Superintendent's Workshop 12 p.m. 7-28-25

001Time is 12 noon. I wish to welcome you to the superintendent's workshop being held in the Joe N. Idollet Jr. TEC. I ask out of respect to everyone, please silence all electronic devices at this time. And also, if you have any material you wish to share with the board member, please give that to our executive assistant, Mrs. Moy, she's seated over there. We will take a break every two hours if needed. Before that, I'd like to recognize the superintendent to explain the purpose of this workshop. >> Thank you, Madam Chair. The purpose of this workshop is to present items and have discussion with the board um for items that will be coming before the board ultimately for approval at a later workshop. We will begin uh with a presentation. I'd give an update to the

002board regarding our academic outcomes. the first time we've actually been convened since the outcomes have been released. But before I do that, we're going to start a new tradition because I like traditions. As you all know, I was appointed to the state superintendence association um earlier this month and they had a convening about not last Friday but the previous Friday. And at that convening, they gave us these white cowboy hats. And when they gave us these white cowboy hats, they talk about um putting on your your white hat, being a gladiator, kind of off the show scandal. If you ever seen seen that show where you just had to go put on your white hat and act in the best interest of of children. And I I love that idea. So I I thought, well,

003I'm going to give the white hat uh to one of these folks who are sitting at this table and do it on on a monthly basis. Um, and when I thought about that, I didn't realize how complex or hard that decision would be because at the end of the day, these folks are working around the clock at all times. I could give it to uh Kira, who has in the last month provided us more coverage about the great things this school district does uh than we've se re received in the last three years. I can give it to Bruce who um basically did a 10-day budget uh did a budget in 10 days. uh for $400 million uh and has done an outstanding job of keeping everybody informed on Friday. Uh went crazy to modify

004a a special board meeting at no fault of of his own. I c I could give it to Beth for the work around uh our student services team and all everything that that she is leading. I can give it to Kelly for the alignment of our school improvement initiatives uh or our work around just continuous improvement and how much her team spends in schools holding principles accountable and uplifting them. I can give it to Haimey who in the last month h has you know come from Broward to and is in the process of moving but has fully integrated uh with his team and local law enforcement um to to to be a part of this team. That only leaves one person. So, our first white hat goes to Dr. Jacobs, who is you have you

005you have to wear it during the meeting. Um, and at the end of the day, um, she was our initial gladiator and her job to align the energy of all of us up here to make sure that we're focused in on the things that this matters to this board the most um, is critically important. and the successes that I'm about to share uh with you. We as a community should celebrate, but it comes as a result of a strategic plan. It comes at a result of being extremely focused. It comes at a result of of saying, "Hey, this is what we say we believe, but these are the actions that we're taking. We need to get back to what's important." Um, so how she has supported me and more importantly, how she has supported children

006in this district, there's no better person to wear the white hat uh for the first time than Dr. Jacobs. All right. And here's here's what's going to happen. And I promise you this is what's going to happen at the end of this meeting. Dr. Jacobs is going to come and says, "Well, thank you. I I know uh you just gave it to me, but you should have gave it to Jen Began because Jen Began has stepped up in a way that is absolutely out of control in terms of managing uh our two last retreats and and managing community partners. Bruce is going to come in and say, ' Don't you dare give it to me. I want you to give it to Kim because that Kia outside in the parking lot isn't broken down. It's

007Kim here all weekend long trying to make sure our budgets are done. Kelly's going to come in here and say, "If you don't give it to Kim, Kim Garcia, um for the work that she's done around school improvement and making sure that her team is focusing on these our high our high yield strategies and making sure schools grow it, then you're giving to the wrong person. Everyone here uh isn't gonna want the white hat. They're not gonna want it, but at the end of the day, they need to be acknowledged for their work. So, that's why I thought it would be a great idea. >> All right. Let's talk about academic. >> Congratulations. >> All right. A little little extra thing. So, what I'll do board is is briefly go over our outcomes um for

008this last school year and then kind of set the stage for the work that lies ahead. So overarch overarching results when you look at our state rankings from third through 10th grade ELA ELA scores we have gone from 31 181 19 we used that that was last year uh before they full accountability in the last year they had outcomes prior to my arrival. So we went from 31st to 10th in state rankings. So we're extremely proud of that work. When you pull out third grade, we are able to hit 71% which takes us from 38 to uh one of districts who um the 71 is one of two, but it's a second highest score in the state of Florida. Absolute outstanding outcome. When you look at mathematics, grade 3 through 8, algebra and geometry, that's

009what they use for the state grade uh 36 to 14, which we're really proud of that considering we make sure our middle school students who are three or above have the opportunity to go in high school courses. So, if we weren't doing that, we'd probably be one or two. Uh science, which is fifth grade, eighth grade, and biology. Once again, 35th uh to five improvement of 30 state rankings. Absolutely outstanding. And then social social studies. I'm sorry I was so excited about I skipped it. Social studies which is civics US history. Uh you know we spoke a lot about civics last year. We were able to improve 30 state rankings from 38 to 8th. So very very proud of those outcomes. Middle school acceleration. This is a big one. This talks about our level of

010access that we provide to all students. If you have a score you're going to put you in the class. uh algebra and geometry 56 to uh number two in the state. So very very excited about these specific outcomes. Now in looking at these scores, this is English language arts and combined mathematics. This is all kids. The data that I showed before in the previous screens was the accountability kids, meaning when you do the state grade, you have to be here in October and February. That's how they use to calculate the school grade. Those are those rankings. This is whoa. Oh my goodness. Don't look. Close your eyes. Go down. >> I go. >> Okay. I don't know what happened there. Uh, this looks at all students who took the test regardless of the day they

011enrolled. So, there's a couple things to look at. If you look at the bottom, and I specifically want to draw your attention to 2223, uh, which was the first time we received an A in a very, very, very long time. So 22 23 23 24 and 242 25 all assessed as a a district. But if you look at the rate of growth um for a total students 48 to 60 that's backtoback significant improvement. Hispanic 41 to 53 uh black 33 to 49 uh over the course of the last five years 16 percentage point increase. And then white 59 to 69. So you're seeing growth at every different at at every category, which is exactly what we want to see. And the groups that are lowest are growing at a faster rate. Uh ultimately catching up

012because obviously the more proficient students you have, the it's going to grow at a slower rate. Uh same exact thing for math. Once again, I'm just going I'm not going back to 1819, but if just to set up some future slides, 1819 is pre- pandemic. We are exceeding pre- pandemic uh for the last two years. And you I'm going show you a slide where other districts are still waiting to get to where they were before uh where they were before the pandemic. Math once again significant improvement uh over the last three years 62 to 71 uh and white black 35 to 48 Hispanic 45 to 58 and a total 52 to 62. We came into this the opening of last school year uh really hyperfocused in on on the things that we needed to address

013because we had such a high rate of growth from 20 22 23 to 24 23 24 and what I was saying at that time typically there's this yo-yo effect where you go up one year you go down the next year um and we had to break that perception we had to say that's absolutely not the truth we can continue to compound our success if we're very strategic and compound uh our strength strategy and not walk away from something, build something to a sustainable practice and continue to move forward. Now, you look at it a little bit different. So, now we're not comparing ourselves to ourselves. We're comparing ourselves um to other districts once again across the board. Uh just significant improvements in state rankings regardless of ethnicity. Uh if you just look at the totals

014um 25 state ranking improvement in ELA combined math 23% state ranking so very very excited about that. Uh so where does that put us in terms of our state rankings this year? We were 38 of 67 uh in 1819. When you look at us now we are now number five in the state top five school district. uh when you look at the top three districts and you look at their percent of free and reduced lunch, they're in the 40s and you look at the school district of Indian River County at number five, we're in the mid60s. So, we're doing uh some absolutely outstanding work in the school system. This is a slide you all have seen since I have been here. I use this slide really to agitate us as a community not to be

015satisfied with our current results. And obviously the board wasn't because you hired a new superintendent. But you look at Charlotte in Martin uh in Indian River County, all three of us, same size districts, same basic number of schools, same breakdown in who our students are and how we serve them. Um but yet we were majority uh C schools where the both of those other two districts are outperforming us. And then Bvard, which is above us, significantly larger than us, but above us. Uh and then Miami Dade. I used Miami date because that was the district in which I came from. And what I was saying there is how come Miami date is outperforming in terms of ABS and C's the other districts when the rate of poverty uh the number of language spoken is is

016is significantly more. And part of that answer was unwavering belief. So if you look at where all of those systems were and then you look at where we are now whoa. >> Yeah. Hold on. I'll do that again. You see one thing that's significantly different. We do not have any C schools. We all all of our A schools, we went from four A schools to every school being A with the exception of three. And you look at the other districts, some of them are still trying to get to where they were before the pandemic. So this is a reflection of what your community of educators are doing in this town. When you look at the percent of A and B schools, 100% A and B's as compared to only 47% in 1819. When you look

017at things that no one said it could be done, Dodgertown is now an A school, which we're very, very proud of them. Uh, significant focus around making sure all students learn at that school. Glendale has moved to a very high A. Proud of them going from a B. Vero Beach Elementary School went from a B to an A. Gford Middle School. When I got here, I was told middle schools can't be an A. It's just how the system works. It's how the grading calculations work. Well, that's no longer the case because Gford Middle School is an A. Sebastian River Middle is an A. Stormove Middle is an A. And Oslo, although it's not an A, went from the lowest possible B that you can have to a point and a half away from being an

018A. significant growth for them as well and they had a number of challenges regarding uh teacher openings over the course of the year. So they're a B, but we're super proud of the work that they did. Sebastian River High School uh is an A school, one of two A schools in our community. The other one is Ver Beach Senior High School. And then when you look at all of these schools that maintain their A. So we do not have a school that regressed in letter grade. Every school either maintained their their grade or moved to an A or maintained the B that they had the previous year. Significant focus and significant outcomes. Some individual highlights. As you know, Beachland hit 91% achievement in third grade. So they set the course. They let us know it

019can be done. So we have established goals for all of our schools and a number of schools are expected to come in at 90% next year. Liberty hit 89%. Proud of them. Little old Indian River Academy, a traditional school, uh, top 4% in the state in science achievement at 85%. Uh, so once again, IRA has set the pace and we need to follow suit. And this right here is a slide that I shared with all of the leadership teams and basically it identifies our expected growth, the goals that I have set for myself. You'll see these again when it comes to my uh evaluation and our strategic plan. But at the end of 2526, this is our desired outcomes which would be an improvement of 51 points and the highest number one district in the

020state of Florida is around 885 886. So it gives us a pathway to be number one. And as we as a team and the team not being this team but the team being each and every single leadership team collectively disagregated this data it's very very doable and when you compare it to the rate of growth that we had the previous year in the year prior to that this is just par for the course for us. If we continue our rate of improvement this isn't aspirational. This isn't some maybe this could happen. If we're very strategicish, strategic what strategic and focused in on our opportunities for improvement, our opportunities improvement, not not to take you uh too deep, but our 26 to 50th percentile student in reading and math, not our lowest 25%. We're number one

021in the state in reading and uh lowest 25% in reading I think four or five in math but there is an opportunity uh to go from about 60 64 uh and increase that 26th to 50th percentile student and then in poor instruction uh the 75th to 100th percentile our highest achieving students they all maintain proficiency but we need to be a little bit more strategic can provide more rigorous instruction for them ask their teachers to ask the students to do a little bit more uh to maintain a year's worth of growth. So at the end of the day we even though you look at these specific numbers the challenge that we set out over the last two weeks and we'll talk about how we ch set that challenge out really was to organize ourselves to

022be the district that holds ourselves accountable to ensure all students have a year's worth of growth. all students have a year's worth of growth and that's the work that we're doing. So, in terms of some things that are ongoing over the last couple months, I want you to look at my SDRC app. We've pushed this out. This is the school district of Indian River County in your hand. Uh we are very very excited to improve the opportunity to connect and engage uh with parents in real time ways, the ways they're used to doing it. Uh so, we're very very excited about that. everything they're going to need uh designed and specific to their tailored school or schools uh will help keep them informed. Um two weeks ago we had our district leadership professional development. This

023was a focus day of development for all of us at the district office. What are we doing? How are we doing it? How does it connect to our strategic goals? And how do we ensure that we're making the life of the principal and teachers easier? uh a very very focused hard day that ensured that we ourselves as the district office was ready to step out and support our district teams. Here is engaged. Three full long days of development. And this is where we spent uh the entire three days looking at their outcomes from last year and creating very specific granular steps that are unique to each and every single school to make sure those outcomes that I just discussed for the upcoming year um are absolutely on point. And I've been doing three-day retreats since

0242014. Um, and this level of conversation and dialogue and specificity, uh, just kind of going over to groups and listening in, uh, gives me all the confidence in the world that these school site leadership teams believe in the work that they're doing and clearly can define how they're going to be able to do this work. Uh, we started that morning, Mr. E is on fire right there trying to win. Um, we started this this they told me how they were going to do this. I was like, "Okay, I'm just going to sit back and watch." Uh, we challenged them at the end of the school year to be able to build a boat out of cardboard and then race that boat of cardboard uh in the Gford pool at 8:00 in the morning last Wednesday.

025Um, and some of the boats that they built and how fast they were able to move was absolutely outstanding. Some of them fell right to the floor. Um, and then this was this was me in a very colorful shirt um, kicking us off during that three-day um, retreat. Um, Kier, like as I already said, Kier has been doing an absolutely outstanding job messaging uh, what is new for our school system uh, and sharing some of the celebrations and success over the last couple months. Um, and then I just want to end on our three priorities um, as we drive into the school year. Uh, and we are connected by community. And the biggest words there is we thrive together. Whether it be at a school site, whether it be a leadership team, the more connected

026we are as a community and supporting and investing in one another, uh, the better we will be connected to our community. And we have very, very strategic goals that we're pushing out to connect and engage with our community. We'll be engaging, and you all have heard me talk about our pillar events. These are events that we as a community will celebrate uh and align the initiatives to ensure and orientation is probably our best uh example. We set a high ex expectation regarding what orientation should look like. I went and filmed a number of different messages specific to each grade level and we'll be marketing and advertising across the entire community to make sure every parent has the opportunity to have the day off for the boss. give them a few hours because it's so important

027to be at orientation and it is so important for us to have that first great impression with our parents on um that and we'll be pushing out these pillar events in our entire community throughout the school year fueled by innovation we challenge what's imp what what's possible and when I say this where we are today was intentional uh we needed to get to this point in order to reinvent the experience experience for our children. Over the last 5 years, we've been readying ourselves to have to prepare ourselves to completely embrace a new way of thinking to recreate the experience that is addressing what parents demand um and creating it in order to ensure that all students are prepared uh to graduate and go on and maximize their full potential. and then driven by leadership. And

028what's key here, we lead at every level. It's not me, it's not this team, it's just not principles. It's defining the opportunities to lead within every position in the school system, defining what authority those individuals have, which decisions they're empowered to make uh and spark great conversations and ideas to continue to drive this system forward. And I I can tell you now with the focus that we have put in on our principles and assistant principles, they will drive innovation because we have driven and invested in leadership for them. So they are ready uh and already creating new ways of doing this work in connection with their teachers uh based on their desire uh to lead and to innovate. That concludes this presentation. Uh so thank you for allowing me to share some of the great

029work that we've done in the past and more importantly the great work that we will do for this upcoming school year. Thank you. Fantastic. All right. First on the agenda is I mean you're up brother. This is report so far. >> It's on now. >> It's on. >> Is it on? Yes, >> it's on now. >> It was on now. >> Okay. So, do I need to start over? >> No, no, we um so Mr. Task conducted 53% of the checks of our schools uh including um charters as well and 13 out of the 15 were in 100% compliance. The two schools uh were found there was two schools that were found to have drills that were a little late in getting those accomplished. So to address this finding we have now we'll be entering

030our drills into a leadership uh hub so we make sure that we can keep an eye on drills being entered and also I'll be monitoring those on a monthly basis during this same quarter which is the last fourth quarter the office of safe schools conducted about 10% checks on our schools which is about three of them and all those three schools are in 100% compliance. That is my update. >> Thank you and welcome to the team. Nice fit Mr. Green. If we could put up the budget workshop board members, you have a copy in front of you. So, um, budget update number four. So, as you know, this has been a long budget season. So, um, we finally got our certified numbers on July 18th, Friday. So, while the state has been working um on

031the budget starting with the long range financial uh outlook on September 6th for almost a year, um we've had the last 10 days to put together all of the final numbers, the ads, the trim ads, the packet that you have in this workshop. So, with that, we're going to go through some updates today and try to um update our community where we're at and prep you for the tenative budget hearing tomorrow. So, um, it looks like a very long agenda, but some of these things are going to go quickly. Summer review. We're going to talk about update on the federal, uh, funds. We're going to go over the FEFP, the Florida Educational Finance Program. We've seen it before on last year's budget. Now, we'll have some final numbers we can plug in. We're going to

032look at a comparison based on board me member feedback. We're going to look at a comparison of second C last year to second calc this year in many, many areas. so we can see u comparison year-over-year. We're going to go over the development timeline. We're going to look at the tenative budget. We're going to look at the truth and millage ads. We're going to look at um prep for the resolutions in the public hearing and then have some questions and dialogue. As always, I like to put in the acronyms. There's some new ones at the bottom like the PPFMA. Um one of the things we were waiting on was a prior period funding millage adjustment which we received on the 18th as certified. So, we'll talk about that and the RLE, the required local effort

