Volusia County School Board Meeting Jan 10, 2023

001do your one minute announcement welcome if everyone will have a seat at this time and I'd like to ask that you please like silence your cell phones today our Pledge of Allegiance is going to be with our students from Enterprise Elementary and our national anthem will be our students from Pine Ridge High so if you will please join me in standing for the pledge and the national anthem we will remain standing following that for a moment of silence hello from Enterprise Elementary School my name is Mrs Schumann and this is our bread Blended Pre-K class I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the Republic from which it stands one nation under God indivisible with liberty and justice for all everybody wait hello board members my name is David

002Peralta and this is Pine Ridge High School and right now we have our acapella group acapacos and today we'll be performing the national anthem for you [Music] foreign [Music] the Box [Music] foreign [Music] welcome to everyone that's here with us this evening and to those of you that are listening at home I'd like to go ahead and introduce the individuals that are here with me on my far left I have Mr Carl purses representing District Four next to Mr purses is Mrs Jesse Thompson representing District 3. next Miss Thompson is Mr Aaron Wolfe he is our school board attorney over on my far right I have Miss Celeste Gilmore she is our agency clerk she's the person that kinds of Hope kind of holds it all together for us next to miss Gilmore is Mr

003Reuben clone representing District Five then we have Mrs Anita Burnett represent she's our vice chair and she's also representing District 2. to my immediate right is Dr Carmen balgubin our superintendent and I am Miss Jamie Haynes representing district one and your chairwoman for this year we are happy to have all of you here and to have those of you that are listening at home items for approval on this agenda are 1.03 2.02 5.01 and 8 .02 public participation times for items on the consent agenda 6 PM for items of general interest pertaining to public education in Volusia County a total of up to 15 minutes will be provided for public comment at that time time will be provided for public comment on any action item before the board calls for a vote and then there

004will be time provided at the end of our meeting for public comment for items of general interest pertaining to public education in Volusia County before items from the board superintendent or attorney are open for discussion at the end I'd like to also add here we want to hear from you and we in our Workshop this morning we talked about this and we all agreed to continue to provide as much public input time is what we can because we are here to hear what you need to tell us and we appreciate each and every one of you that take the time to come to a school board meeting item 1.02 the district vision statement and board member comments our district vision statement is to create lifelong Learners prepared for an ever-changing Global Society at this time

005I'd like to invite any of the board members that would like to share and I see that Mr clone has already pushed the button you are up first sir and so lots happened since we were here happy New Year to everyone and of course we've kicked off the year with a bang shout out to our Deltona High wrestling team who had a successful competition Ms Alcantara from Pine Ridge who retired after many many years we're certainly going to miss her uh they said I have a minute to accomplish this how about those bucks and I'm going to leave that right there any bucks in the house shout out to um I'm not gonna not that's Jamie's yep yep Beachside ladies and gentlemen we opened up Beachside that was amazing FFA if anybody knows of a

006great FFA teacher uh Pine Ridge is looking for one congratulations to miss Arsenal who won the spelling bee at Enterprise and I will tell you that we had the Latin Festival in Deltona it's a big deal in Deltona 10 000 people and our Pine Ridge students the the band opened up with a Celia Cruz jam and let me tell you the community was at awe they could not believe that that was a high school band in course that was playing because these kids were just amazing and so that was exciting and last but not least congratulations to our Deltona Middle cyber Patriot members who had a successful competition last week thank you and my minutes up our next speaker is Mrs Anita Burnett welcome back from the break I hope everybody enjoyed some family time

007and uh got to relax a little but um I I have a few things one Mainland has two shout outs for me this time but I was invited right before the break to their inaugural National English Honor Society induction ceremony and this is new for them and Miss Horton has sponsored that kindly and she had 34 founding members inducted in and it starts with the uh the freshman year and goes up through senior year and I know that she'll have more members next time you know as they as they more come in and they go through the classes but very nice and I thought that was a great um for her to be able to sponsor that it's in addition to National Junior Honor Society it's a little bit different this is more focused on

008literacy so um and then the mainland bucks you know they went to the state championship the football team so shout out that's all that's hard to do I mean all the kit all the classes in the OR all the schools in the state and they made it there so shout out to them and we did open Beachside and so so Mr clone and I were able to be there the other day and it was amazing he said it was amazing it was amazing um it was great to see all the kids and they funneled right into where they needed to go and so many staff members there happy to be there it was a nice morning that's my minute thank you next up is Jesse Thompson hi two want to welcome everyone back and say

009happy new year I just want to give a shout out to all the kids right now who are going through their spelling bees I know they can get a little frantic and tomorrow I'll be judging over in Coronado and just these kids put their heart and soul in that to me it's kind of the epitome of you know the elementary school education so good luck to all you guys out there Mr purses thank you madam chair and happy New Year to all uh let's see I'm trying to think back just before the break uh went around with the Ormond Beach Chamber of Commerce and the mayor to recognize uh teachers of the quarter in the in the area so I always enjoy doing doing that we visited about nine or ten schools I I made

010it to Beachside not the day it opened but that following Friday I thought I'd give him a few days you know and set Sutherland but it was awesome I love the school I love the energy and just to see the happy faces there it's just thrilling for those kids and lastly I was invited to be a judge and Ormond Beach Middle School for their social studies fair and had a good time at Ormond Beach Middle School thank you madam chair thank you and so I'd like to start with the class that actually did the Pledge today from Enterprise Elementary with the teacher Mrs Carol Schumann I had the honor of teaching with her because that's where I started my career 36 years ago but I actually taught her oldest daughter 33 years ago in first

011grade so that'll give you an idea of how old she is now but that was they did a wonderful job [Applause] as has been said spelling bees are going on um I've been to McGinnis Elementary to judge a spelling bee and I did the younger kids there and I mean just to see those little first and second graders get up and third graders and all that to spell and then I was at DeBerry Elementary um and that was kind of a bit of a stiff competition there at first I wasn't sure is anyone going to get knocked out or are we going to be here all day you could tell that they had studied those words and they just knew it the heartbreaking thing though is when Once finally knocked out and you see tears

012like there's nothing harder than to see tears on a child that has studied for the spelling bee and then I did Woodwards and I'm up next for Manatee Cove but I did also have the honor um Thursday afternoon to be here in the boardroom with our Juniors for the tomorrow's leaders program and talk to them and I was so impressed when I walked in they were all dressed professionally they had been to the courthouse that day in a County council meeting and and we were the last stop and it just it was just so nice to see young people that want to learn about their community and the government and how it operates and so futures um sponsors that and they did a good job and so thank you for everyone being here and Dr

013Bachman do you have anything you'd like um I I would Echo I would say that I joined two of our board members over there when we went to Beachside I want to say thank you to our community for making this possible for our students it's such a beautiful building and if you haven't passed by I will tell you that staff member there they're super excited to be in such a beautiful building and saw our parents and our students so thank you again to our community members for making it possible and and Miss Haynes I joined you and and super impressed with our students they were very Dr they were dressed to impress at the event that we had in here in the board meeting and we had some very very good questions and you know

014what after listening to our students here's what I would say to you the work that you do day in and day out in the belief system that you have in our students it's paying off because Volusia County will be in very good hands in the future So and I've got a whole slew of announcements later which so then we're moving right along to item 1.03 which will be the approval of the minutes for the December 13 2022 Workshop work session and the regular session do I hear a motion I'm sure I'd like to make a motion to approve the minutes as presented second thank you so Mr cologne has made the motion in Mr persis is seconded any discussion all those in favor say aye aye any opposed it passes unanimously thank you now we're

015moving along to item 2.01 agenda changes Dr balkaman are there any agenda changes before the agenda is presented to the board for approval Madam chair none from my end board members does anyone have any agenda changes all right do we have a motion to approve the presented agenda move to approve thank you Mr Burnett do we have a second I'll second that thank you Miss Thompson so we have a we have a motion in a second for the approval of the agenda is there any discussion than all those in favor say aye aye aye any opposed it passes unanimously now we're moving into the section that I think um we all enjoy the most is when we get to section number three because this is our recognition section tonight we are proud because we're going

016to recognize the teacher of the year finalist there are five of them and I was honored to be able to go and prize all five of them with the announcement that they were one of our finalists Dr bhagavan thank you madam chair we're super excited about this recognition and our audience here today we happen to have as you stated beautifully our five finalists for 2024 but also with us we have our 2023 teacher of the year so here is how we're going to do out of and and we're going to have a presentation done by our very very own one of the most wonderful partner in education you can ask for Mr Bob Davis so I'm going to ask him to come up at this time I'm going to share a little bit of a

017back story with you is that Mr Davis is here today because he has a special presentation not just for our five finalists but also for 20 2023 teacher of the year so the back story here is that um I had a conversation with one of our board member who reminded me that last year unfortunately our 2023 teacher of the year one of the package was never successfully delivered so with that said I know you do so Mr Davis I sent him a text and he goes don't worry it's taken care of and then while we were all on vacation I got another confirmation text of what it really entails so I would let him say that at the end as we present because it's a beautiful package but at this time I would like to

018call up our 2023 teacher of the year and as I call you up please take a seat because Madam chair and board members each of our teachers have a very very short message that they would like to deliver with us at the end and then Mr Davis will do the presentation and we will take pictures so at this time I would like to call our 2023 Madison Miller to come on up and just in case for those of you who don't know Madison Miller which I think all of you do just a little bit she was a teacher at he's coming she's okay she is she's on her way but okay so she can join us but I'll tell you a little bit she was the teacher at chislam elementary when she first received this

019award and then from then to now she has advanced in her career and she's now serves as the assistant principal at Palm Terrace Elementary so that's Madison Miller she'll join us when she gets here our five finalists as I call on you come on up take a seat and I'll say a little bit about you um Ms Vonda Morris and you can see Spruce Creek high in the house [Applause] it's hard to miss Dr Sparger right so a little bit about Miss Vanda Morris she has taught with us for 28 years now classroom teacher department chair transition math specialist she's the departmental instructional leader for for the area of math she's earned her master's degree in Ed leadership and a master's degree in curriculum and instruction she's quoted it in one of the sharings that

020she had regarding her students she said quote unquote my students have taught and shared many of their life experiences with me in doing so they have managed to inspire and mold me I desperately want all students who enter my presence to feel confident in who they are what they do and how they can positively influence others and that's Miss Vonda Morris for you one of our Finders [Applause] means I think she's in the house also and she's coming up Seabreeze high [Applause] Dory has started with for us for so far 20 years she still has a minimum of 15 more to go um wonderful classroom teacher department chair Cambridge Ace coordinator I'm not going to talk about your passing rate right now because I really don't want to put you on the spot but she

021has earned a master's degree in science instruction and she has been quoted in the following that she shared in one of her briefing she says my one and my only inspiration is that teenagers who I have the honor of building relationships with every day the Open Mind of a child is an amazing thing those aha moments where you realize they have learned something and that's something sometimes is what keeps me going so that's for us miss Dodie Gaines [Applause] Valerie Marcus the berry Elementary School where is the berry here there she is [Applause] so miss Marcus has stopped for US 22 years classroom teacher academic coach intervention teacher she has a master's degree in Ed leadership she's been quote in the following that she shared quote unquote helping instill confidence in a child is like

022unveiling a secret passageway into the hallway of success once a child truly sees their capability the possibilities are endless every child can and will learn all capitals quote an end of quote thank you for being here RJ Longstreet Innes in the house and that's Miss Cassandra's store Steward where's Miss Cassandra a little bit about Miss Stewart is that she's taught for us so far 15 years as a whole lot of more years to go here in Volusia County classroom teacher she's been an apple teacher and assignment chair media specialist she has earned her master's degree in library and Information Services with an instructional technology Focus and she's been quoted in the following quote unquote my passion for Education was inspired by my desire to make memorable opportunities like I had as a student for others

023to become the start of a ripple effect impacting beyond the teacher and student relations extended into the family and even throughout the community so thank you for seeing the much larger impact of what it takes to impact a student and their influence on their community so RJ Longstreet yay and last but not least Miss Tamika Harvard Westside Elementary [Applause] meet us in the house so miss miss Harvard has thought for us so far 19 years classroom teacher ESC teacher support facilitator also an academic coach her master's degree is an exceptional student education and quote unquote she stated I have the pleasure of working with the most amazing students and colleagues helping students grow their mindsets from I can do this two I don't have to do this now but I will get it to is

024that's the kind of difference that we need to make each and every day and that's what I strive for so welcome Miss Harvard [Applause] so Mr Davis would you share please very well and since you're elected but they're selected [Applause] [Laughter] last two years principle of a day no they can hear this sexy voice don't worry about it great you're so deserving and I guess the business people of Volusia County got a chance once again to be principal of a day and I spoke to a young lady today who I've been after for adopt-a-school and her remarks to me was okay Bob I was principal of the day and now I know what they have to do so we've got another one so on behalf of premier premium Oceanfront the Hilton Garden Inn the Holiday

025Inn in Daytona Beach uh the Holiday Inn in the shores and the other one to give you a three day two night gift certificate [Applause] schools is in the adopt-a-school program where we have mentors that come into your school and announceable and the teachers do whatever has to be done whether it's paint to curb at stock Elementary or put up signs or help with reading and writing and don't tell them behind me okay this is a secret that by the 25th of January we will have four more schools pathway Pines Deltona DeLand middle school and I forgot the other one I've all got mentors so don't tell them till we do it that'll be number 60. [Applause] oh yeah when she arrives we'll stop the meeting and we'll take over so Mr Davis actually we

026have 67 schools and 60 of those schools have an adopt the school program through his generosity but before we We Gather for a picture um each of the finalists they have a short message that they've asked to deliver and so we will start with with Miss Vanda Morris to superintendent balkabin Madam chair Jamie Haynes and the members of the Volusia County School Board Futures View Dr Sparger the four finalists parents students and any other stakeholders I have failed to identify by name or affiliation good evening I want to thank Dr balkovan for inviting me to greet the board and share a few highlights about my profession and experiences in teaching in Volusia County Schools I have had the pleasure of being an instructor at both New Smyrna Beach and Spruce Creek High Schools every year

