department. So we're trying to have a more um a bigger presence in the community. Um obviously job fairs, we we attend those. Um we've coordinated with our communications department on a few social media posts. Um we do have uh sign on bonuses and attendance bonuses. Um, and I guess attendance is more of a retention criteria, but um, so we are having some internal discussions about rebranding some of our advertisements. Um,

052I've got I'm not a great designer. So um, I'm having some folks that have a more creative mind taking a look at that, but we are working on rebranding for next year and over the summer. Um, obviously over the summer we have we'll have more of a hiring walk-in and so timing of that's kind of critical when we start making that push. So, m Mr. Gore, what's the current sign on bonus? Uh, it's 2400 if you uh if we don't need to train you at all. So, if you come in with your CDL and we pay that out in increments. So, we don't want to give somebody $2,400 and they they walk out in a month. So, right. So, right. Uh, in terms of retaining um our current personnel, um, so we we try to

053collaborate with our our union counterparts, Miss Appleberg, Mr. Strong. Um, Mr. strong and I we try to talk fairly fairly regular. I consider them positives. We always try to have a good uh problem solving mentality. Um monthly we try to meet with our local um site reps just to kind of gauge the temperature. Um see if there are any issues that we need to work on to try to improve the work environment. Um you know I I'll say if we cannot pay them significantly more, we try to make the work environment better um and support them when we find an issue. we we try to jump on it quickly um so a minor issue doesn't become a big issue. Um our ESSE department we collaborate um Miss Ar's department, Miss Mlan is very supportive um

054when we have issues with students on buses and they're there are some wild ones. Um they're quick to respond to offer support for the drivers um because they they can get frustrated when students are um you know acting in a unruly manner. So giving us strategies and ways to help um provide better supports to those folks out on the road. This is just a visual. Um I thought it was interesting when I was looking at the number of buses. Um so if um you happen to hear calls about why are the buses late or why can't we get a a bus for a field trip on this day in this time. As you can see, historically, this is a six-year look at the historical number of buses that we've had on the road in Oklusa

055County. So, from 2018-19, we had 199 approximately, and we're now down to 151. So, you've seen a reduction of about 48 buses on the road over that span of time. Mr. Gore, is that just because people are choosing not to ride the bus or just because we don't have enough bus drivers? I mean it's gonna be so if you look at 201920 um you can see that was the co year and I think that was a a big impetus for um when we lost quite a few and so what we consider full staff is in past practice we would have two to three drivers come in in the morning and we call them subd drivers. So if somebody called out sick, somebody um had a breakdown, whatever, we had a reserve driver that could go

056run that route, you know, and so you've seen a combination of um just fewer folks wanted to drive and the retention of drivers. I think the drive driver workforce, the age um a lot of them are entering retirement age and so we're working to replenish that supply. So let me comment on this. This is an important slide because we have those bus drivers budgeted for. So if we could hire the additional bus drivers, we would add those routes. So it's significant for parents and the schools to understand. Um that's drastic in that amount of time. So we we would hire the drivers if we had them. Do we know, Mr. Gore, I'm going to jump back to the previous slide. What are we paying per hour for bus drivers? So 1687 if I remember off

057the top of my head. Is that correct Patrick? I'm trying to remember 1687 off the top of my head. So which and Oh, go ahead. Which uh also uh we'd have to throw in the benefits there too. So that would probably that is correct. Some sometimes it is hard to compare hourly wage. Um sometimes it is apple to oranges across districts. Sure. So I'm always hesitant to talk about you know hourly rate and sure you know um I mean I I have my personal u personal opinion on that. So I will reserve that for for another time. So well my my challenge when I was running for this office was a lot of folks approached me and said you know the kids are on the buses for too long. We need more bus drivers. We

058need more bus drivers. And so you know you start digging into the issue and you find out there are a lot of it reasons why we're struggling. portion of it is we also have to recruit in an environment where Walton County pays them more. And I understand why Walton County is able to do that because we have an apple and they have an orange from the amount of students and the size of what we collect. Um so the slice for for uh advalorum every year. So they're able to spread out more money across fewer kids. So we're fighting that to a degree. Um, so that kind of puts us in a bind on how do we really throw more money at the problem if that's really gonna I also got the understanding that the environment

059on the school buses can be very very challenging for these drivers cuz not only are you driving that big giant piece of heavy equipment down the road, the disciplinary problems that the teachers talk about in their classrooms are perhaps amplified even more with a group full of kids and and they got earbuds in and they're not listening and you're trying to keep everybody safe, you know. So, I I wonder if there is any room for improvement um from a policy standpoint for this board to be able to intervene to give more power if there is something we're not doing to make the environment on that school bus a little bit better so that if we can't pay them more, at least these drivers understand that they can they're not going to just go into an

060absolute zoo every single day and then like, "Listen, hey, listen. can't referee any of this stuff because we're worried about X, Y, and Z. That's just sort of the environment and I get that is more than probably uh in your Bailey Wick, but it's something I I hit three or four different times during the election cycle. And since we're on the topic, I was just going to bring it up. No, absolutely. And and some of the conversations I have, and I think you hit the nail on the head with drivers, um and and certain routes are more challenging than others. Okay. and having the the school background versus this side of the house. Um I'll say at a school you have an advantage of you have some more support systems there. Um you have a