033that you must levy in order to receive your state funding. So, you saw this before on last year's budget. We're just going to go through it quickly, but this is uh kind of a visual summary of that FEFP and how it works through. It takes our students, unweighted students, and to be clear, that is traditional, charter, and family empowerment. That's all of the FTE within the school district of Indian River County. That was 18126 I believe last year. 18125. So down just a little bit. And we're going to see comparisons of those on the next slide. Those students are multiplied by cost factors depending on the program that they're in to get you weighted students. Weighted full-time students. That's multiplied by the base student allocation. Last year the base student allocation was 53 533098. This

034year it's 537260 for um $4160 increase. Comparable wage factor and the small district factors are negligible to us. They don't apply. They're either one or zero, which brings us to a total base funding of $103 million. You'll see a comparison. Last year that was 105 million. So down about $2 million in base funding. You then add back your categoricals, safe schools, your ESC guaranteed, your educational enrichment, which used to be your SI, SAI dollars. We don't have a DJJ supplement, your transportation allocation, federally connected students do not apply. your mental health. And new this year, um, traditionally you've seen and the board had requested some information and you looked at how in 2324 some of the categoricals like the teacher classroom supply, the teacher salary increase, the reading categoricals who were that were above the

035base funding were rolled into the BSA. So the BSA in that year went up like $537. This year it went up $41. though this year the add-on weighted FTE for AP, IB, all of those accelerated dual enrollment that we heard we was going to take a 50% reduction, they've actually taken that funding and instead of having added weight on FTE in the FEFP, they've rolled it out as so they've moved it back out as a categorical. Um, and we'll look at that in a minute. We'll compare that to last year. These are actually two things. A state funded discretionary contribution and a 748 mil compression. If your point uh.748 in a district doesn't equal the state average, the state gives you a compression to bring you up to the state average. The state funded discretionary

036contribution is um for districts with lab schools and that gives them the 748 mil compression equal value through state funding rather than local funding brings you to a gross of 125 million roughly 124 million gross local and state FEFP when you back out the required local effort meaning the amount you are required as a board to levy to the taxpayers figures of Indian River County through local dollars. That brings you to it's about hundred million. That brings you to a net state FFP of $24 million. Just remembering that in that $24 million is also included 20.4 million for family empowerment scholarships. So if you were to deduct 20.4 million, you'd be at about 20.2 million or $4.2 2 million total net state FEFP. If you think about the entire budget of $418 million, that's about

0371%. Then you add back the special categorical of class size reduction, which is funded partially through the educational enhancement trust fund, which are the lottery dollars and the um tax on the casinos in Miami and Broward counties. Um most of it is funded through the general revenue. You add back the state funded discretionary supplement. So just like the lab schools that get the 748 that is an adback state funds we never see it but it's an ad back of the 748 for the family empowerment students at that state funding for a total state funding of $45 million remembering that 20.4 Four of those are family empowerment dollars that do not come to us. Pl add back your required local effort. Add back your 748 discretionary effort and you have a total FEFP state and local

038funding of 170 million. Last year that was about 166 million. So roughly $3.7 million increase in the total state and local funding with the bulk of that coming from local um increases do the boxes with there we go. So um just some comparisons from year to year. This is your millage rates. Tomorrow you'll be um adopting your tentative millage rates and they're broken into three sections. The state law millage rate. The first one is your required local effort from the first calc. Last year it was 3.004 mil. On the first calc, it was 2.990 mil for a slight decrease. When the second calc was released on the 18th, it actually went up to 2.99 mil. That's why we and that makes a difference. That looks like a very small number, 0.005, but it's of $34.6

039billion taxable assessed value. So, it does make a difference in the budget. And then also at the same time outside the required local effort, we received our prior period funding millage adjustment. So what happens is you are required to collect your required local effort. You're required to levy that and collect it. They look back and see if your revenue collected it or not. If it didn't collect it up or down, they adjust you through that prior period funding adjustment. So we didn't collect it all. So they've added a 0.006 006 in this year's budget for you to collect last year's unrealized um budget on the RLE. So at the end of the day, the total state law millage rate actually came out to exactly the same as last year. >> So there will be no

040increase in the state law millage rate. The local board discretionary millages, you have your capital outlay as the board had requested previously. You looked at information back as far as 2010 when it used to be 2 mill money and there was about $150 million less in funding when it went down to 1.5 mills over that time. Remembering that we're in year three of um starting to fund the charter schools prata share the charter schools get a charter school capital outlay right now it's about $1.4 million $1.6 $6 million through the state. We are now shifting. It's a 5-year plan. In year 1, 20%, 40%, we're in the 60% phase. So, charter schools are roughly 14% of our population. So, 14% of that capital 1.5 mil and then two more years it'll be 100% of their

041pratish or their 14% will be funded out of that 1.5 mil. Your 748 discretionary millage. And as you saw on the slide before, um it's called the discretionary millage, but when you look at the FEFP, it's baked in. It's a that's part of the funding structure when you um when you get your total state and local, that mill rate is exactly the same. No difference. 2.248. And then we have a 4-year voter approved millage that just renewed on July 1st. Last year it was 0.5. This year it's 0.5. So for the all millage rates and the schoolboard is capped at a max of 10 mil. You cannot levy more than 10 mil. You are at 5.753 and you are levying the exact same millage rate you did last year. The dollars will be higher. You

042will see on the next slide as the taxable assessed value is increased. So, for example, your 0.5 voter approved millage will generate some more dollars to help pay for the salary and benefit increases for the salaries that are on that millillage. When we take a look on the next slide, we'll look at the um base funding. If you remember back when the governor's budget came out in February, it was around $95 increase in the BSA. As we went through our budget workshops, we saw the Senate proposed $67. The House proposed $50. After the arm wrestling was done and they came to their conference report, it ended up at $4162. Just to put that in perspective, if you take our 18,000 students you saw FT at the beginning, take off the 2233 for family empowerment, take

043off the 2200 for charter schools, you're at about 135 students. Multiply that by 4162 is about $567,000. The teacher salary increase alone is $561,000. That's a categorical in our BSA. So that base basically covers the teacher salary increase allocation requirement within the budget. The base funding you will see from 105 to 103 or about a $2 million um decrease. If we look at our FTE overall and our family empowerment scholarships, you'll see the um unweed FTE at 18125 to 184569 or a decrease of about 80 FTE overall a larger decrease in the weighted and because there were 4 over 400 weighted FTE in the advanced accelerated the the AP the IB and dual enrollment but because those are now out as a categorical reduces your weighted FTE here. you're just getting it as a categorical.

044The family empowerment scholarships at the beginning of last year in the second calc was 1672. They are now 2233 or an increase of 561. And the funding from 14.8 million to 20.4 million or 5.6 million increase. And if you remember in the middle of the year that 1672 went to $1850 after we got our October count and we did that $2.7 million adjustment in the middle of the year. So, we reduced the budget, we reduced discretionary, we reduced all of those expenditures um to get us to 1850 and going into this year now be 2233. >> And yes, >> is it still holding true to our knowledge that about 70% of those uh uh scholarships or vouchers have never been in public schools? Um, do >> we know how many people how many vouchers went

045from public school to private or home school versus how many went to kids that were never in public school? >> You know, the those numbers I still hold true back from October. And unfortunately, that's the last numbers I have. I don't have the fourth calculation, which would be a February number. So these these again, and I tell people when I present on the budget, the f the first calc is all predictions. There's not a solid number. The second account at least firms up our taxable assessed value and our millage rates. That number is yet to materialize and we haven't been shared that data yet because they're not really enrolled and we don't have that data file yet. So probably from October is still valid. Once we start the year and we get a membership file

046back or we get the fourth C, we'll be able to break that down for. So basically what that is saying that there is around $14 million coming from the school budget for kids that were never in public. In other words, they were unfunded. They were never funded in public schools, but now they're being taken away from the public school budgets uh because of the uh fees. >> Yes. >> Yeah. >> And they are funding it through the FEFP. They are funding it um through state dollars. That's why you see the additional um the local dollars can't pay for that. So that's why you probably see the state dollars decreasing for us because they're funding it through state dollars. They can't you can't fund that through local. But they do fund that through that base student

047allocation when they give it to the 18,000 >> and they've been throwing things into base student allocation so they can take more for scholarships away from the base allocation. the categorical going to the base uh to the base allocation gives them more money to take more scholarships from the vouchers from schools. So that's what's going on. It's a little bit of a slight of hand because if you looked at it originally to me it looked like that we were up about $14 million. But when you look at that with the categoricals that they taken away was 7 million and then you take away 14 million even though it looks like we have a big increase you basically have a decrease. >> The way I do the calculations I could be wrong but I believe that's

048correct. >> Yes. >> Um >> can I >> Yes. Um, I have a I'm not sure if we're ever going to get those numbers be the numbers that I think you're asking about, Mr. Dyer, because I, for example, we have parents, families in our community who have been homeschooling for eons. Um, and their children have never ever stepped foot in a public school system, but they're still taxpayers and they're still uh their their monies are still going toward were for many years going towards public school um towards our public schools. However, I think what you're asking is are we are those numbers are those people will we ever see an accountability of some sort for those families who may have never been in our school system. And I don't know if we'll ever know that

049from our point from >> from the moment that the Florida Empowerment Scholarships began. I think from that moment till today, we might be able to find how many of our stu our students left public school for Florida Empowerment. And I only say that because there's a huge disconnect in communication between the Florida Family Empowerment Office and the school district. That all needs to get ironed out. I know it's all new, but I I don't know. I think there's a difference in your question and I'm honestly I'm not sure if we're ever going to get that answer. >> There's there's two pieces. You're correct. Accountability is one thing. I think if we put accountability in for private schools and for homeschooling, I think that that would solve some of the problem. But the but the fact

050is is that public schools were based on the public school funding were the kids that were in the school. And when you fund the mandate, the mandate from the state was basically an unfunded mandate and they had to figure out how to pay for it when it exploded. It started as to get kids out of failing public schools, DNF schools, and give them an avenue for their parents to say, "We will support you to go to another school that's a better environment for your child." And it just exploded. And what happened as a result since it was never funded for those kids were never funded over and above by the state. It was taken away from the public school pot. And that that is that is the that is the problem and that's a fact

051if you want to follow it down. That's what happened. They didn't fund it. It's a slight of hand. We're going to give you money over here, but we're taking it away over here. It's still defunding a lot of public schools. >> Dr. Jones. >> Yeah. Um, Mr. Green, have we ever received the fourth count? FTE? >> No, we have not gotten the fourth calc. The fourth calc would be based on survey three or February. So, one of the challenges is we are presenting a balanced budget as we must. And we don't know how we will end. You'll see in a minute. I won't be able to tell you what the add-on weighted FTE is because I only know October's number. So, it's hard to compare if the $2.6 $6 million new allocation is equal to

052what we would have earned. Um, but we are we have the second calc of this budget and we are moving forward. >> Just one comment and I'll bring this up later in one of the discussion items, but I'm glad you brought that up with the $41 um for the base student allocation receiving $567,000 and our teacher salary increase is 561,000. So it's it's pretty tough to you know that $41 is pretty tough to swallow. But also um when we look at u just in general um what u Miss Rosario and Mr. D were just talking about um with when family empowerment started and I think there are about 16 states who do that now we still have I think 150 students that were missing and thousands in the state and I've talked to my representative

053and senator about this who they still can't find. So the accountability needs to step up not only for the public schools so we know what's going on but for our community. >> Thank you. Um, so the next one is just a comparison of some of the categoricals that are in the FEFP. Just seeing second calc last year to second calc this year and with a slight decrease in FTE. Those things are most of those are most of these have a base. Safe schools has a base and then there's adjustment. So you might get $250,000 base and then there's adjustment for FTE. So they do have a different formula for each one of them, but you'll see um slight differences up and down. ESS up, transportation up, safe schools and ES SAI funds, mental health down

054just slightly with that um FTE adjustment. class size down as you can imagine with uh that aligns to student enrollment and the state funded discretionary supplement up and again that's the funding of the 748 that we do locally through local dollars through state funding to offset the family empowerments as they do the lab schools the academic acceleration option categorical of 2.6 I can tell you off of October's numbers it was around 2.4 4 million for all it was for all of the FTE that we would have generated as add-on FTE, but we have fourth calc and then there's summer. So, not until I get the fourth and fifth count will I be able to tell you what those add-on FTE comparisons were. Um, just a timeline of where we've been and where we're going. Starting

055back in September, the state budget committee, they adopted the state long range financial outlook that said, "Hey, last year okay, this year may be okay." and then look out for some TAV adjustments going forward. Um the governor on February announced his budget with a full FEFP calculation with the $95 increase. We had a budget update on March where we shared that stuff. And then on March 28th, the House of Representatives, the Senate, they both put out their plans, very different. One of them had the family empowerment totally funded outside of the FEFP. Different numbers on the teacher salary increase. One of 600,000, one of 900,000. and he ended up at 561,000. Uh April, another budget workshop where we updated all of that. Budget um number three on May 19th where we updated again. Very little

056information at that one because the budget had not been finished and we were waiting um till June for the conference report was released on June 13th, the year prior that came out in March. draft tentative truth and millillage ads presented at the board meeting on July 15th. On the 18th in late in the afternoon we received the certified so 10 days ago we received the certified mill as you saw which are exactly the same. We received the second calculation which told us how we're going to be funded. On July 27th the trim advertisements were posted in the um Treasure Coast newspapers the Indian River Price Journal. They were actually published on the 25th Friday and as you got a memo um one of the ads was inadvertently placed um not at our direction but inadvertently

057placed two pages earlier and they must be adjacent. So the the press journal was able to get that redone on Sunday. The ad ran this morning and I got them it's all laid out correctly. So we have our two-day waiting period now. Um, which brings us to moving our tentative budget hearing on the millig and budget to tomorrow at 5:01 p.m. That was originally scheduled for this evening. Today we're having our budget update number four. Um, tomorrow we'll have our first public hearing on the tenative mill rates where those rates that I just shared with you, you'll adopt them through a resolution. they are set the required local effort. That's what you're required to levy and the tenative budget that it generates and just the dollars that those um fundings generate. August 25th, we'll have

058another budget update leading into September 9th where we'll have our um second public and final hearing on the final budget and the final millage. So, looking at that tenative budget and you received a packet on Friday in your email. Um this is from that packet. This is the tenative budget across all funds. We looked at last year's early on just how it's broken down. And if you'll remember about 1% of the budget is our extended day or enterprise, the smallest slice that is parents and guardians paying for before and after care. Um that's a self-funded fund. You have your internal service. That's your health insurance fund, 38 million or about 9%. You pay $747 per employee per month towards that as a board. the employees pay the rest of that. We have a health clinic

059that we pay for. The federal funds are broken into two slices. Food service and then other federal such as IDEIDA and the entitlements and we'll talk more about those. Um 3% on the federal food service 2% capital projects about 20% $85 million. We bring in about 50. So you'll see there's a fund balance and those are projects rolling over your debt service. We just paid off one of the um cops last summer. We'll be paying off another one next summer and we're on schedule by 33 to pay off all debt if we don't take any debt prior to then. Um we'll look at that when we go a little bit deeper into the tenative budget for um the general operating which the bulk of that comes through that FEFP that you just looked at that

060um $238 million or 57% of that. Just remembering your fund balance ended up around 31 million, $181,000 less than last year. So 17% to 17%. So that's great. You ended right where you were. So 31 million of that is fund balance. 20.4 million of that is family empowerment and 24 million of that is charter school. So that backs you down to your FEFP for a total tenative budget of all funds, $418 million. Just comparing that yearto-year by the the funds that you must adopt. The general operating fund up $4.4 million and that is from local dollars. Um you saw the family empowerment was up from 14.8 to 20. So you saw the differences where that funding is. Debt service down a little bit as we pay it off. capital up a little bit as we've

061um we've beefed up our capital um for some extra security and safety projects as uh feedback from the board. We've got food service as we have um a little bit smaller enrollment. We've adjusted that budget accordingly. Your federal dollars down that has nothing to do with all of the stuff we're going to talk about with federal. All of those federal entitlements this year are built into the budget. That's basically the esser and error dollars um our dollars rolling out. they went into September. So they actually went into this year's budget if you recall. So that's the the fade out of that $46 million over those three fouryear period. Um so we have expended and and collected all of that. Health insurance up a little bit just uh rates having to go up just a little

062bit. Enterprise fund that's your extended day going up a little bit as um we've made some adjustments to their staffing and expenditures. So, at the end of the day, $48 million to $418 million, $10 million or a 3% increase in the overall budget. Um, just an update on those federal funds. As you remember, on June 30th at about 4:00, the federal DOE announced they were withholding about $7 billion, just over 400 million for Florida, was 1.6 million for SDIC. That was title two, title three, title four, and adult ed. July 1st they announced our title one funds which were not under review would be released um that allocation was was released with a little bit larger than normal reduction. You always get a reduction from your preliminary to your final but it might be 1