027some phenomenal students are vocal about their discuss for math on day one however by day 21 the students and I are dancing laughing and singing yes about math to the student surprise they tolerate and enjoy the knowledge we exchange about life and math the good book tells me that I should be a fisher of men and I can Round Up On Wings Of Eagles well here in Volusia County I am an example of a barracuda transformed into a hawk I swam among teen cudas who grew in size Making Waves now in their own ponds I soar as a hawk to nourish my teen halls and cover them under my wings providing them with the skills to strengthen their wings and fly I have been blessed by teaching I have been blessed by teaching in Volusia

028County to share my love of math to see my students in their elements as they share sorrows and victories and to be a part of A Faculty that feels more like a family I have been allowed to Blossom by sponsoring clubs and receiving top-notch training to prepare our students and teachers for the future I have served as math co-chair the current Secretary of the Volusia County teachers of mathematics and I score AP exams moreover my daughters are educated cared for and supported by Volusia County Schools my eldest whom I call my New Smyrna Beach baby will graduate in five months and my youngest my Creek baby will matriculate to 10th grade therefore I am excited to be named one of the five finalists for the Volusia County Schools I am a proponent of leading with

029Grace and respect and I serve in the same manner thank you for the invite to speak before the board today and today as every day is a great day to be a hawk [Applause] laughs [Laughter] can I get away [Laughter] that's the only thing here's some orange on Orange all right I have on red because I am a sandcraft [Music] all right no competition in the room Miss Gaines go for it good evening superintendent Belgium and Madam chair ladies and gentlemen of the school board and all community members thank you so much for allowing us the privilege of being here it is truly an honor to be a representative of the thousands of amazing Educators that serve Volusia County I am so blessed to be considered amongst these esteemed group of finalists who would have

030thought 25 years ago when we were driving into Florida my husband and I were driving 992 and we saw a sign that said High School I said honey let's go over there and see if they have any job openings walked into school and met the principal it was at that time I met the incomparable Mitch Moyer he he said Dodie I don't have any biology positions open but I do have an algebra 1A position open and I was like well I'll take whatever I can get I'm jobless I might as well so my career of Volusia County began at DeLand High School in South portable City and if you're an old school delandite you know exactly what I'm talking about just when I thought algebra 1A would be my only venture outside of biology I've

031since continued a very diverse career teaching everything from chemistry to physics anatomy and physiology middle school science I've been a science coach and I finally found my home at Sea Breeze seven years ago teaching biology and AP Bio it was six years ago that I learned of a new program coming to the county called the Ace Program I became a part of the original Cadre and brought the program to the county and helped our school become an official Cambridge International Education Center since then we've graduated 122 students who have all been accepted to four-year institution higher institutions and earned their Ace diploma [Applause] honor and a blessing to be able to watch these students grow during their high school years and help them reach their full potential we started with 75 students and now we

032have almost 300 students in the Ace cohort at Sea Breeze their success along with the program's success has created an exciting Buzz within our school and our community our school has produced incredible and our program has produced incredible student leaders Scholars athletes and ambassadors and I'm thrilled to be a part of it nothing excites me more than to have my present students come to me and tell me something awesome about their day or have my former student show up at school board meeting who are now at the University of Florida and they come back and they share their experiences I come to work every day for these little victories because when they win we all win [Applause] Miss Marcus all right so I guess that since we have to do our whole Little mascot things

033Eagles Perch yeah but uh Dr malekovan school board members Madam chair my principal Miss Frazee for coming today thank you all for inviting us finalists here today this whole experience has been a bit surreal but so memorable it's definitely an honor to be here with all these ladies today as teachers we are generally very humble so being told to speak about ourselves for a minute to two is not a comfortable position for us up here but in fact when I started realizing it and we were messaging each other about what are we going to put in our speeches and what are you doing because that happens I realized my students are my accomplishments and I can talk about them for hours so for your sake today I'll keep it to a minute or two 21

034years as an educator 21 years as a Volusia County Schools educator 20 separate classes that have built a community throughout the year that we've spent together making memories that hopefully will last us all a lifetime that's over 600 students that have crossed the threshold of my Elementary School classrooms and Middle School as strangers but left as part of my family countless teachers that as an academic coach I cheered on I cried with and I watched grow to become some of the best in the profession today the moment six years ago even after obtaining my master's degree in educational leadership when I had a calling a calling that said it was time to leave coaching and return to the classroom because I needed the students as much as they needed me covid the year where Nothing

035Was the Same except the goal to love on the children and that we all did my number one goal in the classroom has always been to build relationships first then work on everything else these relationships that I form with students teachers administrators and I've had some of the best School District staff as well as parents we've all created and worked together and today they are the reason I am the teacher I am the teacher that's honored to be a top five finalist proud to be a Volusia County teacher but more than anything grateful to be able to play Just a small part in the educational journey of each and every student I encounter I can only hope that I hold a small piece of their hearts that matches this piece and mine that's reserved right

036here each and every day for them now and forever [Applause] Miss sword school board members of course my principals who are here community members thank you for the invitation to come today you said one to two minutes so I'm gonna keep it there for sure um my my career here in Volusia County Schools started way before my 16 years of teaching I am a product of Volusia County Schools I went to Coronado Chisholm New Smyrna Beach Middle and I'm an alumni of New Smyrna Beach High School yeah um so I that started my my career really honestly because as a future Florida educator of America I received a pin as a president in high school and that's where I came back I came back to retrieve that job that I received that PIN for and

037sure enough I did and guess who hired me Mr Russell Mr Russell was the first person who hired me in blue County Schools I started my career at Deltona Middle School and so I figured what I would do is just kind of do a highlight from each one of those places I've been in the county in my career and at Deltona Middle one of my most memorable moments was when my students actually reached out to an author Rodman philbrick he's the author of Freak the money it was in our curriculum at the time and they wanted to produce a movie based on his screenplay that he had written and so they actually produced developed films created the film recorded it I had students that were not very high level readers at all that actually grew

038tremendously that year scores were some of the highest in the school and then we had a red carpet night that evening that was most memorable because I had so many emails from parents after the fact that was kind of like my starting Shining Moment where I was like this is what I need to do I need to make memories for kids so that they truly own their education so they remember it for years to come and I still have gotten Facebook messages from a couple of those students from that class then I moved on to Orange City Elementary and that's where I used my masters in library and information science degree as the media specialist there and I have to say as far as memorable Moments One of the most memorable things that we did

039there was that we created a flash mob and we did that during testing time missing kusky and some teachers and I over at Orange City we created a parody of Don't Stop Believin and we had the University High School band drum line come in and it made the news journal it was quite a memorable moment again another memorable experience that comes up in you know Facebook timeline Hops and gets everybody going we all start texting each other which is really good as a teacher and assignment for Volusia County Schools for federal programs and grants I was the Apple teacher on the assignment the first one that came along so I got to start that initiative with actually with Miss Haynes she was my employee or my um my boss at that time um I should

040say for that that my most memorable thing was otterboxing 16 000 iPads but actually the true impact was really just being in the classrooms being with my colleagues because I was just a teacher still even though as a teacher's assignment being inspired we had even Valerie was in a couple of my classes that I hosted but being in their classrooms being inspired by the things that they do and then using that to fix my practice too and to make me better so those were some of the most memorable moments and that was in you know pre-k through 12th grade I got to experience 53 schools and meet all the principals and and all the different teachers which was really special and as a Long Street employee I came back to be a teacher Mom that's

041a whole left my district position was to come be a mom and so when I got into the media center I was told that it wasn't warm and inviting and it needed to be that and that's what we created over the past six years we've created a warm heartfelt environments the heart and the Hub of the school there at Long Street and because it is that we now have community members that are in our school all the time we have our local Shores Police Department we've had UCF Bethune cookman Embry Riddle all of these area businesses and communities have now adopted us as Cardinals and we are hearing Cardinals who Thrive by the Sea because of that there's my little plug for our mascots but thank you for letting us share a couple highlights from

042our career [Applause] thank you Mr word and now miss Harvard west side superintendent Madam chair and school board members thank you so much for the invitation this evening I am honored to be here and to be recognized as a teacher of the year finalist this is my 20th year at West Side I completed my senior internship at Westside Elementary and I never left that speaks to the love that I have for the school it's teachers the community and the families as a math coach one of the most important things to me are the relationships that I feel with my colleagues and the students at Westside one highlight of my career so far that speaks out louder than any other is that there are three young men they were in my first class ever I taught

043them in second grade I loop with them to third grade and I taught them again in fifth grade somehow by chance I don't know if it's because they communicate and they keep in touch with me but um they communicate and one of them reaches out to me every single year we catch up we communicate on how all three of them are doing and before that conversation is done every single time from each single one of them it's Miss Harvard I remember what you taught me that to me is most important to me and as I stated one of the biggest highlights thus far this touches my heart because something I taught them stayed with them they teach me I teach them and those learned lessons stay with us forever that's what teaching is all about

044thank you again for inviting me oh [Applause] come on chair um if you would I I know that Miss Madison Miller she is watching and she's listening to our board meeting this evening and she will receive her her presentation perfect Tom Vitale and Jim Hogan to both yeah Tom my yeah good to be a cardinal s thank you Mr Davis now if we can have the five finalists come on up we'll take a picture and then we can do one finalists at a time with their families that are here their work family and their personal family very good together [Music] so we'll just have any family foreign hey share all the time [Laughter] you know it's going to grab media people right here in front of me many more memories [Music] [Laughter] okay [Laughter] foreign

045[Music] haha imagine where it gets a bad rap all right go move hold that baby up all right I wasn't in class oh that's a tough one bye-bye can't get any better than that I'm so filling at this time we're going to go back into the meeting but I will say there's nothing better than being able to honor our teachers and those five women were outstanding and we're looking forward to the Teacher of the Year banquet later this month to celebrate all of our teachers so we're moving on to item 4.01 announcements by Dr Carmen balckman our superintendent thank you madam chair I have a few items that I'd like to share um and again what I was saying is it's so it's so heartwarming right because the feel of education is just so special

046and we all heard special stories of why these individuals chose to feel why they remained in the field so once again it's such a great way to start but a couple announcements are mid-years uh every single school they submit a school Improvement plan to doe at the beginning of the year and mid-year they're they have to adjust the plan as needed Based on data evidence so at this point I will share with you January 27th is the date for which all of the course Corrections for every sip School Improvement plan has to be updated our assistant superintendents and directors are working with schools evaluating their data looking at what those course Corrections would look like making sure that it's inserted and uploaded so that's January 27th also a couple things I want to share that

047one of the things that we did this year and and last is that every school looked at their goals in their school Improvement plan and made sure that there was clear connection to our strategic plan so that there is no disconnect um and that that is continuing to happen also as it relates to our strategic plan it's our road map right and we have five goals outlined in our roadmap of what we need to accomplish um five goes as a reminder goal number one always high quality instruction it's why we exist as an organization I always say that goal number two high quality staff goal number three safe and supportive environment goal number four resources and operational processes and goal number five communication and Community engagement so as it relates to all five goals we

048are in the month of February at the beginning the forest board Workshop in February or yes we're looking for a workshop in February I know that the deputy was going to contact you on that um we're looking to do our mid-year review which is the stock take process and basically what that means with full transparency here in the boardroom we will have our goal leads and our strategy leads which is basically cabinet members and a few directors and what we're going to do is look at each strategy outlined for every goal along with the activities and we're going to examine the evidences to determine what is working what are some areas that we need to course correct and what is it that we're going to do about it so we will share with you in

049full transparency and we want our community to be aware so that they can engage with us as well so that's coming up in the month of February a couple of things I wanted to share with you you met the amazing finalists here and I think every it would be a hard decision I know for sure but we're going to be celebrating uh on January 20th which is a Friday we're going to have a banquet at the Daytona Beach Hilton and I know that we will be there to celebrate with our all of our teachers that nominees that will be there um a couple other things also stem so the state allows two winners and an alternate from our district to participate in the Sunshine State Scholars Program we have we have several students that participated

050and this year aksha Gupta asked aksha Gupta from Seabreeze high school along with Jacob Friedman from Spruce Creek High School they were selected and the alternate is Fida chaoduri from DeLand High School that's the alternate student so they will be here at the at the next upcoming board meeting will they where they will be recognized um and then I believe in April or March of April they will also receive the Statewide recognition in addition to that just a few more pages to go Beachside we were there at Beachside and I think we have some pics that we will show at some point of Beachside but they will um have their ribbon cutting we we were there January but they will also have their ribbon cutting that's coming up and we're planning for that so once

051I have the date solidified it will be shared with all of you um Volusia County Public School Has Talent as you know so please make a note of this because you will have sufficient material for the rest of the year also a material that you can use for next year January 25th at 6 pm at the theater right here in Deland we have many many staff members that will be participating in a must-see must see talented professionals they're called they're called The Talented Professionals of Volusia County Public School just a little bit of a peek for you I believe our very own Mr Angel Gomez will be performing La Bamba oh look at that you've got more people signing up to attend um also uh we will recognize cognitive impact conference at the cognic impact

052on conference that transpired a few weeks ago Volusia County Public School was recognized among many other districts throughout the nation for standing out as school as a school district that is truly committed to students learning there are indicators that were reviewed evidences that were submitted and we have an upcoming board meeting where we will be officially recognized and we will receive the cognitive system of Distinction Awards and this was based on our research that that transpired and we also have our choice fares you all attended Choice fairs last year it's going to be a Grand Event again moms and dads parents Guardians if you're listening please mark the following date the East Side Fair will be at DSC Daytona State campus on January the 18th we will send more information to you with specific time

053I know it's in the afternoon I believe from 5 30 to 8 30. and then the West Side Fair will be at the center of Deltona January 23rd so please mark your calendars you want to be there or School staff will be there students will be there it really is a family event but you get an opportunity to really shop for your students because an education is so important and knowing what you want and what you're stop your children need and having the opportunity to ask school-based personnel and View and see what that looks like it's it's truly remarkable it's really a great experience so I I invite you to be there and last but not least last Friday we toured some of our schools so I had we start at seven o'clock in the

