001Good morning. I'd like to take this opportunity to welcome you to this uh special school board meeting and work session this Tuesday, May 5th, 2026. Please stand for the pledge of allegiance. Thank you very much. The first item on the agenda today is public comment on action item number one requesting to schedule a private meeting concerning settlement negotiations and/or strategy sessions related to litigation expenditures and settlement in regards to Sarasota County School Board Brian Joseph Dunn individually and Lori Varrier individually vers Mike Moran in his official capacity as Sarasota tax uh Sarasota County tax collector. Uh let us begin. Mrs. Tommpkins, do we have any cards? Okay. Uh, per general counsel, just for the record, I'll read our rule for hearing of citizens. In the event someone walks in before that, welcome to public comment
002segment of our meeting. This time is this time is public comment on agenda item number one. Each speaker will state their full name and county of residents for the record and we'll have up to three minutes. Timer will signal when one minute remains. Please conclude promptly when the timer ends. Respect for divergent opinion shall be recognized for all speakers. Audience members are requested to listen quietly and respectfully. Outbursts, applause, or any other interruptions during this meeting will not be tolerated. Any person that interferes with the expeditious or orderly process of this meeting will first be warned with that such continued interference will result in removal will be removed. There are speakers in the uh room behind me that allow board members to hear public comment when stepping away from the dis. When your name is
003called, please approach the podium. If you choose to pass, you will forfeit uh your time to address the board. As a reminder, a recording cannot be played during your three minutes of public comment. We appreciate your cooperation. Let's begin with our first speaker. And again, Mrs. Tomkins, do you have any public comment speaker cards? So, for the record, we do not have any uh public comment items. We can move on then to action item number one uh which is requesting to schedule private meeting concerning settlement negotiations andor strategy sessions related to litigation expenditures and settlement and re uh settlement in regards to Sarasota County School Board. Brian Joseph Dunn individually and Lori Verrier individually versus Michael Moran in his official capacity as Sarasota County Tax Collector. Uh, is there a motion? >> I move to
004authorize a litigation strategy session regarding Sarasota County School Board Brian Joseph Dunn individually and Lori Varrier individually versus Mike Moran in his official capacity as Sarasota County Tax Collector. Case number 2026 CAS21 or 2313NC pursuant to Florida statute section 2 286.011 parenthesy 8 to be held on May 5th, 2026 following the conclusion of the regularly scheduled board workshop scheduled for the same day at 3 p.m. to conduct the private meeting. I have a mo a motion by Mr. Edwards. Is there a second? >> Second. >> A second by Mrs. Marinelli. Are there any comments? >> Seeing none, we'll be doing a voice vote. And I'll start with Mr. Edwards. >> Yes. >> Uh Mrs. Marinelli, >> yes. >> Mrs. Rose, >> yes. >> Mrs. Barker, >> yes. >> And the chair votes uh yes. And
005the motion passes unanimously. Now we'll move on. Without objection, the board will suspend the special meeting and comp uh and commence the regular board work session. Without objection, seeing none, we will move into the work session. Uh Superintendent Connor, please uh begin us off with the first agenda item for the board work session for today. >> Thank you, Madam Chair. It's good to see everyone today. Our regularly scheduled work session this month will have three topics that we'll be covering. Every year we bring forth a comprehensive breeding plan that really delineates all of the strategies we are um embarking on in the upcoming year as well as reflecting on in the previous year towards our continuous improvement in literacy. So we're going to share an update and that will be presented by Miss Rachel OD
006as well as uh the second item today will be our annually re annual review of our student code of conduct. I know that each of you have had some in-depth conversations with Dr. Clayton. Uh but we'll go through that process and share the timeline, all of the stakeholder feedback, and uh of course some discussion around uh moving that forward for advertisement and then subsequently an approval before the start of the new school year. And then our last item actually is uh been going very well. So we moved this item up. We were expected to bring this to you in August, but since things have been moving very um smoothly, we are now going to present an update regarding the Garden Elementary rebuild and redistricting plan, and that will be presented by Dr. Kimp and Miss
007Diane Kaminady. So, we'll begin now with Miss OD with the comprehensive reading plan. >> Good morning, board members. But I'm also joined by uh chief of elementary schools, Miss Minnelli, and we will be providing you an overview and updates and also progress as it pertains to the comprehensive evidence-based reading plan. And as Mr. Connor said, this is an annual requirement put forth by the Florida Department of Education. And it is in place because they want to make sure that every school district and every school in Florida is implementing highquality reading aligned to best practices and research. Our charter schools also um have to submit a comprehensive evidence-based reading plan. They can either adopt ours as all of our district managed schools do or they can write their own. If they choose to write their own,
008we do submit that on their behalf alongside our comprehensive evidence-based reading plan, which I'll show you further in the presentation who is um making those selections at this time. I'm just waiting for the presentation to come up, but I'm going to keep speaking. Um another uh the only rule revision that we've had since last year and this did occur last year regarding the SER as we call it is that we have to ensure that we're scheduling highquality teachers um highly effective teachers with kindergarten through second grade students who may need intensive reading intervention. That means they have certain credentiing, reading endorsements, certifications, micro credentials. There's multiple pathways that you could exhaust to be highly qualified or deemed highly qualified in that area. We do provide those pathways within our school district if if teachers would
009like to um take on those microcredentiing. We also provide the state provides stipens. We have grant funding to also motivate people to ensure that they're experiencing all these professional learning opportunities to be deemed highly qualified. We also put master scheduling requirements in place in our elementary programs particularly in the literacy block. You may have heard of the win block and the win roadmap and that is designed for strategic tiered instruction. That could look like advancement for those that are already there or intensive intervention making sure we're aligning teachers with their strengths as it pertains to the demographic that they're serving. So those are ways that we are in compliance with that. We were in compliance last year and we are also in compliance moving forward this year. So as our I spoke about our charter
010schools. This is a chart of the decisions they made last year. If they wanted to create their own or adapt ours and currently if you're highlighted in yellow, we are still awaiting your decision and we kind of left you where you were last year. We will make those changes if they choose to make a different decision. and then those that are not highlighted have confirmed with us whether they're staying with our plan or adopting their own. So that's where we are currently as far as progress for our charter schools and that decision-making process. And just I want to go back to the end of 2324 school year as we talk about what we're doing coming up in the 2627 school year because this has been something that we have built upon over the past three
011years together as an academic services team led by Mr. Connor that we did an overhaul. We brought forward an overhaul at the end of 2324. We had worked on that work throughout the school year to present to you what we wanted to implement full steam ahead within that subsequent school year. That came with recreating all of our instructional frameworks, all of our decision trees, creating a comprehensive instructional, excuse me, comprehensive tiered instructional plan, which we call the CIP. That's the first ever for our district. as well as ensuring that we have written data protocols to take teachers from surface level data analysis down to the student level data analysis with reporting structures and strategies within our new program performance matters. We also launched our first ever literacy for all initiative that summer, which was an
012institute that we brought together what we called our literacy leadership teams at the time, principles, APS, district staff, and also the selections that they made for literacy coaches and literacy interventionists to launch those cadres and to help people learn and understand the science of reading along with the instructional frameworks that we expected to be in place going into that school year to bring that learning to life. The next year we expanded our science of reading professional learning. We again launched those coach and interventionist quadres where they were implementing that work in that learning as well as started read 180 in high school which is very exciting and I'll speak about that in the secondary updates but that was intended on reducing the amount of level ones and twos in nth and tth grade. And then
013this school year, we implemented the Strauss literacy grant initiative which allowed us to focus on our first grade cohort of teachers and students. Miss Minnelli will give you some insight to that because that's another highquality program that she will outline what we're currently doing and where we're going with that. We implemented new scheduling models. As I said, we had the win roadmap, but we further implemented structured literacy not only in our elementary classrooms, but also in our secondary and high school classrooms. You've seen the advanced dashboards that we've created that came in our PM1 update earlier this year. really ensuring that that data was at our fingertips ready to be triangulated more than just PM1 2 and three but also bringing in other diagnostics and screeners and things that we utilize to paint the whole
014picture for the child and really strong monitoring practices because it's one thing to know what our data says but implementing how to address what students need is the is the harder part and getting that done with the right practices with fidelity has been a major focus for the teams this your school base and district. When we look at how we plan for the SER each school year, as I said, end of 2324, it was a massive overhaul. We had to bring in the science of reading, our new strategic plan, as well as launching our literacy for all initiatives, but we use the SER reflection tool and every school district does that. They break it down by five key areas of reflection. Our entire academic services team works collaboratively to review that information whether it's um
015student achievement outcomes or quantitative and qualitative data that they collect within their school visits that they are doing every single week. That all feeds where we go every year as we plan for the SER for the upcoming year. And we are focused on expanding initiatives that are working. One of those is read 180 and another one is our Strauss literacy grant which we'll talk more about. And then also systematizing creating muscle memory around the best practices and frameworks we have in place. As I spoke about data, we we feel we've created muscle memory with what does that data tell me? It's now moving into how do I know what I'm doing is the right thing for the students based on what that data tells me. So really advancing and honing in on that as a
016need for us to continue to strengthen. Our read 180 program actually just received six awards. Um there was a national blind judging for this process. We actually received the most awards in Florida for those implementing the program and there were two teachers um within the district and also for students. So that's very very exciting. We're very happy about that. Share more about that upcoming as well. But based on the reflection and again expanding what's working and replicating and scaling that and then strengthening where we don't feel like we've really gotten where we wanted to go yet. But it's plans are not good unless you have accountability and progress monitoring. And I don't mean accountability where we are doing a top- down accountability approach. It's a 360deree accountability cycle that we focus on. That's what the
017focus framework was developed for. That's a part of the strategic plan that also lives in our processes with the SER and we want to make sure that schools get what they need from us and that we are there to support based on the expectations that we have and we work together to achieve those goals. So things like walkthrough tools, our impact reviews, data analysis sessions, the reporting reporting structures we have for data, the protocols we expect, the funding we put in place for sub coverage for pushing our program specialists in where people need help. All of that alignment comes into the monitoring of that plan and the accountability we have for one another to do really great work within our district. So, we still have that in play. Again, a lot of that really lives
018in the focus framework and the things we've been sharing with you over the past three years about that process. So, K through 12, the SER also focuses on making sure you have high quality professional learning. And these are new professional learnings that we're adding in for the upcoming school year, which you'll hear more about the existing that are within elementary and secondary in upcoming slides, but very much focused on vocabulary development for our students because again, when you are reading at a high level on or above, there's no ceiling to that. But what you can really develop and really becomes an asset for students for sky's the limit in reading is vocabulary. And then it's also a hindrance for those that are underperforming readers. Typically, it is a vocabulary issue or it's understanding how to
019break those words down. So, this area of vocabulary is a great focus for us K through 12 to meet the needs of a variety of teachers and learners. And again, one of the ways to provide high quality interventions is high quality small group. Small group could be just a structure you see that doesn't look very different from what's happening, but you want it to look very different and even more powerful. So there's a different way that you have to approach instruction while delivering it in a small group. So systematizing what that looks like from kindergarten all the way up to um senior level high school is something that we're very much focused on as well. That picture on this slide is showing our literacy coaches. When we three years ago had a 1:1 ratio of
020that in schools, we did put grant funding aside for them to all receive their Florida literacy coach endorsement, which is a very rigorous process. and all of those those coaches are either working at the district level or working at the school level and it's a great great skill set for us to have uh supported by the state of Florida. So, we're very proud of that work. I'm going to hand it over to Miss Minnelli now to talk about preK to five. >> Thanks, Miss OD. Good morning, board members. Nice to see you all. Uh this year on this slide, you're going to see the highlights for our voluntary prek updates within our SER. And our focus really this year is access to VPK, summer learning opportunities, as well as uh ensuring that we have alignment
021from pre-K all the way to grade 1 to make sure that we have that really strong early literacy foundation in place. Um you'll see here that our baseline data shows that 86% of our students are at or above benchmark, which is uh really exciting to see. This reflects strong early literacy outcomes tied to our SER aligned instruction as well as early interventions and foundational skill strategies in the classroom that are working. Um, our SER this year outlines a focus on funological awareness. Um, specifically with the implementation of Hegerty. Uh, you may remember that used to be implemented in our kindergarten and first grade classrooms. We've moved that to preK. Um, so that way we have that strong alignment between preK all the way up through grade one. Next year, we are converting our early learning
022classrooms that used to uh live at Goio into VPK classrooms. So, we'll have a total of 26 classrooms across our district. And we're making sure to have early access to highquality literacy instruction within all of those classrooms. This includes students with disabilities as well as our students needing enrichment work. Uh, all classrooms will continue to be staffed with certified teachers trained in early literacy practices and this is supporting our expectations for highquality evidence-based instruction at every level, even all the way down in our BPK classrooms. Lastly, we are expanding our summer bridge program, which is our summer learning opportunities for students to ensure that they are K ready. Uh, we are expanding from one site to two. So that will be held at Tuttle and Venice L this summer and that is uh outlined in
023our SER as well to ensure that we are closing those learning gaps for our youngest students. Our professional learning in VPK for next year is outlined here. Um you'll see these slides throughout the rest of the presentation when we go over each level as well. The blue outlines things that are continued from year years prior and orange is either continuing or new in the upcoming school year. So, in highquality instructional practices, we're continuing to focus our efforts on our pre-K teachers earning their pre-K disability endorsements so that way they are able to use that learning um to implement high quality instruction in their classrooms. In curriculum resources, as I mentioned, we're uh transitioning to the use of hegrity in classrooms. So, training will be around the use of that resource for teachers. And then in
024early literacy challenges in ESC, we will be training all of our teachers working that summer bridge program um in best practices for our pre-K learners. Next, we'll move into our elementary updates. So, this year, our SER outlines how we are continuing to systematically strengthen elementary literacy instruction. Um, our primary focus has been and will continue to be really building teacher capacity in structured literacy and the science of reading. Um, and this year we're having an increased focus within that science of reading umbrella around oral language and comprehension, sort of like the other side of the science of reading manual. We're still continuing to focus on the phonics piece. Um, but we have a really great foundation with that. And so we're shifting our efforts into oral language and comprehension as well. Um, as you can