063or 2% that was a 6% reduction or $275,000. We made those adjustments to the title one budgets on the 15th. Superintendents were notified via email of a preliminary IDEIDA part B funding being released. July 18th they released 1.3 billion in the 21st century which didn't which didn't affect us. It wasn't was one that um that's for afterchool programs in the community and summer school and then on July 25th they released the remaining 5.5 billion in federal funds title 2 title three title four and adult dead. So we had fully we were fortunate and that we had um rollover dollars in those funds. We got um permission early on to leverage those rollover dollars. Um and it was summer, so not a lot of the teachers and positions had started. The ones that did, we were

064able to leverage those rollover dollars and um had some plans in place. And fortunately, we won't have to implement all of those plans because those funds have now been released. So, we will be um moving forward as planned as you approved on June 16th when you did the entitlements. Truth and millage advertisements. You're not supposed to be able to read those. It's just a picture of the three ads that we you are required to publish. Your first one is your capital outlay. You have to tell the community what you're going to spend your $ 1.5 on, your $ 1.5 million, which generates about $49 million, buses, people, salaries, and benefits of the people that support it. Um maintenance, repairs, painting, all the projects that are happening over this summer. When there is a tax increase,

065although your millage rates are exactly the same, you must notice to the community that you're having a tax increase, this tax increase is actually compared to what's called the roll back rate. You'll have a resolution tomorrow. The roll back rate is the rate of millage that you would levy to keep exactly the same funds coming in. Not that you could do it because you can't go less than the required local effort. your 1.5 mil is already shared and your 748 mil is baked into the formula, but you have to tell the community that if we were to levy 5.5 mil 550, it would be the same. So, it's a 4.42% increase and that's because the taxable assessed value is up from 33.6 to 34.6 billion. And then you have your budget summary. That's that is

066your tenative budget. If you go to many many many districts across the state, their tenative budget is simply that one page. That is the tenative budget that you'll be adopting per state statute that shows across the funds the millage rates at the top. You'll be uh adopting two resolutions tomorrow evening at 501. One of them is the millage rates we just talked about the 3.0050, 0050, your discretionary millage, your capital outlay, your voter approved for a total of 5.73 and the dollars that it generates. And then you will be adopting a resolution for your tenative budget in the amount of 418,7581. And with that, tomorrow evening, we'll have a public hearing at 501 on the tenative mill rates and tenative budget. We'll reconvene on August 25th. We are still we are like right in the

067middle of closing out last year. We are getting invoices in from food service for food that we ordered and paying bills. We're getting trickle in revenue from the tax collector. So we have yet to close out last year's budget. That's why this is a tentative budget. So there will be some changes that will come. They'll be minor but the numbers will shift a little bit. The millage rate will not change. Those millage rates are set. Um the FFP is set. It'll just be um how our budget compares. We'll talk about that on the 25th. And then on September 9th at 501, we'll have a second public hearing where you will adopt the final millage and final budget. And with that, Madam Chair, I'll open it up for questions. >> Okay. >> Questions, board members? Dr.

068Posa. >> So the um I would like to ask how how much funding does the 0.5 voter approved millillage add to the budget and the new budget? Um, and how much did it add in last year's budget? >> So, it it's up about a million dollars. And so, a uh the taxable assessed value this year is 35.6 billion. A mill is a dollar on a,000. So, divide that by a,000. 35.6 million per mill. We can only tax 96% of that. So multiply that by 96% you're at maybe 33.5 34. So that half mill brings in $16 million in this year's budget and it was about $15 million last year. >> Okay. Thank you. >> And that's why at a half million your 1.5 capital brings in three times that or about 48 million. So it's

06916.2 or three million. >> Right. >> We could go higher. I'm sorry. >> No, you're fine. I want to I just reiterate um something we discussed in the past that I've brought up and um just that due to the like continued decline in enrollment and you know the projection of how that could impact us I I do think it would be beneficial to do um like a Dogeel like forensic audit and really drill down and try to um basically eliminate that lost revenue we have year-over-year that we can find and eliminate um so that it sets us up for success later and less losses over time. >> Yep. I can and I can tell you the um the self-doing that we have done has been consistent all year. We have gone through discretionary budgets two

070years in a row. 1.2 million last year, 1.6 million this year. We've cut $7 million from district over six years. >> Yeah. >> Um another so 2.8 million total this year. Um, I can tell you that discretionary budgets are extremely extremely efficient. I have gone through them line by line personally in my office, pulling them up. If it's a chair, bring the chair to my office so I can look at it literally. Um, travel has been reduced. So those things we've had to do that to align and we've done that also through the staff allocation model. So those efficiencies that we've done and through the superintendent reorg that we brought forward is um a very very strong testament. If you will look at some other districts, you can look at their FEFP calculations. They're online.

071There are some other districts exactly like us with a much bigger bud budget who owe the state $800,000 in their FEFP. They're they went negative on their FEFP. Um our fund balance is maintained at $31 million. It dropped 181,000 across a $418 million budget. You will see that the capital is beefed up for safety and security. There's some money in the project. So, um I I do want to really thank my staff. Um you want to know some you want to meet someone who is super super frugal. She drives a Kia and it's not broken down. As he said, it uh is in the parking lot 24/7. and see her on Sundays and when she gets an email with a request, she wants to know why, how, how can we do it differently, how can

072we fund it differently. I thought I was frugal. Um but this budget is um is in good shape because of those cuts, those efficiencies, those reductions and those changes that we have made as an organization to ensure that we can fund the things that you say are important as we move forward. >> Mr. Zarya, >> um so thank you for all of this information. What is the plan from this moment forward until we finalize the budget and bring the board into budget workshops or any other plans moving forward? What is or are we just going to receive a book a week before we vote for the final budget and that's it? >> So, we have another board workshop that we're going to be doing on August 25th on the budget. we will be closing out

073this budget and creating that um final budget book if uh if you will for the September 9th. Um there there is a workshop on September 9th as well. the budget that you have before you and the budget that you bring forward is I don't want to say scripted but almost scripted in its um calculations and formulas and its placement. So the for example in that budget when you look at maybe the $170 million coming in from the FEFP well 125 million of that salary and benefits and we did the superintendent rework so that's that's lined up take off the fund balance $30 million take off charter schools $24 million take off um so as you get down the budget is funded on the initiatives that you have set forward whether it's the safety and security

074projects whether it is communication um those things are built into the budget. So we will be updating the board and having a workshop on on August 25th that will have all of that information and the final budget in it. >> So August 25th that's what a week before two weeks before September. I got to look at the calendar. fun. >> So, you're going to give us the final budget book two weeks before we vote. >> And over the summer, what we have traditionally done and and several board members have already done that is we most board members that will come in, we will spend a couple hours, we'll go through that and then any questions like last year that were um asked at that were answered at that workshop over the summer. any specific I

075my last budget book I should have brought with me I think it has 200 tabs of board member questions >> um all of those were either answered and then we reviewed those at that workshop so anything that happens between now and then and that we can answer that we can go over we'll make sure is answered on August 25th >> so my concern is we haven't identified what our priorities are our board priorities moving forward for this next coming year and for the next five years have not been approved. >> So as I said the budget that you're adopting once you adopt it it is modified on a daily basis every month you get budget amendments. So as the strategic plan is developed as any priority for example aptagy came about mobile app communication two-way

076communication those items get adjusted in the budget and that's a so this is the technical budget adoption process how the expenditures happen throughout the year that's driven by this board and the superintendent and and we adjust the budget accordingly as those priorities come up >> but that you You said it again. You said the budget gets you said that based on the budget is created and then the priorities are set. >> It hap it's supposed to be the other way around. Our budget is based on the priorities. Our priorities need to be set first and that is what is the driving force of the budget. Now I understand all the calculations. I understand the money, but any strategic plan, anyone knows, everyone knows that a strategic plan drives the budget, not the other way around.

077And it seems like we we seem to be reversing that course. Um, a few years ago, we were on the right track with that. Now, it seems like we're reversing. We're doing everything opposite of aligning our budget to our strategic plan and not aligning it and then waiting. So I as far as I'm concerned, our strategic plan should have been approved months ago. I I don't know what we're waiting on because we knew that this was coming up. We should have been we should have approved it to allow you and your team time to incorporate our priorities um within the decisions that are made in terms of you know what goes where and how and why what buckets um if you will um and now it's like you we're getting I keep saying the same

078it feels like it's less and less technically we can come to you with our questions oneon one, but you can't make changes to the budget based on our individual questions. Any changes have to be made through the board corporate. So, we can ask you questions, but that's not going to make a big difference. What makes a big difference is when we have board corporate corporate workshops that are specific to the budget and that are aligned to our strategic plan and I don't see any of that here. Madam Chair, >> um I I never have and am not asking the board how to create strategy to move the system forward. Um I believe that is my job. The budget itself I I can't thank Mr. green and team um for the work that they have done

079and I I mean I think in comparison to other the other 66 districts I don't I don't think there's been more conversations and I assure you board um from the instructional coach to the classroom teacher uh to the principal to the district level uh directors to assistant superintendent uh this team is locked and loaded on strategy. We know exactly what's important. We know exactly how to put the the needs of children in front of the desires of adults of adults. Um and that's the reason you're number five of 67 in the state and that's the reason you'll be number one of 67 with all a schools at at the end of of this particular year. Um so I I will act in response to to the board proper um if there's a different direction in

080which to go. Um but my recommendation is and just to be clarity uh I have a level of clarity. We as staff will bring a recommendation and present it to the board. Um my recommendation uh will come to the board and there'll be shifts and changes when when you all are sitting as a board. So that that is that is correct. Um but it doesn't shift or change what my recommendation will be. Uh but if the board has the desire to shift or modify uh a a structure um that would be the at the will of the board. So we'll work at the will. >> Dr. Moore, I want to make a comment about it. Let me finish. No, I'm going to make a comment right now. And the comment's going to be years ago

081we were 38th and now we're fifth. Obviously, the superintendent knows how to handle the budgeting process. Well, super. Uh when I first got on this board, we were in the negative. We had serious budgeting problems. Our standard um index, I believe, was poor or I don't remember what the term was, but it was not where we are today. So, you're obviously doing something right. And kudos to you for this process. >> Again, as I was saying, one thing has nothing to do with the other. So, your response to my concerns, you you didn't answer my concerns. So my concerns have nothing to do with how great we have improved in our budget um and in our finances as a whole. That has that's not the furthest thing from what I said. Uh and neither did

082I say anything about individual board members telling you strategy. Uh nothing that I said had anything to do with strategy. What I suggest, what I said was that there is a concern that we are not brought into the process and that our strategic plan is not adopted. It is not official. It is not adopted before the budget will be created. As far as I know, we still right now do not have a budget moving forward for I mean do not have a strategic plan for the district moving forward. We have parts of it but it has not been adopted nor have we had any further discussions on the strategic plan moving forward. So as we know and as we have all agreed the strategic plan drives the budget not the other way around >> Dr.

083Jones >> I'm just trying to look back at all my notes. I believe we started the process in March looking at everything and bringing it together. Then we had our individual meetings and we had our workshops and discussions. You know, when you look at our strategic plan, I I I you can look back and see and I think I know all of them as far as our pillars and our principles. And the two that stick out to me are always student achievement and fiscal responsibility. And when we look at those two along with what we do as far as collaboration and planning, recruitment, making sure our students have the best teachers, uh I I don't think we've ever veered from those principles since I've been on the board last three or four years. And when

084we look at what we're dealing with in the budget, um you know, I've been sweating that federal for a while now, thinking what if we what if we lose that 1.6 million? Of course, I'm thinking that has to go through a process, not just you're going to wipe it out, but what can we do because it was so so important for our title schools. Um, and as we've all said, you know, whenever we have a question or a call, and most of mine are Sundays, and I'm sorry, Mr. Green, when I start thinking of something, but, uh, it's answered very well. And when you look at our budget in general, the main areas, the operating budget, the capital budget, the the enterprise, you know, all of those combined um with our food service and uh

085everything else that we're looking at, it comes down when you look at your operating budget after you pay the salaries where we don't have a lot of money to spare. And um Dr. Dr. Pusca brought up a good thing, but I think we've done a pretty good job uh when you look at the alignment that Dr. Moore created um with staff and so forth. And you look at uh the number of people we still need to start the school year. We're doing pretty well on that. Um we are we have been self, you know, I guess you could say looking at this, self assessing because we know that budget's based on attendance and that's how we get our money. You know, that's a a a kind of low way of saying that, but that's how

086we get our money. And when you look at what our principles deal with in discretionary, so much per student, you know, high school, middle, and and elementary, and and they have really cut back on the extra money they have because most of it goes to salaries. So, um whether a strategic plan has been formally approved, we've been talking about those pillars. We have had workshops within our community to take a look at these things. So I don't think there's any issue there as far we are going. But I do think that our budget is aligning with where we want to go. Not only is it aligning it, we're proving it that the focus is on the student achievement. So I don't feel like I've been left out of anything as far as strategic plan because

087that really hasn't changed. You look at our pillars even from three or four years ago. We shifted a little bit since Dr. Moore's been here, but the focus has been the student achievement, the fiscal responsibility, and then of course the community partnerships and so forth, which make us who we are. So, you know, I'm okay with how it's going and how it's continually going. I'm always going to be worried about what cuts are we going to have to make. You know, now we have we're not on a level playing field. Now, we have to prove to our community we are the number one choice. And dang it, we're doing it. and I hope that we continue to do it. So I'm okay with the process. I'm okay, >> Mr. Dyer. >> Yeah, I feel that

088we've had uh certainly adequate input into strategic plan. I remember one where we made innovation as one of the pillars. Uh so I I feel satisfied that we've had uh uh a lot of input into strategic plan whether it was formally adopted or not. I don't think that that's even really an issue. You know, I I call it stratute and that is really executing the the the strategies that you have and I think that you guys have stratcuted better than most people that I have seen when I look at the academic achievements. When I look at, you know, we're a high-erforming school district, not only because of academic achievement, but also because of fiscal responsibility. There's not very many districts in the state I what is there a handful maybe there's four there's 10 in

089the state that are high performing school districts which are both a I thought it was less than that but I think there's both a and uh fiscally responsible uh and uh so we're one of a of a few uh I I look at it the different way you know I I've spent a lot of time trying to analyze the budget and get into the budget and try to understand where you know I c I call it separating the nice from the necessary uh I and I and I've said much to my dismay because I felt that we needed about $12 million to go towards increased teacher salaries administration salaries uh I think that our teachers are underpaid. I think that when we get a high-erforming school district like we have that we need to make

090sure that we pay everybody in the district certainly in the uh leadership of the district appropriately. Uh so you know that has been one of the things that I wanted to come in and dig and uh I I did some deep dives in the budget. I attended four days worth of seminars uh or five days with Fazby to try to dig into the budget and get some insights. And I came away, you know, when you talk about Doge and I I think that what you're really saying, you know, whether it's a forensic audit audit means one thing to me, but what you're saying is let's separate the nice from the necessary. If there's anything that we're doing that we shouldn't do, let's not do it and let's put it on where our priorities are and

091whether it's innovation or something else. Is there something if you really went through and did a did a deep dive, could you come up with a million or$2 dollars? Maybe I think the state has done a really good job of that and that's what that that's why I've been on ever since these Fazby seminars and saw really what was going on and really got a deep understanding of it that the state has doed for us. >> I mean they keep taking money away. I mean, you look even at capital funds. We we didn't get until 2023 the same amount of capital in dollars that we had in 2008 when they temporarily lowered the millage rate. To me, if I look at innovation, I would say, what can we do to get the community to believe

092in what we're doing? I mean, they've seen it for three years and actually go for additional funding through additional millage. I would do that. I would go I would come out and look at everything in strategic plan and everything that you want to do for innovation and reinventing a school district to continue in your quest to number one and provide additional funding. I haven't seen the funding that is f first it is it is it is not uh it is so siloed in state funding you have to spend it here or you have to spend it there. we don't have the flexibility uh to even take it from somewhere where we may want to even cut certainly if it's al allocated and and uh specifically for those categories but I think that we are underfunded

093in innovation and so far and underfunded in teacher salaries and administrative salaries in the district and I haven't seen the funds available to support that from from my probably not as indepth as certainly you guys have gone, but I I mean I I've I've tried to find it and tried to challenge you to show me where it is. And so far you've been either very good at hiding it or uh or it's not there. So I guess that that's where I am. Again, I feel very comfortable where we are. I salute you guys for your success. I think that you've got the the main thing the main thing as you say that is on academic achievement and performance. Uh it's be about the kids versus the adults and uh I am certainly feel comfortable about

094where we are in the process for me. >> Anyone else? >> Okay. >> Thank you. >> Um I actually have a couple. That's okay. Um, so can we go back to the slide that says 2025 2026 budget development process timeline? I think that's great that you put that there because you were um kind of scolded for non-transparency in the past and I think um this is a great um proof that we've been very transparent um and we've been putting out there all the time. Board members have the opportunity to meet with you anytime. you know, I wait until we get cemented numbers before I want to sit in there and look at things because, you know, right now, why are we looking at these numbers other than to guess? So, um, you know, I'll be

095knocking on your door soon for that. The if you go to the tenative budget one, the next one, that one, uh, the millillage compared to like Martin County, you know, is interesting. You know, we've been comparing ourselves academically to Martin County, but if you look, you know, not only do they have a millage that's about the same, right? >> But they also have a sales um tax. Correct. >> Right. And we don't do that here. Um perhaps that's a way we could in do some innovation and incentives, but you know that's that's an ugly word sales tax and that's going to be down the line at some point probably a discussion about that if we ever choose to do something like that. Um I'm not suggesting we do it. I'm just saying that they do

096it and yet look at the outcomes that we're getting and we're getting less funding. Um the Doge Lakeake audit is interesting. I just don't know what it would cost. So, um I don't want to spend money if we're looking at, you know, really doing a deep dive ourselves. The other thing is, um on the next slide, can you go to the next one there on the enterprise that 23% budget per change? Could you go over that a little bit more because that's what I will come into your office and ask specifically about um because that's the biggest number I see an increase. And are those federal funds? >> So, the enterprise funds are So that's including the money that the parents are >> I believe this right >> $5 need to remind what will happen

097something called liabil post employment benefits those will not hit us early September and those sometimes upwards of $600,000 to the fund. So that fund balance that fund balance will um not be that number. >> You need your microphone. that fund balance will not be that number at the final budget because we will adjust it for the post um employment benefits and other liabilities. It it could be >> if that changes a lot of it is because parents are paying into that. >> Some of that is parents paying in the extra five and then some of it is um we I know we went through and looked at the staffing model and how that was on some of the um different area supervisors and whatnot. So that's some efficiencies through that. That's a slight increase, but

098that fund balance will reduce once we get our other liabilities could possibly reduce dramatically. Sometimes it's it's level. It just depends on what those liabilities are. >> Okay. And then on the next page where it says federal funds update, >> one >> that one um it says over 1.6 million was we got that. But I think what people don't realize is, you know, a lot of that are are employee salaries that we're paying for supports for kids with disabilities that have that requirement and deserve that support. And if we didn't get that funding, we would be out of um compliance, right, with that support. And so that was critical that we got that funding. So I'm glad to see that that finally came through. All right. Any other items, board members, for >> one question?