054morning and did almost all of the high schools believe it or not and you're there throughout the entire County there are two schools that we didn't do because we're going to do it at a different time but every other school we we toured what did that tour look like we actually wanted an inside look so spoke to the principal their leadership teams look at the data visited classrooms talk to teachers talk to students and so we have a small small short video for you I was told it's no more than seven minutes and I wanted you to see a little bit an inside look at our schools of our schools Mr Gomez you ready [Music] the largest High School how many students we have this year Dr Maria almost three thousand they're hovering around 3

055000 depending on the day I can't wait to see and hear about some of the great things that they're doing we've got great kids here there's nothing like that relationship and a connection right yes man good morning Bulldogs all right we gotta go get the class get the class let's go what are your goals classes foreign so I started going in exactly as you said in vlcs talking to some of my best coaches having them show me information explain it to me I would walk classrooms with them I am here with one of the most phenomenal teachers that we have in our district this is Dr Bal gabin and she's just paid a visitor oh right wow that's cool I'm getting good at it I am getting good at this read something it's kind of

056hard you read it a second time you're going to start picking up even more meaning I love it come here Sydney foreign teacher right that you guys know that's a gem you've got a brilliant mind don't you thank you tell the staff I said thank you okay I like how you have the cool part already you're looking at what your teachers need what type of Refreshers they need even when now the testing was back into the equation and the kids had to pass the test and we were following you know and doing all these things all year long on those concordance scores and we have the blue down and we kept chipping away at that during the year we still went up our graduation rate to 92.7 [Music] foreign [Music] I wanted to come out

057today and first and foremost congratulate you thank you for your passion your dedication and the incredible Heights that you have been able to help us accomplish here at University with the students [Music] [Applause] we try to have as many students in here as possible just to get them used to the media center so that they'll come and check out books on their own instead of having to come with a class yeah it's a strategy behind it right yes I'm a senior this year yes hi Scott we're nice to meet you I'm Carmen and this is what we call a gallery walk so it's like they're in a museum yeah enjoying each so they go from Station to Station you know it's called responsible choice making right yes and you have the perfect students to exercise

058that she is nice to meet you nice to meet you thank you for coming into visitors thank you we're going for sort of a coffee house kind of college atmosphere um and the kids seem to really like it so what you have been able to accomplish with high school students it's it's it's short of just being genius I love it this is beautiful thankful you guys made my day here today this is absolutely appreciate it you're welcome anytime Jackson yes ma'am thank you for holding so you two are wow I am so impressed yeah hi Rich really is on the rise right yes yeah the culture the climate the student Behavior the the focus on academics and it's when you take a great group of people and you put them together that they believe in

059a vision right and they believe in students and they're there to care for kids you're going to see your core values and and we embed those core values in everything we do as part of our PBIS and I think you'll see those those qualities uh emulated by our student leaders as we go through being in the Cambridge program it pushed me to study it pushed me to actually try very hard so I feel more prepared now thanks to Cambridge our theater troupe is well there's about 30 of us but no matter how many of us there are it always feels like a family I had 30 of my students before Christmas break uh gained their career certification already uh so I already have 30 these kids are certified electricians there's not a whole lot of

060people out there that has the skill set of the art of how to do it so when you have the passion the skill set and the art all combined you have to cherish that right and open yourselves up to learning as much as possible and asking questions as many questions as you need to and ensure that every single day that you walk out of here that you're walking out with one or two things that you didn't know when you came in just her background and how much she is similar to me I feel like I connected a lot with her and just seeing how successful she has been and the fact that she's coming here to my school just it just really touched my heart and it makes me so happy and I definitely love

061this experience and I can't wait to tell my family I thought she was very passionate she was very upbeat and I was happy to have someone like that at school I think that's really important to have someone really care for us and what we're doing here it's really important we heard from Dr balderman today about the school district being a family and I have felt nothing but that I tell everybody keep your eye on Panther Nation Don't Take Your Eye Off on what's Happening Here in Panther Nation thank you so much you guys have a good one okay I'll see you again and anything you need to reach out thank you all right thank you so much [Applause] it's truly an amazing day and it's why I do what I do but really it takes

062a team and we have a powerful team here in this County so she just want to share a little insight with you I think it's a great way to start off the 2023 year so moving along to item 5.01 administrative appointments and transfers Dr balgum Rockman do we have any administrative appointments for this evening yes Madam chair we have five total for for your consideration for approval I would like to ask Mr John Kraft to join us there he is so just to share a little bit with you Mr Kraft has earned his bachelor's degree in professionally RN addicts from Embry Riddle uh University he's been working with Volusia County Schools since 2013 when he started an office specialist three in human resources and then quickly moved to a coordinator position in facilities maintenance and

063operations before he worked for Volusia County Schools Mr Kraft served our our County in the Air Force and also gain experiences and maintenance superintendent when he retired from the Air Force he transitioned to Civil Service as the chief of facilities and government housing Moser is recently for Volusia County Schools Mr Kraft holds the position of assistant director in facilities maintenance and operations and today chair and board members I'm recommending Mr John craft as director for facilities maintenance and operations if you approve this this even in his effective date will be January 11 2023. you've heard the superintendent's recommendation for Mr John craft as the director for facilities maintenance and operations do we have a motion move approval second thank you so we have a motion and a second any further discussion I'll add something so

064I had the chance first to meet his wife Maria craft who is in purchasing um during the time when I was working in federal programs in Grants and therefore then I met him and I want to say first and foremost we appreciate you being here but we also want to thank you for your service in the Air Force sir all right if there's no further discussion I'll call for the vote all those in favor say aye aye any opposed it passes unanimously [Applause] [Music] Madam chair board member superintendent balgeman good afternoon and thank you thank you for giving me this opportunity and having the trust in me for this appointment I understand how important this position is and how important every position and maintenance is we are the force behind the scenes that keep the

065schools open and the students in their seats the times and bad times hurricanes utility outages we keep agent equipment and infrastructure up and running quick reflection had me Ponder how I arrived with this opportunity so quickly but really it's been a long journey I did complete the active duty service and civil service with the Air Force and now nine years with Volusia County Schools all of my training and experience combined has prepared me to leave this department with integrity and there will be a blend of streamlining efficiencies procedures to adapt our ever-changing needs with security and in the maintenance field as an early appointed director I am very proud of my efforts over the years to earn this position and I am ready to get to work you know we have an incredible team full

066of talented and experienced people that are ready to continue making a difference I'd like to thank all the people that have supported mentored and challenged me in the past I'd also like to thank the other half of teamcraft with whom all things are possible and finally my brother Richard and my niece Caleb for staying in town a few extra days to celebrate this accomplishment with Maria and I [Applause] Mr craft we want you to stay um and once no you can be seated but please don't leave because we're going to do photos thank you thank you madam chair um I would like to ask Mr Michael Owens to join us there yes okay so a little bit about Mr Owens he's earned his associates of Arts degree from Daytona State College he has certification with

067Security Administration he has been working as a cyber Security administrator with insurance office of American Longwood Florida where he's analyzed and assess information data and threats while engaging with Personnel to ensure security he has also worked as a senior health desk technician where he spearheaded technology management today with your approval I am recommending Mr Michael Owens as a senior assistance administrators for cyber security and Technology Services if voted upon here this even in his effective date would also be January 11 2023. so you've heard Dr Bachman's recommendation do I have a motion leave to approve I have a second oh second any discussion okay I have to say something for a moment when I looked at um your background and everything I will tell you that this is one of the areas um that our

068internal Auditors are constantly checking is our cyber security piece and so um I was very impressed and hopefully you're going to keep us very safe so that there are no cyber security attacks so all those in favor say aye aye any opposed it's unanimous [Applause] members of the board superintendent thank you for this appointment and putting your faith in me as a senior Security administrator for Volusia County Schools I grew up in the Volusia County School System from Friendship Elementary to Pine Ridge High School it's pretty surreal for me coming full circle now defending the people that taught me and helped me get to where I am today I look forward to working with everyone on utilizing my skills in cyber security to execute Dr Coon's vision and the information technology Services team [Applause] thank

069you madam chair third I would like to ask Dr Kelly edgel to join us there she is just a little bit about Dr edgell she's earned her bachelor's degree in animal science from the University of Florida in her master's degree in agricultural education soil and water signs from the University of Florida in a doctoral degree in educational leadership and administration from the University of Florida she holds certification and add leadership K-12 Elementary education case six Middle grades math 5 9 Middle grades General signs five nine agriculture education 612 exceptional student education K-12 esol and reading endorsement K-12 wow she's also vetted to be an instructional coach in Volusia County Schools for many years of teaching began in Hillsborough County schools in 1995. Dr agile has been working with Volusia County Schools since 2020 when she

070started as a teacher at Blue Lake Elementary she was also an academic coach at Galaxy middle and a teacher on assignment slash dean of student relations at Creekside Middle today with your approval I'm recommending Dr Kelly edgel as the assistant principal at Silverstein's middle school and if approved here this evening her effect if it will also be January 11 2023. very early in the morning all right members of the board you've heard the recommendation from Dr balgavin do I have a motion move to approve second all right we have a motion and a second is there any discussion yes wow haven't you done uh I can't think of anything right now after that long list oh yeah right congratulations and thank you for continuing to serve our students yes I was going to say if

071I'd only still been at Blue Lake when you were there our paths would have crossed it one point but to have a resume like that where you've touched every level of learning is outstanding thank you so much so if there's no further discussion I call for the vote all those in favor say aye aye any opposed it's unanimous congratulations [Applause] good afternoon Madam chairman Haynes school board members and superintendent balgovan I am honored to be appointed to an assistant principal ship at Silver Sands Middle School little did I know that moving to Volusia County years ago as a nine-year-old fourth grader who walked nervously into Mrs Kathy hutchison's class at Edgewater public elementary would set the course for the rest of my life Pursuits the caring highly qualified teachers and administrators I encountered as a

072student had such a positive impact on me they instilled in me a lifelong learner mindset and a strong drive to provide that same opportunity to others to embrace learning I know I would not be standing here before you today if it was not for those individuals I would like to thank my dad and my sons for their continued support of me as I have advanced in my career my dad is always willing to listen and have discussions with me on education related topics we refer to these as edu talks my sons have supported me throughout this entire process I am proud to say they too understand the importance of education and have used their educational experiences to become successful adults in their career choices I have been honored to work with some of the greatest

073role models of my career during my time here in Volusia County although earlier in my career I worked in other school districts in Florida my return here in 2020 has provided me with a new Cadre of Exemplar mentors leaders as well as sound experiences that have prepared me to serve as the assistant principal at Silver Sands Middle School I would like to thank Mr John Cash for having so much faith in my I would like to thank Mr John Cash for having so much faith in my abilities that he let me go and do all the while being an amazing mentor I would also like to thank Mr Stefan Mallory for teaching me how to balance instead of Juggle as an administrator and always being a sounding board for my ideas the opportunities and mentorships

074provided by these administrators are beyond measure I cannot express enough my gratitude to miss Patty core and Dr Drew Olson for having faith in my abilities and being true exemplars of instructional leaders I look forward to paying this type of sound instructional leadership forward leaving my cougar family at Creekside Middle School will not be easy but has truly been a pleasure to work with each one of the adults and students on that campus and I look forward to watching the cougar Pride PBIS program continue to grow thank you again for this opportunity to be an assistant principal at Silver Sands Middle School I am honored to be a warrior and will proudly wear the red and black I look forward to building relationships and working together towards the goal of Silver Sands being in a

075school again my commitment is to ensure the success of everyone on our campus whether it be students or adults I plan on leading with Grace and respect each day and working to create a new group of lifelong learners thank you madam chair board members now I would like to ask Miss Darlene garayapi to to join us uh just a little bit about Ms garibis she's earned her bachelor's degree in Marine Sciences from Richard Stockton College in New Jersey and her master's degree in Ed leadership from Saint Leo University in Florida this right beholds certification in biology 6-12 chemistry 6 through 12 and add leadership as well as she's completing her Florida Educational leadership she's completed her Florida Educational leadership examination the feeling she has taught at Lake Brantley High School Milwaukee Middle School and Lake

076Mary High School most recently she has worked at Atlantic high school as a teacher on assignment and That transpired since 2021. if with your approval here this evening and I'm recommending Miss Darlene grip is the assistant principal Atlantic high school and if approved here this evening and her effective date will also be January 11 very early in the morning we don't let anyone rest no okay you've heard Dr balquin's recommendation do I have a motion move to a proof thank you do I have a second I'll second all right is there any discussion all right I have to say this because I live in DeBerry I'm thankful that you decided to cross the bridge and come join us here in Volusia County so and and we want you to stay on this side of the

077bridge okay so um we're happy that all right we have a motion and we have a second if there's no further discussion all those in favor say aye aye any opposed congratulations [Applause] good evening chairwoman Hayes school board members and superintendent Dr baldman I am honored to be appointed as assistant principal at onik high school and I thank you for this opportunity to serve Atlantic in a different capacity I would like to take this opportunity to thank my biggest supporters my husband Michael and our two amazing boys Jacob and Cooper I am forever grateful for their unconditional support throughout my career especially that former Drive I used to have they are my biggest fans and I am theirs I will continue to do my best to make them proud thank you so much for your

078love and support I could not do any of this without the three of you thank you to the faculty and staff of Atlantic High School you are all fantastic when I joined Atlantic last year as your TOA you all welcomed me without hesitation and I am forever grateful you made the transition into Volusia County Schools seamless I look forward to the opportunity to continue supporting you as you have supported me Mr Julian Doster thank you there is not enough time this evening for me to list all of the different ways you have helped me and supported me over this last year and a half you have provided me with a countless number of opportunities to prepare me for this position and give me the confidence to pursue this next chapter thank you for your unwavering