061little more real estate to work with. Um you're not trying to drive. Um so it does you are out on an island literally sometimes. Um if you're out at the county line and you have a situation we're we're coming but it may take us 30 minutes to get there or the help is on the way. Right. And so, um, I've been dealing with those on a kind of a case by case, school by school basis. Sure. Um, and and working with administrators and school administrators to get some more support. And they've been responsive. They have I think it's a a process and a change of mindset of it's not so much about um we want to zap this kid. It's about the safety of the other students on the bus is how I how I

062approach it. If you have a student or two that's disrupting the entire bus, I would rather fight that battle with those two students than have an accident and 50 students are in a bad spot. So, um, and that's kind of the mindset that I approach that with. Thanks. I have a I I'm going to follow up on that. Okay. I'm sorry. I just saw him change the slide, so I was gonna go back. No, no, that's fine. Uh on what the the newest buses we have, they have the um PA system. Mhm. I think that's helped with the driver being able to I mean back in the day it was like don't make me stop this bus kind of thing. Right. Right. Because they couldn't communicate. So that's helped so they can see and do

063that. Plus we do have the cameras. Yes. Yes. Right. So so parents are aware that we have uh we have that. And then we still have uh do we still have monitors or people on the buses? We do not not every single bus. Um it's not one per bus. Um but we do allocate those u when a when a hot spot pops up, we will allocate a monitor. Now some consistently have a monitor um on the routes we know that they need more support. Um but there is a rotation, not a fixed rotation, but we'll rotate them on an as needed basis, right? So they're not guaranteed one every single day. But the longer routes, you tend to put them on that, right? So that you have somebody if you can. I will say um

064maybe not necessarily longer, but maybe more of the um routes where we have issues with student behavior. We will we will assign a monitor for that route to help support that driver so they can focus on driving. Yeah. But bottom line, Mr. superintendent. We the we have things that a code of conduct for students that's not only for the classroom but for the bus too and we go through a matrix and all that to make sure so if there's discipline problems it gets taken back to the school and correct correct and we go through that so and Mr. Gore has done a good job and it's one of the things that we talked about him coming into this position was ensuring that Mr. Gore take an active role communicating with schools as it pertains to

065discipline and how those are are handled. It's a partnership. It's not one or the other. It's a partnership and how we handle disciplinary situations on the school bus. Um, I think as we know, like I can think back to when I rode a school bus and if any of you rode a school bus, school buses can be interesting at times. And so I think that that communication with the transportation department and schools being on the same page is critical and we get that information out to the parent. Correct. Which part about that conduct whether it's in the classroom or whether it's on the bus. We have a we have rules on what that needs to be. Schools schools do it. Schools communicate that, right? Yes, ma'am. Thank you. So, so Mr. Gore, my my question

066was regarding the previous slide. Uh, and uh that's that's helpful for me to know and what I'd also like to know would be the numbers of students transported along with those figures because that might give me a little more detail and looking at it. It looks like our fleets going down and and I guess that would make sense if the number of riders was going down. Um but they may not have. Yep. Uh so I that that would be something useful to have for me. Sure. We can we can get that for you. That's okay. Very good. Thank you. All right. So uh route development. We're we're approaching route development season. So we we have approximately 770 routes. So we do uh 385 in the morning, 385 in the afternoon just to split it down

067the middle. So over the summer, how we develop routes is we uh we use historical ridership numbers. Um and then we also bring in folks over the summer to um evaluate the routes. So we'll look at wrership and say, "Okay, this is the traditional route. This is who rode it last year." And um we'll circle back to the reservation system in a second. So over the summer, we'll also develop routes and bring in our route evaluators. So we pay folks actually come in and drive the routes. Um software is great. I think technology is great, but there's no substitution for boots on the ground in my opinion um because software may not know that you can't make that left turn at, you know, 3:00 in the afternoon or there's a low hanging tree limb, whatever

068it may be. So, we look at safety and efficiency. Safety being the the primary. Uh the first two weeks of school, there's always surprises. Um you know, somebody may pop up that we didn't know was going to ride. And so what we typically do every year is for the first two weeks we will not adjust the route. And the reason we do that is if we have an issue on Monday, let's say the first day of school, and then we try to adjust it on Tuesday and then we need to adjust it again on Wednesday, you're in a constant state of flux on your stops and your stop times. So we kind of lock them for two weeks. We let the dust settle and then we can be more um strategic in our communication to

069parents and our changes. Um, if you're changing with something still in flux, it's like fighting a Rubik's cube that's rotating. So, that'll like let the dust settle. That way, we could be more strategic on how we communicate. So, proactive versus reactive. So, Dr. White, this is going to lead into your question. So, a new initiative and the direction we're headed is our um reservation system, which is going to allow us to be more proactive in our routing. And what we're asking parents to do is one, tell us if you're going to need transportation next year. If you don't or if you're not. And if the answer is no, we're going to select no, submit, and then we're good to go. If you are going to need transportation, our past practice has been we go historical