099>> Yes, Mr. Green. um with the 21st century funds. So we have no grants with 21st century now. We used I'm just thinking about innovation so forth. Um when I was at the high school we had a large 21st century grant that helped with afterchool programs. So I didn't know if that application was available or if we're ever going to look at that because it was pretty good money for our afterchool programs. So think about it. Have you ever done one of those Dr. Moore in May? >> They were significant at that time. It was for um after school programs specifically it's a fast river high school for migrants which we have many more at that time but when we think of where we can get more money it's an idea. >> Our following items

100will be presented by Dr. Shaffy then Miss Christopher Foley then Miss Bura and then back to Mr. Green >> through the chair. The next item is item C review of school media center book orders for school year 2526. Uh in accordance with board policy 2520, we bring forth these orders on behalf of all of our schools. Today um bringing forth six orders. Included in each backup documentation is a similar format with the book, the ISBN, the author, the total price, as well as the committee of parents that approved the books. I will say for each of these six schools, Pelican Island unanimously approved on May 13th. Treasure Coast, February 19th, Oyola May 13th, Glendale April 14th, Beachland May 16th, and Rosewood April 21st. Upon arrival, each of these books will be reviewed in their entirety

101before being placed on the shelf. And each of these have orders have been briefed with you individually in in board briefing. So, u more than happy to answer any questions you may have. The next item is the review of our apttoy subscription. Uh we have been leading very much with our brand my sdi but behind that brand is aptagy which will take place at the place of our current website our current application school messenger and other communication avenues between school district and home. This amount is uh actually a cost savings. When you look at the total amount on this invoice, just over $80,000. Two of the platforms we pay for, school messenger is $48,000. Remind is $38,000 and we're already at a cost savings going through a streamlined approach with API. Um as well, this

102item was briefed with you individually and I'm happy to answer any questions you may have. Okay, >> good morning through the chair. This is a review of the mental health assistance allocation plan uh with the understanding that the purpose is to establish or expand school-based mental health care, train educators or other school staff in detecting and responding to mental health issues or connecting children or youth and families with appropriate behavioral health services. uh if we do service the charter schools so if they choose to put their own plan in it is reviewed um by us is up just for any other questions and the plan is also focused on a very multi-tered systems of support and so um if you look it also includes all of our um just get to the next page all

103of our inter agency agreements or community contracts that we have legacy new horizons types and teens etc ETA. And then when you look at the budget, we uh received just shy of 1,100,000, which is about 21,000 less than last year with a rollover. So we are supporting six school counselors. We have 33 total. Um that is seven at each high school, just information. Five at Sebastian High School, two at each middle school, one at each elementary, one is shared between two of the smaller elementary schools. We are supporting new this year one school social worker who is a mental health certified staff. Um we're very excited about that and she'll be focusing mainly on the high schools with a very small focus on attendance. Uh we have three the next line is three mental health

104service providers. Those are our mental wellness specialists. So we have three of those. They are in twoe rotations at each school. Mental health administrator which is Missa A and support. And then we have um mileage and professional development or navigate 360 contracts which we approved at a previous board meeting. And then you can see at the bottom the actual amounts per charter school since they opted to do their own plan. >> Mr. Dyer. >> Yeah. I had a a a question and that was uh when I looked at the ratios in there uh and you had for I think for mental health you had one to,800 students and then for counselors it was 1 to 426 and my question is is how I mean I it doesn't I don't know what that means. Is that

105good or bad? Are we are we where we should be or do we need more staff? Do we need less staff? >> What? >> So we looked through the chair right here >> through the chair. We looked at surrounding districts. >> We are with the school counselors at an average of just over 400. Surrounding districts are high 300s, low 400s. So okay, um, Brevard, St. Lucy, Martin County, which we of course always look at. I'm sure other larger districts or smaller districts may have a different average. I'm sure Dr. more could tell us from a Miami lens, but we are pretty much in line with the surrounding districts. >> And what about the 1 to800 and what was that in the social work? >> Yeah. >> So, we do you want to speak to that?

106Um that's that's through um our mental health specialists and the school social worker or well I think it's just the mental health specialist um or well yes um it's those three individuals really. They're serving students on a tier three level. So that's not the majority of our students. So if we just do the math of like our total enrollment back at the end of June was 14175 and then divided by the three people or well that's how we >> so it's around 500 really for people that are eligible for that type of support. Okay. >> Yes. Yeah. We're not that's that's definitely serving not the largest portion of our students. They just ask based on our enrollment what is our ratio. >> Is that similar to other counties or are we do we feel like

107we're low or high or We all have our discretion. We all have discretion to um to fund our plan as our district needs to to meet the needs of the district. So um we are funding we are using our funds for school counselors because those are are people on the front lines um and our people that are serving all students at a tier one level and then at tier two and then our mental wellness specialist and school social workers serve at the tier three level. and through the chair in prior years we did not have ele school counselors at the elementary level. Okay. So five years ago when Dr. Moore got here almost six now we put that in pla I'm just the truth we put that in place so we would have that closest

108to students that support. Yeah, I I guess sometimes when I see the the ratios and things like that, it would be helpful if they were put in context about, you know, because I I mean it, 1800 sounds like a big number. I mean, I don't know if it's good or bad, but uh I just context sometimes would help me understand some of the numbers I see. >> Dr. Jones, >> thank you. Um yeah, we're the norm for counselors. Doesn't mean it's right, but we're the norm. And uh just speaking as a principal at middle and high school it's so important because our counselors are the gateway to where we need to go next and um I know I've shared this with Dr. Morren so as superintendent advisory council you'll hear from kids we appreciate the

109mental health help because uh the need is out there. Just a question in general how do you feel in general about our community contracts and inter agency agreements? Are they working or can we get more out of them, more people? >> I I'm super thankful. We have some wonderful community partners that we work with and they truly they are they are like what can we do? How can how can we be more involved? They want to be on our campuses and they want to be serving our students. I can I um am very thankful to have really good contacts with each of the program coordinators in our county um through the different agencies and just if we have a really high student need I can make a call and they will get the student in

110as soon as they can. Our wait lists thankfully are not very long in our community right now for mental health support. Um so that is a huge we could not do it without our community partnerships. So, Miss A, if you needed more people on campus or even one or two days a week, they would work with us on that. >> We are. Yes, I'm in plans and some of them unfortunately their funding is getting hit very hard as well. Um, and so they are writing grants and doing things through the community to try to get people more people on our campus. >> Thank you. >> Anyone else? >> I'd just like to say um you mentioned that that person is also going to focus a little bit on uh attendance. So, you're talking about chronic

111absent kids >> and you know when you drill down drill drill down you might find out homeless or what other needs that they have and then work with services to help. So that person is going to be kind of our point of contact for that. >> Yes, 100% for our high schools. >> Okay, great. Yes, >> sounds good. Thank you. >> Thank you. >> Good afternoon through the chair. I have three items for your review today. The first two go together. They are both with Treasure Coast Technical College. The first one is the fee schedule. Uh the fee schedule is established at the legislature level and I've paired that with the dual enrollment articulation agreement also with Treasure Coast Technical College and that does meet established state statute as well. Um any questions regarding those

112two items? Okay. >> And my next item is our student progression plan. Uh this was an interesting year to do the progression plan because we had very few changes through the curriculum and instruction lens. However, any changes that did really come online were very late in the game. So I will present this to you for your review. But I would also like to draw your attention. There are three what we call scribers errors and I'd like permission to make those changes for tonight's board meeting. Um, the first one is on it's under the grade averaging and it goes through the progression of an A equals a B, a four. >> Um, on mine I'm on the page 45. Okay, it's at the bottom of 45. The A equals a four in a 4.0 scale. B

113equals a three. C equals a two. We also have a very easy grading scale according to this where a D also equals a two. That should be a one. So I'm always on behalf trying to be on behalf of kids, but we do have to make that a one. Um the next one is under the passing concordance scores. We have the CLT score as a 39 and that that's on Oh, I'm sorry. 48. That should be CLT10 with the score of 39. Okay. >> Not yet. Hold on. >> Okay. >> What was it listed? Oh, 14 >> 10. >> The CLT10 is a new test. We'll be administering this new this year. >> Okay. And then the very next page, page 49, uh under the performance-based exit option, this is an option we chose to

114not remove in the event that somewhere down the line we will use this, but we have not used this in many years. You'll see in that third line, overage as in like surplus, that should be over age. So there should be a space between those. Yes. So with all the spell checks in the world, catching overage was not going to be possible. I just appreciate the extra eyes on this document. Um and with your permission, I'll make those changes for tonight. >> Any questions? Board members, Miss Rosario. >> Um can you can we go back to the CLT10? Yes. Did you say that was page 48? >> Yes. >> Okay. So, just to be clear, we're adding CLT10 and the concordance score. Do you have the concordance score? >> 39 for the CLT10. >> Um,

115I see 30. Oh, wait, wait, wait. 37 for the CLT10 and 16 for the quantitative reasoning. I can send this to you. I just pulled up the the rule >> 6A10315 demonstration. >> I verified with our assessment and accountability department, but I will go back to that. >> Yeah, this is the actual rule itself. >> Okay. >> They've been changing these as rapidly as of a week ago. >> Yeah. >> So, if it pleases the board, I will find out what it is today and add that. >> Okay. This was as of rule effective 78205. Um file date 618 and this was the latest one. I'd be happy to send it to you. >> Thank you. >> Um and then but the CLT is 38. The CLT is 38. Quantitative reasoning 16. The CLT10 is

11637. Just one point less. And the quantitative reasoning 16. So, same math, one point less for the reading. >> Okay. >> I'll send this to you. And um will we be able to add the actual scores tonight? Did you >> I would prefer that we do as long as it pleases the board. >> Thank you. >> Because we can just say adopted as amended. So, you're going to pull that from consent to action then. >> Okay. You're gonna amend it and we'll just call it as amended then. >> Okay. >> Thank you. >> Next item through the chair is the disposal of surplus property. Um this time it's uh pretty small list about 20 items. There are two vehicles, an F350 that's 21 years old. You purchased a new one recently that pulls our mini

117excavator and stuff that repairs the ball fields and and whatnot. and a Chevy Equinox that was 20 years old, some welding equipment that's 11 years old from Verbage High School, and some old projectors. Along with that is the annual inventory results. So once a year, we're we uh have to go through by statue and look at what's missing. Out of all of the items, um there are only three LCD projectors that are 8 years old and useless, but when they were transferred from one school to another, the transfer form was not completed properly. the incident report um is attached to your board agenda items. So, out of all of the um items that we have inventoried, there are only three that um have an issue. No police reports or stolen um equipment. >> Okay. Board

118members, anyone? I have I have one comment. Somebody showed me a picture of one of our maintenance vehicles that looked horrible. Do we have any excess paint around or >> um they're probably maintained about as good as they can be, but um on the inside, so I will check into that. Was it over at physical plant? >> It was on the road, so somebody sent me a picture. >> I I will check. >> They showed me a picture. They didn't send it to me. They just showed it to me on their phone and I went, "Oh." Um the next item J is the an agreement with Cherry Beckard for external auditing services where you're required to have a um annual financial audit every three years. The auditor general conducts that. They did that two years

119ago. This past year we used um Cherry Beckard. We put that out again. And so this is a renewal for Cherry Beckard to do that um work again throughout this year. and then next year we will be off the hook for that cost as the um auditor general will be coming in and doing it again. >> Item K is a renewal of stop loss and we've briefed on this several times. So we are self-insured in our health insurance fund when you get a very large claim. Cancer, heart attack, open heart surgery. It can be um upward a million dollars per claim. This is an insurance that stops the loss at 250,000 per individual claim and 250,000 total. That premium was about $850,000 last year. There's about 18.5% increase. It's roughly a million dollars paid out

120of the health insurance fund. Um we put it out to bid to nine different vendors. Six of them just refused. We've had over 23 high claims. Um so QBE was again the most responsive to that. Um item L is the award of your Seymar continuing services to multiple contractors. That's Proctor, Remnant, Jacqueline and Suns, Bill Bryant, and Lego Construction. These are for projects not to exceed $7.5 million. They will be board approved in your capital plan anyway. Construction Management at risk means they give us a guaranteed max price. If they go over it, that's on them. If they go under it, they give us the money back. That's a way of bidding versus um ones where they adjust the price along the way. So, these is an RFQ, just a request for qual qualifications. as

121the project come on, we rotate through them and use them as needed. >> That last one, Lego construction. >> It is actually Lego construction. That's uh branding at its best. Right. Um item M is a review of the award of an ITB for painting services. This is in the physical plant department, Mr. Michaels, in maintaining our buildings. Quick painting was the primary with 512 painting, McDines of Bvard and Tubito painting all as secondary. So that is to award them um the estimated annual impact is $250,000 and that's for maintenance painting. And item N is a review of the three-year contract with P school. We have had P schoolool since 2004, I think, when it was performance matters. That's your UniFi platform. That's the platform. We create our assessments, we develop them, we deliver them, we

122score them. All of that data that you see analyzed and that teachers have access to and our leadership teams all come through that powers school agreement. And um that is a three-year a renewal of a three-year contract with them again. And I believe you are done with me today. Hopefully, >> Madam Chair, that >> we're not done yet with you today. >> Well, that finalizes all the items for the superintendent. So, there is discussion items uh for the board to have. >> Okay. So, um the first discussion item is uh school board members travel. Um that's something that we voted on every year and um in the past the items that are on there listed on there are the ones I believe that we voted on in the past. Um, so I've been asked to

123bring this to a workshop to discuss. Anyone have a a discussion about this? >> Um, the only thing that I haven't This is new. Um, this is fairly new. I mean, we've only been been voting on this maybe this is our second year. Um, this isn't something that we traditionally voted on. Um however um the one thing that concern concerns me and what was originally brought up is because uh in the conversation when we first had this to vote on this issue um was the fact that the list was not to be uh specific to these items. Basically, these were just some of the ones that we could think of, but they weren't to be limited to the ones on this list. So, in other words, if something comes up tomorrow, um, and a board

124member receives an email and says, "Hey, you know, this is coming up, but it just isn't on our list." Um, we shouldn't we should have a discussion about those organizations that are having training that are just not on this list because it would uh basically tie us up to only those on this list and that I think is pretty unfair because you might find a training significantly important that is not here. Um, and again, these listed items were initially just based on a suggested list rather than a um an only list essentially. So, that's really my only concern. I think it's it's fine. I don't have any issues with the list itself. I just think that we shouldn't be um hogged down to just the ones that are on here. I think we should just

125have an asterisk that just says not limited to So, I guess that's my >> Let me clarify something. Was it up to um over 500, right? That that we vote on it as a board, correct? >> Okay. >> Yes. Thank you. Because I believe we had to follow statute. >> Say that again. I don't understand. >> She's going to explain. >> Okay. >> Yeah. >> Maybe. Thought I had it on. >> I think it's on. Okay. So section 101.39 is titled district school board members travel expenses and subsection one specifically requires that any travel outside the district that exceeds $500 requires a prior approval by the district school board to confirm that such travel is for official business of the school district and complies with the rules of the state board of education. So in

126addition to that, I think we discussed this at our training last two weeks ago whenever we hear about our ethics training. So you're approving the fact that those that are listed um you're conf you're approving the confirmation that such travel is for official business of the school district and complies with the state board rules. Uh to answer your question, Member Rosario, if there are additional ones, then I think you need to bring forth those additional ones that are going to be $500. If if if that travel would exceed that, which I would think they would almost all do that. And then additionally, the statute requires if you're going outside the state, then we have to itemize everything. And I don't know how often you all travel outside of the state, but that requires an itemization.