079support and your continued mentorship lastly I'd like to take this opportunity to thank Mr Jason Watson principal of Atlantic high school thank you for also providing me with countless opportunities very early in the morning to grow and for pushing me outside of my comfort zone I look forward to supporting you in this new role as assistant principal because sharks are rising [Music] [Applause] yes and our last for for this evening I would like to ask Ms Julie Reeser to join us please just to share a little bit with you miss miss Reaser has earned her bachelor's degree in social studies from the University of Honolulu and her master's degree in Ed leadership from the University of North Florida she holds her vacation in both education leadership Elementary education middle grade integrated curriculum middle grade social

080studies educational media Specialists with a gifted endorsement and reading endorsement she's been working Volusia County since 2005 when she started as a social studies teacher at Heritage Middle School she has also been an intermediate gifted teacher at Chisholm Elementary as well as an academic coach at Ormond Beach Elementary she uh recently as of most recent she's been I said Ormond Beach Elementary 2022 teacher of the year she was named Ormond Beach Elementary teacher for 2022. and if you approved here this evening I'm recommending that Ms resource is nominated is approved as the assistant principal at friendship Elementary and again she will also have an early start time as you know very early on January 11 2023. it's a lot of us very early in the morning we start all right you've heard the recommendation of

081the superintendent do I have a motion and so I will gladly make that motion I will sadly second it because she's leaving Ormond Beach Elementary but this is kind of what happens sometimes Mr clone's taking her and he's very happy and Mr persis is losing her and he's not but that's what we do um we have a motion in a second is there any further discussion absolutely and so welcome back to D5 I know you were at Heritage and so we're glad that you finally came back home and I look forward to having you serve the students at friendship Elementary any further discussion just thank you for the awesome job you did at Ormond Beach at Elementary uh I know Shannon hey your principal is as sad as I but uh uh you were you

082were a tremendous asset there and you will be missed yeah yeah but maybe Mrs Burnett and I should throw in here at this point is it appears you've worked in District 3 District 4 and District Five you've left one and two rounds she's done two opportunities all right all those in favor say aye aye any opposed it's passage unassa congratulations [Applause] Madam chairperson members of the board and Dr balgeben thank you for the opportunity to continue to serve the students of Volusia County as the assistant principal at friendship Elementary I began my education with Volusia County Schools as a kindergartner at Port Orange elementary and continue to learn from The Talented educators of this District through 11th grade when my husband and I returned to Florida after serving in the Army there was no question

083where I wanted my children to be educated and where I wanted to teach I am humbled at the opportunity to continue my work as an educator in a new capacity within the Volusia County School District I would like to thank my husband and family for supporting me I would not be here without you I would also like to thank the coaches administrators I work with over the years for providing me opportunities to grow as an educator and leader thank you to Sarah Callahan Dr Julie roseboom Christine Barrett and Mr purses for providing examples of what excellent leadership looks like a special thank you to my current principal Shannon Haye for her mentorship support and encouragement your guidance has made all the difference in my leadership journey and I will make you proud no piece of

084my heart will always be a ob I'm excited to be back in the Deltona Community serving the students and faculty at friendship I can't wait to begin working with Mr Scott in supporting the mighty Bobcats of friendship Elementary [Applause] at this time we'd like to ask all five of the individuals along with any of their family or co-workers whoever's here to make your way up along this side and we'll start with you Mr craft for photos foreign Spirit hello we can go that way a little bit please here we go we're good can go this way please Mr Cash oh yeah Freedom Elementary School this way this way please this way this way thank you going this way please there it is Madam chair and you can take one step this way please please thank

085you okay here we go hi everybody [Music] I know I'm I'm three minutes over right now I'm I was like get these pictures done [Laughter] public to get our house in order everyone please return to their seat with authority she did it keep moving this morning at this time it is 603 pm and so it is time for public input um Mr Gomez do you have any additional cards other than what you handed me so I have seven cards for anybody that listened to this morning's Workshop we talked about um having the flexibility to go ahead if we were 10 or less to go ahead and do all of them at this time so with my other board members approval we're going to have seven individuals come up for public input what I need to

086remind you is that please say your name and speak clearly and you will have a total of three minutes the most of the board members may be jotting down some notes while you're talking so that if there's something that we can address when this is over we will because we will not answer you during this time this this chance to speak I'm going to announce the first two individuals so that the first one can go ahead and make their way up and the second one will be ready so first is Mrs Elizabeth Albert and second will be Amanda al-shemi thank you you're welcome uh good evening Madam chair members of the board Dr balgubin my name is Elizabeth Albert and I'm the president of the Volusia United Educators I'm going to speak quickly because I've

087got a lot to say tonight first I want to start off with what Grandpa used to say if it ain't broke don't fix it I want to talk about this Podium absolutely contrary to the conversation that we had today in the workshop about this Podium making us look more professional and making us a present ourselves in a better light it does not this Podium for those of us in the cheap seats in the back creates a barrier it blocks our view this ribbon is offensive at all levels particularly like this I don't know that you've ever been swarmed and as pointed out earlier this morning you do have some young men down here that'll take care of anyone who tries to come close so I would recommend maybe we rethink this I want to also

088say thank you to miss mahaney it was pointed out earlier today all that she's done for our district and we've never shied away from the fact of recognizing the hard work that Miss mahaney does in order to make Volusia County Schools better so we want to thank her and acknowledge her I want to draw your attention to the HR update that was moved to the workshop used to be a part of the board meeting but I want to draw your attention to page three I have some questions for clarification if you look at the total number of instructional vacancies listed for January and you compare that with December we notice a decrease from 194 instructional vacancies in December to 1 41 in January that was addressed but not completely my question here that I'd like

089a response at some point on there's a difference of 53 positions so where did they go the comment that was made earlier was something to the effect of how these positions shift to temporary positions in January and it's up to the principals to repost those so is that the case they've not all been reposted or have some of them just given up and are no longer posting those vacancies I want to draw your attention now to page four and I want to point out that from December to January we've had an increase in our paraprofessional vacancies from 64 now to 80. that's a 16. that's 16 more than we had in December please pay attention to that there's a reason why we're absolutely going in the wrong direction for paraprofessionals and we need to address

090it finally what I'd like to talk with you about begins on I guess it's page seven it's not numbered but I want to talk with you about the international teacher program so um at its core you know I've got some personal feelings about that but I get it I get it that you're trying to figure out how to solve this vacancy problem but I want you to reflect upon this if you don't fix the problems that we have in our district right now in our classrooms in our schools it doesn't matter who you bring here because they're not going to want to stay either right so let's try to fix the problems that we have in our schools right now so that the people that you have stay so you bring these folks in and

091and they're going to stay because they're going to be fearful of being deported what is that all about in other countries teachers are revered teachers are respected and valued what's going to happen when they come here and they're met with violence and disrespect and all the things that that we're dealing with what's going to happen then thank you thank you so El shimmy will be rich Purnell hello my name is Emmanuel shimmy and I'm from Port Orange good evening sorry just a little bit oh I need my two seconds back I wasn't ready I'm not joking I had to adjust the new podium can you restart please yep good evening board member superintendent and community members my word for this evening is priority as I speak tonight I would like for you to continue to

092think what is your priority when it comes to each of these concerns my first concern is what is taking place in our middle schools due to the sixth period day and the lack of planning before the rollout of teaming teaming was supposed to be a way to bring back the fun in our middle schools we were promised an opportunity to have more input on discipline the curriculum procedures and guaranteed funding to create things like team t-shirts Team posters and intramurals for those students who follow the rules as normal in Volusia there is this was not rolled out this way the only things that have been created from teaming is the loss of an elective for all of our students the redistribution of administrative duties from administrators and campus advisors to teachers without any additional supplements

093teachers are now being asked to have more meetings in the morning having morning Duty create school-wide procedures handle School discipline schedule and run parent conferences themselves Implement and Implement PST with the loss of our early release days and the loss of morning morning time due to these extra meetings we are drowning literally drowning in a district with the highest percentage of their budget going to administrators it is confusing to me why they are doing the least amount of work at this point in the Middle School level priorities when it comes to the performing arts program and other key electives with the six period day you continue continues you will have none tomorrow I leave for the honor of bringing seven all-stage students to Tampa to represent Volusia Volusia only nine middle school students as a

094whole made All-State Choir in Middle School seven of them were mine I'm very honored and as a distinguished teacher with one of the strongest music programs in the district I'm telling you next year we will not survive this we will not survive the numbers superintendent I saw a great picture of you conducting the awesome band at University High School love that please talk to Mr K though a great friend of mine and his feeder Mr Bill Guthrie and ask them how next year will look I've had many lunches with them both and the if these numbers continues you will be standing in front of nobody you're going to conduct nobody priorities lastly I think it's important to address your inability to prioritize salaries year after year the majority of you ran on a campaign making

095this the year of the teacher says Mr cologne and an increased salaries like we've never seen before I sat here and listened to you say that with the importance of increasing the superintendents and salaries after each time you get rid of one you fire another you get rid of one that mindset does not live in a bubble the cabinet members sitting behind me all make six figures or close to it and when it comes to teachers and support staff you all I ever hear from your CFO depending on which one it is that month that we don't have enough money well why don't we find a more creative CFO why don't we task them with the job of finding the money I'm tired of the broken record we don't have enough money you actually why

096don't you actually take the time and go through your very own budget set some priorities and find the money like I said it's all about priorities and you need to rethink yours thank you following following Mr Pernell it'll be Sheila butcharten thank you for this forum um my has the tone changed since I first walked into this room um I want to talk to you a little bit about interpersonal conflict resolution skills for students like to even extend it Beyond students given what I've just heard in the past 10 minutes in 1972 uh in San Francisco California a group named Community boards was tasked specifically to provide mediation training to the students of the district and essentially how they set it up was simply this that they would train high school students to mediate conflicts

097in the middle school they would train Middle School students to mediate conflicts in the elementary school and I see a couple of head nods which would indicate that there might be something in that to we talked about lifelong learning there is a skill that students would be able to carry with them after high school there was a possibility that they would have six years in their Public School experience that put them in line to be some sort of a conflict resolution person either on an application for college or for in the job market so I'd like you to consider uh looking at not only the feasibility but the value that a program like that might provide my primary resource for you would be the National Association for mediation in education out of Amherst Massachusetts and

098there are other references that I can give you you have my contact information please feel free to call if you'd like but there's something about being able to handle conflicts not only for yourself but for others I think it's long overdue and needed thank you following Ms Sheila bachart will be Mr Scott Cleary evening school board members Dr Balvin I'm Sheila butcher I live in Deltona but I'm reading this today for Dr Michelle Macklin who wasn't able to be here um school is defined as an institution for educating children teachers are individuals who provide instruction or education in a school or their learning environment we're responsible for preparing and presenting lesson plans supervising students in the classroom environment grading coursework managing classroom operations and expectations schools were once safe places esteemed with high regard teachers

099were always held to the highest moral standard or respected as content experts endowed with a passion for equipping students with success for Life Today schools have become targets where War zones in the as the ales of society have crept into the fiber of operations and interactions the ultimate goal of educating and doing what is best for the interest of a student has taken a back seat to politics Social Challenges greed and selfishness depending on your perspective today's teachers today are battling more than ever in the classroom with inconsistent ever-changing curriculum micromanagement student discipline threats violence the Mental Health crisis lack of funding and resources most of which the general population ignores and overlooks because it doesn't impact them but guess what it impacts all of us as the burden falls on educators falls on the

100educator Society continues to put Targets on we are the consist we are the ones that are consistent for our children we are the ones who never give up we always respond to the traumas we encourage and provide for out of our limited personal funds to prevent our students from experiencing lack so to consistently hear that there's no money for the increased hazards teachers face because everyone has rights except us is completely hurtful disheartening and disrespectful none of you are sitting in those seats of decision making and power are enduring the daily abuses of your staff if you would if you were you would want and do better for yourselves so why not do better for those of us in the trenches every day or maybe you just like to trade places with some of us

101thank you following Mr Scott Cleary it'll be Miss Carol Sawyer see you're decorated I don't good evening Madam chairman board member superintendent vagabin I've come before the board more times than I care to count and it's always the same thing over and over again so being a halfway decent teacher I thought I would try and remediate what I'm trying to share and as a nod to the importance of Music in the classroom I made you a playlist Love the Way You Lie by Eminem Round and Round and Round by The Cure hey you by Pink Floyd Staying Alive by the Bee Gees and don't let me down by the Beatles And if you know the songs I think you might get a glimpse of my read my thoughts behind those songs we saw some incredible

102Educators up here earlier but for every one of them that was hired in the years they were hired more than half of them are gone more than half of their cohorts are gone the teachers you just passed um in the consent agenda half of them will be gone in five years or less you were doing an amazing job at recruitment but you are doing an awful job at retention and part of that is while you sit there and you nod and you say the words you're not matching your words to action because in the end action means more and that action means that teachers need safe schools we need to address discipline we need to address pay because very soon very very soon teachers will not be able to afford to live in the district

103they teach and that's going to be a huge negative for Volusia Schools you have an opportunity to fix it you do have the money to fix it if you choose to look at your Reserves and I know I've had that conversation many times but I'll share with you in a few moments I have left in my youth I attended many Wilderness survival trainings and one thing they said to me when I did my desert part was people wind up dead in the desert with full canteens are you gonna let that happen to Volusia have a good night thank you following Carol Sawyer it'll be Laura Bashar good evening Dr bagman chairwoman Haynes and board members Carol Sawyer New Smyrna Beach I would just like to expand on what Mr Albert was saying about this new

104piece of furniture that now presents itself in our boardroom you know I couldn't let this go without saying something personally it I think it takes away from the friendly family atmosphere that we currently have in our board meetings I feel like it divides us and it that and that is not the trend that we really want is it and most importantly I can no longer see everyone's beautiful face when sitting in the audience I now have to pick one of you to be out of my vision if the podium is really what you want could we move it back so the audience can see all of the board members this way the school logo could even be seen when the people are talking or can we find an adjustable Podium so that we can move