025see on this slide here, we've taken a phased cohort-based approach for this work over the years and we in our first three years of implementation with this work. This was a choice-based cohort model for all primary teachers or administrators. But this past school year, 2526, we scaled up and we moved to every single first grade teacher receiving um this work and this training that we've done in partnership with the UF Lastinger Center and really supporting our teachers in that small group framework with the Flamingo Literacy, which I'm sure you all are familiar with. Um so we're very excited about the next school year where we're continuing to scale and we will be implementing this across all kindergarten and second grade teachers. So, at the conclusion of next year, we will have uh K through2 fully
026trained, which we're very excited about. Um, our SER also outlines four key supports that we will be implementing in this school year. We're continuing to have that K2 prioritization as I mentioned because, as we know, strengthening uh those early years for our students ensures a stronger outcome for grade three proficiency. Second, we're going to continue our work around the science of reading, but as I mentioned, with a stronger emphasis around oral language and comprehension. Third, we will continue working with our science of learning and ESC enrichment work. So, really making sure to provide our teachers with um the tools that they need for differentiated support for both our struggling learners as well as those needing advancement. And then lastly, um family engagement. As we know, the literacy goes far beyond the classroom. And so making
027sure that we are partnering with our families uh to provide those supports um for our students who may be demonstrating reading deficiencies. And so I will oh I almost forgot about professional learning. Best part um elementary professional learning is highlighted here. Same structure. You'll see the blue is continuing from years prior and orange is brand new. So in high quality instructional practices this coming school year. We're really excited around the continuation of our structured literacy small group work but for kinder and second grade teachers. Um and then a focus on oral language comprehension and that metacognition work. And then in reading challenges in ESC you see we have a a bunch of new things that we're offering that we're very excited for our teachers. Uh specifically designed instruction standards aligned IEPs story champs and action
028um supporting language and literacy for all of our SLPs. And then lastly, back to basics with standards and curriculum for our ESC staff. And with that, I will turn it back over to Mrs. ODay for our secondary update. Okay. So, regarding secondary, you heard me talk about read 180. And that's something that we want to replicate in scale. We did focus on just putting that in high school first because there was a heavy lift with purchasing the curriculum, training on the curriculum, and implementing the curriculum. And sometimes there could be an implementation dip that happens. But thankfully we have not seen that occur. But we did put a lot of resources into making sure we created a cohort of really skilled teachers working with our students and seeing really great outcomes that come come from
029that. So now we are moving that into middle school. Our middle school intensive reading program will implement read 180 for the first time this upcoming school year. We've already pulled our high school teachers and our middle school teachers together. Our high school teachers are mentoring our middle school teachers. they are hooked and sold and very very excited about this moving into middle school and we'll also have our boots on the ground support from read 180 and then our district program specialists who are now pretty much specialists in that program. So this will be the first year that we do that in middle school and it's very much needed. You will see that um in in some cases in data in certain schools but it's absolutely a more structured literacy approach aligned to the science of
030reading than what is currently in place. So, we're looking forward to that as well as all of secondary very much focus on strengthening tiered instruction. That's something that you see elementary teachers do with a lot more fluency and with itness than you do in secondary because secondary, you know, they have six to seven classes a day. They are moving through these 47 to 57 minute periods and it's a little bit more difficult to imagine that in certain classroom settings. So providing the master scheduling support and the instructional framework support and resources to dive into a more responsive instructional approach in secondary is our focus through small group which we also have some high schools already really doing amazing work in middle schools and they're modeling and showing that to those that haven't quite gotten there
031within that framework yet as well as using the CIP and um looking into making sure that we are also integrating literacy strategies and other content areas. The big focus for secondary over the past two years was using data to drive instruction, implementing intensive reading work, and now we're moving into again tiered interventions being more systematic in secondary, moving intensive reading reform down into middle school and then also teaching those literacy strategies across the content area. So, as far as professional learning, as you heard Miss Minnelli refer, the blue is what we've already had in place and the orange is in addition to for the upcoming school year. And that is very much aligned to the systematizing and strengthening that we want to see in our secondary schools continue to advance. As we look at literacy
032for all, we're very excited that this is now our third year of literacy for all institute. We consider this a flagship experience in literacy for our district. I'm going to let Miss Minnelli share more about this as she's very excited to do so. So, I don't want to steal her thunder, but go ahead, ma'am. >> I almost did. >> I know >> because I like it, too. >> I know you do. We love this one. Uh so this as Mrs. ODay mentioned, this is our third annual institute uh over the summer which we're so excited for. Um this year's institute features nationally recognized literacy experts, engaging keynote speakers, and breakout sessions around inclassroom strategies that teachers can walk away with and use. Um we're really excited uh to be able to offer this opportunity to
033our teachers for the third year in a row. We're so grateful for our sponsors, the the Charles and Marjgerie Bransic Foundation, uh the Community Foundation of Sarasota County, and the Ira and Patricia Strauss Fund for Children's Literacy. Not only can we offer this event, which we often call the literacy wedding because it's just as much aesthetically beautiful as it is engaging and enriching for our teachers, um but also even be able to offer stipens for our teachers. So, very excited about that for this year. In addition to that, year one was very much the literacy leadership team, the instructional frameworks, decision trees, understanding the science of reading. Then we strengthened our coaching model and identified a student- centered coaching model. We brought that author and speaker in to really deepen all schools pre-K through 12
034with our cohort of coaches and also high quality strategies for interventionists. This year we're able to expand this further to bring in more classroom teachers. Now that those literacy leadership teams and our we call our literacy army have all those skills, we want to make sure now we're expanding that outward to more teachers. So that's the difference in what we have coming up and that's why you also see far more speakers and access to different areas because of the amount the different demographics that we'll have in the room as far as the teachers that are going to be involved. Very exciting for us. So, as you know, we're here today at the board work session providing you this overview and then we will be bringing it for board approval in June and then submitting in
035August along with any of our charter school plans that come forward within this time frame. Now, typically we don't have data um shared in response to this type of update, but given that we have been working through this and we have data to reference that is is an outcome of the focus framework, the strategic plan and the comprehensive reading plan. We wanted to be able to share that with you because again, we are asking everyone to be data driven. We want to be data driven as well to make sure what we're doing is working and to just illuminate some of the areas that tell us to keep moving in this direction and then talk about some additional refinements. So I'm going to cover proficiency, learning gains, lowest cortile and then level ones as we move
036through our slides. And you'll notice I have a heavy blue line between the year 23 and 24 because in response to the instruction and the changes we've made, you can really look at that living in the data in 2024, 2025 and currently we're taking PM3 right now. Third grade is testing right now and by the end of the week we'll be able to give some strong predictions as to those outcomes. But that's really where we look at data as a team as to where are we, where aren't we, what do we still need to advance, where do we want to replicate and scale. So if you notice on the right side of that line, we see strong strengths across the board in 24 or 25. In some cases both, and in some cases it's 25
037versus 24 compared to the subsequent years before that. And that's what we should be seeing. We should see a very aggressive pace moving forward always. And even the aggregate of grades three through 12, you'll see that 67% of students are reading at grade level, whereas previously anywhere between 62 and 64. So that's a huge celebration for us. And we have some areas that have made really strong jumps like if you looked at seventh grade going 60 to 68. And we know third grade made huge jumps being second in the state. So those that's where that proficiency data lives. And we're very proud of that. And that's a reflection of our teachers, school-based leadership, and district staff all working in coordination to advance student performance. Based on some that some of what we shared today, our
038learning gains, it's the same concept. You should see higher performance within years 24 and 25. In some cases, both depending on the grade level or one or the other, but overall performing higher than subsequent years before that. Notice that 23 doesn't we don't receive learning gains then. That was the first year of the implementation of that test. So you didn't have anything to compare to. So that's why that's blank. But overall the aggregate is at 62% whereas before it was in the 50s. And we always say with data especially learning gains and lowest cortile we never want to see a five in the 10's place. We still have that in some areas but we are you'll see there's been an aggressive pace of improvement we're almost there. And we do believe with PM3 data this
039year anyone that has indicators are still in the 50s. That will not be. So looking forward to sharing that update with you in July. And you'll notice in fourth and fifth grade, we haven't seen it's a little bit more stagnant there. And so we made some course corrections there as far as how we were implementing interventions as it pertains to our lowest cortile. That's been a huge focus. If you've spoken to teachers and principles in elementary school or Miss Minnelli and the team, they have taken hold of that and we're really excited about what our predictions look like for this month regarding that group of students. So we're looking to see that really take a nice jump forward. And when we look at our lowest cortile, you'll notice again fourth grade for us is is
040an interesting place that we've really focused on this year with program specialist deployment, professional learning, um supported PLC's and data analysis sessions to really advance there. We hadn't quite seen that, but then you'll notice for everyone else, we really have performed better than subsequent years to the left of that heavy line, especially when you look at things in the 30s. You never want to see lowest cortile in the 30s or 40s ever. It's for me 50 and higher and anywhere we just keep aggressively attacking that. So very very proud of that. Even looking at 10th grade going from 45% and 24 to 52 and prior to that we were at 37 and 43%. And the aggregate overall in grades 3 through 10 is 53. So that's exciting for us and we we like what we're
041seeing there as far as what we're doing with our lowest cortile of learners. Keep in mind those students, you know, if you're a level one, you're typically below the 25th percentile. There's a lot going on that's challenging learning there and it's a very um difficult place to be, but that's where we're focusing our strategy and support to make sure that those students have everything they need from our teachers and staff. And lastly, little bit different when you're looking at level ones, you want the percentage to be low, not high. Whereas the previous slides, we want higher percentages, you want to see lower percentages of level ones. And so you'll notice again we are lowering that percentage pretty much every grade level in comparison from the left side of the blue line to the right and
042the aggregate overall is at 17% where before it was 18 and 19. So moving in the right direction. There will always be work to be done here. We are aggressively monitoring and pursuing um advancements and improvements collectively with teachers, schoolbased leadership and district staff. and we look forward to sharing with you PM3 results in January to really top off what we've been doing here in these plans and also to give us direction on what we still need to be working towards. That is it for our update regarding comprehensive evidence-based reading plan. Mr. Connor, >> thank you for that comprehensive overview and I'll uh turn it back to the chair. >> Thank you very much for that. Um uh that is exciting data. Um but I'll start with my board members. Uh, anyone have any comments
043or questions? Mrs. Rose. >> Uh, thank you very much. I just want to, uh, note, Superintendent Connor and Mrs. OD, in the three decades that I've been part of this district, that this is the most comprehensive, uh, reading plan that has ever uh, taken hold and the data results are there to show the progress. And this is the most phenomenal news I could ever ask for. uh the in previous years uh the science of reading did not get the focus it should have been getting and I especially like the visual maps that you've added and the alignment of curriculum from kinder from prek to grade one that was something that was very much needed as well uh the literacy uh expanding uh professional development and the endorsements the ESE endorsements for prek teachers I mean
044you've just you've got the whole package package. Um, and I just want to end with uh Doug Fiser. We used Doug Fischer at middle schools and he's very engaging for all teachers that exciting for teachers. They have something to look forward to because he's also a practitioner. He is a teacher in the classroom which really gives him a lot of uh credibility and teachers appreciate that and like it. So, thank you. Uh, phenomenal. Uh, that's the only word I have. phenomenal. Thank you. >> Thank you, Mrs. Rose. Mrs. Barker, >> I agree wholeheartedly. This is really excellent work. And I love particularly seeing that. Um I I feel like sometimes these exercises, a SERP, can be very much like a check the box, you know, we turned in our reading plan. But in this case,
045this is a living breathing document that we use daily and I see our teachers using it daily firsthand. So I really appreciate that this is this is not just a a exercise a cognitive exercise but it's actually in practice in our schools. Um and digging in a little bit I am thrilled to see uh the focus on metacognition and comprehension because I think it was last time we talked about the SER I said oh do you think soon we could move into comprehension. So, I just I'm thrilled to see that that is the direction we're going that we've built such a a strong foundation with our phonics um that we are able to move there because I do think that that's just going to make a world of difference for our kids in even in
046their adult life um to have those skills. So, really excited about that. And I am am curious um also on a personal level because I have a fourth grader um and in thinking about the fourth graders in particular if you have any thoughts about that. My own personal thought is, you know, he was in kindergarten that first year after COVID and it was still a little bit tricky and and maybe some of those foundational kindergarten, first grade skills didn't quite make it as early as we would have liked. What do you What do you all think about our fourth graders? >> You're right on target. Spot on. And I love that you have that lived experience because that does translate into what we experience at the school level. So that is an a concern of
047how we were not able to meet the needs of students um with getting their phonics skills where they needed to be in um all the ways you need to be face to face for things like that. Um that was a deficit for any child that comes from that time frame. um in addition to other areas that we felt we needed to work differently on as far as using data to drive instruction and as you mentioned we focused heavily on phonics because that's the big difference with the science of reading is how we're hitting that side of reading development where every part of reading development always translates into comprehension that's not absent in any reading plan but how you address phonics and foundational skills is is very different so if we weren't doing that at that
048time that's clear as we see kids moving through, but then also having that COVID experience. But I also want to hand it to Miss Minnelli because they've done a lot of work on addressing that gap particularly. It's it's been a fullcourt press and um we think about it all the time. She doesn't not think about it. So, I do want her to be able to share some of that, too. >> I think that you both are bringing up extremely important points. I think the other big shift to remember is third to fourth grade is a huge jump and we focus so much in those primary grades on giving them that ability to be able to decode and to be able to tackle text and our goal is to get them proficient readers by third grade
049but when we transition to fourth now we're asking them to read to learn and so this whole component around tracking that comprehension and that met metacognition work like really thinking about thinking thinking about the reading that you're doing and applying what you're doing is where our big shift is headed because we have been working on that so much, but there's more work to do. And I think that's where you see that dip in our data and that's why it's what we're um hitting so so strong now and moving forward into next year. >> I'm just thrilled. I can't wait to see because I I I anticipate we will continue to make wonderful gains um with that focus, you know, building on our our foundation. So, thank you. Thank you so much. I really appreciate it.