127So if there are additional ones that you would like to go to that come up, I think we have to bring another agenda item to just confirm that that travel that would be associated for that particular con um conference would be for official business of the school district. Does that help? >> Yes. So, can we add just on the bottom of this the statute and like a little blurb in there that there's an understanding? I mean, even long beyond the board that's here just so that there's clarity as to what this list is meant for. It just it's only titled 25 26 school board members travel, but it doesn't specify training. It doesn't specify the statute. It doesn't specify um the minimum or in this case these are approved above the $500. Can we just

128add like a something in there just to >> You mean on the agenda item? >> I'm sorry. >> Is it I believe it's on the >> on the actual form >> potentially. Okay, good. I thought we did. Okay. So, um on your on your thing it says uh wait >> on what thing? on the agenda item. It specifically refers to policy 0147.1 which I believe then references the statute. But I see what you're asking is you're asking if we can add the statute to there >> um >> to the form itself to the list on the bottom of the list after all of the acronyms that are there on our list. There are acronyms or above >> or above >> and the I think the the top where it says 2526 schoolboard members travel I

129think it should say training because travel could be from here to another school. >> It's travel and expenses and it's for outside the district. >> Is that what this statute says? >> Again I >> any travel outside the district that exceeds $500. So it doesn't incorporate your travel inside the district. >> But that's my point is that this form here, the way that it's, it's very general. It's very generic. It's not specific to outside of the district. So that's all, you know, just kind of tweak the title and maybe add a blurb on the bottom. The locations are outside the district. So to me, it's fine. Um, one thing I think it would be nice, um, we're we're kind of in a vote. We're going to approve that if let's get this clarified that if

130a board member wants to attend something that's on this list, they can just do it, they don't have to go back to the board and ask for it to be approved. >> That's correct. >> Okay. I just want to make sure there is something missing from the list though that I noticed was the FSBA um finance training I think it is because I think you attended that this past. >> Yeah, I had to get permission somehow. I filled out a form. >> Yeah. >> Somebody approved it. >> Yeah. So that one needs to be added there. >> Can you add that? >> We we can we can amend it. >> Can you just say FSBA trainings in general? Does it have to be specific? >> Just say FSBAFads >> conferences. >> Okay. Um could you

131would you repeat that? I'm confused on what was just said. >> I I think we wanted to make sure that the agenda item as written and Hang on. I'm going have to pull it up real quick. Um the agenda item as written just has event website dates and location which are all well there is an FSBA that's in Orlando so that's still outside the the dis the county. Um I think we're adding well you have the summer conferences there. I I think maybe the the ask is to add like FSBAFads in general confes. Well, the the the question was finance conference was not on here because sometimes they have a finance >> in I think March or April or something like that. >> February. >> It's every two It's every two years and there's two

132sessions. >> Yeah. But if we just if we just make it simple, you know, and just say FSBAFDs conferences >> along with all these other ones. >> No, >> Just FSBA general. anything FSBA and FADS. She's just referring to their business. >> There's a lot of FB FSBA meetings that go on. >> Yeah, that's >> I'm not so sure how many if all of them are beneficial, but you know, that's another topic. But anyway, >> yes, >> but we're members of them, so it's it's like I mean, >> right. And if there's if there is one that you're >> interested in, I think under the banner of FSBA, >> all you have to do is get just bring it up to the board and get board approval from now. >> Well, that's what we're doing

133now, >> right? >> We're doing that tonight. Dr. I'm happy about school. constitutes. >> Your mic, your mic. >> Sorry, sir. >> I was suggesting that I I would support this item um with the changes you guys are making, but I would suggest that we consider ending the funding um to pay for the travel. And I um if if you think about all the members, schoolboard members alone from across the state going to lavish hotels in Clearwater and Orlando um for these various conferences um it constitutes probably a couple million dollars in waste annually. And um it doesn't mean that what they're going to is a waste. I'm sure it's very valuable to a lot of people. Um but I don't think the taxpayers should be um the ones footing the bill for this on

134an annual basis. I think it's really added up over time. I don't think this is really u what it was intended to be and I I don't think any of these meetings could not be done over a video call. Um so we we really don't need hotel expenses, dinner expenses, travel expenses. I I don't think it's appropriate or proper. >> Anybody else? >> Yes, Dr. Jones. >> Mr. Green, I'm sorry I didn't look this up. What is our board travel budget? I think I know, but total what does the board travel get for budget? 25. If somebody could look that up >> total for five of us >> that includes your travel as well. Does that includes Dr. Moore's included in this? Because I see fads in there. That's what I was asking. Okay. >>

135Well, I agree that we should have FSBA and fads down there and I agree somewhat with Dr. Pasca and I'm very very picky about my travel. I will go there though once a year and I love learning. Please don't get me wrong, but the one of the reasons I wanted this brought up because um we did have a board member go to another one and what was shared I did not think was really going to be beneficial to us as board members. I think the FSBA and FADS as far as, you know, their mission um is looking at student achievement and how boards can help their superintendent achieve that. And they're public school advocates and I think that's one thing that we have to continue to do that. I mean, we're all here because we're

136public school advocates. So, um I'm not sure exactly how this is going to be worded, but again, I'm very particular about going um if we do go because it does cost money. You can't go to a conference. I'm thinking of the winter one I've gone to under I mean two or three nights and it's $1,000. So I think we have to be careful on that. Do we all need to go again looking at that in general? But whatever it is taxpayer money and we need to make sure that what we're doing is going to come back and help us as far as student achievement innovation funding and what we can do there. But um these other ones I I don't know. I looked at some of them as far as their values and their mission

137statements and so forth and whether we like all the breakout sessions and I've done those at the state before. Hard to get all the breakout sessions that everybody likes. So, but some of it can be done over Zoom. So, I think we need to analyze that. But the one thing I do understand is I don't want to say, oh, we never need to go because professional development is key, you know, in our learning. So, I'm not sure exactly how it's going to look like tonight, but uh Mr. Zaro, Mr. Dyer were right as far as just FSBA conferences and there are a lot out there but I've just usually gone to the winter one but those are the ones I think we're okay on but maybe we can take a look at it >> see

138what we're spending >> I don't really understand some of these other ones on here personally if through sorry through the chair I mean what's the conservative board does that mean we should put a liberal board on here I mean I don't know I mean it just it's it's getting a little strange uh some of these things that are on there and I'm not sure why we have these other I mean I just don't understand totally what they are. >> Uh but I want to make sure that whatever we whatever we do uh it should be non-political. It should be for the betterment of the school district >> and it should it certainly shouldn't be partisan. I don't know the the one the conservative board. I'm conservative. That sounds great to me. But what if somebody's

139not? You know, it just is that's not is that anything the school board should be getting into is is, you know, picking a a side. It just doesn't seem particularly correct to me to get political into a nonpartisan school board. >> Dr. Pasca. >> Yeah. So, I just want to follow up. I'm not trying to point the finger at anybody here. I think you guys are probably all fairly frugal and I would not be surprised if half of your expenses are not, you know, you're not asking for reimbursement, I'm sure. Um, uh, but I think it would be interesting if we were the first, uh, county and district to self-defund our own travel. I mean, to set an example and, uh, >> interesting. >> Let the taxpayers know we do care about them and and

140their money and we're trying to spend it well. You know, you make a good point and I agree with you not to waste the money for sure, but I also have to think about if there's somebody that gets elected that can't afford that and how fair would that be. >> Yeah. >> Um, you know, thinking of the greater good. Uh, I get a lot out of the going to the conferences because of the networking and the ability to pick up the phone and call somebody in Tallahassee or call somebody in another district and say, "Hey, we got this issue." I mean, Dval helped me a lot this year with some issues and really helped us with getting some things pushed forward that helped our district um with CTE funds and things like that. And that

141took a couple of calls and and a lot of negotiating between different districts. So, um I find the value in it. What I'd like to propose is perhaps pulling this back and saying we're members of FSBA. We approve FSBA conferences. Period. And then if a board member wants to go to something else, then they need to propose it and bring it to the board for that approval. >> And I I'd be fine with that. And that would and then look, let's look at it and say, did we pair it back or did we keep spending money that we shouldn't be spending? Um, but that's my suggestion. Anyone else? I I would be in support of that, but I'd also be in support of tableabling this and coming back at the next workshop and trying to

142figure out what these things are and and to listen to what Dr. Pasco has said and uh just to try to figure out if if we really what are these we really need, what's nice and what's necessary. I mean, let's do the necessary ones that but the nice ones, you know, maybe maybe again we don't all have to do or maybe we appoint a representative to go to some of these things. Maybe there's a way that we could be somewhere in in the middle and make sure that we are being judicious about which ones go. I mean, uh, you know, I think that maybe there's some for new school board members. We're going to have an election coming up. If there's a new school board member, uh there's probably some seminars that they need to

143go to. >> Yeah. >> If there's not, maybe we don't need to go to some of these. You know, who knows? So, uh you know that that that's where I would be on it. It just seems like that it needs to be simmered a little longer. I mean, it's easy just to approve it because if it's $9,000, it doesn't mean anything, but it's more than that. It's just as you said, it's maybe some sort of symbolic about, you know, spending the taxpayers money and making sure that we do it judiciously. Again, I can go either way. Uh I certainly uh think that there is some value to SSBA, but I'm not so sure there's there's certainly not value to me to go to a meeting four times a year at SSBA. there's a value to

144go maybe once a year is something that's important but not four times a year. So others there may be >> so I'm hearing that either pair it down to just FSBA and then any other ones bring up for a vote to the board or I'm also hearing tableabling it. Um the first FSBA thing that's on here the first date that's on here s certain is uh September 18th. So, um, when's our board meeting in September? I don't know if anybody's choosing to go to that one. Policy governance. >> Who would go to the policy governance? Anybody here? >> Going to that one or can we put this off a little while? >> Nobody. Okay. So, we could put this off a little bit and and kind of, you know, massage it a little bit and

145see what >> the purpose I think, Madam Chair, the purpose of the statute is to allow the public that also the statute also requires the public to comment. And so I think that's probably something with you being transparent um in your fiscal expenditures that's something you know do you all five need to go to California to a conference. I'm just saying you're not all going but I'm just saying that's something um it does require the public input which is why we put it on the agenda as well. >> Anyone else? >> I mean we're here talking about it now. I I don't see a need God bless you by the way. I don't see a need for us to put it off because or table it because that it was on our agenda to discuss

146today. Um I don't some of these I don't necessarily agree with everything FSBA does in terms of ch training you know their training workshops. Um I I really don't um but they do have some workshops that are beneficial and the same thing with I'm sure half of the organizations here. You know, it's not about uh it's about what the agenda is for that day and what you're coming away with. I know I've gone to trainings um I've gone to trainings at the leadership institute that were specific to Robert's rules and they were extremely beneficial and I brought those back to the board. So, uh it I it all depends on what the training is. You just don't know what the training will be offered and if it's something that is not beneficial to you, you

147just don't go. Um but that one that I went to was it was a it it wasn't charged to the board. It was a an online training that I went to, but that opened the door for some more uh possibilities of whether there were something, you know, some things that are in person that you just you just don't know. You can't predict what their schedule is going to be in advance other than FSBA. FSBA is the only one that predicts. So, I think just having the list um it doesn't hurt us. It's not that we abuse this. I know that for sure. Um, so it we're here talking about it now. I I get the I appreciate, you know, the transparency. Um, so that's where I stand with it. >> Um, Dr. John, >> I

148I'm okay tonight to say that um you know FSBA had conferences approval and all other ones must get approval from the board, the separate ones, because there may be some here that are on the list. I've never gone to the National School Board Association, but that that could be critical at some time. I don't know. I'm not all five of us, but maybe one of us could go. Again, professional de development and learning is key. I understand that. We want to keep up with that, but I think we're okay on FSBA and FADS, and then all other ones need to be approved by the board. Just so you know, national school boards, um, FSBA has no longer a member of that. >> Oh, I remember that. I'm sorry. Well, it's a one day join. >>

149COSBA. >> Oh, yeah. Yeah. Yeah. >> And I will say if you're in leadership on FSBA, then the FSBA pays for that transportation, >> right? And I'm >> they paid for me because I'm a leader and uh uh committee chair and so they paid for my transportation to go to one of the trainings. I did not charge the school district for that. So, um, and that was really beneficial for understanding federal some federal things. It was really helpful. >> Um, and you know, able to go and lobby. I was able to go and lobby and I did that on my own dime, >> right? >> Go lobby in Tallahass or in Washington DC. So, um you know, >> I think then we should bring this item forward and then just put uh we approve anything

150that we're a member of which is FSPA and then all other right >> um board travel that board member needs to bring it as an item to the board for approval. >> Are you okay with that? >> I'm okay with that. >> Okay. I just want to add I'm on four committees with FSBA and most of them are on on Zoom but sometimes we have to travel and I don't ask for reimbursement on that and I know they're key don't get me wrong the federal policy the labor relations and um so as long as I think I'm learning something to help my district >> advocacy around that >> am I yeah I forgot that one sorry thank you Dr. Pasca. [Laughter] >> Okay, I'm sorry. I'm done. Thank you. >> Okay, we're on to item

151B. Uh, review of revisions of adoption of school board policies 5200, school attendance and 5610, removal of out of school suspension, disciplinary placement and expulsion of students and um board members are board members being expelled. I saw it said board members under it. Okay. Um, Miss Rosario, >> that's not my item. >> Oh, I'm sorry. I thought it was your item. >> The a conversation we had during the board meeting um the last board meeting and it was requested to be placed on the workshop. >> That's why it's on the workshop. But if you recall, you all continued to have the conversation after it being requested, but there was no formal request to remove it. >> So, in terms of the item tonight, the item is presented as as is. Um and I just wanted

152to be thorough in saying although I think they exhausted the conversation during the last workshop um I don't know if there's conversation to be had uh the item is presented as it was um at the last meeting for approval tonight. >> Okay. One thing I will say is um there there are alternative um plans in like Martin County uses Altas where if a student is suspended they can go to Alts make up their work and then um I'm not sure if their their absence is um is suspended or unexcused or excused. I'm not sure. Um Project Rock in St. Lucy County, same thing. They a parent um doesn't have to have the child home alone. They can go to Project Rock. they can get um help in with their work there and make up their

153work there. Again, I don't know if um their attendance is excused or not there. Do you know >> that is in lie of suspension? So, we have all tosses as well. So, they go into to our program uh they get on the bus, they go to um that program. >> We're still doing all toss. I know we have done it in the past. So if a child is suspended then they could go to alts >> depending on the event and the where the kid is within his discipline history. So it's a decision made by uh the administrator in the midst of of where that student is. >> And so if it's more severe or something then that's a a point where hey you you blew it and okay got it. >> Okay. Um Mr. Dyer,

154>> I didn't see the 45 days that we spent a lot of time talking about last time, whether it was 90 or 45 days. That wasn't in here. Did we decide something? I don't remember. >> 45 days >> where we could do a suspension before 45 or an intervention before 45 days. Wasn't that part of the suspension? >> I think you were talking about attendance, correct? >> Attendance. Yeah. Oh, so it's not Okay. >> No, he didn't make any changes. That's what I what I understand is that they didn't make any of the changes that we discussed. >> Okay. But I thought you brought up the 40 you wanted to do things. Am I I'm in the wrong >> I I'm not really sure but Mr. Rosary was is correct after circling back meeting with

155the attorney. Uh what was presented and sent to public hearing is up for approval this afternoon. >> Okay. Good evening. So, where's this 45 days that you're referring to? >> Maybe I've got the wrong policy. We went through quite a few policies, but there was one that I thought that we should intervene. >> I remember. Yeah. >> If they had an attendance policy sooner than 90 days. We were going to do it at 45 days because we said that we knew when there was an attendance policy that and and you guys brought it up. You were the ones who wanted it at 45 days. I >> I think we needed clarification from the attorney. Is that correct? I I think now that you bring that up, I think are we talking I'm sorry I was

156trying to draft your language for your travel thing. Are we talking about the legislative priorities and the fact that we asked the legislature to reduce the or at least put an >> Maybe that's what it was. That's >> Well, you're right. That was part of our priority. That's to ask them because that's there's a statute because >> So this is according to statute, >> right? Because right now we have we have to act within the 90 days. We don't have the ability to go before. >> We're asking for that. Okay. But we can't get it yet >> because we really can't capture those students until they've been absent the requisite number. >> That clears that up. >> Okay. >> So, we're good. >> Anyone else? >> Yeah. I guess my my one comment not to

157throw a wrench in this whole conversation is I I actually thought some of those changes we asked for were in here. Um in E on I think it's page what is it? Page two >> for attendance or for >> Yeah. This was under attendance uh page two uh section E um when a student has at least five unexcused absences. So I thought it was actually less. So it was within a month. So we're we're using not 90 days. We're using a one month pr-rated system. So we can intervene sooner. >> Right. >> So that is in here. >> So that okay statute. The other one is an extra ask. >> Right. Okay. >> Anyone else? Okay, we're good on that. All right, moving to the next item. Um, Miss Rosario brought up bright futures, dual

158enrollment, and student progression. Yes. So, I've been giving this a lot of thought and I've talked with Dr. more about this um several times over the last I don't know how many years um and I've even brought it up as um from the dis and in previous workshops the you you have a lot of um backup for this item um just for information for you on the requirements for graduation and the requirements for Bright Future scholarships which um and of course are are and some policies on student progression. So what I found is or what I believe to be through all of my conversations with multiple students and families is that I hear all the time over and over again. I didn't know about Bright Futures. I didn't think my son or daughter could apply

159for it. Um, and a lot of students are also being told um that they they're being pushed to do prom the promise program with IRS, which is great, but they're also being told you can't do both. And Bright Futures is very different. Right. Futures is separate and apart from the promise program. It's separate and apart from um graduating from Indian River uh from the school district of Indian River County. But the benefit of Bright Futures is tremendous. And that's what why I have here the graduation requirements. So, all of the graduation requirements for a regular student in high school would be beneficial to a student to receive the Bright Future scholarship with the exception of two foreign language requirements because Bright Futures requires two foreign language. It also requires and you have the um just

160to kind of help you, you have the um the Bright Future student handbook on as a a backup item. So, you can pull that up if you need to. Um, so with the exception of that, with the exception of the ACT, the CLT, or the SAT, those are requirements for Bright Futures that are not a requirement for high school graduation. Um, volunteer hours, work hours, um, or a combination of both of those things. So, if we just look at the coursework, we are sure to be able Oh, okay. He's going to pull up what I'm talking about. Madam Chair, may I ask, can we take just a few minutes break? I know Dr. Moore just stepped out and he's going to pull up. >> Let's take a break anyway because it's past the two hours.