105it up when people are talking and lower it when people are not talking people are already nervous to come speak at the board meetings I don't know why they are but they are I think this Podium will only make things worse I already miss my school board family thank you welcome hello everyone my name is Laura Bouchard and I teach at Taylor Middle High School I joined the district in 2007 and this is my 16th year teaching with BCS during that time there have been six different interim or superintendents along with multiple changes in school board members and District personnel I am still here there have been multiple programs like standards-based grading four-point grading power standards Champs Kagan teacher Clarity PBIS PST mtss so many others and many of these programs are no longer supported

106by BCS I am still here there have been a variety of digital and technological programs that have been purchased or licensed and used in Volusia County Schools Edmodo Promethean boards Smart Boards Moby boards Scantron canvas nearepod the old Gradebook Focus Oracle School City and so many others we've spent hundreds of thousands if not millions of dollars and so much of it is no longer supported or used I am still here none of the district people you hire none of the programs you buy impact a child education more than a qualified teacher perhaps we should stop spending money on every program or technology with their self-proclaimed research and start investing in areas with staying power good teachers deserve good pay and good leadership we don't need micromanagers and excuses perhaps quiet quitting and working to your

107wage are not that unreasonable after all this is my 16th year teaching and I make 275 dollars more than a first-year teacher what is my incentive to still be here [Applause] that concludes public input at this time we're going to take a short break and we will be back in here at 6 foreign yeah she is that's good welcome back we are moving on now to item 6.01 recognition of Safety and Security Dr B thank you madam chair um we have a staff member and also a public servant that deserves very special recognition this evening basically this individual quickly addressed a situation just coming back from from our break that took place on one of our campuses and and those this was during the very even in hours and perform admirably quickness responded um followed

108directions that were given work cooperatively with our Daytona Beach police department and we would like to recognize also working with the technology piece that was needed to identify and also apprehend the burglary suspect this was something that was happening on one of our campuses so at this time I would like to ask Mr Shadow Knight who was in the audience to come on up he's one of our very own School Guardians along with officer Joshua dagley of the Daytona Beach Police Department who is also here please come forward because we have a recognition for both of these individuals Madam chair thank you if if you would I would like for them to just share briefly without any uh specifics in terms of just in general what transpired because I will I know that the board

109you were all very you were informed on this and every single one of you had something positive to say and how you know Mr Parsons you were I think one of the first ones in every other board member responded but can you share with us briefly without getting into too much detail about the situation and how it was handled and what really stood out about it and then we have certificates of recognition for each of them okay uh well we received a uh I guess an intrusion alarm for Campbell Middle School uh investigation revealed through the camera systems of the school a uh unidentified mail was on campus which turned Daytona Beach Police Department was contacted the campus was searched and was revealed they burglarized and what time was this I was in the morning

1102 30 in the morning that was very early right Mr Cole earlier than me just making sure I see some eyebrows going in the back saying what yeah 2 30 in the morning 2 30 in the morning what pretty much very awake because they had to get into our system also pull some would you like to share anything uh officer well so after a very eventful weekend of working New Year's and New Year's Eve our shift had finally got a break we kind of mingle and take it then this call comes out and um nothing a a business alarm at a school at 2 30 in the morning is never a good thing um so we all started racing there immediately started setting up a perimeter K-9 units had responded and we were able to

111deploy canine within this lo and behold where my perimeter position was we observed this unidentified Mill walking towards us so he was compliant we called him to us we began um I started interviewing him and detained him for the investigation we then placed him under arrest initially for trespassing on school grounds and you know due to the time call the curd and then his story never added up um so I started going back and forth with him a little bit um once we searched his person upon incident of arrest and his backpack he had numerous items school supply items highlighters markers a whole bunch of other just miscellaneous items one of those items was actually a projector remote that on the back it was labeled Fitness room building nine and according to nine so reasonable

112prudent person wouldn't believe that he just committed the crime of burglary so then continue searching this person we found a bunch of Narcotics on him and he got charged with all that as well so good job pretty good pretty good turnout Madam chair yes so at this time if the two of you would come forward we have a certificate for each of you and we want to thank you for how quickly you responded and you took a situation and made it end up not being as bad as what it could have been so thank you [Applause] no one two you're perfect thank you again [Applause] all right moving on to item 6.02 recognition of Spruce Creek High CTE program Dr balgaman thank you madam chair we have again as you can see very clearly over

113there in our audience a hawk I'm asking at this point are very you and Dr Todd Sparger to come on up with his work family um they're going to share with you a little bit we have with him Mr Thomas Bennett and Mr Bennett is actually the facilitator for Career and Technical education at Spruce Creek High they've got a presentation where they want to give us an inside look when it comes to their CTE programs at the school and so we'll we're looking forward to this presentation anyone else with you Dr Sparger yes ma'am thank you super Tim buckerman and we will bring them up momentarily Madam chair members of the board superintendent bulgerman thank you for this opportunity to to to brag on Spruce Creek we certainly uh excited about Mrs Morris and uh

114and her candidacy is the uh and I I told the group when they came it would just be easy to make the recognition now and save you a lot of work on January but uh Christopher I've had the privilege of of not only being the principal of Spruce Creek but but what taught there uh during the mid 90s as well and uh this gentleman to my right uh was a was a student on the campus uh when when I was there Mr Bennett a proud a proud Hawk uh state champion uh weightlifter uh and uh obviously came back to the school and and uh as was reflected earlier tonight uh I I think we've counted up 30 or 30 or so staff members that were uh for former former students as well so uh that

115that tradition is wonderful a Spruce Creek will celebrate its 50th uh graduating class uh in the year 2025. wow with our our current current sophomore so it's uh and a few years ago we had our our 40th celebration uh and at the end of the evening uh we were kind of cleaning up and walking around and I noticed a gentleman that was obviously looking and reminiscing uh and and began to talk to him uh and his name is uh J Scott Merrill uh and and Mr Merrill was the school's first valedictorian the first student body president went on to to Duke University and ultimately became an attorney and is now on this on on the faculty there uh and and it's been fun over the years to to talk to a lot of the alumni

116uh especially in those early years and and hear their Reflections about the school and the building and and what Port Orange looked like in 1975-76 which certainly looks a whole lot different than than it does today uh when I came to put the Port Orange area in 1994 I can tell you that the Port Orange of today looks a lot different than it did back then but but but I say that to to to to offer thanks uh to to that group of individuals who gave up their senior year at Mainland and at Smyrna and came to Port Orange and started a school there there wasn't a Clyde Morris it was just just Taylor Road at that point uh and and started the the Traditions uh the uh uh at Spruce Creek almost 50 years

117later and uh the the the programs and and and and teams and sports and clubs and traditions uh that they started as I say we are still benefactors of of all of that uh and when when we have time to to celebrate at graduation uh for us to talk about uh our success and the academics uh the Arts uh and Athletics and and that's uh yeah I've been a Hallmark of our school uh from from those early years uh and so so I I again I congratulate but we specifically talk about CTE today and the Career Tech Career and Technical Ed programs uh that are part of our campus uh Mr Bennett could reflect on his his involvement with that because there is a time when he was a teacher in this this field as

118well uh and uh and so uh there there are some some logos there of the different programs that we'll reflect on tonight the next slide uh and and and let Mr Bennett uh walk us through uh some of our the specific our two academies uh that that we have to our two official academies uh and some of the other aspects about our our CTE program and and we certainly give a shout out uh to to the district support uh of these programs uh and it that's certainly been helpful for us and and finding ways and we'll hear from the students soon uh in terms of the impact of these programs have had on them as well okay you know like Dr Sparks said my name is Thomas Bennett um the Career and Technical education facilitator

119at Spruce Creek High School um I have been in Volusia County my entire life I've gone through all the different levels of school and did in fact graduate from Spruce Creek High School and have never been anywhere else this is my 22nd year at Spruce Creek and back in 2021 fresh out of college sorry 2001. um fresh out of college um I actually started in the CT uh Department teaching Drafting and Design Technology after halfway through college deciding I didn't actually want to be an engineer I wanted to get into education to coach to work at the high school that I graduated from and after a few years moved into the weight room and had a very successful career in the weight room of Spruce Creek High School until given the opportunity to kind of

120move up into the school-based administrative type positions as a TOA and now as the Career and Technical education facilitator and kind of back to my roots of you know where it all kind of started and you know things I had passions for even before Sports and Athletics so uh that being said I do want to highlight the Career and Technical location programs and academies that we have at Spruce Creek High School starting with the Academy of finance and when we're done we're going to bring up some of the students that are members of these academies to come up and kind of give their own personal uh insight as to what their high school life had been like going through these academies first we start with the Academy of Finance um The Academy of Finance is

121a four-year program students come in and uh with a set curriculum The Academy of Finance is actually it's the 21st year it's one of the oldest academies in the district and has been going strong ever since um the the finance Academy kind of Prides itself in preparing the students not only to go into Financial world into uh you know business degrees and college and and move into Finance as a um as a career but along the way along the four years of high school they're actually being prepared for a lot of life lessons that they probably don't even paying attention that they're preparing themselves for a lot of the things that they they go through and talk about um I wish we would have I would have been taught that when I was in high

122school instead of having learned it kind of the long the long hand version as an adult the students learn a myriad of of skills and tasks that are very very helpful in just everyday life balancing personal you know your personal finances um you know checkbook all the way up to actually learning business skills um investment type business Investments and and things of that nature um these students actually they'll they will leave the academy with a certification in QuickBooks and having dabbled a little bit in QuickBooks um it's not easy to do I wish I had again had that certification when trying to handle that program myself mm-hmm the uh along with the accounting QuickBooks certification starting this year they're also getting the industry certification and Entrepreneurship and small business these two certifications are actually going

123to allow a vast majority of these students to qualify for the cape merit scholarship whereas in the past we've had maybe a few you know less than half a dozen that qualify for that certification and then once these students in the Academy of Finance start articulating through those we will have I'm guessing anywhere over 50 of those students that are going to be able to qualify for that scholarship so that's going to make a huge impact on these students moving forward foreign next I want to talk about our second Academy and that is the Academy of Information Technology and Robotics which is a mouthful that's why we you'll probably know it more as ater um uh ader is a very unique type Academy it's based off of a cohort style curriculum where the students come

124in and it's sort of a school within a school the students come in and they work they do all their courses with the aider teachers whether English their Math Science Social Studies or their elective Academy Korean Career and Technical Academy curriculum the students have the chain the opportunity to pick one of two different tracks either robotics or programming the students will focus on that as they move forward move through their four years while in the academy Finance the students are encouraged to kind of explore their creativity their inner innovation as they work through their uh their curriculum the Ada Academy Works uh participates in first robotics and is a host school for first robotics competitions actually have a large competition this weekend at Spruce Creek High School um Saturday with a whole different kind of

125a barrage of different types of robotic type competitions as they kind of I think you similar to what you see on television sometimes um you also if you ever get a chance to come to Spruce Creek High School make sure you do visit our maker space we have a maker room with CNC machine lathes uh all different types of tools that the students need to actually build some of these robots from scratch parts from from scrap metal to fit these robots as they as they go through so it is a very creative creative space uh the Ed Academy also touts uh um six industry certifications that the students have access to to gain those on their way through High School outside of our two career Academies we also have plenty of Career Academy Career and

126Technical education programs as well Spruce Creek has over 1500 of our students that are actually enrolled in Career and Technical education courses of some sort foreign starting off we have our accounting accounting is we offer it as a a program itself and not just solely for the Academy of Finance students these students have the opportunity to go through the accounting courses as well and they share just the same amount of success in passing that interest certification as the Academy of Finance students do as well we have our new Allied Health Program that is fresh this year which was met with with huge interest with our students where we were hoping to you know make sure we had enough interest coming in and we were able to fill uh six of the level one um the

127the you know that introduction course yeah the medical skills uh course and these are all students that actually chose uh you know that was their number one choice on their um on their application on their uh school choice course choice so we're anticipating uh that to grow uh successfully over the years as we roll that program out we have our culinary program uh led by Chef Rudd we have six uh courses in that program um and all the way through culinary four Chef Rudd is very very anxious to to keep building up on that and offer up you know even split up that level four and give students an option uh between a a culinary four manager type course and actually a second choice of a culinary for kind of like baking um you know

128option as well because get those students the different uh the different choices there we have a very successful DCT and OJT program um I happened to to run that one you know we typically have between 60 and 75 students in the OJT program going off campus and working in our community which gives me obviously gives me the chance to go out and visit a lot of these uh places you know maybe grab a lunch you know watch your dinner on those visits visits as well digital video technology one of our uh long time Career and Technical education courses they provide us with our morning news uh broadcast you know new style where our they come in they read the news and he you know kind of literally like a Broadcast News broadcast uh sort of

129uh way they offer many advanced um digital video technology courses as well uh promotional Enterprises another one of our Mainstays have been around for for a very long time offers multiple industry certifications entrepreneurship and small business as well as the Adobe the Adobe package which also helps they provide us with our you know school store students have a chance to kind of buy their own Spruce Creek swag through that course as well uh we have web development which is one of our Academy Finance teachers uh kind of does Place double duty with our Academy finance courses and web development courses we have two very high level industry certifications uh in that program as well uh those industry certifications also allow a student to qualify for the cape merit scholarship as well so that is a

130very good program and coming in uh you know new this year we have the um Advanced performing arts program that we're bringing in which is going to be a a great combination are just Stellar music program that we have at Spruce Creek High School and music technology so we're wait to see how that folds out and and builds over the years so as you can see we've uh spent a lot of time over the last uh recently trying to build up the CTE programs get them going strong we have uh up to 20 industry certifications that we offer across the campus um very useful certifications that allow the students to take these with them after high school either put them on a college resume or actually uh into the workforce you know going directly into