050>> Thank you very much, Mrs. Marinelli. Thank you. And again, thank you. It's a excellent presentation and showing the progress and really digging in. And I think it proves when we have those structures in place how students will learn. So, I appreciate all of that. The systems and the structures you've put in place. You can just see it's like boom, boom, boom. And it we do this first, second, third, and it all builds. And I I want the public to know how highly qualified our teachers are and that they take these extra certifications and they don't have to. But this is all to benefit students. Teaching is a science. It is not easy. And people out there that think that oh education you just go in and you do this, this and this, that is
051not true today. All these subjects, but reading, it's a very complex science. And when you have so many different levels in one classroom and the teacher has to to hit all those levels, most people cannot do it that are not in education. So I want to give the kudos to teachers and staff that really go above and beyond in the certifications and give it all so children can read in that elementary and and on also um I just I have just a couple questions. So in the elementary level specifically when we have students that are not progressing the way they should they're having a difficult time even with some of the interventions and and I know the MTSS the whole that what supports are given to a teacher with that group of students that really
052struggle especially you know that lowest cortile. So it you know the term it takes a village is 100% a big part of the work and the you know to the question that you're asking. So the supports that we provide for teachers is making sure that they're not tackling that alone. So on the front end we are providing systems and structures for structured literacy to happen in the classroom. Um, as we talked about with our Flamingo framework for small groupoup instruction to make sure that they're equipped on the front end with all the tools that they need to be able to implement that differentiated small groupoup instruction to the different learners in their classrooms right off the bat in tier one. Then when we notice some of these students maybe aren't responding to that small groupoup
053differentiated instruction, we shift into that MTSS work that you mentioned and refer those students to a SWIST process. So there's problem solving that's happening with the teacher as well as the support staff on that campus, administrators, uh interventionist, resource teachers, um even our student support service personnel from psych psychologists and counselors, uh a whole team of people come together with their varying areas of expertise to be able to really problem solve around that individual student and use the decision tree resources that we have for our schools to be able to have discussions around those students and then design uh intervention ions that would best meet their needs and then we monitor and not every intervention is going to work. So sometimes we see that and while that can be discouraging at times, we just continue
054to support as that larger team and support the teacher um tracking with data and making tweaks to those interventions if needed or celebrate when they work. Want to add anything to that? Al along that line too, when it's possible and the parents are able and are involved, are strategies given to parents so they can help at home when a child is struggling. >> So that's one of our thrive our that got loud, huh? Our thrive by five um is that family engagement work that we're doing and we started that in our title one schools for that that purpose getting them connected with what are kids what are our students supposed to be doing? And again, it's not just at school, it's also at home. We need to bolster engagement there. But those are some of
055the literacy nights that we have that's supported by the district. And then each school also has literacy nights as we get closer to certain progress monitoring data points based on where kids are falling and making sure parents understand where they need to be and if they're not there, what resources can they take advantage of, whether it's the tutoring that we're providing at the school or external resources that may be needed. So, we're absolutely partnering and we've done even more of that this year. Even if talking to principles, ask them the literacy nights they've had or the getting ready for the test nights. So parents truly understand what their children are, where they are, where they aren't, what we predict, and what difference can they make in the outcomes for their children. So we are doing
056that across the board. And are are you utilizing volunteers that have specifically been >> trained in this so they know how to support that student whether it's a small group or individual because in this district in the past we had a very very strong volunteer program and reading was a specific thing and and the volunteers were trained so they weren't just out there. So, do we I know we've been trying to build that back up is are we working on that? >> Yeah, that's a part of the Thrive by Five as well. And each school also a lot of our schools actually contract with retired teachers. So, if they have the discretionary funds or the grant funds or the fundraising funds, they always lean into bringing in more staff, whether it's a a volunteer, which
057we partner in training or it's a retired teacher, because they want more hands- on deck to meet the needs of students in partnership with teachers. If they don't have the funding for that, we actually allocate that in our entitlement grants for those that don't have the discretionary funds or the backing of a PTO or an organization because we do want to level the playing field there. So retired teachers or trained volunteers, we partner with them depending on what they have access to. >> Thank you. Good. And then I was very glad to see in the summer institute you're having the um ESSE intervention that support for teachers because I don't want us to ever lose sight of our ESSE children who really have the capability to learn how to read and just need different ways
058to get there. So, I really appreciate that and I saw that I think that prek ESSE endorsement is just fabulous. I hope our teachers take advantage of that because that's where it really really starts is in that prek to catch them. But thank you and thank you to the teachers and all staff and and everybody for a great pro presentation and what you've been doing in three years. It's pretty incredible. Thank you. Thank you. This information is perfectly suited for teacher appreciation day and week. Mr. Edwards, >> thank you. Um, Mrs. Barker, I want to say thank you also to your lived life experience because watching what happens on the deis and then having it with your children and working with teachers that connect the dots is valuable information for each of us as board
059members to hear how it's actually working. So, I appreciate that feedback. Um I am also grateful that um we did talk about COVID um those two years that uh as a new school board member and watching um the best ideas and suggestions about plans and how do we in you know what what are those interventions they were they changed hourly during those times and I do think it's important that we're tracking those kids from the that time period right up through high school. That data uh is going to be important. Um and when we're talking about leaving no child behind, that means something to me because I lived it. I watched it and I was frustrated that it was all hands on deck and we were doing everything that we all thought we could do,
060but the kids are still struggling. And um I appreciate that we're talking about COVID and then it is three years from a superintendent reset to now. So we had to go through that process and we're still going through that process. But that brings me now to another point and I want Mr. Prento and Mr. Connor to pay very close attention to where I'm headed here in this conversation. My first question is, do for the charter schools that are not on our plans versus our plan, do we have grade levels that we can match side by side as to who's more competitive where the students do better? I'd like to see that start to happen and be communicated in these meetings. Second, um I'd like to look at preK data to reading on grade level at
061third grade, VPK data to reading on third grade because these are all places I'm headed with the legislature because when I listen to this incredible work that you guys are doing and we're doing it on a shoestring budget and I see Barancic Foundation and community foundation on a lot of those things that we could not afford to do because we're not getting enough money from the legislature. And I want to start using data and showing what's working where we got a leg up of equity from our foundations in order to get these particular numbers. So I want to I want to I'm serious. I want to start tracking in that last place. I also want to track behavior because when I look at low c the lowest quartortile and I look at a lot of
062those interventions or I'm looking at kids that have been that survived those two years of COVID and they're continuing. I bet you there's a real cross-section of not reading on grade level and behavior if we were overlaying that data. And that's data that the legislature needs to hear so that we can get appropriate resources to solve those problems with equity. There's that word again that we're getting from a baric or a a community foundation. We have to start showing the legislature where what what is happening and how to solve the problem. My last question is I do love that you're moving the lowest quartortile and your number anything below in that's not in the 50s is unacceptable. I love that as a stake in the ground obviously. What do we do? What are we doing
063now with the kids that are not getting there? Because here's the other challenge, right? Every minute of the day is allocated not to reading intervention. We're but whatever else instruction we have to provide by statute. What else are we doing? Where else can we partner? What can we do to get to a place where I don't want to see those numbers in high school ever unless we inherited that that child. If we inherited them from another school district, then we still have an obligation to get them up to grade level quickly. But we have to start paying attention to really driving those numbers and having the data that supports it so we can share it with the legislature and not end up being 50th in the nation when it comes to public education. That's the
064change that I'd like to see happen over the next two years is that data. So, back to my question, what are we doing now for the 35% of the kids that are not at grade level? >> We are doing a lot. We have things called press and push plans in each school. And depending on where you are in the continuum, it's either a press or a push. Um, the push comes first, the press comes second, and it's using PM2 data. um where we identify the groups that aren't making it and we assign them to intervention groups within the school. That could happen in the core instructional block. It can happen in the morning. It could happen in the afternoon. It could happen all three times. But we're also making sure that it's not disrupting core
065instruction because that would create a further gap for those students. So, we have individualized learning paths that come into small groups or individual tutoring. We use blended learning platforms as well. It's a huge assist for teachers because our teachers can't meet everyone's needs, but when they're meeting with one group, there's individualized blended learning happening for another. So that's what we do in partnership of that. We also track and monitor that. We look at the standards that they have not also made gains with and we isolate retach lessons based on that. Not review, retach. Reviewing means I understood it. I'm just doing a refresher. A retach means I didn't get it and I need it retaught different than the first time. So our reteaching based on core standards are intervention small groups that happen throughout the
066day from either an interventionist another teacher lunch bunches before during and after school. So every student that is not making it. We know what they're missing standards wise where the foundational skill deficit is and it's matched with an intentional learning path. Mr. Connor and I actually just walked 15 schools recently um chosen intentionally to see their push and press plans in action because it's one thing again to have a plan, but how is that plan coming to life within the school? And we were very, very impressed. When we were there, we saw our intensive reading teachers doing amazing work. We saw district staff co-eing with teachers in certain classrooms where deficits were occurring, working with groups in the hallway. It was a max effort everywhere. And we do feel at this point everyone's really embraced
067and adopted that language of our impact review action plans to our push plans. So we actually have that documented. We can show them to you with student names with triangulated data. We have everything tracked and um everyone has all hands on deck to make it work. But it's obviously an aggressive um approach and um we are maxed out on doing that and so we look forward to seeing the outcomes of that. >> I'm not disappointed by your answer. I I knew that it was a good question to to ask and the public needed to hear that it's not just about getting it's what else are we doing to support every child every day. But nonetheless, um those are there's still kids that are going to fall through the cracks of all that work because it's
068still between the course of a day of a school day. So, um I'm I'm also asking because we have um good afterchool programs that could incorporate a lot of what we're doing um like Boys and Girls Club, like Girls, Inc., like Laurel Civic, like these kinds of places where um and the other part of the problem is many families can't afford those programs. So there are that's more data that we need to show the legislature there's more ways that we can prove that more funding is necessary for students that are coming from andor behavior issues because I know personally those are that's a huge intersection um of of of places that we have to address and the legislature doesn't address it in their in their um funding processes. Um they they the categoricals have been
069collapsed and we're not getting the resources that are necessary for those kinds of of students. So we have to find another way to prove it. Um but in the meantime I would suggest um and I'm happy to do this is talk to um after the afterchool programs to see if they have capacity to take on some of those things. I've already done that. The answer is yes. And now we have to find a funding source for the families that can't afford to get those kids into the programs. But I know how to make that happen as well. So please let's talk a little bit about that offline. So I I I really am really excited about the way you were able to present this from the historical component, not only in the the narrative, meaning
070like factually walking through, but then supported by the data because I think that's so important. And yes, while certain measurements or assessments have been tweaked, I know that having been kept up year-over-year, it's it's interesting to look at it in a in a longitudinal way from the aspect of, you know, new leadership with the superintendent and certainly of the team. Um the priority of the board like right off the bat is we've got to we've got to seriously look at reading because that will again be the tide that lifts all ships. And so I am I'm appreciative that this is something the board was absolutely unified on, something that you, the superintendent and team were able to execute on and then to also ensure that we have this information to again when we evaluate priorities
071and make sure that we do it in the right way even with the shifting financials. Um and finally the piece that I do find and I do look at is the the co impact because of those lower learners that just completely had missed opport I mean they've lost an opportunity for the most pivotal foundation. I I personally know it because I have my kids went through it too and so it is I am I'm happy that we have the team to move and and and lift mountains. uh my time on this board, I've always heard that lower cortile is almost next to impossible to actually move and you guys illustrating that obviously is not the case. I think many of us certainly never thought that was the case. It's just you got to approach it
072differently. Um and so these numbers are are really incredible and again to your point and as Mr. Edwards also said, you know, looking at something like 50% is never acceptable. And I really I mean that's that's I agree. I think everyone would agree, but it's nice to hear that being said. And but we're not near that. We're moving again continuously. And so I I am I'm very excited just about what this means because in my mind, the way how you outline the professional development, you know, the excitement that many of these teachers don't have to do it, but they care about their work. I mean, their their outcomes, the product, the work that they put forward and having those tools. So these are all things that just in my mind set up and build a
073foundation not only for the children ironically to be successful but then and truly like if highlighting the lower cortile really moving that needle those children their trajectory has changed so dramatically for all of the measurements that Mr. Ever just highlighted that I I believe there and I would I am curious about what the crossover and tracking of of many of those items are. Um because I know that there certainly are a lot of items that we do track but also to really illustrate that that foundation is not only happening for those children but for the district. And so in my mind if you look what's it going to look like five years from now because we have really altered areas that have such a tremendous longitudinal impact in multiple areas. So I I'm I'm very
074excited with that. I I have the the question that certainly we know that there are adjustments. So strategically you guys have reset a mass an entirely different approach priorities and and and structures, but when we look at staffing adjustments, this is probably more appropriate for Mr. Connor. um you know how is that being taken into account as we look at the next year or so and to make sure that we are able to sustain this and provide the supports in order to do so. >> Yeah, it's been an evolution. So, uh, year one, we obviously with some of the pandemic relief funds. We had the ability to outfit all of our schools with literacy coaches, literacy interventionists, and then began scaling that down in year two to where schools had the ability to choose based
075on the readiness levels of their staff and where they are with their data with their students to either have a coach or an interventionist. And so, we work there. all of our title one schools we were able to continue to fully support with the supplements with the title one funding. So, you know, it's a lot of funding. It's getting creative with the the pots of money that you have. I think people need to understand that the funding comes very restricted in many cases, right? And so, we don't just get money from the state and we get to spend it how we want. So large portions of that we have to sit down and really strategize how to fund braid those appropriately so that you're obviously in compliance with those funding sources. Uh and then meeting
076the needs based on data. And so as we move into this year the conversations uh obviously again we are scaling down in terms of staff and anything outside of the classroom is the first to get reviewed. Right. teachers. We are um we are definitely prioritizing the classroom first, but when you look at the positions like literacy coaches and interventionists, now we're moving more into a cadre model. And what that what that means is that they will work with specific schools based on their readiness level. So they'll look at the data and obvious obviously with schools with higher need are going to get more time and exposure to those supports where we can scaffold less for schools that may be higher performing or maybe they don't have as many new teachers or the the professional development
077has uh really uh taken root at a school. But it's also leveraging the experts in those schools. Right? We are now in year three where we know uh who has been able to adopt the new way of work rather fast within the schools has a major influence obviously because they're there working in their PLC's with those grade level literacy uh experts and can keep that work moving in the absence of say a coach or another individual. So it's it's all about scaling the people the talent that you have being able to maximize their abilities and their influence and where they're at. So, that's really the strategy we're looking at. Um, yes, it's great to have the ability to put one in every school, but really in times when you're having to make strategic decisions, we
078have to look at data to decide where that where those resources go. I'm confident that this work will continue to move forward. Um, so we're going to we're going to be in good shape. We're going to be more efficient. We're going to be more prescriptive. We're going to look at the data and drive each of each of those decision-makings when it comes to the support. Obviously, we have a skeletal crew at the district to help support that, but they know what to focus on. It's not about it's not about necessarily the time, it's how you use that time, right? >> And that's really important. So, that's the discussions that the teams have been working on very very diligently. But I got to tell you, the support we've had with professional learning over the course of
079these three years has been able to scale this process across our schools like no other. If it hadn't been for those supports that we have with these grants, with the Barancis, with the community foundation, with Strauss, all of that, we would be well, we'd be in a we would have a problem, I would say. Um, and so, uh, that has multiplier had a multiplier effect on how we're able to move this work. I I really appreciate you addressing that because one is certainly as I said I want if you can imagine in five years at this like level how much we've lifted up the areas from the from the bottom up really how that changes the trajectory for the entire for for multiple schools for you know and it can for decades but then to
080address the professional development to your point as that's allowing us to scale so those investments are really also going to be able to sustain us um makes me very excited. It really again goes back to those systems and looking at things and how not just in isolation but in a long-term impact and I think it's being demonstrated here and I will echo as well being able to support the professional development is is critical um and should be highlighted. I know that Mr. PTO does a has been very successful actually in the legislative process when we are able to bring our data to legislators and have good relationships with them where they will listen to that so that these things make more sense when it comes to that. So I think that's a continued process I'd
081like to see us do. Obviously um I think the intent is to these are the kind of data these are the kind of movements that are our I think everyone across the state wants to be seeing. Um, so then one last question. You mentioned accountability, which I, you know, people look at it as a bad word. I think of, you know, we're measuring and to to make those adjustments as was noted. Um, and as we go into this new structure, what does I mean, if you start to see things slip, do you feel like your systems are in place where you're able to adjust accordingly? >> Yeah, when you get to year three in a process, you really start to see the roots, you know, things take root. And so the system is very well
082understood by all stakeholders internally. And so now we are able to use we we're not focused on establishing systems if that makes sense. The system is there. And now as new people come on board and enter that that's a more targeted approach for support. So you're not having to spend all your resources on getting the system up and running. Um and so that culture of accountability, right? It's all it accountability is just in inspecting what you expect, right? And that's really if we're say we're going to do something, we need to check on that. We need to look at how is it going. We need to know what do we need to do in terms of support and resources to get things that may be off track in terms of what we expect. Um so