161So, it's 2:14 and then we'll we'll take a 10-minute All right, we are back. Uh we are on um bright futures item item I believe B was it C. Thank you. All right, and we now have um some um documentation up. Mr. Rosario? >> Yes. So, um we were we left off talking about um Bright Futures, which is a scholarship available for students in the state of Florida to be used in any college or university in the state of Florida to allow them to go to school um with either 100% tuition free, 75% or 75% tuition free uh for the four different types of scholarships and and I'll kind of just review for for some who are not familiar. Um each one of them has a different requirement. The one that is traditionally discussed are

162these two that are up on the screen and again these are in your uh backup items. Um so the first one is the FAS that is the Florida academic scholarship. The next one below it is the FMS. That is called the Florida Medallion Scholarship. The Florida Academic Scholarship. Um you'll see that students have to complete 16 high school credits. Uh which is easy to do in our school system. It's very easy for all the students to complete. four English, four math, three natural science, three social science, and two foreign language uh requirements. The next qualification for the FAS is to maintain a 3.5 weighted GPA or higher. Then they would need to um take and pass with the particular score that's on there, either the ACT, the CLT, or the SAT. And they would need

163either a 100 hours of volunteer credit, I mean volunteer, um, you know, a a sign sheet, uh, paid work hours, or a combination of both. If a student can satisfy all of those requirements there, they go to school anywhere in Florida 100% free tuition. 100% paid. like how every single student is not taking advantage of this is beyond me. But I think that we need to do better on this because there are still a handful of students who do not know or who think that they can't do it and they can. The next one, the FMS, um is the only difference with the FMS is the 3.0 GPA. So if a student has a minimum of 3.0 O and falls within the FMS uh requirements, they would get 75% of their tuition free. If you

164go to I'm going to ask uh if you can go to page six on there. Yeah. On the bottom of page six, it says gold seal vocational scholars. That's the next scholarship that's available under Bright Futures. Um, this one is funded for students who are interested in enrolling in a career education or certification program in Florida. For this one, the qualifications are slightly different. Um, these students would have to achieve a required uh minimum GPA of 3.0. uh they would have to take three full credits in a single career and technical education program, achieve a required minimum 3.5 unweighted GPA um in the career and education courses, achieve the required minimum score of ACT, SAT in this case or the per um and uh and complete 30 volunteer hours, 100 paid hours or a combination

165of both. And then if you can go two pages further to page eight, this would be the fourth scholarship. It is a gold seal cape scholarship. Um, this one here is awarded to students who are enrolled or plan to enroll in a career education or certificate program similar to the other one. Uh but upon completion of an associates in science uh in the science degree program that articulates to a bachelor of science degree, a GSC scholar may also receive an award for a maximum of 60 credit hours towards a bachelor's degree. And for this one, the uh qualification would be to earn a minimum of five post-graduate post-secary credit hours through CAPE industry certification. Uh and complete 30 volunteer hours. And I believe for this one, there is no minimum GPA requirement for this scholarship.

166And so the more that I research this and the more that I talk to students, um we're we're not doing I think this is an area that we can certainly do better. Um but I also think that this is for me it's like a no-brainer. like why are we not pushing students as much as possible to go to school for free or for 75% you know of their tuition? Like to me it's like if you have a student who's at a 2.5 GPA they are so close to getting that 3.0. Like why aren't we what are we not doing for that 2.5 that 2.6 that 2.7 student to just get them a little up to that GPA area. Um, so the graduate profile that was sent to you all by Dr. Moore um by email

167I think yesterday he sent it. I requested this in June or at the beginning of July. Um it was sent to you all with some updated information on Sunday yesterday. So, you have that if you if we can pull that up and and you all have it in your email as well. So, and Dr. Moore, chime in if I'm if I say anything that wrong. What we see here, and this is very, very brief. The one thing that I really should have asked was how many students applied for Bright Futures. That we don't know, right? Because that would really tell us a lot. But just in general, if we look at Sebastian River High School, they had 438 graduates. Vero Beach High School had 644 graduates from each of the high schools. for the total

168number and this is two four. Oh, that should have been three. 2 three. Three is military by the way. 2 three and four. For 2, three, and four. If you subtract the total of two, three, and four from the total graduates in in Sebastian River High School, there are 87 students that are missing in terms of have not committed to a college or a university, have not committed to a military, or have not committed to a vocational, tech, trade, or certification program. >> Can I clarify? It says Florida University. They could have committed to a school outside of Florida. >> Yeah. I I don't know if Florida. Yeah. I don't know. >> It's Florida. >> You did all >> Florida. >> It's all self-reported. >> Yeah. Self-report. So again, it's not. So yeah. So this

169is self-reported from what? So it may not be 100% but it's a good gauge, right? So let's take a look at it as a gauge. Um >> so if we have so let's say there are 87 right let's just let's just assume that number again it's just a gauge at Vero Beach if you do the same math it comes out to 188 students who have not committed to a Florida college or university um military or vocational back. So, and again, overall, what we don't know is how many of our graduates did apply for Bright Futures because then I think we'd be able to also tell how many students we can actually get to apply to Bright Future for Bright Future Scholarship in some way, shape, or form. Overall, the the statute on bright futures, it

170there's no requirement in our in our uh for us as a school district to incorporate bright futures in any there's no requirement that says that we have to have a particular program or that we have to have a particular thing that makes students apply. So, this isn't about forcing students to apply, but I think that as a school district, I think we're missing a a a a niche. We're missing this one area that um I think if we were to embrace um the idea that every single student should choose a pathway for bright futures. at the end of that pathway. If you choose not to accept it, that's up to you. But to get you there, to get you to that point to say, "Hey, you have a 100% of your school free right now.

171You can choose any college or university in the entire state of Florida, any vocation program in the entire state of Florida to go to for free or for 75%." Like, why are we not doing that? And so, of course, I've had this conversation with Dr. more um there nothing that I am suggesting is going to take away I think it actually would add from our conversations and of course I'll let him speak it would add because if we are benefiting students in college in class in courses in GPA in SAT and ACT or you know helping them raise those scores surely that's going to transmit into transfer into our overall school grades, our district grades, our learning gains. I mean, all of that learning is going to transfer in some way, shape, or form. Um,

172and at the end of the day, we are doing best by kids because we're giving every kid an opportunity um for life after high school. That's really the whole idea. And what they do with it is up to them. The one thing about Bright Futures that I can say about military and why military is there is because even if you're going into the military, you can still apply for Bright Futures, get accepted. If you're going into the military, Bright Futures will put your scholarship on hold for I think four or five years and when you come back from the military, you can access this. So then they they would have their GI Bill and Bright Futures. Um, so if we have a student who's going into the military, I just don't want anyone to say,

173"Well, you're going into the military, so you can't use it. You know, it doesn't matter. Don't worry about it." I want us to be able to say to every single student from the moment they enter into high school in ninth grade, we want to get you here. Doesn't matter what pa what other pathway you're going to take in high school like what um whatever engineering in high school or if you're going to study um mechanics if you're going to study programming if you're going to study advertising whatever other areas you're going to study in school we can still get you the endgame is still going to get you 100% or 75% of a scholarship And that's our goal. If you don't choose it again in Florida and you want to go out of the state,

174great. That's fine. But at least we we can check off these boxes to help you get there. Um, so there are some policies that are in your that I put in the back in the packet. I did talk with the superintendent about it. What I would like is to just ask him for a review of these policies and see with him and his team. I've also talked with um Kelly Basura about this. Um how can we incorporate this within our policies, within our practices? How can we be the first district to do this to make bright futures a reachable goal for all of our students? and help transform education just yet another step in the right direction for kids. And so that's what all of this information is. And I'll open it up for Madam

175Chair, if we can have Dr. Moore um first before the board members. Dr. Moore, >> do you want to speak now or do you want to board members to input? Okay. through the chat. I think the conversations have been extremely fruitful and I think the work that student services has done over the last five years um has been a tremendous lift in terms of transitioning from a you know make an appointment to see your counselor to creating programs of study. I think Mr. Pur and team were here a few board meeting or a few workshops ago to introduce the the programs of study which ensures that you have a pathway um regardless of the program whether it's an academic or vocational program. The idea of aligning or embedding the bright futures into that is is

176a is a great idea. Um, and I just reflect back on my own actions is like, yeah, I I think part of part part of the reason it's it's not there is because of the promise program. And the prog promise program is unique to um the surrounding counties where Indian River State College says we're going to pay for you to go free. They're going to use their foundation uh to fund your your education. Um, but that let me pause there. That's a fact. But at the same time, as a dad who uh really appreciated bright futures, um there is an opportunity to embed that into our program of study. And the program of study in my mind is a map or a pathway of saying if you take A, B, C, and D, you will

177qualify for a 100 or B. Um I think Miss Bisura um an and and team are are in the process of of creating that framework to to bring back to me to bring back to you. uh in in terms of of of elevating all students and when I say all students I I think there is significant opportunity for the students at you know maybe promise program is is great but if we can push them to a state university or we can push them to an Ivy League which obviously that may not necessarily work for Bright Futures but at the same time um part of our next five years is to really we have create a problem for ourselves right and the problem is is we've drastically increased the rate of proficient students. Now we got

178to drastically increase the offerings in which they're going to be able to attain uh based on their academic success. So, um I I I know the last I I would say we get schools open, we we will be bring something in terms of the enhancement of of aligning bright futures into what we currently have in terms of making sure um we can do that. Now, what that ultimately looks like is conversations yet to be had. whether it's defying diploma options which I've I've said in Miami we had those diploma um whether it's the the gold seal or national seal that the the we created and aligned diplomas to each of those specific options. Why? Because I'm sitting there from a counselor's perspective when you're talking about you just need these these minimum requirements. Um that's

179not really a a a great cell. But if you say, but if you just take on these two more foreign languages, now you qualify for this. And if you take this this number of hours of community service, now you qualify for this. It's connecting that. And we're we're doing a lot of that specific work and and making sure students are just not picking classes, but defining class ways that lead to uh what is next next for them. So, um I fully anticipate additional and embedded information building on what student services uh and counselors have already done coming in the future. >> And and before I do the Thank you, Dr. Moore. Before um I open it up, if it's okay, um I I just wanted to clarify the promise program is only a two-year program.

180The promise program with IRSC, although it's wonderful to give them a free two-year, it's only two years. So it doesn't in it doesn't if a student wants to then transfer to a 4-year university um at that point it's all on them whereas in this case they have they may have the ability to have the bright futures back them up if they want to transfer to another uh university later on. Um and and the other thing that I was going to say and I I'll add in having this conversation with Dr. more. I love the idea of the gold seal, you know, the gold seal diploma or the FA FAS seal diploma or something like that to just indicate yet something else that the student has accomplished. But those are the kinds of things that I

181would like to allow the superintendent to take a look at all these policies and just with his team kind of peruse over them and see where are some of these areas that we can embed some of these programmatic and um end goal things for students in this particular area. >> Mr. Dyer, you've been dying to speak. Go ahead. >> Yeah, I mean, >> I thought you were you wanted to speak. >> Seems like a seems like a certainly an interesting idea and there's no real downside to it that I see. It sounds like a project that could be really great for AI, looking at what a student has taken and uh doing and making recommendations as to uh options in in concordance with the guidance counselor. Uh you know, I don't know how this is

182it how I'm not sure how this is communicated to the state. I'm aware of bright futures uh and not sure what the communication is and whether it's the respon certainly I don't guess it's the responsibility of the school school district it's just out there in the ether somewhere so uh you know maybe it's a parental responsibility as well but I think the c the uh uh school district certainly could uh you know provide in information uh and part of it could be I mean it just seems Like if you have these requirements and here's your report card and here's what you've taken. It could just be, you know, something that is written on your report card. Here's what you need to do to get 100% bright futures in Florida. You know, it could be as

183simple as that, which could also be used with a guidance counselor. So, I mean, I think it's a there's there's no downside to to this uh you know, it's u it's fine. I got the point after about two minutes though. >> Yeah, >> that was that was my issue is I I had the point about 30 minutes ago. >> Y >> um going through this as a principal then a parent all three of my children received the 75%. They were close on that 100 but they didn't get it. Two from Vero Beach High School then my younger son went to Sebast High School and I was principal. I think what we need to do is first of all um if there's still the department chairs um Jessica Wood and Kim O'Keefe um I I worked

184this as a principal. We started in ninth grade assemblies with this information and continued it at every assembly and then whatever the guidance council was met went into classes. So um that information is out there. know if we have to lift it up a little bit. Okay. But that information is out there and um I would like our maybe two guidance chairs come in and let us know what they're doing. See, a lot of times we don't know all the specifics. I remember what it used to be, but what is it now and how can we continue to bring other kids in and with Miss Bieber looking at that and Miss Basor, I know it will be wonderful. I'm not sure. I think what someone said 188 not committed to either going to Florida College

185or something. Some of our kids go right to work. They go right to work and then sometimes they can start doing maybe um the IRS promise program and and that's how a lot of them work. I mean, when you look at our um at our e economic issues here, a lot of our kids will start with state college, you know, part-time, but they're working. So, maybe that's where some of that is. But I think if anything, Dr. more I would like to see what are they already doing like at our high schools again I remember what they used to do um to bring children in and that started in ninth grade because we started saying these are how many hours you need for volunteer this is what you need to do on this test and

186Dr. more. Are we doing the PSAT for every sophomore now or junior? Okay. Was it PSAT? Okay. This is can help you see where you will be when that score is needed. So, a lot of our kids miss 100% because of that score. So, um the SAT or ACT, but anyway, I I'd like to see what we're doing now. And I can go on to I haven't been on to the guidance websites to start this school year, but I go on to them and see where they are, what we need to do for our kids. So, um, let's see what we're doing now and if we can make things any better. Okay, >> this was a helpful discussion about the scholarship opport. >> This was a helpful discussion uh for the community just to understand

187the different scholarship options available to them. Um, so hopefully they can even come and watch this recap and request more information. But we definitely want our uh guidance counselors obviously educating uh families about the uh scholarship opportunities. Um hopefully they'll continue to do that. Um that's it. >> Okay. Um, is it in focus this information for parents that they know about Bright Futures? >> I'm just curious because >> I don't know if it would if Focus would be the landing spot for that. >> Okay. Well, that's where parents go. That's what I'm asking. Because, excuse me, when I was a parent before focus, my kids are older. They received bright futures. But I remember being in on that conversation. Excuse me. As a parent, my responsibility is to also work with the school district to

188make sure that my kids are focused on what they think their futures are, be it college or work or whatever it is. And so, um, I remember ninth grade there was a meeting and parents were asked to come and we were told about all this information. So that's what I'm saying. Maybe it'd be a good thing to put in focus. So parents, they have that one-stop shop. Um, but some parents do prepaid scholarships, so that's an avenue that they take. Um, some kids don't get the test scores, so they can't get frautes. That's why they're not taking advantage of it. They're trying, but they can't. Um, believe it or not, there are some athletes, handful now, that don't need it because they're doing the NIL thing, and they don't need that money. they can donate

189it back to us. Um, some going straight into work, some are using the promise program. So, there's a lot of reasons why those kids aren't reflect on there. And then, of course, out of state. So, for example, my niece and nephew both they had prepaid scholarships and then they qualified for Bright Futures and they both went out of state. One came back and decided to go to a state school. Guess what? Couldn't get Bright Futures back. You have to do it right out of high school. So there are some requirements that parents might not be aware of. They were aware of that because they knew the requirement. Um but there are some things that as a parent you need to get educated on. You need to know I have a high schooler, their path is