131the workforce and having these credentials behind them a little data here showing our kind of our progressions over the years in 2019 we're just 63 industry certifications earned on our campus um we all know what happened in 2020 that's why that number is so low um but then since then we've had a very uh strong progression 194 certifications the following year 209 last year and this year due to the um introduction of the entrepreneur and small business certification and several of our other courses and increased success in our long-term certifications that we had we're actually looking at getting over 400 is my goal for this year as Mr Bennett mentioned in 1500 students out of the 2600 that we have on campus are involved in the CTE program uh we we added this slide as

132well uh because of the complements of these other programs to our CTE program and and and I must say listening to Mr Bennett talk thank you to to to to Dr Barrio uh the leadership of the district Miss castelli uh I mean these programs have been on our campus for a long time um but but over these past two years as Mr Bennett is saying certainly solidified it uh organized it and kind of help us focus in on on the mission or or goal of of making a student College and Career ready uh when they leave high school and and that's that's been an important Focus for us uh and and the programs that are are listed here uh add to that or or bring another element uh into that and and and I think

133the the board for the support of the AVID program found that that's been a great compliment uh to some of these other programs and finding some of those students may be underrepresented uh in the in these programs and giving that support and structure uh that has made them successful and introduced them to some courses that they might not have considered otherwise so just a just a shout out there to to that particular program so these are some great ways to follow us uh on on social media uh and and if you were wondering if it's a great day to be a hawk certainly by following us uh through these social media platforms you will certainly walk away knowing that that today is every day is a great day to be a hawk uh and Mr

134Bennett's listed his contact information there if you'd like to reach out to him but I think we have a video and we're going to bring up the students some more presentation yes [Music] the Academy of Finance is one of Volusia County's school's largest and highest rated career academies currently in its 23rd school year aof boasts a 9th through 12th grade roster of 300 plus honors level students aof's four-year program is built around educating students to be financially responsible whether they are interviewing for their first job writing a check budgeting for college or buying their first car aof students are prepared to make wise well-thought-out Financial Life Choices The Academy of Information Technology and Robotics also known as aider at Spruce Creek High School is a school within a school we spend our days working on

135Hands-On projects that include our core class curriculum we also get designated time to work in our technology interest classes in the afternoon one of my favorite challenges is ducks in a row where we learned about how to build a resume professionally dress and speak at a job interview one of the benefits of being an eater is having flexibility in our learning welcome hello yes so hello everyone my name is Bella chandley I'm the president of the Academy of Finance thank you for inviting us here tonight um today I have with me my two classmates Lola Watson and Lauren Singletary they will be sharing their personal academic and personal academic experiences that they've achieved in the academy so Lawrence is going to go first for us hello I'm Lauren Singletary and I'm the vice president of

136the Academy of Finance The Academy of Finance means many things to me as a senior in the academy and the vice president Finance has taught me many valuable lessons but the greatest thing I've learned is how close to so many people you can become just by getting involved while I've gotten certifications and learned a lot in an academic sense I've learned infinitely more about myself my peers and made lifelong friends who otherwise have never met I have many instances but this one time in particular stands out during our annual car wash this year even being a senior I became closer with everyone there and met new people one classmate I got to know is now going to be my roommate at FSU types of meaningful connections are something that I found consistently in the academy

137all that I have learned about the financial world and can apply on a day-to-day basis is amazing and with the added benefit of being in such a socially Rich program I'm so glad I decided to join my freshman year for the academy will always have a special place in my heart and it's given me so much Essential Knowledge in both an academic and social sense thank you hello my name is Lola Watson thank you for allowing me to come and speak with you tonight I have attended I have attended Spruce Creek High School since my freshman year and joined the finance Academy A year later being a part of this Academy has been one of the most memorable High School experiences I've developed some of the best relationships with my classmates and teachers this Academy

138has taught me how to be professional have good etiquette be financially wise build character and be ready for the real world not only have I learned a lot the finance Academy has given me so many opportunities for example during my junior year I took accounting one and learned crucial life skills such as writing a check signing my signature opening a checking account and calculating and recording payroll my teacher recognized my hard work and excellence in accounting and selected me to be the Academy of Finance student to work in the front office I have used skills learned in the academy to assist with payroll organized files answer phones and communicate with students and parents also during my junior year I had the privilege to interview and obtain an internship through launch Credit Union launch has a

139bank branch located at Spruce Creek through this experience I gained knowledge working with faculty staff and students handling their banking transactions the most important thing I've accomplished in the academy is qualifying for the cape scholarship I struggle to meet the minimum test requirements for the Bright Futures gold seal scholarship in the Academy I worked hard and completed certification in QuickBooks and Entrepreneurship in small business because of this I now qualify for another bright future scholarship the cape scholarship this will help assist in paying for my college tuition my goal is to follow in In My Father's Footsteps and attend law school at Florida State University I am so appreciative of the faculty and staff who are a part of the Academy of Finance as we as well as all of the others at the school

140who have helped me have helped guide me through my high school journey and as always it's a great day to be a hog thank you [Applause] thank you thank you foreign hello is this good uh hello superintendent superintendent Dr balgobin uh Madam chairperson Jamie Haynes and the school board members thank you for allowing us to speak here today I am Sheridan O'Sullivan uh a senior at Spruce Creek High School and the academy Ambassador for the Academy of Information Technology and Robotics ader at Spruce Creek High School I am also our first robotic competitions teams chief executive officer uh so in ader we are a school within a school model so we spend majority of our days spending time in ader doing all of our eighter classes and we do allow uh outside time for uh

141other electives like ROTC and band but you cover all of your core classes and your technology electives in the academy with us uh and we focus on developing the technical and soft skills of these students inside of our Academy we use our time in the mornings in the day to use project-based challenges to integrate our core class curriculum into our daily life so we don't have to spend a whole 45 minutes every single day listening to an English lecture we can be working on a project and whatever project we're working on when we're writing things about it that writing can be used as a grade in our English class one example of a challenge we work on is the very first challenge that sophomores Juniors and seniors do is called Haunted School where we either

142put on a haunted house within our school and we spend about eight weeks leading up to about the week right before Halloween picking a scene from history that correlates to the grade you're in so the Juniors you I forgot their history class it was just but whatever their history classes they pick us a period from that history and they recreate a scene from it and add scary effects so that about around like the 25th through 28th of October we are can set up the haunted house when all of the scenes come together and we use this as an ability to fundraise for our Academy with tickets being five dollars and the tickets that students sell actually uh whatever money they raise goes towards their dues to pay them off um another part of ADA that

143I genuinely love is that because you spend all four years withinator you make you become really close with your classmates and you make very good friends I know I've probably made some of the closest friends I have through later and being able to spend every single day with them just allows me to feel close to them and we don't feel obligated to always like hang out outside of school because we do spend so much time in the day together so we'll be like you want to hang out outside school and you're like I'm kind of tired this weekend I'm gonna be honest okay see you at school Monday and it's perfectly fine um I'd also like to say another challenge that we do that I personally love and is my favorite is the ducks in

144a row challenge which is your junior year you spend about six weeks building a resume and then at the end of the six weeks the teachers actually set us up with interviews with Professionals in our community so I had an interview with a teacher at DSC to be a secretary for him and I know one of my friends had an interview with somebody from the Volusia manufacturers Association um we also in the afternoons dedicate our time to our technology classes so I personally am in the robotics track so I spend my days in the afternoon working on Robotics and specifically first robotics I spend majority of my time working on that currently we uh just Saturday started the first robotics competition season so we now have six and a half weeks to build a 125

145Round pound robot to compete with and in the past we have been able to compete at Worlds and we would we're trying to make it there this year and actually the competition that Mr Bennett uh talked about said this Saturday isn't actually our team's competing it's our team hosting for uh the Elementary School and Middle School uh level children so they do first Lego league and they will be coming together and competing at Spruce Creek High School and we are we've set it all up for them to compete uh we also work with the stem specialist Miss Amy Monahan to do uh what we call Total District implementation which is implementing first robotics into these schools in Volusia County because first has allowed so many opportunities it helps me find my leadership leadership skills that

146has allowed me to become the Vader Ambassador and the CEO of our FRC team all right good evening superintendent valgaman Madam chairperson Ms Haynes and and school board members my name is Josh I am a senior at Spruce Creek High School I've been in the Academy of Information Technology and Robotics for about four years now I grew up in DeLand so it was kind of weird shifting to the whole Spruce Creek part that hole but uh they have tremendously helped starting your freshman year they take you through what's called you building you they take they teach you etiquette how to present in front of uh big groups try to make you more social they have helped me tremendously getting through high school and now leading me into Volusia manufacturing association I am now trying to

147get my way into the fame program at Daytona State which is their trade program because that it easy for me to adjust because I'm not a very I don't like to sit down and look at textbooks books Hands-On account really glad I did um one of my favorite challenge Robo Sumo it is our fresh freshman year they allow they give certain groups you make your teams and they will give you robotic hits and you have to build just a Sumo bot and if you end up competing against your friends and it's just a whole enjoyable little Gap was even better at it because I got to go [Laughter] overall Ada has just been just it's the perfect Academy for people that are don't enjoy the 45-minute English lectures and just overall if they have been

148luckily I ended up with mysterious she's been great made my life easy and helped me get my way through High School great just great staff our teachers are amazing they all want to help you succeed through all high school they want to help you move on through High School get into certain programs like I've been working with mysterious to get me myself into Fame because that's more of what I enjoy like the whole welding aspect I don't like to do the normal they jump I'd like to go out and explore thank you all for letting us be here tonight it has been amazing I did not know that I would be speaking but here I am my name is Kimberly stears I am the academy director and I'm actually a product of aider and Spruce

149Creek High School um I absolutely love the ader program as I've said I'm a product of it being able to help students find a passion and just experience Hands-On learning has been such a such a wonderful honor for me and um just being able to do that as a student myself and be being able to see there's more than just um right word there's more than just day to day after high school and helping our students find that as well we've had students go on straight into the Armed Forces we've had students go to college and we've had students that start their own business and just being able to like I said see them find that passion um brings me joy every day so I'm very thankful for the opportunity to be back with them

150and to help them on their their journey through high school so thank you [Applause] laughs as was said certainly these uh the faculty and staff uh we owe them a great debt of gratitude in both of these academies uh for the time and effort they put in to to making these experiences all that the students talked about and I believe they have some some Creek swag for you here oh that's going to be the Envy of my staff ultimately when they see some of the the items that you'll receive from not only the school itself uh but from the two academies also so Dr Sparger I want to say thank you and um to the students here's what was really refreshing this evening just their honesty and um so for those of you that uh

151don't want the 45 minutes of a English or the lecturing I'm all for that too but verses really to each one of you you should here's the thing you came tonight and you were just honest and honesty is just absolutely the best thing and it's what we want to hear from students we want to hear honestly what's happening and to the young man that talked about how the aider program you know you left to land and went over to Spruce Creek High long ride I'm sure all the paperwork was appropriate no no I think that's wonderful because you found what was going to make you happy yes and that's every one of us what we want for every student is for you to find the thing that's going to make you happy and that path

152that's going to make you happy and to hear that we've got you know teachers and instructors working with you that they went through Volusia County Schools and it made them happy and they came back to be able to spend time with you all we can hope is that you will go off find your passion and hopefully return to this area whether it's as a teacher or in a business situation or whatever but what I'd like to encourage you to do you're here today because along the way someone encouraged you someone paid attention and they listened to you so at some point in your life when you get a little older you can still do it now if you want um find a student to mentor and encourage along the way to so that they can

153have the same opportunities that you've had but thank you they did a fabulous job absolutely thank you thank you Dr Sparger and your entire work family yeah absolutely thank you you all have to come forward for a photo you have Miss Morrison Miss Morris you should come up as well prefer I'm going to take thank you sir at this time we're moving on to item 8.01 this is removal of any items from the consent agenda and approval of the consent agenda Dr balgaman are there any items requiring removal on the consent agenda no items from my end chair to my fellow board members are there any items on the consent agenda that you would like to remove for further discussion I'm sorry I need to put it on this side I think Mrs Burnett um

154just for discussion not to completely remove them but for discussion 12.05 and 13.01 well 0.05 and 13.01 correct Mr cologne uh uh 17.01 just for discussion actually I want to pull that I want to pull that one individually you want to pull 17.01 to be separate and Miss Burnett you just want discussion on yours correct all right let me clarify that then at this time there are no items that Dr balgeman wants to remove Mrs Burnett would like us to have a brief discussion on 12.05 and 13.01 Mr cologne would like for us to pull 17.01 so let's go ahead and do 1205 12.05 and 13.01 and then we will move to vote for the consent agenda so looking at 12.05 that issue sir thank you Dr Johnson you're ready to go um yes um

155Madam chair school board members superintendent albumin um My Name is Earl Johnson I am the Chief Operating Officer I was just told to do that so that's right that's right excellent Cabinet member you get 100 percent doing the right thing Dr John yes sir thank you um in regards to 12.05 you want to know more about actually I just had a question about it I know that there's there's a water intrusion I've walked over the campus with Dr Dreyer I just want to make sure that once the water intrusion is corrected that we address some of the mold and mildew issues going on in there and I know you can't do that until the the problem is corrected but there there's quite a smell in there from mold and mildew um yes ma'am um with

156the two hurricanes that we had um I know like in the nurses office the art couple of the rooms there are a very strong odor in there at this time we are mitigating those issues and once we are able to do what is called the tucking point which is like ceiling we're going to scrape all the mortar out of the exterior walls because because the walls are porous you know and when we had that the rain and the wind it created the moisture inside and so we're mitigating not only work on the outside envelope but also the inside thank you I just wanted to make sure that we addressed that thank you yes ma'am so to piggyback off of what Mrs Burnett just said is this dollar amount here take that piece into account also

157to do mitigation for the mold and mildew um no no ma'am that's just an estimate of the cost of the um the tuck and point because what we're going to have to do is we're going to have to go in scrape out all the mortar of entire building from the mortar as well as the um the lentil the metal lentils that are over and do all the redo is we know that uh put on gel Elementary is what 97 years old something like that and so those look like the original windows and lentils and uh uh so that price that you're looking at is only for the outside and that job it's going to take six months four to six months it's very extensive okay you removed yourself yeah I'm curious to see what what