070ridership. We drive around the first day. We pick up whoever's on the bus, okay? which can lead to overcrowded buses or routes that need to have um somebody come back in and fill in on the back side of it. So trying to collect data on the front end so we can plan our routes a little more efficiently. Um is it going to solve every single problem the first week? Absolutely not. But we're the goal is to greatly reduce and help us make better um decisions on the front end so our adjustments are less on the back end also. So this is just an example of the form that we're asking parents to fill out. this through their focus parent portal account um which should be going live today. It has been live actually for the

071past week. Um we've gotten approximately 2600 responses so far. Um Dr. White, to answer your question, we have about 13,500 riders this year. So we're about 20% response rate on our historical ridership so far. So this is just another screenshot of the form. Um, we ask them to enter their address, um, where their student would be picked up in the morning and dropped off in the afternoon. Um, and also there's a box at the bottom if there's additional information we might need to know. Sometimes a student may go to grandma's house on Wednesday, you know, every Wednesday. That's something that we need to know. Um, primarily um, for when we have a subd driver. So, if the regular drivers on that bus and they know that Susie's going to grandma's house every day, it's not

072a problem. But when there's a new driver on there and he doesn't know where grandma's house is, that's when we have our issues. Um, and that's when we get our phone calls. So, and and and this is a a one-time form. Is that correct? One time form. Okay. So, it's not something that parents would use to change uh the the method of transportation. This is a one time. It's done. And then they if they're going to do that, there's another procedure likely at the school on how they do that. Yes. Okay. If they need to change their physical address, contact information, things like that goes to the school, right? This is strictly for your transportation pickup. Yeah. I was talking about if they have alternative transportation in lie of their normal way. Oh yeah, that's

073correct. That they still handle that the way they do through the school, not not via this. Yes sir. Okay. And Mr. Gore, go back one sheet. Yep. And so this is the form, one page, right? Yes. And then what what percent approximately what percent of families have additional uh requests for transportation in terms of um the not their not their normal route? I I would say 20 to 30%. Okay. Um would be a good estimate. So on this form and just just for the for the board. So the vast majority will fill out one two three four five six slots on this on this form. Correct. Okay. That's correct. So this uh kind of leads us to where we're headed as a department. Okay. So we collect all this data. That's great. Okay. What do

074we do with it now? Okay. So we were notified in November. Um we were with a current software vendor. Okay. and they notified us that hey we're going to do away with our routing software. Okay, it's going away. So we had to start scrambling and we started evaluating different um different uh vendors and so we did settle on one called Transfinder. So once we collect our reservation data and focus, okay, we can feed that into Transfinder. Okay, that helps us build capacity on buses. How many buses do we need to allocate to a school, to a route? Do we need to take stops off of a route and adjust? And so what you see in front of you is just an outward- facing um view of what parents will see in the public. Um so

075we're not live yet. We've not put this out to the public. This is just what it will look like once we're there. We're going to finish out this school year with our current vendor. Okay? So there's not a a change for parents with three weeks to go in the school year. But once we close out this year, this will be the new look of how parents can look up their attendance zone or where their bus stop is going to be for next year. Okay. Uh this is Highlands County. They're actually live with it. So very similar functionality to what our parents have now. Um in the top lefthand corner, you can type in the address of where you live. It'll show you the attendance zones for the school. So I believe it's Okchobee High School

076and I can't remember the other two. So that will show them what zone that their student would be attend attending. And then it also drills down on where their bus stop is located. And it's hard to I couldn't scroll in too far without making it too fuzzy. But um that blue uh circle would actually be the address and then the um green plus orange plus that's actually where the stops will be located so that parents can zoom in to see exactly where their stop will be located. It also tells them on the left hand side the location as well as well as the pickup and drop off times. So that is that is the primarily most used function for our parents as well as my bus stop at. Now Dr. I circle back to your

077question. Can we notify parents through this? They do have an app that you can download. The the caution on that while we're not rolling that out right now is you have to sign up. You have to put in an email. You have to sign up. So that takes us back to our bus bulletin issue. So what what what does the app do? Is it tell them where the bus is or So you can push out notifications. So if there's a late bus, you can push out that notification. um multi-year down the road, you can um let parents know where's the bus? Wow. Um has your student checked in on the bus? Have they um um unloaded from the bus? Where are they at? Is it 2 minutes away? Is it 5 minutes away? Yes, sir.