190college. What do they need to do to get there? And so um you know I'm all I'm surprised that people don't know about it because I knew very much about it when I was a parent. Um, but I knew that that was our focus as a family is my kids, you know, trying to get them to college. It's not everybody's focus. >> I think we do a good job of making sure most parents are informed orientation to make sure that identify students are are taking. I think this is a add because there are parents like all of us who will be completely informed but I also you know there are parents where where we're going to have to make sure um we have safeards to all >> just keep it on like me >> um

191there might there may it's one additional thing um you know the the idea of the diploma distinctions uh is something very tangible for students. So it's just um I think our counselors are doing a great job and have grown tremendously o over the last five years. Um but if we can make get a handful of kids, which is the words Jackie said, um then let let's do it. And if we can propel all students forward um by increasing access through funding um yeah let's do it. >> Well, you mentioned the diploma idea and that's a good idea. It's been done before. There's something called a region's diploma in New York. I got one and it was very much a planned progress of your study. So, you had to have passed all of your regent exams

192in order to get that diploma. and you have a regions exam in every single course you take. And so to get the diploma, of course, I don't know what that was wonderful about, but it it opened more doors for you to get into college, but it also gave you a different color of sash when you went to walk across the stage. So, and some people are very much about that um getting those cords and those sashes. So, if we can do something like that to incentivize, you know, kids to to want to get this, that's great. It's terrific. >> Why not? It's free. >> That's right. Well, it's not free. Nothing's free. [Laughter] >> Um, all right. We're to item D. >> I'm still on this one. >> Oh, we are. >> Um, so the

193other thing that I was going to ask, Dr. Moore, are we doing, and it just dawned on me, uh, just a little bit. Do we offer test prep course? like >> SAT prep. Yeah, we offer that. >> Do we do we offer that as like an afterchool program or is it a course course? >> It's course embedded into the day. >> It's a course embedded into the day. And who takes this course? >> You would sign up for that particular course. Um so it would be an elective on the on the front end and on the other side it's it's students who need a concordance score in in order to to to graduate. >> So is it when is that course offered? Is it offered >> throughout the throughout the the school day? It's third

194period, fourth period. >> I mean like is it offered to ninth graders, 10th graders, 11th graders? >> I imagine 12th grade is >> 11th 11th and 12th would be the majority of students who are participating in the course. So if we offered something like that from 9th to 10th grade, uh even if there was like test prep one, test prep two, test prep, because I don't think you can these tests are predominantly they're not content based. They're strategy based, >> right? >> So they can certainly gain information from test prep. But if we're prepping or taking a test or a test prep course in ninth grade, then when you're sitting for your 10 your PSAT, you have a higher percentage of getting a better score um on your PSAT for future scholarships in that particular

195area. Yeah, >> Miss Pacera presented a a new initiative last year where she um very specific training by her team um to work with students who were right there to get them the highest PSAT score um possible. Um so I'll resend that information to the board. It is a very specific program that leads them into um the sitting for the PSAT. Um, now that that by default helps with um bright futures, but but ultimately uh as Doc says all the time, the number of merit scholars that we had, >> right, >> um over the years has has dwindled down um and we're starting to see those numbers come back in place um or or well see them because this is initiative you start going into 10th grade when you sit for the PSAT to grow

196those numbers back up. >> So now we have the added CLT, right? because before it was always SAT, ACT, now you have the CLT as an option. Um, how would we as a district or what are your suggestions as a district in terms of a test prep course for students? Um, I imagine the SAT and the ACT are not too far apart from each other um, historically, but the CLT is quite different. Um, and so how would we train and test or prepare students in 10th grade and 11th grade in terms of a test prep course? >> You may not have that answer right away, but what do you think? >> I I have an initial response. Yeah. >> Um, and if you look at the CLT numbers that are provided, um, you can see

197159 at Sebastian River and 432. that test is basically within our setting two two and a half years old because it is a concordance score. So in these prep courses, it's very specific to um the assessments that's coming up. So not to speak for the the school sites, but CLT is very different than the you can only take SAT four times a year, ACT four times a year. the classical step uh the classical test there's a number of days in between so we've shifted a great deal uh to CLT and the state has found a great deal of success now what's the natural response to that the state increases um the concordance score as they get more data and rightfully so they have they have done that but we're still very comfortable in what our

198test prep teachers are preparing them to do so it is get them ready for SLT. Okay. All right. You have retakes coming up. Let's let's let's maximize every opportunity. But the overwhelming majority in those test prep courses is around um CLT because you have the most number of opportunities to sit for that assessment. And each time you take an assessment, you don't pass it. You learn where you need additional support and guidance. >> So, I've heard um some parents. So, I'm I'm glad to hear that this this new system that Miss Basura has put into play uh you said within the last year uh is what I heard in terms of test prep. Uh because obviously we've had this conversation on this particular area for several years and prior uh there are multiple families who

199have never heard of a test prep course in our in our system. Um so I'm glad to hear that we're going to move in that direction. Would those be the sorts of changes and modifications um pro within a student's program that we can incorporate um uh to be more consistent um you know to get them to that end goal of of receiving a bright future scholarship? Is that one of the efforts? One of the efforts is to identif there's there are students who you know are going to sit for the PSAT and and hit the the the required scores >> and then based on the data we do a regression looking at grades and and previous uh assessments to identify hey with this additional support over the course of the beginning of the school year.

200Uh we can drastically change the funding reality for this particular student and their family. Um so it it it is looking at the data and saying um let's provide this additional resource by a making the student and the family aware. It is a above and beyond um system of of support. Um we did it last year for incoming 10th graders. So this year we'll do it a second time. So we'll begin to see the fruits of those labor of that labor and not next year's graduating class, the following graduating class. >> Okay. So moving forward, thank you for the support on this board members. Um, thank you Dr. Moore for your your input on all of this and and Miss Basora um as well and and Miss Bieber. Um, moving forward with all of the

201this information, um, are are we okay with just allowing you to bring this back to your team and kind of coming up with some brainstorm ideas of what to look for moving forward? because I'd be happy to bring together an item to make it official and charge you with the discovery and you know just kind of looking into this or however way we want to word it. >> I don't think I need an item to to be charged to do this work. I think um we have stacked our priorities in terms of what we have to do right now and what we have to do in October and November to make sure that we're ready to to roll out programming uh to build upon some of the items that were discussed here. So, I'm comfortable

202that we're going to grow this initiative as we move into the upcoming school year. >> So, we're going to keep this as a as an initiative moving forward. Is that what I'm hearing? >> But we're not supposed to make official actions in a workshop. We got to make official actions in a >> business meeting. This work is dependent upon an item to to improve it. I think it's it's all on the the the back of the superintendent to charge staff to create programming and systems which I I think I do at a pretty high level um to to to grow this. So I I'm I'm more than comfortable in terms of of what Miss Bura uh and team are are doing to to grow this work. >> Okay. So, I have so the the policies

203that you see on the um on the on the board docs there um and taking a look at those and bringing those back to us if there need to be any changes to them moving forward. What are your thoughts on that? because I know that we've talked about some of those especially like with the graduation requirements if we will eventually consider gold seals or you know FAS diploma seals or something like that >> madam chair >> I mean obviously right now we're not looking at immediate policy changes but moving forward are these acceptable for you here >> I have to look at the specific policies and if they're in route to be approved or they need to be approved based on any recommendations that I would make then obviously we'd have to change or shift

204policies. >> Dr. John totally okay with that. I just want to reiterate you know um as people are work working on this I'd still like to hear from our uh department chairs guidance councils what they are doing now you know what we are doing now and how it is working and then of course if you look on our school websites you can see for student and families you know finding your path for higher education each Sebastian River High School Vero Beach High School has all the components there you can take a look at it for our parents and Um, I'd like to hear from Miss Wood and Miss O'Keefe uh exactly how they're starting this in the ninth grade because I don't think this is like a reinvention. We're doing this and if we want

205to make it a highlight on making our parents aware about Bright Futures and um again I I'm pretty sure looking at even at this information on the website for the schools they are starting that in ninth grade looking at things. So >> her daughter, which doing very well, by the way. Um, and pretty much everything that we we put there is in fact in choke focus with all with a big green check with the exception of >> when they requirement >> with the exception of what was the one thing you just said? >> The test. >> Yes. >> The assess the assessment. So >> So it is in focus. So, and those are some things we could just remind our parents because I remember look at the percentage of how many use focus last year

206was quite high. But making sure our high school parents know that it's there and you can monitor and you can look at and >> you know and talking about SAT, ACT and um the class test which is now the concordance scores. I just saw those the other day and I'm hearing from the counselors the kids do better or they think the classical is easier. So, anything that will help our students get a concordance score to graduate, you know, I'm for that. I just uh let's see what we have and build upon that if we need to and then just help our parents remind them how to get into focus and and to look at that pathway because it is seems pretty clear there. >> Okay, are we moving on to the next item? Bookfairs. >>

207Yes. So, I have book fairs on here again. I've I've talked about this before. I just wanted an update um if the superintendent has one on book fairs. That's always seems to be recently it seems to be a um controversial um topic because of the whole concern about books and making sure that books don't have certain material um certainly any u sexual material or anything of that nature. And so Scholastic has traditionally been um a bookf fair vendor that has done bookf fairs in schools for eons. Um the last I kind of just did a Google search on scholastic bookf fairs and the last real um article that I can find on scholastic book fairs was in 2023. And it just indicates that Scholastic reversed their controversial decision to segregate diverse books. And so the

208double negative there always gets me. But essentially there was a point where they would segregate diverse books and then they decided not to segregate diverse books. And with the recent court ruling from Mahmud uh verse Taylor and the uh Supreme Court's decision on that uh my concern is if we are inviting Scholastic or some other book fairs uh let's just say Scholastic because they're the ones that we've been using. um if we're inviting Scholastic and they're not um adhering to some of the state requirements or obviously this recent ruling from the uh Supreme Court of the United States um ensuring that um parents have the opportunity to um opt out of certain books if the books are all mixed together and the students aren't are still exposed then that puts us in a very very

209difficult situation and we don't want that to happen. So what are we doing in terms of scholastic bookf fairs and book fairs in general to the chair? So bookf fairs we we have looked at it at a a pretty deep level. Dr. Shafty doesn't do anything that's not uh very very thorough uh making sure that the books provided in uh our book fairs are in fact Florida friendly. So with this new ruling, she will once again go back uh make sure principles have everything that they need uh to to have to make sure that they're in full full compliance. So we have done a a number of steps to go back to make sure before we not to create any issues for us. I I think we're ultimately beyond that and we'll do everything in

210our power to to stay beyond that to keep the main thing uh the main thing. So I think the work that Dr. Shafty has done uh in partnership with with principles to make sure um before the they put out the information par a parents are notified uh and and b uh what's available through the book fairs is is Florida friendly. >> That's the only update I have. >> So we're still using Scholastic. >> I can't say >> maybe there's a a a school site uses a different company. They they they might, but ultimately uh the principles are are making that decision. I the majority do you do do use scholastic? >> Yeah, I would be very careful with Scholastic. You don't want someone to be exposed to something. >> Absolutely not. >> Uh and then

211it's going to come down to to you going in front of the state board of education and we don't want that to happen >> firsthand. So you are 100% um correct. >> Yeah. So, I did find one um that I thought was pretty interesting uh because there aren't very many there aren't any except for maybe a handful um of book fair companies. I found one uh called Skyree Bookfires that seems to be um a pretty decent alternative to Scholastic. Uh so I'm sharing that with you publicly to look into Dr. Moore. um and see if maybe that might be a good alternative or find another alternative. I think book fairs are extremely important. Um uh and even the book vendor machines which we have talked about before. I love those machines. They're like candy machines

212but obviously not um just for candy, it's for books. But um at either rate um Sky Book Skytree Bookfares I think it's skytreebookfares.org org or.com. So, if you wouldn't mind taking a look at that as an as an alternative and um talking with your staff about those options um so that we are not I used pickle once before. We are not in that kind of situation with Scholastic which seems to be very controversial. Sorry, I was just looking up Sky Tree book fairs. They're very interesting. >> Very, very simple. They exist to protect childhood innocence while instilling a love of reading in the next generation. That's their mission. So, it's interesting. You should look into it. >> Okay. Just comment >> any anything else? Yes. >> Yeah, I just I did talk to a couple

213people when I saw this on the agenda and as we all know, categoricals are not all categoricals anymore. And we lost the categorical of libraries when I was a principal. a categorical for high school libraries around $2,000. And that money had to go specifically to the media center. And obviously I trust Dr. Shafty and the principles and the and the um media specialists to make sure the the books that are coming for children to view are appropriate. But um we can and I used to do this for my libraries many years ago. 50% of the sales could go to the librarian then and then she could get books for the library or equipment and so forth. since right now any media or library um money has to come from the principal's discretionary and we all

214know those have gone a little bit lower where it used to be an exact amount from the categorical but they've been rolled into the general fund looks like we have more money but we do not >> so um I I just believe for any book fair um Dr. shaft and the principles and media specialist make sure that our children um um are viewing books that are appropriate and obviously for media service parents can still opt out and I guess they could also opt out for book fairs. I don't know if that's on there but um they still have the opt out you know for any of the u media books that we have. So, just know that this does kick money back into our media services and without that categorical, they haven't been receiving as

215much money. Anybody else? Okay. Our next item is uh E. Potential impacts on district programs, budgets, operations due to federal grant funding holds from the Department of Education. Is that item still? >> No. No, because we have the money. Yeah. Okay. We can skip that one. >> I forgot that was on there. Yeah, that was from I don't know weeks weeks ago. >> Okay. Um, next one is discussion F, classical school sixth grade curriculum. Mr. Rosario. >> Yes. So, um, I first brought classical um, as an item in 2023. It was finally fully supported in 2024. Um and then on fast forward on October or rewind on October 23rd um Dr. Moore said and I'll quote there is 100% commitment to classical curriculum. We actually put it in bold in the item. It is everything

216that we have communicated to parents, to the members of the faculty and staff that yes, this is going to be a true classical school rooted in classical curriculum and we are fully committed to that. We also added language to allow for next year's second through fourth graders to be exposed to elements of classical education. Now, that was in October 23rd. Since then, we have um added or changed the uh the transition to include an incoming sixth grade. So, their current fifth grade would go to sixth grade as their first sixth grade middle school. Um this year, opening up this year in August. On February 10th of this year, we received an email um confirming the curriculum for classical school uh to be let me pull that up to include and to be Singapore Math, Great

217Books, Explode the Code, New American Cursive Penmanship, and Story of the World. All of which are are are really great classical curriculum. Um, but we have yet to vote on anything. Nothing has come to us as a board to vote on the curriculum and schools opening in about 3 weeks. So, I'm concerned about the curriculum being used. So if we're opening with the commitment to open up schools with the commitment to open up a classical school using classical curriculum and we don't have classical curriculum approved or purchased as of yet. Now I know that there have been um really great um PD that has been going on uh in terms of the tenants of classical and the triv but there again there's there's there's no class there's no curriculum there's no actual books that we

218have approved so um I put this on the agenda to get an update on where we are in terms of that so that we are all fully prepared um when school opens in the next three weeks I think three weeks >> two even less >> Dr. more I don't speak to that >> correct um we we did bring that information to the board um our core curriculum is across the court all grade levels supplemental curriculum uh we did let the board know exactly what that was so in the the K and one space that is exactly what's happening as referenced the uh tenants of classical will take place in two through six one of the drivers in our decision-making process as to shift as it said in that particular item to transition from one way

219of of educating to another uh would be a burden for the student themselves as well as the educator themselves which is why we made the the decision to do those particular tenants of of of classical uh and we extended that through six that's exactly what we communicated to the sixth grade families uh all of which are extremely excited to go there's not one parent uh who will be walking into the classical school next year who isn't aware of what the curriculum is going to be for for their particular kids. So in K12 um Mr. Rosario just cited the curriculum that we brought to you sele uh identified purchased trained uh the teachers that will stand in front of those students have received just about a year and a half of of very focused training. Same

220thing with the administrators uh the instructional coaches uh Miss Bura's support team. Um so it's been very very very strategic. Um so as we get into the incoming years as we go we add on to second and then seventh um with the tenants we'll come back to the to the board saying this would be any shifts or modifications or additions to what that curriculum would be. So we're set. We're locked. We're loaded. Uh and I'm sure I'll see you all there on the first day of school. >> Dr. Moore, you said that we voted on the curriculum. We didn't vote on the curriculum. When did we vote on the curriculum? We you you did not vote on the curriculum. >> You just said that we voted. >> I'll have to go back and listen to

221what I said. It wasn't a core curriculum which didn't require a vote. It's a supplemental curriculum at one specific school. Um so we brought it to the board. We we discussed it as a board. Um there was a a lot of excitement and and energy regarding what that curriculum was. >> What I'm confused is how is that how is that supplemental >> as a It's supposed to be the curriculum, not supplemental. >> It is from a district's perspective. That is one one school um who is using in two grade levels um that that curriculum, >> right? But how is that supplemental? Because for that one school that is supposed to be classical, >> it is >> that is the curriculum that was emailed to us that would be used for them. But it's not as