158that project is going to entail you know I get I get but you know I had the same question is that going to also deal with the mitigate building or should we expect another million dollars at this time I cannot give you the extent of the work that needs to be done however I do know that we are working on some of the mitigating factors and the mole on the end of something and wall on the inside matter of fact excuse me I think within another week or so they're going to be able to move back into the nurse's office because like I said I we're approving a 2.3 million dollar project without a whole lot of specifics I understand it's an emergency but I'd be curious to see that so as these projects come

159to us will we be approving them as the bids come in and all of that or is this a one and done or this is a it's an emergency so we can start to process the bidding process and selecting a vendor so we can get it done all those will then still come to us as usual yes yes the project officially will not start the work itself will not start until the summer 13.01 yes thank you foreign so on on that it was about the pressure washing and um I know in the past we had approved uh job description changes to include our staff to do pressure washing so I was and I did an email you earlier and it asked about this um kind of just wanted to know how we're going to determine

160what we can't do and what we need to Outsource uh one all of our schools don't have pressure washers to begin with but those schools that have the pressure washers they will be able to do the day-to-day pressure washing and clean however there are areas like the top the top of the roof uh the top of sea breeze at the at the top of the gymnasium our pressure washers cannot get up there nor do we have the machinery for our got the request is just to put a pressure washing company on standby in the event that we need to do additional pressure washing on our campuses so we don't actually have jobs for them to do but it's to in the event that we need to do a roofing job or areas in which we

161cannot reach with our pressure washing machines in our respective schools so it's something that our staff can't do due to safety concerns and and the ability of our machines yes this is something that we've always done I can give you an example uh we have a pressure washing machine at Sea Breeze High School however the pressure washing that we had to do for the mold at the top of the buildings in the roof our team could not do that so we had to Outsource that job out to get someone in to do thank you you're welcome yeah I just wanted to say uh I was thrilled to see this uh this is so long overdue pressure washing is one of those things that is needed probably at every single school but the equipment it's one

162of those things I'll get to it I'll get to it I'll get to it and they just don't get to it or their equipment breaks or it's not strong enough or they don't have the chemicals or they run out of the chemicals it's just some of this work now is so bad that you need a commercially professionally trained folks who do this day in day out to get there and get it done I'm ugly it's really ugly ugly I mean some of them I mean the black mold on top just dripping down the Walls gum gum that you can't even you're afraid to walk on on some of the Conch on the concrete uh it's it's it's terrible and you ask them you know well we just don't have it you know we're still equipment

163broke down this happened you know excuses whatever but I'm glad to see it and let's clean up the schools no my anticipate we could go up to that cost this year or is that you know will we exceed that cost we can go up to that it's just a placeholder in terms of having that dollar amount any of you as you're watching yes ma'am we will not exceed that any further questions then at this time I um at this time we have some changes you've heard the proposed change which is to pull item 17.01 other than that do I have someone that would like to make a motion to approve the consent agenda I move I'm going to approve the consent agenda item 1701 thank you do I have a second second is there any

164further discussion okay then all those in favor of approving the consent agenda which is the just the point zero one say I I any opposed okay that part passes unanimously and at this point we need to discuss 17.01 board in weeks past we agreed to join the League of cities and I noticed that these events they have three events a year they have a conference they have legislative action days and a legislative conference as well and none of those are listed on this event I didn't know if we planned on sending a representative if we planned on all of us going I would personally be okay with sending a representative I know some of you already attend a lot of these events with your loved ones but I think that that's missing on here should

165we decide and those in those events from the annual conference all the way to the legislative action days which is in April the conference is in August and then they usually have uh legislative conference towards the end of the year uh the annual conference is in Orlando this year legislative conference is typically in Orlando and the legislative days which is April 3rd through the 5th is in Tallahassee so I didn't know what our thoughts were do we include those on there do we want to include those on there do we so I know what we what we use to create the list were all of the fsba activities um and the joint conferences that we do with fads so there are three items that you think need to be included that are not on this

166list of course okay and so can you tell us can you state what they are clearly so uh there's a April 3rd to the 5th legislative action days should we opt to send someone nope we'll be there probably two weeks before that for the fsba day in the legislature again doesn't mean we have to send anyone it just means we if we disclose it and someone opts to go covered with that there's an annual conference which is August 10th 23 which is in Orlando and that's the annual conference and is normally towards the end of the year there's no date listed there's a legislative conference which is in is a seemingly looking from years past so if you all are okay with that I I would like to make that added to that I don't

167know if we need to bring this back if that's too much of a substantial change that we should bring this back to the next meeting I I I'm not an attorney but I think it's you know this is really consistent with our membership and what we already voted on so I do want to ask this um after having reviewed the list is there anything else that any board member knows of that you feel should have been added to the list that we did not add because by state law we have to do this so so with that being said I'd like to make a motion that we add the slative action which is with the Florida League of cities which we are now a member of and so that is my oh Mr Wolf I

168have a question so we have provided a list that was published with all of the dates and in this this just means that any one of us and or all of us could be attending any one of these events would we need to republish the list with the three new items that Mr clone has brought forward or could we just State them and then update it and you know like later tomorrow with the three additional items I think it would be best practice to roll it to the next meeting and vote on it with the I'll resend my motion taking the advice and so I'll make a motion that we postpone this to the next board meeting for consideration and so what I'd like to ask of each of you is if you could take

169a little bit of time like between now and Friday if at all possible if there's anything else that we have possibly missed that by State Statute we need to add to this list get that information to Karen by Friday so that it can be updated and included on the enact agenda I apologize this hit me as we are sitting here and I and you know we never yes we're joining and we're actually joining this month the Volusia League of cities and we I'll be honest we didn't think to look at their list of things that we may but I would like just if if there's anything else at all that you know that you could be doing any travel for that a school board related would you please get that information to Karen by Friday

170so that we don't have to postpone this again or bring it back yes and I'm so glad that you you caught that um as the legislative person you know there may be a time I may want to go to Tallahassee I can't say I want to go April the second or the you know I can't tell you the date but but if our lobbyists up there or someone said hey it'd be good if you came with me to visit so and so and so and usually that happens with a very short notice boom but maybe just some something Aaron maybe you could figure out some languages some broad language to give the flexibility and not just me but I'm so um yeah if we could possibly put you know visit during the legislative session May

171travel starting from February through May or something whatever it is whatever yeah I'm just trying to think ahead too now now that you've said that um Mr Wolf if you could help but just a statement that could go on here because we're still in compliance because the first event right now listed is not till February 9th and 10th and so if we vote on it you know to approve or not approve it at the next board meeting then we would still be in compliance all right then at this time we are um we're 17.01 is is removed and it will go on to the next board agenda then did my motion then I rescinded by motion made a mo oh wait I made a motion that we that we postponed this to the next next

172so do we have a board meeting second we have a first and a second all those in favor say aye aye anyone opposed all right then it it is removed to the next time so at this point um Mr Gomez do you have any more cards other than the two that you gave me so we are back to public input and so we have two individuals Miss Genie Maddox will be first and then Miss Dorothy Featherstone will be second welcome good evening Dr balgeman Madam chairwoman and distinguished board members my name is Jeannie Maddox and I'm a middle school counselor the Florida school counselor Association board member and the president of our local Volusia school counselor Association I'd like to talk to you tonight about the Volusia County Schools position for certified school counselors there

173are three sections in that job description the first talks about our required qualifications the second our required skills and the third are performance responsibilities in the area that talks about required skills we find that school counselors need to be things like ones that support student achievement social emotional development culture and career Readiness work with diverse groups have a knowledge of Technology confidence with data analysis communicate and work effectively with students parents groups and on and on and then there is the performance responsibility there are three sections 22 number bullet points and these three sections are Student Success for all promoting positive School climate and Leadership advocacy but there's a ports section it's called additional job functions with one lonely bullet point and I'm sure you can guess what that is to perform other duties as

174directed by principal or administrator there are 22 bullet points that cover mental health and academic achievement College and Career preparation data analysis the effectiveness of the school counseling program but where do many school counselors spend the bulk of their time in the fourth domain under bullet one to perform other duties as directed by principal and administrator we are short staffed it's a fact and school counselors are notoriously nice people who want to do whatever they can to help and they have a very hard time saying no I have been to many national and State School counseling conventions and I have to tell you I have never seen a session on ways to improve your cafeteria Duty and the top 10 tips for being a testing chairperson mtss coordinator or 504 contact our training and skills

175need to be used where they will do the most good and direct contact with students and yes while there is direct contact when you're wiping tables in the cafeteria and pushing the trash can around disciplining students about throwing food or yelling or cursing is not the type of Rapport we strive to the Florida school counselor Associates Association has been working on the bill for about seven years to support the idea that is already in our school counselor description and Volusia County Schools so I ask you to help us with school counselors doing inappropriate duties and allowing them to build that rapport with students it doesn't happen in the cafeteria or the testing closet or in an attempt to design an MTS us intervention it happens in the classroom in small groups and individual counseling sessions

176and in collaboration with parents and teachers that's what we were hired to do thank you you welcome hello my name is Dorothy featherston um I wanted to put a face with the email that I sent out a couple of weeks ago um to all of y'all Mr purses hi I thank you for Anita for replying to me um our school is aren't it's not just my school I'm at South Daytona I'm the art teacher some of you might remember me hi Dr balgeman um she gave me a wonderful Grant um the rubric for excuse me not so rubric the disciplined Matrix a lot of these incidences where students are hitting uh teachers and so many teachers are asking well there's no accountability it's because students are grossly exceeding one two incidents of hitting or striking

177or even just the discipline ass or the disruption aspect one two three four and they max out and there's nothing that happens the kids go right back into class they go into the next grade and we start the cycle over and over again um I know my administrators are frustrated too they're the ones that are having to write up you know what to do when I submit a referral into the computer they go to their Matrix and they go this is what needs to happen but when you have students with 26 28 32 instances of striking I just couldn't even fathom what's going on and what has happened and it's not just my school I talk to other art teachers in other schools and what's great about being an art teacher is we see all

178the children so we get to see all the things that are happening in all the different classes and just to tell you I I didn't sign up to be a teacher when I got out of college I just wanted to be an artist I just wanted to go paint and do my artsy fartsy stuff oh sorry that's my old business I've been I've been a business owner I've done corporate jobs I've worked other government jobs and I just believe the Lord brought me to this position because this is where he wants me and I love it but I'm very concerned about the safety what happens we just had a six-year-old shoot a teacher in the in Virginia what happens when they look back at that child's behavioral record I don't want this to happen in

179Volusia County my son was at Mainland High School when that huge evacuation and I about came out of my skin thinking that my son was in the middle of a school shooting and an elementary at the elementary level we look at children who are constantly being put back in the classroom and we just shake our heads going please dear Lord don't let that child go to middle school and shoot some somebody we all as teachers were scared of it because we're parents too please thank you thank you Mr Gomez there's no other cards there's no other cards all right thank you all right so at this time we're moving on to the final item which is 20 and Mr purses if you'd like to go first oh you're on yes ma'am yes ma'am I just

180want to say um to uh my colleagues here uh doc Dr malcolmen I think today's been a great day it's a good it's good to get that first one in right the first one of the of the new year and uh I loved I loved having the teachers of the Year here I I thought that was pretty awesome to hear them and that was really impressed with all of them as as I guess I should should be they are they are the finalists and I think our our little this discussion we had at the workshop I think that was a very uh helpful too and uh Angel and I uh talked just a little bit during the break um about the podium and there's four or five options here that we can this is our

181first go at it and we'll move it and play with it and you know until we until we get it right so I'm not worried about that part of it but I thought it was a great a great meeting it was a good one thank you madam chair thank you Mr cologne so bored I wanted to uh bring up a topic that and kind of taboo but I think it's important that we talk about it over the winter break many of our schools started their book challenging process and I've received some really interesting text messages where parents who were asked to read a certain book were extremely concerned that the examples that they were being asked to read were in the nature of being sexually explicit to the point where we would probably ask someone

182to kindly leave our meeting if they use the words that were in these books and did a little bit of research and the state has laid out a process for reviewing some of these books which I'm totally in favor of I think it's a great thing but there are some books that just don't even warrant um making someone read it example there's 158 F words in that book I mean there's so there was a law I'm not making this up there was a law that was passed that said interestingly and this was a little bit different than a lot of the things that we do it's a district school board the district school board has the constitution of Duty and responsibility to select provide adequate instructional materials for all students in accordance to and then

183it goes so it really puts the onus on us now it talks about the process but it goes down a little bit further and says any material used in a classroom made available in a school library or included on a reading list that content that can that contains content that is pornographic or prohibited under 847.012 is not suited to student needs and their ability to comprehend the material presented or is inappropriate for a grade level uh and age group for which the material is used so I believe this is our policy 320 and you know some of this is really easy I mean there's and you know I did further research to say okay this is a hot button topic and mind you I'm strictly talking about sexually explicit books I'm not talking about gender

184identity I'm not talking about different families I'm not talking about any of that I'm talking about a book that by definition falls under sexually explicit it doesn't speak of a husband and a husband who are in a family in a really no no that's not what I'm talking about I I can't even I won't even be caught saying some of these things that are in these books because that would give an audio clip to whoever but I think we should revisit that policy I had a long chat with Mr pendley some of it involves uh defining a lot of it is about definition one of the counties in I want to say it's Missouri that's being contested by the ACLU it's not so much the content as much as it was that they didn't Define

185it when they went ahead and did that so again some of this is really easy we would not allow anyone to come here and read that book and I think we've been blessed that nobody has come and used their three minutes to do so because it would go against our decorum policy it really would and I don't know where anybody would I mean not only has the law changed and don't get me wrong there's still some ambiguity in there there's a lot of ambiguity which I understand they're going to and you know there are going to be lots of occasions where we're going to need this book Review Committee to decide if something is appropriate not appropriate Etc but for the ones that are quite frankly just anybody with a reasonable mind would think that