083it can be difficult and I know in year one and two of that process there there was a little noise around that because it had gone from um a different style to a more structured expectation and so I think we've gotten through that process and so moving forward our teams are wellversed we spent a lot of time with our leaders our assistant principles our principles our literacy um interventionists and coaches the literacy for all they know the model, they know how to support the model and so when they're identifying where it's not going right, we can intervene very quickly. So I think moving forward there will be no issues with that aspect. >> Well, all good things. I um am really just very appreciative. Like I said, teacher appreciation. This really shows the fruits of
084the work that they do and in an area that I believe firmly and I'm not an educator but having raised three little kids learning through and very different learning styles and seeing how important the foundation piece was of reading and how much more one loves reading more than the others because it wasn't set up the right way is is it really does change everything. So, I can't I I'm very very impressed, very appreciative of all the work that all of you have done, but also the teachers who really leaned into it um and now can see the fruits of those labors. So, thank you very very much. Um that unless there are any any additional comments that concludes this particular agenda item, we'll move on. Mr. Connor. >> All right, moving on to our next
085item. It is uh the fun topic of the student code of conduct as we bring to you every year for an adoption. Um, I'm going to pass it over to Dr. uh, Kirk Hutchinson and Dr. Clayton to talk about the process in which we go about each year to make revisions based on stakeholder input and then what it looks forward to in the future for final approval. >> Well, thank you. Uh, thank you, Superintendent Connor and board. Good morning. a pleasure to be here today as we get an opportunity to kind of share with you in the community uh the process that we've gone through when it comes to our updates to our code of student conduct and as we do every year you know we want to make sure that we are taking a
086look at the efficacy of the code of student conduct and where are those areas that we can make some refinements and I do want to give some uh a big shout out to Dr. Clayton and the team that over the last couple of years have done significant work to uh ju change the the intent of our code of student conduct uh to the point where now we are just making slight refinements within here to make sure that we are aligned throughout the the district. And so one of the pieces is superintendent referenced to what really is our our opportunity for some continuous feedback loop. And we're really excited uh to be able to partner with a number of different stakeholders uh as we look at what are some of those refinements that we can make
087when it comes to our code of student conduct. And so uh we actually start with our teachers and and our staff. Uh so we have a focus group that we partner with with SCTA and a few times a year we have the opportunity to connect with them and when we are meeting with them it's really important because it helps us to understand and ensure that we have clarity consistency and kind of enforcability across the district. you know, feedback from our our focus group really does emphasize the need for that consistency, which makes sense, right? We want to make sure that the expectations that are happening in Northport are the same that are happening up in Sarasota and and throughout the county, you know, and so really the we ask some three specific questions to our
088focus group. You know, what's working well? because there are a lot that's working well and you'll see as we talk about just some of the refinements there's not a whole lot that had to be changed because there is uh good impact from the code of student conduct. So what's working well? What are those areas that continue to remain a challenge because we do want to identify where where do we need to make some adjustments? What are themes that we're able to pull out of the feedback that we receive? But then most importantly as well what are their suggestions for that? And so you'll see as we kind of go through all of our stakeholder groups, that's the process that we follow. We ask what's working well, you know, what are the challenges that we are
089still existing and then what are some of those suggestions for our feedback uh for for us to be able to make some of those refinements. And so we had an opportunity to meet with our our SCTA focus group which was fantastic. We also meet with community partners and have an opportunity to discuss the impact of the code student conduct with a number of community partners to gather their perspective and through some community forums, listening sessions, opportunities with our partners that we have that exist in terms of their support already on our school campus. You know, how are we able to glean the information shared from them and their experience interacting with our students? Because again, we want to make sure that this is a a document and a process that supports our students but also
090supports our staff as well. And so getting a chance to talk with our community gives us that perspective. We then part of this continuous feedback loop also involves our principles and assistant principles. You know, it's really important that we are are getting feedback from those folks who are, you know, boots on the ground. We are implementing this, our teachers, our classified staff, our administrators. And so getting a chance to hear from them in terms of, you know, the alignment with policy implementation and desired outcomes when it comes to helping support students to prevent future incidences and violations of the code of student conduct. And so the feedback from them really helps us focus on processes, documentation, reporting. What are those best practices that are happening? How can we replicate those successful interventions that are happening
091in one school and move that to scale so that it's impacting students across the district? And then as always, what are those professional learning needs that we have? You know, we heard that when we talked about the SER and the professional learning component. We have the same kind of approach when it comes to our code of student conduct. What are those areas that we need to provide that professional learning for? And then we had an opportunity to get district level input uh from our legal team, from our board members, you know, from our our district staff um so that we're able to help pull out some of those themes, continue to look at some fine refinements. Um, some kind of going through it with a fine tooth comb and looking at some of that cross
092departmental input to make sure that we aren't missing some type of a need when it comes to that the refinements and updates that we make with our code of student conduct. And then ultimately kind of our next phase after we have finished today is an opportunity uh to continue to get input um from our community and our parents and guardians. We know that that's an important aspect and so we'll have opportunities through our website, through conversation with families and through through feedback um protocols to be able to get some some input from our families when it comes to the proposed uh code of student conduct. And that feedback really again just helps us to continue to refine our processes and and procedures uh within the code of student conduct. So that the feedback you'll see
093we spent a lot of time kind of talking about that because it is so critical uh when it comes to making sure that we have the most effective code of student conduct that we can create so that we're continuing to support students and the the purpose as always is to if we do have an infraction that it stops at that low level and it doesn't continue to escalate up. And so the feedback from our stakeholders has been invaluable, you know, and so the out of that feedback there, we did end up receiving some significant some major themes, if you will. And in a minute, I'm going to pass the baton over to Dr. Clayton and she's going to be able to dive in a little bit deeper into what some of the specific updates to
094the code of student conduct uh are that we're proposing. Um, however, we do want to give some feedback on what some of those themes were. And so if you look at the at the screen, you'll see the first one really looks at consistency across the board. And so, you know, hearing from our teachers, our principles, and administrators, that consistency component is really important. We want to make sure that we are, excuse me, being fair to all of our students, our teachers, our staff, so that they know what to expect. You know, that when we say this happens, we know what the outcome is going to be. You know, I talk with my team all the time about clear is kind. and we want to make sure that we are being really clear when it comes
095to the code of student conduct. Um, it also helps to build trust, eliminate some unpredictability when we are consistent with the implementation, um, and reinforces really what those clear behavioral expectations are across the district. You know, what does it mean to be a student in Sarasota County Schools? What are our expectations? We know that when we set high expectations for our students, our students get a chance to rise up to that. And we want to be able to address, you know, those um, violations in a predictable manner. So, if we do know that we have this incident, the violation that takes place, we know what that outcome is going to be. It also serves as a great way for our our uh teachers and staff and our schools as part of their tier one implementation
096of our expectations. You know, we talk about our tiers on the instructional side of the house when it comes to intervention. We have the same on our uh behavior side of the house as well. So one of those tier one expectations is really setting and making it clear for students so they know what is expected of them and what would happen if there is a violation there. The second box that we want to touch on is really that kind of proactive detection of low repetitive low-level behaviors. You know, the intent of us being able to track that this year and really make sure that we are identifying where is that repetition coming so that we can very in a very data-driven manner be able to intervene early with those students to be able to target
097what the need is and address those repetitive behaviors. Um it's going to help us identify those patterns and reinforce the positive behaviors that we want our children exhibiting. And so just by elevating the focus that we have on identifying those repetitive behaviors and in the same token Dr. Clayton's going to talk about one way we are kind of elevating the consequence for repetitive behavior as well. Um it allows us to be able to support that student, support that teacher and staff member and family in a much more expeditious manner. If we go down to the bottom left box there and we talk about staff development and relationships and it's really about building positive connections. You know, we know that no significant learning happens without a significant relationship and the same uh applies when it comes
098to learning about behavior. And so, you know, by being really clear and making some of these minute refinements within our code of student conduct, we're going to be able to build that trust and increase student engagement in the classroom. We know that if we are able to address repetitive behaviors, we're able to make a a more um effective classroom and learning environment, right? Which helps to build trust. It helps kids know that gosh, when I go into this classroom, I'm going to be able to be there to learn. And I know that if something happens, the teacher is going to be able to address that. And so, we are um that that has been a theme that came out and continuing to find ways to build positive connections between students and staff and families. And
099so we're going to continue to work with our teachers and staff and administrators uh to be able to do just that. And then the last is that effective interventions. Um kind of going back to that concept which we have on the academic side of the house. We want to make sure that the when we have students who need interventions when it comes to behavior that we are identifying what that is. We're being very systematic and strategic in how that's which intervention is implemented and how that is monitored uh so that we make sure that we are having success with that. And there is a connection between the the student, the teacher, the administration, and family to make sure that that does come together and and it's very structured um excuse me, and that it's really
100aligned and addresses schoolwide expectations within the classroom. And so those are some of the the themes that as we talked with our uh staff and our stakeholders that we were able to glean from them. And then from that, we were able to then drill down to ver some very specific adjustments and refinements within the code of student conduct that Dr. Dr. Clayton's going to get a chance to lead us through. >> Okay, great. Thank you. So, um, as Dr. Hudson mentioned, um, the theme throughout all of this and the feedback that we received is refinements to the code of student conduct. Um, so the first that you can see on this slide, oops, sorry, it's okay. The first that we can see on this slide is that we uh took our feedback to the community
101as Dr. Hutcherson stated and Mr. Connor, the superintendent's anti-aping task force recently reviewed our current progression as it relates to vaping and the vaping crisis that we have in our community. So, uh, we did make some refinements to the code of student conduct and the vaping protocol because some of the feedback that we received from the anti- vaping sta task force is that we needed to strengthen the disciplinary response early in the process. Um, so beginning with the first incident of vaping. So we did shift the approach to more accountability at the early intervention stage of dealing with students who are um vaping in particular and we also uh defined some of those consequences to really eliminate any ambiguity that was in the process so that there's a clear protocol um that an administrator or
102a school staff member is going to take and address as we have incidences of vaping that occurs. I also want to just uh reiterate as we did at our last um workshop that teen court is an amazing an amazing partner helping us in this process to really eliminate um vaping in our schools. The next area that we updated is related to the stu student disruptions and demonstrations. So because we have a new schoolboard policy related to this, it is aligned and reflected in our code of student conduct as well to update and reflect uh reflect updates rather that were from our recent schoolboard policy on student disruptions and demonstrations. The third bucket or area where we refined is through our Florida Department of Education Cessor reporting. So we wanted to make sure that there was
103a clear uh pathway of understanding what is a Cessor reported incident as defined by the Florida Department of Education as well as a locally defined incident. So uh we took a look at all of our Cessor reporting uh codes uh so to so so to speak and u we made some standardized uh ways and pathways to make sure that the definitions are embedded within the code of student conduct. And what we believe this will do, it'll it'll reduce inconsistencies and create more of that that common expectation throughout all of our schools as well. We also made some updates to the technology uh use policy that we have uh in our code of student conduct. As we know, technology is ever emerging. Uh so what we did was we added language to reflect in our code
104of student conduct that you know there are things that are prohibited. A few years ago it was the addition of smart watches. Now, it's the addition of smart glasses or any type of technology that is incorporated into the classroom setting or the school setting used to record or augment or something along those lines. So, we did make that clarification in our code of student conduct as well. There were just a few safety and security updates. We wanted to make sure that we reflected the fact that we have open gate, our weapons detection uh system in all of our middle schools and high schools at the present time. And we wanted our code of student conduct to reflect um important very essential consequences if there is a student that chooses to circumvent the open gate procedures
105that we have. So we wanted to make sure that that was clearly stated in our code of student conduct. That was some feedback that we received from our our school uh leaders. Um and we also have some updates as it relates to the threat management process. Um, just though our community is aware that there are times that a threat occurs and that our school staff is going to be required to investigate um, and that uh, we wanted to make sure that our code of student conduct reflected what those steps look like when that investigation must occur. And then patterns of behavior as uh, Dr. Hudson mentioned earlier, there are times that there are repeated incidences that are at a lower threshold or maybe not be the things that are reported to the Department of Education
106to that level, but there's certainly something that we have to be able to detect detect early in the process. So that way we can um identify not only the pattern of behavior, but what are the corresponding supports. So uh we have some elevated consequences in terms of students on the disciplinary side who have the same infraction that occurs multiple times and allowing our school leaders to be able to act on that um in a proactive way in terms of interventions but also in a disciplinary manner as well. So those are the main refinements that we have with the code of student conduct. And so kind of what's next right whether what what are our next steps as we uh continue this process. And so, um, as we look at what some of those refinements are,
107you know, we want to make sure that we are equipping our teachers, our staff, our administrators with this information so it can be shared with with, uh, students and parents. And so, we're going to continue to develop our professional learning plan, uh, specifically around these specific updates once it is approved, uh, by the board. And one of the ways that we've done this um in the last couple of years, which we actually have been requested to continue to do, is we do put together a kind of a beginning of the year overview uh through a voiceover PowerPoint. And Dr. Clayton does a great job with that. Um where every single staff member, every single school hears the same message with some of those changes. Um, we also are building into our um, summer learning opportunities
108with our administrators and teachers and staff to be able to once approved in include these updates in a professional learning plan for them because we absolutely want to make sure that we are equipping empowering our teachers, our staff, our administrators, and our families with this information so everyone knows as we head into the start of the 2627 school year. Um, we're also going to continue to look at where were those adjustments specifically when it comes to changes, let's say, in the progressive discipline process. So, with if we take our our vaping violations, you know, in the past, we've had different incidents and different consequences for potentially four different events within vaping. That has been cut in half, right? You have a first offense and then you have a second offense and then you have all
109of the consequences within those offenses. It's not necessarily a pick and choose as it was in the past. So, we want to make sure that we are again bringing this information to light so that our students are aware of it, our teachers and our families know and our administrators what to expect when it comes to the new code of student conduct. And then one of the other pieces and this is a great partnership that we've had with the academic side of the house is really looking at our MTSS framework uh kind of reinvigorating that, reimagining that so that it addresses both academic and behavioral needs. So when we talk about on the academic side the you know the comprehensive tiered intervention plan that CIP we have one for behavior as well. So that what should
110we see at uh tier one kind of behavior interventions and expectations in a school and in a classroom and then what happens when that's when a student needs a tier 2 intervention when it comes to behavior or a tier three. And so we have built that out so that it mirrors kind of the academic side of the house. We're going to continue to provide um professional learning when it comes to that area as well. Um because we want to again clear is kind and we want to be really clear about what those changes are, what the impact they can have on our students and how we expect that to be implemented within our schools. So um we are excited about the uh opportunity to answer any questions and kind of after that uh kind of
111we have two more kind of big dates of uh for us when it comes to the codes and conduct. Uh the first would be based on feedback. We'll continue to make some tweaks and refinements between now and June 16th. At the June 16th meeting, we would um put we'll have that on as the um for the board to approve the advertisement of the code of student conduct. And then per statute, we have to have that advertised for 28 days. Uh which then would take us into the July 21st board meeting where we will look at approval for the code of student conduct for the 2627 school year. Thank you, Doc. Mr. Connor, >> Madam Chair. Oh, >> thank you. Um, thank you for that. I This is I know there's been a lot of work
112over the years as well. Um, I have some comments, but I'll open up to board members first. Any members? Mrs. Rose. >> Thank you, Madam Chair. I just have a question about the uh classroom managed uh behaviors how you address um if there's a need the consistency with that and standardizing it uh particularly uh within a school is that included in the professional learning how are you monitoring it how's that particular piece working out >> that's a great question you know so actually one of the pieces that we are looking at doing in June when we're meeting with our excuse me our school leadership is to talk through that specifically you know so that schools are identifying what are those consistent expectations across the entire campus. And we know it looks different at each each
113school, right? Each school has its own culture, its own unique, you know, needs. But within those schools, it should be crystal clear as to what is considered a classroom managed behavior and what are those uh office managed behaviors, as you will need that kind of additional reinforcement. So, we're going to be working with our administrators. Uh we have sessions already planned with Dr. Clayton and Dr. Frost. uh where they're going to integrate the kind of that tiered intervention plan and how does the code of student conduct connect to that so that we aren't seeing these as two separate entities, right? They really are coming together to create a a very intentional system to support student behavior. >> I'm looking forward to that and I and I truly agree with you that uh the difference in
114schools you bringing in uh a lot of different elements. I'm particularly interested in the within a school how that's being standardized uh given traditionally that um administration was for the most part addressing um the uh behaviors uh in the school and now introducing at the teacher level. Um I'm really interested in how that's working out and and the results the productivity from that. >> Yeah. Uh so one of the the things that we actually are doing with our administrators is kind of developing these look fors if you will you know so when they're again when they're in their school setting they know here are our expectations and if I don't see that what can we do to support teachers in those areas so that there is that consistency so it's not we're not just saying
115hey you guys need to do this and good luck to you you know and we're giving them those resources so that they have the ability to say here's how we're going to monitor this but then here's what we're able to utilize ies as a resource whether it's a PLC professional learning that the administrator is leading whether it's at a faculty meeting so that they can continue to reinforce what those expectations are but also to build the capacity of our teachers especially in the areas where that's not quite hitting the mark. >> Thank you. >> Welcome. >> Thank you very much Mrs. Barker. >> Thank you. Um I am always fascinated by student behavior. No surprise there. But um I it struck me as as we were listening to this um and and thinking back about