222supplemental. It is the curriculum. It is the only classical curriculum to be used in the entire district. So how is that supplemental? It's not supplementing their current curriculum >> or the you know the current curriculum today. That's what I meant >> in my mind. It is a supplemental curriculum because it is a subset of of schools and grade levels not requiring board approval. But if the board attorney says we need to get that approved, sure, we can get that approved. >> So, okay. Can we other board members? Um, Mr. Dyer, >> if we need a vote, I'd be happy to vote to execute the way the superintendent is planning to roll it out. >> Uh, I mean, we have discussed this many, many times. Adnauseium. I believe that you're on the right track. I know

223that you have a vested interest in wanting to make the classical school very successful. I heard how you were going to uh do uh sixth grade and that you were going to continue from the from the current uh curriculum because it would be too abrupt of a change to go to classical if you hadn't had the classical training all the way through school. So, if we need to vote on that, I'll be happy to vote on it. And uh >> tonight, >> you know, I I just I I think we've >> you're committed to making it right and to developing a first class classical school. I believe that you have you and your team have the ability to execute. Thank you. >> Well, doc Dr. Jones, go ahead. >> Um, when I saw Miss Justice

224at the pool the other day and I looked at her boat at GC, no, I'm not going to tell you. She said, "Doc, less is more." And she was talking about the classical curriculum and I mean, they are ready to roll. I think about that and and I remember everything that you said clearly on the K1 and getting things ready. And I think about what we've done at Falsmare with dual enrollment. I'm sorry, dual language, K12, and it keeps flowing up. I think I've said this before, if my grandkids were here, they'd be at Felsmere Elementary. I mean, the program that we're doing, you can't just all throw it in at once. Even with the PD that we have this year, and I I went to one of the meetings when we were naming the

225school um at Pelican Island, and I talked to a few parents. I mean, they were ready. They understood what was coming down the pike. they understand the growth. I mean each year we're going to get better because basically we still have to teach our standards and the standards the way we're doing it in the classical way and uh the research that I have done on that I think we're doing a good job. I think we'll continue to get better. I think the K1 is ready to roll and putting that at sixth grade when those kids K through five had something different. Very very very hard to do. Not that we couldn't to do it a little bit, but um I'm clear on what we're doing and I I support what the superintendent has said and

226I think it's clear to our parents. Thank you, >> Dr. Posa. >> Okay, Mr. Rosary. >> Um I I don't know if there's anything to vote on now. I think we should have Miss Enville kind of take a look at it and see if we're okay with the way things are right now, then fine. But if there if something needs to change, then let legal kind of look take a look into it and if we need to vote on it, then we'll vote on it then. >> Or we could just add an item to the agenda to vote on supporting the superintendent and his execution of the classical school. >> We've already done that in in in the vote for the classical school. >> Well, it doesn't sound like it went through >> doesn't sound

227like it. >> Well, the the question is only about curriculum. It's not about the execution of opening up the school. It's just about the >> execution of the school is curriculum. >> Not necessarily. There's a lot more involved in that. So, right now, the question is only about if the curriculum is going to come to us for a vote if it's supplemental or if it's a full curriculum. That's all. >> Can I add an item tonight's agenda to vote? >> You can't do that here. >> You you can later on tonight on the diet. >> Good. Okay. >> All right. Can we move on to invocation because we're running out of time. Okay. So, invocation. Um, just wanted to bring this up because just thought about it. Um we have we have um our invocation

228during the first five minutes or at 5:55 or whenever that is um from our meetings. Um and maybe we should just do it at 6:00. So that's where I'm coming from. I was looking at everything. I, you know, talked to Miss Enville about it. I read um the ini in the information even uh going back from um Sidon Spocker. Um, you know, the the biggest I understand some of the concerns about it, but the biggest takeaway for me in this is the definition of invocation is not the same as prayer. And that the resolution, our resolution uses the term invocation, not prayer. and the Webster and that Webster defines invocation as the act of petitioning for help or support whereas prayer is petitioning to God. And so since we have a resolution for a um

229invocation and we're we are not requiring it, there is a a clause at the beginning that's you know, talking about voluntary attendance, whatever you want to call that thing that is stated. um the same people that well maybe not always the same people that are there for the 550 or 555 would be there at 6:00 but um we are opening up our meetings and we are just wanted to have the conversation about having invocation at 6 and not 555 >> okay >> semantics in terms Should we call it prayer? >> No, >> rather than invocation. I mean, I'm trying to understand. >> It's called invocation now. >> It's in our resolution as invocation. The legal standard for invocation is allowed because we're not praying unto God there. It's not called a prayer in our >>

230Yeah, we are. So, which is terrific, but we're doing it not in not in the I think that we've had attorneys our last from what I understand three attorneys have all said that we're doing it correctly right now. So, I don't know. Maybe that's maybe that's the issue. >> Not doing it incorrect. That's not what I'm suggesting. I'm not saying that we're doing it incorrectly. I'm just asking for us to have a discussion about having it at 6 instead of 555. >> Okay. Let's let's get um consensus. What do you want? >> What's that? >> What do you want? >> I like it the way I like it the way it is. I think that we're legally compliant and I think it's great to open with a uh with with a prayer to start our

231our meeting, but I think that we also have to be aware of what the uh the statutes or the or the legal requirements are. I mean, I'm all for praying uh and I'm all and so I mean that that's not the issue. The issue is is what we're constrained to do by our uh our our legal requirements. And I just think that we ought to follow the law. >> Dr. Jones, >> what we're doing now works. Um if it's not broke, don't need to fix it. And um making a change on this could cause some issues and we've got too much to do without any other issues. I like it the way it is. >> Okay. Dr. I I have no problem moving it to the uh six o'clock timeline um barring any kind of

232legal review issues, but I don't I don't think there'll be any issue moving it. Um I'm fine with that. Okay. I I have a concern. >> I have two things if I can jump in real quick. It's going to require you to change the resolution that you did in 2015-08. It's also going to require you to do a change to schoolboard policy 8800, which currently provides that the board shall not include religious invocations, benedictions, or formal prayer at any school sponsored event. And it's just before that moment of assignment. So, you're going to have to do two things, right? if you want to move this far. >> Is that from us or is that state law? >> No, your your policy says that. So the the issue is because students are often present at schoolboard

233meetings. That's where courts will apply a stricter scrutiny. Remember last time we talked about the legislature does it, so why can't we? Um practices that can pass constitutional muster in a city council meeting is different than what the school board will be held to. So I think the way you're doing it now is the safest you could face. But um a challenge if you change things. But if you do change things then I would recommend that we would have to do the policy change, take public input on that policy. Also the resolution and or then um also implement a strict procedure and guidelines for choosing who would be offering that at the beginning of each meeting so that you're not discriminatory. If you remember the case Williamson that I sent to you in Bvard, uh

234the the board members, it was the board of county commissioners. they were actually choosing their own person to come speak and they were intentionally excluding um different groups and so that's where it got them into a lot of trouble I think the tune of almost half a million dollars in legal fees and so um we can certainly consider it but I would need consensus from the board to move forward. So yeah, I have a concern and um first of all I brought it back because we weren't doing it and so I brought it back um because I think it is important to do but I also think it's important for each person in that room to have a say in the meeting and if they don't appreciate that then they're not part of the meeting

235because they have to leave. So I think having it right before the meeting allows people that want to be there and be part of it to be part of it and people that don't want to be are not excluded from the meeting. So I think don't mess with it. Um it's fine. We've had three legal opinions. Attorneys have passed bar. They know more than we do. So I at least on that. So I appreciate all your hard work on that and uh thank thank you for thank you for your work on that. Um, so the next thing on here, um, is regarding patriotic programs. I just wanted to remind the superintendent, which I'm sure he already knows, about the moment of silence. Um, we all received a uh um letter. You may not have. Yeah,

236you may have received the letter, but um the policy actually is uh very specific dealing with the moment of silence and that school principles of each public school shall require teachers in the first period classrooms in elementary schools and uh one minute and in secondary schools two minutes daily for moments of silence. which students may not interfere with other students in this participation and that uh moments of silence need to be shared with parents and that a teacher may not make suggestions of how students should use this moment of silence. And in feedback from some um students and from some teachers um I know from what I from what I understand from the feedback is that schools are doing it differently. So, some schools may do the two minutes after the pledge, some do it

237before the pledge. Um, and some suggestion is to keep it consistent before the pledge because after the pledge, kids are already standing and they're talking and it's hard to get them to settle down again. Whereas, if you do it before the pledge, they're quiet, they're silent, and then they go into the pledge and then all the announcements. So, sharing that information publicly, Dr. more. Um, it might be a little easier to handle it that way. I'm not sure how you want to handle it, but um, it seems to me to be an easy thing to to address. Um, also a reminder that September is American Founders Month. That the month of September for each year shall be designated as American Founders Month. Um, instruction related to our nation's founding fathers shall be provided to all

238grade levels in all schools, not just elementary, all grade levels. Um, and a proclamation, Dr. Mo, Dr. Moore, shall be designated to the month of September as American Founders Month. So, if we can start working on that, um, that's written in our policy, uh, we can bring it back at our next meeting. We have a meeting in We have a meeting in August. Um if we can bring that back in August so that then we can um uh go into September with this proclamation that would be awesome. Do you want to commun I saw you bring the microphone closer to you. Do you want to say anything? >> No, I mean we'll be fully reliant. We have a a meeting with principles coming up where it's all things operational. We have a pretty comprehensive opening

239of school checklist to make sure everything that's procedurally required or through policy or statute is covered, posted, and that practice or process is in place. Um, and then we as a team go and look for those things to make sure that we're inspecting what we expect. >> Miss Baron. >> Yes, Dr. Jones. >> Um, just thinking back about the pledge in the moment of silence. I've been in many schools at the beginning of the day and there wasn't one that violated that. I'm just trying to think back on all my visits last year. They started with the pledge and then the moment of silence. Now, is there a rule that you have to do that that way or can it be the moment and then the pledge? The ones I listened to were pledge, moment

240of silence. There's not a a law that which way you do it, is it? >> Am I wrong? >> No, I don't think so. >> Not that not that I'm aware of. And um I >> I think in all the campuses that I've been to it's pledge pledge then then moment >> and if I don't know maybe an elementary principal wants to start I don't know maybe depending on the age level of the kids the principal could decide what works is what I'm thinking as long as >> I I have a I have a question about the two minutes. Um and this is uh to our attorney. I thought I read somewhere it said up to two minutes, not two minutes. >> Um, it's I'm looking at our policy right now. The policy says I'm

241sorry, Madam Chair, through the chair. >> I just want clarification. >> Looking at a policy 8800, the principal of each public school shall require teachers in first period classrooms and elementary grades to set aside one minute and secondary schools to set aside two minutes daily for a moment of silence during which students may not interfere with other students participation. Um, there is nothing in here that that uh not nothing that I'm aware of in statute and or in our policy which requires one to be before the other, the pledge andor the moment of silence. >> But how about in statute? Does it say two minutes or does it say up to two minutes? Because I think I I saw that somewhere and I don't know if that was incorrect or correct. >> If you'll hold,

242you can continue. I I will look at the statute real quick. >> Statute says up to >> That's what I thought. It says up to two minutes. It doesn't say two-minute requirement, >> but we have it in our policy as two minutes. >> You do? >> So, we have a higher standard than the statute. That's what I want to get. Okay. >> It's not higher. >> It is. >> It's says two minutes. >> We We It's not Doesn't say up to two minutes. It says two minutes. In other words, they have to do it for two minutes, not up to two minutes. >> Correct. >> Dr. P. >> I remember when we passed it. Yep. >> Yep. >> That's why I said that >> because I remembered it. >> I was like, "Nope." >> So,

243the talked about that. >> So, the last reminder, Dr. Moore, is celebration freedom week. Um, that is the last full week of class in September, uh, recognized as celebration freedom week. And the instruction will include, um, the study of the intent, meaning, and the importance of the declaration of independence. During that week, principles and teachers will lead students in reciting at a minimum, not a maximum, at a minimum, a portion of the Declaration of Independence. Um, and that again is for all students, not just eighth graders. Okay, moving on to H, parental or parents rights and teachers rights. All right. And then on this one, this I put it on here um because we all re I keep saying we all received it. I don't know if you all received it, but um >> the

244commissioner of H last one >> H par this is uh parents rights and teachers rights. >> Okay. >> Um the commissioner of education I for I didn't put the teachers rights up here. the uh commissioner of education, Anastasio Kam Kamatsus. I always forget how to pronounce his name. Uh did I pronounce it right? >> I did. Okay. Um he uh issued a statement uh to all a letter to all Florida parents um which I love uh just advising them of their rights as parents and that they have the right to the upbringing and the decision making of and the education and well-being of their children. Um and that in addition there are parent resources which are on here on the agenda as um educ as um web links but uh they are here for all

245parents in case they haven't seen the letter but they they they're looking at the agenda. um and that these resources will help parents in case they have any questions on their um rights if they have to file a complaint. There's information there about filing a complaint um and how they can implement a special magistrate if that is needed. So, all of their rights are there. Um and also for uh school superintendent, there was a letter that went to school superintendent um for the same reminding superintendence of a parents rights in education. Um including the powers and duties of schoolboard members with regard to this transparency with school materials. Um, and I did have a question about one thing that was on there requiring the department to publish and regular regularly update a list of materials

246that were removed. Now, I know we update or we were supposed to have all of our approved curriculum on websites on our website, but do we also put the items that are have been removed that I don't think we do. I haven't seen it. We're required to send the on an annual basis to the state which we have done and the list for all counties who had all materials or or books removed is has been published. So if that's what it's referencing then then yes >> see I I'm not sure. I guess this is miss a question for Miss Enville. So, the first bullet um states it uh requiring that each elementary school publish on its website in searchable format a list of all materials maintained in the school library media center. And then the

247next bullet says requiring the department to publish and regularly update. So my question I guess was is that to publish the removed or discontinued items as a result of an objection on our website. >> I think it's referring to >> because where else would we publish it? >> Yeah. >> And this was addressed to superintendent. So is that something you can look into, Miss Enville? >> We're looking now. I I think it's on there. I just don't know how to find it, but I'm pretty sure so I'm pretty sure I've seen it on there. >> Okay. All right. As and if we're not, can you let us know that we're Okay. Thank you. Um and then also very important is reinforcing uh parents rights um with regard to uh instructional materials uh required topics, professional

248learning aligned with um the principles of individual freedom. Um, and all of those items are are should be on our website. Everything should be on our website. Should be provided for parents. I think in this charge for superintendent, they're supposed to make sure that parents receive this information, not just get it on a Facebook page. So, Dr. Moore, what are we doing to get all of the information out to parents in terms of their rights and education? other than Facebook. >> The letter I is on our website. It was posted on social when you go it's it was pushed on focus as a as a notification. So you when you go on to focus it will be there. It's been added into the registration packet which is released that requires you to fill out all

249those things. It's there. Uh and then when you transition into moving away from the opening of schools and into enrollment, it will be part of the enrollment package. So whether you're enrolling now, everyone has to go on focus and and when you go on focus, you're going to get it. Then when you go on to uh do your opening of schools package, you're going to get it. And if you're coming in after the 10th day and you're enrolling, you're going to get it. So uh we've been extremely proactive in making sure that information is available to our parents as requested. >> Excellent. We were one of the first um districts who um actually drafted a really good parental rights policy. So, I'm very proud of that. I'm going to say that was back in 2021.

250Um maybe that was the first draft and since then we've had many iterations of it, but um it is solid and and I'm proud of that policy. So, I'm glad that we're we're able to support parents where they are and um provide them with the rights with letting them know of their rights. So, thank you for that information. >> Any other board members want to comment? Dr. Jones? >> Yeah, when I looked at this, it also had teacher rights, but I didn't see an attachment. >> Yes, you're right. Sorry. So, there are teacher rights. I apologize for not putting them up there. There are teacher rights that were uh um >> I was gonna go over >> presented that were published made um I'm gonna say let me pull it up. >> It was part

251of his letter. >> It was part Yeah. And I just don't here teachers bill of rights. Um, I'm going to say it's in statute 1015. And I just wanted to also um, uh, ask the superintendent on this one. So, thank you for bringing that up, Dr. Jones. Um, what are we doing in terms of, uh, notifying teachers and of their rights according to the statute? very similar process as as as as with parents. >> So it'll it'll be uh we'll push it to them and then when they they come in it'll be part of the materials that they receive uh for the opening of schools >> and is it part of training and is it part of acknowledging to them the right to control the classroom and >> trainings they got to do and the

252Yep. >> Okay. Thank you for that. Anybody else >> on this topic? >> Yes. That's our last topic. Mr. Dyer, did you want to add one? >> You can add. >> I was just going to say with as much uh followup and reminders as you need. I'm surprised that we've achieved the results that we have achieved in the school district, but it is amazing. And thank you for uh the progress this school district has made. Um, just in talking about teachers, I know they come in next week and I'll talk about this in my board member matters tonight, but I always told a teacher and I always told students, you have the right to teach and no one has the right to disrupt it. It's real simple. So, I I want our teachers to understand

253that we support them. They have the direct classroom instruction and they have a very very challenging job to do and we're here for them. And on that note also, children have the right to listen to the instruction and hear it. >> That's right. >> All right. Uh we are going to adjourn this meeting at 3:45.