078Good. So, that's functionality that we can build on. Yeah. So, I kind of not there yet. Right. This year is kind of laying the foundation to build the house. And so, we're going to just keep adding to it as we go. So that's that's the long-term long-term goal. Well, having a kindergartenner grandchild riding the bus, I have some interest. We'll we'll get him there safe. So, thank you for your time. I have the question, Mr. Gore. Are we What is the It used to be they it had to be under was it two miles? Um what is it that they Is that still the same that they get bus service? Yes. So 6 through 12 um is 2 miles. If you live under two miles, we do not provide transportation. Our elementary students um if

079it's under a mile, we do not transport. Now the we don't get funded if they're under for um under two miles at all. So it doesn't matter if you're K12, if you're under two miles, we don't get funded, but we we call them courtesy riders. So that mile for elementary, we will transport. Okay. Thank you. And just reiterate when we talk about the two miles, is that an Okaloosa school district policy or is that a state statute? That's state FTE. And Dr. White, if I can just shout out to Mr. Gore, I know uh Mr. Meyer is probably going to you're going to have to buy him lunch. You don't have to buy me lunch because uh when you were appointed uh earlier in the year, you know, it was always uh Mr. Chambers has

080always given us the latitude to reach out to people uh instead of going right through him to to the source. Uh we knew Mr. McInness was retiring so I I gave Mr. McGinness a break and called you and I will just say that of course it was first day of school happened to be in my neighborhood and uh uh you know I think that you uh did a great job of handling that professionally. Uh I was really impressed with the fact that you contacted the parent right away after I you know told you the situation. uh you even both of us even went out and we we mapped it out ourselves just to make sure we were you know on doing the right thing and uh I I I just appreciate the fact that you

081took that and uh you took a situation that you know of course we all know first week of school we all get bombarded with the with the bus questions or the pick you know the drop off and all that good stuff but you did a great job of handling that and so far uh anytime I've called you you've very professional and uh uh you've taken the situations and made them positive. So, I think that's a good thing for you and I know that's uh going out throughout your department and I know a couple months ago, Mr. Chambers and myself, Mr. admire. We had a chance to go to the north transportation and you know I think everybody that was there that day was uh you know one they appreciate us being there but we also

082found out that what's it school supplies what is traditional crowns, pencils, paper and all that in transportation is not crowns, pencils and papers. It's tools. It's it's the things that keep the buses rolling and that's the questions we were getting uh you know about things like that. how we can help them as a board and as a district make their jobs, you know, better uh situated and all that. So, good job so far. Well, I I appreciate the kind words and I I would be remiss if I didn't mention just the the true team that is in the department. You know, you have our route coordinators, Miss Barry, Miss Jinx, Miss Rcowski, Shop Foreman, uh Mr. Banks, Mr. Roberts, Mr. Bell, um the drivers, the assist. I mean, I could go on for hours about

083what they do day in and day out. And I say that because that their effort and their professional that frees me up to take on initiatives like software reservation systems. So, they're they're really in the trenches, you know, fighting the battle with the drivers, with the aids, with the mechanics. Um, so that that frees me up to try to make some improvements and be um a little more innovative to help make their jobs easier and hopefully better down the road. And that's that's the ultimate goal. So, thank you for your time. Thank you. Thank you, Mr. Gore. All right, superintendent. Anything else? All right, the last update, and this this comes from a group who oftent times is behind the scenes, but they do a great job of communication uh with our families, with our

084school district employees, and with the community as a whole. And that's our communications department. And I wanted Mrs. Card and Mrs. MS just to share a little bit of information and then they have a short video uh to kind of highlight the work that they do. Good morning. Welcome. Thank you. Okay. I'm Hillary Demurs, as most of you know, but online they may not. Um digital media and communication specialist. If you see me out and about, I'll just tell you communication specialist. Um, and I'm Katherine Cart. I'm the public information officer and happy to be here almost three years in. So, in this new role, so really enjoying it. Yep. And um, we're gonna start with Katherine and her public information office duties. Okay. So, in a nutshell, folks probably ask, what does a public

085information officer do? Well, at a county level, comparing it, say maybe a national level, those of us that follow politics in the news, probably my role is very close to what the White House press secretary does. Um, I am the point of contact for media asking questions. In fact, I just got a um an email from channel 3 wanting to talk interview and and talk about our mental health program for the school district. So, it's just having that um that two-way line of communication where it's very consistent where daytoday I'm handling media inquiries, setting up interviews. I'm also helping with the communications piece of um the external of pushing out all the good news that's happening in our school district. Um helping to promote the achievements of our students and our teachers. Um our ribbon

086cutings, the groundbreaking ceremony. Those are things being very strategic and pushing out that out to all of our media which we've got a a pretty um healthy list from covering Pensacola all the way up through Mobile to Panama City where we have multiple entities from broadcast uh TV and radio. So they they are totally looped in into what we are doing as a as a school district. Um we're also uh pushing out information Hillary talked more about like newsletters and such, but that media distribution list also does include our elected officials. So a lot of the elected officials aids that's why there's a lot of times where there's like hey we would love for you know this commissioner to come to this event. So it's been a really great way for them to know what

087is happening as a district and being able to plan accordingly to be involved and and sharing in the good news of what's happening in Oklahoma schools. Um Katherine has been a great addition to the team. um she helps me with not only getting that information out that um our our community may not have seen to begin with that because we're pushing it out on our channels. Um but to get it on not only local but national news is is a great addition to our district because we have a lot of great things going on. Um she also helps me coordinate my efforts. Um, so I help um help with marketing not only all of the departments within the district, but also all of the schools. I'm here as a phone call away to help them