116our our focus on professional learning particularly around literacy, literacy for all. Now we're talking about math for all. And then I I had the thought it seems warranted that maybe maybe we also need behavior for all. I I mean you call it something cuter than that obviously, but but um at the district level, you know, we have certain expectations. we ex we expect that um you know literacy will be accomplished for every student. Well, I I think we could have those same expectations around behavior and arm teachers with some of those same resources because just as there's a science of reading, there is a science um to student behavior. And I think, you know, perhaps given the fact that most teachers cite student behavior as being one of the reasons they leave the profession, um,
117as being one of the things they're most unhappy with in their classrooms, um, and I know I I I'm sure the Baransix bank account, you know, can only accommodate so much uh, professional learning, but um, just a a thought that came to me after after talking about literacy and now thinking about behavior, how can we arm teachers especially as we're removing the supports of the behavior specialists, you know, in the same way that we're removing the support of the literacy coach and the literacy interventionists, but now our teachers are armed to do that. Is there is there a way to take that model of training classroom teachers um to really feel confident in their ability to address those behaviors? >> Kirk, Kirk, I'll I'll jump in then I'll I'll toss it back to you. Um
118that's absolutely a great point. You know, we talk about behavior as being a a driver for why teachers lead the profession. I think of no better. You know, we have great experts in the classroom. And one of the things we're really proud that we launched this year was the MVP Institute, which was a teacher professional learning day led by teachers. And we had a keynote speaker, Amy Dean, the behavior queen. We've talked about it here as kind of a jumping off point. But to your point around really what is the expectations at a school, one thing we haven't done from a from a top- down approach from the district is to tell schools this is how you manage discipline. We obviously have a framework with a student code of conduct to tell you how to
119have consistency so that whether you're at school A or school B, the consequences, the enforcement of those misbehaviors are fair and consistent. But we have teachers that are really good experts at building relationships. It really starts there. like teachers have to build a culture within the four walls of the classroom where students feel safe, they're ready, they're there's conducive to learning. So the relationship piece is kind of the foundational starting point. Um and and you know that's just having people who are just passionate about helping kids be successful and then knowing what the structure is at the school for when things when there is misbehavior. Right? We talked about classroom behaviors and office behaviors. What what gets sent to the office? Uh sometimes it's easier to send the classroom behavior to the office, but we
120really have to use that progressive style of discipline, which is something that schools I know in their school improvement plans basically have two goals. You have an academic goal. What is what is our focus for the year to press forward in an area academically where we need to see improvement? And then there's a culture goal. What do we need to do? And that typically is around behavior. And then the strategies and the checkpoints, the progress monitoring, the support and resources are outlined in that school improvement plan. But it can become, like you said, one of those documents that you just complete at the beginning of the year and you put it on the shelf. >> And it's really bringing that back and having continual conversations with schools. >> I don't think the answer for us
121is to uh create a district uh schoolwide management plan. I think we have to give them the right um touch points, the right support because it's simple, but it's not easy. >> Simply, it's about building relationships. It's about being firm, fair, and consistent and making sure that you know exactly how to handle when things get out of line. Simply not easy in the day-to-day, right? because you have personalities, you've got uh you know, adults have bad days, students have bad days, you know, the parents may be involved or not involved. There's a lot of those things that make it muddy and messy. But if we have really clear expectations, which we're, you know, sharing with our schools, that helps in the long run. But you're absolutely right. We've got to continue to find ways and
122opportunities to support teachers in in those skills because we can't assume that they have all of those skills, right? U maybe it's how do you build a better relationship with your students, especially the ones who cause you the most trouble, right? Sometimes I have found in my experience that those are the ones we want to cast aside. That is not the solution for the child to start behaving right in your classroom. So, it's it's a it's a multi-layered thing, but u I think we're moving in the right direction. And I'll pass it over to you. >> Um grant-wise, I do want you to find comfort in the fact that we do build that into our Bansic grant. There is a section for student support services, which includes everything that you would find under that umbrella
123for professional learning to include behavior management supports and other initiatives. There's math for all, there's literacy for all. There's also a component we're adding this year for specialized program teachers, making sure that those serving those populations have access to high quality professional learning, research, um, and initiatives like we do in literacy and math. Um, as well as other ongoing professional learning, as Mr. Connor said the MVP Institute and and leadership development, not just for our school-based leaders, we have added teacher leaders in there this year to continue to build that collective efficacy for everyone working on these initiatives in our schools. So, they do fund that all. And I'm going to turn it back over to Kirk so he can share what we're doing with that funding this summer and going into next year to
124address what Mr. Connor and what you've shared, Miss Barker. And so one of the pieces and priorities for us is really how do we equip and empower all teachers and staff. And so we are really excited about the opportunity to provide every single staff member who works with kids. So teachers, classified staff, paras um with what is called mindset verbal deescalation training. So we actually are going to be training um a number of individuals, one trainer from every school um who will then be able to train their their staff in these verbal deescalation strategies. So if I have a kiddo who is starting to act up, you know, um how do I intervene and interact with that child so that I am responding to that behavior, not reacting to that behavior. We don't want to
125escalate this inadvertently because we've said something or done something. And so we are working with every single student by uh excuse me, every single teacher and staff by the first student day. Um, so we have a series of professional learning opportunities set up at each school throughout the entire district through the summer where every single staff member will have an opportunity to participate in this. And if they don't, if they can't get to it during the summer or before the end of the school year, we have dedicated the Wednesday of pre-planning week where those school-based trainers will be providing every remaining staff member with those skills so that by that first day of school, everyone has had that who's working with our kiddos. And then we're going even deeper in our areas with our specialized
126programs and our Oak Park staff where so the mindset training just to kind of give you some perspective is you know around three and a half four hours and that's just how do we help verbally not any type of physical intervention but how do we verbally help a child kind of deescalate from a situation that they're in. For our specialized program staff and our Oak Park staff we actually are going to be training those staff members in what's called PCM. It's professional crisis management. It is a two-day training where it's enhanced verbal interventions and then there are some in the event that we have to keep a child safe uh physically we have teach our staff how to uh safely and appropriately intervene in that manner as well. But again that's an enhanced training that
127they're going to be receiving. So we really are looking at this holistically, right? We we want to give our teachers every bag in their in their in their every trick to go in their bag, so to speak. Um, and this is a way that we're going to be able to continue to support, equip, and empower them um, with those strategies so that those those classroom managed behaviors hopefully we can continue to reduce and prevent before they even begin. >> Thank you. I appreciate that. I may have to sit in on um, one of your mindset trainings because I may need to deescalate my own children at some point. I could use a little refresher. It is May. Um, so thank you. I I I think um my my point wasn't that it would be something
128that the district would um push down so much as just arming our teachers with more and more professional learning so they feel more and more confident in addressing those behaviors in the classroom. Um and and kind of a shared focus as a district on that. Does that make sense? Um and al along those lines and Dr. Dr. Clayton, you and I already discussed this and um so this will come as no surprise to you, but I just wanted to put it out there for the rest of the board. I I know in um some districts in Florida, they've revamped the way they do their inschool suspension and and I have done this actually myself um at a school I practiced in um turning it from more of a passive model of like where you're just
129sort of sticking the kid, you know, there go do your work and stay out of everyone's hair for the day. Um to an intervention center model uh where you provide targeted academic and behavioral interventions. And it's even even just that shift in the language from ISS or in school suspension is a very passive kind of sounding word as opposed to an intervention center is like we are actively you know providing you with something to change your you know help you uh learn better skills, learn better behaviors. So, um I know that's not something that can happen all at once, but you know, just the thought process around what are we doing with our inschool suspension and how can we leverage that um particularly as we are um focusing on increased consequences for repeated behavior and
130um I know when when I did that work um we saw a huge decrease in recidivism. So, just a thought >> through through the chair if you don't mind. Uh I think that's wonderful. I think we can act, you know, take the structure. Obviously, it's a removal from u the regular instruction into a place that we can be more intentional about what is actually happening there. If they're just sitting there completing their work, doing um you know, not very much because they're just removed from the environment, there is definitely opportunity to maximize that time to figure out why that student may be acting the way they are. uh maybe it was just a bonehead decision or there could be some underlying causes and we are intentional about the supports provided. So uh we'll we'll take
131a look to see how we can make sure we're maximizing that. >> Lots of options. >> I like the intervention center title. I think that's kind of good too. >> Yeah, I think it was Penelis, but I'm not sure. But anyway, I thought it was I thought it was great and then I remembered how I did that a long time ago and I thought maybe we'll see. Thanks, guys. >> Thank you, Mrs. Marinelli. >> Thank you, Madam Chair. Thank you. and Dr. Clayton, thank you for the one-on- ones again last week and all the changes because we know this document is very very fluid and can be addressed at any time during the school year. So, I appreciate that very much. I had um I know you touched on it, but I I would like
132to just hear a little bit more how the student input and especially the anti- vaping task force input was addressed and and their recommendations some of their recommendations were incorporated in this code of student conduct. So could you just give a little explanation of that and a Just want to make sure I don't miss anything. So, I'm looking at all my notes. So, yeah. So, our students were amazing. Can we just say that? Um, we had our meeting. Thank you, Mrs. Oday. We had our meeting at Northport at the uh Northport um city hall with Teen Court. I just want to give another big shout out to Teen Court for the amazing things that they do. But we had a good a good amount of students, especially from the Northport community, who came out and
133they gave us some really really clear feedback. So, Mr. Conor and I, we sat together the next morning and we kind of went through their feedback. So, um, one of the things that they recommended is that, um, we really, um, have a clear pathway of understanding like what does an administrator do at every single incident of vaping. So, we took away the ambiguity there and we made it so that when there's an incident of vaping, all the things that are in the recommended um, changes to the code of student conduct will occur for every offense. The other thing they felt was that this is an issue of vaping and if we really want to address this then we have to go from having so many opportunities before you get a severe consequence to bringing that
134up closer and this came from the students. I thought that was really um encouraging to hear that. So what we did from there was like Dr. Hutcherson said we collapsed it from four occurrences down to two. The other thing that they felt and this I didn't even think about this you this is why we have to listen to our students is that they felt we had outdated terminology. So, we use the word tobacco because that's what the Florida Department of Education utilizes. They said, "Nobody says that. Kids don't say that. They say vaping. They say maybe nicotine if anything." So, we updated the terminology there. So, we were clearer with that. Um, another thing that we did was um they felt like, you know, sometimes when it comes to vaping, it's a it's an issue
135that's really impacting the culture of the school. They want to see it gone, but they really felt like we have to address, you know, removing certain privileges that students may have if they're vaping. So, um, some of the things we talked about was, um, you know, where where it's appropriate, um, removing certain extracurriculars, um, having hall pass restrictions. That's a really big one, too, especially if we know students are not where they're supposed to be in vaping. Um, and then an idea that also um, didn't come from the students, but I heard it from several of you, which I thought and others as well, is um, the removal of the parking passes because the vape, you know, if you drove if you drive to school, you drove to school with that, you know, park that
136vape in your car. So thought that was a really good idea. So that made it its way into here as well. Um and then the other thing that we did is um for the first events of vaping, I think this is uh real powerful. We talk about relationship based practices. So every time there's an event of vaping, the school administrator will sit down with the student and with the parent. Okay, that's the the nice um uh group there um and go through what we are calling a vaping intervention agreement, which we're still building out with feedback, right? And that vaping intervention agreement will be an opportunity for the student to say what their role and responsibility will be moving forward, the parent as well as the school who's providing the supports. If there is a
137violation of that agreement, it will lead to a second chance agreement on the second offense, which we know that is a pathway to alternative education, triad settlement agreement, things of that nature. So, this is really bringing the uh escalation of the consequences to the forefront. And uh this was something that our students um they were very verbal um by asking us to do when we met with them. >> Well, thank you and I appreciate that and and I think it's important for people to hear that we do listen to students that you absolutely did listen and put some of their suggestions in the code. >> Oh, can I say one more thing? >> Oh, yeah. >> Uh we're going to meet with them um next month and go over it with them as well. >>
138Oh, good. Okay. I look forward to hearing that at the final when we do get a pack >> when we advertise it and then when we vote. So, but some of this gave me like deja vu back when I was a practicing school counselor at Southside and you know some things just don't change in education and student behavior is one of them. It just all depends on the escalation and when that last nerve has that that kid has hit it with that teacher. So I think some of but what we can't forget is the principal sets the tone of that building. Nobody else does. When he sets the tone and the expectations then everybody parents know what those expectations are. At Southside, we had three rules and every kid K through five could tell you
139what those three rules were. And I think when some of those practices and structures were not in place, we lost some of that. So it sounds like that is starting to come back because when kids know what that expectation and when teachers know that when those expectations are not being met, they need to know what what the next step is because they can't do it all. Whether that is having another teacher, they go in that child like you take them in your reading class for a few minutes to give them a break or when are they to be removed from class and then what happens there? Because until all of that takes place, we can have the best code of student conduct and nothing's going to work. So, I'm glad to hear that that's that
140has been happening the last three years that those structures are in place and the principal sets the tone and that consistency because that's what really upsets teachers is when that consistency is not there with the discipline and when do you call a parent when which should be right away but to let them know but I think that for me is one of the most important things And you know many many years ago we did have an elementary counseling grant and Dr. Clayton you were at Emma and we did have that intervention set up. So no student unless it was a really horrific offense which I don't think there were any but they weren't suspended they had that day or how many days but an ESSE teacher was assigned to that. So th all kids had
141interventions and they didn't lose any academics and then the parents were brought in. So it's doable but you have to look at how staff and right now I don't know how we'll do that with what we're going through but it is doable because it's been done before at our elementary schools but it takes help. Plus we also work with the um the family counseling the Jewish and family counseling. they brought we had a counselor based at the school so our school counselors could do what they needed to do but we had a therapist there so at some point those are all kinds of things to and I bring that up because at some point we're not going to have some of this historical knowledge to know that we've done these things before and it is
142doable but it's going to be taking a lot of input from the superintendent and how we're going to do that with staff because right now I know That's going to be hard, but it might be something to look forward to. So, but thank you very very much and um let's I think it's great. At least we have the structure in place. >> Thank you, Mr. Edwards. >> Um thank you so much for the time. Um and I have seen a change in the student code of conduct from the time that Dr. Clayton and I and Dr. Green started conversations way back when. I think it was about three years ago when we really made the big shift and um really tried to um create a plan for behaviors or inappropriate behaviors in in that case.
143Um and I do think it's uh moving in the right direction. Um the the I attended the vaping task force last meeting in Northport and the question that I asked here in the workshop I asked there which is um the amount of incidences that are recorded and the perception of what the students actually experience um in terms of their um visualization of incidences. in the restrooms were far far apart. And so one of the things I had suggested and I just wanted to find out where that was in the process is that when an administrator staff person walks in to the restroom and there's a group of people um and there's a puff of smoke. Um, all of those people in my opinion who are part of that group who are either supporting the person
144that's vaping or the person who is actually vaping in my opinion are guilty. And what that says is that you as a student cannot participate even in an association of vaping because what I've heard from students is that they won't even go into the restroom because there's a group of kids. I mean the incident that we actually had in Northport where the fight happened was a group of kids. So, I'm I'm looking for it to be at the discretion of the staff person walking in and saying, "I saw six kids. They weren't in the stalls. They weren't in there doing the business that they were intended, but they were part of a group of vaping, so therefore all are guilty." And that is what I think is the kind of thing that can change behaviors
145and tolerance of behaviors so that if even if you weren't vaping but you were standing there talking to someone that was you're guilty >> is that it is a question or >> I I I'm suggested it just because that's the kind of consequence that changes behavior in a big way. >> I will add to the just for sake of discussion I will say that I absolutely agree that we need to take a hard stance to be a deterrent for the school for vaping in our schools. Um I think it really does depend you know we we off we do have to remember about students rights and so when when uh a student may be in a group uh we have to investigate why they are they're in that group and if they're to your point
146just hanging around and they're a part of that group then there are ways to handle that but sometimes you can kind of be in the wrong place wrong time scenario too. So, um, if if someone is just happens to be near that group in the bathroom, that obviously would need to be all teased out, we'd have to figure all that out. But I do understand your point. Your point being that if you are um not up to good things and doing what you should be doing, there should be consequences for that, right? Um, I get a little leery just about just coming in and seeing, oh, six of you are there, but one may be trying to get around to go to the bathroom. You know, there's a there's a lot of those types of
147scenarios that obviously would need to be to worked out just to preserve that students do have the right to be in the bathroom. Um, and those are things that administrators deal with all the time. This is why it takes them so much time to deal with discipline because there's so many nuances to it and they have to get a statement from this one and call the parents and and you know, one incident can wrap up an administrator's half a day or a whole day depending on the situation. But I do think the essence of the point you're making, Mr. Edwards is is the right one. Um, as long as we preserve that students are all their rights are being uh in in taken care of. >> Listen, I'm not looking to take students rights away
148by any stretch of the imagination. But what I want to do and and that's where the student code of conduct also can be used as a tool for academic achievement and good decisionmaking. So, if you're that student that is actually in there going to the restroom for the right reason, you're then you're either doing that or you're getting the heck out of there because I don't want to be standing next to the person that's vaping having a conversation cuz I will be guilty by association. And that's what I'm really trying to get to is that our students are starting to think about their choices, think about their behaviors, and that I would rather hear someone say, "Oh, no, Mr. Connor, I was only in there, and I was literally trying to get away from them.