186doesn't belong in a school I I think our policy needs to reflect that and I don't think it does right now so I'd like to request that we bring that back for Workshop for further discussion and um because some of it is I mean it's crazy and you know if we if we you know there are words in our culture today that are on television that are considered appropriate but there are some that are not and to hear that that's in a book 158 times on one of our shelves but our student would get suspended if he read the book that's on the Shelf I don't know what literary Valley there is to that if there is a consensus I'd like to bring that forth for Workshop okay so uh Mr purses says yes Miss

187Thompson said yes yes Mrs Burnett and I'm a yes and I think we're going to have to face this music at some point but some and there's going to be very difficult books that are that have come that we're going to be like half of us are going to say the other half but some of these are easy thank you all right Mrs Burnett thank you I completely agree with you on that there's a some things you just don't want out there but um I just want to say we're going to go celebrate some teachers soon um the 20th right so that's kind of exciting but um it kind of bothers me and she left it bothers me that we have situations to where we're repeating um some of the behaviors in the school and

188and I don't know I know that we're working on some things to help with that but I wouldn't mind us looking at policies of student conduct and maybe even um with Miss Roland's help too or whomever um The Matrix uh you know and I know that that part is not ours to to do but as a team collectively we can help work on that together because we do have to do something and I know we're trying it and we're trying to do things it seems like it's never enough that's what I have to say thank you you're welcome Miss Thompson so first it was awesome to see all those teachers and be lifted like way up here for the county like that was awesome to have um but like Miss Burnett that the discipline issue

189I mean it's it's something that has to be addressed not only for our teachers but our students as well I know I talked to Dr Bowman I talked to Miss Roland about paper referrals being something you know I've talked to teachers I know there's a bunch of little things we can put in place I know we're working on a lot of great things but just something to hold accountable that can't be changed and something a teacher can say like oh you know student did this and I have these these pieces of paper that say you know this is what happened on this date and I have this record and just you know holding our students and our parents accountable for the actions that happen in our schools and just really clearing that up this year

190so I'm hopeful that we'll do that so thank you Mr Wolf you got nothing at this time go ahead of me go ahead no no I want you to go ahead okay so just to share a little bit with you and I know we had some brief conversations regarding the topic of discipline Captain Shivers along with Miss Roland and some of the other cabinet members and I'm just repeating because you already know this this is just for our audience and everyone that's listening we have gone in and really looked at our data and sorted it that by type of incidences break down by School number of incidences overall comparing it to last year what are the categories and basically to share with you we're about we're not higher than where we were last year but

191I'm not using that as an excuse because all it takes is one right so a couple things that we're doing we're rolling out a safety campaign and at the Thursday board meeting that we will have with principals that safety campaign will be reviewed in details with every single one of our principles basically we're taking the code of conduct we're looking at the type of infractions that we're seeing the highest level or the highest number in we're looking at the code of conduct and identifying what are the sections that needs to be reviewed what type of consequences need to be detailed for students and that is something that will be done daily by the leadership the principle at every school and this is something that we will continue to do we're also recognizing bbis the schools

192that are doing a really good job with babis as a matter of fact I have two schools that are receiving State recognition and then we've got a few at the district level that are doing a phenomenal job and we want to keep pushing that because that's positive reinforcement of those desired behaviors so once we're done going over everything with our principle in detail and what it would look like we're going to push it out the following week but any type of feedback that they may have we are going to make those take those in feedback into consideration I've also asked the team to call our view President right after and share after we share with our principal what it would look like so she's in fully in the loop and is aware and then it

193will be the board members right after so we will be able to see all that we're going to be pushing it out and um I believe you and I talk Miss Burnett at some point we can have it as a topic in one of the workshops where we can go a little bit more in detail okay this is where prior this is what we're doing this is what we're seeing because as you stated it is a collective effort right we're also looking we have identified a small number of schools but for each division primarily Elementary in in middle school where there are walk throughs again that are being conducted Again by Captain Shivers and the team and we're looking at certain specific areas based on the numbers we've seen to see what that looks like

194at the school level we will have a conversation with the leadership team and then if we have to look at their their safe plan that's being enacted and any type of revision that needs to occur we're also looking at those students with the highest number of disciplinary infractions the repeat offenders so to speak and Miss Roland on her team are pushing in with trainings in those schools but also really re-evaluating the wraparound services in addition to that we have looked at specifically ESC category and there is a number of items that we're doing as it pertains we're looking at the full Continuum of services looking at what's working what's not we already had one meeting and on the 19th we're having the second meeting where we will finish up the details on what will be

195the next steps I will tell you that with full transparency that there is a an item that we've been able to pick up so far and it's basically a systemic issue for the elementary Division and I don't want to front load too much of that because I want to finish that meeting on the 19th but I will tell you that it's it's something that we can put in place for next year to kind of assist especially the elementary schools so that's and pertains to discipline I wanted to share but I know you guys know this but I wanted to make sure that everybody knows that we're working behind the scene and some of the things that we'll be doing in addition to that you know I I take the opportunity to thank every group of

196individuals because it takes the entire Community everyone in their respective positions to make sure that our students are successful but I'm going to conclude tonight by thanking I want to thank our parents and I want to thank our parents for choosing our public school system for their children's learning because in this age and in this time our parents have options they have many options of what to choose for for their child's learning but every single parent that have opted to be a Volusia County Parent are for enlisting and enrolling their child in our system I want to thank them personally for doing that and for having faith and believe in our system I don't know if a system that's perfect I will put it that way and I've this is my 26 years and I've

197served in many many roles but if you have a team of individuals such as yourself board and I have to commend you and my staff that are committed to always improving and doing what's best for children then I think that's and I think tonight we've we've seen quite a bit with our students that were here today I would hire any single one of these students any single given day why because you saw character you saw personality you saw a high level of respect being delivered how they were delivering their messages and you can see that the learning that they are receiving in their school have been impactful so with that said good night to all of you and happy 2023. yeah okay so Mr cologne would like another chance to speak yeah and and and

198you know I followed you know a Brevard County made a lot of noise as they but what was interesting is they really haven't done anything with any of it the reality is that anything they're going to do with it is going to require policy change and nothing has been brought forth different than anything right now it's just been a lot of noise and I want to assure folks that a lot of what was noise in Brevard County that made the news and all of that are the same questions I've had for Dr B are the same concerns that we've brought forth when we hear of the teacher saying you know I'm getting hit every day I hear you and you know there's some we can share some we can't share but I think that you

199know in due time there there will be some changes felt that are going to lead us in the positive direction you know what we're seeing right now I mean I mean wait they had they do something that can get them home every single day which doesn't meet our obligation of educating them but at the same time you know how many teachers and staff members are we going to lose as a result of that one student and and that's the challenge that I that I've put out there and we need to look at that and so I want to assure everyone and these are the conversations that I've had with Dr you know what do we do with Elementary I mean we've never let me take but you know there's never been I don't know of

200any in-school suspension other than when I got suspended and they I'm not gonna stop talking about because that was that kid but but you know I mean what what what do we have to do to and and so those conversations are the ones that I've had with Dr B and BN because again you know we hear about it on the news we hear all of that and I don't want anybody to think I mean if you want a loud chair if I think we could probably get the sheriff to get loud too but the reality is that that doesn't necessarily bring the change that you know it just sounds good on television to be quite honest ly thank you okay Mr purses yeah uh you know we've been in this a long time and so

201there's always been uh flare-ups of discipline um issues at a certain school at a certain level uh but always keep in mind it takes just one child to make the news but remember of remember the 63 000 others who are following the rules every day doing good things they're great kids and uh yeah you get one percent and you know it's like oh you know what do you got to do with this child but uh don't let that cloud your judgment and don't want the public to to think that there's Mayhem going on out there in the public in the public schools because uh the teachers are great the kids are great they know what they're doing the teachers know how to handle them there are a few outliers and I think that's the point

202that Mr cologne and the art our teacher who just came up and I get it as a principal for former principal you know dealing with both sides you want to put protect that child you just you just can't say you're out you're out because to your point that's not what we're in the business of going throwing people out we're trying to educate them and to help them and help them learn uh what is it that they're doing wrong and the decisions they're making are not wise so uh yeah so it's a challenge but I think it's a challenge that with the superintendents leadership we can overcome all right then if there's no one else I'd like to just add a few things by the way you know Happy New Year and um it was so

203nice tonight to have the five teacher the listen to them you know because that's not something that I think we've ever done and um so I thank you Dr Balvin for having them come I'd like to piggyback off of what Mr cologne said I too heard from some parents that started reading the books over the winter break and I want to be very clear on this I am I am not against any book that tells any part of History okay that there's there's the great parts of History there's the bad and ugly parts of history but children need to learn history just like sometimes we as adults need a refresher of course maybe in history so we learn to not repeat things that didn't work out well I also too am not against anything about

204families because all of our families are unique I mean there isn't a single family out there that's not unique I mean my children read a variety of books growing up and I um but they needed to see that not everybody lived the same way that we did just as you know we didn't live the same way as everybody else I think what's so disheartening to me and I have to wonder when did this happen Okay um when did books creep their way into schools that have sexually explicit content we still make you know kids have to have a permission slip to do the changes program you know with our schools and there's nothing wrong with the changes program it's about their bodies changing but parents have to agree to the children participating in that um

205if we're going to you know at some point at the high school level show something even like a clip out of a PG-13 movie or whatever parents have to agree to it kid our students can't go get go see an R rated movie you know they can't walk up and buy a ticket so why is it okay to put books on our shelves that are sexually explicit down to the point that I'll be honest with you I personally don't want to read these books because having been a teacher for many years what do we teach children when they're learning to read we teach them to like visualize it you know so that they can see the story in their mind and all that I don't want to visualize any of this okay this would not

206be my choice of what I'd want to read so why would I put it on a shelf for a child to read and so I I do think because with the changes I'll be honest with you if you'd asked me 15 years ago or you would have pulled a book and said this is on a shelf in a in a public school or any school setting for you know students under the age of 18. I just said there's just no way and um one of the statements made to me over the winter break was no one had to read these books to put them on our shelves so why are we having to read them to remove them and I actually called a former principal who I have the utmost respect for and I asked

207the principal would you like to be like my committee person you know for this and what was stated to me is I'm like that's not her choice of reading and she's like I'm not sure that I want to you know read that and I mean that's exactly how I feel but yet we're asking people to read these explicit books which if they made a movie out of them none of our kids could go see so I appreciate you bringing that up Mr cologne and I I we're going to have to face it and figure out what we're going to do with it when it comes to the discipline piece as Mr purses said we've been around a long time and even in my career there would be that group okay like they came in as

208kindergartners and they were a handful they were still a handful in first grade still a handful in second grade some years you just kind of got that grouping you wondered what happened I think what we're dealing with now because I've been I've been closely paying attention and keep in mind I know a lot of parents that have Elementary age kids right now because I taught them okay and now they're parents and I've got my own daughter you know um she was in the age group of kids that I taught and she has three little ones I don't think that the pandemic did us any favors because I think some of these kids that never came to kindergarten or never came to first grade didn't get the social interaction piece and that social norms of learning

209how to share how to get along but I'll be honest with you I think this is a big part of our problem with our smaller children because I think if we truly asked how many of you sit down at a table at night and have dinner and have a discussion we'd find out it's not happening so what do we know I mean those of us that have studied Child Development and things like that what do we know about children children crave attention they crave structure and routines and knowing what's going to happen and people paying attention to them so my little three-year-old granddaughter right now was getting all the attention until October 11th when she had a new baby sister arrive and her brother was okay with it because he's he's going to be going

210to be hurting kid I'm telling I like his mommy but she's acting out and she's acting out because mommy's paying attention to the new almost three-month-old and so she's not getting that attention and and it's a part of what happens but we have to figure out how we're going to handle it and what I would say Dr vogelman is because basically what Captain Shivers shared with us this is a big issue right now in elementary like we've seen more referrals and repeated referrals in elementary than we probably ever have like middle and high Believe It or Not don't have the referrals that Elementary has which is kind of crazy I actually think we also need to look at getting our social workers involved because I think it's going to take some tough conversations with some

211parents and it high school and even at middle school a lot of this has been handled through an in-school suspension piece because here's the other thing especially little people they want to be with their friends like I mean they're no different I used to say high school kids are just still little people okay and that um but they want to be with their friends and I'm not a proponent of just turning them five minutes later right back to the room because you they got the attention of the principler of the academic coach or the guardian or whoever and now they went back in their room and they can show off again for their friends I think we may need to look at something where you're going to do your work but you're not going to

212do it with your friends and you're going to have your lunch but you're not going to have it with your friends and I think we could nip some of this in the bud and have some Frank conversations with moms and dads I mean we can't tell them what to do in their houses but just say to I mean we used to do parent to kids classes we used to offer through the house next door some ways of how to get your children involved in being a part of the family and learning to do things versus you as the mom or dad doing it all because kids also need to learn skills even at home and so I'd I'd like to say you know talk to with Miss Roland and also like possibly get our social

213workers involved because if we don't fix the elementary issue right now it's like I've said if we don't build the house strong in elementary and with a good foundation where they can already read and do math then those holes are just there and it's going to crumble when they get to high school well if we don't fix this Behavior piece right now in elementary it's going to be a hole and it's going to only be 10 times worse when they walk in the middle and high school and you don't you really can't fix it at that point I mean we're stuck and I I would say to teachers consistency is the best thing and this is I said this to my daughter if she's listening tonight I apologize Dana you can't make threats that you're

214not going to follow through on or you can't make statements that you don't follow through on if you say if you do this this is what's going to happen then that has to happen and so at school it's no say to them well you know if you do this it's going to happen and then they do it and that doesn't happen you've lost the game for the year think I think we all could use like a refresher and just remind ourselves and but we got to get it under control and so I think we're all here to support you in whatever way um to get it done but thank you everyone and as long as there's nothing else it is 8 21 pm and we are adjourned