088with their social media. Um, I help run our social media. We do newsletters and I help with our website. We also have a web master who is a contract. Um, and she does a fantastic job, but I'm just kind of the local that can help with little things um, and help answer questions for our principles and web masters. Um, we also, like Katherine mentioned, do the call outs. Um, we give out good news and sometimes some alerts as far as, um, you know, informing our parents and our staff of things that are going on in our schools or to prepare for. Um about a year ago, we developed a weather communication plan that um is a detailed outline of what everybody, senior staff, Katherine, myself, our backups and their backups, many case. Yes. Um there's

089a plan for almost anything. And if there's not a plan for it, there's enough information to develop a plan quickly. Um and we basically take the decision that is made at the senior staff level and get that information out. Um, so while I'm writing scripts, she and our senior staff are calling people in the community um to update them, let them know this is coming. So, especially you guys are not blindsided by information, we can make sure that you guys are um able to field questions as well with the correct information. We want the correct information. Um, I'm also big on customer service. We have our school climate survey. Katherine and I have a lot of big ideas coming um that we hope to get on the ground in August or within the next school

090year um to not only assist our students, our staff, our parents. Um they need to feel like they are are welcome in the district. I hope that they already do, but we want to further that effort. Make sure that when they step into the school, they feel like they have a place there. um make sure that our students feel safe and make sure that our staff members have a voice. So we customer service is big there and then um we have a few platforms that I manage. Um we have our website um the call which is also our callout system. So API runs Thrillshare which is callouts and website. Um we each of the school districts has a website and then like Okaloosa public schools foundation our charters have some entities within that. So we

091communicate with them on those things and field any questions they have. Yep. And then a pretty regular basis. I mean I think we've already hit like the 80 mark on the press releases. So there is growth. We had about 75 last year. We'll surpass 80, you know, this year and being able to push that information out. Um also sharing that internally so that way principles, assistant principles, they're also um aware of what's happening. And I think to talk about some of the things that Hillary was saying about the the messaging, it's really important for us to have the one voice. I think we do a very good job of that. It's been great having the accessibility to, you know, the superintendent, our senior leadership. Um, also with Danny Dean and the Office of Safe Schools.

092I mean, we're not going to be immune. There's going to be things we all know is going to happen. and um being able to get ahead of that and running the narrative. I think that helps greatly just to diffuse any of the misinformation that's going on. And of course, we're not going to get away with it 100% of the time, but I think we do a very solid job in ensuring that our one voice, our messaging is getting out so the public understands what the accurate information is. So, okay. So, we have a nice little video. I'll jump in and tell you how much I do appreciate the hard work that you guys put in that regard cuz all of us with the exception of Brett Heinley who's smart uh we have presence on social

093media and we can see how terrible coming how terrible it is uh from just it's social media is a manure spreader and I have I'm telling you it is outlasted its utility in my opinion but it's real it's out there and we have to deal with it. Um I just in my short time period on this board um have been on the receiving end of just watching how quickly just at a viral pace um just bad information gets put out there uh just snippets of things and people run with it as the gospel truth a lot of times just wanting to have something to say to somebody else and but it's just it's it is such a challenge to stay in front of and I can tell you guys how much I've appreciated the communication

094that you have uh given me and probably similar to other board members so that when I get jumped in the line at the bank with somebody saying so and such and such has happened uh at the middle school don't you know I I'm I'm a I'm usually ready to be able to disarm diffuse calm down and redirect and that has been very very valuable but you guys have done a really really good job in that regard at least with my experience with you guys so I just wanted to take an opportunity to say thank you for that yeah no we we appreciate and you all have all been very gracious just every time I've called you, you've always taken my call and that means a lot. And certainly what Hillary was saying about not being

095blindsided. We want to ensure you have the information as we are receiving it. And also thanks to like our strategic partners. I mean, not too long ago, we had a um a tragedy of losing, you know, an employee, you know, outside there at Edwins. And luckily between the sheriff's office, the Fortal Beach Police Department when they're sending out the messaging, you they're very gracious in including quotes from the superintendent or or having again that one voice where it's across the board. People are seeing the same information. I think with our strategic partners, that's been important too. And even our chambers, they're they've been great partner in terms of sharing all of our information, but from at that higher level of working with the school district to ensure that, you know, we're sharing accurate information. So,

096thank you for that. Thank you. We ready? Mhm. Okay. [Music] Heat. Heat. I think the computer is excited. So, just wanted to make sure that we provided we haven't done this with the communications department um so far. Just wanted to share just uh the work that they do and there's so much behind the scenes and more um that that they take care of. Appreciate Mr. Spolski being over that uh department and you also heard the name Danny Dean and others who play a role. So, just to very much appreciate the coordination and we're not always perfect uh but uh but we try to get out the right information at the right time um to be able to communicate effectively with folks. Yes. And you you really um have a vital role and um I appreciate