149I'd rather have that conversation than the one where the kids are thinking, I I didn't have the vape in my hand, so I'm not guilty." That's the the the space that I'm trying to close up for the kids that are frustrated, that are really trying to um change behaviors on the campus. The other um place there um where we talked in our one-on- ons was um I love the vaping contract that you go through with the parent on premise. I think that that really does um u escalate the parent needs to come in needs to be part of the conversation. I I have concerns where a family where the family is not participatory. I am concerned about that. But we also talked about um educational materials, professional learning for the parents and the student for
150that matter on the cons of of vaping, the addiction, all of the things that can happen. Did did any of that get addressed? >> Yes, it did. So, the way it's going to get >> you had more grace on that. >> I did. And and thank you. I really do appreciate all of um your feedback and your comments. The way that's getting addressed is by looking at the actual um contract that we determined, right, and collaborating with the Department of Health. Uh I know you have a contact, we have some contacts as well, um to really help us determine what those resources look like. So, one of the things that Mr. I is referring to is that when we sign that anti-aping agreement, we can have some direct um supports embedded in there um where
151we expect a parent and a student to go through a video about the perils of vaping and what it's actually doing to your body, the very serious uh you know addictive nature of these chemicals and these intoxins etc. So um those something that we're working on um so we'll have that in place. Our goal is by the beginning of the school year, of course, we want to get u feedback from the professionals in places like the department of health, health and teen court, but also from our schools as well so that it's a very educationally relevant um document. So from our our conversation to today, we don't have it completed, but we definitely have it as a high priority. >> Great. Um and then lastly in the threat management place there was um uh I
152think where you we where we left off was that if it was late in the day this occurred that this that the investigation can't occur um at that time but that it would hap it would happen in the next school day. But we had talked about the parent coming to the school and retrieving the student so that the student wasn't going home their traditional way, whether that's a bus or whatnot, that the parent was notified and had to come to the school and retrieve their student. >> Okay. Sorry. That's okay. I just it was a safety issue for me. >> Yes. So, okay. So, what you're referring to and it is a safety issue. What you're referring to is u something that we have with the threat management process where from time to time a
153threat comes after the school day, right? And the school administrator doesn't have the ability to investigate. But by two sets of statutes, we want to do what's right by the situation. And the first is the threat management statutes to make sure that that process is investigated which requires the administrator to meet with the student as well as to meet with the parent and others that are you know in that process and obviously that can't happen if it comes after the school day. Um but there are times that uh the administrator is going to call that family and tell the family to bring the student in the very next day so that way they can complete that interview and that process. Um so that's the u first set of statutes. The other thing is when it
154comes to um our attendance uh policies, we want to make sure we're following that as well because if for some reason a parent is not able to investigate and the threat is serious enough that the school administrator believes that the child should not be in their genetic classes and the child has to stay home, we have to notify the parent of that before that occurs. So, um, this is allowing us now to be able to really keep safety and security at the forefront when we're going through and navigating the threat management process. So, we just wanted to make sure we had language in the code of student conduct so our families were aware that from time to time this will happen. But the goal is that students are coming into the school setting even in
155the nature of a threat uh with the parent for that interview on the very next day. That's possible. >> And what about the day of? So, if it's 2:00 or 3:00 and the investigation can't occur, do we reach out to the to the family and say, "This happened, the investigation will start tomorrow, but you need to come and pick up your child today." >> Absolutely. And so, that is part of our threat management process is if we feel that there is any type of potential for harm, um, we are going to have that parent come onto campus and and take that child home. >> Thank you. >> We won't put them on the bus. And then my very last question I promised about vaping was I wanted to ask the question of the can open
156gate be taught to look for vapes. To a degree it can but it is not um highly successful because it is designed to look at certain densities and shapes and um material. The problem with vapes is that they come in all shapes and sizes. all types of material and densities. So, it it is problematic, but there is a way to tune up some of the settings to pick up certain certain things. So, uh probably not the most foolproof way, but there is ability to do that to a degree. >> Thank you. I guess I'm showing my age. I didn't know that vapes are are are so varied. They are. >> Thank you everyone. and you did a great job and I appreciate you answering my questions. >> Thank you, Mr. Edwards. And just to echo
157that sentiment when I was meeting with Dr. Clayton, I had the same comments. I know years ago even with Mr. Chief Enos, I I the change is so fast. I'm not in that I I don't know those different terminologies or what the different densities are, but I'm glad you guys do and I'm glad we're able to update uh you know the v the varied components here even with the language and meeting with the different task force. I'll step back and just say, you know, to me, and this has been iterated in a lot of different ways, but I think it uh it is really important to recognize that, you know, the behavior piece in my opinion, and I think many people agree with this, not only does it drive um teacher retention or departure, but
158it's also a huge driver of parents making a decision on where they want to send their children to school, it also creates the culture on the campus. And I know that's talked about a lot. So, you know, in in and I I I think seeing this uh transform the student code of conduct over some years, I do hope that it does hit those components of being clear um and then applied consistently with the consequences um and also used as a tool to deter people to Mr. Edward's point of you know guilt by association. All of these different things are looked at as a component to deter bad behavior so they can see those consequences and if it is a out of school suspension does that really drive behavior for certain students or they just say
159oh they don't care and then you know I I am interested to at least evaluate um what Mrs. um Barker had mentioned because there are different opportunities to seize in those moments but it just I' be curious to to pull back that onion a little bit more. Um, but I also I know that like what is a driving consequence that's going to prevent some of these students um from making those decisions and loss of privileges to me is one of the things that gets their attention a little bit quicker because they have an immediate understanding of that consequences versus the long-term impact of something on their record because they really haven't faced that yet. So I I am I am I am happy to see this. I really loved reading the comments. I think having
160people stakeholder impact is very important or I'm sorry uh input is is very important and I I believe we do it in a lot of areas but being able to illustrate it in the way that you did particularly in the binder with the comments and stuff like that which were interesting to really evaluate. I appreciate that. Um, one question I know in the aspect of well, we talked about the strengthening response and and I again I I can't I couldn't agree more because I think that was something a takeaway that I had and I believe it was a different issue not not vaping but you know it was something up to five warnings at that point. We're kind of putting unveiled threats out there. So, um, as long as we're able to support our administrators,
161as we talked about before, with a variety of these, um, making sure they're prepared and planned or and supported, I think that this has potential, uh, lot lots of potential. Um, one of the other questions is on technology. I know we talked about wearable, but is there, and it could be in here, do we address academic dishonesty in our student code of conduct at all? >> Can you? >> Yes, we do. Um it's a very specific code um that it used to say cheating but we've revamped it when we revamped our school board policy to reflect uh the language in the school policy and it's called academic dishonesty. >> Okay. And that's reflected in here. >> Yes. Conduct. >> Okay. Thank you for that because I think that just when I saw the the technology
162it made me think from the AI stand but I obviously know there's broader issues when it comes to academic dishonesty but the consequences align to that. And something else that I think was mentioned, um, I do agree, you know, reading being that tie that lift all cell shifts, the behavior piece is is a critical component in in so many elements that are are key to the success and sustainability. And so with the changes in the staffing and I know this was addressed but um and behavioral specialists being pulled but can you talk a little bit about how that model looks for the support at the school level if with the changes in staffing? So most of that was addressed in the summer in terms of the um staff that were dedicated specifically to behave our
163behavior coaches, right? And so we we won't see much of a change from what we've experienced during the course of this school year. Um and then you know we do have the supplemental funding like title one where schools I think all of our title ones actually have a behavior interventionist or behavior coach uh and will continue um based on the principal's discretion. Um, but that will not change. Obviously, it's been an adjustment period this year, just having had those coaches over the course of uh several years. Um, but there will not be significant differences between what they've experienced in the 2526 school year compared to 26 27. If I'm missing anything, you can >> just wanted to add in we do have our ESC behavior coaches for all specialized programs. So, if you have specialized
164program, that automatically comes with that staff member. We also have additional aids depending on the intensity of the behaviors within those units that are associated with behavior. To Mr. Connor's point, our title one schools can purchase behavior coaches if if they feel that they need them. Some don't, right? It really it we're not going to make people do something with their funds that that they don't need to do them with. We did have an off-ramp to funding all behavior coaches in schools and we supported that through some fundraising with the mental health grant in other areas. But what we still continue to fund is in specialized programs and then title one schools can fund their own at this time because we also fund an interventionist districtwide for all 26 schools which allows title one schools
165to say okay you're funding one of these I can fund one of these. So it's a constant dance with funds. Um but we've been able to make it work where it's most important. >> And just to close close on that the it really is the specialized programs where we saw the biggest adjustment. And so, you know, that was an opportunity for us at the district level to see where we could come back and maybe even add additional support, especially with behavior checks, very high incidence cases where students are exhibiting those behaviors. And so, they need that intensive support and more hands-on deck. So, we're we're willing to adjust based on the need. Um, because we know when we make decisions, it looks good on paper sometimes, but in reality, you've got to assess the the
166true reality of that. and then u redirect when necessary. And we saw that a lot in some of our specialized programs. >> No, and I'm I'm really glad to highlight that because I think that I know that it was a multi-year approach then but behavior is a constant conversation. It's something people whether they're inside the academic arena or not understand easily. And so if there's uh any spike or anything public or anything like that and then there's concerns of those those reduction in resources, I wanted to make sure it was clear that that has been over the last two years. that's not changing now, but um that those it's more prescriptive, which I think is the right approach. I think it's the most fiscally responsible approach. Um but then making sure we're monitoring it because
167we you know, all systems go. Go ahead. >> You just brought something to my attention when you made that comment. So, I want to make sure that I'm being transparent. So, looking into next year, the the one adjustment around uh safety and security campus aids has been adjusted at our high school levels based on enrollment. So, we know some schools are going to experience an adjustment because of Wellen Park opening. And so, that may uh predicate at Northport or Venice High School a shifting of resources of those campus security aids because if you're losing 300 kids, you may not need to support as many campus security aids. There was a time where we kind of blanketly allocated the personnel just because you were a high school. you've got six security officers, uh, campus aids. We
168have moved to a databased approach based on student enrollment. So, you know, if you have up to a thousand or up to 1500, this is how many campus security aids that you would be receiving. So, I just want to make sure I clarified that before because you you kind of prompted that in that last. Well, and they're two different things, but I do think it's really important the prescriptive piece of it and then making sure I mean if there was an area of incident, you know, the difference of the behavioral support systems versus the security aids are two completely different things. And I guess the big point or question if you want to confirm is because that prescriptive approach is occurring um that shift in resources is not leaving the eye off the ball. Okay.
169Because that was a concern. I think there's we just need to make sure that's clarified. So I appreciate that. Um the final piece I will say um you know and this comes up a lot and over the years and I think this this falls right in line with it um and it's addressed but are the parent resources and there's so many hours in a day and I know we have such a critical component but that partnership and that lack of understanding because things do change so quickly to the to what we um you know even just highlighted but and I know we talk about it you know from reading standpoint how do we support parents to better understand identifying issues with their student or if they you know what books to from what books to
170read with their young children, but also you know how the support for the b the vaping social media I keep thinking and and the supports for understanding ESSE. So there's been a over the years we've really tried to focus on different supports for parents. Um and I don't know if we have the opportunity to build kind of one of a central area. Again I know our Bailey wick is K12 but if there are opportunities because there multiple different topics in which and I don't think extensive I don't know if when we talk about students you know parent uh parents coming at nighttime you know what are those attendants like if are there different ways to reach them those are just a broader thought process of just different resources that will help us work smarter reach
171more people and hopefully support their students but there's just something that came up in my mind when we talked about this Mr. Mr. Edwards, I also see your Did you have another comment? >> Thank you. Um, there's a couple of things I I just want to tie this all back in from at least my seat. Mr. Connor used a a phrase, sometimes a kid will make a bone head decision or there's some reason why the student is reacting or behaving that way. So, I I get that. Um, and Mrs. Zod and I have also had conversations where the number one complaint I get from teachers during the downsizing and the right sizing that we've gone through fiscally recently is behavior and the behavioral coaches that we're losing. But Mrs. OD and I had conversations where
172we want teachers to to have the ability to address those behaviors themselves face hand and learn how to do that. not just, oh, okay, I had a kid with bad behavior and move them over. So, the struggle here for me is still around funding. It's it's we're doing the best we can with the dollars that we have is basically what I keep hearing. And what I know to be true is that's not enough. We don't have enough funding. and that um in order to um address behaviors that are caused by some underlying issue so that we're talking student outcome that student can overcome that mental health challenge or that trauma challenge or that behavioral challenge in order to have an an outstanding student outcome is the place where we struggle. And that's the part that
173I want to keep bringing up, not to the team because I'm preaching to the choir. I know I am. I know they know what I'm saying. But what I'm really trying to say is the problem is in the funding so that we can address that and ultimately get to the student outcome that we all want. Thank you. >> Thank you very much. Well, I think a lot of it comes down to a lot of the data points and they're them telling a story. you guys have done a really tremendous job of keeping up with that and that overlap. I um even to the point where we talked about during ESSE and the you know the lower kindergarten grades and seeing the the percentages are higher in demand and even to really evaluate for projection purposes
174what that looks like from co for funding and already I know I've already had those conversations with members of the legislature because it's a trend we can see it and but having the more data to to illustrate these things I think does help. Um but also it I think there are there are connecting factors with behavior with ability to read and all of these components that you guys are really addressing in a systematic aspect. Like I said, the last part is if we are able to continue this on that academic focus, I think there's a real exciting opportunity to look at what what the district looks like five years from now in a lot of these capacities because we were really keeping our eye on that core focus of supporting them to be successful in
175the classroom so they're not frustrated through all the fun developments. Um, and I will end on the deescalation. I also thought the same thing um when it when they were talking about uh deescalation tools and and Mrs. Barker, your comment about, you know, some support when it comes to being a mom. I totally understand that. So, I'm curious. Anyhow, um I have no additional comments. Are there anyone else? We're good. Well, I appreciate this. I appreciate the the ongoing work. I know this is a document, but I know the team is is is really hands-on when it comes to these things. So, I I genuinely appreciate your support and um veracity on this. Mr. Connor, on to the next item. I know we break at 12:30. If you want, you tell me. Um, I think
176we'll go a little bit beyond 12:30, but um, I know Dr. Kimp talks fast and he can get us through this presentation. I I I'm proud to say that we have been working through over the last several months the team under Dr. Kimp's uh, direction to move forward the uh, process for changing the boundaries related to the rebuilding of Garden Elementary. As you know, uh that school is quite old and we have experienced a lots of issues environmentally with uh Garden Elementary. And so what a great opportunity as we uh look to totally reconstruct that building for that community um to go through this process in terms of balancing. This also not only addresses the garden um building, but it addresses some of our capacity issues that we experience at Laurel Ncomomas and and some
177other areas like Taylor Ranch. So, he's going to go through where we're at in terms of that process with redistricting for garden. >> Thank you, Mr. Superintendent Connor and Madam Chair, board members. It's always great to be last um the last on the docket right behold holding up lunch and f and following a pref you know following the professional presentation firm of OD Manelli Hutchinson and Clayton so Patrick left but he better be careful because they're coming from and with and with some sprinkles of Connor you know that they'll be coming for you that firm but um speaking of opportunities to serve we're going to be talking about redistricting um you know for decades this board did not have to address any of us for decades for decades. Miss Barker shows up and we have
178uh all of a sudden we have four. So if you think about in the last 20 months we've redistricted we've rebalanced four different major initiatives uh starting with Sky Ranch and not saying there's a correlation Miss Barker but starting with Sky Ranch um and then the Venice High School in Wellen Park redistricting. We also had to redistrict for the 4K8s uh and the rec reconfiguration there. And then uh the opportunity to talk about Garden Elementary and and this redistricting effort and the responsibilities with that. One last comment, Miss Marinelli, you said those three things, three things. You know, I was in, you know, teachers focus on relationships, relevance, and rigor every day, but our three things were respect, restraint, responsibility, skills that allow those other things to happen. And I was in a mall recently
179and a student came up from 30 years ago and I said, "Hey, buddy." And I never can remember their names, but hey, how are you doing? You know, great. Great. You'd be happy to know, Dr. Kemp, that I'm demonstrating a measurable sense of respect, restraint, responsibility still. It took me a while, but I'm there. So, those things matter. And back to response. So, here, so back to the redistricting efforts and what we're trying to do together as a team. Um, we um are in the process of Garden Elementary School. Let me tell you about this uh this school. Take a look at these these pictures. I'll tell you a little bit about it. When I tell you um the progress in this construction uh project has been outstanding. It really has. We have a $60
180million. We're on budget within budget. $60 million. It's going to be $130,000 square feet of of space. It's lot much much more capacity than the existing facility. It's going to serve 950 student stations. And um it's built with some cool things about this facility. Um and we get better with each build, but you know, this is tilt wall construction. The second week of April, there was the walls weren't there. There was no there were no walls, but all the interior walls, the exterior walls are tilt wall construction. Uh there'll be beautiful I mean some exterior exterior brick details for that maintenance. Um we haveund we have a stacking lane prepared. The residents will be happy. We have a stacking lane uh for 142 um cars that we'll be able to stack in there. We're also