097everything you do. Having a little bit of background in some of that, I know what that uh what that takes and I want to congratulate you on the Suns Award. I know a little bit about that organization, too. And uh that's not only um good here, but at um you know throughout the state, they look at those awards so that other districts look to uh to that and I'm sure we'll be looking at our product and seeing all that. So congratulations and appreciate everything you do and um and responding to us. I know I call you. Did you see? And so um we're uh we're on that social media stuff, right, Miss Card? Yeah. So thank you ladies. You do a fabulous job. Thank you. Thank you. And I would echo the same thing. And

098I know when Miss Cart got hired, I I thank Mr. Horton for all that he did for our district, but I remember telling the superintendent, we can't keep relying on Mr. Horton to do the job of something that's as vital as a public information officer and then also having a media specialist to help tell the story of our district. And I would say since your since this team's been put in place, y'all have done a remarkable job of not only telling the positive story because we are in competition. And I've said this since uh since since the voucher program, all the parental rights things have come out that we are in competition and we have to show off all the good things that we have to offer. And y'all have done an amazing job with

099that. And I remember coming back from an FSBA conference and seeing Sunspra, you know, doing all these awards and I remember asking Katherine, hey, we need to get you a part of Suns here, you know, like that. And we eventually, you know, got in contact with somebody over there and uh I'm glad to see that Suns recognizes that we have an awesome team here and that that made my heart feel good that Suns, you know, recognized our district. But I will also say that for those that follow me on Facebook, I I I don't always give credit, but I have to say to Hillary, thank you so very much. Cuz she does take some good pictures with us board members. Uh and she'll send them to me and say, "Hey, use these." And of course,

100I have to wait for her to make her post before I'll do my post. But uh she does a good job of finding our good side. So I appreciate that. So thank you. Thank you. All right. Very good. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. And that that is it, Dr. White. Okay. All right, sir. Very good. Thank you. All right. So, colleagues, we'll move to section 13, board members announcements. And Mr. Heinley, sir, I I'll start with you. Okay. Um want to go back here and talk about the round table uh that I was with the soup um last Friday, I think it was. Um excellent idea. Really enjoyed it. They blocked 8 to 10. I was like, no way we're going to spend that. We spent all that time and would have

101kept going. I mean the the kids really had some some great questions, some statements. Um and uh it it was we need to keep that tradition going. Uh I will tell you that uh they were blown away by the budget numbers when they started asking about money. They were like wow like most of the public really. I mean it's it's eye opening. Uh number two, Mr. Gore. Uh the uh kudos to you. Uh it sounds like you're in triage every morning when you roll in there. Thank goodness for summer, right? Um, and it looks like your limbac is employees. If we can solve that problem, it will make your job and your task a whole lot better. Uh, comms, excellent. Uh, uh, you've been in place since I've been on the board. Uh, but I

102heard that when you guys got together and started this as a as a, you know, actual job and not an add-on to someone else's, you elevated the whole district. And I appreciate that. And I appreciate those polite calls about did I RSVP to something. So, uh, I I do appreciate that. Uh, shout out to Richard Hen Hernandez, uh, the drama, um, theater, uh, director at Nice High School. I attended Hello Dolly last weekend or this past weekend. Tremendous. I mean, they that was quite the show. I was pleasantly surprised. The talent was it was just a great great event. Uh, let's see. Last but not least, I have two questions for you. Uh due to Mr. Destin, today is the 12th. Who was the 12th president of the United States? Anybody? Zachary Taylor. Oh, very

103nice. Very nice. He did die in office. Um on the 4th of July, he did. I did not know that. Yep. Right after they uh did the whatever ribbon cutting, whatever for the Washington Monument, they had a big picnic and he died from food poisoning. Oh, okay. All right. There you go. I might debate that a little bit. Okay. But what's 12, Mr. Dustin? What's 12 + 31? Oh, that's public math for you, lawyer. I would say maybe somewhere in the 40s. Maybe 43. 43. Okay. So, as you questioned, anything past 31. So, who was the 43rd president of the United States? Let's see. Would that be uh I think that would probably be Bill Clinton, right? You are so close. But George Bush. George. Which board? George Bush. The first one. Second. Second. Second

104direction? 41 and 43. That's all I have, Mr. Chairman. All right. Very good. Dr. White. Yes. You'd find it uh interesting at the last round table discussion I peppered uh Mr. kindly. I said, "Who's the 11th? Who's the 18th? Who's the 20th?" He got them all right. Yeah. Got them all right. Yeah. Good. But like uh Principal Mel said, he could say the wrong thing and nobody knew of them. All right. All right. Mr. Van. Yes. Yes. The round table. I you know, it's just fabulous. It's um I wish everybody had an opportunity to meet with those students that you come out just energized and very interesting and they don't make it easy. They uh they hit you up with some questions that we got to look at each other and uh and so that's

105good. We need that and so um um I'm glad that we we do that and I think it's great. All right, couple of things from uh speaking of the round uh my school roundt, let's talk about Baker a little bit. They just came back from state track and field where the girls 4 by 100 relay broke a school record and uh placed and then uh Will Sloan who's only a sophomore got a silver um medal for javelin throwing 175 ft. So, uh he's in the top 15 javelin throwers in the state and all grades and he's just a sophomore. So, we're going to see good things from Will Sloan. So, congratulations to the Baker Track and Field on the Public Schools Foundation. Been very busy, big spring. Uh, we just had our third annual financial