181doing some additional things with energy management to look at uh thermal storage tanks and uh for energy efficiency for for more efficient chillers. uh the residences behind uh this particular property where the school property abutes next to the to the homes. There'll be a eight foot pre-cast wall all the way around which will help with not only just enhancing security but reducing noise of those properties. And a lot of people ask you know well what's you know such a big if you haven't been by there please go by there take a look at it. You're going to be amazed. The only thing bigger than that facility right now is is principal Amy Archer. Her smile right now is really big and I know she'll be glad for it to be over with but she she
182likes what she sees. So if you haven't had a chance to get by there, please do that. Um, one question we do get is what's happening with what's what's happening with the old garden. Um, as part of the rebuild and the approval for the rebuild, u most of the old garden elementary will be demolished. We will be keeping building four, which is the cafeteria uh for ancillary district support service options that we have for there. But what a great project. It is really uh it's really fun to watch that process and it's going to be exciting for that community uh there. So, uh, we're on budget, but below budget, on time. Um, and that that's the expectation. So, let's talk a little bit about redistricting. We had the timeline of meetings. We started this process
183for this fourth one of our garden back in February. Uh, we had initial meetings with the principles to frame the leadership task to make sure that they understand what the district task is and the effort with that. We also had um an information another informational meeting with the principles and just their sack chairs that lead that lead this boundary advisory committee teams. We we find that just framing it with the principles the leadership task for the district. We find that for working with the the leadership of this each potential boundary advisory council you know team working with the leadership of that team through the sack chairs as well has been beneficial. We did have that meeting both those meetings with them. We first one was February 25th. We met with the SAC chairs and principles
184on the 11th. We then moved on to boundary advisory committee meeting one. Um and Miss Kamady will be talking about these in a minute. But on we've talked on we've had meeting one combined. We the district planning team always comes with four. We came with three four uh scenarios um up front to consider. Uh so we had boundary advisor committee uh meeting one on in and on in March 25th. We had community meeting one. Uh we've also held boundary advisor committee two after input with community meeting two. So we're rolling on down. We're ahead of schedule. We're on schedule with the project build, but we're really ahead of schedule. Um happy to say with with this particular process. So um if you look at the rest of the timeline, you could see the original board
185workshop was scheduled for August 4th. We are we are way ahead of schedule for that and we will keep this remaining schedule for public hearing and for eventual action for you. But that's the timeline of me meetings that's taken place. Um it's been a it's been a great process. I want to share with you the district team. Uh those of the had opportunity to serve the district team is consistent with our our our policy 52 and the processes of this board has established. So it's great uh it's great to have the participation of everybody involved uh uh with with this effort as we work with the principles and their and the boundary advisory committee and the individual school teams. That's our district team here was the boundary advisory committee based on your your policy 52
186where we established that um you can see um our I want to say our pr the principles in this process this was a little bit easier of a process because garden already existed and the b a lot of the boundaries were already in place so it was a little bit easier uh than than than opening a new school um so but our principles did an outstanding job I can't I can't tell you how how well they led their teams along with the sack chair was it was was great to be a part of it. Unbelievable input, good effective input that made things uh made the process smooth and great good communication throughout the stakeholder group. So was happy for that. Uh along with that we're required to have the public advertised meetings. We have we
187we cons we were consistent with our existing processes. We actually looked we you know all of these have been publicly advertised. the meetings in front of you. All the agendas, presentations, meeting information, all of everything was posted on the website that our communications team uh developed for this effort. Everything's posted, minutes, meetings, agendas, um suggestions as well as um any additional comments or suggestions through frequently asked questions. um Garden Elementary School. We also had QR codes again just to to to um to provide it to the community and provide it through through the website. People could just scan on the QR code and ask uh specific get information about the website as well as submit any frequently asked questions um uh in the process along the way. So the boundary advisory committee's purpose system when
188we frame that task, you know, policy 5.2, your policy 5.2 to establishes the expectations for that. So, uh we set up our boundary advisory committees with the goal of uh with with specific task in mind. Number one, as Mr. Connor mentioned, our goal was to reduce capacity uh to reduce the overcrowding at Laurel Ncomomas and uh Taylor. So, that was the primary goal and then also establish a level of service that's required uh to open a bigger a 950 seat garden elementary school in 2027. uh they also worked on guidance provided they provided guidance to the the district planning team and the main role of the boundary advisory committee is to be a be a conduit for information to share within the community. Those are the individuals that are are going to get asked questions
189all the time and our our teams worked well together and uh that it was a great process for this time. Let me show you the um uh for the for the sake of public transparency. You know u anytime we change boundaries there are specific primary variables that either are grounded by Florida statute state requirements for edif educational facilities or sref sref or best practice. So when you take a look at that we are required to look at certain variables when drawing boundary lines. Even when we're building a new school and just doing minor modifications to existing boundaries, we still must look at natural boundaries. We have to look at um uh the the bridges, waterways, uh natural major thorough affairs that we have to look at. We look at that by by statute. We also
190look at the current capacities both zoned and actual um of all the schools that are impacted. Miss Kaminati and her team, the planning team, they know the growth that's in the area. They know what's coming. They know that we um they know what we have. They know what's coming. They know what's on in the future. Um and they kind of monitor the barometer of that growth. We address the growth in these efforts as well. We also try to do portable reduction plan. Even there's a portable reduction act. Um we try to reduce pub uh those portables every opportunity we get and we will be doing that in these initiatives. Some other things that we look at is geographic proximity. That wasn't that big of a deal in this particular redistricting because it's an existing garden
191site. uh we look at transportation efficiency and logistics. We also look at safety considerations along with that hazardous walking conditions, student transportation, and then some best practice um items that we've always u made sure we implemented was we we really do not we want to avoid dividing neighborhoods down a road. You know, one side of the street goes to this particular school, one goes to another. And uh one of the last things is we try to avoid multiple moves of a student and impact the families, you know, multiple times. in in in the study area. This is going to come into play in this particular redistricting. I will say this redistricting was just a little bit different because normally you're you're you're redistricting or you're balancing for a K5 to a pre-K5 to a preK5
192or a 68 to a 68. This one was a little bit different which is going to require some flexibility on our part and our ask of you at the end of this um because we're dealing with a K8 with Laurel Ncomomas and we're dealing with K5 to traditional elementary schools at Taylor uh and um Garden. So it was a little bit different. So we're we're making some adjustments to make sure we take care of children along the way. I do want to talk to you a little bit about um for the community as well that you know when we have to look at re rebalancing we have we we do it based on zoned enrollment. There's always some confusion between zoned enrollment and actual enrollment because people will see the numbers on these slides and
193they'll go that's not what our that's not our enrollment you know even even staff well that's not right. We have to do it based on zoned enrollment. Now zoned enrollment is all students living in all students that live in that attendance of boundary regardless of what option they may choose whether it's charter school students choice virtual students whether they're micro schooling whether it's private school we have we have some we have information on the publicly charters and those but the private school students I mean all of these students these are in the zone so they they count so we have to we've always used our SRF requirements and best practices we use a 90% threshold which means we kind of sit back remain 10% we hold back 10%. Just in the instance if all these
194kids that lived in that area wanted to come back there was a seat uh there we we hold a seat from that's the zoned enrollment piece. Um, and then there's actual enrollment. That's actual students physically attending the school that we know of that live in that zone. And those that are there with the golden ticket, as Miss Wheeler always says, the golden ticket where they have choice by Florida statute, they're allowed to remain there uh to the highest grade level for that school. So, zoned versus actual enrollment is always uh is always a topic of discussion. Um, there. I am going to turn it over now to Miss Kaminady and she's going to talk a little bit about the the current school capacities. Uh she's going to quickly go through um the scenarios that were
195presented just for transparency and for public record. The trans uh the scenarios that were presented um to the the back committee twice in the community as well as probably spend a little more time on the three most feasible after the Bender advisory committee uh rated those by feasibility. I'm going to turn over as common and let her talk to you about uh the current school capacities based on what we just defined. >> So, thank you Dr. Kemp uh Superintendent Connor and members of the board for allowing me to present you the data and scenarios that were presented to the boundary advisory committee. I want to preface in saying that all data that is included in this is based on our 40-day count or our survey 2 FTE data that is reported to the state. So
196we take that data and we geocode all the students and then base all of our our scenarios and information on that data. So as of current um capacities and student enrollment uh garden has a current capacity of 482. Of course we're building a larger school. um they had a lot of portables on that campus that will be brought into the permanent capacity and then as well as the redistricting that we're doing. So, so currently they have 102% of actual enrolled students um and 126% of zone students. Laurel Ncomomas is at 94% with actual enrollment and then 141% in zoned enrollment. And of course, some of these do not take in into account some of the specialized programs that are in some of our schools. So there might show uh a smaller uh utilization than is
197actually occurring at that school. Um Taylor Ranch has 106% actual utilization with 134% zoned student utilization. And then of course we have to bring Venice Middle into the this picture because of uh resoning some of Laurel Nakcomomas. Some of those students that'll be redistricted to Garden will also have to be redistricted to Venice Middle for the uh middle school piece. So Venice Middle is showing 80% of actual enrollment and then 141% of zoned. So I'm now going to present to you the initial feasible scenarios that we presented to the be the boundary advisory committee. Uh these were presented at the March 25th meeting. Uh a few things I do want to go over as we go through these maps. Uh I I want to clarify some of what you're seeing here. So, uh, the current
198boundaries, Garden is shown in yellow, Laurel Ncomomas in orange, and Taylor Ranch in pink. And then when we get to the the middle school map, you'll see um, Venice Middle is in green. So, back to A. >> Okay. >> Sorry. A Okay, here we go. Um, and as Dr. Kemp said this is a unique thing with garden because it's already an existing boundary that we are expanding upon and and taking some of Laurel Nakcomomas and uh Taylor Ranch. And so I'm really going to focus on the areas that we're expanding and in in these maps. So in scenario A that was presented, we um are looking at this portion of Laurel Ncomes to the west um that comes out at Robert's Bay and around the this peninsula and down the Legacy Trail back down to
199the existing garden. All of these um well I shouldn't say all but most of these scenarios show um coming up to Edmonson and going straight across. So taking these small pieces from Laurel Ncomomas and then all scenarios do show this small piece of garden being uh reszoned to Laurel and that was reviewed by our transportation department and they determined this was an opportunity to um to reszone that for transportation feasibility. there's only one student that would be affected that is the Waterford Golf and Country Club. Um so it then then takes um all the way across to uh Jackaranda Boulevard coming north to uh Laurel and then incorporating that area of Laurel Ncomomas and Taylor Ranch. We're now now following the co current Taylor Ranch boundary all the way down the Maka River across Blackburn
200Canal down to Center Road across Center Road and then it follows the current uh garden boundary all the way back up. And this is what that looks like uh and how it would affect Venice Middle just incorporating these two areas and these small portions from Laurel. >> And just for the record, scenario A um >> was not was not one of the three most feasible, but for public record, we're covering all of these. So we'll move on to B. So B takes a larger portion of that western area of Laurel um all the way up to Laurel Road West and back down Legacy Trail uh following that same uh path along Edmonson. Um and then it comes back down and follows the current garden boundary all the way around. uh and then comes down Jackaranda
201and and takes this section of uh Taylor Ranch in the South Venice area to the Anglewood Elementary, the northern elementary Anglewood Elementary boundary and then back up um the current garden boundary. And that's what that looks like for the middle school. This was also not determined as one of the most feasible scenarios. Scenario C follows the current garden boundary but takes that section along Edmonson, those small little pockets. Um, and just to clarify that a garden's boundary was designed to follow the city of Venice city limits. So that's why it kind of has that jagged piece up at the top um because that is the the way the city limits are are um mapped out. Uh but that comes across Edmonson again. Here we come up along um I75 to Laurel Road and takes in
202that whole section east of 75 from Laurel and uh Taylor Ranch. again following the Taylor Ranch boundary across that Blackburn Canal down to Center Road and now following um the existing garden boundary back up and >> C was C is one of the field but we'll talk more about that when into go into the data when we look at the three three >> picked by the boundary advisor committee. >> Yes. >> And here's the middle school map uh that associates with C So from this um we we got feedback from the boundary advisory committee teams um and then district input on top of that and we brought back three more scenarios in the second boundary advisory committee meeting um and went over the feasibility of those scenarios and as presented do those scenarios are E
203Um before I move to E, I want to make sure you're say where's D, right? I mean, we So we we had four scenarios that went to the boundary advisory committee on the first night. Scenario A, B, C, and D. >> D >> and D um the boundary advisory committee immediately eliminated um D uh for not being feasible. So uh from that point forward we kept scenario D in place for public record because that was a scenario but we um we eliminated that. So from that point forward we we were looking at the feasible scenarios only. So then there from the input and and I will say just like it did with other processes. There's always power in the scrimmage, right? So the best input came from the participants and the committees and the community
204members that contributed. And once again, this process was no different. You'll see at the end that the three most feasible were were resulting from input and suggestions of the combined B uh committees with on the on the boundary advisory committee team. So that's what led to the three most feasible. So here is scenario E. >> So scenario E um came as a result from feedback from the Taylor Ranch team. Um and they asked us to to analyze taking again the existing garden boundary coming across Edmonson and including those small portions of Laurel Ncomomas um up to Laurel Road um east of 75 following the Taylor Ranch boundary and then coming over Blackburn Canal and up to East Venice Avenue and then coming back and following the current garden boundary to Dakaranda Boulevard south and including
205that section of South Venice and coming back up along the current boundary. And what that looks like for the middle school um is just taking those small portions here from Laurel Ncomomas and um the area east of I75 from border to Laurel Road. And this was um this that one was not considered was did not move forward as one of the most feasible. So F came as a as feedback from the garden team and they had asked us to preserve um this uh boundary configuration as it currently is following the the city of Venice city limits um to keep those neighborhoods intact and and transportation um kind of intact the way it is set up there. Um, so we did that and so it follows the current garden boundary um to Edmonson and then brings
206it up uh at 75 to Laurel following the existing Taylor Ranch boundary again to Center Road and then back to the current garden boundary and what that looks like for Oh, well, we'll get to that, But um this was considered uh a feasible option. So a most feasible and then G um was kind of a combination of of uh E and F that the district team brought forward and that was taken into account Gardens's suggestion of of preserving the boundary here coming north at Laurel following the Taylor Ranch boundary to Center Road and then incorporating that area of South Venice that the Taylor Ranch team had um had suggested and this as well was considered a one of the most feasible >> and it's not >> it's not going >> do it on the >>
207Can you just space down. >> It's not doing anything here. >> We'll continue um once again after after this um after the G the San FG and the G um FNG middle school maps were the same. So, we will show you that as soon as this gets back rolling. Uh and then we will show you the rating results that took place from the four uh school committees. Uh that shows you the the feasibility ratings and the most I tell them all the time, you're not ranking and you're not ranking them from best to worst. They're all feasible. These, you know, we we didn't present scenarios that weren't feasible. Uh so they're basically rating the feasibility of good of the scenarios across the board. Okay, go ahead. I think we got it back. Thank you. Thank
208you, Jamal. >> Oh, so that was the >> middle school map >> FNG middle school. >> So the rating results that you can see in front of you um the least the lowest score was the most was deemed to be the most feasible. Uh so that led with scenario G, scenario F and scenario C as the three that the boundary advisory committee through the input wanted to bring uh to the board workshop and will be uh to the planning team. Uh so you can see based on the scores of each of the process it it truly works to the advantage of community input along the way. So, the recommended scenarios. >> So, um G I'm I'm going to go over the data behind the three scenarios. Oh, how do we go forward? Okay. Um G,
209which was rated the most feasible. Um what that how that affects the zoned and actual capacities of the four affected schools. Uh Laurel Nakoma's zoned capacity goes from 141 to 129% uh and their actual capacity will go from 94% to 93%. And that has actually um taken the students that would be reszoned um and then also taken into consideration um projected students from development and over over the next few years and how that would impact the the utilization of the school. So that would bring them it would bring them down and then back up to 93% with the uh with the students projected from the development. Taylor Ranch is would be zone capacity 134 to 86% and then their actual would be 106 down to 93% taking into consideration those students from development. Uh Venice
210Middle is at 141%. Um it would go to 150% of their zone students. Um what that looks like as actual would be 80% to 99%. And that's not also factoring in some of the students that we would lose some to um charter schools. Garden um would go from 64% which is based on their current enrollment compared to their new capacity. Um and that would bring them now to 114% zoned enrollment. their actual enrollment would go from 52% to 94%. And that's scenario G. Scenario F, we see Laurel Ncomomas' zoned capacity from 141% to 127% and their actual from 94% and actually remains at 94% when we factor back in students projected from development. Uh Taylor Ranch is goes from 134% of zone capacity to 104% zone capacity. Um and their actual would go from 106
211and stay at 106 based on students projected from development. Venice Middle School uh is again zoned 141 to 150%. Their actual would go from 80% to 99%. And then garden 64% to 102% in zoned and actual 52% to 78%. For scenario C um we see zoned capacity for Laurel Ncomomas going from 141 to with their actual going from 94% to 92%. uh Taylor Ranch from 134% to 108% um in zoned and 106% remaining at 106% for actual Venice Middle 141% to 150% for zoned and 80% to 99% for actual and garden 64% to 99% for zoned 52% to 80% for actual So that's the way the rating feasibility ratings took place with the committee and input. So it was it was G, F and C. So the guidelines for choice remain the same for that.
212Um remember I mentioned to you that the redistric in redistricting the board has flexibility within your policy policy 5.2 to to allow the top grade level of the grade configuration to remain and once again we have a K8 involved. So um that will continue. So rising fifth graders at these schools would be allowed to be grandfathered in. uh at Laurel Ncomomas grandfa uh eighth graders would be allowed to remain and here's where we will ask for the flexibility when we make the recommendation for uh to the superintendent uh that uh we adopt scenario G with an with an exception with the board's approval and that is if you remember we didn't want multiple we didn't want to have kids to have to be impacted multiple times so we're requesting some leeway and we'll have that
213language in the in the item when it comes to the board for action that allows us to allow fifth graders, upcoming fifth graders at Laurel Ncomomas to remain as a grandfather if they so choose. Even though it's not the highest grade level, the policy is the highest grade level of the grade configuration, but since we have multiples, we felt it was in the best interest of students for those children and those families. We didn't want those those babies to go to three different schools in three different years. We just didn't think that that even you know we we just wouldn't want to do that. We want to work with those families. So we'll be requesting flexibility to allow fifth to be grandfathered at um Lacomas as well as just the ETH that would prevent them
214from going to three different schools. Also we have that so you have your grandfathering policy as part of 52 and you also have uh the choice statute. Again, if the student if Miss Wheeler was here and the choice office does a great job because Miss Wheeler is here, they say if you have a golden ticket now, currently they're allowed to stay at the school to the top grade level of the school. That is Florida statute and that will remain. So, the statutes there um uh for that and our guidelines are for choice. Again, um if a student's resalance to a different school, they're going to, you know, can they apply? Absolutely. If the adjusted enrollment, remember that 90% threshold through controlled open enrollment. If there's opportunities for space somewhere, our our uh choice team and
215our academic team does a great job of working with families if there's space available. We want to be able to accommodate students where uh where they would like to best uh fit where the best fit is where they'd like to serve if space allows it. So that's where the flexibility when we bring it to you on the grandfathering clause that you know we'll be uh would not only are we recommending that uh the superintendent support uh the community the boundary advisor committee's work uh the district planning team's recommendation of G will also ask for um to allow upcoming fifth graders Laurel Ncomomas to remain to to not disrupt them three three years in a row and that's not defined in schoolboard policy 52 that's why we're requesting the exception so with that stated we have
216gone through the fourth redistricting and um we h we do not have any additional meetings planned at this time. There's been I I surveyed the principles and through the communication team's effort of contacting impacted residents um that that are in these potential scenarios call post public posting websites um sending out communications phone calls from principles to affected schools. Um we we are comfortable the boundary advisor committee was comfortable with moving forward with senary G as a recommendation. So with that we'll have questions. >> Thank you very much. I um I appreciate that and I'll just note that the the communication piece being pivotal obviously um and this will go the process then would be the presented to the board for adoption and there's a public notice component to that. >> That that's correct. We will
217continue the rest of the schedule. um if we can continue looking seeking input but we had the original board workshop scheduled for August 4th. We are ahead of schedule. We publicly advertised this one. Um this is here. My suggestion would be through Mr. Pinto's advice that we remain on the existing schedule for for um for advertisement to let it sit for 30 days and adopt it on the on the original schedule. Is that correct, Mr. Pinto? >> Yes. We we think that it'll be best if we move forward with the original schedule from here, taking away what was scheduled to be the August workshop as we're presenting this today, unless there is new information or suggestions that come in between now and then, but then notice the public hearing, hold the public hearing, and then
218the board meeting after that, bring the new boundary scenario for adoption from the board. >> Y Okay, great. Thank you. Uh members, questions? Wow. Okay. Well, none. So, I'll ask mine. I always wait. Um, so and and they're more um just confirmations from what I've experienced there other ones. And so, I am actually glad we're moving it up just because when you think about a timeline of people going on vacation is and I know there's a lot of communication. I also understand that sometimes families have busy lives and they don't realize it until it's it's go. We've seen that before. But I know with our choice um department has really done a lot of work in that way to accommodate families. Um I suspect that would be the same thing as allowable with this circumstance.
219And I will just give a shout out to their team. Um and it wasn't related to this, but it was another school. And I know that to to reiterate that they are really truly working with families to get them to the school where they want to be. And I think that is a different approach that's been passed in in times past because I think you said choice window. We're kind of we're always going to be welcoming and working that way as we can because we want them in our schools. So well do really appreciate it. I think they were surprised. I think they they thought there was going to be um more push back and so kudos to that team. Um I so again I don't see any questions. I really appreciate this. I think
220as long as we're communicating it, making sure families do know and then um you know uh making sure that's reiterated that when there are nuances with a family member or multiple siblings in one school, what accommodations can possibly be made to support that family with the least amount of disruption. I think that's been the case so far. So, hats off to the work and I have no further questions. So, great job. Thank you so much for that. And Mr. Connor, I'll kick it over to you unless there's anything else. No, Madam Chair, that concludes this portion of the workshop before we move into at 2 o'clock. I believe we have an executive session. >> I'm gonna Mr. Dugen, if you can walk us through what procedural >> Sure. Yeah. So, just and as a programming
221note, what I have learned since we've been sitting here is that one of the court reporters for the 2 p.m. meeting, I guess, had some type of emergencies running late. So, my recommendation would be to convene still at 2 o'clock, but the actual private part might not get started till 2:15 or so is what I'm told is what time the court reporter who we hired who had some type of emergency will uh estimate to get here. >> Okay. Well, we ran a little bit over. Thank you for that. So, we'll conclude the board work session and then reconvene here at 2 o'clock if I'm hearing you correctly as board members. Um and then we'll open the special meeting and then move into executive session. Is that accurate? >> Yes. All right. >> I still think
222that allows us to stay on uh track with all the scheduling today, too. >> Very good. All right. So, the work session is concluded. We will be back here at 200 p.m. to open the special meeting. >> All right. Good job. >> Okay. Good afternoon. The time is 2:00 on the dot and we are reconvening the special board meeting um and we'll be conducting two private meetings regarding lit litigation. Mr. Dugen, could you please walk us through what uh will transpire as we >> Sure. So the first one which is scheduled for 2 p.m. right now is uh Mary Andrews versus the school board of Sarasota County, Florida. Case number uh Sarasota clerk's 2024CA0061000NC and uh pursuant to Florida statute 286.011 subsection 8, there is a process for a public board such as this board
223to discuss uh litigation in private while the case is ongoing so you don't give away all of your litigation strategies and things like that. Um ultimately it becomes a public record. Um and the process is as you know we asked for permission at the prior meeting this morning that was granted uh after the opportunity for public comment. We then now are reconvening or we're convening the actual meeting itself in public and uh present is uh Superintendent Connor uh and the five elected board members, Mr. Edwards, Miss Marinelli, uh, Chair Ziegler, Miss Rose, and Miss Parker, as well as myself. Um, and we will now at this time at 2:00, uh, we will close out the meeting. I think that the meeting will take 1 hour or less. That's what we scheduled it for. And again,
224the court reporter I got notified today is running late. Uh, I was told that her estimated ETA is 2:15. so we can begin the private meeting at 2:15 upon her arrival and I will just adjust my time so we can stay on schedule. I still anticipate an hour or less. Um I will just move a little bit quicker through uh the discussion and we can stay on track with that. So at this time uh unless there's something more we can uh close the public portion of the uh of this proceeding and uh when the transcriptionist arrives we can begin the private portion thereafter. >> Okay. The board will be in recess. Back on the record publicly now, we have just concluded the private portion of the litigation strategy session that began at approximately 3:00 in
225the case uh Sarasota County School Board. Brian Joseph Dunn individually and Lori Verriier individually versus Mike Moran in his official capacity as Sarasota County Tax Collector. Sarasota clerk's case number 2020 tix CA00002313NC. Uh and for the record, we discussed nothing but that matter during the litigation strategy session that was privately held and we are back here publicly. And if the unless the board has uh any other business to discuss publicly about it at this time, we can close the litigation strategy session uh meeting and we can uh move forward to the board agenda's action item. >> Okay. So the let the uh litigation strategy meeting be conclude adjourned and then now we are moving in back into the special uh meeting of the board May 5th 2026. Uh time is 4:12. Um moving into the
226item in front of us that will be taking action in regards to the uh continued negotiations um giving the superintendent authority. Um because there is action on this item uh this we will allow an opportunity for public comment. Mrs. Tommpkins, are there any cards? >> Okay, see no cards on this item. Do you I still need to read >> Yeah, why don't we read it just in case? Okay. So, just to make sure the hearing of citizens, welcome to the public comment segment of our uh meeting for action item number two. This is uh this is public comment on agenda items. Each speaker will have excuse me, each speaker will say their full name. County residents for the record and we'll have up to three minutes when a timer will signal when one minute remains.
227Please conduct uh conclude promptly when the timer ends. Respect for divergent opinion shall be recognized for all speakers. Um any person that's interfering with the expeditious or orderly process of this meeting will be warned. And if that uh interference continues, you will be removed. Um as noted, there are speakers in the room behind us that allow board members to hear public comments uh when stepping away from the dis uh when your name is called. Please approach the podium. If you choose to pass, you will forfeit your time to address the board. As a reminder, a recording cannot be played for your three minutes. Um seeing again that there is no member of the public here or no public comment cards completed, we will move on to the item uh item action item number two. Um
228and I will read it requesting a uh nope, sorry. uh to do you have the motion written out? Okay. Excuse me. to move to authorize and initiate uh the continuation of litigation in the matter of Sarasota County School Board uh Brian Joseph Dunn individually and Lorie Vrier uh individually versus Mike Moran in his official capacity is Sar County tax collector case number 2026 CA002313NC and to direct the superintendent legal council to take all actions necessary to implement the board's decision as discussed during the litigation strategy session and present uh presented in open session. Is there a motion that I just read? I move to authorize the initiation andor continuation of litigation in the matter of Sarasota County School Board Brian Joseph Dunn individually and Lorie Varrier individually vers Mike Moran in his official capacity as
229Sarasota County Tax Collector case number 2026CA002313NC and to direct the superintendent and legal council to take all actions necessary to implement the board's decision as discussed during the litigation strategy session and presented in open session. I have a motion by Mrs. Barker. Is there a second? >> Second. >> I have a second by Mr. Edwards. Are there any comments? >> Seeing none, let's do a quick voice vote. I'll start with you. Mrs. Barker? >> Yes. >> Mrs. Rose? >> Yes. >> Mrs. Marinelli? >> Yes. >> Mrs. Mr. Edwards, excuse me. >> Yes. >> And the chair votes yes. And the motion passes unanimously. That concludes any action items. Um, are there any member comments as we can close out a long day? Mrs. Rose, you are recognized. >> Uh, thank you, Madam Chair. Just want
230to recognize uh all of our uh fabulous teachers and staff. This is Florida teacher appreciation week and given the uh data results that we were able to review today, uh the work that you are doing is absolutely appreciated and on behalf of our students and families, Thank you for that, Mrs. Mayor Nelli. >> Thank you. I just want to mention that last week, April 28th, I was able to attend the celebration of hope that was by Take Stock and Children and all the awards that were given. There were over $7 million awarded for scholarships. So, I just wanted to mention that. I didn't want to wait two weeks. And it was a it's all funded by the Henson um Mary Kay and and Joe Henson that they have supported take stock and children for many
231many many years. So congratulations to the students that earned those awards and also happy teacher appreciation week and thank you for all you do and for our kids our students. Thank you all. >> Thank you for that. Are there any additional comments before I close with announcements? Um just want I want to re uh reiterate what was discussed today and um really the tremendous work in particularly when we're zeroing on on reading and just looking at the progress uh the work of uh the superintendent and the chief academic officer and then really providing the supports to all of the teachers who are on the front lines who are making the difference who leaned in and were able to see the fruits of those labor. I cannot express my appreciation. It is incredibly exciting to see
232that data set put in forward of you and to see the just the absolute change and I I couldn't be more grateful for the work that and the passion and the commitment that everyone who who puts this in day in and day out. So as mentioned can't find a more appropriate time to to celebrate teacher appreciation uh when you look at something like that. So so again thank you to all of those. Um also as many of us know that is a graduation time. Uh lots of exciting ceremonies, lots of lot of celebrations for that great work and our students and our families and thank you teachers. Um and congratulations to all the graduates will be uh attending uh which is wonderful this year. They don't uh they they don't stack up. So many of
233us can attend many many more. Um, as far as announcements, the next regular board meeting is Tuesday, May 19th at 10 a.m. Um, if there are no additional comments, without objection, this meeting stands adjourned.