106literacy uh workshop at Crestu High School and uh that went very well. That was back on May 2nd. And talking about getting donations and so forth, uh those are the official ones where people write the checks. But our community does so much uh like on this so many volunteers, sponsors for food and things that um you know that aren't aren't official donations that don't go down and appreciate all those people who came out to work those booths and help those students learn how to buy a car, all those other things that were uh so important. So that went uh very well. also um combined with the Able Trust grant and a matching grant from the consortium, there was a two-day career exploration field trip where they went to um OTC and Career Source Okaloosa Walton

107and they got to do hands-on. It was like um you know back in middle school they called it the wheel where you got to go a little bit through a bunch of things. So, they got to do that with um uh building trades and uh nursing and culinary arts and all that where these students got to get a little bit of time over a two-day period in um all of those. And I think that's wonderful. Plus, they learned about what are the um occupation trends, you know, what is happening out there, what kind of what kind of jobs and all that. So, uh wonderful things with the with the foundation going on like that. So, good things. Also, um want to appreciate the community and others who came through last week for teacher week. I

108saw on social media big things coming out of the schools for recognizing the teachers whether it was a breakfast or lunch or bringing goodie bags or whatever it was. and very timely as those teachers and students are so deep into high stakes testing. Anything like that, I remember just makes you, you know, feel a lot better when you're recognized a little bit. So, I I appreciate uh everyone who uh helps our teachers uh booby up, which ultimately helps our students. And having said that, I just want to wish all those students good luck as we continue testing. Um like you said, I'm hearing some good things. Um, but we just uh want them to hang in there. We know we're all getting towards that end of the school year. We're trying to that uh that

109summer is calling, but hang in there. Stay focused and uh and do your best and um it'll go well. And then the next what do we have about um less than 10 school days to graduations and then we will have this one knocked out. So exciting busy time coming up. Thank you. Thank you, Mr. Ven. Mr. Bryant. Thank you, Dr. White. Uh I too would like to say thank you to the schools uh Okaloosa Schools Foundation for the uh for the event at Crestview High School. And uh a shout out to Mike. He was there uh you know making sure uh I can't remember what he was doing but he was doing the cars. The cars. Oh yeah, that's right. He was he they were trying to upsell them Corvettes. That's right. I will say

110that I had and I know Mr. VCH, you were there a couple years ago when we did that. And what a world of difference two years has made considering now that we have financial literacy in the classrooms. And the majority of the students that were at the event at Crestview have actually have taken financial literacy now. And I will just say that the students this goound were definitely a lot more in tuned to what was important, what was their financial responsibilities. Whereas the students before not having that financial literacy class, uh I will say that they were very generous, but they uh but they realized that they couldn't survive on, you know, being generous, so they had to prioritize. But I say the the students this goound definitely have had that financial literacy driven into

111them because they were very mindful of what they were spending on and that's why there was no Corvettes sold this goound considering two years ago there was quite a few Corvettes that were bought. So uh but I would just like to say that was very beneficial and uh we had a great time there. Uh also you know we talk about teacher appreciation week. Uh, I just say that, you know, I'm glad they get a week, but we know that in education, every day is an appreciation for all of our teachers, administrators, anybody that works in the school district. I will just say that it's it was cool to be able to go into classrooms last week and just talk to teachers. And like Mr. Vanchek did say, you know, just just them us going in

112and just saying thank you to them, that goes a long way. And uh you know teachers don't do this job uh financially of course you know if if we could we would pay them a ton lot more but they do it because they love it and you can see that when you go into their classrooms that they love what they do and the kids respond and that's why I believe we have the best teachers in all of uh the state of Florida if not across the country. We do have some great teachers out there. Uh so it was nice to be able to do that and going to the round table. I agree that you know I'm glad that we started this about 6 years ago. Uh of course when we do uh Crest View

113we also have the Laurel Hill students join us and every meeting before has always been at Cresview High School. Well this year I I asked Mr. Chambers let's do it up at Laurel Hill so the big school can see what the small school has to deal with. And I'll just say that we started at 8:30 and I think Catherine and and uh Hillary over there were like, "Hey, it's like almost 11:00." That's how I mean, that's how intense it was. But they had so many great questions. And I agree with the superintendent that, you know, our future is secure with the the amount of leaders that we had. They asked great questions. And even one student that was at the event last year saw uh you know something that she brought up come to fruition

114because of the school board and the superintendent. We were able to get new weight equipment for Laurel Hill School. So their their voices are being heard and if we can help them in in just that small way then the students will respond by knowing that the people who are making decisions for them you know truly hear their voices. And I would just challenge our lawmakers in Tallahassee, maybe go to some schools and do some roundts with the students and I guarantee you they would probably help shape education policy a lot better than listening to the adults sometimes. So, uh, I would just say that thank you, Mr. Chambers, uh, Mr. Vancheek for suggesting it. Uh, and Mr. Heinley, it's not going anywhere as long as Mr. Chambers is superintendent. So uh I I feel confident

115that that's something we will continue for the next at least next three years. And with that we also have graduation and the first one is Richberg and uh Mr. Destin I was informed we do have one. So uh there is one student that will be graduating and knowing Richberg they're going to make it a grand event for this one student. uh it will be at 10:00 and then of course uh the following week we'll have everybody. So, uh, and I can say on, uh, let's see, May 23rd at approximately 9:00, uh, no, 7, I'm talking 8:00, that last student across, uh, Crest View stage will walk across and once again, we'll commence with another great graduating class and, uh, our future is well at hand with that last student walking off for the entire district.

116So, looking forward to that. Hopefully, uh, no rain. Thank you, Dr. White. Thank you, Mr. Bryant. Mr. Destin, thank you, Chairman. I just wanted to say uh how much I appreciated the invitation from Mr. Bryant, Miss Martell to go up to Laurel Hill School last week and sit in and and uh congratulate all of the uh students that were receiving not only senior awards, but academic awards. I will tell you that is a special school. That is a really really neat school. uh it is so small uh but everybody knows everybody I mean in a very intimate way and in and it just hearkens back to like a very heartwarming period in in in time that we just don't see very much anymore. I very much enjoyed myself and I will tell you if you

117guys decide to go they uh they actually serve you dinner. So, I've been to other senior awards ceremonies and they don't feed you. They don't even give you a bottle of water. But this one, they they they rolled out they rolled out the whole red carpet for us. We had some great country cooking. So, uh if you have the time, go up to Laurel Hill next year cuz it's worth it. Um that was a really great thing to experience. I appreciate, like I said, uh, Miss Martella and and, um, and and Tim for inviting me. Um, in the doing big things front, I know that we had at our last regular meeting, um, Miss Brownsburgger brought the students from the Fort Walton Beach uh, speech and debate team to, uh, to not perform, but to

118advocate and persuade us. And it was a great experience. And at afterwards in the parking lot, I said, "When's when's your next competition in the fall? Can I come watch?" He said, "Actually, we're going to have our large Northwestern regional championship for speech and debate on the 10th," which was this Saturday. And so, I got the opportunity to go watch over 100 kids, 13 schools. She is growing that program leaps and bounds. and to uh to kind of jump off of what or what Tim has said about students and and what the superintendent said about our young people um and whether or not the future's in good hands. I and and to quote the parlance of our times uh you know we worry about the tick tock brain rot you know the overconumption of too

119much online content just rotting everybody's brains well that's not that's not the case with these students I'm telling you they are whips smart they are they are banging on all cylinders it was very heart heartening to see um and and that's happened right here in Oklahoma county so shout out to those guys that was a heck of a cool event and then uh lastly as I walking in the event and I'm not trying to get uh Mr. Mroy to buy uh to uh to buy me lunch. He he was there at 10:00 in the morning um with his maintenance guys cleaning up uh a roof leak. We've been struggling to get, you know, the leaks fixed on on on the roofs all over the district and they're working really hard, but as soon as the

120rain quit, you saw how hard it was on Friday and Saturday morning. as soon as the the weather broke, they were on the roof uh on a Saturday cleaning cleaning up. And so, just a continued thank you to the maintenance guys trying to make sure that our facilities uh keep up. It's the same thing we were saying in January. You know, we had that once in a hundred years uh snowstorm. and all over the district, those guys are making sure that that the facilities are are upkept and uh they're doing it nights, weekends when it has to happen because that's when it has to happen sometimes. And so I I was really pleased when I was walking in and I saw those guys. They were making sure that that stuff was getting taken care of

121on a Saturday morning within an hour of finally having the opportunity to do it. So Mr. Mroy, thanks to thanks to you and your guys. Really deeply appreciated. That's all I've got. Chairman, thank you, sir. Mr. Bryant. Uh yeah, I do have one followup and I appreciate the uh Laurel Hill shout out and I had it written down here and I it was on my left side that's why I missed it. So uh I I just want to give a shout out to Jana Dixon. Now when we were at the round table the other day, they they talked about their track and field and how we have we do have a a track out there. It's not a regulation track and I know the superintendent and staff are looking at how we can at least

122get it presentable to where they can train on it. But their track and field, this was their second year with track and field and they actually had a student that went to state. Uh I this has been a long time coming for somebody from Laurel Hill to go to state track and field and her name is Jana Dixon. She's also an outstanding basketball player. She had a lot of accolades for basketball, but she came in sixth place in the shot put. And even though sixth place is sixth place in our book, she's still a champion. And she represented Laurel Hill uh with pride and all the Facebook posts that I saw from Saturday. She was just really excited. She also did a video thanking everybody. But Jana Dixon did a great job of representing the

123smallest school with the biggest heart. So, thank you, Dr. Right. Yes, sir. Thank you. All right. All right. So that'll take us to section 14 public comment and then we have adjournment. Is there anything else? Uh superintendent Mr. McKennis staff associations workshops adjourned. All right. Great job sir. Thank you.